Faith Comes from Hearing

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If you’ve been attending our services recently you’ll know that just a few weeks ago we wrapped up our series through the book of John. And in a few weeks we’ll begin a new series through the book of Genesis. We are a church that practices expositional preaching—our aim in every sermon is to faithfully interpret, explain, and apply God’s word. We want God’s word—not our words—to set the agenda for our Sunday services. But not only our Sunday services. We believe deep down in our bones that it is God’s Word that should set the agenda for all that we do as a church—our worship, our care for one another, how we spend our money, and how we reach outside the walls of our church. This is why we’ve taken the last few weeks between John and Genesis to reexamine the vision statement of our church through the lens of God’s Word. How does God’s Word Create God’s People?

We are drawn to vision statements because they give us a succinct understanding of what an organization is about; what matters most to them and what gets them excited. Here are a few popular vision statements from organizations you know:

Habitat for Humanity: “A world where everyone has a decent place to live.”
Nike: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.”
Patagonia (most brazenly of all): “We exist to save our home planet.”

It wasn’t until the 1990s that churches began to jump on the “vision statement” bandwagon, in no small part due to the influence of Rick Warren’s mega-bestseller, The Purpose Driven Church. After all, if secular organizations placed such a high priority on casting an ambitious vision for earthly ends, shouldn’t the church care that much more about casting a compelling vision for eternal ends? And so, churches began to create their own ambitious, thrilling visions to tell the story of what matters most to them and what gets them excited. This week I took a quick survey of the vision statements from 4 of the largest churches in the US:

Church 1: “See what God can do through you.”
Church 2: “Find God. Grow your faith. Discover Your Purpose. Make a difference.”
Church 3: “A thriving movement—transforming lives, growing disciples, unleashing compassion, and equipping leaders to shape the world!”
Church 4: “A Church so large in size that the city and nation cannot ignore it.”

What is our church’s vision statement? Every time you’ve walked into our church’s sanctuary, you’ve walked right by it. On a large canvas board right next to the double doors reads the vision statement for Quinault Baptist Church:

Creating a Covenant Community Who Worships Christ Above All.

I wonder what your immediate, unfiltered reaction is to that statement. Maybe it strikes you as a bit esoteric and lofty, not concrete or specific enough. Maybe, if you’re honest, you wish it was a little more exciting, a little more like those other churches. So why did we choose this statement to encapsulate the vision of our church? Because we believe this is the vision that God’s Word has, not only for our church, but for every church. It’s a vision that is at once both ordinary and supernatural:

Ordinary: Our aim is to build a community of believers—men and women, youth and children—who will gather weekly to worship Christ, understand and obey His Word, and work joyfully and patiently to make him known among the lost in our community and our world. In other words, we simply want to be a faithful church that raises up faithful, ordinary Christians.

Supernatural: None of this is possible without God’s divine, miraculous intervention. How else can spiritually-dead, rebellious, children of wrath like you and me have any hope of finding forgiveness? How can we be crowned sons and daughters of the living God whose righteous commands we have all broken? How can believers who have so little in common not only tolerate one another, but find lasting peace and union? And how can we who still wrestle daily with our sins, our doubts, and our selfishness have any hope of growing in grace, inviting other sinners to believe, and finishing the race? None of this is possible without the supernatural, unmerited grace of the father through the gospel of his son and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Ordinary and supernatural. This is our aim at QBC—to be a faithful, ordinary church that raises up faithful, ordinary Christians to increasingly know, love, and joyfully obey the Lord Jesus Christ in all that he commands through His Word. And all of this is only possible through the supernatural, miraculous work of God through his Word.

Over the last three weeks we have seen how the Scripture—the Word of God—directs and empowers us to carry out this ordinary, yet supernatural vision. We’ve looked at the three directions God’s Word should point us:

Up: In our first sermon we heard from James 1 how it is God’s Word alone, not our words and opinions, that sets the agenda for what we are to believe and how we are to obey.

In: And last week Marc helped us to see from Ephesians 4 how it is God’s Word alone that dictates how we are to care for one another within the church.

