Latest / Reformed Thinking / A New Order of Priests and Levites (Isaiah 66:21) | Charles Spurgeon

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A New Order of Priests and Levites (Isaiah 66:21) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  You know, usually when we talk about making a crucial decision,
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  there is this baseline expectation of logic and
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  precision. Right.
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  You expect a rational process. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Like if you go to a medical clinic with a broken arm, the
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  doctor looks at the X-ray, points to that jagged white
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  line, and diagnosis the issue with absolute clarity.
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  Which is you know what you want. You want a safe, predictable
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  approach. Right.
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  Or, well, if you are a business owner hiring a new chief
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  financial officer, you look at their resume, you run a
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  background check, you look for a pristine record of ethical
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  behavior. Yeah, you hire the most
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  qualified candidate. You want someone totally safe.
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  Spot on. But what if Aceo looked at a
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  stack of resumes and, you know, deliberately bypass the Ivy
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  League graduates with spotless records?
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  What if they went down to the local penitentiary to hire the
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  person who previously tried to burn the company to the ground?
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  I mean, you would call that CEO insane, yeah.
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  It flies in the face of all rational thought.
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  Yet that is precisely the staggering historical and
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  spiritual paradox we are looking at today.
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  Welcome to reform thinking, by the way.
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  Glad to be here for this one. It is going to be intense.
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  It really is. Today we are taking a massive
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  deep dive into a historical message by Charles Spurgeon.
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  We are looking specifically at a text from Isaiah 66.21, right?
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  Which says, and I will also take of them for priests and for
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  Levites, sayeth the Lord. Yeah, that is the one.
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  Our mission today is to unpack how the most unlikely,
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  unqualified, and frankly, openly rebellious individuals are
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  frequently the ones handpicked by God for the highest spiritual
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  duties. It is a wild concept to wrap
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  your head. Around it is.
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  OK, let's unpack this. We have an immense amount of
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  ground to cover. We are looking at a scenario
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  where the standard diagnostic tools of human qualification are
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  completely thrown out the window and, well, we need to figure out
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  why. It is the absolute definition of
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  a paradigm shift. I mean, we are analyzing a
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  system of selection that operates on a logic completely
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  foreign to human resource departments or university
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  admissions boards. Oh, totally foreign.
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  Right when we look at human institutions, the methodology
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  for choosing leaders or representatives is universally
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  based on merit or pedigree or clean record.
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  Yeah, demonstrated aptitude. You look for the brightest
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  people. Absolutely, the individuals who
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  have shown a natural inclination toward virtue or leadership from
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  their youth, but the historical text we are analyzing today
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  forces you to confront a methodology that is the total
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  opposite. The total opposite.
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  Yeah, we are examining a divine strategy that deliberately
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  bypasses the pristine and the qualified, opting instead for
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  the broken, the hostile and the disqualified.
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  And to grasp the sheer gravity of this, you have to understand
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  the historical context surrounding the prophecy in
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  Isaiah. The setting is one of absolute
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  devastation and righteous judgement.
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  Yes, the context is incredibly brutal.
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  It really is. Spurgeon references the siege of
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  Jerusalem by Titus. And you know, we need to pause
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  here, because this is not just a polite historical footnote.
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  Right. It is horrifying.
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  Yeah, this is one of the most chaotic, horrifying events in
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  ancient history. You have the Roman army
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  completely surrounding the city, cutting off all supplies.
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  The starvation inside the walls reached unimaginable levels.
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  It did. It drove people to absolute
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  madness. But the detail that Spurgeon
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  pulls out, quoting Josephus, who was an eyewitness to this siege,
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  is chilling. What did Josephus say?
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  He noted that there wanted room for crosses and crosses for
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  bodies. Oh wow, that is incredibly dark.
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  It is pitch black. The Romans are crucifying up to
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  500 people in a single day. The hillsides around Jerusalem
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  were just forests of wood and dying men. 500 a day.
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  Yeah, up to 500. They were running out of timber
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  to build the crosses and they were running out of physical
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  ground to plant them in. You try to picture that kind of
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  horror and it almost breaks your mind.
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  It is a scene of total unmitigated destruction falling
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  upon a people. It really is.
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  What's fascinating here is the historical correlation between
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  this horrific event and a specific prior action.
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  It is staggering. Like the prior action of the
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  crowd. Yes, Spurgeon points out that
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  when the Messiah came to these people, he was not met with
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  devout faith. He was met with a profane
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  imprecation, a curse spot on. The crowd literally yelled his
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  blood be on us and on our children.
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  They invoked a curse upon their own heads, and that retribution
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  was meted out in full measure. Yeah, the Siege of Titus was the
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  historical realization of that curse.
