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Romans chapter 10.

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I can hear some of you returning collegiously.

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I can't believe we're still in Romans.

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Oh, yes.

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Romans chapter 10, our text will be verses 11 through 21.

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The theme is good news and bad news.

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I heard a story one time about an angel who was dispatched to one of the famous major

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league pitchers.

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And appearing to the man, he said, I have good news and bad news for you.

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And the pitcher quaking just a bit said, well, say on.

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The angel said, well, the good news is that we have a terrific ball team in heaven.

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But the bad news is that we need a pitcher and you're scheduled to start the next game.

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As we look at our text today, we're going to see some good news and then some bad news.

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For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.

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For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

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For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon him.

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For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

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How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?

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How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?

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How shall they hear without a preacher?

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How shall they preach unless they are sent?

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Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good

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things.

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However, they did not all heed the glad tidings.

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For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?

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The faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

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But I say, surely they have never heard, have they?

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Indeed, they have.

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Their voice has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.

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But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they?

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At the first, Moses says, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation.

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By a nation without understanding will I anger you.

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And Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who sought me not.

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I became manifest to those who did not ask for me.

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But as for Israel, he says, all the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient

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and obstinate people.

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The good news is the gracious offer of God of faith righteousness.

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In other words, a right standing with himself for those who will believe on him.

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The bad news is that Israel, as a nation, rejected and sought to establish its own self-righteousness,

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just like many today.

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We have before us this morning one of the great missionary texts of the Bible.

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And yet the context is one of rejection of the Gospel by the nation of Israel.

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In verse 8, he calls the Gospel message the word of faith.

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In other words, it is that one can be saved or be made right with God by believing in

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his heart on the resurrected Jesus who is Lord.

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Verse 9.

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And he says that that faith then results in righteousness or that right standing with

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God that gains us an entrance into heaven.

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This standing with God cannot be earned or merited.

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It can only be received by simple faith.

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And it's really good news.

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It's good news because it means that I don't have to keep lying to myself and to God about

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my sins and my failures.

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Rather, I can acknowledge them to him.

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It's good news because it means I don't have to pass through life worried and uncertain

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about God's attitude toward me.

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I can know that I am accepted of him in Jesus Christ.

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The Gospel is good news because it means I don't have to die and then find myself unexpectedly

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in judgment and hell.

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But rather I can face death with the assurance of heaven and of being with Jesus Christ.

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It's good news.

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To be saved, one must be declared right with God through faith.

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Our text today presents three propositions about this Gospel.

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The first proposition is that it is an universal offer.

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Verses 11 through 13.

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The offer that whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved is not limited

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to any particular race or nationality, political camp, social stratum, or economic group.

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But rather it is for all in the world.

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As we have seen in chapter 3 verse 23, all men are sinners without exception.

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Here we learn that all may be saved without distinction.

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God does not distinguish or discriminate among mankind.

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He does not look at one as white and another as black and another as yellow.

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He does not look at one as a North American and another as one from Asia.

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He does not look at us as capitalists or as communists.

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God sees all of us as sinners.

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The offer of salvation is open to all without any distinction whatsoever.

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We see four times in verses 11 through 13 that universal offer.

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As he says, whoever believes, verse 11, he is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all

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who call upon him, for whoever will call.

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Jesus Christ is Lord of all, whether or not he is recognized.

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He is Lord of the saved.

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For we who have trusted him confessed at that moment of our salvation, Jesus is Lord.

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We recognize him as deity who came into the world to pay the price for our sins so that

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through him we might be saved and reconciled to God.

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But he is also Lord of the unsaved, yet unrecognized.

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However there is coming a day, according to Philippians chapter 2, when every knee will

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bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

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The real thrust of that passage, by the way, is that when that day comes it will be too

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late for the lost to be saved.

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Rather their confession of his Lordship will be an acknowledgement of his right as Lord

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to pronounce their final judgment.

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Whosoever will call is an appeal for all men everywhere to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Who is qualified to answer this appeal?

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Only those who are humbled in their sin and repentant and who see their hopeless state

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and who are therefore willing to call upon Christ to save them.

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There was a time a few years ago when we were instructed by some not to use the word saved

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anymore for that was a date and term.

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They said people today don't understand what it is to be saved.

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I hardly disagreed then and I still do today.

