In his sermon 'How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher,' Scott Brown emphasizes the essential role of preaching in spreading the gospel, highlighting that the gospel's call is universal and should reach both Jews and Gentiles. He argues against the misconception of hyper-Calvinism, which suggests that belief in the doctrine of election negates the need for preaching. Brown explains that true evangelism involves actively sharing the gospel, as seen in the example of the Apostle Paul, who advocated preaching to all. He discusses the necessity of preaching as a means for people to hear and believe, despite the apparent obsolescence of preaching in the age of advanced technology. The sermon underscores that faith comes by hearing the Word of God and that preaching is a divine mandate for all believers, not just clergy. Brown also touches on the provocative role that Gentile salvation plays in challenging and awakening Israel, demonstrating God's patience and the comprehensive reach of His grace.

Good morning. Now is the time for the reading of the word for the sermon. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 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?

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. 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. 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." Lord, we thank You so much for this word that You have brought to us down through the ages. That people have died. That our Lord has died so as to bring forth this Word.

And this Word, O Lord, we can hold close to our heart. As we go out, as we go about, and as we come back in, we surround ourselves and our family with this Word. The only reason why we could possibly want to do that, Lord, is because it is You, You speaking to us. It is the power and your glory reaching into our hearts. By this word and by your spirit, O Lord God, you reveal yourself to us.

We thank you. This is the only place we can go to say, Thus saith the Lord. We praise your name for this certainty. I pray, O Lord God, that in the hearing of this word, every heart here may be touched and changed, that we may be molded like clay, that you would empower Scott and all of the men afterwards to preach the Word with boldness, certainty, confidence, completely without fear. This world certainly needs it, O Lord God.

Change us, mold us, help us to glorify You. In Jesus' name, amen. I believe that we have this text here before us to help us as a church to overcome the flesh. I could give you many examples of times when my own flesh has stopped my mouth from being a bearer of the good news. How the fear of man has caused me not to bring great tidings of joy to those who are before me.

Why? Because I wanted to be a nice guy. Because I wanted to be a good friend. I shut my mouth and my feet did not carry the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It might have carried some good moral example or some fine principles, but it did not carry the cross and it did not carry the blood and it did not carry the doctrine of sin and it did not carry the blood, and it did not carry the doctrine of sin, and it did not carry the word of God, but it carried all kinds of nice, wonderful conversation about interesting subjects.

And here the Apostle Paul is helping us to understand that we must preach the gospel both to the Jew and the Gentile. Now Paul is, in this text, And in all of the texts that explain his life is an example for us of someone who is willing to go to great lengths to preach the gospel. Why is he saying these things here? Well, here's one reason. The Jews were violently opposed to him preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, to the dogs, to those left outside, to those filthy pagans who sacrificed and did all kinds of things to dumb gods.

And they were incensed that Paul would preach the gospel to these despicable people. And Paul was arguing that we must preach the gospel to all people, because there's no distinction. Because the blood of Christ is sufficient to deal with the sins of both Jew, the religious person, and Gentile, the person who has rejected God and never known anything about God all of his life long. So Romans 9 and 10 stages the Jews and the Gentiles and the importance of evangelism to them and calls us to a high activity in communicating the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so therefore Romans 9 and 10, even though it's most widely known as communicating the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and salvation, the doctrine of election, Even though that's what Romans 9 and 10 is famous for, it explodes all of the caricatures.

It destroys all thoughts of hyper-Calvinism, as some people call it. Hyper-Calvinism would say that if you maintain the doctrine of election, you have no love for the law. You'll do nothing. If you believe in election, you will not preach the gospel. Romans 9 and 10 is a 20 megaton bomb to blow up that idea.

Because Paul, in both of these chapters, demonstrates how stupid an argument that is. He starts chapter 9 with an intense desire for the loss. He says, I wish that I were to be accursed for the sake of my brethren. And then in chapter 10, we find him earnestly praying for who? For those who are lost.

And then here in the second half of chapter 10 we find him advocating preaching. Why is he doing this? Probably for many reasons, but we are not to sit idly by while people are lost in perdition. But we should earnestly, with our whole hearts, desire their salvation, the beginning of chapter 9. We should pray the beginning of chapter 10.

