Using Others v. Serving Others

1:02Maybe someone used you for your resources, what your money had already bought, or what your money could buy them. And so they used you to get those things. And then once they got what they wanted, they disappeared. You might have been used in far more painful ways. Maybe in a relationship with someone who used you, and then after they had gotten what they wanted, they disappeared. Being used is a Terrible feeling. And that's one of the reasons why God commands us again and again in Scripture not to use one another. In fact, the second greatest commandment could be interpreted that way: you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

1:46Well, friends, today at the outset of chapter five, the wall is still not complete. It's still in the process of being rebuilt. It's about halfway there. And Nehemiah and the Jews are still experiencing opposition from their adversaries outside of the camp. Sanbalat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab, they're all still at their work trying to stop the rebuilding. But while all that's going on, as if that wasn't enough, Nehemiah also has to deal with internal challenges, challenges among the very people that he's come to help. Some Israelites are actually using others. And so what we're going to see today in chapter 5 and how we're going to be challenged is in this way. Instead of using others for personal gain, we're called to serve others at personal cost.

2:38Let's take a look at the text together. Here in verse 1, we see that the people are really upset. Nehemiah says, a great outcry arose. Well, why is there this great outcry? Well, you see, first of all, in verse 3, that there's a famine in the land. And so the poorest people of the land are struggling to get enough grain to eat. And keep their families alive. The second problem is what we see in verse 4. The Persian taxes are really high.

3:09Living in the Persian Empire was like living in California. Like, it's a great place to visit, but you can't afford to live there. That's what's going on here. The government spending is so out of control on the palaces and on the military campaigns and everything else that the taxes on the people are very, very high. The king levies enormous taxes to finance all of that, the building projects and the military conquests. And so some of these people are having to borrow money just to pay their taxes.

3:39And so, what this meant was that poor people had to take extreme measures just to get by. Things are so bad that some of them mortgage their fields, their vineyards, and their houses to buy grain to eat, and others are borrowing money to pay the taxes. You see here that some of them even resorted to selling their children, meaning that some of their kids became indentured servants to families, other Jewish families until they could pay back those debts.

4:08And so, what becomes abundantly clear in these first five verses is that some or perhaps even most of the wealthier Jewish people are taking advantage of the poor. They're lending money or grain at crippling interest rates, what's known as usury. Usury is seen today in the practices of like payday lending and things like that. That where the interest rates are just unbelievable for what you get in return. And so, when these poor people couldn't make their payments on the amount of money that they borrowed, these wealthier people would come and seize their assets, their family land, even their children. So, you have to remember, these people have all sacrificed a lot to come back to Jerusalem.

4:51Some of their ancestors came back about a hundred years ago in the first wave with Zerubbabel. Others came back about 13 years ago with Ezra. Others came back only recently with Nehemiah himself, but they all sacrificed a lot to leave other wealthy, well-to-do places in the Persian Empire to come back and to be a part of this rebuilding effort in Jerusalem. All of these folks are basically working on the wall 24-7, which means they're not farming, they're not ranching, they're not plying their trade as they normally would to provide for their families. And so, in the middle of a famine, in the middle of tax season, not having a steady stream of income was leading these families into desperate measures.

5:38Well, the actions of the wealthy are not just unethical, they're sinful. They're using people instead of serving them, and that becomes very evident in the passage. I want you to look on the screen at Exodus chapter 22. Look at what God wrote in his law: If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, You shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. What you see again and again in Scripture is that God has compassion for the poor, and he displays a righteous anger toward anyone who would abuse them and oppress them. In fact, at the very end of this passage in Exodus 22, God says, And if he, that is the poor, cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. God has great compassion on the poor.

6:34And we know from everything that we've seen in the book of Nehemiah so far that Nehemiah is a man after God's own heart. And so, as a man after God's own heart, how is he going to respond to this oppressive situation? How is he going to deal with these people who are sinning? Well, beginning in verse 6, we see his reaction. Look at what it says. I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.

7:02He is very angry. The situation is unjust, it's sinful, and it provokes him to anger. And last week, we talked about the fact and we observed that anger can be a righteous emotion. You can have righteous anger. But for anger to be righteous, two things have to be true: we have to be angry at the right things, and we have to be angry in the right way. If we're not angry at the right, Right things or in the right way, we don't have righteous anger, we have unrighteous anger.

7:35Well, Nehemiah was definitely angry at the right thing. He's not mad about some small, petty issue. He's mad that the people of God, people made in his image and likeness, his fellow Jews, are being oppressed by other Jews at a time of national emergency. The country has been conquered and it's occupied. The wall is broken down. There's a famine. Taxes are outrageous. And you've got wealthy people taking advantage of the poor in this situation. And so Nehemiah is certainly angry about the right thing.

