Leviticus chapter 12 Leviticus
chapter 12 and we'll read it here in a moment Is a subject about birth The title of my subject or the
title of my message rather is this unclean by a birth It's
not even really talking about the children being unclean, whether
male or female, though that's certainly a preponderant testimony
of scripture. But this is a law given to teach
us divine spiritual truth. It is ceremonial. The birth of
a child, male or female, didn't make a woman any more sinful. Okay, you understand what I'm
saying here. But these are given to teach us gospel truth. So let's read Leviticus chapter
12. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children
of Israel, saying, If a woman hath conceived seed, and born
a man child, so we know exactly what he really, it doesn't say
born a man, oftentimes the word man is used in a very generic
sense in the scripture. But here it's a man child. Then
she shall be unclean seven days. According to the days of the
separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. And this
is ceremonial. She didn't become more sinful
or anything like that. It's ceremonial, but it's a shadow
or a picture of Christ. And in the eighth day, the flesh
of his foreskin shall be circumcised. And we read even of that in the
New Testament when Mary gave birth to Christ the Lord on the
eighth day they took him to the temple to be circumcised. Well,
because that's what the law says. And she shall then continue in
the blood of her purifying three and 30 days. She shall touch
no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days
of her purifying be fulfilled. But if she bear a maid child,
then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation,
and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three
score and six days. So it's longer here in this state
of uncleanness if a maid child or a girl is born. And when the
days of her purifying are fulfilled for a son or a daughter, it's gonna be the same atonement
for both. Now I'll paraphrase, right? It's
gonna be the same. Automatically when you read this, my mind will
think, okay, there's going to be two kinds of different sacrifices,
right? Because there's two different
states, you might call, of uncleanness. But look at what it says. She
shall bring a lamb for the first year before a burnt offering
and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering under
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation unto the priest
who shall offer it before the Lord and make an atonement for
her and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood.
This is the law for her that hath borne male or a female. And if she be not able to bring
a lamb, that is she probably wasn't affluent enough, if I
can use that word, to actually have a lamb, she shall bring
two turtles, that is turtle doves, or two young pigeons, the one
for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and
the priest shall make an atonement for her and she shall be clean. Unclean by a birth. I did not
intentionally Choose Leviticus chapter 12 for
this day. This is, if it goes on the TV
probably much later, Lord willing, this is December the 22nd, two
days, three days before what is called Christmas Day. On that
day, whatever day that was, I don't
know if it's December 25th or not. I doubt it, but I don't
know. But that don't matter. On that day, Mary, who was yet
a virgin, yet she was with child, she gave birth to Jesus Christ
the Lord. And she became unclean by that
birth. She had to go through her days
of purification according to the law. But her son was not
unclean. He was indeed that holy thing. Even in utero. Even when he was but what men
today like to call, because they like the escapes, they want to
escape something else, they like to call a fetus. Even in fetal. That's probably not the right
way. Even when he was but a fetus, Joe, he's the holy thing. Actually conceived in the womb
of a virgin, but by the power of the Holy Ghost Most people who profess to believe
in Jesus will celebrate Some may even worship the upcoming
day of the 25th One thing about it when those shepherds went
to see that baby They worshiped the baby. They didn't worship
the day. And we're actually warned in
the New Testament about observing times and months and years and
seasons, and I don't care whether that's Jewish law or whether
it's pagan rituals. We've got to beware about observing.
