If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to Romans chapter 10. And we'll continue with our observation
of the apostles' sad but necessary assessment of the nation of Israel
and their failure to receive the gospel as a whole. He explains
to us why. The title of our message today
is The Instrumentality of Preaching and Faith. encompass two subjects,
the preaching of the gospel and that faith that the Apostle has
been talking about that obtains the righteousness of God by which
a man or a woman stands before God, totally accepted in the
Beloved irrevocably and for all eternity. Paul has labored in
Romans chapter 10 to help us understand that the only Righteousness
that God looks at is that righteousness that comes out of faith And we
are working through the whole idea of what that means. What
does it mean to? Obtain that righteousness, which
is of faith the Apostle lays out for us in the book of Romans
that whole argument He told us last week that the children of
Israel made a fatal error in that they sought righteousness
not by faith but as it were the works of the law. And we looked
at that and we considered that at length because we understand
that that fatal flaw not only does it keep men from obtaining
salvation but it blinds them to the glory of God in the person
of Christ. And then at length a works religion
will move you towards a persecution of those who trust Christ by
faith. And I shared with you last week
the importance of knowing how that progression works because
we still live in a culture where Christians are persecuted. And
the believer must never think that simply because you live
in America in a Western setting where its historical foundation
has largely been a Judeo-Christian construct that we are not poised
for persecution. We are. And it's growing on so
many levels every day if you have ears to hear and eyes to
see. But what we learned last week
was that national Israel, as it went about to establish its
own righteousness, it would not submit to God's righteousness.
When we think that through, what we are learning is that God spends
considerable time exposing us to his righteousness. He spends
a lengthy amount of energy letting us know how salvation is really
obtained. I've said this a couple weeks
ago. God is not in the plane hide and seek, but rather seek
and you shall find. And that being the case, how
is it that a whole people group from the days of Abraham to the
present hour, with the exception of a remnant saved by grace,
would miss the gospel? So you and I have to ask the
question, do we see the glory of God in Christ? Do we recognize
Christ as being the total means of the redemption of our souls
by faith apart from works? Do we rely totally upon Jesus
Christ as our only grounds for salvation? Or are we dependent
upon something else? Are we trusting in our good works?
Our church attendance, our Bible reading, our prayer, all those
good things, our moment of salvation, our receiving Jesus, or the gifts
of the Spirit, or church allegiance. There are a myriad of things
by which professing Christians will rely upon other than the
total sufficiency of the work of Jesus Christ as the grounds
of their salvation. Pastor, how do I know? As we
stated, there are going to be three things that are evident
when you do not know the grace of God. You will not see Jesus
Christ as the glory of God. You will be going about to establish
your own righteousness by something you do. And those who do preach
the gospel, you will not like them. This is how you know you
are in danger of not having the gospel. There are no two ways
about actually being saved. The grace of God excludes all
human boasting as the grounds of your salvation. And so as
Paul labored with the Roman church and largely his Jewish brethren,
he left us last time, if you recall, he left us last time
dealing with the subject of the word of God being near them,
even in their mouth, even the word of faith, which we preach,
verse eight. But what saith it? The word is
what? Near you. Even in your mouth
and in your heart that is the word of faith, which we preach
and what he was doing was allowing Moses He was allowing Moses to
speak through him During that time as we learned last week
when the whole nation of Israel were brought to the shores of
Jordan Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 11 if you will I want to
walk you through this to show you how Paul under inspiration
of the Spirit and taking Moses's words and showing the Israel
in that Roman culture of his day that they're in the same
place as the Jews were who were at the Jordan River ready to
cross over into the promise but had not yet and Paul using his
word says in verse 11 for this commandment which I command thee
this day it is not hidden from you see it It's not hidden from
you, neither is it a far off. You see how Paul and Moses are
saying the same thing? It's not hidden from you, that
is God doesn't play hide and seek. It's not so far off that
you get to argue, well, who's going to obtain righteousness
for us? Paul already told us in Romans 10, Christ already
did it, didn't he? Christ has already accomplished
eternal redemption for us. And then listen to the way they
continue to develop it. In verse 12, it says, it is not
in heaven, that thou shouldest say who shall go up for us to
heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it you
understand the argument the righteousness of God by which a man or woman
is made accepted with God is so far away somebody has to go
to heaven to bring it down and what Paul says and what I say
and what every person who knows the gospel says God brought it
down to us and he brought it down to us in the person of Christ
we never raised the question where is God's righteousness
it's in Christ And He has brought it near to us. He has not hidden
Christ from us. He has brought Him and made Him
visible. He didn't do this thing in a
corner. Neither was He hid in this ministry. From the day of
Him being conceived in His mother's womb, the world knew about it.
Till the day He rose again and went to glory, the world knew
about our Savior. Is that right? It has been brought
near to us. Notice verse 13. neither is it
beyond the sea that thou shouldest say who shall go over the seas
for us in that day culturally the idea of the seas was such
a massive journey such a harrowing journey that it was almost impossible
to cross the seas to get it can you see the argument of the jews
here's what they're saying they're at the brink of jordan they're
about to cross over And Moses is telling them and Joshua too,
that they should believe God and cross that Jordan and enter
into the promise of God. But they're arguing, but, but,
but, and this is the same argument that the Jews are making at the
present time in Paul's gospel in Romans 10. And Paul is saying
they are making this argument because they do not believe God's
testimony concerning his son, Jesus Christ. And while as yet
we don't see the sufficiency and the finality of the cross
work in Jesus Christ, you and I are reaching for a righteousness
we can never get. We are trying to cross a sea
that's way too far to cross. And we are seeking by our own
good works, a righteousness that is futile for us to achieve. But can you see how God is urging
them on here? Verse 14 is our point of passage. But the word is very nigh unto
you, do you see it? Very nigh unto you in your mouth
and in your heart that you may do it now ladies and gentlemen.
