Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2255
“For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yes, let God be true, and every man a liar; as itis written, That You might be justified in Your sayings, and might overcome when You are judged.” Romans 3:3,4.
THE seed of Israel had great privileges even before the coming of Christ. God had promised by Covenant that they should have those privileges and they enjoyed them. They had Revelation and a Divine Light, while all the rest of the world sat in heathen darkness. Yet so many Jews did not believe, that, as a whole, the nation missed the promised blessing. A great multitude of them only saw the outward symbols and never understood their spiritual meaning. They lived and died without the blessing promised to their fathers. Did this make the Covenant of God to be void? Did this make the faithfulness of God to be a matter of question? “No, no,” says Paul, “if some did not believe, and so did not gain the blessing, this was their own fault; but the Covenant of God stood fast, and did not change because men were untrue.” He remained just as true as ever and He will be able to justify all that He has said and all that He has done—and He will do so even to the end. When the great drama of human history shall have been played out, the net result will be that the ways of God shall be vindicated notwithstanding all the unbelief of men!
I am going to talk of our text, at this time, first, as giving to us a sorrowful reminder—“For what if some did not believe?” It is sad to be reminded that there have always been some who did not believe. Next, here is a horrible inference which some have drawn from this grievous fact, that is, because some did not believe, it has been hinted that their unbelief would make the faith of God or the faithfulness of God without effect, to which, in the third place, the Apostle gives an indignant reply—“God forbid: yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That You might be justified in Your sayings, and might overcome when You are judged.”
I. Well now, first, we have, here, A SORROWFUL REMINDER. There have always been some who have not believed.
When God devised the great plan of salvation by Grace. When He gave His own Son to die as the Substitute for guilty men. When He proclaimed that whoever believed in Jesus Christ should have everlasting life—you would have thought that everybody would have been glad to hear such good news and that they would all have hastened to believe it! Christ is so suitable to the sinner—why does not the sinner accept Him? The way of salvation is so simple, so suitable to guilty men! It is altogether so glorious, so grand, that if we did not know the depravity of the human heart, we should expect that every sinner would at once believe the Gospel and receive its blessings! But, alas, some have not believed!
Now, this is stated very mildly. The Apostle says, “For what if some did not believe?” He might have said, “What if many did not believe?” But he is talking to his Hebrew friends and he wishes to woo them—so he states the case as gently as he can. Remember, dear Friends, the carcasses of all but two who came out of Egypt fell in the wilderness through unbelief. Only Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land, but the Apostle does not wish to unduly press his argument, or speak so as to aggravate his hearers and he, therefore, puts it, “For what if some did not believe?”
Even in his own day, he might have said, “The bulk of the Jewish nation has rejected Christ. Wherever I go, they seek my life. They would stone me to death, if they could, because I preach a dying Savior’s love!” But he does not put it so. He only mentions that some did not believe. Yet this is a very appalling thing, even when stated this mildly! If all here, except one person, were Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was announced that that one unbeliever would be
pointed out to the congregation, I am sure we would all feel in a very solemn condition. But, dear Friends, there are many more than one here who have not believed on the Son of God and who, therefore, are not saved! If the unconverted were not so numerous there is all the greater need for our tears and our compassion.
The terms of Paul’s question suggest a very sweet mitigation of the sorrow. “What if some did not believe?” Then it is implied that some did believe! Glory be to God, there is a numerous “some” who have believed that Jesus is the Christ! And believing in Him, have found life through His name! These have entered into a new life and now bear a new character, “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.” Beloved, we thank God that the preaching of the Gospel has not been in vain! Up yonder, more numerous than the stars are they that walk in white robes which they have washed in the blood of the Lamb! And down here, in spite of our mourning, there is a glorious company who still follow the Lamb—who is to them, their only hope.