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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Romans chapter #10 tonight. And I'll tell you, I enjoy being
around new believers. I love the opportunity to be
around those who have just accepted Jesus Christ as their
Savior. And one of the reasons is
because of the great joy that they have.
We talked about joy unspeakable and full of glory, the great joy
that they have. I think of our sister Belinda
here. We just got saved a few weeks
ago, and I was preaching this morning and talking about
salvation and talking about probably some of those things
that you've heard maybe over and over again.
By the way, we should never get tired of hearing about
salvation. We should never get tired about
hearing how Jesus saved our soul.
But I know that you've heard it before, and I'm aware that you
certainly are familiar with the things that I'm saying.
But I kind of just looked over and I try not to look at faces
when I preach because we'll be honest with you, I don't want to
get too discouraged, but I try not to look at faces when I
preach. But I will say, I glanced over a
few times at Belinda sitting over there, right around where
Michelle is, and I saw just her. It seemed like she was kind of
eating it up. You know, the idea, the thought
process of this is what Jesus Christ did for me, me and I love
to be able to see the joy that new life brings to a believer
that is new in Christ. But also there's great joy that
comes from that person to others as well, kind of like a new
baby. You know, whenever you get to be
around a new baby, you see even grown men, they're kind of, you
know, kind of they kind of all put together go, you know, those
kind of things. Well, maybe some of you won't.
OK, that's all right. But the idea is being there's
this joy that that baby brings, you know, that new life.
There's something about it that that just kind of brings joy to
everybody. That some maybe a word we could
use for that is some zeal, some zeal that comes along with this
thought process of someone just receiving Jesus Christ as their
Savior. You know, there ought to be some
excitement that comes with being a believer.
And listen, I know that we do kind of settle in as time goes
on as a Christian, but we ought to never get over the fact that
we have been forgiven of our sins.
We never did get tired of hearing about salvation, get
tired of hearing what God has done for us in our lives.
We ought to never get over that. There ought to be some zeal, but
within our lives. But I will also say this, when
it comes the issue of zeal, when you look sometimes at popular
Christianity, when you look sometimes at that wide umbrella,
that wide tent that calls itself Christianity, I will say a lot
of times it's, could I put it this way, mile wide but not
really an inch deep, that maybe there's a lot of excitement, but
that's about all there is. Listen, I want Liberty Baptist
Church to be exciting. I want you to be able to come
here and to sing the hymns and fellowship with one and hear the
word of God and have your heart stirred and encouraged and, and
leave joyful. But at the same time, we're not
just doing it for the sake of doing it.
If you want to do that, call a stand up comedian and have him
come up here and be able to have a few sets and we all have a few
laughs and we all slap each other on the back and leave.
And that's all there is to it. That's what the comedy clubs are
doing. And by the way, that's what a
lot of modern Christianity is doing today and calling it
church. No, no, there ought to be zeal,
but there also needs to be knowledge as well.
And listen, knowledge is good. But listen, there are some
churches that are knowledgeable about the things of God that are
right in their doctrine. They're orthodox about the
things they believe, but they're as dry as a truckload of
sawdust. But yeah, they're right.
They believe, right? They're right about the word of
God. But like, doesn't that excite
you? Don't that thrill you?
Doesn't that make you just want to rejoice at what God has done
in all of our lives collectively and what He's done in our lives
individually? Well, in our text tonight, Paul
thought that ought to be the case, that there ought to be
some zeal in the life of believer.
Not just excitement, but that that zeal is excitement that
moves someone forward to do something for God.
But zeal. Not just for the sake of zeal,
but zeal. According to knowledge that.
Both of those are needed in the lives of believers, and I want
us to look at that here tonight. So would you stand please for
the reading God's Word? We'll read the first 5 verses of
Romans chapter #10 obviously there are some very familiar
verses here in Romans chapter 10, aren't they?
And we're not going to deal with those this evening, but we are
going to look at the 1st 5 verses.
That is cold good. All right, thank you.
All right, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is, that they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God.
But look at this not according to knowledge.
For they be ignorant of God's righteousness, or going about to
establish their own righteousness, not have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. For Moses describeth the
righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. Heavenly Father, be with us this
evening as we look at these verses.
