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[0:00] Let's take our Bibles as the choir is coming in and the children are going out.

[0:16] ! Let's take our Bibles and open them to our text for this morning, Luke chapter 10. And specifically verses 10 through 16 of Luke chapter 10.

[0:29] This is part of the larger passage that we've been looking at, verses 1 through 16. And so I'm going to start with verse 1 and read all the way through verse 16.

[0:40] We'll say this even before we read the passage. One of the benefits of preaching expository, expositorily throughout the Scripture, that is, preaching books of the Bible verse by verse.

[1:01] One of the benefits of that, at least benefits to the body of Christ, is that it forces the preacher to preach on particular texts that he might not want to preach on.

[1:14] The passage we're going to be focusing on this morning is not one of those warm, fuzzy, kind of palatable passages that we tend to like.

[1:27] It's some tough teaching. And so I say that on the front end. I hope that doesn't tune you out. But just know that's where we're going. So let me read the larger text, verses 1 through 16.

[1:41] After these things the Lord appointed 70 others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go.

[1:55] Then he said to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

[2:06] Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, or sandals, and greet no one along the road.

[2:20] But whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it will return to you.

[2:31] And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house.

[2:43] Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are said before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you.

[2:55] But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets, and say, The very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you.

[3:06] Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near to you. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

[3:19] Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

[3:34] But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. You, Capernaum, who are exalted in heaven, will be brought down to Hades.

[3:48] He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me.

[4:01] Now, last time, really two weeks ago, we looked at verses 1 through 9, and we focused on that passage, and so I'm not going to re-preach that, although I do want to kind of review where we've been.

[4:17] In verse 1, we discovered that all of this, all of what we've just read, comprised Jesus' instructions to his disciples, the disciples he has chosen and is sending out, and there were 70 of them.

[4:35] 72, according to some manuscripts, and so maybe your version of the Bible has 72. 72. And so he sent them out, and he sent them out two by two to go ahead of him and to go ahead into every city and place where he himself was eventually going to come.

[4:54] And they were to be missionaries, essentially. They were going to be witnesses, missionaries, the first wave of gospel missionaries, if you will, to proclaim the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, and to announce Jesus' coming as he was about to enter into his Judean ministry.

[5:17] His Galilean ministry has come to a close, and now he's going to enter into Judea, and he sends these 70 out ahead of him to prepare his way to preach the gospel. And so they are the first group of missionaries.

[5:33] And Jesus has already sent out his 12 apostles. Remember that earlier in the gospel of Luke, and we studied that passage. Now here's 70, and they're the first missionaries or witnesses to be sent out.

[5:45] And I said to you a couple weeks ago when we were looking at this part of the passage, I said to you that we should consider ourselves as extensions of the 70.

[5:57] These 70 were extensions of them. They were the first kind of group to be sent out, and we have also been sent out. So we are an extension of these 70 that have been appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ here in Luke chapter 10.

[6:15] And so if the 70 defines who we are, or we're supposed to be, I believe it does, then we ought to learn the definition.

[6:27] If this defines who we are, then we ought to learn with this definition and examine this definition. And so this particular passage, I think, gives to us five parts to the definition of a disciple, true disciple of Christ.

[6:44] That's not all that the Bible has to say about true disciples, but it does define, I think very, very, very specifically define, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ones He has sent out, and that's all of us.

[7:01] Now, we've looked at four of them already, four parts to this five-part definition, and let me just give you a little bit of review. First of all, we have the disciples' perspective.

[7:13] What is the disciples' perspective? Specifically, perspective on this world. And we need to know that it is the same perspective that Jesus had on this world.

[7:25] And so we're to have a certain perspective, and it's Jesus' perspective, and we learned that from verse 2. He said to them, the harvest truly is great. He's looking at the world.

[7:36] The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. That's His perspective. Not just an assessment on the condition of the world, the lostness of the world, but it is a perspective of the problem.

