There's something that's so refreshing. It's like a cool glass of water
and you're so thirsty to hear someone just, as the Lord says,
go and tell them what the Lord's done for you. It's an amazing thing. to behold the goodness of God
in the redemption, in the regeneration, and in the keeping of His people. Turn with me to Romans 11, if
you would. I was thinking about what Brother
Carl was talking about in quoting and remembering Scripture, and
I do. I encourage. All of you here
that have children and grandchildren, so I'm talking to myself too,
you know, just teach your children and grandchildren the scripture.
That's what Paul told Timothy. He said, yeah, from your youth
up, your mama and your grandmama, they taught you the scriptures.
I got a little call the other day from Kelly Grace, my little
granddaughter. Hannah had her call me. And she
said, Papa, I've got a scripture. I said, OK, let's hear it. Ephesians
6.1. I knew, I knew. Listen, I didn't
drill this one into Hannah and those others. Children, obey
your parents in the Lord. This is right. I just praised
her. I was thankful. Thankful that
you'd teach her the Word of God. Romans 11. We're going to begin in a moment
in verse 26. I've entitled this, Who Shall
Be Saved? We talk a lot about salvation.
Salvation. The Apostle Paul had desired
of the Gentile brethren in verse 25 that they not be ignorant
of this revelation, this mystery. And this is the only way we would
know it, Paul said. The only way we would know what
was being said here is if God revealed it to us through a preacher. He said this, blindness in part
has happened to Israel. until the fullness, the completeness
of the Gentiles be come in, till the fullness, till all was full. And like I said, the best way
to understand a word in Scripture is see how that word is used. See how that word is used in
the Word of God. Let iron sharpen iron. Listen
to this, 1 Corinthians 10.26, The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof. How much do you think is His?
All of it. Colossians 1.19, For it pleased
the Father that in Him, that is, in Christ, should all fullness
dwell. How much of it do you think is
in Christ? All of it. Full. How much is left? How much
is left over? None. Fullness. So Paul said in verse 25, I would
not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this revelation,
yet ye should be wise in your own conceits. He is talking to
Gentiles. Blindness, in part, has happened
to Israel until all, all the Gentiles be brought in. The Lord
allowed blindness to the majority of the nation of Israel until
the elect Gentiles were called out of darkness. But you rest assured that blindness,
in part, meaning that all of Israel was going to be blinded.
That's what it means. Not all of Israel is going to
be blinded. It was according to God's will and purpose. He
does all things after the counsel of His own will. Is God right
in allowing a man to do what He wants to do and to leave him
in darkness? Is God right to do that? Yeah. Sure He is. Does the potter have
the right, the power over the same lump? I like to paint a little bit.
Let me ask you this. Just humanly speaking, if I bought
a canvas and I bought the paint and I bought the brushes and
I bought all the other stuff that goes with that. Do I have the right, humanly
speaking, to paint whatever I want to paint? Yes. Why? It is mine. Does the potter
have the right over the same lump to do whatsoever he is pleased
to do? before the foundation of the
world had a people within the Gentile nations that he would
call out. But he has a people out of natural
Israel that he's going to call out to. This is a great mystery. It's the glory of God. This is
what Proverbs 25 says, it is the glory of God to conceal a
thing. Does God have the right to do
whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do it, in whatever
way He wants to do it? Does God have a right to do that? I'm going to tell you something.
God made this world, and He made it because He wanted to make
it. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He
told Job one day, Job asked him, A couple of disrespectful questions.
You go back and read this. This thought just came to my
mind. I have to go back and find it. But the Lord told Job, He
said, Where were you when I laid the foundations of this world?
Where were you when I made the mystery of the snow? Won't you
gird up your loins and you answer me like a man? You think you've
got all the answers, Job? Where were you when I made this? God does what He does because
He does it. Because He wants to. Well, verse
26, let's start here. Romans 11, 26, And so all Israel
shall be saved. All spiritual Israel is going
to be saved. Well, it says that all Israel
is going to be saved. Well, yeah, John 3, 16 says,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
Does that mean that God loved everyone without distinction?
