[0:00] Please take a copy of God's word and turn to me to Romans chapter 10. Our text today is verses 6-21 and I'll be putting an emphasis on verses 14-17.
[0:16] So let's read Romans 10 starting in verse 6 together. But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?
[0:30] 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.
[0:41] 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 with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
[0:57] For the scriptures say, 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.
[1:10] For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
[1:22] 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!
[1:33] But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed that he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
[1:46] 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 end of the world. But I ask, Did Israel not understand?
[1:58] Then, First Moses says, I'll 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.
[2:11] I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, All the day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
[2:22] This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Amen. Let us pray together. Father, Your word is powerful, and it is sharper than a two-edged sword, and it's living and active, working in our hearts.
[2:36] We ask, As the word goes forth this morning, You will humble us, that we will hear from the living God in His word, and experience His goodness. And Lord, we ask that my words would help make this word clear and understandable.
[2:49] In Jesus' name, Amen. The name of today's sermon is the Paradigm for Gospel Missions. A paradigm is a model to be followed.
[3:01] My aim, by the end of this exposition, is to provide all of you with God's authoritative model for doing biblical missions. Before we get there, though, I'd like to show you the major contours and structures of Romans chapter 10, as the main focus of missions is verses 14 through 17.
[3:19] So my intention is to walk you through the major thoughts in chapter 10, explain the teaching, and then we'll hone the rest of our time in on verses 14 through 17.
[3:30] So in Romans 10, there is four major thoughts that are being developed. The major thoughts are verses 1 through 5, verses 6 through 13, verses 14 through 17, in verses 18 through 21.
[3:47] So in verses 1 through 5, Paul's desire is to see the Jews to be saved. But the Jews have not placed their faith in Christ. They've placed it in their own works.
[3:57] And they're not seeing that all the law in the Old Testament institution points to Jesus. So then, in verses 6 through 13, Paul explains that saving faith comes through Christ, not our works.
[4:10] In verses 14 through 17, Paul teaches the only way for someone to believe in Christ is through the preaching of the gospel. And in verses 18 through 21, Paul explains how the gospel has been proclaimed throughout all of Asia Minor, saving many Gentiles, but the Jews still have heard and rejected Christ.
[4:30] Last Sunday, Nathan clearly laid out the gospel for us. And he reminded us that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, not of any of our works.
[4:42] Our hope is in Christ alone, as the song we just sung reminds us so well. So now, let's look at the three last sections. We're going to look at verses 6 through 13, 14 through 17, and 18 through 21 together.
[4:57] So in verses 6 through 13, Paul explains that saving faith only comes through Christ, not our works. Saving faith begins in our heart, and it comes out in evidence itself in outward action.
[5:10] And it's here that he declares that this outward action is a confession of Jesus Christ as Lord. His main assertion is in verse 9, 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.
[5:25] In these verses, we see that God rejects, in these verses, God rejects that man could do anything to earn or acquire salvation apart from saving faith.
[5:37] There is no tower that we can build to grasp God, and there is no sacrament we can perform to earn our salvation. It is by believing in our heart that Jesus rose from the dead.
[5:48] Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. But we see here that faith is never alone. This faith is a living faith, and it produces good works, or evidence is good fruit. And here, the evidence of faith is a confession that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[6:04] Living faith, saving faith, submits to the Lordship of Christ. This is a submission that his will and purposes, not our own, are better. It is to understand that his way is better and not our own.
[6:17] It is to say, as John the Baptist says, he must increase, and I, I must decrease. So then, Paul goes on in the next four assertions.
[6:28] He uses the word four to explain his argument that in verse four, saving faith provides justification, or, sorry, verse ten, saving faith provides justification, confession, evidence, salvation.
[6:40] We see in verse eleven, saving faith gives assurance. Verse twelve, we see that saving faith is without distinction. And in verse thirteen, saving faith submits to the Lordship of Christ.
[6:51] So as he's worked out this point, he wants to hit home that we are saved by faith alone. That's what he's hitting in verses six through thirteen.
[7:03] And then he hits home that that saving faith always produces fruit. So in verses fourteen through seventeen, Paul teaches that the only way for someone to believe in Christ is through the preaching of the gospel.
[7:15] And in this, we see that God uses means to bring salvation to his people. Paul, building on his argument in six through thirteen, contends that one cannot have saving faith unless they hear the gospel.
