We're continuing our series in Romans by looking this morning at Romans chapter 10, verse 14 to 21. Romans chapter 10, 14 to 21. And the theme this morning is sent to proclaim. Sent to proclaim. From Romans chapter 10, 14 to 21. Let us hear God's word. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things, But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, indeed. Their sound has gone out in all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will move you to anger by a foolish nation. But Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me. But to Israel he says, all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Amen, this is God's word. Let's once again pray. Lord, as we come now to study your word, we do so with the knowledge that you are the God who speaks. Lord, may we be like those that Isaiah describes as those who tremble at your word. May we approach the scripture this morning, not with flippancy, not with disinterest, but with hearts and minds that are ready to hear your word. Oh Lord, would you speak to us this morning? Would you help me to preach your word? May I know the unction of the spirit and may I faithfully declare the whole counsel of God. We pray these things for Jesus' sake. Amen. There is a famous quote that is often used in evangelical circles that has been attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi. Even though it's the famous quote, we actually have no historical records of Francis saying it. But the quote goes something like this. Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. Now chances are you've probably heard that saying. In fact just in the last few days I have seen several people post that quote on social media. Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words. Now that statement has become a bit of a mantra in the modern church and it's used frequently by those who wish to have an excuse to not verbalise their faith in Jesus. Oftentimes someone will quote this saying and then say, I'm sharing the gospel merely by how I live. My life is the gospel. But if we come to our passage this morning, if we come to Romans chapter 10, we have to conclude that such a statement and such an ideal is contrary to scripture. It is an unbiblical statement. It is an unbiblical notion. To share the gospel with someone, to share the good news with someone requires that we open our mouths and speak of Jesus. If we are merely trying to live the gospel, if we are merely trying to let our lifestyle convey the gospel, then this morning we need to examine ourselves in the light of scripture and be obedient to what God's word says. We need to cease the excuse of merely living a certain way. Instead, we need to step up, be biblical, and speak out for the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this whole notion, this whole method of preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words, is foolish and it is completely illogical. If we were to examine the sentiment of this statement and apply it to something such as feeding the hungry, we would quickly see that the statement makes no sense. Imagine there's all these people outside the gates of our church and they're hungering for food, they want something to eat. And we went around saying, feed the hungry and if necessary, use food. If we said that, people would look at you and say, there's something wrong with you. That makes no sense. If you're going to feed the hungry, you actually have to give them food. Likewise, if you're going to share the gospel, you have to speak of the gospel. The gospel must be proclaimed. And as we look at our text this morning, We see that the Apostle Paul is calling on believers of the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim the good news of salvation. If you remember the context, the Apostle Paul began Romans chapter 10 by talking about his concern and desire for his countrymen to be saved. Paul is a man that longs for Israel to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And then as we work through Romans chapter 10, we came to verse 9, and the Apostle Paul declares in that passage how someone can be saved. In verse 9, Paul says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's what someone has to do to be saved. But then in verse 13, Paul says, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's this promise of salvation. If you call upon Christ, you'll be rescued. If you would confess that Christ is Lord, if you believe in your heart that God raised you from the dead, you will be saved. That's what someone needs to understand to come to faith in Christ. The question for us, though, is this. How do they gain that knowledge? How do they hear of the Lord Jesus? How do they know they have to call upon the name of the Lord? How do they know that Jesus died on the cross for sinners and that he rose again from the dead? How do they understand all that? How do they believe if no one has taken the time to communicate that message to them? If the gospel is merely communicated through how we live, then how can you live in such a way that your life declares to the world Jesus died for sinners and he rose again? How does your life convey that message? How can someone look at you and notice the way that you walk and flick your hair and go, you know what? Based on how that person just did their hair, I think I have to repent and believe. You can't communicate that. Now the way we live confirms the gospel we believe, but the way we live does not communicate the gospel. It cannot proclaim the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It cannot proclaim our need for salvation and the need to repent and believe. The only way that information can be conveyed is by words. Words must be spoken. Conversations must be had. the word must be proclaimed. And as we come to this next section of Romans chapter 10, we see that Paul builds the case for the word being proclaimed to the lost. He stresses that the gospel must go forth if we want to see people come to know Jesus. Look at verse 14 to 17 and we see Paul asking the question, how shall they hear? Now Paul, in this opening argument of verse 14 to 17, writes in a way that is very common in the Book of Romans. As you go through Romans, you'll often see that Paul asks lots of questions. Now he's writing rhetorically, he's putting questions out there so that we might think through and consider what he is saying. So Paul starts this section of God's Word by asking a series of questions. How shall they call on 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? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? See, there's a series of questions there and these questions are designed to take us to the point from where someone believes to how they heard that message in the first place. See, Paul is saying the end goal here is belief. We want people to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. But how did we get there? And that's what the questions work back to. They show how the person got there. He says, how can a person call upon Jesus if they've not believed? How can they believe if they've never heard of Jesus? How can they hear of Jesus if no one's even preached to them? How can they preach to them if someone hasn't been sent to them? There's this long chain here, this chain that works together to bring someone to saving faith. You see, at some point, at some precise moment, someone has to stop merely living the gospel and actually proclaim the gospel. Someone's got to preach Jesus. Someone has to declare the wonder of Christ. But before that can happen, They have to be sent. And that creates a big question. Who are the sent ones? Whose mission is it to go and proclaim the good news of salvation? Whose role is it to go to the lost and tell them of Jesus? Well, if we examine the issue of being sent, we'll actually see that scripture declares that you and I have a vital role to play. is that when we think of sent, when we think of someone being sent today to share the gospel, it's very easy for us to visualize missionaries and evangelists. In fact, when I was looking up this sermon, I looked up some illustrations, when I was putting it all together, I looked up illustrations on the issue of how can I illustrate being sent? And every illustration I found related to a missionary or an evangelist being sent. And that seems to be our common understanding, isn't it? Someone is sent to share the gospel, oh, they must be that super full-time Christian. They must be that guy that's forsaken everything and he's going out and he's being a missionary to a foreign country. That's what we think when it comes to being sent. Others have this idea that only the pastor is sent to carry the gospel to the lost. But I would suggest to you, based on scripture, if you were a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, Being sent is not something confined to missionaries, evangelists and pastors. Being sent is something that applies to you as well. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been sent to tell others of him. Now let me prove that from Scripture. If we look at the Gospels, we see the Lord Jesus Christ giving what is called the Great Commission. In Mark chapter 16 verse 15, Jesus says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. In Luke 24, 46 to 47, it says, then Jesus said to them, thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Jesus speaking again in Matthew 28 19 to 20 says go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." That there is clearly a sending here. Christ sends people. Now, I know there's some objections that rise to that point. Some people will read those sending verses of Jesus and say, well, look, you need to understand who Jesus was speaking to. Now, it's always good to understand context. We should understand the context of the Word of God. And I say, Jesus was speaking to the apostles. Therefore, the command to go and preach is only something given to them. Well, it is certainly true, Jesus was speaking to the apostles, but I would suggest that it's not only true for them. And the reason I say that is because what we see here in the Great Commission is a pattern we see played out by individual Christians in the early church. Now, to prove that, we need to go to the Book of Acts. If we look at the book of Acts, we look at the early church and we see that they had the mindset that every Christian, every believer in Christ had the job of proclaiming Christ to all people. In Acts 1, verse 8, it says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Acts opens up with the promise of the Holy Spirit, and the promise that Jesus gives us is that if you have the Holy Spirit, then you are sent to be a witness to Him. You're sent to testify of Him. Now, Ephesians chapter 1 tells us that all believers, all those who have been saved by the Lord Jesus, have the Holy Spirit. If you're a Christian, Ephesians 1 says you are sealed with the Spirit until the day of redemption. You have the Holy Spirit. So if you're a believer, you're filled with the Spirit, and the role of the Spirit in you is to send you out to be a witness for Christ. And we see that outworked in the life of the early church. In Acts chapter 8, we read of the whole church going out to evangelize, to spread the good news. In Acts chapter 8 verse 1 it says, at that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So we're told that persecution has arisen, the church is scattered except for the apostles, they stay in Jerusalem. But as the persecution arises the church scatters out. The people flee, the people go to different parts of the empire. Now what do they do? Verse 4, therefore those who were scattered, that's the church, went everywhere preaching the word. Now literally in the Greek it means they went everywhere evangelising. They went everywhere proclaiming the good news. You see the church was scattered and as they were scattered they went everywhere declaring the wonder of Jesus. So what we see in scripture is that the whole church has been sent. We see that every Christian is commissioned, every believer is spirit-empowered, and then we see the example of the early church going and sharing Jesus. We ought to look at that, and as a church in this century, we should conclude that we too have been sent. We too have been sent. So the question for you and I, as we consider sharing the gospel, is not, am I sent? The question we must answer is, to whom have I been sent? You've already been sent. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you're sent. The question is, to whom have I been sent? See, as believers in Christ, we all have a job to do. We all have a purpose. Christians, don't waste your days sitting around at home saying, I want to be used by God, what is my purpose? Well, the scripture gives us our purpose. The scripture gives us our job. You have been sent. Be obedient to what God has called you to do. You see, Paul tells us that those who have been sent have a mission. They are not sent to organise events. They are not sent to change the culture. They are not sent to fight social justice. They are not sent to capture the so-called Seven Mountains of Dominion. They are not sent to organise social fellowships. Rather, they are sent to preach, to share, to proclaim, to declare the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're all sent to do. To proclaim Him so that people might hear of Jesus. and then call upon the name of the Lord. You see, we should go out as believers saying, I have been sent by Christ to speak of him. And as we go out, we should be praying, Lord, would we see Romans 10, 9 fulfilled of people declaring that he is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead. You see, we need to realize that people will not believe if we do not go to them. We must go to the lost and we must proclaim. Now when you hear me talk about preaching and proclaiming here, let me just try and clarify and clear something up here. When I say preach, don't picture standing on the pulpit. When I say proclaim, don't picture standing on a soapbox in the open air. No, you are preaching Jesus, you are proclaiming Christ when you hand a tract to somebody. You are proclaiming Christ when you give away a copy of the scripture. You are proclaiming Christ when you share the gospel with friends and family. Mothers, when you are raising your children and you teach them of Jesus, you are proclaiming Christ. Fathers, when you lead your family in family worship, you are proclaiming Christ. There are many ways to proclaim Christ. You preach Jesus when you talk to someone about him over a nice cup of tea. It's not all about pulpit work. You can proclaim Christ, you can preach Jesus in your day-to-day life. You can preach Jesus when on social media you put up gospel verses. You're proclaiming Christ. The only way that anyone is going to be saved is if we all get about the business of proclaiming Jesus. We must verbalise our faith. Back in Romans chapter 10 verse 1, Paul says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. Paul says, I have this desire, so I pray for my people to be saved. That is a good starting point. We need to be praying for the lost. But then notice that Paul builds in and says, but we also need to preach. We also need to proclaim. We also need to speak to people of Jesus. Now, perhaps you hear all this and you say, OK, that's well and good, but how? How am I meant to do this? Let me share a story with you of a dear old saint who is now with the Lord that I got to know about 10 years ago. This old lady was so old that when I met her about 10 or so years ago she was telling me that as a young lady she got to hear the Ulster evangelist WP Nicholson tour Australia in the 1920s. So that's how old she was. She could remember a preaching crusade in the 1920s. And this day I was talking to her, she was telling me that she has been praying for the lost and that she desires to see the lost saved but she was so depressed and so sad because she said, I'm too old and I'm too frail to go out and share Jesus. She was lamenting that she couldn't get out to witness and she was wondering how she could proclaim Jesus, how she could be obedient to God's word. So I asked her, I said, do you meet any non-Christians? And she said, no. The only people I meet are those that I'm at church with on Sunday and my nurse who comes to visit me each and every day. And as she said that, it dawned on her. My nurse isn't a Christian. And at that moment, she realised who she was sent to. Well, that dear old saint decided to give the nurse a tract. And the nurse read it. Then she gave the nurse a gospel CD and asked the nurse to listen to it and to share her thoughts. Now I didn't know that all this was going on now. I didn't know how she was sharing the gospel. And I didn't know this until one Sunday when I got in the pulpit to preach and there she was sitting in the congregation, this old saint beaming with the biggest smile you've ever seen. And sitting next to her was her nurse, who was now her sister in Christ. She had one person to witness to. And that's the person the Lord sent her to. You might just have one person. But that's the person the Lord has sent you to. But we have to look for that person. We must find that person. Perhaps for you it's your neighbour. Maybe it's the man you buy the paper from. Maybe it's the girl who serves you coffee. Perhaps it is your work colleague or family member. To them, you have been sent. And the Lord wants you to take the gospel to them. Others may be sent to get involved in open-air outreaches. Some may be sent on short-term mission trips. Others may be sent on long-term mission trips. We're all sent. We just need to work out to whom am I sent. And as we go out and share Jesus, the Bible actually declares that you and I have beautiful feet. See, Paul quotes here from Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7 and says, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Now, I'm not saying your toes are pretty. That's not what the verse is saying. I have seen shoe shops use this verse. It's not about your physical, literal feet. Rather, in the context, news was conveyed by a runner who would run from village to