but be reminded as we hear Tom
singing to us from Florida how much we need to be praying for
our leaders around the world that the children of God might
live in peace and that the gospel might be proclaimed. We are so
thankful that our Lord sits on a throne. We are so thankful
that all things that happen are in his hands. We've been looking at Isaiah
Chapter 6 in relation to the verses in Acts Chapter 28 that
we have come to in our studies in Acts. I was going to read
the passage in Acts 28 and then spend a little bit of time looking
at some of the other verses associated with it. And where it's repeated,
I remind you that this is the most oft-quoted Old Testament
passage in the New, and the context of it then is incredibly significant. Six times in the New Testament
it's referred to. So with the one in Isaiah, originally
it is repeated seven times, which should cause us to pause, as
we have, and study it. When Paul had spoken to these
people, it says in Acts 28.24, and some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not
among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word,
this is the final word to the Jewish nation, from the lips
of an apostle in their presence. And he says, Well spake the Holy
Ghost by Uzziah. These are beautiful, fine, excellent
words. They're honest words, is what
that word well means. Well spake the Holy Ghost by
Uzziah, the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this
people and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand,
and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. for or because the
heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull
of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and be converted, and should be converted, and
I should heal them. And then the Apostle finishes
his words to them, Be it known unto you, therefore, and they will hear it. If you
turn back in your scriptures we might start at John and work
back and I just want to read from John's gospel and Matthew's
gospel regarding this because John's gospel is very instructive
and the context of course is always that the Lord is speaking
to a people who claim to know and claim to see and claim to
have a righteousness and an ability to see. It says in John 12, verse
37, and you might recall the context of this, isn't it? In
John 11, the Lord Jesus Christ had raised Lazarus from the dead. He'd been in the grave four days.
And the response of the Jews in Jerusalem was, well, let's
kill him. And then let's kill Lazarus.
If you don't think that religious people are mad and crazy and
completely irrational, then John's Gospel and all the Gospels will
prove it to you again and again. How much do you want to kill
him, you might say, of the Jews? He'd been dead and rotting in
a tomb for four days, and now they want to kill him again.
And the Lord Jesus Christ says, or John says through the Holy
Spirit in verse 37. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. That the saying of Isaiah's prophet
might be fulfilled, which he spoke, the Lord our report. That's in Isaiah chapter 53 verse
1, isn't it? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? The people who have the arm of
the Lord revealed to them will believe the report, the record
that we give of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. Verse
39, therefore they could not believe. They could not believe. Because, that Isaiah said again,
he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, that they
should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,
and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said
Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him. And that's
the reference to Isaiah chapter six, the Lord Jesus Christ was
the one that Isaiah saw. One of the things that's interesting
in this verse is that The words originally are in an imperative,
they are a command. This is exactly what's going
to happen, says God. But then, as the Lord Jesus Christ
speaks to these people, they are now past indicatives. And I don't like talking a whole
lot about Greek tenses and things, but what the Lord Jesus Christ
is saying is that these words are now fulfilled in your very
hearing. the words of Isaiah, you are living out, the Lord
is saying to the Jews before him, you are living out the words
of Isaiah. You are living, breathing, walking,
talking, gathering together of yourselves people who are the
living testimony of the veracity, the truthfulness of the scriptures
and the faithfulness of our God to them. Matthew's account. And given
the nature of John's Gospel being so different, I can't help but think that the
Lord in John's Gospel is speaking at the end of his ministry and
in Mark's account it's in chapter 4 of Mark's account. And so this
was a phrase, this was a quotation from the Old Testament that the
Lord Jesus Christ used on many occasions. It's repeated in each
of the Gospel accounts. So in Matthew's account, in Matthew
chapter 13, it begins, but you might remember the context again.
