Life and continue to cause them to bear much fruit in our lives. Lord God, that you would continue molding and shaping us into the image of our blessed savior, Jesus. We pray and ask for these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit. Amen. Beginning in verse 14, just reading the first four verses. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As 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? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, the word of the Lord. Thank you, God. A pastor and mentor of mine had what we call a gift of evangelism. He could easily talk with people about Jesus or people who just come up to him in random places and ask him questions about the Lord.
It was just amazing to watch. Now, I have talked with lots of people over the years about Jesus, and it has rarely been like that for me. I’m sure that’s probably most of us. Just not used to people coming up, What must I do to be saved? Oh, here’s your coffee. It’s just these strange things that happen like that. For some people, it’s a regular experience for them in that way. It’s just a gift. We’ve seen that through the church. Great evangelists. You have people like George Whitfield, Amy Carmichael, Dwight Moody, Cori Ten Boom. Probably more famous to us in our time is Billy Graham. These men and women seem to be singular We’re truly gifted in evangelism, and we’re grateful for that. Amen. God bless them and cause their ministries to be fruitful. And yet the vast majority of people hear about Jesus from ordinary Christians. If we took a poll here, who came to faith because they were at some great evangelistic rally, the numbers would be really small, as opposed I was told the faith from my youngest days by my parents, my grandparents, my teachers, people around me. I was explained the way of salvation from a fellow student, a fellow worker.
That is what happens to most of us. Ordinary Christians, ordinary pastors in small ordinary churches. All these things are what God primarily uses to tell people about Jesus. And the strange thing is that we so often feel inadequate to share Jesus with others. We think, well, we don’t know all the answers. We feel too timid. What if I don’t get it right? I don’t think I’m smart enough. I don’t think I’m trained enough. I don’t think I’m good enough. And on it goes. And into this, we hear the apostle Paul tell us, So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ. Telling others about Jesus is the means that God uses. Therefore, he says, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Because the Lord uses the telling of the message of his son as a primary way to bring saving faith to people, you and I must go and tell the wonders of Jesus to others. In chapters 9 through 11, Paul has been explaining the unbelief of so many of his fellow Jews. How is it possible that they themselves have rejected the Jewish Messiah? And while his answer is specific to them, it’s generally applicable to us all about the dangers of being religious unbelievers.
And threaded through this warning, though, is the joy and the wonder of people receiving and believing the good news of Jesus. Paul is bringing all these things together. The good news is preach to all. Back in verse 13, Paul had quoted from the Prophet Joel, and he says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. A beautiful proclamation, a beautiful truth. And now he’s following up in verse 14. Well, how then will they call in him whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? See this progression. How are they to hear without someone preaching? How are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written from Isaiah 52, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? And that’s the progression. That’s the ordinary way that this takes place. Paul, he recognizes, though, that not everyone who hears believes, he says in verse 16, But they have not all obeyed the gospel, quoting Isaiah again, Isaiah 53, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? Not all believe. He knows that. But he affirms then the ordinary way people come to believe.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. After this great acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty in chapter 9 and the mysteries which surround it, Paul, he highlights human response and accountability in chapter 10. As I mentioned before, that freshman response to the sovereignty of God is often something like, Well, if everything’s ordained, then why do I have to do anything? Or why should I tell anyone about Jesus if it doesn’t matter what I say? Now, no doubt you’ve heard that, and no doubt you’ve probably thought that or said that. And Paul cuts the legs right out from underneath that. There’s no room for that. Someone said, it might have been Calvin, I can’t remember. He says, God’s sovereignty never comes naked. It’s always clothed in means. It’s never It comes clothed. And it means that our God is big enough to make these two realities completely compatible. Whether we fully understand or not, that’s God’s job to bring these things together. Here, Paul speaks to the reality of this in proclaiming the gospel. God commissions, he sends his people to proclaim the good news. Some of these may be like Paul and Barnabas, who are specifically sent by a church, missionaries and We see that.
