Let's turn in our Bibles or Romans, chapter 10. Romans chapter number 10 now and we'll read the whole chapter starting in verse number 1, you can just follow along silently as I read, Romans chapter 10, starting in verse number 1. The Bible reads in Roman 10, starting in verse 1, "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. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone the believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness, which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness, which is of faith speaketh on this wise.
Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy hard, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth until righteousness and with the mouth confession is made until salvation. For the scriptures sayeth, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for he same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how should they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent.
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach that gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. They have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah sayeth, Lord, who have believed our report, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but I say have they not heard? Yes, verily. Their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the word, but I say, did not Israel know. First Moses sayeth, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people and by a foolish nation I will anger you, but Isaiah is bold and sayeth I was found of them that stopped me not. I was made manifest until them that asked not after me, but to Israel he sayeth all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gain saying people."
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be gathered together in your house with our people, Lord, and the Bible says that where two or three are gathered together, there you are in the midst of us, and so Father I pray that you would please just fill us with your Holy Spirit Lord and speak to us through your word and help us to have ears to hear what you would have for us today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Romans, chapter number 10, the key verse that I want to point out to you is in verse 15 where it starts out by saying, "How shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." Now, when the Bible uses the word gospel there, he defines it for us in that very verse when he says that it's glad tidings. What's another term for glad tidings? It would be good news. When we talk about the gospel, we're talking about the good news. What's the good news of the gospel. Back up if you would to the beginning of the chapter in Romans 10:1. It 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 under the righteousness of God." What this scripture is teaching is that those who are not saved are going about to establish their own righteousness instead of submitting to the righteousness of God. That's the difference between the person who is saved and the person who is unsaved.
He says, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved." Why are they not saved? Because they're going about trying to establish their own righteousness instead of submitting themselves to the righteousness of God. He says in verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone that believeth. Again, just driving in the point that it is not our righteousness that saves us. It's not the good works or the good deeds that we do and the Bible says that righteousness does not come by the law. It doesn't come by obeying the commandments, by obeying the ten commandments or any other commandment.
It's through the faith of Jesus Christ that we're saved and the reason that that is such good news is that if we had to be saved by our own righteousness. If we had to be saved by our own works and our own good deeds, we would fail because the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The good news is that Jesus paid all of our sins when he died on the cross and the good news is that if we just simply believe in him, simply put our faith and trust in him, we shall be saved. If I were tell you this morning that going out and living a good life, obeying all of God's commandments is going to get you into Heaven, that would not be good news.
That would be bad news, but how many churches today are teaching that you get to Heaven by living a good life, going to church, getting baptized, following the ten commandments, turning away from a life of sin, or turning unto a life of righteousness, but Paul said that he wanted to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, he said, not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. It's by the faith of Jesus Christ that we're saved. Not by works. Not by the deeds of the law that we do. The Bible says here, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth" and the good news is is that Jesus paid it all and that we're saved by his blood, his death, burial and resurrection. We don't have to try to earn or work our way into Heaven.
Another thing that's so good about this news is that once we're saved, the Bible teaches we are saved forever. We are saved eternally. Jesus said, "And I give until them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." The Bible says that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise until the day of redemption. What is that promise that we're sealed with. The Bible tells us in 1st John 2:24, "This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life." What's the promise? It's eternal life. It's living forever. Jesus said, "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 died." Now, he didn't say, "Well you're never die as long as you keep all the commandments." That's not what he said. He said, "If you live and believe in him, you shall never die." Period.
That's what the Bible's saying here, that it's not our own righteousness that saves us because the Bible says all of our righteousness are as filthy rags." The Bible says, As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one." No, it's the righteousness which is of God by faith. It's when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we are saved and all of our sins are forgiven and forgotten of the Father. The Bible says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has God separated us from our sins." Not only that, but if you think about it, Jesus Christ died for our sins before any of us were even born. He died for our sins almost 2000 years ago. That means that he didn't just die for the sins that you've already committed. He's already died for the sins that you will commit in the future. He died for all of our sins, past, present and future and that's why we are saved and forgiven of all of our sins and we will go to Heaven if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because we have eternal life.
