Romans chapter 3.
What advantage then hath a Jew, or what
profit is there of circumcision?
Much, every way, chiefly because that unto them
were committed the oracles of God.
For what if some of them did not
believe?
Shall their belief make the faith of God
without effect?
Pardon me, their unbelief make the faith of
God without effect?
God forbid.
Yea, let God be true, but every man
a liar, as it is written, that thou
mightest be justified in thy saints, that thou
mightest overcome when thou art judged.
But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of
God, what shall we say?
Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?
I speak as a man.
God forbid.
For then how shall God judge the world?
For if the truth of God hath more
abounded through my lie unto his glory, why
am I yet also judged as a sinner?
And not, rather, as we slanderously reported, as
some affirm that we say, let us do
evil that good may come, whose damnation is
just.
Well, that's so simple and clear we don't
even need to comment on it, so let's
just close in prayer.
No, let's.
Father, we do thank you for your word,
and Lord, really this very important section, no
one will read it if we're wondering, what
in the world is this?
But yet, Lord, it's very critical, very simple
as we look at it, but Lord, the
message is very clear, and I ask that
you would bring it to us in a
simple and clear form, and that we would
understand what it is that you want us
to know in these very verses.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, as I said, this, although when you
read it you're wondering, what in the world
is all of this about?
But it's a very important little series of
verses, I believe, and while we're studying, though
it appears to be a little difficult, it
really isn't that hard.
At this point, Paul has been laying out
over and over, first of all in chapter
1, about just the sinfulness of just natural
man outside of God, and then as he
gets into chapter 2, he looks at things
of the sinfulness of man inside the supposed
relationship with God, as the Jews purported to
have, when he looked, if you were with
us last week, at the Jewish call that
God had put upon them as a people,
and their claim to be identified with God
had resulted in the great confidence that they
had within their life, but yet Paul then
went on to say, yet there's tremendous hypocrisy
within your life, and though you think you
have all the ear markings of a child
of God by all of the externals, and
you have the mark of circumcision, perhaps, and
yet if there is not a circumcision of
the heart, it's of no good at all.
And so here, Paul is now kind of
responding to an argument that some have already
said there, as he mentioned in verse 8,
he says, and not rather, as we have
been slanderously reported, as some affirm us to
say here, Paul is, some people were saying
that Paul was saying certain things that he
wasn't saying at all, and so he's really
answering a little bit of an argument going
on out there a little bit, because one
might say at this point, they might almost
be able to turn to Paul and say,
now tell me, Paul, in other words, what
you're saying here so far, all the way
up through and including in chapter 2, is
that there's no difference between the Jew and
the Gentile at all.
Is that what you really mean?
And here, Paul essentially says, no, I don't
mean that, I don't mean that at all.
Well, then if you don't mean it, then
what in the world is the difference, in
a sense, is what is going on in
here?
And here, Paul, he turns and he responds,
and he says in verse 2, well, much
in every way, chiefly, the great differences, under
them were committed the oracles of God, the
commandments there of God were given there to
Israel.
And then somebody might say, well, granted though,
but what if some of the Jews, given
these commandments, disobeyed the commandments, and they were
unfaithful to God, and then they came under,
I suppose, then therefore, the condemnation of God.
But you just said that God gave the
Jews a special position and a special promise,
and now you're going on to say that
for some, perhaps even an awfully lot of
them, they're actually under the condemnation of God,
whether they're Jews or Gentiles, and so therefore
there's no benefits to the position.
And does that therefore mean that God has
broken His promise?
Does that mean that, essentially, now it's suggested
that God is unreliable?
God's undependable, in a sense.
And Paul, here, his response is far from
it.
And he's wanting to show here that there's
absolutely no favoritism at all with God.
God punishes sin wherever He sees it.
Doesn't make any difference who did it.
There's absolutely no favoritism at all.
You know, something that I suppose we as
human beings have a terribly hard time doing
is not showing favoritism.
When there's somebody that we care for or
loves or is some great benefit to us,
whether they've captured our heart or they mean
something to us in one way or another,
they become part of a favorite list, you
know, to us.
And there's somebody that we want to protect
or ensure or help out in one way
or another when difficult times may come.
But as far as God's concerned, He is
absolutely, perfectly, totally objective in the sense there
of when it comes down to right and
wrong or judgment.
And the very fact, essentially, what Paul is
saying here, the very fact that God does
condemn the unfaithful Jews proves that God is
just.
Proves that God is somebody that He is
absolutely without partiality at all.
And thus, He is a just God.
And if God would might have been expected
just to brush over, you know, some of
the sins of the Jewish people, and if
He had done that and didn't respond to
sin, then you'd have one thing.
But here, because God was very just in
His government, in His justice, it shows that
He is absolute and simple and clear in
His justice.
He's fair to all.
