Sunday Sermon: Faith Comes by Hearing (Romans 10:14-17)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

Here is Pastor Gabe. Well good morning. If you would open your

Bible please to Romans chapter 10 as we continue our series in the book of Romans.

Last week reading those famous verses in 9 and 10, 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.

There are basic essential truths that we must believe in order to truly understand ourselves to be saved.

But most especially our faith needs to be in our Lord Christ. It's not enough that you have faith because you didn't have faith in anything but specifically who is the object of your faith.

And when we trust in Jesus who died on the cross who rose again from the dead for our justification, then it is by faith that we are saved.

A doctrinal truth that Paul has been laying out throughout the course of this study that we've been in in Romans.

But in order for you to know that you must have faith in Jesus Christ to be saved, somebody has to tell you.

And that's what we're going to be reading about here as Paul goes on to talk about the announcement of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The world has all kinds of messages for us but it is only through the message of the gospel that we hear of Christ and are saved.

Listen to this from Puritan Henry Greenwood who said the following, quote, in the world there is a fourfold invitation yet only one leads to salvation.

The devil says, come unto me but I will destroy you. The world says, follow me but I will deceive you.

The flesh says, follow me but I will fail you. Christ alone says, come unto me and I will deliver you.

We hear about the good news and the reason for announcing that good news. Reading today from Romans chapter 10 verses 14 to 17.

In honor of the word of the King would you please stand. This is Romans chapter 10 beginning in verse 14.

Hear the word of the Lord. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?

So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, we come to this passage today and we desire to be taught by your spirit.

Any of us can hear the words, but that they would get into our hearts.

That we would believe in them with a faith that has the strength to move mountains.

With a faith that is saving. For we have trusted in the one who has died for us and risen again.

It is by your spirit that we have come to understand these truths in a saving way.

Not just hearing them with our physical ears, but hearing and trusting in them with our spiritual hearts.

Lord, everyone here who could call themselves a Christian, everyone in this room who could say,

I am saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, has come to that faith, has come to that knowledge because someone told them.

Perhaps we heard from our parents. Maybe it was from a Sunday school teacher.

Maybe it was from an evangelist we encountered in a parking lot. Maybe it was a message that we heard on the internet.

Maybe they were truths that had been said to us for years, but it just took a while before it sank down into us and we understood,

I'm a sinner in need of a savior. But however that message came to us, it came to us being spoken to us.

Nobody just came into this knowledge on their own. No one who just made up their minds one day that there's this guy named

Jesus that I'm going to believe in and be saved. This is what you have ordained for your church in the way that your people will be saved.

Because the message of the gospel goes forth and those who believe it are delivered from their sin, from death, from the judgment of God, and have everlasting life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Help us to understand our role in this redemptive plan that you have set forth, that we may know to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

And it's in the name of Jesus that we pray, and all God's people said, Amen. Our brother

Alan had read for us this morning Isaiah chapter 52, and it's Isaiah 52 7 that is quoted here when

Paul says, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. In case you're unaware of the context of what's going on there in Isaiah chapter 52, the people of Judah, specifically

Jerusalem, being addressed there in Isaiah 52, disobeyed God. All of the wonderful things that God had done for them, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt, giving them a promised land, giving them abundance in that land.

And instead of giving thanks to God, they turned to the false gods of the pagans around them.

And they worship those gods instead of giving thanks to the Lord, the true

God. And so God punished them by exiling them into the hands of the

Babylonians. But they would not perish there in Babylon. Now, Isaiah is writing all of this 100 years before this takes place, but it's all spoken about in a present tense.

When you are in captivity, what will happen for you? And this good news is declared to them that they would not perish there in captivity, but they would actually be brought out and they would come out with shouts of gladness.

Now, though they would be wallowing there in misery, realizing their sin and living in a land that God had not given to them.

This was not the promised land that was guaranteed to the descendants of Abraham. They would wonder what would become of us here.

And then there's this announcement of good news that's made in Isaiah 52 .7.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your

God reigns. Now, here's the picture that's being given there by Isaiah in that passage.

These people are sitting in a foreign land and they are wondering, has God forgotten us?

