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God Has Not Cast Away His People — Romans 11:1–5 · Crosswalk

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Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow
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Him. You're listening to Crosswalk with Pastor
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Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio ministry
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of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities and it is our aim
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to lead you to the cross through the teaching
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of God's Word. So Romans chapter 11 starting
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in verse one which guys all stand and we'll go
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through and read it together And it says I say
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then has God cast away his people certainly not
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For I also am an Israelite of the seat of Abraham
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of the tribe of Benjamin God has not cast away
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his people whom he foreknew Or do you not know
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what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads
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with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they've
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killed your prophets and torn down your altars,
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and I alone am left and they seek my life? Verse
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four. But what does the divine response say to
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him? I have reserved for myself 7 ,000 men who
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have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so, at
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this present time there is a remnant according
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to the election of grace and if by grace then
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it's no longer of works otherwise grace is no
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longer grace if it's of works it's no longer
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grace otherwise work is no longer work what then
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israel has not obtained what it seeks but the
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elect have obtained it and the rest were blinded
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just as it is written god has given them a spirit
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of stupor Eyes that they should not see and ears
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that they should not hear to this very day And
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David says let their table become a snare and
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a trap a stumbling block and a recompense to
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them Let their eyes be darkened so that they
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do not see and bow down their backs always I
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say then how they stumble that they should fall
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certainly not But through their fall, to provoke
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them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
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Now if their fall is riches for the world and
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their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much
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more their fullness. For I speak to you Gentiles,
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and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles,
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I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may
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provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and
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save some of them. For if there being cast away
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is the reconciling of the world, what will their
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acceptance be but life from the dead? I want
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you to notice that God accepts them. Verse 15.
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For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also
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holy. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
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And if some of the branches were broken off and
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you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in
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among them and with them became a partaker of
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the root and the fatness of the olive tree, do
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not boast against the branches. But if you do
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boast, remember that you do not support the root,
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but the root supports you. You will say then,
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branches were broken off, that I might be grafted
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in. Said, because of unbelief, they were broken
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off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty,
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but fear. For if God did not spare the natural
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branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore,
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consider the goodness and severity of God on
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those who fell severity, but toward you goodness,
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if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you
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also will be cut off. And they also, if they
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do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted
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in, for God is able to graft them in again. For
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if you were cut out of the olive tree, which
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is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary
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to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much
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more will these who are natural branches be grafted
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into their own olive tree? For I do not desire,
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brethren, that you should be ignorant of this
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mystery, lest you should be wise in your own
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opinion. That blindness in part has happened
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to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
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has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.
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As it is written, the deliverer will come out
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a Zion. And he will turn away ungodliness from
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Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when
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I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel,
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they are enemies for your sake, but concerning
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the election, they are beloved for the sake of
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the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of
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God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient
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to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their
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disobedience, even so these also have now been
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disobedient that through the mercy shown you,
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They also may obtain mercy, for God has committed
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them all to disobedience, that he might have
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mercy on all. Let's stop right there, let's pray.
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Father, again we come before you with our Bibles
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open, and Lord, our hearts open too. We want
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to hear from you. We want you to be speaking
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to us. Lord, we want change lives because of
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the time that we spend together in your word.
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God, we pray that by your Holy Spirit that you
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teach us, and we just commit the study into your
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hands, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, God bless
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you. God bless you, but sit down. Sit down so
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God can bless you, I don't know. Real quick,
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turn over to Galatians chapter three. Galatians
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chapter three, it's to the right of few books.
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And in that passage, it talks about the law of
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being a schoolteacher to bring us to Christ.
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Verse 21, it says, is the law then against the
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promises of God? Certainly not. For if there
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had been a law given which could have given life,
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truly righteousness would have been by the law.
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I want you to pay attention to that verse. If
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there had been a law given which could have given
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life, truly righteousness would have been by
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the law. And the point that he's making is that
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if there had been any kind of rules and regulations
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that would have given you eternal life, God would
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have just done it that way. He didn't give the
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law to do that. That's the point that he's making.
