Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Guest (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Oh, the audacity of the human heart, which flinches not from attacking what it cannot comprehend. The mind finds itself in ignorance, and wishing to be exalted in its own eyes, unwilling to cast itself on God as bankrupt, floats what it does not wish to accept, denies that which reduces it to its proper stature, assails that which convicts it of its nothingness, and then boldly proclaims that error is truth.

Guest (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio outreach which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we will be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled The Black Background of Sin. A jewelry store will often display a diamond necklace against a black velvet cloth.

The contrast of the black background allows the beauty of the diamonds to shine all the more clearly and brilliantly. When contrasted with the blackness of human sin and wickedness, the glory, beauty, and holiness of God is more clearly manifested. How does the sharp contrast between God's holiness and our sinfulness point us to the way of salvation? Let's find out as today Dr. Barnhouse takes us to Romans chapter three and verses five and six. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with the message entitled The Black Background of Sin.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto the our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We thank thee for thy great faithfulness unto us. There is none like unto thee. Slow to anger and of great compassion. We pray thee that thou shalt bless thy word to each heart in this hour. Cleanse us from sin and give us the Holy Spirit of growth in Christ, in whose name we ask it. Amen. Today we are studying in the third chapter of Romans and come to the fifth and sixth verses. 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? Now God knows the thoughts of men, and he is able to answer their questions before they are asked. In the third chapter of Romans, he graciously condescends to read the mind of the rebel, put down the true answers to his questions, and sweep away any possible excuse for unbelief and continued rebellion. Two of these questions we have already considered. The answer to the first question showed the measureless advantage of being born into a family which possessed the word of God.

The second answer showed that man's faithlessness to high privilege and responsibility can in no wise cancel out the faithfulness of our God. The third question is now put forth, and its answer explains the righteousness of God in using the sin of man to his own honor and glory. I will explain the matter by a story. After the first war, I was in Brussels, Belgium for some months. Walking down the Avenue Louise, the passer notes several stores that sell nothing but lace. In the windows were exquisite scarves, veils, handkerchiefs, and other pieces. I soon became aware of the beauty of this fine workmanship and decided to purchase a handkerchief for my mother.

One morning about 10:00, I entered one of the finest of these stores and asked to see a handkerchief. There were two old ladies who ran the place, and it later developed that they were sisters who had been running the store since they took it over from their parents a generation before. They showed me some handkerchiefs, and I was rather astonished at the price and asked them if they would explain why the articles were so costly. It was within a few months of the armistice after the First World War, and I was still in my army uniform.

The ladies had no other customers at that time of day, and they seemed pleased to tell the young American officer about their wares. One of them secured a roll of black velvet and spread it on the counter and then began to show the lace against this contrasting background. I was initiated into the mystery of bobbin lace, and a few knots were tied for me to show me the method of making it. Finally, they went to their safe and took out the marriage veil that had just been completed for the wedding of the Duchess of Brabant and displayed it for me.

Rather gingerly, I took hold of the edge of it, for the whole thing was valued at over $10,000 and began to look at it more closely. One of the ladies immediately lifted the black velvet that I might have the contrasting background to bring out the intricacies of this Brussels rose point lace. From that day, I have always been interested in the beauties of lace, which they taught me to comprehend against the blackness of the velvet. Now this will explain our subject, for the argument in the epistle to the Romans might be set forth as follows.

What would we think of those lace merchants if at the end of their day they turned furiously upon the black velvet and cut it into shreds with the great anger because it was black? We would think them mentally unbalanced. And if their black velvet had a soul and could receive punishment, would we not consider them unrighteous if they jabbed and cut the velvet because of its blackness? Now this is the argument of verse five in Romans three. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?

I speak as a man. And then comes the answer, Perish the thought. For then how shall God judge the world? It is unquestionable that the glories of God's love and mercy and righteousness and goodness and tenderness, in short, that all of the attributes of his grace are known by the fact that God took the black velvet of man's sin and through the web of his grace against it. Anything that ever could be known about God had to be revealed by God himself. The angels of heaven that lived in the ages before the world was could have known that God was mighty, that God was wise, that God was great in majesty and infinite in the variety of his creation.

