Let There Be Light - Pastor Jonathan Shelley | Stedfast Baptist Church

Christ. Amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse 27. The Bible says, And the Lord said,

And the Moses write thou these words. For after the tenor of these words, I have made a covenant

with thee and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He did

neither eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant,

the 10 commandments. And it came to pass when Moses came down from outside. And I

with the two tablets or tables of testimony in Moses' hand. When he came down from the

Mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

So this is in a setting where Moses has taken the children of Israel out of Egypt. And

they've come on to Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb. And this is where they are to

sacrifice unto the Lord as this is the whole point of why they were leaving

Egypt. They were leaving Egypt to sacrifice unto the Lord and serve God. And Moses kind

of leaves the whole congregation and goes up unto this Mount, speaks and communes with

God. God gives him the 10 commandments. But in the process of doing so, the children

of Israel decide to ask Aaron, Hey, we don't know what happened to Moses. Will you

go ahead and just make us a golden calf or make us a God? And Aaron's like, All

right, give me all your gold. He takes the gold, throws it into the fire and

out comes this calf, as Aaron describes this. And God tells Moses, he says, Hey,

they've corrupted themselves. They're going after other gods. You need to go down

there. And Moses goes down there. And in his first journey down, he ends up

breaking the 10 commandments. He basically breaks the two tables of

stone. And he just gets really mad at, of course, the children of Israel. And

even though he's mad at them, he just, he advocated to God to not kill them, to

not destroy them all. And so he kind of like an intercessor. And what's cool

about this, this whole story that seems kind of crazy is how it's a gospel

story, because Moses is picturing how Jesus Christ came the first time. And

of course, the law being broken is kind of a picture of how Jesus Christ is

going to take the punishment, the penalty for our sins. And of course, he

ends up destroying that golden calf. He's throws it into the water and makes

them drink it and stuff like that. But then he ascends back up. And so you kind

of have this first encounter with Moses is kind of like the first appearing

of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's foreshadowing a lot of things about

Christ. In X is 34, we're reading about the second time that Moses is

writing the 10 commandments. And he's going to come back down to the

children of Israel, but now his face is shining. And of course, that's the

symbol, the fact that when Jesus Christ returns, that he's going to be in

glory and that he's going to be in brightness. But, but notice he comes

back with the 10 commandments. He didn't like, it's not like, Oh, the

10 commandments don't matter anymore. No, the 10 commandments still matter.

And Christ is coming with them. And so, you know, we have a lot of

different things that we could talk about from the symbolism here. But

we also should just talk about like what's going on with Moses

specifically as a person. So there's a lot of cool spiritual metaphors

here and symbolism and foreshadowing of the gospel message, but also with

Moses himself that spending time with God through God's word. Notice in

verse 27 again, write down these words like he's dealing with the word

of God directly. It causes his face to shine brightly. And what we

understand from a Christian perspective is that we are going to shine

brightly when we are exposing ourselves to the words of God. It's the

words of God that are going to cause us to shine brightly in this

world. And that's what ends up cleaning us up. And that's what

causes us to have the brightness of the Lord. Of course, the Bible

tells us that God also passed by Moses and that Moses saw his

back parts. And I believe that that is literal. I believe that

God really did show himself unto Moses and that Moses really did get

put in the cleft of the rock and that God really did put his hand over

Moses face and the Moses really did see his back parts. Whereas some

crazy people just be like, it's all a metaphor. And I'm like, look,

I get that this whole scene has metaphors and I get that this

has symbolism and I understand this prophecy of the Lord Jesus

Christ. But if it has that, then you need to explain to me

what it is. And the problem is they can't explain what that

actually means because it's not a metaphor. It's just literal. God

showed up. He appeared unto Moses. Moses really did see him.

Moses really did experience him. And again, that's partly why

his face is shining is he's experiencing God in person. He's

experiencing God through the Word of God. And for us, we're

never going to see God the Father, you know, on this side of

our equation, you know, until we get to heaven, we're not

going to have that particular experience. But we can still see

God and experience God through the Word of God. And while our

face will never shine physically, like some kind of a moon

reflecting the sun type of experience, we can still shine

in a spiritual way and a metaphoric way like Moses was

shining here. And Moses is shining because of the Word of

God because of the Bible. And that's what causes its

brilliance. Brilliance is a word for just basically how

vibrant or how strong the glory is of a light or how bright the

light is. And so Moses is shining so brightly that according

to the text, when he comes back down, people can't even look

at him. It says in verse 30, and when Aaron and all the

children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face

shown and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses

called unto them and Aaron and all the rulers of the

congregation returned to him and Moses talked with them. And

afterward, all the children of Israel came nigh and he gave

them in commandment all the Lord had spoken with him in

Mount Sinai until Moses had done speaking with them. He put a

veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord

to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out

and he came out and speaking to the children of

Israel, that which he was commanded and the children

of Israel saw the face of Moses that the skin of Moses

face shown and Moses put the veil upon his face again until

he went in to speak with him. You know, it's funny, like

Moses, according to the Bible, it's real explicit. Like his

skin is shining. It's like, why would his skin be shining

because he, quote, saw a metaphor? You know, it makes

sense that he actually saw God. And that's why his face

is shining because of the brightness and brilliance

of having seen God. And of course, it's a unique

experience. Now, God makes it abundantly clear. No man

shall see his face and live. No one is seeing God the

Father's face save Jesus Christ, which was in the

bosom of the Father. So nobody has been able to see

God the Father's face yet. And I believe the Bible is

basically explaining to us through the entire Bible

that it's because we couldn't handle it. Like if we

were to see such a thing, we would just die. And

that's not the point of this part of our creation.

This is not the point of our stories. This is all

die. Right? God the Father could just reveal his face

to the whole world and we would just all die. Well,

then what's the point in that? You know, and you kind

of wonder like, does that have something to do with

the fact that we have to have faith, right? You

have to have faith to be born again. And then

those that are born again, one day we'll see the

Father's face and live. But if God the Father

just showed his face to us, we could not live,

we could not survive, could not handle it. And

an example of we have this in our world is the

sun. Like I get that you could technically look

at the sun for a very brief moment. But let's be

honest, you can't really handle just looking

directly at the sun. It's so brilliant. It's so

bright. It's very difficult to look directly at

it. And a lot of times people need to do special

glasses or to see it through a photograph or a

video or they're just crazy and they want to

hurt their eyes or something. And so they're

just trying to look real quick. But, you

know, we experience a bright light, so bright

that you can hardly even look at it. And it's the

sun, which interestingly enough, we have tons

of lights in this world. It's like the sun seems

to be the brightest. It's not even the closest.

But God is even more brilliant than the sun

himself. And that the sun, while it has its

brilliance, if we were to look at God, it would

be so bright. It'd be so magnificent. It'd be

something that we just could not handle. And

so, of course, God shields himself from us

being just slaughtered through his own

brilliance in the same way that Moses is

shielding himself so that people aren't just

blinded by his light. And, you know, here's

something that's really annoying me, annoys me

when people shine a bright light in your face.

You know, it used to be when I was in like

junior high high school. I don't know that

there's this interesting phenomenon. I think

it says it kind of came out. It's called

laser pointers. Who knows what I'm talking

about? Like laser pointers became like a rage

when I was in school. But some people were

using this to try and like blind people.

