Romans chapter number 10, the part of the chapter that I want to focus on is there beginning in verse number 16 where the Bible reads, "But they have not all obeyed the Gospel, for Isiah saith Lord, who hath 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 world." What I want to preach about this morning is this idea that people sometimes have that there are just all these people in the world who've just never heard of Jesus, they've never heard the Gospel, just billions of people, and this is a commonly held view that people have, and they often ask the question, "How could God be justify to send all these people to Hell if they've never even heard the Gospel, they've never even heard of Jesus?" We've all heard the story about that proverbial guy in Africa somewhere, in some remote tribe, that's had no contact with the outside world. Isn't that what we hear so many times as an objection from those who don't believe the Gospel?
Let me tell you something, it's always very frightening when someone who claims to be a Christian starts bringing that up. I can understand it coming from the unbelievers, because they don't understand this subject, but when people who actually claim to be a Christian start bring this up, like well maybe people who are in remote areas, maybe they just get a free pass. That's ridiculous. Nothing could be further from the truth and I think this is a very important doctrine that needs to be taught.
I'm not going to spend the whole sermon teaching this doctrine. I'm going to teach it just for a few minutes, then what I want to get into is just a mountain of evidence from the Bible, especially from the old testament, of how God's word has circled the globe over and over again and that in every generation God's word circles this globe and people have a chance and they hear the word of God.
Now, first of all, let me just read for you second Corinthians chapter number 4, verses 3 and 4. You don't have to turn there, but the Bible reads "But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." The Bible is saying here that if our Gospel is hid, it's hid to the lost. They're in darkness today. The devil has them in darkness and we have the light of the Gospel and it's up to us to decided whether we're going to let that light shine, where they're going to hold forth the word of life and preach the word of God, or whether we're going to hide it under a bushel and our Gospel be hid and then it' hid to them that are lost.
You see, we should not have this attitude that what we do has no consequence for other people. No, in reality the Bible says that if we don't warn the wicked, his blood will be required at our hand. The Bible actually tells us that it's our job to go out and preach the Gospel to every creature and the Bible says others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments [boughted 00:03:17] by the flesh. This attitude of just sit back and whatever's going to happen's going to happen and God's going to find that guy in the jungle himself. No, it's our job to go find that guy in the jungle and give him the Gospel, and God has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation and that word committed implies that he's entrusting us with it. He's trusting us to get the job done. He said "As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world," but he says to us, "Ye are the light of the world." Now that he is ascended up to the father, he has left us with that great commission to preach the Gospel to every person in this world.
Now according to this weird doctrine that says well people in remote areas get a free pass, then what would make the most sense would be to just leave those people alone. Think about it, if they all get a free pass, then why would anyone even go bring them the Gospel? If you bring them the Gospel, many of them will reject it. Basically missions would just be damning people. It makes absolutely no sense. No, the truth of the matter is that they're condemned already and bringing the Gospel will save some of them. Whereas right now, if they don't hear the Gospel, none of them are saved, but thank God the Gospel has gone around the world over and over again in every generation and it's the job of every generation to make sure that it goes around again and again and again and again.
They have this idea that if they're in a remote area they get a free pass because how could God condemn them for not beveling in Jesus if they didn't even have a chance to believe in Jesus? Well go to revelation 21, because you have to understand they're not being condemned for not believing in Jesus, they're being condemned for being a sinner. You see, the reason that a person goes to Hell is to be punished for their sins, according to the Bible. That's why the Bible even says this in revelation chapter 21, verse number 8, "but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whore-mongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second [dead 00:05:29]."
Now if it were just about not believing, why wouldn't he just stop at the first two things there, "But the fearful and unbelieving"? Why did he list all those other sins, because all those sins will condemn someone to Hell. The point is that God is perfectly justified, theoretically speaking, in sending any sinner to Hell that he sends to Hell. Totally justified. Why? Because we all deserve Hell. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and we deserve that punishment of Hell, according to the Bible, even just for lying, for murder, for adultery, for sorcery. Whatever the case may be, and so it's not that God and Heaven is unjust to send someone to Hell because they didn't hear a clear presentation of the Gospel. No, he's fully justified because they're going to punished for their sins.
The Gospel is the good news that we can be forgiven for those sins and that we can get a free pass into Heaven simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ he'll adopt us as his son and we will be able to just walk right in on his grace, on his mercy, on his redemption. That's the message of the Bible, and so this idea that God isn't fair is ridiculous and instead of whining that God isn't fair, what we need to really be saying is that Christians aren't being fair to these people. Here we've been given one job. We've been given one great commission, and then we're ignoring it, for the most part, and then we say well that's not fair that God's going to let that guy go. No, what's not fair is that you won't go out and tell anybody about Jesus. That's what not fair. By the way, it starts right here in Phoenix, Arizona. Forget the deep, dark jungles of Africa, why don't you walk across the street and give somebody the Gospel. It's all right here.
Now what we need to understand about this is that when a person hears the Gospel one time, that's not necessarily enough for them to get saved, is it? Now, I believe, and I'm going to demonstrate from scripture that this has been true all throughout history, I believe that every single person on this planet has pretty much heard of Jesus. Now, I don't believe in this thing of oh there's billions of people who've never heard of Jesus. It simply isn't true. It's a myth.
First of all, even though I do believe that yeah everybody's heard of Jesus, everybody's heard some little piece of scripture. Some light has been shinned to them, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is enough. Let me give you an example. My wife, before she was my wife, when I just met her as a stranger, we met in the streets of Munich, Germany. She was walking down the street on her way to work and I just handed her a Gospel tract and began to give her the Gospel. That was our first encounter. That's how I met my wife, out soul-winning. I hand her the tract, I give her the Gospel. I went through the whole plan of salvation with her. I did a thorough job and I went through all the important points and I got down to the very end of presenting the Gospel to her, and she said "Well none of this is going to do me any good if I'm late to work." That was her response to the Gospel. She said I gotta go, I gotta make it in to work.
