Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham

Nehemiah 6:1-16; A Foundation of Discernment

• Jason Sterling

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Jason Sterling October 26, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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SPEAKER_00:

If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me. Nehemiah chapter six. So go if you have your Bible, go to the center of your Bible to Psalms, start turning backwards. You'll run into the book of Nehemiah. If you're visiting with us, we're a church. We try to rotate between Old Testament and New Testament. We believe this is the Word of God. And so we get up every week and we just study a passage of the Bible. We work through books of the Bible. And this fall we are studying and doing a series on Ezra Nehemiah. We're in the middle of this generational project in our church, but the most important building project, as I've been saying, is the one going on inside of our hearts. We want to make sure as we move into this new season in the life of our church that we're building strong spiritual foundations as we move forward in ministry together. And that's basically what we've been talking about this fall. And this morning we're going to talk about the importance of building a foundation of discernment through Nehemiah chapter 6, 1 through 16. It's in your bulletin. It'll be on the screen. This is the word of God. Now, when Sambalat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it, although up to that time I had not set up the doors and it in the gates. Sambalat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together at Herak Herekhiram in the plain of Ono. Then they intended to harm me, but I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. In the same way Sambalat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel. That is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, there is a king in Judah. And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together. And then I sent to him, saying, No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind. For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will drop from the work and it will not be done. But now, O God, strengthen my hands. Now when I went into the house of Shemiah, the son of Delea, the son of Mehetabel, who can fine who was confined to his home, he said, Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night. But I said, Should such a man as I run away, and what man such as I could go into the temple and live, I will not go in. And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sambalat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, so that they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sambalat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who went to make me afraid. And so the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elol in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. This is the word of the Lord. Let me pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to help us this morning. Let's pray together. Lord, you've brought us here, and I pray that you would give each person ears to hear, hearts to receive. I pray that you would make us alert, that we would be engaged, and that you would help the one who preaches. Give me humility, but also boldness. And more than anything, may we encounter the Lord Jesus through his spirit, and may we all leave here encountering the power of your word that is living and active, and may it change us. Lead us to repentance, lead us to joy and faith. In Christ's name. Amen. We live in a world of deep fakes and AI-generated voices and sophisticated deception. And here's what's sobering about that spirit spiritual deception is actually much more sophisticated, and the stakes are infinitely higher. It's one thing to lose some money in a scam. That hurts. But it's a completely different thing to lose your soul through spiritual deception and it take your life off the rails. This wasn't a new problem for God's people. This is not a new problem. The things that we're facing, God's people have always faced sophisticated deception and opposition. If you could summarize Ezra and Nehemiah, if you could do it in a word, possibly the word would be, I'm sure we could think of other words, but one word would definitely be opposition. That would be a way you could summarize Ezra and Nehemiah in these books. I mean, think about chapter two, opposition. It was through mockery and threats. Chapter four, military threats, chapter five, internal corruption among God's people. We get to chapter six, the wall's nearly complete, and all of a sudden the opposition gets very subtle and much more sophisticated. When the enemy and opposition cannot stop you through force, it will shift the tactics. Attacks stop looking like attacks. And they come disguised as reasonable opportunities, wise counsel, and very spiritual advice. And in order for us to see the sophistication and the subtlety of these tactics, we need discernment. What is discernment? It isn't suspicion, it's not being cynical and distrusting of everyone you meet. Discernment is spiritual clarity, spiritual clarity, the ability to see as God sees, the ability to recognize his voice among all the other convening voices out there, and spot the difference between an opportunity and a trap. You see, the enemy knows that he can't attack everyone head on. And so he gets very creative and he starts using good things to distract you. He starts using your own, you ever been through this? He starts using your own fear against you in order to paralyze you and keep you from moving forward, or he uses what sounds like spiritual advice to lead you astray. And if you can't see it coming, if you lack discernment, you will be pulled off the wall. And you will think what you're doing is