That portion of scripture that
I read to you is referred to in Romans chapter 10. So I want you to go with me to
Romans chapter 10. I'll come back to the portion
of scripture I read to you in just a little bit. But I want
to show you how, over here in Romans chapter 10, Paul draws
from this very portion of Scripture. See, the Word of God, these passages
are not isolated. It's all connected together.
And the Lord, the Spirit, inspired the apostle Paul with the words
that he wrote under the church that was at Rome. And when he
gets over here to the 10th chapter, he makes reference to the words
that we just read that were recorded by the prophet Isaiah. Let me begin at verse 17. Are you there? Romans chapter
10 and verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing. We know that. Hearing by the
word of God. Previously it said, how shall
they hear without a preacher? God makes the gospel known to
people through the preaching of the gospel by his servants. This is how God has ordained
that the message of redemption and the message of grace The
message of forgiveness, this is how God has ordained that
the message go forth through the preaching. It's one sinner
telling other sinners about the Savior, about the grace of God. And I would say to you what was
said to Israel, why will you die? There's the water of life,
drink. There's the way of salvation
come to Christ. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. Why will you die? Why would you
perish? Salvation is not by works. Surely
you're not so foolish as to try to work yourself into God's good
graces. There's an abundance of passages
of scripture that tell you you can't do that. The way of salvation
is by grace only. It's by mercy only. And it's
through the merits of somebody else. Not your merits, not your
works, not your deeds, not your words. Salvation is found in Christ
only. And in His work of redemption,
He came down here to do work that God sent Him to do. His
name is Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. That's what He came to do. He
said Himself, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
that which was lost. Well, did He seek and save that
which was lost? The good shepherd goes out seeking
the lost sheep. Did he find the lost sheep? Did
he pick up the lost sheep? Did he put that lost sheep on
his shoulders? Does he go home rejoicing? It
says that he did in Luke chapter 15. The woman who had ten coins
and one of them was lost, did she search for that lost coin?
It was hers. Did she search for it? Yes, she
took a light. And she searched till she found
it. Where did she find it? In the dust, in the dirt. That's
where God finds us. That's where the Spirit of God
finds us in our filthiness. And the Spirit finds us and rejoices
in the great find that He has made. It isn't that you find
the Lord, it's that the Lord finds you. And the woman calls
her friends and neighbors in and says, rejoice with me, I
found my coin that was lost. Did the coin find her? No. Did
the sheep find the shepherd? No. Why in the world would preachers
give credit to a sinner who comes to Jesus Christ and gives all
the glory to the sinner, says, well you finally made a good
decision now. No, the decision of salvation
was made before the world began. God made that decision. And sent
His Son to seek the lost sheep. Sent the Holy Spirit to find
the lost coin. And the Father welcomed home
the wandering son. And God the Father welcomes us
through the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach the gospel of grace. We're not telling you what you
need to do for God. And nobody ever stands behind
this pulpit and preaches that kind of garbage. We preach God. We preach God's salvation. We
preach the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach the work
of the Holy Spirit. You must be born again is what
the master said to Nicodemus. But he didn't tell him how to
be born again. He didn't tell him, well, this
is what you gotta do in order to be born again. And he certainly
did not tell him what preachers are telling people today. Believe
and be born again. That's not right. If you believe, you have been
born again. Because belief is the evidence
of life. Life. And so we keep preaching
the gospel. And we ask God to grant faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So everybody's got faith, all
you gotta do is fan it a little bit, got spark faith in you,
just fan it a little bit and it'll turn into a roaring fire. Well, here's what Paul said,
not all men have faith. You're not gonna have faith unless
God gives it to you. That's just a fact. And you may wrestle with that,
And you may wrestle with this. God demands faith from you, but
you're not going to have it unless he gives it to you. And what
do you think about that? And you can argue about that.
