Seeking once again the Lord's
help to grant me the words to speak to you this evening, I'd
like you to turn with me to the chapter that we read together,
Romans 10, and the text you'll find in verse 15. How shall they preach, except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. So the text obviously comes off
the back of a statement made regarding the advancement of
the gospel and the way in which the message of the gospel was
to go forward and to be heard by people. In verse 13 it says,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
whom they have not heard or not believed? And how shall they
believe on him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? And it's almost like he's working
his way from the bottom to the top. because it could be read,
how should they preach except they be sent? How should they
hear without a preacher? How shall they believe on him
whom they have not heard? And so the preacher has to be
sent and he has to be sent with a message and he has to go forward
with a message and he has to speak the message and the message
has to be heard and then the message has to be believed. And it is only then when the
message is believed that the message is able to be acted upon
and those who hear that message and believe on that message are
able to be saved by what they hear regarding the Lord Jesus
Christ. Ultimately he is the sum and
substance of the message. And the Apostle begins in our
chapter with a desire that the Jews might also be saved. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God is, for Israel is, that they might be saved. Now this I think sums up a true
heart of someone who has been a recipient of the message and
the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't want
to keep the message to themselves. They don't want to hold the message
within their own heart. They want others to experience
what they themselves have experienced and so they have a desire that
God would go on to save other people and the Apostle Paul had
that desire. as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
the sent one with a message, with authority from the Lord
Jesus and he had a desire that when he preached his message
of salvation that others might hear and that they might believe.
and especially his own family. Being a Pharisee, being a Jew,
he had those who were still in the Jewish religion. He had a
whole nation that had rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and his
desire was that they may turn from a works-based righteousness
and come to the righteousness which is of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. and his prayer to God is that
they might see that. And I wonder if we have that
same desire. I wonder if we have a concern
for those who are within our own families who don't know the
gospel. whether we do pray to God for
them, and I'm sure we do, for if we have experienced the love
of God in Christ Jesus we desire that other people also may come
to experience it because we know what is the consequences of rejecting
that one message, that one way of salvation. And so the apostle,
as every true missionary, as every true preacher, as every
true Christian, and even the Lord Jesus Christ, had a compassion
that others may hear and respond to the saving news of the gospel. And as he goes through the chapter,
he continues to have that desire that others might believe and
be saved. But then he comes in now a coupling
of verses to use an illustration of the way in which a message
was delivered in the olden days. We know in our day messages fly
around here and there by WhatsApp and mobile phone calls and the
internet and the television. If something happens here today
it can be all over the world in a matter of moments. Messages can travel immediately. But in those days there was not
that way of communicating. And so if a country went to war
and they won or if they lost then they would have to send
messengers to the other areas of the country to bring the message
to the people. And we have illustrations of
it in the Old Testament especially. The runners with the message. You'll remember when the children
of Israel went to war against the Philistines and they began
to lose. So they took the Ark of the Covenant
into battle and the Ark of the Covenant was captured and the
messenger ran from the battle in 1 Samuel 4. And verse 16, it says, and the
man said, I am he that cometh from the army. And I fled today
out of the army. And he said, what is there done,
my son? And the messenger answered and
said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has
also been a great slaughter among the people. And thy two sons
also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken. And it came to pass when he mentioned
the ark of God that he fell from the seat backward by the side
of the gate and his neck break and he died for he was an old
man and heavy and he had judged Israel 40 years. But there we
see that the messenger had run from the army and he'd run from
the war to bring the news of what had taken place. And although
the news was not the gospel of good tidings of peace, it was
a bad message. Yet it was bought by a messenger. If you remember also in the book
of Esther in fact there are numerous accounts in the Old Testament
where these runners were used. But in the book of Esther after Mordecai had been elevated
and Haman had been caught out to be a fraud and hanged and
the plan had been overthrown and turned around. The king Ahasuerus,
he sent out messengers to override the message that he originally
sent because of Haman. in Esther chapter 8 and verse
10 it says, and he wrote in the king Ahueras' name and sealed
it with the king's ring and sent letters by post on horseback
and riders on mules and camels and young domideres, which is
some type of horse And the king granted to the Jews, which were
in every city, to gather themselves together and to stand for their
life, to destroy and slay and cause to perish all the power
of the people and the provinces that would assault them, both
little ones and women, and to take the spoil for them for a
prey. And so you see, the apostle is
using an Old Testament way of conveying a message or bringing
a message to to the extended regions of the country so that
everybody knows exactly what the king says. And he takes the
message from the prophecy of Isaiah. as Isaiah is led by the
Spirit of God to prophesy regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he prophesies that the messenger will come over
the mountains and he will come bringing messages of peace and
good tidings. And it's like the Apostle is
seeing the Lord Jesus Christ coming from a great battle and
he's coming over the mountaintops to bring the good news of salvation
