Turn with me first in your Bible
to Romans chapter 10, if you would please. I want us to read
together here three very familiar verses of Scripture beginning
in verse 11. Romans chapter 10, verse 11. Look closely at Paul's words
here. Verse 11. For the scripture said,
whosoever believeth on him, that being Jesus Christ, shall not
be ashamed. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved." Now the first thing that
we see from these three verses is that eternal life is the result
of believing and calling on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing
on Christ comes before calling on Him. A dead man cannot call
upon anyone to help him. He's dead. A dead man can't do
anything. You know that. A sinner believes
and then calls and is saved. Actually, their salvation comes
before their believing. Now, some people will scratch
their head on that. But one dead can't believe either.
You go up to a casket where somebody's passed, and you say, do you believe?
Well, you know you're not going to get an answer. He's dead.
He can't believe. He can't answer you. They've
got to be first given life. They believe and then they call,
but they are saved. In verse 14, Paul tells us just
that. Look at what he says. He says,
how then shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed?
Believing comes before the calling. You cannot call upon the Lord
without faith. Now these verses keep sending
us somewhat backwards to what was said before to find the root
cause and the reason for the sinner's salvation. Again, verse
14. How shall they believe on Him
and whom they've not heard? There can be no faith, no believing
in one unless you've heard of them. Knowledge is an essential
element and part of faith. And then another step backwards
to the first step, and it's here that we find the result and the
reason that any sinner believes. How shall they hear without a
preacher? Preaching is the means by which
the gospel of our salvation is delivered, heard, and believed. And not just any kind of preaching. True preaching. True preaching
of the true gospel. That's what verse 15 is all about.
And how shall they preach except they be sent? That's talking
about being sent of God. That's talking about being sent
of God with His message. Not sent by the church. Not sent
by the seminary. Not sent by Mama. But sent of
God and sent with the message of God. That's the message that
saves. Not just any message. Paul said,
woe unto me if I preach not what? The Gospel. Not woe unto me if
I don't preach. Matter of fact, to hear a lot
of men preach, woe unto them for preaching. And that's why
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace is so beautiful. Now, I wouldn't dare take my
shoes and socks off this morning and let you see my feet, because
to me, they're not pretty. But I'm going to tell you, to
those of you that love the gospel that I preach, they'd be beautiful
to you. They're the feet that brings
glad tidings of good things. That's what the gospel is. Glad
tidings of good things, good news. You know, the word gospel,
I looked it up this week in the Strong's Accord, it actually
means a good message. A lot of times, men stand and
preach, and when they sit down, people say, that was a good message.
Well, it wasn't because there wasn't any gospel in it. But
the gospel is a good message. And I have a good message for
you this morning. God sent me to give it to you. Will you hear it? Will you call
upon Christ who is the good news? Will you believe, have faith
in and on this Savior of whom I preach? If you do, you won't
be ashamed. He said you wouldn't be. You
won't be ashamed in this life or in the life to come. Then
in verse 12, Paul tells us something very vital, and it's absolutely
necessary, essential, and crucial to understand this. He says,
for there is no difference. How much difference? No difference.
between the Jew and the Greek. Now look at this, for the same
Lord, because He's the only Lord, over all is rich unto all, all
the world? No, all that call upon Him. Everyone that believes in Christ
shall be saved. There's no distinction in nations.
