We're in Romans chapter 11. I
want us to start back at verse 6. We left off last week dealing
with the concept of the remnant. And I do want to move forward
with that. The Apostle Paul made it very clear over in verse 5
that even at this present time, so right now he's dealing with
having given us a historical precedent. He's moving from a
past analogy a past analogy where he dealt with the interceding
work of Elisha to a present reality a present reality and that present
reality as he says even now there is a what remnant so as Paul
was speaking to his constituents which were the Jews and the Gentiles
of the church at Rome, he says, as it was in the days of Elijah,
even now there is a remnant. So we talked about the remnant
concept for several weeks, and I don't wanna develop that too
much more, but there's a sense in which the remnant concept
applies to those who are only true believers. You see the remnant
concept through the scriptures frequently. The remnant are the
people of God, the true people of God. While the masses represent
the larger corporate entity, the remnant are the people whom
God has to protect and preserve and reserve and set aside in
the midst of the storm or the tribulation or the difficulty
that his corporate people are going through. And so he said
in verse four, I have reserved to myself, 7,000. You guys remember
that. I have reserved to myself, not
merely reserved, but reserved to myself 7,000. That's the answer
that God gave to his servant, Elijah. He told Elijah, what
you see is not the way it really is. It appears that everyone
has departed from the gospel. It appears that all the preachers
are Baal preachers and preachers of Jezebel and that none are
preaching the truth of Jehovah. It appears that way, but there
are 7,000 who have not bowed the knee and called Baal Lord
because I have reserved them to myself. And the emphasis is
on the work of God. God is the one that does the
electing. The word reserved and remnant are synonyms are cognate
words for election. One of the most hated words in
the whole realm of Christian theology by liberal theologians
and unregenerate men who despise the idea that God saves some
and he passes over others. But you can't even read your
Bible properly without recognizing that God chooses Jacob and not
Esau. And that God chooses Abel and
not Cain. And that God chooses Isaac and
not Ishmael. And God chose Israel as a corporate
typological people out of all the nations of the world. You
only have I known, he said to Israel in the book of Amos. I
haven't related to you in a covenant way. I haven't related to all
the other nations in a covenant way like I have to you. And the
question often is raised, why does God do that? And the answer
is this, because he's God. You will have no other satisfactory
answer but this, he's God. Once you try to pry into other
motives and once you try to satisfy your own self-righteousness or
your own determination as to what constitutes right and wrong
and justice and injustice because the argument often is that's
not fair. Haven't you heard that with the
doctrine of election? That's not fair. But see, the first
thing you have to ask is, how do I know what fair is? Secondly,
I have to ask this question. Do I dare have a right to charge
God with folly? Can I bring God into judgment
as to what he does? Or here's the third question.
Am I allowing reason to reign sovereign here or revelation?
This is what I deal with in terms of men, primarily men who will
challenge me on the doctrine of election. The doctrine of
election is not fair. God's no respecter of persons.
I said, you're exactly right. He's not a respecter of persons,
but election has nothing to do with him respecting you. Election
has everything to do with him respecting his son and him and
his son choosing you to eternal salvation based on nothing that
has to do with you. Election is not based on us.
You and I were no better than anyone else in terms of God looking
upon us in love and choosing us in Christ and saving us by
his grace and calling us by his spirit and preserving us to glory.
We can't say he chose me and loved me because I was better
than anyone else. The concept of election and grace
is an incomprehensible concept. Paul called it an unspeakable
gift. and unspeakable gift is not a
gift that you can explain all you can say is i've tasted it
i've felt it like david said to micah the daughter uh... saw
when david was bringing the art back home in dancing before the
arc would just uh... and he thought i'm thankful that
god had allowed him to bring the ark of the covenant a symbol
of god's presence back into jerusalem cuz that meant a lot and michael
was ashamed that david being so crass and open and dancing
and rejoicing before the Lord. You know what David said to Micah?
He said, the Lord chose me over your daddy. That's why I'm rejoicing. Go back to the text. See, when
God saves you, that's all you need to rejoice. Once you get
to say, well, Lord, why didn't you save him? Now you're in trouble.
Do you guys get that? Now you're in trouble. Let God
do the saving. See, because at that point what
we're assuming is we know something or we can actually put together
the counsel of God and bring to satisfactory conclusion in
our own mind why God is doing the thing. And God's judgments
are past finding out. Have you been God's counselor?
Have you sat at his elbow? Have you sat in his senate? Did
you help him create the universe? Did you help him name the stars?