Like they would, they would do it at people's

eyes and try to like cause them damage or

try to harm them. You know, and especially

if you're driving in a vehicle or doing

something like this, it's a really dangerous,

really hazardous vehicles have what's

called bright lights. So usually if you

push the thing forward, it's not just the

headlights. It's like an extra bright. You

know, it's kind of a rude, jerky

thing to have your brights on when you're

passing other vehicles because a lot of

times they can't see. And you know, I

experienced that in Barbados. So I'll

just be honest. All right. You're driving

at night and it's like they would turn

their brights off as soon as I passed

them. And I was like, well, thank you.

Thanks for doing that. It's like, it's

like bright. You're like, you can't see

and then just like right before you're

about to pass them, they'd flick them

off and you'd be like, oh, thanks for

that. But, you know, it's not very

fun to be driving and all of a sudden

just be blinded by someone's bright

lights or some kind of a light.

You know, that's why in the car, you

don't want to have a bunch of lights on

at night inside the vehicle because it

makes visibility, you know, difficult.

It makes you hard to see outside of

the car. And so, you know, these

things that we experience in our real

life are to be representative of

what this world is like and what the

gospel is like and what the Bible is

trying to explain. Now, I want to

go to another passage, go to Second

Corinthians, chapter number four, Second

Corinthians, chapter number four and

let's kind of compare because the New

Testament talks about this story in

Second Corinthians, chapter number four

and gives us some explanation of

what was going on in that particular

passage. You know, when we're

trying to figure out what the Old

Testament meant or when we're trying

to figure out what the symbolism is

or what the prophecy was of an Old

Testament passage, you know it's the

safest way to figure out if you're

right. The New Testament just tells you

exactly what it was. You know, it's

funny to me, like, people try to come

up to me a lot of times and try to

tell me about the symbolism in the

Old Testament and, you know, I think

that occasionally sometimes people are

a little overzealous in what they're

trying to figure out in the text, but

let me just give you a tip of where

you can always be safe. When the New

Testament just tells you exactly what

the symbolism was, you're on really

safe ground of that's what it really

meant. And, you know, we should

probably prioritize the symbolism that

the New Testament actually gives you

over just your crazy idea. And, you

know, if you can't come up with your

doctrine anywhere else in the Bible

other than your just speculation in

the symbolism, it's probably not very

safe. If it's taught everywhere

else in the Bible, it's probably

pretty safe, okay? So, you know,

just some tips on finding prophecy in

the Bible, but here in 2nd Corinthians

chapter four, it just tells

explicitly what was going on in this

story. Look what it says here in

verse number, let's just get a little

bit of context. Look what it says here

in verse number six, who also have

made us able ministers of the New

Testament, not of the letter, but of

the Spirit for the letter killeth, but

the Spirit give it life, but of

the ministration of death written in

engraving and stones was glorious

so that the children of Israel could

not steadfastly behold the face of

Moses for the glory of his

countenance, which glory was to be

done away. How shall not the

ministration of the Spirit be

rather glorious? So, in this

epistle, the Apostle Paul is trying

to explain to the Corinthians that

whenever Moses was given this job,

this service of God, this ministry

of God of the Old Testament, that

it was such an awesome thing that

it was so glorious that his face

literally shown having received

the Ten Commandments, having received

the Old Testament law, having

received the tables of stone from God

and that his face shown so brightly

that the children of Israel couldn't

even look at him. And it's saying

if that is how glorious the Old

Testament was, and it's going to be

done away with, he's saying if the

Old Testament was to even be done

away with, it wasn't even a

permanent thing, it wasn't even an

everlasting thing, then how much

more should this new ministry,

this new service of God, this

new Testament be in glory

than the Old Testament?

In a sense, it should outshine

this Old Testament. It should be

more glorious. It should be more

brilliant because it's not

only, you know, coming on the

heels of some such a thing, it's

not only delivered by a better

person than Moses, Jesus, but

it's also an everlasting

Testament. It's an everlasting

gospel is what the Bible is

teaching us. And so it should

be more glorious.

In verse nine, for if the

ministration of condemnation be

glory, much more

that the ministration of

righteousness exceed in glory.

For even that, which was made

glorious, had no glory in this

respect by reason of the glory

that excelleth.

Now, what does it mean in

verse 10 when it said

that it had no glory

in this respect?

What that means is, is that

the Old Testament law had no

glory and getting anyone saved.

No one got saved by the Old

Testament. No one got saved

by following the law.

There was never a dispensation

where people were saved by

faith and works.

There will never be a

dispensation where people are

saved by faith and works.

Salvation is only ever been

by faith in Jesus Christ.

And so even though the Old

Testament was glorious, it had

no glory in respect of

salvation. It had no glory in

respect of taking someone to

heaven. All it did was point to

salvation. All it did was point

us to the one that could save

us and point to the fact that

we can't be saved by our works

to point to the failure of

humanity. Because obviously the

law is good. The law is

spiritual, but I am carnal.

And what the law proves to me

is that I am carnal.

And what it proves to me is I

am flesh. And what it proves to

me is that the flesh is weak.

And what it proves is that I

cannot be saved because my

flesh isn't good enough to get

to heaven for all of sinned

and come short of the glory of

God. And that's what the law

proves beyond a shadow of a

doubt. But it never saved

anyone. It doesn't it doesn't

do anything but explain to us

that we need salvation.

And of course that's why the

second Testament is the

better Testament. That's why

it has more glory. That's why

we appeal to the Gospel

because that's what actually

saves us. He says in verse

12, seeing then that we have

such hope, we use great

plainness of speech. So we

have the hope of the Gospel

and not as Moses, which put

a veil over his face that the

children of Israel could not

steadfastly look to the end

of that which is abolished.

Now the Old Testament is

abolished. I mean, this is

what the Bible says. If the

Old Testament is not

abolished, then what is

abolished? I mean, something

was abolished. I mean, he

brought up something's

abolished. And notice it is

abolished. It's not like

about to be abolished. It's

already been abolished. But

their minds are blinded for

until this day your man of

the same veil and taken

away in the reading of the

Old Testament, which veil

is done away in Christ.

Notice that the veil is

taken away in Christ. You can

understand the Old

Testament when you get

saved. Now, I would say

this, understand by

meaning the big point.

Understand by meaning what

it takes to be saved.

Understand by meaning what

the spiritual meaning of

the text was. Everyone can

understand the carnal

truths found in the Old

Testament. Everyone can

understand the facts of the

Old Testament. Everyone can

understand the history of the

Old Testament. But there

was the big point. There was

the meaning. There's the

spiritual significance of

the Old Testament, which is

hidden, is not understood

until you realize, oh, this

is all about Jesus Christ.

That seed of the woman is

about Jesus Christ. Oh, these

stories about Joseph are

about Jesus Christ. Oh, this

story about Moses is about

Jesus Christ. Oh, Joshua

leading them into the

Promised Land is about Jesus

Christ. Just all the law

and all the prophets, to

him give all, to him give

witness all the law and the

prophets, it's only through

Jesus Christ's name that we're

saved. Right? And I'm

paraphrasing that. But of

course, according to the

Bible, the law and the

prophets and the Old

Testament, everything is

giving witness to the Lord

Jesus Christ. It's not to

the law saving us. It's

not pointing back to that.

It's pointing to the Gospel

message. And the Bible

makes it clear that the

Jews by and large, the

children of Israel by and

large, they are kind of like

seeing Moses with a veil when

it comes to the Gospel.

They obviously they see

Moses. They can see him as

a person. They know he's

there. And according to the

Bible, they even believe

that they trust in Moses,

but they don't really know

who Moses is. And if they

had known who Moses was,

then they would know who

Jesus was. Because when you

know Moses, you know

Jesus, when you believe

Moses, you believe

Jesus. And so there's

all this symbolism here.