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And the law can't do that. It can identify what
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righteousness looks like, but it can't change
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a heart. You can't change a heart by looking
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at words on a page. What has to happen is there
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has to be a work of God in somebody's heart to
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turn them around. Verse 22, it says, but the
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scripture has confined all under sin that the
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promise By faith in Jesus Christ might be given
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to those who believe but before faith came We
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were kept guard by the law kept for the faith
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which would afterward be revealed Therefore the
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law was our tutor or our school teacher to bring
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us to Christ that we might be justified by faith
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But after faith has come we are no longer under
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a tutor or a school teacher And so the law is
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a school teacher to bring me to Christ, is what
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the scripture says. It's designed to point me
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towards Jesus, and when he comes I should recognize
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him. Israel didn't learn that lesson. And so
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when I was in high school, I was probably a sophomore,
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I might have been a junior, but I think I was
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a sophomore, and I took psychology as an elective.
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And so it was Psych 1, and it was with Mr. Koffold.
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And Mr. Koffold was a great guy. He was a really
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nice guy, and he was a lousy teacher. And he
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wasn't a lousy teacher because he didn't know
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his subject matter. He was a lousy teacher because
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he couldn't control his class. I've never been
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in a wreck of a class like Mr. Cawfold's class.
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We would get in there and you had all these jokers
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who were trying to get him off the point, get
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him to tell some story so they didn't have to
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listen to what the textbook... presentation was
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doing stuff like that, always goofing around,
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always messing around, and it was nothing but
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a waste of time. I spent the whole semester in
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that stupid class and I didn't learn anything
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from Mr. Caulfold at that point. And I was going
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to school and one of my attitudes about going
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to school is I got to be here and so I might
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as well learn something. That was my attitude.
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And so I wasn't there to waste time. And a lot
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of the kids were, and so consequently, we had
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some conflicts. And again, my attitude was, if
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I'm going to be there, I need to learn the subject.
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And that just didn't happen. In fact, there were
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times when I would take over the class, not in
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the sense of I'm going to stand up and start
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teaching, but I would tell guys to shut their
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mouths. Because I just got tired of them. They're
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always goofing around. They're always messing
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around. And they're wasting my time. And so my
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attitude towards them was, shut up, or we're
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going to meet after class. And then it would
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get quiet and Mr. Koffold would try to teach
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something. But it was always a train wreck. And
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when you're talking about the Jews, they were
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under the law, but they never got the point.
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They never learned what the law was actually
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trying to teach them. And when you go through
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the Old Testament, Jesus talked about the fact
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that the Old Testament is something that pointed
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forward to him. You search the scriptures for
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in them you think you have eternal life, and
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they are they which testify of me. Jesus said
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to the Jews and they didn't realize that the
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tabernacle the sacrifices the separation laws
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cities of refuge We'll talk about that a little
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bit later not today, but the feast days all of
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those things point to Jesus and when Jesus comes
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as a fulfillment of all those things a fulfillment
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of the sacrifice a fulfillment of the day of
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Passover a fulfillment of the feast of firstfruits
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a fulfillment of these things they go nah We'll
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just keep the law, and they reject Jesus. And
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Romans 10 is all about the fact that they are
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responsible for the position that they were in.
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These guys are free moral agents, and they got
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to choose. And this is how the choice goes. It
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goes this way for the Jews, it goes this way
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for you and me. When you look at the passages...
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Like in verse 18, I say, have they not heard?
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Yes, indeed. So they heard the message. I say,
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did Israel not know? And then he gives a couple
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of passages where it lets you know that, yeah,
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they did know. And what they decided was, no,
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we don't want to go that direction. We don't
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want to do this whole thing. And when you look
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at the way that God reaches people, basically
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when we all start out, we all start out in blindness.
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We're all spiritually blind. And so the Bible
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talks about the fact that we are dead spiritually
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in Ephesians chapter two. That doesn't mean that
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your spirit is non -existent or that kind of
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thing. Dead just means separated in the Bible.
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So when you die physically, you're separated
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from your body. When you are dead spiritually,
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you're separated from God. When your spirit is
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dead, it's because it's been separated from God.
