Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

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

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: The sacrifice of Christ was in no small way a sanitary measure to keep heaven from being defiled. God could not take us to heaven just as we are, we would wreck the place. But we are in Christ, our sins gone forever, and Christ's righteousness, our garment, our standing.

This is why we may stand boldly before God without any fear. His love has banished our fear and made us accepted in the beloved, and therefore beloved of God.

Announcer (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the weekly 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, To the Saints.

Suppose you were invited to have dinner with a king. You put on your best clothes, go to the palace, and are seated in a large banquet hall. And the king comes in wearing jeans and a t-shirt carrying pizza and potato chips.

Although he is still a king, he does not seem very royal and regal at that moment, does he? If you trust in Jesus, you are declared to be a saint. But are there times when you do not seem very saintly to those around you? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is Romans 1, and verses 6 through 8.

Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message To the Saints.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: We thank thee that we may come boldly, as thou hast said in thy word to the throne of grace, and that we may come through Jesus Christ, without passing by any other intercessor. We pray thee that in this hour the Holy Spirit shall speak to each heart. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

In our studies in the book of Romans, we're in the first chapter and the first paragraph. Paul is writing to this young group of believers in the Imperial City of the Roman Empire, strengthening their faith, and preparing them for his proposed visit among them. He has told them of the gospel which is the center of his preaching and of his mission, which was a divine one. He now tells them some things about their own position in Christ.

There are many Christians who do not know all the wonderful things that happened to them the very moment they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as eternal Son of God and their own Savior. A newborn baby has no knowledge whatsoever of the biological processes that brought him into being, or of the physiological changes which took place in his little body when he came out of the dark waters of his mother's womb into the sudden light of this world.

In the same way, a young Christian frequently has little idea whatsoever of the divine processes by which eternal life is communicated to an individual, and of all the rights and titles of his new inheritance that is surely his from the moment that he is made a partaker of the divine nature. Paul now sets before this little group in Rome the outline of five of the divine things that are theirs because of their position in Christ Jesus.

He says, first, that they are the called of Jesus Christ, second, that they are the beloved of God, third, that they are called saints, fourth and fifth, that they are the objects of the grace and recipients of peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, first, what is it to be the called of Jesus Christ?

It means much more than to hear the gospel invitation. There is a development of the meaning of the word from the time it was used by the Lord Jesus in Matthew, until the time it was used by the Holy Spirit in the epistles. The Savior said, many are called, but few are chosen. In that sense of the meaning of the word, the voice of God goes out through the world, proclaiming the gospel to all ears.

But by the time the Christian doctrine is developed by God in the epistles, the called means those who listen and who accept and who act upon the divine invitation. Thayer, in the great Greek lexicon that bears his name, says, everywhere in the New Testament epistles, only those are spoken of as called by God, who have listened to his voice addressed to them in the gospel.

Those who have slighted the invitation are not reckoned among the called. It is interesting to note still further development of the idea in the prophecy concerning those who come with the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of his intervention in the affairs of this world at his second coming.

In Revelation 17:14, we read that he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and they that are with him are called, chosen and faithful. These believers in Rome then, and every believer today, have been the object of the effectual calling of God. They and we have believed the message of the gospel. They and we have passed out of death and into life.

They and we are removed from under the curse of God and brought into the sphere of God's blessing. They and we are now children of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. They and we have become all this instantaneously and simultaneously with all the other work of God in our behalf. This is just as true of us today as it was of those believers in that day.

The very moment the life of God is given unto us in our spiritual being, we are complete in Christ. The outworking of this begins in God's dealings with us in our Christian life. But it is the outworking of something that has been established in our behalf.

We may liken it to the situation of someone who is suddenly called into the office of a bank to be met by officials of the bank and an attorney at law, to be told that they have come into a vast inheritance. When the testator died, the heir became the owner of all the properties in the sight of the law. Now, the bankers and the lawyers begin to work out the details.

The individual learns about the inheritance, and perhaps the very first thing to be arranged is a current drawing account. But as time goes on, the new heir will come into complete control of all the inheritance. Some of this is well known to some believers. To others, it will come as a fresh joy as they contemplate all that the heavenly Father has planned for those who are the redeemed in Christ.

