I know especially that first
hymn I did not, I didn't tell Terrence to preach that, but
boy, that has a lot to do with the message this morning about
the power of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit in
the saving of sinners, especially in this matter of hearing the
gospel, hearing the gospel. Before I begin this, I want to
go to God in prayer again and ask for His graces. Remember those that are sick,
please. The struggles of the body and
the mind surely affect the heart of God's people. It was Rachel who said, why am
I thus? Why am I thus? Rebecca said that.
Why am I thus? The twins were warring in her
very body. And she said, if this is the
chosen vessel, if this is the one, then why am I thus? I know you ask that question.
Why am I thus? Newton did. Why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly could they be worse who
never heard His name. I know you struggle. But struggling is part of the
will and purpose of God. Our struggle. And I know this within my soul,
if it were not necessary, He wouldn't do it. If it wasn't for your good, it
wouldn't happen. It is. We don't understand. And I know this is how He increases
our faith. I know you've asked for that,
too. You just didn't know what you were asking for. Lord, give
me more faith. Translation, Lord, give me more
trouble. That's what it is. Because this
is how he produces faith. This is how he works faith. And
Peter said that the trial of our faith is much more precious
than gold. When you come to the end of a
trial and you realize that you still believe, Isn't that more
precious than gold? That you're still here? I'm glad I'm still here. It's
amazing I'm still here. What'd he do? He proved that
work of faith that was in me. And the proof is what? That it
keeps going. False faith goes away. True faith never leaves. So, but I'll tell you this, we
do need help in these things. We do need help. So we pray and keep on praying. I read this morning about a man
who preached in, well I'm getting to preaching before I get to
preaching, I'm sorry. But I read about a man who was
preaching on a street corner in Spurgeon's time, and everybody
mocked him. He was an old man on the corner,
poor man. As people passed by, he would
try to preach the gospel to them, and in the town of Edinburgh,
where he was, they ignored him constantly. And one person was
curious as to meeting him, and went to his little hovel, and
there he found the man on his knees, pleading for the very city that
despised him. And he said, Lord, I will not
stop troubling you until you hear my prayer for Edinburgh. That's how you should pray for
everything. You should not stop troubling Him until He answers. To you and me, that's a burden
when people do that. To Him, it's a joy. It's a joy when you trouble Him
constantly. And it's always His delight to
answer prayer. It is. So let's go to Him in prayer. Our Father, again we approach
the throne of mercy making pleas. Please for strength, please for
grace, please for healing, and please for forgiveness of our
sins. Nothing is hidden from Thine
eyes. All our hearts are made bare before You, our thoughts. This morning, We come together
and we ask that you would forgive our sins, cleanse us of our unrighteousness, that you would so move on every
heart that they would fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ
and find peace, salvation, mercy, grace, plenteous redemption. This is the work of Thy Spirit.
We pray for Him, we pray that He would come and empower, deliver
the message to the people and show us, show us Your power and
grace through the preaching of the Gospel. Show us what great
things You have done for us in causing us to hear and believe.