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And so that's where everybody is at before they
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become a Christian. Literally the Bible teaches
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that Satan has blinded the minds of those who
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don't believe. He's blinded people. And so we
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were blinded. And when you're talking about that
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kind of blindness, you're not going to be able
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to respond to spiritual things because it's like
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coming up and talking to a literal blind person
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about color. If they've been blind all their
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life, they've never seen color. Or you talk to
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a blind person about a tree. They've never seen
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a tree. They could feel a tree. They could do
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things like that, but they've never seen one.
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They've never seen a mountain. You can't talk
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to blind people about mountains and have them
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understand what's going on. They've never seen
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one. And if you have them walk up and touch one,
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what's that look like? That's just crazy, and
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that's where everybody starts before they come
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into a relationship with Christ. They're blinded.
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Then what happens is God comes along and he takes
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the blinders off. Jesus said nobody comes to
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me unless the Father draws them. That drawing
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is where God takes the blinders off. And all
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of a sudden now you can see clearly and you can
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make a choice as to whether or not you're going
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to follow Jesus. And so you have God judicially
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taking the blindness away and then you have to
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make a choice and that's what Romans chapter
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10 is all about. They weren't blinded. They saw
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the work of God and the blinders are taken off
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and then they make the choice and what they did
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is make the wrong one. And that again is what
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you do, what's happening when you're talking
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to anybody about Jesus. You get into a conversation
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with them and there are some people who are just
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blind and so you're talking to them and it's
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like explaining color to a blind person. It's
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not working. But then there are those times when
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you're talking to somebody and all of a sudden
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the lights come on and you can see it. I can't
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see it when I'm doing it with a crowd like this.
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I can't necessarily see it with every person
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that I'm sharing with but when you do it one
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-on -one you guys you can watch this happen.
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All of a sudden their eyes light up, all of a
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sudden it's like the lights go on and they start
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figuring out, oh, this is what Jesus is about.
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Oh, this is what this stuff is about. And then
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usually those people, actually for the most part,
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everybody that I've talked to that's happened
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with, they've accepted Christ. They've had, they've
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asked Jesus into their life. There have been
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people who haven't. And so the first time that
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I ever led somebody to the Lord, it was a young
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lady and I was a young guy. I was on my way to
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go to church. I had a day off. And so I was going
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to go hang out at church at the study center.
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Anyway, I'm getting in my car and she comes walking
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up and she's selling magazines and she wants
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to have me buy one. And I'm just, I don't like
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that. And so I wasn't going to buy a magazine,
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but I was going to be polite to her. And so I
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took her little booklet and I went through and
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I looked at it and it had stuff about gardening
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and all this stuff. Nothing about sports or hunting
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or whatever I would be into. Cars or things like
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that. Nothing about that. And so I handed back
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to her and I said, I'm sorry, there's nothing
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in there that I need. And immediately God goes,
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you've got something she needs. And I go, oh.
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And so this is happening just in a matter of
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moments. I go, oh, I do have something she needs.
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I go, hey, wait a minute. Give me that back.
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And so she gives it back to me. And I went through,
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and I really did go through to see if there was
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anything I could buy from her. And there was
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really nothing I wanted to buy. And so I looked
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at it again. And I said, you know what? Really,
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there is nothing here I need. But I've got something
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you need. And the reason I said that is because
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I couldn't think of anything else to say, so
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I just said what God just told me, right? And
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so I've got something you need, and she goes,
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what do you have? And so then we get into a conversation,
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and so I start telling her about Jesus, and again,
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the lights are going on. I see her face starts,
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and she had a hard face. I saw her face start
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softening, I saw her eyes start getting, I don't
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know, I don't know what it's like, it's just
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like the lights go on. And so I saw all these
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things. And finally I get to the point where
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I ask her, would you like to give your life to
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Jesus? And she goes, yeah, actually I would.
