Do not be ignorant

I'd like you to turn to Romans chapter 11, please. The Apostle Paul to the Romans, chapter 11. Let's begin reading from verse 25.

Romans chapter 11, verse 25. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own deceits. The blindness, or hardness in part, is happened to Israel until the time of the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. Turn, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

1 Corinthians chapter 10, begin from verse 1, please. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, How that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, Were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, And did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

But with many, or with the greater part, the most of them, God was not well pleased, For they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. And then we have the verses following that continue that theme.

Chapter 12, verse 1. Now concerning spirituals, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God called Jesus accursed.

And that no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. And so on, there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. Turn, please, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, or have fallen asleep. That ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which be asleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with voice of the archangel, and with trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. That we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. I have one more passage to read in 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 8. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. But his long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? I've read five scriptures together, and I have a reason for doing so. I want you to notice this expression that has been impressed upon my mind, where Paul says, be not ignorant. I would not that you would be ignorant.

We believe, don't we, that God does not desire ignorant believers. We have a 66 book that is intended to instruct us in the things of God, and give us a material that would give us all the ability to understand, to be intelligent, and to be spiritually enlightened about divine truth. And I don't think anybody here wants to be ignorant.

I just spent about eight months homeschooling my oldest granddaughter. And that's a trial, I can tell you that. It's not enjoyable, I guess, to be a schoolteacher.

I found out I didn't really want to be a teacher at all after a few months of doing that, especially one-on-one. And anyway, we passed through it, and we learned a little bit anyway. But I certainly didn't want her to be ignorant.

I put every effort in. Sometimes I thought I was putting more effort in than she was. But at least I passed her and got her into the school.

So God doesn't want you and me ignorant. We are in school. We're here to learn.

We're here to progress. And I think it's an abysmal insult to the spirit of God when we are ignorant of divine truth. Paul said to Timothy, he said, Hold fast the form of sound doctrine.

That is, to get the pattern firmly in your mind and understand its truth so carefully that you can handle it properly. It teaches us in chapter 2 and verse 14, Study or be diligent to show thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling correctly the word of truth.

And if nothing else, a conference should enlighten us about divine truth. But dear brother or sister, it is not enough to depend on conferences to learn the truth of God's word. God wants each one of us to be students of the scripture.

And the devil wants to put everything in your mind, everything in your pathway, everything in your time schedule to keep you from studying the word of God. Be diligent. Be diligent.

And I'm noticing four or five times Paul says to these believers, Be not ignorant. I don't want you to be ignorant. I want you to understand clearly the truth that I'm seeking to impart to you in these particular passages.

Granted that Peter writes the last one, 2 Peter chapter 3. I know the authors, but nevertheless, we have these five times that he tells us, Be not ignorant. First of all, I want you to notice, he said, be not ignorant about Israel's blindness. And I'll tell you that will preserve us from pride.

He said, just remember, just remember, Israel's been set aside for the time being. But remember, you've been brought in on the principle of grace. And you have no reason for pride whatsoever.

It will preserve you and me from pride. We have nothing to boast of. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, I think of that passage where it reminds him of Israel's example.

He said, I don't want you to be ignorant about Israel's example. Remember all their benefits. And then remember all the corresponding failures.

He says, I want to preserve you from presumption. Presumption. That's what they were doing in Corinth.

1 Corinthians chapter 12, he said, I would not you be ignorant concerning spirituals. And in the case of that context in the situation in Corinth, it would preserve them from carelessness in the use of spiritual gift. As proper application.

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, he says, I would not have you to be ignorant concerning those that have fallen asleep, because it would preserve you from sorrow. So we sorrow not, even as others have no hope. Preserve you from sorrow.

Intelligent understanding of the subject my brother has been dealing with will preserve you and me from sorrow. And there are those that have passed away. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18, I take it.

He says, be not you ignorant. It's a different word, I know, but it has the same thought in mind. Don't be ignorant as the world deliberately is ignorant about the coming judgment of God to set things right and to deal with the sin and the iniquity of this world.

He says, I'm telling you this to preserve you from discouragement. Intelligence in the things of God, I believe, will preserve us in a multitude of ways. And God knows we need to be preserved today.

