In this sermon, the preacher starts by sharing the "good news" with the villagers, which is that God is angry with them because of their sins. He reads from Romans 1 to emphasize this point. The villagers question why this is considered good news, as they already know they are sinful. The preacher then explains that the true good news is that God loves them and sent Christ into the world. He encourages the listeners to be messengers of God and to live in the assurance that they will one day give an account of their deeds. The sermon concludes with a challenge to choose between the old self, represented by Sambalat and Tobiah, and the new self, represented by Christ Jesus.

It was this glorious confidence that sent the martyrs singing to their death. I wonder if the assurance that you were going to see him face to face kept a song in your heart this week, set a guard about your lips, monitored your mind, because the first thing that's going to happen when we see him face to face is that we shall give an account of the deeds we've done in the body, whether they be good or bad, and every thought that we've had in our minds is going to be unveiled, every word we've spoken is going to be sounded in the presence of angels, and every deed we've done is going to be portrayed again that we can see it. With this we come to two men. Do you know these two men? You say, which two do you refer to? You've told us last week about two. Are these the ones you have in mind? Hanani, this man who cared enough about Jerusalem to go back and see it, honest of heart to report what he saw, burdened to share that report with those who could do something about it, sufficiently gripped by truth and governed by reality and controlled by God that he could be God's instrument? Is this the man that you refer to? I think perhaps I could find someone that applies to it from history, scattering my eyes about, seeing here and there, those that might measure up. Is that the one you refer to? What about Nehemiah? Is this the one that you have reference to? Are these the two? You know, there's something in each of us that would like to be a Hanani, that would like to be a Nehemiah. I'm sure that every man would like to have his place and record with these two. But then we read of two other men, Sanbalat and Tobiah. Are these the two to whom you refer? Now let's think for just a moment about Hanani. I've made just two or three brief remarks about him, but first he was the messenger of God. Have you been the messenger of God to someone? Has someone been the God's messenger to you concerning your state? You know the reason why witnessing is hard work, and most of us are very reluctant to do it, because the message we have to bring isn't too pleasant. To have to say to someone who thinks, sees himself quite content as he is and where he is, that in God's eyes he's all wrong, there's nothing very happy about that. You see, we're so anxious to take the delightful parts out of the message. We would like to just take the good news. So many times personal workers would be content just to say that Christ died for your sins according to the scripture, and tell the good news of the gospel. But there's another message that's also part of that testimony, and the witness has to tell about destruction. He has to tell about desolation. He has to tell about death if he's to be a faithful witness. And therefore, to be a Hanani, to someone is to come and say that God has examined all the things in which your heart would take pride, and found that they were just wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That from the top of the head to the sole of the feet, there's no soundness in it. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The message that we bring as witnesses for Christ, and the message that was brought originally to us, was not a happy message. And this is the reason why people are reluctant to bring it, and why those that hear it aren't too pleased about it. Strange, isn't it? You go into a village in Africa, for instance, and find the chief, find the headman of the village, and say, I brought you good news. And you say, what is that? Well, the good news that I brought you is that God is angry with you because of your sins. And you read Romans 1, and he said, he's been watching us at night. This is what we are. How did he find out that we've done these things? And that he's said, we be sold at sins, it shall die. And then we describe that place to which those that have sin must go. As we continue this message, the hand is raised to, wait a minute, you said when you came you had good news for us. This isn't good news. This is a message of death. This is a message that tells us what we are, and we've known that. This is a message that tells us how bad we are, and we know that. What do you mean, good news? Why did you leave your country and come clear out here to tell us something we already know? And then we have to proceed to tell them that God loved them, and that Christ came into the world, and identified himself with them, and was made