They challenge the Lord Jesus Christ. They say that he's done
these miracles because he has Beelzebub working in him. And
they ask him in chapter 12 verse 30, they ask him for the sign
of the prophet. Show us a sign. And he says,
an evil and an adulterous, verse 39, that generation seeketh after
a sign. There'll be no sign given you
but the sign of Jonas. And Jonas was in the belly of
the whale. And then he reminds them of the
depths of their responsibility, these people who claim to see,
these people who claim to see so clearly that they can stand
in judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, the men of Ninara
will rise in judgment against you. The Queen of the South,
verse 42, shall rise in judgment with this generation, and they
will condemn it. And then he brings that very
graphic illustration, doesn't he, that an unclean spirit has
gone out of a man and he walks through dry places seeking rest
and finds none. Then he says, I'll return unto
my house from whence I came, and when he has come, he finds
it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goes and takes with him
seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter
in and dwell there, and the last state of the man is worse than
the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. He's speaking of what happens
in religion. He's speaking of what happens
in what he says in Matthew 23, that these religious people travel
over land and sea from their Bible colleges and their mission
organisation to make one proselyte, and they make him two-fold or
twice the child of hell. The last state of these religious
people, who have cleaned up their lives and become religious in
all sorts of ways, is worse than the first. And then the Lord
Jesus Christ gives us the parable of the soils, and he says, He
who has ears to hear, verse 9, let him hear, and then He says the disciples, verse
10, come and say unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables?
And he answered and said unto them, because it is given unto
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to
them it is not given. To them it is not given. It's not given. The mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven. Who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what happened on
Calvary's tree are mysteries to this religious world. And
he gives the parable of the soils again. And the parable of the
soils, of course, cover everyone that is here and everyone that
has been in the audience of gospel preaching through all time. Verse 13, let's go down to verse
13 of the Matthew. Therefore I speak to them, in
parables, because they seeing, see not. They claim to see, don't
they? They claim to stand in judgment
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they see not, and hearing they
hear not, neither do they understand, and in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and
shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have
they closed. Lest at any time they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal
them. When Mark gives the same account,
he says that they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven
them. That's what it is to be healed.
The real healing is the taking away of all of your sins in the
death and burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So these are heavy verses, aren't
they? was touched with a live coal
from the very altar of God. And here we have the one standing
before these people who is the very altar of God and is the
very sacrifice upon the altar speaking to them. And to just
remind us of Isaiah's commission. He saw the Lord, didn't he? After
his Iniquity was taken away with a live coal taken from the altar. Thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy thin purge also. I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said
I, Here am I. Send me. And he said, Go and
tell these people, Hear ye indeed, but not, but understand not,
and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of these
people fat. and make their eyes heavy, and
shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with
their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and
be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? How long am I going
to do this preaching? And he answered, until the cities
be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord hath removed men
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. But yet in it shall be a tenth,
and it shall return, there will be a remnant, and shall be eaten
as the teal tree and as an oak, whose substance is in them. And
when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the
substance generations that cannot see and
will not see and are blind. And I remind you again of the
tense of these verbs. When Paul was speaking to these
people, he said, and some believed the things that were spoken.
Believing is passive because God is active. But unbelief,
some believe not. The ones that believe not And the same tense of the verb
is used when it says that they closed their eyes. Their eyes
have they closed. So here we have laid out before
us in all of these scriptures, and before us in this world,
and before us in the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. wondrous doctrine of God's reprobation
of people, of God's judgment upon people who are willfully
blind and blinded. We might sing again, Tom. That's
why I began our service with Let's Magnify the Lord Together.
Jeremiah is told not to diminish your word from God. It was extraordinary.
