#6 “Book of Nehemiah”
Series
"PROMISES & PITFALLS OF DETOURS!"
TEXT: Nehemiah
6:1-19; Deut. 18:20; Num. 3:10,38; 18:7 Matt.
4:1-11
INTRO: When I was
a kid our whole family took a tour of the USA by car, it was in a good 1957
Buick ... however the year we went was 1962! We went to the World's fair in Seattle,
Washington – and all around the country!
The one thing that really sticks in my mind however about that trip was
the constant detours my dad took us on based on the crazy billboards that
promised all kinds of goodies just 50 miles off the main highway! My dad wanted us to have an adventure,
and the billboards promised them if we just go off the
highway.
They were never what the billboards
looked like or promised! Dad
coughed it up as "seeing the country son ... seeing the parts of our
country the main road doesn't usually let you see!" We would beg NOT to go to the next
“detour” ... but my dad was always lured by the advertising on those
billboards!
One detour we took went took us through
the same city 3 times in one day ... we were traveling in a large endless circle
... in other words we went no-where for a good chunk of the day ... we were
going nowhere!
This is also true spiritually, so many
Christians fall into simple detours that seem to promise them more and better --
only to discover later that it took from them instead of giving to them! And then when they realized it, they used
excuses or logic like my dad did in saying, "well you got see something you would have
missed otherwise" to talk themselves into thinking the consequences weren't
so bad; truth is, it is sometimes better to not see some things or experience
some of Satan's detours because the consequences can be quite painful and long
lasting!
If Satan can't get you to detour he
will settle for tricking you into just slowing down ... and oh the logic here:
“You need more rest, more time for
yourself, it is time for others to do their share, etc.” ... while these may
at times be true, they can also be a sly trick of Satan just to slow you up
enough that your ministry is zapped of it's momentum! We need to know the
difference!
ILLUS: An ancient
story recalls how Satan once summoned his top three aides to plan how to stop a
group of dedicated Christians from effective missionary
work.
One of the lieutenants, Rancor,
said to Satan, "We should convince them that there is no God." Satan sneered at
Rancor and replied, "That would never work. They know that there is a
God."
Another of Satan's aides,
Bitterness, spoke up. "We'll convince them that God does not really care about
right or wrong." Satan toyed with
the notion for a few moments, but rejected it because he knew that too many
Christians know that God does care.
Malice, the third satanic helper,
came up with his idea. "We'll let them go on thinking that there is a God and
that He cares about right and wrong. But we will keep whispering that there is
no hurry, there is no hurry."
Satan howled with glee. He advanced Malice higher in his
malevolent organization. Satan knew that he would find this stratagem successful
with many, many Christians. -- Frank
S. Mead -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 180.
PROP.
SENT: The Word of God teaches us to stay
on course and avoid the spiritual detours that seem to offer so much but in
truth give pain ... and to be careful to know the difference when God is asking
us to slow up ... or when Satan is attempting to slow us down ... we need to
know how to tell the difference, it can make ALL THE DIFFERENCE in our ability
to achieve our spiritual goals in ministry!
I. WASTED SIDE TRIPS! Neh.
6:1-9
A. Temptation! 6:1-9
1. Many of God's people
have faced "side trips" or “detours” ... ask Jonah some day how much fun they
can be!
2. Nehemiah and the people
of God were about ready to finish the walls ... just hang the gates in place and
the vision will be complete ... mission accomplished!
3. The enemy tries a
cunning detour to prevent this completion of the wall!
a. They ask for a
simple meeting with Nehemiah in a place that was equal distance for all of them
... about a days journey away.
b. Four times he gets this
message to meet ... and four times he refuses based on the fact that Nehemiah
knew his enemy, they weren't interested in his
well-being.
(1. Remember that
when your being tempted by Satan to do something you know is wrong, IT MIGHT
FEEL GOOD AT THE MOMENT BUT IT WILL MAKE YOU SICK!
