Alright. I'm going to be reading from Nehemiah chapter two to start with this morning. Beginning in verse 17 and we'll be back and forth in Nehemiah if you want to put a bookmarker there. Also, be reading from John chapter 15 here in just a moment as well. So John 15.

There we go. So let's start out back in Nehemiah two and verse 17. God had called Nehemiah to go back to Jerusalem to help, to lead in the reconstruction of the walls of that city. That after all this time were still broken down. There had been a contingent of Jews there for now ten to twenty years, and still the walls lay in ruins.

They had no defense against enemies. And it was burden that was laid on Nehemiah's heart to do something about it. And he answered that call. He went before the king. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord answered his prayer and he sent him back to rebuild the walls.

In chapter two verse 17, we read this. Then said I unto them. This is Nehemiah speaking to the Jews that were then in the land. You see the distress that we are in. How Jerusalem lieth waste and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. But when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem, the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us and said, what is this thing that ye do?

Will ye rebel against the king? Then answered I them and said unto them, the God of heaven, he will prosper us. Therefore, we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word today.

Give me the strength and the words to say and direct us give us understanding into your word. May Jesus be glorified and may hearts be moved. In Jesus' precious name we do pray. Amen. Two big obstacles that Nehemiah had to overcome.

We looked at the first one last week in verses seventeen and eighteen. The immensity of the work. Miles and miles of wall that had been destroyed, burnt, knocked down, and it needed to be rebuilt. And there wasn't a crew of a thousand masons to do it. It was going to take the work of everyday people to do their part, to do their best, altogether to rebuild those walls.

And what did they do? Well, they strengthened their hands for this great work. They answered the call. In fifty two days, the walls were built. Nehemiah six fifteen, so the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month of Elul.

In fifty and two days, they rebuilt those walls. Why hadn't it been done before? Well, it was such a huge task that nobody tackled it. Nobody but who? Nobody but Nehemiah in the power of his God and with the help of his neighbors.

They they did it. They built those walls. And sometimes, as I mentioned last week, there are walls in our lives that have been taken down. There are tasks that lay before us that seem too large. There is enemies that seem too great as we'll talk about this morning.

But greater is he he that is in us than he that is in the world. With God, all things are possible and he says, Paul writes in Philippians, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And what is he talking about doing? He's talking about doing the work and the will of God And what God calls us to do, He enables and equips us to do. And that is what He did, and they did it, and they rebuilt those walls.

But they didn't do it without opposition. There was a lot of opposition. Their surrounding neighbors that had had the upper hand over them, who had oppressed them and abused them and used them and kept them in fear, Feared to lose their power. And they didn't like what they saw with Nehemiah. And so the opposition grew.

If you'll take your Bibles, keep your place in Nehemiah and turn over to John 15 and verse 18, we'll see where Jesus said this to his disciples. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore, the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.

If they have persecuted me, they also will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. Jesus said to his disciples, don't expect the world to pat you on the back and everybody to be very accepting of what you have to say. Expect there to be opposition and pushback, persecution, even to the point of death. The world hated Christ so much, they demanded his crucifixion.

And yes, he did die on that cross. And even as he hung there, he said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That is the grace and mercy and love of our savior, Jesus Christ. But the world hated him, not all, but most. And as they opposed him, and so he tells his disciples, and even Christians today, don't be surprised, if your friends, your neighbors, your relatives, those you work with, particularly when you bring up Jesus Christ, stand in opposition against you, try to get you fired, treat you unfairly, yell at you, slam the door in your face, and don't want to hear what you have to say.

They didn't want to hear what Jesus had to say and so they crucified him. In John 16 and verse 33, page over, it says this, Jesus said, these things have I spoken to you that you might have peace. In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Jesus said, yes, you will have some opposition.

Yes, you will have some tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. The one who overcame the enemy, the world, the flesh, and the devil, Jesus Christ, our savior, our friend, and the son of the living God, has overcome the enemy for us. And in Christ, we are overcomers too. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Like David facing the giant, we must remember the greater is he that's in us than those who oppose us in the world. Who were Nehemiah's opponents? Sanballat, who it would seem as the governor of Samaria, little bit North of Judea, Tobiah, the Ammonite. He was a descendant of this group of people that lived just to the East of the Jordan River that had opposed Israel time and time again. Gershom or Geshem, the Arab.

Obviously, the Arab peoples lived even further east into the Arabian Peninsula there. And these people had had sway over this area of the Middle East. They did not like the Jews coming back in and rebuilding their city. Does that sound familiar? This has happened more than once.

