Book of Romans - Ch. 10, Vs. 18-Ch. 11, Vs. 10 (11/21/2004)

Park Meadows Church

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All right, Romans 10, 17. Now, Dennis, repeat what you said, if you can.

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No, that's not what I asked. Can this fellow come to church and learn about faith?

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That's right. Yes. All right.

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You have to hear about faith. Now, John, what is the hearing about faith that, is it a class on faith, or what is it?

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It's seeing. All right.

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Are you talking to that person? OK. Faith comes by hearing.

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So they have to hear the word of God. Now, we don't know when it comes or how it comes, except by hearing.

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We're in Romans 10, 17. This hearing is by the word of God.

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Now, the hearing is not talking about God. You can't get faith by somebody talking about God.

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It has to be by the hearing. Now, the hearing is, it is of God himself.

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Now, who is it that can hear about faith and accumulate faith?

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Who is that person? All right, what about the millions of people that just hear about it?

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All right. This problem has existed from the beginning. He says in 18, but I say, have they not heard, they being the world?

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Yes, verily, their sound went out into all of the earth and their words unto the ends of the world.

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But I say, did not Israel know? First, Moses saith,

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I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people. And by a foolish nation,

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I will anger you. Who is the no people? Bill?

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Have. What? We are the people. All right. How, when that was spoken, who were they talking about?

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Clarence? Gentiles. That's right.

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But Esaias is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not.

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I was made manifest unto them that ask not after me.

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And who are these people, Dennis? The Gentiles.

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But to Israel he saith, all day long, I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsane people.

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Bill, what does gainsane mean? All right.

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But Israel saith, all day. But to Israel he saith, all day long,

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I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsane people.

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What did he mean all day long, David? All right.

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All right. This is what he did. Now, Debbie, are we to persuade someone to call upon God?

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Well, I think I am. How about that,

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Clarence? Let the earth preach the word to everyone.

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We're the only ones that believe. The believers will hear the word and not believe it.

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All right. That's the only thing that saves us from making a disastrous, big mistake.

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Diane, you're here, aren't you? Can you persuade someone to call upon the

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Lord? All right, don't ever persuade someone to call upon him.

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Twist their arm, beat them down, make them feel guilty if they don't.

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They're going to go to hell. That's the wrong approach. That'd be salvation by my effort.

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And that's a good gauge as you're involved in conversation wherever you are.

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If you'll put out a feeler, just something, and see if they respond to it.

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So they will if they're interested. That's absolutely right.

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Now, to begin with, you might not understand much, but you want a desire to know, maybe just a little bit.

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But that desire will grow, and that's good. God in his own time will close this age when he has brought the last of his children into life and at the right moment notifies them, then he'll close the church age.

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That day is coming. There will be a last person saved.

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God is not just waiting and hoping that more and more people will choose to accept him.

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Now, that's the approach that most churchgoers believe, but that's not true.

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In Matthew 121, we have these words. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name

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Jesus, for he shall save the people of him from the sins of them.

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So fortunately, none of it is in our hands.

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Turn now to chapter 11, if you will, please, for a few moments. Paul pursues this argument.

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And he says, I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an

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Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin.

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Now, what would have happened, John, if God had cast away his people?

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Well, would Paul have been able to say what he did? No.

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So God forbid that such a thing should happen.

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But God has the rebellion of Israel to bring the salvation to the

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Gentiles. Always the sin of man is voluntary.

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That's exactly right. And Paul touches on that just a little bit later. But you're right.

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That's exactly right. Israel refused

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Jesus because they wanted to. You do that which you want to do.

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Now, that may be a little hard to accept on our part.

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But it's true. You do that that you want to do.

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But even in the midst of this wanting to do it, God sees to it that his seed is saved.

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Israel stood before the Lord's, God's eyes from eternity as his people.

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In the immutableness of the sovereignty with which he made us his lies the impossibility of its rejection.

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You cannot reject it. John, you cannot refuse to be a child of God.

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Two, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Want you not that the scripture saith of Elias how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,

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Lord, they have killed thy prophets, have digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

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Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel like you were the only ones?

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Now, what is this meant by, they have digged down thine altars?

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David? Well, altars by the law of Moses were required to be made of earth or unhewn stone, thus the expression to dig them down.

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They had to dig to destroy the altar, to demolish it, destroy them completely.

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This is what they were doing. Four, but what saith the answer of God unto him?

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I have reserved to myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.

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As I've told you once before, there was a time when my wife and I decided there was no one else in Corsicana teaching the truth.

