Standing in Grace

Transcript

GR 2218
10/06/2019
Standing in Grace
Romans 5:1-5
Gil Rugh

We’re going to look into the opening verses of Romans chapter 5. Then I’m going to take a little bit of time to talk about some areas that relate to what we’ve been talking about, in the morning and the evening. Then if we have time, I’ll open it up for questions, see how the time goes. And if I do open it up for questions, it will depend on you, cause I left my folder of questions on my desk at home. So, you can think about a question, but if we run out of time, keep thinking about it, maybe you’ll have an answer for me. Alright, we’re going to Romans 5. We couldn’t be in any more of a crucial part of the word of God then the book of Romans, where Paul walks us through the gospel which is the power of God for salvation. And as I’ve made reference to in our sermons, there seems to be an erosion and a drift away from the clarity of understanding, what is the gospel. Now, if the church is confused on what the gospel is, who will present the gospel to the world? The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth. We’re called to be giving out the truth of the gospel. So, very, very crucial, we don’t want to take for granted that we’re believers, we’ve been saved a long time, we know the gospel. But we must know it thoroughly. God didn’t work through the all details for us, using His servant Paul, to walk through the gospel in such a detailed way, if it wasn’t very important for us to understand the details of this gospel. There’s no room for diversion or variance. I was reading a journal article before I came in tonight, talking about the departure from the authority of the scripture, the full inspiration of the scripture, happening in an evangelical seminary. So, very important for us.

He started out by laying the foundation of sin. We can’t look to be popular in the world because telling people they are sinners is not popular, it never has been but its truth. If you don’t have an understanding as a believer, of the seriousness of sin, you’ll be soft on the rest of the gospel. So, we walk through that and Paul is clear. The whole world is under condemnation, everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is guilty and condemned as guilty by God. In chapter 3:21, he started to unfold the truth of the provision of God’s righteousness for those guilty sinners, which encompasses everyone. God’s righteousness has been provided, not by works that we do, for the Jews keeping the law, or what anybody else would come up with, but the righteousness of God provided through the death of Christ.

And then in chapter 4, He used Abraham as an example. How is this righteousness credited to us? He talked about it in verses 21 and following in chapter 3 but now He illustrates it, by an example. Because, remember the point at the end of chapter 3? There is one God, there can only be one way of salvation. So, lets go back in Old Testament history and find out how God saved a man. Abraham would of course have an impact for the Jews and the truth concerning Him is recorded for the benefit of us all, as we saw in chapter 4. And he walked through in some detail, showing that Abraham was declared righteous by God before he was circumcised, so circumcision can’t be part of salvation. Abraham was saved 500 years before God gave the Ten Commandments that summarize the Mosaic Law, 613 commandments. So, keeping the Mosaic Law can’t be required because if there is only one God, there can only be one way of salvation. Genesis 15:6 made that clear, Abraham believed God. God spoke, Abraham believed God, believed that God would do what He said, what He promised, and God declared him righteous. We noted that has ramifications for today. What do you want to add? Did Abraham get baptized? Those kind of things.

It’s by faith alone, so he walked us through in chapter 4 of these great truths. Basically told us what faith meant, in verse 21, he was “fully assured that what God had promised He was able to perform.” So, we believe God, God promised, we believe He’ll do what He promised. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, in order whosoever believes in Him, might not perish but have everlasting life. We believe God, we believe God will do what He promised, to rescue us from our perishing and provide forgiveness and cleansing, and because of faith in Christ.

All of this, we’re told in the following verses, verse 23 to the close of the chapter, “not for his sake only, was it written that it was credited to him,” he just quoted that portion of Genesis 15:6, it was credited to him as righteousness, “but for our sake also.” So, you see Abraham was about 2,000 BC. So 2,000 years later, Paul writes to the Romans and says what God recorded about Abraham in the Old Testament was for our benefit. We’re 2,000 years further along after Paul wrote it to the Romans, to round off these numbers, it’s recorded for our benefit. We are expected to understand this, grasp it. God walked through rather extensive unfolding of this truth. How gracious He is! He just didn’t say, Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness, there it was, written.

But now, God takes and unfolds even in detail for us, and it was written for our sake also, to whom it will be credited. Something that will be applied to your account, that is not inherently yours. It doesn’t belong to you inherently, but it is applied to you. That’s what it means to be credited, logizomai (Greek), it’s applied to your account, it’s not something that is yours, by something you do or by some right you have, but it is credited to your account. Verse 24, “as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” It’s the truths of the gospel, the message of Christ, His death, burial and resurrection. We believe in the God who raised Christ from the dead. You can’t believe in God without believing these truths that He has made known. Abraham couldn’t believe God and not believe what God said and what God promised. We can’t truly believe in God and not believe what God promised, what God said. It’s Christ who was raised from the dead by the power of God.

