I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 6. Nehemiah chapter 6. We're in Nehemiah chapter 6 and we are dealing with a very
critical point in the ministry of Nehemiah. The title of our
message today, Nehemiah, the question is, should such
a man as I flee? Let me ask you a question. You
can follow me in your outline. We'll do it like this. Follow
me in your outline. There's an outline in your pastor's
commentary. Was Nehemiah a father? Was he a father? What is a father? If one really wants to be interrogative,
what is a father? is a father one who merely genders
biological children and that's it. Well, in the first and technical
sense, yes. Don't say no. In the first and
technical sense, yes. Every human being that comes
into the world was fathered into the world. Don't ever understand
that. So let's talk about this a little
bit now. Every human being that comes into this world was fathered
into the world because God in the design of creation saw to
it that there be a combined work between the man and the woman
by which human beings are procreated in this world. That means if
all we have done was to take the male sperm and attached it
to the female ovum, we are still engendering children through
the father. So in that sense, yes, every
one of us are the products of our father. Isn't that right?
This is why we saying to him, this is our father's world. Cause he started it all. He started
it all. And so the question that I'm
about to raise that'll get us into our message for today is,
was Nehemiah a father? I don't necessarily think you
will find conclusive evidence, but I don't necessarily know
if you can go either way with Nehemiah being actual biological
father. I think the evidence is against
him. When you become the king's cupbearer, and particularly the
royal cupbearer of the Persian and the Babylonian kings, in
all likelihood you are a eunuch. In all likelihood, but not absolutely. But in all likelihood you are
a eunuch. But does that mean that the eunuch does not have
a father or a mother capacity in the kingdom of God? Absolutely
not. So understand just for the sake of today being Father's
Day. And by the way, happy Father's
Day to all my father brethren out there. God bless you and
God keep you. Nehemiah was indeed a father.
His wife was Jerusalem. and his children were the 50
plus thousand men and women who came back to Jerusalem out of
Babylon. See, because when you are really
a father, according to the biblical model, to be a father is not
only to be a begetter, a begetter, that's the term we have in our
King James Bible, and Adam begot da da da, and da da da begot
such and such. You'll notice that it never says
the female begot. It's always the male begot because
it starts with the male sperm. Now, there will be times in what
we call the passive verb form, and he was of his mother Mary. When the father's not being noted,
which means that women are not being neglected. Don't fall for
that trap. Women are not being neglected. But the way God set
this thing up in those of us who are Christians, who believe
the biblical model, recognize that God started with the man
and worked through the woman by which the world is procreated. And so the beginning process
takes place with the father. And so a father is one who is
a beginner in conjunction with his spouse, his wife, by which
children are brought into this world. His role is to begin,
that is to engender, but his role is also to provide. A father is a provider. A father
not only begins, because you know, we can do a lot of beginning,
but we don't necessarily do any providing. I mean, now this is
Father's Day, so I have to make some application along the line.
Is that okay? The father's job is to provide. Provide. The word is providence in our
old Saxon language. That means to bring every necessary
resource into the household by which everyone in the home can
be taken care of. You know, it used to be the number
one job on the father's part to take care of the house. Isn't
that right? He was proud. He worked hard. He sweated. We got a lot of battles going
on in terms of defining terms and redefining roles today. I
know that we are struggling with that, but we meet, we must understand
that what God has called the man to do is to reflect his own
role in creation. That's why he was called a husband
man. The word husband means to till
and to keep the ground and to nurture that ground and to produce
fruit. And that's what man was called
to do. Man and woman were called to subdue the earth, to have
dominion over it, to replenish it, to multiply, have absolute
control over the earth. That's what God wanted because
that reflects and glorifies God, who is a God of abundance. And so man's role is not only
to engender, that is to produce seed by the cooperative work
of his spouse, but to provide for that seed, but not only provide
for it, now listen to me now, nurture it. See, when you're
working the ground, you nurture the ground. That means he's not
just peeling off some dollars, giving it to the teenagers and
going on about his business. He has to be in relationship
with his children. Is that okay? Okay, so he genders,
he brings them forth, he provides for the household, and then he
walks in relationship with his children. That's what God calls
it to. Now, I'm going somewhere right now. Not only is he walking
in relationship with them in terms of being a father, in terms
of being a provider, in terms of being a nurturer, he's called
to be a protector. He's called to protect his family. Now, if what I'm saying is true,
then if a person is a beginner, if he is a person who nurtures,
if he is a person who provides, if he is a person who protects,
that family is secure, isn't it? The job then of the father
is to secure the household so that the house lives in a comfort
state. Comfortable, comfortable. That's the role of the comforter. That's the role of the Spirit
of God. That's why Nehemiah is a great
type of the comforter. Now I was thinking about that
term as we were dealing with our Roman study, and I'm trying to
gradually unpack and unfold the significance and the objective
and purposes of the gifts that we are given as the Church of
Christ. And I was thinking upon the Spirit of God. And again,
the Bible says in Romans 8, 26, and the Spirit is there to help
us. The comforter is there to give
us help. Isn't that what the text says?
