Podcasts about no lord

GOD'S WORK OF RECONCILITION  The Book of Acts continues in Chapter nine describing the growth of the church and the work of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Apostle Peter. Acts 9: 31. Things then began to go peacefully in the churches throughout all of Judea and Samaria. The churches began to grow and multiply, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So the Apostle Peter began to travel throughout the regions roundabout. He miraculously brings healing to a bedridden paralysed man and he then travels to Joppa and raises a woman named Dorcas from the dead. Peter then stayed on at Joppa for many days in the house of Simon the tanner. The ministry of Peter continues into Chapter ten. ACTS 10:1 A Centurion named Cornelius, had a vision in which he saw an angel of God who said to him, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter.  Meanwhile Peter was praying on a rooftop and received a vision of a sheet containing animals, reptiles and birds and he was told by God to kill them and eat them. But Peter said ‘No Lord' our Jewish laws declare these animals as unclean. 15 But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”  Peter was then told by the Holy Spirit that the messengers from Cornelius had arrived to ask him to come to the house of Cornelius the Centurion, and the next day Peter went with them to Caesarea. As Peter entered the home Cornelius fell at his feet to worship him. But Peter explained that he was just a man like Cornelius himself and even though he believed that he should not be entering the house of a Gentile, that God had told him that he ‘should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean'. Cornelius told Peter that God had spoken to him through an angel who directed him to call for Peter to come and he then said to Peter. ‘Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.” 34 Then Peter replied, ‘I see very clearly that God shows no discrimination or favouritism towards anybody regarding nationality or ethnicity, but everywhere on earth he accepts those who fear him and do what is right…Peter goes on to say. 36 This is the message of the Good News given to the people of Israel - that there is peace with God (eirene – a joining with God) through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.  42 And he has ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all - of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives (actively takes hold of) forgiveness of sins through his name.”44 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.  Peter had just heard things come out of his mouth that he had never said before and never even thought of or believed before. In fact, just two days before he had thought and believed just the opposite, but he had now just witnessed the evidence of God reconciling the whole world to himself and inviting humanity into the saving work of Jesus for their lives.  Peter had participated in the astounding message of ‘God's Work of Reconciliation'. 2 Corinthians 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 we implore you on Christ's behalf, ‘be reconciled' to God.'  Peter did not know that work of God as the message of Reconciliation and he didn't ever teach about it as that, because that was the revelation that God gave to Paul as the foundational truth of Jesus bringing oneness with himself to all of humanity as ‘Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27)'. The word Reconciliation in the Bible is katalasso – that means a mutual change of two things to make one new thing. The supernatural miracle of God's act of reconciliation for us is that he caused both himself and us to experience a change of Being. God became one of us – forever – now as the risen Christ in Heaven, and he has made us one with him within our hearts to become ‘partakers of his divine nature escaping the corruption that is in the world through sinful desires' (2Peter 1:4). We are in him, and he is in us - We are reconciled.  Paul was the only Apostle that taught this, and it is not mentioned in the letters of any of the other Apostles, because Paul was set apart to bring that truth to the world of the non-Jews. The Gentile world had never been taught of the prophetic Scriptures and the understanding of the knowledge of God. Humanity in Adam was alienated from the life of God and ignorant of its truth - humanity was hostile to God (Romans 8:7). Paul was sent to proclaim God's remedy for this hostility of ours. ‘For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life' (Romans 5:10).  There needed to be a reconciled humanity in the earth before people could receive this great salvation that comes through a life yielded to the Lordship of Christ.  2 Cor 5: 14. We have concluded this: that one man has died for all of humanity, and all have died (with him); and he died for all so that those who live (with him) might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was resurrected. While Reconciliation is for everyone, without faith it can get twisted into a weird kind of universalism, because reconciliation deals with the here and now salvation of our soul in this life – not just an opinion of who is going to heaven and who isn't. The multitude of opinions regarding the words universalism and predestination (both not mentioned in the Bible) dare us to judge people's eternal future and we are warned to not judge in these things (Romans 2:1) because Jesus is the One appointed to be the judge of all. When Jesus was judged by the Jewish leaders he said woe upon you, religious leaders—hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden but ignore the weightier things—justice and mercy and faith. (Matthew 23:23). We are not to speculate on unfounded fringe issues but to build on a sure foundation of Gods saving work of justice and mercy through our faith and our faithfulness.  Isaiah 45:22 look to me and be saved all the ends of the Earth. Reconciliation also reflects Paul's revelation of being ‘chosen in him before the foundation of the world' (Ephesians 1:4), which tells us that we were chosen in the last Adam (Jesus) before the first Adam started to breathe - God had rescued us before we even fell - we were found before we were even lost. And we also need to know that God holds us to account to not neglect such a great salvation. We had nothing to do with God's work of Reconciliation and had no say in it. Jesus invaded the world of Adam and did something for us behind our backs that we weren't even aware of. It is only by faith that we can discover that we have been reconciled to God and can obey his word to ‘be reconciled'.  Sin was Adam's work, and we didn't have any part to play into what Adam did to us either. We weren't there and had no say in it, we just inherited it and trudged along with it. ‘Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed onto all men, for all have sinned'. (Romans 5:12) We had an inheritance in Adam - Mankind had inherited a distorted conscience - the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – a knowledge limited to our self-centred perspective of what life was all about.  That was our life in Adam – and we didn't need faith to walk that life. Our lack of trust towards God was too great an obstacle for our hearts to reach him. God had to reach us by putting away our estrangement from him and to bring peace and oneness with himself through Jesus. It had to be all his work.  We now have an inheritance in Jesus – a life in Christ – a life that allows us to live above sin – and we need faith to walk that life. Therefore, we need to be told we are forgiven, and that we need no longer be separated because of the feelings of guilt and shame about our sinful behaviour, which makes us hide from God and cover up in front of each other. We need to have a new mindset – metanoia – which means repentance, that acknowledges that God is not at odds with us, and we no longer need be at odds with him (now reconciled).  Paul is telling us that our total life experience is to be one of seeing ourselves as being part of the very life of God, and an extension of his life into this world. We are also told by Paul to become the messengers of Reconciliation, which means that when we present the Gospel, we present forgiveness of sin first and then oneness with God (God's work of Reconciliation) and then the saving work of our souls through the life of Jesus within us and then the impartation of his life into our world around us. All this requires a radical new mindset (repentance) which brings about a radical new life of faith.  OR the message of condemnation - Repent from your sins (God hates sin) – say the sinners prayer – ask God for forgiveness so you don't go to hell – Invite Jesus into your life because he died for your sins - stop sinning – pray - read your Bible and go to church.

Tonight our Lord washes the feet of His disciples. Our reflection this evening focuses on the interaction between our Lord Jesus Christ and St. Peter. When Jesus goes to wash Peter's feet, he is disturbed by this and says, "No Lord, You shall never wash me." Peter was overwhelmed with his unworthiness that the Lord do this for Him. Yet this is precisely Who Jesus is and what He came to do for mankind. How often are we like Peter as Jesus offers His healing and cleansing to us? How often do we not allow Christ to be Who He is toward us? The sermon explores the broken reasons for this and exhorts us to hear the words of Christ which He spoke to Peter, "Unless I wash you, you have no part in me."

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Today's Meditation is on John Chapter 8 Jesus always made time to refresh and recharge himself by spending time alone with Father God. I know that doing the same thing is critical if I am going to live the God kind of life.  Jesus was never in a rush. When the Pharisees brought the woman to him who had been caught in the act of adultery, they asked if she should be stoned, as that's what the law required. But he took his time. He stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger as they repeatedly demanded an answer. Finally, he calmly stood and said the one who had never sinned should throw the first stone. Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.  I can see the accusers, looking around at each other, then hanging their heads as they quietly slipped away one by one, from the oldest to the youngest. I can see Jesus standing and looking around, and then looking at the woman with compassion as he asked her where her accusers were. "Did no one condemn you?" I can see the woman in her guilt and shame... wondering what would happen next lifting her eyes to look at Jesus, and very softly whispering, "No Lord."  Then he spoke again, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more." In this moment he showed not just compassion over what had happened in the past, but also over her future. He offered forgiveness, but also instruction: to go and sin no more.  He treats me the same. He has forgiven my sins, paid for them with his blood, with his life, but he asks that I sin no more. He loves me enough to not leave me in the condition in which he found me.  Jesus is the light of the world. Because I follow him, I don't have to walk in darkness. I have the light that leads to life. Because I know him, I also know the Father. Because I believe in him, I have been redeemed from my sins and I experience eternal life.  Jesus did nothing on his own, but said only what Father God taught him. He always did what pleased the Father.  I am a disciple of Jesus, and remain faithful to his teachings. I know the truth, and the truth has set me free.  I used to be a slave to sin. But now I am a child of God, part of the family forever. I have been set free by Jesus, the Son of God, and I am truly free.  God is my Father, and I love Jesus because he came to me from God. He did not come on his own, but God sent him.  But the devil is a murderer and has been since the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of all lies.  But I belong to God and gladly listen to the words of God, the words of truth. Jesus had no wish to glorify himself, God glorified him. He is the true judge. I obey the teachings of Jesus, and because I do, I will never die! Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the great I Am. Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing. ----- Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): http://uppbeat.io/t/capturez/x-cell License code: ZKQ4VVRLEQNSCUNN