Now, let's say that would have been the last time I ever talked to her, and let's say that no one else gave her the Gospel for the rest of her life, could she really stand before God and say "I had no idea, I never heard." Could she really of said that? No, because God could say to her, well this guy walked up to you and spent ten, fifteen minutes showing you fifteen scriptures and explaining it to you very clearly how to be saved. You're without excuse. By the way, she'd already heard about Jesus before that and she'd already heard about Jesus dying on the cross and being buried and rising again, but I mean this is an actual saved soul-winner with a Bible going through it with her point by point and making it very clear. She would have been totally without excuse, but did that make her saved? No, because sometimes people do receive the Gospel the first time they heard it, but other times people have to hear multiple times, where one person sows the seed, and then others come and water and then eventually God gives the increase.
Now, just think about it, the more watering is done, the more likely that person is to get saved, aren't they? I don't want anybody to just zone out. This is important doctrine and it's sad today that people don't understand these basic truth. We need to have a grasp of this and understand the fact that yes, people have heard of Jesus, yes they've heard of the Gospel. They say why go soul-winning in America? Everybody's heard of Jesus. That doesn't make them saved. In order to get someone saved it often takes a lot of water. They often have to hear it a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time, a sixth time, and then eventually they get saved.
Now just think about this, the more they hear it, the more likely they are to get saved. The less the hear it the less likely they are to get saved, but everybody gets something. Everybody heard something, but that doesn't mean, oh they've all heard of Jesus, let's not go soul-winning. No, no, no, we need to go soul-winning, because we want to keep watering. We want to see more people saved, as many people saved as possible. I think I probably gave the Gospel to my wife about fifteen times or twenty times before she got saved, literally, kept talking to her about it, kept talking to her about it, kept talking to her about it, and other people talked to her about it, and then finally she got saved.
We do need to be persistent, but we need to understand that everybody has their shot at getting saved in this world. Now you say, well Pastor Anderson you're just plain wrong. There are billions of people who've never heard of Jesus. Okay, well firsts of all 2.3 billion people in this world claim to be a Christian. I'm not saying that they really are. I'm not saying that they really believe and that's a part of all kinds of goofed up denominations also, Roman Catholics and whatever else, but 2.3 billion people are claiming to believe in Jesus, let alone to have heard of Jesus, they say "I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus." Then you have 1.6 billion Muslims in this world. Well guess what? They all say that Jesus was a prophet. Now obviously they don't have the right Jesus because they don't believe that he's the son of God, they believe he's just a prophet, but they've still heard of Jesus. They've heard some of the basic stories.
Plus Muslims are always trying to debunk Christianity so that in the process they talk about Christianity. Therefore right there we have 1.6 billion Muslims and 2.3 billion Muslims, I mean 2.3 billion Christians, quote unquote, so-called. Do the math. That's right there 3.9 billion people who are claiming to believe in Jesus, 3.9 billion that are claiming to believe in him. Now, do you think every atheist has never heard of Jesus? No, most of your atheists have heard of Jesus. They heard the Gospel, they just don't believe in it. You say, "Well, but, Pastor Anderson, what about Africa?" You know there are more missionaries going to Africa then anywhere else. Think about all the tens and thousands of missionaries. You know I believe that a lot of Africans will be in Heaven. There's a lot of soul-winning that goes on in Africa. Lot of the Gospel being preached over there.
Obviously it varies from different parts of Africa, but a lot of Africa's Muslim. They've all heard of Jesus. A lot of it's Christian. A lot of it is filled with missionaries and soul-winning going to these tribes. You say, "Well India," but here's the thing, the historical record even tells us that the apostle Thomas, Jesus's disciple Thomas went to India and preached the Gospel and did soul-winning and started churches and everything. That's what history tells us. The Bible doesn't go into that.
The bottom is that throughout India there are missionaries, there Bibles. Throughout history there have been people over their preaching in China, Japan, wherever the case may be. I talked to a guy one time from India, and he said "When I was in my country," he said, "how can God send people to Hell that've never even heard of Jesus in my country?" And I pinned in him down, because he tried to say he'd never heard about Jesus. I said, "Come on, are you telling me that you never heard of Jesus in your country in India where the village or wherever?" Here's what he said, he said, "Well, I didn't hear of Jesus until I was like 12." He said, "It wasn't until I was 16 that I had the whole thing presented to me of him dying on the cross and rising again." He didn't know the whole thing all about Jesus until he was 16, but he'd heard of Jesus even as a kid, even as a 12-year old, but we're supposed to believe that oh yeah they've never heard of Jesus. I don't believe it.
Now it is true that there are people in this generation who've never heard of Jesus, but they will hear about Jesus and their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers heard about Jesus and rejected him. I'm not saying that everybody in every generation has heard, but in the course of your lifetime the vast, vast majority of people will hear a lot about Jesus in their life. Think about where we live in the Untied States of America. I mean, do you think there's anybody in America who's never heard of Jesus? I mean, Jesus at least is made fun of and mocked on TV. They've heard of that. They learn about it in school. They learn about it maybe in a perverse way, but they hear about Jesus. When we knock on doors how often do we run into somebody that's like "I've never heard of Jesus?" Virtually never, but does that mean that they're saved? No, we still need to get them saved.
