Pastor Craig
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THE RUBBISH BEHIND THE WALL By Pastor Craig Sicilia
NehemiahNehemiah, son of Hacaliah, was a cupbearer of the Persian King Artaxerxes. In 444 BC the king appointed Nehemiah to be the governor of Judah and permitted him to go to Jerusalem to help his fellow Jews. He rallied the people to rebuild the damaged walls around Jerusalem. Despite opposition from his enemies, Sanballat and Tobiah, he succeeded in rebuilding the walls in 52 days, and stationed guards at the city gates. In order to repopulate Jerusalem, he ordered that one out of every ten Jews should take residence in Jerusalem. He also instituted a series of social reforms including the cancellation of debts owed by the poor and the payment of tithes. He then returned to Persia. In 432 BC he came back to Jerusalem and enforced several laws, such as payment due to the Levites and the observance of the Sabbath. He is the author of the Book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. The name Nehemiah means "God has comforted."
NEHEMIAH 4: 1-10 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “what are those feeble Jews doing? Will the restore their wall? Will the offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-Burned as the are?
Tobiah the Ammonit, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!
Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their quilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. Meanwhile, the people in Judah
said, “The STRENGTH OF THE LOBORERS IS GIVING OUT< AND THERE IS SO MUCH RUBBISH
THAT WE CANNOT REBUILD THE WALL
The bible says the church is built upon the
foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
As we look at Nehemiah’s building of the wall, we see three groups of hinderers at work against the Lord’s work.. We also see them at work in our own lives today.
1 Ye Shall Not the “ye shall not” group usually consists of those from without, the unsaved, those who oppose God’s work whether it be Nehemiah’s wall, Christ’s church , our own Christian growth or our own Christian life. Those from without want to say, “Ye shall not.”
In Nehemiah’s case, this group consisted of Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem and all that company that followed Them. Nehemiah 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they Mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”
The enemies of God are saying to Nehemiah, “Ye shall not build the wall!”
They did not believe in God, had no affinity with His work, and they mocked Him. So they conspired together to try to hinder the work of God being done in Jerusalem. These men had actually made a sinister plot to stop the work.
We go on to Nehemiah 4:11 is says Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.”
They conspired against the work of God, made it known publicly, and said, “Ye shall not build that wall!”
Men like this still exist today! Often they are more sophisticated and more cleverly camouflaged than these men in the Book of Nehemiah, but they are present among us today! These enemies of the cross conspire against the work of God and the advancement of the Gospel of Christ on a worldwide level.
As I can see it I see things that hinder us every where every day.
City government is a hinderer. With its zoning restrictions and frivolous and costly codes, city government is hindering the work of Christ and the promotion of the Gospel in various ways. We cannot have anything that relates to Christ on a public building nor have a manger scene in the public square. Government is a hinderer that says, “Ye shall not!”
Look at the federal government and its abuse of what they call the separation of church and state. It tries to use this straw Constitution of the United States to foster the idea of separation of church and state to the extreme and they believe nothing of the church should have any influence upon the state-the exact opposite from the belief of our Founding Fathers. They said government shall not establish a religion, but they were always in favor of allowing religion to influence the government. Its easy to verify this. Read their statements, their writing; go to Washington and see the Word of God all over all the buildings they built.
Yet today the federal government says, “Ye shall not build!” it tries to use separation of church and state as an excuse to hinder the work of Christ.
Not only have the city and federal governments conspired to hinder the work, but the public school system is also a hinderer.
Public education teaches pro-evolution and pro-homosexuality. It has its own agenda: to brain was the children of the United States. They teach the children that homosexuality, abortion and all these “alternative lifestyles” are okay. They teach children that creation is a lie and that evolution is true: yet they cannot prove evolution, and they cannot disprove creation! It is a conspiracy against Christianity that says, “Ye shall not build!”
The legislative bodies are hinderers. Their hate-crime legislation is headed in the direction of halting Christianity. Its getting to the point where Christian preachers are in danger when they preach against sin, when they preach against homosexuality, their calling it a hate crime; when they preach against immorality, it will be called a hate crime; when they preach about wrong doings and evil, it will be called a hate crime.