Did you tell God how to create the heavens and the earth and
the billions and gazillions of galaxies? My daughter told me
there's no word called gazillion. So I'll back up and I'll use
the word trillions. In fact, there's another word. It's called quadrillion. Quadrillion. I'm not quadrillion, who said
quadrillion? No. Check it out. It's a hundred trillion. And
that doesn't even begin to bring about the real number of how
God created this galaxy. He created this galaxy in such
an infinite fashion in order to reflect the largeness of God. God has to be large to create
a universe that when he allows puny man to build the largest
microscope he could and he looks out he says this thing is growing. God says that's because you're
puny. I finished this thing in six days and I wasn't even sweating. So it appears to be growing because
you're such a finite creature, like an ant trying to drink the
ocean. This is what we're doing when
we're trying to bring God into judgment. I have to preface this
issue of election with this because for centuries, men have argued
the justice of God in choosing some and passing over others,
and you can't do it. you don't have the ability to
bring God into judgment. You either bow to the revelation
or walk away and perish under the wrath of God. Got it? So
let's go into the next point and see what we're talking about
here. As Paul explains in verse five, even so then at this present
time, there's a remnant according to the what? Election of what? Grace. There it is. So now understand
election has a nature to it. There's an ontology ontology
to election, and that's called grace. Election is never based
on works. Election is never based on human
performance. Election is never based on persons. It's never based on human righteousness. It's never based on God looking
at you and saying, because you did this, I therefore elect you. Election is always rooted in
the grace of God. Grace is always unwhat? Merited. You guys got that? Unmerited. When God looks on
you, he doesn't determine what value you have as a basis of
choosing you. It's unmerited. Therefore, if
you're an object of God's grace, the one and natural and appropriate
response is humility. That God would look on you and
have mercy on you. You are a humble object of mercy
and you're to spend the rest of eternity marveling that God
chose you. If you want people to have an
appropriate consideration of the doctrine of election, let
them watch you marvel at God choosing you. I can't explain
it. I'm just amazed that God would
look upon me and have favor. So here's what he says. Even
so, then there at this present time, there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. What Paul understood was is this. There is a remnant because in
God's prerogative, he decided to save some of the masses of
humanity that were headed to where? Now, let me help you with
this, Maxim, because this is very important. If you go to
heaven. If you go to heaven, it's because
of God's grace. If you go to hell, it's because
of your sin. This is a legitimate and what
we call a biblical maxim. You don't go to hell because
God didn't elect you. You go to hell because of your
sin. You don't go to heaven because you stopped sinning. You go to heaven because God
chose you in Christ and made a substitute provide for you
everything you needed to be right with God. Got it? So it's very
important to know that. So when the apostle says here,
so then at this present time, also there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. He now in verse six makes it
very plain before he moves to verse seven, which is going to
be the premise for us moving on into our discussion. I want
you to hear this. This is important. He says in verse six, and if
it's by grace, by the way, that's an elliptical statement. If God
elected us according to his grace, then it is no more of what? got it watch this otherwise grace
is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace
otherwise work is no more what you know what Paul just said
you can never mix grace with works and have grace you guys
got that you can never miss mix your work with the grace of God
and is still amount to the grace of God. This is the battle that
our forefathers fought with Catholicism around the doctrine of analytical
justification or justification based upon God's grace and man's
works, which is the doctrine of Catholicism. The doctrine
of Catholicism says, yes, God gives you his grace through baptism. But you have to continue working
your whole life to sustain that grace position until you get
to glory. And then God has a look at you
and see that you have been justified by your works, though they started
off in grace and you might make it into heaven. This is where
purgatory comes in and all of the Catholic doctrines that are
employed for sanctification and ablutions and cleansing and all
of these things. What it amounts to salvation
by works and our forefathers died to stand on the scriptures
against that doctrine now the reason I raise that issue is
twofold let me help you because I want you to get this the reason
I raise that issue is twofold first it's because by nature
without us being constantly checked by the Spirit of God and by the
Word of God, you and I will shift our paradigm of thinking and
understanding from grace to words. By nature, you and I will seek
to merit favor with God by something we do. That's our nature. That's
the old Adamic principle in us. The fallen nature in us does
not have intuitively the faith to rest on the objective work
of Christ alone as the grounds by which they are permanently
and forever accepted with God. Our fallen nature can never on
its own simply rest in Jesus. So when we get into sin or we
get into trouble, we start working and plea bargaining and committing
vows and doing a number of things that ultimately amount to us
saying, I don't really believe that Christ is enough. Am I making
some sense? And then we find ourselves shifting
into the laboring of the pursuing a clearing of our conscious on
the grounds of what we do. So we help the little old lady
across the street, or we give more tides, or we pray more fervently,
or this year we tell the truth on our taxes, but we might not
make sure. But this year we're telling the
truth on our taxes. Now we're in the laboring of trying to
get right with God. And once you do that, you have
diminished the efficacy of the cross. I told you the statistics came
out by the Barna Institute back in the middle 90s, where he went
around the country asking old folks who had been in the church
for 30, 40, 50 years. So then what is the grounds by
which you think you are going to heaven? And they said, well,
I'm a pretty good person. This was a 80 to 90% response
of your average evangelical Christian. I'm a pretty good person. I'm
a pretty good person. This is the person, these are
the Christians who've been in church for 10, 15, 20 years. I'm going
to heaven because I'm a pretty good person. Two things have
occurred. Are you ready? And I shared this
with you before, but I want to drive this home. Two things have
occurred. That person gradually shifted from the solid foundation
of Jesus Christ and crucified to the sandy ground of works
religion. He or she wasn't aware of it.
They did it over time. They lost sight of the reality
of God's righteousness in Christ as their only grounds for acceptance.
And now they are thinking, well, you know, I got, I have a little
bit of confidence that I'm going to glory because of something
I've done. See, they have left off with grace. Now they're standing
on the grounds of the good works. And you guys know what Jesus
said in Matthew chapter seven, verse 20 and 21. In that day, many shall say,
Lord, Lord, did not we do many mighty works in your name? Didn't
we cast out devils in your name? Didn't we heal in your name?
Didn't we do many things in your name? Didn't we prophesy in your
name? Now notice what they're doing. They're seeking to enter
into the kingdom, not on the grounds of Christ and Him crucified,
but what the sum total of their life experience has afforded
them because they were religious. Are you guys hearing me? The
best thing that could happen to you before you die is for
God to give you a small period of time by which He allows the
south wind of His mercy to blow over your soul and conscience
and strip away all of the false refuge of your good works so
that you're stranded, stranded between heaven and hell looking
at nothing but the crucified Christ as if you needed to be
born again all over. so that as you die and go into
glory, your only hope is Christ, his blood and his righteousness.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So critical to know. So critical
to know. As you have begun in the Lord
Jesus, as you have received the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in him. This is what Paul said in Colossians
chapter two. As you received him, you know
that day you received the Lord and you didn't have any works
to bring to the table? And you were rejoicing fully
in the manifestation of the glory of God in the person of Christ.
