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So Ezra chapter 4, let's just see how it begins. It says, now when the adversities, sorry adversaries, when and now when the adversaries. So the title of the sermon this afternoon is the adversaries, the adversaries. So you may recall, the Jews are coming back out of the Babylon, or it's not really Babylonian now, it's a Persian empire, and they're coming out and they're rebuilding the temple and they're following the commandments of Cyrus to rebuild the place. The Lord is opening their doors to return back to the land. You know, I wish we could just serve God. And I understand that there are people that are saved, I understand there are people that are lost and you know, it's our job to worship God and praise God as a saved people. And you know, it's our goal to win as many people to Christ as we can, to bring them into the kingdom. And I understand this part of society and world and how man is. One thing I don't understand are people that are adversaries to the work of God. I don't know why, even if you're a non-believer, even if you think Christianity is stupid, even if you're an atheist and you don't believe in God, I just don't know, like, why would you spend your time trying to stop the work of God? Like what kind of person do you have to be, how wicked do you have to be to try to do that? You know, and one thing that we do learn, as I said, the title of the sermon this afternoon is the adversaries. We learn a little bit more about people that try to harm a church or people try to harm the work of God. We get a little bit of an insight on the type of people that they are. One thing we definitely learned though, if you're gonna do a great work for God, you're going to serve God with your life, you're going to have adversaries. Another way of saying adversaries is an enemy. You're gonna have people that are gonna try to stop you. You're gonna have people that are trying to stop you from doing works for God, even if it doesn't make any sense to you. Why would you waste your time? I mean, go have fun, go do whatever you have to do. Why stop the work of God? But there are people like this. And it's hard for me to wrap my head around why you would do that, you know? But let's again, look at verse number one, the Ezra chapter four and verse number one, Ezra chapter four and verse number one, it says, now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard the children of the captivity, build of the temple unto the Lord God of Israel. So they've heard the news, the Jews are coming back, they're starting where you saw the previous chapter, the foundation was laid, they're seeing the work getting done, okay? Now this is when they get involved. They wanna spy on, well, what are they doing for God? You know, we're hearing about this, the people of God coming back, building the temple. Now they're going to pretend to be friendly. They're going to pretend to wanna help out. My question is, before we look at that, if their hearts was to help rebuild the city, rebuild the temple, why didn't they just start doing it? I mean, these people you're gonna see, they've been on that land for quite a while, okay? But they see the Jews coming, they wanna come alongside. It almost seems like they're friendly. It almost seems like they're just trying to help. They're just trying to serve God. And brethren, one reality that we learn about adversaries or people that are enemies, sometimes they do come alongside you and seemingly just wanna help you. They seemingly just wanna serve in the church. And it's such a sad thing when this happens, when people pretend to be one way and really are another way. Look at verse number two. Then they came to Zerubbabel, you may recall that he's the governor, he's the leader for this whole project, and to the chief priests of the fathers, and said unto them, let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do, and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Asahedon, king of Asa, which brought us up hither. All right, now, doesn't it sound like they just wanna help? Hey, help us, let us build the house of God. We're seeking the same God as you. We've been offering sacrifices to the same God as you all of these days. So we just wanna come alongside you and help you in the work. Now, before we get to see the true colors here, I want you to keep your finger there and please turn to 2 Kings. Please turn to 2 Kings and verse number 17. 2 Kings and verse number 17, please. Because we saw, what did they say? They say, since the days of Asahedon, king of Asa, which brought us up hither. If you don't know what Asa represents, that is the capital city of Assyria. Now, you may recall that the northern kingdom, like the Jews are part of the southern kingdom. They were taken into captivity by Babylon. The northern kingdom were taken into captivity by who? By the Assyrians, okay? So when they say Asahedon, king of Asa, they're saying, hey, you know, we were people that were under the rule of the Assyrian king, okay? And so these are what we start to commonly know as the Samaritans, okay? They come into, Samaritans were ultimately people from other areas, but then they would intermingle and mix with the northern tribes of Israel, okay? And the capital city of Israel, the northern kingdom was Samaritan, which is, sorry, Samaria, which is where we get the word Samaritans from, okay? So this kind of gives us that information. But look at 2 Kings 17, verse 24, just so you can see that they are speaking the truth here. 2 Kings 17, 24, it says, and the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuhath and from Avah and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim and placed them, so these are men, these are people from other cities, other places, non-Israelites, placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel, and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof. So you can see here in 2 Kings, we see the story that took place. So what these men is claiming to be, it's true, okay? That they've come, okay? And they are, in a sense, seeking the God of Israel, in a sense, okay? Keep your finger there in 2 Kings 17. We are gonna come back to that. Keep your finger there in 2 Kings 17. Go back to Ezra chapter four, let's keep going. Ezra chapter four, verse number three. So how does Zerubel respond to this? All right, fellas, awesome! More workers, more service for God, work together and build a temple. Is that how Zerubel responds? Now don't forget, we already read there in verse number one that they are adversaries, they are enemies, okay? The Bible's telling us early on that these aren't good people. Though they're pretending to be good people, they're pretending to come alongside and help in the work of God. Verse number three. But Zerubel and Jeshua and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto that Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, hath commanded us. That's a bit rude, Zerubel. You know these guys, they wanna come alongside, they wanna work, they wanna sacrifice, they wanna serve God just like you. And how does Zerubel, hey, what it says? But we, sorry, it says, ye have nothing to do with us. He goes, you got nothing to do with us! You say, Pastor Kevin, is there a bit of racism going on there? You know these people have come from these other cities, they're not Israelites, you know, they haven't got the chosen blood, you know, of the Israelites, you know, is there racism, is that the problem? Because they're saying they wanna serve God. Now listen, if they truly wanted to serve God, if they truly loved the Lord God of Israel, I have no doubt that Zerubel would have them on board. We've already seen in previous chapters that Gentiles, you know, bringing resources, helping out with the work of the temple. Not only the second temple, we saw the Gentiles helping out with the work of the first temple, with Solomon, right? Solomon, the king of Tyre, helping with the resources, et cetera, et cetera. But we've seen that these are adversaries, these are enemies. So I want you to go back now to 2 Kings 17. Let's learn a little bit more about these people. 