This is actually a rebuke Because to whom is moses talking he's
talking to the children of israel who's been in the wilderness
under god's provision for 40 years They've heard the word. They've seen the word. They've
seen the types. They've seen the shadow. They've seen the
blood They're right at the brink of jordan to cross over And this
same urging that moses is doing in deuteronomy 30 is the urging
that paul is doing In the book of Romans, he's urging them to
cross over. They have no reason not to, right? The apostle Paul told us last
time, redemption is accomplished in Jesus Christ. It's available
to all under the preaching of the gospel, and it is applied
by the spirit of the living God. But it's only available to you,
child of God, through faith, not by the works of the law.
not by the works of the law. And this is what makes this next
consideration so critical. How did national Israel cross
over? They crossed over by God laying
out a pattern of the priest going before them into the River Jordan. Remember that? Moses told Joshua,
or rather God told Joshua to tell the people to sanctify themselves.
And you guys wait. until the priests go into the
Jordan first. That's Joshua chapter 3 by the
way. And the priests were to go in and they were to stand
in the middle of that river. And Israel was to watch as the
ark stood in the middle of that River Jordan. And what did the
waters of that River Jordan do? They dried up. And as they dried
up, God told the people through Joshua, cross over. And as you
cross over, remember, the only reason you are coming out of
the wilderness into the promised land is because of the Ark of
the Covenant, which represents Christ crucified. Your propitiation,
my redemption, went before us into the River Jordan and swallowed
up death. and made a way out of no way,
so that the way we cross over into the promised land is by
faith, looking to Jesus Christ, who is the author and finisher
of our faith. Is that true? And this is where
Paul is in our text. Let's go back to Romans chapter
10 and work with him then, because he sees the same thing I do in
this regard. Under our first point then, the
instrumentality of preaching and faith. We agree with Paul,
don't we? That redemption is accomplished.
It's accomplished. There's three things under that
sub point we want to see as we look at verses four through seven.
One is the impossible task of redemption is finally accomplished. This is the good news of the
gospel at its heart. When you share the gospel with
people, what are you telling men and women? Smile. God has
a wonderful plan for your life. What is that? That is nothing
until you deal with their real need, which is what? Sin. And then you tell them that God
has remedied the sin problem by a savior on the outside of
themselves, who gave himself a ransom for many, who accomplished
eternal redemption for us. Now that's good news, isn't it?
that someone loved us before we even knew them and died to
redeem our hell-bound souls. And the news you and I are hearing
now is it is what? Finished? That's Hebrews chapter
9 verses 14 and 15 where we are plainly told that Christ has
entered into the holy place once and for all having accomplished
eternal redemption for us. That's what you are sharing with
sinners. that the once-for-all atoning work of Christ has made
the question, who shall go to heaven, moot for us? Who shall
cross the sea, moot for us? The only thing that's left now
is whether or not you will believe that Christ died, Christ rose,
and Christ ascended on high. You see the logic here and the
argument of what we call the good news of the gospel? Second
point, not only did he accomplish an impossible task all by himself,
but God in Christ honored God's what? Right, so this is another
category of biblical truth relative to the gospel that we're not
clear on. Grace never sets aside God's
law. Grace never sets aside God's
law. In our world, it's very hard
today to hold two thoughts at one time. We think if we're going
to hold on to grace, we've got to get rid of law. Or if we're
going to hold on to the faith of God, we've got to get rid
of good works. No, they are held in tandem. What do we mean by
that? It's true that you and I have
never ever one time in all of our life collectively done any
good thing. Now that's true. You and I have
never ever one time in ourselves done one good thing. Is the record
in? Is the account in? Is the Bible clear? There's none
good, no not one. Right, so if you rise up and
say you're good, you better tell people you're God also because
only God is good. Am I telling the truth? So let's
get our gospel right. And the reason we're not good
is because we're not righteous. But we learned last week that
there was one who walked this earth who was holy and harmless
and undefiled, separate from sinners. He was born without
sin. He lived without sin. He did
no sin. He knew no sin. And he asked
anyone, if you can prove to me that I'm a sinner, show it, bring
it. And his father raised him from the dead because he did
no sin. In fact, here's how Isaiah puts
it in Isaiah chapter 42 verse 21. I love these words. Isaiah
said that Jesus would magnify the law, magnify the law, magnify
the law, and make it what? Honorable, do you see the text?
Something for you to memorize because as we're teaching our
men and our women who want to learn how to deal with people
who don't understand the gospel, one of the things you have to
be able to demonstrate to people is that the work of Christ's
redemption on Calvary excludes every other human being from
even the possibility of doing that which is right before God
by their own strength. And we demonstrate that Christ
not only put away our sins as a sacrifice for us, but he perfectly
obeyed God's law and God honored him. Did God honor him? Highly
exalted him and has given him a name above every name that
at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow. Every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Why? Because he obeyed all of
God's law. He was the only one that made
it honorable. We love to say that, don't we? We love to tell
men and women, no one but Jesus did the right thing. Now here's
the uncomfortable thing about the gospel as you and I are talking
about it. If there is a smidgen, if there's a small measure of
self-righteousness in us, this gospel rebukes us. If there's
a sense that you have begun to weave your own garments of self-righteousness,
the fire of the gospel is burning your garment up right now. Because
no flesh will glory in God's sight when it comes to the true
gospel. The true gospel is designed to demolish all human boasting. And this is what we get out of
our second point. He magnified God's law and he made God's law
honorable. And finally, it's accomplished,
it's available, and it's applied. Do you see that under your third
set point? It's accomplished, available, and applied. What
do we mean by that? Now we're getting ready to get into what we call the instrumentality
of preaching. Once Christ rose again from the
dead, He commanded His disciples to go into all the world and
do what? Preach the gospel. Because that would be the means
that God would use to bring people near and plant faith and cause
them to see the glory of God. So redemption was accomplished
and redemption now is available Not only is it available, but
it's applied. Some people believe the gospel.