And you were overwhelmed by the reality of Him being your righteousness
and the wonderful, wonderful testimony of God's grace in your
life. And you're just overwhelmed that
you are now a child of God. That's the way it must be all
the days of your life until you enter into glory. What that means
is you have to battle against legalism in your own heart. every
day of your life. Every day of your life. That's
what Paul was battling with in every one of his epistles. Here
this man starts all of these churches on the grounds of the
gospel, and he has to go back and write letters to deal with
all of these heresies entering into the church, trying to delude
his people from the simplicity which is in Christ. That's the
preponderance of the whole of your New Testament Bible. Do
you know the majority of the New Testament epistles are apologetic
writings against heresy because they were constantly being assaulted
with works religion. And so as he begins to close
out on this portion of his argument, he explains and defines for us
what grace is. So I said, the first thing you
need to be careful to note, and I wanted to share with you two
things, please understand this. Your nature in my nature until
we grow in Christ and are so thoroughly convinced and I don't
know if that will ever end is Inclined to performance and works
as a basis of trying to feel like we're right with God You
got to fight against that the remedy for that is to stay under
the truth of the gospel until you die Did you hear what I just
said? I know people don't believe that
but it's the truth the remedy for this subtle incrementalism
of self-righteousness creeping up in your old Adamic nature
is for you to be under the gospel year in and year out and month
in and month out till you die. That's the remedy. You and I
need to be clobbered by the truth of the gospel all the days of
our life so that we might be made perfect in Christ and presented
perfect in Christ. As Paul said in Colossians chapter
1 verse 27, Whom we preach that is Christ warning every man and
teaching every man in order to present every one of you Perfect
because that's the only way you go into heaven in Christ Got
it in Christ. So that's what he's doing here.
Let's go on now Verse 7. Oh, yeah. And by the way, here's
another maxim. We use it all the time your works plus Christ's
work what? Help somebody Help somebody please
get it your work plus Christ's work won't work Verse seven, this is interesting
because he draws a conclusion as he moves on to a next, to
a very difficult portion of scripture with which you'll reason now
with you and me on the history of Israel. What then? So what
may we conclude? That's what verse seven is saying.
So what may we conclude? Since we know that for the 2,000
years that Israel was in existence, well at that time, it was 1,500
years that Israel was in existence, the preponderance of Israel fell
away and perish with the exception of the remnant. What then? He's
going to draw a conclusion that he already drew in chapter nine,
verse 31 and 32. Here's what he says. I want you
to get this. Israel have not obtained that which she seek
it for. Got it. You see how he's come
full circle. He knows Israel's problem and
he's been explaining Israel's problem to the Gentiles having
explained Israel's problem through the historicity of scripture
and sound Holy Ghost reasoning he comes back to the premise
what then Israel hath not obtained that for which it was brought
into existence notice Israel has not obtained that for which
she seeks but the election has do you see that now watch this
But the election had obtained it. But the election had obtained
it. And the rest were what? Now he's
moved us into another category of thought, and he's delineated
once more the practical reality of the history of Israel. So
the Bible is written for us for our learning and for our admonition
so that you and I won't lust after evil things as they did.
And so that you and I might be comforted by the truth of the
scriptures. Here's what Paul has just said. Now, as I told
you before, Israel didn't obtain it. That's why, for the most
part, the Jewish nation despises the gospel and still rejects
Christ. That's just the fact of the matter. He's going to
explain why here in a moment. But he's saying, I want you to know,
even though Israel has not attained it, the elect did. Now this gets
back to the dichotomy that exists within the whole body politic
of national Israel. Remember what we learned in Romans
chapter 9 around verse 6 or so? Paul says everyone in Israel
is not really truly Israel. It's so important for the evangelical
church to get this because we have misdefined God's purpose
with regards to the so-called people of God by categorizing
who's God's people in a wrong fashion, in an unbiblical way.
Paul just said the elect have obtained it. The elect are defined
by Romans chapter 9 verse 7. Look there again, verse 6 and
7. Romans 9, 6 and 7. I want you to see it again. Not
as though the Word of God has taken none effect. This is Paul's
concern as he reiterates the history of the nation of Israel
in the eyes and ears of the Jews and Gentiles in Rome. He wants
them to know God didn't fail. Though Israel failed, God didn't
fail. Notice this. Not as though the Word of God
has none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Got it? Have you guys made that
categorical distinction in your theology? Because until you do,
you will fail to recognize that God never intended for the whole
of national Israel to enter into the promises of God. You will
fail to realize that, that God never did fail in terms of who
it would be that would obtain the promises. So notice the distinction. For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of
Abraham, are they all what? Children. Got it? And we went
into this at length. I'm not going to do it again.
Jesus dealt with it. Paul is constantly dealing with it. So
when you simply say a blood descendant of Abraham is the child of God,
you're militating against gospel truth. You're militating against
the revelation of scripture. You're militating against the
history of Israel. And now you have no premise for
explaining how it is that Israel continually rebelled against
God and bought into idolatry. But Jesus made it plain and Paul
made it plain because the majority of them were pagan. And they
were not God's elect and they were not children of promise.
For had they been God's elect and children of promise, they
would have continued in the gospel from the beginning to the end.
That's what Jesus said to him in John 8, right? If you were
of God, my father, you'd believe me and my word would have a place
in you and you'd understand that I came from God and you'd recognize
that I'm a son, but you're not God's children. You're Abraham's
sperma, but you're not Abraham's children. And remember the distinction
between Abraham's technos and Abraham's sperma is not genealogical,
but characteristic. Which means this, as Abraham
believed God, so his children believed God. Isaac believed
God, Jacob believed God, David believed God, Rebecca believed
God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is Paul's theology as he fleshes it out in the book of
Romans. Abraham is the father of the
faithful. Got it? This is critical to understand. This is radical too because this
is at the heart of what Paul is teaching in 2 Corinthians
5 verse 17. If any man be in Christ Jesus,
he's what? A new creature. You know what
that means? Totally disregard the flesh. The flesh has nothing
to do with Christ or God or the gospel. Did you guys hear what
I just said? And he's going to deal with that
in the book of Galatians. He deals with it in the book of
Colossians. By the time Paul is prepared to be beheaded by
Nero, he has told all the churches circumcision doesn't profit you.
Uncircumcision doesn't profit you. But a new creature, a new
creature. If you're in Christ, you're a
new creature. You're neither Jew nor Gentile. You're Christian. Now, that's radical. That's radical,
but that will clear up your foggy theology if you allow it to permeate
your thinking. It'll bring clarity to the gospel.
Otherwise, racism and discrimination will skew your vision, particularly
with regards to eschatology, which we'll be getting into here
shortly. Notice what the apostle says, but the elect have obtained
it and the rest were what? Well, you may or may not be able
to grasp the elect obtaining it, but you should be able to
grasp that the rest were what? Because that's what we're going
to deal with now. Now, if I were to simply say that the elect
obtained it, all that means is that when Jesus came, they believed
him. You guys got that? The elect obtained that righteousness,
which is by faith in Jesus Christ. Which is what Jesus said so many
times, John chapter 10, my sheep what? And they what? Follow me. Another they will not follow.
