Why have we received the provision of the gospel? Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. A few years ago, two men saw something strange blowing down a South Carolina highway. It was a mass of bills that added up to $1,300. They managed to chase down all the money, and then they turned it into a local sheriff's office. Because of their integrity, the money was returned to its owner. That true story is the kind of positive news that seems to get buried every day by bad news.
Good news than honest men returning lost money. In fact, there is good news that far outweighs every bad thing that has ever happened. I'm talking about the gospel of Christ, and that is John MacArthur's focus today on Grace to You. So here's John, to continue his study, called, And Now for the Good News. Let me remind you that there are at least seven elements to this introduction, seven features regarding the good news. There is the preacher of the good news, the promise of the good news, the person of the good news, the provision of the good news, the proclamation of the good news, the privileges of the good news, and the purpose of the good news.
Let me remind you briefly of the first three. First of all, the preacher of the good news is introduced to us in verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated under the gospel of God. And there we have met the preacher of the good news. And it points us to a very important reality and that is this, that God has chosen human vessels to be the instruments of the transporting of the good news.
Paul, a man like us, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated under the gospel of God, pointing to the fact that God has chosen to use human agency. God has designed to use men and women to proclaim the good news. In fact, it tells us in 1 Corinthians that God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to proclaim His message and even use weak and ignoble and foolish preachers to do it. Secondly, we looked at the promise of the good news. Verse 2, which He had promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the good news or the gospel had already been promised in the Old Testament. So the good news is going to come through a human preacher and the good news is going to be based upon the promises of God in the Old Testament. And thirdly, we saw not only the preacher and the person, or rather the preacher and the promise, but the preacher and the promise and the person. What and whom is the heart and object of the good news?
Look at verse 3, it concerns His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. The person of the good news is Christ. Now let's come, number 4, to the provision of the good news...the provision.
If you love the Son, what happens? If you receive the good news, what happens? Two things first pop out of the treasure trove that God has provided. Verse 5 says, "...by whom we have received grace and apostleship."
And you can stop there. What is it that the good news gives us? What is it that the good news bestows upon us?
What is the treasure that we inherit when we love the Son? First, grace. Second, apostleship.
First, watch this, conversion. Second, vocation. First, to be called.
Second, to be sent. So we see the good news...the preacher, the promise, the person, the provision. And then we come to the proclamation. Now that we're going to serve, we're going to be sent with a message, what is it we proclaim? Verse 5 again, we proclaim obedience to the faith among all nations. And then he says in verse 6, "...among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ." In other words, just like you've been called to Christ, we're going to go out and call others to Christ.
This really extends the last thought. The good news about Jesus Christ which has brought us grace and service leads us to go out and proclaim it and to call for the nations of the earth to be obedient to the faith. That's a great statement, folks. I wish we had time to go over the whole thought of obedience to the faith. You ought to put a circle around that phrase in your Bible, obedience to the faith.
A tremendous statement, a statement just literally jammed with meaning. And it appears again at the end of Romans in chapter 16 verse 26, the next to the last verse. To make known to all nations the obedience of faith...the obedience of faith. Listen, if there's one thing about faith, it is that faith is what?
Obedient. You show me someone who says he believes and lives a life of disobedience and I'll show you someone who is not redeemed. For faith, if it does not manifest works of obedience, is dead. We are not saved by works. We are saved unto good works. And the message of Christianity is a call for people to be obedient to the faith. When you come to Christ, you affirm the faith. And by the way, that is a very definite statement, the faith. And Jude uses it, the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
It means the content of the gospel, the content of the message. It means teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. That's how you go about preaching. It is obedience that we preach, obedience to the faith, the duly constituted faith. We are preaching a message of obedience and sadly that isn't the message that people are hearing today. We must call people to faith, but faith that obeys is the only genuine faith.