Do you believe the gospel today? Then that gospel is applied to
your soul. So when we read Colossians chapter 1 verse 3 through 6,
let's use that as an example. In the first century, what we
discover is that The Colossian Church became a model of the
impact of the gospel in the life of the early church. And here's
what it says in verse 3 of Colossians. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since
we heard of your faith in Jesus and of the love that you have
towards all the saints and for the hope which is laid up for
you. Where? So you see in verses 4 and 5 what we call the holy
triad, faith, love, and hope. Do you see that? Those are hallmarks
of every believer's life. If you call yourself having faith
in God, then you love the saints and you have hope for glory.
Isn't that what Paul said? Now these three abide, faith,
hope, and what? Love. And the greatest of these
is what? Love. And that's the evidence of true
salvation, that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and all
of its implications, that you love those who love Christ, and
that you have hope for glory. I love that last category because
when I meet people who have a deficient gospel, and that is they're trusting
Jesus, And they may even have a vital horizontal ethic of loving
people, but they have a weak understanding of the hope for
glory. I'm meeting carnal people. Can I tell you why? Because when
your hope for glory is diminished, you're putting all of your desires
and passions on things on the earth. And when you do that,
you're going to actually diminish your qualitative relationship
with God, because God's preparing you for heaven. And if in fact
he's preparing you for heaven that he's equipping you for service
down here to help others get to heaven But if you and I have
a diminished hope in the glory of God, we're spending a lot
of time down here wasting time Am I making some sense? This
is very true See and that you want to you want to know how
you know, you're doing the right thing Point people to glory and
watch how you get persecuted and then thank God for it because
that's going to be an evidence that you have left off with a
carnal Christianity that just wants yours now. See, everybody
in the world can get with that and they'll come to church with
you as long as your God can give them things. But when your God
is telling you to look to heaven and look to glory and ultimately
look to his return, then he's telling you to think like Father
thinks. Is he doing that? Think like Father thinks. In
other words, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all of its
righteousness, and everything else will be added. And when
you pray, you pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be
your name. Thy kingdom come. Not my kingdom come. Thy kingdom
come. And when you pray that way, you
are demonstrating that you are casting all your treasures in
heaven. So you are serving God down here,
abiding your time. And that disturbs people. That disturbs. Can I tell you
why? Because you're all on the same train. We're all on the
same train. We're all riding the same train.
But we are suggesting to these people that there's an exit strategy
off of this train, because this train is headed to hell. And
when we start pulling on that ringer to get off the exit, that
exit is called faith in Christ, which leads to glory. They get
shaken up about that. But I'm getting off before I
go to hell. How about you? I'm getting off.
So and there is an exit strategy and that's called faith in Christ.
And it comes through the preaching of the gospel. And this is why
people of the world who they don't understand why we love
preaching because we love being shown the exit. I like to be
reminded from time to time the door to heaven and that door
to heaven is Christ. And that's what we are dealing
with. And so, yes, it's accomplished, available, and applied. And listen
to what he says in verse 6. Verse 5 says, For the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel. You see that? You heard about
the hope laid up for you in heaven, right? The hope laid up for you,
not in your bank account in heaven. Wherefore, whereof we've heard
before in the word of the gospel, the truth of the gospel, watch
this now, which is come unto you as it is in all the world,
not the full world, but the known world, that world we're dealing
with in church history, and brings forth what? As it also doth in
you since the day you heard it and knew the grace of God in
truth. Paul was saying that the Colossian church had been impacted
by this gospel. Point number two, let's deal
with this now. That word that we're talking about, which is
the good news of the gospel, has been brought near in order
for us to do what? Hear it! This is where Paul is
going. The gospel has been brought near
to hear it. It was prophesied in the Old
Testament. That's my argument. The gospel
was prophesied in the Old Testament, and then it's prophesied in the
New Testament, and it's prophesied today. Is that true? So, we also
tell people that when you make a biblical distinction between
the Old Testament and the New Testament, never fail to understand
the gospel is the same whether Abraham heard it, whether Adam
heard it, whether Noah heard it, or whether you and I hear
it. It's the same gospel. The same message of salvation
by redemption through the substitutionary atonement of another was preached
in the Old Testament. Can we affirm that? Sure we can. Our very text tells us in Romans
chapter 10, verse 16, verse 14, verse 16 rather, this, but they
have not all obeyed the what? That means that they heard it,
didn't they? How do we know they heard it? Because Galatians chapter
three tells us that the gospel was preached to Abraham as well,
right? The gospel was preached to Abraham,
the father of the faith. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 and
2 tells us that the nation of Israel heard the gospel, but
because it wasn't mixed with faith in them that heard it,
they didn't enter into the promise. What are you saying, pastor?
