Romans 10:21














I. IT IS GOD'S PART TO PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITIES. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (ver. 17). The apostle recognizes that men cannot be condemned for unbelief, if they have not had the opportunity-of hearing the gospel, No person will be condemned in the day of judgment who has not had the opportunity of salvation. And lest any one, applying this rule to the case of Israel, should suggest that they had not such an opportunity, he asks the question, "But I say, Have they not heard?" Can the plea of ignorance be put in on their behalf? Nay. "Their sound" (that is, the voice of God's messengers, referred to in ver. 15) "went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." God has done his part for the enlightenment and salvation of men. He has revealed himself in his works of nature. He has revealed himself in his Word. He has revealed himself in his Son. Jesus is the Emmanuel, "God with us."

II. IT IS MAN'S PART TO AVAIL HIMSELF OF THEM. The mere possession of gospel privileges is no guarantee of salvation, "But they have not all obeyed the gospel (ver. 16). Israel had the Law, with its types and ceremonies, pointing to Christ; their prophets, who spoke of him. Yet, with all their privileges, they rejected Christ. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." It will not profit us that we have been brought up in a Christian home, in a Christian Church, or that we have had the Bible in our hands, unless we ourselves "obey the gospel," accept its invitations, respect its precepts, and submit ourselves to Jesus as our Saviour and our King. Yet there are many who are resting entirely upon their privileges, without exercising that living personal faith in Jesus Christ for which these privileges afford the opportunity and the help.

III. OPPORTUNITIES NEGLECTED WILL BE TAKEN AWAY. Israel had been from the beginning forewarned of this. So long ago as the time of Moses it had been said to them, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you" (ver. 19). Then Isaiah repeated a similar warning," I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me" (ver. 20). The same lesson in the history of Israel is repeated by Christ more than once in his parables. In the parable of the wicked husbandmen, the lord of the vineyard is represented as letting out his vineyard "unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons" (Matthew 21:41). The same lesson is taught in the parable of the wedding-feast, where the invitation, rejected by the regularly invited guests, is sent out to the highways and hedges. We have the same truth in the parable of the talents. "Unto every one that hath shall be given... but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath" (Matthew 25:29). The history of the Jews is a solemn warning against the neglect of opportunities. It is a solemn warning to all those who, though brought up in Christian homes and in a Christian land, make light of the blessings of the gospel, resist its invitations, and set at naught its counsels. - C.H.I.

But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth.
The general scope of the apostle is sufficiently plain. The Jew is taught his responsibilities in presence of the advancing gospel from the pages of his Hebrew Bible. He learns to contrast the religion of the synagogue with that of the Church, when viewed in its spirit, method, and end. And this, not from the lips of evangelists, but from the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Romans 10:5; Leviticus 18:5; Romans 10:6; Deuteronomy 30:12-14). Prophets like Isaiah and Joel successively announce to him the reward of faith in Christ, and the intimate and beneficent nearness of the Lord of all to all His true worshippers (Romans 10:11; Isaiah 28:16; Romans 10:13; Joel 2:32), and by consequence, the abolition of the Judaic nationalism, and the Catholicity of the religion which was succeeding it. And when the question is asked how there can be such true worship without faith in its object, or faith without a religious education, or this again without a message from heaven, and an authoritative commission to proclaim it, the reply is given in the words of the evangelical prophet (Isaiah 52:7), for whose entranced soul the intervening centuries have neither force nor meaning, and the distant and contingent future is a realised and present fact. Along with the messengers who announce to captive Israel the speedy return of peace and freedom, there mingle, in the prophet's vision, other forms of apostolic mien and greatness, and their footsteps fall on all the mountains of the world, as they carry forward the message which emancipates mankind, and which proclaims an alliance between earth and heaven. Yet more, this greatest of the prophets foresees the partial acceptance of the gospel as accurately as he foretells its universal promulgation (Romans 10:16; Isaiah 53:1): and prophecy closes around the Jew, who refuses belief to the report of the apostles, by describing not merely the truth which confronts him, but his own attitude towards it. That there may be no mistake as to the weight and pressure of the Jew's responsibility, the apostle asks in the text somewhat abruptly, whether the men of Israel have not heard the gospel-message. And he answers not by pointing to the literal fact, that already the messengers of Christ had penetrated far and wide into either of the great branches of the Dispersion, while Jerusalem itself was the home and focus of Christian doctrine; he quotes a psalmist who is singing of the heavenly bodies, and who tells how they speak for the glorious Creator in terms which all can understand, while from day to day and age to age they hand on their mighty tradition of the truth, which all the languages of man confess, and all the climes and regions of the earth have heard. The apostle reads the history of the Church in the light of his Master's words: "Go, teach all nations." The intervening centuries count for nothing; just as when we gaze at the fixed star, we do not ordinarily reflect upon that scintillation of the rays of its light through almost measureless space which science yet reveals to us in all its wonder with minute precision. And the apostle sees all at a single glance: he ignores the alternation of ebb and flow — the constant play of light and shade — which meet us in the actual history of the Church; we forget, as we read his words, that struggle for life, maintained for centuries, — maintained against overwhelming forces. We seem to be watching a process which has all the beauty and ease of a natural movement; we have before us what is less the history of an accomplished and hard-won triumph than it is the spectacle of a beneficent provision or law of the universe, in which there is no struggle, no effort, no resistance, and in which the Heavenly Wisdom already reaches from one end to another mightily, and smoothly and sweetly ordereth all things. "Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world." And here are two points that demand our consideration.

