Introduction

This week I’ve been going through a lot of biography in preparation for Carl’s ordination service next Sunday. I’m not going to say who I’m going to use in my message next week yet, but what I will say is that Martin Luther came up a lot in my studies this week. And while I won’t be giving a message on Luther next week, I was tempted to. So I thought I’d include him in my introduction today.

I love Luther. And part of the reason I love him is because he would follow the Word of God wherever it led him regardless of the consequences. I mean, after sparking the Reformation he stood trial for his beliefs and teachings, and was called to repent and recant, but he said, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason, I am bound by the Scriptures and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”

You see, Luther knew the power of God’s Word because that power had transformed his own life. He grew up in a time of great darkness, a time when the gospel seemed to be lost. That’s why later one of the great mottos of the Reformation was Post tenebras lux… Out of darkness, Light! Or, After darkness, light! And that Light was the right recovery of the Word of God and the gospel of God.

Later in his ministry, after the Reformation was in full force, and the light of the gospel was shining brightly, he knew the power of God’s Word all the more. When someone asked him how he had done this great work of reformation throughout Germany, and even throughout the world, he said, “the Word created heaven and earth and all things; the Word must do this thing, and not we poor sinners. In short, I preach it, teach it, write it, but I constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends… the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”

And that’s what we’re going to see in our passage today. The Word does everything… Whether in us or through us, the Word does the work—both the written Word and the incarnate Word of God. Christ speaks… He speaks His Word through His messengers, and His Word transforms. As we will see, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The greatest thing that happens every Lord’s Day is not that we speak to God, but that God speaks to us. So with that in mind, look with me at Romans 10:14-17.

Context

After laying out the heights and depths of God’s gospel, His covenant promises, and His sovereign grace, Paul’s been showing us that God’s Word and God’s covenant faithfulness never fail. Even when so many of the Jews made it appear as though the Word of God had failed, Paul says, the Word has not failed because not all who are descended from Israel actually belong to the true Israel of God according to God’s sovereign decree. Israel was always meant to find it’s fulfillment in Christ, and in a people in Christ from every nation and generation. It was never merely about one nation, but about all the nations being blessed in Christ. So Paul showed us from a hosts of Old Testament passages that this was always God’s plan, and then he told us that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Young and old, Jew and Gentile… All. Every nation and every generation can be and will ultimately be saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Romans 10:14

Now in our passage today Paul begins in verse 14 asking, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” So Paul immediately tells us that in order for the nations and the generations to call upon the Lord they must believe. While it’s true that salvation is always ultimately by God’s sovereign grace alone, that doesn’t change the fact that all have a duty to believe. God is indeed sovereign, but that does not contradict or negate man’s responsibility. You may call it a paradox, but it does not change the fact that both are true.

Paul said that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, but they can’t call on Him rightly unless they believe—unless they have faith. And though it’s true that we must believe and we must call upon the Lord, that it is our duty to do so… Even though that’s true, what we see here is actually a great evidence of God’s sovereign grace—a fundamental Reformed truth. As R. C. Sproul put it, “A cardinal point of Reformed theology is the maxim: regeneration precedes faith.”

Paul said, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). But you see, confessing with the mouth flows from a believing heart. And a believing heart is a gift given by the Holy Spirit. It is not something we work up in ourselves. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 6, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…” But in our case the “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

God must first do a work in the hearts of sinners if we are to rightly believe the gospel. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, everyone outside of Christ is dead in their sin, and children of wrath like all of mankind. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5)… And part of making us alive is giving us the gift of faith. He goes on to say in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…” Faith is a gift that flows from the new heart of flesh that God gives His people in Christ. As 1 John 5:1 says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…” That is, our faith flows from the new life that God has given us by the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ makes us alive and gives us the faith to believe in Christ. Regeneration proceeds faith. We must live if we would believe. And here Paul says we must believe if we would call upon the Lord.