The gospel message has always been the same from Genesis to
Revelation. It's always been the same. And
God has always made it available the same way, by faith. He has
never told any one of us to personally try to obtain salvation by our
own good works. He has laid out the law. He's
placed it before us to tell us that it is the standard. But
that was only designed for us to discover that we cannot keep
it. And so Israel becomes a perfect
model of a whole nation to whom all of God's law was given and
they never kept his law, did they? Jesus said that Paul said
that and the totality of the scripture testimony is that they
couldn't keep it They couldn't keep it, but God was saying you
don't have to keep it in the sense of righteousness All you
have to do is believe me Didn't God keep those knuckleheads? from Egypt to the shore of Jordan
didn't he keep them when they're rebellion rebelling all the time
aren't you amazed at how rebellious they were and Aren't you amazed
at that? I mean, don't you scratch your
head and say, why on earth, Lord, would you even put up with all
those people? I'd have been wiped them out
like you wouldn't have did what they did if you were there. But
God lets us see that to demonstrate the magnitude of his mercy to
rebel sinners like you and me. then to shut us up to what I
consider according to David's words in Psalm 119 a gracious
presentation of his law and what is that faith in Christ as the
one who actually did what you should have did but didn't do
now that's a good law because that's an imperative believing
the gospel is not an option it's not an offer it's a command are
you guys hearing me it's not an offer It's a command! And so it was prophesied in the
old, it was commanded by Christ, go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel, and it is the work of the what? Preacher! Or preaching, as we read in 2
Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 and 2. Mark, how Paul tells Timothy
what should be done, most of all, and of most importance in
the life of the preacher. I charge you therefore before
God in the Lord Jesus who shall judge the quick and the dead
at his appearing and his kingdom. What is Paul doing? He's laying
upon Timothy's conscious that Jesus is coming. He's gonna bring
his kingdom and this heralder, this heralder called Timothy
will have to answer to the king as to whether or not he heralded
the gospel. Look at verse 2. Look at verse
2. Here it is. Preach the what? Word. Now this is an imperative
of the highest order. And it's really a word that Paul
is telling Timothy to continue to do. It's in the present continuous
verb form. In other words, Timothy was already
preaching the word. We know this from chapter 3 around
verse 14. Continuing those things that
you've already heard, that your parents taught you. Continuing
the Word. But this Word is preached to help Timothy understand that
he is to continue preaching the Word. Why? Because we are all
susceptible to starting and not finishing. We have lots of churches
that don't preach the Word. So what happened? They ran, but
they didn't finish. What he's telling Timothy, continue
preaching until your time is up. And the man that's telling
him to do this is a man that's about to be killed by the Nero
we're going to talk about next month. He's about to have his
head cut off and he's telling Timothy, Timothy I'm done brother.
But you need to keep preaching this gospel because this gospel
is the only thing by which people are to be saved Aren't you glad
that God sustains people to preach the gospel preach the gospel
preach the gospel preach the gospel Aren't you glad about
that? You ought to because faith comes only by it now Here's the
characteristic of the preaching that we don't like he told Timothy
to preach the gospel in season and out of season when they like
it and when they don't like it. That cannot be a criterion of
what you preach and when you preach. Whether people like it
or not, you cannot determine or shape or tailor your preaching
as to whether or not they're going to receive it or like it
or accept you or approve. That is completely beside the
point. When you are what we call a heralder, a karuso is the Greek
term, the kerygma of the preaching, you have a message from the king. and you simply summon the whole
of the kingdom together and you declare the message to them.
Now the people of the kingdom might take you and tag you in
50 pieces like church history proves, but your job was to tell
them what the king said. And that's what preaching is
all about. So if we are executing our job properly in the church,
when you come in, watch this, some days you're gonna be reproved.
Do you see it? And you can blame it on me, but
I'm going to tell you there's another person behind me that's really
doing the talking. And some days you're going to
be rebuked. And I go ditto to that too. And
then at other days, there's going to be great exhortation, which
is the general parlance that we have where we call people
to trust Christ. And those of us who preach do
it with all long suffering. Do you understand that? That
term, all long-suffering, I've told our guys in our exegesis
class, is the term that describes the character of God, because
God is long-suffering, isn't He? And He's long-suffering toward
usward that not any of us should what? Perish. But that all of
us shall come to repentance and therefore salvation. And so the
preacher must be long-suffering as he preaches the Gospel. Never
stop preaching the Word. And it's because it's through
the Word of God that the gospel is made known. You can't make
the gospel known apart from the Word of God. This here would
be 1 Peter 1, verse 25. Look at it with me. I just want
you to see this. So I want to make sure that I nail this down as
we deal with our final points. What are we dealing with today?
The idea that the preaching of the gospel is critical to our
faith. It's critical to our faith. And so we read in 1 Peter 1,
verse 24 and 25. Listen to these words. And I'm
going to ask you to start at verse 23. Being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. What an analogy. My wife is teaching
Sunday school now as she is the head of the children's ministry
three to five and she's teaching the parable of the sower and
the seed And what is she teaching them that god employs his word
and sows it into the hearts of little children With the hope
that the holy spirit would come and cause that word to bear fruit
in their life So that they grow up believing the gospel This
is why we teach. This is why we preach. This is
why we explain the word. This is why we pray. This is
why we continue doing what we do so that men and women might
come to a saving knowledge of God. He calls it what kind of
seed? Incorruptible. Incorruptible seed. Listen to
it. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible
by the word of God, which lives and abides forever for all flesh
is as what? And all the glory of man is the
flower of the grass. The grass withered, and the flower
faded away. Commentary. You and I are going
to die. We're out of here one day. I
don't want to make waste the rest of my message on this, but
I am going to actually deal with this for a moment. Because it's
important for you to know, because I'm discovering this as I get
older, people have a hard time with change. Yeah, you do. You have a hard time with change.
You have a hard time with someone sitting in your seat at church.
