Gooding, David: 2 - The Magnitude of the Gospel

Pray that God will make these studies a blessing to us. These things are fundamental to Christian life and experience. All good builders, we should see to it from time to time that the foundations, the lower, to speak, are well and truly laid and solid and unyielding. Now, last week we considered the beginning, the first two and a half chapters of this letter, in which we saw God doing two things. First of all, coming alongside us to diagnose the cause of our spiritual troubles, and then along with his diagnosis, to prescribe, so to speak, the cure. We found that God will, in this epistle, be repeating that process from time to time, diagnosing the cause of our spiritual troubles ever more deeply and penetratingly. And each time, as he discovers new complications and new depths in our spiritual troubles, coming alongside with the greater and fuller statements of his limitless salvation. Tonight, let us begin to read in chapter three, then, and verse twenty one. m Chapter three and verse twenty one: But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith by his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime in the forbearance of God, for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season, that he might himself be just and the justifier of him that have faith in Jesus. Where then is the glory? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? Nay, but by a law of faith. We reckon, therefore, that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also. If so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make the law of none effect through faith? God forbid. Nay, we establish the law. And I spy some friends here tonight that were not here last week, so you who were last- here last week, allow me just for a moment to sketch in our previous findings. We found in chapter one that God, in his diagnosis of the cause of all our spiritual and moral troubles, traced these troubles back to a wrong attitude of heart towards himself. He says in chapter one and verse twenty one that men, knowing God, glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks. Mankind irked at its constant feeling of dependence on God, that obliged him constantly to give thanks. And all sin of whatever kind is traceable to this original attitude of heart that is so vividly described by the story of Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden. A refusal to own dependence, to be content with dependence on God, and a stretching out to gain independence of God in one form and another. We found that diagnosis very interesting. It doesn't trace man's sin to some lurid vices. It does trace it very definitely and squarely to this attitude of heart, this independence of God. We find out too that, sure doctor as he is, the Apostle Paul warns us against our trying to evade God's diagnosis, either by turning moralist and agreeing with God that our fellow men are wrong. Of course, it is a good thing to agree with God that our fellow men are wrong. But that will bring us very little comfort and certainly no excuse when God turns to probe our own hearts, because we who judge others, basically we do the same things ourselves. Similarly, we should be warned, says the apostle, in trying to find shelter and evasion in becoming religious. The apostle, in his chapter two, in the second half, picks out, of course, the Jewish nation, and there was never a nation more religious, as a conspicuous example of people who tried to escape and evade God's diagnosis of their own spiritual sickness by being religion, religious, and imagining in religion to find a cover for the corrupt state of their hearts. Inexorably, therefore, the apostle takes away from us all hiding and cover. And finally, as he comes in chapter three to the climax of his argument and diagnosis, he quotes to us a whole array of scriptures taken from one end of the Old Testament to the other, almost, summing up our state as fallen men and women in terms that are extremely black. Pointing out to us that the function of God's law is as follows: the law speaks to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. And at the end of our talk last week, we were thinking of the common errors that are held over God's law. People generally have the notion that God has given his law so that by keeping it, they somehow may make themselves better and find at last acceptance with God on the ground that they've done their best to keep his law. If there's anyone here like that tonight, your honest opinion so far, in all good faith, has been that you've been trying to keep God's law, particularly as expressed in his Ten Commandments, in order to make yourself acceptable with God. Certainly you will find the statement of Holy Scripture here exceedingly severe. The law was given us that our mouths might be stopped. We might become speechless. Our very silence, one great admission of our sinful bankruptcy. In a word, the diagnosis that God gives us here in these early chapters of Romans spell out what theologians used to call man's total depravity. And now you will observe, if you've been following the text of your Bible, that in my comments I have left one paragraph out, namely a paragraph that runs at the beginning of chapter three from verses one to eight. I would like, to begin with, to