Amen. Well, if you would turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 14 this morning, but since we've already looked in two sermons at verses 1 through 9, we're really going to just focus on 10 to 14. But it's one conversation that Jesus is having. So I'm going to read the whole text, Matthew 18 verses 1 to 14. Last time we saw Jesus soberly warning the disciples not to be assembling blocks of weaker believers and that even a horrible, horrifying physical death would be better than coming under the eternal wrath of God in hell because we led a new believer, a young believer, a humble child-like believer into sin. This is why in James 3, chapter 3, verse 1, we read, my brethren let not many of you become teachers knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment. That's part of what's behind this, that we who are strong, if we are dealing with those who are weaker in some way in the faith, we are more responsible for what we say, for what we do, we should be very careful beloved. This isn't just to those who have an office of teaching in the church. This is to anyone who has some influence, some standing with younger believers, maybe because you've been in the faith longer, you've done certain ministries or so forth, we need to seriously and carefully consider what we say and do in the presence of younger ones, especially when we are actually seeking to leader guide them somewhat. We need to be very careful that we do not become a stumbling block, that we do not lead them to sin, and that we would only draw them closer to Christ and to his word. Now, if you know that you have been a stumbling block to someone that you, perhaps when you were in error in some doctrine, you pass along some teaching, some teacher, some book, and you recommended it to someone, and you now know that that was worldly, and that was false doctrine. Well, the answer is simple. Confess that sin to God, repent of it, go to that younger believer if you still can, correct that error. There is never a time of despair, as it were, for the Christian else, too late now, for me. I committed this sin, as long as it's not this blasphemy of the Spirit, in which case you would not want to go to the Lord and confess it. But as long as you've not done that, whatever you've done, if you still draw a breath, the answer is always confess that sin, repent of it, if it's possible undo it in this light, and God will forgive you. It's simply the concept that we read about in Romans chapter 8, verse 13, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. And that's true for every sin, including being a stumbling block for younger, humbler believers. If you live in that fleshly way, you will die. Jesus says to the apostles, unless you're converted from this way of thinking who's going to be the greatest, you won't even enter the kingdom. If you continue to live there, you will not enter the kingdom. But if by the Spirit you put to death that pride, you repent and humble yourselves like a little child, well, then you will. And so that's true also for these great warnings because these are serious warnings, sober warnings. I'm not going to do much more with 8 and 9, and I didn't do a whole lot with it already last time, but there aren't any more blood-curdling scary verses in the Bible. Then if your hand or foot causes you to sit and cut it off, cast it from you, anything's better than dying and going to hell because hell is real, hell is eternal. There's no mercy, there's no second chance. It is burning, it is fire, it is worms. That's what scripture says. I'm not going to try to figure out the spiritual reality behind them, but whatever is physically harmful there, the spiritual is worse. And so we need to hear these sober, somber warnings of our text as we move into the rest of this passage. And there is one more warning verse that Jesus gives which we'll look at in a moment. But I want us to see in this text as we conclude as it were, the warning section, how much God cares for each one of his elect and to what lengths he will go to to make sure that he does not lose one of them. This is a good word this morning. They're all good words. Let's ask God to bless it to us. Father, we pray that you would indeed give us ears to hear eyes to see, hearts to believe, and minds to do what your word says. Oh Lord, let us love your word. Be glorified in our midst. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Here now the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 18, beginning in verse 1, this is God's holy word. At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Then Jesus called a little child to him and set him in the midst of them and said, assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in need of sin, it would be better for him. If a Milestone were hung around his neck and he would drown in the depth of the sea, woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. If your hand or foot causes you to sin cut it off and cast it from you, it is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out and cast it from you, it is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven. For the son of man has come to say that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains seeking the one that is straying? And if he should find it assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so, it is not the will of your