Gooding, David: 1 - God’s Indefectible Purpose

Shall we begin our meditation by reading in the Epistle to the Romans in chapter nine? The Epistle to the Romans in chapter nine, beginning at verse one. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Ghost, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ, for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, whose is the adoption and the glory, and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises, whose are the fathers and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever, amen. But it is not as though the word of God has come to naught. For they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither because they are Abram's seed are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. And this is a word of promise. According to this season will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but Rebecca also, having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, even as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau have I hated. My first present duty here this morning is surely to thank you all warmly and most sincerely for your kindness in asking me to come along and have fellowship with you here once more. My second duty is surely to try to explain to you why I have chosen to speak on these difficult chapters. For as our chairman has just remarked, chapters nine, ten, and eleven of the Epistle to the Romans are some of the most difficult in all of Holy Scripture. One German theologian has remarked that traversing Romans nine to eleven is like traversing the north face of the Eiger in wintertime. Anybody could make a perilous and fatal slip. For this part of Scripture is a quarry from which learned theologians have extracted their massive blocks of theological masonry to build their imposing e- edifices of systematic theology, which alas, in the end, tend to conflict among themselves. And anybody who is rash enough to get caught up in the conflicts between the mighty theologians does so at the risk, if not of life and limb, certainly of his reputation. And I'm aware how many theologians sit before me. I make, gentlemen, no pretension to be, as you know, a systematic theologian, and as my discourse in these coming weeks will evidence that to you once again, I beg you to return to the prayers of your childhood and pity my simplicity. For I wish to discuss these chapters with you at an altogether different level. When we open at chapter nine of the Romans, we find that Paul, the great apostle, bears his innermost heart before us. Hitherto he has been discoursing to us about Christian doctrine, and all glorious it has been. But now the great apostle opens his heart and confides in us the inner feelings of his emotions. We discover that at the center of his heart there is a grievous burden, a perpetual sorrow, and a pain that constantly gnaws at his very vital. And that at first may surprise us. For in the previous chapter eight of this epistle, Paul has been leading us to great mountain tops of spiritual joy, bidding us join him in his joy in the Savior and in his God-given confidence that nothing shall ever separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so strong is his confidence that he can face life present and life to come, be it life or death, height, depths, or any other creature, and defy them all, confident that nothing shall separate him from the love of God. Such is the glory of the gospel that he bids us share. And now at once plunges headlong into the confession that he has at heart a terrible sorrow. And we notice that the sorrow is not simply in spite of the Christian gospel that he enjoys. There is a sense that this sorrow has been occasioned by the very gospel itself. For Paul has come to see that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the Savior. He is the Son of God who has loved him and given himself up for him, has died, has risen again and ascended to glory, and there is salvation in him and in none other. Therein lies a sorrow. For the very reasons that caused Paul to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory in the confidence of his own salvation. Remind him that multitudes of his fellow nationals, the Jews, reject and persist. And he is all too aware that if they continue in that attitude of heart, it must lead to disaster. For all I know, there sits here this morning somebody with a similar burden on his heart. You have come to rejoice in the Savior yourself, but some loved one of yours still rejects the Savior. And there's no pretending. But what if they continue so? It must lead to disaster. And for the very real reason that you love them with all your heart. Your joy in the Savior and in his salvation has another side to it. A perpetual sorrow of heart for your loved one that is lost. I shall never forget an elegant Spanish lady coming to me years ago. Her son had recently found the Savior and was rejoicing in his salvation and had persuaded Mama to come along to certain lectures that were being given. The lady was a widow. After some lectures, she came to me and said, but tell me please, my husband is dead. What has happened to my husband? If the gospel you preach is true, he's lost, isn't he? In vain all my attempts to try and say it is not given to us to know what finally transpires between the soul and God, as the soul finally departs this life and enters eternity. She would have none of it. Young man, she said, if your gospel is true, then my husband was not saved, that I know. How difficult for a woman to receive a gospel herself, when it had such implications for her loved one. We should be peculiar Christians indeed, if we could sit here rejoicing in our salvation and in our hearts say, let the world go hang, whoever is lost, I care not. I'm saved. What does it matter about the rest? Our interest will be to follow Paul as guided by the Holy Spirit he wrestles with this problem. And our delight it will be to see how God so reveals himself to Paul through the darknesses of life, the wonders, the glowing wonders of his wisdom, of his power, of his glory, and supremely of his mercy and his love. So that when Paul comes to the end of his