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And then she had a group of people that she was
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with. She apparently had gotten dropped off by
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these guys. They come driving up and they're
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sitting like 10 feet away from me, from us, and
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she's about to pray to receive Christ. And this
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is what happened with her. She looks at me and
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she's got a panic look on her face. and she looks
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over at them, and then she looks back at me,
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and I realize she's scared to do this stuff.
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And so I said to her, don't be frightened, it's
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okay. No, I didn't say that. I said, Jesus said
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this, if you confess me before men, I'll confess
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you before my Father who's in heaven. If you
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deny me before men, I'll deny you also. And then
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she gets this look of determination on her face.
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She turns, she goes over to the guy that's in
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the driver's seat and says, I've got to talk
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to this guy for a while. I've got some things
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I need to talk to him about. I will see you later.
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And she turns back around and she didn't look
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at them again. The guy's just sitting there,
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I'm looking at him. He's got his jaw hanging
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open. She comes over, she walks up, she grabs
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my hands and she goes, I'm ready. And then she
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prays with me to receive Jesus, right? And so
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that's an example of a situation where she was
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spiritually blinded. I saw the lights come on
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and she goes for it. Here's another situation.
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Like I said, that's the vast majority of the
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people that I've talked to over the years. With
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this other guy, this guy was married to a lady
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that was coming to our fellowship. She got saved
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after they got married and he was a piece of
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work. And so they were having real problems in
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their marriage. And so there came a point, I'm
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doing marriage counseling with him, and it's
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not gonna work if he's not gonna do what the
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Bible says, and he can't do what the Bible says
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unless he knows Jesus, so I'm gonna talk to him
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about knowing Jesus. So I get her out of the
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room, and I just have a one -on -one with this
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guy. And once again, what happens is I'm going
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through talking to him about what God's done,
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why he's done it, and his eyes start lighting
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up, and he gets it. His face gets soft, and he's
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getting it. He's understanding it. And then all
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of a sudden, I watch him make a decision. I watch
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his face harden. I watch his lips get set. And
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then he goes, I don't want to have anything to
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do with this Jesus stuff. Said something along
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the lines of that. I was like, okay, there's
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not a lot of things that I can do with that and
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tried to convince him a little bit more and he
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wasn't having any of it. And so what ends up
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happening is they come back in and I try to counsel
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the lady as much as I can and then they end up
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getting a divorce. He divorces her and he just
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goes off in his life and I had some, we had some
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mutual friends and his life just becomes a train
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wreck. It was a train wreck in the first place.
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But that's an example of the lights go on, God
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takes the blinders off, the guys sit in there
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listening to the gospel and then finally he just
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decides no. I don't want to do it. And so your
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choice matters. And again, there's a work of
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God that's going on, but he allows you to make
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a decision. That's exactly what happened with
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the people of Israel. They were making choices,
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and what they did was they said no. Paul's making
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the point in chapter 11 that this rejection isn't
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final, that God still has a plan for the Jews.
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And one of the things that we've got in Christianity
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is a number of movements in the Gentile church
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that have tried to make the claim that because
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of Israel's rejection, that God has moved on,
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cast off the people of Israel, and rejected the
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Jewish people, and these people have tried to
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replace Israel with the church. And to that whole
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idea, Paul says, nope, that is not what's going
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on. And that's part of the reason I read that
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whole massive section is because I want you to
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get the flavor. of what Paul's talking about.
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Turn over, he says, certainly not. That is not
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what is going on here. And that's what he says
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at the very beginning. I say then, has God cast
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away his people? Certainly not. And then he gives
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himself as an example, for I'm also an Israelite
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of the seed of Abraham. of the tribe of Benjamin.
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And that's an answer to verse 21. To Israel,
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he says, all day long I've stretched out my hands
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to a disobedient and contrary people. And when
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you're looking at that passage, God's got every
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reason to reject these people. But when the question
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is asked, has God cast away his people, what
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Paul says is no. What an Amillennialist would
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say is yes, he has. And that's the difference
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between Paul and an all -millennialist. Does
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he have the right to reject these people? Absolutely.
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But Paul answers in the negative. And if you
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look at the word certainly not there, it's one
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of the most potent basically phrases that you
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can have in Hebrew or in Greek there. It literally
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means, may it never be. It means absolutely not.
