Title of my message this morning
is Isaiah's Bold Prophecy. Isaiah's Bold Prophecy. You'll
find my text in Romans chapter 10, verses 18 through 21. Throughout this 10th chapter
of the book of Romans, the divinely inspired apostle gives us reason
after reason for faith in Christ. Here, God, the Holy Spirit, calls
for sinners, sinners like you and me, poor, lost, needy, helpless
sinners. He calls for us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord God, here by his own
expression, says he stretches out his hands. What a picture. He stretches
out his hands. and big sinners come to him trusting
his son. More than that, he gives us reasons
and arguments telling us why we should do so. Imagine that. God calls us to faith in Christ. He promises eternal life to all
who believe his son. And then he stoops to reason
with us, urging us to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. As I read
this chapter again several times yesterday and today, I kept thinking
that Isaiah chapter one, verse 18, describes exactly what the
Lord is doing here. God is saying to you, come now,
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. Have you found my text? Romans
chapter 10, verses 18 through 21. Let's begin in verse 18. In the 17th verse, we're told
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but for multitudes, for the vast majority. men and
women who hear the gospel preached. The hearing of the gospel of
God's free sovereign saving grace in Christ is meaningless and
useless. I have preached the gospel to
a lot of people all over the English-speaking
world and in other parts of the world. Most who've heard it. Most who've heard it. To them
it's been useless, meaningless. Worse than that, if you hear
the gospel and refuse to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, trampling
under your feet the mercy and grace of God, trampling under
your feet the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, The
gospel you've heard will be your greatest tormentor forever in
hell. When I was just a young man,
maybe 18, 19 years old, I heard a sermon by Brother Ralph Barnard.
The title of the message was The Hounds of Hell. And throughout
the message, he portrayed sinners in the pit of the dam. Screaming. Screaming. Screaming. He said, then see the face of
John the Baptist and scream. Get that man out of my face.
What's he doing here? Because John the Baptist, they
heard and would not believe. And one preacher after another,
screaming. Get his face away from me. I
can't take it. Because they've heard, but would
not believe. Look at verse 18, Romans 10.
But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily. Yes, amen. Yes, indeed. Their sound went
into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world. The Jews heard the gospel, but
despised it. And now for 2,000 years, the
nations of the world, the Gentiles, have heard the gospel and despised
it. Now you've heard the gospel.
Will you believe the Son of God or will you despise the gospel
and despise God's Son? God cast off the Jews and sent
the gospel to the Gentiles. That ought to get your attention.
God, because they refused to hear, God cast them off, shut
them up in darkness and left them worshiping in the name of
Jehovah in utter blindness, darkness, stupidity, and idolatry because
they would not hear Moses and the prophets. He cast them off. I pray he will graciously cause
you to hear his voice. and live, give you faith in his
dear son. Blessed are they to whom God
gives hearing ears and a believing heart. There is a people in this
world who must and shall be saved. God's purpose stands. It will
be accomplished. God has chosen and elect people. Not everybody, but elect people.
God's purpose is to save a chosen remnant scattered among the four
corners of the earth. And that chosen remnant shall
be saved. There's a great multitude of
sinners redeemed, purchased by the precious blood of Christ.
And every redeemed sinner shall believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
being saved by God's free grace. If you refuse to trust him, if
you refuse to believe him, The gospel of God's grace here declares
that the Lord God will forever provoke you to jealousy and stir
up your anger in hell by sending the gospel to these folks and
saving them. Look at verse 19. That's exactly
what Paul says. But I say, did not Israel know
Of course they did. They knew the facts. Those who
were born of God knew what the facts represented. First Moses
saith, I will provoke you to jealousy. Moses in Deuteronomy
32 speaks for God and God said to Israel, I'm going to provoke
you to jealousy by them which are no people. I'm going to go
out to the Gentiles and gather myself a people. And by a foolish
nation, I will anger you. Well, how would that provoke
them to jealousy? How would that anger them? And
the jealousy he's talking about here is not a jealousy of a jilted
lover. Oh, no, no, no, no. This is the
jealousy of anger. of anger, wrath, meanness. I'll provoke you to jealousy
and anger by a people who are no people. By a people you look
upon as worthless and foolish. If you'll just turn over, just
actually don't have to turn the page, just look across the page
at Romans 11 and verse 11. You'll see the Spirit of God
tells us plainly that Moses' words in Deuteronomy and those
to which Paul refers in verse 19 of our text, are addressed
to you and me as much as they were to Israel. You see, God
uses even the stubborn unbelief of reprobate sinners who despise
the gospel. He uses their unbelief as an
instrument by which he in judgment turns from them and sends the
gospel to chosen redeemed sinners who must and shall be saved.
