Our scripture reading this evening comes from the ninth chapter of Romans, begins in the ninth chapter of Romans, if you'd turn there with me tonight. Romans chapter 9, verse 30, reading down through the end of chapter 10. Romans chapter 9, beginning our reading at verse 30. Let us hear God's own word. What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith. But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God, and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law. The man who does these things will live by them. But the righteousness that is by faith says, Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the deep. That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith we are proclaiming. That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. But I ask, did they not hear? Of course they did. Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses said, I will make you envious by those who are not a nation. I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding. And Isaiah boldly says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. But concerning Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. So far the reading of God's word. We gather tonight to worship our God, and a special part of that worship is to set aside Michael Brown to the gospel ministry, to ordain him, to install him in the office that our form for ordination calls the office of the minister of the word. And that title is chosen with care and forethought in the form, a minister of the word. He will be a minister of the word because all that he does as a pastor really involves applying the word of God in his teaching, in his counseling, in his disciplining, in his leading. He will be applying the word of God. But we refer to this office as the minister of the word in particular because of the responsibility given ministers to preach the word. And this 10th chapter of Romans speaks to us in a particularly pointed way about the character and importance of the preaching office for the people of God. And so that's the portion of Scripture I want to preach to you tonight. And it's part of a larger section, as you know, of Romans chapters 9 through 11, where Paul is dealing with a variety of problems, a variety of problems that he has introduced in Romans 9 verse 6 with the interesting statement, for it is not as though God's Word had failed. We might be surprised that Paul speaks in that way. Who would have thought that it would ever have entered Paul's mind that the Word of God might fail? But he raises that question for you and for me, for the church in all ages. Is the Word of God reliable? When God makes a promise, does He keep it? Is the word true? Does it communicate to us the real message of our God? And Paul assures us that the word does not fail. He assures us that the word does succeed in these next chapters. Indeed, in chapters 9 through 11, Paul, in more than one-third of the verses, either quotes from Scripture or refers to Scripture. He wants the Romans and he wants us to know that God's Word never fails, that God's Word is utterly reliable, that God's Word is true in all that it says. And as he takes up that subject of the importance of the Word, The significance of the Word of God. In chapter 10, he says something very interesting about the Word. Now, in other parts of the Scripture, we have strong statements made about the Word of God. The Word is true. The Word is alive. The Word is powerful. The Word is active. But here in Romans chapter 10, Paul wants to remind us that the Word is near. That's a theme that he underscores. The Word is near. Verse 8 of Romans 10. But what does it say? That is the Scripture say. It says the Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of faith we are proclaiming. The Word of God, which never fails, the Word of God which succeeds in bringing blessing and salvation to those who hear it and embrace it, is not a word that is far away and difficult and obscure and remote. It is a word that is near to the people of God. And Paul says that, develops that idea in several different ways in this passage. First of all, he says to us, the word is near in its message, in its content, in the truth that it reveals. The word is near in its message. It is near in the message of Christ. The good news, the gospel that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. That word is not far away. It's not difficult to apprehend or comprehend. It is near to us. It comes to us with gospel blessing and assurance. And here in Romans 10, Paul develops that message of Christ in two particular ways. He says, first of all, that Christ is the end of the law. An arresting statement. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. And what does that mean when Paul says that? It means that Christ has fulfilled the law in every point for us. So that the law is no longer a demand upon us that we must fulfill for salvation. To the extent that we think of the law as a demand upon us to fulfill, that we might be saved, The law works only death, Paul has taught. Because we can never fulfill it perfectly. We can never fulfill it adequately. And therefore, it is good news to hear that Christ is the end of the law, for He has kept it in our place. He has fulfilled it. He is the only one in all of history who has loved God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength. He is the only one who has loved his neighbor as himself. He is the only one who has kept the law in all its broad principles and in every one of its particulars. He alone has done that. And so he is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And he is the end of the law for us because he bore the penalty of the law upon the cross. He took upon the cross the sins of every one of those who belonged to Him. And where the penalty of the law has been visited upon another, the law has no claim any longer to punish us. Christ is the end of the law. He has borne the penalty of the law in our place, and therefore the law can no longer condemn us if we are in Him. And that is the Word that is near to us. That is the good news of Christ that is brought to us in the Scriptures. And what good news it is. That we are not left to ourselves. We are not left to our own strength, to our own wisdom, to our own goodness. But Christ has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. That's the Word that is near us. And Paul speaks of this gospel not only of Christ as the end of the law, but Christ as the Lord of life. You notice there in chapter 10, there are some questions that we're really told we're not supposed to ask. Parents sometimes say that to children, don't they? There are certain questions we just assume they don't ask. Paul, interestingly, lays those questions right out there. Verses 6 and 7. Don't ask. Don't ask. Who will ascend into heaven and who will descend into the deep? Paul, there's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 30. And in Deuteronomy chapter 30, Moses was saying to the people, don't ask. Who can bring the word to me from heaven? Or who can bring the word to me from the depths of the sea? And Moses said to the people, don't ask that. because the Word is near to you. And Paul reiterates that. Don't ask who's going to go to heaven for you because Christ is already there for you. And don't ask who will go into the depths for you because Christ has already been in the depths for you. Don't ask who because the answer is already given you. It's Christ. Christ has done it all. and in doing it all, is the Lord of life for you. If you ask who and try to go up to heaven to find out, you doubt that Christ is enthroned in heaven, Paul says. But He is. He's enthroned in heaven as Lord. And don't go down into the depths and ask who, because that's to deny the resurrection of Christ who came up from the depths for you. And so Paul drawing on the covenant renewal that was given to Israel as described in Deuteronomy 30 says we have a new covenant Lord. A new covenant Lord of life who reigns for us in heaven. Who was raised from the dead for us to give us life. This is the gospel we are to preach. We're not to doubt that Christ is the one. That Christ is the one who brings the word of the covenant. That Christ is the Lord of the covenant. That Christ has conquered death for us, lives forevermore, that we might live in Him. There's good news. He's the end of the law. He's the living Lord for all who belong to Him. And Paul says the response to that message, the response that God looks for to that message is faith. The way to righteousness, Paul says in this passage as he's been saying throughout Romans and indeed as it's said throughout the New Testament, the way to embrace this righteousness in Christ who is the end of the law and the Lord of life is to believe Him, is to trust Him. is to rely on Him. Christ is our righteousness. And the question is, do we believe that? Do we accept that? Do we stake our souls on that? Do we rest in that? Part of Israel's failure in the Old Covenant was that it could not be content with the work that God had done. It insisted on adding to God's work its own work. and the church has been tempted to that error down through the centuries because there's always a temptation in the church to say the gospel well it's really just too good isn't it too good to be true that Christ has done it all it must be that I have to add something to Christ's work of course when we begin to think that way we soon discover that such an addition is always a subtraction remember Pastor Kamiga had a great illustration of that I don't remember it he said it's like taking the painting of the Mona Lisa often thought to be the world's greatest painting a sort of perfection of painting and say well you know Well, Da Vinci really did a very nice job with the Mona Lisa. It's a very nice painting, but I think I'll improve it by painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. That's an addition, that's a subtraction, you see. If we think we will add our works to Christ's work, it's an addition that is a subtraction and means we don't really believe. We don't really trust Him to do it all. We don't really rely on Him. God gave up His own Son to the cross that we might be saved. And what an offense it is for us then to say to the Son of God, nice job, we'll improve just a little upon it. Christ has done it all for us. He's the living Lord. He's the end of the law. Trust in Him. Rely on Him. that's the message that is preached. That is the message that is proclaimed. That is the call to our hearts that we would believe that He is risen from the dead. That we would confess that He is Lord today. That in our hearts we would acknowledge Him with a true and living faith and that out of that faith would come forth in this Word an