Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 42 from your hardbacked hymnal. Hymn number
42, all hail the power of Jesus' name. Hail the power of Jesus' name,
let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,
ye ransomed from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His
grace and crown. and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by His
grace and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe,
on this terrestrial ball To Him all majesty ascribe, and crown
Him Lord of all To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of
all. O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and
crown him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting throng
and to crown him Lord of all. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in the book
of Romans this morning, both hours. Romans chapter 10 and
Romans chapter 11. My hope and my prayer is that
the Lord will teach us of His grace. Teach us of His grace. You say, well, that's so obvious. No, it's not. It's not. It's not obvious at all. We're
so prone to forget that it's all of grace, all of it, every
bit of it. No man seeketh after God at any
time. If we're to know Him, He's going
to have to seek us. If we're to believe on Him, He's
going to have to give us faith. If we're to follow after Him,
He's going to have to give us eyes to see Him. If we're to
remain faithful, He's going to have to make us so. If we're
to be with Him for all eternity, He's gonna have to keep us and
present us Himself faultless before the throne of God. He's
got to do it all. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
all of grace. It's all of grace. What hope
that is for sinners. If God's made you to be a sinner,
then you know that what you need is God's free grace upon your
soul to save you. Oh, I hope he'll, I hope he'll
teach us that from his word, from his word this morning. Let's,
let's bow together and ask him in prayer to, uh, to bless his
word to our hearts. Our merciful heavenly father, We come before thy throne of
grace, thanking thee that we can call you our father and asking
thee, Lord, that you would enable us by your grace to acknowledge
the Lord Jesus Christ and to crown him Lord of all. We know that you've already done
so. Lord, would you enable us to see him in his glory, in his
accomplished work, and find our hope in all our salvation in
his glorious person. For we ask it in his name. Amen. You have your Bibles open to
Romans chapter 10. And I want us to look at the
last two verses of Romans chapter 10, verse 20. But Isaiah is very
bold. Isaiah is very bold, as is necessary
for every one of God's prophets and for every one of God's people. Boldness. boldness, confidence
in Christ, believing that salvation is a work of free grace. Truth is that God's people, God's
remnant, God's elect are the only people in the whole world
that believe that. I know I've given you this scenario
before, but the more the Lord is pleased to teach me about
His grace, the more convinced I am that this is true. You put
a Muslim, a Hindu, a rank freewill Arminian, and a reformed Calvinist
in the same room with a child of God, and in the end, in the
end, they will all, every one of them, gang up against Him.
They will. They will find something in common
with one another. As extreme as those religious
positions are, they will find something in common against the
one who believes in free grace. And what that is that they'll
find in common is that you've got to bring something to the
table of salvation. You've got to bring something.
And God's people know that there's nothing we can bring. that it's
all been brought, it's all been done, it's all accomplished. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
presents Himself before God Almighty on behalf of His people. He's
all our righteousness. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. God's people are the only ones
that believe that. The only people in all the world that trust the
Lord Jesus Christ for all their salvation. Man by nature hates
grace. Man by nature hates God. Man
by nature hates Christ. And they will deny him his glory
in salvation and rob him of his glory by taking to themselves
something that they can bring. some knowledge, some work, some
prayer, some righteousness, and all men do it. All men do it. And you would do it, and I would
do it, if it wasn't for the grace of God. If the Lord didn't teach
us otherwise, if He didn't show us the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ, if He didn't teach us that His work is finished from
the foundations of the world, We would be just like that. Why? Because it's the natural way.
Man has set himself up on the throne of God. He believes himself
to be able to do something to satisfy the demands of God's
justice and God's righteousness and he'll do it. He'll do it.
God's people, by God's grace, are the only people in the whole
world And if you, if the Lord teaches you that, the Lord makes
you to be a sinner and gives you hope in Christ alone for
all your salvation, you'll need his boldness. Because you will
find yourself to be at odds with everybody in this world. Everybody. Isaiah was very bold when he
said, who has believed our report? And every child of God says that.
Who has believed our report? Who's believed the gospel? Lord,
men don't believe it. They don't see it. They can't
see it. And then he answers that question.
Not in our text, but in Isaiah. He answers that question with
the rest of that verse, to whom has the arm of the Lord been
revealed? Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
the strong right arm of God, and he's going to do all the
saving. And in order for us to know him,
he must reveal himself to us. We're not going to seek him out.