father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. May the Lord establish this word in our hearts, this morning I pray. I want you to notice, first of all this morning, warning the strong. I want you to notice warning the strong. Well after the blood-curdling warning of verse 8 and 9, and after the double woe of verse 7, and after the horrifying image of a gruesome death in verse 6, Jesus has one more verse of rebuke for us, of reproving for us in verse 10 of warning, of threatening. And that's when he calls in the witness of the angels as it were, verse 10, take heed. That you do not despise one of these little ones, take heed, beware! That you do not despise one of these little ones. For I say to you that in heaven, their angels always behold the face of my father who is in heaven. This is another warning verse, another serious appeal because how terrible it is to lead another believer astray. That's what this whole context is about. To be a temptation to them to sin, to think that we're better and greater so that they don't matter, and to give no concern for the humble, younger, newer child in the face. Remember, that's what this text is about. It's not about children per se. I know people like to do that with this section, but that's not the case. This little child that Jesus puts in their midst, he clearly identifies in verse 6 as one of these little ones who believe in me. It's little believers, young believers, new believers, humble believers, less knowledgeable believers, believers that look to you in some way. Be very careful how you use that, that honor that they give to you, that responsibility, that influence, because Jesus identifies with the lowly of humblest believer so that to lower yourself as it were and serve them is to receive him. That's what he says in verse 5, whoever receives one humble child like this in my name, receives me. I'm with him. I live in him. You think he doesn't matter because he doesn't know as much as you, hasn't done as much as you? To receive him is to receive me. I don't regard people according to who's better because guess what all of you are totally depraved in the eyes of God. Anyone who has anything, has it from God? Has it by God's grace? How could we possibly think to look down or to exclude or to not be concerned for the younger, lesser believer? Matthew Henry says, quote, the tender regard Christ has to his church extends itself to every particular member, even the meanest. At the end you clearly see this passage about believers because that's what it is. So we need to be careful if we're in that place of counselor teacher, not officially, per se, but whenever we're giving advice, whenever we seek to guide, whenever we seek to instruct, lead, be an example in some way, words and actions, because there will be an accounting. There will be, and we will have to stand before God, and we will have to give an answer to what we said, to what we did. We may not think much of a young, airing believer, but God deeply cares for all of his elect, especially those who are younger in the faith. It's what we do with our children, when they're younger. I was on the plane coming back from the Ligion Air Conference just yesterday, with what a blessing it was. And there's a bunch of children in my section, I don't even know how it happened, but there's a man next to me, and then his wife is in the seat, and then the two little boys, and there's a couple little kids in the back, and the different care in which people take with children. And at one point the wife says, I can't take it anymore, you just sit with the kids, so they switch places, and he's over there throwing the kids up and down, and then she takes one of the bathroom and another and another. It reminded me when Robin and I had to take our children home, especially with Calvin, you always remember the first one the most, right? And we're bringing our child home from the hospital. And you're so afraid that he think could happen to them, because they're so fragile and they're so tender. And so you have all this extra care, and you have this fortress that you strap them in this seat with all of this reinforced protection, and it sits backwards, and it's belted into the seat, and they're cemented in there, and the car could roll over a cliff, and they wouldn't move because of the way the seat is. And then a couple years later they graduate into the NASCAR seat, you know, the big seat that has all the straps and everything, and then they graduate to the booster seat. And all of these protections on our children because they're smaller and they're weaker and they're tender, it's not that we love them more than our older children, but they need more care, and they need more concern and more attention. And that's what God is saying. It doesn't love them more because they're younger, newer, but they need more care, they need more attention, and guess what? God's going to give it to them. He's going to make sure that nothing happens to them, that nobody causes them to be grasped from his hand. Take heed, Jesus says, that you do not despise literally, that you do not think less of, from the word to think down. Despise, look down, but really to think less of, to think less of others. Doesn't scripture tell us to consider one another more important than yourself. Everyone is called to do that, and everyone ought to be someone that is a privilege to serve in ministry and to receive them because these children will be given the highest attention of God's angelic ministry. We want more to say that about that in a minute, but I want you to notice secondly, saving the lost. And so first warning the strong, there's a warning here, take heed, my angels, but now secondly, saving the lost. Verse 11 is not in the critical text. If you have an ESB, if you have an NAS, it's not there, if you have New King James, you have it. But in Luke 1910, this verse is there. The son of man came to seek and to save the lost, it says in 1910. So whether or not the verse is authentic in verse 11, in the majority text, which has a very strong witness, and I'm very confident that it was originally there, the critical text lost it, but it doesn't matter because it is in Luke. That means the son of man really did come to seek and to save the lost, whether or not the Holy Spirit said it through Matthew, he did say it through Luke. The son of man really came to seek and to save the lost. And so do the angels. That's why they're sent. There's a lot written about angels in the Bible. You can think of in the book of Genesis how angels appear at different times and do different things. For God's people, a lot of appearances there, in the book of Exodus, when the angel is the one who goes and strikes down, the first born, and the angel appears to the people, and the angel leads the people out. And the law was given through angels, the New Testament says, a lot of stuff in Exodus. And in the other books of the Bible, you can think of the book of Daniel, when Daniel was praying for a number of days, and the angel is sent to him, and said to him, you know, I was delayed because the Prince of Persia resisted me. And so Michael, your Prince, the Prince of Israel, was sent to aid me. And so we get this picture of this angelic warfare that's happening in our per life, and there's just not enough there for us to understand everything, but angels are real. There's spiritual beings, and there's sent by God. Some look at Daniel's head, well, does every nation then have an angel, because the Prince of Persia, the Prince of Israel, or they'll look at Revelation 7, and they'll see the angels to the 7 churches, does every church have an angel? And of course, our verse here is used by many, and maybe you've heard this, you know, that their angels, the little ones angels, always behold the face of my father, well some say, well that means everybody has a guardian angel. And they'll look at this verse, and they'll look at Acts chapter 12 when Peter is in prison, and an angel really does release Peter, and takes him and leads him to the house where the disciples are, and he knocks at the door, and a young girl named Rhoda, I love it that it gives her name, answers the door, and it's Peter. And the disciples are deeper in the house praying, and she comes running in and tells them Peter's in the door, and of course they don't believe her, because Peter's in prison, and there's no way you can get out of prison. But she keeps saying it in verse 15 says, but they said to her, you're beside yourself, you're out of your mind child, yet she kept insisting that it was so, so they said it is his angel. Ah, see? Peter has an angel, and all the little ones have an angel. Some say, well, you know, there's the good angel that we have, and then Satan to counterfeit it, gives us the bad angel, we always see it on the cartoons, right? Do what God says, now do the evil things! There's a little angel in the little devil that we all supposedly have. I don't believe in Acts 12, by the way, that's what that verse is saying. I don't want to do a lot of work with this, but if you want to listen, I preached on this in the book of Acts early in the probably 2011 or 12. I don't think that the people in that house who were dismissing the girls claim that Peter's there, because you know he's in prison, and that's just unbelievable to imagine that Peter, a normal human being, could be here when he's supposed to be in prison. And to excuse that or to get that thought out of their heads, that's, you know, something that's just too hard to believe, they say, oh, it's just a supernatural being a fire or a light that's at the door. Knocking! And angels outside locking at the door, it's no big deal. It's not Peter, that's impossible. It's just another angel, you know, they come all the time!
The word angel means messenger. Peter's messenger is at the door. Something's happening down at the prison. Maybe he's going to be executed. Maybe his trial is about to start. The messenger has come because they know we're with him. The word messenger is used for the word angel is laid as Matthew chapter 11, where Jesus says, God will send his messenger before his faith. He's quoting from the Old Testament, and Jesus is applying that to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was God's angel, messenger. It's the word for human messenger. It's all over the place in the Old and New Testament, for just human beings who are bringing messages. But sometimes it can refer to the angels, and context has to determine that. But scripture just does not give us enough information to establish this idea that everyone has a guardian angel or something like that. In fact, I think that the idea that everyone has a single guardian angel is actually a very poverty-stricken, poultry, and poor doctrine, because scripture says, we all have many angels. When scripture is directly teaching on this, and just not mentioning something in it, infidentally, that some people said, oh, it's an angel. Who knows what they meant by that? Many they actually did mean that, but that doesn't mean that it's right. Scripture wasn't condoning that statement. What scripture does teach? What are the angels sent for? Psalm 91 verse 11. He shall give his angels charge over you singular in the Hebrew to keep you singular in the Hebrew and all your singular ways in the Hebrew. He shall give his angels to three times one person, you singular, his angels in the plural, his angels in the plural, to one believer, to keep you into guard you in all your ways. That's what the angels do. I think it'd be pretty pathetic if we only had one when scripture says he gives them, think of Elisha praying and God opens his servant eyes, and there's an army of angels around Elisha. When God sends his angels, he sends as many as he believes are needed. Psalm 34 verse 7 says the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear him and deliver them. The angel of the Lord with his contingent of angels and caps and camps around all around them. Angels again in the plural. Hebrews chapter 114 gives us the most directive statement. This is about all the further we can go. They are all the angels are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation. God sent forth the angels to minister to those who will inherit salvation. That doesn't mean we pray to them or we try to find them. That's not our business, but they are used by God and they are real and they are sent by him to minister to us in different ways. We get glimpses of that and that's neat and sometimes we want to know more and that's what we need to say what scripture says is sufficient. I know that God uses them there there and that's assuring to me. But to try to build some kind of angelic document scripture doesn't give us enough information is not to humble ourselves before the word of God. The point of this text beloved is not to try to figure out some kind of angelology. The point of the text is that if these mighty supernatural beings of fire who stand in the presence of God, do not consider it beneath them. To minister, to humble, lonely, brand new believers, then how in the world can anyone of us dare to think that some service in the church is beneath us? How in the world when the angels themselves do not hesitate to minister on the behalf of the lowly believers and it's not just the angels and that's the point of verse 11 for the son of man has come to seek and say that which was lost. The son of man that divine character in Daniel chapter 7 that Jesus always claimed is who he is. The son of man, the man who is like a man more than a man who has all the authority and power and presence and worship of God. He came to seek and say. The lost. So who are the lost? Thirdly, I want you to notice seeking the strain. I want you to notice seeking the strain to further impress upon the disciples and upon us the importance of this doctrine. Jesus gives us the parable of the lost sheep in verses 12 and 13. What do you think? If a man has 100 sheep and one of them goes a stray, does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straining? And if he should find it assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the 99 that did not go a stray. I want us to notice something about the character here, the lost. And I don't know why the English translation does this, but in each there's a verb that's used there three times. You see it twice in verse 12 and once in verse 13 of going a stray, right? One of them goes a stray, the one that is strained and then in verse 13 that did not go a stray, all three times that verb is in the passive in the Greek text. And the first time it's in the era's subjunctive passive, which would be translated this way, what do you think if a man has 100 sheep and one of them should be led a stray? Passive something is happening to you. You're not doing it. This isn't a sheep that's actively wanting to run off from God. Something has beguiled it and led it and deceived it. It's passively being led away. Now obviously there's guilt and there's responsibility and there would be some activity, but the scripture emphasizes the passivity. And so also the second time it's led said it's in the present participle being led astray, present passive participle being led astray. Second time the 99 that are not being led astray. They're not being its passive again and then again in 13 or 13 over the 99 that have not been led astray. This time it's perfect passive but it's always passive have been led being led should be led. And what I want to notice here is again these are not false sheep or wolves that are pursuing intentionally error as it were. But something has happened and they've been deceived and they're being led astray and they're wandering. Maybe it's their own flesh, maybe it's Satan, maybe it's the world, but there is a picture here of a believer. The lost are not the world. Just like the little child was not every child. The lost is not every person. The lost beloved according to this text is the elect. The lost are the elect who either have not been converted or who are in a time of backsliding and straying. But not every person biblically speaking is lost. Every time scripture speaks of the sheep the sheep are always the