There's all this metaphor

here. And when they read

Moses, they don't understand

it. Nevertheless, when their

hearts turn to the Lord,

that veil is taken away.

Now, the Lord is that

spirit and where the

spirit of the Lord is

there is liberty. But we

all with open face

beholding as in a glass

the glory of the Lord are

changed into the same image

from glory to glory, even

as by the spirit of the

Lord. So Moses, he

spoke with the Lord. He

understood who the Lord

was. He understood the

words of God. And so his

face shown. And then the

Bible is saying in verse

18, but we all with open

face beholding. So just as

Moses took the veil off when

he communed with God and

his face shown, we in the

New Testament, we have the

veil off as well. And we

commune with God. And so

that our faces should also

shine in the same way

that Moses face shown. So

while that is a literal

story in the Old Testament,

we are to take the spiritual

application and apply it to

ourselves and that when we

get saved, it's like our

face is shining in a

spiritual way. But what did

Moses have to do? He had

to hide it under that veil

because they couldn't

handle it. They couldn't

take it. And what does

this kind of symbolize?

Well, obviously not

everybody likes the Gospel.

Can't do they? Not

everybody can handle the

Gospel. Some people get

very offended by the Gospel

and whenever you allow it to

shine brightly, people are

going to get upset at you

shining that bright light at

them. Just like I get

upset when someone shines

brights at me, just like I

can't really look at the

sun, it's irritating. You

know what? The Gospel is

irritating to those that

don't want to receive it.

The Gospel is irritating to

those that don't want to

believe it. The Gospel is

too difficult to look at

for this crowd. But should

we just stop sharing the

Gospel? No, of course not.

Verse 1 of chapter 4,

therefore seeing we have

this ministry, as we receive

mercy, we faint not, but

ever renounce the hidden

things of dishonesty, not

walking in craftiness

nor handling the word of God

deceitfully, but by

manifestation of the truth

committing ourselves to

every man's conscience

in the sight of God. But

if our Gospel be hid, it's

hid to them that are lost

and whom the God of this

world have blinded the

minds of them which

believe not lest the light

of the glorious Gospel of

Christ, who is the image of

God, should shine under

them. For we preach not

ourselves, but Christ Jesus,

the Lord, and ourselves,

your servants, for Jesus'

sake. For God, who

commanded the light to

shine out of darkness,

hath shined in our hearts

to give the light of the

knowledge of the glory of

God in the face of

Jesus Christ. But we

have this treasure in

earthen vessels that the

excellency of the power

may be of God and not

of us. So Moses obviously

coming down from the

mount and his face lighting

up like a superhero or

something was a unique

experience. And it would

be kind of easy to think

like, hey, this guy is

special. Moses is special.

And of course, even

unsaved people believe

Moses is special. You

could look at Jews today,

they all look up to

Moses in theory. You

have Islam and Muslims

looking up to Moses, even

though they're not even

saved. And you know, if

we walked around looking

like superheroes, being

just all bright and

shining and our faces

just glow, you know,

you just walk, he's like,

who's the guy that's

glowing? Right? I mean,

it would kind of take

away from the message

being about Jesus and

it would give a little

bit of that glory to us,

wouldn't it? But see,

that's what the Bible

is saying that, hey,

we're an earthen, we're

an earthen vessel, right?

It says here in verse 7,

but we have this treasure

in earthen vessels

that the excellency of

the power may be of God

and not of us. So we're

walking around in the New

Testament and we look no

different. We're not

special. We don't look

like superheroes. In

fact, according to other

parts of Corinthians

and the first Corinthians

and stuff, it's saying

that many of us are not

even mighty in the flesh.

So there's nothing

necessarily special about

us in a human capacity.

We're not superheroes.

We're not Titans.

We're not Gladiators.

We're not Hercules.

But what we do have

is we have the gospel

inside of us and we can

allow that to shine

and we can get people saved.

And then all that treasure

is seen for what it is.

It's the glory of God.

It's not about us.

We all go share

the exact same message.

I mean, if you go

with us, soul winning,

and you go with me

and you go with Brother Diego

and Brother Sam and Brother Ben

and Brother Marcel

and all the people in the room,

like you're going to be like,

man, that was really similar.

It's going to be pretty much

the same thing.

It's going to be, wow,

that was the same

illustrations and the same

talking points and the same

verses and the same outline.

Now, again, if we were

to be like going

with each other,

we kind of start to

notice like, hey,

there's a little nuance

here or this guy emphasizes

a point a little differently

or this guy uses an extra verse.

This guy doesn't, whatever.

Obviously, we're not saying

it's verbatim,

but in essence, it's the same.

Why? Because it's not about us.

It's about this

and it's about shining

that bright light of the gospel.

And that's what gets people saved.

But if it's hid,

well, then people aren't going to get saved.

Notice the only way to get saved

is for this light to shine.

This is the message.

But what I want to focus on

this morning is in verse six,

it says for God,

who commanded the light to shine.

God commanded the light to shine.

Now, this is a reference to

and pointing to the beginning

of the Bible,

the creation story itself.

Let's go back to Genesis chapter one

and let's focus in on this point here.

God commanded the light to shine.

Look at Genesis chapter one, verse one.

In the beginning,

God created the heaven and the earth

and the earth was without form and void

and darkness was upon the face of the deep

and the spirit of God moved

upon the face of the waters.

And God said,

let there be light

and there was light.

And God saw the light that was good

and God divided the light from the darkness

and God called the light day

and the darkness he called night

and the evening in the morning

or the first day.

So in the very beginning of the Bible,

the first story of the Bible,

as expounded on by second Corinthians chapter number four,

we have the gospel message.

Right.

The gospel is at the very beginning

and it's at the very end.

It's everywhere in between.

And so the whole Bible is about the gospel

and it's about this imagery.

It's about this metaphor of light and darkness.

And of course it has a spiritual understanding

but what we have to understand

is that the world is in darkness.

And I have three simple points

that we can see from this little passage here

that we're gonna emphasize throughout the sermon,

but you know, number one,

we see that the world is in darkness.

And verse two, it says,

the earth was without form and void.

Notice this and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

So everything's dark.

There's only darkness.

What does this symbolize?

What is this picture?

This is picturing the same thing that we realized

when we got and preached the gospel

that for all have sinned

and come short of the glory of God

and that there is no salvation

from being good from our works,

from anything that we do,

and that the whole world is just sinful.

The whole world is evil.

The whole world is a complete darkness.

There is no one saving themselves

when we use this word darkness,

obviously we could mean it in a very literal sense

and we could mean it in a metaphoric sense.

And we think about something being dark.

We think about it being evil, being wicked,

doing that which is wrong.

And there's a lot of darkness in this world.

Yay, the whole world, life and darkness as the Bible says.

But what happens is a light shines

and what happens is the light,

you know, if it's bright enough,

you don't even have any darkness.

You know what I mean?

Think about it, the sun comes out

and it's all the darkness is gone.

And in the same way, it's kind of like you get saved

when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

the light shines and all the darkness is gone.

Now again, we're talking about

in our spirit, in our new man,

when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

you've been made righteous

and it's like the lights are turned on everywhere

and now there's no darkness.

The problem is we're still having this flash cloaking us

and we still have the darkness from the flash

and we still have the evil from the flash

and we still have the lust of the flash

and we have to shed that to then be righteous perfectly

and body, soul and spirit.