For these that are sick, these that are troubled, as the people laid their sick
before you as you pass by, Lord, even so we do lay before you
the sick and wounded of our congregation, of our little flock here. We plead for healing. I plead for those who have no
interest in the things of Christ. I plead for this nation who mock and ridicule and despise
thy word. I pray for them that you would
send your gospel through this land and quicken your children's hearts
to life. Lord, help us, when you answer
our prayers, to be careful to give you the praise, the thanks. And I ask these things in the
name of Jesus, our Savior, and for His sake. Amen. I take your Bible's turn with
me to Romans 10. Entitled this message, The Grace
and Power of Hearing. The Grace and Power of Hearing. And this is my purpose, so you
get it right off the bat. The hearing of the gospel naturally is not sufficient for
salvation. We're going to see that This
gospel that has been preached has been heard audibly, naturally,
over and over and over again, and yet many who hear it still
do not believe it. Yet for someone to believe it,
someone to hear it, It takes more than your natural senses
and abilities. In fact, it requires the power
of God the Holy Spirit to cause sinners to hear. That's the premise of what Paul
is going to talk about in these next verses. Let's read this
together. So then, verse 17, so then, Here's his conclusion,
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Now let's recap, it's been a
while since we've been here. Chapter 9, the Apostle Paul had
proven the sovereign election of grace. He proved that salvation
is by the election of grace without works. And He tells us that there are
two distinctions, vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. And what is the distinction between
these two? Romans 10 and verse 29 and verse
24, Even us whom, listen, He hath called. There's the distinction
between a vessel of mercy and a vessel of wrath. There is no
other distinction. They're all born sinners. They're
all born with no ability to please God. The only difference is this,
God calls vessels of mercy. And we see very clearly the result
of this calling. He says in verse 13 of chapter
10, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. This is the result of the calling. When He calls you,
listen, you call Him. That's it. That's the result. You believe on Him. And this
calling is believing on Christ is without distinction. This
is a glorious thing. It says, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now I know this, I don't know
who the elect are. They are elect, I just, I don't
know. You tell me you believe, and
so by that, okay, I take you at your word. I can't look in
your heart, I can't see that. But I know this, if you do truly
believe, you are His elect. But because there's no outward
thing by which we could tell, what do we do? We call everyone.
We call everyone. And I want you to know there's
no outward reason as to why you shouldn't come. There's no obstacle. There's nothing in the way. Remember
when He died, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, showing
us this, the way is open. It doesn't matter who you are,
it doesn't matter where you were born, it doesn't matter what
kind of person you are. If you're the greatest of sinners,
or the most moral of people, listen, we all must come at the
feet of Christ as sinners. When He calls you, that's exactly
how you'll come. You'll come as a sinner deserving
nothing but hell. And what will you find when you
come to Him? You will find not hell, but heaven. You'll find forgiveness, you'll
find pardon, you'll find mercy. So the gospel is open to all. And I know this, Only those that
believe will be saved. That's something I know. Whosoever
shall call. Whosoever shall call. There's
a distinction, isn't there? When you say call, he means believe. And listen, your faith, if you
believe, your faith did not make you the elect. I didn't make
you his elect. Your faith just simply proved
that He chose you. It's the evidence of your election. And so now in verses 14 through
verse 17, the Apostle describes the means that God chose to save
sinners. The means by which sinners are
called. And that is the preaching of
the Gospel. This is vitally important. Preaching
of the gospel is necessary. Not that it has any power in
itself, as we're going to see. Preaching has no power in itself. There's no power in the preacher,
and there is no power in the hearer. Yet, preaching is necessary. It is the chosen means. He said,
how can you believe on somebody you've never heard of? Is that
possible? And I tell you, most religious
people, those who attend what is called Christian churches,
listen to me, most Christian churches, people who attend them
have never heard of Jesus Christ. Does that surprise you? Now they heard of a man called
Jesus Christ. They know of his history. He's
a historical figure. They know him as that. They know of his coming, they
know his name. My wife's name's Cheryl. When
I say Cheryl, how many Cheryl's are there in the world? You could
tell me you know Cheryl, but when you start describing her
and you describe, you say, well I know Cheryl, she's got red
hair. No, that's not her. I know Cheryl,
she's four foot two. No, wrong Cheryl. Many are saying
they know Christ, and when they begin to describe Him to me,
He no more fits the Christ of Scripture than that description
of my wife. They're describing to me another
Jesus. That's what Paul said in Galatians,
isn't it? He said, I'm so marveled that you are moved from Him to
another gospel. See, His gospel and Him are linked. His gospel and Him are linked. If you've never heard His gospel,
you've never heard Him. They describe Jesus as one to
imitate. Most churches just tell you,
well, you need to look at Jesus' life and you just need to imitate
it. Listen, He wasn't here to be imitated. You can't imitate
Him. Can you imitate Him really? You
try. Would that make you a better
person? I'm sure it would. Would that get you to heaven?
