Well, this morning, I'm going
to have a message that it kind of goes hand in hand with the
one I had last Sunday morning. As you remember,
the title of our message last week was End of Law for Righteousness,
and it was taken from Romans 10, beginning at verse 1, going
through verse 4. And I'm not going to read these
particular scriptures here, but as you remember, the Apostle
Paul talked about his brethren according to the flesh, the nation
Israel, and he desired their salvation, that they might be
saved, and he said that that he says, I bear them record.
They got a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge. And
then he talked about them being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own. And then in verse
four, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. They're
the one that believe it. Now, after Paul's stating all
these things concerning his brethren according to the flesh. And at the end, that Romans 10.3
said, they've not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Now, I want to go ahead now and begin reading the scripture that's
going to be with our message this morning. And it'll be Romans
10 beginning at verse 16. The Apostle Paul here, still
speaking of his brethren according to the flesh. He says, but they
have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed thy report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard,
speaking of the nation Israel, the Jews? Say, yes, verily, their
sound went into all the earth, and their words until the end
of the world. But I say, did they, did not
Israel know? And then he says, 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
is very bold and saith, I found, I was found of them that sought
me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. And he's speaking about the Gentiles.
when he says these things, they were not, physically speaking,
the chosen nation of God that God used to reveal himself in
the old covenant. Then he said, but to Israel he
saith, God saith, all day long I have stretched forth my hands
unto a disobedient and against saying people. As we'll see in
our study this morning, that even though in God's providence
one might hear a gospel preacher preach the gospel, or another
believer telling an individual about this gospel, of God's grace
and the truths that are contained within the gospel message, it
doesn't mean that they will believe it just because they hear it,
believe it from the heart, see God's glory in it. Verse 16 says,
obeyed the gospel. And that's the same thing he
talked about back, I think it was in verse four of the message
we had last week, where it said they have not submitted themselves. But it says in verse 16, obeyed
the gospel. One thing that I failed to mention
last in our last study as it relates to hearing the gospel,
One doesn't necessarily have to physically be sitting in a
pew listening to a gospel preacher preaching the gospel in order
to have heard the gospel. In God's providence, one might
also have heard the gospel by reading a gospel message that's
in print. Maybe an old writer that had
penned it down, penned the gospel down, maybe 100 years ago or
200 years ago, and you pick up that book and read it, and you
read the gospel that that old gospel writer had penned down.
Whether you've heard the gospel preached directly from someone
or have read it in print from an old gospel writer, when hearing
the gospel, some will believe it, and some individuals might
give mental agreement to it for a while, but they will eventually
stray away, given evidence that they never did truly have God-given
faith. I would recommend that you listen
to a series of messages that Bill had quite a few years ago.
The messages were the seed and the sower. And it's an excellent
message as you look at, it gives a picture and an illustration
of a gospel preacher going out and preaching the gospel. That's
the seed. And the sower is the messenger,
or the one preaching the gospel. And it gives quite a few different
examples of hearers and what happens. And excellent message. And it's out on Sermon Audio
now, but if you want Kristen to give you a copy, let her know
and she'll give you a copy of those messages. Now let's look
at verse 16 here, or Romans 10. It says, but they have not all
obeyed, are submitted, heeded, welcomed, and affectionately
embrace that good news of the gospel. Then it says, for Isaiah
saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? Verse 16 here says
that they have not all obeyed the gospel. The day here refers
to those who hear it and to those whom it's preached. We realize
that although ministers may be sent forth by God to preach this
gospel, and that they are able to preach the gospel in its clarity
and its truth, yet we also know that there's no success to that
without the power of God attending it. Ministers may preach and
men may hear, and yet not obey, not obey, or heed or hearken
to the gospel. That is, they may not sincerely
embrace the doctrines of grace and submit to those doctrines
that identify the true Christ of Scripture and how he saves
sinners based on his person and his work, his righteousness alone. Always keep in mind, we the messenger
or the preacher or the teacher are not in control of who believes
this gospel. or who does not believe the gospel. This work only belongs to God,
and it belongs to God alone. God commands his ministers to
preach the gospel, and he'll add to the church who and when
he sees fit. He'll make them willing in the
day of his power. The fact that all who hear the
preaching of the gospel with a physical ear and do not receive
it by faith hearing with that spiritual ear that God's given
him, is a clear testimony to the natural depravity and spiritual
deadness of all men born of Adam. Christ, in speaking to the Jewish
religious leaders as they persecuted him because of healing a man
at the pool of Bethesda, Christ says in John 5.39, search the
scriptures. For in them ye think ye have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And ye will
not come to me, that ye might have life. By nature, if left
to ourselves, none of us would believe the gospel of God's grace
in Christ. But thanks to God, he does make
some willing to come in the day of his power, when God's ready. Look at John 6, 44. Christ says, no man can come
to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I
raise him up at the last day. The heart, which is your mind,
the affections, and the will of a natural man is so hardened
by ignorance, self-righteousness, and pride, therefore he will
not come to the Christ of Scripture for salvation. unless God draws
him by His Holy Spirit in a new birth. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse
14, it says, But the natural man, that is, as we're born into
this world, all men by nature, the natural man, receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. God, the Holy Spirit, must come.