I. OUR LORD'S COMMAND AND THE PROPHECY OF HIS APOSTLE IMPLY FIRST OF ALL THAT THE GOSPEL WOULD STAND THE TEST OF TIME. Of all forms of power, as of all forms of thought that are merely human, time is the great enemy. No sooner has a doctrine or a system taken its place in the arena of human thought, than, like the ocean which imperceptibly fritters away the base of a mountain cliff, time forthwith begins its relentless work of progressive demolition. Again, time brings with it what we term in our ignorance chance; it brings combinations of circumstances, and of agencies to bear, upon which no genius can calculate, and against which no prudence can take its measures. Once more, the lapse of time involves the liability to internal decay: those who have reached power, betake themselves to its enjoyment; those who believe that they are securely masters of the world of thought, are not alive to the decomposition which awaits or preys upon their stagnant system. And, lastly, as the years pass over a doctrine or a system, they inevitably subject it to the decisive test of opposition. And this not necessarily because it has faults and failings, but because it exists, and by its existence invites hostile criticism, since it drains away something, however little, of the attention, and labour, and substance, which would but for the fact of its existence be bestowed elsewhere. Need I say that He who came from heaven to redeem and save us knew what was before Him. He foresaw the coolness which would succeed to a first fervour of welcome to His truth; He allowed for the unfavourable conjunctions of circumstance, and for the intimidation and the errors of those who might represent Him, and for the opposition which a gospel such as His (making, as it did, no terms with any human feeling or conviction that was inconsistent with the rights of God), could not but encounter in the passions of man. He predicted a time when the love of many would wax cold, etc. (Matthew 24:9, 11, 12, 24). He accepted, He set forth the idea of the intense hatred which His gospel must perforce encounter in the world, so energetically, that He, the Prince of Peace, described Himself as sending not peace, but a sword. Yet foreseeing these elements of destruction gathering around Him, He is calmly certain of the perpetuity of His doctrine (Mark 13:31). Surely the event has not falsified the prediction. Since the Incarnation, all else has changed; new races, new moulds of thought, new languages, new institutions, political and social, supplant others which once seemed destined to exist for ever, and which have passed away. But, reigning amid the ruins of the past, reigning amid the progress of the present towards the future, Jesus Christ is here. You may contend that here and there His work is marred or broken; you may insist on the desolating spread of the great heresies of the first ages, or on the loss of the Churches of the East and of the Church of and of — trampled as these are beneath the feet of the infidel. Now, as of old, He is crucified in weakness, while He reigns in power: He is, by the very pressure and fierceness of His foes, uniting friends who have long been sundered; His vast providences enlist the services even of men who know but fragments of His truth; He has more loyal hearts who trust and worship Him than in any previous age. For observe, that He does not merely hold His ground: He is extending His Empire. He is again laying siege to those citadels of superstitious yet of philosophical idolatry — the oriental religions — which have so long resisted Him; He is bidding the islands of the sea wait on His advancing foot-steps.