reasonable when actually you're being duped, when actually you're being tricked and deceived. Nehemiah, maybe you picked up on it as we read through the passage, he gets faced with three distinct traps in chapter six, and his response to these teach us how to build a foundation of discernment in our church, but also in our lives personally. To get discernment or to have discernment, we need, first of all, to detect distraction. It's our first heading this morning. Secondly, recognize our fear. Lastly, test advice and counsel. Detect distraction. Recognize our fear. Test advice and counsel. That's our roadmap. Let's take these in turn. Let's look at our first point detect distraction. Look at verse two. Nehemiah, here's the first trap. Sam Balat and Geshem invite him to a meeting to the plain of Ono, right outside Jerusalem, 27 miles outside Jerusalem, which was very intentional. Let's meet outside the city. And let me remind you who Sam Ballot and Geshem were. They were not neutral parties here. Sam Ballot was the governor of Samaria. Geshem is an Arab leader. They both have opposed this project from day one. And they've tried everything to stop it. They've tried it all and nothing has worked. And so they start shifting the strategy. And this time they're trying to pull Nehemiah away. They're trying to get him to leave his post and they try it diplomatically by saying, let's talk, let's negotiate, let's see if we can find some common ground. And all of that sounds reasonable, but immediately Nehemiah perceives the true intent. You see it there. They intended to harm me. Now, we don't, the text does not tell us exactly how Nehemiah knew this was a trap, but he does. He has discernment. And his response is very simple, but it is brilliant. Look at verses three through four. I'm doing a great work. I can't come down. Why should I stop this work and come down and meet with you? Four times they try to give him the same invitation. He refuses all four times, giving them the same answer. He refuses to be worn down by their persistence and by reasonable request. Here's a picture. Think about modern cyber fishing scams. Maybe you have gotten these in on your email at some point. It looks legitimate. They say something to the effect your bank needs verification immediately from you. Did you know that Americans in 2024 have lost 16 billion dollars to cyber fishing scams? Why is that? Well, because it seems official. It comes across as very urgent. And that's exactly the picture here. That's exactly what Nehemiah's enemies were doing. This is a first century fishing scam, you could say. And so here's what I want you to see. Sometimes the greatest threat to your spiritual life comes disguised as opportunities. And here's what makes it incredibly dangerous is these opportunities do not come with a warning label. No one sends you an invitation that says, hey, come meet me so that you can destroy your spiritual life. No, you know what it says? This is a great opportunity. How can you pass this up? You would be foolish to pass up this opportunity. What does it look like? Well, it looks like a travel sports team. Inviting your kid to a join to join the elite team. It's an incredible honor. It's a great opportunity, but it means missing church and being away from God's people 15 Sundays a year, and your family margins being stretched as far as they can possibly be stretched. Or it means the job offer that comes with a significant raise and a change of title, but you'd have to relocate. You'd have to be uprooted from your community and where you have deep roots. And you'd be spending significant time on the road traveling. Or you're dating someone, and at first it sounds great and wonderful, and it's fun. And then all of a sudden, you get pulled away from community and you start compromising your faith, and your spiritual life starts to dry up. Or it's great ministry opportunities that start piling up, but you're exhausted now, and your family's suffering, and you're not doing anything well. None of these opportunities are evil. But here's the question Are they pulling you off the wall? Where are you being invited to come down in your life from God's work that He has called you to do? Where are you inviting to be to come down and to have to compromise how God has called you to live? How do you know? How do you tell the difference between a good opportunity and one that will pull you off the wall and hurt you spiritually? How do you know? Well, I think Nehemiah actually helps us here. First of all, you've got to know your wall. Before you can ask if it is harming you or distracting you, you have to know what God has called you to build. And this is another sermon, but let me say a couple of things here. I can't say everything, but here's where it starts broadly. You are called as a Christian, if you believe in Jesus this morning, to love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. If you're called, if you were, if you're working, that's God's calling on your life. You're to do that for the glory of God in your workplace where He has placed you. If you're a parent, you are to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, raising your kids to know and love Jesus. If you're married, you know, the only covenant you have with another person is a marriage covenant. So with your spouse. And so that means who's priority number one, humanly speaking, in your life if you're married? Your spouse. So anything that's pulling you away from that and sacrificing that is a distraction. If you're single, you're called to live faithfully in your singleness because that's where God has you, and you are to invest in the church in this season of your life. We could go on and on and on and add so much to that. But do you have clarity on your calling in this season of your life, which God has placed you? If not, the first step