As one pastor said, we rejoice in his birth, but we celebrate
his death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation. As Earl used to say, most people
love Christmas because Jesus is a little baby. And we all
love little babies. But they don't wanna hear about
Jesus Christ on the throne. Now let me just say, a birth,
whether it's a male or a female, is joyous. I'm not gonna read
these passages, but I'll give them to you. You can consider
and you can read them later if you wish. It's joyous. Psalm 127 verse three, an inspired
writer says, it's joyous. It's a happy thing for a man
to have a whole quiver for all humans. That's what he's basically
talking about. Proverbs chapter 17 verse six
says that. Even our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned
that, and it's recorded in John chapter 16 verse 21. And our
Lord basically said this, so I'll paraphrase, a woman, When
she gives birth, is in great pain. The word, the old English
word is travail. And you women who've actually
given birth to children, you know what that is. But he says
immediately after that's over, she has this child, and she's
not worried about all that pain. Doesn't mean the pain's not there,
but she doesn't worry about that pain. Because of the joy of having
this child. But let me say this. A birth
is a joyous thing, and this is not intended to make birth or
a woman given birth to be some corrupt thing. This is a woman
who clearly, although it does not state it, clearly she is
a married woman. Marriage is honorable in all,
that's all believers. The marriage of unbelievers is
as much sin as their plowing is. But marriage is honorable
in all and the bed is undefiled. That is their sexual relationship
is undefiled. That's true. The woman gives
birth, and they bring forth children, and it's a joyous thing, but
fallen humanity, if not restrained by God, doesn't always see that
so. Everyone ought to see it so.
But Isaiah makes it clear, recorded in chapter 49, verse 15, can
a woman forget her suckling child? She may, forgetful be. I mean, folks, they discard them
today in trash cans. You know? And I'm not here trying
to be hard. I'm sure some of these young
girls that that's happened to didn't know what else to do.
But I'm not trying to justify that. I'm just saying it's easy
to stand here or sit where you are and point the finger, is
it not? But folks, Apart from God's restraint. I'm talking about just restraint.
I'm not even talking about saving grace just apart from God's restraint
We would murder our children right and left and we do it all
the time in this country We even murder them now before they get
out of the womb just because we don't want them Now am I telling
you the facts or what? Let's tell you the facts and
all I hear to preach about that or against that it's just it's
just a fact now the subject of Leviticus 12, it's called here
uncleanness. But the subject here is sin.
That's what the uncleanness typifies. Sin, not sins. You hear what I just said? I
thought about, when I first began to work on this, and this was
supposed to have been three or four weeks ago, something else
happened, and I kind of went on a side trail for one Sunday,
as most of you here know. And then, of course, last Sunday,
I was afraid the weather was gonna be bad, we didn't have service.
I probably wouldn't be able to preach anyway. I was very congested
and did not feel very well. But anyway, be that as it may,
the subject of chapter 12 is seeing, not sins. And I first
thought, okay, I'll try to deal with that in a lot of detail.
But then I realized, no, I will state it according to the truth
that we see here. We'll look at the type, what
it's saying here, just a couple examples. Because I know this,
most people would probably agree that there's a difference between
sin and sins. If they're biblically based in
any way, shape, or form, they'd say that Adam sinned and plunged
us all into depravity. Now then we may disagree as to
how deep that depravity goes. Now, it went all the way. So
there's no debate here. It went all the way, but not
everybody sees that. What I'm saying is this. Unless God Almighty
shows you your seeing, it don't matter how technical
I try to become about it. You ain't gonna see it. I ain't
gonna see it. Unless God gives you eyes to
see and ears to hear and a heart to perceive, We won't perceive
how bad we are by nature, and we will not perceive how glorious
Jesus Christ is in his person and work. But that doesn't mean
we say nothing about it and then just wait for some miracle to
happen. It will be a miracle, but it
will be a miracle of grace through God's truth. But I don't have
to keep hammering and hammering on that one thing. Leviticus
12 is about sin, not sins. But most folk don't really, they
know there's a difference, but they don't really get the difference.
Consider two things. There are two opposite kinds
of uncleanness here, right? One for male, one for female. But both are stated to be just
uncleanness. It is not uncleannesses, it is
uncleanness. Now this is what most people
don't understand and I pray God has showed that to me, showed
this to me, showed this to most of you here. I pray God shows
it to others that may get this message in some other venue.
