Latest / HBCWestminster / 8.13.23 Romans 11:1-10 Pastor Danny Gardner

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8.13.23 Romans 11:1-10 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

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  romans chapter 11 and if you would stand in honor of god's word as i read verses 1 to 10
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  and then we'll work through it the word of god says i ask then has god rejected his people
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  by no means for i myself am an israelite a descendant of abraham a member of the tribe
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  of benjamin god has not rejected his people whom he foreknew do you not know what the scripture
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  says of elijah how he appeals to god against israel lord they have killed your prophets they
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  have demolished your altars i alone am left and they seek my life but what is god's reply to him
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  i have kept for myself 7 000 men who have not bowed the knee to bail so too at the present
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  time there is a remnant chosen by grace but if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works
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  otherwise grace would no longer be grace what then israel failed to obtain what it was seeking
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  the elect obtained it but the rest were hardened as it is written god gave them a spirit of stupor
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  eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day and david says let
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  their table become a snare and a trap a stumbling block a retribution for them let their eyes be
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  darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever and lord god you are the creator
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  and the sustainer of all things you are above all things and before all things and in you all
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  things have their existence and so we humble ourselves before your majesty and we bless your
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  name we ask you to teach us according to your truth in jesus name amen amen thank you church
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  well we said last sunday that jesus must be lord in our hearts the way that he is lord in heaven
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  our lives our homes our families must be oriented around him the way that he on his throne is
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  central he has the central reality in heaven so also he must be the central reality in the hearts
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  and lives of every believer
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  we said last sunday that there are two roads to heaven although one is often neglected because
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  it's impossible to accomplish we can either get to heaven based on our own works our own
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  perfections or upon the works and perfections of christ and because we have all sinned universally
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  we believe that the road based on the works of christ is the only works road that works
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  that this should compel us to evangelize the lost that gospel torch we said was passed
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  down from one generation to the next we must become the gospels receding airline now i will
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  commend the 9 30 service for understanding that joke nobody laughed at 11 they didn't get it like
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  150 of them were sitting i had to explain it and then finally there were so there are always about
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  three minutes behind you guys okay so just know well done in this morning's passage we're confronted
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  with the truth that we as a race are pretty self-absorbed
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  we have trouble seeing the world through other people's eyes we have trouble seeing the world
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  through the lord's eyes we tend to be very myopic in case that's the first you've heard that word
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  myopia myopic is nearsightedness it means you can't see far away a person who is myopic has a
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  lack of imagination a lack of foresight suffers from no intellectual insight and the language of
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  mary poppins and the language of the church and the language of the church and the language of
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  mary poppins it would be a man who can't see the past the end of his nose they can only see the world
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  in themselves through their own lens they are oftentimes selfish because they can only see
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  themselves they're narcissistic they have a martyr complex their favorite phrases are like
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  woe is me or why do these things always happen to me why is my life so difficult even when their
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  lives in reality are quite simple and smooth are you old enough to remember where you were
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  on christmas eve 1968 i wasn't yet born but if you were i bet i can tell you where you were
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  on december 21st of the same year a saturn rocket which remains the most complex machine humans have
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  ever built lifted off carrying three american astronauts frank borman jim level bill anders
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  the three men were strapped into a small capsule named apollo 8
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  their mission was to fly to the moon orbit the moon several times and then return to earth and
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  skepticism surrounded apollo 8's launch experts were even predicting a 50 50 chance of survival
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  and success it's a coin toss whether they'll even live they said many thought the men would be lost
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  in lunar orbit fearing that no american because this happened around christmas they feared their
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  genuine fear was that no american would ever look at the moon nor christmas the same way again we're
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  about to ruin christmas and the moon and the moon and the moon and the moon and the moon and the moon
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  forever it's what they thought frank boorman's wife one of those astronauts even prepared his
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  eulogy before liftoff in the 1960s the united states was embroiled in a race to space against
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  the soviets there was a genuine fear in the u.s that we would not win that war president kennedy
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  set a goal of putting men on the moon before the end of the decade nasa was determined to meet that
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  deadline the astronauts that day traveled faster and further than any other humans in history
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  as the three men gazed out the window at the quickly departing earth one thought this must be