8:16But I want you to notice that he's also angry in the right way. Look at verse 7. What does he do when he hears the news and feels this righteous anger welling up inside? It says, I took counsel with myself. In other words, when Nehemiah feels this righteous anger welling up inside of him, he takes a step back. He takes inventory of his emotions and what's going on inside of him before he says or does anything.

8:43He doesn't allow his anger, which is definitely at the right thing, to become unrighteous anger because he becomes angry in the wrong way. And friends, all of this is so instructive for us today. We live in an outrage culture. People are angry all the time at everything. And the internet mob sometimes is angry at the right things. But the internet mob is almost never angry in the right way. We have to understand that we are sponges. Human beings are sponges. We soak up all that we see and hear and experience around us. That's why Jesus says again and again in the Gospels: be careful what you see, be careful what you hear.

9:38Because we're sponges. We soak that stuff up. We're discipled by it. And so, being in the midst of an outrage culture where people are sometimes mad at the right things, but almost never mad in the right way, we have to be aware that we're soaking that up and we're being discipled by it. And so, the reality is this: the more you're on social media, the more you subject yourselves to the talking heads on the major news networks, the more you are being discipled by this outrage culture to be mad at many of the wrong things and almost always in the wrong way.

10:19We cannot escape that reality. We have to be discipled by God's word and not by our culture and how to be righteously angry. Nehemiah is righteously angry. He's angry at the right thing, and he's angry in the right way. The question then is: what does he do with his anger? This is another lesson that we have to learn today because so many people are confused as to what to do with their anger if it's righteous. Look at what he does. First thing he does: he brings charges against the nobles and the officials. He brings charges against the nobles and the officials. Now, what I want you to notice here is that Nehemia goes straight to the offending parties and he confronts them directly. Look what he says. Verse 7: You are exacting interest, each from his brother.

11:18I think this is instructive because in our day, people will do almost anything except actually go to the offending party and confront them head on. We'll talk to friends, we'll sub-tweet some stuff, we'll do almost anything except actually go to the offending party and confront them. Nehemiah does exactly that. He says, You are exacting interest. You're charging usury, each from his brother. See, to not do that is cowardly, and to not do that is unbiblical. If there is a problem, if there is someone that is sinning against someone else, Else, whether you or others, the right thing to do is to confront them. The nobles and the officials are breaking God's law by charging these crippling interest rates. Understand, friends, the Bible does not prohibit charging interest. That's how financial institutions make money. So you're paying for their services. That's fine. What the Bible prohibits is charging crippling interest rates, unethical and sinful interest rates that will break someone. And that's what these people were doing. They're using the poor, charging these terribly high interest rates at a time of national emergency. And so Nehemiah brings charges against them. That's step one. Look at what he does next. Step two. He brings everyone together, a great assembly against them.

12:52Now you might think, why is he doing that? That sounds like he's just gathering an internet mob without the internet. Why does he bring everyone together? Well, look on the screen at 1 Timothy 5. Paul says this, do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. Now, of course, this passage is dealing with elders in the church. That's the context of 1 Timothy 5.

13:30But the principles surely apply here as well. The nobles and the officials are public leaders who are committing public sin that is well known to everyone. Everyone within Jerusalem and the Jews and everyone outside. The foreigners who are among them, their enemies. And public sin, especially public sin committed by leaders, has to be dealt with publicly because it affects everyone. The world is watching us, church. The world is watching us. And they're watching to see how we deal with sin in particular.

14:13Because the way we deal with sin, whether we ignore it or justify it or cover it up, the way we deal with sin in the church is teaching them something about God, teaching them something about the gospel, teaching them something about us who claim to be his followers. Is that message true? So that's the second thing that he does. He gathers everyone together. The third thing he does is he publicly rebukes these nobles and officials. He publicly rebukes them. In verse 8, he essentially levels this argument against them.

15:00We just got back from exile. Like literally, we just got back. We, some of us, had to actually purchase these people out of slavery to the Gentiles. That just happened. And now you guys are selling them to each other. Look at verse 9. Let's be straightforward. The thing you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations, our enemies? And at this, the nobles and the officials are silent. What is there to say to that? There's no defense for their actions.

15:49Friends, this public rebuke was necessary for those who committed these sins, but it was also necessary for everyone else, for the Jews, the people of God, as well as for the foreigners who were watching how this situation was going to be handled. Again, look at 1 Timothy 5, 20, second part of that couple of verses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all. Why? So that the rest may stand in fear.

16:21That's the purpose of a public rebuke. It's sending a clear message, not just to the leaders who committed that sin. Sin, but also to all of the people who are inside of the family of God and to all of the people who are outside of the family of God. That's why it's done publicly. That's why that public rebuke is necessary. We're sending a message, and it's a message that the church has to send as well. You see, in all of our dealings with one another, especially our dealings with sin, the message of the church should be straightforward.

