The Purpose and Power of Preaching

Romans 10:1-17

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Romans 10:5-17 - The Purpose and Power of Preaching

A little over a year ago, we left off a series of sermons working through the book of Romans. Since then, I gave you a series on the Trinity and Gender, a short, partial series on 1 Timothy, a series in the Psalms, and an Advent series leading to Christmas. It's time, now, to return to where we left off, in Romans 10. But before we really get back into Paul's train of thought in Romans 10, as it fits into his line of thinking in the whole book of Romans, I think it's important to take time this week to ask a question that arises from the beginning of chapter 10, and then look at how a number of verses here shape how we need to answer this question.

The question comes out of verse 2 [read]. Paul's talking here about the majority of his fellow Jews-whom he is praying (see v. 1) will be saved. When he says they have a "zeal for God", he's saying they are truly sincere in their devotion to God, good people, well-meaning, up-standing as far as people go. But he's still praying for their salvation. Which means they aren't saved yet. Why aren't they saved yet? Because their zeal is not "according to knowledge". But hang on a minute: back in chapter 9:4, Paul strongly implies that they know lots of things-God's Word, His covenant, His promises [read]. The Jews, Paul has admitted, know the Scriptures, and they believe what they know. But what they know, he's saying in 10:2, is not what they need to know to be saved. That's why he says they've got zeal but not "according to knowledge"; that's why he's still praying for their salvation (v 1).

I'm going to say something here that's very politically incorrect, because it's what Paul is saying: People don't have the right to believe whatever they want. Let me make that personal: You and I do not have the right to believe what we want (freedom, yes, right, no). Like the Jews in verse 2, if what we believe is not "according to" the right "knowledge", our beliefs can get us damned to Hell. I'm not trying to be offensive here; neither is Paul when he implies this: "Brothers my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved" (v 1). But zeal, meaning well, holding our beliefs sincerely, knowing the Bible and believing it's true-this knowledge which the Jews had-is not good enough to save our souls. So what knowledge is? And how do we get this knowledge? That's my question for this text; which I'll try to answer from verses 5-17. Next week, Lord willing, we'll come right back here to this text and I'll preach the message Paul really intended to deliver in this passage.

What knowledge saves? And how do we get it? In verse 3, Paul says the Jews were "ignorant of the righteousness of God". So saving knowledge must have to do with God's righteousness. He says the Jews tried to "establish their own" righteousness-which they did by trying to obey God's Law in the Old Testament. But that wasn't good enough because that's not what the Old Testament Law was for-it wasn't intended for people to be saved by obeying the Old Testament! What was the Law for? [read v 4] To point believers to trust in Christ. Paul says this belief in Christ, which the Law aims at producing, is "for righteousness". That is, there is a righteousness that comes to believers as the result of faith, believers get this righteousness and by this they are NOT then "ignorant of God's righteousness", and so their "zeal" is then "according to knowledge" of what is true. True knowledge, true belief, in Christ.

I'll say more about the righteousness that comes from Law and the righteousness that comes through faith next week. But we can see already here the answer to the first part of our question, "What knowledge saves?" Answer: "Knowledge of God's righteousness made known through the Law, concerning Christ, for the salvation of believers." So now, how do we come to know this knowledge? And for many of us who are praying , as Paul was in verse 1, for the salvation of people we love, this is a deeply personal question and a deeply relevant one. The answer, in short, is that saving knowledge comes through the Bible, and that's what all preaching is supposed to be for: to make biblical, saving knowledge known.

That's what Romans 10 is about. What does Paul pray for? His fellow Israelites to be saved. Is preaching really what they need most? Yes. He makes that clear by a number of references to the Bible and preaching in verses 5-17:

•·         Verse 5, "Moses writes"

•·         Verse 8, "the word is near you"; "the word of faith that we proclaim"

•·         Verse 11, "the Scripture says"

•·         Verse 15, "it is written"; "preach the good news"

•·         Verse 16, "the Gospel"; "what he has heard from us"

•·         Verse 17, "the word of Christ"

Now some of you have attended this church for a long time, some of you came here more recently. I don't know what you thought, when you started coming here, about what Sunday sermons are for? Let me say what preaching is NOT for: It's not for our entertainment; it's not to help us to be better people; it's not to help us have a better life, a better marriage, or better children. What is preaching for? It's for the same thing that the Bible is for. We can read verse 4 and substitute the word, "preaching," for "the Law" [read v4].