See, I know you didn't think I was going to go there, but
I'm going to start right there. You have a hard time. You have a
hard time because you expected to be there when you got there
and somebody else dared sat in your seat. And that means you've
got to move over a little bit. When you struggle like that,
when you struggle like that, You're getting old. And there are many things with
which you and I have to reckon with that are changes in our
life. The winds are blowing all the
time. Change is inevitable. Change
is necessary. Change is coming whether you
like it or not. You can pray, Lord, don't change,
don't change, but God has to change this world like a worn
out garment. Shall you change them and they
shall be changed. And that means our bodies are
wearing down and our mind is wearing down and our tolerance
level is wearing down. Yes. but you must not allow those
deficiencies to get in the way of the gospel. If there's going
to be one thing about your old raggedy body that's falling apart,
Jesus, preserve my mind, preserve my faith, preserve my heart. So even if I am sitting two seats
over from where I'm used to, I'm not so distracted that I
can't worship you. I'm amazed at how people are
so shaken up by change. The Bible is so very clear this
world is passing away and the lust thereof and the fashion
thereof is wasting away. Your job in mind is to be able
to negotiate the constant change of this world by sowing into
it the unchanging truths of God's Word and the reality of Christ. That's our job. Our rudder and
our paddle to get us through the topsy-turvy waves that toss
us to and fro is the gospel of the grace of God. It's the thing
that keeps us on course and heads us to glory. Throw your oar away. Get rid of your rudder and watch
you find yourself on the rocks and the reefs, all tore up, thinking
you can get the glory just by how you feel. And I'm gonna let
you know now, saints, the church is not heaven. The church is
not heaven. The church is many wonderful
things, but it's not heaven. The church, by and large, is
a transitional entity that is combined between those who are
born again and those who are not. Those who are of the kingdom
of God and those who are not. And we are dealing with the struggle
of transformation every day, just as you are in your fallen
nature. So don't pretend that you all
that. when in fact all you are is what
we are, sinners saved by grace, simultaneously struggling with
your righteous gift in Christ and your sinful nature. Am I
making some sense? And get on with the business
of making your way through this world looking to Jesus, who is
the author and finisher of our faith. That's your job and mine,
because we're fading away. There's a day when you're done,
I'm going to bury you. There's a day when I'm done,
you're gonna bury me. But I guarantee you until Jesus
comes again, he's gonna have preachers preaching the gospel
of his glory until all of God's elect are brought into the kingdom
of God. Just like that. Just like that. Just like that. Just like that. And so we see it then in verse
25, these words, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the word by which the what is preached. The gospel
is preached unto you. This book is the word by which
we preach the gospel. So make a distinction between
the gospel and the word, because you can go to folks church and
they can give you a word, but it's not a gospel word. Please
understand that the gospel is the person and work of Jesus
Christ. And unless you understand the
gospel, you can be hoodwinked and deceived. even in the book,
even in the book. So the word has been brought
near to you. We're dealing with that. It was prophesied in the
Old Testament. It was commanded by Christ. It is the work of
the preacher. Colossians chapter one, verse
27 and 28. Let me quickly show you the importance
of gospel preaching at length. Here, the apostle Paul lays out
his terminus objective with regards to the preaching of the gospel.
How that for him, the preaching of the gospel terminates in the
maturing of the saints and their ultimate salvation. I'm in verse
27 and 28 of Colossians chapter one. Are you there? To whom God
would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,
something Paul loved to talk about. To the Gentiles, that's
me. Christ in you, that's Christ
in me. He is for me the hope of glory. You got it? My hope
is not in me, my hope is in Christ. And if my hope is in Christ,
my hope is in the glory of God, which is in Christ. How did it
come to me? Verse 28. Whom we what? Now watch it, ladies and gentlemen.
Technically, biblical preaching is only about a person. Technically, Biblical preaching
is about a person. Do you see that pronoun whom
it didn't say what? It said whom and this makes a
radical distinction to of what you hear when you go to church
Do you largely hear a what or a who Did you get what I just
stated are the preachers and teachers that teach you the doctrines
of the Bible summing up every doctrine in the Bible in a person? Or are they leaving those doctrines
segregated and separated so as to force upon you to do? For
when once they do that, you are stuck again in legalism and works
religion. For while you and I are called
to love with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, our
neighbor as ourself, and called to be patient, and called to
be kind, and called to good works, and all of these other wonderful
things, and called to be holy, and called to be sanctified,
and called to grow, and called to bear fruit, we must see the
totality of all those calls summed up in our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Find our comfort in the fact,
Lord, I'm so glad you did it for me. and then say to him,
Lord, do it through me. Only for him to get glory, not
for me to get righteousness with God. Did you guys get that? But
you can't even appeal to God that way until you are constantly
under a diet where the gospel is preached. And remember what
the gospel is, the person and work of Jesus. So if you're a
mature worshiper, when you come to church, you are coming to
listen to a person proclaimed and declared. Is that true? And then obedience to that person
as an affirmation that we are Christians. Be very clear to
know that. And so here's what he says, whom
we preach Warning every man and what teaching every man again. I love this. The warning is there.
What are we warning? There is no other name given
among men under heaven by which you must be saved but the name
of Jesus Christ We are warning that there's only one way to
glory. I am the way the truth and the life No one comes unto
the father but by me every other way our ways of thieves and robbers
Unfortunately God's elect will not hear them But they're warning
you, warning you, keep your eyes on Christ. Examine your heart. Is he the one that has the key
to the door of your heart? Or do you have many other lovers?
Are you hearing what I'm saying? And so we are warned to make
sure that our love for Christ is absolute. And then we are
taught the gospel, aren't we? wall onto the church in the 21st
century, where we have all of the resources that we do, and
its members are not being taught the word of God. I mean, seriously
taught. I mean, seriously taught. I mean,
comprehensively taught. I mean, deeply God-aided, spirit-aided,
Bible-aided taught, so that you know your Bible, and know your
God, and know your gospel, and know the truth. It is a shame
how ignorant Christians are today of the Word of God. But we put
that on the teachers, don't we? Because the teachers ought to
be passionate enough and willing enough and capable enough of
teaching whosoever will come to learn of him. Is that right?
Learn of me, says Christ, for my yoke is easy and my burden
is light and you will find rest to your souls But only the lazy
soul will perish in hell. The lazy soul will perish in
hell. It's the slothful soul that will
be under tribute. The diligent soul shall rule.
And that is because we know the gospel. We'll know whose we are
and what he did for us. And our faith will be rooted
in that reality. And we can rest being assured that I'm ready
for glory. But all God's disciples, all God's sheep are disciples.
Do you understand that? We must be taught. Not just preach to, taught. And there are distinct categories
there. All preaching is teaching, but all teaching is not preaching.
You know, some people, they can't listen to you unless you're hooping
and hollering. That's a spiritual disease. That's
a spiritual malady. Because they want you to bypass
their intellect and cognitive thinking skills, critical thinking
skills, and just move them in their belly. But we call that
paganism. And what is paganism? When you
are driven by your passion and rather than principle. And principle
requires you to think it through. I love shouting and jumping and
hollering and running after you tell me the truth about Jesus. You are deceived. Well, all you
want the preacher to do is crank you up in your back, get you
jumping. You are deceived, deceived, deceived. And he's worse deceived. He's
worse deceived because God told Peter, as well as the rest of
the disciples, feed my sheep. And feeding is teaching. the
word of God. And so he says in Colossians
chapter 1 verse 28, whom we preach warning every man and teaching
every man in all wisdom that we may present every man what?
