is taken from Nehemiah chapter 6. That's on page 733 in your pew Bibles, verses 10 through 14. Nehemiah 6, 10 through 14. Now let us read in unison those verses. Let's begin. Afterward, I came to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Mehetabel, who was a secret informer. And he said, let us meet together in the house of God within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. Indeed, at night they will come to kill you. And I said, should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me. My God, remember Tobiah and Sambalat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Nehodiah, and the rest of the prophets, who would have made me afraid. That is the word. Almighty God. A snake in God's house. Now brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, most people are terrified of snakes, even dinky garden snakes. Remember not too long ago, there was a lady who found a snake in her bed and she was convinced she was having a heart attack, even though it was a simple garden snake that had gotten into her house somehow. It was an armless snake. But what happens if that snake were poisonous? That makes things worse, doesn't it? Well, let's go a little bit further. Suppose that snake had two legs. Suppose that snake was poisonous. Suppose that snake was a member of your family or your church. That's real reason to worry, isn't it? And that was the situation that Nehemiah faced here. They were struggling to repair the temple. the adjoining buildings, to complete the walls, to repair the walls, to provide security, and to promote worship among God's people. And that's when they got attacked by a poisonous snake. And they had to learn how to deal with it. And this is what you will hear about today. The headings are three, a distraction for Nehemiah, second, the dismissal of the distractors, and second, the destruction of the distractors. And our goals are that you will learn that wicked men, even from inside the church, will try to make you sin against God and ignore your duty. And so rob Christ of his rightful honor. so that you will also learn to prepare to take them on and they are going to be around. Let's first look at the distraction of Nehemiah. Now in the course of doing his work, this hard work, Nehemiah came to the house of a man named Shemaiah, a man claiming to be a prophet. Now if Shemaiah were a real prophet, a true prophet, He wasn't a very good one. Yeah, couldn't be true and good. But they likely called him a prophet because he pretended to prophesy. And there are always those kinds of people within the Church of Jesus Christ. And instead of being a true prophet of God, he was really a secret informer to Nehemiah's enemies, Sanballat and Tobiah. What is interesting is that he was a father-in-law of Tobiah, the Ammonite. We say Shemaiah was as fake as a three dollar bill. Now Shemaiah urged Nehemiah to go into the house of God, the part of the temple that he was not supposed to go. Ordinary persons were not allowed into that part of the temple, the holiest place. Numbers chapter 18 verse 7 warns about this. Let's read this verse together. Therefore, you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind the veil, and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsiders shall not come near Who comes there shall be put to death. So you know in the temple, there were three sections largely, or it was divided roughly in three parts. The first two thirds, they had the table of showbread, they had the altar of incense, and in front of the holiest place, that's where that big curtain was, that nobody could go by, go behind, except one time per year, the high priest would go after making sacrifices for himself. There was that altar there, that altar of incense, and God said no one was to go to that altar of incense, behind in the holiest place. But Shemaiah said to Nehemiah, you need to go there. Nehemiah was likely eunuch as well, so he had even more restrictions as to where he could go. But Shumai pretended that Nehemiah's best place of security was the holiest place rather than the horns of the altar that was on the outside of the temple where one could flee as a place of safety. But the real reason he wanted Nehemiah to go into the temple was to distract him from the work that God had called him to do. So if Shemaiah had suggested that he go to the horns of the altar, it would have been more understandable, the horns of the altar on the outside of the temple. But not this, not go where he's not supposed to go. In many ways, Shemaiah was that unnamed prophet, or a picture of that unnamed prophet who was called by this false prophet when he went on a journey. And as he's returning home, the false prophet said to the unnamed prophet, God changed his mind. He told you not to go into anyone's house and eat bread and drink water, but he changed his mind. So come on in. And that false prophet caused the death of the unnamed prophet when he left that false prophet's house. And that's what Shemaiah is trying to do. He's trying to destroy the work and kill the messenger of God. Nehemiah's response to this was very quick. Without aggravating Shammai, he didn't want to make a fuss. He didn't want to make a big argument. He was busy with God's Word. He simply says, no, I won't go in. I can't go in there. Why wouldn't he go in and hide? Well, even if it were not in the holiest place, he would not hide because God told him he had work to do. He could not back away from the work that God had called him to do. Running was not in his vocabulary. That's how