Ignorance

Romans 10:4-8

Ignorance of Israel on Messiah

Romans 10:4-8, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. ⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” ⁶ But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) ⁷ or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which

we preach)

Five reasons for the unbelief of Israel to rightly understand the Lord Jesus Christ. 1. The person of God, 2. The provision of Christ, 3. The place of faith, 4. The parameters of salvation, 5. The predictions of Scripture.

Deuteronomy 28:64-67, “Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.

1 Kings 9:6-9, But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ⁸ And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”

Luke 21:20-24, “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. ²¹ Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. ²² For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. ²³ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. ²⁴ And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Whether we read the Old or New Testament, we hear these passages that promise tragedy to Israel. In the lifetime of the Old Testament prophets and people, these tragedies came to pass. In the lifetime of the New Testament writers, these tragedies also came to pass.

It continues even to our own time that we see the devastation, the destruction, the lostness of the nation Israel.

We ask ourselves the question, what happened? The very question that Paul is posing in this part of Romans. How is it that the people of God have missed the blessings?

How the nation of Israel to whom were given the covenants of God, promises of God, laws of God, the Holy Scriptures, and the prophets yet they have missed out on God's blessing? How is it that they have been set aside for judgment and punishment?

Romans chapter 10 is written to answer the question. Because of Israel's ignorant unbelief. In the midst of their ignorant unbelief, they forfeited God's blessings as all men and women do who live in unbelief and brought upon themselves God's judgments.

Israel was ignorant of the truth, failing to believe. They are ignorant. They don't know. Paul introduces the chapter in which he outlines the elements of Israel's ignorance.

Why is it so with Israel today? Why was it so that Jerusalem had to be destroyed in 70 A.D.? Why is it that they have known the cursing of God and the punishment of His justice? It is because of their ignorant unbelief.

Not only in the Old Testament time, not only in regard to the prophets but even in regard to their own Messiah. They were ignorant of the person of God. It is a wilful ignorance. They chose not to believe the truth. They chose to close their ears until God finally judicially did it for them.

It was unbelief, but it was willing unbelief. V 3, For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. They didn't know how righteous God was. They wouldn't accept what the Old Testament said about the holiness and the righteousness of God.

They wouldn't accept what the Messiah said about the holiness and righteousness of God. They thought God was more tolerant of sin than He really was. They thought God was more accepting of them than He really was. They thought they could be good enough for God's low standard and they didn't realize He had an infinitely high standard to which they could never come.

Because they didn't know how holy God was, they went about, to establish their own righteousness and would not submit to the righteousness of God. They pulled God down to their level. My friends, that's an error made by multiplied millions of people who do not understand how holy God is.

They do not understand how high His standard. They do not understand how absolute His law and one violation damn the soul forever. They don't understand that. They don't believe that. They don't even want to hear that. They want a God who can be brought down to their level.

Their theology was what we would call "auto-soteric."It was self-saving. They could save themselves by proper maintenance of certain ethical laws and standards, rituals, rules and so forth. They were a far cry from Ezra.

Ezra 9:15, O Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left as a remnant, as it is this day. Here we are before You, in our guilt, though no one can stand before You because of this!” So, it was ignorance of God's person.

They didn't know how holy He was. They didn't know how righteous He was. They damned themselves with such foolishness. 2. Ignorant of the provision of Christ. V4, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth."

The only one who could provide righteousness was Christ and they rejected Him.

Romans 9:31-33, but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. ³² Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written: Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Rock, who is the Messiah Christ, became for them a rock of offense. They didn't understand the provision of Christ. ✓ He offended them. ✓ He came and He condemned their self-righteousness as He does every man who thinks He can attain God.

✓ He condemned their works system as a way to earn salvation. ✓ He blasted away at their paraded holiness and called it unholiness. ✓ He shot down their self-righteousness and called it unrighteousness.

Matthew 5:20, For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Theirs was an utterly inadequate righteousness. Matthew ²³ it is the kind of righteousness that parades on the outside but inside is full of immorality, corruption, disease, and death. Because they had dropped the standard and didn't understand the person of God, they didn't realize they needed the Saviour because they had invented a righteous God whose righteous standard they could live to on their own. Why did they need a Saviour? Jesus had to come and lift the standard up and show them that

God was holier than they thought and more righteous than they thought so that they would realize that they could not attain His

standard and therefore they would look to a Saviour who could do for them what they could never do for themselves. Jesus came to provide a righteousness which they could never attain. That's the reason He came. But they were ignorant of that as well.

Matthew 9 When the Pharisees came and condemned Him for hanging around sinners.