I pray to help us to have a zeal that's according to knowledge.
We know Jesus Christ our Savior this evening.
I believe. I believe everyone here has
given a testimony of such. And Lord, you know the hearts.
But at the same time, help us to have that right knowledge of
righteousness, but also to have the zeal as well to be able to
live that life as you have called us to.
And we ask it all in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you may be seated. What was Paul's heartbeat?
What was what got Paul up in the morning and to be able to put 1
foot in front of the other after all of those awful things that
we saw just on Wednesday night that he went through in Second
Corinthians chapter #11 what kept Paul going?
There'd be a part of you that would say this.
Well, it was to be able to preach into the Gentiles.
And certainly we know that Paul was the one who delivered the
gospel to the Gentiles. It wasn't that he was the first
one, but that he did in a way that really hadn't been seen
before on his three missionary journeys.
And then his 4th missionary journey, which was really him
being sent to Rome to be able to be put on trial.
But yet he used that as an additional missionary journey,
another reason for him to be able to preach the gospel.
And certainly Paul's heart was to reach the Gentiles.
But I would say that he lays out his heart, his real passion in
verse #1 when he says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to
God for Israel is that they might be saved.
Now, why would he be talking about this right now?
Well, you can go back back to the previous verse in the
previous chapter verse #33 chapter #9 and it says, as is
written, behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of
offense. And whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. What is he saying?
Well, he's referencing a verse and verses that are found in
several different places, including Isaiah chapter 8 verse
#14 where he's talking about his concern for those who stumble at
the name of Jesus Christ. Well, who were the ones that
truly stumbled at the name Jesus Christ?
It would be Israel, wouldn't it? Israel had a difficulty
understanding as a whole. They had a difficulty
understanding how Jesus Christ could be the Messiah.
Certainly there was a great anticipation even upon that
triumphal entry, wasn't there? When they were crying, Hosanna,
hosanna, Lord save us. They were desiring him to not
just be their king, but literally to become the king of
Israel, to overthrow the shackles of the Roman Empire.
Remember we looked a little bit about that this morning, how the
Jews felt about the Roman occupation of their land.
And they said, Jesus, come and throw off the shackles, we'll
put you on the throne. But Jesus wasn't there for that
reason, not at that time. What was he there for?
Well, he was more concerned about the salvation of souls,
and that's why he went up the hill called Calvary.
By the way, it wasn't the Romans who put him there, and it wasn't
the Jews who put him there. Jesus Christ put himself there.
Of course, certainly they were desirous for him to be on the
cross, but Jesus Christ wasn't tricked.
He wasn't fooled. He wasn't cornered into the
cross. What did he do?
He willingly gave himself for you and I.
But there's the Jews and his heart for the Jews is this.
Why don't they get it? Why don't they understand?
And in a way Paul understood because, well, he was in the
same boat, that Paul had the same thought process that as he
was persecuting the way, which ended up being called
Christianity, as he was persecuting them, he thought he
was doing Jehovah God a favor. He thought he was doing right.
He was zealous in what he believed.
He was zealous in his persecution.
The only problem was this is that he wasn't serving God.
He was defying God. And that's why on that road to
Damascus, we see that Paul was told by Jesus Christ.
Paul, Paul, why persecute us? Thou me.
Now let me ask you this. When was Paul persecuting Jesus
directly? He never was.
He was persecuting those believers, wasn't he?
But as if Jesus Christ was saying, could we put it this
way? If you were going to do harm to
them? I want you to understand Paul,
you're doing it unto me. And So what happened?
Well, we know that that that he was blinded, but yet the scales
fell from his eyes when he understood that Jesus Christ,
the one of which he was persecuting, was truly the
Messiah. Paul got it.
He was a Jew. He was a a Jew among Jews.
He was zealous, A Pharisee, self-righteous in every way.
And he no longer stumbled at the name of Jesus Christ, but
realized that they need to be saved.
And now his heart's desire was this.
Want my fellow countrymen to also understand that they need
to be saved as well? But it says, for I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. Now were the Jews zealous?
Were they ever zealous? They love to follow the law.
Now let's strike that and check that a little bit.
They love to say they were following the law.
They love to make sure other people were following the law.
