The Devilish Design of Derision

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI …

If you have your Bible, we are turning through to the Old Testament, to the Book of Nehemiah. For the sake of our visitors, we’ve been working our way through the Book of Nehemiah, and we find ourselves in Chapter 4, as we get this overview of the amazing work of rebuilding the walls. Uh, just so you orient yourself in the book, Nehemiah’s come back to town. He’s surveyed the work that needs to be done. Now, in Chapter 3, we sort of got this overview survey of the whole work, all the different people working in their different parts, and we were reminded, “All hands on deck,” I think I called the sermon, that all of us are needed for the kingdom, and I said to you that that was That Chapter 3 was giving us an overview, and then we sort of get into some of the details of what it sort of plays out like, and what we’re gonna see in Chapter 4 is opposition to God’s Kingdom labor, and originally, I was gonna do one sermon on the whole chapter, but there was just way too much. So we’re gonna be looking at it over the next this week and the next 2 weeks, and we’re gonna take 3 different types of devilish opposition to the kingdom. And so, we’re gonna pick up in Chapter 4. I’ll read the whole chapter, but we’re gonna be looking at just the first 6 verses this week. This is God’s Word.

Well, I’m not sure if you’ve seen or heard of the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It contains a whole bunch of principles from, I think it’s the 5th century BC, about war. So, core principles to guide you in war, and one of those is, “If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.” “If you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles.”

Now, that is true in, in physical combat. It’s equally true in spiritual warfare. We are in a war, are we not? We have an enemy, and there are 2 sides, and we are on one side, and the other side wants nothing more than to destroy us. And so, the Apostle Peter will write in his letter that the devil is like a what? A roaring lion seeking whom he can pat. No, seeking whom he can destroy, right? He is not our friend. He’s not a household kitten, but a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour. And what are we to do in response? He says, “Be alert and resist him, being firm in your faith.” You oughta stand firm and be strong and oppose the devil, not let him walk over the top of you.

And the Apostle Paul very helpfully, in 2 Corinthians, he writes to a church which has followed his instruction and disciplined one of their members out of the church, excommunicated him, and he’s repented, but they’ve forgotten the next step, you know? After someone repents, you what? You forgive them, right, and you restore them back into fellowship, and they’ve kind of forgotten to do that part. And so Paul writes to them and he says to them, “We are not unaware We are not unaware of the devil’s schemes. We’re not unaware of the devil’s schemes, so forgive him that you might undo the scheming and the plotting of the devil.”

And so it’s with this mindset that we come to chapter 4 of Nehemiah and consider the devilish designs, the devil’s designs. You see, the devil’s ways are not new. His attacks have always been the same, all throughout history, from beginning to end, and so if we are aware of them, we can guard against them. And the attacks that we see in chapter 4 I- I’ve sort of summarized as 3. There is derision, which is what we’re gonna consider today, there is division, which, Lord willing, we’ll consider next week, and then after that there’s devastation. So there’s 3 primary methods that the devil uses to attack the Kingdom of God, and the first of those for today is derision.

And, and our, our structure for tonight’s sermon is very simple. We’re going to consider the attack of the enemies of God’s people, and we’re going to consider the response of God’s people to the attack. Very, very simple.

So firstly, let’s consider together the attack. Knowing the enemy’s strategy enables you to respond. You know, it would be very easy in war, to battle, if you had the opponent’s playbook, right? You were walking one day and you fell over and you noticed a book on the ground, and you picked it up and it said, “Oh, this is the enemy’s attack plan.” You go, “Oh, well this is very convenient,” and you flick through, “Oh, well they’re gonna attack this way and they’re gonna send their troops th-” Well, it’s very easy to defend in that case, isn’t it? Well, brothers and sisters, we’re in that situation. The Lord has given us a book, and in the book it contains all of our enemy’s plans so that we might know him and defend against him.