Matthew 9:12-13, When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

They that are well need not a physician. He said, I came to sick people. I came to people who know they have a problem they can't solve. I came to the people who know they need Me. I did not come to call the righteous but those who know they are sinners.

He was saying was sarcastic. He was saying to them, "As long as you think you are righteous, I can't help you.

Until you know that you are sick and unrighteous and unholy, until you see God in His full holiness can you see you in your unholiness, You will not come to a saviour. They were ignorant then of the provision of Christ. They didn't understand that they needed a Saviour who could pay the penalty for sin.

Paul was a Pharisee, but he came to an understanding of the truth.

Philippians 3:9, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; Paul when he became a believer, he turned in his own low-level self-righteousness for the true righteousness. Which he could never earn, but which is mine his Christ. They missed it. You can't convince people they need the righteousness of Christ unless they know their own righteousness is inadequate. So, the message is always a message of sin, a message of judgment, a message of inadequacy before it's a message of hope and salvation.

No preacher can preach the gospel who doesn't preach the inadequacy of human righteousness. They missed it. They were ignorant of it. V 4, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness." Many people were seeking righteousness through the law. If you are going to be righteous, then keep the law.

It was the law for righteousness. You want to attain righteousness by keeping the law. Christ is the end of that. The word "end"here means termination, telos. It means the end, it's over. Paul is saying this, Christ terminates the quest for righteousness by law.

When you come to Jesus Christ, and you receive His righteousness by faith that ends the quest for righteousness by law. When Jesus came, He fulfilled the law He perfected the New Covenant and so it's the end of that Old.

He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

Christ is the termination of the law for righteousness only to people who believe. Once a person believes in Christ the quest for righteousness through works ends. Jesus is the end of the law in terms of being the one who lived it out in fulfilment. He is the end of the quest for righteousness by works to those that believe. Once you believe that quest is over.

You are no longer seeking righteousness through law which you have received as a gift through faith. When people come to believe in Christ, He ends the effort at self- salvation. There never was, there never will be righteousness by law, by works.

But in a lot of peoples'minds think that they are going to get into heaven by their good works. Christ’s gracious gift of faith and their impossible quest ends. Faith, they receive Him and given to them is the righteousness they never could attain on their own.

So, when a person sees Christ and the gift of His righteousness, the legal ritual religious quest is ended.

People who spend a lot of time in a system of ritual and external religion, trying to earn their way to God with their good deeds and their religious activities, when they come to Jesus Christ immediately feel the pull to get out of that stuff because there's a liberation from that quest. Christ is the end of that to everyone that believes.

If you have embraced Christ, that's over, that's ended.

2 Corinthians 5:21, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In Christ alone we become righteous.

Isaiah 45:24, He shall say, Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, And all shall be ashamed Who are incensed against Him. V 4, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness."

The word "law"here is general. It isn't necessarily talking about Mosaic law. Can you imagine being that person in Israel who has been burdened down with all the stuff the Pharisees piled on people?

Just piling it up and piling it up until the burden is unbearable. None who piled the burden on moves a finger to help you ease the burden. In the midst of all of that quest along comes Jesus Christ and you hear the gospel of grace, which says you can't make it that way, forget that whole thing, put your faith in Jesus Christ, believe in Him that He died for you and rose again, receive Him as your Saviour and instantaneously God will grant to you in Him the righteousness you could never get on your own.

What good news!

Galatians 5:1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

The quest is gone. We have been made free from trying to seek self-righteousness.

Colossians 2:14-15, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

All that was nailed to the cross of Christ and He died for us and gives us perfect righteousness.

Romans 3:20-22, Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. ²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; A different kind of righteousness.

Now Israel was ignorant! They didn't understand what Christ provided.

Romans 1:17, For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Great truth.

They were ignorant of God's person, They were ignorant of the provision of Christ.

3. Ignorant of the place of faith. V 4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Israel was ignorant of the place of faith. They were just ignorant of all the basics, like who God was, what Christ did, and how you get saved. The place of faith.

Faith was the issue.

Romans 9:32, Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

They were set on getting their way in by their own works. Faith, believing. Believers receive what workers never get. Not believing in Christ forfeits the righteousness of God. Faith signs the covenant and makes His righteousness our own.

To verify the place of faith, Paul goes back and quotes Moses. He doesn't want to be criticized for having some new doctrine, so he reaches back and uses Mosaic sources. Moses talks about law righteousness. Then he is going to show that Moses talks about faith righteousness.

V 5, For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” Moses talked about righteousness by law.