In other words, you're not a hindrance to God. You're just not that
big. You're not gonna stop God from
accomplishing his purpose. You don't have that kind of power.
Look at verse 11 of Romans 11. I say then, have they stumbled
that they should fall? Is that all that's accomplished
by them stumbling? Is that all that happened by them stumbling
over the stumbling stone, tripping over Christ crucified and refusing
to believe on him? Oh no, God forbid. God forbid. There's something more important
than that. but rather through their fall, salvation has come
to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. Now, let's read
Isaiah's bold prophecy as Paul relates it to us in verses 20
and 21. We read the words of Isaiah in
Isaiah 65. That's the specific prophecy
which Paul's talking about here. Romans 10, 20. Isaiah is very
bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was
made manifest to them that asked not after me. But to Israel he
saith, all day long I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people. God the Holy Ghost tells us that
this was a very bold prophecy. A prophecy that required boldness. The word bold here doesn't refer
to freedom, but rather it refers to courage. Dogged, steel, backbone
courage. Isaiah was very bold to make
this prophecy. And it requires as much boldness
in the Apostle Paul to expound it. Indeed, it is a prophecy
that to this day requires boldness and one who will faithfully deliver
it. The man who declares that which
is here revealed must have a God-given boldness to do so. And I'll tell
you why. This is a prophecy that denounces
self-righteousness. And it's tough on men. to have
their self-righteousness exposed and denounced. The gospel of
God's grace is an utter repudiation of goodness in man. There is
no preaching of the gospel unless man's goodness and man's righteousness
is utterly repudiated and man is exposed for what he is, nothing
but a mass of sin. The Jews thought like many in
our day, they had a monopoly on God. They had the idea that
God was somehow obliged to bless them, that they were a superior
race because their fathers were chosen and blessed of God. Therefore, they presumed they
would be blessed of God. When Paul spoke of his commission
from the Lord, the Jews had despised the gospel and Paul said, all
right, You've had a, you've rebelled enough, you've rebelled long
enough, and God Almighty's cast you off. I go to the Gentiles. You would think they'd say, well,
man, he'll leave us alone now. Good enough. We'll be rid of
this man now. He can go talk to those folks
in Africa or in New Zealand or somewhere. He'll leave us alone
from now on. That's not how they responded. Listen to what the
scripture says. They were furious. You mean you're
going to go preach the gospel to worthless, reprobate, sinful,
vile, idle, worshiping, dirty Gentiles? They gave him audience
unto this word 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. That was their response. You can read it in Acts 22. If
that was the Jews' response when Paul preached this message, imagine
how they must have responded when Isaiah preached it. Therefore,
Paul says, Isaiah was very bold to deliver this prophecy to that
nation. You see, that man who's called
of God to preach the gospel must be a man with a God-given boldness. Men and women just don't like
to have their sin exposed. and their self-righteousness
denounced as filthy rags and condemned. They don't like to
have their pride abased, especially publicly. I can't tell you how
many times over the years I've been preaching to them, I said,
you prepared that just for me, didn't you? And I always responded,
yes sir, I did. It was just for you. If that's
the way you hear it, that's exactly the way it was intended. What
are you doing talking about me like that in public? because
you need to have your sin and your pride and your self-righteousness
exposed so that you stand blushing before God. God's servants do
not deliver their words, they deliver God's Word. And such
men dare not alter their message, soften their tones, or speak
smooth things. They dare not. I hear men who
know better. situations where that, you know,
we would sure like for you to come preach if you will just
not say things in a way that offends people. I hear them pray. meetings before Congress, before
Senate, and they know better, but they're very careful not
to say anything wrong, but just to use the right words, so that
just in case there's some sodomite sitting over there, or some adulterer
sitting over there, or some murderer sitting over there, or some pedophile
sitting over there, we don't insult them. Well, maybe those
bad folks, but not a Catholic, or a Muslim, or somebody of a
different faith or an atheist, no, no, no, no. So they choose
their words real carefully and say exactly what's true, but
say it in such a way that nobody can possibly be offended by it. Not God's servants. Not God's servants. Such men,
who are called of God, who speak in God's stead, dare not alter
their message, soften their tones, or speak smooth things. Not long
after I came to be your pastor, one of our dear men, dear men,
had some family visiting, and he said, he said, Brother Don,
my brother's with me today, and his wife's Catholic. And I pulled
him aside, I said, don't ever tell me that. Please, when you
bring somebody to hear the gospel, don't tell me what they are that
just, I have to be careful of that. Don't do that. Because
I said, I might not have had anything to say about the Pope
this morning. But now, you've thrown down the gauntlet. And
I've got to say something about it. I've got to say something
about it, because I know this is where he opposes God. God's
servants dare not use smooth tones to make things appealing
to men. They speak with boldness as God's
ambassadors. Any preacher, any preacher, any
preacher who is ashamed to speak the truth, ought to be ashamed
to speak, and one day he will be ashamed that he ever spoke
in God's name. I promise you. I promise you. I've invited men to come and
preach to you, as I have these past 37 years in the conferences
before. Preach the gospel of God's grace.