And they didn't like that they were rebuilding the walls. These men had likely read the decree of the king of Persia concerning Jerusalem and Nehemiah, and it made them angry that land was being taken away from them, that power was being taken away from them. And when the walls were built, then that took away a whole lot of threat from them upon the Judeans that were going to live there. And so they needed to stop them from building the what? The wall.

They needed to stop that wall from going up. They were afraid of losing their power. They were upset with the king who had placed them between a rock and a hard place. They were hesitant to attack the Jews overtly for fear of who? Well, the king because the king had kind of thrown in his permission and power with the Judeans, the Jews.

So, they were forced to use some more covert attacks or tactics. And so we read about those. In the book of Nehemiah and how they tried to discourage the people and how they tried to get them and Nehemiah to quit building those walls. The first was, the first tactic was to revile and curse and level all kinds of insults against Nehemiah and the people who were preparing to build the walls. Jesus said again in Matthew five, blessed are ye when men shall, what?

Revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so prosecuted they the prophets which were before you. Jesus refers back to this time and times before when the prophets in particular were in some cases executed for simply speaking the truth. When the king didn't want to hear it. Jesus says to his disciples, yes, you will face persecution.

Do not be discouraged. Do not get depressed. Do not do not do not give up because if you're doing it for my sake, I'm watching. I'm watching, and I know. And rather than being discouraged and depressed and giving up, you can find reason to rejoice and that you are on the winning side and that you have the truth that sets men free and that the God you serve sees and knows and he will what?

He will reward you in this life and particularly in the next. Thus, back to Nehemiah. In Nehemiah two, back back there, verses nineteen and twenty, we read about Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem. They laughed us to scorn, it says. They despised us.

They said, what what is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king? They leveled accusations against them here when they first got there to start rebuilding the wall. When the people said, yes, we're going to do it, and Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem got word, they said, yeah, this ain't gonna happen. You can't do it.

Hey, you you going to put up walls against the king? Well, they they weren't doing it. They were going in in the permission with the king. This isn't going to work. Just just give up.

Look in chapter four and verses one through six. Chapter four verses one through six. It continues. It came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, He was wroth and took in great and took great in the nation and mocked the Jews, okay? So, he first told them when he heard that they were thinking about it, forget it.

You're not going to do it. It's not going to work. You know, you're just a bunch of nobodies. And then they actually did what? They actually prepared and started to rebuild the wall.

And he went, oh, my. Well, that didn't work. Well, I'm just going to have to get more louder and I'm going to have to get more in their face and I'm going have to call them a bunch of really bad names and maybe then, if I accuse them and slander them, they'll stop. So, that's what he did. He just upped the ante.

Verse two, he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, what do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day when they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish which are burned? Now, Tobiah, the Ammonite was by him and he said, even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.

So, you're so feeble. You don't know what you're doing. You build this wall and a fox jumps up on the wall and it's going to come crashing down. So, they mocked them and they despised them. They scorned them and they slandered them.

Did it work? No. Didn't work. How do we know? Well, we already know that the wall was built in what?

Fifty two days. So it didn't work. It didn't work. Why didn't it work? Well, Jeremiah thirty three three, g God says, call unto me and I will, what?

Answer thee. Look, if you would, in verse four. Hear, o our God, for we are despised and turn their reproach upon their own head. Give them for a prey in the land of captivity. Cover not their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee, for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.

What did they do? They took they took their issue to who? They took it to God. They didn't fight back. They didn't curse their enemies, they went to God.

They asked God to curse their enemies, And they asked God to stand up for them. And he did. Time and time again, David called out to God, sometimes in desperation. And time and time again, the Lord heard his prayer. In Psalm three, he's on the run from his son Absalom who has, dealt a terrible blow to David and a surprise attack.

David has had to flee the palace with his guards and his wives and family and he's on the run from his son who has the upper hand. He's sleeping the night in a cave while Absalom is gathering his army to come and kill his father and wipe out his family and take his throne. And what do we read in Psalm three? David says, I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill, Selah. I laid me down and slept.

I awake for the Lord sustain me. I will not be afraid of 10 thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. What did David do? He called on who? The Lord.