elect. Matthew 25, 32 all the nations will be gathered before him. He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats and he will set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the lap. The sheep are the elect in scripture and when Jesus is talking about the sheep here he's talking about the elect because it's only to the elect that the promise is given that none of them shall be lost. The last verse of this text ensures this interpretation if it's really not the will of your father in heaven that not one of these little ones should perish. If that's everybody nobody parishes. If it's not the will that can't be the perceptive will that can't be the will of disposition. This is the will of God in the future in the future. It is not the will that not one of these little ones should perish. Clearly it has to be the elect the believers. Otherwise nobody would perish and we need to shut down the reformed churches and all go join the universal list unitarian church because everybody goes to heaven. Because if it's not the will that one of these repairs that's something that is certain no one will ever ever perish. No one will go to hell. We're not talking about that and we talk we say that all the time we we speak about everybody in the world as if there's a loss but typically speaking precisely speaking the loss or only the elect who are either not yet converted. Or who are strange. We're in a time of backlighting who are in a time of sin. God's elect are known to him. They alone are a sheep on 1014. I am the good shepherd Jesus said I know my sheep and my sheep know me. I lay down my life for the sheep. Speaking of the Gentile like Jesus says another sheep I have what you're not of this fold them also I must bring the gospel hadn't gone out to the Gentiles yet during Jesus. Life in fact remember he forbids them to go to the Gentile lands when he sends out the 12 in chapter 10. Them also I must bring and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd the sheep for those who from the before the foundation of the world. God gave to Christ in fact speaking to the unbelieving Jewish leaders later in John chapter 10 Jesus says but you do not believe because you're not of my sheep. You see that we would think or at least much of the church would think well you're not of my sheep because you don't believe you see by believing we become one of the sheep but Jesus says the opposite. You don't believe because you're not one of my sheep you don't believe to become a sheep if you're a sheep you believe. It's the sheep who believe who will believe who will come to faith because Jesus said in John 639 this is the will of the father who sent me that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing. But I will raise it up at the last day what has the father given Jesus only the sheep that's what the doctrine of election is only the sheep are given by the father the picture this way the father so loves the son. Before the foundation of the world and what we call the covenant of redemption sort of the predatory and part of the covenant of grace the father so lot of the son that he decides again this is the eternity path but we have to use sort of verbs that talk about something happening in a point of time but the father and eternity decides that he's going to give a group of people to the son because he loves that he loves the son. And he wants to give this people to the son to glorify a son to be like his son to praise his son and the son so loves the father that again win and I know I'm saying win and sort of a qualified sense because it's an eternity. But when he hears that the father is giving a gift he so loves the father he agrees to go and to purchase this gift and to keep them and to earn their salvation and to pay for their sins. He agrees to do this because he loves the father and he's not going to lose one of that precious gift that the father is given in fact the father and the son send the spirit to make sure that all that the son died for will receive that salvation will be brought to faith and repentance and he knows each one by name. How much he loves the gift of his father he knows each one personally and he calls each one personally in time and he will not lose one and when one is lost and when one is straying he knows and he goes through angels through people through ordinary means usually and he he brings that one back and that's what we're talking about under seeking straying. Look at verse 13 if he should find it assuredly I say to you he rejoices more over that sheep at one sheep and over the ninety nine that did not go astray. Moose person says there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents the ninety nine just persons who do not need to repent now that brings some issues with that mean they don't need to repent other ninety nine perfect people and one who's thinner now that's not what he's talking about John Calvin clear this up very easily and very helpfully he says there are two kinds of repentance there's the daily mortifying repentance that we all need to do as believers. As long as we draw breath we live a life of repentance Calvin says this quote the exercise of repentance ought to be uninterrupted throughout our whole life Martin Luther says it's the business of the Christian to live in repentance it's only the Christian who repent and the more Christian he is the more he repents I think it's one of