important his work was. When God gives you important work, you can't back away from that work. You must fulfill it. More, he would not hide because God had appointed him to be a governor and he had to be a shepherd of God's people. He had to lead from the front. Why? If you go and if there was no shepherd, what happens to the sheep? The sheep are easily scattered. that would have been a dereliction of duty. He would have failed as the governor of the land. More, he would not hide because he knew God was able to protect him if he remained faithful doing the work that God had called him to do. And even if God allowed him to be injured, he would still do the work that God called him to do. Remember the Hebrew boys and the young men, rather, in Nebuchadnezzar's fire? They said, we're not going to bow down to your idol. And if you throw us in the fire, God can save us if he wishes. He wasn't going to be deceived. He knew God could protect him. So Nehemiah stood up like the Hebrew boys had done 100 years before. They would not bow to Nehemiah's fire, to Nehemiah's image. More, he would not hide because if he fled, it would have looked like he was guilty of treason. Remember the open letter? that Sanballat had sent, he would have looked like he was guilty. More, he could not hide because he knew if he were away from the people, then the secret people, the enemies of God's people, could easily have snuck in there, kidnapped him, and killed him. When he was in public, in a way, he was safer that way because others were around him. So Nehemiah just simply said, without getting into all the details and being distracted by that, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to stay out and continue the work that God had called me to do. What can we learn here? Look at some lessons now, four of them. First of all, part of your life is to endure the refiner's fire. Just as Nehemiah did. You know diamonds must get a bruising for them to shine. Silver must get the fire to become pure. And God is your refiner. God has ordained that you go through some trials in your life. You're probably going through some right now. That's part of God refining you. That's what Nehemiah had to go through. And there's always that testing. Am I going to compromise and move away from God? Sometimes the temptation is to marry someone, for example, who's not a believer. There's always that pressure. Especially women face this. Sometimes they're getting a little bit older and they think, I've got to compromise. That's the fire. That's the temptation that you're going to go through. God has ordained that. Don't buckle under it and let it destroy you. Second, some people will do anything for money, even sell out their own family. That's what Shemaiah was doing. He had relations with people outside, and as a result, he forgot his loyalty to the people of God. And this was an inside man. This man was the snake, and he would sell out his own family. Avoid people like these. Don't be friends with them. Don't marry them. They're no good. Third, poison from preachers is more difficult to identify because they pretend to be teachers of God. You know, it's easier to recognize the filth that comes from the sociologist's mouth, the social scientists who want to remake society, and when they say, there's no gender, or there's 60-something, or you can become a man if you're one, or a woman if you're a man, and all of these things, you look at them and say, you know, you need to have your head and your heart examined, because one of them is out of whack. You know that right away. But when it's coming from a preacher, or someone who has that look, then you start to think, well, what's going on here? It's like so many preachers who are on the streets during the homosexual parades, supporting them in that work. And people are looking. They've got their crosses and everything on them. That makes it more difficult. Brothers and sisters, the greatest threat that the church faces now is not Trudeau. They're teachers who are false. And they're inside the church. You'll see it in the following about outside threats as we move on here. Well, sometimes we want to blame the government for everything. Look at what they're doing. Well, why are they able to do those things? Because the preachers are the ones who have the biggest failures we have in our society today. Our preachers tell people what they want to hear. Or they just like to them for personal advantage. Four, God wouldn't mind if you break the Sabbath. God knows everyone commits adultery, especially these days, so it must be okay. God knows if you play the lottery, you'll have more money to help the poor people. You can refuse to help your parents and help people in other countries because, oh, they have needs too. You hear this and think, has the pastor lost his mind? No, but those are words that modern day Shemayahs will tell people. It's okay to break the Sabbath. I mean, that's just old law. Jesus fulfilled the law for us, so we don't have to keep the Sabbath. Everyone's committing adultery, as long as you're faithful to that one person, then it's okay. Winning the lottery, you're going to do good with it, so it's okay. It's all this type of rationalizing, even to the point where people don't take care of their parents, but they're very good at giving their money to other charities where they'll get notoriety. They will get named as being good, generous donors. That's what the Pharisees did. That's what Shemaiah did. You see, the devil and his people will do anything to stop you from doing God's