From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We're dealing at the present time, as most of you will remember, with the words found in Paul's epistle to the Romans in chapter 10, verses 11, 12, and 13. Verses 11, 12, and 13 in the 10th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. "For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Now, here in these words, as we are seeing, the great Apostle is proving and substantiating what he'd already laid down in verses 9 and 10. His point is that this is the way of salvation. This is the word of faith which he and the other apostles and others were preaching. That salvation is by faith and not by works. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." And he's proving that. And he does so by, first of all, giving us a quotation from Isaiah 28:16. "The scripture saith, whosoever believeth in him, on him, shall not be ashamed."

This is the way to this salvation that will never fail us. It is whosoever believeth. Then, having quoted that scripture, the Apostle in the 12th verse makes his comment upon it. He draws it out and, as we've seen, adds a great element to it. "There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." In other words, he says, there is only one Lord for the whole world. All of humanity is under God, not only the Jews. He's not the God of the Jews only, but he's also the God of the Gentiles, as he's already shown us in the third chapter.

Very well, there is only one Lord over the whole world, so that all men are accountable to God, and all men need salvation. No difference between the Jew and the Greek. The fact that the Jew possessed the law didn't mean that he'd kept it. He's proved that to them in the second chapter. The Jews made that terrible mistake, that tragic mistake. They thought that because they possessed the law, that it somehow saved them, but it didn't. The Jew has failed as much as the Gentile. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." So he says, there is no difference.

Very well, there is the first great point. Then his second point was this: that the same Lord who is over all is rich unto all. By which we saw that he means this: that God is able and is so rich in grace that he can give to whosoever calls upon him. There is no difficulty. There is no difficulty from the Lord's side, and he doesn't need any help from our side. It is his riches that save us all.

So that he's not dependent upon our bringing our works, our righteousness, our anything else. Nothing's needed. His salvation is so superabundant that it is all from him, and he has more than enough for any who calls upon him. So he is rich in grace to all who in this way turn unto him. That's his second argument. You see, there's no need for us to bring anything at all. We can't to start with; we've got nothing to bring. But it's unnecessary because of the riches of his grace.

And then he brings out the third aspect of this argument, which is this: that the only thing that is postulated of us in this matter of salvation is that we call upon him. "The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." And then he proves that by quoting from the book of the prophet Joel in the second chapter and the 32nd verse. "For," and then comes the quotation, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And thus he completes his great argument. Well now, we are looking at this third argument, this one in which he points out that the only thing that is demanded of us, the only thing that is postulated concerning us, is that we should call upon him.

He's been looking at it from the God-ward side, and he says there's no trouble there. God can save a Gentile as easily as he can save a Jew. He's so rich in grace that there's no difficulty; there's no problem. You can describe the Gentile and his degradation and his foulness in sin, as the Apostle himself has described it in the second half of the first chapter of this great epistle. But it doesn't matter. God's riches are so great that all that is covered and infinitely more. Now, there we were looking at it from the God-ward side last Friday, but now we're looking at it from our side. And he reminds us that nothing is asked of us, nothing is postulated concerning us, except that we should call upon him.

Now this, he reminds them, was something that had already been prophesied by the prophet Joel. Now, this quotation from Joel 2:32 is a very important one. It is important for this reason: that it shows the way of salvation. The way of salvation is to call upon the Lord. So it reminds us of that. And secondly, and very germane to the Apostle's argument at this point, this is not anything new. You see, the charge that was being brought against the Apostle Paul in particular, as the great apostle to the Gentiles, was that he was an innovator. That he was doing something that was contradicting the whole of the Old Testament. That was the charge that the Jews constantly brought against him.

Well, he counters that by just pointing out that all he's preaching is something that was long ago prophesied. And here this particular quotation from Joel 2:32 proves his point to the very hilt, as indeed Isaiah 28:16, which he's already quoted in the 11th verse, has already done. But this is the great point here. This is the way of salvation long since prophesied and predicted. All that man is to do is to cry out unto the Lord. Now, this is, of course, a very important and a very crucial quotation.

