Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Those are the words we want to hear from our Savior. To know that our Lord personally calls us to be His ambassadors, so that we can bring this good news to the world, should encourage us to consider how we may accomplish such a beautiful task.

Evangelism programs have come and gone. Some are good, others are less than good. But as I've stated before, evangelism programs are designed to give you a tool to sharpen your skills to actually know what to share regarding Christ and His redemptive work.

Evangelism programs in and of themselves do not necessarily give you the motivation to share that good news. As I've said on various occasions, you or I can teach a pagan how to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we can't give that pagan the motivation to actually share it from the heart.

The same holds true for a Christian. You or I can teach another Christian how to share the gospel, but we can't give other Christians the motivation to actually have them share their faith in Christ.

But what we can do is encourage God's people to look closely at what a great love Christ has given us so that as we look to Christ in thanks and gratitude our hearts desire will be to please Him in everything, and part of what pleases Him is to talk about Him to a lost world.

If our love for Christ is growing then our love for the world will grow as well, and in turn that love will reach out to them with the truth of God's word. This must be at the root of our Christianity. God's word tells us that we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, all our souls, and all of our minds. A second commandment like unto it is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Our neighbor is the world as well as the church and the implied progression of thought is that if we are loving God above all we will in turn love our neighbor. The opposite can also be seen in that if our love for Christ grows cold, or becomes complacent, our love for people in general will grow cold and that motivation to share the love of Christ found in the gospel will be quenched.

A.C. Hervey in the Pulpit commentary series makes a similar statement. He say's, "If love to Christ be chilled by worldliness, no place will be found for love of souls."

Our love for the lost is the not the initial motivation to share with the lost. Our love for Christ is. But when we're loving Him above all it necessarily follows that our love for souls will follow. Love for the lost is something we need to pray for daily. Unfortunately the lost are not very lovely. If you doubt that think back on your lost days.

But if you remember how Christ loved you even while a sinner and a rebel, as Paul speaks of in Rom.5:8 and Eph.2:4-5, then out of gratitude our attitudes should be: 'Lord whatever you desire of me I will do because you first love me, while I deserved nothing from You.'

But what if we share with the world and they reject our message of hope found in Christ? 'Yeah, I tried giving someone the gospel once and they just laughed. I'll never put myself in that humiliating situation again.'

Think how the world would be if the apostle Paul had given up simply because of the world's rejection. Not only did they laugh at him, they persecuted him, they beat him, tried to kill him and most of those people were fellow Jews.

And yet he can still say, "I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit--
2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race,
4 the people of Israel...." (Rom 9:1-4)

Paul never gave up on the Jews because God never gave up on him. And yet the reality is that, whether Jew or Gentile, many people will not embrace the truth that Messiah Jesus died for the penalty of our sins so that we don't have to pay the penalty ourselves, separated from God for eternity.

I don't know how anyone would want to pay for their own sins when the Creator has made a way of escape to love and serve Him. But even Paul understood this when he wrote in Rom 10:16 "But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" [Isaiah 53:1]

The prophet Isaiah pleaded with Israel to turn back to Jehovah for their salvation, but his words fell on deaf ears. "Lord, who has believed our message?" By the way it is this passage in Isaiah which speaks about the suffering Servant to come to redeem men of their sin. That suffering servant spoken of is none other than Jesus Himself being foretold to the Jews that He would come in this way.

But Paul's point here in Rom.10:16 is not to suggest that, since some will not believe the message, we give up on them. The next verse would have us continue to tell them about our Savior.

Rom 10:17 "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."

The NAS and the KJV would put it, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The message of the gospel is implied. So the idea is that if people are going to be saved they must hear, and we must be the ones to bring this glorious news, of which God says, your feet are beautiful when you bring My gospel.

A side note here to the word hear..... The ear doesn't necessarily have to be involved. For example those who are deaf can still hear from God through the written word. We can share with the lost and allow them to hear the gospel through tracts we send them or give them. Now, none of this is meant to give us an excuse not to actually talk with people, but we certainly aren't limited to just the spoken word.

To give you an example of how people are reaching the lost for Christ we, along with thousands of churches and ministries, are using the Internet to reach the world with the gospel, and to bring the truth of God's word around the globe.