work, including lying to you. You see, half-truths are more effective than blind falsehoods or blatant falsehoods. There's some sense of it, like caring for widows or orphans sounds appealing, and there's a truth there. But if you sacrifice your family for them, then that becomes sinful. That's how the devil gets people. Well, let's move to our second point. Nehemiah do. Dismissal of the distractors. God revealed to Nehemiah that Shemaiah was not a true prophet, but one who worked for Sanballat. And Sanballat was a hired hand. Oh sorry, Shemaiah was a hired hand. Worse, he was a false prophet. He prophesied for money like Balaam did when he tried to curse God's people. Or remember, severe punishment is reserved for those who lie about God's word. And you see that throughout the scriptures. Then God revealed that Shammai's goal was to make Nehemiah afraid, which would cause him to act inappropriately and run into the temple to hide. You see, if you love your family, you will take on the worst enemy that comes to attack them. But if fear takes over and there's no love there, you will become self-preserving. And you will not care what happens to others. When the enemy comes, you will run away. And that's what Shemaiah was trying to do to Nehemiah, to make him afraid. But God exposed him. The sheep clothing on this wolf fell off. And because he used God's word as a standard, he was able to recognize the falsehood. Third, God revealed that Shemaiah then would pass on that information to Sanballat and his company. So they would in turn bring shame to Nehemiah, even kill him like he was trying to do. And this was exactly what the Jews tried to do to Jesus. They were always trying to set him up. They said to him, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? And they're trying to trick him. If he said yes, then they'll say, you're anti-Jewish. If he said no, they will say, he needs to be executed for his fighting against the Roman government. They told him, look at this woman who's caught in the act of adultery. Is it lawful to kill her? If he said yes, then they would say, you are against Caesar, you don't have the power of capital punishment. If he said no, then they could attack him again for that. Constantly throughout his life they tried to set Jesus up, like they did, like Shemaiah did to Nehemiah. Now if Nehemiah had compromised and run for personal protection, wouldn't this have discouraged his workers as well? Not only would it have hurt him, Not only would it have given the privilege to the wicked enemies of God's people, not only would it have stopped the worship of God, it would have hindered the coming of the Savior. That was the greatest shame of all. And he had to stand up and say no, even with the threats around him. In other words, he had to stamp on that snake's head. What can we learn here? First of all, trust the providence of God and remain faithful. If you're doing what is right, it doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter if you're punished. You stand firm in what God has called you to do. That's why it's kind of stunning how quickly people were willing to shut down worship. during the time of COVID, but hardly a protest. God has called us to do these things. We do them. Sometimes we suffer for doing them, but we must do them. Discipline your children. The government says, I've been in a court where the judge said, if you touch your child, I'll take your child away from you. Well, God says you must discipline your children. And the judge plays God. What do you do? You stand up. You're not trying to be confrontational to start fights. You notice what Nehemiah did. He didn't get into all the discussions. You're just trying to set me up, you nasty scoundrel. No, he just said, no, I'm not going to do that. I will not compromise. He wasn't picking a fight, but he knew what had to be done and he did it. You see, you never have to sin to do the work of the Lord. and running away into the temple would have been a sin. He didn't do that. Second, no weapons formed against God's people will prosper. All those who are guilty will be exposed. Remember Psalm 56, verse three, if you have your notes handy together? Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. That's it. He committed his way to the Lord and said, no, I'm not gonna do it. you get lost. We sing that, too. Be not dismayed, whate'er betide, God will take care of you. Not God may. God will take care of you every day, in every way. That's what we, that's formed the basis of our trust in him, and therefore, we need not be afraid. But remember on the other hand, third lesson, be sure your sins will find you out, exposing who you really are. You know, Shumai had the look of a prophet. I can imagine he probably dressed like a prophet as well. Probably well-groomed, and he looked like the, he looked the part as he spoke. But God exposed him for who he really was. And so God will expose all those false preachers and television that you see around and preachers and little churches that are supporting wickedness. You think of what happens in China where you've got the three-celled patriarchal movement, the churches there that are controlled by the government or the Russian Orthodox Church that's controlled by the government or support the government, we should say. In whatever they do, their sins will find them out. They will be exposed. God will announce your sins to the world if you don't repent. Of course, at that time, there will be no room to repent. Take warning. One more lesson, it says, don't be a