Misplaced Zeal

[Music]

Hello and welcome to the McDonald Road

7th Adventist Church. Thank you so much

for joining us as part of our online

church family. I hope that you are

blessed by the music and the message

that we share with you today. We're so

glad once again that you are part of our

online church. No matter where you're

worshiping from, we're so glad that you

are able to worship with us here in

McDonald Road. And if you're in the

area, we would love for you to join us

in person. We have worship services at

8:50 a.m. and at 11:30 a.m. every

Sabbath here at the McDonald Road

Church. Once again, welcome to church.

So glad that you're here to worship with

us. Good morning, everyone.

Great to see you. It was like arriving

at camp meeting today. Cars parked out

in the field and and all of that. Really

good to see. It wasn't like that last

night, but maybe be like that tonight.

We appreciate you having us here. uh our

it is written team. Thank you for the

privilege of working alongside you. I

saw something in the bulletin. I'm going

to take exception to it but kindly. It

mentions the it is written meetings in

the bulletin. Uh these aren't the it is

written meetings. These the McDonald

road meetings we're helping out. So so

let's understand that what's happening

at night with Revelation today the

future unfolding is not it is written

wandering in and doing their thing.

You're doing your thing. We've been

invited to come alongside you and that's

a real privilege. So, the McDonald Road

meetings are happening right now. Uh

back tonight with our second

presentation. We'll be digging into

Bible prophecy and it will be it'll be

fun. Hey, I can't go any further without

thanking our children's choir. Now, I

understand they sing here with some

frequency. So, you are very blessed.

They did a great job as did the young

men who uh played music for us just a

moment ago. So, thank you to the

children's

choir and to whomver or whoever it is

responsible for uh teaching them and um

getting the best out of them. It's just

a great thing. You know, McDonald is a

great church. Just a great church. Four

poultry feeble amens. So, so the rest of

you, you're just

here. You're tolerating McDonald Road.

Gotta be tough. A great church. I

remember years ago whenever I searched

something on the internet that had

anything remotely to do with faith and

our faith. First response came from

McDonald. I thought you guys owned the

internet. Everything. McDonald Road.

What is this place? McDonald Road. And

now we know here we are. You're blessed

with a wonderful pastoral team,

outstanding lay leadership. This is this

is a place where God works and I am

privileged, very privileged to be here.

I'm just going to for the simple reason

that I can just give you a little report

on some of what's going on at it is

written. Next year we turn 70. Not me,

we the ministry turns 70 next

year. Um and we've had some fun along

the way. The ministry was begun. um as a

way of reaching more people with the

message of the three angels. That's uh

Elder Vanderman, George Vanderman, the

founder of It Is Written, has started

utilizing television to take the message

further than it had been taken before.

And now we have our own channel which is

viewed around the world. Um we take

mission trips to various places in the

world, do lots of evangelism, lots of

training. We have a major Spanish

language ministry. Pastor Robert Costa,

if I'm not mistaken,

uh, finishes his work in Bolivia today

where there've been, you know, I don't

know, I think somewhere like 5,000

people baptized. That's you say amen

when I say that. That's right.

Um, it's it's it's a wonderful place to

um to serve because we're we're about

sharing Jesus all of the time. Ethiopia

was a hoot. I don't know how many people

describe Ethiopia as a hoot, but it was

a hoot. Um, we were basically in two

locations. I was in Addis Ababa, the

call it Atlanta. It's it's it's a big

city. It's I mean, it's not Atlanta, but

it's a big city. Then about four or five

hours south, West Peppers was there. We

had a medical team up here. Wes had a

medical team down there. We were

preaching in both places, me and one and

Wes and the rest of the team in about 9

or 10. Um, we really we really saw some

thrilling things. Before we went, I

looked up some statistics and discovered

that an inordinate amount of Ethiopians

die from diarrheal diseases. You don't

need to be a doctor to understand some

of that. People are dying and and it's a

massive amount of people

uh largely because people there many of

them don't have access to clean water.

just don't. And so we took water filters

down. One water filter will keep one

family going for maybe 15 years turning

ghastly water into pure water. Uh filter

a million gallons of water. It's just

amazing. I was not there when Wes and a

couple of others

flew to, you know, I thought they'd

driven out in the country, but they flew

to the to the Jinka airport. If you look

at the map and you go way southwest,

South Sudan is just here, Kenya is just

there. They got off the plane in Jinka

and then drove another couple of hours

to a group of people that have no

religious faith. None. Nothing. They're

not Muslims. Lots of mus Muslims in

Ethiopia. They're not Christians. Lots

of Christians in Ethiopia. They're not

Orthodox

Christians. I was told that in Ethiopia,

everybody has some kind of faith in God.

whether you're Muslim or Orthodox or

Protestant or whatever. Evidently not

because Wes and his team went to a group

of people who had no faith,

nothing. And uh they took water filters

and demonstrated how these folks can now

drink clean water. The leader of the

tribal group said, "This is the first

time in my life I've ever tasted water

that didn't taste like mud or

manure.

Imagine you saying that. I mean, here

somebody said to me the other day, I buy

bottled water because I don't like the

taste of the water coming out of my tap.

So, we're spoiled for choice. You may

even buy that fancy pants water that

comes in glass bottles cuz we're spoiled

for choice there. There's no choice. We

were in places where people were

gathering water as the

animals did what animals do in the

water. People are washing clothing in

that same water. People are washing

themselves in that same water. They

drink that water. No wonder people die.

The man then went on to say, "We've had

many people come to our area to help us,

but they don't help us. They exploit us

and take our resources because I got

lots of resources."

He said, "This is the first time

anyone's come here just to help."