What we need to understand doctrinally is that according to the Bible God has worked hard throughout history to make sure that the Gospel gets around the globe over and over and over again, but he uses his people and the more of his people get on board, the more people hear the Gospel and the more lazy, worthless Christians there are, and I don't use the word worthless lightly, that's what God calls them, an unprofitable servant. What is unprofitable mean? Worthless in the modern vernacular. Christians who sit on their rear-end and accomplish nothing for God, the more of them there are, then yeah the more people are going to be dwelling in darkness in this world, the longer it's going to take them to hear the Gospel, the less times they're going to hear it, and so forth.
Let me explain something to you biblically from the Bible. "He that beleivith on the son hath everlasting life and he beleivith not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abidith on him." Let me tell you something the Bible says, "He that beleivith on him," Jesus, "Is not condemned, but he that beleivith not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the son of God." Every single Muslim will go to Hell, period. Period, I don't care what Joel Osteen tries to tell you, oh but you know, God knows their heard and they're following the light that they have. No! They don't believe on the son of God. They will go to Hell. They are damned. They're condemned. There's not hope, except that they will believe on Jesus Christ as the son of God as their savior.
1.6 Billion Muslims are on their way to Hell today, period. Fact. Every Buddhist is on their way to Hell today. Every Hindu is on their way to Hell today. Every person who's out worshiping some tribal spirit somewhere of folk religion of the trees and the rocks and worshiping the eternal blue sky, let me tell you something, they are all headed for Hell, every single one of them and this is something that Christians don't talk about and now people are getting confused about it. When they don't understand, no, everybody in this Earth is a sinner. The Bible says that the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in God, so that they are without excuse, because when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. That's what the Bible teaches.
The Bible doesn't teach this free-pass for those who don't believe in Jesus. Even Joel Osteen said the Hindus, oh they love God so much, I don't know. I don't know Larry. It's like, do they go to Hell? Do Hindus go to Hell? I don't know Larry, they just love God so much. Which God do they love? The one with four arms? Which God do they love? The ones that's a transgender half male half female? Which God do they love? The one that's surrounded by snakes and flames and holding a pitchfork? That's the Devil! You say, well what you just trying to be mean this morning? No, I'm trying to wake you up that we need to get some people saved because they're not saved. Muslims are not already saved. The Hindus are not already saved. No, we got to get them saved. Nobody's getting a free-pass. We need to get off our rear ends and go out and give these people the Gospel.
You know what, you want to give the Gospel to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, Apostate Christians, Catholics, Mormons, they're all here in Phoenix, all of them. Every religion, every ethnicity, every nation is gathered here in Phoenix. You could have a day of Pentecost every single day in this city. You could if we had the laborers and the workers. It's true. Here's the thing, in the immediate area around our church we've already knocked the doors ten or fifteen times in certain neighborhoods. Most neighborhoods within a ten to fifteen radius, most neighborhoods have been knocked about six times in a real close radius around our church. Those who go soul-winning know that that's true.
City of Guadalupe, we've knocked the doors six, seven times. You say, well why go back six or seven times? Because we just want to keep watering it. Come back a year later, water it, different people are home. But then also in the outlying parts of the city, we go out and knock doors, knock doors. The job is never done because you can always give people one more chance to be saved. You can always give them another chance and the more we go the more they'll know the truth and get safe.
People in other countries need to hear the Gospel. They need to hear the word of God, but there are people preaching to them. Now, there are certain places in this world where it's very dark spiritually, but often that's because of decisions made by their parents and grandparents where they knew God and then they glorified him not as God and then new their children and grandchildren are dwelling in darkness. That's not God's fault, that's there fault. Then it's also missionaries' fault for not getting there and giving them the Gospel.
Let's go to the Bible and let's look at example throughout history. Go back to exodus chapter 9. See a lot of people have this weird idea also that in the old testament salvation was only for the Jews and you gotta be kidding me. As if God is just letting the whole world go to Hell and salvation's only for the Jews. No, salvation was of the Jews, meaning they were the ones who were supposed to be doing the saving, doing the preaching, spreading the word, a light unto the gentiles, but salvation has always been available to every generation, all nations, all kindreds, all times, and what's interesting is that throughout the old testament we see a tone of scripture where God purposefully makes a point to get the word to all nations.
We have to understand that today we have about 8 billion people in the world, whereas back then there weren't as many people in the world. Think about when Noah gets off the ark, there's 8 people in the world and then obviously it grew from there. At the time of Jesus Christ there were about 200 million people in the world, which is one-fortieth of what we have today. Do you get that? Forty times as many people on this planet as there were in Jesus's day, so it took less soul-winners to get the job done. Still a huge job, it's still 50 Phoenix, Arizona's, in the world. 50 Phoenix, Arizona's, is what it would have been around the time of Christ, because there's about 4 million people in this area. 4 million times 50 is 200 million, but all throughout the Bible you can see God's heart for all men to hear the Gospel, and for all men to be saved. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He's the savior of all men, especially of those that believe. It's never just been limited to just the Jews or just the United States or just the white man or just the Asian.
No, it's for all man he's the God of all the Earth all the way back to exodus with the story of Pharaoh. What's the Bible say in exodus 9, verse 16, this is God speaking to Pharaoh, "and in very deed for this cause have I raised the up for to show in the my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the Earth." Let me tell you something, that is exactly what happened. There are other scriptures in the old testament that make it clear that the whole world heard that story about the plagues and Moses and the crossing the Red Sea. The whole world heard that story in that generation. God's word went throughout the whole Earth.
