I titled the message this morning,
The Message of God's Preacher. Last week we saw that whosoever
calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever
believes on the Lord shall be saved. But now we can't call
on somebody we've never heard of. If we don't know someone's
name, we can't call upon him. We can't believe on the Lord
until somebody tells us who he is and why he's worthy of our
trust. Well, where can I hear who the
Lord is? Just one place. It's in the gospel. The Lord only reveals himself.
He only reveals Christ through the preaching of the gospel.
Where can I get faith in Christ? If I believe Christ, I'll be
saved. Where can I get faith in Christ? Through the preaching
of the gospel. That's the only way God gives
faith in Christ is through the preaching of the gospel. He says
that in verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing.
and hearing by the Word of God. I hope you'll listen to me. I
make this statement. If you would be saved, you must believe Christ. You must believe the Christ that
the Gospel reveals. Whosoever, any kind, any manner
of person who hears the Gospel and believes on Christ will be
saved. There's no qualification that
you have to meet. The only qualification is a need
of Christ. Whosoever, any kind of person
who needs Christ and believes on Him will be saved. But now
it's going to have to come through the preaching of the Gospel.
And if we really hear the Gospel, we're going to hear it from a
whosoever too. From any kind of man, any manner
of man. The servant, who the servant
is, does not matter. The only qualification he must
have is this. that God sent him, that God qualified
him and God sent him. The start of verse 15, how shall
they preach except they be sinned? Now, no man can preach the gospel
unless God equips him. God's got to give him the message
and send him out there to preach it. And Lord's not going to use
the kind of men that the world might be impressed with. He chose
a bunch of fishermen, didn't he? He chooses hillbillies. He chooses just people that just
aren't much. For this reason, so that nobody's
impressed with the preacher. So that they're impressed with
the Savior. So they're impressed with God. So they're impressed
with the message. That's what I want you to be impressed with.
Now I know we all have our favorite preachers. Preachers we just
like to hear because we get a blessing from them or whatever. But honestly,
Who the preacher happens to be is never important, ever. The message is all that matters.
The Savior that they declare is all that matters. And I know
God's people esteem God's preachers, and I'm glad that's so. You ought
to. But it's not because of anything about them. their esteem for
the work saved, their esteem for the message that they bring.
Look here, the middle of verse 15, how shall they preach except
they be sent? And as it's written, how beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. Now, when the apostle here talks
about their feet, he's not talking about our feet, you know, that
we walk with. My feet are highly, highly unattractive. That's not what he's talking
about. What he means is, to God's people, it's beautiful to them
to see God's servant coming, bringing a message from God.
They've got good news from God for sinners. So sinners are glad
to see Him coming, because they've got good news for them. I want
us to look this morning at the message of God's preacher. Why
is it that God's people are so happy at the arrival of God's
messenger? It's because of the message that
he brings. First, I want us to see the message that God's servants
preach. First, it's a message of peace.
He says there in verse 15, how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace. Now, peace is precious. Peace is especially precious
to people who are in the middle of a war. And man's at war with
God. The carnal mind is enmity, is
hatred, is enmity against God. And I'll tell you how the war
started. You and I declared it. We declared war on God and Adam. And we've been carrying on this
war for 6,000 years. Now this is a war we cannot win. But by nature, we will not surrender. We just won't do it. By nature,
we want to keep carrying this war on. And God's not going to
surrender either. There's no reason for God to
surrender. He'll never be defeated. He can't
be changed. He's never going to surrender.
So if there's going to be peace, somebody's got to come who can
touch both parties, who can touch both warring parties, who can
touch God and man. Somebody's got to come and make
peace between them. And that one is the Lord Jesus
Christ. But human intellect will never
come up with that answer. Ever. Human intellect can never
come up with a way that the guilty, rebellious sinner can have peace
with God while God stays holy and just. Human intellect says,
I've got no idea how that can happen. Jim Meadows used to say,
I've got no idea. I've got no idea how that can
happen. That's why God sends us a preacher. That's exactly
why God sends His preachers. Preaching the gospel of peace.