[7:29] And he summarizes this in verse seventeen. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. In verses fourteen through fifteen, Paul lays out God's ordained means for missions.
[7:42] We could call this the church planting strategy, if you will. And here is what I have called the paradigm for gospel missions or God's ordained model for missions. This text here serves as a commentary for the Great Commission in Matthew twenty eight, sixteen through twenty.
[7:59] And for the church's sending authority in Acts thirteen, one through three. And if you are, if you remember in Matthew twenty eight that Jesus Christ has all authority and then he commissions his disciples who then plant churches and these churches then spread the gospel further.
[8:15] Well here in our text in Romans, we have Christ who has all authority. He's Lord over all. But no one will know Christ unless someone goes. So we have a, almost a reassertion of the Great Commission here with the emphasis on someone has to be sent, which reminds us of Acts thirteen.
[8:33] So read verses fourteen through fifteen with me. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in him whom they've never heard?
[8:45] 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 good news.
[8:56] There's a very simple logical argument here. Paul argues for someone to believe, they must hear the gospel. For someone to hear the gospel, they must be sent. And for someone, or they must be sent and they must share it.
[9:09] And for someone to share, they must be sent. Therefore, Paul's contending that the work is spread in the gospel through the ends of the earth is the church sending missionaries to preach the gospel.
[9:20] By the preaching of the gospel, people come to faith and churches are formed. And Paul supports this with quoting two Old Testament passages in our text. He quotes Isaiah 52, 7 and Isaiah 53, 1.
[9:33] I'm going to read Isaiah 52, 7, or 52, 7 through 10. And I want you to listen and hear the emphasis of the gospel. I want you to hear the mission drive of the text.
[9:44] Isaiah 52, 7 through 10. How beautiful, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says, who says to Zion, your God reigns.
[10:02] The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice. Together they sing for joy. For eye to eye, they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together in singing, you waste places of Jerusalem.
[10:13] For the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.
[10:25] How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Feet are not something we think of as being beautiful. My wife would agree with that statement. She does not like feet.
[10:37] But in Romans 10, they're pointed out because they're useful. It takes someone's feet to bring a message to someone. It was the idea of someone being sent from somewhere to go somewhere else and bring a message.
[10:49] The feet was the means to bring that message. So the point Paul's making is that the feet here were how the messenger would travel to publish peace, to publish salvation, and to bring good news of happiness.
[11:03] They were the means of how the gospel was heard. He uses the proclamation of his people who are broken, who are saved by our Redeemer, to then bring it to broken people who need to be saved by our Redeemer.
[11:18] The means by which the gospel is heard is through those being sent, is through missionaries. The task of preaching the gospel is not merely local, but to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 52, 10 declares, all the earth, all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
[11:35] Jesus is Lord of all, and he is spreading his kingdom through the gospel to the ends of the earth. It makes me think of Matthew 16, 18 when it says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[11:50] Do you notice that language? Jesus will build his church. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus is on the offensive. It's militant language. He's building, he's working, and the defensive is the gates of hell.
[12:05] Our king is Jesus, and he is Lord over all, and he will defeat every power of hell that is against him in building his church. Nothing, no power, institution, king, or governor, or government can thwart the almighty power of King Jesus in expanding his kingdom through the gospel.
[12:27] Eventually, in one day that we long for, all the kings of the earth will bow their knee and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. He is ruler of the kings of the earth, Revelation 1, 5, and he is the king of kings, Revelation 17, 14.
[12:43] The church would do well to see the importance of this work and the importance in all the earth. The quotation from Isaiah 53, 1 harkens back to Romans 9 that we just spent a lot of time in and reasserts God's sovereign work in calling sinners to himself.
[13:01] The gospel is offered to all, but all do not come. Only those whom Isaiah 53, 1 says, the arm of Yahweh has been revealed. God will call his sheep to himself and be the shepherd of all people.
[13:16] He will lead his people to green pastures and cool waters all of their life and one day he'll welcome all of his people into the paradise of heaven. Therefore, that is verses 14 through 17.
[13:30] Now in verses 18 through 21, Paul explains how the gospel has been proclaimed through all Asia Minor, saving many Gentiles, but the Jews have still rejected Christ.
[13:42] Paul's point in verses 18 through 21 is summarized in verse 21. He says, but of Israel, he says, all the day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
[13:55] While the gospel has gone to the Jews and Gentiles without distinction, the Jews have continued in their rejection of Christ. Paul emphasizes this point through quoting Old Testament scripture and you can see there there's three or four that are quoted in a row.
