The Necessity of Evangelism

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

1 view

0 comments

00:07
We pray ourselves for hearing the Word.
00:11
We want to go to the Lord in prayer.
00:16
We want to pray for the lesson, but I also want to pray for those among us who are not well.
00:25
I want to pray for Pat West, my grandmother, as she continues dealing with her difficulties.
00:34
I found out today.
00:36
I talked to Mary McCrae and found out that Alton has about, I want to say she said about 20 pounds of additional fluid that has built up on him.
00:49
And so he is swollen and is going to have to go see a heart and a kidney doctor to see about having that dealt with.
01:00
So we want to pray for them.
01:02
We want to continue praying obviously for Troy and Cheryl and their loss as she continues to deal with that.
01:11
Also on the Buntings as well who are here tonight.
01:14
I want to pray and ask God to be with us as a church as we continue to seek His will and continue to do what He has called us to do.
01:27
And I want to pray for two things in regards to the church.
01:34
I want to pray for a desire for evangelism as tonight's message will be focused on this, but it's also something that has just really begun to pierce my heart as of late on some of the things that I've just had to consider in my studies and in my thought life and times of prayer.
02:03
And I want to also pray that God would bring a desire for sanctification to us.
02:10
Not just as a church, but individually.
02:15
That we would desire to be conformed to the image of Christ ever more strongly.
02:19
Not in the hope that this would create in us a more saved condition because you can't be any more saved than you are if you're in Christ.
02:27
But a desire for conformity to His image.
02:30
For I think that often such a lofty goal gets lost in the activity of doing church.
02:42
And yet, that is the goal for which we have been predestined to.
02:46
So, let us tonight go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to be with us for these things.
02:59
Our Father and our God, we are humbled by the fact that You have called us out of death into life.
03:10
That You have reached into the deadness of our hearts.
03:14
You have given us the gift of Your Holy Spirit.
03:17
And You have seated us in heavenly places.
03:21
For Lord God, we not only were undeserving of such love and grace, but Lord, we know in our heart of hearts, we were deserving of punishment.
03:38
We were deserving of justice.
03:45
And Lord, I pray that as we look out to the world which we have been called to evangelize, that we would never look at a person or a people group or an individual group or anyone and think that they are unworthy to hear the gospel of grace.
04:15
And Lord, that we would have that message of life, that spirit of being an ambassador for Christ, to have that marked on our spirit and marked in our daily task.
04:33
Lord, we see the works of men like Paul who in his day had no automobile, had no telephone, but yet was able to reach out and touch thousands with his preaching.
04:57
Lord, let it be that we are so convinced of the gospel that we are never afraid to share that gospel.
05:10
And Lord, we pray and we thank You for this church.
05:15
We thank You for all that You've done in bringing us to where we are.
05:21
And Lord, I thank You for all the blessings that You've given to us.
05:28
And yet, Lord, we still ask.
05:32
We ask for more blessing.
05:34
We ask for the blessing of sanctification, that there be a desire for purity that falls upon all of our hearts, that we would put away those things which are displeasing to You and our attitudes.
05:53
And Lord, I thank You for Your mercy.
05:59
And we pray, Lord, Your mercy upon those among us who are sick, among those of us who are hurting, who are suffering loss.
06:11
And we ask that You be merciful to them.
06:16
And Lord, now as we turn to the pages of Scripture for our instruction, I pray first and foremost, Lord, that You would keep me from error as I am a fallible man.
06:35
And I pray, Lord, that You would protect the people.
06:38
Put a hedge around their heart, Lord.
06:41
Let in only that which is true to Your Word.
06:47
And Lord, in all these things and in all ways, we would ask that everything that we do would glorify You.
06:56
And that in this hour of worship, we would not be focused upon anything but the Word of God.
07:03
And not just to learn it scholastically, but Lord, that the Word may penetrate our hearts and go to our hands and to our feet and to our mouth.
07:17
And that it would affect us.
07:21
Not just on the surface level, but that it would affect us to the very heart of who we are and change us.