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  Well, precisely. And the fallout from that event
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  led to the scattering of these people across all lands.
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  They were dispersed, finding no rest for the soles of their.
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  Feet living as outcasts and wonders for generations.
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  Right. This is the definition of a
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  people under severe righteous judgement.
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  They are broken, scattered, and seemingly cast off forever
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  because of their violent rejection of the truth.
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  They had sinned themselves into an outlaw status.
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  But then, right in the middle of this absolute devastation, the
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  text pivots to a massive promise of restoration.
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  It is a massive pivot. Yeah, God promises to bring them
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  back to his holy mountain, and Spurgeon points out that this
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  promise isn't restricted to just one group.
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  Right. It is much broader.
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  It applies equally to the Gentiles, the heathen nations
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  who are completely outside the Old Covenant, and to the
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  scattered Jews. In this spiritual reality, the
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  distinction vanishes entirely. There is neither Gentile nor Jew
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  in this context. Right, the promise stands good
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  to the whole human race considered in its fallen state.
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  But wait, I have to push back on this logic.
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  OK, let's hear it. Well, if the devastation was so
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  absolute, if the judgement was so thorough, how does a promise
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  of elevating these very same scattered, broken people to
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  elite status even compute? It is a massive contradiction,
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  humanly speaking. Yeah, think about a massive
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  earthquake hitting a city. The buildings are completely
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  leveled, everything is turned to dust and shattered concrete.
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  Total ruin. Right.
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  And then the Master Builder walks into the ruins and
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  promises to use that specific shattered rubble to construct a
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  flawless royal palace. It defies logic.
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  It does. Why would you use the broken
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  rubble instead of bringing in fresh, clean materials from
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  outside the disaster? Zone That tension is the core
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  focus of this entire deep dive. The builder refuses the clean
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  materials and insists on the rubble.
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  Insists on. It Yeah, God looks at the
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  standard fallen human race, a people with a natural fitness
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  for sin, and says I will take of them for priests and for
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  Levites. Wow.
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  He is not looking for volunteers from an untainted populace.
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  He is drafting from the ruins. But before we can fully grasp
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  the shock of who gets chosen, we first need to define what those
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  titles actually mean. Absolutely.
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  If God is taking people from this fallen human race to be
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  priests and Levites, we need to understand the high privilege
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  associated with those roles. We do.
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  Historically, when the first born were spared in Egypt during
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  the final plague, God claimed all the first born as his
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  peculiar property, right? Instead of taking every first
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  born across all the tribes, he took the tribe of Levi to
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  represent them. They became his exclusive
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  possession. His distinct property.
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  Yeah, and within that tribe, the House of Aaron was chosen
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  specifically to minister in the sanctuary.
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  Their entire existence was separated from the normal
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  activities of ancient life. Right, their daily routine was
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  completely different from everyone else.
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  Totally different. While the other tribes were out
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  farming the land, raising crops, or trading in the marketplace,
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  the Levites were living only for divine duties.
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  They were attempting to the Tabernacle.
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  Yeah, the priests were in the courts, slaughtering bullocks
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  and lambs, dealing with the blood and the sacrifices.
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  It was an all consuming vocation.
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  It was their entire life. But we have to bring this into
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  the present for you, the listener, because we are not
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  talking about ancient animal rituals anymore.
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  Right, we are looking at the spiritual reality.
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  Spot on. Spurgeon translates this ancient
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  role into a modern spiritual reality.
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  Being a priest and a Levite today means being set apart as
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  distinct property through three specific actions.
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  Let's break those down. First, by election, and we are
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  not talking about a political vote.
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  This means being chosen by God before time began, before you've
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  done anything good or bad. That is a massive concept on its
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  own. It is second by redemption.
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  This isn't a discount coupon. This means you were literally
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  bought and paid for out of the slave market of Sin A.
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  Literal purchase. Yeah, and 3rd by endowment, this
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  means being regenerated and equipped by the Holy Spirit.
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  You were given a new heart. So what does this all mean?
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  If someone is walking around today, possessing this new
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  heart, what is their actual job description?
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  What does a modern spiritual priest actually do?
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  Well, the modern job description for this royal priesthood breaks
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  down into 3 core duties. The first duty is drawing near.
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  Drawing near. Yeah, under the old system,
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  while the general population stood outside the temple, the
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  high priest was permitted to go inside the veil into the Most
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  Holy Place. Right, the restricted area.
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  Exactly, or rather absolutely, Today, individuals who were once
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  afar off, alienated and hostile in their minds, are brought
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  incredibly near to the mercy seat by the blood of Christ.
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  That was beautiful. They are given direct, intimate
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  access to the Creator of the universe.
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  The second duty is intercession, which is acting toward God on
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  behalf of men. Pleading for others.