village to proclaim the news of victory in the sense of battle. And when you saw that runner coming, you'd say, oh, I'm so glad that he's coming for us. And Paul here is saying that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we get to carry wonderful news. We get to carry marvelous news. We carry beautiful news of the Savior who loves us and died for us and rose again. Therefore, the mere fact we're coming is beautiful. And if we want people to be saved, then we need to take on that position of carrying the gospel. We need to take the gospel to the lost. We should go out with confidence, Lord, your word has commissioned me to go and proclaim Christ, so I'm going. But we also need to be realistic, as not all will believe. Not every single person you witness to will believe. I wish it was that way, that people would just hear the gospel and believe, but it doesn't always happen that way. In verse 16, Paul says, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. See, some people will hear and some will believe, but others will not believe. They will choose to continue to rebel against the good news. Acts 17, 30 tells us that God commands all people everywhere to repent, but not everyone is going to obey that command. Some people will continue to thumb their nose at God, they will continue in their rebellion towards God, but ultimately that is not our concern. It's not our concern. I know it can be heartbreaking. I know it can be discouraging when people don't believe. But ultimately, salvation is up to God, not us. Jonah the prophet says, salvation is of the Lord. Jesus said, no man can come to the Son unless the Father draws him. Salvation is all of God. Our job is not to be caught up and concerned about, well, will this person be saved or not? No, our job is to merely proclaim Christ. Your job is merely to speak of Jesus. The results are up to God. Salvation rests in his hands. Some people will believe, some won't. But there's this wonderful promise we have here in verse 17 that says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Paul says, look, some won't believe. But then he gives a promise of God. Some will. Some will hear the word of God and saving faith will be worked upon their heart. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now this tells us that God promises to bless the proclamation of his word. But it also tells us of the importance of preaching and sharing his word. God has chosen to bless the teaching, the preaching, the sharing of his message, not yours. God has chosen to use his word to bring people to salvation. That means when we share the gospel, our opinions need to disappear. We should simply share the word of God with someone. When someone comes up to us, and this happens all the time in witnessing, they'll try and distract off the gospel and say, well, what's your view on who Antichrist is? Or what's your view on this political situation? Or what's your view about this scenario, that scenario, that current thing that's in the news? What's your opinion? Well, our response should be to simply say, well, look, it doesn't matter what my opinion is. Let's look at the word of God. Let's see what God says. Because your opinion and your sayings won't save anyone. God has chosen to use his word. So we need to expose people to God's truth. As that is how God will save them. And this is why we as a church are very committed to giving away copies of the Bible. This is why we're committed as a church to preach and teach through the whole of scripture. We preach passages of the Bible because we know that God works through his word being preached. We know that when we stand to preach the word, be it in the open air or in the pulpit or when we give someone a tract or we give someone a gospel booklet or when we verbalise the faith one to one, we know that God has chosen to use his word to work faith in the hearts of the lost. So we proclaim the word knowing the word of God is powerful. It's living. It's active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. And Paul says, you're sent. Go and proclaim that word. But then if you notice in verse 18 to 21 Paul turns his emphasis back to Israel. And he says Israel is without excuse. There's a shift here that occurs almost in Paul's argumentation. He says, look, they need to believe, they need to hear, but Israel ultimately doesn't have an excuse. They've heard the truth. They've heard the word of God. They've heard the gospel, but they've chosen to reject it. What we see here when we look at Paul's writing is that Paul quotes Deuteronomy, he quotes Psalm, and he quotes Isaiah to illustrate that Israel, his countrymen, had already heard the Gospel previously. He is saying the message that he has been sent to proclaim is not something new, it's not something that he has made up, rather it is something that has been proclaimed to Israel throughout the Scripture, throughout the Old Testament. You see, the mere fact that Israel had heard the Gospel in the Old Testament, Paul says, leaves them without an excuse. In verse 19 he says, but I say, did Israel not know? The answer is, of course they knew. They had the scripture. The scripture promised the Saviour. The Psalms described the death of Messiah. The prophets proclaimed what Messiah would do. Israel was not ignorant. The truth had been sent to them, the truth had been proclaimed to them, but they chose not to believe. And as a result, Paul says, God now provokes Israel to jealousy by calling the Gentiles into his kingdom. A move which Israel hated. But ultimately Israel didn't want God, they didn't want to believe, they didn't want the truth. So they are without excuse. Why are they without excuse? Because they had heard. Because they had the scripture sent to them. But they didn't take the time to read, study or apply it. How does that fit with us going and proclaiming Christ, the loss? Here's how it fits. We need to proclaim the gospel so the people around us do not have an excuse. They can't claim ignorance. We need to go to them and proclaim the word so they might hear and