I don't care whether you're religious or irreligious, you're still
unclean. Religion does not make us clean
before God. James speaks of true religion.
or I'm not even going into all that. He speaks of true religion
and undefiled, does he not? So that lets me by default know
this. There's a false religion. And
all of us are born with the false religion. Most people are of the opinion
that at least if you're religious and it's Bible based, you're
okay in Jehovah's sight. That's not so. Moral or immoral. And I'm not
trying to apply one to male, one to female here. Don't you
misunderstand me or what this says. But there is a difference,
right? There's an opposite kind of uncleanness. One for a male
when he's born, for the woman when the male's born. One for
the woman if a female's born. Moral or immoral. Most people
think that all moral people, God will somehow just let them
all in glory. Now don't they? It's the common
opinion amongst everybody. There's no way that person can
go to hell, they're a moral person. And they may be moral. They may be moral, especially
when you compare them to an immoral person. But that's the problem,
is we always compare ourselves amongst ourselves, and when we
compare ourselves amongst ourselves, Paul says we're not wise when
we do that. Because we are all worms in God's sight. Some of
us may live in the fresh tilled garden, we may be a worm of the
garden, or we may be a worm on a carcass. But bless God, we're
still all worms. Whether it's heathen or instructed. There's some people who know
nothing about the truth of this book, even the facts, even historical
facts. They know nothing about it, they're
called heathen. But there are others who are instructive. They
got a lot of knowledge when it comes to the Bible. There was
one man, he may still be living, I don't know. He used to be able
to, they say, quote the whole Bible. It don't give you any merit before
God. That's what this is teaching
us here. There may be two opposite kinds of uncleanness, but guess
what? Both had to have the same atonement
offering. Right? Male or female. Both had to have the same atonement.
A burnt offering and a sin offering. An offering that symbolized God's,
the pleasant aroma of Christ to God in his holiness. And then
a sin offering to actually take away the uncleanness. Here's the second thing. Two
opposite times of uncleanness are mentioned here. One, if I
counted right, and don't, I think I did, but one is 41 days, one
is 80 days. Think about it. A person who
is converted in childhood, and I'm not gonna give an age because
that in itself is not, a person who is converted in childhood
versus a person who's converted in old age. The natural mind, wants to then
think, well, one would have to have more atonement than the
other, right? You've been around longer, had
longer to live before God saved you, you certainly got more sins.
That's probably so. But we ain't talking about sins
here. We're talking about sin here. And both are sin. The uncleanness here is one uncleanness. It's called sin, not sins. Yet both still have to have the
same atonement. Why? We do not all commit the
same sins. Now technically, in light of
God's law, we're all guilty of everything. Because if you break
one point, James says, you're guilty of all. But we're talking
about actual difference between sin and sins. And we don't all commit the same
sins. But we do all have the same sin. You see it? You know, not everybody's a forticator.
How are they? There are some good monogamous,
is that the right, I think that's the right word. Some good monogamous
folk that would never step out on a spouse. Wouldn't even consider
doing so. There are others who could care
less. But the one who could care less and engages in that carelessness,
that one still needs the same atonement as the one who would
be always faithful to a spouse. Why? Because the question here
is not sins, it is sin. Now just a few verses, I gotta
move along. Genesis chapter eight. Now there,
I look, you could go to Nath's topical Bible and look up depravity.
You'll see all kinds of passages in the scripture that's talking
about our sin, our depravity. And I'm not even sure that Maves
really has it all. I'm sure it was a decent attempt,
a decent stab at getting a lot of the references, the topics,
but be that as it may, Genesis chapter eight, just three passages. Genesis eight, verse 20, and
Moab builded an ark unto the Lord. Now remember what happened.
