The Word To Faith Movement

How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on Him 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, who 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... "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."

If faith comes by hearing, then the world cannot believe unless we are willing to speak.

A Burden That Begins on Our Knees

How many of you have a friend, family member, co-worker, or neighbor that you would like to see come to the knowledge of the truth about who Jesus is? That was the question I began with a couple of weeks ago in Romans 10. At that time I asked you to take a prayer card and write down the name or names of those who came to mind. If you have such a card, keep it in your Bible and pray for them. If you don't, take one now, write down those names, and hold it up.

I know this is out of sorts for us at Cross Connection. You might feel uncomfortable or put on the spot. Good—be put on the spot. Let us pray for these people right now, while we are holding them up.

Father, we pray for those You have placed in our lives, that we might be a witness to them. Begin to work in the hearts of these individuals written on these cards. We know You are a great and awesome God who works in the lives of humanity. Draw them to Yourself, give us opportunity to witness, and let us see them come to faith in You. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Evangelism Begins With Prayer

That may seem simplistic—writing down names and taking thirty seconds to pray. But Paul shows us why it matters. Romans 10:1: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved." Evangelism begins with prayer, because evangelism begins with God. He is the missionary God who reaches out to humanity. When Adam and Eve hid in Genesis 3, God sought them, calling out, "Where are you?" God is the initiator, and we respond as He initiates.

Then God works through us, His church, the body of Christ. We reach out to people who have not yet yielded to the Spirit's work. In writing these names and praying, we are asking God to move by His Holy Spirit to draw them to Himself.

Israel's Tragic Self-Righteousness

In Romans 9 Paul revealed his great sorrow and continual grief for his own countrymen who did not know who Jesus was. They had heard the name Jesus of Nazareth and the stories of His works, yet the great majority had not received Him as Messiah and Savior. Worse, they were trying to make themselves righteous by their own religious works. But Romans tells us that by the works of the law no flesh shall be made righteous in the sight of God. To attempt self-righteousness by good deeds is futile.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the gathered multitude, "Unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of God." For common fishermen, tax collectors, and farmers who knew they were sinners, those words were a blow—they knew they could never measure up. We may know people who are religiously good and assume their good deeds will make them okay before God. The reality is that no flesh shall be justified in His sight by the works of the law.

Directing the Burden Toward God

Every one of us has people in our lives whose souls burden us, because we know that if they died today they would enter eternity apart from God—especially if that person is a child or a close family member. Paul carried that same burden, but he did the right thing with it: he directed it to God in prayer.

Yes, God can work independently of our prayers. He does not need us. But for some reason He has chosen to involve us in the work of redemption through prayer—and, as we will see, through preaching. Salvation is not dependent upon us; it is dependent completely upon God, accomplished by Jesus. Yet God has chosen to involve us in the redemption of the lost.

God Answers the Prayers of His People

In Isaiah 37 the Assyrian army had destroyed forty-six cities of Judah and surrounded Jerusalem, the last stronghold. There was no way the city could defend itself. King Hezekiah came before God in the temple and prayed, and God answered: "Because you have prayed to Me, here is the deliverance that I am going to bring" (Isaiah 37:21). There was nothing Israel could do, so they prayed, and God dealt with the enemy and brought redemption.

The same is true in the New Testament. Writing from a Roman prison cell, Paul told the Philippians, "For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:19). God involves us in the work of deliverance through prayer. The intercessory prayers of the saints matter. As D.L. Moody said, "Where prayer is focused, power falls."

You may have someone in your life who seems impossibly hard-hearted—self-righteous, antagonistic, hostile to the Scriptures. But have you seriously prayed for them? Have you committed to pray daily, perhaps every time you sit down to eat? If we would pray consistently and diligently, we would see God move in a miraculous way—because He is a great God who moves mightily.

