I'd like to get your attention
back to the book of Romans. I read these two texts this morning. One short phrase is found in
both, and that phrase is, What if? What if? That's the title of my message
this morning. In Romans 3, Paul asks this question,
For what, if some did not believe, shall their unbelief make the
faith of God, or the word of God, without effect? Then in Romans 9, verse 22, he
says, What if God, willing to show His wrath and make His power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels that were fitted
to destruction or made to destroy? Everyone I know has asked this
question probably numerous times in their lives. What if we are
naturally bent along those lines and our mind thinks that way?
We usually ask this question to ourselves at some time in
our lives. Every parent has asked it when
their children were long out of their sight. I remember many
times sitting on the couch after one
of my children had got on a school bus on a snowy or rainy day,
asking, what if it runs off the road? What if it runs in the
river? What if? For those who live in the past,
and many people do, this question is a torment. because it's utterly
useless. It can change nothing and in
the end proves to oppress and bring grief to the person that
is asking the question, what if? I suppose that this question
is the lifeblood of the inventor, however, and the researcher.
I'm sure that most of the medicines and vaccines that we take for
granted today began with the question. What if? I expect Jonas Salk asked that
question. What if I could kill a polio
virus and then make a vaccine of it and vaccinate people and
polio would be gone? I'm sure that most of these medicines
started with what if. Likewise, in all probability,
what if turned the rock and the washboard into the Maytag? We
can pretty well be sure of that. But generally speaking, the result
of asking this question or being asked this question is discomfort. What if? It's discomfort. And the reason is twofold. First,
it means we can't have an answer or any input because it is at
best, it is merely and purely speculation. That's what what
if is. Secondly, it is a kind of confession
when we say, what if? It is a confession that there
is nothing we can do to change anything, nothing whatsoever. Because of our carnal nature,
we'll probably never stop asking this useless question, however,
even though the results are always the same. Nothing happens when
we ask this question, what if? This question, however, has a
kind of power, doesn't it? It has a kind of power. It's
not power possessed. It's power employed over the
mind. In the midst of tragedy, I've heard many people posit,
what if I had been there? As a kid coming home past curfew,
considering the reaction that my dad would have, I can remember
saying, what if he's up when I get there? It was a kind of
confession that whatever was coming, I had no control over.
But the question is moot because we cannot know unless we are
there. And if we are there, we would probably later ask, what
if I hadn't been there? We cannot be present in the past,
nor can we be present in the future. We are stuck in the now. So what if is little more than
a futile exercise of the imagination, humanly speaking? But this question
is asked twice in the New Testament by inspiration, inspired by the
Holy Ghost. And though it is a form of question,
it is also an answer and is usually put forth to address a wrong
view, an erroneous view. It is employed to stop the carnal
mind from running off the deep end. And it has real power to,
at least for a moment, halt the runaway presumption of nature
to opine with spiritual things and about spiritual things. And
its power is to remove the possibility of our participation. What if? What if really means? What do
you think you can do about it? Or what can you do about it?
Or what can you do about it? That's what it means. What is?
As soon as we are born, we begin to be aware. And the building
block that is the cornerstone of that awareness is self. As soon as that self-awareness
translate into some kind of cogent thought process, we measure the
value of everything, everything, based on what it has to do with
ourselves. That's the nature that we're
born with. If it makes us uncomfortable,
we count it of little or no value and move away from the pain that
it causes. If He gives us pleasure, we go
hog-wild for it and cannot be stopped. But what if God says that none
of that amounts to anything? What if God says that? What if God is as He says He
is and not like we think or imagine? He is or even what we would want
Him to be. What if? What if God has done
what He has said He has done and not done as we think He ought
to have done? What if God acts without consideration
of our opinion and will not give us account of His matters? What
if? Rather, He does as He pleases. He does what He wants. He does it with whom He pleases
and however He pleases and when He pleases and where He pleases.
What if God saves sinners the way He says He saves sinners
in this book? And not what we or our religion
would want Him to say and purport Him to say, though He doesn't
say much of what religion says He says. What if what we think has nothing
to do with God's thoughts. What if what we think has nothing
to do with God's thoughts or our ways have nothing to do with
His ways? Do you see how this kind of puts
the skids on us all together? What if God? What can we do about it? The
answer is nothing. Does that make you a little uncomfortable?
