In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the book of Nehemiah and the challenges faced by the people of Jerusalem. The walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the gates were burned with fire, causing distress and a sense of urgency to rebuild. Nehemiah, burdened by the state of Jerusalem, prays to God for guidance and then approaches the king to request permission to rebuild the city. However, as the work begins, opposition arises from Sam Ballad, Tobiah, and other enemies who conspire to hinder the rebuilding process. Despite the challenges, Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem remain steadfast in their prayers and continue to work diligently to rebuild the wall.

In your Bibles, if you would, please, to the book of Nehemiah, chapter number one. The book of Nehemiah in your Old Testament Bible, chapter number one tonight for our service. Nehemiah, chapter number one. Well, I hope that you've been enjoying the services. More than that, I hope that there'll be life changing to you. The Bible says that when we look into the perfect law of liberty, that we're to continue therein. So many people look into the Word of God, but they do not conform to that which they see. And so I hope this week this will be a conforming time, and next week will be as well. As I said the other night, I'm privileged to be able to do this week. I count it a great honor to be able to be here. This is the third year that we've done the Staff Training Revival, and we always like it. And I always like it because it goes right into Junior Missions Week. And I've done that, I suppose, four or five different times, and I praise the Lord for that. We're scheduled to do the Staff Training Revival and also the Junior Missions Week for, I guess, the next five or six years, in 2006, something like that. And so I hope you enjoy my preaching, because if you don't, you're going to get burned out on me quick. Amen? Because I love coming to Camp Shantay. It's always a blessing to be here, and if I get picked on about my age and about my looks and from Brother Mick and all that. But he's right, it will come out. I will get him sometime throughout this summer. You don't have to worry about that. And I'll get him sometime. I don't know when it'll be, and I don't know how it'll be, but I'll get him, so I'm not worried about it. Nehemiah chapter 1, I'd like to ask you to stand, if you would, please. Maybe next week. We'll not take time. I've got a lot of material to cover tonight. But maybe next week, one of the evenings, we'll have just a moment, maybe or two, of testimonies. I always enjoy seeing what God's doing in people's life throughout the meetings. A lot of times on Sunday night, many times on Wednesday night, since it's usually no visitors, just most of the church folk, we like to have some time of testimonies. I remember I opened it up one night for testimonies. This fellow raised his hand. I didn't know if he was messing around, joking or what. He raised his hand, and he said, Brother Locke, he said, he said, when I was 25 years old, he said, God gave me a wife, and said we were married for about six years, and said I loved that woman dearly, and said God saw fit to take her home. And he said, when I was 40 years old, after several years of being single again, he said God saw fit to give me another wife. And he said we were married into my 60s. And he said God saw fit to take her home in a car I sit in as well. And that kind of gripped anybody's heart. Here's a man who lost one wife, and here's a man who lost two wives. And he said, Brother Locke, he said, I'm now 78 years old. He said, this is from everybody in the church. He said, I'm now 78 years old. He said, I've been married a third time for about four and a half years. And he said, I just want the Lord to know he can have this one anytime he wants her. Amen. But so maybe we'll have some testimony on Monday night and maybe not. Amen. His wife wasn't there that night, by the way. Amen. Nehemiah, chapter number one, let's get in the message. It's 11 verses long. The first chapter, I'll read all 11 verses. We'll have many portions of scripture in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 1, verse 1, the Bible says, The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, It came to pass in the month of Chislew in the 20th year, as I, that's Nehemiah, was in Shushan, the palace, that he and I, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. Verse three. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates of the river burned with fire. It came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned in certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And said, I beseech thee, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night. For the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house of sin. We have dealt very corruptly against thee and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If you transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But if you turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast out into the uttermost part of the heaven, yet I will gather them from thence and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Verse 10, please. Now, these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attended to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to hear thy name. And prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer. Verse three again will be our text. Nehemiah 1, 3, And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Tonight, using the book of Nehemiah, I preach this simple message. It's broken down and burned out. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads and hearts and pray and ask the Lord to bless our time together tonight. Thank you, Lord, for the day that you've given us, for all the blessings, for your mercy and long-suffering that has been bestowed upon us many, many times today. Lord, we realize, I believe the devil would have killed us a thousand times a day if he were able to, but we thank you that the power of God has sustained us and brought us yet through another day into another service. Lord, help these as they listen to the Bible. And dear God, my humble plea is that you would help me as I preach the Bible. And we'll thank you, Lord, for everything that you'll do. We ask it in faith. We also ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, many books in the Bible start out rather well, and sometimes they end rather bleak. My favorite stories in the Bible start out well and they always end well. But to be honest with you, the good guys don't always win in Bible stories and it always doesn't come out all rosy-posy and nice at the end of the story. But when we get to the book of Nehemiah, chapter number one, in this short book, we find out that it ends well, but it starts horribly. As a matter of fact, I mean, the first chapter opens up and you talk about bleak. You talk about discouraging. I mean, here is a dismal portion of Scripture. Our message tonight will come from chapters four and chapter six, but we must lay some groundwork material to get us there. So just follow me if you would, please. Now, in Nehemiah, chapter number one, we have a man, obviously, by the name of Nehemiah, who is writing. And the Bible says that he was the king's cupbearer in Shushan the palace. Basically, that meant that he was the one who was supposed to taste the food. He was the one who was supposed to taste the water. He was the one who was supposed to taste the first drink of that wine and then give it to the king. If it was poisonous, tough