Now, what this verse says, though in verse 15, the one that I want to focus on, it says, "How shall they preach except they be sent. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet are them that preach that gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." So, the Bible's talking about those who preach the gospel, those who bring the good news. They bring the glad tidings and notice he says, "how beautiful are the feet?" Now why is it that whenever the Bible talks about preaching the gospel and evangelizing the loss, he'll often use the feet to illustrate that. Why doesn't he use the mouth? You know? Because we're opening our mouth to preach the gospel. Why is it always associated with the feet. The reason why is that God wants us to understand that we need to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. You use your feet to go somewhere, to get somewhere. A lot of people just wrongfully expect the laws to come to them.
Basically, they're sitting in church and waiting for all the unsaved people to just show up at church and be saved. The truth of the matter is the unsafe people out there, they're not going to come to this church. We have to go to them and that's why Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's why he said, "Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost." That's why he says here, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." It's always associated with going out there and finding the lost where they are, going out of the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in that God's house might be filled.
The Bible says, "If our gospel be hid, this good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost whom the God of this world have blinded the minds of them that believe not, less the light of the glorious gospel should shine in." So, it's our job to bring that light of the glorious gospel and find the lost, find the unsaved and bring them the good news. What a lot of people don't understand, though, is that just because somebody says that they're a Christian or just because someone goes to church somewhere, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're actually saved because a lot of people that call themselves a Christian or go to church, like the Jews were in this passage, they're trying to establish their own righteousness. You'll even sometimes talk to people who go to a Baptist church and you'll ask them, "Do you know for sure if you died today that you'd go to Heaven?" And they'll say something like this, "Well, I hope so. I'm a pretty good person."
Now that shows you right there that they're trying to go about and establish their own righteousness. When they say, "Well, I'm going to Heaven because I think I'm a pretty good person" or "Oh, yeah, I think I'm going to Heaven because I've repented of all my sins and I go to church" and they start listing for you all the things that they do and I'm telling you in order to be saved, you have to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and what he has already done for you and the Bible warns us that there will be many people who stand before Christ someday, Jesus said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess under them, I never knew your. Depart from me ye that work iniquity."
You see, these people think that they're going to get into Heaven because of their works. Imagine they're standing before Jesus and they're saying, "Lord, we've done all these works for you. We've done all these wonderful works." Jesus says, "Depart from me. I never knew you." You see, if I were standing before Jesus Christ, I wouldn't be bringing up my works at all. I'd be bringing up the free gift of eternal life. I'd be bringing up John 3:15, "For God so loved that world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." That's where foundation is found. It's found in the faith of Jesus Christ and there are so many people today that are trusting in their own works to save them and the Bible warns us that they are not saved. He said, "My desire is that they would get saved" and how are we going to get them saved. We need to bring them good news. We need to bring them the gospel.
Now, let's continue on in this passage. The Bible says in verse 8, "But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee." The Bible's saying it's close to you, it's near you. "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart", that is the word of faith which we preach, verse 9, that "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." That's a promise from God that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now, is anything in that verse telling you that you have to do works to be saved or that you have to join the church to be saved, get baptized to be saved, turn your life around and stop sinning to be saved? Those are all good things to do, but none of those will get you saved.
See, it's with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and it's with the mouth and confession is made until salvation and the Bible says in verse 13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I mean, being saved is that easy as just putting all of your faith and trust in Jesus and just calling upon him to be saved, just one time and then you're born again. You're a child of God and then you've been regenerated. You've been passed from death until life. Now, look at the next verse after verse 13. It says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Then in verse 14 it says, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" So it's not enough to just call out and say words. You have to believe it in your heart, don't you. So he says, "How can they call on him in whom they have not believed." You have to believe in him before you can call upon him.
Then it says, "And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent?" What is he saying there when he says, "Hey, they're going to need a preacher to hear and how can they preach except they be sent." You see, it's the job of the local church to send us out to go preach the gospel to every creature. You know, I've noticed this. People who don't go to church, they don't go out and preach the gospel to every creature. Nobody's sending them. How can they preach except they be sent? When you have a church, like our church down on Phoenix, for example. You know, we have a whole bunch of people gathered together, Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night for church and our church is there to equip them, to teach them, to train them, to motivate them and then to send them out, to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. That's what we need church to do.