But it’s also true of any believer who simply just tells others about their faith in Christ. We don’t have to make people believe. That’s not our job. Our job is just simply to tell. It’s God’s job to bring about the understanding and the saving faith. Our job is simply to tell. Tell the good news because it’s really good news. Some of you may remember the story of how the great English preacher Charles Spurgeon, came to faith in Christ. He was a 15-year-old boy, greatly troubled. Just starting the stirings of wondering about his own sin and salvation. He went to church one Sunday morning in London, but there’s a big snow storm. It was so bad that he actually didn’t go to the church he intended. He went to a much closer one into a small chapel church. There’s just about a dozen or so people there, and the regular preacher couldn’t make it, probably because of the snow. The man who spoke was not very good. His text was Isaiah 45, Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. And Spurgeon later said, He had not much to say, thank God.
Wasn’t a gifted order. He said, For that compelled him to keep on repeating the text, and there was nothing needed by me at any rate except his text. Then stopping, he pointed to where I was sitting under the gallery, as I think he said is only a primitive Methodist could do. He said, Look, look, young man. You look very miserable. And he kept telling him to look, look now to Jesus. And this is what he said. He said, I had this vision not in my eyes, but in my heart. I saw what a savior Jesus was. Now, I can never tell you how it was, but I no sooner saw whom I was, then I believed and understood what it was to believe. And I did at that very moment. Probably one of the worst messages ever given on a snowy day when nobody showed up by someone just being willing to stand in place who probably had very little gifting. A pulpit filled by an inarticulate was the means that God used to bring one of the most articulate and effective English preachers the church has known. Isn’t that the way of God? He doesn’t need Charles Spurgeon.
He just needed this inarticulate guy who just quoted the text a bunch of times. And yet, some still do not believe. And speaking of the Jews, specifically, Paul says in verse 18, But I asked, had they not heard? Indeed, they have, for their voice has gone out into all the earth, and it works to the ends of the world. And Paul is borrowing the expression from Psalm 19. It’s not intended as a direct quote, but he’s saying the message has gone out into all the world. He’s speaking specifically about the message going to the Jewish people. And what he means is that it has been his practice, as I said before, that he went to the synagogs first. That the message of Christ, all these Jewish people came on the day of Pentecost, they went back to their homes. And so the area that he’s talking about in the Jewish world has had this good news message brought to them. The other apostle seem to do the same thing because you go to the people you have the most affinity with. Jewish believers, they’re going to the synagogue to tell Jewish people about their Jewish Messiah.
Some believed, but most did not. It was not because they didn’t hear, but because they did not believe what they heard. And Paul says, verse 19, But I asked, did Israel not understand? He says, First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Now, he’s going to pick up this idea further in chapter 11. But he’s saying, Gentiles are not looking for God, and God breaks into their world and they respond. That’s an act of grace and mercy. They’re not looking, and God finds them. And he goes on, Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who do not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, all day long I’ve held up my hand to a disobedient and contrary people. Paul explains this penundrum of why his own people are not believing in masses by saying there has been a remnant saved by grace. There are not two ways of salvation, one for Gentiles and one for Jews. There’s only one way, and it is always through Jesus.
So how do you explain the poor reception, Paul? Verse 1 of chapter 11, I asked then, has God rejected his people? By no means. I myself am an Israeli, a descendant of the Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin He’s saying, Look, I’m Jewish, so are all the other apostles. God hasn’t rejected us. There were thousands who came to faith, coming out of Jerusalem, who did believe to be Sure. For Paul, as one of those, saying, No, God has not rejected his people, those he forenew. We saw earlier that he forenew those he elected. He goes on, Do you not know what scripture says of Elijah? He appeals to God against Israel. Lord, they have killed your prophet. They demolished your altars. I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what is God’s reply to him? I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. That story is from first Kings 18, this dramatic confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, where God reveals himself in a tremendous and powerful way, and the fire coming down and taking up the offering of Elijah.
We also see Elijah praying, and the end of this three-year drought finally comes about. There’s this amazing display of God’s power and goodness to Israel. And what should have been a tremendous high mark for his ministry quickly follows by one of his lowest. Because he gets a little threat after seeing all of this, and he runs and he flees into the wilderness, and he complains to God, I am the only and last faithful Israeli left. God calls him up short. Excuse me. You might want to know that I have preserved 7,000 who have not bowed the need to fall. Not about you, Elijah, about me. And soon after this, Elijah’s own successor, Elisha, is called to carry on his work. God is continuing His work. He uses Elijah, he uses Elisha, and it continues. Because this is God’s work. God is the one moving on the hearts of people. God is the one calling and equipping and sending people. Elijah got the privilege of being a part of that. But to be fair, he wasn’t necessary. Because God can raise up anyone he chooses. It was a gift to him to be in this spot.
