for you or has for us through you this evening. Come preach to us, brother. Thank you, sir. Turn your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. And as you're turning there, thank you once again for the privilege of being here. Thank you for spoiling my wife. That is a special blessing. And you guys may have made her year. I'm not sure, but she has been needing some newer, more comfortable shoes. And she was able to get some of those along with some other needs and some other wants. And so I know that was a blessing. to her and thank you for the comfortable accommodations. It's the most comfortable in the church building prophets chamber that I have ever stayed in. And maybe the only one you've stayed in, so it probably is for you too. But anyways, thank you so much for that and for the meals and everything we got treated to the cultural favorite, the Chesapeake pizza. Although pastor, I did have somebody come up. Where did he go? Where did Pastor go? I had somebody come up to me. I will not divulge their name for the sake of anonymity. But they did tell me that there was better pizza to be had. I told him I wasn't sure that I believed him. But anyways, thank you for taking good care of us, for being friendly folk, for being a missions-minded church, swinging by the table and talking to us. If you haven't already, please do. We have prayer cards. Anything for you to remember to pray for us. I need all the prayer that I can get. My poor wife, she needs even more because she has to deal with me on top of everything else. And we have some stickers for the kids and for young people. And if you're an adult that wants to put one on your 55 gallon water dispenser, that you carry around, I'm talking about Stanley's, or your laptop or whatever they put stickers on, you can come get one of those too. We're very excited about that. Also, there's a machete over there that I cut off the tip of this finger with the very first day that I bought it in Liberia, so we can tell you that story too. So anyways, please stop by the table and I've given you guys enough time to get to Matthew chapter 28. I'd like to preach to you guys a sermon this evening entitled, Why Should We Tell? Why should we tell? I was about to graduate with my master's degree from Ambassador Baptist Bible College. And my father was a pastor in Pennsylvania at the time, had been diagnosed with brain cancer, which did prove terminal. And he had written me a letter and sent it to me with a care package. And he had just had his first of a series of surgeries and I'd come up to visit him for a few days and come back to school and I was struggling with keeping my mind focused on what the Lord had for me and the future that God had for me. And he knew that and so he wrote me this letter and in it was a sermon outline. It's the one you're going to hear this evening. that he had adapted from one of his professor's class notes, Pastor Frank Camp, Romans. And I found that out later, but he said, hey, this may or may not be my own, but here's the outline, make it yours and someday when you are a missionary, Preach this on deputation. So that's what I've been doing. It's become my favorite sermon to preach. I hope it'll be a challenge to your heart as it is a challenge to mine. Every time that I preach this, reasons why we should tell. Five Bible reasons from God's Word this evening why we should tell. Brother Kerr did an amazing job. Praise the Lord for the sermon yesterday. addressing our need to deal with our hearts, because missions is a heart issue. If God doesn't have your heart, He's not gonna use you, He's not gonna bless you, you're not gonna honor and glorify Him. And our purpose as Christians, not just me, not just your pastor, but all of our purpose as Christians is to honor and glorify God by spreading the gospel throughout the entire world. And we're gonna see that from God's word, five reasons why we should tell others about the gospel. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunity that we have to open your word and be encouraged and reminded and inspired and Lord challenged and maybe even rebuked in areas where we need to be better stewards of the gospel and where we all have room for improvement and I pray that you'd help us this evening as we go through your word that we would be challenged to spread the gospel and to be all about our Father's business just as you were when you set that great example for us when you walked this earth many thousands of years ago. Work in hearts, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would move. Lord, it's not about anything I have to say or any of what skills and speech I might have, Lord. If you're not gonna do a work, we're wasting our time. Lord, we know that you will work because where your word is spoken, it's not gonna return void. Lord, I pray that you would do that and challenge us, help us to be better stewards of the gospel. Thank you, it's in Jesus' name we pray these things, amen. Five reasons from God's word this evening why we should tell. And the whole point of this is that it is your job, it's my job, it's every Christian's job to spread the gospel where God has planted or placed or called us. There's nothing special that sets me apart as a missionary, nor there is anything special about Brother Kerr, about Brother Schrock. or any missionary, at least not in any good ways. We are a special breed of people, but it's not in any good manner. I don't shoot gospel webs out of my palms. I don't have any more compelling way of telling the gospel than any one of you. The only thing that sets me apart is that God has called me to spread the gospel in a land that is obviously not the land of my birth. And for some of you here, That applies to you. For some of you, that doesn't apply to you. But at the end of the day, whether it's across the sea, across the city, or across the street, it's God's desire that you be