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And the Lord had David Mitchell here, almost next door.

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How nearsighted can I be? These 7 ,000 are

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Israel in God's eyes. Even so, then all his present time, even so, then at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

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What does it mean, Clarence, the election of grace? That's right.

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The election of grace, the remnant, this is nothing short of the entire exclusion of all of human work, of the act of God's free will by which before the foundation of the world he decreed his blessing to certain persons, the decree which he determined to bless certain persons through Christ by grace alone.

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God decreed that. I had nothing to do with it. Six, and if by grace, if this salvation is by grace, then it is no more of works.

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Debbie, why can't it be both? Yes. Well, what's wrong with that?

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All right. And if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace, but if it be of works, then it is no more grace.

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Otherwise, work is no more work. Now, there's those that immediately try to say, well, if you do not accept

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Christ as your Savior, you're going to miss out on heaven. And I answer, don't be worried about that.

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Don't worry. All his people will be saved.

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In Matthew 1, 21, again, because he said so, none of his will miss out on salvation and end up in hell.

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The conscience of a child of God is the voice of God. Seven, what then?

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Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

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Now we enter a new word, blinded. John, what is it that makes a person blind?

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Well, that's true, but I'm talking about in the world.

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What makes a person blind in this world? Bill?

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All right. But is it not really because others can see?

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No. You're blind because everybody else can see, if nobody can see.

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If everybody would be blind, then there would not be such a thing as somebody seeing.

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So we're blind because everybody else can see. God's grace does not depend on your attendance in church, singing in the choir, paying tithes, giving to projects,

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Wednesday night service, praying, witnessing, teaching, preaching, or any other thing that man can think of or do.

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I was blind to all of this until one day he called me.

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Now, the blind person does not know they're blind spiritually. According as it is written,

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God hath given them a spirit of slumber. What's that, David?

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That's right. Eyes that should not see, ears that should not hear, unto this day.

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It'll be like that forever in this age. Blindness is seen only because there is no light.

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Now, the blind person sees no light, so to him the light doesn't exist.

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If there were no light, none would be blind. If there was no light, none would be blind.

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We say, well, you would, everybody would be blind. No, the word blind wouldn't exist.

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It requires an organ of reception for the eye to function, and this is what

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Bill was talking about, and he's absolutely right in that respect.

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It requires an eye that will respond to the light that I see for me to not be blind.

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David said, let there table be a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them.

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Now, John, what's he talking about? Let there table be made a snare and a trap.

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Dennis? What? That's right.

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The things of this world, let that be a trap and a snare to them.

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Any time that a person has to do something to gain favor with God is wrong.

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You can do nothing to find his favor. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always.

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Bow down their back like a slave under a burden. That their table should be made to them a snare, a trap, a stumbling block.

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That is, that all their pleasant and delightful things should become the instruments of their destruction.

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All the things that they like to do. Now, Joy, does a

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Christian not do anything that he enjoys doing? Where do we find our joy,

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Debbie? Yes.

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That their eyes might be darkened that they may not see. The darkening of their eyes signifies the taking away of the judgments and understanding from the people.

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Bowing down of the back always animates and implies their groveling upon this earth, their relishing and savoring nothing but earthly things, never lifting up either head or heart to God.

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Now, all of this which David spake of the wicked Jews in his time, the apostle applies here and adapts to the unbelieving

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Jew in his day, to whom the very preaching of the gospel was an occasion of hardness.

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Skitty like that today. Thank the

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Lord I'm not in a church anymore that plays at being church, that the word's not taught.

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In Corsicana today there'll be many a preacher that will not take the

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Bible to the pulpit. Well, I want to quit here and start with 11 next week.

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Are there any questions? No questions?

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Any statements? That's so sad.

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What was it for? I grew up in a small town and we had church bells.

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It was different than what David was describing. But that was the day before everybody had an alarm clock.

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Some people didn't have a clock. But this was the town hall that it was time to come.

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And you could hear that bell all the way. Everybody had a bell.

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Christians, Catholics, Catholics. They're not going to hear that.

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You don't look at the Bible and say there's nothing in it. There's nothing in it.

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There's nothing in it. There's nothing in it. There's nothing necessary at all in it.

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There is. I see what you're saying. Yes. I remember that I got taken outside to preach the rule.

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They had to pull it down. I was just pulled on as they were taking me out.

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And so I grew up saying that. Did they pay you for it? No, they wouldn't.

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They were taking me to church those days. I remember it was a drag for a person.

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businesses, please. Thank you.