In the sermon 'Two Interlocking Chains' by Jason Dohm, the process of salvation is explored through two chains described by the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans. The first chain highlights God's sovereignty, detailing the steps from predestination to glorification, emphasizing that God predetermines, calls, justifies, and ultimately glorifies believers. The second chain outlines the human role in salvation, focusing on the necessity of preaching and hearing the gospel for belief and calling on the Lord. Dohm distinguishes between these chains to demonstrate the interplay between divine sovereignty and human participation in salvation. The sermon underscores that while God initiates salvation, believers are called to actively participate in spreading the gospel. Using scriptural references such as Romans 10 and Isaiah 52, Dohm illustrates the importance of preaching as a means for faith and salvation, and encourages believers to be heralds of the gospel, emphasizing that God often sends people to share His message. The sermon concludes with a call to appreciate those who have shared the gospel and to be eager participants in God's mission.

Today's sermon text is Romans 10, verses 14 and 15. But for context, I'll start at verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about this righteousness which is of the law, the man who does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation 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 whomever 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." It's famous that a Spurgeon, as he mounted the 17 steps up to his pulpit, every step of the way would say, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit." And he was bolstering his confidence in that the Holy Spirit would help him in his preaching. For me, it's not that.

For me, I have a sense that God loves you. God loves you. And He brought you here. And you have a preacher who has many faults, many weaknesses, who isn't what he should be in many ways. But that doesn't carry the day.

What carries the day is that God wants you to be fed. You're His people. You're His sons and daughters, and He wants you to feed well on His Word. So I have such confidence when I come into the pulpit. Not in what I am, but I have confidence that God loves the hearers.

And so, now I'll preach. Because God loves you. The title of the sermon this morning is Two Interlocking Chains. This is what Paul wrote a page or two earlier in his letter to the Roman believers. So, we're going slow, taking it bit by bit.

So, it's taking us months to cover what Paul probably wrote in a section that Paul wrote in one sitting. Here's what he wrote at the end of chapter 8. You can flip back to the end of chapter 8. Paul wrote this in Romans 8 verse 30. Moreover, whom he, whom God predestined, these He also called.

Whom He called, these He also justified. And whom He justified, these who also glorified." Here at the end of chapter 8, Paul gives us a chain. It's a number of links that are linked together that goes from start to finish. God predetermines to save particular sinners even before He made our world. So there's no world, but God has something in mind.

He has in mind that He's going to save Jason Dome or Mary Davis or Bob Stearns or or or. And then he makes the world. And then he starts human history. That's the first link in the chain. Then In their lifetime, God calls those particular sinners to Himself.

He draws them. He woos them. Is it okay if I say it that way? He woos them to come to Himself. That's the second link in the chain.

Then God justifies every one of them. And it should be said that we are justified by faith. So the implication is that God brings them to faith in His Son Jesus. God gives them faith. That has to be true when you take these two truths together that God justifies them and that justification is only by faith.

Then it has to be true that God brings them to believe in His Son Jesus. God gives them faith. That's exactly what Ephesians chapter 2 says. That we believe and this is not of ourselves, It is the gift of God so that no one is left boasting. That's the third link in the chain.

Finally, God glorifies these people. He makes sure that they make it to the finish line. None of these particular sinners that he determined to save come short of the finish line. Every single one, he makes sure to make it to the finish line. Then he brings them into eternity and he glorifies them.

He honors them and we honor him through eternity. That's the fourth and final link. Isn't that a glorious chain? It's this chain of links. One leading to the other and everyone having to lead to the other.

Why? Because God is faithful, that's why. God is the actor in this chain that he gives us in Romans 8 verse 30. It is God who is acting to save sinners. Then God spent the next page of his letter, chapter 9, establishing and explaining and defending the sovereignty of God in saving sinners.

So Romans 8.30 gives us the sovereignty of God. God is the actor in saving sinners. And then on that next page of his letter he establishes that and explains that and defends that as being a truth of scripture. He uses a lot of Old Testament to prove that it's not new teaching, that this has always been the revelation of God about how sinners are saved. But, but, but, that isn't the only chain Paul gives us.

Paul is giving us another chain in today's text. More links that have to be in order, that are always in order. And this chain explains the process that God has established to go about this work of saving sinners. So we learn from chapter 8 verse 30 that sinners are saved and that this doesn't happen by random chance that God actually planned for this to happen before He even made the world. But now we learn in this chain that there's a process that God uses to save sinners.

