Romans chapter 10. I just want to look at one verse.
There's a lot in this verse. Romans chapter 10. Verse 16 says, we've been talking
about the gospel. about the preaching of the gospel,
about the necessity of hearing the gospel preached. And then
we read this in verse 16. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? Now I want you to notice these
words. Obeyed the gospel. They have not all obeyed the
gospel. Do we obey an offer? Do you obey an offer? You obey a command, not an offer. You obey a command. You men who
were and are in the military, did you have offering officers? are commanding officers. When
you got off the bus at boot camp, did they offer you the invitation
to do a million push-ups or did they command you to do it? What if you would have said,
I don't accept your offer. It wasn't an offer, was it? It
was a command. It was a command. Well, the gospel
of God is not an offer. It is a command. The gospel is
a command. They have not obeyed, not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report, our gospel? The way you obey the gospel is
to believe. You believe the gospel of Christ. You believe on Christ. That's
how you obey the command. Paul discovered what Isaiah discovered. that not all believe the gospel.
They've not all obeyed the gospel. Isaiah discovered what, if you
look down at verse 19, what Moses discovered. They've not all obeyed
the gospel. And we discover the same thing
in our day. They've not all obeyed the command,
the gospel command. Now I want to show you, first
of all, the gospel is a command from God due to our nature are
due to the nature of our relationship. It's a command because of the
relationship between God and sinners. Secondly, I want to
show you what the sinner's disobedience to the gospel command is. What
is the sinner's disobedience to the gospel command? And thirdly,
how do sinners obey the gospel command? And then fourthly, what's
the end of those who disobey and of those who obey the gospel
command. First of all, the gospel is a
command from God because of the nature of man's relationship
to God. The gospel is a command because
of the honor that's due to God from his creation. He's the creator,
we're the creation. The natural relationship there
is we're to obey God. He commands, we're to obey. God is the ruler, we are subservient
to God. God commands and we're obligated
to do as he commands. And this is so, whatever it is
God's commanding, in the garden, When it was just Adam and Eve,
the scripture says, the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the
tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.
For the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. That was a
command. And then later, after Adam disobeyed,
God sought him out and found him and said, Who told you you
were naked? Have you disobeyed? Have you
eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee? What thou shouldest not
eat? It was a command. Then in Noah's day, this was
a gospel command. Everything concerning the ark
pictured Christ and it was a gospel command. And the scripture says,
Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did
he. They went in, male and female
of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. That was a gospel command. I
don't have to labor the point about the law being a command.
Everybody understands those are called the Ten Commandments.
We understand that's a command. Well, in Isaiah's day, He was
a prophet. He was a preacher. Just like
Paul was a preacher. Just like I'm a preacher. But
he was a prophet. And what he preached was to be
obeyed because it was a command. That's why Isaiah said they've
not all believed our report. They've not all obeyed our gospel. It was a command. It was a command. Look at Acts chapter 17. Paul was on Mars Hill and he
was preaching and he said they were likening God to gold and
silver and stone and things graven by man's hand and he said, verse
30, the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. He's not offering you to repent.
He commands men to repent. 1 John 3, let's go there, 1 John
3, 23, listen to this. 1 John 3, 23, and this is His commandment. It's not His offer, this is His
commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another as Christ gave us commandment.
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. That's how we're able to keep
this commandment. It's by the Spirit of God dwelling
in us, making us able to believe on Christ and love one another. In the context in Romans 10,
Paul is telling us that whether, that God commands men either
by law or by the gospel. He's saying if you come by the
law, you have to do the whole law. If you come by the gospel,
you believe on Christ. But in either case, brethren,
it's a command. It's a command. Both are commands
by God. Sinners are bent on disobeying
God and will not obey God, whether he commands them by law or by
gospel. Sinners are the same depraved
creatures under the command of the law and under the command
of the gospel. The same depraved creature. Just
hell-bent on disobeying God, whether it's by law or by gospel.
