WWUTT 1312 Faith Comes from Hearing (Romans 10:15-17)

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Romans 1017 says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

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We come to salvation when we hear the word of Christ and we believe it. So why aren't more churches preaching it when we understand the text?

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This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you Becky. We come back to our study in the book of Romans, and we are in chapter 10.

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I'm going to begin reading here in verse 14, and we'll read through to verse 21. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

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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?

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And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

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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,

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Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

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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.

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But I ask, did Isaiah not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation.

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With a foolish nation I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold to say,

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I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.

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But of Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.

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We have a number of citations here that come from the prophet Isaiah, but first of all we have this reference to Isaiah chapter 52, and it's this statement in verse 15.

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We finished the study yesterday by reading this, and I said I wanted to come back to it again today.

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Verse 15, 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.

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And again this comes from Isaiah 52, and I'm going to start reading at the start of Isaiah 52.

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1. Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion. Put on your beautiful garments,

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O Jerusalem, the holy city. For there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.

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Shake yourself from the dust and arise. Be seated, O Jerusalem, loose the bonds from your neck,

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O captive daughter of Zion. Isaiah is prophesying here salvation that will come to Israel, though they are being punished because of their sin against God and being exiled to a foreign nation.

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And foreign nations having invaded them. Hence the statement for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come into you.

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Speaking to Jerusalem, they were invaded by by heathens. And God is promising them that salvation will come.

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Verse three. For thus says the Lord, you were sold for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money.

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For thus says the Lord God, my people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there and the

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Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. Now therefore, what have I here, declares the

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Lord, seeing that my people are taken away for nothing. Their rulers wail, declares the

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Lord, and continually all the day my name is despised. Therefore my people shall know my name.

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Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak. Here I am.

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And now verse seven. 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

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God reigns. Think about the despair that the people of Israel must have been in after sinning against God and he withdraws his presence from them, allows their enemies to come in and take them to literally take them, take them out of their land, take them out of their city and exile them to a land that they did not know.

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And surely the children of Israel in that place would have been asking themselves, what have we done?

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We did not worship God. He gave us so much. He rescued us from slavery and we forgot our savior.

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He gave us a land flowing with milk and honey and we forgot the God who blesses us, who shows us grace and mercy.

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We turned our attention to false gods and gave our worship to inanimate things that were made by our own hands.

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We we went after the passions of our flesh instead of living lives of holiness.

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God's presence has been taken from us and we deserve so much worse than this.

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And yet through the prophets, God assured them that they would not be destroyed in this land to which they had been exiled, but they would have the opportunity to return.

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So this prophecy here in Isaiah 52 is regarding the Lord's coming salvation.

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And this for us is even a picture of salvation that is going to come from Christ, because ultimately

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Israel's salvation is not the fact that they were released from exile and given their land back.

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Ultimately, salvation is by faith in Jesus. That's what we've been reading throughout

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Romans. So this this being sent into exile and this being drawn out from exile is yet another picture of how

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Christ rescues us. He rescues us from ourselves. The things that we have done that are deserving of death, of the judgment of God, Christ saves us from that judgment that we deserve.

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He saves us from God in his holiness, the judgment that would be poured out upon us and Christ clothes us in righteousness.

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So instead of being the objects of God's wrath, we become the objects of his love and his mercy. We can now dwell forever with God, not not in a strange land, not in a wilderness, not in exile apart from God.

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We dwell with God. We are in his presence now. Those who are followers of Jesus and filled with the

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Holy Spirit and we have the promise of eternal life forevermore, not here on this earth, but a heavenly kingdom that has been promised to us, even even as it says in the scriptures of the

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Old Testament, faithful, they were not looking for an earthly land or they would have had the opportunity to go there, the opportunity to return to that land that God had promised them.

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But they sought a heavenly kingdom. And so we, following their example, also desire that place where God is, that we may dwell with him forever in glory.

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And God, in his grace and his mercy toward us, sent someone to us to preach the message of this kingdom so that we might hear the good news and be saved from the judgment that is to come and be given an inheritance that we do not deserve, but we receive by the mercy and grace of God.

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The good news of this gospel message that was delivered to us by the providence of God, arranging for us how we might hear the message of Christ and so turn from our sin and believe in him and how beautiful the feet of those that God is commissioned to take the gospel of Christ to others so that we may hear and be saved.

