you you Yeah. you you you you you you you you Well, good Wednesday morning. Good to see you in God's house. Let's take your hymn books and let's sing together. In my heart there rings a melody, 502, 502. Let's stand as we sing it together. Amen. Put a smile on your face and let's sing it together. I have a song that Jesus gave me. It was sent from heaven above. There never was a sweeter melody. Tis a melody of love. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love. I love the Christ who died on Calvary, for he washed my sins clean. Away He put within my heart a melody And I know it's there to stay In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody with heaven's harmony In my heart there rings a melody There rings a melody of love. T'will be my endless theme in glory, with the angels I will sing. T'will be the song with glorious harmony, the chords of heaven ring. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody, there rings a melody of love. All right, very good, thank you. You may be seated, and I'll talk to you just a minute about Paula Wallace and her books are back there, three of them, and her husband, who acts as her marketing agent. If you're going to get somebody something for Christmas, it's not too early. But if you buy it for somebody for Christmas, you're not allowed to read it yourself. Okay? That breaks the rules. That breaks the rules. Well, it's good to see you here today. Thank you for coming. And Brother John, if you will, just stand right where you are. Take us to the Lord in prayer and ask God's blessing on this time today. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come into this holy place only because you're here and you're holy. Thank you for these men of God know you, and therefore are able to impart the gospel to us in a meaningful and understanding way, with perfect clarity, when the meeting is. We ask that you will be better servants of yours, and better children of yours, and will take the gospel to others with grace. Amen. It was a little more difficult this morning to get out of bed than it has been the earlier days, but I'm glad I'm here and glad you're here. Delighted you've come and ready to get in the tent. to the next two chapters of this section, 9 through 11. And first up this morning, we have Brother Scott Pauley. Who's singing this morning? Leslie. Leslie's singing this morning. Okay, Leslie, come right on. And good to have Mrs. Smith to sing today. And so, if you will, listen to her song. And then in Chapter 10, Chapter 10. And good verses in there. that will be very familiar, but some other things that are not quite as familiar as those middle verses in the chapter. But I know you'll enjoy, and hasn't it been good to have Scott Pauley here with us this week? Have you enjoyed that? And he finishes up this morning, and we'll be heading out, and then Daniel, Daniel, Daniel Stevens will be coming in for tomorrow night. And Brother Wallace will be up in just a little while. But we take five, ten minutes, get right into the message from the Word of God, and we just spend the time in the Word. So Leslie, sing for us, and then Brother Scott, you come right on and preach. His robes were mine, O wonderful exchange. Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered neath God's rage. Draped in His righteousness, I'm justified. In Christ I live, for in my place He died. I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost. Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. But by such love my life is not my own. My praise, my all, shall be for Christ. alone. Is ropes for mine? What cause have I for dread? God's daunting law, Christ mastered in my stead. Faultless I stand, with righteous works not mine. Saved by my Lord's vicarious death and life. His robes for mine, God's justice is appeased. Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father's pleased. Christ drank God's wrath on sin, then pride is gone. Sin's wage is paid, propitious I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost. Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. But by such love, my life is not my own. My praise, my all, shall be for Christ, His robes for mine, such anguish none can know. Christ God's beloved, condemned as though his foe. He as though I, accursed and left alone. I as though he embraced and welcomed home. I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost. Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. But by such love, my life is not my own. my all shall be for Christ alone. My praise, my all shall be God bless you. Amen. What a beautiful song. There's a lot of doctrine in that song, isn't there? That was like a whole other session this morning. I enjoyed it. A minister to my heart. All the music has been just beautiful and wonderfully done, but full of the Lord and full of the Lord's Spirit. I want to tell you I love this church. I've never been here before. I love the spirit of it. I love the pastor. I love the people. And I mean this, everybody, from the ladies serving the lunch to the sound men to the ushers, everybody, so encouraging. And I want to thank you. I want to thank you for being kind to me, to us, and I want you to know it's easy to preach in a place like that. And may God bless you for it, and may the Lord multiply your kind all over this country. and I'm going to be praying for you for great days in the life and ministry of this church and the days ahead, and I want you to pray for me. The only thing I'd like to ask this church to do for me is pray for me. How many of you keep a prayer list? Would you raise your hand? That's great. If you don't mind adding my name to it, I would really appreciate it. and traveling around the country and preaching, and I need folks praying for us. And so if you'd pray for me, I would deeply appreciate it. About 14 months ago, oh, 16 months ago now, the Lord really started working deeply in my heart and leading me to launch out into evangelistic work. It's interesting the passage of Scripture we're