You must be born again. It takes a sovereign power, powerful
work of God, the Holy Spirit, to bring a sinner to faith in
Christ and repentance of dead works and former idolatry. This is called a new birth. Christ
speaking to Nicodemus says in John 3, beginning at verse 3,
says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom
of God, which is meant the gospel of God's grace. Nicodemus said
unto him, How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the
second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered,
Verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
spirit, which is meant the grace and the spirit of God, He cannot
enter the kingdom of God. Unless a man has this work of
God's grace wrought in his soul, he will never understand divine
and spiritual things. He's dead spiritually, so he
can have no right to things belonging or relating to the kingdom of
God. He also cannot be brought to have passed from death to
life and to have entered into a state of grace. Verse six says,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the spirit is spirit. Now, in verse 16, or Romans 10
here, Paul quotes Isaiah 53.1. Isaiah, who was inspired by the
Holy Spirit to say, who hath believed our report, and to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? The vast majority of the Israelites,
to whom Isaiah in his day, and as well as Paul in his day, stubbornly
refused to believe the glorious message of God's free sovereign
grace and the salvation of sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though the gospel was preached
to them, they rejected it. Why should we think in our day
and time that will be any different than it was with Moses or Isaiah
as they preach the gospel. Now our next verse refers back
to verse 16 where Paul says, but they have not all obeyed
the gospel. Then in verse 17 here, Paul says, so then faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The two things
necessary for the sinner to possess true faith and belief of the
gospel are produced by God the Holy Spirit in the new birth.
They are spiritual life, indicated by spiritual hearing, hearing
the gospel, and the word of God, the gospel, which is the power
of God and the salvation. According to Romans 1 16, which
says, Paul says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is, that is, that gospel. the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek,
both of these, spiritual life and the word of God, the gospel,
in the hands of the Holy Spirit, will produce true faith and godly
repentance. The order that we see in the
scriptures is that we must call upon the Lord God to be saved. To call upon him means that we
must believe in him. And to believe in him means that
we must first hear of him, not a false Christ, the true Christ,
the scripture. And to hear of him means that
we must have heard the true gospel preached out. To preach the gospel,
one must be sin of God, scripture says. Sin of God to his people,
his elect. Now in our next verse, we'll
see that Paul said in Romans 10, 18, Paul says, but I say,
have they not heard? Remember, faith comes by hearing.