07:34
We love You, Lord.
07:35
We thank You.
07:36
We praise You.
07:38
In Jesus' name, amen.
07:45
Again, if you want to open your Bibles to Romans chapter 10, tonight we are going to be looking at verses 11 and going all the way to the end of the chapter, verses 11 through 21.
08:08
There's a chance we might not get to all of it, but I have one thought which I think is derived from this text.
08:17
One main idea that I would like to expound.
08:21
So I want to begin by reading the entire block of text.
08:26
Verse 11 through 21.
08:28
It says in verse 11, "'For Scripture says, "'Everyone who believes in Him "'will not be put to shame.
08:39
"'For there is no distinction "'between Jew and Greek.
08:45
"'For the same Lord is Lord of all, "'bestowing His riches on all who call on Him.
08:50
"'For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord "'will be saved.
08:56
"'How then will they call on Him "'in whom they have not believed? "'And how are they to believe in Him "'of whom they have never heard? "'And how are they to hear without someone preaching? "'And how are they to preach unless they are sent "'as it is written, "'How beautiful are the feet of those "'who preach the good news! "'But they have not all obeyed the gospel.
09:19
"'For Isaiah says, "'Lord, who has believed what He has heard from us?' "'So faith comes from hearing, "'and hearing through the word of Christ.
09:30
"'But I ask, have they not heard? "'Indeed they have, "'for their voice has gone out, "'their voice has gone out to all the earth, "'and their words to the end of the world.
09:41
"'But I ask, did Israel not understand? "'First Moses said, "'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation, "'and with a foolish nation I will make you angry.
09:52
"'Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "'I have been found by those who did not seek me.
09:58
"'I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.
10:02
"'But of Israel, he says, "'All day long I have held out my hands "'to a disobedient and contrary people.'" May God have His blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His word.
10:22
The context of Romans chapters nine through 11 is God's dealing with the nation of Israel.
10:31
The question, of course, begins in chapter nine when the Apostle Paul, he asked the question, a rhetorical question, which he could assume someone would ask him, has God abandoned His people? And he says, certainly not, for I am an Israelite.
10:46
And Paul makes the point that there is a remnant that has been chosen according to grace, that there is salvation which has come to Israel, but it's a salvation that's also gone out into the whole world.
10:59
It's not confined to the people of Israel anymore.
11:04
Thus, when he is speaking in Romans 10, he's speaking about the universality of the gospel.
11:12
He's speaking about the fact that salvation, the parameters of salvation is that where it was once held within one nation and one people on the earth, that now there will be people who will be saved from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation to the glory of God the Father through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
11:39
And this is why in verse 11, Paul has already given us, we looked at this the last time we looked at in Romans, we've looked at the message of salvation.
11:48
The message of salvation began in verse nine.
11:51
He says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
11:59
And the apostle goes on to say, for with the heart one believes and is justified.
12:05
And with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
12:10
And we talked about how those two things go together.
12:13
And Byron made the point, which I thought was very good.
12:16
And having really thought about it afterward, it makes perfect sense.
12:20
The only way that you can say Jesus is Lord in the present tense is that you believe that He has been raised from the dead.
12:28
You can't say Jesus is Lord if Jesus is still dead.
12:32
Because if Jesus is dead, He's not Lord of anything.
12:35
If Jesus is dead, He's no longer anyone's Lord.
12:38
He's nothing but a corpse.
12:41
But the Bible says that we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord on the basis that we believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
12:54
And he goes on to say, for with the heart one believes and is justified.
13:00
And with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
13:05
All because of the work of Christ.
13:08
And then it goes on.
13:10
The Apostle in verse 11, which is where we're starting tonight, he goes on to quote from Isaiah.
13:17
He says in verse 11, for the Scripture says, he doesn't tell us where in the Scripture, but we can find it ourselves.
13:24
It's Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 16 is the Scripture that he's referencing.
13:29
Of course, at this time, there were no chapter numbers.
