We read God's Word tonight in the tenth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. Romans 10. We'll read the chapter in its entirety. My text tonight is made up of verses 14 and 15 of this chapter. The Word of God at Romans 10 verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 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 except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily. Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." There ends our reading of the Word of God tonight. May the Lord add His blessing to our reading of the Holy Scripture. I direct your attention particularly to verses 14 and 15. 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 except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." In the text, the Apostle makes plain the supreme importance of the preaching of the gospel. He makes plain that the preaching of the gospel is the means of God. unto the salvation of sinners." The important place of the preaching of the gospel is simply this, that God has appointed the preaching of the gospel as the chief means of grace and salvation. Ordinarily, there is no salvation apart from the hearing of the Word of God. That is, the hearing of the Word of God as it is preached. That's the Word of God that we hear under and through the preaching of the Gospel. God saves sinners and God preserves sinners in their salvation until their final glorification in heaven hereafter. No one, no one ordinarily can be saved outside of the preaching of the gospel. And no one can be saved who despises, who holds in contempt the preaching of the gospel. This is the teaching of our text for tonight. Whoever, the Apostle says in verse 13, the verse immediately preceding our text, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then follows that series of questions that make up our text for tonight. But how 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?" The answer to all of those questions is they cannot They cannot. No one can hear the Word of God, and no one can believe in God, call upon Him, and be saved by Him without a preacher of the Gospel. Preaching is necessary, absolutely necessary unto salvation. And it is exactly for that reason that how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. The Protestant Reformed churches have an urgent need for preachers. This need has been underscored to the churches by the last several synods. The churches have and are going to have in the near future a great need, even a shortage, of preachers of the gospel. There are currently vacant congregations. There are going to be a number of ministers retiring in the next few years, and that includes also retirements of professors in our seminary. There is mission work in which we are involved, and the potential for more mission work in which our churches may be privileged to be involved There is the help and assistance that we are able to afford to our sister churches like the congregation in Singapore. All things considered, our churches are going to have and do now already have a shortage of ministers. The text, the sermon that I've made on this text has as its purpose bringing this need of the churches before the mind of the members. It is the urgent prayer of us all that God will supply this need that we have for the sake of us and our children and our grandchildren, that God will be pleased to call young men out of our congregations, out of the Loveland congregation, to the office of the ministry of the Word. I call your attention tonight to the beautiful feet of the Gospel preacher, the beautiful feet of the gospel preacher. We're going to ask and answer three questions tonight that develop the truth of the Word of God in our text. First of all, beautiful feet. Of whom? Whose beautiful feet is the apostle talking about in the text? And the answer, of course, is the preacher of the gospel. Secondly, beautiful feet Why? For what reason are the feet of the gospel preacher accounted by God himself to be beautiful? And then finally, beautiful feet with what calling? The calling that is implied both for the preacher, whose feet are accounted beautiful in the text, and the calling that the people of God have with regard to the one whose feet are beautiful. The Apostle speaks in the text of the beautiful feet of the gospel preacher. There are two words that are used in the New Testament scriptures for preacher, for the preacher of the gospel. Both of those words are found in our text for tonight. Taken together, those two words describe fully and beautifully what the office of the preacher of the gospel is. First of all, there is the word herald, to preach the gospel as a herald. That is the first important word for the preacher of the gospel that occurs in the text. The preacher is a herald. That word occurs at the end of verse 14. And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? The word for preacher at the end of verse 14 is the word herald. You may very well read the text that way. And how shall they hear without a herald? That word also occurs at the beginning of verse 15. And how shall they preach? How shall they herald except they be sent? That word also occurs in the context in verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, which we herald." A herald in Bible times was a very special kind of servant. These were the days long before electronic and satellite communications no email, no internet, no Facebook, no instant messaging, no texting, none of that. When the king had a