[14:10] In verse 18, he quotes Psalm 19, 4, to compare the spread of the gospel to God's general revelation. As God's majesty has been universally revealed in all creation, as the sun rises to its set, the gospel has been out to all of Asia Minor.
[14:24] It's been universally proclaimed there. Thus far, the gospel has been universally reached in that area. And the point he's making there is that the Jews have heard. In verse 19, he quotes Deuteronomy 32, 21.
[14:38] Paul quotes Deuteronomy to demonstrate that because of Israel's rejection of the gospel, God is making the people jealous with the conversion of the Gentiles. In verse 20, Paul quotes Isaiah 65, 1.
[14:53] Because of Israel's wickedness, God has made the Gentiles his people. In God's work of saving a bribe from all peoples, he has used this as a judgment on Israel for their stubborn and disobedient heart.
[15:04] In Romans 11, we will explain more of this relationship of Israel and the church, of God's working amidst his people. And in this time, what will come clear is God's purpose of election, making his name known through Jesus Christ.
[15:19] So, stay tuned for that exposition. Now that we understand the general contours of Romans chapter 10, we're going to spend the rest of our time thinking about this paradigm for gospel missions.
[15:32] And we find that in verses 14 through 17. We will see this model looking at three areas of the text. We're going to look at the church, the missionary, and the message. We are going to look at the church, the missionary, and the message.
[15:47] To introduce this consideration, though, let us think about the concept of authority. Authority is the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.
[15:59] This power ultimately resides in a person and can be granted to others. The root of authority is that which authors life. Authority is that which authors life.
[16:12] God Almighty has all authority. It ultimately rests in him. He is the author of life. He authored life and creation of all things, and he's authoring life now through his providential power and works.
[16:28] God created man in his image, and man's design was to praise God. God gave him authority to legislate his just and loving commands and to make his glory known.
[16:39] He was to take dominion, being fruitful and multiplying, and to spread the glory of God to the ends of the earth. The whole earth was to be filled with the glory of God as the waters covers the sea.
[16:51] Habakkuk 2.14 But, instead of authoring life and carrying forth God's glory to the ends of the earth, Adam failed in protecting the garden. Adam rejected God's authority and his actions authored death.
[17:06] Romans 5.12 Instead of God's glory covering the earth, sin has marred the earth. Sin has affected every dimension of our life, and at the core of Adam and his sin, they asserted personal autonomy over God's authority.
[17:23] Instead of following God's commands, they followed Satan's deception. They believed falling their way was the best way. This is the same for us.
[17:34] We often trust in our own thoughts and ways above God's. We have been raised in a culture that is consumed with self and has made self the greatest end by which we live and work.
[17:46] The problem is, when we begin rejecting God's word as authoritative and his ways as good, we begin to reject authority for special preference, for individual passions, and personal sophistication.
[18:01] With the rejection of God's authority, one begins to reject his authoritative institutions also. Eventually, autonomy, novelty, and pragmatism are more relevant than God's authoritative word and institution.
[18:15] So eventually, autonomy, novelty, and pragmatism are more relevant than God's authoritative institutions. This is a sad reality we live in today where we see churches without the gospel, governments without godly legislation, and families without family worship.
[18:33] With significance towards individualism and pragmatism in our modern culture, the church, then, as God's authority to spread the gospel, has employed individually focused and pragmatically motivated practices to minister locally and missionally.
[18:52] The concern with these employments that we employ individual motivated and pragmatic methods is that they are not the way in which God has ordained gospel ministry.
[19:03] And often, they go against gospel ministry to emphasize personal aspiration and results in the mission field. Therefore, my hope in the next three points, the next three areas of focus, is to show you that the paradigm for gospel missions revealed in Romans 10, 14 through 17, give us clear direction on the authority and means of missions.
[19:27] The authority to send missionaries is the church. The means is the missionary. The message is the gospel. To divert from church authority, missionary focus, and gospel-centric missions is to divert from God's prescribed model for missions in his word.
[19:47] Therefore, let's look at these areas. Number one, the church. In Matthew 28, 16, Jesus has been given all authority on heaven and earth from God the Father.