go back to that paragraph for a moment. It is important because it will guard us from what could be a grave misunderstanding. Paul has been arguing that religion should not be made an evasion, a cover to escape from God's diagnosis of our spiritual state. But then he comes in to correct what might be a, a, a wrong understanding and says, what advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Please notice his answer, much every way. He doesn't say, of course, nothing at all. It's all filthy rags. You might as well be a savage in the middle of Africa as to be a religious Jew if you're not saved. He doesn't talk like that. Of course he doesn't, because it isn't true. He says that there is much profit in circumcision, much profit in being a Jew. Let's try and think what he's saying. He is arguing generally that even being religious... will not save you. Cannot make you accepted with God. Even the most religious and most sincere man that you ever met, if you judge him by the standard of God's holy law, comes short, for there is no distinction here, judged by the standard of God's law, here there is no distinction, for all have sinned in the past and do constantly in the present come short of the glory of God. So if it were a case of judging ourselves by God's law, the most religious man is no different from the sinner in the very gutter. No difference in this that, uh, both of them come short. Both of them are bankrupt. But in case you might think that he is also arguing that religion itself is worthless, and good living is meaningless if a man is not saved, he puts in this paragraph and says that in its proper sense and for its proper purpose, Jew, the Jewish religion had exceeding much profit. Oh, see what advantages a religious Jew had. He had the holy word of God in his hands to instruct his conscience, to enlighten his mind. He had the great array of rituals of sacrifices appointed by God himself. Please don't say it was worthless. And how much better was he than the ignorant savage in the jungle or the educated Greek in paganism who could attend constantly to the public reading of God's holy word so that God's law might convicting of- convict him of his sin, so that those holy symbols and emblems of that ancient day might prepare his mind for the coming of the Savior. And if the reading of that law had prepared his heart by convicting him of sin, if that law had driven his conscience to try and behave better, and thereby he learned something of God's holiness, then there was much advantage in being a Jew and not being a savage, unenlightened in the jungle. Of course, if you were to take that Jewish religion and mistakenly think that by its symbols and sacrifices and ceremonies and readings of the door and public prayers and services and what have you, you were earning salvation, then indeed it would be a sorry mistake and little short of a tragedy. For the purpose God gave it, it was exceedingly valuable. Similarly, it seems to me that we should be careful, as the apostle is here, when expounding the same matter of man's total depravity to our unconverted friends, we should equally be careful, it seems to me, not to give them the wrong impression. Sometimes our enthusiasm leads us to exaggerated statements, doesn't it? We're trying to get across, for instance, the idea that we've all come short. In spite of all our deeds of merit and honest and good living, we come short. And we try to impress this particularly upon our unconverted, uh, uh, religious friends, who are wont to trust in their good deeds for salvation. We're wanting them to get that, we're wanting to get them to see that they are bankrupt, have no ground for salvation in their good deeds whatsoever. And sometimes we go to a little bit too extreme, don't we? We take up the words of a prophet out of their context and say, you know, all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. God hates our righteousnesses. God hates our good works. Listen, by contrast, in case you think I'm preaching you heresy, listen while I quote you the words of an apostle with whom you will not find the slightest bit of fault. At least I hope you won't. I hope you will agree with this inspired apostle whose sermon God has written down in holy inspired scripture. This is the Apostle Peter talking. And he says to Cornelius, in every nation, he that heareth God and worketh righteousness is acceptable to him. Peter hasn't forgotten the gospel. He's not telling Cornelius that Cornelius's works will gain him salvation. But what he is saying is that God does value good works in their own place. To say God hated good works would be utterly immoral, a veritable slander upon God. For God's law commands good works. He never commanded anything he hated. And every time a man ceases to do good works and falls into sin, he is disobeying an explicit command of God. And it brings God grief and causes his wrath. Nor would we want to contradict the word of the angel to Cornelius, should we? When the angel appeared straight from God's presence to Cornelius, he told the good man that his good works and alms deeds were come up to God for a memorial. My alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Here was a Gentile man feeling his way to God, his conscience instructing him that the God of heaven requires holiness and righteousness. Here