I would like you to turn, please, to the same passage that we were looking at this morning. Please turn to Romans chapter 9. In the light of the unfinished applications that were left this morning, it seemed the part of wisdom to lay aside what I had intended to bring this evening and for us to return again to this passage while it is fresh in our minds and to finish the applications that I had wanted to make from this passage, the text, is Romans chapter 9. verses 1 through 5. Let me very briefly remind you of the context and of what we considered this morning. In these three chapters, chapter 9, 10, and 11, Paul is dealing with the general concern of God's relationship to the Jews and to the Gentiles. And also, in a subordinate way, he is dealing with the relationship of the Jews and the Gentiles to one another. We said that he's concerned, the Apostle Paul is concerned with these large issues. In the light of the Jews' present apostasy, do we have to conclude that God's purposes have failed? His answer is no. God is doing just what he planned to do according to the purposes of election. God is doing just what he prophesied he would do. God is doing just what is in accord with his constant plan of dealing with people on the basis of faith as opposed to works. The other question, has God cast off his people in chapter 11? Paul's answer is no. God's casting off of his people is neither total, he is still saving a remnant, nor is it final because in the last times God will cause all Israel to be saved. And in these verses, chapter 9, verses 1 through 5, you have the introduction to this whole section. And in the first three verses, the Apostle Paul sets forth his own heart attitude toward his kinsmen, the Jews. And let us read that. Chapter 9, verse 1. I say the truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience bearing with me in the Holy Spirit. that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh. And in those verses he sets forth the certain reality that he experienced, his pain, his ongoing sorrow, his sadness and anguish of heart, his love and concern for these very people that he will write about in the chapters to follow. And then the second thing that we saw from these verses, the first was Paul's heartfelt disposition. And the second was that we saw from these verses is Israel's present condition, their present condition of privilege and their present condition of apostasy and rejection by God. Let us read verse four and five. who are Israelites, whose is 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 of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all God, blessed, forever. That was a nine-point list of privileges which Israel presently has. Theirs is the adoption and so forth. Those are the privileges of Israel. We said, though, that Paul not only sets forth their privileges by implication in this passage and by statement in subsequent verses, he also sets forth their apostasy and God's rejecting them. We looked this morning at some of Jesus' statements in Matthew chapter eight. where Jesus said that in that last day that people will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, and God will take the kingdom away from the sons of the kingdom. The sons of the kingdom, he says in that passage in Matthew 8, will be cast out. Why? In the context of Matthew 8, he's saying that he's found greater faith among the Gentiles than among the people of Israel. And without that faith, the people of Israel will not sit down with their forefathers. They will be rejected from the kingdom. In Matthew chapter 21, Jesus tells the parable of the husbandman who had a vineyard, of the owner rather, who had a vineyard. And he sent, he allowed husbandmen to use his vineyard. And how the owner sent servants to receive payment. And the husbandmen beat and killed the servants. He sent servants again and the husbandmen beat and killed the servants again. And then in the parable, the owner said, I will send my son. They will have respect for my son. And those wicked husbandmen said, this is the heir. If we kill him, we can have it all. So they kill the son, too. And Jesus makes application. that the people in the vineyard are like the are the nation of Israel. God is the owner and God has sent his prophets again and again and again and finally sent his son. And the Jews rejected the prophets again and again and again and then slaughtered his son. And Jesus makes the application that God will take his kingdom away from that wicked nation and give his kingdom to another nation. Paul in Romans chapters 9 and 10 and 11 speaks of the hardening that God has brought upon the nation of Israel, the stupor, the dullness, their inability to perceive spiritual things, and that that hardness has come upon them by God's providence, by God's will. until a later time when the Gentiles will be fully saved and finally the Jews will be again engrafted into that tree from which presently they are cast out. tension between these two facts, the present privileges of Israel and the present apostasy and rejection of Israel, that question, that tension, how can this possibly be? That is what takes up the remainder of these chapters. But we said that we wanted to look at a general principle that is set forth in these verses and look at the application of that principle. The principle was this. Privilege, spiritual privilege rather, does not necessarily lead to spiritual success. Spiritual privileges