16:58Our community is an open community, it is a community that's open to any repentant sinner. And so, as long as you are a repentant sinner, you are welcome to be a part of the community. If you live in unrepentant sin, we will confront you, we will rebuke you for that because that's not who we are. We don't live in unrepentant sin together, we live in repentant sin together. And if you persist in unrepentant sin and won't turn away from it, we will remove you from the community because you no longer qualify for membership in it. You're not living as a repentant sinner, as one who has experienced the forgiveness of God and therefore has decided to live in a very different way.

17:48That's the message that we're sending, or we should be sending. So, I want you to think about the scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention that Pastor Cody addressed just this past Sunday. You've got church leaders who are covering up sins, covering up crimes committed against some of the most vulnerable members of the church and the community. Not only did they not exercise church discipline on these people, blatantly disregarding God's commands, but in many cases they didn't even acknowledge it. They did the opposite. They covered it up, hoping that no one would find out about it. Many of these sinners and criminals went on to offend in other churches, in other communities.

18:41Because there was no rebuke, because there was not even an acknowledgement of sin, these churches sent a very clear message to everyone. God does not take sin seriously, and neither do we. That's the message that was sent. God does not take sin seriously, and neither do we. There was no fear of God. No concern for the victims. No concern for how they've made the gospel appear. So Nehemiah publicly confronts and rebukes these people. And that's what should have happened in these churches.

19:30Fourth and finally, Nehemia clearly spells out what repentance looks like. Look at verse 10. Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them. This is so important. Nehemiah doesn't form a committee, he doesn't draft a resolution saying that exacting this kind of interest is bad and we shouldn't do that anymore. No, he says, quit stealing from the poor now. Give back everything you took from them now. That's what he says. He calls them to repentance.

20:28And then in verses 12 and 13, he calls the priests as if this wasn't enough. For some reason, he doesn't seem to trust these people. He calls the priests in and he makes them swear an oath to God that they'll walk in repentance. And then he gives them this picture. He shakes out his garment and he says, So may God shake out any one of you who does not keep his word. He is so serious about this. Friends, good intentions will always remain good intentions unless there is a plan for salvation. Specific and measurable action. That's what repentance requires: a plan for specific and measurable action.

21:10Sin requires decisive action, and public sin, especially public sin involving the oppression of the vulnerable, like women and children, like the poor, like the sojourner seeking asylum from persecution. That kind of public sin requires decisive action. Look again at Exodus 22 on the screen. God says, You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

22:01You see how seriously God takes the oppression of the poor and the vulnerable. And he says very specifically, not just here, but in many places in Scripture, that he's going to hold us accountable for how we have treated the most vulnerable members of society. So, to recap, what does Nehemiah do with his righteous anger? Well, he confronts and publicly rebukes the leaders, he calls them to. Repentance for using the people instead of serving the people under their care.

22:37And if you're a professing believer who's living in unrepentant sin, you've got to receive correction and begin walking in repentance. You cannot ignore unrepentant sin in your life. And, church, if any of us knows a professing Christian or a group of professing Christians living in unrepentant sin, then it's your job and it's our job together to confront them and to call them to repentance. We cannot ignore their unrepentant sin either. See, Nehemiah didn't because he feared the Lord. And because he feared the Lord, his life was consistent with his profession of faith.

23:20That's so evident in this last section, verses 14 through 19. Here you get a picture of what it looks like to serve others rather than to use others, to lay down our rights instead of demand them. Look at verse 15. Nehemiah says, The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. So before Nehemiah arrived, the governors taxed the people heavily.

23:59And it sounds like Like their servants who were probably in charge of collecting those taxes required a little something extra on top, just like the tax collectors did in Jesus' day. And so, you've got all of that going on before Nehemiah arrived. You have corruption all the way up the chain. Corruption is always discouraging, it makes everyone under the corruptive influences feel like there's nothing that can be done, the system's broken. And it's especially discouraging when political and religious leaders are corrupt.

24:36You're trusting these people to live with integrity, to do what they say that they're going to do. And so, when they don't do that, when they act like hypocrites and then charge you for acting like a hypocrite, it makes it all the worse. Well, so as governor, Nehemiah is entitled to tax the people to cover his expenses. That was his right, but he didn't use that right. Why? Verse 15 again: because of the fear of the Lord. I did not do so because of the fear of the Lord.

25:14That's what it all comes down to. It really all comes down to the fear of the Lord. See, political leaders, religious leaders, business leaders, they can make promises all day long. Campaign promises, promises in sermons, promises on their websites. But unless they fear the Lord, no campaign promise, no sermon, no public relations message with some moral posturing from a company representative is going to make up for a lack of the fear of the Lord. It doesn't mean anything.