But no angel could have known the meaning of a declaration that God was merciful, that God was a God of loving kindness and grace, that God was righteous, and that his very name was love. When sin entered like black velvet, God spread his virtues across it, and now both heaven and earth can see wonders in the divine being that could never have been known before. Well then, says the human philosopher from the depths of his fallen position, speaking with unclean lips, the thoughts that pour out of the abundance of his depraved heart, is not God unrighteous to take vengeance upon beings whose debased and wretched choices have so enhanced his grace?

Now in its context, the evil question has primary reference to the background of the evil history of the people that had been the object of God's special care and the trustees of his oracles. When Paul says our unrighteousness, he refers to the unrighteousness of Israel throughout its history. Abraham had forsaken the land when God had told him to stay there. Isaac had willfully sought to give the birthright to his favorite son Esau instead of to Jacob as God had directed. Jacob had been a crook and a swindler, yet God had not been ashamed to call himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The children of Israel, because of their sin, had become slaves in Egypt and had developed a slave mentality. When redemption was provided by God, they preferred the flesh pots of Egypt to the manner of divine grace. There was in them no thought of give me liberty or give me death, but rather give us leeks, onions, garlic, and the other delights of Egypt, and we do not care whose slaves we are. Yet God had used Moses to whip them through the Red Sea and whip them past Sinai and whip them through their wilderness wanderings and had brought them in spite of their murmuring and rebellion to the threshold of the promised land.

David prayed in one of his psalms, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. But it was a prayer that the nation did not pray. They sinned against grace by presuming on it. They came to the place where they adopted the attitude that since they were the chosen people, they had inalienable rights with God, and that therefore he must overlook anything that they did contrary to his will. From this there was but one step to the lawlessness of antinomianism, of doing exactly as they pleased. Just before Moses died, God had had him sum up the law and issue a great warning to Israel.

The divine prophecy through Moses began, and we read in Deuteronomy 31:16, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and they will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. All right, said their descendants in the time of Paul, what is God complaining about? We fulfilled his plan, and by our rebellion we demonstrated to the Egyptians and the Philistines that Jehovah was the true God. His power and righteousness became known by our evil, so he should not find fault with us.

But our text answers, Is God unrighteous for visiting such sin with judgment? Perish the thought. And the prophecy in Deuteronomy went on to announce the doom of the stiff-necked people. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them. So that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? And all of history declares this prophecy to be true.

The Philistines rise up to say that it is true. Nebuchadnezzar rises up to say that it is true. Antiochus Epiphanes rises up to testify that it is true. The emperor Titus and his armies who destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 AD rise up to say that it is true. The Mohammedan conquerors and builders of the Mosque of Omar on the site of the temple in Jerusalem rise up to say that it is true. The Russian tsars of the pogroms rise up to say that it is true. Hitler and the brown shirts of Prague, Vienna, Dachau, Belsen-Hausen, and the extermination camps of Poland rise up to say that this prophecy of Moses is true.

God himself, speaking through Moses, said in the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, And it shall come to pass when many evils and troubles are befallen them that this song shall testify against them as a witness. For it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know their imagination which they go about even now before I have brought them into the land of which I swear. But by the days of Paul, they were crying, But didn't he give us the land in spite of the sins of our fathers? And didn't he restore us from the captivity?

And didn't our actions furnish the black background against which he could display the lacey beauty of his goodness? Then why does he complain against us if we have been the occasion of so much glory for his name? Is he not unrighteous in so doing? To which the divine answer comes thundering, Perish the thought. God is not unrighteous. And in the song of Moses, the judgment of the people was announced. For it was of the people which he testified that they were the apple of his eye, that he wrote that he would judge them. Moses sang, Give ear, oh heavens, and I will speak and hear, oh earth, the words of my mouth.

Do ye thus requite the Lord, oh foolish people and unwise? The Lord's portion is his people. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. But in the days of Paul, the people whined, But why should he be angry with us if glory has accrued to his name by the detailed fulfillment of these prophecies? Through the ancient world, he is recognized as God because of his power on our behalf. Then why should he take vengeance on any member of this nation? Is he not unrighteous in doing so?