was a man who would have admitted his sinfulness and bankruptcy anytime you would like to challenge him. But here was a man that was trying to tell God he wanted to please God best he knew how. And God read those good works as the practical evidence of that man's attitude of heart, didn't he? That doesn't mean, let me make it abundantly clear, that does not mean that Cornelius's good works gained him salvation or were su- were sufficient for his salvation. No, indeed not. Cornelius, along with the rest of mankind, comes under the common condemnation of God's law that his very best falls short of what the law requires. But we should remember that those whose names are not found written in the book of life will be judged, not all the same, but according to their works. And in that circumstance, it will be more tolerable for some than it is for others, said our Lord. And he who knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes. He that knew not and failed to do shall be beaten with few stripes. It isn't true to say that if you're not saved, then it doesn't matter how you live. It will matter eternally. But to resume our main point, there is no difference here. Though there are many gradings, there is no difference here that all have sinned and do come short of God's glory. And therefore, says Holy Scripture, there is to be found no salvation for us in our attempts to keep God's law. How then shall we be saved? I suspect most of us know the answer very well. What I want to do merely is to emphasize to you the oft repeated idea in chapter three now and from verse twenty one onwards, that the way we are saved is altogether God's way. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of, of, of God is revealed. It's God's way of making a man right. It involves, uh, this, um, propitiation through Christ, whom God has set forth, and the whole scheme is geared so that God might show himself righteous. In a word, it is all together of God. And we come into it, if we come into it, simply through faith. Shall we read the verse again, verse twenty one? Now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. I want us to get hold of this point first and foremost. God's way of making us right will be to take us back to the point where man first went wrong. Where did man go wrong? In throwing away his dependence on God and grasping at independence. If man is ever to be put right with God, he'll come back there. It won't be so matter of so much a matter of what he has been doing or what he is doing or what he promises to do, whether it be good or bad, it's none of us, none of it good enough to satisfy God's law anyway. It will be a question of a man's basic heart attitude to God. The way back is not going to be by my keeping God's law, else it would appear that it is my doing something. And in doing something I could still retain my independence of God. I could strike a bargain with him. I could do so much work in return for which he would pay me so much salvation. Oh, but you'll never do that. You'll never truck and trade with God. You'll never buy anything from him. You'll never earn anything from him. Of course, it is utterly impossible anyway, isn't it? Seeing he giveth to all men life and breath and all we have. It's nice, of course, isn't it? When we take some of the gifts that God has given us as his creatures, and we bring them and give them back to God. Are lovely. But we mustn't think we're ever buying anything from him by those methods. That was your kiddies when they were small, surprised you on your birthday once. Little Missy of seven years old or eight had all unbeknown to you gone down the town with some kind friend to buy you a birthday present. And when they unwrapped it, it was a hideous looking thing from Woolworths, an awful bit of stuff. Of course, you put it on the mantelpiece and kept it there as long as you had to, and you showed yourself terribly grateful. It was a very nice gesture on the part of the kiddie to think of you and want to use her pocket money to buy you something. But of course you weren't to see, were you? You had to give her the pocket money first. Yeah. And you would never have let that child think that her giving you that present was a condition upon which she had your love, would you? No, so God says it cannot be in the nature of things. It cannot be by the, by keeping the law, because by the law comes the knowledge of sin. And God is too realist to pretend that our behavior is a hundred percent perfect when it isn't. But more deeply, he's concerned to strike at the very root of sin. Sin came when we grasped at independence of him. We shall be put right when we come in all our bankruptcy back to complete and utter dependence on God. Top lady hasn't put it anything too strongly when he says, hangs my helpless soul on thee. In that sense it is that the Bible declares that if a man comes thus to God and believes in him, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness. I beg you to notice that term. His faith is counted unto him for righteousness. It comes, for instance, in chapter four and verse three, and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. What was? Why? His faith, his believing God. There is a notion, widely current, that this verse means that the righteousness of Christ was imputed to him. But