There's no superiority of carnal fleshly descent. It doesn't matter
if your daddy was a king or a president. It doesn't have anything to do
with it. It doesn't matter if you were a Jew of God's chosen
nation. It doesn't matter if you were
a Greek. Jesus Christ is the same Lord
over all. He's rich unto all that call
upon Him. Romans chapter three, verse nine,
Paul asks, what then, are we, the Jews, better than they? Speaking
of the Greeks, the Gentiles. He said, no, in no wise, for
we have before proved or charged both Jews and Gentiles that they
are all under sin. You see, sin is the equalizer. It puts us all in the same boat,
sinners. In Galatians chapter 3 verse
22, Paul wrote, but the scripture hath concluded, God hath concluded,
that all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe. There is no difference, friends,
between any of us, naturally speaking. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. They are all gone aside. Every
one of them has gone back. They are all together become
filthy. As it is written, there is none
righteous. God's pretty specific, isn't
He? So I repeat that God says there is no difference. naturally
standing before God in our wretchedness and depravity. There ain't no
difference between any of us. All of us are in need of a perfect
righteousness. And God is able to supply the
needs, or I should say need, because Christ is the one thing
needful. He's able to supply the need
of all who truly call upon Christ's name. There's no difference in
it. And there's no difference in
the mercy and grace of God to all who hear, all who call, and
all who believe. The message that all God's true
servants preach is just that. No difference, but the difference
that God makes. I was looking in preparation
for this message today at some of the world's statistics in
2024. Let's give you a few. There are 8.1 billion people
on earth. That number grows 50 million
plus each year. 400,000 plus births today. 400,000 babies gonna be born
today. 160 deaths are gonna occur today.
17,000 births and 6,700 deaths an hour. 278 births a minute.
110 deaths, four infants born a second. Four babies born right there.
Two deaths occurring per second. Two people gone. There are 195 recognized nations
on earth. And there's no difference in
any of us. No difference. No difference. Only the difference that the
Lord makes. And the difference He makes is
a great difference. It's a life and death difference.
It's not a physical difference. It's a spiritual difference.
It's not a temporal difference. It's an eternal difference. The
word difference means there's no contrast, no distinction,
no variance, no deviation in men and women as far as this
heart goes. We've already talked about this
this morning. This heart that beats in every single one of
us, naturally speaking, is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Only God can know it. We can't
know our heart. You know, men say ignorant things
like, well, I gave Jesus my heart. Ain't good enough. It ain't good
enough. Gotta be perfect to be accepted.
And I'm not talking about that organ here within the center
of our chest that pumps blood to the rest of the body. I'm
talking about our makeup, and not the kind you ladies wear
either. Our heart is our attitude. It's our emotions. It's our beliefs. It's our actions. When the scriptures
talk about the heart, that's what it's talking about. And
there is no difference there between any of us. We all have the same hearts. The heart, every heart, deceitful
above all things. A heart, every heart, desperately
wicked. Only God can know it. And God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of what? His heart were only
evil continually. You know, it's bad enough that
the thoughts of our hearts are only evil, but continually? My,
my. The definition of difference
is a point or a way in which people and things are not the
same. No difference means that we are the same. And only God
can make us to differ. And it doesn't have anything
to do with what nation we're from. It doesn't have anything
to do with what gender or sex we are. God's no respecter of
person or of works. The difference is the difference
that God himself makes. And he's the only one who can
make you to differ. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou
hast not received it? I want you to turn with me now
to 1 Corinthians 1. Just a few pages over from Romans
10. First Corinthians chapter one, let's start in verse 18. First Corinthians chapter one,
verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. Two kind of people spoken of
here, them that are lost and them that are saved. Verse 19,
for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Have not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Now look at this. It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them to
believe. For the Jews require sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom. Now here we see something of
the contempt that God has upon the wisdom of this world. Listen. You take the wisest man there
is, Einstein or whoever, it doesn't matter, and God's not impressed. He's not impressed. He shows
contempt on the wisdom of this world. In salvation, He brought
the world's wisdom to naught. Zero. Zip. That's what it means. And He made it appear as nothing. The world, by its so-called wisdom,
had worked out its own conclusions, and in doing so, they proved
their own folly. Men and women boast that they're
wise, and they believe the most absolute ridiculous things that
you could come up with. They boast that they're wise,
but God gives them one problem to solve and they can't solve
it. God says to the wise, find me out into perfection. Discover
my nature. How did man's wisdom and reasoning
work out this problem? Well, just look around you. God's
made foolish man's wisdom. We find men and women today,
smart men and women, much more brilliant in mind than I am,
prostrating themselves before blocks of wood and stone. They've
made a God out of anything and everything. They'll bow, but
they won't bow to the one that's clearly seen. Well, how's God
clearly seen? He's invisible. You look at the
stars at night. You look at when the sun rises. That'll tell you there's a God.
