Now the verse that I wanted to preach about tonight is verse number 19 where the Bible
reads,
And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
Now if you would flip back just one page to 1 John chapter 4 and the Bible speaks also
of this subject.
It says in 1 John 4, 5,
They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God.
He that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us.
Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Now if I were to stand up and say something similar to what the Apostle John is saying
here in verse 6 today, people would look at that as a very proud or arrogant statement.
To basically say this is the acid test of who is of God and who is not of God.
Who is of God and who is of the world.
He said here's the acid test, he says in verse 6,
We are of God.
And in 1 John 5 19 he said,
We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
And here he says,
We are of God, he that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us, hereby, meaning this is how we know, the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error.
You know Jesus said something similar when he said,
He that is of God heareth God's words, ye therefore hear them not, because you're not
of God.
And you know when someone does not hear the word of God, you show them the word of God,
they don't believe it.
You preach them the word of God, they don't understand it, they don't believe it, they
don't receive it.
They don't hear us when we talk to them.
It's because they're not of God, because we're speaking God's word if we're preaching the
Bible.
Now the Bible says we know that we're of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
You know there's so many people out there that say things like this, well you know you
think you're the only ones that are right.
Now we do think we're the only ones that are right, and I'm not saying our church, but
I'm saying as Bible believing Christians, we are the only ones that are right.
And you know there's all these religions out there, there's Hinduism, there's Buddhism,
there's Islam, there's Catholicism, and you say, come on, are you saying all these people
are, yes, they're all wrong, and the whole world is lying in wickedness.
We are of God, okay?
Because the bottom line is that we are the only ones who are right as Bible believing
Christians.
Now if you would, go to Luke chapter 13.
Luke chapter number 13, Matthew, Mark, Luke.
Luke 13 says this in verse 22, and he went through the cities and villages, teaching
and journeying toward Jerusalem.
Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?
Now that's a good question, and it's a question that I've often wanted out.
You know, what percentage of people are saved?
How many people are saved?
Is it a lot of people that are saved, or is it few people that are saved?
That's the question that's being asked.
And you know you say, you think you're the only ones that are right.
You know, you think, you know, you Bible believing Christians are the only ones who
have the truth.
They'll say, you know, there's many ways to God, or you know, how can you say that somebody's
not of God just because they don't follow it the same way you do?
But the Bible says if they don't hear this word, they're not of God.
If they don't hear the words of 1 John, if they don't hear the words of the Gospel of
John, if they don't hear the words of the Bible, if they don't listen to God's word,
they're not of God.
Islam is not of God, okay?
All these religions are not of God.
And it says here in Luke 13, are there few that be saved?
Look at Jesus' answer.
He said in verse 24, no, there's lots of people that are saved.
Is that what it says?
No.
In verse 24 he says, strive to enter in at the strait gate.
And strait there is spelled S-T-R-A-I-T, that means narrow.
Like the straits of Gibraltar, for example.
It's a very narrow waterway.
People often misquote this and they think that strait means that it's not crooked.
That's a different word.
That has a G-H in it, okay?
Here he says, strive to enter in at the strait gate.
So the question is, are there few that be saved?
The answer is, it's narrow.
Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many, what's the opposite of few?
Many.
And he says, many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able.
You say, well how can somebody seek to enter in or try to enter in and they're not able
to?
I mean, doesn't the Bible say ask and ye shall receive?
Doesn't the Bible say seek and ye shall find?
Doesn't the Bible say knock and it shall be opened unto you?
How could they seek to enter in and not be able?
The answer's in the next verse.
What's the first word of the next verse?
When.
Do you see that in verse 25?
When.
He says, look, many are going to try to get in when once the master of the house is risen
up and is shut to the door.
He's saying people are going to try to get in but it's going to be too late.
He says once the door is shut and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door
saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence
you are.
Then shall you begin to say, we've eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught
in our streets but he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence you are.
Depart from me all you workers of iniquity.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out.
