[0:00] All right, take your Bibles if you would and turn with me to the book of Nehemiah chapter 3. Nehemiah chapter 3 and verse 1. And I am excited to be able to talk to you about this today. I want to talk to you about failing to finish well.
[0:12] Now since I am like, I'm looking around, I am like the fourth oldest person in the room. I can talk about that. Let's see, yeah, fifth. I'm moving down. Let me look around. I'm fifth or sixth oldest.
[0:24] But in Nehemiah chapter 3, we start off with a guy named Eliashib. And he is going to start very well. He is going to end very poorly.
[0:35] And I have preached a lot of funerals in my life. I don't really enjoy funerals, though I find them easier than weddings. People at weddings remember what you did a little.
[0:46] People at funerals don't remember what you did. Amen? And so y'all should have laughed at that. That was good. Now I'll hold up a cue card here. All right. Laugh now. Okay. But I want to finish well.
[0:59] I want to finish well. I want my life to count, not just when I got started. So they started building the wall. And in Nehemiah chapter 3, you've got the story of the wall being built around Jerusalem.
[1:11] And they start at the Sheep Gate, and they go all the way back around to the Sheep Gate as Nehemiah explains what happens in that story. Read with me, if you would, Nehemiah chapter 3 and verse 1. And I know it's the second time you've read it, and then we'll pray.
[1:24] But look at Nehemiah chapter 3 and verse 1. Then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priest, and they builded the Sheep Gate. They sanctified it and set up the doors of it, even under the Tower of Mea, and they sanctified it under the Tower of Haniel.
[1:40] Father, I pray now that you would help everybody in this room. There's some in this room that are not certain that they would go to heaven if they died. They have yet to realize they're a sinner.
[1:52] They have yet to realize they need help. They have yet to realize they need to be rescued, to be saved. And I'm praying, God, that today they would see their need of a Savior, and they would trust you to save them.
[2:02] And then there are people, Lord, in this room this very morning that are saved, but they're not doing well, and they're not headed to finishing well.
[2:13] And I'm praying that you would let this passage of Scripture help all of us that we would get our lives on line with who and what we really want to be because we are your children. And I will give you praise, honor, and glory for all that you do.
[2:25] In Jesus' name, amen. First thing I want you to do is, in your Bible, underline this, high priest. Eliashib, the high priest. He had the position of a high priest.
[2:37] He was born from the family of Aaron, a long line of godly men. All the time, when I was a kid, I used to read a ton of biographies. It always interested me how many biographies said he comes of a long line of preachers.
[2:51] He's the fifth one in his family to be a preacher. I don't hear much about that anymore. But I do believe parents have a lot to do with how their kids turn out. I do believe parents have a lot to do with how their kids turn out.
[3:04] Yeah, that's better. And so here, O Eliashib, though, is coming from a long line of family members here. He's the highest spiritual leader in Israel. He lives in the city of God.
[3:15] He lives and works on the wall. He has worked well and led well from the beginning. He's setting an example. He is the high priest. Now, we don't really know who that is very much, so let's take our Bibles and go to Hebrews 5, verse 1 real quickly, where it pretty well outlines who this high priest is and what he does.
[3:33] Hebrews 5, verse 1, where it outlines what a high priest is in the book of Hebrews. The Bible says in Hebrews 5, verse 1, For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
[3:52] I wish you'd have a Bible in your hand and a piece of paper and an ink pen. I wish you'd mark things so that when you go home, you can study this and look it over. But I want you to notice the priest was there for men.
[4:05] So look, if you would, in chapter 5 and verse 1. And underline, he was taken from among men. So God could have chosen our spiritual leaders to be angels. God could have chosen our spiritual leaders to be some other created being, but God's way of doing it was to put a man with his people, a man they could know, a man that was one like them.
[4:27] That's why we would believe in church planting and planting a lot of churches and getting them close to people because people ought to know, be able to see, and know they have a man from among men.
[4:38] But then I want you to know in the verse, Ordained for men. Underline that in your Bible. Ordained for men. So when God picked this man, he said, Hey, buddy, your job is for them.
