From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I would like to call your attention this evening to the words found in Paul's Epistle to the Romans in chapter 11, reading from verse 7 to verse 10. From verse 7 to verse 10 in the 11th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. "What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway."

Now here we come to the third subsection of the first division of this 11th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. We've suggested that you divide it, that indeed it divides itself very naturally into three sections. The first from verse 1 to 10, the second section from verse 11 to verse 32, and then the remaining portion, which is the great doxology of verses 33 to 36. Now we are analyzing the first section at the moment. And we've seen, as I say, that this is divided again into three sections.

The first, where the apostle in answering this question, "Has God finally and totally cast away His people?" answers first of all by saying no, because I myself am an Israelite, and I am saved. Then secondly, he goes on to show that not only is he saved and a Christian, but there are many others. That as there was a remnant of 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal in the time of Elijah the prophet, even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. That's his second answer, therefore. He himself, this large number of Jews who had also believed the gospel with him.

And that is a further proof, therefore, that the rejection of Israel as a nation is not a total rejection. There remaineth this election, this remnant according to the election of grace. And then you remember we saw how in the sixth verse, he once more underlines this great point that it is by grace. And if it is by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. Very well. Now then we come to the third division or the third subsection of this first great section, which is found in these verses 7, 8, 9, and 10.

And what he does here, of course, is to sum up what he's been saying in the first six verses. That is his customary method as we've seen. He makes his statements, then he generally sums it all up again. This, of course, is just the perfection of teaching. The apostle was concerned not merely to make statements, but to help people to understand the truth. He was concerned to expound it to them as he says later on, "This is a mystery. I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery." Well, very well, he wants to enlighten them. So he's very careful to make his statements and to sum up in each case before he proceeds to another point.

So here he does it like this. He makes his statement in verse 7, and then he supports it and substantiates it in verses 8, 9, and 10 by quotations from the Scripture. Now, those who have been working with me through this great Epistle will know that this is his invariable method. There's no better method conceivable. You make your statements, draw your deductions, and then you substantiate them from the Scripture. And that puts them into a category and into a position in which no one can gainsay them.

Now then, this is what he does here. Now we are approaching here a most important statement, and in many ways, an extremely difficult one. It's a most solemn statement, a most solemn passage. We certainly are entering into the realm of ultimate mystery. Therefore, let us as we approach this passage metaphorically take off our shoes from off our feet, for the place on which we stand is holy ground. This is a passage that must be approached with reverence and with humility and with care. It does indeed hold us face to face with some of the most serious, most mysterious elements of the biblical teaching and of Christian teaching in particular.

And therefore I say we must really make an effort to deal with ourselves and with our spirits. It's not easy to understand what we're going to consider. And the danger always is that people take up attitudes and they react violently, as we were reading in the seventh chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles that those unfortunate Jews did to the preaching and the teaching of that holy man of God, Stephen, and whom they finally stoned to death. They gnashed their teeth at him. Why? Well, because they couldn't understand the truth that he was teaching, and they didn't like it. But that's the kind of thing, I say, that we have got to avoid.

It may well be that after we've considered this statement, we shall not understand it. I'm not proposing to say or to claim that anybody can understand what we've got to consider here. But let us bear in mind then what the apostle himself says at the end of the chapter. It's very applicable at this point. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."

Now, that's the spirit of the way in which we must approach this. Remember we're dealing with the mind and the ways of God. And we must, therefore, rather anticipate that we shall not be able to understand it fully. But a man who rebels because he doesn't understand the mind of God is one who puts himself immediately into the very category, I say, of these Jews whose tragic case and condition we are considering. Let's be careful, my friends. We're all too ready to speak our opinions. And when we don't understand the mind of God, to say we don't accept it, we can't have it, this seems to us to be wrong. That was the whole trouble with the Jews.

God forbid, therefore, that any of us should be guilty of the terrible thing of which they were guilty. I say that as we approach the passage. Very well, then. Let's look at it. Let's first of all just get the thing clear in our minds as to what exactly the apostle is saying. He starts off by saying, "What then?" which means, "What therefore?" In other words, what's the position then? In the light of what I've been saying, what's the position? What is it? And he answers, here is the deduction, here is the statement. "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for."

