Articles
-- is that they may be saved. And what I see is that he is saying that -- it almost sounds like his prayer is to God for Israel because it looks like they are in a position where they could be losing their salvation, or they are not in right standing somehow, and that he is praying for them. You know, he is going before God for them is -- or not that he is really going before God, but he is concerned for them.
[?Because?] you may recall from our study in Romans 9 that he is quoting Isaiah. Paul is quoting Isaiah and telling us that they stumbled at the stumbling block, and that they found Christ [?in?an?] offense. So Paul is saying that it is his heart's desire that Israel should be saved, but the most important thing is God's will. Do you have any comment to make on this?
I was thinking, you know, he speaks in different Scriptures where he talks about [?in receding?] from [?them?], and he said his heart's desire. It made me think of going deep in his heart in recession for them that they could be saved.
OK. Do you have anything to say?
Well, I do not really want to go into Romans 11 right now, but I would take just a few minutes to point out to you Romans 11:12 -- verse 12 and verse 15 in which Paul reveals a part of the mystery to us. He says now, "If the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminish-" -- he is speaking about Israel. "If the fall of them -- if their failure to recognize Christ be the riches or the inheritance of the rest of the world and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles" -- in other words, as when most of us know who were studying the Scripture that the Jews' failure to receive Christ as Messiah let him be an inheritance unto the Gentiles. He went unto the Gentiles, and the balance of the world received him. So Paul says, "If the fall of the Jews be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more will the world benefit when the Jews are brought back into the Kingdom?" And verse 15 says, "For if the casting away of them be the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?" So I am not going to comment on that until we get to Romans 11. My whole point is also in verse 11 of chapter 11. "I say then have the Jews stumble that they should fall. God forbid, but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke the Jews unto jealousy." So we see this as a great mystery, brethren. God clearly says in another place, "Your ways are not my ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. Therefore anyone who seeks to understand the mind of God with his carnal mind is manifesting the sin of pride. For man will never understand the ways of God. Therefore, old man, who are you to challenge the ways of God?" That is what the Scripture teaches. Jesus clearly said to the other disciples. The disciples were coming to Jesus saying I heard a rumor that you have preferred John and that you have given John permission to not die until your second coming. And Jesus' answer was, anybody?
[INAUDIBLE]
"What is it to you, buddy? Look at yourself and what I do, I do, and I do not have to give you an explanation."
OK, so who is able to counsel God? That is what he is saying. Who is it that would indict God and determine him unrighteous for turning away from the Jews? For abandoning his people. The Scripture clearly states that God divorced Israel. God divorced Israel. Does this make God unrighteous, brethren? God forbid. He sacrificed his own people so that this great salvation could go to the rest of the world. So this is what -- the context of what Paul is saying which is not very clear in verse 1. He is saying, brethren, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, but nevertheless I understand that their fall is a part of your plan to extend your mercy to the entire world." Well, in case you do not know it, the Lord is continuously sacrificing his sons for the salvation of another man or another nation or for the world. As he sacrificed the Lord Jesus Christ, he is continuously sacrificing those who are faithful in service to him for the benefit of another man who is lost in his sins and utterly reprobate in his mind. God will lay down the life of a faithful servant, and does this make God unrighteous, brethren? God forbid. How could this not be unrighteousness? Because number one, God has the power to raise that sacrificed one from the dead, but even more important than that, God's motive for sacrificing the innocent, if you will, is to save someone's life. And knowing that God has the power after the reprobate one's life is saved to raise the sacrificed one from the dead. Therefore, brethren, it is proven that God is righteous and that if you have condemned him for his behavior because of your lack of understanding, you have proven yourself to be the sinner. God is always righteous. So this is what Paul is saying. If it were up to me and my carnality, I would do anything to save Israel now. And we find out in subsequent verses that Paul has a revelation that Israel is going to be restored back unto righteousness. So what is he talking about? He is talking about now. He is saying if there is any way I could possibly save Israel now, I would do it now. But God's will said no, not now, later because now is the time that I am reconciling the world unto me, and that this great salvation is going unto the Gentiles.
I preached this on one other message a couple of years ago. Jehovah did not only sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ, he sacrificed the whole nation of Israel. Jehovah had the power 2,000 years ago to open up the hearts of Israel and let them recognize Messiah. How do I know? It tells us about it in Romans 11, and Romans 11 is commenting on the book of Isaiah which says, "I put the spirit of sleep upon my people that having ears they should not hear, and having eyes they should not see, and having minds they should not understand." So Israel rejected Messiah and came under all of the sowing, all of the reaping which she sowed in her rejection of him. Why? So that this great salvation could go unto the rest of the world.
If you can hear. Can I have a little more volume please? God has to do something with my voice, Lord. So in verse 1 Paul is saying I want what I want now. My heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved now.
Verse 2. "For I bear them wrecked that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge." Paul is saying I vouch for them. He is saying I vouch for them in that they are very sincere about their work for the Lord, but they do not know what they are talking about. That is what he is saying. I could say the same thing about the church today. All these people that are running around beating people over the head with Bibles. Trying to scare them into salvation. Trying to force them into church. Brethren, the church today has a zeal for God. They want his blessings to go to the entire world, but they are doing it without knowledge. It is not the way of the Lord to force people by carnal tactics into his church. You see, the way God gets you to come to him is to turn you over to your own destruction until things get so bad that you run to him for protection. He turns you over to yourself. He turns you over to the God of this world. He turns you over to other wicked men so that you should find out how badly you need him, and then you come to him of your own will. But the flesh lusteth against the spirit, brethren, and the spirit against the flesh. And the ways of men shall always be the direct opposite of the ways of God. So if God lets you have enough rope to hang yourself, as we say here in New York, hang yourself, OK? Man gives you no rope at all and tries to put handcuffs on you and force you to serve him, but man's way kills, brethren, and God's way raises you from the dead.
So we see Paul saying that Israel has a zeal for God, but they are not doing it God's way you see. We see that in the church today. We see that with the Jehovah's witnesses today. We see that with every manifestation of Christianity that has a zeal or an urgency or a fervor or a desire to see the blessings of Christ go to other people but are trying to accomplish that goal with their carnal mind. And instead of saving the people, they are killing them. This is what Paul is speaking about. "For I bear them wrecked, I am a testimony unto that, that they have a zeal for God.” They want to do the works of God, OK, but not according to knowledge. Not according to the knowledge of God's ways. Brethren, it has to be God's way, and man is filled with witchcraft which is an exercise of a will which is separate from God's will.
