For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
14 But how are they to 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? 15 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!" 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."

Today I hope to finish a message I began on Romans 10:13-21. I
pointed out in the previous message that after the death and
resurrection of Jesus for our sins, there are five things that God
beings to put in place so people can be saved. Paul mentions them
in verses 13-15: "Everyone who calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to 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?" So salvation comes from, 1) calling
on the Christ, 2) believing in him, 3) hearing the gospel about
him, 4) someone preaching Christ, 5) and God sending the
preacher.

In the previous message I described what it means to
believe and to call on the Lord. I will come back
in a few minutes to deal with the last three of the five steps. But
first there are two other matters that this text pushes forward
into our consideration. One is the unbelief of the people of
Israel, and the other is the sovereignty of God in relation to the
responsibility of man. So we will deal with these two and then
close by coming back to hearing, preaching, and sending.

The Unbelief of Israel

This has been the brokenhearted, painful theme of Romans 9 and
10 ever since we began with Romans 9:3 where Paul said, "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." This is
the terrible reality Paul is wrestling with in Romans 9 and 10. How
to understand, how to explain, how to feel about, and how to
respond to the unbelief and lostness of God's chosen people,
Israel. By rejecting Jesus as their Savior and Messiah and Lord and
Treasure, they are accursed and cut off from eternal life.

Paul comes back to it over and over. Romans 9:27, "Though the
number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a
remnant of them will be saved." Romans 10:1-2, "Brothers, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be
saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not
according to knowledge." Then in today's text, Romans 10:16, "They
have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has
believed what he has heard from us?'" And verse 21: "But of Israel
he says, 'All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient
and contrary people.'"

This will be Paul's burden all the way to the end of chapter 11.
Notice how chapter 11 begins, "I ask, then, has God rejected his
people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of
Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin." In other words,
Israel's present unbelief and rebellion is not the whole story or
the end of the story. Look at the warning to us Gentile Christians
in Romans 11:25, "Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you
to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come
upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And
in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 'The
Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from
Jacob.'" So from beginning to end in Romans 9-11 Paul's burden is:
What does it mean that Israel is unbelieving, rebellious against
her Messiah, and accursed and cut off from Christ?

One of the main things Paul wants to say in these chapters is
that Israel's unbelief and lostness does not mean that the word of
God has failed! Romans 9:6 rings the central bell, "But it is not
as though the word of God has failed." His first argument for this
central truth is built on the doctrine of sovereign, free,
unconditional election in chapter 9. In other words, the unbelief
and lostness of Israel does not undermine the plans of God, because
he is sovereign over their unbelief and built it into his plans
from the beginning. "'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends
not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Romans
9:15-16).

Some of us, over the duration of our lives, have been shaken to
the foundations by this truth of God's sovereignty over man's
belief and unbelief. We have run from it, pretended it wasn't
there, argued against it, wept over it, and finally bowed our heads
and hearts before it, and then discovered it to be one of the most
deep and firm and precious foundation stones in the house of our
fragile faith. We see now, with trembling joy, that without it we
would not have believed, and we would not endure to the end and be
saved. We saw that especially in Romans 9.

The Sovereignty of God in Relation to the Responsibility of
Man

Now today, here in this text, without losing sight of any of
that (he will return to it immediately in chapter 11, and so will
we), Paul says something very crucial and very different to balance
our way of thinking about his sovereignty over the unbelief of
Israel. And here I am moving to the second point of the message.
The first was the unbelief of Israel. The second is the sovereignty
of God in relation to the responsibility of man. Paul says,
Israel's unbelief is not owing to the absence of what she needs
in order to be held responsible to believe.

That's the point of these five steps in verses 14-15. To be
saved you have to call on Christ. To call you have to believe on
Christ. To believe, you have to hear the word of Christ. To hear,
you have to have someone proclaiming the message of Christ. And to
proclaim with divine authority, you have to be sent by God. And the
point of saying all this in these verses is to stress: they have
happened for Israel! And therefore her unbelief is not owing to the
absence of anything she needs in order to be held responsible.

Look at verse 18: "But I ask, have they not heard?" In other
words, "Have not these conditions of sending and preaching and
hearing been met?" And Paul answers, "Indeed they have." Then Paul
uses the words of Psalm 19:4 to emphasize this. "Their voice has
gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the
world." I am not sure whether Paul means for us to understand these
words in the context of the Psalm (general revelation in nature) or
if he is simply using the words (without claiming to be quoting
them in context) to stress the wide extent of the gospel in the
world for all Israel to hear. But his main point is clear:
The message of Christ has been preached to Israel and she has
heard it, and so is responsible for her unbelief.

Then Paul underlines this in verses 19-20, "But I ask, did
Israel not understand [literally: "know"]? First Moses says, 'I
will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish
nation I will make you angry.'" In other words, the fact that
pagan, uncircumcised, unclean, uninstructed Gentiles are believing
on the Messiah and inheriting the promises made to the Israel was
predicted by Moses, and is happening all around them and should
waken them to the truth of the gospel they are rejecting. Their
accountability is greater because of the Gentile response.