But in your spirit, man,

when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

the lights come on and there's no more darkness.

Notice how it starts, it starts dark

and then it becomes light.

We are all sinners, but then we get saved

and of course we have that gospel message

and of course you think about it,

there's a problem, then there's the solution.

The problem is the darkness,

the solution is the light

and of course this is why the day starts dark

and then ends with light.

Of course the world reverses this

and we kind of like end in darkness, don't we now?

We kind of end in darkness and it's confusing

but God's creation order was actually

to have the day start in the night

and then in the midpoint the light comes on

and then it ends with the light.

And if you kind of think about that's even how

the world works with, you know,

the world was dark for 4,000 years,

then in the middle you have Jesus Christ come,

the lights come on and then of course

we're gonna have the light of the gospel forever.

We get saved in the same way.

There's so much symbolism here

but notice that God is commanding

as 2 Corinthians 4 words it,

or demanding or stating in verse three

and God said, let there be light.

God is commanding that there's light.

God is declaring that there should be light.

And so you know what God is saying?

God is saying we need the gospel.

God is declaring the gospel.

God is declaring salvation

and he's saying let there be light.

And of course this could be picturing,

you know, the father telling the son

to come to the world to die for the sins of the world.

And of course what does the Bible say?

And there was light.

And just as the father instructed the son

to be the savior of the world,

the son obeyed the father

and he is the light of this world.

He is the one that's shining brightly

and giving us this light

and giving us this gospel message.

And of course we then can realize

that God doesn't want the whole world to be in darkness.

He wants there to be light

because he wants people to be saved.

And he doesn't want just some people to be saved.

He wants everyone to be saved.

And just like the son lights the whole world,

the gospel is for all people

and it's for all nations

and everyone in darkness gets to experience the light

and it's their response to that light

that is gonna determine their eternity.

God is not for ordained people to just die and go to hell

and that they have no chance.

No, God gives them light in all kinds of ways

and they have an opportunity to respond to that light.

Now think about it, you know, in this world,

we don't get light 24 seven.

There's some parts of the world on the polar caps

that parts of the year, they can have a 24 hour sun.

Sorry, Flat Earth, there is it's a globe, all right?

And other parts of the world is dark.

But you know, there's nowhere in the world

that you can be that you're just always light

or just always dark throughout the year.

There'll be some portion that's light

and some portion that's day.

And you know, to me,

that kind of just reflects the reality of this world

that not everybody gets the same chances,

not everybody gets the same exposure to the light,

but they all got exposure to the light.

And it's how you respond when you get that exposure.

And you know, us that are saved,

Jesus Christ has already come and gone.

It's for us to be that light, shining that light.

And God is commanding us.

God is demanding us to be that light

and to let our light shine in this world

and to not allow it to be hidden.

He's saying, hey, if it's hidden,

well it's gonna be only hidden to the lost.

And then they're not gonna be saved.

And of course, the devil doesn't want people to see our light,

but you know what?

We are to let our light shine

just like Moses is having his face shine.

We are to go into this world

and to let our light shine

so that people could be saved.

Gov'e would do Matthew chapter number five.

So the three points that we have this morning

that we can look at and talk about over and over

is that, hey, there's darkness,

but God commanded the light

and then we having that light

are supposed to let our light shine.

And we realize that this is how the world is.

The world is full of darkness.

God is demanding the light

and we are to let our light shine.

Now let's get practical about this.

What does this mean?

No one is getting saved

apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God demanding and commanding us

to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we're supposed to let our light shine

by going out and preaching the gospel to the whole world.

It's that simple.

And look, that is the whole message of the Bible.

That's the whole point of the Bible.

That's the whole point of this church.

That should be the whole point of our mission.

That is the first works.

That is the first love.

It's for us to do what God said

and for there to let there be light.

You know, if I were to title my sermon,

I would just title it that.

Let there be light.

God is demanding and God is commanding

there to be light in this world.

And you know who he's talking to?

He's talking to you and he's talking to me

and he's saying, you as a Christian,

you need to preach the gospel.

Let there be light.

We are commanded and instructed

to be a light into this world

and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And you know what's sad?

It's how many Christians warp this and twist this

into something like just being a do-gooder.

But why don't we just let

the text tell us what these things mean?

Why don't we go to 2 Corinthians chapter four

and see there was all about the gospel

and preaching the gospel and that if our gospel be hid,

it's hid to them that are lost

instead of twisting it into something that it's not.

And they're just being like, oh, you know,

I, when I went through Starbucks,

I bought the guy's coffee behind me.

Look, you go to church today,

that's basically the message.

Just share your light.

Well, you know, here's the problem with that.

Drinking coffee doesn't get you to heaven.

And you know, a lot of times that they'll do that

and they're not even leaving like a tract or anything,

even a tract,

which I don't think the tract's gonna save them either,

but I'm just saying like,

there's not even like a glimmer of,

it could have been a Muslim that left them a coffee.

It could have been an atheist that left them a coffee.

And look, I'm not saying,

don't do random acts of kindness.

I'm not even saying that that's a bad thing.

It's not a bad thing.

But you know what it is?

It's not what the Bible's saying here.

It's a random act of kindness.

And you know what God is not commanding

and demanding us do random acts of kindness.

You know what God is commanding and demanding us do?

Preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is what he's commanding and demanding us to do.

And look, I'm not against you doing other things

that are nice.

Be the nicest person you wanna be.

But you know what?

You better make sure you're preaching the gospel.

Because you are commanded and demanded to do that.

And look, that is what the Bible is saying

when it's saying, being the light.

Look at Matthew chapter number five, verse 14.

He are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither have been light a candle and put it under a bushel

but on a candlestick and they give it light

and all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men

that they may see your good works

and glorify your father, which is in heaven.

You know, in the Christian life,

a lot of things that we should do

should be done not to be seen of men,

not to be a braggart, not to, you know, lift ourselves up.

The Bible is crystal clear on this.

And of course we should always be humble.

We shouldn't really ever try to brag about ourselves

or be prideful about ourselves.

But the Bible is demanding and commanding us

to let our light shine.

And it's saying, hey, let people see your good works.

I mean, it's making it abundantly clear here

that we're supposed to cause people to see.

It says, let your light shine,

so shine before men that they may see your good works.

So the Bible is saying we want people to see something.

There's something that as a Christian people should see.

And I'll explain it, what it is, it's called soul winning.

It's like, oh, why do you guys always make a big deal

about soul winning?

Why are you guys always posting pictures of soul winning?

Why are you guys always making videos about soul winning?

Why are you making a documentary about soul winning?

Why is it that you go on a mission strip

and you have people get up and talk about

all the soul winning they did on the mission strip?

Why is it that you're constantly posting numbers

about soul winning?

You know what we're trying to do?

We're trying to let our light shine

so that men can see our works

and they can glorify God the Father.

Look, if you're mad about our soul winning,

you know what you're doing?

You're basically trying to take glory away from God.

You know, you're mad at God the Father.

Because there's a thing,

I can't get anybody saved as a magical person or something.

All I do is preach this book

and you know what this book does is it gets people saved.

So if people are getting saved

by me preaching the gospel,

you know who's getting the glory?

God is, Jesus Christ is getting that glory.

So then why in the world do you mad at me

for then telling everybody about it,

making a big deal about it?

Because you know what, I'm just glorifying God.

I'm just glorifying Jesus Christ.

Oh wow, you guys count numbers

and you guys are talking about so many.