They love to add to the law. The Pharisees kept the oral Law
apart from the Word of God. By the way, do you know what's
the word of God? Apart from the Word of God?
Nothing. The.
Oral Word of God is not the word of God.
The Word of God is what we have in front of us.
And the Pharisees, he kept adding and adding and adding and
adding and Jesus kept poking and poking and poking and poking,
trying to show them the fallacy of the things that they were
adding to what they were doing. Oh, they were zealous, those
Pharisees were they were zealous in their persecution of Jesus.
They were zealous in the way that they always were trying to
ask him questions. They were zealous in the way
they handled themselves in the temple.
They were zealous in the ways that they followed the feasts.
And even as you look to the Jews today, one of the things they're
most zealous about is following the feast days and following the
Jewish holidays, and yet not understanding that every single
one of those Jewish holidays that they observe speak of Jesus
Christ, but yet they have no part and no understanding.
And he says this, they're so zealous to do those things.
They'll travel from great distances to come to Jerusalem
to celebrate the feast day, but yet they don't understand why
and they won't get to the real heart of the matter that it's
all about Jesus Christ. Now why is that verse #3
Explains For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and
going about to establish their own righteousness.
Have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
The Jews problem, and I would say that this is the problem.
Mankind as well, but particularly of what Paul is
talking about here in reference to the Jews, is that mankind so
often will reject God's righteousness.
But then yet some righteousness does need to be followed.
So what does mankind do? Construct its own righteousness.
I have a quote here from Bill Nye.
You might know Bill Nye is the science guy.
You know, I grew up in a public school when you knew that there
was no science class that day and the teacher brought out the
cart with the television on it and it was time to watch Bill
Nye the Science guy. It was a pretty exciting day.
I'll be honest with you. There wasn't much to get excited
about in public school, but that was one thing that I did get
excited about. Now, I didn't understand this at
the time, but Bill Nye, the science guy really doesn't know
a lot about science. He's he graduated with a degree
in aerospace engineering, but a lot of the things that he speaks
of, he really doesn't have knowledge of.
He was a stand up comedian and entertainer more than he is a
scientist. And I also say this, he is very
much an atheist and very much against God.
I, I've watched several conversations that he has had
with Ken Ham, the one who has the Creation Museum and is built
the arc there in Kentucky and that actually respectful
conversations that they've had back and forth.
It's actually very interesting to watch Ken Hammond how he's
handled himself compared to Bill Nye.
But Bill Nye said this and I thought this was interesting and
it really well explains what Paul is saying here in verse #3
Bill Nye said. So as you may know, I am not a
believer. I'm a non believer.
I spend a lot of time trying to understand my place in the
cosmos, and I've reached my own conclusions, but I'm the first
to say that ultimately we are all agnostic.
Now he's speaking for you and he's speaking for me.
To say that we're all agnostic. That's what he says.
This is to say you can't know whether or not there is a giant
entity running the show or choosing not to run the show.
You can't know. Now listen to this.
So we all are. I believe best served by just
living good lives, trying to leave the world better than we
found it now on its face. You could maybe hear those last
couple sentences. We are all best served by living
good lives, trying to leave the world better than we found it.
You could hear that and say, well, OK, maybe he's an
agnostic, maybe he's an atheist, but that's not a bad way to
live. That's certainly not a bad.
Credo to be able to live your life by.
But the problem of that is this Bill Nye and anyone who believes
in this way. And by the way, there are great
many more that believe what I just read then Bill Nye the
science guy. But those who have said this.
Well, you know, just be a good person.
Just leave the world better than you left it.
You know, kind of like you learned when you were in the Cub
Scouts to leave the campground better than you found it.
But just do that with the earth. Just leave it in a better shape
than you found it. By the way, if that's the case,
we've all failed. Miserably there's none.
Righteous. No, not one.
And if we look at the world in general, I don't think it's
getting. Better and better.
But the problem with that is just do good and leave it
better. And my question is, by whose
metric is doing good good? Is doing good good?
Well, what is good? Who's going to judge what is
good or not? It could be there's a population
of a country or an area of the world that is very overpopulated
and there is great squalor and very little income.
And perhaps there would be those who would say, you know, what
would be the most important thing to do?