(2. Satan always tries to
appear reasonable!
(3. Everybody is doing it,
you don't want to look like a failure, do you? You need to know what it is like ...
etc.!
(4. Nothing more than
logical lies!
ILLUS: A little
girl had been told many times by a childless old couple that if she would come
and live with them, they would get her everything she wanted-a pony and cart, a
piano, and the like. One day when the couple had been particularly urgent, her
father said, "Don't you think you had better go with them?" The little girl
looked at him in alarm and cried, "Why, Daddy, don't you want me?" "Yes," he
replied, "but I can't give you very much, and they will give you everything
nice." "But I wouldn't have you!" she said as she snuggled up to
him. – Source Unknown
4. Satan can be quite
persistent, hoping we will wear down and give in!
a. Nehemiah was in
no mood to believe his enemy had any well wishes in meeting
him!
b. And as often as they
kept trying to wear him down by repeated invitations, he simply and politely
kept refusing, staying the course of ministry he had started ... he was doing a
GREAT WORK for God ... why take off now and lose
momentum!
B. Traps!
6:5-9
1. When repeated
invitations failed, the enemy tried something just a little more persuasive ...
an OPEN LETTER was sent!
a. At first you say,
"so
what?"...
b. Think about it ... an
OPEN letter would allow the carrier to know the contents, who would tell his
best friend ... and his friend, and so on, and so on, etc. until it became a
widespread rumor!!!
c. But that was
the point ... the enemy is slick!
2. In this open letter
there was an accusation that Nehemiah was planning on secretly becoming king
when the walls and gates were finished and then turn against the very King who
had granted him this privilege!
a. Because this kind
of scenario was common in that day it was not a crazy possibility to believe ...
just what the enemy was counting on – EMOTIONAL
BLACKMAIL!
b. The idea was to
threaten Nehemiah by ruining his good reputation and so hopefully force him to
be withdrawn to have to answer the king about this possibility ... thus to
forestall the work of God!
3. Hidden in the open
letter of course was a reasonable and kind offer of willingness by the enemy to
meet with him to “talk this matter
over” ... so it appears that the enemy wishes to
help!
a. Satan often plays
these games with people ... appearing as an angel of light he often makes the
detours alluring and sometimes he even sounds logical and concerned! ... BUT
DON'T BE FOOLED!
ILLUS: Don't pour
away the water you are traveling with because of a mirage. -- Arabian
Proverb - Edythe Draper, Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World
(Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992). Entry 2806.
b. Nehemiah doesn’t allow
his feelings to interfere with what he knows is God’s
plans.
4. Nehemiah's response: "YOU
a. Nehemiah isn't
taken in easily ... WHY? BECAUSE he
knows that the king knows the real Nehemiah ... and the good reputation he
had built would certainly sustain this false
rumor!
b. It is important to
realize that his PREVIOUSLY good reputation became at this time his trump
card!
c. Nehemiah is not
blind to what the enemy was trying to do ... DISCOURAGE him and the people and
disrupt the building of the wall!
d. His second solution was
PRAYER! It was a simple prayer, but
effective!
5. The temptation to quit
was real (6:9) ... But this is the time to
revive and not quit ... for it means Satan's scared of your ministry being
effective!
II. WELL-VERSED SCRIPTURES 6:10-14
A. Trickery
6:10-13
1. Nehemiah goes to visit
the local priest who has been locked up in his house by his own will ...
probably out of curiosity; prophets and priests often were known to do strange
things to communicate God's Word, so when they were weird you took
notice!
2. Shemaiah seemed
genuinely concerned about Nehemiah's life and ministry and tells him about a
plot of the enemy to have him killed possibly that very
night.
a. So far this could
well be the Lord using this priest to warn Nehemiah about a real threat ...
certainly he knew the threats existed by the boastful
enemy!
b. Of course this would
mean being out of action for a while ... thus the project God had given them to
complete would be shut down!