luck. That was part of the job description. But if it was not, he gave it to the king and the king would partake thereof. So he was a servant to this great king by the name of Artaxerxes. Now, obviously, his mother didn't have much regard for him. When he was born, how would you like to have a kid by the name of Artaxerxes? Sounds like a puppy dog, not a king. And so here's a guy with a great big long multisyllabic name. But yet the Bible says that one day he's off duty, if you will. He's not clocked in. And so Nehemiah's sitting around the house having his coffee and devotion. And a knock comes to the door. That knock just so happens to be some of his brethren and one specifically by the name of Hananiah. The Bible says they came back from Jerusalem. You study the Word of God, you study history, you will find out that Jerusalem was in captivity. That they were under great affliction. They were under great bondage. And they had just come out from under this great terrible tyranny, if you will. And here, he looks at these guys and he says, let's shake some hands, let's talk a little bit about the things of God. And they're incited, they're drinking coffee. I mean, they're encouraging themselves with their fellowship and with the good presence of God. And as they begin to leave, Nehemiah says, by the way, fellas, how are they doing in Jerusalem? How's mom and pop? And how's the rest of that crowd? How's everybody doing? Is the shops all, they opened back up now? You got the walls all rebuilt? How's everything going in the city of Jerusalem? And with a sad countenance, they lowered their faces to the ground with a heavy heart. All of a sudden, Hananiah said, I hate to tell you this, and I was hoping that you would not ask, because I know it's going to be greatly discouraging to you, Nehemiah. He said, you've already got so much on your heart, you've already got such responsibility as the king's cupbearer. I really don't want to load your wagon with this. And he says, no, no, I can take the bad news, the good news. And he says, listen, there's no good news to it, it's all bad. Matter of fact, it's terrible news. He said, the gates of the city are burned with fire. He said, the walls of the city have been broken down. There is nothing but rubbish and great heaps of trash. He said, the BFI dumpster boys have been coming and loading up bodies and loading up pieces of the wall. And he said, the houses are burnt down and the people are in great affliction. Not only were the walls broken up, you study your Bible, you'll find out the people were broken up. They were scattered abroad. They were in great affliction. I mean, this great wicked people had come in and completely destroyed the city and ravaged the lives of these people and raped the ladies and ran off with the little boys and the little girls and caused them to be slaves. And with heavy hearts, they look at Nehemiah and they said, the walls of Jerusalem are broken down. Now, you study the Bible and you'll find out a city that had no walls was a city that was defenseless. It was a city that was very vulnerable. You know what Proverbs says? A man that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down without walls. Why does the Bible say that? Well, it's making the likening of a man that is not spirit-filled, but rather he's led by the flesh. That if he's not careful, his life will be like a city that has no walls. It is very vulnerable to the attacks and the onslaughts of the devil. So to have no walls and to have no gate upon the walls thereof was a very, very shameful thing. And the Bible says that they tell this to Nehemiah. They then leave and Nehemiah is overwhelmed. Matter of fact, in verse number four, we find out that he falls down. He mourns before the God of heaven certain days. Maybe that was two, maybe that was six. But he's weeping and he's crying. He fasts, he calls out to God, and he's begging God to allow him to be the human instrumentality to rebuild the walls and to rebuild the people inside the walls. Now look, if you would please, at chapter two in verse one. Chapter number two of Nehemiah in verse one. And it came to pass in the month Nisan. Now for you car lovers, that's not Nisan, that's Nisan. In the twentieth year of our exercise, the king. That wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now get it. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. Wherefore, the king said unto me, why is thy countenance sad? Seeing thou art not sick, this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid. And said unto the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, lieth waste and the gates that are ever consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make requests? Oh, I prayed to the God of heaven. So he walks into the king's court one day. He clocks in on the time clock about 7.15 in the morning. He's getting the scrambled eggs and the red-eyed gravy and the biscuits ready. And all of a sudden he brings it all into the king. He's getting ready to taste it. And the king had never seen Nehemiah discouraged before. I mean, he always came in there with a joy belt of God in his heart. And I mean, he came in there singing like a little lark in her nest. And all of a sudden his heart was saddened and his lips were hanging down like a bunch of shoelaces. And it looks like he's been licking on persimmons and lemons for about six months of his life. And the king looked at him and said, whoa, wait a minute, pal. What in the world is wrong with you? He said, I've never seen you sad. I've never seen your countenance fallen before. Now, the Bible makes an interesting observation. It says, then I was very sore afraid. You know why he was afraid? Study history. Study your Bible. It was against the law to be of a sad countenance, if you will, to be discouraged in the presence of a king. I mean, that was a punishment guilty of death. I mean, they wanted their kings to be loose and they didn't want them to be under pressure. And they wanted them to be impatient and mean and cantankerous. And so, man, when you went before the king, you're supposed to have a good disposition and a good attitude. And you're supposed to be happy-go-lucky, even if things weren't too lucky. And so here he is with a sad countenance. And the king says, hey, pal, what in the wide world is wrong with you? And without further ado, he simply looks at him and he says, sir, why should not my countenance be sad? When my city is destroyed in the place of my father's sepulcher for generations where we worship God. He said the temple has been destroyed. He said the walls have broken down. The gates are overburnt with fire. He said, would you please do something? He said, listen, look at this mess that we're in. He said, these friends and my brothers had told me about the awful mess that Jerusalem is in. And he says, I can't work. He said, I can't taste this food and this wine. He said, my heart is overwhelmed. In chapter number 1, they get the bad news. But in chapter number 2, man, he gets burdened. I mean, he is overwhelmed with a burden to help the people of God. And so look what happens in your Bible in chapter 2. I love this in verse 4. Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? Watch this. So I prayed to the God of heaven, verse 5, and I said unto the king. The king looks at him and says, alright, I see you're burdened and you're upset. What can I do for you? Before he ever opened his mouth in verse number 5 and asked the king for leave, you know what he did? Right there in the same breath, the Holy Spirit tells us, the king said, what can I do for you? So I prayed to the God of heaven. I don't know if he got down. I don't know if it was in his heart and in his mind. I don't know if he said it out loud so everybody could hear. But yet the Bible says he opened his mouth, he prayed, and then in verse 5, he requested something interesting to the king. Now, we do not have time. For time's sake to get into all the context, we have much ground to cover tonight. But yet he asked if he can go to Jerusalem for a certain amount of days, for a certain amount of weeks, to help rebuild the people, to help rebuild the walls, to hang the gates, and to get the temple and all the buildings back, and get the shops running well again, get everything in order, and to help rebuild not just the buildings, the whole emphasis here is the lives of the people that were in reproach. They were the remnant that were left of the captivity. They were torn all to pieces. They were obliterated. I mean, these people were in great, deep despair, despondency, and discouragement. And he said, would you let me go? Now, this is interesting. Here's a pagan, hedonistic, God-denying, idol-worshiping king whom the Bible says that God reaches down from His sovereign throne in heaven and puts it on His heart not only to let him go, but He basically gives him the kingly credit card and pays for all of the supplies when he gets there. I'm glad God pays for what God orders. And so here he stands before the king, and he says, listen, he says, you go down to Lowe's, you go down to the hardware store, man, you get all the drywall, all the drywall, and all the crooked nails, and hangnails, and straight nails, you get all the singles, and the vital signs that you need, and get all the hoses, and get all the wool material, and get all the bricks, and all the mortar. He said, you go down there and get it all. He said, then you get all the wood that you need. He said, just put it on the kingly credit card. He said, just put it on the credit card if you will, and I'll pay for all the expenses. And so then in chapter number three, which we will not read, I'll tell you why. Chapter one's bad news. Chapter two's a burden. Chapter three is building. All they're doing in chapter three is building. They're doing the fish gate, and the dung gate, and the west gate, and the north gate, and the south gate, and the east gate. And they're doing all of these things, but yet they haven't hung the gates yet on the hinges. We'll find that out in just a moment. So they're doing all of this work in chapter three. And I mean, they're doing a work for God. Matter of fact, the Bible says they were getting just a little bit tired. It says, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, these men worked like dogs. I mean, they were sweating. They were bleeding. I mean, they were persevering. They were going on. They were 1 Corinthians 15, 58 men and women of God for sure. The Bible says the only time the men even stopped was to come home and take off their clothes for the washing. While they were washing up their clothes, they'd get ready real quick. The wife would cook them something quick to eat. They'd get a bite to eat. Get one of them 15-minute power naps. You know, those kind of naps you have to take at Bible college. You know, about 15 minutes. Supposed to give you power. It never gave me power, amen, but it did have. They'd get up and they'd run out there and they'd put the clothes back on and go back out there and build and battle and build and battle and build and battle. Man, they'd get discouraged. Then look, if you would please, at chapter number four for our first thought tonight. Nehemiah chapter number four. So he sends them down there. He allows them to start working. It's amazing to me you live long enough or you preach long enough or you do anything for God long enough and study your Bible long enough. And you'll find out, whenever God starts doing a great work, the devil's always going to show up on the scene somewhere. He's always got to stick his liberal modernistic, God-denying foot in some door that God's trying to open for you. Want to show what I mean? Nehemiah chapter four and verse seven. But it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wrong. And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. Look at the steadfastness, verse nine. Nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God and set a watch against them day and night because of them. And Judah said, the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed. He said, listen, Nehemiah, we're getting tired. They said, our strength is decaying. It is rotting on the vine. We got to have some help. We got to have some more strength. And they said, and there's also much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall, verse 11. And our adversaries said, they shall not know, talking about an ambush, neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease. Remember this, to write this down. First and foremost, tonight what I preach on, I call this the goal of the wicked. The goal of the wicked. Here these people were building a mighty work for God. I mean, they were working, friend. I mean, 24 hours a day. I mean, all the time. They were building, building, building. They were sweating, sweating, sweating, pushing, pushing, pushing, pressing, pressing, pressing. And all of a sudden, Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem and the Arabians and the Ashdodites and the Ammonites and the rest of those God-denying people came against them. And they said, listen, they sat around this big conference table one day and they were sipping their coffee. And they said, listen, those walls are going up. They're fixing to hang those gates and the army's about to be reestablished. And those families are being fixed. And they're training those boys and girls in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And they said, listen, we've got to ambush them. We've got to go in in the middle of the night. We've got to shoot these people down. We've got to get rid of their tanks. And we've got to get rid of their Cobra helicopters. You understand what I mean? They were doing their best to hinder these people from building the walls. They did not want the temple going up. They did not want the homes rebuilt. They definitely did not want the walls and the lives of the people thereof rebuilt. And the Bible tells us what the goal of these wicked, wicked people was. You know what the goal was? Look at verse 11 again. And our adversary said, they shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them and slay them. Here's their goal. And cause the work to cease. These wicked people had one goal in mind. They had one thought in their thought process. You know what it was? Cause the work of God to stop. Hinder the work of God. Do something anyhow, no matter how small, no matter how big. Do something to discourage these people to the point where we ambush them, where we slay them, where we kill them. We must do something to counteract that work for God that they are doing. And the number one main goal of these wicked people was to cause the work of God to cease. You know that word adversary there? You might want to circle in your Bible. You know, it's an interesting word. It's the same word adversary that we preached on the other night, 1 Peter 5 and verse number 8. Be sober or alert. Be vigilant. Why? Because you're adversary. Adversary of God. Adversary of man. You're adversary of the devil. As a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Same word here. And I got news for you ladies and gentlemen. Did you know just