Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 10:14-17

Faith of the Baptists — A Missionary Faith

 

But 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?

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!”

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.[1]

Baptists, throughout their history, have been characterised as a missionary people.

The modern missionary movement is a Baptist movement solidly grounded in the righteous vision of men and women intoxicated with the revelation of Christ.

Included among these missionary stalwarts are luminaries such as William Carey, Adoniram Judson, and Luther Rice.

Every Baptist should know the names of these men imbued with missionary zeal, honouring them for their courageous commitment to Christ.

Our Faith anticipates that we will tell others of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

We cannot be silent in the face of sin’s devastation; and so long as souls are lost, we who are entrusted with the Word of life must of necessity be mission-minded.

Christians who preceded us penetrated pagan darkness, reaching beyond our coastlines to ensure that the message of life is today found on every continent.

Because of their dedication to the cause of Christ, we share in the work of a great Family that does not define itself by race or culture or social standing or gender, but rather that Family to which we belong encompasses every nation and tribe and language and people.

As Christians, we Baptists are on mission with God.

What does it mean to be mission-minded?

What does it mean to say that we must each be on mission with God?

Such questions demand an answer if we will continue the tradition handed down from our fathers—the tradition of extending the Faith, proclaiming the message of life and liberty where Christ has not been named.

At the outset, let me say that one need not travel to distant lands to fulfil this divine mandate, but rather we need but traverse the streets of our own communities to discover a growing culture of death populated by dying individuals who do not know the Name of Christ the Saviour.

Join me in discovery of Mission and the Baptist Faith.

Convictions Create Commitment — What do you believe?

I am not asking what your church believes, but rather I am asking what */you/* believe.

What are the core values shaping your life?

What truths do you hold sacrosanct?

This is a most serious question that each of us must answer.

A second question flows from the first.

That second question asks, “How has your life changed because of your beliefs?”

What you believe does shape your life.

An old saw, no doubt familiar to many of us, asserts, “I cannot hear what you are saying because of what you are doing.”

That is tantamount to saying, “Don’t tell me what you believe; show me!”  What you believe is revealed through the choices you make while living out your life.

The manner in which you live demonstrates what you believe; all else is mere talk.

Paul asks a question that should shake each of us out of our spiritual somnolence.

How are they to call on him in whom they have not believed?

What do you believe about the doctrine of man (*/anthropology/*)?

What do you believe about the doctrine of Christ (*/Christology/*)?

What do you believe about the doctrine of salvation (*/soteriology/*)?

What do you believe about the doctrine of God (*/theology/*)?

I haven’t time to thoroughly cover the content of each of these doctrines, but some essential truths demand clarification.

We believe that all people are born in sin and are under the curse of death.

We Baptists are convinced that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [*Romans 3:23*].

The Word is quite clear in declaring that sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned [*Romans 5:12*].

Because we share in the brokenness of all humanity, we know that all mankind is under sentence of death.

As Baptists, we are convinced that Jesus died because of our sin and that He rose for our justification.

He presented His own life as a sacrifice in the place of sinful man.

According to the Word of God, for our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in [Christ Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God [*2 Corinthians 5:21*].

We are taught that God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit [*Romans 8:3, 4*].

We are convinced that it is by grace [we] have been saved through faith.

And this is not [our] own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them [*Ephesians 2:8-10*].

God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savoir, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life [*Titus 3:5-7*].

The glorious God whom we serve is not a demigod created out of our own fertile imaginations gently making suggestions that we can ignore if we don’t feel good about them.

The God of heaven and earth is holy and righteous!

The Lord our God is awesome in might and power!

He is sovereign!

He is God; we are not.

Because God is God, we are obligated to obey Him.

Like Isaiah, when He commands we are to go.

Isaiah declared, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”  Then I said, “Here am I!  Send me” [*Isaiah 6:8*].

Since we hold these convictions concerning man, concerning Christ, concerning salvation, and concerning God, we must obey the necessity imposed by our knowledge and by the command of God to be light and salt.

Knowledge imposes a terrible responsibility upon us as Christians.

Suppose you knew the cure for cancer and yet refused to share that knowledge with the world.

Would your refusal be ethical?

Do you suppose that your fellowmen would praise you for your decisions to keep the knowledge of life from those in such desperate need?

Of course, the answer is self-evident.

If man is under sentence of death and the cure for eternal condemnation is to believe that Christ died because of the sin of dying people, is it ethical to keep that knowledge from others?

Can we ethically have a cavalier attitude about obeying Christ’s call to be witnesses of His saving power?

Will not those condemned in their sin that never heard of His love and salvation rise up and rightly condemn us?

If the command of the Risen Son of God is somehow insufficient to impel us to enter into mission with Him, then surely the knowledge that we could spare some from condemnation will impel us to be on mission with Him!  Have you ever knowingly told another of the love of God?  Have you ever knowingly tried to deliver another from condemnation?

Have you ever prayed, pleading with God for life for one you knew to be under sentence of death?

This is what it is to be on mission with God.

We Baptists do not merely support “missions,” we are on mission!

All of us who name the Name of Christ are called to reach beyond this immediate sphere of personal comfort and penetrate the darkness—we are on mission with Christ.

Some from within this congregation will be called to reach beyond the pedestrian world of daily life in order to represent Christ elsewhere.

Some may perhaps find that God calls them to serve Him through ministering to the hurting of our own communities.

They may minister to the homeless living on our streets, work among the prisoners, work with the impoverished; they will be called to represent Christ where it is darkest within our own communities.

Some from within this congregation will be called to represent Christ through declaring the message of life, dedicating themselves to labour within cities and communities far distant from our immediate vicinity.

Perhaps they will be called to be pastors or evangelists or church planters, or perhaps they will be Sunday School teachers, but they will advance His cause and make His Name known where it is not now declared.

Some from within this congregation will be called to bridge cultural divides, declaring the grace of God to peoples who speak another language or who live in distant lands.

There, they will serve as salt and light among a people who do not now know of the grace of God, declaring the freedom that is available to all mankind in Christ Jesus.

All of us will increasingly participate in mission with Christ as we expand our investment in ministries that carry the message of life throughout our world.

We will provide outreach to the communities around us by televising the messages preached in this place, opening the door to life to many people that would never enter into this building.

We will begin other services as we discover ways to expand our outreach to other areas in our own communities, as we provide new places for preaching the Word, and as we join with others in planting churches wherever God gives us opportunity to serve.

As we learn of the service of others in distant lands we will give generously to ensure that Chinese, Indonesian and African peoples also hear the message of life.

God is moving, and we are called to be on mission with Him.

Jesus often spoke of His work.

On one occasion He said, My Father is working until now, and I am working [*John 5:17*].

The responsibility imposed on each of us who know and who are convinced of this truth is to open our eyes and see where the Father is working, and in that place where He is now working join Him in His mighty task of making Christ known.

Every one who is convinced of this glorious truth has received a call because of that conviction to enter into this holy and divine work of advancing the cause of Christ the Lord.

Have all within our communities heard of Christ?

If our communities do not know Him, or if they know but a caricature of His grace, how can they call on Him?  Do all within our provinces know of Christ’s power to save?

How can they call on Him if they have not known of Him?  Are the great nations of this world now evangelised?

Until all mankind has received the message of life they have no possibility of calling on Him.

God is working.

Jesus is working.

We are now called to work with Him.