we were obviously singing about christ there at the end of psalm 40 that the law is in his heart that he came the scripture to fulfill and glad tidings to impart good news and that's tonight what we're studying in romans chapter 10 i would ask you to turn there in your bibles as we continue our study of romans and tonight we conclude chapter 10 looking at verses 14 to the end of the chapter a very important chapter romans 10 to understand gospel ministry and so let's give our attention tonight to the word of the lord beginning at verse 5 for moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law that the person who does the commandment shall live by them but the righteousness based on 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 abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord over all, bestowing riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they've 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 so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of christ but i ask have they not heard indeed they have for their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world but i asked did israel not understand first moses says i will make you jealous of those who are not a nation with a foolish nation i will make you angry then isaiah is so bold to say i have been found by those who did not seek me i have shown myself to those who did not ask for me but if israel he says all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and a contrary people may the Lord bless the hearing of his word well all of this detail tonight and that we have read in Romans chapter 10 and spent the time with the past weeks is important ultimately to answer the question it's important to keep that in front of us tonight as Paul raised at the beginning of chapter 9 has God's word failed with regard to Israel why because of Israel's unbelief has God failed and I believe that Paul is answering something that he knew people would do with this with that question a kind of excuse to blame God for Israel's unbelief how easy it would have been after chapter nine when we have heard of God's unconditional election to just blame God for the fact that Israel has failed wouldn't that be easy to do for some people and obviously we're looking at things that are our little minds are it's difficult to grasp but if the question is raised has God's word failed with regard to Israel and the first thing that Paul shoots back and says absolutely not because not all israel is of israel god chose for himself whom he will and none of the chosen have lost anything none of the true israel were lost at all what's the first thing somebody might shoot back and say well then if somebody doesn't come that's god's fault and that's what paul raised in verse 19 of chapter 9 that someone he could say well why why does he even find fault who's resisted his will if he hardens whom he wills and he has mercy on whom he will who can resist that how could God ever find fault with anyone if God is doing that you see the question and I believe Paul is addressing and fleshing that out for us in chapter 10 God has given us has given us a window into the sovereign decree to tell us that He does choose so that we would be of the understanding and have the blessing of knowing He's not losing any of His sheep. And that's why He gave us that window into His decree. But the reality of election does not throw to the curb human responsibility. And when it comes to the question of why somebody does not attain to the righteousness of Christ, when it comes to why somebody does not go to heaven, the answer the Bible gives us repeatedly and over and over and over is, people turned and they refused to come. They turned away from it. They refused to come to me, says Jesus, that they may have life. That was his assessment. that's tonight that's what paul's showing you with regard to israel tonight in chapter 10 of romans here's what chapter 10 is saying to us god put everything in place for israel just like he's put everything in place for you everything that you're enjoying now god put in place and he has been overwhelming in his goodness to ensure that his gospel has been announced to the ends of the earth, and God started that program right after the fall. And the reason anyone does not make it to heaven, if you will, is because they refused him who spoke. That's his answer. They didn't come. And that's why verse 21 of Romans should have stood out to you at the very end of Romans 10 all day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and a contra I said come I don't delight in the death of the wicked but that they come and they live and that's where he ends it so tonight I want to look at this that everything was in place that you would think about the beautiful thing that God is saying to you in chapter 10 that we would not do as Israel's done and that we would come and believe and that we would see that everything that is needed for us to be saved is in place. There's nothing lacking. There's nothing you lack tonight. There's nothing that's a question mark. Do you need something? It's all here. It's all present. It's all in place. That's Romans 10. Those who are living by faith have the righteousness of faith. they don't run around trying to do it themselves this is what paul has been developing in romans 10 and so remember in verse 6 he talked about how the righteousness of faith speaks in other words we've learned to talk a certain way we've learned to think a certain way as christians we're not running around trying to do this ourselves we're speaking a certain way how are we speaking as christians god sent his son we don't go up into heaven to get the son We don't go over there to get the Son. We don't try to get Jesus any old way. But we have learned by faith to speak a certain way in the Christian life. We have learned by faith, contrary to what Israel did, as Gentiles we have learned attaining to the righteousness of Christ, we have learned to speak about how Christ is brought to us and how we receive Him. That he is near to us. How? Well, last time we left off, he's so near, he's in your mouth and in your hearts. That if we confess him, and we confess that Jesus is Lord, that he is God, and we believe that he is risen from the dead, that he triumphed in the gospel, that he went to the cross, and he became the curse, and he rose the third day, And we believe that in the heart, the center of who we are. We will be saved. Boy, we should be leaping out of our seats. That's the most wonderful news that could ever be given. That's the most wonderful announcement. In Christ, you have it all. You've attained to the righteousness that Israel did not attain to. And you stand back