Well, then there's another argument here in this
section as well, essentially.
And that is, well, then Paul kind of
says, the answer in the question, as he
says there again in verse 8 there, that
we've been slandered, reported, if some affirm we
say, let us do evil, that good may
come.
You know, Paul is saying, now listen here,
okay.
Now you're saying on one hand, God is
just.
And what reveals the justice of God, essentially,
is the unjustness of man.
Man, God becomes very holy because He is
opposed by the unholiness of man.
We wouldn't know God is holy if man
wasn't unholy.
We wouldn't know God is pure if man
wasn't impure.
We wouldn't know that God was so right
if man wasn't wrong, essentially.
And Paul is saying, well, then here they're
saying, Paul said, some are saying that we're
suggesting, let's just go ahead and sin because
our sin reveals God's purity, God's holiness, God's
righteousness.
As he has said, some actually are slanderously
saying that we are suggesting.
Paul is saying they've never suggested a thing
like that.
And because some are saying, well, look, if
my sinfulness, my weakness, my failure, my impurity,
it magnifies God's purity and His holiness, then
my impurity really can't be all that bad
of a thing, can it?
Because it proves, therefore, that God is perfect
and He's holy and He's wonderful.
I may have done wrong, but nothing but
good has come from it in the sense
that it shows how right or good or
wonderful God is.
And so you can't condemn a man for
simply giving God a chance to show His
justice.
Now some hear Paul as he kind of
shows that this is the way some people
actually think.
Paul turns and, of course, such an argument
is absolutely ridiculous.
And just the staging of it sounds, you
know, absolutely absurd.
And yet amazingly, there's an awfully lot of
people that do think that way.
There's an awfully lot of people that realize,
well, hey, I am a terrible sinner and
I do fail, but yet at the same
time the terrible nature of my sin actually
shows how merciful and loving and patient and
kind and graceful God is.
So it actually magnifies that in a sense.
But Paul, again, ridiculous.
Even arguing a thing like that as if
that is going to impress or God's going
to say, hey, you were so terrible that
you made me really look good.
I got to reward you, you know, or
something.
That's almost the way, that's what Paul is
saying people are thinking.
Now as far as the real place and
the right place of Israel is that no
question about it, the children of Israel are
a unique and a tremendously blessed people.
The whole world, of course, had turned away
from God time and time again.
No matter what it is that had been
done all the way from Adam until Abraham,
everything of man had continuously failed until God
came to Abram.
And when he came to him, you of
course know the story, you know it well,
is that the world was so far from
God, but God came to Abram and he
said, look, if you will follow me, if
you will trust me, if you will put
your faith in me, I will make a
covenant with you.
And my covenant will be that with your
seed, your children, and he took him out
and you know the story, of course, as
he took him up and he said, look,
the north, south, east, and west, this is
for you and your seed.
And he told him, there he says, whoever
blesses you, I'll bless them.
Whoever curses you, I'll curse them.
And then he also told him that through
his seed with all the nations of the
world be blessed, ultimately pointing to the Messiah,
our Lord Jesus Christ, to come through Abraham's
loins.
And many other blessings were to come into
the world through the loins of Abraham, whether
it be the laws of, you know, Deuteronomy,
the wonderful things of the Bible that have
taught society and taught man how to live
and to govern himself as effectively as he
possibly can.
But here God made some wonderful commitments and
he guaranteed their existence.
He says, I will guarantee the national existence
of your descendants if you'll follow me all
the way to the end when I return.
Ultimately, as we don't have trouble putting that,
you know, promise essentially together.
And so your God covenanted as well with
them, though, in these general broad sweeping ways,
the promise of the people to the nation
of Israel, to the land of Israel, the
commitments of, you know, that he has, that
he is still in the process of fulfilling
this very hour and moving rapidly towards in
the last few decades.
But here as we watch this, it's essentially
God also told them with his covenant that
if they walk with him, he would bless
them and he would keep them in blessing.
He'd watch over and protect and provide wonderfully
for them when they did.
But if they turned away from him, he
would raise up the nations around him to
deal justly with them, to rebuke them, to
correct them, to discipline them, to chastise them.
And of course, that's essentially when you pick
up the Old Testament, you realize God kept
that covenant.
You just kind of stand back from the
whole of the Old Testament, you realize when
the children of Israel lived in a practical,
vital, living way before God, his blessing was
upon them.
Now, all the way through, he kept his
covenant, but at the same, you know, with
them nationally.
But at the same time, while he did
that, he also said, however, if you just
superficially play a game with me, if you
look like you're doing something, but you're not,
if you're not trusting me, if you're not
walking with me, if you're not depending upon
me, if you're not rely upon me, if
you're following the ways of the world around
you and the nations and the people around
you, I will raise up those nations or
others to judge you and to discipline you.
And God, essentially, of course, did all of
those things, didn't he?