that isn't what the verse says, is it? There is a verse that says that Christ is made unto us righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption, that is. But there is no verse that says Christ's righteousness is imputed unto us for righteousness. No, no. It was Abram's believing that was counted unto him for righteousness. For the simple reason it was right. And the man who has learned to believe God in this sense is right with God. Somebody says that will take a little bit of investigation. Do you mean to say that so long as a man adopts this right attitude of heart to God, the man is right? And God will reckon him righteous? That's what the Bible says. But you say, but look, uh, um, the man will still go on doing wrong things from time to time, won't he? I'm afraid he will. But then you say, how can God count him right? How can God receive a man and not cast him out simply because his heart is right with God, simply because he believes God? How can God receive him if the man is still weak and frail and sinful and sinning? God himself gives us the answer. How can he be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus? It's this way round, to use the technical terminology, says chapter three, that God has set forth the Lord Jesus Christ to be a propitiation. Awful long word, that, and somewhat old-fashioned now in the English tongue, propitiation. Perhaps I can illustrate it best by an Old Testament illustration. Way back in the dim and distant past, when the nation of Israel had, uh, recently been set free from the slave labor camps of Egypt and were crossing the wilderness of Sinai on their en route to Palestine, God had them build him a sanctuary. Now, you must know that those folks in those far off days were very much like ourselves. They were sinful folks. So sinful were they that God says their very presence around that tabernacle defiled that tabernacle. But very often they were doing sinful things without their knowing they were doing sinful things, like we do. Our standards have become so blurred, our consciences are so creaky, but very often our consciences don't work as they ought, and we're doing all sorts of wrong things, and we don't know, and sometimes we do wrong things and think they're right things and positively glory in them. Said God, the very presence of those people around his tabernacle defiled his dwelling place. How then could God possibly allow them to keep there and not drive them away? The answer is that God had what is called a mercy seat made on his throne in that tabernacle, God had a slab of gold put, covering the tables of the law. And every year a sacrifice was made, and blood was brought and sprinkled before God's throne and on that mercy seat. Day after day and night after night, as God, so to speak, presents himself there amongst that sinful and weak and perverse people. Day after day and night after night, he looked at that mercy seat, saw that blood, the token of a sacrifice offered, and for the sake of that sacrifice, he tolerated the people outside. The name of that slab of gold came to be the propitiatory thing. The very word that here is translated into English, whom God has set forth to be a mercy seat, set forth to be a propitiation, if you like. The idea is the same. The man will come to God in genuine repentance of heart and dare to cast himself on God, believe God. Then God is prepared to receive him. Count him right. You say, how God can, how can God do it righteously when the man still sins and makes mistakes and is far from perfect? The answer, friend, is because God has now the real mercy seat. His throne above, so to speak, is sprinkled with the very blood of Christ, and God looks at that great sacrifice of Christ, and for Christ's sake, is prepared to receive and keep and never cast out. Marvelous. To say, but that would mean, uh, lowering God's standards. That would mean defying his law. It would mean making the law void. If the law says thou shalt not sin, and God is prepared to receive a man who unfortunately still falls down and comes short, isn't that making God's law a dead letter? Oh no, dear friend, no. It establishes the law. God isn't saying that your sin doesn't matter when he receives you. It mattered so much to him that Christ, his own son, died for our sins. That wasn't merely a me- legal arrangement, that was a storm that nearly split the Godhead apart. But because of that great sacrifice for sin, God can righteously receive the man that trusts him, because Christ's sacrifice pays all the penalty that that law demanded. Let us see then a very liberating thing. There's a verse here that says, and it's verse twenty six of chapter three, or verse twenty five, talking of Christ, it says, God has set him forth to be a propitiation through faith by his blood, to show God's righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God. I have known folks to think, and I can quite understand, can't you, why they should think it. I've known folks to think that that means that God forgives our sins before we were converted, the sins we did before we were converted. But of course, he does that if we receive the Savior. But this verse is saying something more than that. It is saying that Christ's sacrifice at Calvary now shows God to have been perfectly just to pass over the sins that people did in