Reading this morning is from the book of Romans chapter 10 verses 14 through 16. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? This is the word of the Lord. Shall we humble ourselves as we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, it's always a privilege to stand in your presence. And Father, here we are, thirsty to hear your word. May you speak to us, O Lord, and may your word equip us. And Father, may you grant us the privilege of becoming those people that you want us to be. And I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Take your seats, brothers and sisters. We'll hold on to Romans chapter 10, and as we've heard our good reader read from verse 14. And as we hold on to there, remember that the being sent is the missionary calling of the church. Now, a story is told about a man who was called John Courier. And this man, who couldn't read or write, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1949. Later, his sentence was commuted, and he was transferred from prison and paroled to work for a wealthy farmer near Nashville, Tennessee. In 1968, his sentence was terminated, State Correction Department records show that a letter was written to the prisoner and the farmer to whom he worked. The letters say that he was now a free man. But this man, Kuria, never saw the letter, or even knew it, that it had been written. One year went by, then two, then five, and finally 10. And still he didn't know that he was free. By this time, the farmer to whom he had been paroled was dead. But Kuria kept working, serving out his life sentence. He was given a little money for personal needs, $5 per week at first, then a little more, and finally $20 per week. But life was hard and filled with labor. He slept in a drafty trailer, taking baths in a horse trough, Life held very little joy and no promise of hope. This went on until 1979. Then a state parole officer learned of his plight and told him about the missing letter. How could you feel if you were this prisoner? Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message, in fact the most important of your life, but year after year the message was never delivered? How much is it worth to lose 10 years of your life because you failed to get a message? John Currier sued the state for $600,000, something it was too little. Now, think of a different situation. A child is born, grows up. and dies without once hearing that there is a God who loves him so much that he sent his son to die for him so that he could be delivered from sin and its consequences. So he lives in servitude, a cruel and powerful master called Satan, And when he has children, they too are born to live and die in bondage. Now this is the condition of the great multitudes who live outside the circle of the gospel. The Bible tells us that they are spiritually dead because of sin and that they have no hope and are without God in this world. Many would like to believe that somehow, someway, people without Christ will find their way to heaven. But the Bible says this is false. Men and women must know and trust in Jesus Christ to be saved. Listen to the words of Romans chapter 10, verse 14. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how then, how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? But Paul doesn't stop here. He adds two questions for the Christian. And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? The church has been entrusted with the world's most crucial message. Where this message is preached, there will be those who respond, and they'll find life and hope. On the other hand, where it is not proclaimed, those people groups will continue to live and die in spiritual darkness. Now, let's look closely at our text, Romans 10, 14 to 16. These verses are not only related to verse 13 that comes before, but also related to what comes after, verses 18 to 21. For the apostle Paul, the entire section of Romans 9 to 11 is dealing with Jewish unbelief. And he's going to show in the latter half of the chapter 10 that the unbelief of Israel is not God's fault. Since God had sent messengers to the Jewish people, Paul himself was one. He had preached the gospel, and he had done this clearly. If the Jews did not believe, it was not because they couldn't, since they had both heard and understood the message. Paul is also telling the Jews about God's gracious plans of redeeming a people for himself out of the Gentiles, engaging the Jews as God's messengers to take the gospel to the Gentiles. In verse 14, Paul gives us a series of linked questions. All of these questions are what we call rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions, as you know, are questions that are asked for an effect in an argument. When you are making a presentation generally, there are questions that everyone knows the answer to, but you ask the question to draw the audience into your way of thinking, to kind of make them say, back what it is that you see to be the truth. So these questions show the leading from an individual's calling on Christ in faith backward through the mandatory intervening steps of belief in Christ, hearing Christ, and preaching about Christ. To preachers being sent to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to those who need to hear him, In other words, the text is a classic statement of the need for Christian preaching and for the expansion of the missionary enterprise worldwide. that is necessary if a person is to be saved is that he or she calls on Christ. Verse 14 flatly distinguishes between believing in Christ and the calling on Christ for salvation. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? Many people know about Christ. A significant number of these also probably believe that he's a son of God and a world savior, as the Bible teaches. But they have never called on him in personal trust. And so they are not Christians. They are not saved. What does it mean to call on his name? Well, it means to acknowledge what has been revealed about the Lord, what is His character, what are His great acts in history, and what are His promises. It means to call in the name of the Lord, to call on his character, to call on his acts in history, to call on his promises and say, Lord, what you have done for them in the past, do it for me now, save my soul. Let me make this personal. It is not enough for us to understand the preaching of God's word to be a Christian, important as it is. It isn't enough for us to know theology or even to be a student of the Bible, whereas these are so wonderful. They do not make us Christians. To be a Christian, one must call on the Lord Jesus Christ personally, saying, Lord