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  Right. This involves bringing
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  acceptable prayer. Spurgeon mentions those who
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  cried to God for Sodom and yet more hopefully, for Jerusalem.
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  These are people who plead for the mercy of others, whose
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  prayers have actual weight in the courts of heaven.
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  The third duty is instruction, which is acting toward men on
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  behalf of God. Teaching.
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  Yeah, they act as ushers, tutors and scribes.
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  Spurgeon compares them to Ezra, who expounded the naughty points
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  of the Old Covenant. They open up the truth for
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  others to understand. And I want to make sure we
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  clarify A crucial distinction here.
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  What is that? Spurgeon states that these
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  individuals do not claim a role of absolving sinners.
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  They don't walk around handing out pardons or pretending they
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  can wipe away someone's guilt. No, absolutely not.
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  They leave that strictly to Christ, who is the chief Rabbi
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  of the chosen seed. Their role is to act as
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  instructors and intercessors. If we connect this to the bigger
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  picture, they are pointing people to the one who can
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  actually forgive while pleading with heaven for the souls of
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  those around them, right? So we understand the job
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  description now. It is highly exclusive, sacred
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  and incredibly demanding. You have to draw near to a holy
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  God, intercede for a dying world, and instruct people in
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  the deepest truths of the universe.
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  Which makes the hiring process absolutely baffling, because
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  when we look at the astonishing fact of who God actually chooses
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  to fill these roles, it contradicts every standard of
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  human logic we possess. The contrast with false priests
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  throughout history provides a sharp relief to this point.
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  History is full of individuals who assumed religious roles
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  through human selection or natural inclination, but who
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  were entirely devoid of divine appointment.
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  Yeah, people who just appointed themselves.
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  Think about the sons of Korra in the days of Aaron.
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  These were men of the tribe of Levi who gathered together and
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  said, you take too much upon you.
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  Right, they challenge the appointed leaders.
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  They looked at Aaron and Moses and rebelled against God's
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  appointed leadership, assuming they could just step into the
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  priesthood based on their own ambition and.
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  What happened to them? The earth literally opened her
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  mouth and swallowed them up. Just a terrifying outcome, yeah.
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  Or consider the priests of Baal. Standing by their massive altar.
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  They vastly outnumbered the opposition.
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  They were the established religious class of their day.
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  But they were completely routed by Elias the non conformist.
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  They were, and for the listener who might not be familiar with
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  that title, Elias is the Greek form of Elijah.
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  Right, the prophet Elijah. Spurgeon calls him a non
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  conformist because Elijah stood completely alone against the
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  state sponsored religion of his day on Mount Carmel.
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  Yeah, it was just him against hundreds of them.
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  The priests of Baal had the numbers, they had the political
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  backing, but God had 0 regard for their sacrifice.
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  You also have the man in the days of Christ.
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  These were men instructed in the law, trained from childhood in
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  the. Scriptures.
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  The religious elite. Yeah, they looked the part, they
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  sounded the part. They are all the credentials.
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  And yet these were the very men who conspired to put Christ to
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  death. It is a stunning reversal.
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  It is when given the choice by the Roman governor, they looked
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  at the Son of God and chose Barabbas, a known murderer and
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  insurrectionist, instead. Human selection means absolutely
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  nothing here, Nothing at all. A parent bringing a child up in
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  the system, or someone having a natural band or talent for
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  public speaking or religious administration has zero bearing
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  on this calling. The quote from Isaiah is
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  explicitly I will take of them. God's selection process is
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  entirely his own. Right.
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  And when you look at the roster of unlikeliest candidate
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  Spurgeon provides, it is mind blowing.
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  It really is. God deliberately chooses those
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  of the natural fitness for sin and a suitability to go astray
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  and turns them into captains of the Lord's hosts.
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  Let us examine some of the historical examples provided in
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  the source text. They are undeniable proof of
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  this divine strategy. OK, let's hear them.
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  Let us examine John Newton. Here was Dan, who was once a
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  blasphemer and injurious. He was deeply involved in the
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  transatlantic slave trade, a profession built on human
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  suffering and extreme cruelty. A.
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  Horrible way to live. Truly, he was a man whose mouth
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  was filled with cursing, living a life of utter moral
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  degradation. Yet God took him, broke his hard
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  heart, and made him an earnest preacher and a sweet poet.
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  The very man who penned the words to Amazing Grace.
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  Yes, precisely. Then you have John Bunion.
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  Spurgeon describes him playing Tip Cat on the village green on
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  the Sabbath, full of a drunkard's vices.
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  Now Tip Cat was a rowdy pub style street game involving
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  hitting a small piece of wood with a stick.
