GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. ROMANS [10: 1-15.]

 IT IS A SATISFYING EXPERIENCE, WHEN AFTER A LONG JOURNEY, WE HAVE FINALLY, BY CAREFUL PLANNING AND COMPETENT DIRECTION, ARRIVED AT OUR DESTINATION, SAFE AND SOUND. IT COULD HAVE BEEN OTHERWISE. THE LIFE WE LIVE NOW IS A JOURNEY. WE ARE PILGRIMS AND THE EARTHLY TABERNACLE, OUR BODY, WILL SOME DAY BE DISSOLVED. SOMETIMES IT IS A LONG JOURNEY, AND SOMETIMES IT IS A SHORT WHEN MEASURED IN TERMS OF YEARS, MONTHS AND DAYS;  BUT MEASURED IN TERMS OF THE ENDLESS AND UNENDING ETERNITY IT IS VERY SHORT. IT IS NOT A PLEASENT JOURNEY. IT IS A JOURNEY THROUGH A LONG AND DREARY WILDERNESS, FILLED WITH DANGEOUS PIT FALLS, ON ALL SIDES. THE ROAD IS POSTED WITH MISDIRECTIONS SET UP BY SATAN AND HIS AGENTS, DESIGNED TO LEAD US ATRAY. IT IS A JOURNEY THROUGH A WORLD FILLED WITH WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS, DISHONESTY, SELFISHNESS HATE, SLANDER- A WORLD OF SIN WHICH CAN GIVE TO THE WANDERER ONLY A SPIRIT OF FRUSTRATION, DISMAY, AND INSECURITY. AND THE DESTINATION OF THAT JOURNEY? IT IS A JOURNEY BACK TO GOD. FROM GOD WE CAME, AND BACK TO HIM WE MUST GO WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT. ALL OF US MUST SOMEDAY COME INTO HIS PRESENCE. " IT IS APPOINTED UNTO MEN ONCE TO DIE, BUT AFTER THIS JUDGMENT. GOD! IS GOD FORGIVING?  FOR OUR MISTAKES AND SINS? BIBLE SAYS SO! THE IMPORTANT QUESTION IS: CAN WE STAND IN HIS PRESENCE?  WILLWE BE
PERMITTED TO STAY IN HIS PRESENCE ETERNALLY. DOES THIS FILL OUR HEARTS WITH FEAR OR PEACE. IN PEACE IF CHRIST IS OUR ADVOCATE. HE WILL SAY HE IS ONE OF OURS. EVEN MOSES HAD TO CONFESS, I EXCEEDLY FEAR AND QUAKE.
I'M GOING TO TELL YOU A STORY! HAVE YOU EVER HAD THE HEART-WARMING EXPERIENCE IN LIFE OF HAVING A LITTLE CHILD CUDDLE UP IN YOU LAP WITH THE REQUEST TO TELL THEM A STORY. IN ONE RESPECT, I SUPPOSE, CHILDREN ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE VERY MUCH THE SAME. IN EVERY AGE THEY HAVE LOVED TO LISTEN TO THRILLING TALES OF ADVENTURE AND DARING, STRIKING LEGENDS OF FANTASY AND MAKE BELIEVE. EVEN UNBELIEVERS WHO HEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME THE STORY OF HOPE AND SALVATION READILY AD MIT THAT THERE IS NOTHING IN HISTORY, FOLKLORE, FABLE, OR LEGEND WHICH CAN EVER BEGIN TO COMPARE WITH THIS RECORD OF MANS REDEMPTION FROM SIN AND ITS CURSE. WITHOUT DOUBT, THE SUFFERING AND DEATH OF GOD'S SON.
 THE APOSTLE PAUL, THE AUTHOR OF OUR MESSAGE TODAY, HAD ONE AIM AND PURPOSE IN LIFE. FROM THE DRAMATIC MOMENT OF CONVERSATION, ON THE DAMASCUS ROAD, HE WAS ALWAYS ON THE MOVE, PREACHING ABOUT JESUS, WITNESSING TO JESUS, SUFFERING FOR JESUS  AN THE REASON FOR IT ALL?  PAUL EXPRESSES  HIS GOAL IN LIFE, AND INCIDENTALLY GIVES EVERY CHRISTIAN SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT., WHEN HE PRAYS IN THE FIRST VERSE OF THE TENTH CHAPTER, OF ROMANS " THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED." EVEN THOUGH GOD HAD CALLED HIM AS THE APOSTLES TO THE GENTILES, HE WAS NONETHELESS INTENSELY CONCERNED ABOUT THE SALVATION OF HIS OOWN COUNTRYMEN, THE JEWS. THEIR ETERNAL WELFARE WAS ALWAYS ON HIS HEART AND IN HIS PRAYERS.