He said, 'We want to know more about

you. We want to give you 60 acres of

land so you can build a church school

and educate our children and teach us

more about this God you serve. I mean,

that's really powerful stuff. That's

really powerful. We had medical teams

that saw thousands and thousands of

people. Thousands. Our dentists saw

about a thousand people. Dr. Jacob from

Eyes for India was doing Eyes for

Ethiopia. He operated on about,00

people, lots of surgeries. He said that

for him the ones that touched his heart

the most was he had the opportunity to

operate on several children who'd never

seen

before. And their parents when they

realized that their children could now

see wept with joy. Imagine that. Imagine

that. And if our team hadn't gone, those

kids would never have had that treatment

and would likely in all 99.99%

likelihood would never have seen in

their lives. Never. Never. And it was

something correctable and reversible. So

we thank God for that. The evangelistic

meetings went on uh with enthusiasm. I

should tell you this story was not from

my site. Um where Wes was. A man brought

his brother who had been an atheist and

avowed atheist. And I'm hopeful I

remember the details correct. Uh if I

don't remember them correctly, then I

hope I make the story even better than

it actually was. Uh the man had been an

atheist for dozens uh for for not

dozens, yeah, dozens of years. His

brother said, "Come and hear this man

from America,

Wes." And the man came out. He sat

through it. He said, "Well, that was

fine, but there's no need for me to come

back. I don't believe any of that." The

man appealed to him. Come back one more

time. So he did just to satisfy his

brother. That night, Wes shared his

testimony about having been an

atheist and then learning the Bible and

coming to faith in Jesus. Now, I don't

know exactly what it was that that man

heard that night that really touched his

heart, but he said, he said, "All of my

questions have been answered. I now

believe there is a God, and I want to

know him more." He attended every

meeting through to the very end of the

series and was baptized and about 7

hours ago was busy shaking the hand of

the pastor at the door of the church. So

God's at work in miraculous ways. And

what this tells me isn't just that if

you go to

Ethiopia or some other far-flung place,

you get to see God working because God

is God and the human heart is the same

in Ethiopia as it is in East Tennessee.

So what it suggests to me is that if we

put God to the test and get busy doing

some work and share our faith and invite

people to come and hear the word of God,

he will do here just what he's doing

there. Can you say amen? Amen. Yeah.

because God is not dead. The spirit of

God is still at work and wonderful

things are happening. Uh I hope you will

take the opportunity to invite someone

to come to Revelation today. The future

unfolding. Now I know that somebody

going to say, "Well, I've heard it

before." Fine. But you know what I said?

Invite someone to come. Invite someone

to come because there's somebody that

you know. Listen, even if they say no,

you gave them an opportunity. Maybe next

time they'll come. Invite them to come

tonight. No, invite them tomorrow night.

No, invite them Thursday. Thus, I'll do

anything to get you off my case. And

they'll come on Thursday night. And

that'll be the night God really needs

them, wants them to be here. Um, there's

plenty of room in the church each night.

Um, a little more than I'm comfortable

with. So, I'm hopeful that you would at

the very least pray and then when God

puts something upon your heart that your

prayers will turn into action and you'll

invite somebody. If you can't find

somebody to join you, be here anyway

because you might bump into someone you

know that you can encourage or your

presence might be the encouragement that

somebody

needs. So, we'll be here tonight

starting at 6:30. It's going to be fun

and uh we'll get into the Bible. We'll

enjoy it. God will be here most. That

that's what's most important. And the

spirit of God will speak to our hearts.

Here's what I believe. I believe Jesus

is coming back soon. Can you say amen?

Amen. I believe the Bible is the

inspired word of God. Now, I I I'll put

this out there. In spite of whatever its

faults might be, in spite of whatever

its faults might be, I believe the

Seventh Day Adventist Church is the

remnant church of Bible prophecy.

Okay, not bad.

And I believe that we want to give

people the opportunity to know as much

truth as possible, as much as

possible. In Rome right now, the body of

an elderly man is lying in state and

soon people from around the world are

going to come and pay homage to him. I

don't know if the funeral will be

televised. My guess is that it will be.

I think these things usually are. You

can expect that the viewing audience

will be in the

billions. For a man who leads a church,

I say kindly but factually that's based

on tradition and not

truth. A man who leads a church that is

actively involved in countering the

Bible narrative and in pushing a

narrative that has no place in the

Bible. That's where the world is looking

right now. We've got to give people an

alternative. We've got to give people a

biblical alternative and let people know

that you can trust the Bible and know

God personally and experience salvation

and have peace in your life owing to the

connection that you have with Jesus. Um,

we're going to run out of time before

too long. So, while we have time, my

encouragement is that together we are

about our father's business and that we

lift high the cross and encourage people

to know Jesus while they still might.

All righty. Time for the closing

prayer. Let's make it the opening

prayer. Pray with me. Heavenly Father,

we're grateful to be here. Guide us in

your word, please. We are asking that

you would work a miracle of divine grace

by speaking through your word, by

speaking through a faulty human

instrument by touching uh uh maybe

hardened to some degree, jaded to some

degree, a sinful to every degree human

hearts. Encourage us. Bless us. We

believe there's a a heaven above. We

believe that Jesus is coming soon. We

believe that life in the arms of God, a

moment of that is better than an

eternity of life outside the arms of

God. So speak now, please. We pray. We

thank you in advance. We ask your

blessing in Jesus' name. Please say with

me,

"Amen." He's trying not to die. He's

trying not to die. Now you are too. I

understand that but not like him. His

name is Brian Johnson. He's about 50

years of age. He has been very

successful. He's a venture capitalist

these days to some degree. Uh raised a

Mormon, not a Mormon now. Originally

from Utah, now lives in California. He's

spending an awful lot of his money

trying not to die. You'll see him with a

t-shirt that says don't die, but make

documentaries about this man. He's been

on every podcast, every uh news

television broadcast. It seems he's

trying not to die. Surrounded himself

with 30 physicians and uh what do they

call these fellows? Oh, I've got the

word. Did I write a word

down? Physicians. Ah, there it is.