No. How do you know? Because God said he didn't. I've
said before, I can tell you one for sure. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. Does God have a right to do whatever
he does? Who am I to say that God doesn't
have the right to say or do what he says he does. Who am I? Who art thou? That's what Paul's
saying. Who art thou, old man, that replies against God? You
know what the problem is? Starting right here in my flesh
and everybody else too, we think we're smarter than we are. We've
got a bad attitude, Mitch, is what we've got. We've got a bad
attitude. All Israel is going to be saved.
Everyone that was chosen in Christ to be holy and without blame
before Him in love, that the Lord would allow blindness in
part to come to until He called them out of darkness, is going
to be saved. Remember this, Romans 9, 6, for
they are not all Israel that are of Israel. What did Paul
say? They're not all spiritual Israel.
See, men read something and they say, well, that just settles
it. All Israel is going to be saved. Well, what about those
that's already died and left this world in unbelief? What
about them? It says all Israel. So if you're
going to make that without distinction, you're going to have to go back. I've got a question here, right,
wrong or indifferent, I'm going to ask this question. When I
was growing up, I grew up, well until I was a little kid, in a religion that taught that
it was a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday. I believe that too. They told me it was a mortal
sin. You die with a mortal sin. It was a mortal sin or venial
sin. Mortal sins would send you to hell and venial sins would
send you to purgatory. And I grew up thinking that if
I died eating meat on Friday, and I didn't go to confession
before I got that thing absorbed, I was going to hell. But they
changed that. They changed that. Now, it's
not a mortal sin anymore to eat meat on Friday. Well, what about
all those that died before? I mean, is it like grandfathered
in? Is there two standards here? All Israel is going to be saved,
means all of the spiritual Israel, all of the true people of God. As it is written, there shall
come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. Now, let me ask you this. Exactly
what is Sion? There should come out of Sion
the deliverer. Turn to Psalm 48, 2. Psalm 48,
2. This is a blessed passage of
Scripture. This is one of those, Brother
Carl, that we grew up to. There was a little jingle. It's
a great little jingle, little song, because it quotes this. But this is how I can remember
this one. Psalm 48, verse 2. It says, beautiful for situation,
the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the
north, the city of the great king. Boy, I would sing that
little song, you know, beautiful for situation, joy of the whole
earth, Mount Zion. But the only problem is I just
didn't know what he meant. Beautiful for situation. Beautiful
for situation. Now there's a word, beautiful
for situation. It means elevated. On high. Beautiful for situation. It means beautifully elevated. Beautiful for situation. The
joy of the whole earth or the delight of the earth. What, of
everybody? Is everybody without distinction? No. You know that. It means those
out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, all of the
earth, Jew and Gentile, all of them, the joy of the whole earth. Those called out of darkness
and given a new heart to love Christ, to love the gospel of
free grace. Beautifully elevated. It's everyone
out of every place that God Almighty has given a new understanding
of Christ. It's Mount Zion on the sides
of the north. The sides of the north. What
does that mean? Actually. The interpretation
of that is the recesses of the dark, the sides of the north. The recesses of the dark, that's
what that's what it means, you look up and just. I would have
never gotten that out of the sides of the north. But that
the recesses of the door Mount Zion. The church, the bride of
the Lord Jesus is found in the midst of the darkness of this world, the city of the great King. This
is what it says, beautifully elevated, and the delight of
Jew and Gentile, elect, regenerated, called out of darkness by God
Almighty, is the church. Mount Zion. She is found in the
recesses of the darkness of this world. Where is she? Some here
and some there, where Almighty God has placed her. It is darkness
over this whole earth, but not everywhere. Some places, there
are some that God has called out of darkness, and in that
place there is a candlestick of God's grace. There's a light
that burns brightly, not ashamed. There's the city of the great
king. That's where God Almighty has made his residence. That's
what it means. And that's what makes her beautiful.
