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Amen. So guess what Ezra 4 is going to be about? Look, I can't help what the Bible goes through. So for those of you that are not false prophets again, not infiltrators, well, we're just going through the Bible, yeah? There's not much else you can preach out of Ezra 4, so it's going to be a sermon of that, and it should be exciting. We should learn a lot from it. But let's just remember where we're at in the book of Ezra, though. So far there's been a return from 70 years of captivity, if you remember, there was a command by King Cyrus of the now ruling Medo-Persian Empire, and the command was for the Jews to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. So we looked at that in chapter 1, and how Zerababel, who was also known as Sesh-bazar, which was his Chaldean name, along with Joshua, Joshua the high priest, he led the return to Jerusalem, or they led it really, bringing all the tools of worship, didn't they? And we talked about that, and we've been looking at parallels with that, and building the house of God here. We saw a long list of those that returned in chapter 2, and then these leaders then building the altar in chapter 3, didn't they? And we saw that the leaders were getting stuck in, leading from the front, followed by the foundations of the temple, which once they were laid, they were met with rejoicing, weren't they? Tears and shouts of joy, you know, people who really appreciated that, wow, you know, something's going on here, yeah? And we're getting there, we've laid the foundations. And like I said, we've been comparing this, haven't we, to the rebuilding work that we've started in this country. And after what, for me, seems like Babylonian captivity, doesn't it? And with a load of worldly works, religion, basically, dominating the so-called Baptist churches in this nation for far too long, haven't they? Yeah, there's a lot of churches in this nation that claim to be Baptist churches, a lot of churches in this nation which claim grace through faith, at least on paper, but really, they're just work salvationists. Yeah, and there's been a lot of that in this nation for a long time now, and I think, you know, as well, like this Baptist union thing is just kind of, it's just horrendous, isn't it, really? Because Baptist church should be independent, okay? That's the whole point, and it wouldn't have been quite so bad had we not then just had this basically denomination formed of Baptist churches under this wicked umbrella of the Baptist union, where to just even be a part of it now, they have to basically be at least part trained by these people, by this sort of umbrella Baptist union mob, hence we now just have Baptist churches across the board just preaching damnable heresy, okay? And that's what we have now, but we've been looking at the comparisons. Now, the end of chapter 3, it made me think of those here that have been waiting for a proper church. So chapter 3, Ezra chapter 3 and verse 12 ended with this, it said, but many of the priests and Levites and the chief of the fathers who were ancient men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. And we looked at that and talked about how, you know, you could understand that, couldn't you? They've been in captivity, and we can, you know, make parallels and make application for us here with that. Ezra 4 then starts with, now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard of the children of the captivity, builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief 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 Esarhaddon, king of Asur, which brought us up. Hear that. I'd like to pray before we continue with this chapter. Father, thank you for the many lessons we can get out of this chapter of the book of Ezra that you teach us here. Help me to preach what can be an uncomfortable and awkward subject, can be sometimes hard going listening to this preached a lot, but help me to preach it as you'd want me to, Lord. Help everyone here to just receive it as it's meant to be, you know, as a sort of something that we should be aware of. We should be vigilant. We should take heed to your warnings in the Bible. Help me to preach that clearly. Help everyone here to have attentive ears. Fill me with your spirit, please, Lord. In Jesus' name, for all of this. Amen. Okay, so they've rebuilt the temple, and sure enough, the adversaries are in the picture straightaway, aren't they? Okay, this is pretty soon after they've started this work. Did they wait until the temple was built before they tried causing trouble? They didn't, did they? Okay, it was before it's even been built. Did they wait to see what was being preached? Okay, well, let's see what's being preached. Was it because they just didn't agree with the preaching and the leadership? It wasn't, was it? They tried to get involved at the start with the rebuilding, so they claim to want to get involved. That's what they came to do, to get involved with the rebuilding. Verse 1 said, Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built the temple unto the Lord God of Israel, then they came to Zareh Babylon to the chief 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 Esarhaddon, king of Asur, which brought us up hither. And there's another parallel with us and what we've been doing here, and I'm not just talking about, by the way, since the church started, okay, because of course, look, you're going to have, that's going to happen. You have a Bible preaching church, you have a church going out doing things for God, you're going to have problems, but this happened before that. We had, and for those of you that aren't aware, we had a group in this nation that was known as UK Soul Winners, and there's not really much of that kind of going on much anymore because ultimately, you know, it was needed when we didn't really have a proper church sending people out. And we had UK Soul Winners, and look, when I got involved with UK Soul Winners, especially having looked back since as well, because I've kind of, stuff that went on here made me want to look back and see kind of past messages and things that was of interest to me. I mean, there was just wicked people everywhere, weren't there? People were getting kicked out, people were exposing themselves, people were railing, people were doing all this stuff from right at the beginning. And this was before there was even a church. You know, it was meant to just be a group of Soul Winners, a group of Soul Winners that had been basically inspired by NIFB preaching, and were just wanting to get out, preach the gospel, meet up, get things done, and it attracted some of the worst types of scum around, didn't it? Just horrible people. I mean, the group chat on it was just amazing, wasn't it? Heresies, people trying to question, people trying to sow little seeds here and there. It was pretty bad. And they were everywhere. And almost everyone that we kicked out here, by the way, was now looking back in hindsight, I'm trying to say I understood this well enough at the time, was showing red flags from the beginning, now looking back. I've looked back at some of the stuff coming out, some of the kind of little comments here, the little teachings there of all the various women that we've kicked out of here, all this weird stuff just constantly from the beginning on this group chat, looking back to things when we were meeting up, soul and everything else, there were a lot of red flags. But basically they heard that God's children were trying to do something for the Lord here, and they asked to get involved, didn't they? So they claimed that they wanted to build. Oh, we want to go soul-winning. We want to make a difference in the UK. I mean, because it's hard at the beginning, you think, oh, great, a soul-winner. What do you have to go on? So all these people are coming in, getting involved, taking numbers of people. I mean, it's a high-risk business, that, isn't it? Because you've got this soul-winning group, but it's not a biblical church. So it's hard to then have the biblical leadership and the biblical rules, and then you've got just a wick of people taking advantage of it left, right and centre, forming their own little groups, doing all this weird stuff, trying to teach their own stuff, all this just bizarre stuff going on left, right and centre, wasn't it? And of course, these guys that we kicked out of here, I think most of the people that have been kicked out of this church were involved in UK soul-winning from fairly early on. So people can look back and go, whoa, but they were original people. Yeah, just like these people tried to be original people with the building of the temple in the Book of Ezra. Okay, they claimed to want to get involved, but really, they were really there to just cause trouble, to cause disruption, to cause problems. And I think