message to deliver to a certain city or a certain people, he sent a servant of his, a very special servant, to deliver that message of the king. That servant was the king's herald. The special work that he had was to deliver the word of the king, the particular message of the king to this particular people in these particular circumstances. He was to deliver the word of the King. That is the description of the minister of the gospel in our text for tonight. He is a herald. Now that is a very instructive and beautiful description of the work of the minister of the gospel. It implies several important things. First of all, It emphasizes the authority of the minister of the gospel. He is not merely a private individual expressing his own thoughts, delivering his own personal message. No, a thousand times no. He is the King's man. He has been entrusted with the King's word. a word to be delivered by him to the king's people." That certainly implies the authority with which the minister of the gospel comes. The authority that we must recognize belongs to his office. He is the king's man. In the second place, that word herald also underscores something about the content of the message that the minister of the gospel is called to bring. He is called to bring a message that is not his own, but a message that has been given to him he must not bring his own thoughts, his own opinion. He must certainly not promote his own private agenda. But as the king's man, the king's herald, he is called upon to deliver only the word of the king, nothing more and nothing less. What would happen, do you suppose, children? What would happen to that herald who dared to add something to the king's message? What do you suppose would happen should the king hear about it, that he had failed to deliver the message that the king had given to him? You can well understand that the penalty would be imprisonment, very likely even the loss of his life for his refusal to carry out the work that the king had given to him. In the third place, the work of the Herald also underscores the public character of the work of the minister of the Gospel. He has a public work to do. He's not a private individual. The herald was not ordinarily sent to deliver a personal message, but he was called to gather all the people around him, all the people of the village or of the town. He would sound the trumpet Ta-da! Ta-da! That meant that the king's herald was in town. There was a message from the king that the people needed to hear. They would drop everything that they were doing. The wives and mothers, their work in the home with the children, doing their laundry, their vacuuming, or whatever else they were doing. The farmer in the field, the carpenter at the building site, whatever they were involved in, when they heard that trumpet, they knew the herald was in town, and they immediately went to hear what the herald had to say. Gathered they were together publicly in the town square as a people to hear what the king had to say to them. Now, of course, there are other aspects to the calling of the minister of the gospel. I think I just lost a crown. Bear with me. It's a front tooth. He had other work to do as a private person. The minister is called to go from house to house. to bring God's Word to the individual needs of the people of God. He's called to lead consistory meetings, be a delegate to classes, go to synod. There are all kinds of other aspects that legitimately belong to the work of the minister of the gospel. But his main calling, his fundamental calling, is the calling that he carries out here, behind this pulpit, on the Lord's Day in the public gathering of the people of God. And then last, that word herald also underscores the calling of those who hear the message. They must receive the word of the herald. They must respond appropriately to that word of the herald. When the king's herald came to town and after the people heard the message that he proclaimed, they didn't shrug their shoulders, go back to the everyday calling that they were involved in, altogether unaffected by the message from the king, indifferent toward the word that the herald had brought to them? Of course not. Woe to the people! Woe to the herald who was unfaithful, but woe to the people who disdained the word of the herald, who dismissed his word and refused to honor and obey his word as the very word of the king. All of this is implied in that word, herald. But there is another word, then the word herald, that the apostle also uses in the text to describe the office of the ministry of the gospel. And that other word is the word that means to proclaim the gospel, to proclaim the good news. That's the second word. That word also occurs twice in the text, both times in the second part of verse 15. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. That's one word in the original, that preach the gospel. That word also occurs immediately thereafter when the apostle writes and bring glad tidings. There's that same word. Bring the good news. Proclaim the good news of good things. That word occurs also in verse 16, the verse immediately following our text when the Apostle writes, But they have not all obeyed The gospel, same word. They have not all obeyed the good news. The Greek word here is oiangelizo. You don't need to know Greek to understand the meaning of that word. It's the same word from which we get our English words. Evangelize or evangelism or evangel. And that is what the preacher of the gospel is. He is a herald, but he is also an evangelist. He is called to bring the good tidings, the good news. That's the word that underscores the content of the gospel, the message that he is called to bring. The preacher is called to bring the good news, the glad tidings, the gospel. The gospel is the good news inasmuch as it proclaims Jesus Christ and the saving work of Jesus Christ. The Gospel proclaims the person of Jesus Christ and the finished work of Jesus Christ. It proclaims Jesus Christ as the glorious Son of God come into our flesh, the One who is Himself God divine. And the Gospel proclaims what Jesus Christ has done and what He has done What He is doing and what He shall yet do is, of course, salvation, our salvation, our salvation from sin. The Gospel proclaims, not what man must do in order to save himself, What contributions man must make to his own salvation. The work that man must do in order to make himself worthy of salvation. What conditions he must fulfill in order to be saved. Not that. That's not the gospel. That's not good news for dead. Dead sinners. That's the worst news there could possibly be, that we must do something in order to be saved. We cannot. That's hopeless. That's despairing. That's not good news. That's the worst possible news. No. The gospel proclaims the finished work of another the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God in our flesh. That's the context, too. That's what the apostle has been doing in this very chapter. Look at verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, Thou shalt be saved. That's the gospel. That's the good news. That's also verses 3 and 4. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to everyone that believeth. The gospel proclaims Jesus Christ, the cross work of Jesus Christ, the righteousness that God has worked out in Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. That's what God uses as the means in His hand to save unworthy sinners. One very important truth about the preacher of the gospel that our text also emphasizes is that he must be a man who has been sent. That comes out already, of course, that's implied in the description of the preacher as a herald. A herald was somebody who was sent, sent out by the king, commissioned by the king, given a work to do on behalf of the king as the king's spokesman and with the authority of the king. But that the preacher is one who is sent out is made explicit in the text. That's emphasized in verse 15. And how shall they preach? Except they be sent. There you have it. That word, send, is a very important word. And here too, you'll recognize in English this Greek word. The Greek word is apostello. And that's the very word from which the word apostle comes from. The minister is a herald, the minister is an evangelist, and the minister is also one who by God has been sent. He is an Apostle. That's what that word Apostle means. It's the word that was in Reverend Mearsom's text this morning too. And it was capitalized, capital A, because it referred to Christ as the great Apostle of God. That word also applies to every minister of the gospel. I know that there were twelve special apostles, apostles who directly and immediately were called and sent out by the risen Jesus Christ. There are only twelve, no more. From another point of view, every minister of the gospel is also an apostle. That word apostle, once sent out, underscores somebody who has been sent out on a mission, a very important mission. It's not like sending your daughter next door in order to borrow a cup of sugar, or sending your son to the grocery store to get whatever it was that you forgot when you got your groceries. Not like that. But the word really means to be commissioned, to be in a very special sense of the word, mandated to do something and then sent out to do it. That is the preacher of the Gospel. And that's crucial. That He is somebody who has been sent out. That He is not somebody who comes in His own authority, bringing His own Word, but that He has been sent. And that sending in the New Testament is always Christ sending through His church. through the congregation of Jesus Christ. That's how Christ sends out ministers of the gospel in this present age. That's what that ceremony, you may, some of you, have observed it. When ministers for the first time are ordained into office, that ceremony of the laying on of hands. That ceremony emphasizes, among other things, that this one has been set apart by Jesus Christ. This one has been commissioned by Jesus Christ to carry out a very special work on behalf of Jesus Christ. There is a plague, a veritable plague in the church today of those who have not been called and not sent out by the church, by Jesus Christ, through His church. Preachers who are self-appointed, preachers who are unsupervised in their work, who are accountable to no one but to themselves, or perhaps to a board of directors. who are not under authority, the authority of the church. The faithful preacher of the gospel is, always is, sent out by the church under the authority of the church. His work is supervised by the church. This is the description in the text of the preacher of the gospel whose feet are beautiful. Why are those feet so beautiful? What explains it that they are so beautiful? That's the text. That's verse 15. And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel. The text is a quotation from the Old Testament, from the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah 52, verse 7. There