Beautifully elevated is the church. She's found in recesses of the
dark. And God dwells in her. God tabernacles
in her. Know ye not that ye are the temple
of the living God? What makes her beautiful? God's
there. Back in Romans 11, so all Israel
shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. He will remove the lack of reverence
for God. He will remove that lack of reverence. He will turn away the disrespect
that man by nature has for God Almighty. Who is He going to
do that for? The Jacobs of this world. Jacob have I loved, disrespectful
in himself. Oh, I think about when Jacob
wrestled with the man, the Lord Himself, wrestled with him all
night. The Lord, the man, says, he told
Jacob, he said, let me go. Jacob said, I can't. Would you let him go? Would you? Let me go. I can't. Let me go. Not unless you bless me. Touched his thigh. Haul over
his thigh. Jacob limped the rest of his
life and remembered. What's your name? That's what
the man asked him. He said, Jacob. He said, not anymore. You'll
be called Israel. Prince with God. He went through
the rest of his life realizing and remembering because God had
touched the hollow. He showed him, this is what you
are. You are helpless without me. His name is not Jacob anymore. It is Israel. Yeah, but Jacob
said, yeah, but I remember. It hurts me right here when I
walk. Yeah, but God said you are Israel. Who is going to be saved? All
Israel, those that God called Israel, those that God said is
affectionate, now that is who is going to be saved. Verse 27,
For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away
their sins. Boy, how unsearchable are the
secret counsels of Almighty God. This is my need. Paul said, My
God shall supply all your need. What do I need? Now you think
about this. What do I need? You know, I could
sit here and start making a long list of things that I need. You
know what I need? I need Him. I need Christ. Well, in Him all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily dwells. If I have Him, I have everything. Him, the church, that one that
God has made an eternal covenant with in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He made a covenant, a contract,
and what God demanded, God supplied. I will make a covenant unto them. How am I going to know the consolation? How am I going to know the end
of? How am I going to know that God
has done exactly what He said He's going to do? I'll make a
covenant with them when I shall take away their sins. What were
the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary? It's finished. And the Scripture says He gave
up the ghost. finished. All that was demanded. What was
demanded? Absolute perfection. Obedience to God's laws. He said, this is my meat to do the will of my Father.
What was demanded? What did Ezekiel reveal was demanded
of God? Turn yourself. Make yourself
a new will, a new spirit. Repent. What's demanded? What was demanded of me, He supplied. What do I need? I need Him. Lord,
if I be found in You, if God looks on me as He sees You, I'm okay. If Almighty God has shown
mercy to me in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, This is
my covenant. I will take away their sins. All Israel is going to be saved. Why? Because God says, I promised
you, I am going to take away your guilt. Verse 28, that is
concerning the gospel. Paul is talking about Israel
that was sent to Israel first, natural Israel. As concerning
the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, pertaining to their rejection
of the gospel, which made them enemies in their minds." See,
that's how all of us were. And you who were enemies in your
minds, hath he reconciled. I love that because never in
God's mind. Have I ever been an enemy of
God? If God Almighty has everlastingly loved me, have I ever been an
enemy of God in His mind? No. And you who were enemies
in your mind hath He reconciled." They rejected the gospel, but
they did it according to God's good pleasure. He left them. That's what verse 25 says. Blindness
in parts happened to Israel until God is pleased to bring in the
Gentiles that He has everlastingly loved. Blindness was sent for the sake
of the Gentiles as concerning the gospel, their enemies, for
your sakes. But as touching the election,
they are beloved for the Father's sakes. as touching. Same word as concerning,
concerning the gospel, touching the election, same word. The
choosing of God. God made a covenant with Himself
for His people in Christ and revealed it with the fathers
of the Jews. That promise wasn't found on
any merit What was there about Abraham that would cause God
to look upon Abraham in any kind of favor for Abraham's sake? None. None. You think about Noah. God looked, and this is what
he saw. Every thought of every imagination
of every man, every woman, everybody, everybody, everybody. Was Noah
found in that group? Yes. Every thought and every
imagination was evil continually. But, oh my, what a wonderful word,
but God, Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. What was it about Noah? that
made Him any different than anybody else. What was the difference
between Noah being found in that ark and those that were outside
of the ark that perished in the flood? What was the difference?
The grace of God. What's the difference in you
or me and any other person in this community or this state
or this nation or this world? What's the difference? Nothing
but the grace of God. It wasn't because I was smarter.
I'm telling you, you're looking at a guy that is really, I mean,
I am embarrassed because of my ignorance. I mean, there's times
that I have to read something four times, five times. Sometimes I'll read it, Carl,
and I think, I don't even know what I just read. I have no idea. Ignorant. Go back and read something
and look that word up. is touching the gospel, their
enemies, for your sakes, but touching the election, their
beloved, for the Father's sakes. Scripture says in Deuteronomy
10, 15, Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them.