When God saved Noah and his family, God was intending on saving only
Noah and his family and the animals that went into the ark. That
was it. God said to Noah, you and your family come into the
ark and the animals, and God shut them in. And the redemption
that happened, the salvation that happened through Noah is
an illustration of the salvation God has eternally purposed. It's
not for everybody. The ark was built for specific
characters only. Designed, it has specific dimensions. Did it not? But yet can it not
be said that when God saved Noah, he saved the world? Did he not? We're still here. So God saved
the world. John 3, 6, 8. Look, Noah built an ark, altar
unto the Lord, that took of every clean beast and every clean fowl
and offered burnt offerings on the altar. That's one of the
burnt offerings. Because first of all, God's got to be pleased
with Christ or none of us have any hope. And he was pleased
with Christ. Who Christ is and what he did
is that sweet aroma to God. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground anymore for man's sake. Why? For the imagination
of man's, not actions, because oftentimes we can mask our actions. But the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth. You're bad. And I'm bad. At the source. At the source. Turn to Psalm chapter five, or
the fifth psalm, actually. Remember the psalms are not really
chapters. The psalms were actually divided up already for us. They
might not have had verses, Joe, but the chapters are different
psalms. The fifth psalm, chapter five, verse nine. For there is
no faithfulness in their mouth. But what's the problem? There's
something deeper than just the mouth. Right? Now the abundance
of the what? Heart, our Lord Jesus Christ
said, the mouth speaks. In other words, the problem's
not the stream, though the stream is a problem. The problem is
the fountain from which the stream flows. You got a rotten fountain,
you're gonna have a rotten stream. If you find a fountain up in
the mountains somewhere, and here's this seemingly fresh water
coming out, somebody got their sewage lines run pretty close
to that, it may look clean, but be full of foulness. For there
is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. All right, turn to Proverbs chapter
20. Over one more book. Proverbs
chapter 20. Proverbs chapter 20, verse six. Here we're gonna get down to
it. Most men, now not every man, but there might be a few exceptions,
but most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. Boy, don't
we like doing that. And it's always, it's usually
always easy to find somebody else out there that conducts
themselves a little worse than you do. I'm sure the whores on
the street could compare each other amongst themselves, and
some feel a little step above the others. But this is our problem. We,
most of us, will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful
man who can find. Because what does a faithful
man do? He'll tell you the truth about himself. You see, people
think being faithful means being sinless. No, being faithful means
you're gonna confess your sin and your sins. And our fountain
is rotten, therefore the flow, the stream that comes out of
it is rotten too. As Henry Mahan used to say and
probably said it many, many times, you don't commit sin to become
a sinner. You commit sins because you are
a sinner. Look at verse nine. Who can say, here we go, tell
us what that inward part is. Who can say, I have made my heart
clean. I am pure from my, what? Sin, singular. Sin, singular. Even believers. understand what the Apostle Paul
meant. The Apostle Paul, who, mind you,
was being inspired to write Holy Scripture. And we have it recorded,
his words are recorded in Romans 7, verse 24, and all believers
can relate to this. He didn't say, oh, wretched deeds
that I do. Did he? Now, I'm sure he felt
that way about any wretched deed that he did, but that's not what
he said. He said, oh, wretched man that I am. By nature, my fountain is polluted. Joe, it is a septic tank. It is a septic tank. It is filled
with all the foul filth of fallen, corrupt humanity. My heart is
no different than the heart of Charles Manson by nature. Do
you hear me? And if God didn't restrain each
and every one of us, we'd be at one another's throats murdering
one another. We'd be like the wild beasts
of the field if God Almighty were not restraining us. And
every once in a while you'll see God at least lift a finger
on restraint and see what happens. Watch the news, you'll see it.
You'll see it. So you think childhood versus
old age? Certainly the atonement must
be greater for one than the other. No, sir. because our chief problem
is our what? Sin. Sin. Our sins are but the stream flowing
from our polluted fountain. Now turn to Zechariah chapter
13. It's next to the last book in the Old Testament if that
gives you a little jump start. I got mine marked so I'm already there.
Turn to Zechariah chapter 13. Folks, is our fountain. Right? Our problem is our fountain. The problem also by nature is
this, we don't really understand the problem of our fountain.
We think it's actually pretty good water. It's not. Because God says it's not to
him. My fountain may look pretty good to you, your fountain may
look pretty good to me. We compare ourselves among ourselves, and
we may say we're a pretty good lot of folk, but God sees the
heart. He even said of those Jews in
his day who were very religious, some very moral people, he said,
these people, they speak and they worship me with their lips,
but what's the problem? Again, the problem's the fountain.
The heart is far from me. Ah, but there is another fountain.