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There is not a more simple concept than this concept of being saved.

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People are rescued, people are delivered all the time in all cultures.

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Therefore the concept of being saved, being rescued from sin and from judgment and from

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hell is one that communicates.

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What we are told here is that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

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This is simply a confirmation of chapter 1 verse 16 quoted a few moments ago from this

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pulpit.

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I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone

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who believes.

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We have seen that testified this morning in the Meso-choir whose ancestors were headhunters.

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Today we have heard that perhaps 100% of those people have come to a place of personal faith

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in Jesus Christ in less than a century.

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Amazing truth testifying to the power of the gospel of Christ.

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We can go down the road here today and hear similar testimonies of the power of that gospel

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message to change lives.

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Has it changed your life?

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It can if you will call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

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Verses 14 and 15 we see that this universal offer is an urgent proclamation.

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Because this message is for everyone all deserve to hear it.

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Look if we truly believe that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved,

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if we truly believe that then we have a responsibility for disseminating that message for declaring

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it to the whole world.

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The apostle delivers that challenge to us by a series of thought provoking questions

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in verses 14 and 15.

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These are rhetorical they are intended only to cause us to exercise our hearts and our

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minds we are to deliberate in what is said here.

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The five verbs in the questions are progressive.

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However the apostle begins with the final action in the list and then works his way

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to the beginning of the order.

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He says how then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?

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And how shall they believe in whom they have not heard?

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And how shall they hear without a preacher?

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And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

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You can underline the five verbs call upon, believe, hear, preach, send.

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He begins with this term call upon.

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As we saw last week that is a word in the Greek that means to appeal your case.

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Paul used it when he appealed to Caesar when one recognizes his great need and his sinfulness

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before God and the judgment he deserves.

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It causes him to appeal his case to the Savior to call upon him.

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Why?

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Because he believes.

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Now it is one thing to believe in God and even to believe in Christ.

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It is another thing to believe him.

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There are many people in the world today and I would have to say there are many people

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in hell who have believed in God and believed in Jesus Christ that he lived but they have

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never believed him personally.

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Establish that personal, that vital, that living relationship that is connotated in

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this word believe.

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It means to commit oneself to, to trust upon.

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I can say that that chair will hold me but not until I sit in the chair have I exercised

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that belief.

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I can believe in Jesus Christ that he died and rose again but not until I have personally

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committed myself, my soul, my salvation to him and my truly saved.

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But then how can one believe unless he hears?

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Obviously that has to take place either by the audible hearing of words or by written

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words, hearing the proclamation.

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The hearing here includes the work of the Holy Spirit enlightening the sin darkened

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understanding of the sinner.

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But how can one hear unless one is preaching?

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Unless there is a herald who is proclaiming.

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The idea of a herald is rather foreign to us because today we have instant communication

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electronically.

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There was a day when news had to be carried by heralds, people who were assigned to deliver

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a message to a town or to a region, they would go and proclaim the message and fulfill their

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responsibility.

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That's what is involved here in the proclaiming, the preaching.

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But then he says how can one preach unless he is sent?

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There are two aspects to this idea of sending out preachers.

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There is a divine aspect and a human aspect and we see them beautifully working in Acts

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chapter 13 where the Holy Spirit speaks to the elders of the church at Antioch as they

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are praying.

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And he says to them, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul to the work that I have called them

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to do.

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The elders prayed and fasted and then they laid their hands upon those two men and sent

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them out to the work God had called them to accomplish.

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You see there is the divine call, there is the human sending.

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Here the emphasis seems to be upon the human sending of the messengers.

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The most obvious application is that of missionaries.

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That we as a people of God are to be sending out others to proclaim the message.

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Whether it be in the land of the Mesos or in South America or Africa or in some other

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part of Asia, wherever we are to send out, to apostle out is the word.

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To send with a commission, heralds, to proclaim the gospel so the people can hear and believe

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and call upon the name of the Lord.

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Another application though is to all of us because the Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples

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and through them to you and to me, all of us when he said, even as the Father has sent

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me so I send you.

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I send you.

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So there is a very literal sense in which each of us is sent to someone or some people

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to be a proclamer of the gospel message.

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Now Paul says how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things.

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Do you believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible?

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Take your shoes off and let's see.

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We believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible.