And we should preach the end of chapter 10. This is the logic of this whole section. We must open our mouths to preach the gospel. We are called to great activity. And this is an affront to hyper-Calvinism, which says, if God is sovereign in salvation, then there's nothing for me to do.

You realize that in the 19th century there was actually a movement among Baptist churches. It was called the anti-missionary movement. And it was based on the idea that God is sovereign in salvation. We don't need to spend any money to send those to foreign lands. Thankfully though, you did have many in the 19th century who went out and preached the gospel to all the nations.

But it was a bad movement. But this movement here in chapters 9 and 10 and 11 calls the church to preach the gospel to all people, to both Jew and Gentile. And There are many things that we must say about this. Now, let's move into this text here. You have an outline in front of you in which there are three primary points that we'll be covering.

And the first is the gospel's universal call. And we're trying to answer the question, what do we learn about evangelism? Because we are here this morning in Christ's school of evangelism. We're learning from the apostle Paul how to think about and how to go about evangelism and all the issues that are on the table there. The first thing that we learn about evangelism is that the gospel is a universal call, verses 11 through 13, for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Now There are five words in these two verses that give us lots of help regarding evangelism.

The first word is the word whoever. The word whoever appears twice in these verses. And we'll get to this in a moment. But we need to understand that the call of the gospel is to whoever, whoever might be saved. It's not for us to try to determine who is worthy or who could possibly be saved because of their great attitude, because their growing understanding.

Forget that. No. We preach the gospel to whoever, whoever might be saved. And then we see here that there is one who calls. That's the next word.

Who calls on the name of the Lord. This picture is a drowning person crying out for help, recognizing that there are no human means of salvation at all, and that they need God to rescue them from their sins, that they can't pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, they can't be good enough, they've never been able to and they never will be. They must cast themselves upon the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to cast themselves on the name of the Lord, that His promises, His character, that are revealed in Scripture are sufficient for them. And it's the person who cries out, save my soul, Lord Jesus Christ.

And then the word shall. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That means that if you call on the name of the Lord, you shall be saved. You can be assured of your salvation if you repent and confess and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is a secure salvation, you shall indeed, guaranteed be saved.

And then the next word, shall be saved. Saved from what? Saved from yourself, saved from this world, saved from everlasting perdition, saved from so many things that the devil would deal. What a blessing it is to be saved. Think of how many things you've been saved from.

I've been a believer since my early teens and I could list all day long things that I have been saved from as a result of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only has my soul been saved but he has rescued my mind and the steps of my feet every day of my life since he since he justified me by faith isn't that amazing contemplate that for a moment The beautiful salvation that God has brought into your own personal life, into your whole family life. Imagine what your family would be like today if you had not been saved. Imagine that for just a minute. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

What a blessing. Soak in that. Let's just spend the whole rest of the morning on that one thing. Let's rejoice in God our Savior who has healed us from so many of our diseases. And then we see the richness of God toward those whom He saves.

For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. This is the vision of the abundant life. He is rich toward all who call on Him. Those who believe in Him will not be disappointed. No, they won't, because He is rich.

He day by day pours out blessings upon His people. Grace to help in time of need, the cleansing of the conscience, setting free from dead works, being able to eat the bread of life, to have living water poured out upon your soul every day. God is rich toward those who call upon Him. And then there's the breadth of God's call that is spoken of here. It is for all the people, whoever, whoever, whoever.

Not every person will believe, but all types of people will believe from every tongue and tribe and nation. There's this general call to all, but then there's also this what theologians have called the efficacious call. The call that is received and the call that is acted upon. So there's this general call to all people everywhere to repent. And then there's the efficacious call, the call that is received.

Verse 16 gives us the general call. Do you see it? For Isaiah says, for who has believed our report? The idea is that the report should be broadcast everywhere. There's this general call to all men that we are responsible to give.

That's the general call. God calls His voice out to all the earth and then verse 17 is the efficacious call. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So this is the person who hears and responds to the call of God. It's not for us to decide who will hear.