[4:48] You are going to work in their lives. This high priest was there to be a blessing to those people. And he would take care of doing the sacrifices. If you look at it, it says, In all the things pertaining to God, you're there for those people in the sacrifices for sins.
[5:04] Look at chapter 5, verse 2. The high priest was to love and have compassion on people. And he could do that because he's one of them. You know, the Bible says basically that a pastor ought to be a married man.
[5:18] He ought to have a family with some kids, to be blunt honest with you. You don't have to do that to get into ministry to begin with. But the truth is, you know, a married man understands marriage and married people. And a man that's got a wife and some kids has an idea of what it's like on Sunday morning.
[5:33] On the only day of the week when we were young, the only day of the week we couldn't find the kids' shoes was Sunday morning. They were there right where they were supposed to be on Monday. I used to think when I was a kid, the devil must go through this house and hide shoes on Saturday night.
[5:45] Could have been one of my kids, though. But anyway, look at what it says in your Bible. Underline it. It says, Who can have compassion on the ignorant. You should underline that. Compassion on the ignorant. He didn't look at people who didn't know and get angry with them.
[5:58] He looked at them and said, They don't know. I need to feel for them. I need to hurt for them. I need to get the message to them. Then underline in the verse, it says, Out of the way. On them that are out of the way.
[6:08] Some people didn't know any better. Some people did know better. Some people didn't know any better and weren't doing right. Some people knew better and on purpose got out of the way. But he said, I can understand because I am also compassed with infirmity.
[6:23] Would you underline that? Compassed with infirmity. If you were an angel, you would have no idea. If you were an angel, a literal angel from heaven, and he was the pastor of the church, he'd just fly down here in the morning, get ready to preach.
[6:34] He'd walk in the room, and he'd have no idea what it was like to get all the kids ready. He'd have no idea what it was like to have worked all week long. He'd have no idea what it was like to put up with kids that are crying or wives and husbands that are fighting.
[6:45] He'd have had no idea. But the man of God, this high priest, Eliashib is in the Old Testament, he knows he's human too. He knows he's married too. He knows he's raising kids too.
[6:56] He works with ignorant people. He works with people who have gotten off track because he understands them. And he wasn't better than anybody. Look, if you would, in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 3, it says, And by reason hereof, for the people, so also for himself to offer sins.
[7:12] So in the Old Testament, this high priest led in the sacrifice. He led in taking those sheep and putting them on the altar, and that sheep dying for, and as a substitute for the people. But he couldn't walk around like he was high and mighty and better than people.
[7:26] He had to walk around saying, before I can get around offering y'all sheep, I've got to take care of my own sheep because I've got my sin. I need a Savior just like you need a Savior. I'm not high and lifted up. I'm not an angel.
[7:37] I'm a person just like you. Now, everybody ought to get a hold of the position that God gives us to love and reach out to people. Eliashib was the high priest. What a privilege to have that position.
[7:49] I'd like to ask you this morning, do you know who you are in Christ? See, Eliashib, he's the man of God. He's the high priest. He's going to help build a wall. But everybody in this room, we're in the New Testament now.
[8:00] And there's not one priest in this room. He made us priests and kings. There's not one person in this room now who can talk to God. This is a room full of the servants of God. Amen. This is a room full of priests.
[8:12] This is a room full of people who can pray. This is a room full of people who can have compassion on the ignorant. This is a room full of people that can care about people right out of the way. And so do you know who you are?
[8:23] Are you exercising your priestly privileges as you go about your week? Because Eliashib might have been a high priest, but you and I were made priests by the Lord Jesus Christ.
[8:34] Go with me if you would in the second thing in that verse. Go back to Nehemiah chapter 3 and verse 1. Nehemiah chapter 3 and verse 1. In the story, Eliashib's purpose is to build the sheep gate.
[8:46] Look if you would in 3.1. Then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and builded the sheep gate. And they sanctified it and set up the doors of it under the tower of Meah, and they sanctified it under the tower of Haniel.
[9:03] That's a door. See, there's apparently 11 doors around the city. Only 10 are mentioned here, but at least 11, maybe 12. Only 10 are mentioned in this particular chapter.
