Romans 10, 14 through 21 is our text all this week on key life, and this is a part of a very long study in the book of Romans, and I'm learning more than you are about it. I appreciate very much you taking your time each day so that we can study this together. Before we turn to the text it's our practice to go before the throne, before we go before the book. Father we glad for your word that you wrote it down. We're glad that you allowed us to study it and to know you were mined and to think your thoughts after you. Father we're glad that we belong to you, but sometimes it's not easy, sometimes it's hard to keep on following, sometimes we fail, and sometimes we sin, and we're glad that you haven't checked our purity level when you keep us close to you. Father you've promised to get us home and you've promised to meet every need that we have and you've promised to be adequate in your grace, and we're thankful for that. While those we go into another week help us not to duck, help us to be faithful, help us to be your servants in every action of our lives. Remind us that we wear the purple, the royal purple, or the prince, or a princess. Father you know every person listening to this broadcast and you know the problems that so many are facing the emptiness and the loneliness and the fear and physical problems and the disease. Father this a fallen world and we've got all kinds of things that hurt and sometimes they hurt really bad. We wouldn't presume to dictate to you as to how you should meet our needs, but we lift those needs before you as a child would come to a loving father. Father we trust you and come yourself is in any time for boys. Father we praise you and we worship you and we adore you because you're worthy of our praise and adoration and worship and we ask in the name of Jesus Christ that you would take what is taught this week on key life and apply to our minds. Make us think in Christians and drop it to our hearts. Help us not to be cold Christians. Give us the heart, the feeling, the emotion that comes with knowing you and then Father drop it to our feet that we might go out and serve you and as always we pray for the one who teaches. Forgive him his sins, for they are many, we would see Jesus and him only and we pray in Jesus' name. I mean, all right this week we're continuing with our study in the book of Romans. If you have your Bible turn, if you will, to the 10th chapter of Romans verses 14 through 21. While you're finding that, let's take just a moment to review what we saw last week in our study of Romans. Text them was Romans 10 1 through 13 and if you are listening you know we went down two side roads. We noted what it takes to be saved to Romans 10 9. It just means having a need and turning to Jesus to meet that need. We noted, secondly, by way of sign of droids in Romans 10 11, the answer to a shame base life that God doesn't shame His children. Then we saw the problem with righteousness as it applies to our salvation. We talked about legalist and Pharisees and works righteous equal. We saw that there were four problems, the problem of ignorance. Romans 10 3, the problem of persistence, Romans 10 5. You can obey some laws some of the time, but you can't obey all of the laws all of the time. We saw the problem of pro-action. Romans 10 6 and the problem of elitism, Romans 10 12. Now we're ready to turn to our text for this week. This is Romans 10 14 through 21. If you're driving, keep your eyes on the road and I'll read it for you. My good friend Paul writes as follows, that they have not obeyed the gospel for Isaiah, says, Lord, who has believed our report. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed. Their sound has gone out who all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will anger you by a foolish nation. But Isaiah's very bold and says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest of those who did not ask for me. But to Israel he says, all day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Now this week the main consideration is communication and the process thereof. But before we turn to that I want to go down four side roads. Note, if you will, the affirmation of the messenger of God, Romans 10 15. And I have to leave, I left that out and I read that to next. Well, let's put it in now. Romans 10 15, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things. One of the reasons I teach at Reform Seminaries because I think there needs to be someone fresh from the battle field who's there to tell students about the nature of the battle. One of the things that one notices about seminary students is that they are excited and unrealistic about their expectations. And I feel that I've been called to do an adjustment of their views to the reality of the situation. By the way, I'm going to declare this affirm your pastor, support your local pastor week. You know, it's open season on pastors in some places and they've got a hard job and their families have got a job harder than the pastor. And I want you sometimes this week to call up your pastor. Don't tell him I said it but you do it anyway. And you say pastor, have I told you recently that I really appreciate you? I know you're in a hard place and sometimes it's difficult. And who does the pastor go to? And I just want you know I was praying for you and I love you and I appreciate all you've done. Support your pastor week. If I were present in the United States, I would declare that across the nation. Support your rabbi week and support your priest week. But you call your pastor. Call him or heard today and say, you know, I just want you to know I love you. Anyway, I sometimes say to the students, it isn't the way you think in the church. There are neurotics in the church. There are people who are more interested in massaging their own ego than they are of seeing God's plan implement it. There are financial problems and people problems and faith problems. Some people will go after you because you were a pastor and you're supposed to be nice and you won't retaliate. So listen to me take, like Jesus, I'm sending you out a sheep among the wolves. During one class the other man, his name was Carlos raised his hand and said, Dr. Brownline, a world, if it's as bad as you say it is, should I be training for three years to do this kind of work. Some people may go to hell, but I never met anybody but a fruitcake who works to go there. I thought about what he said and I appointed him to raise his hand whenever I was out of balance and to negative. Truth is that there's no greater calling and that bend out of a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God has called you to do that. Don't you step down to be president of the United States? Paul makes that point here. If you're a preacher, be glad because you're special. Now let me say a word to you. If you aren't a preacher, you ought to read some of the letters I get from pastors and some churches. As I said, it's open season. As you know, I live in Orlando, Florida where we have a lot of tourists. I saw a bumper sticker recently said, if it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them? Well, we do and that's the problem. But it is open season on pastors and you should not participate in that. Let me tell you something. I love my pastor. I mean, by touching them, I'm going to eat their lunch. There's a story I tell my students and I tell them that they ought to use it at least once a year in their churches. Jonathan Edwards was removed from his church and he refused to respond or try to get revenge. Now there's some pastors that probably ought to be removed, but mostly pastors are faithful people doing a hard job and hard place. At any rate, Jonathan Edwards was one of those faithful pastors and they removed him not because he deserved it just because they didn't like him and he refused to get revenge. And he didn't refuse to get revenge because he didn't think he ought to have redress of his grievances. He refused to get revenge because he knew God was going to do something even bigger than he was going to do. Roman says, don't get back to eat it to God and it will be like keeping burning colds on there yet. Jonathan Edwards had read the text and he kept his mouth shut. You know what happened? The man who was primarily responsible for kicking a mouth committed suicide and the other man responsible women saying, am I suggesting that if you don't like your pastor, you're going to go insane or that you're going to commit suicide? Of course not. Am I suggesting that pastors are perfect? Are you kidding? Am I suggesting you should never criticize your pastor? No, I'm not. Am I suggesting that it is never proper to ask a pastor to leave? Of course not. Sometimes it's necessary. What I am suggesting is that you ought to be very, very careful. The true bit, truth is, and it's the microphone. The truth is that pastors are a valuable commodity. We are called to hold up their arms, to be encourages, to praise them, to make sure that they're needs are met. Side row number two, note the importance if you will, of God's word. Romans 10, 17, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Did you hear about the ugly American who visited a third world country? And as he was walking down a road notice that a native was sitting under a palm tree and reading the Bible. And the American from which the term ugly American comes said, my good man, in my country that book is out of date. The man reading the Bible looked up and without batting an eye, I asked, said, my good man, if this book were out of date here, I would have had you by lunch. I would have had you for my lunch. The Bible's an important book. Has great power. I remember when I first decided that I would be a Bible teacher. I didn't know what the Bible said, but I knew I had an authority. So I read a verse and told them what I thought it meant. Read another verse and told them what I thought it meant. And I want you to know, God did a magnificent thing in those days. Lives, routines and marriages were saved and the church filled up. And I was sort of like a bystander watching it happen. Why was that? Because there is power in the book. He proves for twelve for the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So preacher, if you don't have a message just read a verse and tell them what it means. And get out of the way because God always, without exception, God always honors His Word. There are, I suspect, lots of reasons why God is decided to honor Billy Graham's ministry. And we probably won't know all those reasons until we get home, but I know one of those reasons. Mr. Graham always says, the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, and Christians need to do more of that and God honors His Word. You know what we need to do? We need to quit explaining and apologizing and start presenting. Christ's commission to the disciples in Matthew 10, 5, through 42. He says to them, and as you go preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In other words, don't explain it. Don't apologize for it. Don't expand it. Don't create something new. Don't be creative with it. Don't elaborate on it. Don't subtract from it. Don't change it. Don't add to it. Just say it. For God's sake, just say it. It has power. I love being a Bible teacher for a lot of reasons. One of the main reasons is that I can say what God says when people get mad at me. I can say, don't blame me. It wasn't my idea. God thought it up. So I've run number three, and this is new. Note, if you will, the great patience of God, Romans 10, 21, but to Israel, he says, all day long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Now, Paul is making a point about Jews, but if Jews, God's ancient covenant people are a disobedient and contrary people, what do you think you are if you're going to him, if you're a Gentile? We're worse than they are. So I'll use this as a basis of anti-Semitism. Paul is articulating something about the nature of God, as it relates to everybody. A clerk in Boston, in a church in Boston, I once said, referring to the director of Trinity Church in Boston, if I knew that God was good, as good as Phillips Brooks, I could bear almost anything. Let me tell you something. The existence of God is not the issue. The personality of God is the issue atheist or bent. I mean, there's something wrong with him. If you have a physician or a surgeon who's an atheist, get somebody else before you go into surgery, because if he's messed up, or she's messed up about that, you don't want to mess in with something important like your body. If someone is that messed up about something that big, don't want him operating or her operating on you when you're under anesthesia. Now, don't buy anything important from an atheist. Certainly, don't buy a used car from an atheist. That's the moral equivalent of going into the business with the town idiot. The question is not whether or not God exists. The Bible says people who say God exists, doesn't exist. Their food. The question is, what is God like? And I have some good news for you. He's good. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis has one of the children asking about Aslan, the lion, the Judah. One of the children finds out from a beaver that Aslan's on the move. And she says Aslan, the lion, is he safe? And the beaver says, of course not. He's not safe. He's Aslan. But he is good. Let me tell you how this works out in real life when I'm going through a tough time when it hurts and it hurts really bad. When I think about God makes all the difference in how I deal with the pain that I'm feeling at that particular point. If there is no God, then my pain is an accident. And when it's overall either die, or I have to go back to facing the possibility that I'll have to have pain again. The slogan works life as hard. Then you die. If God is a deus God who started things off and then gone away on vacations and where I'm going to have some real trouble with the trouble. In other words, that means that my pain is a chance happening and nobody can make any difference because there's nobody there to make any difference. If God is a cruel God, a child, a user, as it were, then I'm simply going to have to hope that He gives up, that He grows tired, that He's sick game, and He leaves me alone. But if God is good, if He's patient, if He's loving, then He is doing everything that is happening to me for a reason. And He isn't going to stop until His good purpose is accomplished, and I'm going to be glad that God is good, that is His nature. Part of God's goodness is His patience with us. God doesn't throw lightning bolts because He's ticked you. You haven't surprised Him with anything you've done, and He's making you like Jesus. And God, because He is patient and wise, knows that you're not going to be like Jesus tomorrow. It's a process, and the process will work out for God's glory and your benefits, so just keep on trucking. Someone in China, after hearing the gospel for the first time said this, with tears streaming down her face, I knew that there ought to be a God like that somewhere. You're about the man who told His pastor that he had some good news and some bad news. The pastor said, what's the good news? And said, Jesus has come back. As wonderful the pastor said, smiling, what could possibly be the bad news? Well, he said his friend, the bad news is that he called from Rome. The message of the gospel is all good news, ladies and gentlemen, dear friend. God is God. He's patient in loving and kind. He's not angry with you. He has come to demonstrate that patience, love and kindness, and you can lean on Him hard after that. All surprises are bearable. And give another side road. Note, if you will, that God reaches out to people who have an even thought about God. Romans 10.20 is the proof I was found by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest to those who did not ask for me. Now, Jeremiah said, if you seek for me with all of your heart, you shall find me. And that seems logical to me. What doesn't seem logical to me is Romans 10.20. I was found by those who did not seek me. Let me tell you something. Never give up on people you love. You keep praying for them. Keep telling them about Jesus. Keep pointing them to Him. You say, but you don't know Him. You don't know her. Here she's an atheist. They don't care about anything. They certainly don't care about Jesus. I know, but don't give up because Romans 10.20 says that God sometimes reaches out and grabs someone who is in total surprise and shock that God would even bother. I once served the church now on Cape Cod and East Dennis, Massachusetts, and someone gave a carol on to the church. You say, what's that? Well, it's that thing that rings bells on the bell-free of the church. It's really loud. It was wonderful. I had it play hymns at noon and at 6 p.m. every day. And it drove the pagans crazy. Man next door who didn't know God threatened to burn the church down. You know what I did? I turned it up so loud that his teeth were rattling in his mouth. You say, well, I didn't sound like a very Christian thing to do. Well, it wasn't, but God forgave me. And God sort of enjoyed it, too. At any rate, one hot summer day, and you could hear this carol on down at the beach on Cape Cod. One hot summer day, I was in my study and the carolong was playing the hymns, and two guys came into the church dressed in bathing suits. I asked who they were and if I could help them. And one of them said, we were on the beach enjoying ourselves when we heard the music, and we decided that we would come here and talk to you about God. To be perfectly honest with you, he went on, we're high, but Mr. Could you tell us about God? What had happened? They were just pagans having a good time on the beach doing their own thing, and having a good time doing it. And God came unexpectedly without warning or notice. I don't know this, but I suspect that there was a grandmother, a grandfather somewhere who had been praying. Someone maybe a friend or a parent who had never given up. Now, you don't have to be pagans over the head with a Bible, but don't ever give up. Keep praying. God comes to the strangest people at the strangest times, even when they're not searching for them. Now let me introduce the main subject for the rest of the week. Have you ever tried to say something over and over again? I found out that people didn't listen, or if they listened, they didn't understand. As a professor of preaching and communications in seminary, it's important that I teach young students not to be upset when God humbles them with a statement by someone who didn't have the foggiest idea of what they had said. Communication really is a problem. If I had thought about this text when I wrote my book, how to talk so people will listen. You can get that at your local bookstore. It's not a good book, but I need the money. No, I'm kidding. I don't get anything for the books I write. They all go to key life to help support the ministry so we can send out all these materials. That, along with a lot of other friends who stand with us. But if I had known about this text when I wrote how to talk so people will listen, or if I had taught it, I would have included that in that particular book. So if you have the book from your bookstore, how to talk so people will listen that I wrote, and take notes on what I'm going to teach the rest of this week and then include that in the back of the book. When our children were growing up, you know what phrase more than any other, I heard after I love you. I mean, we mention verbalize love in our household. And I love you as said often by everybody. But when our girls were small, the second most used phrase was this, girls, be still, and listen. Girls, be still well, and listen. But sometimes they didn't listen. Every preacher has had the experience of having his or her sermon given back in a form that was unrecognizable. There are people who say to me, Steve, I'm so glad you said, and then they tell me something I never said, didn't even think about saying, and it never said in my entire life. One of my students, Tommy Allen was saying the other day that, and he's a Calvinist. He said, my mother was led to Christ two or three years ago, and it sort of offended my Calvinism, or supported it. She said, he said, I've been telling her about Jesus for ten years. And the other day, she told me she had received Christ and asked me why I had never told her. Have you ever wondered why pagans don't listen or if they hear, they don't understand? Well, I move that question. Let's dig in and see what Paul says. First pagans don't hear the message because nobody was sent. Now, remember that this section of Romans is dealing with Jews, those under the law. And the principles I'm drawing from it go far beyond that. But you need to remember that these principles are applicable in particular to Israel when Jesus had come. So first pagans, or in this case Israel doesn't hear the message because nobody was sent. Now, now Jews are not pagans. They think we're even, but I think it would come to an understanding and a respect for two great religions. Now, I believe Messiah's come. Ruth Graham has a wonderful point in her wonderful book by my Laughing Fire. And it's about an old Jewish man who says, when Messiah comes, I will ask him, is this the first time? Or the second time? At any rate, Romans 10, 15 suggests that people don't hear the message because nobody was sent. How shall they preach unless they're sent? You come to the point in America when about the three worst things you can do with your life is to be a prostitute, a use car salesman or a preacher. We need to be urging young men and women to go into ministry and we need to say over and over again that it's a high and holy calling. But that isn't all that Paul is saying here. I declare this national support your pastor week. But most of you aren't pastors. Paul is saying here that you, whether or not your preacher, are sent by God. I think I've told you about my friend who got an appointment with a professor at Harvard and he sat down in his bookline study and the professor was late. And he did what you would have done if you were honest in that kind of situation. He was intimidated. He decided he would be silent under the rubric that it's better to be thought of food and to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. But while he was waiting, God came and said, Ron telling that I love him. And Ron said, now Lord, this is a Harvard professor and that's a little strong than God persisted. Ron telling that Jesus loves him. Oh, Father, don't ask me to do that. Ron telling Jesus loves you. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Finally Ron gave in and when the professor came in a simple and childlike way told him about Christ. You know what happened? That professor received Christ and to this day is living a life that glorifies Christ. Listen, if you've never told anybody because nobody ever sent you on the authority of Jesus Christ and God's word, I'm sending you, or I'm telling you about the fact that he is sending you. Don't beat him over the head with the Bible. Don't become a religious fanatic. Don't go religious on me. Don't tell them that they're going to hell and you're glad because they deserve it, but tell them for God's sake. Tell them. Jesus said, is the Father sent me so I send you? Does your friend know that God loves him? So tell him. Does your wife or husband know about the strange Jewish rabbi who died for him, or for her? Tell her. Tell him. Do your golfing partners know? Tell them. You've been commissioned by none other than Jesus Christ and to be perfectly honest with you, I wouldn't fool around with him. Give another point. Secondly, people don't care. Not only because no one was sent, but always, and this is sort of like the first point because nobody told them. Romans 10, 14, how have been 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. My wife is a musician. We were listening to Beethoven once and she said, that's the universal language. And I said, well honey, try to communicate the four spiritual laws with Beethoven and you just can't do it. Depends on what you can find to communicate. If you want to communicate Einstein's theory of relativity, you can't do it Beethoven. If you want to communicate how to build a bird house, you can't do it with Bach. If you want to communicate the gospel, you can't do it with Mozart. Now you can create an atmosphere. And there is a sense in which music is the universal language, but not in terms of communicating cognitive propositions. Here about the man who sent an exotic bird as a gift to his mother in the next week he called a bird, said, what do you think about my gift? She said it was delicious. The reply, delicious. Oh, he replied, delicious. Mother, you didn't eat that bird did you? Well, that's what I thought you wanted me to do. Mother, he said, with great exasperation. That's a very expensive bird. The bird spoke six languages. There's a long pause on the other end of the line and then his mother said, well, the bird should have said something. Listen, you can know the gospel of land of salvation, a detailed methodology for leaving to people to Christ, but if you don't say something, nobody's going to know. Every once in a while one will hear about someone who came to know Christ independent of any human second cause or intervention. But that's right. Most of the time God's sovereign way of bringing people to Himself is through people who ask people to come to Him. I believe it is important for people to walk the talk. BL Moody said that we're the only Bible people will ever read. It's important that we walk the talk, but that we manifest love and grace and obedience and joy to the world. But listen to me. It's very important that we talk the walk too. It's important that we talk the walk. Peter said this. First, Peter 3.15 always be ready to give defense to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you with meat missing for your Christian. Know why you're a Christian and tell others. Why you're a Christian? How they can be one too. Third, the people don't hear not only because nobody was sinned, because nobody told them, but also because they didn't listen. Romans 10, 17 through 18 A. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, but I say, have they not heard. I have a preacher friend who says this is a true story, said that in his church there was a particular man who always went to sleep during the sermon, and on one Sunday evening, the man went to sleep early, and he missed an announcement in the early part of the service to the effect that there had been a report of the power failure in the neighborhood. And if something should happen to the electricity and the light should go out, they would simply proceed with the service until the power came back on. Well, then your atheist man missed that, and after he had gone to sleep, the church lost its electricity, and the preacher in the congregation just went on with the worship service. In the middle of the sermon, the sleeper woke up, and he looked around in the darkness, and he heard the preaching, and he jumped up shouting, good heavens, I've gone blind. Well, there's some people who as soon as you say something about God will totally turn you off. Go to sleep. After the mention of the word Jesus or God or religion, their mind goes on vacation somewhere. My wife and I were in a restaurant not too long ago, and the man in the next booth was, I guess, trying to impress the lady he was sitting with. He was also talking very loud and trying to impress everybody else. He was saying incredible things about Christians, about Bible believers. He was saying we were unsophisticated people, we were uneducated, we hadn't read any books, we didn't know world religions, and we said silly things. And I wanted to get up and go over to him and say, sir, you're a pompous idiot. You are an unregenerate twit, and you don't have the foggyest idea what you're talking about. Why don't you read a book and make a resolution not to say anything more stupid until you have some idea about the subject. You're not impressing people, you're not impressing this lady, except with the fact that you don't have the brains of a peanut. You say, please, you say that? No, I didn't say that, but I wanted to. And the reason I didn't want it because I don't say things like that sometimes, I have to. I know it's not Christian. But God forgives me. Sometimes God says I felt sort of that way too. I didn't say it because I've learned that people like that don't listen. And I'm not going to say something, nobody's going to listen to it. Oh, you have the words, but they're going to turn me off the truth is that there are people who have an automatic pilot when you say anything about God. Some of you know, we've been talking about maybe doing a talk show here at Key Life. And maybe one of these days that'll happen, I don't know, whatever God hardly ever checks with me about anything. But we had a friend that took us to a secular syndicator who was very interested in syndicating the program. We rolled out the carpet, showed us the incredible studios, talked about their satellite technology and talked about the 800 number we would use. And I mean, he just went on and on and on and on. And he said, man, this thing is going to be great. And I said, Sam, there's something you ought to know. I'm religious. And well, I'll be talking about politics and education and philosophy and stuff like that. I'll probably be seeing some good things about God, too. He didn't get angry or upset or mad. He just turned me off. It was almost as if we weren't there. He said, well, it was nice to talk with you. What happened? He don't want to listen. Even at the words where there, Jesus said that when you go to a house or a city like that, you ought to shape the dust off your feet. That ought to be a sacrament. If you define a sacrament by something that Jesus ordained, if you're a Protestant, you've got two. If you're a Catholic, you've got seven. If you're a grace, brethren, you've got three. But y'all, they had one more. A sacrament of shaking the dust off your feet. There's some people who let the words wash over them. As soon as things start getting personal or close, they no longer register. You weren't responsible for that. There isn't much you can do about it, but I did think you ought to know. Fourthly, people don't hear. Not only because nobody was sent. Nobody told them. And they didn't listen. Pagans are people. Don't listen because they didn't hear. And you say, what? Let me explain. Romans 10, 18. But I say, have they not heard, yes indeed. Now Paul is clear that they have heard the words, the problem is that they don't understand the words, so they really haven't heard. I get a lot of critical letters. I get a lot of positive ones, two more positive ones than I do critical ones. Most of the time, the people who write haven't understood what I've said. Now that may be their fault or mine, probably my fault. But unless you can demonstrate that you've understood what I've said, don't meet, don't expect me to respond. Somebody said, if a man, and this was a sexist quote, I would include woman in it too. If a man thinks he understands and he does not understand, he's a fool, shun him. If a man thinks he does not understand and does not understand, he's a student, teach him. If a man understands and doesn't know that he understands, then he's asleep, wake him up. If a man understands and understands that he understands, then he's wise, follow him. Now let me say something here that's very important. There's been a radical change in the way that people understand in our time. I don't have time to go into it, but it's called postmodernism. The modernist period was approximately from the Reformation Renaissance to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the postmodern period was from then until now. Somebody who said a free modernist will show compassion to the poor. A modernist will build housing for the poor and when it doesn't work, boil it out and create something else. And the postmodernist will simply like to watch the explosion. We live in a postmodern world where images are very important and sometimes as important as the actual words. So you don't lead people to Christ just by getting them propositions that are verbal. So that brings me to a principle that I think y'all to know. It is possible to get the word right and the image wrong and therefore to miscommunicate the message. It would be alright with you if I said that again, it is possible to get the words right and the image wrong and therefore to miscommunicate the message. One of the things I'm trying to get students to do with the seminary reformed seminary in Orlando where I teach to do is to get them away from the pulpit. You say, well, they're supposed to stand behind the pulpit. Let me tell you, when you never move, the pulpit is seen as a barrier. Something high behind, something that stands between you and the people to whom you bring the message. You can preach the most powerful sermon in the world and nobody will get it because you've given it the wrong way. You can speak the most powerful words in the world. But betray it with your image and nobody will listen. So what does this have to do with us? Just this. Make sure that you mix love with the message. Make sure that the image you give doesn't contradict the message that you preach. I'm not just talking about purity and obedience, that ought to be there, too. I'm certainly not talking about just being narrow and showing begons how wonderful and religious you are. In fact, almost always, those things will cause them to miss the message. It is important that you show that you are only a beggar, telling other beggars where you found bread. Be that as it may, don't miss the point. The point is this. There are those who hear the words, but don't understand the message. That's why Christians have to get into the normal human explanation of what we say. Payons don't understand words like justification, or born again, or sanctification, or holiness, or sin, or stuff like that. So we've got to learn to be translators. Typically, people don't hear, because nobody was sent, nobody told them. They didn't listen, they didn't hear, but also because they didn't believe Romans 10, 14. I'll then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed. Not believing is something that I can understand. We do have a rather wild message here, to think about it. There really is a God. He's entered time in space as a baby, and walked our roads and died on a cross. When he was dead, the dead man got up and walked and ascended to heaven. Then he's going to come back some day and clean up the mess. If you believe that, you'll believe anything. The very fact that you do believe it suggests it's true. That's kind of a flippant statement. Let me go a little bit further than that. People are always talking to me about intellectual problems, but the evidence is so solid, and the percentage is so much on the side of the Christian faith that most of the time. When people tell me they have intellectual problems with the Christian faith, I've come to read that as a smoke screen, so they won't have to deal with the issue of God being God. I really believe, and have one numerous arguments. I believe that if you get into an argument with an unbeliever, you'll probably win if you know anything about the Christian faith. Why is that? Because you're such a good argue or no, because you've got the truth. When you've got the truth on your side, it gives you an unbelievable advantage in polemics. You guys don't ever talk to atheists, or people who say they're atheists, because you are afraid they're going to eat your lunch. Let me taste them. Go risk it. You're going to be absolutely blown away by how shallow some of the things are, better said. You're going to find out something else that's really important, and it's this, and it's the point that Paul is making. Some people don't believe because they've decided not to believe, because belief is volitional. And some people do not believe, and some people believe, because they've made a decision one way or the other. Augustine said this, the world says, seeing is believing. God says believing is seeing what is common sense to you happen because you made a volitional, because you made a choice. And when somebody doesn't believe, it's often not because they're having such awesome, intellectual, painful problems with Christian faith. It's because they want to be God. Do you know that I don't think I've ever met that but one person who was an atheist? He was an old man, and he looked sort of like Socrates. He'd been a professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan, and he had retired at the mountains of North Carolina. And he spent a lot of time in the library of the college where I was a student. One evening there weren't any chairs in the library. They were all occupied, and I gave this old man my seat, evidently that impressed him, and we very slowly over a number of months became friends. I often talked about my philosophy, and sometimes I brought up the issue of God, but he never responded, and I, and I didn't know why he didn't respond, because we talked about everything else, but I figured that was his business. And one evening he said to me, we were walking across campus, and he said it very gently. He said, Steve, we've become friends, and friends ought to know about friends. I have two things to tell you about me, and you should not respond to either of them, but because we're friends, I think you ought to know. First, I am homosexual, and secondly, I'm an atheist. Now I've never met a homosexual, and I've never met an atheist, but he was already my friend. I couldn't stop being his friend, so until I graduated from that college, I remained his friend, and neither of those subjects ever came up again. Now the interesting thing about this man is that he didn't try to defend his atheistic views. I believe that he was a true, and did you notice how loud atheists are, people who say they are, maddeningly in murray, or hair, at Owl, have an organization called the American atheist something, or the other, and they have a television program that constantly issue statements that are angry and loud about believers, and that always puzzles me. I mean, if I didn't believe in something, I wouldn't spend a lot of effort and a lot of time and a lot of money on it. Let's, what you say, create a society of those who don't believe in purple flying elephants. You be the president, and I'll be the vice president. And let's spend a lot of time, a lot of money on proving that purple flying elephants don't exist, and let's attack all those people who believe that purple flying elephants exist. You see how silly that is? At any rate, the point I'm making here is that those who will not believe, because they have decided not to believe, simply don't want to be confused with the facts. I don't think there's a whole watch you can do about that, but I thought you ought to know. And then finally, sometimes people don't listen, because they have heard it, they have understood it, and they have rejected it consciously and knowingly. Romans 10, 16, but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah, says, Lord, who has believed I report. Romans 10, 21, all day long. I've stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. My friend who said to me, one, Steve, I don't want it here anymore of this Jesus stuff. I think it may be true. I suspect it will change lives. It changed yours, and it may be something I need, but I don't want it. I don't want to hear you say anything more about it. I don't want, I don't want to have anything more to do with it. Don't tell me about it anymore. I don't want it. Now let me tell you something. Dogenies, that weird guy went around with a lamp looking for an honest man, blew out his lamp and went home. I finally found an honest person. Have you ever noticed in the gospels how Jesus forces people to the wall? He doesn't let him remain neutral. What do people say about me, Jesus said? They told him, and he said, but what do you say about me? You must sell everything and come and follow me. What do you say? You white wash tunes, beautiful on the outside, filled with decaying bones on the inside. Narrow is the way. Few who will find it. It was as if Jesus didn't care what people thought about him as long as they thought something about him. That's what we ought to do. We're not responsible for what people do with the message. We're only responsible to deliver the message clearly, to make sure it's heard and understood, to explain the message and let the devil take time most. Someone who was just learning to go on a trapeze said that he learned three things. First, he learned that you've got to decide what you're going to do. And secondly, he said, I've learned that you can't get a hold of one thing until you let go of something else. And finally, and most important, I learned that you don't have forever to decide. So you've got to decide. Listen for a moment. There is a God. He is really there. He's the creator and sustainer of all that is your responsible for that God. And someday you'll stand before Him and your life will be weighed in the balances and found warning. God and His compassion has provided a way of escape. He sent His Son to die on a cross, bearing the punishment you deserved. He took your place on a cross. And because your sin is on Him, it won't be on you and you will be acceptable in God's sight. Now you have to make it personal. In other words, knowing isn't enough. You have to accept the gift that God gives. Now do you understand that? No, no, no, no. I didn't ask if you believed it. I just said, do you understand it? Good. Now you may not like anything but I said. You may think it's silly and strange. You may think it's the wildest thing you've ever heard. But dear friend, you will never again be able to say, nobody ever told me. Because, well, I told you, do you think about that? Amen.