So we have this word, call, used in two different ways. God calls sinners, he determined to save an eternity past, and God does it through the process from today's text so that each of them calls on Jesus to be saved. So God calls sinners and then those sinners call on Jesus to be saved. And we have these two interlocking chains. Let's ask God to help us as we come to the text.

God, your truths in Romans are so rich. Thank you for teaching us these things. Thank you for teaching us that you have determined to save sinners and thank you for teaching us how you save sinners. Let these truths be so precious to us, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, let's subdivide.

We only have two verses. And there's not a clean subdivision, sorry about that. We're going to go verse 14 through the first part of 15. That gives us the whole chain. And then we'll finish with the second part of 15.

So right now I'm going to reread Romans chapter 10 verses 14 through the start of 15 and then I'll break off in the middle and talk about it. So follow along. Romans 10, 14 through the start of 15. Alright. 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? Here are the links of the chain. These verses Paul considers how people come to call on the name of the Lord.

Remember verse 13, just the verse right before today's text. Paul quoted Joel 2.32, so he's quoting the Old Testament again to establish his New Testament teaching. Joel 2.32, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How does that happen? So, if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved, but how does a person come to call on the name of the Lord?

That's the matter Paul undertakes in our two verses today. Let's look at this chain that Paul gives us, link by link. We're just going to take a link and talk about it. Calling on Jesus is the final link in the chain, and believing in Him comes before it and is necessary for it. So are you with me?

I'm going to repeat. I might repeat some of this. Calling on Jesus is the final link in the chain. So he's actually starting at the end. He's starting at the end, the last link in the chain that saves you.

The final link of the chain is calling on Jesus, but believing in Jesus comes before it and is necessary for it. Meaning only people who believe in Jesus call on Jesus to save them. The whole argument for the whole chain is that the order matters. So this is not random. You can't just put them in any order.

Paul is giving you the order because one depends on the other. Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus depends on first believing in Him. So this is the ultimate end of this chain. So if you're asking the question, why the chain? This is the answer to that question.

That a sinner calls on Jesus to save her. That a sinner calls on Jesus to save her. That a sinner calls on Jesus to save him. That's the whole purpose of the chain. That's the whole purpose of the whole process that Paul is describing.

Paul identifies what does come before that, calling on Jesus to be saved, and what must come before calling on Jesus to be saved in the saving process. We don't even need to leave chapter 10 to see why that is. Look at verse 10. We're just moving up the page a couple of verses. Romans 10 verse 10.

He just wrote this to these Roman believers. For with the heart, One believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Believing in Jesus in the heart is what results in righteousness. So you have to be righteous to be right with God, to come into the presence of God, to be reconciled to God requires righteousness. Well believing in Jesus in the heart is what results in righteousness.

We believe unto righteousness. Who's righteousness? Jesus' righteousness. This is the justification that Paul has been teaching since the early chapters. This is the declaration by God that a person is not guilty, better yet the person is righteous.

It's great to be not guilty. It's even better to be declared righteous. But this is based on faith alone, not my righteousness. God's not looking at my thoughts, my words, my deeds and saying wow all those thoughts and words and deeds were righteous. No, He knows me.

He knows you inside out. So this righteousness is not my righteousness. This is the righteousness that is Jesus' righteousness that I lay hold of by believing in Jesus, by faith alone. Calling on Jesus to save you is the fruit of believing in Him. Calling on Jesus to save you is the evidence that you've actually believed in Him.

You don't call on Jesus to save you out of nowhere. You believe in Him. The revelation of God says, this is who Jesus is and what He's done for sinners and your heart says yes and amen. Because you believe the revelation about Jesus, who He is and what He's done for sinners, you call on Him to save you. Because you believe what the Bible says, that He is able to save you and so you call upon Him to save you.

Now, Paul works up the chain another length. Hearing about Jesus comes before believing in Him and is necessary for believing Him. How would you believe without first hearing? Believe what? This justifying faith, this believing in Jesus that results in God's declaring that I am righteous because His righteousness is put in my account, depends on me hearing the Gospel.