At times, it was a very difficult gift, no doubt. But Paul then uses this explaining what’s happening in his own day. He says in verse 5, So, too, at the present time, there’s a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it’s no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. Now, throughout the long history of Israel, the Lord has always preserved a remnant. There were constantly problems with Israel walking in open rebellion against the Lord. There were religious and civil leaders who went through all the religious motions, but whose hearts were far away. The Lord sent his messengers. He sent the prophets, claimed his word of truth. He called them back to faithfulness. They largely ignored them. Some of them were even put to death. Some even said, Look, I’m sending you and nobody’s going to listen to you. How would you like that as your ministry commissioning? Here, go. And they’re not going to listen to you. But you’re going to proclaim my word because it’s true. Because it’s not about you, it’s me and what I am going to do. And a remnant by grace is saved.
It’s always existed. There’s always been a remnant that God has preserved from the beginning. And no one was going to be able to say it was because of their great effort that they remained faithful. Because it was all a work of grace. You see, the response to grace is always a surrender. That’s the problem. To respond to grace is to surrender to it. Now, some of you probably heard of the great English admiral, Lord Nelson, who overcame great obstacles in sea warfare, overcoming larger fleets against his and was victorious. In one of these, not sure if it was the French or the Spanish, but he had this amazing naval victory, and the enemy commander was brought before him. And he reached out his hand to shake Lord Nelson, who he had heard was a very gracious man and filled with gallantery and civility. And he reached out his hand and Nelson didn’t respond. And the commander said, Will you not shake the hand of the defeated foe and be a friend? And this was Lord Nelson’s answer. Yes, I will gladly do so, but your sword first. When you surrender, you handed over your sword.
That was your first act. Hand over your sword, now we can speak of friendship. That’s also the way of God’s grace to sinful humanity. There’s a surrender that must take place for reconciliation to happen. We cannot go about rebellious business as usual and be okay with the Lord. Hand over the sword. Stop fighting against me. That’s the way of grace. It’s a call to surrender. And that has always been a danger to a religious unbeliever because of not wanting to surrender. If I do a few external things, then God should get off my back and just leave me alone. Hey, I did the stuff. All right, leave me alone. I did all that religious things. You should be happy and let me go about being me, and I’ll let you go about being you. That’s not reconciliation. That is not a surrender. We must bow the knee externally, internally to the Lord and surrender. He has always called us to that. And that’s what makes the good news so hard for many to accept. Because in accepting it, you are saying something about yourself. I am a sinner who cannot save himself. I desperately need the good news of Jesus.
I need God to break in and give the light to my darkness. Grace comes by way of surrender. Now, there’s also another part to understanding evangelism that I think we need to get right as well. I heard this in a sermon, if I remember earlier, it’s like some 30 years ago. I say I was 18 or 19, and that must mean there’s more than 30. I don’t even remember who spoke. But this was the man’s premise that I remember. He said, We do not preach the gospel to improve upon the justice of God. We do not preach the gospel to improve upon the justice of God. What did he mean by improving upon the justice of God? You see, sometimes the need for evangelism gets expressed in this way. We must go and tell other people about Jesus, otherwise they will go to hell. Now, what’s wrong with that? That’s a great deal of concern. It sounds very compassionate. The problem is it goes against this idea that there is no neutrality, which we’ve been talking about. There is no neutrality out there. It’s not like there are innocent people who just haven’t heard about Jesus.
Because the thinking is, if I don’t tell these unsuspecting poor people about Jesus, then God will cast them off forever. Who is the bad guy in that scenario? It’s God. Who’s the hero? You. If God’s the bad guy and you’re the hero, you’re telling the wrong story. You’ve got it mixed up. Because God’s the hero of a story. This idea there’s this angry God who just shoveling people into the Lake of Fire unless you and I can come along and snatch a few of them out. That is not a picture of our God. As Abraham claimed so long ago in Genesis 18, asking this rhetorical question, Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And the unspoken response is, Of course, God will do right. He will do what is just. And that was in response when God told him that I’m going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their great sins. No, he told Abraham first. And Abraham starts with this reverse auctioneering to God, interceding. Well, wait a minute. What if there’s 50 righteous? I won’t destroy it. Well, what about 40? And he goes all the way down to 10.