But it is important that we stop for a moment to realize what a new thing this was in the history of the world at the moment it was written. There had been national gods among the peoples. But there had never been anything on such a universal scale as this.

The one true God, the Lord God Almighty, the author of the Old Testament, had restricted himself for a certain purpose, for a certain number of centuries. He had dealt with all of the human race from Adam down to the time of the Tower of Babel. But when men had organized against God, he had sent confusion of tongues and had created the curse of nationality.

Let us never forget that the nations were divided by God as a curse at the time of their great apostasy. Every attempt to unite the nations other than in God's way is doomed to utter frustration. Men may be able to create alliances among a few states which are drawn together by common need or common greed.

But a real unity among peoples is not possible in this world of sin and rebellion, where men wish to exalt themselves above the creator of the universe. If the United Nations could really succeed, both man and Satan could cry out, move over God, get off your throne. We have succeeded in bringing peace to the Earth and we do not need you anymore.

One commentator has said of the first chapter of Romans, take any part of the Old Testament and compare it with these opening words. How evident and immense the difference, aim, character and scope. What is there for instance like it in the five books of Moses, or the historical books that follow?

In vain do you search the Psalms and other poetical books for a parallel. Not even the prophets describe or predict such a state of things. Glorious things are spoken for Israel, mercy from God, which will not fail to reach and bless the poor Gentiles, deliverance and joy for the long travailing Earth and lower creation in general.

All this and more, we have abundantly from the prophets and even in the Psalms. But there is nothing resembling the tone even of the apostle's salutation and preface to the Roman saints. A new thing was before God here below, answering to a new thing, the greatest of all in heaven.

Jesus Christ our Lord had come down from heaven and had paid for our sins. He had now been raised from the dead and had gone back to heaven, where he was now seated on the throne of God. From him could come forth the wondrous grace to all men everywhere.

The Holy Spirit would now come to speak to the human race and to tell men all that Christ was, is and shall be. Those who had been the object of God's eternal love and choice would be brought effectively to know him and to realize the high position for which God has destined all those who put their trust in Christ. This is Christianity.

Not a mere set of ethics or a plan for living in this world, but a calling that puts us in gear with the eternal power and plan of heaven. Communicates to us the eternal life of Christ, and sets us apart for God's purposes. Next, Paul tells these believers that they were beloved of God.

Someone may object that all men are beloved of God. While this is true in one sense, it is not true in another. God so loved the world, the whole world, that he gave his only begotten Son. But to the believer, it is written, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world, the world of unbelievers, knoweth us, the believers, knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

This is in line, of course, with the teaching of the whole Bible that God is the creator of all men, but that he is the Father only of those who are born again through faith in the work of redemption accomplished on Calvary. God is the universal creator, but he is the Father only of those who are the beloved, because of their relationship to him in his own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus.

The same difference exists in all of our earthly loves. I am enjoined to love all men, but the four children of my own household are my beloved. The unsaved men are never called the beloved of God. You who listen, you are indeed the loved of God, but if you wish to be among the beloved, the beloved of God, you must be made accepted in the Son of God, who is the Father's beloved Son.

It is this of which Paul writes to the Ephesian church in the first chapter and the sixth verse, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Let every individual realize this most important truth, the heart of the Bible teaching is that no man could be acceptable to God in himself.

We are sinners, and a holy God could never draw us to himself without contamination for himself. The sacrifice of Christ was in no small way a sanitary measure to keep heaven from being defiled. God could not take us to heaven just as we are, we would wreck the place. And it would not be heaven anymore, it would merely be a part of earth removed to heaven.

But when the Lord God made the way whereby he could put all of our sins upon the Savior, and all of the righteousness of the Savior upon us, we could then be received by the Father without defilement to him. We were made accepted in the beloved. We're in Christ, our sins gone forever, and Christ's righteousness, our garment, our standing.

This is why we may stand boldly before God without any fear. His love has banished our fear, and made us accepted in the beloved, and therefore beloved of God. It then follows naturally that we may be called saints. Note well that we are not called to be saints. We are called saints.

