Romans chapter 10.
I can hear some of you returning collegiously.
I can't believe we're still in Romans.
Oh, yes.
Romans chapter 10, our text will be verses 11 through 21.
The theme is good news and bad news.
I heard a story one time about an angel who was dispatched to one of the famous major
league pitchers.
And appearing to the man, he said, I have good news and bad news for you.
And the pitcher quaking just a bit said, well, say on.
The angel said, well, the good news is that we have a terrific ball team in heaven.
But the bad news is that we need a pitcher and you're scheduled to start the next game.
As we look at our text today, we're going to see some good news and then some bad news.
For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon him.
For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?
How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?
How shall they hear without a preacher?
How shall they preach unless they are sent?
Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good
things.
However, they did not all heed the glad tidings.
For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?
The faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
But I say, surely they have never heard, have they?
Indeed, they have.
Their voice has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.
But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they?
At the first, Moses says, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation.
By a nation without understanding will I anger you.
And Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who sought me not.
I became manifest to those who did not ask for me.
But as for Israel, he says, all the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient
and obstinate people.
The good news is the gracious offer of God of faith righteousness.
In other words, a right standing with himself for those who will believe on him.
The bad news is that Israel, as a nation, rejected and sought to establish its own self-righteousness,
just like many today.
We have before us this morning one of the great missionary texts of the Bible.
And yet the context is one of rejection of the Gospel by the nation of Israel.
In verse 8, he calls the Gospel message the word of faith.
In other words, it is that one can be saved or be made right with God by believing in
his heart on the resurrected Jesus who is Lord.
Verse 9.
And he says that that faith then results in righteousness or that right standing with
God that gains us an entrance into heaven.
This standing with God cannot be earned or merited.
It can only be received by simple faith.
And it's really good news.
It's good news because it means that I don't have to keep lying to myself and to God about
my sins and my failures.
Rather, I can acknowledge them to him.
It's good news because it means I don't have to pass through life worried and uncertain
about God's attitude toward me.
I can know that I am accepted of him in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel is good news because it means I don't have to die and then find myself unexpectedly
in judgment and hell.
But rather I can face death with the assurance of heaven and of being with Jesus Christ.
It's good news.
To be saved, one must be declared right with God through faith.
Our text today presents three propositions about this Gospel.
The first proposition is that it is an universal offer.
Verses 11 through 13.
The offer that whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved is not limited
to any particular race or nationality, political camp, social stratum, or economic group.
But rather it is for all in the world.
As we have seen in chapter 3 verse 23, all men are sinners without exception.
Here we learn that all may be saved without distinction.
God does not distinguish or discriminate among mankind.
He does not look at one as white and another as black and another as yellow.
He does not look at one as a North American and another as one from Asia.
He does not look at us as capitalists or as communists.
God sees all of us as sinners.
The offer of salvation is open to all without any distinction whatsoever.
We see four times in verses 11 through 13 that universal offer.
As he says, whoever believes, verse 11, he is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all
who call upon him, for whoever will call.
Jesus Christ is Lord of all, whether or not he is recognized.
He is Lord of the saved.
For we who have trusted him confessed at that moment of our salvation, Jesus is Lord.
We recognize him as deity who came into the world to pay the price for our sins so that
through him we might be saved and reconciled to God.
But he is also Lord of the unsaved, yet unrecognized.
However there is coming a day, according to Philippians chapter 2, when every knee will
bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
The real thrust of that passage, by the way, is that when that day comes it will be too
late for the lost to be saved.
Rather their confession of his Lordship will be an acknowledgement of his right as Lord
to pronounce their final judgment.
Whosoever will call is an appeal for all men everywhere to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is qualified to answer this appeal?
Only those who are humbled in their sin and repentant and who see their hopeless state
and who are therefore willing to call upon Christ to save them.
There was a time a few years ago when we were instructed by some not to use the word saved
anymore for that was a date and term.
They said people today don't understand what it is to be saved.
I hardly disagreed then and I still do today.
There is not a more simple concept than this concept of being saved.