when it came to our church, I think people were expecting, you know, the authorities and the sodomites to be on us. They were thinking, oh, you won't last a minute because... But the devil had already sent his children in. He'd sent them in before the church was even an idea in Pastor Thompson's head. He sent them in early doors, day one, and it's a good lesson for us as well with that, because people just can't... They still now just find it really hard to get their head around. And people are just, you know, but they were soul-winning. They must just believe a bit, they must just be very carnal. But, I mean, these guys, I mean, they ticked every box, didn't they? They were such a lesson for us because they ticked every single box. But they're not always going to be as obvious as that. Here in Ezra, the adversaries claimed to seek God. They claimed to already be serving him, but was that true? Were they really serving him? Go back to 2 Kings 17 to see what was going on with the people of the land. And we're going to see who they were sacrificing to, really. Now, they said here, they said, and we do sacrifice unto him. They said, we seek your God as you do, and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Esur, which brought us up hither. Now, Esarhaddon, and this is king of Assyria, who reigned between 681 BC to 668 BC. So this is basically 145 to 132 years before the point that we're at in the book of Ezra, where we're at 536 BC at this point, yeah? 2 Kings 17 explained what happened soon after the carrying away of Israel from Samaria. Now, whether or not this was under Esarhaddon or a previous king of Assyria is actually debatable, because it's not necessarily chronological at this point. But I don't think much changed anyway, and this is basically what happened. Look at verse 22, it says, For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did. This is verse 22 of 2 Kings 17. Which he did, they departed not from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets, so was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cutha, and from Avah, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvayim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel, and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord, therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. Now this seems to be around the time that they were brought up hither, as we've just heard them describe. And this is probably, for me, what happened previously in our nation. Men of God, lions, you could say, were sent to preach the truth here. I'm sure there have been some proper men of God in this nation over history, and you're not really going to hear about them. So you'll hear about the false prophets like Charles Spurgeon, you'll hear about the other false prophets out there that were preaching, repent of your sins, or some other works, the Calvinist, heretic, clowns, and everyone else. But you're not really going to hear about the real men of God that were preaching the truth. That's just life, isn't it? So there were probably those sent there who were probably sent to slay those false prophets by the Lord. I'm sure they were sent, I'm sure there have been periods in the history of this nation. Look at verse 26. Wherefore they spake to the king of Syria, so after this happened, after these lions were sent in by the law which slew some of them, wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which they has removed and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the god of the land. Therefore he hath sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them because they know not the manner of the god of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thee the one of the priests whom ye brought from thence, and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the god of the land. 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. Now, by the way, Samaria had gone well off already, okay, so it's debatable whether this priest was saved or not, but look, people were previously taught the things of God, and I think that happened here. People here at times are taught the things of God. We can look back, and it's an interesting thing, isn't it? For example, I'm pretty, I wouldn't say 100%, but I feel that King James, the King James, that is who we're talking about, who commissioned the barber, I feel he was saved. Was King James an independent Baptist? No. But was the gospel, was the truth out there? Because when you had this, and ultimately, eventually, and obviously I believe he was saved before he became the king of England, he was the king of Scotland, but were these people who were amongst, basically like the one pretty much state religion, the Church of England Church, was every single one of them just a wicked, damnable heretic? They were probably saved people in and amongst them. I think there was a lot of persecution previous to that on any other, basically there was a battle, obviously, between the Catholics and the Protestants, and before that, I don't think anyone else was getting much of a look in, so I think there were probably saved people around, and I think people were taught the things of God, but they got carried away with their idols, with their false gods, you know, the false gods of the nations, and you could say what the false church is. Eventually now we see the false Bibles, you know, in more recent history, the money, the wealth, the academia, that people throughout history have just ended up, people that have got saved and doing good things have slowly just got watered down, haven't they, to the point where then a few generations on it peters out again. It said in verse 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 dwell. And the men of Babylon made Sukkoth, Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Annamalek, the gods of Sepharvium. So they feared the Lord and made unto themselves the lowest of their priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. So they're fearing God apparently, but they're worshipping idols, aren't they? They've got false religion with, you know, you can imagine probably Sodomite priests like we've got now, and it does make you think of the Church of England, this type of people, don't they, or the Catholics, it's pretty much the same thing. These ones claimed to fear the Lord, but they made themselves of the lowest of them, priests of the high places. And that's what you see in false religion, don't you, some of the lowest of the low, the Basisaur, the lewd fellows of the Basisaur, up there being called father, whatever, you know, like people confessing to them, people, you know, kind of taking their hand and treating them like they're some sort of royalty. And these people are pure and utter filth, aren't they? Like open Sodomites, open perverts, open weirdos, this is what they did here, this is sort of Samaria now, not, not, not, and this is now building up to where we are in Ezra. It says they feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from them. So these are the people, obviously those wicked, false prophets there aren't those, but how long do you think they carried on fearing the Lord? So the ones that were genuine, the ones that did fear the Lord, the ones that were taught that things had gone, put their faith in the coming Christ, how long do you think that happened for? Well, look at verse 34, unto this day they do after the former manner, they fear not the Lord, not long. Okay, neither do they after their statutes, nor after their ordinances, nor after the law and commandment, which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel, with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying, ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice them. But the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretch out arm, him shall you fear and him shall you worship, to him shall you do sacrifice, and the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandments, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forevermore, you shall not fear other gods, and the covenant thou have made with you shall not forget, neither shall you fear other gods, but the Lord your God ye shall fear, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies, howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. So these nations feared the Lord, this is back, you know, back when this, you know, talking about originally, and served their graven images, both their children and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day. So to this day being they no longer fear the Lord, and this is what happens, isn't it? So people, look, people can be saved, yeah? People get saved. They get into the false religions, they get into the lame Baptist church, they get into the worshipping of the idols of life, the idols of the world, and give it not even a generation or two, and their