a witness for Him wherever you find yourself within His will. So five reasons this evening. Reason number one we find in Matthew 28. Probably the most obvious, the clearest, and really the only one necessary. We'll look at four more. But in Matthew 28, verses 18 and 20, we find the command from the Savior. The command from the Savior. And in earth go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Folks, it's very clear. There's been a lot of books that have been written, a lot of rainforests that have been demolished to print these books, if you want to look at that. And really, all of them are not really needed because you can't get any clearer, you can't get any stronger than Jesus' very first command to His disciples saying, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Mark 16 and verse 15 says it this way, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. unto every creature. And don't get too carried away with this here this evening, but the underlying Greek word there literally means everything in which is the breath of life. It's God's will, it's God's desire that if it moves and if it breathes that He hears about Jesus. We know that Peter would write that God is not willing that any should perish. but that all should come to repentance. John 20 and verse 21, Now David Livingstone was my childhood hero. growing up. I was very privileged to grow up in a Christian home with parents, a mother in specific, that wanted God to use her children. And so I grew up reading missionary biographies for school projects and so on and so forth. And Brother Kerr has told me he will hook me up. I will go to Zambia one of these days and we will see Victoria Falls and I'll go to the place where David Livingstone's heart is buried. I'm gonna see the museum and anyways if I live to do it, it'll be amazing But David Livingstone is quoted as having said God had only one son and he made him a missionary You know in John chapter 3 in verse 16 God's God tells us Jesus himself says for God's to love the world He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life everlasting life. Remember Jesus when he was just a few years old, you know, he stayed behind in the temple, you know, reasoning with the rabbis about the scriptures, you know, that were prophesied himself. And he told his family, you know, hey, I must be about my father's business. We know the Bible tells us that God sent Jesus Christ into the world to live, to die, to love us, to preach the gospel, and to remind us, to make it clear to us that there was forgiveness to be had with God found in Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so just as God the Father sent His Son into this world to preach the message of the gospel to a dying world that so desperately needed to hear it, Jesus told his disciples, hey, my time here is coming to an end, but yours is just beginning. And this same message that I have been sent to preach, I am sending you to preach as well. Acts chapter one and verse eight, another very familiar passage of scripture. Jesus tells his disciples, you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me. We're going to park right there for a second. Notice he didn't say that you can be witnesses unto me. If you go to Bible college and get a degree, then you can be a witness. If you're a man and you're qualified to stand behind a pulpit as a pastor, then you can be a witness unto me. Or if you want to be a witness unto me, you might be able to be. He said, Ye shall be witnesses unto me. We don't have a choice. The only choice we have in the matter is whether we are going to be good witnesses that show the light and the love and the hope of the gospel within us to the world around us that needs it or whether we will be selfish in our focus and worldly in our lifestyle and bitter in our hearts and push people away from the Jesus that we claim to love. Folks, Jesus' command to us today is still to tell all the world. There is no Great Commission 2.0. It's never been updated. It's never been redacted. It's never been amended. It stays the same. So reason number one, very clear, very straightforward. Why should we tell from a biblical perspective is, number one, we have the command of the Savior. Number two, as you turn to Luke chapter 16, please, Luke chapter 16, we're gonna find another reason from God's word why we need to be about telling others about the gospel. Luke chapter 16, and there's a lot of Bible truth we could pull out of this passage this evening, but for the sake of time and clarity, we're only going to look at one. But in the latter half of Luke chapter 16, Jesus tells this story of these two very different Jewish men. And one is a man of power and position and prominence. He was obviously a man of wealth. The Bible tells us he was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. Purple was reserved for royalty and the Bible makes it very clear this man had some privilege in life. I would also argue he was a good man. Oftentimes you hear people preach about, you know, he had all the world had to offer and they seem to paint him as being irreligious and maybe even cold and indifferent to the second character in this story. But we'll talk a little bit more about that later. This is a man who has everything good this life has to offer. Everything we would dream of and desire and to be present in our lives, he had it. And then on the other side of the coin, Jesus paints a picture of a man who has only the worst that this world had to offer. The Bible says he didn't have a place to lay his head. He lived on the street outside the property of this rich man. Every piece of food he ate was a scrap from this rich man's table, which, by the way, they didn't walk themselves outside. And if you pay attention to the homeless crisis in the United States today, you know that not very many rich people want homeless people outside their gates. I make an argument from that that this was a good man, he was a moral man, probably a religious man because he was a well-respected Jewish leader, obviously. But this man over here, he has nothing, his dogs are his only friends, and he has a mortal disease. But the one thing that unites both of these men is the one thing that still unites all men today. They both died. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, or when you are, your day is coming. And when it comes, there's no escaping. And the Bible tells us that this poor man, he dies, and he's carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also dies, and his situation is very different. The Bible tells us that he lifts up his eyes in hell, being in torment. And he sees Abraham and Lazarus are far off and he asks, Hey, can you dip your finger in water and cool my tongue as I'm tormented in this flame? And obviously that menial request is denied. But then in verse 27 we hear the cry of his heart. Now we know Abraham says, hey that's not how it works son. And they have the word of God. If that's not enough for them, then neither are they going to believe somebody that comes back from the dead or claims to come back from the dead. But the point of this exchange is simply this. This is a real man who is in hell even still today, very possibly joined by the five brethren that we hear him crying out for somebody to go and tell about the error of their ways. Folks, the damned in hell would gladly tell the gospel and they would doubtless be more dedicated soul winners than any of us in this building. Because they would fully grasp the reality and the gravity of hell. But their time has passed. They already made their decision about what to do with Jesus. And after all, does it not remain to us the living who are called by the name of our Savior to tell those around us about Him while we still have the time and while they still have the time to hear? Why should we tell? Number one, there's the very clear command from the Savior. Number two, there is a cry from beneath. But number three this evening as we move along, there is also a call from without. The cry from beneath, we don't get to hear that except in Luke chapter 16. But as we turn to Acts chapter 16, we'll find that this call from without can be heard Acts chapter 16 is where we will find ourselves as we examine this call from without. And we'll pick it up in verse 9. Acts chapter 16 and verse 9. The Apostle Paul, often times you look at him as being the first and great missionary example. He's on one of his missionary journeys with his missionary team, and he's all geared up, prayed up, and psyched up to take the gospel into Asia, and God is not allowing that to happen. And Paul understands that this isn't just, you know, bad circumstances or twists of fate. God is doing something, so he takes a step back to find out what's going on, and God redirects him in this vision. And in Acts 16, in verse 9, we find the vision. It says, Now I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret. It's not really a little secret. But often times when you watch missionary presentations you will see pictures of people that are living in extreme poverty or dealing with tragic situations. And there is something about the plight of that person through that silver screen, so to speak, that tugs at your heart because it is a tangible, visible example of desperation and of need. And there's nothing wrong with that. Isaiah, I believe it's in Isaiah, the Bible says, And if Brother Schrock or Brother Kerr or myself or Brother, it was McFall, correct? I'm sorry, I'm terrible with names. I already know these guys from before, so it has nothing to do with you. But any of us here today, if we could snap our fingers and take you guys to the country where we are planning on serving or where we have been serving, and we could take you on a tour throughout the country and show you the dire need there, we would gladly do so. Normally we're confined to a few minutes on a screen. So we show you these things. But notice here in this vision, in this mission's presentation to Paul, The Bible doesn't say that God showed him a man in Macedonia who was missing a leg that had been amputated because of a civil war, or a woman who's selling herself on the streets so that her children can have a few meals a week, or a Liberian that's stricken with leprosy, or something along those lines. It's not there. This is just a regular, average, everyday, run-of-the-mill Macedonian Joe. And this is the point that we're driving at here this evening. Missions conferences are amazing. They're awesome. They're a vital part of any flourishing church because a church that does not fulfill the Great Commission is a church whose candlestick has or is being removed because it is not fulfilling its purpose. That's just Bible. But sometimes it's very easy to become caught up in romanticized needs somewhere across the seas and distant lands. While we neglect the call from without that we all face here at home. You know, you rub shoulders with people on a daily basis that I will never meet. Your pastor will probably meet them. They're not going to darken the door of this church and hear the gospel. If they're going to hear the gospel, it's going to be from your lips. You know, Jesus told His disciples, During the episode of the woman at the well at Samaria, he went somewhere that they did not want to go to talk to somebody they did not want to talk to because he knew that their heart needed Jesus. And the disciples have gone into the city of Samaria to buy food and somewhere along the way you know that they came in contact with this woman who's just been saved. Because the entire city is emptying And they're all coming out to see Jesus. And somehow the disciples have managed to stay completely ignorant of what's going on throughout this entire chaos. Because they didn't want to see it. Or maybe