People are rescued, people are delivered all the time in all cultures.
Therefore the concept of being saved, being rescued from sin and from judgment and from
hell is one that communicates.
What we are told here is that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
This is simply a confirmation of chapter 1 verse 16 quoted a few moments ago from this
pulpit.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
who believes.
We have seen that testified this morning in the Meso-choir whose ancestors were headhunters.
Today we have heard that perhaps 100% of those people have come to a place of personal faith
in Jesus Christ in less than a century.
Amazing truth testifying to the power of the gospel of Christ.
We can go down the road here today and hear similar testimonies of the power of that gospel
message to change lives.
Has it changed your life?
It can if you will call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
Verses 14 and 15 we see that this universal offer is an urgent proclamation.
Because this message is for everyone all deserve to hear it.
Look if we truly believe that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved,
if we truly believe that then we have a responsibility for disseminating that message for declaring
it to the whole world.
The apostle delivers that challenge to us by a series of thought provoking questions
in verses 14 and 15.
These are rhetorical they are intended only to cause us to exercise our hearts and our
minds we are to deliberate in what is said here.
The five verbs in the questions are progressive.
However the apostle begins with the final action in the list and then works his way
to the beginning of the order.
He says how then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
You can underline the five verbs call upon, believe, hear, preach, send.
He begins with this term call upon.
As we saw last week that is a word in the Greek that means to appeal your case.
Paul used it when he appealed to Caesar when one recognizes his great need and his sinfulness
before God and the judgment he deserves.
It causes him to appeal his case to the Savior to call upon him.
Why?
Because he believes.
Now it is one thing to believe in God and even to believe in Christ.
It is another thing to believe him.
There are many people in the world today and I would have to say there are many people
in hell who have believed in God and believed in Jesus Christ that he lived but they have
never believed him personally.
Establish that personal, that vital, that living relationship that is connotated in
this word believe.
It means to commit oneself to, to trust upon.
I can say that that chair will hold me but not until I sit in the chair have I exercised
that belief.
I can believe in Jesus Christ that he died and rose again but not until I have personally
committed myself, my soul, my salvation to him and my truly saved.
But then how can one believe unless he hears?
Obviously that has to take place either by the audible hearing of words or by written
words, hearing the proclamation.
The hearing here includes the work of the Holy Spirit enlightening the sin darkened
understanding of the sinner.
But how can one hear unless one is preaching?
Unless there is a herald who is proclaiming.
The idea of a herald is rather foreign to us because today we have instant communication
electronically.
There was a day when news had to be carried by heralds, people who were assigned to deliver
a message to a town or to a region, they would go and proclaim the message and fulfill their
responsibility.
That's what is involved here in the proclaiming, the preaching.
But then he says how can one preach unless he is sent?
There are two aspects to this idea of sending out preachers.
There is a divine aspect and a human aspect and we see them beautifully working in Acts
chapter 13 where the Holy Spirit speaks to the elders of the church at Antioch as they
are praying.
And he says to them, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul to the work that I have called them
to do.
The elders prayed and fasted and then they laid their hands upon those two men and sent
them out to the work God had called them to accomplish.
You see there is the divine call, there is the human sending.
Here the emphasis seems to be upon the human sending of the messengers.
The most obvious application is that of missionaries.
That we as a people of God are to be sending out others to proclaim the message.
Whether it be in the land of the Mesos or in South America or Africa or in some other
part of Asia, wherever we are to send out, to apostle out is the word.
To send with a commission, heralds, to proclaim the gospel so the people can hear and believe
and call upon the name of the Lord.
Another application though is to all of us because the Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples
and through them to you and to me, all of us when he said, even as the Father has sent
me so I send you.
I send you.
So there is a very literal sense in which each of us is sent to someone or some people
to be a proclamer of the gospel message.
Now Paul says how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things.
Do you believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible?
Take your shoes off and let's see.
We believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible.
This of course is intended to be a picture, a symbol of something.