When you just pick up the book of
Judges alone and you go through cycle after
cycle, it tells us in Judges 3-5,
tells us therein the children of Israel dwelt
among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the
Perizzites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Termites.
And they took their daughters to be their
wives, and they gave their daughters to their
sons, and they served their gods.
And the children of Israel did evil in
the sight of the Lord, and they forgot
the Lord their God, and they served Balaam
and the groves.
Now here we have the first of a
series of cycles that the children of Israel
went through in the book of Judges alone.
That here they got into the land, they
were so excited to be there, Abraham's great
covenant to God, they're in the land, they're
beginning to settle in, but as they did,
here's all of the enemies of God around,
with their idols, with their images, with their
wickedness around.
And the Lord had told the children of
Israel very, very clearly, you know, he said,
you told them, I'm the Lord your God,
you'll have no other gods before me.
And he had told them, he says, you
won't make any graven images, you'll keep the
Sabbath, you won't take my name in vain
and keep the Sabbath and things.
He told them, he says, here's how you
will live, you'll have me first in your
life, you'll follow me.
And then, of course, he goes on and
he says, honor your father and your mother,
and thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt
not commit adultery, and thou shalt not steal,
or, there's a couple other ones in there,
I don't think I named them all.
What covet, or I think I missed, I
don't know how many I named.
Just pretend I hit ten.
Okay, but the, I think, false witness or
something, I can't remember which one I did
or didn't.
But anyway, the thing he says, here's how
you live, this is what I want from
you.
If you will do these things, your life
will be blessed.
Well, the next thing you know, they get
in there and they're out committing adultery.
They're out there, you know, playing with other
idols and images.
They're falling down before gods that have no
power, no love, no capacity to protect or
care, and keep their life in blessing.
Thus, they fall away from God, because it's
purely a superficial thing, and judgment comes upon
them.
And then, when the judgment comes upon them,
then they begin to cry out.
As God allows, you know, the enemies to
come in, essentially, first of all, it was
the king of Mesopotamia who came in, but
then Othniel came along, as the children of
Israel, cry out under this terrible, you know,
suffering that they're going through because of Mesopotamia,
and then they begin to cry out, and
God, they cry out, and God says, okay,
you're seeking me, you're crying out, raises up
Othniel, wipes him out, gives them a generation
of rest.
They're happy, they're doing good, but a little
while goes on, and they start looking around,
and they see other enemies around them.
And then, whether it's Ehud and Barak, you
know, that come along next, or, you know,
when Moab comes along because the children of
Israel are in trouble, or Gideon, or Samson,
and Jephthah, or Samson, and—you go home and
read your Bible.
You need to do this.
I'm still back on that election thing, and
I'm not sure who's going to run here.
But anyway, the—but here's cycle after cycle after
cycle.
When they followed God, the blessing was wonderful.
They were at rest, and the positive aspects
of the covenant with Abraham was kept.
God blessed them wonderfully and mightily, and the
covenant was kept.
And at the same—and that was a blessing.
That was a wonderful thing.
That was a very positive aspect of the
covenant.
When they turned away, and they went their
own way, the covenant was still kept, and
also in a positive way.
Whom the Lord loveth, He disciplines, and He
chastened.
And He would put them through very, very
heavy and difficult times because He loved them
and because He made a covenant with them.
And they went through it, if it was
merely a superficial thing, but over and over,
cycle after cycle.
And they had—God was working all the time
within the children of Israel.
If they were on the way towards Him,
blessing was coming.
If they were on a way, He's pulling
the carpet out from underneath them, getting them
ready to cry out in their suffering, and
in their trials, and their agony, to go
and get back right with Him.
Just that simple.
Very, very simple in a sense.
They had divine help in all sorts of
matters, whenever they would cry out to God.
He'd raise up, you know, a Samuel, or
He'd raise up a David, or He'd raise
up an Elijah, or Elisha, or a Daniel,
you know, or somebody else to come along
and asked her to do wonderful things for
them when they would seek Him.
And at the same time, when they wouldn't,
He'd give them an Ahab.
He'd give them a king after their own
heart.
And off they'd be, and they'd be in
trouble.
But with all of these covenant promises that
they were given nationally, no Jew, no Hebrew,
had any personal or special key to heaven.
They had absolutely nothing.
They had no lock on it.
They had a covenant that God had made
in broad strokes on this life, and in
this nation, and while they lived amongst it,
and how they lived through this life.
But they still, every one of them, had
to make the same decisions that every human
being has ever had to make.
There was no exemption in that, whatsoever.
Though they were born a Jew, that did
not give them a promise or suggest anything
of eternal life.
They're just simply born a Jew.
They thought, if I'm born a Jew, I'd
need no more.
That's all I've got to do.
Absolutely nothing else.
And here, Paul is wanting to say, that's
your problem.
