Romans chapter 10. I don't know
if you remember the last time that we met together, we looked
at verses 20 and 21. And our subject was the sovereignty
of God and the responsibility of man. And they're found both
in these two verses. Paul 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. But to Israel
he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto
a disobedient and gang-saying people." And as we said the last
time, these verses primarily refer to the casting away of
the Jews, the Jewish people, and speaks of the choosing of
the Gentiles. You see, the Gentiles were a
people who represent us as unbelievers that just didn't seek after God
had no interest in God and neither did I before God crossed my path
in sovereign grace. They lived in idolatry. I lived
in idolatry. But God had determined before
the foundation of the world, as He does with all those that
come to know Christ in grace, to send the gospel of His grace
to them. And the majority of the Jews,
as we had discussed before, had long, long enjoyed the privileges
of the Word of God. But in rebellion, disobedience,
they rejected Christ. They said in their heart, I won't
have Him to rule over me. We were expecting one that was
going to come and deliver us from the Romans and set up a
kingdom here on earth and things are going to be good when He
comes. But He spoke of a spiritual kingdom. He spoke of a good eternal
life. And because they didn't understand,
they rejected Him. God chose people who didn't know
Him, who were not seeking Him. Now, if I'm honest with you this
morning, I'll tell you that I wasn't seeking God when He came to me. If I was, it's because He had
already come in grace and caused me to seek Him. I was maybe seeking
something, but I don't believe I was seeking God. I didn't know
God that I might seek Him. But He sought me, and He found
me. I was the one that was lost.
And men and women who've heard the Word of God are saved because
God intervenes. God makes the difference. And
life and death are in those words of what think ye of whose son
is he? And God in longsuffering and mercy, He says here in these
verses, all the day long I have stretched forth my hands unto
what? A disobedient, unbelieving, One
who denied and refused to hear Him and obey Him and trust Him. That's talking about me. And
also we mentioned the word gainsaying. It just simply means they refuse
to have anything to do with it. The system of truth is not one
straight line, but two. One old writer said, no man will
ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to
look at the two lines at one time. And those two lines are
what I mentioned in the beginning. the sovereignty of God, and the
responsibility of man. And we're taught in the scriptures
that a man reaps what he sows. I know that what I sow I shall
reap. Yet, I'm taught in God's Word
in another place that it's not of him that willeth, not of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Both are true. Both are true. I see in one place
that God is preceding over all things in sovereign grace and
providence and sovereignty. He rules and he reigns. Yet I
can't help but seeing that it seems that man acts as he pleases
and that God has left his actions to his own responsibility. So
we conclude that God is sovereign, yet man is responsible. If a man or a woman is saved,
redeemed, reconciled to God, it will always be by the sovereign
grace of God. That's the only way a man can
be saved. That's the only way a woman can be saved. God's intervening
divine grace. And if a man or a woman is condemned
to hell, they have no one to blame but themselves. And these
two parallel truths, a perfect line right down the middle are
shown in the two verses before us. In verse 20, Isaiah is very
bold and says, I was found of them that sought me not. That
sounds like a sovereign God. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. Who did that? God did. Divine sovereignty and salvation. If any man is saved, he is saved
by divine grace. And it can't help to be redundant
on that. That is the message. And by divine
grace alone He's saved. And the reason of His salvation
is never ever found in them. The man or the woman that believes.
It's never found in them. God is the first cause of everything. We're not saved as a result of
anything in us done by us. Period. Period. Nothing to do with what we do.
Nothing to do with what we will. Nothing. What we will and what
we do is the result of God's good pleasure. That's period. And especially in this matter
of salvation. All that is good or ever will
be good in us is Christ in us, the hope of the Lord. That's
all my goodness. Well, yeah, you're not a murderer.
I would be if not for God's restraining grace. There's nothing that I'm
not capable of doing if God would withdraw His restraining hand. And we did know God, profess
to know God, and do know God. We will tell you right up front
that our grace is totally unmerited, undeserved. I know this, these people that
talked about here in verse 20, they didn't merit God's grace,
did they? They didn't seek after Him. They
didn't care about Him. They didn't want anything to
do with Him. They never asked for Him. Yet, they were found, weren't they?