Now the Greek verb there is a very profound verb. It is the Greek
verb, sun anti labanathai. It's a long word, but it constitutes
two propositions and one verb. Sun is a verb that means whip. It corresponds to our word con,
C-O-N. You know how when you're in the
bathroom in high school, you see Sally con Joseph, Sally whip, Joseph. The word con or soon means to
be with whenever you read the proposition soon in the Greek
language It has to do with like Christ with us the Spirit of
God with us God with us It means to be right next side up right
alongside of you guys got that that's the proposition and what
the text is teaching is the Spirit of God has been given to the
church to come alongside of right next up against the believer
to help him in his calling Now that's help, isn't it? When you
have the third person on your right side helping you get the
job done. Now the preposition anti is the
opposite. The word anti means to be over
against, over against, over against. And so the spirit of God, while
on the one hand, he's with you, on the other hand, he's over
against, not you, but your burden. So now watch this, because I
want you to see the parallels between the Spirit of God and
Nehemiah. On the one hand, the Holy Ghost
is with us. I'm here with you. I've been
sent. I'm Christ's apostle. I'm here to get you to glory.
So I'm on your side. I'm with you. You got it? But
I'm over on the other side of your burden to help you lift
it. Got it? because every man must
bear his own burden. See, we all got burdens to bear.
Don't we have burdens to bear? I know some of you thought coming
to Christ meant you got to just drop all your burdens and life
was happy. When you're saved, God calls
you to a burden. The burden is the burden of God's
glorious. The burden of the cross is the
burden of the Christian life. But the thing is, which is so
wonderful, you don't bear that burden alone. On your side, you
have to lift the burden. On the other side of the burden,
omnipotence says, come on, we can get the job done. And he
helps lift the burden. That's why it's not so heavy
to crush you. That burden is there to change
your life, to conform you to Christ, to break you down, to
build you up. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now that also, ladies and gentlemen, is the job of the father. The job of the father is to teach
his children how to bear burden. It's wrong when you give your
children everything in the world and don't prepare them for how
to handle this life. It's wrong when you just spoon-feed
them their willy-nilly desires. That's not fathering, that's
not mothering, that's not nurturing, that's not preparing them for
the real world. You want to prepare your children for the real world?
Then, as it were, mimic or represent that ministry of the Spirit of
God, where you come alongside of your children, on the other
side of their burden, and tell them, now, you got to bear this,
because this is going to build character in you. It's going
to show you your weaknesses. It's going to help you to learn
how to depend upon God. But I'm there just to lift up
that burden just enough so you can grow and become strong and
bear that burden yourself. That's the goal of the Father. Am I making some sense so far?
And that's what Nehemiah has been doing ever since he's been
in Jerusalem. Has he not? Imagine now, here
this remarkable, gifted, talented, skillful man comes into Jerusalem,
and it's nothing but a mess. And in less than two and a half
months, Jerusalem is in the process of restoration, recovery, and
now operating according to that witness to which God has called
it, all because of one man. He's a father to them, isn't
he? Okay, but now let me talk a little bit more about the father
thing. Some fathers, and I think I fall in that category, I got
a gift today, which called me the greatest father in the world.
Now I know somebody else got the same gift too. I understand
that. But for a moment, I'm the greatest
father in the world. And that's why I had us to sing
that last song. This is my father's world. So
I know my children were saying, this is my father's world. He
runs this world for a moment, and that should be true in the
heart of every child towards their dad. Whether we want to
admit it or not, fathers play a major role in shaping the perspective
of their children, whether present or absent, one way or the other.
Our children will be more confident to tackle the world's issues
when they have that silhouette, that person there who has stood
as a mentor and an image and said it can be done. I'm talking
male or female now. Both our males and our females
need our fathers. Am I telling the truth? Am I
telling the truth? Am I telling the truth? I have to work Father's Day because
we only get it one time a year. But there are times when the
father, as impeccable as he may seem to be, you laughing? As impeccable as he may seem
to be, there are times when as he seeks to bear the burdens
of the household, He is in a position where the load is really heavy
on him. Now, because he's learned to
be a leader, there are things good fathers never complain to
their wife nor their children about. They just don't do it. Now we talk with our wife, we
communicate with our wife, but our wives are not psychologists.
And so our job is not to pour everything that's going on in
our heart to our wives. That's not even biblical. That's
not even biblical because the father should know. Hear me now. The father should know what and
what the family can bear and not bear. If I'm telling the
truth, then we can see this in scripture. When Jesus walked
with his 12 disciples, he only shared with them so much as they
could bear. He said, you know, there's a
lot that I have to say to you, but I'm not saying it to you
now because you don't have the constitution to bear it. See,
this would be giving serpents instead of fish and stones instead
of bread. Now, sometimes we have parents
who haven't grown up yet and they're still children. I know
I'm doing a little psychologizing now. And what we do is we start
pouring all of our burdens on our children. Now we've turned
that thing all upside down, haven't we? A wise father bears those
heavy, heavy, heavy burdens and he joyfully does it so that the
family can be oblivious to those things. Isn't that true, dad? You carry certain burdens so
that the kids can be free to go to school, free to do their
thing. Even mom, you don't even wanna, cause you know, sometimes
what you don't know won't hurt you. Particularly if dad is confident
that he's gonna fix it before anybody finds out. Cause that's
generally how I do it. Especially if I tear it up. I'll
try to fix it before my wife finds out and keep moving. But here's something that's going
on in our text. Nehemiah has gotten to a place
where the burden has gotten very heavy on him because he now has
been for a while the ground zero target of the opposition of the
enemy. Now dads, some of you know what
I'm talking about. You know that you have become
the brunt of the opposition. There are times in the family
when you find yourself being the reason for the problem and
you are the one responsible for the problem. That's a difficult
place to be. If it works out all right, you
get the glory. If it don't, you get all the
infamy. That's a huge burden. And sometimes what happens, please
listen to me, I know the men will hear me. Sometimes in our
attempt to bear that burden, we will find ourselves tested
with a trial of not doing the right thing under pressure. We'll
be tested with the trial of leaning to our own understanding, trying
to work this issue out in the flesh, being inclined to listen
to ungodly counsel just because we actually need some relief
from this pressure that's bowing us down. But we're not going
to take it to our family. This is what's going on with
Nehemiah right here. Why do I say that? Because for the first time
in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah is as it were coming down off
the wall. Nehemiah is leaving the job site
and Nehemiah now under some provocation has gone to this man's house. See, this has never happened
before. This has never happened before. So Nehemiah has been
put into what I want us to see in our outline is called a vulnerable
situation. Point number one, vulnerable.
