Love Worth Finding

Adrian Rogers: My dear friend, when you do the work of God, you beware of the snare of the world's friendship. Satan's motivation has never changed. I've seen so many churches, so many Christians, so many pastors who are doing a good work for God, and the devil, who cannot stop them in any other way, makes a friend out of them and diverts them from what God has called them to do.

And the good becomes the enemy of the best. We have to make certain, dear friend, that all that we do is of the Lord and that we don't get diverted from doing a good work, what God has called us to do.

Cary Vaughn: Welcome to Love Worth Finding. If you're a Christian, you've been called to accomplish a great work for God, just as Nehemiah was called to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the Old Testament. But in the process, Nehemiah faced severe spiritual opposition.

Have you experienced spiritual opposition in your work for Christ? Adrian Rogers once said, "If you haven't met the devil, it's because you and the devil are going in the same direction." It's kind of convicting, isn't it? Have you faced derision or discouragement, danger, church division?

Understand, friend, this is to be expected. Because your ally is the Holy Spirit, you can recognize these as devices of the devil and stand against them. Turn in your Bible if you can to Nehemiah chapter four as Adrian Rogers concludes this revealing lesson on the devices of the devil.

Adrian Rogers: Now, let me mention what the devil did to try to stop Nehemiah and what the devil will do to try to stop this church or to try to stop you. I'm going to mention some things. The very first thing is what I want to call derision. Look, if you will, in chapter four, verse one.

"But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth and took great indignation and mocked the Jews." Do you see that? Just underscore it. He mocked them. That is, he ridiculed them. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, "What do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbage which are burned?"

Can you hear the sarcasm? Can you hear the biting, withering scorn in the mouth of this man named Sanballat who hated the work of Christ? Have you ever been laughed at for your faith? It's hard. Ridicule has its sting, and the devil knows it.

Now, the response of Nehemiah and his crowd was a wonderful response. Notice what they did in chapter four, verse six. "So built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof, for the people had a mind to work."

Now, let me tell you what you ought to do when people begin to laugh at you for what you believe. Just go to work for the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil tried derision, and that didn't work. So he's not finished yet. Now he tries discouragement.

Look, if you will, in verse 10. "And Judah said"—this is Nehemiah 4:10—"And Judah said, 'The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish'"—and oh, listen to this next phrase—"'so that we are not able to build the wall.'"

It seems that the devil always puts some into the ranks of the believers who say it can't be done. God deliver us from the Judahs. It will be done, but no thanks to them. And God deliver us from those ministers of discouragement, those human wet blankets.

If derision would not do it and discouragement would not do it, then he uses actual danger. Look in verse 11. "And our adversaries said, 'They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease.'"

Now, the devil is not against physical intimidation. The devil is not against actually causing bodily harm to the children of God. Look in verse 14. "And I looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of them, 'Be not afraid of them. Remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.'"

All that we hold dear is at stake and in the balance, and don't you let the devil intimidate you. You need to intimidate him. The Bible says in James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Well, the devil is not finished yet. Let me give you another of the devices of the devil. Not only danger, but discord. Look in chapter five and verse one. "And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews."

Now, what happened is this: there was a problem that could have caused even greater discord. They had spiritual leadership. They got together, and there was repentance, there was restoration, there was resumption of the work.

Let me tell you something, dear friend. There are no problems too big to solve—just people too small to solve them. We can solve almost any problem if we attack the problem rather than one another. Well, the devil's not finished yet.

So, if discord did not stop them from building the wall, he tried something else, and it's what I want to call diversion. Diversion. Look, if you will, in chapter six and verse one. "Now it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian and the rest of our enemies heard that I had builded the wall and that there was no breach left therein, though at that time I had not set up the doors or the gates, that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me saying, 'Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.'"

"But they thought to do me mischief. And I sent messengers unto them saying, 'I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?'" Don't you just love that?

Look in verse four. "Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner." Now, the devil, he is so wily. He is so methodical. He is so divisive in his devices.

So, when he sees these other things are not working, he says, "Nehemiah, what we need to do now is to have a conference. I want you to leave the work. I want you to stop what you're doing and come down here to one of the villages, and we're going to talk it over."

Now, notice the devil. The Bible says he appears either as a roaring lion or what? An angel of light. He roared against them, and they kept on working. So now no longer is he roaring. Now he says, "Hey, let's be gentlemen. Come down here, and let's just talk this over."

My dear friend, when you do the work of God, you beware of the snare of the world's friendship. Satan's motivation has never changed. I've seen so many churches, so many Christians, so many pastors who are doing a good work for God, and the devil, who cannot stop them in any other way, makes a friend out of them and diverts them from what God has called them to do.

And the good becomes the enemy of the best. You beware of any conferences that cause you to compromise. Think it over. I've had so many people come to me all of my ministry and say, "Adrian, I'd like for you to do this. I'd like for you to get in that. I want you to try this."

