Sovereign Grace and Man's Responsibility

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Romans 10:18-21

But I say, Have they not heard? Yes truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.…

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.

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