[9:14] But they're all around there, and every door had a purpose. You got that dung gate, and that dung gate's where you took out the refuge. That's where the garbage went. In fact, it was right outside the dung gate was a place that was the Valley of Henna, and it was the valley that would become Gehenna.
[9:28] It was the valley that would be the place that Jesus used as an illustration of hell, because out there was full of garbage and refuge and the things that people threw away and their excrement and everything else.
[9:40] And the worms never died, and the fires never went out. And Jesus used that dung gate. But this one's the sheep gate. If you're a Christian and you read the Bible, this is the gate that ought to excite you more than every other gate around that city.
[9:54] Because the sheep gate was really close to the altar where you took the sheep to die, and the sheep gate's where the high priest is living, and the sheep gate's where the priests are going to work, because they know that everything in that city and everything about what goes on is about the fact that a substitute has to die.
[10:10] Now, this verse ought to make you think right in your Bible right here, John 1, 29. John 1, 29. The Bible said that John the Baptist was baptizing, and he's down in the river there, and he looks up on the hill, and here comes Jesus walking, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
[10:30] Now, let's just real briefly go over something about salvation. Nobody gets to go to heaven by what they do. We all go to heaven because we sinned and failed and could not, but a substitute took our place and died for us and paid our sin debt.
[10:48] The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 53 that God placed our sins on him. He was bruised for our iniquities. And so in this chapter, we're talking, in this verse here, we're talking about the sheep gate.
[10:59] That sheep gate's the place where they brought the sheep in. And the sheep are going to be sacrificed. The sheep are going to be a substitute. Our payment, our sin will be laid on them. Look at you.
[11:10] Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. Look at you. It's the sheep gate. I'd ask you a question today. Have your sins been forgiven? Do you know that you have been to the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world?
[11:23] Do you know that you realize somebody needs to make a sacrifice? All these old Jewish people, they lived and worked in a situation where they knew they'd sinned. They knew they'd broken the rules.
[11:34] They knew God wasn't pleased. And they knew they'd pay the price of their sins. And so God made a way for them to take care of that. They would take a lamb. And that lamb would be sacrificed for them. And so that's why those sheep are coming in the sheep gate.
[11:45] And they died there by the tens of thousands to atone for sin. One sheep died. The Lamb of God died. And he died to take away your sin. And this morning, if you're not saved, if you're not born again, you couldn't fix what's wrong with you.
[12:00] You couldn't make things right with God. But God could make things right between you and him. And God did make things right between you and him when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary for you. Do you know you're saved?
[12:11] I want you to look, if you would, at chapter 3 and verse 1. I want you to underline this in there. Of all the gates in the whole chapter, this is the only one that gets this. It's double blessed, double sanctified, double holified.
[12:23] Look at it. Look at it, if you would. Chapter 3, verse 1. Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They sanctified it.
[12:35] They blessed it. They cleansed it. They dedicated it. They said, this is the gate for God here. Then it says, they set the doors of it on the Tower of Mea, and they sanctified it.
[12:45] Two times, they sanctified it. Because that's the holy place. You do know, you're not going to heaven because you got baptized. You're not going to go to heaven because you prayed a prayer.
[12:58] You're not going to go to heaven because you joined a church. You're not going to go to heaven because you took a catechism class. You're not going to go to heaven because you did any of those things. You're going to go to heaven because you accepted a free gift that came from what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[13:14] The Bible says in Romans 6.23, a verse everybody ought to memorize. Can you say it with me? Let's see if y'all can say it with me. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life.
[13:26] But how? Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now go with me back to Nehemiah chapter 3 and verse 1. First, I see that Eliashib was the high priest, and then he was building that gate.
[13:37] But just look what he does. He motivates those other priests to get involved in building the gate. He motivates the other priests to get involved. It says Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brethren, the priests, and they built the sheep gate.
[13:53] Not only did he go to work, but he got others to go to work. Now you know, if you're the high priest of the high priest, you're like the pope of the Jewish group here in the city. If anybody doesn't have to get their hands dirty, if anybody doesn't have to work, it would have been Eliashib.