Jesus Christ, I confess that I am a sinner, I cannot save myself, and I call on you to save me from my sin. The second step in Paul's linked series of questions is that a person must believe in Christ in order to call upon him. I have just said that mere intellectual belief is not enough. There must be personal trust or commitment to Him as Lord and Savior. Yet this does not mean that the other part, intellectual belief, is not important. On the contrary, it is essential. For how can you call upon whom you don't know? How can you ask Jesus to save you from your sin unless you understand and believe that he's a savior? Intellectual understanding without commitment is not true faith. But neither is commitment without intellectual understanding. If one must believe in Jesus, In order to call on him, then his or her mind must be engaged in knowing who he is and what he has done for him or her. The third opposed question is that in order to believe in Christ, a person must hear Christ. In order to believe in Christ, a person must hear Christ. The point is that it is Christ himself who speaks to the individual and that it is hearing him that leads first to belief and then to calling on his name in salvation. This is what Jesus speaks about himself in John chapter 10. He refers to himself as the good shepherd and explains how his sheep know him and respond to his voice. When a minister stands to rightly preach the Bible, It is not their word that one hears. It is God's word. And a voice that one hears in his or her heart is the voice of Christ. And when they respond, they respond to Jesus who is calling through the appointed channel of sound preaching. Now, Paul continues to emphasize that for one to hear Christ, someone must proclaim Christ to them. Through preaching God's word, or through preaching God's word is regularly made known to the hearers and dispatched by God for the saving of men and women. The Paul's emphasis here is that you can't discern anything about Jesus Christ apart from preaching the gospel. So now Paul has already mentioned in Romans chapter 1 verse 10 back that you can discern a creator from a creation. Romans 1.10 says, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the thing that have been made. So they are without excuse. He's already mentioned back then in Romans 1.10, verse 20, that we can discern a creator by merely looking at a creation. What does that mean? By looking at a sunrise or sunset, by looking at a starry night, by looking at a majestic mountain range, by looking at the East River or the Hudson River, by looking at an interesting barley and ostrich, or something like that, or even looking at yourself physically, you can discern there must be a creator, and he must be powerful, and he must be loving, and he must be good. You can discern certain qualities about God, but you can't discern Jesus Christ. the Redeemer by merely looking at physical things. So you have to be told about him. You have to be told by a preacher, and without a preacher, no one will know a thing about Jesus Christ. In real preaching, the speaker is the servant of the word, and God speaks and works by the word so the servant sleeps. And in fact, sometimes proclamation is not by the word of mouth alone. Proclamation could be sharing literature about salvation. Preaching could be, or proclamation could be sharing a gospel song, so that somebody can hear it and then respond. One missionary to Africa told the story of an elderly woman who was rich with the gospel. Although this woman was blind and could neither read nor write, she wanted so much to share her newfound faith with the others. So she went to the missionary and asked for a copy of the Bible in French. When she got it, she asked the missionary to underline John 3.16 in red and mark the page where she could find it. The missionary wanted to see what she would do with this. So one day, this missionary followed the lady. In the afternoon, just before school let out, this woman made her way to the front door of the school. And as the boys were coming out at the time when the school was dismissed, she would stop one of the boys and ask if the boy would read French. When the boy said yes, she would ask him to read the verse that was marked in the Bible in red. Then she would ask, do you know what that means? And from there, she would begin to tell the boy about Christ. The missionaries say that 24 of the schoolboys that later led to Christ became pastors. So we need to utilize every opportunity to proclaim the gospel through preaching, through, I mean, by mouth, through sharing literature, through the music, and every other way. Now after Paul explains that people must preach, I mean, must believe in Christ before they can call on him, and that they must hear Christ before they can believe, and that someone has to preach to them so as to hear, he now concludes that for Christ to be proclaimed, preachers have to be sent. Sent by who? By God. For this is God's work. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 9, but ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. If God does not send a messenger, the message won't be heard. But it is also true that messengers must be sent by the church. as Paul and Barnabas were sent on their missionary journeys by the Gentile church at Antioch. In fact, one of the objectives Paul had in writing the letter to the Romans was to enlist the support of the Roman church in his plan to take the gospel beyond Rome to Spain and the other places in the West. In verses 16 and 17, we see the importance of believing the message. We understand that transforming faith is a gift from God. The work of salvation begins and ends with Him. God does the saving, not us. But there is also But there is clearly an importance in believing the message. And not everyone will believe it. We are guaranteed to face a lot of indifference and rejection, and maybe even mocking when we talk about Christ. You have been sent to proclaim the message. And the measure of success is whether or not you proclaim the message, not whether people accept it. We don't have to have all the answers or to go into great detail. We don't have to worry about whether or not the person believes the message. All we can do is to share it with them. It's not like trying to sell vacuum cleaners or something. We don't get rewards in heaven based on commission. Our job is to tell them. And then we can let the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to take it from there. Dear friends, there are about 8 billion people on this planet. And less than 3 billion accept the name of Christ. And a much lesser amount would claim