Flip over to numbers 14. We're going to go through a bunch of scripture. Numbers 14, while you're turning there I'll read for you from Romans 9, verse 17, where this is quoted. Exodus 9 is quoted in Romans 9. It's says "For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose if I raise the up that I might show my power in the and that my name might be declared throughout all the Earth." Not just the supreme being, not just a god, no he said that my name would be declared throughout all the Earth. That was the goal with Pharaoh.
Numbers 14, Verse 20, same generation, "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word, but as truly as I live, all the Earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." That was the goal. That was the agenda that God had. Go to Deuteronomy 29, Deuteronomy chapter number 29. In this scripture God is predicting how in the future the children of Israel would turn away from his commandments and he would punish the children of Israel. Watch how God's going to use that to even spread the word of God. Even use that to get people saved. Look what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 29, verse 24. Verse 24, "Even all nations shall say wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land. What meaneth the heat of this great anger." All nations will marvel, all nations would be perplexed.
Verse 25, "Then men shall say because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt." Isn't it interesting how they all know that story? Oh, well here's why Israel's being judged, here's why Judah's being judged. They broke the covenant that God made with them. He said all nations are going to say this. They broke the covenant that God made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, verse 26, "for they went and served other Gods and worshiped them. Gods whom they knew not and whom he had not given unto them and the anger of the Lord was kindled against his ... " By the way, the Lord is a name. Look at the all cap LORD, the Lord was kindled against this land to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book, "and the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wraith and in great indignation and caste them into another land as it is this day."
Go to first Samuel chapter 17. That's what all nations will be saying. All nations would understand that when it happened. Go to first Samuel 17, verse 46. This is the famous story about David and Goliath where he goes out to battle with Goliath not for personal glory, but look what the Bible says in verse 46 of chapter 17. "This day will the Lord deliver the into my hand and I will smite the and take thy head from the and I will give the carcasses of the host of the philistines this day unto the fouls of the air and to the wild beasts of the Earth that all the Earth may know that there is a God in Israel."
Why did God perform these great miracles? Why did God cause these amazing events to occur of crossing the Red Sea and the plagues upon Egypt? Was it just because it was just for the Jews? No, he said I want the whole world to hear this. I want everybody to know. I want the whole Earth to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters the sea.
Go to first Kings 4. First kings chapter 4, King Solomon was the great king of Israel that followed King David. It says in first kings chapter 4, verse 29. While you're turning there I'll read for you another scripture about David. First chronicles 14, 16, "David therefore did as God commanded him and they smote the host of the philistines from Gideon even to Gazer," listen to this, "and the fame of David went out into all lands and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations." Are people hearing about David and the God of David and the miracles and the word of God? Yes.
Look at first kings 429, "And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore and Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt and he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol and his fame was in all nations round about."
Now if you want to walk away and say, "I don't believe the Bible." Okay. I don't know why you came to church this morning, but see you later, have a good day, but if you're going to claim to believe the Bible and then you're going to tell me that God's word didn't go out to all nations repeatedly in the old testament, you're denying scripture. What does the Bible say? Are these scriptures looking like the people of the old testament were just completely in the dark? It's only the Jews, only Israel. No, over and over again we see their fame going out to the whole world, less than 200 million people at that time.
Go down if you would to second chronicles. You turn to second chronicles 32. I'm going to read to you from first chronicles 16. "Sing unto the Lord all the Earth. Show-forth from day-to-day his salvation. Declare his glory among the Heathen, his marvelous works among all nations." Listen, we're not in Mathew chapter 28, folks. This is not the new testament, this is the old testament. He said preach it everywhere. Preach it to all nations! Now a lot of people will twist the scripture and Mather 10 where Jesus says, "Go not into the way of the gentiles and to any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." That was just for that specific soul-winning mission. He just wanted them in the limited time with the limited resources that they had to just go do a certain mission because Jesus had a mission to fulfill that in his three and a half year ministry they would go throughout all the cities of Judah. That was a prophecy that had to be fulfilled. That was a mission that he accomplished of getting the Gospel to everyone in Judea.
It wasn't just this thing of, oh since we're in the old testament, to Hell with everybody else. It's just for the Jews. That's [dis-pin-sational 00:29:28] stupidity from foolish false teachers who are liars, who twist the Bible and dice and slice it instead of rightly dividing the word of truth. I mean, look, are you telling me God didn't want to get the Gospel out to everybody in the old testament? What are all these scriptures for than? That was just one specific soul-winning. It'd be like if I said, hey everybody, go not into Scottsdale and into any area of Mesa enter ye not, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Tempe.
What would be my goal? My goal with that would be like hey, we're doing a goal to canvas all of Tempe We want to give the Gospel to every person in Tempe, so for now let's pull out of West Phoenix, let's pull out of Scottsdale, let's pull out of Mesa and Gilbert, and let's focus our efforts on Tempe so we can get the whole thing done in the next three years. That would make sense, right? I'm not saying make sure that no one in Mesa get's the Gospel because we want them all to be damned.
This is the kind retarded [dis-pin-sational 00:30:29] doctrine that's out there. It makes no sense. It's not biblical. You see God has always wanted his word to go out to all nations, and Jesus talks so much about this when he said, hey there are many widows in the days of Eliseus the prophet, but he was sent unto none expect for a woman of Sarepta, the widow of Zarephath that Elisha was sent to.
Where did I have you read just now? Where are you? Did we read it yet? All right, let's read it. Second chronicles 32, verse 22, "Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, the King of Assyria and from the hand of all other and guided them on every side and many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem and presents to Hezekiah, King of Judah," watch this, "so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth."
People are coming from all over. Look, friend, we're not turning to all the scriptures because we wouldn't have time. We'd be here for hours and hours and hours just to show you where God's predicting in the Mosaic law. People are going to hear about the glory of the Lord and they're going to come from all over and they're going to want to become Jews and they're going to come and join the nation and just let them be circumcised and keep the Passover. Let them inherit among your tribes. They're going to come from everywhere! The fame of the Lord's going to go over!