Nothing. I know it makes your nature uncomfortable,
not your spirit, but your nature kind of squirms. What if God? In the two times this question
is asked, it answers once and for all the natural, carnal errors
of humanity and its religion, especially as it concerns God
and His salvation. The first time it is used, it
addresses what men think are the effects of unbelief on God
and His Word. People have an idea about that.
Folks don't believe. They think it has some kind of
effect on God. Paul was addressing here the
Jews, having addressed the Gentiles, then the Jews in Romans 1 and
then Romans 2. Here in Romans 3, he says, For
what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief Shall their
unbelief make the faith of God none effect? What if some don't
believe? Now, Paul, as I said, is addressing
the advantage that the Jew has had over the Gentile. This is
in reference to the first two chapters where he disclosed the
Gentile and the Jewish minds and what they have surmised about
God. And he has proved both minds
to be void of correct thought, and he says so. In this very
chapter, chapter 3, he concludes that Jews and Gentiles alike
are all under sin. They are ruined, they are incapable,
and they are guilty. That's what he's concluded about
the mind of the Jew and the Gentile, though they had great advantages. The Jew had great advantages.
It had the oracles, as he says in verse 2, much every way, chiefly
because that unto them were committed the oracles of God, or the word
of God, or the prophets of God, the teachers of God. They had
those. They had those. The question that the carnal
mind of the Jew, and this can only also be said of the Gentile
who has the benefit of the preaching of the gospel, what advantage
do they have if the Word of God has seemingly had no effect on
them? That's what people think. If
they do not believe, does their unbelief make void the Word of
God? After all, it doesn't seem to
be working. I was raised in results-oriented religion, and I can remember
most of the time they had a revival because they wouldn't get nobody
to come down front. So they had some preacher come
in there that was really good at telling sad stories and tricking
people into getting down front by telling them to close their
eyes and raise their hands if they were out of fellowship,
come down. If they had some sin in their life, come down. If
they were lost, come down. Pretty soon you had the whole
church down front. I went to a meeting at Straight Fork many
years ago, and this preacher, big fella, can't remember his
name, but he didn't have that much to say, but after his invitation,
everybody but one person went down front. I just stood there
like an idiot back in the back. I wasn't about to go down front.
But everybody else did, because he wanted in so many ways to
get results, and that's what he was looking for. That's what
he was looking for. What advantage is the Word of
God if when you preach it, some people don't believe? What advantage
is there to it? Does it make the Word of God
of none effect? Because it clearly does not work on everybody. And
Paul also addresses this in chapter 9 in verse 6. If you turn over
there just for a moment. He says this, after seeing all
the advantages that the Jews have, he says, Not as though
the Word of God hath taken none effect, For they are not all
Israel which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of
Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted the seed, making clear distinctions.
There. You see, natural men and their
natural religion cannot accept the fact that they have nothing
to do with the effect or the outcome of what they do. They
want to see some kind of result. There's a reason why I don't
ever give an invitation after I preach, because I don't want
to see the results I can bring. Because I know how to work it.
I can tell a sad story. I can cry on cue. I was an actor
in high school. I did real well. Got awards for
being a thespian. That's right, a thespian. That's
what they call actors. I can cry. I can do those things. I could make it work. But I don't
do that. Why? First of all, it's false. Secondly, I trust the gospel. I trust the message. I know it
will do its business without me having my input in it. Men cannot accept that they have
nothing to do with the effect or the outcome of what they do.