13:32
There were no verse numbers, but he just simply says it's as if I was standing here and I says, well, the Bible says this.
13:38
And this is what Paul is doing.
13:39
He said, the Scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.
13:51
Now, there are other renderings of that.
13:53
Some of your English translations might say whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.
14:00
And if you look at it in the book of Isaiah, if you go to Isaiah 28 and verse 16, it actually says whoever believes in Him will not be in haste.
14:11
And that seems like an interesting translation where how could it be in the Hebrew will not be in haste and then translated into the English as it will not be disappointed.
14:22
Well, they mean similar things.
14:23
They mean basically the same thing.
14:24
But the point is right here, Paul is actually quoting from the Septuagint.
14:29
Paul is quoting from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which does say basically this.
14:35
It says that whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.
14:42
No person who genuinely believes in Christ will be disappointed in death for they will receive in their death eternal life.
14:53
The Jews had long believed that they were the ones, the only ones whom God would save.
14:59
But Paul's words here show the inclusiveness of the gospel to those even outside of the Hebrew race.
15:06
He says in verse 11, everyone who believes will not be disappointed.
15:14
Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.
15:19
Now, I realize for some ardent Reformed folks, we can get kind of nervous around words like all and everyone and things like that.
15:30
But we mustn't allow our understanding of God's sovereignty in election to make us forget that God has elected people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
15:44
And as such, everyone who believes will be saved.
15:50
I think that the Armenians sometimes think that they have a hold on that phrase.
15:56
I think they sometimes think that they've cornered the market on the word everyone, but they haven't cornered any market.
16:02
The truth of the matter is this.
16:05
If I preach the gospel or if you preach the gospel to someone and they believe the gospel, they will be saved.
16:15
Why will they believe the gospel? They will believe the gospel because God has been gracious to them to open their heart.
16:22
But yet, even in that, it's everyone who believes.
16:30
Everyone who believes will have eternal life.
16:34
And he goes on in verse 12 to make the distinction clearly.
16:38
He says, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
16:42
You've got to understand, Tim's saying there's no distinction between Jew and Greek.
16:48
To the Jewish ear, that would have been the most offensive language because they had always considered there to be a distinction between the Jews and everyone else.
17:01
The Jews were God's people and everyone else were dogs.
17:05
The Jews were God's chosen elect race and everyone else were mongrels.
17:11
And Paul here says, but there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
17:17
The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him.
17:27
And then verse 13, that very important passage.
17:31
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
17:43
Beloved, Paul is arguing here against a belief.
17:54
And I think sometimes the only way you can understand as an argument is to understand what he's arguing against.
18:00
And he's arguing against those people who would say, look, it is only us who believe who are going to be saved.
18:08
It's only the Jew who believes who's going to be saved.
18:11
Or it's only the American who believes who's going to be saved.
18:14
And we don't really care about everyone else.
18:17
And Paul says, no.
18:19
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
18:24
The barrier to salvation is not cultural.
18:27
The barrier to salvation is not racial.
18:32
The barrier to salvation is sinful.
18:36
The barrier to salvation is sin itself.
18:40
And Christ has torn down the wall of sin on the cross.
18:47
We are all by nature sinful people.
18:51
We are all by nature devoid of righteousness.
18:56
We are all by nature in opposition at enmity with God.
19:00
And I tell you, all you have to do to be convinced of that, if you desire something outside of the Scripture to convince you of that truth, simply go out and do some examinations of what the world says when the Gospel is proclaimed.
19:24
You will see one of two responses.
19:27
You will see the Gospel will be received by some and by others.
19:32
It is not as if people will just say, oh, well, I'm not interested.
19:35
It will be mocked.
19:36
It will be scorned.
19:38
It will be ridiculed.
19:39
It will be put aside.
19:40
It will be stomped underfoot.
19:43
Because those who are opposed to the Gospel, they are opposed to God.
19:47
And those who are opposed to God are not simply neutral.
19:54
There is no such thing as a neutral heart.