This word beautiful originally meant seasonable or ripe and it was used a fruit at this time
of year when it was ready to be picked.
It then grew into a broader meaning pleasant, fair.
He says how pleasant, how fair is the mission, the journey.
How wonderful is the joy of one who proclaims glad tidings.
It would be terrible to have to take news to a population that their army had been defeated
and that the enemy was coming for the spoils of the battle.
That would be bad news.
But you and I who are apostles by Jesus Christ have glad tidings of good things to proclaim
to the world.
That idea is quoted from the Old Testament as you probably know.
Isaiah uses similar terminology, chapter 52 and verse 7, where he speaks of the day when
the heralds would come to the people of Israel and would proclaim to them that they are being
restored from their Babylonian captivity.
That would be good news.
Nehom, the prophet, also uses this language.
Chapter 1 verse 15, he speaks about the news of God's judgment coming upon Judah's enemies,
the Assyrians, and how glad those people were to hear that God was finally going to judge
the Ninevites, and he did in 612 BC.
There's a third ramification of these prophecies, however, and that is the day yet in the future
when God will restore the Jews to the land that he's promised to give them under the
Abrahamic covenant.
Isaiah looks forward to that day when the restored, reclaimed, regathered people of
Israel will hear the glad tidings that God is giving them their land.
But the application of the Holy Spirit here in Romans chapter 10 is to you and me.
He says that you and I proclaim glad tidings when we preach of faith righteousness.
This pleasant announcement is also an urgent one because it involves the very issues of
life and death, and not just physical life and death, but eternal life or eternal death.
Dear people, that's why we are committed so heavily to missions in our church.
I heard a pastor of a large church quoted recently.
His church does not have a missions program.
He made this statement, I think I know why he said it and what he meant, but the statement
as it stands is a horrendous statement.
He said, I believe that we can either build the church of Jesus Christ here at home or
overseas.
He's missed it.
For our commission is to build the church of Jesus Christ here at home and overseas,
in both places.
It's not either or.
We don't have that luxury.
It's both here and there.
We are to be involved in building the church, winning people to Christ, discipling them,
bringing them to the place of obedience, involving them in the local church, seeing that they
are baptized.
We are committed to that kind of church planting missions.
That's why we have a missions festival coming up in just a few weeks, which is always the
highlight of our year.
I hope that you will block out that whole week, the last Sunday of October through the
first Sunday of November.
You will plan to be at every single meeting you possibly can.
It will be a great week.
We are then reminded of the need of this lost and sin-cursed earth around us.
We are reminded, too, of what you and I can do to be a part of it.
We have a part, dear folks.
We have a responsibility.
For if we are not sent, we have a responsibility to assist those who are literally sent to
foreign cultures so that they can complete their assignments.
We have a part in that.
May I say, too, this is why we are developing within our church ministry here in Roseville
evangelism teams.
Teams that will work as a part of our small churches, too, so the people are one to Jesus
Christ because I'll tell you something, a person who is moral and good and without Christ
in Roseville is just as sure of going to hell as a headhunter in India.
So we have a responsibility to proclaim the gospel there and here, and we want to be involved
in that faithfully.
That brings us to the third proposition.
The gospel gets an unquestionable response, verses 16 through 21.
When the gospel is preached, it always, always, always gets results.
The word of God does not return void, but the result is not always faith.
Sometimes the result is rejection of the gospel message.
Israel is an example of that, verse 16.
However, notice the change of tone in these two verses.
However, they did not all heed the glad tidings mentioned in verse 15.
For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?
Israel did not believe and call upon her Christ.
They were willing for a physical restoration to be delivered from Roman oppression, but
they did not want spiritual salvation involving humbling of themselves and repentance and
a crucified Messiah.
No way.
That was not part of their whole idea, so they rejected this gospel.
The implication, according to some, might be that if in fact people are sent and the
word is proclaimed and there are those who hear, they should then believe and call upon
the Lord.
That's the process, isn't it?
If Israel didn't believe and call upon the Lord, they must not have had a word from God.
But we'll see that that is not so.
