So we turn now in our Bibles to
Romans chapter 11.
Chapters 9 through 11, Paul is dealing with
a couple of subjects.
One, the sovereignty of God.
But it is the sovereignty of God in
setting aside the nation Israel as God's primary
target, you might say, for work, and beginning
to pour out His Spirit and work among
the Gentiles.
And because Paul is a Jew, through and
through, his heart, his prayer for Israel is
that they might be saved.
And yet he can see in the Scriptures
those prophecies of God's move among the Gentiles.
And so, in the latter portion of chapter
10, he gives some of those prophecies of
how God was going to be found of
them that did not seek for Him.
He was going to manifest Himself unto the
Gentiles.
But of the Jews, he said, all day
long have I stretched out my hands unto
a disobedient and gainsaying people.
So, chapter 11 is just really a continuation
of chapter 10.
The chapter distinctions were not in the original
writings.
They have been placed there by men to
help us to reference Scriptures, to reference passages.
But sometimes we have a tendency of just
reading a chapter and quitting and then beginning
a new chapter and you're not continuing in
the same thought as though there were not
the chapter or verse distinctions.
So, you must remember that in the original,
this was just one continuous letter.
Chapter, verse, distinguishing facts are placed there by
man only for the help in referencing passages.
So, God has said He was going to
manifest Himself unto the Gentiles.
He had stretched out His hands all day
long to the disobedient and gainsaying people.
I say then, hath God cast away His
people?
And the answer is, God forbid.
Now, it is unfortunate that there is a
certain branch of theologians today who do declare
that God has cast away His people.
And they endeavor to spiritualize Israel to make
it apply to the church.
And those prophecies that relate to Israel, they
seek to relate to the church.
And as a consequence, they really get the
whole prophetic picture totally confused.
There are those who seek to identify the
Anglo-Saxon nations as Israel.
And there's a lot of talk concerning the
ten lost tribes, which is not really a
true scriptural type of a reference.
He said the lost sheep of the house
of Israel.
Sent them to the lost sheep, but He
didn't say anything about ten lost tribes.
But just those who were lost.
The lost sheep in the house of Israel.
The Lord knows exactly who the ten tribes
are, where the twelve tribes are.
And who comprises the twelve tribes.
And in the book of Revelation, the Lord
will be sealing twelve thousand out of each
tribe to preserve them through a portion of
the judgments in the book of Revelation.
But, again, to try to make the church
Israel or to make the Anglo-Saxon race
as Israel is just unscriptural and it is
not valid at all.
They use such arguments as the nation of
Denmark, they say, is actually Dan's mark.
The tribe of Dan, then, are the Danish
people.
And the word ish in Hebrew means man.
So, Dan-ish.
So, they're Danish people or Danish people, according
to a different pronunciation, but it's Dan-ish.
And, of course, you have the Brit-ish
and Fool-ish.
So, it really doesn't prove too much.
But it does confuse the whole prophetic scene.
God is now working among the Gentiles.
And God will continue to work among the
Gentiles until the fullness of the Gentiles has
come in.
As we'll get at the twenty-fifth verse
of this chapter.
So, the question has God cast away His
people as He threw with them forever.
God forbid.
The whole prophecy picture of the Old Testament
dealt with Israel's fall, but in order that
they might rise again.
Hosea.
An interesting prophet.
God told him to take a prostitute for
a wife.
And He began to name the children with
prophetic names or names of prophetic significance.
And, of course, one child He called Lo
-Amy, not My child.
His wife had gone out and was engaging
in her old practices again, even while married
to Him.
Had a child that wasn't His.
And finally, she just left Him completely.
And her life went down the tubes until
she was a slave, almost destitute and destroyed.
And God said to Hosea, now go take
her again.
Buy her out of her slavery.
Wash her up.
Cleanse her.
And take her as your wife once more.
And the whole life of Hosea with this
unfaithful wife became a picture of God's relationship
with the nation of Israel.
How He took her, espoused her unto Himself,
married her.
The glories of that first bloom of love,
but then how Israel began to turn away
unto other gods.
They began to forsake the fountain of living
waters and worship idols.
And how they finally turned their back on
God completely.
But yet, God's undying love and of course,
bringing them back again and God's work of
restoration, which is yet future, but shall be.
So, God has not cast away His people
in a final sense.
For Paul said, I also am an Israelite
of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin.
Now, Benjamin was one of the supposed lost
tribes.
But it sure wasn't as far as Paul
was concerned.
He knew what tribe he was from.
And he didn't say, we Benjamites, you know,
we're lost.
We don't know who we are or where
we are.
But he knew that he was of the
tribe of Benjamin.
Of course, Jesus was from the tribe of
Judah.
And they say that the Jews today are
for the most part from the tribe of
Judah.
However, the other tribes were lost.
Judah and Benjamin remained, but the rest of
them were lost.
Not so.
That is not the case.
Though, most Jews today have lost their genealogies
and could not tell you exactly what tribe
they are from.
Yet, they know that they are Jews.
And so, Paul of the tribe of Benjamin.
And God has not cast away His people
which He foreknew.
Don't you know what the Scriptures said of
Elias or Elijah?
How that when he was making intercession to
God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed
Your prophets and dig down Thine altars and
I am left alone and they seek My
life.
But what did the Lord answer him?
I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men
who have not bowed their knee to the
image of Baal.
Elijah had experienced one of the greatest victories
in his career.