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This of course is intended to be a picture, a symbol of something.

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This word beautiful originally meant seasonable or ripe and it was used a fruit at this time

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of year when it was ready to be picked.

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It then grew into a broader meaning pleasant, fair.

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He says how pleasant, how fair is the mission, the journey.

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How wonderful is the joy of one who proclaims glad tidings.

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It would be terrible to have to take news to a population that their army had been defeated

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and that the enemy was coming for the spoils of the battle.

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That would be bad news.

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But you and I who are apostles by Jesus Christ have glad tidings of good things to proclaim

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to the world.

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That idea is quoted from the Old Testament as you probably know.

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Isaiah uses similar terminology, chapter 52 and verse 7, where he speaks of the day when

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the heralds would come to the people of Israel and would proclaim to them that they are being

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restored from their Babylonian captivity.

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That would be good news.

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Nehom, the prophet, also uses this language.

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Chapter 1 verse 15, he speaks about the news of God's judgment coming upon Judah's enemies,

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the Assyrians, and how glad those people were to hear that God was finally going to judge

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the Ninevites, and he did in 612 BC.

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There's a third ramification of these prophecies, however, and that is the day yet in the future

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when God will restore the Jews to the land that he's promised to give them under the

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Abrahamic covenant.

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Isaiah looks forward to that day when the restored, reclaimed, regathered people of

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Israel will hear the glad tidings that God is giving them their land.

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But the application of the Holy Spirit here in Romans chapter 10 is to you and me.

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He says that you and I proclaim glad tidings when we preach of faith righteousness.

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This pleasant announcement is also an urgent one because it involves the very issues of

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life and death, and not just physical life and death, but eternal life or eternal death.

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Dear people, that's why we are committed so heavily to missions in our church.

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I heard a pastor of a large church quoted recently.

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His church does not have a missions program.

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He made this statement, I think I know why he said it and what he meant, but the statement

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as it stands is a horrendous statement.

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He said, I believe that we can either build the church of Jesus Christ here at home or

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overseas.

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He's missed it.

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For our commission is to build the church of Jesus Christ here at home and overseas,

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in both places.

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It's not either or.

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We don't have that luxury.

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It's both here and there.

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We are to be involved in building the church, winning people to Christ, discipling them,

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bringing them to the place of obedience, involving them in the local church, seeing that they

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are baptized.

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We are committed to that kind of church planting missions.

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That's why we have a missions festival coming up in just a few weeks, which is always the

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highlight of our year.

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I hope that you will block out that whole week, the last Sunday of October through the

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first Sunday of November.

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You will plan to be at every single meeting you possibly can.

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It will be a great week.

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We are then reminded of the need of this lost and sin-cursed earth around us.

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We are reminded, too, of what you and I can do to be a part of it.

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We have a part, dear folks.

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We have a responsibility.

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For if we are not sent, we have a responsibility to assist those who are literally sent to

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foreign cultures so that they can complete their assignments.

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We have a part in that.

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May I say, too, this is why we are developing within our church ministry here in Roseville

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evangelism teams.

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Teams that will work as a part of our small churches, too, so the people are one to Jesus

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Christ because I'll tell you something, a person who is moral and good and without Christ

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in Roseville is just as sure of going to hell as a headhunter in India.

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So we have a responsibility to proclaim the gospel there and here, and we want to be involved

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in that faithfully.

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That brings us to the third proposition.

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The gospel gets an unquestionable response, verses 16 through 21.

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When the gospel is preached, it always, always, always gets results.

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The word of God does not return void, but the result is not always faith.

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Sometimes the result is rejection of the gospel message.

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Israel is an example of that, verse 16.

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However, notice the change of tone in these two verses.

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However, they did not all heed the glad tidings mentioned in verse 15.

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For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?

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Israel did not believe and call upon her Christ.

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They were willing for a physical restoration to be delivered from Roman oppression, but

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they did not want spiritual salvation involving humbling of themselves and repentance and

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a crucified Messiah.

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No way.

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That was not part of their whole idea, so they rejected this gospel.

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The implication, according to some, might be that if in fact people are sent and the

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word is proclaimed and there are those who hear, they should then believe and call upon

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the Lord.

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That's the process, isn't it?

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If Israel didn't believe and call upon the Lord, they must not have had a word from God.