I was looking up my Bible program and it comes to these verses
in Acts chapter 28, and it has cross-references for all the
verses that you come across. And I've clicked on the cross-references
for this verse, Acts 28-27, that we're looking at in context today. Why? When this verse is the most
quoted verse in the New Testament, you haven't put cross-references
in. May the Lord cause us to see something of his references
to it. Tom, let's sing again. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
To my heart to sing Thy grace. Strings of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above, Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming blood. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure, safely
to a private home. Jesus saw me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger Interposes
precious blood Oh to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained
to be Left thy goodness like a fetter By my wandering heart
to Thee Okay, it was... John 12, Acts 28, Mark 4, Matthew
13, it's repeated again in Romans 11. The question is that causes
us and should cause us to tremble and to be in awe of and the greatness
and the magnificence of our great and glorious God, and to esteem
his salvation highly. To esteem his character highly
and to esteem his salvation highly. These are verses that Paul has
repeated, and I love to start by thinking the context of Paul's
letter to the Romans when he deals with this issue of God's
electing love and God's reprobation of people. He begins with tears
and his heart's desire is for these people. He writes with
tears. This is not us the children of God to stand
in proud arrogance and say, I thank you that I'm not like these other
men. We are to be humbled like Paul before this. If the Lord
would allow us, we'd have tears and prayers and the Lord allows
us. We have a witness that Paul finishes
his ministry in a sense as he began it. He began when every
opportunity went to his and he pleaded with them again
and again in every synagogue and everywhere he went to return
and repent and come and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust
this Lord Jesus Christ who was Jehovah for Confessed that he
was and declared that he was in everything that he did, he
fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies and promises. And
Paul, at the end of his ministry here, he calls these Jews to
meet with him in Rome. And they walk away as all hearers
of the gospel do, divided into two camps, aren't they? There's
some believed and some believe not. The several things I want
us to see in all of this is that these people, like all of Adam's
race, are not innocent, and the Jews in particular are not innocent. And I don't have time to go to
it, but at Mount Sinai, prior to Mount Sinai in Exodus 19.8
and then after Mount Sinai in Exodus 24.3.7 and Deuteronomy
5.2 and following and Deuteronomy 26 and Deuteronomy 27, you'll
see that the children of God said, You just tell us what to do and
we'll do it. You just tell us what to do and we'll do it. It's
a piece of cake following God. It's a piece of cake obeying
God. And if you think that's laughable, that's exactly what
religious people are being told to do in churches all through
this world. We live by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
his perfect obedience to the law of God. So these people were
not innocent. They aren't ignorant. None of
Adam's race is ignorant. And people want to say, don't
they, all the time, what about these people? They're not ignorant
and they're not innocent. None of Adam's race that is able
to hear and able to read and able to be spoken to are innocent
nor ignorant. The other question that lies
before us as we think of the context of what was happening
in Acts and what was going to happen after Isaiah's death in
the days of Jeremiah is, what does God do when he wishes to
destroy a religious people who honour him with their lips and
their hearts are far from him? What does he do? He leaves them. He just leaves them. Turn with
me to 1 Samuel. I just want to look at a couple
of passages in the Old Testament that reiterate this so very clearly. You might recall Eli. was the high priest in the days
when Samuel was a boy and Samuel warned him of what was going
to happen to his family. And Eli had two sons, two sons
who were wicked, wicked in all sorts of extraordinary ways.
They are wicked in the house of God. The sons, his two sons, were
wicked and evil. And Eli had warned them. Verse 23 says, Why do you do
such things? I hear of your evil dealings.