And the Lord heard his prayer. And the Lord heard the prayer of Nehemiah and the people in Nehemiah chapter four. And God stepped in, and God strengthened them. And so they continued to build regardless of those who were calling them all kinds of names, they got up and they got their stones and they got their mortar and they got their wood and they built. Psalm thirty seven one through three, we're told, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

There will always be evil workers. There will always be those who oppose what is good and in what is right. There will always be those who oppose the preaching of the gospel and God's people. There will always be those who will slander the work of the Lord and those who are doing their best. God says, do not fret.

Don't sit there worried and anxious over what they say. Because, verse two, they shall soon be cut down like the grass and withers the green herb. They don't last. They don't win. God does.

We do. Satan loses and so do those who side with him and so did those who sided with Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem. Trust in the Lord and do good. Do the good thing that God has called us to do. Show so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed.

Trust in the Lord. Keep doing that which is right. Trust in the Lord to take care of the slanderous words. Don't get caught up in the back and forth. Instead of going to them, go to God and let God take care of them.

You cannot defend yourself against every accusation, against every curse word, against every slanderous thing that might be said. But God can. So the most important thing to do is have a little talk with Jesus and just keep doing that which is right. What does it say in Romans? Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather get placed on the wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.

So just leave it in whose hands? Leave it in God's hands. He he will not fail you. He might not answer exactly the way and exactly the time that you would like. God didn't wipe these three men off the face of the earth.

They were a thorn in Nehemiah's side for quite a while. But in the end, Nehemiah won. The walls were built. The people prospered, and these men did not. They lost their power that they feared to lose.

They were the ones who were insecure and they knew it. And so they yelled the louder. And they cursed the more. That happens today if you try to do what's right. Sometimes it happens even in churches happened last week in Minnesota.

A church that as far as I can tell preaches the gospel had people walk through those doors. Despise them, slander them, curse them, scream at them, yell at them where they were trying just to simply worship the Lord and preach the word. And it won't be the last time it happens. It will happen again and again. But we know who wins, and God will defend us as God has defended them.

What did David say in first Samuel 17? With all this assembly shall know, the Lord saveth not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. They may have disrupted one service, but I suspect they're back worshiping again this Sunday because the gates of hell will not prevail against God and his word and his church. The devil is never happy when God's people flourish and bring glory to the true and living God. So, he stirs up the hearts of the opponents of Christ and of his people to persecute them, call them names, get in their face, curse them, slander them publicly to stop them, to stop them from preaching, to stop them from doing the right thing.

He so hates it when God is glorified and his followers are successful and satisfied. What did Jesus say? Wear it as a badge of what? Honor. That you have been worthy to suffer reproach for the sake of Christ.

Jesus told us not to be surprised at their behavior nor to get discouraged, for great is the reward in heaven for those who face such reviling and keep on smiling in the service of the Lord Jesus. Number two tactic was to go beyond simply cursing them and actually start to threaten them with harm and violence and we see that in verse seven of chapter four. Verse seven, but it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then, they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto God and he set a watch against them day and night because of them and Judah said, the strength of the bearers, the burdens is decayed, and there's much rubbish so that we're not able to build the wall and our adversaries said, they shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease. And it came to pass when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us 10 times from all places when she whence ye shall return unto us, they will be upon you.

Therefore, verse 13, I set set I in the lower places behind the wall and on the high places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, their bows. I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and the rulers and the rest of the people, be not you afraid of them. Remember the Lord which is great and terrible and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses and it came to pass when our enemies heard it that it was known unto us and God brought their council to not that we returned all of us to the wall, everyone unto his work and it came to pass from that time forth that half of my servants wrought in the work and the other half of them held both the spears and the shields and the bows and the hab habergeons, and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. So, again, now threats of violence. When the cursing doesn't work, then the enemy escalates to what?

To violence. We will threaten them with violence, and it will stop them from doing what is good and what is right. Whether that is handing out tracts, whether that is speaking with your neighbor, whether than that is is making it known that you're a Christian at work and and choosing to do what's right when your coworkers may be choosing to do what's wrong and trying to blame you for it, and that happens. Whether it be those who are putting themselves in harm's way to protect others, officers, regardless whether that good thing is just to come to church and worship the Lord. When they can, the enemy will threaten violence.

What should be our response? Well, the first thing the people did is they what? They cowered and feared and they quit. No. Number one, what do you do?

You take it to who? You take it to God. You pray to the Lord. You trust in him. Number two, what did they do?

They prayed and then they prepared. They put on the armor. They got themselves some weapons. They set people on a watch. They prepared for the coming of the enemy.