contemplation of this problem, his heart is moved and carried up as though on eagle wings to adore the Almighty. Doesn't mean that Saul's sorrow will have vanished, but through that sorrow there will come the light of what God is really like, and discovering God again. Paul's pain will be eased. He shall discover that God, God is like this. Leave God to himself even. God, without anybody to advise him, without anybody to give him counsel, without anybody to plead with him, God is such that God will use all his infinite wisdom towards the saving of the maximum number of people it is possible for divine power and mercy to save. He has concluded all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. Our studies, therefore, shall be studies in the wisdom of God. Pray God that as we come to the end of them, we too may find our hearts lifted up into the wonders and the glories and the confidences of the superlative wisdom of an infinitely loving God. Paul's problem, of course, had more than a personal dimension. For he tells us at the opening of his letter to the Romans that this gospel that he preaches is witnessed to by the law and the prophets, that is, by the Old Testament Jewish scriptures. And indeed, the very way of salvation, how a man or woman can be right with God, being justified solely by faith, that is affirmed in the Old Testament. And the Old Testament is the very basis for that affirmation. You can imagine, therefore, the difficulty Paul would be in some evenings. Perhaps old Felix, who knows, or Festus, those two famous Roman governors. Perhaps on occasion, wanting a little bit of interest, they took Paul out of his cell, did they, of an evening and invited him to dinner quietly. And over the olives and the cheese, Felix maybe or Festus would begin to talk to Paul. Paul, old chap. Now, uh, do I get it right, this gospel of laws, this Jesus, you say he's the Messiah, don't you, Paul? Yes, that's right, I do, yes, yes. And you say that all this was written about in, in your holy book, the Old Testament? Yes, that's right, yes. And, and it's all come to pass exactly as the prophets said. Yes, that is true. Well, that's marvelous. And can you prove to me, Paul, that that Old Testament was written before Jesus Christ came? I can indeed. Hundreds of years before he came, it was written. That's extraordinary. And your claim is that Jesus fulfills it all? Yes. Ah. Tell me, says Felix, as he puckers up his nose, tell me, old chap, um, how many in Judaism believe like you do that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament? Well, uh, uh, not many. Oh, well, never mind, Paul. I'm not talking about the rabble, you know. I'm talking about the rabbis, the real experts who understand your holy book, the Old Testament, you know. How many of those experts agree with you that, uh, Jesus fulfills the Old Testament? Well, uh, let me see. Um, there's uh, now let me think, uh, well, there's Nicodemus. He agrees. Oh yes. Anybody else from the rabbis? Well, no. Oh, I see, Paul. I see. And Felix draws his own conclusions, as you well might if you were an unconverted Roman. How can Paul be right in saying that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament? If the vast majority of the Jewish rabbis say he doesn't. When it was the Jews that gave us the Old Testament. Obviously, if Paul has no answer to the question, here is a problem that might undermine the very foundation security of the gospel itself, or at least its credibility in the eyes of men. And when we stay with our problem a little longer, we shall find it goes even deeper. To show you how I must diverge a little at this point and remind you of the position of chapters nine, ten, and eleven in the great discourse that is the Epistle to the Romans. You've heard it many times that Romans deals with the great topic of salvation. As Paul himself announces in chapter one, I'm not ashamed of this gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. And if you should ask, but then Paul, why do I need to be saved anyway? And the rest of Paul's document is devoted to explaining why. Why do you need to be saved? In the first place, says Paul in his early chapters, you need to be saved because you, in common with us all, stand as a sinner under the wrath of God. A sinner, and not only a sinner, but a guilty sinner, proved such by God's holy law. But herein is a gospel worth preaching, a gospel that can save us from the guilt of sin and from the wrath of God against that sin. A gospel that saves us not by our merit, nor even by our improvement, but through the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we may have peace with God. And as Paul comes to the end of that part of his work, he takes on the implications of that great salvation, saved from the wrath of God, already peace with God, and a glorious future ahead. We shall attain to the very glory of God. We shall at last and forever be saved from the wrath of God. And when he has dealt with it sufficiently, as he feels, he turns to answer the question a second time. Why do you need to be saved? You need to be saved, he says, not only from the wrath of God, but from the fearful wreckage and moral and spiritual ruin that has been introduced into our human race by the sin of our forefather, Adam. The terrible dominion of sin, the awful tyranny of death. And when people thought that the law of God could save us from those two tyrannies, then it turned out that the law of God couldn't save us and proved in itself a kind of a tyranny and a dominion and a slavery. We need therefore to be saved from this bondage, this wreckage induced by Adam's sin, and thank God for a gospel so wonderfully glorious that it can save us now. And when it comes to its great conclusion, says Paul, it shall deliver not only us, it shall deliver creation herself from her bondage to corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. And what a day shall it be when creation groans no more, and tyrannies of sin and death and the law are behind us forever. A lovely gospel. Who would be ashamed of it? But now here in chapter nine, Paul begins another great part of his work and shows us the early stages of this