[7:52] That many are lost, doomed, and damned. And there are few to go out to warn them. That's His perspective. And true disciples must have the same perspective when it comes to our view of the world of mankind.

[8:10] Second, the disciples' prayer. And we see that very clearly. Jesus said in verse 2, if you continue on in verse 2, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.

[8:22] Therefore, what? Pray. Pray. Deomai in the Greek. It means to earnestly pray, even plead. Plead with whom?

[8:33] The Lord of the harvest. That's Jesus. To plead with Him to send out laborers into His harvest. The disciples' prayer, which should be, send more.

[8:43] Okay? And if we're going to be honest, when we pray that prayer, we need to also pray, send me. Send more, send me. So the disciples' perspective, the disciples' prayer, and third, we looked at this a couple of weeks ago, the disciples' priority.

[9:01] The disciples' priority. Verses 3 through 8, I think, present for us two priorities of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And simply, these two, obey His commission, go, that's what He says in verse 3, go, and to trust His provision, which includes His protection as well.

[9:24] So, obey His commission, trust His provision, the disciples' priority. prosperity. And then fourth, the disciples' preaching. And I use the word preaching in the very general sense as something that we all are to do, not vocational preachers, we're not all called to do that, but preaching in the sense of proclaiming.

[9:48] The disciples' preaching, verse 9, and heal the sick there, which, as I explained, was merely the way to validate the truthfulness of the message.

[10:01] Heal the sick there and say to them, here's what you just say to them, the kingdom of God has come near you. Now, that's not the entire message, that's not all that they preach, but that sums it up.

[10:13] And so, we can say, essentially, they were preaching or to be declaring the rule of God, that's what the word kingdom means, the rule of God has come near to you.

[10:24] Why? Because the king himself is here. The Lord Jesus, the Messiah, has come, and we want to tell you about him, and we want to tell you why he has come, and we want to tell you what he has done for you.

[10:36] That's our message, basically. That's the gospel. That's the good news, and it is good news. All right, so all of that we looked at last time.

[10:48] And that leads us to the fifth and final thing in this passage, and what I want us to focus on this morning. That is what I want to call the disciples' prospect.

[11:01] The disciples' prospect. As an obedient disciple of Christ, your perspective should be right.

[11:14] Countless millions in this world today are ripe for God's harvest of judgment, judgment. But those who must warn them, those who must offer the salvation of Christ are few.

[11:27] And as a disciple of Christ, your prayer is right, or should be, Lord, send out laborers into your harvest. And as a disciple, an obedient disciple of Christ, your priorities are right.

[11:42] Go! Trust in God for everything. His protection, His provision. And as a disciple, an obedient disciple of Christ, your preaching is right.

[11:55] The good news that the kingdom has come because Jesus has come. And so, what then is your prospect? What is your prospect concerning the results of your witnessing?

[12:11] Your proclaiming the truths of the gospel? What is your prospect? That is, what can you expect to happen? Well, the short answer is, you can expect one of two things to happen.

[12:31] And this is not complicated. We all know this. You can expect either the reception of the gospel or you can expect the rejection of the gospel. The reception of the gospel or the rejection of the gospel and that is clear in verse 5, but whatever house you enter, first say, peace to this house.

[12:52] That is, share the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ or the kingdom of God. Peace to this house. That's your message. And verse 6, if a son of peace is there, that is, someone ready to receive it, then what?

[13:10] Your peace, your message of peace, the gospel message will rest on it. That is, salvation will come to that house. And so, on the one hand, the disciples' prospect is some will receive the gospel.

[13:25] Praise the Lord. Some will. But on the other hand, notice the last part of verse 6, if not.

[13:37] Two very sad words, but two words that point to a reality. If not, it, that is the gospel, will return to you.

[13:51] It will return to you. That is, the gospel that you preach will be rejected. Verse 10, also by implication, but whatever city you enter, you enter, and they do not receive you.