The the most, oh, oh, the most righteous thing to do would be
to make sure that we don't bring children into those environments
so they don't have to grow up in squalor and difficulty disease.
And so would it be better to just, would it be more humane?
Wouldn't it be good to just seek abortions for those children?
Well, we know that the Word of God says, well, no, because the
Bible makes it very clear that life comes at the moment of
conception. Now, how do I know that?
Well, because of the Word of God.
So we remove that. Perhaps someone could be able to
say, well, wouldn't that be good?
Wouldn't it be good if someone is suffering and they're
suffering greatly, to just allow them to take their own life?
I mean, wouldn't that be the compassionate thing to be able
to do? Wouldn't it be best for someone
to decide? And I know we have younger
people here tonight, so I want to be careful what I say, but
wouldn't it be best to let everyone decide who they are and
what their identity is? Wouldn't that be the most
benevolent thing to do? And listen, if we are
establishing listen, our own righteousness, then certainly
there could be compelling cases for these things.
If we're saying what's right and we're saying what's wrong, if
it's humanity in general or if it's the government or just what
the crowd says, if that's what it is, then certainly cases
could be made for all of those things and infinitely more.
But if we realize that it's not about establishing our own
righteousness, it's not about us deciding what's right and wrong,
but it's what the Word of God says and the Word of God as a
reflection of who God himself is, then that is the only
benchmark. That's the only thing that's
righteous. It doesn't matter if it's the
Jews of those days, or the Jews of today, or the agnostics of
today, or the liberals of today, or the conservatives of today,
or whatever group it might be. Listen, righteousness is found
in one place in the Word of God because what is in the Word of
God is a reflection of God Himself.
There's one quote that says this.
We must then say that righteousness of God is evident
in the way He consistently acts in according with His own
character. God always acts righteously.
His every action is consistent with His character.
God is always consistently godly.
God is not defined by the term righteousness.
Now listen, don't, don't let that worry you.
God is not as much defined by the term righteousness as much
as the term righteousness is defined by God.
God is not measured by the standard of righteousness.
God is the standard of righteousness.
That's the key. And there's a group of people
that Paul's concerned about here.
He says they're so zealous. They're so zealous.
They walk to the temple. They'll go great distances for
the feasts. They'll raise a lamb, ensure
it's without blemish. They'll save money to purchase a
lamb if they can't raise one themselves.
They'll erect booths in Jerusalem to to be able to show
what the great journey was from Egypt into the promised land.
They'll do all of these things. But they're establishing their
own righteousness. They're not following the
righteousness of God. And isn't this what the
Pharisees kept doing to Jesus? Well, Jesus, if you were
righteous, you wouldn't be picking corn on the Sabbath.
Jesus, if you were righteous, you wouldn't be healing.
On the Sabbath, Jesus, if you were righteous, you wouldn't be
talking to her. If you knew who she was, Jesus,
if you were righteous, you wouldn't be doing the things
that you're doing. They didn't realize that they
were not just talking to someone who was righteous, they were
talking to righteousness. He himself was righteous.
Just as when Pilate said what is truth and he's looking at Jesus,
He wasn't just looking at someone who embodied truth, He
was looking at truth. Jesus Christ was and is truth.
Verse 4 For Moses described the righteousness, which is of the
law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
Here's the problem. Whenever man establishes
righteousness. We'll do good, Bill Nye says.
All right, mankind, live by that.
As I just mentioned a few moments ago, mankind can't even
follow its own rules. Let alone following the
righteousness of God. So if you are to give your own
righteousness, then you must live by it.
And specifically what he's talking about here is that in
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone that
believe it. I actually skipped verse 4 and
went right to verse 5. But the idea is this is that we
no longer have to live by the law.
Why? Because we never could live by
the law. What was it?
It was our schoolmaster to bring us to Jesus Christ.
It was there to show us how wrong we were and that there was
no salvation in ourselves and that only Jesus Christ could
save us. And that's why when we were
saved, the law is no longer in force.
Now that doesn't mean we don't live holy lives, but we do it
for what reason? But we do it because we love the
Lord and we recognize as holiness, not because we're
trying to follow laws that we never could follow in the 1st
place. Mankind keeps setting up rules
and consistently can't follow them.
Talk about the Jews in the Passover.