2 Kings 17, back to 2 Kings 17. We read verse number 24, where they're being placed into the cities of Samaria. Now we're gonna continue there in verse number 25. It says, and so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord. So these people that come into the land, they don't fear God. Therefore, what happens? The Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. So are these really people that love the Lord? No, God knows that. Hey, this isn't the right place for you to be, so God sends them wild beasts, lions, and these lions start to tear them apart, okay? Look at verse number 26. Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land. We don't know who this God is, all right? Therefore he have sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. They go, man, we don't know this God, but you know, this God must not like us for sending these lions and ripping us apart, okay? So look at verse number 27. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from hence, and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. So hey, yeah, this sounds good. The king of Assyria said, hey, get one of the priests. Get one of the religious leaders, one of the guys that we took out of that place that knows the God of that place, okay? Then he can teach everyone how to serve God, how to worship God. Sounds good, I mean, I like that. I kind of like that, right? Let's keep going, verse number 28. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. Again, very positive. Priest comes, listen, you've got to fear God. You know, if you just start doing that, which is right, and serving God, these lines will go away, we'll be all fine, okay? Start to fear God. So you think, yeah, as the Samaritans said earlier, yeah, they want to serve God, but look at verse number 29. Howbeit, every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. So even though the king of Assyria gets a priest to come and teach them about the true God, the people of the other nations that had come into the land, they still wanted to worship their own gods, okay? They still just wanted to worship the gods of their land, and they're bringing in their idols, and their statues, and et cetera, and they're worshiping false gods. So then we get to Ezra, Ezra chapter four. Go back to Ezra chapter four. And they're saying, hey, we're seeking the same God as you. No, they're not. I mean, God's given them the opportunity. Sounds like they got a good priest in place. They'll teach them, listen, fear God. And they're like, no, we'll worship God the way we want. We worship our gods, okay? And they bring these gods from other nations. So this teaches us that we need to have separation even from people that claim to believe in the same God that we worship. We must, we must practice separation as a church, as individuals. Brethren, I get requests all the time, people wanting to come to this church and to present their course or something, right? Missionaries wanting to come and be supported by this church. I get calls from different pastors. Hey, we've got a workshop on, a pastor workshop. We'd like to invite you to come alongside us. Every time I get a call from someone like this, or I've got some good learnings for the men in your church. Can we do a men's gathering and I'll come and teach and et cetera, et cetera. The first thing I do is I ask them about salvation. Hey, well, what do you have? It's almost like offensive to some people when I ask them, hey, so what do you think you have to do to go to heaven? It's almost like, why are you asking me this? I'm ringing a church. Didn't I tell you that I'm a Christian? Didn't I tell you I'm trying to teach your church some things? Yeah, okay, you want to come alongside me and build and work in the house of God. But who are you? Do you even believe the same gospel as us? Do you believe in the same Jesus as us? Well, I mean, do you believe, listen, some people sometimes they are saved. I find it, but then they've got some other Bible translation that they want to teach with some other Bible. You know, I once had somebody, I think it was a creation ministry. They wanted to come to the church that was in Queensland. And put in a creation seminar. I'm not against that. I think there's a lot of great things in creation seminar. I think there's a lot of great things that we can learn about God. But they, you know, I think they taught from an NIV Bible. A New International Version Bible. Well, I mean, you've got nothing to do with us then. You know, we believe in the King James Bible. We believe it's the perfect English translation without error, you know? And if you're going to teach from some other corrupted Bible, we don't want it. All right, so we need to be careful about people that claim to be Christians, claim to believe in the same God as us, and want to come alongside and do a great work. Well, I mean, who are you to begin with? You know, and there are many people that claim the name of Jesus Christ, but they're not saved. That, you know, they still think salvation is on themselves, what I do, what I've done, what I'm going to be, rather than having their full faith and trust on Jesus Christ alone. And we need to learn to separate from these people. You know, I used to be like, when I first get these calls, I was a bit timid to knock them back. Because I'm thinking, oh, but they're just trying to help. Actually, they're coming to deceive. They're coming to lie, they're coming to cheat. They're coming, you know, we think that Trump coming to serve, but really they're serving their own bellies, these false prophets, especially if they're not even saved. You know, these people, yeah, okay, we want to help build the temple of God. You're not even saved. We seek the same God as you. No, you don't. You know, the Bible warns us of another Jesus. People can say Jesus and not even be saved. I mean, every religion pretty much believes in a Jesus. Even within the Christian realm, many people believe in some sort of Jesus. But how many of them believe Jesus as a son of God who has done everything necessary to be saved alone? You know, he's done all the work. Many people, they don't believe in that Jesus. They believe in a Jesus that, yeah, he's opened the doors to salvation, but we got to do our part, don't we, pastor? Well, I don't know what Jesus you worship. That's not the Jesus I worship. Jesus did everything necessary to be saved. Okay, so we start to see this, you know? Don't forget, you know, now, look, do you think there might be some people that watch Zerubbabel, the leader there, and others that knock them back and say, look, we can't have