They lay with the women. Women came to the door of the
tabernacle and these men had sex with them. There's no good
report. I hear. It's no good report,
I hear. You make the Lord's people to
transgress. And then verse 25 he says, And
if one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But
if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? And
listen to these words. Notwithstanding, notwithstanding,
they hearkened not unto the voice of their father. Why? Verse 25, at the end of verse
25. because the Lord would slay them. You wonder why there were all
the battles as the people of Israel went into the Promised
Land. You would think that the very first thing you'd do after
the horrible events that At Jericho, which no doubt were recorded
all through that land, and then the complete and utter destruction
of the people of Ai, you would think that there'd be some white
flags coming up, there would be some people coming to say,
okay, hold on a second, you are bigger and mightier than us and
you have an awesome God who can stop the Jordan River in flood
and walk across and destroy Jericho without lifting a finger. And
they fought and fought. Verse 19 of Joshua 11 says, There
was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel,
save the Hivites of the inhabitants of Gibeon, you might remember
the Gibeonites came deceptively, and all others they took in battle,
for or because it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that
they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy
them utterly. God hardened the heart of Pharaoh
that he might destroy him and his nation utterly, and that
they might have no favour, and that he might destroy them as
the Lord commanded Moses. Warnings given, warnings unheeded. have countless, it seems, multitudes
of people who we have spoken to about the religion that they
are involved in and we have pleaded with them and we have warned
them. And the warnings so often fall
on deaf ears. These people are not ignorant
and they're not innocent. Correction is grievous unto him
that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall. We have a people who had claimed
to have a knowledge of God. The people that Paul was speaking
to in Acts chapter 28 claimed to have a knowledge of God, claimed
to have a relationship with God, claimed that God had honoured
them in remarkable ways and honoured their nation and honoured them
to maintain what they thought was a faithful witness. And yet
they remained in their wicked rebellion and unbelief. And we
must remember, brothers and sisters, that why we keep wondering, like
David did in Psalm 73, why do the evil flourish? And unbelief
flourish, and why is the Lord's people, as Isaiah said, left
as a remnant? A remnant that can be cast off
by the people of this world as if it's nothing. It's good for
us. all things to the good. They
don't just happen, they are worked for our good. And it must be
for our good and it must be for the glory of God. It must be
for the fulfilment of his promises. It must be to the praise of the
glory of his praise. the scriptures might be fulfilled. It's interesting isn't it, that
great passage that we'll glance at today and I trust the Lord
might cause you to go and read it again in Romans chapter 9.
It's interesting that at least 11 times in Romans chapter 9
Paul speaks of the scriptures being fulfilled. The scriptures
say, the scriptures say, the scriptures say, we are living
We are living witnesses, the children of God. We are living
witnesses to the Scriptures being fulfilled. That's what the Lord said in
John 13. He says, I tell you before it
comes, that when it does come to pass, that you might believe
that I am. That we might see these things
as a reality in our world. that we might receive the ones
that he sent, and to receive the message that he sends is
to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and to receive the Lord Jesus
Christ is to receive the Father. As we read earlier in Mark chapter
4, it says in verse 11, unto you it is given. We are desperately
in need of light from heaven. We are desperately in God is
known by revelation and he chose and ordained and promised that
he would reveal himself in the preaching of the Gospel. He will
reveal his character to his people in the preaching of the Gospel.
And where the Gospel is not preached, We must read the scriptures and
see that the Jews are pictures of the professing church who
say they honor him with their lips and their hearts are far
from him. They do not honor him with their lips. Message of reprobation is a message
that needs to be always put into context, isn't it? People want
to complain and argue about it and they want to leave it out
of their Bibles and they want to get rid of it from their Bibles.
The last time many of us heard a sermon on Romans 9 after 18
months of preparation and mourning, the man began by saying, you
must see that the context of Romans 9 is God's universal love
for everyone and his desire for the salvation of everyone. And
then he went on to say that Paul didn't know what he was talking
about when he was writing it. Well, someone didn't know what
he was talking about, but Paul wasn't the man. See, reprobation, which is what
these passages are talking about, is God passing by. God-rejecting. The election is
God's choice, isn't it? It's God's choice of some to
eternal salvation in Christ, and it's an eternal election,
and the Gospel's not preached where election is not declared.
But reprobation is God passing by and not choosing others. Predestination is God's sovereign
eternal purpose in grace toward his elect. He predestinates all
things and predestination in the scriptures is always in reference
to the elect children of God. Reprobation is God just leaving
people to themselves. Salvation is God's operation
of grace. the power of God revealed as
he comes in sovereign grace and mercy. It's his operations of
grace in the hearts of his people where he removes the heart of
stone that cannot believe and gives the heart of flesh that
believes. It's his operations for us in the Lord Jesus Christ
before the foundations of the world. It's the operations of
the Lord Jesus Christ for us on Calvary's tree. It's his operations
of the Blessed Spirit coming and revealing Christ in you.