So when the elect hear the voice of Christ and they hear the gospel
of Christ, they respond to that gospel appropriately because
they were elect. In doing so, they obtained that
righteousness which God provided for them in Christ and they're
set for glory. You guys got that? Because they
were his what? Sheep. Because they were his
sheep. And that's what Romans chapter
10 verse 4 says. Look at Romans 10 4. For Christ is the end of
the what? For what? Righteousness. To whom? Everyone that what? That's right. Everyone that believes the gospel
realizes their righteousness is in the person of Christ and
not the works of the law. And this is the antithesis and
hostility and dichotomy of national Israel and their works religion,
still opposing the message of the gospel to this very hour.
You guys got that? All right, let's go on. The elective
obtained it and the rest were blinded. Two things, who are
the rest? Who are the rest? Those that don't believe, be
a little bit more contextual. Who are the rest, contextually?
Those be a little bit more contextual. Israel, Israel what? After the
flesh. Israel after the flesh, right?
Fleshly Israel did not believe. Right? Isn't that what we're
dealing with? I want to stay contextual. You're right. They
didn't hear, they didn't believe, but that's because they were
not his sheep. This is Israel after the flesh.
They didn't obtain it. But spiritual Israel did. The
children of promise obtained it, didn't they? The children
of promise always obtained. In fact, for your own notes,
the word promise in the New Testament is a synonym for the gospel.
The children of promise are the children of the gospel. Isaac
was a child of the gospel. Jacob was a child of the gospel.
Abraham was a child of the gospel. David was a child of the gospel.
Ruth the Moabite was a child of the gospel. Rahab the harlot
was a child of the gospel. Rachel was a child of the gospel. What do you mean, pastor? All
these folks, they were sinners saved by the mercy and grace
of God. Do you know Abraham was saved before the law was established? So that he couldn't have been
saved on the grounds of the Mosaic law. Do you know Abraham was
saved before circumcision was established? So he couldn't have
been called technically, you ready? A Jew. Abraham was a Gentile. You guys got that? In order for
the children of Israel to see that when their spiritual father
was called, he was called by grace and he was saved through
faith in Christ alone apart from works. And Paul explains in Galatians
4 that the law was added because of sin to hedge the people in
until Christ came. But the law was never the grounds
by which people were saved. So when we say we have Abraham
as our father, well, if you do, you do the works of Abraham.
Because Abraham got saved as a heathen in Ur of the Chaldee,
worshiping pagan idols. And God called him by his irresistible
grace and saved him. And he walked with God apart
from works, apart from law, apart from circumcision, all the days
of his life. He was a grace believer. He was
a child of promise. Isaac was a child of promise.
How was he a child of promise? The promise is the gospel. It's
always God doing something for us that we can't do for ourselves.
It's always God raising the dead. It's always God imputing life
where there's no life. Isaac was the consequence of
a miraculous birth. You guys got that? Just like
every believer is the consequence of a miraculous birth. The new
birth is a miracle. And yet Ishmael was the product
of fleshly efforts between Abraham and Hagar. Anybody can produce
an Ishmael. But God alone produces Isaacs. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And every true believer who knows what it means to be born of God
realizes that God saved me all by himself. He raised me from
the dead. He quickened me. He gave me life.
He put me into the kingdom of God. I'm here because of the
mercy and prerogative and power of God. That's what Isaac said.
Isaac wasn't under the law. circumcision was started with
Isaac but that's because circumcision pointed to who that's right without
the shedding the blood there's no remission of sin and the seed
must come with who would be the one by whom all of our sins would
be put away so those men lived by grace all their days law came
in 430 years after Abraham Isaac and Jacob are you hearing what
I'm saying But the labors that the Apostle Paul put into trying
to explain to the Jews and the Gentiles is the labor that I'm
trying to put into us to understand how virulent, how strong, how
tenuous legalism is if we allow it to creep into our understanding. You got to fight against it.
You got to fight against it. It's so natural and born. Here's
what he said. The rest were what? Blinded.
So we're getting ready to get into that now, because that's
what Paul is saying is the reason why they didn't obtain it, blindness. You guys have your outline? Let's
go to work a little bit. The rest were blinded. When Paul
uses that phrase blindness there in the seventh verse, he knows
precisely what he's doing. It's a word that in the Greek
is an aggravating term. The word blindness is a word
that's used several times in the scriptures. You guys are
not unfamiliar with the word blindness, right? And so we're
going to deal with that for a little bit. I want us to deal with blindness.