As he had challenged the prophets of Baal
there on Mount Carmel, building the altars, let's
pray unto their gods, the 400 priests of
Baal can pray to him and I'll pray
to the Living God.
And the God that answers by fire, let
Him be the God.
And of course, the priest of Baal prayed
and nothing happened and Elijah prayed and God
sent down fire and consumed the offering and
the altar and all.
Elijah took the priest of Baal at that
moment of victory down to the Brook Kishon
and slayed them.
Killed 400 of them.
The prophets and the priest of Baal and
the next day when Jezebel, the wife of
the wicked king found out what Elijah had
done, she said, God do so to me
also if I don't have the head of
that man.
And so Elijah fled from Jezebel.
And it is so typical how that the
times of greatest trial often follow the times
of greatest victory.
And that's with Elijah.
Tremendous victory, but now he's on the lam,
running from this queen.
Not afraid to face up to the 400
prophets and priests of Baal, but man, one
angry woman.
And he ran clear on down to the
area of Mount Sinai.
And there he hid in a cave.
And as he was standing in the entrance
of the cave, the Lord said, Elijah, what
are you doing here?
And he said, I have been zealous for
God and they've all turned from you.
I'm the only one you've got left and
they're seeking my life.
God, you're just about out of business.
I'm your last one.
And they got a contract out on me.
And so God responded to Elijah, I have
7,000 who have not bowed their knee
to Baal.
There was the remnant, the faithful remnant that
were there and God knew who they were
and God had them numbered.
And as Paul is going to point out,
God has always had His faithful remnant, those
believers among the Jewish people.
Those special persons, super special persons among the
Jewish people who have recognized the true work
of God and are walking with God in
fellowship with Him.
And with God they have always been a
special number, a remnant, the faithful remnant.
And so in the time of Elijah, Paul
said, don't you remember that God said there
are 7,000 that I have reserved unto
Me?
The true remnant that worshiped God, that served
God, that had not turned after Baal.
Even so, Paul said, at this present time
also there is a remnant according to the
election of grace.
And so there were those in Paul's day
and of course the early church was a
Jewish church to begin with.
There were some problems when even it was
thought that they might introduce Gentiles into the
church.
It was, first of all, strictly Jewish.
But among the Jews there were many believers,
the remnant, God's faithful remnant who now are
according to the election of grace.
And if it is now by grace, it
is no more of works.
Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it is of works, then it
is no more grace.
In other words, grace and works are mutually
exclusive.
If I am expecting God to accept me
by His grace, then there is no work
that I can do to make me acceptable.
If I am seeking to be accepted by
God by my works, then grace has no
effect upon my life.
They are mutually exclusive and yet we are
so often trying to make a combination out
of the two.
Say by faith, but oh, you know, let
me do my works.
But if it is of grace, then it
cannot be of works.
If it is of works, then it cannot
be of grace.
They are mutually exclusive.
What then?
Israel has not obtained that which it sought
for, but the election have obtained it and
the rest were blinded.
Now what was Israel seeking?
They were seeking to be righteous before God.
That was the whole purpose of the sacrifices
of the law.
In order to develop a righteous standing before
God.
Now it is interesting that Paul makes reference
here that they were seeking it by works.
And that continues to the present day.
A Jew today is seeking to be accepted
by God on the basis of his good
works.
Yom Kippur is not a day of sacrifice.
The priest entering in with the offering before
the Lord in the Holy of Holies.
But Yom Kippur is a day of reflection.
As you sit and you reflect upon your
good works and upon your evil works and
balancing the good works against the evil.
So it is a seeking acceptance by God
on the basis of works.
Paul speaks about them doing it in his
day.
They are doing it to the present day.
Still seeking an acceptance by God on the
basis of their works.
The Jews are not alone in that.
That same concept has crept over into the
church.
So that in many different churches there are
people who are looking to their works as
the basis of being accepted by God.
And God will accept me if I am
faithful to the ordinances of the church and
the sacraments of the church.
And if I'm doing this and this and
this.
And they are looking for acceptance on the
basis of their good works.
Now, when you are looking to your good
works as the basis of your acceptance before
God, surely that does prompt a lot of
works.
And so these people are really workers.
They have a practice of going around, many
of them from door to door.
And it's easy to tell the difference from
where they are coming from.
If they are riding bicycles and have shirts
and ties, then you know that they are
working their way through the Mormon system.
If they carry a little magazine bag, then
you know that they are working their way
through the Jehovah Witness system.
But they are both systems that are predicated
upon works.
And looking to their works as the basis
of being accepted.
But if it is of works, then it
is no more of grace.
It can't be of both.
So, Israel did not obtain that acceptance before
God, that righteous standing, because they sought it
by their works, whereas the election did obtain
it.
The election of grace.
But the rest were blinded.
According as it is written, God has given
them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they
should not see, ears that they should not
hear, and to this day.
And David said...
Notice how Paul just starts quoting passages of
Scriptures out of the Old Testament to prove
his point.
And this is good, solid teaching when a
man will make a statement and then give
you three or four verses to confirm that
statement.
And so he quotes first from Isaiah.
Then he quotes from David.
And he said, Let their table be made
a snare and a trap and a stumbling
block and a recompense unto them.
Let their eyes be darkened that they may
not see and bow down their back always.
I say then, have they stumbled that they
should fall?
Have they stumbled that, you know, they should
be put out of the game forever?
God forbid.
But rather that through their fall there has
come salvation unto the Gentiles in order to
provoke them to jealousy.
