All right, brother, if you want
to, mark your place there in Deuteronomy 32. We'll be back.
If you will, open your Bibles to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. We'll be finishing up the chapter this
evening. We'll read our text beginning in verse 17. Romans
10, 17. So then faith, cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went
into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world.
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 I will anger you. But Isaiah was very bold and
saith, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest
unto them that ask not after me. But to Israel he saith, all
day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gang saying people. I want you to imagine for a second
you have a terrible, terrible infection, like a blood infection
just coursing through you and you have a very, very high fever. And you go to the doctor and
they say, I want to treat that fever. I'm going to give you
something that's going to bring that fever right down. Now go
on home and you'll be fine. Do you want to go home? No. I know I have that infection.
That's the root cause. I happen to have a symptom. Just
treat the symptoms. If I go home, I'm going to die.
That's what's going to happen. All too often, we have a tendency
to treat the symptoms of a disease and just look over the disease
itself. I need the fever to go away, yes. That's true. But the
cause of the fever is much more needful to be treated. If that's
treated, the fever will go away. Get rid of the infection, the
fever will go away. We understand that in a medical sense, don't
we? Spiritually, if I were to get up, depending on what part
of the country we're in, and I preached against tobacco, or
I preached against alcohol, or marijuana, or abortion, or sodomites,
or whatever. That's only treating the symptoms. That's only treating the instinct.
Preaching against sins, plural. Now don't take me wrong, we should
strive to put away the sins of this flesh. But our true source
of these sins, the root cause of all the outward sins we're
concerned about, this nation's concerned about, so many pulpits
are concerned about. It's the sin of unbelief, the
sin of self-righteousness, and the sin of pride. Now those three,
they're so connected. They're so just married and woven
together, you can't have one without the other. Sin of unbelief,
self-righteousness, and pride. People don't believe God. People
think they're right, and that's all too prideful. That's the
heart of every child of Adam. And to say it's not is very self-righteous,
that's very prideful, and you don't believe God. No matter
what we hear in our ears, no matter what we know in our head,
What head knowledge we have, what understanding we have, unless
God's pleased to reveal Christ in us and to us, we will die
in our sin and we'll spend eternity bearing the wrath of God's holy
judgment. A hard work must be done by God. Who is it that Christ
saves? If we're all that corrupt, if
that's what I was born, come from the womb speaking lies.
I've offended the Holy God and I can never repay my debt. How's
Christ going to save me? He came to save sinners. Sinners. He said in Luke 5, they
that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you
think you're pretty good, you don't need a Savior. You need
help. You don't need saving. And call on them, on Him, we
do. Because He calls on us. Look
at that last week here in chapter 10. God sends a preacher to His
sheep. He calls us that elect remnant
to hear the word affectionately, to hear it in our hearts. The
Word of Christ Jesus our Lord. He gives them a new heart to
believe. And that new heart put in us, put in every believer,
that's given faith to believe Christ, it calls on Christ for
mercy, for grace, for repentance, for forgiveness, and for righteousness. And the Scriptures say, they
shall be saved. Those that call on Him. He won't
forsake them. Salvation is of the Lord, and
it is finished. Now this method, our almighty
God was pleased to use, is effectual in His people. His word does
not return unto Him void. It accomplishes what He sent
it to do. Now it might be a saver of life
unto life. So I'm going to hear a gospel
message, the truth about man, the truth about God, and they'll
say, that's life. He is life. He is who I need. And the person sitting next to
him, a DNA match, identical twin, will say, that's death. I want
nothing to do with it. Get him away from me. I'm fine. Savior of death unto death. But
He is pleased to stretch forth His hand to men and women. And every time He does that,
the Lord stretches forth His hand. He brings a message to
poor, needy sinners or self-righteous, prideful, arrogant unbelievers. The Lord is being gracious to
us. He said in John 10, I told you and you believe not the words,
the works that I do in my father's name. They bear witness of me,
but you believe not because you're not of my sheep. As I've said
unto you, my sheep, they hear my voice effectually. We hear him, we believe him and
I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Now there in verse 17 in Romans
10. Because we have to hear the voice of the Savior. Saved by
the Word of God. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. Christ has to come to his people.