Regenerative medicine specialists. 30 of

them. It's costing him $2 million a

year. He eats a pile of vegetables. Uh

he goes to bed very early. He says sleep

is the main thing. He says that's the

big one. Sleep. Make sure he gets a lot

of sleep. He's doing all sorts of

things. is putting himself through all

kinds of uh

rigorous sort of conditions and exposing

himself to those cuz he wants to live

forever. Now, he's not going to live

forever outside of faith in Jesus, but

he wants to live forever. Now, having

said all of that, he's taking someone

says 54 pills a day, someone else said

100. So, whatever it is, it's a lot.

He's trending in the right direction.

For every year that somebody ages, he

ages 6 uh 64 years, meaning that he ages

7 and 1/2 months instead of a year.

That's pretty good. He has the skin of a

27y old, the fitness of an 18y old, the

heart of I think a 36 year old or

something like that. He's making great

progress. He really is. But the thing

is, he's going to die. He's not going to

live forever. He's not going to crack

the code. He might demonstrate how you

can live healthier

longer, but he isn't going to live

forever. I suspect he probably knows

that. I suspect he's enjoying the

notoriety, and I suspect that he is

rather committed to showing people how

they can get more out of life rather

than less. I I I'm I'm sure his motives

are noble to some degree, no

question. But he's going to

die. I don't know when we lived in be

90. That'd be great. 100. That'd be

good. Uh for all of our advances, people

aren't actually living longer. It's just

that more people to some degree are

living longer than they otherwise would.

We max out at about 114, 115. We're not

getting people living to

130. This man, Brian Johnson, is on a

quest to live forever. He's zealous

about it. He's like an evangelist for

it.

But he's going to die just like the rest

of

us. His

zeal for living forever is what we might

call misplaced

zeal. Misplaced zeal. There's a lot of

it around. I heard this story while I

was in Ethiopia. True story. Absolutely

true story. A fellow was visiting family

or friends in a village away from his

own. Found out that somebody in that

family had died. He said, "Well, I'm a

prophet." self-proclaimed prophet. I'm a

prophet. If you will open up his grave,

dig down to the casket, and let me get

inside the grave, I will raise him from

the dead. That's the promise he made.

Well, he must have been persuasive. And

I'm sure they wanted to see their family

member again. And so they said, "Give us

just a moment." And they dug down into

the grave all the way down to the casket

and revealed the casket. Well, our

friend got down into the c into the into

the grave, took the lid off the casket,

uh, unwrapped the man because he'd been

wrapped in sort of a shroud or grave

clothes. Now you can see the dead man's

face, and he gets down right next to

him. The dead man's first name was Ble.

He said,

"Billay, wake up." He shouted. He

shouted. I think he thought that if he

could shout loud enough, he'd wake the

man up. There's a crowd around the

grave. They're watching. They're

anxiously watching. Some of the family

members are weeping in anticipation that

they're going to see their loved one

stand up, get out of that casket, and I

don't know, come home to eat, but it

didn't work out. And the funniest thing

about watching the video, what's not

actually very funny is that after a

while, the man who first he got down by

his head and then he sort of straddled

the casket and was face to face with him

as though repositioning was really going

to make the difference. And he continued

to yell, "Billy, wake

up." How did that end, do you think?

Well, the man did not wake up. Uh some

of the family members continued to weep.

Others of the family members began

assaulting the false prophet. The police

had to get involved. Well, what were

they doing there so quick? Hey man, if

there's someone comes to a graveyard

near you claiming to be able to raise

the dead and digs up a casket,

everybody's going to be on alert. The

police were there save the man's bacon.

He was zealous. All right, this prophet,

well, this false

prophet, but his zeal was misplaced.

It was misplaced zeal. Which brings us

to Romans chapter 10. You can turn there

Romans 10 · chapter mention

in the Bible if you'd like to. Romans

Romans 10 · chapter mention

chapter

10. And we look here at this very

phenomenon of misplaced zeal. It's a

thing. And you know full well that in

looking at this today, I am not engaging

merely in a history lesson. I'm looking

at this because maybe some of us have

misplaced zeal. You have heard it said

this person's zeal was worthy of a

better cause. And it might be true for

some of us. Paul speaks to Israelites,

to Jews here. And if you are halfway

Christian at all, then you would see

yourself as part of God's end time

Israel. So what God says in Romans 10,

God is saying to us, he is asking us to

apply as we see fit.

Romans chapter 10 and verse 1. It starts

Romans 10 · chapter mention

with Paul saying, "Hang on, this driving

me nuts. I want to get it fixed

up." It starts with Paul

saying,

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer

to God for Israel is that they might be

saved." Well, how about that? That's a

generous prayer. I'm praying for my

fellow

Jews that they might be saved. Now, he

goes on to say, for I bear them record

that they have a zeal of

God. That sounds

good. But now that word will undo a

whole lot of things. Not according to

knowledge. They have a zeal of God, but

they're ignorant. They have a zeal of

God, but they don't know. They have a

zeal of God, but they've got it all

wrong. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a

stunning thing to say. You're in Rome.

You get a letter for from Paul. You're

reading this thing and he says, "There's

a whole bunch of people, my own people.

They're zealous, but they got it all

screwed up. What a thing to say. So, it

behooves us to dig into this a little

bit further and find out how these

people who were so right could be so

wrong. Zeal, zealos. It's closely

connected to a word that means heat. You

can imagine the inference there. Art in

embracing, pursuing, or defending

something. That's what zeal is as Paul

is talking about it right here in the

previous chapter, chapter nine. And you

know that when you read the Bible, you

really want to take things in context.

Paul states that he has, and I quote him

now, great heaviness and continual

sorrow in his heart with regards for

Israel. He describes them as his

kinsmen, his brethren according to the

flesh, his literal relatives. He says,

"I'm talking about my own people

here." And he does so in a certain

context. Now, if you know something at

all about the book of Romans, you know

that Romans early on, quite early on,

begins to to discuss justification by

faith. Paul is clear that the only way a

person may be saved is not by works of

the law but by faith. He uses the

example of Abraham in Romans chapter 4

Romans 4 · chapter mention

and states that Abraham was justified

was was pardoned by faith. Paul urges

people to be led by the spirit to

surrender their life to Jesus. He

explains in Romans 8 how there is no

condemnation to those who are in Christ

Jesus, who walk not according to the

flesh, but instead according to the

spirit. Paul hammers this point. If you

read the book of Romans, you understand

there's a lot of repetition. It's repeat

and enlarge, but it's repeat. It

enlarges, but it repeats. Paul

summarizes. Paul doubles back around.