On me hearing the gospel. I hear about God, man, Christ, response. I keep using over and over again these four words that sort of give us this bare-bones summary of the Gospel. I hear about God, that He's all-knowing, that He's almighty, that He's everywhere present at once, and that He is perfect in goodness and truth. I hear about man, that He was made good, but he didn't stay good.

When we brought sin and death into this world, our nature is now corrupt so that the things that this perfectly good and true God loves, I don't love. And the things that this perfectly good and true God hates, I don't hate those things, something is wrong with me. I hear that. And I hear about Christ. That God hasn't been content to leave me in that desperate state.

And so, to make a way to reconcile sinners to himself, he sent his own son, who he loved from heaven, to live a perfect life of obedience that would qualify him to be a sacrifice that he could accept. He can't accept a lamb with a blemish. So he sent one to live and die with no blemish, no sins of his own to die for so he could be an acceptable substitute and that all these things demand a response. These are not just factoids. They are facts that lead to a conclusion.

You must respond. You must accept and bow, or you must reject, and to say I'll do nothing is to reject. Every non-response is a response to the gospel. God, who is God? The revelation of God tells us.

Man, who is man? The revelation of God tells us. What has God done about this great disconnect, Christ? What does the Revelation of God tell us? And all of this demands a response.

I hear these things and I do respond by believing in Jesus and therefore calling on Jesus. This isn't some fuzzy, indistinct believing in a higher power. Let me say that again. This isn't some fuzzy, nebulous, indistinct believing in a higher power. Almost everyone on planet Earth does that.

That's not what Paul is talking about here. This is trusting in the Jesus Christ of Scripture based on hearing the fundamental elements of the gospel. God, man, Christ, response. Do I need a PhD in theology? Of course not.

Do I need a basic understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and why I desperately need that, absolutely. Absolutely, that is non-negotiable. So it is hearing that leads to believing. Now Paul works up the chain another length. Preaching is how people hear as an unbelieving sinner, How am I brought face to face with God, man, Christ response?

How am I brought face to face with the Gospel? The answer is, someone does something. Unless someone does something, you're never brought face to face with the claims of the Gospel, the truths of the Gospel, the demands of the Gospel. You can live and die without being brought face to face with the claims and demands and promises of the gospel. Someone has to do something.

Now, I'm very concerned that you'll all leave here with the wrong idea. Here it goes. Here's the wrong idea. Jason, you're the preacher. Yeah, we pay you.

Thanks for that by the way. And so this is your function so I can go to sleep now. Wake me up when we get back to something that has to do with me. Wake up! We are back to something that has to do with you.

It is not just the pulpit preacher. Listen to what the Greek lexicon says about the Greek word that has been translated, preacher. By the way, I don't mind the translation. I just mind the baggage that we attach to the word. We hear preacher.

You think me and people like me, there's a class of people who have been set aside to have their main occupation be to stand behind a pulpit and preach to local churches. So When we hear that word, we think that. Here's what the Greek lexicon says about the actual Greek word being translated. 1. To be a herald.

2. To publish. 3. To proclaim openly something which has been done. So this word means just someone who's been sent out in the square to say, here's what the king says, here's what happened in the king's kingdom, to publish and proclaim something which has been done.

Now, think about this in relation to God, man, Christ response, the elements of the Gospel. A herald gets sent out into the square to say, the King says this is what's happened in his kingdom. That doesn't sound like me, that sounds like us. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 5.20. 2 Corinthians 5.20.

Another letter to another pagan city. To believers, new believers in this pagan city. 2 Corinthians 5.20. Paul writes, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

Now who is we? We are ambassadors for Christ. When you go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and it is we, we, we, us, us, us, and if you just look and ask that question, who is we? Is Paul talking about the apostles? Is Paul talking about his ministry team?

Is Paul talking about preachers? All through the chapter, we, we, we, us, us, us, it is completely obvious, completely unmistakable completely unmistakable that Paul is talking about himself as the author and the readers, these normal Corinthian believers. We got a bee flying around here. Watch out. Paul is not talking about the Apostles.

He's not talking about his ministry team. He's not talking about preachers. Paul is talking about believers. He's a believer and the Corinthians that he's writing to are believers and he brings that together and says, we, us, we, us, all through the chapter. And then he says this, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.

Corinthian believers, I'm an ambassador for Christ. Corinthian believers, you're ambassadors for Christ. You're ones who are sent by the King to bring the message of the King to the people of the world, to implore people on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, I have that message, I'm doing it, you have that message, you do it. This is not the preacher class. This is not pulpit preachers.

