The King Calls for Heralds

Have you ever wrestled with the call to preach? Have you ever experienced a tension in your own soul about whether or not God would have you be a preacher of His Word? It can be one of the most challenging moments of your life—wrestling with this feeling: does God want me to be a preacher?

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was one of those characters that would often make you wince and sometimes lament. I think there are definitely aspects of William Booth that we would say, well, I don’t agree with him in doctrine here, and I don’t agree with him in practice over there. But there’s no denying his devotion. There’s no question concerning his zeal. And as he saw the lethargy that was evident in the church in his day, it was not enough for him simply to recognize the problem. He answered the problem with the giving of himself, and then the encouraging of others to join in the cause.

On one occasion, William Booth is recorded as saying the following: “Not called, did you say? Not heard the call, I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell. And hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house, and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”

Not called, not heard the call. It’s possible to sit in a church and somehow have a filter process in which you refuse to hear the call. It’s not for me. It can’t be me. But is it so?

Romans 10 presents the urgency of the gospel. It is urgent. The burden of the apostle, though he’s called to be a preacher to the Gentiles, still resides very much with his fellow countrymen. Verse 1, brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. They need to be saved. And he had such a burden to see souls saved. And of course, they had their problems. Them being ignorant of the gospel, verse 3, go about then to establish their own righteousness, to find their own way to God, not recognizing that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. He has fulfilled it. The law finds its purpose, it terminates in its perfection in Him.

Those who want to be rightly related to God find in Christ the righteousness that they need simply by believing. And they don’t have to try to ascend into heaven to bring down what they need, or to descend down to some part of the lower earth to find again what they need. No, the Word of Faith is near you. You have access to it. It’s right there. This word of faith, this word whereby by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation is yours. Reach out. It’s there. It’s there this morning. You can be saved this morning.

It doesn’t require a pilgrimage. It requires by faith reaching out and taking Christ at His word. By faith, you find yourself to be justified before God, accepted in the Beloved.

Now, this glorious message then is to go and to be proclaimed throughout the world. Jew and Gentile, wherever they are found, they are to hear this message because, verse 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It is relevant to all, applicable to all, and is to be then communicated to all.

The world is to hear this. Preach the gospel to every creature. Let all hear how they may be saved. It’s glorious, glad tidings of salvation through the Lord Jesus. It has come to you. It has come to me. And it is a wonderful thing to know that your sins are forgiven—fully, completely, entirely, absolutely, definitively, everlastingly forgiven.

And so this message is to be spread because it’s a good message. It is good news. There’s no better news. Man in his plight and in his sin, lost and undone, can be redeemed to God by the blood of Jesus Christ. Man so undone by his rebellion can be reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, as you listen to Handel’s Messiah, if you do, and you get to this juncture where Christ has ascended and occupies the throne of heaven, and as they’re ruling and reigning, a part of the burden is that the king will see his message proclaimed to the ends of the earth. So, attention is turned then to Romans 10, verses 15 and 18. How shall they preach except they be sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things? That’s reflected upon. And then verse 18, “‘Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world.’”

This is his ongoing mission while the king occupies his throne: sending out heralds that they may bid others come. As our Lord Jesus framed it, how He described it as going into the highways and the hedges to compel men to come in because yet there is room at this feast. There’s a place at the table, and you may come and enjoy all the riches of what is before you.

This morning, let us consider the king calls for heralds, the king calls for heralds. And I am angling this in a very particular way. And it may not seem all that fitting leading up to Christmas, but I want us to get the message and understand that even at this time of the year, what we are reflecting upon, the themes that we sing, is effectively the message of the greatest missionary ever. And this missionary now sends others on an errand to communicate of his victory and tell how others can enjoy the spoils of his victory.

The king calls for heralds.

Note first with me, the call includes ascending. The call includes ascending.

Verse 15, how shall they preach except they be sent? When we think about this sending, there are two aspects of it I want you to dwell on with me just for a moment.

First of all is that they must be sent by God. They must be sent by God. Preachers are needed. That’s verse 14. How shall they call? If the whole world can call and be saved, how are they going to call on Him? in whom they have not believed. How’s it going to come about? The mechanics of this require then, if they need to believe, they need to hear. And if they need to hear, then they need a preacher who’s going to bring about that message to their senses.

Now, in verse 15, there is then this expectation that there’s going to be ascending of those who are described as having beautiful feet because those feet carry them in the carrying of the gospel of peace and bringing glad tidings of good things. But they must be sent, and God must be behind the sending. There is a commission here. God is sending, or if we put it in the sense of our Lord Jesus Christ occupying His throne, He is in the business of sending messengers, as I said already, to herald of His victory, to tell of what He has accomplished.