Assemblies need to be preserved. And believers need to be preserved. I need to be preserved.

And we trust that we might preserve testimony for God until the Lord comes. Very briefly, just notice with me these five portions. I know I don't have time to look at them in any detail.

But you know, the chapter 9, 10, and 11 of Romans, I take it anyway to be a parenthetical section. Paul very clearly and without any question, I'm sure, he knew the objections of Jewish religious people to the gospel of grace that he'd been preaching. The justification by faith alone of the Lord Jesus on the assurance of salvation.

No condemnation, he says in chapter 8, on the assurance that there's a God in heaven that is for us. Christ is for us. The Spirit of God is for us.

He says, I know there are going to be objections to that. And the objections are going to come from those who are steeped in religion, steeped in the law keeping, and persuaded that that is the only right thing because that was given by Moses, by divine inspiration. Unwilling to set it aside and to recognize it served for a time.

But now God has brought in something far better. And from the very beginning of Romans, he makes it very clear that it's not a new thing in the mind of God. It's the gospel of God that is really from eternity.

It's what God has been moving toward. He shows in the entire outworking of his dealings until he's come to the point where now he's made known unto us to the preacher of the gospel. He says, Israel for this time because of their unbelief has been set aside.

You know, this idea in the world today that God is totally finished with the Jew and there's no future for them, I think is totally denied by these three chapters. I can't reconcile that with what the word of God says. Neither with what we have in terms of the promises that God made to Abraham way back in Genesis.

God is always true to his word and he's going to fulfill it. But so that we have in chapter 9, he surveys their past and their objections would be, well, we as Jews really stand on a higher position. We have a different standing than those Gentiles do.

After all, you know, we were children of Abraham. You know what he says, if they're children of Abraham, remember Ishmael was a child of Abraham too. He was a son.

So you got to include Ishmael. Well, now he says, what about Jacob? Well, Jacob had two sons. I mean, Isaac had two sons.

Well, you know, God really didn't choose the more attractive man in the sense of choosing Jacob. But God chose Jacob. And he chose the younger and the elder would serve him.

So it's really not a matter of those who were so good or beneficial in themselves or so attractive in their own personal character. No, he says it's a matter of God's choice. Then he said, what about the nation of Israel? If you're going to stand on the ground of the righteousness that you have by the law, just remember that when the law was given, you failed right away.

And God was going to cut off the nation and destroy it had not Moses interceded for you. It was a man up in the presence of God that interceded for them, that preserved them. I said, you know, it's only the mercy of God that you were preserved in the very beginning.

So what do you have to boast about? And if God had his exercise, his rights to preserve the nation, not because they had obeyed the law and carried it out in the way it should have been, but all because of a man who was interceding for you, cannot he do the same for the Gentile? Doesn't he have the potter of the right over the lump to make of one lump a vessel of beauty and a vessel of dishonor? Well, God has every right to do everything according to his own will. So he looks at their past and he simply erases every ground that they have to argue that they have a higher standing or deserve preferential treatment, so far as God is concerned. Or will somehow come into God's favor in a different way.

No, he says, you're all set up to grace, all under God's righteous judgment. Then he looks at the present in chapter 10. What about the present of the nation? All the gospels being preached to them.

And the clarity of the message is that there's no need to call for God to send down one from heaven because he's already come down. I need no need as well for one to go down the deep and bring him up for the dead because he's already risen. But he says the gospel is naive.

Neither the word is neither. And yet he says Israel won't believe all day long. I stretched my hand out to a game saying I'm a disobedient people.

So you have no ground to the present either because the same gospel is being preached to you and you're rejecting it out of your unbelief. But he says let me tell you about the future. Right now Israel he said is set aside so far as God's dealings are concerned.

They can come in on the same ground as a Gentile. Trusting Christ, believing the word of God, resting upon his work at Calvary. He says there's going to come a day when that nation pictured by the vine in this chapter, he says they've been grafted, they've been cut off, but they can be grafted back in again.

You've been brought in and you stand by grace. He said don't boast against the root because the root beareth you, not you the root. He looks at the Gentiles, not individuals here.