I say that because the Apostle Peter, in the first sermon that was ever really preached under the auspices of the Christian Church as such, as we now know her, preached on this very text. You remember the Holy Ghost came down upon the disciples and the 120 in the upper room, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spake with other tongues, and the crowd came gathering together. "What is this? What is this phenomenon?" they said. "What is this? Are these men full of new wine? What is this extraordinary thing that has happened?" Now Peter got up, and this is his answer.

"This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." Then he goes on to quote, "It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

That's a great introduction to the whole of this Christian era, to the whole of this New Testament period, the age to which you and I belong. And you see, it is a most significant thing that the Apostle Peter, guided by the Holy Spirit—he'd just been filled with him—he is led to explain what is happening in terms of that ancient prophecy. The whole of the Old Testament is pointing forward to this. Now it has actually happened and come amongst us. So there's no contradiction between the new and the old. The new is the fulfillment of the old.

And so Peter quotes it on that day of Pentecost. Now, it's very interesting to notice that even Peter himself didn't fully understand what he was saying on that occasion. Because you remember later, when he was called to go to the house of Cornelius, who was a Gentile, he wasn't ready. He demurred. He felt this was wrong. And it took a vision to open his eyes to the truth of the thing that he'd been preaching himself on the day of Pentecost. Now that's something that often happens.

We're told in the first epistle of Peter in the first chapter, verses 10 to 12, that the prophets didn't always understand what they were writing under the inspiration of the Spirit. They looked into these things and wondered. That's the proof, you see, of their divine inspiration. And here Peter is in the same condition. Had he but realized it, the very text on which he was preaching was already proclaiming that the Gentiles were to come in, as the Apostle shows us here in Romans 10:13 and so on.

But Peter hadn't seen it, as I say, and it needed a vision finally to convince him. But in his own text, the whole thing is plainly stated. Very well, it's interesting to notice, you see, how in that quotation from the prophet Joel, the two things are brought together which are brought together here by the great Apostle. You notice the two things in that quotation from Joel: the profusion of the out-poured Spirit, so that all sorts and kinds of people are going to be filled with the Spirit. Not only exceptional men as under the old dispensation, but now servants, handmaidens, young men, old men, sons and daughters, anybody.

The profusion, he's going to pour it forth. And in connection with that, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The same sequence: "The same Lord over all is rich unto all who call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." This is, in other words—and it's the old point the Apostle is setting out to prove here—this is the great characteristic of this Gospel age and period to which he belonged and to which you and I still belong.

Very well, now then, that being the setting and the context of the statement, let us examine the statement itself. What does it mean? Well, you notice the emphasis is put upon this calling. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." We take that first. That is all that we are to do. That is all we can do. Nothing else comes into this question of salvation at all. Race doesn't come in. Doesn't matter whether you're Jew nor Gentile. There is no difference. No difference between the Jew and the Greek.

So don't bring that in, says the Apostle. Now, the Jews, of course, were bringing it in very much indeed. They felt that salvation was for them only. They were the only people. It shouldn't be preached to the Gentiles, and so on. So they were bringing in their race, thinking that was going to help them. And some people still do that. But thereby they proclaim that they don't understand even the first beginnings of Christianity. What we've got to realize is that when we come to salvation, we have literally got nothing at all. Nothing.

Doesn't matter who you are. Doesn't matter what race you belong to. Doesn't matter what your color is. Doesn't matter what your continent is. Nothing matters at all, because there is nothing that is of any value. You don't bring your race. You don't bring your family. You don't bring your name. You don't bring your circumcision. You don't bring your baptism. You don't bring your good works. You don't bring your morality. If you bring anything, you're not saved.

Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not the man who comes and who argues his case saying, "Well, now, I'm a Jew. I've been brought up in this. I was baptized when I was an infant. I've always lived a good life. I've never done anybody..." He's arguing his case. He's outside. Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now this, of course, is absolutely crucial. And it's not surprising that this apostle, of all men, should emphasize this as he does, because this was the great crucial crisis in his own life. You see, you've got this in such detail in the third chapter of the epistle to the Philippians. Let me read these great and glorious words beginning at verse 3.

He says, "We are the circumcision." Not those Jews who are relying upon it. "We are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. None at all." If you've got any confidence in the flesh, you're not a Christian. "Though," he says, "I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."

