Romans chapter 10 verse 17, Romans
10 verse 17. We're proceeding in our outline
and we are trying to understand what the Apostle Paul has to
say to the church at Rome, which is a combination of Jews and
Gentiles. That means there are two cultures there. And as a
consequence, when you have two cultures of people, you have
two worldviews and sometimes those worldviews clash. What
the Apostle Paul was saying to the Gentiles at the church of
Rome is that they were saved by the grace of God. It didn't
have anything to do with them. And what he was saying to the
church at Rome that were Jewish is that the reason why the larger
part of our Jewish brethren did not grasp the gospel or embrace
it was a twofold reason. One, they were not elect of God. We saw that in Romans nine and
two, is because they could not hear the gospel and they would
not hear the gospel. This is what Paul is explaining
in Romans chapter 10. I want you to see what I'm saying.
I'm going to just read a few verses, lay the context, and
we're going to back up and deal with the third, fourth and fifth
parts of our outline hearing. preaching and being sent. That's
what we're gonna deal with. Hearing, preaching, and being
sent. Are there any spots to sit? Let's
see here. There's some spots over here.
There's a spot right there. We can put a couple chairs back
here if you guys wanna sit over here in the section over here. And then there's a chair right
here too. Make sure you get in, get comfortable. Look at verse
15 through verse 17 of chapter 10. So then how shall they, verse
14, I'm sorry, how then shall they call on him in whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear? What
does your Bible say? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And then Paul uses what is called,
we said before, a pointer passage. Whenever he begins to develop
a proposition, he confirms that proposition by a Bible verse.
And in the first century Rome, the only Bible that existed was
the Old Testament scriptures. So when you write, when you read
in the New Testament, all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
The primary content of scripture that Paul was speaking about
was the Old Testament. While the New Testament epistles
were being written, they were not compiled as a whole until
almost the end of the apostolic era. So what the apostles used
as a primary base of authority was the Old Testament scriptures.
That's what Jesus used, that's what John used, and that's what
the apostle is referring to. And so we have a passage that
he refers to when he says in verse 17, verse 17 rather, I'm
sorry, verse 15, and how shall they preach except they be sent
as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring good tidings of good things. The emphasis in that verse, which
is taken out of the book of Micah and taken out of the book of
Isaiah is the feet. How beautiful are the feet. of them that bring good tidings. So the emphasis there is this,
that until a person is able to hear the message, They have no
way of calling upon the name of the Lord. It's one of the
arguments we've been making throughout the study, isn't it? That calling
upon the name of the Lord is not simply giving ejaculatory
prayers at a time of difficulty or suffering or trouble and calling
on a God that you don't know. That's not what it means to call
on the name of the Lord. If a person never heard the gospel
before, he can't call on the name of the Lord. He's been excluded. You're not calling on the name
of the Lord just because you're about to get hit by a car and
you go, Oh Lord! That's not what that means. That's
not what that means. You might be calling on a God
that you sort of imagined might exist and kind of is this transcendent
being that everybody intuitively believes exists. But that's not
what it means to call on Kyrios or call on Jehovah. The word
Lord is the word Kyrios. It's synonymous to the Old Testament
term Jehovah. And so to call on Jehovah, as
we've learned, is to have heard who he was by the proclamation
of the word, to believe the proclamation, and by a heartfelt trust, you
begin to call on him in worship and submission as Lord. You guys
got that? To call on the Lord is to acknowledge
the Lordship of Jesus Christ over your life. And that means
whatever God says to us, he says to us as his subjects, we being
those whom the Lord owns and has bought and has redeemed and
he can do with us whatever he wants. He's the Lord over our
life. That's what it means to call
upon the name of the Lord. And so therefore you have a very
interesting challenge when it comes to people who call themselves
Christian, who don't follow Christ. Am I making some sense? And so
when the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved, what it's talking about is people who have
come to recognize Jesus as what? Savior. And so that only comes
by a process that Paul is making mention of in verse 14. I want
you to see this process. I would write it on the board,
but I don't have my ink pens here. The only one I got is a
yellow one, and maybe you can read that. But notice what it
says, and it's in your outline. How then shall they what? Call
on him. Of whom they have not what? Believed. We dealt with
those two points. True calling on God requires
what? Faith in the heart. Isn't that
right? for man confesses with his mouth
and he believes in his heart. But it goes on to say, not only
does he believe, but he believes because he's what? Heard. You guys got that? Heard. This is the premise upon the
study tonight. In your outline, we're down at
verse 14 and 15. In the outline, it says process. How is it that
men respond to God and why is it that they respond to God?
Let me ask you a question as we proceed in the study. How
many of you have known people that have lived and died and
never responded to the gospel? How many of you have known people
lived and died, never responded to the gospel? I know a lot of
people like that. And you're always amazed at the person or
persons who have been under the hearing of the gospel and they
die having not bowed to me, to Jesus, right? Well, what the
Apostle Paul is about to get into is that very inexplicable
scenario. Because when we talk about what
verse 17 says, so then what faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God, there are some components to that proposition
that needs to be understood. Look at what it says again over
in verse 16. But they have not all what obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath
what? Believed our report. So you see
what Paul is doing. He's saying on the one hand,
you can't worship God until you hear the message of the gospel.