Oh, this is a gospel that declares peace with God. It tells us how
God made peace for His people. Peace with God is found just
in one place. It's so simple. In the Lord Jesus
Christ. When the Savior was born on earth,
when He was born incarnate, what did the angels sing? Peace on
earth. Peace has now come to earth in
Mary's infant child. Peace has come in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Peace is made with God through
the blood of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
the Savior took all the sin that made God angry. He took all the
rebellion of His people into His own body on the tree and
He washed it all away with His precious blood. The blood of
Christ took away every reason God had to be angry at His people.
It took away all their sin. So God's at peace with His people
because of the blood of Christ. There's no reason for Him to
be angry. But men are still at war with God, aren't they? I'll
tell you how they're going to be at peace. They'll be at peace
when the blood of Christ is applied. When the same blood that made
God be at peace took away everything reason God had to be angry, when
that same blood is applied to the hearts of God's people, they'll
be at peace. Let me show you that in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. There's just one thing that will
make a sinner surrender to Christ. And it's when we see that Christ
died and shed His blood to put my sin away. That's what will
make a sinner be at peace with God. 2 Corinthians 5.20. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. But now the rebellious sinner
says, now why would I do that? Why on earth would I ever surrender
to God? I want this war to keep going
on. I hate God. I want to keep fighting God. Why would I ever
surrender? For, because, verse 21, He hath
made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. I'll tell you why we'll surrender,
why we'll be reconciled to God, because God made the Son, sin
for us. Him who knew no sin, so that
He could make us the righteousness of God in Him. If I ever see
that, I'm going to surrender. Let me show you that again in
Colossians chapter 1. This is the gospel of peace,
the gospel that declares how God made peace through the blood
of His cross. Colossians 1 verse 19. And having made peace, verse
19, for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness
dwell. And having made peace through the blood of His cross,
by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. and you
that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. God is at peace with his people
and his people are at peace with God. through the blood of Christ. God's at peace because the blood
of the sacrifice was shed. And His people are at peace because
the blood was supplied. We have peace with God through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we can't know those terms
of surrender. We can't know those terms of
peace until somebody preaches the gospel to us. And whosoever
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, on His name, on His person, on
who He is, That whosoever, whoever he might be, has peace with God
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel
of peace. Second, the gospel we preach
is the declaration of glad tidings of good things. Now, the gospel
declares good things. What are those good things? Well,
really, it's just one thing. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is good. The gospel declares God who is
good. The Lord Jesus Christ who is
good, there's just one good, that's God. He is all of the
reason for salvation. Glad Tidings of Good says that
salvation is in Christ our righteousness. glad tidings of goods as salvation
is in Christ's goodness, in Christ's holiness, in Christ's obedience. The gospel declares the Lord
who is good. God is so good that He's both
willing and able to save a rebel like me. God is good. The gospel declares glad tidings
to sinners, not to good people. The gospel declares glad tidings
to sinners. Forgiveness of sin. That's a
glad tiding if you're a sinner. The gospel declares peace with
God. That's a glad tiding if you're
a rebel. The gospel declares eternal life. That's good news
if you're dead in sin. And this is all found in God's
sovereign grace. And God's electing, saving, calling,
regenerating, keeping grace. The gospel declares grace to
live by and grace to die by. Those are glad tidings. That's
the gospel that we preach. All right, here's the second
thing I want us to see. The gospel that we preach, the gospel of
God's service is a saving message. Verse 17, so then faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now there's just
one message that God uses to give faith in Christ. Just one
message God uses to save His people from their sin. It's the
message of Christ. It's the gospel that we preach.
God will never use a false gospel to save anyone. Never. False prophets are false. I mean,
that makes sense. They're false. They're lying.
You can't know who Christ is if somebody's telling a lie about
Him. They're not saying who He is. God will never give faith
in Christ by somebody lying about Him. The only way we can have
faith in Christ is if somebody tells us who He really is. And
God uses this Gospel, the Gospel that we preach, He uses this
Gospel to give faith in Christ. Now there are lots of different
ways that that comes, faith comes. Lots of different circumstances
by which God gives faith to His people. but it's always through
the preaching of the gospel. Maybe you heard the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace for the first time, and you thought,
I hate that. Oh, who could believe that? That
makes me so angry. You just went home and thought
about it all day, just so angry at that preacher. But for whatever
reason, you came back. For whatever reason, you kept
listening. Maybe you're dating someone, you know, and you just
thought, well, I need to keep coming because I'm dating this
person. I'll make him happy, you know. Boys do strange things. Things that they hate. They've
got a girl they like. Maybe keep coming because of
that. Maybe you come back because I want to prove that preacher
wrong. Whatever reason. And suddenly, you find out, I
believe that. I don't hate that. I love that. What happened? I mean, why this
total opposite? Because God gave faith. He gave
life through the preaching of His word. It's the only way He
ever does it. The only way God ever gives life
and faith is through the seed of His word being preached. Maybe, could be you heard the
gospel many, many, many, many times. And there was just no
attraction to it in you. You know, there's no attraction.