You don’t believe it will happen? Hang on awhile. If things keep going the way they are going, it will be dangerous of a preacher to stand in the pulpit and preach the Gospel from the Word of God.
These hinderers and others are in effect saying, We’ve had enough of your Christianity. We’ve had enough of your morals. We’ve had enough of your restrictive lifestyles and trying to jam old fashioned teachings down our throats We’re going to halt it. You will not build.
Needless to say, the work continues because the work of Christ will march onward no matter who conspires against it.
These are some of the enemies, the hinderers, just like in Nehemiah’s day, who say, “Ye shall not”
Then there are the Ye Ought Not There are hinderers who say, “Ye shall not,” but there are others who say, “Ye ought not.” This group usually consists of those who have one foot in the work and one foot out in the world.
Lets go to Nehemiah 4:!2 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”
These hinderers are those Jews who had one foot in Jerusalem and one foot over with the enemies. These Jews had lived so near the enemy that they were influenced by the threats of the enemy. Ten times they came to Jerusalem and became a hindrance to the work of God. They said, “Maybe you ought not be so dead set on building this wall. Don’t you understand that you are putting yourselves and your families in danger? Maybe you should calm down a bit about this matter. Maybe you ought not be so foolhardy. Let’s talk about it.
They solicited the Jews one by one to abandon the work on the wall with appeals of genuine concern for their/ safety and that of their families
Today this group is comprised of weak, anemic, worldly Christians who have one foot in the church and one foot in the world. Their walk is wobbly and unsteady.
What do they say to the Christians who want to win people to Christ, who want to live like their forefathers-men and women who had standards and something about them that was different than the world? They say this; “Well, maybe you ought not be so strong headed about living for the Lord. It is the twenty-first century, you know!
This group of hinderers have been influenced by the world because the choose to live so close to the world. They would rather live closer to Arabia than to Jerusalem. They would rather live closer to the Ashdodites than the Jewish people. They have been influenced by the enemies in the land because they choose to live so close to them.
These hinderers have listened so closely to the world that they have adopted their ways. Living to close to the world causes them to adopt the world’s thinking and philosophies and its way of doing things. They will start to mimic the world and pattern their Christian lives after the world.
In our text, these Jews had been influenced by Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem and the other hinderers. They had now adopted their philosophies, but in their thinking they still wanted to be considered Jews.
So these hinderers came up with an idea; We’ll change their minds by reminding them of the dangers to themselves and their families. They tried to hinder the work which God had called Nehemiah to do.
Just as America has subcultures within it, hinderers have created an entire subculture within Christianity. These subcultures are nothing more than little satellites of worldliness floating around within the realm of Christianity.
These people live too close to the world. They
have been influenced by the Ashdodites. They bring their influences into there
Christianity and say,
Brothers and sisters the bible says what sin is and what it is not. It says that Jesus Paul and Peter preached against sin. From Genesis through Revelation we find preaching against sin; yet today the weak, wimpy Christians say, “ye ought not”
I don’t judge… You shouldn’t judge!!!! God is the judge and I want to always preach what He teaches.
These hinderers of the Gospel of Jesus say, “O preacher, you ought not mention names when you’re preaching. Well, Paul did. He warned Christians to beware of Alexander the coppersmith.
Weak Christians today do not want us to mention names. Tell me, how are you going to know who is right and who is wrong if the preacher does not name names especially the most highest of all names the name you can look to so you know what is right the name that will never lead you down the wrong path, the name Jesus Christ
The bible says, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing” (ll Cor. 6:17)
But this crowd wants inclusion, not separation. They say “You shouldn’t preach that old-time religion stuff. This is the twenty-first century. They say get with it man and get up to speed here, get up-to-date. Be cool and relate.
