So many of us give up so quickly on ourselves, on our family, on our children, on our church, on our society, on our God. Dr. Tony Evans says perseverance isn't just a personal strength, it's a spiritual necessity. One of the things that we've got to come to grips with is the issue of not quitting when things get tough. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. When God has called you to do something great, the enemy's goal is simple, to get you to stop. Today we'll look at what happened when Nehemiah was just steps away from finishing the wall and how the enemy's strategy suddenly shifted from sabotage to smooth talk.
Let's listen in as Dr. Evans begins. Nehemiah, in Chapter 5, has wrestled with the fact that the community was being destroyed within. And he addressed the fact that if you're going to have the rebuilding of a community, you're going to have to have ethical behavior by those who are a part of it. You cannot rip each other off and still make progress.
You can't do it personally, you can't do it in a family, you certainly can't do it in a society. In Chapter 6, however, Nehemiah himself becomes the target. It's sort of a sack-the-quarterback approach. If we can get the quarterback, then we can stop the movement of the team.
And so he becomes an agent of personal attack. We read in Chapter 6, Verse 1, It came about when it was reported to Samballah, Tobiah Yishum, to the rest of the enemies that I had rebuilt the wall. No breach remained in it, although at this time I had not set up the doors in the gate. The walls had been repaired and there was only one thing left to do.
Hang the gates. They were almost there. So the thing that Nehemiah had to face was the issue of perseverance. He had gone a long way. He had gotten almost to the end.
If Satan is ever going to go after you, it's when you're almost there. That's why you find out when you make your deepest commitments is oftentimes when you're under your deepest attack. Because you're almost there. You ask any Boston Marathon, he can tell you that it's when you're almost finished that you want to quit.
Because at the end of the Boston Marathon is Heartbreak Hill. One of the things that we've got to come to grips with is the issue of not quitting when things get tough. Not quitting when it doesn't look like we can make it. So many of us give up so quickly on ourselves, on our family, on our children, on our church, on our society, on our God. It says, send valid verse 2, and Gisham sent a message to me saying, come, let us meet together at Shafirim in the plain of Ono. But they were planning to harm me, and I sent messages to them saying, I am doing a great work. I cannot come down. The enemies, realizing that they were now desperate, were now saying, let's let bygones be bygones. Let's be friends.
Let's, in fact, come on down and let's have a summit, if you will, and put all of this behind us. Nehemiah says that they were planning to harm me. In verse 12, you see the phrase, then I perceived that God had not sent him.
Nehemiah gets some inside information. Whenever the Holy Spirit gives you that sense that something's not right, you need to pause and reflect. Don't rush ahead, because God may be giving you a word of knowledge that is supernatural intuition, if you will. The ability of perception, and that's why he says, I perceive. That is the word of knowledge, or to put it another way, it's a form of discernment.
They ask him to come down for a conference of friendship. Nehemiah says, the reason I can't come down is twofold. I can't come down, number one, because I'm doing a great work. Now, technically, they could have been telling the truth. But even if they were telling the truth, you don't leave something greater to do something lesser. One of the things you don't do is you don't do something that's second best and leave something that's first best. You know what Nehemiah was doing on the wall? He was doing the will of God. Listen, you never leave the will of God to do something that's nice. You never leave what you know God called you to do to do what people want you to do. You don't do what you know God said in the light to follow folk in the darkness. One of the reasons so many of us get messed up is we listen to people who take us off the wall. What they ask us to do may be nice, but it's not God's will for us.
Nehemiah knew that God said, build the wall. Here these men are coming and saying, come over to Ono, four and a half miles outside of Jerusalem, not far, but come out and take a break for a while and let's relax. They were trying to deceive him. Before you follow folk, see what their character is like.
First of all, are they taking you away from God's will, and secondly of all, what's their character like? It's critical that you not allow yourself to be deceived, that you be committed to the will of God. The reason why many of us don't see success in our lives is we come down off the wall.
That is, we leave the plan of God for something else that sounds good. Two frogs fell into a can of cream, or so I've heard it told. The sides of the can were shiny and steep. The cream was deep and cold. Oh, what's the use? croaked number one.
Tis fate, no helps around. Goodbye, my friend. Goodbye, sad world. And weeping still, he drowned. But frog number two of sterner stuff, dog paddled in surprise. The while he wiped his creamy face and dried his creamy eyes. I'll swim a while at least, he said, and so I've heard it said.
It really wouldn't help the world if one more frog were dead. An hour or two, he kicked and swam. Not once he stopped to mutter, but kicked and kicked and swam and kicked, then hopped out via butter.
In other words, he worked so hard, he made something he could use. You gotta persevere. Well, I'm on a roll.
Let me give you another one. A teenager decided to quit high school one day. And he said, I'm just fed up with it all. I quit. His father was trying to convince him to stay in school.