Yeah, because I love God,

because I love the Lord Jesus Christ,

because we're supposed to let our light shine.

Why would I want to go on a mission strip

and never tell anybody about it,

never share a picture,

just hide it all under a bushel

and just be like, we want an mission strip,

people got saved.

I don't want to talk about it.

I don't want anybody encouraged or excited

or try to do it.

In fact, I'm not even gonna say that anymore.

We're just gonna go on mission strips

and never tell anybody.

We're not even, the church won't even know.

Nothing in the bulletin, no one even knew.

How would we have 71 people go?

It's like, oh, you didn't do a mission strip to our Beatles?

Oh, I did.

Why didn't you say anything?

Well, I'm not gonna talk about it.

Not gonna bring it up.

I don't want to promote it.

I don't want to tell people

that if they spend all this money,

they might actually get someone saved.

I don't want to tell people

that it's actually receptive.

I don't want to talk about it.

I mean, why do you talk about numbers?

How about, because when people see numbers,

they're like, I want to go there.

Oh yeah, yeah.

It's like, oh man, you think people are just like

wanting to go to all these destinations

just because they just sound so cool?

And look, I'm not gonna rag on any place

because it's all subjective.

But here's the thing,

some people like some parts of the world more than others.

And one man's destination of a vacation

would be another man's worst nightmare

and vice versa.

We were talking to a pastor that's in Barbados

and he was saying, he grew up in fundamental Baptist churches

and went to Bible college and was in this whole circuit.

And he said, they have this song that they sing.

And I don't know what, I can't even sing it for you,

but it's called Don't Send Me to Africa.

And he's just saying they would all sing this song

because they were just all making a little light

of a joke of they don't want to be a missionary

to Africa because to them it's just like scary or something.

But again, I'm sure there's some people that love Africa.

I'm sure that some people would love to visit Africa.

But you know, just to be honest,

like I bet a lot of people,

I'm just using this as a stigma,

sorry if you love Africa.

I'm just using the stigma

is that a lot of people may never want to go there.

But you know, if they heard like,

oh wow, hundreds of people are getting saved

or oh, look at all the works you're doing

or if you take this sacrifice,

you can see a lot of people say,

like it could end up motivating people to still go

even though they don't really have

a carnal desire to be there.

They don't want to spend the money

and the time and the effort to get out there.

But you know, by you not making a big deal

about the spiritual investment

or the opportunity to get people saved there,

you're really just taking away from people getting saved

and from the light being shown.

And you say, oh, that area is really dark.

Well, then that means that my light's gonna shine

a little bit brighter, isn't it?

Right.

You know, why is it that we like to talk

about these dark places

because hey, that's where the light shines really bright.

In fact, sometimes we're like,

we like those neighborhoods being dark,

you know what I mean?

Because it's really receptive.

Hey, look, we love going out and preaching the gospel.

And it's not because we're special,

it's because the gospel special.

The gospel special and that light shines brightly.

And you know, by talking about the numbers,

by talking about the people,

by talking about the spiritual aspects,

it motivates people to make decisions

they wouldn't do normally.

They wouldn't do for a carnal reason.

They would do it just because.

Now again, sometimes you get the best of both worlds.

Look, I mean, honestly, the Caribbean,

in my opinion, is probably kind of almost

the best of both worlds

because there's a lot of good reasons to visit.

There's a lot of cool reasons to visit those areas.

And it's pretty close for Americans.

It's relatively inexpensive.

It's not necessarily that different

than American life in a lot of ways.

And so they get to do a lot of receptive soul winning.

And then on top of that,

they get to enjoy a lot of aspects of it.

And you know what?

I don't think God's saying like,

you can't enjoy soul winning.

You can't enjoy preaching the gospel.

But you know what?

We're demanded to do it, period.

And we're demanded to do it to all nations.

We're supposed to go everywhere

and preach in the gospel to every creature.

While I would say let's put a flag up of every country,

obviously we're a limited church.

We're limited resources, limited manpower.

We're trying to hit the countries that we seem

to have the best opportunities,

the most economical, the most receptive,

the most free options.

And so we're just trying to exercise our abilities

and the opportunities that God's given us.

And you know, we need other churches to step up

and to go into other countries

and go into other nations and to preach the gospel.

And hopefully by us talking about our mission strips

and talking about what steadfast,

baddest church is accomplishing,

it can encourage other churches and other groups

and other Christians to go to other nations

and other countries and visit and preach the gospel.

And I don't even care if they go to all of ours.

If they're like, well, I just wanna go where they went

because it sounds cool, then praise God.

I've heard of churches going to countries

that we kind of pioneered and went to first.

And I'm like, praise God.

You know, I don't wanna,

if I showed up at the Bahamas the next time I visit

and every single person saved,

I'm not gonna be disappointed.

The only thing I'll be disappointed in

is that I didn't go more or sooner

and participate even more.

But I'm not gonna be mad that people are saved

and I'm gonna say, hey, let's go somewhere else now.

Let's go preach the gospel somewhere else

because you know, at the end of the day,

we're supposed to let the light shine.

You know, I'm not offended by lights being on.

I don't need to be the only one that has light.

I like coming in this room.

I like all the lights working.

All the lights in here are nice.

It's kind of weird if there's like

half the sections turned off or something.

You know, they kind of want all the lights on.

It helps out, it aids.

And look, you could turn one of these lights on

and the whole room would have enough light

to kind of get around.

But you know, some of the corners,

some of the edges wouldn't be as bright.

You know, when they're all on though,

it's just a lot brighter.

You know, we're not trying to be

a non-the-nom church where we turn all the lights off.

Isn't that interesting?

Isn't that interesting?

Fundamental Baptist churches are some

of the brightest places you've ever been in.

And non-the-nom churches are some of the darkest places

you've ever been in.

It's probably a coincidence, isn't it?

Right?

Go visit a Catholic church.

It's really dark and creepy and musty.

And they've got like naked babies

on the ceilings and stuff like this.

It's like, I wonder if there's any symbolism here

or metaphors for them being dark creepy pedophiles.

I mean, you think that's a coincidence?

You think it's a coincidence that the Catholic churches

are dark, creepy, musty.

The dudes are wearing dresses

and they got naked babies on the wall

and then they're filled with predators and pedophiles.

You go to the non-the-nom church

and there's a smoke machine.

There's smoking lights.

They have people coming in on trapeze artists

and stuff like this.

They have roller coasters and whatever

nonsense is going on.

And then it's like, this place is a doctrinal train wreck.

You visit a fundamental Baptist church.

It'll be bright.

It'll be clean.

There'll be flags on the wall virtually every country.

I mean, almost every independent

fundamental Baptist church they've ever gone to,

they have virtually a flag of every country everywhere.

Now again, because literal reality

often matches spiritual reality,

they'll also put a stupid Israel flag on the stage, okay?

And doesn't that kind of represent

they're screwed up on that issue?

It's like, hey, they need to take that flag

and some people would rip it.

Hey, if they want to preach the gospel

to people in Israel, I can't get mad at them for that.

And I know that hair lips some people in this room

or whatever, but at the end of the day,

it shouldn't be more prominent though.

Obviously, I mean, some people put an American flag up there.

I don't think it should be more prominent.

Oh, MAGA, or just being so Republican

or something like that.

You know, hey, I love America.

I bleed red, white, and blue.

I love our heritage.

I don't ever want to leave.

I think this is the best country in the world.

You're never gonna change my mind on that.