like these adversaries wanted to cause the work of God to cease, although sometimes the devil may change his skill or his strategy or his tactics, can I please tell you the goal of the wicked is still the same, to cause the work of God to cease. And the devil is not interested in people being saved by the grace of God at camp Shadrach this summer. Did you know the devil is not for this staff training revival? Did you know that? Now, I was born at night, but it wasn't last night. I didn't fall off the later truck yesterday, so I've got enough sense to know the devil is against what we're doing right now. If you think the devil likes Bible preaching, you've been thinking the wrong thing. If you think the devil likes it when you live a holy, righteous, sanctified, separated life, he does not like that. The Lord likes it and we're supposed to. But the devil always wants to counteract the good work of God. Whenever you start building walls in your life, whenever we start getting to the place where we are sold out to God and we say, listen, man, we're going to be spirit filled like the preacher preached on the other night. We're going to live right. We're going to walk right and dress right and talk right and spit right for the glory of God. And whenever we get to the place where we are sold out to God and we start building walls at this camp this summer, I'm going to tell you something, the devil is going to step in there and cause the work of God to cease. I've been in churches this year even where somebody comes, shake my hand, they say, well, you know what preacher, I appreciate all that help, I'm a brimstone preacher, but I don't believe in the devil. I had a man tell me that last year, as a matter of fact. He said, I don't believe in the devil. What do you think about that? I said, well, you're not going to blame all this mess in America on God, that's for sure. I said, you're not going to blame all the fornication and the Internet pornography on God. I said, you're not going to blame dope and marijuana and people killing each other in high school on God. I said, I'll tell you something, if you believe in God, you've got to believe in the devil. He said, well, I'm a Christian and I believe the Bible. I just don't believe in the devil. I said, now that's an oxymoron. You know, oxymoron is, you know, like Microsoft works. That's an oxymoron. But nonetheless, I said, listen, that's an oxymoron. I said, you're going to tell me you believe the Bible, but you don't believe in the devil. I said, the devil's all over this Bible. He's an adversary. And I'm going to tell you what he wants to do. He wants to destroy your life. He wants to destroy this camp. He wants to destroy your Bible college. He wants to destroy the church where you're from. He wants to cause the work of God to cease. I was preaching in Sheldon, Iowa. Excuse me, not Sheldon, Iowa. I was in Leon, Iowa. I was in Sheldon, Iowa last year. I was in Leon, Iowa this past November. I was preaching there. My wife was not able to be with me. I flew from Nashville, Tennessee out of a meeting. I flew into Des Moines. They picked me up late one afternoon on a Saturday night and I got in. I was preaching at the Independent Bible Church of Leon, Iowa. And I'd been there before because about two years earlier, as I was coming between this camp and another camp in Red Oak, Iowa, I had broke my shoulder, broke my collarbone when I was preaching to a bunch of little kids. And I'm not going to give you this story right now because it's embarrassing. But anyhow, I fell off a speaker, OK, while I was preaching. But nonetheless, anyhow, I flew in there and I started preaching the meeting. They called me two weeks before the meeting started. They said, Brother Locke, our pastor has resigned. And I said, well, was there any trouble in the church and things like that? I said, deacons kick him out. They said, oh no, he's resigned out of good will, good intentions. God's called him to a church in Kansas, but we still need a revival meeting without a pastor. Will you come? I said, sure. I said, that's no problem. I said, I'm not going to come as your pastor. I said, I'm just going to come and preach the week of revival. I said, you just have everything worked out with the music and all that kind of stuff. And I said, I'll just come and I'll just preach it. I'll encourage it. And I went in that week and I preached a lot on pastoral authority because they were having a young man come in on the following Sunday who they eventually voted on, put him in as pastor. So I thought I'd make things kind of easy for him when he got there. So I preached on the personal responsibility of the shepherd to the people and vice versa and this, that and the other. Anyhow, on Thursday night, I preached the message that I preach all over the country. But anyhow, when I preached that message, something happened I'd never seen before. I had a lady who was a Mormon for 45 years walk the aisle and get saved by the grace of God. It was amazing to me. She came to me, shook my hand with tears in her eyes and she said, I've never heard anything like that before in my life. And I thought, here's a lady that's been a Mormon for maybe 40 or 45 years in her life. She hears the gospel one time and the power of the gospel is so great that it broke down all that fallacy that she'd been in. She got saved by God's grace. And I thought that's amazing. That's why Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God. The next night I gave my testimony. I preached from 2 Corinthians 5, 17. What in the world has happened to you? I've given my testimony at this camp 100 times probably. I mean, I've preached my testimony all over this country and I gave it just like I always did. People came forward. Things began to happen. I walked to the back. I was selling some tape, was shaking some hands. And God is my witness if I've ever told the truth in the pulpit. I'm telling you right now. This man came walking up to me. He was a great big, tall, robust, burly man. Now, he wasn't heavy set or anything like that. He's just tall. But I mean, he was just a bulky, bulky dude. Had this great big old beard. Had this, I don't know what kind of hairdo he had. But I mean, he was a manly looking monster. I mean, he looked like he'd chopped logs, buddy. I mean, he looked like a lumberjack or something like that. He come walking up there like this, you know. About 35 people in line behind him. No way to shake my hand. That's the only way you can go out. With all them people behind him, he walked up to me. You'd think out of a man like that would come a great big, drunk, deep voice. He walked up to me, shook my hand, put his hand on my shoulder and said, brother, can I talk to you just for a minute? I thought, even so, come Lord Jesus, amen. I was ready right then for the rapture, buddy. And I'm telling you that guy came, shook my hand, put his hand on my shoulder and I thought, that just came out of that? I will be honest with you. I mean, he kind of took me off guard. And you could probably tell by my face. I mean, my eyeballs blowed up like jimmy ding sausage cakes. And I thought, what in the world came out of you? And so he looks at me and he starts talking. He starts telling me about his ex, whose name was Dave. Go figure, huh? Now, I got 35 people standing in line behind this guy. And he's telling me about kicking his ex out of the house, OK? I mean, that bothered me a little bit. Now, if he said Susie or Sally or Sandra or Jennifer or something like that, that might be all right. But this business about him being a man kicking out Dave, that