This is the definition of witchcraft. The exercise of willpower which is spiritual power, which is not coordinated with, which is not lined up with, which is not in agreement with the will of God. Witchcraft is a willpower which has separated from God and is opposing the will of God. Witchcraft power is a division of the atom of the union which is formed between God and man. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. If your spirit is truly one spirit with God, your will is God's will, your thoughts are God's thoughts, your intentions are God's intentions, and your deeds and your words are God's deeds and God's words. Is that not what Jesus said? He said I only do and I only say that which my Father in heaven does and says. Jesus and Jehovah were one spirit. We have a church today that have a zeal for God. They recognize goodness in this book. They recognize goodness in his spirit. They recognize good thing about him, but the atom of their spirit has been divided. And in that division the father in this hour who is the Lord Jesus Christ he was, is the positive spirit, and the separated one has become the negative spirit.
When the atom splits, brethren, it splits -- when the positive atom splits, it splits into a positive and a negative. Man separated from God is a negative force in this creation. The accuser of the brethren. The advocate, adversary, the opponent of all that is good and decent in the earth. So Paul says, "I ask that you have mercy on them, Lord, because they mean well, but nevertheless they cannot be permitted to continue in their witchcraft." Therefore says the Lord in another place, "I will save them despite themselves, but first I will break and bring to naught the witchcraft power of the saints. And there shall be no resurrection of the dead, and there shall be no righteousness, and there shall be no holiness until this witchcraft power is broken. There shall be no peace, here shall be no contentment, and every manifestation of my spirit shall be minimal until the witchcraft power of the saints is completely put down and swallowed up in the reconciliation of the spirit of man with the Spirit of God. "There will be no separation," saith the Lord, "but your will, will line up with my will, and your mind will line up with my mind, and your words will line up with my words, and your deeds will line up with my deeds, or I am not the lord of hosts," saith your God.
Verse 3. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness" -- who are they? Israel. And the same message for the church today. How can I say that? For the church is the Israel of God. Those who are called according to his purposes. Your modern day Israel. You are the spiritual seed of Abraham who have been adopted in accordance with Christ. Everyone in whom the firstfruits of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is touching. You are the spiritual seed of Abraham and this word is for you. I recognize that you have a zeal for God, but you are without knowledge, and it is not the hour for you to recruit. It is not the hour for you to teach. It is not the hour for you to minister. But it is the hour for you to humble yourselves and submit yourself to instruction and spiritual cleansing which will renew you in the image of Christ.
"For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." What Paul is saying here is that the average Christian does not even understand that there is a difference between the righteousness of God and their own self-righteousness, and because of that lack of understanding they are going around believing that they are righteous because of their own righteousness, and their own righteousness is based upon -- anybody? Their own righteousness was based upon what? What, [?I did not?] hear you?
[INAUDIBLE]
Hmm?
[?Their own ideas?].
Their own ideas? OK. Yeah, that is pretty much it. Their own works. Their own works. You are not saved by the works of your flesh, brethren. You are saved by the grace of God, and the grace of God is his life in you. There is nothing of yourself that you could do that would save you or that would make you worthy of salvation. It is the life of his Son in you that makes you worthy and makes you valuable. But if the life of his Son is in you and is being tread down under your carnal will, you are worthless and unworthy. Therefore says the lord of Sabaoth [SP], "'I come with a recompense to beat you,' saith the Lord, 'that you should go down into the authority of my Christ that he might rule in you that you might become valuable and worthy of bearing the life of the Son.' Saith the Lord Jesus."
So we say that the church, as well as natural Israel, is ignorant that there is a -- ignorant of the fact that there is a righteousness of God which exists in his very life, and that there is a righteousness of man which is a result of his religious works. And the living God says that the righteousness of man is like unto filthy rags. It cannot make you clean. There is nothing that you could do to clean yourself, and righteousness will not come out of an unrighteous tree. Apples will not grow on an orange bush -- or an orange tree. The fruit of the tree is an expression of the root of that tree, and natural man will never produce the fruit of righteousness without the righteous one dwelling and ruling in him and through him. So we see that there is a righteousness of God and there is a righteousness of the flesh. The righteousness of the flesh condemns one's fellow man and kills him, and the righteousness of God gives life unto the brokenhearted and the captive and the widow and the orphan and the starving and the hurting and the pitiful of this world.
So being ignorant that there is a righteousness of God which they do not have and therefore going about to establish their own righteousness through works of the flesh, usually trying to force their unrighteous ideas on their fellow man. Because they have been so caught up in doing their own works, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. What does that mean? It means that the typical believer is so caught up in their own welfare, so caught up in their own emotions, so impressed with their own opinions, and so dependent on their own methods of saving themselves from their circumstances that they do not submit themselves to the lifesaving counsel, decision, and power of Christ which is available to them. You see it says in another place, "We have the mind of Christ." Brethren, we have access to the mind of Christ. But when our own mind rises up and is determined to run our life, she treads the mind of Christ underfoot, and we go blindly into destruction. "As the blind lead the blind and they both fall into the ditch." So Paul is admonishing the church, as well as natural Israel, to give up your own idea of righteousness, and what does that mean? Give up your own ideas of how you will attain unto eternal life. Give up your own ideas of how you will attain unto the good things of this life. Give up your own ideas of how you will be pleasing unto God, and do it his way because he is just going to let you knock yourself out trying to do it your way until you are so exhausted as a 2-year-old on the floor becomes exhausted from their temper tantrum that you finally stop your screaming and say all right Lord, I will do it your way. In the meantime, 10 years have gone by and sometimes longer, and you have had all the painful experiences that you have had, and you have done all the damage that you have done, and now you have to go out and make restitution and make amends and get everything straight and get cleaned up from all the mess that you made. Which, praise God, is possible in Christ.
Verse 4. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." What does that mean? Jesus said to the Pharisees in another place, "You read the Scriptures day in and day out. But if you had truly made contact with the God of those Scriptures, you would know me because I am his son. So what fruit has been produced of your pouring over the Scriptures day in and day out when the result of your activity has not resulted in an ability to recognize the very Son of God?" Jesus is saying you have misused the Scripture. You had misused the Scripture, you see. This Scripture is a point of contact by which we hopefully will make contact with the living God. He meets us in his word. He speaks to us through his word. He ministers to us through his word. And as you meet with him and speak with him and commune with him in his word, his written word is supposed to be transferring into your heart. There is supposed to be an experiential result of your intellectual attempt to reach God through reading this word. You start out with your mental soulish, carnal intellect, and as you believe -- as you read, you believe and you are supposed to be having a spiritual experience which begins to raise you up above this book. Not that you do not need the book anymore, but on the contrary, that the book becomes internalized in you. And every experience that you have with Christ should be a second witness to what appears in the book. But the spirit is the reality.
