Here in Romans chapter 10, we're continuing through just verse by verse, and we will finish the entire chapter here today.
And so the name of the sermon is, you know, the zeal of Israel or zealous without knowledge.
Okay, that's kind of the focus at the beginning of this chapter.
Notice what it says here in Romans 10 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.
And what Paul says is that Israel was very zealous, but they had no knowledge.
Okay, now the first point is this fervor.
And fervor means great zeal.
Okay, they had a lot of fervor.
They're very zealous, but without knowledge.
And I'll tell you what, when you have a lot of zeal, when it comes to religiously,
but you don't have the proper knowledge, and you have the wrong belief system,
it becomes a very vicious thing, right?
Throughout the Bible, they're trying to kill God's people.
Why?
They're zealous, but without knowledge.
Now go to Acts chapter 19.
Acts 19.
At the beginning of this, of 2020, they had a poll of the most religious countries in the world.
And the way they determined this poll was they had various tourists go to different countries,
and it was perceived religiosity.
So basically, somebody would be a tourist, they would visit somewhere,
they'd come back, hey, on a scale of one to 100, how religious was that country?
Okay, for example, many people want to visit the United States, right?
And if you ever visit the US, you're going to walk away and say,
that is not a very religious country.
People don't go to church.
They don't read the Bible.
It's like they're not praying.
You don't see idols anywhere.
They don't really seem to be that religious.
See, if a country has a lot of idols, that's not a godly thing,
but you'd say they're very religious, right?
See, in the US, Catholics don't have the rosary beads.
They don't go to confession.
There's no idolatry.
Nobody has Bibles with them.
Nobody's going to church.
It's just not a very religious country in today's world, right?
There's a lot of countries in Europe that if you visit,
I mean, ask Brother Matthias after the sermon.
I'm sure some of the places he lived, just not very religious, right?
They don't go to church.
They don't read the Bible.
It's like they're just not that religious.
But you know, there's other countries that if you visited,
you'd say, man, they are a very, very religious country, okay?
That is what Israel was 2000 years ago.
Now I have a list on this poll of the top three most religious countries
according to this poll.
Now this is perceived religiosity, meaning somebody would visit that country
and they'd come back and say, hey, they're very religious.
Now we got some interactive preaching.
So who has some guesses?
And if you already know the answer, because a couple of you already know the answer,
I told you before the service, do not guess, okay?
Any guesses of the most religious countries?
Anybody?
You got to raise your hand.
This is school right now, okay?
Raise your hand.
If you get it wrong, you get a check mark.
You already know the answer, Dexter.
You can't say nothing.
Anybody?
Any guesses?
Come on.
Philippines.
That is a good guess.
They didn't make the top three.
Any other guesses?
India.
Right.
The most obvious one is obviously they only made number three on this list.
Now I think they should probably be number one.
I think everybody knows that's what I believe, but they're number three.
Any other guesses?
Nope, not Mexico.
What's that?
Israel's number one on the list, actually.
What'd you say, Brother Matthias?
No.
No, the other one on the list, because we don't want to make this the whole sermon,
right?
It's like a couple minutes.
Number one on the list was Israel.
I'll talk about that here in a second.
Number two was Saudi Arabia.
Number three was India, okay?
Now India is pretty obvious, right?
I mean, if you visited there, you got all the idols.
You got people bowing down before cows in the street and very religious.
No question about that.
In fact, in India, the Catholics crucify themselves in India too, right?
Number two was Saudi Arabia.
That actually makes sense because Mecca is in Saudi Arabia.
That's the big pilgrimage they do.
And I remember when Sister Abby was with us for several months.
She said they shut down all businesses, right?
Five times a day.
That's very religious, right?
Now number one was Israel.
Now here's the thing.
It's perceived religiosity.
So I'm not sure if they're really that religious,
but there's all these biblical sites there, okay?
But there might be a lot of people all day long at the wailing wall just going like this.
So, you know, maybe they do deserve number one.
I'm not really sure.
But one thing we know is that 2,000 years ago, no question, they were very religious.
That's what Paul's saying.
And you see that in the Bible because they're killing God's people, okay?
Acts chapter 19, verse 28.
Acts 19, verse 28.
And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out saying,
Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
This is the goddess they were worshiping.
And they're screaming, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
Verse 29.
And the whole city was filled with confusion.
And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel,
they rushed with one accord into the theater.
And when Paul would have entered in onto the people,
the disciples suffered him not, meaning they didn't allow him to enter.
And the reason why is they think they might be getting killed inside, right?
There's people that are worshiping idolatry, and they're very zealous,
and they're excited, screaming, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
And they say, Paul, do not go inside there.
They're going to want to kill you, okay?
They didn't allow him to enter in.
Verse 31.
And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent on to him, desiring him
that he would not adventure himself into the theater.
Verse 32.
Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the whole assembly was confused.
And notice this.
And the more part knew not, wherefore they were come together.
What that's saying is that most of the people were in there, and they're screaming out,
and then they're like, I don't know why I'm doing this.
They're just kind of following the crowd.
The more part knew not.
And they're just screaming, Hey, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
And they don't even know why they're doing this.
You know what that teaches us?
People just kind of follow the leader.
Just follow whatever you're taught.
Don't think for yourself.
Hey, just inject yourself with whatever they tell you to, because that's what they told
you to do.
Just follow the leader and do what everybody tells you to do.
But don't think for yourself.
Now, look, as a Bible-believing Christian, that's the wrong philosophy.
You ought to have your own brain, your own mind.
You ought to know what the Bible says, know what the Word of God says, and think about
situations.
Don't just be like, Man, I'm doing this.
It's like, I'm not so many here today.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't know why I'm knocking on people's doors.
I'm just kind of doing it.
Everybody else is knocking on doors.
I want to do it too, right?
It's like, no, I mean, you need to know why you're doing things, right?
Verse 33.
And they threw Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward, and Alexander
beckoned with the hand and would have made his defense onto the people.
But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours,
cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
For two hours, they're screaming, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
That's a lot of zeal, isn't it?
Not with knowledge, but it's a lot of zeal.
You say, how could they be doing that for two hours?
Well, there's this thing called the Feast of the Black Nazarene.
And for hours and hours, Viva, Viva.
It's like, are you at a soccer game?
Are you at a sporting event?
Viva, Viva.
And it's like you got that.
I mean, in America, with the Pittsburgh Steelers, they got this yellow towel they call the terrible
towel that they swing.
That's a sporting event, though.
But it's like people literally for hours just scream and scream, and they're just kind of
mindlessly doing it because that's what my parents did.
That's what I was taught.
Just a vain tradition.
And there is no new thing under the sun, okay?
Here, they're just screaming out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
Look, if she's so great, why do you have to spend all your time promoting her?
Right?
