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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > Our great need for the Word of Christ | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Psalm 48:1,4 Hymn 25:1,3 Psalm 36:2,3 Hymn 1 Psalm 93 Scripture reading: Romans 10 Catechism lesson and text: Lord's Day 25 and Romans 10:14-17 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
When I was teaching once in Papua New Guinea, I had the opportunity to sit down with some of the Reformed Bible College students and learn about their lives. One student related how his family had been Christian already for several generations. Anglican missionaries had come to his region of PNG in the late 1800s. They preached the gospel and it bore fruit. Another student told me of how he was the first one in his family to become a Christian. It took until the 21st century for the preaching of the gospel to reach his area. But when it did, he heard it and believed.
Here in our congregation we can find similar stories. For some of us, our families have been Christian for many generations. For others among us, you may be the first one in your family to be a Christian, at least that you know of.
Whether it happened a long time ago or more recently, the preaching of the gospel was what was necessary to first bring spiritual life. This is what the first question and answer of Lord’s Day 25 is getting at when it speaks about where faith comes from. Since faith is vitally necessary for salvation, since no one will be saved without true faith in Jesus Christ, where does faith come from? The answer speaks of the Holy Spirit working through the preaching of the gospel. Through the lens of Romans 10:14-17, we’re going to dive deeper into this Bible teaching this afternoon. We’ll see our great need for the Word of Christ. Specifically, we’ll learn about:
- What the Word says
- What the Word does
- Who brings us that Word
- Who works with the Word
This section of Romans is about the Jews. As a Jew himself, Paul had a desire that they would be saved from their sins. But the reality was that not many had been. As he says in verse 13, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how are we to get to that point where people, whether they’re Gentile or Jewish, how do we get to that point where they do call on the name of the Lord in faith?
If we skip ahead to verse 17, the answer is: “hearing through the Word of Christ.” If we back up to verse 16, it’s through “obeying the gospel.” Those two things, the Word of Christ and the gospel, those two things are parallel to each other. They mean the same thing.
The Word of Christ is the message about Jesus Christ and what he has done to redeem sinners. This message is the gospel. Gospel means good news or glad tidings. What Christ has done is the best news a sinner could hope for.
The Word of Christ tells us that even though we’re horrible sinners, there is a way for us to come home to God. Jesus has made that way. He suffered and died on the cross in our place. When he was on the cross, he endured the infinite wrath of God against our sin. As a result, we can be forgiven for all our sins, past, present, and future. The cross is an essential part of the Word of Christ. Without it, there’s no good news.
But the gospel gives us more reason to call it good news. It also tells us of how Jesus perfectly obeyed the law in our place. To live with God forever, we need perfect righteousness. Christ provides that for us too. He always lived according to the Ten Commandments. His obedience has been transferred over to everyone who believes in him. If you believe in Christ, God looks at you as his perfectly obedient child.
So, in a nutshell, this is what the Word of Christ says. It’s simply the good news about what Jesus has done in his life and death to bring sinners home to God. It’s simply the good news everyone needs, including you and me.
When it’s proclaimed, this Word always does something. Isaiah 55:11 says that God’s Word will never return to him empty, but will always accomplish his purposes for it. God’s Word always does something. It never leaves the people it’s addressed to untouched.
Verse 16 speaks of one way that works. “They have not all obeyed the gospel,” it says. When we first moved to Australia, we had to get used to the classic Aussie understatement. Someone might say about a meat pie, “It was pretty ordinary.” Where I come from, ordinary is still okay. Or someone might say about the weather, “It was pretty average.” I’ve always been average, so that’s all right too, isn’t it? But of course, these expressions are understated ways of saying something was bad. That same kind of understatement is happening here in verse 16. “They have not all obeyed the gospel” means “most of them have not obeyed the gospel.”
And what does it mean to “obey the gospel”? That’s referring to the way God wants people to respond to the gospel. When the Word of Christ is preached, God wants people like you and me to respond to it with repentance and faith. Repentance means we turn away from our sin. We have a change of mind about our sin. We then turn to God with sorrow over our sin, and hatred for it. And we have faith in Jesus Christ, we trust that he has dealt with our sin problem with his life and death. We rest in him and what he has done for us.
The fact that many don’t obey the gospel is captured with Paul’s quote from Isaiah 53:1. Isaiah 53 is that famous passage that speaks prophetically about the sufferings of Christ. And it begins with “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” The message of the gospel is a message that’s difficult to believe. For the Jews, they found it unbelievable that God’s servant, the Messiah, he would suffer in the horrible ways described in Isaiah 53. In fact, they tried to put that passage out of their minds. It’s still in the Hebrew Bible, but to this day Isaiah 53 is never read in Jewish synagogues. They don’t want to hear it. They can’t believe it. In fact, it’s impossible to believe it unless the Holy Spirit steps in. We’ll get to his work in a moment.
