The Threat of Consuming One Another!

Welcome

Good Morning! I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.

Why did you choose to gather today? We believe we are a called people! Called to worship and exalt our God among the nations in order that His glory may be spread over all the earth!

If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to know that ...

We are all one family of faith: “giving our all to love God, love people, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.”

We have a connect card in the pew in front of you. I invite you to take one and fill it out! If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.

I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon. You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.

Who’s Your One?

Scripture Memory

Romans 8:33 ESV

33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Opening Scripture Memory

Ephesians 1:1–10 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Opening Prayer

Introduction

We have been following Nehemiah’s efforts to glorify God by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem thereby allowing the Jewish people an opportunity to revitalize their city and their faith!

We are witnesses to the fact that every step of the way this man of God has faced opposition; opposition in the form of laughter, ridicule, discouragement, and even the threat of physical harm. So far, all of the opposition has come from those outside the walls of Jerusalem, but today Nehemiah again must put on the whole armor of faith as he faces opposition from within.

As we left chapter four everything seemed to be moving according to plan, but all was not as it appeared. You see, Satan has, throughout church history, worked his greatest harm from within, not without.

The Apostle Paul warned the Galatians believers against allowing Satan to work his destruction in their midst as he taught in Galatians 5:14-15

Galatians 5:14–15 ESV

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

It is really an easy strategy, Satan doesn’t even have to do anything but wait for conflict to occur among believers and then simply supply ammunition to both sides of the conflict.

Stephen Davey has said,

“The worst enemy of the Church is, sadly, the Church itself; it is the thing that often keeps the Church from moving forward.”

Today, I hope to show you from God’s Words three biblical truths that if applied have the power to resolve conflict and keep us from consuming one another as we move forward in Kingdom work together.

1st Biblical Truth is......

1. As the people of God, if we allow sin to remain among us, we risk consuming one another.

A. The Great Outcry of the People!

Human nature really doesn’t change. As you will see this morning, issues that created conflict in Nehemiah’s day are the same issues that can create conflict in our day.

Let me share with you......

Five issues that create conflict!

1. Strife and Division.

Nehemiah 5:1 ESV

1 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

According to Neh 4:22, Nehemiah had asked the workers to remain inside the walls and not return to their villages until the walls were completed. This was mainly due to the threat against them from Sanballet and his evil hoard.

Due to the strenuous demands of rebuilding the wall and defending Jerusalem coupled with the fact that Jerusalem’s commercial ties were cut off at this time. Satan had an open door to wreck havoc in the minds of the people.

Adrian Rogers was fond of saying, “The devil had rather start a church fuss any day than to sell a barrel of whiskey—just to get God’s people divided.”

Satan had already been successful in dividing the people by class and preventing them from working together before Nehemiah, so he is already had a lot to work with at this time as well.

So what Nehemiah gets is a great outcry from the people against their Jewish brothers. Internal strife and division. This had been growing for a long time, but Nehemiah is finally learning about this underlying spiritual conflict.

2. Famine and Hunger.

Nehemiah 5:2 ESV

2 For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.”

Large agrarian based families were having a hard time raising enough grain, which was their staple food. They were hungry. Grain could be bought, but at extremely high prices. These people had been working hard on the wall, but you can’t eat the wall.

Verse 3 also tells us that there was a famine in the land. So that helps us to understand the situation.

Have you ever been so hungry that your stomach felt like it was eating yourself from the inside out? They say that when you get that hungry, you can also get irritable. When you stay hungry and are having to work hard everyday, fear of starvation sets in. Conflict sets in!

3. Financial Crisis.

Nehemiah 5:3 ESV

3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.”

Due to the famine, these large families were finding themselves in a financial crisis as they were having to mortgage their property just to eat.

With interest rates estimated as high as 40-50% during this period of time, these families had no way to repay their mortgage and as a result, many lost their homes and farms.

4. High Taxes and Deep Debt.

Nehemiah 5:4 ESV

4 And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.

To complicate matters further, due to high taxes many were having to go further in debt just to pay the Persian tax on their property. As a result, the debt these poor people were accumulating was unsustainable.

5. Slavery

Nehemiah 5:5 ESV

5 Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

The debt became so high that many families were forced to sell their sons and daughters into slavery. With their property gone, they had no way to prevent this from happening. They had to choose between starvation or slavery.