to be born again. For many generations, the gospel has been preached in this world. Heroes and martyrs have died to bring it to them. Great battles have been won. But in our generation, the most populous of all the generations, most have not had a biblical presentation of salvation. five out of six non-Christians live in areas where the message of Christ has yet to be proclaimed. The task is great, but our problem isn't just the greatness of the task. It is our attitude. We need to care. We need to pray. We need to give. We need to go. We need to witness where they are. For years, especially after the World War I, many thought our world was improving. Now few really believe this. We are confronted with gigantic problems. Trace them one by one, you'll find their root is man himself. The old age problem of sin. Sin causes conflict between races, Sin lights the timber of war within and among nations and keeps them flaming. Where sin exists is followed by corruption. My own country, Uganda, ranks high among the most corrupt nations. Many of our leaders are embezzling public funds while the citizens are wallowing in poverty, in disease, and poor infrastructure. The family is fast becoming an endangered species. Such things as child abuse and domestic violence are daily topics of discussion. God is calling us as his church to arise and partake in the proclamation of his word. God is calling us to remember that the call of the church is a missionary one. My brothers and sisters, it is in our time that we have witnessed and heard of the greatest murderers on the face of the earth. It is in our time that the world has seen the greatest destroyers, the greatest liars, and the greatest thieves in history. There is not much good that can be said about our race, the human race. Because everywhere we go, we create destruction. We create havoc. The evidence is before us. The evidence is in our prisons. The evidence is in our homes. The evidence is in our schools. It is in our communities and in our churches. Because of the path humans have chosen to take, we have brought crime. We have brought disease. We have brought destruction in our communities. Murder, rape, and homosexuality have become common in our lives. In spite of the word of God and what it says, many seem to have no problem with it. The world seeks to make profit off the diseases that have infested our people by selling them high-priced cures. that does more harm than good. The world seeks to justify murder by making abortions legal. The world is changing what God has called sin by calling it an alternative lifestyle. However, there is hope. There is hope. Amidst the boiling stew pot, of international strife and confusion and rebellion. Beyond the smog-covered turmoil of urban violence and corruption and social decay, there is a fresh breeze blowing. It is a breeze capable of cooling down the stew and of blowing away the smog. Something exciting is happening to the churches around the world. like the rushing mighty wind, where sound filled the house at Pentecost. This something is a breeze that reverberates. as surely as it refreshes. This breeze is the Holy Spirit of God. He's filling people with insight, as well as inspiration and power. He's a spirit of wisdom and revelation that not only inspired the writings of the Holy Scripture, but also breathes insight into the wisdom of the Word of God. The church, upon receiving this power, must get the gospel of Jesus Christ into the streets, to the hurt, and to the lost. To get the gospel of Jesus Christ to homes, to prisons, to markets, to hospitals, to the young, and to the old. All this points to the urgency of getting out the gospel. The world is in desperate need due to sin. The gospel may not make the world perfect, but it will transform people one by one. And those truly touched by the gospel will always become the salt and the light in a very dark world. Essentially, the call of the church is a missionary call. Friends. We are the church. We are the gift of God to the world. As saved children of God, we have already experienced Jesus' love in our lives and know the ability of God to change us. Now it is time for us to take this knowledge and use it to save the world. We can take our nations and turn them back to God if we just get up and actively participate in mission. We are the church of Christ in the world. God is calling us to arise and to partake in the proclamation of his word. For his word is the solution to the heart of the problems of mankind. Brothers and sisters, no matter how amazing the gospel of Christ may be, unless lost souls are told the truth about sin, and salvation. And unless the good news of the gospel of grace is proclaimed universally, men and women, boys and girls, the rich and the poor, the Jews and the Gentiles alike will remain dead in their trespasses and their sins. There was a man called Bishop Alfred Tucker. Bishop Alfred Tucker was the first bishop of Uganda. He is remembered to have laid a strong foundation for the church in Uganda. He was originally a well-known artist in England. And how did he join ministry? One day, he was painting a picture of a poor woman holding a baby and wandering homeless in a stormy night on the dark, deserted street. As the picture grew, the artist suddenly threw down his brush, exclaiming, instead of merely painting a picture of a lost soul, I will go out and work to have them saved. And he went to Africa. particularly to Uganda. Yes, not all of us may be called into the office of evangelist or preacher, but every one of God's children has a commission to be light in this darkened realm, to be salt in a decaying world. We can always remember to pray for those on a missionary field. We can always remember to encourage them. God's witnesses to those that are lost in their sins is a testimony of God's grace to those who are dead in their trespasses and a messenger of hope to those that are without hope in the world. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we lift up to you the missionary call of your church. We pray that you would steer the hearts of your people to obey the Great Commission, to go and make disciples of all nations. Give us, O Lord, a passion for the lost and a burden for those who have never heard the gospel. Raise up missionaries, O Lord, Raise up pastors and evangelists who will boldly proclaim your name and establish your church among every tribe and every tongue. Empower us, O Lord, by your Holy Spirit to be witnesses for you, both locally and globally, that the world may know your love and your salvation. And we are praying in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.