Sermon for 8th Sunday after Pentecost--Aug. 7th, 2011

“The Call to Faith through the Word” (Romans 10:5-17) Aug. 7^th, ‘11 Series A, Proper 14

1.             Sanctify us in the truth, O Lord, Your Word is truth.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word comes to us this day from Romans 10:5-17, and it’s entitled, “The Call to Faith through the Word,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.             I can still remember the day.  I was in 6^th grade and I was playing Little League baseball.  My coach had put me out in left field.  As the opposing team was up to bat I wasn’t paying any attention.  As some boys are known to do in Little League, I decided that I was going to use my cleats to kick the dandelions and the grass around.  Suddenly, I heard the crack of the baseball bat and my coach yelling out, “John, John get your baseball mitt up in the air, the ball is coming to you.”  Amazingly enough I had put my glove up in the air just in time to catch the baseball to close out the opposing team’s at bat and allow my team to get up to bat. 
3.             I tell you this story because of Paul’s words here in Romans chapter 10.  Just like I wouldn’t have been able to catch the ball to finish the opposing team’s at bat without the coach calling me to get my baseball mitt up in the air; so too Paul tells us here that we can’t be saved from our trespasses and sins unless someone preaches to us and tells us the Good News of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  Romans 10:14-17 says, “14But how are they to 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? 15And 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!” 16But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”    
4.             As the Apostle Paul went through his explanation of Israel’s failure to heed the Gospel, he made something perfectly clear.  As sinful human beings, who have sinned against God and our neighbor in thought, word, and deed, we need a righteousness that God is eager to give.  But, we must receive this righteous by faith through the hearing of God’s Word.  In other words, we can’t come to saving faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior from sin, death and the power of the devil, without someone first preaching that Good News of salvation to us.  WE can’t save ourselves from our sins by our own power.   That’s why Paul says in Romans 10:9-10, “9 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. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
5.             When I ask my two year old son Eddie to do something, I expect him to at least let me know that he’s heard what I told him to do.  I admit, sometimes I get irritated when Eddie, busy at play or watching TV, never looks up at my direction when I speak to him.  Somehow words addressed to another person not only have to be heard, but also they need to be acknowledged. 
6.             It’s the same with God’s Word to us.  Yes, God knows our hearts, and He knows when we’ve come to believe through the hearing of His Word of truth in Christ Jesus our Lord.  But, God’s Word is also dynamic and demanding.  And, if we truly hear we will and must respond to God’s Word.  So Paul says to us that salvation comes to those who believe in their hearts and confess with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord.  The one who suffered and died on the cross of Calvary taking the punishment of sin that you deserve and paying for it with His own precious blood.  I still laugh when I think about catching that baseball in the outfield even though I was distracted by the grass and dandelions.  Without my response to my coach’s call I wouldn’t have caught the ball.  So too, it’s also hard to imagine a human being hearing and truly believing God’ call to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and giving no evidence by his life that He has become a follower of Christ.

7.             Paul reminds us here in Romans 10 that our salvation isn’t a matter of doing or earning our own way into heaven, but of receiving.  It’s confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and confidently believing that God raised Him from the dead as our Savior and substitute for sin.  Jesus came down to this earth to live the perfect life  you couldn’t live.  He kept the law of God perfectly for you.  He lived a perfect life to earn the righteousness that you and I need before a just and holy God.  What’s more, died the death sinners deserved for their many transgressions.  With his lifeblood he paid for your lack of keeping the law.  
8.             In other words, Jesus has done everything.  And God’s Word proclaims this glorious truth to us, and that same Word also works faith in the heart to believe and accept Christ’s righteousness.  God’s Word gives us confidence to say that, “Jesus is My Lord.”
9.             As Paul says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  Such calling on the Lord comes about for us only as a gift of the Holy Spirit as He comes to us through God’s Word and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  In other words, no one believes without hearing God’s Word and no one hears without someone preaching to them.  “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.”  If we really believed what Paul says here that faith comes through hearing the Word then we should be all the more diligent to continue to hear God’s Word proclaimed in public worship and to get all those whom God has placed into our lives to do the same. 
10.             The word of Christ is the message that in Him there is perfect obedience to the will of God and that His perfect obedience is yours as you believe it.  It’s a gift.  Believing is taking and receiving the gift of Christ’s righteousness.  This may make you ask the question,  “Didn’t the unbelieving Jews hear?  Yes, but mankind always retains the fearful power to say “no” to God’s gift of faith He wishes to give to us.  But, our ability to say “no” doesn’t change the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ who bids us to receive that gift of salvation through faith in Him through the hearing of His Holy Word.  Amen.