God's Invitation

How do you respond to rejection? Think about that last time that you pursued someone, something, some ambition, and you're rejected. How quickly does it take you to become discouraged and to quit? Oftentimes, this has to do with, well, what you're committed to. How much do you believe in something or how much you want something? So maybe your future spouse once rejected you and you said, no, I'm going to persevere because this, this is the wife that I desire in raising our children. It calls for great perseverance because that instruction regularly is, well, ignored, not heard or rejected. We desire, we have an ambition, we know that we need to train up our children regardless of how they receive that instruction. Maybe it's a job or an idea. How many great stories are there of those businessmen that were rejected over and over again of an idea but they kept going and they kept going and now they're millionaires. This morning we're going to think about rejection. We're going to think about it from a little bit of a different side. See last week we were looking at Romans 9 and we saw how God is sovereign in His mercy. He is able to be successful in His mercy because He's able to do whatever He wants to do. This week we're actually going to look at the other side of the coin of salvation and there are two sides. We're going to see our response. We're going to consider the response of how we Hear the God. Hear God's good news. Either we believe it or we reject it. This morning we're in Romans 10. If you're new with us, if you don't have a Bible especially, please take the one in front of you. We're on page 946. We've been preaching through the book of Romans. Again, this is a warning passage. Romans 9 was a great declaration of how great God's salvation is and how mighty He is to bring it about. This week, it's a warning. You may be hearing it, but hearing is not enough. You may be hearing it, but hearing is not enough. The message summary would be this of Romans 10. By God's mercy, we hear, believe, and confess to be saved. By God's mercy, we hear, believe, and confess be saved. And I hope you can see on page 8 the outline for our sermon text going all the way back to 931st. Salvation is not by works. Salvation is by faith. Faith is from hearing and hearing is not enough. Now we need to see the big picture. Romans tells us that there's two advantages of being a Jew. There's two advantages of being an Israelite. One is that they have the Word of God. One is that God has entrusted to them His oracles, His truth. So throughout the Old Testament, all the Old Testament was entrusted to Israel. God spoke to them. That was a great advantage. The second advantage is that God chose Israel to be the line, the race, through which the Savior will be born. These are two advantages, but they're advantages only if an Israelite, the individual, would believe what God has said and believe in that Son that He promised. We just want to do a very brief overview of how we got to Romans 10. Paul's main goal is to make sure we are not ignorant of God's righteousness. You'll see the importance of not being ignorant of God's righteousness later in chapter 10. God is truthful. He has made promises. He has committed to those promises. He has promised that His salvation is by faith. He's gonna do all the work. All we have to do is trust Him. So we saw in chapter 3 is justification by faith alone. We're declared righteous. We don't earn it. We saw in Romans 4 that it's by faith alone, like Abraham, like it's always been. We now have peace because Jesus, the new head of a new humanity, has come to be crushed for our transgressions. We're no longer slaves to sin, we're no longer condemned, we're adopted, and we're loved. And now we get into Romans 9 through 11, we have to remember the bigger picture. If we go back to Romans 1, just read Romans 1, we're gonna come back to this a couple times. I'm not ashamed, sorry, Romans 1 verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Paul is writing, eager to preach the gospel. Paul is writing and declaring not ashamed of the gospel because the gospel is going to have to unite the Jew and the Greek to be the one body of Christ for Christ's glory. The bigger picture of what Paul is writing about in 9-11 is giving an answer as to why God is going to be faithful to His promises to everyone who believes, even in light of how the Jews have rejected Him. God is good. He's right. He's faithful. So again, as we think about last week, a lot of people avoid Romans 9 because it seems scary. Folks, Romans 9 is the good news. Romans 9 is the good news that God's mercy is powerful enough to save you no matter how sinful you are. Romans 10 is the scary news. We can hear that good news and reject it. We are contrary and disobedient people. Here, Romans 10. I'll actually begin in Romans 9, verse 30. And 30 through 33, I wanted to pick up here because it is a key summary of everything he said in Romans 9. Hear the word of the Lord. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it? That is a righteousness that is by faith? But that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law? Why? because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For the heart one believes and is justified, for the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him whom they have not, have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. They have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have. Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the earth. But I ask that Israel not understand. First, Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold 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. But of Israel, he says, All day long, I have held up my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Will you pray with me? Father, we pray that you would stretch out your mighty right arm of salvation, and you would claim You would claim those who are not calling you. You would give them the mercy to hear today, to listen, and to believe. Well, I pray that your mercy would abound, that as you pour out your mercy, as you stretch out your hands, we would not be disobedient. We would even now be depending upon You, asking for the grace to hear Your Word, to respond to it by faith, and to live according to it for Your glory. Father, help our unbelief. Father, stretch out Your hands and help us to respond, to trust You, and to love You because You've loved us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As you heard in this section, I hope you heard the words faith, belief, righteousness, works. We haven't heard those words a lot since Romans 3, but here Paul's bringing that theology of justification by faith and not by works to make it clear what was wrong with Israel. Why they have not been saved. And so it's important whenever you're making truth statements, To be very clear, you need affirmations and denials. You need to make sure you're affirming what you want to assert. And you also need to make sure you're denying what you don't want people to be confused by. And Paul actually starts by denying what is not true. Salvation is not by works. Notice here, he's gone through Romans 9, he's declared the great salvation of God. The name of the Lord as he has compassion, on whom he has compassion. But now he actually goes into a further explanation. This is why Israel has not been brought into the kingdom. They were seeking a different kind of salvation than the one God was offering. It's not a salvation. They did not succeed because they did not pursue it by faith. they thought it was based on works. Again we see God's side of salvation, His powerful mercy in Romans 9. We see man's side of salvation, a belief, a rejection. And this is where we need to realize we stand. Are we going to believe or reject? Asking if God's electing, that's an answer you don't get. You choose today life or death by choosing to believe or reject. What shall we say then, Paul says. He summarizes this great declaration. God saves those who are not even looking for it. The Gentiles who do not pursue righteousness have attained it. That is a righteousness that is by faith. This is one of the most remarkable things about God's mercy. He saves us even when we're not looking to be saved. Quite frankly, that's the only way to be saved because none of us really think there's that much wrong with us. We definitely don't see the problem that God sees. He saves those who are not even pursuing righteousness. But his main point is verse 32. Israel was pursuing a righteousness, but it was not the one God had designed or prescribed. Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. Here we see this great contrast. We all want to think we earned something, we've deserved it, we've done enough to make God happy. They stumble because they don't trust God and just say, God, we trust you're going to do the work. Oftentimes we're too proud to ask for help. Think about this in general. How often we're just too prideful to ask for help. You know, that's an American virtue to not need anybody to be independent. It's virtuous for a Christian to be able to ask for help. A virtue of a Christian is someone who knows they need help and are willing to ask for it. We do not have all that we need. We need grace and we need help. Look at verse 1 of chapter 10. He again states his love for this people. I believe he's doing this because he's making it very clear what's wrong with this people. He's going to say some not nice things about this people. But by heart's desire, his prayer for them. Paul is praying because he knows God is big and he's able to do whatever he wants to do and he's praying for this people knowing that they're rejecting God. Paul explains the key problem further in chapter 10, verses 2 and 3. We saw earlier that the contrast was faith versus works, but we're going to see it a little bit further. They have a zeal for God in verse 2, but it's not according to their knowledge. They have an ignorant zeal. It's not according to God's righteousness. They do not submit to God's righteousness. Look at verse three. Being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. So two problems, zeal without knowledge, and then simply not willing to submit. They're trying to assert. Now, oftentimes I hear the question, What do you think God's gonna do with the Buddhist or the Hindu or the Muslim who really is sincere in their faith? How