Absolutely not. They describe a Jesus that wants
to save you, but can't. You see, their Christ has no
real power. I don't know a Jesus like that, do you? The Christ of modern religion
wants to give you health, wealth, and prosperity, and the devil
is responsible for all the ills of man. If you get sick, that's
the devil. If you have a bad day, that's
the devil. If you have a good day, that's
Jesus. That's not the Christ I preach,
is it? Bear me record, is that the Christ I preach here? No,
because that's not the Christ of Scripture. And if that's the
Christ you've heard of, then you've never heard of Him. We preach that He is God, manifest
in the flesh. We preach that He came to save
His people from their sins, and He did exactly what He purposed
to do. He saved them. He didn't try
to save them. He didn't hope to save them.
You listen to me. He saved them. That's the Jesus
we preach. Now if you've never heard of
that, how can you believe on Him that you've never heard?
I just, but I've told you. Jesus Himself said that, I came
and laid down my life for the sheep. I didn't come to die for
everyone. I came to lay down my life for the sheep. And Jesus
told those Pharisees, He said, you believe not because you are
not of my sheep. The world wants to switch it.
They want to say, you're not my sheep because you don't believe.
Nope. Not what he said. He said, you
are not my sheep. You believe not because you're
not my sheep. My sheep, listen, hear my voice,
and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish. We preach a risen Savior. We
don't preach a Christ that's trying to rule. This world, you look around,
it looks like chaos, doesn't it? Feels like chaos. You listen. It is in perfect
order. Everything is moving exactly
to the decree of the Lord Jesus Christ right now. That's it. He's not waiting to be king.
He is king. He's not waiting to have power
over all flesh. He has power over all flesh. He rules, He reigns. You listen,
He's going to save His people from their sins. Without doubt. He's a successful Savior. And this is the Christ that is
preached. But the means The means that God has chosen
is to send a preacher. How can you believe on Him you've
not heard? Now listen to this. How are you going to hear without
a preacher? Preachers are the most unessential things in this
world right now to most of the people. They just really take
it or leave it. It's just, yeah, maybe, you know,
maybe we need a preacher. I don't know. God says you do. God says you do. And what does
he do with preachers? He sends them. How can they be
preachers if they're not sent? They're sent of God with one
purpose, to preach Christ. If anyone is standing up and
not preaching Christ, he is not sent. That's just so. We are sent with
one purpose. Paul said, I determined. Now
Paul was a very educated man, he could have talked on a lot
of subjects, and yet he said, I determine not to know anything
among you except this, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so this is what we're sent
to do, preach the gospel. Now then, what's the conclusion?
Verse 17, so then, this is how it is, faith can't Can't be saved
without faith. Faith cometh by hearing. Preachers
preach, and what do you do? You hear. And what do we preach? We preach the Word of God. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. That's how
faith comes. There is no other means. Don't
believe it. plays, television shows, musicals,
theatrics. You know somebody, if somebody
is playing Jesus, listen to me, he's a liar. Why? He's not Jesus. Everything that
Jesus said, what is he doing? He's embellishing, he's pretending. When they get on stage, what
are they doing? They're pretending. These are not real feelings,
real thoughts. They're liars. That's not how
God conveys his word. I know that's not popular. I
don't care. I don't care. And neither should
any other preacher in the world. They should say it with boldness. There's no other means. Now the
apostle shows that hearing in these next verses now, what I
want you to get from verses 18 to 21, I want you to get this,
this is what he's conveying to you, natural hearing is not sufficient. When he said faith cometh by
hearing, he's not just talking about hearing with your ears
and your carnal mind understanding. I'm not, I don't stand up here
and try to be overly Educated and use high words or I don't
do that. So you should be able to understand
everything I'm saying I Want to be as plain as I possibly
can But faith does not come by natural
hearing that's what he's telling you Look at this. He asked this
question in verse 18 He said but I say have they not
heard Have they not heard? Yes, truly the sound, their sound
went into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the
world. Isaiah asked that same question,
didn't he? Who hath believed our report? Didn't they just
hear me? And he goes, God, I told them
what you said, and who's believed it? Isaiah was not the, we imagine
Isaiah a very popular prophet. He was not. Matter of fact, they
sought him in half. That's how much they hated him. So Isaiah looks around and says,
man, nobody's believing this. Who believed our report? Who
has heard the gospel? And Paul said, did they hear
it? Yep, they heard it. He said they heard the gospel
that was preached. to them, even as you're hearing
it today. They heard the same gospel. Now,
I heard this this week, and I scratched my head at this. Obviously, people
don't spend a lot of time reading the Bible itself, but someone
just said the other day, said, well, the God of the Old Testament
saved differently than the God of the New Testament. Oh, so he changed, right? Is
that what you're saying? Well, my God says I change not. Paul says this in Hebrews 4 and
verse 2. He said, for unto us was the
gospel preached, listen, as well as unto them. And he had reference
to those people who died in the wilderness. What's the difference? You are
all hearing what I'm saying. You all have a mind to understand
what I'm saying. Why is it that some of you will
believe and some of you will not believe? Paul said when those people that
died in the wilderness, they heard the gospel, but they died
in unbelief. Paul said the word preached did
not profit them not being mixed with faith. The apostle is testifying that
the Jews heard the gospel. But that hearing did not profit.