But you know, at the end of the day,

we should care about all the nations

and we should love all the nations.

And to God, the nations are nothing.

He doesn't really care.

He's not a respecter of persons and anything like that.

But I'll be honest, I love my country

just like Paul loved the Jews

and just like Paul loved Israel and he loved his people.

I love my people and I love America

and I love this country.

I was born in New York.

Hey, you know what?

I love this place and I chose Texas.

I thought he was gonna tell you something about me.

But you know, at the end of the day, I love my nation.

But you know, we need to have our light shining brightly

in this whole world.

Because the whole world is lying in darkness, folks.

And even our own areas are in darkness.

And sometimes the physical reality

matches the spiritual reality of a place.

Go over to John chapter one, go to John chapter one.

We are demanded to preach the gospel.

Because why?

Because the whole world is lying in darkness

and there's no other hope, there's no other salvation.

We are their hope.

We are their opportunity for people to be saved.

Oh, why, you know, why are you guys going out?

Why are you guys preaching the gospel?

It doesn't make a difference.

No, you doing nothing doesn't make a difference.

Well, if they're gonna get saved,

God would figure out a way.

Yeah, his way is me going out

and preaching them the gospel.

That's the way.

That's how it's gonna happen.

In John one, the Bible says in verse two,

well, let's just read the first verse might as well.

In the beginning was the word of the word is with God

and the word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things are made by him

and without him was not anything made that was made.

And him was life

and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness

and the darkness comprehended it not.

Notice again, the gospel of John

is signaling the first section of the Bible.

And what is the gospel of John

pretty much the most famous for is being

the book that gets people saved.

The whole point of the gospel of John is to get people saved.

It's the most beloved gospel in many ways.

It's the most read gospel in many ways.

It's the most distributed gospel in many ways.

I mean, for most parts of this world,

they just have a John Romans

or the most famous verse, John 316.

Why?

Because this book is about the gospel,

it's about the light.

And you know what God commanded, let there be light.

And so God is spreading the book of John

all over this world so that people could be saved.

Even if you don't have Leviticus and Exodus

and Daniel and all these other books,

it doesn't matter if you have John, you can get saved.

And you know, it's not a coincidence

that John was the disciple in whom Jesus loved

that was so close to him

and that was leaning on his breast

and someone that was used greatly

by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And not only that,

it gives us the book of Revelation

and all the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You know, there's a reason why these things are true.

And it's that light that's shining in darkness.

Notice the darkness doesn't understand it.

It says there was a man sent from God,

his name was John,

the same came for a witness

to bear witness of that light

or of the light that all men through him might believe.

He was not that light

but was sent to bear witness of that light.

Hey, we are to be like John the Baptist

who's being mentioned here.

Don't confuse the Johns,

as the John the author of the apostle

and as the John the Baptist.

John the Baptist is being described here

in the early stages of this book

and he is to bear witness of the light.

That is what we are to do.

We are to bear witness of the light.

We're to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And in verse eight, he was not that light

but was sent to bear witness of the light.

That's the same thing Second Corinthians chapter four said.

Hey, this treasure is in earthen vessels.

Hey, he's not the light.

He's not shining physically

but he's sent to bear witness of the light.

And that's what we are as Baptist

as we are going out and bearing witness of that light

so that people could believe and be saved.

Verse nine, that was the true light

which lighteth every man that come into the world.

You know, when I think about this

lighting every man in the world

there's some things that we could think about

what that means.

One I think is the fact that it's offered

to every single person.

Keep your finger here

and just go to Romans five for a moment.

I'm going to go to Romans chapter five

and notice that the Bible is going to tell us about this

but again, the doctrine of Calvinism

is a wicked doctrine that's like a bushel.

The doctrine of Calvinism is like a bushel

that's being put over the gospel light.

And look, I think there's probably

lots of Calvinists that are saved

but the problem is when they get this Calvinist doctrine

they're putting a bushel over their light

and they're not allowing it to shine.

And it's a wet blanket on soul winning

and the soul winning fire and zeal

and it's really hard to find a Calvinist

that's excited to go on mission trips

and preach the gospel and be evangelistic

and care about getting people saved.

They typically want to debate Muslims or something

or they typically want to just be seen as an intellectual

and just be really smart.

The problem is that they're not wise

because he that went his soul is wise

what the Bible says.

Oh, well this Calvinist is really smart.

Well, if he's not a soul winner

then he's not wise.

Romans chapter number five, look at verse 18,

therefore by the offense of one,

judgment came upon all men into condemnation.

Even so, by the righteousness of one,

the free gift came upon all men

under justification of life.

How does a Calvinist interpret this verse?

Well, all doesn't mean all.

They have to do that like a hundred times in the Bible.

But what's interesting is the righteousness of one,

the free gift came upon all men.

That sounds like the light that lighteth every man.

Just like the sun has lighted on every man.

Everybody has been exposed to the light.

Everybody has offered the light.

Everybody has this opportunity.

And the only light that's given to every man,

the light that lighteth every man is Jesus Christ.

So in one way we could read that

and say the gospel's offered all.

A second way we could look at that

is from a saved perspective,

those who got saved, it was only Jesus Christ

that gave them that light.

He was the one that lighted them.

Everyone that's been lighted,

everyone that has that light,

everyone that's been saved,

it's because of Jesus

and Jesus is the one that gave him that light.

We are saved through Jesus Christ.

Go back to John one there.

He was that true light which lighteth

every man that comeeth in the world.

So, you know, I believe that it's talking

about the fact that the gospel is offered to all.

And that we all have this opportunity.

But even if you wanted to get even more narrow,

obviously he's the only one that gives salvation

to those who believe.

It says in verse 10,

he was in the world and the world was made by him

and the world knew him not.

Now, how could we interpret verse 10

as anything other than everybody?

I mean, the world knew him not?

I mean, that's not talking about saved people.

That's talking about unsaved people.

So if the world in verse 10 used three times,

means unsaved, he was in the world,

he was in what, all these unsaved people

and the world was made by him,

all the people were made by him

and the world knew him not.

That's, again, it's using this language

because it's like in literal sense,

in Genesis one, the world's like physical world

and it's in darkness

and the darkness doesn't understand the light

and it flees from the light

and it runs from the light.

But in a metaphor, world meaning unsaved people,

the unsaved people, they didn't know him

and they didn't receive him

and they don't understand him

and even though he made them

and even though he's given them that light,

given them this opportunity,

but compare that back then with verse nine.

That was the true light with light

is every man that come within the world.

Sounds like we're talking about everybody then, right?

Verse 11, he came unto his own

and his own received him not

but as many as received him to them

gave him power to become the sons of God,

even them that believe on his name.

So what saves someone is believing in Jesus Christ,

believing in that light,

that light shining unto them

and that was the light that gives us.

Go to John three, verse 19,

just flip the page and look at verse 19.

And this is the condemnation

that light is coming to the world

and men love darkness rather than light

because their deeds were evil.

For everyone that do with evil hate of the light,

neither coming to the light

less as deed should be approved.

But he that do with truth,

coming to the light,

that is deeds maybe made manifest

that they are wrought in God.

So just like someone wants to come into light literally

so that we can see what they're doing

and they can see what they're doing

and they can make sure they're doing what's right.

Well, it's the same way that spiritually speaking,

people seeking what's right end up getting saved.

So if I'm working on something and it's dark,

I'm not gonna be as successful.

I need a light.

My car broke down when I was going to Connecticut

and we had to put a spare on

and it was pitch black out there,

no street lights virtually.