People say they believe and live a life of disobedience, they lie and the truth is not in them. People who really believe will obey. And so the design of our apostleship, the design of Paul's apostleship was to bring all nations to obedience to the faith. And the faith is more than just believing in Jesus. It's the faith. It's all that our faith embodies.
The faith once for all delivered to the saints. If you want to know what the faith really is, it is the full content of the Word of God revealed. We call people to obey.
Now listen to me. It is not faith plus obedience equals salvation. No, it is an obedient faith equals salvation. True faith is verified in obedience. That's why the Bible constantly says that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is Lord because that demands submissive obedience. There's no faith without obedience. There has to be obedience for faith to be genuine. Look at, for a moment, a good illustration right in Romans, chapter 1, verse 8. Verse 8, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
How so? How was it that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world? Chapter 16, verse 19.
Here's that. 16, 19, For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. In the beginning it is your faith that is spread abroad. In the end it is your obedience that is spread abroad.
Why? Because one must exist with the other. It is not faith unless it obeys. Salvation is submission. Salvation is affirmation of the lordship of Christ. Now you don't want to have a theology that makes a Christian out of somebody who lives a life of absolute disobedience.
There is no recognition of the lordship of Christ. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Romans 10, 9 and 10, Jesus as Lord, and that means obedience to His lordship, thou shalt be saved. That is the true stuff of which salvation is produced.
Let all the house of Israel know, says Peter, that God has made that same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. And Jesus said to the Pharisees in effect in Matthew 5, I don't care what you believe, by the way you live you deny salvation. A faith without obedience is a faith that won't save anybody. It is piling on the broad road that leads to destruction, that's what it is. It's building a nice big religious superstructure on sand. A faith without obedience is no saving faith.
It's the kind of thing that deludes and deceives but doesn't save. People say, oh, I believe in Jesus. I believe in the Bible. I remember when I walked the aisle.
I remember so forth and so forth. That doesn't save unless there's a life of obedience. Listen to Hebrews 12 14, follow peace with all men...now listen to this...and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
No holiness, no heaven. So the proclamation is to bring all men to the obedience of faith... to the obedience of faith. And beloved, this is something He says in verse 6 that we should long to do because it's something we've received. Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ?
In other words, you've been called to this now, you go call the other nations to this same thing. It's a great statement in verse 6. Ye also are the called of Jesus Christ. We've been drawn to Christ. We've come out of that life of disobedience into a life of obedience, out of unbelief into faith. And He says because that's happened to us and we're a part of those called to Christ, we ought to carry the message to call others. We are sent for obedience to the faith among all nations because that is what has happened to us. We are the called who've been drawn to Christ. So we see the preacher of the good news, the promise of the good news, the person of the good news, the provision of the good news, grace and apostleship, the proclamation of the good news, and it is a proclamation of obedience. Beloved, don't ever leave that part out.
Can I give you two in closing? The privileges of the good news...the privileges. Look at them in verse 7. To all that be in Rome, and it can sure extend it beyond that to all believers, He gives them three marvelous truths about their privileges. First, they are beloved of God. Second, they are called, and you ought to put a comma after that.
And if you have some words in italics, that means they aren't there in the original. There's three things here...beloved of God, called and saints. Beloved of God, called and saints.
Those are the privileges of the good news. What does it mean to be beloved of God? Well, it just means we're loved.
And that is all over the Scripture. God has loved us. He has put His love upon us. In Ephesians chapter 2, I just love that verse, verse 5, verse 4, rather, God who is rich in mercy for His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in sins has made us alive together with Christ. He loved us. He loved us even when we were dead in sin. In 1 John 3, 1 it says, Behold what manner of love.
And the word, what manner, a very interesting Greek word, potipane, it has to do with something that's foreign, something that's otherworldly, something that belongs in outer space. I mean, what kind of a strange, inhuman thing is this to love us? In Ephesians 1, 6, it says that through Christ we have been made accepted in the Beloved One. God can love us because He loves us in His Son. Romans 5 says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Romans 8 says, Nothing will ever separate us from the love of Christ.