Because he's speaking specifically to the Jews there who they think that they're followers
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He says you're going to be weeping and gnashing your teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob in the kingdom of God with all the prophets that you look up to and you're cast out.
You're thrust out because there are few that be saved.
You better make sure that you enter into the straight gate before it is too late.
And once that door is shut, the door is shut.
That's it.
It's just like Noah's ark.
Remember?
He got on the ark.
Once the door is shut, it's too late.
You're done.
And the Bible says in verse 29, they shall come from the east and from the west and from
the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God and behold there
are last which shall be first and there are first which shall be last.
Go to Matthew 7.
In Matthew chapter number 7 we see a similar passage.
Look at verse 13 of Matthew 7.
It says, enter ye in at the straight gate.
For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there
be which go in thereat because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth
unto life and few there be that find it.
That's a direct answer to that question.
Are there few that be saved?
He said yes, it's few that find it.
Well, I just find it hard to believe that all these millions of people are all wrong.
All these billions of people are all wrong.
Yeah, but Jesus said that's how it would be.
He said that the majority would be wrong.
He said the majority would go to destruction and that it was the narrow way that lead to
life and that few people would find it.
He said in verse 21, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in
thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then while I
profess in them I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
So first of all, we see that Jesus Christ makes it clear over and over again, no man
cometh unto the Father but by me.
And the Bible tells us neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
So when we look at the population of the world, approximately 7 billion people, and we look
at it, right away we can ex out a whole bunch of people who don't even claim to believe
in the name of Jesus.
We can ex out a billion Muslims.
You know, we can ex out a billion Buddhists.
I mean we can just take whole groups of people and say these people are on their way to hell
because they do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But then even amongst those who claim the name of Christ, not few but many will say
to Him in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in Thy name.
Now are these people claiming the name of Christ?
Are they doing it in the name of Jesus?
They're saying we've prophesied in Thy name and in Thy name have cast out devils and in
Thy name have done many wonderful works.
Now look, if you were really saved, is this what you'd be saying to God if He told you
like, sorry you're not coming into heaven?
I'd be saying what about John 3.16?
What happened to whosoever believeth?
I thought it was by grace through faith.
I thought you died for all my sins.
I thought you were buried and risen again.
You wouldn't be bringing up all your works but you know why these people are bringing
up their works?
Because that's what they were trusting in to save them, their works.
So even amongst those who claim the name of Christ, there's a very large contingent, in
fact the majority who claim the name of Christ, who say our works are going to get us into
heaven.
Meet the Roman Catholic Church that clearly teaches a works-based salvation.
Many other denominations that teach a works-based salvation.
Even many Baptists who will believe that it's by works.
And so what we see here is that it is a narrow way.
The world today truly lieth and wiggles.
We're of God but you know what, the vast majority of this world are not of God.
They're not His sheep.
They're not His children.
It's a sad state of affairs.
Go to Romans chapter 1 if you would.
Romans chapter 1, because we need to lay this down because a lot of people think well, God's
not really going to hold people accountable if they haven't really lived in a place where
the Gospel's prevalent.
We live in the United States and really in the United States, for anybody to say that
they have an excuse for not being saved is ridiculous.
Because in the United States, we're exposed to the Bible so much.
No matter who you are, you're going to hear verses from the Bible.
You see churches constantly.
You've probably had people knock on your door.
I mean our church alone, our little church here has knocked the doors of so many hundreds
and thousands of people.
You know, a huge chunk of this whole city that we've knocked the doors on.
Other churches are out knocking doors.
People are hearing the Gospel.
The Gospel's on the radio, TV.
For you to not have heard about Jesus and the Gospel and salvation in America, I don't
know where you've been under a rock somewhere, but everybody in America has at least heard
something of it.
So to say that they're having an excuse is ridiculous because I've had people knock on
my door through the years, many times.
I was already saved, but I had people show up and try to come give me the Gospel before.