[14:06] But Eliashib said, nope, nope, nope. Let's go. I'm going to work. I'll put my hands in there. I'll grab those little rocks, and I'll help mix mortar, and I'll build this city. We were in Outicipa, Peru, years ago. And there was the first guy who had lots of money compared to the rest of them that came to our church.
[14:20] He was a fairly wealthy fellow. He lived in a three-story house. He owned the house. No debt on the house. He lived on the good side of town. And we were putting the roof on one of the churches. The Hunter Church was putting a roof on it. And he showed up, and he said, I'm part of this church, so I'm going to go ahead and help you.
[14:35] He said, I had never carried a bucket of mortar in my life. I have never helped build it. I just paid somebody to do it. But since we're doing this for God, I think I'll go ahead and carry a bucket up. And he worked all day long with all the poor people, and he carried it up.
[14:47] That's what's going on here. Eliashib said, hey, I'm ready to get involved in the work. And Eliashib then motivates those other guys, and they get in the work too. Leaders, pastors, deacons, parents.
[14:59] I ought to set the example to all around us at all times. We ought to set the example to everybody around us. We ought to do everything we do for the glory of God.
[15:09] 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 11 is a verse we ought to write here in the margin of the Bible. You ought to remember this. It says, whether, therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
[15:23] I would ask you here at our church, are you one of those nobles who won't get involved in the work? Are you one of those guys who says, I won't dirty my hands. I won't give out a gospel track. I won't invite anybody else.
[15:35] I'll take any prestigious job you got. Any job where I can look good, I'll take that, but I won't do the little things. Eliashib knew better than that. We shouldn't flippantly do even our secular jobs.
[15:48] Wherever you work, all of it ought to be done to the glory of God. You ought to say amen right there. I don't know what's wrong with y'all. Is it hot in here or something? Because you're all quiet. So wake up, not a funeral. You ready?
[15:59] Go with me, if you would, down to the same verse again. How are you using your influence, by the way? Are your children learning to put God first because they watch you? Are your children learning to put God first because they watch you?
[16:14] Are your children learning that there is dignity in work? I don't mean to be ugly here. I try to be the nice guy preaching just what the Bible says, but the rich priest was willing to get his hands dirty and work, and some of you won't let your kids work, and that's why you're raising some little brats that get in trouble all the time.
[16:32] A little bit of work wouldn't hurt them. I'm glad we built a bigger pulpit. I can hide behind it a little better. Yeah, I preached last week behind a glass pulpit.
[16:44] I just want y'all to know. It was totally glass. I said, Betty told me before I went up, she said, check your fly now. Are your children learning to live a life that brings glory to God in every area of their lives because of what you're doing?
[17:01] But there's going to be a problem now in Eliashib's life that we're going to see. He starts off right. He's doing the right thing, but he forgets about a guy. In the story of Nehemiah, and I'm going to walk you through a bunch of it.
[17:14] In the story of Nehemiah, there's two notoriously bad, wicked people, Sanballat and Tobiah. And Sanballat and Tobiah are regularly fighting to stop the work of God, and I'm going to show you that.
[17:28] So here's where he messed up. So far, we got three really good characteristics, but we just took a commercial break, and the story's about to get bad because Mr. Eliashib is going to mess up, and by the end of this story, his family is going to be in the world, in the rebellious people, among the enemies of God, and his kids are going to be married into that, and his whole ministry is really going to be a shambles because he didn't recognize, because he didn't pay attention, maybe, to who this guy Tobiah was.
[18:01] He seems to have forgotten him. So let me show you him. Take your Bible and go with me to Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 10. Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 10. I just want you to watch for Sanballat and Tobiah, because by the end of this story, by the end of this story, our man of God is going to be hooked up shoulder to shoulder with these wicked people.
[18:21] By the end of this story, a man who ought to know right from wrong is going to be culturally failing. Before I ever tell you what's going on here, I think you might be doing that.
[18:32] I think that you are willing to accept false religions because you're neighbors of that religion. I think you're willing to accept moral failure and accept wicked sin in the lives of people, and all of a sudden, pornography's not wicked like it used to be.
