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: Now there may be some who would think that God would not have commanded men to do something if it were not possible for the man to obey the command. But the very essence of the nature of God and man, however, demands that God require of man that which can never be fulfilled and must command that which can never be accomplished.

Then when man stands bankrupt before God, the love of God provides freely as a gift of grace, the full requirement which originated in God.

Guest (Male): God's word is for God he gave to teach, rebuke, correct and train. Equipped by him we can pursue the work God has for us to do. God's word all the Christian needs to grow in grace and do good deeds.

Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of 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'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled "The Righteousness of Faith."

Those who claim to be faith healers and miracle workers attract many people who seek signs from God and manifestations of divine power. But true faith does not seek after signs and wonders. Biblical faith lays hold of the promises of God, rest and relies upon the finished work of Jesus Christ, and responds with joyful obedience and service.

The scripture text for today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible: Romans chapter 10, we're looking at verses 5 and 6. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled "The Righteousness of Faith."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We ask Thee that today, as Thy word goes forth, it may be in the power of the Holy Spirit to reach the hearts of those who will listen. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

At the present time, we are continuing our studies in the 10th chapter of the book of Romans and come to Paul's statement: "Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks like this: Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven?"

Now the whole argument in this section of Romans is to show that the law has been brought to an end by the incarnation and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The law, we read in Galatians, the law was added in order that sin might have added to it the characteristic of transgression. And this addition was for a limited period, until the seed should come.

Now throughout the last three or four hundred years, there have been a few theologians who have attempted to maintain that Christ in his life fulfilled what the law required and that thereby the demands of God were satisfied. That is, that because Jesus Christ was good, God was satisfied with Jesus and that that was all that was necessary; that he kept the law for us.

But to this we reply that if such were the case, it would not have been necessary for Christ to have died. The idea that the lawkeeping by Christ was reckoned by God over against the lawbreaking of Israel is in reality a doctrine of salvation by vicarious lawkeeping. But the Bible teaches something quite different, namely salvation by the vicarious death of Christ.

Never, not even in one verse of the scriptures, is there any mention of salvation by the vicarious or substitutionary life of Christ. Christ had to die. Christ died. In that death is our salvation. In that death is the end of the law.

Now the purpose of the law was a secondary purpose, and therefore it could not cancel grace. It could not make the covenant of promise of none effect. The law was added. It was slipped in alongside the greater plan of God. When we read in the fifth chapter of Romans that the law entered, we must take into account that the literal meaning of the Greek verb might well be rendered as "the law came in through a side door." It slipped in alongside.

At long last, however, the end of the law came. Jesus Christ came forth from heaven as the Messiah, came to do that which could not be otherwise done. The "until" which was the terminus of the grim reign of law, the terminus had been reached and because of the weakness and unprofitableness of the law, the law was now cancelled forever.

Our text in Romans 10 now leads us to a great contrast between the manner of life which we know as we live under grace and the manner of life which the poor bond slaves of the law knew as they lived under its provisions. First, Paul quotes Moses as he writes in the book of Leviticus.

For in the 17th chapter of Leviticus, we have the setting forth of the doctrine of salvation through the atoning blood of the sacrifice with the great climax verse, verse 11 of Leviticus 17.

Guest (Male): For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Following this, there are several chapters which describe the manner of life of the people of God. And it is from this section that Paul now quotes.

Guest (Male): You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, saith the Lord, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am Jehovah.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Leviticus 18:5. Now we'll begin to make progress in grace if we understand that God never gave the law with the thought that anyone would fulfill its requirements. It is flatly stated that the law could not give life. This we read in Galatians 3:21. And it is formally stated that the law was the administration of death.

The law was given to condemn. The law was given to reduce those who were under the law to a state of helpless despair so that they might cast themselves as their only recourse upon the grace of God. Now after showing that the nature of the law was to establish a code whose righteousness was such that the man under the law had to live completely by that law, which was an impossible task, the writer now contrasts that desperate condition with the joy of the man who has been freed from the law and who is living under grace.

This contrast is presented by means of a further quotation, this time from the book of Deuteronomy. The introductory sentence is a positive clause followed by a negative clause which states the quotation. It might be paraphrased: The righteousness which is of faith does not have to say what the man seeking righteousness by law is forced to say. The quotation comes from the farewell address of Moses before his death. Moses was speaking to the children of Israel about the law, and he said.

Guest (Male): For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say, who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thine heart that thou mayest do it.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Now the remarkable thing about this quotation is that Moses speaks it to describe the relationship of the people to the law, while the Holy Spirit in the New Testament uses the same quotation to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us look at it in these two usages.

The children of Israel, you will remember, had come out from Egypt, having been delivered by the shedding of the blood at the Passover. They had then come to the Red Sea where they were delivered from their enemies by the great display of the power of the Lord Jehovah, who rolled back the waves for them that they might proceed in safety while he destroyed the Egyptians at their rear. They then came to Elim. We read there there were 12 wells of water, representing God's provision for the 12 tribes of Israel. And there were there 70 palm trees, representing the 70 elders by whom the Lord ruled the nations.