It is God to decide who will receive. And so we have both of these here. We learn here in these verses that there's no distinction. The Jew and the Greek are saved by the same grace and by the same program of justification, the same blood of Christ, the same faith that justifies. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness and it's the same way with Abraham as it is with you and I and for everyone who has ever been saved.

Men have only ever been saved one way, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So there is no distinction. You know, the Jews believe that they were the only saved people. But the problem with the Jews is that they weren't reading their Bibles clearly or carefully, or maybe their prejudices blinded their eyes. Perhaps it was that.

Because they knew that God saved the Gentile. They knew about Ruth the Moabitess. They knew about the Ninevites who were saved. They knew that God was harsh toward Jonah, who had no love for those pagan, filthy, Gentile Ninevites. The bloody city, the place that was known for tremendous wickedness, they knew that God loved those people.

They knew that God chastised the prophet for not loving them. But the Jews did not want certain people to be saved so that they could maintain their own preferential favor in their own eyes. And so there was nothing more contrary to Jewish thinking than to say, there's no distinction. We have to understand when Paul says, there's no distinction, this was an offensive word to them. It was noxious to them to hear that.

Paul was willing to speak a noxious word to his countrymen to help them understand how wrong they had become to think about all these things. Paul believed that believing Gentiles were Abraham's offspring. And so there's neither Jew nor Greek, but there's the same Lord over all. And if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. If anyone is in Christ, there's One Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is this broad, wide call that we should all be involved in, in our own lives. Here are some key principles before we leave this point. Number one, don't make distinctions between religious and irreligious people. Don't make judgment calls on who might be saved, because quite likely you'd be judging wrongly who in the world could have anticipated that the Apostle Paul would be saved.

But yet, in a moment of time, God saved him. We don't discriminate in the spreading of the gospel to any people at all. And we should send people into the most pagan cultures of the world to preach the gospel. We should do that. We shouldn't judge them, oh they're too far gone.

No, that's not what God says. God says that whoever call on the Lord will be saved. Here's the second principle. Quit thinking, Quit thinking about how the pagans of this world are big sinners with a capital S, and we are little sinners with a small s. Wrong.

Not so. It's wrong thinking. We're not considering the ways that God sees the human soul. There's only one way to be saved and that is to call on the name of the Lord. He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Him.

And so there is there is only one gospel. So what else do we learn about evangelism? Well we learn about we learn about the gospel's universal call and and some will be saved as a result of that call. Second thing we learn about evangelism is the necessity for preaching the gospel, verses 14 through 17. We learn about the necessity for preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of grace.

Now we learn here that God wants all people to hear. And how will this be accomplished? It will be accomplished through preaching. Isn't preaching obsolete? Hey, think about preaching for a moment.

Think of how dumb preaching is compared to the high-tech communication technologies that are out there today. Should preaching become obsolete? No. But God has somehow used preaching for His own purposes. He desires it to continue for all generations.

As foolish as it might seem, preaching of the Gospel will never go out of style. Of course, there are many ways to preach the Gospel. We can broadcast the Gospel through many avenues and outlets. But the preaching of the Gospel should always be one of the important categories for the Church. And it says here, how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?

Now this this is the missionary charter. This is why this is why we why missionary activity is important both local and international. This is the foundational verse for all missionary societies that have ever been birthed. And there is only one way to salvation. And that is that the gospel would be preached to all the people.

Now there are four questions in verses 14 and 15. Did you see this? You know, I always love it when Paul piles up these questions. Sometimes he gives one question and then he presents an answer. And then another question and answer.

Here he just machine guns four questions. And of course they're rhetorical questions. And he answers those questions in the next two verses. He asks the questions in 14 and 15, and he answers them at the end of 15, and he quotes three Old Testament passages as he does it. The first question is how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And of course this means that before anyone cries out to the Lord there is first justifying faith. The call comes after the faith. We first believe, and then how shall they believe in Him in whom they have not heard? Before the faith comes, you have to hear. And hear that God has sent his son, was crucified and raised from the dead, and that he offers propitiation for sins, that he takes the anger, the wrath of God upon himself.