Does any of this sound remotely familiar?

Isn’t that exactly the situation we find ourselves in all across Western civilization? Isn’t that exactly what America has done, piling up a mountain of debt, then leaving it for the next generation to pay?

Debt is a form of slavery. But the slavery these young Jewish kids underwent was severe, especially for the daughters who were sold off into things you would wish on anyone.

These people were in bondage. What happens when people find themselves in these situations? They become divided, distrustful, and resentful toward others. They enter into a conflict that has the potential to consume them all.

When we realize that the ones causing all of this to occur were the wealthy Jewish leaders, as they exploited the poor to make themselves even richer, we can understand the outcry all the more.

B. How Nehemiah resolved conflict.

1. Never respond to conflict without self-control.

Nehemiah 5:6 ESV

6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.

It is bad enough to have people being exploited, but, the thought that one Jew could act like this against another Jew enraged Nehemiah. He wasn’t just angry, he was very angry!

I fear that we have to little anger in regard to the sin and iniquity of our day. It ought to anger us when we consider how our faith is being attacked at every turn; at how our children are under enormous pressure to abandon their faith and conform to the world.

The Devil’s political agenda is taking more and more of our religious liberty each year. That ought to anger us and it ought to move us to action.

We don’t have to allow our anger to become sin, but there is nothing wrong with a righteous anger.

But when we are dealing with internal conflict we must be careful, like Nehemiah, to never attempt to resolve it when we are angry and without the ability to practice self-control.

a. Self-control begins with self-consultation.

Edit Proclaim slide to only include the first phrase.

Nehemiah 5:7 ESV

7 I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them

I love that! “I took counsel with myself.” That is a pretty good committee: three with two absent! Nehemiah stopped and spent time thinking things over.

He thought about the best way to handle this difficult situation in a way that would be restorative and unifying, but also holy and righteous.

2. The source of conflict must always be confronted.

Nehemiah 5:7 ESV

7 I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them

After his time of self-consultation, Nehemiah realized the root cause of the conflict and confronted it head on by bringing public charges against those responsible in a gracious and restorative manner.

There are no problems too big to solve, just people too small to solve them.

God’s people can solve almost any problem if we attack the problem rather than attacking one another.

3. What were the charges?

a. You are charging interest to fellow Jews. That is wrong!

Nehemiah 5:7 ESV

7 I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them

They were practicing “usury,” the practice of exacting interest on a loan.

Now ordinarily that would not be a bad thing. We pay interest on our loans every day. But the reason Nehemiah is upset, is because this was not to be so for the people of God.

According to the Law of Moses, Jews did not treat Jews the way they are being treated.

Leviticus 25:35–37 ESV

35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

Ex. 22:25 and Deut. 23:19-20 address the morality of usury as well. In all three passages, the idea is that profiting off of poor brothers is forbidden and sinful.

b. You are enforcing the permanent slavery of the Jewish people. That is awful!

Nehemiah 5:8 ESV

8 and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.

Slavery was never an option for the Jews. They were doing the same thing to their brothers that the Persians had done by buying and selling them and subjecting them to humiliation all for the name of profit.

Slavery is wrong no matter the reason or justification. When called on it, these men couldn’t find a word to say.

But Nehemiah wasn’t done, he had more to say!

c. You are losing your ability to bring God glory in the eyes of the surrounding nations. That is tragic!

Nehemiah 5:9 ESV

9 So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?

Nehemiah understood this was not a problem of a few individual, it was a community wide problem.

It wasn’t just a physical or ethical problem either. It was not merely a moral dilemma, it was a spiritual failure on the part of God’s people.

Even more, it brought disgrace and shame on the people in the eyes of the nations that taunted them further limiting their ability to bring God Glory!

4. Selfishness and greed threaten to consume God’s people.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “When the enemy fails in his attacks from the outside, he then begins to attack from within, and one of his favorite weapons is selfishness.”

Selfishness can be best defined as having the attitude that other people exist merely to further my agenda, and meet my needs; therefore, the value of anything (people, church, God, etc.), is determined only in light of what they can do for me. Left unchecked, this sinful behavior is extremely destructive.

Nehemiah 5:10 ESV

10 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.

It is easy to become engrossed with our own wants and needs to the point that we fail to respond to the needs of others.

The basis of the problem in our text is really selfishness and greed, and it is indicative of many of the problems we face today.

We may not be greedy regarding money, but it may be possible that we can be greedy with our time and even with our talents. Many Christians are guilty of hoarding up the good things God has given them and never desire to share their blessings with others.

D. L. Moody once said, “The measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many men he serves.”

Biblical Truth Number 2

2. As the people of God, we protect our fellowship by walking circumspectly with mutual accountability.

A. Nehemiah’s Course Correction.

1. Let us abandon our sin. (Repentance)

Nehemiah 5:10 ESV

10 Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.

Sin is anything that is contrary to the will of God.

Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.”

Nehemiah called his people to abandon their sin and return to a God honoring way of living.

2. Let us restore what our sin has damaged. (Restitution)

Nehemiah 5:11 ESV

11 Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.”

Stop enslaving your brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, oh, and while you are at it restore to them what you have exploited from them!

3. Let us set measures to insure that we do what we say. (Accountability)

Nehemiah 5:12 ESV

12 Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised.

Wow! Now this is truly amazing. Don’t miss this! These people responded to what God was telling them to do through Nehemiah. They came forward in positive response to the call of God on their lives.

It’s one thing to say, “I’m sorry, I won’t be selfish any longer.” It’s quite another thing to say, “I’m sorry, I won’t be selfish any longer—and I’m returning the money which I took from you.” It is hard to imagine the kind of character that returns a fortune simply because it is the right thing to do.

But Nehemiah didn’t let them off the hook with mere words. He called the priests in and had them make a public oath before their people and before God! Nehemiah insured that he had a way to hold them accountable to fulfilling their promised restitution.

We all need more accountability in our walks with Christ, that is why God has brought us together as a family and called us to live life together.

4. Let us call upon God to bring justice to bear on those who do not do as they say. (Ultimate Accountability) or (Discipline).

Nehemiah 5:13 ESV

13 I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

If anyone did not keep their public oath, Nehemiah reminded the people that they would have to answer to the ultimate accountability partner. The discipline that God would hand out would empty them of everything they held dear.

And all God’s people said AMEN! And they did as they had promised.

What about you? What promises have you made to God?

Are you keeping them? God is watching our lives and we are ultimately accountable to Him.

Biblical Truth No 3.

3. As the people of God, we promote generosity by living as good stewards.

A. Nehemiah’s Example of Generosity and Stewardship.

Though Jesus would not come to earth and preach the Sermon on the Mount until five centuries later, Nehemiah lived by the principle Jesus declared in Matthew 6:33:

Matthew 6:33 ESV

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The glory of God dominated his life and determined his actions. He was ruled by love for God, not the love of money or the accumulation of material possessions.

Nehemiah rejected the values of his peers; rather than being engaged in laying up treasures on earth, he chose instead to lay up treasures in heaven. Nehemiah chose to put God first.

1. Put God First!

Nehemiah 5:14–16 ESV

14 Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. 15 The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16 I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.

Though Nehemiah, as a governor of Babylon, had the legal right to exploit his position under Persian law, he answered to a higher Authority. He lived by the ethical principles of the law of God because he had a righteous fear of God. He put God first in all things.

a. Put God first in the way you use your time.

First day of the week, Sunday - give it to God!

When you wake up, give time to God in devotional relationship.

b. Put God first in the way you use your talents.

c. Put God first in the way you use your treasures.

2. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Nehemiah trusted God to provide what he needed to accomplish his divine purpose of rebuilding the wall.

Nehemiah 5:17–19 ESV

17 Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. 18 Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. 19 Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.

As God provided, Nehemiah became a conduit of generosity as he shared his blessings with others.

As Jesus was quoted in Acts 20:35, “how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

3. You can’t out give God.

The greatest gift ever given was the gift of God’s Son!

Ephesians 1:3 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Ephesians 1:7 ESV

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

The greatest gift of all reminds us that we can not out give God.

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

We were lost in our trespasses and sin, but God gave us a gift that Paul says was inexpressible! Words can’t define it.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Invitation:

We can’t allow sin to remain in our midst!

We must walk circumspectly in holiness and mutual accountability with one another.

As we walk, we prove ourselves by how we treat others in generosity.

Living For Jesus

Hymn No. 282