those all those centuries in time past before Christ ever came. That is, of course, the sins of those who, like Abraham and David and Solomon, trusted him. God was quite just passing over their sins because he knew that one day Christ would bear their sins in his body on the tree. Similarly, of course, we who live in nineteen sixty nine can know that when Christ died there in the past, he was bearing our sins in his body on the tree. And folks get a little disturbed there, don't they? They say, but if I trust Christ tonight, what about my future sins? Well, my dear good friend, your sins were all future, weren't they? When Christ died, all of them were future. And if he died for any of your sins at all, he's died for the lot of them, past, present, and future. Indeed, if there are some sins that of yours that Christ hasn't already died for, you're certain to be lost, my friend, because he isn't going to die again. All that great mercy seat. God's brilliant, divine, and wise provision. That great sacrifice of Christ, on the grounds of which God puts up with the world of men, for he is the propitiation not for our sins only, you know, but for the sins of the whole world. That makes it possible for God to put up with men, in the hope that God's Holy Spirit will be able to bring them to repentance and back to reconciliation. That makes it righteously possible for God to receive those that trust Christ and hug them to his bosom and declare them to be right. Even though, of course, when it comes to behavior, they are far from perfect. So then being right with God is like Abram, says the Bible. It is a question of adopting this right attitude of heart, believing. Somebody will say, but what exactly do you mean by believing? I got to believe to be right with God? What do you mean by believing? The whole chapter, chapter four of this epistle, is devoted to explaining what exactly is meant by believing. First of all, in the early verses of chapter four, as we've already seen, believing is the opposite of working. Believing is not any kind of work or merit. Do let us observe that. I have known many folks. You wouldn't believe it, but even since I've been here in Ireland, I've known many folks. Who later on in their Christian experience become troubled. Sometimes through illness and nervous prostration. Sometimes by their own, by the discovery of their own foolishness of heart. And they come to wonder whether they were saved, and whether they were saved the right way round. And then, if they're not careful, there begins to rage a battle, and it goes somehow like this. Now, the night I was saved, did I believe the right way? Now, they're not altogether sure whether they did believe the right way round. So now they go over in their mind all the possible ways of believing. And whether their belief at the time was genuine and sincere, and whether it was a hundred percent or whether it fell short of the due requirement a little bit. And of course, if it's been a large gap, they can't remember really anyhow. I've known folks try all the ways of believing they knew how to try and comfort themselves and try and convince themselves that they were saved the right way, or they were saved at all. And I've known Christian folks, I'm not telling tales out of school. I've known Christian folks to spend agonies privately, getting down night after night, now, well, if I didn't believe the right way then, I'll believe the right way now. Now, what is the right way to believe? And they believe the best they know how, right? So they believe that, but that somehow tomorrow they have their doubts as to whether it was the right way of believing. And can you see what's beginning to happen with those folks? They're beginning to think that believing is a work of merit. You have to do it a hundred percent correct, else, of course, God wouldn't take any notice of you. It's subtly turned itself into a work by which we merit, so long as it's done exactly a hundred percent the right way round. And they've fallen back under the shadow of law. Oh, let me give notice to all theologians present. I haven't forgotten what the holy apostle James said, that there is a sense in which a man can say he believes in God and it be absolutely useless, you know, I believe that there is a God. Well, even the devils do that. That wouldn't get you very far. It's possible to be like the fourth evangelist says, there were many who believed on Jesus Christ when they saw the miracles that he did. They, they shrugged their shoulders and said, oh, there's something in it. No doubt there is. They believed in that sense, but never committed themselves to the Lord Jesus, and that's useless. But I am speaking of folks that are genuinely repentant of sin. They see that Christ is the only answer. They want to be saved. They give the very right hand to be saved. I'm speaking of those folks, not of shallow intellectuals or empty hypocrites. People would give anything to know that they were believing the right way round. My dear friend, if I talk to one like that tonight, would you see what God says? Faith is not some meritorious work. Faith is the very opposite of work. Why, God isn't so stupid as to tell you with one breath that you can't keep his law for salvation, and with the next breath add an eleventh commandment, but thou shalt believe, and