My friend, if the Word of God doesn’t relate, then what does it do? “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper that any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:!2)
Christians today who are weak and anemic have no power, no spiritual guts, no strength to stand up and say, “This is right , and that is wrong. We’ll go this far and no further! They have been influenced by the Ashdodites and the Ammonites and the Arabians. Because they have dwelt too close to them for so long, they’ve started to think like them and live like them. Now they begin to draw away the workers one by one to get them away from the wall.
We have churches in our city who don’t give two cents for the lost. They make no effort to win souls. They wouldn’t know how to lead someone to Christ if their lives depended on it.
But let the old-time, bible-believing, soul-winning Jesus teaching person go out and win some souls: and as soon as the hinderers hear about it, they want to draw those new converts away from the wall.
3 “We Can Not” There are those who hinder the work of our Lord by saying “Ye shall not.” There are those who hinder the work by saying “Ye ought not.” But there is a third group of hinderers who say, “We Cannot.
The most pressing peril that Nehemiah encountered in his work was from those within the ranks who said, “We cannot,” and they abandoned the work.
A deserter is more demoralizing than a dozen foes. One taken from the helpers and added to the hinderers makes a difference of two-it compounds itself.
What caused the unbelievers to say, “ye shall not,” was animosity toward the work of God. What caused the half-in and half-out Christians to say, “Ye ought not,” was the influence of the world. But what was it that caused those actually on the wall doing the work of God to say, “We cannot”? It was the rubbish!
Nehemiah. 4:10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubbish that we cannot rebuild the wall.
The rubbish was part of the old city, the old ruins. The rubbish of the past had become an obstacle to the future. The rubbish of the old wall, the past, hindered the work of the Lord.
They had a wall, but it was only half built because of the rubbish behind the wall. No doubt it was a fin-looking, sturdy, wall. As people walked past it and saw the wall built to the half, I’m sure they said, “Oh, my! What a wonderful, sturdy wall!” But the rubbish behind it hindered its completion, its effectiveness.
There are three walls that hinder the work of the Lord:
Walls Built by the World of Men A lot of people are building walls today. The world of men builds walls, but what types of walls?
They build the wall of respectability, with its high social standing and position: with their fancy cars, plush offices and huge salaries; with their expensive clothing. They want the rest of the world to look at this wall and say, “Oh, how respectable!” Yet behind this wall is the rubbish of the fallen nature.
Walls Built by the Corporate WorldCan you imagine working in a company like the following: This company has 535 members: 29 have been accused of spousal abuse 7 have been arrested for fraud; 19 have been accused of writing bad checks; 117 have bankrupted at least two businesses 3 have been arrested for assault 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges 8have been arrested for shoplifting 21 are current defendants in lawsuits 84 were stopped for drunk driving this organization is the United States Congress! Yet they have a wall of respectability, and behind that wall is all this rubbish of the fallen nature.
The corporate world tries to build a wall of acceptability. Three good examples of these walls are the tobacco industry, the booze industry and the gambling industry. While they are getting people addicted to their walls of gambling and alcohol and tobacco people are losing their marriages and families and homes- in some cases, their lives. Yet they want the people of the world to accept them as respectable companies.,
How do they deceive the public into believing that their wall of acceptability is respectable? They build things like hospitals, even though they are responsible for a significant portion of the patients in the hospitals. They make donations to charities, sponsor parades, send help in disaster areas and do good civic deeds. They build arenas and social centers. Why? So their wall of acceptability will be respected. But behind that wall is the rubbish- death, destruction and disease that they themselves promote.
What is behind the wall is really what is important. Behind the wall of man and his respectability is the rubbish of fallen nature. Behind the wall of the corporate world and its acceptability are the wickedness of its trade and the rubbish that it produces.
Walls Built by the Christian World The Christian world builds a wall of spirituality and tries to hide behind it. Sometimes that wall is as frail as the wall of respectability built by men and as flimsy as the wall of acceptability built by the corporate world.
This wall of spirituality has false perceptions, phony concerns and an outward appearance of Christianity. Yet behind this wall lies the rubbish.
All the sinful practices that go on behind that wall; pride, lust, rebellion, twisted relationships and worldly ideas.