The book is what you get when you are so carnal that you have no connection, or no way of connecting to the Spirit of God. The end of the law, brethren, the result of your keeping of the law of God, the result of your obedience to carnal commandments is that Christ should be internalized in you, and when Christ is internalized in you, you will recognize him in every other man in whom he is internalized. And in this internalization of Christ in you, Christ who is the hope of glory, brethren, Christ in you, the hope of your salvation, he begins to be internalized in you at a point in time, and he grows, and he increases in you until he swallows up every last vestige of sin in you.
You see, we are told in another place that Christ enters into your heart as a small, humble seed likened unto the mustard seed, the least of all seeds, but grows up into a great tree and fills all the earth of your soulish life utterly swallowing up your sin and purifying you and raising you up into the heavenlies of the life which is in Christ Jesus. So we see that the keeping of the law has a goal. It has an objective. Brethren, if I prepare a meal for my family, the goal of my labor is that my family should eat. If I go to the supermarket, and I purchase food, and I spend two hours making a feast, and then I throw the food out, my labor has been in vain. The keeping of the law has a goal. It has an end result that it is intended to accomplish, and just as the partaking or the eating of the meal that I just mentioned to you results in the sustaining of the human life of man, the goal of the keeping of the law is to result in the impartation of eternal life unto the one who is laboring to obey this law. Now if you prepare this meal, you see, if you like to cook -- I like to cook. You may enjoy going to the supermarket, and you may pre- -- enjoy the preparation of the meal. You may get great satisfaction out of it. But if nobody eats the food, brethren, your satisfaction is in vain. It is selfish, it is self-serving, and it is devilish we are told by the apostle James. But if the end result of your labor is that people should receive sustenance and life, you have completely accomplished your goal.
Brethren, some people take pleasure in keeping the law. It is a good thing to be obedient unto Christ. It is a good thing to submit unto the law of God. I find it pleasurable at times. But if my submission to the law does not result in the emergence of Christ in me, if my submission to the law does not result in the healing of my body and the healing of my soul, if my submission to the law does not result in the fulfillment of God's goal in giving me his life, I may have enjoyed the experience of obedience, but the goal of my submission has not been accomplished. The end of the law, brethren, is Christ in us, Christ in humanity, the hope of this soulish realm because a soul without Christ is -- do you know? Dead. Therefore Christ is the hope of the glory of the soul realm. Christ in you, the hope of glory, is the resurrection of his dead -- of his soul. It is the resurrection of the dead Christ, and it is the giving of life unto this soul. So no matter how many good works you have done, no matter how much you have enjoyed doing them, no matter how much you like the music, no matter how studying the word tickles your ears, if everything you have done for Christ, if all the times you have prophesied, and all the times you have spoken in tongues has not resulted in Christ being formed in you. If it is not producing life in you and in others through you, your efforts have been in vain because the end of the law, brethren, is Christ, the salvation of the world.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth, you see. There is a righteousness of the law, and then there is the righteousness which is in Christ. The righteousness of the law is temporary. It is the mercy of God which says if you will do such and such, I will enter into a relationship with you. But the end of that privilege, brethren, is that the life of the Son should appear in you. That righteousness, that true righteousness, might become a reality unto you. So we see that the righteousness of the law is a temporary righteousness in the world. We might call it an amnesty. A truce. A ceasefire. A time for negotiation between two warring sides. Although that is not true of God and man, I am giving you a natural example here. A cessation of the hostility because, brethren, you are at enmity with God in your mind, and he has said to you, "Lay down your arms. I give you amnesty. Become cleaned up and I shall put the true righteousness in you," because the law, brethren, is not for a righteous man. The law which executes the judgment of death upon fallen man is not for a righteous man; it is for a sinner. So all you sinners, lay down your arms, confess your sins, submit to these carnal commandments, and I will do the work of imparting my life unto you which will cleanse you of the spiritual reality of your sins. And when you have been cleansed of the spiritual reality of your sins, there will no longer be the necessity for a law against you because there is no law against righteousness.
We are told in another place, "There is no law against love. There is only law against sin, and when the only thing found in you is love, which is Christ, for you the law will cease to exist, and all of the judgments and restrictions and punishments, even the last one which is death, shall become nonexistent unto you." Death shall no longer have dominion over you, brethren, when you have become righteous because of the cleansing work of Christ in you having swallowed up the death of your sin.
Verse 5. Well, let me comment on the word believeth. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Brethren, this is not speaking about an intellectual believing. Paul is speaking about a spiritual experience one believes with the heart -- we will see in the subsequent verses. One believes with one's heart, and at the root of one's heart is one's human spirit. When one's spirit believes, that spirit vibrates out from the person and is able to touch another person. If you have ever felt somebody's love, or if you have ever felt somebody's hatred, you know what I am talking about. Spirit goes beyond the confines of this flesh and has the ability to touch other people. This concept of believing is not an intellectual believing. When you believe to such an extent that your spirit arises in you and vibrates out from you and touches Christ, she will then join with Christ, and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit, and thus you shall be saved. Not through your intellect, but through a spiritual union with Christ.
Verse 5. "For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth these -- those things shall live by them. The righteousness of the law says that the man -- that a man shall reap what he sows. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an arm for an arm, a life for a life. But the righteousness of God, Lord -- the righteousness of the Lord is mercy. It is not an eye for an eye." The righteousness of God, brethren, is mercy. It is not an eye for an eye, but it is life in exchange for death. You take the life of the Son of God. You kill the Son of God and he cannot die, but he turns around and raises you from the dead. How is that for a just recompense? You try to kill Christ, you fail, and he raises you from the dead. Is that the most incredible promise you have ever heard? Brethren, this whole soul is suffering from spiritual insanity. Every fallen man is trying to kill Christ with all of his ungodly strength, and Christ is letting you kill him. Why? To prove you guilty. That there should be no doubt in anybody's mind that you are the Christ killer. And then the spirit of life enters into him, and the Father raises him up, and he stands on his feet, and when you think he is coming to get you back, he gives his life unto you. What a message. What a message. Kill away, brethren. Every time you kill him, the Father will raise him from the dead, and every time he forgives you, the Father will raise you a little bit more from the dead, and you will keep on killing him until his life appears in -- [AUDIO CUTS OUT]
OK.
God. Verse 5.
Verse 5. So Moses describes the righteousness of the Lord. "An eye for an eye. You kill and you shall be killed. He who liveth by the sword must die by the sword, and the man which doeth these things shall live by them." Brethren, if you kill, you shall be killed. But if you forgive, and you raise from the dead, you shall be raised from the dead. You who are still imperfect. When you hit every time you are hit, you shall continue to be hit. When you kill every time you are killed, you shall abide in death. When you hate every time you are hated, you shall continue to die. But when you start returning hatred with the love of God, you shall be healed from all your sins, brethren, and you who were dead in your sins shall live. Not you, but Christ in you. Hallelujah.