You kept coming because your child and your parents make you
come. You just don't have a choice. Or maybe you wanted to feel religious. You know, you want to feel good
about yourself. Like go to church on Sunday. For whatever reason,
but you know, the gospel is... There's just no attraction there
to you. But suddenly, you find yourself wanting to come to the
surface. Because you need to hear. I've
watched this happen a number of times, and it always just
makes me so happy, makes me so thankful. You see parents faithfully
bring their children to the surface. They get to be teenagers, and
you know how teenagers are. But they get their driver's license,
and you worry to death about them, you know. But then one
Wednesday night, for whatever reason, their parents can't come
to the surface. And here this kid shows up, driving
himself to service. That happens several times, you
think. Or it might be working out there.
And it did. Why the sudden attraction? God
gave faith. How'd He do it? Through the preaching
of the Word. That's the only way He ever gives
faith. It could be you heard the Gospel many times. You didn't
hate it. held some attraction to you, at least mentally. You
thought, I mentally agree with that. That makes sense. That's
right. If God's going to save anybody, that's how He's going
to do it. I see that. But you thought, I'd like to
hear something different every once in a while. That preacher
repeats himself a lot. I mean, here he goes again. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Move on. I've heard that before.
And then suddenly you hear, You hear in the heart, and you get
ready to come to service, you think, boy, I hope he repeats
himself again. I hope he tells me again. Don't tell me anything
but about redemption in Christ, about forgiveness of sin in Him,
about peace through Christ. I hope he repeats himself again,
tells me about all those glad tidings again, because I need
to hear that. God gave faith. Henry said, longest
distance is from here to here, from the head to the heart. Just
a few inches, but it's a long distance. It's a distance that
cannot be crossed by human will. But God can do it. God gave faith
to make you believe Christ and love Him. Now let me ask you
a question. Is there anybody here who wants
to be saved, but can't? Do you want to be saved but you
just can't? You can't be. I feel your pain. I know your frustration. Do you
want to believe Christ and you just can't make yourself do it?
Do you want to love Him and you just can't? You want to love
the gospel and you can't. You want to love His Word and
you just can't. Is anybody here like that? I
feel you. I understand exactly. There was
a day I wanted to believe. and could not do it. I could
not make myself believe. Let me give you some advice.
Tried and true advice. If you're in that shape, you
want to be saved and you can't. You want to believe Christ and
you can't. You keep coming to the worship service every chance
you get. You make it your point. Whatever
it is you've got to do, you be here to hear. You be like Cornelius.
Peter, we're all here to hear. And what did the Lord give you
to say? What did the Lord give you for us? Did the Lord give you
something for me today? You keep coming. You keep listening. You
keep calling on the Lord. Because if God's going to save
you, I'll tell you how He's going to do it. Through the preaching
of the Word. You want to believe, but you can't. If God's going
to give you faith to believe, I'll tell you how He's going
to do it. He's going to do it through the preaching of the
Word. Now, more than likely, you will not know the exact moment
that you believed. More than likely, you won't.
More than likely, what will happen is one day you'll just realize,
I believe. And I've got to confess Christ.
I've got to. You won't know when it happened.