[14:07] The idea being, they reject your message. Some will reject the message. In fact, I really believe that more reject it than receive it.

[14:18] But it's a reality. That's the prospect of a disciple. Some will receive the gospel and some will reject the gospel. Right? I mean, there could be no debate about that.

[14:29] It's just a simple reality. But Jesus takes this a step further. He further defines what we can expect.

[14:41] According to verses 5 and 6, the gospel received brings peace. Peace. That is, justification before God. Salvation.

[14:53] So, the gospel received brings peace. But, according to verses 12 through 16, the gospel rejected brings punishment.

[15:05] Brings punishment. I know that's not politically correct. But it is the truth of Scripture. It brings punishment. judgment from God.

[15:18] So, gospel received brings peace, justification before God. Gospel rejected brings punishment or the judgment from God.

[15:28] And there is no middle ground. No third possibility. Reception or rejection.

[15:42] Peace. Peace with God. or punishment. Punishment from God. But I want you to notice as we go really further into this passage that Jesus even takes this a step further.

[16:02] And he touches on a point of theology that may be I think unfamiliar to many of us. We could identify that theology this way.

[16:12] in the final judgment of the wicked there will be varying degrees or levels of punishment.

[16:26] Have you ever heard that before? Let me say that again. In the final judgment of the wicked there will be varying degrees or levels of punishment.

[16:39] we're talking about degrees of punishment in hell. The Bible clearly teaches this. This precept let's call it a precept a teaching of scripture.

[16:54] And Luke chapter 10 verses 12 through 16 is one of several passages by the way in the Bible that contain this precept this truth. truth. And I want us to see this this morning well primarily because that's where we are in the gospel of Luke is we must see what is taught here.

[17:13] And so I want us to see this first of all to help us understand this important precept of scripture because I want us to understand all the precepts of scripture. That's why we want to go systematically through the Bible and discover all of God's truth.

[17:29] And that's true of every message that we preach. But secondly I want to preach this because it should help us understand how serious it is to reject God and his Christ and his gospel.

[17:46] It's serious. And then third to give us a burden for unbelieving Americans living in this Christ gospel saturated country.

[18:02] give us a burden for our own country. Now I would divide Jesus' teaching on this precept into three parts. And here they are on the front end.

[18:15] First that precept, the degrees of punishment in hell, the precept specified. It's where Jesus first introduces the precept to us.

[18:27] It's specified. And then third the precept exemplified. He's going to provide some examples for us. And then third the precept clarified.

[18:38] He's going to make it crystal clear. So the precept specified, exemplified, and clarified. First of all the precept specified.

[18:54] We know that Jesus is instructing his disciples here. There's 70 of them or if you wish 72. And he wants them to know what they can expect when they go out to proclaim the gospel in these cities out in advance of Jesus coming.

[19:11] He wants them to know what they can expect. We've already talked about it. And according to Jesus they can fully expect that some will receive it but they can also fully expect that many will reject it, reject the gospel.

[19:23] And so he says to them when that happens, when they reject it, when that happens, you should warn them of the consequences of rejecting God and his provision of salvation.

[19:37] That's basically what he's doing here. Warn them. Look at what he says in verse 10 following, but whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, the very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you as a testimony against you.

[19:58] And they would literally do that. They would go out into the city square, the Billy Square, and they would dust off, you know, brush off the dust off of their clothing and off of their feet and sandals.

[20:10] And it was a custom of the day. It was something very profound. And it would be a symbol that we are against, this is a testimony against you, against your rejection of us and our message.

[20:26] And this, of course, again, was a customary thing for the day, according to the culture of the day. And it's not something that the Bible is trying to teach us to do today.

[20:37] It's not saying, you know, when people do that, if you go into somebody's house and you share the gospel and they reject you, go out into the front yard and say, hey, look here, and you dust yourself, you brush yourself.