OH, THESE JEWS WERE A RELIGIOUS PEOPLE ALL RIGHT. PAUL ADMITS THAT THEY VERY ZEALOUS TOWARD GOD. THEY WERE STRIVING CONSTANLY TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS. THEIR TIME WAS TAKEN UP WITH THE OBSERVANCE OF RELIGIOUS RITUALS, SACRIFICES, AND WASHINGS. THEIR LIVES WERE CAREFULLY AND METICULOUSLY CONTROLLED BY THE PROHIBITIONS AND PRECEPTS OF THE LAW. THE PHARISEES KEPT THEMSELVES BUSY INVENTING NEW COMMANDMENTS FOR THE PEOPLE TO KEEP. LONG BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST THERE WERE SOME WHO WORSHIPED THE FIRE god MOLOCH. AS PART OF THEIR RELIGIOUS RITUAL, THEY WOULD BUILD A FIRE INSIDE THE HOLLOW METAL STATUE OF THEIR IDOL, AND WHEN IT GLOWED RED-HOT, THEY WOULD CAST HELP-LESS INFANTS INTO HIS OUT STRETCHED ARMS, THUS FRYING THEM TO DEATH AS A TOKEN OF THEIR LOVE AND DEVOTIONS. WHEN A  VOLCANO WOULD ERUPT IN THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG MAIDEN WOULD SOMETIMES BE CAST AS A LIVING SACRIFICE INTO THE CALDRON OF THE CRATER TO APPEASE THE WRATH OF THE DEITIES. UNTIL THE BRITISH SUCCEEDED IN STOPPING THE CUSTOM A GENERATION AGO. MANY HINDUS SOUGHT WHAT THEY BELIEVED WAS OBLIVION OF THE HEREAFTER. THEY NEEDED TO BE TOLD THE "GREAT STORY" AND TO BE RID OF THESES HORRIBLE PRACTICES, AND LOOK AT ROMANS 1); VERSE 9: IF THOU SHALT CONFESS WITH THY MOUTH THE LORD JESUS
AND SHALL BELIEVE IN THY HEART THAT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, YOU SHALL BE SAVED. WE MUST TELL THE WORLD THAT NO ONE BUT CHRIST SAVES US.
WHEN WE KNOW BY OUR OWN EXPERIENCE WHAT " THOSE WONDERFUL WORDS OF LIFE,"  CAN DO FOR US., THEN WE WILL BE READY TO TELL OTHERS WHAT CHRIST CAN DO FOR THEIR SOULS. THAT'S GOD PLAN. CENTURIES AGO GOD CAME TO EZEKIEL, HANDED HIM A SCROLL WHICH HAD HIS MESSAGE TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WRITTEN UPON IT, THEN SPOKE THESE STRANGE WORDS, " EAT THE ROLL!"
 WELL HOW COULD EZEKIEL EAT A BOOK. " IMPOSIBLE," YOU SAY. WHAT THE LORD MEANT IS THIS. THAT HIS MESSAGE WAS TO ENTER INTO THE PROPHETS INNERMOST LIFE, EVEN AS THE FOOD WE EAT IS DIGESTED AND BECOMES PART OF US. THE WORD OF GOD WAS TO BE NOURISHMENT TO OUR SOUL. IT WAS TO BE INCORPORATED INTO HIS VERY NATURE. HE WAS TO LIVE, NOT BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDED OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD. WE MUST MAKE GOD'S WORD PART OF OUR VERY NATURE, SO THAT WE CAN MAKE GOD'S WORD PART OF OUR VERY NATURE, SO THAT WE CAN PROCLAIM IT TO OTHERS.
 ONLY THEN CAN WE BE SURE THAT WHEN WE SPEAK, WE ARE SPEAKING LITERALLYSPEAKING THE LORD'S, WORD TO OTHERS. THESE WORDS WERE NOT WRITTEN FOR THE HEBREWS ONLY: FOR THE LORD SAYS: "IF YOU CONTINUE IN MY WORD," THEN YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES. INDEED." THESE WORDS WERE WRITTEN FOR ALL BELIEVERS IN 1957. OUR LIFE IS A PILGRIMAGE. LOOK OVER YOUR PAST LIFE AND COUNT THE MANY TIMES YOU EXPERIENCED THE GUIDING AND SUSTAINING HAND OF THE LORD. THROUGH OUR FEAR AND DOUBT GOD HAS ASSURED US, AS HE DID THE DISCIPLES: " LO I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD." REMEMBER YOUR LIFE BELONGS TO GOD.