This is going to be good right here because it's going to have
some practical implications for you and me, the word blindness. So Psoriasis is the Greek word in
our texts. And when the apostle Paul uses that
word blindness, it's translated blindness, but it can also be
translated hardness. You may see that in your margin,
in the margin of your Bible hardness. I'm gonna explain that here as
we go. But let me say this again. If you read your Bible, you are
not unfamiliar with blindness. Blindness is something that God
talks about in the Bible frequently, and it is the natural condition
of every one of us outside of Christ. You guys got that? Blindness is the condition of
the unregenerate man. You and I are blind spiritually. No one outside of Christ can
see or know or comprehend divine truth by nature. We're all blind. So here's one truth that when
Paul talks about the blindness of natural Israel, all he did
was put them in the category of the unsaved, the natural man. This is very important, too,
for those who get emotional about Israel. And people do, because
people have been programmed to think that if you talk negatively
about Israel, you're talking negatively about the people of
God. When Paul says that they were blinded, he's simply saying
that they have no advantage over the Gentile. That they are in
the same condition that the Gentiles are in. And that is they cannot
perceive the divine truth. Isn't this what Jesus said to
Nicodemus in John chapter three, when Nicodemus came to Jesus
and Nicodemus was a ruler in Israel and Nicodemus said to
Jesus in John three, Master, we know that you are a teacher
come from God. Remember that? And Jesus says,
so you think you see. Remember what he said? So you
think you see. See, because they were under the assumption that
they could see. The rulers were under the assumption that they
could see, and people are under the assumption. You know, one
of the things that people do not like, if you tell them, when
you listen to them and as they try to explain the Bible and
they talk to you, you realize they don't know the gospel and
they don't understand righteousness and grace and the work of Christ
on Calvary Street, and you tell them you're ignorant of the gospel,
they look at you like you're crazy. You know why? Because
man does not want to believe that he's that helpless and that
stupid when it comes to God. But it's true. It's true. Now, mark this as we develop
this. Jesus never played with sinners. Jesus didn't play games
with sinners. He didn't lie to sinners. He
didn't let sinners feel good thinking that they could see
when they were blind. He never did that. It doesn't
do any good to leave a blind man blind when you can warn him
that he's blind and give him a remedy to his blindness. And
so in John chapter three, Jesus immediately, rather than engaging
in a flawed premise of discussion with this Pharisee who thought
he could see, by the way, if you read John chapter nine, that's
what they said. So what, do you think we're blind
also? And Jesus said, if you weren't
blind, if you were blind, you wouldn't have any sin. But since
you say you see, your sin remains with you. He says, for judgment
am I coming to the world that those who cannot see might see. And for those who say they can
see, you're gonna remain blind. Because out of your arrogance
and out of your pride, you say you can see, but in reality,
you can't see a thing. And that's how Jesus dealt with
Nicodemus. And so he told Nicodemus in John
chapter three, except you be born again, you are completely
clueless about the kingdom of God. except you be born of the
water and the spirit you won't enter into the kingdom and Nicodemus
was lost right there we've talked about it before until people
get lost they can't get saved he was an eminent theologian
among the Sanhedrin and Jesus said you've got to be born again
He was under the flawed assumption that because he was a Sanhedrin
ruler, a Pharisee, and a child of Abraham, that he had a natural
inheritance into spiritual things. And this is the mistake that
this present generation is making concerning Jews today. Are you
hearing me? The same mistake. The Jew doesn't
have any advantage over the Gentile in any way whatsoever. They're
more culpable because God gave them the law. But to heap a book
in front of a man that's blind doesn't make that man have more
advantage than another blind man. It's just that one blind
man has the book, the other blind man doesn't. It's so very important to understand
this. I'm taking my time because I
want to make sure this gets driven home, the concept of spiritual
blindness. because arrogance in all of us in a sense of self-worth
and a sense of esteeming ourselves as being somebody that has some
kind of insight will keep us from the truth. We are so blind
by nature that we don't know we're blind. That's how blind
Nicodemus was. When Jesus finished with Nicodemus,
Nicodemus said, how can a man do that? How can a man do that? You know what Jesus did? He stripped
Nicodemus of works righteousness to get into the kingdom. Now,
Nicodemus knows it's impossible for him to get into the kingdom
on the grounds of his own good works. If you say I must be born
again, then you're telling me that God has to do something
for me in order for me to get into the kingdom and I'm shut
up to the mercies of God. That's exactly what we're saying.
You got it. That's exactly what we're saying.
And when a man gets lost, he's ripe for being saved because
he just might call on God to save him at that point. So the
blindness here, the apostle Paul is dealing with is a word that
connotes being hard, being hardened, being hardened. It's interesting,
too, because the concept of hardness has its original manifestation
in the Old Testament with a man called Pharaoh. You guys remember that? I want
to develop something here so you can see this. It's in your
outline. And this is very, very important. I remember years and
years and years and years ago, years ago, when I was a young
man, like some of our young studious theologians in here, as I was
studying the doctrine of reprobation and God's judicial acts against
sin. Pharaoh becomes one of the classic
accounts by which we struggle with understanding what it means
for God to harden the heart. And I've shared with you that
when you go through the Old Testament and you give account for all
of the times that the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, there was
something like 19 to 21 times the Bible uses the phrase and
Pharaoh's heart was hardened. 14 times God hardened his heart
in the active sense. Somewhere around seven times
Pharaoh hardened his own heart and The other few times it says
in Pharaoh's heart was hardness in the passive God owned the
hardening of Pharaoh's heart Because the Bible says that that's
what God does Particularly when men reject a clear testimony
of the gospel Which Pharaoh had done? See Moses had come into
Egypt And he had said to Pharaoh, let my people go. The Lord says,
let my people go. That was a gospel message, by
the way. And Pharaoh said, who is the law that I should obey
him? I'm Pharaoh. And Moses says, I'm gonna go
get a cup of coffee. You're getting ready to find out who the Lord
is. You're getting ready to find out who the Lord is. And the Lord took a whole year
to birth him a new nation, having been pregnant under the tribulation
in the womb of Egypt, protected by God's sovereignty for 400
years. She went through the contractions. She went through the dilation. While God tore up every part
of Egypt you could imagine, every God that Egypt worshiped, the
sun God, the frog God, the river God, the fly God, the cow God,
God just went after every one of them, destroyed them. The
next thing you know, Pharaoh said, y'all get out of here.
The birth of a nation took place and Pharaoh knew who the Lord
was. But God hardened his heart. And
in order for God to get glory to himself in the life of his
own people, he let Pharaoh pursue them. Even though Pharaoh saw
this wall hundreds of feet high, a half a mile wide of the Red
Sea having been opened for more than a million and a half people
to go over, dry shod. His heart was so hardened. which
is what I'm about to get into, that he didn't perceive who he
was dealing with. See, the gods he had worshiped,
they couldn't breathe, they couldn't see, and they couldn't talk.
According to the Bible, they couldn't do evil or good. And God says he does both. Isn't
that right? Isaiah 45 7 7 for some of you
if you need it I bring evil and I bring good God does all that
only a true and living God can do that Pharaoh should have thought
you know this God here is pretty tough. I think I better leave
him alone But you don't think like that When you're blind When
your heart is hard Are you hearing what I'm saying? So I'm gonna
work this because this is this will have very practical applications
in your life. I Hardening is a very subtle
but damning thing. A very subtle but damning thing.