That's to say, the nation as a whole, the nation speaking generally, the nation in bulk. Remember, not including the remnant according to the election of grace, but the nation looked at in general as a body. Israel, that's what he means by Israel. And what he says about them: "hath not obtained that which he seeketh for." Now this word "seeketh" is a most important one because it means earnest seeking. The apostle put a preposition to the word that he used for "seeking" in order to give it emphasis. It's not a mere casual looking at; Israel, he says, was earnestly seeking, was most genuinely concerned about this matter, and persisted in doing so. And he's put it in the present tense, so he's saying she is still seeking.

Israel was really seeking. What was she seeking? Well, he says, "that which he seeketh for." What is this? Well, there's no question, it must be righteousness. It must, if you like, be justification. They were seeking the blessing of God. They wanted to be right with God, and they wanted to be blessed by God. That's what they were seeking. They were seeking, therefore, communion with God, fellowship with God, to enjoy the life and the blessings of God. Now, he says they were earnestly seeking that. And they were persistently seeking that. But, he says, they haven't got it.

"But," he says, on the other hand, "the election hath obtained it." Now, here's a most interesting statement. You notice that he doesn't say, "the elect have obtained it." He says, "the election hath obtained it." Why do you think he does that? Well, it seems to me that there can be only one answer at this point. If he had said, "the elect had obtained it," we'd tend to think of the elect as individuals. And we might fall into the error of thinking that they were the best people and that as the result of their being that and what they'd done, they had obtained it. Well, now, in order to obviate any such possibility, the apostle refers to them as "the election."

The election hath obtained it. And he does that in order to bring out this great point: that they have obtained it because they have been elected by someone else, the thing we've already seen. He's just underlining that, "the election." This great act of God, this is the thing that has secured it for them. So he refers to them in an abstract sort of way as the election. You don't think of them so much as a number of individuals as this body of people. And there the glory is entirely to be given to God. It is He who elects, who is emphasized by this term rather than a choice made by the people. Very well.

Here then is the main statement: that "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest," that's to say, the bulk of the nation, all in the nation apart from this election, this body of elect people, "the rest," he says, "were blinded." Now, we've got to look at this word for a moment and very largely because of the excitement of the commentators with respect to this word. They all make a big point of pointing out how it really should be translated "hardened." And the word that the apostle used, of course, does mean hardened and is used as such.

But I'm here to contend that the Authorized translators were perfectly right in translating it as "blinded." They've done exactly the same thing in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians, in the third verse and in the third chapter and the 14th verse, where he says, "But their minds were blinded." That chapter, by the way, is a very good commentary on this point we are dealing with; it's the same thing, 2 Corinthians 3. And there in verse 14 he says, "their minds were blinded." It's exactly the same word as we've got here. It means hardening, very well. But it means, you see, that a kind of callosity, if you like, a callous mass has come over the eyes which has prevented their seeing.

So it's translated here by the Authorized translators as blinded. And I think we can justify them for this reason: that the quotation which the apostle immediately adduces is one that refers to blindness. "According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see." Why shouldn't there be an opacity in the eye as well as hardening of the heart? There is. And he goes on from his quotations to elaborate that point. So it seems to me that the Authorized translators were showing themselves to be expositors as well at this point by putting in "blinded" instead of "hardened." Of course, it comes to exactly the same thing in the end.

I wouldn't even have mentioned it were it not that the commentators, and especially the modern ones, make such a fuss about it. These Authorized translators generally had a very good reason for doing a thing like this, and that, it seems to me, was their reason at this point. But the thing for us to notice is this: that it's in the passive. "They were blinded." They were blinded, that's what he says. We'll have to come back to that, and that's where this tremendous doctrine comes in.

Then having made his statement in verse 7, he now goes on, as I say, in the next three verses just to substantiate it, underwrite it, as it were, and establish it. And he does a most extraordinary thing here in the eighth verse. He takes a number of quotations and out of them, he produces one fresh kind of statement from the Scripture. Now, I don't stay with this tonight because we've commented on it many times before. But what the apostle really does here is to take three passages of Scripture, Old Testament Scripture, and he reduces them to one statement. Now, here are the ones that he's quoting.

Isaiah 29, verse 10: "The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes." That's one of them. Another is Deuteronomy 29:4: "The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." That's Deuteronomy 29:4: "The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day." And there is no doubt a reference also to Isaiah 6:9: "Hear ye indeed, and understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not."