Look at verse 17 for a moment, this is one of the most frequently quoted of Bible verses.
He summarizes what he has said in the previous verses and he says, so faith comes from hearing
and hearing by the word of Christ.
The word word here means spoken word, rama, it is not logos, it's rama, the spoken word
of Christ.
What does this verse mean?
Well, I believe it's saying to us more than just the preaching about Christ produces faith.
What it is saying is that faith is generated in the heart when the spoken word of Christ
is heard.
In other words, as the gospel is proclaimed by you, by myself, the voice of Jesus Christ
is in some sense present and heard as the gospel is proclaimed.
And where it is heard, faith results and they call upon the Lord.
I think we see this illustrated back in John chapter 10 in a parallel passage where the
Lord Jesus speaks.
Would you look at that with me?
Even here we see the rejection of the Jews.
John 10 verse 24, the Jews therefore gathered around him, Jesus, and were saying to him,
how long will you keep us in suspense?
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe.
The works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me, but you do not believe
me because you are not of my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to
them and they shall never perish.
What is Jesus saying?
He is saying when I speak, my sheep hear my voice and when they do, they follow me.
They respond in faith.
Look back at verse 16, he says, I have other sheep which are not of this fold.
He is talking about Gentiles who are not a part of the Jewish fold.
I must bring them also and they shall hear my voice and they shall become one flock with
one shepherd.
There is a word of prediction regarding what the church is today.
No longer are there many flocks, but there is one flock, Jewish, Gentile, one flock and
Jesus Christ is the one shepherd over this one body.
Do you see the point I am making here?
Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and they respond.
That is exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 10, 17.
Faith comes from hearing the spoken word of Christ.
So that when the gospel is preached, someone shares the gospel with another one.
There is the voice of Jesus Christ in that and his sheep hear his voice.
God uses that proclamation to call out his sheep to faith.
Now having said that, there are some readers, Paul seems to assume here, who might reach
this conclusion in an attempt to justify or excuse Israel.
They might say, as verse 18 says, in essence, well apparently then Israel never heard a
word from God.
Apparently then there was no message.
There was no revelation to Israel, for if there had been, surely then they would have
believed and then called upon the Lord, right?
Wrong.
Israel did have a message from God.
And Psalm 19, 4 is quoted in defense of that.
That Psalm speaks about natural revelation in creation, reverberating around the world
like the vibrations on a stringed instrument.
And he says that through that natural revelation, God's glory is evidenced.
The Holy Spirit here in Romans 10 seems to draw upon those words to apply it this way.
That in Paul's day, as he preached, the Word of God was reverberating wherever the Jews were.
The vibrations of it were out all over the known world, where there were Jews in their
dispersion.
They had a message from God.
But then that brings another question.
Well then if Israel had a message, if Israel had a word from God, they must not have heard
it, they must not have known it, they must not have understood it.
Wrong again.
The apostle makes it clear that Israel did know what it was doing.
He says in chapter 32 verse 21 of Deuteronomy, quoted here in verse 19, I will make you jealous
by that which is not a nation.
By a nation without understanding will I anger you.
This is a quotation from Moses' final sermon to Israel.
And at that point in the sermon, Moses rebukes the nation because she turned from the law,
from the word that they had had from God, to the worship of idols, even of demons.
You have to get the picture.
Israel had received a clear revelation from God.
They had even assented to it.
They said we will agree to this covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai.
But then they turned right around and began to worship idols and demons.
Was the problem that they didn't have a message?
No.
Was it that they didn't understand it?
That wasn't the problem.
What was the problem?
The problem was their stubborn, rebellious hearts.
That was the problem.
He underscores this by saying in verse 20, I was found by those who sought me not.
Do you know what happened?
Ultimately, when the Jews rejected the message that they had from God and knew, God turned
to the Gentiles.
Not that Jews can't be saved, they can be.
But God is making the nation of Israel today jealous spiritually by what he is doing primarily
among the Gentiles.
The numbers of Gentiles saved far surpass the numbers of Jews who are saved in this
age.
