Okay, we are just about at time to start. Well, it looks like we are right at time to start. So, glad you're here. I see several of you have logged in already and checked in through our group chat. And I see other, we have a new Website that is working and live as of this week and we've already had You know, it's hard to know how many people visit your website We've already had like 60 people visit our website since it was up. So that's really good and It shows, you know, a lot of those many of those came in through typing in www.wacofamily.com But others got to the website by Google, and that's also good. I get a ding on my phone every time we get a visitor to our website. I don't know how to turn that off, but I'm sure I'll want to eventually. But we've had people from Flower Mound, people from Dallas, people from Perigold, Arkansas hitting our website. What a blessing to have people from that far north coming to the website. And I'm sure that if you don't already know, you can go to the website and look on the sermons page in order to access the live stream. Now, usually I'm in front of the camera doing the teachings for the live stream, so I don't, I have not done it that way, but I believe that you can go to the website and see that there. We're going to begin tonight and Let me begin by telling you that our officers, the elders and deacons, normally meet after church on Wednesday night. We normally have a meeting, which has been done by Zoom, and that is to determine What's going on in the situation with COVID and whether or not we're going to be able to meet what the numbers look like that kind of thing. But this this week we did meet prior to to this live stream and have determined that we are going to meet Sunday and We're just watching those numbers. When we were not meeting those COVID numbers, we're up at about 20% positive cases based on 20% of those who were tested. Now we've been down to as low as seven, been a little bit of an uptick to 11 and 13 the last couple of days. But we feel like that is still manageable and that we can meet and be safe. I can't tell you enough. I know for some people the COVID thing doesn't weigh on you at all. You hardly think about it. But for others, the coronavirus is weighing daily and weighing heavily on people's minds. So I just want to say again how much I appreciate each one of you who are taking care to follow the guidelines that your elders and deacons have put forth to try to keep everyone safe and do that social distancing thing that we need to do for right now. We appreciate your efforts in that. And I would also like to say a big thank you to the deacons who have been doing so much work, so much effort, so much cleaning and wiping things down and just making sure that everything is right and safe and suitable for us to meet there on Sunday. And we really appreciate those efforts. Oh, we're going to begin tonight with prayer. So I would invite you, let's bow and go to the Lord. Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you for the opportunity that we have to come together in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. to tune our hearts once again, to tune our thinking to your kingdom. While we live in the kingdom of this world, we know that we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom, an eternal kingdom. We look forward to the day, Lord, when you will take us out of this world, when this world will burn with fire and there will be a new heaven and a new earth and we will no longer be in a two kingdom reality, but it will be only one kingdom only. your kingdom and we look to that day, but while we are here, we know that we are here by your sovereign power and by your wisdom and we pray that you would help us to be people, mindful of being a two kingdom people, two kingdoms reality. God, help us, give us wisdom, how to live in the kingdom of this world, how to operate and function and behave and how to communicate and how to participate in the kingdom of this world without becoming soiled by the sin of it. God, we pray, we pray that you'd keep your people from sin. God, the temptations are everywhere around us, and we see so many who are falling into sin, and God, so many of us have, so many of us who have been forgiven of the penalty and the guilt of sin, we still have indwelling sin, and we pray that your sanctifying work would truly free us from the guilt the reality of sin and we look to the day again when we will be completely free of sin. God as we look tonight and discuss tonight evangelism and how your kingdom is to advance, how your kingdom is to be propagated through this world. We pray that you would guide our thinking, that it would be guided by your word. Help us. Help us where we have had misunderstandings or where we have had anemic understandings. Help us to grow, that we might be the church that we should be. that we might be a church sending pastors and missionaries, sending those whom you have called. Help us to be a church, what we should be in calling elders and pastors to our local body. God, we pray tonight that you'd bless each one who is listening, each one who has set aside this time. We pray that it would be beneficial, that it would be edifying, that it would be sanctifying. And we ask this in the name of Christ Jesus and for your kingdom's sake, amen. Amen. Oh, okay. I'm going to try to watch. I've asked if you would to submit questions and comments and anything that needs clarification on the GroupMe site. So I'm going to ask my beautiful bride if she will help me keep up with that app and GroupMe and the questions that may come in. So please do that, that is very helpful to know if we're covering things as they should be covered. So tonight, as you probably already know, if you don't, then let me tell you, tonight is a rerun. Tonight is a redo. This is one of those times that you've turned on your television and you think you're going to see a new episode of your favorite TV show, and it turns out it's a rerun. I don't know if that's still a thing, but when I was growing up, it was a big deal that you get a rerun. Tonight is a rerun. We're doing this rerun tonight because Last week's upload quality was pretty poor and we were told that it was around, somebody told me around 60% legible or intelligible and someone else said every other word from every other sentence was just gone. And another person told me they tuned into something else and went and did something else because it was not anything that was workable. So we're gonna try to revisit that. I hope the quality is much better tonight. We