Verse 6. "But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down from above." Brethren, this is a very poor translation. I want to change it. If you do not like the fact that I am changing the King James translation, I have one phrase for you. That is tough because it is wrong. This is what the Lord is saying. "Do not say in your heart the sign that Christ has appeared in you is that you are going to heaven. Do not say your righteousness is taking you up into heaven." Also let me give it to you another way. "Say not in thine heart, not who shall ascend into heaven." Now remember, there is no question mark in the Greek or in the Hebrew. There is no punctuation. Every punctuation in the English translations were put in by some man's carnal mind. There is no indication in the Greek that this has to be a question. Well, I suggest you is not a question. It is a statement that is saying do not say not who shall, but the one who shall ascend into heaven. He is the one that is Christ. This Greek word that says, "to bring down," "to bring Christ down," it has at least four other translations in my abbreviated lexicon. I did not look in my big lexicon. What it is saying is to bring Christ forth. To bring Christ forth. Do not say that you, by your own strength, ascending into heaven is going to convert you into Christ. There is nothing within you that can turn you into Christ. Brethren, it is being preached today. Look for the God within you. Ascend into heaven and you shall be Christ. This is the exact opposite of what Jesus said.
Now, let me get this straight because some Pharisee is going to misquote me. This is not what Paul said. Paul did not say the one who gets into heaven is the one who is Christ. Paul is saying do not say that. That if you say the one who makes it to heaven is Christ, you are manifesting pride. Paul is saying do not say that; it is wrong. Do not say the way to righteousness is to climb into heaven because, brethren, the violent try to take the Kingdom of God by force. You cannot capture the Kingdom of God. You cannot apprehend it for yourself. You cannot buy it. You cannot steal it. You cannot possess it. The Kingdom of God must choose you. The Kingdom of God must possess you. So Paul says do not say the one who succeeds in ascending into heaven is Christ. That is what Paul says. Do not say that. And I want to show you where Jesus said the exact opposite.
The Gospel of John. Chapter 3 I believe. Verse 13. "And no man hath ascended up to heaven." Paul said do not say the man who ascends up to heaven is Christ because Jesus said no man has ever done it. He says, "The only one -- only the one who came down from heaven, even the son of man which is in heaven, can go back up into heaven." Put in simple English, Jesus is saying there is no way you can get into heaven unless the one who was already in heaven comes down to get you. And when he comes down to get you, the way he is doing it is by putting his mind in you. And when his mind is in you, and when that mind of Christ kills all of your sin, you too shall be in heaven. But if you think that you are climbing up into heaven without righteousness being born in you, you are not Christ. Who are you, brethren?
The book of Isaiah, chapter 14, if you will. Verse 13. "For thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven." Well, that is the devil. You were right. "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." Check out the eyes, brethren. "I will set also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High God." and the Lord answers Lucifer, or the devil. You can call him whatever you want, and I do not care if you call him Ishekebible [SP], it is not God, and it is not Christ, and if these words are coming out of your mouth, you are a liar and the father of them. And God says unto you, "Yet thou shall be" -- despite all your intentions. Despite all your bluster. Despite all your big words. Despite all your -- all of your mannerisms which make you some -- look like some big man. The living God says to you, "Yet thou shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. And they that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee saying, 'Is this the man that made the earth to tremble?' That did shape kingdoms." Is this the tough guy that said he was going to get everything that Christ had to offer by his own rules? Jesus. "But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch and as the raiment of those that are slain, you are thrust through with a sword." You are spiritually dead. "Now go down to the stones of the pit. You are as a carcass, a dead man trodden under the feet of Christ. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial because thou hast destroyed thine own soul, and slain thine own people, and you shall never be renowned."
So Paul is telling us in Romans chapter 10 do not say that the one who makes it into heaven is Christ, because no man has what it takes to do it and that anyone who says that is the devil. Did Jesus not say to Peter get thee behind me? Jesus called Peter Satan. He called the Pharisees the devil. He told them their father was the devil. He called them vipers and serpents. Well, if you hear anybody saying I can make it into heaven by what I was born with, you are talking to the devil, brethren. So Paul says do not say that. Neither should you say verse 7. Well, let me just point out in case we have some -- well, let me just point this out in the message.
In verse 6, the words from above -- down -- the words from above are not in the Greek. They are written in italics which means they are not in the Greek. "Say not in thine heart the one who shall ascend into heaven is Christ -- is become Christ." These words from above, they are not there, and the Greek word translated to bring down has in my abbreviated lexicon at least four other meanings which can be translated, has become Christ or is Christ or has turned into Christ or is become God.
Verse 7. "For who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring Christ up again from the dead." So Paul says look, brethren, stop worrying about invading heaven, OK? And also stop talking about the one who is going down to hell. So we hear more about going to heaven, but we do hear some scattering of words about getting into hell in verse Peter chapter 3. I am not going to go into this in detail today, but in verse Peter chapter 3, verse 18 and verse -- verses 18 and 19, we have two Scriptures which are widely quoted to support the teaching that after Jesus was raised from the dead, that he went down to hell to preach to the prisoners down in hell. I want to suggest you that even the King James Bible says no such thing. It is just a figment of somebody's imagination, and it does not say that at all. Let me read it to you.
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit, by which spirit also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." So some carnal mind says, well, I am going to put two and two together and that must mean that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison after he was raised from the dead. So what is Paul saying? Well, let me finish my thought. But that is not what it is saying. What it is saying is that Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison. We are the spirits in prison, brethren. We are spirits that cannot get out these bodies without killing the bodies. We are trapped in the earth. We cannot get back up to heaven unless Christ comes down and joins himself to us and takes us back up, brethren. There is no way we are getting into heaven unless he marries us and we go back on his passport. There is no way you are getting in without him.
So what Paul is saying is stop looking at heaven and hell and is that not all [?you hear?here?]. Where are you going when you die? Are you going to heaven? Are you going to make heaven your home? Is heaven your home when you die? Paul says stop this nonsense already. Let me get back to Romans. And stop this preoccupation which is bordering on idolatry for heaven and hell and get it into your head that Christ is in the here and now.