you? Do you think there are others going, come on, Zerubbabel, you're being a bit strict there. You're not being very nice. Look, they're coming alongside to help, aren't they? I'm sure, look, it's always like this, right? You know, when a leader has to make a decision, you're not always going to make everybody happy, okay? People aren't always going to understand the decisions the leader makes, but Zerubbabel somehow, you know, under the inspiration of God, was able to say, no, your adversaries, your enemies, you're not here to help, you're here to destroy. And that's ultimately what they do. They end up, you know, destroying the work that they're trying to do. And so we have to be careful, you know? Just because someone claims and says they're Christian, just because someone says salvation is by Jesus doesn't mean they're saved. You know, we really need to dig in deep and find out, is this person truly saved? Is this a brother in the Lord? And you know what? I would not have any man preach behind this pulpit that is not saved, or does not want to teach from the King James Bible. Back to Ezra chapter four, please, and verse number four. Ezra chapter four and verse number four. So what do they do? Are they like, all right, you know? I mean, look, if you're really trying to help and you're being knocked back, and you know you're like, you're sincere and you just want to, you mean well, right? You want to serve God and you get knocked back. What should be your response? All right, well, you know, thanks for listening to my request. You know, maybe some other time, you know? Or you know what? If there's something that I'm lacking in, maybe I haven't fully understood this God that you serve, can you teach me? Can you please help me get this right? I mean, that would be the right response. But what do these adversaries do instead? In verse number four. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building. Okay, so they've signed to build the house of God. Well, they weaken the hands of the builder, okay? They slow down the process. But it doesn't really make it very clear what they've done. But it says, and troubled them in building. So it's possible that they're trying to stop the resources from flowing, all right? It's possible that there's just been a discouragement, you know, trying to cause conflict amongst the work that's being done. Oh, we don't really have the full detail of what they've sought to do, but they're definitely slowing down the work, okay? Instead of just walking away and saying, well, you know, we tried, well, you know. No, what are they doing? They're causing disruptions, okay? They're causing problems. I personally believe they're probably slowing the resources from reaching the workers to build the house of God. Verse number five. They really had no heart to make sure this work of God gets done. Because in verse number five, it says, This Darius is not the same Darius as Daniel. The Darius that Daniel dealt with was much earlier, okay? There were a few kings that were named Darius, et cetera. Okay, but it just gives us this timeframe. From Cyrus to Darius, King of Persia, these counselors, you know, were coming and stopping, you know, attempting to stop the work of God. See, these counselors, as we keep going on, they're gonna present more of a legal challenge, right? I mean, the people of the land, they're trying to stop the resources from a physical point of view, but these counselors are going to the kings, you'll soon see, and they're trying to stop the work from a legal position. Okay, let's keep going there. Verse number six. Now, this ties in really well with the sermon that I preached on Thursday about false witnesses, false accusations. So what's the next step? They try to stop the work, they try to slow it down, and now they start writing letters. They start writing letters against the people of the land, right? Look, these people, all they're doing, they're just trying to build a temple. They're just trying to get on with God's work, okay? I mean, this is what I'm trying to say to you. I just do not understand why some people would just spend the time trying to stop God's work. I mean, either they're just complete reprobates, you know, servants of the children of the devil that just hate God and hate God's people, or they just don't know what else to do with their time or something. I don't know, right? They just find some sick enjoyment trying to prevent God's people from doing a work for him. But I just want you to notice the steps that are taken here, okay? They try to look friendly, they try to sound like they're supportive, but instead, what is that? Now they got offended, they can't help in the job, all right, instead of just walking away, they want to cause problems. They start writing letters, okay? Verse number seven. And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithridath, Tabul, so these are different people that wrote the letters, and the rest of their companions, so you can see this list starts to grow, right? And Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue, all right? So we start to see that again, that playbook of the adversaries, okay? The playbook of the enemies. How do they respond? How do they act? Again, coming alongside, we want to help in the work of God, coming alongside, right? But really they're harboring their own desires. They want their own purpose, they want the building for their own purposes. Number two, they get offended when they're not called to do the work that they thought they should be doing in the work of God. And number three, they begin writing letters of accusations against those that are trying to do the work of God, okay? They're trying to reach out. And look, when you start to see this pattern of behavior in individuals, brethren, just mark it down, they are not good people. Just mark it down. These aren't good people, they're trying to stop the work of God. These are adversaries seeking their own desires rather than seeking the will of God. You start to see this playbook play out here. Verse number eight, Reham, the chancellor, and Shimshi, the scribe, wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes, the king of this sort. So they start getting more, right? They're trying to get more and more people involved, more and more people. Let's all write about the Jews, let's all write. And it says against Jerusalem, of course, not against the city necessarily, but the people in the city that are trying to build the temple, trying to build the house of God. The other thing you learn about adversaries is they start to try to gather as many people against the works of God as they can, okay? Because they know these accusations are just not enough. But if we have enough voices all saying the same thing, then it sounds like a much bigger problem than what it truly is. We'll start to see not only, you know, are they writing these letters, but they're making clear false accusations against these Jews that are working in the house of God. Verse number nine, then wrote, Reham, the chancellor, and Shimshi, the scribe, I mean, they just kept writing letters, right? Just all these people. And the rest of their companions, the Dinaiites, the Apursaites, the Tarpalites, the Apursites, the Archivites, the Babylonians, the Suchanites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites, and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnapah brought over and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on the side of the river, and at such a time. All these people of all nations, all of them, they're all riding against these people, just trying to build the temple. How do you think they all heard about it? Gossip, rumours. Did you hear the Jews? You know, did you hear? We tried to come alongside them to help them out, and they've rejected us. They've offended us. You know, come around trying to get as many people, as many nations involved. Let's all write letters to the king. Let's all make it known how much, how wicked these people are. You'll soon see again, you know, that these adversaries, they want to turn as many people against you as they can. As I said, it's not necessarily the wrong. It's if we just have as many people voicing the same thing, then it just sounds horrible what these people are doing. Say, what are they going to accuse them of? What could possibly be the accusation? Now, before we keep reading there, can I get you to please turn to 1 Peter 5? Turn to 1 Peter 5. So let's start applying that a little bit to our lives now. Okay. 1 Peter 5. And while you're turning to 1 Peter 5, I'm going to read to you from 1 Corinthians 16, verse number 8. Paul writes to the Corinthian church. He says, but I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. So just very quickly, the context is that Paul wants to get to the Corinthian church, okay? But right now he's caught up in Ephesus. He's helping out another church there, the Ephesian church, obviously. He's doing a work for God. And then he says in verse number 9, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me. He says, look, there's a great opportunity here in Ephesus. You know, I'm doing a work. I can't come to Corinth just yet. God has a great work for me. God has opened a great door. People are getting saved, et cetera, et cetera. But then he says this, and there are many adversaries. Many adversaries, okay? Many enemies. What do we learn? That when God opens a great door to do a great work for God, there are gonna be enemies. It's always going to happen. I wish, again, we could just serve God, just put our heads down faithfully, love him and serve him faithfully and just do the best we can. But brethren, there are always going to be enemies when we do a great work for God. If you say, well, I know this church and they never have problems, they never have enemies. Well, they're probably not doing a great work for God. When you're doing a great work for God, it's going to happen. You know, an effectual, a great door, an effectual is opened unto me. And there are many adversaries. You're there in 1 Peter 5. You guys know this passage, 1 Peter 5, verse number eight. 1 Peter 5, verse number eight. It says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a rowing lion walketh about seeking, whom he may devour. Brethren, we all have an adversary. It's a devil. It's Satan and Satan's kingdom. And it's not just the devil himself. He's got a kingdom of other fallen angels, other devils that go about trying to harm the people of God. You know, we've got this adversary. We've got the devil who's trying to destroy us, who's trying to devour us. It says in verse number nine, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Isn't that interesting? He says, look, when the devil comes and he's trying to devour you, just stand steadfast in the faith, okay? Resist the devil. Get out of here, devil. I'm gonna serve God, right? I'm not gonna give in to your temptations. I'm not gonna give in to your wickedness. And then it says that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. He goes, all the brethren in the world, you know, have the same adversary, the devil, that are trying to stop them. Hey, your brethren in the world, they've resisted the devil. They've been able to overcome the devil. You can do it as well, okay? And so brethren, please understand, this is the Christian life. You have enemies, okay? And you have the number one enemy on your back, the roaring lion, the devil, who's seeking to devour you. Please be careful, okay? They come and attack when you're trying to serve God at your fullest, okay? This is why it's so important that you prepare yourself for the battle, you know, that we're a good soldier for the Lord. You know, we know how to fight. We know how to stand. We know how to, we know the doctrines of God. We know what God expects from us. You know, we know the truth. We're not easily deceived. We're not easily tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. We need to understand the truth of God's word, stand firm, and this is one way that we can overcome the enemies. Can you please turn to 1 Timothy chapter five? 1 Timothy chapter five, please. 1 Timothy chapter five. And verse number 13. And, you know, I hope I don't offend any ladies here, but ladies, this is for you, okay? This is very, the Bible has a lot to say about this, but look at 1 Timothy chapter five, verse number 13. Speaking about the ladies that have nothing to do, okay, you're not busy, you haven't got things to do, is in verse number 13. And with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but toddlers also, and busybodies speak in things which they ought not. Ladies, did you know that many ladies, I'm not saying you necessarily, have a problem with this? You know, being a busybody, being a tattler, being a gossiper, you know, wanting to go to that house, going to that friend, going to that friend. Oh, did you hear what she, you know, so-and-so said? Did you see that family in the church the other day? Did you see how she was dressed? You know, brethren, this is a problem that ladies have, okay? Now look, what do we learn there, you know? I mean, like, we all have defects. We all have issues. Even men have some issues, yeah? Men, you have problems too, okay? You know, gods create us to be unique and different. Ladies are different to men, men are different to ladies, okay, and you know, many times, the reason a woman would go house to house, gossiping about other people, is because they just don't get enough attention from their husband. That could be one good reason, right? The husband's gone to work and doesn't want to spend time with his wife, doesn't want to speak to her, and she's like, man, I need some, you know, conversation here, and they go house to house without the initial intention to gossip, but before you know it, they're together and they're speaking about this family, speaking about that person, gossiping, being a tattler, being a busybody in other people's business, and then you've got conflicts in the church, okay? Women going around spreading gossip and problems one to another. What else does it say here in verse number 14? I will, therefore. So ladies, instead of doing this, instead of getting preoccupied in other people's lives, instead of going from girlfriend to girlfriend to girlfriend and gossiping about everybody, I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, look at this, and give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Don't give the adversary any space in your life, ladies. The adversary saw he's the devil. Don't give him any space. You know what it's saying? If you're going around gossiping, going house to house, whining and complaining and murdering other people, causing conflicts, you