You'll just know God gave me faith. Isn't that a wonderful
gospel to preach? What a glorious message God's
given us to preach. It's worthy of all acceptation,
isn't it? It's worthy that everybody ought
to believe this message. But here's the third thing. And
this is so sad. Everybody won't believe the gospel
we preach. Verse 16. But they not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath
believed our report? Now, if we know anything about
Scripture, if we know anything about our own nature, we'll not
be surprised that people don't believe, will we? Yet, I'm sure
Isaiah wasn't surprised, but he still asked, Lord, does anybody
believe what we're preaching? Now, not believing the gospel
is no small thing. Paul calls it here, not obeying
God. The gospel is a commandment from
God. We're to believe. We're to repent
and believe. Repent of our sin and turn to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when I say repent, you know
what comes to all of our minds when somebody says repent? We
think of the awful, horrible things that we've done in the
past, we're still doing, we think of all the horrible, rotten things
that our nature loves and desires, and we think, oh, I need to repent
from that, I need to get away from that, that's such awful,
horrible sin, it's embarrassing. That's not what repent means.
When I say repent of your sin, this is what I mean. Repent of
all those good things that you think you do. All those things
you think makes you more savable than somebody else. All those
things you do, you think makes God more happy with you than
somebody else. We think, well, I come to a place where the sovereign
grace of God is preached. That makes me more savable than
some Armenian out there. Repent of that. Turn. Repent means turn. Turn from
that. Run from that. Run from anything
that you do, anything about you that you have some hope in. And
turn to Christ. Turn to trusting Christ. Our biggest sin, our most vile
sin, are the good things we think we do that make God happy with
us. Turn from those things. and turn
to trusting all in Christ. Turn to trusting Christ your
righteousness. That is the commandment of God.
And to not repent and to not believe on Christ is to disobey
God. This is the commandment of God. And that's what all of us will
do by nature if God leaves us alone. We will not repent and
we will not trust Christ. Now you might wonder, under this. Well, why would somebody disobey
God like that? Haven't they heard? Oh, yes. Yes, they've heard. The problem
is they refuse to believe. Verse 18. But I say, have they
not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went
into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world.
Now, the truth of Christ has gone into all of the world. The Lord told His servants to
go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And today, more than any other time in history, I reckon, the
gospel is preached in the world over more than any other time
in human history via the internet. Well, someone will say, what
about the places where the gospel was never preached or they don't
have an internet connection or they can't ever, you know, what
about that? Well, what sayeth the Scripture? Scripture says
they've got the light of nature. The light of nature tells them
God is. You cannot drive down the road and look at this creation
and think this just happened. You know somebody created this. You have to know that. That's
the light of nature. Well, if they have the light
of nature, that tells them God is. but they won't seek God. They won't try to find out who
He is, but they worship an idol that they made up. An idol looks
like a creeping thing or looks like a man, looks like a bug,
looks like an animal. Looks like an animal with a man's
head or a man's body with an animal's head or something. That's
what men make up. And that's what they worship.
They've got the light of nature, but they don't seek God. They
don't try to find out who He is. Then do people not obey the Gospel
because the preacher failed to do his job? No. No, we can't
fail. We cannot fail as long as we
preach the gospel. Now, if we've got our own agenda,
we're trying to talk people into something or get them to think
the way we think or something, we're going to fail at that.
But if we preach the gospel, we can never fail. God's purpose
is always accomplished through the preaching of the gospel.
Let me show you two scriptures, Isaiah 55. God's purpose is always accomplished
when the gospel is preached. Isaiah 55, verse 10. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it may give
seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. It shall prosper.
All right, now 2 Corinthians 2. It will prosper to the purpose
that God sent it. Now, he may purpose it to give
life, and he may purpose it to add to condemnation, but one
way or another, it's going to accomplish God's purpose. 2 Corinthians
2, verse 15. For we are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish, to the
one we're the saver of death unto death, and the other saver
of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? See, no man is sufficient for
this. That's why God must send us to preach. Because we don't
know God's purpose. But He does. All we do is declare
His message. And if we do, we cannot fail. It always accomplishes God's
purpose. He does that through the preaching
of His Word. If the preacher didn't fail when
somebody disobeys the gospel, did God fail? Did God fail to
not give them the right light of nature? Did God fail to not
give them the right light of the gospel? Did God fail if somebody
disobeys Him? Well, of course not. God forbid
that we think that. God's purpose is to glorify His
Son. It's either to glorify His Son
in mercy to sinners or in wrath to unbelievers, those rebels
who will not obey. We saw that just a few weeks
ago in Romans chapter 9, how God gets glory always, both in
vessels of mercy and in vessels of wrath. So He didn't fail.