should be, we're at an office building where I work from time to time. And we have pretty good internet speeds here, up and down and all of that, all around. So we're going to do that. So before we begin, please make sure you have your Bible and a copy of the Second London Baptist Confession. Make sure you have a copy of the confession. If you don't have your copy of the confession readily available or at hand, you can find the confession online. And I will tell you this, Go to our website, www.wacofamily.com. Click on the About Us section, and you'll see the Second London Baptist Confession available there. It's a PDF that you can download if you want that available online, or you can just read it there in your browser window. So that's www.wacofamily.com. Click on About, and then the Confession, I believe it's the first first or second subcategory there. So if you have your confession and your Bible, we're gonna get started. The question had came up, now it's been a couple of weeks ago now that this question was asked. Can a person come to faith in Christ without the use of scripture? Can a person be saved without the Bible? And I gave a very quick answer in our discussion and I just basically said, no, a person can't be saved without scripture. But I promised that I would deal with the question in a more complete way. that we would discuss it further and that's what I'd like to do over the next few minutes that we spend together. I'm not sure that this will exhaust all questions, all the information that you want to have in your mind. The video is glitchy, but the audio is good. If the audio is good, then we're going to say, hey, that's good. But let me see what I can do. I may not be able to do anything. Because we have good upload speeds here, I tried to do a very high quality Livestream so this is going out at 1080p. So maybe that's the problem. Maybe I should have done 720 we'll learn as we go I guess And you know the other side of that may be On your download speeds on the other side. So it is it is helpful if you know if everybody's having that same problem that you'd let us know that but So we're going to get in here. We may not answer all your questions, but we hope to do tonight to get a good understanding of what I'm calling the means of evangelism, the means of evangelism or the means of kingdom growth, the means of spreading the gospel, the means that God uses. And if we get a good understanding, a biblically sound understanding, then as we believe well, we will behave well because our behavior is certainly a result of our true beliefs. So that's what we're hoping for tonight. There was a follow-up to this question. Can someone be saved without the scripture? And then does our confession address this? And the answer to that is, yes, our confession does address this question, and it addresses it straightforward, and then it addresses the question, I'm gonna say, in a more roundabout way, throughout the confession. You can go throughout the confession, reading it, as Dr. Renahan says, reading it sideways, and you can see, I'm gonna mute my phone, because it's apparently distracting. You can go through the confession, reading it sideways, and you can see that... I need to mute everything. There we go. You can see the answer to the question, but we're gonna go to chapter one, paragraph one, and we are going to see a very clear answer to this question. Another way to say this, what role does scripture play in someone coming to faith in Christ? What role does scripture play? And is scripture necessary? So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna read from paragraph one, chapter one, and as I read, I'm going to read and comment along the way. So we're gonna work through it that way. So we begin all. And please follow along in your copy of the confession, or as you can see it, and you'll be able to see where we're working from here. The Holy Scripture is the only certain, I'm sorry, I'm gonna read the words that are written on the page in the order that they are written this time. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Now that statement is the answer to the question. The Holy Scripture is the only rule for all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. The only thing that gives us what we need to find out. The firmaments declare His glory. God's handiwork declares that there is a God. Our catechism says the light of nature in man and the works of God declare there is a God. but his word and spirit only do it fully and effectually for the salvation of sinners." Well, we see that same thing, that catechism answer comes from here. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. the reasoning and thinking found naturally in men." Now that's the light of nature in man, the light of nature. So that reasoning, that naturally found thinking in men, and it continues, also the works of creation. So the works of creation and God's continued work to reveal to men that there is a good, wise, powerful God. So God's providential work. They leave men so that they are without excuse. They are without excuse. So that is a declaration that those things, the light of nature and man, the works of God and the providence of God, communicate enough that man knows there is a God who should be worshiped. They leave man without excuse. But as we continue, but these things, reason, creation, providence, are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will, which is necessary unto salvation. The first church that I pastored, we had a church full of hunters. Those hunters, every deer season, would say, well, you won't be seeing me for the next month or two, preacher, because I'm going to the deer stand. But their excuse was this, I can worship God from the deer stand. You know, you can see things from the deer stand, and you can see that there is a God, and I can worship in that way. But here's the thing, from the deer stand, And I would say this, the Colombian bean farmer or whoever that person that we think about that is so far out of contact with the things that we know, they may know that there is a God, but they will not know from nature and from the light within them, and even from the providential works of God, they will not know about Jesus Christ. They will not know about the cross. They will not know about the grace, the saving grace of God and how it is that a man is to be saved. And that's what we read here. Those things are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God that is necessary and His will necessary unto salvation. Okay, so we continue. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times, sundry is just a word that means various times, different times. It pleads the Lord at sundry times and in diverse manners, or diverse manners, to reveal himself. It pleads the Lord to reveal himself sundry times, diverse manners, and to declare that his will unto the church. So in the Old Testament times, the Bible may not have been as necessary for salvation because God spoke, how did he speak? He spoke audibly. He spoke through the prophets. He spoke through dreams and visions. He even one time spoke through a donkey. So God spoke in all these ways. So to hear from God, to find out what does God say and what am I to believe about God? There were other methods other than the written word of God. So we see that here. And then our confession continues afterward. And we get this, I'm gonna just summarize this, so that there would be a preserved and printable and distributable, there would be a way to distribute the word of God to God's people that it pleased God to commit, so pick up the word to commit, to commit the same wholly unto writing. So he revealed himself, And then it pleased God to commit the same, the revelation of himself, the revelation of Jesus Christ, wholly unto writing. That is, God wrote the Bible. And it says, holy. Now, even this coming Sunday in the sermon, we're going to realize that when we say God committed unto writing his revelation, holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, we do not mean that God committed unto writing in the scripture every detail of everything that was ever said or done. One of the things we're going to talk about is the sermons that are in Acts and the sermons that we read from Paul and from Peter and from Stephen. And what we read is really a summary. We have no reason to believe that Peter stood and preached a three minute sermon, but we can read through that in three minutes. We have a summary of those sermons But when we say holy, it doesn't mean every detail and every single word. What it does mean is the revelation that he intended for us to have and the revelation that is necessary to know his will and unto salvation. So God wrote the Bible. Then we come to this, so to commit the same wholly unto writing, and we continue, which maketh the holy scriptures to be most necessary. So the Bible is required for the saving of sinners and for the living of Christians. The Bible is required for those things. Now, the reason for the necessity of the Bible is added here. If God were still speaking audibly and still speaking through prophets and still speaking through dreams and visions, then we wouldn't say the Bible is most necessary, but it is most necessary for what? those former ways of God revealing his will unto his people being now ceased." Being now ceased. So God spoke in the past audibly. I will never forget the first church I pastored. The first Sunday I showed up, I went to an adult Sunday school class and I sat in the back of the class and listened as a Sunday school teacher said, God speaks to me, God speaks to me audibly. I I was surprised to hear that, and I would say this without equivocation, God does not speak to that man audibly, nor does God speak to anyone audibly today. I always go to the old, I think this was John MacArthur, I've always heard it accredited to him. If you want to hear God speak, read the Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read it out loud. So that's kind of where we come to. God speaks today through his word and the application, the work done of the spirit as the word is read and applied to the heart. So there's certainly more that can be gleaned from this passage, from this paragraph of our confession. But for our time and for the question at hand, this is what the paragraph says. The Word of God, the Holy Scripture is most necessary. It is important to also note the careful and intentional placement of this paragraph at the beginning of the confession. It is at the beginning of the confession due to the fact that the Holy Scriptures must be the starting place. without the Holy Scriptures, without believing that the Bible is truth, no one would believe anything else in the Confession. So that's the first thing. The Confession is heavily, heavily drawing from Scripture and summarizing those doctrines of Scripture. So if we don't agree on Scripture, why would you agree with anything else in the Confession? It's so based on Scripture. And then also, the Confession, this first paragraph, tells us that everything that we can know about God comes from scripture. So if we don't agree that the scripture is necessary for the revelation of God and to what we should believe and to know his will unto salvation, then how can we know anything else? Because we do believe that the light of nature in man and the works of God and God's providential hand leave us without excuse, but they are also insufficient for our salvation. And without scripture, These, to quote our confession, these former things, these former ways that God communicated now being ceased, all men would be without excuse for unbelief, but they would not have the revelation as to what to believe, therefore there would be no salvation. If God has ceased to communicate in those other ways, and we don't have scripture, then we have no way of knowing about the grace of God. So I wanna take some time, I wanna go to some biblical texts, and I wanna look, we're gonna go to Ephesians, then we'll go to Acts, and I believe John, and then Romans. And we're going to see from these biblical texts, what is actually required for the saving of a soul to take place. Now, remember, we are not talking about, tonight, we are not talking about the work that Jesus Christ did in his life and death and resurrection. So, thank you, Taylor. That's Justin Peters. He's a friend of John MacArthur, that ought to count. So, We are not talking about tonight the means of salvation, meaning what did Jesus do in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension to accomplish salvation. What we're talking about is those things, Those things were required to take place one time in history, one time, once and for all in history. But what we're talking about is those things that must take place over and over and over again. Those things that are required each time a sinner is regenerated and brought into the kingdom. or state it a different way. What is necessary? What are the necessary things which God uses to save a soul? What are the means of evangelism? That's the term that I'm using. What are the means of evangelism? I don't know, I've not heard that term means of evangelism and even having two weeks to prepare for this, I still haven't Googled it or looked at it to see if anyone else has used that term. So if you've heard the term means of evangelism to mean something else, I'm kind of pouring my own meaning into this. We're gonna begin in Ephesians 2. We're gonna see what the scripture says about these means, these things that must take place. Ephesians 2, and we'll read verses 11 to 17. Ephesians 2, 11 to 17. And while you're getting there, I'm going to just check and see if we have any more questions coming up. Ephesians 2, beginning in verse 11. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity. which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that he himself might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by having put to death the enmity," verse 17, And he came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. That's the text that we'll read here. Wonderful passage of scripture. Jesus accomplished this salvation, making the two groups into one, Jewish and Gentile believers, Jewish believers and Gentile believers, into one new man, one group, and we are all God's Israel. He broke down the dividing wall, and I'm just summarizing the wonderful things that are found here. He broke down the dividing wall, He brought peace, and he did this in his flesh, having put to death the enmity. And that is to say, in his death, the enmity between God and man died for those who would believe in Christ, for those who were in Christ. All this is to speak of the things that Jesus' life, death, resurrection, in a sense, accomplished. So then we come to verse 17, which is really where I wanna zoom in here. And he came and preached the peace that he accomplished. The gospel was preached by he. And if we look at he, who is he? We have to see who is, who is this pronoun he pointing to? It is pointing to Jesus Christ. This preaching was after his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. And even if we look at the biblical record and we look back into the gospels, Jesus never visited Ephesus. Jesus never went to Ephesus. So how is it here that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul writes that Jesus preached to the Ephesian Christians. How can this be if he never went to Ephesus? Well, they heard the word of God preached by a duly called and appointed minister of God. And in the preaching of the word of Christ, they heard Christ preach. In the preaching of Christ, they heard Christ preach. there was a supernatural, or shall we say, a spiritual event that took place as the word of God was preached by Paul and by others who were duly called and appointed preachers. Paul's lips moved, their ears heard Paul's words, but their souls, in their souls, they heard the voice of Christ. Now we need to not spend too much time here, but this is a fascinating passage. He came and he preached. The point here is that the Ephesian believers were saved when they heard the voice of Christ spiritually preaching the word, preaching the word of God, preaching the scripture. So next we're gonna go to Acts 26. If you, I think I posted already a copy of these notes that you can download. If you'd like a copy, please let me know and we can make these available if you need further study to look at these things further. Some of this, some of you have heard before, so it's not new, but for some of you, this is brand new information and you may need some time to really mull these things over. That was Ephesians 2, 11 through 17. Now we're in Acts chapter 26, where we read verses 19 through 23. This is when Paul is speaking to King Agrippa. He is speaking to King Agrippa. So we pick up here in verse 19, Acts 26, 19. So King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring, this is Paul declaring, both to those at Damascus first and at Jerusalem, and then throughout the whole region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God performing deeds meet for repentance. For this reason, some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death. So having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and to great, stating nothing but what the prophet Moses said was going to take place." I'm going to stop there in verse 22. This is the apostle Paul saying that he has He has preached, he has declared in verse 20, and now he has in verse 22, he still stands to this day testifying, and he testified to the small and to the great, nothing but what the prophet Moses said was going to take place. 23, what is that? That the Christ, here's what Moses stated or prophesied, and here's what Paul preached. But we change the subject here to Christ, that the Christ was to suffer. Who was to suffer? Christ. And that by reason of His resurrection, whose resurrection? Christ's resurrection from the dead. He would be the first to proclaim light, both to Jewish people and to the Gentiles. He would be the first to proclaim light. Who is he? Well, we have at the beginning, Paul declaring, Paul standing and testifying to small and great in verse 22. But in verse 23, the he, the first to proclaim light to the Jews and to the Gentiles, He is Jesus Christ. Notice again that this is by reason of his resurrection. It is after his life, death, resurrection, and ascension that he proclaimed light to the Jews and to the Gentiles. Now, by this time, when Paul is speaking, we've already had this thing with Cornelius. We've already seen that. But he says, Jesus proclaimed light to the Gentiles. Well, the Jewish people and the Gentiles who were saved heard the proclamation of the light, heard the proclamation of Christ, and the one who himself is the light, Christ preached to them through the preaching of the apostles. Christ preached, He proclaimed, He was the one to preach as the apostles preached. Their lips moved, Christ's voice was heard. John chapter 10. John chapter 10. We're building a case. So please be patient. I know we're not tying a bow around each of these passages. We're kind of reading them, making a couple of observations and moving on. We're going to try to get to the end here. And these will all come together in Romans 10. John chapter 10. John chapter 10. We'll read verses seven through 16. This is a longer passage, and it's all really good to read. We're really looking for this last verse here. Beginning in verse seven. John 10, seven, so Jesus said to them again, truly, truly, I say to you, I'm the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. The sheep did not hear thieves and robbers. I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and not concerned about the sheep. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me. Verse 15, even as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. Verse 16, I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also. Let's pause right there. I have other sheep. Jesus is speaking here of those Gentiles who would be saved under the new covenant in the New Testament. Jesus is speaking of a future people, the Gentile people who would be brought in and they would be saved and he would bring them in. And then it says here, they will hear the voice of all the preachers. No, it doesn't say that. They will hear the voice. They will hear my voice. those sheep who are of another pasture that he was going to bring them in. And he says at the end here, they will become one flock with one shepherd. Whose voice do they hear? Well, they hear different under shepherds voices. on a regular basis, on a weekly basis, we would say in our day, but they hear his voice. So in John 10, we have those sheep hearing his voice. Now we go to Romans 10, Romans 10. And in Romans 10, We'll read verses 13 through 17. Romans 10, when it comes to the topic or the subject of preaching, evangelism, missions, young men being called to preach, being sent, being ordained, Dr. Renahan says this is the most important passage in the scripture about this, and I believe that that is correct, that this is the most clear passage, and it is logically connected for us that we can read it. It's very plain, and it's right here before us. So Romans 10, beginning in verse 13. whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And let's look at verse 17 now. So faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Now, those are two very familiar passages if you've been in church for any period of time. So faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Those are very familiar passages. What we often forget, what we often don't realize if we haven't read this is that there are connecting verses between those two things and they are very important. And they give us the means, the tools, the work that God uses to bring salvation to the elect. So I'm gonna read that again, beginning in verse 13. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? Now, do you see the connection that we're bringing forward here? They call on the name of the Lord and they're saved, but how will they call on him if they have not believed? That should tell us right there that this calling on him is more than just saying his name out loud, that there is a faith call that goes forth. How will they call? And this whole passage steps, how will they do this if they don't have this? And how will they have this if they don't have this? And it connects these dots for us and gives us It gives us a very well put together plan. It gives us a very well put together mission statement and missions outline here as to how these things work. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Verse 14, how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. However, they did not all heed the good news for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. And we've got this stepping through, but I want to go back to verse 16. And I want us to see something here. I read this, and if you're not following along closely in your copy of God's word, Romans 10 verse 16, then you may miss something that is very important. You can get a lot of good out of this and not see this, but this is very important. If you have a version, an English version of scripture that is not the new American standard, If you have the ESV, if you have the King James, the New King James, every English version that I could look at, besides the New American Standard, reads this way, and I'm reading the second question. How will they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Of. whom they have not heard. And in our minds, in our English speaking minds, that makes sense. How will they believe in Jesus if they have not heard of Jesus? That makes sense. And there's a truism in that, but that is not what this text says. Listen again as I read from the New American Standard, which is this. Now there are times that I will say, hey, the English Standard has it better, or the King James has it better. In this case, the New American Standard got it absolutely right. How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? Not of whom, Him, they have not heard. How will they believe in Jesus if they have not heard Him? Now, I give you permission to go ahead and get a pen. And if your Bible has the word of whom they have not heard, go ahead and scratch out that word of, because it's not there in the original. It is not there. And what we see here is that this word of is added, it's a help. Supposedly, we have to put a help in quotations if we do that. Sometimes words are added to help us get the English all right and understand what's going on. This is a help that is not really any help to us. Because what we see here is, if we see this rightly, They can't believe in Jesus if they have not heard Jesus. Now we've said, this is not new. We saw this in John. We saw this in Acts. We saw this in Ephesians, that Christ preached, that Christ proclaimed, that it is Christ's voice. And when we come to Romans 10, it's the same thing. How will they believe if they have not heard Jesus Christ? So this is another passage that tells us that Christ's voice must be heard. So the question that we're dealing with here is how can people be saved? Can they be saved without the word of God? The short answer is no. Here in Romans, we get a more detailed thing. How can they believe? How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How can they believe if they have not heard Christ? Now, how do they hear Christ? Do you hear Christ by getting in a corner or going into a closet, closing the door, cross your legs and hum to yourself and see if you can hear the word, hear the voice of Christ. Is that how you do it? No. How will they hear without a preacher? How is it that sinners hear the voice of Christ and are saved through the preaching of the word of God? It is through a preacher. How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? Verse 15. This goes beyond our question for tonight, but it's still very important while we're here, we need to pick it up. How will they preach unless they are sent? How will they preach unless they are sent? Now, when I was growing up, we would have, I had a preacher that was a country guy from Arkansas that, he had a way of saying things. And