We certainly deserve it because we had worshiped false gods instead of the true God. And while they are sitting there, someone as if a watchman on the wall would look into the distance and see someone coming with an announcement.

Now, it was often said among watchmen that you could tell what kind of news was coming because of the kind of dust that the messenger would be kicking up as he came.

If there wasn't a lot of dust, then it was likely that the message that was coming was bad.

And the messenger is not in a hurry to come and deliver it. And so the dust behind him as he is coming to deliver that message is kind of still.

So the watchman up there on the wall seeing the messenger coming would already know before he arrives, looks like bad news.

But, if that messenger is coming in haste and he is kicking up a storm and there's a big cloud of dust behind him, that was a pretty good indication the news that is coming to us is good.

And he can't wait to get there to deliver it. And so the watchman will announce, here comes the messenger.

It looks like good news. And what would be said about that messenger who is coming?

How beautiful are those feet that are coming to announce peace.

Good news of happiness. Who publishes salvation.

Who says to Zion, the city of God, this reminder, your

God reigns. And Paul takes that passage in Isaiah 52 and brings it into this letter that he is giving to the

Romans and saying, beautiful are those feet of anybody, of anyone who brings the good news.

Who preaches salvation to those who are lost. To those who are perishing.

As we've been reading through Romans chapter 10, we've been hearing about how the Jews have not believed.

Though the message of the gospel has been given to them and yet they rejected it. And yet it's from this lesson that we're learning from the

Jews, that we're also hearing about how everyone needs to hear the message of the gospel. And so Paul says there, how will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

How is someone to preach unless they are sent? And how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

And why is it necessary for there to be preachers going out preaching the good news?

Because as Paul says in verse 17, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

That is going to be the main point of our message today. That faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

That we have come to know the Savior because we heard the word of Christ and believed it.

And so likewise, we need to know that word and share it with others, so others will come to faith in Jesus Christ and be saved.

As we look on this passage today, I've split this up as usual into three parts.

And we have, first of all, in the first half of verse 14, we come to understand that preaching is necessary.

With these questions that Paul asks here in the early portion of verse 14.

Part two is the last question in verse 14 and going into verse 15. And through these questions, we understand that people are needed.

Preaching is necessary and people are needed to do the preaching that is necessary.

And then finally, we have in verses 16 and 17, that this proclamation of the good news that is needed brings about new life.

The proclamation brings new life. It has the power to change, the power to save.

So once again, as we look at this passage together, we'll hear that preaching is necessary, number one.

People are needed, number two. And proclamation brings new life, number three.

And built into these three points are also the application that we will consider, which I will bring to your attention at the end.

But through this, we understand faith comes from hearing. The saving faith that is needed comes from hearing the word of Christ.

And so it must be proclaimed. And we need people to proclaim it. Verse 14, once again.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Let's just focus on those first two questions for now.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

Now remember, this is in the context of Israel does not believe. There are people that have certainly asked,

How is it that Israel, who has been the chosen people of God, they've not come to faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, and they're going to perish? Paul has been arguing here from the end of chapter 9 and into chapter 10 that their unbelief is a willing unbelief.

They choose to not believe. It is because that is in their hearts. To not believe

God and what he has said in his word. Remember that we read previously at the beginning of chapter 10, they are attempting to gain the kingdom through their own righteousness.

Instead of the righteousness of God. And this righteousness that we need is a righteousness that comes only by faith.

The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained it. That is a righteousness that is by faith.

But Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law.

So they do not have the righteousness that is necessary for eternal life. For entering into the kingdom of God.

It is a righteousness that comes only by faith. Israel has failed to attain it.

Because in their hearts, their desire was not God. Their desire was themselves. They desired their own way of doing things.

Instead of believing what God has said in his word. This is why they did not recognize that Jesus is the

Christ. Because they had not been hearing God in his word.

And instead pursuing their own religious cause. And their own religion was not sufficient to save.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? They, in this verse, in verse 14, is

Israel. The direct context here, when Paul asks this question, is Israel. How will they, the

Israelites, call on him in whom they have not believed? And later on,

Paul will say, in verse 18, we have a question that we will get to. We will study this portion next week.

