Published: November 10, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 56 | Scripture: Romans 10:13-21
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passage today um today um starting in verse 13 and reading through the end of the chapter in verse 21 going to read that passage I like to ask Yuri to pray for the ministry of the
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word this morning Romans chapter 10 beginning in verse 13 for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be
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saved how then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed and how they how shall they believe him whom they have not heard and how should they hear without a preacher
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and how shall they preach unless they are sent just as it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who bring Glad Tidings of good
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news however they did not all heed the Glad Tidings for Isaiah says Lord who has believed our report so faith comes from hearing and
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hearing by the word of God but I say surely they have never heard have they indeed they have their voice has gone out into all the Earth
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and their words to the ends of the world but I say surely Israel did not know did they at the first Moses says I will make you jealous by that which is not a
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nation by a nation without understanding I will anger you and Isaiah is very bold and says I was found by those who sought
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me not I became manifest to those who did not ask for me but as for Israel he says all the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and
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obstinate people let us pray Lord thank you that you've revealed yourself to us through your word and
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nature thank you that you communicated through prophets and uh we want to put our faith
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to the test right now and hear you today we do not want to be like the Israelites who were who were OBS we heard your word and we want to
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obey we pray that CH will be able to clearly exposit your word to us and allow us to apply it to ourselves in the
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here and context as well in Jesus name amen there's um little doubt that this passage that
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we that I just read is pertaining to Evangelistic missions the sending forth of the gospel and it has been used that way for Millennia and I think reasonably so but it reminds me
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of something that that someone said years ago they they were in the process of departing from our fellowship because of the reform form Med Doctrine and um
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the person said to me I don't believe in Calvinism I believe in evangelism well that kind of was a nutshell of the general stereotype of
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Reform theology is that there's no room in the doctrine of election for evangelism the argument of course if God
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knows who he's going to elect and he's already elected from before the foundation of the world then why bother sending out missions why bother
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evangelizing and there is a certain plausibility to the argument and yet when we carry that argument through we find ourselves arguing in fact against God's
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word certainly the passage says how shall they preach unless they are sent and so the passage this passage is often used in missions conferences and and the the background passage that you you might
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hear The Echoes as I read through this is Isaiah 6 and we'll be looking at that as well but the the phrase here I am send me is often the title of missionary
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conferences here I am send me but what are you being sent with what is the message that is going
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forth is it possible to evangelize without Doctrine or in another way that some people look at it is it possible to to preach like an Armenian but then
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teach like a calvinist many people believe that evangelism should be the the simple gospel and you should not complicate it with Doctrine and you should not
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complicate it with with a lot of extraneous uh topics and and and things that might upset the hearer like sin
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judgment death and so evangelism often is um an encouragement a a an admonition to to get your life in order by coming to
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Jesus to choose Christ is a popular phrase another one is make a decision for Jesus again that's Armenian and the
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motive Force within that sort of evangelism is the Free Will of man but I ask what what is the message that Paul is
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saying needs to be sent well clearly it's the message of Jesus how shall they believe in him who they have not heard how shall they hear unless someone
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preach well Paul is in his own writing here as we've talked about before he's preparing the Roman Christians for his eventual visit and his int ition of
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course is to move on from Rome to evangelize in Western Europe the Western Roman Empire eventually perhaps even to go to Spain in chapter 15 for example we
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read in verses 22- 24 he says um and again this is somewhat in light of what he's saying in chapter 10 for this reason I have often been
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hindered from coming to you but now with no other place for me in these parts and since I have had had for many years a longing to come to you whenever I go to
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Spain for I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you when I have first enjoyed your company I
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think he's preparing them for the expansion of his ministry to the Gentiles as I've said before I think he's he's switching his base of
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operations from Antioch and he has evangelized Asia Minor and into the peninsula that we now call Greece and now he wants to move to Italy and then
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further west eventually to Spain well that's a long way from Antioch so he's thinking okay I'm going to switch thy base of operation Lord willing to Rome and he says I expect to
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be helped by you for how will they believe unless they hear and how will they hear unless someone is sent so perhaps you call it an ulterior
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motive it it's not really because it is the truth the question however is with what message are we sending missionaries out into the
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world most missionary organizations today not all by any means but most are Armenian in their soteriology in other words they firmly