However, on the other hand, he's saying that there are some who
have heard it, but did not what? Obey it. And what he's getting
ready to deal with is the dynamic of what it really means to hear
the gospel. So these are the things that
we're gonna be talking about now today. The concept of hearing.
How is the means by which people come to respond to God? Verses
14 and 15, the process. They call because they believe,
they believe because they hear. Here's the proposition. The worshiper
believes from the heart, the word of truth that he hears from
the preaching of the gospel. By the man who is sent from God. Is that a legitimate proposition?
Let me say it again so that we can work this through the worshiper.
Now, the reason why I wrote the word worshiper is because, again,
the idea of calling upon the name of the Lord means that you
are a what a worshiper of God, the worshiper believes from the
what heart, the word of truth, the word of truth. Look at verse
17. Let's work through this. So then
faith comes by what? Now, what did we say about faith
a couple of weeks now? Is faith an intuitive, natural
gift in the heart of mankind, or is it a gift that comes from
God to him? Right, right. Man naturally does
not believe the gospel, does he? Man naturally does not obey
the gospel. And so then the concept of faith
is that faith is, first of all, it has its origins in God. God
owns faith, and then it's grounded, as we said before, in Christ's
righteousness, and then it's given as a gift to the believer
through the preaching of the gospel. Notice what it says.
Faith what? Cometh. Isn't that what it says?
Faith cometh. Faith cometh. That means that
it wasn't always there. Isn't that what it says? Faith
cometh. And literally, there's no verb
here in this text. In Romans 10, verse 17, it says,
So then faith cometh by hearing. If you have a King James Bible,
the cometh is in what we call the italicis. It's not there
in the literal Greek construction. In fact, the verb is not in the
Greek there. That's a construction of nouns
and adjectives. But the preposition that is there
is the preposition dia, which we translate by or through. And so the idea is that faith
comes by or through what? Hearing. Hearing. And then he says, hearing by
what? The word of what? Do you know in the original language,
it's the word of Christ? So we're getting ready to get
into that a little bit too, because it's very important to understand
that. All right, so then faith cometh by hearing, right? hearing
by the Word of God now the original language is the Word of Christ
and this is what we want to deal with because it's critical it's
critical here's the proposition it's in our outline again verse
17 faith comes through the gospel it comes through the gospel and
that is the Word of Christ now stay in our context I'm gonna
show you what I'm saying go with me back up to verse 8 But what
saith it, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that is the word of what? Faith. Which we preach. Now what
do we learn the word of faith was? The gospel. Are you hearing
me? The gospel. The word literally
is rhema and the word faith, we say faith, the message of
faith is the message of Jesus Christ in him crucified. So here's
my proposition to you. Faith doesn't come by merely
reading the Bible or having someone quote a Bible verse to you. Think
about this for a moment. I might quote to you Genesis
chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. Or I might quote to you Exodus
chapter 20 verse 1, which says, the Lord thy God brought thee
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me. Or I might quote from you
the Levitical code, which says, and the worshiper must bring
with him a sacrifice offering. If he doesn't bring one without
spot or without blemish, it's not acceptable with him. And
I can give you a thousand Bible verses but those Bible verses
by themselves without the explanation of what those verses mean in
relationship to the person and work of Jesus Christ are not
the gospel. And that means we can learn Bible
and never ever hear about Jesus Christ and him crucified. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? That means a person can hold
it. Let's see if we can make this help, help some people.
Cause I'm sure that we're not grasping this and this is so
critical. Is there a difference between
the law and the gospel in the scriptures? Is there a difference
between the law and the scriptures and the gospel in the scriptures?
So when a person hears the Bible says obey and you shall live,
is that gospel? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
When the Bible says, except you keep the law of God perfectly,
you shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Is that gospel? So
what I'm helping us understand is when Paul uses the construction,
faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, he's being
very clear not to use the broad generic term, faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the Bible. I said this before many times,
and we're going to get into some verses. I'm going to show you
about five verses to show you what I'm saying. He is very explicit
about this in the New Testament, particularly. I've had the Jehovah
Witnesses come to my door. I've had the Mormons come to
my door. I've had the Seventh-day Adventists come to my door. We
all do. And when they knock on your door
and they want to share with you a Bible verse or some Bible verses,
Invariably, they are not sharing with you the gospel. Are you
hearing me? So now I want you to hear what
I'm saying. This is so very important. If your knowledge of the Bible
does not result in an understanding of who Christ is and what he
did, you haven't heard the gospel. Are you hearing me? And so it's
so very important to know that what Paul is saying is faith
is born out of not merely quoting or knowing Bible verses, but
knowing the message of the Bible and the author of the Bible,
his person and his work. Paul is saying faith is born
out of a person and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? So then be very careful to know.
We read the Bible and we learn the Bible and we need to know
what the Bible says historically, but we've got to understand the
aim of the scriptures in their composite whole is to make you
wise unto salvation through a knowledge of Jesus. Go with me in your
Bible to second Timothy chapter three. I want you to see this.