But Paul is saying, I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have. So Israel does not have any excuse to say, well we had not heard the gospel anyway.

No, they have heard it. In fact, they are the first to hear it. Because remember, Jesus said to his disciples, the commission as it is given in Acts 1 -8.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So where is the first place the apostles go to preach the gospel? They go to Zion. The very city that is being addressed in Isaiah 52.

They go to Jerusalem, announce the gospel there at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. We read about how thousands of people came to faith in Jesus Christ that first time the gospel is preached.

3 ,000 souls on that first day. And then as the chapters of Acts continue, there are many thousands more that get added.

We have this huge church of thousands of people that are gathered there in Solomon's portico in the temple to hear the apostles preach.

It's a pretty amazing thing in the work that the Holy Spirit is doing. But understand there were over 100 ,000

Jews in Jerusalem. So even though many thousands do come to faith, and it's a great revival when the gospel is first preached for the first time.

Yet there are many thousands who heard it and rejected it. The chief priests, the scribes, all of them who would persecute the prophets.

Because they did not like that they were saying the way of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Jews were insistent it's the law of Moses. We have to do the law. But unrecognizing their inability to keep the law.

And that only Jesus had kept the law perfectly. Yet the righteous one who came to them, it was sent by God.

They put him to death. Just as they had done to the prophets who were sent by God before him.

I've been reading through Acts chapter 7 on the podcast. Just finished Acts 7 this past Wednesday.

But it's there that we read of the speech of Stephen. Stephen who was the first martyr in the church.

And he was a deacon. God bless you deacons. But the first martyr was a deacon of the church.

And he's brought before the Sanhedrin after he had been proclaiming the gospel and performing many miracles.

They hated the message that he was preaching. So they bring him there to accuse him of blaspheming

God and the law of Moses. But what Stephen demonstrates there in his speech is it's actually he who is keeping the word of God.

It's he who is upholding the law of Moses. These people who claim that they're doing it do not.

They ignore the word. And continue to make the same errors that their fathers before them did.

They who had persecuted the prophets rejecting the word of God instead of hearing it and believing it.

So they have heard. They have heard from the Old Testament scriptures.

Remember we read back in Romans 3. They were the first to receive the oracles of God. The message of the gospel is announced even in the

Old Testament. Before Christ comes and fulfills everything that had been prophesied.

So they had heard the gospel. They had heard the message of the Lord Jesus Christ who had come. Who had died and risen again.

But they did not believe it. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? So the direct application here is with regards to Israel.

But as the argument plays out it also applies to the nations. How will anybody? How does anybody call on him in whom they have not believed?

Call on him in what way? Remember the last verse that we read last week in Romans 10 .13.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That was a quote from the Old Testament.

And calling on the Lord in what way? Save me. Wretched man that I am.

Paul said in Romans 7. Who will save me from this body of death? Or the tax collector that Jesus talked about who went into the temple.

Who beat his breast, would not even lift his eyes to heaven and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

And whoever in such ways calls on God will be saved.

Now we also recognize that Romans 10 comes after Romans 9.

That's not the deepest theological thought I will give you today. But surely you recognize chapter 10 comes after chapter 9.

Those who call on God were first called by God. And that effectual calling of God upon the heart is recognized in the person who with their mouth confesses that Jesus is

Lord. Just as we read last week in verses 9 and 10. The person who calls out to God has been called by God.

And that effectual calling of the Holy Spirit on their hearts has wrought in them an understanding of their sin and the consequence of that sin which is judgment.

And the solution to that problem is Christ. And so they call upon the

Lord, save me. And they call on him because they believe that only he can.

The one who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord. But how do they know to call on him in whom they have not believed? And this goes back to what

Paul had said in verse 10. With the heart one believes and is justified. And with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

So if you were kind of questioning there in verse 9 where he says 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. Well, which one of those comes first? Do we believe first and then we confess?

Of course. Of course that's the order in which it comes. And so Paul says in verse 14, then how do they call on him in whom they have not believed?

He puts the order right front and center right there. You believe first.