to be what they were, the innocent, spotless, infinitely holy Son of God, became sin for them. Made to be the sin that they were, that they might be made the righteousness of God that he is. And that he was crucified by wicked men, and was buried, and God testified that he accepted the death of his son by raising him from the dead. And that if they would have part in the salvation that he died to make theirs, it requires that they renounce themselves and their heart of their crime, which was to choose how they'd please themselves, live for their own pleasure, and come to Jesus Christ and receive him as God and as Savior, as Prince and Savior. And then they begin to say, oh now, now it's good news. But before the gospel has any meaning, there has to be preparation. That's what we've done in America, dear friends. We've told people how to be saved before we properly use the law to prepare them to want salvation. We outlawed the proper preaching of the truth of God 75 years ago when it was consigned to Israel and to the law and to the Old Testament. And since that time we haven't had the proper proclamation of the holiness of God and the grandeur of God and the majesty of God that prepared men for grace. No, the first witness that we bring is a witness that the walls are down, that bondage and slavery and debt has taken over. Is this what you've been? Is this what someone has been to you? Then the other side of that is the response that we find on Nehemiah's part. Not all men that hear the witness respond to it. Probably not all to whom Hanani came were moved, but there was a man to whom God in his sweet and sovereign grace could effectually penetrate. And this man, though he was occupied with many things and had great responsibility and great privilege, had the sword of God's revealing light driven deep within him. And he saw his own heart. He saw his sin. He saw his selfishness. He saw that he'd been content to live in Babylon, live in the brethren in Shushan, live with Artaxerxes, live in the king's palace. He was content to take part in all the luxury that surrounded him and probably some of the sin with which he was all too familiar. He wasn't a devout man in any particular sense of the word until there came a revelation and that revelation showed him his sin. And so he could say that we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house of sin. And it wasn't some little thing. This was the brokenness of his heart, the revelation of his guilt, the confession of his utter hopelessness in and of and by himself. Oh, dear friend today, has this happened to you? Are you this man to whom the revelation of God's truth is wrought, a revelation of your heart? Do you know that man? Are you that one? Have you ever been lost? Have you? Have you ever been lost? Have you ever been driven into wit's end corner? Have you ever seen yourself utterly unable to repent? And yet God says, except you repent, you'll perish. Have you ever seen yourself unable to feel the weight of your enormous guilt? And yet God said, forsake it or perish. We've made this too light, I'm afraid. We've made this thing a matter of ascending to the plan instead of breaking before God. Has this happened to you? Have you broken? This man couldn't eat. This man fasted. This man prayed for days and weeks. Well, there is something happened to him. I spent a few days two weeks ago in the home of a man down in Frazier, Pennsylvania, a man to whom faithful witness had come. For months the spirit of God pierced and his friends would say, repent. And he'd say, I can't repent. And he'd say, believe. And he'd say, I can't believe. What do you mean can't believe? Oh, he said, I know everything the Bible is true, but agreeing that it's true and knowing it's true and holding it through hasn't made any difference in my heart. And the Word says, if I believe with my heart, it'll be unto righteousness and assurance of sins forgiven and the certainty of life eternal. And he said, I don't have that. And then someone gave him that book that I've recommended to you, All of Grace by Spurgeon, the reason why Mr. Moody started the Association. Number one, it was the discovery of Mr. Moody that when he began to preach in 57, all he had to do was to exhort people to act on the truth they knew. And it was good, solid, sound truth. So when they responded, there was something real. But at the close of his ministry in the 90s, he's told of 200 preachers up at Northfield. He said, when I began to preach, all I had to do was teach people, exhort people to act on the truth they knew. And, but he said, you are in another day. There's risen up a generation of people that don't know the truth, ignorant. And if you exhort them, they'll respond. But when there's no truth, their response is ephemeral and passing a will of the wisp. He said, you've got to teach them the truth upon which their action can be based. And so he started the Culperty Dissociation to make possible the free distribution, the wide distribution of great teaching, such as you find in all of grace. And this came