"But what things," these things which used to be such gain to me, "those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God which is of God by faith." And you notice, he now looks back upon his own upbringing, his own nationality. Stock of Israel—dung. Tribe of Benjamin—dung. Hebrew of the Hebrews—dung. All these things are dung and refuse and unworthy to be mentioned.

Now, that's the thing that he's emphasizing, as he must. What saves is that a man, what leads to salvation is that a man calls upon the Lord. What does it mean then, this calling? Well, it's the negative of all that other thing. It means that a man has a realization of his need. The man who calls upon the Lord is a man who realizes he has a need. He realizes he's in trouble. He's like a man drowning in the sea, and he can't swim any further, and he knows he's going to sink and to die. He's in desperate need; he's aware of it.

Secondly, he realizes that he's absolutely hopeless. As long as he feels he can still make the shore, he's not going to shout for help. He's too proud to do that. He says, "People will laugh at me. They'll say that I got afraid, that I thought I was going to drown." So he goes on trusting to himself. But the moment he realizes that he's finished, he's hopeless, he cries out. And thirdly, he realizes his complete helplessness. He's got no reserves. It's not only a need; he's completely hopeless, and he's absolutely helpless. He has got nothing on which he can rely. Everything he used to rely on he sees to be dung and refuse and loss. He's got nothing.

So what does he do? In his desperation, he cries out. It's the only thing he can do. Can't do anything else. He can just shout, cry, appeal. That's exactly the meaning of this term. And remember, we must give it its full content. There are people who seem to come to Christ relying on certain things in themselves, but they've heard that they've got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and they add that on to everything else. That's no good. This "call" means that you've got nothing, that you're a pauper, that you're desperate. That you realize your complete hopelessness and helplessness.

That, according to the New Testament, is all that is demanded of us. All we do in this whole matter of salvation is to cry out. Now, that's made very plain. Our Lord himself made it perfectly plain in his parable of the Publican and the Pharisee that went up into the Temple to pray. Read it in Luke 18 at the beginning. And you remember what he says. Two men go up to pray. The Pharisee goes right to the front. He thanks God that he's not as other men are, and especially this Publican. "I fast twice in the week," he says, "I give a tenth of my goods to the poor."

The other man, away back by the door, cannot so much as even look up into heaven, smiting his breast says, "God be merciful to me a sinner." He cries out; that's all he does. And our Lord says that's the man that goes down to his house justified. The Publican, who did nothing but cry out, realizing his hopelessness, his helplessness, his vileness. He can simply cry saying, "God, be merciful, be propitiated towards me a sinner," smiting his breast in his utter hopelessness. That's the man who's justified. Not the man who can boast of his fasting and of his giving his tenth of the goods to the poor and all the good he does. He's not only not justified, he is condemned.

Why? Well, because he doesn't see any need of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's self-sufficient. That's the greatest insult you can ever offer to God. There is no greater sin than not to see your need of Christ. That is the greatest of all sins. To be a Pharisee is infinitely worse than to be a murderer or an adulterer—much worse. There is nothing more abhorrent to God than that a man should think that anything about him is sufficient to commend him to God. There is no greater sin than to refuse the Son of God and his sacrificial atoning death.

Very well, it's that's the meaning, that is the content, of this great expression of crying out unto the Lord. Now, there our Lord puts it. But you remember, you get the thing coming out at once in practice under the preaching of the apostles. There is Peter preaching, as I say, in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost as you get it recorded in Acts 2, and before he'd finished his sermon, people were crying out and saying, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Crying out, calling upon the Lord.

That's all they did. There was no self-defense, there was no attempt at self-justification. They were pricked in their hearts; they were convicted by the Spirit. And they responded by crying out, calling upon the Lord, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" It's the only way. And of course, perhaps the most striking instance of all of this is the actual facts in connection with the conversion of this great Apostle Paul himself. There he is, you see, self-righteous, self-satisfied, self-sufficient Pharisee, going down from Jerusalem to Damascus to exterminate the Church.

When suddenly about noonday, he's arrested, you remember, and apprehended on the road. He fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And here is the answer of this self-satisfied, proud, religious, moral Pharisee. "Who art thou, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." And he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" He doesn't know for the first time in his life. It was the first occasion in the history of Saul of Tarsus when he didn't know how to direct himself. Doesn't know what to do. He's helpless, he's lost. He cries out, he calls on the Lord. He wants direction, he wants help. He can do nothing. He's trembling, he's astonished. He doesn't know. He always knew before; he was such an expert on the law, he was such an expert on religion. He never failed for a word. He always knew he could direct everybody as well as himself. He's like a little child trembling in his hopelessness and helplessness and can do nothing but cry out or call out upon the Lord.