They were saved. They were redeemed. Those that
God came to in love and mercy. And that word sovereign, we know
what that is. That word simply means that God
has the absolute right to do what He wills with His own. And
all is His. All men and women, the heavens
and the earth, all is His. It all belongs to Him. And He
has the right to give grace where He chooses to give it, restrain
grace where He chooses to restrain it. When and where he pleases,
how he pleases, when he pleases. Then in the next verse, 21, we
pretty much dealt with the sovereignty of God issue last time, but in
verse 21 we had the doctrine of man's guilt in rejecting God. To Israel he said, all day long
I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying
people. That's the second part of these
two verses, man's responsibility. And there's no contradiction
whatsoever in the two things. None at all. In God's sovereignty
and man's responsibility, no contradiction. Now these people
whom God had cast away had been wooed, they'd been sought, and
they had been entreated to come to Him and be saved. But they
would not because of their disobedience. They would not because of their
gainsaying, their refusal of bowing to Him. And I think this
is clearly shown in this text. When God sent forth His prophets
to Israel, and you know Christ speaks of all that was spoken
in the prophets and the Psalms. All concerning me. But when God
sent his prophets to Israel, he stretched forth his hands.
And what did he stretch his hands forth for? To save them. To save them. Why did He desire
to come to him? Why did He desire them to come
to Him? To save them. God says He stretched out His
hands. You know what that means? I was thinking about that, stretching
out hands. God stretching out His hands.
I know you've all seen it. Most of us have experienced it.
We see small children, little toddlers, barely walking most
of the time, who run into their parents' arms with joy. I mean,
just as fast as their little feet can take them. You know
why they run there? Because their father or their
mother has their hands stretched for them. Have you ever gone
up to a little child and somebody's holding them and you hold out
your hands and they just lean over, almost fall out of the
one holding them's arms to get into yours? That's what I picture
here. That's what I see here. Arms
stretched out in love and acceptance. And I don't guess there's anything
more sad and ugly than a disobedient child throwing a tantrum, wallowing
on the floor in rebellion, who will not come when graciously
called by his parents, especially when the parents holding out
his hands and fall on the floor and wallow around the throat.
That's a picture there. There's a picture. That's a picture
of fallen, disobedient, rebellious, sinful men and women. And the
only difference between the ones who fall graciously into the
hands of their Lord and Savior and the ones who wallow on the
floor is the sovereign grace of God. Sovereign Grace of God. Search the Scriptures, our Lord
said, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are
they which testify of Me, and you will not come to Me that
you might have life. Didn't our Lord stand and say,
Come unto Me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give
you rest? Did I read that somewhere in the Bible? I sure did. And men and women will not come
to Him that they might have light. Why? Why? Why won't they come? Our Lord said it in John 3 verse
19. He said this is the condemnation.
This is the condemnation right here. That light is coming to
the world. Our Lord is light. It's coming to the world, and
men love darkness rather than light because, and he gives us
the reason, their deeds are evil. And though it's absolutely 100%
true that no man can come unto Christ, no man has the ability
to come, except it were given unto him of his father. And that's
what the scripture teaches. No man can come unto Christ except
the Father which has sent Christ drawing. Yet man is, I'm telling
you, man is still totally responsible because his sin is his own. His
rejection is his own. His hatred is his own. His disobedience
is his own. His deceitful and desperate heart,
it belongs to him. It's his. And he will not come
that he might have life. We read last time, Romans 1,
The invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, it says. Being understood by the things
that were made. All that God made as He threw
the stars and the universes into their place. And men look at
those without excuse. Without excuse. somewhere deep
inside and they know that God Almighty made it so. That's just,
that's true. They're without excuse. Even
the eternal power in Godhead so that they're without excuse.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. And that's why man is responsible.