II. OBSERVE A SECOND FEATURE OF THE PREDICTED MISSIONARY ENERGY OF THE CHURCH, WHICH, NO LESS THAN THAT ALREADY MENTIONED, WOULD SEEM TO POSSESS AN EVIDENTIAL VALUE. For our Lord did not merely insure His religion against the triumph of those causes which, in the case of human institutions or opinions, must ultimately produce decay and dissolution. The stone which you throw loses force and swiftness as it obeys the impulse you gave to it; it buries itself, we will suppose, beneath the waters of a still lake, and again the ripple which radiates from the point of disturbance, becomes, moment by moment, less clear to the eye, as on this side and on that its widening circles approach the shore. So it is with human religions: they spend themselves while they gain the prestige of antiquity; and our Lord, as we have seen, reversed this law of exhaustion, in the case of His gospel. But He did more: He presumed upon, He appealed to, because He knew Himself able to create and command, an ever-youthful and active enthusiasm, which in the last ages of the faith, no less than in the first, would carry forward His doctrine into all the regions of the earth, and, at whatever risk, would press it closely in its perfectness and its power on the consciences of men. Look at the other great religions which have ruled, or which still rule, the thought or the heart of the human race. Where have ancient priesthoods, like the Egyptian, been missionary agencies? Where have philosophical speculations, like these of the Schools of Greece, been more than the luxury and the pride of the selfish few — where and when have they shown any capacity of becoming the inheritance of the heart and thought of the struggling many? Surely it were not unreasonable to surmise that if the Infinite and the Eternal God has spoken in very deed to us His creatures, He can only so have spoken, as at the first He can only have given us being, out of the free and pure love which He bare towards us. And thus along with the gift of truth would come the accompanying gift of love; and we should anticipate what is in fact the case, that He, our Incarnate Lord, whom we worship as the highest and absolute Truth, is also the most tender and indeed boundless Charity. It is by combining in Himself truth and love so perfectly that Jesus, from age to age; commands the most intelligent and the most heroic devotion of which man has ever been capable. Think not that true devotion to Christ our Lord is a luxury of the Primitive Church, which can find no lasting home in the midst of our modern civilisation. It may be true that mutilated creeds cannot provoke, and that coward hearts cannot understand, such devotion. But wherever the truth is taught in its integrity to hearts that are "honest and good," the same phenomena of absolute self-devotion will be found to repeat themselves which illustrated so gloriously the first ages and children of the faith. He has indeed made men love Himself; for around Him and His work there mantles such a robe of unfailing and ever-youthful beauty, that in His Divine Person, His human form, His words, His world-redeeming sacrifice, His ceaseless intercession, His gift of the Blessed Spirit, His oneness with His people through the sacraments of His Church, the soul finds that which answers to its highest imaginings no less than to its deepest needs. It finds in Him, as in none else, its rest.

(Canon Liddon.)

In the psalm he speaks of works, here of the Word.

1. Some say that Paul argues from the less. If God teach all by the great volume of the heavens, much more will He teach all by the heavenly doctrine of the gospel.

2. I think that there is here hid a prophecy of the preaching of the gospel, because the latter part of the psalm speaks much in the commendation of it; and Paul here so applies it. And, indeed, there is a most sweet analogy between the heavens found and the gospel. The heavens are the work of God's hand; so is the gospel revealed by God. The heavens show the work of God: so the gospel, that we are justified by the work of God, which is faith, not by the works of man. The doctrine of the gospel is pure and lightsome as are the heavens. The influence of the heavens comforteth and cherisheth inferior things: so doth the gospel the conscience. The diversity of nations and languages is manifold which understand not one another; yet all understand the excellency of the heavens, and the wonderful work of God in them. So God enabled the apostles to teach all nations in their own tongues the wonderful works of God (Mark 16:20; Acts 1:8; Colossians 1:6).

I. THAT IS THE TRUE RELIGION WHICH AGREES WITH THAT WHICH WAS PREACHED IN ALL THE WORLD BY THE APOSTLES.

II. IT WAS A MIRACLE THAT THE GOSPEL, a doctrine teaching the denial of ourselves and bearing of the Cross, carried by poor and mean persons, oppressed by mighty emperors and kings, should in despite of men and devils, WITHIN THE SPACE OF FORTY YEARS, BE SO PUBLISHED IN ALL THE WORLD. Let all enemies cease to oppose it by the remembrance hereof.

III. OBEY THE GOSPEL, LEST HE WHICH SENT IT TAKE IT AWAY, and remove our candlestick for our unbelief and contempt of it. For this cause Turcism and Papism possess many places, which have been heretofore famous for the gospel. Hath the grace of God shined to thee? Make much of this light, and walk in it. Hast thou heard the sound of it? Why dost thou live in lewd practices, as if thou hadst never heard any inkling of it? Where sin bears rule, there is not the gospel received.

(Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

I. IS HEARD —

1. In nature.

2. In the Word of God.

3. In the gospel.

II. DIFFUSES ITSELF —

1. Like waves of sound.

2. Through time.

3. Through the world.

III. DEMANDS UNIVERSAL ATTENTION.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I. TO WHOM DO THESE WORDS APPLY? To the unbelieving —