To think such a thought is to think like a man. It is to think humanly. It is to think vainly. The scripture declares that the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. Is it any wonder that he declares that the thoughts of man are evil in Genesis 6:5 and that in Psalm 94 he tells us that man's thoughts are vanity and in Proverbs 15 that they are an abomination. In Isaiah 59 that they are thoughts of iniquity. In Proverbs 24 that their thoughts are sin. The Lord Jesus declares that the evil thoughts of men proceed out of their own hearts.

Therefore when there arises a question against the righteousness of God, it is a question that comes from the abundance of the evil heart of man. It is humanism. It is evil, vain, abominable, foolish, and iniquitous. These are adjectives the Lord uses to describe the thoughts of men. Is it any wonder that Paul, having expressed the thought which had arisen naturally in the hearts of some of the enemies of God, that there might possibly be some unrighteousness in God, hastened to cry out, I speak as a man. God help us day by day to turn away from the vain thoughts of man and to turn to the revealed thoughts of the Lord.

It is by reason of use of the word of God that we can have our senses exercised to discern good and evil. Before passing on to the basis of the refutation of their vain question, it is worthwhile noting that the same question is to be found today in different forms. Frequently a parallel argument is brought up about Judas. The skeptic will ask, Did God announce in the Old Testament that Judas would betray Christ? We answer yes, he did. Then before he was born, the course of Judas was charted in the eternal plan, and we reply yes, it was.

And when the Lord chose Judas as one of the 12, he knew at the time that this would be his own familiar friend that would eat of his bread and would lift up his heel against him. And again we answer yes, he did know it. And then they returned to the attack saying, And is this one of the few men whose eternal destiny is specifically indicated in the Bible, the word of God saying that Judas went to hell? And once more we reply that the word of God does announce that Judas went to hell. Well then they sneer.

Is there not unrighteousness with God for him to take vengeance on poor Judas? To which we reply with scorn, You speak like a man. Shall not God recompense evil upon the willful choosers of evil? Where in the whole Bible is there the remotest hint that a man is not totally responsible for his actions and that he shall not be brought to the judgment bar of God to account for his choices and his actions, his thoughts, and his words? Man is responsible. The fact that the omniscience of God included in advance the knowledge of man's evil choice and pronounced the consequences of judgment thereon does not involve the righteousness of God.

Again we must apply this same example to modern Protestantism as well as to God's ancient people. For Protestantism stands in the world at the end of this church age somewhat as Israel stood in the world at the end of the age of law. They, Israel, were the possessors of the oracles of God as Protestantism is the supposed champion of the Bible in our day, which gives us an advantage over any other branch of Christendom. Yet Israel had departed from God long before the time of Christ, and Rome departed from God in the Middle Ages, and Protestantism has departed from God in modern times.

Even among doctrinally sound Protestants, there has been a departure from holiness that is appalling. Yet God has saved a great many people in spite of the departure from the Bible throughout Christianity. Shall that fact condone the departure from the word of God? And shall those who have departed not be judged because of their departure? Perish the thought. They shall be judged, and God shall be vindicated as righteous in taking vengeance upon them. There are men in almost every Protestant denomination who are preparing Sunday school literature for the supposed education of the young of our churches.

And this literature, if followed and believed, will bring its followers and believers into eternal condemnation. Yet these men, preachers of ethics who claim Christ as an example, deny the necessity of salvation through his blood and set forth another gospel and preach a Jesus that is not to be found in the Bible. It would appear from the words of our Lord himself that they shall complain in the day of judgment that they do not deserve the vengeance of God because they have preached, cast out demons, and done many wonderful works all in his name. Yet of them our Lord himself said that whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he was drowned in the depths of the sea.