He was trying to get him to stay in school. He said, son, you can't quit. He says, all the people who are remembered in history didn't quit. Abe Lincoln, he didn't quit. Thomas Edison, he didn't quit. Douglas MacArthur, he didn't quit. And then there's Elmo McCrinkle. Son burke went, who in the world, dad, is Elmo McCrinkle?
See, the father said, you don't remember him, he quit. Nehemiah persevered. He persevered because he was in the will of God. He was in the will of God, and so he sent messages back and said, I can't come down to you. Now, if a person's sincere and they really want to see you, then what they gonna do?
They gonna come to you. See, you know who your friends are because they want you in the will of God. Because, you see, people who are out for your best are out for you experiencing the will of God. They don't want to pull you away from God's will. They want to encourage you in the things of the Lord. They want to promote the will of God. He says, I can't come to you.
Now, if you're serious, you can come to me. In fact, the text says that they did this four times. Four times they did this because they were trying to get him down.
Now, this is a masterful strategy. They knew if they got Nehemiah off the wall, they could kill the motivation of the rest of the people. Because, remember, a few chapters ago, these folks are really struggling to get this job done.
All they need to do is see that their leader quits, and they're gonna follow suit. Dr. Evans will return in just a moment to reveal how the opposition turned up the pressure with a public attack aimed straight at Nehemiah's character. Don't go away. Visit TonyEvansTraining.org to get started today. That's TonyEvansTraining.org. The lesson we're listening to today is just one installment in Tony's 15-part sermon series on the book of Nehemiah. In this study, Dr. Evans walks through the incredible story of a man called to rebuild not just a city, but a people, restoring faith, perseverance, and bringing spiritual renewal. Through these messages, we've been gaining powerful insights on leadership, trusting God's provision, and standing firm in the face of opposition.
This complete study is now available for your personal audio library on both digital download and either CD or USB thumb drive, and it includes material we won't have time to present on the broadcast. It's a valuable collection of messages, and for a limited time, we're making them all available bundled along with Tony's compelling book, One Nation Under God. If you're concerned about the direction our country is headed, this book will equip you with a kingdom-centered strategy to make a lasting impact starting right where you are. Get them both as our gift when you make a donation to support the alternative broadcast ministry. Just visit us at TonyEvans.org.
Details of this special offer are right on the homepage. Again, that's TonyEvans.org, or reach out to our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222 for some in-person help. That's 1-800-800-3222. Right now, let's get back to Dr. Evans in chapter 6 of the book of Nehemiah. Well, we have our second challenge beginning in verse 5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand. We're now talking about a letter that has been opened, and open letters were common when you wanted everybody to know its contents. It's sort of like reading a decree. You know how you see the guy during the days of the king read a decree? It's that kind of letter.
It's open for the general public. In other words, Sanballat wants everybody of influence to read this thing so they can pass the gossip word. Now, what did the letter say? Verse 6.
It was reported among the nation. This is the content of the letter. The Gash move says that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. Therefore, you are rebuilding the wall, and you are to be their king according to these reports. And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem concerning you a king in Judah, and that will be reported to the king according to these words. So come now and let us discuss it. Since you didn't come down from the wall, when I privately ask you, I'm going to pass the word on that you are revolting against the king, that you are setting up your own kingdom, that you've got prophets even proclaiming you are the Messiah, Zechariah 9-9, that you are the Messiah, and that you're building your own kingdom.
And I'm going to put it in an open letter so that everybody will read it. Now, that's pressure. It's one thing to have one person against you or two or three, but when they pass on the word, it becomes the perception of everybody. Well, he's only out for his own, and she thinks that she's somebody, and they're just trying to build their own castle, and they're not involved with anything else, and the word goes out, and then he finally says this is going to get to the king of Persia. Now, you know what that means? If the king of Persia thinks you're doing your own show in Jerusalem, you can get your head chopped off.
So this is no small thing that they're going through. Nehemiah responds. He says, And then I sent a message to him, saying, Such things as you are saying have not been done. In other words, that's a lie. But you are inventing them in your own mind.
For all of them were trying to frighten us, thinking, they were trying to scare us. They will become discouraged with the work, and it will not be done. And then Nehemiah does what he does best. He says, But now, O Lord, strengthen my hands.
Brothers and sisters, there come times when you want to quit? Nehemiah's scared. You don't pray for strength unless you're losing it. When he found out that they had made it public, and now if it was possible, some of the people could doubt him. Some of his leaders could doubt his leadership.
Some of the people who had built up confidence, that confidence could be eroded overnight. And when he thought about the possibility that it might get back to the king, and the king believed it, his knees got shaky. Some of you have been trying to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ for a while, but every now and then your knees get shaky. Some of you have been trying to honor the Lord, and you want to walk out sometimes because your knees get shaky. Sometimes circumstances get so despairing that you want to quit.