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believe that God has done all that God can do for the Salvation of Sinners and now the rest is the responsibility of The Sinner himself or herself to believe
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the message and to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior although there are even those who don't put much stock in the Lord Business you just simply have
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to accept Jesus as your savior is that the gospel that Paul preached Paul says this in his second
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letter to Timothy he said nevertheless the Firm Foundation of God stands that right there is a pretty strong statement the Firm Foundation of God
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stands having this seal the Lord knows those who are his but we do have the problem of
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course that it does seem to many that if God has chosen from before the foundation of the earth those who will be saved and thereby not choosing the
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rest it seems as though if evangelism is a waste of time but I would say that we cannot abandon the sovereignty of Grace in
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order to defend evangelism or the responsibility of man to repent and believe what has happened in the history of this conflict between Divine
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sovereignty and human responsibility or between election and Free Will is that too many times men on each side have ch Chen their particular perspective over
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against the other that if it's election it can't be by free will if it's free will then it cannot be by election though the scripture teaches both and therefore we have to somehow
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try to harmonize the two I've said before the the little anecdote that someone asked Charles Spurgeon at one point how does he reconcile human responsibility with
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Divine sovereignty and he said I never reconcile friends there really actually is no disagreement or tension between the two
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but I would submit that if if we if the church sends out preachers sends out evangelism with a false message a false
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gospel then they are not bringing salvation the word of Salvation they're bringing the word of human arrogance human self-sufficiency
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and human and human pride and those who come under that influence May of course be saved by the grace of
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grace of God many of them are not and like the three fource of the Farmland the seed that was sown does not bear fruit missionary conferences want
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to emphasize how badly God needs us to get his message out to the unbelieving world God is really lying on us who shall I send God says and Isaiah says
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send me send me Lord but I think instead of Romans 10 or Isaiah 6 perhaps there should be a missionary cont uh conference where the
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theme verse is Jeremiah 2321 where the Lord says I did not send and yet they
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ran I did not speak and yet they prophesied or we should consider what Jesus said to the Pharisees and the scribes when he said you will go
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thousands of miles to make one proelite and then you will make him twice as son of hell as you are and if you don't think Christian missions has been guilty of that you
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haven't read much of the history of Christian missions and if you don't think that it is still doing that then you're not very aware and perhaps a bit naive that as
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long as we're talking about Jesus we're doing missions as long as that's what's on our heart well it also matters what's on our on our tongue because faith comes by hearing
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and hearing by the word of God not by the word of a preacher and it does not come out of the goodness the the the the the stirred up
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Faith within the sinner's heart because that's not even there we must go forward with a Biblical anthropology doctrine of man but also a
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Biblical soteriology that it is God who saves so as reformed thinkers can we harmonize as I I agree with with Spurgeon that there is no tension
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between Divine sovereignty and human responsibility and I also believe that human Free Will is is perfectly a reality and that every single human being has
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the freedom to act according to his nature but that nature is Fallen that nature is dead and trespass in sin and so all that man in sin is
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capable of doing is sinning not in believing and so can we bring these two doctrines together we have to remember that the
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same Lord who said go into all the world and make disciples is also the one who said all that the father has given to me will come to me and so evangelism is right there go
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and make and make disciples how shall they believe in in him whom they have not heard how shall they hear unless someone preach how shall they preach unless they are
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sent so yes evangelism is very much an urgent responsibility of the church in the world but is it the church that is
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making converts I think one of the most UN unfortunate phrases and I'm very um loathed to condemn it because it's the title of
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spurgeon's book about evangelism the winner that has always bothered me who is the soul
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winner God in Christ by the the power of the holy spirit is the sole winner but I do I do accept where Spurgeon is coming from he's trying to teach his students in Spurgeon College
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what sort of sermons are conducive to be used by God the Holy Spirit to bring about the conversion of a sinner's Soul that's really all is what is when he
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says the soul winner you can tell from his other Doctrine his other pre ing that he does not take the credit for that but rather gives the glory to God it is still an unfortunate
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phrase what then is the reformed view of missions was that person right when saying I don't believe in Calvinism I believe in believe in evangelism uh I don't think so but I
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will say that the reformed view of missions rests on two pillars the first of which is salvation is of the Lord
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the second is you must be born again that's looking at it from both perspectives the Divine and the human the redeeming and the redeemed
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salvation is of the Lord there's no mention of cooperation there salvation is of the Lord stand back and see the