3. Everything about the
warning section seemed authentic and very real, this was God's servant
speaking.
a. Nehemiah had
always demonstrated great respect for the prophets and priests sent by
God.
b. Nehemiah was not a
priest himself ... it was therefore not uncommon to speak with God's local
authority to find out the will of God for the people.
4. This was the enemy's
most brilliant attack so far.
a. Healthy doses of
logic.
b. A sense of genuine
concern.
c. Seeing the temple
being honored by the priest as a haven of safety.
d. The priest himself had
suffered for this message by staying indoors for a long enough time to
communicate the sense of urgency of existing fear, and a solution from
God!
e. The concern and
the revealed death threats fit well the enemy's early attempts to stop the work
... and it was logical that they would attempt an assassination against
Nehemiah!
5. Everything seemed to
fit and make sense to any logically thinking man ... EXCEPT – it would violate
God’s Word for Nehemiah to go into the holy area as one who was not a priest,
why would God ask him to go against His own Word?
ILLUS: Have you
heard about the elderly woman on a busy street corner who was confused and
hesitant to cross because of the heavy traffic? Finally a gentleman came up to her and
asked if he could cross the street with her. Gratefully she took his arm, but grew
progressively more alarmed as he zigzagged randomly across the street, to the
blare of horns and screech of locked brakes. Finally on the opposite curb, she said
angrily, "You almost got us killed! You walk like you're blind." "I am," he replied. "That's why I asked if I could cross with
you." Jesus said of the Pharisees
of His day: "They be
blind leaders of the blind. And if
the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch"
(Matt
15:14). We need to be very careful not to entrust
our souls to the guidance of someone who cannot see the clear teachings of our
Lord, Jesus Christ. Our eternal
destiny is too important to put at such risk. – Source Unknown
B. Triumph!
1. One thing didn't fit
... and Nehemiah would not have caught the enemy's cunning trick if he hadn't
known his Bible!
2. The Bible clearly
forbids any access into the temple's holy areas except priests NUM. 3:10, 38; 18:7; & Deut. 18:20 These
passages very clearly states that if anyone other than a priest enters he is to
be put to death!
3. Nehemiah wasn't from
the priestly clan ... and if he hadn't known his Bible he would have fallen for
this trick of Satan's!
4. The other part of this
trick was then revealed too ... since it was the priest who suggested all this,
knowing it was wrong ... it must have been that the enemy had paid him to
do this thing.
a. Deut.
b. This man would now be
considered by Nehemiah as a FALSE PROPHET!
c. Because this
priest did this he would lose him ministry as a prophet for
good!
d. This was a high
price to pay for allowing money to dominate his ministry! (Sound like anything familiar in the last
few years!) You can’t just
change the rules when it is inconvenient to do God’s
work.
ILLUS: An
airliner returned to the terminal because the pilot did not like the sound of
the engines. As it taxied a second
time for take-off, one nervous passenger inquired if the problem had been
solved. "Yes, it has," smiled the
stewardess. "We changed pilots." – Source
Unknown
5. Nehemiah triumphed
because he knew the Word of God, this protected him from a very clever trick of
Satan's that at first seemed so caring and real!
6. Jesus encountered this
kind of temptation three times in Matt.
4:1-11: each time Satan used partial Scriptures ... and Jesus beat Him
because He knew the Word better than the Devil! WE NEED TO KNOW GOD'S WORD IN THIS DAY
AND AGE OF FALSE PROPHETS AND MINISTRIES THAT APPEAL TO THE FLESH! Nehemiah exposes all of the false
prophets in town!
7. Instead of Nehemiah
getting a bad name ... all the false prophets in town are exposed by God's Word
and they therefore lost their reputations and
ministry!
8. When you run with the
Devil you will fall with him ... join his cause and you will join his
collapse!
a. What a high price
the priests paid for their participation in the enemy's
schemes!
b. Just a single episode
of joining with Satan can effectively destroy or slow down your ministry and
walk with God ... KNOW THE WORD!