1. Jews.

2. Gentiles.

II. WHAT DO THEY IMPLY? The sufficiency of revelation as respects —

1. Its clearness.

2. Its diffusion.

III. WHAT MUST WE INFER.

1. The inexcusable guilt of man.

2. The justice of God.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I. HIS COMMUNICATIONS TO THEM.

1. Clear.

2. Repeated.

3. Everywhere heard.

II. HIS WARNINGS of rejection.

1. By Moses.

2. By Isaiah.

III. HIS PATIENT FORBEARANCE.

1. Kindly entreating them.

2. During the long period of Old Testament history.

3. Spite of disobedience.

IV. THE FINAL TRANSFER OF HIS FAVOUR TO THE GENTILES.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

But I say, Did not Israel know? — Observe —

I. HOW GOD DISCIPLINES A REBELLIOUS PEOPLE. He —

1. Instructs.

2. Warns.

3. Bears patiently.

4. At length transfers His favour to others, whom they despise.

II. HOW THIS APPLIES TO US. We have been —

1. Equally privileged.

2. Equally rebellious.

3. If Israel could not escape, how shall we?

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

1. Privilege.

2. Warning.

3. Persistent disobedience.

4. Punishment.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

I tarried two or three days near the tower of Antwerp. Every fifteen minutes the bells of that tower chime — so sweetly that it seems as if the angels of God flying past have alighted in the tower. But when the full hour comes, then the clock, with heavy tongue, strikes the hour, adding impressiveness and solemnity to the chime of bells. So this great gospel tower chimes every fifteen minutes — nay, every moment. Tones of mercy. Tones of love. Tones of compassion. Tones of pardon. And occasion-ally, to let you know that the weights are running down, and that the time is going past, the heavy tongue of this bell comes down with an emphasis, saying, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" "Now is the accepted time — Now is the day of salvation!"

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

But Esaias is very bold
I. IN THEIR PROPHETIC IMPORT as accomplished —

1. In the calling of the Gentiles.

2. The rejection of the Jews.

II. As DESCRIPTIVE OF GOD'S ACTUAL PROCEDURE.

1. He receives sinners and outcasts.

2. But the children of the kingdom are cast out.

III. AS ILLUSTRATING THE WHOLE ECONOMY OF THE GOSPEL.

1. It is a system of unmerited grace.

2. Those who do not participate in it have themselves wholly to blame.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I was found of them that sought Me not
It is a singular thing to find one inspired writer calling another "bold." But we are not to understand that the apostle doubted what the prophet said, nor that he feared some would think Isaiah had hazarded a perilous statement. He merely recalled two exceedingly commonplace, but most important considerations concerning the time in which Isaiah lived. Then it was a bold thing to say that God had rejected the Jews and chosen the Gentiles; there being then really no signs of a revolution like that. Moreover, such a statement would anger that entire nation, and thus imperil the popularity of the prophet, as well as his life. But Isaiah did say it, and Paul here repeats it. The text is an announcement of a fact in the government of God; namely, that there is a sovereign love of God which goes out after a human soul before that soul has even so far started out for God as to wish for Him.

I. GOD HAS NEVER YET RELINQUISHED HIS HOLD UPON THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE. Sin entered the world and ruined the race. But the Almighty has not given it away to destruction, and is going to repossess His own.

II. GOD EVEN NOW ASSERTS HIS FULL RIGHT TO A SPECIAL PEOPLE OF HIS OWN IN THE MIDST OF EARTHLY REBELLION AND DISOWNMENT OF HIS SON. His call is, Who is on the Lord's side? and asserts authority in a land, without consulting the poor magnates at the head of it. He commissioned Jonah to go to Nineveh, He sent Moses into Egypt with orders to Pharaoh to dismiss a million of his subjects for ever on a night's notice. It made no difference whatever that the king said he did not know who this Jehovah was; the Maker of the universe assumed that it was the business of all His intelligent creatures to understand the authority which belonged to a monarch like Him. He assumes that same pre-eminence now. The only question that can arise is one of individual bearing, who shall rally first around His standard, and serve Him? And this He decides Himself (vers. 11-13). Nor does He leave this choice to a mere chance acceptance. Does He need a king? Then the ruddy-checked son of Jesse is anointed. Does He need a priest? He summoned Melchizedek. Does He need a prophet? Then shall the unwilling lips of Balaam be turned from cursing into blessing. Thus does He gather His agents at His own sovereign will, often unexpectedly to themselves, as well as surprisingly to others. Literally, "He is found of those who sought Him not," etc.

III. THE ALL-WISE GOD HAS ORIGINATED AND ANNOUNCED A PLAN BY WHICH HE MAY BRING HIS PEOPLE TO HIMSELF WITHOUT ANY FAILURE.

1. God assumes at the start that men are utterly lost? We are condemned already. The wrath of God abideth on every one of us.

2. That God prefers to save the transgressor rather than punish him. God says He takes no pleasure in the infliction of penalty. He has proffered a way of escape (ver. 4). And this is the only way

3. That the human will is stubborn, and always refuses free grace. Just here enters the greatest mystery of the gospel. A certain spiritual pressure is exerted by God Himself. The Holy Ghost constrains the surrender of the disobedient heart.