bothered me and rubbed me raw just a bit. But I tried to be compassionate, talked to him about the Bible. It was obvious he was lost in the ball and high weed. He had religious terminology, but he knew nothing about the grace of God. I'll tell you why he kicked his Dave lover, whoever he was, out. Because about three weeks earlier, Dave had come to that church and that preacher preached a scathing message on the sodomite. And Dave walked the aisle, got saved by the grace of God. At 12 o'clock at night, he went back home. Now, I started putting two and two together because the day before I seen the house, big old white house, two story house on the front porch, right across the door. And big red spray paint. It said, repent, repent, repent. Dave got saved and went home and threw spray paint all over his lover's house. How do you like that, amen? And so this guy told me I had to kick him out because of all that kind of stuff. And he said, somebody invited me to come to the rabbi meeting tonight. He was talking religious and he was saying all this stuff. And after I gave my testimony, here's what really got me. He said, you know, we got a lot in common. And I thought, no sir, rabbi, we do not, amen. But anyhow, he started talking. Here's what he said. I'll never forget it. I think it was about, I think three weeks, like I said, since he'd kicked Dave out since Dave got saved. And I met Dave and he was saved, buddy. And I remember I looked at this guy and he looked at me and all of a sudden it was just kind of a, kind of a spirit, it seemed like, that came over this guy. And he looked at me with a cold, dead, blank stare. And he said, Brother Locke, he said, three weeks ago, I told God I'd give up. And he called himself the homosexual lifestyle cold turkey. He said, I thought I'd give this Jesus bit a try. It was obvious. I knew he wasn't saved. You could tell just by the way he was talking about his life and his conversion times. And he said, I thought I'd give this business, Jesus business a try. And he said, three weeks ago, I told God myself I'd just quit cold turkey. And all of a sudden he got real spooky and his eyes just looked real bleak. And he said, every night for the past three weeks, that's 35 people standing in line listening to what this man's saying. He said, every night for the past three weeks when I turn off my light, lay my head on my pillow at night, he said, there is something inside of me that takes its finger and pushes out on my chest, enticing me and begging me to go back to the homosexual lifestyle. And he said, I don't know what to do about it. And I don't know what it is. I prayed with him and he left. But Brother Mick, I'm going to tell you what it is. If I ever in my life or in my ministry ever believed in the devil, it was that night. And I'm going to tell you something, friend. It doesn't always have to be these spooky kooky Hollywood things like that. But the devil is real. The devil is alive. And the goal of the wicked is to cause the work of God to cease. There's always two ways the devil will do this. You might want to get these down. You might want to write these down. You might want to remember these. There is always, always, always two ways that the devil will get to God's people. Now hear me. He will do this in a family. He will do this in a college. He will most assuredly do this in churches because I've preached in a boatload of them. And he wants to do it this week and this summer in this town. Always two ways. Number one, marker down. First and foremost, he will use carnality. He will use carnality. Say preacher, what do you mean? You know, I thought for the first few years in evangelism, we've been traveling now for five years. I thought when I first started traveling, I thought, you know what? We have got to be careful of all the onslaught of the worldlings that they don't come in and contaminate our people. And I used to honestly get up and preach and pound the pulpit and shoot the old gospel guns. And I'd preach about all the problems in the church coming from the outside, coming from the outside. But the more I preached for the north, I found out all the problems in the church come from the inside. Let me tell you what I mean by that. You know, by the time you call the Orkin man, you know, the guy that comes and sprays for termites and ants and rats and roaches and the rest of that mess. By the time you call the Orkin man, let me tell you what's taking place. At the children's home where I grew up for a while, they have termites real bad. Now the problem is they got block walls. I mean, them jokers are like billy goats. They'll eat pop cans. They'll eat bottles. They don't care. They'll eat anything. But they get this big old stream of termites. And I mean, they brought Orkin dudes in. I mean, they blasted, they bombed. They've done just about everything. Get rid of them stinking termites. Some say something about a termite. Man, they'll eat the floor out of something. I mean, they'll eat the wall, but they'll eat the pulpit now to salt dust. I mean, they'll eat anything and everything. But you know what the problem is? Let me tell you when always, always, you know when we call the Orkin man? When we see the effects of what the termite is doing. We call Orkin man when we see them little white maggot looking things walking all over the ground, up and down the walls. That's when we call the Orkin man. But you know what? By the time you call the Orkin man, when you see the termite, it's too late. The damage is already done. And I'm going to tell you what happens in a lot of camps just like this one. I'm going to tell you what happens in a lot of churches, a lot of families, a lot of schools just like this one. All of a sudden, we don't start seeing the termites manifest themselves, but down on the inside, there's some bitterness seething, and there's some anger, and there's some immorality, and there's some ungodliness, and there's a bitter cantankerous, worldly wicked spirit. But by the time we preachers see it, it's too late. The damage is already done. The foundation's already been marked. People have already been hurt. Lives have already been hurt. Hearts have already been broken. Discouragement has already set in. I'll give you the second illustration. Did you know we could go out here in the athletic field, where you've been learning about all kinds of things that you're going to do with the kids for the next summer. You know, where the buddy takes you out there and shows you this and shows you that. If we went out there, and we took a 50-gallon drum and slammed full, packed that thing with dynamite. I mean, just took a 50-gallon drum and slammed it full of the best dynamite that money could buy. And we put a long, long, long detonator fuse on that thing. And we laid it right on top of the ground. It's out there in the middle of soccer field, whatever you call it. Just lay it out there. And so we get a good distance back. We light that dope. We all plug up our ears. Kaboom! That thing goes off. I'll be honest with you. Don't be around it when it goes off. You'll probably miss a hand or something like that because it's going to be powerful. But I'm going to be honest with you. It's not going to do a whole lot of damage. It may blow a crater-sized hole in the ground. It won't be too deep. It'll throw some mud. I've seen a lot of dynamite go off, but it ain't going to do a whole lot just by throwing 50 gallons of it out there on top of the ground. I'll tell you what you can do. You can chunk the whole barrel. You can pull out one stick of dynamite. You can shave that thing