I mean, if she's so great, but you've got to tell everyone she's...
No, she's not.
And here's the proof of that.
Nobody knows who Diana of the Ephesians is today.
She's gone.
That goddess died a long time ago.
Okay.
Great is Diana of the Ephesians, verse 35.
And when the town clerk had appeased the people, he said, ye men of Ephesus, what man is there
that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshiper of the great goddess
Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?
Seeing them that these things cannot be spoken against, he ought to be quiet and to do nothing
rashly.
And he's trying to say in a calm way, hey, don't kill these people.
It's not a wise thing to do.
Don't do anything rashly, right?
Don't do anything stupid because people are very zealous of their tradition and they might
have killed them, right?
Verse 37, for ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches
nor yet blasphemers of your goddess.
He's saying they're not even blaspheming your goddess and you're trying to kill them because
they believe something else.
Okay, now go in your Bible to Romans 10, Romans 10, Romans 10.
I mean, there's no question the three countries we mentioned, I mean, with Israel, I think
it's kind of debatable, but certainly at one time they're very religious.
And you know, today they literally have a wailing wall where people are literally just,
you know, it's like, why are you doing this?
I don't know.
This is what my dad did.
He just took us to this wall.
We just kind of did this, right?
It's like they're God's people.
That's what you're supposed to do, right?
I mean, they just mindlessly do it.
I mean, in Saudi Arabia, they'll just stop everything five times a day to pray in public
to be seen of men, right?
I mean, in India, they have a lot of vain, strange traditions, and it's just what they
were taught they did.
And look, I'm not saying people that are raised in these religions, I'm not saying
that they're bad people.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying, you know, if you're raised in a false religion, you're going to believe
it.
You just naturally believe what you're taught, right?
I mean, I was raised a Protestant.
And so before I got saved, I just kind of assumed the Protestants were probably right
because that's how I was raised.
If you were raised Catholic, it didn't seem that weird to you with the rosary beads and
everything.
Now I hope it feels weird to you, right?
If not, then maybe we can give you the gospel after the service or whatever the problem
is.
I don't know.
Or maybe just keep hearing this preaching, right?
But look, whenever you do something, it's going to seem normal to you.
And people just kind of follow whatever they're taught, and they think it's correct.
They just kind of assume, and they just kind of play follow the leader.
Now let me ask you this question.
The Philippines did not make that list according to perceived religiosity.
But is this a religious country?
Absolutely.
I mean, I'm kind of surprised they didn't make the top three, right?
I mean, people are crucifying themselves.
You know, the Magdarame celebration in Pampanga.
It's like people are beating themselves.
And here's the thing.
It's worse than people realize that have not seen it.
Because I remember the first time I saw it, just like a year and a half ago, we visited
Pampanga around Easter time.
And of course, I had heard about this before.
And I just kind of assumed it was not all that common.
And I wake up in the morning, and I just hear this noise.
Like, it sounded like these chains hitting.
I'm like, what is that?
My wife's like, oh, that's the people beating themselves.
I'm like, what in the world?
It's like, I could hear from the hotel room.
It's like, what in the world?
Right?
And it's like, you're walking down the street, and it's normal to everybody.
People are walking in front of you, just beating themselves, and blood's pouring.
And everybody looks at it like it's normal.
I've got my head turned like, what in the world?
Right?
Because I'm not desensitized to it.
It's new to me.
Okay, this is a very religious country.
There's no question.
The idolatry all over the Philippines is out of control.
It's like a competition between provinces.
Who has the most idolatry?
Okay, now here's what I want you to understand, though.
Number one, being religious does not mean it's godly.
It doesn't mean it's right.
Just because somebody's religious, that doesn't mean they're a good person, my friend.
I mean, the countries we mentioned, I don't think they'd be at anybody's top of the list
for the godliest countries.
I mean, you can look at any objectable statistic of violent crimes, rapes, and murders,
and I'll tell you what, those countries are not exactly the best in the world at them.
Right?
I mean, there's one country that is named after Jesus Christ, El Salvador, the savior.
That's the name of the country.
And they are always in the top three for murder rates and drug dealing.
Just because they're religious doesn't mean that they're godly.
The Philippines is an extremely religious country.
Not saying that makes them godly, but here's the difference.
Try going soul-winning in Israel.
Good luck.
Try going soul-winning in Saudi Arabia.
Good luck.
Try going soul-winning in India.
Good luck.
Try going soul-winning here.
You'll get tons of people saying that.
I mean, it's really amazing that this is an extremely religious country, and yet we find
Catholics that are very religious, and they very often listen to the gospel.
We are blessed to live in this country.
Because there's people all around the world that live in places where they will not listen
to you at all.
Right?
They just aren't interested in the Bible.
They aren't interested in the gospel.
Here in the Philippines, people listen to you.
We get lots of people saved.
Look, in the United States, you can go soul-winning for hours and hours and hours.
Nobody saved.
No conversations.
I remember once I went 15 straight hours over a couple weeks.
Not a single person got saved.
I mean, can you imagine knocking on doors for 15 hours and almost everyone's like, nope,
nope, nope.
I mean, you knock a lot of doors in 15 hours, right?
Here, though, you will never go 15 hours without having people listen to you and getting saved.
Right?
People are open to the gospel.
We ought to remember that.
We're very blessed to be here.
Romans chapter 10.
Point number one was fervor.
Okay, when it comes to Israel, they were very zealous.
They had a lot of fervor.
Point number two is foolishness.
Foolishness.
See, having zeal but not having knowledge, it makes you a fool.
That's reality.
Romans 10 verse two.
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 onto the righteousness of God.
And what it says in Romans 10 is that people without knowledge.
Another way to say that is they're ignorant if you do not have knowledge.
And look, if people are not saved and they believe a false religion, they're ignorant of the truth.
And they will act foolish if they're zealous without the proper truth.
That doesn't make them bad people, but it's reality.
Right?
You look at these traditions that people have, and to us, it's foolishness.
Right?
You look at the Feast of the Black Nazarene.
It's foolishness to us.
You look at these traditions of these other countries and these vain traditions from religions.
It's foolish.
But if you're not saved, you're going to be ignorant of the truth.
Go to Acts 17.
Acts 17.
You say, Brother Stuckey, what these Catholics do, worshiping these idols, this is foolish.
You're right.
That's ignorant and everything.
Well, let me explain to you something else that's pretty ignorant and pretty foolish.
It's pretty foolish to tell me that Jesus died for all of your sins,
but you must repent of your own sins to be saved when they're already paid for.
That's foolish.
There's a false religion that's pretty foolish.
Whatever you believe before you were saved, it was foolish.
It was ignorant.
We shouldn't look down on people that have vain traditions because they were raised that way.
Look, it is foolish for Baptists in this country to sit here and say,
Hey, you know, it's a free gift.