[18:45] Abortion's not wicked like it used to be. Drunkenness isn't wicked like it used to be. Same-sex marriage isn't wicked like it used to be, because we start running around with Tobiah. Tobiah. And we get to know Tobiah.
[18:56] And Tobiah moves into our home, and all of a sudden, we leave all of that to the side. Look, if you wouldn't know it. I just want you to identify Mr. Tobiah, which I could do that with any of the sins I just mentioned.
[19:07] But look, if you would, Tobiah in Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 10. When Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the servant, the Ammonite, remember that? He's the servant.
[19:17] He's the Ammonite. Heard of it. It grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. So when Nehemiah shows up in Nehemiah chapter 2, when Nehemiah shows up and starts to do the work, there's two ringleaders over here on the side saying, man, we don't like it.
[19:35] They're here trying to do something for God, and we don't appreciate it. We do not want them here. We are grieved exceedingly. We are very, very sad that someone would seek the welfare of the children of God.
[19:46] In chapter 2 and verse 19, they mocked the work of God. The Bible says in 219, Sanballat and Tobiah laughed us to scorn, laughed us to scorn.
[19:57] They despised us. They said, what's this thing that you do? Are you rebelling against the king? All of a sudden, I now know Tobiah. He gets really sad when somebody wants to do right, and then he starts making fun of somebody who wants to do right, and he starts questioning their motives and what they're doing.
[20:13] In Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse 3, Mr. Tobiah says, oh, what y'all doing? Such a flimsy, worthless, no good thing. Even a fox could knock your wall down. This wall is dozens of feet up in the air.
[20:24] This wall is two and a half miles around the city. This is a massive undertaking. But these two guys are having a field day. A fox could knock it down. In Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse 7, they're angry when they realize that God's people are really getting it done.
[20:40] You see, whenever you start a work for God, whenever you start a church, whenever you become a missionary, whenever you become a Sunday school teacher, whenever you run a bus route, whenever you do any of these things, people are like, oh, that's ridiculous. We'll make fun of you, and we'll try to discourage you, and we'll try to throw things at you and stop you from doing the work of God.
[20:56] But one day, old Tobiah woke up, and he realized, my goodness, they're getting it done. They're getting it done. The wall's coming around. Look, if you would, at Nehemiah chapter 4 and verse 7. So, Samballot and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and the breaches were beginning to be stopped, and they were very wroth, underline that, very angry, very angry.
[21:20] And they conspired, all of them together, to come and fight against Jerusalem and hinder it. This is Mr. Tobiah. You say, why are we talking about Tobiah? I thought we was on Eliashib. We've had to take a commercial break and come back and get you set up for what's fixing to happen, because Mr. Tobiah and Mr. Samballot are going to be very important in the story.
[21:38] Look at Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse 12. They had the gall to hire a preacher who would lie. In Nehemiah chapter 6, I perceived that God had not sent him and pronounced this prophecy against me.
[21:51] I realized Tobiah and Samballot had hired him. Now the servant's name is in front of the master's name. And therefore was he hired that I should be afraid, and that they might bring a reproach on me. They might embarrass me.
[22:03] You realize what happened? When it started, they're like, we don't appreciate people trying to do something for God. That's ridiculous. We don't, we don't, if you want to do something, you keep it quiet, you keep it in your corner, you don't let it affect anybody. And then they started getting the work done, and these guys got really mad.
[22:15] And then, and they said, we're going to get together and fight them. But on the way to fight them, they said, let's hire a preacher. Because people are dumb enough to believe because he says he's a preacher, because he holds the Bible. You just swallow everything he says without ever checking in your Bible.
[22:29] That's why you don't bring a Bible to church with you. You ought to walk into church and say, like Nehemiah said, well, you talk, but let me check to see if it's what God said. And when he got through talking, Nehemiah looked up at him and said, that ain't what God said. He perceived that he wasn't a man of God.
[22:42] So this man of God came in and told him, quote unquote, man of God came in and told him, quote unquote, God doesn't want you doing this. But he realized they were lying. Then they started a Twitter campaign and a Facebook campaign.