We don't have time to turn to those scriptures. We're just hitting the highlights. I'm trying to show you some stuff from the Mosaic law, some stuff from the days of David and Solomon, some stuff from the days of later kings, some stuff from the time of the prophet, because there's just so much we can't even look at it all. God's fame went throughout all the world in the days of Hezekiah. First chronicles 14, 16, and 17 is like a great commission of the old testament, and there are many other verses like it.
Let's go to Psalm's and see some scriptures in Psalm's. I'm just trying to show you that we can go to pretty much any segment of scripture and you're going to find this concept. I don't care if you're in the Mosaic law, whether you're in the book of Psalm's, whether in the historical books, whether you're in he major prophets, the minor prophets, there's this great emphasis on getting the word of God to the whole world, and there are numerous accounts where it was accomplished. Oh yeah, all nations heard about David. All nations heard about Solomon. All nations heard about Hezekiah. All nations heard about these men and their miracles and the great power of God.
Go to Psalm 22. Now remember, what's the context of Psalm 22? This is about the crucifixion of Christ. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Many prophecies about Jesus in this passage, and what does the Bible say after talking about Jesus for many verses? Look at verse 27, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before the." What does the Bible tell us in revelation, that people in Heaven will be of all kindreds, all nations, all tongues, someone will be saved.
Look if you would to chapter 66, Psalm 66. While you're turning there I'll read for you from Psalm 72, verse 17. "His shall endure forever. His name," talking about God's name, "shall be continued as long as the sun and man shall be blessed in him. All nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious name forever and let the whole Earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen, the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." What's the final word? David's last words in the book. You know, the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. What does he say? Hey, let the whole world know. Let every nation know. Let all men on Earth glorify the Lord.
What does it say in Psalm 66, verse 4? "All the Earth shall worship the and shall sing unto the. They shall sing to thy name, Selah." Look at chapter 67, should be on the same page there. "God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, Selah. That thy way may be known upon the Earth. Thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise the, oh God, let all the people praise the."
Go to the Isaiah, getting to the major prophets, Isaiah chapter 2. Is it just me or is there a mountain of evidence that throughout history God so loved the world. God so loved the world, not one nation, no, God so loved the world and he wanted all nations to be saved. Now it's true that the nation of Israel in the old testament were the chosen people of God. They were the chosen people. Why did he choose them? He chose them to do what? To be a light to the gentiles, but it didn't mean that he only chose them for salvation. That's not what it meant to be.
You know what, that's not what it meant in the old testament to be the chosen people. Oh, you're chosen to go to Heaven. No, what it meant was they were chosen to do a job, chosen to do a great work of spreading the Gospel to all nations, which has always been God's goal, and it has been accomplished over and over again throughout history.
Look if you would at Isaiah chapter 2, verse 2. "And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exulted above the nations and all nations shall flow unto it." Look at chapter 11, verse 9, Isaiah 11, verse 9, it's about the millennial reign of Christ. "They shall not harm nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea and in that day there shall be a route of Jesse, which shall stand for an [en-san 00:36:18] of the people. To it shall the gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious."
Look at chapter 12, verse 4. "And in that day shall ye say praise the Lord! Call upon his name! Declare his doings among the people. Make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord for ye hath done excellent things. This is known in all the Earth," the Bible says. Look at Jeremiah chapter 25. This is a really interesting scripture. This is actually one that I used to point to when I was a teenager. I remember the first time I read this in Jeremiah as a teenager this jumped out at me. I said whoa this is an important scripture and I used to show this to people all the time when they'd kind of be mixed up on this doctrine. I'd go to this as one of the many examples of what I'm showing you this morning.
Says in Jeremiah 25, verse 15, "For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, take the wine cup of this fury at my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send the to drink it." Now listen, Jeremiah the prophet, the great man of God, is being sent unto multiple nations to preach the word of God. True or false? You know what, when he's ordained in chapter 1, he's ordained a prophet unto the nations, not just a prophet to Judah alone, but he says you are a prophet unto the nations. He says all the nations to whom I send the to drink it, and they shall drink and be moved and be mad because of the sword that I will send among them." Verse 17, "Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand and made all the nations to drink unto whom the Lord had sent me."
Is he accomplishing the mission? He's getting it done. He's not the only one, this is just a great example. Isaiah did the same thing, traveled to other nations and preached, but look what the Bible says. "To wit," to wit means he's going to get specific about who he preached to, "To wit Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah and the kings thereof and the princes thereof to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing and a curse as it is this day. Pharaoh, king of Egypt and his servants and his princes and all his people and all the mingled people and all the kings of the land of Uzand the kings of the land of the Philistine and Ashkelon and Azzah and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon and all the kings of Tyrus and all the kings of Zidon and the kings of the isles, which are beyond the sea."
Isles means islands or coasts, "And the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, Dedan and Tema and Buz and all that are in the utmost corners and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the dessert, and all the kings of Zimri and all the king of Elam and all the kings of the Medes and all the kings of the North. Far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the Earth, and the king the king of Sheshach shall drink after them, therefore thall shalt say unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts."
Let me tell you something, is this the word of God or what? "Thus saith the Lord." Who's it going to? Was that a pretty long list of nations? Then other nations that he couldn't even really name, he just said nations that are beyond the utmost border. Nations past the isles of the sea, he went all over the place. This guy traveled for years preaching in all these nations. "Therefore thous shalt say unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, drink ye and be drunken and spew and fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you and it shall be if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then thou shalt say unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts ye shall certainly drink for low I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished."