We're not going to find him. Man by nature. Let me show you
that. Turn with me to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. The message of free grace is so offensive
to the natural man. Paul said, if I still preached
circumcision, in other words, if I still gave men something
to do, then would the offense of the cross be ceased. If you don't want to offend somebody
with what you believe, then just believe what they believe, that
you've got to do something. that you've got to bring something,
that there's some righteousness and some goodness in man that
will favor God's blessings and God's salvation. It's what everybody
believes. In Romans chapter 3 beginning
at verse 10, as it is written, here's God's word, here's what
God says. That's all I want to know. You
know, my opinion isn't worth anything. It's not worth any
more than your opinion. But God's word, if God says it,
that settles it. And here's the hope that we have. Thus saith the Lord. This is
not a matter of human opinion. This is what God says. There
is none, I'm sorry, there is none righteous None? No! No, not one. Not a single one. You haven't
got a shred of righteousness. All your righteousnesses are
as filthy rags before God. Man at his very best state is
altogether vanity. And if God should mark iniquity,
If God should mark iniquity, who shall stand? And you know
what that verse means? I explained this a week or two
ago. That means that if you have to stand before God based on
the best thing you've ever done, the best thing you've ever done,
if God should mark one of your best deeds, you will not be able to stand
in the presence of God. The only way that any of us can find acceptance
in the presence of God is to be found in the Beloved. God's pleased with Christ. He's
not pleased with you. He's not pleased with me. He's
pleased with Christ. And those that are found in Him,
oh, they're loved in the exact same way that He's loved. They're
His body. They're His bride. They're one
flesh. And so the Lord says, there is
none that understandeth. You see that in verse 11? Now
look at the next phrase. There is none that seeketh after
God. That's what God says. You say, well, I've been seeking
after God all my life. No, you haven't. No, you haven't. You've been seeking after happiness,
you've been seeking after hope, you've been seeking after heaven.
You've been seeking after a view of God that you may have based
on your own opinions, but no man seeketh after the God who
is. No man seeketh after the God
who is. We're just not gonna do it. It's
not in our nature to do it. The Lord has to, go back with
me to Romans chapter 10. For Isaiah is very bold and saith,
I was found of them that sought me not. I was manifested unto
them that asked not after me. Don't tell me you've been looking
for God all your life. As God says, I was found of them
who didn't seek me. No man seeketh after God at any
time. God says, I was manifest to them,
I was made known to them, who didn't ask for me. Now that's
grace. You see, if God rewards your
seeking by manifesting Himself, if He makes Himself known because
you sought after God, then your knowledge of God is the reward
of what you did. The natural man is not seeking
after God. Oh, he's seeking after a lot
of other things. I don't doubt that. Not seeking after Christ. Go
back with me to Romans chapter 3. This is so clear. This is
not confusing. This is not a convoluted message. God says, you didn't seek me.
If you know me, it's because I sought you. You didn't figure
me out. If you have seen me, it's because
I manifested myself to you. It's called grace. No man, no man seeketh after
God at any time, at any time. They are all gone out of the
way. Romans chapter three, verse 12.
They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. Oh, wait a minute. No, not one. Not a single one. You've got
no goodness. You've got no righteousness.
You've got nothing that you can bring to God to merit His favor. This is the only message of salvation
in the whole world, in all the religions of the world that believes
this. Every other religion, every other religion gives you something
to do. And the only difference between
one religious opinion and the other is what that list of do's
and don'ts happens to be. That's the only difference. One
says you gotta eat this, another one says you can't eat that.
One says you can't drink this, you can't smoke that, you can't
dress like this, you gotta wear your hair that way. And everybody's
got an opinion of things that you need to do in order to earn
favor with God. God says, you can't. You can't do anything. You're not going to rob my son
of his glory. He's done it all. Not going to
merit you with any credit whatsoever. He's going to get all the glory
for saving you. Even you seeking him. Even you seeking him, you say,
well, what about Cornelius and Lydia? Cornelius, the scripture
says, was a God-fearer, and Lydia was involved in a prayer meeting
when neither Cornelius or Cornelius would have never known the gospel.
He would have never known the gospel had God not sent Peter
to him. And Cornelius said, we are all
gathered here to hear whatsoever the Lord has commanded you. We
won't know unless you teach us. That Ethiopian eunuch that was
on his way back to Ethiopia and was arrested by God and preached
to by Philip, he would never have known the gospel in all
of his reading of the Bible. In all of his research, he never
would have known it. That's why God sent him a preacher.
And he knew that. He said, how can I unless a man
should guide me? Unless a man should tell me what
God says, how am I gonna know? How am I gonna believe on him
who knew I'm not heard? And how am I gonna hear without
a preacher? Tell me what God says. Tell me who Christ is. Tell me what it is he's accomplished.
It's my only hope. The Lord had to open Lydia's
heart in order for her to be saved. She could spend her whole
life in that prayer meeting down by the river and never know God
had Paul not come and preached the gospel to her. No man seeketh
after God at any time. Man seeks after his own righteousness.
Oh, you might be seeking after some hope. You might be seeking
after heaven. But you're not seeking after the God who is.