[22:54] Because when the preacher didn't get it done, look, if you would, Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse 17, they wrote many letters. They wrote many letters. The fact is, they're going to actually write open letters where everybody can read them.
[23:08] Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse 19. They wrote letters directly to Nehemiah with the idea of causing Nehemiah to be afraid. And Nehemiah 6, 19, they reported his good deeds before me.
[23:19] So people came into Nehemiah and they said, Tobiah is a good guy. Tobiah is a good guy. He does a lot of good stuff. I mean, you got to understand, I mean, he might be the enemy of God, but he's still a good man.
[23:31] You can't really say that. You understand that? You can't walk up to a man of God and say, I know it's, I know it's wicked and I know it's sinful, but they still do a lot of good stuff. I tend to hear you say that about a religion out of Utah sometimes.
[23:49] Tobiah said those letters put me in fear. They wanted everyone to know Tobiah was a good man and doing good things. They spied for him. They sent people to spy for Tobiah.
[24:00] They related to other priests so slowly, Tobiah is being more and more accepted. Actually, here's the next problem. I hope you know who Tobiah is now.
[24:11] You caught on? He's not a good guy. He is against the work of God. If you understand that, say amen. Now, should a man of God say, I'm taking a stand. I stand with God. I don't care what it looks like politically.
[24:23] I don't care what people think about me. I'm going to stand with God. But Tobiah had already married into the spiritual leadership and the financial leadership of the nation of Israel.
[24:34] The wicked man had been accepted by marriage. Chapter 6, verse 18, Nehemiah. There were many in Judah sworn unto him to Tobiah because he was a son-in-law.
[24:47] He was a son-in-law. That happens when you mingle with the heathen, when you mingle with the enemies of God, when you mingle with those that worship other gods, you end up intermarrying with them.
[25:02] You begin to see all their good points. And before you know it, your children or your grandchildren are married in, or you're married in, and all of a sudden you're worshiping another God.
[25:22] Well, I know he's not saved, but he's a good man and my daughter can marry him. Well, the Bible says no. You see, there's not anything in the Bible that talks about what color his skin is or what language he speaks or what country he's from.
[25:39] There is something real clear in the Bible about if he don't love God, you don't marry him. If she doesn't love God, you don't marry them. Do I need to duck? Look, that's what it says.
[25:51] But Tobiah's already married in. Eliashib decides to give Tobiah space in the courts of God's house. Now, you've got to see what's going to happen. This is crazy. Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 10.
[26:05] There are certain people by Scripture that cannot be in the courts of God. Now, it doesn't mean I like it. It doesn't mean I agree with it. It doesn't mean I even understand it.
[26:16] It simply means when the book says it, we accept it. We don't decide, okay, we're in a day of gender confusion. You can have any of 70 genders on Facebook.
[26:27] But when you read the Bible, there aren't genders. There's just boy and girl. And you say, well, I don't know. The Bible's not up to date. Well, that's what Tobiah said. That's what Sanballat said.
[26:39] The Bible says in Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 10, Sanballat and Tobiah the Ammonite. Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 1.
[26:51] Check this out. They read in the book of Moses. That'd be Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. That Ammonites and Moabites can't enter the congregation of God. They can't be in there.
[27:03] But now the man of God who has a copy of the word of God has decided to not only let him in, he is going to give him a room to live there. Look, if you would, at Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 4.
[27:16] The Bible says, and before this, Eliashib, the priest, having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God, was allied unto Tobiah. So something happens where Eliashib over here, the man of God intermarries.
[27:32] That's what that allied probably refers to. His family, one of his kids or somebody, he marries into the family. Now they're allied. And once you marry in, you begin to say it's okay. Once you marry in, you begin to say it's okay.
[27:45] I'll prove that to you from the word of God in just a minute. Now he has the oversight of the chamber of the house of God and he's allied unto Tobiah.
[27:57] And look what he does. In verse 5, he prepares for him a great chamber, a big room, a big apartment. Not only did he prepare him a big apartment, but to do that, he had to throw out God's stuff to make the room for him.