Paul makes several of the same points

again and again and again. And I think

he had us in mind when he made those

points, knowing that down to the end of

time, we would want to get things

straight and not things sideways because

it'd be easy to get things

sideways. Paul explains the battle

between the spirit and the flesh.

Remember what he said in Romans? He

said, "What the law could not do in that

it was weak in the flesh." I believe

that's Romans 8

and:3. And so he's telling you the law

can't save you because of the weakness

of the flesh. It's really important. He

described that conflict in Romans

Romans 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7. I want to do certain things

but can't. Don't want to do certain

things but find myself doing them. And

he and he and he puts the blame right

where it ought to be. He says, "Who

shall deliver me from the body of this

death or from this body of death?"

That's what he says in Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

who shall deliver me from this body of

death? Then Romans nine talks about his

people, kinsmen. He says, "They which

are the children of the

flesh," I want you to stop and think

here because right now it's it's really

easy to do this as a seventh advenist

Christian because I'm talking about Jews

that lived 2,000 years ago. And so you

can check out and look down your

self-righteous

nose at a group of people who've not

even accepted Jesus as the

Messiah. Can't do that today because

he's speaking maybe to some of

us. He says, and let me find my place.

He says, "They which are the children of

the flesh, these are not the children of

God."

So, you had a Christian grandfather and

a Christian grandmother and you had a

Christian father and you had a Christian

mother and now you and you might say,

"I'm going to be saved by my

lineage." It's not how it works.

Baptized when I was eight or 18 or 28.

Been in the church for 30 or 40 years.

Congratulations. It's nice to see you

here bodily. That's good. I mean that.

But they which are the children of the

flesh, these are not the children of

God. Who

then, but the children of the

promise are counted for seed. We're

looking in Romans 9. That's verse 8.

He's repeating what he said in verse

six. They are not all

Israel which are of Israel.

This this may be a side note here and I

I hope I can keep you with me because

I'm making a point. This this background

I think is really necessary so that we

can nail it. We we live, I think, in a

very interesting time where much of

evangelical

Christianity has got it dead wrong when

it comes to

Israel. Now, what I'm about to say

should not be perceived as

anti-Israel. That's that's just lazy to

say that.

That's not what I

mean. Where Jews are considered to be

still the chosen people of God by so

many who call themselves Christian is

evidence that some folks aren't reading

their Bibles with both eyes

open. Much evangelical theology still

revolves around the nation of Israel as

though they are still the covenant

people of God today. They're

not. Now, if you will remember the 70we

prophecy in Daniel chapter 9, God said,

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

"7 weeks are determined upon your

people. I'm giving Israel 490 years to

come to

repentance." And we know that in year

487, they took the Savior and nailed him

to the cross. Yeah, sure. It wasn't

every Jew who did that. This was run by

the self-righteous, irreligious

religious leaders. I understand that.

But the leaders of Israel killed the

Christ. And again, don't label me as an

anti-semite. You get nowhere with

that. The point being, Israel ceased to

be the denominated children of God

approximately 2,000 years ago. Now,

that's not to say there's no advantage

to being Jewish. Paul even said, he

said, to the Jews who are committed the

oracles of God. He said, there's much

advantage. Who are the Israelites? to

whom pertainth the adoption and the

glory and the covenants and the giving

of the law and the service of God and

the promises whose are the fathers and

of whom as concerning the flesh Christ

came who is over all God blessed

forever. Amen. That's what Paul says.

But then he

says they are not all Israel who are of

Israel. He explains that the children of

the

promise are counted for seed.

Let's take this a little deeper. This

can get confusing for some, so hold on

tight. He makes his point by talking

about the experience of Abraham and

Sarah and then Isaac and Rebecca and

their sons,

uh, Jacob and

Esau. The eldest of the boys was Esau.

And typically, the eldest would receive

the birthright, not only a greater share

of the inheritance, but authority and

spiritual authority. The line ran

through this guy. So knowing the Messiah

would come, you might logically ex ass

assume Abraham, Isaac, Esau. But no.

Well, how does God get away with that?

How does God decide to break his own

rule? As it might be said, well, God

made an exception, and he said that the

birthright would go to Jacob, not Esau.

The elder would serve the younger. The

younger would have authority and through

the younger would come the

Messiah. Paul speaks about this and the

point that he makes is

that not that some are born saved and

some are born lost as some strangle

Romans 9 and force it to

say. Paul asks a challenging question.

Listen, I'll go to Romans 9:22. What if

Romans 9:22

God willing to show us wrath and to make

his power known endured with much long

suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to

destruction? And that he might make

known the riches of his glory on the

vessels of mercy which he had prepared

before to glory. And he explains

himself. I hope you'll

listen. Even

us whom he has called not of the Jews

only but also of the Gentiles. He quotes

Hosea. I will call them my people which

were not my people and her beloved which

was not beloved. It'll come to pass that

in the place where it was said to them,

you're not my people. There shall they

be called the children of the living

God. He quotes Isaiah next where Isaiah

said, "Though the number of the children

of Israel shall be as the sand of the

sea, a remnant shall be saved." Back to

that point. Then not all Israel who are

of Israel. That's a significant point.

Now, you know, we're going to get over

to this zeal that's not according to

knowledge. Paul lays the groundwork for

that by saying, "Not all Jews are Jews.

Not all Israelites are going to be

saved. Only a remnant of them will be

saved." Well, man, what are they doing

then? They're getting it so

wrong. And I think that's what relates

to us today. No, no, no. I take that

back. I know that that's what relates to

us

today. You have the larger

group, but only a sliver of them are

going to be saved.