Jesus died for all of your sins.
All you got to do is turn from all of your sins and give your life to God and believe on Jesus.
And you're saved.
That's all I have to do.
I got to turn from every single one of my sins.
Just turn from every single one of my sins.
Right?
That's foolish.
That's works.
That's hard to do.
And who can honestly say they've turned from all their sins?
Look, I'm still a sinner.
I sin every single day.
There's not a righteous man on the earth that doeth good and sineth not, the Bible says.
There is none righteous.
No, not one.
Before or after salvation, you still sin.
You're imputed with God's righteousness, but you're not 100% righteous and sinless.
You go to heaven because spiritually you are perfect, but you're still going to sin.
And it's foolish to say you've got to repent of all your sins in order to be saved.
Yeah, that's pretty hard to do.
Repent and turn from all of your sins, right?
That's a whole other sermon.
Act 17.
Point number one is forever.
Point number two is foolishness.
But my point is this.
Whatever you believe before you were saved, it was actually foolish.
It was ignorant.
You lack the truth.
You lack the knowledge.
Act 17 verse 22.
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all
things ye are too superstitious.
For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the
unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I onto you.
And he says you have this altar that says the unknown God.
And in Acts 17, they believed in this one God.
And yet they had lots of idolatry and they had a multiplicity of gods that they were
worshiping, even though they realized there is this one God.
You see, that sounds really strange.
It's not that strange.
That is exactly what Hindus believe.
Hindus believe in one God, and yet they worship hundreds of millions of gods.
You say, is that monotheistic or polytheistic?
Good question.
It's weird.
They believe in this one essence, and yet there's hundreds of millions of ways to worship
that essence.
Yeah, it's really weird.
You're partially polytheistic, partially monotheistic, right?
Pluralistic, where you believe in one God, but you're worshiping all of these different
ways.
That's what's happening in Acts 17.
Look, that's ignorant.
It's foolish.
It's weird, right?
Turn to 1 Timothy 1.
1 Timothy chapter 1.
You say, Brother Stuckey, yeah, that's really weird.
The Hindus, they believe in one God, and yet they're worshiping all these kind of minor
gods.
It's so strange.
Well, let me explain to you something else that's strange.
It's strange for the Catholics in this country to say we believe in one God, and yet you've
got all of these men that are kind of like gods.
You say, wait a minute.
How are they kind of like God?
You're praying to them.
You're praying to Joseph.
You're praying to Peter.
You're praying to all these people.
They're like a God.
That's literally the same as pagan worship or Hinduism.
There's really no difference.
That's like praying to the God of the rain, the God of the sky, the God of the ocean,
the God of the trees or whatever.
That's not really much different than Catholicism.
They've got all of these kind of minor gods that you pray to.
It's like, why not just pray to the true God?
Pray to the one true God instead of praying to all of these minor gods or saints.
Look, if you're saved, you are a saint according to the Bible.
When you believe on Jesus Christ, you are a saint.
But do me a favor.
If I drop dead one day, don't pray to me.
Man, I used to love Brother Stuckey's preaching.
I loved don't pray to me.
Okay.
It's like, that's weird.
It's bizarre.
And you're worshiping them like they're a God.
Okay.
First Timothy one, verse 12.
And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me for that economy, faithful,
putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious.
But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And, you know, Paul says this before I was saved, I was very religious and I did it ignorantly.
I believed the wrong thing and God was merciful unto me.
Now realize this.
Paul the Apostle was not going out and getting drunk before he was saved.
He was not going out and fornicating before he was saved.
He wasn't committing sins that he knew were sins.
He believed the wrong religion and he was doing bad things because he believed the wrong thing.
He wasn't just willingly committing sins, though.
Okay.
But he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.
It's zeal without knowledge.
It makes you ignorant or foolish.
Go to Titus three.
Titus chapter three.
Now look, here's the thing.
If you want to get people saved that have a false religion, you don't mock their vain traditions.
That's not going to help them get saved.
You know, we give the gospel to Catholics all the time.
There's no reason to mock them for traditions that they were taught.
And it's not like they're bad people.
It's just like that's what they were taught.
And they're just kind of following what they taught, right?
Instead of focusing on that, just focus on the gospel because that's how you get saved, right?
You know, if you were to talk to a Hindu, you don't have to mock them for their worship of cows.
I mean, of course, when I preach, I say that sometimes.
But I've given the gospel and gotten Hindu saved.
And guess what?
I didn't bring up cows.
It's not part of my gospel presentation to cows, right?
I mean, if you're trying to get somebody from Israel saved, if you ever visit Israel,
you don't have to walk up to them at the wailing wall and then just start mocking their religion, right?
You can see if they want to listen and just give them the gospel, right?
Titus 3 verse 3.
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
But after that, the kindness and love of God our savior toward man appeared.
And what he says here is this.
We were also foolish.
Why?
We were deceived.
We had the wrong belief system.
Look, false religion is foolish when you think about it.
And this is true with any false religion.
You look at atheism.
To say this earth is billions of years old, I'm sorry, it's foolish.
It doesn't make any sense, right?
Any false religion is foolish, okay?
Now turn in your Bible back to Romans 10.
Romans 10.
So Israel during this time, they had a lot of zeal.
They had a lot of fervor.
But they were foolish because they did not have the truth, okay?
Now at no point did they ever turn back to God.
They rejected Jesus Christ.
They rejected God.
And if you want to go to an area that hates Jesus Christ in this world, go over to Israel, right?
They're not a fan of Jesus.
They don't believe Jesus died for them.
They don't believe Jesus is the savior or the Christ.
They don't even believe he was a good teacher because you go to those other countries.
I mean, India will praise Jesus.
I mean, they literally will say he spent most of his life in India from 12 to 30, right?
They'll literally say that.
You talk to a Buddhist, he was a Buddhist priest.
Talk to a Hindu, he was a Hindu religious leader, right?
They literally teach that.
They don't hate Jesus.
Muslims, they don't hate Jesus.
He's one of their five prophets.
The Jews, oh, they hate Jesus.
They don't believe he died for them.
And yet tell me why we should give our money to support Israel today.
Where's that in the Bible?
It doesn't make any sense.
They were zealous without knowledge.
And guess what?
They rejected Jesus Christ.
Praise the Lord for the small remnant that did believe on Jesus Christ.
But by and large, they rejected Jesus Christ.
Point number one was fervor.
Point number two, foolishness.
Point number three is finality.
Finality.
It says in verse four, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
You say, what does that mean?
Here's what it means.
Before you were saved, you're trying to work your way to heaven, live a good life to get to heaven,
and you believe on Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
That's the end of it.
Because you've entered into that righteousness.
You've been imputed with God's righteousness.
Christ is the end of the law.