I've had men try to use this to prove that eternal security is not a scriptural doctrine. That's not true. He's not speaking about individual believers here, genuine believers in Christ.

He's speaking about the Gentiles as a group. He says you've been brought in to the mainstream of God's great purposes today. Don't boast because there will become a time because of your unbelief you'll be cut off as well because God is going to bring the Jew back in and he's going to fulfill his purpose to the nation of Israel.

Wonderful to realize that the promises, the covenants of God stand regardless of the failure of man. My dear brothers and sisters, you and I have no ground to boast whatsoever. I sometimes think about Israel's failure, their sinfulness in the wilderness and their awful departures and I ask myself are we really any better today? Are we really any better? If we're living under the law and the conditions of the law, would we do any better than they did? No, I don't think so.

We feel miserably. It should keep us humble to thank God that we're preserved by an infinite capable intercessor at God's right hand. We owe so much not only in salvation but in preservation to the present ongoing work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But don't boast. God still has purposes for the Jew. God is going to make that nation the head of the nations.

The source of blessing. The center of his seat of power. He's going to rule and reign from Jerusalem to the end of the earth.

Don't take that symbolically, that's literal. I believe that's true. And so he says, not ignorant of this truth will preserve us from pride.

And brethren, you know, even in any aspect of a Christian's life, pride is one thing God hates. And I have no reason to have it. Sadly we do.

We have more pride than we want to acknowledge. We have no basis for it whatsoever. We stand by the grace of God and on the merits of the Lord Jesus.

But quickly going over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul is writing this assembly and we think of the many difficulties he seeks to address in it. And he does it out of a compassionate heart with a longing that they might be restored to proper condition, maintained as a vibrant, faithful testimony for the Lord Jesus. He said, just let me remind you about the nation of Israel again.

He says, they were brought out of the land of Egypt. And there were five different areas in which God displayed his kindness and mercy to them. I would call them areas of privilege.

They were all under the cloud. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud of the sea. They all ate of the manna.

They all drank of the rock. They all had these great spiritual privileges which are symbolic and speak to us of all that we have received through our Lord Jesus. And yet he says, just remember that despite all the privileges they had received, they sinned in five different ways too.

They sinned in five different ways that corresponded, I take it, to the condition that Paul was pointed out in the assembly here in Corinth. The idolatry. The fornication.

The departure from the truth. The murmuring against God and the different attitudes that they had. He says, just remember this.

The privileges that a believer has received does not preserve them from falling, from failure. They were presuming upon all they had received so abundantly by the grace of God, all the gifts that they had and all the positions they enjoyed and all the abilities they had. And they're forgetting that there was a movement within them of a departure and a failure that corresponded to what was seen in the history of Israel.

He says, you need to remember that. There were those that came out of Egypt. They were brought out to enjoy the blessings of God.

They were identified with God and the covenant that was made with them on the mount. They received the voice of God. They heard the voice of God.

They had all these things brought to their advantage, all that they had received. And yet, he says, they failed in five different ways. He says, they failed because they did not respond to the faithfulness of God to them.

So, listen, brethren, I won't do that. I probably better not do that. I better quit trying to play like Mr. Scherzinger.

I can't shout. He can't shout much more anymore either, so. I'm not a shouter.

Give me a minute. It reminds him that there's a need for realization. That all the privileges that a believer receives demand a response.

A response, a recognition that I owe everything to the one who has given it. I owe everything to him. I can't presume that here I am.

I'm a child of God on the way to heaven. I'm secured by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm indwelled by the spirit of God.

I'm going to be in heaven. Doesn't make any difference what I do along the way. Nonsense.

Be careful. Because that's the kind of thing that will ruin a believer's life. And Paul says, you believers in that assembly that think you're standing, you think you're so capable, you may be referring to some that just thought they were saved and they really weren't.

He says, be careful. Take heed as you fall. And so we need to be very careful about presumption.

Presumption can entrap a believer and cause ruin to the life. It was on the verge of causing a ruinous condition in Corinth that would be without a remedy. But thank God Paul applied the truth of God in a way that had its results.

But then I think of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. He says, I don't want you to be ignorant about spiritual things. We know that gifts here is really not the actual word that is used, but it's in the context.