And note this, it explains how gracious God is. I believe He was raised from the dead. Well, look at verse 25, the one who was raised from the dead, “He who was delivered up because of our transgressions.” Now you understand, He went to the cross for all our transgressions and then He was raised because He had accomplished what was necessary for us to be declared righteous by God. So, that’s what’s involved when it says in verse 24, “those who believed in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” What is the significance of the resurrection of Christ? Well, Christ took our place, paid our penalty. There should be no confusion on this. God said before, the death of Christ saved no one, that’s what the scripture is saying. It’s credited to us who believe and until a person believes, they are dead in their sins and lost. “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”

Because everything that could be done and had to be done, was done. That’s what was said back in chapter 3:21, where the righteousness of God has been manifested, revealed and made known. And he explains, the righteousness of God which comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, there’s no distinction, all have sinned. We are being justified, declared righteous as a gift by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood. It’s His death, that’s what the blood represents. We use it today, we talk about bloodshed, referring to death. And it’s demonstrating His righteousness. So, this all comes together in such a beautiful, clear package, that God has walked us through. The details of how He provided righteousness, His righteousness for us, by the death of Christ on the cross, the resurrection of Christ. Now God can justly forgive us, declare us righteous.

So, you note, chapter 5 opens up, “therefore.” So, we’re going to build out in light of this, here’s the follow-through. Step by step, piece by piece God walks us through this. Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith.” Now, again remember faith in and of itself does nothing. We hear this terminology, well, people of faith but if you believe a lie, your faith is worthless. I was invited to a meeting of a variety of religious leaders, I mentioned to you before, and it was characterized as people of faith getting together to pray for things like racial justice. Well, people of faith, doesn’t mean anything. Everybody who is involved in any religion anywhere has faith, in the provision of that religion and those people who pride themselves in not having faith, believe that what they believe is what’s true. But believing a lie, does nothing.

So, “having been justified by faith,” what kind of faith? The faith we just talked about, the faith in the God who has manifested and revealed His provision by which He can credit His righteousness to us. How? By believing God will do what He said. What did he say? Tell a person you’re sharing the gospel with, if you will place your faith in Jesus Christ, He’ll cleanse you from your sin, forgive you, credit His righteousness to your account for time and eternity. How can that be? I don’t know, the all mighty God does it. I believe what He promised. I can walk you through the details but that supernatural spiritual transaction, only God can carry out.

Verse 1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What great truths are presented here. “Having been justified by faith,” until we are justified by faith, we do not have peace with God. We are the enemies of God, we are the objects of God’s wrath and condemnation, we are children of the devil, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. What Paul talked about in the opening chapters of Revelation, were true of us. But now we have peace with God, there is nothing between God and me, God and you, as a believer. Remember, back in chapter 3 verse 25, God displayed Christ as a propitiation, the one who would turn away God’s wrath from us by paying our penalty. So, that is applied to us, so I’m no longer the objects of God’s wrath, because the work of Christ is credited to me, so now the righteousness of God is applied to me. What a beautiful statement, having been justified by faith we have peace with God. Until you are justified by faith there is no peace with God. God says there is no peace, says my God to the wicked, Isaiah the prophet wrote. We are not the friends of God, we have no access to God. Our prayers, we have no way to come to God. I don’t want to get together with unbelievers for a prayer meeting. God says we can’t come to Him except through Jesus Christ, the high priest who represents us and has applied the necessary sacrifice for us. You have to have peace with God, and that only comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this very narrowness makes true biblical Christianity (what do I say?) very unacceptable to the world. You know, we’re supposed to be open and accepting of everything. But this truth, there’s only one way, Jesus said, “I’m the way, the truth, and the life.

So, then he’s going to elaborate in verse 2, “through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace.” And some of you probably have marked in your Bibles, when we went through at least on one occasion when we were studying this section and marked all the uses of the word faith or believe. In this section beginning in chapter 3 verse 21 and all the way down to the opening verses of chapter 5 verse 2, it’s faith, it’s faith, that’s what he’s emphasizing, there’s nothing else, it’s believing God. We’ve been justified by faith and it’s through Christ, that “we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.” We stand in the grace of God, our justification. We have been introduced to it, we’ve been brought into it. It’s not where we were, but through faith in Christ we experience the power of the gospel of grace which is God’s power for salvation. And we have been saved by grace through faith, as Ephesians 2:8 and following talks about. The truth so clearly and consistently emphasized. “Through whom,” referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, “also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.” This is the position we have and I have it by virtue of my faith in what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross and His resurrection is the seal and guarantee that that work has been accomplished and done. Now a believer has the seal of the Spirit, as Ephesians 1 says, in his own heart and mind. Well, you get to see it’s a complete salvation. We stand in grace now. And as we’ve referred to in Ephesians 2, and we will be trophies of God’s grace for eternity. I am no longer on the road to hell, under the wrath of God, cut off from Him and His grace. I stand in grace, this is the realm in which I live, I am now the object of His care and His love. It doesn’t get any better than this.