And then how shall they hear without a preacher? So there must be someone to speak it. And then how shall they preach unless they are sent? So Paul here is a sent one. He is a messenger with a message and a journey traveled to deliver that message.

And that's what all of us have been given to do here in this world. We have been given a message. We are on a journey and there are people that we meet along in that journey. Paul was not sent from any man. Galatians 1.1 says that, Paul says, I was not sent from men or by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father.

As Paul was sent from God, so are we. We have been saved in exactly the same way that the Apostle Paul, and we have been sent to do the same kind of work. Perhaps not with the same gifts that the Apostle Paul had, for they were enormous. But God has called each of us to use whatever little gifts He's given us for the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That we would open our mouths and deliver the message of eternal life through Christ and be preachers of the gospel of Christ.

And we learn much about the spreading of the gospel here, that God does not have a special people. No but whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. We should not be discriminating in our preaching of the gospel. It should be to all flesh. How many times have we shrunk back from that?

How many times have we anticipated that someone might not be favorable and we have kept our mouths shut? How many opportunities have been lost, brothers and sisters? If you had half as many lost opportunities as I have, then there would be enough judgment to cast you into hell. But God, with high trust, would help us to open our mouths. We do have the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of our infirmities, in all of the comforts that we've saw instead of the boldness that we should have had.

But at the same time, we should receive this as a chastisement from the Lord if it's appropriate. If any of us have shut our mouths, let's not be those kind of people anymore. Let's open up our mouths. Let's let there be a boldness that maybe we've never had before. If you in your heart are convicted that you've shut your mouth because of your own comforts, because of your own anticipations, your own wisdom.

Let you and I be pierced to the heart that we would not do that again. But that we would be people with wide open mouths to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well I'm an example. I'm living an example before the people. I don't really have to say anything.

I believe what Saint Francis of Assisi said. Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words. If you're saying that, stop saying that. Because God has called us to use words to preach the Gospel, to use our mouths and not just to live. I had a very interesting email exchange this last week.

A brother in another church a long way away from here said that there was someone in his church who was saying that as for his wife, she should only be taught by the example of the older women. But that the older women were not authorized to teach his wife from the Bible and speak to them, but only to be an example to her. He was incensed because one of the older women opened up the Bible and began to instruct his wife in Scripture. He said, no one should instruct my wife in Scripture except me. And so there is a person in this man's church who was saying, how should I deal with this?

Here's what I said. I said, what a silly idea that anybody could understand from your example. It's not enough. If you want to live by just watching my example, what a silly idea. You would only get a one hundredth of what you would need.

But We have the Word of God that gives us detail. My example is not enough to save anybody or instruct anybody. Half the time it's a bad example. We don't communicate the glory of God simply by example. We do communicate it by example, yes.

But that's never enough. We are never enough in our own way. If you think your family is a good example enough for someone to be saved, forget that idea. Your family is as wicked and despicable and fall shorting before God as any other family on the face of the earth. Your family is no evangelistic tool, not compared to the words of the glory of God.

You're nice children who obey you. They may somehow declare the glory of God in some dark, in dark mystery kind of a way, but not clearly, not clearly enough to know that you're a sinner and your only hope is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your nice family won't declare that message. Your nice family might declare that there is a God who does transform his people, but that's not enough. How much transformation do you need to be acceptable before God?

Well There's only one kind and it is the justifying blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then He so graciously works. So we are not here just to give examples, okay? We are not just living examples. We have to open up our mouths God forbid that the men that I know in this town would only follow my example But they would follow something far greater than that They would follow what God has said, and that's what they would be attracted to.

Now, who are these who are sent? Are they the professional clergy? Are they the evangelists and the pastors? Some great men believe that these who are sent are ordained pastors and teachers. I don't think so.

I think it definitely includes them. But I don't believe it is limited to them at all. I believe he's talking about all of God's people. There are many examples of sending. We have the Great Commission.

If you believe that the Great Commission was only to those 12, I don't believe that at all. I believe that's for all of us. That we're all sent into all the world to preach the Gospel to all the nations and to teach them all that he has commanded. I think that's for all of us to do, not just to select few that were there when they heard those words. And so I believe the Great Commission defines who are sent here, all are sent.