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And this is the statement that Paul makes here, referring back to Isaiah, just as the news of God reigning in Zion was good news to the ears of the

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Israelites. So it is so good for us to hear that God reigns and that he loves us and that he is delivering us from ourselves, from our sin, from this world, from the judgment of God and delivering us into a kingdom where we will dwell with him forever.

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And how wonderful that person who comes and brings us that news, how beautiful that person is to our ears, in our sight, that we hear of the forgiveness of sins and life forever more with God in his glory.

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How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

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You know, one of the best sermons that I've heard on this verse, on this phrase, is from R .C.

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Sproul. And I want to play a segment of that for you here. It's one of the reasons why yesterday I said I wanted to come back to this verse, because I really wanted to play this clip from R .C.

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Here he is talking about the beautiful feet of those who preach the gospel.

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As it is written, this is the end of verse 15 of chapter 10, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.

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This Old Testament text, which is abbreviated here, how beautiful on the mountain are the feet of him who brings good tidings and who publishes peace.

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I remember when I was in grade school hearing about the great wars of the Greeks of the ancient world, the three wars, the war at the pass with Thermopylae, and the war on the sea at Salamis, and then there was a third war, and it was the war at Marathon, the battle on the plain.

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And why was it called, or why are marathons today called marathons?

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Because after the battle on the plain, and the Athenians were victorious, the custom in those days was not to send word back by CNN live on television.

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The whole city would be waiting for the outcome of the battle and would want to know whether their forces were conquered or whether they were victorious.

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And so a messenger was dispatched from the battle scene, and that messenger would run all the way to the city to announce the outcome of the battle.

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And in this case, the battle on the plain was so many miles away from Athens that the runner had to run such a long distance, and he did it without stopping, that we've borrowed the name

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Marathon from that battle. A marathon runner now has to run, what, 26 miles or something like that.

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But in any case, the city on their walls would post sentinels, lookouts, who would watch in the distance for the approach of a runner.

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And before they could see the look on the runner's face, they could tell by his footfall in the distance whether he was bringing good news or bad news.

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You've seen the pace of a dejected person, the bearer of bad news, does not have his feet flying in great joy.

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But when the marathon runner approached the city gates, from the distance you could see his feet kicking up the dust, and you could tell just by the action of his feet that the news was good news.

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And Isaiah borrows that imagery because the same kind of task of bearing news by messengers was the custom in the

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Old Testament. And Isaiah says, how beautiful on the mountain are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publish peace.

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I became a Christian in 1957 when a college, an upper class college football player sat me down at the table and explained the identity of Christ to me.

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And that night changed my life forever. That same person became my best man in my wedding.

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I will be eternally grateful for the ministry that individual had in my life.

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To me, his feet are beautiful. He took the time to tell me of Christ.

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Now, I certainly understand theologically that God could have used someone else to bring me to saving faith.

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He didn't need to use the testimony of my friend. And I know that ultimately

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I owe my salvation not to my friend, but to God, because salvation is of the

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Lord. And yet, on this earthly plane, on the horizontal plane, in this arena of human activity,

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I have profound affection and profound gratitude for those who are being used of God as his instruments of evangelism.

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What a privilege to be used of God to bring another person to Christ.

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If you are a Christian, I'd like to ask you today to think about the person or the people in your life whom

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God has used to bring you to Christ, or to help you grow in your faith.

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Think about them. Write their names down. Pray for them. And really, it might be a nice thing for you to take the time today to write them a little note and say thank you, because lots of times we don't even know that God has used us that way in other people's lives.

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Because my ministry is public, I'm on the radio, and I speak publicly, and write books and all of that sort of thing,

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I get hundreds and hundreds of letters like that. And sometimes people will come up to me and say,

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I know you hear this, and I don't want to bore you, but, and I say, look, I can't hear that enough.

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It gets so discouraging in the ministry. Your pastor is probably one of the most discouraged, beaten down persons in the whole world.

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Those people need to hear your encouragement. So today, let me ask you to write your thank you notes to those people who in your life have been used of God to open your eyes to the riches of Christ.

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Not only great teaching there from Dr. R .C. Sproul, but some good application as well.

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Share with those who have shared with you. So you may share together in rejoicing in the goodness of God, how he used this person in your life to bring you the message of salvation.

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We go on in verse 16 to read, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. And then we have another citation from Isaiah.

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It's interesting that Paul words that they have not all obeyed the gospel. I didn't think the gospel was something that you were supposed to obey.