20:00
The heart is either in love with Jesus Christ or it is at enmity with God.
20:06
The Bible says so.
20:09
And we see that enmity.
20:12
All around us.
20:16
Somebody says, well, I know a guy, he's pretty neutral towards God.
20:19
He's only neutral towards God as long as he's allowed to be.
20:24
Confront him with his sin and you will see how neutral towards God he is.
20:31
Confront him with the reality of hell and you will see how neutral towards God he is.
20:35
He will become antagonistic towards that God who has condemned him because of his sins.
20:43
He will not be neutral because there is no such thing as neutrality.
20:50
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
20:53
This is true.
20:56
But we have to understand when we think about someone calling on the name of the Lord, the reason why they call on the name of the Lord is because they have heard the Gospel and the Gospel has changed their heart by the work of the Holy Spirit.
21:11
Not because they have been out seeking after God and been found by them.
21:18
God has been found by them.
21:19
That is not what has happened.
21:21
God has sought them out to change their hearts.
21:25
And this is what we see in verse 14.
21:28
Verse 14 through 15, Paul asks four questions.
21:35
And it is on the subject that I really am trying to get to tonight, because I think these four questions really focus on something that I think is of vast importance.
21:46
Because he's talking about everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
21:50
That's the context of verse 13 leading into verse 14.
21:54
The overall context is that it's not just Jews or Gentiles, but it's everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
22:00
But how? How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Four how questions back to back to back.
22:26
And I want to say this.
22:27
I want this to to really get into your mind tonight.
22:32
I think these four questions destroy any idea of there being any salvation outside of Christ.
22:39
People say, well, there's a lot of verses that do that.
22:41
Yes, but, you know, a lot of people jump to John 14 6.
22:45
Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth and life.
22:46
No one comes to the father but by me.
22:49
Obviously, that Jesus is saying he's exclusively the only one for salvation.
22:53
But.
22:54
There are other verses that teach that very same thing.
22:57
When Jesus, the night before he went to the cross, he's standing there before the father and he's down on his knees, he's praying and he says, Father, if there be another way.
23:05
Let there be another way, if there's another way, take this cup from me.
23:10
And did the cup get taken from him? No, that demonstrates there wasn't another way.
23:16
Likewise, here we see another claim to exclusivity from Paul, because Paul says this.
23:22
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
23:25
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? You see, the the implication of what he's saying in the question is that we have the responsibility to go and proclaim the gospel, because if they don't hear it, they can't believe it and they can't be saved by it.
23:54
So if you leave somebody without hearing the gospel, you have left them without the only way to be saved.
24:05
It's like the person whose house is on fire and you're the only person in the neighborhood with a hose.
24:11
But you decided that night to leave the hose in your garage because it was just too much trouble to go out there with it.
24:26
You have the words of life.
24:31
You have the gospel of life.
24:35
And it is the gospel that someone must hear to believe, and it is the gospel that someone must believe to be saved.
24:43
And how will they hear? Unless we go to them and give it to them.
24:55
Beloved, I must tell you, evangelism.
25:01
Evangelism has.
25:04
Been something that in my ministry, though I have preached the gospel here on many occasions and I have spoken to many unbelievers and I have proclaimed the gospel to many unbelievers.
25:17
I see weakness.
25:20
And myself.
25:23
And I'm not up here testifying so that anyone pat me on the back or tell me I'm OK or anything.
25:29
I'm not asking for that.
25:31
I'm just telling you, I know where I am.
25:37
My wife is the most.
25:41
The easiest person in the world to talk to ever, at least according to me.
25:46
And she's also the easiest person to go talk to somebody else.
25:49
She'll she'll strike up a conversation with anyone anywhere.
25:53
And as much as you probably think I'm not a shy person because I can stand up and do this.
26:03
I fret in my boots when engaging somebody I don't know.
26:12
On a topic as universally important.
26:16
As the gospel.
26:19
And what's amazing is I don't I don't mind talking to anybody in the world about karate.