I'll talk about the last half in a moment. Vulnerable. The
way our text opens up, it says, and afterwards, you guys remember
what went on before this? He was battling with emails over
against Sam Ballot and Gesham as to false accusations about
the reason and the purpose for which he was building the wall.
Remember that? After that major battle, he finds himself inclined
to go to some man's house whose name is Shemaiah. So all of the
seasoned theologians and commentators said this is a remarkable thing
because it's out of character with Nehemiah because Nehemiah
was supposed to stay on the wall until the wall is done. So sometimes
when you see the male or the father move in a direction that's
out of pattern, out of sync, See, Christians are supposed
to be consistent. Haven't I talked to us about that before? Even
Judas Iscariot knew where to find Jesus when it was time to
betray him because he was consistent. He operated in pattern. So must
believers. But when you see your spouse
moving outside of pattern, you can know something's wrong. Nehemiah's
operating outside of pattern. He's responding now to a need
that he has going on within himself. I'm extrapolating, but I'm extrapolating
with a bit of wisdom, okay? He's pressured by the accusations. He's concerned about the weakness
and fears of his brothers on the inside. The last verse of
the previous portion of the scripture says, they tried to put us all
in fear. They tried to put us all in fear.
Well, if Nehemiah was concerned about fear, you know fear was
gripping the rest of the people. So what is Nehemiah to do? He's
vulnerable now. And do you know when you're vulnerable,
You might listen to anybody. You might listen to anybody. And this is where Nehemiah is.
Some of you have done it. I've done it. I've been inclined
out of a need to want to get some type of insight, some type
of revelation, some type of illumination, some type of answer from God
as to how to solve this problem. My ears are wide open. Now, there
is a sense of virtue there. I want to make sure we get this.
We are a fool if we trust in our own heart. We are a fool
if we shut our ears to wisdom. We are a fool if we don't learn
how to be sensitive to and interpret providence, because that's how
God speaks to us as his people. Isn't that right? And we are
a fool when we don't listen to sound counsel. So if I'm in the
midst of trouble, and in the midst of that trouble, I get
so narrow-minded, I get the blinders on, my periphery is very narrow,
I'm not able to hear, I'm more susceptible to sin. A wise man
learns how to actually perk up and listen. just in case God
speaking to him from a place that is not the normal place
from which he is to hear from God. He's not hearing, Nehemiah's
not hearing from the folks on the wall, or if he was, I'm making
some application here, if he was hearing from some folks on
the wall, his fears and his anxieties drowned out the sound wisdom
from his good brethren who would have had his best interest in
view. so that even though they were encouraging him and urging
him to press forward, he really couldn't hear it. Have you ever
been there? Where good counsel came, but
you were so overwhelmed by anxiety and stresses, you couldn't hear
the good counsel. This is exactly where the enemy
comes in at. Because you see, wise counsel
doesn't scream. Wise counsel whispers, but the
enemy screams. somehow this man Shemaiah said,
Nehemiah, I got a word from the Lord for you. Have you been there? You know how people always have
a word from the Lord for you. Okay, on this day, on this day,
Nehemiah goes to find out, let's see if this is the word from
the Lord. Now what the proverb says is this, rebuke a wise man
and he will love you. Instruct a prudent or wise man
and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding. All wise
men and women listen for the voice of God. They always want
to know God's word. They specifically want to know
what God is saying to them, particularly where they are because they always
want to be in the will of God. Because you know when we get
into trouble, isn't the question, am I in the will of God or am
I not in the will of God? Is God favoring me now or is
God's chastisement on me? I want to know so I can do the
appropriate thing. If I'm out of the way, I want to repent,
get back in the way. If I'm in the way, I need some
affirmation that I'm in the way and then some strength to simply
endure till I come out on the other side, because this is a
test. Got it? This is a test. Trials
like that aren't always because you've sinned. Trials like that
are sometime because God wants to get glory out of you persevering
and trusting God. So Nehemiah decides to go down
to Shemaiah's house, and he was vulnerable. You and I have been
vulnerable like that. We've gone to places, we've listened
to individuals, and when we got there, we found out, man, I never
should have went in the first place. This cat don't know God
from the man on the moon. And he trying to tell me the
Lord got a word for him for me. And you realize that you were
susceptible. But I want to share something
with you. If you were able to surmise that this individual
didn't have your best interest in view and that he was a charlatan
and a scam, God, by his mercy, was allowing discernment to operate. See, that's why our outline said
vulnerable but discerning. Got it? vulnerable but discerning. Job put it like this, doth not
the ear try words like the mouth tasted meats? He said it in another
place, can not my taste discern perverse things? He was using
the metaphor of hearing words. Hearing words is like eating
food. When Jesus says, I am the bread of life, he that eateth
me shall never hunger. He meant hear what he says and
believe it. So believers who feed on Christ,
they take his word seriously and imbibe it. But now when we
hear things that are wrong or contrary to God, if we've been
given the gift of discernment, we know that thing don't taste
right. Ladies and gentlemen, remember 2 Kings chapter four,
where Elisha, was sitting before the sons of the prophet, and
one of his servants went out and got a lap full of gourds
from the field. Now the field was a famine field,
so he should have known that all those gourds were gonna be
wild gourds, poison gourds, but he took it and he poured it in
the gumbo, remember that? To feed those hundred brothers.