I've been invited several times and not ever, ever been able to
have it to be happening or been able to have it happen.
But to go to a Jewish seder. I greatly desire to go to a
Jewish Seder with with Jewish people, not those who believe in
Jesus Christ, but to be able to watch them and to be able
hopefully to give a testimony to them.
And it's never worked out that I've been able to, but it amazes
me that as they get up from the table and they open the door at
the end of the Seder, and they're waiting for the for
Elijah to come. And Elijah is the forerunner to
the Messiah. Well, what did Jesus say?
John the Baptist was that forerunner.
And they're waiting for someone who came and left the scene 2000
years ago. They've established their own
righteousness, like the Muslims we've talked about, the Muslims
here in our World Religions and Cult series and Sunday School.
I can tell you 2 unique times, Once on I-95 in Connecticut at a
rest stop there, and another time in a Burger King here in
Easton where I've watched a Muslim who at the time of prayer
turned to the side in the parking lot, put down a rug and
prayed towards Mecca. Now listen, I'll.
Say this, if you're driving on 995 and you need a rest stop,
you need to stop and pray as well.
I mean, all things considered, I-95 is not great.
But I will. Say the devoutness we will stop
in a parking lot, the embarrassment to be able to know
that people are watching you. They don't care, they just want
all of them know they're faithful and they point their
bodies. From Bridgeport, CT.
From Fairfield, CT. From Old Lyme, CT and they'll
point their bodies to Mecca. From a Burger King here in
Easton and I watch them in the corner of the parking lot, point
their bodies towards Mecca. Devout mentioned this morning
going to Catholic funerals, the sadness that goes along with
that. I think every Bible believer
ought to go to a Catholic funeral every couple of years
just to remind yourself what we've been saved from and remind
people how remind us how we need to give the Gospel to those who
are following a dead religion. And I say that with no
unkindness towards our Catholic friends.
My desire is for them to be able to come to Jesus Christ.
But I also know that they have been ensnared by those who
believe and have taught and propagated the lie.
And many of them just want to follow Jesus.
They, they, they want to follow him, but they don't realize that
that is the opposite of following Jesus.
But you see the priest with the incense going back and forth,
see people washing themselves with holy water.
You see people who will go through stations of the cross.
We have even here in our church, those who at, at local shrines
over the years who have on their knees, gone from step to step
before they found Jesus Christ. Why?
Because they were establishing their own righteousness.
Maybe they had just been taught another way and that that is
what oftentimes is the case, but yet it is their own
righteousness. They need to find Jesus Christ.
I don't know about you, but I find it interesting to drive
through Amish country. And there are many times I've
driven through Amish country in Pennsylvania and a few times in
Oregon as well. Amish cooking.
I'm all right with that. I'll tell you, those guys know
how to cook. They also know how to build
furniture. All things considered, most of
them's last names are Yoder, and that's OK.
They're good people, but you know, they're good people.
But many of them are lost. You say, well, why is that?
Well, of course there is a lot of commonalities, not not
exactly certainly between Mennonites and the Amish.
But listen to this. While Mennonites hold tightly to
the belief that this is from their own teaching.
While Mennonites hold tightly to the belief that we are saved
through God's powerful gift of grace, we don't subscribe to
Eternal Security or Once Saved, Always Saved theology.
And though we believe that we are not, that we are ultimately
saved by God's grace and not through any action or merit on
our own, we also believe that maintaining a right relationship
with Christ means that we're to follow in his footsteps and live
a life that follows his example. Each member of the church has
free will and can separate themselves from the body of
Christ. And live a sinful life, even if
they once were bound to Christ. If that happens, the Church will
continue to pray for them and seek to restore them to
fellowship. But the individual may still
choose to forfeit his or her right to salvation.
Now, there's a line of theology there that basically says this,
your salvation is up to you. Your salvation is up to you.
It's a it's a difficult thing to kind of comprehend, but that
teaching is real. Say, pastor, what, what are you
trying to say? You're trying to, are you trying
to speak badly of all of these different groups?
You know, again, I want to be careful.
If there was someone here who was Amish tonight and I think
looking around, Nope, I don't think so.