Either way. Well, so first of all, the gospel's
a command because of this relationship between us and God. We're the
creature, he's the creator. God commands we're to obey. The gospel's a command so that
sinners know their obligation to God. This gospel comes as
a command because you and I are responsible to obey this gospel. And it's to teach us we're responsible.
We're obligated. We have an obligation. We're
responsible to believe God and believe His gospel. I invite
you to my home, let's say, and you're not obligated. That's
an invitation. That's an offer. You're not obligated
to come. That's why when you get an invitation
in the mail, it says things like, we humbly request your presence
if you'll kindly accept our invitation. But if you're commanded, you're
obligated. Repentance and faith are not
options. They're not options. Worship of God's Son is a command
from God the Father. It's not an option. The gospel
is commanded by God and the sinner is responsible to obey God. An offer exalts the sinner. An offer exalts the sinner. It
puts the gospel in your hands to accept it or reject it according
to what you please and because of that it detracts from the
honor of God. The gospel command exalts God.
It exalts God and it declares the sinners responsible to worship
God, to bow to God, and he's responsible to believe on Christ. He's dependent upon God for all
things. That's what this command of the
gospel is for. We're not exalting sinners by
saying, now God's offering this to you. He's inviting you. Will you accept it or reject
it? No. It's a command. It's a command. And the gospel
is a command to honor Christ. It's a command so that Christ
is honored. Christ is the prophet, priest,
and king of his people. Just consider those three offices.
Do you know in our day we don't esteem preachers highly? And
I understand why. Peter said they'll tell lies
so much that the gospel will be evil spoken of. And men don't
respect preachers because they're such, most of them are money-grubbing
phonies, and so preachers are respected. But when God first
began and he sent his prophets, like in Moses' day for example,
the prophet was the supreme leader in the land. He was respected
above all in the land. God didn't originally give kings. That was what the people in Israel
wanted because they saw the nations around them, they made kings
of people. And Israel wanted a king, so
God gave them a king. But that's not how God originally
arranged it. God gave his prophet to lead
his people. That's how his people were led,
through the gospel, through the preaching of the word. Now why
is that? It's because Christ is our prophet.
And God was showing us Christ is the head of the church. He
is our supreme ruler, our supreme leader that we follow through
the preaching of the word. We don't know anything concerning
the truth unless Christ teaches us in our heart affectionately.
That's what he does. And so this is to honor Christ
as the prophet of his people. And a prophet doesn't come begging
sinners, not a true prophet, not a true preacher. He comes
on the authority of God commanding. And that's because Christ is
the prophet of his people. He's the one that leads his people.
He's the prophet. Then Christ also is the priest
of God. The Levitical priesthood, when
God gave the Levitical priesthood, the priests The people looked to the priests
because they told them how they could come to God. The priest
was the one who told Israel how they could come to God. And so
they looked to the priest. The priest was the one they were
commanded to bring the sacrifice to. The priest was the one who
the people There were some laws where the people laid their hand
on the head of the bullock, but the picture there is of the priest
transferring the sins from the people to the sacrifice. Because
Christ, the scripture tells us, he hath made him sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God.