because they were just focused so much on what they were trying to accomplish that they didn't notice what was going on around them. But they come out to Jesus and they're trying to get Him to eat and He's not eating. And they're saying, what's going on? What's wrong with you? You're hungry. You sent us in there to get food. And He says, hey, I've got meat to eat that you know not of. He says, turn around, lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already unto harvest. He says, look, open your eyes and see what needs to be done. You know, there's two things about a harvest, my friends, that limit our ability to reap it. You know, when I pastored in Pennsylvania, a lot of them were farmers, and they were always talking, the folks in the town, they were always talking about, oh, we gotta go get the corn out, and, you know, it rained on Monday, it's gonna be dry by Thursday, and we gotta get the combine out there by Friday, because it's gonna snow next week. You know, you can't leave your hard-earned crop sitting in the field. One of these limiting factors is the death of the lost. Hebrews 9, verse 27 says, There is a day coming for each and every one of us barring the return of Christ. And you do not know when that day is. And it doesn't come on your terms. I remember on a July night in 2019, my brother was shot through the head during a hunting accident involving a mutual friend of ours, and I remember holding his head together in my hands as he died, and just, I will never forget the shock of that night, just a total shock. This is things that happen to other people, it does not happen to me. Maybe some of you, you've experienced something along these lines. Maybe you've lost a loved one tragically, or at least suddenly, and you know what that shock is like. But if you were like me before I turned 25, I didn't know that that even existed. It wasn't on my radar. My eyes weren't tuned to that. I thought we all had forever. to do what we were gonna do with our lives. And folks, it's just not that way. And that person that you claim to love, that person that is your friend, that you share your burdens with, and they share yours, you don't know how much longer you have with that person on this earth. So you'd better share the gospel, be a light for Christ while you can. Wake up and reap the harvest while it is day. But not only do we have the death of the lost, but we also have the return of the Lord. You know, Jesus Christ is coming again, praise the Lord. And we are told all throughout the Bible to look forward to that. You know, it's called the glorious, our glorious, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We're told that it's the great day of the Lord. First Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18 talks about it. And in verse 18, Paul tells us to comfort one another with those words. And for those of you that have a loved one in glory, you know exactly what that means. And so all throughout the Bible to the Christian, the return of the Lord is promised as a glorious thing. But then in 2 Peter 3, verses 9 and 10, it's painted very differently. Here, Peter is writing in response to questions from the early church, saying, hey, you guys said Jesus was coming back. It's been decades. He hasn't come back yet. Our friends, our loved ones, our family, they're dying. We're putting them in the ground. And Jesus has not come back. Have we missed it? Did you guys misunderstand something? Explain this. And so Peter writes, and this is his response. He says, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. He says, Look, He hasn't forgotten, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us where He's patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." And here we find the return of the Lord being equated with the apocalypse that is going to end our created universe as we know it. And it's because that very day that brings our deliverance as born-again children of God sets in motion the ticking time clock that brings about the eternal damnation of all of the rest of humanity. That day that brings our deliverance begins their damnation. Now folks, we need to heed this call of the harvest while there is still opportunity. That friend, that loved one, that person that you are thinking about even right now, that you know you need to tell about Jesus. Because if they didn't show up at work tomorrow, if they didn't pick up the phone the next time you called, if they weren't at that next family reunion, you know you would never see them again. That person, you don't know how much longer they have on this earth, and you don't know how much longer you have either. So reap the harvest while you can. Why should we tell, number one, the command from the Savior? That's serious enough. Number two, the cry from beneath, we have this tragic cry of the damned for those that they love that are left behind. And then number three, there's that call from without that I hope you will be paying attention to even more as we move forward from this evening. But number four, there's a constraint from within. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5, please. 