If there was someone here tonight that was Catholic or was
watching this later that was Catholic or Jewish or any of
those things, I would never want them to have the impression that
we're mocking them or, or making fun of them, or that that we're
that we think badly of them. No, we want them to know that
there is only one way to Jesus Christ that you can't make your
own righteousness through shunning, as the Amish would do
would be shunning worldly things and not having electricity
unless you do need electricity. And then as I've seen an Amish
country, they don't drive cars, but they'll go in cars where
someone else is driving. And there's these convoluted
laws that they have made and they're doing it all so that
they have a hope that they have a chance of being saved.
And Paul says this. There's so much zeal, but
there's no knowledge. They fall short.
And again, Paul was clear about this, because he was in the same
boat, Acts 91 and two. And Saul yet breathing out
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord, went under the high priest, and desired of him
letters to Damascus, to the synagogue's, that if he found
any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might
bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Any yardstick to measure oneself
to salvation, other than the proper yardstick, is not true
salvation. Well, what's the yardstick?
Verse 4. Christ.
Is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believeth? What's the yardstick?
Verse 9. That if thou shalt confess with
my mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart,
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Here's some good news tonight.
Do you want some good news tonight?
I hope you want good news tonight.
Here's some good news for tonight.
If you are saved, you have that knowledge, the knowledge that
they did not possess as Jews, the knowledge that those in the
world today and from some of those groups that I just
mentioned, and certainly a multiplicity even more that
believe other things about true or righteousness that's apart
from the word of God. You have that righteousness
tonight, not because you yourself are just so much
smarter than the rest of the world.
We don't think that highly of ourselves.
It's just because we have come to the place where by faith we
believe the gospel, and so now we have the knowledge of what
true righteousness is all about. Now, listen, you may not think
that you have a lot of knowledge.
You might even have the world. Who would tell you that you
don't have a lot of knowledge compared to others?
And listen, I'm not a Mensa candidate.
I never. Graduated with an honorary
doctorate or a real doctorate or any.
I mean no, none of that stuff. But I do know this.
I just trust what the Bible says.
That'll get you pretty far in life right there.
A lot farther than all the doctorates, so they can confer
upon you. That all the world will confer
upon you. That in the great white throne
of judgement will matter nothing.
That when the books are opened and the unsaved see what's
inside and their works are read for hours upon hours, for days
upon days, if time was recorded in those days, in those at that
time, what I imagine would be that length of time, not one of
those things will matter. When we hear, when they hear,
depart from me. I never knew you.
But while you have that knowledge here tonight, I just
want to give you this thought for the last few moments that
we're together tonight. That many have zeal without
knowledge, as it says right here.
But what I'm concerned about tonight for you and for myself
is this. Do we as believers have
knowledge but not zeal? The unsaved have zeal without
knowledge. But do we as believers have
knowledge without zeal? Hey, you believe right here
tonight. At least I'm going to assume you
do. You're in a independent Baptist
Church on a Sunday night. Something good's going on in
your life. Amen.
But I will say this, while the knowledge is wonderful and it's
right and it's what we need, it ought to be coupled with some
zeal as well. And I know I was poking fun a
little bit a while ago, and I hope you didn't take any offense
to that, but I was saying that we sing joy, unspeakable glory.
And you know. We can get into the routine, we
can get into the habit. We sing the old hymns.
And sometimes the old hymns are, well, the old hymns because
we've sang them many times. But there's a reason we sing
them many times and. There's a reason we sing them
compared to a lot of the music that's there to why.
Today. Why?
Because they're rich in doctrine and biblical truth.
They remind us who we are and what God has done for us.
And many of them speak very greatly about God, about Jesus
Christ, and singing about the blood and about the atonement
and about. The cross and we.
Don't want to give those up. Why?
They ought to stir some zeal within.
US. Churches are seeing their
numbers decline year over year. I'm not talking about Liberty
Baptist Church. That's not been the case.
But if you were to look even at Bible believing churches, you
see what oftentimes the decline over time.
Folks stop attending services, believers, they lose their zeal
and they become more zealous for picnics and parties and
afternoon sports leagues or children's sports leagues that
take place on a Sunday morning more so than the House of God.
And by the way, there are parents who wonder why they take
their children to sports leagues for years and years and years.
