[0:00] It's exciting to be gathered together. Take your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Romans. Turn with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 10. This morning, we're going to be in Romans 10, verses 14 through 21.
[0:14] I just want to get us to the end of the chapter, but honestly, I want you to back up one more verse. We're going to be in verse 13. We'll start in verse 13 just so that we can understand it in context. But we have been making our way through this great book, one of the most instrumental books throughout church history when it comes to the genuineness of salvation and a right and proper understanding of salvation, and namely, how we are saved.
[0:40] We understand from the Gospels, we get a clear teaching of the life of Christ lived out when God manifested Himself, became flesh, and dwelt among us, whose name is Emmanuel.
[0:51] We saw His actions, how He would behave, how He would live, how He would act. We saw the great sacrifice of the cross. We saw the glory of the resurrection. And then we get into the book of Acts, and we understand through the book of Acts the early activity of the church, really the birthing of the church and what the church looked like in the world that it existed in in that day and time and what it should still look like today.
[1:13] And we make our way through the letters of Paul and the writings of that, and then we get to the writings of the early church fathers as we get towards the close of our New Testament, and we get to the eschatology, the end times study of the book of Revelation.
[1:26] But as far as grounding the church in a proper understanding of salvation, of accepting the work of God as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what that looks like to be accepted into our lives, displayed in our lives, none compares to the book of Romans.
[1:45] Romans has really changed the course of church history more than once. It has been a book of great blessing, not only to a number throughout history, but really to myself and my own personal walk with Christ.
[1:59] So if you are physically able and desire to do so this morning, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God found in Romans chapter 10, starting in verse 13 and reading to the end of the chapter, which gets us to verse 21.
[2:15] Paul writes to the church at Rome, For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed?
[2:25] And how will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent just as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things.
[2:38] However, they do not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, Lord who has believed our reports. So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. But I say, Surely they have never heard, have they?
[2:50] Indeed they have. Their voice has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I say, Surely Israel did not know, did they? First, Moses says, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation.
[3:04] By a nation without understanding will I anger you. And Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. But as for Israel, he says, All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.
[3:23] Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you so much for this day. God, we rejoice in the opportunity we have to be gathered together. Lord, to fellowship, to shake one another's hands, to hug their necks.
[3:35] Lord, just to enjoy one another's presence, to sing your praise, to worship you in song and testimony. God, now as we come to an opportunity to hear from you, we pray that your word would speak to our hearts.
[3:48] We pray that it would penetrate every distraction. Lord, every hindrance. Lord, every care that we brought into this place with us. Lord, that it would be laid aside so that we could say, Here we are, oh Lord, speak to us.
[3:59] Lord, we desire to know you. Lord, we desire to be transformed and changed by meeting with you through your word. Lord, we ask that you would accomplish it by the power and presence of your spirit.
[4:09] We ask it all in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. We have been going through this great book and we have been looking at justification by faith and faith alone.
[4:21] Paul has made a great argument from the book of Romans that man is not saved by what he does because really man can do nothing worthy of salvation. Man is not redeemed by becoming good or becoming better or getting his act together because at the core of his being, man cannot get his act together.
[4:39] We have seen that all of our righteousness is like filthy rags. It will never earn us a right into glory. It will never earn us a right to be into the presence of a holy God. But in spite of all of these things, God has extended an opportunity for us to be redeemed, to be born again.
[4:57] He has extended it through the work which he accomplished and he alone in the sacrifice of his son on our behalf. We are told throughout the book of Romans that if we would accept that sacrifice of God, if we would call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be redeemed, we will be saved, we will be set free.
[5:16] And then he tells us in Romans chapter 8 that the moment we do that, we become eternally secure. We call it the security of the saints. The fact that once we have put our lives in the hand of God, there is nothing which can take us out of the hand of God.
[5:31] That God will keep us. He will hold us. He will secure us by his presence. Since our salvation is earned by him, it will also be maintained by him. Which, by the way, is great news.
[5:43] Because even after coming to him by faith, inevitably we will stumble, we will fall, and we will sin. Because by nature, we have that problem. But since we did not earn it, we are not charged with keeping it.
[5:57] Though we should walk differently because of it, it is really the proper view to know that God has us in the palm of his hand. But the question would arise from the intended audience of Paul, well, what about the Jewish people?
[6:13] Didn't God call them his own nation? Didn't God call them his own people? And yet many of them have rejected this man Jesus. Many of them want nothing to do with him. And it seems as if God has messed up with the first ones he called.