expression of that faith. As we say, He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the message that is near to us. And God says not only in this 10th chapter of Romans that there is a message, but He makes very clear there is a method for the communication of that message. You notice in verses 14 and 15, again, several questions are asked, beginning with the question, how? how then can they call on the one they have not believed in? How can they believe if they haven't heard? How can they hear if no one preaches? How can they preach unless they are sent? How can this message get out there? And we ought to notice, first of all, I think, what Paul does not say in answer to that question. He does not say you have to have all kinds of clever programs and gimmicks. He doesn't say you have to read the latest clever books that are the bestsellers on the Christian bestseller list. He doesn't say you should have Bible studies. He doesn't say you should have prayer meetings. He doesn't say that you should listen to radio programs, good, bad, or indifferent. He doesn't say you should go to movies. now some of these things are good in and of themselves they're profitable they're useful for the Christian community but when Paul asks the question how will people believe how will they hear he doesn't answer that question with reference to any of these things some of which Paul knew all about Paul says there's one method that is foundational There is one method that is indispensable. There is one method that is absolutely crucial for the life of the church. And that is preaching. Now, there are many today who, on hearing that, will say, you've got to be kidding. You can't be serious about that. Don't you know that preaching is just ineffective, boring, foolish? and our answer is, yeah, Paul told us already in the first century that preaching was foolish. There's no news about that, that preaching is foolish. But to quote slightly out of context my own personal favorite phrase in the Heidelberg Catechism, we must not be wiser than God. If God has established a method, it really is foolish to say, you know, we've thought that over and we're wiser than you are on this one. God says that faith comes from hearing and hearing from the preaching of the word. Now that may be hard to believe, but it's what God says. It's the word that is near to us. It's the word that we really must accept. That's why it so troubles me as I look around the state of American churches in the last 20 or 30 years to discover that as various programs proliferate in contemporary churches, more and more churches are canceling the second service, the second preaching service on Sunday. And when you ask people about that, the response almost invariably is, well, you know, we're really doing something great in its place. And the implication is we're really doing something better in its place. We're having small groups. We're fellowshipping. We're doing really useful things. They probably are useful things. But how does that measure up against what the Apostle says in Romans chapter 10? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the preaching of the Word of God. You know, our catechism got this exactly right, because it had read, well, not the catechism didn't read, but the authors of the catechism had read Romans chapter 10, question 65 of the catechism. Where does true faith come from? True faith is worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Holy Gospel and is confirmed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Now again, individuals may have come to faith through a Bible study or through a personal conversation, through a youth group meeting, all sorts of good things. But Abraham Kuyper encouraged us to step back and say, How does it happen? There was a Bible study. There was a youth group leader. There was a personal conversation. Because there was somebody whose faith had been fed by preaching. Preaching is foundational, the apostle says. And so Paul says to us, says to Mike Brown, says to all of us, preaching is necessary because God has ordained it. ordained it to be done officially by those set apart by the church. How can they preach unless they are sent? Preachers are not self-ordained. They are not self-appointed. But God has established his church to call preachers, to examine preachers, and then to set them aside to carry on that work officially in the name of the church. That's the apostolic way of doing things. And, of course, it's a tremendous responsibility to preach Christ, to make his word known. And so the responsibility of a preacher is awesome. I always remember, some of you, I've been around so long, you've heard all my stories, so some of you have heard this story. But I always remember my preaching professor in seminary saying that in Wales he had known a man who was a very powerful, very effective preacher. And he preached in one of those old-fashioned, very high-raised pulpits. So when it came time for the sermon, he'd have to walk up really a flight of stairs to the pulpit to deliver the sermon. And they said almost once or twice a year, he would come to the foot of the stairs. he would look up to the pulpit and he'd turn to the congregation and say, I cannot go into that awful place. And he'd turn and walk out of the church. Thankfully, the elders got used to this so they knew how to carry on the service in his absence. But it's a telling story because there ought to be that sense of awe in approaching the pulpit. It is a great responsibility to stand before the people of God and say to the people of God, this is what the Lord says to you. And it's a responsibility that can be undertaken only by those who are willing to study God's word carefully, to prepare thoroughly, and to labor to communicate clearly what God has said to his people. And so, Mike, tonight I say to you, as a man I know, who is committed to these things, never lose sense of the awesomeness of that responsibility before God. Dedicate your time and your energy to that great work so that you might be a workman whose work will be approved. And the glory of that is that God has made promises about that work. You remember the great words of Isaiah, Isaiah 55, For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I set it. Your church may, in the next three months, have a thousand new members. or it may have 50 less members. Your responsibility is not the increase. Your responsibility is to be a faithful sower of God's Word. And God has promised that as you are faithful, His Word will accomplish what He intends for it to accomplish. And that must be your comfort. That must be your portion. That must be your encouragement. And so, as you take up this office, remember that the word is near to you and to your people in the message and in the method. A method that needs to have in it a passion and a pleading. I'm always struck by this last verse of chapter 10. But concerning Israel, he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. It's God who holds out his hands to his people, pleading, pleading. No matter how hard their hearts, no matter how closed their ears, all day long he stretches out his hands to them and pleads, turn, turn, why will you perish, says the Lord. That passion must inform our preaching as well. So there's a message, and there's a method, and there's also a messenger. And you may think we've already covered that, talking about preachers. But in Romans chapter 10, Paul says that the messenger is Jesus Christ himself. If you look at verse 14 of chapter 10, we find in the NIV, the second question is translated, and how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? Many of the translations translate it that way, but it's not correct. The Greek actually reads, and how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? How can they believe Jesus Christ if they haven't heard Him? That's what the Apostle says. Jesus Christ Himself remains the great messenger. Jesus Christ Himself is always the one who is speaking in His Word. Jesus Christ Himself has a word for the people. Verse 17, consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ. Not only the word about Christ, but the word that comes from Christ. And in a sense, this is an encouragement to us. We are agents of the Christ. He speaks through us to his people. But he is the ultimate messenger. And that's why it's so crucial that we bear his word. You see, Jesus is a living Lord today. He is enthroned in heaven today. And he still speaks to his people today through his word as it is faithfully preached. We're only a voice crying in the wilderness. We are only feet that look better some days than others. We are only to be active in the work of the ministry. We are the verbs. Jesus is always the noun. Jesus is always the messenger. And we need to recognize that. And so as you take up your new office, know that the word that you minister is an unfailing word, that it always accomplishes the purpose for which God put it. That's not a reason for you to be lazy or you to be foolish, but it is a reason for you to be filled with confidence, confidence in your calling, confidence in your study, confidence in your preaching. And it's a reason for all of us as the congregation of Jesus Christ to be confident in our listening and to be confident in our believing the word of Christ as it is preached. May God make that true for all of us. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, how we do thank you that your word is not hidden from us, that it is not far from us, that it is not obscure to us, but that you have spoken so clearly about Jesus Christ. And you have spoken so clearly the word of Jesus Christ to us. And tonight we would thank you, O Lord, for the office of preaching. We know, O Lord, how weak preachers are. We know how often, oh Lord, we as preachers have failed to preach as we ought, to work as we ought. And we as preachers acknowledge that we are the first who need your mercy and your forgiving grace in Christ. But we are thankful, O Lord, that you are pleased to use the foolishness of preaching and of preachers to make Christ known. And we pray, O Lord, that tonight, as we add to the number of the preachers, that you will bless Michael Brown with a rich portion of your spirit. that as he has learned to love your word and to study your word, so he might now, with renewed power and zeal and faithfulness, preach that word. And we pray for the congregation in Santee and the congregation here in Escondido and all faithful congregations that we might not be an obstinate and disobedient people, but by the power of your spirit you would open our ears that we might listen carefully, believingly, to your word, to the glory of Jesus Christ, our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.