2 Corinthians 5, and here we're gonna see the constraint from within. You know, the Bible makes it clear that God is love. It's said over and over and over again, and we're not here to get caught up this evening in the debate over which is greater, God's holiness or God's love. God tells us that God is love, and that's what we're looking at right now. We'll look at the holiness part in just a minute. And we know this love that sent Jesus Christ to the cross of Calvary to die for our sins, the sins of the whole world. We know that it was love that brought Him from the throne of heaven to walk this earth as a man to live and die a perfect life and an undeserved death for our sakes. And we know that that love that we've experienced from God is supposed to be filling us. In Romans chapter 5 and verse 5, the Bible tells us that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Remember, Jesus told his disciples, on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Ye are the salt of the earth. If the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It ascends forth good for nothing, but it be cast out and trodden under foot of men. And I heard an old Southern preacher say once, you know, if the Lord's love is not visible in your life, you're good for nothing but de-icer. And then I was remembering, you know, in the Middle East, they don't even have ice, so you're not even good for that. So God's desire is that that love that reached us is supposed to be shining abroad in our hearts. It's not supposed to be able to be hid. And then in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15, Paul has this to say about the love of Christ. For the love of Christ constraineth us. Now, you've probably not used that word in the last week. If you use it in a Scrabble game, it might be an instant win, but this word means to be bound, it means to be controlled. I remember while I was still in Bible college, there was a friend of mine, we are still good friends to this day, okay, so that needs to be said now. But the semester had just started, and here I am. I'm in the... I'm a senior, you know? I'm supposed to know better. That's another story. But a friend of mine was a prison guard, and he had just come, and he was showing me the techniques that police officers use to handcuff an individual. And there's just a science to it. If they get one cuff on you, it is done. It is just simply done. If they have any clue what they're doing, that is. And he had shown me like three or four times, and so now I am a certified police officer, all right? So I take those cuffs from him, and I go walking down the hall of our dorm. By the way, it's the first day the dorms are open for that semester. So everybody's filing in, and I was looking for my brother, and he must have had his sixth sense tingle, and he left the building right as I came out of my dorm room, and I saw him. I'm walking down there to see if I can catch him before he gets to the car, and out steps this brand new freshman. His parents had just dropped him off. They had just left the premises. He walks out, and by the way, I'd been his camp counselor at Camp Barnabas two years. So he knew me, he trusted me, he thought we were cool. And I walk into him, or he walks into me, and I'm an equal opportunity predator. So I grabbed this 5'4 kid, and I slammed him up against the wall, and I took those handcuffs, and I wrapped his arm behind his back, and I had him cuffed before he knew what was going on. He still thought I was friendly at that point. And I went to lower him down to the ground, and it was right around that moment he realized, this is not good. And it was also at that moment I realized, I don't know what I'm doing. Because instead of being lowered gracefully to the ground, we both fell to the ground, me with my knee in his back and not knowing when to stop. I'm on top of him yelling, stop resisting! Stop resisting! Anyways, we are still friends to this day. We're going to go fishing in June. So praise the Lord for that. But it was a learning experience for me. And for him. But the point of the matter is, he was being constrained. He was very constrained. He was controlled. He was bound. He was completely under the control of something other than himself. And Paul here says, The love of Christ constraineth us. It binds us. It drives us. Because we thus judge. We know this, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again." He says, you want to know why I get out of bed every morning? You want to know why I am who I am? Why I preach what I preach? Why I travel and go where I go? Why I suffer the things for the cause of Christ that I suffer? It's because of this. It's because of the love of God. It's the grit in my crawl. It's the gumption in... It is what I do. Because of God's love for me. And friends, he didn't have anything that you don't have this evening. You got the same love of God in your life that was in his. And it should be constraining you just like it constrained him. Everything in between, verses 14 and 15 at the end of the chapter, talk about the transforming power of the love of God in a life. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. That's in this passage. We'll go all the way to the end there. Verse 20 says, because of this love of Christ that constrains me and changes lives so dramatically for the cause of Christ. And verse 20 says, now then, because of these things, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, I pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. He says, because of God's love in my life, I am a missionary. Because of God's love in my life, I can't help but ask people to come to Christ. I can't help but preach the gospel. What can't you help doing today? Why should we tell? Number one, there's a command from the Savior. There's this cry from beneath. There's a call from without. I hope that there's the love of God constraining you from within, folks. This Bible, if you find a child of God that has no interest in telling the world about the gospel, I will show you a child of God who is not right with God because the Holy Spirit is not having free reign in their hearts. Number five, as we come to a conclusion, the most somber of all of these reasons why we should tell others is the condemnation on sinners. a condemnation on sinners. Folks, God is not willing that any should perish, and we praise the Lord for that. It's the only reason why He sent His Son to die for us. It's the only reason why we have a purpose in life and hope of heaven in the future. But even though He's not willing that any should perish, the wages of sin is still death. Nothing changed there. And