The Power of the Gospel (Romans 10:14-21)

Romans chapter 10 verses 14 through 21.

Romans 10:14–21

If you're able, will you please stand with us?

How then can they call on him they have not believed in?

And how can they believe without hearing about him?

And how can they hear without a preacher?

And how can they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

I promise this wasn't coordinated.

Verse 16, but not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

But I ask, did they not hear?

Yes, they did.

Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

But I ask, did Israel not understand?

First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation.

I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.

And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me.

I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.

But to Israel, he, God, says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much how you coordinate things.

Lord, I thank you so much just for this verse that's before us here this morning.

Lord, would you speak to us?

And may you find us just with open hearts and minds and eyes and ears for all that you want to accomplish inside of each one of us here this morning.

Lord, if there is a calling that you've placed on our life, a calling that you want to place on our life, I pray that you would start that knocking.

Lord, that you would start that prodding in each one of our hearts here this morning, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So last week we finished with Paul saying that salvation is available to anybody that calls on the name of the Lord.

And he outright says, it doesn't matter if you're Jewish or if you're Greek, it's all about faith in Christ and calling specifically on the name of the Lord.

And it's important for us to remember that the Jews are not happy in Rome right now with what's going on.

The Jews want special privileges.

And what it comes down to, I think, is they want things to be harder for the Gentiles to be able to have access to God.

You know, a good portion of Romans so far that we've gone through has been about exactly that.

That all have fallen short of the glory of God, and that everybody is on the same playing field.

And what this next section is about that we're in here this morning, it's about, and it's also what I hope that we walk away with today as well.

And that's an understanding of the power that lies within the gospel message.

And that we worship a God that holds out his hands, not only to the obedient, but he holds out his hands to the disobedient and to the defiant as well.

So Paul goes from verse 13, that's the passage that we ended with last week, where it says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, to verse 14, which is our first verse that we're covering here this morning, where he's going to bring up the importance of the gospel being proclaimed, of the gospel being heard.

So look at verse 14 with me.

It says, How then can they call on him they have not believed in?

And how can they believe without hearing about him?

And how can they hear without a preacher?

Basically, how can anyone be saved if they don't even believe in God?

That's the question that's being asked here.

You know, Paul's concern is so deep for his fellow Jews and for Gentiles alike.

Remember not that long ago, he said he would forfeit his own salvation if it meant his brothers and sisters would come to faith in Christ.

And so he's basically asking here, how can anyone believe in God if no one is telling them about their error?

If nobody's telling them about the Savior, if nobody's telling them specifically about their need for Jesus.

And I want to bring this in a little bit, Paul's calling specifically.

In Acts 26, verses 16 through 18, Paul recounts the words that Jesus told him while he was being called, while he had that encounter on the road to Damascus.

Acts 26:16–18

And I'll just read it to you.

These are the words of Jesus to Paul.

He said, But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.

I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles.

I am sending you to them to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

This is Paul's calling to be a preacher of the gospel.

So Jews and Gentiles alike can audibly hear the good news of all that Christ has done for them.

And Paul wants to encourage and teach everyone that he can to call upon the name of the Lord.

Look at verse 15 with me.

He goes on.

And how can they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

Can you guys just put your feet up on the chairs?

No, I'm just kidding.

Look at what beautiful feet look like.

But this is a quote that Paul has here from Isaiah chapter 52, verse 7.

Isaiah 52:7

And I'll read that verse to you.

It says, How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, another name for Jerusalem, your God reigns.

This is Paul's calling to be this herald.

Proclaiming peace with God through Jesus.

Bringing the good news of Jesus and all that he's done.

Proclaiming the salvation that Jesus is offering to everyone.

And I don't want you to miss this.

Because this just isn't Paul's calling.

As Land had already mentioned, this is part of the Great Commission.

Jesus said to his disciples, go and make disciples of every nation.

You know, we can have beautiful feet sitting right here in a Tascadero.

It doesn't matter who you are, if you're following Jesus, you have the best news that anybody has ever heard.

You have the news that if they simply confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, that they can be saved.

That is absolutely the best news that anybody could ever hear.

You know, think of how different that is from the news that we hear and see daily.

You see, we have news of peace.

We have news of hope.

We have news of a man who is also God that came to save us from this world of hopelessness, from this world of sin and of darkness.

You know, this is a big part of why we support missionaries financially, both through prayer, you know, and also financially as well.

We want to give good news in our daily life individually, but we also want to be senders of good news all over the world.

We want to support those that are purposefully going out to preach the good news of Jesus.

You know, we're a church plant here.

We had our one-year anniversary in March.

Yeah, absolutely.

One person's excited about that.

And I've mentioned this before, but since day one, 5% of everything that comes into this church is being set aside to eventually send out missionaries and church planters.