Well, that's not fair. Go ahead and argue. Take your
case to the great Supreme Judge. See how far you get. Where in the world we got this
idea that God owes us something? We don't have anything coming
to us but the wages of sin. And that's death. And so we keep on preaching.
Because faith comes by hearing. Not only with these ears. but
with an ear that only God the Spirit can give. But look at verse 18. Now he's
talking about what Isaiah said, and I can make good on that,
look at verse 16. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed, I report.
When did he say that? Where is that found? Isaiah 53,
verse one. Who hath believed our report?
That's what he said, Lord, who hath believed our report? As
if to say, Lord, there's nobody believing what I'm preaching. But we keep on preaching. So he says in verse 18, but I
say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, truly. Their sound, the sound of the
gospel, went into all the earth and their words unto the ends
of the world. But I say, look at verse 19,
did not Israel know? Didn't they know Messiah was
coming? Didn't they know that God saves
sinners by the blood, by the sacrifice? The blood of bulls and goats
could never put sin away, but they all pointed to one whose
blood would do the job. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And here's the thing of it. When He shed His blood, He made
us whole. That's right. He paid our sin
debt. You're not so foolish as to think
that when you believe, then that pays your sin debt. No. You're
not so foolish as to imagine that when you believe the gospel
of grace, then right then the justice of God is satisfied.
Oh, no. Oh no. Justice was only satisfied
with the Savior and His work of redemption. We keep pounding
on that. We keep pounding on that because
people don't see that by nature and the Spirit of God's got to
reveal it to us. He did the work. He says, didn't Israel know?
Didn't they learn anything from the tabernacle? The brazen altar
where the offerings were brought? Didn't they know? On the Day
of Atonement when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies
and offered the sacrifice, shed the blood, he had shed the blood,
sprinkled it on the mercy seat. Didn't Israel know? Didn't they
learn anything when he went out and laid his hands on the scapegoat? which he confessed the sins of
Israel over the head of that scapegoat, and symbolically the
sins were transferred to the scapegoat, and a fit man led
that goat out of town, taking the sins away from the view,
the scene of Israel. Didn't they learn anything? You who have said unto the gospel,
haven't you learned anything? That's what Paul is saying. Haven't
you learned? And I say, bless the name of
God if you have learned. The Savior said, no man can come
to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. And of
those people, it says, they shall all be taught of God. He that hears therefore and learns
of the Father. You know what they do? They come
to Christ. They come to Christ. So, didn't Israel know? They heard, but they didn't hear. They didn't hear with understanding. First Moses saith, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people. And by a foolish
nation, I will anger you. What in the world is he talking
about? God provoked Israel to jealousy by taking the gospel
away from them. and given it to the Gentiles.
And boy, that angered them. And I'll finish the thought here,
verse 20. But Isaiah is very bold. Here's
the title of my message, Bold Preaching. Isaiah is very bold. And I'll
tell you somebody else who's very bold when they preach this,
the apostle Paul. He was very bold too. And he said, I was found of them
that sought me not. I just read that in Isaiah 65. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not unto me. But to Israel the Lord said,
all day long if I stretch forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people, I stretch forth my hands, come to me. There's the general call of the
gospel. Believe the gospel. But they were a disobedient and
gainsaying people. And I'll tell you what God did. He used the rebellion and the
disobedience and the unbelief of Israel to fulfill His own
purpose which was this, to send the gospel to the Gentiles. Let
me make good on that. Turn to Acts 13, Acts chapter
13. Here's the apostle preaching
in Antioch. And he says this, I'm gonna have
to back up to verse 38. Okay, Acts 13, 38. He says to these people, be it
known therefore unto you, be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. Why did he emphasize those words,
this man? Because that's what they choked
