Romans 10:13-21
Hearing God’s Word
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13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed:
“Their sound has gone out to all the earth,
And their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says:
“I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,
I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”
20 But Isaiah is very bold and says:
“I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
21 But to Israel he says:
“All day long I have stretched out My hands
To a disobedient and contrary people.”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ro 10:13–21.
Transcript
Welcome to God’s Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.
Roman's chapter 10 beginning at verse 13, “For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, indeed: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and all their words to the ends of the world.” But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.” But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” But to Israel he says: “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”” The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.
Well, there is a man who's a pastor out in a country church. And as he was preaching, he was in the book of Philippians and he was really trying to strain what a point was in Philippians chapter two and he was really pounding on the pulpit. And he was sure when they walked out, everybody in the congregation thought, “What in the world was pastor getting so worked up about?” And people weren't quite grasping what he was trying to get at with Jesus becoming man. And then a few weeks later, there was a missionary they had invited from Africa to come and preach. And sure enough, to his dismay, he was preaching on that exact same text. And he got worried. He said, “I've already gone all over that. They know all of it.” And then, sure enough, this missionary gives a simple explanation of the beauties of Jesus Christ. And the pastor's light bulb goes off and he gets it. And at the back of the church, when the missionary and the pastor are there shaking people's hands, the pastor was amazed how many people came up and said, “You know, I've never really understood that passage until you tell you explained it.”
And that's one of the amazing things about preaching. That's one of the amazing things about hearing God's Word explained and applied and illuminated is sometimes it takes you multiple times to hear something explained before that light bulb goes off, before you understand what's going on. But there is something powerful that God promises when His Word is read aloud and when you hear it with faith.
And so your call this morning is to do just that. This is God's Word. This is God's perfect, unfailing Word. Will you listen to it? Will you listen to God's Word? This sermon is a little bit different than other sermons I've done with you all before. I want you to ask some questions like a journalist. And so we're going to go through the how, what, when, where, why; those type of questions of preaching and listening. And so what is preaching? And that's your first point. What are you supposed to listen to? What should I listen to? What should you listen to? This might seem like a silly question. You're doing it right now. What should you listen to? We should listen to preaching, but you should ask yourself a question. A lot of times we just accept traditions that we just kind of grown up with. But have you ever asked yourself, “Is preaching even Biblical? Is it even Biblical for someone to get up there and explain God's Word to me? Why do we do this?”
Well, in the Old Testament, it's clear, we're gonna be walking through some passages in the Old Testament and New Testament to show that this was God's intended order from the Old Testament through the New. If you turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 34, Exodus chapter 34, and if you can't move quick enough, just try to keep up with the pace here. Exodus chapter 34 verse 27. God says in Exodus chapter 34, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the 10 Commandments.” This is God’s speaking to Moses. God tells Moses these are the words of the covenant. And what does Moses do? Moses writes down these words of the covenant. And we know that Moses didn't keep these words secret for himself. But he read them aloud to all the people in Israel.
Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter four. You're gonna get an exercise in your fingers today. Deuteronomy chapter four, verse one. Moses is taking the people to the edge of the Jordan. He's not allowed to enter the Jordan. He's not allowed to cross over the Jordan, but here he gives his last series of sermons to the people of God. And on the mountain on the other side of the Jordan, he gets up and he preaches to the people. Deuteronomy chapter four, “Now listen, O Israel, to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord your God, the God of your Fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” And then the rest of the book of Deuteronomy is basically him telling them about the law.
The word “Deuteronomy” is a Greek, compound word. Deutero + nomos = “Second” “Law”. Moses is sitting up there, and he's giving the law a second time. He's telling them about the word of God the second time. And when you go into the land of Canaan, this is how you're going to act. This is what you're going to need to do. This is the Covenant of the Lord.
But then in Joshua chapter eight, when they enter into the land of Canaan it's not like they forgot about this. Joshua 8:32, “And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on the other side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.” They go into the promised land, and what does Joshua do? He reads the law. All of it. He doesn't spare anything from them.
But then there's a sad story. As we know, the law gets put to the side. The kings don't do what they were commanded in Deuteronomy chapter 17. They don't write it down. They don't meditate on it. They don't think about it. They don't even govern by it. And the temple becomes corrupt. The kings become corrupt. The people become corrupt. And in our Old Testament reading this morning we read when Josiah finally found the Book of the Law. Could you imagine that? Imagine the Temple of the Living God. This is Solomon's Temple, with its giant columns and its ornate decorations, and it's impressive grandeur, and all of it means nothing. All of the symbolism, all of the glory, they don't understand, because the Book is gathering dust hidden somewhere in a back room. And what happens in Second Kings 22-23 when the Book of the Law is found? They bring it out. Josiah repents. He gathers all the people, and what do they do? They do the exact same thing Joshua did in chapter eight. The exact same thing that Moses did with the people in Deuteronomy. They read the whole book of the law so they can have true religion.