could it be that God would be just to punish someone who was so zealous and sincere in their faith? Well, we see here, it's not how sincere we are in our faith, it's in what we put our faith in. Sam made the analogy a couple sermons ago. It's not how strong the binding is to the object, it's the object. You can spend millions to build a mansion on the sandy shore of an ocean and it's going to be washed away. You can build a shack on a rock and it's going to stay for a while. The rock will keep it. That million dollar investment you're going to put on the sandy shore, it's going to be washed away. It's the object of your faith that matters. This is why it's very important to recognize God is worshiped in spirit and truth. God prescribes who we worship and how we worship. We don't just get to say, you know, God, I really think I want to worship you this way. God, I really want to pursue you this way. I know everybody else, they like the church thing. I like the mountains. I know, God, you want me to believe in Jesus and Him alone, but surely you want something from me. Surely I can earn. See, in our zeal, we show our ignorance sometimes. Because we don't say, I'm going to submit to what God says is His truth, His truthfulness, and His promise. This is why it's always important for a Christian to have a posture of being teachable. God's Word is rich. It's full. We should always be corrected. Seeking to be taught and corrected from God's Word. Now it's important to realize they have zeal. It's without knowledge. It's without submission. Remember the analogy he makes in Romans 9? The clay speaking back to the master craftsman. That's what it means that I have submission. You know, to talk back to God and say, you know, I think you need to do it this way. God says this is my way. It's Jesus Christ. We need to be very careful to be zealous without the proper truth. I regularly hear that I want to avoid being an intellectual Christian, so we need to be careful about how theological we are. Let me define what the word theology is. It's a study of God. If our goal is to worship God, we need to know who He is and what He said about worship. There's nothing more practical than theology. There's nothing more practical than letting your eyes have sin fall off the front of them so that you can see the glory of who God is more. What we're gonna see here is that it's a message, it's truth, it's real content that we have to believe and proclaim to know who God is and his glory. Zill requires real knowledge that submits to what he says. Our real problem is that we just don't like to submit. Let me just walk through a handful of ways that I think we as modern day Christians oftentimes do not submit to God's righteousness. The first is this, is we can be zealous for a moral Christianity. And this is the same problem the Jews have. We can be zealous for a moral Christianity. We think we need to be a good person, we need to try harder, we need to work harder, and everyone else just needs to be as good as we are. That's a moral Christianity. Christianity doesn't think, how good can I be, and let me make sure everybody is as good as I am. Christianity says, I am a wretched sinner. Praise God for the grace I found in Jesus Christ. You too are a wretched sinner. Let me tell you about the rich grace that you can find in Jesus Christ. Another concern of how we can be zealous without knowledge. We want to pursue a comfortable Christianity. We're all guilty of this. We learn how to master certain parts of scripture. our favorite ones, and we emphasize them, and we want to make sure we have control over them, rather than saying all of God is good, all of God is profitable, I'm going to submit to everything. We all have our pet topics. When I say we, I mean me too. We want to come from Christianity because we want to say, you know, here's the three things that I really like in the Bible. And I'm going to master them, and it's actually not submission there. I'm going to know them so well that I'm going to master them. I'm not going to submit to everything else. Friends, we've got to be careful not to want a comfortable Christianity that isolates these truths that I like versus these truths I don't. If you're not being corrected and challenged and changed by God's Word, you're living a comfortable Christian life, which is not a Christian life. The third way we can be zealous without knowledge is seeking to be an individual Christian. We're called to pour out our lives for others. We see this in Paul as an example most of all. Now here's a key, as you come into the gathering of the church, this is a key question to know if you're an individualist or Christian. Did you come in thinking how am I going to serve others versus thinking about how no one is serving you? The Christian who follows Jesus Christ, who came to pour out his life for other people, says, how can I serve others? That's not an individual Christian. Rather than saying, how is everybody else not serving me? That is an individual Christian. Finally, and this is really getting to the heart, I believe, of the faith emphasis that Paul's making, we need to be careful of being a prayerless Christian. Prayer is where you see your faith. Paul