Josiah, could we turn this down just a little bit? I appreciate it, you know. I don't know if the animal rights activists allow this to take place any longer. But one of the standard experiments in chemistry class when I went to high school was the dissection of a frog. Now with your stomachs full from Sunday dinner, I will refrain from replying that event. But what I would like to draw to your attention is the slow death of that frog that led up to its dissection. The teacher would take a frog and place it in an oversized beaker of cool water. And then just below the beaker, he would set a bumps and burner and turn it on to a very low flame so that the water heated very slowly. In fact, the temperature rose so gradually that the frog inside of the beaker was never aware of any change. Two and a half hours later, the frog was dead, boiled to death. And it occurred so slowly that the frog never kicked, never attempted to jump out of the water. It never knew that its very life was slipping away. The very principle, the principle of erosion is the very thing that arouse us concern on the part of our friend, Nehemiah. Now over the last couple of months we have given our attention to this particular man who has been driven by a holy ambition for the glory of God, the rebuilding of the walls that surround the city of Jerusalem. We discovered in chapter one that he begins this work on his knees, praying. He then watches the quiet hand of the sovereign God, manipulate circumstances, move on the hearts of powerful people to bring about the well-being of God's own people, the covenant people. But as is always the case in a great work for God, as we discovered the last time we were in Nehemiah, opposition is simultaneously aroused. Hostility gets turned up against God's people and Nehemiah is put to the test. As we discovered last time, this man of God responds wonderfully and despite all of the opposition, progress is made on the wall. In fact, by the grace of God and the diligence of God's people, the wall of Jerusalem we are told in chapter 4 verse 6 is now built to half its height. Hostility is notwithstanding, things are moving along rather nicely. The problem is you see, underneath the surface of these things there is this Bunsen burner that had been flickering at a low flame for a long time. In fact, a lot longer than Nehemiah had been there, long before Nehemiah ever got to Jerusalem, this thing was lit and it was burning. And as a result, the slow process of erosion was seriously threatening not just the rebuilding of the walls, but the integrity of the relationships that existed among God's people. And when the problem finally makes it to Nehemiah's doorstep, he takes very strong steps to deal with it immediately and directly. So what was the serious threat? It is my friends, a frequent destroyer of God's people. This internal division brought about by tolerated sin. Internal division and discord brought about by sin that is ignored. Think about the last church split you heard about. What was the reason for it? Attack from the world? False teaching. Governmental intrusion. My guess is the cause was internal discord brought about by sin that when unchecked, unaddressed, it was tolerated. And by and by it served to destroy the unity of the people of God in that place. It is one of our enemies' most effective methods. We see my friends, that's exactly what Nehemiah is now facing in chapter 5. We have brothers exploiting brothers, dividing the people of God to such an extent that if even the walls are rebuilt, what good would it be if the people living inside of those walls were not distinguishable from those on the outside of the walls? God is more concerned with us than our walls Nehemiah says in effect. He wants us to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. And so instead of saying as some would be prone to do, hey look, I came here to build these walls. Don't involve me in your petty squabbles as it were, Nehemiah puts down the trowel. He takes off his coveralls and says it is a hypocrisy for us to continue until we make right the wrongs that exist among us. The shape of the chapter is very simple. Verse 1 through 5, record the complaints Nehemiah heard. Verses 6 through 13, the steps Nehemiah took, verses 14 through 19, the example Nehemiah set. Now, let's take a closer look at this problem. Let's watch how Nehemiah confronts this in and see if there are not three or four lessons that we can learn about properly reacting to sin that threatens the unity of the fellowship. Verse 1, now the men and their wives raised a great outcry. It's a strong word. It means a cry of distress and notice that Nehemiah purposefully draws attention to the wives. In other words, this particular cry of distress was not coming from all people in general but from the home makers and the mothers in particular and the reason for this was twofold. Number 1, as you will see, this problem is primarily a domestic and economic one. And number 2, the wives are more sensitive to this calamity because they are managing at home while the husbands are working around the clock on the wall, working all day, guarding the wall by night. Remember, they are in a state of military emergency. Now here is the key that unlocks the entire problem. Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. In other words, this problem has nothing to do with sand ballot, nothing to do with Tobiah, nothing to do with Gesham or the surrounding nations that are threatening to invade the city. This is internal discord, verse 2. Some were saying, we and our sons and daughters are numerous. In order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain. Well, why is this a problem just go down to the store and buy some, verse 3? Others were saying we are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain. During the famine, during the famine, add this to everything else. The people are surrounded by the dust and the rubble of the broken down walls trying to erect them once again. There are the mounting taunts of sand ballot and all of his gang. The people are in a state of military readiness and there is a famine when it rains it really does pour. Moreover, this problem is compounded by the fact that there is this new influx of Jews that have come to Jerusalem to work on the wall. All of the farming manpower had been diverted away from growing what little could be grown to the rebuilding of the wall to say it as simply as it can be said. There wasn't enough food to go around. Now, that's not the sin Nehemiah addresses. It does, however, precipitate the sin that Nehemiah addresses. You see my friends, if you were wealthy and you were inclined in this way, this economic calamity provided a great opportunity for you to make a whole lot more. Look at it, verse 3. Others were saying we are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes. That is mortgaging them to other Jews to get grain during the famine. Still others were saying we have had to borrow money from other Jews to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved to our Jewish brethren, but we are powerless because our fields and our vineyards belong to others. The means of earning a livelihood to buy back our children out of slavery has been taken away from us. Now friends, if I've confused you a bit, please forgive me, let me summarize. There is a lack of adequate food. People are mortgaging their fields to get cash so that they can, one, buy whatever food they can get their hands on and two, pay their taxes to the Persian government. Judah is at this time a Persian province. Buy and buy over time. They are forced to surrender their fields because they are unable to pay the money back borrowed against their property. The only resource they have left, their children, whom they are forced to indenture as slaves. It is the affluent exploiting the poor or personal profit during a time of famine. It is a bleak and ugly thing and what makes this worst of all is that this exploitation is not being perpetrated upon them by those outside of Israel. But we have the people of God exploiting the people of God. What was the predominant disposition that was to govern the covenant people? Leviticus 1918, you are to love your neighbor like yourself. When I watched Nehemiah's response, verse 6, when I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. The word means to burn, to be hot. It is a word often used to speak of God himself. You say, now wait a minute, Art, I thought godly people were never to get angry. Listen to the helpful words of Frankie Schaeffer. There are times in which anyone with a shred of moral principle should be profoundly angry. There are times in which anyone with a shred of moral principle should be profoundly angry. Let me ask you, did Moses ever get angry? And did God chastise him for shattering the covenant document on the stones beneath him when he saw the people involved in idolatry? Never once did God rebuke Moses for that anger. And what about David? Remember that young boy, we just read it with our family the other night, comes walking up to the valley of Ila, here are the Philistines, here are the people of Israel, and out walks this giant Goliath who mocks God and mocks God's people, and what does that young boy say when everybody else is cowering in their sandals, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he would talk about the living God like this? Let me add him. And my friends, what about the Apostle Paul, known to get angry? I think Paul was a very difficult man to be around. When's the last time you read the book of Galatians? You know my friends, if we translated the book of Galatians as literally as it could be translated from Greek into English, our Bibles would not be rated PG-13. And what about the God man? Was he ever known to get angry? On which occasion? Shaffer is right. There are times in which anyone with a shred of moral principle should be profoundly angry. In fact, beloved, let me add at this particular point, do you realize that the scriptures command us to be angry? Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26, be angry. Present imperative, it is an apostolic command, which means that there are occasions when to not be angry, would be disobedient. Now, I can appreciate the fact that all of us here tend to retreat from anger because in our experience it is so often associated with sin, isn't it? Anger is a dangerous emotion. But anger, my friends, is not sin when it is an expression of an emotion that is a reaction against ungodliness. And of all the instances of anger that I just cited for you, they all share one common denominator. It was anger generated by a defiant repudiation of God's Word and ultimately God's glory. And be confused, my friends, to not become angry at such situations does not reflect a manifestation of spirit-produced self-control. It reflects a lack of sensitivity to the glory of our God. And this, I think, is the first important lesson that we can glean from Nehemiah, and that is anger is a righteous emotion when sin threatens to destroy the unity of God's people. Anger is a righteous emotion when sin threatens to destroy the unity of God's people. Now, brothers and sisters, allow me to make a comment here for a moment that perhaps is so utterly obvious it ought not need to be stated, but it so easily slips by us. unity is unnatural for sinful people. Unity is unnatural for sinful people. Therefore, we are told in the Bible that unity is to be developed, guarded, cultivated, protected. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Make every effort be diligent at the task. Wait a minute, isn't unity natural among Christians? Isn't unity just the natural consequence of all of us naming the name of Jesus Christ, of all of us having the same Savior? My friends, unity is not an experience that happens by accident, like love. It needs to be worked at and cultivated, and anything that threatens it needs to be dealt with immediately. Let me ask you, is unity the natural experience in your home? Is unity the natural experience in your marriage? Is unity the natural experience among your children? Perhaps there are a few of you here for whom this is the case. But for the rest of us mere mortals, we have to work at it, don't we? We have to keep our hand on that thing. It requires direct involvement, direct attention to what's going on. On the other hand, my friends, let me ask you, what would happen to your family if you took your hands off and simply allowed what is natural to run its course? And let dissension go unchecked, and over a period of years you see, the slow but sure effects of erosion will begin to take place. And one day, my dear friends, you will wake up and discover that all of the intimacy in your family has been boiled to death in a beaker of discord without so much as a kick. I think we all know this to be true about our families. It is amazing to me that the very same people who know that to be true about our families fail to recognize that the same thing must be true of the church. Why do you think there are exhortations in the Bible like be patient with one another, bear with one another, for bear with one another, forgive one another, restore one another, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins. My friends, why do you think those exhortations are in the New Testament directed toward Christians? Because unity is natural? Now of course, if every time somebody offends you, you pick up all your toys and run to another church, then you could ignore all of these things. Of course you'll never grow. You'll never come to understand what it is like to live in the body of Christ because in the most successful of churches we have to exercise these kinds of things on behalf of one another. I've said to my wife, I've said to Al, I've said to several of you on many occasions it seems like rarely does a week go by but I don't have to pick up the phone and apologize to somebody for something. Unity is unnatural for Christians who still live with the unholy undertow of sin. Let me bear my heart with you for a moment. I don't know why this is true but it is. As a pastor, there is absolutely nothing that compares with the exhilaration I feel when I hear that people in the body are ministering to one another without any kind of involvement encouragement or provocation from me. When word gets back to me, finally through the great vine that one brother helped out another brother with his broken down fence or a sister has made a meal for another family or one brother has given another brother a job or so and so is repairing somebody else's car because they can't afford to take it to the shop. My friends when I hear that kind of thing I think to myself it's happening. It's really happening just like God says it's supposed to be. Everything is more exhilarating to a pastor who loves the people he shepherds on the other hand. There is nothing that brings such grief and discouragement and arouses such anger when you hear things like I refuse to work in the nursery with her. As long as he sings in the choir I'll never be a part of it. He drinks wine you know. They want to see such in such a movie can you believe it? Why does he get to lead the youth group? Why does she always get to sing the solos all make meals for any other family but never for theirs? Those kinds of things enrage the godly leader because it assaults the unity that God wants. When it does happen however there was one very effective way to deal with it and this is now the second lesson we learn. Ongoing sin among God's people should be confronted following necessary reflection. Ongoing sin among God's people should be confronted following necessary reflection. Now watch this unfold, look at verse 6. When I heard their outcry in these charges I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind. I really appreciate more over I need to hear that. I pondered them in my mind. The point is I paused. I took time to think this thing through. Not my friends so that his anger might be eliminated but rather that it might be controlled. You see my friends when God is angry? He's angry perfectly. He's angry sinlessly. He's angry righteously. For the contrary our emotions have been affected by our fallenness. Now that is not to say that every time we get angry it is sinful anger. It does say this. It is a dangerous emotion for us. We need to pause, take counsel with ourselves and make sure that our anger is not an expression of our own unrighteousness. Our own injured pride, our own wounded ego, our own selfishness. There is not sin beloved, unrighteous anger is sin. We have to protect that distinction. Nehemiah ponders the situation, then notice, and then accused the nobles and officials. Why the nobles and the officials? These are the guys with the fat wallets. These are the big money guys. We're told that he accuses them and Hebrew, that's a word that speaks of verbal combat. He wasn't concerned at this point to win a popularity contest. Nehemiah was just not that kind of a man. He goes for the jugular. I told them you are exacting usury that is interest from your own countrymen so I call together a large meeting to deal with them. In other words, their sin was of such a nature that it needed to be dealt with publicly. Verse 8, and I said, as far as possible, we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers only for them to be sold back to us. Brothers, when we came here from Susa to establish this city, we did everything we could. We pulled all of our money. We emptied our wallets to buy back as many of our Jewish brothers as we could to bring with us. And now you're telling us that we who are Jews need to buy our Jewish brothers from other people who are Jews and my friends, they were so utterly disgraced by this sin that Nehemiah rights, they kept quiet because they could find nothing to say. You see my friends, they knew the old covenant law. It said this, Exodus 22, if you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a money lender, charge him, no interest. Deuteronomy 23, do not charge your brother interest so that the Lord may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess. Now friends, God gave his laws in part so that the people of Israel would be distinct from all of the other nations who were around them and so that their distinctiveness would cause the other peoples to sit up and take notice. Things are different among God's people. Is he God is saying, when you refuse to make money off your brother's misfortune and the non-Jew comes along side you and