And the Lord said… Abraham told him, he goes, Lord, don’t be angry. I will speak this but once. Suppose there are 10 found there. And the Lord answered, For the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. There were not 10. The only ones spared were Abraham’s nephew, Loth, and his family. There were not 10. There were none righteous. And that’s what takes place. That’s what we see in the world. What we don’t see is later, at least at this time from Abraham, is that you move forward. And God takes one righteous person and punishes him for all the rest. That’s the good news. That’s what Abraham is pointing out to. What if there’s 10? Well, there’s only 10. There’s none. How are we going to be reconciled to God? God’s going to have to reconcile himself to us. People are not damned because they have not heard. They’re damned because they’re in rebellion against a merciful and gracious God. You see, we do not evangelize to improve upon God’s justice. We evangelize as an extension of God’s mercy. We evangelize to bring glory to Jesus. He is worthy of our obedience. He is worthy of our telling others the good news of what he has done.
The focus is on him. God, our Triune God, is the hero of the story. The Lord sent his word into the world. Grace comes first. The word was made flesh and dwelt with us in the person and work of Jesus. That’s the saving news of the gospel. And of course, there are times we’re like, well, how does all this work? And God’s preparing all these things in advance, and he’s got these things ordained, and human responsibility and accountability. How does all that work? Well, as I mentioned last week, you and I are seriously underqualified to be God, and we are seriously underqualified to judge God. If you have a God that you can figure out, he’s way too small. He’s like, Well, I just got to be able to wrap my brain about it. I don’t want that God because your brain is not very big. Nine is a neither. There are lots of mysteries out there that I don’t understand. How God brings us all together is his work, and he is good and gracious. I don’t need to know how saving faith is imparted. I don’t need to know how the Holy spirit moves, convicting us of sin, revealing truth, creating faith in us.
I don’t need to know that. I need to know that it is through his that these things are made possible. And that he has called you and I to go and tell other people about this. And you don’t have to be super articulate. You just tell people, This is what I No. And just tell them. I tell you, I have a PhD in theology, and our little seven to twelve-year-olds in communications class can ask me questions in the first day that just stump me. Because they ask the hard questions. Where did God come from? Or just these types of things. How does this work? Or what is this? And you’re like, I don’t know. I don’t know. Just because you have a word to describe something doesn’t mean that you know what it means. That’s how we fill in ignorance. We just give it a word. You’re like, Oh, well, what does that mean? Shh, what? And in the midst of that, God, all he’s saying is, Go, tell them. And I have a remnant whom I have preserved, and I will use you to be able to turn the lights on, the Holy spirit working through your words.
Because I am a good and gracious God, and I’m merciful. It’s not about you. It’s not about you’re figuring it all out. It’s not your religious observance. It’s about my grace, my mercy. I find lost people, and I draw them to my son because I love my people. That’s what we know. Therefore, you who are loved by Jesus, go tell his loving message to other people because it brings glory to your savior. You get to participate in this work of redemption and reconciliation. And if you don’t go, someone else will. And when you’re gone, someone else will take your place. But in the great drama of redemption, we have all been woven in as threads, beautiful golden and silver threads. You step back It’s Jesus. So with this very feeble pastor on a winter day, if all you can say, look to Jesus, look to Jesus, that may be enough. Because he doesn’t need great articulate exposition. He just needs faithful people, and he will do the rest. Father, indeed, we are here because of your kindness, your goodness. And Lord, we just want to say thank you. And Father, we thank you, too, that you have enabled us to participate in your work of redemption.
And we ask Lord God that you would continue to bring men, women, and children before us, that we can just tell them the good news of Jesus. And Lord, I would ask you, if there are anyone here who has not handed over the sword to you, Father, that you would grant them saving faith, that would bring them to repentance. Father, that you would reveal to them the Majesty of Jesus. Open their eyes to see, their ears to hear. And Father, as we go out from this place, may the words of our praises go before us. That we would praise and declare our trident God to the ends of the world. This we pray and ask through Jesus, our risen and ascended Lord. Amen. Please stand and.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.