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  what god sees max anders one of them said that the earth appeared as a christmas tree ornament
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  in an endless black night and it kind of does look like that he continued and i quote it became
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  impossible to pick out countries or even continents all a person could see was the
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  earth and it occurred to me in this last week of 1968 that once you can't see the boundaries
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  of the earth you start to see something very different you see how small the planet is how
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  close all of us are together how the only thing any of us have in an otherwise empty universe is
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  each other on christmas eve 1968 the entire world stopped their celebrations and festivities and
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  gathered in mass around their television sets of the three billion people who populated the earth
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  in that year one billion of them watched the broadcast which is the first broadcast of the
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  earth which is why i bet i know where you were if you were old enough you were probably watching it
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  as their capsule orbited the moon frank borman said this is apollo 8 coming to you live from the moon
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  he handed it over to max anders who said we are now approaching lunar sunrise and for all the people
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  of the earth we have a message we would like to send to you after a brief pause he continued
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  he said in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth
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  the earth was created by god and the earth was created by god and the earth was created by the earth
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  was without form and void darkness was upon the face of the deep one by one the astronauts passed
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  a fireproof copy of genesis and read the creation account and god said let there be light and there
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  was light and god saw the light and he separated the light from the darkness god called the light
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  day and the darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day and
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  after they had completed reading verse 10 the astronauts ended the broadcast by saying and from
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  the crew of apollo 8
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  and all those who heard the message were truly incited by god and he said that in the terminus
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  mayloua says forever woe to her country that aselyas unsung Bueno
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  merry christmas and god bless all of you
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  all of you on the good earth in the midst of one of the most tumultuous decades in our nations
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  history and you remember during the 1960s there was political and social and хочуan
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  unrest at home and not only that we were embroiled in two wars not one one very hot war against
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  vietnam one cold war against the soviet union it took an astronaut sitting what is in essence
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  inside his home and put him as a host a social unobservable shell he couldn't reach them alive
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  can orbiting the moon traveling thousands of miles per hour to look back at the earth
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  and to remind us that we're actually quite small hurtling through the universe on a tiny lump of
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  clay through space and his simple retort this must be what god sees reminds us that we may not be
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  as big as we often imagine ourselves to be reminds us how nearsighted how myopic we often are and in
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  our text this morning using the prophet elijah as an example the the apostle paul slaps us with that
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  truth it becomes for us a biblical cure for myopia it says take your eyes off of yourself
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  look a little further out consider what the lord is doing the things which are so much bigger than
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  you and i
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  you
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  it reminds us that we need never give up hope even in the most dire circumstances
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  because god is at work even when we can't see it in verse one we pick up right where chapter 10
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  left off when he says i ask then has god rejected his people now by placing the word rejected
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  at the beginning of the greek sentence the author gives it emphasis and i've i've talked about this
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  a little bit greek grammar is really interesting it's a little bit different than english
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  grammar
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  in english grammar the word order matters because word order oftentimes depicts or
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  communicates
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  the the part of speech it is so we know the subject of the sentence the object the verb
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  the direct object the indirect object the adverbs and adjectives and which ones they modify all
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  based on word order in greek it's a little bit different you can parse in greek not only verbs
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  but also nouns and so you can attach prefixes or subfixes to the subject but also nouns and so you can
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  suffixes to each individual word, which is like a little flag in the ground, like a little sign
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  saying, here is a participle. Here is the subject of the sentence. Here is the verb, which means
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  because they're holding this little sign, I'm the direct object. What that means is you can put them
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  in any order you want. And what that means is authors can give certain emphases to individual
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  words based on their word order. Whatever he puts at the front is what he's trying to bring emphasis
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  to. And here in this verse, he puts the word rejected at the front. Rejected. Are the people
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  of God? Has God totally, utterly, and fully rejected his people? Do you see what he's asking?
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  Is our God a God of rejection? And the answer that he gives is what? No, by no means. It's like
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  saying never, ever.
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  There's never a time where that's true. God is not a rejecting God in terms of his own people. He
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  never rejects his own people. Now, raise your hand for a moment if you are one of the people of God.