That is your problem.
Like many people in the world today.
I wonder how many of us here, or
how many may be listening, actually believe.
If you ask, are you going to heaven?
You listen to Gallup polls and these things.
I don't know how they come up with
these numbers, but tell us that somewhere, 80
some-odd percent of the United States believe
they're going to heaven.
Well, I don't think most of them live
around here.
You know, if they are, they certainly don't.
They're in another state.
Maybe they've all moved out because of the
election.
I'm not sure what's going on here, but
it's something there, that the tragic thing is
that there's an awfully lot of people thinking
they're going to heaven.
And yet, at the same time, when it
would talk, or suggest anything of a personal
relationship with Christ, the Lordship of Christ, the
surrendered life to Christ, no, I'm just going
to heaven.
I've already decided that.
I planned it out.
On what basis are you going to heaven?
Well, because my mother took me to church
when I was a child, or I got
baptized, you know, or I've been confirmed, or
I was, you know, took communion, or I
have church membership.
I know the Anglican Church in England, they
literally call it the first, the Church of
the Four Wheels.
I read a thing when I was over
there many years ago, the Church of the
Four Wheels, and that's because they wheel you
into the church four times during your life.
When you're a little child in baby carriage
to be baptized, and then there's, then they
bring you in to be, wheel you in
to be confirmed, and then they wheel you
in for your wedding, and then they wheel
you in and out for your funeral.
But people just think, if I've been there,
if I've been to the Church of the
Four Wheels, I'm going to heaven.
If I have done certain things in an
awfully lot of people, literally hundreds of millions
of people, I'm convinced, actually think they're going
to heaven because the same ways, the same
reason the Jews thought they were fine.
Because there was a reality of God's blessing
upon their life in many ways.
I think most people should think, actually, well
God has blessed me.
There's an awfully lot of people in the
world that you would really look at them
and say, and they would believe deeply, God
has blessed me.
God has provided for me.
God has taken care of me.
Therefore, God must love me.
Therefore, my confirmation or my church membership must
have taken effect, because I know God is
a good God, and He seems to love
me.
He seems to take care of me.
Well, He does love, and He does take
care of us.
But also know this, the rain falls in
the just and the unjust.
God waters all of the earth, and He
allows everyone to grow, and how He protects
you and I, every one of us, the
greatest heathen and the greatest, you know, saint,
constantly through our lives.
But to take the fact that God has
this commitment to care for us does not
mean I care for Him.
It does not mean I have surrendered my
life to Him.
It does not mean I've entered into a
personal relationship with Him.
And Paul, as he said in the previous
chapter, you may recall, he told Israel, he
says that, you know, that your circumcision, it
means no effect unless you have a circumcision
of your heart.
Unless there is that personal interaction that you
have surrendered your life personally to God.
And you may have the law of God.
He told him in the previous chapter, you
may remember, you may be a light to
the blind.
As he said, he says, you may be
able to make your boast in the Lord.
And knowing that you know the more excellent
ways, he told them, you may be a
teacher of babes, as he says.
But if it is not in personal relationship
and faith in Christ, it means nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
And all the things that they, that the
Jews had, of course, in the Old Testament,
the church seems to have replaced in the
new, in terms of ritual.
All of these things that people can depend
upon.
And here Paul believed, on one hand, yes,
the Jews had a very special place with
God.
And in the Old Testament, no, I think,
student of the Old Testament could for a
moment argue with that.
But the difference here that Paul is arguing,
and what I think is so critical for
us to look at a little tonight, is
the issue is that Paul looked at that
special place.
And Paul said that special place is not
one of privilege.
It's one of responsibility.
And there's a huge difference between privilege and
responsibility.
Paul looked at the Jews and he says,
you have been entrusted, he tells them there
in verse two, you know, committed the oracles
of God.
That word oracles is logia.
But it suggests in his most, believe my
most, literally the Ten Commandments, but also going
out to the to the commandments of God
in general.
And here God entrusted the commandments.
He took these commandments, he says, I've entrusted
to you.
That is not merely a privilege.
He looks at it and he says, that
is absolute responsibility to look at those commandments
and say, this is how I ought to
live.
This is how I need to respond.
And here Paul looks at them and he
says, you are a special people in a
sense.
God said under the children of Israel, you
are a special people.
But therefore, you must live a special life.
He looked at Israel, I am going to
give you great privilege, but the only way
that privilege will be of any value is
when you respond in personal responsibility to the
privilege.
And here those privileges incurred responsibilities, not exemption
from them.
Sometimes I think, well, because I'm a church
member, because I go, because I give, because
I've done this, because I've done that, and
I'm related to so-and-so.
I was confirmed, or I was baptized by
Chuck Smith, beat that one, you know, or
whatever else, you know, it may be that
happens here, no matter how, whatever has occurred
as a privilege, which I think that's a
privilege.