that he has won the victory. And as we saw this morning as
he was raised again from the dead, it's like he comes out
of the tomb and he comes over the mountaintops and he brings
this great message that he has accomplished. He has won the
war. He has won the fight. He has
gained the victory over sin, Satan, death and the grave. And so it's like the prophet
Isaiah sees these things beforehand
and he's enabled to prophesy regarding that great victory
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Isaiah 52. He says, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings
that publishes peace that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes
salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Now obviously
Isaiah was speaking in a sense of the primary message regarding
the deliverance from Babylon. that one day that the messenger
would come, that the time is up, that the anointed slot that
God has given for judgment had been completed and now was the
time in which you would be restored back to your own land. But it
has a greater sense, a greater meaning, a spiritual meaning
regarding Christ, and his great work of salvation which brings
about peace. Peace with God. And it is good
tidings, the gospel of good tidings. And it publishes salvation not
just from a physical enemy, but from the greater enemy, that
is sin and Satan. Salvation from hell itself and
brought about peace between God and man. And so the apostle in
writing to the Romans uses this Old Testament illustration, this
Old Testament truth about the messenger bringing a message,
a message of peace. And it is the message that makes
him beautiful. It is what he brings, not he
himself that is beautiful. How shall they preach? except
they be sent. If you remember at the end of
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ after he had raised again
from the grave and as he had mixed with those 500 plus people
proving to them and showing them that he was indeed alive from
the grave he gave a commission to his apostles or we can say
to the church. It says, how shall they preach
except they be sent? The messenger must have a message
and he must be sent from and to a certain people. The Lord Jesus Christ, after
he rose from the grave, gave a message and sent his people
to a people. Matthew 28, it tells us there
in verse 18, And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world. And we finish with
that this morning, that Christ, although he says he is not here,
not in the grave but he is here he is here with his people for
he has said lo I am with you always even to the end of the
world until he comes again and he says go go therefore and teach
all nations as the messenger was sent from their war to go
back to the people to tell them what has taken place. So Christ's
disciples were sent from Jerusalem to go and proclaim all that took
place, that Christ was born, that he died, and that he rose
again on the third day. And he says, go. Mark also. tells us at the end of Mark. Mark 16. So then after the Lord
had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat
at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached
everywhere, the Lord working with them, confirming the word
with signs following. Amen. The Lord working with them.
How was he working with them? He was working with them through
His Holy Spirit, enabling them to rightly divide the Word of
God, enabling them to proclaim the truth, enabling them to be
able to face opposition and persecution, enabling His Word to go forth
into the hearts of people so that they may see and believe
and be changed and follow. And in verse 15 it says, go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel, the good news, to
every creature. And he that believeth is baptised
and shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.
And it goes on, and these signs shall follow them that believe.
In my name, they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with
new tongues. They shall take up serpents.
And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them.
And they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
And so he says, go. go with the message and go into
all the world and preach it and that whosoever believeth the
message, whosoever believes the message shall have everlasting
life. Luke also takes up the same theme. Jesus opened up their understanding,
Luke 24, then opened he their understanding that they might
understand the scriptures and said unto them, Thus it is written,
and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again, to
rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. Ye are witnesses of these things. And so that was to be the message
that they were to preach, that it is written that Christ should
suffer and arise again from this third day and that repentance
and the forgiveness of sin should be preached in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ to all nations. And lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world. And how shall they preach then,
except they be sent? They are sent. They have been
sent by the Lord Jesus Christ. And even today, he anoints one
and another to take his gospel into the highways and the byways
of this world. And he anoints his church to
live godly in this wicked and perverse generation that they
may adorn the gospel of Christ by their good behaviour. And
they are sent. And they are sent with a message. And it is a simple message. Not a difficult message. It is
a simple message. Go into all the world and preach
the Gospel. What is the Gospel? God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Verse
9. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God
has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. It's an easy message to understand. But the problem is we don't see our need of the
message. It's not until we see our need
of the message that we accept the message. The scripture tells
us that by our nature we are blind, that we don't see any
need of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is despised and rejected of
men. Of our nature we have no desire
to desire him. We see no beauty in him. And
our ears are deaf to the message. And so although the message is
so simple to understand, yet our hearts are so hard that the
message just runs off our hearts like water off a duck's back
and Satan snatches it away and we go on as though we don't even
care about the message. Yet this is God's message. It
is God who gave his Son. We read on Friday that it is
God in Christ reconciling sinners to himself, reconciling the world
to himself. It is God who so loved the world. And it is God who commissioned
his people to go and proclaim the message. And it is God who
worked with the early church as they proclaimed the message.