God Is Not a Respecter of Persons

In verses 12 and 13 Paul wrote that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek as it relates to salvation. God saves sinners; He is not a respecter of persons. We, however, are. We respect people who look more noble or wealthy. Someone told me of a study showing that we think more highly of people who keep their car washed, even an old beat-up one. I heard another study claiming the most attractive people drive Volvos. We are respecters of persons based on the stupidest things—and then we cast that on God and assume He must be like us. God is not like us.

He is "rich to all who call upon Him" (verse 12), for "whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Paul proves this by citing Isaiah—"Whosoever believes on Him shall not be put to shame"—and Joel—"Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." The terms of salvation are the same for all. This offended the Jewish people of Paul's day, who regarded themselves as especially favored descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But whether or not a person is offended, the truth stands.

Evangelism Demands Preaching

If "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," how does one come to call? Paul answers in verses 14 and 15. Evangelism begins with prayer, but it involves preaching—the proclamation of the truth. The Gospel must be declared, not merely thought about.

The word Gospel translates the Greek Euaggelion, meaning glad tidings or good news. Though a noun, it implies action; the good news must be sounded forth. One who speaks it is an evangelist. You may think, "I'm not an evangelist—Billy Graham is, Greg Laurie is." But the Bible says the children of God are to do the work of an evangelist whether we count ourselves as one or not. We pray for the salvation of the lost, but we also preach, because the Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16).

We Hold the Cure

Imagine a friend calls, newly diagnosed with a terminal disease. If you love them, you will pray—you might even write their name on a prayer card. But suppose you realized you had the cure. Wouldn't you go and tell them? Of course you would.

Every one of us has friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors diseased by sin, and the soul that sins shall surely die. We have been given the cure—the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. Because we know the cure, we are under a debt to share it. This is exactly what Paul meant in Romans 1—he was indebted to preach the Gospel to all humanity. As Jesus said in Mark, "Freely you have received, freely give."

The gist of verses 14 and 15 is clear: there are sinners in need of salvation, so God the Father sent His Son to accomplish that salvation—"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." And Jesus has sent us to preach. In John 20:21 He said, "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you." In Mark 16:15, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

Beautiful Feet

Quoting Isaiah and Nahum, Paul writes, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" To us this seems an odd reference. Feet are not the most beautiful part of the body—we keep them covered for a reason. But in Middle Eastern culture the foot was considered the lowliest, most defiled part of the body. In John 13, when no disciple would wash feet, Jesus did, and Peter was scandalized, because foot-washing was the job of the lowest-ranking servant.

Remember December 2008, when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush? Here many thought it merely goofy, but the Arabic press understood it as one of the highest insults. To show someone the bottom of your foot, or to strike them with a shoe, is the highest level of offense. When Baghdad was liberated in 2003, the people beat the statues of Saddam Hussein with their shoes.

So when Isaiah and Nahum said "How beautiful are the feet," a Middle Eastern audience would have been startled. The prophecy was first fulfilled when messengers ran to tell the Jewish captives, after seventy years in Babylon, that they were set free. The idea Paul draws out is this: the Gospel is so glorious that it beautifies even the lowliest part of who we are. The Gospel makes our messiest member beautiful for God's glory.

To Obey the Gospel Is to Believe It

Verse 16: "But they"—Israel—"have not all obeyed the Gospel." The good news came to them first, by proximity, because Jesus came among them. Yet they had not stepped into the freedom Christ offered. What does it mean to obey the Gospel? Paul quotes Isaiah 53:1, "Lord, who has believed our report?" To obey the Gospel is to believe the Gospel. In John 6 the crowd asked, "What is the work of God that we should do?" Jesus answered, "This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent." Israel had not believed the good news of salvation in Jesus.

Faith Comes by Hearing

Verse 17, one of my favorite verses: "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." This is why proclaiming the Gospel is so important. In Romans 12:3, Paul says God "has dealt to each one a measure of faith." I believe God has planted a seed of faith in the heart of every human being, and that seed is germinated by the word of God to grow and produce fruit. The word of God waters that seed. That is why sowing the Gospel among humanity is so vital. Our personal testimony matters, but if we fail to preach the Gospel—the actual good word of God—we fall short of Gospel proclamation.