He is calling out a people who before were not a people, doing it to provoke Israel to
jealousy.
But I repeat, Israel's problem was not that they didn't have a message, it wasn't they
didn't understand it, they just turned from it.
They hardened their hearts to it.
As Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might have life.
You will not.
It's a matter of the will, the choice.
You choose obstinately not to come to me.
You will notice verse 18, a quote from the Psalms, verse 19, a quote from the law, verse
20 a quote from the prophet Isaiah.
All we have here is proof from each of the divisions of the Old Testament as the Jews
divided the writings, the law, the prophets.
And the proof says that Israel has been judged by God for rejecting his word, his offer of
faith righteousness.
And there's also a suggestion there in the Old Testament that he would turn to the Gentiles
where the message would be received.
And yet look at verse 21, this is God's attitude toward Israel.
All day long I've stretched out my hands to disobedient and obstinate people.
God today is longing for the Jews.
Stretching out his hand to them who speak back to him, that's the meaning of obstinate.
They talk back, they sass him.
But nonetheless, in patience and in love, his arms are outstretched to Jew, to Gentile
alike.
When the gospel is preached, some will reject, some will receive.
God nonetheless uses that proclamation to call out his own to faith.
What has been your response to the gospel?
You may have been raised in a fine church where you've heard the gospel all of your
life but have you ever personally trusted in the Savior?
Do you have that assurance today of a personal relationship that guarantees for you eternal
life?
As far as us Christians are concerned, what is an application for us?
It is this.
We like Israel of old can develop hardened hearts.
And my friend, if there's anything you as a believer need to fear, it's that.
Read Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 and see what I'm talking about.
How do you prevent a hardened heart?
Let me give you three ideas just very quickly.
Here's how to prevent a hardened heart toward God, Christian.
Number one, when he challenges your faith, believe him and obey.
The problem with Israel down there at Kadesh Barnea was that when God said go into the
land that possesses it, they said, oh Lord, those people are too big for us.
We are but grasshoppers in their sight.
We can't do it.
And God cut off that generation.
They were finished.
They did not enter into his rest.
What is God challenging you to do by faith?
What vision do you have that only God can accomplish?
Has God laid on your heart some particular thing?
Will you obey him by faith and say, Lord, I don't know how, but you've called.
I will do it.
Secondly, when he gives you a command, obey him.
God said to the people of Israel, do this.
They said no.
What is God commanding you to do?
Is it to go?
Is it to give so others can go?
Is he commanding you to be baptized?
Have you ever followed him in obedience in that way?
Is it to witness, to proclaim the gospel to someone there at work in your neighborhood?
What is he commanding you to do today?
Whatever it is, obey him lest you develop a hardened heart.
One of the most serious problems we deal with spiritually is that of delayed obedience,
intending to do it and then never getting around to it.
Thirdly, when God exposes your disobedience, acknowledge it.
In Hebrews 3, he warns about the deceitfulness of sin, how dangerous it is when God reveals
to us some wayward thing in us and then we just cover it up.
We excuse it.
We just let it go.
For when we do that, we are taking steps in the direction of a hardened heart.
A hardened heart is the result of a process.
It happens one bad decision at a time.
Christian, how is your heart before God today?
Heavenly Father, I pray that you will draw out from us those commitments and decisions
that are appropriate.
May we respond today to you and not harden our hearts.
Be open and obedient to your will in our lives.
Sing with me.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
We're going to turn to 320, which is the chorus of the hymn of the chorus we've just
sung.
If today there is some spiritual commitment you need to make in obedience to God, we invite
you to do it right now.
Whether it's to place your faith in Jesus Christ, to publicly profess your faith, to
follow the Lord in baptism, to establish a fresh and a new His Lordship in your life,
to present your heart to Him afresh because it's become hardened and you want to come
today and say, Lord, soften my heart again.
As we sing, will you come?
I stand here at the front and wait.
Let's stand together.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way.
While we do His good will, He abides with us still and with all who will trust.
Let's sing together the fourth verse.