The Great Commission has not been given to just pulpit preachers. Heaven help us. Heaven help us. If the Great Commission has just been given to pulpit preachers. So it is proclaiming, It is heralding that leads to hearing.

Someone does something and you hear. Finally, Paul works up the chain to the very first link. Sending comes before heralding. Sending comes before proclaiming openly something which has been done. What has been done?

God sent Jesus into the world to save sinners. Sending comes before that. Oh, did I get them? I hit them right. This is becoming more exciting than it needs to be.

Sending is necessary for Proclaiming. Now I want to say three things about this. Are you ready? Are you focused on the preaching and not the bee? You're not.

You want that bee dead, don't you? I do too. I don't know how to do it. Let me say three things about sending being necessary for proclaiming. Thing one, proclaimers must not act on their own authority or bring their own message.

That's the whole point Paul is making here. Proclaimers must not act on their own authority or bring their own message. That's not what ambassadors do. Ambassadors who do that get recalled to the home office and relieved of their duties. Ambassadors go where they are sent.

Ambassadors act on behalf of their sender in the name of their sender. Ambassadors say what their sender sent them to say. If they don't, they get recalled. Jesus is the ultimate example of this. Listen to what Jesus said.

Jesus said, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command what I should say and what I should speak." That's John 12, 49. Jesus, the Son of God, Jesus, God, did not come on his own authority. He was sent by his Father and he was sent with a specific message to proclaim. Jesus' words were not his own words. He was sent to say the words that he said.

If Jesus, the Son of God, if Jesus, God, did not come on his own authority, how much more should we be careful that we not come on our own authority? Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus as God did not come to say his own words, he was sent to say particular words that he was sent to say. Those words were put into his mouth by his Father. That's what he said. How much more should that be true of us?

Paul himself, who is the author of this letter to the believers in Rome, is also a tremendous example of this. He identifies himself at the beginning of his letters. It might be without exception, I didn't check them all, but essentially, all his letters, he begins by identifying himself as an apostle, apostolos in Greek. Literally, that means a messenger, one sent forth with orders. So, this is very true of Paul, this is very true of Jesus, so it is impossible that this would not also be true of all other ambassadors of Christ.

Paul identifies himself at the beginning of all his letters as a messenger once sent forth with orders. I'm just here carrying out my orders as an ambassador. I am under authority. The things that I'm saying are not my words. I've been sent to say these words.

So that's thing one. Proclaimers must not act on their own authority or bring their own message. Thing two. God is the ultimate sender. If you are a believer in Jesus, it is because God sent someone to do something.

I'm a believer in Jesus. How did that happen? God sent someone to do something. Someone told you the gospel. Someone invited you to a Bible study.

Someone put a Bible in the hotel drawer. Chapel Library printed and shipped a tract. And the person who ordered it put it at the bottom of a carton of six beer bottles. That's a real story. Jeff Pollard at Chapel Library, they print tracks, send them all over the world, won't take any money for them, they do it for free.

Jeff Pollard me. Jeff Peller got a letter. I went to the grocery store and bought beer. Six bottles in a carton. Went home, Started consuming the beer.

Lifted up one of them under one of them. There's this, what is this? I read it. I was pierced to the heart. I believed in Jesus.

Somebody ordered tracks from Chapel Library, printed and shipped them to tracks. Some sneaky person went into the grocery store, they went into the refrigerator at the grocery store, they lifted up one of the six beers, they put a track, they put the beer on top of it, and they left. Someone did something, and God, man, Christ response made it to some beer drinker, some state far away. Maybe a pulpit preacher did preach the sermon. Many pulpit preachers had preached to you many times before and it never hit, but that Sunday it hit.

Someone did something. The Gospel came to you. Here's what I want to say about this. Maybe somebody told you the gospel, maybe somebody invited you to a Bible study, maybe somebody put a Bible in the hotel drawer, maybe you drank a beer and there was a tract under it and it came from the chapel library, maybe a pulpit preacher preached a sermon. At the end of the day, God did that.

It was God. God sent someone to draw you, someone to woo you, someone to bring you. God sent someone proclaimed you heard you believed you called on Jesus to save you and you were saved. God did that. It wasn't random chance at all.