NOURISHING FAITH  The Apostle Peter died shortly after he wrote his second epistle and in the first verse of that letter he tells us that we have received ‘faith of equal standing with his (isotimos; of equal value or honour). He goes on to write about how that faith grows and brings forth the fruit of the true person that we were created to become. I see that being like a tree of life growing within us. It took many trials of faith for Peter to come into the fulness of that fruitful faith experience, and he wants to impart that experience to us in this epistle. He came from being a godly man under the Law who strived to say and to do the right things as a man of God, into becoming a man of faith who lived in the flow of God's divine nature within.  2Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to (pros move forward to, bring about) life and godliness, through the (intimate personal) knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, through which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises (commitments), so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of wrong desires (epithymia). For this very reason diligently add to your faith virtue, (epichor??ge?? - nourish -vitalise the organic nutrients of the tree of life within you with) and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  How do we add to our faith? Do we say we believe in Jesus and his death and resurrection and then having settled that, we start to become a better person by making an effort to becoming virtuous and gaining knowledge and being kind and trying to sacrificially love people? It could seem that this Scripture is saying this, and if that were the case we might as well have a Christian belief system and then live under the Law by doing our best to obey the Ten Commandments. Now that is not a bad thing to do and perhaps that is what James is saying when he says that ‘faith without works is dead' (James 2:26), which could look like a contradiction to what Paul says.  Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone not by the works of the law. There is no contradiction. James and Paul are both saying the same thing, and so is Peter in this passage of Scripture - that everything in our Christian faith, from being forgiven and receiving the life of Christ and being made one with him through the holy Spirit depends upon our conscious dependence upon what he has done and is doing for us. Peter and James and Paul all assume that we will undertake to live a life in participation with God that produces the fruit of his Spirit within us. Faith is always about depending upon God while nourishing his divine activity within. The following episodes of Peter's life I am about to describe are not meant to disparage this Apostle of God, but they reflect to us how we too can struggle like Peter did, with all good intentions to be who God wants us to be. And like Peter we learn to realize that we can only be changed into who God created us to become, through a surrendered faith in the work of the Holy Spirit within us. That is the obedience of faith. Peter was a man of good intentions and great aspirations, a man who wanted to give everyone the best advice but who often didn't know what he was talking about. He told Jesus that it was not God's will for him to die on the cross. He said to Jesus, ‘No Lord, far be it from you, you're not going to the cross'.  Peter was also a man who wanted to be so friendly he would swap sides if being on the wrong side made him look bad to his other friends. When Peter visited Paul and Barnabus in the new gentile church in Antioch which they were growing, Peter accepted their gentile Christian lifestyle which was free from Jewish rules and regulations and rituals and was happy to share their expression of Christianity. That was until James and some other Jewish Christians decided to come and check out how things were going in this new church, and immediately Peter stopped eating with the gentile Christians and stopped associating with them and convinced Barnabus to do the same. Paul became incensed about this hypocrisy and berated Peter in front of all the other Apostles (Galatians 2:11). Peter was a man of such self-conscious mood swings that he could say to Jesus ‘no you won't wash my feet', and then realizing his foolishness say, ‘please not just my feet but wash all of me'.          On one occasion Peter went with Jesus up onto a mountain with James and John where Jesus was transfigured, and his face shone like the sun. Moses and Elijah appeared, talking with Jesus in a bright cloud and Peter decided to break in on their discussion and he said to Jesus, ‘If you like, I would be happy to put up three tents here right now, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.' Then from the cloud another voice broke in on Peter and said ‘This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, Listen to him!' When Peter heard that he fell flat on his face on the ground, terrified.                                             Peter was a man who was so loyal to his religious opinions that he let his opinions give him permission to say no to God – ‘Not so Lord I can't eat what you've offered me it's religiously unclean' (Acts 10:14). Peter was then told by God to preach the Gospel to a Gentile centurion called Cornelius, and he did so, but upon being invited into the man's house the first thing he said was;  ‘Do you know it's not lawful for a Jew to enter a gentile house?' Peter was a man who found it so difficult to control his emotions and reactions that after praying in the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus, and continually nodding off to sleep, he lopped an ear off the guard who came to arrest Jesus for his trial, and he then ran and hid in the crowd and told people he didn't know who Jesus was.  Peter was a man who learned the hard way, and for many years to surrender in faith to God's grace and his idea of who he was and who he could become and he humbly let God's grace allow him to become that man God created him to be, beyond all of his good intentions and all his personal aspirations. Peter's life is a lesson to us of how not to become victims of our own strong opinions about who we are, who other people are and what is going on. We think we have opinions but often they really have us, and they're mostly borrowed from other people anyway. Peter went on to become a hero of faith. He became a man who humbly lived and spoke from the Tree of Life and not the tree of knowledge (which was mostly the religious knowledge of rules and regulations).  Peter is telling us that the spiritual growth activities that he mentions in his letter from verse 3 will be brought about by the divine life of the nature of God in us. They are not a compulsory set of regulations enforced upon us in order to gain merit or favour or achieve some kind of status as a Christian. These are the overflow of the life principle (Divine nature) that spills into our heart and mind and soul and body from Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This is what our faith opens up for us and what flows out into the people and the world around us. Do we dare to believe this? So what does faith do? How does this tree grow? For any plant to grow it needs good soil and sunshine and rain. The sunshine is God's love – the universal energy that causes life to flourish.  The rain is the Holy Spirit that joins us in oneness of the values of God's mind and heart. The soil is our heart that is broken up and softened by the rain and the sun and by our desire to have that tree of life planted into our value system with real intention and aspiration. This is what makes our life one of fulfillment and joy, and all the while we are painfully aware of falling short but we give our best to this work of nourishing our faith and there is always the now to come back to. Virtue; arete – The character traits of courage, honesty and integrity.  We ask ourselves the question; Why will I not face this challenge of obedience to God? Am I avoiding this because of fear of failure or rejection? Am I taking shortcuts because no one is watching? If I fail I'll feel ashamed. If the answer is yes, we can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us that we can trust God to honour the smallest step of our yes to him even if it looks like there will be a cost to our yes of being opposed or of suffering disadvantage – for example admitting to getting something wrong with no excuses and taking the consequences. We will then see God honour his commitment to bring about his good and perfect will for us in the situation. We also learn in trusting God this way that he is purifying our conscience to see more clearly his right rather than being at ease with our own rationalisation of our actions. We the get to trust in our own heart with more confidence and so grow in faith. Knowledge; gnosis - understanding of what is worthwhile knowing as far as growing in a living faith is concerned.  Do I want to know spiritual concepts and doctrinal facts things because it gives me significance or influence with others? If yes, then we need to ask God about the things he wants to reveal to us about who he is and to trust the Holy Spirit to give us his wisdom from above so that we can know his will for our lives in order to make right choices. He will teach us by His Spirit and his Word what is worthwhile knowing, and also how to impart wisdom to others. Self control; egkrates – Management of boundaries in our life.  Do I want to live without boundaries in my life that limit my self-determination to do things my way or that limit my self-indulgence to have what I want? If yes, we can ask God to help us reorder the spiritual and moral priorities in our lives, starting with ourselves, and if we choose to live like that we become part of the reordering of the people and things around us. Perseverance; hypomeno – abiding patiently under circumstances.  Do I find myself impatiently complaining about the way things are or the way other people are and resisting rather than accepting the things that I cannot change? If yes, we can ask Holy Spirit to give us his grace to give thanks in all things – for this is the good will of a loving God for us, then he will reveal to us that he is working all things together for our good.   Godliness; eusebiea - spiritual focus, devotedness.  Do I find myself being more attracted to the things of the world rather than to God? If yes, then we can ask The Lord to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within us. He will then touch us with his presence and purify our hearts so that we begin to see God in everything around us. Brotherly kindness; Philadelphia - care and compassion.  Do I find it is an irritation or an annoyance when I have to go out of my way to assist someone, and turn away or find reasons why I shouldn't have to? (Good Samaritan) If yes, ask The Holy Spirit to help us understand the feelings of helplessness or heartache that another person is suffering. The blessing for us is that we will find the compassion and comfort of God coming upon us in abundance in our times of despondency. Love; agape – selfless sacrificial love. Do I find myself not heeding what God says about what love is and what it is not? 1Corinthians 13:4 Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful, or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.  If we knew how much we were loved by God we would find delight in heeding those words and living this life that he has given us and finding delight in loving and blessing others Attending to this process of spiritual growth makes our life one of fulfillment and joy, and even though all the while we are painfully aware of falling short, we give our best to this work of nourishing our faith. When we fall short there is always the now to come back to. Faith only works in the now. We don't go back to regretting what we got wrong, and we don't make a resolution to try and get it better tomorrow. We come into the now immediatelyknowing that at that moment God is loving us and forgiving us and increasing our faith to produce the fruit of his tree of life in us.           

Faced with massive political upheaval and the rise of the Anabaptists, Luther argues for a socially conservative version of the Reformation.

PRAYER FOCUS: REJOICE IN THE WONDER OF WHAT GOD IS DOING IN THESE DAYS TO GIVE PRESIDENT TRUMP 4 MORE YEARS! Listen to the Prayer Audio: Heavenly Father, We give You thanks and praise for all that You are doing in this time of trouble for us here in America! We remain firm and grounded in Your Word! What You have spoken through Your prophetic voice of Mark Taylor and others we know will come to pass. In this hour You have exposed the cowardly, the betrayers, the liars, the murderers, the unbelievers, the sorcerers, the immoral and the idolaters that will fall and be brought to Justice! Lord, You have heard our cry and You have seen our acts of repentance and intercession during this time. In Faith we look to You to bring forth the Victory You have spoken into our hearts. We walk by Faith and not by sight or feelings! We stand believing and awaiting the fulfillment of Your Word! It shall be and no other way but Yours! Father we continue our intercession for President Trump who feels the pain of betrayal from those he has placed his trust in. Yet Lord, this is a time when he turns to You for the solace he needs and trust in you he needs in this hour! Lord God let the righteous arise who will make the changes and do the acts that will over throw this debacle of those who hate against those who believe and stand firm in Your Word. Let the Holy Spirit bring him such comfort and direction that he will walk in the victory You have planed for him. We cover President Trump with our faith and love. You always have great timing Lord and now is that time to shine forth Your Glory and raise up the men and women who will turn this around to shine the Light in the darkness and bring about Your Plan as spoken 4 more years for President Trump. As for me and my household we stand firm with You Lord and await the moment that this is turned around that our enemy has entered one way but will be scattered 7 ways! Father You rule in Justice and Mercy so Your thoughts are not our thoughts and Your ways are not our ways, so we stand in patient awe to show us the way I these days when it looks as if the enemy has won and their fury is spoken loudly against us through them media and all forms of communication saying what You Promised is not to be in their plans and ways. We may look foolish to them but their shame is son to be upon them for they know not the hour in which You will manifest Your Power and Might as the corrupt are exposed to be crushed by the Hammer of Justice! In the authority of Your Son, Yeshuah we bind the wicked spirits that hover over our nation and express themselves through the betrayal and treason that we see especially in the capital of America in DC! Lord God release Your Heavenly Host in this hour to bring about the victory You have spoken and it will not become void nor will it be lost because men say it is not to be so! Yes, Lord it is the hour to manifest Your Will now as we stand believing and knowing the fight is not over for evil is not the winner as it walks in arrogance and smugness that it has over come! No Lord, it is not so! The Kingdom will prevail and the gates of hell will not! So we stand right this moment victory is ours in Jesus wonderful and powerful Name now and forever Amen! Search Strike Force of Prayer Search for: Categories Action (7) Election (48) Elections (4) Event (2) How to Pray (14) links (15) Mark Taylor (71) National Alert (4) Opportunities with the Divine (5) Prayer Request (54) Prayers (385) Prophetic Alert (3) Testimony (26) Uncategorized (2) Website Updates (4) Archives January 2021 (8) December 2020 (8) November 2020 (7) October 2020 (10) September 2020 (7) August 2020 (9) July 2020 (8) June 2020 (14) May 2020 (10) April 2020 (9) March 2020 (10) February 2020 (8) January 2020 (14) December 2019 (8)