And He chose their seed after them, even you, above all people,
as it is today. What was it about anybody, past,
present, or future, but for the grace of God Verse 29 says, For
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. The gifts. The applied blessings of God's
grace. That's what it means. The gifts.
The applied blessings of God's grace. I'm going to deal with
this subject in the book of Acts, Lord willing, the next time.
Talking about the gifts. What is it about Why one person,
one man, one woman has got a gift, a blessing of God, a desire to
do what they do. Why? Why is it that God would
call one man to preach or another man to be a deacon or an elder
or another one to a woman to do that? Why does God do that? Because it's a body. And not
all the body has the same parts. I've got different parts. I've
only got two hands. And these two hands don't do
what these feet do. And these hands don't see. But I'm thankful
for my eyes. And I can hear and I can smell.
But every one of them works in harmony. In the body of Christ,
how much grace, how much mercy does it take for any person in
here to do what they do. How much mercy? All. All of them. And Paul says, don't say, well,
because I'm not an eye, I must not be part of the body. I am so thankful for those that
do what they do. Those of you that do what you
do. Fred, thank you for recording
this this morning. Linda, thank you for putting
that on the Internet. Carl, thank you for reading and thinking.
Because I'm not an eye, because I'm not standing here, man, I
thank God for you. I need your fellowship. I need
your prayers. I need your encouragement. I
thank God that we're here this morning. Abadi, Lord, and He
raised up the gifts and the calling of God. Are without repentance,
that means they're irrevocable. God everlastingly. That's what. Verse 29, the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. Even so, no, no, I'm sorry, verse
34, for as ye in times past have not believed God yet now have
obtained mercy through their unbelief. Even so, have these
also now not believe that through your mercy they also may obtain
mercy. God who doesn't change has set
forth that these Jews that didn't believe the gospel, that because
they didn't believe, God sent the gospel to the Gentiles. Those
Gentiles who at that time, generally speaking, were unbelievers, It
was the most idiotic thing to a Jew that a Gentile would believe
God. But through the unbelief of the
Jews, because God allowed them to do what they did, the Gentiles
were shown openly the mercy of God. Did God just decide maybe
halfway in the stream? Well, hmm. Things are not going
the way I thought they were going to go. I think I'll try this approach.
This is disrespectful to even give an illustration like this.
Almighty God knew exactly who knew the end from the beginning.
He sent the gospel to the Jews called those out of darkness,
Abraham and Isaac and all the prophets, the remnant according
to grace. He called them out of darkness.
And generally speaking, He allowed the rest to do whatever they
wanted to do, which was resisted. I will not have that man sovereign
grace Are you telling me that God sovereignly does what He
wants to do? Are you telling me that a man
doesn't have a free will? That's exactly what I'm telling
you. That is disrespectful. Now, let me tell you this. Whenever
we raise our head in disrespect to what God says that He's done,
all we're doing is showing that we are justly justly rebelling
against God. He is the potter. And if he said,
I sent the darkness, I gave them exactly what they wanted, because
you would not receive the love of the truth, God gave them over. If a man does receive the love
of the truth, why does he do it? is because God gave him a
new heart, a new will, a new spirit, a new mind. These Jews
who for hundreds of years now have generally speaking been
left in darkness to do what they wanted to do, if God is pleased
to call many out of darkness After the fullness of the Gentiles
be brought in. I mean, you know, there's. One
thing that we can say. Little Brother Scott said one
time, I don't have to explain this, I proclaim it. Now you
say, well, will you explain to me why? Blindness, in part, happened
to the Jews until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. I
said, OK, I can't explain that to you. I can tell you what it
says. But as far as explaining it,
this is what I can explain. He has done as he will. He's
done as he will. Verse 31, Even so have these
also now not believed that through your mercy they may obtain mercy.
God, verse 32, hath concluded, if you have In the margin of
my Bible, that word concluded right there, God hath concluded
them all in unbelief. This is what it says. Shut them
all up together. God has shut them up. God hath
concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon
all. That is, God shut the Jews, generally
speaking, except for the remnant, according to grace. He shut him
up in unbelief. Why? So that he might show mercy
to the Gentiles. Someone would say, well, why
did God do that? Because He chose to. Well, couldn't God have done
it this way? God can do anything He wants
to do. That's the bottom line to a believer.