And that's what we need today. We need God to accompany the
preaching of the gospel so that people believe the message and
they see themselves to have a need of the message. that they might
need a Christ to save them from the consequences of sin, that
they might see a beauty in the message. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace. Now, what is beauty? I'm sure we could say all manner
of things and our minds may jump to one thing or another but it's
something really that is pleasing. We can look at a beautiful sunset
and it is pleasing in its colours and its creation and it is beautiful. We can eat beautiful food. We can look at a beautiful painting. We can listen to beautiful music. And so it's something that is
pleasing, simply put. The scripture tells us in Proverbs
that beauty is vain. That is the beauty of this world,
a beauty that is fading away. But in Psalms it tells us that
there is a beauty that is found in God. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, sorry, Psalm 26 and, sorry, Psalm 27 and verse 4. One thing
have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold
the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple and so
there is a beauty that is fading away and then there is a beauty
that is eternal but this beauty that is seen in the Lord cannot
be seen with the natural eye our natural condition we see
no beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ and we see no beauty in God.
It is a beauty that is given to us by faith to enable us to
see this beauty. And it is done because the Holy
Spirit of God has worked in our hearts and we have seen the beautiful
gospel which enables us to see a beautiful Christ which enables
us to see the beauty of the Lord. We go back to Isaiah 53. It says there, there is no beauty
that we should desire him. You see until the message has
had an effect upon us we see no need of the message and we
see no need of the one of whom the message is about. In 52 verse 14 it says, his visage
was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons
of men. You see, as we look at Christ
upon the cross, it is a grizzly sight, naturally speaking. There's nothing beautiful in
it, naturally. A man suffering with nails in
his hands and feet and his back torn to shreds. A man who has
been spat upon and abused. There is no beauty there. His visage was so marred more
than any man. Yet by faith we are enabled to
see a beauty there that God was in Christ reconciling the world
to himself and he had a beautiful message that God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son although externally it was
so marred and an ugly a grisly sight Yet spiritually he was
beginning a beautiful message of reconciliation, the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the good news of salvation. You can imagine in those olden
days, as the armies went off to war, Maybe it's the ladies
and the children and the old people sitting back in the village
and in the towns and they're waiting to hear the news. And so they're looking out on
the horizon and they are waiting to see movement. And as they
see a runner coming they wonder what message he's bringing. They
see him running and they try and work out who it is and what
type of message he's going to bring. And as they see him, maybe his
expression, they are able to see that he's bringing good news
or he's bringing bad news. And if he's bringing good news,
The good news will affect the countenance of the message bearer. And it will affect the way in
which those who are waiting for him view him. And they will be
enabled to say the beautiful feet of him that brings, that
preaches the gospel of peace. How beautiful his feet are. they
are the things, the means by which he is bringing the message
unto them. I wonder if you find the message beautiful.