And so we see that people are without excuse, but a lot of people say, well what about the
guy that's in this country?
And they'll say, you know, there's these countries that have never heard the Gospel.
And Christianity is just not even known over there.
Look what the Bible says in Romans 1.16, it says, for I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written that
just shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them for God has showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being
understood by the things that are made even as eternal power and Godhead so that they
are without excuse.
Because that 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.
So here we see that God has shown Himself through the natural world, has He not?
Now a lot of people will say, well, this means that if somebody just looks at the natural
world and just believes there's something out there, that person's saved.
Wrong.
You must believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the name of Jesus.
But what this is saying is that people can clearly look around at the natural world and
know that there is a God.
They can see creation, they can see His eternal power and Godhead, that tells them hey there's
a God because only the fool has said in his heart there is no God.
Now I know there are probably a lot of people who have said out loud that they don't believe
that there's a God, but I think many of them in their heart know that there's a God.
Only a complete idiot says in their heart there is no God.
Because you'd have to be stupid, you'd have to be an imbecile to look at the marvelous
creation and the animals and the plants and the greatest creation of all, the human being
and the human mind and the human soul and say, well this all came from nothing and if
you don't believe that you're uneducated.
It all came from nothing.
But today only an idiot would believe such a thing.
And many people, I talked to a guy who was saved, but he was a staunch atheist before
he got saved.
His parents were atheists, he was an atheist, and he was raised up to be an atheist.
But he said that he was always an atheist with everyone else, but he said whenever I
was alone I would talk to God and say God if you're out there you don't even talk to
God.
And eventually he ended up getting saved, but he was a staunch atheist for a long time,
but in his heart he knew there's got to be something out there, there's got to be a creator.
And so what the Bible is teaching here in Romans 1 is that the natural world shows us
there's a creator, shows us God's power, and then that should basically spark us to want
to seek more, to seek after God and to look for God if happily we might feel after him,
as the Apostle Paul said.
And here's the thing, people in America today, they hear verses from the Bible.
Somebody's heard John 3.16 or something of that nature, and that's a powerful verse.
That's enough to get you saved right there.
But people hear snippets of the Bible and they get this light of maybe somebody knocking
their door, leaving them with a verse, maybe they read a track, maybe somebody talks to
them, they hear something on TV, radio, whatever, and they get this little bit of God's word
in their heart.
You know, the choice then is to say I don't care, I'm not interested, or do they want
to look further?
Maybe go to church, maybe invite the soul winner in to talk, maybe show up at church,
maybe ask a friend or relative or somebody at work that they know is a believer.
There are ways that they can learn more or they can just not care.
Ignore the wonders of creation, ignore the fact that there's a God and just live like
there's no God.
And that's their choice and they're going to suffer the consequences of making that
choice.
That's what the Bible's teaching here.
But you see, we're taught that there are all these places all over the world where Christianity
just doesn't exist and where people have just never heard of the Gospel.
And I'm going to show you some things in the Bible to prove to you that that's false.
Go to Romans 10 if you would.
But let me start out by saying this.
We know that originally everybody heard the Gospel because the world started out with
Adam and Eve, right?
They knew the Gospel.
And then their kids grew up and made whatever decisions and eventually the whole world became
wicked after about 1600 some years.
And then of course Noah was the only one who got on the ark with his family.
The rest of the world was flooded.
So when Noah gets off the ark, there are eight people there.
You know, Noah, his wife, the three sons of Noah, and their three wives when they get
off the ark, right?
Those people all had heard the Gospel.
They all knew who God was.
They had all heard the Word of God, right?
So we know that at that time everybody knew about it, okay?
Then we see man, you know, spread out and divide into different nations and different
groups and tongues and peoples.
And people will say, well, you know, this particular family over here or this nation
over here or this country over here, man, they've never heard the Gospel over there.
But wait a minute.
Have they never heard the Gospel?