And so I had to have my son hold my phone with a light on it

so I could see what I was doing.

And if I had to change that tire without that light,

it would have been almost impossible.

But I wanted the light so that I could do it correctly.

And the same way that people in this world

that want to know if they're right with God

will seek for the light.

Now here's the good news.

You don't actually have to do right

and be good enough to get into heaven,

but you do have to seek for the light.

You don't have to want to come to the light

and figure out if you're even right with God or not

to even get saved.

But here's the thing.

You end up going to the light

and you realize, wow, I screwed up.

Wow, I was making a mistake.

Wow, I wasn't gonna get this.

And then when you're in the light,

he's like, hey, I'll fix it for you.

And you're like, great, this is awesome.

I was screwing it up.

I just wanted to figure out if it was right or not.

And then when I came into light,

he helped me figure it out.

Now this is offensive to many people

and it was offensive to some people

that I talked to in Barbados.

So we went to Barbados on this mission strip

and I didn't get to preach necessarily a ton of people,

but I was at one of the universities,

mostly because when you go to the university,

it was like everybody already had a card.

This is like, I mean, more than like 80% of the people

I talked to had already been picked over, all right?

So I got the last day,

I'm there just getting scraps or something, right?

But I'm talking to some three guys.

Three guys walked by.

It's a Muslim, an agnostic, and a Christian, all right?

It's almost like a joke or something, but.

And the guy that was a Christian's name is Christian.

So I was like, well, that's easy to remember, right?

But I was asking the Christian,

because the other two were just kind of

seeming like scoffers, not that interested.

I was kind of talking to him or like prioritizing him.

And again, this is my just tip.

If you're in a group setting,

I would just prioritize the person that's interested,

receptive seeming, and just ignore the other people.

Because if you try to include these other people,

it's usually a disaster, okay?

So in a group setting, even if it was like 10 people,

I just try to focus on like one person,

or the person that's most engaged in the conversation.

And then afterwards I can focus on the others

if I want to, but it's usually best

to just kind of dial in with one person.

So I'm just kind of like honing in on this guy.

Well, the Muslim just kind of starts walking away

and I was like, great, you know?

And but the agnostic is just sitting here

just being just a constant heckler.

Just like everything that I say

and just kind of gain saying everything that I say.

He's like, oh, so you're saying

that if I live my whole life

and I'm just trying to do the best that I can

and because I just don't believe in Jesus like you do,

I'm gonna go to hell.

And I'm just like, yes.

Well, how was that fair?

Okay, well, let's go to Romans one for a moment.

How was that fair?

Well, here's the thing.

You're not only going to hell

because you just didn't believe what I told you.

You're going to hell because you're a sinner.

Okay, and that's what I told him.

I said, well, you're a sinner.

Okay, Romans one, look at verse 18,

for the wrath of God has revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Notice that God is wrath is against what?

Ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

It's not only because they reject the Lord.

It's not only because they don't believe in Him.

It's because they're ungodly.

It's because they're unrighteous.

And look, if we really examine some college student,

you're gonna tell me he hasn't lied

thousands of times in his life.

He hasn't stolen.

He hasn't done wicked things.

He hasn't committed fornication.

And look, I don't know the person,

but I'm just saying by and large,

we're not talking about someone

that has one transgression.

I love how these people always act

like they haven't really done anything that bad.

But it's like, if we really lined them up

and gave every single one of their charges,

I guarantee they're a lot more guilty than they realize.

It's kind of like when the cop pulls you over.

He's like, you know why I pulled you over?

And you're thinking like, I don't know.

It's like speeding, running a red light,

not putting on your turn signal.

You know, expired registration entrance.

You're like, dang, I didn't realize all that.

You know, your headlights out.

I mean, there might have been 50 things that you did wrong.

In fact, we probably transgressed,

driving way more than you realize.

Not putting on your signal.

Like you're supposed to put on your turn signal

and stuff like seconds before you turn

and you're supposed to actually come to a complete stop

and stuff.

I know I'm liberal on these things, all right?

But, hey, everybody's a little bit.

But, you know, we transgress a lot more than we realize.

Just like kids are also, you know,

transgressing into their parents a lot.

But God is mad at ungodliness and unrighteousness.

It says they hold the truth and unrighteousness though.

Because that which may be known

of God has manifested in them,

for God has showed it under them.

For the invisible things of him

from the creation of the world are clearly seen,

being understood by the things that are made,

even as eternal power in God,

and so they're without excuse.

Notice according to the Bible, no one has an excuse.

Just like the light shines,

they can understand that God is existent and that he shines.

So, is hell, hell, you know, it just doesn't seem fair.

Well, what is fair?

Isn't fair just justice?

Getting what you deserve?

What do you deserve for lying tons of times?

What do you deserve for stealing all the time?

What do you deserve for all these things that you've done?

What would be fair then?

And again, they're not saying,

why deserve this punishment?

They want no punishment for their sin.

But Romans chapter three, verse one,

and they'll say, oh, well,

what about all the people that didn't hear

weren't born in a Christian home?

Well, look at verse one.

What advantage does that the Jew?

Or what profit is there of circumcision?

Much every way, chiefly,

because that under them

were committed the work of God.

So it's like saying, oh, you're just saying like,

you know, these Muslims

don't have the same chance as these Christians.

Yeah.

Hey, in the Old Testament,

you were born into a Jewish family.

You had a much greater chance

of hearing the gospel, of hearing the Bible.

In fact, it says, what advantage

do you have every single advantage?

Every single advantage.

Verse three, for what if some did not believe?

Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

What about all the people

that were born in a Christian home

and they rejected it and they turned away?

Does that mean your religion's not real?

Well, verse four, God forbid.

Yeah, he let God be true, but every man a liar.

As it's written that that might as be justified

in my sayings and might as overcome when thou art judged.

But if our unrighteousness

commend the righteousness of God,

what shall we say?

Is God unrighteous to take a vengeance?

I speak as a man.

God forbid, for then,

how shall God judge the world?

So you know, he's really,

Paul's addressing like all of these gain saying arguments.

It's like, oh, well you're saying

that people that are born in a Christian home

have a greater chance of being saved

than people that don't.

Yes.

Oh, well you're saying that

if people don't believe this,

they're gonna go to hell.

Yes.

Oh, well you're saying that I deserve hell.

Yes.

Yes to all these.

And you know, one of the,

even the Christian said,

so you're telling me this guy,

my friend that's a Muslim,

like if he doesn't believe,

he's gonna go to hell.

Yes.

Well, how is that fair?

And I'm like, okay, well,

let's just stop for a moment.

What if Islam is true?

Doesn't that mean that Christians

don't have as good a chance

to become a Muslim and get saved?

And he's like, well, yeah.

So I said, well, so then

picking religions doesn't change this fact, does it?

So I guess you could just believe

in universalism that doesn't matter

or that there is no God,

but if there is a God,

we're not all right,

we're not all on the same page,

not everybody has the same chances.

Sorry, that's an inconvenient fact,

but that's just reality.

Yeah, it's just reality.

And look, in every part of our lives,

nothing's fair.

Some people are born in a family

that has lots of money and privilege and opportunity.

Some people are born without parents.

They've been abandoned by their parents.

They've had bad parents.

You know, whatever situation

they're born in an impoverished country,

they maybe are born with a birth defect.

They're born with some issue.

You know, nothing is fair.

Oh, well, you don't understand my circumstance

or my life or whatever.

You know, nothing's fair.

But you know what?