[20:47] It's not to cross over into our culture, it's simply to fortify the warning that they're about to give. And the warning is something that does apply for today.

[20:59] We ought to get this. Because then he says, notice this, nevertheless, this is what they're to say, nevertheless, know this. So they brush themselves off and they say to the people of that city, know this, the kingdom of God has come near.

[21:21] What does that mean? Are they just simply repeating the gospel? No. This is a warning. It means you people are in big trouble.

[21:34] trouble. Big trouble with God. The kingdom of God has come near because the king himself has come.

[21:45] And, verse 12, it will be, here's the precept, it will be more tolerable in that day. What day is that? Well, Matthew 11, 24, parallel passage tells us that this is talking about the day of judgment.

[22:00] So he's saying it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom of all places, of all people. It will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that city.

[22:13] That is, that city that has rejected the gospel, rejected Jesus. It's a warning, a very strong warning. And by the way, just as a side note, Jesus' instructions here are clearly contrary to the way evangelism is typically done in our day.

[22:32] And I say, I mean, the way we typically end our sharing of the gospel, especially when it's rejected. Now think about it. You know, when we share the gospel with somebody, maybe it's a friend, a stranger, whoever it may be, we try to come with the right attitude, and we try to show genuine compassion, and we try to have a sense of urgency in that we are compelling them to trust Christ, and we try to be very wise and methodical in the way we lay out the gospel from scripture, and we trust God for the results, don't we?

[23:07] Well, I hope we do. But what happens when they say no? What happens, what do we do when the gospel is refused?

[23:22] Well, we usually just politely leave, or end our discussion. we might say, imparting, I will pray for you, which is fine, but what does Jesus tell us to do?

[23:43] Well, he told the 70 to warn them, and we don't generally do that, do we? and we kind of rationalize, we think, well, we need to keep an open door, and there's some truth to that, and when I say warn them, I don't mean to be ugly, or condemning, but warn them of the consequences.

[24:13] And really, when it comes to those who reject the gospel, those kind of gospel interviews, or proclamations where the one listening rejects, refuses the gospel, the final word in evangelistic, that kind of evangelistic endeavor, should be a warning, a warning, because the future is very, very bad for those who reject Christ.

[24:38] isn't that right? Their future is very bad, extremely bad, now how bad will it be?

[24:49] Well, Jesus said it will be worse for them than it will be for the people of Sodom. I don't know how you could state it any stronger.

[25:03] I'm not saying you need to state it that way. but this is, Jesus is emphasizing in the strongest possible way a truth that we need to understand.

[25:21] It will be worse for them, those who reject the clear presentation of the gospel, it will be worse for them on the day of judgment than it will be for the people of ancient Sodom.

[25:36] And why? Because they did not have Jesus. And they did not have the complete revelation of God's redemptive plan.

[25:47] They did not have that. We have that today. And so you see, here's the precept specified, the torment of hell will not be equal for everyone who goes there.

[26:01] Now, hell is hell and not any part of it's good. don't misunderstand me. There will be degrees of punishment. Listen, and here's why.

[26:14] The more of God's truth you've been given, the more light you have, we want to put it in that way, divine light that you have been given by the grace of God.

[26:24] We've been given a lot of light. The more light you have, the more severe will be your punishment if you reject it.

[26:36] This is a warning. Do you understand that? Hebrews 10, you can turn to it, Hebrews 10, 26, if you'd like to look at it as I read portions of it.

[26:53] Hebrews 10, 26 is another passage that deals with this very same precept, though it is put in even stronger words.

[27:06] Hebrews 10, 26, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, and I'm not talking about salvation here.

[27:20] I'm talking about hearing the truth and even receiving it as the truth. All right, this is true. so if you just go on, sin willfully after you have received the knowledge of the truth, if you have heard the full truth about Christ, if you understand intellectually the truth of the gospel, but rather than believing it, you willfully continue on in your sin and you willfully continue on rejecting Christ and you continue to reject the conditions of the gospel, which are repentance and faith, then he says there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

[28:11] That is, at the very least, there will be no salvation for you. Why? Because there is no other sacrifice for sins other than the cross.