26:00See, Nehemiah feared the Lord. And because he feared the Lord, he persevered in the work on the wall. He kept at it. We see in this section, he didn't acquire any land, especially he didn't steal it from the poor. And surely you saw this. Verse 17, moreover, there were at my table 150 men. Can you imagine? What kind of table is that? 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. He is feeding all of these people who are eating with him regularly, plus the foreign dignitaries who come to stop by, probably from the Persian government. And he's doing this all out of his own expense. Look at verse 18. Yet for all this, I did not demand the food allowance of the governor because the service was too heavy on this people.

26:57What an example. Nehemiah. Nehemiah did not demand his rights. He laid down his rights for the good of others. This was a big sacrifice, but it was one that he was willing to make. I mean, for one, at this particular time in the nation's history, it was the right thing to do. But it goes way beyond just being the right thing to do. Nehemiah was not looking for an earthly reward, he was looking for a heavenly reward. Look at verse 19.

27:30This is his prayer: Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people. Nehemiah is looking for a heavenly reward. He didn't come back to use the people to make his name famous. He came back to serve the people to make God's name famous. And he did all of that because he wasn't looking for anything in this world. He was looking to a heavenly reward. Look at Jesus' words from Matthew 6.

28:06Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You see, if your treasure is stored up here on earth, You're going to have a very difficult time laying down your rights to serve other people. If your hope is in this world, you're going to tend to use people rather than serve people.

28:43But Nehemiah's treasure was in heaven, and so he gladly laid down his rights to serve others at personal cost instead of demanding his rights and using others for personal gain. Friends, today we've been reminded that God takes justice very seriously. And he takes justice very seriously, especially for the vulnerable. As Christians, we have specific commands not to oppress the poor. But as we said earlier, it goes far beyond that. We have commands to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It goes far beyond not just doing them harm. We are to actively seek their good, especially those who are brothers and sisters in Christ who are poor.

29:35No one's called to help every poor person, but we are all called to do something as we have opportunity. Look at Galatians chapter 6, verse 10. I love this verse. Paul says, So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. We have opportunities to help poorer brothers and sisters in Christ, even right here in our own church body. That's one of the functions that our life groups serve is to know the needs of members in the body of Christ and then to work to meet those needs. Beyond that, our whole church has put together a benevolence fund to help members who are struggling financially or with material resources or opportunities because we want to live out this verse.

30:35We also have the privilege of living in a democratic nation. And what that means is that we have the privilege of electing government officials and seeking to persuade them and voting for laws that not only don't oppress the poor, but which laws actively promote justice for those who are poor or vulnerable. And so we need to be doing all of those things and more. Friends, the bigger picture here, though, is that Christians are called to serve others rather than to use others. That's just what Jesus, our Savior, did for us. In Mark chapter 10, he says that he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

31:25Jesus didn't come to use others for personal gain, he laid down. His life at great personal cost to serve us. And if we believe that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection has paid the penalty for our sins, then our lives need to show that in the ways that we generously lay down our lives for the good of others as well. Maybe today, as you examine your life, it becomes clear that you've not been living to serve others. Instead, you've been living to use others for your personal gain.

32:04If that's the case, you may have always considered yourself a Christian. But you have to understand that your life, as you live to use others rather than serve others, doesn't reflect the life of Christ. You have to ask some hard questions if you're living to use others rather than to serve others as Jesus did. And so as you examine your life, if that comes clear to you that that's what you're doing, then I would urge you to consider whether or not your profession of faith is true, whether or not you're really living a crucified life as Jesus lived. And if not, I pray that you'll repent and believe in the good news of Jesus today.

32:48But no matter where you find yourself this morning, all of us have to examine our lives in light of Nehemiah 5. We have to examine whether we're using others or serving others. And so, ask yourself the hard question: Who in my life am I using rather than serving? Instead of using others for personal gain, we're called to serve others at personal cost. Let's pray. Father, I want to begin by praying for the men and women, maybe even the children in here today who are hurting because they have been or they are being used in some way.

33:39I pray that you would help them to look to you, to cry out to you, to believe that you really meant it when you said that you care about every person who is oppressed. I pray that they would find great comfort in knowing not only do you say that you care, but that you demonstrated your care through your son, the suffering servant, who is oppressed, who is taken advantage of, who was used all throughout his life and ministry.

34:27I pray for every one of us as we were. Reflect on the hard question: who in my life am I using rather than serving? God, I pray that in any instance where we're using others, instead of laying our lives and our rights down, that we would repent, that we would treat others as you, Jesus, have treated us by sacrificially laying our lives down for them. God, we thank you for the great example of Nehemiah. How day after day he laid down his personal rights and he sought to serve others even at great personal cost to himself.

35:13And I pray, God, that you would teach us to do the same. Thank you for your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.