Who believe what we preach

Romans 10:16-21; 5/11/2025; BCBC/IOUC; Rev. Paul Wang

Introduction

Thank the Lord!  Minister Flora told me: Someone noticed that I seemed to have preached about this topic at the end of April?  Is that so?  I asked who it was?  She said: It’s Brother Cao.  I said, thank the Lord!  At least one person noticed!   In fact, they are two different angles, broad and narrow, or macro and micro.  Today’s message is that Paul uses a macro perspective to encourage us to cherish God’s salvation and experience God’s great love.  Let’s look at the first point:

Deep expectations

 From a micro perspective, this is a question: “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”  However, once we look at it from a macro perspective, it becomes God’s loving kindness toward mankind.  First, the prophet has declared it.  If we focus on our emotions, question marks will bring us into a low point.  Thinking that , why don’t you believe it?  When we went out to preach the gospel, handing out flyers outside a café on the Left Bank in Paris or on the beach in Nice, it’s difficult for people to even accept a gospel flyer, let alone believe in it, right?  Even Isaiah experienced this kind of disappointment!   He said: “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”  However, from God’s perspective, the gospel has always been preached!  Whether you believe it or not, God’s word is passed down from generation to generation in this way!  Among them, the prophets have already declared!  Behind the prophet stands the affectionate Heavenly Father, waiting for the prodigal son to return home!        

Secondly, the Bible has already recorded it.  How do we know that what the prophet said is true?  What’s more, there were many false prophets at that time!  Many people say, that depends on whether it comes true, right?  That’s right, but not entirely right!  For what some the false prophets say will also come true.  Don’t forget that the Egyptian magicians who battled Moses were also powerful!  Our standard for deciding things is the Bible, the Word of God!  As long as there is God’s Word, everything becomes possible!  Mountains can be moved and hills can be relocated, but the Lord’s love will never leave you!  In human history, there is an event that can be called standing firm because it was recorded in the Bible.        

Finally, the ears have heard. Proclaimed by the prophets and recorded in the Bible, this is a great spiritual foundation!  I would like to ask you, what is God’s purpose?  As the poet said: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)”  The purpose of everything God does is for man to receive peace, be redeemed, hear, see, awaken, gain wisdom, joy, be enlightened,  be warned, be forgiven, avoid being arrogant, and be accepted!  Furthermore, Paul said: “Their voice has gone out to all the earth,  and their words to the ends of the world.”   This is the same as the founding vision of our church, which is: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”   Let’s look at the second point: 

The gospel to the ends of the earth

Spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth is the ultimate mission God has given to His children.  That is to say, the whole purpose of our life is here.  This goes without saying and has already been said.  First, spread it all over the world.  God preached the gospel through the incarnation of Christ Jesus.  And He has a clear order,  first the Jews and then the Greeks. Peter and Paul in the early church all wanted to imitate!  Wherever they went, they went first to the synagogue.  Starting from the Church of Antioch, it passed through Tyre, Sidon, Syria, Philippi, Asia, Macedonia, and returned after arriving in Achaia.  The whole journey was basically forced by the Jews.  Paul also seemed to understand that the scope of the gospel is to spread it throughout the world and to let their voices spread throughout the world!        

Second, spread it to the ends of the earth.  To reach the ends of the earth is not just about geographical expansion, but about doing everything we can to bring the gospel to the farthest places possible.  That is, to preach the word in season and out of season; to save some souls in season and out of season.  The church, in particular,  must not create a goal that is unreachable, or even never visit the ends of the earth until death.  The so-called ends of the earth in the gospel, for a church, refers to the church’s daily worship and preaching with all its heart and soul.  Every church must examine its own faithfulness and dedication before God.  One day, when the Lord comes again, the church will give an account to the Lord.       

Finally, achieve perfection.  When it comes to excellence, God is our role model.   He created all things.  Each day there is evening and morning, and He said that everything He created was very good, which means perfect.  In order to get His chosen people, the Israelites, to turn back to Him, God said: “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”  This was the starting point for Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.  From then on, preaching the gospel to all peoples, nations, and tribes became the church’s natural mission.  Although it is our duty and responsibility to preach the gospel to our own people.  However, preaching the gospel to people who are not of our own ethnic group is our mission that cannot be shirked!  Let’s look at the third point: 

Calling God’s People

After talking about expectations, we talked about the ends of the earth.  Paul next talked about the concerns in God’s heart, which are that God wants to make a covenant with man, God wants to have fellowship with man, God wants to establish a relationship with man, and God wants to restore His people.  First, God wants to take the initiative to seek people.  If it were not for the incarnation of God,  if it were not for Jesus Christ taking the initiative to come among us,  reveal himself to us, die for us, and resurrect for us, we would still be living in a state of confusion and ignorance, sinking in despair!  The first man sinned and was afraid, so he hid himself.  What should he do?  Just as he was feeling uneasy, Jehovah God came to the Garden of Eden and walked in the garden.  So, he searched for the ancestor while walking and asked the first question God asked to man in history: Where are you?  While Paul was on a journey of persecuting Christ in his self-righteousness, God found him in great light and said, “Saul, Saul, It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’”

Secondly, God wants to reach out and call people.  Moses killed people out of humanism and nationalism, fled to the wilderness, and married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian.  Maybe Moses was thinking that this might be the end of his life!  It’s not lying flat, but it’s better than lying flat!  Forty years passed in a flash.  The sun rose and set.  Every day he was an ordinary person, with an ordinary mind, doing ordinary things.  Who would have thought that God would meet Moses on an ordinary day on Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.  It was not an encounter, but God reaching out to him and greeting him: “Moses, Moses!” This greeting determined the destiny of Moses’ life!  This year, Moses was eighty years old!  From then on, the third forty years of Moses’ mission journey began!

Finally, God will discipline rebellious people.  God not only seeks people, but He also works His miraculous hands.  Jonah disobeyed and fled to Tarshish, which is Spain.  God reached out and saved him.  First, he was moved to repent and pray to God in the belly of the fish!  God commanded the big fish to spit Jonah out onto the shore, and he went into Nineveh to preach.   As he walked through the city, he only said: In forty days, Nineveh will be destroyed!   He could not have imagined that such a bad missionary could cause the entire city, from the king to the common people, to wear mourning and repent to God with just one sentence!  What He could not have imagined was that God actually regretted his decision and did not destroy the city and the people!  Jonah lay down outside the city in anger, and God held out his hands to comfort him: “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle? (Jonah 4:11)”

Conclusion

Who believes what we preach?  Is it a question mark?  Then please move closer to the period!  Because God has deep expectations for you, and God’s will for you and me is for the gospel we preach to reach the ends of the earth!  No matter where we are physically or spiritually, He is the God of Immanuel!

Let us pray……

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth,  and their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”

20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me;
    I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”

21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”