Verse 8. "But what saith the word of God? The word is nigh unto thee. Christ is nigh unto thee," even in your mouth. He is in your heart. That is the word of faith. Christ is in your heart. Why are you looking for him out there, and why are you looking for him down there? He is inside of you, and he is inside of your brother, and he is inside of men, and he is in the here and now. He is not in the tomorrow, and he is not in the yesterday. Do not make a God a God of yesterday or a God of tomorrow. He is a God of right now. He is in what you are thinking now. He is in what you are feeling now. He is in what you are saying now. He is in what you are doing now. He is in your immediate crisis. He is in your immediate problem. He is in your immediate emotions. It is not after you die, brethren. It is not a question of heaven or hell after you die. Christ is here preaching to the spirits in prison now, and if you are reading this message, he is preaching to you now. And you are a spirit in prison now, and he wants to get you out of your prison now. So come out of this fantasy of denial which says judgment is not now. Judgment is now. Judgment is in your flesh. Judgment is today. Today is the day of salvation. Today.
I just want to go over that again. Paul is saying do not say in your heart that the way to recognize the man who has touched Christ is that he shall ascend into heaven. No man is going back up to heaven. Neither should you say that the resurrected Christ shall descend into hell. Neither say that the sign of the resurrected Christ is that he is going down into hell because the people that preach out of verse Peter 3:18 say the sign, the first thing Jesus did when he was raised from the dead, was that he went down to hell. That is not true. What is the first thing that Jesus does when he is raised from the dead? Anybody? Rita? What is the first thing he does when he is raised from the dead?
The first thing that Christ did?
When he begins to be raised from the dead, what is the first thing he does?
[INAUDIBLE]
He judges sin. He judges sin. And when he begins to be raised from the dead in your heart, guess whose sin he is judging first.
[INAUDIBLE]
Yours. He judges sin. You phonies that do not want your sins judged saying he is going down and judging those poor guys in real prison. You Pharisee, he is after you more than he is after them. They are on their knees crying out to Jesus day and night, the ones that are behind physical bars. It is you Pharisees that he is after. Jesus.
Verse 8. The word of God says, "The word" -- and Jesus is the word. I hope you know that. Jesus is the word. "He is nigh unto thee. He is near unto you. He is not in heaven nor is he in hell. He is inside of you, Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is in your mouth. He is in what you are saying. He is in your heart. He is in what you are feeling. He is in what you are believing." That is the word of faith which we preach.
Verse 9. "That if you shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." It has nothing to do with heaven or hell. It has nothing to do with it. "If thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus." Now, brethren, along with what I had to say to you about believing in verse 4, this is not a verbal confession. Brethren, the devils believe in Jesus, and they tremble, and they are devils. Anybody could say Jesus Christ is Lord. What the Scripture -- what Paul is saying -- what the Scripture is saying when you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth. When his life -- when -- OK. You have to take this backwards. Just a minute. Let me start with the second phrase. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." Brethren, if you truly believe in your heart that the Lord Jesus is raised from the dead, and I want to tell you, there is only one way that you can truly believe in your heart that he is raised from the dead. And that is when he is in your heart. When Christ is in your heart, you are going to believe that he was raised from the dead. When he is saving you from your sins. When he is getting you out of trouble every time you mess up. When you see your life which was completely turned over to destruction getting better and better. When you believe that he was raised from the dead, not on Calvary, but in your heart. When you believe it and when you talk about his resurrection from the dead out of your own personal experience. When you confess it with your mouth, you shall eventually be saved.
And the Greek word which means -- which is translated salvation means to be made whole, to be completed. What Paul is saying is that when Christ is living inside of you, when he has contacted your spirit, and he is now growing inside of you, and he is giving you an experience, not an intellectual knowledge from this book, but an experience that is so undeniable that you are confessing with your mouth that he is really raised from the dead in you. In due season, he will complete you. He will fill up all the holes in your life. He will fill up all the lacks in your soul. He will give you everything that you are missing, which lack is causing you torment and pain. He will give you all the knowledge that you are missing to make wise decisions. He will give you all the understanding that you need so that you can understand his word and be obedient unto him. He will give you everything that you need so that you can walk in righteousness. So that destruction can be wiped out of your life and that you can begin to live a positive life.
Brethren, when the life -- when the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ is growing inside of you in such a measure that you can talk about it, you should know that he is already in the process of filling up all the spiritual holes in your life, and he is going to complete you and make you whole. It has nothing to do with an intellectual, verbal saying. The Lord Jesus Christ lives. You know, it says in the book of Acts that the apostles went out witnessing unto the resurrection of Christ. Brethren, I am all for forgiving testimonies. Testimonies of people's victory in Christ bless me, but that is not what the Scripture is talking about. The apostles did not go out verbally saying hear ye, hear ye, I have seen Jesus Christ who was crucified. The apostles went out doing miracles, exhibiting the same power that the Lord Jesus Christ exhibited as a proof that the resurrected Christ was living no longer in the flesh of the man Jesus of Nazareth, but that he was in their flesh doing the same things that he had done when he was in the flesh of the man Jesus of Nazareth. That is how they testified to his resurrection, brethren. They testified to his resurrection in them. Jesus.
You see, wicked men killed his body, and the Father raised him from the dead and converted him into a form that made him capable of living in other people's flesh. Had they only known, they would have never crucified the Lord of glory. Now that Jesus is converted into this form whereby he can live in other men's flesh, he is about to start popping up in millions of people's flesh. Billions and trillions of people doing the same thing and even greater than Jesus of Nazareth did.
Verse 10. "For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness." I mentioned that a little earlier. You have to believe into righteousness the spirit which is in your heart reaches out, and when she touches Christ she is joined to him. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. So when the spirit of man, which is currently trapped in your carnal mind, excuse me, reaches out and touches Christ, you believe, and you continue to believe until it results in the death of your carnal mind because your spirit is so reaching out for Christ, that she abandons her union with Satan and the carnal mind, and he will fall away and as she joins with Christ, the fires of Christ will burn Satan and the carnal mind until the human spirit -- until your spirit is completely free of that bondage. And that is how you believe unto righteousness. You believe and you believe and if you do not faint, the day will come that your belief will result in a spiritual liberation which will result in the beginning of the formation of righteousness in your heart. And whereas you had a heart which was stony and hard and desperately wicked and filled with sin, you now have the beginnings of a new heart or a new man which is made or formed in the righteous image of Christ.
So you believe and you believe and you believe unto righteousness until righteousness begins to appear in you. If you are still in sin. If you have tried to stop in certain areas and you cannot, just keep on trying, and you keep on praying, and you keep on doing until one day, in that problem area, righteousness will spring up in you and swallow up your sin. But if you are deceiving yourself, you are just deceiving yourself. You have got to be truly trying and crying out to God. "For with the heart, man believe unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation." Brethren, your mouth -- the confession of your mouth. That phrase is not just what you say. The whole concept of confession is that your mouth is truly speaking what is in your heart. Paul is not speaking about someone who is lying. Who has one thought in their heart, and is saying something else. The word confession is implying that the true nature of your heart is being expressed through your mouth.