Never, never would I ask a man to come here and preach that
I have any reason, Lindsey, to imagine he might speak differently
if he were talking to the president. Not once. I'm not gonna do it.
I wouldn't give that man the time of day, let alone have him
in here to preach to you. It's nothing less than treason
against God for a man to speak in God's name who refuses to
speak God's truth in terms that God's enemies understand. He ought not call himself a preacher. This is called a bold prophecy
again because it is a clarion declaration of God's free and
sovereign discriminating grace in Christ. Isaiah speaks plainly
in our text and in Isaiah 65 of God rejecting one people and
calling another. He speaks of both reprobation
and election. He speaks of God justly casting
off the Jews, justly casting off people who refuse to hear
his word and calling his elect from among the Gentiles. Now,
in this day of Arminian freewill works religion, that man who
proclaims the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ
has to have a backbone of steel and the boldness of a lion. In
this day of cultured, well-educated religious reprobates, it takes
boldness for a man to stand up on his hind legs and say, salvations
of the Lord, that God Almighty saves whom he will. that he does
the whole work without the assistance of man, without the aid of man
at any point. May God be pleased. Oh, may God
be pleased today to bless those men around the world who dare
to speak the truth of God boldly. And may God be pleased to raise
up others who like Paul and Isaiah will dare to proclaim the message
of his grace and his glory in Christ. You see, God bestows
his grace and his salvation upon men the world considers to be. And we by nature consider to
be the least likely objects of his mercy. He always does. He always does. Let me show you
five things. I'll make five statements and
I'll be done very quickly. Number one. Our text plainly
tells us that no one by nature can or will ever seek the Lord. Our text describes those who
ultimately seek him and find him, but they're described as
a people who sought him not and asked not for him. The fact is
man by nature can never and will never seek the Lord. It does
not lie within the realm of possibility that a sinner left to himself
will seek the Lord and come to Him in repentance and faith.
What do the scriptures say? Twice we are told in Psalm 14
and in Romans 3, there is none, there is none, there is none
that seeketh after God. There's none who seek after God. Our spiritual depravity prevents
us from desiring to seek Him. Our spiritual death means we
have no ability to seek Him, even if we desired to do so.
Hold your hands here and turn over to John chapter five, John
chapter five. Verse 39, search the scriptures for in
them you think you have eternal life and they are they which
testify of me. Verse 40, and ye will not come
to me that you might have life. Now look at chapter 6 verse 44. No man can. That's a word of ability. Well,
let's put here a word of inability. No man can. No man has the ability
to come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. And
if God gives you the ability to come, you will come. And I
will raise him up at the last day, verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the spirit that gives life. 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
from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should
betray him. And he said, therefore, verse
65, said I unto you that no man can come unto me, except it were
given unto him of my father. Man by nature is dead in trespasses
and in sins. dead. Now you can talk a lot
about what a dead man can do, but I'll tell you one thing and
one thing alone a dead man can do. He can stink. That's all. That's all. He has no will. He has no desire. He has no ability. He has no
taste. He has no feeling. He has no
knowledge. He has no inquisitive mind. None. not with regard to spiritual
things. He's just dead. And until God
gives you life, you cannot and will not come to Christ. Some
of you today simply will not seek the Lord. You may have come
here for a lot of reasons, but it wasn't your intention in coming
to seek Christ. That's all right, that's all
right. I've had folks come listen to me preach just because they'd
met at me and wanted to find something to say. That's all right, come
on, I'll be okay. You'll see no beauty in him,
no value in him. You have no need of him, you
don't desire him, and yet this may be the day that you'll find
him. I pray you will, I pray you will. I have two friends, Brother Jim
Wilson down in Wichita Falls, Texas. I've told you about him
before, Brother Russell Smith in Battle of Money, North Ireland.