So the first large typological example, illustration of the
hardening is with Pharaoh. What amazed me is that Pharaoh
is a foreshadow of national Israel. In the same way that God hardened
Pharaoh's heart, he hardened Israel's heart. Will you hear
me? I want you to get this now. Israel
have been in Egypt for 400 years. They went into Egypt under the
auspices of Joseph, who had become second in command, a great type
of Christ. preserving Jacob and his children,
which were 72 kids. Jacob and 72 souls, 70 souls
plus Jacob and his wife went into Egypt. By the time they
left Egypt, there was 1,500,000. They had grown over those 400
years, right? Even as God had told Abraham
in Genesis 15, in the fourth generation, your children will
come out of Egypt when the iniquity of the Amorites is full, I'll
bring them out. See, God is doing a bunch of
things all at once, all the time. But I want you to understand
what's happening. The very children that God's bringing out of Egypt
are people who themselves, by and large, have the same characteristics
and attributes as Pharaoh. See, this is the mystery we have
to comprehend with God dealing with that pagan group of Jewish
people called the Israelites. That the Israelites were more
Egyptian than they were the children of Jehovah. Will you hear me? How many times did they turn
back in their hearts to Egypt? You know what the Bible says?
And I've told you, you can take the boy out of the country, but
you can't take the country out of the boy. And God did that
to teach us that external religion is not enough to save the soul.
So what we have in the Old Testament is typology and symbolism and
shadows and representations. But the reality is in who? So
while we have this large body politic of people who went through
the framework of an external relationship with Jehovah, the
majority of them was still unregenerate, which gave God the opportunity
to teach the distinction between superficial carnal works religion
and salvation by grace. Am I making some sense? So you
find an in the wilderness while Moses is up on the Mount before
the two stone tables cool off. They're down at the bottom of
the hill having a drunken party, having made a golden calf, which
they learned where? In Egypt. In Egypt, because they
were children of Egypt. That's what Stephen said in Acts
chapter seven. They built that golden calf again
in the days of Jeroboam, two of them, one down in Bethel,
the other one up in Dan. Why? Because they were still
Egyptians in their heart. God constantly fought against
Egypt because his people were constantly relying upon Egypt
to deliver them from their foes Am I telling the truth? Because
in their hearts they didn't believe God For those of you are new
the first time the Bible uses the word faith The first time
the Bible uses the word faith is in Deuteronomy chapter 32
verse 20 where God says Israel is a people that have what No
faith. See, I love the Bible because
the Bible is crafted in a way that if you pay attention to
it, God is speaking clearly to you the message. That's why you
got to take your Bible seriously. You gotta read the Bible for
all it's worth and understand it's historicity and understand
it's application and understand it's covenants and understand
the message of redemption and understand what God is doing.
There are multiple things happening all at the same time. And it's
very important, we call this in theology, first mention. The
principle of first mention. When God mentions a thing that
first time, that becomes a model throughout the scriptures. That
becomes a model. So what God was saying back in
Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 20, I believe it is, is this.
These people who don't have any faith in the wilderness, they're
not going to have any faith in the promised land. They're not
going to have any faith in Babylon. They're not going to have any
faith when I take them back into the promised land. They're not going to have
faith when Jesus comes. They're not going to have faith
when the apostles go to preach it, and they don't have faith
right now. But the elect do. But the elect
do. Am I making some sense? I'm trying
to drive this home so you can read your Bible and understand
that Israel was set up as a great type of the second Adam. Not
the last Adam, the second Adam. They were like Adam 1, who had
the appearance of righteousness, but not the substance thereof.
That's why he failed. They had the appearance of righteousness,
but not the substance thereof. That's why they failed. Only
Jesus, who is called the last Adam, is a quickening spirit. A quickening spirit. They were
a natural man just like Adam 1 was a natural man. And the
flesh will never enter into the kingdom of heaven. You guys understand
what I'm saying now? I'm trying to make sure that
we understand there's a symmetry running through the scriptures.
A symmetry. There's a clarity. There's a
continuity running through the scriptures. And if we pay attention
to it, we'll grasp it. And that's what Paul is doing.
So the first time we deal with the hardness is with Pharaoh.
And it's just profound because Pharaoh has been given witness
after witness after witness after witness. And you would think,
man, this guy ought to get it. He ought to get it. He didn't
get it. And Israel didn't get it. Go to Deuteronomy chapter
32. 29 now I'm gonna take you to three verses concerning the
hardness and then we're gonna move forward to the next couple
of verses and Then we'll make our break and be ready to get
into some very probing thoughts by the Apostle Deuteronomy chapter
29 Yep, Deuteronomy 29 We've been here we've been here before
but I want those of you who are new with us to see these passages
because here is what God says also about the The hardness. Are we there? I'm
in Deuteronomy chapter 29. Verses one through verse four. These are the words of the covenant
which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of
Israel in the land of Moab beside the covenant which he made with
them in Horeb. Verse one, verse two. And Moses called unto all
Israel and said unto them, you have seen. Now notice they have
eyes to see. All that the Lord did before
your eyes in the land of what? Unto who? And all his servants
and unto all his land. Okay, they saw the same thing
Pharaoh saw. Got it? Now watch this. The great
temptations which your eyes have seen, God's emphasizing seeing,
the signs and those great miracles He's emphasizing the miracle
signs. You saw me do miracles in Egypt.
You saw me do signs and wonders. By the way, this goes to tell
you that signs and wonders don't save anybody. And the Bible teaches
this repeatedly. You don't get saved because of
a sign and a wonder. Notice what it goes on to say.
Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes
to what? And ears to what? Now watch this,
unto this day. You know what that's called?