That was the experience in ancient

times. And I don't

know, for I'm not the Holy

Spirit. But I

suspect that if God were to pull back

the curtain and show us how things are

going to play out, we might even learn

that the same thing is going to be true

again.

I read a book recently written by

somebody who survived the Rwanda

genocide. Now I know that some in here

just went, "Oh, yeah. Oh, that." And

someone else said, "What Rwanda

genocide?" They suggest maybe a million

people were killed in Rwanda when the

Hoous turned on the Tootszies. And I

think I've got that the right way

around. If I haven't, forgive me.

Here's what was so

interesting. You had people who one week

were in church

together. Let that sink

in. And the next week some of those

church

folks were

massacring others of those church

folks. How could that be?

Well, largely because, well, two things.

Mob mentality is just awful. You you'd

get caught up in something. You'll do

things you never thought imaginable. And

secondly, it's really easy to show up in

church and say, "God bless you and happy

Sabbath while

just possessing a veneer of Christianity

over an otherwise unconverted life."

When you get down to the book of

Revelation, we're not talking about a

group of saved people who knew the right

answers. For even if you do, that's not

enough for a person to get out of this

world and into the world to

come. Not all Israel are of

Israel. Not all Jews are real Jews. Come

on, let's apply that to us today.

Not all Christians are real Christians.

I'm not here to judge. Thank God I I I

can't tell the wheat from the tears. I

It's not easy for me to

differentiate. Not all believers are

real believers. Only a remnant will be

saved. It's kind of shocking, isn't it?

I don't know how you can read that and

then say Jews are God's people. I I

don't know how I don't know. But again,

I don't say that to take a dig at Jewish

people. I I don't mean that even

slightly. The answer is, of course, that

a person is only saved through faith in

Jesus. It's it's it's the only only way.

God raised up Israel to take the

knowledge of salvation to the world.

Imagine that. Imagine that. Surrounded

by pagans and heathens, God said, "I've

got a special job for you. Just do the

job and I'll bless you and prosper you.

All you got to do is turn in my

direction and be faithful. If the sun is

shining, just be faithful. If it's a

miserable day, just be faithful. If the

crops are growing, be faithful. If

they're not growing, be that's all God

do is welcome God into the very center

of your midst. It's pretty easy. And God

pledges to bless you and bless you

immensely. And yet, they couldn't do it.

Ultimately, the Messiah would come into

the world via

Israel. They had the greatest privilege

ever conferred upon a single group of

people in the history of the world. And

yet Paul says, "Only a remnant of Israel

will be saved." He quotes Isaiah. Isaiah

said, "Except the Lord of hosts had left

us a very small remnant, we would have

been as Sodom and would have been like

Gomorrah." That's Isaiah 1. That's how

Isaiah begins. You're thinking he was

despised. rejected a man, a man of

sorrows. Yes, sure. But that's 53. You

look in Romans uh Isaiah chapter 1.

Isaiah 1 · chapter mention

Boo. And Isaiah is being used by God to

call Israel out for its tremendous

wickedness. He

says, "What shall we say then?"

summarizing Romans

Romans 9:30

9:30. This is the leadup to 10 and the

zeal that the Gentiles which followed

not after righteousness have attained to

righteousness. Shocking thought for Jews

for many of

them. But Paul is saying Gentiles

possess righteousness even the

righteousness which is of faith. But

Israel, which followed after the law of

righteousness, has not attained to the

law of righteousness. Why? Because they

sought it not by

faith, but as it were, by the works of

the law. They stumbled at the stumbling

stone. And then he quotes a very famous

verse of the Bible. And then we're back

in Romans 10. Brethren, my heart's

desire and prayer to God for Israel is

that they might be saved. I bear them

record that they have a zeal of

God, but not according to

knowledge. Where are they missing the

mark, these people? What's going wrong?

We looked at it. We'll look at it again.

Listen. For they being ignorant of God's

righteousness and going about to

establish their own

righteousness. I'm trying to tell you

this applies to us

today. For they being ignorant of God's

righteousness, and going about to

establish their own

righteousness, have not submitted

themselves to the righteousness of

God. For Christ is the end of the law

for

righteousness to everyone that believes.

This was not new news. In saying this,

Paul quoted Leviticus 18 and Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 30 · chapter mention

chapter 30. And you're thinking,

Leviticus, Deuteronomy, that's all law

and sacrifices. Evidently not. It's also

righteousness by faith. He says in verse

9, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth

the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in

your heart that God raised him from the

dead, you will be saved." And then he

reiterates that point by quoting from

Isaiah, Joel, and

Nahm. He's finding righteousness by

faith right through the Old Testament.

And he's saying the problem with these

people is that they are achieving, no,

they are attempting righteousness by the

law and not righteousness by faith.

Now, I think that if you're old enough,

you might remember a time where in this

church, and I don't mean this actual

congregation, but speaking more broadly,

we had no shortage of people who were

attempting righteousness by the law.

Things had to be the right length, the

right color, the right amount, the right

this, the right day, the right that, and

then you might have the assurance of

salvation. I want to tell you something.

You start talking to elderly Seventh Day

Adventists and ask them about the

assurance of salvation and many of them

will

squirm. And if you're elderly, you may

be the exception to the rule. Sorry, I

shouldn't have looked at you when I said

that. You may be the exception to the

rule. You may probably because you hear

the preaching of Pastor Hton week after

week and he's managed to straighten you

out. But you go find an elderly saint

and ask them how sure they are that

they're going to go to heaven and they

will barely make eye contact with you.

many many many many times. And that's

because we chose a pathway and I

generalize horrifically that salvation

was by works or by the works of the law.

Not that works aren't good. We'll be

judged by them. They are that important.

