Let me read my text again from
Romans chapter 3. Would you turn there for a moment? Romans 3 verse 28. My guess is that Paul was up
in years when he wrote the book of Romans. I don't know how old Paul was
when he was converted. My opinion is around 40, 39 or
40, and he may have been in his late 50s or 60s, somewhere like
that when he wrote the Book of Romans. He was an elderly man. He had been through a great deal.
He had been taught a great deal. three chapters of the Book of
Romans, he establishes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that justification
is by faith. This is the key verse in these
first three or four chapters. He says in verse 28, therefore
we conclude. After this teaching, after these
years of experience, after an understanding somewhat of God's
holiness and man's sinfulness and the righteousness of God's
law and the strictness of God's justice, I come to some conclusions. I've reached some conclusions.
Old age certainly ought to reach some conclusions, some important
conclusions. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith. That's my conclusion. Now know
that gray hair does not always produce wisdom. Not always, it
should, but it does not always. They've got a saying, no fool
like an old fool, and too often that's true. Nor does correct
practice necessarily come through experience. A man who's had a
lot of years of experience isn't always right by any means. He
doesn't always do things that are right by any means. Experience
does not always produce correct practice, and years do not always
produce wisdom, but it should. It certainly ought to. When a man has been walking with
Christ and searching the scriptures and seeking the Lord, looking
to the fountain of life for a long number of years, he certainly
should have acquired some wisdom, some understanding, and he ought
to have by now reached some conclusion. He ought to have his foundation
pretty well established. know where he is, whom he believes,
the Lord in whom he trusts. Now, the first thing I'm going
to say tonight, I'm going to say to the young people, and
I wish you'd listen carefully to me. I was glancing over this
congregation. I see quite a number of young
people who are under 30, about one-third of the congregation.
And I would say this to you. Our youth ought to be spent seeking
the Lord, studying his word, searching the scriptures. James
1.19 says this, you can turn to it later, be swift to hear,
always ready to hear, with an alert ear, take heed what you
hear, be ready to hear, swift to hear, but slow to speak. Be slow to speak. Be slow to
form opinions. I can't warn you about that enough.
Be slow to form certain opinions. It's just tragic when a man forms
an opinion and builds him a house in which to live and has to spend
his whole life defending an error. That's sad. When a man too young
takes a position, I don't mean on the gospel, I'm not talking
about the fundamentals of the gospel such as God's sovereignty
and man's depravity and God's elective grace and the sufficiency
of atonement and the effectual call of the Holy Spirit. But
there are a lot of things, there are a lot of side issues, there
are a lot of matters that sometimes young men and young women form
an opinion too soon And therefore they have to defend that position.
They get the position, they establish the position, before they get
the wisdom, before they seek the Lord and study the whole
picture. They form that position and have
to spend their whole lives defending it. No matter who comes along
to convince them it's wrong, they've established the position,
they've got to fight for it, they've got to spend their whole
lives fighting for it. So that's what he's saying, be swift to
hear and slow to speak. And slow to form opinions. and slow to come to judgment,
and come especially to wrath and division over what we hear."
Now, you say, that scripture says, be swift to hear, slow
to speak, and slow to wrath. I know it says that, and that's
what it means. It means be slow to wrath, that is, judgment and
division over these matters that you've heard. Don't form an opinion
too quickly. I'll say this to you. There's
no shortcut to spiritual growth. Now, a man can take a crash course
in college and complete it in two years. A man can take a crash
course in electricity or mechanics or plumbing or carpentry or anything
tangible, but there is no shortcut for spiritual growth. I'm sorry,
it's just not there. You can learn the mechanics of
religion quickly, but the mysteries and the wisdom of God is only
learned as God reveals it. Now that's so, and the sooner
we find that out, the better off we'll be. Knowledge comes through the facts
of theology. Wisdom comes through the face
of experience. Now don't ever forget that. Spiritual
growth is slow. Let me show you that in the Scripture.