Now then, the apostle seems to have taken those three statements and he has reduced them to this one composite statement, including the great and leading ideas in the three together. Here again is just another instance of the divine inspiration of the apostle. The same spirit who had indicted the three statements is here governing this man of God, this great apostle, and is bringing the same meaning out of the three into this one composite statement.

Well now, but what does he say? Well, what he says is this: "God hath given them the spirit of slumber." God hath given them or produced in them a kind of torpor, a kind of numbness, a kind of sleepiness, a semiconscious state. That's the meaning of the word. This kind of torpor, of course, always results in an inability to use our faculties. If you're under the influence of a drug, well, you seem to be dimly aware, vaguely aware, of things happening round and about you, but you can't understand and you can't take them in. You're not completely unconscious, but still you're not fully conscious, and you're not fully aware of what is happening. That is to be in a kind of drugged or state of torpor, that kind of condition.

It means that one cannot exercise one's faculties, and it affects, as he says, the most important and the highest faculties: seeing and hearing, perceiving, understanding. And he says that God hath given them this spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day. Now, what the apostle is saying is this: this has happened to Israel before. We've got these examples of it even in the time of Moses and in the time of Isaiah, and it is still happening today. He says there's nothing new about this, unfortunately. It's happened before, it is still happening, and this is the explanation of the fact that the majority of the nation of Israel, all indeed apart from the remnant according to the election of grace, are refusing the gospel and are outside the Christian church. They're doing it for exactly the same reason as before.

There's the eighth verse. Then in verses 9 and 10, he gives us a quotation from the 69th Psalm, and particularly verses 22 and following. "And David saith," he's quoting the 69th Psalm, "Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway." Now, here again is a most important, significant, and at the same time, difficult statement.

Here it is, David said, "Let their table." Now, the table, of course, means the things that are on the table. It doesn't mean the table as such. The table is used to represent the food that is on the table in such great abundance and great blessing. They've got a table loaded with food and drink, everything that could be desired. They've got that. But, says David, let that very table become a trap to them; let it become a snare to them. And here, of course, he uses the familiar illustrations that an agricultural community would understand so well, the gins and the traps that they used to catch birds and various other animals.

They still use traps in catching moles and things like that, and at one time they did it in catching rabbits and hares and so on. These traps that are set, concealed, and the poor animal just goes along without suspecting anything, and suddenly the trap closes. A trap and a snare. There's no point in going into the distinction between the two, but in order to bring out the imagery in its fullness, the two terms are used. But the significant word is "and a recompense." A trap and a stumblingblock and a recompense unto them.

And the recompense means this: that this is happening to them, as it were, as a reward for what they've been, but not a good reward but a bad one. In other words, let this happen to them that they may reap the consequences of their own recalcitrance, their own obduracy, their own wrong and terrible attitude towards the truth of God. Now, what he's saying in other words is this: David was saying and praying that the very benefits that they were receiving from God, he prays that they may become a punishment to them and a hindrance to them. The very benefits themselves become the source of their cursing.

Now, what does he mean then by the table? Well, I think this is most important for us. It's a most important, it seems to me, at the present time, this passage that we're dealing with, as far as I'm concerned, gives us a better understanding of this present age through which you and I are passing than anything that I know of. That is where this whole chapter is of such great significance. What's he saying? Well, what he's saying is something like this. David was confronted with this kind of condition. And David says because of these people and their rebellion, let the very blessings that you've given them become a curse to them. The table, the material benefits and blessings.

Now, there are instances of this in the Old Testament. One of the most terrible verses I always think in the whole of the Old Testament is found in Psalm 106 and verse 15. It reads like this: "And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." You remember what it was, the Psalmist is reviewing the long story of the children of Israel. They believed His words, they sang His praise; they soon forgot His works, they waited not for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. This was the cry for meat, you remember, and the quails were sent to them and so on. But this is how he sums it up: "He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their souls." He gave them prosperity, He gave them a table loaded with what they wanted, but at the same time He sent a leanness into their souls. Their bodies became fat, but their souls became lean.

Now, that's a part of this statement. "Let their table become a snare and a trap and a recompense unto them." But I don't think that we can confine this only to the material benefits and blessings. I think the others are also included. Look at this nation of Israel. God had blessed them. In a material sense, He'd taken them into the land of Canaan, He'd given them this country for nothing, a land flowing with milk and honey, a most wealthy land, an excellent land. He'd given them all that. Their table was loaded. But as you know, it became a curse to them.