26:26
I don't mind talking to anybody in the world.
26:30
About shooting.
26:33
And you know what? I don't know half as much about shooting or karate as I do this.
26:39
I'm not again, I'm not elevating myself.
26:41
I'm just saying God is God has given me the opportunity to go to school.
26:45
He's given me the opportunity to understand his word.
26:47
He's given me the opportunity to teach it.
26:51
And yet.
26:54
Satan.
26:55
And he is our adversary.
26:59
I've become very convinced in his work as of late.
27:04
More and more so.
27:08
And as he is our adversary, his, his.
27:14
The fear that comes into my heart in talking about this one issue.
27:20
And I don't know if you feel it.
27:22
I don't know if you deal with it.
27:25
But I can only imagine.
27:28
That there is a.
27:29
At least some connection that I'm making tonight with your heart on this issue.
27:37
That we have the issue that when we go to say something about the gospel, our society, which is not managed by Christ, but rather is the God of this world who is Satan, manages much of our society.
27:51
And even though God is sovereign, God has allowed Satan to infiltrate society and in society.
27:57
Society has told us you don't want to offend people.
28:03
So you don't need to talk about things that are offensive.
28:05
So what have we been told? We can't talk about polite society, religion and politics.
28:09
Right.
28:09
But everybody talks about politics.
28:13
Especially since Fox News, everybody talks about politics.
28:19
We can talk about politics.
28:21
But we can't talk about Christ because we don't want to offend.
28:26
We can't stand on the truth of the word of God because, well, they don't believe the word of God.
28:32
So we have to be neutral.
28:36
We can't be neutral.
28:38
Once you've given up the word of God and said, oh, well, I'll try to talk to you about Jesus without using the Bible.
28:46
OK, no, you won't.
28:50
You can't.
28:54
The word of God must be our proclamation because our words don't mean anything.
29:03
They are vain, useless.
29:06
Only the word of God will change the heart.
29:11
And thus, when we think about Paul's command here, Paul's asking these questions, how how how are they to call on him and whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? He's he's asking the question in.
29:26
The purpose of bringing the response of us saying.
29:31
If this is the only way they can know, then we must go.
29:34
We must proclaim it.
29:37
We must herald the gospel.
29:42
Yesterday I was coming home.
29:45
I had gone to a pastor's lunch, enjoyed fellowshipping with some other pastors in the area.
29:53
And driving through my neighborhood and I see two gentlemen.
30:02
Walking together, bright white shirts, dark ties, name placards, black pants, and I knew who they were and I knew what they were doing.
30:16
And I drove past them.
30:19
They were just walking and I just.
30:27
My heart started to ache because I knew what was coming.
30:34
God often puts me in these times, type of situations where I would be able to share with people in the most precarious times.
30:45
And so I look back in my rearview mirror and I see them walking and they're walking towards me and I know they're walking towards a person's house that I know.
30:54
So I get home and I wasn't going to go back.
30:57
I was just.
30:59
I just I couldn't do it.
31:00
I said, OK, well, I honked the horn.
31:03
Kids were inside.
31:04
I said, hey, kids, y'all stay here.
31:05
I'll be back.
31:06
So I rode back and they must have thought I was crazy.
31:10
That's sometimes that's good.
31:12
Sometimes it's good to have the advantage of people not assuming that you're saying, you know, when I got back, they had cornered my most, you know, my children adopted.
31:24
They have another brother who is 15 and he lives with it.
31:29
He was adopted by another family in our neighborhood.
31:32
So they had this 15 year old kid cornered outside and it was these two Mormon boys.
31:40
So I pulled up, I walked up to the door, I bypassed them, totally walked up to the door to let the mother know that I had come because I had seen what was going on.
31:51
And I said, I said, I'm going to I'm going to talk to them.
31:55
And she she missed the point completely, I think she didn't know what was going on, but I said, I want you to know I'm going to be in your yard for a minute.
32:04
And I don't I don't know why I approached it this way.
