How Are They to Hear?
Righteousness Revealed: An Exposition of Romans

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Good morning, church! It’s good to see all of you here this morning. I welcome those of you that are watching online as well. We’re continuing our series through the book of Romans; we’re in the latter part of Romans, chapter ten. We started a few weeks ago with chapter nine. We started this series a couple of years ago, taking four chapters at a time and carefully going through each verse, to work through this letter to the Romans. We have entitled this series, “Righteousness Revealed,” because, in the book of Romans, the righteousness of God is revealed to us through the person of Jesus Christ.

Today, we’re going to be calling this sermon, “How are they to hear?” We’re looking at those final verses in chapter ten. “How are they hear?” This is the question that’s implied from Paul. It touches on one of the top questions that non-Christians will ask of Christians. They will ask, What about the people who have never heard about Jesus? Have you heard that question? This arises out of Christ’s unique claim that He’s the only way.

Jesus says, in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” This is an exclusive claim. Christians quote Him and believe this, that He is the only way. As a result, people will ask, What about the people who have never heard about Jesus? When they’re asking this question, they’re not really expressing their concern for those people. Instead, they are expressing a doubt or a question concerning God’s sovereignty or fairness. So, they’re questioning God’s justice on one hand and they’re questioning Christ’s unique claim that He’s the only way on the other hand. These questions drive the doubter, the skeptic towards those conclusions.

Now, maybe you’ve asked that question or you have had that question asked of you. I would say , as believers, that that should drive us toward a different thought, and that is, we are the church called. We are the people called to make sure people hear. It is God’s plan that people would hear. We tell them.

I don’t think that I’ll be able, in this message, to satisfactorily answer that question. What about the people who have never heard? God knows the answer. May I say, I’ve learned enough about God to know that He’s good and He’s just. He is compassionate and loving. I trust that decision to Him. We’re going to talk about it today, and we’ll touch on this question more as we go throughout the message.

In Romans 10, the apostle Paul described how God had given Israel every opportunity to believe in the Gospel and to respond by faith, yet only a remnant of them had actually believed. Chapters nine through eleven tries to work this out. What happened? They were the promised people of God. They have all the law, all the books and all the prophets. Why have they not believed in their Messiah, born to them? Paul is working this out in chapter nine through 11. You’re asking, Well, how does that apply to us today? That is what we’re going to “unpack” today, because as Paul works this out, we learn some truths about how God wants us to be part of making sure everyone has an opportunity to hear the good news about Jesus and they have an opportunity to respond to it.

We’re going to look at the text today and see how Paul talks about how we are to give people an opportunity to hear the gospel. Let’s dig in.

Romans 10:14-21 (ESV) 14 “How then will they call on him in whom they have 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? 15 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!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. 18 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.” 19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” 20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” 21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” This is God’s word. Amen.

We’re looking for three ways that we are to give everyone an opportunity to respond to the gospel. As I’m looking at this, I could just teach a class on this passage and say, “Okay, here is why Israel is without excuse.” That would be helpful learning for us, but we don’t gather on Sunday mornings just to be learners. We gather to hear God’s word and apply it to our lives. As a result, we always are called to repent of behaviors, thoughts and attitudes. My challenge as a preacher every Sunday is not just to give you information to know more, but to challenge you to hear God’s word in a way that affects you. So, I want to understand that tension and that I’m not doing harm to the text by applying it to us. I’m drawing the principles.

Paul is talking to Israel , but he’s also talking to us. This is making sense. And so that’s how I’m going to apply it to us. Along the way, I’ll describe what he meant for Israel as well.

How to give everyone an opportunity to respond to the gospel: 1. Accept being sent to carry the gospel to everyone.

I’m talking to believers. Now, will you accept the fact, the call, that you have been sent by Jesus to carry the gospel? That’s the first principle. Now, I draw that from the first two verses here. Chapter 10, verses 14 and 15, he opens up with a volley of questions, four consecutive questions. He’s answering the implications of the verse I read last week. Let’s look at it again, in verse 13, so we can see for ourselves why he is asking these questions. Verse 13, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” He’s quoting Joel, chapter two here. Romansis jam packed full of Old Testament quotations. He’s quoting Joel and he says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And then he asks, But what if Israel says, well, nobody told us? And so, he’s working that out through questions.