children, their children's children won't be saved, will they? Okay? They'll stop preaching the gospel, they'll stop even caring about explaining salvation because they're too carried away with their idols. And this is what happened. It seems that there were probably some remnant there, and they're done now. So back in Ezra 4, they're described as the adversaries of God's remnant, these people. So these people had a form of godliness, didn't they? But they deny the power they're of. So these people claim to be religious folk. They were worshipping a form of God, but they weren't saved. They weren't God's people. And the thing is, that's so often the types that churches deal with. Okay, I remember talking to our pastor about this. It's so often those with a strong background of false religion, which then end up being the infiltrator problems at their churches. And this has happened through so many churches. You look back at some of the most famous ones, and they will have a strong background in something as a falsehood. Now, they claim to suddenly get saved, okay? But then they end up being a massive problem in the churches, okay? And it happens so often. Now, that's not to say that if you've been in a false religion, right, you must be some wicked infiltrator reprobate. However, so often this case, that's what we're seeing here in Ezra, these people are claiming to be believers, claiming to worship. They're following their version of God and everything else. They're coming along going, we believe the same as you, but they don't. But they're liars. They're infiltrators. Verse two says, Then they came to Zerababel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do. Then we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Asser, which brought us up hither. It's not the same God, though, is it? It's not the same God. They claim to want to join in, to want to be a part of the work, but they're not saved. They're not saved. But they've been taught to sell the right things, though. Look, they're gonna, oh, yeah, yeah, we do sacrifice unto him, yeah, yeah, since back in the day. They say the right things, but then eventually the truth comes out, doesn't it? Eventually it will come out. And here there was a stark difference, when I say here being in our church, between those that were genuine, like back in Ezra 3.12, where it said, But many of the priests are Levites, chief of the fathers, who were ancient men that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice. Many shouted aloud for joy. And then these charlatans that we had in our church, who were just bitter, constantly complaining, moaning, finding fault in literally everything. Any rule we had, any idea, any plan we had, just a problem. Moaning, whinging, whispering, openly complaining to me about pretty much any rule or decision I made. Like, they're not there going, just great, we've got a church. They're just like, just want to find fault, want to find problems, want to find trouble. They claim to be saved, but they're just this constant just thorn in your side. That's what they all were, just a constant thorn. You're just like, what now, what this time, what now? And it's always so subtle, it's just little things, little things, little things, just not quite enough. Not quite enough, but it's just a constant thorn, a constant headache, constant problems, constant just disregarding rules, just constantly just trying to just push it a little bit, push it there, push it here. And look, they're not just there going, I just can't believe we've got a church. They're not there just weeping for joy, going, amazing. We've got the foundations. We've actually got a church which believes and preaches the gospel. Isn't this great? Let's just be a part of this, et cetera. No, instead it's just constant, constant, constant. That's not the same people. That's not the same people, is it? And believe me, these people that claim to want to get involved with the building, they would have been exactly the same. They would have been just a thorn in their side. Everything would have been, everything you do is a problem. Every decision you make is a problem, anything you do. What did Zerubabbel and Jeshua and the rest of the strong men do? Did they just kind of put their arms around them? Go, oh, well, they kicked them out. They booted them onto the curb, didn't they? It says in verse three, but Zerubabbel 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 and house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, hath commanded us. They said, get out. We don't want you involved with us, yeah? And whether it's Judas infiltrators or other more obvious false god worshipers, they have no business in building with us, do they? Okay? There is no business with that. Now, just to make this clear, just before I continue with this sermon, okay, because I want to get this across in the right spirit because what I don't want people to do is come to a church like this and just feel like everyone's just kind of just, you know, sizing it, see if they say the wrong thing. Is this another infiltrator? That's not what we're like, okay? Look, you come to our church, amen, great. We're praising God. We've got some new people at the church. We've got people coming to the church. We've got people getting involved in the things of God. Great, okay? I'm not sitting there just going, I bet that one I'm going to have to like, you know, dig a bit deeper with him, her or anything else. That's not how it is, okay? We learn. But ultimately, the Bible constantly warns us, tells us to preach it. And ultimately, they are manifest in the end, okay? But it is part of our job to have our eyes open for that. We're told to be vigilant. Yeah, we're told to, you know, Paul warned them night and day with tears, didn't he? Okay, however, our job isn't to, we're not like reprobate hunters in this church, okay? When it comes out, it comes out. We all want to be safe and sound and be careful with our families, with our kids, et cetera, because look, the truth is, this is a battleground, okay? That's the truth. When you come to a proper church, you're going to war, okay? You're going to war. You're going to the battle. The pat on your back community club church is a fake. It's not a real church. And we get poisoned by that because then people say, oh, I just wish we didn't have all this. I just wish we could just go and just kind of sit and feel good about ourselves and see all these nice smiley people with the old face smile, you know, with the eyes are dead. You know, I just wish we could just all be a part of that. But that's not the Christian life. Anyone read the Bible? All those battles, all those wars throughout the Old Testament, the New Testament, giving us all these, the way you can apply it to the New Testament life and just go, yeah, it's just meant to be a stroll in the park. You're at war. You're at war. And that's why, obviously, one of the reasons we're family integrated, all these other things, because it is something that we have to look out for. OK, so where are we? So, OK, so we've got we've got obviously those types of infiltrators. But it's the same with those that are more obvious to us. OK, we have no business in building with them. So we're not going to yoke up with the local false church here. So and again, you might say, oh, well, of course not, brother. How many of these so-called churches do? How many so-called Baptists who claim to believe the Bible, Bible-believing so-called churches, will yoke up with the nearest something like a Baptist church? I mean, I get invited to this stuff. Since we're in Southend, I was getting the Southend emails for churches together or whatever they call them. I can't remember what they called them yet. You know, and trying to invite someone to preach to Mark. I don't even know what the special day was, but it definitely wasn't a biblical day. I was tempted. Yeah, I'll come and preach there and then just preach the real fire sermon up on some hill somewhere. I don't think anyone was going to turn up anyway. But these people do this, don't they? And they'll have these, oh, well, you know, we're all friends together. It's all Christianity, isn't it? We're not going to yoke up with Shotgate Baptist Church, are we? Oh, why not? They're Baptists. No, they're false prophets. Yeah, they believe in work salvation. Yeah, I hate that church. I hate that church. I hate the pastors at that church. Whatever they are, because I can't work out, one of them came here, weird as anything, and that guy believed you could lose your salvation. Although they try to then flip-flop and see what you believe and go, well, that's an interesting question. Yeah, interesting question. How about, no, you can't. I wonder what he believes. Well, some say... I'm still trying to look, let's see what reaction we'll get. Some say... It's like, how hard is that