So is this a preacher or an elder? I believe that Paul makes every man a preacher here. He does not say, he does not say, how shall they hear unless there be a master of divinity? He does not say, how shall they hear unless there be an ordained minister? He does not say, how shall they hear unless there be an ordained minister?

He does not say, how shall they hear without a full-time Christian worker? That's not what he says at all, and I don't believe that's what he means at all. God wants people to hear from all of his people. And then he speaks of these feet, these feet who bring the good news. What a marvelous statement that this is.

Their approach is beautiful, and the news is welcome in their sight. This whole issue of feet. You know, feet are an interesting subject in the Brown home. And we won't speak any of that discussion. But feet aren't typically the most compelling members of the body.

But it's interesting. Here we find these beautiful words regarding the feet of those who bring the gospel. You know, One writer mentions the occasions where feet were adored like when Mary Magdalene was kissing the feet of Jesus and And then and then later on in Matthew 28 actually holding on to his feet Isn't that amazing We find the Lord Jesus himself before he sends the disciples out, what does he do? He washes their feet. Feet have an interesting place in Scripture, But here we speak of the beautiful feet of them who bring good news.

There are many beautiful things in this world. We can see them. They're all around us. But it is truly beautiful when feet bring the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if feet are beautiful when they bring good news, then what are feet that do not bring the good news?

How ugly are the feet of them who keep a tight lip and who are so self-absorbed, they care only about their own affairs that they are unwilling to bring the good news. Those are not beautiful feet at all. Those are what we might call, at least what one man in our Tuesday morning Bible study said, that if you don't have beautiful feet, you have stinky feet. They're carefully concealed, all to yourself, rotting in your own lack of exposure to the oxygen of community life. These feet should be bringing good news and it be a blessing.

And then we've not only learned about the Gospels universal call and the necessity for preaching the Gospel. Let this just be a great exhortation for us to be preachers of the Gospel, to not keep our mouths shut. And then thirdly, God uses distasteful means to bring forth, bring Israel to faith. He is provoking Israel to jealousy. And he's using the dogs, he's using the goyim, he's using these pagan, despicable people to drive them crazy, to help them realize how far wrong they've been thinking.

He's saying, this is what my grace is about. My grace is so great that it can even save the dogs. And you who have a formalized religion of the mind only, Look who I save. I save those whose hearts turn toward me. Yes, I desire not just sacrifice.

I desire a heart. I desire a spirit that is broken before me. And he's using the Gentiles to prove to the religious that religion is not enough, but that Jesus Christ is all that is sufficient. So God is using a very distasteful means to bring Israel to faith. You know, God is shaking up Israel here.

He's taking something so unconscionable and putting it before them to drive them to jealousy. They would see the Gentiles being saved. They would see the transformations there. They would see how real their faith is. They would see that there's genuine repentance.

And they would compare it to their own and say, look at how dead we are, and look at how alive they are. How did they become so alive? Well, they became alive because the Spirit of God entered into their souls by saving Faith, the faith of Abraham. They believed God, and it was credited to them as righteousness. And they were truly blessed.

The Jews had become blessed in a dark sort of a way. There was no life in it. There was no happiness in it at all. There was no reality at all. It was lip service only.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. That's what God was doing. He was trying to show the Jews how far they had slipped. And he's using this despicable, very discombobulating example of how real faith can grow up in the heart of a despicable person, just like you and I. So he is using the salvation of the Gentiles to shake them up, to show his mercy.

Now notice how patient God continues to be with Israel. He says, all day long, all day long, I held out my hands. It illustrates the patience of God toward His people. He bears their dishonor day and night. Their sacrifices, every time they make a heartless sacrifice, It's a dishonor and a stench in his nostrils.

And he's patient all day long. He still holds out his hand, even though they continue in their dead religion. And then God is consistent. He's holding out his hands. His gestures are inviting.

He's calling them into his protections. He's not looking for formal, you know, intellectual religion or perfunctory faith at all. He's looking for people to gather into his arms. He is holding out his arms toward them in an inviting way to bring them back in. And he is using these Gentiles to stimulate them to see how far they've drifted from true faith.