And then there's another equally striking example in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. The Philippian jailer. "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" says this man. He doesn't know. He's desperate. He doesn't talk, he doesn't argue, he doesn't reason. He sees he's absolutely hopeless. "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" He's calling out, he's crying. he doesn't know. Now that's the position. And what the Apostle is saying here is, that's the only thing a man does in salvation: to cry out and acknowledge and confess his complete and entire hopelessness and helplessness. And of course, the next thing, he calls on the name of the Lord.

What does the name stand for? Well, the name means the Lord himself. The name of the Lord is the Lord himself. That's a common form of expression. It was often used in the Old Testament; it was a Hebrew form of expression. The name of the Lord is the Lord. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower," says a word in the Old Testament. Well, it isn't the name; it's the Lord himself. The name represents the person. We still do the same thing ourselves. But remember, the name also, in representing the person, also does represent the power of the person.

The person who is so powerful, the Lord. He is indeed the one who is over all, who reigns and rules as we saw in working out the ninth verse. But let me bring this home to you: this question of calling on the name of the Lord. You see, it's not only a confession of our weakness and failure; it is our acknowledgment that we realize who the Lord is and what he can do for us. Let us take, for instance, the way in which the Apostle Peter explained to the populace at Jerusalem how it was that the man whom they used to put every day to sit by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple to ask alms of the people who went in, how he was healed.

You remember the people came crowding together, and Peter, when he saw it—I'm reading Acts 3:12—he said, "Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all."

You notice the way he puts it? "His name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know." Yes, the name represents the person and the power and the strength and the ability of the person. So when a man calls on the name of the Lord, he is doing all that, you see. He's confessing his own utter weakness and helplessness and hopelessness. He's also confessing that he knows that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the Lord of glory, as the persecuting Saul of Tarsus, who had regarded him as a blasphemer, when he sees him on the road to Damascus says, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

Jesus is Lord. It was his great preaching, the theme of his preaching ever afterwards. So one makes this confession of one's own utter nothingness and his person, his deity, his lordship, and his power unto salvation in the light of what he has done for us men and our salvation. Very well, that's it, says the Apostle. That's what's been prophesied and that's what's happening. It is whosoever that calls upon the name of the Lord that is saved. So this is one of the Apostle's favorite definitions of what is meant by a Christian.

What is a Christian? Well, there's no better definition than this. A Christian is a man who calls on the name of the Lord. Listen to him using it at the very beginning of his first epistle to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1:1 and 2. "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." That's it. He says, I don't care where they are, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord is a Christian, as we are Christians. What makes a man a Christian is that he calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Very well.

So the last word I've got to deal with is the word "whosoever". There's no difficulty now, is there? If people have agreed with what's been said, there's no trouble about "whosoever". If it is this calling and calling on the name of the Lord that brings a man to salvation, well, obviously that's open to anybody. Open to everybody. It's all in him, nothing in us. And as it means that there's nothing in us because it's all in him, well, very well, it's open to everybody. It's open to anybody. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. If what saves a man is living a good life or morality, well, then, of course, the man who's got a lot is in a different position from the man who's got a little and the man who's got none. But here, because nobody's got anything, anybody can call and cry out.

As the qualification is that you're a pauper and a complete bankrupt, well, it's open to everybody. You're either a bankrupt or you're not. If you are a bankrupt, well, very well, there it is, there's no more to be said, and that is the condition. So it is something that is open to whosoever. And thus, we are living in this era in which this is so plainly evident as the one and only way of salvation. Now then, the Apostle is thinking of these Jews who couldn't see this. He says, you're going back on everything. You don't understand your own scriptures. They're read to you every Sunday, but there's a veil over your own understanding. You've got it all wrong. You've carnalized everything, you've materialized everything. You're bringing something with you, and it's no good. You're keeping yourselves outside the Kingdom. There's only one way of entry into the Kingdom, and that is to call upon the name of the Lord. Very well, there's our exposition of what the Apostle says at the end of the 12th verse and in the quotation in the 13th verse.