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  Right. The fact that he was playing
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  this on the Sabbath mixed with foul mouthed profanity shows
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  where his priorities were. Oh, absolutely.
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  By all societal standards of the 17th century, he was a lost
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  cause, a menace to his community.
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  Yet he was chosen, subdued, and became the author of The
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  Pilgrims Progress, a matchless allegory that has guided
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  countless readers. And it is not just overtly
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  profane either. Look at Martin Luther.
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  He was a completely different case.
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  He was. He wasn't a drunkard on the
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  village green. He was diligent in ceremony.
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  Spurgeon calls him a highly superstitious Romanist.
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  He was very intense about his religion.
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  Yeah, he was trying to earn his way to heaven through intense
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  legalism, beating his own body, starving himself, trapped in a
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  religious system of his own making, terrified of God's
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  wrath. He was the epitome of
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  self-righteous striving. Right.
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  But God took him and turned him into a bold proclaimer of free
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  grace, or Augustine, a youth of corrupt propensities.
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  He lived a very wildlife early on.
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  He brought endless grief to his mother Monica, with his vicious
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  lifestyle, his mistresses and his philosophical wandering into
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  cults. And God raised him up to be one
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  of the greatest theologians of the early church.
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  And of course, the Apostle Paul Spurgeon describes him like a
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  huge wild beast, making havoc of the church, breathing out
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  threatenings and slaughter. It was actively hunting down
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  Christians to kill them. Suddenly he is struck down on
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  the road to Damascus and ordained to bear the name of
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  Christ to the Gentiles. Here's what gets really
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  interesting if you think about it like a master artist.
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  OK, an artist. Usually, an artist wants the
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  most pristine, expensive, flawless canvas available.
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  If they're going to paint a masterpiece, they want a perfect
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  surface. That makes total sense.
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  But this master artist deliberately walks past all the
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  clean canvases in the supply shop.
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  He goes to the trash pile Outback, pulls that cracked, mud
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  stained, ruined canvases and uses them to display his
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  greatest masterpieces. That analogy perfectly captures
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  the mechanics of grace described in the text.
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  God does not find a natural fitness in these individuals.
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  He supplies the fitness. He brings it all to the table.
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  Yes, he takes the unlikeliest materials so that the resulting
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  masterpiece can only be attributed to the skill of the
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  artist, not the quality of the canvas.
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  Right. If the canvas is flawless, the
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  viewer might praise the canvas maker.
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  But if the canvas is literally garbage, the viewer can only
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  stand in awe of the painter. Which brings us to the most
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  vital part of this discussion, the.
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  Why behind all of this? Yes.
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  Why would the Almighty operate this way if it defies all human
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  logic? What is the divine logic behind
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  it? Why bypass the naturally gifted,
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  the clean and the educated to elevate the worst offenders to
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  the highest ranks? Spurgeon outlined specific
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  calculated reasons behind this divine strategy.
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  He does. And the first logic we see is
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  the display of infinite mercy. The Apostle Paul himself
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  recognized this. He wrote about his own life,
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  marveling that the unsearchable riches of Christ were given to
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  him, a man he called the chief of sinners.
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  It illustrates the high prerogative of sovereign grace,
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  right. And I love the brilliant analogy
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  Spurgeon uses here to explain this point.
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  He talks about the prodigal son. Oh.
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  That is a great one. Imagine that wild son coming
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  back home after wasting his entire inheritance on riotous
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  living, hanging out with prostitutes, ruining the family
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  name. He hits absolute rock bottom.
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  Yeah, the human father runs to him, embraces him, and
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  completely forgives him. The forgiveness is absolute.
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  The robe is put on his back, the wing on his finger.
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  Right, he was fully restored to the family.
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  But if that same father needed someone to go to the market the
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  next day with a large bag of money to conduct business, he
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  wouldn't trust the newly returned prodigal.
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  No same person would. Well, I mean right.
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  Human nature dictates that he would send the older, reliable
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  son. He would say I love you, you are
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  forgiven. But I'm not handing you the
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  treasury just yet. You need to earn my trust back.
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  That is just common sense. Yeah, yet God operates entirely
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  differently. He takes his highest treasure,
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  the Gospel itself, and entrusts it to the returning rebel.
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  That is stunning. You have the impure teaching
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  chastity. You have the Sabbath breaker
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  hallowing the Lord's day. God gives the Commission to the
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  very people who used to curse his name.
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  But doesn't the strategy seem incredibly risky?
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  Why give the keys to the Kingdom to former traders?
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  This raises an important question.
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  How does God show his supreme strength?
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  Oh, that is a good question. A human monarch might show
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  strength by crushing A rebellion, lining the roads with
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  the executed bodies of his enemies.
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  God shows his might by taming his enemy.