to answer? You know, and look, those people are scum. I'm not going to yoke up with them. We're not going to yoke up with Wickford Reformed Baptist Church, are we? I mean, oh, let's do some event together, you know, meet up in the high street with their weird Calvinist god, their weird false god, with their five points of circus clownism. We've got no interest with that, have we? Yeah, we're not going to yoke up with them. We're not going to yoke up with... I was looking at some of these around, in case you're wondering, Wickford Christian Centre. Do you know there's a Wickford Christian Centre? What does that mean? Do you know what that means? That means we sit on a fence about everything. We don't even call ourselves anything because we just want to bring everyone in. What do you believe? We believe that as well. This is the type you've got. If you ask them, well, what do you believe? They go, well, what do you believe? Yeah, I'll go with that, because we're just a Christian centre. They're just wicked compromises, aren't they? And what do they really believe? I tell you what, they don't believe the gospel. Non-denom, no conviction churches. That's really what they are, aren't they? But he said, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel. Oh, but you can have so many more people. You can have all these people. You can have more tithing if you just let them all in and just encourage them all to come in. Do you know what a good job would be? Would be some real men of God, ladies of God and children of God building together. You could have 100 bad workers and get a much better job done with 10 good workers, couldn't you? And that's what we're looking for in a church like this. But what was the response of these wannabe infiltrators? Did they say, well, it didn't work out, but at least they're building to our God? Because they came to want to build with him, didn't they? Did they go, well, never mind, you know, at least they're still doing the building. Let's go home and pray for them and we'll just do our own thing. We'll leave them to it and just do our own thing. No, verse 4 says, and the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building. No, because whether they're inside or outside, they just want to weaken us and trouble us in building, OK? And I say that because, again, the parallel here, these people, when they get kicked out, do they just go, oh, well, it didn't work out, but those guys are close to 2,000 salvations, give or take a few dodgy Doreen ones and Hollies. I think she realised when I called on to her because then she stopped going so already. But after her eights and ten salvations and other nonsense like that. OK, did they go, oh, well, we'll just pray for them, go away and do everything else? No, do you know what they did, is they started contacting church members. They started trying to weaken us, they were contacting members of our church, trying to pull bricks out of the wall. They still continue with online subtle slander on other people's pages and channels, just a little subtle one here, just a little comment there. And when these people are in and around the church, it's constant weakening and troubling, OK, weakening and troubling, it's just constant. It's just, and if it's not the, like I preach the other week, if it's not the world just kind of trying to push it and trying to undermine and trying to do their own thing and trying to break rules and everything else, then it's, one of them is the holier than thou stuff. That's a weakener for a church, believe me. Now, holier than thou stuff is a bad issue in churches, OK, because what it does is when people are doing that stuff it makes people feel insecure, makes them feel like I can't match up to that person's standards because people are suckers for that, unfortunately. Wow, look how holy they are. Wow, and it's all fake, but then people feel insecure and then it starts edging them out of church because there's this fake standard set up. The boasting to make other people feel insecure because there are people that were looking at the boasting of people like the Eternal Boasters, you know, like Doreen, for example, and just thinking, wow, you know, this guy's just so amazing. What a lousy Christian I am. Do I even belong in a church like that? He's sowing in eight days a week. On his deathbed. But then people are like, I just don't know what to do. Just do I really belong there? Do I fit there? So there's many angles they work at, there's many angles. The constant sowing of discontent. So they're constantly just trying to encourage other words to be discontented as well. So it's just a little comment here, a little dig there, a little joke there. Oh, you know what Brother Ian's like. Well, you know, Pastor Thompson. You know, it's just a constant stuff all the time, putting people down a lot as well. That's one of them. So, oh, it's just a joke. Dig, dig, dig. Just a joke. Dig, dig, dig. And again, it just makes people feel rubbish, makes them feel insecure, makes them not want to be in church. And like I said here, they claimed to want to help. They claim to want to get involved, and then they're out, they're out on their ear, and it's now the opposite. And like I said, the people that we kicked out, they're still just a little bit active now. A lot of them have a problem because they were so monumentally destroyed in front of everyone that they have absolutely no credibility. So it has to be very subtle. They're kind of scraping around in the dirt and filth, just trying to find someone who might listen to something they'll say, trying to find some way of... But it's very hard for them because everyone here sat there and just saw what a bunch of lying railers they were. But for others, it's not always as simple as that. So sometimes people... And it made me really learn that you've got to have the goods to kick people out. I think people get confusing, oh, you can't come in, you can, you can't... That's not how it works, because they'll use that against you. So you've got to have the goods because if I didn't have the goods in them, you can imagine. If they weren't 100% bang to rights, then it would just be constant. People would be still getting called today. Because most people would be like, you're a clown and hang up. It's hard for them, isn't it? But in other churches, they will, and if they think they've got any at least attempt at credibility, then they'll just keep trying to pull, keep trying to pull, keep trying to affect the work that you're doing, having claimed that they were Christians. If you were part of a church like this and you were kicked out, left, whatever it is, that would be it, wouldn't it? You'd just be like, OK, well, OK, I'm not welcome there. But you'd hope within weeks, there might be a bit of bitterness, you'd be like, look, at the end of the day, Lord, there's a lot of God's people there. Let's just hope that they get on and get things done for the Lord. Let's hope more people get saved. That would be your prayer, wouldn't it? If you're a genuine man or woman or God, not just how can we discredit, how can we get people out, how can we turn up on people's doorsteps and start shouting at them and stuff to, you know, how wicked that church is and everything. That's just bizarre, isn't it? You claim to love the Lord. Nonsense. And they don't give up. Here, verse five, and here's the thing as well, the people here, like I said, they were completely discredited, most of them, but we'll see what happens further down the line because here they didn't give up. Verse five says, And hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purposes, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. Now, we're talking about several years of this. Several years, these people in the book of Ezra are hiring counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose. I mean, they didn't go, oh, well, we tried a bit, let's leave it. They're like a dog with a bone. Think about some of these people that have been kicked out of other churches and they're still, like, making their stupid videos five, six, seven years later, some even more than that. They're still just constant, slander, slander, slander. You know, a video a day, I think, probably some of them are on, aren't they? A new video-exposing pastor and, you know, often Pastor Anderson and others. I mean, they're absolute jokers, aren't they? But they just cannot let it lie. It's like, why don't you just get on with your life, you loser? Bloody weirdos. But several years here, they want to weaken them, OK, hamper the work they're doing, having claimed that they want to build with them, and now they're yoking up with anyone that can harm the cause. Notice that? So they're hiring counsellors, so they're yoking up with these... Who even are these counsellors? I mean, they're hardly even claiming to be probably men of