Or is it that maybe their parents heard the Gospel and rejected the Gospel and now the
children are living in darkness as a result of the decisions of their parents?
You see, we can look at a guy like Ham, you know, when he gets off the ark.
And we can pretty much guess that Ham did not bring up his children in a godly way.
And therefore Canaan was cursed by God.
And then we know that Canaan was a wicked person and we can see that his descendants
became wicked people.
And so what we see is that the parents make certain decisions that are damning unto the
children and that cause the children to perhaps be raised up in darkness.
For example, and you know, you say, well I don't know if I agree with that.
Okay, well think about this.
If there's one family that's atheist and then there's my family, which kids do you think
are hearing the Gospel more and have a better chance of getting saved?
My kids or the atheist's children?
I mean that's just common sense.
And that's not God's fault, okay?
When people raise their children in darkness and teach them lies and pass those lies onto
their children and those children become damned, you know, that's the result of the parents'
decision to reject Christ.
I mean how many times do you knock on the door and you go to give somebody the Gospel
and they reject it and they have little children there, you know, they could be rejecting it
for the whole family, you know, because those kids now, if the parents would have received
it, the kids had a great chance of receiving it.
And if they reject it, the kids very likely may reject it.
And so look what it says in Romans 10, 9.
It says 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
for the Scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
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 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear
without a preacher?
So this chapter is covering the subject of people not hearing the Gospel, right?
You know, when we look at this passage, we can think of nations or parts of the world
where people have supposedly not heard the Gospel, right?
And we can look at this and say, man, okay, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord, but how can they call on somebody they haven't believed in?
How can they believe in someone that they've never even heard of?
And how can they hear without a preacher?
And then it says, and how shall they preach except they be sent?
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace and
bring glad tidings of good things.
Verse 16, but they have not all obeyed the Gospel.
So does that say, but they just haven't heard it?
They just haven't heard the Gospel.
He said they've not all obeyed the Gospel.
What he's saying is, just because you look at people that aren't saved, and just because
you look at people that are not Christian, it doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't
heard the Gospel.
It just means they haven't obeyed the Gospel.
So you can't just look at a nation where the vast majority of people are not saved
and say, well, these people must have never heard the Gospel because they're 99% Muslim.
Or they're 99% Buddhist, they must have never heard the Gospel.
No, maybe they just rejected the Gospel.
That's what he's explaining here when he says, look, they've not all obeyed the Gospel.
You can't go by that.
You can't go by how many people are saved to figure out how many people have heard it.
Because some groups and families and nations are more receptive than others.
Look what he says next.
For Isaiah saith the Lord, who hath believed our report, so then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
Let me prove to you that what I'm saying is right.
Look at the next verse.
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.
Now isn't that saying that God's word is gone throughout the world and that they have heard
and that people have heard the Gospel?
He says, but Isaiah is very bold, or I'm sorry, look at verse 19, but did 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.
But Isaiah is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest
unto them and that's not after me.
But to Israel he saith, all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people.
Now go to Jeremiah 25, Jeremiah 25 in the Old Testament.
You see, according to the Bible, the word of God has gone into all the world.
And when we study the Bible we see that that is the way it has always been from the beginning
of creation until now.
And this doctrine that teaches that there are parts of the world and nations of the
world that have never heard the Gospel and that have just been in darkness for hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of years, I don't believe in it, I don't think it exists.
Now let me give you an example.
It's funny, I was reading a book over the last couple of weeks, I was reading a book
on the life of Genghis Khan.
Who knows who Genghis Khan is?
You know, so I read a very long, lengthy biography of Genghis Khan.
And Genghis Khan is the one who founded the Mongolian Empire and just to help you understand
the size of the Mongolian Empire, at its peak it stretched all the way from Korea to Poland.
That's a pretty big empire.
I mean it was all of, you know, we look at Russia today, it covered that whole huge landmass
of most of Russia.
It went into Eastern Europe.