You can't call unless you have faith. There are people who may say many

Christian things, but they don't really believe it in their heart. It's just performative. They might say it with their mouths.

As Jesus said to the Pharisees, Isaiah said of you, false teachers, they acknowledge me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

So both must go hand in hand. It can't just simply be reciting an incantation, some sort of magic words, and then poof,

I'm saved. No, there must be a genuine, heartfelt desire for God in the interior part of that person who calls out.

It comes from the inside out. They call on him whom they believe in. How will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

The next question that follows from that, how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? So if they must believe and confess with the mouth, then ultimately what must happen first?

They must be told. They must hear even of their sin and their need for a savior.

There was a preacher who was on a podcast not long ago. I was listening to this exchange that he had with the host of the podcast.

It was very evident that the host of the podcast was not a believer. I mean, he would make statements throughout the podcast about, you know,

Christ is Lord and that this needs to be a nation, one nation under God.

He would make statements like that, but you could tell by other things that he said he did not really have a transformed heart that truly believed in God.

Plenty of other behaviors and habits in his life that he loved, sin that he clung onto, and he didn't really understand that sin would eventually be his judgment if he did not repent.

So recited a lot of words, didn't really believe them. That preacher at one point reminded him of what the gospel was, but what the preacher shared was really kind of a textbook definition of penal substitutionary atonement.

I'm not going to go into the long explanation of that now, but that was basically the answer the preacher gave to him of that.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He, as our substitute, we deserve to die, but Christ took it upon himself instead.

And that is the message of the gospel. Now, all of that was true. But what was missing in that exchange, there was nothing on the part of the preacher to say to this man, and you must repent of your sin and believe in what

I just told you, or you will perish under the judgment of God. There was nothing like that in the message.

All it was was just sharing information, but there wasn't anything in that sharing that was imperative upon the other person.

Like it's more than just saying Christ is Lord. That's true. That's good.

Thank you for repeating that statement. But you actually have to believe it. And Christ, as Lord, you understand that he is also your judge.

And whose righteousness are you going to be judged by on the day of judgment when we stand before God?

Will you be judged on your righteousness? Remember, the Jews are trying that and they're not going to succeed.

Or will you be judged according to Christ's righteousness, which has been imputed to the person who believes by faith?

There is an imperative to repent and believe in the gospel.

I'll get to that again here in just a moment. It's more than just sharing information, but that there actually must be a call to respond to it.

Again, this first point here, as we're looking at verse 14, in these first two questions of verse 14, the point here is that preaching is necessary.

You've probably heard this quote from St. Francis of Assisi.

Preach the gospel, if necessary use words. You ever heard that said before?

Two problems with that quote. Number one, St. Francis of Assisi never said it. There's actually no record that he ever said this.

This was a real popular quote when I was growing up in a Christian culture in the 90s.

I even went to a whole conference that was built around this quote.

Not a verse from the Bible, but this quote from St. Francis of Assisi. There was even a gospel music album that came out in 1998 that was inspired by that quote from St.

Francis of Assisi. And he never said it. Somebody came up with it and wanted to give some weight to it, so they just grabbed

St. Francis' name and stuck it on there and said, well, St. Francis said it, so it must be important.

But he never said it. There's no record in any of St. Francis' teachings, writings, that he ever made such a quote.

That's the first problem with the quote. It's not even St. Francis'. Second problem with the quote, words are necessary, so preach them.

Preach the gospel, if necessary use words. I mean, I understand the point. Your actions need to match with the gospel that you claim that you believe in.

If you claim that you're a follower of Jesus Christ, then you must demonstrate with your life that you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

But your actions are not the gospel. They are the effect of the gospel. Some of you are surely aware that there was another attempt on the president's life last night at the

White House Correspondents Dinner. When I heard about it, I pulled it up on social media, and I'm just seeing video after video that people are posting of all of the commotion that was going on in the

Correspondents Dinner secret service agents with guns, they're looking for the guy, you hear pops in the background and all this kind of thing, but you don't know what's going on.

How do you know what's happening? Somebody has to tell you.

You don't turn on the news and just look at whatever is happening, going, I think that the stock market's down, right?