And I hope it is, I was.
But anyway, the whole thing is, is it
ought to result in a responsibility.
Here God looked at the children of Israel
and all of these visitations that he had,
one after another, upon the children of Israel,
miraculously, from Othniel through Samson, through Jephthah, and
everyone in between.
These unbelievable works of Gideon and the Midianites,
unbelievable things where the children of Israel were
in trouble, and they would cry out to
him, and these awesome visitations and works of
God to save them again, and again, and
again.
It wasn't to be a privilege.
It was to result in a responsibility, in
that their life would respond to what God
had done, and it didn't, over and over
again.
God would bless them.
He would save them.
He would do wonderful things, and yet they
would, they'd come back, and their tendency was,
are we privileged or what?
How many of you got a Samson, you
know, wiping out the Philistines?
How many of you got a Gideon with
300 that take on 120,000 Midianites, huh?
How many other nations have a David that
has killed his tens of thousands, or an
Elijah that calls fire from heaven?
How many, you know, when you look at
these things, are we privileged?
But Paul's whole issue here has had nothing
to do with your privilege.
If you know your privilege, it has a
direct connection to personal responsibility.
When God has done something for somebody, the
effect and the reality of that, of the
sense of that privilege, ought to result in
a responsibility.
Myself, I grew up, you know, I didn't
come to the Lord really until I was
in college.
I thought I was kind of a Christian,
for the typical reasons, born in America.
I have a mother, eat apple pie, believe
in God, went to church in Christmas and
Easter at least, and snuck out most of
the other times I went.
But actually I stole my offering my parents
gave me and went bowling a lot of
times, but until we got caught, then the
offering dried up.
But anyway, the thing is, I thought all
this time I'm a Christian because of these
things.
Meantime, and it wasn't until one by one
my family is really getting saved, coming into
a personal relationship with Christ, and then they
had the audacity to start telling me I
was the Christian.
Who do you think you are?
Telling, you're the one that spent years telling
me I am one.
Now you become a different weirdo and you
try to tell me I'm not, because I
believed you what you told me I was.
Now you changed.
And the thing is, is that then finally
as I'm saying they're coming to the realization,
I have not surrendered my life to Christ.
I've been to church, I've done all the
little checklist of things.
And then when the conviction started hitting, then
I came to Christ, but still for a
time I fiddled around.
Went back and forth, you know, to fraternity
stuff and gotten, you know, just the same
old worldly lifestyle.
Until actually December 6, 1966, I was riding
in my little Triumph Spitfire, a little 1
,440 pound sports car, down Walnut in Pasadena.
And coming the opposite direction was a 1959
Oldsmobile 98 with a drunk behind the wheel
who decided he owned the whole road.
He came across the double line and we
had a head-on collision.
And at that point, this poor little, poor,
poor little Triumph, it did not triumph that
night at all.
It was total defeat for the Triumph.
And it was totally destroyed.
It even looked worse because it got fire.
But God allowed me to get out of
that without so much as a scratch.
The police didn't even believe I was actually,
could have been in the car.
And long story there, we won't go into
it now, but it's something there that, in
fact, even my mom and my sister, when
they heard somebody called, said I'd been in
an accident and seen my car, and they
came up and they thought an ambulance was
taking me off.
They're over in the corner, it was quite
touching.
They're holding each other, hugging and crying.
At that point, I thought, man, they do
love me.
This is nice.
Because I'm over there, they didn't recognize me.
But I went home that night.
I went home that night and threw, and
something hit me that had never hit me
before.
And that was a sense I knew, like
I had never sensed in my life, God
had saved me.
Not only the realization of the eternal life
through Christ, but in a sense there, seeing
His hand upon my life.
He had, there was a work of covenant
love that He had preserved my life somehow
or another.
I almost felt immortal.
That's not that I could go out and
do anything foolish, in that sense, but there
was a sense of privilege.
There was a realization, God, you have saved
my life.
There is no question about it.
And that privilege resulted in responsibility.
That night I knew my life has got
to change.
My relationships have got to change.
My behavior has got to change.
The privileges that I've had so far, thinking
I was a child of God or a
Christian or whatever else, whether I was or
wasn't, and I do believe I had received
Christ earlier than that, but no one else
would know of it.
By my life or my behavior, I just
merely lived a privileged life with no responsibility
until I realized real privilege on that December
6th.
And then, that night, I realized there my
life belongs to God.
It isn't mine.
It's been bought with a price.
I have no right to run it on
my own.
And I found a sense of responsibility, not
just privilege.
And here, this is something the children of
Israel rarely seem to sense this.
All God's deliverances, all their head-on collisions
with one nation after another, after another, after
another, and they'd cry, and God got them
out alive.
And yet, somehow or another, they could come
out and say, hey, is it great being
a child of God or what?