Okay?
Before I was saved, I prayed to God every single night.
And I was like, man, God, I hope you forgive me.
I want to go to heaven.
For two years, I prayed that every single day.
And then I heard the gospel, and I got saved.
And I changed my prayer to God forgive me for what I did wrong today.
But I knew I was going to heaven, right?
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that repents of their sin.
Is that what it says?
To everyone that gets baptized.
Is that what it says?
To everyone that goes to church.
Is that what it says?
To everyone that believeth.
That's what the Bible says.
To everyone that believeth.
Okay?
For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law,
that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
Verse six.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise,
saying not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven?
That is to bring Christ down from above.
What it's saying in verse six is this.
If you think that you can work your way to heaven and get to heaven on your own,
it's like you're bringing Christ down to your level.
Meaning you don't need Jesus to save you.
Meaning you're not less than Jesus Christ.
I mean, if you can work your way to heaven, it's like bringing Christ down from above.
There's no purpose of him dying and paying for your sins, right?
Just no purpose for it.
I mean, I've asked people this question before.
I've said to them, if Jesus died for all of your sins,
then why would living a good life get you to heaven?
Like, why does that make sense?
I mean, why did Jesus die for your sins if living a good life gets you to heaven?
And they'll just kind of sit there like, man, that's a good question.
Why did he die for my sins, right?
It doesn't make any sense if you believe the wrong gospel, right?
Verse seven, or who shall descend into the deep?
That is to bring up Christ again from the dead.
Who shall descend into the deep?
What's that referring to?
Well, it's referring to the fact that when Jesus Christ died on the cross,
his soul was in hell for three days and three nights.
And he died and he paid for your sins.
Yeah, he died on the cross.
But you realize that Jesus dying on the cross was not enough for you to be saved.
He still had to rise again from the dead, didn't he?
I mean, isn't that part of the gospel?
Dying alone is not enough for you to get to heaven.
Jesus had to rise again.
Otherwise, according to 1 Corinthians 15,
our faith is vain and you're yet still in your sins.
He had to rise again.
So look, when the Bible says it is finished on the cross,
he's not saying, okay, I don't even need to rise again now.
No, he still needed to rise again.
And he descended into the deep.
His soul was made an offering for sin for three days and three nights.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Jude chapter one.
Go to Jude chapter one.
Jude chapter one.
You know, here's the thing about that.
You believe on Jesus Christ, you don't have to descend into the deep.
You never have to go to hell.
Brother Stuckey, I thought I had to go to purgatory for 25 years.
Nope.
I mean, Jesus Christ died and paid for your sins.
All you got to do is believe on him.
And he is the end of the law for righteousness.
You believe on Jesus Christ.
You never have to worry about where you're going to spend eternity ever again.
And that is the greatest feeling of relief when you get saved.
I still remember when I got saved, I was just I was so thankful.
I was like, man, because I was worried before that.
And I never had to doubt or wonder about it ever again.
Now you got these churches.
They always try to hang your salvation over your head and make you doubt about it, right?
And they're just like, well, you know what?
If you're really saved, then you'd come to church every week.
I mean, you missed a service.
You might not be saved.
I mean, man, if you didn't read your Bible this morning, right?
I mean, we gave you the nine chapters.
If you didn't read your Bible this morning, you might want to check your salvation, right?
You might not be saved.
No, you might not be saved.
You probably aren't saved when you're preaching weird stuff like that.
Look, you know, when you get saved, you might start living for God.
You might not.
But I'll tell you what, if you run into somebody on the street who is a drunk
and they have the right message of salvation and it's by faith alone, you can never lose it.
It's a gift of God.
They're saved, even if their works don't reflect that.
Okay, why?
Because just because you're saved does not mean you're going to start living a good life automatically.
There are a lot of children that don't love and respect their parents.
That doesn't mean that they're not still their children, though.
Whether they obey or not, they're still their children, okay?
Now, it said the end of the law, and that is a phrase that's sometimes taken out of context
by other heretics, what I call end of the law preachers.
And there's these preachers that basically say, well, salvation is by grace through faith.
It's just belief.
So here's the thing.
God doesn't care what you do.
You can go out and commit whatever sin.
God doesn't care at all.
You murder someone, hey, it's okay, because you've entered into grace, my friend.
You want to get drunk?
Hey, that's okay, because you've entered into grace, okay?
Jude 1 verse 4 speaks of this.
It says, for there are certain men crept in unawares.
These are false prophets pretending to be good prophets.
For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, sometimes people accuse us of this because we say salvation is by grace through faith.
Well, you're giving people a license to sin.
You're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
No, no, no.
Wait a minute.
We preach hard against sin.
We just say it has nothing to do with salvation.
But there are those that preach that are heretics and they pretend to believe salvation is a free gift.
And yet they say it doesn't matter what you do, right?
God won't judge you in this life.
No big deal.
The most famous example of this is Joseph Prince.
Who's heard of Joseph Prince?
He's a famous preacher in Singapore.
He's got this mega church.
I like to call him Joseph Princess.
And you say, why?
Because throughout the sermon, he's like, you know, it's like he's got his hair in his face and everything.
I mean, he's very effeminate.
I mean, is he not effeminate?
Anyone who's heard him preach is like, man, I've never seen anyone that effeminate preach before, right?
Now, another example is kind of Joel Osteen.
Joel Osteen believes you can lose your salvation, but you can never get him to say it because he never mentioned sin.
So he's kind of like this.
But Joseph Prince is like the big example because this is literally what he says.
When you preach sermons, you should never preach against sin because it will cause people to feel guilty.
And God's given them grace.
You're causing them to feel guilty and it will cause them to commit sins.
So if I preach against drinking alcohol, I might cause you to become a drunk.
That's literally what he'll spend 20 minutes saying this.
So it's hard to get the sound by.
But if you listen beginning to end, he literally is saying by us making people feel guilty, you're causing them to do things worse.
So, hey, you know, if somebody comes to the church and they're committing some wicked sin, don't say anything bad about it.
You're going to make them feel guilty.
I mean, if somebody just killed someone and they visit our church, you shouldn't say it's bad.
I mean, you might cause them to become a serial killer and not just kill one person.
I mean, that's so foolish.
It's ridiculous.
But you know what that is?
It's turning the grace of God into a joke.
It's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
Look, we don't do that at this church because we preach salvation by grace through faith.
But we preach hard against sin.
Go to Romans 3, Romans chapter 3.
Look, I doubt, I doubt that it's your old church, they preach as hard against sin as I preach against sin.
They probably didn't preach against a lot of the things that I preach against.
They make salvation confusing and they never preach about sin.
We make salvation clear and it's by grace alone.
And yet we try to make you feel guilty for the sins you're committing.
No one could accuse us of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness because we preach the whole Bible.