Sadly, though, this doesn't last long, as we know in the story. And the people go off into exile. They go off because they quickly turn again away from the Lord. But when they come back from Babylonia, when Nehemiah and Ezra are back and they build the walls, and they rebuild the temple after it's been destroyed, it happens again.
Turn in your Bibles with me to Nehemiah chapter eight. Nehemiah 8:8, Ezra gathered all the people, “And they stood in their place,” verse seven. And then, verse eight, “So they read distinctly from the book, in the law, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading.” Do you see that they build together a stage and Ezra brings up the Book of the Law and he reads it to them. He divides it up, and he gives the sense of it. He explains it to the people. Here's what it means, and here's what it means for your life, so that they could understand the reading.
And this pattern isn't just an Old Testament pattern where God's people gathered together to hear God's Word read and explained, but also happens in the New Testament. Matthew chapter 11, turn over to the New Testament. Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” But before that, verse 11, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.” Verse 13, “For all the prophets and the law prophesized until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” John the Baptist preaches about Jesus. Jesus starts His earthly ministry in Matthew chapter four, and He preaches about, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
Mark chapter four continues. Mark 4:13, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” The sower and the Word. Jesus goes and He preaches to the people, and He preaches to them in parables. And then He says in verse 15, “And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.” Jesus speaks in parables. He preaches to them as seeds sown among men.
If we continued on, we would see in Acts chapter 2, do you remember when the church gathered together at Pentecost and what does Peter do in Acts chapter two? He stands before the assembled congregation, and he preaches God's Word to them. And then when Steven is before the Sanhedrin and they're ready to stone him, what does he do in Acts chapter seven? He preaches God’s Word to them. He tells them of all the story of Moses and through the prophets and the Kings and how they all pointed to Jesus Christ. And then in Acts chapter nine, Paul is converted. And what does he immediately do when he enters into the city? He begins to preach about Jesus. And then the rest of the story of Acts is basically all Paul going from church to church, from place to place, synagogue and then to Gentiles, teaching and preaching about Jesus Christ.
And then, when Paul instructs Timothy in Second Timothy, chapter four. Second Timonty 4:2, again, Paul is telling this young pastor, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” The pattern of the Bible is that God's Word, when His people are gathered together, is preached. It's explained. It's given the sense. It’s divided up.
And that's the next question we should ask. What is preaching? Well, one, it's proclaiming. It's, “This is what the Word of God is, and I'm going to read it to you.” That's the first sense of preaching is, “Here's what the King says.” It's an official proclamation. In Isaiah 52:7, we find a word that we wouldn't expect there, but it's that there is proclamation of good news or there is evangelizing. There's official proclamation. “Blessed are the feet of those who bring good news. Blessed are the feet of those who proclaim peace.” That same word we get our word “Gospel” from. We get our word gospel from. “Euangelizomai” is the word “preaching good news.” And in Isaiah, blessed are those who preach good news.
In Jonah 1:2, God tells Jonah to get up, go to Nineveh and proclaim. Go preach. They need to repent. Proclaiming the words of the King. Truth statements. This is what God says. That's the first part of preaching, just proclaiming. But if preaching was nothing but proclaiming, official telling, well, you might still be left to ask, “What's it matter? I don't understand it. What's it mean? And that's where Nehemiah 8:8 is helpful. What preaching is, is not just reading it through, but what does Ezra do? What did the Levites do, but they divide it up and they give the sense of it. They explain it to the people. Preaching is explaining it, breaking it up into bite sized portions that you can chew over it and think about it and understand it. Preaching is teaching. Preaching is, as Paul tells Timothy, convicting, admonishing, urging and reminding the people. Preaching isn't just, when you come here, you don't come here just to hear the stories. God’s Word goes out in preaching and is directed at your life in your heart that you might understand it and apply it in your life.
What should be preached? These are all the “What's” of God's word. All of it, the whole council of God, because in it are the very words of Christ.
But all that's great. Wonderful lecture, Pastor. You still haven't told me why I should listen. What's the point? God's Word doesn't return void. God’s Word does not return void. There's going to be one effect or the other. When people hear God's Word, one thing or the other is gonna happen. Either people are gonna be saved, lives are gonna be changed, eternities are going to be forever transformed, or hearts are going to be hardened.
I remember my pastor for the last eight years out in Beaver Falls. He was a wicked man dwelling in his sin, and he loved it. And then someone invited him to go to something called a “Revival” in Washington D. C. And Micah went to this Revival and he heard a man preach on the omnipresence of God, on the weightiness of God being every place and every when, knowing every deed, every act, every thought, every word and Micah realized he had to give an account for his soul and that day heard the name of Jesus Christ proclaimed as savior. God's Word didn't return void that day. He was saved.