And I knew it was of the devil. I knew it was a plan of Satan. I'm not saying that we have to be locked into one narrow band, but we have to make certain, dear friend, that all that we do is of the Lord and that we don't get diverted from doing a good work, what God has called us to do.

I remember talking with Dr. Billy Graham. He told me how they tried to make a United States Senator out of him. He told me how Hollywood came to him. He told me how some business people came to him. But God said, "Billy, you keep on doing what I have called you to do."

Nehemiah said, "I'm doing a great work. Why should I come down?" The devil's very clever. I heard of a man who was on a bear hunt one day, and he went out into the field and he saw just the bear he wanted.

He leveled his gun on the bear, and the bear put up both paws and said, "Wait a minute, hold it. Don't pull that trigger. I mean, listen, man, we need to sit down and have a talk about this thing." And the man said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Well, be reasonable. Now evidently you want to shoot me because you want to skin me. You want a fur coat. And I'm on the prowl because I'm hungry. I'm looking for a good meal. Now listen, we both have our own personal interest. Let's sit down and talk it over."

So the man laid down his gun, went out in the middle of the road, and the bear and the man had a conversation. And when it was over, they both had what they want. The bear had a good meal, and the man had a fur coat.

Dear friend, these are the methods of Satan. Some of you are going to get sidetracked. I've seen deacons and soul winners. They get in a church like this. They have a Sunday school class. They go to work for the Lord.

And then some civic organization comes along and taps them, and they stop serving the Lord and they stop working in the church and they get in some organization and become the first vice president for the society for the prevention of cruelty to orphan grandmothers with athlete's foot, and they're no longer working for Jesus. Sidetracked, diverted from the work. Nehemiah wouldn't buy it.

The devil's not finished yet. Let me show you what else he does. It's defamation. Oh listen, what a bag of tricks he has. Look in chapter six and verse five. "Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, wherein was written, 'It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king according to all these words. And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem saying, 'There is a king in Judah.' And now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.'"

"Then I sent unto him saying, 'There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.'" What is the next thing the devil does? Defamation. Defamation. The devil started a dirty rumor.

And what the devil said was this: that Nehemiah is filled with pride and self-seeking. The only reason that Nehemiah wanted to rebuild the walls was that he was building a little kingdom for himself. And that will be said about any man of God and any church.

We will be accused of building a kingdom for ourselves, and the devil is not too dirty to do that. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that Sanballat came with an open letter. What does that mean? Very much like a letter to the editor.

Have you ever read some person who will sit down and write an open letter for everybody to read, and it's a letter slandering the people of God? May I tell you that you're never more like Satan than when you slander?

Well, you say, "Pastor Rogers, what can we do to keep from being slandered?" Nothing. Nothing. You live for Jesus Christ, and they will slander you. Remember again that the servant is not better than his lord.

Jesus was called a winebibber; he wasn't. He was called a glutton; he wasn't. They said of Jesus Christ he was in league with the devil. You expect to be defamed if you live for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I heard about a little four-year-old boy who said his prayers, and he thought he was praying what he heard everybody else pray in church. And he prayed this, "Lord, forgive us our trash baskets." Some of us need to pray that prayer because we've allowed our ears to be trash baskets.

We listen to the dirty insinuations of the devil. Don't you let somebody use your ears for a trash basket. There are always those who will attack the people of God. I heard about a pastor of a church. He had two people in the congregation, two men who called on him and said, "Pastor, we think your work here at this church is finished, and we think it's time for you to move on."

The pastor said, "Well, I'll pray about it." They came back later and said, "Did you pray about it?" He said, "I sure did. The Lord said he'd never heard of you two guys." My dear friend, there are always those who want to slander God's people.

How are you going to deal with slander? Well, the more you protest, sometimes the more guilty you sound. The best way is to simply do what Nehemiah did is just to state the truth and go on. Your best defense is a pure life and a clear conscience.

Henry Ward Beecher said life would be a perpetual flea hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendos, the inveracities, the insinuations, and the misrepresentations which are uttered against him.

I like what Abraham Lincoln said. Abraham Lincoln, the great president of the United States, who was criticized—and by the way, the way to escape criticism is to say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.

Abraham Lincoln said, "If I were to try to read, much less answer all of the attacks made on me, this shop may as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

Well, that's good, isn't it? I'm just going to keep on serving the Lord. But dear friend, be careful that you're not in the business of defaming the people of God. Oh, you're never more like the enemy himself when you do that.

Then again, what does the devil do? Well, he's not finished yet, and so he tries another trick. Not defamation by attacking people's motivation and character, but dismay. Look, if you will. He actually tries to put fear in your life.

Chapter six and verse nine, look at it again. And the Bible says, "And they all made us afraid. For they all made us afraid, saying, 'Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.'"