know, destroying people's reputations, you're doing the devil's work. You know, you're doing the work of the adversary. Look at verse number 15. For some are already turned aside after Satan. Paul is telling Timothy, Pastor Timothy, by the way, Pastor Timothy, you already have some ladies in your church doing this. Some have already gone around, going around house to house, you know, gossiping, you know, spreading rumours, you know, trying to cause discord problems amongst people. And let me just encourage you ladies, please understand, you know, I understand that God's created you to be unique. You know, you're created to be a mother, to be caring, you know, to have a lot of empathy, you know, to be helpful. You've got that emotional part within you, that tenderness that men sometimes do not have. But when that place, those emotions, those feelings, that characteristics that God has given you, which is for a positive purpose, you know what? If your idol got nothing to do with your life, you're gonna take that same thought, those same concerns, those same worries that you should have within your own family, and you're gonna start, because you haven't got your own family to do it for, you know, you're gonna start looking at others, and how do I use these abilities, you're gonna go from house to house, and actually, it's gonna cause destruction. You're gonna hurt friendships, you're gonna hurt churches, you're gonna hurt families, et cetera, et cetera. And I just wanna show you ladies that, you know, Satan can definitely get a foothold in your life if you allow the adversary, if you start doing the work of the adversary, you know, if you start gossiping, you know, please understand you're doing the work of Satan. And look, if you've got another lady in the church that comes to you and says, look, I really need to talk to you about something, you know, something happening in church, and no, you have to say, look, please, please don't come talk to me about that. If you've got a problem with someone in the church, please go and sort that out yourself for that other person. Please don't bring me into all these issues. It's got nothing to do with me, okay? All right, back to Ezra chapter four, please. Ezra chapter four and verse number 11. Ezra chapter four and verse number 11. It says in verse number 11, this is the copy of the letter that they sent unto him, even unto Artaxerxes the king. So this is what the letter has. Thy servants, the men on this side of the river and at such time. So these are the contents of the letter, okay? Be it known unto the king that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof and joined the foundations. Now brethren, have the Jews come back to build the walls or do they come back to build the temple? The temple, they're building the temple. The previous chapter, they just laid the foundation of the temple. They're just getting the resource together to build the temple. Are they building the walls? No, they don't start building the walls until much later when we get to the book of Nehemiah. They start building the walls of the city. They're not building the walls. Brethren, this is a bold-faced lie. This is a false accusation. This is a false witness. Oh, the Jews, they're coming. They're not, oh, they're building the temple. No, they're building the walls. Why is that important? Because obviously in this time, in this part of history, the walls of the city were part of its fortress. It was part of its defense. And so by building the walls, they're kind of saying, hey, you know what? Let's quickly take this land for ourselves. They're still under the authority of a Persian empire. And by building the walls or by saying that they're going to build the walls, it's almost like they're saying, hey, we're setting ourselves up to fight against this foreign power, okay? So, hey, look, they're building a rebellious city, they're saying. No, they're building the house of God. They're trying to serve God, that's all. Right now, the last thing they care about are the walls of the city. That's not on the agenda. They've just laid down the foundation of the house of God. But what are they facing? False accusations. These Samaritans or these other people, these other nations, they're lying, okay? They're lying about what the Jews are doing. They're building, like they say, the rebellious and bad city and have set up the walls thereof and joined the foundations. There are no foundations for the walls. They laid the foundation of the temple, the house of God. They're lying. It's complete false accusation. Verse number 13. Be it known now unto the king that if the city be builded and the walls set up again, then they will not pay toll. Shouldn't they have paid the toll back then? Like we were complaining about paying the M4 toll or the M5 tolls or whatever. They had to pay tolls. Tribute and customs, these are just different taxes. And so thou shalt endamage the revenue of the kings. They're saying, look, once the Jews are done building the walls, they're not gonna wanna pay their taxes. They're not wanna give what is right back to your kingdom. And they're going to endamage the revenue of the kings. What are they saying? They've just come here to damage your kingdom. They're not here to help. They're here to hurt you. They're here to damage you. Lies. How can they know this? In what sense? They're not building the walls. And they're saying, oh, they're going to do this in the future. What evidence have they got about that? Nothing. No evidence. But what do they have? Many voices now. They've all come together. They've all gossiped. They've all heard them. Listen, this is a letter you saw how many people, how many different nations and peoples wrote this letter. As I said to you, do you think all these people actually have gone down and had a look, oh, are walls being built? Of course not. Because if you had so many people, and you say, hold on, you said the walls are being built. They're building something else here. It looks like a temple, right? No, what is it? It's gossip and rumour. And people are now starting to believe the lies. And they're all writing the same letters. You've got two or three witnesses. You've got so many witnesses all of a sudden saying the same thing. They're building the walls, they're building the city, right? And they're not going to pay your taxes. No evidence. It's just false accusations, right? Just a wicked imagination that they've come up with. And they've come to end damage, they say, the revenue of the kings. They just want to cause damage to you. Just lies, false accusations. Verse number 14. And then it says, now, because we have maintenance from the king's palace, it was not meet for us to see the king's dishonour. Therefore we have sent and certified the king. The only reason we're letting you know, king, we don't want you to be dishonoured. We don't want to see your kingdom fail. So what do we see now with the adversaries? We see the flattering tongue. Oh, king, we just care about you and your kingdom. You know what? We're not really sticky bigs here. You know, it doesn't really bother us so much that they're building the city and the temple, et cetera, et cetera. We just don't want you to be damaged. You know, we honour you, king. You know, you're important to us, but obviously you're not important to these Jews. What are you doing? They're flattering the