You may not find the messenger beautiful but you may find the
message beautiful. I wonder if there was a time
in your life when you hated the message You couldn't think of
anything worse than sitting under the ministry of some man droning
on about the Lord Jesus Christ. And you thought there was nothing
beautiful in it whatsoever. But now you can join in and you
can say how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace. And you can say that the message
itself is a beautiful message because you're enabled to see
a beautiful Christ in the message although you see him on the cross
at a grisly sight you are able to see a beauty there in him
as your sin is laid upon him and you're enabled to say it
is a beautiful gospel bringing about a beautiful peace an eternal
peace the good news of peace And it is the gospel of peace. And I wonder if we have experienced
that. We don't have much peace, do we, in our lives. There's
always here and there. There's always moving this way
and that way. There's always storms and trials
and difficulties, yet there is the gospel of peace. the Gospel
in which Christ and us have been reconciled through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And at this time of year especially,
we remember that moment when all of that reconciliation took
place, when Christ removed the sins of his people and brought
about peace where there was hostility and warfare. I wonder if you
have experienced that. Maybe you have been in turmoil
regarding your sin. Maybe you have felt there to
be no peace between you and God. But what about the gospel? Surely
that is the message that you need to hear. Surely that is
the message that brings about peace, that your sin, which is
so many, are able to be washed away through the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God who sent forth the
message, who sent the messengers to go with the message that ultimately
that warfare that took place at Calvary, God pouring out his
anger upon his son, raising him from the dead. Now he says, you
go. Go and tell them what has happened. Go and tell them that there is
a way in which God and man can be reconciled. Go and tell them
that there is a way in which sin can be got rid of. Go and tell them stop working
out a righteousness for yourself and come and believe in a righteousness
which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the end of the law. How shall they preach except
they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. It is the good news of peace,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and it brings about in the ease, glad tidings of
good things. They were to go forth and declare
that Christ has risen, that his work had been completed, that
salvation could be secure in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he
had worked a righteousness for his people, that he had secured for them eternal life,
glad tidings of eternal life and righteousness and justification
and no condemnation and the forgiveness of sin. That's the message that
has been given to the church to go forth and to proclaim.
Theirs is the message, theirs is to speak the message and the
Spirit of God working through the message to open up hard hearts
and deaf ears and blind eyes to enable people to receive the
message and to believe the message and to act on the message. So then faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God and so it is quite obvious really can they believe on him whom
they have not heard? Why was it in the 1800s and such
like that there was such a concern for the advancement of the gospel
as England was revived, churches established and the Holy Spirit
moving greatly and those that then had that
desire to go and take the gospel. Now people have said that now
that work is done, that the gospel has gone to every nation. Well,
it hasn't. The gospel is still going and
there are those nations which are forgetting the gospel. There's
another generation that is growing up that doesn't know the gospel.
And so the job is still at hand. The job is still being given
to the church to go and proclaim a message so that the people
might be enabled to hear, that the Spirit of God might work,
that they might be enabled to believe, that they may see a
beauty in Christ, not just a grisly scene upon a cross, but know
for themselves that their sin was there being dealt with. by the beautiful Saviour who
has gained a victory over sin, death and the grave. May it be
that we know something then of this message. we might know the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the sum and the substance of this
message, the very centre of the gospel. As we looked at this
morning and saw that the very core of this message is that
Christ rose from the grave and if Christ did not rise from the
grave then we are still in our sin. and our Gospel is worthless
but he did rise from the grave on the third day and he is today
at the right hand of the Father interceding for his people and
he has granted to us his Holy Spirit, the Comforter, that he
may give us that ability to go forth with the Gospel that others
may hear, that they may also believe. May the Lord add his
blessing. Amen. Closing hymn for this service
is hymn number 143 from Gadsby's. Rock of ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed be a sin the double cure. Cleanse
me from its guilt and power. In number 153 to the tune 505. O angels, cleave for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
the ravens I prefer, be of sin the double cure. cleanse me from its guilt and
power. Lord, the labour of my hands
can fulfil Thy God's demands. Good night, good night, O for sin could halt a death,
thou art safe and thou art loved. Naked come to Thee for dress,
Helpless look to Thee for grace. Thou light to the fount in flood,
Wash me, Saviour, or I die. When I saw through traps unknown,
Seeing on thy judgment throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Left
behind myself, Almighty God, we do thank Thee
for that message of salvation that is to go forth into all
the world and we pray that Thy Holy Spirit may accompany those
who are proclaiming that message and we pray that Thy Holy Spirit
may accompany each faithful message that has been proclaimed this
night that we may see one and another gathered into the sheepfold
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it may be proved that that thou will build thy church
and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. O Lord, revive us, we pray. Do rend the heavens and come
down and work in our hearts and do be with us now as we part
from each other. Do watch over us each on the
journey and do meet with us, we pray, on thy day. And now
may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the
Father, with the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
to be with us now and for evermore. Amen.