Then he says it again in verse 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.'" In other words, Gentiles
are finding salvation in Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, just as
Isaiah prophesied. They are being saved by faith alone, not by
works of the law. All this was a megaphone to make the message of
free grace through the Messiah Jesus understandable to Israel.

But Paul draws the sad result in verse 21: "But of Israel he
says, 'All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and
contrary people.'" In other words, all the prophecies and all the
fulfillments and all the gospel that Israel heard was not believed
by most of them.

But notice how Paul describes their unbelief. This is very
different
from Romans 9. There he said, "I will have mercy on whom
I have mercy . . . So then it depends not on human will or
exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (v. 15). God is portrayed with
absolute sovereignty over the human will and its unbelief. But look
and wonder at how Romans 10:21 describes God's relation to Israel's
unbelief - and our unbelief: God says, "All day long I have held
out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." So here is a
picture of God beckoning, calling, inviting, wooing through his
prophets and preachers. But the hearers do not believe; they are
"disobedient and contrary."

My aim here this morning is not to analyze how this can be, but
to urge us all to embrace the paradox of God's sovereignty and
man's responsibility. The sad thing is that some embrace the
sovereignty of God over the human will and say: "It is wrong to
portray God with his arms stretched out, inviting and calling." And
others embrace the responsibility of man and say, "If God invites
and calls and beckons, then he can't really be sovereign over man's
will, and man really is ultimately self-determining and God is not
really in control of all things."

Both of these are sad mistakes. It is sad, because one group
rejects something deep and precious that God has revealed about
himself for our strength and hope and joy and love - namely, his
absolute sovereignty. Oh, how sweet it is when all around our soul
gives way, and we need a reliable and firm rock in a world that
sometimes seems utterly out of control and meaningless and cruel.
Oh, how sweet at these times to know that God is not good and
helpless, but good and sovereign. And the other group (who embrace
the sovereignty of God) sometimes rejects something utterly crucial
for understanding the justice of God in dealing with people, and
they fail to see how we should plead with people and persuade
people and invite people and woo people with tears, to Christ, and
on behalf of Christ.

So my aim is not to explain the paradox but simply to underline
it with three other examples (and there are many more), in the hope
that God will cause your mind to submit to his word, whether you
can explain it all or not.

In Matthew 11:25 Jesus says, "I thank you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise
and understanding and revealed them to little children." And then
in verse 28, he says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." He has hidden the truth from
some, and he invites all.

In John 6:35 Jesus says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes
to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never
thirst." And one verse later he says, "All that the Father gives me
will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out."
All are invited to Christ. And the Father gives some to Christ.

In Acts 13:38 Paul says to the synagogue in Antioch, "Let it be
known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man [Jesus]
forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who
believes is freed." And in verse 48 Luke says, ". . . And as many
as were appointed to eternal life believed." All are invited to
believe and be forgiven. And as many as were appointed to life did
believe.

I am not explaining it this morning. I am simply proclaiming it.
This is what it means for God to be God. Man is not the final,
ultimate sovereign over his own life. God is. God is the potter. We
are the clay. But on the other hand, God "desires all people to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4).
He holds out his hands all day long to Jews and the Gentiles of the
Twin Cities. He calls, he beckons, he invites.

Sending, Preaching, Hearing

Which leads us to our final point. I said that I would close by
returning to the three steps of the five in verses 14-15 that we
did not cover in the last message. "But how are they to 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? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are
sent?"

The first two points of today's message come together and
produce the third. First, there is the unbelief and lostness of
Israel - and of the world without Christ. Second, there is the fact
that though God is sovereign over the human soul, whether believing
or unbelieving, he holds out his hands all day long to the Twin
Cities, its Jewish people and its Gentile people, its students, its
old and young and single and married, and to all the ethnic groups
near and far.

These two points come together and force the question: how is
the voice of this God heard? How are his extended hands seen? How
is his patience known? The answer is point three: He sends
messengers and entrusts to them the message of reconciliation (2
Corinthians 5:19). They open their mouths and say, "We implore you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20).
And people hear the gospel. And in the gospel they hear Christ
calling and inviting and drawing.

Here we need another message. But I leave it for the Holy Spirit
to preach to your own heart. Effective messengers of the gospel are
sent by God. Speaking for Christ is not a merely human impulse. God
blesses God-sent messengers of the gospel. But be careful here!
Don't say to yourself, "I am not sent, and so I will not speak."
Rather say, "Here I am, Lord, send me. Send me to an unreached
people. Send me to the urban neighborhoods of Minneapolis. Send me
across the street in my perishing suburb. Send me across the
office. Send me to the telephone today. Send me across this room
when the service is over."

Yes, there is a divine calling and a sending that is more
official and vocational - that is what I have as a vocational
pastor of this church. That is what some of you will have. But
there are more spontaneous, occasional callings and sendings. If
you have Christ within you, you will experience this. So let's all
pray for this to happen to us more and more: Lord here I am, send
me. Open my mouth with the gospel. May many hear and believe and
call on your name and be saved. Oh how beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the one who brings good news!