Study the Word

Guest (Male): Today on Study the Word, Pastor Thom Keller discusses discernment.

Pastor Thom Keller: Discernment is what he had—a heart of discernment, wisdom, and discernment. Discernment is the ability to judge matters according to God's view of them and not according to their outward appearance. We are often deceived by outward appearances. In 1 Samuel, many of you know the context of this speaking of David, for the Lord does not see as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

You know, many Christians today are stunted in their spiritual growth on account of lacking spiritual discernment. They follow pastors and teachers who look good, maybe sound good, but teach heretical lies.

Guest (Male): Welcome once again to Study the Word, the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Pastor Thom Keller is our Bible teacher. We are continuing our study in the book of Nehemiah. At this point, the wall is completed but has no gates yet. The enemies of Nehemiah step up their scheming and try to lure him out of the city and into a trap. But through a heart of discernment, Nehemiah is wise to their evil plans. How does one obtain a heart of discernment? Let's study the word with Pastor Thom and find out.

Pastor Thom Keller: We are in the book of Nehemiah this morning. If you need a Bible, if you pop your hand up, they will bring one to you. Nehemiah chapter six. For context, chapter five, verse 14 says, "For the entire 12 years that I was governor of Judah, from the 20th year to the 32nd year of the reign of King Artaxerxes, neither I nor my officials drew on our official food allowance." Then verse 17 goes on and says, "I asked for nothing, even though I regularly fed 150 Jewish officials at my table, besides all the visitors from other lands."

Nehemiah told us that he did not take a salary from the king of Persia, which Nehemiah would have had a right to do. In order to draw a salary, it would have meant collecting taxes from the Jews that he was serving, and he would not do that. Over and above that, Nehemiah even covered the expenses of feeding all 150 Jewish officials at his own expense. What did Nehemiah seek in return? Nothing but God's blessing.

Nehemiah 5:19, he says this, "Remember, O my God, all that I have done for these people, and bless me for it." What is cool here is Nehemiah shows us that the only thing he sought was a reward from God—not the praise of men, not the thanks of men, just the reward from God. Nehemiah asked God to show him the same kindness that he showed to his countrymen. God promises to do that.

In Luke 6:38, we read this, "Give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will it be put in your lap. For the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." And he said, "God, don't forget the work that I have done for you." He will not. In Hebrews 6:10, it says this, "For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers as you still do." He will not forget.

Proverbs 19:17 says, "If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord and he will repay you." And then Matthew 25, the king will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." And he will remember.

Now, moving on to chapter six, we see that Nehemiah's enemies are enlisting a diabolical and desperate plan to stop him. Nehemiah 6:1 says, "Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies found out that I had finished rebuilding the wall and that no gaps remained, though we had not yet set up the doors in the gates. So Sanballat and Geshem sent a message asking me to meet them at one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But I realized they were plotting to harm me. So I replied by sending this message to them: I am engaged in a great work, so I can't come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?"

They estimate that in that area, you could travel about 20 miles a day by foot. So to go there and back would have involved a four-day journey for Nehemiah, and this was a hostile area. Nehemiah's usual enemies—Sanballat the Horonite, who was a Samaritan, and Geshem the Arab—sent a message inviting Nehemiah to meet with them. But Nehemiah had discernment. He knew it was a mistake.

In verse two, he says this, "So Sanballat and Geshem sent a message asking me to meet them at one of the villages in the plain of Ono, but I realized they were plotting to harm me." Discernment is what he had—a heart of discernment, wisdom, and discernment. Discernment is the ability to judge matters according to God's view of them and not according to their outward appearance. We are often deceived by outward appearances. In 1 Samuel, many of you know the context of this, speaking of David, for the Lord does not see as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Many Christians today are arrested and stunted in their spiritual growth on account of lacking spiritual discernment. They follow pastors and teachers who look good, maybe sound good, but teach heretical lies. This is so prevalent today in the health and wealth gospel—that God wants all his kids to be rich, and he never wants any of his kids to get sick. They say if you are not rich and you are not healthy, it is your fault because you simply have not claimed the promise that God has for you; you simply have not had enough faith. That is a lie from the pit of hell.

Christians lacking discernment accept things blindly because it looks good or feels good or even sounds good, and usually is appealing and inviting. But they never measure it, they never judge it against the whole counsel of God's word. You will hear people say things like this, "I was at this church, man, the worship was awesome. Everybody's arms were up, there were people facedown on the floor weeping, people were slain in the spirit. It was amazing." But what they did not catch was the error taught during the teaching time because they lacked discernment and judged by their feelings instead of judging by the word of God.

They bought the lie of the world: trust your intuition, you don't need to explain or justify your feelings to anyone, just trust your own inner guidance, it knows best. That is a lie. Listen again. This is what the world says, this is what people in the church say: trust your intuition. No, don't trust your intuition. They say trust your intuition, you don't need to explain or justify your feelings to anyone, just trust your own inner guidance, it knows best. No, it doesn't. The word of God knows best. The Holy Spirit knows best. They bought the lie.