So when the Jehovah's Witnesses come to me and they say that
in Revelation chapter 7, it talks about 144,000 elite servants
of God are going to go to heaven if they are obedient to the Watchtower
organization, I'm not hearing the gospel, am I? I am hearing
a system of theology that seems to support a construct or a method
by which I'm to enter into some kingdom, but I'm not hearing
the gospel preached, am I? But here's what Paul said. And
I want, I want you to see this as we lay this foundation, because
what we're talking about is the source by which faith is born
in the heart of a center who hears the word. Second Timothy
chapter three, listen to what he says. I'm over at verse 14. Are you there? But continue thou
in the things which you have learned And have been assured
of knowing of whom you have learned them and that from a child You
have known the what holy scriptures now. Here's the purpose now which
are able to make you what? unto Salvation now watch this
now unto salvation through faith, which is in what? Now where's
the faith in Christ? Do you see? So while those sources,
the Bible, the Bible has to develop or produce a message by which
that faith can be derived, and that message is the gospel of
Jesus Christ. So while we're in the New Testament,
I want you to see several verses to underscore what I'm saying.
I'm gonna develop this so that we can see it. While you're here
in Timothy, going on over to the book of James. James chapter
one. And I want you to hear what James
says about this in James chapter one, we're going to read verse
17 and verse 18. Are we there? James one 17, every
good and every perfect gift is where from above. And it comes
down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning verse 18. James 1.18, of his own will,
the next word begot means to be born of. Of God's own will,
begot he us, now watch this, with the what? Word of what? The word of truth. Now what is
the word of truth? Christ, you got it, you got it.
Now notice what he says, rebirth occurs through the proclamation
of Christ. Rebirth only occurs when Christ
is preached to the soul. He says it's the word of truth
that brings about a regeneration in the life of those who hear
it. By the word of truth that we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures. Now back up to the small epistle
Colossians as we go back I'm going to take you three or four
verses in these epistles that the Apostle Paul has and he's
going to help you understand the word of truth and then we'll
let Jesus our Savior tie this down so that you can understand
my premise as I argue that until the gospel is preached it is
not possible for faith to ever manifest itself in the heart
of an individual not faith in Christ not saving faith and Because
saving faith is a product of the incorruptible seed of the
gospel. I'm in Colossians chapter 1.
And I want you to hear what the apostle says starting at verse
3 and making his way through verse 5. Are we there? We give
thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, verse 4, since we heard of your what? Now notice
he says, we are aware that you have faith. Once again, he identifies
the object of their faith, and that is what? In Christ Jesus. See it? Since we heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus, now watch this, and of the love which you
have to all the saints, verse five, and for the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven, whereof, here's the word, what?
Heard. You heard. Where? Before in the word of the truth
of the what? Got it? See what Paul said was,
I heard that you had faith in Christ. And if you have faith
in Christ, it's because you have heard the word of the truth of
the what? Now Paul is intentional when
he speaks to the churches about this language. Go with me now
to Ephesians chapter one. I want you to see it again. In
Ephesians chapter one. Then I'm gonna show it to you
over in Ephesians chapter two. When the apostle Paul uses the
language, the word of truth, he does not ever mean to disassociate
the saving truth of God from the person of Christ. He never
means that. I take that to mean personally,
that without the preaching of the gospel, no one can be saved.
No one can be saved. So now listen to Ephesians chapter
one. I'm going to start in Ephesians chapter one over at verse, uh,
10 and go through verse 13, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of time, this is God's will. He made known unto us the mystery
of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed
in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him, in whom,
that is the him being Christ, also we have obtained what? An
inheritance. being predestined, are predestinated
according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after
the what? Counsel of his own will. Here's
the purpose clause, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ. Look at verse 13, here it is.
In whom ye also trusted, watch this, after that you what? Heard. Now notice what he says, the
word of truth the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that you what? Believed. You see how Paul is
using the same formula that he's developing in Romans chapter
10 throughout the epistles. He's very consistent. What he's
making clear is that all the gospel churches to whom these
epistles have gone understood the gospel. Then if you went
to the church at Colossae or the church at Ephesus or the
church at Thessalonica or the church of the Hebrews, you wouldn't
go to Colossae and hear one gospel and then go to Thessalonica and
hear another gospel. You wouldn't go to the church
at Philippi and hear a different gospel than you heard at Ephesus.
They all were taught the same gospel because there is only
one gospel Are you guys hearing me? And this is critically important
because what he's teaching in Romans 10 has been the contention
and the argument and the basis upon which we've been dealing
with this study for a long time. You can't just teach a haphazard
system of theology and have sort of a half-baked gospel and a
sort of obscure Jesus and an irrelevant work of atonement
and sort of a generic salvation plan as it's based upon shallow
semantical terms and expect people to be saved. Are you guys hearing
me? The message must be clear about
the person and work of Jesus Christ in order for people to
be saved. The message must be clear. And so when we argue that we've
got to hear who he is, we've got to hear about what he did,
we've got to hear about who he did it for, and we've got to
hear about where he is now. Unless we are hearing these things,
ladies and gentlemen, we haven't heard the gospel. It goes back to John 17 three,
and this is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sinned. Am I making a
little bit of sense? All right, go back to our text
so we can build upon this. In our text, the Apostle Paul
is working through an argument that is critical to him with
respects to everyone understanding what it is that constitutes a
saving experience and what it is and the reason for which that
saving experience does not occur. Go back with me now to verse
17. So then faith cometh by hearing. I wanna emphasize the hearing
now. The apostle Paul says in verse 18, they have not all what? Believed. In verse 18, it says they have
not all obeyed, right? Is that what it says? No, verse
18? No, the verse 18 says, have they
not all heard? Which means they've heard verse 16, but they have not all
obeyed. I want you to see this. He says,
but they have not all obeyed in verse 18. He says, but they,
but have they not all heard? Do you see that? Look at verse
19, but I say did not Israel. What? No. Do you see it? So this is what I want to get
ready to develop. What it means to truly hear.
