Continuing in Romans chapter 10, 14 through 17. Great passage. As we continue, just to seeing if God's work in salvation and how it is that we are saved, I'm going to pray that we're going to read the passage and just run right on into the message, all right? Let's bow. Father, thank you for your mercy. Lord, we commit this time to you. Lord, we thank you that by the power of the Spirit you will work in our hearts to understand. And so we pray that this morning. Lord, I pray that your spirit would work mildly in our hearts. Father, do a work so far beyond what my feeble words can do. And so we thank you for the opportunity to study your word. And Lord, may we obey. Lord, as we hear your word, may the grace that you already have given us, may we energize our volitional will and obey. Lord, thank you for who you are, for your mercy and your grace. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Begin in verse eight of our reading. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we are preaching. that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with a heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with a mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. However, they did not all heed the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. May God add his blessing to the reading of his wonderful word. whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. We've seen in verse eight and nine, we confess with our mouth, Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our hearts. And actually it is the heart, as we will see here, it's the heart that believes first that causes the confession. And so Paul wants to go down this road to continue to explain, this is explanation of salvation, of what a person, how a person hears of salvation, and what a person does, and what God does in salvation. And so as he begins this, he begins with that totality of whoever, there's no one excluded, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And that calling, and so Paul is going to begin to explain the calling. What does that mean? We sometimes think of calling out as in prayer to God and help. In fact, verse 14 says, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? So what is calling? Calling is to call out, out to or to call upon, and really this is a shorthand of another way of saying faith. Place their faith in. Calling out is calling out to the only righteous one for his salvation. We understand who we are. We understand, and I think intuitively, we understand that we are sinners. Stacey, don't call me that. I'm not calling you that. I call myself that. And the scripture calls us all that, that we are sinners. And if we're honest with ourselves, we know that we don't do everything perfectly right. And James says, if you mess up in one point, then you're guilty of all. And so we need a righteous one to call upon But as Paul says, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, if I'm calling out, I'm calling to whom? Who am I calling out to? And that is Jesus. He is our Lord. He is master. He's master over universe, everything. However, in calling out to Him and placing our faith in Him, we're saying, hey, that's my Lord. I take you as my Lord. There's a bit of submission and surrender that goes into that, doesn't it? Isn't it? You and I have to say, okay, I'm taking myself off the throne of my life. Now, it's not lordship salvation that has to be Lord in everywhere, every area of the life in order to be saved. No, but it is saying this is my, I will follow Him now. I place my faith in Him that He is the only one that is able to save me from my sin. We are, as one hymn writer said, we're sin sick, okay? We have this sickness in us and that is a sin and we have a sin nature that we desire it and we continue to run after it. You know, contrary to proper belief, everyone is not born good. Okay, everyone is not good. Basically good, except for a few bad apples. Well, read the news, watch the news. Okay, that'll disabuse you of that thought. we must call to Him as the only righteous one. And this is what Paul has been leading up through the first nine chapters into 10, that Christ is the only way, and He saves us as we come to Him in faith, He saves us by His grace. So we call upon Him. And so we trust Him, we accept this to be true, to put our faith in. And this is not just a belief about. We can say, well, Jesus was a good man, or Jesus was this, or that, the other, but it's more than intellectual knowledge. And we must come with a faith and a reasoned faith to God. It's more than just belief in, about, it's belief in that He is the only one. And so to answer the question that Paul is asking, how will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And the answer is they won't call if they have not believed. Salvation begins in the heart, the heart places their faith. They understand that the desperateness, and that really is a desperate of a heart that we call out to God, we cry out to Him for His salvation. It's not anything that we can do to merit. We must understand, and even as believers, we need to continue to understand that it is not by what I've done. not my great strength, not your great strength, your good qualities. And many of you have great qualities. I see them, they're nice qualities. No, it's only through what Christ has done that he must believe. And so he