God, you know, that they're getting involved with. And just again, just a quick point, you won't get this down at Repent Your Sins Baptist Church. OK, now, there's a false prophet at Repent Your Sins Baptist Church, but they want you in there a lot of the time unless you're using that place to go out and soul win a lot and then it's like, if they can't put you off, they'll try at the beginning, they'll try and discredit the soul-winning, they'll try and weaken your love for soul-winning, they'll try and put down the soul-winning, they'll do the old, well, let's hope they really got saved, and all that sort of stuff, just constant, for no reason. It's not like you've come back and gone, oh, yeah, it was a bit of a funny salvation, that one, I'm not sure. This is like, yeah, I've got some preaching gospel they believe, let's hope they really got saved, let's hope they make it to church. So they'll do that. Now, if they can't weaken you, and we had this, because there'd be a group of us meeting at church, we're still going out preaching the gospel, then it's like, right, we need to get rid of these people, because if we let them carry on, then the work of the Lord's really going to be built here and we need to scatter these people, so they scatter the sheep, and they'll eventually just kick you out for something that's not even a kicking-out-a-bull offence. You listen to Pastor Anderson, get out! You know, it would be that sort of thing, wouldn't it? But you're not going to get that down at the nom-de-nom church, are you? You're not going to get, sorry, that what we dealt with here, you're not going to get that stuff, because they're a trap. They either pull you in or they kick you out. There aren't people trying to split that church and everything else, because the church is already of the devil. Everything that we experience in a church like this is because we're building for God, and doesn't it strengthen your faith? Many people say this before, when you see it actually happening and you live it out, you're like, wow, the Bible's just come to life in our lives, in our church. So much of the Bible just doesn't apply if you're not in church, does it? I've said this many times, I've read the Bible when I'm just in a weak church or whatever else, when I was first saved, and just half of that doesn't even apply to your life. When you're living it, the whole thing is just coming to life, isn't it? Because that's where God wants you in church. That's what it's written for, is that battle for the front lines, isn't it? And it's not only here in Ezra, either. So in case you're going, well, what are you talking about, Ian? Because, yeah, OK, I can see how you've got these adversaries coming in here, but is that saying that's going to happen in a New Testament church? Well, the New Testament constantly warns us, doesn't it, of these sorts of people. So when it happens, what does it show us, that we've got the devil's attention? That shows us that we're doing something here. That shows us how many people try and discredit soul winning. No, soul winning is what the Bible tells us to do. We're commanded to go out and preach the gospel. Yeah, you're going to get the odd-dud salvation sometimes. Yeah, you're going to get a lot of people that get saved and don't ever get involved in the things of God. But that's how we're told to do it. That's what we're going to go out and do. And when you're doing it, you get the devil's attention, don't you? OK, and we got the devil's attention before we even had a church here. We had the devil sending in his children when there was just a group of soul winners emerging out of the UK. Turn to Acts 20. Well, I read where Jesus Christ warned the disciples in Matthew 7.15. Matthew 7.15, he warned them to beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Yep, they're in sheep's clothing. Yep, they claim to believe. Yep, they look like us, they act like us, they walk like us, they even talk like us, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Not outwardly, inwardly they're ravening wolves. Your turn to Acts 20 and 1 John 4 and verse 1. We're told, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits where they are of God, because there's a couple of false prophets who have gone out into the world. Now, you're not ready yet, but I know everyone here knows it doesn't say that. It doesn't say that, because what does it really say? It says, because many, many false prophets have gone out into the world. And we find it, and again, we don't want to believe it, do we? We don't want to believe it, we don't want to take the Bible for what it says, and we want to constantly justify, constantly put it into how we want to see it. Oh, well, they're just a bit off on this, they're just a little bit funny, just a bit weird, they're just a bit carnal. No, the Bible says many false prophets have gone out into the world. Acts 20 is where Paul warned the Ephesian elders. He said this in Acts 20 and verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing, shall, not might, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. They enter in among you, among you. Also of your own selves. So these are people that are there from the beginning. Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, remember, that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one, every now and then. No, every one night and day with tears. Paul really felt strongly about this, didn't he? I mean, man, that must have been some tough sermon series. Three year series on false prophets. And it was a three year series on false prophets where he preached night and day. That was morning sermon, evening sermon, false prophets number. I don't even know what we're up to. Must have gone up to over a thousand. That number a thousand today on false prophets. Night and day, every day with tears for three years. That's over a thousand. That's a lot. That's a thousand and eighty-five, isn't it? Something like that. That's a lot, yeah. A thousand and ninety-five maybe. Okay, that's a lot. You might have had a couple of days off over Christmas. I don't know. Maybe you didn't. Maybe at Christmas he was like, look, I know, you know, we're talking about the birth of Christ today, but we need to hear about false prophets. Morning and night. And he was crying while he was preaching it. Why? Why though? Why? He wasn't lying, was he? Why? Because he was so concerned about it. Because without the warnings, without understanding it, it will tear a church apart, won't it? Because they don't necessarily get manifest for a while and in the meantime they're causing trouble and trying to tear a church apart without exposing themselves. So we're constantly safeguarding and preaching things that you see to stop people getting smashed by this sort of stuff, getting pulled out, getting weakened, getting basically demoralized. So you're constantly trying to preach this stuff to help the church and it's something that we have to understand and have to take heed to when you see that. He warned, he ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. Now, Galatians 2.4. You don't have to turn it off. If you turn to Jude, if you turn to Jude, well, I read Galatians 2.4, where Paul is talking about these people again, yeah? The Galatian church, he said, and that because of false brethren, brethren unawares brought in, unawares. Not, oh, yeah, everyone's spotted them. No, false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privilege to spire our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. So what's ultimately their goal? Their goal is to start either preaching work salvation, but I think you could add there, because they want to bring you back into the bondage of the Lord, don't they? And look, you ain't going to lose your salvation, but there'll be many people that come to a church that maybe aren't saved. There'll be kids that maybe aren't saved. They want to slowly take over that church with work salvation. However, they also, I believe, want to add their extra biblical standards. The gnat straining that I preached about from Matthew 23, they want to bring you into bondage. They want to bring you into the bondage which isn't really in the word of God for how you should be living as a Christian. So they want to bring you into that, because what does that do? That puts people off. That ultimately ends up weakening a church, because it's impossible to live by these gnat straining standards that they do while they're swallowing the camels of work salvation and everything else. So they want to bring you into bondage in one way or another. And Jude in verse 3 and 4 says this. Jude is only one chapter, and it's verse 3 we're going to start from. It says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So they're unsaved. They privately deny the Lord Jesus Christ, not publicly, yet they creep in unawares, don't they? So