Verse 11. "For the Scriptures saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Who so ever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." And I would like to refer you back to chapter 9 of the book of Romans verse 33 where we discussed that concept of shame. "Who so ever believeth on him shall not be shamed." This is a quote from Isaiah verse 28 and I will comment on it briefly. If you would like a detailed explanation, you can get the message on Romans 9. Basically what the Scripture is saying, is that there is a spiritual shame, you see, and that spiritual shame is when the spirit of Satan is being revealed through you by means of her carnal mind. As far as God is concerned, this is a spiritual shame. This whole creation has fallen, brethren. We are all under condemnation. We are all under the wrath of God. We are a shamed people. Satan is fully expressing herself through every man born of a woman with one exception, the Lord Jesus. So when the Scripture says we shall -- and it does not matter whether he is expressing himself a little bit or a lot. If you are ashamed, you are ashamed. OK? None is righteous. No, not one.
Now, there are varying degrees of punishment. You will reap what you sow, OK? If you do terrible deeds, you will reap terrible consequences. That is true. OK, a murderer does not reap the same consequence as someone who says they are not home because they do not want to talk on the telephone to somebody, OK? But basically speaking, we are all reaping the same judgment in that every man born of a woman eventually dies. So we are all reaping that same judgment, but while we are down here in hell, there is a varying degree of hellishness in our life depending directly on that degree of hellishness which we and our ancestors have done to other people. If you can hear that, hear it. But the shame is that Satan is revealing herself through us and scripturally speaking, this is the sign that we have committed spiritual adultery. Brethren, we are spiritual adulterers, and there is no way to get away from it because we had a baby that looks like the devil. You see, there is no way we can protest that we are innocent because the baby does not look anything at all like God. We are talking about shame here.
So the whole creation is ashamed, brethren. It has been proven without a question of a doubt that we have committed adultery with the serpent because we all look like the serpent. We all have forked tongues, we all bite, and we all hurt, and we all have the nature of the serpent. We slither, and we are evasive, and we lie, and we are subtle, and we are out for ourselves, and that is why we are ashamed. But the Scripture says in verse 11 of Romans 10, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made as the heart of Christ is formed in you."
In verse 11.
Oh, verse 11, I am sorry, thank you. "For the Scripture saith whosoever believeth into his life. For he so ever believeth with such an intensity that the righteous life of Christ begins to spring forth in him, that one shall not be ashamed." What does that mean? That is the one in whom the life of Christ will appear. That is the one who will begin to look like our true Father in heaven [?in?and?] the nature or in the righteous nature of Christ. So the only way to get rid of the shame, brethren, is to erase the mark of the beast. The nature of Satan must be erased from us. This is a shame that we can be cleansed of, but there is only one way to be cleansed. It cannot be your way. It cannot be the serpent's way. It cannot be the porcupine's way. It has to be Jesus' way. Confess your sins, repent and change by the power of an indwelling, resurrected Christ. And when there is no sin left in you, you shall have been washed clean, and you shall be raised from the dead and enter into the life of the ages. You are not entering in with your filth. You are not. I do not care how many men preach it. I do not care if they preach it from the housetops. I do not care how much money they have. I do not care how good looking they are. You try to get in with your filth, and you are going to find two Cherubim with flaming swords piercing you through because there is no way you are going in.
Verse 12. "For there is no difference between the Jew and Greek for the same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him." There is no difference in nature between the Jew and the Greek. You are both fallen. Paul is saying the Jew -- now he is not just speaking about the natural Jew here. He is speaking about the beloved brethren in the church, brethren, who are going out and going around and thinking that they are better than the next guy because they are wearing a dove pin that is going to get them into heaven after they die. It has nothing to do with after you die. You are all the same. So what are you condemning your brother for? You think because you go to church on Sunday, you are OK and he is not. You think because you have a little more self-control and he does not, that you are OK and he is not. You think because you made it up off the floor and he has not yet, that you are better and he is not. Well, you are both the same. You are both ashamed. The carnal mind is still showing a face through you. You both have the illegitimate baby, and you are both in the image of your daddy, the devil. And you are both going to die if you do not get cleaned up. And if you are not made righteous here in the flesh, and you think you are going to heaven after the death of this body, you are a fool who has just bought the Brooklyn Bridge, and that is the truth.
And if you are preacher that is preaching that lie, I am here to tell you, you can go to jail for that kind of a con job. You are going to be responsible for every person you have hurt with your lie. And if you are preacher who is preaching that lie and who is trying to kill me because I am preaching the truth, you better get down on your knees and ask for mercy because God is mad at you. Not so much because you are coming against me, but because you will not enter into heaven, and you will not let anyone else enter in either. And you are locking out all the little ones for whom Christ died, and you are making his testimony void and of no effect. And you are preaching a gospel that has no power to save, and you are telling them there is salvation in it. And they are dead in their sins, and they are miserable, and they are confused, and they are filthy, and they are in pain, and you are telling them hold on; as soon as you die everything will be OK. And the Lord is about to take you down if you do not repent and change your message. You will not be preaching much longer.
Verse 12. "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. You are both filthy. For the same Lord overall is rich." He is the only good one, and he is good unto all who call upon him. All the Jews. All the Greeks. He is rich to all who call upon him. "For the same Lord overall." And I want to tell you that you can scream all that you want, but Jesus answers to any name. He responds to a pure heart that is seeking for the creator, and he does not respond to words. He responds to the cry of the heart. So please note verse 12 says, "For the same Lord overall." It does not name him, you see, "is rich unto all them that call upon him in spirit." Do you know there are people that do not know that his name is Jesus? And they are not locked out because they do not know that his name is Jesus. Neither are they locked out because their daddy taught them that is name is Brahma. Jesus is not responding to their language; he is responding to the speech of their heart. And when he finds a true heart, he teaches them his correct name, OK. Jesus responds to the heart of man. I encourage you, brethren, to examine yourselves and all of you who are responding to the letter of people's words. I encourage you to ask the Lord to equip you to begin to respond to the cry of their heart because frequently one's words are the exact opposite of the cry of one's heart.
Jesus said to the Pharisees why do you not understand my speech? He said I am speaking your language. How come you do not understand the intention behind my words? There is a difference between language and speech. Two people can speak the same language but have a different speech. There would be no communication whatsoever.