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But we'll see that that is not so.

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Look at verse 17 for a moment, this is one of the most frequently quoted of Bible verses.

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He summarizes what he has said in the previous verses and he says, so faith comes from hearing

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and hearing by the word of Christ.

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The word word here means spoken word, rama, it is not logos, it's rama, the spoken word

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of Christ.

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What does this verse mean?

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Well, I believe it's saying to us more than just the preaching about Christ produces faith.

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What it is saying is that faith is generated in the heart when the spoken word of Christ

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is heard.

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In other words, as the gospel is proclaimed by you, by myself, the voice of Jesus Christ

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is in some sense present and heard as the gospel is proclaimed.

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And where it is heard, faith results and they call upon the Lord.

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I think we see this illustrated back in John chapter 10 in a parallel passage where the

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Lord Jesus speaks.

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Would you look at that with me?

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Even here we see the rejection of the Jews.

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John 10 verse 24, the Jews therefore gathered around him, Jesus, and were saying to him,

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how long will you keep us in suspense?

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If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

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Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe.

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The works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me, but you do not believe

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me because you are not of my sheep.

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My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to

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them and they shall never perish.

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What is Jesus saying?

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He is saying when I speak, my sheep hear my voice and when they do, they follow me.

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They respond in faith.

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Look back at verse 16, he says, I have other sheep which are not of this fold.

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He is talking about Gentiles who are not a part of the Jewish fold.

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I must bring them also and they shall hear my voice and they shall become one flock with

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one shepherd.

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There is a word of prediction regarding what the church is today.

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No longer are there many flocks, but there is one flock, Jewish, Gentile, one flock and

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Jesus Christ is the one shepherd over this one body.

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Do you see the point I am making here?

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Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and they respond.

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That is exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 10, 17.

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Faith comes from hearing the spoken word of Christ.

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So that when the gospel is preached, someone shares the gospel with another one.

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There is the voice of Jesus Christ in that and his sheep hear his voice.

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God uses that proclamation to call out his sheep to faith.

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Now having said that, there are some readers, Paul seems to assume here, who might reach

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this conclusion in an attempt to justify or excuse Israel.

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They might say, as verse 18 says, in essence, well apparently then Israel never heard a

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word from God.

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Apparently then there was no message.

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There was no revelation to Israel, for if there had been, surely then they would have

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believed and then called upon the Lord, right?

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Wrong.

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Israel did have a message from God.

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And Psalm 19, 4 is quoted in defense of that.

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That Psalm speaks about natural revelation in creation, reverberating around the world

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like the vibrations on a stringed instrument.

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And he says that through that natural revelation, God's glory is evidenced.

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The Holy Spirit here in Romans 10 seems to draw upon those words to apply it this way.

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That in Paul's day, as he preached, the Word of God was reverberating wherever the Jews were.

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The vibrations of it were out all over the known world, where there were Jews in their

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dispersion.

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They had a message from God.

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But then that brings another question.

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Well then if Israel had a message, if Israel had a word from God, they must not have heard

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it, they must not have known it, they must not have understood it.

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Wrong again.

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The apostle makes it clear that Israel did know what it was doing.

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He says in chapter 32 verse 21 of Deuteronomy, quoted here in verse 19, I will make you jealous

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by that which is not a nation.

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By a nation without understanding will I anger you.

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This is a quotation from Moses' final sermon to Israel.

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And at that point in the sermon, Moses rebukes the nation because she turned from the law,

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from the word that they had had from God, to the worship of idols, even of demons.

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You have to get the picture.

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Israel had received a clear revelation from God.

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They had even assented to it.

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They said we will agree to this covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai.

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But then they turned right around and began to worship idols and demons.

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Was the problem that they didn't have a message?

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No.

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Was it that they didn't understand it?

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That wasn't the problem.

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What was the problem?

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The problem was their stubborn, rebellious hearts.

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That was the problem.

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He underscores this by saying in verse 20, I was found by those who sought me not.

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Do you know what happened?

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Ultimately, when the Jews rejected the message that they had from God and knew, God turned

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to the Gentiles.

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Not that Jews can't be saved, they can be.

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But God is making the nation of Israel today jealous spiritually by what he is doing primarily

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among the Gentiles.

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The numbers of Gentiles saved far surpass the numbers of Jews who are saved in this

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age.