Turn to John 16. And this is one of the things
that discourages young converts. They come into the church or
into a profession of faith like they enter into their profession,
seeking to conquer it in two short years or three short years,
and it can't be done. Here the disciples had been with
the Master three and a half years, and still the Master says in
John 16, verse 12, I have yet many things to say to you. many
things to teach you. You mean I've been here three
and a half years and haven't graduated? No, sir. You can't even bear them now.
Well, it looks like you could bring us the whole picture, Lord,
and just lay it out there and let us study it and we'd have
it. Hold it right there just a minute. I was in the Navy in
World War II. I was aboard a ship called an LST. That's not LSD,
that's LST. It was a landing craft, had 130
men, the crew of the ship, and we had a flotilla staff on board
that ship. Now, back in World War II, they
had some rapid training. They sent me into Officer's Candidate
School, OCS, and I stayed there about three months headed for
the field. Called them 90-Day Wonders, you
remember? And this, on this LST, it wasn't a big ship, and therefore
it didn't rate a big, a lot of big brash, you know. All we had
was a lieutenant as a captain of the ship, a lieutenant, one
silver bar. And he'd been through one of
those 90 days. He was a 10-cent store owner and operator before
the war, and he went to school. Now, he learned fore and aft
and starboard and port, and he learned the hatches and the gangway
and the line and all the terms. He learned the mechanics of that
ship. But he had us in trouble most of the time. But on that
flotilla staff, on board that same ship. I was stationed on
the conning tower. I was a signalman, so I was always
up where the things were going on, where the ship was steered,
the quartermaster shack, the conning tower, where all the
messages were sent, where the officer of the day stayed, where
the captain stayed, where the officers stayed. I was a signalman. I sent all the messages through
the light and so forth. We had on board that vessel.
An old man, Captain John McKinnon, graduated from the U.S. Naval
Academies in the 20s and had been the commanding officer of
a destroyer for 20-some-odd years. He knew Navy. He was a big, red-headed,
freckled-faced Irishman with a heavy walrus beard, huge man,
6 feet 230 or 40 pounds. When he came up on that conning
tower and took over that ship, it ran so perfectly, no problem,
no trouble. When that 90-day wonder, Lieutenant
Skipper, came up there and the old man was downstairs, we either
ran aground or got in trouble or mixed up or something. He
knew the mechanics. But the old man knew how to run
a ship. That was the difference. And
he had acquired it. He had acquired it not from books, alone. Now, books, we acquired a great
deal from books, but not alone. The old man had his books and
he had his experience. He'd been everywhere that ship
could go, that old man had been. Everything it could do, that
old man had done. Everything that it could get
into, he'd been into. And he had been taught through
the years. And it was as much difference as daylight and dark
when that young skipper was on that conning tower and when that
old man was standing there leading those twelve ships, that flotilla,
into an invasion or into some kind of conflict, when the old
man took over, you could see the experience. That's what I'm
talking about. And I'm saying this and I'm saying that we can
learn the mechanics of the Bible. We can, Jay knows this is so.
White-haired men know this. So we can learn the mechanics
of religion and the mechanics of the Bible, and we can learn
the facts of theology, and we can learn it as quickly as we're
willing to read. But I'm talking about wisdom.
I'm talking about the mysteries and wisdom of God. I'm talking
about the greatness of God, and the power of God, and the depths
of human depravity, and the covenants of God, and the dealings of God,
and the providence of God, and all of these things, that growth
is very, very slow. And we must not become discouraged.
We must spend our youth and our early days being swift to hear,
waiting upon God, and slow to speak, and especially slow to
form our judgments and our opinions and to set our battle line. You
see, here's what the danger Before you understand the conflict,
if you set your battle lines, a battle could take place over
there and you could be fighting over here. See what I'm saying? Before you get the experience,
you set your battle lines. You're going to war over Christmas.