It's an operation that's for us and it's upon us and it's
in us as the chosen people of God. Reprobation is God leaving
someone to themselves. All that is necessary for someone
to go to hell under the justice of God, under the holiness of
God, is for God to leave them. election is God loving Jacob
and all the seed, that seed that we read about in Isaiah chapter
6, a seed that's spoken of in Isaiah 53. There'll be a seed,
there will be a seed, the seed that's in the seed. Election
is God loving Jacob. Reprobation is God hating Esau
and all the children of Esau. Eternal life and salvation in
relationship with God is God refusing to leave you alone. Paul, of course, is the most
glorious example and he's a pattern before us, isn't it? how often
he would have despised the very mention of the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and despised his people, and yet God would not
leave him alone. God will come to his people,
nothing is surer, he must. Salvation is God not leaving
you to your will, not leaving you to your choice, not leaving
you to your way, Reprobation is God leaving you to your will,
your choice and your way. Salvation is God coming to you,
revealing Christ to you, causing you to be a sinner in need of
a saviour. Reprobation is God leaving you
in the darkness, in the darkness of your righteousness. Salvation
is God coming, as he did to Paul, and putting your religious righteousness
in the mire, in the dirt, that you declare it to be filthy rags,
because God declares it to be filthy rags. Reprobation is God
leaving you to your religious attainments, where you look back
on what you have done, a decision you made, an aisle you walked,
the changed life that you've had, your religious attainments
of what you're doing now, all of the great, great vast crowd
that is with you, and your religious attainments of what you'll have
into the future. Your religious heritage, God
and salvation removes from you your heritage. All that Paul
had as a heritage, this is done. It's just done. Reprobation is
God leaving you and your religious heritage They're vast in number, they're
vast in power and they're vast in a scene. Salvation is God
bringing his people to walk the narrow way through a narrow gate. He is the way. He is the gate. He is the door of entrance. But
it's narrow. Read it in Matthew chapter 7.
There is in this world a broad way. There is a way that seems
right to a man. There is a way that seems right
to a religious man. The entrance is easy and the
way is broad. There's a way that seems right
to a man and the ends thereof are the ways of death. Salvation
is Christ in you, his faith, his love. Reprobation is the
way these religious Jews left the Lord Jesus Christ. They departed,
Acts 28, 29, and had great reasoning among themselves. For the children
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is not an object to be debated
or discussed and to be judged by men. The religious world in
their discussions and in their debates have moulded a Christ
to suit the needs of men, the desires of their spiritual comfort
in wisdom and philosophy and their worth seen by them and
others. For the child of God, I was his in eternity as the
father's gift of his love to his son, and was his in his betrothal,
where he was united to us. We are his. him, a union that's eternal,
a union that's undivided. We're one with him in his circumcision
as a baby. We're one with him as he walked
this earth and perfectly obeyed the law of God. We're one with
him in his agonies in the garden. We're one with him crucified
with him. We're one with him buried. We're
one with him raised. We're one with him reigning.
My beloved is mine. says the Child of God. It's Christ
in us. It's Christ for us. As the surety
from eternity, as the spotless Lamb of God, as the mediator,
right now, standing before God, interceding for us, is the Holy
One. Crucified is the risen One revealed. Salvation is Christ taking captivity You try, children of God. You cannot not believe. Reprobation is people being left
in Satan's palace. It's described in Luke chapter
11. It's a palace. They're his goods in his palace,
and they are kept in peace. Let's just have a brief look
at Romans 9. We don't have time to read it
nor expound it. As you turn there, I want to
remind you of how the last words that the Jews had It was the
last word for 400 years and it began Malachi's burden of the
word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. Malachi is a messenger. He's a messenger who brings a
message about the messenger who is to come, who will be foreshadowed
by a messenger. He says, verse 2, I have loved
you, saith the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved
us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom, which is just the
plural of Esau, Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will
return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts. You might recall that the people
in Jerusalem were described as you builders. You builders, they
were building, weren't they? Religion is always building.
