Excuses, Excuses, Excuses
Romans 10:18-21 · Mike Doyle · Nov 3, 2024
Romans (2022-25), No. 097
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926193787763

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Yeah, interesting verses. This last couple of weeks, and even before that, I know Roger is like me. We've been challenged by these verses. And they have such wonderful application, not only to the Jews, but to all human beings. As he read in 28, but I say, Paul, the apostle, surely they have never heard, have they? And then he quotes, which we'll see in a minute. He says, yeah, they have, they heard. Their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the end of the world. But I say, surely Israel didn't know, did they? So two issues, did they hear? And after they heard, did they know? Did they understand?

Moses says, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation. By a nation without understanding, I will anger you. And then he says, and Isaiah was very bold. I was found by those who did not seek me. I became manifest to those who didn't ask for me. But as Israel, as for Israel, he says, all the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.

So, there's a theme here. These four verses will eliminate all excuses for not being saved, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, doesn't matter. That's what these are all about. You remember that the goal of everything that God's grace revealed is that in order to enter the kingdom for the Jew or for us who want to go to heaven, one must have God's righteousness in order to get in. That's the ticket. You've got to have that.

Now in verse 18 through 21, Paul's gonna prove that there was no excuse for not having the righteousness of God, especially to the Jews. Specific application to Israel, but more general application to everybody. So it's like Paul's thinking in his mind, Is there any way I can explain away Israel's not acquiring God's righteousness? Can I, as I think about this, how can I sort of explain away the fact that Israel doesn't have God's righteousness? The answer specifically for Israel and generally for all Gentiles is you don't have an excuse for missing God's righteousness. You really don't.

The witness Paul is gonna call to the stand, the witnesses Paul's gonna call to the stand are all Jews. One of them's a king, David. The next one is a legislator priest, Moses. And the last one is a prophet, Isaiah. The general application is to all who have heard the gospel and have rejected it. Israel turns out it's a microcosm of all men.

Verse 13, if you remember, for everyone whosoever who shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And you remember the verse explains the point of the entire paragraph. Salvation or God's righteousness is for anyone who calls dependently upon the name of the Lord, and that name is Jesus Christ. This word calls means it's in the middle voice and the idea is calling needfully or dependently on God, on Jesus Christ.

When you see these scriptures speak of the name of our Lord Jesus, they're obviously summing up everything that he is and is known by, everything. So verse 18 says, but I say, surely you have never heard, have you? Indeed, they have. Their voice has gone out to all the earth in their words to the ends of the world. Indeed they have. They can't say they haven't heard. Can anybody in the United States or on the planet say they haven't heard about Jesus Christ? There are few. But we'll see in a minute, they still don't have an excuse.

Notice that Paul does not go back 25 years to Pentecost for an example. He goes to the Old Testament that covers, actually only covers 25 years, but he goes to the Old Testament that covers centuries. He wants to convince and convict by revelation from Israel's own leaders. not his own recent experience. And I view this as a really interesting issue because some would try to convince you based upon their own experience, but Paul goes to scripture instead. How many times have you listened to somebody and the proof of your witness was your experience? If you just stick with the scriptures, the power is in the scriptures, not your experience. So the point is the messenger's experience is not proof that what you're saying is true.

So what's he referring to, Psalm 19, one through five? It's a key passage on natural revelation. You can learn from the creation about the creator. So, notice what it says. The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day he pours forth speech, and night to night he reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, or voices not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the end of the world. In them, he has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It rejoices in a strong man to run the course."

What I find interesting about these verses is the idea that the natural revelation is what reveals the creator. So natural revelation, what may be concluded about creation that tells us about the creator from his work. So when I got to this point, I told Phil I was gonna talk about him. So stay with me. The heavens are telling specifics about the creator in verse one.

The witness never stops. It's going on all the time, 24-7. No words, the witness is inaudible. You can go, when I got to this point, I was thinking about Courtney, he talks about how scuba diving, he gets down 30 feet and he looks at a reef that, if you've ever seen one, it's just spectacular. It talks to you about who the one was, what the character of the one was that created that reef. all the time. It doesn't have to say, go out and look at the Rocky Mountains. They'll talk to you about the creator who made it.

The witness is universal. It's everywhere. Everywhere you look is the creator's handiwork. In them, he has placed a tent for the sun. The message of the gospel is now as universal as the testimony of the heavens. No one would deny that there is heavens. All you have to do is wait till it gets dark. Psalm 19 has its answer now in Christ being set in the heavens as the true son of the moral universe.

So when we look, we see really the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's the one through whom the creation was brought into being. And so he's in it. And we've studied this before. This revelation has been met by present history. The message has gone out to the Mediterranean basin.