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The gospel is just good news. So it's just a proclamation of something, but we don't obey it because our salvation did not come by our works.

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It came by the goodness and mercy of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. So what does this mean here that we obey the gospel?

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Would we not be saying that therefore we are saved by obedience and not saved by faith?

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Well, my friends, the gospel is a message, but it is also a message that demands a response.

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You don't just hear the news and just sit there and go, oh, well, well, that was wonderful. No, if you truly believe what was said to you, you will respond by obeying the call to turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ.

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That's part of the gospel. Mark 1 15, Jesus beginning his earthly ministry by saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.

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So the message is there. It demands a response. Turn from your sin. Turn to Jesus Christ.

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The apostle Paul talks about obeying the gospel also at the beginning of his second letter to the

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Thessalonians in second Thessalonians chapter one, beginning in verse seven. It says the

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Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our

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Lord Jesus. Judgment comes upon those who do not obey the gospel.

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See, the gospel is more than a declaration. It's also a call. And if they do not obey that call, they are still under the judgment of God.

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Verse nine, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

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Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

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So you believe in Jesus in an obedient response to the gospel.

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And that act of obedience demonstrates that a change, a transformation has happened in your heart by the power of God.

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You still are not saved by your own works. You are saved by the work of God that was done for you.

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And then that faith, that demonstration of faith that you have in Jesus Christ is observed in your obedience to the call to follow him.

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Part of the gospel is the call to follow Jesus. It's good news for us to hear that we can enter into the presence of God following the good shepherd.

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But not everyone who has heard this message has believed it. As Paul goes on to say, quoting from Isaiah, but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says,

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Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us. So the previous citation from Isaiah was in chapter 52.

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This reference is in Isaiah 53 one, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the

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Lord been revealed? You know, God, you know, his gospel, because it's been revealed to you the work of God opening your heart, not just to hear it, but also to believe it.

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The Lord has done this work in your heart. Who has believed what he has heard from us?

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And we have verse 17. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. And this goes back to those questions that Paul began with asking.

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

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And how are they to hear without someone preaching? The faith that we have in Jesus comes from the preaching of the gospel.

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Someone shared the gospel with us. We heard it. We believed it. And so we are saved.

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We would not have faith in Jesus if that had not been done for us. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

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That verse is always so sweet to me whenever I hear it, because I know that I am growing in my faith in God when

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I hear the word of God proclaimed. But it's also kind of bitter to me. Because at the same time that I know that I grow in my faith and that the people in my congregation grow in their faith when

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I'm preaching the word to them. At the same time, I know that there are so many churches out there claiming to be churches in the name of Jesus, but they are not preaching the word of Jesus.

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So how do those people know who he is? How do they grow in their faith?

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Hebrews 11 6 says without faith, it is impossible to please God. And we know that what we've been reading here in Romans that we are justified by faith.

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How can a person find themselves justified in the presence of God if the word of God is not proclaimed to them?

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This is why we so desperately need that love and affection for the word of Christ for it to be proclaimed in our churches, for it to be shared with the family around the dinner table, for it to be proclaimed to the lost that are out there in the world.

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If we don't know the word of Christ and we're not sharing the word of Christ, then no one else is coming to know

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Christ. We only know God through what we have in the Bible, not by sitting out in nature.

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You know a creator exists by sitting out in nature. Even the demons know

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God and they tremble, but you come to know the father, the son, the

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Holy Spirit, the work he has done, the work he is doing, the promises that he has for you and for me.

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When you read his word and you grow in holiness and righteousness, love for God and affection for brother and sister and neighbor, when you read the word of Christ and you desire to follow it, pleasing

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God according to what he has said in his word, faith comes through hearing, hearing through the word of Christ.

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So my friends, we must know and share the word of Christ. Let us pray.

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Heavenly father, I pray that this would be a conviction in our hearts that we know you.

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We desire to know you. We desire to know your word and share it with others. And we thank you and praise you for your goodness toward us.

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Because what we deserved because of our sin against you was, was death.

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We deserve eternal separation from God to be destroyed as the wicked people that we are, but it's because of your goodness that you sent your son to die for us.

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And then someone to proclaim the good news of the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. Better yet that he was even raised from the grave and that all who follow him will likewise live forever with him.

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May we be excited about this message and have wisdom to know how to share it with others so that they may know the good news of Jesus and so be saved in Jesus name.

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We pray. Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt