Let's open our Bibles this morning to the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Romans. Romans chapter 10. Remember three words and you'll remember essentially everything I have to say in this message. Righteousness, salvation, preaching. righteousness salvation preaching That's the title of my message and in essence. That's the message We have it before you here in Romans chapter 10 verses 1 through 21 as we read these 21 verses together I'll call your attention to seven things plainly declared here by God the Holy Ghost about righteousness salvation and preaching Number one of the verses one through four Righteousness is to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ Righteousness is to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ That means you can't do it You can't produce it. You can't cultivate it. You can't improve it Righteousness is to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord God requires righteousness of all men. Our Lord Jesus said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousnesses of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now those were pretty good Joes. They were, man, they're just the kind of folks every daddy wishes his daughter would marry. Good people. Church-going folks. Bible-totin' folks. Bible-quotin' folks. Folks who everybody knew were righteous. They prayed three times every day. They fasted twice every week. They gave tithes of chickens and eggs and money too. Gave tithes of everything they had. They went to church every time the doors were open. They could recite scripture and quote it for you frontwards and backwards. And they didn't know God from a billy goat. Our Lord said, you've got to have something better than that to enter the kingdom of heaven. The fact is no man can make himself righteous. Only Christ is righteous. And only Christ can give righteousness. He, by his obedience unto death, as the sinner's substitute, did what the prophet Daniel said Messiah must do. He brought in, at one time, everlasting righteousness. Now look at verse one. Brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved I'm here today to preach the gospel to you for the glory of God To the best of my ability I Devote my life to that business I I've done so since I was 17 years old. And it has a greater tug at my heart and is a greater weight to my soul today than it's ever been. I am here to preach the gospel to you for the glory of God. And I'm here to preach the gospel to you because I want you to know God. I want you to be saved by God's free grace. I don't preach the gospel stoically, and I sometimes hear preachers say, I don't care whether you believe what I'm preaching or not. I do care. I want you to know God. Oh, I want you to know God. To know God's salvation in Jesus Christ the Lord. It is my prayer and heart's desire to God for you. For I bear them record. I bear them record. Paul's talking now about these Jews, his kinsmen, his brethren after the flesh. I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. They have a zeal of God. Most of the people I know, most of you, most of the people I preach to are very zealous. zealous. They have a zeal of God. They'll fight you over religion. They have a zeal of God. Very zealous. They have some firm convictions, and they're zealous to promote those convictions. But look at what Paul says. If it's zeal without faith, if it is zeal without the knowledge of God, If it is zeal without knowing Jesus Christ, if it is zeal without union to Christ, if it is zeal without the life of God in you, it's zeal not according to knowledge. And that's about the most dangerous thing in the world. Old John Trapp said, zeal without knowledge is like wildfire in a fool's hands. They have zeal without knowledge. Look at verse three. For they, they being ignorant of God's righteousness. Now listen to me. I know that none of you here are ignorant of the fact that God is righteous. Nobody, nobody. Every human beings ever walked on this earth knows that God is righteous, everybody. You read the first and second chapter of the book of Romans, Paul spent the whole two chapters convincing us the whole world knows that God's righteous. Now I know there's some folks say, I'm an atheist, Dad, you're lying to yourself and lying to me. That just ain't so. They hold the truth in unrighteousness. They hold it down. They suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They just keep pushing it down, just keep pushing it down, trying to keep a lid on it. But you know! that God's righteous. You know it. That's the reason your conscience won't let you sleep at night. That's the reason you're tormented constantly trying to find something to give you some ease at the thought of meeting God in judgment. I don't doubt that you all know that God requires righteousness. But you who don't know God are ignorant of God's righteousness. utterly, totally, absolutely, completely ignorant of God's righteousness. The fact is the natural man, the unregenerate man, the natural woman, the unregenerate woman, you who hear, who do not know God, you may read your Bible and quote your Bible, you may have good Bible