He uses a socratic method, by asking questions. This causes you to engage the mind. He uses a logical progression, working backwards from verse 13. Verse 14, “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?” If you don’t believe God exists, you won’t call on Him. And then he says, “And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” You can’t believe in something that you’ve never heard about. Verse 14 continues, “And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” The word, “sent,” gives us our first point that we’re making today that we are sent.

For the way of salvation, someone has to call on the Lord. In order to be saved, someone has to be sent to tell them about it. God doesn’t have a plan B. “The church is not the steeple. The church is the people.” You’re the church. He doesn’t have a plan B. His plan for making sure everyone hears the Gospel is you; you are sent. Paul is working it out right here. “How they’re going to hear about this unless someone goes and tells them. Verse 15 says, ”And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

And then, he goes and quotes some more scripture from the Old Testament. Verse 15, “As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” He’s quoting from Isaiah 52:7. Isaiah is the prophet who talks the most about the coming Messiah, perhaps, more than any other writer in the Old Testament. He’s talking about those that are sent having beautiful feet.

Now, my friend, human feet are not normally the focus of beauty. You don’t normally go through a women’s magazine or something like that and see pictures of feet. There might be a focus on the hands. It is usually the face or the body, but rarely the feet. The bible says that the people who carry the gospel have beautiful feet. I think we have to take that one on faith. I’ve heard people say, I hate feet. Well, that’s odd, because we all need them. They’re very important. We need them desperately. Why is this verse here?

In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah is talking about the Babylonian captivity that’s coming their way. He, also, is letting Israel know that it won’t be permanent. There’s going to be a day when a messenger will come running and say that you’ve been set free. And when he comes, when that messenger comes running, because the way news traveled in those days was not via the internet. It was via feet; sandaled feet. People who were gifted at running. They would receive a message, sealed with a seal, and told to carry it into Jerusalem. Isaiah is saying there is coming a day when there will be a Messenger that comes with good news. Their feet are beautiful. Why? Because it was those feet, those dusty, blistered and cut feet that ran with the Good News. They were sent and showed up with the Good News. That’s why feet are beautiful. It’s not that feet are necessarily beautiful, but they’re beautiful when they carry the Good News. That was the means of carrying the good news, by foot.

That’s why when Paul is writing in Ephesians chapter six and he’s talking about spiritual armor. He says, “feet shod with the Gospel.” He’s drawing this from Isaiah. Some of us need a little help with our feet. We need gospel feet.

This word, “preach,” might be giving you trouble. You might be thinking, Gary, we know you are sent. You’re the preacher and it says “preach.” That’s not me. I’m not a preacher. Let me help you with that word a little bit. The word, “preach,” could just be translated, “to proclaim or to announce.” We are all called. We are all called to be announcers of the Good News and to talk about it. We’re to announce the Good News. If we are to have beautiful feet, we are to preach the Good News and announce the Good News.

The Good News is objective; it’s not subjective. It’s not your version of the Good News as we know it. Paul talks about how it was passed to him and he’s passing it to us. The Good News is this: Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised on the third day. He appeared to many witnesses. That’s the gospel seed. That’s the facts and we tell them that. And then, we tell them how it has changed us. We’re all experts on ourselves. We are the worldwide worldwide expert on at least one thing and that’s you. You talk about how Jesus has changed your life. You tell them the facts of the gospel; it is not just some random blind leap of faith. It is an objective historical truth that really happened. As a result, God has invaded history, split it right down the middle. We call this year 2021 because this happened 2021 years ago. That’s how we date our calendar.

God stuck His finger in history and split it right down the middle. Here we are; we’re telling people about Jesus. It’s not how much faith you have that saves you. You are sent to carry this message.

This podium is pretty substantial. We usually try to get one of our bigger band members to lift it and put it right here. I don’t want to be the guy who does that; I’d like to keep my back intact just a little longer. We appreciate our younger, stronger guys. Why did I get such a heavy podium? It’s because I’m getting old and I need something to hold me up. I’m putting my faith in this podium right now. I’ve got faith in this podium, but it’s not my faith holding me up. What’s holding me up is this podium because it’s made of stern stuff; it’s heavy and it’s hard to pick up. It’s not your faith that saves you, it’s your faith in the gospel that saves. The gospel is the object. Your faith needs an object. We are sent with a message and the message is the gospel. It’s the Good News that Jesus saves.