But it's not how salvation comes. Now,

now you might agree with me or you might

not. It seems like the pendulum has

swung in the other direction. And some

of us have run so far from the legalism

of yesterday year that we've embraced a

squishy liberalism that says you can be

saved merely by naming the name of

Jesus. Don't quite work like that

either. So here you've got a group of

people who are endeavoring to achieve

salvation by the law. Now they had zeal

back then. They were zealous to defend

their traditions. People like Paul, the

fellow who wrote this book, he was

zealous enough that he went all the way

to Damascus in order to find Christians,

drag them back to Jerusalem. You know

how far it is to Damascus? In a straight

line, 150 mi straight line. But he

wouldn't go no straight line. If you

were to drive it today, it'd take you

four and a half or 5 hours. And and and

and when Paul went there, he did not

take highway one out of Jerusalem going

east. He did not get on that road

connecting with connecting it with

highway 90 and going north till he gets

to that Roman bridge crossing the Herod

stream or the Herod Creek getting on

that thing going east into Jordan and

then north. He didn't do any of that.

Fellow was on a horse at

best. Might have walked a lot of the way

and he was going all the way to

Damascus. Man, you got to have some

spite about you to go all that way to

drag some people back home so they could

be persecuted.

He was zealous, man. He was zealous. He

had commitment. He had he had he had

drive. But his zeal was not according to

knowledge. It was according to malice.

You understand? Zeal is a good thing

when it's employed appropriately. But

when it's not, you are at best spinning

your wheels and at worst making a

terrible mess of things. Could anyone, I

wonder, be guilty of that here?

I'll just let that question sit for a

moment. Directing your energies, your

spiritual energies in a futile

experience.

Zealous

about truth.

Except sometimes our zeal for truth

makes us argumentative and

Christless. Zealous about church

standards, which I think we could

probably do with a little more zeal

about, but zealous about that. That zeal

can end up being offensive to people.

You can drive people away because you

haven't figured out how to temper your

zeal for the things that you think are

important. Zealous about obedience. Now,

you can see we're talking about a

delicate balance here. A delicate

balance.

what you want to do or not want to

do. You want your

zeal to take you to the place where you

are more focused on

Christ than what kind of Christian you

ought to be. No, that's

good. But if Jesus isn't

first, you are trying to break into the

kingdom of heaven by climbing over the

walls around the new Jerusalem.

If you have Jesus, you can walk right

through the gates of pearl and take your

place out there on the sea of glass. If

you are starting as a Christian on

getting right by working on the outside,

you'll never clean the inside. But if

you start on the inside, Jesus will

clean the inside and the outside. Paul

said Christ is the end of the law for

righteousness to everyone who believes.

He didn't say Jesus is the end of the

law. He didn't say that. He said he's

the end of the law for

righteousness. You don't need to go

through a whole bunch of hoops that are

laws and works and this and that in

order to possess righteousness.

You receive righteousness by faith in

Jesus Christ. And then after that, he's

going to continue to turn your life and

mold your life and shape your life so

that your life becomes more and more and

more like Jesus. But you, if you can't

put your head down on your pillow

tonight and say, "I'm a saved child of

God. I'm going to go to heaven. I have

the gift of salvation." Then I'm asking

you, what in the world are you doing

here?

What's going on in your life? Now, maybe

that that you're just putting on a this

is all a facade and you're living a

double life. Okay, I get it. Well, I'm

glad you're here. One day Jesus will

crack that hard shell. I hope. But if

you're a somewhat genuine Christian, you

have no assurance. If you're a somewhat

genuine Christian and you do not have

the ability to say, "I possess the

righteousness of Christ," this is a

crisis for you right now.

You are Israel but not Israel because

somehow you're going about this thing

the wrong way. Here's what Paul says.

Christ is the end of the law for

righteousness. Righteousness comes from

Jesus. We receive that by faith. When

you say, "I believe Jesus is my savior

and I surrender my life to him." You

possess everlasting life. It's that

simple. What about the law? The law will

point out your sin and direct you to

Jesus who is your only hope. And when

you open up your heart to Jesus, he will

live his life in you and he will guide

you more and more and more and more in

harmony with his

law. You keep all the rules, whatever

the rules might be. You get all the

externals right as well. You grow in

that. But that's not where you started.

You started with Jesus and you said,

"Jesus, fill my heart. Jesus changed my

life. Jesus, make me a Christian. Paul

is all about the law. Romans 3:31, do we

Romans 3:31

make void the law through faith? God

forbid, he said, we establish the law.

Paul says he wouldn't have known sin,

lust in particular, without the law. He

called the law holy and just and good.

We want it. You don't want to throw the

baby or the bathwater out. Certainly

don't want to throw them both

out. But we got to understand this thing

in the right order when it comes to

salvation. You

cannot may not will not experience

salvation. You won't pass from death to

life. You won't be

forgiven by the law. Law is good, but

you're misunderstanding its function. We

are saved by grace alone through faith

alone in Christ alone. Amen. That's

how I want you to think about something.

Paul said not a single Jew was going to

be saved who doesn't find their

righteousness in

Jesus. He said what the law could not

do, I'm repeating this verse in that it

was weak through the

flesh. We have to have the righteousness

of Jesus because we're weak. What

happens though? We realize our weakness

and we run. Sometimes we say, "I'm too

bad. I'm too weak. I'm too sinful.

Nope. Prodigal son came home. He was a

bad one. Came home. Father welcomed him.

Spirit was drawing him the whole time.

God wasn't just waiting for the boy to

return. Holy Spirit was speaking to his

heart. Drawing him back. Drawing him

back. Boy responded to the drawing of

God. God welcomes the bad ones. If

you're a bad one, then God bless you.

God's about to make you a saved one if

you'll allow him.

The Lord defeats us every time because

we are

weak. If you were to go to Israel today,

go to Jerusalem and witness the

extremely sincere Jewish believers, you

would maybe understand Paul's point a

little better. You see the Orthodox who

identify so strongly with God and

scripture and his call to Israel. You

would see their fervent worship. You'd

witness their intense prayers. You'd

hear them sing from the depths of their

being. You'd see some of them dancing

with joy, dancing with joy about their

faith in Christ and their hope in

God. And yet Paul says they followed

after the law of

righteousness, but haven't attained to

the law of righteousness.

sincere, convinced they're

right, but they're fighting something

immovable, something that cannot be

defeated. They're fighting the weakness

of the flesh, the only remedy for which

is the righteousness of Christ brought

to

us via the inddwelling presence of the

Holy Spirit.