And then we learn that God saves those who are not seeking Him. He says in verse 20, do you see it? 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." And here God is telling all of us that He saves the worst, He saves those farthest from Him. And the call is comprehensive and that should be our attitude as well.

We should not put anyone in a box. We should not belittle anyone. We know that they are candidates for the grace of God. So we are all sent. We are the missionaries.

We are the preachers in the sense of this passage. Last night we had a fun time reading some of the words of Charles Spurgeon on this whole subject, because he addresses this debate. Are these the ordained ministers, are these the masters of divinity, or are they everyone? And Spurgeon says, I wish that all of you would be preachers, that all men and women and children. He said, I don't love to hear a woman preacher, but of this kind I do, who would preach the gospel to all those around her.

And he says that he learned more from an old wash woman than he learned from anyone there in the church at that time. It was a woman who preached the gospel to him when he was a young boy. And She was an emissary of the good news. Her feet were beautifully bringing the good news. He tells the story of his own salvation, how on a snowy night he stumbled in and he heard a very, very bad sermon, but just a few words saved him.

And so we should all be preaching with whatever gifts that we've been given. All of us won't be like the Apostle Paul. All of us don't have those same gifts, but we do have the news that we can communicate to people wherever we are. So what have we learned about evangelism? We've learned that the Gospel's call is universal, that we should spread it out and let God choose whom He would save.

Secondly, that there is a Necessity for preaching. No, we do not just live by example. Forget your good example. It's a lousy one. As is mine.

But preach the Gospel. Use the words. Forget what St. Francis of Assisi said. We can all appreciate the power of a good example.

God works through that. But let's not be deceived that that should shut our mouths. And then thirdly, that God uses distasteful means to bring Israel to faith. He's provoking Israel to jealousy. He's speaking of how important true faith is in the presence of those unsaved.

Let's be those people. Yes, it is important to be an example, but an example of what? Genuine, heartfelt faith that's full of joy and full of the grace of God. And that's what God is doing with the Gentiles. He is raising them up and saying, I can save even them.

Look at the fatness of their souls. Look at the joy that they have. Look at the humility. Look at the true repentance they have. Do you have that?

And so God uses distasteful means. Okay, let me just give you a couple of applications and we'll wind it up. There's only one way to be saved, to call on the Lord, to believe and confess, and you will be saved. This is a genuine heart cry toward God. There's only one way to be saved.

It's the way that Abraham was saved. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And this is the way that we, the only way that we can be saved. And so, perhaps there might even be some here that, who are being stimulated to cry out to the Lord and say, Oh Lord, I confess that I believe in you. I am your child.

I remember when that happened to me. It was the most blessed thing in my whole life and perhaps God would do that to all of us here and then and then the second application is this is There preaching that needs to be done. Is there preaching that needs to be done? Is there preaching that needs to be done? Perhaps there are people that we need to loop back around and activate what was dead when we were with them last.

And to not be so fearful anymore. And that we are called to go and tell, not just to go and live, but to be preachers of the gospel. Well, God here in this text has given us much to think about regarding his treatment of the Jews and the Gentiles, regarding how the spread of the gospel should be engaged and what we can learn about evangelism. And how important it is that we speak so that ears will hear the words of the gospel. And what do we say?

We say the word of God. We preach the Word of God. That's also another thing that we learn here. We do have content to give and it's not just our own personal testimony. You know, your personal testimony is nice, but it's only just nice.

You need the Word of God to communicate. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Yes, we should give our testimonies, but let's don't over-exalt our testimonies. Let's exalt the Word of God in all of our preaching of the gospel. Faith does not come by cracking the code and giving powerful arguments.

Faith comes by hearing the word of God. And may it be true of us that our mouths are full of it and we would speak freely without any barriers or Fears of man that would keep our mouths shut But that we would be those beautiful feet who bring the gospel of peace Will you pray with me? Lord I am so grateful you brought this to us. Oh help us, help us to be faithful, joyful mouthpieces in this world, freely setting forth without judgment, without presumption, but that we would be those beautiful feet on this earth. In Jesus' name, Amen.