Nothing. And so the privilege of the good news is that we're loved by God and when God loves, God pours out blessing. Secondly, we're called.
We're called. And that is the effectual call. That is referring to the actual call to salvation.
We are saved because of the sovereign act of God. This isn't referring to some general external call, not just the proclamation as in Isaiah 45, Be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Or Isaiah 55, Seek the Lord while He may be found.
This isn't just a general call. Like Ezekiel 33 when he cried, Turn ye, turn ye. Or Matthew 11 where Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor. Or John 7, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Or Revelation 22, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
Or Romans 10, Faith comes by hearing a speech about Christ. It isn't just that general calling out of the gospel. This is an indication of that very effectual, purposeful call to redemption that comes by the sovereign will of God. We are the called.
It's another word, if you will, for the elect...for the elect. We are the chosen. The Bible says, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
Tremendous truth. We are the called, called by God, the elect. You can study this through the New Testament. There are over and over again statements made to the effect that anyone who is a believer is one who was sovereignly called and predestinated by God.
May I add this quickly? It is never, ever calling alone, but there is always with that call the act of faith in Christ that goes with it. But nonetheless, we're called.
From our viewpoint, we come to Christ as an act of our will, but from God's viewpoint, it was determined before the world began and He called us to Himself. It's a marvelous truth. So we are the beloved and we are the called.
And grab that third one. We are saints. We are saints. You say, you don't know me very well. Oh, but I know you well enough to know that if you're a Christian, you're a saint. You know what it means? A holy one. Hagias, a holy one. By virtue of being beloved of God, by virtue of being called, you are a saint. You have been made holy.
What does it mean? To set apart...to set apart from the world unto God. In the Old Testament, they had many things that were set apart. They said that the holy place was set apart. The holy of holies was set apart. The tithe was set apart.
The priests were set apart. And Exodus 19 says the whole nation of Israel was set apart. In other words, all those things were holy. The holy place, the holy of holies, the tithe, the priests, the nation were all holy unto the Lord.
In other words, they were set apart unto God. In the New Testament, we don't have that anymore. The holy of holies doesn't exist.
The veil was rent. The holy place is no more. The temple has been destroyed. The tithe isn't anymore because we're not under a theocracy. The priests aren't around anymore. The nation of Israel has been temporarily set aside and what is left that is holy?
I'll tell you what it is. It is the new temple of God which is His church. And we're holy. We're set apart unto God, set apart from sin unto God. And we're to live like that.
But think of it. The privilege is to be beloved of God, to be called from before the world began to be His child, and to be set apart from sin unto Himself, separated to Him. Oh my, fitting that to such a people is the benediction in verse 7. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know something? The only people who could ever receive such a benediction would be those who were beloved of God, called of God, and made holy by God. We're the only ones who can receive His grace and the only ones who can experience His peace. Grace and then peace.
Now, listen as we close. Finally, after all the other points that we've seen, I want to give you the purpose for the good news, the last point. We've gone through all of them except this, the purpose, and it's at the end of verse 5. Why does the preacher preach? Why was the promise made? Why did the person come? Why have we received the provision of the gospel? Why have we experienced the proclamation responsibility? Why has God given us the privileges? For one reason, the end of verse 5, for His...what?...name. This simply means that everything focuses on the glory of God. People are to be saved.
Why? All you say is to keep them out of hell. That's secondary. Oh, so they can experience the love of God, that's secondary. Oh, so they can go to heaven, that's secondary.
Oh, so they can have God guide their life, that's secondary. People are to be saved for the glory of God because it is a frontory to His holy nature that someone should live in rebellion against Him. It is His glory that is the issue and that is the reason for everything. In Philippians 2 it says that every knee should bow and confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father. Salvation is for His glory. The gospel is for His glory.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.15, we preach the gospel that the thanksgiving of many may redound to the glory of God. The reason we want to bring you to salvation is so you can praise God's glory. See, God is glorified when you believe His gospel. God is glorified when you love His Son. God is glorified when you accept His diagnosis of your sin and your need. God is glorified when you take Him into your life. God is glorified when your plans become His plans and your thoughts become the thoughts that are common to Him.