No, God showed them His sovereign mercy to sinners. He showed His
sovereign mercy to sinners, to these rebels, but didn't make
them run to God. He didn't make them run to Christ
and beg for mercy. God showed them He's merciful
to sinners. And they never asked for mercy. Instead of making
them glad, it made them mad. Verse 19 back in our text, Romans
chapter 10. But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people. And by a foolish
nation will I anger you. God provoked the Jews to jealousy
by taking the gospel away from them and sending it to those
awful, horrible Gentile dogs. That made them so jealous. It
made them so mad. Now, the Jews didn't want the
gospel of Christ. They didn't want it. They said,
we won't hear it. But they didn't want the Gentiles to have it
either. We've got two dogs. You learn something about us,
I suppose, from us dogs, from watching dogs. And I think this
is a common dog behavior. We've got two dogs. One of them
thinks he's the alpha. He thinks he's really something
else. And the other dog, he loves to play with little chew toys.
He loves to fetch them. He loves to just get them and
chew them and play with them, you know. Well, the other dog,
the one who thinks he's alpha, he doesn't have much interest
in those toys. He just, he don't want to fetch, he don't want
to... But you know what? He don't want the other one enjoying
it. Do you know what he does? He goes and takes it away from
him and lays on it. Now, he don't want to play with it, but he
don't want the other one to have it either. That's this religious
world. They don't want the gospel, but
they don't want somebody else to have it either. It makes them mad. It
makes them mad when somebody else has it. It makes them mad
when God shows mercy on somebody that doesn't deserve it. It makes
them mad. The Jews didn't want the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. Because they thought they had
some of their own righteousness. They just didn't think they needed
Christ. Well, then the gospel is not
for them, is it? The gospel is for a whosoever. Any man or person,
doesn't matter your background, your race, doesn't matter whatever
you've done or haven't done. The gospel is for a whosoever
who needs Christ and can't save themselves. That's who the gospel
is for. The gospel is good news for people who are dead in sin.
If you need forgiveness, if you need life, if you need mercy,
you need grace, the gospel's got good news for you. The gospel
is good news for a sinner whose sin is so great, it can only
be washed away by a blood atonement, by perfect blood. Those sinners
who need that, they find everything they need in Christ. But if everything
you need is not Christ, the gospel is not for you. And nobody will
believe it. Nobody will believe on Christ.
Nobody will come to Him. Nobody will ask Him for mercy.
As long as they think they've got some goodness in themselves,
they won't believe. But the moment God shows you your need, your
total inability, you'll run to Christ. All right, here's the
fourth thing about God's preachers. We've got a glorious message,
a message of good news, glad tidings of good things. And God's
servants preach this message boldly because we've got to. Verse 20, 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." Now God's preachers preach boldly
and we've got to preach boldly because human nature hates our
message. You've got to be bold to tell
somebody news that they hate. But we preach it to them in love
anyway. Boldly does not mean being mean
about it. No, it does not. Boldly does
not mean our manner is offensive. No, no, no, no. Preaching boldly
is preaching the gospel in love to those who hate us. Boldly
is preaching the gospel in love to those who hate to hear it.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2. I want, I desire, for the message
that I preach to be offensive to the flesh. If the gospel we
preach is not offensive to the flesh, we're not preaching the
gospel. But I never want it to be offensive because of what
I do. I always want to preach Christ
and get out of the way because if I'll do something offensive,
I can promise you. Our message must be offensive
to the flesh, the message, but not our manner. Look what Paul
tells Timothy, 2 Timothy 2 verse 24. And the servant of the Lord must
strive, be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves. If God perventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. God's preachers are to be bold. To boldly declare the truth.
But preach at meekness. Be meek to people at the same
time. You ought to understand how they're opposing themselves
with their hatred of Christ. God's preachers are bold. But
they're meek men. God's preacher is not trying
to make a name for himself. God's preacher is trying to get
you to know the name of Christ. There's a big difference. God's
preacher's not trying to gain a following for Himself. He's
trying to get you to follow the Lord. That's His desire. His
heart's desire. But they must be bold at the
same time. Because the natural man hates
the gospel. The natural man hates being told
he's a sinner. Being a sinner is a whole lot
more, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done some bad things. No, that's
not a sinner. You and I are sinners through and through. So that
all we are is sin. It's just filth. The natural
man hates that. The natural man hates being told
he's dependent on God to choose him. Salvation is not me choosing
God. Salvation is God choosing me because I never will choose
Him. And there's nothing I can do to get God to choose me. I'm totally dependent upon His
grace. The natural man doesn't like
that. The natural man hates being told he's dependent on Christ
to do all the work of salvation for him. We are a people of do-it-yourselfers. Man hates salvation by grace
alone. He's just got to do something
for himself. And if salvation is something
he cannot contribute anything to, the natural man hates it.