[19:58] He has been coronated and he's about to take his throne and his heavenly abode. Before his enthronement, he looks at his disciples and he gives them a charge, a commission. He says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[20:15] Teach them all that I command you. His commission with all authority on heaven and earth to his disciples was to make disciples. And the work of disciple-making demands one, go, baptize, and teach.
[20:29] When we get to Acts, we see a similar address, a different perspective, if you will, and he commands his apostles to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
[20:42] As the apostles preached, churches were formed. These churches then sent missionaries to preach Christ where he has not been made known. And if you read the book of Philippians, you see Epaphras who was someone who came to faith and went to another area and preached Christ and a church was gathered.
[20:58] And now he's writing to this church that was gathered because of someone else going from a church. So we see this all throughout the book of Acts. We see this in the letters. Missionary thinking bleeds all throughout the pages of the New Testament.
[21:12] As you read the New Testament, you see the thrust of missionary movement until one day all people are before God from every tribe, tongue, and nation. In Acts 13, one through three, the church at Antioch commissions Paul and Barnabas to begin the task of going to the ends of the earth.
[21:30] As Christ is building his church, he has legislated authority to an institution. That is the church. The church is the means and end of gospel missions.
[21:41] As the father has sent the son, the son sends his church now. What I'm about to say is very important to hear in our age of individualism and pragmatism. The sending authority in missionaries is not individual desires or aspirations or a sending agency.
[21:57] There is no such thing as lone wolf missionaries. Parachurch organizations do not have authority to commission missionaries. According to the authoritative word of God, the sending authority for missionaries is the church.
[22:12] God has instilled authority to the church to equip to model missions is not operating according to the paradigm for gospel missions found in God's word. And we see this in Romans 10, 15.
[22:25] How are they to preach unless they are sent? As is written, how beautiful are those who preach good news. So let me highlight two ways. I could do many more, but I'd like to highlight two ways in which the church does this work of sending.
[22:38] The church trains missionaries. The work of missions is a command of our Lord. The church is responsible for discerning one's call, evaluating their character, and providing them education, theological education, and know God's word well.
[22:53] In one's calling, God works in the desires of individuals to move them to gospel ministry. It begins in the individual saying, I feel this deep desire that people who don't know Christ to know them. And working in ourselves to conform to how Christ works in us.
[23:07] It begins individually, but individual desire is not authoritative without corporate affirmation. One's desire for missions does not qualify one to do missions.
[23:19] The authority has been given to the church to evaluate and send missionaries, to discern their call and their giftings, and say, I believe, brother or sister, you are called for this work. The church is the bodyguard of biblical missions and ultimately responsible for the work being done by the missionaries they send.
[23:37] Paul describes requirements for missionaries in 1 Timothy 3. A missionary needs to be theologically robust, able to teach, and possess mature, godly character. Theology and piety are the undergirding of healthy mission work.
[23:52] To lack theology will lead to unhealthy churches at best and will lead to unbiblical churches at worst. To lack piety will lead to destroying the work one does.
[24:05] If someone goes without godly character, the work they're going to do will eventually blow up because eventually their teaching will follow what they live. Listen to 1 Timothy 4.16.
[24:16] Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this for by doing so you'll save both yourself and your hearers. Keep a close watch on yourself and your teaching.
[24:28] Theology and piety is in that text. Number two, the church sends missionaries. So the church trains missionaries, the church sends missionaries. If there are men who are theologically robust, able to teach, and has mature godly character, the man is qualified biblically.
[24:45] If there is no matters of prudence hindering the possible missions, the church should labor to work to send them. If they're not qualified and the church thinks that they'll be a great missionary, the church should labor to work to get them where they can send them.
[24:59] The work of sending missionaries is a really hard task though. When churches send missionaries that are qualified, they are often losing those who they love. Men and women who desire missions usually are doing the work of missions in their community.
[25:13] They're usually going and preaching the gospel. They're sacrificing their lives to take care of kids or to go out at really bad hours of the night to share the gospel or to counsel a brother or sister.
[25:24] Usually the people that go to the mission field are the people who you don't want to lose. They're the people that it hurts the most. But there is a greater unity that we have in Christ and a greater participation we have in gospel work.
[25:38] The sacrifice, both financially and relationally, is worth it to be faithful to our King Jesus and to see his name known and to see the lost come to Christ.
[25:49] So, number one, the church. Number two, the missionary. Verses 14 through 15 say, How then will they call in him whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in him whom they've never heard?