I could tell you numerous other stories. Jim's wife, Penny, God
saved her, and she started getting our tapes back in the days we'd
send cassette tapes out. And he had no interest. He's
religious, but he didn't have the least bit of interest. And
every time he heard me say anything, he got so mad he could bite nails
into. I mean, he's just angry. And she'd accidentally leave
a tape in his truck, you know? He'd get in the truck and plug
it in, hear me say two or three words, and he's like, just throw
it out the window. And she just kept telling him. He'd fuss at
it, she'd lease more tapes and he'd just, and one day plugged
one in and God got him. And he'd been faithful since
that day. Well, the folks in Wichita Falls meeting his home
have been for nearly 30 years. Brother Russell Smith, Ballad
Money, is the instrument by which God started to work there. One
of his friends, when he was working for the Royal Ulster Constabulary,
dealing with the IRA, fighting the IRA, started giving him some
tapes. And Russell had been raised in
a Presbyterian church all his life, been religious all his
life, and he couldn't, oh, he couldn't stand the message. He
hated it. He hated it. Oh, he was a five-point Calvinist,
but he hated grace. He hated grace. He was a Calvinistic
Presbyterian. That means we believe you talk
about grace, but you talk about law more. And that's how I was
raised, legalism, just legalism. And he said, I'd take him and
throw him out the window. I'd just throw him out the window,
one after the other. And one day I decided to listen to one.
He said, I never heard anything like that in my life. And God
caught him. You see, the scriptures are very
plain. No man by nature, no man by nature
will seek the Lord. Doesn't happen. Here's the second
thing. God himself comes to sinners by the preaching of the gospel.
Now I don't know how to say this with the emphasis with which
I want to say it. In Romans 10, 21, the Lord God says, All day long, I stretched forth
my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, Paul said, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled to God. Quit fighting God. Quit fighting
God. And when this man speaks to you, Mark Henson, if
God speaks by me to you, it's God who speaks. If the word preached
blesses you, you're not blessed by me or by my preaching. but
blessed of God, blessed of God. And if you fight against God,
you fight against yourself. I was talking to Brother Frank
Hall late last night. He reminded me he read something about one
of the Caesars. He got angry at the gods and
he commanded the folks around him, shoot your arrows at Jupiter. And so they just started shooting.
But the fools, they're shooting up toward Jupiter and the arrows
fell back down and killed some of them. And when you fight against
God, you only do injury to yourself. You only do injury to yourself.
If you understood what I'm telling you, you would listen to the
gospel intently with anxious hearts. Spurgeon, years ago, spoke of
a little boy sitting right down in front of him, right on the
edge of the first pew. And he sat like this all the
time, leaned over like that, with his hands behind his ears.
And Spurgeon was a little concerned, because Spurgeon preached, those
were days prior to microphones, PA system, and he preached to
thousands of people. And he was a little concerned
about the boy. And he went to him one day, he said, son, are
you having trouble hearing me? He said, oh, no, sir, Mr. Spurgeon.