Look at the title of your outline because that was really the bait
that I was giving as I developed this. True faith comes by spiritual
hearing, which is not an accident. You guys got that? True faith
comes by spiritual hearing. So The argument then is that
we can hear intellectually, we can hear on a rational level,
we can hear on a human level, but that's not the hearing that
constitutes faith. A person can learn the Bible,
isn't that right? And it's even possible to learn
right doctrine, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you believe
what you heard. Okay, so then to make this very
simple, please hear. Spiritual hearing means to believe
what you heard. You guys got that? Spiritual
hearing means to believe what you heard. Now, Paul knows what
he's doing when he does this because there's a whole group
of people that are listening to him who are called the Jews,
and God has indicted Israel for this all the way back to the
book of Deuteronomy for this problem. And I'm going to start
back in Deuteronomy, and we're going to make our way through
the New Testament. Remember now, Paul has a target, and that target
is the Jewish people and the Gentile people. He wants to help
the Jewish people understand why it is that they have a legacy
of not coming to faith even though they heard the word. And he wants
the Gentile people to understand that the only reason that you
come to faith having heard the word was because God chose you
to that. So he's bringing clarity to what
otherwise is a false assertion or notion that's brought on by
people. And that is this. We all have the ability to believe. It's just some choose not to
and other choose to accept him. That's a false notion that has
no basis in the Bible. Let me say that again, because
I want to make sure I drive this home, because I understand that
this generation in which I live, we really still believe in humanism.
We don't know it. We believe that we have innate
abilities to come to God. And we believe that when we come,
we come under our own strength and by our own ability. And when
that person whom you see do not come, they're not coming because
they can, but they won't. And the truth of the matter,
as you've already learned, is they won't. But they came. And this is what Paul is explaining
as he argues why it is that Israel had all of these props, all of
this historical evidence, all of these revelations of the true
and the living God and still as a whole rejected Christ. All right, go with me now in
your Bible, because here's the proposition that we are working
through. Not all here. That's in your outline. Not all
here. Parentheses spiritually. You guys got that? Not all here. Go with me in your Bible to Deuteronomy
chapter 29. I want you to see this. Now we're
going all the way back to the origin for the problem and I
just want you to see it so that as you continue to study your
Bible and make your way through the scriptures and you see that
some people will bow the knee to Jesus and others will perish
with their hand in God's face. You will know The reason behind
that for which they do what they do. In Deuteronomy 29, this is
Moses speaking to Israel, and here's what he says. Are we there?
These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses
to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moses beside
the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. And Moses called
unto all Israel and said unto them, You have seen all that
the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh
and unto all his servants and unto all his land. The great
temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs and those great
miracles. You know what Moses just said?
From the time the Lord God showed up in your life while you were
slaves in Egypt, you saw some mighty works of God. You saw
things other nations have never seen. God manifested himself
in such power and miraculous doings and providence that you
have inherited by virtue of your physical and empirical senses
that no one else in the world has ever seen. You saw God destroy
the greatest nation on the earth. You saw God open the Red Sea. You saw him bring you out. You
heard him speak from the Holy Mount. But he goes on to say
in verse four of these words, yet the Lord hath not given you
in heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear. Now watch this, unto this day. You know what that means? Moses says, I've been with you
guys for 40 years. I watched your father's carcasses
fall in the wilderness. Now you young people are about
to cross over into the promised land. But my assessment of us
is this. God has led us all the way for
38 years in the wilderness with great wonders and signs. If anybody in the world should
have the necessary elements by which they would believe God
on a human level, it would be you. But the fact of the matter
is this. Your human anatomy doesn't have
the capacity of itself to believe God if He was standing right
in front of you. Did you get that? So, and if
you... This will help you understand
whether or not when the Bible goes in one ear, does it go out
of the other ear or does it go down into your heart to cogitate
it like Mary did when the angels say, there's a holy thing inside
of you overshadowed by the Holy Ghost. When you bring him forth,
you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. And Mary hid all these things
in her heart. Or she could have let that thing
pass through in one earlobe, out the other earlobe, and forget
exactly what the angel said. This is the difference between
hearing God and hearing man. So, he came unto his own, and
his own received him not. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, but the world knew him not. That's your
answer. When God walks the planet, Veiled
in flesh so that you can behold his glory and not die. And you
still hide your face from him as Isaiah 53 says. And we all
hid as it were our faces from him. We esteemed him smitten,
stricken, afflicted of God. We esteemed him cursed. We called
him a worm and less than a worm. We rejected him. Do you see the
condition of the human heart apart from grace? And here's
the point which this religious generation will not acknowledge.
This is so critical that unless God opens your understanding
and gives you a heart to perceive and inclines you to believe the
gospel, you'll reject him if he was standing right in front
of your face. Does anyone doubt what I'm saying?
And what puts the capstone on this proposition is the fact
that Christ came, did what he did and left, and people still
didn't believe. What more must God do? And why he did it was
to prove that there's more needed than to merely hear the word.