[26:02] How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. The missionary is sent under authority to a particular area to then preach the gospel so that the nations would come to Christ.
[26:19] The end goal of a missionary being sent is that churches would be formed that worship Christ accurately, that they have proper teaching and that would develop maturely, have mature character and that's why it says their faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
[26:35] Since the missionary is sent under the authority of the church and their ploy, whatever means, work for them. The missionary methods are governed by the scriptures and they represent the church by which sends them.
[26:46] If we as Christ family church send a brother or sister to the mission field, we are authorizing them to do missions. We're in our authority given by God sending them per se and then we participate in that work.
[26:58] So if we are participating in a mission work that is producing unbiblical means or unhealthy means, we're also responsible for that work because we are the sending agency.
[27:09] We are the ones who have the authority as a church of Jesus Christ. Problem is, in modern times, pastors and missionaries have been influenced by individualism and pragmatism in ministry.
[27:22] Instead of gathering as a church being devoted to God's holiness, that we come and worship Him, we hear His word proclaimed, instead of gathering in the church for God's holiness, church has become a vanity fair for all the seekers.
[27:35] Instead of missionaries working hard to learn languages, to raise up elders, and to do the long-term work of healthy church building, church planning has become a fast food style method of church building where they spend a few weeks or months in an area that's a church and they move on.
[27:51] And we've seen in these practices the damage it's caused that pragmatism doesn't produce healthy churches or healthy results. It might give a number but it doesn't give what we're called to do.
[28:04] Healthy, mature churches that will last long-term to proclaim Christ's name and to the uttermost regions of the earth. Our theology always influences the methods we employ.
[28:17] So when missionaries or pastors employ pragmatic methods, it reveals what they believe. So if we're in a church that caters to pragmatic methods, we believe something about missions that governs how we do church.
[28:31] So as the church and labors of the gospel, we are bound to the paradigm for gospel missions. God's word authoritates, authorizes our methods and sustains our ministry.
[28:43] J.H. Bawink, he is the nephew of Herman Bawink, he was a professor of missions and he was a missionary to Indonesia, teaches that when someone has a question concerning missions, you should respond in this manner.
[28:56] Answers can be given solely on the basis of scripture. For the work of missions is the work of God. It is not lawful for us to improvise. At each step, we must ask, what does God demand here?
[29:09] Although it is not always easy to find the right course, our search must lead us to what God has said in his word. Our convictions and methods, our strength and work come from God's authoritative and imperishable word.
[29:23] This is our church planning methodology, is the word of God. The work of the messenger is a precious work though. We see that here in Romans 10. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
[29:37] The task is ultimately motivated by Jesus Christ and the aim is seeing all people praise God. The believer's deepest motive is that Christ would be glorified. The missionaries is a herald of the most glorious person, the greatest victory and the best news.
[29:53] The work that the missionary does is an honorable calling and we should seek to love and support our missionaries well as they make all these different sacrifices to see Christ known to the uttermost regions of the earth.
[30:04] To give a good example, currently right now, we have brothers and sisters that we dearly love in various parts of the world who are seeking to learn languages so that once they learn a language, they can then go to a different region, a more remote region where there isn't a church and learn another language and then after learning that language, then they start translating the Bible and they start teaching in that language.
[30:25] It's a long-term, heavy-demanding exercise. While we get to be here, we enjoy our family, we enjoy the benefits of our society, we can get anything we want at a moment's notice, whether it's DoorDash or whether it's going to the supermarket.
[30:39] We have so many benefits here in the U.S. Our missionaries are sacrificing all those benefits, a lot of those relational things they dearly love so that Christ would be known. Important work because we want to see their task come to fruition.
[30:52] We don't want to see the task become harder because they don't have the support per se. But this is what we see as Paul's motive here in Romans. Romans 15, 20-21 says, Paul's aim and what he was zealous for is see that those who don't have a chance here, those who have never heard, to know.
[31:27] And that's why when he went to all Asia Minor, he didn't stay in Asia Minor, he then went to Jerusalem so that he could go to Spain. His aim was to get to Spain where the gospel's not gone so that everyone would know, so that this idea of universal revelation of the gospel in Asia Minor would appear to the ends of the earth.
[31:45] But obviously, we see God's sovereignty in him not completing that work. So we need to be those who support missions zealously because of the command of our Lord, or who would be willing to offer ourselves as a priestly service as a minister or a missionary.