transferred the sin of his people to himself willingly. He's God. He did that as the high priest
of his people. And he's the sacrifice who laid
down his life for his people under the wrath of God bearing
the justice of God for his people. And then that high priest went
alone by himself into the holiest of holies. Nobody else could
represent himself to God. Only the high priest could. And
only Christ can represent us to God. And so we're commanded
by God to look to the high priest and trust the high priest to
represent us to God. We're not offered that. We're
commanded that. We're commanded that. Christ is our King. Christ is
our King. Now, that's a little easier to
understand because we don't have kings in this country, but But
we can look at other countries and know that a sovereign king,
he doesn't offer you anything. When he gives you a command,
it's a command that you're responsible to obey. Well, Christ is the
king. He's the king. And when Christ
gives his command, he's the king of heaven, earth, and hell. Everything's
under His sovereign rule. And He's ruling all things and
none can say to Him, none can question Him. None can say to
Him, what doest thou? He's ruling everything. We're
to bow to the King. We're to come and bow to the
King. We're to do as He commands. And so this is a picture of,
this gospel is a command so that Christ is honored as prophet,
priest, and king. Go to Luke 14. That's why the
Lord Jesus gave this parable. The gospel is set forth as a
feast to which men are bound to come under penalty of the
king's displeasure. This gospel is a feast and we're
commanded to come to this feast and if we don't come, it's going
to be at the displeasure of the king of the feast. Look here,
Luke 14 verse 16. Then said Christ unto them, unto
him, a certain man made a great supper and bade, that means he
called many, he called. And he sent his servant, now
this man's a king, you see there, he sent his servant at supper
time to say to them that were bidden, come, for all things
are now ready. And they all with one consent
began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I've
bought a piece of ground. I must needs go and see it. I
pray thee have me excused. Another said, I've bought five
yoke of oxen. I go to prove them. I pray thee
have me excused. That's both of those excuses
there to show us the absurdity of not obeying this command.
Nobody buys a piece of land they haven't seen yet. Nobody buys
a yoke of oxen they haven't tried yet. You don't buy a car if you
don't drive the thing. And that's to show the absurdity
of these excuses. And then this last man, he said,
I've married a wife, therefore I cannot come. So that servant
came and showed his lord these things. And then the master of
the house being angry He was angry, and he said to his servant,
Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring
in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the haunted, and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as Thou hast commanded. And yet there is room. And the
Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges,
and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Compel
them to come. For I say unto you, none of those
men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. You see, the gospel
is set forth as a feast to which men are bound to come. They're
responsible to come to this feast under penalty of the king's displeasure.
If we don't obey this command, the king will be angry. And that's
how the gospel is set forth. We're called, we're commanded
to come to this feast. We see this now when you look
at these reasons I'm giving you. Do you see why men call it an
offer, call the gospel an offer instead of a command? By calling
it an offer, we don't consider it disobedience to refuse an
offer, to refuse an invitation. We don't consider that disobedience. But we all know it's disobedience
to refuse a command. They're toning down this thing
of disobeying the gospel. They're toning it down. They're
taking the edge off of it like they do everything else about
the gospel by calling it an offer rather than a command. They shave
off the offense a little, calling it an offer, and so they tone
down the authority of God and they exalt the sinner. They tone
down the authority of God, bring Him down and bring the sinner
up. That's the offense of this thing. God does not humbly request
your presence at His throne. God commands you to come and
bow to Him. And that's what God makes His
people willing to do, is to come and bow. The very fact that somebody
calls the gospel an offer. If you hear a preacher call the
gospel an offer, that ought to put you on alert at how he's
going to handle the rest of the gospel, the contents of the gospel. If he's toning down what the
gospel actually is and not calling it a command, he's calling it
an offer, that's how he's going to deal with the doctrine of
the gospel too. He's going to take the edge off. He's going
to exalt the sinner and bring God down. Now secondly, what
is the sinner's disobedience to the gospel command? What's
the disobedience of a sinner to this command? Disobedience
to this gospel command is a refusal to bow to God as God. That's
what it is. It's a refusal to bow to God
as God. It's a refusal to own God as
God. To own his authority. You know
over there in Psalm 14, In verse 1, we usually read this wrong. Men apply this to an atheist.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. If you go read
that, there is is in italics. That means the translators added
it to make it read more smoothly. What the original actually says
is the fool has said in his heart, no God. He's saying to God, no,
I won't obey you. He's not saying there is no God. He knows there's a God. He's
saying in his heart, no, I will not obey you. There's a difference. There's a huge difference. He's
refusing to own God as God. Disobedience is to question the
motive of the sender. God sent Christ into this world
because He freely loved His people and would save His people by
His free grace. And he sent Christ to work out
everything to honor his holy law so he could save a sinner
and show mercy consistent with his justice. Make justice and
mercy meet in harmony. The person who will not believe
the gospel calls God a liar. That's what the scripture says.