We preach everything, right?
This is the New Testament Bible reading challenge.
We don't tell you to skip chapters, right?
I remember seeing this Bible reading chart from the Orthodox that they would give out.
It made me laugh because they'd say, here's your Bible reading plan.
They'd have a chapter.
It's like 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 and 2, verse 5, verse 8.
And it's like, they just made you skip all of these sections in a chapter.
It's like, what are you afraid of there?
Right, John 3, but skip John 3, 15, 3, 16, 3, 18, 3, 36.
Just focus on the born of water, right?
It's like, you know, what kind of a Bible reading chart is that?
Okay, no, we preach the entire Bible at this church.
Romans 3, verse 31, and this is what they accused Paul of.
They say, you're preaching salvation to the Lord.
They say, you're preaching salvation by grace through faith.
You're giving people license to sin.
Do we then make void the law through faith?
Verse 31, do we then make void the law through faith?
God forbid, yea, we establish the law.
And at our church, you could say we establish the law.
We preach against sin.
We preach and teach what the Bible says.
Nobody could say, man, you're just turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, right?
You're just giving people license to sin, okay?
I mean, people don't need a license to sin.
They're going to sin no matter what anyway, because they have a sin nature.
But let me tell you something, we preach hard against people's sins.
And these churches that claim that we're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness,
they're the ones that don't preach against anything.
They're phonies, they're false.
Go back to Romans 10, Romans 10, Romans 10, Romans chapter 10.
I mean, these other churches, they always just preach on the love of God, the love of God.
You say, is there anything wrong with the love of God?
There's nothing wrong with the love of God if it's in its proper perspective.
But, you know, just as when I talked about raising kids in the first sermon,
if all you teach your kids is how you love them and love them
and just give them candy whenever they want,
you're giving a wrong balance to those children, right?
There's the love and there's the admonition as well.
You need both of those things.
And from the word of God, that's the way it is.
Look, we preach through the sermon series on the fruits of the spirits.
Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness.
You know, we also preach the sermons against sins.
You preach everything in the Bible.
Point number one was fervor or zeal.
Point number two, foolishness.
Point three, finality.
Point four, let us talk about faith, okay?
And this is what the rest of the chapter is about,
is about preaching the gospel and getting people saved.
I want you to notice Romans 10, verse eight.
Romans 10, verse eight.
But what sayeth it?
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach.
Now, Paul says we preach the word of faith, okay?
Salvation is by grace through faith alone.
But he also says in this verse, it's in thy mouth and in thy heart, right?
Because when we preach the gospel, we preach the gospel,
we tell them it's a free gift, and at the end,
we close it out by having them call upon the name of the Lord.
That's not works.
Because according to Romans 10, verse eight, it's the word of faith, okay?
Now, here's the thing.
If your gospel presentation just skips the part about believe
and only focuses on praying, well, yeah, that's wrong.
But we preach the gospel.
We focus on believing, and at the end, if they believe it,
we have them call upon the name of the Lord, right?
That is the template.
That's what Romans 10, verse eight is saying.
The word of faith, it's in your mouth and in your heart.
Verse nine.
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.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
So the Bible says you believe it in your heart,
and you call on the Lord for the salvation.
Now, I want you to realize something.
Why is it that we do this?
Because salvation is by grace through faith alone,
whosoever believeth in him,
and there will never be a person that fully believes and doesn't get saved.
Because whosoever believeth in him should not perish but of everlasting life.
You will never have someone that believes the free gift and who Jesus is,
and they don't get saved.
Isn't that what John 4 says?
Jesus said to the woman at the well,
If you knew what the gift was,
and you knew who was giving it,
you would have asked for it.
Look, every single person that really believes,
they will ask for it.
Here's the thing, though.
We don't see somebody's heart.
Man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart.
And as I'm preaching the gospel to someone,
I can't really see what's inside their heart.
Now, you can kind of perceive what they're thinking sometimes.
You can ask them questions.
And the goal is to ask them questions that are not leading.
You don't give them the answers.
You just kind of ask them,
Hey, if you committed this sin, would you still be saved?
Right?
What you don't do is say,
Hey, you know what?
According to the Bible, you know,
if you commit this sin, you're going to still be saved.
So do you believe that if you commit this sin, you'll still be saved?
Well, you just gave them the answer, right?
It's like, you know, this math problem, the answer is nine.
What do you think the answer to this math problem is?
It's nine.
Well, I wonder why they got it right.
Okay.
It's like, you don't want to give them the answer
because you want to find out what's in their heart.
Okay.
We can't see what's on the heart,
but their words will actually give us an indication what's on the heart.
Now, could they lie to us?
Absolutely.
But that's our best indication of what they believe is what they say.
I mean, you walk up to a door looking at a person,
you don't know what they believe.
And they could be holding this hymnal, right?
They could be singing the hymns, right?
They could be singing songs like Verily, Verily.
That doesn't tell you if they're saved.
You can't look at them and know.
And look, you could walk up to them and they're holding a bottle of whiskey.
It doesn't tell you whether they're saved or not
because you don't know what they believe on the inside.
But their words will indicate us to us.
Okay.
I'll give you an example.
I met somebody in college and, you know,
I don't try to give the gospel to people that are drunk
because they're just not going to understand it.
But I ran into this person and I didn't know that he was drunk at the time.
And I asked him, you know, what do you think it takes to get to heaven?
And then I found out very quickly he was drunk.
But as he's slurring his speech, he's quoting Romans 10, 9 and 10.
He's like, I know it doesn't look like it.
I know you won't believe it.
But he's like, I'm saved.
You can't lose your salvation.
He's like, I grew up an independent fundamental Baptist,
drunk as a skunk, my friend.
But I'll tell you what, if I don't see him again,
I'm going to see him up in heaven.
He had the right gospel.
And he's like, you're not going to believe that I'm saved.
I was thinking, I do believe you're saved because he seems to understand
salvation is by grace through faith.
Right.
And so you can't necessarily tell by people's actions.
And the only way to really tell what's on the inside of their heart is by what they say.
Here's the thing.
You could be preaching the gospel to someone and during the conversation
inside of their heart, they fully believe it, like 10 minutes in.
But there's not a light bulb that goes off where you're like, okay, they just got it.
Okay.
I want you to understand something.
Let's say somebody is drowning in water.
They're drowning and they're going to die.
And they see you standing beside the water.
What are they going to say?
Help save me.
Right.
If they believe they're going to die and there's somebody there that can save them,
you know what the automatic response is?
If they believe that in their heart that they're going to say help or save me.
Nobody's just going to let themselves just drown.
Like I've got my back turned and then they're there drowning and they're just,
they're not, they're going to say something.
You're gonna say help save me.
Right.
It's the same thing with spiritual salvation.
