Romans 3. In Romans 2, verse 11, the Apostle
Paul said that God was not a respecter of persons. He does not show favoritism to
any particular race or place. Now somebody's gonna hear that
and say, that is absolutely absurd. He chose the Jews to be his people. The seed of Abraham, isn't that
what he said? The children of Israel. The apostle
Paul said, yes, but here's what you need to understand. Chapter
two, verse 28, he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, Neither
is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he
is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God." Being born into a particular family
or being born into a particular country does not make a man or
a woman a child of God. any particular family, any particular
country. A lot of people believe just
because they were born in America. They're, you know, children of
God. Look with me at Galatians chapter
3. Galatians 3 verse 7 says, Know
ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the
children of Abraham. All who truly believe are the
spiritual children of Abraham. Verse 26, For you are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there
is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ's, Then
are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. If God the Father put us in Christ,
then that makes us spiritual Israel. If God the Spirit has
given us faith to believe on Christ, that's what makes us to be true
children of the Father. What that means is salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Most
people believe salvation is of me, but it's not so. Salvation is of the Lord. Who
He has chosen to save is His business. He does a work on the
heart of His people. He is the one who puts faith
in His people, causing them to look to Christ, believing that
salvation is of the Lord. And who He does that for is His
business. Look with me if you would at
Romans chapter 9. Romans 9 verse 6. Not as though
the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called." Isaac represents Christ. In Christ shall thy seed
be called. Verse eight, that is, they which
are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God. but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise,
at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, Not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Before any sinner was ever even
born. Before men were ever created
on the face of this earth, God had an elect people. He had a
chosen people. Outside of His election, no sinner
will be saved. Inside of His election, no sinner
will be lost. None. That brings up a question. Alright, we said all that to
get to this. This is a question that mankind,
natural man, natural flesh, the natural mind, this is a question
that mankind will have in response to that truth. We just read it.
And God is true and every man is a liar. And this is the response. Here's the question that men
are going to ask. What's the point then? What's the point then? What's
the point of all this? You all are sitting there. I'm
standing here. What are we doing here? What
are we even doing here? If God has already chosen who he was
going to save and not save. If his election is unchangeable,
God is unchangeable. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. That's why you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. If all this is unchangeable and
set in stone, then what's the point of all this? What's the
point of preaching? What's the point of preaching?
What's the point of hearing? What's the point of learning?
What's the point of bowing to His Word? What is the point of
worshiping Him? What is the point? If the Jews
went through all the motions and the ceremonies, God gave
all these ordinances and all of these things and they went
through all of these things. And if some of the Jews went
through all of that, but in the end, it didn't save them because
they were not God's elect. And if the Gentiles who were
never given those ordinances, they were never given that law
and they didn't go through all that form and all that. If some
of them were saved anyway, because they were God's elect, then what's the point of all
this? What does it matter whether we look to him? What does it
matter whether we believe on him? What does it matter whether we
worship him or not? We're going to see the answer
to that. But I want to say this first, if any sinner ever sees
the beauty and the glory of Christ, if any sinner ever has his eyes
open to see Christ for who he truly is, and if any sinner's
heart is ever caused to absolutely fall in love with this man, he
will say, it matters. He will. If the question is ever
insinuated to him that it doesn't matter whether or not he looks
to and believes on and bows down in worship to Christ, he will
cry, God forbid. Oh, it don't matter whether you
do that. God forbid. God forbid. A found, seeking, joint heir
with Christ will cry, God forbid, every time, give me Christ or
give me death. Because to not have Christ is
death. I want us to look at what the
apostle Paul has to say on whether or not it matters that God's
people learn of and believe on and heed his word. And then I
want to make this applicable to us today. All right, go with me back to
Romans three. At the end of chapter two, he
said, Salvation is not up to the sinner, it's up to God. It's
God who does the work on the heart. Now chapter three, he
brings up this same fleshly question that we just asked. Okay, this
is what he's saying. Chapter three, verse one, he
said, well, what advantage then hath the Jew? What's the point then? What does
it matter then? Whether we hear the things that
God has to say to us. What does it matter whether we
believe on him and heed his word? Verse one goes on to say, or
what profit is there of circumcision? What difference does it make?
Whether we confess to be and whether we evidence to be evidence
being a child of God, what's the profit in studying his word? See in these types and pictures
of Christ in the word. That's what we do. We go through
this word seeing Christ. Well, what's the profit? What,
what advantage is there or profit is there in being under the preaching
of the gospel determined to say, as for me and my house, we're
going to serve the Lord. Paul said, what advantage, what
profit verse two, much every way. Much every way, cheaply
because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Oracles means
word. Unto them was committed the word
of God. God has an order. I believe this
will be an interesting thing, an eye-opening thing. This has
been to me. I've seen it more clearly than I've seen this before. God has an order that he has
ordained. He has a series of events that
he has put into place to draw all of his people to himself. He made a covenant. God made
a promise of all of the things that would
take place to bring about the salvation of his people. And
the covenant included more than one event. God, the father declared an event
in the covenant and God, the son declared an event in the
covenant and God, the spirit declared an event in the covenant.