Aneeshwaraha- One who has no Lord or leader superior to Him. He is Maheshwara - the leader and the Lord of all the other leaders. He has no leader or superior to control him . He is the controller of all . Vedas praise this quality of the Lord. न तस्य कश्चित् पतिरस्ति लोके न चेशिता नैव च तस्य लिङ्गं स कारणं करणाधिपाधिपो नचास्य कश्चित् जनिता नचाधिप : na tasya kaṡcit patirasti lōkē na cēṡitā naiva ca tasya liṅgaṃ sa kāraṇaṃ karaṇādhipādhipō nacāsya kaṡcit janitā nacādhipah
 He doesn’t have an owner in this universe. He doesn’t have a controller, a leader. He is not bound by forms. He is the prime reason of all that exists. He doesn’t have a father or a king. Please support this channel by pressing the subscribe button or the bell and support Chinmaya Mission Mumbai projects taken up by Swami Swatmananda, through generous donations. Contribution by Indians in INR can be made online using this link: https://www.payumoney.com/events/#/buyTickets/Guru_Dakshina For Foreign contributions please request an Indian National with Indian passport to use the above link and make the contribution. For any queries please send a mail to sswatmananda@gmail.com Subscribe/Follow the Audio Podcasts @Chinmaya Shivam Available on Spotify, Apple iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Podomatic, Amazon music and Google Podcast FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ChinmayaShivampage Insta: https://instagram.com/chinmayashivam?igshid=1twbki0v3vomt Twitter: https://twitter.com/chinmayashivam Blog: https://notesnmusings.blogspot.com LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/swatmananda Copyright of all images are with the respective owners. We thank them for their efforts which has helped our cause of sharing knowledge selflessly with maximum people.

Dream Word – COURAGENumbers 14:31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. NKJVFear is a most black, and fantastic flower, unfolding itself in the most frighteningly colourful of forms before our eyes, and filling our sniff-the air-nostrils with foul and festering fragrances. Yes, from concerned and seemingly mild musings, to loud and strong, fist-shuddering horror, the flower of fear always shakes its own stubborn stem even in the most mild of summer breezes, unknowingly to us casting forth the very seeds of our own ultimate and most deserved destruction. Yes, from sweet to sour, fear perfumes the despiser's own perverted way with the most justifying of speaking scents, saying, “Well, after all, what about the kids? We have to think about them? If anything happens to us, well, what about them? I mean, how can we provide for them if.....well, they shall never forgive us if....and if we ever did do what God seems to so audaciously intimate, even what God seemingly wildly suggests, then how could we ever provide for our family? I mean, if we went there, how would they, our children live? I mean, this demanding command of Yours, O God, seems to fanatical?... I mean, to do this, to do what You ask would be totally irresponsible....I mean, surely this is not a command to respond to with a ‘yes sir’ salute and a fast return to the seems with a quick-to-obey like snap? No Lord! for I perceive this to be nothing but a bear-baited trap! even a deception, that will lead to our destruction, even a madness, that if followed will surely only lead to misery. ” Oh yes, fear is a most black, fantastic flower, its roots finding their abundant sustenance in even the scantest of doubting soils, which is nevertheless, so rich in unbelief. That is the terrible self-propagating power of fear, in that it roots itself in unbelief and then seeds the sniffer with despising doubt and self-serving protection. We call this cowardice.From our text for tonight, we see these same flowers of fear now finding themselves even within the very tent doors of the whole camp of unbelieving Israel, whose now many open blooms, all together sucked out of the blue and sunlit skies of the waiting to be possessed, giant filled promised land, such a gross and debilitating deformity upon them all, that God, their only Saviour, could not fail to find it both offensive and disgusting to His own soul. So offensive, in fact, that He would now kill them for it. Yes, like smashed eggs over-fired in a black pan, God would scour them from this smelly vessel of unbelief and start again with a new and pollen-fear free people. Indeed, it was only Moses who stopped God from killing the self-convicted, and self-condemned nation in an instant as one man. Yes, it was only Moses that stopped God from carrying out His plan.Restrained by the prayers of Moses then, God limits His most terrible tirade and goes to His fear poisoned, black-flower-powered people, saying, “There is no reason for this soul of unbelief. For if you had taken the salt of My signs and wonders performed among you, and sprinkled it upon those places of unbelieving death in your hearts, then fear would have found no room to spread its roots and no sustenance to grow in. Now, not only have you have failed to deal rightly with the soul of your souls, but you have fertilized it with the mad-manure of your most consistent, and complacent disdain of Me. Therefore, concerning those whom you deceitfully feigned to fear for the most, even your children, well, it is they who shall possess that which you now most scurrilously are rejecting, and you shall never see their joy, nor settle in the sweet places I had prepared for you along with tSupport the show (http://www.victorrobert.tv)

Message: No, Lord Mission Moment: The Selvaraj Family – India Songs: Sometimes Alleluia; There’s Room at the Cross Host: Dr. Brian Albrecht Memory Verse: Hebrews 4:16 The post Rev. Art Larson – No, Lord appeared first on Canada's National Bible Hour.

Archives Listen to the Prayer Audio:Heavenly FatherWe enter Your Courts with Praise and Thanksgiving for all that You have given us through Your Son, Yeshuah! He is the Perfect One we are to follow and we have accepted Him by Faith. We express our Hope and Love by walking as He walked.  Lord we place at Your feet all that we are so that we become all that You want us to be and do in this time!  We are so grateful to be Your Army of Prayer Warriors to defend the Truth and spread the Kingdom here in America and around the world! Today we bring before You all that You have placed on our hearts to pray for and express!Father, we seek Your Holy Angels to surround us with protection from all the snares, traps and ploys of the enemy to make us stumble and fall.  Keep us off the enemy’s radar and block all of his frequencies from hindering us to communicate with one another and with You! As Yeshuah has told us let not our hearts become weary. You are with us and will never forsake us so we pray in confidence knowing You hear us and answer our prayers in His Name!Father, we want to walk under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we may discern what is right and honorable to do in Your Presence.  Erase from us all the “legalistic approach” we have thinking if we “go to Church” or do certain acts we will be saved.  No Lord it is only in Christ Jesus we are saved and we are to deny ourselves take up the cross and follow Him for it is in this that we are made Perfect and do Your Will. Lord we repent of always following man’s way and not following what You have taught us to do to live in righteousness as it is found in Your Word : honor the Sabbath as a day of rest, just as You rested on the 7th day.  Lord make us aware of how we are in our day to truly honor you by resting on the 7th day and concentrating on You and spending time in Your Presence! Lord lead us out of confusion into the whole Truth as the Holy Spirit leads and guides us.  Like Israel of old we are called to worship and honor You the true God, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  Lord that all men will know Your Son, Yeshuah as Messiah and Lord!Father, we are indeed grateful for how You are changing the governments of the world to come more in alignment with what You have done in America by giving us President Trump.  Lord we see the movement of the Holy Spirit in England, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria all across Europe! As Your Prophets have told us the new world order, the elitist, the illuminati and all other forms of luciferian control are over.  The plan of the enemy is being overturned everyday as more and more people are being awakened and moving for what Your Plan is in our day!  Thank you, Lord for those who are willing to sacrifice and rise up to lead us into righteousness and true Justice for all mankind!Father, we seek protection and a change in the weather patterns over America where the storms are occurring that the farmers will be blessed in abundance with a balance of rain and sunshine not as man tries to control it, but by Your Hand O mighty God!  Lord, that Your people are protected and that those who try to harm us be exposed and dealt with by proper Justice!  We pray a special prayer for all those in the areas where the tornadoes and other storm activity is taking place.  We say with Yeshuah to this area Peace! Be Still!  Let calmness reign in our hearts and in our land!Lord, we are becoming more aware of how our Justice/Legal system needs to cleansed and re-established in our time.  That America will have a true respect for the rule of law that makes us a united nation under God’s Justice!  We seek special protection for all the Judges that President Trump has appointed, especially on the federal level that we will decide in righteousness and not by popularity, or bribery or any other means of intimidation, but have the Wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit to mete out Justice & Mercy as ...