Now listen to me, if you go away not believing, this hearing will
not profit you. It won't be any benefit to you. And so when they heard it, they
didn't believe it. Why? Why is it that some hear and
believe and some don't? You both hear two people be sitting
right there and one hears, one believes. They hear the same
message and the other one does not. It's the same message. It's not that one was smarter
than the other one. It didn't have anything to do
with intellectual understanding. Why is it? Have they not all heard? Paul
said, yeah. And the remaining verses we have
here. We will see the answer then to
this question. Verses 19 and 20. Let's read
this. He said, But I say, Did not Israel
know? First, Moses saith, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish
nation will I anger you. But Isaiah is very bold in saying,
I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest to them that
asked not after me. But to Israel, he said, all the
day long I have stretched forth my hands to a disobedient and
gainsaying people. Here he answers by Moses and
Isaiah. Now, God swore to call a people
that never heard of him. God swore to give salvation to
a people that never asked for it. And yet, to those whom God extended
His hand constantly, they rebelled constantly. They rebelled constantly. By
these verses, the apostle gives us the answer as to why some
will hear and believe and why others will not. The only difference
in this matter then is this, the grace and power of God. Now that's what he's declaring
here. He's going to show you by the Gentiles who didn't even
look for it, God called them and they believed. Then you've
got another people that God constantly was stretching his hands out.
God was constantly preaching the gospel to them. They were
constantly hearing the gospel, day after day after day. And yet, what is the result of
that kind of hearing? They were a disobedient and rejecting
people. Now it is the accepted doctrine. Now listen to this. It is the
accepted doctrine of most all Christian denominations that
salvation is an offer. This is the doctrine of most
religions. That God extends his hand and
offers you salvation. They hold that God in equal love
for every man sent Christ to die. They hold that Christ died
for every man without exception. And now they say God extends
His hands of salvation to all men and all they must do then
is exercise their free will or some type of work. It's all different. You pick the denomination and
they got something different Baptists, it's free will all
of them. It's free will but most of them add other things to it
Well you got to exercise your free will and be baptized Well,
you've got to exercise your free will and confess to the priest. You've got to exercise your free
will and eat the Lord's Supper. You've got to exercise your free
will and join the church and obey the Ten Commandments. You
see, it's always an addition. But they all have that same premise,
that God is extending salvation and the only way you can have
salvation is if you exercise your will. that you have the
power either to accept or reject God's offer. Now that's their
view. 99% of religion believes that. Most of these espouse such a
doctrine. They will take this text in verse
21 and try to prove it. I'm going to show you that this
text rather disproves what they're saying. It doesn't prove what
they're saying, that God extends salvation and it's up to your
will to get it, or your obedience, or your works. Paul is using this as a display. to show you the impossibility
of that. And he uses the nation of Israel
as the prime example. And I'll tell you, if their doctrine
is true, now listen to what they have to do. They have to ignore
everything he said in Romans 9. They just have to throw it
away. And they do! They'll tear that
out and they'll say, okay, this is what he really meant. Paul
didn't change his view when he came to this verse. He's putting the exclamation
point on it, showing you that the power of salvation does not
belong to man, it belongs to God. It belongs to God. He saith all the day long, have
I stretched out my hands to a disobedient, gainsame people. And so I want to show you Paul
did not reverse himself concerning the election of grace or salvation
by grace without the works or will of man. Now look at this. The outstretched hands of God
toward Israel. There can be no doubt that the
Jewish nation had the greatest benefits of any nation that ever
existed. Is that not true? They were actually
chosen of God. God chose them as a nation, as
a people. Paul says in Romans 9, he said,
unto Israel that pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and
the covenant, and the giving of the law, and the service of
God, and the promises. They were chosen, expressly chosen
of God. They were given the only true
form of worship. Now think about that. Little
old nation, two million people. Now there are over a million
people in Louisville. And that whole nation, that whole
nation. Imagine the size of Louisville and Lexington, right? You put
those two cities together and you got the whole nation. You
know what? God gave them the true form of
worship and everybody else didn't have it. They had the law of
God. They actually saw God on that
mountain. God came down and that mountain
was set on fire in front of their very eyes. Consider what God did for them
in Egypt. That little old band of people were slaves and God,
you know how long it took God to deliver them? He could have
done it in a minute, but 40 days. In 40 days, God destroyed the
greatest power on earth at that time to save His people. He manifested His power at Sinai.