Christ sends us; we’re sent to proclaim. Because we proclaim, hearers believe. believers call those who call are saved. Christ sends us; we proclaim the gospel. People hear the gospel and they believe because they heard it. They call on the Lord because they believe it and they are saved. We are to tell others the gospel.

Jesus said in John 20:21 (ESV) “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” The Father sent Him from the comfort of heaven to the dusty streets of Israel. He’s walking in Jerusalem, Capernaum and Nazareth. He takes on human form, God incarnate, God in the flesh. He became one of us. He entered into our situation and in the same way that He was sent, we are sent. We are sent into people’s situations. You are sent somewhere.

I didn’t mean to be here in Wilson, North Carolina. It was not part of my plan . I grew up in Virginia. I’m a guy who grew up in the Appalachian mountains. I love the mountains. My legs have finally grown the same length. I used to have one shorter than the other while I stood on the side of hills. My legs have evened out in this flat country. I’m not from around here; the company I worked for shipped me down here. That’s how, for a while, for a couple of years, I thought my company sent me here. And then, I felt a calling on my life; I answered the call and went to seminary and planted this church. As I reflect back, I realized that God sent me here. Have you ever come to the realization that it was actually God that sent you where you thought you sent yourself or somebody else sent you? You find out God sent you there.

You are sent. You were sent into the family that you were born into. Did you choose your family? Some of you sitting here thinking, If I had had a choice, I probably would have picked a different family. Nobody picks their family. You are sent to a certain family, to a certain neighborhood, to a certain job and to a certain school. Those people in front of you are the ones you’re sent to. That’s God’s plan. You’re sent.

2 Corinthians 5:20 (ESV) “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” How does God make His appeal to others through us? We are ambassadors representing the King of glory. Isaiah, who Paul is quoting so much, had a vision. He had a vision that he was caught up into heaven. He was in the heavenly place and he saw a throne with a robe that extended out and he heard the angels singing, ‘Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty.’ He felt himself pull back and he said, “I’m a man of unclean lips and I come from a people of unclean lips,” and God sent an angel towards him. The angel reached and got a tong and pulled a coal out of the sacrificial offering. He came up to Isaiah and he touched it to his lips and his lips were clean. And then, he heard a voice saying, (this is in Isaiah Chapter six), ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ Isaiah said, ‘Here am I, send me.’

He sent you. He sent Isaiah. He had to clean Isaiah’s mouth up first, so he had clean lips to declare the message. You might be saying, I don’t have the words. I don’t have the mouth. Well, He’ll handle that. If you’ll say, Here am I, send me. How will you respond to the Lord’s call? You might say, I don’t have clean lips. I’m not qualified. Well, you’re the worldwide expert on you and what Jesus has done for you. I wasn’t sent to where you live. I wasn’t sent to your family. Don’t call me and say, Preacher, can you come over and share the gospel with my family? Do you think I’m a professional on the gospels? You know you are sent. Would I come if you ask me? Yes I would, but it’s not my job. My job is to equip you, I’m not the minister; you’re the ministers. I’m the pastor. Go read Ephesians chapter four. Don’t call me the minister. We are the ministers. Now, I have a family; I’m supposed to be the minister to my family, my neighborhood and neighbors.

How are we going to turn the world upside down for Jesus? It will take one heart at a time. Whoever is in front of you is who you’re sent to. We need to get this in our heads. We need to understand this.Here’s the second:

2. Proclaim the gospel until everyone hears it.

Proclaim the gospel until everyone hears it. We’re still working these questions out that he opened up with. But now we’re going to look at it through the lens of verse 16 through 18. He said in verse 16, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” “All” is still speaking of Israel; all of Israel has not obeyed the gospel.