Do you enjoy knights, wizards, and dragons? How about medieval history? Folklore, maybe? Want to learn how England became England? We learned a lot about the beginning of the mythology that has led to our cultural fascination with knights, jousting, sword fighting, dragons, and everything medieval in this Suck. There would be no Game of Thrones without Arthurian legend. No Lord of the Rings as we know it. No Dungeons and Dragons. Also, the biggest Timesucker Updates ever with a lot of poignant personal accounts from those who have known those who fought in the Vietnam War. Hail Nimrod! Donating $2200 this month The LEO Support Foundation. The LEO Support Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that raises money to purchase protective & life saving equipment for police officers. Based in Plymouth, Massachusetts and run by Space Lizard and officer Michael Best. To donate, click here: https://www.paypal.me/saveleos Happy Murder Tour Standup dates: May 30th-June 1st Jacksonville, FL The Comedy Zone CLICK HERE for tix! June 7-8th Omaha, NE The Funny Bone CLICK HERE for tix! June 13-15th Raleigh, NC Charlie Goodnight's CLICK HERE for tix! Listen to the best of my standup on Spotify! (for free!) https://spoti.fi/2Dyy41d Timesuck is brought to you by the following sponsors: The Science Rules! podcast hosted by Bill Nye the science guy. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts! MVMT watches! Get 15% off with FREE SHIPPING & FREE RETURNS—by going to MVMT.com/TIMESUCK Leesa! Get 15% off your entire order at leesa.com/TIMESUCK and use promo code TIMESUCK at checkout! Watch the Suck on Youtube: https://youtu.be/LEYj4oA_mj0 Merch  - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cultofthecurious/ For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're almost 5000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast  Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

The post On Mission – Heck No, Lord appeared first on Stoneybrook Community Church of God.

What can be learned about the fate of minority peoples from the Anti-Jewish Riots in Spain in 1391? Benjamin Gampel is a specialist in medieval and early modern Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.   The post As if the Jews had no Lord: Anti-Jewish Riots in Castile and Aragon, 1391 – Benjamin Gampel appeared first on JDOV.

By Mary Lindow TO LISTEN TO THIS MESSAGE AS AN AUDIO PODCAST PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE AUDIO PLAYER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE. The question is often asked, "What is the reason for the weak spiritual lives of so many Christians?" This is an excellent question and it is amazing how little the church responds to Christ's voice, which is ever calling out! How little the church is what Christ wants her to be! What really is the matter? What truly is needed? Many answers will be given but there is one answer that includes them all. each believer needs the full eye-opener of a personal Christ as a spiritually internal, “living inside of me”  Lord  and as someone who was a satisfying portion. When the Lord was here on the earth what was it that distinguished his disciples from other people? I think the answer is that Jesus took them away from their fishnets their busyness and their homes. He gathered them around himself and they knew him. He was their Master, and he guarded them, and they in turn followed him. What is supposed to make the difference today between Christ's disciples-not those who are just hoping to get to heaven, but those who are Christ's wholehearted disciples-and other people? I think it's this. When Jesus was upon the earth, he was able to keep the disciples with him for three years day after day. Now that Jesus is in heaven, and he is able to do what he could not do when he was upon the earth - to keep in the closest fellowship with every believer throughout the entire world. Imagine this! You might know the verse in Ephesians: 4:10 “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might  fulfill all things.” Why was our Lord Jesus taken up to heaven? Away from the life of earth? He ascended to heaven because the light of the earth is confined to localities, but the light of heaven has no limits, no boundaries, and no localities. He was taken up to heaven so that in the power of God the ever present omnipresent God, that he might be able to fill every one of his followers on earth and be with every individual believer in a personal way. This is what my heart wants to experience by faith. It is a possibility, it is a promise, it is my birthright, and I want to have it! By the grace of God, I say to Jesus, “Jesus, I will not rest until you have fully revealed your self fully to me.” How did the disciples get their burning hearts? Remember that day that they were on the Road to Emmaus? It was through the way in which Christ opened the Scriptures to them. He made it all look different and new, and they saw what they had never seen before! They could not help feeling how wonderful and how heavenly the teaching was! Many Christians have discovered that the best time of the day is when they can read and pore over their Bibles, and they love nothing more than to find a new spiritual insight. Just like a person who mines diamonds rejoices when they have found a diamond these individuals delight when they get some new thought from the Bible, and they feed upon it. Yet, even with all of their interest in God's word and with the joy that is stirred in our hearts, when we return to work or attend our daily duties, we find that there is still something missing in our lives. From time to time… …We must leave all the many and unique blessings that Jesus gives us, and come to the one blessing that outshines all of them. The blessing that Jesus makes himself known, that Jesus is willing to make himself known to us! If I were to ask you, “Isn't this exactly what you and I need, and what many of us have been longing for?” I am sure you would answer, “Yes! This is exactly what I want!” Listen to this poetic verse. “Oh, the peace my Savior gives! Peace I never knew before, And my way has brighter grown, Since I've learned to trust him more.” An individual in the midst of great trouble and difficulty wrote this poem. She stated that it brought wonderful comfort and strength to her. However, how can a person maintain peace in his or her life? It was the presence of Christ that brought the peace; therefore, peace must be sustained through the continual presence of Jesus. Remember that when the storm on the Sea, was threatening to swallow up the disciples, that it was the presence of Jesus himself that brought the peace. Do you want peace and rest? Then you must have Jesus himself. We talk of purity, and we talk of cleansing. We also talk of deliverance from sin! Praise God, for the deliverance and the cleansing, when the living Jesus comes and gives us power and strength. It's there that we find that we have that resurrected Christ who sits on the throne, who is making himself known to you and I. This is the secret of purity and the secret of strength. Perhaps some of you may be now asking, “How will Christ revealed himself to me? How will he come?” That is the secret no one can know, it is the one that Jesus keeps to himself. It will come in the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus? They had a sudden revelation of the living risen Christ! The Scripture says, “Then they knew Him!” He revealed Himself, he showed Himself fully to them, and then he vanished from their site! Was that moment of Christ visiting them revealing Himself to them worth much? It was over in a minute, yet it was worth heaven, eternity, it was everything! From that time on Christ's disciples were no longer to relate to him in an earthly way. Thank the Lord that Christ now reveals Himself to each and every one of us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet, how He does this is a sacred thing between Christ and each individual believer. Take this as an assurance, “their eyes were opened, and they knew Him,” and believe that this was written for you! You might be able to say that I have experienced a sad heart at times. When I mourned that I did not know the living Christ. And I have had times when my heart is slow to believe and have struggled with my lack of faith, and I also know this stage of a burning heart in what I experienced and the  great times of joy and blessedness. If you can say these things you will come to a place where you have a satisfied heart. You will have a heart that has been made glad and will last until eternity! You will have a heart that cannot keep and hold its joy but is poured out on other believers and shared, just as the disciples ran back to the believers in Jerusalem and said, “It is true! Jesus has revealed himself! I know it! I feel it! It has been made personal and real to me, alone!” Dear child of God. I'm sure you are asking but how would this revelation come? Jesus will tell you. Just come to him and say a simple childlike prayer. You need to come to Jesus yourself. What I share with you here today is finished! I have pointed you to the risen One. Now you must step into the presence of the Holy One and begin to crying out, saying, “Oh my precious Lord and Savior! I have come to you and fully abandon my dreams my will, my hopes, and my sorrows.   I have come so that I might have this blessedness with me at all times. Dear Jesus!  I want you completely the fullness of all that You are. I want to know you personally and completely. Not just simply by hearing the experiences of others. No Lord! I want to know that I can have your blessed presence surrounding me at all times because I am your child and I have been set free from my own condemning self-hatred, religious thinking, performance-based actions, and fear of not measuring up. Jesus! Help me! Be my portion forever!” Is this possible? Can we always be thinking of Jesus? Thank God you don't need to be consistently thinking of him. You may be the manager of a grocery store and your whole attention may require you to carry out the business that you have to do. While you were thinking of your business, Jesus will be thinking of you and He will come in, and if you listen to Him he will take charge of you. When I was holding my new Grand-daughter just today, (5 months old) I was thinking about when an infant sleeps in his or her mother's or grandmother’s arms, he or she lies there helplessly. He or she hardly even knows it’s mother or grandmother, he or she does not think of her, but the mother and grandmother does think of the child. And this is the great mystery of love. Jesus waits to come to me in the fullness of His love. And when He is allowed possession of my heart, He gathers me into those Divine arms and tells me, “My child I am the ever faithful one, I Am the mighty one, and I will remain with you. I Am watching over you and will keep you every day.” Oh I can hear many of you saying, “Oh, if only I could believe that, if only I could believe it is possible to have Jesus constantly taking and keeping charge me every hour and every minute!” But you see this is exactly what He said to you. He said these words, “For low I am with you always”. He meant it in the fullness of His divine love, and He is longing to show himself to you and to me, as we have never seen Him before. “Your heart says this is too good to be true, And that is just too wonderful to be possible for you.” Still you do admit that it is an amazing way to live! Oh you fearful one, mistaken one, and anxious one! I am bringing to you God's promise; it is for me and for you. Jesus will do it! As God, He is able, and Jesus is willing and longing, having been the crucified one to keep you in perfect peace. This is a wonderful fact… … And it is the secret of unspeakable joy. ***************************************** Duplication and sharing of this writing is welcomed provided that complete message and website information for Mary Lindow is included. Thank You Copyright © 2012 " THE MESSENGER " ~ Mary Lindow www.marylindow.com www.globalprayerrooms.com