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  But changing them? Right Spurgeon uses the analogy
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  of a lion tamer. A skilled tamer delights in
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  showing the audience how the wild beast obeys every single
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  word without the use of a whip or an angry look.
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  The tamer strength is displayed in the willing submission of a
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  creature that could otherwise tear him apart.
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  In the spiritual realm, God subdues the heart of stone,
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  replacing it with a heart of flesh.
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  Turning an enemy into a friend. Yes, he turns a vehement,
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  breathing out, slaughter enemy like Paul into a diligent,
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  willing friend. He accomplishes this without
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  physical coercion, demonstrating an internal regenerative might
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  that alters the very desires of the individual.
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  That is such a vivid picture. The beast isn't locked in a
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  cage. The beast is walking beside the
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  tamer, completely docile and attentive, wanting to please the
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  master. Beautifully said.
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  But if someone hears this, they might object and say, well, if
• 19:30
  God is going to pick people, shouldn't the good moral
• 19:33
  citizens have a right to be picked first?
• 19:36
  That is a very common objection. Right.
• 19:38
  That brings us to another reason Spurgeon highlights the display
• 19:41
  of absolute sovereignty. God does this to prove that He
• 19:45
  rules the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth
• 19:48
  without needing anyone's permission or adhering to human
• 19:51
  standards of fairness. We have to wrap our minds around
• 19:54
  this concept, yeah. Spurgeon states that no man has
• 19:57
  any right to mercy. None. 0 rights.
• 20:00
  All human rights in this specific context are merged into
• 20:03
  the right to be condemned. We have send ourselves into
• 20:06
  outlaw status. The only thing we have earned is
• 20:08
  judgement right. So when God says I will have
• 20:10
  mercy, on whom I will have mercy?
• 20:12
  He is operating from a position of absolute, uncontested
• 20:15
  authority. If mercy were owed to anyone
• 20:18
  based on their good behavior, it would no longer be mercy.
• 20:21
  It would be a debt. It would be a paycheck.
• 20:23
  Right. You earned it.
• 20:24
  Yeah. And that defeats the whole
• 20:25
  concept. By lifting the poor from the
• 20:27
  dunghill, by taking the most degraded individuals who've gone
• 20:30
  the farthest away and sending them among Princess, God forces
• 20:35
  the universe to acknowledge His sovereign will.
• 20:38
  He proves he is the ruler. Yes, He bypasses those who think
• 20:42
  they have a claim to His favor based on their own
• 20:45
  righteousness, proving that salvation and calling are
• 20:48
  entirely dependent on His good pleasure.
• 20:51
  He doesn't need safe bets. He doesn't need to check
• 20:53
  references. OK, but let's look at the
• 20:55
  practical result of this. Yeah, if you hire a bunch of
• 20:58
  former rebels to be your instructors and intercessors,
• 21:01
  what kind of ministry do they actually produce?
• 21:03
  That was a great angle. Spurgeon argues that this
• 21:06
  strategy is designed to secure a loving, warm hearted ministry,
• 21:09
  and this is where he gets incredibly practical and
• 21:12
  frankly, a bit critical of the religious establishment of his
• 21:15
  day. He was not afraid to critique
• 21:17
  his peers. No, he was not.
• 21:20
  He contrasts this warm hearted ministry with what he calls
• 21:23
  superficial preachers. These are people who only
• 21:26
  produce dainty essays or flowery sermons.
• 21:29
  Dainty Essays. Yeah, they have a very polite
• 21:32
  academic religion. They string together nice
• 21:34
  vocabulary words, but they never talk about the extreme depravity
• 21:38
  of the human heart or the intense conflicts of the soul.
• 21:41
  Why is that? Because they haven't experienced
• 21:43
  it. They got their religion easily.
• 21:44
  They haven't known deep outward sin or the crushing weight of
• 21:47
  the law on their conscience. Right, it is all theoretical to
• 21:50
  them. But the man who has, as Bergin
• 21:53
  says, done business in deep waters knows the absolute
• 21:56
  torture of his own crimes. He knows what it feels like to
• 22:00
  be drowning in guilt and despair, terrified of waking up
• 22:03
  in hell. Because they have experienced
• 22:05
  the depths of that despair, they also know the staggering relief
• 22:09
  of pardon. They have a testimony born from
• 22:11
  in ROT experience. They lived it.
• 22:14
  They understand the mechanics of grace because they have been the
• 22:16
  direct beneficiaries of it. To illustrate this, Spurgeon
• 22:19
  uses the imagery of the brazen serpent in the wilderness.
• 22:22
  Let's unpack that for the listener.
• 22:24
  Sure, this is an Old Testament narrative from the Book of
• 22:26
  Numbers. The Israelites were wandering in
• 22:29
  the desert and were attacked by highly venomous snakes as a
• 22:32
  judgement for their complaining. People were dying in agony.