The natural man hates the gospel of grace. He will not hear it.
He will not ever bow to it. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither, indeed, can it be. He just will always reject
it. Then if we're going to preach
the gospel, some of us should not do it in her truth eyes. We better
be bold in doing it. We better be bold. But mostly,
I'll tell you what this word bold means. It means plainly. Look it up. That's what the word
means. God's preachers preach the gospel plainly so that you
understand exactly what they're saying. They don't hold something
back because somebody out in the audience doesn't like it.
No, they preach it plainly. And they preach plainly in such
a way that you cannot mistake what God's Word says. I've heard
preachers do this. They preach in such a way that
nobody can be mad at them, no matter who's listening to them.
I've heard preachers, men who say they preach sovereign grace,
I've heard it with my own ears, say something that the most stout
Armenian would agree with. And every Calvinist out there
would too. That's not preaching plainly. No, that's not preaching
plainly. We preach plainly so that you
know You don't have any hope. At least you know that's what
the preacher's saying. You've got no hope in yourself. You've
got no hope in anything that you ever do. Your only hope of
forgiveness, your only hope of salvation, is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we preach plainly, people
know this. They might not believe it, but they know this is what
we say. Hopefully, we showed them this from God's Word. Either
God did all the work of salvation, or I have none. That's preaching
blindly. It's all up to him. It's all
up to the work of God. Now, the natural man is angry
with God. The natural man hates that message
of sovereign grace. And that's all of us by nature. Without exception, our nature
hates the gospel of free grace in Christ. Yet, remember some
of our first points. God saves sinners anyway, doesn't
he? Then here's the fifth thing I want us to see. The Gospel
we preach is miraculous in its power to save. The Gospel we
preach gives the miracle of life to the dead and sight to the
blind. The Gospel we preach saves the
most unlikely sinners. Look at verse 20 again. 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. Now in eternity, this is what
the Scriptures declare. God elected a people to save.
He chose those people to save. But they're born in this world
just like everybody else. They're born with the nature
of Adam. They're lost in sin. By nature, they're blind. And
they're not looking for Christ. They're not trying to see Christ.
They're lost and they're going further and further and further
away from Christ. They're going the wrong direction because they're
not looking for Him. Well, how will they ever be saved?
I'll tell you how. God's going to save them. God's
going to find them. Christ the Good Shepherd is going
to lead the 99 in the wilderness. He's going to come find that
one lost sheep. He's going to pick it up and put it on His
shoulder and carry it all the way home. And when He gets there,
He's going to say, rejoice with me. I found the sheep that was
lost. I saved them. That's how they're
going to be saved. God's going to save them. Well
now preacher, wait a minute, you just told me I've got to
know Christ in order to be saved. I've got to know His name. I've
got to call on Him to be saved, don't I? I've got to believe
on Him if I'm going to be saved, don't I? Doesn't the Scripture
say that I'm going to find the Lord when I seek Him with all
my heart? Absolutely it does. And in the very day you seek
Christ with all your heart, you'll find Him. I promise you that.
Yes, you do have to know the name of Christ. You do have to
call on Him in order to be saved. Absolutely you do. And I'll tell you when you'll
seek the Lord. Let me tell you, you'll seek the Lord when He
seeks you. You want me to tell you when you'll find the Lord?
You'll find Him when He finds you. In John chapter 1, our Lord
out taking a walk one day. Just so happened He came upon
this man Philip. It wasn't any accident, was it?