The book of Isaiah and Luke chapter eight are clear that there are also those who will hear God's Word and it won't save. There will be those who hear God's Word and their hearts will be hardened. I remember going to one of these Revivals in Southern California. It was an autumn evening, and the air was brisk, it wasn’t cold, kind of like now. It was in Angels Stadium. The lights were on and Greg Laurie was preaching. And he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I remember watching hundreds of people go down onto the field because they wanted to accept Jesus Christ, because the Spirit had seemed to move in their hearts that they might be saved. But I also remember looking around the stadium where tens of thousands of people stood there. I knew that thousands of them had just heard the greatest news in all the world and they didn't care. On the great Judgment Day, God was going to tell them, “I told you about my Son and you turned your back.”
Why should you listen? Why should you listen? Because God’s Word does not return void. Why did you come here? Why do you come here week in and week out? I hope it's not just to hear me talk. I hope it's not so you can just check off your “righteousness box”. I hope it's that you come here because you want to hear the very words of Jesus Christ, because they're sweet in your mouth and more precious than gold. Do you come here looking to be nourished? Do you come here and sit under the preaching because you desire to hear the very words of God, applied your life, explained to you? If you are coming just to hear the words of man, there's no point. It's not what hearing is. Who should you listen to? Who do you listen to?
Look at this in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, where Paul gives this clear statement on faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But before that, he says in verse 14, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” You need to listen to pastors, not because there's an intrinsic quality in them, but only if they're preaching the word of God.
If you hear someone preaching and it is not preaching the word of God, I just had to do this this week, just turn off the radio. Just turn it off. It’s not worth it. It's their own philosophies. Who are you to listen to? You’re to listen to men who have been called and sent out by the church. You need to be careful. There's lots of renegade road preachers who are going around and on their own authority doing their own thing and their feet are never held to the fire by a congregation, by a presbytery, by denomination who says, “No, no, buddy. You've gone too far.” Be careful when you listen to someone, and they have no grounding in the very church that Christ died to build. Listen to sent out ones.
You need to ask yourself when you do hear a preacher, what are their motives? You've heard those preachers before, right? Just turn on TBN, right? What are they after? Well it’s in your back pocket or it’s in your purse. They're not after the glory of Christ. You've heard other big name preachers on the radio who have silver tongues and who have golden mouths, but it's all about their own ego and not about the glory of God. The wary of those men. Stay far from them. Judge for yourself, are these men who are sent out to give the very words of God? What's their motive? Who are they?
Next, point four, when and where should I listen? When should you listen? In season and out of season. If you're like me, there have been seasons where you just didn't want to listen. You know what it’s like, seasons in your life, where you sit in the pew for weeks, months, years where the preaching has no effect on your heart. When you don't want to come, but you know you need to come. Because even in those times the Lord is chiseling off those hard corners of your heart. He’s still reforming your mind. He's still changing you. Listen in season and out of season. Pray that He would soften your heart.
You should be listening to preaching inside church and outside church, but especially inside church. Hebrews 10:24-25 is clear that we are to gather together, not forsaking the assembly, as is the habit of some, but meeting together to exhort one another. That idea of exhorting is the idea of having God's Word applied to our hearts through the proclamation of His Word. But please, by all means, be fed by preaching regularly throughout the week. If there is a pastor you know, a pastor who does preach the Word of God, and you can trust him, by all means, feed yourself throughout the week when you're driving, when you're doing the dishes, when you're caring for kids, when you're caring for the spouse, when you're at work, listen. Listen. Hear.
But there's a bonus one. It's not in your outline today. But the last point is how. How should you listen? Over the next few minutes, I'm just going to give you some tools. This isn't legalism. This is just advice for you. If you’ve found your heart cold, to the preaching of God's Word, the Word that saves sinners, the Word that builds you up and roots you in Jesus Christ, here are some tools for you on how to listen.
The first place we go is the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “Question 90: How is the Word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation? That the Word may become effectual to salvation, we must attendthereunto with diligence.” You're not gonna, this isn't a one stop shop. None of us are made holy because we listen to one sermon. You might be saved because you listened to one sermon. But none of us are made complete in one shop sermons. This isn't, you can't just stop once and get it. You gotta be continuously fed with diligence. “We must attendthereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.”
Listen prayerfully. I'm begging you, please, pray that your pastor would be faithful to the text. Pray for your pastor to be faithful to God's perfect Word. Pray that Jesus would be proclaimed. Pray for your own heart. Before worship when one of the elders asks you to quiet your heart before we worship, you should be praying that God would be softening your heart and that His Spirit would be opening your eyes and opening your ears and opening your mind that He would work in you. Pray for the people around you. Pray for the visitors that the Spirit might enlighten both their eyes and yours to the Word of God. Pray. Listen with prayer.