Introduction The greatest gift that Almighty God can give you is Himself, that He would reveal Himself, that He would give Himself to you, He can give you no higher gift. And for myself, I could not enjoy heaven if I couldn't have that. If I could just see the streets of gold, and if I could see the walls of the new Jerusalem, and if I could see the new heaven and new earth, but I were denied seeing the face of God, it would not be heaven to me. The greatest gift that Almighty God can give to you and me is Himself. The greatest gift that you and I can give to Him is our worship, that we would offer Him a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name, that our hearts would be moved with love and deep devotion to Him, and that moved out of that, we would give ourselves to Him. We can give no greater gift. As I think about those two things, essential to both is a pure heart. If our hearts are filled with wickedness and defilement, we cannot receive the gift of Himself, we can't. We will not treasure it, we will reject it, we have no interest in it. And from an impure heart, God can receive no worship. So if God will bless us with Himself, and if we will give to God a sacrifice of true genuine praise, there must be at the heart of that a pure heart, a heart made pure by the grace of God. In our text, we have some people trying to purify their hearts by their own efforts through tradition and legalism and through their own man-made religion. They are failing, and they are in great danger of being deceived into thinking that they are succeeding, that their worship is acceptable to God. Some time ago, David penned these words, "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord and who may stand in His holy place?" Is that your desire? Would you like to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place? Well, who may do that? It says he who has clean hands and a pure heart. Now, all week last week, I was concerned about clean hands. I had that little bottle of Purell with me that kills 99.99% of all germs. I was just washing all the time. I wasn't doing it like the Scribes and Pharisees here. I wasn't seeking to wash my hands for spiritual reasons, but I wanted my hands to be clean. Some of you are concerned about this norovirus. Wash your hands, okay? It's very, very necessary. As the soap is breaking up the surface tension, and as stuff is getting uncovered, fungi and viruses and bacteria, it's getting washed away, and it's just wonderful. Clean hands. We can do that part, friends, but what about your heart? What can make me pure within? Now that's the question, isn't it? Frankly, Jesus said, "Make the inside of the cup and dish clean, then the outside will be clean too, because if your heart is pure, your hands will be pure too.” I want to know, what can purify my heart? I want to stand on the hill of God and see His face, I want to be in His presence forever and ever. He tells me I have to have a pure heart, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God." The implication is, “blessed are the pure in heart for they, and only they, will see God.” So I must have a pure heart. But how? In our text today it does not tell us how. Thanks be to God, there are other texts. This text tells us how not to try to purify our heart. The Scribes and Pharisees were professional legalists, who thought that they could earn their way back to God in reference to their sin by keeping the laws of God and their own extra laws that they had made up to help them keep the laws of God. They had built up traditions of the elders that they had passed on from generation and generation, and in this whole machinery of religion, they felt that they could be pure and acceptable to God and worship Him. Along with this whole way of living comes judgmentalism. It's almost inevitable that you're going to feel yourself superior to other people who are not doing what you're doing, and you're going to judge them if they don't follow your patterns. Part of it is, I think, just that human desire to dominate. The Scribe and Pharisees want to be in charge and say what's what and walk through the marketplaces with flowing robes and long tassels and have people greet them and honor them and all of that. They wanted the whole thing. So they come at the Son of God, the pure and holy Son of God, with an accusation, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat." And so they're bringing this issue of legalism and the tradition of the elders. Jesus turns the whole thing right around, they make an attack on Him, He makes a far more significant attack on them. Why more significant? Because He's the Son of God, He's the judge of all the Earth, and He's judging them. Very serious. He charges them with arrogance over the Word of God. "Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said... But you say... " You see? They were overturning the command of God, "For God said, Honor your father and mother, and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death. But you say, Whatever gift my parents might have otherwise received from me is a gift devoted to God." Thus he is not to be helped by it. You don't need to honor your father with it, "Thus you nullify the Word of God for the sake of your traditions." But then he gets to the even more serious issue. What does God want from us? He wants worship, He wants us to honor Him, and so He gets to this matter of hypocrisy. "You hypocrites," He said, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Oh, those words could haunt any true and righteous heart. You listen to that and you say, "Oh God, may it not be me." And we feel that it might be, not that our souls would be condemned, that our faith in Christ is of no value, but we see that our hearts are prone to wander. We're prone to go through the rituals and prone to come in here and act like we're really okay with God; we're really worshipping and singing and going through the motions, our lips are saying the right things, but our hearts are far from God, and we yearn to be delivered from that. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, not for a sham. We want the real thing, we want to be righteous, we want our worship to be right and so we are hungering and thirsting for a pure heart. That is the issue that's in front of us in this text. What can make me pure within, so that my worship really would be acceptable to God, that I wouldn't be worshipping in vain? "They worship Me in vain," He said. I don't want to waste my time in worship. I don't want you coming here week after week to waste your time, and you will do so if your hearts are far from God. It doesn't matter how many times you come, it's actually worse, because you're hardening your heart, you're learning how to give fake hypocritical worship. Don't learn that skill. But rather that we would come and give to God a genuine heart of worship and praise. That's the thrust of the text. But here it's dealing with it negatively as I mentioned. There's no real answers in the text, only what are not the answers. Legalism and traditionalism and hypocrisy, those are not the answers. What is the issue? The issue is heart religion. When I say heart religion, what am I talking about? The heart is the internal part of you, the part of you that thinks, the part of you that feels, the part of you that reasons, the part of you that decides, the part of you that yearns and has affections, that internal part of you, that is your heart. The Bible says the heart does all of those things. That's what God wants, worship from the heart. The problem is that there is defilement in the heart, impurity. Our hearts are not pure naturally, and so we're coming to the issue of defilement. The legalists said, sprinkle water on your fingers in a certain way, and then you'll be ritually pure. Jesus says, "No, you won't. You're still defiled." There's an internal defilement. True defilement doesn't come from outside in, true defilement comes from inside out. That's what He's getting at. Now, it's interesting, in verse 10 and 11, Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, "Listen and understand, what goes into a man's mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth, now that's what makes him unclean." This is a very significant moment in redemptive history, it really is. Mark highlights it, he underscores it. This is the moment in which Jesus declared all foods clean, very, very significant. It's the reason that we can eat pork with a clear conscience. It's the reason that Peter could be shown a sheet with all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creeping things and snakes, and all kinds of stuff and be told, "Get up Peter, kill and eat," [Acts10]. "Never, Lord," he said, "I've never eaten anything impure and unclean." And he was told, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." It's a change. Does God have that right? Are we going to give Him that permission? It's okay for God to make that change. The Old Covenant has gone, and the New Covenant is here, and this is part of it. If you'll look in Deuteronomy 14, there'll be a list of all kinds of animals, I'll read part of it, "Do not eat anything detestable. These are the animals you may eat... " Are you ready now? "The ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, mountain sheep, you may eat any animal that has a split hoof divided in two and that chews the cud." Those are the rules, and the text continues with the birds you can eat and can't eat, it goes through the fish that you can eat and can't eat, all of that. That was the law, and it was given by God. But here Jesus, who is Lord of heaven and earth, decrees that all foods are clean, spiritually clean. It doesn't mean you can't do damage to your body if you eat certain things, whatever, that's not it, but in terms of spirituality, you're not at any disadvantage, whatever you eat. It's not what goes into a man that makes him defiled, it's what comes out of a man that makes him defiled. That's the issue. We're already impure, we're already defiled, and what comes out of us, that's what defiles us. Jesus made this very plain to His disciples. The disciples came later to Jesus and said, “We have a problem here. Do you realize you have a problem? You have just made quite a statement.” The disciples came in verse 12 and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" Offended would be an understatement. Jesus replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them, they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach, and then out of the body, but the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean, but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean." Very clear, God is intensely concerned with what's going on inside in our hearts, that's what matters to Him. This is a consistent theme in the Scripture. You remember how God rejected Saul from being king? And He said, "I have sought for myself a man after my own heart, and he will be king instead of you." And that man was David. David writes of his heart after God, again and again in the Psalms, it's a major theme in the Book of Psalms. Psalm 9:1-2, "I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonders, I will be glad and rejoice in you, I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." It's heart worship. Psalm 13:5 says, "But I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation." Psalm 16:7, "I will praise the Lord who counsels me, even at night my heart instructs me." There's an internal heart instruction. God instructs the heart, the heart instructs the rest of the person. Psalm 17:3, "Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing. I have resolved that my mouth will not sin." It's a determination from the heart not to sin. Psalm 19:14, "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Read my mind O Lord, read my heart, and may my heart be pleasing to you. May my mind be like an open book and may there be nothing defiled on those pages." Heart religion. Psalm 27:8, "My heart says of you, Seek his face. Your face, Lord, I will seek. Hide not your face from me." That's a heart yearning after God. Or Psalm 1:39, "Search me, O God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." This is true worship then, it is a heart yearning after God, delighting in God inwardly, searching out God's wisdom, keeping purity within one's private thoughts and life, exposing one's heart to the searching out of the holy God, seeking to make the heart and the hands clean, seeking God's face from an internal drive. This is the heart religion of David, and this is what Christ means to work inside you and me. The kingdom of heaven comes first into human hearts, then it comes to the new heaven and new earth. So it's in the hearts of believers, that's where it comes. That's what he means. Jesus was even more concerned about this then was King David. As we've already mentioned, He spoke of the ultimate blessing for internal purity. Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." He said it isn't enough just to refrain from adultery. On Judgment Day you'll stand accountable if you even had a lustful thought in your heart. Jesus said it mattered what your heart was set upon, for wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It means what you're aspiring after. What do you think about? What are you driving for? Jesus said that's a heart religion. How different is this from the professional religious actors that Jesus was rebuking here? Theirs was a sham. It was a show, it was hypocrisy, it wasn't reality. They delighted in traditionalism and ceremonies and did them better than anyone. They lusted after the praise of other people, they hated the Son of God, and they rejected the concept of a genuine heart relationship with God. We must have a pure heart in order to worship God rightly, but we have a problem. Scripture testifies very plainly of the nature of the human heart unaided by the grace of God. In the days of Noah, Genesis 6:5, "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." That was Noah's day. What about in the time of Jeremiah? Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" I met a man in Haiti I will never forget, probably the rest of my life. The man with the red-knit hat, it was 95 degrees and he had a red-knit hat on. He also had an arm that was curved, like it was bent, and had an Ace bandage wrapped around it. It looked like it had been fractured and then set improperly. I was concerned about that, I wanted to see what we could do for him. We were talking, but first and foremost, we wanted to share the gospel, so I began talking to him about his spiritual life. In the conversation I felt needed and led by the Lord to quote to him the Ten Commandments, to go through each of the Ten Commandments quickly. And he said, "I've kept all those." I was surprised. He said, "I've never sinned." I was even more surprised. I've met many people who did not think they sinned enough to go to hell. I actually think most non-Christians are like that. They'll acknowledge that they've sinned, but they just don't think they've sinned enough to merit hell. This man didn't even think he'd ever sinned. I was perplexed, so I said, "Well, you know that Jesus said, 'It's not enough just not to murder, if you're even angry in your heart, you're in danger of the fire of hell.'" "I've never been angry at anyone." I was even more shocked. So I said, "Alright, we gotta ratchet it up on this guy." I said, "If you've even looked at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart." "I've never done that." This guy was in his 50s. So I went to the one that got the Apostle Paul, coveting[Romans chapter 7]. "Have you ever yearned for something that wasn't yours and wish you had it?" "Never. Never done it." I said, "Then Jesus can do nothing for you." It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. That's the nature of the deceit. It doesn't know that it's desperately sick. It thinks it's okay or needs a little help. Well it doesn't. It's a heart of stone, there's no life in it. It's dead. You must have a heart transplant, and only God can do that. I asked the man if he thought I was a Haitian man. He said, "No." I said, "What if I really believe that I'm Haitian?" He said, "You're still not." I said, "Do you think it would help me if I looked in the mirror?" He said, "Yes." And I held up the Bible and I said, "Here's your mirror. There is no one righteous, not even one. No one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become wicked, worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Look at yourself in the mirror." Isn't it amazing how dark a heart can be before God works in them? Now, I don't know what will happen to him. There was nothing more I could do. The heart is dark, it is wicked and it's true still today. Not just in Noah's day, not just in Jeremiah's day, not just in the apostle Paul's day. He said their hearts are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God, and even today. Jesus said that true defilement are sins of the heart. Look what He says, "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these are what make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts: Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. That comes from the heart. And these are what make a man unclean, but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean." That's God's assessment. What is the remedy? The only remedy there is, is salvation by grace. God, Christ, the Great Physician has given His grim diagnosis of our natural state apart from Him, of our hearts apart from the work of God's grace. Our hearts are defiled and polluted. A river of vileness comes naturally from them. How can the heart be made clean? How can I purify my heart? The answer as I mentioned, is not found in the text. It's not religiosity, thinking that man-made forms of worship and service to God make one righteous before God. It's not traditionalism, thinking that keeping man-made traditions in the pattern of the elders will make us pure before God. It is not legalism, thinking that obeying laws, even God's laws, will make us righteous in God's sight. It cannot be. No, no, and no. Even God's holy law cannot clean up a defiled heart. It just can expose it for what it really is. In John Bunyan’s classic, Pilgrim's Progress, Christian is at Interpreter's house, learning about the Christian life, and there's these little dramas that are acted out that help him understand spiritual truth. In one, Interpreter showed him a very large living room full of dust because it had never been swept. Christian saw this for a while and then Interpreter called for a man to come sweep up the room. And as he began to sweep it up, clouds, choking clouds of dust were stirred up so bad that Christian began to choke on it and couldn't breathe. Then Interpreter spoke to a young woman who stood nearby and said, "Bring here the water and sprinkle the room." And when she did, after sprinkling the room with water, the room was quickly cleaned with pleasure. Christian asked, "What is the meaning of this?" Interpreter answered, "The living room is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. The dust is original sin and inward corruptions that have defiled the whole man. The man that came and swept up the room at first is the law of God, but the woman that came and sprinkled the water is the gospel. Now just as you saw that as soon as the man began to sweep, the dust flew about the room so much that the room could never be cleaned and you began to choke because of it, this is to prove to you that the law, instead of cleansing the heart from sin by its power actually revives sin and makes it even stronger in the soul, even as it uncovers sin and forbids it. For the law has no power to kill sin, only to expose it and stir it up. Just as you saw the young woman sprinkle the room with water after which it was cleaned with pleasure, this is to show you that when the gospel comes with its sweet and precious influences into the heart, then I say, even as you saw the young woman sweep up the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin conquered and subdued and the soul made clean through faith, and as a result, fit for the King of Glory to inhabit. The law cannot clean up the heart, even God's holy law. There's nothing wrong with the law, but there's something wrong with the heart. All the law does is expose the wickedness. Only the grace of God in the gospel can clean up and purify the heart. So Jesus said, "Leave these blind guides." Look at verse 12-14. Don't you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this? He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them, they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." What glorious good news. Some day every plant that God has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. All false teachers, false apostles, cult leaders, false religious systems will someday be weeded out of this world, and in the new Heaven and new Earth, they will not be. They'll be gone forever. So leave these blind guides. If a blind leads the blind, both will fall into a pit. I was reading about a huge pit in Maui in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Maui. It's a terrifying volcanic pit called The Devil's Throat. It's 165 feet deep and 150 feet across. What's interesting about it, though, is that there's no fence around it, and there's about a 50-foot path right to the edge. So, they advise that you don't go there at twilight or later, and that you don't let your kids run ahead of you on the path while you walk along slowly behind them. They say that right around the edge there's crumbly rock with fissures in it that you can easily trip on and all that. I'm thinking, I would put a fence up if I were the National Park Service, but there's no fence there. Imagine a blind guide of a school of the blind going to listen to the wind blow in The Devil's Throat. They'll fall into the pit. But the danger of these Scribes and Pharisees is greater than that. The pit they fall in can take your physical life and nothing more. These folks can lead you to hell, they're blind guides. Traditionalism, legalism, hypocrisy. These kinds of things do not purify the heart, they are not the answer. The only answer then is the blood of Christ, the grace of God in Christ. Listen to Titus 3:3-7, "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasure.” That's an impure heart. "We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God, our Savior, appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done but because of His mercy….He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." That's how a defiled heart gets clean. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the blood of Jesus applied, the righteousness of Christ given as a gift, imputed freely as a gift. That's how a defiled heart is made pure. Application What application do we take from this? Do you care whether your worship is acceptable to God or not? Does it matter? Does it matter whether you will spend eternity in the presence of worshippers giving praise and glory and honor to the eternal and Almighty God? Does that matter to you? I don't know your heart condition, all of you. It may be that I'm speaking to some who have never been born again. You are not ready to face judgement, if that's the case, you're not ready. You must have the heart of stone removed and you must have a heart of flesh put in by God. You must have a defiled heart purified by the grace of God. But thanks be to God, it's available right now. Simply trust in Jesus, His blood shed on the cross is sufficient for you. Look to Him and trust in Him for the purification of your heart. The Scripture says, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God." Now to you who are saved, let me give you a word of assurance and comfort because I spoke a moment ago about our hearts being far from God, and we feel that. But let me say something to you, if you have been justified by faith, your heart is pure in God's sight. Isn't that wonderful? After washing His disciples' feet, or while washing his feet, Peter said, "Lord what are you doing? Are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus said, "You don't understand now, later you'll understand." Jesus says, "Can I continue?" Peter said, "No Lord, You will never wash my feet into eternity." Jesus said, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me." Do you hear that? If He doesn't clean your heart, you will not spend eternity with Him. Well, Peter's not done yet. Peter's kind of an arguer, have you noticed, back and forth? He said, "Then Lord, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well." The whole thing, right? But Jesus will not let Peter get the last word. He said, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet, his whole body is clean. And you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you." Oh, what an incredible word that is, that the Creator and Redeemer and Judge of all the Earth can look at you and call you clean. For such is what you are, by hearing and believing the Word of God. Your heart is clean. It has been clean from the first moment you believed, and it will be clean on into eternity. But yet our hearts can still drift from God, can't they? We can get distracted by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth. We can get distracted by the pleasures of this world. We have more ways to distract our hearts than any generation that has ever lived. We are easily distracted from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. I would urge you to weed those distractions out of your life and get back to a pure devotion, so that you don't walk in here feeling like a hypocrite, like you have lived far from God all week long and now you're coming to worship Him with your lips while your heart is far from Him. Don't be like that. Repent from those things that are distracting you from a pure devotion to Christ and give yourself to Him fully. Let Him work in you that weeding process, that purifying process, and next week when you come here on Sunday morning, don't worship with your lips only, but worship with the heart that's been made clean by the grace of Christ.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Romans 10:16-21. The main subject of the sermon is God's continued efforts to reach the Jewish people. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - I. A Different Picture of God... But Not Contradictory Few stories are as dramatic and tragic as the story of unrequited love. You think about how many operas and works of literature and popular songs and poems and odes are written on that theme of unrequited love. One individual loves another and the other either doesn't know they exist or doesn't share their same level of affection, wants to be just friends, perhaps, or perhaps it's a parent-child relationship in which the children are rebelling and do not love the parents the way that they should. It's a tragic story but I would say of all those stories, there's none as tragic as the story of God and the human race. Of God and the human race, and it's pictured very dramatically for us and unfolded in the history of God and Israel. But it would have been no different with any other tribe or language, or people or nation because, frankly, all of us are in here. When it says, "I was found by those who did not seek Me. I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me." And so, here is God extending His arms to rebellious and disobedient people. Not just the Jews, although that's what's being quoted here, but all of us, apart from Christ, not wanting Him, not loving Him. Though, He displays His love day after day, though He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, though He loves His enemies in ways we can't even imagine, yet we spurn Him and turn away from Him and do not love Him. It's an unrequited love. But you know something, God won't stay that way forever. He won't be a jilted lover forever. Because His love is sovereign and powerful, and it creates what it loves, and that's my hope and yours, that God has the power to speak into a cold and dark and hard heart and transform it. Now, as we look at Romans 10:21, look at it again, the very last verse that Allan read. Concerning Israel, he says, "All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." What we have here is a very different picture of God than we have had in Romans 9. It's not contradictory, it's just different. In Romans 9, we have the picture of a sovereign emperor of the universe, one who sits on the throne and who is addressing the question: Why are so many Jews rejecting the Gospel? That's what's before us in Romans 9:10-11. Why are so many Jews turning away from their Messiah? And