Church needs to be a place of sending, not just a social club or just we together and hang around and have a good time and enjoy fellowship and seeing this. Those are all wonderful things that we need to do, but we also need to be sent out to preach the gospel. That means we need to be taught what the gospel is and how to preach it and then we need to be motivated and stirred up so that we'll want to go out and preach the gospel and then we need to be sent out and say, "Okay, on Saturday at this time or on Sunday at this time or on Tuesday nights or whenever, we're going to go out and we're going to preach the gospel and we're going to get some people saved." Otherwise, it can become a thing where it's just something that you're going to do some day. You kind of have it in you mind, you know one of the days, "Yeah, we do need to give the gospel to people. Yeah, one of these days maybe we'll go out and give the gospel to the lost sometime."
You know it needs to be? It needs to be something that we do immediately and where we say, "You know what? We're doing it this week." Let's get out there. You say, "Well, how do we do it?" Well, you could knock doors. At our church we have people going out almost every day and just go out and just knock on people's doors and just invite them to church, but more importantly than that, do you know for sure if you died today, you'd go to Heaven. Ask them that question and figure out. So many people will let you show them out of the Bible how to be saved if you'll just ask them for that opportunity. You can give the gospel to the saved. You can get people saved, but how will they hear without a preacher and how shall they preached except they be sent.
As it is written, "How beautiful of the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things", but they've not all obeyed the gospel. Not everybody's going to get saved. You go out, you preach the gospel to the lost. A lot of people are going to reject the gospel. They're not going to get saved. The Bible says in verse 17, "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and they have to hear through a Christian preaching it to them out of the Bible and showing them how to be saved. Go to Ephesians chapter 4 if you would. It's a few pages to the right in your Bible, Ephesians chapter 4. While you're turning there, let me just remind of something that Apostle Paul said in the book of Acts.
In the book of Acts, we know that the Apostle Paul went around on various missionary journeys where he would go to different cities and towns all throughout Greece, all throughout Macedonia, all throughout the country that we know today as Turkey. He would go through all these different countries and he preached the gospel to people and churches were established and people were saved. The Bible talks in one place in particular where the Apostle Paul dwelled in Asia for a full 2 years and when it says Asia there, it's referring to Asia Minor, or what we could call the modern day country of Turkey. He dwelt there in Asia for 2 years and the Bible says that in that 2 years, everybody in Asia in that peninsula there of Turkey, it said that everybody there heard the gospel during that time. Y
You know what that tells me is that it's not impossible to get the gospel to all the lost. It can be done. Because in Paul's day he had a certain area that he went to and he focused on that area and he had a goal and a mission to get the gospel to everybody in that area and at the end of it, the Bible says that everybody in that area, everybody in that region, everybody in that country heard the gospel. Now, did they all get saved? No, they didn't all get saved, but they all heard the gospel. That's why the Apostle Paul of the same area was able to say later, he said, "I am free from the blood of all men for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." He said, "I've taught you publicly, I've taught you from house to house. He said I'm free from the blood of all men."
What's he saying? Your blood is not on my hands. He's saying "The blood of any of these people is not on my hands, because I did not shun to declare until you all the counsel of God." Now, let me ask you this? Is it possible. It is humanly possible that every single person in the Navajo nation would hear the gospel. Is it possible to get it done? You know there are about 200 and some thousand that live in the Navajo nation and I believe that it is possible that every single one of them could hear the gospel in this generation and at this time. I mean the Apostle Paul over a period of two years was able to accomplish that obviously with other people that he trained and taught and worked with and they got the job done and we need to make sure that today we don't just have this attitude that says, "Oh, well that was the book of Acts."
That was back then. That could never happen again. It's the same Jesus Christ yesterday and today and forever and the Bible teaches that even in the last days, Daniel 11 tells us that God's people will go out and do great exploits for the Lord and do great works for God and if the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts could go to a certain area and say in these 2 years, "I'm going to get the gospel to every single person in this area", then why can't that be our vision today to have that same vision to say, "You know what? I can't make people get saved. The choice is going to be up to them, but I can preach the gospel to every creature in this area. I can say I'm free from the blood of all men because I have preached the gospel to every creature and that everyone in this area has heard the gospel through our church."