No, they get a free pass. God, whoa, Buz? Edom? Zimri? The utter most isles? Don't they get a free pass? Oh no, no one gets a free pass. No one in this world gets a pass except a baby. Babies and infants and toddlers get a free pass, biblically, because they truly don't know right from wrong. We talked about that in a recent sermon, but no nation in this world gets a free pass. No island of the sea. What does the Bible say? "I will call a sword upon all the inhabitants of the Earth, saith the Lord thy host."
Go to Daniel. Let's go to Daniel. Let's fast forward in time into the book of Daniel, into the Babylonian captivity. Do you not see that in every era God's glory is proclaimed throughout the Earth, God's word circles the globe? Look at Daniel chapter 4, verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king, "Unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the Earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrote towards me. How great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation." Now we're not going to read the whole chapter, but Daniel chapter 4 was sent out as a proclamation to all nations, all kindreds, all tongues, and the entire world. What does that say?
Look, if you look at the book of Esther it talk about the kingdom that followed the Babylonian empire, this is the Babylonian empire, the next kingdom was what? The Medes and the Persians, right? Well the kingdoms of Persia, if you remember in Esther, were divided into 127 provinces, 127 nations that were under their control, and he said from India ... Oh, India never heard. From India to Ethiopia, he said 127 provinces that were under his direct rule. He sends out proclamations, [Mort-ic-keye 00:42:24]'s sending out proclamations. Here's a proclamation going out to all nations, all kings, all tongues. What does the Bible say in chapter 6?
Flip over to chapter 6. Now we're going further in history because Nebuchadnezzar was the king who actually conquered Judah. The captivity lasted for 70 years and then after that time the Medes and the Persians came and took over. Well here is one of the kings of Medea. This is Darius the Mede now, so we're in a whole different generation. Daniel's no longer a young man, now Daniel's an old man in this story. He's probably about 80, 90 years old. We don't know exactly how old, but somewhere between 70, 80, 90 years old, because if you think about it, he was taken captive as a child, fast forward 70 years.
The Bible says in verse 25 of Daniel chapter 6, "Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the Earth." Now look, if you believe the Bible, you believe that. If you don't believe the Bible, you don't believe that. Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for he is the living God and steadfast forever and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He deliverith and rescueth and he worketh signs and wonders in Heaven and in Earth who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions."
Let's go to the new testament. Let's go to the new testament. I'm going to skip all the scriptures I have in Mathew, Mark, and Luke where God's talking about how we need to preach the Gospel to the whole world. Hopefully you know those scriptures. Go into all the world, teach all nations, baptize in them in the name of the father, the son, the holy ghost. Preach the Gospel to every creature. Let's skip that and let's go to act 24. Go to acts 24 for sake of time.
There's so much. There's such a mountain of evidence we can't even get close to talking about all of it, but don't you think that this is an important teaching? A lot of people don't realize this. They don't know this. They either get into this dispensational garbage like oh in the old testament everybody was going to Hell except the Jews. Nonsense. Or they'll get into this thing of just oh well people are getting a free pass because they don't hear the Gospel. It's nonsense. Then the Gospel would be like a Gospel of damnation bringing bad news everywhere to people. Who'd want to be a missionary then? Maybe that's why so many Christians don't go soul-winning.
You know what, I'm here to tell you that if every Christian would just do a little bit of soul-winning, if every saved child of God on this Earth would just do a little bit of soul-winning, the whole world would hear the Gospel in one year. The problem is it's like 1% of the people doing 99% of the work when it comes to soul-winning. You know they talk about the 80/20 rule, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. I think among God's people it's more like the 1% and the 99%. There are some people in this world who get a lot of souls saved. There are people who get hundreds of people saved just by their own personal soul-winning, hundreds of people saved.
There are missionaries who travel all over and preach to hundreds of thousands of people. There are men who's translated the Bible into a whole bunch of languages. Men like William Carey went and just translated the Bible in a whole bunch of different languages in India and everything. That one guy accomplished a task, but then there are 99% of people who just sit around watching TV, goofing off, playing around, and wasting their life. Then they're like, I don't know, would God send those people to Hell? I'm not really sure whether those people get a free pass. You idiot! The Bible says no! You need to get out there and if you're Gospel's handed in to the lost! Are you nuts!
This kind of doctrine comes from people who don't go soul-winning so they sit around wondering whether people are really damned. Oh, they're damned. I don't know, maybe there is no Hell. Maybe Hell's not eternal. Yeah, you'd like to think that to justify you're worthless existence. Let me tell you something, only one life so soon is passed and only what's done for Christ will last. Everything else we do in life, all of our accomplishments are wood, hay, and stubble.
I have my accomplishments, you have your accomplishments. They're all wood, hay, and stubble if they're not spiritual. I've achieved things in my life that I thought were pretty cool and they're worthless in the sight of God. You've achieved things and you've broken this record or achieved that or achieved that. You know what? It's all vain. I'm not saying that we don't have a little fun in our lives an enjoy our lives, but you know what? We need to just understand that those things are wood, hay, and stubble. I'm not saying that wood's bad. Nothing wrong with hay and stubble, but you know what? If you're whole life is wood, hay, and stubble, you are living a worthless existence. It's only the gold, silver, and precious stones what you do for the Lord that matters.
I'm not to saying not to have a hobby or have fun, because we don't want to be righteous overmuch and be destroyed, but let me tell you something, you had better laying up some treasures in Heaven if you want to have any worthwhile existence on this Earth. That's what the Bible teaches. Otherwise you're an unprofitable servant. You're not valuable in the work of the Lord. You're a waste of effort and that's why Paul said the grace of God was not bestowed on me in vain. It was no waste, because I labored more abundantly than they all. That's what the apostle Paul said.