Leviticus 18:5, You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. That simple, direct statement pushed to its limit means this, if you are going to think you attain righteousness by doing these things then you are bound to live by them. That's the implication. If you say you are coming this way, the demand is for absolute perfection. Paul uses it to emphasize that thought, that to attain righteousness through keeping the law of God means you have got to live that way all the time. Which is Impossible.

It is absolutely impossible. That is what Moses said about law righteousness. If it were possible, which it isn't, you would have to keep the law all the time!

Those religious Jews were so confused in their mind and had lowered the standard so much that in Matthew 19 when Jesus confronted the rich young ruler and said you have to keep the law of God, the guy says, "All those things have I have done."

Unbelievable. They were so self- righteous. But it was impossible. Even Moses said, "The one who does those things as a way of righteousness has got to live by them” all his life without equivocation, without deviation, without one failure.

Deuteronomy 27:26, Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ” You don't do all of them all your life, you are cursed. Galatians 3;10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” If you have ever not done something you ought to do, or ever done something you should not done then you are cursed.

Galatians 3;11, But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Nobody can do that, it's evident. It's obvious. So, God says the just shall live by faith and the law is not of faith.

Here Paul quotes again Leviticus 18:5. Scripture is applied to the same idea. If you are going to go that way in absolute perfection with no deviation. The man who pursues salvation by law-keeping,

• Will stand or fall on that effort.
• It is impossible to stand.
• Falling means eternal cursing.

You put yourself under obligation to keep the law, you won't do it then you are cursed. For Jewish readers to learn that they are under a curse for not keeping the law would be very shocking. They thought lawless Gentiles were under such a curse; the truth was legalistic Jews were under the same curse.

For a religious Pharisee to think that they are under the same curse for the violation of the law, for it only takes one violation to forfeit any hope of self-saving through the law would be unimaginable.

Romans 4:15, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. All the law does is demonstrate your sinfulness and release the wrath of God against it.

It justifies nobody. It redeems nobody.

Leviticus 18:5 in verse 5, becomes an accuser. Because nobody can come that way, it's impossible.

The law shows no mercy. The law will not even overlook the smallest violation. It has no mercy in it. It condemns forever the one who violates it. So, Moses wrote that. But Moses also wrote about justification, righteousness of faith.

V 6-8, But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) ⁷ or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

Deuteronomy 30:10-12, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your

God with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

Moses is calling them to obedience, but it's not external, it's internal, in the heart, and soul. Paul assures us that the intent of this passage in Deuteronomy is a call to faith. It is a call to faith. He even calls it in

Romans 10:8 the word of faith. It is a call to a heart response.

It is the obedience of the heart that he is after, not just some external behaviour. A call to faith, a call to a true heart relationship to God in Deuteronomy, is based on the covenant of grace. Deuteronomy is not simply a call to legal externalism but a call to respond in faith to a covenant of grace.

Deuteronomy 7:7-9, The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other

people, for you were the least of all peoples; ⁸ but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of [c]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; Why was Israel God's people?

V 7, Because God set His love on you. V 8, Because He loved you. Pure grace. It's just sovereign grace. Because it is God's nature to be merciful. It is the covenant of grace here as much as a covenant in the New Testament is a covenant containing grace.

Nobody in the Old Testament was ever redeemed by keeping the law. They came and opened their heart to God and loved Him and out of that love came obedience. The love was drawn by a covenant of forgiving grace and mercy.

Deuteronomy 9:4-6, “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfil the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. Don't say this because you have been victorious. You didn't earn this. Israel don’t say that the reason God punished the Canaanites is because of their wickedness and the reason God brought you into the promise land is because of your righteousness.

Why did God do it? Because of His grace and mercy and His love. It's always a covenant of grace.

Deuteronomy 10:15, The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.

God wanted to do it, sovereign love, sovereign grace, nothing earned, nothing deserved.

Deuteronomy 14:2, or you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. No other reason is given.

God just chose you, sovereign love, sovereign grace.

Deuteronomy 15:15, You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. You were a slave, He redeemed you.

Why? Sovereign love, Sovereign grace.

Deuteronomy 15:16, And if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you,

Almost as if it's a picture of God's special love for His people.

Deuteronomy 29:9, Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. Be obedient to the words of this covenant.

What kind of covenant? It's a one-sided covenant! ✓ God determined to love you. ✓ God determined to call you. ✓ God determined to redeem you. ✓ God determined to make you His peculiar people, For no good of their own but all His mercy and grace.

Now respond to that by obedience. That's the whole point of Deuteronomy, respond in obedience because of God's saving grace.