the immediate answer that Paul gives in Romans 9:6, "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel," he gets into the depths of the doctrine of unconditional and sovereign election. That's his immediate answer to the problem. "God has the power to speak into a cold and dark and hard heart and transform it." And so we saw the sovereignty of God there as He calls Jacob and not Esau in Romans 9:11-12 "Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purposes in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger," but then later in Romans 9:15-16, it says of God, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion… It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort but on God who has mercy." And then again, in verse 18 of chapter nine, "Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." Now, this is an incredible picture of God, it's a picture of God sitting on His throne ruling over all things, but specifically ruling over human salvation, ruling over human salvation, but in Romans 10, here in verse 21, we have a different picture. Look at it again. "All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." God here like the father of the prodigal son waiting for his son to return, after he's done with sin, waiting that he would come home. And we have a similar picture in Jesus when Jesus stands over the city of Jerusalem, and says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you were not willing." The grief and the pain there. Now, I say to you that it is very difficult to reconcile these two. It's hard to get Romans 9 and Romans 10 to kind of coincide in our minds. How do you get the picture of this sovereign God who gets what He wants and nobody can stop Him in Romans 9, and then Romans 10:21, He's standing and holding out His hands to sinners wanting them to come back. There are many popular depictions of a waiting Savior. You've seen perhaps the picture of Jesus standing at a vine-covered door and knocking. Behind that has be Revelation 3:20, "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me," but there He is waiting, knocking, knocking, waiting. And I was troubled by that. I said, "That's not the picture of God I get. He's not passive in salvation." Someone said, "Actually, what He does is, goes around the back, crawls in the window and unlocks the door for Himself." And frankly if he doesn't do that he'll never get in because the human heart doesn't want Him in. I accept that, I think it's true, but I think there's a theme here. Perhaps you've also seen the hymn, The Savior is Waiting. I remember listening to that and after I started to understand God's sovereignty and salvation, I said, "I'm not likely to sing this hymn again," but now when I see Romans 10:21, I begin to wonder if maybe we should sing it. "The Savior is waiting, to enter your heart. Why don't you let Him come in? There's nothing in this world to keep you apart. What is your answer to Him? Time after time, He has waited before and now He is waiting again, to see if you're willing to open the door. Oh, how He wants to come in. If you'll take one step toward the Savior, my friend, you'll find His arms open wide. Receive Him, and all of your darkness will end; within your heart, He'll abide." Now, what I say to you this morning is I think it's a major tragedy for any church to deny one or the other, just 'cause we can't reconcile them. I think it's a major tragedy. It hurts evangelism, it hurts missions to deny one or the other. It's very difficult for us to reconcile these two pictures. People who want to emphasize the sovereignty of God over salvation, they say that God rules over all things, the human heart, they have a hard time with the Savior's waiting. Waiting for what? He moves when He wants, and no one can resist Him. And the Scripture says that. I was reading a reformed theologian named Dr. Van Buren and he had examples of... He's talking about the doctrine of irresistible grace, which I called sovereign grace rather than irresistible, but at any rate, that God gets who He wants, and He has that power over the human heart. At least, that's an example that he found about 100 years ago of a ballot concerning your salvation. Maybe you've seen it And there's three places to vote; two of them have been taken and there's two ways to vote, yes or no, concerning your salvation. God has voted yes, isn't that good news for you? The devil has voted no. Oh, what a shame. But no big surprise. The deciding vote is going to be cast by whom? Well, whoever gets a little tract, right? And you can get a pen and you can vote yes or you can vote no. Oh, there's all kinds of problems with that. Are the Devil and Satan really equal in the matter of human salvation? Do we live in that kind of a universe? But even more troubling is the idea that God is waiting for you to make the final determination. It doesn't seem to fit in Romans 9. The question I want to ask this morning is, can we still retain an understanding of God as sovereign over the human heart, able to break a heart of stone, to transform it and make it into a heart of flesh. He's got that kind of power and yet He can say, "All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." Is it possible to understand the sovereignty of God and a passionate appeal to sinners that they be converted? I think it is, I think it frankly must be. We've got to hold them together, we've got to keep both of them in front of us. People who have no problem with the Savior's waiting have a problem with the picture of God in Romans 9. They don't understand it, they don't see how it can be. We've got to keep both of them in front of us. Frankly, we declare our faith in the sovereignty of God over human salvation every time we drop to our knees and ask God to save someone. I mean, a husband, a wife, a parent, child, relative, coworker. What are you asking God to do? What are you asking Him to do when you get down on your knees? Are you not saying, "Oh God, change their heart, oh, God, give them a love for things they have not loved up 'til now. Oh God, work inside them." That's what you're asking them to do, therefore you're testifying that you believe God can do those kind of things. Or whenever we send out missionaries to seemingly impossible mission fields, unreached people groups, hostile Muslim groups, other groups that seem totally beyond our reach, frankly, any missionary endeavor, are we not stepping out confident in God, and not in ourselves, trusting in Him? But, friends, I think it is just as great a tragedy to deny that we should stand and make passionate, persistent appeals to sinners to be saved, passionate and persistent, that we need in effect to take this stance all day long. "I've held up my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." It's what God does here in Romans 10:21 with Israel. Remember the passion that the Apostle Peter showed on the day of Pentecost. After preaching all of that incredible Pentecost sermon, it says in Acts 2:40, "With many other words, he warned them and pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.'" We don't know what he said, Luke doesn't tell us. He said a lot of other things that are not recorded in the Book of Acts. But do you see His passion? Do you see His heart? Do you see His warnings, His pleadings, perhaps even His tears, though it's not recorded. Do you see Him yearning for His people to be saved? And I believe both of these are taught in the Scripture. We've got to hold them together. And probably the passage that teaches them the most plainly together is Matthew 11:25-30. These are the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and He says in Matthew 11:25, "I praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." Then He said this, "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father, except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him." Strong statement of God's sovereignty. The very next thing He says, is, "Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Is some theological counselor going to sit Jesus down and say, "You seem to be theologically confused. You can't both have 'All things have been committed to Me by My Father,' and, 'Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened.'" Yes, you can. And I think this church needs both. We need a strong commitment to the sovereignty of God over human hearts, along with a passionate, tear-stained appeal to sinners to be converted. We need them both. II. Israel’s Stumbling Block: The Word of Faith vs. Works of the Law Now, Israel had a stumbling block in coming to Christ. And that's what we're dealing with here in Romans 10. Why didn't they come? Why were they not responding to this kind of appeal, all day long God holding out His hands. Why are they not coming? Well, we already learned there's a stumbling block. Look back in Romans 9:31-33. It says there, "That Israel who pursued a law of righteousness has not attained it, why not because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works, they stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, see I lay in Zion, a stone, that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame." So Romans 10, is dealing with the human level. Its not the level of unconditional election, but at the human level as to why the Jews were rejecting Christ. And there it says at the end of Romans 9 that they are rejecting because they stumbled over Christ. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Now, it says in 10:3-4 that Israel sought to establish their own righteousness. It says, "They did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own therefore did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes, so there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." They stumbled over Christ, they stumbled over the idea that righteousness could be given simply as a gift, couldn't accept it, and so they refused it. In 10:5-7 that this righteousness is a simple gift, it's not some stunning religious achievement. You don't have to climb the highest mountain or travel to the far side of the sea or go down to the depths of the sea. No, all you have to do is hear this Word of faith and believe it. "The Word is near you, it's in your mouth and in your heart." It's a simple thing, that, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved, for it is with the heart that you believe and are justified and it is with the mouth that you confess and are saved," it's that simple. But the Jews couldn't accept it and neither could they accept verses 11-13, that this righteousness is available for everybody. It's wide open now. "Anyone who trusts in Him [in Christ] will never be put to shame." Look what it says in verse 12, "For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile." Oh, how offensive that was to some Jews. What do you mean there's no difference between Jew and Gentile? We are God's people, we're descendants of Abraham and we're waiting for God to whip up on these Gentiles? Not save them. But what is this statement? "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" They couldn't accept it. Now, the proclamation of the word of faith is essential to salvation. We talked about that last week versus 14-15: "How then can they call on the one they've not believed in, and how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them and how can they preach unless they are sent as it is written, 'how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?'" That's the missionary endeavor. There are evangelists and missionaries, going out all over the world taking this word of faith, the gospel and simply preaching it. The Jews didn't want to preach to the Gentiles but Paul did it anyway, against some great opposition he continued to preach. And there he's defending as we talked about last time, he is preaching ministry, to both Jew and Gentile, he's reaching out with the Gospel. And the reason for that is that as we heard in verse 17, "Faith comes by hearing." Look at it, verse 17. I'm going to preach God willing, next time, a whole message on this, the final application in the sermon. I'm not going to get to it till next week. So we're going to talk more about the significance of this statement. "Faith comes by hearing." But just look at it for the first time now. "The proclamation of the word of faith is essential to salvation." Consequently it says, "Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ." And so what happens is, as the missionaries, as the evangelists, as the apostles go out and they just preach Christ and Him crucified, they just preach this simple message. What happens is, while the ear drum is vibrating with the sounds, while the concepts are going in the brain, all of a sudden faith comes up in the human heart. Ephesians 2 says it's a gift of God. 2 Corinthians 4 says that God speaks light into the heart and that light is focused on the glory of Christ. But as they're listening to the Gospel, faith comes and they are justified. What a beautiful thing. Faith comes by hearing, the problem is, the Jews hardened their hearts, they did not obey the Gospel. Look what it says in verse 16, "But they have not all obeyed the Gospel." That's the ESV. There's other translations, but I think this is a good one. They hadn't heeded it, they didn't obey it. Friends, the Gospel is a command to be obeyed. Jesus said in Mark 1:15, this is the beginning of His preaching, in Mark's Gospel, He says "The time has come, the Kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news," those are the twin commands of the Gospel, you must repent, you must turn away from sin, you must hate it, stop doing it, turn away from it as a principle, repent and believe the good news that Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of Heaven. And even more, as it unfolds, that He died in our place, on the cross, He shed His blood, that we might have eternal life. Repent and believe, it's a command. We obey the Gospel we also believe it, but we obey it. Well, the Jews did not, they did not obey. Now, the question you may ask, and it's being asked here in Romans 9-11 is well, the Jews are God's people. Does the fact that they did not heed the Gospel and not obey does that mean that God's Word has failed, that God's Word perhaps is ineffective or God's covenants to His people, that His promises have been broken? Oh, absolutely not. It does not mean that. In fact