It covered all the, you know, a lot of the Muslim lands, a lot of the Arabic area of
the Middle East.
It covered most of present day China into Korea, other East Asian nations.
The Mongolian Empire covered 22% of the Earth's landmass.
And I mean that's taking into account North and South America and everything.
I mean 22% of the Earth's landmass was under control of the Mongolian Empire.
Now Genghis Khan founded the Mongolian Empire in the early 1200s, 1206 AD, okay?
And he did not conquer all of that in his lifetime.
He conquered quite a bit of it though and then his descendants conquered the rest and
expanded it over a hundred years or what have you.
But here's what's interesting about the Mongolian Empire, which covered not much of Europe,
but mainly all of Asia, the Middle East, right?
China.
What's interesting is that even though Genghis Khan was not a Christian, okay, he believed
in the Mongolian religion of worshipping the sky and shamans and all this crazy stuff.
In fact, many of his descendants became Christians.
And in fact, the Mongolian Empire at times was ruled by women that were the widows of
some of these Khans, you know, some of the subsequent Khans that came after him, ruled
by these women that were Christians.
A lot of what they called the Golden Family, which was Genghis Khan's family became known
as the Golden Family because they were like the ruling dynasty for a while.
Many of the Golden Family were Christian and in fact, throughout the entire Mongolian Empire,
there was actually pretty much religious freedom and I was reading about, and this book isn't
a Christian book, it's just a history book about the Mongolian Empire, and it was explaining
in the book that in all the major cities of the Mongolian Empire, there were just tons
of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists and they were all coexisting and there were
all these Christians in all the major cities and even much of the royal ruling family of
the Mongolian Empire was Christian and one of the major religions of the capital of Mongolia
at that time was heavily Christian.
And they weren't even Catholic because they're telling the Pope, you don't know what you're
talking about and whatever, I'm not saying they were all Baptist, but I'm just telling
you that throughout Asia, throughout this massive part of the world that today we would
look at that part of the world, right, and say that is a part of the world that's destitute
of the gospel, wouldn't we?
I mean if we looked at Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, the Middle East where it's all Muslim, we'd
look at that area and say, oh man, that's an area where almost nobody's Christian.
That's probably one of the biggest areas people would point to as an area and say those people
have never heard the gospel.
Often people point to Africa, say Africa has never heard the gospel, but Africa probably
has more Christian missionaries in it than any country in the world.
They've heard the Bible, they've heard the word.
I mean how many tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of missionaries have gone to
Africa with the King James Bible in their hand?
So many.
And then we look at this massive part of the world here.
I mean 22% of the land mass, but you know, let alone we know North and South America
there's a Bible in every town, in every store, but just even that part of the world over
there, at that time there were lots and lots of Christians.
Christianity had a heavy influence.
Even people who were ruling the Mongolian Empire were Christian, many of them.
I'm not saying that they were saved or Baptist, I'm just saying that there were many claiming
the name of Christ and the Bible and the word of God and Christianity were prevalent in
all of Asia at that time.
And I was just reading a secular history, it's just explaining the religious makeup
and what's going on.
And then it explains how later the Mongolians rejected Christianity by and large.
So I looked up a statistic today, and of course you know this is just Mongolia, but I'm just
applying this to the whole world.
I'm just giving you an example though.
You know today in the country of Mongolia, which is just a small country, there's only
about 3 million people living there.
I looked at the statistics of Mongolia today, and it's basically 53% Buddhist, 39% say they're
not even religious at all.
So did you get that?
53% Buddhist, 39% said they're not religious at all.
Christians, there's about 2% of the population that says that they're Christians.
You know I saw a statistic in China, 25 million people are officially Christian.
But those are the ones that go to like a state-sanctioned church or whatever, they don't have the statistics
on all the people that are underground or whatever.
So what I'm trying to say is this, you can look at a place like Mongolia today and say
oh that is an un-Christian place.