the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin is anything that I think, that I say, or that I do that displeases God. And the Bible says that no matter how good you are, none of us can live up to God's standards of righteousness and holiness and perfection. I know there's at least a few hunters in the room here. You know, I think about what it means to sin, and I go back to the very first deer that I ever killed. I was a 16-year-old boy in a deer stand on Sunday morning, and don't worry, I was in my place in church when I was supposed to be there. And I'm sitting there, I'm hunting, and I got so excited, and these three deer walked almost right underneath my tree. And brother, in the camouflage, the biggest doe was from me to you. And I was so excited, and I was so nervous. I had so much adrenaline in my system, I missed her by a foot and a half from this distance right here. I missed the mark. That's exactly what the word sin means, to miss the mark. Now, praise the Lord. She was dumb enough to stand there, so I did get her the second time. So praise the Lord for that. Praise the Lord we all get second chances, amen? But we've all sinned. The Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags in the eyes of God. When I was in Liberia, I cut off the tip of this finger with a Liberian machete that is sitting on my table over there. Don't worry, I've dulled it. And I remember after we sewed that back on with a fishhook, with a barb filed off, and it didn't quite fit back the way that it came off. It was a horrible sight to behold. And those bandages had to be changed very regularly. And for any of you that have ever dressed an open wound, you take that off and it's revolting. Very unhygienic. And when the Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags in the eyes of God, the word literally means used bandages. Folks, you're probably a good person. You're probably better than me. You might even be a better person than Pastor Godfrey, but you will never be good enough to walk up into heaven and say, my good works outweigh my bad, so therefore you have to let me in. Folks, we don't get to write the rules. We don't get to write the standard. God does, and the very fact that a human being would be born outside of the relationship with God that we were created to enjoy, that alone is an offense in the eyes of an almighty God, and our very existence is sin. The only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. God sent his son to tell us how it could be done. He said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me. I would love to stand here and preach that you could do whatever you wanted to do and get to heaven as long as you were sincere. That would be the easy thing to do. I would get to lay my head on my pillow at night knowing that everybody's going to heaven. And I would also get to know that no one would ever take offense with anything that I ever said. But the truth of the matter is, all of sin and the wages of sin is death. Death in this life... and death in the next. The Bible says that death and hell were cast in the lake of fire. This is a second death for those that do not accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. In this life, after you leave this life, you will be separated from God for eternity in a place of torment called hell. Romans chapter six, verse 23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God has provided a plan of salvation. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9 says, Folks, if there's been a point in time in your life where you understood that you were a sinner and that you could not save yourself, And you believe that God sent his son to die on the cross of Calvary to pay that sin debt that you can never pay. And you called out to Jesus Christ and you said, dear God, I'm a sinner. And I believe you sent your son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross of Calvary for my sins. Would you please save me today? If there's a time that you called out in the name of the Lord to save you from your sin, then you don't have to worry about hell anymore. Because Jesus has got you. God has provided a plan of salvation, my friends, that has to be accepted. John 3, verses 17 and 18 says, But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the only begotten Son of God. Verse 36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, no matter how sincere they may be. As we come to a close here, we reach this fact that the plan of salvation, as glorious as it is, cannot be accepted if it's never told. My friends, you're not saved if you don't believe. It's just that simple. And then in Romans 10, verses 13 through 15, Paul answers, under divine inspiration, that ominous question of, well, what happens to those who never hear the gospel? What happens to those in deepest, darkest Africa, or in the mountains of Mongolia, or in the hills of India, that never hear about Jesus Christ? Paul says, hey, this is why it's so important that we tell people. He says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, amen? Folks, the gospel has to be told so that it can be heard and so that it can be believed, so that it can be obeyed and people can be saved. So if you're here this evening and maybe you've heard the gospel your entire life, maybe you haven't, maybe this is the first time, and you're sitting here tonight and you're thinking, do you know what? There's not been a point in time in my life where I've actually thought about the fact that I'm a sinner and that I need Jesus. And there's not been a point in time in my life where I've knelt down and asked the Lord to save me. Then you need to take care of that today because you can hear it all day long, but until you believe it, it does nothing. And for those of us here today that are saved, there's been a point in our time, in our lives, we've accepted Christ. We need to understand the fact that God does not hold guiltless the believer who does not warn the lost. I have shown you from God's word this evening how those who do not hear will die and go to hell, and how it is your responsibility to be a part of telling them here, there, and everywhere through the Great Commission. Ezekiel chapter three, this is the last place we will turn and then we will close. Ezekiel chapter three. In Ezekiel 3, we find God speaking to His man, His prophet, Ezekiel, and saying, Ezekiel, I'm giving you a message to preach. I'm giving you a word of warning from my mouth that needs to be spoken to those who need to hear it through yours. In Ezekiel 3, in verse 16, the Bible says, It came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way. To save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. He says, look, Ezekiel, you're my man. I have chosen you to give my message to the people that so desperately need to hear it. And if you don't give it, there will be consequences. And I will know, and I will hold you to account. But if you do what I have asked you to do, whether they listen or not, you have fulfilled your role as a faithful servant. Folks, the results aren't up to us, just the task. For everyone that has been in the military or knows anything, maybe you just memorized that poem about those that charged into the valley of death, you know, the Noble 600, maybe you remember that from literature class. The poem says, it's theirs but to do and die, there's not to reason why. We're not called to win, we're called to fight. We're not called to bring people to Jesus, we're told to tell them about him. We can't do the work in their hearts, God can. but he's asked us to play a part. We will either be faithful watchmen that fulfill our purpose, vessels that God can use, or we will be rebellious vessels to approach in the eyes of our Savior. Folks, five Bible reasons here this evening why we should tell. Every head bowed, every eye closed, please, nobody looking around. You know, this evening we saw from God's Word five very clear Bible reasons why we need to be all about telling others about the gospel. There's a command from the Savior. There's a cry from beneath. There's a call from without. There's a constraining love of God within us. There's a condemnation on sinners. That is still on all those who have not believed in Jesus Christ. You know, maybe you're here this evening And maybe you're one of those folks that condemnation is still on you. If you were to die today, you could not know for certain that heaven would be your home. And if that's you, I would ask you, please, please come to the front, talk with the pastor, Nothing would make our night more than to know that somebody has been saved from hell and found their way to glory through Jesus Christ. Please do not leave this place tonight. If you do not know that heaven will be your home, find somebody, talk to them, know for certain today that you will go to heaven the moment you leave this earth. You know, Christians, We have a very clear responsibility. We have a very clear role. Maybe you're sitting here this evening and you're thinking, the Holy Spirit has put somebody on your heart right now. There's a face in your mind, maybe several, people that you know that need to hear the gospel, people that you love and hold dear, that if they were to die right now, you wouldn't know where their soul would find its eternal resting place. I'm gonna ask you, if you fit that category this evening, will you just come to the front and pray for those people? Say, preacher, there's somebody that I know needs Jesus. You know, come to the front and pray for them. Come to the front and ask God to work in your heart to give you boldness, to give you clarity, to give you the opportunity to speak the name of Jesus and to give that soul assurance to heaven. And friends, I'm gonna turn this over to Pastor. But as God so loved the world to give his son for it, and as Christ so loved the world to lay down his very life for it, may we too so love the world that we tell our family and our friends and all those that Christ has entrusted to our lives to tell them about the cross. Pastor. Father, I pray that you'd work now on this invitation. I'm careful to give you all the glory. In Jesus' name, amen. If you would stand with me, heads bowed and eyes closed as the pianist begins to play. If you don't know Jesus, Christ is your savior this evening. If you're sure not sure that heaven is your home, I want you to come down here this evening, take me by the hand. If you're a lady, we'll have a lady take you to a private room and just show you from the Bible how you can accept Christ. If you're a man, we'll have a man take you to a private room. to share with you the gospel and how you can accept Christ as your savior. We're not gonna embarrass you, you're not joining the church, nothing like that. We just want you to know that heaven is your home. Christian, how about you? Are you responding to the call of the gospel? Are you obeying that command that's from above? That cry that's beneath, do you believe that that's there? You know, sometimes I think we just acknowledge hell theoretically, theologically, but it doesn't change the way we live. Folks are coming, how about you? That call from without. Those folks we rub shoulders with every day. Do you stop and just think about the cars that are passing you by as you're driving down 64 and how many of them are lost souls? If you would take your hymnal, let's sing a verse and a chorus of this song that the pianist is playing. Page 532, Must I Go On Empty-Handed. A great question to ask ourselves this evening as we close this portion of the service. Sing with us. Must I go and empty-handed thus my dear Redeemer meet? Not one day of service give Him, lay no trophy at His feet. Must I go and empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior's soul? Not one soul with which to greet Him.