on. Because they refused to believe
that this man is the Son of God. That's what they choked on. They said, you're just a man,
you say you're the Son of God? That's blasphemy. Through this man, the God-man. Look at verse 39. And by him,
all that believe are justified from all things from which he
could not be justified by the law of Moses. You're declared
righteous and forgiven. It's not by obedience to the
law that you're declared to be righteous and forgiven, justified. It's by this man and the work
that he did on Calvary. And look at verse 40. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye
despisers, and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, The Gentiles besought that these words might
be preached to them the next Sabbath day. They said, we'd
love to hear more of this. Would you come back and preach
next Saturday to us? And when the congregation was
broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes, they followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. A week goes by. It's 44. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God. Hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of people. But when the Jews saw
the multitudes, then they were filled with envy. And they spake
against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. And then Paul And Barnabas waxed
bold. This is bold preaching now. And they said, now watch this
language, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you Jews. Seeing you have put it from you
and judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life, that is by
grace through the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus, lo,
we turn to the Gentiles. You won't hear it, so we'll preach it to somebody
who wants to hear it. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. That
is to the Gentiles. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they said, this is really good news. They were glad. and they glorified the word of
the Lord. And, now you watch the language
of this, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. As many as were ordained to eternal
life. What in the world is ordination? Well, that's God determining
ahead of time. This is predestination. As many
as were ordained to eternal life, what did they do? They believed. Why did they believe? Because
they were ordained unto eternal life before the foundation of
the world. And the word of the Lord was published throughout
all the region, but, look at verse 50, the Jews, They didn't
want to hear the message. They didn't want anybody else
to hear it either. And they're moved to jealousy because in
their rejection of the message, actually that fulfilled the purpose
of God and now the Word is going to go forth to the Gentiles and
they are going to believe. The ways of God are mysterious.
But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief
men of the city They raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and
expelled them out of their coast. Get out of here. We don't want
you here anymore. But the work had been done. The work had been done. Turn
over to Acts 22. Let me show you this. And then
I'm going to go back to Isaiah. But look at Isaiah or Acts chapter
22. Here's the apostle Paul. He's
speaking about His conversion. And if there's ever a case of
somebody being found who was not seeking the Lord, and if
there's ever an illustration of sovereign and effectual grace,
it's the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. You know that. When he went to Damascus, was
he seeking the Lord? He was seeking to stamp out the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had papers authorizing, he
went to the high priest and said, give me the authority to go into
every house in Damascus. And if I find people who believe
in the way, the way of grace, salvation by Jesus Christ, people
who believe that He's the way to God, He's the way to salvation,
He's the way to righteousness. If I find anybody who believes
in the way, give me the authority to arrest them, put them in chains,
bring them back to Jerusalem. You folks try them and put them
in prison or kill them, whatever you want to do with them. And
the high priest said, here's the papers. I give you the authority.
And boy, he's off to Damascus. He's going to stamp out Christianity. I'll take care of this. Because
I'll tell you this about Saul, whose name is, of course, became
Paul. Whatever he did, he did it with
all of his might. Solomon said that, whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with all your might, because
there's no activity in the grave. And boy, he took that literally.