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  Will God ever reject you? No. In fact, in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus even says,
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  I'm going to be with you always, all the way to the end of the road. I'll be with you. I'm never
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  going to leave you. I'm never going to leave you. I'm never going to leave you. I'm never going to
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  forsake you. If you are one of the people of God, the good news, church, is he will never reject you
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  either, by no means. And the argument that the Apostle Paul gives is very simple. It's
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  impossible to refute. Notice what he says, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,
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  a member of the tribe of Benjamin. If God had completely rejected his people, the Jews,
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  as a response to their rejection of him, then how could Paul, a Jewish man himself, be saved?
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  He couldn't.
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  And in case his listeners were wondering, if Paul were saved through some kind of a
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  genealogical technicality, like maybe he was actually a Gentile, he had converted to Judaism,
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  and so like the rules don't apply to him, maybe he's like Ruth or like Rahab, he even includes
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  this statement, I'm a descendant of Abraham. I am a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
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  He very clearly states here that his rejection of the Jewish people, nationally speaking,
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  was neither total nor final.
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  And here we return to a key, I think, that is helpful in interpreting these three controversial
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  chapters, chapters 9, 10, and 11. You may recall, maybe four or six weeks ago,
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  that we studied Romans chapter 9, and I never live under the delusion that anybody remembers
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  anything I say, so to recall to your attention six weeks ago is probably a stretch. But maybe
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  you recall Romans chapter 9 and verse 6, which said this, for not all who are descended from Israel
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  belong to Israel. Do you remember?
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  I opened the door on this idea that there is, within national Israel, a spiritual Israel,
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  right? That there is an Israel inside of an Israel. Just like within the church, there is a
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  church.
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  There are those who may show up every Sunday, who say that they attend the church, who may even be
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  members of the church. They filled out the form and were voted on at one point, but who nevertheless
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  are not born again. And so we would say that within the greater church, those who claim to be
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  Christians, those who attend the greater church, they are members of the church, and those who
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  there is the actual church those who are actual regenerate born again believers a church within
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  a church and paul's statement from 9 6 communicates the same idea it's crucial it is the key to
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  understanding 9 10 and 11 there is an israel within israel because the language is similar
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  there may be times when we in momentary confusion accidentally apply promises made to spiritual
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  israel which includes every single person who has been saved by grace through faith including you
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  and i we will take those promises which were meant for spiritual israel and accidentally apply them
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  to ethnic israel or we will take promises applying to ethnic ethnic israel and give them to spiritual
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  israel now here again in chapter 11 we may be prone to make the same mistake because
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  in verses 1 2 3 4 and 5 he kind of bounces back and forth between the two
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  he
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  he
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  he
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  See on top of that even makes the passage combustible because he uses two buzzwords which sometimes people don't like
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  Verse 2 He talks about his foreknowledge whom he foreknew we talked about predestination before
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  verse 7 He talks about election the elect have obtained it
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  two doctrines which are difficult sometimes for us to swallow and notice first to the God has not rejected his people whom he for new
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  God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew
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  people and to whom is the author referring when he says his people who are the people of god and
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  this is an important distinction to make is the author referring to the physical nation of israel
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  or is he referring to the believing remnant comply comprised of both jews and the gentiles
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  is it the big israel or the smaller israel and there is disagreement on the issue i'm going to
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  present my position with humility and respect to those who may hold the opposing view because i
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  believe there are solid theologians on both sides of it but with the understanding that i think the
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  author's intention here is to emphasize god's foreknowledge of this people i believe he is
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  making reference to the spiritual israel here rather than national israel god's foreknowledge
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  is more than a mere knowing before like a simple awareness of an event or a person ahead of time
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  we know that god knows the future right
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  you
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  knows all things and so by that definition he could technically foreknow everyone but i don't
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  think that's what it's making reference to if that was what it was making reference that was how it
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  was meant that all people throughout all of time are foreknown but god's foreknowledge as it is in
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  verse two is different it is a foreknowledge that distinguishes his people from everyone else
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  charles hodge has worded it this way in his commentary god knows those who are his and in
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  the midst of
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  general apostasy okay in a world gone wrong when the world is going one way in rebellion and disbelief in this general apostasy he preserves and saves those whom he foreknows as his own
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  he foreknows believers he foreknows his kids if you wanted to say in other words what does that mean in other words god knows everyone ahead of time but he only foreknows his own people