Perfect in Christ. It's no such thing as being imperfect
in Christ. The point is, is to teach comprehensively
enough that men and women come to a saving knowledge of God
and they are clear on what the gospel is. If someone were to
come to you and ask you the question, what is the gospel? Would you
actually be able to tell them in a way that goes beyond these
patent words you use in religion? Would you be able to demonstrate
from the word of God that the gospel is always and only the
person and work of Jesus Christ? And then be able to explain who
that person is and what that work is? Are you hearing what
I'm saying? Until you can explain his person,
Until you can explain his work, you don't know how to explain
the gospel. This is why we're also doing
church history, to show how the men labored to explain the nature
of the persons of the Godhead and the gospel that they accomplished
in our behalf. Because your job is to tell men
and women about Jesus. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is what's so important about our text. Let's go on back
to our third point, then work this through. So the word has
been brought near for us to do what? Hear, hear. And our next point, so very critical
to this. Preaching is the instrumental
means of our salvation. Do you guys see that? Is that
in your outline? good now I want you to understand
what I'm about to say here and we get this in Romans chapter
10 verse 14 through 17 how then shall they call on him of whom
they have not what and how shall they believe in him of whom they
have not what and how shall they hear without a preacher this
is what we call Three interrogatives, actually four interrogatives.
The how here is investigating the premise upon which verse
13 has its merits. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Here comes the interrogative
four times. How? How? How? How? Do you hear it? How shall
it be that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved? Because if they never hear the
gospel, if it's never preached, and if he's never sent, they
can't call on him. Are you guys hearing me? So now
this moves us into another controversial aspect of church history around
the means of grace by which God saves people. And you hear people
using all kinds of crazy stories about how they got saved outside
of the preaching of the gospel. Nonsense. The Bible is very clear
that God uses a means by which we're saved. I was saved by the
gospel. How about you? I was saved because
someone preached the gospel to me. And I believe if you're saved
it was you're saved because someone preached the gospel to you, too
It happens no other way and therefore gospel preaching is very very
important not to do an exegetical development of this verse but
to underscore our third point preaching is instrumental to
the means of our salvation And this text that is given to us
as a premise for this investigation in verse 13 comes out of joel
chapter 2 verse 32 Don't go there. But joel says the same thing
In that day, after the Lord has accomplished his redemption,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
It's a beautiful statement of the universal proclamation of
the gospel all around the world. Again, this was a struggle for
the Jews that God would be so, so magnanimous and so broad and
so copious in his love for sinners that he would have the gospel
preached everywhere, high and low to all here and there. that
if any would hear, they would come. But will you notice that
what Paul does not do? He does not get into the ancillary
arguments of can folks be saved without hearing the gospel? Or
what about the people who never heard the gospel? Those are all
questions in and of themselves. But you notice he didn't go there,
right? He honed in on the instrumentality by which people are saved. See, that's called a disciplined
mind. You know what an undisciplined mind is? An undisciplined mind
is the mind that thinks crazy thoughts that don't have nothing
to do with the subject at hand. We'll get back to Luther in a
couple, two or three weeks, and one of Luther's students came
to him and said, now Luther, You talk about the will of God
and the will of man and the bondage of the will of man and the sovereignty
of the will of God, like the will of God is everything. What
was God doing before he did his will? And Luther said he was
throwing people in the hell who ask silly questions like you.
Right, so I advise you not to. See, I like Luther. You may not
like Luther, but I like Luther. And what Luther was helping that
young brother understand is what I taught in our Will of God series. There are not only stupid questions,
there are dangerous questions. And people who are not fearing
of God will sometimes ask dangerous questions. And our Heavenly Father
will say to you, the secret things belong unto the Lord. but the
things he has revealed unto us are for us and our children that
we should do them. Y'all got that? There are things
that you just don't ask and when they come into your mind, rebuke
them because they're not worth asking. And so when we are considering
our text, there are several things I want you to consider. First,
Preaching is instrumental means of salvation that is bringing
people to a saving knowledge of God in Christ and therefore
a real salvation that produces a calling on God Now here's what
I want you to understand as we work through this Calling on
God is not what you do when you're hanging off the edge of a cliff
Ready to die and you need him to save you. Oh God That's not
what our text is talking about When you are in trouble, call
on Him. But that's not what our text is talking about. Do you
understand what I just said? When this text is speaking about
calling on God, it's actually speaking about bringing you into
a place where you become a worshiper of God. When God saves you, He
makes you a worshiper of God. And when He makes you a worshiper
of God, you are one that are now daily calling on God. Are you hearing me? So it's very
plainly laid out for us in Genesis chapter 4, 26. Pull that up.
I'll show you that. And then first Peter chapter
one, verse 17 through 19. It's really interesting. And
I said this when we're teaching Romans chapter eight, here's
how, you know, you've heard God's call. You ready? Because you
call him back. That's good. That's good. You
can write that down. You can put that on a t-shirt, put that
on a t-shirt. That's good. Here's how, you
know, you've heard God's cause because you call him back. That's
right. God's calling me. and you call
him back. And God loves to talk to people
he calls. Did you understand that? And
so we are called the called of God. Listen to what it says.
And Seth to him also were sons born and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to do what? Call
upon the name of Jehovah. What does that mean? In those
days they began to worship the true and the living God. And
they were called by the name of Jehovah as well. So true worshipers
call on God. Is that what we do? We call on
God in worship. Now go to first Peter chapter
one verses 17 through 19 and underscore the same point here
as we deal with this matter of the instrumentality of preaching.
First Peter chapter 1 verse 17. Listen to how Peter puts it.