The guy that was born in a privileged home

is often the spoiled brat

that doesn't actually care about God.

And the people that had real struggles,

bad childhoods, bad parents,

they're often more likely to be receptive

and then serve God.

So then which one's fair?

Was it more fair to have a bad circumstance

and to be saved and go to church and love God?

Or was it better to have a great family situation

and basically not wanna serve God

and be too prideful and too arrogant?

I mean, pick your poison.

You know, living in America, I love being in here.

I think I've had a lot of privilege.

I think I've had a lot of opportunities

that other people haven't had.

And you know, I'm not gonna say that I'm bad

because I have privilege though.

But you know, at the end of the day,

hey, we should realize that it's not everything's fair.

And because it's not fair

and because the Muslim will go to hell

and because the Bayesian will go to hell

and because the Bahamian will go to hell

and because the Filipino will go to hell

if they don't believe the gospel,

I'm motivated to go out and preach the gospel

to every creature.

And you know, because I actually believe my religion,

I actually believe the Bible,

I actually believe what the Bible says

and I believe what God said, let there be light.

But let me tell you something,

the Muslims don't even believe that.

Where are the Muslims going two by two in America

preaching their gospel?

Where is the Muslim missionary

that is sent to Barbados like Pastor Smith

who's dedicating his whole life

to just be in a foreign country

preaching his false religion?

You know, it doesn't even exist virtually.

Now again, I get that Islam is spreading,

but you know what?

They're not trying to convert the same way Christianity is.

They're not trying to spread the gospel of peace.

They're not going two by two.

They're not the ones that are spending thousands and thousands

of dollars to evangelize the world

and be missionaries everywhere.

I mean, you know, really you kind of have like Mormons,

Jehovah's Witnesses and us.

I mean, if you're saying like,

who are the people actually going out, knocking doors,

trying to spread their message around the world?

It's kind of them and us.

But you know, oh, let's think about Mormons

for half a second.

They only get 18 and 19 year olds to do it

because they have to.

They're not like, oh, I just want to do this for us in my life.

As soon as they can be done, they're done.

They just go on mission because that's just what they're told

to do.

It's just kind of like how in America,

you just go to college because that's what they're told to do.

It's not like, and again, you have to pay for it.

And I get the Mormons have to pay for it,

but you know, at the end of the day,

they're not sending out people that want to spend

their whole lives in foreign country to mission,

to be a missionary and evangelist.

And let's be honest, they're not trying to be effective.

They're riding bicycles, folks.

Why are they riding bicycles?

You want to know why they're riding bicycles?

Because they don't care and it's free.

They're not even willing to spend gas money on you.

They're not going to spend a dime that they don't have to

giving you the gospel.

And look, when they knock on their door,

they're not going to tell you how to go to heaven.

They're going to ask you to have Bible studies

and they're going to sit here and try to just

bring you into their cult.

You look at a Jova's Witnesses walking,

they're the slowest, they're like turtles.

Walking around sad as just the,

you've ever met anybody in your life

because they're not saved.

They don't have the joy of the Lord.

They don't have salvation.

They're both cult groups.

But you know, at least you could say

they kind of believe their religion.

But again, the Jova's Witnesses only think

they have to do that to go to heaven.

They're not doing this because of the actual

love for the Lord.

You know, for us, we know we don't have to do that

to go to heaven.

It's a labor of love.

We're doing it because we believe it.

And you read the book of Acts,

they were going out and preaching the gospel

because they believed it.

You know, which religion do you want?

You want the religion that doesn't care about you,

that won't spend a dime on you,

that won't give you any gas,

or the religion that'll go all around the world

paying their own way to give you a free gospel.

And it's not just us.

It's not just the new idea.

Look, I ran into a Southern Baptist guy

that they go to Africa all the time

and they're evangelizing and giving people the gospel

all the time.

There's all kinds of evangelicals

and fundamental Baptist and Southern Baptist

and others that are going out there

and preaching the gospel and trying to get people saved.

And they're not only, they're doing good.

When's the, I mean, look, I know I give

the Southern Baptist and some of these people a hard time,

but it's like when's the last time you see a Muslim

come over here and give us a well?

Like build us a well or give us a sandwich or something.

You know, are the Muslims going into Africa

and building wells and giving sandwiches to the Africans?

It's like, oh, I wonder which religion's real.

I wonder which religion's the right one.

Maybe it's the one that's willing to spend

their own time, money, effort, and energy

to give you something for free

as opposed to the one that literally puts

their women in ninja suits.

You know, I don't know which religion's real here.

You know, the Bible says that he's gonna visit

the iniquity on the children

to the third and fourth generation

and that's what I see with Islam.

You know, why is it that everybody wants

to go to an American country or a Christian nation

and not an Islamic country?

I have way too much to say

and I've already gone out of time,

but I wanna go to one more place.

Go if you would to Luke chapter 11, Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention Luke 11 · chapter mention

You know, the Bible says if you seek, you shall find.

And you know, you could sit here and feel sad

that people don't all have the same opportunity,

but if you actually care, you know, you'll do,

then you'll take the opportunity to them.

Hey, I'm sad these people don't have light,

so I'm gonna come bring light to them.

You're not gonna sit here and be mad at God.

God's commanding you and demanding you to be that light

and to let your light shine.

And he's saying, hey, I know it's dark out there.

Go be some light.

And what does he mean practically?

Go preach the gospel.

Look, if you're not a soul winner,

you need to become a soul winner.

And you become a lifelong soul winner

and you know what?

You need to go and preach the gospel

and even if you never leave this area,

be a soul winner in your area at least.

But you know, for many of us that have the opportunity

and the ability, let us spread the gospel into all nations.

Let us go into Shreveport.

Let us go into Mexico.

Let us go into the Caribbean.

Let us go into Asia.

Let us go all over the world and preach the gospel.

I mean, heck, we're gonna go into unreceptive places,

Europe and Canada sometimes and these other places.

But you know what?

We need to go where it's dark

so we can bring our light.

We're trying to find areas that are receptive,

that want the light.

Go into Fiji.

Go into all kinds of parts of this world

and preach in the gospel.

And you know, that is our mission in life.

That's the reason why we have this church

and we never want to lose that vision.

That's why we're here.

Let there be light.

We want to be preaching the gospel

and emphasizing the gospel.

Acts chapter 17, look at verse 23.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

For as I passed by and beheld your devotions,

I found an altar with this inscription

to the unknown God,

whom therefore you ignorantly worship,

him, declare I unto you.

Everybody out there is ignorant of who the God of the Bible is

and we need to go out there and declare it unto them.

God that made the world and all things there

and sing that he is the Lord of heaven and earth,

dwelleth not in temples made with hands.

Neither is worship with men's hands

as though he needed anything,

singing he giveth all life and breath and all things.

And hath made of one blood all nations of men

for to dwell on all the face of the earth.

And at the term of the times before appointed

and the bounds of their habitation,

that if they should seek the Lord,

if happily they might feel after him and find him,

though he be not far from every one of us.

For in him we live and move and have our being

as certain also of your own poets have said,

for we are also his offspring.

For as much as we are the offspring of God,

we ought not to think that the Godhead

is likened to gold or silver or stone,

graven by art and man's device.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at,

but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.

So look, oh, I don't know which religion's right.

No, it's obvious.

Nope, you don't have an excuse.

Nope, the light's out there.

No, if you seek him, you're gonna find him.

No, he's not that far from every one of us.

But you know what?

We need to be the other part of that equation

when we're shining that light.