has faith that God's mercy abounds. Paul has faith that God's mercy can save even those rejecting him. And so he prays for his kinsmen, the Israelites. Christians, this is one of our biggest struggles. And that's because it's actually saying, God, I'm not in control. You take control. You do what seems impossible. I'm going to trust you. God's righteousness, what he has said is true, what he does is right and true. Now verse four is a key hinge between our first and second point. So let's look at this verse. Christ is the end of the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. The Jews are pursuing a righteousness in the law, and they're not realizing that what the law actually should point them to is a Savior. They're trying to do the law, not realizing what the law is pointing to is the one who's going to do it for them. See, Christ is the end of the law. The law points to Christ. They're not looking for a Savior because they don't realize what the law does is actually reveal how much we fail. There is no salvation by works. This is the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He does all the work for you. There is no salvation by works because only Christ can actually do the work that we need to be saved. And that is living a perfectly righteous life. If you fail in one point of the law, you've ruined the great report. You've ruined the life that God called you to. You failed, if you failed, in one point. That's why Jesus Christ and His life is so important. He obeyed in every way at every time. This is why His death is the center of what we proclaim. We seek to make Christ and Him crucified known to you because He died when He didn't deserve to die. He died a death that we deserve so that we no longer have to suffer for our sins. We no longer have to die. That's the beauty of the cross. He dies in the place of sinners and is treated like a sinner so that we as sinners will not be treated like a sinner. We'll be treated like a son and loved. If you're not a Christian this morning, that is what you must believe to be saved. Let's turn to our second point. Beginning in verse 5, where Paul stops correcting what was wrong or pointing out what was wrong, and he begins to tell us what is right. Salvation is by faith. And it's important to note what he's doing here. He's writing to a church that's divided Jew and Gentile. In this particular section, he needs to convince the Jews salvation has always been by faith. So he's quoting a lot of the Old Testament. Now that's where this passage starts getting a little complicated because we have to look at all the different passages in their background. Beginning in verse 5, notice he begins, for Moses' rights. Christ is the end of the law, Moses of righteousness. Even Moses testifies to this. But here in verse 5, he's going to contrast with verse 6. Moses writes about the righteousness that is based in the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. Now, he's actually alluding to Leviticus 18.5. Leviticus 18.5 is telling Israel, once you go in the land, you're going to need to live by the law. If you want to live in the land, you're going to have to not obey other gods, worship other idols. You actually need to listen to what I say and obey to live in the land. He's speaking to a redeemed people who's about to go in to the promised land. This is not declaring a salvation by works. Rather, verse 6, Paul makes it very clear, again the words of Moses that Mike read earlier from Deuteronomy 30. But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. Again, we're not having to do the works. They're being done for us. I want you to see three things about that righteousness based on faith. One, it's not too high for you. It's not too far from you. It's not too difficult. It's not too high. It's not too far. It's close to you. It's close to you. Look at what he says. But what does it say? The Word is near you. Paul is citing Deuteronomy 30. He's not actually talking about the Ten Commandments here. He's talking about that choice that God was calling Israel to make. Choose life. Have faith in the God who's actually going to take you into this promised land, give you victory, give you a new life of rest and peace and prosperity. Choose the God who is true. He's going to do all the work. It's not too high. We don't have to ascend to heaven. It's not too far. We don't have to raise Christ from the dead. The Father's done that. It's near you. The word that you need to believe is near you, and look at the parentheses. It's very important not to overlook the parentheses. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Romans 1, 15, I'm eager to preach the gospel. Romans 1, 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. That's the word of faith he's referring to. The gospel that is the power of God to salvation. The gospel that says Christ came to die, Christ rose again, and now we believe in Him because God's wrath is satisfied in Christ alone. The difficult work has been done by Christ. Here's what we do. We receive that message. We believe. We don't vote. It's not a vote. It's not something so abstract that, I like that policy. I'll agree with that. It's not an opinion poll. Faith is trusting. Faith is saying everything He is saying is true and right and I will believe it and I will commit my life to it. Faith requires trust. Look at verses 9 and 10. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Now, these are two different parts of salvation. There's not the belief and the confession. I believe he's summarizing two different things because here's what it is. You believe he's Lord. This is a Jew saying Jesus is God. To say Jesus is Lord is to give Him deity. He is God. It's declaring who He is. When you believe He's been raised from the dead, it's shorthand for all that He's done for you. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about who He is. He's Lord. It's about what He's done. He's been raised from the dead, which meant He had to die, which meant He died for you, which meant now He's conquered sin and death. This is what we have to do to be saved. Trust the work of Christ. Not our own works. Trust that who He is is who He is. Who He says He is is who He is. What He said He's done is what He's done. Now verse 12 comes back to an offensive part, I believe, for the original hearers. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. There's even Jews today who wrestle with what is the identity of a Jew, but most of all, it's clear that being a Jew means you're not like somebody else. The Jews at this time had a pride in their identity that being a Jew meant they're not Gentiles. So when Paul says there's no distinction, what do you mean? Well, what does it even mean to be Jewish if there's no distinction? He said, the Jews, this is the problem he's addressing again. The Jews and Gentiles are not one united body because the Jews still think there's some kind of distinction, there's some kind of advantage that makes them more special than other people. Paul says, no. There's pagan sinners, there's religious sinners. The point being, we're all sinners and we're all united in the same salvation of Jesus Christ. There's no distinction. Here's a problem we have. The Jews, they set themselves over against the others. Our problem is that we always have others. We're not that different than the Jews in this way. We like to try to distinguish ourselves because of who we're not like. We have to realize what this passage says. God only has one distinction he makes. It's between the sheep and the goats. God makes one clear distinction. Either you're a sheep that believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you're following Christ, or you're a goat. You reject Christ. You go your own way, and the end is hell and destruction. The church has been known too long for making distinctions that go beyond sheep and goats. Quite frankly, I don't even know if the church still makes a distinction between sheep and goats anymore. The church is supposed to be made up of those who are believing in Christ and pursuing Christ, and the only distinction we make are those who are believing and those who are not. But why is it that the church is marked by so many other distinctions? Do we make distinctions based upon skin color, race, nationality, marital status, age, choice of schooling, size of family, age of kids, social status, common experience? To name a few. These are all ways that we make distinctions within the body that are unhelpful for the glory of Christ, where everybody is a believer, is supposed to come together in the name of Christ and glorify Him. This is the main problem Paul is addressing. There is no distinction. We're either uniting with believers or we're making distinctions that are hindering the growth of the church. Look at chapter 10 verses 14 to 17. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Now, Paul's making a very logical argument, an argument, because you have to call upon God. That means you have to hear the content of the message, which means somebody had to go tell you. The argument here in logical order is this. In order to call on God, they must believe. In order to believe, they must hear. In order to hear, someone has to tell them. In order for someone to tell them, they need to be sent. That's a nice logical process, right? Someone is sent to preach, and that person preaches. Someone hears what is preached, and they may believe what they hear. Well, what he's making clear is that in order to believe, you must hear, and in order to hear, someone must preach. So we need to ask, who is sent to preach? It's a very important question. If believing requires hearing, which requires preaching, which requires sending, who is supposed to be sent to preach? Now, most of us, as you're all looking at me, are probably thinking, well, the preacher. That's an easy one. Someone who has been called out by the congregation to preach, which is what you've done. That's why I sit there. I'm a member of this church that's been designated by the church to come up here and preach. Once you all stop deciding I should come up here and preach, I stop coming up here to preach. The church sends me up here to preach, to expound the word. That's usually what we think of. Or we can think of the missionaries that Sam prayed for. It's amazing. three converts in a closed country where the primary religion is Islam. They're going to be