And our Lord will say to them in the day of his judgment upon them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Say not that God is unrighteous because he shall work vengeance upon those who have brought his mercy into sharp relief by their opposition. Man is responsible. You are responsible. Woe unto the world, said the Lord Jesus. Woe unto the world because of offenses. For it must need be that offenses come. But woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. And now the logic of God is turned against these feeble beings who have lifted their puny reason to call into question his honor and righteousness because he judges and sends to hell men through whom he has secured praise in the midst of their wrath and honor by means of their very unrighteousness.

The apostle brandishes the sword of the word and with one thrust pierces the vanity of their thinking. Their argument collapses like the whoosh of a gas bag that has been pierced with a sharp instrument. Shall not God judge the world? Israel had always contended that God would one day judge the Gentiles, the non-Jewish world. Israel had made his boast in the fact that he was a child of Abraham. But what had been the attitude of Abraham towards the judgment of the world? God had spoken to Abraham in the plain of Mamre and revealed that he was about to judge Sodom.

Abraham recognized the principle of judgment but hesitated since he thought there might be some righteous people overcome in the judgment of the wicked city. But wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? He asked the Lord. And then Abraham asked God if he would not spare Sodom if 50 righteous men were found therein. For, said Abraham, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? God consented to spare the city if there were 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, or even 10 righteous. There were not, of course, even 10 righteous there. But the principle is clearly seen that Abraham's mind and heart accepted without question the right of the Lord to destroy the wicked.

Yes, God shall judge the world. And if God judge the world, none shall escape on any grounds whatsoever. He has broken the bones of your legs so that you shall not walk alone but must be carried by his grace. If you inject some morphia that permits you to walk on the broken bones and to enter with insulting bravado before his judgment bar, erect in your own crippled righteousness, you will be thrust into greater punishment and beaten with many stripes instead of few. Eternal punishment is not all on the same level, and the word of God indicates that the worst offenders are not those who have committed fleshly sins of adultery, theft, and murder, but those who would stand upright when God bids them be prostrate before him.

And those who would speak when he has called them to silence. The day must come when he shall bend by force the knees that will now not bend from yieldedness. And the mouths will be stopped by the awe of his presence, which will not give the tongue now to sing his praise. The advice given by the Holy Spirit to the kings of the earth is good advice for all men. In Psalm two we read, Be wise now therefore, oh ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Embrace the son, lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Today is the day of grace. His wrath, though smoldering, is kindled but a little and held in check by his patience. But the day of the end of God's patience is clearly foretold, and the day of his wrath will surely come. Now while grace yet calls to you, Leave your senseless reasonings and the vanity of your human thinking and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The door has not yet been closed. Grace still invites you.

Come to him. And our God and Father, we pray thee that thou shalt bless each heart that listens in this hour. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Guest (Male): Understanding God's glory, holiness, and righteousness helps us to see our sinfulness and rebellion. This leads us to humble ourselves in true repentance and lay hold of Christ by faith. We hope you've benefited from today's message by Dr. Barnhouse entitled The Black Background of Sin. You can listen to additional Bible teaching by the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse anytime, anywhere around the globe via the Internet by visiting the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals website at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free at 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled The Black Background of Sin.

Or simply request message number R3-3. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of Dr. Barnhouse's booklet entitled Jesus The Great I Am. If you ask people for their opinion about Jesus, they may say he was a powerful prophet, a brilliant moral teacher, or even the greatest man that ever lived. But these high opinions are woefully inadequate. In this booklet, Dr. Barnhouse examines the Bible's remarkable claims that Jesus is Jehovah God in human flesh and the significance of this glorious truth for all of us today. This biblical look at the deity of Christ can powerfully impact your spiritual life.

Ask for your free copy of Jesus The Great I Am when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and The Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching materials which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place. Dr. Barnhouse and The Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of our listeners.

If you have benefited from this broadcast and would like it to continue, please prayerfully consider a donation to help us keep this ministry on the air. For more information or to make a contribution to support and further our work, please contact us by writing Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Call toll-free 1-800-488-1888 or visit us online at alliancenet.org. Be sure and ask for a free updated resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, daily devotionals, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reform teachers and theologians including Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Michael Horton, and Martin Lloyd-Jones.

Thanks for being with us today. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and The Bible.