He said, I noticed you sitting. with your hands behind your ears
like that, I thought maybe you had trouble hearing me. He said,
oh, he said, he said, mama told me that if God speaks to me,
he gonna speak by you. And if God speaks, I want to
hear his voice. Oh, God, speak to me by your
word. Speak to me by your word. When a man comes preaching the
gospel of God's free grace, As God speaks by his servant, Skip
Gladfelter, God Almighty, stretches out his hand. He stretches out his hands and
calls sinners to come to him. God Almighty, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost have come to you this day with stretched out hands
of mercy and grace in the gospel. What amazing mercy, what astonishing
responsibility now you have. You see, the work of grace proclaimed
in the gospel is God's own personal work. These days, philosophers and educators and
everybody else, preachers most of all, try their best to shut
God out of everything. They have their programs and
everything goes exactly according to program. Brother Greg Amquist
told me one time years ago before God saved him, he was pastor
of a large church, and he said, he said, everything was a stage
production. He said, we had the Sunday services
worked out six months in advance. Everything was a stage production
and it went right according to program. And that's how things
operate. That's how, God, get out of the
way, we can take over. And everybody's got the idea
that God's just, sort of standing by watching stuff. We're told
that creation is a product of revolution rather than work of
God's creation. We're told that providence is
governed by unidentified laws of nature. Al Gore would make
himself filthy rich by that nonsense. Providence is controlled by blind
fate or superstitious luck rather than the decree and hand of God
as the scriptures speak. And we hear preachers talk about
salvation as being the result of something you do, your will,
your choice, your worth, your merit, your church membership,
rather than the work of God Almighty. This book speaks of salvation
as God's work. You read again our text, Romans
10, verses 18 through 21. Everything in it centers in God. Everything promised is promised
in God. Everything given is given by
God. Everything! God's grace, God's
work, God's salvation doesn't center in you. It centers in
God. It doesn't depend on you, it
depends on God. Salvation's a work Paul describes
as being planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and performed
in us by God the Holy Ghost. Salvation is not a doctrine. Salvation's not a decision. Salvation's
not even an experience. Salvation is not church membership.
Salvation is a person. What you need is God our Savior. Not a new way of life, not a
change of life, not turning over a new leaf, not stop doing this
and start doing that. What you need is Jesus Christ
our God. Simeon said, Lord, now let your
servant depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen thy salvage. If you would find a small abandoned
child, starving, dirty, naked, sick, one that was obviously
in need of many, many things, frightened, abused, and perhaps
even one you wouldn't want to look at. And you thought to yourself,
how can I meet every need that child has? What can I do for
him? The first thing you come up with,
you say, what that child needs is a mother. Hear me, sinner. What you need
is not be a member of Grace Baptist Church, not better doctrine,
not a better way of life, and not a reformation of life, not
an experience. What you need is God, my Savior. In Christ, every necessity of
the sinner's soul is found. He is the sum of it all. Here's the third thing. When
the Lord God makes himself known to a sinner by the gospel, are
you listening? He sweetly causes the chosen
redeemed sinner to seek him. Paul translates Isaiah's words
like this. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. But pastor, aren't we told to
seek the Lord? Yes, and seek him you must. But your seeking him is always
the result, never the cause of him seeking you. I have no idea
who wrote the hymn, but someone wrote these lines. I sought the
Lord and afterward I knew he moved my soul to seek him seeking
me. It was not I that found, O Savior,
true. No, I was found of thee. After that I was turned, then
I turned. Call me, and I will answer thee. Draw me, and I will run after
thee. But you will never seek him until
he seeks you. And when he seeks you, He seeks
his sheep until he finds it. And when he's found it, he doesn't
stand over the precipice where the sheep has fallen down and
said, little sheep, little sheep, come up here, take the first
step and I'll do all the rest. No, he comes to where the sheep
is and lays it on his shoulders and carries it all the way home. That's the only way sinners are
saved, no other way. And the method by which God Almighty
makes himself known to sinners is the preaching of the gospel.
If God the Holy Spirit speaks to you by the gospel, if he's
pleased to issue to you the irresistible effectual call of his grace,
he will make you willing to come to Christ. glad to come to Christ. In fact, you'll find yourself
coming before you realize you come. You'll find yourself believing
before you realize you believe. You'll find yourself seeking
before you realize you're seeking. The Lord Jesus graciously, sweetly
forces sinners to be saved. Aren't you thankful he sweetly
forced you in? Aren't you thankful he wouldn't
leave you to yourself? I wouldn't have a God like that.
No, you wouldn't ever have a God like that, except he make himself
irresistible to you. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Never otherwise, never otherwise. Number four, this is almost too good to be
true, but it's true. It is utterly astonishing to
realize this, but the more I think about it, the more astonishing
it appears. It gives God Almighty great pleasure delight when sinners
come to Him by faith in Christ. Turn back to Ezekiel, Ezekiel
33, Ezekiel 33. The God of glory, the unapproachably holy God,
The just and true God, the God who says, I will by no means
clear the guilty. God who says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. That God, that God is delighted
when sinners come to Him trusting His Son. Ezekiel 33 verse 11. Say unto them, as I live, saith
the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. If
all the hell went to, all the world went to hell right now
and suffer the wrath of God forever, you'd never satisfy his justice.