IV. IN THE CARRYING OUT OF HIS PLAN GOD SOMETIMES STRIVES DIRECTLY WITH IMPENITENT MEN, WITHOUT THEIR EXPECTING IT, AND EVEN WITHOUT THEIR UNDERSTANDING IT. Thus it is that He is often "found of those who sought Him not." He has a right to everybody, and when He desires a man He sends for him. No actual force is employed, but certain processes of His are put into operation. The sinner does not always know precisely what all this means, but he feels a surprising impelling power, active in the very centre of his being. He is awakened to see his own needs. He is constrained to reflect upon the issues of another life. Now it is God in person who is making Himself to be found, even when the man is not seeking after Him. And He acts very gently. There are, in every-day life, two ways of waking a man out of dangerous slumber. You may shout in his ear, or rudely shake his person; or bring a lamp into the room, and leave it burning. The latter is the way in which God works. Furthermore, Providence sometimes works in with grace. An adversity or a blessing is used as an instrument in the awakening of the soul. But He aims only to lead men to the beginning of their work; He does not propose to do it for them. He says to those who seek Him not, Seek Me. He calls to the prayerless, Pray — to the thoughtless, Think.

V. THIS MOMENT, IN WHICH THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS STRIVING, IS THE MOMENT ABOVE ALL OTHERS IN WHICH TO YIELD TO HIS CALL. For now, if never before, a man has a chance. If God is sincere, He offers personal pardon now.

(C. S..Robinson, D.D.)

Doubtless these words primarily refer to the casting away of the Jews, and to the choosing of the Gentiles. Yet this is but a type of a universal fact. The system of truth is not one straight line, but two. No man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at the two lines at once. I am taught that what I sow I shall reap: I am also taught that "it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." I see in one place, God presiding over all in providence; and yet I see that man acts as he pleases, and two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. Note then —

I. DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY. If any man be saved, he is saved by Divine grace alone. Now, in speaking of God's gracious acts of salvation, notice —

1. That they are entirely unmerited. The people here mentioned certainly did not merit God's grace. They found Him, but they never sought for Him; He was made manifest to them, but they never asked for Him.

2. Sovereign, i.e., God has an absolute right to give grace where He chooses, and to withhold it when He pleases. It is mercy, indeed, when God saves a seeker; but how much greater mercy when He seeks the lost Himself! Mark the parable of the lost sheep. How was it you came to seek God? "Why, because He led you to do it." Nature can never rise above itself. You put water into a reservoir, and it will rise as high as that, but no higher if let alone. So there must be an extraordinary pressure of the Holy Spirit put upon the heart to lead us first to ask for mercy.

II. MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY (ver. 21). Now, these people whom God had cast away had been sought, had been entreated to be saved; but they would not, and inasmuch as they were not saved, it was the effect of their disobedience and their gainsaying. Notice the wooing of God and of what sort it is.

1. Most affectionate. God says He stretched out His hands. You that are not saved to-day are without excuse, for God stretched out His hands to you, and He said, "Come, come."

2. Very frequent. "All the day long," may be translated "daily." From the first dawn of your life He wooed you through your mother. And in your boyhood how your Sunday-school teacher endeavoured to bring you to the Saviour! And you have not yet surely forgotten how many Sabbaths you have spent, and how many times you have been warned. It is probable that God will keep on stretching out His hands to you until your hairs grow grey, still continually inviting you: and perhaps when you are nearing death He will still say, "Come unto Me, come unto Me." But if still you reject Christ, let nothing make you imagine that you shall go unpunished. "How can you escape, if you neglect so great salvation?" No one will be responsible for your damnation but yourself, at the last great day.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

That was an odd voice, surely the oddest I ever heard of, which came a little time ago in an Italian town to one of God's elect ones there. He was so depraved that he actually fell to worshipping the devil rather than God. It chanced one day that a rumour went through the city that a Protestant was coming there to preach. The priest, alarmed for his religion, told the people from the altar that Protestants worshipped the devil, and he charged them not to go near the meeting-room. The news, as you may judge, excited no horror in the devil-worshipper's mind. "Ay," thought he, "then I shall meet with brethren," and so he went to hear our beloved missionary who is now labouring in Rome. Nothing else would have drawn the poor wretch to hear the good word, but this lie of the priest's was overruled to that end. He went and heard, not of the devil, but of the devil's Conqueror, and before long he was found at Jesus' feet, a sinner saved.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

All the day long I have stretched forth My hands
I. GOD'S CONDUCT TOWARDS MEN.

1. Kind.

2. Earnest.

3. Forbearing.

4. Patient.

II. MAN'S CONDUCT TOWARDS GOD.

1. Ungrateful.

2. Wicked.

3. Obstinate.

4. Insulting.

(J. Lyth, D.D.)

