(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're in John chapter 15, and the name of this sermon is Why We Need to Reach the World. Why we need to reach the world. Now, I'm preaching this sermon because obviously we're at a missions trip, so we have people from all over the world. You know, people from all over the Philippines, from Mindanao, through lots of different parts of Luzon, people from other countries. And so I want to preach a sermon of why we need to reach the entire world. Not just here in the Philippines, not just here in Metro Manila, not just in Pampanga, but why we need to reach people all over the world. Because one mistake people have when they come from less receptive countries is they come to a place like this and they dive into soul winning, and they love it. And then they go home and it's like, oh man, nobody's going to listen to me, nobody's going to get saved, what's the purpose? But you know, we need to reach the world with the gospel and not just here in the Philippines. John chapter 15, and the first point is this, in every country in the world, the gospel is effective. In every country in the world, the gospel is effective. John 15 verse 1, and John 15 is one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible. And the reason why people misunderstand this is because they think this is a salvation parable. It's not a salvation parable, it's a soul winning parable. This is saved people that God is teaching how to win people to the Lord and what we need to do. This has nothing to do with salvation, these are saved people already. It's teaching them how do you bear fruit, okay? John 15 verse 1, I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. In this room, we're all aware when it says bring forth fruit, it's talking about winning people to the Lord. We'll look at a lot of verses that teach that. That's what this is referring to. What he's saying is that if you're not bearing fruit, he takes you away. Now how you apply that to a good church is quite honestly, if there are people that are just doing no work whatsoever and not helping preach the gospel, quite honestly they can be more of a burden sometimes. Now we want new people at our church, we want to teach them, we want to train them, but the goal is you come, you learn like all of us did, and then you go and you become a great soul winner and you keep adding on to the church. Our church is filled with about 75% soul winners. The majority of people at Verity Baptist Church Manila are soul winners. I hope the percentage always stays the same. We don't want to just double in our size but never add any soul winners. We want to add on to the soul winners. Keep that percentage the same and build the church. That's the goal. What it says here is if you don't bear fruit, he takes you away. Verse number three, now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken on to you. We get saved through the word of God. Verse four, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. So without Jesus Christ, we can do nothing. When we're going soul winning, we're not doing it in our own power. Our words, our testimony converts nobody. The repentance of sin's preachers need to figure that out because they just talk about how, man, I was a bad drunk, man, I was beating my wife, I was cheating on my wife, I was a miserable person, and then I gave my life to God. I repented of all my sins. And somehow that's supposed to converse. For one, that's not the gospel. Turning from your sins, but they think there's power in their personal testimony. Now the Bible says the testimony of Jesus is what saves us, what he did. Verse number five, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Now let me ask you a question. What is the promise here in John 15? Is the promise that you will bear fruit if you abide in the vine, or you will bear much fruit? See, every word in the Bible makes a difference. That's why you need to be King James only, because every word is significant. It does not say, hey, if you abide in the vine, you're going to bear fruit. No, you're going to bring forth much fruit. Check me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't say, well, you'll bear a lot of fruit if you live in a place like the Philippines. Does it say that? You'll bear a lot of fruit if you live in a place like, you know, where there's a lot of Filipinos, a lot of OFWs. In the Asian country, a lot of OFWs, you'll bear a lot of fruit. You'll bear a lot of fruit if you go to like Mexico or Brazil, areas that would be receptive or Jamaica or Guyana. No, it says you're going to bring forth a lot of fruit regardless of where you are. And so this promise is if you live in South Korea, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, that's what the Bible's teaching. And let me tell you something. This might seem strange to you, but I know someone who was actually with us for the first day of the missions trip, and he was an OFW in Saudi Arabia, and he was winning lots of people to the Lord in Saudi Arabia. You say, how do you do that? You don't walk up to someone who's a hardcore Muslim that's going to cut off your head. You win the people that you're going to actually be able to get saved there. And I believe this promise is true anywhere because it never says you're going to bring forth a lot of fruit in a special situation or a special location. There's people here from the United States. I lived most of my life in the United States of America. It is more receptive in the Philippines. There's no question about that. But you can still bring forth much fruit in America, and there are churches doing it. Look, it's more receptive here than in Eastern Europe, but you know, you can bear forth a lot of fruit in Eastern Europe. It will take more time. I mean, we're going to probably get more people saved than, we get more people saved than Verity Baptist Church does in Sacramento. We have less soul winners. We're doing less amounts of our soul winning. It's just more receptive. But you still bring forth a lot of fruit there as well. It might not be as much, but the promise to God is you're going to bring forth a lot of fruit no matter where you are. And so we need great soul winners and great churches everywhere in the world, not just in receptive countries, okay? And there's this wrong philosophy that basically when it comes to the mission field, all the soul winning is on the mission field. So in the US, you basically don't do any soul winning. You just kind of build a church and get lots of money, and then you just send it to the missionaries to do the work, but you don't go soul winning in the US. That's for the missionaries because soul winning doesn't work in the US according to them. But see, in my Bible, it says you're going to bring forth much fruit no matter where you are. Whatever country in the world. And so when you leave this missions trip and go home to where you're from, you need to be zealous every Saturday, every Sunday. Your soul winning schedule, be zealous with it, love it, and you'll bring forth much fruit. Not just fruit. Notice what it says in verse six, or verse eight, let me say. Verse eight. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. The same promise once again that he's going to be glorified if you bear forth much fruit. Not just some fruit. Not just, well, you know, one person every ten years. No, much fruit. And think about a tree, okay? Think about a tree that's producing apples. If there's one apple on that tree, is that tree bringing forth much fruit? Very little. You'd be pretty disappointed if you labor and put in effort for an apple tree and one apple is produced. You'd be like, what in the world? Why did I waste all my time? Two apples is not a lot. You'd say it's much fruit when you see more apples than you do branches, right? More apples than you do leaves. Then you'd say it's much fruit, okay? Now turn to John 12. John chapter 12. John chapter 12. And in John chapter 12 we see the same promise here. It says here in John 12 verse 24, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Now that phrase there shows us that if we want to bring forth much fruit and get a lot of people saved, we've got to die to self. Basically, you kill off your personal desires and what you want. See your flesh does not want the same things as your spirit wants. Your flesh wants to watch TV. Your flesh wants to spend a couple hours on Facebook every day. Your flesh wants to listen to certain types of music that the spirit doesn't want to listen to. Your flesh wants to do things that are a waste of time, but your spirit wants to do what's right. Now if you want to bring forth much fruit, you've got to die to self. Kill off the flesh, destroy the flesh, or you're not going to bring forth much fruit. But if you choose to just gratify the flesh and say, I want to just have a nice life here and just spend my time for enjoyment and fun, then guess what? You're going to die alone. You're going to win nobody to the Lord. And the sad reality is for 99 plus percent of Christians, they're going to lead nobody to the Lord in their lifetime. That is sad. I mean, I remember when I first got saved and my desire was to win two people to the Lord. And the reason why I desired two was if I win two people to the Lord, then I left the world in a better place. You know, one of me became two. I was just thinking, man, if every Christian just wins two people to the Lord. I mean, because I'm a math guy. I mean, you multiply these numbers, you're like, man, in just a few generations we're reaching the world. But then what I failed to understand is how few of Christians actually care if they lead anybody to the Lord. The vast majority of saved people, they just don't even care. It boggles my mind because when I first got saved, just the thought ran through my head about hell and I was just thinking about, man, my friends and my family. I was like, man, what if they're not saved? But some people just don't have a whole lot of love in their heart and they just don't really care that much. And so we got a lot of work to do. And if you want to bring forth a lot of fruit, you have to die to self. But notice what it says at the end of verse 24, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Once again, the promise is not some fruit, but much fruit. And if you want to accomplish something big in your life, what you need to do is die to self. Kill off your personal desires, kill off your personal ambitions. Now I'm not saying that you can't have fun in life. I'm not saying you can't go to the park with your family and have a good time. Even today, my wife and I, we went soul winning and after an hour and a half, the last 30 minutes, we let Zeph run around, you know, and just have some fun. I'm not saying that's wrong, but what I'm saying is if you live your life to say, man, I want to watch TV, I want to listen to music, go ahead and do that. And you're going to lead nobody to the Lord. And that's what the vast majority of people do. And the sad reality is that those people, they don't even enjoy life as much as we do. I mean, we enjoy life a lot more than that. They look at us and think, man, you guys have a terrible life, but we're like, man, we're loving life. Life's great. It's like, why in the world would I want to drink alcohol? Why in the world would I want to destroy my life? I love my life. I love soul winning. I love being a part of a group of people that love God like we have here tonight and we're focused on the same thing. And I don't care if we're the very few people in the world. If 1% out of the 1% of saved Christians in the world, which is one out of 10,000 people actually loves the Lord and goes soul winning, I want to be, I want to be part of that one out of 10,000. I love my life. Turn to Matthew 13, Matthew 13. Now the devil's always going to lie to you. He's going to make you think, man, I would enjoy life so much more if I just kind of calmed it down and quit soul winning. But you know, I've met people that are Demuses in this world. See Demus forsook Paul because he loved this present world. He was once a great soul winner, once a great man of God, and then he just retired. And I know people like that. I know people in West Virginia where I grew up, people that were mighty soul winners and love God. And you know what? They're not even very happy anymore. And see the sad reality is they got to experience the greatest things in life and now they just kind of retired from it. It's one thing if you've never experienced the greatest thing that you possibly could, but when you've experienced soul winning and then you retire from it, prepare to hate the rest of your life. That's the reality. And that's what I've seen from people that have retired from soul winning. Matthew 13 verse 23, Matthew 13 verse 23, but he that receives seed into the good ground is he that hearth the word and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some in hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. And the Bible talks about producing fruit