If you look at Acts 17, one through six, here's what you'll see. when they did not find them. Now this is the story of Paul being, I forget the town he was in, but right next door to the synagogue was this fella who lived and was a Jewish guy. And they were looking for Paul and his buddies and couldn't find him, so they found the guy that lived next door, Jason. And it says, when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities.

Now, what was the accusation? These men who have upset the world have come here also. So where do they say the message is? It's in the known world. Acts 21, 27 to 28, crying out, men of Israel, come to our aid. This is the man, talking about Paul, who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the law. and this place and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled the holy place. So what is he talking about? He's talking about the message going out to all the world.

It's not hidden. Paul didn't stay home. The people that heard the message continued to carry it with them. Now the point I wanted to make about Phil was this. If you called me up and said, look, I have some carpentry work to be done in my house. Will you come over and fix it? So I'd go over there and fix it. And then they'd call Phil after me and say, would you come over and fix what Mike did? How do they know about Phil? By his work. By his work. We're all known that way. We're all known by how we live our life and what we do. Everybody is known by their characteristics. It's no different with the Lord Jesus as creator. The word goes out everywhere.

But I say surely they have never heard. These things cannot be limited just to Israel now. The Messiah, according to the flesh, might be peculiarly theirs, and in a sense limited to them, but the message of a rejected and crucified Messiah by his own, Israel, and set as a glorified man at the right hand of God in heaven, couldn't be limited in any way. God isn't gonna allow the crucifixion of his son go by and not have anybody hear about it.

The sun shines on every creature under the sun, every creature. And Christ is the true sun, shining now from the heavens where God has set him. And the divine voice goes out now unto all the earth in their words to the ends of the inhabitable world. Everybody knows all they gotta do is look. Their voice has gone out to all the earth and to the ends of the world.

The heavens don't belong to the land in particular, nor do the sun and the stars shine just for Israel alone. Therefore men in the earth at large, according to the generosity of God himself, whose rain falls on just and the unjust, and whose sun is made to rise on evil men and good men. Just so, whatever the limited sphere of the law, the gospel goes forth into grace of God without restriction. The law, the message of the law was restricted. To Israel, the message of grace goes to all men. God is not indifferent.

If the Jews were to the Gentiles, he has given a testimony to them in their dark ignorance. He's telling them something. So what if they heard, but they didn't understand what they heard? So what happens now? Paul says, but surely, I say, Israel didn't know or understand. First, he calls Moses to the stand. He says, first, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation. By a nation without understanding, I will anger you.

Again, the question contains the answer. They knew. They knew. Did they understand? Can I show that they heard but didn't understand? I can't show that. because the creation and the word comes with the understanding. You can't look at the cordon's reef and not understand. You can just admire it and try to make it out something is different, but what it reveals to you is the creator. So what did they know?

So he calls Moses to the stand and he quotes Deuteronomy 32, 21. They have made me jealous, and with what is not God, they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous for those who are not a people, and I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation." So you would think that Israel would say, well, How are you going to promote me? What if I just don't care about them? I mean, they are dogs, you know. And God says, look, I'm going to make you jealous. And I'm going to make you angry. and I'm gonna compare it with the marvelous place and privilege of the race of Israel, it could not be said of every other people in the world. As we talked about last week, how much scripture is in the Old Testament is dedicated to God talking to Gentiles? Or how many prophets did the Gentiles have? How many priests did they have? And have any?

So they're out there by themselves, but they don't have an excuse, because they're in the same universe. It's like, I read an article one time about the salvation of a woman in Africa, and she, one day, this has to be God's work, one day she looks at the tree in the middle of the village, which the village honored as God, and in her mind she said, I know, that that tree isn't God.

I know the one that made it is God, and I wanna know your name. So sometime later, here comes a missionary into the village. She goes up to him and says, what's his name? He said, let me show you. Pulls out of his, his name is Jesus Christ. So it spoke to her. The creation spoke to her.

Gentiles, or the nations, It is a no nation. It is a nation void of understanding of the things of God. The whole Gentile nations. And he says, I'm gonna anger them. I'm gonna anger you Jews, for Israel can be reached in no other way, either then or now. I find it interesting that they don't have this anger and jealousy right now. I live in that neighborhood of the Hasidic Jews. They think I'm nuts. I think they're nuts.

I mean, my discussions with the rabbi, we never could get to talking about grace because he was so steeped in the Talmud, the Torah, that that's all he ever wanted to talk about. And every time I brought up faith or righteousness or grace, he would cut off the conversation. So he's not jealous, he just doesn't want to hear. But there's coming a time when the nation of Israel will see the grace of God extended to Gentiles, to all of us, and they will be jealous about that.