They shall build, but I will throw down, and they shall call
them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the
Lord hath indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and
you shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border
of Israel. I trust the Lord might cause
you to go and read Romans chapter 9 at some time. The challenge, of course, isn't it,
that Paul He says at the beginning of Romans chapter 9, I say the
truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness
in the Holy Ghost. Don't forget, these Jews Paul
is speaking to in Acts chapter 28 had access to this letter
to the Romans for at least three years prior to Paul's meeting
with them. No doubt, and given the weightiness
and glory of this remarkable epistle, I have no doubt that
it was copied and read and read again and again and again. I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ for my brethren." He's saying, I'll go to hell.
I'd go to hell. Moses said exactly the same thing
in Exodus chapter 32. God said, this wicked and rebellious
nation, get out of my road, Moses, I'm going to destroy them. And
Moses goes to the Lord and he pleads. He pleads the character
of God and the promises of God back to God. he didn't want to
have a great nation, he wanted the Lord to be magnified. My kinsmen, he calls them my
brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. If we come back down to Jacob
and Esau, basically The issue is, isn't
it, that it's not the children of flesh, verse 8, which are
the children of God, but the children of promise are counted
for a seed. The children of promise are counted
for a seed, the seed that Isaiah 6 was talking about. And he speaks
of these children of promise. Verse 9 says, for this is the
word of promise, at this time that I come and Sarah shall have
a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also has conceived
by one, even our father Isaac. For the children not yet being
born, not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And then the questions come,
don't they? The natural questions come. What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Are you going to accuse
God of being unrighteous? He'll say, as he said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on him, I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on him, I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. And I have no doubt that's a
reference to Jacob and his mother. Jacob willed to have the blessing,
didn't he? And Jacob was told, you run and
get a kid, you beat Esau to it. A remarkable thing, isn't it,
that in the covenant of grace, in God's operation of grace towards
his people, Jacob received the blessing. What was Jacob doing
when he received the covenant promises of God? He was dressed in his brother's
clothes, he was wearing goatskin on his arms, and he was lying
to his father. about who he was. So that's grace, brothers and
sisters. That's grace in operation, isn't
it? It's demerited favour. It's not
you getting something from God because you've done these things.
It's God giving you, granting you something on account of the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of our blessings
are in Him. All of our blessings are because
of Him. Don't you love that salvation
is eternal? It's fixed, and it's in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and it's eternal, so if it's eternal, my works
have nothing to do with it. I do like repeating what Don
Fortner said again and again in many messages, that our salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ affects everything that we do. We do affect our salvation in
him. The religious world finds these
pictures of grace offensive, don't they? What was the Jews'
problem all the time? The Jews' problem was always
the same as the religious world today. They have a righteousness,
don't they? They're going about, they're
busy, they're running and they're willing and they're busy establishing
their own righteousness. to the righteousness of God.
It's not him that wills, it's not of him that wills. This world
is drowned in free will works religion, but it has a far more
dangerous religion. It has a far more dangerous religion
which goes by all sorts of names. But all of those names are, in
a sense, people going back to their willing and their running
to add something or to enhance the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God, rescue us from anything. any religion that takes away
from the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. And here's one of those verses
that I really, for the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, isn't it
remarkable? Who spoke to Pharaoh? Moses spoke to Pharaoh. What
does God say? The scripture spoke to Pharaoh.
How much do you believe of this word to be a believer? All of it. We bow, don't we? We bow to the
word of God. The scripture says to Pharaoh,
even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. That's why he was raised up.
Was Pharaoh responsible for his wickedness? Absolutely 100%. Was God glorified in his destruction? Absolutely 100%. My name might
be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore he has mercy.
Someone heard that name, didn't they? Someone heard that name
in a city called Eureka. And throughout the scriptures,
she's called the hard. Rahab, the hard heard. The people of God will hear.