[6:25] Why should I trust him with my life today? So Paul changes illustrations, as we have said, in Romans 9, 10, and 11. And he begins to use the nation of Israel as an illustration to God's purposes and God's plans.
[6:39] And we have seen that God did not make a mistake, God did not mess up, that all of those which God called to himself came. That salvation is a direct result of the call of God, not to a group of people, but to the individual person.
[6:54] And no one comes to the Father, Jesus says, unless he be drawn by the Father and he come through Jesus Christ. That is, that it starts and it ends with God the Father himself drawing or wooing or leading that individual to him.
[7:07] And we have been supported by this reality of the supremacy of God in our salvation, that God is the supreme being, the sovereignty of God in our salvation, that God is in control of all things, even when it looks like it's not and when it's out of control.
[7:25] And now we come to this great teaching in Romans 10, verses 1 through 13, which tells us the reality that the invitation is there for all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[7:35] It says, for all who call on him shall be saved. And Paul is using Old Testament quotations to show us New Testament realities. And we come to a passage of Scripture, Romans 10, 14 through 21, which seems to kind of be out of place and it seems to kind of be out of source.
[7:54] But I want you to see this morning one of the great arguments that even we wrestle with today. Because the argument would run something like this. If I'm reading this letter and Paul being led by the Spirit of God to write the Word of God answers every argument which should not surprise us before it is even asked.
[8:14] Because Jesus always knew what the real question was anytime someone came to him. He knew the woman at the well wasn't really looking for water. She was looking for life. He knew Nicodemus wasn't looking for this great teaching.
[8:28] He was looking for life. He knew the rich young ruler. He knew his failures. Jesus always knew the heart of the issue. And Paul, being moved by that same Spirit, understands that argument as well.
[8:40] Paul, when writing this, knows that the argument is going to run something to this point. Well, that's great. If all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, the problem I have with that is there are many who will never call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ simply because they don't know the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[8:58] So then, if they've never heard about Jesus and they can't call on Jesus, then it's not their fault. It's God's fault. And God is to be blamed because they're not saved.
[9:10] That's the argument. This morning, I want you to see with me through this set of scriptures, dispelling the argument of ignorance. Dispelling the argument of ignorance.
[9:25] In our time, it runs something like this. Is God fair? I don't like the word fair because fair is always up to our own discernment and our own judgment. And how can he who is not holy, that be me, really determine what is fair or what is just or what is right?
[9:39] So we could say, is God just or is God fair or is it even right that God would condemn some people to a Christless eternity if they were never given the opportunity to hear?
[9:53] Right? There are people on the other side of the world. The North American Mission Board right now can tell you how many people groups have never heard of the name of Jesus Christ. There are a number of people groups and by people groups, I mean distinct languages, people who live isolated from the gospel who have never read a single word of God.
[10:13] And the question is, if God is so loving and if God is so kind, then how could a good, holy God condemn people who have never even had the opportunity that are ignorant of the truth?
[10:25] How could he ever condemn them to a Christless eternity? And we love that argument quite honestly because it gives us the opportunity to put the blame on God.
[10:38] We say it's God's fault not their fault. We may not say it that way but that is really what we're intending. That if they would have heard, if they could have seen the gospel, if they could have read the gospel, if they could have understood the gospel, then they would have been saved.
[10:59] And really, we're putting the blame and the fault on God not on the fault of man. Well, two things there. Number one, Paul is going to blow that argument out to water with the Jewish nation in just a minute.
[11:12] We'll see it. And secondly, we are really misunderstanding the wickedness of man.
[11:24] We are arguing from the point that all men are good and they just need the opportunity to be better. When the gospel tells us all men are desperately wicked and they cannot be better.
[11:39] And I want you to see this spelling the argument of ignorance. We start where Paul starts and we start with a recognition of the great need of man.
[11:50] We must start the same place he does and that is a recognition of man's great need. Because verse 13 tells us whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now that's an Old Testament quotation with a New Testament promise and it simply says this that if you call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or if you call on the name of Yahweh he will not fail you.
[12:11] My friend, I don't care where you've been. I don't care what you've done. I don't care how far you've wondered. I don't care how much you've denied him. I don't care how desperately wicked you think you are. The Bible tells us that if you call on the name of the Lord you will be saved.
[12:26] That means he will not fail you. He will not forsake you. It is not like well anybody else can call on him but me. I mean that person over there he can probably call on him but you don't know me preacher. You don't know what I've done.