And when they turned 18, they never darkened the door of a
church again because parents taught those children that it
wasn't really important. Now, I know there's a lot of
factors that go into all those things and listen, you can do
everything right as a parent. You can do everything and which
one of us do, But you could do everything right as a parent and
your children still have to decide their own way.
Please take comfort of what I'm saying this evening.
If your children are not following the Lord the way you
wish that they would know this that they all have to make their
own decisions, but I'm talking about something much more
general here tonight that there's a zeal that says this
just well, maybe the church isn't important.
It's amazing sometimes even as a pastor how how we have to and
I'm not talking to those who are here tonight.
Certainly because what one you're looking at me.
I don't want to make you mad, but more than that, No, I'm just
kidding. More than that is the fact
you're here on a Sunday night. But what I'm saying is it's
amazing to me sometimes that we have to try to convince people,
Hey, we got service. Don't you want to come to
church? Hey, folks, we got church.
It's almost like if I had a maybe a trained monkey on my
shoulder, it's like, you know, you'd patent, you know, a drum
or something like, Hey, don't you want to come to church?
We got, we got fun times here. And it's like, well, maybe we
should just come to church because we get to meet with the
Lord here. Maybe we should come to church
not because we have, you know, ponies after church or because
we got candy giveaways or big things that I'm not against.
Maybe we had an activity after church this morning.
I'm not against those things in and of themselves.
What I'm saying is this, as believers, we ought to have the
zeal to say, hey, it's Sunday morning, I got to go to church.
It's Sunday morning. I get to meet with my Christian
brothers and sisters. It's Sunday night, man, I got to
go back again. It's better than anything on
television than Sunday Night Football or Sunday night
basketball, right? I get to get to hear the word of
God and be with my brother once again.
It's Wednesday night. Boy, I'm tired.
I'm dog tired. I'm tired of work.
I'm tired of the people I work with.
I'm tired of of everything. But you know what?
I'll get to come. To church on Wednesday night and
recharge my batteries and get to be around some people that I
know are going to cuss during church.
And because I've been listening to people cuss at work all day
and they get to be around people that are going to have joy.
Because I've been around people that are, well, they're not been
real joyful all day and people have been angry and upset.
And I, I get to do those things. Listen, there ought to be some
zeal within us as believers. Look at what we have.
Look at what God has given us. I'm not just talking about in
the church, but the fact that he has saved us, that he's
preserved us, that he's helped us.
That everything you own, everything you have, everything
that you are is a gift from God. Then that'll fire us up.
Don't you make a Baptist. Amen.
Yeah, well, it'll make a nine year old girl say Amen.
So that's pretty good. Yeah.
I find often times that Christians today, we want a
temper or zeal kind of like this.
We don't want people to think we're crazy.
I don't want anybody in the workplace to think I'm one of
those crazy Christians. I don't want anybody in the
neighborhood to think I'm crazy because I want my family to know
I'm a believer, but I don't want them to think like I'm over the
top about it. And again, I know sometimes we
can be overzealous in the way we present the gospel, and we do
need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves as we present
the gospel. But listen, that doesn't mean
there shouldn't be a zeal about you.
You know, there were some people about 10 miles from here, about
60,000 of them, that got to a stadium 3 hours early, paid
$50.00 for their car to park. There was a time that $50 would
get you the front row seat and now it just gets your car on the
property and they'll wait for hours.
By the way, if it had rained all day, they would have sat there
all day. If it snowed all day, they would
have sat there all day. We all know it.
We've seen it on television before.
And they'll go back out on Route 1 and there'll be another
parking lot there for another 3 hours until they get home and
they'll have gotten up early. They'll have spent upwards of
$1000 today. Had believed they won today so
there was a small miracle that took place today that the Pats
won again that they all this takes place and they spent hours
and hours and money and money and some of them probably spent
$20.00 for a a cup of beer and and $15.00 for a hot dog and
they got home and they said this wasn't.
That a great day and we want to kind of simmer down about the
fact that we're believers. I'll tell you this, Pat's win
today. You know what people are going
to say at the workplace tomorrow.
Hey, did you watch Pat's? Did you see the game?
Wasn't it great? People will.
People will advertise. Listen this and listen, I have a
Pat's hat. I have a Red Sox shirt.