He has to do a work in them. He has to save them. That's how
people are saved. That's the only way people are
saved. Remember the context of what Paul is talking about. He's
speaking about his brethren after the flesh. Again, this chapter
is talking about the physical, political nation of Israel, those
physical Jews. It says in verse 18, but I say,
have they not heard? They've heard this preaching,
haven't they? Said, yes, verily, their sound went out into all
the earth and their words to the end of the world. We're reading
this tonight. We're going to be hearing about
what happened to to that nation of Israel, what the Lord did
with them when they were in bondage, when they were in the desert,
when He brought them out of the desert, everything He's gave them, the
tabernacle. We're not looking at all that tonight. But we still, throughout all
this world right now, we have the story of them hearing all
the blessings they had, all the profits they were given, all
the advantages they've had. They've heard. They've heard
by the hearing of the ear. Verse 19, but I say, did not
Israel know? They heard it, but didn't they
know? Oh, they knew God. They knew there was a God. They
knew that God was sovereign. They knew He was miraculous.
They carried that rock around with them in the desert to have
water, didn't they? Man, I came from heaven, kept
them fed. You go into a desert, what's
two things you need and you'll be all right? I need food and
I need water. And what they say, did you bring us out here to
let us starve to death? We're going to thirst to death." As
they carried the bread and water. Why was that? They murmured at
the bread, they murmured at the rock, and they murmured at the
Lord's timing in all of it. Because it was all vanity in
their minds. It was self-righteousness and
pride. They didn't have a heart of thankfulness.
Thanksgiving to God. And it says there in verse 19,
but I say, did not Israel know? What he's speaking of, yes, they
knew the Lord. They knew of the Lord. They didn't
know him personally. Yes, they had the gospel in front
of them. They had all these pictures. But didn't they know that God
was going to save a people that wasn't that physical nation?
Jesus saved some people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. Did they know that? Or did they think it was just
them? Were they told that? Look here. First Moses said, I will
provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a
foolish nation will I anger you. He said, I'm going to save some
people out of all the nations you think is foolish just to
make you mad, just to stir up anger in your hearts. They had
pride of face, pride of race, and pride of grace. that political
Israel knew that the Lord was going to call his spiritual Israel
from every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation. They were told that. Not just the physical Jews. And
they did not heed it. The Lord warned them. Told them. And they didn't care. They ignored
it. It's just us. We've got everything
we need. We're just fine. Turn over back
to Deuteronomy 32. In those first 14 verses of Deuteronomy
32, it speaks of the power and perfection of Christ our rock.
It's called Moses' Song, God's mercy and his vengeance. We looked
at his mercy earlier. Moses sings of the Lord setting
Jacob apart as his own portion, as his own inheritance for his
namesake, for Christ's namesake, because of Christ, That's why
the sons of Jacob are not consumed. He says, you're my inheritance.
And he tells us all the blessings that he's going to give to Jacob,
to his people, those that Christ died for. Everything's completely
provided for Jacob, for all of us that believe on the Lord.
And the tenderness of God towards those he loves, how the Lord
makes his people have comfort and blessings from Christ alone.
He says, you'll be made to suck honey from the rock. You're going
to drink the pure blood of the vine. Oh, that's going to be
the best wine you've ever tasted in your life. The sweetest honey
sandwich you've ever ate. Oh, it's going to take good care
of you. Feed you well. Look at verse 15. Deuteronomy 32, 15.
But Jeshurun, that's a poetic name. How fitting that is. I was reading
that yesterday. A poetic name for Jerusalem. He's calling them
the faintest name he can call them, Jeshua. But Jeshua enraged
fat and kicked. Thou art waxen fat, thou art
grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Physical Israel,
a political nation, the religious folks then and the religious
folks nowadays are so comfortable and so nourished, they think
they didn't need God anymore. We've got everything that we
need. We've got prophets coming to us. We have Lord's prophecy.
We have religion. We have church buildings. We
have priests. We have the tabernacle. They had sacrifices. Look at
all these feasts we have. They were fattened up in religion
and didn't need God. They had plenty to keep their
hands busy. And he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed
the rock. of his salvation." Capital R.