32:09
And part of the sharing tonight, just reading this verse and remembering what happened yesterday, I walked up to them and I said, I said, look, guys, I said, you are here in my neighborhood preaching a false gospel, preaching a false Christ, preaching a false God.
32:28
I said, and I want to tell you about the real Jesus Christ.
32:33
Now, is that offensive? Yeah, it was.
32:38
But you know what? We talked for over 30 minutes.
32:41
Because I didn't go up and make any bones about what I was there to do.
32:45
I didn't go up and say, hey, guys, I want to talk to you about the weather and how good things are and how bad things are, because that's what they do.
32:52
When they come to your house, these Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, when they come to your house, they want to talk to you about everything and spin you around in a circle to get you to where they can start talking to you about their teachings.
33:05
They want to get you to agree with them.
33:07
Don't you think the world is in a bad way? Yes, the world is in a bad way.
33:10
Don't you think there's a reason for it? Yes, I think there's a reason for it.
33:13
And now they've got you.
33:14
They've begun their conversation.
33:21
We have to be able to look the world in the face and say, judgment is coming.
33:30
Hell is the result of rejecting Christ.
33:34
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
33:39
And there is no other way.
33:44
That is a scary proposition.
33:47
That is an offensive proposition.
33:50
That is.
33:50
And let me tell you this about offensiveness.
33:52
You're not going to make it better.
33:55
No matter how much you dress it up, the end of the gospel is this.
34:01
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
34:03
Reject the Lord Jesus Christ or try to stay neutral and you will go to hell.
34:11
I don't care how you dress it up.
34:14
I don't care how many stories you tell to flower it up when it comes down to the end and you proclaim that gospel, it will offend or it will change their heart.
34:28
And that is up to God.
34:32
And I like what he says, because he says in verse 15, he says, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? That's a quotation there, a scriptural quotation.
34:50
Do you know where that quote, what the idea of that quotation comes from? Back in the times where cities were walled, they would have when the men would go out and fight, they would have a person who took the information back and forth.
35:08
They didn't have cell phones.
35:10
They didn't have cans on strings.
35:12
They had a guy who would go and he would be the messenger back and forth.
35:19
And when you saw the messenger coming back, you could tell by his countenance, you could tell by his approach whether it was good news or bad news.
35:35
And they said, how beautiful are the feet of those who carry the good news? How beautiful is the approach of the one who carries the good news? Because from afar off, you can see that it is good news.
35:50
You can imagine the person coming back with bad news.
35:53
The war is lost and you can see that from afar off.
36:01
Beloved, we have good news to tell the world, is it offensive message to those who do not believe it is an offensive message to those who do not believe it.
36:13
But beloved, when a person does believe it, when God opens up a person's heart to believe it, your coming to them will be a beautiful thing.
36:29
And they will never forget your coming.
36:35
Everyone in here who has had someone lead them to Christ and we all must have if we're in Christ, someone preach the gospel to us.
36:43
Maybe it was over years and years and different preachers and finally God opened up your heart or maybe it was that one person in college or that one person in the ministry or that one person when you were at Murray Hill Theater that preached the gospel to you and you believe that you remember it and you know how beautiful the feet of those who brought that good news to you, how beautiful it was that you had a person in your life that was willing to tell you about life and death.
37:13
And that's what we're dealing with.
37:16
We're dealing with a life or death situation.
37:22
It's not as a, as a, as I was talking tonight to the Frasers on the way in, it's not as if we're dealing with which, which basketball team to choose or which football team to, to, to to watch.
37:39
It really doesn't matter at the end of the season who got the most touchdowns or not in the grand scheme of life.
37:49
What matters is whether or not we bowed the knee to Christ.
37:53
And truly received him a sake.
37:57
Now, Paul goes on in the text and we're running short on time.
38:01
So I just want to read through and make a few comments as we come to a conclusion.
38:08
In verse 16, he says, but, but they have not all obeyed the gospel.
38:13
Who is he speaking about? He's talking about the Jews.
38:18
For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us.