I take it not only the spiritual gift, but the entire use of spiritual gift, the entire sphere of all that is spiritual. He says, don't dabble in these spiritual things that God has endowed you with and do it in a careless way. You say, what were they doing? They're using spiritual gift or an imitation of spiritual gift to call attention to themselves.

And instead of uniting the believers by the exercise of that gift, they were dividing them. And they're causing disunity among the saints. Says those gifts have been given by the spirit of God.

I remember they're given through the administration of God in heaven. And they're divided to every man sovereignly according to his will. They're not for self-glorification.

Spiritual ability and whatever capacity might be given to you and me is not for self-enhancement. It's not for display of self and making someone think how wonderful he is or how wonderful she is. It's for the purpose of building up and putting forward the work of God in an assembly, in individuals, in the gospel, in relation to those who are not saved, building up the kingdom of God and bringing souls to a saving knowledge of Christ.

The gift is essential for Christian service in a spiritual sphere. It's given to you and me that we might use it with wisdom. He says don't be ignorant about how you handle these things.

He reminds him that there was a time, he says, when you were unsaved. Back in your Gentile days, let your mind go back there and think about it. You were led about, you were controlled by these demons.

You were led about in these different ways and you were carried away repetitiously under these dumb idols. Your involvement was all directed toward them. And I would take it that he is telling them that that was the kind of thing that they did then.

Because you know the devil is good at imitation. He's very adept at imitation. He says there was a time when you were doing that kind of thing and you were calling Jesus accursed.

You were going along with the attitude of the world around us that had no time and interest in the Lord Jesus. He said, but it's the spirit of God. If he is controlling and using your abilities that he has given you, you will call Jesus Lord.

You will acknowledge him as Lord. He will not only do so, I take it, with his words that he speaks, but he will express it in his life. And even in the way that he uses gift.

He says no man controlled or directed by the spirit of God can call Jesus accursed. But he says in chapter 12, he says that no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. I would take it that as he goes down through these gifts, he's instructing them that they might realize that it's the purpose of God giving that gift.

And listen brother, you and I have a gift. I wonder if you found out what it is and how to use it. He says the purpose of God giving that gift is that it might enable you to function like the members of a body physically.

That you might move harmoniously and in unity with others even though they do something that's different than you. You know it's a wonderful thing to see an assembly functioning under the control of the spirit of God. Wonderful thing to see the harmony and the enjoyment of fellowship that is expressed.

That's really what is honoring the Lord Jesus. That's what's a delight to the spirit of God to see that be worked out in a practical way in a local assembly setting. He said don't be ignorant of these things.

Don't be ignorant of the reality of spiritual gift. Don't be ignorant of the manner in which it is to be used. And don't be ignorant of the purpose that God has for it.

It would preserve us from carelessness. Do we ever get careless in divine things? I'll let you answer that question. Personally I think we do.

We can get very careless. We lose the recognition of a need to have carefulness in how we conduct ourselves in the house of God. How we function in the house of God.

How we act toward other believers. He says I want to preserve your carelessness. But I quickly go on.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 obviously is to preserve the root sorrow. Now our brother has already touched on that passage so well. Even though he didn't read it.

He was talking about it. You think of these believers and they had buried some of the members of their assembly. Some had gone on.

And they'd heard Paul preaching about the kingdom and the responsibilities in the coming kingdom. And the glories of the kingdom when Christ is going to come to reign. And establish his righteous rule upon the earth.

I take it personally that they had in their own minds the question. Well these believers that have died. What about them? What part will they have in that? Have they lost all their hope? They have no possibility of participating in the glories of that millennial reign of Christ.

That had joined his presence in that way. He says I don't want you to be ignorant about those that have fallen asleep. So that you sorrow not.

Even as others who have no hope. Those who were all around them in Thessalonica. Had put away loved ones in the grave.

Or perhaps in other ways they had disposed of the body. And so far as they were concerned they had no hope. Beyond that point they had no knowledge of anything.

It was all a dark void. He says I don't want you to be like that. An intelligent believer can face the reality of death.