they creep in unawares. People aren't aware of them. It's not like we can just spot them a mile off. They creep in unawares. Look, some are more obvious than others. For example, we had a couple, I think it was even last week, last week we had some people turn up at our church and there was a nice lady that turned up and then there was a couple that turned up. And when they walked in, my queer dial started ringing straight away and I was thinking, oh, man. So I actually questioned them at the door because I was just like, this is a bit, you know, I was like, oh, so, you know, where do you guys live? Because it was a guy and a lady, I was hoping, oh, hopefully, you know, he's going to say they live together. And he seemed to, kind of, it was a bit funny. They came in and after, and he was talking, because he'd been spoken to when he was out, when someone was out, so when he believed you could lose your salvation. And, you know, eventually I started trying to talk to him and said to him, basically, is there anything I could show you from the Bible? And he, you know, I think, I don't remember if it was before, no, no, I think it was before. So I said to him, is there anything, you know, what about if I show you some verses from the Bible, showing you how, you know, if I showed you clear as day from the Bible, would you then agree if the Bible says that? Oh, well, actually, I'm someone that would want to go away and see what the church fathers believed. I'd like to go and see what Spurgeon believed. And I'd like to, and I was like, yeah, with all due respect, surely what the Bible says is more important. Well, I'm not someone that's just going to change my mind, you know, blah, blah, blah. And basically saying, I don't really want you to show me what the Bible says, because I believe you can lose your salvation. Nothing the Bible says is going to change my mind. It was translation. So I said to the guy, okay. And then he said, and then he wanted a problem. So, and it was all very polite at first, and it kind of, it was polite really. But he said to me, okay, so he said basically, so am I welcome in your church if I believe you can lose your salvation? I said, I tell you what, I said, look, we have unsaved people. We don't say no unsaved people are allowed in our church. I said something polite along those ways. I said, look, you can come, however, not if you're going to be going and telling other people that. If you're preaching that to other people, you're not welcome in our church. So he said, oh, well, well, I think you have me wrong and blah, blah, blah. I said, no, I'm not saying you are. I'm sure, you know, I'm sure you're not going to do that. Then he just went straight to the King James Bible. So we'd already had like the losing your salvation. Then it was, well, well, so, so the, I understand you guys only use the King James Bible. So are you saying that I can't bring along? It's like, can you imagine just turning up at a church? Yeah. And straight away, you want to debate the King James Bible. So I just said to him, well, all teaching and preachers don't have the King James Bible here. So we'll give you one on your way in. What you read in your own time is your business. However, I'd encourage you to get right on the King James, something along those lines. So he said to me, well, so you're saying that, well, I can't remember the amplified he said he had. So you're saying that a brother in Christ with their amplified in their bag isn't okay. I was like, whoa, look, if I would consider it very strange to come into a church where all teaching preachers don't have the King James Bible and refuse to read a King James Bible. That's weird. Yeah. And then he just basically said, so you're saying that I can't, I can't come and bring this. And I said, no. And he said, right, that's it. And basically got up and left. Amen. Now that was an obvious one, wasn't it? But how many, how many churches might have gone, well, you just come with what you want. That's okay. Oh, you believe you can lose yourself. No worries. Just come on in. Just bring them all in. And what would have happened with that guy? That was day one. That was hour two. He hadn't even been here two hours. And he was trying to basically refusing to hear about a total security, calling himself a brother in Christ, which I just did it. He wanted a reaction, you know, and I just said, I'm not reacting to that. Then basically trying to argue with me, how dare we give him, he said, it's too small, the print on the, on the Pew Bible is given. I said, don't worry, I've got a bigger print in my office if you want it. And then he just said, so you're saying about, you know, it just didn't, didn't, wouldn't have it. But so some are obvious, but some aren't so obvious. Okay. Some are. That's an obvious one. And that one didn't really creep in unawares. He, he kind of, there wasn't where he kind of stopped. With a bright pink jumper on and it didn't last very long. But, you know, you know, things like this, and obviously the more extreme that we've had here, as well as strengthen our faith, do you know what it also does? Look at verse three again. It says, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should obey me. And I said unto you, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints. Do you know what that makes me do? It makes me want to fight then, doesn't it? It makes you want to fight. When I see this stuff happen, it makes me go, yeah, we're in a war here. We're in a battle and I'm going to fight till my last breath is in me. Yeah. I'm not putting up with it. And other churches won't, they don't have the fight. There are men of God out there that believe the gospel, but they just don't have the fight, do they? But when you see it happen and you're commanded in the Bible to earnestly contend, that means to fight with every bit of fibre you have and fight for the gospel, fight for the truth, fight these people and do not let them destroy God's people. And we're told to do it. And you know what? It just makes me say, bring it on. Bring it on. You want to come in our church and I'm not saying, you know, I'm not talking to people in this church, but anyone ever wants to come in our church and start trying to push their false doctrines, push their false Bibles, discredit the word of God, discredit the things we're doing here, discredit soul winning, try and preach their work, savage, anything else, you ain't welcome here, we're going to kick you out. And until we do kick you out, we're going to preach the truth and we're going to preach you out of this church if we need to. So you either get right or get out. And it makes you want to fight, doesn't it? And we should all want to fight and we should all see that and go, yeah, let's battle. Let's turn up at church, let's be in church, let's support the preaching, let's support the church, let's get out soul winning, let's be a part of this church. You either fight or you're just a passenger, aren't you? And we don't need any passengers. We want fighters, people that are here to fight because the battle's in the church and this strengthens your faith, doesn't it? And we see it as far back as Ezra, at least just this clear example of people trying to get involved with the building really to weaken it. Back in Ezra chapter 4, let's carry on. It said in verse 5, And hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. So now we've got the slander. God's enemies love a bit of slander, don't they? They absolutely love the slander. Now they're writing an accusation. And in the days of Artaxerxes, wrote Bishlum, Mithradath, Tabeel and the rest of their companions unto Artaxerxes king of Persia. And the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue. Now, Artaxerxes, this name seems to be given to a few Persian kings, if anyone's wondering here. This one, I believe, being Ahasuerus. So he was known as Artaxerxes, who I think here is also known as Cambyses, who's kind of the historical record of, was a guy named as Cambyses, who's the son and successor of Cyrus, who we've spoke about. This is in BC 529. So we're seven years on now from when they returned. Okay, this is seven years later. They're writing this letter, they're trying to weaken them. So this has been going on for seven years and trying to weaken them. Okay, now seven years later, Reham the chancellor and Shimshi the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sword. Then wrote Reham the chancellor and Shimshi the scribe and the rest of their companions and the Dinahites and the Afarsathkites, the Tarpalites, the Afarzites, the Archivites, the Babylonians, the Susankites, the Dehavites and the Elamites and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble as Napa bore over were set in the cities of Samaria and the rest that are on this side of the river and at such a time. So basically all of God's