That's type of vision that we need to get today in 2015. It's possible. It can be done. Honestly there are lots of Baptist churches up in this area. I think if just one church would really get a vision and if one church would get motivated. You know, one church could get the gospel to 200,000 people over the course of a few years. It's possible. You know, down in Tempe, our church is not a big church. It's not a huge church. It's not a big mega church. Our church runs about 150, 170 people, so it's not a massive church by any stretch of the imagination. We have knocked the doors of almost a million people in the last 10 years that we've been around, though just going out every week, here a little, there a little, just one door at a time, just knocking doors, knocking doors, knocking doors and just going out and preaching the gospel to every creature.
It can be done. There are 40 other independent Baptist churches in the Phoenix area. There are about 40 or 45 independent fundamental Baptist churches that are similar to our church, but so many of them are just not going anything and they're not motivated. They don't have that vision and if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. We need to get out there and preach the gospel to every creature. When he said every creature, it could be done. It's not impossible. Now, obviously we can't go everywhere in the whole world, but we can make sure that our area is covered, whether that's up here in Winslow or whether that's down Phoenix or wherever it is. We can make sure that our area hears the gospel and that people can be saved.
Look at Ephesians chapter number 4, the Bible says in verse 11, "He gave some apostles and some profits and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ until we call come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we hence forth be no more children, tossed to and for, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of man and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in weight to the sea, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him and all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body until the edifying of itself in love.?
Now, when this scripture talks about the body of Christ, because it said in verse 12, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is the church. So the local church here is the body of Christ and the Bible says that the purpose of the pastor, the purpose of the teachers, the purpose of the evangelists or profits, the purpose is to edify the body of Christ. What does it mean to edify? To build up. To strengthen. The Bible says that God gave you pastors, teachers, evangelists, profits, preachers to edify you and build you up. Now notice the Bible says it's for the edifying of the body of Christ and that it's to teach the saints so that they may grow and be built up in the faith.
Look at verse 12. It says, "For the perfecting of the saints." Now, who are the saints? Is that the saved or the unsaved? The saved. So, what's the purpose of the preaching? What's the purpose of the teaching in church? It's to perfect the saints. What's the purpose? It's to edify the body of Christ. Let me ask you this, should church be geared toward the saved or the unsaved? It's to be geared toward the saved because he said the purpose of it is for the saints. The purpose of it is for the body of Christ to be edified and built up and the goal of the church is that we could come to church and be strengthened, get that spiritual food and that spiritual meat and drink, so that we can grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to be built up and notice what it says at the end of verse 16 make it the increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
So the purpose of the body, the purpose of the church is to edify itself, to build itself up. We teach and admonish one another. Iron sharpeneth iron. We build each other up. We edify each other. We teach each other. We motivate each other. Church is for the saved, not for the unsaved. It's designed to edify the saints primarily. The once we go to church and we get edified and built up and strengthened, then we go out and find the lost and get them the gospel of Jesus Christ. We put on the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace. Notice the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peach. Again, emphasizing the go, the feet of the gospel, going out and preaching the gospel to every creature. A lot of people have lost site of this and they've forgotten that our job is to go out and get people saved. Instead what they do, is they wait for them to come here.
Well, you're going to be waiting a long time. If you're waiting for all the 16,000 residents of Winslow to come parading through these doors that they might be saved, you're going to waiting a long time because it's never going to happen. They're not just going to line up. When we got here at 10am, there wasn't just a giant line out the door of all 16,000 people, just ready to parade in here and get the gospel. No, you're going to have to take it to them. You're going to have to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. The purpose of church is for the saved. It's to build us up. It's for us to get the fellowship and the strength that we need so that we can then turn around and go out and be saved. A lot of people, they've completely forgotten the go out and get people saved part and they think, oh, well, the way that we'll people save is that whenever we have a visitor, we'll give that visitor the gospel.
Here's the thing. You're never going to preach the gospel to everybody in Asia just by giving the gospel to that one visitor. That's not going to be enough. No, Jesus Christ did not command you, "Hey, give the gospel to every visitor that shall come through your door." Is that what the Bible said? Obviously, we should do that, but what did the Bible command you to do, to go preach the gospel to every creature. That means that if there are 16,000 people or so living in the city of Winslow and a few hundred of those people or a few thousand of those people don't hear the gospel, you know that means? That the churches are failing to do their job. Their failing to fulfill Christ's command. When he said, "Go out and preach the gospel to every creature", they're not doing it because if they would fulfill that command, if they would be obedient to that, then every single person in Winslow would hear the gospel and beyond Winslow to the whole Navajo nation, the whole area around here, there's no reason why every person could not hear the gospel.
