Go to Romans chapter 3. Take a little break from Job. I've got to let it sink in. I've
been looking at chapter 3 of Job. He curses the day he was
born. I thought, my, how painful must
it be for a man Cursed the day he was born, blotted out, not
even put on the calendar. And I've read that. I couldn't
tell you how many times I've read that. And I thought, I've
got to let this sink in. I'm just going to take some time.
Sometimes I've learned this. If you really don't have a hold
of it, let it go. Let it go. Get a hold of something
that you do have a handle on. But anyway, we'll come back to
Job as soon as I feel like I've might have something to say.
But here in Romans 3, I'm only going to look at verse 22, 23.
I titled the message, There Is No Difference. There is no difference. Paul says in verse 22, Even the
righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto
all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Now, we
know that all men and women are not alike in every way. We know that. Some are given
to open sin. It's debauchery. They are just given to fulfilling
the lust of the flesh while others are repulsed at the grosser sins
of the flesh to even mention them. They can't stand it. And some are very religious. Then there are some that are
kind and tender. I think of a man that I used
to do business with years ago, some years ago. The man did not
believe the gospel, did not even pretend to believe the gospel. He did not pretend to be anything.
But I tell you, that man was as kind and tender to me as anyone
has ever been. He treated me like I was his
son. We're the same age. He and I
are the same age, but he treated me like a son. And I think of
him. But he didn't believe the gospel.
Kind and tender, yet a sinner like others in need
of mercy. Do you remember the parable of
the sower? The sower went forth to sow. There was thorny ground. There was rocks, rocky ground. Then there was good ground. There
are different types of sinners, but all are sinners. All have sinned, it says, and
come short of the glory of God. All have forfeited. Every human
being that has ever lived or ever shall live has forfeited
their claim to God. Apart from Christ, I have no
right to Him. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. There is no other way to the
Father. And every human being has forfeited
their rights to God. We've all sinned. We've all come
short of God's glory. We've all sinned in Adam. We've
all sinned individually. We all have done that. And that
being the case, all must be saved the same way. There is no different
way of men and women being saved. There's no different way for
the African to be saved or the American to be saved. There's no different way. There's
only one. And that one way is Jesus Christ
himself. He's that way. And this is what I want to deal
with. There is no difference. There is no difference as to
the message we preach to all men. We do not change the message
in any way, shape, or form. It's the same message. If I were
invited to preach at the White House, to the President of the
United States of America, what message would I preach? If I
were invited to preach to a man who's been executed in the morning,
a serial killer, what message would I preach? I would preach
the same message to both of them. Both had the same needs. Both
have the same need. Both have sinned in God's sight. Now, listen, in God's sight,
there is no difference. Between that president, if he
does not believe the gospel, if he does not believe on Christ,
there is no difference between him. And a man is going to be
executed in the morning. Both, both are going to be in
the same hell. Sometimes I think of these judges,
they sit on a bench and they execute judgment every day. They
sentence men every day. Men who deserve it. Men who've
committed crimes. I mean, some are unspeakable
crimes. If that judge, sitting on that
bench, does not believe on Christ, he will be in the same hell he
condemns that man for. Where do you think the weeping
and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth come from? Unleashed
hatred. Unleashed hatred. There's no
difference. There's no difference to the
one who executes the judgment and the one who gets the judgment
if they believe not on Christ. With God there is no difference. That's what Paul's saying to
these Jews and us, Gentiles. There's no difference. There's
no difference between a Jew and a Gentile who believe not on
Christ. Both end up in the same place. They end up in the same place.
The message of salvation is the same to whomever I'm preaching. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved is the same to a president or a murderer. It's the same. My need of the
blood of Christ is the same as if the Lord was pleased to save
Charles Madison. It's the same. The only difference between me
and him is the grace of God. That's the only difference. There is no difference as to
a man's need of salvation. When it comes to need of salvation,
every man, every woman has the exact same need. The same need. The Pharisee or the sinner. Both have the same need. Both have the same need. Both
are sinners. Both are sinners when it comes down to it. Whether a man has one sin or many sins, his need of the
blood and righteousness of Christ is the same, no difference. If it were possible that I only
committed one sin, and, Frank, you committed millions
of sins, It still takes the same blood, the same righteousness,
the same obedience, the same Lord, the same Lamb of God to
save one as it does the other. It takes the same. It takes the same suffering.
I want you to get a hold of this. It takes the same suffering.
It takes the same death over one sin as it does many sins. It takes the same. A broken law
is a broken law. The word God says to offend in
one point of the law is to what? Is to break the whole law of
God. You're guilty of all of it. Guilty
of all of it. It takes the same blood and the
same righteousness to save Mary or Mary of Magdalene. Mary, who gives birth to our
Lord, by whose womb he used to come into this world, who was
a virgin, or Mary Magdalene, who was a prostitute and possessed. It takes the same blood. It takes
the same grace. It takes the same righteousness.