The law had not been given at that time. When they were hungry in the desert, the Lord rained manna from heaven to provide a supply of bread for the multitude. And the New Testament tells us that this bread was Christ. When they were thirsty, the Lord smote the rock to provide a flow of water for the multitude.

And the New Testament tells us that this rock was Christ. And it must not be forgotten that the Lord did all this for the people before Sinai, before Moses gave the law. Every item in this deliverance was provided under the covenant of grace which God had promised through Abraham.

Then it was, after that, that the people came to Sinai and lived through the excruciating experiences of the giving of the law. The epistle to the Hebrews sums up these experiences.

Guest (Male): The mount could not be touched. It burned with fire. It was blackness, darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet. There was a voice with words, and all that heard it entreated that it should be silent and not speak to them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded.

They had been told that if so much as a beast touched the mount, it had to be stoned or thrust through with a dart. The sight was so terrible that even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: All this we read in Hebrews 12. Now the people had seen all this and experienced all this. They had seen Moses go into the mount and had seen the sign that God had come down from heaven to give the law into the hands of Moses. And those who passed through all these events had died in the wilderness.

And their children knew about these things only from having heard them told and retold. They had grown up under the leadership of Moses and they had never known anything else. And now, Moses is about to be taken from them. He reveals to them that he's going into Mount Pisgah and is going to die.

Now they are of course, they're frightened. Who's going to take Moses' place? Who's going to go up into the mount and communicate with God from heaven?

Guest (Male): Whom, they might say, is going to go up into heaven to bring down the law from God? Our fathers had Moses to do all this for them, but whom will we have?

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: And Moses says to them.

Guest (Male): You are not to talk like this. God has not left you alone. The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: And also feeling their loneliness in the wilderness and remembering how they had been told by their fathers of the passage across the Red Sea, they were inclined to say.

Guest (Male): Who's going to go across the sea and get us a leader? Who's going into far places to learn the word of the Lord for us?

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: And Moses answers them.

Guest (Male): You are not to talk like this. God has not left you alone. The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: And surely all through the Old Testament, from the day of Moses down to the time of the Lord Jesus, there was the minority of the faithful who knew this truth and who lived by the nearness of the word of God. Joshua announced his definite choice.

Guest (Male): As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: The 11th chapter of Hebrews lists a long line of those who triumphed by faith. The story of the birth and childhood of Christ includes the revealing incident which took place in the temple at the time of the Savior's circumcision. Anna the prophetess was in the temple at that time and spoke of Christ to all who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem.

You see, there was enough teaching of grace in the midst of the law to turn the people away from the formidable precepts which ministered death and unto the promises that were inherent in the sacrifices which typified life. Now in our text in Romans, Paul takes this portion of Moses' farewell address and applies it to the situation where the law came to its end, even as Moses had come to the end of his life.

At the end of the life of Moses, it was not necessary for the people to be in a state of nervous apprehension because their visible leader was removed from them. The word of grace was near to them and they could trust it. Now the argument is that the Lord Jesus Christ has come and has died on the cross, fulfilling the righteous demands of the law by shedding his blood for the remission of sins.

And there's therefore no more need of apprehension. The righteousness based on faith does not have fear. There is no fear in grace, as God tells us there is no fear in love, but that perfect love casteth out fear. Furthermore, the very nature of the grace which God has given to us removes us from any form of religion that needs any outward sign or manifestation as a confirmation for the word of God.

Moses made it plain to the children of Israel who stood before Pisgah that they had the law in simple words and that they needed no further manifestation. The signs had all been displayed on Mount Sinai. From thence onward, there was nothing to do but to submit to the unequivocal, simple word of God, which they possessed in their mouths and in their hearts.

Now Israel did not obey the command of Moses, for instead of turning to the word which was near to them, they began looking for signs. By the time of Christ, they approached the Lord with a request.

Guest (Male): Master, we wish to see a sign from you.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: These were the words with which Jesus Christ was greeted. But the Lord Jesus Christ knew their hearts so well that he was forced to answer.

Guest (Male): An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: This seems to have been a stock quotation, for we find it again four chapters farther on, and to it Jesus seems to have devised this as a stock answer, for he gives it to them again word for word. Thus we find it in both Matthew 12 and Matthew 16. In the Gospel of Mark, we have the record of one of these incidents that Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit and said.

Guest (Male): Why does this generation seek a sign?

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Luke records the same question and answer, but in a completely different framework, while John brings his account of the request for a sign inside the temple and shows Jesus' answer that they would destroy the temple of his body and that he would raise it in three days. So we see that time and time and time again in the days of Jesus, men were asking for special signs.

They wanted a religion based on something they could see with their eyes. In our own day, the appeal to some sign is just as alien to the spirit of the true faith as it was in the day of Christ. Our age is not the age of signs, and there is no place for them whatsoever in the true presentation of Christian truth.

Our appeal is always to the word of God alone as it is applied consistently by the Holy Spirit. Now one of the main purposes of the Christian faith is to take our minds and hearts away from the things of time and sense and to lift them to the things of eternity and the things of the spirit. Christ announced this when he was here on earth.