The word, “obey,” is kind of a surprising word. How do you “obey” the gospel? The gospel is the facts of Christ; He was raised from the grave and He lives today. He’s proven that He is the son of God. Another way of saying that word, “obey,” is to look at the Greek word underneath it. It’s the greek word, hypakouō, which means, “to come under.” Literally, the the word, obey, here means to “come under.” Hearing this starts to make sense. You hear the gospel and you need to come under it. Another way of saying it is to submit to, as one translation says. But, not all of the Israelites accepted the Good News. So, to obey it means to believe it, to accept it and to submit to it. To come under it means it’s not just a random fact. I’m not just taking a history course where I’ve got to pass a test. Now I need to believe it. I need to accept it. And so, he says that Israel heard it. So That’s not the problem. The problem is not that no one was sent to Israel; people were sent to Israel, they didn’t all obey it. Some did, but not all.

Paul is quoting Isaiah again, continuing in verse 16, For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” If you take the word, “believe,” and hold it parallel with “obey,” you really get the sense of what he meant by obeying the gospel. What does it mean to obey the gospel, to believe it? How do you obey the Gospel? You believe it. Paul throws out this question from Isaiah 53:1. What’s significant about him quoting from Isaiah 53 is this is the centerpiece of explanation of Christ’s crucifixion and burial for us. Isaiah saw it 700 years before it happened and he wrote Isaiah 53. Paul’s pulling that up.

Isaiah 53:1, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” He goes on to say, in verse 3 “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God stricken by him, and afflicted.” He goes on to say, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” What is he talking about? Isaiah is telling Israel that Jesus would be crucified. Isaiah said Jesus would die. The Messiah would come and die for your sins.

Isaiah goes on, at the end of verse 8, “For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b] 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.” It was even predicted that Jesus would not lay in a tomb that belonged to Him, but He would lay in a rich man’s tomb, which is fulfilled when Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, a pharisee, provided a tomb for Jesus. Isaiah saw it. “Therefore, He poured out His soul to death and was numbered among the transgressors. He bore the sin of many. This is Isaiah. Paul is quoting this. You had it, but you didn’t believe it. Isaiah was asking, Who will believe this? So belief is the means; works is not the means. Israel got confused. The majority of Israel thought that the law was given to them to do it, but it was given to them to believe it.

Faith has always been. That’s the next verse. 17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” This is the means; our human default just flies against this. Believing, that’s it? That’swhat it means; you hear the gospel. That’s all you have to do. He’s done it all. There’s nothing left for you to do except obey, which is to believe. “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

What’s the word of Christ? It’s another way of saying the gospel, the word about Christ, the word of Christ, the story of Christ and what Christ has done for you. “So, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Dr. Robert H. Mounce says this, “Although it is true that faith is our response to the gospel, it is also true that the message itself awakens and makes faith possible” The word has to be broadcast, it’s the hearing of it that awakens faith that was not even there before. But, there’s this mutual thing that happens where it’s the word of God, which will not return void, which causes faith to awaken. Yet, the human will has to exercise faith and say, I believe. And that’s what results in someone being able to call on the Lord.

I know the name of the Lord. I know the gospel and I call on Him. He saves me because I now have something, I have something to place my faith in. I have the object of my faith that saves the object that will hold me up. That’s sturdy enough and it’s the gospel.

He goes on in verse 18 “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.” This is where I got my second point. I ask, Have they not heard? Because that’s what I’m saying; they have to hear. He’s anticipating that maybe they will say, Yea, but we didn’t hear it clearly. And then Paul quotes the old testament; he’s quoting Psalm 19:1. “Their voice has gone out to all the earth.” You can’t say you didn’t hear because their voice went out to the whole world. What voice is he talking about? Well, right here, he’s actually quoting where it says that the voice of creation of the stars and of the mountains, proclaim that there is a Creator.

He’s quoting that, but he’s applying it to the gospel, because already during Paul’s time, the Jews had been spread all over the Roman Empire. The gospel, because of the apostles, was carried to every city in the Roman Empire by this time. What would Paul always do first? Every time he would go to a city, the first place he would go would be to the synagogue. He opens up by saying that the gospel was given to the Jew first and then to the Greek. He always started with the Jews, so they always got it. Invariably, there would be a little handful of them that would believe. And then the rest of them would reject it. Paul is saying, you have no excuse because it’s been delivered to you. You can’t say you didn’t hear because you heard for all those centuries and then when it came, you chose not to believe. You can’t say it’s because you didn’t hear about it. This is heartbreaking for Paul, but he’s working it out. He’s quoting from Psalm 19.