[28:24] There is no other provision for salvation and eternity other than the Lord Jesus Christ. But go on, and here is what you have to look forward to if you reject the gospel.

[28:37] Rather than salvation, you have a certain fearful expectation of judgment. That is what you have. And fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries, that is all who spurn the gospel, reject the gospel.

[28:54] Horrifying verse when you agree. But it gets worse. in verse 28 of Hebrews 10, anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

[29:11] What is he talking about there? That is in the Old Testament economy, the Old Testament times, it was a serious, very serious thing to violate the law of Moses. And so there were serious, severe, deadly consequences for disobedience.

[29:28] Listen to what comes next of how much worse punishment, do you suppose? Will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, set apart a common thing, an unholy thing, and insulted the spirit of grace?

[29:55] Folks, that's what unbelief does. that's what rejection of the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Christ, that's what it does. It stomps on Christ, it spits at the cross, and it slaps away the hand of grace.

[30:14] The punishment, you see, will be far worse for unbelievers living on this side of the cross. it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Sodom than for you or anyone here today if you reject Christ and if you reject the gospel.

[30:36] The precepts specify. Second, this precept exemplified. Exemplified. Jesus offers a number of examples to illustrate the precept concerning degrees of punishment.

[30:51] He mentions here by name six cities. Six cities as examples. Three Old Testament cities, Gentile cities, and three New Testament cities, Jewish cities.

[31:12] Three and three. Three from the old, three from the new, and he makes a comparison here that exemplifies this precept about degrees of punishment in hell.

[31:25] Sodom, of course, is the most familiar one in the list. Wouldn't you agree? We know all about Sodom. Sodom is the poster child for perversion. Think about it.

[31:37] Homosexuality, perversions of every kind, extreme, and wickedness, and idolatry, and not only is Sodom the poster child for perversion.

[31:49] Sodom was also the prototype of God's judgment. Fire and brimstone. And so what Jesus said was, I think you ought to understand, was inconceivable to the Jewish ear, the Jewish listeners.

[32:08] It is going, basically saying to them, it's going to be hotter in hell for any Jewish city that rejects me than it will be for the ancient Gentile city of Sodom.

[32:26] That's something that the Jews, my goodness, they would not have received that well. And then the Old Testament Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and we don't know hardly anything about them.

[32:43] I mean, just a little scant information. According to Genesis 10, the Canaanite city of Sidon was idolatrous, cruel, wicked, satanic. According to Ezekiel 28, the king of Tyre of that city was a personification of Satan himself.

[33:02] And both Isaiah and Ezekiel prophesied the judgment of Tyre and Sidon. That's what we know about those cities, and that's about it. But again, what does Jesus do?

[33:13] He compares their judgment to the Jews, to his listeners, justifiable judgment. He compares their judgment with the judgment that will one day overcome the people of the three contemporary cities of his day, whose judgment will be much more severe than that of Tyre and Sidon.

[33:34] That's what he says. He says, verse 13, woe to you, Chorazin, or that is, curses on you, Chorazin. Woe or curses upon you, Bethsaida.

[33:46] And verse 15, and you, Capernaum. So he mentions these three cities, contemporary cities, contemporary in his day. Now what do we know about these cities? Well, next to nothing.

[33:59] Really. Just a little bit of information. We know all three, geographically, all three of these cities were in close proximity, and they were there at the tip of, near the tip of the Sea of Galilee.

[34:16] And so they were kind of a cluster of communities right in that one spot. We know Capernaum, a little bit better than the other two, Capernaum was the principal city in that area.

[34:28] It was the headquarters of Jesus during his Galilean ministry. So that was important. Important city. Very blessed city. I mean, they had Jesus. He, that was their, they were his headquarters.