He said the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Now this is the whole way of life of those who know the righteousness of faith. That righteousness does not say: Who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down.

Everything that is necessary for the salvation of the individual has been done by the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption has been fully accomplished, completing God's purposes for this present age. There is nothing that we need for our present pilgrim walk that has not been provided by Christ and made available for us.

We must not lose sight of the fact that this central section of the epistle to the Romans is addressed primarily to Israel, and that they are being told that they are not to look to heaven to find their Messiah. This world is the scene of many terrible things. There are plague spots all over the globe where misery in its deepest degree engulfs masses of humanity. It is true that the social problems will not be fully settled until the intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ at his second coming.

But it is also true that everything that any individual needs, no matter how dire his circumstances, may be found in the work that has already been provided by the Savior, and which the Lord is ready to minister to any and all by means of the Holy Spirit and through those whom he has already called and saved, bringing them into his spiritual body.

Now it is true that the world has not solved and will not solve the problem of war, for example. If peace could come by the efforts of men, then Christ would have died in vain. But while it's true that wars will continue until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has made a plan where he can take care of all of his own even in the midst of the most terrible phases of war.

He will give sustaining grace and power to each individual believer. He will comfort those that mourn and give consolation to those who are bereaved. To those whose place it is to be killed, he will surround with his love and take them into his presence, where there shall be no more pain or sorrow or crying, for the Lord will wipe the tears from all eyes.

God has promised sufficient power so that he can be with anyone in the midst of bombings or in the fight in the air or on the sea or wherever a soldier or sailor may be. It is not necessary to seek to bring Christ down from heaven to accomplish these things. He is available to every needy soul in the midst of any terrors.

Now what is true of war is also true of the other insoluble problems of man. Oh, it's not popular to tell men that they have problems which are completely beyond the human power of solution. But the Bible is plain and we know that there will be no ultimate solution until the Lord comes.

This is true of the racial problems, the problems of the exploitation of the poor, the problem of mass drunkenness, and all the miseries that go with unbridled lust. But while we know that the great problems of sin and misery have been with the human race for thousands of years, there is total deliverance to the individual who builds his hope on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

We do not have to go to heaven to bring Christ down. His Holy Spirit is here to do anything and everything that needs to be done in the life of any individual who will trust in him and his work. Now the last half of the sentence shows that it's not necessary to say: Who shall descend into the abyss? That is, to bring Christ up from the dead.

When Moses originally used this language, he was reminding Israel that they did not have to go across the sea to find some leader. He was talking about the Red Sea and reminding them of their withdrawal from Egypt. When Paul uses the same language, he's not giving an exact quotation, but is paraphrasing the words in order to demonstrate the truth of Christ's nearness to us.

For where Moses had spoken of going across the sea, Paul speaks of going down into the abyss, the depths of death. Biblical language always placed the abode of the spirits of the dead before the time of Christ within the earth. To the Ephesians Paul writes: "When Christ ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts unto men."

In saying he has ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. Now the argument concludes in our verse by stating that the Lord Jesus Christ has done everything in the past that needs to be done for individual salvation and that he has done this by dying on the cross.

But we must not think of his death in terms of the death of any other man. Poets have cried out to the shades of great men of the past, wondering if Caesar, if Charles of Spain, or some other could not come back again and lead their disorganized followers. But we do not have to go to the abyss of death to seek Christ.

The angel told Mary on the day of the resurrection: "Fear not, he is not here, he is risen even as he said." And thus it is that the living word is nigh unto us even in our hearts. All that we need and all that we want is to be found in the crucified and risen Savior. He lives and he lives in order to lead and guide us and to provide for us in every way.

And our God and Father, we pray Thee that the Holy Spirit shall take this message to the hearts of many and use it to Thy glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): When you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, you receive his perfect righteousness as God's free gift through faith. You have been listening to Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. We hope you've benefited from today's message entitled "The Righteousness of Faith."

Listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via our website, visit us at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is also available by calling us toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled "The Righteousness of Faith," or simply request message number R10-5.

We would also like to make available to you our free booklet entitled "Death is Swallowed Up in Victory." In this four-chapter booklet, Dr. Barnhouse answers such questions as: What happens the moment you die? Where are the dead right now? Is there such a thing as soul sleep?

These and many other questions on the subject of death are treated with profound biblical insight. Are you grieving the loss of a loved one or struggling with the issue of death? Ask for your free copy of "Death is Swallowed Up in Victory" when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

We 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 which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

The Alliance also produces the radio broadcast "The Bible Study Hour," featuring the teaching of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and "Every Last Word," featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a complete list of radio stations carrying our programs, please visit our website at alliancenet.org.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners like you. If you have benefited from the 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 help further our work, contact us by calling toll-free 1-800-488-1888.

Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. You can also write us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Visit us online at alliancenet.org.

Be sure to ask for a free resource catalog featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Donald Grey Barnhouse, Dr. James Montgomery Boice, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. Thank you for listening, and please join us again for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.

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