“And we exult in hope of the glory of God.” It’s not done, but you note, we stand in grace. That’s why part of what we would talk about if we were going to develop the doctrine of eternal security. We stand in grace, I don’t have to earn my way to stay here. I’ve been brought into the realm of God’s grace and that will carryout and encompass my sanctification as well as my justification. And he’ll pick up explaining our sanctification when we get to chapter 6 and how we now live as those who stand in grace. This grace is an ongoing grace that includes in the salvation we received, the new life and the enablement for living that new life. And he will develop that in just as much detail when we look into chapters 6, 7 and 8. God walks us through. These are truths that He wants impressed upon us and understand, and every detail is important. When Christians begin to become lax and put themselves in situations where they are not taught the Word, pretty soon we just end up with a general idea and knowledge. But every detail is important so that we don’t become confused and led astray.

“We exult in hope of the glory of God.” That’s what God has promised for our future. He’s going to talk about that in chapter 8, and the groaning we do and we’re looking forward to the redemption of the body. That’s included in the package, if I can put it this way, of the salvation that we’ve received, as is our sanctification, as is our glorification. But it’s not all been experienced yet. We have been justified, declared righteous, set apart by God for Himself. It involves sanctification and that process now of maturing and growing is going on and will culminate with our glorification as Paul will talk about in Romans chapter 8. So we exult in the hope. Hope is something we don’t have yet, he is going on to talk about this. Of the glory of God, that’s the ultimate end, and we’ll be in the presence of His glory.

“And not only this,” not only this. We exult in the hope of the glory of God “but we also exalt in our tribulations.” A little easier for me to grasp exulting in the hope of the glory of God, basking as I think of the wonder of what it will be like, to be glorified in the glory of His presence and experience all that He has promised for those who love Him. Enter into the inheritance that He has promised us. Now we’re back to the reality like we’re talking about in our study of Ecclesiastes, the world we’re in right now. As believers who have been rescued from their lostness and have been credited with the righteousness of God, and have the hope of the culmination of what He’s promised. But now, here’s where we’re living.

But, it doesn’t cast water on the whole thing. I exult in my hope and I exult now, because everything going on. And we’re back to what Ecclesiastes talked about that, remember the sovereign God, it’s not under our control, but it’s under His control. You know the statement that we use, I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future, that’s the idea. Well, here’s where I am and here’s what I’m going through, and He’s sovereign and He’ll get me there because His hand is holding me, as we looked at in Ecclesiastes, His hand is on me. Not only this, we can exult, glory, because now I belong to Him. I stand in grace and He is working in my life so that everything that He sees fit to bring into my life is for my good and His glory.

God causes all things to work together for good. Tribulations, and tribulations have a purpose, God doesn’t rescue us out immediately. We exult in our tribulations, difficulties, trials, those things that press in upon us. You know, we talk about, boy, I’m under a lot of pressure. Tribulation would be a word that means that you’re under the pressure, whatever kind it comes, the stress it brings. Again, Ecclesiastes is part of life in a fallen world. And it comes in all kind of ways. Sometimes directed toward us because we’re believers, but there’s pressures that are just part of living in a fallen world before we’re really redeemed. But we exult in our tribulations. Whatever pressures God brings we know, we know that tribulation brings about perseverance, there’s a purpose for it.

This is what concerns me, when believers are too quick to get away from something that is unpleasant. I don’t mean we have a martyr’s complex or I’m looking to suffer. But, you know, I have to stop and consider, first, am I doing what You would have me do, where You want me to be? And then I’ve got to ride this through. We sing it in the songs and hear it and that’s it. And you go through it and you know what? Brings about perseverance and perseverance is good, it’s the ability to stay with it under pressure. It’s what it means, this word translated perseverance, it’s a compound word and it means you’re living under pressure. That’s part of life and part of learning to live with life. The world keeps saying, you ought not to have to do a job you don’t enjoy. It’s not real life in the fallen world. Adam and Eve had it in the garden until they sinned but since that, tribulations, God brings them in to strengthen us. It’s like you raise your children. If you raise your children in a ‘hothouse’ kind of setting where we want to protect them from everything, and they get out into the world they’re not prepared for life. How often do you tell your kids? Well, you know everything in life is not pleasant. Some things you have to learn to do because they’re important that you do them. You can’t just do what you like. You can’t just do what you would want to do. I don’t want to go to school today. Well, it doesn’t matter, you have to do it.