So we have a duty to repent and believe, to believe and confess, and to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved… But we will only do this rightly if the Lord first does a work in us. And Paul here tells us that there is an ordinary way that God has ordained to do that work. He asks, “how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” It is in and through the right preaching of the Word of God—especially God’s gospel, the gospel of King Jesus—that the Lord has chosen to save sinners. As 1 Peter 1:23-25 says, “you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” Or as Paul said back in Romans 1:16, the gospel is the power of God for salvation…

Now look closely at Romans 10:14. Notice Paul doesn’t simply say they can’t believe in someone they have never heard of, but Someone they have never heard. In fact, another good translation of this verse would be, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom (no of, just Him Whom) they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” In other words, to hear the Word rightly preached is to hear Christ Himself.

To be sure, there is a sense in which only those with ears to hear will truly hear Christ through the preaching of His Word. Jesus said in Mark 4:23, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” But He also said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” So you see, He gives ears to hear. He first knows us and enables us to follow Him. Or as 1 John 4:19 says beautifully, “We love because He first loved us.” So in that sense, only God’s elect will truly hear Christ in and through His Word.

But there is another sense in which Paul is saying that the preacher is always the voice of Christ to the hearer. I wonder, do you think about preaching like that? Are you currently giving me the same attention you would give Jesus if He was up here speaking right now? Do you listen to the liturgy and the sermon as though Christ Himself is speaking to you? Do you come to church expecting to hear Christ speak? Because beloved, that’s what Paul says is happening.

God’s preachers, whether they are pastors, evangelists, or missionaries, are ambassadors for Christ who stand and speak in the place of Christ, representing Christ to His people. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Just as Jesus was an ambassador for God in His life on earth, so His preachers are ambassadors for Him in this world now. The officers of Christ’s church are gifts to Christ’s church that represent and minister Christ to His church. That’s worth saying one more time. The officers of Christ’s church are gifts to Christ’s church that represent and minister Christ to His church. So we would do well to listen as though Christ is speaking, because He is.   

Romans 10:15

Notice in verse 15 Paul says, “And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” While it’s true that all Christians are sent into the world on mission for God, the idea here is much like that of being ordained. To be sent is to be set apart for a specific calling and purpose. And here Paul explains that calling and purpose by quoting Isaiah 52:7. Here’s how that verse reads in its fullness, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” The imagery there is a royal herald sent by the King, who is running over the mountains announcing that the exile is over. That God reigns. And that Zion’s King has returned. It isn’t primarily speaking of something that Zion—that is God’s people—are responsible to proclaim, but that the herald is to proclaim to Zion, to God’s people.

Paul is saying that Isaiah 52:7 is now ultimately fulfilled in Christ, the true King of the true Zion, who leads His people out of exile and into victory. So now the good news is not simply that Israel’s King has come to lead her out of exile, but that the King of kings who is the true Israel, has come, took on flesh, lived a perfectly God-glorifying life, died a perfect sacrificial wrath-absorbing death, rose again in a perfect death-defeating and justifying resurrection, and has ascended to the right hand of the Father where He now rules, reigns, and intercedes for His people with all authority in heaven and on earth. The gospel is the good news about the person and work of Jesus, that Christ is Lord, that Jesus is King. And His ambassadors, His sent ones, are the ones who are to publish that good news, so that His people would come out of the exile of sin, and into the light of His glory and grace… That they would rightly come under His reign in every area of life.

Now, I want to point something out that isn’t Paul’s point here, but is a clear implication… Given the many churches and denominations around us today embracing certain errors, I feel I have to spend some time on this. Here Paul and Isaiah are giving us this beautiful image of Christ speaking to His people through His ambassadors. But we must understand, an ambassador never speaks on his own authority. He represents the King who sent him. Likewise, the pastor does not merely tell us about Jesus; he officially represents Christ in the ministry of Word and Sacrament. So the issue here is not who is gifted, but who Christ has appointed to represent Him in this office…

God’s ambassadors, His ordained officers of His church—His pastors, elders, deacons, and even His evangelists and missionaries that would preach and teach, lead, guide, and serve the church, or go out into the world preaching, are to be qualified men… And by that I mean true biological males (from birth) who meet the biblical qualifications for the office they hold, and who have been set apart by Christ and His church through ordination. The issue is not whether women can speak for Christ in any sense. Every Christian speaks for Christ when he or she shares the gospel or the like. The issue is who has Christ appointed to occupy His representative office. Christ is a male covenant head, and that is the norm set in Scripture.