In the English translation, the words to be have been inserted, and that is why they are printed in italics. The slanting type indicates that the translators have added words in English to fill out the sentence. But once in a while the added words serve to obscure the meaning, and this is so in the present case.

Just as we are the called of Jesus Christ and beloved of God, so we are called saints. There has been a great deal of confusion about the subject of the saints. There are some who think that saint is a term applied to those who are saintly. This is not what the Bible teaches.

This is the new name of the redeemed. The old name was sinners. The new name is saints. The difference between a saint and a sinner is the Savior. It is the Lord who takes an unregenerate man whom the Bible calls a sinner, and immediately calls him a saint.

There has been the confusion arising from the impression given by the lives of many people who are saints, but who do not live in a saintly fashion. The word of God shows us that God stoops to us and accounts our sins to have been carried by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. His righteousness is put to our account. So we are seen as justified from all things by his blood. Therefore, we are called saints.

The Philippian jailer was at one moment on the point of suicide, and the next moment he was saved. And in the language of the New Testament, he was among the saints. All of the believers in the city of Rome at the time Paul wrote to them were called saints. If you read all of the epistles, you will discover that they are all addressed to the saints.

At times, some of these saints were roundly condemned by the Holy Spirit for the low level of their living. The Corinthian saints were told to stop their fighting. The evidence is that one of them had fallen into gross sin, and that others were contending with each other publicly, and that some had even gotten drunk upon the wine of the communion.

There are millions of saints living in the world today. Though they are not all saintly. Every man or woman who has been born again is by that fact a saint. One of my favorite anecdotes was told by a friend whom I esteem very highly, Dr. H. A. Ironside of Chicago.

Years ago in his early ministry, he was on his way to the Pacific coast at a time when it still took about four days to go from Chicago to the coast. In his car was a party of religious. And day by day, he spoke to these women, and they spoke to him. He would sit reading his Bible, and at times the group of nuns talked with him about spiritual things.

About the third day, he asked them if any one of them had ever seen a saint. They all answered, no, they had never seen a saint. Then he asked them if they would like to see a saint. They all declared that they would very much like to see a saint. Then he astonished them greatly by saying, I am a saint. I am Saint Harry.

He then opened the New Testament and told them the truth that I have just set before you. That God Almighty does not make a saint by exalting an individual, but by exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. I that speak to you today, declare on the authority of the Bible that I, and any true believer, have as much right to the title of saint as did Paul and Peter and the rest of the disciples.

The word saint comes from the Latin sanctus, and means a holy one. The saints are the holy ones. Now our holiness is not intrinsic in ourselves, but is found in Christ. His righteousness becomes our righteousness, and we stand before God clothed in a holiness that is put down on our account by God, and imparted to us day by day by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, there have been too many saints who have lived low-level Christian lives. But they are nonetheless saints in the true meaning of the word. We have a great illustration of this in recent history, a certain man named George V had two sons. The first was named Edward and the second was named George.

The first one became a king, Edward VIII, but he was not kingly and he lost the right to reign. The second became king, George VI, and he was kingly and retained the right to reign. There is a great difference between being a king and being kingly. In the same way, there is a great deal of difference between being a saint and being saintly.

To all of the saints, there comes the tremendous warning, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. It is to the saints of God that the Holy Spirit addresses the great appeal later on in this epistle. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable, or as the Greek has it, which is your spiritual service, and be not conformed to this world.

And to these same saints we find such exhortations addressed as, let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Do saints have to be told such things? Yes, we do.

It is upon these people in Rome, called of Jesus Christ, beloved of God and called saints, that the Apostle desires grace and peace to rest. We saw that grace was the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man. Day by day, we are the objects of that love and grace, and when we are surrendered to it, we shall be at peace.

True peace, the peace of God that passeth all understanding, keeps our hearts when we are so yielded to our Lord that we are trusting him for all things. Not worrying about anything, prayerful in everything, and thankful for anything, as Paul sets forth in Philippians 4.