They forsook God that made them and they lightly esteemed. They
didn't think much of Christ our Rock who saved them. Verse 16, they provoked him to
jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him
to anger. They sacrificed unto devils,
not to God. They continued to have sacrifices. That's zealous. That takes a
lot of hard work. I had to go take care of those
animals, feed those animals, set those animals apart, watch
them for a month, butcher them, build a fire, build an altar
and put it on. They worked hard for the devil
and not to God. Well, they thought they were
doing good. To gods whom they knew not and to gods that came
up newly whom your fathers feared not. Of the rock that begat thee
thou art unmindful. They've looked to something other
than Christ, and has forgotten God that formed thee. And when
the Lord saw it, he abhorred them because of the provoking
of his sons and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face
from them. I will see what their end shall
be, for they are a very froward generation, children in whom
there is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy
with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger
with their vanities. Everything they did was vain,
self-righteous, proud. And I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger
with a foolish nation. That's what Paul's quoting here. God told him, he said, you've
angered me by rejecting my son. So I will anger you. I'm going
to save people that you look down on. You've got your nose
high up in the air and piety and religion and ceremony and
everything else you think you're doing good. And the very people
you look down on, that's who I'm going to save. And in doing
so, that self-righteous Pharisee, whether it was a Jew in the days
of Paul, it's a Catholic nowadays, a Protestant, a Reformed Baptist,
whatever they are, whoever it is. They will be provoked to
anger because the Lord of Hosts saves His chosen race in Christ's
worth and Christ's merit and not in man's worth and man's
merit." People say, well, I'm just looking
to Christ and I do these other things just because it makes
me feel good. Stop doing it. Oh, I can't do
that. Forgo everything you hold on to. Let go of them anchors.
Oh, I can't do that. Those Jews over in Israel, is
that the Lord's people? There's a nation over there,
only the ones that are helpless sinners and look to Christ, the
rock of our salvation alone. Over in Israel, that's the only
people that's saved. That's the Lord's people. This is America. This is God's nation. The Lord
established this. We've got a constitution this
week. We're God's people. Only the
ones that look to Christ alone and have absolutely no hope and
no merit in themselves. That's the only ones that's God's
people. It's a nation of people that are looked down upon, that
are considered foolish, and they're undesirable. I fit right in. The Lord shows
us what we are, we fit right in, don't we? Back to Romans,
Book of Romans, chapter 9. Moses had a bold song to sing
to those self-righteous Israelites. God does not save the righteous,
He saves sinners. He does not heal the healthy,
He heals the sick. And it will burn in the hearts
of people. of the unregenerate, the fact
that the Lord's been merciful to those who did not deserve
mercy." We looked at that the other day. That's the definition
of mercy. Something you don't deserve. I said, why is the Lord
merciful to them? That's a good reason why He's
merciful to them. They need it. And He's had compassion on those
that were enemies of His, and He's been gracious to those who
didn't earn a thing. Didn't earn anything. He was
gracious to them. Now, Romans 9, verse 30. Romans
9.30. What shall we say then? that
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of
faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore?
Why? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone." They stumbled on the rock. That's
what Moses was telling them. The Lord said, you didn't highly
esteem the rock of your salvation. You didn't highly esteem Christ.
They stumbled on him. He was in the way to something
better. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, just a few pages.