On the one hand this is the case simply because it is God’s design. God designed men to be the heads of their homes—to be husbands and fathers. And likewise God designed men to be heads of the church—to be fathers in the church. God has ordained that men would lovingly lead, provide, and protect, whether as husbands in the home or as shepherds in the household of God.

In Deuteronomy 22:5 God says, “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.” The idea here is not simply that cross dressing is wrong, though it is, but that God created men and women with distinct identities, callings, and responsibilities, and those creational distinctions are not to be rejected, exchanged, or confused. And part of what’s being stressed here isn’t seen in the English, but in the original Hebrew the word for the man’s garment here is actually tied to clothing worn in battle. It’s like a woman putting on a man’s armor to stand and fight in his place instead of the man fighting to protect his family and his people.

Now I realize that’s portrayed as noble in our day, but this is not God’s design. In 1 Timothy 5:8 Paul says, “if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” And Deuteronomy is saying something similar here… If a man does not protect his family, if men aren’t men and women must step into their place, it is an abomination to the Lord. In certain cases it would be right to say they have denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever. This is no trivial matter.

Scripture teaches that men are to be providers and protectors. Men are to be on the frontlines of battle, and both of these callings involve battle. In word and deed, emotionally, physically, and spiritually… The husband is to protect his family. The pastor and elders are to protect Christ’s flock. Scripture repeatedly describes pastoral ministry as spiritual warfare. Elders are watchmen who guard the flock from wolves, soldiers who wage the good warfare, and shepherds who stand between the sheep and danger. As John Calvin said, “The pastor ought to have two voices: one for gathering the sheep, and another for driving away wolves.” Husbands, pastors, elders, deacons, soldiers are to be men with thick skin and tender hearts who can and will take a punch, but also fight back rightly. Men are called to stand on the front lines and guard and protect. This is simply God’s design.

Earlier I quoted R. C. Sproul, who was an ordained Presbyterian minister who graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (among other schools). Now let me quote another ordained Presbyterian minister who went to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary at the same time as Sproul… Fred Rogers, or as we know him, Mr. Rogers… You know, It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood… He said it well when he said, “Boys are boys from the beginning. Girls are girls right from the start. Only girls can be the mommies. And only boys can grow up and be the daddies…”  That is reality as God designed it. And we must deal with it. Indeed, we must embrace it. Regardless of the pressure or pushback we receive we must not be conformed to the ways of the world, but be transformed by God’s Word and submit to His ways.

Now on the other hand, there is more going on here… This design has a purpose bigger than itself. In Ephesians 5 Paul tells us that husbands are to love their wives as Christ love the church and gave Himself up for her, and wives are to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ, because marriage is a profound mystery that displays the gospel of Christ. Husbands represent Christ. Wives represent the church—the bride of Christ. And this is one of the fundamental reasons that gay marriage cannot be, and isn’t truly marriage. Marriage is God’s covenant of one flesh, where a husband lovingly images Christ, a wife joyfully images the Church, and together they establish a household, seeking to be fruitful and multiply, so that they advance the Kingdom from generation to generation. This cannot happen in a so called gay marriage. Therefore it is nothing more than a gay mirage.

Notice that in Ephesians 5 Paul does not merely say husbands should act like Christ. He says marriage itself is a living illustration of Christ and His Church. The husband publicly images Christ to his bride. Well, just as that representative role belongs to husbands in the home, so likewise Christ has appointed qualified men to represent Him publicly in the household of God. The officers of the church are heads of the church that answer to God for the church, just as a husband answers to God for his family; but they also represent Christ to the church, just as the husband represents Christ in the marriage. Or as Paul says in our passage today, they are the very voice of Jesus to His people.