we read, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good. that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." In Isaiah 52, God Himself is speaking. This is God's judgment, God's assessment. God says, not just the prophet. God! How beautiful! are the feet of them that preach the gospel. Since God judges the preacher of the gospel this way, you and I must also judge him this way. It belongs, as an aside, to the significance of that quotation from the Scripture that the preacher of the gospel is one bound by the Scriptures. It is written. That's the text. It is written. End of discussion. This is what is decisive. This is what must be applied to every decision of every consistory, every classist, every synod. This is what must be applied to every decision that we personally make. as members of God's church. What is written? What, Seth? The Scripture, it is written. That implies the whole truth of the infallible inspiration of Scripture. That Scripture is the Word of God. That Scripture is divinely inspired. That Scripture is the authority for faith and for life. And that's crucial to the preaching of the Gospel. For the Gospel is contained in Holy Scripture. I don't mean, don't understand me to mean tonight, that the gospel is contained in Holy Scripture, like the needle in the proverbial haystack. Somewhere, after you get rid of all the straw, maybe you'll find the needle. Not that way. That's not what I mean. The gospel is found in Holy Scripture in this sense, that all of Scripture, from beginning to end, from Genesis through Revelation, is The Word of God is the Gospel. To lose that truth, to lose the truth that Scripture is the very Word of God, that Scripture is the divinely inspired and authoritative Word of God, is to lose the Gospel altogether. There is no Gospel then, and there is no possibility of authoritatively preaching that gospel. It all depends on the infallibly inspired Word of God. Why are the gospel preacher's feet accounted beautiful? Fundamentally, there is one answer to that question. That answer is that in the preaching of the gospel, the voice of Jesus Christ himself is heard. That's the reality. That's the seriousness of going to church, of sitting under sermons, of hearing the preaching. Christ speaks to us through the preaching. of the Gospel. Christ is the Whom of the text. The Whom of the text. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? That Whom refers back to the previous verse. Verse 13, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be saved. is the Whom, Christ, and Christ Himself. He is heard in the preaching of the gospel. In a very clear and powerful way, the text teaches that. That the faithful preaching of the gospel is the hearing of Christ Himself. That comes out in verse 14 when we read and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" Now I must point out to you an inaccuracy in the translation of the King James Bible. Literally, we do not read, of whom, strike the of. What we read is, whom. That's the teaching of the text. Read the text that way. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? Not of whom, but whom. There's a great deal of difference, of course. You can hear all about someone of that person without actually hearing them in person, them themselves. That's the reality of the preaching of the gospel. In the preaching of the gospel, we are not merely hearing of Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ, many truths concerning Jesus Christ. But in the preaching of the gospel, the faithful preaching of the gospel, we are hearing Christ. Christ Himself. That's the biblical and that's the Reformed view of the preaching of the gospel. That's what happens in the moment of preaching. That's what happens in church on Sunday. Teach this. to your children. We don't just come to hear the voice of a man. We don't even come to hear all about Jesus Christ. We come to hear Christ Himself. Christ Himself who is heard in the faithful preaching of the gospel. Didn't Jesus say that? Didn't he say that to his disciples shortly before he left this earth? My sheep hear my voice. Not of me, they hear me, my own voice. That we must bear in mind as we listen to sermons. Whom we hear. That's the beauty of the gospel preacher's feet. Children, I haven't seen Pastor Key's feet. Not lately, anyway. I doubt if I did that I would say, those feet are beautiful. I doubt it. That's not what the apostle is talking about in the text. He's not talking about your pastor's feet physically. But he's talking about his feet from a spiritual point of view. He's talking about his feet as the feet of the herald of Christ the King, the one who stands in the place of the King, whose voice is heard in the preaching of the gospel. That's what makes his feet so beautiful. That's what distinguishes the preaching of the Gospel from everything else, from personal Bible reading, from prayer, from family devotions, discussion groups, Bible study societies, personal witnessing, the Christian schools and all that goes on for good in our Christian schools. They're all important. They all have their place. But head and shoulders above them all is the preaching of the gospel. For in the preaching of the gospel, we hear the voice of Christ. There can be no doubt that God uses all those other things for good in our lives. Oh, yes. No question about it. But all of them, as they stand connected to and in relationship to the preaching of the gospel. That is the chief means of grace and salvation. All our life long, from the time that we are little children and first go to church with our parents until the time when we are old and gray-headed, God uses the preaching of the gospel as the means of grace and salvation. And that's how the apostle sums it all up in verse 17 of the text. So then, this is the conclusion of the whole matter. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. All the lifetime of the believer, from birth until death. everything in between, in all the changing, varying circumstances of our lives. It is the voice of Jesus Christ heard in the preaching of the Gospel that is God's means to save us and to keep us in our salvation. And that may explain what our calling is, both the calling of the preacher and those to whom the preaching of the gospel comes. The one whose feet are beautiful and those on behalf of whom he runs with those feet. First of all, the calling of the preacher. Preach the Word. Preach only the Word of God, nothing more, nothing less. Be a herald. the faithful herald of Christ the King. Preach the gospel, the gospel that is the good news of the finished work of Jesus Christ and our life and calling as the people of God in the light of that finished work of Jesus Christ. Call sinners to repentance. Call the people of God to holy living a life of grateful obedience to God's commandments for the glory of God and for the well-being of the neighbor. It's not everything that passes today for preaching that is the voice of Christ to His people. Oh, no. But that preaching that is the preaching of the truth. the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the sacred scripture. And so the calling is faithfulness. Faithfulness, that's what's required of the king's herald. And diligence. Since the preacher is a herald of the king, he must labor. with all diligence to carry out his calling before the King. He must pour himself into the work, give himself to the work, expend himself in the work. We must give ourselves to God's people and to the work of Christ the King. There is no higher, no more glorious calling. It ought to be a matter of fervent prayer to God, then, that He will raise up in our churches young men called by Him, sent out by Him through His church to preach the gospel to us and to our children until Christ comes again. That must be our fervent prayer. Not every young man He is called to the ministry of the gospel. No. But every young man ought to consider whether God is calling him to the preaching of the gospel. Secondly, the calling comes to those to whom the herald comes, to whom the preaching of the gospel comes. First of all, the calling is that we must make our own. The attitude of the text. How beautiful the feet of Him that preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we're not going to hold the preaching of the Word of God in contempt. We're not going to sinfully neglect the preaching of the gospel. Neither are we going to attend the worship services merely out of custom, out of habit. We're certainly not going to attend in order to find fault with the preacher, to be critical of the preaching, to get a finger behind what the preacher says in order to fault him, criticize him. Not that. Rather, all that the text speaks of. implies in us that we regard the preaching of the Gospel with the very highest regard. The one who occupies that office in our midst, remembering Him fervently in our prayers, honoring Him for His work's sake as our form for ordination says, and receive, gladly receive, for our salvation and our children's salvation, the Word that He brings. And pray. The preacher must pray. Pray for himself for strength to do his work. But the church must pray with him and for him. Pray that God will never give to us in his wrath and judgment the famine of the hearing of the Word of God. Pray that He will continue to raise up faithful men of God gifted by Him, called and sent out by His Church to proclaim His Word so that we and our children may hear the preaching of the Gospel. God uses that preaching as a means of salvation. This is not God's only purpose with the preaching of the gospel. There is another. The text in its context speaks of that other purpose of God, of wrath, of hardening, of judgment, unto condemnation. Oh yes, that too. But the great positive purpose of God with the preaching of the gospel is the salvation of His children. He has ordained that salvation in eternity. And by means of the preaching of the gospel, he accomplishes that salvation. We see it. Thank God we see it. Look around you. Look at God's blessing. These many years on the faithful preaching of the gospel in his congregation here in Loveland, Colorado. We see it in our own lives, lives of obedience and thankfulness for the great salvation that is ours through the preaching of the gospel. We respond. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. How beautiful the feet of the faithful gospel preacher. Amen. Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word and for Thy goodness to us as a people. altogether undeserved of giving to us thy Word in the faithful preaching of the gospel. As thou hast been pleased in the past to give us this faithful preaching, O God, continue to be pleased to give it to us in our own time as well as in the future. and work in our hearts the attitude of the text so that we ourselves, in our own homes and families, account the preaching of the gospel and the feet of them that preach the gospel to be beautiful. For Jesus' sake, amen.