So I want us to work through a few more things. Deuteronomy
29.4 was the first indictment. The second indictment is in Deuteronomy
32, verse 20. You heard this, but I want you to see it again.
I'm giving you the explanation as to as to why Israel could
not comprehend. But also, I want you to understand
that when we use the phrase faith coming by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God, that there is more to actually hearing spiritually
than for your physical ear lobes to hear words spoken. And I want
to develop that. We've still got about 20 minutes.
Deuteronomy 32, verse 20. Are we there? God said, I will hide my face
from them. And I will see what their end shall be, for they
are a very wicked generation. Isn't that what Jesus called
them? You see that phrase, forward generation? Jesus talked, he
used that phrase concerning the religious rulers more than 15
times. You are a perverse and wicked
generation. You perverse and wicked generation. A perverse and wicked generation,
watch this, seeketh After a sign Show us a sign show us evidence
that you're the Messiah you guys remember that they were constantly
asking him to show them a sign and Jesus says you're wicked
signs won't work for wicked people Because the problem is not the
need of a miracle that is to say for Jesus to pull a rabbit
out of a hat the problem is a need of a revelation of by God to
the heart so that a person can see Jesus for who he is. Am I
making a little sense? Okay, so he says that they were
children in whom is no faith. This is the first time in your
Hebrew Bible that the phrase in your Old Testament Bible that
the phrase faith is used and is used in the context of indicting
Israel for not having it. This here is the underlying premise
for all of the rebellion of Israel throughout the whole history.
They did not believe God. That's the premise of Romans
10. Isn't it? They didn't believe God. They
didn't believe God. They didn't believe God. They
didn't believe God. Well, pastor, we followed the formula of faith
coming by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Then the
only reason they couldn't believe God was because they didn't hear.
That's a yes and a no. Because they did hear. Isn't
that what it says in Romans chapter 10? Did not they all hear? But
they didn't obey. Why? Because they heard intellectually,
rationally, in a carnal state. They didn't hear in their heart.
See what I'm getting at? They didn't hear in their heart.
Is that distinction clear? We're going to make our way through
because it's so critical to deal with. It's so very important
to deal with that because it'll help you comprehend the fact
that there will be people sitting under the ministry of the Word.
One will be moved by the Word. The other one will be amused
by the Word. One will be quickened by the Word. The other one will
be bored by the Word. One will have a revelation and
the other one will find himself drifting off into Timbuktu. What's
the difference? God operating in the life. God operating in the life. So
I want to show you another another Bible verse with regards to this.
Go with me in your Bible to Proverbs chapter 2012. By the way, I like
this type of Bible study for one reason, and I want to make
sure that you understand what that is. And that's this. When
we go from Bible verse to Bible verse, which is not really common
in a lot of teachings and a lot of formats, When you go from
Bible verse to Bible verse, rightly dividing the word, developing
your arguments from scripture, what you do is twofold. First,
you acquaint your auditors with the Bible. See, I could simply
sit up here for an hour and talk to you, but you will never be
acquainted with your Bible if I do that. And that's the danger
of the kind of preaching that is not expository in nature.
where the Bible is not open and the preacher is not developing
the text from the context and from different passages of scripture.
So you never get acquainted with the Bible and you can't be confirmed
in the truth of what's being said unless the Bible is plainly
setting forth the propositions that are said. You may say, I
agree with what that preacher is saying, but you can't confirm
him because you haven't gone to the word. You're simply imbibing
what he's saying, agreeing with him, and you don't know if he's
selling you a bill of goods or not. It sounds good, but it may
not be truth at all. Am I telling the truth? And so
until our hearts are conditioned to embrace expository preaching,
where when a word is set forth, we are expecting a development
of that word by other passages of scripture to support that
particular doctrine being taught, or that proposition, or that
assertion. That way I can know that the Bible teaches this in
what we call the analogy of scripture. The analogy of scripture. That's
a theological term that says this, the Bible is the premise
upon everything we believe. And we believe it not because
it's said in one verse, but it's supported by other passages of
scripture. We are going to be honest with
the context and from the context, we're going to support our text.
And then we're going to understand the larger message of the scripture.
And if we've done our job correctly, what we say will never contradict
anything else in the scriptures. The analogy of scripture means
that we're being consistent with everything that scripture teaches.
So if I tell you that man has the innate ability to save himself
by an exercise of his own will, I'm running counter to a thousand
Bible verses. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now you might buy it because by nature we love to be told
that we're good. The proverb tells us that. Every
man will proclaim his own goodness, but God says I'm looking for
the faithful man. And he's already told us he couldn't
find, but what? And that one was himself. But every man will proclaim his
own goodness. Every man will say I'm clean
from my sin. I'm pure from my iniquity. I've washed my hands.
Every man will do that. So there's a natural disposition
in the heart of you and me if we aren't made aware of the sinful
propensity of our fallen nature to believe a lie. I have to be
told a truth that has the power to overcome the prejudice of
my own self-righteousness. You guys got that? That's why
the gospel hurts when it comes in truth. That's why the gospel
hurts when it comes in truth because it's cutting at your
pride. It hurts good though, doesn't it? David said in Psalm
138, let the righteous smite me. It's not gonna break my head.