You say, "Well, how are we going to get to everybody?" Everybody lives somewhere. So if you knock every door, you'll get to everybody. Then you say, "Well, some people aren't home." Well, knock it a second time and then a few years later, you knock it a third time and you knock it a fourth time and you go out as Jesus and his disciples did into the towns the villages and they would show up in just small little villages all over the land of Israel and they would just show up to those places and just preach the gospel. You know what? If the people were not receptive, if the people didn't want to hear it, they just shook the dust off their feet and the went to the next person and they went to the next house and they went to the next village and they just kept on going because not everybody's going to receive the gospel. It's only our job to go out and warn everybody.
You know what? I've been out knocking doors and preaching the gospel for many years. I'm here to tell you, if you've spent time doing it, you will find people that want to hear the gospel. Let me tell you something, if I went out and I spent hours of just knocking doors and everybody just telling me, not interested, not interested, no thank you, no thank you, not interested, not interested ... If I went out and did that for hours and then I did that for weeks, but when I get to that one person that does want to hear the gospel, that says, "Yes, can you show me from the Bible, how I might be saved" and then when I show that person the gospel and they believe it and they receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and they request confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus and they believe in their heart that God has raised him from the dead and they call upon the name of the Lord and they're saved, wouldn't that be worth it for that one person?
Then you go out and you find another one and you find another one. I'm here to tell you that if people are not being saved in any given region or any given city or any state, if people are not being saved, then either one of two things is true. Either the gospel is not being preached or the gospel has lost it's power because look what does the Bible say in Romans 1? He said, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Notice he didn't say everyone that worketh. He said that "It's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek the gospel is the great power of God unto salvation. If we preach the gospel, people will be saved.
The Bible says that "He that goeth forth and weapeth, bearing precious seed. The seed is the word of God. He that goeth forth and weapeth, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him." Did it say he might come again rejoicing? It said he will doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. That tells me that if I go out and I have the word of God in my hand and the Holy Spirit living inside of me and I go out and preach the gospel to people and I bear that precious seed and sow those seeds, I will for sure get people saved. That's what it said. He said, "You'll doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him." The Bible talked about those who bring forth fruit under the kingdom of God and he said some 30, some 60 and some 100 and what does it mean to bring forth fruit?
Well, think about it. If an apple brings forth fruit. If an apple tree brings forth fruit, what is the fruit of that apple. It's going to be more apples, isn't it. You're not going to plan an apple in the earth and get oranges. So the fruit of an apple is more apples. The fruit of an orange is more oranges. We as human beings, we can talk about being fruitful. I have 8 children, so people would look at that and say, "You've been fruitful. You've multiplied." Remember when God told Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply." What is he talking about? Reproducing themselves. When Adam and Eve were fruitful and multiplied, they had children, they multiplied. If we talked about a fruitful animal, it would be an animal that produced a lot of other animals.
It would be a fruitful field that you plant a few seeds and you reap 100 fold. That's what it means to be fruitful. When the Bible talks about us bringing forth fruit, he's talking about us multiplying, us reproducing. That means if I go out and preach the gospel to someone and win someone to Jesus Christ, then I've just brought forth fruit. If I win 30 unto the Lord, then I've brought forth fruit 30 fold or 60 or 100. Now, who is it that brings forth the good fruit according to the Bible? Why is it that one person goes out and gets 30 people saved and another person gets no one saved. Let's face it. There are Christians who don't ever get anybody saved. They don't ever preach the gospel to anybody. They don't see anybody saved. Then there are other Christians who are continually going out and witnesses unto their friends and witnessing to their loved ones and witnessing door to door and preaching the gospel to every creature.
What's the difference? I'll tell you what the difference is. The Bible said that person's heart is the difference because the one who brought forth fruit 30, 60, 100 it said they're heart was the good ground. Their heart was a fertile soil. So that tells me that the person who is a believer, that's saved, that doesn't bring forth fruit, something is wrong in their heart. There's not good ground there. Maybe there are too many thorns there that are choked in the word where we get too distracted with the cares of this world and we get so busy with all the pleasures of the world and the cares of this world. Maybe we're out pursuing money and pursing pleasure and fun. You know what? Those things have their place in our lives, money and pleasure have their place in our lives, the proper place, but some people, those things have come to a point of idolatry to the point where that's all they live for and that's all they care about and it chokes the word and they are not fruitful. They're not bringing forth fruit.