Hardening apart. Hardening apart. Now notice what he said, you
saw it with your physical eyes. But you didn't comprehend it
in the deeper, more profundity of what it was. The true and
the living God invading your space, redeeming you by his power,
which should have broken your heart and caused you to worship
the true and the living God as your savior. So what we're getting
ready to talk about is seen in the sensible sense of regeneration. Seen in the sensible sense of
regeneration. And when we talk about seeing
in the sensible sense of regeneration, we're talking about seeing by
faith as a consequence of the spirit of God, revealing to you
the truth of God, which brings about a necessary response, which
cannot be denied. Let me see. The blind man, when
his eyes was open, remember that manifested a relationship with
Jesus Christ because of what Jesus had done. He told the truth,
he defended the truth, and he suffered for the truth. And because
he told the truth, defended the truth, and suffered for the truth,
Jesus came along and brought him on into the kingdom, didn't
he? That's what happens when God opens your eyes. On the other
hand, go with me now in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 29. Gonna
take you through a couple more verses. Now let me go ahead and
develop this more fully because I want to make sure I drive this
home in your heart as well as we think about this. Spiritual
sight, spiritual comprehension, spiritual seeing is not merely
the ability to divulge doctrine. Spiritual seeing, spiritual discernment,
spiritual reality, the ability to comprehend the work of God
and the will of God and the grace of God and the mercy of God in
your own life is not merely the ability to ascertain right doctrine. You can grasp right doctrine
in your cranium intellectually and still be blinded in your
heart. Are you hearing what I'm saying? When the truth does not
affect you when the truth does not affect you to change your
life you just know truth got it this is what paul meant in first
corinthians chapter 8 when he says knowledge puffs up but love
edified When a man is actually invaded by the truth in his soul
and the truth has sanctified him and the truth is coupled
with the work of the spirit and regeneration so that you are
comprehending the gospel in a dynamic way, it pours into your heart
the love of God in Christ and moves you. Am I making some sense? It moves you. You cannot stand
under the gospel and not be moved when the Holy Ghost is operating
through it. You can't do it. You can't do it. That's why Judas
Iscariot could sell Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver. Paul
is quoting from Psalm 69 when he goes into let their table
become a snare and let them be bent over backwards and let their
eyes be closed. And that's a messianic Psalm
speaking first and foremost concerning the sufferings of Christ by the
Jews and a condemnation on Judas Iscariot. Then it has a larger
application to the nation of Israel because Judas Iscariot
is a prototype of the whole nation. He walked with the Messiah for
three and a half years. He heard a preacher whose sermons
were impeccable. He saw a preacher whose miracles
were flawless and abundant. He heard truth from God himself. He could smell God's breath.
He could feel God's heartbeat. He could see the the hairs in
his eyebrows He knew what pleased him and what didn't please him
and it didn't move him You hear what I'm saying? And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory of the only
begotten of the father full of grace and truth and Of his fullness
have we all received in grace for grace. That's a saved man
talking That's not a lost man. A saved man is talking like that.
And of his fullness have we all received and grace for grace. No man has seen God at any time.
Only he who is in the bosom of the father, he has exegeted him. He has made him known. He has
revealed him. He has expounded God and we beheld
his glory. Only a saved person talks like
that. Only a saved person. Judas didn't say that, John said
that. John was the one who was laying on the master's bosom.
Are you hearing me? Not Judas. Judas was trying to
figure out how he could maximize on the miracles. Man, we can
run some real healing services with the Lord Jesus. Man, I ain't
never seen a cat get down like this, but we can, man, let me,
and he was the man with the money too, so he was, he said, man,
if we can get Jesus down the road, we can do Rome, we can
do Italy, we can do Asia, we can get it going. Get us a couple
of bands and stuff going on, you know? All right, Isaiah chapter
29. Hear it again in Isaiah chapter
29, are you there? I'm going to start at verse nine.
Stay yourself. In other words, stop and wonder.
Paul quotes this in Acts chapter 28. Cry ye out. You ought to. And cry. They're drunk, but not
with wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink. Why? For the Lord had poured
out upon you the spirit of what? And he hath what? And the prophets
and your rulers and your seers, he hath what? Blind. Blind. Who did that? God opens eyes
and God closes eyes. You believe that? And then Jesus
in Matthew chapter 11 rejoices in it. Isn't that right? Lord, I thank you that you didn't
reveal these things to these rulers, but to babes. Accept
you humble yourself and become like a little child. You're never
entering into the kingdom. Now notice what it goes on to
say. and the vision of all is becoming to you as the words
of a book that's what which man delivered to one that is learned
that is a theologian saying read this I pray thee and he says
I can't why because it's sealed verse 12 and the book is delivered
to him that's not learned saying read this and he says look I'm
not learned you in bad shape when your theologians and your
lay people can't open up the Bible but listen now That's the
condition of much of our church today when it comes to the gospel. That's the condition of our church
today. That's where we are. The Lord
Jesus gave the parable in Matthew chapter 25 with 10 virgin, five
wise, five foolish. Five of them had oil in their
lamps, five didn't. You guys got that? They all went
to sleep. But when the bridegroom began
to call, the five wives who had oil in their lamps, arose because
their heart was ready. They knew that they needed the
grace of God represented by the oil, the Holy Ghost, to constantly
keep their lanterns lit. And we live in a day where the
lantern is not lit. Now the lantern is the word of
God. Your word is lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. The
commandment is a light, the law is a lamp, and reproof of instructions
are the way of life. Is God's word a lamp? But without
the Holy Ghost is still darkness. Am I making some sense? And that's
where we are today, ladies and gentlemen. Now listen to what
he says. Verse 13. Wherefore, the Lord
said, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth,
with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart
far from me. And their fear towards me is
taught by what? The precept of men. Isn't that amazing? The
precept of men. Therefore, behold, I pursued
to do a marvelous thing among this people, even a marvelous
work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish
in the understanding of their prudent men shall be what? That's
what Jesus meant in Matthew chapter 11. You have hid these things
from the wise and prudent. What was the wonderful thing
that God had done? He had incarnated his son and
let him walk the earth of Palestine for 30-some odd years doing uncontrovertible
miracles and preaching a flawless gospel and calling sinners to
himself. And they still didn't see it.
Got it? Now, go with me in your Bible
to Acts chapter 13. Acts 13. Got a couple more minutes. Wrap this up. Here is another prototype of
the same condition of Israel represented in a man who opposed
the apostles. It's over in Acts chapter 13. I'm going to read
verses six through verse 11. And I got one more example and
we'll close for tonight. Are we there? And when they had
gone through the aisle unto Papos, they found a certain sorcerer,
that is the apostles, a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a
Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus. What a name. Son of Jesus. The word son in the Greek and
in the Hebrew does not always connote physical children. Sometimes son is simply a spiritual
child. Like we often talk about children
in the faith. Timothy was a son in the faith
to the apostle Paul. So bar could have been a spiritual
son. This man here was somehow attaching
himself to the name Jesus, but he was a sorcerer. He was a false
prophet and he was a Jew. Now watch this, which was what
the deputy of the country, uh, Sergeus Paulus, uh, Paulus, a
prudent man who called Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear
the word of God. But Elimas, the sorcerer, for
so is named by interpretation, withstood them. Do you see that
phrase, withstood? He stands in the same place that
the magicians stood in the days of Moses and Aaron, opposing
the gospel that Moses and Aaron preached. So he's opposing the
gospel that Paul and Barnabas are preaching. See the parallelism?