believe, but also so they do not have an excuse. You see, if someone hears the gospel and rejects that gospel, that will be used against them on the Day of Judgment. John Calvin said, the same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay. The gospel you proclaim to someone may be the means that God uses to melt that heart of ice, but it also could be the means that God uses to harden the heart. which he will then use against that person on the Day of Judgment. But you see, Israel had no excuse. They had the Word of God. And there's a warning here for us as well. We too have access to God's Word. But do we take it up and read? Do we read our Bibles through the week? Do we share the Bible with others? God has given us a wonderful gift, he's given us a letter from him, surely we should long to read his word. We have no excuse and Israel had no excuse. But ultimately the people in our community have no excuse either. If you visit our church website, or our Facebook page, you see that we offer free Bibles to anyone in Cornwall that requests one. People in our community are without excuse if they don't take up the Word of God that is freely offered to them. We go out in the streets and we distribute copies of the Bible. People are without excuse if they do not take up the Word of God and read. In our country, when someone stays in a hotel, there's often a Gideon Bible in the drawer. People are without excuse if they do not take up the Word of God and read. You can walk into a bookshop in this country and buy a copy of the Bible. People are without excuse. You can download free apps on your smartphone so you can read the Bible on your phone. You can go to websites and read the Bible in many different languages. We are without excuse. See, Israel had no excuse not to hear the Gospel as they had the Word of God. And we have no excuse. We have no excuse either. But as we see from Paul's quote of Isaiah 65, 1-2, Israel has chosen not to believe. They chose not to obey. In verse 21 it says, but to Israel he says, all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. They were disobedient to God. They contradicted God. They spoke against the gospel. They were active in their rejection of the truth, yet it says, all day long I have stretched out my hand. God was constantly reaching out to them. He was constantly gracious towards them. He was reaching out to them with the truth. They had no excuse. And he kept reaching out towards them. Likewise, The people that we are sent to, they have no excuse. But God is so gracious towards them, he keeps reaching out towards them. And he uses you as his hands. God is so gracious and kind, he is loving and merciful, in that he keeps sending us, the church, the people of God, to go and declare Jesus. to those who are without excuse. As we conclude our passage this morning, we do have to ask ourselves, will we be obedient to the sending from the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you go and verbalise the good news of salvation? The Lord has placed you where you are with the people you know and the people you will meet for a purpose. You're sent to them. You will carry the gospel to them. That's what you're sent to do. Will you do it? Will you do it? If you need resources to help you share the gospel then please speak to me afterwards. We will kit you out. We will give you what you need to share the gospel. We have Bibles, we have tracts, we have booklets. Take what you need and go and share Christ. Do something for him. If you say, well I'm not sure how to share the gospel, then speak to me after. There are courses and shows and DVDs and things you can read and look at that train you to be better equipped to share the gospel. But if you know the gospel that saved you, I'm going to suggest you already have enough information to talk to someone else. But we can help you build upon that. You were sent. So go. But as we finish this morning, you might be here as a non-Christian, you might hear this and go, this makes no sense to me. Why are Christians so interested in this good news? Why do you want to go tell everyone? Well, if you're here this morning and you are not a Christian, let me carry the good news for you right now. The good news is this, even though you have sinned against God, even though you've rebelled against your creator in thought, words and deeds, Christ reaches out to you this morning and he extends his hand of love. And he says to you, no matter what you've done, no matter your background, if you would turn from your sins and trust in him, he is willing to rescue you. He shows he is willing to do that by the fact that he died on the cross for sinners. and that he rose again from the dead and now says, come unto me and I'll give you rest. And I'd encourage everyone, Christian and non-Christian, to pick up the word of God, to read it for yourself and to then go share of the wonderful saviour and all that he has done. If you don't have a Bible, again, we can kick you out with one of those as well. We want people to hear the truth of Jesus so they might call upon him and declare that he is Lord. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we do thank you this morning that we can study the scripture and see that you in your grace reach out to us. That you've reached out to us all the day long with the good news of grace. Lord, may we who are saved be thankful and out of love for you, be obedient to the command that we are sent. And may we go forth and proclaim Jesus. Lord, please grant us boldness and courage to overcome our fear. Lord, may our love for you and love for our neighbour cause us to swallow our fear. And may we speak of Jesus. And Lord, as we do so, we ask that you would save the loss that you bring people into your kingdom. Lord, forgive us for the times that we have been silent. Forgive us for the times that we have not seriously taken your commission. Lord, may we renew before your throne this very morning the solemn pledge we owe you to go and make you known. We pray these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.