[34:42] And then Chorazin was just a small town, a couple of miles from Capernaum, and we don't know a single thing about it. And then Bethsaida, another very small community, northwest of Capernaum.

[35:00] The only thing we know about it was that it happened to be the home of Andrew and Peter and Philip. And that's it. Now listen, we don't have anything stated in Scripture other than some inference of Jesus' words here.

[35:22] We don't have anything stated in Scripture that points to any particular wickedness of these three cities. And that is exactly the point. You see, these people had been repeatedly exposed to Jesus, his teachings and his miracles, and they did not attempt to throw him off of a cliff like the folks at Nazareth, and they did not try to stone him.

[35:50] They did not even ask him to leave. So what is the big deal? What's the problem here? Why identify these three cities? Nothing, you know, outstandingly wicked about these cities.

[36:05] At least from our perspective. Well, theirs was evidently a passive rejection of Jesus. It's kind of passive, respectful rejection of Jesus.

[36:18] Theirs was a kind of a polite refusal of the gospel message. And Jesus says, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

[36:28] Why? Why? Because of their, you know, extreme, lavish sin and wickedness? Not necessarily. Woe to them, he said, because for if the mighty works which were done in you, that is, you witness these things, if those mighty works that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, those overtly wicked cities, they would have repented long ago.

[36:56] they would have repented. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. Today, Chorazin no longer exists, by the way.

[37:11] Bethsaida no longer exists on the map. But, the point is, her people will stand, the people of that day who died, who perished, who rejected Jesus, the people of her day will stand at the great white throne of judgment and receive a greater punishment than the vile, wicked, satanic people of Tyre and Sidon.

[37:36] That's what Jesus said. And then Jesus said, and you, Capernaum, who are exalted in heaven, I think the idea there is a self-exaltation.

[37:48] They thought much about themselves. He said, you will be brought down to Hades. I know Hades sometimes refers to the grave, but here, the right opposite, to juxtapose to the word heaven, then we know we're talking, he's talking about hell.

[38:06] You shall be brought down to hell. And so today, Capernaum no longer exists, and in fact, it's not been until just recent times that archaeologists have found any evidence of Capernaum, and maybe its location.

[38:21] But the point is, the people of that city who perished rejecting Christ are going to stand before God and receive a greater judgment than those who have never heard of Christ.

[38:37] Now, I want to make a clear connection here then between the truth that Jesus is teaching in this passage.

[38:48] and the people of our cities. I think it's right to make this connection. I think it is the point.

[39:04] Compare what he's teaching to the people of our cities, Bartels will include it. Compare that to the that multiplied millions of Americans.

[39:19] I want to make that comparison. But before I do, let me mention the third and final thing Jesus does with this precept. Precept specified, the precept exemplified.

[39:30] Third, the precept clarified. Jesus makes it very clear the consequences of rejecting him are eternal and severe.

[39:47] Verse 16, he who hears you hears me. All right, we know that. Some will receive it. They hear your gospel message, then what they really are doing is hearing me.

[39:59] He who rejects you rejects me. But he doesn't end there. and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.

[40:14] Now, I hope you understand what Jesus is saying. He's saying when you are faithful and share the gospel with someone who's lost, you share the gospel of the kingdom of God and when you do that and when people reject it, well, they're not rejecting you per se.

[40:39] They're rejecting Jesus. Right? And when they reject Jesus, they are rejecting the only God there is.

[40:56] You understand? them. They're rejecting the only God there is and therefore the only salvation that is available. He's making this very clear.

[41:12] And the consequences of that are severe and they are eternal. what about America?

[41:30] Does any of this apply to the citizens of this most favored nation among nations historically? And that's not just you know, a kind of personal national pride I'm talking about.

[41:44] historically we have been the most prosperous favored nation among all nations.

[41:59] This quote Christian nation end quote what does that even mean?