And as those hundred sons of the prophets, these are budding
preachers. These are men who were sitting
under the preacher to learn the gospel. As they began to eat,
they said, Oh, man of God, there's what death in the pot. That's
called discernment. Only sheep have that kind of
discernment. Dogs don't have that discernment. Dogs eat anything.
But sheep know when they are tasting something that's contrary
to God. Are you hearing me? So sometimes
we're vulnerable, but God keeps us through discernment, isn't
it? That gift of discernment didn't have its origin in you.
It has its origins in God. And what it's designed to do
is to help you overcome a potential catastrophe from a wrong decision
that you were about to make. You got it. They shall take up
serpents. and they shall not be harmed.
If they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them." Isn't
that what Jesus said? And he's speaking metaphorically concerning
false doctrine and false teaching that comes into the church or
comes into your life when somebody says to you, thus saith the Lord,
and the Lord hath not said thus. And so Nehemiah's in a vulnerable
state, but he was God's servant and God kept him. He's vulnerable,
but he's discerning. He's vulnerable, but he's discerning.
He had the integrity of being willing to hear from God. Isn't
that what our next point says? He was willing to hear from God.
Now quite interesting, I'm going to tap on this and fill it up
a little bit more. The man Shemaiah, his name in
the Hebrew is the Lord hears. In what we call the Shema, hear
O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord. Him only shall you
worship in the book of Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. Shema
is the Hebrew word for hearing. Shemaya is the Lord hears. So the name sold Nehemiah on
this individual because he said, hey, if the Lord hears, then
maybe the Lord is hearing my burden and maybe I need to talk
to him to see what the Lord has said concerning my burden. Am
I making a little sense? But like my sister said in the
women's meeting on Thursday about the names and titles of God,
she said, be careful about titles, titles deceived. In other words,
just because a man has a name that purports that which is attributive
to God in one of his virtuous attributes doesn't make that
individual himself godly. Your name can be Jesus and you
can still be the devil's highest harling. Got it? But he decided to listen to Shemiah
because he thought, well, maybe Shemiah had a word from the Lord
for him. Look with me over at verse 11
and 12. I want to, verse 10, I'm sorry,
verse 10, and then verse 11, I'm gonna back up and develop
some things here. Now, afterwards, I came unto
the house of Shemiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Mehetabil,
who was shut up. And he said, let us meet together
in the house of God within the temple, and let us shut the doors
of the temple, for they will come to slay you, yea. in the
night and in the Hebrew it's in this night will they come
to slay you. So this prophet so-called had
an urgent word for Nehemiah. He had an urgent word for Nehemiah. Now I want to share with you
some marks of a false prophet. Some marks, not all the marks
are here, but some of them are here and they're worthy of your
note because whether or not you know it in the context of this
particular chapter, there is a fierce and a raging final attempt
to destroy Nehemiah's agenda. There is a fierce and raging
final attempt to destroy Nehemiah's agenda. The demons are extremely
active. They are working in both the
spheres of politics and religion. There were public and private
councils held by the secular rulers, the governors of Ammon
and Samaria and Arabia, and even among the Judaists. They were
gathering together constantly, and the issue was what Nehemiah
was doing. What Nehemiah was doing, what
can we do to stop this? And if you know anything about
what are the implications of doing the will of God, you must
know that whenever we are called upon and actually are executing
doing the will of God, we are in the midst of a spiritual battle. So often throughout church history,
the church has been challenged by those political powers governed
by the antichrist system seeking to stop the church from doing
what it was doing. This is the vision we have in
the book of Revelation. This is the battle that our Savior
went through. This is the battle that goes on in the book of Acts.
Political and religious entities are trying to stop the work of
God. Isn't that the pattern? And so what's going on with our
brother Nehemiah is he has the hordes of hell nipping at him. And he simply wants to find out
does God have a specific insight for him to follow. And so he
goes to this man Shemaiah's house. Now Shemaiah is shut in. The text said he was shut in.
He was hiding. Now we don't know whether or
not he was hiding in the temple court or whether he was hiding
in his own house. The text doesn't tell us. When
we do what we call a thorough exegesis or hermeneutical search
of the scriptures, we learn some things about Shemiah and his
family. And I'll talk a little bit more
of that as I unfold it. But what we have right here,
which is quite interesting, is that Shemiah was shut up. Now
the term shut up in the scriptures has a broad range of applications.
To be shut up in the scriptures is sometimes to simply be accosted
and brought into captivity by political rulers and put in prison.