That is a place where many people probably live and die and never hear the Gospel because
only 2% of the people are even claiming to be Christian.
But wait a minute, there was a time when Christianity was a major religion there, even
in that part of the world.
Even in China, even in Mongolia, even in the Middle East.
But what happened?
They rejected it.
They didn't pass it on to their children.
They turned to the false religions of Buddhism.
They converted to Buddhism around the 1500s in Mongolia.
And many of these other countries, you know, converted to Islam and rejected Christ, kicked
out Christianity and so forth.
And look, when you kick out Christianity out of your nation and you kick out the Bible
and you kick out God's Word and you convert unto Buddhism and Islam and other false religions,
you are plunging your descendants and your children into generations of darkness.
And that's what we see today in the world, but we're very foolish if we look at a country
that's been plunged into darkness and say it's always been in darkness.
Do you really know that?
Did you have guessed that Mongolia was filled with Christians in the 1200s?
No, because you don't know because you weren't there.
And so what I'm trying to say is that throughout history, God's Word has gone throughout the
world.
And I think in every generation or every several generations, God's Word goes out and God's
Word goes into nations.
You know, you look at a nation like, you know, North Korea for example, right, that's very
closed off and isolated.
I'm sure that it's very isolated from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but how long has it
been that way and how long will it continue to be that way?
Eventually it will fall.
Eventually God will allow the Gospel to come in.
And then those people will have a chance to accept or reject the Gospel.
And based on their choice, their eternal destiny will be determined and in many cases the eternal
destiny of their children will be affected because they may plunge even their descendants
into darkness.
But you know, God only visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the childrens unto the
third and fourth generation.
And then He's going to give people another chance, you know, and in fact He gives people
other chances even before that in many cases.
But I believe that there are so many places in the world today that we look at and say
these people have never had the Gospel, but the truth is that the Bible says in Romans
1 that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.
It's not that they never knew God in Asia.
It's not that they never heard about God in Africa or any of these places.
It's that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.
And then they became darkened.
And when we see in Romans 10, He says, look, their sound went into all the earth, their
words unto the ends of the world, but they've not all obeyed the Gospel.
That's the problem today.
So this philosophy that says, well it's not fair, these people haven't heard the Gospel,
they don't have a chance.
Look, God says that when they knew Him, they rejected Him.
And that's their fault, not God's fault.
Now we should obviously go out and try to preach the Gospel to every creature.
We should try to even take the Gospel unto distant nations, if possible.
And by the way, one way we can do that is by winning people to Christ here, because
you can win foreigners to the Lord here that can then be a witness in their own nation
or go home and bring the Gospel to their nation, sort of like the Ethiopian eunuch, you know,
get him saved and then he goes back rejoicing and he's going to give the Gospel to other
people.
But look at Jeremiah 25, because what I want to show you is, you know, you say, well Pastor
Anderson, okay, you brought out one example of the 1200s.
Okay in the 1200s there are all these Christians.
But who's to say that there weren't a bunch of Christians before that and after that?
Okay, different phases, different waves have come through, different missionaries have
come through, different surges of the Gospel have come through, different revivals have
happened in different places, and we don't know the history of it.
All we know, here's what we know, we're of God and the whole world lieth in weakness.
And here's what else we know.
We live in a country where everybody knows the name of Jesus.
We've always lived in a country where everybody knows the name of Jesus.
We know that in our day there's Christianity abounding in all these different places.
And we know what the Bible says when God said that all these different families and nations
have heard the Gospel.
And here's further proof.
In Revelation it says there will be people in heaven from every family, every kindred,
and every nation, and every tribe.
So if there's some nation or family or tribe or kindred that's never heard the Gospel then
how come there's going to be people up in heaven from those nations who went up in the
rapture in Revelation 7?
So these are people that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and there they are in heaven.
But I believe that throughout history God has always made sure that the word of God
got out to all corners of the globe.
It's no different in our day, a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, three hundred
years ago, I believe that the Bible teaches that God has always made sure that His word
goes out to the ends of the world.