Glorifying Him as God. and who not God, they glorified
him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Romans 1, 20 and 21. The Scriptures say, O everyone
that thirsteth, come and drink. Here are provisions made by God
Almighty. Here is His all-sufficiency and
the bidding of Him for sinners to come. And there's no limitation. It bids whosoever. It doesn't
say, just you Jews come, just you Gentiles come. It says, whosoever. Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely. Revelation 22, 17. And
don't we see pretty clearly here in verse 21 that this bidding
of God is very frequent? He says, all the day long. And
I looked into that a little further and that word, that can be translated,
that term can be translated daily. Daily have I stretched forth
my hands. God's not called sinners once
to come and then let them alone. Every day, I'm speaking from
experience. My conscience, there was something
that just kept speaking to me. Many times I ask myself, is this
all there is to life? Even when I was a young man,
is this all there is? There's got to be more to it
than this. Every day, God's providence warned me. I had friends that
didn't make it to the age of 20. Some that didn't make it
to 30. Some that didn't make it to 40.
God's providence showed me that this life was like a vapor, here
for a moment and gone. And yet, I shunned the Word of
God. Every time a man hears the gospel
preached, God's Word wounds him if he gives him ears to hear.
He said, well, okay, now there you go. There's no contradiction
there now. There's none at all. You see,
Paul didn't tell sinners that there was no guilt in despising
the cross. Here's what he said. He said,
For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Neglect on my part,
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him. Hebrews 2 verses 2 and 3. And
on that great day of judgment lost sinners going to give an
account. They're going to give an account
for every warning. They're going to give an account for every
time they read the Bible and remained indifferent. They're
going to give an account for every time they didn't read the Bible. They'll
give an account for every service in which the gospel was preached
and they neglected it. And they're going to give them
account for every time they had the opportunity to hear the Word
of God and didn't. There was an older lady in our
church, you've heard me refer to her quite often, and she was
a sinner, she'd tell you that. But one time, Brother Mahan said,
Flemmy said, she was 90, there every service, never missed.
Never missed a service, just always there, faithful like many
of you. And he said, Clemmie, he said,
you're up in age now. And he said, I think everybody
would understand if you didn't come on a Wednesday or maybe
a Sunday night. And I heard her say this with
my own ears. She said, Brother Mahan, she
said, I'm not only responsible for what I hear, I'm responsible
for what I don't hear. That's what I'm saying here.
Oh, I'm so glad that when I stand before God in judgment, I stand
in my Lord, aren't you? All the times. Well, I've been
here and really not been here. All the times that I read His
Word and He spoke to my heart and I just said, God, that's
not for me. Enough sin in one breath to send
me to hell a thousand times over. No one will be responsible for
your damnation but yourself. That's what I'd say to any sinner.
God won't be responsible for it. Now, I'm just telling you
that right now. As I live, saith the Lord, and that is His great
oath, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. God said that. But had rather
that he should turn unto me and live. Hadn't God done so much
for us? He sent us His gospel. We weren't
born in a heathen country. We were born in a country where
we can worship freely. He's given us the book of books,
right here. Everybody's got one on their
coffee table, but who's reading it? His people are. He's given
us a conscience. He's given us His creation to
look at, at day and night, and stand in awe and go, my, my,
God. created the heavens and the earth.
My God did. My Father did that. He's given
us all these things so that we're without excuse. So let me just
say this. Men have asked me before. They
say, how do you reconcile the sovereignty of God and the responsibility
of man? Men like to debate. Ray, I don't
have to reconcile it. I just don't have to. It don't have to be reconciled.
Do I understand them? Absolutely not. I'll be the first
to tell you my finite mind cannot comprehend these amazing truths. But by grace, through faith,
I believe them. I believe them, don't you? I
know that they're so If you're saved by grace through faith,
I'm going to tell you, it's not of yourselves. It's a gift of
God. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. In other
words, God did it. And if a man is lost and forever
condemned to eternal damnation, it's of yourself. You did it,
and it was your fault. And God is most definitely soft,
and man is most definitely responsible. And may God more clearly by grace
show us these two truths.