[12:37] You don't know how far I've been. No but I know the Bible tells me that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Which means he is a God who is able to take you and all of your problems with you.
[12:49] He is a God who is able to take you and all of your shortcomings with you. He is a God who is able in spite of you and in spite of me to save us and redeem us when all we do is call upon him.
[13:00] Which means we say Lord I need your help. Lord I cannot do it on my own. God I am in a desperate need of you. And he says okay I am right here let's go and he takes it from there. He is just waiting for the call.
[13:12] Which leads us to verse 14 where we see a recognition of man's great need because Paul writes how then will they call on him whom they have not believed. This is the beginning of the argument right?
[13:23] How can they call on whom they have not believed? Because you will never call on the name of the Lord if you do not believe in the Lord. You will never ever call on the help that is there.
[13:42] This is a reality. This makes sense to us. But he goes on and how will they believe in whom they have not heard and how will they hear without a preacher? The argument is pretty clear, right? You cannot call on who you do not believe and you will not believe on what you do not know and you cannot know unless someone tells you about the one you do not know.
[14:00] That makes a lot of sense, right? This shows us that the great need of man is not for us to come along beside them and meet physical needs. If we believe that the Bible is true that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved and if we believe that there is no other way into eternity there is no other way into the presence of God set through Jesus Christ then we have to admit that the great need of man is not for us to meet an immediate physical need but rather to ensure that they hear the spiritual truth we have to admit that the great need of man is not for us to give them bread and water and clothing and all these other things which we should be doing but the great need of man is that we do those things so that we can tell them about the one they do not so you know that is not just the preacher responsibility okay preaching throughout scripture is done by a number of individuals pastoring that is the shepherding the under shepherding of a local body is only done by a few amount of people in the gospels or even in the
[15:12] New Testament so we understand this it is the believer's responsibility to preach and it is the pastor or the elder responsibility to shepherd okay Ephesians 4 says that it is my responsibility to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry that's exactly what it says I love Ephesians 4 and I try to base my ministry upon the Ephesians 4 principle that God gave the elders or the pastors the responsibility to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry and the greatest work of the ministry is to minister to the Jesus we recognize that and Paul recognizes that because we know that he is available to whoever will call upon him but we also know that they will not call upon him unless they believe in him they will not believe in him unless they hear about him and cannot hear about them unless someone tell them about him and how will they preach unless they are sent by the way here comes the to be sent out for a purpose to be sent out for a plan now we understand these truths and these truths reveal to us the great need of man but if we want to read them from the
[16:35] Jewish perspective in which Paul is writing here that is the arguments perspective is Paul you've told us that God is keeping those who believe in him Paul you've told us that whoever will call upon him shall be saved but Paul the problem is we're just speaking about the Jews let's keep it in context Paul the problem is is there are a lot of Jews who have never heard the gospel Paul they've never heard in this Jesus Christ so the fault does not lie with them the fault lies with God and Paul says wait a minute because if we want to have a man that has been displayed because we would love to say that all we have to do is to tell the truth proclaim the gospel to share Jesus Christ around the world by the way it would probably amaze us if we would stop and do a little bit of study in history and we would understand that a number of the nations now that are so adamantly opposed to the gospel at one time or another in history has had the gospel openly proclaimed to them sure there are some people groups around the world which have never heard the gospel but if you want to get to the root cause of it those people groups are all located within continents and countries that have been saturated by the gospel many of those people groups are found within the
[18:11] Amazon jungles many of those are found within isolated regions but if you were to step outside of those jungles and you would see the church that has affected the regions around that now my friend let me ask you where the blame lies where does the blame lie in the people of Wartress who have never heard the gospel can we point our finger at God and say God you haven't sent forth God you haven't done it has given us this responsibility but before we really get into it any further let's look at this second thing the rejection of man displayed because the argument is Paul we believe what you're saying Paul we understand that if people would just hear the gospel if people would just hear the good news if they could just believe in Jesus Christ surely they would call upon him and surely they would be saved, right? This is what we convince ourselves that if we could tell them the truth, if we could convince them of the truth, surely they will be saved. Paul says, wait a minute. Look at what he says. Verse 16. Now, I love this, by the way, because Paul uses quotations throughout the Old
[19:30] Testament from throughout the Old Testament. He uses quotations from Isaiah. He uses quotations from Moses. He uses quotations from history to show that what God did in the past, he is still doing today. But look at what it says in verse 16. However, they did not all heed the good news. Good news means gospel. However, they did not all heed the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? What is he saying? Even Isaiah in his words stood before a holy God and says, God, I've told them the truth. I've told them the good news. I've told them what you wanted me to tell them, but God, they just won't believe. Paul carries it a little bit further. What does he say? He says, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ, which means we understand that we are not just to tell them anything. We're about to tell them about Jesus Christ. Verse 18 says, but I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Here's the argument. The reason man doesn't believe, the reason man is not saved is because they have not heard. But look at what Paul says.