Where are we now? Where did I have you turn? Act? Chapter 25, verse 5, "For we have found this man," talking about the apostle Paul, "we found this man a petulant fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." Notice, a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world. Now, what is one of the major punishments God would bring on the Jews in the old testament? I'm going to scatter you into all nations, but he actually used that for his glory because by scattering them into all nations repeatedly, what's he scattering also? The word of God, because they're not all bad. Some of them had the word of God and some of them repented when they saw the judgment coming. They're like, oh man, and they repented turned back into Lord, so by scattering the Jews into all nations what's he scattering? The knowledge of the Lord into all nations.
Think about in act when they're all hanging out in Jerusalem and he's telling them go to the utter most part of the Earth! And they're all like really comfortable with Jerusalem. He brought persecution and then they went everywhere preaching the Gospel. An easy way to remember it, act 1, 8, is where he tells them to go to the utter most part of the Earth and then act 8, 1 is where the persecution drove them to the outer most part of the Earth because they're not doing."
Look at Romans chapter 1. Trying to get through as much of this as possible. If you can walk away from this sermon and well I still think that people throughout history have not heard of God and Jesus and the Bible, you say well what about the Native Americans that were living over here. They weren't living here. It's a fraud. Even secular, unsaved anthropologists will tell you that the Native Americans being here for thousands of years is a fraud. That's it not true. They were not living here at the time of Christ. They came after the time of Christ, period.
I've even heard that from unsaved, unbelieving, they just said that basically people just have an agenda. It's sort of like the atheists, they want everything to point to evolution, so that's how they interpret every fossil. No matter if they find a round peg for a square hole, they're going to make it fit, because they want to believe that there's no God. They're willfully ignorant. Well you know what, there's an agenda out there to teach this thing that the Native Americans have lived in this region for over 2 thousand years, and it's not. They have not been here for over 2 thousand years and it's been proven to be false. They have come since then, so I do not believe that anyone was living, and I have the authority of the Bible that no one was living in this continent 2 thousand years ago, period.
All the history that you, oh but the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Incas, it's all way more recent than that and can be proven to be way more recent than that. Where are we? Romans 1, verse 4, "Declared to be the son of God with power. According to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection for the dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name." Well, except the Indians. No, them too. Everybody, because they weren't living here at that time, they were living in Asia or wherever they came from.
The Bible says here in verse 5, obedience to the faith among all nations, that's the job, that's the apostleship. Look at chapter number 16. We already talked about Romans 1, Romans 9, and Romans 10, now let's go to the very end of Romans, chapter 16, verse 25. "Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the profit according to the commandment of the everlasting God," past tense, "made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."
Go to Colossians chapter number 1. By the way, Columbus did not discover the new world, because people have been coming over here for a long time. The Vikings came over, the Vikings came to Canada and they went to Greenland, Iceland, they came to North America. The Native Americans came and went. There are all kinds of people who've come to this continent before Columbus, just so you know, but I don't believe that they were living here at the time of Christ. I've studied that issue and I believe it's a fraud. Does that shock you? There's a lot of things that we're told that aren't true that people just think and they're not really true.
People state their theories as fact, is what it is. If there were people living here a long time, which I know there were living here a long time ago, but not back to the time of Christ, but here's the thing, who's to say that some of them that came over didn't worship Jesus? Then that knowledge eventually died out because of no soul-winning, because of people not teaching the children. That happens in the children of Israel all the time where they rise up and new generation that doesn't know the Lord. Think about that.
Look at a modern day country. Here's a great example, Mongolia. You look at today's Mongolia, there's almost no one who's a Christian there, very few Christians, it's a very small country. I think it's 96% Buddhist or something, but you know what? In the days of Genghis Khan, when he conquered huge amounts of the world, in fact eventually under Kublai Khan that empire of the Mongolian empire covered more square miles than any empire in the history of mankind, actually. Lot of it was uninhabited and sparsely inhabited, but they pushed it into Europe, they pushed it through China. It was huge empire, right. Did you know that amongst the Mongolians in Mongolia itself, in the capital city that I can't pronounce, such a weird name, there were multitudes of Christians there at that time? When we talk about Genghis Khan we're talking about the twelfth century Kublai Khan, the thirteenth century AD, so we're talking about approximately 8 or 9 hundred years ago, 7, 8, 9 hundred years ago, there was a massive Christian presence in places like Mongolia, China.
Even Genghis Khan's own grandson was married to a Christian woman and a whole bunch of his grandsons and decedents were married to Christian women and it was a big Christian presence. People today they just look at Mongolia today and say oh these people have never had the Gospel. No, they just don't have it today, but they had it back then. It's gone around and around and around. They chose to be an idiot that didn't go soul-winning, that didn't give the Gospel to anybody, that didn't even teach their own children and then eventually it died. It happened throughout the Bible.
Colossians chapter 1, verse 4. You say, man why do you get so fired up? Why are you yelling and all angry and fired? Because you know what, I'm passionate about this subject because I love souls. I'm passionate. I'm trying to wake somebody up this morning. I want to wake somebody up to say whoa we have a job to do, let's get it done. It's passion. It's not hate, it's love. Love says let's get them saved, let's get the Gospel out, let's reach everybody we can and understanding this truth helps us to understand. What's the point of the sermon? No one gets a pass. What does that mean? We gotta go out and give them the Gospel or they're doomed. That's the whole sermon in a nutshell.