• 22:37
  God instructed Moses to craft a bronze serpent and put it on a
• 22:40
  pole, promising that anyone who looked at it would live.
• 22:44
  Now think about the psychological difference between
• 22:46
  two people looking at that bronze snake.
• 22:48
  OK, two different perspectives. Right.
• 22:50
  One person is just a curious bystander.
• 22:53
  They were never bitten, they just think it's an interesting
• 22:55
  piece of metal work. But the other person has felt
• 22:57
  the venom coursing through their veins.
• 22:59
  They know they are dying. Yes, they have felt the cold
• 23:03
  grip of death approaching the paralysis setting in.
• 23:06
  When that bitten person looks at the cure and feels the life
• 23:10
  rushing back into their body, they look at it with a
• 23:13
  completely different intensity. Oh, absolutely.
• 23:16
  When these rescued individuals stand up to preach, they preach
• 23:20
  with fiery intensity because they remember the venom.
• 23:23
  They speak of grace because they required massive amounts of
• 23:27
  grace. They love much because they have
• 23:29
  had much forgiven. You cannot get a dainty essay
• 23:33
  out of a man who is rescued from the gallows.
• 23:36
  You really can't. They're going to shout about the
• 23:38
  pardon because they literally felt the rope tightening around
• 23:41
  their neck. Precisely.
• 23:43
  They aren't discussing theological theories, they're
• 23:45
  discussing their own survival. And that emotional intensity
• 23:49
  leads into another massive tactical advantage.
• 23:52
  What is that? How does this strategy affect
• 23:54
  the broader spiritual war? Spurgeon argues that God does
• 23:58
  this to openly triumph over Satan.
• 24:00
  I absolutely relish this point. It is a brilliant point.
• 24:03
  Think about corporate espionage. There is nothing that makes a
• 24:06
  rival CEO gnash his teeth more than losing his best, highest
• 24:10
  performing executives to the competition.
• 24:12
  Oh, they hate it. Imagine the adversary spending
• 24:15
  years cultivating a person, filling them with vice, training
• 24:20
  them in sophisticated arguments against the truth, getting them
• 24:23
  into pristine condition to do maximum mischief in the world.
• 24:26
  A fully trained operative, yeah. And then the officer of Divine
• 24:30
  Grace steps in, arrests them, and changes their heart
• 24:33
  entirely. The very weapon forged against
• 24:36
  Heaven is now turned back on the gates of Hell.
• 24:39
  The tactical brilliance here is unmatched.
• 24:42
  These former rebels know the insurance and outs of the
• 24:44
  enemy's castle. They know all the secrets.
• 24:46
  Yes, they understand the devices, the psychological traps
• 24:49
  and the tactics of the adversary because they used to employ
• 24:52
  them. They know where the walls are
• 24:54
  went and how the enemy operates in the dark right.
• 24:56
  A polite, sheltered religious person might not know how to
• 25:00
  speak to a hardened criminal or a cynical intellectual, but a
• 25:04
  former criminal or a former cynic knows exactly, well, knows
• 25:08
  precisely how to dismantle those arguments.
• 25:10
  Because they used to make those same arguments.
• 25:12
  Right as Spurgeon puts it, all heaven rings with rapture when a
• 25:16
  great Sinner is saved, and all hell howls with a dismay when an
• 25:19
  arch rebel bows down to kiss the feet of Christ.
• 25:22
  God secures a victory that publicly humiliates the forces
• 25:26
  of darkness by poaching their most elite soldiers and drafting
• 25:30
  them into his own priesthood. He doesn't just defeat the
• 25:33
  enemy, he uses the enemy's own troops to do it.
• 25:36
  So understanding this profound, I mean this massive divine logic
• 25:41
  brings us directly to the practical application.
• 25:44
  We see who God chooses, and we see the intricate, multilayered
• 25:47
  reasons behind His choices. Yes, the why is established.
• 25:50
  If God behaves this way, how should you, the listener who
• 25:54
  identifies with this radical grace, actually live tomorrow
• 25:57
  morning? What does this mean for your
• 25:58
  Tuesday when you walk into your office or interact with your
• 26:00
  family? It changes everything.
• 26:02
  It does. Spurgeon doesn't just leave us
• 26:04
  with abstract theology. He outlines specific stringent
• 26:07
  demand placed upon the chosen. If you have been drafted from
• 26:11
  the rubble, you have a responsibility.
• 26:13
  The first demand is a severe command to watch.