Now, are feelings bad? Of course not. Is great worship bad? Of course not. Are arms up in the air bad? Of course not. But folks, that is not the test. Great worship can be used to mask heretical wrong teaching, wrong doctrine during the sermon time. Proverbs 14:15 says this, "The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps." 1 John 4:1 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." Jeremiah 23 says, "Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. For what has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire? declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"

David Guzik said this, "How can we develop discernment? First, if you want to see things as God sees them, get to know His word. Second, discernment comes through spiritual maturity. Hebrews 5:12 says that discernment is something spiritual babies don't have because a baby will stick anything in its mouth. Third," he says, "discernment can be given as a gift from the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12. So ask God for discernment." I have been praying that for years, that God would give me discernment—the ability to discern lies from truth.

Because Nehemiah had a discerning spirit, he said this in verse three, "So I replied by sending this message to them: I am engaged in a great work, so I can't come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?" Now, this might sound a bit like self-praise, but Derek Kidner said this, "It might be better translated, 'I have an important work in my hands,' or more objectively, 'I have a huge task on my hands.'" This might be a picture we want to hang in our houses: I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Pretty true.

Going on to verse four, four times they sent the same message, and each time I gave them the same reply. Now think about that. Four separate times these enemies sent this same letter: come to Ono and meet with us. Letters during this period were written on either papyrus or a leather sheet, with them then being rolled up, tied with a string, and sealed with a clay bulla, which restricted the reading only to the intended recipient who received it.

The fifth letter that they sent, though, is a different letter. The fifth letter is an open letter. Nehemiah 6:5, the fifth time Sanballat's servant came with an open letter in his hand. Now, the significance of an open letter is twofold. Number one, open letters were letters without the clay seal. They were letters not sent in a tied bag or a purse, and those were always understood to be sent to inferiors—one who was inferior to the one sending the letter. Now Nehemiah, having been a cupbearer for the king and in many ways second only to the king, would have immediately recognized this open letter as a sign of disrespect.

The second point of significance is that the letter was open, it was unsealed. Those men carrying it would have no doubt read it. They no doubt then would have allowed others to read it or shared what was in it, and the gossip mill would have cast its contents to the wind for whole citywide distribution. That was by design, to cause the people to question Nehemiah's motives.

Folks, be careful of gossip. It's a sin, really, especially concerning authorities in your life—parents, teachers, government. Be careful. I remember the story about a woman who had gossiped in a church and caused problems, and she really didn't think it was that big a deal. The pastor asked her to come by the church one day in the middle of the day and she did. He had a pillow, and he went up on top of the roof with her on a windy day, took the pillow, ripped it open, and let all the feathers fly. They went everywhere. He said, "Now go try to collect those feathers." She said, "I could never get all those pieces back." He said, "That is what your gossip did. You can never get back all the gossip that has been flying around because of your rumor mill."

Going on to verses five to seven, the fifth time Sanballat's servant came with an open letter in his hand, and this is what it said—now think about the people reading this—"There is a rumor among the surrounding nations, and Geshem tells me it's true, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel, and that's why you are building the wall." According to his reports—again, picture the people carrying this letter reading this and then them telling other Jews in Jerusalem what this letter said—"They say that you plan to be their king. He also reports that you have appointed prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim about you, 'Look, there is a king in Judah!' You can be very sure that this report will get back to the king, so I suggest that you come and talk it over with me."

According to Gershom's report, he says, "Nehemiah, you plan on making yourself the king of Judah." Verse seven is especially wicked because it says Nehemiah has hired prophets to prophesy lying, saying that God is prophesying through us that you are to be the king. Now, my guess is that this lie probably really, really upset, outraged, and hurt Nehemiah. Remember, Nehemiah has taken on this job at great personal cost, both in loss of his title back in Persia, not to mention his own personal wealth funding much of this project.

This lie almost certainly would have masterfully pressed Nehemiah's hot buttons. We might as well learn to accept this, that Satan knows your hot buttons—those lies, those accusations that really, really get under your skin. You can count on it. Satan will use those lies on you over and over. He will. So let's see what Nehemiah did to handle these, that we can learn from his example. When people come and press those hot buttons that affect us, we can learn from what he did.

In verse eight and nine, I replied, "There is no truth in any part of your story. You are making up the whole thing." Two sentences. They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. So I continued the work with even greater determination. Note the first thing that Nehemiah did not do. He did not launch into an elaborate, masterfully crafted defense, trying to prove Sanballat wrong point by point. If you are living right, you don't have to defend yourself over something someone said about you. Boy, if we could lock that away in our hearts and minds.