Verse 13. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Brethren, this is not speaking about a verbal communication. I know lots of people who have said Jesus help me, and nothing has happened to them. OK. To call upon someone. That Greek word is speaking about receiving that person's name. Like when a woman marries a man, she takes his name, and she is no longer called by her own name. She is called by his name and she has received everything that he is. Brother, if you are a drunk, your wife is now called that drunk's wife. This is true. If you are a respected man, your wife is called that honorable man's wife. I am telling you the truth. Whatever you are, your mark is on your wife and your children. Is that not sister so-and-so? She had a black eye last week. That is the wife of the wife beater. So everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, you see, everyone who marries Christ shall be saved. Everyone who calls, everyone who is surnamed with the name of Christ. Everyone who receives the name or the nature of Christ shall be saved. There are two words there. Everyone who calls and the name. Call and name. The Greek word translated call means to take on his name. [?We are?] to take on one's name and the actual name is referring to the nature. Everyone who joins with Christ to the degree that you take on his reputation, that you take on his nature, you shall be saved, or you shall be completed, or your every need shall be met.
Brethren, it does not mean that you wear a dove pin, and you go out, and you cheat in business, and you hate, and you lie, and you trick, and you sacrifice other people's reputation that you should look righteous. You are not saved, neither shall you be when your body dies, and this is a great mystery. But the drug addict and the prostitute who is really trying to change by the power of Christ within them, they are going to be saved. And you who never did anything like that at all, you are going to pass out of this world system without ever revealing Christ. He who is first shall be last. Do not be deceived by the conditions of your birth. None is righteous. No, not one, and your privileged birth could be a detriment to you if you think that it means that you do not have to change, or that you are in a condition presently which will allow you to ascend into heaven at the death of your body.
Verse 14. "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher?" Brethren, you cannot change your name to his name if you do not believe in him, and you cannot believe into him -- your spirit cannot vibrate out from you and join with him, because that is what believing means, if you have not heard about him. And you cannot hear about him without a preacher. Is that not interesting because what about this Bible? Faith cometh by hearing. It is not enough to sit home alone in a corner and read the Bible. You need to hear this word preached by a man in whom Christ is speaking out of, you see. This book is fine, but it is a substitute. You need the real thing. You need the logos. You need the very word of God. You need the reality of his spiritual life because his words are spirit, and his words are truth, and when they fall upon your heart, they impregnate you with his life. You need the living word. So do not withhold yourself from the brethren or from fellowshipping, brethren, because your pride is going to kill you. There is no salvation in an intellectual knowledge of this word.
Verse 15. "And how shall they preach except that they be sent?" So, brethren, it is not just any preacher that can impregnate you with Christ either. You need a sent one. And the name, what is the title to the sent ones?
Prophet?
No, but it is close. It is --
[?Apostles?]?
Yes, very good. Apostles, yes, apostles. Mickey Mouse preaching this word will not impregnate you with Christ. Someone with an intellectual knowledge of this word will not impregnate you with Christ. Christ preaching this word or confessing this word with the mouth or through the mouth of a man may impregnate you with Christ. You have to hear it preached from a sent one. "And how shall they preach except they be sent?" As it is written. "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." What a strange thing to say, "How beautiful are the feet of them." Brethren, we do have an exhibit. We do have an exhibit of what a spiritual man looks like, and his head is at the center of your heart, and he is not from the floor that you are standing on to the top of your head, but he goes from his heart where his head is, and his feet are this flesh body. This external body is the feet of your spiritual man, and this whole world system is the earth that he is walking in. So we see the Scripture saying, "How beautiful are the feet," or are the external persons, or the flesh of the ones who are preaching the gospel of peace.
So you see you are not beautiful because of what you look like. You are not beautiful because of the way you wear your hair. You are not beautiful because of your clothes. You are not beautiful because of your make-up. You are not beautiful because of you have hair on your head or you are bald. You are beautiful when you preach the gospel of peace. And what is the gospel of peace? We have been calling it the gospel of perfection here. Brethren, the Scripture says peace, peace, but there is no peace anywhere. There is only one peace, and that peace comes when Jesus Christ destroys every one of your enemies, even the last enemy which is death. This war will not cease nor will there be quiet in your life until the enemy is completely destroyed. The peace of God comes in the complete subjection of your carnal mind to Christ. So beautiful are those who preach the good news of the warfare against your carnal mind.
Now, brethren, we have done some talking here about a reverse inference. If those who preach the warfare against the carnal mind are beautiful, those who say that there is no such warfare, in God's eyes, must therefore be carnal or ugly. There is a spiritual beauty, and there is a spiritual ugliness. God is not pleased with the preachers who are preaching that you shall enter into life either through the death of your flesh or by what you think. You shall enter into life through the warfare which results in the destruction of your carnal mind and no other way. And these men who preach this gospel are beautiful in God's eyes and none other. There is no beauty of this world that would make you desirable to God. There is no work that you can do which will make you beautiful or valuable to God. If you want to be valuable to God, -- and I am equating beauty, spiritual beauty with value, OK? If you want to be valuable to God, if you want him to have a reason to keep you alive, you will be doing the works of his Son.
And I am fully convinced that in this hour -- well, everyone who has eyes knows that everyone that is sick is not getting healed. Everyone that has an addiction is not getting delivered in this hour. The people who are receiving the miracles from Christ are those people who are being raised up to preach his word to go out and save others. Those are the ones he is fighting for in this hour. Those are the ones whose lives he is saving. He is saving you to send you back for the rest of humanity. It is not because you are a cute little baby that he is saving you and he is not saving someone else. He has not picked you because of the way you wear your hair or because of your size or for any -- because you are fat or skinny or for any other reason. He is picking the people that he has made a judgment are trainable to save this also, and in his eyes you are beautiful because you are doing his will. So the ones who do the will of the Father, they are the ones who are beautiful. OK.
"How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things?" And the glad tidings are good news, and the good thing is the promise of salvation here in the flesh. Dominion over sin. Dominion over sin. The promise, brethren, it is not heaven. It is not heaven. It is dominion over sin in this life here and now. That is the good news. Victory today. That is the good news, and if you are preaching the truth, you are very beautiful and very beloved and very valuable to God.
Verse 16. "But they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith, 'Lord, who hath believed our report?'" You know, this verse it really used to confuse me, you know? How could you obey the gospel, because I was taught that the good news was that Jesus came, that he was crucified, that he was raised from the dead, and now I am going to dance my way into heaven. And I always used to wonder, how can you obey this gospel? What is the Lord talking about? And now I know. He is not speaking about the gospel of the cross. That which they have not obeyed is the gospel of peace which requires that we sacrifice our own carnal mind. They have not obeyed, brethren. They are not sacrificing their carnal mind. They are nourishing it. They are loving it. They are trying to preserve it. They are fantasizing about what it is going to look like when it is renewed. The carnal mind has to die. The gospel of peace requires a sacrifice: the shedding of the blood of your own carnal mind that you might inherit the promises which are in Christ, and they are not obeying. Who? Israel and the church are not obeying. For Isaiah saith, "Lord, who hath believed our report?" And they are not obeying because they do not believe it. That do not believe that your carnal mind has to die. They do not believe that God is not giving you gifts and babying you. They do not believe what this war is like. They believe the lie, but they do not believe the truth.