But some do believe in Jesus Christ. And it is because they heard the Word of Christ, they heard the gospel. No one becomes a Christian without it. You don’t become a Christian by being baptized. You don’t become a Christian by being a member of the church. You don’t become a Christian by coming from a Christian family. You become a Christian through faith in Jesus Christ, a faith which has responded to the preaching of the gospel.
There are a couple of practical implications from this. First, we ought to think about our children and young people. The parents among us have promised to raise their kids as disciples of Jesus Christ. We want them to become Christians, that is, people who have a genuine living faith in the only Saviour. If that’s what we want for them, one of the most important things we can do for them is bring them to church twice every Sunday. The youngest kids might not be ready for that, but once they’re going to school every day of the week, they should be able to come to church twice. Have them under the preaching of the gospel as often as possible. It’s one of the most loving things a Christian parent can do for their children.
But then we also need to think about ourselves. Faith is worked in our hearts too by the preaching of the gospel. There are a couple of different angles here. First, it can happen that we think we’re Christians when we’re really not. This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves…” He wrote that to the Corinthian church, to people who claimed to be Christians. You see, we can deceive ourselves about our spiritual condition. Sure, we’ve done profession of faith, but we were just going through the motions and it really didn’t mean anything. But somehow we still think we’re Christians. Such people need to hear the preaching of the gospel so that it might yet work true faith in their hearts, a real commitment to Christ as Saviour.
It can also happen that our faith is weak or struggling. As Lord’s Day 25 points out, the sacraments are there to strengthen our faith. But the preaching of the gospel does this as well. It constantly brings us back to Christ. We’re all afflicted with gospel amnesia. We easily forget the gospel. We need to hear it again and again. Again and again, we need to be pointed to Christ so that we depend on him alone for our salvation. This too is why it’s so crucially important to be in church twice every Sunday. You’re not strong enough to go without it. You and me and all of us are weak to varying degrees. We’re all forgetful about spiritual truths. All of us get distracted from God. Every one of us needs to be recalibrated spiritually every Sunday and that happens through the preaching of the gospel. So I want to encourage you with what God’s Word says in Hebrews 10:25, “Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Loved ones, do not neglect to meet together in public worship twice every Sunday because you need the Word of Christ.
Because we need the Word of Christ so much, we also need someone to bring it to us. Our text from Romans 10 has this string of rhetorical questions leading to that conclusion. How can someone call on the Lord if they haven’t believed in him? Obviously they can’t. And obviously you can’t believe in someone you’ve never heard of. And how are you going to hear unless someone preaches? And who is going to preach if no one is ever sent?
The conclusion is that our great need for the Word of Christ means we need preachers to preach. But hold on a moment: what is preaching? If it’s so important, we ought to be clear about what it is.
Preaching is an authoritative proclamation of God’s Word. Preaching lays open a passage from the Bible, explains it and applies it to God’s people. For example, right now I’m explaining what Romans 10:14-17 means and how it applies to us. When it’s done faithfully, the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. We’re to receive it as if God is speaking to us, because he is.
Now it’s important to hold on to what the Bible teaches about preaching. Sadly, around us are churches where you could attend on some Sunday and not hear preaching as I just defined it. You might hear a message of some kind, but it won’t necessarily be based on a Bible passage. You can even find churches where they might go a whole service where they haven’t even opened the Bible once. That is so sad. People there aren’t receiving the spiritual food they need. But if we recognize our great need for the Word of Christ through preaching, we wouldn’t want to go in that direction. So one practical application of what Paul says about preaching is that if you have it, value it and don’t let go of it.
A further application would be that if we need the Word of Christ preached to us, then we need preachers to be sent. We need men who will serve in this way. To be sure, it’s a challenging way to spend your life. Just to get to the ministry is a hard road. You have to go to university for four years and along the way study Greek and Hebrew. Then seminary for another four years. Moving is hard and seminary is definitely academically challenging. Then once you’re done you have stressful exams to go through at classis. Finally, after all that, finally you get to be a pastor or a missionary. That life has its challenges too.
But despite all these things, God’s Word tells us in verse 15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” That’s not saying anything literal about the feet of preachers. What it’s saying is that being a preacher is a noble task. Those who preach the good news get to be God’s instruments to bring the gospel to sinners. They’re sent by God to be his human instruments, his mouthpieces, and that is a beautiful thing. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s also rewarding. It can be draining, but it’s also meaningful. You get to preach the good news every Sunday. You get to work with the Bible every day. You have the beautiful task of comforting and encouraging God’s people. You get to teach the youth of the church. It’s a wonderful blessing to be a preacher.