commentaries and read them regularly, but you're utterly ignorant of all things spiritual. Whatever it is, and this is true, something we have to deal with, Brad, all the time as believers. We carry a lot of baggage from our own depraved nature. Everything you naturally think of when you hear the word righteous, good, God, holy, sanctified, justified, salvation, Christ, religion, everything you naturally think about is absolutely wrong. absolutely wrong. It can't be defined in human terms. It's understood only by divine revelation through this book. They being ignorant of God's righteousness. What's that talking about? Ignorant of righteousness finished. Ignorant of righteousness brought in. Ignorant of that man who alone is righteousness. Ignorant of Christ. And the only reason anybody goes about trying to make themselves righteous is because they don't know Him. It's because they don't know Him. They're ignorant of the righteousness of God. Christ is the righteousness of God. So they go about to establish their own righteousness. They keep on trying to keep the commandments, trying to do good, trying to read the Bible more, trying to pray more, trying to give more, trying to go witness to more folks. And you ought to do all those things, but you won't make yourself righteous by it. And here's the reason. They flat out refused to submit themselves to the righteousness of God. My dear friend, Pastor Bruce Crabtree up in Newcastle, Indiana, his father was once a Church of God preacher. I suppose y'all got those fools around here. Maybe you don't, but the denomination is a works denomination. And Bruce's dad was dying and he'd go visit him real regular. And he kept pleading with his dad, trying to reason with his dad. And he said, Dad, you've got to give up your righteousness. You've got to trust Christ. And his dad looked at him on his deathbed, and he said, you mean meet God with nothing to bring to him? You'll either meet God with nothing in your hands, or you'll go to hell. You'll either meet God trusting his son, bringing nothing to him, or you'll perish in your sins. This is life eternal. Not that I made a decision for Jesus when I was seven or 70. This is life eternal. Not that I had been well-educated and well-trained in the Bible. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Salvation, righteousness, life, is knowing God. Knowing God. Not knowing about God, not knowing facts about God, not even living for God, knowing God. Knowing God. Now read verse four. Here is righteousness. The only righteousness there is. that will fit you for heaven. It is this righteousness of which every heaven-born soul is thoroughly convinced by God the Holy Ghost in the revelation of grace in him in the new birth. When he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will convince God's elect wherever they're found in all the world of sin. Of sin. What's that talking about, sin? Our Lord defines it for us. He'll convince you that committing adultery is wrong. Anybody here ever thought that it wasn't? Anybody? Didn't think adultery was wrong? Yeah, you did. Oh yeah, you did. If you didn't think it was wrong, you wouldn't stick around and do it. Anybody ever think that drunkenness was all right? Anybody? Anybody ever think that fornication's all right? What's he talking about? He'll convince you of sin because You believe not on me That's the issue faith in the Son of God and God the Holy Ghost comes and saving grace and Convinces you that you're damned because you believe not and it's right that you be damned because you believe not and And he'll convince you of righteousness, of righteousness. What's he talking about? He explains it, because I go to my father. He came down here to fulfill all righteousness. And he fulfilled all righteousness and went back to glory. And when God comes in saving grace, he convinces the sinner, saved by his grace, I don't ever have to do anything to make myself righteous. Christ did it. Christ did it. And he convinces you there's no hell for you of judgment. Of judgment. Everybody's born convinced of judgment. God stamped it on your heart and you can't get away from it. Everybody's convinced of it. But not judgment to come. Oh no, that's not what he's talking about. He convinces you judgment's over. Judgment's over because the prince of this world is judged. Jesus Christ cast Satan out, crushed the serpent's head, overturned the curse, put away death for all his people when he died. And every heaven-born soul is convinced of those things. Either that or our Lord lied, one of the two. Look here in Romans chapter 10, verse 4. Christ is the end of the law. Oh, boy, that's deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep doctrine. How are you going to explain it? You have to be careful here. Well, let me see if I can help you. Christ is the E-N-D. End. End. If you're going to leave here, you go down here and go to the end of the street and turn right. Anybody have any idea where that is? It's the end. My friend, Brother Ian Potts, first time I was preaching in Honiton, England, put Chevrolet on a train. We were going to meet John and Ann Graham in London. He said, they'll