Men will worship reptiles that crawled. There are crocodiles
and vipers and golden calves. But not the God of heaven. The
world, by their wisdom, listen, knew not God. Didn't know God. Still don't. And those who are
no different from one another, God brings to nothing their understanding. And please God by what we're
doing this morning. The world calls it foolishness.
Preaching. Gospel preaching. The preaching
that points sinners to the only one that can save. It pleased
God by that. to save them that believe this
message. Isn't that something? Who does
God save by preaching? Well, we've already mentioned
it. Those who hear, those who call, and those who believe.
Those who hear the preaching of the gospel. Those who believe
what they hear. Those who hear, call, and believe. Those who call out for God's
mercy and grace in Christ. Verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews is stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks is foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, some out of the Jews and some out of the
Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because
the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of
God is stronger than man. There were some out of the Jews
and some out of the Greeks who were made to see and understand
that Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. Have you been
made to see it? Has God shown it to you? They
were made to see that the foolishness of God, what they think is foolishness,
but there's nothing at all foolish about God. He's wiser than man
in the weakness of God, and there's nothing weak about God. He's
sovereign, He's omnipotent, He's almighty. And even though the
world thinks He's a little old man upstairs, He's stronger than
men. And here we find the result.
Look at verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to naught things that are." Why? You and I know why. Because God tells us right here.
He tells us right here in verse 29. Look at it. that no flesh
should glory in His presence. God gets all the glory. Now,
flesh will glory in our presence, but you can count on it. We're going to boast. That's
why Paul wrote, if you're saved by grace through faith, it's
not of yourself, not of works, lest any man should boast, because
every man will boast. but not in God's presence. You're
not gonna boast in God's presence. They tried that on the day of
judgment. They went to the Lord and they said, haven't we done
this? And haven't we done that? We've cast out devils and we've
preached your gospel. We've done many wonderful work.
And he said, you don't get any glory. You don't get any glory. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. God makes some to differ from
others. Aren't you glad? We're not looking
for any credit. I don't want any credit. I just
want Him. I don't want jewels in my crown. I want Christ as my King. God makes some to see that they've
received everything they have. I remember one time seeing Muhammad
Ali. They were interviewing him, and
he was sitting in front of his big mansion, and they said, Muhammad,
what have you got to say about a black man having this mansion?
He said, that ain't my mansion. He said, it's just on loan to
me. It all belongs to God. He said, three white men lived
in it before me, and probably more white men will live in it
after me. It's just on loan to me. God's people see that everything
we have is God's gift to us. We don't have anything of our
own except our sin. And that's your nothing to glory
in. That's your nothing to brag about. How does God make this difference?
Verse 30, "...but of Him," that's how, "...but of Him, God, are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And I love to say it. I love
to say it. God makes us everything that
He requires of us. wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He makes us wise through faith
in Christ. He makes us righteous, the very
righteousness of God in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He chooses
us to salvation, how? Through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Not belief of man's doctrines.
Not belief of the church creed. But of the truth. The truth we
hear preached. The truth that He sent to us
by a true preacher. The truth that we would believe.
The truth that causes us to call out to Christ. A truth that enables
us to receive the redemption that's found only in Him. And
this is the reason behind it all, verse 31, that according
as it is written, He that glorieth Let him glory in the Lord. We're
right back to that. God gets all the glory, Steve.
He gets every bit of it. We don't get any. We don't want
any. If you and I are to glory, it's only in Christ Jesus, our
Lord and Savior. And Paul's conversation concerning
wisdom and understanding the difference that God makes doesn't
stop there. There's no chapter or verse division
written in Paul's original letter to the Corinth. Look at chapter
2, verse 1. He said, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you
the testimony of God. Now, the gospel is not to be
preached with great oratory skills called excellency of speech here. The gospel is not to be preached
with man's so-called wisdom and understanding. How is the gospel
to be preached? Clear. Declaration of the testimony
of God. That word testimony means evidence. You know that. If someone testifies
or gives testimony in a court of law, what they're doing is
they're providing evidence to what they've seen and heard.