follows this little train of logic here. Well, then how will, then will they believe in him who they have not heard? So they have to believe, but then they have to hear, right? They have to hear. They have to hear the word, the good news of the gospel. And that really is the, they hear what? What did they hear? They heard the good news that Jesus saved sinners. He is the only one. This is the good news that has been brought to us. The whole Bible leads up to this point. It is a high point of human history. When God breaks into history with his salvation, Jesus, very God, coming to save us. That's the good news. And we must hear the good news that Jesus saves. And so the natural answer to the question, how will they believe in whom they have not heard, is they won't believe if they've not heard the good news. Hearing the good news is paramount. Now understand in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. And I also understand in Romans 1, it says, God has made himself evident. You look up to the sky and you say, this just didn't happen by accident. The odds of that are so astounding that this, that they've not able to make this happen in a lab. We can't see macro. evolution happened. We cannot see the things. There had to be a supreme actor outside of time and space and matter to begin to create time and space and matter. You know, you'll notice as we studied in Romans 1, that God evidences Himself through the world. And God has revealed Himself in creation. in His Word and through Jesus. That's the revelations that God has given to us. But you notice in chapter 1, 18 and 19, that God has evidenced Himself to everyone. But notice the reason that people say, I don't think I want to follow God. They suppress the truth. So you and I are able to suppress in our hearts this knowledge of the truth, hearing the good news, but the good news must be heard, it must be given out. And this is his thought here is, if I call, to be able to call, I have to believe, I have to believe, I have to have heard, and if I've heard, there must be someone who has told me. There is someone who has proclaimed this knowledge of the good news of Jesus Christ. And this word is not what we might think, and our minds usually go to you know, someone vocationally or bi-vocationally called to preaching. It can be that, but it's more than that. It is anyone who is making a proclamation. It's a messenger. It's a herald. It's one who is heralding the good news and says, how will they hear without a preacher? The idea is, it's apart from one preaching. How will that happen? How will they hear the good news that Jesus saved sinners? Oh, they won't unless someone is telling them the good news. There is a necessity that someone brings the good news. Yes, it is someone who is bivocational, but it's more than a Sunday morning message. It is more than just the people that those who are professionally ministers can give. It is you and I, everyone in the body of Christ, proclaiming being the messengers, the messengers of the good news, the glad tidings of what God has done, and that is so important. And this thought is, how will they hear without a preacher, comes home to us who are believers, who know Christ. How did I hear? How did you hear? In most cases, someone shared the good news with you of Jesus. It was Sunday school. Some of us came to Christ at very early ages. It wasn't that we were in a pastor's home that we automatically grandfathered in. But we heard the gospel in a childlike faith. At five years old, I knew that I was a sinner, and I knew that Jesus saved. I didn't have any more theology than that. I just knew that I had to call upon Him. Okay? Someone came and told. In fact, for most of us, it's a series of someone's who came and told. That need, that need of a God, of one to preach. He continues with a thought, so we don't want to interrupt the thought here. How will they preach unless they are sent? So, this idea of sending out. And yes, sent is in the passive tense, so there's the idea of someone sending people on, but is that preached, that idea of proclaiming, making known publicly, announcing? And so if we think of this, that sending out, there's really two aspects of this. There's the first aspect that we think of, and that's the commissioning of an individual. There's a second aspect of that we are all commissioned to be that, Matthew 28. Jesus said to his disciples that we're to carry on. He says, go, as you're going, y'all teach the gospel. It's plural, Southern plural, okay? Y'all preach the gospel. You teach the gospel and teach them to observe all things I've commanded you, lo, I am with you always, baptizing as well. And all of us are in that indeed, we are grandfathered into that opportunity and privilege that we might tell others of the good news. We call this the great commission where God, Jesus is commissioning all of his disciples, but that is for me, that is for you, regardless of our vocation, that is for us. And yes, we as a church, we commission individuals. This isn't a proof text for that, by the way, but it's the, There is a need for folks to be sent, the act of sending, of going out, and that's helpful for support, and it's biblical that we send. So God sends, it is of His power, and the church sends people to minister. Notice what he says before we get off this point of being sent. Notice he goes to, and as