III. WILLFUL STUBBORNESS
6:15-19
A. Testimony!
6:15-16
1. “S0 THE WALL WAS
COMPLETED ... IN 52 DAYS!”
a. The miraculous happened because there were no side trips
or detours taken!
b.
2. Nehemiah's stubborn
insistence to keep to God's call and continually ignore the enemy allowed the
great project to not only be completed on time but it testified to the enemy
that TRULY GOD WAS WITH THEM!
a. Notice the
reaction of the surrounding nations!
b. They were in awe of
what God had done with these people and soon their own self-confidence
eroded!
c. This is an
interesting comment about self-confidence!
Self-confidence doesn't come so much from
JUST what we do ... but what we do that HONORS
God!
d. The enemy was at a loss
to explain how this project could have been completed in just 52 days – it was
obvious that God had helped His people!
3. What a testimony for
Nehemiah too ... if he had fallen prey to the enemy’s subtle plots of
distraction and disaster the people would have floundered who looked to his
leadership! Nehemiah realized
however that if he held steady those who looked to him as a leader would fall
into step behind him and follow his lead.
ILLUS: As a boy
in the Middle West, I used to amuse myself by holding a stick across a gateway
that the sheep had to pass through. After the first few sheep had jumped over
the stick, I took it away; but all the other sheep leaped through the gateway
over an imaginary barrier. The only
reason for their jumping was that those in front had jumped. The sheep is not the only animal with
that tendency. Almost all of us are
prone to do what others are doing, to believe what others are believing, to
follow, without question, the testimony of prominent men. – Source Unknown
a. Give us GOD
FEARING leaders!
b. Give us PEOPLE who will
not stop just because the enemy offers attractive alternatives and
detours!
B. Troublemakers!
6:17-19
1. As a final word in this
part of the story it ends on an interesting note of some more STUBBORN
WILLFULNESS!
a. But not toward
God …
b. Against
God!
2. Tobiah the enemy had a
son who had remarried into an influential family inside
a. This marriage
connected the enemy to God's people and produced a continuous problem for
b. Notice that Nehemiah
has constant problems in
c. And it is quite
clear that Tobiah the enemy used this marriage to get in a constant barrage of
slander against Nehemiah!
3. Nehemiah was always
having to defend himself because of this one improper marriage, and as he ends
this wonderful success story about completing the wall he states the regular
doses of intimidation the enemy was still able to throw at him through the
connections that existed between the enemy and this one family in God's
people!
4. Nehemiah however would
not allow this to rob the people or himself of the proper expression and
appreciation of having done the will of God in spite of the enemies' constant
barrage of sabotage ... but that's another sermon, next
week!
ILLUS: Your
reactions to your enemy can hurt you more than your enemy can. --
Hannah Hurnard (1905-1990) -- Edythe Draper, Draper's Book of Quotations for the
Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992). Entry
3175.
5. Let's face it, there
are always going to be troublemakers in the Kingdom ... somehow they get
connected ... but you can't run around constantly trying to put out small fires,
you just keep going and see the bigger picture of the many who desire God's will
and are willing to work to see things happen!
6. Troublemakers are like
the statement Jesus made about the poor, “THESE YOU WILL
ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU...”
CONCLUSION: Just as Nehemiah and God's people
were about to reach their goal the enemy offered some tempting detours. When Nehemiah refused to take these
detours the enemy tried to catch him in devastating traps. By staying on course ... and a healthy
knowledge of God's Word they reached the goal and the enemy sulked in weakness
and defeat! Have you drifted off
course or fallen into Satan's detours? Get back on track and you'll make the
goal!
NOTE: What are some of Satan's
detours? Unresolved anger,
jealousy, bitterness, gossip, lies, lust, envy, rebellious attitudes, and
material cravings that are never met, self-pity, sexual values contrary to
Scripture, etc.