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salvation of your God but how is anybody going to be saved well Jesus says to Nicodemus you must be born again now when you can pull that off on your own
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we'll start giving some credit to arminius and his Doctrine but we can't and so the foundation of reformed view of missions is that there is nothing
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that the unbeliever that the sinner can do in order to bring about his own salvation but I want to go behind that as to why is
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that why why has God ordained that in sinning we would render ourselves completely unable of restoration why not give us a chance to
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claw ourselves up out of the pit and to once again stand on The High Ground of faith in God why not well because the entire pattern of
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the Gospel in both Testaments of the Bible is to the glory of God's grace and that that is the reason why
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the pattern of Salvation that we have in scripture is by Divine election God has ordered all things for the glory of his grace and yet we'll
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read in Romans 11 in a week or so but if it is by Grace it is no longer on the basis of Works otherwise Grace is not
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Grace we can read in Galatians that if it is by any work that it is no longer Grace if it's no longer Grace folks it's no longer the
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gospel and that's where Paul went out again to the letter of Galatians he says if any man or Angel preach a different gospel let him be a cursed and then he
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says it says it again and so here is an acid test for evangelism in the church and for the message that is being sent out
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by the church through its missionaries does Grace remain Grace there can be nothing on the part
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of the sinner that merits salvation the salvation the whole of the entire process Remains the gift the free gift of God's
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grace Paul writes to the Ephesians in Chapter 2 for by Grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God and not
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as a result of works that no one should boast now I don't quite understand why the Armenian fails to see that if the
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sinner in and of himself or herself is able to listen to the message of Jesus the Savior his death on the cross his victory over death his resurrection his
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his Ascension to the right hand of the father and in and of herself say I like that I'm going to believe in that how is that not something upon
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which The Sinner can then boast how is that not something that the sinner can then say makes him to differ
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from his brother or sister or neighbor who hears the same message but chooses not to not to believe but God has made it clear he will not share his glory with another
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and that glory is to be manifested through Jesus Christ and the gospel focusing on that one particular aspect of his glory his
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grace his grace his mercy and his salvation are entirely by Grace now as I mentioned before Paul's
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thoughts In this passage are on his own mission to the Gentiles he's he's really moving on toward uh a little bit more practical
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letter to the Romans how they're doing how he's heard about their their inner congregational Strife there's evidently also some tension between the Jewish Believers and the Gentile Believers he's
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going to deal with that in Romans 14 later on in Romans 16 he's going to give his greetings to the various brothers and sisters that he knows in the congregation of Rome so so in a sense
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the doctrinal theological portion of Romans is is behind us and he's moving on to his own mission but I would submit to you that in what he's writing
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here there is an entire Old Testament scene that is in his mind in the background this is one of those Echoes we've been talking about on Thursday
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evenings and that Echo is Isaiah 6 the throne room scene in Isaiah 6 in Isaiah 6 ver verse 8 Isaiah has is
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given the vision of the Lord upon his throne and of the Angels standing around that throne room and the and the great Majesty of the presence of Yahweh and in verse 8 then I heard the voice of the
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Lord saying who shall I send and who will go for us then I said here I am
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me so the idea of being sent first of all we need to understand that the one who sends is sends is God now he uses the church as the instrument of that sending yes but it is
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God who sends in fact the word that's used here in terms of um who how shall they preach unless they are sent that word sent is
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Apostle how shall they hear unless someone is apostle how are they going to send or how are they going to hear the gospel if someone doesn't go and preach and so Paul is
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thinking in terms of Isaiah 6 but he's thinking of the whole passage in Isaiah 6 not just being sent because who is
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sent or who it is who sends and the message with which one is sent are both vital to the missionary activity listen
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to what Isaiah continu used to say in Isaiah 6: 9 and 10 then he said go and tell this people
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keep on listening but do not perceive keep on looking but do not understand render the hearts of this people insensitive their ears dull their eyes
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dim lest they see with their eyes hear with their ears understand with their hearts and return and be
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healed you will never hear those verses in a modern missionary conference go to the unbeliever and say keep on hearing but do not understand keep on seeing but do not perceive lest
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you hear with your ears and see with your eyes and turn repent and be healed that does not sound like a gospel message that is not actually what Isaiah
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said as we're going to going to see later Paul does quote from Isaiah 52 52 and 53 of course are the great Gospel of Isaiah he says who has believed our
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report what God is doing in Isaiah 6 is basically what Paul picks up on in his modern issue and that is why does Israel not believe because the message of Salvation
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through Jesus through Jesus Christ renders the unbeliever