Now then, let's draw some conclusions from all this. And these conclusions, I want to try to show you, are as important and as vital today as they were in the first century. The relevance in the first century is quite obvious; we've seen it so repeatedly. But are we all equally clear that all this is very relevant at the present time? Let me therefore draw some conclusions for you and show you they're important because of the confusion that has been created by a certain popular teaching. A teaching that's been popular amongst evangelicals in particular and which is to be found in certain famous notes.

Now then, let me show you the relevance of all this to that teaching. The first proposition I would lay down, or if you like, the first big deduction that we must draw from the teaching of the Apostle here, is this: that there is only one way of salvation. Only one. It is in and through Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is the only way of salvation. As our Lord himself put it, "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." "I," he says again, "am the door." And he is the only door. "There is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved," says the Apostle Peter in Acts 4:12. It is only in and through Jesus Christ and his work that any man can be reconciled to God.

Now, that was as true in the Old Testament days as it is now. Now, that's where so many people go astray. No man has ever been saved, no man has ever been reconciled to God, no man has ever become a child of God, except in and through Jesus Christ and him crucified. Are we all clear about that? Nobody was saved under the Old dispensation except in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only way. How do I prove that? Well, the Apostle has already proved it for us. He proved it for us in the fourth chapter of this great epistle.

That Abraham was justified by faith and not by the deeds of the law. The law hadn't been given in the days of Abraham. And Abraham is the father of all the faithful; he is the father of all believers. And our Lord himself had said the same thing, you remember. He said, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day: he saw it, and was glad. Your father Abraham." John 8:56. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." And what was true of Abraham was true of every saint under the old dispensation. They didn't understand it clearly, as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews puts it. They saw these things afar off. But they believed the promise of God, the promise that God had given in the Garden of Eden when he promised that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. All the Old Testament saints, they relied upon that, they believed upon that, they called upon the name of the Lord. They realized they couldn't be saved in any other way. Of course, they didn't have the understanding of it that we have because we look back upon these things; they were looking forward. They saw them afar off, but they saw them, they rejoiced in them.

And Abraham and every other Old Testament saint was saved in exactly the same way as we are, by Jesus Christ and him crucified. There is no other way of salvation. If there were, the Son of God would never have come and he would never have died upon the cross. Because this happened in time, we mustn't be foolish enough to think that people could be saved without it before it actually happened. The Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world. You remember how Peter puts it so plainly in his first epistle. This matter is quite crucial because of this artificial distinction that is drawn by what is known as dispensationalism. It's a denial of the scripture and does violence to the scripture. Listen to the way Peter puts it. We are saved, he says, with the precious blood of Christ, "who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you." But he was ordained. This is the only way of salvation at any time and for all people.

So I make a second observation, which is this: there is only one Gospel. Now, that dispensational teaching will tell you, "Oh no, there are several gospels." They actually say this: that when our Lord came and John the Baptist before him, the preaching was the gospel of the kingdom. They say that our Lord offered the kingdom to the Jews. He was preaching nothing but the gospel of the kingdom. They rejected it. Then they say, because they rejected that, he then began to indicate that there would come in a gospel of the grace of God.

A different gospel. They say there are several gospels. But that if the Jews had accepted the offer of the kingdom, they should have had it and they'd have entered in, and they'd have been saved in that way. They rejected that, so another gospel comes in, the gospel of the grace of God. Now, this is what's being preached now, they say. Ever since the death of Christ, it's no longer the gospel of the kingdom; it's the gospel of the grace of God. And this will go on, they say, until a certain point. And then once more, when the Church has been taken out of the world, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached again. But by then the Jews will see the truth of it and they'll believe it and they will accept it. They won't be saved by the gospel of the grace of God. They will be saved by believing and accepting the gospel of the kingdom. Now, this is actually being taught, and men and women believe it, and it causes, I say, this great confusion.