You're going to war over Easter. You're going to war over whether
women ought to wear hats. You're going to war over whether
they ought to pass collection plates. You're going to war over
all close communion. You're going to war over alien
immersion. You're going to war over amillennialism. You set
your battle lines on all of these things and form your opinion.
God Almighty is over there moving and you're over here fighting
a battle. Skin in your knuckles, bruising people's heads, blacking
folks' eyes, blood in their nose, and getting nothing done. That's
right, Joe. Nothing done. You see, I've got
to find out where the sovereign Redeemer is moving in my day
and get over there. I've got to find out where the
issue is in my day, where the conflict is in my day. where
the conflict is in my generation because I just may be over there
fighting straw men and God's raising up somebody over here
to fight the real battle for him. Where the war is going on,
where the issues are being tested, where the lines are being drawn,
where the Spirit of God's working, where Satan's attacking. If he
can engage our efforts on a sideline, he'll do it. He'll have you set
your positions, and form your battle lines, and set your guns
up, and do all these things, and the enemy will invade through
the back door. And we've missed it. So be swift
to hear, and be slow to speak, and be slow to form judgments,
and wrath, and set your battle lines, and your opinion. I'm
talking about on the fundamentals of the gospel now. I believe,
like I told someone today, we were talking, that gospel that
I learned in 1950, Paul, when we had to meet, you remember?
When Ralph came here and set forth the Lordship of Christ,
I believe I can say I preached that same message all these 31
years, since 32 years now, since that time. I haven't changed
in that message, but I've changed in some other things, right?
And we've learned some things. And that's what I say to the
young people here. I'm saying, don't be so swift. to arrive. Please don't. For
your own sake, for God's sake, for the church's sake, for the
ministry's sake, for the kingdom of God's sake, because spiritual
growth is slow. I know this. I know when the
Apostle Paul had Timothy circumcised, I bet you there were some fellas
that really rolled up their sleeves and read Now I read it. They spit on their hands. What
are you doing, Paul? You know a man doesn't have to
be circumcised to salvation. Paul was acting as a wise man.
And then he went right down and they wanted to circumcise Titus,
and he said, not on your bottom dollar. You're not going to do
it. You see, this man, Paul, was
wise enough to see that the issues were different. They're totally
different. In this case of Timothy, he was
going to preach to some Jewish people. And Paul knew just lost
Jewish people, unsaved Jewish people, unilluminated Jewish
people. And Paul just knew just as soon
as they found out his daddy was a Greek, they'd go shut the door
and wouldn't hear it. So he had him circumcised. But now down
here in the case of Titus, Paul found out that these fellas wanted
to circumcise Titus in order that he might be more perfectly
sanctified. And they were perfectly justified,
and Paul said, no, sir, we're justified in Christ. We're sanctified
in Christ. Now, you don't learn that overnight.
See, what you do when you form opinions too soon, you get this
thing set and say, we're going to do it this way, come flame
or flood. That's what we're going to do.
No, sir, that's not what we're going to do. We're going to preach
the gospel, come flame or flood. But we're going to become all
things to all men that by all means we might save some. To
the Jew we're going to become as under the law, to the Gentile
as without law, though not without law, but we're under the law
of Christ. See what I'm saying? Now I would
urge our young people to do this. I would urge you to lay hold
on Christ. I would urge you to close with Christ, flee to Christ
now. I don't believe any man ought
to sit and debate whether or not he's going to bow to Christ.