The Bible is telling us that those who have a heart that is right with the Lord, a heart that is good ground, good fertile soil for the word of God. They're going to bring forth much fruit the Bible says, some 30, some 60, some 100. God can use us if we'll get our heart right with him. Jesus said it this way, "Follow me and I'll make you fishers of men." Notice he didn't say, "If you follow me, I might make you fishers of men." He said, "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men." That tells me that if we're not fishers of men, we're not following Jesus. That tells me that if we're not bringing forth fruit, we have something wrong with the soil of our heart. We have a hard heart. Maybe our heart has become dry and infertile and rock hard. We need to soften that hard up and care about people, love people and want to go out and reach them with the gospel.
If our gospel be hid, it's hid to the lost. No man having a candlestick puts it under a bushel, right? The Bible says that he puts the candle on a candlestick and it gives light unto all that are in the house. Let your light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven. We need to take this thing of getting the gospel out to the lost seriously. People are relying on us. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to the lost. People out there are relying on us to take them the gospel and if we drop the ball, if we walk away, if we sit around and don't do this job, then my friend it's not going to be done.
It's not going to happen. How shall they hear without a preacher? Well, they'll hear some ... No, no, how are they going to hear without a preacher? How are the people in this area going to hear without a preacher? Well, the church down the street will do it. Well, are you sure? Are you sure that the church down the street is getting the gospel to every single person in this area? I wouldn't rely on that. You know what? I hope they are and I pray that they would, but you know what? I would take it upon yourself and say, "You know, well, I'm going to make sure that I am doing my part to give the gospel to my neighbors and my friends and my loved ones and even to strangers. Even just to every creature. I'm going to make sure that my church takes it upon themselves to go out and win the lost to Christ and not just rely on the fact that the other church down the fact is doing it."
You know what? We need to take it as a personal commission to us when he said, "Teach all nations." When he said, "Preach the gospel to every creature. You know, that's why we're here in this earth. A small child walked up to me the other day at our church in Phoenix and this little child walked up to me and she asked me the question, she said, "If when you believe on Jesus Christ, you're immediately saved at that moment, she said then why don't you just instantly go to Heaven right then and there." This is a little girl. She said, "Well, why don't we just go to Heaven right now?" What's the point of believing on Jesus and then just staying here for a whole lifetime. Why doesn't he just take us to Heaven right now?" There's a reason why we're here. You know why we're here?
This is where I'll close. Turn to Philippians chapter 1 and the Bible tells us why we're here. Because the Apostle Paul, he kind of felt the same way as that little girl. He said, "You know what, I'd love to just go to Heaven right now. I would love to just depart and be with Jesus Christ." That would be a blessing to be in Heaven to be in a perfect place. Look what Paul said in Philippians chapter number 1. He said in verse 21, Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain, but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose, I want not. For I am in a straight betwixt two," watch this last part of verse 23, "Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." Paul said, "I desire to depart and to be with Christ," nevertheless verse 24, "To abide in the flesh is more needful for you."
You hear that? Paul is saying, "As far as I'm concerned, to die is gain. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ." But he said, "For me to abide here in the flesh is more needful for you." So why are we still here after we believe on Jesus? Why have we not already been taken to Heaven? The reason why is that God has us here for other people. Paul said, "I have a desire to part, but to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." What he's saying is, "You know what, I'd rather just go to Heaven right now, but the reason I'm still on this earth is for the people of Winslow, Arizona to hear the gospel, the people of Tempe, Arizona to hear the gospel. It's so that I might reach the lost with the gospel. It's so that I might teach the saved how they can be a better Christian, how they can be a better witness and a shining and burning light to go out and preach the gospel to every creature."
Why am I still on this earth? In order to help edify the body of Christ so that we might preach the gospel to every creature. The question is, if we're not preaching the gospel to the lost, if we're not getting people saved, if we're not reaching people to where we could say, "Hey, everybody heard the gospel" then the question is why are we here? What are we even doing here? Why are we on this earth if we're not preaching the gospel unto the lost? Here's the thing. No matter how old you are, if you're still here, there's a reason why you're still here. Because the Lord can take you home at any time. Any time he wants to take you home and you could be like the Apostle Paul where he said, "I finished my course." He said, "The time of my departure is at hand. I've fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith."