And of course it's our job to bring it there.
But here's what's interesting.
In Jeremiah 25, this is in the Old Testament, so this is before Jesus Christ had died on
the cross, and yet we see even in Jeremiah 25 we see God's word going out to all nations.
And we see this over and over again.
Remember Nebuchadnezzar sent it out to all nations.
King Darius sent it out to all nations.
You know King Ahasuerus ruled over 127 provinces.
He sent it out to all nations.
They all glorified the God of heaven.
Okay, but in Jeremiah 25, 17 it says this, this is Jeremiah.
It says, Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink under
whom the Lord had sent me.
So these are nations where Jeremiah is sent to preach.
To wit, Jerusalem, so that's the first place he goes, Jerusalem and the cities of Judah
and the kings thereof and the princes thereof to make them a desolation and astonishment
and hissing and a curse as it is this day.
You say, oh wow, big deal.
So he's preaching in Israel.
Well, what a shock.
Okay.
Well 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 Uz and all the kings of the land of
the Philistines and Ashkelon and Asa and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom and Moab and
the children of Ammon.
No, that's just, that's still stuff that's just in the immediate area there.
And all the kings of Tyrus and all the kings of Zidane and the kings of the isles which
are beyond the sea, did you see that?
The isles which are beyond the sea, Dedan and Timah 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 desert and all the kings of Zimrai and all the kings 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.
Now is Jeremiah preaching to a lot of kingdoms or is it just me?
That's a lot of kingdoms.
I mean I haven't even heard of any of those places.
I don't even know what he's talking about.
He's talking about all these cities and nations I've never even heard of.
He's going to the north, he's crossing the sea to places, he's going out into the deserts
of the east, he's going to all these kings, he's going to every nation, every king upon
the face of the earth.
Everybody who's a king, he's going there and preaching to them.
And it says in verse number 26, and all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face
of the earth and the king of Shishak shall drink after them.
That's the last one he's going to do.
For thou 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 of thine hand to drink, thou shalt say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, ye shall certainly drink.
For lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name and how shall ye
be utterly unpunished.
And he goes on and on with the message from God, God's word being preached.
So the man, one man, one person, one prophet, Jeremiah, traveled to all those places and
preached.
It obviously took him years.
But he went on a journey of many, many years and traveled to all these different nations
preaching God's word as he went.
So you can't tell me that God isn't caring about people or he's not directing his servants
and his prophets to go preach in all the world.
It's not just a New Testament thing.
In the Old Testament they're preaching it to all the world.
Many people are hearing the Gospel.
So all that to say this, you know what, the Bible is really clear.
There's no salvation outside Jesus Christ.
The Bible is also very clear that there's no one without excuse because of two things.
Number one, they could see the natural world.
That should cause them to go seeking after the truth of God's word.
And you know I've heard stories, and I don't know if these stories are true, but you know
you hear stories about this guy, he wanted to know who God is so he just went out walking
like several days into the jungle or whatever and then he finds a missionary that gives
him the Gospel.
I mean it sounds legit to me, I don't know, but it sounds like something that God would
do because I've had God bring me across people's paths.
I mean where you just run into people in the weirdest places.
You know I was on a really long trip one time.
I was really far away and just met a guy in the gas station and he was like the most receptive
guy ever.
He was saved, young guy got saved, just so receptive to the Gospel.
That's not an accident.
Obviously God knew that that guy's in this distant town, you know, he's a guy who's receptive,
he's open to the Gospel, he wants to hear the truth, he wants to know the Gospel, and
maybe there just wasn't anybody doing any soul winning in his area.
And this guy's receptive to it.
So God just worked it out that I just happened to be getting gas at that exact moment that
he just happens to be at that gas station and then boom.
So what I'm saying is that don't get sucked into this thing of, well what about all these
people who've never heard it, you know, what about them?
We already know what's going to happen to them.