Nothing can be more wonderful. That man should stretch out his hands to God — the dependent and sinful creature supplicating the supremely righteous and holy Creator — this is as it ought to be. But here — the Creator stretches out His hands to the creature; God entreats man; the offended Sovereign beseeches the offending subject! But is there not something still more wonderful, that He should have to complain of want of success? Yet such was the mournful fact! God's entreaties were —

I. CONDESCENDING. When a father entreats a child, a master a servant, a monarch, a subject, there is condescension. But what is all the condescension of creature to creature? — of creature the most exalted to creature the most insignificant and mean? But what is the difference between any one creature and any other, compared with the difference between the Eternal God and the highest of them all?

II. FORBEARING — for there was a principle in the Divine nature, that drew powerfully in the opposite direction — God's infinite hatred of sin. His whole conduct was but a practical utterance of the pathetic pleading — "How shall I give thee up." (Hosea 11:8, 9).

III. EARNEST. The posture or attitude expresses this.

IV. PERSEVERINGLY IMPORTUNATE. "All day long," etc.

V. DISINTERESTED. When we hear of "calling" and "stretching out the hands" to another, we naturally think of some deep-felt want, or some suffered or dreaded evil; of which the supply is earnestly desired, or the endurance deprecated. A starving man stretches out his hand for food; the oppressed for deliverance; the slave for freedom; the criminal for pardon; the victim of assassination for life. But does God need anything from His creatures? They needed Him; not He them. The danger was on their part, not on His; the damage resulting from their refusal to hear Him, all their own. The sum of His entreaties is, "Do thyself no harm," and His kind assurance, in beseeching them to obey His voice — "I will do you no hurt." Far was it from His heart to do them hurt. Judgment was His strange work. His threatenings and His solicitations were alike in mercy.

(R. Wardlaw, D.D.)

God offers not only a truce, but a peace, and has been most active in urging a reconciliation. Can He manifest His willingness in clearer methods than that of sending His Son to reconcile the world to Himself? Can He evidence more sincerity than by His repeated and reiterated pressing of our souls to the acceptance of Him? God knocks at our hearts, and we are deaf to Him; He thunders in our ears, and we regard Him not; He waits upon us for our acceptance of His love, and we grow more mad against Him; He beseecheth us, and we ungratefully and proudly reject Him; He opens His bosom, and we turn our backs; He offers us His pearls, and we tread them under our feet; He would clothe us with pure linen, but we would still wear our foul rags; He would give us angels' bread, and we feed on husks with swine. The wisdom of God shines upon us, and we account it foolishness; the infinite kindness of God courts us, and we refuse it, as if it were the greatest cruelty. Christ calls and begs, and we will not hear Him either commanding or entreating. To love God is our privilege, and though it be our indispensable duty, yet it had been a presumption in us to aspire so high as to think the casting our earthly affections upon so transcendent an object, should be dear to Him, had He not authorised it by His command, and encouraged it by His acceptance. But it is strange that God should court us by such varieties of kindness to that, wherein not His happiness, but our affection does consist; and much stranger, that such pieces of earth and clay should turn their backs upon so admirable an object, and be enemies to Him, who displays himself in so many allurements to their souls, and fix their hatred upon that tender God who sues for their affections.

(S. Charnock.)

I know a mother who has an idiot child. For it she gave up all society, almost everything, and devoted her whole life to it. "And now," said she, "for fourteen years I have tended it, and loved it, and it does not even know me. Oh, it is breaking my heart!" Oh, how the Lord might say this of hundreds here. Jesus comes here, and goes from one to another, asking if there is a place for Him. Oh, will not some of you take Him into your hearts?

(D. L. Moody.)

A man cannot get these Divine blessings if he does not want them. You take a hermetically sealed bottle and put it into the sea, it may float about in mid-ocean for a century, surrounded by a shoreless ocean, and it will be as dry and empty inside at the end as it was at the beginning. So you and I float, live, move, and have our being in that great ocean of the Divine love in Christ, but you can cork up your hearts and wax them over with an impenetrable cover, through which that grace does not come. And you do do it, some of you.

(A. Maclaren.).

People
Esaias, Isaiah, Israelites, Paul, Romans
Places
Rome
Topics
Arms, Contrary, Disobedient, Disobeying, Fault-finding, Forth, Gainsaying, Hands, Hearts, Held, Obstinate, Opposing, Says, Self-willed, Spread, Stretch, Stretched, Themselves, Unbelieving
Outline
1. The difference between the righteousness of the law, and that of faith;
11. all who believe, both Jew and Gentile, shall not be shamed;
18. and that the Gentiles shall receive the word and believe.
19. Israel was not ignorant of these things.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Romans 10:21

     1265   hand of God
     2060   Christ, patience of
     6194   impenitence, warnings
     6245   stubbornness