John the Baptist was shut up. Jeremiah experienced being shut
up a lot. That brother knew what it meant
to be imprisoned in wells, in dry wells, constantly. When you
look the term shut up in the Hebrew, and Jeremiah owned that
word, he was constantly being shut up. The prophets are bound,
but the word of God is not bound. And so here this prophet is in
a shut up place, some private place. Now sometimes the term
shut up is used in the ceremonial sense. For instance, in the Old
Testament when the priest looked out upon the citizens and saw
a particular disease which had the potential to contaminate
the whole community, he would shut that diseased person up,
such as in Leviticus 13 and 14, with leprosy. The lepers had
their own colonies because they were shut up. They were set apart
so that the people wouldn't be contaminated. Other times, shut
up meant that the prophets themselves were in hiding because it was
a time of persecution. Remember when Jezebel was persecuting
the prophets of God in the days of Elijah and Obadiah hid a hundred
of the sons of the prophets in caves, they were shut up. Then
Jesus said in the gospel of Matthews, when you pray, don't pray to
be heard by men, go into your what? Closet. That's a personal
voluntary shutting away of yourself from the world so as to be dealing
with your father alone. Is that okay? And often this
is what the prophets did in order to get with God, be with God,
and hear from God. So now note, this is interesting.
Your cell phone going out, just cut it off. Whoever it is, take
care of it now. What Nehemiah is impressed by is a man who
is shut up, who has a word for him that says, you need to be
shut up too. Isn't that what the text say?
He shut up and he said, Nehemiah, let's go into the temple, into
the inner sanctum of the temple and shut you up because they're
coming after you. Now folks, this is a scam. What's happening? The false prophet
here is playing an outward, external game of manipulation. He's playing
on the fears of Nehemiah and the people. And so he hides himself
in a quiet place and he sins for Nehemiah, which means there
may have been some type of relationship between Nehemiah and this man
for Nehemiah to go to him, right? And when he finds Nehemiah, he's,
come on, come on, Nehemiah, come on, come on. Come on, we got to hide,
man, because you're in trouble. False prophets will do anything
to play on your fears. Are you hearing me? To manipulate
you. All through the Old Testament,
they were known for signs and wonders. They were known for
metaphors. They were known for analogies.
They were known for building props. You see this among false
religion today massively. They walk around with props influencing
you. Can I share something with you?
The more people use props as a means of influencing you, the
more you can know they don't know God. Because God's servants
don't need props to tell you what God has to say to you. All
they need to do is tell you. Am I making some sense? We don't
need big old dramatic stages and drama plays to get across
a point. Faith comes by what? And hearing
by what? And that's it. And that's it. So here they are in this house,
and Nehemiah is trembling, and Shemaiah says, we better shut
you up. We better hide you, because they're
coming for you tonight. They're coming for you tonight. There's some things I want you
to see, some marks of a false prophet. Point number three in
your outline, some marks of a false prophet. I'm going to enumerate
these quickly. And in the future, when I'm dealing with some topical
issues that I plan on dealing with, I'll expand more fully
on this. False prophets always always
manifest these derogatory attributes. They are immoral. False prophets
are always immoral. Immoral means that they do not
believe in the biblical standards of God when it constitutes right
and wrong, particularly in areas of finances or relationships. See, because they're operating
out of a spirit of error. You find false prophets always
guilty of fornication and adultery and homosexuality and lesbian
inordinate affairs. This is common among false prophets
because they don't have the spirit of God. They don't have the spirit
of God. Ye who bear the vessels of the
Lord, be ye clean, the scripture says. And as we've said before,
how can an unclean thing produce a clean thing? How can a bad
tree produce good fruit? See it? And so they always are
immoral, but more than that, they're ungodly. They're ungodly. In other words, they don't carry
or possess those attributes that are indicative of men and women
who are born of God, who possess the Spirit of God, and therefore
the fruit of the Spirit. They are worldly men and women.
This here's the oxymoronic nature about false prophets. If you
get a chance to get up close to them, you find out they are
just as carnal as the next secular human beings. So they're immoral,
they're ungodly. You know what else they are?
Irreverent. Irreverent. The false prophet
does not fear God. This is what Peter said in 2
Peter chapter 2. I've shared this with us on Friday.
They feast with you without fear. They have no problem manipulating
you and ripping you off Bringing you into bondage and benefiting
from it making merchandise out of you. They don't fear God.
There's no fear of God in their eyes Now a lot of times you guys
ask me what pastor do these preachers know what they're doing? Yes,
they know what they're doing They don't fear God Are you hearing
me? I'll show you how this works
right here as Nehemiah was listening to Shemaiah and He began to take
seriously what Shemaiah's proposition entailed. Shemaiah is telling
me to run. That agrees with my emotions. It agrees with my psychology. It agrees with my present distress. That makes sense to me. But the problem is where he's
telling me to run to. Got it? He's telling me to run
into the temple then to go into the holy place. Now Shemaiah,
if he is a prophet of God and if he is a priest because he
was alleging to be one of the priests, should have known that
the only people that can go into the holy place were the Levites
and the sons of Aaron. that long ago before Israel got
into the land, God said, listen, no stranger of Israel shall draw
nigh unto me. There must be a mediatorial priesthood
between the common people and the true and the living God.
That mediatorial priesthood were the Levites and the sons of Aaron.
In other words, the common people brought their sacrifice to the
Levites and the Levites and the sons of Aaron took it to God.
They are the only ones that have right into the temple. Am I making
some sense? It was for this reason that God destroyed in number
16, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and all their family. When they
said to Moses and Aaron, you take too much on yourself. We'd
be the people of God too. We can come into God's presence.