Things will pile up from the old life if we allow them to do so, and soon behind our wall of spirituality we have a large pile of rubbish and filth. No wonder we only have a half-built wall.
Anybody can build a wall. The Jews had a wall, but they didn’t get rid of the rubbish. My friends if you keep the rubbish behind the wall, sooner or later it will become too much for you, and you will have to stop with a half-built wall because the rubbish has piled up and you can’t see over the rubbish. This wall in front of our platform is high enough to hide some things from your view, but it can only hide so much. If we let too many things pile up behind this wall, sooner or later they will be higher than the wall. Those things will eventually spill out over the wall, and you’ll see the rubbish.
My friend, the same thing will happen to you if you’re not careful. The spiritual wall that you’ve built is only so high, and if you allow rubbish in you life it will keep piling up and you can only hide so much. When the rubbish is more that your half-built wall can hide, it will spill out over the top.
The work on our spiritual walls can be hindered because of the rubbish which has fallen from the neglected walls of our living, and it will add to the rubbish from our old lives.
Keep walking around your wall and checking it out and removing the rubbish or it will pile up and hinder you.
This filth and rubbish hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. This filth and rubbish hinder the work of personal growth. This filth and rubbish hinder the personal work of holiness within and without. Personal holiness is more important on the inside than on the outside. Holiness on the outside is just a half-built wall, but when personal holiness gets on the inside, your wall will be strong. What counts is what is behind the wall.
The greatest danger that will knock down your wall is your reaction to you own rubbish. Some Christians have rubbish behind their walls of spirituality; but they say, “That stuff is not real rubbish because it doesn’t stink. It doesn’t have any mold on it.” They excuse their rubbish and allow it to stay there. They say, “well you know how busy I am. The rubbish just sort of built up over time, but I’ve got to much to do to clear it away from my wall.”
My friend, don’t excuse the rubbish. Sin is sin, no matter what you call it, we need to work toward our walk with Jesus.
Then some Christians blame the rubbish behind their walls on someone else. “I wouldn’t have all that rubbish there if it wasn’t for Mr. So-and-so! He brought in that rubbish over there. And that other pile is from Mrs. So-and-so.” You need to forgive and forget
Who cares who put the rubbish there! It is behind your wall, and you are responsible for the care of your wall.
We cannot deny the rubbish, we cannot excuse the rubbish, and we cannot blame the rubbish on anybody else. The rubbish is there. So how do you clean it out?
Tidy Up the Wall
Al long as believers allow the rubbish to remain, we will never come to the effectiveness desired of us by God. As long as we remain among the rubbish, we hinder the work. As long as we deny the rubbish or excuse the rubbish or blame the rubbish on someone else, we will never be able to remove it.
The first step in removing the rubbish is to recognize the rubbish for what it is , SIN. We must take out the rubbish so we can finish the wall. If we don’t, we won’t be what God wants us to be.
We will never remove the rubbish on a higher level until we are ready to remove the rubbish on a personal level.
Nehemiah could handle the people who said, “Ye shall Not.” He could handle the people who said, “Ye ought not.” But what could he do with the people who said, “We will not”?
What could he do with those who said, “We will not remove the rubbish”?
We remove the rubbish from our cars, form our homes, from our backyards. So why will we not remove the rubbish from our hearts and lives? Because we have built a spiritual wall, and we think that that wall can hide the rubbish. But the wall can only hide it for a limited time, and if we don’t deal with it, it will pile up and spill over. All the while it hinders our work, and we have to step around the rubbish.
Is it any wonder that the enemy laughs when there is such a lack of power? Is it any wonder that we do not have peace of joy or contentment of the Holy Spirit? Is it any wonder that we go in the wrong direction?
Only you and God know the rubbish behind your wall. Don’t be deceived and make the mistake of ignoring what is behind your wall. Let God speak to you. Come before Him and say, “Father in Heaven, there is rubbish behind my wall, and it is hindering my work. I want to be going in the right direction with You. Identify the rubbish, Father, and together let us clear it out so I can get back into full service to You again. Thank you Father, Amen
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pastor Craig Sicilia productions
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