Yes, verily, their sound went into all their earth and their
words until the end of the world. The apostle here refers, begins
this verse with the objection, have they not heard? Speaking
of Israel. As in all of Paul's writings
in view of him being an Israelite and a Jew himself, He knew ahead
of time that some of his fellow kinsmen, according to the flesh,
might object, might have objections to what he's saying or about
to say. In this case, he gives the objection,
well, have they not heard? He then gives the answer in the
next verse, part of the verse, where he says, yes, verily, their
sound went into all the earth and their words into the end
of the world. Here in verse 18, Paul quotes from Psalm 19 concerning
God's testimony in creation and in His Word. We don't have time
to go over Psalm 19 this morning, but the psalmist David used this
typically to refer to the preaching of the gospel in the last days,
beginning with the apostle. In this psalm, David also prophesied
of the preaching of the gospel to the Gentile world. God the
Holy Spirit inspired Paul to use this psalm to prove the necessity
of preaching the gospel by men that are sin of God. Now, some believe that this is
also referring to the one time that the word of God was preached
to the entire world. The word of God at that time
had reached the then known parts of the habitable world, which
was before the destruction of Jerusalem, according to Christ's
prediction, in Matthew 24, 14, where Christ says, in this gospel
of the kingdom, we'll be priests in the whole world as a testimony
to all nations, and then the end will come. And also, as the
Apostle Paul testified in Colossians 1, beginning at verse 3, said,
we give thanks to God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ
praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints for the
hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you heard before
the word before the word of the truth of the gospel which is
coming to you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth
fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day you heard of it
and knew the grace of God in truth." Once again, verse 19
here, Paul asked a question, as he did in verse 18. The question
in verse 18 was, speaking of the Israelites, have they not
heard? Now in verse 19, the question is, But I say, did not Israel
know? That is, did they not know about
the gospel? First Moses said, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people, speaking of the
Gentile, and by a foolish nation, I will anger you. God's gospel
is to be preached to all whom God gives opportunity. Look at
the command of Christ in Mark 16, 15. And he said unto them, Go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Even though God gives the command to go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel, men by nature will stubbornly refuse to bow
to God's word if left to themselves. This, of course, includes all
men by nature as we're born into this world. But the context here
in verse 19 is speaking of the Jews under the Old Covenant. The Jews had the Law of Moses,
which was the testimony of the utter depravity and sinfulness
of man. Speaking of the nation Israel
under the Old Covenant and whether they had heard the gospel preached,
let's look at some things that gives evidence that the Jews
had the gospel preached to them. Galatians 3.19. Wherefore then
serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions
till a seed should come to whom the promise was made. The law
was given or added because of transgressions, according to
Galatians 3.19. God gave the law that sinners
might see their sinfulness. That's the reason the law was
given. And their utter impossibility of being saved based on that
sinner's deeds of law. we see that the law was added
because of sin. And in our next verse, we'll
see that the law was also our schoolmaster or their schoolmaster
or their tutor for the nation Israel. Galatians 3.24 says,
wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ that
we might be justified by faith. The law called our schoolmaster
here would teach them the gospel of Christ, the coming Messiah,
and how God saves sinners, based on Christ's righteousness alone.
I don't often quote men in long quotes, word for word, but I
think in this case, as I was looking at this particular scripture
about the schoolmaster, it'll give us a good look at exactly
what's meant by the law being a schoolmaster, as it was given
to the nation Israel. An old writer, which most of
you are familiar with, John Gill, says this, and I quote, the sense
of this passage here, this passage that we just read, is that the
law performed its office of a schoolmaster until the coming of Christ, which
shows that to that time the church was in its minority, infancy,
that the Jews were but children in knowledge and understanding,
and therefore stood in need and were under the care of a schoolmaster,
which was the law by which the whole Mosaic administration is
designed. They were taught by the moral
law, the Ten Commandments, the letter of the law, by the writing
of the two tables. They also had other statutes
and other judgments that were given to them. They were taught
their duty to God and men. They were taught what is to be
done and what's to be avoided. They were taught what is righteousness
and what's not. They were taught the nature of
sin, its demerit, and its consequences. But these gave them no instructions
about a savior and life and righteousness by him. The ceremonial law gave
them some hints of the gospel scheme. Y'all familiar with the
ceremonial law, with all the sacrifices, all of these things
that pointed to Christ in picture and type, and the way of salvation
by Christ, but in a manner suited to their state of childhood.