the most destructive distortions and evangelicalism decision is where you repent once. And now you're a Christian you can ever lose yourself and a preacher talks about repenting I did that no I signed that card that day 15 years ago I've invented. As if you no longer sin or as if you're sin no longer matters calls us to repent to put off the old to put on the new. That's the ongoing that's the life of the Christian but that person is in the fold he's not in any immediate danger he saved. Repentance is his life he's doing that he's walking with the Lord as he seeks to grow and face an obedience and repentance but there's another kind of repentant the kind of repentance. That is when you were dead and now you're alive that kind of repentance that God gives in conversion when for the first time you feel your sin. And for the first time you hate your sin as sin not as that thing that's going to stop me from being as happy as I could be we all had that when we were living for the devil. But you hate your sin as sin you hate your sin when it brings you pain and you hate your sin when it brings you pleasure and you don't want it and you want to turn from it and you feel God's wrath and judgment and you know you're worthy of it and you see the gospel in Christ and you see the salvation and you realize that when he died on the cross he paid that he took that round. And when he lived his life he earned that righteousness and you see that and you believe and as you're sorry for your sins you believe in Christ and you're saved and it's that kind of repentance over which there is more joy in heaven among the angels and over the 99 who are living your ordinary life of repentance because that person was dead and now he's alive that person was living in hatred of God and now he loves God and he wants to live for God even though he still stumbles and falls yet he's continually getting back up. It's because of the greater manifestation of God's mercy and grace and power because that person is working against him when God gives him that repentance. Whereas by the Holy Spirit in the synergistic work of sanctification when we live our ongoing lives of repentance we're working with him and it's still God's grace and it's still God's power but what a display of power when God brings one who is dead to life over one who is still sick but continuing to need life and to progress and that's why that's why it's such a significant thing. It's the same thing for us, right? If you have a child, if you've ever had a child who was sick or ill or maybe even was close to death and everything in your life just comes to a halt and everything is about that child and then when by the grace of God they're either healed or they come through the surgery and it's okay now or they get better or whatever the danger was is removed you rejoice so much more over that child than over all the other children you have. Some of you have quite a few. It's not because you love that child more but it's because that child could have died another alive another safe and now you can breathe a sigh of relief in that same kind of joy is expressed to us here in this beautiful passage and we see it played out in different ways and what it's showing us is that God has great compassion over the lost condition of his people. Probably the best place that we see this is in Luke chapter 15 with the parable of the prodigal son where he really is a son of the father. He is a child of the father this is that you know it's one of the elect and yet he wants to take everything that he has from the father his blessing his status his wealth and he wants to use it to enjoy the pleasures of sin in the scripture say that he goes out and he squanders it on harlots and loose living drunkenness gambling partying what we would call and he just waits at all all that he has from his father. All that strength all that goodness all those gifts that he's supposed to use to glorify his father and honor his father and he uses it for wickedness and then in that moment of grace which Luke describes as but when he came to himself because there was a self there to come to. Because the way in what he was living was really not as true self even though to everybody else that looked like it when he came to himself he sees that he's living in slop he wants to eat the pigs slop he thought that was great at one time suddenly now he sees it all this stuff that he has in the world and it's ugly and it's horrible and he remembers what it was like in his father's house and he doesn't go back and say you know. God I'm saved and I'm not allowed to lose my salvation and why did you put me through that and I need to be restored he says I'm not worthy to be your son and I'm not asking for that please let me be your slave let me be like one of your slaves I just want to be a slave in your house he loves his father and he sees the good that he had and he's making the right distinction. Charles Wesley in his hymn describes that moment when God rescues us as a man who was laying fast bound and chains right and then thine eye diffused a quickening ray the dungeon flame with light my chains fell off my heart was free I rose God found one God does it he does it through means he does it through us and so fourthly and last I want you to notice willing salvation I want you to notice willing salvation one of these little ones in verse 14 even so it is not the will of