coward. Jesus set his face like flint to accomplish the purpose for which God had sent him, to die on the cross. And so you must have that same kind of commitment. Stand up for his kingdom. Don't be ashamed, refusing to honor him. Now I say a simple thing, like being in a restaurant, Do you feel uncomfortable praying, closing your eyes and praying to God to bless the food he has given to you? When you meet with your family and friends and they're not believers, do you avoid opening up your Bible and praying to Almighty God, standing up for the kingdom? Stand up against the world. You will learn more about this in the coming weeks when you're called to stand up even against the entire world. Stand up against snakes. Stand up for truth. You're not going to be popular. You're not going to be with the in-crowd. You have to be prepared for that. You'll be looked down upon as being prudish and old-fashioned. Well, we have a bigger task than to be bothered by names that people will call us. Now, what was Nehemiah's next response? He just said, no, not going to do it. But then he does something in verse 14. He says, my God remembered Tobiah and Sanballat. Love that expression. Nehemiah then passionately prayed to God to judge all those who were bent on stopping the work of rebuilding Jerusalem's walls so God's people would be secure and worship would be restored to Almighty God. Specifically, he singled out some people. He said, Lord, remember Tobiah. This was the Ammonite, the relative of the Jew, but one who hated the restoration of Jerusalem. You know, maybe he didn't hate God, but he hated a prosperous Jewish nation that stood in his way of his other God, money, power. He asked God to remember Sanballat, the mastermind behind the opposition to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. He, too, hated Jewish ascendancy. It wasn't financially good for him for that to happen. Then Noah died of the prophetess. You know, under exceptional circumstances, there were three women who were appointed to be prophets, Deborah, Miriam, and Huldah. But this one was not a true prophetess at all, one who was another stooge, one who served others, who worked for the wicked opponents of the Church of Jesus Christ. She was like the hired hand there to confirm Shemaiah's words. Her words were for sale to the highest bidder, like many false preachers today. And then he mentions other prophets and the rest of the prophets. Now we don't know who these are, but we know what their goals were. Their goal was to stop the progress of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And that started with their opposition to the rebuilding of the walls, the rebuilding of the temple buildings for the storage of things for worship. The establishment of the government back in Judah. And she spoke and opposed it. No, they spoke and opposed it. That was their goal. And that's why Nehemiah said, Lord, remember them. Remember them. And you think, well, what does that mean? I said there was judgment. Is that really what he's saying? Yes. It's a euphemism. You know, we would say that when we say, I'll remember what you did to me. You ever said something like that? What do you mean there? It's not just that you have a cognitive memory of what somebody did to you. It means I'm going to get even with you for what you have done. I'll remember what you did to me. I'll remember what you said about me. Because we're plotting revenge. But he says to God, you remember them. You remember them. Remember them for judgment. Nehemiah did not attempt to take revenge on his enemies, but he committed them to God for judgment. Now, you see why we were singing Psalm 2 right at the beginning of God bringing judgment upon those who resist his people and their Savior. We see a similar example in the life of Apostle Paul for comparison, 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 14, together. Alexander the coppersmith did much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. You notice the Apostle Paul didn't say, man I got to get some of my Italian friends. Not at all. He says, Lord you know what this man did for me, did to me. You know what he did to the work. You know how we hurt the church. You remember him. He and I knew St. Bilate and his false prophets. were really trying to make him afraid. And you know, even the strongest man was subject to becoming fearful when he looked at the size of the enemy as it got bigger and bigger. And that's why he had to call out to God, stop them. You see, the kingdom of God doesn't spread magically. Those who stand in the way of God's kingdom, he had to remove. And that was his prayer. And that's what we sing about in the psalm as well. What can we learn here? Three lessons here. First of all, don't hate your enemies and don't try to get even with your enemies. Commit them to the Lord and let Him deal with them. Now, self-defense is yours. If someone were to attack you, you need to protect yourself so that you can love your family and serve the Lord. So if someone's breaking into your house and you have a chance to stop them before, leaving an impression on them, do. That's what God has commanded. Self-defense is essential. Revenge is not yours. Revenge is the Lord's. Draw the distinction between them. You see, when Jesus was reviled, the Bible says he did not revile in return, but committed himself to the one who judges righteously, the one who would bring revenge. And so should you. Second, don't hate the church's enemies. Don't hate your enemies. Don't hate the church's enemies. And don't