Fast forward to Romans 10. Paul quoted a verse from the Old Testament book of Joel and then considered some implications.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How,then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless these three short verses, we see God’s design for taking they are sent?

These verses don’t just depict Paul’s rhetorical skill; they are a clear picture of God’s redemptive plan. In these three short verses, we see God’s design for taking the gospel to all peoples of the world, including the billion who have never heard the name of Jesus.

In order for us to see it, lets take the last verse, you see that God’s plan involves sending His servants. So that’s step one in the plan of God-God sends servants.

Then, continuing to move backward in the passage, we see what those servants do. They preach. The servants are sent to preach the gospel. As we have already seen when we considered disciple making, every servant of God is intended to go and proclaim the gospel. This is God’s plan. He sends His servants, and His servants preach.

Moving one step further back, when His servants preach, people hear. Unless we are preaching to a wall, people will hear us when we preach. So the plan is progressing: God sends His servants, and His servants preach, and the people hear.

When they hear. the previous sentence says, they will believe. Now, this passage is not teaching that every single person who hears the gospel will believe it. This is obviously not true, either Structurally or practically. But this passage is teaching that when we preach and people hear, some of them will believe. We have seen that one day every nation, people, tribe, and language will be represented around the throne of Christ. This means that every people group is going to hear the gospel preached, and someone from every people group is going to trust in Christ for salvation. This gives us great confidence. You can go to the most remote and hostile unreached people group on the planet and preach the gospel to them, and somebody is going to believe. God sends servants, His servants preach, people hear, and hearers believe.

The last two steps in God’s plan are obvious. when hearers believe, they call on the name of the Lord, and when they call on His name, they will be saved. So there you have it-the simple divine plan for taking the gospel to all peoples of the world.

God sends His servants-Hist servants preach-People hear-Hearers believe-Believers call-everyone who calls is saved.

Now look back at this progression and ask one question: Is there any place where this plan can break down? Think about it. Oviously everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. No breakdown there. Everyone who believes will call. Many who hear (not all, but many) will believe. People will hear the gospel when we preach it to them. And God is most definitely still in the business of sending His servants.

This means there is only one potential breakdown in this progression-when the servants of God do not preach the gospel to all peoples.

We are the plan of God, and there is no plan B.

Of course, God has the power to write the gospel in letters across the clouds so that all the people can learn about Jesus and believe in Him. But in His infinite wisdom, He has not chosen this route. Instead He has chosen to use us as ambassadors who carry the gospel.= to people who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Many stories are told today of God revealing Christ in dreams and visions around the world to people who have never heard of Jesus. Consequently, many Christians have begun leaning on the hope that God is using other ways to make the gospel known to people who have never heard of Jesus. But we need to remember something. There is not one verse in the book of Acts where the gospel advances to the lost apart from a human agent. God has clearly decided to use the Church-and only the Church(Note Church refers the the Body of Christ, not a building) as means by which His gospel will go to the ends of the earth.

And this is the final truth in the Why going is urgent, not an optional sermon set.