• 26:15
  This is a crucial warning. If you have been pulled from the
• 26:17
  mire and said among the Princess, you must never forget
• 26:20
  your natural state. You cannot forget where you came
• 26:23
  from, no. Spurgeon warns that if grace
• 26:25
  were to depart, the evil spirit would return, bringing seven
• 26:29
  others worse than the first, and the last state would be worse
• 26:32
  than the first. He is pulling from the words of
• 26:35
  Christ here. Right, it is a direct reference.
• 26:37
  The natural gravitational pull of the human heart is toward
• 26:40
  rebellion. It is not naturally inclined
• 26:43
  toward holiness. The only appropriate response to
• 26:46
  being given this high privilege is constant vigilance.
• 26:50
  The command is repeated for maximum stress.
• 26:52
  Watch, watch, watch. What does this mean for the
• 26:55
  modern listener? It means that even if you have
• 26:58
  experienced massive growth, even if you are now a respected
• 27:01
  leader in your community, you cannot put it on cruise control.
• 27:05
  You can't just coast, no. You may be a holy vessel set
• 27:08
  apart for the altar, bringing prayers and praises, but you
• 27:11
  would revert to your former state instantly if grace did not
• 27:15
  prevent it. You are kept by divine strength,
• 27:18
  not your own willpower. That vigilance leads directly to
• 27:22
  the second demand, a pockter of humility.
• 27:25
  You have to remember where your promotion came from.
• 27:27
  It is not a self-made success story.
• 27:29
  Right. It doesn't come from the East or
• 27:31
  the West. It is a sheer gift.
• 27:33
  You are a blasphemer, A careless, godless person, and
• 27:37
  now you are raised to wait in the courts of heaven.
• 27:39
  That should humble anyone. It should.
• 27:42
  You must realize you are not worthy to lift your eyes to the
• 27:46
  place where His honor dwells. You are not worthy to have the
• 27:49
  Holy Spirit residing under your roof.
• 27:51
  Watching is best done in a lowly manner.
• 27:54
  Absolutely. If you were a modern
• 27:56
  professional who just got a massive promotion or achieved
• 27:58
  significant influence, and you start thinking you earned your
• 28:01
  spiritual spot through your own cleverness, you have completely
• 28:04
  lost the plot of the story. You have missed the whole point.
• 28:07
  Yeah, arrogance is the antithesis of grace.
• 28:11
  You're a recipient of charity, a beggar who was given a feast,
• 28:15
  not a self-made spiritual giant. Arrogance is entirely
• 28:18
  incompatible with the reality of this calling.
• 28:21
  If you truly grasp the magnitude of what you were saved from, it
• 28:24
  produces a specific reaction. Right, a very loud reaction.
• 28:27
  Yeah, which leads to the third demand concerning the volume of
• 28:31
  gratitude. Spurgeon argues that
• 28:33
  extraordinary love ought to be the outgrowth of being an
• 28:36
  extraordinary Sinner. It makes sense.
• 28:38
  He provides A fascinating anecdote about a man who lived
• 28:41
  across the river from him. Before his conversion, this man
• 28:45
  was known for swearing so loudly that everyone in the
• 28:48
  neighborhood could hear him. Oh wow, just a nuisance to
• 28:51
  everyone. Totally.
• 28:52
  When he was converted, his prayers actually troubled people
• 28:55
  in the church because they were so loud and disruptive.
• 28:58
  That is amazing. But Spurgeon understood the
• 29:01
  psychology perfectly. A man who has been loud for the
• 29:04
  devil cannot help being loud for Christ.
• 29:06
  He cannot just go through the motions of polite religion.
• 29:10
  He has to express his gratitude with the same volume he used to
• 29:14
  express his rebellion. I resonate so much with that
• 29:17
  story. If you were aggressively public
• 29:20
  about your rebellion, how can you be quiet and timid about
• 29:22
  your rescue? You.
• 29:23
  Can't. Spurgeon connects this to the
• 29:25
  biblical story of the woman with the alabaster box.
• 29:28
  She was a woman with a known sinful reputation in the city.
• 29:31
  A very public Sinner. Yeah, she walked into a room
• 29:35
  full of respectable religious leaders, brought her most
• 29:38
  precious possession an extraordinarily expensive jar of
• 29:41
  perfume, and broke it over the head of Jesus, washing his feet
• 29:45
  with her tears and wiping them with her hair.
• 29:47
  It was a very dramatic scene. It was.
• 29:50
  She didn't offer a polite handshake.
• 29:52
  She offered a scandalous display of devotion because she knew the
• 29:55
  magnitude of her forgiveness. What does an alabaster box level
• 29:59
  of gratitude look like in a 21st century context?
• 30:02
  It means your time, your finances, your reputation are
• 30:07
  entirely at his disposal. Everything you.