"Afterward, I came to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, 'Let us meet together in the house of the Lord, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple. For they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night they will come to slay thee.' And I said, 'Should such a man as I flee? And who is there that, being as I am, who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.'"

Now, what the devil had done here now is to bring his sinister minister of fear out, reach into his bag of tricks, and pull out another weapon that's almost as good as discouragement, and it's fear. What he said to Nehemiah was, "Run for your life!"

Fear has power to weaken according to verse nine. And the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter one and verse seven that God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The Bible teaches when a man truly fears God, he has to fear no man. Now, the devil will shoot his poisoned arrow of fear, and if you let him get that arrow into your heart, it'll do several things. It'll degrade the Father because it's saying, "Father, you're not able to take care of me."

It'll disturb your friends. You see, fear is infectious, and it'll make you a stumbling block. It will delight your foes. The devil loves to see you intimidated. We play into the devil's hands when we're afraid.

Now, last of all, I want you to see the very last thing that the devil wants to do, and it's deception. How very devilishly deceptive the devil is. Look in chapter six, beginning in verse 12.

Now, this man has said to Nehemiah, "Listen, buddy, they're after you, and what you need to do is to flee into the temple and shut the door, and there you'll be safe." But now notice in chapter six and verse 12.

"And lo, I perceived that God had not sent him." Now, you see, he came in the name of the Lord, but Nehemiah says, "I perceive that God had not sent him, but he pronounced this prophecy against me for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. Therefore was he hired that I should be afraid and do so and sin, that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me."

"My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works and on the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets that would have put me in fear." Now, what Nehemiah did was just tell God on them.

You see, here's what the devil did: he disguised himself as an angel of light. And he got some merchants of fear, and he said, "Now, Nehemiah, this is a message from God. You're in real danger, and what you need to do is to go into the temple and hide yourself."

Nehemiah knew the word of God. It would have been a sin for Nehemiah to go into the holy place because he was not a priest. And Nehemiah knew that. But you see, Nehemiah was the kind of a man who had his antenna up.

Now, the devil will many times come to you with religious advice. And how are you going to know the difference? Well, my dear friend, you better know the word of God and be filled with the Spirit of God. You better keep your knees on the floor and your eyes on this book, or you're going to be deceived.

Now, in all of these things, can you not see the hand of the devil? Well, how does this story end? You like stories that have a happy ending? Then look in chapter six and verse 15. I love it. I love it.

The wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month of Elul in fifty and two days. In less than a year, they built the wall. "And it came to pass when our enemies heard thereof and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes. For they perceived that this work was wrought by our God."

Don't you like that? The wall was built! And you know what the people did? I don't know whether they had this song or not, but surely if they had it, they would have sung, "To God be the glory, great things he hath done."

Wouldn't it be wonderful for us to so love God and so love one another that together we would do something that all hell can't stop and something that will shut the mouth of the devil and something that cannot be explained apart from the good hand of our God?

And they had to confess that God was with them. My dear friend, we get our hearts right with God and keep it right with God, and the work of God will go through Satan's devices like a white-hot cannonball through a crate of eggs. Let's believe God, and let's stand together. We are not ignorant of Satan's devices.

Cary Vaughn: Amen. Praise God that we have the Holy Spirit and His Word to help us stand against the devil's devices. If you're going through a season of spiritual opposition right now, we want to stand with you and cover you in prayer.

If you can, go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org/radio. You'll find resources and materials to answer questions you may have about your faith, and there's a comment section at the bottom of the page. You can write a prayer request right there.

Please let us hear from you today. Again, go to lwf.org/radio and click Discover Jesus. Hi, this is Cary Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a non-profit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers.

We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you. To give a gift today, call 1-877-LOVEGOD. That's 1-877-LOVEGOD, or write to us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38-600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183.

You can also connect with us online by going to lwf.org/radio. There we offer helpful resources inspired by the timeless teachings of Pastor Adrian Rogers. Additionally, you can sign up for daily emails, donate to the ministry, and learn more about how to become an ambassador of the Word.

Thank you so much for listening today. Be sure to join us next time for more profound truths simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding. Here's an email from a listener who reached out not long ago.

"I accepted Christ in 1973, and I have had many pastors since then. They preach the Bible faithfully and have a heart for lost souls. But when I listen to Pastor Rogers' sermons, it is easier to understand what I have learned in the past. I'm thankful and grateful for this ministry."

Do you feel the same? At Love Worth Finding, we're so honored to be able to share these timeless teachings and exciting new resources we develop to help you flourish in your faith. And to thank you for your gift this month, we want to send you a copy of *The Real Battle for the Soul of America*.

This book presents timeless truth for timely conversations we're having these days, and how we can pray for our nation to repent and return to God, who is our only hope. Request this book when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD. And thank you for your generous support of Love Worth Finding.