1 Corinthians chapter 1. People ask, why do you do what
you do? In that old fashion, stand up in front of people and
read a Bible to them. They can read. Can't you type this stuff
up and email it to them? 1 Corinthians 1.18. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto
us, which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent." I know a lot of stuff, and I'm
good. The Lord said He's going to bring it down to nothing,
and He's going to destroy it. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, And to both of those, Christ the power
of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. to confuse the wise, to make
the wise angry. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. That man's horrible. He doesn't
deserve saving. The Lord says, I'm going to save
him. And the base things of the world,
and the things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, the things
which are not to bring to naught the things that are. For what
cause? Why would He do all this? Why would any of this make sense
from Moses to us today? Why would the Lord do this? Verse
29, that no flesh should glory in His presence, but of Him are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom. This
don't sound good. Everything's bad. We're all worthless
and dying and unable and worthy of death. Why would I
want to be counted in that? Because Christ has made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I can't think
of anything else I need to stand before Almighty God. Everything's
in Him, isn't it? That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's good news
to someone who truly feels low. I've talked to several people
in my life, and that's when I get my act together a little bit,
I'll go to church. I'll go hear about God. I ain't
good enough yet. Are you despised? Do you feel
meek? Can't get no lower? I got something
for you. Good. God saves sinners. Are you sick? You can't make
it spiritually? Good. That's who Christ came
to save. I'm back in our text here in
Romans 10. God will save His people by giving them the gift
of faith to look to Christ for their salvation and their righteousness. He'll save His people by giving
us a heart to look to Him for all. Now in Romans 10.20, But
Isaiah was very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought
me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. I got just four quick points
out of this verse. I'll try to keep it short for
you. First, it says Isaiah was very bold. I pray I could be
bold. It feels awful easy now, but
the day may be coming in my lifetime that I'll more understand what
boldness is and it has to be provided by the Lord. My dear
friend Don used to say, God given boldness to a preacher to stand
on his hind legs and declare that salvation is of the Lord
and God Almighty does the entirety of the work from beginning to
end without any assistance or aid by man. That's a pretty bold
message nowadays, isn't it? There may come a time when that's
outlawed. It'll take the power of God to
make us bold to declare who He is and what man He is. But the
Lord God is pleased to show mercy on the people who the world,
us, our old sin nature, we think they're the least likely vessels
to be vessels of honor. That's to me. I look on anybody
in this world, think on anybody in this world, I should think
that could be a child of God. Yep, they're bad. That's who
Christ came to save, wasn't it? Didn't come to call the righteous.
Come to save sinners. What am I in His sight? No different
than anybody else, am I? All right, first of all, no one left to our old nature
can or will seek God. None of us. When a dead sinner
finds the Lord, it was not the doing of the sinner." The Lord
said, I'm going to save a people that didn't look after me. David
said, they're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Turn over to John
chapter 5 real quick. He said, I was found of them
that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. John chapter 5. See how our Lord dealt with these prideful, self-righteous people
just as we're born. John 5.39. Search the Scriptures. For in them ye think ye have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." You're
looking for something to do in the scriptures. Those scriptures
testify of Christ. And you will not come to me that
you may have life. You'll go to something else.
Go to something you do to have life. Go to a doctor or a priest
or whatever you can conjure up, but you won't come to Christ
to live. Look over in chapter 6, verse
44. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. Now I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets
that they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
Who are these that's going to find him? Those that he draws,
those that he teaches. Verse 63, John 6, 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life, but there are some of you
that believe not. For Jesus knew them, knew from
the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him. And he said, therefore I said unto you that no man can come
unto me unless except it were given unto him of my father. Christ preached a general call,
didn't he? This is God Almighty in human
flesh speaking to men and women standing in front of him. And
he said, you can't hear me unless the Father draws you. God Almighty
stood in human flesh and bone and spoke to people. And he said,
the Spirit's got to do a work in you or you ain't going to
hear me. That's why you're not hearing
me. You ain't part of my sheep. You can't and you won't. How are
we going to find him then? The Father must give the ability
and desire to come to Christ. Aren't we supposed to seek Christ?
Absolutely we are. Seek Him while He may be found.
Search for Him. How does He reveal Christ to
us and in us? Secondly, God the Holy Spirit
turns the hearts of men and women to Christ only by the preaching
of the Gospel. That's the means He chose. When
it pleased God to save one of His children, or to comfort one
of His children, or it pleases Him to chasten one of His children.
It's not me doing it. I can't comfort, but for a moment. I can't chasten in wisdom, and
I can't save anybody. And it's not my eloquent preaching
or my amazing points I come up with. God does that through the
preaching of His Word, through the preaching of the gospel that
Christ reconciles His sheep to Himself. Paul said there in 2
Corinthians 5, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. What
does an ambassador do? They don't go and say anything
they want to say. They say what they're told to say. They say
what the one that sent them said, and nothing else. As though God
did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye
reconciled to God. I'm beseeching you this evening. Look to Christ, be ye reconciled
to God. That's the Lord stretching his
hand forth to people. It's the only way God saves sinners
through the preaching of the gospel. He said so. There's a
little boy in Spurgeon's church, and that's before they had PA
systems and microphones and all the stuff we have nowadays, and
he preached to a couple thousand people. The little boy sat on
the front row up real close, and he'd sit like this the whole
time. And Spurgeon thought he was deaf.