great plan of redemption. When God determined to save us by sending his son, he didn't send him all of a sudden, did he, one Tuesday afternoon without any warning. What use would it have been? What use if God sent his son to call upon men to be reconciled with God, if men had gone so far into idolatry that they didn't even know what God was like? What good God sending his son to die for us, if we hadn't been prepared by all sorts of illustrations and pictures and experiences to see the need of the death of Christ and to see what the significance of that death would be. So in the wisdom of God, God started long, long since the early stages for the redemption of mankind, and it was this. He summoned out from the mass of the Gentiles a man called Abraham, and began from him a brand new nation that had never had, never had existed before. It wasn't that God was saying there weren't anybody else saved in the whole world except Abraham. Of course, there were still multitudes of people that were saved. Melchizedek the priest was one shining example of a Gentile that was saved. When the nations at large were beginning to sink into idolatry, God began again and took out Abraham and gave him a special status before God and gave that special status to all his seed. As Paul remarks here, Israel, the first thing to get about them is this, whose is the adoption, that is the placing as sons. May not mean son in the sense that we evangelicals are used to, uh, uh, uh, employing the term. But listen to God speaking to Pharaoh. Pharaoh, he says, let Israel go. Israel is my firstborn. So God gave Abraham and his seed this special status before God to be sons of God. Then God did a marvelous thing, almost too marvelous to believe. The transcendent Lord came down into space and time, positioned himself on Mount Sinai and revealed himself to Israel in all the splendor of his glory. So making his mark in our world, that this world isn't a closed shop. It isn't just a closed system of materialism. There is a transcendent Lord, and that transcendent Lord has intervened in the course of history. Let Mr. Gorbachev remember it. Has intervened, stood on Mount Sinai, and presents himself in the tabernacle and temple of Israel. What a story it is. You believe it, sir? That as that little tribe went across the wilderness, the very glory of the unseen God shone in their midst. Here was the very beginning of redemption. And God made his promise to that people that through them, through Abram and his seed, should all the nations of the world be blessed. What a marvelous revelation given us it was in his holy law given to Israel, unique among all the nations of men, that it might serve as our schoolmaster to show us our need and to bring us to Christ for salvation when Christ came. Here then were the promises and the covenants with this special nation, a special vehicle of the knowledge of God, through many a century, preparing the way for the Lord Jesus, of whom at length, according to the flesh, came the Messiah. And now? We say, unfortunately, the whole scheme has gone astray, sir. For the very nation chosen out by God, thus to be his witness and to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, the whole nation has rebelled and rejected the Savior and declares to the world that Jesus is not the Messiah nor Savior of the world. Say, that's a funny pickle to be in, isn't it? It was bad enough when Adam sinned and went and ruined the whole creation. Now we face a deeper problem. God began to prepare the way of redemption. But if the early stage of redemption has gone astray and the whole thing has come to nothing, what ground would there be for thinking that there's anything in the story of redemption at all? It is no mere academic problem, therefore, that Paul faces, as he writes to us these chapters nine, ten, and eleven of his epistle to the Roman. You'll say, Mr. Preacher, I've got the answer to the problem. Oh yes, because I don't think about it. Huh? Well, I see what you mean. Yes, you say, you see, I'm saved myself, and uh, I don't bother my head about these things. You'll see. I'm saved and on my way to heaven, so I don't trouble about the Jews or all these funny things that you've been talking about this morning. I have simple faith, my dear brother. Oh, God bless you. I'm delighted to tell you that your simple faith will prove to be valid, because the gospel is one hundred percent sound and valid. There are some of us who, if we were escaping from the, uh, skyscraper down a fireman's ladder, would like to be assured that the bottom of the ladder was secured. And I can't think that there are many of you in this modern world who are prepared to trust the gospel without examining whether it be secure or not. What then is the answer to the problem? And this I may say, for I shall not this morning have time to discuss the answer with you. I have spent my time elaborating the problem. I'm under your discipline as well as Paul's. Now this I can say, that unless you are prepared to face the problem, you won't find the solution, will you? They only who see the problem will come to see the wisdom of the God who solves the problem. And seeing the wisdom of God and his solution to the problem, their hearts shall be moved to profound worship of God, as was Paul's when he meditated upon these things. I can enjoy a daisy in the simplicity of my childhood, and my enjoyment is valid. But if I am able to look behind the scenes, by the aid of my botanist and biologist friends, then there awaits me a marvel of the wisdom of God in creation that will make my world glow all the more brighter with the glory of the world that God has made and put me in. I may be saved by simple faith this very moment in the Savior. If I will allow the great apostle to take my hand and lead me behind the scenes and consider the problems that there face us, and lead me through by God's Holy Spirit to God's divine solutions. And likewise, my heart will be lifted up and my mind fortified and exhilarated by such exhibition of the marvels of God's character. I shall deepen my faith and make my worship the more profound. God grant it may be so for his name's sake. Amen.