Now, the verb send is the word that is tied into the whole idea of being an apostle. And apostles, of course, were those commissioned ones, those sent ones, given a task. And God is still in the business of sending. You may not be an apostle in the office, but you can be a sent one. And so don’t stumble over that, that simply by the use of apostle means anyone can be an apostle. That’s no more true than the fact that the word servant is used in a sense of an office to describe the deacon.

All can be servants, and yet there’s the office of the servant of the church, the deacon. And there’s a distinction there—one who is given this role and task to emulate then that service. And so it is true that though one may be an apostle in the sense that they are sent, they’re not like Paul and Peter and John and so on. So just making that clarity—don’t get confused.

But the sense is that they’re dispatched with authority, that God is not permitting that there’s preaching, but He commands and He commissions individuals to get about that work. And this, as I intimated already, is really a pattern, because God first sends His Son. It is His Son who comes to take on this role, to stand in this position, to be one who will communicate this message of hope and mercy.

And having sent His Son, who came, Galatians 4 verse 4, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son. made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. So he is sent, very much commissioned to a work. When he describes it himself, our Lord Jesus says in John 3, 17, God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

But does that idea imply God sent—He didn’t send him for this purpose, but he did send him for that purpose. He is sent. He knew himself to be sent, commissioned by the Father to a work. And then when he finishes his work, he makes it clear that there are those to follow in his footsteps.

In John 20, verse 21, he says, “‘As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.’” The sending is not over. The commissioning does not terminate with me. I have been sent, now I send you, and it continues. It continues to this day—ascending, God sending individuals, sending them maybe to their home, to their family, or sending them to some other far-off place. Wherever there’s a need, however He directs, go ye therefore and teach all nations, Matthew 28.

So when we dwell upon the incarnation, you can’t dwell upon it properly without thinking about the sending aspect of it. God sent His Son, and His Son still sends.

The question I’m wanting to ask this morning is: is he sending you? Is there a need? There’s always a need. The labors are always few. But the need is not the call. If every single man here in this room was to say, I am willing to go and preach, it would be a wonderful thing. But the need is not the call. A man must wrestle with the sense that God is commissioning me to this task.

There’s a need for preachers, absolutely. But it’s God’s hand upon you for this work.

Jeremiah, he felt his own weakness, his own frailty, that he was like a child, that he was ill-equipped. So if you’re feeling a sense of inadequacy, you’re not alone. But inadequacy does not necessarily mean you’re not called.

Jeremiah even met points in his life in which he wanted to give up in this commission, where his mind was such that he thought, I can’t do this anymore. And yet still because there’s that sense of divine commission within him was this burning sense of the obligation. And you see that in Jeremiah 20. and he speaks of his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones.

You see, when you’re commissioned by God, it’s not an option. It’s not one choice among a number. You’re hemmed in, you’re closed, you’re cornered by God. And what I want you to explore in your mind, if you have not, is whether or not God is cornering you to consider, I want you to do this work. This is my will for your life.

You may fight it. We do. I don’t know any man of any real reputation that I could respect that in telling of their story of this whole journey of discovery did not include in that a sense of reluctance. And yet they come to this point like the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 9, 16, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. I can’t do anything else. Let judgment be upon me should I try to circumvent the responsibility.

Some try to run, like Jonah. I think I’ve told you that story before, where, as I had completed my studies and I had opportunity to visit Canada, and preached for three Sundays, and obviously there was a need in that church, and I’m wondering what God’s will is for me in my future. And the last, the end of the last Lord’s Day, the third Sunday, the Reverend Golicker being there and calling me aside to have a conversation, and really just inquiring as to whether there was any willingness in me to consider even the possibility of moving to North America.

And when he posed a particular question about my willingness, and I said, I’m scared. I’m scared. The thought was scary. And he said, well, as long as you’re not Jonah scared. And I said, knowing exactly what he was meaning, I said, no, I’m not Jonah scared. If God is in it, I’m not gonna run from it.

And that’s where you need to get to. You can be afraid. You can be timid. You can feel your inadequacy and the challenge and the weight of it, but if God is in it, obey.

These men are sent—sent by God. How shall they preach except they be sent? God is in the business of sending men, but they’re also sent through the church.

I’m not going to dwell long on this, but there is a sense in which they’re sent through the church. They’re sent with the commendation of those around them. Those who test them—there’s an understanding that they are set apart for this work. They’re seen as fit for the task. God doesn’t send lone rangers. He ties them back to the only entity that He has, which is His church.