Because we have a bad fountain, we need a good fountain. There's
Zechariah 13. I will paraphrase, not each verse,
but some of them together, and we'll read these, and I'll give
you New Testament equivalent. I know there are those who say
this is actually for blood-born Jews in some later day to come. That's not so. I used to be in
that camp years ago. A lot of that stuff held on to
me and probably still does to some degree today, Joe. But the
fountain was opened only one time. He offered, there's one atonement
for this unclean by birth, right? Once it's offered, clean. Right? Clean. God says it's clean. In that day. Now that's the,
it began, most people think, around December 25th. About zero
four, they say, because they say there was a little mix up
in the years there. A fountain. He who is the fountain was born,
folks. He was born in a manger, or born
in a stable, laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes.
He was in a barn. and probably not a barn near
as nice as a lot of the barns we're familiar with today, but
in that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. I'm
here to say, here is a fountain once opened. It has only been
opened once, but it has continual, everlasting, eternal blessings. And it is to Christ's people.
and to those who dwell in Jerusalem, which is above. Paul said, in Galatians 4.25,
Jerusalem, which is below, it's in bondage with its children.
That Jerusalem, even until now, and I have every reason to believe
that's still so. And it'll always be so. So much so that even the
book of the Revelation talks about it, what a new Jerusalem
one day, right? Why, because that one, the one
we know of over there, what they call Palestine or the land of
Israel, it is in bondage with all of its children. Hebrews
chapter three verse six says Christ has a house. This David
is King David's greater son. The Christ of God. And we're
his house. only if we continue. So already
we see a limitation put on it. Is it not? We're his house. It
doesn't say everybody's his house and then they ought to do this.
We're his house only if you continue. So let's me know you first gotta
make a start. And once you make the start, you're gonna continue
and you'll be like the folks in Hebrew the next few chapters
later, you'll die in that start. You'll die in faith. Here is
a fountain that was opened for the house of David and for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. In this fountain, the sheep have
one eye. Chapter 13, verse two, and it
shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that
I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they
shall no more be remembered, and I will cause the prophets
and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And I wrote
Jesus Christ said, my sheep hear my voice. And a stranger, what? They will not follow. That's exactly what chapter 13
verse two is talking about. Third paraphrase there. Fleshly
unions, when this fountain being opened, opened only once, but
it has eternal, everlasting blessings. This fountain being opened, fleshly
unions are dissolved with spiritual finality. Chapter 13, verse three,
and it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy,
that his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto
him, thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name
of the Lord. And his father and his mother that begat him shall
thrust him through when he prophesieth. How do we do that? Whenever we
say, here's the gospel, I believe this gospel, and I will take
no other stand. And even your family members
will turn their back on you. And you will have to say, get
away from me. Go back and read what Christ
said, Matthew 10, 35, 36. A man's enemies are gonna become
those even of his own household. When I began to read this to
you, I thought, those folks understood a whole lot more than what most
folks today do. Again, fleshly unions are dissolved
with spiritual finality. They're put here in the typical
language of death. Let me tell you something, when
you believe the gospel, God gives you eyes to see, and ears to
hear, and a heart to perceive. And one of your kin, folks, he
doesn't, you will be at heads. Because if you can still get
along, then neither one of you's got what you think you got. Now,
do you hear what I said? Neither one of you got what you
probably think you got. Because Christ said, my gospel, his truth,
it will divide families. Now that lets you know a part
of the lie of so-called Christianity today is they try to teach and
persuade men and women that the gospel is to bring all of humanity
together. That's not so. Christ said, I
didn't come to send peace, I came to do what? Bring a sword, and
I will divide families. That's what we read right there,
don't we? Here's another one. Christ alone
makes the difference. Chapter 13, verses four, five,
and six. And it shall come to pass in that day, still the same
time, right? It shall come to pass in that
day that the prophet shall be ashamed, every one of his vision,
when he prophesied. Neither shall they wear a rough
garment to deceive, but he shall say, and here's an amazing, let
me stop a moment. Notice it's they, they, then
all of a sudden it turns to he. Now if you go through this, you
will see this he is a specific he, right? But he shall say, I am no prophet,
I am a husbandman. For man taught me to keep cattle
by youth. Here's a shepherd. And it'll
go on to tell us that, right? There's a shepherd, and one shall
say unto him, this singular man, what are these wounds in thy
hands? Then this he shall answer, those
with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Now I don't
know, because I can't check Hebrew like I can the Greek. And I've
studied a little Greek, fell in love with that language one
time, and thank God he finally made that dissipate. I know it's
important, it's vital, but we love Christ, not things. But I can't check Hebrew, Joe,
like I can the Greek. I don't have the books and stuff
like that. I'm even wondering if verse four when it says, and
it shall come to pass in that day that the prophets shall be
ashamed every one of his vision when he, this specific he, Now
I don't know that, but even if that's not the point, even if
the Hebrew wouldn't bear that out, I know the next he in verse
five is speaking about one he, Jesus Christ. Now do you see
what I'm saying? I'm just saying again, Christ
alone makes the difference. Paul put it this way to the Corinthians.