[20:33] Indeed, they have. He says that argument has no ground with me because they have heard. Look at the quotation. Now, I love this quotation because this quotation comes from the book of Psalms.
[20:45] You need to look this up in your cross-reference sometime. I don't have time to take you there this morning, but what a magnificent cross-reference it is. Understanding that anytime a New Testament author used an Old Testament quotation, he was always using that quotation in the context of the entire passage. So when he is writing this one verse out of this psalm, he is actually implying the whole psalm. And look at what he says. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed, they have. Their voice has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.
[21:16] The reason I love this is because to put it in context, the psalmist here is declaring the glory of the heavens. He is speaking of the stars. And he says, the psalmist here writes, that the stars in the heaven are shouting to the reality of a creator. The stars in the heaven, which are scattered from one end of the world to the other end of the world, the stars from the heaven that anyone in any place in all the earth can look up to and see, are proclaiming to all of the world, there is a creator, there is a sustainer, there is a magnificent being. That is the testimony that God spread across the sky.
[21:52] It is a testimony that God spread across all humanity. And the psalmist is saying, you can't tell me man hasn't heard because all man has to do is listen to creation sing. All man has to do is listen to the glories of it. I may do it tonight. I don't know if I've ever done it with you. And I know I just totally jumped courses on you, but there is a magnificent clip I may show you tonight called the stars singing, the stars in wells, where Louis Giglio takes the stars in wells.
[22:20] And he magnifies the sound of the stars as they pulsate throughout heaven. And he magnifies the sounds of the wells as they proclaim in the seas. And he overlaps them. And you get to listen to creation sing. And all he does is take what it is already doing and opens your ears to hear it by putting it to a microphone. And you look at yourself and you go, oh, wow. Because really, Chris Tomlin led singing at Louis Giglio's church for a little while. I don't know if you knew that.
[22:47] It's pretty cool. It's down in Atlanta. But anyway, he did that. And then he overlapped Chris Tomlin's How Great Is Our God on top of it. And it matches perfectly. See, Chris Tomlin didn't come up with that chorus. Creation does. You know why I love music so much? You know why I love the rhythm of music so much? You know why I love the beat? I mean, I'm a very white individual and I got no rhythm. And I wish I did.
[23:10] Man, I wish I could move. And I wish I could dance. And in my soul, I got it. It's there. I know it's there. In my soul, I mean, I want to pull the handkerchief out and, you know, throw it over. I mean, I know it is there. But the reason I love it is because if you stop and pay attention, all of creation works in perfect harmony. Everything works in rhythm. Stand outside and listen to the birds of the air. Listen to the waves of the sea as they crash against the shore. Listen to the way that nature sings. Listen to everything in creation. And the psalm says, you can't tell me man has not heard the good news because God has proclaimed his voice through all of creation. And Paul says, they have not heard, have they? Indeed, they have. Friend, the blame does not lie with God.
[24:00] But now let's put it back in context. Paul's speaking of the Jewish people. If there is one people on the face of the earth that have heard the truth of the gospel as an entire nation, it is the Jewish people. God started with the very founder of the Jewish people, Abram. He called Abram from the land of the Ur of the Chaldeans. He called Abram out of idolatrous worship to follow the one true God. He was patient with Abram until he could make him Abraham. And then he met Abraham on the mount of the Lord. And then he met Abraham as he offered up his son Isaac. And then he keeps going on. And one generation after the next generation, after the next generation, after the next generation. And then there's this story of God's deliverance to the people of Exodus.
[24:49] And there's this meeting at Mount Sinai where they all heard, the whole nation, some two million of them heard God proclaim his voice. They all shook with fear. And he said, write it on your foreheads, write it on your hands, tell your children what you have seen. You have the Passover celebration, which by the way, they still do today. Paul says, if there's one people in all of the world that have heard the gospel more than anyone else, it's the Jewish people. And he says, but wait, they rejected him. They rejected him. His salvation depends on man hearing. If all we have to do is tell them the truth. If all we have to do is make sure they know the truth, then surely they'll be saved.