says, why aren't you taking advantage of a good situation? How do you expect to get ahead if you refuse to take interest from your brother? You can say to that man, the Lord meets our needs when we love each other. I don't always know how it works out, but he blesses us when we take care of one another. But you see, that very principle of love was being disregarded by God's people and thus the unity among them severely jeopardized. In fact, beloved God went one step further, Leviticus 25. If one Jew grew indebted to another Jew, the latter was never to take the former as a slave. God says, take him on as a hired hand. But never as a slave, a slave has no rights, makes no money, is a piece of property, a hired hand earns a wage, he has freedom, he gets to go home at night, he maintains his dignity. You must never allow a covenant brother to be your slave. You can bring him on as a hired hand, watch this now. But even for a point, after he works for you six years, if his debt is still not paid in the seventh year, you take that little accounting sheet and you tear it in half and throw it in the garbage. That's what I want it to be like among my people. All debts are forgiven. In the interest of making money, they had defied God's design and Nehemiah confronted it. Beloved without any hesitation, I can tell you tonight that confrontation is the most difficult part of our life together as the people of God. No seminary class can ever prepare you for it. No book can teach you how to do it. The emotional expenditure when confrontation occurs in the proper way is enormous. And yet I have to tell you from personal experience tonight, it is one of the most valuable tools that God has given to his people. What does Proverbs say? 276, wounds from a friend can be trusted. Proverbs 9.8, Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Proverbs 15.31, he who listens to a life-giving Rebuke will be at home among the wise. Proverbs 25.12, like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold, is a wise man's Rebuke to a listening ear. If you catch my drift beloved, what I am trying to tell you tonight is that sometimes we need to love people a little less and help them a little more. See, there is really no place for the person who says, you know, I am just so loving I can be confrontational. You need to love a little less and help a little more. In reality, what we are saying is you just need to learn to love in a better way. Now watch as Nehemiah builds this case, verse 9. So I continued, what you are doing is not right, shouldn't you walk in fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies, shouldn't we live up to God's design? To keep from becoming an object of ridicule among the non-Jews, man if the Gentiles get word that we are living this way with each other, we will become the object of their mockery and scorn.
You have had this experience, friends, haven't you? Who laughs the loudest? When word gets out that another high profile minister has been immoral. Who takes the greatest glee in that? What do we do? We run and hide. We go to the store, we go to the office, we go to the ball field and we cross our fingers and hope that nobody mentions it. And it's the world you see that sits back and says, at the end of the day, you miserable Christians aren't any better than the rest of us. The only difference between us and you guys, we're open about it. You cloak it in spiritual hypocrisy. God's people sin, God's people sin, God's people sin, it goes unchecked, it goes tolerated, we ignore it, it then comes out and it brings reproach on all of us. And it undercuts the testimony we are attempting to have with this world, God has called us to reach. Verse 10, I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain, but let the exacting of usury stop. Let's back to them immediately, their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the user you are charging them, the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil, you don't need to think about it, you don't need to pray about it, you don't need to see counsel about it, you don't need to say you're going to see God's will on the matter, he's already made it clear. Stop it right now, make things right immediately, be thorough. Any of my wasn't an easy man to be around either, here's the third lesson. Repentance should be demanded immediately when God's name is being compromised, verse 12, we will give it back, they said, and we will not demand anything more from them, we will do as you say. Now that's good, they've responded positively to this brotherly but strong confrontation, but Nehemiah wise old leader that he is knows how easy it is for people to retreat from the promises they make to God. And so he calls for some public accountability, look at it, then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. Now remember the scene, there's a big crowd of people, this is a public meeting, and standing in front of this big crowd are the big money guys, the Jewish nobles and the officials and they're saying upon this confrontation we are going to make things right. Nehemiah says, are you sure they say absolutely right now, we promise. Nehemiah says, that's great. Now let's bring in the priests, shall we? So as you make this vow to God, you can look straight into the eyes of those who are His ministers. Beyond that Nehemiah employs an object lesson, something very common in Middle Eastern culture verse 13. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, in this way may God shake out of His house and possessions, every man who does not keep this promise, so may such a man be shaken out and emptied. And when those days, beloved, they wore garments that had pockets in the folds of those garments and as it were, Nehemiah takes everything out of those pockets and he shakes it all out. And he's saying, if you don't keep your word, then may God take away from you every possession, you own. You say, are this is really severe, but my friends, you need to appreciate that when the unity of the people of God is severely threatened, it doesn't necessitate to severe measures. At this, the whole assembly said, amen and praise the Lord and the people did as they had promised.