Now if the fall of them be the
riches of the world...
In other words, by Israel falling out of
the place of divine favor in the sense
that God now set them aside that He
might work among the Gentiles His work of
grace.
They're being set aside, brought to us, the
riches of God's grace, goodness, and love unto
the Gentiles.
The diminishing of them are the riches of
the Gentiles.
How much more will their fullness be?
God is yet to work with them and
when the fullness comes and God begins to
work again with Israel, if their fall brought
such glory to the Gentile world, what will
it be when God restores them?
But of course the kingdom age and that
glorious age to which we look.
For I speak unto you Gentiles and as
much as I am the apostle of the
Gentiles, I magnify my office.
So Paul now turns to speak to the
Gentiles and he calls himself the apostle of
the Gentiles.
And Paul, of course, paid quite a price
for this position as apostle to the Gentiles.
He had to take all types of guts
from people, especially from the Jews.
They considered him a traitor because he was
telling the Gentiles that they did not need
to obey the law of Moses to be
accepted by God.
All they had to do was believe in
Jesus Christ.
He was telling the Gentiles that they did
not have to offer sacrifices in the temple
in order to be saved.
All they had to do was believe in
Jesus Christ.
And of course, this created quite a conflict
between those Jews who were still seeking a
righteousness by the law.
It was a threat to them.
Even as the declaration that a person can
be saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone
today is a threat to many church and
church systems.
I have a friend who was in the
Anglican church in Canada.
He was a dean in one of the
cathedrals there.
And this man became born again.
Really turned on to the Lord.
And he began to have prayer meetings with
the Episcopalians.
Or the Anglican church.
They're the same thing.
And in these prayer meetings, people really were
beginning to experience the power of God and
the Holy Spirit in their lives.
And the church was a very liberal church
and that was quite fine.
If that makes you feel good, you know
more power to you.
Very tolerant attitude.
But then he started teaching the people, Hey,
you've got to be born again.
And he was kicked out.
Because that was contrary to the basic church
belief that you were born again when you
were baptized as an infant.
And then later your confirmation, you were only
confirming your salvation at infant baptism.
And when he started to say, you've got
to be born again, it created such a
problem that he was dismissed from his church
for teaching the people that you've got to
be born again.
You see, they were trusting in their works.
Infant baptism and confirmation.
Instead of just that faith in Jesus Christ.
So, Paul magnifying his position as the apostle
as he sought to provoke to emulation them
which are my flesh that I might save
some of them.
So he was just really in his heart,
as he said, my heart's prayer and desire
for Israel is that they might be saved.
And even though he was called of God
as the apostle to the Gentiles and was
into all kinds of hot water for preaching
the gospel to the Gentiles, declaring that Gentiles
could be saved, especially could be saved apart
from becoming a Jew.
They could be saved by just believing in
Jesus Christ.
They didn't have to proselytize and become a
Jew.
That made him a heretic.
And for this reason, they tried to kill
him when he was in Jerusalem.
But yet, Paul's desire and prayer for Israel
was for their salvation.
But he goes on to say, if the
casting away of them was the reconciling of
the world, God reconciled the world to Himself
through Jesus Christ.
Not just the Jewish people, but now the
world.
What shall the receiving of them be but
life from the dead?
Again, dealing with the contrast from the lesser
to the greater.
If their casting away brought such reconciliation of
the world to God, the Gentile world, then
what will it be when God receives them
again?
His divine favor and grace upon them.
For if the first fruit be holy, the
whole lump is also holy.
And if the root is holy, so are
the branches.
Talking of course, the first fruit, Abraham, and
the patriarchs, the fathers.
The root from which these people sprang.
And if some of the branches were broken
off and you being a wild olive tree
were grafted in among them and you have
partaken of the root and the fatness of
the olive tree, don't boast against the branches.
But if you boast, you bear not the
root, but the root thee.
And I will say then, the branches were
broken off that I might be grafted in.
Well, it was because of unbelief they were
broken off and you stand by faith.
Don't be high-minded, but fear.
So, there has been through history of the
church a very unfortunate relationship between the church
and the Jews and unfortunately, the church has
been responsible for much of the persecution of
the Jews today.
And I think that that is indeed tragic.
That for years, the Catholic Church
led in the persecution of the Jews.
And it was something that when Martin Luther
broke away from the Catholic Church, he carried
with him his anti-Semitism.
And Martin Luther also encouraged the persecution of
the Jews.
So, it crept on into Protestantism.
And there are many Protestant ministers today who
are very anti-Semitic.
And I get hate mail from them because
of my known position of support for Israel
and for the Jews.
There are those who would boast themselves against
the natural branches.
God's cut them off.
God's through with them.
We're now, you know, the people.
And all he says, wait a minute.
You're a wild olive branch and you've been
grafted into the vine or into the tree
contrary to nature and they were broken off
because of their unbelief and you're only standing
by faith, so don't be so high-minded.
I do believe that as Paul, our hearts
and desires and prayer for Israel is that
they should be saved.
Now, that doesn't mean that I have a
great burden to establish a Calvary Chapel in
Jerusalem and to start a mission there to
save the Jews.
I do not feel that God has called
me as an evangelist to the Jewish nation
or to the Jewish people per se.
God has called me really to just teach
His Word.
That I seek to do faithfully.
However, I do not feel that I can
undo what God has done and that is
why I don't have a great burden for
Jewish evangelism.