It seems like random chance. Jeff Pollard got another letter. I was walking in New York. Somebody was handing out tracks. I didn't get handed a track.

The guy in front of me got handed a tract. And as he continued to walk, he looked at it, he saw what it was, and he flipped it over his shoulder. And I was the guy behind him. And I couldn't resist. I picked it up, I read it, I believed in Jesus.

Random chance you just happened to be behind that guy. No! You did not just happen to be behind that guy. God ordered the universe so that you would be behind that man and his flipping and throwing it away as trash it was irresistible to you a thousand other people would have walked by it but you couldn't because God was bringing you into his kingdom the two chains were interlocking God did determine that He would save you before He even made the world, and yet someone did something. God sent someone to do something and the chains interlock.

God was sovereign over your salvation And people were involved in the process. The printers were running at chapel library and they were sending them and beer drinkers were drinking beer and God worked through these things to bring you to Himself. It was not random chance. That's thing two. God is the ultimate sender.

Thing three. Often people have the privilege or even the responsibility of participating in the sending. Turn to Acts 13. Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13.

I'm going to be reading Acts chapter 13 verses 1 through 5. This kicks off Paul's first missionary journey. Why do they call it Paul's first missionary journey? Because he's never been on one. There's three missionary journeys.

He's never been on a missionary journey. This is the first one. He's been teaching and serving at Antioch, the church in Antioch, for about a year alongside Barnabas. And then this. Acts 13 verse 1.

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said now separate to me Barnabas and Saul we know him as Paul. Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away." This is the sending of the greatest missionary who's ever lived aside from Jesus.

This is how he was sent. This is What initiated the first missionary journey of the world's greatest missionary? Who sent him? The Holy Spirit sent him. The Holy Spirit said, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul or Paul for the work to which I have called them.

Who sent him? The church in Antioch. It says so right here. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, this is something physically done that is symbolic of you being launched into a particular ministry, having laid hands on them, They sent them away. They were sent by the church at Antioch.

The Holy Spirit sent them, yes. The church at Antioch sent them, yes. So it is true that God is the ultimate sender and we should jealously guard that truth. Only God sends in the ultimate sense. But it is also true that God is often pleased to give His people the privilege or even the responsibility of participating in the sending.

In the sending. Did God need to use the people at the Church of Antioch to call Barnabas and Saul and to send them? No, He didn't. He didn't need to. But He did do it that way.

We should take note. God is often pleased to give His people the privilege or even the responsibility of participating in the sending. Isn't it a privilege to send? And isn't it even a responsibility at times to send? I think We should go as far as to say that we should be seeking to participate in the sending.

We should long to have the privilege and the responsibility of sending. Having received the mercy of God, what a privilege, what a responsibility to send to people so they can experience the grace of God. Let's give John Murray the concluding remark on this section. John Murray says this, Paul's questions in this section are an analysis of the process involved in calling upon the Lord's name. Calling on the Lord's name doesn't just come out of nowhere.

There's a process involved. These questions of Paul are an analysis of that process. John Murray continues, The main point is that the saving relation to Christ involved in calling upon His name is not something that can occur in a vacuum. It occurs only in a context created by proclamation of the gospel on the part of those commissioned to proclaim it. The sequence is therefore authorized messengers, proclamation, Hearing, Faith, Calling on the Lord's Name.

So Murray takes the link from the start to the finish. Paul started at the end point and works back to the start. But that is the sequence, start to finish. Authorized messengers sent by God, authorized by God, sent with the message by God. The proclamation or heralding, the hearing, then believing, then calling on the Lord's name.

Back to Romans 10, second half of verse 15. Romans 10, 15, second half of the verse. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Here, Paul gives us the parallel from Isaiah. He quotes the Old Testament again.

He's quoting Isaiah 52, verse 7a. A meaning he doesn't quote the whole verse, he just quotes the first part of the verse. This is Isaiah 52, verse 7a. We have this phrase, who preach the gospel. The Greek word behind that phrase, who preach the gospel, literally means to bring good news, to announce glad tidings.

So again, don't think pulpit preacher. We might see the phrase who preach the gospel. I'm zoning out. That's the preacher man. It just means to bring good news, to announce glad tidings.