[25:37] Paul says, that argument doesn't fly. Because God being a good God has given us a case study throughout history of an entire nation of individuals who knew the truth and rejected it. Because friend, hear me out. Salvation does not depend on man knowing the truth.
[26:01] Now I know that sounds bold. And I know that sounds completely opposite of everything we've been taught. Salvation is not dependent upon knowledge. It's not. There are a lot of biblical archaeologists.
[26:20] There are a lot of biblical professors who want to teach from the Bible, who want to dig in the earth to find the things the Bible talks about, who do not believe in Jesus Christ. They believe the Bible enough, even the New Testament enough, to invest millions of dollars to stick a shovel in the ground, to give their lives to searching after its artifacts, that they do not believe. They're convinced intellectually of it. It has never changed their heart. Because salvation is not dependent on knowledge. Because the moment we make salvation depend upon knowledge, we're saying, all I have to do is I have to know the truth and I have to believe the truth. And the problem with that is that I keeps getting in the way. We are not saved by works, lest any man shall boast. And friend, listen, listen, even the acquisition of knowledge is a work. And if I come to the truth by my own understanding, even if somebody told it to me, now is the truth necessary? Yes, it has to be proclaimed.
[27:34] That is the great need of man. The great need of man is to hear the truth. But the great problem of man is even though we hear the truth, we reject the truth. That's the problem. But let's get to the third and the final thing, the good news, the realization of God's presence.
[27:55] The realization of God's presence. Look at what it says. Verse 19 says, But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First, Moses says, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation. By a nation without understanding, will I anger you? What is it saying?
[28:11] God says, right after he took them out of the promised land, had them wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years. Before he took them out of Egypt, wandered around right here for 40 years. God was sanctifying them, preparing them to go into the promised land. Before they went to the promised land, God told them, you're going to deny me, you're going to reject me, but I'm going to continue to reach out to you by calling a people that do not know me to me. So what's God saying? God's saying, I'm going to tell you before it happens. This is how it's going to happen. Now that should be significant for the Jewish people today. Because today they think that they're God's chosen people, but yet the Gentiles continue, that is us, continue to claim God is their God. But God said, this is exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to make you jealous. By the way, the Bible says the Lord, our God is a jealous God. Jealousy is not always bad. That jealous is a longing for and a desiring for. God says, I'm going to call somebody to me who has never even looked for me. I'm going to call them to myself so that you will have a longing for me. You understand this. God is using us. I know it sounds kind of bad, but I'm okay with that, right? God is using what he's doing among the Gentiles to create a desire in the Jewish. We'll get to that in Romans 11. God is doing a magnificent work around the world to create a jealous longing among these Jewish people. He says, I'm not done. He says,
[29:32] I'm going to call you to myself. And Isaiah is very bold. It says in verse 20, and Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me.
[29:43] There he goes again. The same thing we've seen is that the Gentiles, not seeking the righteousness of God, found the righteousness of God because they believed in the son of God, that is Jesus Christ. And to the Jewish people, this is just obscene. It doesn't make sense. God told them all the way back in the book of Isaiah of 500 and something BC, that this is what's exactly going to happen.
[30:05] God's telling, he's faithful. And I look at what it says in verse 21, but as for Israel, he says, all the day long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. What is he saying? I continue to be there. Now, friend, I just want you to hear me. We're dispelling the argument of ignorance because the argument of ignorance says this. It's not man's fault. They're not saved because if man could just hear the truth, they would believe in the truth and in believing in the truth, they would find salvation in Jesus Christ. Paul says, that's not the case because I can show you throughout history. It didn't happen that way. The Jewish people knew the truth. They heard the truth. They saw the truth, yet they rejected the truth. But the glory of it all is that God's not through. God continues to reach his hand out. God continues to extend his hand and offer the invitation. And he says, whoever will believe in me shall be saved. If we want to bring it to our own application and see our own truth, I want you to understand this. And I'm closing.
[31:11] How you see your salvation will always, always dictate how you live out your days. How you understand your redemption, how you understand the fact that Christ has saved you, redeemed you, freely forgiven you will always dictate how you live out the remainder of your life. If you see your salvation as you found your way to a place where you heard the truth and you understood the truth and you acknowledged the truth and you believed in the truth, then you see it as something you did.
[31:49] Or, if you see your salvation as, even though time after time after time I rejected the truth because that's the great problem of man, God wouldn't leave me alone. He continued to reach out his hand to me. He continued to extend his arm to me. He continued to draw me to himself. He says, you may be denying it. You may be rejecting it. You may have walked the face of this earth and never really heard the fact that I love you, but I long for you. I want you. I desire you. And I continue to reach out my hands. See, the problem is our focus. Either we see salvation as a work which we have done or we see salvation as the glory which he has accomplished. And the great amazing thing of the gospel is not this. Many of us argue and say, well, God is unfair because he will not make sure that everybody else hears the truth and can believe in the truth. We see the unfairness of God in that some never have the opportunity to hear and therefore never have the opportunity to be eternally saved. Now, just to kind of throw that out to the window, I'll tell you one great story and then I'll move on. Okay? Because God's still extending his hand. I remember at Southern Baptist
[33:07] Convention, Carrie and I and the kids were listening to this gentleman who is a missionary in one of the countries that is close to the gospel. And I told you this, they're traveling around and he had had this meeting with this pastor in one of the towns. It's a very predominantly Islamic country. So he had this meeting and he was getting ready to go back home. Well, it started raining and he didn't have a coat.
[33:29] So the gentleman he had a meeting with said, here, take my coat. Happened to be a white coat because he's riding a motorcycle. He said, take my coat so you at least have covering and you can get home. Well, he was on his way home and the rain was just so torrential at that time, he stopped under a bridge, under an underpass to wait. And as he was sitting there waiting for the rain to pass, there was a house up on the hill. And this gentleman from this house up on the hill came outside and said, hey, why don't you come in? And he said, okay. So he came in, he went into the house and the gentleman had this meal prepared for him and he got to talking to him. And it was a very Islamic family.
[34:03] And the man who asked him to come in said, I want to hear what you have to tell me. Now all of a sudden he's faced with something because here he is, he is a Christian missionary proclaiming the gospel setting in an Islamic home where he's not supposed to be proclaiming the gospel. And the man says, I want to hear what you have to tell me.
[34:19] And he says, what do you mean? He said, for three nights, I've had a dream that there would be a man in a white coat outside my door. And in three nights, I had that dream. God told me in that dream to invite that man in to sit at my table, eat a meal and listen to what he had to say.
[34:34] Now the only reason that man had a white coat on is because it started raining and a friend gave him the white coat so he could ride the motorcycle. And he had to stop because it was raining so hard in front of that man's house. He says, so tell me what you want to tell me. So he proclaimed the gospel to him and everybody in the household believed that gospel. And when he proclaimed the gospel, he, he laid out the cost. Now, if you accept this, you're going to find rejection. You know, your, your fellow countrymen are going to hate you. You could, you could die for this. He said, right. But for three nights, God told me that you would be here and you're here. So I'm going to listen to you.
[35:03] So don't tell me that God's not still sending people. Don't tell me God's not still reaching out to people. God has ways of doing that. Right. But again, who put that person in place? Salvation is not a matter of a decision of man. It is not unfair. God who's letting all these people go to a crisis eternity. It's not that it is this. Wow. What a God that would let any one of us go to eternity.
[35:32] It is not how unfair is God that so many people would go to a crisis eternity. Rather, it should be how magnificent is God that he would let any of us come into eternity with him.
[35:48] It blows my mind that he would let anyone. Because when I look in the mirror at myself, I don't deserve it. And when I look across the landscape of humanity, no one deserves it.
[36:02] And God is absolutely just if none of us go to an eternity with him. But how amazing that he would care enough to reach out his hand to someone like me who is disobedient, obstinate, always denying his presence, and reach out his hand to the point that I could spend eternity with him. You see the difference. Rather than it being a decision I made. It was a way God prepared. And if he has called me to himself, and if that's what my salvation really is, and if that's what your salvation really is, how then shall we live the rest of our days on this earth? What else should we do? We give him all. Let's pray.
[36:56] God, I thank you so much. I thank you for all you've done. And God, I know with so many of us, there are so many questions, and there's not enough time to give all the answers. Lord, I pray that one thing would ring true. It is that you love us. You extend your hand to each and every one of us. And you say, whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord, may you lead us to call upon you in a greater way. May you lead us to be obedient to proclaiming that truth to all around us. Lord, we realize and we admit that our complete dependency is upon you and you alone. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen.
[37:51] Amen. Amen.
[38:22] Amen.
[38:52] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.