Pressure, pressure brings about perseverance. What does perseverance do? It brings about proven character. Proven character is a word that is used in a variety of ways. It could be used of metals that have been put through the fire to burn off the dross so you come out with more pure gold, a purer gold or a purer silver or metals like that, things that are tested. So that you are refined, we are purified, we are strengthened. Proven character, character that has passed the test. As we use the word, we have ‘weathered saints,’ saints that have been through the battles, through the struggles, they didn’t bail out under pressure. There’s a strengthening that comes from that. You know what we’re talking about, you’ve been through it. It refines our character and it strengthens you. When you come through that there’s a sense of satisfaction in the right sense. You say, thank you, Lord, for the grace that brought me through it. You realize you’re stronger as a believer. That’s what God is doing, He’s strengthening our character. Paul says in writing to the Corinthians who are always having conflict with divisions and everything else, he says there must be divisions among you so that those who, and he uses this word, pass the test, become more evident.

I want to see the trials in my life as a refining process. Here we go. I don’t necessarily like it. Obviously trials are trials, they’re afflictions, or they wouldn’t be afflictions and trials, but they have a refining process. It’s causing me to learn to trust the Lord in another situation, in a greater way. I don’t want to miss that opportunity, I don’t want to be an untried Christian. You can’t be, because this is what God does to His children, that’s why it’s brought in here. Now that I’ve been declared righteous I just have to coast home. No! That’s what he’s talking about.

Perseverance produces proven character; and proven character, hope. That sharpens our focus on our hope, doesn’t it? Helps us to “set our mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.”(Colossians 3:2) We have to deal with the things on earth but that helps sharpen my attention and appreciate Ecclesiastes, these things are all temporary. My ultimate goal that I’m going towards is something beyond what this world has to offer, so I put those things in perspective. That’s why people say you get your hope on eschatology and future things and then you lose. No, that sharpens your perspective, That’s what God wants us to do as we work through here, He doesn’t want us to forget about what He’s promised. Paul uses athletic contests and battles because you’re going toward the goal. He told the Corinthians I want to be approved when I get to the end. You want to hear ‘well done’ like he uses at the end of his life, near the end, “I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, in the future there’s laid up for me a crown.”(II Timothy 4:7) He’s a victor. There’s the joy and satisfaction i that.

That’s why we can exalt in tribulations, that process, I even see the goal more clearly than I did. A new believer, immature, and as a weathered saint, a proven saint over the years of time, you come along to help them because at first when tribulation comes they may be unsettled and disoriented. You say, “That’s alright, you’ll get through this.” “How do you know?” “I’ve been through it, so that’s what the Lord is doing in your life, you’ll come through stronger. Don’t quit, don’t look just to bail, stay with it.” Remember, that’s where Ecclesiastes ties in to all of this, day by day, as other portions of the Scripture as well.

This hope does not disappoint, it doesn’t disappoint. Well, centuries go by and you keep saying Christ is coming to earth, the Lord is coming. Yes, He is, and yes, you’re going to go to heaven when you die and everybody else is going to hell. You’re(God) the only one that is right. God is always right. His hope does not disappoint, I believe He’ll do what He promised, that’s what He said up in verse 21. Faith really is, of chapter 4, “being fully assured that what God had promised He was able also to perform.” I entered into that life of faith when I first placed by faith in Christ as my Savior, you did too. Now we live a life of faith, I am fully convinced, I am more sure with every passing day that He’ll do what He promised. My hope has gotten stronger, clearer, surer. It was always settled, but for me and my experience and walk and confidence, it gives me stability. So I’m not blown this way and this way. And this what I hear influencing me one way and then something else comes and influences me. Stability, stability.

Hope does not disappoint. Why? “Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to us.” I think he’s talking about God’s love for us here, not our love for God, because that’s the context. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”(John 3:16) It’s “not that we loved God but that He loved us.”(I John 4:10) So what has he been talking about? The provision of Christ to be a propitiation to turn away God’s wrath from us, to take our place, to pay our penalty so we could be forgiven and credited with God’s righteousness. That’s the love of God. So that’s what he’s talking about here. It’s “poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” You come to appreciate and marvel at God’s love. He’ll mention this and go back to it in verse six. We’re not going to go into that but “while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” That’s what he’s talking about. He swings back to that again because it’s all about Christ, it’s all about Him and what He has done. The marvel of who He is. God’s love for us, there is no greater love, this is the love He has for us. That love has been poured out within our hearts, we have been the recipients of that love. How amazing! There was nothing lovable about us. We don’t want to lose sight of that. Ecclesiastes, every thought of our heart was only evil continually. We were just as crazy in sin. The pure irrationality of a life lived in rebellion against God as anyone. God’s loved us as we were and intervened on our behalf, important to realize this. I’ve been through it so many times, but easy to get to the point where, “well, I know I’m a sinner but I never was a sinner like them.” Well, maybe in God’s common grace we never did get to the depths of some people. But as God looks at my heart, He saw a heart that was just as depraved. Just because someone manifests their sin a way that is more obvious my pride and rebellion against God was just as real.

