We pause now. Everything else is gone, and the word of God begins to sanctify everything that is unclean, impure, making it holy. I'll be reading from Psalms 94, starting in verse 12. Psalms 94, starting in verse 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chasteneth, O Lord, and teach him out of thy law, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of his adversary unto the pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord shall not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. but judgment shall return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart shall follow it. Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul, should have almost dwelt in silence. I repeat, unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. Thank you, Jesus. so so And it's a beautiful song. It talks about the things that are most wonderful for my life. And so may it be a blessing to you. I boast not of works. nor tell of good deeds. For not have I done to merit His grace. All glory and praise shall rest upon Him. so willing to die in my place. I will glory in His cross, in His cross, lest His suffering all be in vain. I will weep no more for the cross that he bore. I will glory in his cross. my trophies and crowns, my robe stained with sin. T'was all that I had to lay at his feet, unworthy to eat from the table of life. till love made provision for me. I will glory in His cross, in His cross, lest His suffering all be in vain. I will weep no more for the cross that he bore. I will glory in his cross. Tonight we'll begin in the book of Zechariah. And we're only going to read one verse in chapter eight. And then we're going to make a beeline for the book of Romans, where this is carried out in the age of grace. Zechariah eight, verse seven. saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, behold, I will save my people from the East country and from the West country. It could read very clearly in the Hebrew from the sunrise till sunset. And so we're going to look at that word save. God will save. And so the apostle Paul who has been a, in the past, a man who has tried to destroy the church of the living God, and now he has been saved by the grace of God and his heart is broken. For the people of Israel, Zechariah said he would save them. So we pick this up in the 10th chapter of Romans verse one, Romans 10 one. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record This is the way it is. This is the way it is in the courts of Almighty God. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. The word zeal means that they knew how to get excited about God the way they wanted to be excited and not the way the Holy Spirit made them excited. Satan wants to make you be filled with zeal for the wrong things. And that's what had happened to Israel. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. Don't let that fool you just because someone knows how to get excited. But not, they don't have zeal according to knowledge. In other words, what they had in their mind as knowledge about God was a void and a very ugly and unspeakable error. They do not serve God according to knowledge. For they being ignorant, there's no excuse for any of us in this sanctuary, as there was no excuse for Israel, for they being ignorant of what? Of God's righteousness. And I have to stop and ask myself, do I look to God for my righteousness? Or am I going to try to please people and make them think I'm righteous? That won't stand the test of eternity. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about, that's none of that, and going about trying to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. I have to ask this question for myself and for you. Have I substituted something that makes me think I am holy and righteous, then you are damned to hell forever. There is righteousness that was purchased on the cross of Calvary and vindicated totally by the resurrection. They have not submitted. This word submitted is an interesting word because this is also true of the Muslims. The word Islam in the Arabic language means submission. Submitted to Allah and not to Yahweh. And I love this verse. Get excited about this verse and get zealous about it. For Christ the Messiah is the end, telos, is the end of the law for righteousness. So to everyone that believeth, let me read that again. For Christ the Messiah is the end, and the Greek word is telos. Jesus spoke that word, it is finished, translated in our English. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses, Describe the righteousness, which is of the law. That the man, and the word for man here, I've tried to every time we come to that word to tell you the meaning of the Greek word here. The word here is man that is not God and not animal. He is a special, unique creation. That the man which does these things, if you're going to keep the law, you have to live by them constantly. And this word, I'm very careful when I'm studying the Bible to not run past those little prepositions. things shall live by them. That is, that's their portion. If you get any kick, you get any thrill of being holy yourself and not have the holiness of God, then you have your portion. You have your reward here. God have mercy on the future. But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise. Here's how it is. This is what the word of God says. But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise. Say not in your heart, in your emotions, in your intellect, in your thinking. Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend to heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above. That's what religion will teach you to do. You don't bring him, you don't go up and bring him down. He voluntarily came down and paid the price. Who shall ascend to heaven? Don't say that. Or who shall descend into the deep, into the abyss? That is to bring up Christ again from the dead. He has been resurrected and he's alive for eternity at the right hand of the Father. May I read that verse again? Who, don't say who shall descend into the deep, that is the abyss. That is to bring up Christ again from the dead. Well, what sayeth it then? What is it that said? The word, and again, every time you see W-O-R-D, it means different things at different times, the same word. Here is rhema, the speech of God. What is God saying? What is he sending forth? from his holy book, the Bible. What saith it? The word is nigh thee. Even in your mouth, it's all there. Even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word, the rhema of faith, which we preach. You know what the word preach means? It means to herald it. It means to get excited and get with it. You're a herald, something good has happened. You want everybody to know about it. It's not the things that are going off as a tornado coming through. That's not good news. But there's something that's going off that says, Jesus is your Lord and Savior. Verse nine, that if thou shalt confess, that agree with God about who he is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, there's just four eternals in the Bible. The eternal father, the eternal son, the eternal spirit, and God's eternal purpose. And God's eternal purpose is as important as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God has a definite purpose for each of us. And I'm glad you're in the assembly of God tonight. You're in the right place. You're in the right place, hallelujah. If thou shall confess with thy mouth. And the ideal here is not necessarily saying it because there are people who do not have the ability to speak. It's what comes out of your heart. And that can be so beautiful. That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe, have total, complete reliance total leaning on the everlasting arm. Ah, what a fellowship. What a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arm. If thou shall confess by thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, your innermost being, that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. What did Zechariah say? Let's turn back and read that verse one more time. In Zechariah 8, 7, way back in the Old Testament. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will save my people. I'll save them from the rising of the sun to sunset. This is so sweet. This is so simple. This is so easy to know. Why would we fight anything like this? For there is no difference. I thank God for that. I thank God that for those that accepted Jesus, we're all one. One in Christ. For there is no difference between the Jew or the Greek. There's no difference between the black, the white and all in between. For whosoever This is that little Greek word, paz, P-A-Z, everyone. For whosoever shall call, and that word call comes from a Greek word that means to invoke an earnest request of God. We've heard of the invocation. You invoke God. He's not just somebody you chatter to. You're not somebody you just make a noise to. There's something down deep inside of you planted by God that comes out and God is pleased and heaven is rejoicing. The memorial service we had for Pam Smith was how I knew her by. This whole side was full of people and I knew from the Holy Spirit that there were not very many people who had ever really heard the gospel. What a privilege it was to testify to all those people and Pam in heaven got the credit for that. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved eternally. Then it asked a question, and this is an important question. How then shall they call, invoke God, go to God with an earnest request, How shall they call on him whom they have not believed? You can't. Faith springs the call. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? We preachers have a unique opportunity to open this book. And when I say open it, I mean open it wide and clear and strong and spiritually excited. Aren't you excited? That you can call on God and he's always listening. But how can you, you have to have somebody And there's no reason why God should have called me to preach. No reason at all. But he did. And therefore, I have an unspeakable responsibility. You should not forget to pray for those who have been given the obligation and the commandment to open this book, study it till you're worn out and you filled yourself up with the word of God and you're ready to open your mouth and preach the truth to all who will hear. How shall they preach except they be sent? Could I give you a personal experience? I came back from North Africa in 1958 in April. My mother and dad had a preacher I'd never met. And when I met him, he wanted to talk to me and he said, Bill, you have been in church all your life. Are you sure that God hadn't called you to preach? I said, no. I said, I've just got a good job. I was fortunate. I got to work for an insurance investigating company. And I mean, I had a great job. The man from Little Rock, the head knocker of the company. came to take me out to have lunch. And I thought, oh, this is not something that I want. I didn't know what it was. And he said to me, I hear you're pastoring a little church over at Spiro. And we have a rule in our company that if you are an ordained pastor, You cannot work for us because we, you go out and get information that's very, very important. And they would say you color your reports that you report into the company by your religion. And therefore, tell me today, do you want to be with us or do you want to resign? I had to resign. You know what that Church of Christ boss said to me? I wouldn't have warned you if you would have. But here I am, at that time two kids, Making good money, I mean good money. Well, Lakeview Church was just started and they paid $15 a week. I moved to Spiro by the grace of God and I started a school, started college at Poto Junior College, drawing the GI Bill, $160 a month. I go down to the school and talk to the registrar. I said, I'm going to need to do some work here at the school to pay because I'm not going to have enough money to pay for tuition and books and all of that. And that registrar said, do you pastor a church in Leflore County? Yes, I do. Then you get to go free. I'm telling you there were more preachers in that college. I mean, they had preachers run out their ears. It was like a seminary. Isn't God wonderful? And you know, after I graduated from Northeastern at Tahlequah, The superintendent of schools at Poteau called me and says, we're in trouble. We don't have a speech teacher. And you have majored in speech. Could you come down and teach speech? And I thank God, Brother Phil, you were there when I preached Lois. Ms. Lois, her first name was Lois, funeral. And I asked the church for permission to teach at the high school at Potomac. And Lois Farrell got up and said, if anybody can do it, he can. That wasn't the end. Find out the junior college needed a contemporary history teacher. So I taught contemporary history there in the college. And then LBJ, you know Johnson, he got his war on poverty. And there was 12 women in a class that was trying to get their GED. And I, they said, will you teach them? I did. I'm not good at math, but you know what? I found a woman in that 12 who was good at math. and I'll let her teach the math. There's a way, there's always a way, don't be afraid to look. Pardon me for all that. 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 good tidings of good things. But they have not obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord who hath believed I'll report. You know where he's quoting from? Isaiah the 53rd chapter. So then faith in Jesus comes by hearing the Word of God. You're not gonna be saved if you have not heard the Word of God. But I say, Paul's still writing, have they not heard? Yes, verily, the sound went out into all the earth and the words, the rhema, from all the ends of the world, over all the whole masses of mankind. But I say, did not Israel know? For Moses, they had read one of the books of Moses. In particular, here's talking about Deuteronomy. But I say, did not Moses know? First, Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, Gentiles. And by a foolish nation, I will anger you. I'll make you jealous and angry because I'm gonna go out and save those dogs out there. That's what they call Gentiles. I'll save them and they'll rise up and be holy and be glorified and filled with goodness. But Isaiah is very bold and said, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest to them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, all day long. I stretch forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. And today those nail-scarred hands are reaching out to every human being. May we be an evangelical church that offers our hands to every human being so that they can know Jesus. Israel eventually will be saved. God will not let the nation be destroyed. There's a horrible time coming for Israel right now. And I hope you don't misunderstand this. But the Pope has visited Israel, and now he has invited the president of Israel, the head of the Palestinian Authority, and every other religious person he can find to come to the Vatican to pray for peace. Peace will not come from the Vatican. Peace will come not from them, but this could be, and this excites me, this could be the beginning of Israel getting ready to sign that covenant. Because the European Union, these are things you need to know. The European Union is falling apart. The Antichrist will come in and revive it and there'll be 10 nations that will join in and the Antichrist will use them to try to destroy Israel. But Israel will be saved. And you have been saved. Shout it as we sing. Amen. We're going to offer up the male scarred hand. Let's all stand. Have you failed in your plan of your storm-tossed life? Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand. Are you weary and worn from its toil and strife? Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand. Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand Place your hand in the nail-scarred hand You know, I like to remember, let you know some things about my past. I was the music director of the main chapel service in Wheelers Air Force Base there in Libya. This is one of the songs I chose to lead, and a Lutheran chaplain, Chaplain Wilson, came to me and says, Matthews, I don't want any more of them bloody songs. So I got fired. And I wasn't in the chaplain service, I was in the finance office. But a good old Southern Baptist preacher, chaplain, came to me and he said, I want you to lead the singing on Sunday night at the chapel. And praise God, the only time he ever criticized me, one time I had a package of cough drops in my pocket up here. And he came to me and said, get them out of your pocket while you're leading singing. I'd rather them think that you're dying of TB than to have something to think you smoke cigarettes. I'll tell you, there's a lot of wonderful things when you're in this religious, spiritual, and unspoken life. Amen.