And it is a complete denial of this matter. I'm answering it by saying there is only one way of salvation. There has always been only one way of salvation. There will never be another way of salvation. Salvation is always, only, and always has been, and always will be, by the grace of God in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But you see, they divide up the whole of the scriptures into dispensations, and some of them say that really the only message applicable to us is that which is found at the beginning of Ephesians 3. A famous man, Dr. Bullinger, who was a very great scholar and a very godly, saintly man, he was the chief exponent of this doctrine, but it seems to me to make havoc of the scriptures. The rest of them have nothing to do with us. The Gospels don't speak to us because they are the gospel of the kingdom.

And so they say the Lord's Prayer has nothing to do with us. They say the Lord's Prayer, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our debtors," they say that's legalism, that's not grace. And so, you see, you have to find out what is gospel and what isn't gospel, and you've got many gospels. And the answer to all that is that there is only one Gospel. Let me give you my proof of that. Listen to the Apostle Paul addressing the Ephesian elders. You get the account there in the 20th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Let me read to you just the 24th verse, where the Apostle reminds them what he'd been doing. He says—he tells them how the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

Ah, they say that's all right, because he was an apostle after the death of Christ. Of course, he preached nothing but the gospel of the grace of God. The Jews had now already rejected the gospel of the kingdom. It's now the gospel of the grace of God. But again, the gospel of the kingdom will come back again. Well then, how do you explain what Paul says in Rome when he arrives there? Acts 28:23. "And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening." You see, preaching the gospel of the grace of God and preaching the kingdom of God are exactly the same thing. Because it is the grace of God alone that admits anybody into the kingdom. Nobody has ever been into the kingdom, nobody will ever go into the kingdom, except by the grace of God. And there is no distinction between gospel and gospel. There is only one Gospel. It is the gospel of the grace of God, which tells us the one and only way whereby any man at any time has ever been able to enter into the kingdom of God. Very well, that's my first deduction.

My second deduction is this: that obviously, therefore, in the light of that, it is the same for all, everywhere and at all times. In other words, as the Apostle puts it here, "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek." But this same dispensational teaching to which I've been referring you says there is a very great difference indeed between the Jew and the Greek. There was when the gospel of the kingdom was preached. There isn't now, they say, but there will be again. They maintain and preserve the difference between the Jew and the Greek.

But the teaching of the Apostle here, as it is indeed the teaching everywhere, is that all these differences have been abolished once and for all. The Apostle, of course, is so explicit about this. Take that verse that we read in Galatians 3 at the beginning. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." In writing to the Colossians, he adds to it and makes it still more specific yet. In Colossians 3:11, "Where there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." All become Christians in the same way, all become citizens of the kingdom of God in exactly the same way.

Well then, you say, what about the Old Testament and the Jews alone being the people of God? Certainly, precisely. But that was only temporary. The whole tragedy of the Jews in the time of our Lord and the Apostle was that they thought this was to be permanent. That was a temporary arrangement. God, for a special period and for a special purpose, confined his attention to this one people. But only for a temporary period, only for a certain time. The division is not to be perpetuated. Now, I can prove this to you quite simply out of the epistle to the Hebrews in particular, out of the epistle to the Ephesians in particular. Listen to the way the Apostle puts it.

"Wherefore," he says writing to Gentiles, "wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ." What does that mean? Well, it means being "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." So he goes on to end the chapter by saying this. He says, "Ye therefore are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints," that's to say, the saints of the Old Testament, "and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone."

But then in the third chapter of Ephesians, he comes back to it and says it once more. "I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." What is the mystery? Well, it's a mystery "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit," which just means what I was saying a few moments back. It wasn't revealed with the clarity then that it is now, but it was revealed. Joel had it all in the quotation that Paul uses, and it was there in Isaiah 28:16. Indeed, it's there in the Old Testament, but people couldn't see it. "But it wasn't revealed as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." What is revealed? What is the mystery? Well, here it is: "that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."

So you see what's happened is this: that Gentiles have been added on to the Jews who up until that point had alone been the people of God. It's the people of God that matters. They start with Abraham, and all come in in the same way. The Gentiles are now in exactly the same position as the Jews, and therefore there must be no difference between the Jew and the Gentile perpetuated. Or as we saw in Galatians 3 in the reading at the beginning, all who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are children of Abraham. And all the promises of God to Abraham belong to them. Not to the Jews only, but to all who are the children of faith. You see, this is where the Jews in our Lord and Paul's time had gone wrong. They thought it was all a matter of physical descent. We've seen that refuted in the ninth chapter.