And when it came to opposing the gospel, he was all in. And
when God saved him by His grace and called him to preach the
Gospel, he was all in. He put his heart into it. So
he's going back over his conversion experience, and I don't have
time to get into all this, but look at 22.19. He's right in the middle of talking
about how God saved him. And I said, They know that I
imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed
on thee. And when the blood of thy martyr
Stephen was shed, we talked about that in Sun School this morning,
I also was standing by and consenting, rooting them on, consenting unto
his death, and I kept the raiment of them that slew him. And he
said unto me, depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the
Gentiles. These are Jews listening to him. Now watch verse 22. And they
gave him audience unto or until he said that. That's what that
means. They listened to what he had
to say until he said that the Lord told him, I'm gonna send
you to the Gentiles. And that was all they had to
hear. They had heard enough. Now verse 22 again, so understand
this. And they gave him audience unto
or until he said that. and then lifted up their voices
and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not
fit that he should live. Speaking to Jews, and he says,
the Lord told me I'm going to send you far away and I'm going
to send you to the Gentiles. And that made the Jews just fiery
mad. But here's what God did. Now
go back to Isaiah chapter 65. Here's what God did. He sent
the word to the Jews and they refused to believe. And their unbelief resulted in
their judicial reprobation. And God sent his word to the
Gentiles. Now you hear me. I can't tell
you when reprobation happens. But it's God sending judicial
blindness. In effect, it's God damning you
before you ever die. One writer said, God fixes it
so that you'll never believe. It's a marvelous and wonderful
thing to hear the message of how God saves sinners. This church has been blessed
through the years to hear one message of grace. You've had only three pastors
here, and all three of us have preached the same gospel message. We declare who God is. He's sovereign. He does his will among the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And nobody can
stay his hand or say to him, what do us out? You can say God's
unfair. You can charge God with injustice,
whatever you want to say. But God says, I got a chosen
people. I chose the people unto salvation. And my son came and
redeemed them. He bought them all. He paid their
sin debt in full. And the removal of the sin debt
of His people is not conditioned in any way, shape, or form. It's not conditioned upon what
those sinners do with the Lord Jesus Christ. The sins are put
away. And the Spirit of God comes along
and He makes sure that these elected ones, these redeemed
ones, that they hear the message of how God in Christ Jesus reconciles
sinners unto Himself. They hear the message of the
blood, of the sacrifice of the Son of God, of His satisfaction
of divine justice in the Spirit of God works in the heart. causes
them to be born again. And they believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they say all of them with
one voice, as it were, salvation is of the Lord. You ask anybody who's been saved
by the grace of God, who saved you? They say, God saved me.
Why did He save you? I don't know. Just because He
willed to do it. Did you have anything to do with
it? No, I did not. But didn't you believe? I believed
because He gave me the gift of faith. And we attribute all that
they are and all that they're going to be to the grace of God
in Christ Jesus. We attribute everything to the
Lord. It's the Lord who does the work.
And back here in Isaiah chapter 65, he talks about these people that
God saves. Watch it here. Here's the call
of grace, verse one. I'm sought of them that ask not
for me. Saul wasn't seeking. He wasn't
asking for him. He's trying to stamp out the
name of Jesus Christ. The Lord says, I'm found of them
that sought Me not. Was Saul seeking? Would you be
honest? Why did Saul go to Damascus? You think he's seeking the Lord? You think he was going there
hoping he could hear somebody tell him the truth? That's not
why he went. He went in the fury of the vengeance
of a self-righteous Pharisee. He's going to stamp out Christianity. And all of a sudden, something
happened to him. The Lord knocked him off his
high horse of pride. And here's what Paul says over
in 1 Timothy. He said, I was an example. I
was a pattern to all them who believed. Oh, in what way? Well, he was a chosen vessel. He is a redeemed vessel, and
he is a called vessel. He's a pattern of all. If you're
saved, if you look to Christ only, that's why you're saved. God chose you unto salvation.
I tell you, people who are saved by the grace of God, they don't
fuss about that. They say, thankful the Lord chose me. I don't know
why he did, but I'm thankful he did. And I'm thankful Christ
paid my debt. I sure couldn't pay it. I couldn't
pay for one sin, but He paid them all by His own sacrifice. And I wasn't
looking for the Lord, but the Lord put me in position. I was
listening to the gospel. First, I didn't have any interest
whatsoever. And then I found myself listening. And I found myself seeking the
Lord. The Lord said, and I said to
them, behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called
by my name. And then all of a sudden, you
heard the Lord say, behold me, look unto me and be ye saved.
All ye ends of the earth. Here's the call of grace. That's
your testimony, isn't it? Those of you who are saved by
the grace of God. Not what you did for the Lord,
it's what He did for you. So there's the call of grace.
But here's the second thing. Here's the cause of reprobation.
He begins this in verse 2. Here's the cause of reprobation.