Firstly, notice, notice here the nature of the attack. We’re told, firstly, that these, these enemies, Sanballat, who was l- the governor of Samaria, in case you’ve forgotten. Sanballat is angered and enraged. We remember, don’t we, back in earlier chapters, in chapter 2, that he was enraged because someone came to seek the welfare of God’s people. One thing we must be consciously aware of at all times is that the devil always hates anybody helping Christians. Think one of the more extreme examples of this is in Communist Russia w- and similar to most persecuted nations, where it is illegal to help persecuted Christians. So if there’s a persecuted family, the father g- goes to prison, leaves a wife and children behind, you’re not allowed to give them food. And if you give them food or clothes, you go to prison too. You are not allowed, on the devil’s watch, you are not allowed to care for or help the people of God. And so too here, of Sanballat, he’s very angry.

But the nature of the attack i- i- is 2 things. Firstly, you might call it character assassination. Have a look at verse 2. They asked the question, “What are these feeble Jews doing? What are these feeble Jews doing?” The word feeble here is powerless, weak, incapable. A- and what, what Sanballat is doing is, is painting an image, painting a characterization of the people of God. The devil will always do this. The devil will frequently, in your workplaces, in your homes, among friends, will paint a characterization of you which is evil. Though you seek to do good, they will call it evil. And this shouldn’t surprise us, because they consider what is good evil and what is evil good, don’t they? So when you seek to save children from the womb, what will the people of the world say? “Well, that’s not loving. Don’t you care about the poor women who are abused and end up pregnant?” And when you seek to help a person who has a sick mind, so they believe they’re a different sexuality, and you seek to help them and say to them, “God has better ideas for you. God has made you fearfully and wonderfully.” What does the world say? “That’s conversion therapy, and you can go to prison.” And they mischaracterize you. This is what the devil seeks to do with the Jews, “They’re feeble. They’re frail.”

The second thing that they seek to do, the devil does through them, is he discredits their success. He undermines the work they’re doing. So he says, “Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones of the heaps of the rubbish and burned ones at that?” The things they’re doing are considered to be pointless, right? “I mean, what are you doing this for anyway? We’ve got a king. You don’t need a wall. Persia will protect us.” They deride them. All of this is all the expression of that word there in verse one, jeered, mockery, derision. The devil loves to slander and use words to cut down the people of God. This is almost always his first method of attack. He begins by mocking us. Crazy Christians. And doesn’t it bother you that in the media Have you ever noticed this, that in the media ministers are either a pedophile or woke? Do you ever see a Godly minister on TV? Or on the internet? If it’s put in there by the mainstream media? Never, right? And if you do, you get a 10-second segment that takes something out of context that makes them look absolutely insane, because the devil wants to slander us. devil wants to attack us in this way, but brothers and sisters, this shouldn’t surprise us, should it? ‘Cause it’s not new.

You remember that moment when Goliath confronts the people of Israel? He doesn’t just march up and attack them, does he? What does he do? He stands on his side of the valley with his spear in hand and he mocks the Israelites, and he mocks their God. “Aren’t, aren’t you guys men of Saul? Come on! Come and fight me! What’s wrong with you?” And it tells us that he derides the God of Israel. David gets it, ’cause when David comes into town he, he hears the words of Goliath and says, “Who is this man that he should defy the armies of Israel and the Lord our God?” And yet, that’s what the devil’s doing, right? And, and it happens again and again. You think of the son of David, Absalom. Do you remember that moment? He stands outside of the, the, the palace, and people come in. And he says to them, and this is the devil speaking, I hope you know this, but he says to them, “Ah, your, your claims are just, but there’s no one here to give you justice. But if I was king I would give you justice. I would give you peace.” And it’s a discrediting of God’s King, a discrediting of God’s people that happens in the New Testament. Do you remember that moment where m- where Paul is, is putting forward the Gospel to King Agrippa and Felix, one of the other governors? He says, “Paul, you’re out of your mind with your learning!” Paul says, “No, I’m not. King Agrippa gets it.” Of course, it happened to our Savior, didn’t it? When he healed Jairus’ daughter, he walks into the house and it’s filled with professional mourners and he says to them, “Would someone get these mourners out of here? I’m gonna go and raise this child from the dead.” What do they do? They laugh at him and mock him because the child is dead. It’s the work of the devil.