coming to this morning because it is what God put in my heart. It is the passion. Basically, there were two things the Lord began dealing with me about to give the rest of my life to, as far as emphasis is concerned. One was the gospel, and the other is the work of revival. I personally believe those two things are connected. I think when God's people get revived, they want to get the gospel to as many people as possible. And I think when the Gospel begins to do its work, then it's more than just people getting saved. I think it engages God's people and stirs them up and brings a spiritual awakening. and I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled that I get to study with you today Romans chapter number 10. So I'd like you to take the Word of God and open it there, if you would, please. We'll begin with one verse and one verse only, and then we'll walk through the rest of the chapter and make our way full circle back to the verse we begin with at the conclusion. Brother Lewis did such an absolutely wonderful job last night on Romans chapter 9, and I was helped and blessed by it. I was also very grateful to God that he got assigned Romans 9 instead of me, and he did a great job. And you know, Brother Shane, I was sitting there listening last night, and, of course, preachers are always thinking about what's next. And so I was listening to you in Romans 9, and I'm thinking now we've got to bridge to Romans 10, and something dawned on me that honestly just blessed my soul, and it was this. Romans 9 has been the subject of so much debate, and discussion, so much conflict among people who disagree. And yet, I think it's fascinating to see that when you come through Romans 9 in the spirit of Christ, it leads not to debate, it leads to prayer. He goes, when you open Romans 10, there's no debate, there's no argument, there's no discussion. The reasoning is done. Look at Romans 10, verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. May I say to you, you can always tell when the Spirit of God is at work rather than the Spirit of our flesh and of this world, because the Spirit of God always leads you to prayer. In other words, when men just want to debate and fuss and argue and fight and make their point and prove their thing and be right, look, that's flesh. But when men can say, look, we see God at work in this world and it leads us to pray, oh, Lord, save the lost and let us get in on it, I tell you, that is the work of the Holy Spirit we talked about yesterday. This is an amazing verse to me. What's the first word of Proverbs? I hope you're reading Proverbs today, but we're in Romans, aren't we? What's the first word of Romans chapter 10? Say it out loud. What's the first word? That's an interesting word, isn't it? Because it is a word of unity and it is a word of family. Normally, when we come to Romans 10, we're using Romans 10 as a part of what is typically referred to as the Romans Road to show lost people the way of salvation, and I think that's perfectly legitimate, and I think we ought to continue to do it, but I want to point out to you this morning that Romans 10 was actually not written to lost people. It was written to save people. Romans 10 is for you. Romans 10 is for me. In other words, it's like this. In chapter 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9, we see all that grace has brought into our lives. We see all that God has done in saving wretched sinners like me from a Christless hell, and that leads us in Romans 10 to say, now, my heart's desire and prayer to God is, that others may know this salvation that I have become the recipient of." Charles Adams Spurgeon said, "'Have you no desire for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that.'" That's pretty strong language, isn't it? May I tell you, I believe one of the evidences that people are truly saved is that they want others to be saved. Go back in your mind to the day you trusted Christ. Was it a good day? Hymn writers say, glad day, glad day, when Jesus washed my sins away. That was a glad day. I'm going to tell you, the day I got saved, I couldn't wait to tell my mother. She was the next person I saw picking me up, and I said to her, oh, Mama, I got saved today. I was so excited about it. I wanted to tell everybody. Dr. Robertson said most Christians give their gospel testimony more in the first six months after they get saved than they do the rest of their Christian life combined. That's sad, but true. And the reality is it is because we are so overwhelmed with how wonderful God has been to us. And could I give you a word of caution in a book like Romans? One of the sad things that could happen in our study this week is that we sit here, excuse this term, and get spiritually bloated. Taking in and taking in and taking in and saying, isn't it wonderful? Oh, isn't this glorious? Hallelujah, we're saved. And forget that God's work is not into, God's work is always out of. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. The Lord didn't have dead sea Christians. The Lord has people who have been recipients of the grace of God that say, I want to give the rest of my life to get this message to as many people as I possibly can. May I point something else out to you before we walk through this chapter? Notice who Paul is specifically praying for. He wants Israel to be saved. We heard a great deal about the nation of Israel last night, but let me bring that practically down to where we live today. God's not through with Israel, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and see the Lord at work among his people. But let me ask you about your nation. What about your Israel? What about the people group where God lets you be born and God lets you live? You see, the apostle Paul loved Israel because they were God's chosen people, but the apostle Paul loved Israel because that was also who he belonged to. He was one of them, and they were part of him. And he said, oh, these are my brethren. These are my kinsmen according to