So it poured out “within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” God packs the theology in here of what God has done and what was provided in Christ. How it is applied to us by faith. What that means for now, our daily life, so we can face the trials and tribulations in a different way because we can see the hand of God in it. And I see His love for me in it. I’m suffering but He loves me. He’s refining me because He’s preparing me for glory. A work that only He can do and I begin to grow in the appreciation of His love through the ministry of the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us.

You know, we haven’t come to anything yet on social action, racial justice, or all these things that people are corrupting the gospel with. It’s a great concern so I want to talk a little bit about these things that are making their way, again and again, into the evangelical church. So we’ll break off here, but we’ll walk through the rest of chapter five and then we’ll be ready for more clear development of the doctrine of sanctification. Just gives us a touch of it with ‘we stand in grace, we exalt in tribulation’ and what is going on. That will get more fully developed for us so we appreciate the completeness of what God has done for us in Christ.

Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of our salvation. Lord, we want to grow in our appreciation, in our understanding. It’s not just, oh yeah, I trusted Christ and I’m thankful for my salvation. Lord the wonder of it gets a bigger hold on us. We appreciate it more and we grow deeper and stronger in every way. That’s the way we want to continue in developing individually and as a church. Bless the rest of the evening, the things we talk about, in Christ’s name. Amen.

Certain things go on that impact the evangelical church and are a great concern. The devil doesn’t always do something new. He’s brilliant, I will not take anything away from the wonder of his powers that God gave to him when He created him, and even as a fallen being he has. But he keeps recycling things. Some of you have been doing some studying in neo-evangelicalism. I was reading an article in a journal. He was talking about the resurgence of neo-evangelicalism. There are things going on in the world today that are just amazing. Certain things happened as we’ve talked about in connection with what we call neo-evangelicalism. Men decided they wanted to have a socially involved church and a scholarly accepted identity in the unbelieving world and didn’t want to be viewed as narrow and closed off to other ideas. So they then began to reshape their theology to fit what they wanted it to be. One of the ways we identify that is neo-evangelicalism, but it was really the devil corrupting evangelicalism and it did. The cycle goes on. In this whole area of social action, racial justice is ballooning. That’s why this article was talking about its resurgence, an article that appeared in the journal I think it was four years ago. I was just reading it again, it’s a reminder it doesn’t go away, there are things that are going on.

There are several things I want to go over with you but just I see a pattern. In the academic world they want to provide a theological foundation for what they’re doing so they redefine the kingdom. We’re in the kingdom and in the kingdom you should do social work. They break down the identity of Israel and the Church, so the Church has the same responsibility as Israel. Israel had social responsibility and governing responsibilities and so on, so we ought to be involved in that in our world. Everything gets blended. But you know what happens? This keeps getting pumped out and pretty soon people begin to accept these things without even considering the foundation. Look at counseling, there were days, about 30 years or more ago, we battled the issue of psychology and the Bible. Nowadays, churches just think its normal. We have counseling, we do this, we do it. They don’t even talk about the theological foundation for it. It’s just something we do as a church. This comes with things like social involvement, racial justice, equality and so on.

Pretty soon it seems like all the churches are doing it, all the Bible-believing churches, so we don’t even think about what is the foundation. That concerns me because that just becomes a tide. Sort of like your kids. They start to do something you don’t approve of and they say, “Well, all my friends do it” as though that makes it acceptable now. That happens in the church. Pretty soon people are saying, “Well, those believers do it.” That’s why we keep coming back to the Word and say, “What does the Word say?”

Just some comments of the development of this. Two men wrote an article in a theological journal, another theological journal, several years ago, I think this came out of 2014. One of them was Joel James. Some of you may remember Joel James, he attended here until he went off to seminary and then for the last twenty years or so he’s been in South Africa in a church doing mission work there. He wrote about the impact of this whole social movement among evangelicals and the corruption. I’m not going to read all of that. I’m going to see if I can just pick out a point of what’s going on. I ran some articles, so I didn’t have to bring the journal. One of the things, as an aside, just let me read this from one of the evangelical Christians that was a leader in promoting this social movement, John Stott, and he’s had great influence. He said, “We should be involved for better social structures in which peace, dignity, freedom, and justice is secured for all men.” Now listen to this. “And there is no reason why in pursuing this quest we should not join hands with all men of good will, even if they’re not Christians.” You see where this begins to go. We’ve got to improve the social conditions of the world, the racial injustices in the world. We can join hands with anyone who shares this same conviction. You see we just wash out what is unique about the church anymore. We can join hands, he’s not embarrassed to put this in writing.