And so in this, I'm neither fish nor
fowl.
I get it from both sides because there
are some people who have a tremendous zeal
for Jewish evangelism.
That I don't have.
I believe that God will evangelize them when
He's ready and that God will graft them
back in when He's ready and that God
will open their eyes when He's ready.
In the meantime, God has poured out His
grace, His Spirit upon the Gentiles and thus
I like to fish where the fish are
biting.
And so, these are the fruitful fields among
the Gentiles.
And I really feel that for the most
part Jewish evangelism is a waste of church
finances that can be better used to evangelize
the Gentiles at this time.
And that when the day comes God Himself
is going to reveal Himself to the Jewish
nation, to Israel and God is going to
work there among them.
So, I like to go over and provoke
them to jealousy.
Tell them how wonderful their Messiah is.
What He's done for me and how much
I love Him and how glorious it is
to walk in such fellowship with God and
to have peace with God and the joy
of the Lord and all and just, oh,
what a glorious Messiah they have.
And I like to provoke them to jealousy.
But, I am quite interested.
I do share with them and I share
my beliefs and my faith with them.
But, I am amazed at how blind they
are.
I really am.
Because some of them are extremely knowledgeable in
the Word of God and yet they are
so totally blind when it comes to Jesus
Christ.
Blindness has happened to Israel and that is
true.
When I was speaking a few years back
at an international congress in Jerusalem sharing the
platform with Prime Minister Begin, then Prime Minister
Begin, I got some hate mail from some
of the rabbis in the Mea Sherem area
of Jerusalem who are ultra-Orthodox, rebuking me
for trying to support the nation of Israel
with understanding from the Christians because the purpose
of the rally was to sort of an
understanding, bring understanding between the Jews and the
evangelical Christians.
And these radical rabbis wrote me these letters
rebuking me and telling me I had no
business being there and Israel had no right
to even exist as a nation because the
Messiah had not yet come.
They did not yet have their temple and
they were very opposed to the nation of
Israel themselves.
So they lived there in the Mea Sherem
district of Jerusalem.
But they did write to King Hussein in
Jordan and they asked him to annex Mea
Sherem into Jordan.
They didn't want to have anything to do
with the nation of Israel.
They feel that it's sort of an illegitimate
state right now.
And so they wrote me these letters and
also these guides who I had been talking
to for so long and witnessing to, I
said, hey fellas, I want to show you.
They were so pleased that I was there.
Oh, you know, so nice that you're here.
Oh, this is so wonderful.
Oh, this is wonderful.
You know, all this kind of stuff.
And I said, look what some of your
rabbis sent me.
You know, and I gave them these eight
letters that I had from the rabbis there.
And they read it and they said, oh,
that's junk, that's junk.
Those guys are just a bunch of religious
fanatics.
You know, it's just that.
You know, they don't know what they're talking
about.
They're just religious fanatics.
I said, did you ever?
I said, but they're rabbis.
Oh, yeah, but they're just religious fanatics.
I said, you mean a rabbi can be
a religious fanatic?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I said, have you ever stopped to think
that it was probably those same kind of
rabbis that rejected Jesus as the Messiah because
he didn't fit the patterns?
A bunch of radicals.
And yet you today are following those radicals.
They didn't have much to say.
So, I get my little witness in, but
they were broken off because of their unbelief
and we only stand by faith.
For if God spared not the natural branch,
take heed lest He also spare not thee.
Jesus said, I am the true vine.
My Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in Me that bears fruit, He
washes it that it might bring forth more
fruit.
Now, you are clean through the word that
I have spoken unto you.
Abide in Me.
Let My words abide in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine, neithermore can
you except you abide in Me.
Abide in Me.
The emphasis of abiding.
We are branches.
We've been grafted in contrary to nature.
We receive the blessings of God.
The blessings of the promises of God to
Abraham and to David.
We have received the benefit of them through
receiving Jesus Christ.
And we partake of the fatness and the
richness and the fullness of God's love and
grace that He had promised unto Abraham and
unto Isaac and unto Jacob and unto David.
But we only stand by faith.
And again, we are encouraged to abide there.
For if God spared not the natural branches,
take heed lest He also spare not thee.
Behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of
God.
On them which fell, it was quite severe
upon the fall of Israel from the place
of God's favor and blessing.
Severity.
But toward thee, the goodness, if you continue
in His goodness, otherwise you also will be
cut off.
And they also, if they abide not still
in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God
is able to graft them in again.
So when they turn from their unbelief, God
will receive them again.
For if you were cut out of the
olive tree, which is wild by nature, and
you were grafted contrary to nature into a
good olive tree, you were cut out of
this wild olive tree of the Gentile race,
and you were grafted into the good tree,
how much more shall these which are the
natural branches be grafted back into their own
olive tree?
For I would not, brethren, that you should
be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should
be wise in your own conceits.
Ignorant of what mystery?
That God is yet going to deal with
the nation of Israel as the nation of
Israel.
And unfortunately, there are many people who are
ignorant of that mystery.
And many ministers ignorant of that mystery.
Blindness, in part, is happened to Israel until
the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
God has sent His Spirit into the world,
into the highways and byways to compel men
to come to the supper.
As Jesus gave the parable, you know, in
the Kingdom.
How the king had prepared a great supper.
And they said, go out to the invited
guest and invite them to come in and
to eat.
And the servants came back and they said,
well, you know, they said that they couldn't
come and the various excuses, and so the
king said, then go out to the highways
and byways and compel men to come in
that my house may be full.