to Ellis Speakman. And Ellis began to read it. And in there he said, Spurgeon tells how, he said, you find your heart is cold and you can't squeeze tears from dry eyes. He said, of course you can't. And yet Jesus Christ said, except you repent, you'll perish. Whence comes this repentance? And then Spurgeon brings them to that verse which says, Jesus Christ has been exalted to give repentance and remission of sins. And the word came, go to Jesus Christ who's been exalted to give repentance as well as remission and tell him the coldness of your heart. Tell him the hardness of your mind. Tell him the dryness of your eyes. Tell him the rebellion of your spirit. And he'll give repentance. And he'll give faith and remission of sins. And that's why it's called all of grace. Because the only thing that you can bring is your need. The only thing you can bring is your desperate condition that you've sinned and know you've sinned, and yet feel no remorse nor grief nor concern for your sin. But you go to Jesus Christ and he by his spirit will work in your heart. Repentance. Are you that man? Are you that man, Nehemiah, that's been broken? Are you that man that's seen yourself utterly helpless and hopelessly undone? Incapable, commanded to repent and unwilling to do it, commanded to believe and incapable of doing it without repenting? And held between God's wrath and hell. Have you been there? You've been lost. God only saves lost people. Christ only came to seek and to save that which was lost. The reason more people aren't being genuinely saved is because they're not being lost. Were you that lost man, that hopeless man, that helpless man? Were you the man that saw yourself undone, worthless, without anything to commend or recommend you to God? Were you? Then you know something of what happened to Nehemiah. Here's a man who broke and in the breaking had a revelation of God. If you had a revelation, you know salvation is revelation. We thought salvation is theology. It isn't theology. Salvation is revelation. It's a revelation when it pleads God to reveal His Son in me. Not to reveal His Son to me, but reveal His Son in me. This is what salvation is. Revelation of Jesus Christ in the heart, by the Spirit. Christ is our life. Now, are you that man? Are you the man that was witnessed or was witnessed to? Are you the man that broke and bowed in hopeless helplessness and found God merciful and gracious to forgive and to pardon? Are you that person? Well, I trust you are. But you know the tendency is for us to think that when I would put such a title as, do you know these two men, I'm going to contrast two individuals, Nehemiah and Sanballat, or introduce Sanballat and Tobiah. I must confess that this is a temptation, but it isn't the purpose. It's a possibility, but it isn't the purpose. For I think we're seeing here one man represented by two. First, we're seeing Nehemiah as he was a selfish, complacent, indulgent, rebellious son of the covenant that had no participation in the life of God. And then he meets the Lord by the supernatural grace of God. And he becomes immediately concerned about the testimony of God, about the witness of God, about that which was to the glory of God, namely his city Jerusalem. And I believe this happens to everyone that's born of God. I believe that when you press through this mountain of midnight that separates you from God and you've burst into the light of forgiveness, immediately you want to go and build the walls and bring back the glory that God has a right to expect from his people. I believe this characterizes us. It ought to characterize us. But you know, it wasn't but just a little while until Nehemiah discovered that everyone wasn't as enthusiastic about this as he was. And so when Sambalat the Horonite, this was a town in Samaria, and Tobiah the slave, the Ammonite, had absolutely no part in the covenant of grace that God made with Israel, heard of it, it grieved them. Last week we talked about the grief of the godly. I suppose we might have well spoken today about the grief of the ungodly, for it's certainly there. It grieved them exceedingly that there would come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. And it didn't only grieve them, but you'll find, if you'll read the balance of this book, that Sambalat and Tobiah were constantly at war with Nehemiah. First, they were hereby scorned, laughing to scorn, despising, and lying, saying are you going to rebel against the king, even though they had letters from the king for everything that they were doing. Now I suppose I could look around and say, well now look, here's Sambalat and here's Tobiah, but you know if we did that we'd be begging the question. Do you know where you need to look to find Sambalat and Tobiah? You just look in your own heart. Let's turn please to the seventh chapter of the book of Romans, and I think if we do that we'll discover that this is but a picture of a conflict that is even deeper than we've perhaps realized. Here in the seventh chapter of the book of Romans we find that there's something that is tremendously important. Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. But that which I do I allow not, for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent under the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, but when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? There it is. There's the conflict. There's Sanballat and Tobiah. And if you go over here you will find that they were joined by a third, the Arabian. They heard it. Geshem the Arabian. You remember that the Arabians were the descendants of Ishmael. And Ishmael is from Hagar, and Hagar is a picture of the flesh. What have you then here in the book of Nehemiah? You have the testimony of every Christian. What do you mean every Christian? I thought you believed in the victorious life. I do. But I believe we've got to face the enemy before you can secure a victory. You've got to see who the enemy is before you'll know whether or not you're victorious. Some people would like to say the enemy is something other than yourself. It's sort of a little excrescence that's attached itself under your will. It's called the carnal nature, which isn't any part of you and can blame it on Adam. But I believe if you'll carefully read Romans 6 and 7, you'll discover that the old man is you, is me. It's what we are by nature. It's our old attitudes, our old habits of thought, our old disposition, our old will. It's us. And what were we by nature? Were we the children of God's same father that had a spark of divinity? Oh, we were the children of our father well enough, but he was identified and his paternity established. We were of our father the devil, whose children we were, whose attitudes we expressed, whose nature we revealed, whose disposition we exhibited, whose pattern we followed, and whose paths we obeyed, whose precepts we accepted. Such were we. Such were we. And this is all that the flesh is. My dear, when God saw me in his own infinite wisdom and love, saw me as I came from my mother and was given nature by father and mother, a nature that goes back to Adam, when God saw that nature come to the age of accountability and expressed itself, God in his sweet grace said of me, utterly, totally, horribly ruined by sin. And God in his wisdom couldn't do anything with me but to set a stick up outside of a city in Jerusalem and hang me on that stick and say to angels and say to men and say to devils, this is what he is. And he did the same to you. What do you have? In Romans chapter 5, you have this, Christ dying for us. In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For when we were yet without strength, Christ died for us. That's the message of chapter 5. But what do you find in chapter 6? Christ died as us. He died as me, not only for me, but he died as me. And thus he said to the universe, this man for whom I am dying is so totally ruined by sin that there isn't one thing in this world that even God can find to do with him but dispose of him. In the place he disposed of me and of you was a cross. That's where Sanbilat was taken. That's where Tobiah was taken. That's where Geshem the Arabian was taken, to a cross. It was the law that condemned us. The law is just and holy and good and the law searched through you and measured you, searched through me, measured me. And we found that we'd sinned and come short of the glory of God and our mouths were stopped and in us there wasn't any good thing. God took me out there and he took you out there and in the person of Jesus Christ he put you on a gibbet and hung you on a stick and said to the universe, there isn't a thing in the world I can find to do with her, to do with him. There he is. But I'll tell you something, you didn't know that when you came to Christ. All you saw when you first came was that Christ died for you. You were so glad that he died for you, so glad that he paid the penalty of your sin, so glad that he was in your place. You were so happy to be, have the burden removed and the guilt taken away and immediately you said when the burden was lifted and the guilt was taken away, now I'm going to build the walls of Jerusalem. Now I am going to serve God. And so you answered the invitation in a dedication service and you came down and dedicated Sanbalat and dedicated Tobiah and dedicated Geshem the Arabian and you said now they're going to serve the best interests of Jerusalem. Well that's where they were and that's what they were doing. That's where you were and that's what you were doing. But I tell you Sanbalat doesn't know any means of serving God other than when he served the devil. He served the devil with fighting so he serves God with fighting. He served the devil with vanity so he tries to serve God with vanity. He served the devil with self-seeking so he tries to serve God with self-seeking. He served the devil with his own fleshly energy waiting to be applauded so he serves God with his fleshly energy waiting to be applauded. And you'll never see the walls of Jerusalem built with the energy of Sambalat, Tobiah, and Geshem, the Arabian. They'll