flesh. I want them to know Jesus like I know Jesus. May I ask you a question? What is your greatest prayer for America? You know the great danger? The great danger after a night like last night in the great state of Florida? Watching the votes come in and watching the political climate and seeing all these things is that we begin to put our hope in the wrong things. May I remind you today, the hope of this world and the hope of America is not in a new president. It is in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you what America needs. America does not need a political overhaul. America needs the gospel. That's what America needs. In the words of the Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, America needs to be saved, that they might be saved. I want you to take your pen and I want you to underline the last phrase, just the last phrase of verse number one, that they might be saved. Would you say that with me, please? That they might be saved. One more time. That they might be saved. When I'm done, you're not going to remember everything I say, but I want you to remember this one statement. And if somebody says, what'd they talk about in Romans 10 this morning? You're going to say, oh, very good, that they might be saved. Why do I want you to remember this? Because this is Paul's purpose statement. This is the thing that was driving him. It was the thing that consumed him. It was the passion of his soul, but wait a minute, where did he get it from? He got it from the God whose passion is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God loves all people. Christ died for every man. It is the heart of our loving God that every man and woman and boy and girl that is alive at this moment come to know him by simple faith in Jesus Christ. He said, whosoever will may come. That is the heart of our God. And if that is the heart of God and that was the passion of Paul, then that must become the great purpose of our lives. Now, with that in mind, I'm going to do something a little strange. I want to go to the end and work my way back. I want to go to the end of the chapter, and then we'll work our way back upstream to the fountainhead, all right? We're going to come cross-current here today. So go into the end of Romans chapter 10, and let me show you the things that the Lord reveals to us in this particular passage about the salvation of the lost. Let's begin in verse 16. First word of verse 16 is interesting. You should circle it in your Bible. The Bible says, after all the discussion about the gospel and how simple it is to be saved, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 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 into the ends of the world. But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Isaiah is very bold. and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, all day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." I don't have time to do this this morning, but on your own time, you should run all the cross references in this chapter because this chapter is filled with Old Testament references. For example, just in what we've read, Isaiah 52 is there, Isaiah 53 is there, Isaiah 65 is there. A passage in Deuteronomy is there. In other words, he's taking Israel back to all the things that God said, and he's saying to them, after all the light you've been given, after all the truth you've been presented, after all the opportunity you've been afforded, you rejected it. Here's the first truth, the first principle I'd like for you to write down somewhere from Romans chapter 10. The first thing God reveals to us is their condition. In a word, can I tell you the condition of Israel? Lost. In a word, can I tell you the condition of America today? Lost. In a word, could I tell you the condition of the world you and I are living in this morning? Lost. You know part of the problem with us? We've lost the meaning of the word lost. Anybody ever been really lost? I'm talking about like out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, didn't know where you were, how you were going to get back. You know that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach? Isn't that a terrible thing? Now, today, we have these GPSs, these little ladies that live inside the box that tell us how to get where we're going. And by the way, you got to be careful listening to them. Sometimes they send you in the wrong direction, too. Early one morning, I was looking for a coffee shop, get a cup of coffee, drive by myself, and I listened to the little woman. I turned left, went two miles, and turned left, went a mile and a half, and she proudly announced, you have now arrived at your destination. I was sitting in the middle of a cow pasture in the middle of nowhere. and I thought, somebody's laughing at me right now somewhere. You got to be careful what voice you're tuned into. You know the sad reality? Our world has so many voices and is still lost. So many advisors, so many counselors, but we are living in a lost world. I've marked in my Bible, in verse number 16, the word, but. In verse 18, but I say. In verse 19, but I say. In verse 20, but. In verse 21, but. You know what you see here? Great contrast. God says, this is the way it could be, but it's not that way, it's this way. This is what I could do in your life, but you didn't want that, you chose this way. You could be saved, but you're lost. You could have life, but you're dead. You could be close to me, but you're separated from me. Listen to me, please. The greatest problem in this world is not social, it is not economic, it is not political. It is not any of those things that the world wants to try to suggest to us. The greatest problem in this world is that people are lost without Jesus Christ. And I want you to do something right now. In your imagination, I want you to go back to the days when you were a lost person, before you were saved. Are you glad somebody told you about Jesus? I'm so glad that woman told me about Jesus. I'd be lost. Not lost someday, lost now. I'd be lost. That'd be my condition without God. And when I start pondering on that, suddenly, it dawns on me, wait a minute. They may dress up all right. They may seem happy. They may have lots of money, but the people that are running around me every day, they're as lost as I was, and they're going to perish. They're going to go to hell forever. Oh, but wait a minute. They're not just lost. Back up to verse number 2 just a minute. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Let me tell you something worse than being lost. Worse than being lost is being willfully lost. No, let me tell you something worse than being willfully lost. Worse than being willfully lost is being willfully lost in religion. Can I tell you what Israel's problem was? Israel's problem was that they had their religion perfect. Look, please, they had the lines drawn perfect. And they dotted all their I's and crossed all their T's, and they had all their religious routine, and they knew how to go through the mechanics of it, but they had missed the righteousness that comes only by faith in Jesus Christ, and because of that, they were lost. Can I tell you the most tragic place to go to hell from? A church building. You know the worst thing that could happen this week? We've talked about good things. Can I tell you the worst thing that could happen this week? That someone could literally sit in these sessions all week long and go to hell forever. You say, that's possible? Absolutely. Absolutely. It's possible that someone could sit here and take all of this in and even give mental assent to it, but still be depending on their own good works, on their own righteousness, which the Bible says all of our righteousnesses are like filthy rags to God, like leprous rags to God, and miss the righteousness of Jesus Christ that comes only by faith. By the way, can I tell you how Paul spotted it so quickly? He was warned. When you read verse 2 and verse 3, he's not just describing Israel. He's describing himself before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Can I give you a little suggestion? Let me tell you how to love lost people. See yourself in them. Anybody like me ever get really aggravated with sinners all around you doing stupid things? and live in wicked lives, and you get a little angry from time to time, let me tell you how to keep your heart right. Look at them like God looks at them and remember that was you. And when you remember your condition, you'll see theirs. There's a second thing he gives us in Romans 10. He not only reveals to us their condition, he reveals to us God's intention. What is God's intention? Let's start in verse number 4 and travel down through the verses. For Christ is the end. That's an interesting phrase to me. We always speak of the Lord Jesus as the beginning, and he is the beginning. He's the door, right? He is the way. He's the truth. He's the life. He is the beginning. But watch, before he is the beginning, he is the what, church? Christ is the what? He's the end. End of what? He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Look, please. He was the only one who ever perfectly fulfilled the law. He completed it. He filled it up to overflowing. He took our place. He fulfilled every requirement. He is the end. I'm going to tell you something that's liberating to me. It's liberating to realize I do not have to earn anything. Let me tell you why that's good, because I can't. Christ is the end of all that. You know what's so sad? It's sad to meet people who are trying so hard but so frustrated. You know what I want to say to them? Christ is the end of all that. He's the end of all your frustration. He's the end of all your effort and your seeking attainment on your own energy. Look, Christ is the end of all of that. Look on to verse 5. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise." Now, watch this. "'Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?' That is, to bring Christ down from above. Or, "'Who shall descend into the deep?' That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee.'" It's there. You've got it. "'Even in thy mouth and in thy heart,' that is, the word of faith which we preach.'" Can I tell you what that passage just said? Man wants to make salvation some hard, attainable thing. And God says, look, there is no way that man can bring Christ down to his level. And there is no way that man could ever raise Christ from the dead. Look, please, you cannot do what only God can do. So here, this is beautiful to me. God did the impossible part so that the only possible way of salvation was for us to just believe on him. In other words, instead of making it hard, he made it simple. Look, the Lord Jesus made the path so plain and opened the door so wide, he said, all you've got to do is believe on me. I've marked in my Bible in verse 8, the word is naivety. By the way, it's more than words. The Bible calls it the Word of Faith. He goes on to describe it, verse 9, that, "'If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, "'shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, "'thou shalt be saved. "'For with the heart man believeth in the righteousness, "'and with the mouth confession is made into salvation. "'For the Scripture saith, "'Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.'" In other words, what he's saying here is God's intent is that man believes in his heart and it comes out of his mouth. He confesses with his mouth what is true in his soul, in his heart. That is the Word of Faith. Look at me, please. of faith, the word of faith. For with the heart man believeth in the righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I love this in verse number 12. In case you're wondering if there's any difference in the way Israel gets saved and the way we get saved, verse 12 clears it up. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Look, there's only one way that anybody is ever saved at any time, and it is always by faith in God. And by the way, I hear sometimes preachers use this phrase, the word of faith, the word of faith, for lots of different things, and even use it to describe talking to yourself, positive talk, or saying to others, speaking the word of faith. Listen to me, please. The word of faith is always Godward. There's not a man on earth that can do for you what only Jesus can do. There's not enough positive talk inside of you to do what only Christ can do for you. The word of faith is to look to the Lord away from everyone and everything else and say, Lord, I'm trusting you and you alone. That is the word of faith. But now, wait a minute, that's not the whole intention. You see, sometimes we stop here. Please don't miss the fact that you are in Romans chapter 10. If you look, please, at the next verse, verse 14. how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." By the way, notice God's exclamation point. You want to see what excites God? I'll tell you what makes God excited when the gospel is getting out. When people are hearing about the Lord Jesus, when folks have the privilege and opportunity to be saved, that's what excites the Lord Jesus. You can tell a lot about a man by what excites him. May I ask you, what excites you? A nicer house? A newer car? More money in the bank account? A longer vacation? The thing that ought to excite us is the fact that we get to be a part of the greatest thing going on on planet earth today, which is God's work in this world. Can I tell you what God's intention is? God's intention is not just that man be saved. God's intention is that man be saved and that those who are saved help get others saved. I have written in the margin of my Bible, I'm part of God's intention. I'm a part of God's plan in this world. And by the way, the preacher is not just the guy who stands on a platform, opens his Bible, and screams like a wild Indian like I do. That's not the preacher. The preacher is everyone that carries the message of Jesus Christ. See, there are people outside these walls that will never come in here to hear somebody like me preach. There are people outside these walls that are not coming to these services. There are people outside these walls that you can reach that none of us will ever even speak to, and God's intention is that all who know feel it their responsibility to tell those who do not know. And so that brings me full circle now back to the verse where we started, verse number 1. You see, there are three things in this chapter I want you to remember. One is their condition. Two is God's intention, but three is my petition. And I bring you back to this prayer. Would you look with me at verse number one again? Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God. Pause just a minute, would you please? You can always tell what a man wants by what he prays for. Your heart's desire and your prayer are always connected. Let me tell you something that really convicts me. Do you know where our selfishness is most seen? In our prayer life. Listen to yourself pray sometime. Make a list of all the things you ask for and realize that about 90% of what we pray for is all about us. It's about our health and our comfort and our ease and our problems and our needs. By the way, I'm not diminishing that. I'm not suggesting to you the Lord doesn't want to hear our prayer or wouldn't answer those prayers, but I am saying to you something is sorely missing in our lives when so much of our heart's desire and prayer to God is for us instead of for the salvation of the lost. Can I tell you the highest level of prayer? The highest level of prayer is intercessory prayer. None of us ever attains in prayer. We're always in the school of prayer learning all the time, but the highest level of prayer is always intercessory prayer. I'm going to tell you how I know that because that's what Jesus is doing right now. What kind of prayer is Jesus praying right now at the right hand of the Father? He's interceding for us. By the way, that thrills my soul. I know my wife's praying to me this morning, your pastor's praying to me this morning, friends are praying to me. I'm glad, but I love this. If not a single soul on earth remembered to pray for Scott Paulie today, Jesus is praying for me right now. Robert Berman McShane said, if I could hear Jesus praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a thousand enemies. Then he stopped and said, but the distance makes no difference. He is praying for me. Look, Jesus is praying for you. Look at me. Jesus is praying for you. Jesus is praying for you. Jesus is praying for you. And if I'm going to be like Jesus, see, the goal is not to be like Paul. The goal is to be like Paul's Savior. If the goal is to be like Jesus, then what consumes Christ and what he prays for and his heart's desire must become mine. Oh, Father, that they might be saved. Would you circle one little word and don't miss it in verse number one? Would you circle the word, my? Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel. Somewhere you got to connect the my and the they. It's got to get personal. Where is the possessiveness? that says, this is my work, this is my responsibility, this is my job. Back up to chapter 9 with me. Brother Shane covered this last night. Look at verse number 1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bear me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continuous sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Look at all of these. my conscience, my heart, my brethren, my kinsmen, my heart's desire, my prayer to God, somewhere this has to get real to us again. Somewhere salvation has to be about more than us getting saved. See, salvation is not the end, it's the beginning, and God left every one of us here on this earth for some reason. Look, if all there is to it is getting saved, then everybody that walks this aisle, Pastor Reynolds, and gets saved, as soon as they pray the prayer of faith, a word of faith, we ought to hit them in the head with a baseball bat and