king. And reverend flattery is another way to cause deception. People speak excessively highly of you. You know, it's just about, we just care about you, you know, and you're so special in our eyes. You know, as a pastor, I get a lot of people appreciating my service for the church and the preaching, whatever, the traveling, you know, you guys. And you know, it's encouraging to me. It's encouraging to me. But please, let me warn you, don't go overboard, okay? Please don't go overboard. I'm just another man, okay? I've got failings just like any other man, okay? I'm not this special gift or something, okay? Thank God, you know, met the qualifications, been ordained to be a pastor, pastor in church. Thank God, praise God, okay? Let's give glory to God for the work and service that this church does. Whether it's me, whether it's, you know, we had some soul-willing done yesterday, free salvations, praise God. Okay, we don't want to lift up man so highly. What a great soul-runner you are. Hey, thank God, praise God for the souls that got saved. You know, we let God then deal out the rewards and the, you know, treasures in heaven when it's a time, because here's a righteous judge. You know, he knows whether we're doing things for our own, you know, pat on the back or whether we're doing it to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Please be careful with flattery. Please be careful with people that come and bring you flattery. You know, I won't name any names, but you know, because I want these people back in church, but you know, there was one family in the church at New Life Baptist Church that I had to kick it out of church. Okay, because, I won't go into the reasons why, but you know, when I first met this family, you know how they're just still praising me, flattering me. You're the best pastor in Australia. You know, this is the one church in Australia that preaches the truth. I'm like, you know what, no, there's other churches that preach the truth. Oh, but you know, you preach 100% truth. I'm sure I make mistakes sometimes. I don't try to, you know, I hope not, but I'm still a human being, okay. And what about the, okay, what are some of the areas that the other churches, well, it's not a big deal. All right, they believe the rapture's at a different time. We're still gonna be raptured. We're still gonna be home with Jesus Christ in heaven. Oh, they believe that Jews are God's special people. Who cares? They still believe that Jews are gonna die and go to hell if they don't believe in Jesus Christ. You know, we shouldn't just uplift just one man or one church and, wow, it's so amazing. No, it's flattery. Guess what, then I had to kick him out of church. It's like, you know, there's no balance. There's no temperance in certain people. Please be careful because flattery can feel good. Like if you just receive it, it just feels, wow. Maybe I am special. You know, maybe I'm unique. No, you know, be careful with flattery because it plays to your pride. It plays to your ego. And usually they want something in return. Okay. What am I up to? Sorry. Verse number 15. Oh yeah, okay, we'll get to that soon. I'll just quickly read to you from Proverbs 29 verse five. It says, a man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet. Okay, a man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet. You know, someone starts to just give you over the board praises. Just too much flattery, brethren, be careful. Start to put some defenses around you, okay, because they're trying to capture you. They're trying to stop you. They're trying to do something to bring you down. Okay, be very careful. Verse number 15. So they've made this false accusations. But look, if the whole letter was false accusations, then it'd be very easy to disprove. When we get to verse number 15, they actually tell the truth. You see, in order to deceive someone, you have to put a little bit of truth out there. You gotta mix the truth with lies. And brethren, once you mix the truth with lies, it's lies. It's the purpose is to deceive. It's to convince you with something that is true, and then, well, that was true, therefore everything must be true. No, okay, they've caught you with that truth, and now they're going to present you lies. Verse number 15 has the truth. It says, that search, so they're saying to the king, look, search this out, okay? That search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers, so shalt thou find in the book of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time. For which cause was this city destroyed? Listen, look, the reason this city was destroyed in the past, in old times, is because of the rebellion, and that is true. We've gone through the book of Jeremiah. We've seen how rebellious the people, these Jews were at this point, so God brings judgment. God allows this city to be destroyed. God allows the house of God to be burnt down at the hands of the Babylonian empire, and so what they're saying is true, but the same of old time. Look, if you just go and search the records, king, and find out exactly why they're in captivity, remember, this is a different empire now. They're taken into captivity by the Babylonians, and now it's the Persian, Syrian Persian empire, and, sorry, the Persian, the Medo-Persian empire, I should say, sorry, and so, you know, obviously there's been a change of power. Hey, just go back to the history books. You find out that they were rebellious people. Yes, they were rebellious against the Lord, and not only that, they were rebellious against Babylon. Don't forget prophet Jeremiah. Surrender, give yourself up. It's gonna go well for us if you just surrender. No, we're not gonna do it. You're not gonna stand up for our rights and our freedoms. You know, was that really bad for them? Okay, because they were, they were rebellious. This is true, okay? If you go search the records, this part is 100% true, okay? Verse number 16. We certify the king that if this city be booted again, and the walls thereof set up, by this means, thou shall have no portion on this side of the river. Now, if you allow these guys to do the job, work, you're not gonna get any taxes, you're not gonna get any payments, any tributes coming out of this place. Verse number 17. Then sent the king an answer unto Rehaim the chancellor, and to Shimshi the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwelt in Samaria, and unto the rest beyond the river. So this is what he writes, peace, and at such a time. So now the king is responding to this letter. Verse number 18. The letter which is sent unto us have been plainly read before me. He goes, yep, you've sent this letter, you know, I've read it, I see it very plainly, I understand what you're saying. Verse number 19. And I commanded, and search has been made, and it is found that this city of old, time, have made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. He goes, yeah, you know what, as soon as I've got the letter done, I did make inquisition, I said, hey, go check out the records, let's find out a little bit more about Jerusalem, and these Jews and Judah, let's find out if they really are a rebellious city. And he's found that, yes, they were rebellious. So, hey, there's truth, okay? So what's happening? The king is being convinced, the king is being deceived, that the Jews are building the walls when they're just building the house of