Or the aspect of a believer and a loved one being put away. Or one that is in the assembly. Or one that we know about.

And we recognize the fact that. That one has only been. The body is put in the grave for temporary rest.

Until the Lord comes. He says I don't want you to worry about these things. Because first of all.

When the Lord comes to the air. He says those that have died in Christ. They'll rise first.

They have priority. Isn't that tremendous? Wouldn't that encourage them? We're not going to go ahead of them. He says no.

They will be the ones that will be acted upon first. They will be raised again first. And wherever their bodies might be found today in this wide world.

Will be brought back. Because God has saved not only body. Not only spirit and soul.

But he's also saved the body. He's going to gather it all together. And those that have died in Christ will be raised first.

And then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up. With them. To meet the Lord in the air.

I think it was Mr. Paisley. So I'm on good ground if I quote this. I think it was Mr. Paisley that said that.

The dead in Christ will be raised first. So that the entire body of Christ together will go up as one great. I want to say group.

But that doesn't sound right to me. One great mass of believers. I'm not too sure.

I agree with my brother that the passage of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Has to do with the change that will take place. Not the rapture going up.

I sometimes wonder if the body of Christ will go up in one great mass of believers. And the world will see them go. What a testimony.

What a verification of the word of God. I may be wrong. That's alright.

If I'm wrong, that's alright. You don't have to agree with me. But I like to think about that.

What a marvel to see. All the believers in one great body. They've been divided over the world.

Everywhere today. All together. To go to be with the Lord.

Responding to the shout. The call of God. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

And there to be forever with the Lord. What a wonderful day that's going to be. My brother has spoken.

Has spoken about the marvel it will be to see His face. And look upon the Lord Jesus for the first time. Hear His voice.

I sometimes wonder what it will be like. To be caught up with all the saints of God. From all this entire dispensation.

To be forever with the Lord. I don't think you and I even have a capacity now to appreciate. What it will be like.

It will be beyond our expectations. And it could take place at any moment. I trust we live with that in view.

Because following we have this 2 Peter chapter 3. He says there are those that the truth is hidden from them. And earlier he says it's deliberately hidden from them. They don't want to know it.

He says when they speak about the coming of Christ. They say where is the promise of His coming? That's the world's attitude today. The world just goes on.

We're doing our own thing. We're enjoying our lives. And we're trying to get things in order.

We're trying to make society better. I read just the other day that divisions in this nation in which we live. Are deeper now.

Or the same as when they were during the Vietnam War. Divided. And problems that prevail in our nation.

That honest men realize are beyond their capability to handle. And righteousness does not reign. From the government to the individual.

Unrighteousness is the character of our day. And they say where is the promise of His coming? In other words, everything can go on. God didn't create the world.

He never intervened. There was a time when God stepped into the affairs of man. If He made the world, He's withdrawn Himself.

That's deism. Contrary to the Word of God. Where He says they forget one thing.

There was a time when God intervened. There was a time when God moved against a world of ungodliness and righteousness. And He brought the flood upon the entire world during the time of Noah.

Preserving eight persons out of it. Peter has a lot to say about the flood. In his two epistles.

So that's the world's attitude. Scoffing. Making fun of the coming of the Lord.

That's not the rapture. That's His coming back to the earth. He says don't you be ignorant.

He says the day of the Lord will come. It's just as certain as every other promise God has given in this book. And you and I can rest upon it.

That following the coming of the Lord Jesus, He is coming again. He's coming back to establish His rule. Righteously.

Universally. Peacefully. Over the entire world.

He says in view of that. Listen. Here's the agitation.

In view of that day. What manner of persons ought you and I to be. Listen.

If we don't go away from this conference different from how we came. We have not gained a whole lot. Or He says.

What manner. What kind of persons ought we to be in all godliness and holy conversation. And if we're really anticipating that day when righteousness will reign.

And peaceful. Surround the earth and Christ. And His name will be known.

Universally. What manner of persons ought we be. In our life.

In our conversation. May God help us to be intelligent believers. Enlightened in the truth of the word of God.

Receiving instruction from the book. As well as by the spirit of God opening it to us. Most of all may we become more and more intelligent.

About the person of our Lord Jesus.