We started the savings before we even had a Sunday morning service, back when it was just home groups meeting here in Atascadero.

Right now we have about$15,000 in that account that is set aside specifically to send those out from our body to the mission field and to plant churches.

And I'm praying that God would start to prick the hearts of those that He may be calling into those future ventures.

You know, it's my prayer that we would all have beautiful feet that bring the good news right here in North County, but also send those beautiful feet outside of North County to all the people that need to hear that good news.

I wasn't sure if I was going to mention this or not, but there is a specific city, and it's outside of our county, still in California, that I've been praying for specifically.

That one day I hope, and I'm not saying this from the Lord, but I hope that we are able to send out a team to plant a church in that city.

And I'm gonna keep praying, and I want you to keep praying about it as well.

But maybe it's not to that, maybe it's to the mission field in some other way, or to plant a church somewhere else.

But I want us all to be thinking that way and praying that way of, okay, Lord, where do you want to send us?

And I'm praying that that calling starts right now for us.

Now, we transition into a section here in verse 16 that's really about Israel's rejection of the good news.

And we're going to be seeing a lot of references to the Old Testament that Paul is throwing in here.

But let's start with verse 16.

But not all obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?

This is a pattern that we see throughout the Old Testament.

And it's continuing even after the Messiah has come.

You know, God sends somebody with good news and it's rejected.

Isaiah was speaking of Christ over 700 years before Jesus even came.

In Isaiah, in the book of Isaiah, at least 20 prophecies are there specifically talking about how the Messiah would save.

He was preaching the good news.

Isaiah was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ centuries, seven centuries before Jesus even came.

And wait a minute, he was asking God the same thing that we see here in verse 16 of Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Lord, who has believed our message?

Which I'm sure Paul is relating to as he's writing this to the Romans.

You know, the only difference for Paul is that the Jews are rejecting the message, and the Messiah has already come.

These Jews had heard the gospel and they had not obeyed it for centuries at this point.

And all of this is leading to this underlying question that we've been building up to since the beginning of chapter 9, which is chapter 11, verse 1.

Isaiah 11:1

And it's basically asking the question: has God rejected Israel?

You know, since God is now including the Gentiles in this new covenant, has he now rejected his own people, Israel?

But first, Paul's going to address the power of the gospel here in verse 17.

So look at that with me.

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

So whether people hear and accept it or not, the gospel needs to keep going out.

Whether Jewish people keep rejecting it or not, they still need to hear it.

Because there is power in the gospel message.

And please hear me in this.

It's not in our cleverness, it's not in our presentation skills, it's not in our ability to argue with people.

The power comes from the gospel simply being declared.

Paul started Romans by saying in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16

People need to hear it.

And then some people need to hear it again and again and again before it finally sinks in.

I think this is not only Paul telling the church in Rome what he's going to be doing, you know, preaching the gospel.

I think this is an encouragement for them to do it as well.

And also to send people out from the church in Rome to do it in other places.

And to support those that are verbally preaching the power of God for salvation, to support those that are being sent out to do just that.

You know, there's a saying that you've probably heard before, and it's falsely attributed to St.

Francis of Assisi, but no one knows exactly where it originated.

But it says, preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.

And I get the idea of that.

You know, the idea is that your actions should preach the gospel for you.

But the problem with that saying is if people don't know where to attribute the good actions, they'll attribute it to you just being a good person.

And the power of God to salvation is not through our good actions.

Paul is saying here that faith comes from what is heard.

We need to speak the power of God to salvation.

We need to speak the good news of Jesus Christ.

And don't get me wrong, our actions better match with, that's not what I'm saying here.

But our actions don't take the place of speaking the gospel.

If people know that we're followers of Christ, they better see actions that support our words.

And I'm not talking about being perfect because we obviously can't do that, but actions that show them that we're trying to be more like Christ every day.

Actions that show them how we maintain hope even in the midst of hard things, even in the midst of trials.

Actions that show the love of Christ toward them directly.

You know, showing grace and mercy and compassion just like Jesus.

But never depending upon those things to take the place of the gospel being spoken to them.

Now, as Paul goes into verse 18, it seems like he's going to answer the question that he thinks his audience might be thinking at this point.

And it's a question we hear often.

You know, what about those that die before they hear the gospel?

You know, and that's a fair question.

And this next section is Paul pulling together a lot of these Old Testament verses that we're going to be looking at one at a time here.

And this next one, verse 18, is going to address that specifically.

It says, But I ask, did they not hear?

Yes, they did.

Their voice has gone out to the whole earth and their words to the ends of the world.

So what on earth is Paul talking about here?

Well, this is a uh, he's quoting from Psalm 19.4.