The scripture says now is the accepted time. Today is the day
of salvation. The scripture says this, boast
not thyself of tomorrow. If I were here at any age tonight
and I knew something about the gospel and God had been pleased
to show me my need of Christ and Christ is my substitute,
I'd lay hold on him right now. I'd cry out, Lord, be merciful
to me, a sinner. Wash me in the blood. Let me
have the grace to close with Christ right now. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved right now. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved right now. I'll close with Christ now. I
hear young people say this. Well, I want to be sure. I want to be sure. Well, you
can be sure of this, you're a sinner. Are you sure of that? Well, yeah,
I'm sure of that. Well, you can be sure of this,
there's no hope in yourself. Is there? Oh, there's no hope
in myself. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. You can be sure of this, you cannot save yourself. I can
be sure of that. I know that if I'm saved, God
will have to save me. You can be sure of this, that
God sent Christ into the world to redeem ruined, lost, helpless,
hell-deserving sinners, didn't He? Christ came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. I'm sure of that. And
you can be sure of this, God commands you to repent right
now. Repentance is not an invitation, it's a commandment. God commands
all men everywhere to repent. God commands you to believe.
I believe that faith is an invitation, faith is an exhortation, but
my friends, faith is a commandment. I really don't believe that I
have a choice whether or not I'll believe God or not believe
God. Do you? I believe men are commanded and
expected by God to believe. And you can be sure of this,
that he's appointed unto me and wants to die. Brother Frank Sweeney's
little daughter, 20 years old, died last week. like that. Massive coronary. Oh, she had
an automobile accident. Something happened in the automobile
accident. She walked away, walked home, went in her room, lay down
to sleep. Six o'clock the next morning,
her heart exploded, and she's dead. You can be sure of this,
that God will save all who call upon Christ. So I would urge,
I'm not saying spend your youth waiting to lay hold on Christ,
waiting to lay claim to Christ. No, sir. No, sir. Not for a moment. I wouldn't put that off till
in the morning. No, sir, I would not. Now is the accepted time.
Well, I'm going to trust Christ later. I want to be sure. You
study the things of which you are sure and base your confidence
in Christ on those facts. But I'm saying when you close
with Christ, when you lay hold upon Christ, when you look to
Him, and let me ask you this, how much did the thief on the
cross know when he believed on Christ? I ask you, how much did the Ethiopian
eunuch know when he believed on Christ? He heard one preacher
one time. How much did Lydia know when
she laid hold on Christ? How much did the Philippian jailer
know when he laid hold on Christ? How much did Zacchaeus know when
he laid hold on Christ? How much did Abraham know? Abraham
knew nothing substantially about a cross. Now, I know that there were certain
things about the cross revealed to him. I know that. But now,
as far as all of these things that we know today, He didn't
have a shade of the knowledge that we have. He didn't have
a particle of the knowledge, but he believed God, and God
called him the father of the faithful. The very father of
the faithful didn't know as much as I know about the gospel. And
yet his faith was greater than mine. I tell you this, Danny,
he believed God. He believed God. He wasn't believing
in a fact, he was believing in a person. And he wasn't just
believing in that person, he was believing that person. Now,
I would urge you to do this. In other matters, though, I'm
saying, let's wait on the Lord. Let me ask you a question. Turn
to Philippians 3. When can a man say, I have arrived? When can a man say, I have arrived? I know, now I know. Well, never. Paul never said it. Here in the
book of Philippians, he says in verse 10, he said that I may
know him, Philippians 3.10, and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. Not as though I'd already attained. Either we're
already perfect. I'm not perfect. I haven't arrived,
but I follow after, if I may apprehend or lay hold on that
for which I am also apprehended or laid hold of by Christ. I count not myself to have apprehended,
to have arrived, to have all the answers, but this one thing
I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forth unto the things which are before. I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. No, a
man will never be able to say, I have arrived. Let me ask you
this question, secondly. When can a man, though, say,
I have learned? Turn one page, Philippians 4.
Now, Philippians 4. Now, Paul, in chapter 3, he said,
I haven't arrived. I haven't laid hold upon that
for which I've been laid hold of by Christ. I'm not perfect.
And he's up in years here. Philippians, that's what his
present temple was. But he's learned some things. When can
a man say, I have learned? Philippians 4 verse 11. Not that
I speak in respect of want, for I have learned. I didn't come
into this spiritual world knowing it, I learned it. I wasn't born
knowing it, I learned it. I didn't know it the day that
I believed on Christ, I learned it. I learned what? In whatsoever
state I am, therewith to be content, and at this time he was in jail.