We in our individualistic mind, we can see ourselves because salvation is an individual experience, then we can think that our entire work is individualized as well. But it can’t be. You’re saved and you’re part of the church, and it’s through the church then that you function. It’s out of the church you go.

I’ve made this point many times because if anyone had the authority to say, I’m going to go and do what I believe God has called me to do, no one could say that with more distinction than the Apostle Paul, who from, if you pull all the record of his testimony together, from the day of his conversion knew he was being sent to the Gentiles. He knew it that day. And a decade goes by before that comes to fruition.

And it is through the church when Antioch says, when they’re meeting and fasting and praying and so on, and the leadership meet together for that purpose and the Holy Spirit comes and says, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work we’re on to I have called them. And from that moment then they’re sent—sent with the blessing of the church.

So yes, you must wrestle in your own heart, and you will wrestle over whether God has this call upon your life and He’s commissioning you to such a task. Then you will come and you will speak to me. We’ll have a conversation about it. We’ll seek to discern what’s going on in your life. And hopefully through the channels of wisdom and discernment, that will be confirmed.

The Lord gives, as we saw last week. He gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. That’s what He has set forth in His church. And so these pastors, these teachers, they continue on to this day. The church recognizes them, sets them apart.

Paul says to Timothy, neglect not the gift that is in thee. And he speaks of the laying on of hands of the press with the plural elders, the plurality of elders laid hands on him, recognizing the gift and sending: Timothy, it’s with our blessing you go. Which is why our catechism is careful in saying, they that are sufficiently gifted and also duly approved and called to that office.

So in God’s providence, as we come to this text, I cannot look at it just in some abstract way and talk about God sending men generally. I want to bring it right home. I want you to be wondering and thinking and pondering, is it possible that I am such a one?

Now many of you, your lives are all lambed out already. And I’m not against that. You need to plan. It’s good to think ahead and think about the hurdles necessary. It’s good to have a plan. I was talking to my children the other day, saying, you know, a degree is not a plan, right? A degree is not a plan. They say, I’ll go and get a degree. That’s not a plan. The plan may include a degree, but it’s not a plan.

Have a plan, yes. But reserve, allow God the right to reserve that He may change that plan. He may pivot you in another direction entirely.

Most people even sitting here beyond a certain age could say, I did not expect that I would be right where I am at this moment. I looked different when I was 20. So it happens to most people anyway. I want you to think about this. I want you to think about this sending, God’s sending. He raises men of honest character who are apt to teach, who will hold fast the faithful word. They’re not perfect, but they’re called. They’ve been examined. They’re accountable. They’re sincere, and they’re capable.

So the call includes ascending, but the call is to make a sound. What is the call all about? It is to make a sound. These ones are to communicate something.

Now it’s described then about their sound went into all the earth in verse 18. That sound is described in verse 15 as the gospel of peace and glad tidings of good things. So you’re making a sound.

The sound then first is the message of the gospel. That’s what you’re about. If you have this commission, this call, what is it about? It is about the gospel. It is effectively the most glorious message known to man, and you get the task where your primary job is illuminating, clarifying, and extending that message as far as you can, as God will permit.

The Word. Why? Verse 17, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So, when Paul writes—when he rather, when he gives his testimony on one occasion, I don’t have this down, but one of his testimonies, maybe before Agrippa, he talks about saying that he said, none other things than those which the prophets of Moses did say should come, that Christ should die, and so on and so forth.

But it’s a great way to describe what the ministry’s all about. None other things. In other words, I’m not here to preach about everything. I’m not here to give you your five-minute weekly news digest of what has happened. That’s not the job.

Now sometimes matters pertaining to society may be brought in and may shape the message or may in some way the message is playing off of events or whatever. Sometimes, but that is not, not the call. It’s not about an artistic way in which you can always tie in news of the last six days or so and bring it then on Sunday, tied into some scripture verse.

It is the gospel, the good news, none other things. Even in the Old Testament, what are you looking into the Old Testament for? To see something mysterious? No. It’s about the Messiah who died and rose again. That’s what Paul says, my whole scope, none other things. That which Moses and the prophets did say should come—dealing with the Lord Jesus in His coming, in His life, in His death, in His resurrection—that is the message.

And faith comes by this, by that message. This is our encouragement: that God works this miracle of faith by the hearing of the Word, by the proclaiming of His truth, by saying Christ died for sinners, and saying to the same sinners, you can enjoy the benefit of His work.

He calls you to believe on Him, to rest in Him, to have done with your sin—confessing it honestly before the living God and believing on the merit of His Son—and through that you can be saved. This is the sound—not to entertain, not a motivational speaker, though there’s an element at times of motivation that motivate you to Christ, right? But it’s not to motivate you for some selfish ends and purpose.