[28:12] So he had a choice to say, I will honor God or I will honor a man. I will do what the word of God says or I'll do what's convenient for me and my wife and my kids and my in-laws. And so all of a sudden he says, if you look at verse 5, a great chamber where aforetime, that means beforehand, they used to lay the tithes and the offerings and the meat and all the things that were brought for the worship of God.
[28:36] And he throws that stuff out so he can put this other guy in. You need to know something. Who you run around with affects who you are. Who you hang out with.
[28:47] Birds of a feather flock together. How can two walk together except they be agreed? If you're not careful, you'll go down the same path. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 33, it says, Be not deceived.
[28:59] Evil communications, evil friendships, evil given and taken between two people, corrupt good manners.
[29:09] Light has no fellowship with darkness. You become like who you run around. We prefer to ignore this Bible warning. Your daughter or your son is interested in somebody who's not born again.
[29:22] You need to stop them and say, no, no, no, before you can get started on this one. We don't go down that path. We see good in those who hate God.
[29:34] We choose what we think of them or what we see or what we feel above what the Bible says. How is your relationship affecting how you feel about clear Bible teaching?
[29:48] You know, my friendship's more important to me than what the Word of God says. We accept things that God rejects.
[30:00] You're not careful. You'll end up letting us destroy you. So what was a biblical attitude that would have stopped Eliashib's fall? Maybe we can learn by seeing what happened.
[30:12] Eliashib was married to God haters. His family was married to God haters and God enemies. We know that he keeps hearing all the good things about Tobiah.
[30:24] And Nehemiah is out of town. It's kind of hard to do this much wrong when the old man of God's there. And Nehemiah is just a cupbearer. He is not a high priest. But Nehemiah has this.
[30:35] He knows God's hands on him and he knows he's going to take a stand. And the man of God, when Nehemiah leaves town, the man of God does things he cannot do. Look at Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 6.
[30:46] And all this time, I wasn't in Jerusalem. I wasn't in Jerusalem. See, what they needed was somebody who would understand what the word of God says and hold them to it.
[30:57] We need somebody that says, wake up and obey God. It's what's written in the book. It's what makes you very unpopular as a preacher. Nehemiah 13, 7. He said, I got back to Jerusalem and I understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah.
[31:15] Not only did he understand it, you need to check this out. In Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 8, he said, it bothered me. It made me very sad. It grieved me sore.
[31:27] And I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. Let me explain to you that in Tennessee Hillbilly. He went in the room and grabbed all of Tobiah's junk and threw it out in the street. He said, you don't belong in the house of God.
[31:40] You don't love our God. You don't love our God. You actually hate our God. You've hated everything we've been doing here. And I cannot believe the man of God who once stood tall and once led and once started building the wall is all of a sudden letting this filth in here and he threw it all out and then he said, bring the mops, bring the bleach, bring the cleanup stuff.
[31:59] Look at Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 9. And I commanded and they cleansed. And then I brought, I went and found the stuff they threw out to put Tobiah in. I found where they put all the Bibles and the Psalm books and all the offerings and I put them back in there.
[32:12] I just threw him out. I just threw him out. How do we apply this? We ought to seek the word of God and know what God says. Do you know that serving God doesn't go by how you feel?
[32:26] It's not about, well, I kind of think that's okay. We don't really care what you think. We got a book. We got a book. And they'll make fun of people like me that say we got a book. We got a book. And the book's just plain out written and it just flat out says stuff.
[32:38] It said in the book of Moses, you couldn't do that. Sin and disobeying God ought to break our hearts like it broke Nehemiah's heart. Our hatred for sin ought to make us clean up our houses and keep the house of God clean.
[32:51] We ought to live in the truth and not allow the world to press us into their mold. Eliashib's family will now intermarry with those that hate God and aren't even allowed in the temple of God. Chapter 13, verse 28.
[33:04] The son of Eliashib, the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. The guy who started in Nehemiah chapter 2 causing trouble by Nehemiah chapter 13, he's married the man of God.
[33:19] That's like finding some voodoo witch doctor and letting him marry into my family. See, that same sin has already destroyed things in Israel.
[33:34] In Nehemiah chapter 13, verse 26, did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? Yet many of the nations, was there no king like Solomon?