He manifested His power to them at the Red Sea. For 40 years
He rained manna every morning. For 40 years they had water coming
out of a rock. Their shoes didn't wear out.
Their garments didn't get old for 40 years. Do you think not
that they had evidence Better than that. Listen to this.
They had the gospel preached every day. Every day. Every day
there was a minimum of two sacrifices. A minimum of two sacrifices. Every day. Every day, two times
a day, Christ was preached. Every end of the year they had
a great day of atonement. Christ was preached. By this, can we not see that
God extended His hand to them all the day long? Go to Matthew chapter 21, our
Lord speaks about this. Matthew 21, our Lord speaking
to these Pharisees. Oh, verse 33, use this parable
here. Here a parable, there's a certain
householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it about, and digged
the winepress, built it, a tower, and let it out to husbandmen,
and went into a far country. In other words, he did all the
work. Right? This guy comes in, he builds
this big vineyard, puts a tower up there, making sure that everything's
fenced in, planted right, and he says, hey guys, all I want
you to do is come over here and watch over this, and pluck the
grapes when they come up. He dug the ditches so it would
be watered. They didn't even have to water it. All they had
to do when it comes time, pick up the grapes. And when he comes
back, give him his grapes. That's a pretty good deal. You
get to live here for free. You get to eat of this stuff. Instead, what do they do? And
when the time, verse 34, drew near, he sent his servants to
the husband that they might receive fruit of it. And the husbandmen
took the servants and beat one and killed another and stoned
another. Listen to the patience of this
man again. He sent other servants, more
than the first. And they did unto them likewise.
But last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, They will
receive my son. And when the husbandmen saw the son, they
said among themselves, Is this not the heir? Come, let us kill
him. and let us seize upon his inheritance. And they caught
him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. And when
the Lord thereof of the vineyard cometh, what will he do to the
husbandmen? Now listen to their self-righteous
answer. They said unto him, He will miserably destroy those
wicked men, and lay out that vineyard to other husbandmen.
They didn't understand he was talking about them. Not just them, they were the
ones going to kill the Son, but their fathers were the ones that
killed the prophets long before the Son came. Day, constantly
reaching out, constantly stretching forth His hands, preaching the
gospel to them. Day, after day, after day, they
rebelled, He delivered. They rebelled, He delivered.
They rebelled, He delivered. Constantly stretching out His
hands. What is the response? What does
God testify is the response of all that stretching? Of all that
reaching out? All the day long, I stretched
my hands out to a what? Disobedient and rejecting people. If the gospel comes to you in
word only, If God stretches out His gospel
to you and then leaves the rest to you, listen to what the result
is. Always, always, always a disobedient
and rejecting people. This is what Stephen said, you
do always resist the Holy Ghost. Why? That's what's natural. This is always the result of
God stretching His hand out without power. Now you listen to this. It doesn't
matter if God comes down and performs miracles right in front
of your face. I thought of the rich man in
Hell. Remember Lazarus was risen. What a beautiful picture that
was. Lazarus spent his whole life in misery and that moment
he died, Scripture says angels came and carried him into the
bush, into heaven, carried him immediately. And when that rich
man died, Scripture says he lifted up his eyes being in torments,
and he looks up there and he sees Abraham and Lazarus. And you know what he still thinks?