God, the father declared election. I'll choose him. God, the son
declared redemption. I'll, I'll pay for him. I'll
buy him back. God the Spirit declared regeneration. I'll quicken them back to life. To leave out any piece of that
covenant is to have an incomplete covenant. That covenant was made
between three. The three of them. If God delivers
to us an incomplete covenant, then that makes him to be a breaker
of his promise. Another word of saying that is
a liar. And God, God forbid, God is not a liar. God is true. And man, every man is a liar. We're about to read that. So
it's vital that every piece of his word is carried out. Think
about it this way, if God the Father chose who He was going
to save from the foundation of the world, if in His mind and
His heart and His will and His purpose, it was all finished
and ordered. If the Lamb was slain from the
foundation of the world, then what difference does it make
or what difference did it make that Christ come 2,000 years
ago and die on that cross? who had made every difference
in the world. Had he not come and performed his portion of
the covenant, we'd have an incomplete covenant. We cannot start with
the work of the Father and stop before we get to the work of
the Son. And we cannot go to the work of the Son and stop
before we get to the work of the Spirit. If we do, we have
an incomplete covenant. So the Spirit has promised to
give life again to God's people through the declaration of the
Oracles of God, the Word of God. And it's a life and death difference.
What difference does it make? It makes all the difference,
much every way, all the difference in the world. Now Paul continues
with these argumentative questions through verse 8. Let's go on
down to verse 3. It says, For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? God said He chose the Jews. He
said He chose Israel. And Christ died as the King of
the Jews. That's what was written over
His cross. This is the King of the Jews.
God sent His Word and His Laws and His Ordinances to the Jews.
The Spirit is the one who applies it to the heart. So He said,
what if some don't believe? What if the Father chose and the Son redeemed and the
Spirit brings the Word of Truth but some don't believe? Does
that mean that God was insufficient to save? Verse four, God forbid. Yay. Let God be true, but every
man a liar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in
thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged. He's quoting
Psalm 51 verse four. If you're familiar with Psalm
51, that is that's included in one of my 150 favorite Psalms. But in Psalm 51, David is crying
out to God and he says, against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight. I acknowledge I'm a sinner. That's what God's people do.
While most people are trying to hide that fact, oh no, I'm
not a sinner. God's people are all trying to
tell everybody, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner before
God. I acknowledge what I've done
in the flesh. I acknowledge what goes on in this brain. I acknowledge
what goes on in his heart. And David said, I have sinned
against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in
thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest
and be clear when thou judges. What he's saying is whether you
choose to save me or damn me, it's your business. And if you
choose not to include me in your covenant, you are justified and
you are right in doing so because I'm a sinner against you. That's
what I am. And therefore I'd be getting
exactly what I deserve. Is God unjust and unable to say,
God forbid, God forbid? Verse five, Paul puts forth this
argument. And this is an argument that
people are going to make when they hear the truth of the word.
This is what they're going to say. I'm going to paraphrase
it for you here and then we'll read it. Okay. All right. You say you're a sinner against
God. That's what you're saying. You're a sinner against God.
All right. Here's the question. Didn't he come to save sinners? Didn't he say that he did not
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? And all
are sinners? You're saying that all men are
sinners. You're saying I'm a sinner, you're
a sinner, everybody's a sinner. Well, didn't he come to save
sinners? Didn't he come to save sinners?
If he saves one for being a sinner, he said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, I came to call sinners. If he saves one for
being a sinner, and he doesn't save another for being a sinner, Does that make him unfair? Is
he, that sounds unfair. Is that unfair? Verse five. But
if our unrighteousness command the righteousness of God, what
shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh
vengeance? And then in parentheses, he said,
now I'm speaking as a man. I'm putting forth this argument
that natural man is going to put forth. If He came to save
sinners and all of us are sinners, is it unfair if He doesn't save
all of us? Well, you can't do that. Verse six, Paul said, God forbid. God forbid. For then how shall
God judge the world? Nothing is unfair about salvation. Nothing. But if something was
unfair about it, it could only be the fact that Christ had to
bear our sin. He's the one who knew no sin.
He's the one who committed no sin. But He had to bear the guilt
and the shame and the judgment of our sin. A sinner who sees that cries,
God forbid. God forbid. Unfair? God forbid. What has God convinced your heart
of? Is God's sovereign election and
sovereign mercy and sovereign grace and sovereign right and
sovereign everything. Is that unfair? God forbid. Let God be true and let this
man right here be a liar. If any sinner is judged for his
sin, he is getting what's fair and right. Have you ever driven
in a train of cars on the interstate, 20 miles an hour above the speed
limit? And then a police officer come and pull one of you out
and pull you over and you think, he can't get me, we were all
doing this. What difference does that make?