we've seen that on, let me go back here to 15. We see that the capital letters there, he's quoting from Isaiah 52, which is right next to 53, by the way. Isaiah 52, verse seven says, how lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. How lovely on the mountains, that's an odd statement, are the feet of Him who brings good news, who announces what? Peace, brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation. That's how the peace and the happiness are based. Who says to Zion, your God reigns. How beautiful are the feet, verse 8 says, listen your watchmen, lift up their voices. They shall joyfully together, for they will see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion. Break forth, shall joyfully together, you wasted places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. But notice he says how lovely are the feet. Robert Alter has created a new translation of the Hebrew into English and has commentary alongside. And he says, the prophet makes a boldly poignant choice in using lovely. The same word that's attached to the beautiful features of the beloved, the song of songs or the song of Solomon. You understand where that's going, the loveliness. For this is surprising in reference to the feet a messenger. The focus on the feet is because the messenger is running across the mountains to bring good tidings or to bring good news or to bring, Robert won't agree with this, bring the gospel. There is beauty in the feet of those, metaphorically, of those who bring the gospel. There's beauty. Feet come in all sizes. These who go, they go with dusty feet. Weary and worn feet. There's, in Jesus' day, there was no Dr. Scholls, that's the word I was looking for. They're weary and worn feet, but these feet are beautiful. Do you know what? Your feet can be beautiful as well. If you take the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, your feet as well can be beautiful. And that's the goal. It's the good news. It's not that our feet are any better looking magically. It is that we are taking the good news. And the image there in Isaiah 52 is that they're running across the mountaintops, and yes, in the valley too, but they are running and rocking. Nothing deters them. They're going. They're bringing the good tidings. And you know what, folks, our mission, yours and mine, is to be those feet that are telling the good news, are taking us to places. He says, how will they preach unless they are sent? You know, part of the job of the church is to send out, we think of commonly pastors or church planners, we think in terms of missionaries that go. And that's part of the opportunity, the privilege, the responsibility of the church is to send and support mission works. But not all, not the only. We support, we should support in prayer. those non-conventional folks who move away with jobs for express purpose of working in a church plant or a foreign field to come alongside the mission. I have a family in France who, they moved to France to be with a missionary couple of friends of theirs to do life, to do, just to support, to help. They picked up their family. It's much more comfortable to stay in, I think we're from Greenville, but they went. lay people working for the kingdom of God, short or long term, primary focus is telling the good news. Because we too are being sent. God may not call you to go somewhere else across the world or across the country, but maybe it's here. It's across the street or across the cubicle or across the park or it's an opportunity to to build a relationship with the people and to share with them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is our primary purpose. It's all about that, by the way. And in doing that, God uses the circumstances of our life to create the greenhouse for growing and holiness and sanctification. Sometimes we look at the trials of our lives and say, this is terrible. It may not be fun, but God can use that in growing us. So that when we tell people of Jesus, they're not surprised, you know? Do you know Jesus? No, they're not surprised. They know something that's different in you. And we were called to give the message of the gospel. But Paul continues with sad news in verse 16. And the sad news in context would seem to be only the Jews, but it actually has a broader context as well. However, they did not all heed the good news. The good news is being sent and told and going out through the world. And in the context of chapter 9, verse 1 through 4, He, there is where Paul says, if it were possible, I would give up my own eternity with Christ for my countrymen if they would become to realize that Jesus is their Messiah. I would give up my salvation. I would, and that's pretty radical statement. I would go to hell for them if they would know. And he weeped over them. Chapter 10, verse one, he begins much the same way. My heart's desire and my prayer for them is for their salvation. And so in the immediate context, this is speaking of the Jewish people. They did not all heed the good news. And the word that's translated good news is the word we think of as the gospel. He goes to Isaiah again. Lord, who has believed our report. And would you turn to Isaiah 53? Just turn there real quickly for me because we're gonna, we'll see a few verses up there, but we'll continue on in the passage. Isaiah 53 is just a compelling passage in the middle of