• 30:09
  Have Yeah, If you have been pulled from the absolute bottom,
• 30:12
  your daily life should be marked by that same level of
• 30:15
  wholehearted, unapologetic intensity.
• 30:18
  You cannot afford to be cold or calculating with your devotion.
• 30:21
  Finally, this calling demands unshakable confidence.
• 30:25
  This is where the theology of the text provides massive
• 30:27
  psychological security for the believer.
• 30:29
  Security is so important. Here it is.
• 30:32
  Spurgeon uses an economic analogy to drive this home.
• 30:35
  Imagine a man who owed you 10,000 lbs, which especially in
• 30:38
  the 19th century, was a staggering sum of money, a
• 30:41
  fortune. Yeah, alongside that massive
• 30:44
  debt, he owed you a trifling sum for a tiny promissory note,
• 30:48
  maybe a few pennies. OK, two very different debts.
• 30:51
  If you, as the creditor, forgave the £10,000 entirely, wiping the
• 30:57
  slate clean, the debtor would not worry for a single second
• 31:00
  about you suddenly dragging him to court over the little bill.
• 31:03
  No, they wouldn't even think about it.
• 31:05
  The major debt is cleared. The minor one is irrelevant in
• 31:09
  comparison. That analogy provides such
• 31:12
  massive relief. Think about what that means for
• 31:14
  you, the listener. It changes how you view your
• 31:17
  daily. Struggles.
• 31:18
  If God reached down and pulled you from the miry clay, if He
• 31:22
  paid the the massive, incalculable price of the blood
• 31:25
  of Christ to redeem you from your hostility and set your feet
• 31:27
  on a rock, you can trust Him for the rest of your life.
• 31:30
  Yes, He didn't go to all this expense.
• 31:32
  He didn't orchestrate this massive cosmic intervention just
• 31:36
  to fling you away at the end over some minor stumble or daily
• 31:39
  failure. That would make no sense, right?
• 31:42
  If he found you as an enemy and made you a pardon, child, he
• 31:45
  will continue his work until he has perfected it.
• 31:49
  The little that remains to be sorted out, the daily struggles
• 31:52
  with sin and doubt, should cause no ultimate terror.
• 31:55
  You can rest easy. You can rest completely in the
• 31:58
  fact that he will finish what he started.
• 32:00
  He is not a fickle employer who fires people on a whim.
• 32:04
  This entire analysis fundamentally alters how we view
• 32:08
  qualifications for spiritual work.
• 32:10
  We are forced to abandon our human metrics of respectability
• 32:14
  and merit. Throw them completely out.
• 32:16
  God's economy operates on the currency of grace, deliberately
• 32:19
  choosing the broken to shame the strong and the guilty to
• 32:23
  proclaim mercy. It is a total reversal.
• 32:25
  This ensures that the glory belongs entirely to the Creator,
• 32:28
  and it provides immense hope for anyone who feels too far gone to
• 32:31
  be useful. It destroys the idea that you
• 32:34
  have to clean yourself up before you can be drafted into service.
• 32:37
  The cleaning is part of the calling.
• 32:39
  It is a massive shift in perspective.
• 32:41
  You look at the people around you and you realize you have no
• 32:43
  idea who God is preparing to use.
• 32:45
  No idea at all. We have covered the terrifying
• 32:48
  historical context text of judgement in Jerusalem, the high
• 32:51
  and exclusive privileges of the priesthood, the baffling roster
• 32:55
  of rebels. God is chosen throughout,
• 33:03
  gratitude and confidence placed upon the chosen.
• 33:06
  It completely rewrites the script on who is qualified to
• 33:09
  work for God. And that leaves us with a final
• 33:11
  thought, drawn directly from Spurgeon's own extrapolations in
• 33:14
  the text. He prayed that God would pull
• 33:17
  leaders from the most unexpected places.
• 33:19
  Where did he pray they would come from?
• 33:20
  He prayed God would draft men from the fishermen in their
• 33:23
  boats, from the lowest ends of iniquity, from the salons of
• 33:26
  frivolity where the wealthy wastes their lives, and from the
• 33:29
  Chambers of Commerce where buyers and sellers make their
• 33:32
  cutthroat contracts. Think about your own city right
• 33:35
  now. Look at the people society
• 33:38
  currently considers the most hardened, unreachable and
• 33:41
  corrupt, the people you walk past and write off as lost
• 33:44
  causes. According to the logic of this
• 33:46
  text, you might just be looking at the very people God is about
• 33:49
  to draft to be the greatest spiritual instructors of the
• 33:52
  next generation. That is a staggering reality to
• 33:55
  walk away with. Thank you for joining us on this
• 33:57
  deep dive on reformed thinking. Think about that cracked canvas
• 34:01
  in the hands of the master artist and we will see you next
• 34:03
  time.