Listen to understand. James 1:23-24 gives us a bit of wisdom on what it means to hear, but not to understand and apply. “If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror; for he looks at himself and goes away at once and forgets what he looks like.” How often have we been those who have come into worship, heard God tell us what we're like, and walked out unchanged. We need to understand and we need to seek to apply these things to us. You need to ask yourself, “what was the point? Why did you sit here and listen for 30 minutes? 35 minutes? What was the point? How does this show me Christ? How does this apply to my life?”
Let me ask you a question. When you listen to a sermon, have you thought to yourself, “Is this gonna matter in two weeks? Is this gonna matter to me in three years? Why was it important for me to listen to God's Word today?” Listen to understand.
Next, listen critically. Listen critically. The Scriptures give you full authority to question what the pastor is saying. Be Bereans. Acts 17:11 is clear that it is the Bereans who are honorable because they don't just accept what Paul is saying about the Old Testament speaking of Christ, they actually go to the Old Testament, and study, “Is what he's saying actually, right? I hope that you're flipping in your Bible sometimes and going “that don't sound right.” Well, maybe, I hope it doesn't happen too much when I'm preaching, but if there's a time when something just doesn't seem like it's what the Bible says, you should be flipping in your Bible going, “No, this is what God says and I don't think that's right.” You should be critical. But be careful, because critical hearts can also be cynical hearts. And you could start judging the man and whether you dislike him, versus the Word of God that's being told to you. Be critical.
Next, how do you get more out of a sermon? I'm gonna encourage you to open up your Bible. I’ve said this frequently to you, there is no sound sweeter to a pastor's ear during preaching than pages being flipped. Bring your own Bible, the one that you do your devotions out of, bring it to church. Open it up. Be familiar with it. It's your sword. Open it up and underline passages as the pastor's preaching and something strikes you. You didn't understand something, write it into the margin of your Bible. We don't have Bibles in front of us because they're neat books. We have them because it is the Word of God and it is the tool for your soul. Bring it. Use it. Open up your Bible.
Listen for you. How should you listen? Listen for you. I don’t know about you, but there have been times I've listened to sermons and went, “Man, I wish John was here to hear Pastor say that!” First and foremost, you need to be listening to the number one sinner in your life. Listen for you. Listen for you. Expect God to speak to you. Come into worship expecting God to speak to you. This is God's Word. It is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword. Do you come to worship expecting to hear the words of Christ? To see Him clearly portrayed before you as your Lord and Savior? Come to see God and hear from Him.
Heart issue. Before you come to hear, at the door you need to check bitterness back there. You’re to be a tree planted by flowing waters. You’re to drink deeply from the well of God's Word. But there's a weed in your life with roots that will try to soak up that water before your soul can, and that's bitterness. If you’ve got bitterness in your life toward the people in the congregation, toward people in your life, I promise you, if you're preoccupied with them, you will not be occupied with God. Check bitterness out at the door.
Take notes. Take notes. If you need to draw a picture, draw a picture. If the notes that are provided for you aren't helpful, write your own notes. If you need to write notes in your Bible, write them in the margin of your Bible. Write down the things that God is teaching you.
Lastly, how do you get more out of a sermon? Again, these are all just tools, but review your notes. Review the sermon. You might have to go back later and re-listen to the sermon, because, look, you just were worried about lunch later. You had other things on your mind. You remembered that you had laundry that was in the washing machine that you forgot to put in the dryer last night. And you just weren't paying attention. Sometimes you need to go back and re-listen to a sermon. And that's okay. Sometimes you just plain out forget. Your body was checked in, but your mind wasn't while you were here. Go back and review. Go back and see. “Lord, I didn't get fed the first time. I know there's leftovers. I need to go and eat.” Go back and eat. Go back. God's Word, faith comes by hearing God's Word. Are you listening? Are you coming with a heart prepared to hear from your Lord? This can't be routine for us. We talked last week, this is God's very own breathed out Word, His letter to you. Soak it up. Learn from it. Listen to it. Be changed by it.
“God, we thank You for Your Word. Lord, forgive us for how often we hear Your Word but we're not doers of Your Word. That it is often that we listen to Your Word but we don't hear it. God, we pray that we would be people who love you, Lord, who lap up Your Word. Father, we pray that you would work powerfully here in our church, Lord, that people would be rooted up, that your sheep would be fed. God, we pray that Your Spirit would enliven our hearts, Lord, and that we would grow in You through the reading and the hearing of Your Word. We pray in Jesus’s name.”
Thank you for listening to God's Word for you a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.