All zeal he says no

knowledge reminds me of people who are

passionate about the truth but don't

share the

truth or

zeal no

knowledge people who are passionate

about the Bible but they're

devils because that knowledge hasn't

transformed them love the truth not the

light of the world

though claim to love God yet behind

closed doors they are

monsters. Now I'm sure this would not be

true here in this congregation because

you just look too

nice. But in any other congregation

there's bound to be at least one

couple where one of the couple is

dreading having to go home with the

other one because that one knows what

the other one is really like.

In most congregations, there are

children who wish they could stay at

church because it would be better than

going home with their parents where life

is a living

hell. We can't have that. We must be

better than that. We must be Christians.

And we may be, not by trying harder, but

by surrendering more deeply and by

praying earnestly that God would change

us into what we ought to be. I know it's

a problem for us today because I've read

Revelation chapter 3 where God says,

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

"You think you're okay, but what you

fail to recognize is that you're

wretched, miserable, poor,

blind, and

naked." We have 28 fundamental beliefs

that tell us we have the truth. We love

that, but are we sharing

that? Did we ever tell somebody? Did we

decide to do something about it? We have

zeal enough to know that we are

spiritually privileged. You know what I

would go on record as

saying? We as a group of believers, as a

group of Christians, know more about the

truth of the

Bible than any other group of Christian

believers in

existence. I don't say that proudly,

even though I'm kind of proud of it.

That's just a

fact. But is it changing us? Is it

making us more like Jesus? Is

it? You know something? When they do end

up televising the Pope's

funeral, some of us will look at that

and we'll say, "Oh, look at what those

Catholics

believe. Oh, look at the thing. Listen

to the things they're saying. Look at

the hideous things they've got on the

wall of that

cathedral." And then we'll meet our

Roman Catholic neighbors and say, "Far

out they're Christians. Boy, they love

God. They might not have all the truth

of the Bible." I say that as a former

Catholic, but wow, they got Jesus living

in their

hearts. So, we got to be careful. We

have so much and that so much was given

to us so that we could be so much or

that Jesus could be so much in

us. Our zeal doesn't always translate to

appropriate

activity. Now, we have an opportunity to

do something about inviting people to

know Jesus. Right here, this

congregation is conducting an

evangelistic outreach. It was your

idea. And so I suspect it must have come

from you because there are people here

in the congregation who are saying, "I

got to invite my neighbor. I want to

invite my colleague. There's somebody at

work. There's somebody at the office.

There's somebody across the fence.

There's somebody upstairs. There's

somebody in the home. Wouldn't this be a

great opportunity to take our zeal and

put that zeal into practice? Surely that

would be good. Surely that would be

good."

Now, there's a different form of zeal as

well. And I probably don't need to

mention this, but I will. The internet

has bred a whole

new strata of zealots in the church who

have made it their duty to tell the

entire world what they believe to be the

sins of the church.

I can tell you with certainty that while

I cannot prescribe your duty, reading

that kind of criticism will make you

more of a critic, not more of a saint.

It will make you more like the devil and

more like the devils who pedal that

criticism.

Your zeal must be zeal for Christ, for

righteousness, for truth, zeal for the

character of Jesus, zeal for holiness,

zeal for souls, zeal for evangelism,

zeal for getting the message out while

we can, zeal for unity. Did you hear me?

Zeal for unity. Zeal for unity. And as

you look around the church, have mercy,

there's a faction here and a faction

there and a fragment there and an

offshoot there. I thought it was bad

when I came in a church decades ago.

It's worse now. If Jesus doesn't come

back soon, there won't be much for him

to come back

for. And we can't have that.

when when some faction rises up that

ends up fighting against the larger

church, you know who that you know where

that's

originated. You know that when it's

about disunityity and not unity, it

isn't going to end well. It just isn't.

When you contend for your rights, when

you're contending for your peculiar

belief, the result is disunityity.

That's zeal, but not according to

knowledge. It's misplaced zeal when you

have your own agenda, your own hobby

horse, your own particular little

theological bias that you want to tell

everybody

about. If we would direct that zeal

towards the Bible, towards faith in

Jesus, towards real honest prayer,

towards saying, "God, just make me what

you can make me because without you, I'm

a mess. Jesus, you're coming back soon."

And we've got to take the message to the

world. And it's our privilege to live

that message. I tell you, if we get our

focus right, church will be a new place.

The world will be a new world. Your life

will be a new life. The kingdom of

heaven will be filled with people that

today might not be expected to be

there. They had a zeal of God, but not

according to knowledge. Why? Because

they thought that their works, their

efforts, their own righteousness, that

would do. And Paul gives us the entire

book of Romans to say it don't work that

way. We must have faith in Jesus. Faith

in Jesus. Faith in Jesus. God is working

and he wants to work in your heart. I'll

share another story from Ethiopia with

you. This happened uh in the leadup to

our meetings and during our meetings

there. And I wish I could tell you

exactly where, but I don't know. It was

out in the country

somewhere. And I share this story with

you to tell you this. God is at work. He

wants to work in your heart. Wants to

work in your church. Wants to work in

your home. wants to work through you in

powerful ways. And and and if we are go

going about this focusing on the outside

and we're hanging on to our little

edgginess and we're being uh

disagreeable instead of agreeable, we're

missing the blessing and frustrating the

grace of God to a great degree. So a man

had decided that he would buy cattle,

wanted to provide for his family. It was

a business move, Muslim man, and he

saved and saved and saved to buy some

cattle. How many I do not know. But the

day came that he was going to buy the

cattle. He went to the bank and withdrew

the money that was necessary. Lot of

money. Uh in Ethiopia cattle are not

cheap. Not at all. Lot of money. He went

to the bank and he withdrew the money

and he said, "This is it. I'm on the way

to buy my

cows." And as he went on his way, he was

robbed. Somebody took all of that money

and his dream was dashed, destroyed. He

became disconulate, turned to drinking,

became a hopeless drunk. His family

wanted little or nothing to do with him.