down about that long right there. Just a little bitty, small, minuscule, insignificant piece of a detonator stick. You can put yourself a fuse on that and drill a hole about 10 feet in the ground. You can drop that little bitty piece of dynamite in there and you can light that sucker and you better not be around for anybody to kaboom! That thing's going up and it's going to blow a hole in the ground. And what a whole ton of dynamite couldn't do on top, one little half a stick got done in the middle. And I'll tell you something. One bad, wicked attitude and this bunch right here can blow this whole thing to pieces. One stick of dynamite! What the whole world, what all of these kids who are lost are going to come in here and bring to this camp, it will not do as much damage as one stick of dynamite on the inside. It'll blow the whole thing to pieces for you. Now, I'm telling you, the devil's going to use carnality. He's going to get this person mad at this person. And he's going to get a bitter cantankerous speech. He's going to say, Oh, that won't ever happen! And you'll be the very one that it happens to because you're not watching for it. Brother Mick, could you stand up and come down here just for a moment, if you would, please? No, this is not the time, amen. This is not the time at all. I'm just using Brother Mick for an illustration because if there's ever been anybody that exemplified Jesus, I believe it was Mick. I love Mick. Now, I believe Jesus was a handsome looking guy and I believe Mick is. I believe Jesus had a beard, don't you? Shake your head yes or no. Mick does. Mick's compassionate. I believe Jesus was compassionate. Jesus was swim and trim. And that's about as far as we'll go, but nonetheless... Oh, amen, this is fun. But just follow me, all right? I want you to rip that phone book right in two. I want you to grab that phone book and just rip it right back there, all right? Now, sit down on that front row, if you would, please. Now, I'll be honest. I can't rip that phone book. Yeah, with a physique like mine, just like I could, I just can't. I can't rip that phone book in half. I'll tell you what the devil's gonna do. Mr. Eckblad, he might start with you. So we'll go over and we'll find the ease. We'll get Mr. Eckblad bitter at somebody. We'll get him mad and upset about what's happening in the whole deal with the staff training revival. We'll get him upset at Brother Mick for doing something, saying something in life. What about that Mildmanger fella? We'll get over and we'll mess him up for a while. So we go to the M's and we grab the Mildmangers and the rest of the M's, rip them all out. And we chuck them and we destroy their lives and we get them to have a bitter, cantankerous spirit. And then we go over to the Adams. I don't know if there's any Adams, but for this illustration, there will be, amen. So we go over to the A's and the devil says, I'll tell you what, I'll get this person to have a critical spirit about what's happening. I'll get him to complain about the camp food. I'll get him to complain about the fact that there's no heaters in the middle of the night when they're absolutely, positively freezing to death. And then I think we'll go over here and we'll go to the Lakeland family, amen, and the Lamperts and we'll go to the Lando's and the Langsley's and the Langford's and the Landon's and the Landford's and the Lando's and the Landworks. And we'll grab all of this and we'll get them upset and we'll get them mad. We'll just completely destroy and rivet their lives for a little while. Then I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll get that crowd over there that goes to Pensacola and then we'll grab that crowd that goes to Bob Jones and we'll get them to fighting over the King James Version all summer long. And we'll tell you something I'm going to tell you right now. A spirit-filled person will love Bob Jones University and Pensacola Christian College. And I don't give the flip of a wooden nickel if you agree with me one bit. That's what your Bible says. I believe a spirit-filled evangelist could preach on Monday at Pensacola and preach on Friday at Bob Jones University and God wouldn't judge him contrary to popular belief. And I'll tell you, the devil would use anything... I mean, he'll even use something good to destroy something that's great. To destroy... You say, well, what's your stand on the text? Hey, listen. I think if we had more people preaching the Bible than defending the Bible, I think we'd have revival. Let me tell you something about the Bible. Let me tell you something about fighting. If me and Mr. Eckblad get in a fight and I've got a sword in my sheath, I'm not going to pull out that sword and say, whoo, this, my friend, is a sword. Matter of fact, it's a big sword. It's a hard sword. Bless God, it's a sharp sword. Touch it, you don't believe me. It's a shiny sword. It's a beautiful sword. And so then I chop his head off with it. You think I'm going to do that in a fight? You're dumb as a box of rocks. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm not going to sit there and say, look at my sword. This is a great sword. This is a sharp sword. I'm just going to pull the sword out, chop his stinking head off with it, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to prove it to him that it's a sword. And we got all these people walking around, they say, whoo, look at my sword. It's a sharp sword. It's a pretty sword. It's the only sword. You've got a wrong sword. You've got the wicked sword. You've got the worldly sword. You've got this one. You've got this one. I've got the real sword. Just shut up and pull the thing out and prove it to the world that you've got the right sword. And I'm telling you, the devil will do anything he can this summer to mess you up and to foul you all up and to get you arguing about this and to get you arguing about that. I'm telling you, the devil will use carnality to destroy this town. Then he'll get somebody and they'll call home and they'll find out something bad went. So we'll go over here to the D'Arco family. Amen. So Mrs. D'Arco calls home to Mother D'Arco and Mother D'Arco gives her some bad advice or some ill counselor, tells her something bad happened. So she comes back and she's all discouraged and she's in a trial. And then the God that was great on the mountain top is not God in the valley anymore. And all of a sudden, she gets discouraged and she gets all mad and she loses her focus at camp. And now her kids are going to pod and she's got a bad attitude. And then we get somebody who's not been having her Bible reading the way they should. Boy, what the devil loves to get you so busy that you can't read the Bible. So he'll come over here to the Robinsons or the Robert Sons who'll be here all summer long. And he'll get them discouraged and maybe get them mad at somebody or somebody mad at them. And he'll do his best to destroy anything and everything that he can. And then he'll go to the administration. He'll go to the staff. He'll try to mess with Miss Marty. And he'll try to go over and then he'll mess with Brother Mick. And he'll try to destroy the lives of Brother Mike Duffy. And he'll try to destroy the lives of Brother Buddy. Then he'll start messing around with the missionaries that start coming this summer. And you'll start getting upset at some of your kids. And you'll start getting frustrated. You'll start thinking to yourself, why in the name of the Lord did I ever even come to this stupid camp this year? I tell you what, these junior mission kids are getting on my nerves so bad I can't hardly