Not only that, God had given them other blessings. He'd given them the law, He'd given them His word. As Paul has reminded us at the beginning of chapter 3, He'd given them His lively oracles. Indeed, He'd given them all the things that we have in that list in chapter 9, you remember, in verses 4 and 5. "Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers," and so on. Now all that I think is included here also.

And David's petition is that these things which they've abused and misused and which they've regarded in a wrong way may become a snare and a trap and a kind of evil recompense to them. And this is the very thing, of course, that was true of the children of Israel. That's the apostle's point here. He's quoting it for that reason. He says this is the fulfillment of all that. It has been partially fulfilled in the past, but here is the real fulfillment.

And then he adds to that this picture in the 10th verse: "Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see." That's not so much physical as spiritual. Let there come a kind of blindness upon them. And then, "bow down their back alway." It's the picture of an old man bent, losing his strength, scarcely able to move at all. He's lost his power, he's lost his vigor. Let their bow down their back alway.

Now then, what does this mean? Well, here it seems to me is one of the important things for us to note as we pass before I come to still more important doctrinal and practical conclusions and deductions. But the principle that he's putting before us is this, you see: that if we do not obey God, that God's very blessings will become a curse to us.

That's why I say that this is so important at the present time. Isn't that a part of the explanation of the state of the church and of this country at the present time? The Christian church became big and important and wealthy, take last century in particular. She no longer was a despised little sect; the church was popular. Churches were crowded a hundred years ago. The church was affluent in every respect. And I believe that that has been a curse to her and that we are inheriting something of the consequences of that. The terrible thing is this: that even God's blessings, if you look at them in the wrong way and abuse them, will become a curse to you.

That is why tradition is something about which we always are to be most careful. You look at the long history of the church, and you'll generally find this: that places which at one time enjoyed unusual blessings are by today some of the most barren places in the universe. Now, I happen to know particular instances of that. I was brought up in a place where a mighty man of God was preaching for 50 years 200 years ago, the great Daniel Rowland of Llangeitho, of whom Bishop Ryle says that he's come to the conclusion that he was the greatest preacher since the apostles. That's Ryle, not me. Daniel Rowland preached there for 50 years, and that place used to experience heaven upon earth Sunday by Sunday and on other occasions. I find it very difficult to think of any place known to me at the present time that is so spiritually dead.

And I have no doubt it's this is the explanation: they tended to live on the tradition. I could name you other places. This has happened to many chapels, individual chapels. They've been blessed, God has loaded the table. But the very blessing has become a curse to them. Even though the blessing has been the word of God, the law, the gospel, God's own word. I've seen some strange examples of this. I can think of a church at the moment in another country of which this is very true, it seems to me. They've become proud of themselves, spiritually proud: we are the people. And the curse has already started, and they're beginning to get blind. And that's always the beginning of a sad and a terrible declension.

So you see it includes all that. The table may mean not only material gifts and blessings from God, it may mean God's own word, God's richest blessing. That can become a curse to the people. These were the very people to whom the oracles of God were given, yet they were much more blind than the Gentiles who hadn't got the oracles of God and who were without God in the world and without any knowledge or instruction whatsoever. This is the terrible thing that's being taught here.

And I think this is a word to modern evangelical people. God forbid, my friends, that when God chooses to revive His work again, that evangelicals should be the people who should be bypassed because they're living on a tradition rather than on a living experience of God. Because they've become proud of their knowledge of the Scriptures, but have lost the spirit. Because they've enjoyed a kind of affluence, material as well as spiritual. It's an appalling thought. Is the decline, the declension in this country today not due largely to these things? Our very affluence may be the greatest curse. The danger with an affluent society always, a nation or a group of people, is to be content and to slacken, and the poorer nations are working hard while we become slack, they're putting energy into it. And so our very blessing becomes a curse to us.

I think this has been seen since the last war. The recovery of Germany has been a phenomenon, an amazing phenomenon. She's one of the leading industrial nations. Why? Well, because she was so down that she had to work, whereas the other nations, the more prosperous nations, tend to rest upon their oars. That's the principle that's involved here, and it can happen to a church, it can happen to a Christian individual. And it can apply, I say, not only to material benefits and blessings and affluence; it can even apply to an understanding of the word and the possession of the truth. The moment we begin to rest upon it and to take pride in it and to think that we are the people, we fall into this very error that brought down this terrible calamity upon the children of Israel, as Stephen made so plain and so clear to them in that address which led to his death, which we read just now in the seventh chapter.

Well now, then, there is the case as the apostle puts it forward. And what he really is saying, you see, is this in a sense. He says, look here, the phenomenon which is confronting us is one that has been happening in the life of the nation of Israel in past centuries continually. He says there are instances of it, and I'll quote them to you, and he quotes them to you. There are other instances that he doesn't quote. But what he is really saying is this. Now then, all those were but suggestions, adumbrations, as it were, of something still more terrible that was going to happen. And he says now, in our time, it has happened. They were foreshadowings, but the thing itself has now taken place.

Now, it's important we should grasp this because our Lord Himself really said this very thing in His teaching of the children of Israel. Take for instance this in Matthew 21:43. Or let me start at verse 42. Our Lord has just spoken to them the parable of the householder who planted a vineyard and hedged it round about, and then sent his messengers, his servants, and they killed them one after the other. And then he said, "Well now then, last of all, he sent unto them his son saying, They will reverence my son." You see, he'd sent the servants and they'd killed them. That's a picture of the prophets whom he'd sent one after another. But at last, the time comes when he says, "Well now, if they do that to my prophets, I'll send my son to them. They will reverence my son."

But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, "This is the heir," I'm reading out of Matthew 21, the parable begins at verse 33. "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on the inheritance." And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. "When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?" They say unto him, "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." Jesus saith unto them, "Did ye never read the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?" Psalm 118. "Therefore I say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." There's the pronouncement, there's the calamity. It's come to this at last. God's patience, as it were, has come to an end. Here is the ultimate.

"Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet.

But listen to this also in Matthew 23. Let's begin to read at verse 34. Matthew 23 beginning at verse 34. "Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."

Now the teaching is plain. It's the same exactly as in that parable. This had been happening in a small way in the past throughout the running centuries to the children of Israel. But now, it's all being gathered up. All these things shall come upon this generation. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Now there is our Lord Himself saying this very thing that the apostle is expounding here in these verses in the 11th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. And we've already seen Stephen saying it. Stephen has taken them through the whole history. He says you've always been like this and sums it up in these terrifying words beginning at verse 51 in the seventh of Acts: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it."

Now that's the very thing that the apostle is saying here. This had been the tendency of this people from the very beginning. But now the final calamity has come upon them. All that had been predicted and prophesied has come up into a head. These were but suggestions of what was coming; it's now come. And so you see it helps us to understand the whole of the teaching of the Old Testament. That's a kind of prophecy; the whole of the Old Testament, in a sense, is a prophecy of this climactic point when the Son of God came and the chosen people didn't recognize Him but crucified Him, crying "Away with Him, give unto us Barabbas!" and so the judgment of God comes down upon them.

And you see the terrifying thing about it all is this: that it all happened to them in a sense because they were the people of God. Because they did have the promises when nobody else had them. Because they alone had the oracles, the word of God, and all the ceremonial and the temple and all that it taught and suggested. These very blessings that God had given to them were the things that had blinded them to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

And so you see the apostle, having made his statement which is, "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." Well now, there's exposition. What's the teaching? What are the doctrines? What are the lessons taught here? Now, I'm suggesting that there are four of them. We're not going to deal with them tonight; my time has gone. I'm only going to deal with the first, which is the shortest.

But let me tell you what the four are. First, the great lesson about the wrong way of seeking this blessing. Secondly, judicial blindness. Thirdly, imprecatory psalms. Fourth, Messianic psalms. Those are the four doctrines, the four matters that we've got to deal with here. We're bound to deal with them. But let me just say a word before we close this evening on this first. It's the simple one, it's the most obvious one. It's the one that I've really already been emphasizing.

Why is it true to say that "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded?" Why? Well, the whole answer is because they were not seeking it in the right way. It's because of their complete misunderstanding of the law, the complete misunderstanding of the teaching of the prophets, their completely wrong idea as to the Messiah in His character and His work when He came.

Now, the apostle has really said it all as I pointed out in introducing this chapter. What he takes up at the beginning of chapter 11 is what he said at the end of chapter 9. Here it is: "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed."