It takes the same power of God to save Mary, the wife of Joseph,
or Mary Magdalene. There's no difference. There
is no difference. There's no difference also to
how God saves sinners. There's no difference. Well, by grace are you saved. Whomever God saves, he will save
first by grace. It will be by grace from Alpha
to Omega. It will be by grace through faith.
It doesn't matter if it's the most moral person on this earth. If God saves him, it's going
to be by grace because he needs God's grace. And it's going to
be through faith in the blood and the righteousness, the person
of Jesus Christ. There is no difference as to
how God saves sin. Now, the experience may be a
little different. He may open someone's heart like he did Lydia. You know, when it says the Lord
opened her heart, it just seems like that was so gentle. It seems
like, I tell you, he handled her the way she needed to be
handled. God handles us the way we need to be handled. He sent
that Philippian jailer an earthquake. Paul on his road to Damascus,
he struck him down with a bright light and blinded him. For what? The experience of it may be different,
but the saving of a sinner is the same no matter if a man's
rich, poor, popular, unpopular, a murderer, or the most moral
person in town. It's the same. For by grace are
you saved through faith. And that's not of yourself. You
didn't come up with it. I didn't come up with it. It's the gift of God. It is the gift of God. But whether it's a Lydia, or a Philippian jailer, or a
eunuch, All are sinners and all are on
the road to hell unless God does something. Lydia, if God had
not opened her heart, if he had not sovereignly chose her, set
his love on her, extended his grace to her, if he had not done
that, she would have perished and been in the same hell with
that jailer. Yet the Lord hadn't saved him either. And with all
those in the prison But I know this, all have some
things in common. We may not have all the same
experience as far as the same level of experience. Some have
terrifying convictions and some don't have as terrifying convictions.
But we all have conviction. Conviction of sin. We all have
these, I'm going to give you some things we all have in common.
We all have a sense of being lost. Lost. Have you ever been lost? I mean lost. Undone. You knew. You knew if you perished, you
knew if you died, you were going to perish. Lost. Every one of them have a sense
from Lydia to the jailer and everybody in between. Everyone
has a real sense, a real sense because this is of the Holy Spirit.
This is His work. They all have a real sense of
being lost. And then they all hunger and
thirst after righteousness. They all read Matthew chapter
5. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. You have a real hunger. Now,
you all know, everyone in here knows what it is to be hungry.
You know what it is to have a craving for something. You know what
that is. Every one of His children, to a degree, I'm not going to
put some degree on everything and compare experiences. I'm
not going to do that. But every one of his children
have a hunger, a craving to be righteous. To be righteous before
God. And they know they don't have
it. And being taught of God, they
know the only place that it comes from. Christ. Christ. So if I hunger and I thirst after
righteousness, that means this, I hunger and I thirst after Jesus
Christ, who is my righteousness. My hunger and thirst is after
Him. Have you seen Him, whom my soul loveth? And then they have this, all
whom God saved, has a real sense of guilt. You don't blame anybody
anymore. Until this happens, you blame
it. I'm telling you, you and I, you and I blame everybody. I mean, we'll blame the environment,
we'll blame the parents, we'll blame the society, we'll blame
anything we can blame or anything, anyone we can blame. We do it. We do it. Until. Until that voice comes, like Nathan
said to David, Thou art a man. And then we make no more excuses.
Just read Psalm 51. David made no excuses. We all have a real sense of guilt. Guilty. You're right. We take, here's
what we do, we take sides with God against ourselves. Guilty. Then we have a real sense
of our need of Jesus Christ. Do you need him? Do I need him? Do I really know
and have a real sense of my need of Jesus Christ, His blood, His
righteousness, His intercession. I need Him. Someone told me once, this has
not been too awful long ago, they said to me, I'm going to
get back in church. Why? Why? That's not your problem. That's not, I was serious with
this person, that's not what you need. You don't need. I know what this person was saying
to me. I know what she's saying, but I would kind of tell her,
no, that's not what you need. You need him. Now, you might
you need to go where he's preached. This thing getting back and forth,
it's just an old Armenian thing. That's what that is. It's like
law say, law say. No, you need Him. You find Him. You lay hold of Him and these
things will take care of themselves. Everything else will work out. And then we all have this knowledge of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. We know our need of Him. We know
something about guilt. We know something about the hunger
for righteousness. We know something about the sense of being lost.
But we also know this, that Jesus Christ is enough. Jesus Christ is enough. I do
not need more than what I have in Him. I don't need more righteousness. There is none. I don't need more
blood. I don't need more of anything.
All that I need and you need is in Christ. The Scripture says
in Colossians, in Him you are complete. We are complete in Him. Now if you're complete, you don't
need to add anything to it, do you? No, you don't. Now, secondly,
there's no difference as to the effect of the gospel when it
comes in power. If you hear the word of God,
the gospel, in power, like Paul said to those Thessalonians,
you forsook your idols. You quit following your idols. Whatever they were, they quit
following them. And when you hear the gospel
in power, Jesus Christ becomes our idol. We idolize him. We
do. That's what you do when you worship
something. That's exactly what you do when you worship something.