[32:02] There's one or the other. We can either serve in a more active role or we can do our best to support the activity of the church. And I don't know if there is a middle ground there as I've wrestled with this sermon and thinking through it is to be faithful to God's missionary command, we should either support or go, what it seems like.
[32:22] Matthew 9, 37-38 says, There he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
[32:35] So let us as a church pray for laborers because the need for missions is so great. Without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, how will one believe?
[32:46] This is Paul's argument. There are millions of people who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. This means that there are millions of souls that are living enslaved to sin that are worshiping idols that are working for their salvation that are living for themselves who will spend eternity in hell.
[33:06] The reality of eternal suffering is the fate of those who don't hear and believe in the gospel. They'll spend all eternity where the unquenchable fire will not end and the gnashing of teeth will continue and they currently have never heard the good news to save them.
[33:22] Do you believe? There should be a weight here that burns in our souls to see the nations know Christ. So for some statistics, there are 3,000 language groups that currently have no church in their language and most of them do not have the scriptures.
[33:39] Chances are there is not a single believer in this language group and chances are they'll never hear the gospel before they die unless someone goes to that language group. Some national statistics.
[33:50] Morocco has 38 million people. 0.1% of the people are Christians. Iraq has 43 million people. 1% are Christians. Iran has 88 million people.
[34:02] 0.02% are Christians. And India has 1,428,000,000 people and 2.3% are Christians. Do those numbers? Do you feel the weight of those numbers?
[34:14] Brothers and sisters, the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few, and the task is needed. So I pray that this text, Romans 10, and the eternal reality will stir us all individually and corporately for gospel missions.
[34:28] If you look at the back of your bulletin, Spurgeon has a wonderful quote regarding missions. It says, If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies.
[34:43] And if they perish, let them perish with their arms wrapped around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let no one go unwarned and unprayed for.
[35:00] Briefly, we're going to talk about the message. I think Nathan did a great job explaining this last week, so I'm not going to belabor the point. Romans 10, 15, and 17. How are they to preach unless they are sent?
[35:13] As is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. The prescribed message for missionaries is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[35:25] The gospel, as Romans 1 tells us, is the power of God for salvation. In it, we hold up our crucified and resurrected Lord so all may see. And we say, Behold him who died and who lived for thee.
[35:39] It is by Christ's active and passive obedience that we stand before God. And without his act and passive obedience, we can't stand before God. In this wonderful message, we declare that Christ perfectly obeyed God's law and sacrificially died for sin.
[35:55] By repentance and faith, this salvation is applied to us. We are clothed in Christ's righteousness and sin is no more. We stand justified and redeemed by the blood of Christ.
[36:05] There is great and unmeasurable hope in the gospel. Unbeknownst to me, I didn't know we were singing His Robes for Mine, but my next line is a quote from that song. So listen to this quote as we sang earlier.
[36:19] His robes for mine, oh wonderful exchanged. Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered neath God's rage. Draped in his righteousness, I'm justified. In Christ I live, for in my place, he died.
[36:34] Missionaries do not have success in fast and innovative methods. Their task is unashamedly to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their success is in the Lord of the harvest calling sinners to himself.
[36:45] Romans 9 is the theological undergirding for evangelism and missions. We sow and plant, we plea, we beg, we labor, but God causes the growth. Jesus Christ is the one building his church and his spirit is the one who opens the eyes to the blind, to seeing the king for all of his beauty.
[37:05] The gospel is offered freely to all and the Lord works freely to save. The missionary task is an empowered task. The messenger is the herald. God is the one who works. Praise God that evangelism and missions does not depend on our own efforts and our own words, but on him.
[37:23] In conclusion, the church missionary task is great, but we aren't individual in it. We join with all the other churches that are healthy, that know the gospel of Jesus Christ and labor that Christ might be known to the other most ends of the earth.
[37:38] There are organizations that train missionaries to go to the unreached areas now. We are in a task with a collection, with numerous churches to see this mission, this task happen.
[37:51] So we labor that the 3,000 language groups would have the gospel proclaimed in their language, that the scriptures would be translated in their language, and that churches would be planted. In this work, God gave us a prescribed model in his word.
[38:05] This is the paradigm for gospel missions. In closing, let me read Isaiah 6, 8 to you. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
[38:17] And then I said, Here I am. Send me. Let's pray together.