Loved ones, we need preachers. We need more young men from this congregation who have the ability and the desire to preach the gospel. Maybe there’s someone here this afternoon thinking about it and wrestling with it. How might you know if God is pointing your life in that direction? Here are some things to think about. First and most important, do you love the gospel and have a passion to share it? Are you serious about being a Christian and living for the Lord? Second, what about your gifts? Do love people inside and outside the church? Do you have the flexibility to adapt to changing situations? Are you able to learn other languages? Do you have good work habits? Can you communicate well in speaking and writing? Do you show leadership potential at school and church? Even if you only have some of those gifts, others can be developed. Finally, are people who know you well encouraging you to consider the ministry? That can be another sign that God is leading you in this direction. Think about it and pray about it.
For the rest of us, we need to be praying too. We need to pray that God would keep our churches supplied with faithful gospel preachers who will bring us the Word of Christ we so greatly need. But also, if you see a young man who has potential, encourage him to think about it. Sometimes a young man can’t see himself doing this work, but if others can see it and encourage him in that direction, it really can make all the difference.
A preacher is God’s human instrument to bring the Word of Christ we need. But unless someone else is involved, faith will not happen. That someone is the Holy Spirit.
We confess in Lord’s Day 25 that the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel. That’s based on what Scripture says in 1 Peter 1:23. It speaks of how Christians have been born again. We have been born again “through the living and abiding word of God,” which is an imperishable seed. From elsewhere in the Bible we learn that the new birth happens through the work of the Holy Spirit. So, for example, in the famous passage about the new birth in John 3, when Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, he speaks of those who have been born of the Spirit. So we combine that with what it says in 1 Peter 1:23 and it turns out that the Holy Spirit has used the Word to make us born again and then to give us the gift of faith.
So when Romans 10:17 says that “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ,” we know from what Scripture says elsewhere that the Holy Spirit is involved in all of this. He’s the one who makes the hearing of the Word of Christ effective. He’s the one who works in our hearts with it so our dead hearts come alive and then take hold of Christ by faith.
This means that anyone who believes had better give proper credit where credit is due. We can’t take credit for ourselves for being Christians. We give the credit to God the Holy Spirit. He’s the one who gives us faith and therefore he deserves the praise, not us.
This also means that whenever the Word of Christ is preached, we need to be praying for the work of the Holy Spirit among us. We need to pray for him to work faith in the hearts of our children and young people by the preaching of the gospel. We need to pray for the Holy Spirit to work faith in the hearts of any adult unbelievers or hypocrites among us. We have to pray for the Holy Spirit to work faith in the hearts of any unbelieving visitors with us. We cannot control the Holy Spirit and how he works. He is the sovereign Almighty God. But we can and we must plead for his work among us when the gospel is being preached. Every Sunday I try to do that. I’d encourage you to do the same. Perhaps a good time to do it for yourself would be right before the service starts. Pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to work through the preaching of the gospel to strengthen faith in your heart and in the hearts of others. But also ask him to work faith for the first time in the hearts of those who don’t yet believe. Loved ones, pray, pray, pray for the work of the Holy Spirit among us. We need the Word of Christ, but we also need the Spirit of Christ to make that Word produce faith.
So in this sermon we’ve learned about what the Word of Christ says: it’s the message of our rescue through the life and death of our Saviour. We’ve learned about what the Word does: for some it hardens them in their sin, but for others it works out their salvation in Christ. Third, we learned about the preachers who are sent to bring us the Word of Christ. If we need the Word of Christ preached to us, we need preachers. Finally, we were just learning about the role of the Holy Spirit in all of this. Without him and his almighty power, no one would ever believe. Brothers and sisters, do you see your great need, our great need, for the Word of Christ? AMEN.
PRAYER
Heavenly God and Father,
We thank you for the Word of Christ through which we have been saved. For the perfect life of Christ and for his atoning death on the cross, we are again grateful. We thank you that have brought that Word to us so that it has worked faith in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. We thank you for preaching and we do pray that we wouldn’t take that for granted. We also ask you to work in the hearts of young men in our church. Please give more young men here a passion for the gospel and a desire to preach it. We ask that so that churches can be served with gospel preachers, sinners can be saved, and most of all your name lifted up and praised. Father, we also pray for the work of your Holy Spirit among us. O Holy Spirit, we pray that you would work with the preaching of the gospel to create faith among those of us who don’t yet believe. Please work true faith in Christ in the hearts of all our children and young people. Please give them all the new birth and the gift of faith. We pray that for any adult unbelievers in our midst as well. Please work sovereignly in the hearts of sinners to redeem them for your glory.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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