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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Legally Unrighteous

Father in heaven, thank you so much that we have this opportunity once more to come and study your word.

Lord please, grace us with thy presence, bless us with thy presence, may your Holy Spirit even rain down upon us even now.

For Lord, we need Him more than anything else because He's the very 1 that inspired the words that we're about to read.

And unless you're with us, Lord, our time together will be fruitless this morning.

And we claim the promise where 2 or 3 are gathered together in your name, that you would be there in the midst of them.

And Father, there is more than that this morning as we're studying together online.

Please Lord, grace us with Thy presence, we pray.

Our study this morning is entitled, Legally Unrighteous.

Not legally righteous, but legally unrighteous.

And we are still studying the book of Nehemiah.

The work of rebuilding the wall had been progressing at a steady pace with Nehemiah and everybody that was there.

Issues had arisen that had been dealt with.

Sanballat, the enemy to the Israelites that was jealous that the Israelites were now rebuilding the walls.

You know, he threatened not only to come in and destroy the work, but to even kill them.

And so the people began to hold weapons as they began to work.

From within the people they began to complain because the work was hard.

People were burning out and there was a lot of rubbish around to clear away.

But Nehemiah encouraged them with the thought that God was with them and would fight for them and be their help.

So they came together and they had a mind to work.

And so the work continued to move forward at a steady pace.

And just when Nehemiah thought the worst was over, then something new came up again.

We are reading from Nehemiah chapter 5, starting in verse 1 the Bible says, and there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews.

A new complaint, a new issue came up and this time it was from within the camp about other Jews that were in there as well.

What was it that people were complaining against other Jews, people that were fellow workers and believers of the same faith?

Nehemiah 5, verse 2 continues, For there were that said, We our sons and our daughters are many.

Therefore we take up corn for them, and that we may eat and live.

Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn because of the dearth.

They were also that said we have borrowed money for the king's tribute and that upon our lands and vineyards yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children, and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants.

And some of our daughters were brought unto bondage already.

Neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and our vineyards.

There was not enough food for these poor families, especially those that had large families.

People were crying out for lack of food, for hunger, and because of the shortness of food, it said there was a dearth.

Not because there was an actual literal famine, but that these people were in a famine because they didn't have enough to eat.

They had to mortgage their land, they had to mortgage their houses, they had to mortgage their vineyards just to buy food and to have enough to eat.

But then when that ran out, what did they have to do?

That was enough maybe for 1 month, maybe 2 months, maybe half a year.

But then they ran out again and these poor families, they had to give their sons and their daughters to the families of those that were affluent.

They became servants, and for someone, just so that they could provide means for themselves to survive and to live.

They had run out of their own possessions.

They had run out of more things to give away and then they ran out of food and so then they began to complain.

Basically what is happening here as we read in the first 5 verses, the rich were taking advantage of the poor.

And just when Nehemiah thought that everything would be smooth sailing, that maybe the worst was behind them, and now the Lord was going to make the way clear and plain and the work would just press forward with greater energy And fresh new issue came up and you know friends we got to expect that when we're working in the Lord's vineyard There's gonna be problems.

We got to expect that Don't think that just because you're working for the Lord that he will just smooth the way over without any extra effort on your behalf at all.

No friends, it's gonna require courage, it's gonna require faith, it's gonna require a whole lot of extra effort just to make sure that peace is maintained as well.

So we see that the rich there are beginning, not beginning, they have already taken advantage of the poor.

And I, Nehemiah, was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

Then I consulted with myself and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every 1 of his brother, and I set a great assembly against them.

He was angry and he called forth the rulers and the nobles and he rebuked them.

He stepped up straight away to deal with this situation and he was not afraid.

He called those that were affluent, those that were men of wealth, that were giving their time and their means for the work of even just building and rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah was not afraid to step on their toes, to offend them, to get them upset, even though he needed their influence and their affluence to finish this work here.

He was not happy with the situation, and so he called them forward and he sharply rebuked them for their wicked course and their wicked action.

You know, friends, we can't be afraid to speak up for the truth and for that which is right, and for those that don't have a voice, and against those that are walking down the wrong path, especially against those that have influence and have means and money.

Too often in our churches we revere those that have money and usually those that have money have a loud voice as well and that's what got them into their position of influence and affluence at the very beginning.

But we can't be afraid to speak the truth.

But there is no other person here on this earth that has it 100% correct.

I don't care how successful a business you run.

It doesn't matter how much money you have.

You've made some right decisions in your life that have gotten you your influence and especially your wealth, but along the way there were lots of failures as well.

And so just because rich people are in the church, it does not mean that they're always right, that they're always correct.

And so friends, if we are to do the work of God in the church, it requires courage.

It requires for you to have a strong foundation to be able to speak up against injustice and even when we're going down the wrong path, that you're willing to stand up for the truth in spite of the possible consequences that it might cause.

And in this case, the rich were getting richer, and the poor were getting poorer.

And so Nehemiah continues, Nehemiah chapter 5 and verse 8.

And I said unto them, we after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen.

Then they held their peace and found nothing to answer.

Nehemiah, he had set the example to redeem as much as possible those that had been sold to the heathen.

He had used his own money to buy back the Jews that had been slaves to the Gentiles in foreign lands just so that they can come back to their home country and their homeland.

But now he comes back to Jerusalem there, his homeland, and he finds Jews enslaved to Jews.

They were putting others of the same race and religion in a worse position when it was not necessary for their own survival to do such a thing.

They didn't have to enslave their brethren and take their houses and lands except that maybe it was the legal thing to do.

And we are looking at legally unrighteous.

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Legally Unrighteous

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