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  god knows everyone ahead of time but he only foreknows his own people
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  god knows everyone ahead of time but he only foreknows his own people
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  god had not utterly cast off the nation of israel that's true the living proof of that was the
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  apostle paul himself but paul was included in the true israel and the spiritual israel through god's
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  foreknowledge and paul's own belief in jesus christ it is true that the mass of the nation
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  was cast away but a remnant was preserved of whom paul was one and he says this is exactly what
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  happened during the time of elijah
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  you pick up in verse two he says do you not know what the scripture says of elijah how he appeals to
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  god against israel and there was a time when elijah in a moment of despair and dire straits
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  cast his gaze toward heaven and began to pray is pleading with the lord and here is his plea in
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  verse three lord they have killed your prophets they have demolished your altars i alone am left
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  and now they seek my life too
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  are you ever prone to feel that way i'm the only one doing what is right i'm the only faithful one
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  and then you come to church and you sit with 200 other faithful ones right but we tend to be very
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  myopic don't we like we forget what the lord is doing everywhere else and we begin to be very
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  self-focused and that is exactly the struggle that that elijah had imagine the myopia the woe is me
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  i'm all alone god has abandoned me why do these things keep happening to me
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  god doesn't hear my prayers god has no plan and he doesn't know what he's doing
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  how quickly we go from singing songs on sunday and raising our hands
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  to saying i doubt the plan of god altogether on monday morning or else these things wouldn't
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  keep happening to me and now the prophet elijah did indeed live during a difficult time
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  the king of israel king ahab did kill most of the true prophets of israel that's true
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  that maybe you even remember king ahab's
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  wife remember her jezebel she was a treat she chased down elijah every chance she got she was
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  a worshiper of the phoenician version of the false god baal she imported hundreds of his prophets
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  into israel so she actually went on kind of a shopping spree paying false prophets to move
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  into israel the false altars were erected
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  on every high hill the true worshipers of jehovah were hunted persecuted and executed
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  jezebel came to despise elijah because of his unwillingness to bend
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  the bible describes confrontations between himself and jezebel's prophets the most famous of which
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  the most famous confrontation took place on top of mount carmel and if you guys go to israel i'll
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  take you to this spot this is the top of mount carmel we're looking out over the jezreel valley
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  there it is the top of mount carmel we're looking out over the jezreel valley there it is the top of mount carmel
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  that is the valley where the battle of armageddon will one day take place
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  elijah and the 400 prophets of baal do you remember this confrontation and they're kind of elijah's
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  mocking them and saying hey let's call down fire from heaven you call down your god i'll call down
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  my god and let's see who answers first and 400 prophets are running around and parading around
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  and doing their chants and cutting themselves and doing all kinds of crazy stuff begging their god
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  to come down elijah all the while is just mocking their god do you remember this i don't know maybe
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  he's deaf shout louder i don't know
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  bang cymbals try that you haven't tried that yet at one point he even says maybe he's in the bathroom
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  you know i don't know relieving himself give him 15 minutes he'll show up you know and no he's just
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  mocking him the whole time and then he looks to heavens and says all right lord let it happen and
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  fire comes down and consumes the altar and everything on it during that time elijah had
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  prayed to the lord because of the king's disobedience that the lord would just shut
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  off the rain and for three years it didn't rain the kingdom was suffering and so you can imagine
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  ahab and jezebel's hatred of elijah they wanted him dead that is true what he says in verse three
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  they are seeking my life that is absolutely true king ahab had also searched out destroyed every
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  true altar of god he could find now this all took place during the divided kingdom of israel when
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  the 10 northern tribes defected they sought to establish their own throne their own king their
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  own worship the false altars were erected in various places around the northern kingdom
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  including one at a place called tell dan and again we'll go to this spot next june climb up the hill
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  there is a four-horned altar there erected this is kind of a model to give you the scale of what
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  it would have looked like it's at this exact spot where king jeroboam in first kings chapter 12
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  took counsel it says and made two calves of gold and you can imagine one of the jewish kings doing
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  this is still hard for me to believe but he he figured out if i'm going to keep the allegiance
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  of the 10 northern tribes i've got to stop him and i'm going to stop him and i'm going to stop him
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  from going down to jerusalem to worship they can't keep going down there or they're going to
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  figure out that this is illegitimate and so he began to erect altars all over the place at one
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  point he even said in first kings 12 that he made two calves of gold can you imagine this never works
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  out for the jews when they do this he said to the people you have gone up to jerusalem long enough