This is what theologians call “general revelation.” No one can excuse themselves and say, I didn’t hear about God, because the truth is, all of us intuitively know that the universe itself, the vastness of it, the beauty of it, the symmetry of it implies intelligent design and implies a Creator. We have to reject that willfully; we have to decide to disobey that revelation. Paul quotes this from the Psalms.

Jesus commands this in Mark 16:15 (ESV) And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Proclaim to the whole creation. We are sent, You are sent. The disciples asked him, “What do you think of these buildings?” (They were walking through Jerusalem.) “Aren’t they wonderful? Aren’t they beautiful?” Jesus said, “I’ll tell you the truth, not one stone will remain standing on the other. This whole place is going to fall.” They asked Him, “When is that going to happen?” He begins to tell him about the end. Nested inside of chapter 24 of Matthew, He’s talking about the signs of the end times, but in the midst of this, He talks about the gospel.

Jesus says in Matthew 24:14 (ESV) “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” God’s plan is when the whole world gets their opportunity. Apparently, it’s been taking us a while, church. There are still unreached people groups, if you work in missions, they are called UPGS (unreached people groups) that have yet to have a real gospel witness. They don’t have the bible translated into their language yet. People are working on this.

Some years ago, a revivalist named Billy Sunday used to say, “Who knows, tonight at this conference, the last person that will hear the gospel might be the one who ushers in the return of Jesus. He literally took this verse seriously and so do I. That’s our job, church, that we proclaim to the whole world that we are sent. We keep talking about it until everyone hears.

I want you to know something about me and about our church. I’ve been meeting for two years with pastors and praying together monthly. We rotate locations from church to church and these churches that are doing this are churches that are gospel preaching churches. Unfortunately not every church is a gospel preaching church. Some churches get sidetracked. We believe that the only way you can change the world is one heart at a time, and the only person that can change one heart at a time is Jesus. People have to hear about Jesus. I’ve been praying together with these pastors. This has resulted in a movement of a handful of us gathering every Wednesday morning, 6:30am at my little office here. I get here early on Wednesday mornings, make coffee and about seven or eight pastors gather here, pray and talk about what God is calling us to do together. This little church, called WCC, can’t reach the 80,000 people in Wilson County by itself. We need to be part of a bigger collaboration for gospel saturation because we’re convinced that every man, every woman and every child deserves multiple opportunities to see and hear the gospel. See it displayed in people’s lives, hear it explained and described with people’s mouths. How is that going to happen? Can I do that? No, okay, that’s not God’s plan. Anyway, it’s us believers, all of us are sent to our little section. We’ve been visualizing Nehemiah’s wall and how each of us is planted in a certain section and a certain neighborhood and each of us is gifted appropriately. We are to take our section of the wall and say, I’m going to make sure everybody on my street sees the gospel displayed and hear it proclaimed. I’m going to talk to the people next to my cubicle where I work. I’m going to take responsibility. Who will take ownership of the lost in our city? We’re praying this together, we don’t know where it’s going to lead, but we believe that’s the purpose by which we have been called.

It’s our ultimate purpose. Rather than asking the question, “What about the people who haven’t heard?” ask the question, “Have I told the people around me that I was sent to? Am I talking about it?” There are people who have not yet heard. Here’s the third:

3. Display the gospel that everyone might understand it.

We have worked this out. We are sent to people who have not yet heard. It’s our calling to proclaim and to announce. We can’t determine the results.

Number three on how to give everyone an opportunity to respond to the gospel is we must display the gospel so that everyone might understand it. We are at verse 19 through the end here. 19 “But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” 20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” 21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” Paul is posing a new question. They’ve been told that they can’t say they didn’t hear, but what if they didn’t understand? Paul starts quoting Moses from Deuteronomy, chapter 32. Why is he using so much of the Old Testament? It is because he’s talking to a Jewish audience. He’s primarily trying to help them understand the importance of what God has been telling them for centuries and they’ve rejected it. They can’t say that they don’t understand and his logic is not immediately apparent because he quotes from Exodus, where Moses was already telling them something God was going to do. “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Israel’s a wise nation because they have this; who else did he give it to? No one else. What were they supposed to do with it? They were supposed to be a light unto the nations. That’s why they had the court of the Gentiles in the temple, but they polluted it and turned it into a marketplace instead of making it a house of prayer. They were supposed to be the lamp to the world. God trusted them with it. They turned inward instead of outward.