You absolutely idolize it. When the gospel comes in power,
There's a death blow given to pride. David said, who am I and what
is my house? Do you feel that way? Do you
feel that way? Who am I that God would choose
me? Who am I that God would love me? Who am I? That's evidence. that the gospel
has come in power to you. Because you wouldn't say that.
You would not naturally say that. Men naturally think that the
Lord ought to come to their house. Men naturally think that God
ought to be impressed with them. God, I thank you. I'm not like
the other men. And he went on to say all that
he did. But then grace speaks. A man speaks who has heard the
gospel in power. God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's the power of the gospel. It gives a death blow to self-righteousness. That robe has got to come off. It has got to come off. God had to strip the Apostle
Paul completely down and bring him to the point where he counted
all things as loss. All things. Everything about us must be counted as done. Whatever
our abilities are, put it in the trash can. Just keep your
trash can close by. You'll empty it several times
a day if you use it properly. Your heritage, people are so
proud of their heritage. I saw on this program, this had
been some time ago, I don't think I even told you about it, but
this woman was engaged to be married. But they had a real
conflict, her and her fiancé. She did not want to change her
last name. I thought, son, does the sun
not shine where you live? I mean, if you're going to have
that kind of fight in the beginning, you better not You better not
go on with it. But they had a real fight over
her changing her last name. If she doesn't want your last
name, you find somebody that does. Honestly. You find somebody
that loves you enough, admires you enough to take your last
name. Heritage. Throw it in the trash
can. The Jews said, we are Abraham's seed. So, hell's full of Abraham's
seed. Natural. Really? Abraham's natural
seed, hell is full of it. Throw it in the trash can. It
means nothing to God. There is no difference. It means
no difference. It makes no difference to me,
to God. Your education? When it comes to salvation, you
just trash it. Trash it. You trash everything. You count everything as lost
for the excellency of the knowledge of what? Of who? Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter if you may
be a rocket scientist. That does not impress God. He's
the one who gives men the ability to figure these things out. Why was this world for all thousands
of years in such seemingly darkness and all of a sudden we started
figuring things out and inventing things and medicine and travel
and did we just all of a sudden come across a breed of smarter
people? No. God gave it. God gave it. It was time for it. And God gave
it. God gave men the intelligence of it. And that's why we have what we
have. God gave it. So crash it all. Everything's got to go. Everything
has to go. But also listen here. What an
encouragement This is to those who are in doubt. Would the Lord save me? Would He save me? Would He have anything to do
with me? You don't know my past. He said there's no difference.
For all have sinned. All have sinned. There's no difference. You can't say that God would
save this one because that person hasn't outwardly sinned so much. You know, it's a moral person
and I've been such a wretch. There's no difference. How encouraging
is that? God said there's no difference.
Before God, we're all the same. It's like the grave. It's like
the grave. Grave is a great leveler. Go
dig. Go to the cemetery. Those who
have been dead, whose bodies have been lying in that grave
for, let's say, 500 years, dig them up. Dig them up. Can you tell which one was pretty
and which one wasn't? Can you tell which one was educated and
which one wasn't? No. You look at them and see
no difference. No difference. And before God,
All men are the same, sinful, wretched, lost. And it's His
royal prerogative to save whom He will. And then there's no difference
as to the rejoicing in this truth among God's people. All safe centers rejoice in Christ
Jesus. We all rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We rejoice in his salvation,
in his mercy, in his blood, in his righteousness. We rejoice
in him. Go to Mexico. Go to Africa. Go to China. Wherever you find
a child of God, you'll find that child of God rejoicing in the
same Lord you rejoice in and rejoicing in the same salvation
you rejoice in. And you'll be able to sit down.
You may have to have an interpreter for this earthly language. But
I tell you what, that heavenly language will be the same. That
heavenly language will be the same. And you'll both rejoice
at the sound of the gospel. Both. And what good news this is to
all men and women. There is no difference. I could stand and preach this
message to the vilest person who walked
on this earth. and a king. And I can tell both of them the
same thing. Christ saved sinners. He came into the world to save
sinners. And that's good news. Not all men and women find it
good news. But some do. Son, this is great news. Best news you've ever heard and
ever will hear is the gospel. And what glory this gives to
Christ. He's the only Savior of sinners. Only Savior. We have a gospel
to preach and believe that makes no difference Between the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the religious
and the non-religious, there's no difference. No difference. All need Christ for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's no difference
as to how God justifies us in Christ. There's no difference
as to how he makes us righteous in Christ. There's no difference
as to his forgiveness of our sins in Christ. It's all through him. It's all through him. There's no difference. There is no difference. between the worst of sinners
and what we would call the most moral of sinners. There's no
difference. Not with God. You know, there
is in society, we have our cliques and we have all this junk in
society. We have these clubs and, you
know, you just have all this stuff in this world. You don't
have it in the world of God. You don't have it in His world.
Not in heaven. There's no difference. No class
rankings. I think that's good news to me.
That is good news. I'm reading this and looking
at this. I thought, man, this is the good news of the gospel.
I can crawl in here just like anybody else and listen to the gospel and
rejoice in it. That's good news. That's good
news.