1. I would like to speak this morning on an important theme, the universality of the Gospel.
2. Before He ascended into heaven, our Lord said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:15, 16).
3. "All the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" -- that is the universality of the Gospel.

I. THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE GOSPEL DECLARED

1. The word "whosoever" suggests universality (10:11, 13; cf. John 3:16).
2. Our Lord said, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32, 33).
3. And our Lord said to the woman at the well, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13, 14). She was a despised Samaritan.
4. And our Lord said to Martha, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (John 11:25, 26).
5. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached, "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21).
6. And when he preached to Cornelius (a Gentile) and his household, Peter said, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43).
7. And the last invitation in the Bible is a universal invitation. Revelation 22:17 says, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
8. This is the great theme of Paul's epistle to the Romans (cf. 1:1, 16, 17). "Greek" here refers to "Gentile." The Jews divided the world into two groups -- Jew and Gentile. So Paul is saying the Gospel is for everybody.
9. Romans 10:12 says, "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him."
10. God is "over all" with no distinction between Jew and Greek, rich and poor, cultured and ignorant, black and white, etc.
11. "For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." He is willing to pour out the riches of His grace upon "all that call upon him."
12. The words "no difference" are also very significant (10:12; cf. 3:22, 23). There is no difference in human sinfulness, and human guilt, and human judgment. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
13. And thank God there is no difference in the universality of the Gospel. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13).
14. To "call upon the name of the Lord" to call upon Him in prayer. The publican smote upon his breast, and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13).
15. That's a good prayer!
16. There are some people today who criticize the so-called "Sinner's Prayer." And some of them say that if you were converted this way then you are not genuinely saved. Sadly this sort of teaching is dividing churches and confusing untaught Christians.
17. According to Romans 10:13, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," and that refers to the prayer of faith.
18. The apostle Paul is quoting Joel 2:32 -- "that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD (Jehovah) shall be delivered." This proves the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah God (cf. Rom. 10:9).

II. THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE GOSPEL PREACHED (10:15).

1. There are four questions here in our text, and they all begin with the word "how" (10:14, 15). And the answer to these important questions also begins with the word "how" (10:15).
2. All who profess to be Christian ought either to go themselves, or to help others to go. Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, said, "The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed."
3. John Wesley said, "You have one business on Earth – to save souls."
4. Evangelist James Stewart said, "The concern for world evangelization is...rooted in the character of God...It is the distinctive mark of being a Christian."
5. The prophet Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isa. 6:8).
6. In his epistles the apostle Paul frequently quotes the Old Testament, and of all the books in the New Testament, his epistle to the Romans has the most Old Testament references -- at least sixty.
7. After asking these four questions, Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7 -- "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"
8. Nahum 1:15 is similar. It says, "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!"
9. There are five key verbs in our text -- call, believe, hear, preach, and send (10:14, 15). These verbs add up to a universal proclamation of the Gospel.
10. Sinners call on the Lord in order to be saved (10:13, 14a).
11. But how can they be saved unless they believe the Gospel? (10:14).
12. And how can they believe the Gospel unless they hear the Gospel (10:14; cf. 10:17)?
13. And how can they hear without a preacher (10:14)?
14. And how shall they preach, except they be sent (10:15a)?
15. Beloved, we must get out the Word of God (Romans 10:17)!
16. W.H. Griffith Thomas said, "Faith comes from a message heard. This message comes from the Word of God. Hence, the more we know of God through His Word, the more faith we shall possess...We trust people by knowing them. The longer we spend with our Bible in getting acquainted with God, the stronger, more practical, and more blessed will our faith be" (St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans).
17. Some here need an appetite for God's Word! If you have no hunger for God's Word, "ask, and it shall be given you" (Luke 11:9).

III. THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE GOSPEL DISREGARDED

1. "But they have not all obeyed the gospel" (10:16). Sadly the Gospel is disregarded, but that is no excuse for not preaching it to every creature. Our Lord said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). We must obey!
2. The responsibility for proclaiming the Gospel rests with us. The responsibility for receiving the Gospel lies with those who hear it.
3. That is why Paul said to the Jews in Corinth, "Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles" (Acts 18:6).
4. Paul said the same thing in Acts 20:26, "Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men" (cf. Ezekiel 3:18, 19).
5. "But they have not all obeyed the gospel" (10:16). In the immediate context, this refers to Israel's rejection of the Gospel (cf. 10:1-3, 21).
6. Although they were warned repeatedly by Moses and the prophets, they refused to obey God. This unbelief and disobedience culminated at Calvary where they crucified their Messiah.
7. After Pontius Pilate protested that Christ was innocent, the angry mob shouted at him, "His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:25).
8. But though this passage refers to Israel's rejection of the Gospel, the Gospel proclamation is universal, and this proclamation has been disregarded.
9. In Matthew 22, our Lord told the parable about "a certain king" (representing God), who sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to his son's wedding: and they would not come.
10. Matthew 22:5 says, "But they made light of it."
11. Romans 10:18 says, "Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." It is a universal proclamation -- "unto the ends of the world."
12. Once again Paul was quoting the Old Testament, this time Psalm 19:4 -- "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."
13. And Paul once again quoted the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. "Who hath believed our report?" (Isa. 53:1; cf. Romans 10:16).
14. Paul also refers to Moses and quotes Deuteronomy 32:21 (10:19).
15. These Scriptures teach us that the Gospel is disobeyed, disregarded, and despised. But God is patient (10:21).
16. Here in the last two verses of Romans 10, Paul is quoting Isaiah 65:1 and 2.
17. Romans 10:20 reminds us that some people will respond to the Gospel call -- "I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me."
18. Paul (quoting the prophet Isaiah) is saying that the true knowledge of God was obtained by those who had not sought after Him. Many Gentiles, who had worshipped idols, and who were not seeking for the true God, found salvation in Christ.
19. Yes, though the Gospel is disregarded by many, some sinners will believe and be saved by the grace of God.
20. Over 100 years ago, a Baptist medical missionary named Dr. William Leslie ministered to tribal people in a remote corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  After many years he returned to the U.S. a discouraged man – believing he failed to make an impact for Christ.
21. But in 2010, a group of missionaries made a wonderful discovery. They found a network of Gospel-preaching churches scattered throughout the dense jungle where Dr. Leslie was stationed.
22. To get to this remote area, this team flew for two and a half hours in a Cessna Caravan (a small plane that can seat up to fourteen passengers).
23. They landed in a city called Vanga, and then they hiked a mile to the Kwilu River, and then used canoes to cross the river. Then they hiked with backpacks another ten miles into the jungle before they reached the first village of the Yansi people.
24. There they were happy to discover many churches. They even found a 1000-seat stone church building in one of the villages. They learned that this church got so crowded back in the 1980s – with many members walking miles to attend — that a church planting movement began in the surrounding villages.
25. Isaiah 55:11 says, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
26. And Isaiah also said, "I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts" (Isa. 65:2; Romans 10:21).
27. Try holding up your hands "all the day."   This Scripture reminds us of God's love (John 3:16).  He is "is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9).

CONCLUSION:

1. Most Christians have heard of the great evangelist D.L. Moody, but many are not familiar with his background. When D.L. Moody was a young man he moved to Chicago, which was then a small but growing frontier town.
2. Soon after his arrival in Chicago, he began rooming and taking meals in the house of  a Christian lady named Mrs. Phillips, who not only housed and fed Moody, but also held him accountable to pray and read his Bible daily and attend services at her Baptist church.
3. Mrs. Phillips also encouraged Moody to assist her in city mission work, and thanks to her godly influence, Moody began an outreach to thousands of impoverished street children, boys and girls who roamed the streets and alleys of the neighborhoods.
4. In 1858, he started his own Sunday School in an abandoned freight car, then he moved the Sunday School to an old vacant saloon on Michigan Street.  Soon it became the largest Sunday School in Chicago, reaching some 1,500 children weekly.
5. D.L. Moody gradually turned from secular employment to full-time ministry. The worldly crowd called him “Crazy Moody,” because he devoted all his time on winning dirty and rowdy children to Christ.
6. Moody worked without pay as an evangelist for Chicago’s Young Men’s Christian Association.  (The YMCA was a good soulwinning Christian organization back then.)
7. In 1862, D.L. Moody got married and became a chaplain to General U. S. Grant’s soldiers in the Civil War.
8. After the Civil War, Moody received many invitations to preach -- all over the USA, as well as in Great Britain and Ireland.  And the rest is history -- Moody became the 19th century's greatest evangelist.
9. There are hundreds of his sermons still in circulation, and hundreds of his famous sayings, but I will just close with this one: D.L. Moody said, "It is the greatest pleasure in life to win souls to Christ."
10. Romans 10:13.