Willful persistence in unbelief. I have spread out my hands all
the day unto rebellious people which walked in a way that was
not good after their own faults. A people that provoke me to anger
continually to my face. They sacrifice in gardens. They burn incense upon altars
of brick. Why were they supposed to offer
sacrifices to God? At the tabernacle and then at
the temple. But they'd just go anywhere, luscious gardens where
everything was pretty, religious looking, burning candles, people
dressing up in a religious way. They did all these things that
were against what God had said. And then they dwelt among the
dead. That's verse four. They dwelt among the graves.
They lodged in the monuments. They defied my law, eating swine's
flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels. But
they said, hey, we're holy. We're holy people. And they said,
especially to the Gentiles, we're holier than you are, because
we're Jews. Self-righteous. And God says
to people like that, you're smoking my nose. He uses
an illustration that we can relate to. You get by a campfire, maybe
going camping or something, and you got a campfire going, and
the wind kicks up a little bit, and there's this smoke coming
up, and then all of a sudden you find out it's blowing right
in your face. And then you move around. We
used to have campfire services. And I'd be preaching campfire
services and sometimes the wind would start blowing the smoke
in my face. And so I'd move around over here. Then the wind kind of changed,
blowing in my face and in my nose. You'd start sneezing. It's
so irritating. It's an irritant. That's what
God says. Your self-righteousness is an
irritant to me. and you think your goodness is
gonna stand up before and ahead of or be equal with the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God says, the best that you can do,
let me tell you what it's like to me, God said. It's just smoke
in my nose. Preachers this morning, preachers
tonight, preaching free willism up, man's decisionism up, It's
all up to you. You know what God says? It's
smoke in my nose. It's just an irritant. Brag on
man's will. Brag on man's worth. Brag on
man's works. And God says to Israel, I've
had enough. I've had enough. He says in verse 6, Behold, it
is written before me. God's got books. You know, in
the judgment it says in the books will be opened. God doesn't have
books like we have. He doesn't need books to write
things down because He knows everything. But He's speaking
in such a way that we can kind of understand. It's written before
me, God says. I know what you've done. I know
about your false religion. I know how you're bragging on
man. I know how you boast it's all of you. God says, I know. And I'm not going to keep silent,
God says. And I'm going to recompense,
He says. Even recompense into your bosom. See, this is the cause of reprobation. God gives men up to judgment
because of persistence, unbelief. I don't want to hear that, preacher.
I don't want to hear that sovereign grace preaching. You keep on
with that and then God will fix things so you'll never hear it
again. You're dead while you live. You read there in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. God, He turns people over to
reprobate mind. And then in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, it's because they received not the love of the truth. They
heard the truth. They heard the truth. They heard
the truth. And they said, we're not going to believe that. And
God says, well, I'm going to make sure you won't hear it anymore.
And you're certainly not going to believe it. You're dead while
you live. Reprobation. I've said this before, people
don't know who they're dealing with. And we don't either fully. We just have a little vague idea
of who we're dealing with. But the gospel of the sovereign
grace of God that sent us through Jesus Christ is the most precious
message there is in the world. Do you know how blessed you are? Do I know how blessed I am to
know this message and love this message and to preach this message
and as a congregation to stand for this message? And you hear
the message of sovereign grace and say, well, that's not how
I believe. Boy, I tell you, you're on dangerous
ground. You see, I know, I believe fully
in predestination. God, before the world began,
he divided all of mankind as sheep and goats. I know that. And I also know that men and
women and young people are responsible to seek the Lord, to hear the
gospel. And if you won't hear the word
of God, that's your fault. If you stop your ears and say,
I don't want to hear any more of that sovereign grace, that's
your fault. That's your fault. Could I put it this way? And
if I'm not saying it exactly right, Lord, forgive me. If you're
saved, that's God's fault. But if you're finally damned,
if you finally perish, that's your fault. You wouldn't believe the gospel.