“To sum up, we are sent into the world like Jesus to serve so our service is we are going to improve the world, its social conditions, its racial conditions,” and on it goes. Joel James and the other man that writes with him, who is also a missionary in the same area, and pastors a church there, says, “What this has done to the church is now we have missionaries coming out but they’re not coming out to share the gospel and lead people to Christ. They’re coming out to do social work, to help orphans, to meet medical needs, to do all these things.” And he says, “It is destroying the church in Africa where we’re serving.” I read the testimony in his book I was reading on it. And there’s the testimony of a missionary and she says all the social work she’s doing, and in it she says, “But in all this time I’ve never led anybody to Christ. But I am totally occupied with trying to help these.” This is what’s it has become, it’s become a social work program, the world approves it, it has an impact. What they’ve done and what has happened and this has happened over time, and some of you have studied the details, John Stott and some of these others, and they were leading evangelicals and this is what takes me back. Some of what John Stott wrote, and he acknowledges, “I changed my thinking, I used to think the work of the church was presenting the gospel and proclaiming God’s truth, but,” he writes, “I’ve changed. Now I realize the gospel is like a bird with two wings,” some of the examples he uses. “One wing is the death and resurrection of Christ. The other wing is social action and if you’re not doing both you are not doing the gospel.” You know what happens when you add something to the gospel. We didn’t find social action yet in Romans. You corrupt the gospel and he builds it all on a verse out of John 20, “As the Father sent Me, so send I you,” Jesus said to His disciples that meeting in the upper room after. Instead of saying I’m sending you with the authority like God sent Me with authority, when Jesus came to earth He did social work. He healed the sick, the blind, He feed the 5000, so we should be doing what Jesus did, we should be out doing social things. Now, you think, well, John Stott was an Anglican and he parted ways with Martyn Lloyd-Jones back in the sixties because Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who pastored Westminster Chapel, took a stand and said, “You believing Anglicans should leave the Anglican church, it’s too corrupt!” John Stott went to war against Martyn Lloyd-Jones over that, it ended their relationship.

What concerns me, I get theological journals, I don’t know why, I used to read the book reviews, now I can’t even understand the book reviews. But I’ve been getting Bib Sac, Bibliotheca Sacra, it’s ‘Bib Sac,’ since the 1960’s. I used to enjoy it more than I do now, but every year Dallas Seminary has a series of lectures called the “W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures.” Griffith Thomas has written some commentaries, a commentary on Romans. These lectures started out to be like on expository teaching and so on. Now they’re printing in a four-part series this man’s lectures given in the chapel to the faculty and student body at Dallas Seminary. This one and this was from the July-September 2019 journal, “The Heart of God and Social Engagement.” “This article,” and this is the third article in his four part series, “this article turns its attention to the heart of God as it pertains to the needs of the world. More specifically, those who are suffering from injustice, intolerance, discrimination, and prejudice. I’m not addressing the topic of social justice, I’m calling it social engagement.” But, you know, he’s disguising, its social action whether you want to call it social justice, social engagement. “Throughout the Old Testament we read of God’s heart towards those who are oppressed, imprisoned, treated unfairly, homeless, sex trafficked, and enslaved by economic systems that favor the rich over the poor. This is what the Old Testament is about.” His hermeneutics are atrocious. He’s speaking at Dallas Seminary where Dallas men and their books, and men who have graduated from there who were my teachers. What has happened?

And he just quotes then a couple of pages of Old Testament passages where God is instructing Israel about their responsibility. Now, remember, Israel is an earthly nation, it has a governmental structure, it has a social structure, it has a religious center around which everything is built. So quoting all these verses and then he summarizes. “God’s heart is acutely tender to the plight of those who find themselves oppressed, mistreated, hungry, imprisoned, homeless, poor, fatherless, immigrants in foreign lands, traffic or victims of unfair employment practices.” This is what the church needs to be aware of. If you want to have the heart of God, this is what you have to have. Again, this is not from a liberal. You think of, where do you find dispensational theology? Read Charles Ryrie’s “Dispensationalism Today.” I just picked up a book of a professor who’s since retired but it’s a dispensational theology of the Bible. Somewhere along the line we have lost our way. This is now what it’s about? We’re going to become involved in the oppressed, the mistreated, the hungry, the imprisoned, the homeless, the poor, the fatherless, the immigrants in foreign land, trafficked or victims of unfair employment practices?