meet you at Waterloo Station. Now, I wasn't thinking real quick. I should have known exactly what he was talking about. I said, where is Waterloo Station? He said, it's at the end of the track. I said, but how will I know when I get there? He said, when the train bumps the wall, you get off. And the train bumped the wall and I got off and there stood John and Ann. That's the end. Right there's the end of the room. That's as far as it can go. That's as far as it can go. The word end means the finish, the fulfillment, the termination. the stopping point, the period, the finality. Christ is as far as the law can go. Christ is the end of the law. He fulfilled it, he satisfied it, he put it away, he terminated it, it's over with, got nothing to do with me. Oh, brother Don, you can't say that. That'll teach folks to live like hell. No, it won't. If you're motivated by law, you live like hell anyhow. That's just fact. That's just fact. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. For righteousness. But there's a sense in which we're under the law. Find that somewhere for me in the New Testament. You find it for me. I'll eat my hat and yours too. This is the language of the New Testament. You're not under the law, but under grace. You know where that's written? That's written in Romans chapter 6, where Paul's talking about living in godliness. He said, you're not under the law, but under grace. He said, you're dead to the law. You're married to Christ. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Well, what sense is it in which we're under the law? If you're in Christ, you ain't. You're not. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Any kind of righteousness, every kind of righteousness there is. He's the end of the law for justifying righteousness. He's the end of the law for sanctifying righteousness. You're all confused. I like it that way. Christ is the end of the ceremonial law, and Christ is the end of what's called the moral law, the Ten Commandments, the fulfilling of it all, so that believers are not ruled and motivated and governed by commandments and ordinances and such. No, the love of Christ constrains us. We're motivated and governed by the rule of Christ's love, by the grace of God in us. Christ is the end of the law for everyone or to everyone that believeth. To everyone that believeth. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and there's no curse for you in the law. No covenant for you in the law. No constraint for you by the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Now, I've been around a little while. And needless to say, I've had a lot of friends who are scared to death of what I'm preaching. And they've tried to correct me. And they say, well, Brother Don, it's not that I keep the law to be saved. I keep the law just to show my love for Jesus. That's showing contempt for him. That's showing contempt for him. If I were to ask my wife and say to her, now, honey, and Shelby and I, we travel together all the time now in the last ten years or so, but up until our daughter got out of college, she didn't go with me anywhere hardly. And I was gone a lot. Just suppose I were to say to her, now, honey, I know you love me, and I trust you. But just so that you can show other people you love me, and they'll know it, I went and ordered this chastity belt, and I'd like for you to wear that while I'm out of town. Do what? You don't know her like I do. She might give me that chastity belt every way I could get it. Why? That's nonsense. That's a proof of no trust, not trust. That's the proof of no commitment, not commitment. That's the proof you've got to be bound by chains. That's the truth you've got to be locked up in a jail. Christ is the end of the law. If ever you come to believe him, you'll rejoice in it. Look at verse 5. Here's the second thing. The righteousness of God in Christ is salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's salvation. He alone is righteous. He alone performed righteousness. He alone makes sinners the righteousness of God. In these verses, Paul shows us the difference between law righteousness and gospel righteousness. I don't have any idea how many churches there are here. We don't live in the Bible Belt, we live in the buckle. We got churches everywhere. But if you should go through Boyle County, and it's not a big county, you couldn't drive a mile and not find a church building. You can't hardly drive a block and not find one. Churches everywhere. And you can go all through Boyle County. All through Bulkhead. We've got Baptist churches, Pentecostal churches, Episcopal churches, Catholic churches, Methodist churches, Presbyterian churches, Independent Baptist, Southern Baptist. We got all kinds of churches, all kinds of churches. I'll tell you the difference between Grace Baptist Church and all the rest of them put together. It's just two letters. Just two letters. I'll tell you the difference between all true religion and all false religion. Are you ready? Just two letters. I like to make things simple. This is how you spell the name of all false religion. D-O. That's all. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Do. Every time you walk in the door, put your teddy to do something. Before you leave your teddy to do something else. You gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do. This is how you spell all true religion. D-O-N-E. Duh. Law righteousness says do this and live. Gospel righteousness says everything's done that you may live. It's all the difference in the world. Look what scripture says here, verse five. For Moses described that the righteousness which is in the law, or of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Gospel righteousness the righteousness which is a faith of the faith of Jesus Christ says done in these next few verses God the Holy Ghost and we won't take time to look at Deuteronomy 30 if you want to look back at Deuteronomy 30 Paul's quoting here from the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy He's telling us that the Lord Jesus Christ is that one of whom Moses spoke in the law? He is that prophet Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18. He is that one that Moses spoke of when he told the children what God required in the law. He's saying, now, I'm giving you these commands and I'm giving you this altar and this priesthood and these ceremonies. I'm giving you these ordinances and this tabernacle. I'm giving you all these holy days to point you to one who's coming, the Messiah, whose righteousness. Look at verse 6. but the righteousness which is our faith speaketh on this wise 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 christ bring up christ again from the dead no the the the word of faith doesn't say go do this go do that no no no no what sayeth it The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach." What is he talking about? The word is near you. It's in your... Remember, he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 30. So he's talking about something that Moses knew back in Deuteronomy 30. It began with this word from God back in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. I put enmity between your seed and the woman's, and you shall crush his heel, and he shall crush your head. And every woman in Israel, every woman in Israel, beginning before Israel was ever called to be a nation, every woman who believed God lived in the hope of having a son who would be that one who would crush the serpent's head, the Messiah, the Christ. Women were, they thought themselves to be under the judgment of God if their womb was barren. because they hoped to bring forth one man who would crush the serpent's head. One man who is God's Redeemer. And that was the hope of everything in the Old Testament. So that as believing folks, most didn't believe. Most went to church, same reason most folks go to church now, because it came time to go to church. But some would come and they'd come to the altar of God and look for the Messiah. They bring sacrifices. There's one coming who's going to redeem them. There's an anointed one. There's a Messiah. There's a Redeemer coming. The Word is near you. It's in your heart. It's in your mouth. The Word that we preach. Now, this is exactly what Moses spoke of prophetically back in Deuteronomy. In other words, this man Moses preached faith in Christ just like Paul did and just like every servant of God does today. He declared God requires righteousness and God performs righteousness and God gives righteousness And that's the only way you get righteousness Righteousness is in the doing and dying of the Son of God It is that which we receive and embrace by God given faith faith wrought in us by the Spirit of God look at verse 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead Thou shalt be saved What's that talking about? Most everybody had been saved two or three times back where I live. And they started out when they were young. Somebody talked them into saying the sinner's prayer. And they went down to Romans Road and said, would you say I believe in Jesus? I believe in Jesus. Well, bless God you're saved. Don't let anybody ever tell you otherwise. No. No. No. That's not it. What is it to confess Christ? What is it? It is to worship him like the publican in the parable. Those who call upon the name of the Lord. Back in Genesis 4, men began to call on the name of the Lord. They began to worship God. That's what it is. It is to worship Christ like that publican in the Lord's parable. You remember he sat back in the backseat in the temple and didn't even want to look up, look upward toward the mercy seat. He just, he looked down and beat on his breast and he cried, God, be merciful to me. I said, God, look on your son. be propitious to me look on the mercy seat and the blood where you promised to meet sinners and be merciful to me through the blood of your son the sinner that's what it is to call on him we worship him as God our savior believing him with our hearts and I don't know how to explain what that means to believe with your heart. But faith in Christ is a heart work. It's more than knowledge about Christ. It's a heart work. It's a work wrought in the heart by God the Holy Ghost. It's a work that involves the affection of the heart. Believing Him, we're saved. Saved