That's exactly what we do in preaching. We're giving evidence
to what we've seen and what we've heard by the mercy and grace
of God. That's what John the Beloved
said. He said, that which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, and which we have seen
with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled of the Word of life. We've touched Him. We've seen
Him. We've heard Him. We know He's soul. For the life
was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness and shown
to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. Isn't that something? We've just
given evidence to the testimony of God. Corinth, as you probably
know, was a multicultural It was situated in the midst of
a people who admired eloquence and wisdom. And that was a lot
of their problem. And you know the Apostle Paul
was a man of profound learning. He wasn't your average fisherman.
like Peter and James and John. He had been educated at the feet
of Gamaliel. He was a wise, smart, knowledgeable
man. And no doubt, I thought about
this, no doubt there was some temptation or temptation would
exist for Paul to let his wisdom and eloquence be known to those
whom he preached. You know, I'm sure he would have
been justified to think, you know, the gospel I preach is
worthy of the highest talents. But that's not how he preached.
He said, I come not with excellency of speech. I didn't come with
the vast wisdom that I've acquired. The Apostle Paul resolved to
do no such thing. And in verse 2, this is what
he said, For I determined not to know anything among you save
or except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He put a curb upon
his vast knowledge and understanding. He determined that he'd be slow
in speech, deliberate, clear, simple. Instead of magnifying
himself, he's gonna magnify the grace of God and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me tell you about my Lord.
Let me tell you about my Savior. God in the flesh. He was crucified
to put your sin away. Simple, clear, determined, determined
not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He
had one subject. We've got one subject in our
preaching. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's what every
true gospel preacher determines to preach. One message, one subject,
one gospel. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Are you interested? Well, if
you're a sinner, you will be. It's not our business to set
people straight on the creation of the world. It's not our business to expound
the doctrine of election, God's election of people. It's not
our goal to dive into the deep doctrines of predestination and
providence. Apart from Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, none of those doctrines will profit you anything. Now
did you hear me? The Gospel is going to stand
on its own merits. It needs no enticing words of
man's wisdom. Mr. Spurgeon said the preaching
of the cross is the only kind of preaching that is attended
with success. No doubt the doctrines of grace,
given the name Calvinism, is the truth according to the Scriptures. But it's not the Gospel apart
from Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now did you hear me? I said that
on purpose. And you've got it on recording
now. Moses defined the tea and tulip. You know, people call
it tulip. You know the doctrines of grace. He defined the tea
and tulip, total depravity, long before John Calvin ever did.
That's right. Moses wrote, and God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth. He's totally depraved. Every single thought, imagination
of his heart was only evil continually. The Apostle Paul made us aware
of the you in unconditional election long before Mr. Calvin did. When
he wrote, knowing brethren, beloved Christ is God's elect and we're
elected in Him, chosen in Him, and we were before the foundation
of the world. The Lord Jesus Himself revealed
to us the L in TULIP, the limited atonement, long before John Calvin
ever published Calvinism had it printed. He said, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. This is a limited atonement. It's not for everybody. He came
into the world to save those who believe on him. It's limited,
it's particular. He said, and all mine are thine,
and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in thee. Those that thou gave
me, that's who I came to save. It was our Lord Jesus who preached
the eye in the irresistible grace. He preached it long before any
Calvinistic preacher did. Our Lord declared, all that the
Father given me shall come to me and he that cometh to me I'll
in no wise cast out. It was our Lord Jesus who said,
I am the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh to the
Father but by me. That's pretty particular. It's
pretty distinguished. It was our Lord who claimed,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me,
draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. And listen,
Peter knew much more about the P in the word tulip, which stands
for perseverance or preservation of the saint. He knew that Satan
desired to sift him as wheat. The Lord told him that. Peter knew firsthand that he
was spared only because Christ prayed that his faith fail him
not. Now you can call it perseverance
or you can call it preservation, but it's the Lord that keeps
us. Dear sinner, if you don't see
Christ in Calvinism, then you've missed the gospel altogether.
Salvation is in, of, and through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Who's Jesus Christ? He's God.