I don’t know how much time we’re going to have for the Word. You put these things together with the Word and you won’t have it. As far as I can tell the only scripture he uses he misuses. He goes on, I’m not reading, I’m just jumping in to this. “If we know in no uncertain terms that the heart of God is directed toward the plight of the poor, the hungry, the trafficked, the orphan, the widow, unborn, persecuted, imprisoned, the immigrant and those who have been treated unjustly, what is our response?” It’s like I’ve already proved the point. This is where the heart of God is as I quoted those verses. It doesn’t matter if I quoted them in context or not or interpreted them right. I’ve quoted them so we’ve settled, that’s the heart of God. Now, are you going to be where the heart of God is? Well, then you’ll be involved with the plight of the poor, the hungry, the trafficked, the orphan, the widow, the unborn, the persecuted, the imprisoned, the immigrant, those who have been treated unjustly.

What is our response? “Many of those who read these verses of the Old Testament, and they’re not hidden from anyone who’s read through the pages of scripture have come to believe that since the world is going to burn up in the end anyway, why bother?” Now here he begins to attack those who believe the rapture of the church. He’s doing this in the chapel at Dallas Seminary. “I grew up in the hippie generation which subsequently transitioned into the Jesus Movement. We were raised on a steady diet of teaching about the rapture.” That was the problem. That teaching turned us away from realizing that we ought to be focused on the social needs of people. Because we thought that, well, the world’s going to burn up and we’re leaving so don’t bother helping people. “Why feed a hungry child if they were going to die tomorrow anyway? What is then more important is to ensure their eternal home since they were so close to going there. It was for this reason that the evangelical church placed greater emphasis on evangelism then on social engagement.”

If I was a professor there, that’s why I couldn’t be a professor, I’d have been up screaming, “Get him off the platform, get him out of here!” Professors at Dallas Seminary sit and listen to this? I’m not on attack of Dallas Seminary but what it reminds me of is this is where the evangelical church is going, in the churches in our city, it’s a matter of how many. I look at where the men get their training, what the doctrinal statement is, I’m concerned! The more it spread, the more it backs up because everybody has friends, if they’re believers, professing believers, in other churches, if they begin to drift. Why are they so thoughtful? Why is Indian Hills so narrow? That’s not what caused the move to social movement, it wasn’t that. When Carl F. H. Henry and George Eldon Ladd were developing a new view of the kingdom so they could have social action they rejected dispensationalism. Because they rejected it, because they didn’t like literal interpretation, because that left you narrow. It didn’t allow room for the social action like they wanted and the scholarly engagement out there to have the recognition of the world. It left you too narrow because you were saying, “This is right and everything else is wrong.” It was for this reason the evangelical world, note this, “placed greater emphasis on evangelism than on social engagement.” You see what he’s done? The problem was they placed greater emphasis on evangelism than social engagement, you shouldn’t put greater emphasis on evangelism, that was an error. For them it’s equal. Now again, this is what’s going on in the evangelical world and we’re not removed from it. That’s why I get concerned when people leave Indian Hills. Where are you going? What’s the church…? Well, they’re covenantal as well as some are dispensational, they have a mixture, they’re open. How can you survive there?

When we were in a denomination that was mixed we couldn’t survive because they thought we ought to get socially involved. But our theology said that’s not what God has directed us to do. And so pretty soon you yield. I don’t know what any dispensationalist left at Dallas are doing. Dallas didn’t deal with it. John Walvoord, I was back in the early nineties, he was retired as the president, but he was speaking at a meeting I was at. Somebody asked him about two of the professors there who were drifting away from the literal, grammatical, consistent hermeneutics. John Walvoord slammed his hand down on the desk and said, “I’d fire them!” Well, they didn’t and it continues. These guys, they quote Liberation Theology but of course we don’t go as far as they went. And you know, liberation theology developed in Latin America in the sixties and seventies. You know who started it? Two Roman Catholic priests! That we have to develop a social program. It impacted the Catholic Church to become even more social and more politically active. And now he said, “Well, we don’t want to go as far as Liberation Theology because Liberation Theology blurred the lines between social engagement and political revolution.”