Nehemiah says, Lord, strengthen my hands. Lord, help me to hang in there. That's when you need to go to God, when you're ready to quit. When you're ready to give up, don't give up. When you know you're doing what God wants you to do, hang in there.
Now he comes to a final test. Verse 10, we're introduced to Shemaiah. Shemaiah, we're told in the middle of verse 10, is confined at his home. Nehemiah comes to Shemaiah. He says in the second half of verse 10, Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night. Now what is Shemaiah giving? Shemaiah is giving a prophecy. God can use people to tell you what the Lord said. So let me be wrong.
People can be tools to guide you. But please be careful, for the Bible says Satan transforms himself as an angel of light. In other words, he can make himself look like the Lord. He can trick you, and so many people are being duped by cults and by religion and by leaders. But I said, should a man like me flee, and could one such as I go into the temple to save his life, I will not go in. He says, I will not go in. Verse 12, Then I perceived, call a word of knowledge, that surely God had not sent him, but he uttered his prophecy against me, because Tobiah and Sambalad had what?
Hired him. When God has told you something, and you're clear about what he's told you, he's not going to tell somebody else something that contradicts what he clearly told you. He said, let us meet, in the middle of verse 10, in the house of God within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple. Nehemiah's brain went, bing, naughty, naughty, naughty.
It is real. Only the priest could go into the intersectionary of the temple, and that's the Hebrew word he uses here. Only those who were the priests could go in. Now listen, anybody else who went into the holy of holies, other than the priest, was killed.
You dropped dead. Shemaiah was trying to get Nehemiah to act out of fear, to disobey what? The word of God. He was trying to get him to disobey the word of God because he was afraid. Some of you today are going through economic fear, and you're being tempted to disobey the word of God.
Some of you today are going through marital fear. You're being tempted to disobey the word of God. Some of you are going through relational fears, and you're tempted to disobey the word of God. Don't do it, because to disobey the word of God is to go where you ought not to go, and when you wind up being there, it's death. You will have been deceived.
He understands that he is being deceived. Verse 15, so the wall was completed on the 25th month. It's completed in how long?
52 days. Now, folks, listen to me. You know the words say, through many dangers, toils, and snails, I have already come. You don't arrive at the will of God with ease. You don't arrive at the completion of God's plan for your life without sambalas and tobyas and gishims in your life. You don't arrive at God's will without being challenged to be afraid, without the enemy trying to destroy you. In fact, if your life is going smooth all the time, you're not in the will of God. If your life is going without any ups and downs, you can't be in the will of God, because the Bible says, count it all joy when you come into your various colored, variated colored trials. Trials are an absolute necessity in steering you to the will of God.
So if you're going through a difficult time now, don't quit. Say, Lord, show me the way that I might walk in it. Show me the way that I might obey it.
Show me the way that I might follow it. And the beauty of this is that in spite of opposition, he says in verse 16, when all our enemies heard of it and all the nations surrounding us saw it, now get this, they lost their confidence for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. When you finally get the way you're going, don't forget God.
God finally brings that maiden to your life. Don't forget God. When he finally makes that business successful, don't forget God.
When he finally makes your world that's falling apart come together, you can now pay the bills. Don't forget God. The great tragedy today is that we finally get to where we want to go and we forgot how we got there. Nehemiah said, I will not forget that this happened because unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. The great tragedy today is that we have forgotten God and God has gotten mad about it, too. That we have forgotten that it's his strength and his power and his energy. If you're having a successful life, don't apologize for it, but don't forget God.
If God has given you a happy home, don't think it's just because of your personality. Don't forget God. Don't forget God. Nehemiah said, the nation saw that this was done by the help of our God. And Dr. Tony Evans will return with a quick challenge to wrap up today's message in just a moment. First, though, a reminder to take advantage of that special offer I mentioned earlier, your own copy of the full-length versions of all 15 messages in Tony's current teaching series on Nehemiah, along with One Nation Under God, his powerful book that takes a look at learning to care about what God cares about, especially in the areas of freedom, justice, economics, education, and politics.
These resources will help you identify specific strategies you can put to work to start a ripple effect of kingdom change. And they're yours with our thanks when you make a donation to the alternative ministry. Just visit tonyevans.org for details or call us at 1-800-800-3222.
Once again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. Nehemiah had a vision to restore the dignity of God's people when he called them to rebuild Jerusalem's broken walls. But even after the walls were complete, his mission was far from over.
Tomorrow, we'll find out what Nehemiah was up to next. But for now, Dr. Evans is back with these closing words. So today, my challenge is to stay on course in the will of God for your life, for your family's life, for your future. Don't compromise the will of God because if you forget God, you won't have the help you need to go where God wants to take you. We'll be right back.