The invited guest rejected the invitation.
And so it's come to us, the Gentiles.
And blindness has happened in part to Israel.
Not to all of Israel.
Again, there is that remnant.
But in part to Israel until the fullness
of the Gentiles be come in.
I do believe that God knows exactly how
many Gentiles are going to be brought in
to the wedding feast.
That God knows the exact number.
If He is an omniscient God, He has
to know the exact number.
Because that means all knowledge.
It means He knows everything.
And I do believe that God does know
and does have a specified number of Gentiles
that are going to believe and to be
a part of that kingdom.
And that number is referred to as the
fullness of the Gentiles.
Now there is another phrase in Luke 21,
the time of the Gentiles.
That's a little different.
I believe that the time of the Gentiles
technically was over in 1967.
For Jerusalem shall be trodden under the foot
of the Gentiles until the time of the
Gentiles be fulfilled.
But since 1967 and now, we are living
in a short period of an age of
grace between the time of the fulfillment of
the Gentiles until the time of the fullness
of the Gentiles has come in.
Not all the Gentiles that were to be
saved were saved in 1967.
A lot of you weren't, you see.
And so God waited for you.
But somewhere alive on the earth today is
some person whom God has known and he
is the last one among the Gentiles to
be a part of God's glorious eternal kingdom.
And the moment that person opens up his
heart to Jesus Christ, we're all going to
be caught up to meet the Lord in
the air.
I'm convinced of that.
It's just like walking into Disneyland and having,
you know, the lights flash and the trumpets
go off and the drums roll and they
say, You are the five millionth visitor to
Disneyland, you know.
And everything is celebration, you know.
They've been counting the people as they come
through and bang, you're it, you know.
And now the big, big gala celebration.
And such shall be the case when the
fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
I wish I knew who that person was.
I think I'd be tempted to do a
little coercion.
God has called out a people for himself.
I am so grateful that God called me.
I'm so thankful that God chose me to
be a part of his eternal kingdom.
Oh, the goodness and the grace of God
that I was chosen in Christ, that I
should be an heir in the kingdom of
God.
I thank God daily for that blessing.
As you should thank God daily that He
chose you.
Now, when the fullness of the Gentiles is
come in, then the blindness will be taken
away from Israel.
I believe that this will transpire when Russia
is defeated by God as she invades the
Middle East.
I received some reports from Israel this past
week of the tensions that are building up
as the result of Russia's deployment of the
SS-21s in Syria.
And some of the military leaders there were
declaring that this is a definite threat to
Israel's security and will probably mean war with
Syria very soon.
Knowing that war with Syria can very easily
escalate into war with Russia.
We do know that Russia is going to
get involved and of course as the result
of those tragedies today, the tensions are mounting
in the Middle East.
I would not be at all surprised but
what we will not be forced to call
on Israel to bail us out of Lebanon.
I think that our government has made some
serious miscalculations and some serious blunders in the
decisions concerning the Middle East.
It's like my friends in Israel say, those
men sitting over in Washington don't know what's
going on over here nor do they understand
the mentality of the people that we're dealing
with.
The Syrian government recently released films of the
young girls and boys in their training.
These films, some of them, the ones concerning
the girls were shown in Israel on TV,
but CBS and NBC and ABC felt that
they weren't really newsworthy.
Well, they really show the kind of people
we're dealing with and because this kind of
news is withheld, we don't understand the mess
we're in when we try to interfere with
these people because they don't think as we
think.
These particular films, made by the Syrian government,
showing the training of the young girls for
battle, for their army, and the Russians are
now expanding their advisors to 8,000 in
Syria.
But these pictures show these girls taking snakes
and handling the snakes and so forth.
They're in training, in their service, and then
they begin to bite the snakes until their
mouths are covered with blood and then they
begin to eat the snakes.
They roast them then and eat them after
biting them to death.
Bloody mess.
And it was shown on Israeli TV.
It's a film out of Syria.
The fellows, of course, they felt that the
Israelis couldn't stomach this film and so they
did it short.
Choking to death little dogs and then ripping
them apart.
Part of their training in just being cold,
callous, vicious.
And that's the kind of people we're dealing
with.
And we're not prepared to deal with people
like that because we can't understand how they
think.
And we send our Marines in there and
we restrict them and make them sitting ducks.
And this is not right.
And the Israelis know it isn't right.
But we've tied the Israelis' hands too and
they said, Hey, you're going to tie our
hands.
We're not going to stay around.
These people are crazy.
We're getting out of here.
And they moved back behind the Alawi River
where they can set up defensible positions.
And they said, Hey, you can't treat the
people that way.
You can't stay there like that.
They're just going to do murderous acts against
you.
Oh, we've got it all managed, you know.
But we don't understand the mentality of the
people we're dealing with.
And it's a very tragic thing.
But Russia is going to be moving into
the Middle East.
And when Russia moves into the Middle East,
God Himself is going to intervene and utterly
destroy that Russian invading army.
And when that day takes place, the blindness
that Israel has experienced will be over.
And they will recognize their God.
In Ezekiel chapter 39, God declares, And in
the day when I am sanctified before the
nations of the world, that is the day
when He destroys the Russian army, then will
I pour out My Spirit again upon the
nation of Israel.
Right now, God's Spirit has been poured out
upon we Gentiles until the fullness of the
Gentiles has come in.