Women cannot represent Christ in this official, covenantal, ecclesiastical office, because Christ Himself has not appointed them to do so. Women may have a hosts of gifts and abilities, but they cannot represent Christ in this way, and they are not to try, just as men should not try to be the mommies. Women are not less than. They are amazing creatures created in the image of God, who, among their many abilities, have the amazing power to bring new image-bearers into the world. God could have created each generation directly from the dust, but instead He dignified women by making them the mothers of the living. And no matter what a man does to himself, he can’t rightly do what only a woman can do. But neither can a woman rightly do what a man can do.

This is not about worth or getting to exercise certain gifts… This is about God’s design and calling. Indeed, this is about the glory of God in and through Christ. So just as we recognize that it is wrong when a man tries to say he’s a woman who can birth a baby, so likewise we should recognize that it’s wrong when a man tries to be a bride, or a woman tries to be a husband, or a woman tries to be a pastor. This simply must not be. God’s ordained officers speak for Christ and represent Christ. And after all, Christ is the Son of God. Therefore, God has ordained that Christ’s official ambassadors would be qualified men. But the issue is not mainly that Christ happened to be male. The issue is that the eternal Son became incarnate as the Bridegroom of His covenant people. The pastor does not merely represent generic humanity. He represents Christ the Bridegroom speaking to His Bride. That representative symbolism is not accidental; it is woven into creation itself.

And less you doubt that, Paul says plainly in 1 Timothy 2:11-15 that because of God’s design in creation from the beginning, women are not to teach or exercise authority over men in the church. And he says the same in 1 Corinthians 14. He says in 1 Timothy 3 that elders and deacons are to be qualified men. He says the same in Titus 1. Every time elders are mentioned in the Bible they are men. Just as Christ is the head of His bride the church, so men are the heads of their households and the under shepherds of Christ’s church. And through these qualified men Christ speaks.

So the issue before us is ultimately not men and women. The issue is Christ and His Church. We dare not redesign what Christ has designed. We dare not place anyone into an office Christ has not authorized, in position or practice. The question is never, “Who wants to speak for Christ?” The question is, “Whom has Christ appointed to speak in His name? Whom has He set apart and sent?” Romans 10 reminds us that Christ still gathers His people through those whom He sends. Therefore, we must gladly receive the ministers Christ has given His Church, pray for them, hold them to the qualifications of His Word, and above all hear—not merely the voice of men—but the voice of our Chief Shepherd speaking through His appointed Word.

This is all about Jesus. The sent ones who proclaim God’s Word are Christ’s appointed ambassadors through whom the risen Christ Himself speaks to His Church. They are those who have beautiful feet—not because of themselves, but because of the King they represent and the gospel they proclaim. That same passage I quoted earlier from 2 Corinthians 4 goes on to say in verse 7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” The jar of clay is the messenger; the treasure is the gospel. And that’s exactly the idea here. Isaiah’s herald probably arrived with feet covered in mud, sweat, and blood from running over the mountains. There was nothing naturally beautiful about those feet. What made them beautiful was the message they carried. Paul is not calling our attention to the herald, but to the King who sent him and the victory he announces. The power and the beauty are in the King and His message, not the messenger.

This week I watched a movie that walks through the life and ministry of George Whitefield. He was such an incredibly gifted preacher that he could preach to thousands with no amplification, and keep the crowd captivated the whole time. Yet he did not focus on his gifting, but on the truth. He committed himself to not be a velvet-mouthed preacher, but a proclaimer of Christ. He knew that his value and the value of his preaching was not ultimately in his gifts, but in Christ and His gospel. He once said, “Other men may preach the gospel better than I, but no man can preach a better gospel.” That’s exactly right. The beautiful feet are not about the feet. The beauty is not in the messenger. The beauty is in the message. The beauty is in Christ, and in the gospel of His saving reign.

