Turn with me in your Bibles to Nehemiah. About a month ago, we looked at the first section of Nehemiah. And we'll pick up where we left off. So, Nehemiah chapter 2, beginning with verse 9. And we'll read through the rest of chapter 2. Nehemiah 2, beginning with verse 9. So I went to the governors of trans-Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officials and cavalry with me. When Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite official, heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days, I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night I went out through the valley gate towards the jackal well and the dung gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the fountain gate and the king's pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through. So I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the valley gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or the nobles or officials or any others, who would be doing the work. Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, let us start rebuilding. So they began this good work. 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? I answered them by saying, the God of heaven will give us success. We, his servants, will start rebuilding. But as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it. Thus ends the reading of God's word. So when we began about a month ago looking at Nehemiah, we saw that the Jews who had returned were still living amongst the ruins of Jerusalem 90 years, almost 90 years after their return. But God raised up a restorer for Jerusalem, Nehemiah, who was the cupbearer to the king of Persia. And he heard about the situation in Jerusalem. The broken down walls, the burned gates. And he had concern for God's people. And he prayed a prayer of repentance, calling on God's promises that he had given, promises of restoration. And he went about approaching the king, tactfully approaching the king, and asking for permission to go and rebuild Jerusalem. And God had given him success. But now in our text where we pick up, we find out that getting permission from the king was just the first hurdle that Nehemiah would face, that he would have to overcome to implement this plan that God had given to him. And so this morning we're going to look at two battles we can find in our text. Battles that face Nehemiah. Battles which in many ways continue on through the rest of the book. And though they're intertwined, it's helpful to distinguish them. And they will be our two points. First, we can look at it as the battle between good and evil. And secondly, the battle for the people. So our text begins with Nehemiah taking this long journey from the capital of Persia, Susa, to Judea. Though it's very shortened here, one verse. He comes to these governors, and he comes with all of the outward appropriateness of royal sending. He has letters for the governors. He comes even with a military escort, and he shows up here in Judea. But immediately, there's opposition. There's opposition by outsiders, and as we'll see, there's opposition by insiders. But who is this opposition? When we see in verse 10, Sanballat and Tobiah. Well, we're not given much description here. Because Nehemiah, in his description, focuses not so much on the external, you could say, the political reality, but he goes beyond that. He drives home to a greater reality. But we can fill out the picture. Who are Sanballat and who are Tobiah? Well, in the context, he's just come to the governors, the governors of these regions that are far off. And so we could expect Sanballat and Tobiah to be members of this group. That is how they heard. That is how they heard what he was doing. And we actually find that that's true. We find it not so much in Nehemiah, but in extra biblical evidence that we have, that there was a governor in Samaria, the province that is north of Judea and he was Sanballat. And we could also get to that by his name. He's Sanballat the Horonite. What does that mean? Well, most likely it refers that he's from either the town of Upper Beit Horon or Lower Beit Horon and both of them were in Samaria, in the province of Samaria. And so this is the governor just to the north of Judea. But not only that, this is also the place where just earlier in Israel's history, as recorded in Ezra 4, had been in opposition to an earlier attempt to rebuild. The governor of Samaria had organized forces during the reign of Artaxerxes, the king that Nehemiah is serving, and they had stopped the building of a wall in Jerusalem. And so this Sanballat has a keen interest in Judea. He was probably the one who oversaw it. He probably had some sort of influence on it, that it was under his jurisdiction. And now comes this new guy, This new guy who is going to make it more independent. Who is going to take away his influence. And we could say much the same for Tobiah. We see that he's called Tobiah the Ammonite official. And Ammon was just to the east of Jerusalem. Just to the east of Judea. So now we have an enemy right to the north, an enemy right to the east. And as we read through, we find that not only was this Tobiah, this Ammonite official, but he has ties in Jerusalem itself. And not just anywhere, even with the high priests. And so these men, Sanballat and Tobiah, have a vested interest in Jerusalem, we could say. And they are very opposed to what Nehemiah is about to do, what he is trying to carry out. And we could talk a little bit about their names. We'll get to that in a second here. But first, how does Nehemiah describe this, right? We don't get, and Sanballat, the governor, and Tobiah, the governor, were opposed. We instead just get their names. And what does he say? Well, he begins a play on good and evil. Something that continues on in this text. And so we could rather rigidly translate verse 10. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, it was evil to them, a very great evil, that someone had come to seek good for the welfare of the sons of Israel. Nehemiah coming for the good of the people is evil to these men. Nehemiah's concern for God's people, his wanting to build them up, is evil to these men. They are opposed to God's good plan for his people. They are opposed to those who would seek to do good for God's people. And they themselves would claim some sort of tie with God's people. There is a play here in that Tobiah actually means Yahweh is good. He has a good Jewish name. This is a name that every Jewish boy would be proud to have. And yet, here he is, an Ammonite official. Here he is opposed to good for God's people, good that God would do. And we find elsewhere that Sanballat also gives his sons good Jewish names. But they are not following the true worship of Yahweh, the true worship of the God of Israel. They are part of these places that have melded together, have become synchristic. They are taking what is outside and what is true in the Bible and they're putting it together. And it's no longer true worship. And that influence of theirs is coming into Judea, coming into Jerusalem. And so Nehemiah rightly sees their opposition as this battle. This battle between good and evil. This battle that we really could say has raged from the beginning. The battle that began in the garden. The battle that is between the seed of the serpent, the devil, and the seed of the woman, those whom God has called out. This is the same opposition that God's people face throughout their history. The same opposition that Jesus faced when he came as the devil sought to stop him as he came to do good for the sons of Israel. And in many ways, it is the battle that we still fight, the battle that we are still waging. But the opposition Nehemiah faces isn't just from the outside. And we can see this in the next section in the secrecy that he implements as he comes. Nehemiah comes and he has to deliver these letters to the governors, but notice that he doesn't tell anything to the people when he shows up in Jerusalem. Here comes this man riding, very official, with his military escort, and he doesn't tell them what's going on. He keeps that to himself. And we see this in verse 12, right? I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. And then also verse 16. The officials didn't know where I had gone or what I was doing because I hadn't informed anyone yet. So he comes there three days and he hasn't informed them. He's come to help them rebuild and he doesn't come in with fanfare blowing of what his plan is because he knows that even amongst those in Jerusalem, there are those who would oppose him. Those who would oppose the good that he was seeking. He needs to feel out the situation. He needs to feel out the people. And as a good leader, he also needs to see what the work is. what he needs to do, what the plan will be. And so this is the point of his night ride, we could say, beginning in verse 13. We get a great description of him going out these various gates and going by these wells. And he's the only one with a horse and he's doing it all at night, very secret-like. He wanted to know what the situation was before he brought it to the people. He had to assess how bad the walls were, what the gates were like, where they were going to rebuild. And the places that he mentions there are in the southern part of the city of Jerusalem, where the slope is the steepest, where it would be the most difficult to build. And so he has to see how the walls have fallen, where he can put the line of the wall and get all of this organized before he comes to the people. So that when he comes, they are ready to proceed. They are ready to move forward with speed because of the opposition facing them. And so this is what he does. He comes and he looks. And then the next morning, he gathers the people. He gets them together. And only then does he tell them of his plan, of what he's going to do. And here again, we get him talking in the terms of good and evil. So if we look in verse 17, he tells them, Then I said to them, you see the trouble, or more literally, the evil we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild. They are in evil situations. They are under this disgrace. But he also tells them of the good. Verse 18. I also told them about the hand of the Lord which was upon me for good. He has this plan and God has already prospered it as he asked the king. And as the king sent him and as the king gave him these letters. God is prospering him for good. This good plan he has, God's good hand has been upon him. And when the people respond, when they respond positively to his call, he says in verse 18, the end of it, so they began the good. They strengthened their hands for the good. They again, Nehemiah again here shows us the deeper reality going on here. That this is not just about a wall. Not just about who has trade routes. Not just about who has power and influence in this or that. This is the opposition between good and evil of God's people. That God is using Nehemiah to good, to further them for the good. But what do we find right away after that? The people respond, right? They respond to Nehemiah. And again, the opposition hears. Sanballat and Tobiah. What does this show you? Well, first we could say it does show you that there are spies amongst those in Jerusalem. that he was right to be wary as he went into Jerusalem. Because he talks to them, he tells them of his plan. And as soon as he tells them, there are those going out reporting, those going out telling these others, those in opposition. But we also, as we read this, we see we have Sanballat, we have Tobiah, and now we have a third person, Geshem the Arab. And most likely he was the king of a tribe that ruled to the south of Judea. So now the opposition grows, not only Samaria to the north, Ammon to the east. Now we have Geshem and his tribe to the south. They are surrounded. Nehemiah has opposition on all sides. The people have opposition on all sides. And they right away try to push, they right away try to discourage the people, the people who have just agreed