He went up to Philip and He said, Philip, follow Me. And he did. He followed the Lord. And he
ran and told Nathanael. He found Nathanael and he told
him. He said, you've got to come with me. We found him. We found
him whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote. We found
the Messiah. He's Jesus of Nazareth. We found
him. Wait a minute, Philip. Who found
who? You weren't looking. The Lord
came up to you. Philip found the Lord, didn't he? When the
Lord found Philip, God saves you and me. It's going to be
by the same revealing power. We're not going to be looking
for Him, but He's going to find us. We're not going to be seeking
the Lord for whatever reason. We're going to be in the service,
but we're not seeking the Lord. But the gospel of God's grace
is so powerful. It will find us where we are. And it will reveal Christ to
us. And we'll be like old Philip. We'll follow the Lord. We may
not be asking for the Lord. We may not be begging for His
mercy. We'll be thinking about how soon is He going to shut
up so I can go to dinner. You know, I want to get a good table
down there at the restaurant. But the Gospel is so powerful. It's
going to find us where we are. And it will reveal Christ to
us and in us. And if the Spirit ever reveals
Christ to us, We will be so overwhelmed at His mercy, at His grace, at
His glory. We're going to start calling
on Him. We're going to start begging Him for mercy. And we'll
be like blind barred amazers. Jesus, Thou Son of David, have
mercy on me. And nobody will make a shut up
until the Master stands still and commands Him to be called. What will you? That I do unto
you. That's where we're going to find Him. When the Lord finds
us, He passes by. God's grace is amazing grace. It always saves the most unlikely
sinners. That's the only candidate for
grace. Those who are the most unlikely to get it. Those who
are the most undeserving. All right, here's the last thing.
The gospel we preach declares both God's sovereignty and man's
responsibility. We cannot preach the gospel unless
we preach both. God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Verse 20, one more time. But
Isaiah was very bold and said, I was found of them that sought
me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
That's God's sovereignty. God finds everyone that He elected
and He saves all of them. He reveals Christ to them, He
reveals Christ in them for this reason. God's merciful to sinners. God did something for them they
could never do for themselves. In sovereign mercy and grace,
God imposed His will upon them. Made them to be born again so
that they willingly follow Him. Every person that God's ever
saved will confess that. God did it all. It's all His
sovereign mercy and grace. If we're saved, it's because
God willed it. It's because God sent the gospel
to me, because God revealed Christ in that gospel, and God gave
me faith to believe it. And I'll end up in glory because
God kept me all the way to the end. It's God's sovereignty.
It's all the work of God. Nobody's saved without God's
sovereignty. But man's responsibility is verse
21. But to Israel, he says, All day
long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people." Now, if we disobey God and we refuse to
submit to Christ, we've got nobody to blame but ourselves. God is
so patient. He's so long-suffering, He stretches
forth His hands to a disobedient and a gainsaying people. You
know what a gainsaying people is? The word means contradicting,
argumentative, they're arguing against God's free grace. Can
you think of that? God's stretching out His hands
to those who refuse Him. God reasons with those gainsaying
people who are arguing against Him. The door of salvation is
closed to them, but it's not God's fault, is it? No, it's
their own. They argued against Him. They
refused to believe. And when God sends them to hell, it's
going to be their own fault. They're not going to go to hell
because God didn't choose them. They're not going to go to hell because
Christ didn't die for them. They're not going to go to hell because
the Spirit didn't give them faith. And it won't be because Adam made
them guilty. You know, they couldn't help it. Adam just did this to
them. I'm a victim and Adam made me guilty. No. It won't be because
Adam made them guilty. It's because of their own guilt.
Their own fault. Their own rebellion against God.
Because they refused to come to Christ for mercy. And everyone
of them is going to have to say, it's my own fault. I wouldn't
bow. I wouldn't believe. But everyone
in heaven is going to say, It's all God's doing that I'm here.
See, I'll never call on God. I'll never ask Him for mercy
until it's my fault. Is that right? If it's Adam's fault, this is
just a, you know, what do I need mercy for? It's Adam's fault.
I'll never beg for mercy until it's my fault. That's when I'll
beg for mercy. And everyone in heaven is going
to say, It's all God's doing that I'm here. God chose me when
I wouldn't choose Him. Christ died for me while I was
yet a sinner. The Holy Spirit sought me when I wouldn't seek
Him. He gave me life when I was dead. He gave me faith in Christ
when I wouldn't believe. He gave me life to call on Christ
for mercy. And God kept me to the end. What
a gospel. That's the gospel God's given
us to preach and to believe. May God be pleased to grant us
that faith this morning. Let's bow in prayer.