It's funny, I wrote this sermon and turned to Exodus chapter 20.
I had already written the sermon, but when I woke up this morning, you know how sometimes
you sleep on something and then it just, something pops into your mind.
I was working on my sermon last night and I woke up this morning and I remembered what
my parents taught me when I was just a little kid.
I hadn't thought about this in so long, but I can remember it like yesterday.
I can picture the face of my dad, I can picture our old house, and I remember him explaining
this to me when I was just a little kid.
And here's what he explained to me, he said, when you see these parts of the world where
Christianity is just barely existing or totally non-existent, you know, like some of these
places in Asia where everybody's Buddha is just non-existent, Christianity less than
1% or whatever.
He said, whenever you see a group of people that seem like they've just never heard the
Gospel or they just seem like there's no Christianity there, he said, what that means, son, is that
in the past their parents and their grandparents or great-grandparents have hated God and rejected
the Gospel and these children are suffering for what their parents and grandparents and
great-grandparents rejected.
That's the way my parents explained this to me when I was a kid.
That's how they explained it.
They said, it's not that the Gospel has never gone to these places.
They said, throughout history missionaries have always gone all over the world, throughout
history, just like they're doing right now.
It's just that a lot of these places, their parents and their grandparents rejected it
and they're suffering for that now and we have to go reach the new generation with the
Gospel.
Look at Exodus chapter 20.
Verse 4 says, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
And boy, that immediately brings what to mind?
Asia.
Whether it's Buddhism or Hinduism or Shinto or Jainism, you know what, it's a lot of idolatry.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them.
Why?
Why don't you want to serve them?
For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, hey, if you're going to hate me and not even want to retain
me and your knowledge and you're going to turn my glory into the image like a man or
a beast, you're going to have all these idols and worship idols and bow down to idols.
I'm a jealous God and I'm going to punish you and your children and your grandchildren
and your great-grandchildren.
Folks, an idolatrous nation suffers for three to four generations.
That's what the Bible says.
You know, we often hear this verse of, well, you know, the iniquities of the fathers are
visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Put it in its context.
What's the context?
Graven images, idolatry, and you know what, here's the key, them that hate me.
Folks, when people hate God, they're not just hurting themselves.
They're hurting their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren.
Now look, I don't want you to get the wrong idea here and think that, you know, oh, they're
doomed.
They can't be saved.
Folks, they can be saved.
But it's going to be harder to get them saved.
It's an uphill battle to get them saved.
Why?
Because of the sins of the fathers.
Because of the idolatry, because of God-hating grandparents, God-hating great-grandparents,
God-hating parents.
Folks, what do you think is going to be more likely for you to get saved?
Growing up in a Christian home or growing up in a home that hates God?
That should be obvious.
So even though we all have our own free will, even though we all make our own choice, obviously
someone is way more likely to get saved if they're growing up in the United States of
America than in these places that have just rejected God for centuries.
Missionaries came.
They rejected him.
Folks, it's hard to get them saved, but they can still be saved.
Folks, there are nations that are cursed by God today.
But even a nation cursed by God, you can still have the individual get saved and even become
a great man of God.
How about Simon the Canaanite?
Canaanites were a nation that was not blessed by God.
God cursed the Canaanites, but Jesus, in his hand-picked assortment of disciples, specifically
chose a Canaanite.
Why?
Just to show us that the individual can still be saved and do great things for God.
So number one, we said Asia is in a terrible spiritual condition.
I'm not going to lie to you and get up and tell you that Asia's condition spiritually
is okay.
It's in terrible condition spiritually.
Number two, it's not because they've never been evangelized.
They've been evangelized.
They rejected the gospel.
Number three, it is not because God doesn't want them to be saved.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 2.
And folks, there are people in this world who have this philosophy that it's just sort
of God's will that Asia be a heathen land and God planned it this way and God just planned
it.
He chose the United States.
Right after he chose Israel, he chose the United States.
The point is, that's why we have the two flags.
We have the American flag, the Israeli flag, and actually we have the Palestine flag.
You never thought you'd see that in an IFB church, huh?
We're going to pose for pictures with it afterward, like the Easter Bunny.
But look, here's the thing.
God is not up in heaven saying, well, you know, I just like white people.
I just like black people.
I just don't really like Asians that much.
You really think God's a respecter of persons?
Folks, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And so it's not that God doesn't want them to be saved, it's not that God doesn't like
Asia.
Hey, God likes Asia as much as he likes Europe or America.
Look, God is not a respecter of persons.
God wants all men to be saved.
It's not God's fault that Asia is in the condition that it's in.
It's Asia's fault that Asia is in the condition that it's in.
I'll read you a few verses while you turn to 1 Timothy 2.
Matthew 24, 14, Jesus said, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.
Matthew 28, 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations.
Mark 13, 10, the gospel must first be published among all nations.
That's God's will.
Luke 24, 47, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among
all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
Romans 1, 5, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith
among all nations for his name.
Look at 1 Timothy 2, 3, for this is good and acceptable on the side of God our Savior,
who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
God wants to have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
For there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time, whereunto I am ordained a preacher
and an apostle.
I speak the truth in Christ and lie not a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
God wants all nations to be saved.
God is not willing that any should perish, so don't get this Calvinistic type view that
basically says, well, God has just ordained, God just planned for the US and Europe and
different places maybe to have had these great Christian movements throughout history, but
he's just got a plan for these people to just be doomed and all go to hell.
Wrong.
His plan is for those people to be saved.
He is not willing that any should perish.