And if you read Psalm 19.4 in this context, it's in regards to the expanse of the heavens declaring the glory of God.

And if you've been with us since chapter 1 of Romans, that should jog your memory, because Romans 1.20 says, for his, referring to God, for God's invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made.

As a result, people are without excuse.

For they, for though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude.

God's creation leaves people without excuse.

And everyone has witnessed the wonder of God if you are living and breathing.

And all of this is not to mention that the verbal gospel had reached pretty much the whole Roman world at this point when Paul is writing this.

So the point being, not a single person is without excuse, even if they don't hear it.

But that doesn't mean we stop preaching it.

We don't tell people, oh, you need Jesus, go look at the stars.

You know, it's like, no, we give them the gospel out loud.

We preach it to them so that no one will be able to say, you know, I never had the opportunity.

That's kind of the point of this.

Even if they don't hear it, they can still see God and know God through what God has created.

But we need to release the power of the gospel whenever we possibly can through our mouths.

That's the point of what he's saying.

Verse 19.

But I ask, did Israel not understand?

First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation.

I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.

Deuteronomy chapter 32, 21 is where this is coming from.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

And it's a prophecy of exactly what the Jews are going through right now in Rome.

They're jealous of the Gentiles because they now have access to God.

They're now on the same playing field as the Jews are.

And the Jews are mad about it.

Because they're thinking, you know, they didn't come from Abraham.

They didn't have the law and the prophets, they didn't have the tabernacle and the temple service.

And now are looking down that they've looked down on for so long.

Those Gentiles that the Jews had looked down on for so long now have equal access to God, and they're getting jealous.

But God's going to use that, and we'll see that next week in Romans 11.

But first, notice in verse 19, it says, Moses said.

Now look at verse 20.

Now it says, and Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who are not looking for me.

I revealed myself to those who are not asking for me.

Again, this is referring to the Gentiles.

And this is also from the Old Testament, from Isaiah 65, 1.

So note that verse 19 says, Moses said, verse 20, Isaiah says, and now in verse 21, but to Israel, he, God, says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.

Ouch! This is God speaking directly to Israel.

Again, quoting from Isaiah 65, verse 2 this time.

Isaiah 65:2

You see, it wasn't as if God was indifferent towards Israel through all these years.

God pursued them and he showed them what the definition of long suffering is.

And then he says, I have held out my hands to you.

Think of the implications of that statement.

You know, that's a father's heart, isn't it?

I have held out my hands to you.

We worship a God that holds out his hands.

Even to those, it says right here, that are disobedient and defiant.

Think of his heart for those that are obedient to him.

If that's what his heart is towards those that are disobedient.

We have a father that wants to hold us closely.

You know, as a father, when my kids were little, the best thing was coming home from work and them coming running up to me with their arms open, and I would put my arms out and I'd scoop them up, you know, and snuggle them and hug them and kiss them.

That was the best.

But it was never like this.

Could you imagine if I get home and the kid comes running up and his arms out, hold on.

I need to talk to your mother and see how you did today.

And then if you were good, then I'll hug you.

And if you weren't, no hugs today.

That'd be horrible, wouldn't it?

And I never did that, just so you know, okay, I never did that.

Because there's nothing that they could have done while I was away at work that would make me love them any less.

And even if they were disobedient and defiant, I knew we could work through it and that we were going to be okay in the end.

That's God's heart.

Where he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.

That's the definition of God loving unconditionally.

God is so long suffering.

Just read through the Old Testament and you'll just see it over and over and over again how long suffering God is.

The Old Testament is filled with second chances, it's filled with forgiveness and God's grace.

And his mercy.

And God accepting those back that repented and accepting them back with open arms.

God was continually pursuing the rebellious.

And he still is today.

You know, I'd like everybody to turn to Luke chapter 15, 11.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Keep one finger in Romans because we're going to come back.

But turn to Luke 15, chapter 11.

It's three books to the left in your Bible.

Because we're going to go back.

Keep your finger in Romans because we're going to go back to that and steal one verse from next week's sermon.

But turn to Luke 15, starting in verse 11.

We're going to read the story of the prodigal son.

And as we read it, I want you to notice the posture of the Father throughout this whole story.

Luke 15, 11.

He also said, this is Jesus speaking, a man had two sons.

The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.

So he distributed the assets to them.

Not many days later the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living.

After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.

Then he went to work for one of the citizens of the country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

He longed to eat his fill from the pods of the that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food?

And here I am dying of hunger.

I'll get up, go to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like one of your hired workers.

So he got up and went to his father, but while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.

He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.

The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father told his servants, Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let's celebrate with a feast.

Because this son of mine was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

So they began to celebrate.

Now his older son was in the field.

As he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant.