he would refer to those men who I would call charlatans, those men who I would say have no business of being in the position of pastor or preacher, he would refer to them as mama called and daddy sent. Those preachers who are mama called and daddy sent. But there was this idea that a young man could say, I feel a call to ministry. I desire, and the Bible says that a desire for ministry is a good desire. You desire a good work. So a desire for ministry. But some would say, Well, a man who desires the office of pastor, teacher, desires a good work, and then they don't take anything else into consideration. And any man who says, I desire, or I feel like I want to be a preacher, I feel called, instantly, who can argue with that? If you feel called, well, you must be called. And if you feel called, then you're a preacher. And the problem is there is a measure that I would put into place here. Every preacher who thinks they are called to be a pastor, called to be a preacher, should ask themselves, have I ever been called to be a preacher? Have I ever been called by a church to be a preacher, to be a pastor? Have I ever been called by a church? And if the answer is no, then you have not been called. Now you may one day be called. If you have that desire, go to your church, go to your elders, talk to those men and say, I desire to be a preacher. And then the church can evaluate your gifting. The church can evaluate that calling. If you have the desire and the heart to be a pastor, and a church affirms that heart, that is how you can know you were called. So what we see here is how will they preach unless they are sent? There are too many who are not sent. There are too many who are not sent. And this is so important. Those who desire the office should be sent. Those who are sent should preach. Those who preach, when that preaching is met with the inward call of the Holy Spirit and the voice of Christ is heard, those elect sinners will believe in whom they heard and they will be saved. And this is working backwards through what we see here in Romans 10. This is so important. This is important for how we see missionaries sent. Oftentimes someone just says, I want to be a missionary. I think I want to go to the Congo. I think I want to go to Europe. I think I want to go to the Philippines. I think I want to go to wherever that place is. I think I want to go there. And they get their money together and they tell people I'm going to be a missionary. And then they go and do a work. they should be sent. There should be a church saying, we are sending you to do a mission work. And another thing that I take from Romans 10 is that this mission work, the mission field work should look like being a pastor of a church. Now that may have slight differences from here to there, but there are different things that they may do. But hold on, I gotta see what we're saying here. And I don't see it. Okay, maybe it's a question for later. I'll have to catch it in a minute. So we should send missionaries to go and preach the gospel, to go and preach the gospel. This past Sunday, we sang a song, Brother Jeff led us in a song that said, we need not clowns nor luring games to draw men unto you. That song was titled, We Have an All-Sufficient Word. We Have an All-Sufficient Word. We need not clowns or luring games. I had a friend once from another country who said he used to be so angered when he lived in his native country and Americans would send missionaries to come over and do puppet shows and come over and do clowns. And the clowns was what really got to him. He said, I went backstage to speak to those clowns and I told them, why are you here? We don't need clowns in this country. We need preachers. Why are you sending us clowns? Well, the world doesn't need clowns. The world doesn't need puppets. The world needs preachers. The world needs those who will preach the gospel and those who are sent to preach the gospel. There's much more that can be said here, but I feel like I'm rambling and I'm almost out of time. Now let me say this, there may be exceptions. When we talk about how can someone be saved, what we've stepped through is the ordinary means of grace the preaching of the word. And we say, well, the reading of the word, but especially the preaching. The preaching of the word is the ordinary means that God uses to dispense grace and draw sinners to repentance. This is the ordinary way. And that is not to say that there are not exceptions to the strictest view of what it is to preach the word. When a preacher preaches a sermon, he uses his own words to express the truth of God's revelation of Jesus Christ. He uses his own words to do that. And I'm not saying that as one Christian may talk to their neighbor over the fence or in the living room over coffee, that one Christian cannot speak and the word of God be communicated if they are, if they are able to communicate the word of God. We're not saying that that's impossible. What we are saying is that ordinarily, this is done through the preaching of the word. Let me say this. It is also important Before I leave that, if a Christian tells their lost neighbor or tells a lost friend or loved one or family member the gospel of Jesus Christ, it still requires the hearing of the inward call, that effectual call, hearing the voice of Christ. It still requires that because the scripture is very clear with that. The Bible is very clear, though, that the primary way that a sinner is awakened is by the preaching of the word of God by a duly, I've said this several times, a duly called and appointed preacher. And that's, I'm bringing that from Romans, how will they preach unless they are sent? So that's where I'm saying a called and sent preacher. And faith comes by hearing the word of God. I had something else that I was gonna say here, so let me see what it was. Preaching the word. I don't know, it went away, it's gone. So it'll come to me later, I guess. So we ask the question, can a person come to Christ without the use of scripture? And we would say no. As a matter of fact, we would say that a person cannot come to Christ unless they hear that effectual call, that inner effectual call, the voice of Christ himself, and primarily, ordinarily, mostly, that is done through the preaching of Holy Scripture by a duly called and sent preacher. I called this the means of evangelism. That's a term that I coined. I hear people use the terms means of growth. I've used the term means of evangelism. What we're really talking about is the means of grace, the ordinary means of grace. And you would be surprised, you may be surprised how many times as a pastor, someone comes to me and says, I've got this question. I've got this problem, I've got this deficiency, I've got this need. How many times is the answer the ordinary means of grace? Particularly on the Lord's day, word and sacrament. Word and the Lord's table. And baptism whenever we have a believer that we can baptize, a new believer that we can baptize. So I'm looking now for questions, comments, and I did open that up also to anybody that had a question about this past Sunday. Something to be said about people in your life telling you that you may be called because of your interest in scripture and theology. Those things simply make you a Christian, not necessarily the one who consider life and ministry. Amen, thank you, Cruz, for that. That's, you know what? Every young person, particularly in our circles, every young man who comes to Christ and takes an interest in scripture and they come to love the word, instantly people are gonna say, well, you might be called to preach. And I would always say that a young man should consider that call. Am I called? Am I gifted for this? But as Cruz pointed out, That just means that somebody loves the Lord. You can't say, I love Jesus and I don't love his word. If you are one of those people, I love Jesus, but I don't love his word. Listen. The Bible is the written word of God. Christ Jesus is the living word of God. We cannot separate the word from the word. We cannot separate Christ from his word. We who are his sheep hear his voice. We who are his sheep, it says, hear his word and obey his word. So that's very important for us to recognize there. I wish, because whatever I was going to say was important to me to say it, and then it forgot. It went away. this understanding of what it is to be called to be a preacher, to be sent either to pastor a church here locally in the United States, in our country, or to be sent to preach and to pastor in another country as a missionary. This This idea that we are presenting that I believe we are reading straight out of scripture is something that is not commonly seen in our day. It's not commonly seen among so many who just say, well, let's go put in water wells. Let's go start a coffee shop. I mentioned last week about some friends of ours who were missionaries sent by the Southern Baptist Convention to another country. And when they got their assignment, their assignment was that they were going to manage a coffee shop. Well, we know these people. We know them well. They may have died at this point, but we know these people. But the point is they could give us many conversations that they had. Oh, I remember talking to this guy or that girl or whatever. And those are good conversations. But what they needed is a preacher. They needed a preacher in that area to be preaching, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. It pleased God that by the foolishness of preaching, the gospel would go by the foolishness of preaching. So we come in and we say, well, I got a better idea. I've got a better, what if we do it this way? Well, God has established. and he already said in his word, he didn't say the awesomeness of preaching, he said the foolishness of preaching. I think that's to keep the preacher humble and to remind us all that it is not because we as humans are doing a great thing, it is because God works and the voice of Christ is heard and that's how his work is accomplished. I know there's a bit of a delay, I'm not seeing any questions posted here. Wait, okay. Please touch on why people think there's a prayer language. Audio and video is great for us. Okay. On why people think there is a prayer language. Some of that I would refer back to the sermon from Sunday and the things that we do. People come to a text, like 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and they instantly say, well, Paul must be speaking with tongues of men and angels. And if you don't read further, if you don't read that in its context and kind of get out what's there, then that would be an easy mistake to make. Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels. It's by reading further that we understand that Paul is making this superlative statement that goes beyond, though I have all knowledge, though I have though I know all mystery." So it's when we read further and we read that in its context that we realize what he's really saying there. But that is a fine example. And then when you see, well, if there's tons of men and of angels, then maybe that's what, if I've got to build a case for an angel language, that's when I'd go to say, Will the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, praise for us or intercedes for us? Maybe that is the Holy Spirit taking over your body and taking over your your speech and you speaking in an angelic language. So that's where people get that idea. But that is not what we see with a plain reading of scripture. I believe that 1 Corinthians 13 is the most confusing of all those passages that might be used to say that. If we lift that phrase out of its context and we only use that one verse, then I think that could be the most confusing one of the bunch. But if we read it in its context, it seems very clear that he's not even talking about men's languages and angels' languages. He's talking about love. He's making the case for love. So that's why people say that. But just to bring that up, people don't need much. Encouragement or much material to get off, to get off base, to get off of the truth. And I'll give you some examples. Why is it that so many people believe in purgatory? Show me a passage that even might talk about purgatory. There is none. Why is it that people believe that Mary is deity or that Mary was a perpetual virgin? There is no path. In other words, people don't have to have a text of scripture. And I've just talked to somebody Sunday after church about the, shall we call it a phenomenon, about the atrocity of slain in the spirit, those who are slain in the spirit, and what that does. And I have heard people use a passage of scripture to explain the being slain in the spirit. And the passage that they used was when Judas came to betray Jesus, and he comes with this cohort of those from the synagogue, those synagogue guards, and from those Roman soldiers. They come with this crowd of grown, burly men who were, Judas, a man who was not a believer in Jesus Christ, and those from the synagogue who were lost men, and those Romans who were lost men, and not even religious men, we don't believe. So when they come, they