and it talks about a hundredfold or sixty or thirty, three different categories. When you cross reference this with the various books in the Bible that talk about this, that's not referring to a hundred souls in a lifetime. It's referring to a hundred souls in one season. Every season you expect that tree to bring forth fruit. What it's saying is a hundred souls every year. Thirty souls every year. Thirty souls every year. Because thirty souls in a lifetime, it used to seem like a lot to me, but it doesn't really seem like a whole lot anymore. I mean, thirty souls, I can just retire now. I'm done, right? But when it's talking about every single year, that means every single year you better love God. Because otherwise you win a whole year and then that person comes to the tree, man, there's no fruit there. God expects fruit every single year and you know what, that's a lot of fruit. Because thirty souls every single year, you know what, over fifty years that's one thousand five hundred people. Over thirty-three years that's almost a thousand people. And I'll tell you what, most people, they get saved when they're younger. And if you get saved in your twenties, you can go soul winning for thirty years and get a thousand people saved in your lifetime. Even if you're going home to the United States of America. Even if you're not living here in the Philippines where it's super receptive. Turn in your Bible to Daniel twelve, Daniel twelve. Daniel chapter twelve. And as you turn to Daniel twelve, let me just read to you in Proverbs eleven verse thirty where it says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. And so you see a tree of life is linked with winning souls. And what it's saying is a tree of life. And if you see a tree with very few apples, very little fruit, you'd say, that's a dead tree. That tree is a failure. You expect a lot of fruit on that tree to say it's a tree of life, okay? Daniel twelve verse three, Daniel twelve verse three. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn some to righteousness, turn a few to righteousness, turn about five people in their lifetime to righteousness, or turn many to righteousness. Every word matters. It says turn many to righteousness. And see the Bible says you have the possibility to turn many to righteousness in your lifetime. Not just a couple, not just a few, but many to righteousness. And many people save in your life. Turn to Malachi two, Malachi chapter two, you say, brother second, I thought so when he was invented in the new Testament. Well, you need to read your old Testament then, I mean, cause we're looking at the old Testament. I just quoted in Proverbs, we went to Daniel 12 because you know what? Just as when all of us, probably when we got saved, we had that desire and burden and that love in our heart to try to win someone to the Lord. You know, people in the old Testament, they felt the same way. When I got saved, it was the greatest feeling of relief I've ever experienced in my life. I could never duplicate that feeling. Such a great relief swept over me. And you know what? I was just worried about people I knew that would go to hell. But do you realize that in the old Testament, I'm sure they felt the same way. They got saved and they realized, man, I would have gone to hell. And then some people decided, you know what? I'm going to do spend my life trying to win people to the Lord so they don't have to go there. Malachi 2, verse 5. My covenant was with him of life and peace. And I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity. Now this has a dual meaning in these verses of also preaching and turning people away from their sins, people that are already saved, but also turning you from basically a sinner to a saint. Now we know that nobody's perfect. We still sin every day. We know that. But it's saying turning many to righteousness, turning people away from iniquity, turning someone from a sinner to a saint. They hear the gospel, they get saved. Turn to Romans 10, Romans 10, Romans chapter 10. And so look, when you're looking at all these verses, you're never seeing it say, well, in this part of the world, you can get people saved, but not in this part of the world. Now it's true there are areas that are just very unreceptive and if you find very unreceptive areas, you go onto the next area. The Bible teaches that, but you can still get people saved in those areas. It's not everybody in that area is a reprobate. You can still get people saved in the most difficult countries in the world. Romans 10 verse 17, Romans 10 verse 17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily their sound went into all the earth and their words onto the ends of the world. See the message of Jesus Christ, it went into all of the world, not just part of the world, but all of the world, which means every single country in the world, every single part of the world. Why is it so foolish when you see these churches that say, well, you got to be a member of our church or get baptized in our water to go to heaven? Because here's the reality, no church's messages throughout all the world. The message of Jesus is throughout all the world, but these small little cults, their messages in all over the world, nobody knows who they are in 90% of the world. The message of Jesus is all over the world, but these small little religions, look, they're in very isolated areas. People don't know who they are, but the message of Jesus went into all the earth and it went into all the earth because of the fact there's going to be people that get saved. His word does not return void. The reality is most rejected and some accepted. Even in the Philippines, most are going to reject it. Some will accept it. The people that do not want to listen to you, they would reject it if they heard it. And the reason why we know that's true is because when you've ever preached the gospel to someone, to a group, and there's somebody who just does not want to hear it, 95% of the time they don't get saved and they're not even listening to you. They're just in their mind just being angry towards you. That's the reality. When people do not want to hear the gospel, it's because they're not going to get saved anyway. Okay? That's why it's foolish to waste your time. Just move on if someone doesn't want to hear. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 3. And yet sadly though, when you look at the time of Jesus Christ and the couple centuries that followed, you see in the book of Acts that these churches are just kind of exploding and all kinds of soul-winnings going on and the word of God is being preached throughout the entire earth. But sadly in today's world, it just doesn't really seem like that's the case anymore. It just seems like the word of God is just not going out there. And realize in today's world, a large part of why you're in this room is because of the online ministry. See 2000 years ago, it was old fashioned soul-winning, getting new churches started and the word of God still went into all the world. They got new churches started and it's all over the world, not just relying on the internet to do it. Now look, the reality, and it's great we have the online ministry. It's great it reaches people, but you know, if there was no online ministry and it was just came down to soul-winning, the reality is there's just not enough Christian soul-winning to reach all the world. That's the reality. But in the book of Romans, it says the sound went into all of the earth. That's what the Bible teaches. First Corinthians three, first Corinthians three, who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believe. So what it says at the beginning of this verse is that, you know what, all of us, we get saved because somebody is preaching the gospel to us and that's by whom we believe. Somebody must preach you the gospel. I know someone who's actually still my friend today who gave me the gospel and got me saved. And look in this room, every single one of you who has saved, somebody gave you the gospel. You didn't just read this book by yourself and just, wow, man, I guess I'm one of the elect. I guess I'm saved. I guess I'm going to heaven, man. Just boom. Just hit me. I'm going to heaven. Right? It doesn't work that way. Somebody gives you the gospel and that's how you get saved. Okay. But what I want you to notice here is at the end of this verse, because notice what it says, even as the Lord gave to every man, what that is saying is that God intends the 8 billion people in this world. God has already planned out one person specifically to preach the gospel to them. Okay. Why this is important for all of us is because if you've got an unsaved Catholic cousin, it's probably your job to preach the gospel to them. Right. It's probably not my job. It's probably your job because you're the one who has the opportunity. If you have some unsaved family, you're probably the person that God has intended to preach the gospel to them. That does not mean they will get saved, but it means God expects you to preach the gospel to them. Right. So that means that every single one of us still has work to do because we all have coworkers, family members, acquaintances that are not saved, and look, it's our job to preach the gospel to them. Okay. But I want you to realize, think about these countries where there's very, very few saved people because here in the Philippines, there's probably a higher percentage of saved people than almost any country in the world. I personally think the United States has a higher percentage of saved people than any country in the world, but I think the Philippines is in the top five, especially as there's great soul winning going on now in the Philippines. I think it's near the top of the list, but think about countries where there's very few saved people. Think of North Korea. That's a country where you think, man, you could never preach the gospel there, but in North Korea, God has intended someone to preach the gospel to every single person in that area, which means the saved people that are left there from World War II, because it's illegal now to preach the gospel, they are still being expected to preach the gospel and get people saved. They're the ones, they're the ones in that area. Now I'm glad I'm not in that area. Okay. But you know what? We need people that are saved in that area to preach the gospel, because God says he's given to every man, okay, which means every single person in this world, God wants them to hear the gospel, so they have a chance to believe, and in their free will, they make that choice. Verse six, I have planted a polished water, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, okay? Now the promise is true, you'll bring forth much fruit, but you're rewarded based on your labor. So if you go soul winning for nine hours in the Philippines and get 15 people saved, versus 10 hours in the U.S. and get one person saved, you get more rewards for the 10 hours of labor in the U.S. Say, why? More labor. You're rewarded based on the work you do, not necessarily based on the results, okay? Now I understand that we need to learn how to preach the gospel, and if somebody's just spinning their wheels and wasting their time, then you know, that's up to God how they're gonna be rewarded, okay? If they can't win people to the Lord. But what I'm saying is someone who actually knows how to preach the gospel, and they spend a lot of time in a country but get very few people saved, they will get more of a reward than someone who goes out for two hours here and gets four people saved. Why? They did more labor. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 3. Turn to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. Colossians chapter 1. And so look, I personally, I don't think that soul winning is more important in the Philippines than any country. I think it's just as important every single location. Say why? Because God expects everybody to hear the gospel. So that means in every single country, every single area, every single province, state, city, whatever you want to call it, God expects those people to hear the gospel, and soul winning is important and necessary no matter where you live, okay? Even if you don't have a great church in that area, you're still expected to go soul winning and get people saved. At least put in the effort, okay? Colossians 1 verse 5. Colossians 1 verse 5. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel? And so Paul's writing to save people, and he says, you know what? You've heard it in the word of the truth of the gospel. So once again, they heard the gospel, okay? They didn't get saved on their own. They heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Somebody preached the gospel to them for them to get saved, okay? Verse 6, which is come unto you as it is in all the world, okay? So notice how the word of God's gone out throughout all the world, but I want you to notice the next phrase, and bringeth forth fruit. So the word of God's gone out in all the world, and every part of the world it goes out, it brings forth fruit. Every part of the world. The gospel is effective in any country in the world. That's what it's teaching in Colossians 1 verses 5 and 6. It's gone out in all the world, and it brings forth fruit everywhere, including North Korea, including Iraq, including Saudi Arabia. It doesn't matter what the country is. People will get saved if they hear the word of God. They hear the gospel. Turn in your Bible to 1 John 5, 1 John 5. Look, I understand you come to a missions trip like this, it's easy to get excited. I mean, man, you can get a lot of people saved, you get to talk to a lot of people. It's fun. It's an adventure. But I want you to realize when you go home to where you live, you need to take that soul winning very seriously. Yeah, I mean, it's great, and I've gone on trips like these before. You know, I was here, you know, where you're going soul winning all week and receptive areas and it's great, but no matter where you live, you need to take the soul winning very seriously in that area because you're the one who's expected to preach to people. There's very few soul winners out there, and if you're not doing the work in the area you live, you're basically just saying, you know what, I'll let those people go to hell. That's the reality. So number one, the reason why we need to reach the entire world is for the fact every country is receptive. But another reason why we need to reach all the world is because every country is wicked. Every country is wicked. Notice what it says in 1 John 5 verse 19, 1 John 5 verse 19, and we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. See when 1 John was written, what the Bible says is the whole world lieth in wickedness. So 2,000 years ago, every country, every area was wicked, and the Bible says it's waxing worse and worse. So if 2,000 years ago, every country was wicked, what does God think now? Because see, there's a problem people have where they're too attached to their own country. That's a big problem all over the world, where they're just, no matter what they do, and in America it's like, God bless America, man they bombed and killed 50,000 people, no big deal because it's America. But you know, honestly it's the same problem here in the Philippines. Now the Philippines doesn't have the power as a country to just bomb and destroy all these other countries, but some people are just so obsessed with their local country, and you know what, that is a problem. Look, no country is righteous, every single country is wicked. That is what the Bible teaches. Turn to Genesis chapter 6, Genesis 6. Now I have a few statistics I wanted to read, and I came up with these before the big coronavirus scare, so some of these aren't gonna really apply to anyone in this room, like I have stuff for Hong Kong and stuff like that, but just based on various statistics, and when it comes to the United States, the United States is responsible for more bloodshed than any country in the world. That is non-debatable, okay? They're responsible for more bloodshed than any country in the world, they have the third highest divorce rate of any country in the world. Pretty wicked, right? They don't sound very righteous to me. Australia is the eighth highest drinking country in the world, so a bunch of drunks living in Australia. Japan has the fourth highest rate of pornography sharing of any country in the world. Hong Kong is rated as the seventh least religious country in the entire world, they just don't care at all about religion. Singapore is filled with idolatry with Buddhist statues, as are a lot of countries in Asia. You look at a lot of them just filled with these giant Buddhist statues, I mean, you go to Catholic homes here in the Philippines, and they're filled with Buddhist statues, I'm like, I thought that you were a hardcore Catholic, but just add that idol, you know, just rub that belly every time you walk into the room for good luck or something like that, and it's just like, you know, in the Philippines, people have this idea that the Philippines is a righteous country. It's like, man, you've never been here before, have you? What's the biggest shock people have when they first visit this country? Man, why are all these guys wearing dresses? That's what it's like in the Philippines. It's one of the most pro-LGBT countries in the world. We are in the top ten. When it comes to Asian countries, we are arguably the most pro-LGBT country in all of Asia. There's a few countries in Europe that are rated higher, but the Philippines is rated as perhaps the highest pro-LGBT country, and I imagine there's probably a higher percentage of cross-dressers in this country than any country. I could be wrong, but it's filled with guys dressing up as women, you've got your heroes of Vice Pangit and all of those guys on TV. All of these cross-dressers on TV, and people think it's normal. This is not a righteous country. People say, why, with such a conservative Catholic country, why are there so many Sodomites? Because they're getting molested in Catholic Church. That's the reason why. And if you haven't noticed, in the Philippines, they just let their kids run everywhere. Just a bunch of five-year-olds running around for like ten hours, their parents have no idea what's happening. You wonder why things are happening to them, why they're getting molested and becoming Sodomites. Well, that's the reason why. This is not a righteous country. And look, no matter what country you live in, there are a lot of problems that need to be preached against. And the people that are saved people in the bona fide churches need to preach against that sin and teach their members why it's wrong, get people saved, and build those churches. Why? Because every country is wicked. Every location is wicked. Genesis chapter 6, verse 5. Genesis 6, verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Before the flood, God was grieved because of the wickedness of man, okay? When we get to the end times, what's taking place is we're waxing worse and worse, and it's gonna reach the point where God has been fed up for too long. He says, I'm done with this world. Why? Because they become so wicked just like they did before the flood. That's what you're seeing in Genesis 6. Verse 11. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. In Genesis 6, the world was filled with wickedness. Now in today's world, as we're waxing worse and worse, the invention of the television, the computers, the cell phones, look, that is making this world more and more wicked. We're able to reach people through the online ministry, but the reality is you got kids getting addicted to pornography on cell phones when they're like 10 years old now. That is the reality. That's not making people more godly. It's making this world very wicked, because you can go back 100 years ago. I've seen videos on YouTube where they do a time lapse of an area, just kind of how the world has changed over 100 years in an area. When you see 100 years ago, people are dressed very conservatively, extremely conservatively. In the United States, when Elvis first became big, they would only let him be on TV from his waist up, because his dancing was considered perverted, okay? That was 60 years ago. Boy, the world's changed a lot in 60 years, hasn't it? Imagine another 60 years. I mean, it's hard to even fathom what the world's gonna be like, waxing worse and worse and worse and worse. Turn to Genesis 9, Genesis 9. You say, what's the answer? Well, the answer is that we need to reach all over the world. We need great churches and soul winning going on all over the world. We need the word of God being preached everywhere, no matter where you're from, all over the world. Not just here in the Philippines, not just in the US, but all over the world. That's what the Bible teaches. Genesis 9 verse 13, Genesis 9 verse 13, I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Now, in verse 13, this is referring to a rainbow, the bow in the cloud, okay? A rainbow. Now, if you've ever looked at a rainbow and paid attention, you're gonna notice there are seven colors in a rainbow, okay? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. A rainbow has seven colors. Now, in today's world, if somebody wears a shirt with a rainbow on it, you'd assume they're a sodomite, right? Because that's the symbol of the sodomites. Now, in Genesis 9, basically God promises, I'm never gonna destroy the world with a flood again, okay? And the symbol of that is the rainbow. That's God's promise. He will not destroy the earth with a flood. He did not say he will not destroy the earth. He said, I won't destroy it with a flood. And so basically what you see in Genesis chapter 9, it's referring to the rainbow, okay? Now, the sodomites, they just like to mock God because they've taken this rainbow and they made it their symbol, okay? Now, look, God did not say he won't destroy the earth. He said he won't destroy it with a flood again. But if you notice a rainbow when it comes to the sodomites, it does not have seven colors. See, a rainbow is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. A rainbow for a sodomite is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Indigo and violet have become one color. It goes from the number of seven, which is God's number of perfection, to the number of six. And see, the rainbow you see for the sodomites, it will always be six colors. That's not actually a rainbow. That's not what it looks like. Because they're trying to mock God. That is the reality, okay? Now, turn in your Bible to Acts 17, Acts 17. And so, look, what you see in Genesis 9 with what the sodomites are doing is you see a very wicked world because they're trying to mock God. That is what they're doing. And, you know, when you look at the agendas that are going on in this world, that's probably the number one that's being pushed. Because throughout the world, it's not just here in the Philippines, but throughout the world they're becoming LGBT friendly. Throughout the entire world, it's the big agenda. And look, that's going to be part of the fact of why God destroyed... I mean, look at Genesis 19. Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Because of sodomy. That's why. That's where it gets its name. Acts 17. So the first point we have is this, that every country is receptive. The second point is every country is wicked. But the third point, every country is changeable. Every country is changeable. Acts 17, verse 1, Now when they had passed through Amphiphilas and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preached unto you is Christ. Verse 4, And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. When it says the chief women not a few, it means a lot. Not a few equals a lot. Verse 5, But the Jews which believe not move with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. Now what you see is that the unbelievers will always persecute the people that are bona fide soul winners. Every false religion. Not just the Jews. Now the Jews throughout the Bible are pretty bad at it. But look throughout history, the Catholic Church has killed tens of millions of people. But go to India, and the Hindus kill all the Christians. They murder anybody who's a soul winner. Go to any of these countries, go through history and the Protestants were killing the soul winners. Why? Because any false religion will persecute the true religion. That's what we see here in verse 5. Verse 6, And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. See the enemies of them stated out of their own mouths, they are turning this place upside down. It's changed now. They're getting people saved, they're preaching the doctrines, this place is becoming a different place because they have turned the world upside down. They did that without the online ministry. They did that without the internet. It was just good old fashioned soul winning, bringing people to church, and then churches that would preach the truth and they heard the word of God. And look, that area of the world was changed. They were turning the world upside down. Turn to Acts 5, Acts chapter 5. See that ought to be the goal no matter where you live, that you want to play a part in turning that area of the world upside down. I want to have a part in turning Manila upside down, not just with the gospel either, not just with the gospel, but with the doctrines of the Lord, with everything the Bible says. Acts chapter 5, And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. That's what it says in verse 28, Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. The doctrines of the Lord being filled throughout Jerusalem. People were not just getting saved and hearing about salvation, but the doctrines of the Lord. And see, every church needs to preach hard. Why? Their doctrine needs to fill that area. People need to be learning and changing their lives. And what it says in Acts 5, that they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. Verse 29, Then Peter and the other apostles, and then it says at the end of verse 28, And intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Verse 29, Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. Now turn to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. We'll go back to the verse that is our verse of the week in our bulletin. Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. And see, what the Bible says and teaches is that every country is changeable. Every single country is changeable. Acts chapter 1 verse 8, But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses on me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and on to the uttermost part of the earth. Now in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, it really is kind of the main verse that people use when they talk about church planning and reaching the world, sending out missionaries and things such as that. What it starts with is Jerusalem in Acts 1 verse 8. The reason why it starts with Jerusalem is because that's the area they lived. Wherever your church is, your first goal and objective is to reach the area you live. Then you branch out from that, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and on to the uttermost part of the earth. Now look, no one church can do this. And the online ministry can't do this either. No one church can reach all of the world, okay? What this is referring to is getting churches started. So every church's goal is to start, you're preaching the word of God, getting people saved, more soul winners, and then you expand by getting other churches started. Because your soul winning ministry can only reach out so far, okay? Eventually it reaches to a point where you say, man, we just need a church in that area. Why? Because if you get people saved, you want to get them baptized and teach them the word of God, and just so they can grow and become soul winners, and you're just not going to be able to do that unless you have a church in that area. That is what Acts 1 verse 8 is talking about. Now no one church in the world can do this though. That's why every church must have this goal. Because no one church is going to plant 500,000 churches, okay? You need a lot of churches doing this. And if one church starts five churches, and then all of those churches start five churches, that's 25, and all of those start five, it's the same way we look at soul winning multiplication. If every saved person would get this many people saved, you'd see how it just basically turned the world upside down, okay? You look at Verity Baptist Church, and Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, they started Sure Foundation Baptist Church, okay? Now we'll go back to that church here in a second, okay? They started Sure Foundation Baptist Church. They started Shield of Faith Baptist Church, Pastor Joe Jones in Idaho. They started Verity Baptist Church Fresno, which is a church plant. It's not its own independent church yet. It's like we are out here, basically just a few hours away from in Sacramento. That's called, you reach out, right? A few hours away, you can send people down to preach, you can join up for soul winning things and such as that. It's a good distance away, kind of like we are with Pampanga. Pampanga on a Sunday with no traffic is less than two hours away. With traffic, who knows, right? But on a Sunday with no traffic, it's less than two hours away. And so we have Verity Baptist Church Manila, we look at a verse like Acts 1-8, and we say we want to expand, and we reached out about two hours away, okay? So that's five churches that Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento has planted. But Sure Foundation Baptist Church, they've already started planting churches. See if every church follows that model, it goes from just, oh, this one church, if one church spends their entire existence for 50 years and they get 10 churches started, one church every five years, you might say, well, that's not that much, but what if all of those 10 churches do the same thing? And then all of the churches they start do the same thing, because this should be the goal of every church, okay? Now soul winning is part of this because you need to have soul winning in any church, otherwise it's not a real church. But every church should be striving to say we want to reach the world with a gospel, and the way you do that is you slowly reach out. When it comes to us here in Manila, our number one main goal is to reach this island, not even all the Philippines, because Luzon is pretty big by itself. That's almost 60 million people, okay? That's a lifetime of work, okay? But you know, the goal is that if every church is doing that and you start planting churches in other areas, eventually everything's being reached, okay? Why do you do this? Because every country is changeable. Now turn in your Bible to Luke 4, Luke 4, Luke 4. So what we saw tonight was this, every country is receptive. Now some countries might be more receptive than others, but every country you can get people saved as a soul winner. You are not going to go every single week during the year for an hour and a half of soul winning, and you come to the end of the year and say, man, I put in 75, 80 hours of soul winning this year and nobody got saved. That will never happen, okay? If you put in an hour every week, you're going to get somebody saved. Now I've been in the U.S. and gone more than 10 hours without getting anybody saved. That's pretty frustrating, okay? That does happen in areas that are unreceptive, but you know, you eventually get somebody saved. You're never going to go a whole year, and it's kind of funny because there's a lot of these missionaries out there that they have their missionary letters, and they're like, man, we got two people saved in the last 10 years. It's like, wow, you're turning that part of the world upside down, man, amazing. It's like, talk about a failure, what are you doing out there then? Because I don't care if it's the most unreceptive country in the world, look, as a church that's actually going soul winning, you're going to get more than a couple people saved, okay? And so we saw that every country is receptive. Not only that though, every country is wicked, which means every country needs not just the gospel, but it needs preaching against the idolatry. Preaching against the sins of that country, and every country is changeable. But in conclusion, let me just say this, that every country has its purpose. Every country has its purpose, okay? When it comes to reaching all parts of the world, you need to have