There's a lot more people in this world than pulpit preachers that bring the good news of Jesus Christ to their neighbors, co-workers, friends, enemies, people they meet on the street. Enter Rob Ventura. Let's hear from Rob Ventura. He says this. Paul is referencing a passage which in its original context spoke about the Old Testament footmen who in the 6th century BC announced the good news of freedom from Babylonian captivity.

These individuals joyfully announced that the Babylonian exile had ended and the people were now free to return to Jerusalem. That's a lot. What's he saying? He's saying that in Isaiah 52, this is what's happening. Isaiah was sent 100 plus years before the start of the Babylonian captivity, before the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying the people into captivity.

About 100 years before that, God sent Isaiah to say, I'm going to do that because of your sin and backsliding. Because of your idolatry, I'm sending foreigners to destroy Jerusalem and carry you into captivity. So this is a hundred years before it ever happened, God sent a prophet to say it's going to happen. But with that prophecy of destruction and captivity, God sent the prophet to say that's not going to be the end of the story. While you're in captivity, I'm going to bring, at the end of 70 years, I'm going to bring that captivity to an end.

The discipline of my people is going to be brought to an end and I'm going to set you free to to set you free to go home. In Ezra chapter 1, Cyrus, king of Persia, puts the captive Jews at liberty to return to Jerusalem. Do you remember that? We actually have the proclamation from the King of Persia, Cyrus, telling the Jews, you can go home and for those who aren't going home, you should help the ones who want to go home, go home. Bringing their 70 year captivity to an end.

And this is a picture of our salvation in Christ. So again, Israel is the picture. The people who trust in Jesus are the reality that the picture was always pointing towards in teaching too. This is true all throughout the Old Testament. So this King of Persia, Cyrus, putting God's people who are in captivity, declaring the captivity to be at an end and setting them at liberty to go home is a picture of salvation in Christ.

This is indeed the gospel of peace. The War is over and God is at peace with you and you're free. Now, Imagine the privilege of being one of these people. So it's not the modern age. Cyrus, king of Persia, makes a proclamation, makes a declaration, puts it in writing.

Jews, you're free to go home. Flitman carried the message to the different pockets of captives who were now free. They came and they said, "'Thus says the king. You've been set at liberty, you can go. What might you have thought if you were a captive?

Oh thank you, feet. Thank you feet for bringing this messenger here one step at a time. You are beautiful, you feet. Now, think of the feet that brought you the gospel. The gospel came to you through some channel.

Someone did something. Whose feet brought you the Gospel? Their beautiful feet, are they not? Applications, I'll give you two. One, excuse me, three.

I'll give you three. There's a bonus, apparently. One, keep both chains in mind. Keep both chains in mind. They interlock.

They are not independent of each other. If you only keep this chain in mind, it starts to seem like you have no part to play. God determined before He even made the world that He was going to save these particular sinners, and then He called them, He justified them, He'll glorify them. What does that have to do with me? If you only keep this chain in mind, this chain in mind, it starts to seem like it all depends on me.

They can't call them the name of the Lord unless they believe. They can't believe unless they hear. They can't hear unless there's someone to proclaim. They can't proclaim unless someone's sent. It depends on me.

Is God sovereign in salvation? Of course He is. Does God work through the means that He has established and people are part of those means? Of course he does. You can just keep this chain in view and it will seem like you have no part to play at all.

That's actually not the teaching of Scripture. You can just keep this chain in mind and think that it all depends on you. That's not true. That's not what Scripture teaches. So that's number one.

Keep both chains in mind. They interlock. They are not independent of each other. Number two. No one says it like Spurgeon.

We'll just let Spurgeon say it. Here's what Spurgeon said. Here's the challenge that Spurgeon gave to his church. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees imploring them to stay.

If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for. Amen. Amen to that. Make them leap to hell over our bodies. Three.

Thank God for sending the beautiful feet of those who brought you the Gospel. Let their faces come to mind. Who brought you the Gospel? I have faces right now. I can see them.

People brought me the Gospel. Thank God for sending those beautiful feet. He sent them. That was not random chance. He sent them to draw you to woo you.

To be His own Special possession. God, thank you for the beautiful feet who brought me the gospel. Tempted to say their names. I'm sure there was so much more. I'm even thinking of thank you for your goodness God give us the the privilege of being that of being the face that Comes to mind when people think of their own salvation.

Make us bold, God. Make us so bold. Make us so eager to participate with You in the saving of sinners, having so freely received. Let us freely give, God. Pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.