And what happens when he’s upon the cross? Well, it’s prophesied in the Old Testament, isn’t it? In Psalm 22, they mocked him. Isaiah 53, he was a man of scorn, he was a man of shame. They dishonored him. And when we see him hanging upon the cross, what do the people do? What does the devil do? He sends his Roman soldiers, he sends his thieves, he sends his Pharisees, and they heap scorn upon the Lord of Glory. “Oh! He called himself the Son of God! Well, let God have if he wants him! Oh, he s- he could heal people! Well, let him save himself then!” It’s mockery. And Luke records that even the thieves on the cross, and Matthew and Mark record for us that the thieves on the cross heap scorn and mockery upon the Lord of Glory.

And brothers and sisters, did Jesus not tell us that, “If they persecute me, they will also persecute you”? If the devil mocks Nehemiah and the Jews, and if he mocks Christ, he will most assuredly mock the disciples of Christ. But what’s the purpose of this attack? Okay, it’s mockery, it’s jeering, but what is he aiming at? What is, what is the devil trying to do? Well, firstly, he’s trying to discourage the laborers. He’s trying to discourage the laborers, and we know this because the very news of these words are received by the people of God in Israel, right? Though they’re spoken in far away Sanballat land, he ensures that they’re heard by Nehemiah at the wall, and he embarks on what you might call a five, a five attack technique, 5 psychological warfare questions, 5 fiery darts of the devil through 5 questions.

So firstly, he asks the question in verse 2, “What are these feeble Jews doing?” Now, if you’re a builder on the wall taking a mammoth undertaking, you’re understaffed, you’re under-resourced, and someone says, “You guys are feeble,” what does that tempt you to do? It tempts you to become discouraged, doesn’t it? “Well, maybe they’re right. Maybe we are too weak.” Secondly, he says, “Will they restore it for themselves?” So, they may get it done, but even if they do, they won’t get to enjoy it. And so you think to yourself, “Well, why should I bother? Why bother? I’m not gonna be around to enjoy it or someone’s gonna take it off me, because I’m powerless.” The third one, “Will they sacrifice” Now this doesn’t mean will they use the sacrifices, ’cause they were already doing that in the temple. What it’s more referring to is will they offer, like, a mystical sacrifice and God immediately zap the wall and build it for them. Because these, these are pagan people, right? And that’s the sort of thing pagans believe in. So will their god do this for them? of course, what’s, what’s being suggested? That God’s not gonna help That God’s given them a task to do, but he’s not there to help them get it done. And fourthly, they ask the question, “Will they finish up in a day?” This is not gonna be done for a very long time. Years and years, and centuries and centuries. And you become discouraged because of the length of time it will take. We want it now, but it’s taking too long. And then lastly, “Will they heal,” or revive, “heal the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” You haven’t even got stones to build a wall out of. I mean, let’s be honest. All we’ve got is these ru- these pieces of rubble and ash. I mean, anything we build, it’s gonna become weak.

And you see, you get these 5 fiery darts which are then undermined by Tobiah the joker. yeah. If a fox jumps on the wall, it’ll just fall over. Oh, what a laugh! This thing won’t stand up. If a wolf huffs and puffs, it’ll just fall down.” Seeking to discourage the laborers and stop them doing the work. And brothers and sisters, this is exactly what the devil seeks to do to us today. So that when people come to you and, and mock you for your faith, you are tempted to, to backpedal. You’re tempted to foot off the accelerator. You’re tempted to withdraw from Christian community. You’re tempted to become discouraged about the work of the Lord when someone mocks you for the fact that you meet in a hall, you don’t even have a church building. You only have how many people in your church? You, you came out of another church? And the devil derides and jeers and mocks, and you might be tempted to think to yourself, “Oh, why did I? Why did I join? Why did I join this work?”