And not only that, they'll be angry about it. Why are you letting those dogs, why are you giving those dogs salvation? So if he seeks to provoke them to jealousy, beware how you worry over them. They're in good hands. God has that whole situation in control.

The nation Israel had rejected their Messiah, Jesus Christ. And now they were being provoked to jealousy through God's blessing to the Gentiles. They don't see it yet, but it's coming. There are some that do, but not very many. God was being found by those who didn't seek him. That's an important point. God was being found by those who did not seek him. He was becoming known to those who didn't inquire about him. didn't inquire about him.

All this was known to Israel, but it didn't affect them in any gracious way. You can talk to a Jewish person who's serious about Judaism, and if he wants to talk about how God has dealt with the Jews, most of them don't even want to talk about it. They think that most of their history are fables. But when they start to see the grace that the Gentiles have received, and for no reason other than God is gracious, they'll be jealous.

The general thought is all had not believed and this proved it was a testimony to the Jews and it was gone out to all the world. God went from restricting it to Israel to proclaiming it to the whole world. And Isaiah says very boldly, I was found by those who didn't seek me. I became manifest to those who didn't ask for me.

Paul calls Isaiah to the stand next, and the witness says, he gives a double testimony. He says he's very bold in his prophecy of the Gentile salvation. And through these verses, Moses and now Isaiah and David, What's happening? Paul is saying, I'm quoting your old Old Testament scriptures, Moses, Isaiah, because you knew, because I sent guys to tell you about it. You knew, you know, so you don't have an excuse. Isaiah 65, one. And I love how this translation goes.

I permitted myself to be sought. That's that way of saying that God permitted the Gentiles to find him and to seek for him by those who didn't ask for me. I permitted myself to be found by those who didn't seek me. Here I am, here I am. to a nation which didn't call on my name. For me and you being Gentiles, there's so much grace in that verse, it's hard to grab a hold of it. We're saved and we're members of this group that didn't seek after God. We didn't call on his name. I was found of them that sought me not. I became manifest to them who didn't ask for me. I showed myself to them.

So what are the two issues in which all men are alike? First issue, Romans 3.9 quotes Psalm 14 and 53. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So you don't have to belong to any group except being a sinner. We all are sinners, and it doesn't matter if you're Jew or Gentile. All the other distinctions go away. You're either a sinner or you're not, and we are. All humanity is.

Romans 3.9 says, what then, are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged both Jew and Gentile are all under sin. It isn't that they have sinned, they're under it.

It is written in Psalm 13.1 and 53.2, there is none righteous, not even one. And so where did we start out a month ago on this? We started out with the Jews seeking personal righteousness to be acceptable to God. We found out that without God's righteousness, you had no chance of getting in. So you had to believe him about the Savior in order to receive his righteousness by placing you in Christ.

Before that, there wasn't a single one that ever went after God. We're all under sin. None are righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they've all become useless. There is none who does good, not even one, and there's no fear of God before their eyes.

What a pronouncement that fits for both Jew and Gentile. The other characteristic is that all might be justified freely by grace. So we're all under sin, but if we want to be justified, receive God's righteousness, for there's no difference of Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is rich towards all who call on him. Same Lord, all people. Jesus is the universal Lord for the administration of all designed wealth and grace.

You don't get it anywhere but him. But men have to put on the connection to him from their side by calling on his name. And as we've talked about, calling on his name is preceded by believing him, is preceded by the message, is preceded by the person who brought the message. All those things are in place. We call upon him when we hear how rich he is. When we hear what a wealth of grace and blessing is in him, we call on him. God is seeking me, not the other way around. God is seeking me, not the other way around. God has sent preachers to make known to men what a rich Lord there is. He sends them. so they may hear of him, believe on him, and call upon him.

Colossians 1 tells us, we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints. reason because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard it in the word of truth the gospel which has come to you just as in all the world Also, it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even that it has been doing in you also since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God and truth. It's coming to you.

We saw that faith is by report. The report, what is the report? It's the message, a definite communication made concerning matters which would never come within man's knowledge if it wasn't reported to him. Reported to him. So you can say, well, I've lived in the backwoods all my life and I've never heard about the Lord. Yeah, you have. It's in the creation all around you. It's all there.

And this report is by God's word. And it is God speaking to men in grace that they may know him and have a direct and personal link with him through what is reported to them. This is the report and it is by God's word. There is such a report because it has pleased God to speak to men with regard to himself. We would never know about God if he hadn't come to us and revealed himself to us, never. We could look at the creation and say, well, I know God did that, but I don't know anything personal about him. When the report is believed, God is known in the heart according to the revelation he has made of himself.