to this, who have just agreed to try and rebuild. They come to oppose, they come to intimidate. They bring, well first they ridicule, first they mock them. But then they use the tactics they've used before. The tactics of sedition, rebellion will bring false reports against you. Are you trying to rebel? The people might become scared because of this. The Nehemiah might become scared because of this. What if they do bring these reports to the king? What will the king do then? Will he again stop the building? Will they be back to square one? Maybe it would be better if they stopped. Maybe it would be better if they didn't proceed any further. So what does Nehemiah do? How does he respond to these accusations? Does he give a detailed report of the letters that he got? Every sign of his official sending by the king? Actually, no. He doesn't justify their accusation with a response. He sees through what they are trying to do, and he really strikes at the heart of their opposition, showing them what he is about, what he is going to do. They wanted, as we mentioned, influence over Judea. They wanted to control it for not only the power, the prestige, the wealth it would bring in, but they were even trying to influence the religion of Judea. And Nehemiah shows to them what they are really doing. They are opposing God. Look how he answers them. I answered him by saying, the God of heaven will give us success. You can accuse all you want. You can accuse us of doing all these things that you know are not true. You saw my letters, you know all that. But even more importantly, you are opposing God in this. God will give us success for this. But not only that, he shows them that they have no part. He is making a distinction. They have taken up the side of evil against God's people. They have taken up the side against those who want good for God's people. And so he tells them that you have no share in Jerusalem, no claim, no historic right. He denies them any civic or any legal responsibility over Jerusalem. And also any part of their cultic community. They have shown themselves to be opposed to God's people. And he is going to make a distinction. They are outside the community. They are not part of God's people. And he will not let them have an influence among God's people. He will put them out. They are opposing God and he will defend God's people. But now we can shift to look at this other battle that we could say is raging in here. Not this battle between good and evil, though it's part of that. because it's really what this battle between good and evil is about. And it's the battle for the people. One commentator on Nehemiah says that as we read Nehemiah, the real drama is not so much focused on Nehemiah. We know he has opposition, and we'll bring that out. But we see him succeeding. We see him doing what is right throughout the book. The real drama is what will the people do? When Nehemiah comes for their good, what will they do? How will they respond? Will they rally behind him? Will they follow what he's doing? Will they see what it is good and proper for God's people to do and follow Nehemiah in that? These people who have struggled, who struggle in opposition, who struggle in disobedience, how will they respond? And we see them responding in various ways throughout the book. And this is really Nehemiah's concern as he comes to Jerusalem. We mentioned that earlier. The wall is important, but what is it for? It's for the people. That is what he's really after, right? He's there for the good of the sons of Israel, not to build some impressive monument, not to have some standing fame for himself. This is for the people. This is a concern to separate them from the nations about, to bring them to what God has called them to. And this is really what we could again say God is doing throughout history. That he is making a distinction. He is calling a people to himself, calling a people to come out of the world, calling a people to leave the sinfulness of the world around and be separated for himself. This is what God promised right after the fall. He did not say judgment will be on you now and forever. Instead, he announced the history of redemption. And he announced it by saying, I will put enmity between you and the woman. Between her offspring and yours. Satan, you have taken my people, but I will not stop there. I will take them back. I will make a distinction. I will call this people out. They will no longer be your people. They will be my people. They will be my people for all time. And so this is what God is doing in this world. As he takes a people for himself. As he separates them after their fall, after the fall into sin. Redeeming them to be his own possession. Those that are his special inheritance, his people. And so this was what Nehemiah was after. What Nehemiah was seeking as he came to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. He was coming not for the physical repair itself, but to call this people to be unique. To call this people to be the people of God. To call this people to do and act as what is appropriate. And so he comes as this wise leader, seeing the task before him, and he pours out, he implores these people, as he calls them, right? See the trouble, verse 17, see what's come upon us. Let's rebuild so that we will no longer be under disgrace. He comes to them pleading, exhorting to do what it is that the people of God should do, what they should do. And this is really the call that God continues to send out. It is, in the end, the call of his gospel. God is calling sinful men like you and I to come and be separate from the world, to have a different hope, to have different priorities, to seek the things of God, not the things of this world, Not the fleeting pleasures that the world runs after all around us. It's God's call, it's Christ's call to take up his cross and follow him. But as we look at Nehemiah's call here, it's helpful for us to dwell a little bit on it because it comes in somewhat a different form than we have to