The mosque kicked him out. And he got to

the place that he said, "I'm going to

end my life." Now, I know this isn't

child's play, and so I want to treat

this with some delicateness. He went off

to actually end his own life and was in

the process of doing that. He would have

been moments away from death. He heard a

voice. I can't tell you if it was

audible, but it seemed audible to him.

The voice said, "Yes, you can do

that. But if you do that, your family

will mourn you for a while, and then

they'll get over you and forget you, and

you'll just be gone."

Or what you might do is go into

town and find the Seventh Day Adventist

church and talk to the pastor and find

out what he has for you. I don't know if

this man had ever heard of a Seventh Day

Adventist. And this is a 100% true

story. I don't even know. I don't know

why he would have because he was a

Muslim, not a Christian. And while

people interact in society, there are

still some

distance there is still some distance

between Muslims and

Christians. So he emerged from from

where he was and stopped what he was

doing and went into town and started to

ask around where do I find the Seventh

Day

Adventist? He was directed to the

church. I cannot tell you if the pastor

was there at the time, but I do know

that he was connected with the

pastor and they started to study the

Bible and he learned that there was hope

in Jesus and he learned that God could

transform his life and he discovered

that there was power in the word of God.

He put down the alcohol and never picked

it up again. His family welcomed him

back. The mosque came to him and the

mosque said, "We want you back. Come

back to the mosque." And he said, "Nope,

too late for that." This is what he

said. I have found the truth of God.

That's what he said. And he became a

Christian. And the pastor said, "We have

an evangelistic series coming up

sometime very soon. We have some people

coming here from the United States. How

about you come to that meeting and

listen to the the rest of the message

and be baptized?" Man said, "I would

love to do that." And that's what he

did. And it would have been a week ago

today that that man was baptized and

became officially your brother in

Christ.

A hopeless drunk whose life had bottomed

out. And what did the pastor say to him?

Just believe. He didn't say, "Come back

to me when you've quit your drinking."

He didn't say, "Come back to me when

you've stopped being a Muslim." He

didn't say, "Come back to me when you've

got it all figured out and you're living

a righteous life." He welcomed that man

as a sinner. And that man became

righteous through faith in Jesus.

I believe there's a lot of zeal in this

room. Aror, commitment, love for God,

respect for the Bible, belief in the

truth, respect for the

law. Zeal is good unless it's not zeal

according to knowledge. In which case,

that zeal just turns around and condemns

you in the judgment.

Friend of God, if we will take hold of

Jesus today and start with Christ in the

heart and believe by faith that we are

the children of God. Believe that

because of Calvary, our sins are

forgiven. Truly believe we can do

nothing to earn God's favor, but we can

accept that favor and allow it to

transform our lives. It'll be a new day.

Not for everybody because thank God

there are many people who are a long way

down that road already.

But what about the rest of us? We have a

message to take to the world. And that

message cannot be divorced from our

experience. That message is not merely a

theory. That message is a

person. And we are to preach that sermon

by the way we allow Jesus to work and

live in our

lives. My hope and prayer is that today

you can look at the Bible and the gospel

with new eyes. maybe renewed

eyes, but maybe today you can look into

your life and identify something and

say, "I've been going about this the

wrong way. I've got to start with Jesus.

I've been going about this the wrong

way. I've been a little self-righteous.

I've been going about this the wrong

way. I thought that my works and deeds

were what brought me favor with God when

I now know that's not

true. Accepting Jesus brings me into the

favor that God has for my life." And

then as I allow him to, God will lift me

up and raise me up and grow me up to be

everything that he wants me to be. It's

a privilege to be a Seventh Day

Adventist. A privilege to be a

Christian. Jesus is coming back

soon. My prayer for you and me is that

we might be zealous according to

knowledge that Jesus might fully have

our hearts. Can you say amen to that? We

got to pray to that end. Pray with me

now. Father in

heaven, we are grateful today for the

simplicity of the

gospel that we can believe, just

believe and know that through faith in

Jesus, he is our Lord and Savior and we

are children of God.

Now, we understand that belief doesn't

stop with some kind

of basic recognition of the plan of

salvation. We're not believing until our

hearts are involved. We're not believing

truly until we're fully

surrendered. So, let us be as

surrendered as we can be right now and

then continue to take us deeper and

deeper and deeper. Don't let us be so

zealous that we're

ignorant. Don't let us be so

zealous that we are offensive. Don't let

us be so

right that we're all

wrong. Father, we choose today to

believe that Calvary was for us. That in

heaven right now, we have an advocate

who is for us. that one day soon because

we accept what happened at Calvary,

Jesus will come back for

us, let that day come soon and let us be

ready. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I

take that

back. Let that day come

soon. And thank you that through faith

in Jesus, we are now ready. Keep us we

pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us online

here at McDonald Road. We have many

people all over the world that join us

for worship here and you're kind of our

digital church members. Um we value you

and you're part of our church even

though you're from you're from all over

the world as you join and watch our

church online. I want to give you the

opportunity to participate in ministry

here at McDonald Road and uh be a part

of the ministry and mission that happens

here. And even though you may be far

away, you can still participate by by

donating and giving to our church. Uh

participating in helping us reach our

monthly goals with our church budget,

reaching out um with the evangelism

efforts that we have going on here. And

you can participate even by returning

your tithe here at McDonald Road. And

you can do all of those things on our

website at

mrcsda.org. And so we want to invite you

to not only participate by watching on,

but also by giving and participating

through that ministry as well and

returning tithes and offerings to to a

church and make this your digital home

church online if you're not able to go

to a local church. Once again, thank you

so much for joining us and being a part

of our online church. We value you and

want to have as many opportunities to

participate in ministry as possible. God

bless each one of you.

[Music]