Romans 10:16-21

     7505   Jews, the

Library
The Gospel Message, Good Tidings
[As it is written] How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! T he account which the Apostle Paul gives of his first reception among the Galatians (Galatians 4:15) , exemplifies the truth of this passage. He found them in a state of ignorance and misery; alienated from God, and enslaved to the blind and comfortless superstitions of idolatry. His preaching, accompanied with the power of the Holy Spirit, had a great and marvellous effect.
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

The Progress of the Gospel
Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world. T he heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1) . The grandeur of the arch over our heads, the number and lustre of the stars, the beauty of the light, the splendour of the sun, the regular succession of day and night, and of the seasons of the year, are such proofs of infinite wisdom and power, that the Scripture attributes to them a voice, a universal language, intelligible to all mankind, accommodated to every capacity.
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

How Can I Obtain Faith?
May the Spirit of God assist us while we meditate upon the way by which faith cometh. This shall be followed by a brief indication of certain obstructions which often lie in that way; and then we will conclude by dwelling upon the importance that faith should come to us by that appointed road. I. First, then, THE WAY BY WHICH FAITH COMES TO MEN. "Faith cometh by hearing." It may help to set the truth out more clearly, if we say, negatively, that it does not come by any other process than by hearing;--not
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

Christ the End of the Law
The reason why many do not come to Christ is not because they are not earnest, after a fashion, and thoughtful and desirous to be saved, but because they cannot brook God's way of salvation. "They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge," We do get them by our exhortation so far on the way that they become desirous to obtain eternal life, but "they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Mark, "submitted themselves," for it needs submission. Proud man wants to save
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 22: 1876

A Simple Sermon for Seeking Souls
Now, I think, I shall not this morning err in his point of view, for I shall assume that some of my congregation, at least, are totally unacquainted with the great plan of salvation. And you that know it well, and have tried its preciousness, will bear with me, I am sure, whilst I try in the simplest words that human lips can put together to tell out the story of how men are lost, and how men are saved according to the words of my text by calling upon the name of the Lord. Well then, we must begin
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Barriers Broken Down
YOU THAT HAVE YOUR BIBLES OPEN, kindly follow me from the first verse of the chapter. It begins, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." If you really desire that men should be saved, pray for them. It is an empty wish, a mere formality, if you do not turn it into prayer. Every loving desire for any man or woman should, by the believer, be taken before God in prayer. We cannot expect that God will save men unless his people pray for it. There must
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Sovereign Grace and Man's Responsibility
The system of truth is not one straight line, but two. No man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at the two lines at once. I am taught in one book to believe that what I sow I shall reap: I am taught in another place, that "it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." I see in one place, God presiding over all in providence; and yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

"Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. "
Isaiah xxvi. 3.--"Thou shall keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." All men love to have privileges above others. Every one is upon the design and search after some well-being, since Adam lost that which was true happiness. We all agree upon the general notion of it, but presently men divide in the following of particulars. Here all men are united in seeking after some good; something to satisfy their souls, and satiate their desires. Nay, but they
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Seances Historiques De Geneve --The National Church.
IN the city of Geneva, once the stronghold of the severest creed of the Reformation, Christianity itself has of late years received some very rude shocks. But special attempts have been recently made to counteract their effects and to re-organize the Christian congregations upon Evangelical principles. In pursuance of this design, there have been delivered and published during the last few years a series of addresses by distinguished persons holding Evangelical sentiments, entitled Séances
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World

Confirmation.
In our studies concerning the methods of Grace, or the application of the Salvation purchased by Christ, to the sinful race of Adam's children, we necessarily had to begin with the new-born child. We noted the first known operations of Grace at the baptismal font. We traced the infant through the holy influences received at a Christian mother's knee, and in the nurture of a Christian home. We followed up through the lessons and influences of the Church's nursery, the Sunday-school, and from thence
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

Faith in the Sacred Scriptures.
"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." --Rom. x. 10. Calvin says beautifully and comprehensively that the object of saving faith is none other than the Mediator, and invariably in the garments of the Sacred Scriptures. This should be accepted unconditionally. Saving faith is possible, therefore, only in sinful men and so long as they remain sinful. To suppose that saving faith existed already in Paradise is to destroy the order of
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Which Sentence Dishonoreth the Holy Martyrs, Nay Rather Taketh Away Holy Martyrdoms Altogether. ...
3. Which sentence dishonoreth the holy Martyrs, nay rather taketh away holy martyrdoms altogether. For they would do more justly and wisely, according to these men, not to confess to their persecutors that they were Christians, and by confessing make them murderers: but rather by telling a lie, and denying what they were, should both themselves keep safe the convenience of the flesh and purpose of the heart, and not allow those to accomplish the wickedness which they had conceived in their mind.
St. Augustine—Against Lying