But as soon as that takes place, then
God is going to deal with the nation
of Israel.
Blindness has happened in Israel part until the
fullness of Gentiles comes in.
But then all of Israel shall be saved.
Because God is going to move by His
Spirit again in a very powerful way among
these people.
And they're going to recognize.
For there shall come out of Zion the
Deliverer, and He shall turn away ungodliness from
Jacob.
For this is My covenant unto them when
I shall take away their sins.
As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for
your sakes.
It's to your blessing and benefit because the
Gospel has come unto us in the Spirit
of God, bringing the truth of God.
But as touching the election, they're still beloved
for the Father's sake.
God said, I can't let you go.
He will not let them go.
For the gifts and the calling of God
are without changing.
God has not changed.
He still loves these people.
For as ye in times past have not
believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through
their unbelief, even so these also, now not
believing that through your mercy they also may
obtain mercy, for God has concluded them all
in unbelief that He might have mercy upon
all.
Oh, the depth of the riches, both of
the wisdom and the knowledge of God, and
how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past finding out.
So, He's dealing with the sovereignty of God
setting aside of Israel the work of grace
among the Gentiles.
The wisdom, the knowledge, the ways of God
past our finding out.
For who hath known the mind of the
Lord?
Or who hath been His counselor?
Or who hath first given to Him and
it shall be recompensed unto Him again?
For of Him, through Him, and through Him
are all things, to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
Now I beseech ye therefore, brethren, because God
has grafted you in, because you are partaking
of the fullness of that good tree, I
beseech ye because of these things that you
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy
and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.
God has not made unreasonable demands upon us.
The Gospel is reasonable.
God said, Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord.
Now of course, existential philosophy, having brought us
to the point of despair, encourages non-reasoned
religious experiences.
Because reality is despairing.
If you face facts realistically, you're going to
be just despairing.
There's no hope.
It's all down the tubes.
That's reality.
If you don't realize that, then you're not
facing reality.
If you still think that the UN is
going to pull us out of this mess,
or that the Republicans are going to pull
us out of the economic mess, or the
Democrats, if they can get in, they'll have
the solutions.
You're not being realistic.
Existential philosophy has taught us that realism is
despair.
There's no hope, is what they're saying.
No hope.
But man can't live in a state of
no hope.
You've got to have hope.
And thus, you've got to take a leap
of faith into what they call the upper
story, into a non-reasoned religious experience.
You've got to go into that world of
unreality and have some kind of a religious
experience that will sustain you and help you.
And of course we see, and of course
the papers are always ready to give a
lot of publicity to these non-reasoned religious
cults in the Laguna Canyon, in their meditations,
and how they found serenity and peace, acceptance,
beauty, love, auras, you know, tingling feelings.
Non-reasoned religious experience.
I can't tell you why I feel that
way, it's just I feel that way.
Non-reasoned religious experience.
Now that isn't what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches a reasonable relationship.
A reasonable.
Come now, let us reason together, sayeth the
Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they can
be as white as snow.
Though they be red as crimson, they can
be as white as wool.
Present your body as a living sacrifice unto
God, which is your reasonable service.
When you really stop to think of it,
it's reasonable to present my body to God.
Because as we dealt with the 11th chapter
this morning in detail, chapter 30, or verse
33, the wisdom and the knowledge of God,
the depth of the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of God.
It's reasonable that God is so wise and
knows so much.
It's reasonable to just present my body, my
life to Him that He might guide and
direct me.
It's unreasonable for me to try and go
ahead and continue to try and figure out
things and to work out my own life
and to work out my own plan when
I'm so stupid.
The reasonable thing, the rational thing, the smart
thing is to just turn my life and
decision making factors of my life over to
God that He might direct my life.
And thus, presenting my body unto God as
a living sacrifice, that's reasonable, that's smart, that's
just good thinking.
And anything less is unreasonable.
You're not thinking well.
You're confused.
Don't be conformed to this world.
And yet, that's exactly what the world is
pressing for and that's exactly what peer pressure
is pressing towards.
Ah, you don't want to be different, you
know.
Try it.
Everybody's doing it.
The peer pressure to conform to the world
and we're getting it in magazines, we're getting
it on television that if you don't conform
to the fruity standards of the world that
there's something wrong with you.
They would like to make fruits out of
all of us.
Don't be conformed to this world, but be
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you might prove what is the good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.
How can I know God's will for my
life?
I can know God's will for my life
as I just surrender my life to Him.
As I yield my body to God and
as I seek after God, God will reveal
His will through my life.
My life will become a progressive revelation of
the will of God for me.
Thus, I've presented my life to God.
I've presented the issues of my life to
God.
I've committed myself to Him, seeking not to
have any strong will of my own or
allow some strong desire to master me, just
to flow free in God's Spirit.
Accepting what comes as coming from God because
I've asked God to bring into my life
those things that He wants.
Accepting those things that pass away as not
from God because I've asked God to take
away from my life those things He doesn't
want.
So I don't sit there and weep over
lost opportunities.
Oh, if I'd only done this.
Or, oh, if I only had that.
If God wanted me to do it, He
would have led me to do it.
If He wanted me to have it, I
would have had it, you see.
And so it is that commitment of myself
to God and as I do, then God's
will becomes a progressive revelation.
So I know what God's will is for
my life today and I'll know tomorrow what
His will is as He unfolds it to
me as I walk with Him.
Sort of exciting to live that way.
You never know what a day is going
to bring forth as God unfolds His will,
His purpose for our lives.