stand it. I'd like to kick them in the seat of the pants if I was their mother and their father. Well, the issue is you're not, so you're just going to have to calm down and remain right with God and stay cool under pressure. And so the devil says, well, we'll go to the yellow pages here and we'll start throwing a kink in their program. We'll mess their programs up and we'll make it rain a couple of days. And then some of the people get mad and upset. Oh, we can't do the program that we wanted to do. And so he messes up the programs of Camp Chitax. And then he works on this person. And he'll start getting you in some area and start getting you in some other area. He'll do his best to bring in anything possible. Then he'll bring in a divisive spirit. And have somebody just kind of sit in the back and we'll say their last name is, how do you pronounce that? Tiazolidi, whatever that is. God bless you if you got that last name. Amen. But he'll start messing with the team. They'll start going over to their little friends. They'll start talking to their girlfriends. They'll say, did you hear what this person said? Did you hear what this person said? Did you see the way Mr. Duffy looked at me when he gave those announcements? I think he thinks I was the only person in there. I'm not dumb as a box of rocks. I know what he would feel, right? And they'll start sowing some discord. And they'll start sowing some problems. Stand up, brother Nick. And he'll whittle this person. He'll whittle this person. Or he won't stop with just a couple. I mean, he'll mess with all of you this year. He'll get Mr. Ute. He'll get them all. He'll get Mr. Locke. He'll go over here to the L's. You got any L's left in this book? There's a couple. He'll get Mr. Locke. And he'll get me upset. Get me mad. Have me a ill-willed spirit towards my wife. Brother Norris, you're not off the hook either. He'll start messing with brother Norris's mind. And he'll start maybe trying to give brother Norris a bad attitude about something. He'll rip him up. Then I'll tell you what he'll do. He'll rip it right in half and throw it to the floor. Was that hard or was that easy? All right. I'll tell you why it was easy. Because when we're unified as a staff, when we're unified in one spirit, in one body, the devil can't get to us. But when he whittles you down and gets rid of you, when he gets them all down, then he has just a little group left and he'll just rip this place all to shreds. And he'll use your carnality to do it. He'll use your gossip and divisive spirit to do just that. So number one, he'll always use carnality. But number two, he'll always use compromise. For time's sake, I'm not going to preach on this. Normally, this is a sermon that I preach in a church. When I preach on compromise, I begin to talk about the dress standards that go down. I begin to talk about the music standards that go down. I begin to talk about some of the other issues that we've dealt with and this, that, and the other. And so I'm not going to take time for that. I'm not worried about the compromise of this camp. If I was worried about the direction of this camp, I wouldn't be booked coming back for the next six or so years. And it grieves me that only in five years of evangelism, there are churches now that I cannot go back to for conviction's sake and conscious sake because they began to go down the long, scary, worldly road of compromise so they can reach more people. I'd rather preach to three people that love the Bible and love God than 3,000 people that could give the flip of a wooden nickel and don't care anything about what I have to say. So I'm not going to preach that I don't compromise. I want you to take your Bibles and go to chapter number six if you would. Nehemiah chapter number six, please. And verse number one. Nehemiah chapter six and verse one. The Bible says, Now it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian and the rest of our enemies heard that I had builted the wall and that there was no breach left therein. Though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates that Sanballat and Geshem sit unto me saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they fall to do me mischief. Verse three. And I sent messengers unto them saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you? Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort. I answered them after the same manner. Number one, the goal of the wicked. Number two, the greatness of the work. Here Sanballat and Tobiah realized that they couldn't get to the lay person, so then they went to the leadership. They couldn't get to the people, so they went to the pastor, if you will. And so they came to Nehemiah and they were not brave enough and courageous enough to come to him in person, so they sent a messenger several times the Word of God says. And they sent those messengers to come and ask Nehemiah, would you come and meet us in one of the plains of a city called Ono? But they sought to do him mischief. And look what the Bible says right here, if you would please, at verse number four. Yet they sent unto me, how many? Four times after this sort. And I answered them after the same manner. So four times they sent a messenger and said, come to Ono. And you know what Nehemiah said? He wrote a letter back and said, Oh no, I'm not coming to Ono. Amen. He said, you can forget it, pal. He said, I'm not coming off the wall. He said, I ain't got time to dialogue with you liberals. I ain't got time to compromise. I don't have time to mess around. He said, I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down. And the devil's going to do everything he can this summer to get you to come off the wall. He's going to try to get you discouraged and he's going to bring the old messenger boy come by and he's going to say, why don't you throw in the towel? Why don't you give it up? You could be making more money somewhere else and you could be doing this, saving up some money for your Bible college bill. Hey, why don't you just quit worrying about the rules and the standards? Come down off the wall and he's going to invite you to Ono so many times it'll make your head spin, but you've got to let him know I'm not coming off the wall because this summer I'm doing a great work for God. You notice he did not say I'm building a lucrative work for God. He didn't say I got to have a lot of money to do something for God. Hey, did you notice he didn't even say I'm doing a big work for God. I think one of the great tragedies of modern day fundamentalism is we've equated bigness with greatness. The bigger you are, the better you are. And if that be true, the Mormons and the Catholics got us whooped hands down. They're right. We're wrong. They're going to heaven and we're going to hell if you believe that terminology. And I'm going to tell you, bigness does not always equal greatness. Hey, I'm going to be honest. Let me just share my heart with you. I don't mind preaching to 15 people, but it doesn't bother me to preach to 1500 either. Our home church has about twelve, fourteen hundred people and the Robertsons and I this past April, first part of March, we did the revival there and I enjoy preaching to 1500 people. That doesn't bother me. I don't mind preaching to a big school. I mean, that don't bother me at all, but I'll be honest with you. He didn't say I'm building a big work. He said, I'm doing a great work. I had a preacher call me. He's outside of Minneapolis here, outside of St. Paul, Minneapolis. And his name is Keith Kreckelberg. Does anybody know Keith Kreckelberg in this room? He's a Pensacola