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insensitive dull of hearing dim of seeing unless something else happens and that something else is not something that the Evangelist himself can affect Paul says in Corinthians 2
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Corinthians chapter 2 he says our message is the the aroma of Life unto life to those who are being born again but it is the scent of death unto death
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to those who are perishing who is capable of these things so much modern preaching is nothing but the aroma of sweetness God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life I don't
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know that I don't know what plan God has for any individual person I do know that they cannot come into the father except through Jesus Christ the son and if by
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God's mercy and his election that is the case well then yes he has a wonderful plan for your eternity but even then I don't know how your life's going to turn
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out the message if it is false means it is a false gospel if the Armenian message of
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evangelism does not effectively bring in converts people making decisions for Christ people signing the card people being baptized then the Armenian solution is
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to change the method and that is what has happened throughout the history especially the modern history of western evangelicalism
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western evangelism the leader of this movement in the 19th century was Charles finny who developed a number of of methods by which he could stir the hearts of the unbeliever to make a decision for Jesus
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That Was Then picked up by such evangelists as Billy Sunday and Billy Graham Dwight Graham Dwight Moody now it has become a very popular
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notion among the uh myology of evangelicalism to try to make a connection with the unbelieving world to become culturally relevant the Apostle
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of of this sort of evangelism is is Rick Warren and his purpos driven Church to the point where you you can no longer hear the message of the Gospel in
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the Evangelistic preaching of so many missionary organizations in organizations in addition missionary addition missionary Logistics have jettisoned the local
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church so most of you if you had a desire to become a missionary then you would be you would align yourself with a missionary organization a par Church
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organization and your responsibility would be to go around to different churches different churches different congregations in order to build support that's called deputizing that you would
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rais support for your missionary activity years ago I was I was part of a board of someone who was starting a seminary in
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seminary in Trinidad and it was part of a reformed missionary organization and I remember at the time what was what was required it was not just what we might
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say room and board they they were not they did not simply have to raise enough funds to provide for their living their their residency and their eating in the
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in Trinidad but they also had to raise up support for their health insurance and they had to raise support for their pension plan for their retirement and there were another uh other things that
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they had to raise support for not only the going but all of the administrative costs that are now Associated I I can't see that in
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scripture and and so what we see so often in scripture is for example in acts when the holy spirit says to the leaders of the church at Antioch set
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apart for me Paul and Barnabas later Paul and Paul and Silas and send them and they will
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go as Jesus said with with without an extra bag without an extra staff and they will go into the homes and if the a person of peace is in that home they will their peace will rest upon that
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house they will receive from their Ministry the wherewithal that they need to continue the ministry and we know from Paul's life that when that wasn't
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forthcoming he would go back to his occupation and he would make tents to raise whatever funds he makes a point of course in in Corinth of not demanding
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any money from them not even taking any money from them so not only is the message of modern evangelism weakened by
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arminianism the whole method of Modern evangelism jettisons or divorces the message of the Gospel from Doctrine there is normally not one particular
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Church to which a missionary is accountable but rather a whole group of churches and where is accountability at that point especially when many of these churches themselves don't necessarily
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agree on their Doctrine
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preaching today very much the way a business will measure its own operations and its own Productions and that is through growth if a missionary Endeavor if a
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rally or a Revival as they call it does not yield a certain number of decision then it's not really considered a success if the missionary organization
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or the evangelism of a particular church is not filling the pews then often the move is to change the message and to make the message more
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appealing to The Sinner but God's plan all along leading up to the time of Jesus Christ leading up to the to the
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culmination of God's promise to bring the Messiah God's intention was to save a Remnant again Isaiah 6 there's so much
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in Isaiah 6 that goes behind Romans 10 but looking now at 11 and 12 in Isaiah 6 then I said Lord how long and he answered until cities are
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devastated and without inhabitant houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate utterly desolate the Lord has removed men far
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away and The Forsaken places are many in the midst of the land again this does not sound like a mission conference
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mission conference message but listen to verse 12 yet there will be a tenth portion in it and it will be again subject to
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burning like a tabin or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled the holy seed is that stump that stump
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is the remnant of Israel so what Isaiah experienced is now being lived by the Apostle Paul and again within the whole context of what about Israel Paul can go