If you believe it inside your heart and someone has shown it to you and you believe it,
it's going to be automatic.
You're going to ask Jesus to save you.
When somebody gave me the gospel, when I got saved,
I don't remember how the exact conversation went.
I remember it was about an hour and a half or something,
but I don't even think they told me to call in the name of the Lord.
But I still did when I got home because it is automatic.
You say, brother Stuckey, if it is automatic, then why do we do it?
Well, that is the template that the Bible gives us.
Number one, Romans 10 verse eight.
But it's indicating to you whether or not they believe it
because they might seem like they believe it.
But honestly, the proof's in the pudding.
And once you get to the end, if they're like, no, I just don't want to pray.
What is that telling you?
They don't really believe it.
Now it is possible that five minutes earlier during the conversation,
they called on the name of the Lord out of their hearts.
They fully believed, and it just boom, it came.
But you don't really know that.
And they're not going to just, if they believe it, refuse to pray.
When people refuse to pray, I assume they don't believe it.
What I hope is that they're prideful.
I hope they're just so prideful and they just do not want to pray.
And they really do believe it.
And hopefully that's the case with some people.
But you know what?
Honestly, they probably just don't believe it.
There's probably something they're not sure about.
And you could have explained it, and they might give the right answers.
Just because they give the right answers and they know what the answer is,
it does not mean they actually believe it.
When we're going soul winning, our focus is on explaining by faith alone.
If people are going out there and just spending two minutes, just pray this prayer with me.
You know, I've literally seen this technique before, and it made me mad.
I was soul winning with someone a long time ago, and everyone told me ahead of time,
man, you're lucky to go with this guy.
This guy always gets somebody saved.
I was like, oh no.
This is the United States, okay?
In the US, you do not always get somebody saved.
He always gets somebody saved.
And it's like during the conversation, he's asking the guy,
hey, is there something I can pray for you about?
And it's this technique.
You put the hand on the shoulder.
All right, now just say these words.
Just repeat after me.
Dear Jesus.
It's like you tricked them into saying a prayer.
Look, that's not salvation.
They got to believe it in their heart.
I mean, they've prayed a million times.
They've got to actually believe.
So when we preach the gospel, you know, the focus on the prayer is like 20 seconds.
And it really just kind of confirms, do they believe it?
And that's how you get the confirmation.
If most of your gospel is trying to get people to pray a prayer
and you're not focusing on the believing, you're doing it wrong, okay?
But the prayer is not hard to get people to say if they believe it.
They're going to say, sure, I'd love to pray.
Now, I will say this, though.
There are people that will pray with you even if you don't explain anything, right?
I mean, if you knocked on someone's door and said, hey, can you pray with me?
Can you pray to receive Jesus?
Sure.
I'd love to receive Jesus.
Look, there are people and you could come back with 25 salvations, so-called.
It's fake, though.
I remember one time me and my friends, we did a soul-winning marathon in West Virginia.
And, you know, we found like the area we thought was going to be very receptive.
And it was.
We had like, you know, 10 or 11 soul winners, and we had like 41 salvations,
which is fantastic in the US.
That's pretty good here, too, right?
To get four salvations in a day.
But we kind of split up and everything.
Great results.
And everyone was a bona fide soul winner spending 20 minutes per conversation.
And everybody had like three salvations, five, four.
I mean, I had four salvations that day.
And I remember we got back to the church and, you know,
we talked to the person who was the assistant pastor.
He's like, hey, how did it go?
It went great.
You know, we had like 41 salvations or 43.
And he said, oh, that's great.
He's like, me and my son, we went out on the bus route.
You know, a couple hours ago, we had 81 salvations.
Him and his son.
And, you know, here's the thing.
Like, you know, what do you say to that?
It's the assistant pastor of the church, so you got to be respectful.
On the inside, I was thinking, I want to punch this guy in the face, right?
But it's like 81 salvations.
It's like, what in the world?
And I remember, you know, at a church I went to,
they would have like a once a year soul winning event.
And they'd have testimonies afterwards for the teens.
And people would come up afterwards and give their testimony of the day.
People literally hit triple digits in one day with salvations.
And they tell their stories like, oh, man, you know, we were out.
And I talked to this baseball team and all 37 of them
called on the Lord Jesus Christ to save them.
All 37?
What in the world?
It's like every single one of them.
It's like, man, I just preached in a stadium of 10,000 people.
Every single one of them.
I had 10,000 salvations today.
Okay, then why don't we use Billy Graham's technique if that actually works?
It's garbage, right?
Now we're talking about doing bona fide soul winning,
and it should focus on the belief.
But the way we end it is we pray a prayer with them.
And that kind of indicates, do they believe it or not?
Okay, and it is possible earlier on in the conversation,
they've already put their faith on Jesus Christ,
but we can't see the hearts.
That's kind of our best way to kind of indicate.
So explain in depth and then see if they're going to call.
And sometimes there's a hesitation.
And then if you ask them, you know, is there a part of it you were confused about?
They might say, I'm still not sure about suicide.
I know you said that you can't lose your salvation even if you commit suicide.
But I was taught my whole life that that is a mortal sin.
And it will indicate there's still something not clicking.
Okay, that's why we do it.
It indicates to us what is inside of their heart.
And that's the template we have in the Bible.
We show them it's by faith alone,
and then they call on the Lord to save them at the end.
Romans 10 verse 11.
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Okay, now in verse 11, I don't believe it's saying that if you believe on him,
you're not going to be ashamed to call on the name of the Lord.
I think it's saying when you believe on him, you're going to heaven.
Okay, and if you cross reference here with ashamed, that's what it's referring to.
Okay, verse 12.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,
for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
So the Bible talks about calling on the Lord.
Now it's interesting, he says there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
How did we start this sermon?
We talked about Israel was very zealous, but not with knowledge.
And if they're going to change their mind what they believe in,
who they call on as the true savior, the true God, our indication is by what they say.
So what it's showing us is this.
People have other religions.
How do we know if they've changed what they believe based on what they say?
Do you still think that you have to keep the sacraments to go to heaven?
You know, yes, I think you got to believe and keep the sacraments.
Well, they don't believe yet, right?
That indicates to us what they actually believe.
There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
Why?
Everybody must change their mind about what they believe in order to believe on Jesus Christ.
If you're trusting these idols to get you to heaven,
you've got to change your mind about that, to believe on Jesus.
Now the context is not about turning from your sins, though.
Do you notice that?
You have to change what you believe, whether it's the Jew or the Greek.
It doesn't say, well, whether you're the drunk or the liar.
You got to repent of your sins.
No, it's the Jew or the Greek.
No matter what your religious beliefs are,
you've got to change your mind about what you believe.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Verse 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
If somebody does not believe, they cannot call on Jesus to save them.