Other ways we've spoken to our community about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is through gospel tracts sent to this community through a mailing campaign, and if you desire you can still use this means to get the word out. I have the letters and the tracts and the envelopes as well as the mailing labels. Just ask me for the materials and you can use this as a means of having beautiful feet to take the message out to this lost world.

So, Paul says, the world needs to hear and you have the privilege and responsibility to give them this glorious news of Christ. Now, in the case of the Jews whom Paul is addressing in our text, he speaks of those Jews who may have used the excuse that they hadn't heard this news, therefore they can't be blamed.

Rom 10:18 "But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." [Psalm 19:4]

The Jews had the privilege to know the mind and will of God as they walked with Him and heard His word spoken through His prophets. The problem was that their ears became dull when they chose not to walk after God in their rebellion.

To drive his point home about the Jews' access to this good news, Paul quotes two O.T. prophets. Rom 10:19 "Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding." [Deut. 32:21]
20 And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me." [Isaiah 65:1]
21 But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." [Isaiah 65:2]

The words of Moses are found in Deu 32:21 "They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding."

Charles Hodge makes the comment: [Here] "the sacred writer recounts the mercies of God, and the ingratitude and rebellion of the people. In verse 21 he warns them, that as they provoked him to jealousy by that which is not God, He would provoke them to jealousy by them that are no people. That is, as they forsook him and made a choice of another god, so He would reject them and make a choice of another people."

Of course, that other people would have been all of the heathen peoples whom Israel hated. If Israel would not be that light, that God called them to be as the chosen people, then God would go to the people who did not seek Him and reveal Himself to them with the express purpose of making Israel jealous so that they might come back to their God.

But, don't confuse God's rejection of Israel with a "getting even attitude". It was this rejection which God used to extend His mercy and the good news to the Gentile nations which includes you and me.

We'll talk more of this next week but Paul points this out in Rom 11:11 "Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious."

This is glorious news for the Gentiles and it once again shows how a just God is also merciful and loving. For the Gentiles, like Israel, deserved nothing from God but His wrath, and yet He allows them to partake in His mercy.

And that's when Paul quotes Isaiah.... "And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me." [Isaiah 65:1]

The Gentiles were content in their unbelief and ignorance of the one true God. They weren't looking for or asking about Jehovah. But, God goes to them and reveals Himself and His gospel to them. Praise God!

But did Israel get a fair shake? Were they rejected on a whim from God? Paul puts it this way in Rom 10:21 "But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."

It wasn't as though God didn't come to Israel and urge them to turn back to Him. The language of our text is taken from Isa 65:2 "All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations--
3 a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick;
4 who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat;
5 who say, 'Keep away; don't come near me, for I am too sacred for you!' Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.
6 "See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps--
7 both your sins and the sins of your fathers," says the LORD. "Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds."

The Jews were not ignorant of what they were doing. They knew what God desired of them and yet they chose to rebel to fulfill their own selfish ambitions, which in part was not to be dictated to, even by their Creator and Savior.

That's pretty bold, and so God tells them that if they will not follow Him He will go after others who will. Now, does this mean that Israel is to be destroyed and never have the opportunity to return to God?

Remember, Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Christ came for the world not just for the Gentiles and not just for the Jews. But for all men.

And so Paul answers the question that may have been on the minds of both Jews and Gentiles. Rom 11:1 "I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin."

But, wait a minute, I thought God had said He would reject His obstinate people. In fact, we read in Amo 9:8 "Surely the eyes of the Sovereign LORD are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth--"

If we were to stop there we might get the idea that God's anger was unquenchable and irreversible towards Israel. But in that same verse of Amos God goes on to say.... "yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," declares the LORD. Amo 9:9 "For I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground."

God would discipline Israel in a most dramatic way as He allowed them to be taken into captivity. In fact, up until recently, the nation of Israel was still scattered involuntarily throughout the world as grain is shaken in a sieve.

But simply because the nation has a land again doesn't necessarily make them the faithful people God spoke of in His word. Remember, the people of God are not His people in name only, that is Jew or Israel; His people follow Him and place their faith in the Messiah, Jesus.

Israel as a nation still rejects their Messiah. That's what Paul meant in Rom 9:6 "It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." [Gen. 21:12]
8 In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring."