He still thinks Lazarus is his servant. He said, hey, send Lazarus
down here. No, son, it doesn't work that
way. And the rich man said, I have
yet five brothers. I have five brothers. Send Lazarus
to them. They know Him. They saw Him. They know He was dead. If He
comes back to the earth alive, then they'll believe. You know
what Abraham said? They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them hear them. He said, No, Father Abraham. If they see somebody rise from
the dead and tell them their experience, then they'll believe. You know what Abraham said? Nope,
they won't. He said, If they will not hear Moses and
the prophets, they will not believe. They will not believe. He said, But if one went to them
from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. So the question is, so if they will
not be moved to hear by the resurrection of the dead, what will move them? If God reaching out His hands
is not sufficient for people to believe, then what is? Listen to this. Go back to your
text now. Look at the example of the ones
who believed. Look at this. Isaiah is very
bold, saying, I was found of them that sought me not. I was
made manifest unto them that ask not after me." Paul is here setting forth a
very great contrast. Behold, the Jews outwardly heard
more than anyone else. and yet they were rebellious.
And God says this, I'm going to save people that have never
even heard of me. I'm going to save people that
never even ask about me. See the contrast? Why did the Jews constantly reject? Because of the total depravity
of our nature. That's why we'll reject it. But look now at the Gentiles
who had no word given to them, no evidence of God's love or
favor toward them, no manifestation of God's presence. So great was
their darkness that they sought Him not. They weren't looking
for righteousness. They were blind. They sought not righteousness
nor mercy because they were blind They didn't even know they needed
it. And since God never gave them
his word, they never asked for it, because they did not know
it. Yet none of these things hindered
God from saving them. None of these things hindered
God, for he by his own sovereign free grace purposed their salvation. He said, I'm going to take a
people that are not My people and make them the children of
the living God. How does He do that? You have a people, a nation
that was His, a nation that He stretched out His hand to, and
they were disobedient. How is it that a nation that
never heard of Him is going to believe Him? Listen, the difference
is God's grace. He's testifying that if you hear
this gospel, it will be by grace. If you believe this gospel, it
will not be by your power, but by His. The only way these people, the
Gentiles, could ever be the people of God is by the election of
grace. And what is true of them, even so is the experience of
all who have been called to believe on Christ. Is this not your experience,
that you never knew Him? I'm telling you, I had a very
unique and I'm very thankful, I have this gospel I'm preaching
to you, listen to me, I heard when I was seven. I heard this
gospel first preached when I was seven. I didn't believe, but I heard
it. And I'll tell you from the time
I was seven years old up until the time the Lord saved me, my
late teens, early 20s, I heard this gospel multiple times, thousands
of times. And yet, I mean, I considered
myself a theologian by the time I was 16. I just had all the
theology. Boy, I was high-minded. I was
humble and proud of it. I was just so proud of myself and all the while I really didn't
know him. To my shame, I didn't know who
he was until he came to me and revealed
himself to me. He showed me who I was. He showed me my need of righteousness. He showed me that I was following
after a God of my own imagination. I was like the Gentiles more
than you know. I was like them. I was blind. I was dead. Had no life. No real faith. I didn't ask for Him. I didn't
want Him. I had enough. I heard the gospel many times,
but it was not until He came in power that I ever really know
Him. Look at a couple of passages
of Scripture with me. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. To show you this,
that in order for you to believe, It has to be by the power. Yes,
through preaching. Yes, through the extension of
God's hand through the preaching of the gospel. Right now, His
hand is extended. But unless His hand comes in
power, you'll never believe it. If it just falls on these ears,
you'll never believe it. has to fall on a new heart. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, look at
verse 4. Paul said in the very previous
verse, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ, him crucified. And he said, my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of Power. Why? That your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Why do you
believe? Is it the power of man or the
power of God? The power of your will or the power of God's will?