Watch out, church. We’re guilty of doing the same thing, of turning inward, making it about us. That’s what happened here; he gave it to people that were foolish in regard to spiritual things. When I gave it to them, they ran with it. I gave it to you and, all this time, you rejected it. I’m going to use that to make you jealous to come back to me because I know human nature.

I know human nature, too. By the way, I’m a grandfather, I’ve got nine grandkids. One of them belongs to this young lady right down here, my daughter in law, Caroline. His name is Ryder. He’s five years old. He likes to carry his toys, making sure nobody else gets them. He has them all in his hands and in his pockets. When we have all the grandkids over at the house, they’ll be out in the backyard playing. He’ll have his toys, then, he’ll see another toy he likes and realizes he doesn’t have enough hands to hold extra toys, so he’ll put these toys down that he’s been carrying for an hour. He’ll put them down and he’ll go get that toy. He’s got a cousin near his age; . her name is McKenzie. She sees him put his toys down. What do you think she does? She goes and picks them up. Now, he’s playing with these other toys that he wasn’t playing with before. But now, McKenzie is playing with the toys he used to have. What do you think he does? Do you think he’s happy with that? Those are his toys too. So now it’s on; she’s running. He’s chasing her because he’s jealous of the toys he used to have; he didn’t care about them when he had them. It wasn’t until he put him down and somebody else picked him up, that he got jealous. For now, we can blame that on Ryder, but we’re all like that. It’s human nature. We often don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it. God is going to use that human nature with Israel. He is going to make them jealous of the church because it was meant for them. They passed on it. Ultimately, here’s what’s going to happen at the end of the age, a great number of Jews are going to come to the Messiah and believe that He is the Messiah. Friends, it’s happening now, it’s happening now. You can go online and see their testimonies, go to a site called, “One Israel,” or “One for Israel.” You can see testimony after testimony of Jews saying, Nobody told me. I thought that Jesus was a Gentile, I didn’t know He was a Jew. They don’t even know He was a Jew. My rabbi said that I was not allowed to read the book of Daniel. Then, they read the book of Daniel because, if somebody tells you not to read the book of Daniel, you have to read the book of Daniel. Don’t read that, People are coming; you can see it. We’ve made them jealous. It was to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

This is what Paul is talking about. You can’t say you didn’t understand because you’re the smartest people, aren’t you? The people who have invented, like half of everything, we know about you. Look at all the great inventions throughout the years. There’s almost always a Jewish person involved. These are brilliant people; they had the law and the prophets. Instead, I gave it to some people that didn’t know anything and they ran with it.

Verse 20 says, “Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” They weren’t even looking for me. I’ve shown myself to those who did not ask for me. I’m glad he did or I wouldn’t be here. 21 “But of Israel he says, “All day long I’ve held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” and their words to the ends of the world.” I sent the Messiah, born to you, to the tribe of Judah. Like I said, all the way back in the book of Genesis. I’ve been telling you about this the whole time and you chose not to believe it. Instead, you decided to work for it, believing that you could earn it. Paul is heartbroken.

“I’m holding my hands up;” why is that all day long? It’s not that you didn’t understand, It’s that you were disobedient and contrary. Disobedient, here, has the idea of willfully and perversely choosing not to believe. This word has the idea of the Greek word; I will not allow myself to be persuaded because if I do, it means everything else I have to let go. I’m God’s chosen people. I’m Jewish. I keep the law, all of it

I have to join Paul and say I’ve counted everything else as dung, everything else as garbage, compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. It means that I have to admit for my whole life that I’ve been believing the wrong thing. And so, as a result, they refuse to believe because of what it would cost them. He says, you are disobedient; you are contrary.

When I used to beg my mom to let me go somewhere, I would say, Why can’t I go? Why? I didn’t really care why, I was just trying to convince her. Let me have my way. And she’d give me this reason and that reason she gave was , “Gary Wayne, you’re so contrary.” Have you ever heard of something called the “devil’s advocate?” I would drive my mom crazy.