We’re tempted to become discouraged. So the purpose of this attack, firstly, is to discourage us. Secondly, it’s to make us doubt the goodness of God. It’s the age-old tactic of the devil, isn’t it? “Did God really say you can’t eat of this tree? I mean, what kind of god wouldn’t let you eat from this tree? He’s holding out on you. He’s clearly not good.” It’s the same thing here. “Well, look at these people laboring for something that’s not gonna last, and their god’s not even helping them. What a joke! While we sit here with an army in comfort and peace and security, your god clearly doesn’t love you. Your god clearly isn’t good.” And so, as you are tempted to become discouraged and stop doing it, you’re then tempted to doubt whether God is really good at all. “Well, God can’t have been good if he sent us on this pointless mission.” And as you become tempted to doubt the goodness of God through this attack, the next purpose is to discredit the glory of God. Because if we become discouraged and attempted to give up, and if we doubt God’s goodness, we undermine the very glory of God, don’t we? Because God’s glory is established when the people of God see him as good even when life doesn’t feel like it.

You see, it’s easy for the world to be happy when things go well, isn’t it? Just like for you and I. When times are good, oh, it’s very easy to give glory to God. But what about when times are hard? What about when you’re laboring and the world and the devil attack? It’s difficult then, isn’t it? And I think this, this reality of this nature of this attack and the purpose of it brings 3 lessons for us. Brings 3 lessons for us.

Firstly, this does encourage us to pray first. It i- it is telling that the first response of Nehemiah and the people is to pray, isn’t it? A- and we’re gonna see this throughout this chapter. It’s prayer and which rebukes slothfulness and prayerlessness. But the first thing we ought to do is to pray, to seek God, not to take matters into our own hands, but to cry out to the Lord.

The second thing it teaches us is to make sure we check our heart motive in prayer. Nehemiah’s heart is driven by the mistreatment of God’s people and the glory of God, which is established in the city of Jerusalem. It’s not motivated by a joy in seeing people punished. And we can easily fall into that, can’t we? We must guard against a heart that delights in those who oppose us losing.

Thirdly, we are to beware of retaliating with the weaponry of the devil. We cannot use the devil’s means, even if it seemingly achieves God’s ends.

Fourthly, we must remember that children of light always function differently than children of darkness. There is a marked difference, isn’t there, between Sanballat and Nehemiah? Because one is a child of God and one is not. And so, it ought to be evident to all in the way we respond to something like mockery and jeering that we are children of God.

And lastly, I think we learn and should seek to put on the fact that silencing God’s enemies is primarily done through faithfulness, day in, day out, week in, week out. Because the proof’s in the pudding, right? At the end of the day, the evidence of God’s work among us will be testified to in the lives of our grandchildren, won’t it? You know, just to share very personally on this front, someone said to a friend of mine, “You just wait.” Speaking about us. “You just wait.” I wonder how you’d finish the sentence. “You just wait. It’ll fall flat on its face and die.” What is the testimony against that? Faithfulness, right? And when our grandchildren’s grandchildren are gathered together in RBC giving praise and glory to God, that will be the testimony which frees you from having to prove yourself to anybody. You don’t have to argue. You don’t have to justify yourself. You just keep plodding and let God vindicate you freely.

Brothers and sisters, we must not be ignorant of the designs of the devil. You know, derision hurts. Mockery hurts. And yet, we’re not alone, because our Savior knows exactly what it’s like. And so, as Hebrews says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us,” do we? But he’s able to help us.

Brothers and sisters, let us look up and look down, and let us get to work. And may God grant us the strength to resist the devil.

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