It is as a herald, as a king sends a herald to announce a message which ought to garner a response in obedience to that king—that’s what it’s about.

So the king occupies his throne there in heaven, and with all power committed unto him, sends these heralds out into the world, that their sound may be heard, that faith may come by hearing that sound. This is the message. Christ died for our sins and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.

Will all believe? No, no. Some will rebel. That’s the sad tragedy of verse 16. They have not all obeyed the gospel. And what was true in Paul’s day was true in Isaiah’s day when he lamented, Lord, who hath believed our report? The prophet is effectively saying, it feels like no one is listening.

So in one sense, if you want, if you’re one of those people that need to be motivated by seeing a real definitive progress in your work, that you can see from day to day, the building blocks being laid, there’s a certain enviable aspect to that, in which you can, you know, you go one day and you do something, and you come back the next day and it’s exactly where you left it, and you can add to it, and then you go away and you come back, and just, it progresses, right? There’s something rewarding about that.

Then there’s some other jobs in which you don’t get to see that. It’s not as obvious. Parenting, for example, isn’t exactly like that. You’re putting little blocks together and you’re working away to try and create character in them, and you come back the next day, it doesn’t always look the way you thought you left it. There’s a lot of heartache and trial and difficulty, and so it is in God’s work.

And the lament then of the prophet, who hath believed our report, is real and often felt. And yet the work is to be done anyway. If you can get past that, if you’re willing to carry on regardless of such responses that may seem to be indifferent to the message, yet recognizing that God will still work through your preaching, and faith will come by hearing that Word of God which you preach—you carry on anyway, because the king says so.

The king says go. The king says speak. And you obey. Yes, this is what he requires.

Their son went into all the earth, even in the apostolic time, what spread of the gospel there was. It’s quite something. But it is the ultimate end, continually, causing this message to go to the ends of the earth. And the question for you is, will you be prepared to make such a sound that the sound of your life is the gospel of Christ? You’re going to give yourself to this.

That you will study the Scriptures to show yourself approved unto God, and with the intent that what you’re primarily seeing is the gospel. And you’re bringing that to bear upon the hearts of those before you. Just bringing it constantly, applying it, driving it home—working, laboring, striving in this heralding business—that God may work faith in those who hear you. It is a glorious thing.

The glory of it is in the sense of the one who is commissioned and the message that you get to preach. But there are other aspects of it that are highly grieving. Watching people disobey, seeing them unwilling—and this is part of what the apostle gets to in verse 19. Did not Israel know?

First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. Using other means to awaken Israel. And Isaiah then, he says, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. In other words, this message is going to the Gentiles, those who are not anticipating or looking for. They are finding it, and they’re finding rest in it. I mean, you’re the fulfillment of that text this morning. Gentiles.

To Israel, all day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people, but the same feeling at times is experienced even among Gentile regions in which the word goes out and the message is proclaimed and the heart is hard and unwilling to repent. And that can be difficult.

So the sound is the message of the gospel, and that sound is for the entirety of the world. The sound went into all the earth, their words onto the ends of the world.

There’s a quotation of Psalm 19. You know Psalm 19? I’m not going to turn there. Psalm 19 describes the message of creation. The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth its handiwork, and so on and so forth. And it is an exposition on how creation communicates a message to the world. The people can see that there’s a God. If they would just open their eyes and look at the created order, there’s a God there. And that message goes to the ends of the earth.

Creation speaks to every man so that Romans 1, everyone is without excuse. We know there’s a God. This is why when you’re dealing with an atheist, don’t come down and debate on his terms. Debate on terms of the Scripture. You know there’s a God. Now, you may shut it out, but you know there’s a God. Pay attention. Look around you. There is a God.

And as the message of creation has gone to the ends of the earth, cannot be escaped, it is everywhere, so is the will of God concerning the gospel. The sound is to go to the ends of the earth, to go all the earth. The Lord Jesus is king to the degree that He can commission all His heralds and say, go to every corner you find a people, go. Cover the earth with this message. Go to the far-flung regions of the world. Penetrate into closed areas. Speak when you are forbidden to speak.

But do not stop with this message, though earth is to hear of it. And this is why the laborers are few, because it’s a mammoth task, getting this message everywhere.

The entirety of the world—are you prepared? Are you prepared to go anywhere? Are you prepared at great cost and sacrifice and difficulty because the King is worthy? Because your standing in Christ is such that emanating from you is a posture of praise that says, there are no limits, there is no barrier, there is no preventative cause within my heart that would say, this far, no further. Whatever he wills, I will do.