For I say through the grace that is
given unto me that every man that is
among you, he ought not to think of
himself more highly than he ought, but to
think soberly according as God has dealt to
every man the measure of faith.
God has dealt to each one a measure
of faith.
What do you do with it?
We can exercise the faith, we can use
the faith that God has given to us,
or we can just let it die.
But God has given to every man a
measure of faith.
A person says, well, I just don't have
any faith.
That is not true.
I've not yet met a person who didn't
have faith.
If you didn't have faith, you wouldn't lie
down on that bed tonight.
You'd be afraid that it was going to
fall through.
You have faith that's going to hold you
up, so you lie down on it.
If you didn't have faith, you wouldn't try
and start your car because you wouldn't have
faith that the thing was going to start
when you turn the ignition key.
We exercise faith in a lot of things.
Not always the right things.
Now, as he deals with the subject of
the gifts of God, he begins by warning
us against thinking more highly of ourselves than
we ought.
And that's one of the greatest dangers that
I see of men who have been gifted
of God.
They get into a little ivory tower and
they begin to think that they are really
something.
And they begin to, you know, seek adulation,
admiration, bucks for my gift, you know.
How many have prostituted the work and the
gifts of God in their lives trying to
use it for their own personal enrichment or
glory?
I have a deal with God.
If ever I start to do that, He's
to wipe me out immediately.
God forbid that I should glory save in
the cross of Jesus Christ by which I
was crucified to the world and the world
to me.
But there is a prevalent danger to any
person who experiences the working of God's Holy
Spirit through their lives to become lifted up
by those around them because of what God
has done.
And the moment you begin to be lifted
up, your effectiveness for God's kingdom diminishes.
Now people say, Oh, there's still multitudes being
saved, you know, and all.
But, you know, if I am giving my
body to be burned and if it isn't
the love of Christ that is motivating me
but the love for riches or glory, whatever,
then it profits me nothing.
For many will come in that day saying,
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your
name?
We cast out devils in Your name.
We healed the sick.
We did many marvelous works.
And you'll say, Depart from me, ye workers
of iniquity.
I never knew you.
Their motivations got all twisted up.
They began to do things for their own
glory.
They began to seek their own honor and
their own name.
The Bible warns about those who name things
after themselves.
Sort of a dangerous thing.
Not for any man to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but
think soberly.
Come on, let's be serious.
You're nothing but a sinner saved by grace.
And anything you have, God gave to you
to begin with.
So why are you going around as though
you are something?
For God has dealt to every man a
measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one
body.
That is, I have fingers and hands and
toes and eyes and ears.
I used to have hair.
Stupid perversity.
I have it all over my back, but
can't grow it on the top of my
head.
Weird.
We have many members, yet we're all one
body.
And all members do not have the same
function.
My eyes were made to function as eyes,
and they function well as eyes, but they
surely don't function well as ears.
I can't hear very well through my eyes.
And vice versa.
So the body has many members.
Each member has its own function within the
body.
Not all of them are doing the same
thing.
Not all of them were created to do
the same thing.
So we being many are one body in
Christ and every one member is one of
another.
So we are all put together in the
body of Christ and each of us have
our own function within the body.
And he's not just talking about us here
at Calvary Night.
We're the body of Christ.
We each have our function within the body.
He's talking about Calvary Chapel being a part
of the body of Christ general.
The other churches, the other denominations.
We're all a part of the body of
Christ and members one of another.
And we shouldn't be vying with each other.
We shouldn't be biting and devouring and destroying
one another.
We need to identify the enemy and concentrate
our efforts against him.
But realize that we are one body.
Members one of another.
And that God has a purpose for the
Presbyterian churches and for the Methodist churches and
the Baptist churches and the Nazarenes and the
Pentecostals.
And not find ourselves in conflict or trying
to find what's wrong with them.
Let's find out what's wrong with us and
seek to correct what's wrong with us.
The Bible says, therefore, let a man examine
himself.
For if we will judge ourselves, we will
not be judged of God.
And sometimes we find ourselves in that mode,
so busy trying to examine the flaws and
the faults of someone else that we totally
ignore our own.
David said, Search me, O God.
Not search that guy next to me, O
God, and show him his faults.
But search me, O God, and know my
heart.
And try me, O Lord, and see if
there is some way of wickedness in me.
And lead me in Your path.
It's a personal, individual thing.
And something we should all be quite interested
in.
That God would do His work in our
hearts.
But we are members one of another.
And it is true in this sense.
We are, yes, here corporately the body of
Christ.
And not all of us have the same
office.
And thus, we need to realize that God
has called some as pastor, teachers.
God has called some as deacons.
God has called some as intercessors.
God has called some to street evangelism and
these various things.
But don't feel that God has called everyone
to say street evangelism and thus feel guilty
because you can't do street evangelism.
Oh, I get so scared and so nervous
and I just cringe and I can't stand
going up and handing someone a track.
Well, obviously, God didn't call you to hand
out tracks.
So don't feel condemned and guilty as a
second-rate Christian and defeated because, you know,
I get so scared I can't hand out
a track.
Oh, I'm failing God.
No, you're not.
If God called you to hand out tracks,
He'd give you all kinds of boldness and
love and verve and everything else for that.
Just talk to the people who hand out
tracks.
They love it.
God's called them to that.
But we are not all called to the
same thing.
And we need to recognize that and quit
these guilt feelings because I'm not called to
the same ministry you have.