Paul expands on this in Rom.4:13 and Gal.3:29, which states "It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith." [Rom 4:13] "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." [Gal 3:29]

In Christ, you and I are Abraham's offspring in the spiritual sense, which is what was always meant. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. You and I believe God and trust Christ for our salvation and His righteousness is put to our account.

But, again the question begs itself. If the offspring of Abraham are those who believe the promises of God and not trusting in the law for salvation, where does that leave the Jews? It leaves them with the same decision all Gentiles are faced with. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

This is exactly what Paul points out with his own life. And in verse one he takes a logical argument to this question of whether or not God has entirely forsaken the Jew.

He says, may it never be that God has forever rejected the Jews. In fact he says, if that were the case how could I stand before you as a Christian. And lest you forget, he says, I am a Jew. Not some Gentile convert who came to the Jewish faith, but a Jew born to the nation of Israel, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Paul was saying that a Jew, through and through, has received the salvation promised to the Jews for centuries and therefore the Jews cannot be totally rejected otherwise Paul would still be lost.

In fact, he goes so far as to give some of his credentials. He doesn't do this for his own benefit but for those who would look on such credentials as special, and who may have needed such confirmation that, yes, even Jews can receive Christ.

He mentions that he's from the tribe of Benjamin. Hodge makes the comment that there were two predominant tribes in Israel, especially after the exile, when these two were the chief representatives of the theocratical people. These two tribes were Judah and Benjamin.

Speaking of Paul, whose birth name was Saul, F.F. Bruce says, "It is not surprising that parents who have traced their descent from the tribe of Benjamin and cherished high ambitions for their new-born son should give him the name borne by the most illustrious member of that tribe in the history of Israel - Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin (to quote Paul's reference to Israel's first king)"

But again keep in mind Paul isn't boasting in his physical heritage as though that gave him an advantage to the Kingdom of God. Rather he's simply making the point that being a Jew and being a Christian can be very compatible. God has not forsaken the Jew, but has called every Jew, as He has called every Gentile, not to place any confidence in the flesh but to trust Christ alone for your salvation.

This was the very point Paul was making when he wrote to the Philippians in Phi 3:3 "For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh--
4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ."

Paul was proud of his heritage as all of us should be of ours. But no physical heritage will ever earn us brownie points with God. Only trusting Christ alone for salvation will count for eternity.

The nation of Israel today is still in darkness as a nation. Their official stance on the Messiah is, He is yet to come. But there are many Jews who have embraced Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I've known numerous Jews over the years who have embraced their Messiah.

For a time I was involved in a ministry in Fort Lauderdale called Beth Yeshua. In Hebrew that means House of Jesus. The ministry, Jews for Jesus has been around since the 1960's.

A friend of mine, Mitch Friedstat, who was with the Fort Lauderdale Calvary Chapel is a beautiful Christian man, whose mom and dad and the rest of his family doesn't understand him, but he continues to lift up the name of Christ is now presently assisting Billy Osegen, another friend of mine who is the Pastor of a Calvary Chapel in North Carolina.

Jews for Jesus once published some statistics which showed that, per capita, there are more Jewish believers in the world today than Gentile believers, which means that for the relatively small Jewish population in the world there are more Jews who are Christians compared to the vast Gentile numbers who have Christians.

God hasn't forgotten the Jews. But the message for you and me is that God has ordained for His people, both Jew and Gentile, to put our faith into action to the extent that we live and speak to this new life we have in Christ.

Just as Isaiah bore witness to the fact that God, "All day long has stretched out His hands to a disobedient and obstinate people", in the Jews, He continues to stretch out His hands to people all over this world who continue to be obstinate and rebellious.

But that doesn't stop Him from extending mercy and love. And the way He does that is by sending you and me to be His hands and mouth, in a sense, as we deliver God's personal message of hope and life found in His Son, Jesus Christ.

May we, like Paul, be able to put our own salvation into perspective and have such an appreciation, and thankfulness of the eternal life we have been freely given, that we may say with him, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." (Rom 1:16-17)

Seek Christ daily and live by faith in His love and mercy and the promises He's given us in Christ and in His word. Stand fast and do not be shaken for God is at work and He desires to use you and me in His work to the glory of God the Father, who sent His Son into this world to purchase with His blood our very lives.

Let's give Him our lives in thanks and gratitude and ask Him on a daily basis, 'Lord how can I be used of you today?' He'll honor that attitude by making us fit vessels for furthering His Kingdom.