try to get even with them. Commit them to the Lord and let him deal with them. Those who are persecuting God's people. We pray that God will bring justice upon their head. That God will crush them to powder like Jesus said. If you don't fall on the stone and plead for help, the stone will fall on them and crush them to powder. In 1 Corinthians 15, the Bible talks about the Lord will reign until his enemies become his footstool. Footstool is not a nice thing. You're under someone's stinky feet. You're being crushed by the weight of justice. And that's part of how the church grows, is the wicked are removed if they will not surrender to Almighty God. That's what we pray for when we pray, your kingdom come. It's not just marshmallows and beautiful flowers growing. It comes sometimes at a price. Remember when God sent the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, he didn't say go and try to get along the best you can. Now God's kingdom is not advanced by military weapons, be sure about that. Your job is to preach the gospel. You're to love them and share the gospel with them. But we are to pray at the same time that God will bring his justice upon those who threaten his church. Pray for God's judgment upon the people in China, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. Wherever they're persecuting the people of God, pray that God will bring his justice upon them. Remember, we are to sing them Precatory Psalms. We are to memorize the imprecatory Psalms, and we are to pray the imprecatory Psalms. Those are the Psalms of judgment, like Psalm 2. You see, the heads of the snake need to be crushed. We fight with the gospel. God fights with his justice. It goes back to Genesis 3, doesn't it? From the wicked enemy of the Satan himself and his host will be judged. Let God do His justice. You share the gospel to conquer them. Let's conclude. There were snakes in the church who tried to harm Nehemiah and stop him from rebuilding the walls and repairing the temple. Had they succeeded, it would have injured the kingdom and robbed Jesus of his praises. So brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, consider three things. First of all, remember who Jesus is to you. He's your Savior. Let Him, let this make you work for His honor. You belong to Him. He purchased you. He's your Lord. This means you will take on snakes. poisonous snakes. We're not simply to get along with others. What do you do if you find a poisonous snake in your bed? Don't pet it. Kill it. And similarly, you have to be willing to challenge those who are preaching false doctrines. You know, politeness, I've often said it's one of the biggest idols of North America, the Western world. We have made an idol out of politeness, that we want people to like us and we have to get along. But our politeness will send people to hell because we don't confront them in their sins. You have to be willing to do so. More than that, not only are you saving their lives, those snakes will destroy the church by their falsehood. Go in a Christian bookstore and read the books, or take a glance at the books that are there. All psychobabble, self-esteem, goofiness, nothing but the gospel. Well, there's still some good books, but so much of it is garbage, not worth the paper. Wasted paper. But more than remember who Christ is to you, reject those snakes who attempt to distract you from your work with all their hissing. And maybe you don't sound as profound. Maybe you can't speak as eloquently as some of those people on television who are very popular. But you keep teaching your children. Don't change from teaching them truth. Don't change your God-given priorities Don't change from loving your spouse in that self-denying way. Focus on advancing Christ's cause. Invite people to your home to show them God's love. Spend your money wisely. Care for the lonely. Be bold to stand up for truth in society. Then third, refocus in sharing the message of the gospel, rather than social work. That's what's taken over Christianity today. It's always programs, programs, programs, or digging wells, or building hospitals. And by themselves, they're not bad things of themselves. But they're taking away from a better thing, as we talked about the last time. Don't let good things take away from better things, otherwise those good things become a curse. You want to see the loss brought into the kingdom? Share the gospel. Finally, God will look on all men to see if they are sinners who are still carrying the burden of their sins. Remember Pilgrim's Progress, carrying that load will crush you. And if he sees you that way, you'll spend eternity in hell under the burden and guilt of your sin. That worm that does not die and pricks your conscience for eternity. But it's not too late. Dear friends, if you don't know Jesus Christ, receive His life and death and you will be free, free from the burden of your sins. Amen. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for your words. Thank you for helping us to reflect again upon the work the Savior, who indeed is the center of our lives, the ground by which Nehemiah could say, no, I will not compromise and sin against God. No, I must build a wall so the the nation will be safe. No, I must repair the temple so that Christ will come. Preach the gospel there, and that veil in the temple to be torn in two. May we too have that courage. Having been renewed in Jesus Christ, having been saved by grace, we will labor for the kingdom and praises go up to our Savior. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.