is to get clarity on that. To get clarity on your wall. And then once you get clarity on your wall, ask this question. Or will it do harm to my soul? Will it do harm to my marriage? Will it distract me and pull me away from what God has called me to do? Don't ask that question alone. That's a big question. Pray. Open up the scriptures. Get someone around you, ask a friend, get godly counsel. Does it pull you off the wall? If it does, see it for what it is, and just simply say, like Nehemiah, I'm doing a great work here, and I cannot come down. Just because you have an opportunity, and that opportunity is good, it doesn't mean it's God's will for your life right now in this season of your life. Discernment begins with detection. Secondly, recognize your fear. Distraction didn't work. And so Nehemiah's enemies, they start to move towards intimidation. So we're moving from invitation, hey, come meet with us, to intimidation. Look at verses 9, 13, 14, and 19. What a word do you see repeated there? The dominant theme throughout this passage is fear. The text highlights that fear is one of the enemy's primary weapons. If they cannot stop you through force, he will deceive you and try to stop you through fear. Look at verses five through seven. How do we see it in the passage? Sam Ballot sends an open letter. This is a public accusation that is meant to destroy Nehemiah's character and reputation. What are the charges? Look at those verses: treason, insurrection, and conspiracy against Persia. All of those were capital offenses. And if you keep reading, the letter says, Hey, but we can get you out of this. Again, just come meet with us and we will clear your name before it's too late. Because if these rumors reach the king, you're done. And everything that you have worked for, you could lose. And so think about if you're in that situation. I mean, if that's us, we are panicked. We're like, I've got to deal with this immediately. I've got to go defend myself. I need to stop this and fix this before this really becomes a problem. Look at verse 8. We see how Nehemiah responds. No such things have I done. He basically says, You're making this up. And what you're saying is not true. One sentence, that's it. He doesn't call a town meeting. He doesn't write this detailed response. He doesn't track down everyone who'd heard the rumor and try to clarify and try to tell them it's not true. Doesn't try to manage the crisis and stop what God's called him to do. He just confidently leans into this and says, I know what is true. This is not true. And he moves on. Why? Discernment. Look at verse nine. You're not worried about the truth. All you're worried about, verse nine, is what he's saying, is getting us to stop building. You're just trying to put fear into us so that we will stop and drop what we're doing so that the wall will remain unfinished and this mission will fail. He doesn't try to control everyone's opinions and let fear paralyze him. What does he do? Look at the end of verse 9. He prays. We've seen it all the way through Nehemiah, but I love just real short. Again, it's part of that continual prayer. He's just keep doing walking through life, and he just simply hears this and he says, but now, oh God, strengthen my hands. That's it. That's the entire prayer. Not fix my reputation. Not stop the rumors. Not vindicate me publicly. Just Lord, please help me. Please give me strength to keep building and do what you have called me to do. Most of us are not rebuilding walls in ancient Jerusalem. Most of us are not being accused of capital offenses. And so what does this have to do with us this morning in 2025? We might not be dealing with those things, but we all have fear, don't we? We all face fear either externally or we have this fear inside of us that tries to frighten us and make us quit and make us compromise and make us stop living for God and do what He has called us to do. You set a boundary that you know is right with maybe your teenager, if you're a parent, with a family member or at work. But all of a sudden you get this intense pushback and somebody gets angry and they start saying, This is unreasonable. You're being unreasonable. Or no one else does this. None of the other parents I know or make their kids do this. And then what happens inside of you? Fear starts to well up, and you start to say, Well, what if I'm wrong? What if I'm not seeing this clearly? What if this damages our relationship? Or what if I come across as inflexible? Fear tempting you to give in. Or maybe you're a student and you sense God calling you to live differently in your school and in the world to stand up for what is right, to invite someone to church, to be more open about your faith, perhaps even in the classroom, but you're afraid. Afraid of standing out, being labeled as the Christian kid, or being seen as silly or uncool or weird. Fear is keeping you silent and keeping you from speaking up and doing what God has called you to do. Or maybe you need help. Maybe your marriage is falling apart and you know you need help. Or maybe you're addicted to pornography and you feel like you are dying. Or maybe you need treatment for anxiety or depression, but you're afraid. And you start saying, Well, what if someone finds out? What if people start judging me? What if people start seeing me differently? You see, do you hear it? What's keeping you from moving forward and getting the help that you need? Fear. All of these things and these situations have one thing in common. Fear is trying to stop you from doing what God has called you to do. Where in your life right now are you responding in fear rather than acting in faith? That's the first thing. You have to see that. You have to see what's underneath your lack of response and what is driving it. Don't run from it. Don't run from the fear, name it. Don't let it rest and hide in the