Creek Road Baptist Pulpit · Creek Road Baptist Church

Nehemiah 6:5-9; The Devil's Second Letter

August 20, 2025·37 min·2 clips

The preacher translates Sanballat's diplomatic threat as 'I'm going to tell dad and dad's going to be mad at you' — and then asks the congregation, 'Don't you just want to smack him?'

Take your Bible to Nehemiah. The sermon stays in chapter six, especially verses five through nine, where Sanballat's letter takes center stage. The preacher treats the letter as another glimpse of how opposition talks, after earlier letters from Solomon, Hiram, and Sennacherib. He does not rush it. Sanballat is not a cartoon villain. He is restless, angry, and always trying to pull other people into his trouble. That is where the warning gets close to church life. Gossip, distrust, and borrowed outrage can start to feel like action. Nehemiah will not take the bait. He does not walk into the meeting trap, and he does not hide where he has no business going. He stays with the wall. Religion gets dragged into the scheme too. The preacher points ahead to the hired prophet, where Sanballat is willing to use religious language and fear if it will create an evil report. Nehemiah has to discern what is really happening. He sees that God had not sent the message, and that keeps him from sinning under pressure. Peace becomes the refrain. Again and again, the preacher comes back to Sanballat's unrest: never settled, never at peace, always angry. That is the danger. Angry people can recruit a crowd. The sermon presses listeners not to repeat the gossip or pick up someone else's cause. It ends in prayer, asking God to keep the church from mockers and scorners, strengthen its hands, and send it back to gospel work with steadiness.

As heard by us

A plainspoken sermon on repeated pressure, distraction, and staying with the work.

Nehemiah 6:5-9 is read as a passage about pressure that keeps returning. Sanballat's five attempts to pull Nehemiah off the wall become the backbone of the sermon, which uses the scene to warn against anger, gossip, and religion bent toward private gain.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Keep your focus when the enemy keeps sending one more meeting request.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Creek Road Baptist Pulpit