Out: This morning my aim is to show you from Romans 10 how God’s Word must dictate and shape how we reach outside the walls of our church.

Let’s turn now and read Romans 10:1-17, on page 946 in your pew Bibles:

Three Points

The Word that Doesn’t Save
The Word that Does Save
How that Word Goes Forth

1. The Word that Does Not Save (1-3)

We are picking up 10 chapters into what is arguably the most theologically dense letter in all of the New Testament.

All throughout Romans Paul has labored to explain the message of the gospel—how all people, both Jews and Gentiles, have turned from the God who created them, worshiping created things over the creator; how each of us has broken God’s holy law and are without excuse—whether the Jews who received the written law of Moses or the Gentiles who had God’s moral law written on their hearts; and how true righteousness—right standing before the Holy God—is a free gift that can only be received by faith in Jesus, not through our own works. In chapters 9 and 10, where we find ourselves this morning, Paul is going to turn his attention back to the Jews, his kinsmen, and plead with them to turn and receive Christ by faith.

Listen to Paul’s heart for his people in Romans 9:1-5:

“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”

Paul’s heart is so full of love and pity for his people that he says, “If it were possible, I would forfeit his own salvation and spend eternity in hell if it meant they could be saved.” Paul is overflowing in love and pity for the plight of the Jews because he himself was once in their place. Look with me now at 10:1-2:

“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.”

What was the Jews problem? They weren’t lacking passion, or drive, or good intentions. They weren’t lacking a desire to please God! And Paul can relate to them. Listen to how Paul describes his former life to the Galatian church in Galatians 1:13-14:

“For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.”

What was Paul’s problem? And what was the Jews’ problem? Not not a lack of zeal, but a lack of knowledge. The people of God who had received the covenants, oracles, and promises of God failed to understand what was necessary to be in right relationship with him. The Jews believed that obedience to the Law of God given through Moses was the pathway to right standing before God. But what was the purpose of the Law? Three purposes:

To display the moral perfection of God’s holy nature.
1. Ps 119:137 “Righteous are you, O LORD, and right are your rules.”
To demonstrate the kind of righteous purity that is necessary to be in relationship with this holy God.
1. Lev 19:2 “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
To reveal our sinfulness and need for a redeemer.
1. Romans 2:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
2. Galatians 3:21-22 “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God [the promise given to Abraham of justification through faith, not works]? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

But where did the Jews go off the track? Let’s turn back to Romans 10:3:

“For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Isn’t it interesting that Paul says that they were “ignorant of the righteousness of God?” Think about the Pharisees in Jesus’ day—how intensely scrupulous they were to obey the law, even going so far as to give a tithe on the tiniest herbs in their pantry: mint, dill, and cumin (Matthew 23:23-24). But Jesus says to them, “Woe to you Pharisees—hypocrites, whitewashed tombs, blind guides, serpents, and brood of vipers—for you love yourself more than you love God and your neighbor.

The Law of God that should have “stopped their mouths” and revealed their utter sinfulness and inability to please God instead stirred up self-righteousness and conceit.

Imagine that God is like the coolest ride at the world’s best theme park, and that the Law of God is the “ride-height” requirement ruler outside the entrance to that ride. Now imagine that you are a kid who runs excitedly to the ride entrance only to have your hopes dashed by the towering “you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride” sign.” To your utter shock as you gaze up at the ruler, you find that the little arrow is not pointing at 48”, or even 60,” but *120”—*ten feet! Even if you were the tallest person on earth, there’s no way you could get in. With hot tears welling up in your eyes, you begin to desperately look around—is there anyone that could help you get on the ride?

And out of the corner of your eyes you see a swarm of other kids, not much older than yourself, buzzing around the 10-foot measuring stick. After an initial moment of confusion you realize what they are doing—they are competing to see who can make themselves the tallest. One kid stands on his tippy-toes, another busts out elevator shoes to add a couple crucial inches, and an especially enterprising young man forces another kid to the ground so he can stand on his back. As you stand there utterly bewildered by these children crawling all over each other you realize two things:

These kids have become so enamored with the measuring stick that they no longer seem all that interested in the ride. This ruler that should have made them feel small and desperate for help has instead stirred up their envy and conceit! It has become like a game to them.
None of these kids, even with their best efforts, are clearing 5-feet.