What it will do, it will sustain me in the day of trouble. And
so the scriptures are very clear. Look at what Proverbs 20, 12
said. You need to lock this into your thinking because this will
help you understand what we mean by spiritual hearing. Are we
there? The hearing ear. Notice it didn't just say the
ear. It said what? The hearing ear. And the seeing
eye, do you see that? What is the origin of them? The
Lord has made them bold. Now I want you to get this. If
a person sees the truth, if a person hears the truth, it's because
God gave him the ability to do it. I'm not gonna open up the ground
and swallow you up if you disagree with me. Anybody disagree with
what I'm saying right now? Does anyone disagree with the
proposition that saving faith, that is believing God's word,
is a total gift of God and a work of the Spirit of God in the life
of the sinner of which apart from that he can never see the
truth as it is in Christ? Any argument with that? Any argument
with that? Okay, so then why do we tell
people to do what they can't do by nature? And I'll tell you
why. Because people don't believe
what I'm saying. What I'm saying is what premise
do we have to believe that merely because we shared the gospel
that people believe it or to assume that people under their
own strength can believe it because we command them to accept Jesus.
That's a flaw premise. It's an argument from the assumption
that people have in them the capacity to do this when the
scripture gives no warrant for that assumption. See what I'm
getting at? And so once you allow yourself
to buy into the idea that human beings have the ability to believe
of themselves, human beings have the ability to come and decide
for Jesus and accept Jesus in their heart all by themselves
without the spirit of God operating and qualifying them and affirming
them and doing other things of which we'll talk about then you're
gonna start to build a methodology by which you get your affirmation
that they are hearing. That methodology will be a system
of works that they do to confirm that they've heard. Which system
of works may not at all prove that they actually heard the
gospel. If I say, come up to the altar and accept Jesus into
your heart tonight, if you feel the Lord moving, and you go through
the motions of that, if you go through the motions of that,
That's no evidence that you really believe the gospel. Are you hearing
me? That's no evidence whatsoever
that you really believe the gospel. And having said that, let me
say this. One of the reasons the Baptist,
they used to, they're toe up today, but the Baptist used to,
I'm talking about during the Reformation, hold to what we
call scripture alone. And that is anything that they
did and set down as a precedent to practice was thoroughly rooted
and exclusively rooted in the Bible. There were no practices
in the church that they engaged in that they couldn't explicitly
prove from the scriptures. And what I mean by explicitly,
they didn't take a piece of a verse and build a whole theological
construct out of it, and then therefore by what they call necessary
consequence or implication, start a practice. They said, if the
Bible doesn't teach it, and if it doesn't lay it down as a precedent,
we're not gonna do it. Because the very problem with
religion is, we start to build what we call man-made traditions,
and those man-made traditions start to make void the commandments
of God. We talked about that last week
with Jesus. Jesus, why aren't you washing
your hands before you eat? All the rest of us teachers do
that. Jesus says, why don't you obey God's word? Why are you telling me to wash
my hands when you don't obey God's word? You make God's commandments
void by your traditions. People are now thinking that
they are holy because they wash. So you see how the devil works?
He gets your eyes off of the necessary things on to things
that are in themselves are not bad. Wash your hands. It'll keep
diseases down, but it's not going to save you. And that's analogous
to so many things that go on in religion. So as we are, as
we are dealing with the issue of hearing what we are dealing
with and trying to understand is, Hearing spiritually is a
work of God. When you understand that, when
you really understand that, you don't mess with that. You don't
mess with God's work. You don't hedge up God's work. You don't put God's work under
a test tube or frame it, put parameters around it so that
you can confirm God's work. You let God do his work. Am I
making some sense? And it's critical to know that.
So Proverbs 20, 12 tells us that hearing ears and seeing eyes,
God makes those. Now go with me now in your Bible
to Isaiah chapter six, verse 10. We've got about 15 more minutes.
I want to make sure you understand the inherent problem that sinners
have when it comes to hearing the word of God effectively.