your father who is in heaven that one of these little ones repair you see how this whole section goes together Jesus starts by bringing a child and then he talks about that child as a little child and then he talks about him again as one of these little ones all the way back in verse six and so this is still the same conversation the same topic one of these little ones. Who believe in me these lesser ones these ones who seem so small and insignificant in our pride they're not doing the big important stuff that we're doing but here again you see this has to be God the last. It's only in our eternal election in Christ that we belong to God that we have this special saving love so that not one of them will be lost and this should not make us lazy in evangelism this should not make us lazy in witnessing or prayer well what should we have to pray for because not one of them will be lost. It's the opposite why is Jesus telling the disciples this so that they will go out and do their ministry with more zeal because God doesn't do it apart from us ordinarily and very very rarely. He does it through us and he's going to do it through the disciples and that's why he's teaching this no not one of the elect will be lost but that means it's even more important that you witness that you pray that you evangelize that we preach because God is ensuring that it's going to be successful we all unsafe loved ones in our lives I know you do unsafe family members I have very close ones that I cry out for and the doctrine of election should not hinder that if anything it should spur you on more than ever do you know why because first of all God can do it if it wasn't up to God to change the heart if it's up to the person to make the right decision then why in the world would I waste my time praying to God to save my family. He can't do it they have to make the decision as soon as he starts to influence them he's prejudicing the will I thought the will has to be completely indifferent and free but if God is the one who changes the heart then I can pray and know that he can do it it doesn't matter how much my loved one hates him and is resisting him God can change him. And guess what the loved ones that are in my life and that are in your life that don't know the Lord they're not there by accident God has put you there knowing that he has put them there and guess the way in which they'll be saved when you pray when you witness because that's how you got saved somebody pray somebody witnessed I'm pretty sure nobody here got zapped by an angel from heaven right nobody had the angel coming in the
to give you the gospel or you didn't get taken up in a vision God didn't God use somebody in your life I'm pretty sure that this is the this is the assurance that your prayers that your ministry your evangelism that your witnessing is not in vain because you won't lose one of them and the ones that he has put in your life he's put there with you a child of God there who is it that saved people in this world children of God how are they going to be saved I say you make heaven ring with your prayers pray more witness more because the way in which they're going to be saved is through you the elect the sheep are the elect and they're lost and God has put you in a place where you're going to be used to call those lost and some of those lost are going to be saved through you and you get to heaven and you'll find out that there will be people there that if you wouldn't have prayed for them or witnessed to them they wouldn't have been there you say I'll pass or I thought you know the elect can't be lost and that means if I don't someone else will know because God appointed it to be happen to happen through you not just the out not just the end but the means of salvation are appointed by God and therefore if it was through you and you didn't do it then they wouldn't be in heaven because both of those things are from God they both have to happen the eternal election and you being the one to do it somebody's appointed to do it God promises he'll heal your prayers God promises he'll use us he promises his word won't we turn void why don't we make heaven ring with our prayers and believe that he won't lose one of them he won't lose one and therefore our ministries must be effective he must save his elect and he has put you in a place where there are people in your life that you are the minister to and he promises you that he will not lose one of them now what's stopping us from taking him in his word let's pray our Father in heaven we confess how quick we are to doubt your word to doubt the truth of it the fullness of it the beauty of it Lord God how we pray that you would give us the faith the confidence the boldness that you mean what you say that you say what you mean that we have a place to play a role to pursue and to fill we know you are the God of protestions all things but you protest and all the things that we do that will have eternal consequences and therefore Lord God let us not worry about what you protest and let us do as much as we can knowing that you are the God who will not lose one and that our ministries therefore will bear fruit for the God we thank you and we do pray for those in our families who don't know you say them Lord and help us to minister and to pray for them and to witness to them and then hear our prayers be the God who loses not one we pray this in Jesus name amen