grad. All right, nobody. My wife, all the time she answers the phone, she says, oh, it's Pastor Heckelberg. I said, no, no, honey, Kreckelberg, all right. And so she's always to Mr. Heath and Wendy. But anyhow, he called me two and a half years ago and said, Brother Locke, Dwight Smith, who's been to this camp. Some of you know Dwight, wonderful friend of mine. He's stayed in our home many, many times and we're great friends. I love him to death. And he called this pastor and said, you need to have Greg Locke in your pulpit. So he called one day going down the road and answered the phone and said, hello. And he said, Brother Locke, he said, this is Keith Kreckelberg. Make a long story short, he wanted to have me for a revival meeting. He said, you might come into a small church. There's three questions as an evangelist. I never ask a Catholic church, anybody when they have me to preach. Number one, how big is your congregation? I don't care how big your congregation is. Number two, how much are you going to give me? It doesn't make any difference how much you're going to give me. Honestly, I love preaching so much. If I was financially able, I would pay people to let me do what I do. I love it that much. And the third thing I never ask is they sit down and tell me all the problems of your people. So I have something to preach on this week. And the spirit of God can't tell me what to preach as an evangelist. I'm in the wrong business anyhow. All right. So I don't ask how big is it, how much money and what to preach. OK, so I said, yeah, I'll come. I was in A-Rab, Alabama. A-Rab, there you have. I was down there preaching, buddy. And I mean, it was like being in another culture down there in that place. I lived in Alabama for two years as a staff of evangelist when I first graduated from ambassador. But I was down there, they invited me to A-Rab, Alabama. So I went to A-Rab, Alabama. I preached, closed a meeting on Friday night. On Sunday morning, I was supposed to start this in Minneapolis. It's actually in a little town outside of Minneapolis called Anoka. It was the Anoka Baptist Church. It was a missionary church. Started about two or three years earlier or about maybe a year and a half earlier by this time. And so I said, OK, I'll come. I closed the night on Friday night. I drove out two o'clock in the morning. My brakes went out. I mean, things went right through the floor. Clutch was all messed up. And I mean, the whole truck was just discombobulated, as my wife likes to say. Well, to make a long story short, I was driving down the road. I finally got everything fixed a little bit. I knew there was a good Ford plant there in Minneapolis. I knew a guy that I'd done some business with that'd give me a good discount. So I pulled out to get up there. Make a long, long story short, three o'clock in the morning, I called Pastor Heckelberg. And I said, listen, Heckelberg. I called him and I said, listen, I said, I promise you. I said, listen, I've been driving all day long, all night long since way in the early hours of last night. I said, I've got to sleep. I said, there's a store here. And these people are going to let us plug our water and let us plug our electricity in. And I said, I'd appreciate it if you just went ahead and did Sunday school. I said, I'll be there in time. He gave me directions. They're meeting in a high school. I got there about 10 58. I walked in there and there's about three people in there. This little room. I got ready to get up to preach. And a Puerto Rican couple came in. Their kids came in and some of their kids came in. So they came walking in. I preached that morning on the wonderful word of God. Had three people saved on the first service. Man, we were excited about the Catholic roof down. He came to me over lunch and he said, Brother Locke, we cannot use the same auditorium for our time of revival meeting because they won't let us for various reasons. It costs too much money. We got to use my house. He said, do you mind preaching the house? I said, well, it's good enough for Paul. It's good enough for me. I suppose I'll do it. It'll be all right. I said, I've preached in the house church before. And he said, okay. He said, just meet me at such and such a place that's keeping us in this real nice type of a trailer lot. I had 50 amps and sewer dump and water and all this. So we drove over to his house. This is honest to goodness truth. We had children's meetings. My wife goes to children's meetings. We had children's meetings in the living room. You know where I had church? In the garage. They had taken a one car garage that would not even comfortably fit one car. And they'd put carpet on the ground, put a couple of pictures up. They put a little bitty pool in there, put about 10 or 12 folding chairs, I mean, all tied together. And they put a little piano. Just kind of shoved it right over in the corner, you know, piano. And they stuck it over there. And so, you know, I wanted to turn the pulpit around, lift up the garage door and preach to the town. Well, they wouldn't let us do that. So I got in there on Sunday night. Honestly, I'm telling you, I'm in tiny, little bitty room in a house, a garage, okay? Had a little fan, oscillating, going back and forth. Sunday night, Monday night, and Wednesday night, three people showed up to our revival meetings besides myself. You know who they were? Pastor, his wife, and my wife. Say, what'd you do? My wife needs all the preaching she can get, amen. I preach the devil out of her. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to tell you exactly what I did. I got in the pulpit. I said, stand up. We stood up, read the Bible. I loosened my tie like I always do. I jumped around that room and beat the pulpit and shout and scream and flipped all over the place. And preached like some old uneducated Tennessee hillbilly like I do every time I get in the pulpit. Say, why'd you do that? Because I'm not interested in big crowds. I'm not interested in small crowds. And Nehemiah did not say, I'm building a big work. He said, I'm doing a great work. And I'm telling you, camp Shittek is a great work for God. And the devil wants you to come off the wall. And he's going to do everything he can from bitterness to discouragement to open immorality. He will do anything and everything he can to get you off the wall and take you to the plain of Ono to do you some mischief. And you're going to have to go ahead and make up your mind. Hey, this summer, I'm doing a great work for God. I'm leading people to Christ. I'm praying for boys and girls who moms and dads don't give a flip about them. I'm helping some teenager to get off crack cocaine. I'm helping some young lady who just found out before she came to camp that she's got an illegitimate baby and she doesn't know what to do when everybody else has an abortion. I'm going to help this kid know that somebody loves him and somebody wants to help him and somebody wants to encourage them along the way. And I'm telling you, you're doing a great work this year. And don't you let the devil get in there and through carnality and through compromise pull you off the wall. You're going to have to not back up, crack up, slap up, or shut up till you've been taken up by the glory of God. And you're going to have to bow your back like a banty rooster and say, Dear God, I am not coming down. I'm going to stay. I'm not going to let the goal of the wicked succeed and cause the work of God to cease. For I'm doing a great work. And I'm going to stay right here, Bible in hand, filled with the Spirit, building and battling all summer long.