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  that is up to jerusalem to the temple to worship don't go up there anymore he's holding these calves
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  of gold these golden cows he holds them up and he says
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  behold your gods oh israel who brought you up out of the land of egypt can you imagine these are
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  the ones that did it and he set one of them in bethel which we'll go to next year and the other
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  one he put in dan that was that picture that was the spot where he was standing he put it on the
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  altar at dan and then this thing became a sin for the people went as far as dan to be before one
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  these false altars were erected around the nation elijah's statement leads us to believe
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  there were also true altars those faithful jews living in the northern kingdom were forced to
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  create their own places of worship out of necessity and it is these altars that are lamented
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  as he's saying they've demolished your altars he's not referring there to the one in jerusalem
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  he's saying there are faithful people around but they've been wiped out the altars are gone
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  the worshipers are gone and so dire were elijah's circumstances that he honestly believed that he
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  will worship or left in the entire land i'm it there is no one else lord it's me and you and now
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  they're seeking my life but notice god's response in verse four what was god's reply to him elijah
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  i'm doing stuff you don't even know about i got people everywhere he says i have kept for myself
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  seven thousand men who have not bowed the neathen veil
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  there are faithful worshipers all over the place stop thinking of me so small
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  god was doing what elijah couldn't see and the apostle says the same thing was happening in
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  romans 11 in verse 5 so too in like manner he's saying the same way at the present time
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  there is a remnant chosen by grace as in the days of elijah there was a number of faithful
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  jewish christians during the time of the first century which although small
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  in comparison to the whole was yet much greater than human eyes could see
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  amidst that general defection of the jewish people was a remnant this says graciously chosen by god
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  we've said that romans was probably this letter was probably written in ad 57
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  that same year according to acts 21 the apostle paul traveled across the mediterranean sea
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  he landed at caesarea where we'll go next june
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  he gathered disciples to journey into jerusalem
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  many of his friends warned him against going to jerusalem do you guys remember this
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  even had a friend named agabus
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  agabus was famous because he got down on the ground took off his own belt remember this guy he's a friend of the apostle paul's
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  and he says thus says the lord if you go to jerusalem this is what will happen to you he takes off his own belt
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  lays on the ground and wraps himself up in it
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  saying you are going to be imprisoned you are going to be bound
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  and jailed
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  you will have no friends in jerusalem when he arrived at jerusalem and he was
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  just determined to go when he arrived at jerusalem he was met by james and the elders of the jerusalem
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  church paul told those people the leaders of the church there about what god was doing among the
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  gentiles and it says this in acts 21 and verse 20 when they heard it they glorified god and they
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  said to him so now they're talking to the apostle paul you see brother how many what does it say
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  thousands there are among the gentiles and it says this in acts 21 and verse 20 when they heard it
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  there are thousands of us you're not alone now to be fair paul was arrested and imprisoned just a few
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  short verses later okay but he wasn't alone god is doing what you cannot see his actions are so
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  so much greater his kingdom is so much greater than our little spot in it he was not alone
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  there is a remnant verse 5 says chosen by grace graciously chosen
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  verse 6 but if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer
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  be grace that their election was indeed gracious but not only in the sense that it was kind it was
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  also gracious in the sense that it was sovereign and gratuitous meaning it required nothing in
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  exchange this is a doctrine of salvation by grace which the author again expresses with clarity
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  that grace and works are incompatible
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  there is no such thing as salvation by works there is no such thing as salvation by grace
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  plus works like god does his part and i do my part there's no such thing as soon as works are relied
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  upon according to verse 6 grace stops being grace grace goes out the window you ever heard of
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  miracle berries miracle berries here they are
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  discovered in the early part of the 18th century they've been around for 300 years
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  they grow primarily in west africa you can actually purchase them in pill form today on amazon i look
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  scientists have discovered they've actually taken these berries apart
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  miracle berries have a protein in them that act as an inhibitor for certain taste buds
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  so these berries are almost tasteless in themselves but they will turn on and off certain taste buds
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  in your tongue so they will completely change the taste of food so for instance if you eat a lemon
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  that lemon juice goes in there and your sour taste buds go on high alert this is sour and so your
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  brain interprets it as sour but if you eat that same lemon after taking one of those miracle berry
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  pills you chew it up it turns off sour and turns on sweet and so when you taste that same lemon now
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  it tastes like lemonade it tastes like sugar has been added it's really bizarre like i said you
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  You can buy them on Amazon.