Now they can pray prayers.
That's not salvation.
They have to actually believe what salvation is.
What they have to believe is that it's a free gift that lasts forever in Jesus Christ.
Right?
They have to understand that, you know, Jesus Christ is the Savior,
and it's a free gift, and it's forever.
Right?
That's what we see in the Bible.
So they cannot call on Jesus to save them if they don't understand.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I've heard pastors say here before
that you can call on Jesus without even understanding what you're doing and get saved.
It's like, yeah, I've heard some of those Bible Baptist preachers say that too.
You can be saved and not even know what it means to be saved.
It's like, how do I even answer that?
You know, the Bible says you must believe.
Okay, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
Okay, and so here's the thing.
Nobody just goes about their day, and then all of a sudden they just wake up.
Man, I just call on the Lord.
Nobody ever gave me the gospel.
I just kind of call on the Lord.
There goes Calvinism.
Man, I'm just waking up and boom, nobody told me, but now I believe.
Right?
No, somebody has to give you the gospel.
They have to hear, and how shall they hear without a preacher?
I say, Brother Stuckey, can somebody get saved on their own without a soul winner?
What does the Bible say?
No.
How shall they hear without a preacher?
Now, I've heard people say, well, but Brother Stuckey,
the books of the Bible were written by preachers.
So can't you just read what they wrote and get saved?
No, because this is the word of God.
It's not an explanation on the word of God.
Yes, these were written by preachers, but they don't explain.
There's no commentary, not in my Bible at least.
I don't know about yours.
There's no commentary here.
This is the word of God, but then we explain the word of God.
So here's the thing.
There's no explanation.
These are just the words of God, okay?
This is 100% the word of God we have in the King James Bible.
But it doesn't explain, hey, this is what Romans 6 verse 23 means.
And an unsaved person, they need to understand what those verses mean.
Nobody gets saved on their own.
Nobody reads the Bible on their own, having never heard the Gospel and get saved.
It's impossible.
And I want you to realize, if it were possible, think about this.
If it were possible to get saved without a soul winner,
did you know that in Acts chapter 8, that story would be gone with the Ethiopian eunuch?
Why did Philip have to put in an effort to preach the Gospel?
Because he's reading about Jesus Christ dying in the Old Testament.
And he's like, understand is that what that reads?
How can I accept some man should guide me?
He's like, I don't have a clue what I'm reading.
Why?
He doesn't have the Spirit of God inside of him.
If somebody could get saved without a soul winner, guess who would have?
Cornelius.
It says he feared God before he was saved.
He feared God.
And yet somebody showed him words whereby thou and thy whole house shall be saved, the Bible says.
You need a soul winner to get somebody saved.
Nobody gets saved on their own.
And if you're saved in this room here today, you're saved because somebody gave you the Gospel.
You say, why did God set it up this way?
Well, probably because it forces you to be humble.
You can't brag about, man, I just got saved on my own.
I was just reading the Bible and I just believed on Jesus Christ.
No, no, somebody had to give you the Gospel and it forces you to be humble and say, I
couldn't figure it out on my own.
Right?
You heard the Gospel.
Look, I don't care if somebody gives you a testimony about how they said they got saved
on their own.
What does the Bible say?
And when people give you these testimonies and then you ask them about their salvation,
it's usually different.
Case in point, Martin Luther.
Didn't Martin Luther just get saved reading the Bible on his own?
Well, after his salvation, he still thought you had to get baptized as a baby, still thought
you could lose your salvation, still believed in the Eucharist, still believed in all of
these false things.
So how did he get saved when he didn't change what he believed?
He might have prayed a prayer.
He didn't believe on Jesus Christ.
Okay, how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
And see, here's the thing.
Unless somebody sends you to preach the Gospel, you're not going to preach the Gospel.
Right.
You say, what's the importance of church?
Well, one part of that is the fact you're going to get more people saved if you're connected
to a church than doing it on your own.
Right.
Because at 2 15 PM here today, we're going to pair you up and just send you out to preach
the Gospel.
Here's the thing, though.
Let's say you didn't have a church to go to where the church you went to didn't go so
when you probably wouldn't go so winning at 2 15 PM.
See, how shall you preach except you be sent?
And here's the reality.
Before you came to this church, for most of you, you probably didn't do a lot of soul
winning.
Right.
You believed in soul winning.
You knew you should do it.
You felt guilty about not doing it, but you didn't do it.
Why?
Because you need a church to get connected to.
This is everybody, myself included.
If I wasn't part of a church, I probably would just go home and relax after church.
If the church didn't go so winning, you need a church that's sending you to preach the
Gospel.
You need organized time and being sent out to the community where it does not happen.
How should 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.
And the Bible says that if you're preaching the Gospel of peace, you've got beautiful
feet.
If your wife asks you, honey, do you think my feet are beautiful?
Do you think they're pretty?
Well, I mean, it depends on how often she goes soul winning.
If she never goes soul winning, then according to the Bible, well.
See, I mean, according to the Bible, you say, why is that?
Well, because the function of your feet, what's the purpose?
It's the purpose is to put you in the direction you're supposed to go.
And God says, you know, when you're going soul winning, you're using your feet for
what their purpose is to go out and to preach the Gospel.
Okay, how should they preach except they be sent as it is written?
How beautiful are the feet of them which preach the Gospel of peace and bring glad
tidings of good things.
But they have not all obeyed the Gospel for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our
report?
We preach the Gospel to many people, and you know what?
Most of them are going to reject what we say.
Many doors we knock on, and they're not interested.
They don't believe, right?
That's reality.
Not everybody's going to get saved.
Some people will, and some people won't.
Okay, that's just the way it is.
Now we're blessed because in this country, there's a higher percentage of people that
will get saved.
But there are plenty of people that just aren't interested.
And it doesn't really make sense to me because I'm saved.
And I'm like, man, how would you not want to know?
But I mean, for some people, they're playing their video games, right?
They're playing that game that I already forgot what the name of it is.
Mobile Legends, right?
And you go up to them, hey, you know, you know, do you go to church anywhere?
And they'll answer, but they're not paying attention.
You know, do you have free time?
So I'm really busy right now.
I'm really busy.
It's like, yeah, you look really busy, right?
They're just not interested.
That's just reality.
Some people are not interested.
Then it says here in verse 17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word
of God.
So what produces the faith inside of somebody?
The word of God.
Ask yourself this question then.
Can somebody get saved if you don't use the Bible and just your own personal testimony?
No, because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
You have these people that stand up here.
Man, before I was saved, I was the worst of the sinners.
I used to drink.
I was dealing drugs.
I was sleeping around.
And then I found Jesus.
Bless God.
Well, first off, that's not salvation.
And first off, why are you bragging about sins that most of us have never committed?
And then here's the thing.