God, okay? Now, brethren, this is of old times. You know, when the Jews were taken to captivity, don't forget it was a reprobate nation. It was a reprobate generation. We've got new generations now that have been humbled, generations that are seeking the Lord, generations that just want to come back and serve God and get back into their lands and back into their houses. It's a new generation. Listen, you can't just hang someone's mistakes on their head forever, okay? You can't, you know, if a child is born out of wedlock, or, you know, a child is born as an orphan or something, you can't just, you know, treat that child, you know, in a bad way because of what's happened in the past. You know, you can't put someone else's sins on the next generation. Everybody's accountable for what they've done in this life. Okay? And, brethren, you know what? If someone's done you wrong, and you've forgiven them, forget it. Move on. Don't hang their head over what they've done in the past forever, okay? I mean, look, someone done wrong, they apologize. Okay, brother, I forgive you. Okay, don't bring it up next week. Don't bring it up next month. Forget about it. It's been dealt with. But this is what they do, right? Well, they've been horrible in the past. Yeah, it was like two generations ago. Okay, all those people are now old or dead, or, you know, the ones that have come back and are ancient, you know, they're the last few good remaining ones that have come back with us. And they're trying to hang this upon the next generations. Verse number, oh, let me go into something else here. I'll share something with you. So when I went and started New Life Baptist Church on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, you know what I wanted to do? I want to serve God. You know what I want to do? I just want to start a church. I just want to be a blessing to the families that I've been talking to, that have been saying to me, look, we don't really have a good, solid church that's going out soil-winning. You know, would you consider coming up here to the Sunshine Coast and got to meet different people and going soil-winning and et cetera, et cetera. You know, my, I did, brethren, I did not care about the beaches, okay? It wasn't about the low traffic. You know, it wasn't about the beautiful scenery of the Sunshine Coast. I went to the Sunshine Coast because I wanted to do a work for God. I wanted to build a house for God, New Life Baptist Church. And guess what? Pretty much week number one, you know, adversaries. You know, trying to hang something of my past over my head. Hold on, is this, that's pastor Kevin Sepulveda, isn't this the guy that got ordained by some oneness heretic? You know, maybe he's not legitimate, you know? Hey, maybe this guy's a oneness heretic. What's oneness? Maybe this guy doesn't believe in the Trinity either. No, but that's something that has nothing to do with me. I never had anything to do with me, right? I'm just trying to serve God, trying to be in church, trying to go soil-winning, trying to be a blessing to the people, trying to keep a good record of a good reputation, just loving the Lord, loving God's people, and the doors get opened for me to be ordained and sent to start the church. And then things that are outside of my control, you know, I send in pastor, getting involved into oneness, and then people ringing me up. What do you believe about the Trinity? You know, is that pastor, is he actually ordained? You know, I mean, what kind of guy is he ordained by a oneness heretic? Yeah, you know, I just want to build a house. Just leave me alone. It's got nothing to do with me. I'm not building the walls. I'm not building up a defense. I'm not going to war with anybody. I just want to serve God. And yet these things happen. These things happen. You know, when I started blessing up Baptist Church, it was like eight months after we started a new life Baptist Church, right? Why did we start the church? Because there were families that had left a church and they wanted to just be together and go soul winning. Why did I do that? Why did I commit myself to start to build another house of God down in Sydney? Because I love the families. I love the brethren. I love God. I just want to see soul winning in Sydney. We need a good church that preaches the truth. That's all. And it's like, well, why is Kevin going down to Sydney? You know, what's the reason? Someone once rang me up. Oh, you know, you're going to go start the church. You want to look like a hero. Hero, I don't care. I don't care about me. I just want to serve Jesus. Can't I just serve Jesus and leave me alone? I'm not trying to be a hero in anybody's eyes. I just, you know, when you love God's people, when you love God, aren't you going to do God's work? Isn't that it? It's not about being a hero. Well, I don't care about that. You know, I just want to see God's people to serve God with their lives. That's all I care about. And if you want to be part of this church, praise God. If you find another good church to be part of, praise God, just serve God. Don't serve me. It's not about me, brethren. Oh, why is Pastor Kevin going down to Sydney? Well, just in case new life about the church fails, you know, and you can come back here. Stupidity, you know? Oh, you know, he's got another source of income there from the church. Stupidity. You know, people say stupid things. You know what? When you're just trying to serve God, just trying to do what is right, you're just trying to build God's house. You know, the adversaries, they come. But then that tells me we're doing a good work, right? Because if we weren't doing a good work, they wouldn't come. They'd leave us alone. Verse number 16, I think. Am I up to verse number 16, brother Rams? I think, sorry guys. I'm getting caught up. All right, verse number 16. We certify the king that if the city be builded again and the walls thereof set up, by this means they shall have no portion on this side. I've read that already. All right, verse number 20. All right, yeah, verse number 20. All right, there have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem. So this is still the king responding back to the letter. There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the revile and told tribute and custom was paid unto them. So of course, you know, and the king David and the king Solomon especially, you know, they were a powerful nation. Other people, they were paying their taxes to the kingdom of Israel. So the king's going, oh man, yeah, you know what? Instead of us, you know, benefiting from the Jews in their land, they're going to take advantage. They're going to take control. They're going to build their walls. They're going to build their armies. And all of a sudden they're going to be another power that we have to deal with. They're going to be a rebellious power that we have to deal with. So that's, these things are playing in the king's mind. So is he, you start to see that, you know, he's been deceived, okay? He's been deceived to think that the Jews have some ulterior motive besides just building the house of God, okay? Verse number 21. Give you now commandment to cause these men to cease and that this city be not builded until another commandment shall be given from me. He goes, look, tell the Jews to stop. Stop building until I come with another commandment, okay? I need some time to think about what's going on. And so you can see that the letter, yes, it was filled with lies. There was some truth. The king went and confirmed that one part of truth and he thinks just, okay, that part is true. Therefore the whole letter must be true. No, it's full of lies, full of lies. And he asked them to stop the work of God. I read this on Thursday, if I read it again, Proverbs 12 verse 17. Hear that speaker of truth show forth righteousness, but a false witness deceit, okay? A false witness deceit. Why do people lie? Why do they give false accusations? They wanna cause deception. They wanna change your view and your mind about something and corrupt your mind, brethren. You know, when your mind has been corrupted by lies, it's very hard then to see the truth once again, okay? This king's been corrupted by the lies, he's been deceived by these letters that were sent from the Samaritans. Verse number 22. Take heed now that you fail not to do this. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings? Because yeah, stop to it straight away. We don't wanna cause any damage to our kingdom. Now when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews and made them to cease by force and power. So I'm assuming they must have armies or they must have soldiers from Persia to come and enforce that this work would stop. And the saddest part of this chapter, verse 24. Then ceased the work of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. Now when you work out when Darius would become the king of Persia, when you read the Bible sometimes, you don't get the impression, you don't get the timeframes really clear in your mind unless you start paying attention. Like it kinda seems like almost when you're reading through this book, because you get to the next chapter and they start building again. So it almost feels like, okay, they stop for a while and they start building. No, the period of time that they stopped was about 14 years. All this time, all this resources, all this manpower, all excited, they laid the foundations. We saw this in the previous chapter. They're so excited, they're cheering on, they're crying tears of joy that they're building this city, they're excited for the work of God. Stops for 14 years. 14 years before we get to the next chapter and they start rebuilding again. All right, can we please turn to Philippians chapter one? Philippians chapter one, please. We'll end on this one. Philippians chapter one, verse number 27. Brethren, we are gonna have adversaries. We have the devil, okay? We obviously don't want our enemies to stop the work of God, okay? You need to power on, you need to push on, no matter how much people try to tear you down, how much people try to mock you, how much people just try to find other reasons why you serve God. They try to find some selfish reasons and throw it out there and try to turn people against you. And again, brethren, you can become discouraged, you can get cast down. Look at Philippians chapter one, verse number 27. It says, only let your conversation, that's your behavior, okay? Be as it becomeeth the gospel of Christ, that whether I come to see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit. Let's stop there for a moment, okay? Paul is telling the Philippian church, listen, I need you to stand fast. You know, you're ministers of the gospel of Christ. You've been saved by that gospel, you're preachers of that gospel, you need to stand fast in one spirit. So look, stand together, church, have each other's back, keep serving the Lord. And then it keeps going. We've one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. And brethren, you know, for this church to continue doing the work of God, where we would not have our enemies trying to stop it, we need to be together. We need to be of the same mind. We ought to have the same goals, okay? We want to see souls saved. We want to see people grow in knowledge and in service for God. We want to lay up our eyes, you know, our treasures in heaven and think about what is eternal and what matters for all eternity rather than on these earthly things. We need to have the same mind. We need to stand fast together, okay? If we encourage one another, we're going to have a greater influence of, you know, overcoming the enemies, the adversaries that come our way. Look at verse 28. And in nothing, terrified by your adversaries. He goes, don't be terrified. Don't be afraid by your adversaries. Don't be afraid of those that are trying to stop you serving God, which is to damn an evident token of perdition. He goes, look, this is proof. When they're trying to stop God's work, when they're making false accusation, this is evident token. This is proof of perdition. That word perdition means damnation. This proves that they're damned. This proves that they're not even saved. But to you of salvation and that of God. He goes, look, when you have adversaries trying to stop you doing God's work, this proves that you're saved. This proves that you're of God. This proves that you're doing something great for God. And for those that are trying to stop you, this proves that they're damned. You know, maybe reprobates or just not saved. You know, whatever it is that they have. But Brevin, let me encourage you. You know, adversaries, they're always going to exist. You know, and I wish that wasn't the case. You know, I wish I could say, we'll just serve God and let's hold hands and sing kumbaya around the campfire and all of you will be sweet forever. There's always going to be challenges. There's always going to be people trying to stop our work, trying to stop you. You may have adversaries in your own families that think you're crazy for going to church on a Sunday, going to church on a Thursday night for midweek services, you know, giving faithfully to your church, going soul winning, probably have some adversaries in your own family, okay? But Brevin, and in nothing, terrified. Don't be terrified. Don't be afraid of your adversaries. Stay close to the gospel of Christ. You know, remind yourself of who you are. Stand fast together as a church. Church is so important. You know, we live in such a wicked world, you know? And we need a place where we can be encouraged, where we can be moved by the Holy Spirit of God, where we can be in the presence of Jesus Christ, where we can be a blessing and service to the brothers and sisters in the Lord and to come to a place where we can learn God's word. So Ezra chapter four, Brevin, the adversaries. You know, I hope it has given you some food for thought. You know, and look, I'm not saying that, I'm not trying to say that everybody that is harmful or has said bad things is like a reprobate or unsaved wicked person. You know, there can be clashes amongst believers as well. Please don't misunderstand anything that I'm trying to say here. But we do see the playbook of adversaries. We do see the examples, right? They pretend to be friends. They come alongside. They get offended when you don't want their help the way they want to help, right? Then they go out writing letters. They try to get as many people to turn against you. They make up false accusations. They throw through truths out there to convince and to deceive those as well. And they're really just trying to stop the work of God. So please keep this in mind. I don't want there to be any stop to Blessed Hope Baptist Church. Let's pray.