He's got to be revealed, and he'll reveal himself to you at
the most unlikely time. Oh, Saul of Tarsus, he was a
very religious man, wasn't he? An Israelite of the tribe of
Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day concerning the law, he was
blameless. Oh, he had a resume of religiosity. He wasn't seeking after God,
he was seeking to destroy the gospel. Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? Who art thou, Lord? Who art thou? I am Jesus, whom thou persecute. Hey, the light had to shine from
heaven, had to knock him off his high horse, had to put him
in the dirt. He didn't know God. The Lord
said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of
God unless you're born from the spirit. You've got to be born
from above. No man seeketh after God at any time. It's all of
grace. All of grace. God's going to
get the glory for doing it all. We were hell bent against God. We weren't looking for God. God
had to stop us in our tracks, shut our mouths, open our ears,
open our eyes, preach the gospel to our hearts, take out that
heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. The new birth is a
miracle. It's a miracle. It's called grace. Grace! Oh! Don't. Don't boast. The Lord
deals with that. We're going to get back into
Romans chapter 11. Paul is talking to those Galatians,
or to the Gentiles, I'm sorry. And he says, you know, God grafted
you in, but just as he grafted you in, he can graft you out.
Don't you take pride in the fact that you've put yourself into
the gospel. You didn't do it. You didn't
do it. Verse 13, their throat, who? Everybody. Now oftentimes the
Lord uses physical anatomy to describe spiritual truth. And
so now what he's saying is their throat is an open sepulcher. In other words, when you look
down a man's throat, what do you see? You see his heart. You
see his heart. He's dead. dead in his trespasses
and sins, separated from God, unable to save himself. A dead
man can do nothing. He can do nothing. Their throat
is an open sepulcher. When I look down their throat,
I see nothing but dead man's bones. Don't you love that vision
that the Lord gave the prophet Ezekiel? He showed him a valley
of dead bones, very dry bones. And the Lord said to Ezekiel,
Son of man, can these bones live? What did Ezekiel say? What did
Ezekiel say? I mean, they were dried bones
in the desert. And God says to the prophet,
can these bones live? And the prophet says, Lord, thou
knowest. If they're going to live, you're
going to have to make them come alive. They're not going to seek
you. They're not going to seek you.
You're going to have to make them alive. And so what'd the
Lord tell the prophet to do? Prophesy to the bones. Preach
to those sun-bleached bones. There wasn't enough DNA left
in those bones to get a sample. I mean, they were just, they
were dried. and preached to the wind, prophesied
to the wind, called for the Spirit of God to come and anoint the
gospel, and the bones began to take shape. Bone came to bone
and sinew and flesh, and yet there was no life in them. Why? Because the Spirit of God had
not come. Here's the same thing that's
true for you and me. There we are, dead men's bones. We raised our fist in rebellion
against God and we died. We died. In the desert, we died. God has to do a work of grace.
No man seeketh after God at any time. Don't take any pride in
your religious pursuits. If you are seeking the God who
is, you know that it was He that sought you. And put that desire
in your heart. Their throat is an open sepulcher. Their tongues, with their tongues
they have used deceit. They're liars. God's talking
about you and me. All men are liars. God alone
speaks the truth. Their poison of asp is under
their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness. Many years ago, I was a sailor.
And I didn't think twice about using the name of God in a cursing
fashion. And I'm ashamed to tell you that,
but I did. Just part of my speech. Part of my speech. And then I
became religious. And for the next 20 years, I
started talking about Jesus. The Jesus I was talking about
was the Jesus of my imagination. No longer did I use the name
of God in a cursing fashion, now I was using his name preaching. My shame and my guilt is much,
much greater in those 20 years of using the name of the Lord
my God in vain, talking about him as if he needed me to do
something to help him save me, than when I was using his name
cursing as a sailor. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. And I'm here to tell you this
morning that I cursed the name of God as a religious man, much
more than I ever cursed his name as an irreligious man. Their feet are swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery in their way, and the way of
peace. The way of peace. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Prince of Peace. If you're going to have peace
with God, you're going to have to have the Lord Jesus Christ
stand in your stead before God and present himself on your behalf.
And he said, I am the way. I'm the truth and I'm the life.
No man can come to the Father except by me. And the way of peace they have
not known. Wouldn't have known it. Wouldn't
have known it had the Lord not revealed himself. Go back with
me to our text. Isaiah is very bold. It takes the boldness of God
to believe and to preach what I'm telling you right now. It does. I was found of them who sought
me not. Say, what's that mean? It means
exactly what it says. You didn't seek God, he sought
you. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. Now I spent three years in seminary
and 20 years reading religious books and Puritans and never
figured out God. Never knew him. And then I heard a man preach
the gospel. And the eyes of my understanding
were opened. One gospel message. One gospel
message. I was made manifest unto them
that ask not after me. Abraham, who is called the father
of the faithful, was no less a pagan than his father and his
grandfather. He was an idolater. He lived
in the Ur of the Chaldeans, and he never would have known God
had God not sought him out and called him. Abraham, follow me. That man at the Pool of Bethesda, the Lord came to him and said,
Would thou be made whole? What did he say? He said, Lord,
I've got nobody to put me in the water. When the angel comes
to stir the water, there's nobody here to put me in. He was looking
for an experience. He wasn't looking for God. He was looking for an experience.