Content with beholding his face, said Newton, my all to his pleasures
resigned. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. I could, were he always thus
nigh, have nothing to wish or to fear. would a palace prove if Jesus
would dwell with me there? A prison would a palace prove?
A palace would a toy appear, but a prison would a palace prove
if Christ would dwell? This is what Paul is saying.
All right, look at the next verse. I have learned. How did you learn
it, Paul? I know both how to be abased. He had been abased.
Shipwrecked, stoned, beaten with rods, scourged. Hated by false
brethren. Oh, he said I've been through
it I know how to be a base and I know how to abound he'd been
on the platform in the spotlight he'd been before Kings and Caesars
He knew how to be a bet he'd been both places That's in everywhere
and in all things. I've been instructed both to
be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need, therefore
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." Brethren,
that is only learned by experience. That's what I'm saying. I fear
today's easy believism. I fear it. I fear these once-for-all
decisions. I worry when people talk about
when I got saved. when I got saved, when I was
saved. Now, listen, don't be upset with
me. There is a time, I know, and
there is a sense in which we have been saved. The Scripture
says, for by grace have you been saved. Through faith and that
not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. There's a sense in which
I've been saved by God's eternal purpose. There's a sense in which
I've been saved by Christ's effectual purchase. There's a sense in
which I've been saved by the Spirit's divine sanctifying call. There's a sense in which I've
been saved by faith in Christ. But let me tell you something.
I'm not saved by an act of faith, but by a life of faith. Think
about that a moment. I'll show you that in 1 Corinthians
10. Now you think about that a moment. I say that faith is
not an isolated act. It is a condition. It is a state
of being. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul talks
about Israel out there in the wilderness. We studied this in
Sunday school last Sunday. He said every one of them, verse
1, were under the cloud. Every one of them came out of
Egypt. They all passed through the sea. They all had blood on
the door, right? Verse 2, they were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They looked to Moses,
their leader. They submitted to his leadership. Verse 3, they
all did eat the manna that fell from heaven, every last one of
them. They, every one, did drink the
same spiritual drink from that rock which followed them, and
that rock was Christ. Joshua and Caleb, two of them. The rest of them perished in
the wilderness. Now he said in verse 11, Now all these things
happened to them for examples, and are written for our admonition,
upon whom the end of the world hath come. Wherefore let him
that thinketh, he standeth, taketh heed, lest he fall. This is what
Paul is saying. That every one of these people
were privileged people, blessed people, favored And they had
all the means of the gospel at their disposal. The gospel was
preached to them, but it did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it. Take heed, brethren, lest
there be found in you not a lack of the act of faith, but an evil
heart of unbelief. We're saved not by an act of
faith, but by a heart of faith, by a life of faith, by a condition
of faith, by a faith that lays hold upon a person and not a
creed. Don't miss him. Colossians 1.22
says, that he saved us if we continue in the faith. Hebrews
12 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Hebrews 3 says, whose house we are if we hold fast
our profession firm unto the end. 1 Peter 2, 1 and through
4 talks about coming to Christ. To whom? Coming. To whom? Coming.
To whom? Coming. Faith beginning is no
more important than faith ending. These all died in faith. These all died in faith. Back to our text a moment. Therefore
we conclude. And this is when you come to
drawing conclusions. This is when you come to drawing
those eventful, those heaven-given, those valuable, those eternal
conclusions, those meaningful conclusions. We conclude Paul
dealt with great things, great things, great things. Somebody said small people talk
about other people. Average people talk about events. Great-minded people talk about
ideas. Paul was a great-minded man.
He concluded some things, and this conclusion to which he came
may be justified by faith. Knowing the holiness of God,
knowing the exceeding sinfulness of sin, knowing the awful righteousness
of the law, knowing the strictness of God's divine justice, I conclude
it may be justified by faith.