and we have this big Bible of Israel's history. Christ just told you, you got it. They didn't. Now, the purpose of Paul is to have us think about how that happened. This was a huge struggle for the early church. Paul had to chide the church in Corinth for using the world's wisdom to try to go get Jesus. Paul had to chide the church in Corinth for using human wisdom to try to pull down Jesus to them. Remember what he said in 1 Corinthians 2, when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not with plausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the spirit and a power that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of god there has always been a problem throughout history of people wanting to take glory for themselves and to put it in this morning's terms running to what they thought were more powerful means of delivering this was always a huge problem In fact, I've always been amazed by the whole Gideon event and what a powerful event when the Midianites were coming and remember the Lord says, I want you to go to battle and Gideon's ready for the 3,000. The Lord says, no, no, no. You go down to the river and whoever laps like a dog, you take them. So 300 men come out who lap like dogs with very unconventional weapons and they go out and they do something we would never think. They didn't draw one sword. And they start yelling and breaking glass and shattering. And the Midianites destroyed themselves. Why did God do it that way? So no one would boast and say, it was in the power of my mighty army that we won the victory. Gideon's army was in the Lord's strength. And that is just as relevant for us today because we are obsessed with numbers and growth and human wisdom and results, the results that we think it should be to get people to the Lord. I want you to think, if God put something in place and He even called it foolishness to us, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe, your natural response to what we do will have no confidence in this. Your natural response, there will be no confidence in this. You will think there's no power in this. Your natural response will be, there's got to be something more. Your natural response will be, come on. Power is in something else. Can it really work? Can what we're doing tonight really save? And that's precisely the point. God chose something foolish that has no outward pizzazz and no outward glory so that all the praise and glory would go to Him. And that's why Romans 10 is so powerful tonight. God is saying, I put something specific in place. And it's always been this way. I want you to think about how you receive this. I want you to think about how you attain to the righteousness of Christ. How did it get into your mouth and into your hearts? You see, it's got to get into the mouth and into the heart. How did it get there? Well, that's verses 14 and 15. Some of the most important verses in the Bible, because essentially what he's doing is, he's showing what is absolutely necessary for us to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, for us to attain to the righteousness that Israel did not. He has chosen a means by which we are to apprehend and to attained an instrument, Christ's righteousness, where he gets in the mouth and in the heart. And so notice what he says at the very end of this in verse 13, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And we saw that as the end result this morning, if you will, after a terrible, tragic event, wasn't it? Abraham had learned something. We learned something. We learned throughout this life to pray and to call on the name of the Lord. It doesn't happen just once. This is what you do throughout the course of life. Well, where did it all begin? What did God do? Notice verse 14. How then will they call in Him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they've 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 notice that it's just glowing here so the lord just said there are five necessities that he has put in place five necessities that he has put in place for somebody to be delivered and he works backwards but but notice how it goes here you could put this all in in the course of what you've known what does lord has to do the first thing he does is he raises up and he sends pastors and there was a long history of this throughout the old testament that god would come and he would touch his messenger's mouth like jeremiah or isaiah and that god would put his words in the mouth of the prophets and notice here that god would would send and this this is a big concern of the church you know the Lord told us to pray about this the Lord told us to pray that one of the crucial prayers of the church should be the harvest is plentiful but the labors are few therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest this this has to be a burden and a concern for the church our seminaries and that men are being trained Lord told us this and so God is is telling us this, that the first real necessity is that I have to raise up preachers. And for somebody to be saved, they've got to be sent to the ends of the earth. I have to send them. Sometime we'll look at the prophets on this. And they always had to stand in his counsel. What were they to do? well notice what it says in verse 14 at the very end if we're working backwards here they have to be sent and how are they to hear without somebody preaching so the sent one goes and he's sent with a message the sent one has to to preach the message it's god's message he's a he's a postman and his responsibility is is to take this and to study this and to preach this and to mind this and to preach this. This is His calling. And so He has to give Himself, as Paul told Timothy, you give yourself to meditate on these things. The doctrine. To know this. Give attention to the reading, the doctrine, the exhortation. Preach this in season and out of season. And why, Timothy? Well, because the time is going to come when men aren't going to want this but instead they're going to want their ears tickled and they're going to turn aside their ears from the truth and be turned aside to fables short stories but do we live in the day of the short story where the common message and we haven't even known what to do with that anymore it's become so commonplace where the pastor gets up and he's just doing a chain of stories from his own life that's not his calling and then we wonder where the power is i'm sending preachers to work through this and to preach this to preach it in season and out of season when in season means when the word is received and if the escondido church empties out you just keep preaching out of season they may not like it at times you just keep your head in