the Old Testament. In fact, I believe it's so compelling that when the Mishnah was created around 200 AD after Christ, They began working through of how they would do the readings in the synagogues every week. And Isaiah 53 is mysteriously left out of their synagogue readings. But this is where Paul goes. He says, who has believed our message, our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The Jewish people. He grew up before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of parched ground he has no saintly form or majesty that we should look on upon him nor appearance that we should be attracted to him look at him like i don't think i want to follow him hey he was despised forsaken of men rejected a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief like one from whom men hide their face he was despised and we did not esteem him continuing in verse four Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken of God, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him. who has believed our report. And yes, it does speak to God's chosen people, the Jews, who did not heed or obey Jesus. But there's a broader context, and that's anyone who does not heed, hear the good news. And heeding is obeying. It's hearing and then obeying that the good news of Jesus Christ Even in our day, there are those who all around us, not surprising, that hear the gospel, but yet reject the gospel for whatever reason, that maybe it's just, I don't think it's time for me, or I can't believe that I don't want to give this up, or I can't believe that Jesus would love me. And those do not heed this Jesus who came, who was despised, who sin, iniquity was piled upon him. In verse 16, it's almost like an indention in his train of logic just to say, I understand that not everybody will receive. But how will they hear? How will they call if they believe? How will they believe unless they hear? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will a preacher go if he's not been sent? And so he sums up in verse 17, so faith, from hearing, we supply the come, comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. How is it that we're saying we believe? How do we come to believe? We hear. What is it that we hear? We hear the words about Jesus and the good news of Jesus. We don't come because of our works good enough. We're not good enough. We don't come because we give enough or we do those things and we turn over a new leaf again and again. That is not why we can come. We can come because of Jesus and His coming to earth. Sinless Son of God, leaving the splendor of heaven, coming to earth and living a sinless life so that He might bear upon Himself my sin and your sin upon Him, that He might pay the sin debt. Be buried, truly die, be buried, but raised again the third day, in victory, proving that He is God, that anyone who comes to Him and believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life." So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And that's what 9 says. In fact, through your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart. God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. In the gospel, we must be reminded of two things. The centrality of Christ in our salvation is not of us. We must come in faith. But coming in faith, Romans 4, 5, is not a work, doesn't merit us anything, but we must come. We have heard the gospel. If you're here today and have not come to Jesus, you have heard the gospel. You have been witness to what Jesus has done for you. And the ball, as it were, is in your court. What will you do with Jesus? The centrality of Christ in our salvation is paramount. But also the sobering fact is that people need to hear the good news of Jesus. You and I need to be the ones who are telling them. Maybe you've had conversations with folks, if you're a believer about Christ. I find that folks have almost kind of the same of these three questions I'll give to you here, is people are asking their minds, and sometimes they don't say it, and sometimes I like to kind of offer as questions. One of these is, where did I come from? It's a question of origin. How did I come to be here? It's a great question of life. How did I come to be here? Did I, you know, my answers crawl out of some primordial ooze? Yeah, it could count for smell, no. Or did God, did God create? And the ramifications of God created Indeed, created me are greater than if I just came by happen and chance. All just kind of came together. And boom. Where'd I come from? The next question people struggle with is really this one of why am I here, which is really a question of purpose. Why am I here on earth? What am I to do? I don't know of anybody who doesn't want their life to matter or purpose. I mean, I'm sure there are some. But most people want to leave a mark. They want to at least, you know, to have accomplished something. Why am I here? Is there a purpose greater than building wealth or building this or that or having fun? Is there a purpose that's greater? And the last question is, where am I going? If I were to close my eyes in death today, where am I going? What's eternity like? Do you know what? Jesus answers all of these questions. Jesus in creation brought us into being. Jesus in saving us, if we know him, gives us purpose to live for him, to tell others of Him. And the question of eternity is totally settled