[33:45] He was great. He was loved by our God. And God made him king over all Israel. But you know what he did? He went and found some outlandish women that caused him to sin. Verse 27, they transgressed by marrying strange wives.
[34:00] You know what Solomon did? Solomon wanted to make truces. And the way they made truces, they didn't go through the UN, they didn't sign peace accords, you married one of their family. And Solomon goes over and he marries somebody who worships Baal.
[34:12] And he marries somebody else that worships another demon out of hell. And he marries somebody else that worships another demon out of hell. And he had a thousand wives, 700 wives and 300 concubines, I believe was the number. And he had all these women. And then what he decided to do was, well, since I love the girls, I'm gonna build them a temple to the devil gods they worship.
[34:30] So he started out good and he ended up horrible. By the end of the story, his grandkids are doing the same thing. How can you fall so far from doing the right thing and leading God's people well to being allied with God haters?
[34:49] See, we don't, by the way, let me just stop. I use those terms because that's basically what the terms are in the Bible. But can I just go ahead and tell you, you don't think of them as God haters. But anybody that doesn't believe Jesus is the only way to get saved is a God hater.
[35:01] Because if you deny Jesus, you deny the God of the Bible. If you think Jesus was a God, but not the God, John chapter one, Jehovah's Witnesses, they hate God because they hate Jesus. Huh?
[35:13] Get mad. Get mad. I'm getting old. I can retire. Say amen. Hey, you wanna hear a wild one? There are other people. They're all gonna be gods when they grow up.
[35:23] Mormons. They're all gonna get their own planets. Enemies of God. Allah's the only way, not Jesus. Muhammad's his prophet. Enemies of God. Buddhism, Confucianism, you name it.
[35:35] There's only one way. John 14, 6 says, I'm the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father by me. There's only one name among men, given among men, whereby we must be saved.
[35:47] That's the name of Jesus Christ. If you're not careful, you fall into that. Making friendships with those that do not love God and have no intention of leading their state of rebellion. Getting around others.
[36:01] People have other opinions instead of those that are stuck on the Bible. You see, friendships lead us to form sinful alliances that destroy us.
[36:15] Yeah. I'm proud of my four children and they're all serving God. That's exciting. But now I got 20 grandkids. Oh, I hope and pray my grandkids know we don't marry God haters.
[36:30] We don't marry people who don't love Jesus. We don't marry people who are not surrendering to Jesus, following Jesus. This morning, how are you going to fall? I mean, that old time Christianity, that stuff you used to hear about where people stood for God, I don't know if it still stands anymore.
[36:47] I don't know if that's the way we are. You say, well, people get mad. You've got to be politically correct nowadays. No, you've got to be biblically correct. Political correct is for lost people. Biblically correct is for God's people.
[36:57] Amen. Do I feel like the Lone Ranger? I don't even know if I'm shaking hands today. I'm probably running for the house and hiding. Amen. Listen to me.
[37:09] Eliashib, you started out so well, my friend. You're the high priest. Nobody like that. You were working on the sheep gate. Glory to God, buddy. You got the other priests involved. Fantastic.
[37:21] Why did you start making friendships with people that didn't love God, buddy? Why did you start making friendships with demon people? See, you don't see it that way.
[37:33] You don't ever see wicked as wicked because it's all dressed up pretty. You know, the devil doesn't come in a red suit with a tail and some horns and a pitchfork. That's how he comes. He comes dressed up like a preacher.
[37:46] He comes dressed up like somebody's got a good marriage. He comes dressed up about somebody who does good stuff. Tobiah did good stuff. But we don't judge things like that. You want to follow?
[38:01] Our church is doing a need to say, I take a stand for God and right. I take a stand for Bible truth. We're not really talking about anything. I mean, I'm not trying to be mean.
[38:12] I just tell you, there's only one way to be saved. Coexist doesn't exist. There's no coexist. I can be friends with them. I can be nice to them, but I ain't backing down one step.
[38:24] They look at me and say, what do you think of my religion? I'm going to say, I hate to tell you this, but I think it's going to take you to hell. I don't know. I don't know.