by Christ. Saved by grace. Saved forever. And that's not something you choose to do. That's just not something you choose to do. You can choose all you want to, it won't get you faith. You can try and try and try and try. You can't produce faith. Some of you sitting here have been trying to believe God for years and you can't produce faith. You can't choose to believe on the Son of God. And when God gives you faith, you can't choose not to. He works faith in the heart. Number three, look at verses 10 through 13. This great salvation is free. Free gift of God to all who trust his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Free. I wish I could stress that word like I want to. No strings attached, free. No conditions, free. No qualifications, free. It's God's free gift. For with the heart, men believeth unto. That is with the heart, the same sinner believes with reference to righteousness. Not he believes and therefore becomes righteous. But rather he believes with reference to this righteousness that God established in his son. And with the mouth confession is made unto, that is with reference to salvation. I believe that Christ is my righteousness. I confess Christ is my salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. That word ashamed is wonderful. It's translated variously in the Scriptures. He shall not be confounded. He shall not be confused. He shall not make haste. He shall not be ashamed. He shall not be put to shame. Whosoever believeth on him, he stands firm and he'll not make haste to flee from him. Whosoever believes on him, he is not ashamed. Not ashamed to him, to confess him, not ashamed to be owned by him, not ashamed to own him. He will not be put to shame, not by God, and not by hell. He's not confused, and you can't confuse him. He will not be put to confusion. He is not ashamed. For there's no difference. No difference between Jew and Gentile, Jew and Greek. Well, brother John, anybody knows there's a difference between the Jew and the Greek. That's easy enough to see, isn't it? But not with regard to this thing of salvation and faith. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek, the religious fella and the irreligious infidel. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek, the black fella and the white fella, the man or the woman, the intellectual, well-trained, civilized fella and the brute barbarian in New Guinea. There's no difference. There's no difference. You see, God is no respecter of persons. God is no respected person. God's choice of his people is not because of something he sees in them. And God's gift of salvation is not because of something you bring to him. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all, watch this now, that call upon him. If you find yourself now, Worshipping Christ the Lord, your righteousness. Trusting Christ alone for righteousness. All the riches of God's grace and God's glory are yours in Him. For whosoever Whosoever, that's a wonderful word. My dear friend, Brother Herbert Wilson, pastored for years in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he was sitting in my house one day and he said, somebody said to him, y'all don't believe in whosoever will. And he said, well, yes we do. We don't believe in whosoever won't. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord. I'm so glad he didn't say if Don Fortner called on the name of the Lord, he shall be saved. I'm glad he didn't say that. Because there are other Don Fortners around. Not many, but there's some around. And I would be dead sure he's talking about somebody else. But whosoever, I qualify. I can find my name now. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord. Whosoever believes on the Son of God hath everlasting life. He shall be saved. In every regenerate soul, There is a heartfelt knowledge of the person and work of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is in every child of God a heartfelt enjoyment of our blessed Savior as all our salvation, an understanding given by God of the person and work of His dear Son that causes our hearts to trust Him, causes our hearts to bow to Him with joy. Robert Hawker put it this way. The affections are all in it. The soul is one to Christ, and the soul wins Christ, and desires to be found in him. I'm one to him, and when he wins my heart to him, I've won him. And every save center continually comes to Christ, leaning on him. pleading to Him, looking to Him, just as He did in the beginning. To whom coming? The more you trust Him, the more you know you must trust Him. The more you know Him, the more you know you must have Him. The longer you walk with Him, the more you know you've got to have Christ. Got to have Christ. As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Let me tell you how to grow in grace. I'm going to tell you how to grow in grace. Let me tell you how to live for God. How to live for God. And I want you to live for God. Aren't you and I, I guess, we're amongst the oldest ones around here. I want you to spend the rest of your days utterly devoted to God. And me too. Is that a good goal? Utterly devoted to the Son of God. Utterly. How on earth do you do that? Lord, here I am, empty, filthy, dirty, vile, sinful, corrupt, base, with nothing to commend me to God. I trust you, Son. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace. That's how you walk with God. Not by the whip of the law, but by faith in God's dear Son. Read on, read on. Verses 14 through 17. Here's the fourth thing I want you to see. Salvation in Christ is brought to poor, needy sinners by the preaching of the gospel i don't mean to be a fix please understand this the way i think i'm getting sick of your folks talk about bible study well we're gonna have a bible study when this is what you mean by Bible study. We're going to get together and read the scriptures, and I'll read a verse, and I'll say, well, Rick, what do you think that means? And you'll talk about it a little while, and I'll say, well, this is what I think it means. Joe, what do you think that means? And we'll talk a little while, and then Brad will say, what do you think that means? Well, we've had a good study tonight. That's handling the Word of God like you'd handle debates between Republicans and Democrats. That's trampling the Word of God under your feet. God teaches people. God saves people. God edifies people. God strengthens people. God reveals Christ to people. God causes his people to worship him. God moves his people by preaching the preaching of the gospel of his son. Now let me tell you what preaching is. Now I can speak with a little bit of knowledge about this. I've heard some preaching. I've heard some preaching. The best there is. Preaching, if you read Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8, it's described like this. You read the book and you give the sense. What I'm doing, I'm reading to you the 10th chapter of Romans. These past three days, we've read Romans chapter 8, Romans 9, now Romans chapter 10. And in reading the book, I'm telling you exactly the sense of it. I'm not telling you what I think it means. I don't do that. I don't do that. If I'm preaching a good passage of scripture and I come to a text and I don't know what it means, I'll either tell you I don't know what it means or I'll skip over and act like I do know what it means and just forgot to say it. But I'm not going to guess about it. I'm not going to guess about it. If I don't know what it means, I'll keep my mouth shut. I've come here to declare to you what God says in His Word. You say, well, he's so dogmatic. You can't be when you're right. You can't be when you're, and I'm always right when I preach. I'm always right when I preach. I've found God's Word to you. Preaching is to be done with dogmatic boldness, giving the sense of scripture. But there's so many things in the Bible. Now there's just one thing in the Bible. Just one thing. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the whole message of the book. This is not a book about church history or church dogma or church discipline or church order or any of that nonsense. This is a book about Christ. Paul said to the Ephesians, I declare unto you all the counsel of God. I've told you, I've preached the whole book to you. And he wrote to the Corinthians and said, I'm determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Well, he was just like preachers today. He preached one thing one place, one thing another place. No, he's talking the same thing. To preach the word of God is to preach the gospel of Christ. We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now listen to the next word. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. So it doesn't matter if you're preaching from Genesis 1.1 and 1.2, or you're preaching from John 1.1 and 1.2, or you're preaching from Revelation 1.1 or 1.2. Unless you're preaching the gospel, you're not preaching the word. You may preach it grammatically correctly. You may preach it historically correctly. You may preach it word by word. Unless you're preaching Christ from the word, you're not preaching the word. You're not preaching the word. Preaching is that means by which God calls sinners to worship Christ as Savior by his word. It is God's ordained means of grace, salvation, and eternal life. No man can give himself faith in Christ. And no preacher can give another man faith in Christ. Only God can work faith in you. And God who gives faith has ordained the means as well as the gift and those to whom he will give it. Look at Romans chapter 10 verse 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? You cannot worship Christ if you do not trust Christ. Is that what it says? That's simple enough, isn't it? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? You can't trust Christ if you don't know who he is and what he's done. I once heard Jerry Falwell, who went to school same place I did. He was a whole lot older than me, just in case you're wondering. But he went to school at Springfield, Missouri and was called in with a friend of mine who was in school with him at the same time. And they were about to kick him out of school for being hyper-Calvinist. This was back in 1954. And Falwell decided to compromise, and he backed off. And I heard him make this statement one time. He said, when I was saved, I didn't know anything about the Bible, and I didn't know anything about Jesus, and I didn't know anything about God. Somebody just told me there was somebody in heaven who loved me, wanted to save me, and asked me if I'd believe on him. I said I would, and I was saved. With that delusion, you'll go to hell. You can't trust Christ if you don't know him. if you don't know who he is and what he's done. And how shall they hear without a preacher? What? Do you mean a man's got to hear somebody preach the gospel in order to be saved? No, I wouldn't say that for the world. Paul did. Paul did. That's the importance of gospel preaching. You can't know who Christ is and what he accomplished unless somebody tells you. Well, nobody told me. I learned it on my own. Well, you learned wrong then. And how shall they preach except they be set? I struggle with this every waking hour. My life is taken up with and consumed with preaching the gospel. And I've been planning now to come out here for a good while. I'll be going home, preaching at home next, and already my heart's heavy. It's my responsibility to speak for God to your heart. And I can't do that. No matter how diligently I prepare, I can't do that. The only way a man can preach to you is if God sends him with a message to you. Otherwise, we're just beating air. Just beating air. How shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel, and bring glad tidings of good things. The gospel must be preached. But they've not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? Who hath believed our report? Who's going to believe? Who's going to believe? Let me tell you who's going to believe. God in his good providence has arranged these past several days while I was in Alaska and here to kind of work it so some folks heard the gospel and never heard it before. You don't wonder why he does that. He's just working so... Some fellas are just kind of compelled to go. Up in Wasilla, the boys and his brothers have rented a house down in Anchorage, and one of them is supposed to go to work, got a tough job every summer. I feel sorry for him. The state government pays him to fish all summer long. And there's one of the fellas that's supposed to go to work with him, came from Connecticut. They're going to hire him to fish all summer long. And this fellow named James, they were supposed to go to work the day before I got there, but the river's frozen, they couldn't get there. And James had to stay in the room, or in the house where Anna's brothers are staying. And his car broke down, so they'd help him work on his car. And I guess he kind of felt compelled to come to services, so he came to church with them. And maybe he heard something. But next night he came to. And he'd never been before in his life. I wonder how come God did that. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And God will fix it so that every chosen redeemed sinner at the appointed time of love hears his word. That's called grace. That's called the work of God. Of his own will, begat he us with the word of truth. We're born again by the word of God, the seed of the Holy Scripture, planted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Number five, look at verses 18 and 19. It is our great privilege and our great responsibility to preach the gospel through all the earth. Now, I would like to camp here for a little while, but I've got to be very brief. But I say, have they not heard? 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 which are, there are not no people, and by a foolish nation will I anger you. Their sound went into all the earth. Oh, what a privilege God's given you and me. He's trusted to our hands the gospel. What a privilege God has given to this assembly. You have this treasure in earthen vessels. This treasure. This treasure. The treasure of God. The gospel of God's free grace in dirty, broken clay pots like we are. God has trusted to our hands the gospel of his grace in this generation for this purpose to publish it everywhere. To publish it everywhere. To use every means at our disposal to proclaim the word of his grace. That's the business of a local church. The only business of a local church. The publishing of the gospel. We're just a small group of people. What can we do? You can do what you can. You can do what you can. That's exactly what you can do. I've been pastor of a small, rural congregation of working folks, and now most of us are retired. Most of them are. I'm still working. Most of them are retired. Very limited income. Usually, just not knowing for one month to the next where half of them are going to be taken care of. Never more than 35-40 members in the congregation. Sometimes there may be 60 or 80 folks attending with some regularity, but never more than 35-40 people in the congregation as members. And just do what you can. Just do what you can. Every week, write the articles, write the hymns, preach three times a week. Every time God opens the door, I go preach. Usually it's a small group here and there, half a dozen people here, a couple of dozen there. Just wherever God opens the door. And you just keep on doing it. And back, I