Nehemiah was too smart to get caught in this trap of defending himself. Listen, you will never resolve the accusations a mocker will bring against you by using truth and logic. Never. In fact, you actually feed a mocker by responding to them. Proverbs 9:7 says this, "Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse." Proverbs 23:9, "Do not speak to fools, for they will scorn your prudent words." Nehemiah followed this counsel.

So what did he do? In verse eight, he replied, apparently by letter, "You are lying. There is no truth in any of this." Note: no explanation, no defense, no point-by-point rebuttal. And the key point is in verse nine. He says, "So I prayed for strength to continue the work." The NAS translation says it this way, just six words, a flare prayer—six-word prayer: "But now, O God, strengthen my hands." But now, O God, strengthen my hands. A six-word prayer.

We find a teaching point here that we can apply in our own prayer lives. Prayers do not need to be long. I would suggest that the number of prayers prayed just maybe more significant and telling than the length of our prayers. It's interesting that of the 10 prayers Nehemiah prayed in this book that he wrote, seven of them are one sentence long. Seven of the 10 are just one sentence long. Now, it is also worth noting, did you know that the longest prayer in the entire Bible is found in the book of Nehemiah? Nehemiah chapter nine—1,213 words. The second longest is Solomon's prayer where he dedicates the temple in 1 Kings, which is 1,079 words. Here, 1,213 words. The longest prayer. Of the 10 prayers, one is, but seven of the 10 are one-sentence prayers.

The teaching point is along the line of 1 Thessalonians 5, which says this: pray without ceasing. Listen, think about it. If you truly were to pray without ceasing, it would be virtually impossible for your prayers to be a 30-minute prayer one time a day. It would have to be throughout the day, and they could not be long prayers. Why? Because if you are praying throughout the day, your prayers need to fit between actions, thoughts, between conversations with other people, between the dialogue you have with others. Pray without ceasing.

I have shared this before, but this is so convicting. Billy Graham was once interviewed, true story. He was interviewed by a woman doing an article for a Christian magazine. She said, "Billy, the Bible says we are to pray without ceasing. Do you do that?" He said, "I try." She said, "Well, how do you pray without ceasing?" He said, "Well, as you have been interviewing me, I have been praying for you." He didn't know her, but he said, "I have been praying for you. I have been praying for your family, I have been praying for you in your job, I have been praying for you in your home, I have been praying for you spiritually." And I thought, oh, he is light-years beyond me. I can't imagine. I would love to be that way. I started praying that. On my prayer list, I put, "pray without ceasing Billy Graham"—that's a daily reminder to want to be that way.

Let me ask you a question. Think carefully about this. Which do you think would be more effective: one 60-minute prayer at 6:00 AM or 60 one-minute prayers throughout your waking day? So if you have 18 hours you are awake, 60 prayers, that would be four prayers per hour. Now, which is better? The answer is both, right? They are both better. They are both right. But which is more telling about your dependency upon God? Maybe, just maybe, those 60 one-minute prayers. Why? Because just like Nehemiah, you are using those prayers practically in the course of your day, minute by minute, inviting God, involving God in the details of your day. I like this, some people call these bubbles of prayer—bubbles of prayer, just floating up to God through the course of a day.

Let me give you an example. Let's say my wife and I go on a vacation for one week. I say to her, "Hey, honey, let's try something different on this vacation. Every morning let's talk for 60 minutes from seven to eight o'clock in the morning, whatever we want to talk about. Once that's done, we will go our own way, apart from one another, doing whatever we want to do the rest of the morning, afternoon, and evening apart from one another. But in the morning, we'll get back together and we'll talk for 60 minutes." Or I would say we could skip the 60 minutes and just hang out all day, talking with each other throughout the day. Now, it doesn't need to be just one or the other in prayer, it can be both, and both would be better. And yet of the two choices, the second choice reflects a much deeper relationship and desire to be together throughout the day, living in a loving, vital, constant conversating relationship.

So don't hear me say give up your morning prayer time. I am not saying that. What I am saying is that I know that I could do a much better job of floating up a few more one or two-sentence prayers throughout the course of the day. How about you? You are going to get some homework today, okay? Your homework is to purpose to send up more flare prayers in the course of your week. When those thoughts come to mind, pray. Pray.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Pastor Thom Keller on Study the Word. Would you like to hear this message from Nehemiah again? Just go online to ccleb.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Those interested in a CD copy can call 717-273-5633. As you're studying the word with us, we'd love to know what you're getting out of the messages. If you find them encouraging or helpful to your walk, give us a call at 717-273-5633 or write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. You can also email us through the website at ccleb.com.

It's the support of our listeners that helps us provide the teaching of God's word on stations like this all across the country. You can give online at ccleb.com or call 717-273-5633. Would you like to join us for a service here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon? Get our service times and more information online at ccleb.com. You can watch our livestream there at ccleb.com or on our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Thanks for joining us today. Mark this spot in Nehemiah and come back for the next Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller, when we'll get right back to it. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania. May God richly bless you as you study the word.