persecuted. Pray for these people. The fact that they're going to be baptized, they've been baptized, they're going to be persecuted. We need to think of somebody we're going to send off to preach to somebody who's never heard before. I want us to think a little differently. I want you to think not just me or another preaching pastor, another missionary we send. I want you to think about you. Because here really is, this is the most beautiful part of God's plan of salvation. Those He calls out of the darkness and into the light, He then goes to battle against the darkness so that other people can hear about the light and come into it. You're not just called to sit there and be a sponge blessing. You are called to be that. You receive everything. And then you're called to pour it out for others for Christ's glory. If you're a Christian that only desires to receive, you're not really doing it right. You have the message of God's salvation, if you have believed in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, and have confessed Him to be raised from the dead, you have the good news. You have the truth. And if you're a Christian, you are now called to be a herald of the greatest message this world's ever heard. It's all of us. It's the beauty that when God elects, and this is where people are, you're not supposed to be the frozen chosen. You're supposed to be elected to run. Run with the beautiful feet that preaches the good news. When you're called out, you're called to something. You're never just called out, you're called to. We're called to be on mission. Friends, we have the power of God to save sinners in the message of the gospel. First, let me make sure we understand what this means. First, it's a message. It has content. It's truth. There is truth claims. Jesus Christ was God. Jesus Christ was sinless. Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. There are truths that if those truths are not part of the gospel, it's no gospel. Our gospel can't be fuzzy. It needs to be clear in the declarations of what God has said it is. Second, it's a message entrusted to all God's people. You're enlisted as heralds. Third, it's a message that must be proclaimed. I just want to come back to that question, what does it take to discourage you in rejection? I assume most people don't proclaim the gospel because they're afraid of rejection. They're rejecting God, and their rejection of you is simply their continued rejection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But here's the power of the message. You keep proclaiming it, knowing that God in His mercy will use your faithful proclamation to bring Himself glory. Don't be afraid of rejection. You see, it's not faith in the person and their response. It's faith in the good news. It's actually being convinced this is really good news. If it's not worth proclaiming in a way that would get it rejected, it's just news. Keep it to yourself. But if it's good news that everyone must hear, it's worth declaring even if it's going to be rejected. There's something in the backdrop here that I hope is helpful. God has a public and a secret will. What's amazing about chapter 9 is it actually pulls back the curtain of His will, not fully. God's public will is this, that everybody hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what God has said He wants. Everybody to hear. His secret will is who will believe. We don't have access to that. It's a secret. What we're called to do is be obedient to that public will. Proclaim Him in His words, in His truth. Some application from this is beyond just proclaiming Him to those that I know. Application of this is simply being a faithful church member. You see, everything we do when we gather, We've really focused hard on making this a simple church so that everything we do is focused on hearing the Word of God, reading the Word of God, singing the Word of God, praying the Word of God, practicing the Word of God. When we gather, what we're doing is reminding one another so we're built up in this gospel. You're not just called to herald the truth to those who are outside. We're supposed to always be reminding one another of this truth. What we do is always centered around God's Word, God's Gospel, so that we, when we're actually properly functioning members, as Paul says in Ephesians 4.16, the whole body's built up. You see, if you think, I don't need to go hear it because I don't want to be taught anymore, you're in great danger. Sin has already deceived you. If you think, I only want to come here, I don't want to be a proclaimer, you're missing it. The rest of the church needs you to be present so that you can be involved and active in proclaiming the gospel to remind us of the truth. You are called to be a proclaimer and a hearer. Let me be clear about something that we've tried to be clear about, but apparently not clear enough. The greatest words in the Christian community are, I'm sorry and I forgive you. That's living out the gospel with one another. Those are gospel declarations. We need to be quick to confess and quick to forgive. I fear we're very quick to correct and slow to confess. I fear we're very slow to forgive and very quick to make sure somebody feels the full weight of their sin. See, the Christian community is supposed to be different because the gospel changes the way we relate to one another in that we're not afraid to say, I failed you, I'm sorry. Another person needs to be quick to say, I forgive you. See, that's actually living up the gospel of Jesus Christ. Finally, before we move on, faith comes from hearing, hearing through the Word of God. We must be a people speaking the Word of God so others hear and believe. However, this last point, and let me be clear, is the frightening point, the frightening end of what Paul is saying. Hearing is not enough. Look at verse 18. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have. He's quoting from Psalm 19 next. Psalm 19 is important in its context. Psalm 19 is declaring general revelation. Psalm 19 is a praise of God for how the mountains and the declarations of God in His creation proclaim His glory. Paul is quoting from Psalm 19 to make it clear that God has declared himself in his creation. And if you're here for Romans 1.20, we already know that's true. Because he says there, they are without excuse because what can be known about God is clearly perceived in creation. And yet they still don't honor him or thank him. So verse 18 of Romans 10 is quoting a Psalm that declares how his creation proclaims the glory of God that should be honored. This leaves everyone with that excuse. Their voice is going out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. What can be known about God has made it evident, but we reject Him. Verse 19 focuses it a bit more precisely. Not just creation, but I ask, did Israel not understand? So he quotes Moses. Moses says, this is the special revelation to Israel. This is the song of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy, before they're about to go on the promised land. This is Moses rallying the troops, getting them ready, believe in God, he will give you victory. In the middle of this, he warns them, because you are going to pursue idols, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Actually, the bigger context here is God says, because you keep whoring after other gods and making me jealous for you, I'm going to make you jealous with another nation. What He's saying here is God has made His plan known. More precisely, verses 20 and 21, Isaiah is so bold to say, I have been found by those who do not seek me. I have shown myself to those who have asked for me. Those people that the Jews think, I'm glad I'm not like them, the Gentiles. Those Gentiles who were going after every other kind of God but God, He has said, I am going to choose them. I'm going to save them. I'm going to bring them into my kingdom. And then this last declaration, worthy of our meditation and This should put fear into our hearts. All day long, God says, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Romans 9 gave us a picture of God who is mighty, whose right hand stretches down and saves whomever he wills. Now we have this picture. God who's putting out His hands constantly for His people. Would you listen? Would you only believe? Would you only respond to my love? What a beautiful picture. What a beautiful picture of a God who's zealous for a people who has no zeal for Him. Who loves these people and they constantly reject Him because they're disobedient and contrary. Now there's a wrestle with how to really fathom this picture of this loving God who's putting out his hands constantly and always being rejected. Kind of like a wife. Goes to her husband and says, come to bed with me. The husband responds, I'm in the middle of a video game. I'm sorry dear, I'm in the zone. I gotta finish this video game. This man's a fool. He's living in a world that doesn't really exist, and he's forsaking true pleasure, true relationship, true love for a game. It's not like us. God is saying, I am life, I am offering you life, I'm offering you love, I'm offering you what true worship is, and we are too busy with everything else we want to do that keeps us entertained. That's what it is. He's saying, come to me, hear, believe, know what true love is, and we're too busy. God, I got my other stuff. I'm thankful Sam's going through Hebrews, because the primary message of Hebrews goes along with what this passage is. Today, if you hear His voice, do not refuse. Today. If you hear His voice, be frightened by how disobedient and contrary we can be. It's frightening as I meditate on this how many times I said no to worship because of some silly thing I wanted to do. How many times I said no to being faithful because of some other pleasure, some other entertainment. God is saying this is the true life, this is true worship. How often we reject Him. The beauty of the gospel, He is faithful and true. The beauty of the gospel is that God doesn't get hindered by our rejection. He is faithful. His love never depends upon our response. He's faithful and He's true. This is the God who invites you to know Him, to love Him, and to worship Him. Let's bow our heads. Father, we thank You that You are the God who pleads with us in love. We thank You, God, that You declare Your love. Give us the grace to respond by faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.