Friends, this is the Word that does not save. And it’s a false Word that we are attracted to just as much as the Jews were. This false Word that says if you try hard enough—harder than everyone else (or at least harder than most everyone else)—if you keep to the rules, look out for others, and try to leave the world a little better than when you found it… If you are a good person, that will be enough to please God. We can become like those children jumping up and down in front of the towering yardstick, ignorant of the perfect righteousness God requires.

We should be sobered by Paul’s warning in Galatians 3:10,

“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

The perfect righteousness that God requires can never be obtained by any of our efforts—not by you, not by your kind cousin who shares the same values as you, and not by your moral Mormon neighbors down the street. There is only one way to be justified before a holy God, and as we’ll see in our next point, it comes not by doing, but by believing.

What does this have to do with the life of our church and how we think about a philosophy of outreach? Two reminders:

One: Our aim is not to convince unbelievers to live a more moral life.

Charles Spurgeon: We need to keep a clear distinction between the efforts of nature and the work of grace. It is commendable for men to do all they can to improve themselves, and everything by which people are made more sober, more honest, more frugal, better citizens, better husbands, better wives, is a good thing; but that is nature and not grace. Reformation is not regeneration.

I’ve talked before with Christian parents of unbelieving adult children who will say things like this: “My son isn’t walking with the Lord, but at least he has a good job and a nice family.” And I want to say clearly that I so sympathize with that impulse. To sincerely believe what the Bible teaches about the reality of eternal judgment, and then to know that unless something miraculous happens, your son or daughter is preparing to face that deadly judgment is more gut-wrenching than I can imagine. Oh but brother and sister, the answer is not to cocoon yourself away from the painful reality of your child’s eternal plight by lowering God’s righteous standards.

Two: Do not assume that shared vocabulary equals shared belief.

The Jews had much in common with Christians, which makes sense, because Jesus was a Jew and Judaism was the seedbed for Christianity! If you were to jump in a time machine and speak with a first-century Jew, I think you would be amazed to find out just how much shared belief you have between the two of you. You both believe in One God who is infinitely glorious, holy, and merciful. And that this this God is providentially orchestrating all human history for his glory and the good of his people. You both believe in the sanctity of human life, and God’s created design for marriage and family. You would have so much shared vocabulary and yet despite all of that, Paul tells us that the Jews are outside of the grace of God. Why? Because they failed to submit to the righteousness of God that only comes through faith in Christ.

But here’s another truth—you don’t have to jump into a time machine to experience this same kind of dynamic today. How easy is it for us today to assume shared belief because of shared vocabulary? Have you had this happen before where you’re talking to a stranger, and you’re not sure they’re a Christian, and you feel this pressure building up in you (“I should talk about Jesus with this person”) and they hit you with something like, “Man, I just feel so blessed to be where I am today.” Or, I pray all the time for my kids” and we feel this immediate relief! They must be a Christian too! But the inconvenient truth is that you honestly do not know what righteousness this person is submitting to.

Each of us must resolve to never give someone the false impression that they are right before God based on shared morality or shared vocabulary. We must be willing to love our children, our families, friends, coworkers, neighbors enough to share with them the truth that there is only one way to be made righteous in God’s sight.

We’ve considered the Word that does not save— the Word of self-righteousness. Let’s move now to consider the Word that does save.

2. The Word that Does Save (4-13)

Look with me again at Romans 10:4:

“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Christ is the end of the law in two senses—1) he is the fulfillment of the Law.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

And 2) he is the final destination that the Law was always pointing to.

Galatians 3:23-26 “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
Jesus is the 10-foot tall man that is tall enough to ride the ride, and the one who is strong enough and gracious enough to take us along with him by merit of his height, not ours.

And how is it that we gain access to this righteousness of Christ? Not by doing, but by believing.