He was looking for a feeling. The Lord healed him, didn't he? I was found of them who sought
me not. I was manifest unto them who
ask not after me. When the Lord got in the boat
and went over to the Gadarenes, remember when he cast the demons
out of the demoniac into the pigs and the pigs ran off into
the sea? There's no evidence that he went
over there for anything other than that one demoniac. And he
got back in the boat and came back. Was that demoniac who lived
among the tombs cutting himself, was he looking for God? Was he
looking for God? Was he asking for God? No. The
Lord knew where he was. That woman at the well at Sychar,
was she looking for God? No. She was hiding out, wasn't
she? She was hiding out, just like
our father Adam. He wasn't looking for God. He
was hiding from God. And that's exactly what you and
I do until the Lord seeks us out. Adam, where art thou? And
what did the Lord say to that woman at the well? If thou knewest
who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask
him. You see, knowing who he is precedes asking for his salvation. If you have sought him, it's
because he made himself known to you. Faith is not the cause of your
salvation, it's the result of it. The cause of salvation is
a sovereign work of grace in the heart of a dead man, giving
him life, though he sought not God. Though he couldn't, he didn't
ask for God to manifest himself. The Lord did it graciously. And then he asked, if thou knowest
who it was that saith unto thee, give me to drink, then you would
ask. Oh, and then he made himself known, didn't he? Come and see
a man who told me everything that ever I did. Come meet a
man who revealed himself to me as all my righteousness before
God. Everything that I ever did before
God in Christ is perfectly righteous. And everything I ever did before
God outside of Christ is perfectly sinful. Come, meet a man. Mephibosheth wasn't looking for
David, was he? No, he was hiding out. He was hiding out, just
like you would do, and just like I would do. You see, the truth is that the
natural man no more seeks after God than a criminal is looking
for a police officer. You're just not going to do it.
You run from God. You try to do something to satisfy
the demands of the law on your own behalf. But until he comes
to you and shows you, I'm not a police officer. I'm your heavenly
father. The law's already been satisfied
for you. It's been fulfilled. You don't
have to fear me. I'm the loving heavenly father
waiting for his son and embracing him. Oh, kill the fatted calf! There were two thieves on the
cross that day, one on our Lord's right and one on his left, and
they were both cursing the Lord Jesus Christ, until something
happened to one of them. What was it that happened? What
was it that caused him to say to the Lord, Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom? God did a work of grace in his
heart. That's what happened. He heard what the Lord Jesus
Christ was saying on the cross. He heard him say, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. He heard him cry, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. It's finished. It's finished. That thief had some understanding
of what it was the Lord Jesus Christ was doing on Calvary's
cross in satisfying the demands of God's justice and fulfilling
the requirements of God's law. And he pled for mercy after the
Lord revealed himself I was found of them who sought not after
me. I was manifest unto them who
asked not for me. It's a miracle of grace. We can
plead and preach and persuade men, and we should. But until the Spirit of God is
pleased, to make it effectual, that's why our prayers are so
essential. Lord, save my children, save
my wife, save my husband, save my loved ones. Lord, save me. You've got to do it. You've got
to do it. Nobody else can. Now I want you to look quickly
with me at verse 21. But to Israel, He saith, all day long, I have
stretched forth my hands unto a, you see that word disobedient? It's the word unbelieving. And
that is the essence of disobedience, is to not believe the gospel.
Is to not believe the gospel. And what the Lord's saying here,
I've shown you myself in creation, The firmaments, they declare
my glory. I've shown you in your conscience
that there is a God with whom you must do. He's talking about Israel now,
Old Testament Israel. He said, I've given you prophets,
I've given you the word of God, I've given you ceremonies and
types and pictures, and you would not, you would not come. And here's what God's saying.
If you know him, he gets all the credit. He did it all. He made himself known to you
when you didn't want, you didn't have any interest in him. And
if you don't know him, you bear all the responsibility. That's what he's saying. You
bear all the responsibility. You will not stand before God
without excuse. You say, that sounds like a contradiction.
I guess it does to the natural man. But it's what God says. If you're saved, it's all his
fault. And if you're not, it's all yours. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for your word, and we ask, Lord, that your Holy
Spirit would make it living and effectual to our hearts, for
we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.