us. He's calling them to rebuild a physical wall. He's calling them to come rebuild. He's saying that we should do this because we're in this evil situation, right? The nations around us have reproached us. Let us get out from under this reproach. As he says, the end of 17, Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. And as we mentioned last time, this was a very appropriate and right concern for Nehemiah to have. That the ruins of Jerusalem, they not only left Israel defenseless against those who would oppose them, but it also made them the laughingstock of their neighbors. They were under a curse and they were seen as that by the nations all around. The nations could taunt them to mock them and make fun of them. But Israel has a political expression of God's kingdom, right? As this political people called out, they were to seek after the signs of political success and glory, We could say, not for their sake, but because they were God's people. They were his expression in this world. And so this evil situation, their disgrace, was not compatible with their status as God's people, as them being chosen, as them being his special inheritance. But we need to emphasize in this a discontinuity between Israel and us, the church. There is a continuity that we are all the people of God. There's one plan from the beginning. We can call Israel the Old Testament church. And yet, the church is spiritual in nature. It is not political. It is not national like Israel. The church is not to have political aspirations to seek to have land and power as Israel was rightly supposed to. Instead, the church is concerned with the preaching of the gospel, the sacraments, the guarding of the flock. We don't ignore the physical needs of the people of God, but the calling of the church is for its spiritual well-being. And because of this difference, we can't take this passage to argue for some sort of glorious expression, outward expression that the church should have. This call to arise and build is not a very good proof text for a building campaign for a church. It's about something else. Now, don't get me wrong, it's great to have buildings. I'm glad we have our building. And I'm glad our church is thoughtful and wise to look towards the future whenever we would need a new building. But buildings are just that. They're just a structure. They're just a place for us to meet. They are not the church's duty. They are not the spiritual task that has been given to it to preach the gospel throughout the world, to make Christians and to baptize them in every tribe, tongue, and nation. Instead, as we think of Nehemiah's assessment here, that it was evil, that they were under disgrace, they were under reproach, we could take this in a couple ways. How is it that we are under reproach in an evil situation? Well, the first is we could say that the church is often reproached. Because it is still sinful. How often do you hear, why do I want to go to church? It's full of hypocrites. Or it's full of sinners. All the Christians I know are just unfriendly and judgmental. That is the reproach that too often we face. Because we as those who bear Christ's name do not bear it very well. We are still sinners in that. And so we should see that evil situation, the reproach we're under by that. And we seek, as we are the ambassadors of Christ, to show his love, to show his grace, to show his gospel to each and every one that we interact with, neighbor by neighbor, co-worker by co-worker. that we are to seek after getting out of this reproach, getting out from under this disgrace. But in maybe a better, a more profound sense, we are actually called to be under reproach, to be in disgrace, just as Christ was when he came. Christ, when he came, was a shock for many of the Jews. He didn't come powerful. Politically, he didn't come with armies. He came as a servant. He came to suffer. He came to die a horrible death on a cross. This was the stumbling block for the Jews. How could they look to a suffering Messiah? How could they look to one who was despised and mocked as their king? They weren't willing to accept that. Well, the church often is called to fall under that same reproach, that same disgrace. We are, because we don't seek the political, because we don't seek the worldly, we are often weak. The church is seen as weak, as frail, as suffering and persecution, as it's oppressed. But we're not called to seek glory in this age. Instead, we're called, as Christ said, to pick up our cross and follow him. To bear his reproach in this world. Our glory is not for this world. Our glory is for the world to come. when Christ returns. And so, dear people of God, this morning, as we've looked at this passage, I call you to see the spiritual battle all around us. Just as Nehemiah and Israel were surrounded, surrounded by those who would oppress the good for the sons of Israel, we are surrounded by this world. This world that would very much like to influence us. To push its priorities on us. To influence how we worship. To influence what we believe in. Make us conform to its agenda. May we see that battle, identify it and say no. No, you have no part in the people of God. But also, let us in this morning answer in many ways Nehemiah's call. Come, build, come arise and labor. Not for outward glory, not for the political, right? But for the spiritual Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. The Jerusalem that is the church. The Jerusalem that is the bride of Christ. And so let us seek good for God's people. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord of all, we know that history is in your control. We know that the battle lines have been drawn since the beginning and we thank you that you have chosen to redeem to call out a people for yourself and may may we clearly identify may we see the world for what it is and may you give us the strength may you give us the courage to work for your church to preach your gospel, to guard the flock. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.