The ceremonial law, which stood by types and figures, by rites
and ceremonies, by shadows and sacrifices, it taught them by
divers, or various washings, they were taught the pollution
of their nature and their need of the blood of Christ to cleanse
from all sin. By circumcision, they were taught
the necessity of regeneration and the internal circumcision
of the heart. By the Passover and the daily
sacrifice and the other offerings, they were taught the doctrines
of redemption, satisfaction, and the atonement. And by that
brazen serpent, they were taught the necessity of looking to Christ
for life and salvation." End of quote. Even though God gave
the nation Israel the ceremonial law, which contained in all those
pictures and types under the old covenant, they all stood
in pictures and types of Christ, his word, the coming Messiah. They still refused to see the
truth of the law, and they perverted it. They perverted it by using
it as a means to promote their religious pride and their self-righteousness. So we see that the answer to
the questions of, have they not heard or did not Israel know,
is a resounding yes. Therefore, It leaves them without
any excuse, just like it does us today, the gospel being preached
to us. Now, in verse 19 of Romans 10, referring
to God using the calling of the Gentile world to provoke the
nation Israel, the Apostle Paul used what Moses said as recorded
in Deuteronomy 32, verse 21. which says, they have moved me
to jealousy, and that which is not God, with that which is not
God, they have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and
I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people,
and I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, and that's
speaking of the Gentile, in light of Israel's rejection of the
gospel. God would send it to the Gentiles, who were described
as them that are no people. They were not the chosen nation
of God, and a foolish nation. This would certainly provoke
the Jews to jealousy, and it would anger them. They thought
that they were the chosen of God. Now, they were the chosen
nation of God, but not chosen spiritually, as far as eternal
life. All this is to show that God's not to blame in this matter. The Jews who stubbornly refuse
to believe God are to be to blame and are held accountable for
their unbelief. This can also be said of all
men who reject Christ's righteousness imputed to the sinner as the
only way and the only means of salvation. In Romans 10 20, It
says, But Isaiah is very bold, and saith, I was found of them
that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked
not after me. Not only was the testimony of
God's law set before Israel, but also the testimony of the
prophets, such as Isaiah, who preached the gospel to them.
Isaiah also prophesied of the rejection of the nation Israel,
and the calling of the Gentiles to faith in Christ. Isaiah 65
1 says, I am sought of them that ask not for me. I am found of
them that sought me not. I said, behold me. Behold me
unto a nation that was not called by my name. All of this is to
show that salvation is of the Lord and that the only hope for
any sinner, Jew or Gentile, no matter what nationality you are,
is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to repent of dead
works and former idolatry. All those works we did in our
former religion here is called those dead works, those works
that did not accomplish anything, and the only thing they can accomplish
is death, those works done thinking that I can be saved by those
works, no matter what they are, whether it's your giving, whether
it's your faith, whether it's your morality, and you can continue
on and on. And Romans 10, 21 says, But to
Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands
unto a disobedient and a gainsaying people. God's not to blame. He freely gave Israel. every
advantage and commanded them to believe. He had told them
the foremost purpose of the law and forbade them to seek, to
either seek or expect salvation based on anything other than
the blood and righteousness of the promised Messiah, pictured
and typified by that lamb, those lambs that were slain. He had
told them through his prophets of his coming rejection of the
nation Israel. His rejection of the nation Israel
as a whole was because they would reject Christ and insist on salvation
condition on themselves. The Lord stretching out his hands
all the day long to them refers to the ministry of the prophets
sent by God to the nation Israel But scripture says that they
were a stiff-necked people and a rebellious people, uncircumcised
in heart and ears, unregenerate. The nation as a whole would not
listen to the prophets. They killed the prophets, it
says. They rejected the Messiah and his gospel. They killed the
prince of life and persecuted his apostles. Because of all
of this, God was just when he cast him off as a chosen nation.
However, God is clear that there is a chosen remnant from among
that nation. God calls them a remnant according
to the election of grace. And we know a lot of those remnant,
Abraham, Moses, You can go on and on, all those
that we know and that's told to us in scripture that believe
the gospel, the Jews. Now, God's promise of salvation,
conditioned on Christ alone, is real. It's sincere and altogether
reasonable. He commands sinners to believe
it, and he forbids sinners to reject it. Our rule of responsibility
is to obey Him, to believe Him. If individuals insist on remaining
in unbelief and worshiping a false God and a false Christ, as did
the majority of the nation Israel and the majority as we look out
today in our time, the fault and the blame is their own and
it's our own. God has continually revealed
whosoever will seek salvation by his grace in Christ shall
be saved. There is a necessity of hearing
the gospel. Faith does come by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God, the very gospel of God's grace in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look to Christ alone for salvation.
Do not look to self. or to your deeds and works of
law, it's not good enough. It's gonna fall short. God requires perfection in all
things, whether it's in deed or whether it's in thought. God's
given us in his word the example of the rejection of Christ by
the majority of the nation Israel. Will you follow their example
of unbelief or will you heed God's word and flee to Christ
alone for salvation and eternal life? Flee to Christ, put all
your trust in Him, don't continue holding on to your works for
salvation, to your flesh, for God calls that holding to the
arm of the flesh. Faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the word of God
the very gospel. How does God, how does faith
come? Thank you.