I can't really quite tell, but maybe that's what's going on. We don't try to discern news by just simply observing everybody's actions.

When you turn on the nightly news, if those of you still do that, or you watch a YouTube video,

I don't know, how are people catching their news most of the time anymore? Not as much by cable and newspaper as it used to be.

But whenever you turn on the news, you don't sit there and watch the person who's supposed to be delivering the news to you mime it with charades to communicate to you the news.

They tell you the news. They open their mouths and they tell you what's going on in the world.

And that's how the message of the gospel needs to be shared. Not by your actions.

Though your actions may affirm to a person who's watching you that you really believe what it is that you say.

But the message of the gospel must be announced. It must be spoken.

There must be words. Preach the gospel if necessary. It's necessary.

So use words. The preaching is necessary. How will they believe in him of whom they have never heard?

Part two is people are needed. We need people to share the message of the gospel.

And that's in the last question of verse 14 and going into verse 15. How are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Now let's look at the first question first.

How are they to hear without someone preaching? A lot of times when it comes to sharing the message of the gospel, we tend to have this idea that that needs to be done by great preachers.

And certainly there's a need for great preachers. It is hard to ignore the impact of people in history and the great preaching that they have done.

There's a movie out in theaters right now about George Whitefield. And all of the things that he did in helping to shape the founding of the

United States of America just by preaching, preaching the gospel. That movie is called

The Great Awakening. I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard it's great. For those of you who have seen it, let me know your good review afterward.

George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards are two great preachers during the first Great Awakening that are often attributed with helping to shape the moral mind of the culture when the

United States of America was being founded. And it was just through preaching the gospel.

They weren't preaching politics. They weren't telling everybody, well, we've got this great constitution that everybody's going to sign.

It wasn't like that. It was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And even the message of the gospel helped to form the hearts of the people that would be at the beginning of this nation, a nation that was founded most principally upon a desire to want to hear the word of God preached.

Those first pilgrims that came over to this land from Europe came here because they were trying to escape the tyranny.

That was upon those who wanted to worship God freely according to what the

Bible says. Preaching has had some amazing impact. So there is a need for great preachers.

And every once in a while, we see God raise up incredible preachers in our culture and in our time.

Billy Graham is one that often gets cited because of just how incredible and immense his evangelistic ministry was.

Even my son and I, when we were pulling into the parking spot this morning to unload the trailer, as we were coming in, it was

Billy Graham that came on the air. His stuff is still going out. It's still being broadcast. And by some estimates, by the time that he died, he may have preached the gospel to a billion people.

And that's God who in his timing may set people in those times and places to proclaim the gospel. Great preachers are certainly needed.

But there are also a need for preachers who are just going to sit and talk with a person one -on -one and share the gospel with them that way.

And that's preaching too. And there are people that you are going to interact with that I may never actually meet.

And it's perfectly okay if, like in the spirit of Andrew, Peter's brother, you're talking with a person and you're saying to yourself,

I don't know how to answer this question, but my pastor does. And you want to bring them to church to come talk to me? That's great too.

That's perfectly fine. And I've shared the gospel with people many times in that way, because somebody didn't know,

I don't know how to answer this question, but I know somebody who could maybe answer these questions for you. And if I don't know,

I'll tell you to go talk to Alan. But there are people that you will interact with and share the gospel with them in a way that I may never have that opportunity with that person.

Parents, the gospel you're teaching to your children, you're preaching the good news.

It may not be behind a podium. It may not be in front of an audience. It may not be with a big podcast ministry.

But just sitting around the dinner table and opening up the Bible and reading it together and helping your kids understand their own sin and their own need for a savior.

Whenever you have to discipline your kids, and you may go through a lesson with your child and saying to your child, you've sinned, but first you've sinned before God before you've sinned against me.

And then using that discipline moment to tell them about the Savior who saves.

And all of these moments and sharing with them the gospel of Christ with your kids will eventually lead to a day,

God willing, their hearts are penetrated by the truth that you've continued to share with them and plant and sow in them for years.