We live and exist for the glory of God. Madame Guillain wrote, Glorious Almighty, God without end, when wilt Thou melt the mountains and descend? When wilt Thou shout abroad the conquering rays and teach these Adams Thou hast made Thy praise?
And so we come full circle. The good news comes from God. It is the gospel of God, verse 1. And it is preached by the preacher, promised in the Old Testament, personified in Jesus Christ, providing grace and service, proclaimed by those who receive eternal privileges, and it is all for the purpose of glorifying God.
I trust that God will be glorified in your life as you respond to His good news and proclaim it. Will you bow your heads and listen to these words by William Blaine? He who wept above the grave, he who stilled the raging wave, meek to suffer, strong to save, his shall be the glory. He whose sorrows pathway trod, he that every good bestowed, Son of Man and Son of God, his shall be the glory. He who bled with scourging sore, thorns and scarlet, meekly wore, he who every sorrow bore, his shall be the glory. Monarch of the smitten cheek, scorn of Jew and scorn of Greek, priest and king, divinely meek, his shall be the glory. On the rainbow-circled throne, mid the myriads of his own, never more to weep alone, his shall be the glory. Man of slighted Nazareth, king who wore the thorny wreath, son obedient unto death, his shall be the glory. His the grand eternal weight, his the priestly regal state, him the Father maketh great, his shall be the glory. He who died to set us free, he who lives and loves even me, he who comes whom I shall see, Jesus only, only he, his shall be the glory. Father, we know that's the heart of Paul and the message of the book. Help us to see it ever so clearly, for Christ's glory.
Amen. That's not a perspective we hear much about these days. No, I think the assumption for most people is that the work of the gospel is something that the sinner initiates, when in fact the sinner is incapable of initiating that. The gospel begins and ends with God, and you go all the way back. It was God who designed the plan of salvation. It was God who sent his Son into the world that men might be saved. It was God who put Jesus on the cross. It was God who raised Jesus from the dead. It was God who exalted Jesus to his right hand and established him as Lord over his church. And it is God who seeks and finds the lost sinner and God who gives him life and light and understanding. And it is God who transforms. So we want to look always at the gospel as a divine work of God, not a human exercise, not a, quote-unquote, human decision, but a divine work.
That's what we're talking about in this series. And now for the good news is what we have called it. It has been based on Romans 1, 1 to 7.
We're drawing it to a conclusion. And you may want to get a copy of this that you can keep and share with a Bible study, with your family, with friends. Download the series, and you know how to do that by going to the website. Thanks, John. And, friend, make sure you understand the power of the gospel and how it can transform your life and how to help you share it effectively with others. I encourage you to pick up this study from Romans 1, the title again, and now for the good news. So head to our website and download it today. Our web address is gty.org. The study is available free of charge.
The title one more time, And Now for the Good News. In fact, all of John's sermons from more than 55 years of his pulpit ministry, free to download at gty.org. And another resource that can help you understand the gospel and all of Scripture better than ever is the MacArthur Study Bible. It has 25,000 footnotes that John has written to help you understand the historical, social, and cultural background of virtually every passage. The Study Bible also has introductions to all 66 books of the Bible. It has cross references, charts, maps. And remember, the MacArthur Study Bible is now available with the Legacy Standard text of Scripture, making this an all-in-one Bible study tool like no other.
Choose from four cover options, including premium goatskin. To order the MacArthur Study Bible in the Legacy Standard Version, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace To You television Sundays on DirecTV channel 378, and then be here Monday when John helps you answer the question, can I lose my salvation? Don't miss the next half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
