And the saddest part about the chapter is when he gets to the end, and in verse 30 he
says, and I sought for a man among them, and he's looking for one person, he says, and
I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before
me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.
That was a sad word, but I found none.
He said I was just looking for one person that would stand up and stand in the gap and
make up the hedge and stand up and do right and stand before me for the land that I'd
not destroy, but he said I couldn't find that man.
He said I found none, therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
Then said I, here am I, send me, I'll read it again.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
Then said I, Isaiah speaking, here am I, send me.
The title of the sermon tonight is this, if not you, then who?
That's the title of the sermon tonight, if not you, then who?
Now I think sometimes we get this idea that, well, if I don't do it, somebody else is
going to do it.
We get this idea that God's somehow up in heaven orchestrating everything in the world,
that God just controls everything, and we get this hyper-Calvinist type attitude that
says, well, God's going to make sure it all turns out okay.
God's going to take care of it, or if I don't go, if I don't do what I, somebody else will
do it.
Somebody else will take my place.
Well, no, because God said he looked for somebody to do something.
He looked for somebody to stand in the gap.
He looked for somebody to make the bed, and he said I couldn't find anybody, and because
of that I had to destroy the whole nation, because I couldn't find anybody.
And so my question to you tonight, if not you, then who is going to be the soul winner
in Phoenix, Arizona, or anywhere else for that matter?
If you are not going to go out, as the Bible says, and preach the Gospel to every creature,
who do you think it's going to be that's going to get it done?
Now I'm going to tell you something.
We were out solely today.
We were out knocking on the doors.
We had our Bibles, we were preaching the Gospel, trying to get people saved.
I'm going to tell you one thing.
We didn't see anybody else out doing it.
I cannot remember one time since I've been here, since I started this church less than
two years ago, I can't remember one time running into anybody else that was a Baptist out preaching
the Gospel and winning souls for Jesus Christ.
You say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, there are Baptist churches all over this city.
There are hundreds of Baptist churches in Phoenix, Arizona, and in the surrounding area
here.
You mean to tell me that you've never seen one of them?
No, my friend, I haven't seen one because they don't want to go to the neighborhood
that we were in today.
They don't want to get their hands a little dirty.
They don't want to go out and love the unlovable.
They don't want to go out and to seek and to save that which is lost, as Jesus Christ
did when He was on this earth.
They're too busy having a social club.
They're too busy with all their little choir practices.
They're too busy with all their little social activities.
They're too busy talking about sports.
They're not out there doing the one thing that God commissioned the local church to
do, which is to go out and preach the Gospel to every preacher.
Who is going to be a soul?
That's what I want to know.
I mean, how many people are really a soul?
But I'm going to tell you something.
If you're not going to do it, who's going to do it?
If you're not going to knock that particular door, it's probably never going to be knocked.
We're not going to knock every door in the city.
There's no way.
And if you don't go out, whatever door you knock this week, whatever person you talk
to at work this week, whatever person you talk to how to knock this week, if you don't
talk to that person, who's going to talk to them?
Probably no one is the answer.
You may be the last chance that that person has in 2007.
You may be the last chance that they have.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.
I hear Jesus move in compassion when He sees a great crowd of people going about their
life like sheep having no shepherd.
They've got no direction in life.
And that's the way the people in the world are.
I mean, you know people in the world, they have no direction in their life.
Especially running people like in their 20s, like 90s.
They have no direction.
They don't even know where they're going in life.
You know, they do a little college here, and then they move over here for a while, and
then they move to another state and do that for a while.
And then they've got, you know, these friends over here and these friends.
And what are you going to do?
I don't know.
I don't know what I'm doing.
They don't have any direction in their life.
And they don't have any direction morally.
I mean, let me ask you something.
If you don't believe that the Bible is the word of God, if you don't believe the Bible,
then what moral direction do you have at all?
None.
I'm going to tell you right now, if I didn't believe that the Bible was God's word, I'd
go out and do whatever I wanted.
Huh?
If there's no God, if I'm an animal, like the public school will tell me that I'm an
animal, that I'm just some kind of a primate.
Huh?
I'm going to go out and do what I want to do.
But I believe that there's a God in heaven that craves this world.
Huh?
I believe that I'm made in the image of God.
I believe that I'm better than an animal.
And I believe that I'm a son of God.
And I believe that God has a greater calling for my life.
I'm not going to go out and waste my life.
I'm not going to mess around, wander around, and waste my time.
Huh?
I'm going to do something great for God.
I'm going to obey the commandments that God has set forth in the Bible.
But you see, it says they have no, uh, they fainted.
They're scattered blood as sheep, having no shepherd.
And you know, they're, they're unsaved.
They don't even know, they don't know where we came from.
They don't know where they're going.
They don't know, uh, what the world is about.
They don't know what the purpose of their life is.
They don't know what to do with their life.
And then what happens?
They die and they go to hell to pay for their sins, which could have been forgiven if they
would have just believed on Jesus Christ.
That's simple.
Be saved.
Now, shouldn't somebody go out and tell them that?
I mean, shouldn't somebody open the Bible and show them that and explain that to them?
I mean, it breaks my heart that anybody really goes to hell.
But you know what breaks my heart even more is that somebody would go to hell and they
didn't even hear the Bible.
That's true.
You know, they didn't even hear the Bible.
That breaks my heart.
That nobody even, you know, they might have heard a little bit of it, but that they didn't
get a clear presentation of just, this is what it is.
And they at least have the chance to really sit down and make an educated choice about
it.
We entered into other men's labors, the Bible says, and we've got to be there.
We've got to go.
And if we don't go, then who is going to go is what I want to know.