38:22
And again, he's, he's, he's quoting scripture.
38:25
And he's saying, even in the time of Isaiah, there were people among the Jews who didn't believe.
38:32
And beloved, there has never been a time in history, even in the time of the Old Testament, where being born a Jew made you saved.
38:41
The Bible says it has always been by grace through faith.
38:45
Abraham was saved by grace through faith.
38:48
Moses was saved by grace through faith.
38:50
And even in the Old Testament, there were people who went away from the Lord, their God who were Jewish.
38:55
They were not saved.
38:56
The remnant was saved.
39:01
And he goes on to say verse 17.
39:03
So faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
39:10
That is our job to preach the word of Christ so people will hear it and be saved, believe and be saved.
39:19
And then in verse 18, he says, but I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have for their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the earth.
39:34
But I ask, did Israel not understand? First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are a nation with a foolish nation.
39:43
I will make you angry.
39:44
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me.
39:48
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.
39:52
But Israel of Israel, he says all day long, I've held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
39:57
Now, verses 19 through 21 are setting up the discussion for Chapter 11.
40:04
Because in Chapter 11, he is going to really deal with the issue of why is it that most of the Jews have not received Christ? If if they are God's people, why is it that they are not receiving Christ? And we're going to see in Chapter 11, a very important truth where God talks about the root being holy.
40:29
And he talks about the branches, some of the branches being removed, and some being grafted in from other trees.
40:37
We are the grafted in branches.
40:45
God said, I'm going to make Israel jealous by pulling in Gentiles.
40:57
I'm going to make Israel jealous by allowing myself to be found by the Gentiles and blinding their eyes.
41:14
And then he says that important verse in verse 21.
41:17
He says all day long, I've held my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
41:21
Beloved, if you wonder what that means, read the Old Testament again.
41:27
God over and over and over held out his hand of mercy to the Jewish people, and they consistently, like an untrained dog, bit that hand.
41:44
He says, all day long, I have given them mercy upon mercy.
41:48
All day long, I have given them my word, my ordinances.
41:52
I have given them the very priesthood so that they could worship me.
42:01
And yet they were disobedient.
42:02
They were contrary.
42:09
Something to always remember, beloved.
42:14
The only reason why we come to Christ is because God opened our heart to come.
42:21
But I will tell you this, God holds no one back.
42:26
That sounds interesting, doesn't it? And somebody who obviously teaches election and things like that.
42:31
Let me say it again.
42:31
God holds no one back.
42:35
But the only reason why anyone comes is because he graciously reaches out and pulls us to himself.
42:43
There's no one on Judgment Day who will be able to say, God, you held me back.
42:52
No one.
42:55
The Bible says in Romans chapter one, that God has made himself clear to all people who he is.
43:03
And yet they have not received that truth, but instead they have suppressed it in unrighteousness.
43:13
John MacArthur said it just the other day, as I was listening to his sermon, the only one we will be able to blame on Judgment Day will be ourselves.
43:24
If we are in hell on Judgment Day, we will blame ourselves.
43:33
Beloved, I pray for this church.
43:37
I pray that our hearts will see our responsibility for evangelism.
43:44
We'll see our responsibility to preach the gospel.
43:47
We'll see our responsibility to reach out to the world and share the message of Christ.
43:54
And then let God be God and do what only he can.
43:59
Change hearts to trust in him.
44:06
With that, let us pray.
44:13
Our Father and our God, we thank you for your mercy.
44:18
We thank you for this opportunity that we have to hear your words yet again.
44:24
We pray, O Lord, that you would open up our hearts evermore to understand it, to proclaim it, and to do so without fear.
44:37
Lord, we love you.
44:39
We thank you for your mercy.
44:43
We ask, O Lord, again, to mercy us evermore with faith in you, that we would trust what your word says, to hold to it, to not seek some kind of neutrality with the world, but to understand that we stand on the firm bedrock of the scriptures, which is your word.
45:06
In Jesus' name we pray and for his sake.
45:10
Amen.