Then this man, he’s speaking in the chapel at Dallas Seminary, gives example of the church that he is part of. They realized that if we’re going to get accepted in the community we have to start social programs so they started a non-profit organization. They have a clinic for women who have no medical insurance. They’ve now owned apartment complex to house the homeless and abused women and their children and another home for trauma counseling and college-level education to twelve ladies so that they’ll be able to get a job. And since the church is growing and taking in more money this is an example, see, when you do these things the church will grow. Oh, my antacids, which pocket are they in? Then he uses his pastor as an example, this pastor acted out of the conviction that there are certain non-negotiable and irrevocable fundamentals for the church. One of these is social engagement with the points of pain in their city. Now after all that’s been done and this brief life is over, they’re going to hell. It doesn’t matter whether they lived in Malady Village or Hollywood. This is how quickly things go down. When I graduated from Bible college, and I know some of you got white hair, you’re not that far away from me, they recommended three seminaries in the country. And since eleven of the professors were from Dallas that was number one. Go get it from the horse’s mouth. I told them I’ve already been in the horse’s mouth, I don’t want any more, I’m going someplace else. They recommended Dallas, they recommended Grace where I ended up going, and they recommended Talbot, those seminaries are all gone. Oh, they still exist but this is Dallas I’m reading to you where they are.

In my spare time I read journals, I read the book reviews because that keeps me up to date. Here’s a book review, this was in the April-June 2019, an extensive review on creation care of a book come out, “Creation Care, a Biblical Theology of the Natural World,” written by Douglas Moo and his son, Jonathan Moo. Douglas Moo has written perhaps the finest commentary on the book of Romans. There’s only one flaw, he’s not dispensational, he’s covenantal, pre-millennial. They’ve written a book on creation care, a whole book on creation care. Now I’m going to read to you about how we should care for the creation and “it is part of the church’s responsibility, its part of believer’s to care for the creation and there’s three things. ‘Creation Care’ avers this,” this is one of their key points, “the land promise has been universalized to the entire renewed creation.” Wait a minute, wait a minute. The land promise that was given to Israel but now with the coming of Christ has universalized to the entire renewed creation. You know where that leaves Israel? No land promise, it’s been universalized, so we can take everything said about that land and now realize that it’s all our responsibility, get involved. This is what they say, “the gospel itself becomes anemic without creation care.” “The gospel itself becomes anemic without creation care.” What’s going to be left to the gospel if the churches buy into all of this? These are the men that Dallas Seminary’s going to crank out? “This is…” They’re reviewing the book. What’s he say at the end of the review? “From layperson to scholar emeritus, from skeptic to activists, from private study to formal education, ‘Creation Care’ stands out as a vital read for every serious Christian.”

So I thought I’d mention this because I can’t keep it in. We’re studying the gospel in Romans. We’re not doing that just because, you know, a good thing to fill in time. I’m concerned people don’t even know what the gospel is anymore. It’s just alright to say, well, the gospel with the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and salvation through faith in Him, that’s not a complete gospel. That’s an anemic gospel. And these are evangelicals. I get concerned. I look around the churches. I look where, you know, we’re going to be changing pastors. I look where do they come from? Where are they getting their training? What’s their doctrinal statement? You know, by and large, people don’t care anymore. They’re a good speaker and they seem to be probably believers, they say when they trusted Christ. How are you going to get into the seriousness of the word of God and protect the flock if we don’t have the teaching? We’re blessed with teachers throughout our ministry but, you know, the seriousness of dealing with the Word. And it’s going to look like they’re doing more, oh, we’re involved, look at all the things, look at how many people we are involved with. Yeah, you and the Catholics. We fought this battle back in the early part of the last century with modernism and the social gospel.

What’s the difference between this and the social gospel? Well, we include part of the gospel being evangelizing the lost with the message of Christ. Anytime you add anything to the gospel, the gospel will get pushed out, it will be gone. Look at the denominational churches. The Presbyterians defrocked a man in the 1890’s, when you got to the 1930’s they defrocked J. Gresham Machen. The first man was defrocked through his liberalism, the other man was defrocked for being too fundamental. It happens quickly. I’ve seen this. I’ve studied under Dallas men. I’m not saying every Dallas man is not a good man, but I’m skeptical of the new ones. Can you get through there untainted? And it’s not just Dallas. I don’t recommend anybody to Grace. And Talbot, the good men left there years ago and started Masters. It goes on and on and on and that’s true for the church. S. Lewis Johnson was here and he was a professor at Dallas in the good days, he spoke here, he said, “Every church, every school goes liberal,” it’s the relentless tide. That’s why we have to keep coming back to the Word, stay in the Word so we don’t get carried along with the tide of the day.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for Your Word. Thank you, Lord, it is an anchor for us, it is a sure word, it is a clear word. And Lord, we are not better than others, we’ve been saved by Your grace, we just want to be alert to the danger that we too could be carried away not realizing the danger that is around us. We want to be kind and considerate of others. Lord, we want to be firm with the Truth. There are certain things that are not negotiable and the non-negotiable for us is the truth of Your word, we want to be faithful to that. Thank you for bringing us together as a congregation to share this commitment and to faithfully represent You. May we be faithful wherever You send us in the days of this week. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.