And Moses fell on his face because he realized that they didn't
fear God. Moses fell on his face because he knew God was about
to do something. God said, get on up boy. This one's on me. And then he told them, he told
them all, like watch this. He said, I want those that fear
me to get on this side. And I want Cora, Dathan, and
Abiram and all of his family, including his children to get
on that side. And if I am not God, You will
see them die the common death of every man But if I be God
you're gonna see me do something that only God can do Now y'all
get a good night's sleep Because first thing in the morning, we're
gonna find out whether or not I chose Moses and chose Aaron
to be my representative And the next morning they met on the
cliff and the ground opened up and swallowed all of their family
members up alive. And you know how God ended that
whole scenario and drama? He reminded Moses and Aaron,
now I want you to tell the children of Israel, can't no one come
to me on their own as if somehow they have a right to the throne
without a mediator. Now, This was after God had killed
Aaron's two boys in the first worship service in the wilderness
when the temple, the tabernacle was built. Aaron's two boys saw
how glorious the worship was and how the Spirit of God had
descended on the whole of the tabernacle and blessed Aaron,
the high priest's worship and approach to God. And when Aaron
came out and blessed the people of God, they were just utterly
amazed at the presence and approval and blessing of God. You know
what Aaron's two boys thought they'd do? They thought next
day they'd go on in the temple and do the same thing. Well,
when they went into the temple, rather than the cloud of the
Shekinah glory coming down, fire came down. and burned them up
in their garments. And Aaron, the father had to
take the garments of their boys and brought it out and buried
in a place. And God says, I'm sanctified
in these boys. Aaron learned that day that God
doesn't necessarily believe in nepotism. Got it? Nehemiah is the Tershithah. He's the governor and Nehemiah
is a theologian. We've already seen that in chapter
8. He helped expound the law. He helped interpret the law.
He knew the law of God. All God-fearing men know the
truth. All God-fearing men know the truth. And he knew right
there that this man was a false prophet. How do you know false
prophets? Because they don't tell the truth
as it is in Christ. They don't preach God's word.
They don't lay it down like God lays it down. To the law and
to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it's
because there's no light in them. Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20. And
the law said, when a prophet comes and says, thus saith the
Lord, test him, try him. And even if the thing comes to
pass, If it's designed to lead you away from me, understand
that I'm trying you. That's Deuteronomy 13. So signs
and wonders are not an end in itself. In fact, in these days,
it's designed to deceive most of the masses of Christianity.
Are you guys hearing me? It's designed to deceive most
of the masses of Christianity because men and women are not
interested in getting grounded and rooted in the word of God.
You can't discern anyone without knowing the truth of scripture.
The Bible says in Psalm 119, it's around verse 130 or so. Through your precepts do I get
understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Are you hearing
me? The way I know error is because
God's word teaches me error. The way I know that you're off
course is because God's word drops the plumb line and shows
me that you're off course. Otherwise, I have no discerning
capacity. Neither do you. Am I telling
the truth? The law is a light, and the commandment is a lamp,
and reproof of instructions are the way of life. This word is
what helps us discern false teaching from true teaching. That's the
only way you're gonna know. And Nehemiah knew that. Nehemiah
knew this fella. Now listen to the way he said
it. I like this. I'm gonna give you a few more marks before we
wrap this up. Our text tells us in verse 11, these words,
after that, The Shemaiah had plainly said, you need to run
for your life because they're going to kill you this night.
Here's what Nehemiah said over in verse 11. And I said, should
such a man as I flee, even if I didn't go to the temple,
should I flee? I'll develop that here in a moment.
Who is there, excuse me, who is there being as I am would
go into the temple to save his life. Got it? I'll talk about this in the end.
What Nehemiah was doing was reconstituting himself. He was gathering himself. And God did that. I want you
to know that. You know how when you get discombobulated and you
kind of get off center, and you are vulnerable to hear things
that are contrary to God's Word, and then God starts to bring
back the reality of things? That's not you. That's the Spirit
of God. The proverb calls it the integrity of the upright.
The integrity of the upright shall keep them. That's Proverbs
11. Now the integrity of the upright is not your wise, knowledgeable
intuition. It's the Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God is our integrity. He's the means by which you and
I, when we are falling into error, He stops us, He checks us, He
corrects us, and then He gets us back on the right path. Am
I making some sense? So you give God the glory for
discernment. Cause you know, there are times
when God shows us that you don't have natural innate discernment.
So he backs up a little bit and let you fall, doesn't he? Then
you realize you need God every hour of your life. Every hour
of your life. So here's what's going on with
Nehemiah. Nehemiah has just regathered
himself and said, man, what am I doing? And here's the conclusion.
Verse 12. And lo, I perceived that God
had not sent him. So what you do when you sit there
in that worship service and you realize you're listening to a
false prophet? What do you do? Get up and walk
out. If God shows you, if God shows
you, you have no business breathing the same air with that criminal
once you find out that he's lying to you. Know this hurts. It's
just a true It's just a true see either you love the truth
or you don't and it's not about liking the truth And it's not
about knowing the truth. It's about loving the truth Only
a love of the truth will deliver you from false doctrine and false
teaching Otherwise, we'll sit there and imbibe it And it will
destroy our capacity to discern. And we must question whether
or not we are one of God's elect. Because one of the evidences
that you are elect of God is you hear God's voice. You know
his voice and you will not follow another. A stranger, brother
George, they will not follow. They won't follow him. They won't
follow him. So if you can sit there and imbibe
that stuff, you got a problem. Nehemiah said, this man is not
sent of God. And I perceived that this prophecy was against
me because Tobiah and Samballot had hired him. I like this. You know what happened? In the
midst of his vulnerability and in the midst of his temptation,
not only was his constitution regathered so that he was reminded
of what the word of the Lord taught concerning the temple,
The Spirit of God gave him a word of understanding concerning who
this man was that was speaking to him. And he gathered that
this man was a hireling. Now that's the prominent and
major evidence of a false prophet. He or she is in it for fame,
prominence, or wealth. Got it? Got it? Particularly
here in America. Because in America, you know,
preaching make you a lot of money. It don't always work around the
world, but they're trying for it. This is your prosperity preaching
that goes on everywhere in the name of Jesus. Nehemiah said this man was hired,
hired. God's servants are not hirelings. I'll just say it one more time.