say, you know, we're seeking Jesus, and Jesus says, I am. I am He. I am. And when Jesus says, I am, the scripture tells us that that whole cohort was knocked backward by the power of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, even in his fleshly, in his human, taking on human flesh, he speaks, I am, and they are knocked back by the power of his words. And someone said, well, that is those men being slain in the spirit. That is so absurd. So here we have a verse that can be taken out of its context to cause confusion. The slain in the spirit thing that is so ripped out of its context and ripped out of all reason and logic to be causing confusion and false teaching. And then we have the other things about Mary and purgatory and those things that you don't even need scripture to come to false teaching and unreasonable things. So I don't know what to say about that, but there's delusion. And I wanna say this again, and I think I said this Sunday, When it comes to Charismaticism, Pentecostalism, when it comes to these terrible doctrines, I want to speak authoritatively because I want to speak from the word of God. I want to speak truth, but I also want to speak with tenderness, because I know those who are caught up in that, who are being deceived by those teachings. And it is, and I would say this, I know some who I truly believe love the Lord Jesus. I always ask this question of those who are in Pentecostal or in assemblies of God or in those charismatic places. I always ask questions to try to get to why do they believe they're going to be in heaven? And I hope that they can tell me they believe they're gonna be in heaven for this reason, that it's faith and repentance, and that it's not speaking in tongues, that it's not because they were slain in the spirit, and it's not because they had a holy laughter movement or a holy laughter experience. I hope to hear that it's faith and repentance, that they are trusting in Christ through faith and repentance. But I don't know what to tell you about where those things come from. That's not helpful at all, is it? That's somebody asking a question and me saying, I don't know. So I don't see any more questions coming through here. So we're going to wrap up. Thank you very much for tuning in, for being here. these passages that we're dealing with on Sunday morning. are so important, there's so much error that comes from these passages that has plagued and tormented the church of Jesus Christ in our day, that I feel like it is very important. And that's why we're spending Sundays working through these texts, and then we're spending Wednesdays kind of doubling down or working through in more detail. That's why it's very important for me to get your questions and your comments and your input. If there are things that we haven't covered that we need to, or things that we need to be more clear on, or just questions that you may have. And I think this is very important for us for right now. So I appreciate your tuning in and participating. As we close, let me remind you that there's hurricanes coming, that we have those who are, we have sister churches who are in the path of those hurricanes. We have those loved ones. I know we have family in Lake Charles. I know the Terrebonnes have family way down on the coast. We have those who we care about. So let's be in prayer for those that we love and care about and those that we don't during this time that they would be protected. Oh, Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you for your word. We pray that you would, as your word is preached, that you would speak to your people, that you would draw sinners to repentance, that you would sanctify. Saints, Lord, we need your word. It is, as our confession says, most necessary for us to come to Christ and most necessary for us to grow in Christ. So Lord, we thank you for the gift that your word is. We thank you that we have it in our day so readily available, printed copies just all over. We pray that you would help us to not neglect your word. that you would help us, as we love you, to love your word more and more. Lord, we pray for forgiveness where we have neglected the preaching of your word, the means of grace that you have given us. And we pray, Lord, that you would instill in us and in our children the desire and the passion conviction to be present, to be applying ourselves to the means of grace. God, as we think about those who are in the path of this storm, We pray for them. We pray for their protection. We pray that you would work in the midst of this. Lord, we know that there is much fear. We know that there is much anxiety. emotion involved, and we trust you. We know that your sovereign hand has not lost control, that you are still the all-powerful God, and we thank you that we can trust in you in that way, and we know that you are good. God, we pray that you would work as people are fearful, some that they may lose their lives. We pray that you would that you would let them be faced with their own mortality and that they would hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, that perhaps they would attend the church, that they would hear the preaching of the word of God. Lord, we pray for those in our families, those who live in that area. We pray for their protection. We pray for their salvation. Lord, some of those who are our kin in those areas are not believers, and we pray that you would draw them through this, through all that you are doing, that you will draw them to Jesus Christ and save them. God, we lift to you this coming Lord's Day services. God, we pray that you would even now begin to prepare our hearts to hear and to heed and to obey, to be not hearers only, but to be doers of your word. Lord, we thank you for all the good blessings, all the good gifts. We thank you for the rain that we received today. God, so many things that we could name that are gifts from your hand. God, things that we don't even recognize, things that we don't even notice that you give us because you are good. We give you thanks for your goodness to your people. Lord, keep us safe tonight as we travel, as we go to our homes, as we sleep. We pray for a good night's rest. We pray tomorrow that we would be productive as we work in this kingdom, in this world, and we pray, Lord, that we would never lose sight and that our minds would never be out of your kingdom and your focus and focused on our Savior. God, we pray these things for your kingdom's sake. In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you all very much for tuning in. We're going to now tune out.