[42:12] Huh? What does that mean? Very rapid destruction of the sanctity of life in our culture where more and more people are all about death rather than life.

[42:37] whether it is the unborn or the infirm on opposite ends of the spectrum.

[42:51] We have been witnessing the destruction of the sanctity of life for pretty much all of our lifetime. There are some among us who remember a day when that was not an issue at all.

[43:05] Most of us have never known anything but that. The systematic destruction of any notion of the sanctity of human life in America.

[43:21] The destruction of the sanctity of the family. Well, we have come a long way down the road.

[43:36] redefining the family. Redefining marriage. I don't have to go into all the details.

[43:48] You know what I'm talking about. And even the gradual destruction of a society that seeks to nurture our children being destroyed.

[44:06] A deterioration of religious liberty. And I'm talking about specifically for those who are true biblical Christians.

[44:20] It seems like it's all right. You can be free as long as you're not a biblical evangelical Christian. The demise, and I'm just kind of throwing a few things out here.

[44:37] It's just where we are as a country, a Christian nation. The demise of judicial integrity.

[44:48] What do you mean? Will you just watch closely at what they're doing with our constitution? That's really in the legal sense at the heart of the redefining marriage, the opening up our society for homosexual marriage.

[45:16] The legalization of marijuana. But then we shouldn't be too concerned. It's no more dangerous than alcohol.

[45:30] It isn't. What does this teaching in Luke 10 say about America, specifically Americans?

[45:43] Think about it. over 200 years of Christianity. That's America. You travel to China and most of the Christians you meet are first generation Christians.

[46:01] Most of us in this room are Christian, not all of us, but most of us. We are multiple generations. We can't remember a time, don't know of a time that our family was not Christian.

[46:17] Over 200 years, a Christian nation. And think about it, we have in America today, I'll just throw some things out here to you, approximately estimated 75 million people who claim to be born-again evangelicals in America.

[46:44] And we'll just give most of them the benefit of the doubt who are not only witnessing of the gospel, but living as living demonstrations of the gospel.

[46:54] I know that's not true of all 75 million, I even doubt the figure, but they say 75 million evangelical Christians. If you cut that in half, that's a lot of evangelical Christians in our nation today.

[47:10] 314,000 evangelical churches. In most parts of our country, there are more churches than gas stations. And they say approximately 600,000 pastors and other ministers of the gospel.

[47:33] 600,000 in America. 251 theological seminaries. That's not even counting college level, Christian colleges.

[47:50] Listen to this. Six billion copies of the Bible are sold in America every year. Do you know where I'm going with this?

[48:05] an estimated 1,050 Christian radio stations on the airways.

[48:17] Many of them 24-7. A lot of those non-stop preaching and teaching of the gospel. They're not all, you know, doing that.

[48:29] Some just music and the gospel is in some of that music. Not all of it. But over 1,000 Christian radio stations in this country.

[48:43] And I could go on and on. And, you know, the amount of para-church ministries in our nation.

[48:54] Like VOM. Of course, there are reaches out beyond our nation, but their influence is still here in this country. And focus on the family. And you could go on and on with these very solid, biblical, para-church ministries in America.

[49:12] Think about it. Historically, I think you'd have to agree with me that America has been the most Christianized nation on the face of the earth. earth. Now, how do you reconcile those two things?

[49:28] Where we are morally and culturally as a nation. And the saturation of the gospel in this country.

[49:40] And the freedom to preach it. Though that freedom is deteriorating. We still are free to preach it and teach it and live it. We don't have to worry.

[49:54] We don't even give it a thought that the government officials are going to storm this place and dismiss us by gunpoint.

[50:08] What a nation. The most Christianized nation there ever was. Possibly ever will be. But here's the point.

[50:19] What will the judgment be like for those Americans who have all that truth and yet still reject Christ?

[50:35] What will be the judgment? Well, let's make this real personal. What about you?

[50:46] some of you here are here today. What about you? Thank you.