The king is still commissioning heralds.

And some of you, you may be married and you start thinking about, I’m fighting this right now. But there’s no possible way because my wife would never agree to this. This is dead on arrival. But you never know. You never know.

There’s no higher calling, no greater responsibility than the king sending you and saying, speak of my son. The most precious thing to the father is a son. And you’re being commissioned to speak of that same son. And the whole world needs it, wherever you go.

There’s no difference because there’s no difference between men in terms of their spiritual condition before God. So, verse 12, there’s no difference between Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. He will receive all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.

Finally, the call will necessitate surrendering. It will necessitate surrendering. You cannot fulfill this call. You cannot engage in this commission without surrendering. And God does not recruit preachers the way companies recruit employees. He doesn’t negotiate the same way. He doesn’t use the same terms. He expects there to be a willingness on your part. And you surrender all your plans and obey.

When the message of Isaiah 6 is sounded out from the triune God, whom shall I send and who will go for us? The surrendered heart says, here am I. Send me. Commission me. Order me. I’ll go. This is what it’s all about.

When Ananias is told concerning Saul of Tarsus to go on to him, he is informed, he has a chosen vessel on to me, a chosen vessel—selected for a task. The hand of the Lord upon him for a particular purpose, a chosen vessel.

So this may be you. Search your heart. Look at the need of a perishing world. Hear the cry. Hear the cry.

This cry is more haunting than almost any other cry imaginable. You want to know why? Because the cry of the lost as a deathly silence—they don’t know what they need. They don’t know. They don’t know they’re lost. They don’t know what awaits them. And they don’t know.

Should they have even some pang of conscience that would enable them to feel the weight of guilt upon their heart, as sometimes they do, they do not know what to do with it. And here’s where you come in—commissioned to inform, to shed light upon the heart, point the way to the cross—to see how God uses the preaching of the Word to bring about faith, even saving faith.

Oh, where are you? Where are you? Here we are, planning to exchange gifts and show our appreciation to our loved ones and speak to them on the phone, wish well, and all of that. And God is saying, here, here, there’s something I want from you. I want your commitment to preach the gospel.

This is good news. Gospel of peace, glad tidings of good things—what a way to describe Christ’s work. Peace in a world in turmoil, with souls in anguish, with anxiety and depression and all forms of discouragement—you get to communicate a message: here’s where peace is. Glad tidings of good things, that God gave His Son. His Son took our nature. His Son obeyed where we failed. His Son sacrificed in a way we dare not, and He bore the judgment we deserve for our sin, and He took it away for all who simply believe. Only believe. but thou shalt be saved.

So where are you? Are you wrestling over it? Do you wonder about it? Will you pray over it? Will you pray over it? Will you come seriously and don’t dismiss it as it could never be me?

I want to hear that reason. I want to hear whether there’s a legit reason that you could say it could never be me. Will it pass an honest assessment, or is it some made-up, conjured-up belief in your mind that you sell to yourself to escape the possibility of such a call as this?

That great missionary, David Livingstone. It was right when He said, God had only one Son and He made that Son a missionary. And that missionary still makes missionaries. So maybe you’re in that catalog, that list of those that are going to be sent.

Why don’t you pray over it? There’s young men here. There’s young men here. And I see such potential in you and such gift. And if God wants you to be something else, then you do that. You have my blessing. But if you haven’t even so much as pondered the possibility that he might call you to be a preacher, may the Lord smite your heart with conviction, give you some semblance of sensitivity to the crying need of a perishing world, to the many sheep of His church who are longing for just someone to go and open the word to them and feed them.

May you wrestle with it, and may your conclusions not be your own, but the Lord’s.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

If I could summarize what I want you to wrestle with is whether or not that the most significant gift you give this Christmas is the gift of a surrendered heart to your God, and let Him choose what He will do with that life.

Read His Word, seek His guidance, ask Him for direction. Let them know, God, increase this burden or take it away entirely. Thy will be done.

Oh, Father, help us to hear. Help us to hear. To hear thy voice above the noise of the world. To hear thy voice penetrate through the dullness of our own frame. And should there be one here this morning that is still dull to the call of salvation, of how they need to repent and believe the gospel, let them also respond and surrender and give up their sin and believe on Christ today.

Thank you, Lord, you can save them today. Thank you that they can walk in here on their way to hell and go home on their way to heaven. Let it be so even now.

Bless us then. Grant that these afternoon hours we may know your presence in our homes. And tonight, O God, tabernacle in this place. Grant that we might know a special sense of thy nearness in our midst.

Until then, part us in thy fear, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God, now and evermore. Amen.