Here we go. And if you what? Call on the Father. Do you see
it? And if you call on the Father, and every son does, and every
daughter does, you read your Bible, all the saints of old
called on God, didn't they? And if you call on the Father,
who without respect of person, judges everyone according to
his works, pass your time of sojourning here in what? Right. And you can mark by that word
fear for people who get the heebie-jeebies on fear. Write by that word fatherly
fear. Write the word filio. That's
the Latin term for father. Filio fear. And what that means
is when the father draws you by his grace and quickens you
by his spirit and gives you the spirit of adoption by which we
cry what? It means that we want to serve
him without offending him because we love him because he first
loved us Did y'all hear what I just said? And so god-fearing
people don't have that legal trepidation of fear of being
cast into hell We have the fear of dishonoring our father Like
the lord jesus christ of whom it was said and it was heard
and that he feared Why he had reverence for his father so much.
So he asked his father to help him So that he would do his father's
will and not his own remember that God will be done not my
will and he struggled with that didn't he struggle with that
just like you and I do That's why we call on God because we
need help. Don't we need help? We you need help I need help
and that's why we worship to get help through the preaching
and singing and worship. Is that true? We need help. We
need God to help us Verse 18. This is this is beautiful. Listen
to it for as much as you know that you were not redeemed by
correctable things such as silver and gold and your vain conversation
or lifestyle received by the tradition of your fathers again
a church history text verse 19 how were you redeemed but with
the precious blood of christ as of a lamb without blemish
and spot this is a sacerdotal term this is a religious term
this is a priesthood term This is calling those who call on
the Lord priests. And what are they doing? They
are keeping central the grounds upon which they have fellowship
with God is the blood of Christ. And as we did in the Old Testament,
where they offered up sacrifices continually because everything
had to be cleansed with blood. The true believer today knows
that we are drawing nigh to God only through the blood of the
precious lamb. You guys see that? The reason why we call on him
is because he died for us. Every true believer has a vision
of the crucified Christ. He is the goal between us and
the Father. His blood is the means by which
I get to continue to commune with the Father and draw from
the Father the blessings of the Father. You guys see that? Very
important for you to understand. Worship is rooted in the fact
that Christ crucified, made a way out of no way for us to enter
into fellowship with God. All right then, so under preaching
the instrumentality of our salvation, it leads to calling on God, which
is a continual act of what? If you are not worshiping God,
you better ask yourself, do you know him at all? Please. All whom the father seeks to
worship him will worship him in spirit and in truth, and it
is not a burden to worship God. In fact, it's the most natural
thing we can do. Am I telling the truth? I was
out with some of my brothers and sisters yesterday. We was
enjoying us some jazz. Don't fall out in your seats,
my religious brothers that have problems with all that. We were
enjoying us some jazz. So I'm exposing because some
of my brothers and sisters saw me and my wife sitting on it.
And when they walked by, they were shocked. One of my sisters said, nah,
I got to go to church tomorrow. I said to him, I said, no, you
don't. You ain't got to go to church tomorrow just because
you saw me. But I'm going to be at church tomorrow. Do you
know why? Because as much as I like jazz,
that is not my native environment. My native environment is the
kingdom of God. My native environment is the
worship of God. My native environment are the things of God. I am more
comfortable in the matters of the kingdom than I am anywhere
else. Now, I hold my breath and I go do other things and then
I jump back in the water of the gospel and I breathe and live
and have my being. Y'all understand what I'm talking
about? That's good. That's good. That's good. Just
helping you guys out. And this is how you know you're
born again. You are only comfortable in the kingdom and among those
who are calling upon the name of the Lord. The other stuff
is about missions. We're out there, we're looking
and waiting and seeking opportunities, which did come up. Because, you
know, we're always about our Father's business. How you doing,
man? When's the last time you've been to church? See? Second thing for us to know,
it's not only leading to our calling on God continually as
an act of worship, it is the response of what? When the gospel
is preached and it calls you to trust Christ, it's going to
determine and discover whether or not you have faith. Without
faith, it's what? Impossible to please God. He
that comes to God must believe that he is and a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. And Peter again addresses that
too in 1 Peter 2.4. Let me go on though quickly.
The issue of faith that Paul is addressing now is your ability
to comprehend Christ for all that He is and cast the whole
of your soul on Him for your salvation. And what Paul is arguing
is that the only way that you can have that kind of conviction
about Christ is to be under the gospel. We believe that faith
comes only by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. That's what
we believe. That's verse 17. You guys follow that? We believe
that if a man or a woman is going to actually fall in love with
Christ and desire the Father and experience the power of the
Holy Ghost, it's going to be through the preaching of the
Word of God. No other way. You're not coming to Christ through
a song. You're not coming to Christ through a club. You're
not coming to Christ dancing. You're not coming to Christ through
praying or any of that. You're only coming to Christ
as the Gospel is preached. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Now, gospel literature, wonderful. Mechanisms and containers
and vehicles by which the gospel are communicated, absolutely
wonderful. Largely, those of us who are
already worshipers enjoy magnificently Christ-centered worship, Christ-centered
music. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Biblically sound theological music. But those are not the
mechanisms by which God brings salvation. Can I tell you why?
Because God got to tear you up before he builds you up. And
only preaching does that. God has to lay you low before
he lifts you high. And most of our music never deals
with your sin. It never tells you you're under
the wrath of God. It never tells you that you're headed to hell
irreconcilably, irrevocably. You have no ability to save yourself.
You don't hear that in songs. You don't hear that in songs.
The gospel is not the gospel until the gospel lets you know.
Here is your condition. You're headed to hell and you
need someone to rescue you from yourself. And the Lord Jesus
Christ died on Calvary Street to save hell-bound, helpless,
rebel sinners. Can I find one in the house?