Isaiah chapter six. We've got about four more verses
to go through, and I just want to make sure that you know the
Bible verses that challenge you on the assumption that faith
naturally is resident in the heart of the man, or that after
hearing the gospel, even the truth of the gospel, that somehow
it automatically produces in a person faith. I'm going to
talk about the assumption of that here in a moment. I'm in
Isaiah chapter 6. Are you there? We've often looked at Isaiah
chapter 6, and it's an account where Isaiah sees the glory of
God in verses 1 through 6. And in that manifestation of
God's glory as the sovereign Lord on His throne, Isaiah is
touched by the angel. We are told over in verse 6,
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in
his hand. which when he had taken with
the tongs from off the altar, he laid it upon my mouth and
said, Lo, this has touched your lips, and now your iniquity is
taken away in your sin purse. You see verse seven? Be very
careful. I'll help you here. This is part
of the genre of Old Testament scripture. And we're going to
develop this as we're going through the apocalypse in Daniel chapter
7 through 12. The verse that you just heard
read, is not to be taken in a literal sense, but in a figurative and
a theological and a redemptive sense. Please understand that. I must explain because some of
you might think that to have your sin purged is to have an
angel come and touch your lips with a hot coal. What Isaiah saw in his vision,
was the Lord on his throne in glory in his temple. There is a temple in glory. It is the temple for which all
the patterns of temples on the earth were patterned after. What
Moses saw in the mount was the temple in glory of which God
says, see to it that you make your tabernacle after the pattern
which you saw in the holy mount. Which means the things on earth
come after the things that are in heaven and are merely reflections
and patterns of heavenly things. You guys got that? So there's
a one-to-one correspondence between the earthly temple, the earthly
worship, the heavenly temple, and the heavenly worship. Am
I making some sense? However, While there's a one-to-one
connection, relationship between the earthly temple and the heavenly
temple, the heavenly temple is speaking to us in earthly terminology
about spiritual realities, not literal temples and glory. That just went over your head. All the Old Testament were types
and shadows, symbols and metaphors, using earthly analogies, which
God brought Israel under as a tutoring system to teach us spiritual
truth, of which when Jesus came, he made it very clear that those
things all pointed to him, that he is the temple, that he is
the Ark of the Covenant. He is the mercy seat. He is the
showbread. He is the menorah candle. He
is the altar of incense. He is the high priest. He is
the labor. He is the burnt offering. Are
you guys hearing me? Everything about the temple was
a revelation of the redemptive work of God in Christ. So when
you read in the book of Revelation, and the heavens were open, and
in the temple we saw the ark of God, no literal temple, no
literal ark, we're talking about the presence of God and the person
of Christ. Am I helping you? It's very important
to know this. Although the prophets of old
saw these things, they were symbolic of transcendent realities. You
guys got it? So when the angel, the seraphim
flew and touched Isaiah with hot coals, it was a picture of
the preaching of the gospel that touches the souls of sinners
with the atoning work of Jesus Christ. That's the altar. The
altar is Christ in him crucified, the burnt offering, the shedding
of blood. And when the message of the gospel
comes to the soul, the tongue is tied to the soul out of the
abundance of the mouth of the heart that the mouth speak. Now
the soul has been purged by the blood of the lamb who was offered
up as a sacrifice on his behalf. And the Seraphim are ministering
spirits. They represent gospel preachers. You guys got that? I'm helping
you. I know this is another level for a lot of you, but we've been
teaching this for years. The Seraphim represent gospel
preachers. The Seraphim over the Ark of
the Covenant on one side, wings, covering, wings covering, are
we there? The Ark of the Covenant. On one
side was a seraphim, on the other side was a seraphim. Those seraphims
are messengers. Their job is to protect the message. The message is Christ and Him
crucified. That's why at the burial of Jesus,
when the brethren came to the tomb, when Mary came to the tomb,
there was an angel on one end of the tomb and an angel on the
other end of the tomb to point us back to the Ark of the Covenant,
to show us that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? And so the angels are messengers
and while they're celestial, they always point to the preachers
of the gospel. We're called messengers. I don't
look like it, but I'm an angel. That's what the Bible teaches.
So I'm helping you understand that while we are looking at
symbolism, that symbolism has its reality in the hard, raw
facts of the ministry of the gospel. And it's reduced to this
fact, the preaching of Christ and Him crucified is what sanctifies
sinners and purges sinners and cleanses sinners and then qualifies
another man to be a gospel preacher himself. You can't preach the
gospel unless a gospel preacher comes and preaches the gospel
to you and you by the ministry of the spirit are purged and
qualified to go preach the gospel. Are you guys hearing that? All
right, so now here's what Isaiah's ministry was all about. Give
me a few more minutes of your time. Here's what Isaiah's ministry
is all about. Verse 7, And he laid it upon
my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched your lips, and your iniquity
is taken away. The only way your iniquity is
going to be taken away is by Christ. And your sin is purged. That's
only going to be done by the blood of the Lamb. Isn't that
right? By himself have he purged our sins and sat down at the
right hand of God, the father, not by the blood of bulls and
goats, but by the precious blood of the land without spot and
blemish. Did he offer himself up by the spirit of God to take
away our sins? And so the Bible goes on to say,
and also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I
sin? See how we are still stuck on
what hearing. Whom shall I send? And who will
go for us? Then said I, here am I, what? Isaiah is now being made a gospel
preacher. But you see, this is what Paul
said in Romans 10. How shall they call on him of
whom they have not believed? How shall they believe on him
of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall he preach except he be what? And literally,
let me say this just to be grammatically orderly, we only got a few more
minutes. Back in Romans 10, verse 15, how shall they hear without
a preacher? That's a noun or an adjective.