We call that faith. We have learned in these verses to believe on him and call on his name. There must be the person, be the personal calling upon him. Every one of us in this audience that got saved, somebody brought you the message. It is the calling upon him that definitely links one with all the power of God's salvation that is in him. And you would think that the Jews, with all that they had for 2,500 years, this is the message that God is trying to get to them. And you know what their response was?

I want to do it myself. I don't want to accept your grace. I don't want to live by faith. I want to work as hard as I can so that when I get to the point of whether you're going to judge me of whether I'm in the kingdom, I've done enough to get in. God says, no, you're not going to get in that way. That's what he told Nicodemus. You're not going to get in that way. I'll give you my righteousness if you'll believe in me. Faith is not something that springs up in the heart of man apart from what he hears, or apart from what he hears being God's word. People often tell us that they have faith about things which have never come to them by a divine report.

How many of you think the Broncos are gonna win this afternoon? They succeed in persuading ourselves that certain thoughts of their own or the persons can be relied on. They've arrived at certain inward convictions and think that that is what faith is. Really? You know, you hear ads all the time and people say all the time, well, you've got to believe in yourself. Boy, what a tragedy that is. Faith is a belief, the receiving and the belief of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, because he sent someone to tell you about it in his word. Christians are characteristically those who call upon the name of the Lord.

So, but as for Israel, he says, all the day long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. Isaiah 65, two, I have spread out my hands all the day long to a rebellious people who walk in the way which is not good, following what? Their own thoughts, their own thoughts. Not mine, not God's, their own. Jesus has stretched out his hands to Israel and to everyone.

Certainly they would not call on the one whom they didn't believe in. But in order to believe in him, they must hear of him. And they can't hear of him without a preacher. A preacher is of no value unless God has sent him. I can't send a preacher. God has to send him.

We had this discussion this morning in Sunday school about how do you find out teachers in your body? Well, God raises them up. He picks them. He's the one that does it. He's the one that sends people. He's the one that does everything. This is his church. The Holy Spirit runs the place. Not me or Roger or anyone. He runs it.

Is the message from God to us that we are to look to seek salvation? What do you think? You think we're supposed to go after salvation? As showing how far Christendom has lost the whole spirit of the gospel, everywhere people have the idea that they ought to seek salvation. They are everywhere told that they ought to go to church. They ought to change their program. They ought to serve, et cetera, et cetera.

Law system. you would say, should we not seek God? No, we should sit down and hear what is written in Romans. We should listen about our guilt and then about our helplessness and then about our inability of the law to do anything but condemn us. Then we're to believe on Christ and whom God sent. Then call out his name and praise God for righteousness apart from works, apart from ordinances, apart from anything. Hear how God laid your sin on a substitute. His own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and that now, sin being put away, God has raised him from the dead. Seek God? No, God's seeking you. He's the seeker.

He's the one that sends the person with the information. He's the one that does it. And it's the same thing for spiritual growth. He's the one who does it. Our job is to receive. So grace of God is not idle or ineffective. The main message, is that God is the one who is proactive in getting out the message of salvation and deliverance, not man's responsibility, not man. Man's responsibility is to hear, believe, and call out. Acts 14, 17, and yet he did not leave himself without witness. in that he did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful season, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Romans 1.20 tells us, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature has been clearly seen. being understood through what has been made so that, I guess I didn't get the rest in there without excuse. So this message is general, though enough to assert and exemplify the principle. The good tidings then came by a testimony sent of God in his creation and through those preachers he sent.

It is not the law, 10 Commandments, which could only show the Jew and Christian alike his duty and convict him of sin because of his failure under it. The only hope of good for a sinner is from the gospel. But if so, it goes out not to some, but to all mankind, all of them, all of us. And as Isaiah proved that the message would be slighted by the Jew and the Gentile who has believed us.

So if God calls you with the message and sends you out as a preacher, don't be surprised if somebody doesn't accept what you have to say, but he's after somebody and they'll be there. The Old Testament bears witness to a universal testimony of God in creation as expressive in the principles that he thinks of and cares for and would be known by all, even the Gentiles. You ever think about how much interest God has in all of us in his creation? He does more thinking about me than I do about him. He's always working on me with grace and I'm not always responsible.

So in closing, I think that the message that has come to us from these verses is that God says, okay, You want to be saved, you need my righteousness. And I'll bring it to you. I'll give you the message. I'll give you the information. Your job is to receive it. Your job is to believe me. That's all. And you will have my righteousness so that you will be with me for all eternity. So let's close. Father.

How thankful we are for the grace that we live under. How thankful we are that you are the kind of God that you are. You're always seeking us. You're always drawing us nearer and nearer to your son. We thank you for that. We pray in his precious name. Amen.