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back to the Old Testament and say that's what was always planned the message would go out the message of God's salvation by grace through faith the righteous shall walk by faith but Israel
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will make a religion of its law and will try to make its own righteousness and will reject the righteousness of God and there will be Devastation that has not
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quite come yet but in a few years in ad70 once again Isaiah's prophecy will again come true and Jerusalem will be devastated but God says yet I have a
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tenth among them and the holy seed is that stump the holy seed is that Remnant and so how then do we measure the success of preaching how do we measure
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the success of evangelism well he says here in chapter 10 Again quoting now from Isaiah 52 beautiful on the mountain are the feet of those who bring Glad
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Tidings of good news this is a Herald's job to bring the tidings of good news
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this has the connotation of a military Victory and one would be selected from among the troops to run back as a Herald to the hometown the home capital and
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announce the good news the Glad Tidings of Victory and also that the Victorious King is on his way home that is the message that Isaiah
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brought and yet the people said we don't want to hear it that is the message that Jesus Christ fulfilled and yet Israel said we don't want to hear
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it what they wanted to hear and what God gave them were two completely different things and so the Evangelist the preacher stands in the place of The
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Herald and what is it that the herald is responsible to do is to Faithfully deliver the message of the good news
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that is all all the Harold is supposed to do in our world history class we talked about the the story whether it's true or not of the Harald in Greek
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history coming back from the Battle of Marathon after the Greeks had amazingly and unpredictably defeated the Persians he ran back roughly 26 miles to Athens
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and he announced the good the Glad Tidings of good news and then apparently he fell over dead from running 26 miles now I don't know if that's a pattern for evangelism but it is an illustration of
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what the scripture is talking about here the Evangelist is the herald he brings good news for the people but not by the people the good news is for the people
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but it is by the king the one who has brought Deliverance against the enemies and victory in the battle now Isaiah's mind shifts he's now in Isaiah 52 where
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we find that passage how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring Glad Tidings of good news a little bit later though what is the good news
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Well in Isaiah 52:10 the Lord Has beared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations that all the ends of the Earth may see the
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salvation of our God there's your soteriology for you the good news isn't oh I fought a great battle against the Free Will of men men and I was able to
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persuade them to choose Jesus no the good news is that the Lord has Beed his holy arm that all the nations might see the salvation of our
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God that is divine election but is also the Divine the omnipotent power of divine grace and I think that's something that evangelism needs to be
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steeped in and that is the omnipotence of divine grace again reading from Ephesians 2 but God being rich in Mercy because of his great
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love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions he made us alive together with Christ and then
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Paul says by Grace you have been saved every single passage in Paul's letters that speak of Salvation from our perspective is in the passive voice
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we did not make ourselves alive our status was dead in our transgressions and sins he made us alive by the omnipotent power of His
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grace but God has ordained an instrument of that power and this is where the doctrine of divine sovereignty and election and the doctrine of salvation
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through the preached word come together he has an instrument for the exercise of that power 1 Corinthians chapter
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1 God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe that's what Paul is talking about here in Romans 10
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that's what fleshes out in practical application the reformed doctrine of evangelism God has not chosen in his will to
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will to Simply immediately save those who are going to be saved by immediate I mean without any instrument in between he has placed an instrument in
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the hand of the Holy Spirit by which the omnipotent power of divine grace will effectively regenerate hearts and save Sinners and that instrument is the
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preaching of the Gospel but that gospel needs to be true pure and pure and complete a half gospel is a false gospel
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and so there is news that the church is Proclaim he speaks in 1 Corinthians one of the foolishness of preaching but remember he's not speaking of foolish
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preaching he's speaking of Godly biblical preaching which is foolishness to the world foolishness to the Greeks a stumbling Stone to the
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Jews foolish preaching is just that foolish it has no power in it whatsoever and whatever it does bring is not
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salvation the preacher is the Harold of the good news but that news is the account of something that has happened it's not God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life it's not
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choose Jesus and he will help you have a better marriage choose Jesus and he will help you manage your finances choose Jesus and he will help your children to be better children that
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is a false gospel none of those things are promised to even those of us who believe the true gospel then is the fullness of the news of what God has
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done in Christ what he promised to do what he has done and the impact of what
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means and so what does this constitute what constitutes the good news the news of Christ's Victory and that means we have to also bear the news of our defeat Spurgeon writes in his book The Soul
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winner he said the sermons that are most likely to convert people now I would rephrase that I would say the sermons that are most likely be to be used by