But he's a Jew. Got it? Let's go on. Then Saul,
who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his
eyes on him and said, oh, full of subtlety and all mischief,
you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. Will you
not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Now, Paul,
you know, that's not politically correct. Now, you know, you shouldn't
be talking like that. He's a brother in the Lord. He
just got his doctrine wrong a little bit. The Lord Jesus didn't play
with false prophets and the apostles didn't play with false prophets,
but we play with them all the time. We call that being filled
with the spirit and walking in the fruit of the spirit when
we cater to and compromise and placate false prophets today.
False prophets are the most hated entity on planet earth before
God almighty. A false prophet and a false teacher
is the most hated entity on planet earth before God. Will you hear
what I just said? A false prophet is the most hated
entity on God's green earth apart from the devil. Incarnate, a
false prophet is the most dangerous creature on God's planet. A false
prophet is the most dangerous creature on God's planet. They
send more people to hell than anyone. So Paul just plainly told it.
Full of subtlety, mischief, child of the devil, enemy of all unrighteousness,
constantly perverting the right ways of the Lord. Now, I want
you to see apostolic authority. See, I can get into this, I shouldn't,
I'm late, I shouldn't do this. But I'm gonna just deal with
this last one. Because you know, in our church, and today, one
of these movements that's been going on is this whole new movement
of the fivefold gifts of the Spirit. I know I'm getting ready
to step on somebody's toes. But I really don't care. One of the things the devil does,
and see what people don't know in the church today, is they
don't know the works of the devil. They don't know the wiles of
the devil. Paul says, we know his methods, his methodias. We know his wiles. We know his
schemes. We know his schema. The word
schema means his stratagems. We know his stratagems, Paul
said. Most people don't. When you meet the average person,
ask them, what is a false prophet? the average professing Christian.
What's a false church? What's a church that's not the
Lord's church, that's not preaching the truth of the gospel? You
couldn't hardly get a person to tell you one. They can't identify
them. Because we've moved into such
a diapraxed age. We have been shifted into such
a compromised state that we don't know how to discern between true
churches and false churches. You ache when I say Catholicism
is contrary to the gospel. And then when we get into the
evangelical church, it's worse. There was a movement about 40
years ago, and some would argue that it started back 100 years
ago with the idea that God is restoring the five-fold ministry
of the prophets and the apostles and miracle workers and gifts
and all of these sorts of things in the church today. And so now
you've got folks who say they've been called to be bishops and
called to be apostles and called to be prophets and called to
be this and called to be that. None of them! to this date that
I know of, actually bear the genuine marks of any of the first
century apostles, prophets, or bishops, or miracle workers.
None of them. Most of them are scam artists. Most of them are
manipulators. Most of them are cons, megalomaniacs,
that's simply benefiting on the minds of ignorant, unlearned
people. Listen, just because you can
grow a church doesn't make you called to be a bishop or an apostle. Didn't we learn anything from
Jim Jones? And Jimmy Swagger? And all the
rest of them. Listen, the Apostle Paul was an apostle,
just like his other 11 companions. And they were given divine apostolic
authority. They have the ability to blind,
to open the eyes, to heal, to kill, to bring people into the
kingdom, and to shut people out from the kingdom. That's apostolic
authority. Will you hear me? Now I want
you to hear it, because I'm going to close right here. This is
so very important. Apostles were vicars of Christ. They were representatives
of Christ on earth. They were personally chose by
Christ and instilled with the gifts of the spirit of God to
do uniquely what only apostles could do. They were given the
blueprints of the kingdom of God. Paul said, God made me a
wise master builder, a chief architect, the man who had the
framework for the foundation of the church. And I have the
authority to tell you what the gospel is and what the gospel
is not. I have the authority to identify
whether you're in the kingdom or not in the kingdom. I have
the ability to affirm you or deny you. I have the ability
to blind you or open your eyes. I have the ability to raise you
from the dead or kill you. You think the Lord Jesus is going
to give any knucklehead that kind of authority? Do you think
he's going to do that? Now, you know, every now and
then some of these cats come to me, Pastor, I think I'm called
to be an apostle. I said, boy, please, please. First of all, you don't even
know the gospel. Secondly. To become an apostle. Is a death
sentence. Fool, it's a death sentence. Don't you understand what I'm
saying? When God chooses apostles, that man is appointed to death. Don't you understand what he
has the authority to do? To go into the devil's kingdom
and shake hell, shake hell. shake hell. He's not using little
carnal tawdry gimmicks to get people to give money and come
up to the altar. He ain't doing that. When you
meet an apostle, you know you've been around an apostle. Will
you hear me? An apostle is no joke. He is
no joke. He can say he saw the Lord. in his post-resurrected glory.
He can say he has the signs of an apostle in his life, the power
of an apostle in his life, the authority of an apostle in his
life. And he can say, I'm dying for the cause of the gospel because
that's what an apostle was called to do. For him to break open
territory that formerly was controlled by the devil and establish local
gospel churches, he knew that he was headed to the cross. He
wasn't buying big mansions and Rolls Royces and wearing Rolexes
and having harems and flying Lear jets and all of this foolishness. This is how blind we are. Let's
pray. Father, we thank you for your
time, we thank you for your word, we thank you for the truth as
it is in Jesus. Help us to be sober, help us
to be vigilant, help us to know the truth, help us to discern
between false prophets and true prophets. Help us to humble ourselves
and seek your word. May the revelation of your word
be the grounds of our hope and understanding, not our reason.
Forgive us if we fall and pray to such things, Lord, and deliver
us from the snare of the devil. Please, Lord, help us to walk
in the truth as it is in Jesus. Give us traveling mercies as
we go our way, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.