Now, there is one last lesson that I do not want you to overlook, verse 14. Moreover, from the 20th year of King Art of Zerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah until his 32nd year, 12 years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. Now, you see, beloved, there was a particular allotment designated for all Persian governors. It was one of the perks of the job, certain kinds of food, certain kinds of wine. It was part of the benefits of occupying that kind of a position. But that begs a question, where does the money come from to pay for those perks? It was generated by taxing the people you governed. Nehemiah refused. Verse 15, but the earlier governors, those preceding me, placed a heavy burden on the people and took 40 shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistance also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God, I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. I didn't sit back in my easy chair and smoke cigars in my air conditioned office. In fact, all my men were assembled there for the work just as I was. We did not acquire any land. This was not an exploitive opportunity for us, either. Furthermore, 150 Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. Each day, one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor because the demands were heavy on these people. Now, friends, Nehemiah was a governor, and that meant there was a never-ending stream of guests and dignitaries and staff to feed and to entertain. Nehemiah says, never once did I insist that the people of God pay for this. He foot the bill out of his own pocket, and here is lesson four. Renewed righteousness is reinforced by the impact of personal example. Renewed righteousness is reinforced by the impact of personal example. Now, I look around and I see some of the men who lead here, and I hope that many more of you aspire to that. But I think particularly of David, and Al, and Don, and Michael, and Bob, I want to tell you brother something tonight. Our leadership expresses itself in two ways, the teaching of truth and the modeling of truth, and my dear brothers, here is a fact of the matter that we have to understand. When how we live is different from what we teach, more often than not, people will follow how we live.
Pay attention to yourself and your doctrine, and in so doing, you will ensure the salvation of those who hear you. Nehemiah understood. And so he commends himself to God, verse 19, this is his only perk. Remember me with favor, oh my God, for all I have done for these people. Now my friends, let me ask you one final question. What motivated Nehemiah to live with such personal sacrifices when life could have been so much more pleasurable to him? Yes, it's a difficult time for the people. And yes, the majority of the people are having to live with the consequences of this famine. But after all, he's the top guy there. Life could have been so much more pleasurable for him. What motivated him to live with such sacrifice? Two things he says, verse 15, but the early governors, those preceding me placed a heavy burden on the people and took 40 shackles of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistance also lorded it over the people but out of reverence for God. I did not act like that. For Nehemiah, the approval of heaven was far more important than living high on the hog. And second, why such sacrifice? Verse 18, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor because the demands were heavy on these people.
The glory of God and the good of His people. He did not come to be served, but to serve. And such you see is the case with the one Nehemiah or shadows. What drove Jesus Christ to such sacrifice? Why would he readily turn his back on the benefits that were rightly his, his divine allotment as the governor of heaven to take upon himself the very nature of a servant, making himself nothing, humbling himself, dying the death of a person under a curse, thus supplying his people with a bounty of righteousness purchased out of his own pocket? Why such sacrifice for the glory of God and for your good,
he did not come to be served, but to serve. He did not consider equality with God something to be held to but made himself nothing. And beloved when he was all through with his work like Nehemiah, all he could do was commend himself to God. It is finished. Into your hands I commit my spirit. Remember me with favor, oh my God, for all I have done for these people.
God remembered Nehemiah and God remembered his son, didn't he? By raising him from the dead, let's pray together shall we. Father in heaven, how we love the fellowship here,
but it is so easy for every one of us and me at the very head of the line to become intolerant and cranky and selfish and moody, while we can't just pick up and go somewhere else.
We have to learn to live with one another and we must learn most of all in the midst of all of our differences, differences of opinions, perspectives, convictions, that we must never allow sin to divide us.
Help us to courageously confront that when such a thing threatens the unity of our assembly. I am thankful for the mutual love of the saints that is present here. Help us to be a body of believers that really does look out for one another and loves one another and sacrifices for one another and Father help us as leaders to remember that we in many ways set the tone. Help us to remember that we have to be driven by the glory of God and the good of our people.
We thank you that our ultimate model is not Nehemiah or Moses or Paul. Our model is the Lord Jesus.
The salvation we've experienced illustrates everything we've talked about. May we live in light of that I pray in this fellowship, in Christ's name I pray. Amen.