Here's the thing. If you're still here, you haven't finished your course. You're not done. There must be some reason why you're still here. There must be some work, some action that God wants you to perform. I'm telling you, that is that we might get the lost saved. That is our great commission. That is the great task that he has left us with on this earth. That's what we need to be focused on. Remember, it's the good news, it's the gospel. That gospel, that good news is that salvation is by believing in Jesus Christ. It's by faith alone plus nothing minus nothing. It's not by our deeds. It's not by our works and the great news is that once you're saved, Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. Wouldn't it be awful if we had to be scared everyday wondering when God is going to kick us out of the family? And every day we're wondering, "Oh, man, you know I sinned. I hope I didn't do too bad because he's going to pull that carpet out from under me."
The illustration that Pastor Marty said you know that a lot of people's view of God is like there's this carpet that you're standing on-
Speaker 2: The salvation rug.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the salvation rug and you're standing on that salvation rug and God's just got the corner of that rug and he's just waiting for you to mess up and as soon as you mess up, he's going to yank the rug out from under you and say, "That's it. You lost your salvation." Salvation is not a rug. Salvation is like the ark that Noah got on we talked about earlier where when you get on the ark, you know what the Bible says, "God shut the door." God shut him in and that door didn't open again until he was safely on the other side and the danger was passed, but God shut the door on the ark. By the way the ark only had one door. You know it's all different doors, but they all lead to the same place. No, God told him to build a huge boat and wouldn't you think if you built a huge boat, you'd put more than one door?
If you have a really big building, you have multiple doors, multiple entrances. He build this massive boat and God said, "Build one door" and Noah and his family went through that door and being through that door, that saved him from drowning, which is a picture of us being saved from hell. When they went through that door, the Bible says, "God shut him in" and there were times when he wanted to get out and he was getting kind of stir crazy. You can imagine being on a boat for a year, so there were times when he was getting a little bit cooped up in there and he keeps sending those birds out to check and he's trying to see is the water dried up yet. Can we get out of this boat? He keeps sending the birds and everything. You know what?
God kept that door shut and kept him safely in the ark until the danger was completely passed and that door was finally opened and it was all dry land. It was a nice place for him and his family to live. You know what that picture is? That we're sealed unto the day of redemption. That day when Noah got off that ark in a brand new world and the safety was there and flood was over, no more danger of the flood, that's a picture of us safely arriving in Heaven and God's going to keep us shut in until them. The Bible says that we're sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.
He'll never leave us or forsake us. He gives us eternal life. We shall never die. He said, "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that's in me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life." If we're saved, we've been passed from death into life just be believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, but the question is how will other people hear that message if we don't teach it to him. There are so many false profits out there and so many false teachers out there telling them, "Hey, you better follow these rules that I give you or you won't be saved. You better say your prayers tonight or you won't be saved. You better show up for church on Sunday or you won't be saved. You better not sin or you wont' be saved."
They're scaring people with this gospel, quote/unquote that's another gospel. It's a false gospel that says you're saved based on how good you are. You're saved based on how money you put in the offering place or you're saved based on how faithful you are to church. No. We're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing, even if we never even set foot in a church we'd be saved, as long as we believe on Jesus with our heart. You know what? We need to be in church so we can sent. We need to be in church so we can be equipped and edified and built up in the faith because if our gospel be hid, it's to them that are lost.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father I pray that you would stir in all of our hearts Lord and that we would get a great vision, Lord, to at least get the gospel to every resident of Winslow, Lord, but even beyond that to reach out and get the gospel to every person in the Navajo nation, Lord and it's up to them whether or not they believe the gospel, but Lord help us to at least make sure that we preach the gospel to each and every one of them because many of them will be saved if they hear, but how will they hear without a preacher and they cannot be saved it they don't hear, Lord. So, please help us to get a vision Lord of going out and preaching the gospel and bringing that good news, glad tidings to every creature, Lord and help us not to get lazy about it or to stop caring, Lord, but help us to have a burning love in our heart for our fellow man to want to see them saved. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