And finally, by the blessing of the Spirit, it registers. And they come to know the truth and are saved because of your preaching.

Because of the good news that you announced to your child, even through a loving conversation.

People you may minister to in a hospital, in a nursing home, in your neighborhood, friends, family, co -workers, out in the public, open -air preaching, or sitting down at a coffee shop, over a cup of joe, and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

These are all manners and forms of preaching that needs to happen.

And we need people to preach. How are they to hear without someone preaching?

But then verse 15 really does kind of look into the scope of preachers in front of large crowds or even missionaries that go abroad.

Verse 15, how are they to preach unless they are sent? So we need churches also who are behind people who are missionaries, who will go into other parts of the world.

Now, mission work can happen right here in Casa Grande. It can happen in Arizona. It can happen in the

United States of America. Believe it or not, there are even missionaries that are being sent to the United States from other parts of the world.

I've met them. We often think about, well, Africa.

Africa needs missionaries. Sure, we can send missionaries there. But when I told you I've met missionaries that have even come to the

United States, the missionaries I've met came from Africa. They came to the United States to share the gospel and plant churches and make disciples of all nations.

So it may be going into another part of the world. But whatever it might happen to be, it's that preaching is needed.

Preaching is still needed. And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

And so we come to that verse, as I started with in the beginning, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

What a person who would commit themselves to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with somebody else.

And their feet are beautiful who come to announce the gospel of peace. There can be peace between you and God.

The judgment of God is satisfied by Jesus Christ who died on the cross for you, who rose again from the dead.

And all who believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Those who are not in Christ are under the wrath and judgment of God.

But if you believe in Jesus, His wrath is satisfied. We're quoting here from Isaiah 52.

It's the very next chapter, Isaiah 53, that we read of the suffering servant, that prophecy concerning Jesus Christ.

He who was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed.

The world needs to hear this. As I said to you at the start, that quote from Henry Greenwood, there's all kinds of messages that are coming from the world.

The devil saying, come unto me, but I will destroy you. The world saying, follow me, but I will deceive you. The flesh saying, follow me, but I will fail you.

It is only Christ who says, come unto me, and I will deliver. And that's ultimately what the word salvation means.

To be saved is to be delivered. To be delivered from the hand of God into the hand of God.

That He whose wrath burns against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, as we read about in Romans 1 to 18, for those who are in Christ Jesus, His love is poured out upon us.

Paul goes on in verse 16 to say, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. This is part three now, the proclamation that brings new life.

We've heard of preaching that is necessary, people that are needed, but then finally remembering, recognizing that this proclamation of the gospel brings new life.

Verse 16, they have not all obeyed the gospel. Everyone who has heard it has not obeyed, and particularly as this pertains to Israel.

Not all in Israel have obeyed the gospel. Now what is this about obedience? Because as you've heard me say, as you've heard from Paul, as we've been going through the book of Romans, you are not saved by your works.

You're saved by grace through faith. Romans 4, 5, to him who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

So what is this about obeying the gospel? I didn't know we had to obey anything in order to be saved.

My friends, obedience to the gospel comes in this way. Repent and believe. That's obeying the gospel.

That's exactly the way Jesus presented it at the very beginning of His ministry. Mark 1, 15, the time has come.

The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.

That's the obedience to the gospel. As I said to you a moment ago, the gospel is not just merely information.

It does demand a response. It can't just merely be walking away from it going, well, that was a lovely story,

God sending His Son and dying for us. That's great to hear. No, you must believe it.

And you must turn from your sin, from your unbelief, your doubts, your rebellion against God, and your heart must now be a desire for His Son, knowing that Jesus is

Lord. He is God. That is behind the very statement that Paul had made in verse 10 with, excuse me, verse 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord. It's knowing His deity, knowing that He is God incarnate who came in flesh to keep the law perfectly in obedience to the

Father, to die on the cross for our sins and rise again as an atoning sacrifice.

The heart that hears and believes that obeys the call and turns from sin and calls upon the name of the

Lord and will be saved. For Isaiah says, Lord who has believed what

He has heard from us. A quote that comes from Isaiah 53 .1.

That's the very next part of Paul's quote from Isaiah.