He questions the motive of the sender and he calls God a liar
by not believing the gospel. Now listen to me, if you're sitting
here today and you haven't believed the gospel, this is what you're
doing. You're saying no God and you're questioning God's motive. You're calling God a liar. Calling
him a liar. Disobedience is to reject the
gift of God, is to reject the unspeakable gift, Christ Jesus
the Lord. There's no gift like this. This
is the unspeakable gift. Our Lord gave His only begotten
Son. And those who disobey this command
are rejecting Him. Do you know what an affront it
is to you? If you spent a lot of money and
there was something very valuable that you purchased and you gave
to somebody as a gift and they looked at that gift and went,
I'm not going to receive that. I don't want that. Do you know
what an affront that would be to you? Just imagine God sending
his only begotten son and some little sinner disobeying God
by not believing on him. Christ was rich and he became
poor beyond imagination to make his people rich. And some sinner
is going to look at him and hear about him and the poverty he
endured to make his people rich in grace and righteousness and
holiness and he's going to reject Christ and disobey this command? To reject Christ is to spit in
the God the Father's face by spitting in God the Son's face.
Here's what it says. Disobedience to this gospel man
says, I would rather be damned than trust the Son of God as
my Savior. That's what disobedience says.
I'd rather be damned in hell for eternity than trust God and
believe on His Son. Now those that disobey, they
do so because it's their own fault. They disobey because it's
their own fault. It's the natural depraved will
of man to disobey God. Since we disobeyed that first
command in the garden, that's been our will from then on, to
disobey God. Now thirdly, how do sinners obey
this gospel command? How are we brought to obey this
gospel command? Well, I'm going to talk about
you and how you obey it. And then we're going to talk
about God a little bit. First of all, it's not to merely
hear the gospel. That's involved. You must come
here with the faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word
of God through the preaching of the word. You must hear it,
but it's not hearing it only. It's not just showing up where
the gospel is preached. That's not obeying the gospel.
It's not crediting it and liking it. It's not saying, oh, this
has to be true. It's not just believing in God
and believing in the way of salvation and saying, yeah, that's got
to be so. The devils believe it's so. The devils believe God. They believe Christ. They believe
that the way God saves is the only way to be saved. They believe
that. It's not that. It's not preaching
it. A man can preach it and be lost.
It's not just preaching it. It's obeying the command and
casting all your care on Christ. Believing on Christ. You trusting
Christ. That's what it is. That's how
you obey this command. It's faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believing Christ. Trusting Christ
as all your salvation. At the same time, it's a renunciation. It's an abhorrence of your own
works, of your own will. It's a total change of mind. That's what repentance is. So
that you see yourself as a sinner, unable, and you abhor yourself. And all that you ever thought
was of righteousness, now you see it as total, nothing but
filthy rags. And it's... discipleship under
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to come to Christ, to be
taught of Christ by His teaching and by His example. That's why
when we come here to hear Christ teach us, we're coming to be
disciples, students of the Lord Jesus Christ to learn through
His gospel and to learn by looking at Him and learn His example
of how we're to conduct ourselves as we go through this life. What
He would have us to do to further the gospel. What He would have
us to do to give Him the honor and the glory so that sinners
can hear Him. Those who obey the gospel do
so one way. It's only by the sovereign grace
of God. Christ Himself has to make us
willing to obey. He has to come in His power and
create a new man within us by the Spirit of God. We have to
be born again. He said you must be born again. That which is born the first
time is flesh and hates God. And He has to create a new man
within where there's a hatred of our sinful selves and a love
for God and truth. And He has to give you faith
and repentance and all of these things. So if we obey the gospel
command, that's why believers praise God. That's why we give
Him the glory because it's all of Him, everything. We believe
this gospel and obey this gospel because of Him and what He's
done. Now, what is the end of those who disobey and of those
who obey? Well, go to Mark 16, 16. This is summed up for us in one
verse by the Master Himself. Mark 16, 16. He says, He says, He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. There's the end of those who
believe. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Here's the end of those that
obey not. But he that believeth not shall be damned. That's pretty
direct and to the point, isn't it? If you refuse to obey the
gospel, your hearts will be hardened deeper in unbelief. You know,
men have this tendency of thinking, I'm going to put that off to
another day. I'm going to put it off to another day. And one
day, I'll believe. One day down the road, I'll believe.