Three Views of Our Role in Salvation

As an aside, there are differing opinions about our role in seeing the lost saved. Some say that emphasizing preaching diminishes God's sovereignty. Not so. Consider three common views.

First: God will save the elect, and He is so sovereign that He does not need us at all. There is truth here—God can reveal Himself in a saving way apart from our preaching. No one preached the Gospel to Abraham; God revealed Himself, and Abraham believed.

Second: God will save the elect and does not need us to preach, but we preach for His glory and out of obedience. This too is true—Jesus commanded us in Mark 16:15 to go and preach.

Third: God has elected to save those who are in Christ, having believed the Gospel through faith, having heard the proclamation of the word of God, which is the power of God unto salvation. He has chosen to use us. Yes, He is sovereign; Jesus accomplished what we never could. But He has called us to preach and counts us as involved in the work of salvation through prayer and proclamation. As Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of God, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16), and Ephesians 1:13, "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of the truth of the Gospel of your salvation."

Why Israel Heard Yet Did Not Believe

If faith comes by hearing, how could Israel—who received so much of God's revelation—remain largely unsaved? Verse 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'" (quoting Psalm 19). Yes, they heard. So how could those with so much revelation not believe?

Jesus answers in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13). A sower scattered seed. Some fell on the wayside, and birds snatched it. Some fell on stony, shallow earth, sprang up quickly, then was scorched by the sun. Some fell among thorns and was choked out. But some fell on good ground and produced fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

Jesus explained: the seed is the word of God. The birds are the enemy, who snatches the seed away. The sun is the hot trials that burn out shallow hearts. The thorns are the cares and desires of this world. Why can someone hear the word and not receive saving faith? Because their hearts have not been made ready—filled with worldly desires, choked by cares, scorched by trials, or robbed by the enemy's seeds of doubt.

This is why we must pray that God would prepare the soil: "God, break up the hard ground of that heart, draw them to Yourself." And then, having prayed, we must speak forth the word of God.

Evangelism Demands Demonstrable Proof

Verse 19: "But I say, did Israel not know?" They had received so much through Moses and the prophets. "For Moses says, 'I will provoke you to jealousy by those that are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.'" Paul will elaborate on this in chapter 11, but here it shows a third truth: evangelism demands demonstrable proof of the goodness and power of the Gospel.

The Christian should stir jealousy in the unbeliever. Our lives, so transformed by the power of the Gospel, should cause those who don't know God to be jealous of what we have—to say, "I want the peace, the joy, the love, the self-control that person has." The Gospel should be demonstrated in our lives as powerful and true.

Found by Those Who Did Not Seek

Verse 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.' But to Israel, Isaiah says: 'All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'"

Notice how constantly Paul quotes the Old Testament—Nahum, Isaiah, Joel, Moses—because his audience in Romans 9, 10, and 11 was Jewish, and these words proved his teaching true. "I was found by those who did not seek Me" describes the Gentiles. Nearly all of us here are Gentiles. Romans 3 says man does not seek for God; we were a people who did not seek Him, but God, the missionary God, sought us out. "But to Israel God says, 'All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'" God revealed Himself magnificently to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet in their stubbornness they hardened their hearts and refused the Gospel's demand to believe in Jesus.

But anyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame, and "whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved"—Jews and Gentiles alike. Some of you here have Jewish heritage and have put your faith in Christ; you are the remnant we will see in Romans 11. The call is simple and clear: whosoever will believe shall not be put to shame, for whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your great grace. We ask that, by the very fact that we have received Your grace, You would stir us to be a people praying for those in our lives who don't know You yet—who have been disobedient, contrary, hostile toward Your good news. May our lives be so filled with the glory of Your grace that they become visible, tangible evidence of Your power, provoking to jealousy those in our families, among our co-workers, friends, and neighbors. Break up hard hearts, make them ready for the good seed of Your word, and give us boldness to speak forth the simple, clear Gospel of grace—that there is salvation only in You, Jesus. Amen.