in Jesus. Where I go, I'll take you with me. By the way, I'm preparing, until you get there, I'm preparing a place for you. And that's the same passage, John 14, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. So two questions I have for you. Have you heard and believed? Have you heard and believed? Have you believed not just about Jesus, but that Jesus is the son of God and he will take your sin and place you into his family and wash you clean and give you a place? In eternity, is He yours? Have you believed in that way? And if you have not, we would love to take Scripture. As I mentioned before, believing in Christ, faith in Christ is evidential. It's not just pie in the sky, I'll just hope for something. It is evidential, and we would love to answer those questions. And I pray, if you don't know Christ, would you seek Him? Pray this simple prayer, Lord, help me to find you. And He will. If you seek Him, He will be found of you. But if you know Him already, the second question I have is this. How were they here? And the they is everyone that you know. Everyone that you know. Some of you may remember this, but this is not one of them, but some of us had Bibles growing up. It was a Schofield edition of the Bible. We have a Schofield edition, all the little things in the middle that explain stuff. It was helpful for a young man, it was very helpful. Oh, that's what that means, okay. So Schofield was a lawyer, and Schofield had a very, great practice and one day he was he was visiting at the office of a businessman they were working contracts and the vagaries of all that stuff and they've been doing business for a while he'd been this man's lawyer and at the end of the the legal stuff they were talking about the man said can I ask you a question and Schofield said sure And the man said, I've been a little afraid to ask you this, but I'm just gonna go for it and ask you. And he said, what's keeping you from giving your life to Jesus? And Scoville said, well, I heard in the Bible that drunkards can't inherit the kingdom of heaven. So you know me and my habits, I just can't do that. And the man gently said, I think you're dodging my question. What's keeping you from giving your life to Jesus? And Schofield thought a moment and said, you know, I guess that it is that no one's really taken the time to explain it to me. The businessman said, can I? May I take the time to explain to you just who Jesus is? After a longer conversation, Scofield knelt and prayed, received Christ as his Savior, gloriously saved that day, and obviously it changed the course of his life. He did the Bible after salvation, not before. But I wonder, this is, you know, one finger pat and four fingers coming back at me, are the people that I know that I've never explained How to come to Jesus? Are there people that you know? You've never shared with them. And to be sure, as I mentioned earlier, we've got to live a life that evidence is a change, that Jesus is real because He changed you, and how we react and respond. But the people that you know, that you interact with, who do not know Jesus, have you taken the time to say, would you mind? Got a question for you. That's what it means to be a messenger. That's what it means to be sent. If there is something higher in this life than our accomplishments, and some of you have great accomplishments and I don't want you to stop those, but they are means to an end. Your accomplishments may serve to get you in front of a different group of people that you can tell the gospel to. You can share the love of Jesus with. And boy, as you pray for them, Vicki, more diligently than I, we've seen over the last 20 years, people come to Christ and we would say, I don't think they'll ever come to Christ. And all of a sudden, something's different. And the people in their lives recognize something different. There's something changed and you get to hear it's Jesus. And we may or may not be there in person when that happens. That's okay. But our lives and our words are to be sharing the gospel. There is no greater and higher purpose in my life and your life than to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to minister to those who need Jesus. How will they hear? John finishes this way toward the end of his writings, but these things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Would you bow with me, please? First of all, the invitation for those who do not know Jesus as their Savior, we would love to take Scripture and explain to you We're not going to be a full court press. We're going to be respectful of you. We're not twisting yarn. But if you want to come here while we sing or step to the back or catch one of us after the service, we'd love to have that conversation. As we sing, also those of us who are believers, we who have turned our eyes to Jesus, what are we continuing? Are we continuing? to tell the good news of Jesus. Father, your word, powerful, supreme, I pray that you do a work in our hearts today. Father, may we be changed. We who know you, may we be changed in the urgency of the good news. Father, may we weep over souls. May we so desire, even as Paul did, to see our friends, our neighbors, our countrymen, or those around the world we do not know come to Christ. And may we do something about it by giving the gospel. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for your mercy.