You can't pay God's servants to tell you the truth. you can't
pay them. Now this, the servants of God
are to be taken care of. That's, that's a whole nother
category of thought and consideration, but they don't live for money.
Do you hear me? If this church emptied out right
now, because I've told you that God rules and God's sovereign
and God saves and God keeps and you had nothing to do with it.
Yeah, I'm through with pastor Jesse. See you got it. See you. See, there's a radical difference
between true service of God and the principles by which they
operate and the hireling. God said all the way through
the book, those who speak for me must be men who love truth
and hate, not even tolerate covetousness, hate it, hate it. because covetousness will cause
you to corrupt the truth like this man Shemiah. We know God
hears don't we? But Shemiah obviously wasn't
hearing. Nehemiah heard. But Nehemiah knew something else.
Here's another mark. This man evidenced that he wasn't of God
because when Nehemiah went through the registry he found out that
Shemiah and his daddy Deliah they were crooks trying to get
into the priesthood and didn't even have a registry. I'll talk
about this a little later, but go with me to chapter seven.
I'll show you what I'm talking about. But before we wrap this up, we're
in chapter seven. And in chapter 7, I'm going to
preach out of this next week a little bit. In chapter 7, Nehemiah
has just finished the walls and is finishing the wall. What he's
going to do now before they celebrate in chapter 8, that wonderful
worship service that we dealt with, he's got to go back through
and he's got to make sure that everyone who has been part of
the process of the building of the walls had an authentic purpose
for being in Israel. This is what we call the genealogical
line. If you couldn't find your father's
name in the genealogical line, you want to be part of the inheritance
of Israel. You guys got that? So now watch
this. Over in chapter 7 verse 61 it
says, And these were they which went up also from Telmila, Telmiarisha,
Cherub, and Adon, and Emar. Watch this. But they could not
show their father's house. nor their seed, whether they
were of Israel. Who were they? Verse 62. The
children of Deliah. Deliah is the father of Shemiah. Now watch this. The children
of Tobiah. Tobiah is the crook that hired
Shemiah, whose daddy was Deliah. Do you see all these folks in
cahoots together? Watch it now. They are all in
the church. They are all operating at very
high levels in the church because Sam Ballard and Tobiah are up
in the upper echelon of the Levitical priesthood. We'll see this when
we get to chapter 13. And Shemaiah obviously is a pseudo
priest operating under the name of the priesthood, but he hasn't
been able to confirm his registry. And so long as Nehemiah hadn't
shown up yet, he was able to operate in the midst of the church
as if he was an Israelite. But in fact of matter, he had
nor lot nor portion with those who were truly Israelites. Now
the registry in the Old Testament corresponds to the glorious doctrine
of election. the glorious doctrine of election
which carnal men despise because election teaches us that before
the world began God Almighty chose a people for himself placed
them in Christ Jesus and wrote their names in the Lamb's book
of life to secure them for glory so that when he called them by
his grace they were legitimate and authentic sons of God both
by decree and and by power of conversion. In other words, there
are two evidences that we know by which we are called God's
elect. One is we have our Father's name written in our forehead. That's Revelation chapter 14
verses 1 through 3. The 144,000 which we know to
be the fullness of the whole of the Church of God. This is
God's elect. These are they who were redeemed
from among men. These are called virgins because
they have not slept with women. These are they who are undefiled
and without guile before God. What does that mean? That means
they are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That means they have
Christ's righteousness imputed to them so that everything Christ
is, they are in him. So that when the father looks
at them, he sees Christ and he sees them as their authentic
children because they have their father's name written in their
foreheads. Can I talk about that a little
bit before I go on? To have the father's name written in your
forehead means a couple of things. First of all, it means you know
the true and the living God. Remember Jesus said in John 17
6 father. I have manifested Your name to
those whom you have given me out of the world and as a consequence
they have kept my word all of God's elect come to know the
true and the living God through Jesus Christ whom he has sent
and we know the triune God as father son and Holy Ghost Is
that true? Here's another truth. We don't
hide it See the term, the concept of the name being written on
the forehead was a slave term. Because in the book of Revelation,
we are dealing with parodies, aren't we? Remember the false
prophet, he takes those who are part of the world and writes
a number on their hands and where? On their forehead. The number
is 666. The parody for God's elect is the term, the father. You know what that means? We
publicly and plainly declare that we have been bought with
a price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and we are owned
lock, stock, and barrel by our Heavenly Father. See what I'm
getting at? Because in this world, there's
a battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of
light. And the kingdom of light walks in the light. And walking
in the light, we tell men and women who God is. And the world
knows that we are the children of the living God. We don't have
a tattoo on our hand, on our back, or on our thighs where
it's hid. People know the true and the living God has a people
who glorify Him and honor Him in this world. Am I making some
sense? Here's a second one. Here's a second evidence that
you are one of God's elect. You first, you believe the doctrine
of election. You know that it was God's electing love. You
know that you weren't saved by works of righteousness, which
you have done. You know you didn't start your salvation. You know
God wasn't hanging on the precipice of eternity, waiting for you
to make a decision. You know that. Are you hearing
me? You know that you know that in
the proper time God called you and Then he quickened you and
then he conformed you to Christ and he sealed you by his Holy
Spirit and he's leading you to glory now all Of God, we know
that don't we no argument about that. We don't even argue that
stuff around here Well, who did the same God did to save you
if you're gonna be saved God's got to save you all the way Those
are his children. But the other thing is there
are what we call works and that manifest those who are elect.