Or Haply is it So, that He who Plots in this Way to Find...
13. Or haply is it so, that he who plots in this way to find out Priscillianists, denies not Christ, forasmuch as with his mouth he utters what with his heart he believes not? As if truly (which I also said a little above) when it was said, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness," it was added to no purpose, "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation?" [2398] Is it not so that almost all who have denied Christ before the persecutors, held in their heart what they believed of Him?
St. Augustine—Against Lying

Christ Our Righteousness.
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (I. Cor. i. 30, 31). In this language Paul affirms that Christ is our righteousness. This is a momentous thought. It goes to the heart of the scheme of redemption. How is Christ our righteousness? What does Paul mean by the affirmation? The very life of Christianity is involved in the answer.
Frank G. Allen—Autobiography of Frank G. Allen, Minister of the Gospel

Letter v. Yes, My Dear Friend, it is My Conviction that in all Ordinary Cases the Knowledge...
Yes, my dear friend, it is my conviction that in all ordinary cases the knowledge and belief of the Christian Religion should precede the study of the Hebrew Canon. Indeed, with regard to both Testaments, I consider oral and catechismal instruction as the preparative provided by Christ himself in the establishment of a visible Church. And to make the Bible, apart from the truths, doctrines, and spiritual experiences contained therein, the subject of a special article of faith, I hold an unnecessary
Samuel Taylor Coleridge—Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc

Receive, My Children, the Rule of Faith, which is Called the Symbol or Creed. ...
1. Receive, my children, the Rule of Faith, which is called the Symbol (or Creed [1762] ). And when ye have received it, write it in your heart, and be daily saying it to yourselves; before ye sleep, before ye go forth, arm you with your Creed. The Creed no man writes so as it may be able to be read: but for rehearsal of it, lest haply forgetfulness obliterate what care hath delivered, let your memory be your record-roll: [1763] what ye are about to hear, that are ye to believe; and what ye shall
St. Augustine—On the Creeds

Moreover Moses in Deuteronomy Says that the Gentiles Should be the Head...
Moreover Moses in Deuteronomy says that the Gentiles should be the head, and the unbelieving people the tail. And again he says: Ye provoked me to jealousy with those that are no gods, and angered me with your idols: and I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, and with a foolish nation will I anger you. (Cf. Rom. x. 19) Because they forsook the God who is, and worshipped and served the gods who are not; and they slew the prophets of God, and prophesied for Baal, who was the idol
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

Epistle xvi. To Mauricius, Augustus.
To Mauricius, Augustus. Gregory to Mauricius, &c. Seeing that in you, most Christian of princes, uncorrupt soundness of faith shines as a beam sent down from heaven, and that it is known to all that your Serenity embraces fervently and loves with entire devotion of heart the pure profession in which by God's favour you are powerful, we have perceived it to be very necessary to make request for those whom one and the same faith enlightens, to the end that the Piety of our lords may protect them with
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

St. Paul's Wish to be Accursed from Christ.
"For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Few characters more remarkable than that of St. Paul, are to be found in history. He is introduced to our acquaintance on a tragical occasion--the martyrdom of Stephen, where he appears an accomplice with murderers--"he was standing by and consenting to his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him." The circumstances of Paul's conversion to Christianity were very remarkable, and
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

Twenty-First Day for God's Spirit on the Jews
WHAT TO PRAY.--For God's Spirit on the Jews "I will pour out upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and Supplication; and they shall look unto Me whom they pierced."--ZECH. xii. 10. "Brethren, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them, that they may be saved."--ROM. x. 1. Pray for the Jews. Their return to the God of their fathers stands connected, in a way we cannot tell, with wonderful blessing to the Church, and with the coming of our
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

God's Glory the Chief End of Man's Being
Rom. xi. 36.--"Of him and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever." And 1 Cor. x. 31--"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." All that men have to know, may be comprised under these two heads,--What their end is, and What is the right way to attain to that end? And all that we have to do, is by any means to seek to compass that end. These are the two cardinal points of a man's knowledge and exercise. Quo et qua eundum est,--Whither to go, and what way to go.
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God," &C.
Matth. vi. 33.--"But seek ye first the kingdom of God," &c. II. The Christian's chief employment should be to seek the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof. "Seek first," &c. Upon this he should first and chiefly spend his thoughts, and affections, and pains. We comprehend it in three things. First, He should seek to be clothed upon with Christ's righteousness, and this ought to take up all his spirit. This is the first care and the chief concern. Did not this righteousness weigh much
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Regeneration and Faith.
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."--1 Peter i. 23. There is a possible objection to what has been said above concerning regeneration. It is evident that God's Word, and therefore our symbols of faith, offers a modified representation of these things which, superficially considered, seems to condemn our representation. This representation, which does not consider children, but adults, may thus be stated: Among a
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

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