enemies are teaming up together and that's what happens, isn't it? They all just end up teaming up together. And when I say God's enemies, not just the infiltrator types who then go away and yoke up with any other infiltrator, kick out, reject, go down a trash can Baptist, whether it's online trash can or whatever else, or for, sorry, English translation, rubbish bin Baptist. Okay, we've got to start coining that a bit more, don't we? This is an English church. They go down a rubbish bin Baptist, yeah? Well, and what do they... But it's not just them because all the rest, all the rest of those repent of your sinsers, the non-denom types, all these types, it's all those NIFBers, isn't it? The KJV only cult. Like you're some sort of cult because you believe that God preserved his word like he said he would. The anti-Semites. So a lot of them will just yoke up, oh, those are anti-Semites because we believe the Bible when it says to beware those that say they're Jews and they're not but at the synagogue of Satan. And when it says that basically that we are children of Abraham according to the promise, aren't we? Yeah, we're spiritual Israel. The easy believism. So a lot of them will come out with that one. Doesn't matter what they believe, as long as it's some form of work, salvation, it's not this horrible easy believism. Yeah, you know what? Salvation is easy. Yeah, salvation is easy. Yeah, that's why Jesus Christ died. So it would be, he didn't die so it could then be really difficult. Jesus Christ went through hell and back so that you could then work your way to heaven. What sort of nonsense, bizarre, ridiculous doctrine is all this? Yeah, they all believe it. Oh, we are one of those easy, one of those once-saved always say... They come out with this stuff, don't they? And again, it does, oh, yeah, well, we believe you've got to repent of these sins. That one believes you've got to repent of all sins. That one believes that you've got to keep repenting of your sins. That one believes that you've got to at least feel sorry for your sins. We're all friends together, as long as we're not part of that easy believism type. That's the truth, isn't it? Or a lot of them will team up, homophobics. Oh, yeah, it doesn't matter that you preach the gospel. Doesn't matter, you know, we claim to be believers, but you're a bunch of homophobists, you're limiting the gospel. How many of those have even gone out and preached to anyone? They're not even preaching to God. We preach to more sodomites than any of them. Accidentally. Don't we? Because how many doors do you knock, and you're like, oh, I don't know, but... Well, they all look a bit faggy nowadays, so I'm going to have to preach anyway. We preach to more sodomites than the rest of them put together, yet they try and go, you're withholding the gospel from people. It's madness. But again, because they all have it, because it's just any insult they can have in common. Another one that you hear a lot now, the abuse of the pulpit. Abuse of the pulpit. They'll say, oh, these NIFB pastors abusing the pulpit. We say, how do you abuse a pulpit? It's a bit of a word. I think I was abusing it tonight. But it's like, yeah, yeah, you know, well, it doesn't matter that they preach the gospel. Doesn't matter that they're the only preacher actually preaching the word of God. It doesn't matter that they're going out soul and encouraging people to do it. They abuse that poor pulpit. Hate them. Hate them. Let's go back to A Plenty of Sins Baptist. Or the other one they try and go is manipulation. They try and do, oh, they're master manipulators of the people. They're like abusing, they're manipulating cult leaders. It's like, what are you talking about? Just preaching the Bible. Preach the word of God. You don't have to stay here. If you don't like it, you can go. It's not a cult. But they try anything and then they'll all like team up with it. Whatever they can say. Now as Napa here, as Napa was one of the Assyrian leaders involved in the migration to Samaria, I believe, I think he's probably some sort of leader. It says this, so they said that, and the rest of the nations through the great noble as Napa brought over and sent him to Samaria and the rest of them on this side of the river and at such time. So they're all just teaming up, they're all yoking up these guys. It says, this is a copy of the letter that they sent unto him. Even unto Artaxer, because he's a king. My servants and men on this side of the river and at such a time. Be it known unto the king that the Jews which came up from thee to us are common to Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city. So it's not just rebellious, it's bad as well. It's like the sort of stuff they say about us, isn't it, as well? It's like, oh, they're just bad, bad people. Oh, they just say, where's the love? You know, they're not only anti-Semite, where's the love? You know, it's like, what are you talking about? But anyway, the rebellious and bad city and have set up the walls thereof and joined the foundations. Be it known now unto the king that if the city be builded and all the walls set up again, then will they not pay toll, tribute and customers, so thou shalt in damage the revenue of the kings. Now, is that the case? Because what was the commandment? The commandment was just to rebuild the house of the Lord, to worship and to serve him. So again, it's a lie, but it's a believable lie, because the best lies are believable, aren't they? Okay, so it then says in verse 14, Oh, they're such good citizens, don't they? You can imagine, these are like the equivalent of nowadays, who just go, Romans 13, Romans 13. You know, and if anyone's wondering, you know, basically, obey the higher power. Oh, we just do everything the government tells us. We all just got to get shot up in the arm because of Romans 13. You bring it on, doesn't matter what you put in the vaccine, just shoot us up, because Romans 13. These are tight, and then that's the, like, they're trying to claim, like, oh, yeah, we just follow anything the government says, you know. So these people are scum. They said, we have maintenance from the king's palace, and it's not meat for us to see the king's dishonour. We care so much about the king. Do these people really care so much about the king? Where they're trying to call us rebellious or whatever else? Of course, they're just trying to find fault in Bible-believing churches. They said, therefore, have we certified the king? Now, there's no integrity, okay, because they're God-haters. There's no integrity with God-haters. They're reprobates. They're full of deceit, but they make it sound convincing. So it's not that they're just, you know, you just catch them out in lie after lie after lie. It always sounds convincing, the lies. And these types of people will hate someone one minute and then flatter and schmooze them the next if they think they can cause division that way. So I've been seeing a bit of this going on, where past people that we've kicked out, it's like one minute they hate whoever it is, you know, a pastor or whoever, you know, and then the next time, and then they're trying to flatter and schmooze, they think maybe we can cause a bit of division there and try and like find some things that are preached differently between our church and theirs or something else. So it's just this constant sort of stuff. Yet, not long ago, you can find them like slandering that particular pastor. You know, they just have no integrity. It's constant just manipulation, flattery, schmoozing, just whatever they can do to cause grief. Here they're using the king and they're manipulating him to stop the word of God. And that's what the work of God, that's what they're trying to do, aren't they? So that's what ultimately the goal is, is just to stop the work of God any which way they can. Verse 15 says 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 of provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time, for which cause was this city destroyed? And as always, the best lies are based on some truth, like I said. And they were previously powerful and they were eventually destroyed when they rebelled against the Babylonians. So there is some truth there, wasn't it? However, that's not what their goal is now. They're just told to rebuild the temples so they can worship God, so God has a house, yeah? Verse 16, we certify the king that if this city be builded again, the walls are offset up. By this means thou shalt have no portion on this side of the river. So they're trying to appeal to his want for money. They're going, you're going to lose money on this side of the river. Then sent the king an answer unto Reham the chancellor, and to Shimshi the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto the rest be on the river peace that is at such a time. The letter which he sent unto us has been plainly read before me. And I commanded and search has been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem which have ruled over all countries beyond the river, and told tribute and custom was paid unto them. Give ye now a commandment to cause these men to cease, and let this city be not builded until another commandment shall be given from me. Take heed now that ye fail not to do this. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings? Now when the copy of, so they basically said stop it, okay, stop the work. They've got what they wanted. They've manipulated this king into basically commanding that they stop. Now when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Reham and Shimshi the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews. They made a rush of this, didn't they? And made them to cease by force and power, then cease the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. So, heads up to you in case you're wondering, well, you know, what can we take from all of that? Just because we're building for God, it doesn't mean that there won't be some hindrances along the way. It doesn't mean that there's not going to be some problems along the way. We're going to run up, we're going to run into trouble. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 5. Well, I read 1 Corinthians 16, 9. 1 Corinthians 16, 9 says, And look, when you're building for God, there are many adversaries, okay, amongst the devil's people. And we've already run up against many. We had them from the beginning. We've had them externally. We've had issues with the Covid police, with planning departments, with you name it, with just landlords willing to actually have a church rent from them, with, you know, you name it, little adversaries time and time again, and little snags, and little hiccups, and little problems, and things which just increase your workload. You just say, oh, man, why can't it be easy? I'll tell you why it's not easy. Because we're working for God. Because when you work for God in the devil's world, you're going to have trouble. We're going to have problems. It will continue. So the next time we have, and we might have some major problems to come. We might have some real issues. We might have some big snags, some big spanners in the works. Do you know what that means? That means that we're doing things right. But with those problems, if we're building for God, we will get through them. Because sometimes it can seem like the work is really getting blocked, believe me. When all those idiots were here, it just felt like, man, everything, they're just on everything, you know. They were just causing trouble all the time. It just felt like the work was just getting blocked. You're hard pressed just to send out people's soul when you're not thinking they're just going to be having to pair up with these clowns. I'm just going to have them just ruining new believers. You have new believers coming and they're just on them, just over them, like, let me show you where to go in your Bible. And it's just like, man, how do I protect people? What do I do with these? I haven't got enough. I can't kick them out. What do I do with them? It's like, ah, the work is just getting blocked. They're just grabbing people. They're trying to build up this sort of rebellious sort of group against each other. What do you do with these people? But then God comes through for you. He will come through for you. And look, what it really does, all of this, is it strengthens us. All of it. All of it. Everything that's gone on so far in this church has strengthened us as a church. There are strong people of God in this church who are just stronger because of it. And we wouldn't be if we weren't going through this sort of stuff. Ultimately, it's used for God's purpose, isn't it? 1 Peter 5a, and again, it's a famous passage of the Bible. However, there's a great truth at the end of it where it says, be sober, be vigilant. Look, this stuff is preached. This stuff is constantly in the Bible. I didn't choose to preach or force prophets down there. We've just done Genesis 3 as well. And we're talking about the devil and the devil's people obviously behaving like him. But look, it comes up and it needs preaching because we are told to be vigilant. We are told to be alert. We're told to be sober. And if we're not learning about it and we're not being reminded of it, we're not going to be. Be sober, be vigilant, because you're adversely the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom you may devour. And you can also apply that to a church. You can apply that to our church as a whole. He wants to devour this church, believe me. He wants to devour every single person in this church. He wants to rip this church apart. He wants to destroy it. He wants to destroy me. He wants to destroy my family. He wants to destroy you people in here. He wants to destroy every single person in here and rip this church apart. Believe me. And he has many angles. He tries to do that. And I mean, I'm only aware of some of the angles. I see him trying to do that. And there are so many ways that he's trying to destroy us. And that's why we have to be sober and be vigilant for it. He said, whom resist steadfast in the faith. That's strong. That's unmovable. In the faith. The faith is what? Look, if God be for us, who can be against us? That's the faith. It doesn't matter how rough it gets at times. How sometimes you feel like everything's just attack you from all angles. You can resist steadfast in the faith. Knowing that the same afflictions accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Because look, it's the same stuff. So you're going through all this stuff and ultimately everything that we go through as Christians, people do have to go through anyway, don't they? You can get through it all. People get through some of this stuff without God. We can get through it with God, yeah? But the God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. And that's the thing is that when you go through this stuff, you suffer a while, we're going to have problems, we're going to carry on having hiccups, we're going to have trouble, we're going to kick people out in the future, we're going to have people that literally come in for a day and get kicked out like that. You didn't even have to get kicked out. I mean, he kicked himself out. But then you'll get harder ones. You'll get all sorts of stuff go on and at the same time we're going to have great people come in as well. And it's not all just, oh man, anyone come in, finally it can just be us. No way, that's what that last mob wanted. They didn't even want you people in, they didn't want to put them off straight away, if they couldn't grab them for themselves. But look, we want people in this church and there'll be great people come in, there'll be great servants come in of the Lord, strong people that are just going to come in, strengthen up this church, strengthen up the walls. We're going to keep getting strengthened, we're going to keep getting settled through everything we go through at this church. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. And ultimately God can use all of that stuff, all of those attacks for our own benefit. It's said back in Ezra 4, they made them to cease by force and power. They made them to cease. And you're looking at it going, oh, what's going to happen next? Well, in Ezra 4 that happened, but a bit of hard preaching solves it, as we see next week. And we'll be looking at it next week. On that, we're going to pray. Father, thank you for the, well, what a great lesson in the Bible there. A great lesson that we can just apply so easily to church life, to the building work that all churches are doing for you, Lord. And just the lesson of being aware of knowing that the devil is just constantly trying to hamstring us in any way he can. And it's not just the people that he sent in here and that we'll continue to do, but it's also those people on the outside as well, those counsellors trying to frustrate our purposes, those people out there just trying to find any which way they can to hinder what we're doing here, Lord. That's going to continue, we know that. It's not going to stop, but help it to make us just want to earnestly contend, Lord. Help it to just give everyone here the fight that we need to do that. Not to turn us off, not to put us off here. And to understand that, look, if we just drop out and we pull out the things of God, it's not that life gets any easier, it just gets less fulfilling. We're here to serve you, we're here to fight for you, help us to dig deep and fight for you, Lord, and to just get many mighty victories over the years to come. Help us to all get back safely tonight, to just keep you at the centre of our week. We return on Wednesday or Sunday for another day in your house. Jesus, thank you for all this. Amen.