In your own time, read 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, Paul said, brethren,
knowing your election, brethren beloved, knowing your election
of God, how that by a labor of love and a working of faith and
a persevering of hope, you are serving the true and the living
God. Because when we preach the gospel to you, our gospel came
to you not in word only, but in power. It entered in It changed
your life. It calls you to be a new people
of God. And you followed after us proclaiming the gospel everywhere
and suffering for his name. These are God's elect. They know
Christ. They love Christ. They preach
Christ and they suffer for Christ. These are God's elect and they
are not ashamed of the gospel. Is that okay? God's elect are
not ashamed of the gospel. When we stand before God on the
last day, we don't have the slightest doubt that God will say, well
done, my good and faithful servant, because the work that gets done
by us gets done by grace and by the spirit of God working
in us the will and the do of his good pleasure. Am I making
some sense? And that's what's going on here. These cats weren't
elect. They didn't know God and they
were serving as imposters in the kingdom. This is 21st century
doctrine I'm teaching you right now. 21st century doctrine. I'm done right here. Here's the
last point that I want to see. Go back to our text. As Nehemiah comes to understand,
understand and discover that these men were men who were unprincipled
and simply trying to take advantage of the kingdom of God. See, they
didn't like Nehemiah showing up. They didn't like Nehemiah
showing up because you see, Nehemiah came to take care of business.
They didn't like when Jesus showed up because when he came to take
care of business, he exposed all of the shenanigans and schemes
and scams of the wicked rulers. But the text tells us that in
verse 12, when he perceived that this man was not sent by God,
he had done that under this assessment back in verse 11. And I said,
should such a man as I flee, that's my last point. Should
such a man as I, What should make the child of
God afraid of anything? What should make the children
of the living God afraid of anything? Now, we are afraid a lot, but
we have no basis for being afraid. There's nothing in the word of
God that says you have to be afraid. Now we are afraid a lot,
but we have no basis for our fears. Now we're troubled and
anxious and stressing on every hand, but when we remember who
it was that called us, like Nehemiah remember, wait a minute, I was
in Sushan the palace, enjoying life, and God called me. Then he remembered not only that
God had called him, but God had commissioned him. That means
God had resourced him and qualified him for the job that he had to
do. Then he remembered not only had God resourced him with the
credit card of the king, the army of the king, the different
skill sets to get the job done, but he realized that he was actually
getting the work done. See, what he had come to understand
was his position before the King. And when believers remember their
position in Christ, there's nothing to fear. When you remember that
in Christ you have received all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places, there's nothing to fear. When you remember that in Christ
you are the righteousness of God in Him, there's nothing to
fear. When you remember that in Christ
He in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you
are complete in him. There's nothing to fear. When
you remember that in him dwells all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. There's nothing to fear when
you remember that Christ has dispatched the Spirit of God
and the Spirit of God dwells in us as the seal seal Of God's
purchase unto the day of redemption, which means I can't spoil I can't
corrupt I can't contaminate because I'm not mine. I'm his and when
I remember that if God allows me to fail to reach glory when
Christ died for me The father chose me and the spirit came
and picked me up, fetched me from sin and put me on that course
of glory. I'm not the one that's going
to be embarrassed. God is. But when I'm reminded that God
can't change and that God can't lie and that God can't fail,
then I can kind of stand up and say, wait a minute, what do I
have to fear? See what I'm saying? Then I can
say, should such a person as I, Should I be afraid and then
run into the temple of my God and just discredit everything
that I've been doing for the last 52 days? Am I making some
sense? And listen to me, fathers, this
truth is for you too. As I close to my father, brethren,
this is, this is for you too. If you trust Christ right now,
if you're trusting him, if you've been trusting him for years,
there's nothing for you to fear. There's nothing for you to fear
in your weakness in your fears There's nothing for you to fear
in your doubts. There's nothing for you to fear in your your
inability to accomplish things All you need to do is trust your
heavenly father and continue to abide in the calling that
he's called you to Fatherhood is a critical issue at this moment
in time It is a massively critical issue. There is such a huge vacuum
in our world concerning the concept of father. This is how we know
the enemy has made some kind of headway because our fathers
are absent and our fathers are dismayed and our fathers are
in bondage. Our fathers are in trouble. But those of you who
are probably being tossed to and fro by the voices of the
enemy, just remember who you are and whose you are. and trust
Christ to get you through. Stay on the wall, raise your
children, love your sons and daughters, nurture them, strengthen
them, guide them, protect them. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And God will get the glory out of their life. Father, stay on
the wall like Nehemiah stayed on the wall. Amen.