send them on to glory and get it over with. If that's the end. But I submit to you, when a man comes to know Christ as his personal Savior, that's the end of his works, that's the end of the righteousness of the law that he tried to attain, but it is the beginning to everything else, and one of the things it should begin is his purpose aligning with God's purpose to get the gospel that he has received to as many other people as possible. It's got to get personal to us somewhere, friends. I want you to hold your place here just for a second, and I want you to go back with me to the book of Exodus. Brother Shane alluded to this passage last night, but this is the Old Testament parallel to Paul's passion in Romans 9 and 10. It's found in Exodus 32. This is Moses crying to God for the salvation of Israel. Sounds an awful lot the same. Words are different, tone is the same. I want you to see something. When I saw this, I remember the first time I ever saw this, set my eyes on it in Scripture, it helped me. Look at Exodus 32 and verse 31. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Now, stop and let your head look at me a minute. You think you'd be ticked off of all you've invested, of all you've done? I tell you what, it's a good thing I wasn't Moses. I would have agreed with God, let's stamp them out. Let's get rid of them. Let's start over. They're worthless. Moses had such of the love of God in him. that he agrees with God about their sin, watch this, please, in verse 32, but he pleads for them, and here is his plea yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin. And the thing I wanted you to see is not a word. The thing I wanted you to see in this verse is that little dash. All of you have that little dash in your Bible? Everybody see that there's no end to that sentence? Let me tell you what that is. That's brokenness. That's brokenness. You know why he never finished the sentence? He couldn't. You know what I think is in that dash? Tears. Heartache. Grief. Weeping. Church, can I ask you a question? Where have all our tears gone? Where are the weepers? They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Jesus wept. Where are our tears? Do you remember a time you used to weep for lost souls? Remember the day when we used to fast and pray for our family to be saved? We used to get out of bed at night, get down on our face, pray. I remember pulling the car off the side of the road one night, trying to win him to Christ, and he rejected the Lord that night, and I literally couldn't drive. I remember sitting on the side of the road, weeping, and saying to God, God, please save Gene. Please don't let him go to hell. Do you know the next Sunday he came to church? Come invitation time, I slipped to his side and said, Gene, wouldn't you like to be saved? He said, I've already done that. I said, excuse me? He said, you know, after you left the house the other night? I said, yes. He said, well, I started reading my Bible, and he said, God really spoke to me, and he said, I called on the Lord and asked him to forgive my sin. You know what's wrong with us? Excuse me. You know what's wrong with me? We've lost that little dash. Oh, we go through the motions and we say, y'all pray for my lost loved ones. Where's this brokenness? And look at this, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. I'm not there yet. I don't have the heart Moses had or the heart the Apostle Paul had. Look, please, I don't have the heart of Christ, but I want that. Lord, I want my petition to be that those in this lost condition would come to know Christ as their personal Savior. I want the prayer of my life to be this, that they might be saved. A young woman by the name of Kate, serving as a missionary in Africa, got very, very, very sick. She was laid up for weeks. While she was laid up for weeks, she wrote two beautiful poems about the life of Christ. Out of those two poems came two of the greatest hymns ever written about salvation. And out of the second poem, her poems, if I remember correctly, were entitled, The Story Wanted and The Story Told. It's all about the story of salvation. And the second poem produced the hymn, I Love to Tell the Story. to be my theme and glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. My favorite verse of that is the third verse. I love to tell the story for those who know it best, seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. One of the greatest joys for me this week being in this conference is to see people who've been saved, many of you, a long time, just soaking up the Scriptures and soaking up the story of salvation and just loving it. How many times have you heard this? You haven't heard anything really new. You may have picked up a nugget or two, but how many times have you heard the story of salvation? When you're saved, it wells up in you, doesn't it? Hallelujah, isn't it great to be saved? But I tell you, those who know it best need to start telling it again. We got to get the hay out of the barn. We got to get it out where the sinners are. I want to challenge you to do something. I asked you at the beginning, do you have a prayer list? I hope you do. I want to challenge you to start a new list. And on the list, no one goes but lost people. Begin a list. I don't want to embarrass anybody, but I wonder right now who among us could say, this is the man I'm working on, this is the lady I'm praying for, this is the family I'm after. And I want to challenge you, this is just very practical, but I want to challenge you to take Romans 10, verse 1, right across the top of the paper, that they might be saved. and then make you a list and begin to pray every day for the salvation of those souls and speak to them about the Lord and go after them with the Gospel. Ask the Lord to give you tears and brokenness for their salvation, and let's see what could come out of this. Wouldn't it be glorious if out of this hundreds came to Christ? If all we did this week is have our sessions and we all just sat around and said, well, this has been nice, then we wasted our breath and you wasted your time. May something be set in motion out of our study that continues on till we see Jesus face to face. What should it be? It should be the advancement of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that they might be saved. Father, I thank you today for the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. I thank you for the sweet Holy Spirit who is our teacher. I thank you for grace, oh, marvelous grace. Dear Lord Jesus, help us not be selfish. Help us be more than glad we're saved. Help us to be broken for those who are not. Father, give us tears. Give us your burden, your passion, your love for souls. Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me, and may I humbly do my part to win that soul for thee. Some soul for thee. Some soul for thee. Lord, I pray this. I pray this morning the Holy Spirit would put his finger on the hearts of many in this meeting and give them a divine assignment. I pray in the days that follow this conference there'll be divine appointments. I pray we shall hear of souls being saved. Lord, I want to ask a big prayer today. I want to pray that there would be many who would come to Christ as a result of those in this year's Bible conference carrying the message of Romans to those who've never heard. Lord, I pray we shall all meet together around the throne of Jesus someday and give you glory for the salvation of our souls. In Christ's name, amen. Thank you. Yes, sir? Let's find it. I don't even know where it is in your hymn book. I can sing it. I just don't know if I remember the whole thing. 444. Everybody take your hymn book out, would you please? It's a great one. I love to tell the story. You love to tell the story? Let's sing it that way, all right? You have it there? I love to tell the story of unseen things above. Let's start with the first verse. This is so good, full of doctrine. Ready? Here we go. I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory and his love. Oh, yes. I love because I know it is true. Amen. It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme in glory. to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. The third verse, sing it, would you please? Oh, wait, wait, wait, let's see if it's the fourth verse. Forgive me, fourth verse, here we go. I love to tell the story for those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting, to hear it like the rest. And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song, it will be the old, old story that I have loved so long. I love to tell the story It will be my theme in glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. It's great. Oh, my goodness, he's killing me today. Lord, lay some soul upon my heart. Is it not? How many of you know the song? Honestly, I know the words of it. I don't know that I could lead it, though. I love your pastor. He's such a blessing. Honestly, I don't know if I can. Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me. And may I humbly do my part to win that soul for thee. That's beautiful. I'm glad I didn't quote any other hymns in this particular message. Let me share one thought with you. I was just standing here as we were singing this thinking, you know, Charles Spurgeon, I know I quote him a lot, Charles Spurgeon shared his personal testimony in his sermons more than 300 times. That's pretty amazing. If I could give you one suggestion, it would be this, because we've covered a lot of doctrine in Romans this week, but the best way to get after souls and get the message out is to use your own story of salvation, your own personal testimony. Take one of these great salvation passages and your story and get it to as many people as you possibly can. And may the Lord help us see many saved. I've never been asked to lead singing in a church before, so now I can mark this one down as a first, and I really appreciate it. God bless you. May I say this, and I mean it with all my heart. I have felt such perfect liberty speaking in your church. I thank God for the Spirit of Christ here, and I love you, and I'm praying for you. I covet your prayers for us and appreciate it so very much. It's been a joy. Thank you. All right. Well, that's good. Thank you. Thank you so much. I think we'll just make that a pattern for all of our preachers when they finish preaching. I got to lead the songs. Okay. All right. All right. Well, that's good. Thank you for coming. Brother Paulie, thank you for being here. I thank you so much. I want you to pray about something I've talked with. And I haven't said anything to you about this, but a few weeks ago, Aaron passed along to me. He said, I thought you'd like this because it's from West Virginia. and it was a video about a southern county in West Virginia in coal country. Now, if you know the agenda of the green people, and I'm for taking care of what God has entrusted to us in every area, in our bodies, in the environment, everything else. But in this county called McDowell County in West Virginia, McDowell County, What county are you from, Beckley, aren't you? Yeah. Princeton. Princeton. Oh, okay. Well, you know McDowell County. I sure do. You know McDowell County. I have family that I did fall in. Yeah. It's coal country. Chris, you're not from down that far, are you? Oh, wow. Yeah, bloody mingo. Yeah. That county has gone. from a population of 125,000 to a population of 21,000 in the county. It is rated by many the second worst county in the nation for poverty. And with all those things that go along with poverty, the average income The average family income in that county is $19,000 a year. That's the average family income. All the things that go along with that as far as drugs and teen pregnancies and all those things are enormously there. And all the corruption that goes along with that. is there. And candidate Hillary Clinton has said this week, we are going to get rid of miners and we're going to get rid of mining companies. We're going to put them