And I would sure like to do the
ministry you're doing.
I wish I could do that.
Oh, if I could only do that, then
I'd feel so guilty because I can't do
it.
Well, God didn't enable me or call me
to do it.
He didn't make me a finger and thus
I can't do the work of the finger.
But I may admire the work of the
finger and the thumb.
I may wish that I could put things
together like He does.
God, sir, called me to be a mouth.
But be thankful we're not all mouths.
So we each take our place in the
body and fill our part, do our part
realizing though that it is one body to
be coordinated by the Spirit.
Walking in love, demonstrating Christ to the world
because of our love for each other and
our united efforts with one another for Jesus
Christ.
Each of us taking our place, doing our
part, and we give a powerful witness then
to the world as they see how harmoniously
we live and function together as God's children.
And Christ is magnified among us.
So, we being many are still one body
in Christ.
We're all a part of each other.
You can't escape it.
Having then gifts that are differing according to
the grace that is given unto us.
If it's prophecy, let us prophesy according to
the proportion of faith.
Prophecy is speaking forth the word of God.
Ministry, let us wait on our ministering.
Or he that teacheth on teaching, and that
is to wait upon it or to fulfill
it, study it, prepare for it.
Waiting upon it.
Or he that exhorts on exhortation.
He that gives, let him do it with
simplicity.
And he that rules with diligence.
And he that shows mercy with cheerfulness.
Now, this is the area where we'll be
Thursday night, so we're not going to elaborate
on this area right now because we'll get
there Thursday night.
Let love be without hypocrisy, without dissimulation.
Dissimulation is an imitation.
There used to be Diamond Gym.
It used to be on that station out
of Del Rio, Texas.
And it used to offer genuine simulated diamonds.
And all of the people down south used
to send in to get their $5 genuine
simulated diamond from Diamond Gym.
Let love be without imitations, without hypocrisy.
Not a put-on, but let it be
genuine.
Now, he gives us just a whole bunch
of little exhortations.
They're just little phrase exhortations, and each one
is almost a sermon in itself.
So, let's just go over the list and
let it sort of sink in.
Abhor that which is evil.
One of the things that God said concerning
Job is that he hates evil.
He said to Satan, Have you considered my
servant Job?
He fears God and hates evil.
The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil.
So, abhor that which is evil.
Didn't say tolerate that which is evil.
Accept that which is evil.
Live with that which is evil.
Abhor it.
There's an awful lot.
Cleave.
Stick to that which is good.
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly
love.
In honor, preferring one another.
I think that this is one that we
really...
Well, I will when I get there on
Thursday.
I'm going to really lay into this one.
There is so much me first, pushing my
way to the front, wanting to get the
best, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, not the last
thing, but the first thing.
Learn to pray about everything first.
Distributing to the necessity of saints.
Taking care of the needs within the body
of Christ.
And we do seek to do that here
at Galilee.
Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to
take care of those outside of the body.
And so, people come for help.
And if they are members and attend here,
then we seek to help them.
If they are not, then we just sadly
tell them that we just don't have the
resources to help those outside.
But distributing to the necessity of the saints,
we do feel that that is an obligation.
Given to hospitality, then bless them which persecute
you.
Bless and curse not.
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep
with them that weep.
Be sensitive to other people's feelings.
Be of the same mind one toward another.
And mind not the high things, but condescend
to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
All of these are just pithy little words
of exhortation.
I imagine Romaine could have a field day
in this portion of Scripture because it's all
good exhortation.
And he that exhorteth needs to wait upon
his exhortation.
Recompense to no man evil for evil.
Provide things that are honest in the sight
of all men.
Honesty.
Not taking vengeance.
And if it is possible, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Now, it isn't always possible.
There are some people that there's just no
way you can live in peace with them.
But let it be their fault, not yours.
As much as lies in you, live peaceably
with all men.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give
place unto wrath.
For it is written, Vengeance is mine and
I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him a drink.
For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals
of fire on his head.
This is a quotation actually out of the
Proverbs.
And just exactly what it may mean has
been a matter of conjecture.
But it probably means that you would bring
him to burning shame.
In other words, your good treatment, your kind
and loving treatment would bring him to a
burning shame.
Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil
with good.
So, great exhortation.
And that is...
We talk about meditation.
Now, if you want meditation, you need to
come back to these beginning with verse 9.
And you need to spend time meditating on
each of these and see how it can
apply to your own life.
Read it over, think about it, and think
of how it is operating in your life
right now and how you can better do
these things.
How you can make it apply more completely
to you.
In what ways you can do these things.
But these are things that we need to
really be following after and seeking to do
in order that we might live a life
that is pleasing unto our Father.
So, that particular portion can stand a lot
of meditation and I encourage you, meditate on
these things.
Thy Word, O Lord, is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path,
David declared.
I find that the Word of God is
many times like a searchlight turned on inside,
lighting up some of those dark corners.
So many times I find the Word of
God speaking directly to my heart.
As the Spirit makes application and shows me
my failings, my weaknesses, and exhorts me in
the right path.
And thus may the Word of God work
in your hearts in life, drawing you ever
closer unto the divine ideal, that which God
would have you to be as you walk
with Jesus Christ.
And may the Lord bless you and be
with you this week.
And may He strengthen you in your walk,
that you might bring forth fruit unto righteousness
and for the glory of His name.
And may you be doers of the Word
and not hearers only.
In Jesus' name.