They squirm when they cannot produce visible results, and
the ersatz rationale is that the preaching of the Word or
the Word itself is insufficient to get the job done. They say
that in many ways. Well, there's more to preach
than Christ. No, there's not. I usually ask the question, is
there something better to preach than Christ? And of course, they
say, well, no. I say, well, I'll just keep on
preaching the best thing, and you preach what you want to. That erroneous notion that men
have that they need to see results is the breeding ground of all
the carnal inventions that are counted as cardinal doctrine
in the world of religion today. And it's counted as cardinal
doctrine. If one thinks that the Bible is not enough, then
he will have to come up with some other ways of getting the
job done So the pipe dream of free will
will be injected into the religion to give some of the glory of
salvation to men and get a movement going. The fact that spiritual
things are invisible does not sit well with religion, so the
invitation system is born so a visible head count can be made. The fear that men might believe are
actually set free. that they are actually set free,
gives birth to the incorporation of the law because of the fear
of censure or the fear of judgment and the promise of rewards for
obedient behavior. They can keep people in line
because they're afraid to really be set free. They're afraid to
stand up and say, do what you will, if you love God, have it. I don't worry about you. And
it's not my job to keep you in line. God does a lot better job
of it than I ever could. I'd just make you mad or self-righteous,
one or the other. I'd do one of the two. What if God has fixed it so that
His Word always has an effect and man's unbelief does not throw
him into a slew of despond? What if that's the case? Well,
let's look. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul says
that he's thanking God for this. That means God gave him something
that he had nothing to do with, and he's thanking God for it.
Now, thanks be unto God in verse 14, which always, there to underline
it, always causes us to triumph in
Jesus Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by
us in every place. Now, he's talking about the preaching
of the gospel. And he's saying that preaching
is always triumphant. You say, well, nobody came down
front. Well, if you don't have an invitation, nobody's going
to come down front anyway. But people look at this and say,
well, natural religion, it can't be that way because some people
don't believe. Some people don't believe. But
he says this, for we are unto God. We, as we preach the gospel,
as we declare the gospel, as we tell folks about Christ, we
are a sweet-smelling savor of Christ. That's an Old Testament
reference to the burnt offering, the finished work of Christ and
the smoke that went off the burnt fat up into heaven and smelled
like a sweet savor unto God. And you people who don't like
the smell of crispy fat, You don't know what you're missing.
God likes the smell of crispy fat. That's why the Scripture
says, the fat belongeth to the Lord. We are unto God a sweet-smelling
savor in them that are saved and in them that perish. Same savor, same message. To some, it's salvation. To others,
it's not. To the one we are a savor of
life, we smell like death, a savor of death unto death, the other
a savor of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things?
Because we are not as many who corrupt the Word of God, but
as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we,
and the actual word is of Jesus Christ. Speak we of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What if God has fixed it so that
His Word always has an effect? Men just can't see what the effect
is. What if unbelief does not bother
God at all? I know the religion of today
said God is upset. Christ is pictured as walking
along the banisters of glory, wringing His hands, wanting somebody
to accept Him. Just hoping and even praying
somebody will let Him do. what He wants to do for them.
That's the language of the Bible today. But what if you leave
this house in unbelief this morning? What if it won't upset God at
all? What if? Well, it won't. It won't upset God at all. You see, His Word is a saver
of life and a saver of death. In every situation where the
Gospel is preached, one of those two things happen. And He calls
it a triumph. Always triumphant. Always triumphant. Look over at John 6. In John
6, our Lord addresses unbelief. Now, if He were a modern evangelist
today, He would give an invitation and He would say, raise your
hands and close your eyes. He might even have three or four
old ladies grab you by the shoulders and bring you down front and
gang-save you. They're liable to do that to you. But our Lord
is confronted with with unbelief by these Pharisees who said,
He ain't no bread come down from heaven. We know He fed us the
4,000, 5,000, but He wouldn't show us the trick on how to do
it ourselves because He's not going to do it. And He says it's
God's will that we believe on Him. We know better than that.
It's our will. And then He says in verse 36 of John chapter 6,
But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not,
ye not believers. Well, let's just go into a pity
party for poor old Jesus because he can't get nobody to believe
him. What is he going to say? That
you've also seen me and not believed, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. There you go. That's what God
thinks of unbelief. All my chosen are coming, every last one. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And this is my Father, which has sent me, that of all He has
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again in the
last day." Unbelief does not bother God. Our Lord Jesus Christ
addressed the same group of believing Jews. They didn't believe Him,
but they were believers. They searched the Scriptures.
Wherein they thought they had found eternal life, but they
wouldn't see Christ for life. He says in John chapter 10, In
verse 24, after he's preached the truth to them that he is
the door of the sheepfold, and he must bring the sheep in, and
he will, and there'll be one shepherd, and he's the only way
in, and he's the only way out. They heard it all. And they said
in verse 24, then came the Jews around about him and said, How
long dost thou make us to doubt, if thou be the Christ? Tell us
plainly. He couldn't have told them more plainly than he told
them. Couldn't have told them. Jesus
answered and said to him, I told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. They tell you who I am. But you
believe not because you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life. Why don't you believe? Why don't you believe I am He?