Paul said, I’ve been holding my hands out to you and you are contrary people. I say this and you say the opposite. We’re looking at a culture today that’s made up of contrary people. God’s word says this, “They say that they call good evil and evil good.” The world has been turned upside down. From the book of 1 John, Christ gives us this understanding, 1 John 5:20 (ESV) “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” It’s kind of like you start believing because you know enough to believe. But as you place your faith in Jesus, your faith continues to grow.

Earlier today, at the end of the first service, someone came forward and asked, Can you pray with me? I still have doubts. I said, It’s not great faith in God. It’s faith in a great God. You don’t need to focus on your doubts or your lack of faith. Focus on the object of your faith. Know Jesus better; know His promises better.

1 John 5:13 says, “I’ve written these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life.” The next verse says, “This is the confidence that we have in Him. If you ask anything according to His will, you can know that He hears you and gives you the thing you’ve asked.” These are promises. Don’t focus on your doubts or faith. It’s not how much faith I have in this podium; it’s how strong this podium is. I just need to know that better; then my faith grows.

How does your faith grow/ Knowing Jesus better, growing in the Word and so forth. I prayed those verses over this person this morning. I was talking to a young man this week and he said, I’m an agnostic. He had a lot of questions and I attempted to wrestle through some of those questions with him. I noticed every question led to another question. After a few of those I asked, Are you a skeptic or a seeker? Skeptics just loved to play the devil’s advocate. They just love to ask questions, but seekers really want to get to the bottom of it. Which one are you? He didn’t have any more questions. After that he got quiet. He’s a skeptic. I prayed with him. I’m still praying for him. I woke up this morning thinking about him.

What about the people who have never heard? Cornelius had a vision. All of a sudden. Peter is sent to a guy he’s never met because Cornelius wants to believe. So Peter has to go tell him. Then, there’s this other story about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip goes and talks to the guy in the chariot. What about that guy? He sees this wealthy guy, he’s an Ethiopian eunuch. He’s the treasurer of the Kingdom of Ethiopia. He’s traveled all the way to Israel. People have been traveling from Ethiopia to Israel ever since the Queen of Sheba came up to visit Solomon. He’s up there. He bought a scroll of Isaiah at great expense. These handwritten scrolls, written on lambskin, were rolled up and in a fancy container. He’s sitting in his chariot trying to read it, Philip hears the Holy Spirit say, Go talk to him. He goes. I’ll read a little bit right here. Acts 8:30-31, 35 (ESV) So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him… Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

How did he do that? Because Jesus is in Isaiah and the man believed. They pulled the chariot over and Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. There’s a church today in Ethiopia that still traces its roots to the Ethiopian eunuch. Because he was sent, then Philip was sent to him and then he was sent.

If somebody is calling out to the Lord, God will send somebody to them. I just trust God, I don’t trust you so much, I don’t trust me so much. If we don’t go when we are sent, I don’t know if you believe that or not. I don’t know if I believe that or not, but I’m working on it, I’m working on it, I’m asking the Lord to work on me. How about you? The vast majority of Israel could not say they didn’t understand. They understood; they were contrary. That’s not our problem. Our problem is there’s still people who haven’t heard and we need to tell them because we’re sent, the only way they can believe is to hear and the only way they can understand is for us to put the gospel on display. That’s correct.

Lord, thank You for Your word. It’s a challenging word today, but Lord, I pray for the one right now, that might be in my hearing, you might be listening online, you might be here in person, you’ve never given your life to Jesus. You’ve heard the gospel now. You have to decide if you’re going to receive it and believe it. Pray with me right now; prayer just expresses your faith. It’s a way of expressing your faith. Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need You. I believe You died on the cross for my sin, You were raised from the grave and You live today. Come and live in me, forgive me of my sin, make me the person you want me to be. Adopt me into God’s family. I want to be a child of God . I want you to be my Lord and my Savior. If you’re praying that prayer, believing, the bible says you’ll be saved. He will save you. Jesus came and died for you and He was raised. If you believe it, your life will be changed. Those are here and you believe it. You’ve placed your faith into Jesus. You’re a christian. I wonder if you would say with Isaiah right now. Here am I, send me. Holy spirit, show me faces of people, a neighbor, a co-worker, a fellow student, a family member, Lord, I know I’m sent to this person. Give me opportunities this week to tell them about Jesus, I’ll do it. Give me the words. We love You, Lord. Thank you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.