But these people, these dispensationalists, are saying it now: that the Jews are still in a special position, there are certain promises only to them, and they don't belong to the Christian, to the Gentile Christians. My friends, it's a denial of the scriptures. Well, let me read the verses to you from the 7th, from the third chapter of the epistle to the Galatians. "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." That's the 7th verse. Let me go on. "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham," the gospel preached unto Abraham, and through him saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed."

"So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." But take verses 13 and 14. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Take the 22nd verse. "But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." And then the end of the chapter, 26 to the end. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

All the promises of God to Abraham are shared equally by all who are children of faith, by all who cry unto the Lord for salvation, for all who look to and rely only upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we must do away with this distinction between Jew and Gentile. It has finished once and for all. It has been abolished. Our Lord himself made this quite clear. Let me read to you Matthew 21:43. "Therefore say I unto you," says our Lord, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." That's the Church.

How do I prove it's the Church? Well, I prove it's the Church by reminding you that the Apostle Peter, in his first epistle and in the second chapter and in the ninth verse, uses about members of the Christian Church exactly the same words as God used through Moses to the children of Israel in Exodus 19, just before the giving of the Mosaic law. "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Very well then, it is wrong and unscriptural to maintain any difference between the Jew and the Greek, either now or at any time in the future. There is no such distinction in the scriptures. There is only one Church, and there has only been one Church. It was the same Church in the Old Testament dispensation as it is now. Do you remember the words of the martyr Stephen? I'm going to read them to you out of the 7th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles in verse 38, where he says this: "This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles" of God. The Church in the Old Testament, the Church in the wilderness. It's the same Church as the Church in the New Testament.

But, of course, our dispensational friends, they don't believe that. This is what they say. They say that Israel called out of Egypt and assembled in the wilderness is called the Church. Israel was a true church but not in any sense the New Testament church. You see, they draw a distinction. The church in the Old Testament is different from the church in the New. Then they say again, the only point of similarity being that both were called out by the same God. All else is contrast. That's a note on Acts 7:38.

But here's another one: "Israel in the land is never called a church." In the wilderness, "Israel was a true church but in striking contrast with the New Testament ecclesia." Now, that to me is just to do violence to the scriptures. The Church is one. Now, the Apostle Paul, we shall find when we come to the 11th chapter of this great epistle to the Romans, makes this thing perfectly plain and clear. He puts it like this. Let me read this to you, and then we must leave it for tonight. He's talking about Jew and Gentile. He says, "If the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee."

Which just means this: there is only one trunk. It's the same in the old and in the new. There's only one Church. The Jews under the old dispensation were in this Church; the Gentiles are in it now. It's the one Church. There is no division. There are no two ways of salvation. Salvation was by faith in Christ in the old exactly as in the new, and it always will be. There is no other way whereby men can be reconciled unto God. And it is of vital importance, I say, that we should always be clear about this: the Church in the Old Testament is one. There's only difference in administration, nothing else. It's merely the form that is different, but the thing itself is the same.

And a believer now, a Christian, whether he's Gentile or Jew, he's a son of Abraham, he's a child of Abraham. He's an heir of all the promises of God to Abraham. They're not confined to the Jews; they're to all who are children of faith. For all the children of faith are the children of Abraham. Very well then, my friends, you see the relevance of all this at this present time. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him: for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Nobody else will be saved because there is no other way of salvation.

Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we humbly beseech thee that thou wouldest open our eyes to these matters and keep us to that simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. We thank thee, O Lord, for the unity of thy word. We thank thee that thou art the only God and that beside thee there is none other. We thank thee that thou hast but one great purpose in the Old Testament and in the new and at all times. We thank thee that there is salvation in none other than in thy dear Son. That he and he alone has ever been able to save, and that there is none other who is mighty enough to save. O Lord, we pray thee therefore to enable us to see our utter, our complete dependence upon him. That we may rejoice in him and in him alone and give unto him all the praise and the honor and the glory. O Lord, have mercy upon us and bless us to this great and glorious end. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, abide and continue with us now this night throughout the remainder of this our short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage and until we shall all be safely, perfectly in the glory everlasting, admiring and singing the praises of the Lamb that once was slain and hath redeemed us. Amen.