You've seen me. The works that my Father has
given me to do, I've done, and they declare who I am. And you
come around asking me to tell you something plainly? I can't
be more plain than that. You just don't believe. You know
why you don't? Because you're not my sheep. Belief doesn't
make you a sheep. Being a sheep makes you believe. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. What if unbelief doesn't bother
God at all? What if? What if the fix is in? What if? What can you do about
it? Anything? Nothing at all. Nothing at all. The second time
this question is asked, it addresses three common errors of human
free will works for merit religion. That's found in Romans chapter
9. Verse 22, what if God, there
it goes, what if God, willing to show His wrath and make His
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction. What if He did that? What if
all these people out here who will never believe were just
simply vessels that he made that way so he could use them in his
purpose to ultimately discard them on the pile with the rest
of the potsherds? What if he did that? Somebody
said, well, that ain't my God. I agree. And when people say
that ain't my God, I say, I agree. Because it's true. It ain't their
God. It ain't the true God. What if God does that? What if? The first era of man's notion
that Paul addresses and answers with this question, what if God
willing to show his wrath, is the question of fairness. The question of fairness. People like The idea that God
is fair. Religion believes God is fair
and treats all men equally and to say or think otherwise is
anathema to them. What if God is partial to some and not to others? What if God loved some and hated
others? What if God didn't give everybody
a chance, as they say? What if? Verse 6, chapter 9. For this is the word of promise,
at this time shall I come and Sarah, excuse me, verse 9, will
come and Sarah shall have a son. Not only that, but when Rebecca
also has conceded, even by one, even our father Isaac, and here's a parenthetical statement
in parentheses to explain what's going on when Rebecca conceded,
for the children not being yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but him that calleth. It is said to her,
Rebekah, Esau is going to come out first. Jacob is going to
grab his heel on the way out. Esau is going to be the firstborn.
But Jacob is going to be viewed by God as the firstborn. The
elder shall serve the younger. As it is written in Malachi 3,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Did Esau have a chance? Did God favor Jacob? What if God didn't give everybody
a chance? What if? The natural response would be,
and is, and I've heard it, I don't know, ever since I've been preaching
the gospel I've heard it, well that's not fair. Though I've often said that which
we refuse to allow for God to be in our minds, we practice
it all the time in our lives on a personal level. All the
time. We love some and we hate some.
We don't love everybody. We should, but we don't. Just
be honest with it. And we certainly don't love everybody
like we love our family. And we don't love everybody like
we love our husbands or our wives or our children. Not everybody. Do we? Some people we disregard altogether. What if your view of fairness
is not God's view of fairness? Verse 14 is the response. Paul
sees it coming. What shall we say? That is there
unrighteousness with God? Because he loved Jacob and hated
Esau? Was there unrighteousness with
God? Because before they were born, having done neither good
nor evil, God chose one and rejected the other? What if God says the salvation
of some and not others is a righteous act? They say it's unrighteous
here, that's the response of natural religion. That's unrighteous. What if he says that for him
to choose Malcolm before the foundation of the world, and
we know what kind of man Malcolm is, you know, we choose him because
we love him. And that's why God chose him.
But Malcolm, I tell you, there's a lot of people in this world
that certainly seem to be better than people than he is, on every
level. And I feel the same way, and
so do you. We've got people that we admire. We think they're a
much better candidate, surely. But what if God says He chose
Robert Husky or Wayland or Laverne? And they could offer Him nothing
and do nothing for Him, and everything they did could never count for
anything? Simply because He would. And then, looking at those whom
the world says, wait a minute, they can't be really children
of God, they can't be real Christians. Then looking at those, He says,
I was right to do that. I was right to save that one.
That was a righteous act on my part to save that one. That's
what he says in Romans chapter 3 verse 24, speaking of the work
of Jesus Christ, but being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, God has set forth a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are past, the Old Testament saints.