He'll have mercy on whom he'll have mercy and whom he will he
hardeneth. I remind you that Paul was honouring
the character and the glory of God and at the same time with
tears in his eyes. This is not a doctrine that causes
the children of God to stand in proud arrogance above other
people. That will say, then unto me,
why does he yet find fault? Who has resisted his will? Nay,
and I love this verse, and it has more weight the longer I
contemplate it, the more weight it has and the more wonder it
is. Nay, but who, O man, who art
thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
under honour and another under dishonour. What if God, willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? They are fitted to destruction
by their own willful rebellion against God. Notice the difference,
go down, that he might make known the riches of his glory in the
vessels of mercy which he prepare themselves, the vessels
of wrath. They fit themselves by their
willful, wicked rebellion against God. If people respond to the light,
God gives more light. I'm not sure I think it was Scott
Richardson, I might have repeated it some a few weeks ago. No honest
person goes to hell. prepared unto glory. What an
extraordinary statement. Prepared by sovereign electing
grace. Even after him he is called not
of the Jews only but of the Gentiles. And he quotes, doesn't he? He
quotes Isaiah. I will call them my people. You might note in Acts chapter
28 and in his other passages where Isaiah is repeated, he
says this the reprobated ones, my people. He says, this people,
it shall come to pass that in a place where it was said of
them, you are not my people, thou shalt be called the children
of God. Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, though the number of
the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant
shall be saved. And he, for he will finish the
work and cut it short in righteousness, because a short work will the
Lord make upon the earth. As Isaiah said before, except
the Lord Savioth had left us seed, which that seed is referred
to in Isaiah chapter 6, we would have been in Solomon and we would
have been made like Gomorrah. What shall we say then, that
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, but
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which
is of faith? But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, but has not attained to the law of
righteousness, wherefore, because they sought it not by faith,
but as it were by the works of the law, As it is written, Behold, I lay
in silence, stumbling stone and a rock of offence, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So he goes on, doesn't
he, in chapter 10, verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear
the record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge, 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. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Every
time I, most often when I read Romans chapter 9 I'm reminded
of a time when I came back from India and I was asked to go and
speak at a Bible study and I thought well they don't really need to
hear and they're not much interested in hearing about things that
happen in India and at a school in India. So I thought I'll just
read some scripture to them. So we just read Romans chapter
9 with almost no comments at all, just a few and a man exclaimed, He's dead right. Jacob is a picture
of love and grace. Jacob's declared to be a servant
of God. Jacob met with God. The Lord
Jesus Christ came to him and he wrestled with him and he had
power over him and he prevails, says Hosea chapter 12. And Jacob
was named of God, Israel, Prince with God. And Jacob died in faith,
waiting for the salvation of the Lord. You can read about
it in Genesis chapter 49. And he declared the Messiah to come. And Jacob had a testimony, doesn't
he, that he's now in the kingdom of heaven. And people feel sorry
for Esau. There's never a mention of any
reverence or fear of God in Esau. right in unbelief and indifference
to the promise made to Abraham. He couldn't care less about it.
I'd rather have a bowl of beans, thank you. And he took women
of Canaan for wives. He took as lightly the curse
upon Canaan as he did the promise to Abraham, which the blessing
encompassed. He was dead to the spiritual
realities. He deliberately set out to murder
Jacob. He says, I will slay my brother.
After my father dies, I'm going to slay him. And he goes out
to meet Jacob with an armed force. And he was restrained. No violence. And there was Jacob. What was
Jacob doing, the blessed one? He put all of his flocks and
all of his wives up ahead and he brought all these presents.
He was fearful. He had a promise from God. He
was still like us, wasn't he? Weak in his flesh. Esau is declared to be a profane
person in Hebrews chapter 12. He despised his birthright, connected
with the birth of the Messiah, the Messiah to come in the eternal
inheritance. So we have in these two men,
one whom God hated and one whom God loved, a glorious picture
of salvation by grace. and reprobation, injustice. Jacob was made contrary to everything
that we see in his natural nature. He was made of God to believe
God. The evidence of salvation is
faith in the Christ proclaimed as written in the scriptures. the outworking of faith, his
love, isn't it? I love what the Lord says in
John 8, 42 to these Jewish people who rebelled against him and
wouldn't believe him. He said, if God were your father,
if God were your father, you would love me. because he first loved us. He loved us eternally. He loves
us personally. And he comes to his own. He comes
to the Jacob's of this world and says, you're mine. I'll have
you. You're mine. Let's have a break. May the Lord bless his words.