Now to help us understand what this means we’re going to spend a few minutes wrestling with what I think are the moset perplexing verses in our passage. Verses 6-8 read,

“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)”

Paul introduces what seems like an odd quotation from the Old Testament. You might have a little footnote next to verse 6 that points you to Deuteronomy 30—one of the pivotal moments in Israel’s history where Moses leaves the people with a final word of warning and encouragement as they prepare to enter the promised land, having just heard the Law of God.

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”

Now wait a minute, didn’t we just establish that no one, apart from Christ, is able to fully obey the Law of God? Doesn’t this blatantly contradict what the book of Romans says in 3:20, that “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin?”

But Moses seems to be saying here in Deuteronomy, that the commandment is not too hard to obey, and not too far off or too confusing to understand. In fact, he says, it’s so very near to you that is it “in your mouth and in your heart, so you can do it!” Is the Bible contradicting itself?

John Piper explains that the answer is found in Deuteronomy 30:6, just five verses earlier.

“The reason God’s command is not too hard is that God himself will give the power and ability to love him and obey him and live. “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Moses is deeply aware that without a supernatural act of God in our hearts we are utterly unable to love God and obey him and live (Deuteronomy 5:29; 29:4). Therefore when he says a few verses later that the command of God (to love him and obey him) is easy and within our reach, he does not mean that we are strong enough or good enough to attain it. He means that God is strong enough and good enough to bring it near and put it in our heart and cause us to walk in it. So now we can see why Paul was able to hear Deuteronomy 30:11–14 as the voice of the righteousness of faith. For only those who have faith in this gracious, enabling work of God in their hearts can truly say that the commandment is not too hard. The commandment is near because God draws near to those who trust him.”

And now Paul, writing on the other side of redemptive history, shows us how Christ is the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30. He tells us in Romans 10:6-8,

“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);”

His message is this: we can never, even with our most heroic strivings, attain the righteousness that leads to life. The only way to be made right before God is to rest by faith in the righteousness of Christ who drew near to us.

So how can we say, “Who knows that God wants from us! Because none of us can ascend to him in heaven!” when we know that God’s Son has come down from heaven to make himself known? And how can we say, “Who knows if there really is any hope of life after death, because none of us have ever come back from the grave!” when we know that Christ himself has conquered death!

Friends, this is the word of faith that the gospel proclaims. You cannot ascend to God, but Jesus has condescended to you. You cannot be righteous enough, but Jesus can be righteous for you. You cannot conquer death, but Jesus has conquered it for you. Friend, if you are not a Christian is this room, do you sense in yourself a longing to know God and belong to him? Maybe you don’t need any convincing that you are guilty in God’s sight. You know that you are a sinner and that you cannot have any hope of pleasing him. Maybe God feels impossibly far from you.

Friend, if this is you, I want to tell you that this word of faith that you are hearing right now—the grace of God through Jesus Christ God’s Son —is so near to you, so accessible, that all you need to do is confess and believe.

Romans 10:9-10:

“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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

“Confess with your Mouth that Jesus is Lord”

NIC: This statement of belief, “Jesus is Lord” “proclaims in the simplest possible words that Jesus of Nazareth is in fact God.”

But this must be more than a simple confession that “Jesus is Lord,” because James tells us that even the demons believe this and yet are not saved. I think Paul means for this confession to function as a verbal, external confirmation of the deep-seated conviction that Jesus is not just God, but my God, and as God is worthy of my highest affection, devotion, and allegiance.

In the Words of John Macarthur, “Jesus is Lord, and those who refuse Him as Lord cannot use Him as Savior.”

“…and Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved”

You must ffbelieve with full sincerity in your heart that Jesus did for you what you could not do for yourself. You could not draw near to God, so God drew near to you. You could not achieve the righteousness that God required, but Jesus achieved it for you. You could not conquer sin and death, but Jesus conquered it for you.

Spurgeon again says it so well:

“In [his] death [Jesus] discharged our debt; and in his resurrection he exhibited the receipt of all our liabilities.”