Israel's unbelief, was predicted 700 years before the time of Christ. Isaiah the Prophet predicted it. Look what it says, again, in verse 16, "They have not all obeyed the Gospel for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he heard from us.'" Now do you know where that's from? Well, that's the very beginning of Isaiah 53, that's Isaiah 53:1. What does Isaiah 53? Well, any of you who have studied the Old Testament, looking for Christ and find Him, you're going to find Him in Isaiah 53 more clearly than anywhere else in the Old Testament, you're going to find His bloody death on the cross, His substitutionary atonement His death on the cross more clearly depicted there in Isaiah than anywhere else in the Old Testament. This is what Isaiah says, "He grew up before Him. Like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet, we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted, but He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed, we all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." That's the Gospel, friends, that's Jesus suffering and dying for us. And Isaiah introduced this saying, in effect, they're not going to believe it Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? III. God Leaves Israel No Excuse (verses 16-21) Israel's rejection was predicted centuries before, and so in verses 16-21, I believe the Apostle Paul is basically removing any excuse from Israel concerning that rejection. He takes away the excuses. Excuse #1: “We’ve never heard” Excuse number one would be simply we never heard about this, we never heard about Jesus, we never heard the Gospel. The problem is, they had heard. It's interesting that the people who bring this up as a, in some way, proof that the exclusivity of Christ can't be true. Because there's so many people who haven't heard the Gospel are not in that category, they have heard about Christ, and they're raising up this question and I've actually said in witnessing opportunity, saying, "Well I am so grateful that at this early stage, you have such a compassion on the lost. I'm grateful that you are so concerned about those who've never heard but the fact is you've heard." And so whether they ever hear or not, you have to deal with this Gospel, you have heard, and that's in effect what Paul says here. He says, in verse 18, "But I asked, did they not hear, did they not hear? Of course they did. 'Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.'" And by the way, that's a remarkable citation of Psalm 19, it's incredible. Psalm 19 is a great Psalm talking about how the heavens are telling the Glory of God, The skies proclaim the work of His hands. It's an amazing thing because it's just talking about natural revelation, how the sun and the moon and the stars talk about, about God. The rising and setting of the sun every day, gives clear testimony to the existence of God, the creator. Now you say, "What does that have to do with the preaching of the Gospel?" Well, it just talks about God's commitment to communicate to the entire human race. He has a commitment to reveal Himself and in a similar way, He is revealing himself in the Gospel as these beautiful feet as the messengers, the evangelists, the apostles cross mountains and rivers and oceans, to bring this Gospel to the ends of the earth. Their testimony has gone out over all the world, God has sent out His messengers. And by the time Paul wrote Romans, progress, astonishing progress had already been made. At the end of Romans. You can look there or just listen, but in Romans 15:18-24, you could turn there, if you want or just listen. In Romans 15:18-24, Paul says this, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done by the power of signs and miracles through the power of the Spirit. Listen, So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ." Illyricum is Yugoslavia. It's right across from the Italian boot, it's right there. So basically, the entire Northern Region of the Mediterranean Paul says I have fully preached the Gospel everywhere, and he goes beyond that, he keeps going in verse 20, 15:20, he said, "It's always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation, rather as it is written. "Those who were not told about him will see and those who have not heard will understand." That's Isaiah 52, right before 53, Paul knows these verses so that I want to preach Isaiah 53 everywhere I go, kings will hear about Him and rise up princes will see and they'll fall down on their faces. Paul says, "I want to see that happen. So it's my ambition to go where Christ has never been known. But I have a problem, there's no more place for me to work in this area. Everybody's heard of Jesus, and I am a trailblazing missionary, so I've got to go on and so I'll be passing through God willing, through Rome on my way to Spain. Because I just can't find any place to work anymore." That's incredible. The Gospel had super saturated that area. It wasn't just the apostles, it was the churches they planted, and so the Thessalonian Christians were witnessing. Their faith in God had been reported all over the world, it was multiplying and exploding, it was exciting. And so Paul can make this statement in Colossians 1:23, "This is the Gospel that you heard, and that has been proclaimed to every creature under Heaven every creature under Heaven." Well, we know now it's not literally every single solitary human being but he's saying that the Gospel had been so widely preached that it had made this kind of progress and now it's reached you, Colossians, it's gotten to you. This is the ultimate end of the gospel ministry. Jesus said, in Matthew 24:14, "This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come." So we're going all over the world, just like the sun from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, Jesus's name will be great. So again, I asked Have they not heard?" What's the first thing Paul did in every town he went to the Jewish synagogue, and preached. Oh, they have heard. They have heard of Jesus. There's no excuse. Excuse #2: “We Did Not Understand” Secondly, we did not understand, we didn't get it, they told us about Jesus, he told us about Jesus, but we didn't understand. Well how does he deal with this? Verse 19, he says, "Again I asked, did Israel not understand? At first, Moses says, 'I'll make you envious by those who are not a nation, I will make you angry, by a nation that has no understanding.' And Isaiah boldly says, 'I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.'" This is a very deep answer. In a nutshell. I think what he's saying here is the fact that the Gentiles are turning to Christ shows that not understanding the Gospel is no obstacle, and no excuse you know why, because God can overcome that in anybody. First of all at one level the Gospel is so simple, a child could understand it. God sent His son, He died in our place. Trust in Him and He'll save you. It's really quite straightforward. The depths as we'll see in Romans 11, at the end are so deep none of us can fathom them all. But on the issue of understanding, that was no obstacle for the Gentiles. Now, let's remember the Gentiles… Ephesians 4 describes them in verse 17, and following, Paul says there, "So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the gentiles do in the futility of their thinking, they're darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them, due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more." Those are the Gentiles. They're not sounding too good. It didn't sound like they understand anything. And frankly, Paul says right here, quoting he says, "I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me." And God is saving Gentiles by the thousands. Is that an obstacle I don't understand, I don't get it. Well, it is an obstacle that will damn your soul, if God doesn't save you from it, but He has that kind of power. To speak into a dark heart and into a dark mind He can do that. He can create light where there was darkness before. He can speak to a pagan people who have no interest in a Jewish Messiah, and suddenly they can turn. They woke up that morning a pagan idolater, they went to bed that night a Christian. Hallelujah. God has that kind of power and He can do it for Jews, too. He's going to get to that in chapter 11. God hasn't rejected His people, I'm [Paul] a Jew. He can do it in our hearts, too. And so God has the kind of power to reach out and to create inside the heart of somebody who's running from God, to create a yearning for God inside that heart, He has that power. "I was found by those who did not seek for me, I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me." That is powerful. Excuse #3: “God Has Never Revealed Himself to Us” The final excuse is God has not revealed Himself to us, is that true? Has God not revealed Himself to Israel? Well, how many prophets did he need to send? How many prophecies about Christ was enough? As one of the Jews said, when watching Jesus, "when the Messiah comes, will He do more miracles than this man?" How much more revelation is needed? God has revealed Himself to the Jews powerfully but they have not turned. Romans 10:21, Israel has no excuse because God has constantly made an appeal to them all day long. I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. Oh how powerful is this. Generation after generation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has been reaching out to the Jewish people. One prophet after another. One messenger after another. Jesus told the parable of the tenant farmers in the vineyard, the landowner rents out his farm or his vineyard to these tenant farmers they are, the Jews. And then he sends messengers to collect a share of the harvest, but they kill them one after another, kill them one after another, killed them finally he says, "Well I'll send my Son. They wi'll respect my son." They say look, here's the heir, let's kill him and take the inheritance. And so, they kill him, too. What is the point of the parable? Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you. I'm standing there, generation after generation. I'm holding out my hands to you. And Jesus in Matthew 23, says, "Therefore I'm sending you prophets and wise men, and teachers, I'm going to send you apostles and you will kill them and you will flog them, in your synagogues, and pursue them, from town to town. That's what you will do all day long I've held out my hands to a disobedient obstinate people. But you know something, even in the midst of this, Romans 10, Do you not see, God's still doing it? Do you not see Him still reaching out, even now, through, the Apostle Paul. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, come, take my yoke upon you. Trust in me believe in me, I'm still holding out my hands to a rebellious and obstinate people, to a people who murmur against me argue against me who refute the scriptures and show how it can't be Jesus. I've held out my hands and I continue to do so. IV. Application: Imitating God in Our Evangelism and Missions What application can we take from this? Well, next week we'll talk about faith comes by hearing. But I just want to zero in on this one thing. I believe that we at First Baptist church, we Christians, we need to imitate God in this. Look at verse 21, Concerning Israel, He says, "All day long. I have held out my hands to a disobedient obstinate people." All day long, all day long, shows perseverance, long-suffering, putting up with the obstacles that have come your way when you try to lead someone to Christ. Putting up with the obstacles that come your way when you try to plant a church in an unreached people. The long suffering, putting up with the obstacles that come when you try to lead a spouse or a child or a friend to Christ, all the flak. The guy who led me to Christ, put up with so many things, I will not want to see a video tape of what I did to him for those 18 months. I was unkind, I was rude. And the Lord reminds me of it often. He says, "Have you done as much for this individual as Steve did for you over those 18 months in bringing you to Christ? "No Lord, I haven't." "Well, hang in there, persevere, be long-suffering, don't give up easily." So all day long I see that patience there I also see initiative. I have held out my hands. It starts with God and moves out and reaching out to you. There's an initiative. We don't wait for the sinners to come here, then they won't. Why would they come here? We go from here out. We take the initiative and find out where they are. In passion, I've held out My hands. This is tough for me. I can witness on an airplane in a kind of a cold "oh, by the way, this is an interesting thing" sort of way without risking much. But if they start to see some tears coming down my face, like "Whoa, you getting a little heavy on me here, this is too intense back off." And they don't want that. There's an intensity there, but then Acts 2:40, "With many other words, He warned them and pleaded with them. Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Where is that warning and pleading in our evangelism where is the holding out your hands to a disobedient obstinate people. Be willing to be counted a fool for Christ's sake. See the passion, and see the persuasion. I've held out my hands Come now, let us reason together. Let's talk about these scriptures let's talk about the predictions about Christ. Let's reason. And let's be willing to suffer. Look what He says to a disobedient and obstinate people. You know something, the more I go on in my Christian life, and as a pastor, the more I realize how overwhelmingly powerful, a force is sin. I mean it's just there, it's in my face all the time, not just my own sin, but the sins of others. It is tough to change a human heart, isn't it? This is a supernatural work of God, and if we are going to be fruitful, as a church, if we're going to see a lot of people baptized if we're going to see a lot of people discipled through our ministry, we will have to be willing to suffer their disobedience and obstinance while they wrestle with the Gospel. We go to be willing to put up with it. And I believe that our fruitfulness will be in direct proportion to our willingness to pay that price. The more we're willing to suffer what it takes to take the Gospel, the more fruitful it will be. And I think that's exactly what God's calling on us to do. Would you close with me in prayer?