Colossians 1, verse 4, "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which he hath to all, the saint, for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel, which is come unto you as it is in all the world and bringith forth fruit as it doth also in you." If you study the grammar of that sentence there, bringith forth fruit is referring to in all the world it brings forth fruit, because then he turns around and says as it doth also in you, because he's saying you and all the world brings forth fruit and it all does in you, meaning it's bringing forth fruit in all the world. Since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.
I'll read you one last verse, revelation 15, 4, "Who shall not fear the oh Lord and glorify thy name for thou art holy for all nations shall come and worship before the for thy judgments are made manifest." What's the sermon about? People are condemned if they're not saved. There's not free pass. There's no I was in too deep and dark of a jungle. No, they are condemned, and if our Gospel's hid, it's hid to the lost. We should get a burden for reaching people with the Gospel and by reaching people in our local area that helps us reach people all over the world because there are foreigners here coming every day from all over the world and we need to reach those people with the Gospel, but then we also need to think about reaching out even to other areas where we send somebody to go start a church in another city. We send someone out to a distant United States city and get the people saved there and preach the Gospel there. Then even beyond that eventually, the world, sending people to other countries to start churches in other countries in the world.
Look, I have a burden for this. Did you know that our church right now, materials from our church, whether that be sermons or the documentary films that we've produced, which do preach a strong Gospel throughout the movie and then also at the end the plan of salvation is clearly presented, but throughout the movie the word of God is preached. A strong Gospel message is present. You know those films and those materials and that preaching has been translated, just from our church alone, Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, into so far 118 languages. 118 languages, so even just one small church's efforts of what we can try to do to try and reach people, we've already knocked the doors of over a million people in area. We have four million people in this area, we've knocked the doors of over a million of them and you think we're done? No, we're just warming up. We're just getting rolling.
It's going to keep excelling. Every year we knock more doors than the year before, and so just one little church has knocked the doors of over a million people. Just one little church has put materials all over the world. We literally have visitors to our website every single month from every country on this planet, every country on this planet, with no exception and we have stuff in 118 languages which represents about 99% of the people in the world as far at least they speak it as a second language, one of those 118 languages.
The point is that the job is doable. If little old Faithful Word ... I mean, how big is our church? What do we run on Sunday mornings? About 175 people on Sunday mornings, so our church has an attendance on Sunday mornings of like 175 people, but we got stuff going in to 118 languages. The Gospel presentations that we've uploaded have been viewed literally like ten to fifteen million times. After the Tribulation's been viewed 7 million times. This is just the effort of one small church. Are we the only church? No, there are all these other churches, other preachers, other men, other soul-winners, other ladies, other children, who are working for God and trying to get this job done in the way that they know how, using the talents and abilities that God gave them, preaching the Gospel in their area, sending people to other areas, and listen to me. There is nothing new under the sun. Faithful Word Baptist Church, we invented this thing called soul-winning. We just decided to start translating stuff. It's all been done.
It's so funny whenever I do something and people come to me, hey Pastor Anderson, this has already been done. Like, oh well then shut my stupid mouth, it's already been done. Do it again. What you mean it's already been done? Of course everything's been done. You preached that sermon Pastor Anderson. That sermon wasn't even original. I've already heard. So what? Nothing I preach is original. It's all plagiarized and copied. It's all taken from this book. It's taken from other preachers, other people who preach. I didn't invent soul-winning. I learned it from somebody else. Everybody's been doing this stuff, and you know what? You don't think there was some Steven Anderson a hundred years ago that every hated and [excecrated 01:01:31]? There was.
You know what, there were Steven Anderson's all throughout history. There were people like you throughout history, people like me, people like all the churches around town, all the different Baptist pastors, pastors that I'm friends with, pastors that I'm not friends with, there were people like them all throughout history because there's nothing new under the son and people are people and guess what? In every generation there has to be that guy, and it's not one guy, it's those guys, who say hey we're going to take it seriously. Hey, maybe the world's going to Hell, but not Phoenix, Arizona. Everybody's going to hear the Gospel. Hey, let's get into other cities. Let's go to all the nations of the world.
There have been people who had a vision in every generation of the world. It's always been the same. Did you notice how we went through the whole Bible today. We literally went from genesis to revelation today showing the same thing over and over again. Same thing, David's day, Hezekiah's day, Josiah's day, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Mathew, Iraq, Rome, it's just the same thing! Why? Because there's nothing new under the sun, that's why.
Let me tell you something, you are either going to be like the great men of the past, the great women of the past, or you're going to be like the bench-warmers of the past. You decided, because this world's always been filled with losers and it's been filled with servants of God that are profitable servants. It's always been filled with the unprofitable and the profitable. In Paul's day there were people sitting on there rear-ends doing nothing, and there were people who labored more abundantly than they all. Which one am I going to be? Which one are you going to be? That's what we have to ask ourselves and get off this retarded doctrine that says that they get a free pass. Show me that in the Bible, Joel Osteen. It isn't there.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much Lord for the chance to be in your house, Lord, and I am not a silver-tongued orator or an elegant speaker, Lord, but I pray that the passion and the spirit behind what I'm saying, Lord, will sink down into people's ears, that these scripture's would stir in their hearts and that they would get a burden for reaching phoenix, reaching Arizona, reaching the United States, reaching North America, and reaching the world, Lord, with the Gospel. It can be done. I know there are people all over the world that are doing it that we've never even met and we'll meet them when we get to Heaven, Lord, but help us not to rely on them. Help us to do it ourselves in our area and do the best that we can, Lord, to give everybody the Gospel in the world, not just that they would hear of Jesus once or hear the Gospel twice. No, Lord, help us to get it to where everybody hears it over and over again so that the maximum people can be saved, Lord, because faith comes by hearing you word, Lord. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