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He is calling out a people who before were not a people, doing it to provoke Israel to

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jealousy.

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But I repeat, Israel's problem was not that they didn't have a message, it wasn't they

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didn't understand it, they just turned from it.

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They hardened their hearts to it.

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As Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might have life.

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You will not.

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It's a matter of the will, the choice.

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You choose obstinately not to come to me.

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You will notice verse 18, a quote from the Psalms, verse 19, a quote from the law, verse

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20 a quote from the prophet Isaiah.

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All we have here is proof from each of the divisions of the Old Testament as the Jews

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divided the writings, the law, the prophets.

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And the proof says that Israel has been judged by God for rejecting his word, his offer of

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faith righteousness.

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And there's also a suggestion there in the Old Testament that he would turn to the Gentiles

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where the message would be received.

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And yet look at verse 21, this is God's attitude toward Israel.

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All day long I've stretched out my hands to disobedient and obstinate people.

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God today is longing for the Jews.

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Stretching out his hand to them who speak back to him, that's the meaning of obstinate.

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They talk back, they sass him.

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But nonetheless, in patience and in love, his arms are outstretched to Jew, to Gentile

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alike.

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When the gospel is preached, some will reject, some will receive.

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God nonetheless uses that proclamation to call out his own to faith.

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What has been your response to the gospel?

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You may have been raised in a fine church where you've heard the gospel all of your

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life but have you ever personally trusted in the Savior?

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Do you have that assurance today of a personal relationship that guarantees for you eternal

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life?

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As far as us Christians are concerned, what is an application for us?

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It is this.

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We like Israel of old can develop hardened hearts.

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And my friend, if there's anything you as a believer need to fear, it's that.

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Read Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 and see what I'm talking about.

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How do you prevent a hardened heart?

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Let me give you three ideas just very quickly.

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Here's how to prevent a hardened heart toward God, Christian.

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Number one, when he challenges your faith, believe him and obey.

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The problem with Israel down there at Kadesh Barnea was that when God said go into the

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land that possesses it, they said, oh Lord, those people are too big for us.

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We are but grasshoppers in their sight.

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We can't do it.

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And God cut off that generation.

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They were finished.

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They did not enter into his rest.

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What is God challenging you to do by faith?

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What vision do you have that only God can accomplish?

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Has God laid on your heart some particular thing?

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Will you obey him by faith and say, Lord, I don't know how, but you've called.

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I will do it.

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Secondly, when he gives you a command, obey him.

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God said to the people of Israel, do this.

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They said no.

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What is God commanding you to do?

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Is it to go?

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Is it to give so others can go?

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Is he commanding you to be baptized?

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Have you ever followed him in obedience in that way?

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Is it to witness, to proclaim the gospel to someone there at work in your neighborhood?

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What is he commanding you to do today?

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Whatever it is, obey him lest you develop a hardened heart.

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One of the most serious problems we deal with spiritually is that of delayed obedience,

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intending to do it and then never getting around to it.

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Thirdly, when God exposes your disobedience, acknowledge it.

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In Hebrews 3, he warns about the deceitfulness of sin, how dangerous it is when God reveals

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to us some wayward thing in us and then we just cover it up.

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We excuse it.

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We just let it go.

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For when we do that, we are taking steps in the direction of a hardened heart.

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A hardened heart is the result of a process.

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It happens one bad decision at a time.

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Christian, how is your heart before God today?

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Heavenly Father, I pray that you will draw out from us those commitments and decisions

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that are appropriate.

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May we respond today to you and not harden our hearts.

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Be open and obedient to your will in our lives.

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Sing with me.

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Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

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We're going to turn to 320, which is the chorus of the hymn of the chorus we've just

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sung.

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If today there is some spiritual commitment you need to make in obedience to God, we invite

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you to do it right now.

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Whether it's to place your faith in Jesus Christ, to publicly profess your faith, to

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follow the Lord in baptism, to establish a fresh and a new His Lordship in your life,

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to present your heart to Him afresh because it's become hardened and you want to come

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today and say, Lord, soften my heart again.

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As we sing, will you come?

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I stand here at the front and wait.

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Let's stand together.

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When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way.

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While we do His good will, He abides with us still and with all who will trust.

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Let's sing together the fourth verse.