Verse 17. "So then we see that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Faith, which is Christ. What he is saying is that Christ is going to be formed in you when you hear the word preached, and not just the word preached, but it has to be the word coming from the logos of God. It has to be a word coming from Christ in a man. Well, what is implied here, -- it is really not clear at all, but let me give you this. Verse 16, Paul is saying but they have not obeyed the gospel, and Isaiah said no one has re- -- believed their report, and then we hear that "faith cometh by hearing." So the implication is they have not believed the report because how did they hear the report? Maybe they read it in a book, or maybe they heard it from an intellectual preacher. So the Scripture is saying they have not obeyed because they have not heard this message in a form that made it real to them. No one is going to turn around and crucify their carnal mind because of some carnal doctrine that is being preached. It has to be a word that takes up residence in your heart.
Verse 18. "But I say have they not heard? Yes, verily," or truly. "Their sound went out into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world." And then Paul goes on to say, -- I do not know what prophet that is from. "Their sound went out into all of the earth and their words unto the ends of the world." This flesh is the ends of our personal world. I did not look that word up in the Greek.
Verse 19. "But I say did Israel not know? First Moses saith I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people." So we have a mystery here going back to verse 16. Paul is saying, "They have not obeyed the gospel." Isaiah says, "They have not bel- -- obeyed the gospel because they have not believed." Then Paul says in verse 17, "Faith or Christ in the man comes by hearing the word of God." But then Paul goes on to say, -- he is saying here that Israel heard in verse 19. "Did Israel not know?" Moses told them, "I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you."
Deuteronomy 32:21 warns the Jews. Moses told them that he is going to take this covenant, this anointing, this relationship, this marriage and give it to a foolish people, and who are a foolish people? Who is the fool? Some people get very offended at that word, but it is scriptural word. Either you are wise or you are foolish. Either you are wise or you are foolish. If you have Christ, you are wise. If you do not have Christ, you are not wise. So the Scripture is saying God is going to make Israel, which is wise because of Christ, jealous by going to a nation that never knew Christ. That is what he is saying. He is going to a people that never even desired him because they never even heard of him. Which means they do not deserve him. The whole point here, brethren, is that it is by election. Salvation is not for those who deserve it. None of us deserve it. The whole world is condemned unto death, but because of the Lord's love for us, he is offering salvation to the entire world who is so reprobate and lost in their sins that they do not even know enough to ask for it. Those are the people who are getting salvation, not for anything that they have done or not for anything that they are, but because of God who has mercy.
And then now this is God speaking about Israel. He is saying -- you see, God is saying the foolish nation, they never heard of me. OK? But Israel, and this is the church too, brethren, "They heard of me. I was found of them and that -- and they sought me not. I was made manifest or I was revealed to them, I show them myself, and they asked not after me." And to Israel he saith, "All day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and a gainsaying people." So it sounds -- well, we are not going to do any more today. I will just finish up with a few comments.
It gets very complicated. I read ahead into verse 11. What Paul is saying is that God did not open Israel's eyes because he wanted to give the salvation to the rest of the world. Nevertheless on the other hand, Israel really should have known because they were in the presence of the Lord continuously. So we will read, if Lord lets us, next week in chapter 11. Paul is saying now that you heard this message, be careful, all you Gentiles, that you do not get lifted up in pride in saying, well, Israel was faithless, so God took his covenant away from them and gave it unto us. Paul is warning the Gentiles of the church today and saying do not make this mistake. Do not make this mistake that because God has indicted Israel for not hearing, and that the covenant went to you, do not think that you are better than Israel because the same God who had the power to cut off Israel has the power to cut you off too. And the same God that has the power to cut off Israel and the power to cut you off has the power to graft the Jews back right into where they were when they were left off. So you had better not be lifted up in pride because God is in control of this whole thing, and from the beginning it was his intention to save all of humanity, both the Jew and the Greek because there is no difference between either one of you. And if it was you who were in the Jew's place, you would have had the same reaction as the Jew did. Why? Because that is the way it is, and because you are all fallen, and your heart is all the same, and if it was you under the same circumstances, you would have made the same mistake. And God knew that you would have made the same mistake, and he knew that the Jews were going to make that mistake, and he let them make it so that you could be saved.
So it is like going around in circles, if you can hear what I am saying. If he is going around in circles, God knows what is in the heart of every man: nothing worthwhile. That means for anybody to be saved, anybody, it is the mercy of God, because the Lord has just proven that even the Jews who had the word of God, and they had the Spirit of God, and they had all of the experiences and the [?priests?praise?] and the law of Moses and everything that they had, they still could not find Christ in all of that without help from God. And God did not give them the help because he wanted it to go to the rest of the world. It is very confusing.
Let me say it one more way. Israel was just as fallen as the Gentiles, and despite all the help they had, the fact that Christ did not appear in them proves that fallen man in and of himself cannot produce Christ. And all you Gentiles, all the church out there today, if you think you are doing better than Israel did, you are making a big mistake, and you had better repent because if you think you are standing, you might just be about to fall. You are not doing any better than Israel did. That is what Paul is saying, and if you think that you are, you are in great danger of losing your salvation. So do not lift your head up against the one that has been cast out. He is saying the same thing as I said a few verses back.
All of you Pharisees who seem to have your life in order, do not think you are OK when you compare yourself to the guy whose life is not in order. Because everything you have is given. It is nothing that you have done of yourself. You all have the same potential for disaster, and if you think you are better than your brother, judgment is already headed for you. It could happen to any one of you. What happened to Israel, it could happen to anyone in the church. It could happen to the whole church. God let it happen so that you could receive Christ. So when it is time for them to come back in, you had better welcome them back in.
And I remind you of the parable of the two sons. The one son took all of his substance and went out and blew his whole inheritance, and he woke up one morning in the pigpen with absolutely nothing. He wore up with a revelation that anything would be better than this, even submission to the rules and regulations of the household of God, all you rebels. And when he headed back for his father's house, the son that never went out, the son that never rebelled, the son that was in church every Sunday, the son that never did anything wrong was jealous of the father's joy at the restoration of a lost son.
Paul is saying do not make that mistake because if you do, you are in great danger of winding up in the pigpen yourself. So thank God for everything you have, and if it is not in your heart, at least voice the words. Do what is right. Be glad that the one who is lost is found. And do not deny them the father's gift, lest you find yourself outside looking in. Put your eyes on yourself, and thank God for everything that you have, and get yourself cleaned up. Glory to God. Any questions on this message? Anybody?
Transcribed by Verbal Fusion 04/02/17
04/18/17 1st Edit rh