out of business and out of jobs. Well, okay, but And so I looked at that, and I looked at the deterioration in the county, and I looked at churches, just churches up and down the road, churches that are no more. I mean, that are closed, that are vines going in. And the people who did this, they just traveled around the county and took pictures of churches. And they'd even go inside. In one church, there were still hymn books laying on the pews, just laying on the pews. There were hymn books and a Bible laying on the pulpit. It was just like they just laid everything down and walked out, and that was it. And some of the buildings look like they're in fairly decent shape. And I don't know, but if there's any hope in that county for anything, I called. I called for the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. There was a Chamber of Commerce there. Well, whenever I called the number, and this is small country, the same number got me to, she's not the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce anymore, she's the mayor. And so the same number took me to the mayor's office. And this lady answered the phone. And I just talked with her a while, because all the government money still comes there. They've got the buildings. They've got the infrastructure. They've got the things money can buy. But I said to her, I said, now, I'm a preacher. And I didn't go through the whole story about how I got focused on McDowell County. But anyway, I said, I'm a preacher. And I don't know whether there is anyone in your county in education, in law enforcement, in government, or in the business community who sees that There's more problem than what is there. I said there is a spiritual problem that has to be dealt with if there's going to be any good thing that comes into this county. There's going to have to be spiritual things. Now she's in the mayor's office. The mayor's office is closed, but she said ordinarily I wouldn't answer the phone. She said, but for some reason, she said, I answered your call. She said, now I'll tell you this, every Monday morning at our church, we meet together to pray for our county. Brother Paulie's dad pastors in Beckley, near Beckley. which is 50, 60 miles from this area. In his dad's church is a state policeman. Now, of course, Jim Mitchell, who preached here last July 4th, is the chaplain of the state police force. But there's a born-again state officer who is assigned just a new assignment into McDowell County. Now, he's praying for the county. Rick Pryne, some of you know Rick Pryne. Rick Pryne, from his church in Ripley, an educator was transferred down to McDowell County as principal of a school. So you have a born-again man in education, you have a born-again man in law enforcement. You have some things that maybe would be the beginning of something. Now, I'm going to say something right out loud that I promised I wouldn't say right out loud. I think, you know, ordinarily the thing that I say and ordinarily the thing I'm talking about is let's go to McDowell County and start a church. That's the thing I think. But I don't know that that's what we need to do to impact the whole area. I think we're going to have to get outside the walls. Like you were talking about, we're going to have to get outside the walls and affect an entire area. Now the fact of it is, if you can do it there in that place with an impossible place, you could have a template or a pattern that would work in many places, in many places. So, you know, in thinking about this, it's just many, many years ago, many fifties, some of you were there, my life was impacted in a great way by an organization called Youth for Christ. Becky, in her community where she was, there was not Youth for Christ. It was called Christian Youth Crusade. Christian Youth Crusade. And it all hinged around a Saturday night youth rally. Now, there were a lot of other things that took place and were involved in that. But it was a Saturday night youth rally. And there were some problems inherent within some of those organizations that have led to the situation that is now within those organizations. a great, great impact on this country and upon young people in this country. And it was a nationwide thing. Though we have CEF, which meets in the schools, and we have FCA that is in the schools and so forth like that, we have not that type of thing that really impacts the churches. Because what happened on those Saturday nights impacted what went on in church on Sunday morning. It really carried from Saturday night into Sunday morning. It was an amazing thing. That was what I was part of. We got walked out of Spencer High School. We got put out of Spencer High School and said, you can't meet in this school anymore. You've got to leave. and we had to go off campus, and there were some people near the school that let us come into their home, but it just, it didn't work, because I mean, it was a small room, people were sitting on the stairs up going into the, into the upstairs of the house, there was no, it was just, and they knew that, but anyway, Anyway, it's just something to think about in this matter of getting outside ourselves because people really do need the Lord. And that's the only thing I see. I think there were a lot of people who were good believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and church people who thought the answer for this country was the Republican Party. And I think we've been kind of disillusioned with that and seen that the Republican Party was just a political party. It catered to a certain segment because we were good votes. We were good votes. But our hope is not in a political party. Our hope is certainly not what the President's doing right now in nominating the new Supreme Court Justice, which will be a whole other battle and ought to be a battle. But our hope is in the Lord. And if our hope is not in the Lord, we are hopeless. We're hopeless. Let's let what we have gotten, as Brother Paul always said, let's let it change us.