Golly, is this wonderful.
You know, it's some sort of an idiot
without the realization ever of personal responsibility.
I owe my life to God.
And instead of being filled with a sense
of awe, as they should have been, a
sense of blessing, as they should have been,
a sense of responsibility.
They just said, we're privileged.
We're fine.
Luke 1248, Jesus said, But he who did
not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes,
shall be beaten with few.
For everyone to whom much is given from
him, much will be required.
And to whom much has been committed of
him, they he will ask more.
The Lord looks there and he says, the
more privileges you've had, the more blessings I
put in your life, the more times my
hand has been upon you, and you've known
it, the greater the responsibility.
And so with us, just the children of
Israel, as Paul is pointing out here, are
we merely sitting here tonight and saying, I'm
privileged.
I'm going to heaven.
My name's in the Lamb's book of life.
My sins are forgiven.
And to realize who he ever lives to
make intercession for us, he presents us faultless.
And we go in with all these unbelievable
privileges, and how they ought to hold us
in a sense of awe, in a sense
of absolute blessing.
Look at what God has done for me.
And we ought to be ones that we
can't even believe it.
The thing is, it might be good sometimes
for us even to look at our life.
Where have we been in this life?
What has God done for us?
What are his blessings that he has put
upon us, as with the children of Israel,
where his hand and making them so special,
and the covenant, and the promises that he'd
given to them.
If it's something there that if God has
blessed us, do we sense responsibility?
And blessings sometimes come in odd forms, by
the way.
I look at somebody like Corrie ten Boom.
And here, some of you have been around,
and you heard her.
She was here years ago and spoke.
And a wonderful, amazing woman.
Absolutely astounding woman.
She came here and spoke when I was
here back in the 70s.
And I'll never forget, because Chuck was busy
doing something, so he asked me if I'd
sit with her.
And I sat with her for about 40
minutes, back in Chuck's office, and just talked.
And there, as I sat with this woman,
there was a sense in her life of
not just surrender, not just devotion, not just
an awe of God, but one of the
most awesome people I'd ever just sat and
talked with.
And here was a woman, on one hand,
her life, you know Corrie ten Boom, I'm
sure well, in Nazi Germany, taking her and
her family, and the terrible suffering that she
went through in the prison camps, and watching
family die, and relatives die, the loss of
virtually everything, and then the continued suffering she
lived under, and crying out to God.
And yet, as God met her, and said,
and did wonderful works within her, bringing her
through it, and she came out with that
suffering, not just with the privilege of God's
blessing, in keeping power upon her life, it
resulted in a responsibility that she spent the
rest of her life, wanting to tell the
rest of the world, don't wrestle, just nestle.
He's sufficient.
He's powerful.
And she had an authority, like few people,
if you ever heard her, you read her
books.
That's responsibility.
It just did, it isn't just, wow, I
got out of the prison camps alive, Jesus,
you saved me, thanks.
But rather than that, even her suffering, in
having God bring her through, resulted in responsibility.
I'll spend my life serving, surrendering.
I think sometimes, when you look around here,
we, and how many of you have sat
under tremendous teaching?
Tremendous teaching.
I think I, in, you've sat, if you've
been here for very long, you've sat under
probably the greatest, one of the greatest teachings
in the last six months anywhere, since I've
been here.
Ha, just kidding.
No, you've been, I mean, if you've been
here for the last 30 years, you, you've
been, you've been sitting under the greatest, perhaps,
teaching in the country, week in, week out,
month in, month out, year in, year out.
And what do you do with it?
What do you do when much is given?
Do we sit there and say, hey, look
at me, I've been sitting under Chuck Smith
for 30 years, how about you?
Listening to your radio wackos, you know, or
something else, and we think, look at this,
I know the Word, and I'm strong, and
I'm good, and I know all these wonderful
things.
Well, Paul says, there's a responsibility that comes
out.
Remember when I spoke to the men's ministry,
and I first got here, and they're kind
of looking at me, and I'm looking at
them.
And they're staring back and forth, saying, well,
I've already heard Chuck teach this, let's see
how you do with it.
You know, you know that feeling?
I don't know if you know you, I
don't know if you know that feeling.
It's not a feeling you really cherish.
You know a whole lot, in a sense,
there, but I, and you can just see,
you know, all these critics.
And I found myself looking at those guys,
and say, if you're a good critic, then
I'm not, my job here isn't to try
to reteach it to you again, but I
want to find all the ways I can
to see you do it.
You may not like me for it, but
I want to find, you know, this ought
to be the most powerful, active, victorious group
of men in the country.
You ought to be on fire.
You, you ought to be men that in
the coming years, we can take and use
you to turn the world upside down.
And you can say, wait a minute, I
just, I just sit in the pew and
criticize.
You know, now you want me to do
something with this.
That's what Paul is saying.