shadows. Bring it into the light and name it. And then again, lots more to say here. But the other thing we see is pray, right? That's what Nehemiah does. Pray for strength. God, strengthen my hands to stand up for my faith. God, strengthen my hands to get the help that I need. God, strengthen my hands to stand firm and to walk by faith instead of fear. You're asking God for strength to be faithful despite your fear. Don't make decisions out of fear. Be discerning and ask, am I moving forward in faith? Or am I moving forward in fear? Lastly, we need to test. If we're going to build discernment, we need to test our counsel and advice. This is the most dangerous trap of all because it's wrapped in very spiritual and religious language. Look at verse 10. He's been invited over to the house of a prophet. Let's meet together. Let's get together in the temple. Let's get into the house of God, for they're going to kill you. You hear the panic, just ramping it up, making it seem urgent. Everything here sounds spiritual and urgent. There's a prophet involved, it's references, very spiritual language. The house of God appeals to safety and wisdom. It sounds very divine and very much like spiritual guidance. Look at verses 11 and 12. Notice the discernment. And what man such as I should go into the temple and live? I will not go in. And then he explains his reasoning because I understood and saw that God had not sent them, that they were sent in order to harm me. How did Nehemiah know that? He knows it because he knows the scriptures. That only the priests were allowed to go into the Holy of Holies. And Nehemiah, by entering into that place, would violate a very explicit command of God. And a true word, Nehemiah knew, the true word of God would never contradict the revealed word of God. And that's exactly what we see with Shemaiah and the tactics that he is using, using God language to counsel people, Nehemiah, towards sin. Listen to Ralph Davis, the commentator, warning us that even today, some claim a word from the Lord. And yet it is little more than self-motivated rubbish. And so as we think about building discernment and developing discernment, our very first question should be it should be a knee-jerk reaction. Does this align with God's word? Does this align with his character? If you don't know, dig into the word, pray, seek counsel from others, but get help. Test every spirit, measure every counsel against the scriptures. And when you hear spiritual sounding advice that's leading you towards sin, and you know that, say with Nehemiah, I will not go. Okay, go be like Nehemiah. Let's pray. I'm kidding. You know me better than that. Because as great as Nehemiah is, and he was a faithful man. We have someone that is so much greater, and so much better, and so much more faithful and discerning. And so the message to take away here is not try harder, have more discernment, go be like Nehemiah. No, the point of this is Jesus. Because Jesus is the greater Nehemiah. Nehemiah stayed on the wall when his enemies invited him down. Jesus stayed on mission all the way to the cross and refused every one of Satan's tactics to pull him off mission and to pull him away of what God had called him to do. Nehemiah refused the fear when he was attacked. Remember Jesus in the garden before going to the cross? He faces the ultimate fear. He looks death in the eye, the cross itself, and he says, Take this cup away from me. And he knows that what that's what God has called him to do. And so what does he say? He trusts the Father. And he says, Not my will, but yours be done. Nehemiah knew the scriptures well enough. He detected these false prophets. Jesus is the word made flesh. Remember in the wilderness, Matthew chapter four, Satan twisting the scriptures. And Jesus doesn't just detect the counterfeit, he actually defeats it. It is written, it is written, it is written. The first Adam fell in the garden in Genesis chapter three. Israel falls. We fail every single day to be discerning. Jesus passed every single test. And he lived the perfect life that you and I could never live. He has the discernment that we lack. He has the strength that we need and the faithfulness that we cannot sustain. And he stayed when we came down. He died the death that we deserved. He took every punishment for all of the times distractions have lured us away and we followed them. For all the fears that we have that keep us from moving forward, and for every false teaching that we've believed and followed. And he rose again from the dead and defeated evil and sin once and for all and said, it is finished. Jesus has done everything necessary to secure salvation for you. And so that means that you don't need to manufacture discernment on your own strength. That means you don't have to try to muster this up. If you are in Christ, you're united to Christ, you have Jesus, and Jesus is the way. And we follow the way of Jesus. And Jesus in him, we have the perfect love that drives out fear. And Jesus is the word made flesh, and he is the truth that gives you discernment. And so the takeaway is not try harder to be more discerning. The takeaway is rest in discernment himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when we do, we will be able to spot the counterfeit and know when we're being deceived. You want to build a foundation of discernment in your life and in our church? Stay near to Jesus. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Christ. Thank you that He stayed on the wall when we came down. Would you forgive us for trusting our own strength instead of yours? Would you forgive us for our fear? Would you forgive us for following other voices that lead us astray and take us away from you? And Holy Spirit, would you help us to stay close to Jesus? He is our strength, he is our truth, and he is our foundation. We ask this in his name. Amen.