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the holy spirit in the conversion of Sinners seem to me to be those that are full of truths truth about the fall
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truth about the law truth about human nature and its alienation from God truth about Jesus Christ truth about the Holy Spirit truth about the Everlasting
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father truth about the New Birth truth about the obedience to God and how we can learn it and all such great
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varities when people say that evangelism should just be the simple message that God loves you or that Jesus died for your sins that that is not the Harold
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news the Herald's news of course is that you were defeated you were not simply battling against sin you were dead in sin and transgression the good news is
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that Jesus Christ won the victory having taking the certificate that was written against us out of the way nailing it to the Cross having humiliated the powers and principalities having defeated them
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in the cross the good news is that Jesus Christ has gained the victory over death on the third day he rose from the grave and therefore death no longer has its
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sting death no longer has its Victory it has been taken from him Jesus Christ has dethroned the prince of this world he has taken back creation from the one who
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has usurped it from man Satan these are all the things that God has given us as good tidings Glad Tidings of good news and
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news and yet as Paul says In this passage who has believed our report and again that's from Isaiah 52 who has believed
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our report which what metric can we use in terms of the effectiveness of our preaching what method can we use in terms of the effectiveness of
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evangelism well it's not numbers Jeremiah preached in a day of small things Isaiah said who who has believed our report and to whom has the
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arm of the Lord been revealed there it is there's that sovereignty the omnipotence of divine grace it's not the Herald's report there may be those back
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in Athens who don't want to believe that the King has won a great victory over the Persians they didn't have a king pardon me that the Greek army has won a great victory over the Persians they
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might say no I don't believe you they might say as Thomas did I need to see it but how will they feel when the king marches back into town how will those who have rejected
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the Glad Tidings of good news that Jesus Christ has won the ultimate victory over sin over Satan over death and they choose yes they choose according to
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their nature they choose according to their free will not to believe it or not to care or they didn't even know there was a battle going on they're so busy with their own lives what will become of
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them when the king returns that's the message of message of evangelism repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand but the messenger must
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bring the truth and not something that is that is calculated to persuade and cool or feel or guilt or to make promises that are not
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biblical presumptive preaching is false preaching so he says here faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and this is where I want to end because
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this is I think such a powerful verse now we all know if we've read the Bible and we've listened to sermons that the Greek word for word is logos and Jesus
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is the logos but that is not the word that is used here the word here isma and that word is spelled in the
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Greek with what's called a a rough breather a little apostrophe a little backwards apostrophe over the first letter because the word
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itself sounds like what it is it'sa it's the breathe literally the breathed word yes the source of all salvation is
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the word of God the logos of God but the instrument of that salvation the way that salvation is brought about is frankly not by inadvertently picking up a tract on a bench in a the
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park yes that might work by God's grace but he has ordained the foolishness of the word the word Rama preached there is a power in the
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word of the Gospel that the Holy Spirit uses as a a surgical instrument to take out a sinner's Heart of Stone and replace it with a heart of Flesh to
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write upon that heart the New Covenant the law of God written upon that heart to make a new creation out of the Fallen old creation that's a power that no
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preacher has no matter how elequent no matter how powerful or in many cases no matter how matter how loud that is not what brings about
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salvation the word breathe the message preached has in and of itself the power to save the news Faithfully heralded
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carries with itself the divine power of Salvation and therefore reformed evangelism biblical evangelism is simply as we've seen I don't know if they still
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do this in the courtroom the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us God let us
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pray father we do pray that you would hold us steadfast to the truth of the news of Jesus's victory that we might indeed rejoice in that news and pass it
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along that we might each be Heralds in our families Heralds in our neighborhoods Heralds in the circumstances in which we find ourselves having gone that we might make
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disciples we also pray father that you would raise up missionaries even from this congregation as small as it is who would be dedicated not to
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convincing men but rather to heralding the great news the Glad Tidings of yahweh's victory over sin and death and Satan
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through our Lord Jesus Christ Our conqueror and our captain we Rejoice father that you have won the victory through your son and that we are the beneficiaries of that
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Victory and I do pray father that by the Holy Spirit each day we might bask in the light of that great victory through Jesus Christ Our Lord
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amen please stand for the benediction from 2 Corinthians the end of that letter the grace of the Lord Jesus
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Christ and the love of God and The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all amen