They're going to be damned if they don't believe in Christ, it's that plain and simple.
There's nothing else to it.
And instead of whining about that and putting your head in the sand and pretending that
that's not true, if you care about people, get out there and preach the Gospel.
Get out there and do some soul winning.
And say, oh God's not fair.
No, you're not fair.
You're the one that's failing to do what God told you to do.
It's not God's fault that people in the world are not hearing the Gospel.
It's our fault if they don't hear it, because if our Gospel be hid, it's hid to them that
are lost.
That's our Gospel, that's our fault.
If we're not preaching it faithfully like we should, the blame falls on us, not on God.
And to just sit there and say, well because we as Christians have failed to get the Gospel
to the world, that means God's not fair when He sends them to hell.
Because we didn't do what He told us to do.
And you know, obviously in our church, thank God, most people in our church are active
about soul winning, active about preaching the Gospel.
It's a great church.
But the vast majority of churches that are even Bible believing churches do zero soul
winning.
And 90 some percent of people that are saved today do zero soul winning in their life.
That's why the whole world lieth in wickedness today.
That's why the world's in darkness today.
That's why Mongolia's in darkness today, because people quit soul winning.
That's why China's in darkness.
That's why Asia and parts of Africa are in darkness today.
It's not because they've never heard the Gospel, it's because they rejected the Gospel and
because then subsequent generations quit preaching it, quit doing the soul winning.
And you know what?
We need to be a generation that God raises up.
And look, we can't worry about Mongolia today.
I'm not worried about Mongolia today.
I'm worried about Arizona.
I'm worried about the small towns.
I'm worried about Phoenix.
I'm worried about this valley.
I'm worried about this nation.
And you know what?
If somebody in Mongolia is listening to this sermon over the internet or something, great.
But you know what?
Chances are, you know, somebody else is going to reach Mongolia.
I can't reach all seven billion people and neither can you and neither can our church.
But you know what?
We can make a huge impact.
We can make a huge dent and we can get the Gospel to millions of people, just our church
alone.
It's true.
There's four million people living in this valley here.
I'm not saying they're all going to get saved, but they should all hear the Gospel.
They should all get a chance.
And God willing, if God allows us to continue what we're doing, we will get it done.
We will finish the job.
And so the question is asked, you think that your religion is the only right religion?
Yes.
You think the Bible is the only truth out there, the only holy book?
Yes.
You think Bible believing Christianity is the only right religion?
You think you're the only ones that are going to heaven?
Yes.
You think, well, just because somebody doesn't know Him by the name of Jesus, they're still
worshiping God, right?
Wrong.
Because if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father.
And it's not just the Lord in general, it's the name of Jesus.
Because they've not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, the Bible says.
It's His name that saves.
Salvation through His name, whosoever believeth in Him should receive remission of sins.
And so we're of God.
And the whole world lies in wickedness.
Let's get Him the Gospel.
Let's do what we can to get Him the Gospel, but let's not believe these people that try
to tell us, these people have never had the Gospel for centuries, for thousands of years,
we don't know that.
Read a history book, you'll see that Christianity has made its circuit throughout the world,
many times, in many generations, and will continue to do so until the end of time.
Even in Matthew 24, talking about the end of time, He said this Gospel is going to be
preached in all nations, and then will the end come.
So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for the fact that we do live in America.
I thank you that I was born and raised in a Christian home, where I was taught the Bible
even from a child, even from infancy, I learned the Word of God.
And that made it much easier for me to get saved at a young age because I grew up with
your Word.
Thank you for allowing me to be raised in a Christian home, in a Baptist church, in
a somewhat of a Christianized nation.
And God, I pray for those that are in darkness today, that you would allow the light of the
Glorious Gospel to shine in.
Help all over the world people to rise up and do more soul winning than they've ever
done.
Maybe people who are hearing this sermon in a distant land, that they would win souls
in that distant land.
And bring the Gospel to every creature until you come, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.