Romans 10:16-17

Now look at Romans 10:16-17. Paul says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” So you see, when a preacher proclaims the gospel of Christ it is the Word of Christ. Paul here quotes Isaiah 53:1, which is the intro of the beautiful Suffering Servant passage Carl led us in earlier. The passage that lays out the good news about the person and work of Christ, and how He lived, suffered and died, and rose again to save His people.

But not all are truly His people. Only His true people—the Israel of God—will actual obey the gospel… That is, only God’s true elect will rightly respond in faith… Only those whom God has set His electing love on before the foundation of the world will hear with ears to hear, and therefore heed God’s Word. And as we saw already, ears to hear come from a heart that has had the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shone into it. In other words, through Christ’s ambassadors the Word of Christ is preached, and as they represent Christ and preach Christ, the glory of Christ shines in such a way that it melts the hard hearts of sinners, and causes them to beat for Jesus. Faith comes from hearing the gospel because the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

And think about what the gospel is here… In the context of Romans 10, as well as Isaiah 52 and 53, it’s the good news that Christ is the Suffering Servant who shows Himself to be the victorious Lord who saves all who will call upon Him. Christ is Lord is a victorious message. That’s why Jesus commissions us to disciple the nations—baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded—because He has all authority in heaven and on earth… And He lived, died, rose again, and ascended on high to get it.

To be sure, as Isaiah 53:1 says, not all who hear outwardly will have ears to hear inwardly. Not everyone who hears the gospel will obey it. But everyone whom God has chosen in Christ certainly will. God’s sovereign grace stands behind the entire chain—from the sending of the herald, to the preaching of the gospel, to the hearing of Christ’s voice, to the gift of faith. And the people Isaiah and Paul chiefly have in view here are unbelieving Israel. Their rejection of Christ did not frustrate God’s purposes; it fulfilled them. Through Israel’s stumbling, God was opening the door to the nations, just as He had promised from the beginning. His purpose has always been, as Paul says in Romans 1, to bring about “the obedience of faith” among all the nations.

So God’s Word has not failed, nor can it fail. Everything is unfolding according to His sovereign plan. Christ is the King Isaiah proclaimed when he cried, “Your God reigns!” He is the King who now possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, who has promised that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14; Isa. 11:9), who will receive the nations as His inheritance (Ps. 2), whose dominion shall be from sea to sea (Ps. 72), and whose kingdom, like the stone in Daniel, will fill the whole earth (Dan. 2). But how will He accomplish all of this? Not chiefly through political power, military might, or worldly influence. He will do it through what appears to be foolishness to the world—the foolishness of preaching.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. The preacher does not create the victory; he announces the victory already won by the King. And as Christ continues to speak through His ordained ambassadors, His Word will not return void. It will accomplish all that He purposes, slowly perhaps, often imperceptibly, but as surely as the dawn gives way to the full light of day, until the nations are discipled and every knee bows before King Jesus. As Isaiah 55:1 says, “my word be that goes out from my mouth… shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose…”

Conclusion

So remember what Martin Luther said, “the Word did everything.” That was true in the days of the Reformation, but it’s still true today. Faith comes by hearing the Word. Through those whom God sends, through His ordained ministers, the Word of God is His appointed means, His ordinary way of saving by His sovereign and amazing grace. And that doesn’t just mean the start of the Christian life, but the whole of the Christian life. In John 17:17 Jesus said it is the truth of God’s Word that sanctifies us.

Church, never underestimate what happens when the Word of God is faithfully preached. This is not merely a lecture. It is not a motivational speech. It is not religious entertainment. It is Christ, the risen King, addressing His covenant people. Through the faithful ministry of His appointed servants, through this ordinary means, Christ justifies sinners, sanctifies saints, comforts the weary, rebukes the proud, strengthens the weak, equips His Church, and advances His Kingdom. That is why we gather Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day—not because the preacher is impressive, but because Christ is faithful. Luther was right. The Word did everything then, and the Word will do everything now, because the One who speaks through it is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.