That's your fault. Who else is to blame? God sent
you a preacher, gave you a Bible, gave you at least physical ears
to hear, eyes to read the Word of God, and you say, well, I'm
just not going to believe that. Whose fault is that? That's your fault. That's your
fault. And you persist in unbelief? Well, the cause of your reprobation
is gonna be your own refusal to believe. And the certainty
of judgment is this, and I've kinda got into it already in
verse six, The books. Oh, God's keeping up with it.
How many times have you heard the Gospel and you hadn't believed? I don't know. I'll tell you somebody
who knows. The Lord has brought you to hear
His servants perhaps many times. You won't believe? He says here, here's the consequence
of unbelief. He says in verse 7, your iniquities,
your iniquities of your father, your iniquities and the iniquities
of your father together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense
upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills, therefore
I'll measure their former work under their bosom. I'll give
to you exactly what you deserve. I've had people say to me, Preacher,
I just want what's coming to me. Well, if you want what's coming
to you, it'll sure come to you. Because you've been racking up
an infinite number of sins and the wages of those sins are piling
up. I don't want what's coming to
me through my efforts and my works. I want the results of
and the reward of Christ's faithfulness. Don't you? Christ's work. So there's the consequence of
unbelief. And then here's the choice of grace and I'll quit.
Does this mean everybody's going to be wiped out and everybody's
going to die? No. Because there's a choice
of grace. That's verses 8 and 9, and I
mentioned this just a few weeks ago, and it's what got me started
on studying this passage. Thus saith the Lord, as the new
wine is found in the cluster, and one says, and I say, don't
destroy it all, for a blessing is in it, so will
I do for my servant's sake that I may not destroy them all. For
I will bring forth the seed out of Jacob, I will save my people,
and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect
shall inherit it." Here's a family, let's say there's a family and
they're all head over heels in false religion. Like, I don't know why, the Lord
just doesn't destroy them all. Wait a minute! There might be
a blessing in there. It might be a son or a daughter
or maybe a grandson or a great-grandson or daughter. And he hasn't been
born yet. There's a blessing in that family. And God says, I'm going to destroy
them all. Because He's going to bring His
seed unto Himself. He's elect. He's elect. I tell you, it's bold preaching.
Bold preaching is preaching that salvation is of the Lord. And
bold preaching is God's reprobation of some sinners who persist in
their rebellion and unbelief. Oh Lord, make my heart soft to
receive Your Word and to worship You. I bless your name, and I honor
you, and I'm thankful for Christ, the only Savior of sinners. I
bow to your word, and I'm thankful. God did not pass me by with his
gospel. He could have. I had a, back years ago, I think
I told you this one time. I worked at Bassett Furniture
Company, the summer before Nancy and I got married and went away
to school. And I would preach every Friday during lunch. And we'd set up Coca-Cola crates. People'd sit on them, and I'd
preach. And I was a freewill Arminian
preacher. Didn't know any better. Thought
I was doing God's service. And after I'd preach one Friday,
it was every Friday during lunch time, I'd grab a sandwich real
quick. My mom would make me a sandwich,
and I'd gulp it down, chew it up really fast, and have one
of them little Coca-Colas, you know, a little bitty job, like
you used to have. Tastes so good. And I'd have
that, then I'd start preaching. And I preached free willism.
An old black man told me, he said, That's not right. He said, what you don't know
is salvations of the Lord. I said, but the sinner's got
to agree. Man's got to say yes to Jesus.
He said, that's not right. He said, God's got a people.
He's going to save them people. He said, because Jesus doesn't
die for them. And the Spirit of God's going
to call them, the faith and the Savior. And I said, you're just
absolutely wrong. And I found out I was wrong,
and he was right. And I've asked the Lord many
a time, Lord, if it be your will, I sure would like to see him
in glory and tell him, you was absolutely right. And I was absolutely
wrong. And I want to tell him, and my
presence and glory will testify to the fact that God taught me
the truth of how He, in grace and in justice, saved me. Well, that's it.