To declare, I say it this time, His righteousness in saving your
soul, that He might be just, saving it by the blood death
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the justifier of him that believeth
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jenny, it was right for God to
save you. It was the right thing. It just
was. What if God says that? What can you do about it? If
you don't agree with it, what can you do about it? What if
God did that? He's God. The secondary address
is the universal notion that mercy and grace are offered to
all and it is up to man to exercise his will to take advantage of
the offer and appropriate God into his life as if he had a
life. The corrupt mind is rife with
ways of elaborating on this foolish, stupid, man-exalting thing. Men
actually stand in pulpits and say, let go and let God. Men actually put on a suit on
Sunday and stand behind a desk in front of thousands and thousands
of people and say, won't you let God save you? Won't you invite Jesus into your
heart as if He were going to go into that black hole? Won't you make Jesus your Lord?
Won't you accept Jesus? What if all that, all of it, is poppycock? What if? What if grace and mercy is not
and never has been and never will be an offer? What if even your hardness of
heart can be traced to God's will as to its source? What if? Look at verse 15 through 18 in
Romans 9. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, that's the case, so
then, it is not him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore have thee mercy on
whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. What if God's like that? What if? And what can you do
about it? He doeth His will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand or say unto Him, what are you doing? You can't stop
Him. Staying a hand is turning a hand back. If you've done that
with your children, they reach for a hot stove, you stay their
hand. You turn their hand back. You keep them from doing it.
God says He does His will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and nobody can turn His hand
back. He's unstoppable. He's the sovereign
Lord and God of this universe. And not only that, none can stay
his hand, none can ask him, what in the world are you doing? What
do you think you're doing? Loving Jacob and hating Esau. What do you think you're doing?
Not giving everybody a chance. I can't worship a God that won't
give everybody a chance. What do you mean salvation has
nothing to do with human beings? It has to do with Jesus Christ
and His Father and the Spirit of God. What if God is like He
says He is and does what He says He does and saves like He says
He saves? What if? The third error addressed
is the rationalization of the human cesspool of grey matter
that ciphers thusly. If God's Word always has its
desired effect, if God favors one and not another, if God loves
one and hates another, if God shows mercy and grace and even
hardens men's hearts according to His will, and I find that
I'm not included in that purpose, how can He hold me accountable
if He made me the way I am? Verse 19, Thou wilt say then,
Who, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? What if God says that you do
not even have a right to ask that question? You know, that's
just saying shut your silly mouth. That's what it is. What if the
law said that every mouth might be stopped and the whole world
become guilty before God? What if God, what if you ask
God, Lord, why did you make me this way? And he said, no. What? No. I'm not going to answer
that. That's none of your business. None of your business. What if
God said that to you? He said it to this fellow. Name
it, old man. Who art thou that replyest against
God? or answereth again, or disputeth
with God. Who are you? What if God's like that? What
if God counts your opinion as such insignificant value that
it's touted as mindless drivel? What if God declares that you
and your will and your thoughts and your reasoning and your logic
is nothing but inanimate matter? Clay. whose form is absolutely
in the hands and the expertise of the potter. That's what he
tells you. What if God talks like that? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shalt thou the same form say
to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? Hast not the
potter the power over the clay to make of the same level, make
of the same lump To make one vessel into honor and another
to dishonor? Doesn't God have the power to
do that? What if God's like that? That's
the question for the ages, isn't it? What if? And what can you do about it? Verse 22 says, What if God, willing
and ready, and one day will, show His wrath, and to make His
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction. What if God did that? All this
unbelief, all this hatred for God, all this false religion,
all of this, God just put up with it. He endured it. Endured
it with much longsuffering. He made them to destroy. He made
the smithy that blow on the coals, He says in Isaiah, and the waster
to destroy. and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not
of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." What if God is
like He says He is? You might ask a preacher, What am I to do? I'm nothing. I can do nothing. I am what I am by whatever God
has decreed. God does what He does and He
is who He is. And I can't say anything about
it and can't do anything about it. I'm in a fix, preacher. I suggest
that you do what can only be counted as doing nothing, what can only be counted as ceasing
from your labor, to bow, to submit, to surrender, to believe,
to say uncle, to give up, to yield. It takes no effort whatsoever.
It's not a work. It's a lack of a work. All those
things. Francis Hebergel wrote, Have
thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art
the potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make
me after Thy will while I am waiting, yielding, and steel. What if? Father, bless us through
understanding, we pray in Christ's name, Amen.