You were sinning against the law. It doesn't matter if they
were. If any sinner is judged for his
sin, he is getting what is just and right and fair to him. And
that's what verses seven and eight are saying. Verse seven,
for if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie
unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather,
and now in the parentheses he says, as we be slanderously reported,
and as some affirm that we say, Let us do evil that good may
come. He said, we, God's people are
accused of preaching and believing that because Christ came to save
sinners, we can send all we want to. That's what we're accused
of. If Christ came to save the chief
of sinners, then let's send it up. Just go out there and just
send it up. Doesn't make a bit of difference
anyway. Paul said that's a slanderous
report on us. We do not preach that. We do
not believe that. And he said, any person who does,
the end of verse eight, their damnation is just. It's just if we just want to. We'll get what we will get what
we deserve. So what difference does it make? What profit is
there in the gospel, in preaching, hearing, believing the word much
every way? God has given us the ministry
and the oracles of God. What we do with it and how we
handle it matters. And this is how I want to finish
out our time in this Bible study. I want to apply this to us today in the ministry here, alright?
Does God have a particular people in Kingsport? Yes. Will He call all of those people
to a saving knowledge of Christ? Yes. Will one soul in Kingsport, Tennessee
that the Father chose before the foundation of the world be
lost? No. Will we be able to change or
alter or influence in any way who God included in His election? Will we be able to bring someone
to Christ that the father doesn't draw to Christ? No. Then what does it matter how
clearly the gospel is preached here? What does it matter? What does it matter that we're
holding all these services? What does it matter that we are
spending every dime we have on the TV broadcast and sermon audio
and everything else that we can do? What does it matter? What
does it matter that the gospel goes out to this city? What does it matter that we do
and give the best that we have to the cause of Christ and the
ministry of the gospel? Here's what it matters. He has
commanded us to do so. He told us to do so. He said,
I'm calling you to this task. We are servants of His ordained
means and order. We are ambassadors of His covenant. This is what He has put in our
hands to do, and we are to do it with all our might. He said,
go into all the world and preach the gospel because whoever I
give faith to, by my spirit through the preaching of my word shall
be saved, shall evidence the salvation that has been secured
for him. They'll evidence that through faith. So let me close
with this. I hope this will be an encouragement
to you. I hope this will be a help to you. When I was younger, I
was a believer. There was a point in my life
where the Lord opened my eyes to see Christ and see His work
and see His blood and see salvation in Him. And I was a believer,
but I did not know these things. I didn't know what the Apostle
Paul is saying right here. I did not know that effort in
the ministry mattered. I didn't know that. That was
a light bulb moment for me. I honestly thought, and I'm ashamed
to say this, but I'm going to be honest with you. I honestly
thought that going through the motions was good enough. That's
what I thought. I thought just, you know, minimum
effort is good enough. How much effort do we need to
put into coming to the services? How much effort do we need to
put into getting the gospel out? How much effort do we need to
put into our building? How nice should it be? Such on and so
forth. I thought that all of God's elect
are going to be saved anyway. And none of God's elect are going
to be lost anyway. So what difference does it make?
Here's what I didn't know. His covenant involved three members
of the Godhead. The Father's election is done. The Son's redemption is done. But the Spirit is still, one
by one, calling out God's people as they are born into the world
throughout the generations of time, quickening all of those
elected, redeemed sinners back to life. The work of salvation
is finished, ordered, sure, but that work is still being applied
to God's people. He has chosen to use the means
of the ministry of the gospel to bring that to pass. That's
what He has chosen to do. We have scriptures like the parable
of the talents. You may know that parable of
the talents. The Lord was illustrating to us in that parable, I want
you to be a good steward. I want you to work. I want you
to labor in the gifts that I give to you. Use them with all your
might. The apostle Paul said in all
of his letters, Press toward the mark. I used to read that
and think, why? He said, press toward the mark. Press, be diligent
in the high calling that God has given to us. The Lord specifically
told the Apostle Paul, He said, I want you to stay and labor
in Corinth because... Now why would it matter? He said, I want you to stay and
labor in Corinth because I have much people in this city. That's
what he said. So I hope this is clear. It's
not our effort that determines the outcome. It is God's outcome
that determines our effort. And when he gives much means,
when he gives much effort, if he gives a heart with much effort
in it, and if he opens the doors to much means, then we ought
to be hopeful that he has a people to call out. We ought to be hopeful
for his predetermined outcome. With all that being said, my
desire is that the Lord will give us a heart and a means to
preach this gospel as clearly. I want to preach it as clearly
and as loudly and as widely as we possibly can for this city's
sake. If He will open that door and
if He'll give us that determination, then I believe it means He has
a people out there. And I pray He'll give us a heart
that cries, with Paul, it matters. This matters much every way. It matters. Okay, you're dismissed.