Their whole tragedy was due to the fact that they didn't seek the thing they were seeking in the right way. What they were seeking was right. But here's the terrible lesson: you can be seeking the right thing and yet miss it entirely because you're not seeking it in the right way. Are we all clear about this? This is where the danger of religion comes in. There are very genuine people in this country tonight who say, "I want to know God, I want to find God, I want to be blessed of God." But they don't know Him, and as they if they remain as they are, they never will. But they're zealous, they're keen, they read their Bible, they pray, they do good works, they'll do almost anything. Some of them make great sacrifices.

But they don't know Him. And as long as they persist as they are, they never will know Him. Now, let's not forget what the apostle has said about these people: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God." They have it. They really were seeking intensely, persistently, energetically. The Pharisee was not a man who merely said, "I fast twice in the week and give a tenth of my goods to the poor." He did it. It was true. That's the whole tragedy of these people. It is the tragedy of all people who trust to their own religion or their own seeking of God or their own good works or anything else.

There is only one way in which this blessing can be obtained. It is entirely by faith. The tragedy of Israel is that she didn't seek it by faith. She was thought if she could keep the law and she was trying to keep the law, and she thought it was possible to keep the law. She felt that she could obtain righteousness and get the blessing of God by her works, by the possession of the law, by her activities, by the temple. You see, that's why Stephen has to say to them, "Look here, don't tell me we've got the temple. God dwelleth not in temples made with hands."

They were worshipping the temple. They thought every time they went into the temple that they were getting a blessing because they were in the temple. They didn't realize that you could have a heart of stone even in the temple. And the moment you look at the temple in this wrong way and people are doing it: dim religious light, cathedrals, great buildings, "This is a religion," they think. "This is the worship of God. This mountain," as the woman of Samaria said, "Others say no, Jerusalem." "No," says our Lord, "neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem. The time cometh and now is, when the Father shall seek the true worshippers. God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

If you are relying upon the fact you've got a Bible or the Scriptures or that you're a church member or that you go to a particular building or that you're doing certain good works, you're like the Jews: you're outside, you're blind, and you haven't got it, and you'll never get it along that line. There is only one way of salvation. This is the message of the whole Bible. It is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is simple faith in Him, nothing else. If you bring anything else in, you haven't got it. You'll never obtain it. You may get great personal satisfaction as the Jews had. But the test is this: how do you react to the preaching of justification by faith only? Do you snarl with your teeth? Do you spit upon it? Are you annoyed or irritated by it? Do you feel it's unfair to you? If it if so, you're like the Jews.

That's the tragedy of this people. In other words, I don't hesitate to make this terrible assertion: I believe I say we are witnessing something like this at the present time. It's an a terrible thing to say, but isn't it true that the greatest hindrance to true knowledge of God in Christ and salvation in this country today is the so-called Christian church in this country? It's the greatest hindrance to the people. The church is representing a false Christianity and is a stumblingblock and a hindrance to the people. Those who believe still in justification by faith are a very small remnant. We remember last Friday, not as small as we sometimes think. Thank God there are 7,000 who have not bowed the knee.

But we're a remnant, and there is no question but that it is the official church, Christendom as it's called, is today the greatest hindrance to the true faith and the true Christian position not only in this country but in the whole world. The Church of Rome, official religion in this country: it's a terrifying thing, but it's been true in the past, and I believe it is true today.

But let us go on, as I've said already. Let us be careful also who believe that we belong to the remnant. The apostle will tell us later on in this very chapter not to boast, not to make that terrible mistake, not to judge them easily and think that all is well with us. Boast not against the branches. For if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root beareth thee. We all need to examine ourselves and to be careful. And there is only one safe position when we can say honestly, "I am nothing. Thou art all." Here is this terrible lesson of this nation of Israel. Israel hath not obtained that which she seeketh for so intently and earnestly and zealously and honestly and sincerely. She hasn't obtained it. Why? Well, because she had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. And the knowledge is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. May God have mercy upon us all and give us understanding in these great mysterious matters. Amen.

O Lord our God, we come unto Thee. we come in fear and trembling, realizing something of Thy greatness and glory and majesty and knowing the treachery of our own natural hearts and of our own minds. Lord, keep us we pray Thee ever to that simplicity which is in Christ Jesus. Let nothing please nor pain me apart, O Lord, from Thee. Grant unto us to learn the lesson of Thy Word, to learn the lessons of history in this vital all-important matter. Hear us, O Lord, and receive our humble praise and adoration.

And now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now this night throughout the remainder of this our short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage and evermore. Amen.