But what gives God pleasure? But that the wicked turn from
his way and live. That gives him pleasure. Turn
ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house
of Israel? 19th chapter of Luke's Gospel,
or 15th chapter of Luke's Gospel, our Lord gives us a trilogy of
parables, actually one parable in three parts, the lost sheep,
and the lost coin, and the lost boy. And we're told in verse
7, joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth. And in verse 10, The Lord Jesus
says, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repented. And then he gets to the last
part of the parable, the parable of the prodigal son, and it shows
us what I mean by the joy in the presence of the angels, by
joy in heaven. The father saw his son when he
was a great way off. He saw everything he'd done,
everything he'd been. He was fully aware of it all.
He saw all his filth and degradation, all his riotousness and ungodliness. And when he saw him, he ran. Search this book through. Find
me another picture anywhere in this book. Find me another picture
anywhere. God getting in a hurry to do
anything The only time you ever see God portrayed as being in
a hurry he ran Ran to the particle and fell on his neck. Oh Son and he fell on his neck
and And the word really is, he kissed
him, and kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed
him, and kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him. And he's
still kissing him. And he said, rejoice, my son's
home. Let's have a party. Joy, God
Almighty delights in mercy. He delights to see sinners saved
by His grace. He delights to see poor sinners
coming to Christ. Why shouldn't you come? One last
thing. The Lord God Almighty finds His
elect in the most unlikely of places. God saves those very
sinners we think are the least likely to be saved. I am such a massive iniquity. Such a proud, haughty, ungodly
wretch of a man. I finished preparing this message
and the one for tonight and started to go to bed and I'd put the
channel on while I was getting ready for bed. What's up, forensic
stories? And I thought to myself, this
is what I thought. I didn't say it to Shelby, almost
did, I thought enough wasn't messing her mind up too. Did
you ever notice all those detective stories and those cold case files,
things like that? It's almost always involves somebody
who lives out yonder on the fringe of society. Somebody lives like we wouldn't
live. Folks that you call nobody, who's he? What's he worth? Who cares about her? God forgive my pride. I didn't live on the fringe of
society, I lived on the fringe of hell. God Almighty finds his elect
in the most unlikely places. Who you gonna call yours? I'm
gonna call him one of mine who is nobody. I'm gonna call her
one of mine who is not mine. I'm gonna call a nation to me
which was no people at all. Samuel went down to anoint God's
elect. God's king, the man God chose
to be king over Israel. And he found Jesse. and said, Jesse, God sent me
to your house to anoint one of your boys to be king. And Jesse
said, hot dog, we'll go get him. And he went and got the boys,
starting with the oldest. And he paraded him in front of Samuel,
and Samuel said, that's not him. And he went and got the next
one, that's not him. He went and got the next one,
Samuel said, that's not him. He got them all, and paraded
him around. Well, who could it be? Samuel
said, don't you have any more sons? He said, yeah, I've got
one, he's a boy. and not a very manly boy. He's
mama's boy. I've got him out in the fields.
He's young and ruddy, fair-complected fella, and he's not growing. He might make something someday.
Samuel said, well, let's not eat yet. Go get it. And David
walked in, and God said, arise, anointed. This is he. God saves the most unlikely candidates
for grace. Unlikely in the eyes of man.
Listen to God's word. God says, behold me, behold me. You remember we read it in Isaiah
65. God says, behold me, behold me. He doesn't say, behold yourself
or behold your sin. He doesn't say, remember now
all the bad stuff you've done. Oh, but you don't know how bad
I've been. Yes, I do. I know exactly how bad you've been.
I know how bad you are. I know because I am. But God
didn't say, behold yourself. He said, behold me. He didn't
say behold how dead you are, how helpless you are, behold
how much you've tried this and how much you failed. God says
behold me, behold me. That's the message. That's Isaiah's
bold prophecy. Look unto me, just me. And be ye saved all the ends
of the earth for I am God. And beside me, there is none
else. Oh, God, give you grace now where
you sit to look to Christ and live forever. Oh, God, make you
hear his voice this day for Christ's sake. Amen.