In the original language, it's a verb. How shall they hear without the
preaching? without the preaching. Will you
hear me? It's not about the preacher,
it's about the content of what's being preached. See, because
we got what's going on in America today, preacher worship. But it's not the preacher that
saves, it's the preaching that saves. 1 Corinthians 1, verse
18, it pleased God that through the foolishness of preaching,
he should save those that are believing the gospel. Are you
hearing me? It's the ministry of preaching. You are saved because of what
you heard, not who said it. You guys got that? This is so
very important. It's so very important. And this
is what's so wonderful about the Isaiah account. But now here's
something that's very ominous. Listen to what he said in verse nine. And he said, go,
and tell this people, now this people are the same people that
Paul is talking to in Romans 10. Now watch this, go tell this
people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Verse 10, make the heart of this
people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes. lest they should see with their
eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart
and be converted and be healed. What kind of ministry did Isaiah
have? Well, no, I'm going to tell you
what kind of ministry that he had. I want you to hear me now
because I want to make sure you understand something with regards
to what appears to be a formula when it is merely a process and
it's a process that requires other things that are not alluded
to or at least expressed in the context. For while we say that
it's imperative that in order for men to call, they have to
believe, and in order for them to believe, they have to hear. In order for them to hear, there
has to be the preaching, right? We got all that, right? In order
for there to be the preaching, there must be a set one to confirm
that. Still, the issue of hearing is a work of God. God's work. And in God's purpose, and this
is his own purpose. He has decreed who will hear
the gospel and believe it and who will hear the gospel and
not believe it. Are you guys hearing me? See,
Israel becomes what we call the magnanimous example of people
who have heard and heard and heard and all the gospel did
for them was harden their heart and close their eyes so that
by the time Messiah came they couldn't see him. Am I making some sense? So Isaiah
700 years before Jesus came was given the commission to go preach
to his Hebrew constituents. And if you read Isaiah, his message
is the gospel. It's Babylonian captivity because
of your disobedience. After 70 years, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Tell her that her warfare is
over, her sins are pardoned. And then Isaiah chapter 52 and
Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 66. There is no clearer gospel in
all the Old Testament than the book of Isaiah. And yet his preaching
got him killed. The historical records say they
sawed Isaiah in half. Why are you shocked? That's what
Jesus said. You've killed all the prophets.
You've slain all the apostles. And you're going to deal with
me the same way. That's what he said. So now go with me in
your Bible to Matthew 13, because I want you to see this so that
you understand that we're dealing with a continuity of truth that
runs all the way through scripture. Now the fulfillment of Isaiah
chapter six is given to us in Matthew chapter 13. There's only
a couple of verses I want to go to, and then we'll come back
to this next week. In Matthew chapter 13, listen
to what it says, starting at verse 10 through 15. I want you
to see it because Jesus is quoting Isaiah. Are we there? Verse 10. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Lord, why are you speaking unto them in parables? Got it? And here's what Jesus said. Because
it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven, but unto them it is not given. Watch this. To you it's given, to them is
not. Now who's gonna argue with God? See it? Now I'll tell you right
now, legions of theologians and scholars who have infiltrated
seminaries and colleges, who are unregenerate and don't know
God and don't love God and despise his word, stumble at this truth,
the sovereignty of God to determine who will hear, believe, receive
and obey his word and who won't. And at best, your theologians
and your pastors who've gone through seminary and understand
these complex truths, they either don't touch these things or they
explain them in a way that actually distorts the truth of God's sovereignty
in the drawing of sinners and in the rejection of sinners.
You guys got that? But what you note in the Bible
is there is no Apology or qualification to the heart language of scripture
Jesus doesn't soften the text. He doesn't qualify it He doesn't
set you up. He doesn't use user friendly
language. He doesn't use seeker friendly
terminology. He plainly says Unto you it is
given Unto them it is not So now notice what he goes on
to say, therefore I speak to them in parable, because they
see what? See not. In hearing, they hear
not. Neither do they what? And in
them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. See, we're going back
to Isaiah six, right? So 700 years earlier, Isaiah
was told by God, speak to Israel. 700 years later, Jesus comes,
who is the revelation of all scripture. They reject him because
they're blinded. Why are they blinded? Because
all the way throughout the history of Israel they were given testimony
after testimony after testimony after testimony after testimony
and they would not bow their incredulous hearts to the truth
of God. Are you guys hearing me? And
so the end of Romans chapter 9 is still the premise upon which
Romans chapter 10 opens up. Why did Israel fail to obtain
the righteousness which is of God? Because they didn't seek
it by faith but as it were by the works of the law. See, remember,
there's a premise to chapter 10. The premise to chapter 10
is the question, how come Israel, for the most part, has rejected
Jesus? Because they believe that they
are worthy enough to get to God by their own deeds. And as soon
as a person thinks that he can do one thing in order to merit
favor with God, you have canceled out the gospel. You cannot be
saved as long as you think you can do one thing to get right
with God. You who will be justified by
the works of the law, any work, every work, one work have fallen
from grace. Are you guys hearing me? The
purpose of this kind of teaching is to lay the sinner low and
have him to do one thing. Beg God for mercy. And that's
the heart that God hears. the high and the lofty God that
inhabits eternity. He dwells with the broken and
the contrite and the one that trembles at his word to lift
up the contrite one and to revive his spirit that he might inhabit
them. So what is God looking for? He's
looking for the man or the woman that says nothing in my hands
I bring simply to your cross I cling naked come to thee for
dress. Naked come to thee for dress. Naked come to thee for dressing
father. I'm coming because you gave me
strength to come See it are you guys hearing me?
I'm here to tell you no one will ever be saved by one thing. They
presume that they did to get right with God Jesus did it all
to him. I'll see that left the crimson
state. He washed it white as snow What
can wash away my sins? nothing, but the blood of Jesus
and See, they used to get it right in the old hymns. We got
all these new songs going on. They all sound nice, but I like
the theology because they got it right. They got it right. We're done for the night. Let's
close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you
for this time. We ask you to help us to understand what it
means to truly hear. Bless us as we go our way. Watch over us. Give us traveling
mercies. Prepare our hearts to worship you on Sunday, wherever
we worship you. Grace us to worship you. in spirit
and in truth for such the father seeketh to worship in Jesus name
we pray amen