The power of your love or the power of God's love? The power
of your offering or the power of His offering? Can't stand
in both. It's either or. How did your
faith come? Did it come by your will or His?
Paul said, when I preached to you, it came in power. And the
demonstration of the power is what? Faith. That's the demonstration. Not some radical emotional experience. You may have an emotional experience,
but that's not what it's for. Faith is the evidence of power.
Look at chapter 4 and verse 20. 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 20. He said, For the kingdom of God
is not in word, but what? In power. In power. Why did Israel not
hear it and the Gentiles did? One word. Power. Not yours. Your power you will always reject
it In the power of the holy spirit
is the kingdom of God look at first Thessalonians chapter 1
in verse 5 First Thessalonians 1 in verse
5 Scripture said for our gospel came not unto you in word only
and but also in power, and in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sakes." How did the gospel come to Thessalonica?
In word or power? Was it just the outstretched
arms of God, or was it the outstretched arms of God in power? See the difference? How much power does it take to
save a sinner? More than you got. More than you got. Last verse,
Ephesians 1. Look at verse 17. Ephesians 1 and verse 17. Look
at this. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. Isn't this salvation? Isn't this
the knowledge that causes you to call on Him? Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Listen. The eyes
of your understanding being enlightened. that you may know what is the
hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe, here it is, according to the
working of his mighty power, which he brought in Christ when
he raised him from the dead. You want to know how much power
it takes to save a sinner. It takes the same power it took
to raise Christ from the dead. Isn't that a lot more than free
will? You bet it is. If you believe
this morning, listen to me. It's because of the exceeding
greatness of His power. And what's the result of this?
God said they, let me read this in the text again, He said, I
was found of them that sought me not. What's the result of
His power? They find Him! They find Him! I once was lost, but now I'm
what? I'm found. I found Him, but really I know
this, He found me. He found me! I was found. Isn't it the heart
of every believer to be found in Him? That's what Paul said. He said that I might be found
in Him. Not having my own righteousness.
I don't want it! I don't want it! You want your
righteousness? Anybody in this building wants
your righteousness. Do you want it? You want to kind of glue
it on to His? Jesus, your righteousness is
pretty good, but let me show you. Not having my own righteousness. You know how much righteousness
I want of mine? I want nothing to do with my
righteousness. Not a thing. I want to be found in Him, and
I've got to have His righteousness. What about my offerings? Everything
I have is His. Everything I own is His. What
can I offer? I want to be found in His offering. I want to be found in His blood. And I was made manifest to them
and asked not after me. I'll tell you this, once I didn't
ask after it, everything was going right according to my plan.
I had a plan. But when He saved me, the first
thing I did was ask. Here it is, Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. And I've not stopped asking. I've not stopped asking after
Him. Why? He found me. He manifest Himself
to me. Why? And that's what he's going to
get at in the next. He shows us that hearing is not
just audible. It's not just academic. It has
to be accompanied with the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what
he's testifying of in these verses. And every believer testifies
this is true. We testify this is true. All day long he reached
out to me and I did what? I was a disobedient people. Until
what? Until he found me. moved his hand and gave me life. And you won't ever ask after
him unless he gives you life. You'll just keep going. All the way to hell, you'll keep
going, thinking everything's well. I pray he would reveal himself
to every one of you by the power of his spirit, not
by the power of the preacher, by the power of his spirit. And
when he does it, it's right. It's done, isn't it? When he
does it, it's done. If you do it, don't stick. He
does it. I pray God receive all the glory
and praise for this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our most gracious Father in heaven,
we bow before you again seeking the mercy and grace we We heard
this morning, I beg you, Father, for the power and grace of your
Spirit. I pray that you would move upon every heart. The wind
bloweth where it listeth. We can't tell where it's coming
and where it's going. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. We pray, Father, for the new
birth inside of those who have no life. We pray that you'd give
grace to those that have no merits. And Father, we that have been
given grace, we pray for more grace. daily, constantly grace
to believe and to trust so that all the glory for our salvation
belongs to you and none to ourselves. We pray this in Jesus name and
for his sake. Amen.