remain burned, and the walls will be down, and there's only one way they'll ever be built, when someone comes with a message from the king that would seek to do good for Jerusalem. But I'll tell you, when that happens, you're going to find that Sambalat and Tobiah and Geshem will put up a fight, because the flesh says, I'll do anything but die. Anything but die. Oh, I'll wear sackcloth. I'll sleep on a bed of spikes. I'll walk on nails. I'll sleep in flaming fire. But I won't die. I don't have to die. But oh, whenever the message comes from those that would seek the good of Israel, it always means deaths to Sambalat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian. There can't be any quarter. There can't be any peace. No compromise. And all you'll find later that Sambalat and Tobiah say to Nehemiah, now look, can't you use us? We can help you. You must have our assistance. We have influenceability and the resources for the times. Nehemiah said, look, the walls of Jerusalem cannot have any of Sambalat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian. Won't be there. Can't do it. No compromise. No place. And God says of his glory, of which he's so jealous, I am not going to let any man get glory for serving me. No flesh is going to glory in my sight. You'll read in 1 Corinthians the third chapter about a day when men's works are going to be tried by fire. You'll find wood and hay and stubble, and over against it gold and silver and precious stones. Do you know what wood and hay and stubble are? It is the works of Sambalat, Tobiah, and Geshem, the Arabian. That's all they can do. And when God tests it, there's nothing but ashes. Everything that I do for God and the energy of my personality, everything you do for God and the energy of your personality, is going to be nothing but the burn gates, just ashes that soot and blow away. That's all. God can make no peace with the flesh. There's no place for them. And so, before the walls can be built, there has to be a clear cut line drawn. And so Paul said, God can't be glorified by the energy of the flesh. The things I counted gain to me, I have to count loss to Christ. The things upon which I would have depended, I have to recognize are nothing but awful, nothing but refuge, nothing but that which is to be cast out and scattered away. There's nothing there for God. So there has to come into your place, your life, that experience. That experience where, like Nehemiah, you discover that the moment you begin to serve God, there rises up an enemy. Do you know that enemy? Oh, you say, I wish it was Geshem, the Arabian. That sounds so nice. He seems so foreign. But do you know who Geshem the Arabian is? It's you without Jesus Christ. It's me without him. It's what I was by nature, what you were. That's what Sanbalat is. That's the old man. That's what Tobiah is, the old man. That's what you were. And so you know quite well who it is. You know the part of you that plots and plans and says, I'm going to hurt. I'm going to get even. I'm going to vindicate. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. You know who's doing it? Sanbalat and Tobiah, for that's what they were doing. You know who it is that insists on his own way and his own rights and getting every ounce of credit and praise? You know who it is? Sanbalat and Tobiah. You know who it is that hurts and injures and bruises? Sanbalat and Tobiah. Do you know who it is that lies and lusts? Sanbalat and Tobiah. But who's Sanbalat and Tobiah? It's me by nature. It's you by nature. That's what we were when God found us. No compromise. No peace. No place where we can strike an agreement. Only one thing. We've got to come to the place that Paul did. He said, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ. That's where God dealt with Sanbalat. That's where he dealt with Tobiah. That's where he dealt with me. That's where he dealt with you. And the only way we'll ever have victory from this tyrannous insurrection that would undermine everything of God's holy purpose is to bring Sanbalat and bring Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian to the place God's provided, which is the cross. And there to stay, not just to come in the theory, but stay every day. Stay constantly. Never leave it. For the moment that you allow them the least liberty, they go back on change. They've not been disciplined. The cross is not a place of discipline. The cross is a place of destruction. Do you see? We think somehow the cross can educate Sanbalat, pierce him through enough and he won't be Sanbalat anymore, drive the nails deep enough and he won't be Tobiah anymore, press the thorns down hard enough and he'll cease to be Geshem the Arabian, but he won't. And that's why the Bible says reckon yourself to be dead. Indeed, understand, you'll never outgrow it, nor will I. And the last day you breathe, you're going to find a subtle appeal that comes in from the dungate to the heart, and it's going to say something like this. Now you just say that cutting word. You say that, do that selfish thing. You do that. You've got a right. And Sanbalat, though he's been on the cross for 40 years, is going to quiver with excitement. He's going to get even now. The last day you breathe, you'll find that Sanbalat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian have to stay where God put them, crucified with Christ. But, oh, my dear, what did Paul say? Must I go on constantly in battle? Yes. He said, I must go on, but must I go on constantly in defeat? No. He didn't say there wouldn't be battle, but he said there didn't have to be defeat. There's a difference, you know. He said there's no temptation overtaking you. He didn't say that you'd be immune to temptation, but he said there's no temptation overtaking you except that which is common to man, and he will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And so someone would say Paul said the normal Christian life was to live in constant defeat, wanting to do something and doing another. No, Paul didn't say that. Paul said this is the conflict between the old man and the new man, but he didn't say that the old man was going to go on in ascendancy. No, no. He said thanks be to God which giveth us the victory. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with a mind I myself serve the law of God, but the flesh unchanged remains always the servant of sin, and therefore I shall go on reckoning myself to be dead indeed unto sin. Now we have three laws here. First you have the law of God, that revelation of God, which is just and holy and good, by which when Hanani came to you, you were slain and prepared for grace. Then there's the second law, the law of sin, the law of Tzambalat and Tobiah and Geshem. And it's always going to be that law, but there's the third law. You find that in Romans 8, the law of the spirit of life which hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Back in Romans 5 we had Christ for us, in Romans 6 Christ as us, and in Romans 8 Christ in us. And this is how the walls are going to be built in the church and in your life, when it's Christ in us. But it can't be Christ in us until it is first seen that it's Christ as us. Listen to Paul. I am crucified with Christ. That's how he dealt with Saul of Tarsus who was Tzambalat and Tobiah and Geshem. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. You leave today, you choose whether you're going to serve the law of sin and death or you're going to allow the law of the spirit of life to make you free from the law of sin and death. But if you serve the law of the spirit of life, it's going to be that you've brought yourself, that old Tzambalat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian, to the cross. And have remembered that in you, in your flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. And when tomorrow you find Tzambalat speaking and Tobiah is thinking and Geshem is working, bring them right back to the cross. Don't make peace with them. Don't argue with them. You come back and reckon yourself dead, indeed unto sin, that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus may make you free from the law of sin and death. Shall we bow in prayer? Truth always brings responsibility. It always brings a crisis. These two men are not hard to find. The old man, the Tzambalat, the Tobiah, that's me. That's you. The new man, Christ Jesus. Who's going to reign this week? Who's going to rule? Who's going to govern? Tzambalat's going to fight for itself, its rights. Has no part in the covenant of God, no inheritance in Jerusalem. Condemned to death. But fight it well, unless you bring it to the place where the fight has been won, the cross, and let the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus make you free from the law of sin and death. What will it be? What will it be? Is it going to be Nehemiah or Tzambalat? Today, tomorrow? Our Father, we pray that thou, by thy spirit, will drive the truth of the word deep into our hearts this morning. Should there be some that have a name to live but are dead, or some who have not even professed the name of Christ, oh, might they stop at Calvary and stay there till thou hast revealed thy Son in them. But for those, Lord, that have had this work done, draw them on. Draw us on to the cross and beyond the cross into the resurrection life of Christ revealed in us. Bless, we pray thee now, this people. Draw them on to reality, to victory, to deliverance. In Jesus' name, for his sake we pray. Amen. Shall we stand? I'm sure many of you will be interested in the folder that I hold in my hand, the Missionary Convention at Calvary Baptist Church. We've been so grateful for their cooperation each fall. And you take the folder for the meetings there. Shall we bow for the benediction? Our Father, we thank thee now for the wonderful deliverance thou hast granted us in the Lord Jesus Christ. O God of grace, come thou upon us today. Let the Spirit of God drive the truth home until we've been brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. The only wise God, our Savior, be glory and honor, dominion and power now and forever. Amen.