I know that most of you will assume then, that since the purpose of the Bible is the purpose of preaching, then the content of the Bible is likewise what the content of preaching is supposed to be. In other words, to put this as a question, "what should Joe preach about?" Answer: "whatever the Bible is about." We who call ourselves Evangelicals believe this. This, my friends, is what I have given my life to do: to talk and write about what the Bible talks about-to make biblical, saving knowledge of Jesus Christ known to those who hear the words I preach or read the words I write.

I would expect people to have various reactions to my statement of my life's work. Some might think of me how Buzz Lightyear thought of the cowboy, Woody, in the movie, Toy Story, when he said, "You are a sad, strange, little man." I'm not going to lose any sleep over what those people think of me or my work. But I hope no one in this church think so little of preaching. You see, we are Evangelical Christians, which means the Gospel, the Good News, the Word of Christ Paul talks about in verses 8-17-this  message is the gravitational centre of who we are and what we do. Every person's ministry, ever act of service, every kindness we do as Evangelicals must serve the goal of proclaiming our Gospel message. On Sunday mornings, for example, singing is not just as important as the sermon. (The people who lead singing are just as important as the person who preaches, but the singing we do is to help prepare us to hear God's Word preached, and then, afterward, to respond in joyful faith to what we have heard.) That is why, for 500 years, in Evangelical, Protestant churches, the pulpit has been the central piece of furniture.

Before I close this morning, I want to make one last point about preaching: There is a reason we place such a high priority on preaching biblical sermons in order to make biblical, saving knowledge known. That reason is because the preaching of the Gospel has the power to save those who hear. I'm sure you remember that in John 3:5-8, Jesus has taught that no one is saved unless the Holy Spirit first makes him "born again." To illustrate this work and movement of the Spirit, on the soul of a sinner, Jesus described the Spirit as a Wind blowing wherever it wants to. Peter used a similar picture to describe the way the Holy Spirit made the Bible [read 2 Pe 1:21b]. Likewise, in Acts 2, when the Spirit filled Peter, in verse 4,  He made him to stand up, in verse 14, and lift his voice and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The same Spirit gave us the Bible, fills preachers, empowering us to preach the Bible, and through what is preached makes men and women, boys and girls, be born again to believe in Jesus and so be saved.

But the power of preaching is not just to save those who haven't heard the Gospel before. It is also to sustain the saving faith of those, like most of you, who know and love that "Old, Old Story." No Christian ever grows out of needing to hear the Gospel preached. If the Holy Spirit is like the Wind, as Jesus and Peter described His working and power, then saving faith, or faith "according to knowledge" (verse 2), is like a full sail. Someone's sails are empty when they stop believing and clinging to the Gospel of Christ, His death for sin and His resurrection. We need Spirit-led preaching to keep our sails full and our faith strong. Because the Gospel of God has a relentless enemy in every human heart. [read vv 6-7] The Bible says here, "Don't say in your heart, ‘How can I save myself? Do I need to climb up to Heaven and find the secret of salvation there? Do I need to go somewhere or do something superhuman to save myself?" Don't say this kind of thing in your heart because Jesus did what needed to be done. The Bible tells us in verse 6 not to talk like this in our hearts for the simple reason that God knows that every sinful human heart tends to do exactly that. Our hearts do not naturally believe in the cross of Christ; our hearts naturally want to believe in ourselves, believe in what we can see and touch, or try to become the kind of people who don't need saving. Verse 6 says "Don't talk like that in your heart." Self-talk like that sucks the wind out of your sails. You and I need the preaching of the Gospel to keep our sails full, to drown out the Gospel-hating voices in our hearts with God's Voice, God's Word, the Good News of God's Son.

Biblical, evangelical preaching of God's Word, proclaiming the message of the cross of Christ, is not very popular in this day and age. Many who call themselves Christians will no longer tolerate real preaching. In the passage I'm about to read to you, Paul admits that some people will reject both the message and the messenger. There are no shortage of places to go on Sunday mornings where speakers will tell you what you want to hear. But I am thankful that here at Hague Gospel Church, our leadership is committed to God's Word, the Message of the Gospel, and the priority of preaching.

Romans 10:15-17  As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"  ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?"  ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.