The resurrection is Jesus’ receipt that the records of debt that “stood against us”, he himself has set aside, nailing them to the cross.

V13: For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Everyone who despairs of their own efforts; everyone who cries out to God for mercy; everyone who trusts alone in the Jesus, the Son of Righteousness, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords will be saved.

This, brothers and sisters, is the only Word that Saves. Let’s end by considering our final point…

3. How this Word Goes Forth (14-17)

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? 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!” But 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.

If the first chunk of Romans 10 was difficult to understand, this last section is much more straightforward. Paul works backwards to show us the logical conclusion of the argument he hast just made in the verses before:

If the only path to salvation is through calling on the name of Jesus, how can unbelievers call upon a Jesus they haven’t believed in? And how can they believe in Jesus if they’ve never heard of him? And how can they hear about Jesus without someone preaching to them? And how can someone preach to them unless they are first sent and commissioned to preach?

But he also adds this important qualification: we must not assume that this formula of “sending, preaching, hearing, believing, and calling” will always result 100% of the time in conversions. Because even the prophets who spoke the literal words of God directly to the people of God were often rejected and maligned.

Nevertheless, the faith and righteousness God requires can only come through hearing the verbal Word of Christ through the followers of Christ.

I want to end by drawing 3 applications from this text that should shape how we think about outreach as a church:

1: There is only one Word of Faith that saves.

Don’t be taken in by the false teaching that says that what matters most to God is the “intent of your heart, not the content of your belief.” The Jews had a true zeal for God, but they refused to submit to the path of righteousness he made available through his Son. It does not matter how kind, or moral, or politically conservative, or religious a person is. Anyone who refuses to call on Jesus as Lord and Savior has rejected the only path to being made before God. So brother and sister, never assume the gospel! Do not assume that shared morals and vocabulary means that that this person is believing the same gospel as you. Be willing to ask questions like, “Who is Jesus to you?” “What do you believe about sin?” “How do you think a person goes to heaven and not hell?”

2: Because there is only Word of Faith saves, we as a church must invest the lion’s share of our outreach resources and energy on work that has as it’s primary aim the explicit preaching of the gospel.

We want to raise up, send, and support missionaries and church planters who will take this Word of Faith to the areas of greatest need in our city, our nation, and our world. And not only to create converts, but to establish other covenant communities—other local churches—who will grow to do the same.

Mark Dever: “The local church is God’s evangelism plan. The local church is God’s evangelism program.”

3: The Word of Faith goes forth not only through missionaries and church planters, but through the mouths of all of God’s people.

We heard last week from Ephesians 4 that it is the Pastors who are to equip the saints for the work of ministry. And so my aim, and the aim of all of your pastors every week is to make the gospel and the God of the gospel so clear and so loved in the hearts of all our people so that you, member of Quinault, would be joyfully compelled to plead with other sinners to be reconciled to God! This is not simply a calling for pastors and super-Christians—this is God’s calling on your life, Christian. “How beautiful are the feet of all who preach the good news.”

As pastors, we can’t do it all nor are we meant to. Do you have ideas for outreach or ministries you want to see started here in our church? Instead of waiting for someone else to do it, why not take it upon yourself and then invite other members into this work?

I think of Erica Wagoner and how she has helped our church catch a vision for suffering and needs of children around the world through Operation Christmas Child.
I think of Kinzie Frasier who started an evangelistic Bible study with a family member and invited other women in our church to participate.
I think of Sarah Kershaw coordinating monthly opportunities for the ladies of our church to share a meal with women from Grace Kitchen.
I think of James Ng who has helped to lead trips to care for our missionaries and who labors to make us aware of the missional needs in our community and state.
And I’m confident there are many others of you who I have forgotten to mention.

And brothers and sisters, I can’t tell you how much joy and pride that brings to the hearts of your pastors! We are a small church with modest resources, but we serve a great and glorious God who has made a way for miserable sinners like us to be made righteous through his Son. And a God who graciously invites us now to join him in His work of creating a covenant community who worships Christ all.