What we listen to, and what we know,
what do I do with it?
That's the important thing.
Is there a response?
When you look at the things of how
God delivers, and he cares, and he blesses,
and he watch over, and he provides for
us, and we're so blessed.
Now, am I telling these things?
Am I sharing these things with people that
don't know it?
Does it affect my life?
And remember when I, my family, I wasn't
saved yet when they started coming to Christ.
Next thing I know, my mother.
I mean, there's verses, you know, all over
the refrigerator, doing all that stuff, up at
the crack of dawn, praying for us as
if we needed it, you know, or something,
and going through all of these things, sharing,
you know, you'd be talking to people all
of a sudden, talking about Christ, hey, come
on, just invite them to church, let's go,
you know, or something, and you know that
discomfort when people do that around you, and
they get religious when you're not, or spiritual
when you're not.
And then I remember, literally, my parents emptying
the house, living room and dining room, all
the furniture.
We had a good-sized living room and
dining room.
Moved it all the other place, invited everybody
in the neighborhood they possibly could.
There had to be 75 chairs, and they
were filled with people standing around, and they
had a friend, Dr. Ralph Byron.
He was chief of surgery or something, I
believe, at the time at City of Hope.
Brilliant man, who loved the Lord amazingly.
Asked him to come, and he shared the
gospel with all the neighbors.
Shared Christ with every, and they invited everybody
over, had cookies, and here.
Because privilege results in responsibility, and that ought
to be the most exciting thing in the
world.
Not condemning, not convicting, as much as inspiring.
And the children of Israel, instead of getting
inspired, and getting excited, and wanting to share
it, it was something there that they seemed
to miss it.
And here, if you were here tonight, and
your name's in the Lamb's Book of Life,
if you've been redeemed by the blood of
Jesus Christ, if right now you know your
sins are forgiven, and you know He's coming
for you, and you know that He's coming,
and He's coming soon, you know, it ought
to be, if you were here Sunday morning,
and listening to Chuck, and talking about the
Lord, when He sets up Zion, which He's
doing, and you reveal His glory, and two
of His great points in the morning were
the personal responsibility, in a sense, both He
mentioned personal purity, and the burden to share
with the world.
Do I have those?
Do I have something that says, Lord, take
my life.
You have so blessed me.
I want You to take anything out of
it that shouldn't be in it, and make
me available to share with the world the
privileges I have, that they can know those
privileges, and where it results in responsibility, and
that when we sense this, when we realize
that, and God, give me that balance, that
on one hand, when you and I come
in here to worship, our hearts should be
filled with privilege, and when we open the
word, with responsibility.
Give me a word.
Teach me.
Strengthen me.
Equip me.
Train me.
Disciple me.
And here, it should result in a profound
sense of awe, a profound sense of God,
you not only called me to yourself, you
have now told me, go ye into all
the world, and preach the gospel.
See, every one of us, every one of
us, not that you need to change your
address, but a sense there, or wherever your
world is, to look there and say, Lord,
use me.
Use me mightily.
And it's something there that when we realize
that, and find that God, He just loves
to use us mightily, and wonderfully.
And sometimes, you know, when the children of
Israel, when they failed, God would deal with
them.
But when they turned, He blessed them again,
privileged them again.
But responsibility rarely happened.
How I would encourage you to look, and
God, let me be responsible.
That's what happened to the Jews.
They sat there, a nation still went before
God, with all of the privileges, and very
few, a remnant, seemingly, took responsibility.
Lord, take my life.
Alan Redpath tells a story that in 1950,
when he came to be the pastor of
Moody Church in Chicago.
At that time, he followed Harry Ironside, who
had been there for many years, and they
considered themselves, at that generation, the most well
-taught congregation in America, and that may well
be true.
But he said when he got there, he
says virtually the entire congregation sat there and
looked at him and evaluated him.
And he looked at them, and he spent
years, he said, trying to give them a
vision for the world that a few got,
but many sat.
And you know, one thing I will tell
you, as he told me a lot of
the things at Moody, I'm grateful that here's
a congregation that is, to me, is one
of the most on-fire congregations in the
world, far from dead, far from cold.
When I look at what is going out
of this ministry around the world, it's unbelievable.
To this, at this very hour, this very
time.
A few weeks ago, I was down in
San Salvador, down there dedicating a Calvary chapel
down there, where there's, you know, they started
a few years ago with a little one
-room house, you know, with a bunch of
people doing a Bible study.
And it so outgrew it that the next
thing you know that they bought the house
next to it, kind of gutted this one,
made the house next to it.
They're all joined, wall after wall, in these
cities down there, they're so poor.
House after house, all common walls.
So they buy one, gut it out, make
a little sanctuary, use the next one for
Sunday school, and then they kept on kind
of growing that way.