it's going to be almighty difficult to, unless you come up to the complete standard out. Why, of course not. And believing is the opposite of work. Let's listen to it said that much. Verse 4 of chapter four. now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but of debt. Of course it is. If you've slogged hard all the week and you come to the boss for your wages, it isn't gracious of the boss to give you your wages. It is no act of grace. It's jolly well gobs to give you the wages. You've earned them. It's a legal contract. You deserve them. But when we come to God to be justified by grace, we haven't earned a thing. Our believing hasn't earned it. It remains perfectly a matter of God's grace. All the feeblest, faintest act of faith at once secures salvation. It is written, he that call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And it means two things. It will mean the blotting out of past sins. So verses six to the end of verse eight quote of David's experience, that this being accepted by God will mean the blotting out of past sin. No charge left upon the books against us. No sin remembered anymore forever. It will mean, as the later part of the chapter reminds us, new life. Tonight I want us to get us, us to get that final point exceedingly clearly, if we may. It means negatively the blotting out of the past, all the blessedness and happiness of those whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. I hope you get the thrill of it. You know, when King David first discovered this, that his sins were forgiven simply by grace through faith, he went home and wrote a psalm and had the court musicians get out their instruments, and they played and sang for all they were worth. Lovely, isn't it? What a glorious thing Christianity is, has been the root of more song and singing than it would be possible to describe. A heart right with God. A conscience made perfect. Sin never to be remembered again. But it doesn't merely mean that. It will mean a new life. See, it told us in Abraham's story. Abraham believed God, and it count- was counted to him for righteousness. Over what thing was it said? For this God said to Abraham, Abraham, you and Sarah are going to have a son. Well, Abraham thought it was, uh, impossible, and Sarah thought it was completely ridiculous, and she laughed at the notion. Look at our ages, she said to Abraham. When God had made the promise, he left them some years until Abram and Sarah could see exactly they weren't fools. Those manuscripts are right, which tell us at the end of that chapter that he considered his body, not that he didn't consider it, he did consider it, he wasn't a fool. He saw that if they were to have a, have a son, if there were going to be new life around the place, well, as far as he was concerned, it was absolutely impossible. But new life came into that home. As Abram dared to believe God. And friend, isn't it true with us, we don't want a cheap salvation, do we? We don't want a salvation that merely blots out sin and leaves us to go on as before. We too want, along with the blotting out of the past, we want a new life, don't we? See these twin gifts and see them both on the same terms. Our utter bankruptcy. And the limitless power of Almighty God. We do well to get this point, otherwise we're going to be severely, uh, disappointed and dismayed in our subsequent Christian experience. It is natural to us to think that having been converted and our sins forgiven and we feel so joyful, it is natural and very easy for us to slip into the idea that now we're making good progress and, uh, all's going to be well. If we would serve the Lord with great vigor and gratitude, we'll do wonders for him, and it lasts for a year, for nine months, for three weeks. And then we find, of course, that as believers, though we are accepted with God, we have no more the power ourselves to live for him than we had to gain his acceptance in the first place. If there's going to be new life following our forgiveness, it will have to come on the same terms, the miracle of God working in us. When Abraham believed God and Isaac was born, it was like life from the very dead. And when we are born again, it is like that. We have to learn to believe on him who raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and lay cold, starkly dead in a sepulcher. And were raised again for our justification. Excuse my putting it so foolishly. You didn't help, did you, to raise our Lord from the dead, by any chance? Was it in s- some res- some response to some merit of yours that God raised Christ from the dead? I should think not. Your sins put him in the tomb, but I tell you, it wasn't your merit that raised him. That was God's free act of grace and power. That free gift of life and power as a free gift is given to all those who, like Abraham, learn to believe on God who raises the dead. And so tonight, if we were to sum up our, our, our study, we have been thinking more particularly of God's salvation, whereas last week we thought of his diagnosis of our sin. I want, if I can, just to stress this as we close, that his salvation exactly matches the need. It goes right to the heart of things because the heart is the problem. And one can't stress it too much or too often. That salvation is a matter of the heart's attitude to a person, that is to God.