As a nation, we have a military to defend us, and they are prepared in hopes that they never have to actually do anything. But you have to be what? You need to be prepared, and you need to be prepared in the spiritual battle as well. In the New Testament, we're told that our enemy is not so much flesh and blood, but it's against principalities and powers. Our enemy is a spiritual enemy that will try to destroy us from the inside out.

He will just try to destroy our testimony. He will destroy and destroy our walk with the Lord. He will try to destroy our church ministry. He will try to destroy and keep us from speaking up in our in our communities for that which is right and that which is good and telling other people about Jesus. He will try to take our families down if our families are standing for the Lord and that which is right.

And we need to be prepared. What is our primary preparation? To put on the whole what? Armor of God. To stand in the integrity and the power and the truth and the might and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who has defeated the enemy to help to defeat the enemy in my life and in yours.

And it starts with us. It starts with me. It starts with you Being honest with God, confessing our own sins, asking the Lord, what will you have me to do and being on guard for the enemy who will try to get us off track, who will try to get us angry, who will try to get us to do things that are immoral and defile our ministry and ourselves and destroy our testimony. So put on the truth, the helmet of salvation. Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel.

Put on the whole armor of God. Where do you find it? Right here. In God's word. In God's word.

Prepare yourself for battle. You prepare yourself by walking in the spirit while you read the word, and you're on your knees in prayer. Though they prepared, they prepared to defend so they could continue the work unabated. They and they they didn't actually, in the end, have to fight because the enemy became afraid of them. Turning the other cheek does not mean preparing a weak defense or none at all.

It means not taking vengeance into your own hands, but turning that over to who? To the Lord. But it doesn't mean you don't prepare. They prayed, they prepared, and they continued the work. The underground church in the Soviet Union and still in places today, they prepared for the attack of the authorities.

They did their best to avoid them, and they continued to print the word of God and they continued to distribute the word of God and they continued to preach the word of God. Sometimes, they were found out. Sometimes, they were caught. Some were tortured. Some were slain.

And yet, the church and the Soviet Union of decades past continued. And the word of God continued because the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And they continued. And we need to continue regardless of what comes our way. We can because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

And whether it is the immensity of the task that scares us or whether it is the opposition that scares us, whether it be spiritual opposition or a physical person standing in front of you, greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. So take a lesson from Nehemiah and the people of Judah and just keep keep at it. And God fought for them and the walls were built. There's one final attack we read about in Nehemiah chapter six. So they tried cursing them and discouraging them.

They tried violence and it failed. And so in chapter six, they got a little more conniving, okay? Chapter six verse one, it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian, the rest of our enemies heard that I had builded the wall and that there was no breach left therein, though at the time I had not set up the doors upon the gates, that Sanballat and Geshem sent out, sent unto me saying, come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the Plain Of Ono, but they thought to do me mischief. So what did they do? They said, hey, you know, we're just good friends here.

You know, we want to help you. You know, we just we just want to have peace. So why don't you just come out to one of our villages outside of the walls, and we'll have a little summit together. Well, Nehemiah wasn't a fool. He thought, yep, I know what they're up to.

They can't stop them by cursing Adam. They can't stop them by threatening them with violence. They'll try to take out the leader. And they tried, and they failed again and again. They said, oh, please come in out.

Please come and join us. Please go. And Nehemiah said, no, I'm not going to. I know what you're up to. I'm no fool.

Then but they they they the enemies didn't give up. They continued to try. They later in the chapter in verse 10, it says, afterward, I came to the house of Shemaiah and the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up and he said, let us be together in the house of God within the temple and let us shut the doors of the temple for they will come to slay thee. Yea, in the night, they will come to slay thee. So some other opponents of him, they were more sly.

They said, hey, you know, they're gonna come kill you. So there's one place you can be safe. Run into the temple and close the doors and you'll be safe. Well, they weren't trying to get him in there to keep him safe. They were trying to get in there to do one of two things, either kill him or cause him to sin.

Nehemiah was not a priest. He didn't belong inside the what? The temple. Yeah. He didn't belong inside the temple, and he knew it.

Says in verse 11, and I said, should such a a man as I flee, and who is there that being as I am would would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go. I will not go in because it wasn't the right thing to do. They'll thought we'll trick him to get him out here to kill him. We'll trick him, to get him to do something to be despised in the eyes of the people to sin against God, and their tricks failed.