And here in a couple of years, they
had grown to where when I, by the
time I went down there, they were in
an acre and a half, that they just
rented a bare land, that they put a
tent on, that would seat 500 people, and
they had three Sunday morning services, and all
of them were packed out with people standing
on the outside.
And here they sit and listen to Calvary
chapel tapes.
And they've got them down there, it's got
a school of ministry modeled after the thing
here.
Looking there, wanting to reach their community, is
their Calvary chapel down in San Salvador, of
which they're doing.
A couple years ago they started a little
outreach church, where a guy went out, they
got another over in, can't think of the
name, another name.
A city, okay, who cares.
They care, but I mean, but I can't
think of a name.
Zaragoza is the name of the city.
They started a little Bible study there.
Same thing happened, the growth, the growth, the
growth, until they took over, they built on
their little property, a 500 seat sanctuary.
I went for a Friday night Bible study
and taught, and they said there was as
many people standing on the outside as there
were inside.
Packed out.
And they're looking there and watching these exciting
things happen.
There's 600 million people right below us here,
in Central, Mexico, Central and South America.
Most open, probably, you know, area of the
world right now.
The potential.
And I wonder how many may be sitting
here right now, that God's, whether down South,
whether over in Europe, and potential over there.
We just did a missionary conference.
The exciting things are going on over there.
Next month, I'm going down to Chile with
Raul Reis and a bunch of other pastors,
doing a pastor's conference down there, helping to
establish churches.
We're bringing a number, I think there's about
40 pastors, you know, from around South America
that want to be equipped and trained and
plant Calvary-style ministries, Calvary chapels.
And then going over to Russia, and then
to India, and looking at these places.
Africa, right now there's 90 churches in Africa
wanting to affiliate with Calvary Chapel.
I said, what do you, why?
You know, or something, and they, because they
want the word, and they've looked and say,
this is what we're doing.
We're getting fed, we're getting taught, just like
they do there in Costa Mesa.
That's what we want.
People are going out from here.
That's responsibility.
And that when we look, you know, and
realize, God, how can you take and use
my life?
Affect my neighborhood?
What can I do with the responsibility?
I don't care if it means just taking
my little, you know, apartment and moving a
few pieces of furniture around, and asking somebody
to come and share the gospel, and send
a little note, and make some, bake a
cake or two, and invite my neighbors to
come and sit down.
Tell them, Jesus Christ is coming soon.
He's real, and He loves you.
That's responsibility.
Privilege is I just go back home, say,
you know, heaven is a wonderful place.
I want to go there.
And we ought to, and we ought to
sing that.
Maybe we should close with that.
But before, we should be very privileged and
responsible.
And we ought to look at our life
as even Chuck mentioned Sunday morning.
Purity, personal surrender, personal righteousness, and then being
used.
That's responsibility.
The Jews didn't get it.
They were going around there saying, oh, well,
hey, let's continue and sin that grace may
abound.
Paul later says perish the thought.
Let's see what God can yet do with
our lives, do with our homes, do with
our families, do, you know, in any potential
till He comes again.
You look at the great servants of God.
They were finer at their last hours than
ever.
And how when the Lord looks and He
says, I'd love to find you working and
serving when I come, because you're the greatest
and most privileged people in the world.
How about the responsibility?
Let's pray.
Father, we do thank you for your love
and your mercy and your grace.
Lord, I thank you that we can come
tonight and know our name is in the
book of life.
Knowing Jesus, we sing to a savior who
loves us, who right now does present us
faultless.
Whoever lives to make intercession for us, who
covers us and covers us and covers us.
But, Lord, may we never let your grace
be occasioned as be privileged without responsibility.
Lord, I pray that some of us maybe
tonight there'd be a sense.
OK, Lord, tonight's my head on collision with
you.
You have loved me.
You have redeemed me.
I am your child.
There's no argument about that.
But yet, Lord, my life is just going
around, enjoying itself, living for my own pleasure,
thinking little of the lost world around, very
few concerns.
Lord, I pray that whatever it is that
happened needs to happen for us to have
such a great sense of privilege, that it
would turn to responsibility, that there would be
something within us that says, God, I realize
it.
It's hit me like a ton of bricks.
Lord, what do I do?
I must respond.
Lord, may you call us.
May you find us a church that is
looking around all over the planet, that is
still looking for places and avenues and opportunity
to go and serve.
And whether it's distant lands or it's the
person that works in the cubicle next to
us at work tomorrow, to share the privileges
that we have had, how you've brought us
through our prison camps, through our sufferings, how
you have provided for us, how you have
cared, how you've watched over the trials you've
brought us through, the sufficiency of Jesus Christ
time and time again, the times you've saved
us, to be able to turn to others.
And may that privilege turn into a responsibility.
We'll look at them and say, I must
tell you.
Oh, I must.
Lord, may you work a wonderful work within
us.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.