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  I don't know what weird side effects they might have.
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  Make sure you read the label, okay?
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  But these are a weird thing.
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  They're an actual thing.
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  Miracle berries, where sour is no longer sour.
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  Sour now tastes sweet.
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  That sour taste, in effect, as soon as that berry hits your tongue,
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  that sour taste, in effect, goes out the window.
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  It is replaced by sweet.
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  Now imagine for a moment that grace and works act similarly.
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  Similarly, the moment you take the works pill,
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  grace goes out the window.
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  It's gone.
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  It shuts off.
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  Everything changes.
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  This says grace is no longer grace,
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  even if we're only relying on a little bit of our own works.
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  He says grace is gone.
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  Ephesians chapter 2 words it well, right?
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  This is why we memorize it.
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  For by grace you have been saved through faith.
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  This is not your own doing.
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  It is the gift of God, not a result of works.
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  So that no one may boast.
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  And honestly, every time I hear that verse, I want to sing.
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  Grace.
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  Grace.
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  God's grace.
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  Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
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  Grace.
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  Grace.
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  God's grace.
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  Grace that is greater than all our sin.
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  Marvelous grace of our loving Lord.
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  Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
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  Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured.
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  There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
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  Sin.
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  Sin and despair, like sea waves, cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss.
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  But grace that is greater.
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  Yes, grace untold points to the refuge, the mighty cross,
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  and then the best verse in it.
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  Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace.
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  Freely bestowed on all who believe.
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  No works, no payment, no debt.
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  Right?
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  It's freely given on all who believe.
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  All who are longing to see his face.
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  Will you this moment?
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  Will you this moment, his grace, receive?
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  And friends, before we go any further, make sure, make sure that you are leaning wholly
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  on the grace of our God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  Verse seven, what then?
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  Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.
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  The elect, now that is the elect within Israel, obtained it.
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  But the rest, those who were in Israel but leaning on their own works, were hardened.
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  The elect obtained it, but those who, all the rest, who were still leaning on salvation
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  by works were hardened as it is written.
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  Now, in verses eight to ten, he combines several Old Testament passages in order to illustrate
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  his point.
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  He kind of cherry picks, Isaiah six, Deuteronomy 29, Isaiah 29.
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  He combines them all to prove that there were times of disobedience and rejection in Israel's
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  history.
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  But none of those times were so blatant and rebellious as when they rejected the Son of
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  God.
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  When they put him to open shame and hung him on a tree.
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  Notice he says in verse eight, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see,
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  ears that would not hear down to this very day.
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  That is those Israelites who were still holding to the law.
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  David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, a retribution
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  for them.
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  Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever.
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  Now, the author is quoting all of these with the goal of calling those unsaved Jews into
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  the kingdom of Christ.
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  He was trying to call more of ethnic Israel into spiritual Israel.
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  And honestly, that's my same goal this morning.
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  To call more into the kingdom of Christ, to call more of the unregenerate church into
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  the actual church saved by the grace of God.
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  It is true, I think, that we suffer from myopia, maybe very nearsighted, can't see past the
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  end of our own noses.
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  We are unable to see anything outside of our own noses.
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  We are unable to see ourselves.
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  But take heart.
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  God is at work.
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  He is moving and saving and doing things we can't even imagine and hear in, I believe,
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  is the biblical cure for that myopia.
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  The scripture would say, take your eyes off of yourself.
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  Look a little further out.
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  Consider what the Lord is doing, things which are so much bigger than you and I.
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  And because this is true, we need never give up hope, even in the most dire circumstances,
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  because God is doing what we cannot see.
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  Lord, thank you for that.
• 32:43
  Thank you for that truth, for the life of Elijah, the prophet who so well illustrates,
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  perfectly illustrates this idea, Lord, that you're so much bigger than us and so much
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  better than us and so much stronger than us and that you have a plan which will not fail.
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  And so even when we can't see what you're doing, Lord, we will not, like Elijah, despair
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  because we know that we are not alone, that your son, Jesus Christ, will never leave nor
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  forsake us, but will be with us all the way to the end of the road.
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  And it's in his name we pray.
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  Amen.
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  Amen.