good churches throughout all the entire world. Think about Europe. I've been on some of these Baptist sites that give you church directories, and you go to Europe and there's some countries where there's zero churches they can recommend that are just generic, independent, fundamental Baptist churches. I'm talking countries like Spain, that are 60 million people, okay? That's a big country. That's a lot of people, and there's not a single recommendation, just a generic IFB. I'm not saying new IFB. I'm just saying a church that they can recommend that they have the right gospel, okay? Not a single one that they can... I hope that's changed in the last couple of years, but last I saw, not a single church, okay? Look, our church is probably not going to reach Spain. That's why you need churches in that part of the world to reach that part of the world, okay? You need churches everywhere because we're not going to reach all of the world by ourselves. We're not going to branch out. There's eight billion people on this planet, okay? Sixty million is enough to work with for at least... If we do really well after 25 years, then maybe we'll reconsider things, but look, that's a lifetime of work, okay? We need countries everywhere, and the reality is, you know what? We're not going to hold soul-winning marathons in Spain or Germany. We'll hold them in provinces all over the Philippines. We're going to go to the Quezon province next month. We're going to go to Pangasinan, Bulacan. We're trying to reach out as far as we can, but the reality is we're not going to Germany to do a soul-winning marathon. We're not going to Spain. We're not going to France. That would be a little bit too expensive, okay? That's outside of our budget, okay? That's why you need churches in that part of the world to reach that part of the world, not just churches in certain locations, okay? Same way with any continent, Africa, South America, North America. It's outside of our realm, okay? Now, there are a lot of good churches in the United States, and they're reaching a lot of territory, but it's not like that all throughout the entire world. It's not like that throughout Europe. We had someone, Brother Matthias from our church, move from Europe to come to our church. It's like, you know, you don't move from Europe to come to our church unless you're like, man, I can't find anything. It's just like there's nothing in all of Europe, right? It's just like, look, there is a lack of churches throughout the entire world, and look, so many marathons are great, but the reality is even though we'll get a lot of people saved this week, that's really only a small dent in the grand scope of things. You want to put a big dent, that's when you get a church started. It goes from being a BB gun to a shotgun, okay? It goes from a BB gun to an assault rifle, okay? You don't just hit with something small. No, when you get a church started, that's when you start doing the real damage, and that's what we need in this world. Now, in Luke chapter 4, Luke chapter 4, let me read you verse 17 and 18. Verse 17, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet, Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. So, in verse 18 is one of the many places where it talks about preaching the gospel to the poor. Now, the reason why it talks about this is because poor people are more receptive to the gospel. One thing that makes the Philippines a receptive country is that this is not the richest country in the world. Now, from a standpoint in our normal everyday living, you know, we would like it to be more rich, that we have more things, but the reality is as soul winners, it's probably good that this country kind of lost a lot of money over the last 20 years. Say why? Because people are more receptive to the gospel because of that. But what I want you to realize about this, with every country having their place, we will never be the financial powerhouse that some other countries could be. See, us starting a church, the amount of money we bring in, you know, our church is very generous and God has really blessed us, we're never going to be this sort of powerhouse. I mean, some of these mission strips, you have the mission strips and they say, hey, if you show up, we'll pay for all of your food and all of your hotels. Look, we can't do that. Say why? We're not the sort of powerhouse that churches in America or Australia or New Zealand or in Europe could be because their salaries are just so much more. And see, those churches, even if they get a lot less people saved, they're the ones that can really fund mission strips and get churches planted more easily because they have the means to do it. Our church, our purpose, of course, we're trying to get churches started through here and Luzon, but in the reality, we're just not going to have the money to plant a church in the US. It's not going to happen, okay? The US will plant churches all over the world, but we don't have that sort of financial money to do that. Now, as a church, we don't mind. We live within our means and God has blessed us and we're fine. I'm not saying we need more money. We're doing great, okay? All I'm saying is in the unreceptive countries, because richer countries are less receptive. Poorer countries are more receptive to the gospel, but the richer countries have their place because even though you toil and toil and toil week after week after week with few people getting saved, the Verity Baptist churches are the ones that are able to start lots of different churches. Why? They have the means to do that and that is why all of the world must be reached. Now, we're doing our part here in the Philippines, but wherever you're from, you need to go back where you're from and do everything you can to reach that area. All of the world needs reached. Every country has its purpose. Every country, the gospel is receptive. Every country is wicked, but the good news for us is every country is changeable. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here in your house tonight and help us to apply this sermon to our lives, God. Help us to go back to wherever we're from at the end of this week and just be really zealous for you. Even if it takes five or 10 or 15 hours just to win somebody to the Lord or even if it's really, really difficult to bring people to church, God, every country, every place has its purpose and you want everybody in the world to hear the gospel. Let's help us apply this to our lives, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.