I planted, Apollos watered. In gospel planting, in gospel
watering, are absolutely essential. They're absolutely essential.
There's never going to be any fruit, whether it's tenfold,
twentyfold, fortyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold, unless there's
first a seed planted. Life from God alone ain't it.
It's good ground plus good seed. And good ground and good seed
will bring forth what? Fruit. Fruit. and gospel seed
planting and gospel watering are absolutely essential, but
Paul makes it clear, God gives the increase. It ain't up to
the planter and the waterer. Now, planting water, we must.
Why? Because it pleased God. That's
the way God's pleased to do it. If something pleased God, shouldn't
we be pleased to do it? If it pleases our God, the only
reason it wouldn't be pleasing to you is because you don't really
love it. We can talk this talk. The problem is if you really
love it, you're going to do it, support it, give money for it,
spend time at it, support those who publicly do it. If you don't,
you don't love it. It's just a fact. It's just a
fact. Christ makes the difference.
And so much so that Paul even says, whoever you were hearing,
as a paraphrase, whoever you were hearing when you first believed,
God purposed that very person to be the person you listened
to. He said, who are they but ministers by whom you believed?
Then he says, even as the Lord gave to every man. So God not only determined who
would believe, in the exact moment that they first believe, and
of course they'll continue to believe. Not only did he determine
that, he determined the actual clay pot that they would hear
that message from. That's just the way it is. So again, Christ alone makes
the difference. Number five, Christ's substitutionary
sufferings are central. Verse seven, awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, That
is Jesus Christ. Saith the Lord of hosts, smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. And I will turn
my hand upon the little ones. Yes, they will be scattered.
And often time when the gospel begins to first be preached and
begins to first be heard, and I mean spiritually heard, the
flesh will well up. I will not have that man reign
over me. But this shepherd will gather
his little ones. Will he not? He will. So if you're
not gathered, you ain't a part of it. I'm gonna tell you something. You don't gather? You got a place
you can gather? You got no reason to think you're
a part of it. I don't have to go to church
to be saved. No, you don't have to breathe to be saved. But breathe
you must. And if you love God's gospel,
God's son, and God's people, you will gather together with
them. Christ's substitution or sufferings
are central. And then what he said, he said, other sheep I have, which are
now this fold, them also I must bring. Now us good Calvinists,
we like that. And I understand that. I must
bring, but there shall be what? One fold. So if you ain't a part
of that one fold, you ain't a part of it. There shall be one fold
and one shepherd. Because when God calls his people
out, he calls them together. Together. What if a person doesn't
have a place to attend? They can find one. I knew of
a couple that just moved from Washington State all the way
to Tennessee. And sold everything out and moved,
why? Just to hear the gospel. You see, that's what happens
when the good shepherd calls out a sheep. It's not the number of how many
people who are gathering. They gather together. There are no secret disciples.
There are none. Again, this is not a universal
blessing. It is not prophesied to be a
universal blessing. Verse eight, and it shall come
to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein
shall be cut off. You see it? cut off and die,
but the third part shall be left therein. That's the remnant.