Matthew ten sixteen, we are told, behold, I send you forth the sheep in the midst of wolves. And be no, you know, don't be deceived. We are the sheep and they are the wolves. They have a worldly advantage over those that are determined to do right because they don't have that restriction. They can lie.

They can cheat. They can steal. They can and so that puts us at a disadvantage, worldly wise, but really in the end, who has the advantage? We do. The sheep because of who?

Because of the shepherd. You see, the sheep have an advantage because the sheep have the shepherd, and we have the shepherd. And behold, he says, I send you forth a sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Be harmless.

Turn the other cheek. Okay? You're not the aggressor, but that doesn't mean you can't be smart and you can't be wise. Nehemiah was both smart, and Nehemiah was wise. And he didn't take the bait.

He did not expose himself by being incited by their inflammatory rhetoric. He wasn't fooled by their lies. Keeping your head, not allowing your emotions to push you into rash actions may very well save your life and maybe even the lives or well-being of others or your ministry. One of the qualifications for pastors and deacons is that they be solemn, serious, sober. It doesn't mean that they always walk around never cracking a smile because everything is so serious.

No. It means be watchful, be circumspect, be smart, keep your head. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Don't be stirred up. Don't lose your temper.

You can't have people in charge, especially spiritual leaders who lose their temple and temper, temple, temper and get upset over nothing and can be drawn into a what? Drawn into a fight. Keep your head. So did Nehemiah. So should we.

There are sadly people in the streets in the cold this week out there fighting for something. They don't know what they're fighting for. They're just angry. They're stirred up. They're being manipulated and used because they're not being wise and they don't know the truth.

In Proverbs twenty two three, we are told, a prudent man foreseeth the evil coming and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are what? And are punished. Don't be those who can be deceived and manipulated and lied to and take the bait. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Speak the truth in what?

Love. Be the soft answer that turns away wrath. Be the one who goes to your knees rather than cursing back. Be the followers of Jesus. Don't take the bait.

Become the very thing you despise. If Satan cannot harm you physically or stop you, he will certainly try to destroy your testimony, your integrity, and push you into sin like he tried with Nehemiah, and he failed. Why did he fail? Because Nehemiah was not afraid. He trusted in who?

He trusted in the Lord. He trusted the Lord would protect them. He trusted the Lord to protect his reputation. He trusted the Lord to help them to overcome and to bring it to pass. Why did Paul tell Timothy?

God has not given us the spirit of what? Fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. Why did he tell Joshua, have nigh commanded thee be strong of a of a good courage? Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. What did he say in Psalm one eighteen six?

The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do unto me? Just do the good thing. Do the thing that pleases the Lord.

Do the thing that God is calling you to do and trust him. And keep stepping forward in faith rather than stepping back in fear. Step keep stepping forward in faith rather than getting discouraged and quitting. Keep stepping forward in faith rather than allowing fear and anger to take control of your mind and heart. Be a follower of Jesus, for that's what he did for us.

He faced the enemy in a way none of us ever will. He sweat as it were great drops of blood in the garden knowing what was to come as they would take him and revile him and curse him and do violence to him and hang him up on a cross naked before all the world to see as he gasped for every breath for you and for me. He became obedient unto death even the death of the cross wherefore God also has highly, what, exalted him. And God says he exalts the humble. So follow the Lord and do the right thing and keep putting one foot in front of another.

Don't allow fear to take over. We have the victory. Whatever it is you're facing, whatever enemy that is standing in front of you and laughing at you today, That addiction, that sin, that temptation, that that obstacle, it may be a person, a job, a family member, whoever or whatever it is, that that disease, that hurt, it doesn't have to own you because you belong to him who died for you. Receive him today as your savior. Accept what he did for you on the cross and let him save your soul.

If you know him, then let's keep building the wall and let's not give in to the enemy. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the example of Nehemiah. Time and time again, the enemy scoffed, threatened, manipulated, deceived. But because Nehemiah trusted in you, he didn't he didn't fall back in fear.

He didn't lose control and anger. He wasn't fooled by the lies and he kept building the wall and sold at Israel with him. And Lord, I pray that we would do the same, that we might trust in you, that if we're hurting, if we're discouraged, if we have failed or others have failed us, that we would take it to you. In thanksgiving and faith knowing that you're there. You hear our prayers, and you will do great and mighty things in our lives, in our church, in our community if we will simply trust in you and get back to work.

Thank you, Lord. And we pray. There's one here for whom you died this morning who have yet to receive you as savior. They would come this morning as we sing this hymn of invitation. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.