can't remember the year now, Been a long time ago. Whatever year it was that Sears and Roebuck offered the first VHS camera and recorder. Man, it was a big thing. There was a fella I had met up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I'd gone up and preached for him twice. He asked me if I'd come up and preach for my biggest folks together. I said, be glad to. And he called me up when they first advertised the thing. He said, Brother Don, if I buy the camera, And by the equipment, would you record your services and send them up here? And we started recording the services. They met in a public place just like this. Watched them on a television. They didn't have the big projector things. They watched them on a big television. And did that for several years until God sent Joe Terrell up there. From that sprang all the DVDs and all that stuff. Let me tell you what's happened in 35 years, 37 years. God's allowed us to establish eight gospel churches, just by that means, around the world. Now if that doesn't amaze you, it ought to. From you folks, how could you do that? We couldn't. But God trusted the gospel to our hands, as God has trusted the gospel to your hands. Now I call on you, I challenge you, I exhort you, I command you in God's name, put your shoulders to this work and give your lives to the preaching of the gospel. From you shall the word of God be sounded to the ends of the earth. Wonder what God's gonna do next. Wonder how he's gonna do it. Wonder how he's gonna do it. This thing with the internet, I know folks use it for all kinds of stuff. Do you realize, I get done preaching at home. I don't know how y'all do things here. When I get done preaching at home, within an hour or two, one of our men will have posted the messages preached, both audio and video, on the internet. My sermon notes, all my books, all those things posted on the internet. And there will be folks from about 200 countries, all over the world, watching and listening. Sometimes people in places you'd least expect to. We had one fellow on the webpage, it's called DonFortner.com, that wasn't my doing, that's somebody else's doing, but we had a fellow in Tehran, Iran. Now that's a fellow who's, he's risking something to do it. He spent three hours every Saturday downloading everything on that webpage until he got it all. Wonder what God's doing? I don't know, but I'll find out one of these days. We don't need to know what He does. We need to only understand, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it. It won't be done for nothing. It shall not return to me void. All right, let's move on. Verse 20. By the preaching of the gospel, the Lord God seeks out and finds his elect and saves them by his grace. Isaiah is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. That's how you find him when he finds you. I was made manifest to them that asked not after me. Christ the Good Shepherd seeks and finds and saves his sheep. He does it by his work of redemption accomplished on the earth. He does it by all the sovereign manipulation of good providence. Read the 107th Psalm. He does it by the gracious operations of his Holy Spirit in regeneration and conversion. He does it by the preaching of the gospel. One last thing. I want you to hear this. Oh, God help you to hear this. In preaching the gospel, the Lord God graciously stretches out his hands to sinners and calls stubborn rebels to be reconciled to him. But to Israel he saith, all the day long, I stretched forth my hands unto disobedient and gainsaying people. So, Vanessa, I remember when our little girl first started walking. She, like babies do, you know, managed to get up. I don't even know how to get up off the fannies. She'd finally work her way up to her feet and start to walk. And I'd, I was a big fella. I'd get down on my knees and I'd say, come to daddy. Come to daddy. And she would reach out and just wobble her way to daddy best she could. And the long way she'd fall often. I'd wait on her. I'd come to daddy. I'd say, come to daddy. In preaching the gospel, the God of glory, stoops and stretches out his hand and says to sinners, come to me. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and you'll find rest unto your soul. Come to me. Come to me. Come and you shall live. Come to me! Come to me and I'll never cast you out. Brother Don, you don't know me. You don't know what I've been, what I've done. God never received me. You don't know God. You don't know God. He bid sinners come. And there's never yet been a sinner to come to God by his sword. whom he cast out there'd never yet been a sinner come to God by his son he didn't receive there'd never yet been a sinner come to God by his son who didn't go to glory and you won't be the first come to it we then as workers together with God as God's ambassadors Beseech you be ye reconciled to God Believe on the Son of God Right now right where you are without doing anything Without doing anything Believe on the Son of God. Don't say a prayer believe it. Don't move your feet. You can't get to me defeat believe it. I Believe on the Son of God and life everlasting is yours. God help you to believe. Amen.