Peace with God was already theirs, and it is already the part of all who are placed in Christ. But the peace of God comes afterwards to those who are willing to accept the paradox of unconditional surrender. How many people there are today who are in misery because they will not accept the peace of God made at the cross, when he declared that the war was over and that sin was dealt with.

And how many Christians are going to heaven miserably, because they are not willing to accept the riches of his grace, and the wonders of his peace that he is so willing to give, if we will only acknowledge him as our Lord as well as our Savior.

Finally, Paul tells us that this grace and peace come jointly to us from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God who has become the Father of those who believe in Christ is the author and source of grace and peace. The Lord Jesus Christ is the bringer of that grace and peace, and the Holy Spirit is the maintainer of that grace and peace.

There is an interesting change in the order of the names of our Lord at this point. This is the fifth time that he has been spoken of in these opening verses. In the first verse, he's called Jesus Christ. In the third verse, he is called God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In the fourth verse, he's called the Son of God. In the sixth verse, he's called Jesus Christ. And here he is called the Lord Jesus Christ.

Someone may think that it does not make any difference, but it does make a difference. First, let us look at these names and see what each means. Jesus is an English name that comes from the Greek Iesus, which in turn comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, which has given us another name, Joshua. The name means Savior.

It's not astonishing that we've taken the name Joshua from the Hebrew form and Jesus from the Greek form. The important thing for us to remember is that the name means Savior. When our Lord was born, God revealed to Joseph, who was perplexed because he found his espoused wife with child before he had known her, that he should have no fear in taking her to wife, and said, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now, the name Christ is an English word from the Greek Christos, which is a translation of the Hebrew Moshiach, which has given us the word Messiah. This means the anointed one, sent from God for a special service. The title Lord is an English word, translation of the Greek Kurios, which is in turn a translation of the Hebrew name of God, Jehovah.

When we read these names of our Lord, we can well see the difference in the emphasis. At times, he is called Savior Messiah. That would be Jesus Christ. At times, he is called Savior Messiah, our Jehovah, that would be Jesus Christ our Lord. In this text, he is called Jehovah, the Savior Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When the name Jesus the Savior comes first, it emphasizes that he was a man, and also the anointed one. When Christ Messiah comes first, it is the anointed one who came as a man. Here, his title as a member of the eternal Godhead is placed before us first.

The reason is that these young Christians are being taught from the outset that all of the grace of which they are the objects, and the peace which their hearts so sorely desire, comes jointly from the creator God, the Father, and from Jehovah, the Savior Messiah. It is at once a great proclamation of the deity of our Lord, and the indication that he is the channel of all our blessing.

How blasphemous it would be to put the name of any creature in such juxtaposition with the name of God. We could never say grace and peace from God our Father and from Paul the Apostle. It would be blasphemy. Nor could we say grace and peace from God the Father and from any other name except that of our Lord or the Holy Spirit.

So we may sing, praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And we thank thee our God and Father that thou hast made us saints, accepted in the beloved, called us, chosen us, looked upon us as being in Christ.

Strengthen us now this day, if there be those who have not been born again, accompany them with restlessness, that they may know no peace till they rest in Christ. But upon thy believing own, may thy grace, thy mercy and thy peace abide. And unto thee be the glory now and forever. Amen.

Announcer (Male): The only difference between a saint and a sinner is the Savior. By trusting in Jesus Christ as your blood sacrifice to satisfy a holy God, you can be as much of a saint as Peter or Paul. We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled, To the Saints.

Listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet. 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 To the Saints. Or simply request message number R1-8.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled Overcoming Fear in Witnessing. Does fear hold you back from telling your family, friends, and co-workers about Christ? This free booklet will help you overcome the barriers to effective witnessing so you can share the gospel clearly, in love, and without fear. If you want to be a bold, confident witness for Christ, ask for your free copy of Overcoming Fear in Witnessing when you call or write.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is the 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 teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boyce, and Every Last Word, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a full list of stations carrying our programs, visit our website, 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 us toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. That's 1-800-488-1888.

Write to 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 Doctors Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boyce, Martin Lloyd Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken.

Thanks for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.