Your personal testimony doesn't get anybody saved.
The Bible says the testimony of the Lord in John 3.
And what is that?
That Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died on the cross and paid for your sins and
rose again.
Not your testimony of, well, when you got saved, you quit drinking, you quit smoking,
you started going to church.
First off, that's not salvation.
And your personal testimony gets nobody saved.
It's a testimony of the Lord.
Okay, that's what the Bible says in John 3.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
And so realize this, that nobody gets saved without the word of God.
Nobody.
Nobody gets saved with just the word of God.
You need both.
You need the seed and the sower, right?
You need both of those things.
You need the word of God and you need somebody to explain the word of God.
Nobody just gets saved by just reading the Bible.
They've never heard the gospel.
They just read it and like, man, I believe this.
No, somebody gives them the gospel.
That's what the Bible says.
The sower soweth the word, meaning it doesn't sow itself.
Meaning that if nobody's sowing the seed, you're not going to see a bunch of apple trees
everywhere.
Somebody's got to sow that seed, but you know, you got to have seed.
I mean, imagine if I went out to try to create apple trees and I didn't bring any seed with
me, just had empty hands.
Just good luck.
I mean, is that going to produce an apple tree?
No, you need the seed.
And what is the seed?
The seed is the word of God, the Bible says.
So you need the word of God, not just man's words.
No, you need the word of God and you need an explanation of the word of God.
You need the combination.
In your gospel, you should have many Bible verses used and you should explain each and
every one of them.
Now, one mistake you can make if you're a new soul winner is the verses make perfect
sense, don't they?
Because you're saved.
You know, you still have to explain John 3 16, right?
You still have to spend time because as clear as it is, if you're not saved, you don't get
it yet.
So it takes time to explain the gospel because even though the verses are very clear and
the gospel is very simple, if someone's not saved, they just don't get it yet.
We still have to spend the time to explain it.
Okay, 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 onto the ends of the
world.
Now, according to the Bible in Romans 10 verse 18, say, what about if someone's never heard
about Jesus Christ?
Everyone's heard of Jesus.
The sound went into all the world.
Everybody's heard of Jesus Christ.
It's like people like to say, oh, nobody's heard of this.
They're isolated.
Nobody's 100% isolated.
Their sound went into all of the world, the Bible says.
Now, what's funny is you've got these religions that say you've got to be a part of our church
to get to heaven, right?
We got some of those religions here in the Philippines.
Here's the funny thing about that.
Nobody knows who you are outside of the Philippines.
Nobody.
Your sound has not gone in all the world.
So how do you know that, Brother Stuckey?
Because I grew up in the most Maputi state in the United States, West Virginia.
And look, I never knew any of these religions that come from here.
But Jesus Christ, His name is in all the world.
I saw this documentary one time, you know, in the Philippines that they made.
And they were talking to this group of people that were kind of isolated up on the mountain.
And somehow they lived here in the Philippines, but they weren't citizens.
And they had been here for like 50 years.
And they were going through all these famous things.
They had like this.
I think they're using a cell phone or something.
They're going through all these famous events.
And then they were asking them, have you heard of this?
Have you heard of this?
They do like the landing on the moon, supposedly.
That's a whole another topic and all these different things.
And they say, have you ever heard about this before?
And you know what?
These people that are completely isolated, they had heard about many of the things.
I mean, they showed Michael Jackson singing.
They're like, do you know who this is?
They're like, oh, it's Michael Jackson.
Every single one of them knew who Michael Jackson was, but they don't know Jesus Christ.
I mean, come on.
Everybody's heard of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Menes has a story where he came from Venezuela.
And like the first week out soul winning, they were knocking on a door.
And the person said, well, I can't believe this because he was born in Venezuela.
Pastor Menes.
And they said, you know, I can't believe this.
What about if somebody grew up in some deep, dark jungle in, I don't know, Venezuela?
And he's like, I lived in Venezuela like a week ago.
It's like, what are you talking about?
It's like everybody knows who Jesus is.
Okay.
His name went into all the world.
That's what the Bible says.
Verse 19.
But I say, did not Israel know?
First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people.
And by a foolish nation, I will anger you.
Now notice how it says, I will provoke you to jealousy.
It doesn't say envy.
It says jealousy.
You say, what's the difference between jealousy and envy?
Well, jealousy is when basically there's something that belongs to you.
Okay.
Envy is when it's something that doesn't belong to you.
For example, jealousy is not a sin in the Bible.
The Bible says God is a jealous God.
If you're married, you ought to be jealous of your spouse.
You say, well, I don't mind if my wife goes out to eat with other men.
Well, first off, you're lying.
And secondly, you ought to be jealous of your wife.
You ought to actually care about her and say, no, you know, we're married.
We belong to each other, right?
Envy would be like, if it's somebody else's wife, like Uriah with David, where he was
envious, he wanted, you know, Bathsheba, which didn't belong to him.
Okay.
What says here, I will provoke you to jealousy.
Why does it say jealousy?
Because of the fact God said, you know what?
I made you my people.
I poured out my blessing upon you.
It was yours.
I was married onto you and you blew it and you're done.
And it's saying, I will provoke you to jealousy because look, Israel should have looked at
it and said, man, it's like, God's blessing is away from us.
I mean, he gave us the word of God.
He poured out his blessing and now he's departed and poured out his blessing upon other people.
It's like, yeah, it did belong to you and you threw it away.
Verse 20.
But Isaiah is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not.
I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
But to Israel he saith, all day long I've stretched forth my hands onto a disobedient
and gainsaying people.
God gave every chance in the world for them to believe on him and to trust on him.
And they rejected it.
And look, the Jews are rejected to this day.
He that believeth not the son shall not see life.
They're not going to heaven if they don't believe.
They weren't going to heaven in the Old Testament either, but as a nation, they've been rejected.
God's blessing is not upon them.
So look, and look, the Bible teaches for tithing, it's 10 percent.
Obviously, we know that.
But look, don't give a first-fruits offering to Israel, okay?
I mean, if you want to give extra money, there's plenty of good things.
Don't just save money.
Man, I just want to help support Israel, you know, rebuild their temples and help them
have their altars back and everything.
All right, the Antichrist is going to love you, my friend.
It's like, save your money, okay?
They're rejected because they became wicked as a people, and by and large, they rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ when he came.
You say, how do you know that?
They killed him.
Let his blood be upon us and upon our children.
The Romans didn't say that.
The Jews said that.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see Romans
10 and all the great applications we can make.
God, help us to understand these things.
Help us to understand that this is a very zealous and very religious country, and it
doesn't mean that people are bad people.
They're just deceived.
They have the wrong truth.
And help us to bring the gospel in love and show them that we care and just try to preach
the gospel and get people saved, God.
And we ask you to be with us and bless us today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.