Deuteronomy 33:26-29, “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to help you, And in His excellency on the clouds. ²⁷ The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, And will say, ‘Destroy!’ 28 Then Israel shall dwell in safety, The fountain of Jacob alone, In a land of

grain and new wine; His heavens shall also drop dew. ²⁹ Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, The shield of your help And the sword of your majesty! Your enemies shall submit to you, And you shall tread down their high places.”

Saved by the Lord. Not by your own righteousness. The framework of Deuteronomy is sovereign grace. When we study Deuteronomy 30:11-14, Paul specifically here kind of touches several of those verses in that passage. You know it's all based on the covenant of God's grace.

The Scripture speaking about the righteousness of faith says this, Paul just chooses to personify the righteousness of faith. V 7, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ “ V 7, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’

V 8, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” This is right out of Deuteronomy 30. Don't think that you must respond to God by ascending into heaven or by descending into the deep to collect the truth.

Don't think you have to go on some impossible journey. The righteousness of faith is available, and it is near you.

• It's in your mouth,
• it's in your heart,
• it's been revealed.
• It's in the covenant of grace.

You simply believe and receive it. The Jews were trying to do the impossible. They were trying to ascend to heaven. That's what a works system does! Save yourself, get up, crawl up to heaven on your own. Descend into the deep.

Those are two kinds of Jewish proverbs. In fact, to be high and afar off was a Jewish way of saying something is unattainable. Thou art high, it says of God, that art very high. It says of the wicked, God sees them afar off, that is there's no way to reach them.

To the Jew to be high in the heavens or deep in the depths, to ascend to heaven, to go down to hell was to do what was impossible. So, Paul reaches back to Deuteronomy 30 and says Moses says that the righteousness of faith is not available just for those who can do the impossible. It's available for anybody.

It's right there. Rather than say Moses said, or Scripture says, he says the righteousness of faith speaks like this: Don't think you have got to do the impossible, keep the law. Don't think you have got to scale your way to heaven by perfection, by some esoteric experience, by some philosophical speculation, by some legalistic effort you're going to vault yourself into heaven. You can't get the message that way.

And then Paul adds to the Deuteronomy passage these little parentheticals. V 6, "Don't say in your heart, ‘Who can ascend to heaven?’”

How can I attain it? Parenthesis, that is to bring Christ down." As if you had by your own effort to crawl up to heaven to accomplish the bringing down of the messenger. Don't think you got to go all the way to heaven as if to bring Christ down, He already came.

Righteousness by work is a flat out denial of the incarnation.

Hebrews 1:1-2, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

When you try to crawl up to heaven to gain your own righteousness and to crawl up into God's domain to gain the truth, you are denying the incarnation of the Son of God who brought it to this earth. V 7, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Who can go way down, the opposite of the heaven? From one end of the universe to the other, who can attain these truths? Paul uses the word abyss, the bottomless.

Who can go into the depths? Deuteronomy the word used there has to do with the sea. But it's the same idea. Deep down in the caverns of the earth that hold the waters, deep down in the pit, the abyss, hell, the bottomless place, whatever you want to call it, it's the same concept.

You don't need to go all the way into heaven to pull Christ down and you don't need to climb way down into the pit to find some truth.

Why? The resurrection.

He has been deep in the pit. He has been as deep as the pit gets. He's been in the bottomless place. We learn from the words of Paul and Peter He's been there, and He came out. Incarnation: The righteousness of faith says you don't have to go to heaven to bring Christ down.

Resurrection: You don't have to go to the depths of the earth to bring Him up. Righteousness by works system negates the work of Christ and that's what this whole point is saying. To seek to attain righteousness on your own is to deny both His incarnation and His resurrection.

The incarnation didn't bring us anything, there is no incarnation, there is no resurrection of Christ, there is no righteousness of faith. We have got to attain it by going to the heights and the depths. All they are doing is denying Jesus Christ.

But Moses says. V 8, But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): You don't have to go anywhere to find it.

✓ God doesn't mock the sinner. ✓ God doesn't laugh at the sinner. ✓ God doesn't scorn the lost soul by mocking him with an offering of salvation that is utterly unattainable and expecting him to go on an impossible quest.

What does it say? It's near you.

How nearby? It's in your mouth. The message of salvation is familiar discussion. It's in their mouth. God has made the word of incarnation and the word of resurrection a familiar word. V 8, "It's the word of faith." The truth about salvation by faith, salvation by believing, not attaining.

"Which we preach,” which we herald, which we announce, which we proclaim publicly. The gospel is not an impossible dream, it's not an impossible attainment. It's right there.

It's available to everyone with the hearing of faith, with the hearing of faith. God has had His preachers and they have heard from the hearing of faith.