What'd God do for sinners? He died in the room instead to
fulfill His law and to satisfy His own justice. And that's a
good message. That's a good message. That's
the gospel message. Apart from that divine revelation,
John Calvin simply had five good points that will not save. I
pray that God enable you to trust in Christ alone, who's the only
one who can save. These doctrines of grace called
TULIP are ineffectual, they're non-effective, if not seen in
Christ, because without Christ who is divine, TULIP is a dead
flower. I'm convinced that John Calvin
would not want those doctrines nicknamed after him. Mr. Calvin, do you know they
took your five points and wrote a book about it? It's called
Calvinism. Oh no, they didn't put my name. That's God's Word. That's what God says. Don't give
me any credit for it. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the teaching of those
unsearchable doctrines. The gospel did not begin with
John Calvin. It only reminds us of five glorious
things. And most glorious of all is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Not one gram of my own merit,
my own worth for me to stand in. And I am determined to trust
in nothing or no one other than Jesus Christ and what He's done
for me. Determined, I'm determined. Now in closing, I want to take
the words of the apostle to be my own. I stand before you today,
I stand before you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Been preaching now 30 years,
not too well, but been at it for a while, 30 years plus, and
I still tremble. Because when I stand here, I'm
standing to deliver to you God's Word. That's a fearful thing.
Much trembling. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 4. And
my speech and my preaching is not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. But friends, I do pray and hope
that it's in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. When
I was up at Brother Clay's a couple weeks ago, had me, Brother Clay,
Brother Thacker, and Brother John Chapman, we were all sitting
around talking, and we just scratched our heads and said to one another,
first and foremost, none of us could believe the Lord had called
us to preach. And each one of us said, it don't
matter how good of an outline I got, whether I got it from
Spurgeon or Brother Henry or the Lord gave it to me myself.
If the Lord doesn't bless the message, sending His Spirit to
penetrate the hearts, the wicked hearts, the dead hearts of men
and women and give them life, our preaching is in vain. And
I said it in the Sunday school hour, if you only hear my voice
this morning and you hadn't heard much, but if you hear his voice
and you've heard everything. My speech, my preaching, not
with enticing words of man's wisdom. And I'm so glad, but
I hope in the demonstration of the spirit and the power. And
this is the only spirit and power that can save those in whom there's
no difference. That's what verse 10 tells us.
Look at it. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For one man knoweth the
things of a man, save, except the Spirit of man which is in
him. Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit
of God. So again, I ask you, who, what
makes us to differ? Verse five, that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. So we
live in a day where folks want to see a miracle, want to see
a sign, want to see wonders. Want some new revelation, tell
us something new. They don't want to hear the gospel.
And that's the only thing they can save. What or whom do we preach? To
whom do we preach it? How do we preach it? Paul said,
what did Paul preach? He said, we preach Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. We preach Christ as God, who
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. God was in Christ
reconciling himself into the world. His name is Emmanuel,
which is interpreted God with us. And all the way through the
Old Testament, the Messiah was promised and prophesied and pictured
all the way through the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment
of every promise and prophecy and picture. God can't compromise
His justice. He's just and justifier. He can only be both in Christ. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's how. There's one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. How is that possible? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. How is our sin remitted and paid
in full? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Secondly, to whom do we preach?
We preach to sinners in whom there's no difference between
them. So we, in reality, we preach to everyone. Our hearts will never be more
sinful. It may become harder, but not more wicked, our hearts.
Our inability will never be more certain. It may be clearer to
us as time goes on, but never more certain. There's not a better
time than now to repent. It will become shorter. And this
message is for all. There's no difference. Thirdly,
how do we preach this gospel? Well, we preach it boldly, simply,
affectionately, and because of who reveals it, we preach it
successfully. It always accomplishes what God
sends it to do. That is such a comfort to a preacher.
That's something else we talked about. Because we know that if
God doesn't bless it, it's not going to matter. No matter how
we feel we failed in preaching or if we leave a little with
our chest sticking out thinking we did a good job. If God doesn't
bless it, it don't matter. It saves some, it damns others.
It softens some, it hardens others. But it's always, always, always
successful. His Word will not return unto
Him void. It accomplishes that which He
sends it to do. So, what is the Gospel to you? Is
it a savor of life unto life or is it a savor of death unto
death? Because there's no difference between us except the difference
that God makes. Paul asked this question and
I ask it in closing. So who is sufficient for these
things? Only those whom God makes the
difference.