And usually the thought runs like this pattern. I'm going
to kick up my heels and have a good time while I'm young.
When I get older, then I'll believe. You won't ever believe. God said,
the man who is often reproved and hardens his neck shall suddenly
be cut off. You will be hardened and hardened
more in sin to where God has turned you over in reprobation. There will be no believing. There
will be no grace. What kind of What kind of dishonor
is it to be told and have to be told something over and over
and over by our earthly fathers before we will obey? That's dishonoring. If you've just heard the gospel
one time, that ought to be enough. That ought to make us fall down
on our face and believe God if we just heard His command one
time. We're going to have to keep hearing
it over and over and over and disobeying it, disobeying it,
disobeying it, walking out with our neck hardened and our neck
hardened. How would your earthly father react to that? Don't tempt
God. Don't tempt God. To refuse means you'll be hardened
in your sins and deeper unbelief. And to die in your sins means
your blood is on your own heads. I was thinking of this this week.
You know, Christ says, believe on me, take up your cross and
follow me. When he says take up your cross
as a believer, that means simply that because you're identifying
with Christ and because you're confessing Christ and you're
proclaiming that Christ is the only way of salvation, you're
going to receive some rejection from men and you're going to
suffer. But it's light affliction, the
scripture says. It's very light affliction. It's
just for a moment, it's light, the things we have to suffer
as believers. And it's surely light in comparison to what Christ
suffered for us. But if you don't believe this
gospel, if you don't believe this gospel, you're still going
to take up your cross. But it's going to be a different
one. You're going to take it up and you're going to answer
for all your transgressions against God, yourself, forever in hell. But one way or the other, you're
going to take up the cross. You're either going to take it
up in faith and suffer light affliction for the cause of Christ
because you believe Him and you obey Him, or you'll be made to
take it up yourself and suffer for all your sins. See, He already
bore that for His people. So this cross that we bear is
light affliction because He's borne the wrath of God for us.
But if a man is ashamed of Christ and will not obey Christ in this
life, then you'll take up a cross but it'll be the cross of bearing
all your own sin and your blood on your head under the wrath
of God for eternity. But those who believe Him, if
by God's grace you obey the gospel command, He says, you shall be
saved. Close your eyes and immediately
Immediately, the believer is going to be with the Lord. Immediately. In spirit. To be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord. Immediately, we're
going to close our eyes in death and be present with the Lord.
And when He returns, He's going to raise our vile bodies incorruptible. And we're going to have a real
body. We're going to have a real body in heaven and be perfect
within and without and be able to worship Christ perfectly with
no sin and no interruption forever. He says, those that believe and
are baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be
damned. Now, by the authority of God,
I command you, believe on Christ. I'm not offering this to you.
I'm not inviting you. I'm commanding you. Believe on
Christ, and I have God's authority to command you that. Believe
on Christ, do it today. And I pray he'd make you willing
to truly believe him today. All right, let's stand together. Father, we thank you for your
word. I pray Lord that this Word would come today like a lightning
bolt into the heart of one of your lost sheep as a command. As a command from the Sovereign
of Heaven. And make us bow and make us willing
and make us cast our care on Christ and confess you willingly
in baptism and unite with your people and follow you all our
days. Lord, we pray this for your glory, for your honor that
you bring us to see our relationship to you for the honor of Christ,
our prophet, priest, and king. Make us today willing to believe
you and obey your gospel. Forgive us, Lord, our sins. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen.