Turn with me to Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10, verse 1, the apostle Paul writes, My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved." And he meant that. His heart's
desire and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved.
And by God's grace, I say, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for America, specifically for Kingsport, specifically for
this church, specifically for my home, is that they might be
saved. My heart's prayer is that God
will save us all. Now in this, let's think about
a couple things. Do I believe that all of mankind
is totally depraved and vile and wicked. And not one person is worthy.
My prayer is that God might save us. Do I believe that not one
person is worthy of God's salvation? No one deserves God's salvation. Yes, I do. That's what I believe. Do I believe that all men and
women are spiritually dead? And if God leaves them alone, there's
no possible way that they can ever see eternal life. Yes, I
do. I believe that. According to
the word, because of the word of God, that's what I believe.
Do I believe that God chose some of those vile sinners in spite of what they are, to
have mercy on them, but he didn't choose every sinner in the world. Do I believe that God has an
elect people? Yes, I do. Based on the word
of God, that's what I believe. Do I believe that when Christ
died on the cross, he shed his blood only for the chosen ones? that were elected to eternal
life. Do I believe that Christ didn't die for everybody? Yes,
I do. Based on the Word of God, that's
what I believe. Do I believe that every sinner that Christ
died for, God the Holy Spirit will call
that sinner out? And in spite of that sinner's
rebellion, That call is so irresistible, every single one of them will
be made willing. No convincing needs to be made
by any man. No decision needs to be made. God's Holy Spirit will do the
work. Yes, I do. Based on the Word
of God, that's what I believe. Do I believe that there is no
chance Not one possibility that a soul that Christ died for will
not make it to glory. Do I believe that they will all
persevere and not one of them will be lost, but the son of
perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled? Yes, I do.
Based on the word of God, that's what I believe. I believe that
man is totally depraved, unworthy. But God elected some in spite
of them. It was unconditional. And Christ
only died for the ones that His Father chose. And God's Holy
Spirit will do the work, and they shall be made willing. And
every single one of them, every single one that God chose from
the foundation of the world will make it to glory. All right,
then why worry about it? Why take this so seriously? I think these are valid questions.
Why be so burdened for men's souls? You just prayed for our
children and so have I. Why? Why pray for your children? Why pray for anybody? Think about it. Do you believe
that nobody's worthy, but God elected some, and Christ died
for them, and the Spirit will call them, and they're going
to make it? Do you believe that? Yes. Why pray for them? Why preach the gospel? Why spend so much money in the
mission fields sending the gospel to places it's never been? I
can think of two churches. It's on their bulletin board
just like ours. They got a financial report on their bulletin board.
I've done the math. Between two churches, I know
we send $2,400 a month just between two of the grace churches to
missions. That's $30,000 a year. Why? Here's the reason why. Our God
told us to. He told us to. Our God has ordained
means to carry out His purpose. Our God ordained a purpose and
He ordained means to carry out His purpose. Go with me over
to Mark 16. Mark 16 verse 15 says, And he said unto them, 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. He said
it pleased him by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe, didn't He is purposed to carry out his purpose through
means. That's what God chose to do.
Alright, now go with me over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Verse 13 says, But we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit. Sanctification is setting
apart for holy use. Through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of a lie. Is that what it says? No. Is that how God saves man? Through hearing and believing
a lie. Does he preach the Word of God?
Is it consistent with the Word of God? No. Alright, verse 14 right here
says, Where unto he called you by another gospel? No. Nope. He called you by our gospel.
That's not saying Gabe Stoniker's, although it is Gabe Stoniker's.
That's saying the gospel that God's Holy Spirit gave to Paul,
and Peter, and John, and James, and Mark, and Matthew, and Luke,
and that God told them, this is the Word of God, Peter, and
I'm changing your name to a rock, because whatever you say and
write is going to be firm in heaven forever. This is God's
word, our gospel. To the attaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by error that contradicts the word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Do we understand what that means?
As if that's not clear enough. Do we understand what that means?
It means men and women are not saved under false doctrine. That's what it means. Well, that's
your opinion. No, it's not. It's the Word of
God. It is vital that men and women
hear the Word of God. Why? God said so. That's enough
reason for me. That's why Paul wrote what he
did to Timothy. Right here, look at 2 Timothy
chapter 2. 2nd Timothy 2 verse 1 says, Thou
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. And the things that thou hast
heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 10.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory. Preach the word. That's what
he told him in chapter 4 verse 2. Timothy, preach the word. Only the word. It's the only
thing that God uses to save men and women. Go with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 19 says,
To know that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Listen to this quote right here.
I wrote this quote down. And this is good because it's
true. It's written in an old style
of writing. It's a little hard to comprehend.
Okay, so let's see if the Lord will make it clear to us. A belief
in sovereign grace. Oh yeah, I believe in sovereign
grace. Yeah, we're sovereign gracers. Okay. A belief in sovereign grace.
that destroys prayer for sinners. Evangelistic and missionary zeal,
a belief in sovereign grace that destroys missionary zeal. And
a sincere invitation, and I love the use of that word right there, a belief in sovereign grace that
destroys prayer for sinners, evangelistic and missionary zeal,
and a sincere invitation to all men to bow to the claims of Christ
and receive Him as Lord and Savior. He didn't say accept, receive.
We looked at that one time. You can receive something whether
you want it or not. I can be in the back alley at
the wrong place at the wrong time and receive quite a beating. And I didn't ask for it. Receive him as Lord and Savior.
All right, now here's the end of it. A belief in sovereign
grace that destroys prayer for sinners, evangelistic and missionary
zeal and a sincere invitation to all men to bow to the claims
of Christ and receive him as Lord and Savior is not of the
Lord and is false doctrine. So what he's saying is it doesn't
matter if they say we believe in sovereign grace. Well, then
what does all that mean? Does it mean God is not sovereign? All things are not ordered and
sure from the foundation of the world. Is that what that means?
No. It means our God has ordained
his own means to carry out his own purpose. And we don't know
the mind of God. We don't know who his elect are
and who are not. And if we think we do and we
start rooting out those that are not, he said, you're going
to start pulling out wheat, leave the tears alone. You're going
to think a weed is a tear. He's not going to act like a
believer. And you're probably going to
think a tear is a weed. We don't know the mind of God.
We don't know who the elect are and who they are not. So we run
with the gospel. To all the world. And we fervently
pray for every sinner that God causes to cross our minds. And
we do that with a sincere heart, acknowledging that it's all in
his hands. All right, now go back with me to Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10 verse 1 says,
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. Israel, the Jews, they hated
Paul. They didn't believe his gospel.
The message of the cross, that's what he preached, the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ, fulfilling all that God requires.
Paul went around telling everybody, I've determined to know nothing
among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They didn't believe
that. But do you know what the Lord God gave Paul right there? He gave him a heart to remember
their frame. That's what he gave him. He gave
him a heart to remember that they're in bondage to sin. They're
rejecting it but they're in bondage to sin. He gave him a heart to
remember that they cannot believe unless God opens their eyes.
You know, you show this to people and think, why can't you see
it? We see it, don't we? They cannot see it. Why don't
you believe it? They cannot believe it unless
God opens their eyes. He gave Paul a heart to remember
that the only means God has ordained to open blind eyes is the preaching
of the truth. May we never lose that concern
for men's souls, that deep utter until the last day. That thief
on the cross, he didn't bow the knee and receive his Lord and
Savior until seconds before God closed his eyes and took him
to glory. Abraham was 75 years old when God turned him from
worshiping his idols to the true and living God. May we never
stop praying for men's souls, the souls of our loved ones,
our family. We think it's too late. It's
not. It's not. May we never stop telling
them the truth. May we never stop preaching the
gospel to them. There is only one. There's only
one, and it's the Word of God. We all must hear and believe
the Word of God. Romans 10 verse 1 says, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. The people that
he's praying for, they were not atheists. You know, an atheist
is somebody who doesn't believe in God at all, doesn't bow to
God at all. These people were not in their
own minds, we know what man is by nature, but they were not
in their own minds haters of God. Ask them, you know, do you
hate God? No. They were religious. These were religious people.
Verse two says, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God.
They have a zeal for his law. They're trying to obey his law.
They're trying to do right. They're trying to obey God. Verse 2 says, I bear them record
that they have a zeal but not according to knowledge. That
means not according to the truth. The truth is knowledge. They
don't truly know who God the Father is. They don't truly know
who God the Son is. They don't understand that the
purpose of the law And for our own comfort in just a minute,
remember this right now for the next hour. Okay. The purpose of the law, the only
purpose of the law is to show us our sin and point us to Christ. The only one who can fulfill
it. Verse one says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God." There it is, right there.
And as you see that and enter into what it is, isn't that glorious?
Here's what that's basically saying. They have no idea that
right over here is a mountain of gold bricks. And they're searching
through the couches trying to find a couple of pennies. Go with me over to Philippians
3. Philippians 3 verse 4, Paul says,
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. That means if anybody thinks they're a good person,
who is a Christian, and who has lived right and obeyed God, he
said nobody can say that more than me. Verse 5, Circumcised
the eighth day. That was to them like baptism
is to us. I was sprinkled on the eighth
day. I was baptized at eight years old. of the stock of Israel. I could say, I'm a preacher,
my dad is a preacher, my father-in-law is a preacher, my grandfather-in-law
is a preacher. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the
Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal. I persecuted the church. touching
the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. I didn't
do this. I didn't do that. But what things
were gained to me? Those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I've lost my religion. I lost
my pride, I lost all my ceremony, I lost all my works, I've lost
it all. And do count them but dumb that
I may win Christ. It's not about all that stuff
anymore. Verse 9 says, And be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. That means that faith comes from
Him. and is unto Him. It's His faith given to us. The
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Now go back with me to Romans
chapter 10. Verse 3 says, For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness. Who is God? Who is God? Jesus Christ. They being ignorant of what God
truly requires to enter into his kingdom. He requires the
righteousness of Jesus Christ to enter into his kingdom. In
order to be accepted into God's presence, he does not require
a sinner to do the best he can do. I read this. I'm not going to steal the glory
for it. This statement right here. Think about this. God does
not require a sinner to do the best He can do. He requires a
sinner to do the best God can do. That's what we sinners are
missing in the flesh. It is undoable for a sinner. It's just undoable. God looks
on the deed. He looks on the thought. He looks
on the heart. He looks on the attitude. He
looks on the motive. And no sinner can live up to
it. It cannot be lived up to. Verse 3 says, For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. What does God
require of a sinner who cannot keep the law to be accepted in
his presence? He requires that sinner to believe,
to acknowledge, to bow to, to submit to the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. The only one who's worthy, the
only one who's able to keep the law. bow and acknowledge the
fact, I cannot. He's the only one who's worthy
to walk in. He requires us to believe that
Christ is the end of the law. Remember that. Christ is the
end of the law. He's fulfilled it all. There's
nothing else that needs to be done. Even that belief is a gift
from him. He did that too. He hath made
us accepted in the beloved. That's what it is. We don't produce
righteousness. God requires righteousness to
get into glory. You know that? You've got to
be righteous. We don't produce righteousness.
We receive it. We don't produce life. We receive
it. And we receive every bit of it
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he says.
Okay. You're dismissed.