Your brother is here, he told him, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.

Then he came angry and didn't want to go in.

So his father came out and pleaded with him.

But he replied to his father, Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.

Son, he said to him, You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

So let's look at that progression there.

The youngest son's heart is hardened and decides the life that his father is providing is not what is best for him.

His father's been holding back all the fun things from him his whole life.

He's been making him work, as the older brother said, slave for his father.

And when he tells his dad that he wants his inheritance now, the father gives him his heart's desire.

He gives him over to his lusts and his passions.

So the son goes off, he spends his money on foolish living and prostitutes, it says.

And you get the impression that this kid probably never said no to anything.

He gave in to his every desire.

It even sounded like if anything was exciting or pleasurable, he didn't withhold anything from himself.

And I bet it was fun for a season for this kid.

Nobody telling him no, nobody advising him on what he should and shouldn't do.

And I think it was probably fun until it wasn't.

When he woke up one day, hung over, out of money, in a pig pen, craving the food that was being fed to the pigs that he was taking care of.

He was the definition, I think, of rebellious and defiant, as we saw in our text this morning.

And when he's finally had enough of himself, enough of all that the world had to offer, he remembers that his dad's hired hands were way better off than he was on his own.

So he goes groveling back to his dad, not even sure if his dad would want him back, and asks if he can be a hired hand after everything that he had done.

And what is the posture of the father in this story to this rebellious and defiant child?

Flip back to Romans 10, 21.

I think it's exactly what we see here.

All day long I have held out my hands.

It says the father of the prodigal son ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.

I want you to think for a moment of the stench that must have been coming off of his son.

You know, from the story we can conclude he didn't have much for clothes, didn't even have sandals on his feet.

You know, he's taking care of these pigs, and it's obvious he was not taking care of himself.

And the father threw his arms around his neck and kissed him.

I hope that we can see that we are all the prodigal son.

If you ever read this story from the older brother's point of view, think you're reading it wrong.

We're all the prodigal son.

And in the context of the Romans passage that we're in this morning, Israel is the prodigal son.

There's a remnant that's truly worshiping God.

But the vast majority had gone their own way.

And here is Paul telling them, God has his hands outstretched to you.

And they're still being outstretched to you.

It's not too late.

Which leads us to chapter 11, verse 1.

I told her we're going to steal one passage from next week's sermon.

But chapter 11, verse 1 says, I ask then, has God rejected his people Israel?

Absolutely not.

You know, the majority of Israel at this time may be prodigals, but this is Paul's plea with them.

It's not too late.

God is not done with you.

And just because he's calling the Gentiles to repentance and into this new covenant does not mean that he is done with you.

And because he's not done with the Jews, he's telling them we need to proclaim the gospel to them and to the Gentiles as well so that they can hear it and they can be saved.

I think Paul's saying, there's a lot of prodigals.

Let's go get them.

We need to go get them.

Let's go share the good news.

Let's release the power of the gospel to these people by telling them.

And even though the section was written directly to the Jews in Rome, the story of the prodigal son is written to all of us.

You know, even if you've already given your life to Jesus, I think we need to remain eternally grateful that God was eagerly waiting for us with his hands outstretched when we came to him, ready to scoop us up and to welcome us into the family.

And if you're here this morning and you aren't a follower of Christ, God is waiting with outstretched arms, saying, Come to me.

I will welcome you into the family.

And if that is you, I think on your on your end, what you need to do is confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.

We just covered that a couple chapters ago in Romans.

And you know what's gonna happen?

That party that the Father threw for the prodigal son, God's gonna throw for you.

There will be rejoicing in heaven, and there will be rejoicing in this church here this morning as well if that is you.

You just need to confess and believe.

And that can be done right now.

So if that is you, would you please pray with me?

God, I thank you that you have hands that are reaching out, arms that are open.

Lord, I realize that your way is the best way.

I realize that Jesus Christ needs to be Lord of my life.

I realize that you raised him from the dead so that that can happen, so that I can now have access directly to you, God.

Lord, I pray that my life would resemble Jesus Christ.

Lord, I want to follow you with all that I have.

I pray that you would cleanse me with the blood of Jesus that was spilled out for the cleansing of my sin.

And that you uh would do a new work in me.

Lord, as I'm born again into the family of God, I will now look to you for everything.

To be my everything, to be my master.

Would you now sit on the throne of my life?

And Lord, for all of us that are here this morning that are already following you, I thank you so much.

We were all prodigals at one point.

And when we came to you, you had open arms.

Ready to forgive us, ready to let the past be the past, and ready to celebrate with us that we get to be in your family, that we get to be called your sons and your daughters.

And this is all possible through the work of Jesus.

Help us to be eternally grateful for those things we pray.