the book and you pastor keep preaching that's the second necessity sending preaching and then you it has to be heard how will they hear without a preacher now i don't think we talk enough about this but you know jesus had a lot to say about hearing he said to them take heed what you hear it's easy in preaching to hear what you want to hear it's easy to find one thing in preaching that you don't like and then discount everything else take heed what you hear with the same measure you use it it will be measured to you and you who hear more will be given but we're not just hearing any old thing in verse 14 did you notice what it says how are they to believe in him of whom they've never heard who who are they hearing our view of preaching has always been that it's christ's voice that he's chosen to get his voice out this way and that's why jesus said his sheep hear his voice and they hear that voice and they respond to that voice and when that voice is faithfully delivering the word of god and preaching the gospel they are hearing the voice of Christ and Jesus said that and as you hear the Holy Spirit works and then what happens you believe notice that it says that believing here is the fourth necessity you know how then will they call on him in whom they've not believed and how are they believe in him of whom they've not heard we have to believe from the heart as we considered last week that christ is the answer to all of my misery and all of my sin and that in him i have righteousness and i believe that he is my life and i trust him i add nothing to the work i believe and then what happens my whole life becomes one like abram of calling on the name of the lord i'm calling on him at the beginning i'm calling on him at the middle i'm calling on him at the end my whole life is calling on the name of the lord through the very different challenges and twists of life and this is where all of this what we're doing now leads me to a life of calling now why is paul rehearsing all this do you think people don't realize this is in place paul is saying god put it all in place for you and it's as if he's saying tonight this is not just a new testament phenomenon what we do here tonight is not new boys and girls there were little boys and girls years ago just like you who sat in israel and they listened to a preacher and he preached the word of god good news has been announced from the beginning it's always been preached god always ensured that good news was preached abram had the gospel preached to him galatians 3 and in verse 15 he cites isaiah to prove this as it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things that's what gospel means they're runners runners in that day would bring back news and they would bring back good news to those who were taken captive that the battle was over and they had been set free and when physical captives were received this news that they would shout for joy the runner would come and sprint with all that he had, and he would announce and declare, you're set free. God is saying, I did that throughout history. I've always done it in every single age, even when it seemed dark. I sent runners and they announced the good news. I touched lips. I opened mouths. I set on fire the hearts of preachers who were so excited to go tell you about my good news, to tell you about my Messiah, to tell you about the Savior. I ran to you, says the Lord. You didn't run to me. I ran to you. And how beautiful are their feet. I'd imagine there are a lot of women here tonight with painted feet. And they've soaked them and they smell nice. I think women should do that, by the way. But in God's eyes, those aren't beautiful feet. Somebody said to me walking out of church the other night, you have beautiful feet. And I said, you've never seen my feet. But I understand what she was saying. She understood from the text that when God sends someone, He's sending feet, and the imagery here is leather-beaten, dirty, bloody feet that have run to you with a message from God. Heralds run. And you should be saying at this point, God is so good to us. All the glory goes to Him in this way. He could have said a lot of things before us. He could have given you the best movie. He could have painted the best picture. He did this. So that all praise would go to Him because it's foolishness to this world. And when you stop and you see all the sadness and you see all the misery and you see all the pain and you're feeling the weight of that coming out of a week, do you understand why Bethel is so important? Because God's sending the runner to tell you something. And God from the beginning did this from Noah, Enoch. God's always raised up preachers. Here's what he's having us think about tonight in verse 16. One of the most painful verses in the whole section. It's a big exception. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. What he's saying is not all have believed the message. This is dealing with Israel. Paul's applying this universally, but his eye is on Israel. They have not all obeyed the gospel. So God put everything in place. He sent beautiful feet preaching the gospel, but the reality was, with some, they did not believe it. Unbelief is a painful reality. It's never something you expect in the ministry, and I have to say I'm thankful for the Escondido URC. I see a love for the Word, I see a love for Christ, but it's still a very real and present danger that you can sit here and not really believe it. Why does it happen? I mean, that's my question. Why would that go on? I was pondering this and it struck me. At verse 16, the second part, he quotes Isaiah. Lord, notice how the translation reads, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? Or in other words, to put it in the old translation, which the older brothers and sisters here will realize, Lord, who has believed our report? I thought about that. Of all the verses to prove unbelief, why would he go there? do you know where that's taken that's the beginning of isaiah 53 isn't it and i read this it dawned on me not the beautiful feet notice this the beautiful feet of the one who brings good news comes at the end of chapter 52 but chapter 53 of isaiah begins that way and i meditated on these words here's the language of Isaiah 53. He has no form or comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we, on our part, hid ourselves from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. In other words, we hated Him. He has borne our griefs and carried our pains, yet we reckoned Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. And what is the truth about us? Here's the report. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and a sheep before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Did you hear the report? The report is that of a bloody, crucified Savior who when you looked at him, you didn't want to make an image. He was not beautiful to behold. And he was split open. And the report is that of a gruesome death where his grave was made with the wicked, God himself striking his son. And why did God do that? Why would God do that to his son? It's because of your rebellious hearts. Because you're always going astray in your heart. You're always turning your own way. That's the report. And Paul said, woe is me if I don't preach it. Now, I would do really well on a lot of people's scorecards if I didn't preach them. And you could probably get a lot more people in here. It wouldn't offend people if you preached that in such a way as you made them feel worthy enough to receive it. In other words, pastors are loved today so long as at least they pet the sheep to make them feel that they're good enough for the gospel. That's not the report. You see, Isaiah 53 tells us that an undesirable Savior was cruelly murdered and suffered a horrendous death on the cross, and it's your fault. It's my fault. Our sin caused that. And if you ever look at the apostolic preaching, did you ever think that this is what they were doing? Peter, in his first sermon at Pentecost, Him, delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. Do you remember the response? You stiff-necked, that is a Stephen sermon, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one. That was Isaiah. Of whom you now have become betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. The report gets two responses. The message puts an end to you. If you hear it, you've got two ways to go. I don't want to hear that. I'm not interested in that. That doesn't help me for my week. But the one who knows their sin hears that report and says that's the most beautiful report that you could ever announce to a lost sinner. That you gave your son to do that for a wretch like me. And so, I've come to the conclusion that the reason looking at the Scriptures that people turn is because they despise the grace message. Think about it. the report says you can do nothing, you can't save yourself. Think of Abram this morning. You mess up constantly. You throw it all away. You can't find on your own. You can't seek on your own. And God has to come and pursue you and to deliver you. He had to send his son to die on the cross to suffer the agony and torments of hell. And so the message of grace is a difficult message for sinners i'm convinced of that until we've really heard the report about us and paul is saying tonight this is how god in this report creates faith faith comes by hearing and hearing by this word preached this is what god does when that word is preached that's how he creates faith in the heart well why then did israel fail why did israel not get it paul says plainly at the end of Romans 10. He strings together a few Old Testament verses to prove it. Verse 18. Have they not heard it? In other words, did Israel not hear this? Are you getting something that Israel never heard? Paul says no. They heard the report and he cites Psalm 19. That sound went out into all the world. The law of God was proclaimed that showed their sin. The whole sacrificial system pointed to a Savior. Well, But if Israel heard the report, maybe they didn't understand the report. That's verse 19. But did Israel not know? Yes, they knew. Paul goes to Moses, I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will move you to anger by a foolish nation. Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me. You know what he just said? oh they understood it because they got really angry when the gentiles received it and it provoked them to jealousy they were getting the gospel message of grace and they were getting their messiah by this gracious message and israel wanted nothing to do with it and so notice that the jews were we'll look at this in chapter 11 were provoked to jealousy but paul really is thinking of isaiah here what more could have been done in my vineyard that i have not done in it why then when i expected it to bring forth good grapes did it bring forth wild grapes the lord says and he concludes all day long i stretched out my hands to a disobedient and a contrary people that's why national israel didn't attain we'll look at the remnant they attained but national Israel did not and it comes to us tonight and you see God wants you to know everything's in place for you and the arms are outstretched and we should all ask ourselves tonight what do we do with the report do you value the report it's sad when I see Christians who can take and leave the report. I always think that's such a distressing sign to me. The report is your life. The report is what God has come running to you with. The report is the way God is saving you. And when he sends a preacher who announces the report and gives himself to announce the report, his Holy Spirit is creating faith in your hearts. That's why you want to be here when the report is announced and that's why isaiah would say come now let's reason together says the lord though your sins are like scarlet i'll make them as white as snow come to me believe in me and so i think of abram who came this morning at bethel and he returned to the lord and he called on the name of the lord didn't he god didn't put all this in place tonight that you might not believe. God put this in place tonight with the intention that you would believe. And if you have confessed the Lord, Jesus is Lord, and believed in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, then I leave you with the words of 1 John, therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you you also will abide in the son and in the father and this is the promise that he has promised us eternal life believe that promise and let's now call together on the name of the lord oh lord we call tonight so unworthy of anything that we've received we confess that we're sinners we confess that we've turned aside from you all of us have gone astray in our hearts and you laid on your son the iniquity of us all we accept that we believe that and we confess tonight that it was our sin and rebellion that caused that and thank you for sending preachers to announce this may every last person in here tonight hear this report I know fully well that your spirit has to break into hearts may every last one hear this report believe this report and may we all together as a church every week and throughout the course of our lives call upon you save us oh Lord and remember your wonderful words of promise that you've said to us, that you will give us eternal life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.