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King Jimmy translates it. God forbid, and basically
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it just means no way. There is no way that's
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what's happening with God and the people of Israel.
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Then Paul goes through and he gives a couple
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of proofs and we talked about these last week
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So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this
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but the first proof that he gives is a personal
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proof and that's his own Legacy, it's his own
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testimony Paul was a guy who was after Christians.
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He was a guy who hated Christians He thought
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he had good reasons to hate Christians He thought
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he was fulfilling the purposes of God in going
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in he was a door knocker This is a guy who was
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coming up and he was busting down doors, walking
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in, arresting parents, taking their children,
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giving them away, putting them in prison, and
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then if he could, he was putting them in a position
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where they would be executed. This is Saul of
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Tarsus. That's who this guy was. And he thought
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he was doing it for God. He decides that he's
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going to basically transport all that nonsense
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from Jerusalem to Damascus. And Jesus meets him
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on the road and knocks him off his little horsey
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and has a talk with him. And he says, Saul, why
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are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to
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kick against the goats. And so Jesus is making
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the point that Saul is coming after him. He's
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not just coming after these people. Here's another
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thing that he says, it's hard for you to kick
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against the goats. I really like that because
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I have animals. And so I have steers, I've had
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horses, I have sheep, now we have another sheep.
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And so they are different animals. And so a goat
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is a stick that's pointed and you can get an
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animal to move with that stick. For example,
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with my horse, with Duke, if I wanted to move
22:26
Duke around, all I had to do was use one finger.
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I could come up to him and basically, on what
22:31
we would call a shoulder, I could come up on
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his shoulder and poke him on the shoulder and
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he would literally move. He's like a 1 ,200 pound
22:37
animal and he would literally move his front
22:40
end. And if I wanted him to move his back end,
22:42
I'd come up and do it on his hindquarters, basically
22:45
on the side of his thigh, and I'd poke him, and
22:48
he would move his whole back end. And so I could
22:51
move an animal like that around with just a finger.
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And with cattle, you could do exactly the same
22:58
thing. You walk up to a cow, you take a stick,
23:00
and you poke it in its hindquarters, and it will
23:03
move its back end. And you could poke it in certain
23:05
places and get it to move forward and stuff.
23:08
And you can't do that with a sheep. You come
23:10
up to a sheep and you take your little finger
23:12
that's gonna move a 1200 pound horse and you
23:14
got a 150 pound lamb and you walk up to it and
23:18
you poke it. First you gotta get through the
23:20
wool to get to anything. You poke it and all
23:23
it does is it stops and turns around and looks
23:27
at you. It's like what are you doing? That's
23:29
what sheep do. And what Jesus is saying to Paul
23:32
is, you're not one of my sheep. Dude, you're
23:35
cattle. You're not one of my sheep. And it's
23:40
hard for you to kick against the goats. I have
23:42
been poking you. And you're kicking against the
23:46
goats. You don't like it. And then Jesus has
23:49
a continued conversation with them. He says,
23:52
who are you? I'm Jesus of Nazareth, whom you're
23:55
persecuting, identifies himself. And then he
23:57
lets them know that he's got some plans for the
24:00
guy. You've been listening to Crosswalk with
24:06
Pastor Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio
24:08
ministry of Cowrie Chapel Tri -Cities in Kennewick,
24:11
Washington. If you're wanting to know more about
24:13
what it means to follow Christ, then please contact
24:15
our church office by phone at 509 -736 -2086.
24:21
You can also look us up online at calvary -tricities
24:24
.org. Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities is offering
24:27
two in -person training courses for those seeking
24:30
to serve in missions or ministry. The School
24:33
of Missions starts with 12 weeks of classroom
24:35
-style learning and local outreach in the Tri
24:37
-Cities, Washington, followed by a 10 -week cross
24:40
-cultural mission outreach. The School of Ministry,
24:42
this course is 18 weeks of in -person learning
24:45
environment, followed by a four -week mission
24:48
trip. Find out more at calvarytrainingcenternw
24:51
.com.