And when you do, you look to Christ and you say, Lord, Save
me, save me, save me. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And only the Holy Ghost can bring
about that conviction. Only the Holy Ghost, not the
Hammond organ, not the bass guitar, not drum patterns running at
130 per minute, only the Holy Ghost. And I'm making a distinction
between false religion that creates pseudo conversions from what
really takes place under the preaching of the gospel. Church
folk love to take the place of the Holy Ghost. Are you hearing
me? But you can't reach the soul. Only God can. And you can't raise
the soul from the dead. Only God can. Only God can raise
the dead. And that's what we are, apart
from grace. Now you can put makeup on that
cadaver, and you can put lipstick on it, and you can, I'm sorry,
sis, I'm sorry. But you give it a few days, and
the stench is still going to make its way through that rotting
corpse. And the stench of sin in our
fallen nature, when it rules over us, will expose us to still
be dead. Still be dead. Only the Spirit of God can do
that. Are you hearing me? I need to bring us into our second and
third point, sub-point B, which is the product of hearing, the
product of hearing, the product of hearing. That's why we preach.
And in that context is continually, continually preaching so that
people can continually hear because at some point in God's mercy,
they finally actually hear. And so in Acts chapter eight,
as well as Acts chapter 16, we have two perfect models. The
Ethiopian eunuch, he was a Jewish proselyte. He'd been under the
word for years. But he never had heard the gospel.
See the difference? He bought a scroll of Isaiah
and was reading it on his way home. He had the word, but he
didn't have the revelation of the word. That required a gospel
preacher to come and expound Christ to him. And the Bible
is clear when he explained using the same scripture, preaching
to that man, Jesus Christ and him crucified, that Ethiopian
pulled over, hit the brakes, stopped his Delaney, Denali Cadillac,
got out and said, brother, we got water right here. Didn't
he do that? We got water right here. And
you know what he said? What doth hinder me to be baptized?
What was he saying? I'm ready to go public with Jesus. I'm ready to go public. And you
didn't hear Philip cajoling him and Philip forcing him and Philip
saying to him, repeat after me. You don't have to tell a sinner
to repeat after nobody when the Holy Ghost works. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? Now let me get to my last sub
point here, which is critical to the text and basically our
title. We're dealing with what I call
the instrumentality or means of our salvation, which brings
us to our fourth sub point, which is it is the means of and not
the cause of our salvation. Do you see that? This is critical
to know because there are in the religious world, people who
idolatrize preaching. Let that be known right now.
People who idolatrize the preaching. what's implied in that is this,
that God is equal to or subordinate to the preaching and let that
always be anathema. God is the cause of everything. He is the first cause of everything. And he is the reason for which
every means he uses works. Where God is not in it, the means
are nothing. Are you guys hearing me? Where
God is not in it, the means are nothing. Our argument is our
own text. Have they not all heard? Yeah. Have they all believed? No. Why
haven't they believed? Because the instrumental means
is never the source. Only God is the source. Are you
hearing me? We can preach and preach and
preach and preach and your pastor can preach until he's blue in
the face. And that's preaching for me,
isn't it? And no one gets saved ever until the Spirit of God
works through that water holes to sends the water of life until
he takes that spade and breaks up the follow ground until the
Holy Ghost waters that seed sown and gives life. We are all laboring
in vain who preach. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So while we believe in the preaching that it is a non-negotiable
necessary means of salvation and sanctification, we need God
to bless it for it to work. Is that true? We need Him to
bless it for it to work. Which brings me to my final point
as we close. Point number four. Real quickly.
True believing is a what? Heart matter what? Right. This is where folks jack up salvation
issues when they go to witness to people. So in our final point,
true believer, true believing is a heart matter first. Let
me say this under three basic sub points and we'll come back
next time. When people are called upon to believe the gospel, as
we read over in verse nine and 10, these words, that if you
shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Y'all know those
verses, right? Here's what I am arguing. True
believing, saving faith, the gift of faith that comes from
God, starts in the heart. And when it starts in the heart,
it produces a real knowledge of God. that comes as a consequence
of a lengthy explanation of who God is. No one gets saved when
you walk to the door, open the door, and you read a few verses
and tell them, now, will you believe on Jesus? They can't
believe on him whom they don't know, and they can't know until
they are taught. And this is where patience comes
in. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? You can get any term, dig, hairy, parrot, parakeet,
dog, monkey, or cat to quote, I receive Jesus as my Lord and
Savior. I receive Jesus as my Lord and
Savior. I receive Jesus as my Lord and
Savior and know nothing about a heart change. that comes as
a consequence of the Spirit of God working in you the truth
of the gospel. You got a lot of false conversions
going on out there because of a lack of patience in teaching
men and women the Word of God and letting God bring them to
that confession and not you. Are y'all hearing me? Letting
God bring them there, not you. That's not your job to make them
confess. We're gonna learn that about
the Catholic Church down the line. 12th, 13th century, put
a sword to people. Now you better believe the gospel.
I believe too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. What you want me to say? What you want me to say?
You got a sword to my throat. Jesus, did I get Jesus right?
Is it Jesus? Is it Jesus? Is it Jehovah? Is it Yeshua? However way you
want me to say it, so that you don't kill me, I'll believe.
That is not salvation. That is not salvation. Do you
hear me? Not salvation. When you and I
are confronted with the gospel saints, which is the best thing
the soul could ever hear, we are not button-held or pressured
or coerced or manipulated. True preachers do not manipulate. God is not a manipulator. He is an effective, very effective
communicator of his own word. Do you know what our God says?
Come, let us reason together. You sit down and listen to me
and I'll show you how to be saved. That's exactly what God means
in Isaiah chapter 118. Come, let us reason it through. Let me show you how all of your
arguments are only digging a deeper hole for you. Let me show you
how I have made a way for you to be saved apart from human
works and have secured a place for you in my glory through Jesus
Christ. Come and be taught the gospel. That's what that text is saying.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? So it's imperative for
you and I to know that the instrumentality of preaching is very critical,
but it has to be the right preaching with the right motive and the
right outcome are we're playing church. Amen.