I'm not saying you shouldn't have it, but I'm saying this.
We pay to advertise for them. They don't they don't give us
the advertisement and you know, give us some money.
Hey, will you wear that shirt out there?
I'll give them $25 to advertise their team and they are worth $8
billion. That's not even an.
Exaggeration. That's what they're worth now,
$8 billion. But we got a temper the way that
we feel about Jesus to the world, man.
We got to get some zeal. We got to be able to have
something within us. And again, again, why is this
serpents? Because you're not going to go
to the workplace tomorrow and someone's in their their cubicle
and say, Hey, good morning, by the way, you know, Jesus died
for your sins and they just keep walking away.
You know that wouldn't say they'd.
Say what did you just say? Hey, this morning.
Hey, let me tell you about church yesterday.
Like well, well. Actually, I'm on the clock right
now. I got AI got a report.
I got to get done in 30 minutes. Could we maybe talk about that
later? But the Zeal says this, you
know, it was said in the Old Testament, but it was applied to
Jesus. The Zeal of the Lord's eaten him
up. Of course, that was said when he
was turning over the tables. Try, by the way, don't do that
at your workplace tomorrow, OK? And if you own your own
business, you really shouldn't be doing that.
All right, turn it over the tables, although that's your
business. If you get to do it, I guess,
turn over the tables. But the idea is this, just like
Paul, he ached to be able to share the gospel.
He had a zeal that was according to knowledge.
He ached to be able to speak to them.
So what do we do? Well, I can't talk about Jesus
all the time. I literally can't because there
are times I got to talk about budgets and there's times I got
to talk about work and there's times I got to talk about
healthcare decisions and there's times I got to talk about money.
Sure, those things I have to talk about, but I want you to
know my heart's desires as and any chance I get, any
opportunity I get, I want to talk about Jesus.
Paul went to Athens, and when Paul was in Athens, he was going
to wait for his brethren to come and they were to spread the
gospel. But the Bible says he went out
of the marketplaces. And what happened?
Oh man, his spirit. I got to say something, these
people. And before you know it, Paul,
who was just trying to mind his own business, is standing on top
of Mars Hill and giving one of the most exceptional sermons
you'll find in the Word of God. Says you got this.
Tomb over here. It's to an unknown God.
You're so superstitious. You want to make sure you didn't
miss one. I want you to know you did miss
one. I want to introduce you to him.
His name is Jesus. Why Zeal?
I can't hold it in. Listen, as believers, we have
been given the greatest gift that the world has ever seen.
The gift of salvation. You've got it.
I've got it. What do we need to do?
We've got the knowledge. Those others don't have the
knowledge. We have the knowledge.
What do we do? We have zeal.
It's possible to have both zeal and knowledge at the same time.
It does not have to be 1 or the other.
And in their lives it was the Jews.
It was zeal. No knowledge, let it not be said
of us knowledge and no zeal. 1 preacher said this.
I like this, he says. I was impressed several years
ago reading that Eugene Ormondy dislocated a soul, a shoulder,
while directing the Philadelphia Orchestra.
I did not know what they were playing, but he was giving
himself completely to it. And the preacher said I had to
ask myself this, sadly. Did I ever dislocate anything
preaching, even a necktie? No, I'm not saying that one has
to be bombastic within the pulpit, that they always have to
raise their. Voice a certain way that they
always have to pulpit Ear a certain way they have to have
certain movements or they have to.
Preach like me or to preach like someone else.
But I will say this, the preacher better have some zeal
in the pulpit. Why?
Because we better believe what we're preaching.
We better be living what we're preaching.
Do you want that in your preacher?
I hope you do. I imagine you do.
But I will say this, the Lord wants that.
Are you ready? From all of us, not just from
the preacher. Have knowledge.
Where's that knowledge come from?
The Word of God, but also zeal that God has done so much for
us. I want to, in every fiber of
every breath. I want to live for him.
Not because of duty, not because I'm afraid I could lose my
salvation, but because I love him so much.
And I know other people will love him so much if they just
come to know him. If they just got to see him as
we saw him, that they would love him as much as I do as much as
you do. So let's not be people with
knowledge and no zeal. What do we need to have both
zeal and knowledge? Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.