He believes God. He believes God. Why did He not
do that? Because He didn't choose to do
it that way. Why did He leave me in unbelief
for 27 years? Because it pleased Him to. Why
did God Almighty call me out of God? Why did He cause a preacher
to cross my path? Because it pleased Him to. God
was pleased to generally leave the world, the Gentiles in spiritual
darkness for hundreds of years. He was pleased to do that. Look
at the way that when we read in the Old Testament, who is
God generally dealing with? He's talking about where the
gospel is and where the law is. Israel. Israel. How about the Gentiles? He left
them in unbelief. and was right to do it. Why? Because that's what we wanted
to do. The Lord manifested Himself graciously
to some Jews, but left them in darkness. Israel rejected the
truth of God's mercy to Christ. If you think they didn't, go
back and read what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ came upon
this earth. and what the religious multitudes
generally did, they hated Him. And God sent the gospel to the
Gentiles. And what is the receiving of
these back going to be? Look at Romans 11 and 15 again. We looked at this a couple of
weeks ago. Romans 11 and 15. For if the casting away of them
Who is he talking about? The Jews in general. Be the reconciling
of the world, the Gentiles, what shall the receiving of them be?
Life from the dead. I still think that Ezekiel 37,
the Valley of the Dry Bones, is a direct correlation to this
scripture, but that's, you know. Last three verses, or four. Verse 33, 34, 35, 36. of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past finding out. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Or who hath been His capsular?
Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto
Him again? For unto Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things." Who can penetrate? the depth of the
wisdom and knowledge of God. I told you what Mr. Robert Hawker
said. I did. I thought this was, after
reading this chapter and considering what was being said, Mr. Hawker said this. He said, If
out of the root the Lord Jesus Christ, the branch Himself, if
out of the root The Lord has been pleased to reveal and to
expose a great tree of His church, Mount Zion. And out of that tree
you found some at the beginning of some Jews. These patriarchs, the fathers,
the first fruits. It's like Paul when he wrote
and he says, You know, greet Priscilla and Aquila and the
firstfruits of Achaia, those that God first called in. Greet
them. Tell them I said hello, thinking about them, praying
about them. If God was pleased to call out
some Jews, and then He left the majority of those Jews in darkness,
and He sent the Gospel to the Gentiles, and He called out many,
many Gentiles, and then those Jews that first went from the
Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles. They were Jews, these Jews. God sent some Jews to the Gentiles,
and Paul and Peter and those other apostles, they went into
all the world. They went to the Gentiles, is
what He said. And He raised up, and there was a place at Thessalonica,
and there was one at Ephesus, and there was one in Philadelphia,
They were Thyra, Tyra, and God raised up some churches. And
somewhere down the line, God raised one up in Cady and called
out some Gentiles. If God was pleased to call out
many Gentiles, and then He was pleased to send these Gentiles
back and preach to the Jews and call out some Jews toward the
latter end of this world as we know it. and call out after the
fullness of the Gentiles be brought in. He calls out and it would
be life from the dead if God was pleased to do that. My question
is this, can God do it that way? I would say, as I said before,
if He is going to call any Gentiles out, I am glad He called me. If He's going to show mercy to
somebody, I'm thankful He showed mercy to me and didn't leave
me in darkness and unbelief and taught me something of Himself
found totally in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if
Almighty God is pleased to do it this way, and I believe that
that's what He's saying, I can say, Lord, as You say, that's
the way it is. And for that, I'm thankful. And
Lord, I pray, if it please You, would You show mercy to others?
Peradventure. That's what Scripture says. Peradventure. Perhaps God may be pleased to
call somebody out this morning. If He's pleased to do so, He
will. And He's going to do it because it pleased Him to do
so. And anyone that He calls out of darkness, I can tell you
without a shadow of a doubt, in that day, in the day of His
judgment, He will say to all that was found that He separated
and put on His right hand, the sheep that He separated from
the goats, He will say to those sheep, well done. Well done? Well done in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. my substitute, my redeemer, my
advocate, and my friend. Well done. Good and faithful
servant. Enter in to what was prepared
for you before the foundation of the world. May God bless this
word to our hearts for the sake of His Son. Amen. Gary, would
you please?