He had to be pretty loud for the people in the back to hear
him. And he called that little boy after service one day and
he said, son, can you hear me okay? Oh, yes, sir. I can hear you fine. He said,
well, why are you sitting with your hands on your ears like
that? And he said, my mama told me if God was going to speak
to me, it was going to be through you. And if he talks to me, I
want to make sure I hear him. That Lord speaks to his people.
Every time the gospel of free and sovereign grace in Christ
is preached in truth, that's God stretching forth His hand. Do we treat it as such? Do I
treat it as such? The Lord just might save me.
He just might comfort me. He just might chasten me. I need
all three. When Christ calls a vile, worthless,
undeserving sinner to Himself by the preaching of the truth,
He manifests Himself to them. He makes who He is and what He
finished on the cross obvious to that sinner. I've never heard anyone, a true
believer, ever say, I wish I'd never heard of Christ. I wish he would have just left
me alone. I could keep doing what I'm doing. Never heard him.
If you hear him, he's manifested himself to you, he's made himself
obvious to you, made you obvious to what you are. And boy, we
cling to him. Christ told him, Paul said, you
going to leave too? He didn't chase him out the parking lot,
did he? He said, we're leaving. He said, y'all going to go with
him? Lord, where will we go? Where will we go? Lastly, God
saves His people with joy. The undeserving people, undesirables,
undesirable people, foolish nations, people to make fun of, undeserving
of mercy. He sent His Son to save those
people with joy, willingly. Scriptures say every time a sinner
is brought to repentance, the heavens rejoice. Oh, what good
work he did. Said prodigal son come, took
his inheritance, blew it, wasted it, eating after pigs. Decides I'm
going to go work at my daddy's house. I'll be the lowest of
the servants and I'll eat better than this. I'll go home. He got
home and said, I've offended God and I've done it in your
sight. And that father come running.
And it kissed him, and kissed him, and hugged him, and said,
dress him in the finest robe, put a ring on his finger. With
joy, he comes. That's how our Father comes to
his children. He affectionately comes to their hearts, shows
them what they are, reveals Christ in them, and he is tender. It
said there in Isaiah, it said, come let us reason together.
Foolish men, not the foolish men he saves, ignorant, say,
oh, see God, you can argue with him. No, no, no, no, no. He's
a patient God, a merciful, long-suffering, tender God, and he'll set us
down in patience. Like them apostles, the Lord
say, he'd give a parable and say, you that have ears, hear,
hear. And as soon as he's done, the
apostles, they got the fancy suit on the room, that's the
higher ups, would say, Lord, what'd you mean by that? He'd
say, come here, I'll tell you what it meant. He'd sit down
and reason with them. That's what He does to us, doesn't
He? Like a good, loving, tender-hearted
Father, He teaches His children. With joy. Romans 10, verse 20. But Isaiah was very bold, and
saith, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest
unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel, he saith,
to those self-righteous, those workers, those people that do
it, they're doers, they have vanity. But to Israel, he saith,
all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people. This gospel of salvations of
the Lord came to them. The Lord stretched forth His
hand to them. I'm going to put my gospel right
in front of you. I'm going to put it over top
of you in a day. I'm going to give you light by
night by it. I'll give you a serpent to look
to if a snake bites you. I'll give you a rock to drink
out of. I'll give you manna from heaven.
I'm going to put my gospel right in front of you. And they were
disobedient. And they were again saying, they
refused. I won't have it. Get this man away from us. Is
that what we do when we hear the gospel? Turn over to Luke
13 and we'll close. Luke 13, verse 34. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which
killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen
doeth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not. I delight in showing mercy. The
Lord rejoices in showing mercy. But you clung to your race, clung
to your religion, clung to everything that you already had, the fatness
thereof. Behold, your house is left unto the desolate, and verily
I say unto you, you shall not see me until the time come when
you shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord. Houses are desolate. How do we
reply to the message of the Lord? Will your house be found desolate?
When the Lord brings His message, who man is, all flesh is grass,
salvation to the Lord. Turn from your idols. Turn from
everything you know and look only to Christ. Do we run to
Him or do we run from Him? It's one or the other. I pray
the Lord would make us run to Christ. I pray he would draw
us to his feet and comfort us there and keep us there. We'll
be happy. We won't be ashamed. Amen. I hope that's a blessing to you.
Let's pray together.