Quoting from Isaiah 52. And then the next quote comes from the first verse of the next chapter. Lord who has believed what

He has heard from us. And then stating in verse 17, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

The very faith that we need that saves comes from hearing the message of the gospel.

And that message of the gospel is the word of Christ. And it's only by faith in this that we are saved.

So we understand the preaching is necessary. Preach the gospel always.

If necessary, use words. It's necessary, so use words. Secondly, we understand people are needed.

Remember Jesus said to His disciples, the fields are white for harvest. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

And we need more people sharing the gospel so that those whom God would call to Himself through the message of the gospel would be saved.

People are needed. But then we come to this understanding that preaching the gospel has guaranteed results.

And we heard that in Romans chapter 9. That God will have mercy on whom He has mercy.

He will have compassion on whom He has compassion. God hardens whom He wills, and He calls to Himself.

He has mercy on whomever He wills. And so we know that the message of the gospel has guaranteed results.

Proclamation brings new life. They who were previously dead are raised to life in Christ because they heard the gospel and believed it.

And this is the valley of dry bones that Ezekiel sees when

God tells him to proclaim to these dry bones. And they stand up, and sinews come upon them, and then he preaches, and the breath comes into them, and they are alive.

This is like a picture of what happens with the gospel. The gospel of Christ is proclaimed, and those who are dead are brought to life when they have faith and believe.

The proclamation actually brings souls to life, actually rescues people from hell.

As said in Jude, snatch those who are going to the flames, and we do that through the preaching of the gospel.

And who knows, my friends, what kind of an impact you're making on someone's life for eternity because you shared the gospel with them.

Let me finish with this story. There was a young man, 15 years old, went to a chapel in the middle of a snowstorm.

The snowstorm was so bad that even the preacher didn't show up that day. There was about a handful of people in the room, and that was about it.

Well, because the preacher's not there, somebody's got to do something. So this guy gets up behind the pulpit to preach, and he could have been a cobbler or like a shoemaker or something like that.

He was not a preacher by profession. But he opens up the

Bible, and he begins preaching from Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am

God, and there is no one else. Now, this man was not a gifted preacher, and he had not prepared a sermon, so he really kind of bobbled around with that verse a little bit, trying to make a greater emphasis out of it and preach a sermon that he had not readied himself for.

So he kept putting emphases on different words. Look unto me, and be ye saved.

Look unto me, and be ye saved. Look unto me, and be ye saved.

This was the way that he would continue on and on with this passage. But at one point, he looks at this 15 -year -old boy who just stumbled in in the midst of this snowstorm and points at him and says,

Young man, you look miserable. Look to Christ, and be saved.

And here is what that young man wrote about that very experience. When I heard that word,

Look, what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away.

There and then, the cloud was gone. The darkness had rolled away. And that moment,

I saw the sun. And I could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith which looks alone to Him.

Oh, that somebody had told me this before. Trust Christ, and you will be saved. Yet it was no doubt all wisely ordered.

And now I can say, Ever since by faith I saw the stream.

Thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

Some of you know exactly who this young man was. Who was it? Charles Spurgeon.

One of the greatest preachers in history.

And this is how he came to hear the gospel. In the middle of a snowstorm. A man who was not a professional preacher.

Who just kept repeating over and over again, Look unto me and be ye saved.

And Spurgeon looked at Christ. And was saved. And I remember the first time

I heard that story. I sat there in my pew with my head down and just laughed.

I laughed. I was with my dad. And he asked me afterward, he was like,

Why was that story so funny to you? I said, because whoever that nameless preacher was,

I'm sure when he died and got to heaven, he was really, really surprised at the results of that sermon.

You may not preach to a thousand people. But you can preach to one.

And who knows how many that one will go and share the gospel with. The effects of it will be eternally reaching, brethren.

Because that is the power of God unto salvation. For all who believe the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ by faith.

And faith comes from hearing. And hearing through the word of Christ.

You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. A presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

For more information about our church, visit our website at ProvidenceCasaGrande .com On behalf of our church family, my name is

Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again Monday for more Bible study. When we understand the text.