That's the remnant. Now, how much those two thirds
of one third equals? I have no idea. But this is God's,
the whole prophecy is this, it's not for everybody. Right? And let me tell you something,
starting from the get go all the way through this book, it's
never ever stated to be for everybody. I want to be a part of that one
third. Don't you? I must be a part of
that one third. And then Paul comes along in
Romans chapter nine and says it's not just because a Jew is
a Jew. It's the ones that God Almighty
chose before the world began. Jacob and Esau were both descendants
of Isaac. God loved one. God hated the
other. And what did it do? It caused
problems. It caused problems. Even above
the Gentiles, remember, Paul in Acts 13, it's recorded, he
went in and preached in the synagogue, and he preached there, I think,
for several days, or several weeks, I should say, on several
Sabbath days. and the Jews rejected it. And
Paul said, this is exactly what the Old Testament prophesied
would happen. You're of that group of people which will in
no wise believe, though a man declared unto you. He said, so
since you've rejected it, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. But
what did it say even about the Gentiles? They rejoiced to hear
this now, that they could be a part of this, maybe, just be
a part of this. And it says, and as many as. were ordained to eternal life,
they did what? They believed. And that's exactly
the way God intended it to be because Paul also says in Romans
9, 10, and 11, a short work will the Lord do on the earth. That's
not about duration, that's talking about thirds. Go back and look
at it, look at the words yourself, thirds. You see, union with God
for the elect is both the goal and it's certain. Verse nine,
and I will bring the third part through the fire. Let me tell
you something, you really start believing the gospel, your world
will get turned upside down. I don't know how many we've had
here, even in this small group, it's a lot smaller than it used
to be, and a lot of people, they give lip profession to the truth
of grace, and now they just do whatever they want to do. And
they think they're okay. They still believe what they
were brought up under. That's part of your problem.
You just believe in what you was brought up under. And the
shepherd himself ain't never gathered you into the one fold. I will bring them the third part
through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and
will try them as gold is tried. And it's not an easy thing. Sometimes
it's not too pleasant. but it is absolutely essential.
But look, they shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, it is my people. And they shall say, the Lord
is my God. Sin is universal. Union with Christ is particular.
is for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Christ is both our burnt offering, that sweet smell to God, and
he is our sin offering, that is our penal justice satisfaction
before God. Sin takes one great atonement,
the same great atonement. It takes the one great atonement
because of sin itself, no matter the multitude or the minimum
of sins. You hear what I just said? I
convoluted that a little, say it one more time. Sin takes one
great equal atonement, no matter the multitude or minimum of sins. Because our chief problem is
not our sins, it's our sin. If my seeing, if my heart wasn't
bad, I wouldn't have to worry about the strain. I wouldn't
have to worry about the strain. Let me close with this, and I'll
read Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, I know
I've kept you all over here. Romans chapter eight. You know, the first time I began
to hear the gospel, And God, I know there was a specific person
that when God first began to open my eyes, I understand that,
but I still don't know for sure which guy that really was. But
there's one of them here today, preached a message to you today,
and he gave me written messages by others and cassette tapes
by others, Ellen, and all of a sudden my eyes were opened.
I began to see what was really there. But I didn't really understand
how little I didn't like it until God first opened my eyes. Before he regenerated me, I didn't
even know I hated it so much. It was only after he regenerated
me I began to understand with any inkling how much I really
hated it down in here. And I remember saying to myself
more than one time, devil, you get out of here and leave me
alone. You're trying to make me doubt my salvation. If God's pleased to ever use
anything I might say to help you start doubting your salvation,
I pray God it happens today. Because your salvation ain't
worth a warm bucket of spit. It is his salvation that matters,
and that's it. Look, Romans 8. Verse three,
for what the law could not do. The problem wasn't the law though.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak because of
me. because of my old nature. As weak through the flesh, God
sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
what did he do? He condemned sin. I don't mean
he preached against it. He did preach against it. But
he condemned it where? In his flesh. Sin was atoned
for when that fountain was opened. And that fountain is for the
house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Which one are you? Which one are you? Let's stand
and sing hymn number one. Power of Jesus name let angels
prosper a fall Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. seed of Israel's race, a remnant
weak and small. Hail Him who saves you by His
grace and crown Him Lord of all.