do not necessarily result in spiritual success. And if privileges are neglected, those privileges will be a cause for greater judgment in the last day. And I said there were four applications, four lines along which I would like to work out that general principle. We looked at one this morning, and it was that spiritual privilege does not necessarily lead to salvation. We looked in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, John chapter 8, Matthew chapter 11. We could have looked at Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10. In all of those passages, the writer or the speaker makes reference to those who have had great privileges, but the privileges did not lead to their salvation. because the privileges were not mixed with faith or were not mixed with obedience or not mixed with perseverance. And even though there were great privileges, the privileges by themselves would not lead to salvation. Tonight, I would like to make three more applications of this principle, all of which are directed to Christians. The second is that spiritual privilege does not necessarily result in spiritual growth and discernment and wisdom. Spiritual privilege does not necessarily result in spiritual growth in discernment and in wisdom. We are often caused to think that if we could just be under the right privileges, we would grow, we would change, we would be different people. If we could just have the right privileges, the right preacher, the right doctrine, the right church, the right husband, the right something, if we could just have the right privileges, then we'd grow in grace and then we'd grow in discernment and grow in wisdom. That's not true. Spiritual privileges do not necessarily result in spiritual growth. And one of the passages that I would like us to look at to establish that point is in Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5, beginning in verse 11, the writer is stirring up these readers, showing them the superiority of Christ to all the aspects of the Old Testament religion. He had begun in verse 10 to write to them about Melchizedek and to demonstrate that Jesus was a priest like Melchizedek. But he interrupts himself and he says this in verse 11, of whom, that is of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say and hard of interpretation, seeing you are become dull of hearing. For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of solid food. For everyone that partakes of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness. for he is a babe. But solid food is for full-grown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Let me just pick up some of the ideas from this passage. Number one, notice their privilege according to verse 12. They had already had sufficient exposure to Christian teachers and Christian teaching and teaching and Christian examples. They had had sufficient exposure that they should be teachers of others. They had not merely gone through the ABCs of the Christian faith. They had been well taught. They had been largely exposed to Christian things. They had been exposed to Christian things far beyond the ABCs and should have been able on the basis of that exposure, on the basis of their previous privileges, they should have been able to be teachers of others. Notice. In the second place, notice their surface problem. Their surface problem is that they have need to be re-instructed in the basic principles of Christianity. They need milk. They cannot handle solid food. They cannot handle anything complicated. They cannot handle anything that requires discernment. They cannot handle anything that is complex in terms of casuistry. They need the most basic elemental things that the youngest Christian child could understand. They need to be re-instructed and they can only deal with milk, the surface problem. But now I would like to draw your mind to the real problem. The symptom was that they couldn't handle the tough stuff. The symptom was that they needed to be re-instructed. But what is the real problem? Well, in this passage, the writer identifies three of the real problems. Number one, they are dull of hearing. Number two, they are inexperienced in the word of righteousness. And number three, they do not regularly exercise their senses to discern good and evil. And because those three things are true of them, they did not profit from their great privileges. Because those three things were true. Irregardless of how great their privileges were, those three things being true, they profited little and perhaps nothing from their privileges. I'd like us to look at these three things. They were dull of hearing, they were inexperienced in the word of righteousness, and they did not regularly exercise their senses to discern good and evil. Let us look at the first of these. They were dull of hearing. The word translated dull literally means to be slow. It means to be sluggish. One of the lexicons says that in Greek literature, that this word was used to describe the limbs of a numbed lion. The lexicon was not referring to days when you have guns that shoot tranquilizer needles and that sort of thing. But if you can imagine that, you have a lion that's full of vigor and power, and the sinews of his muscles ripple, and you see all kinds of tension in his body. And he's shot with one of these tranquilizer guns, and he's numbed. Well, he flops. He lies on his side. His muscle tension is gone. He's sluggish. Well, that's the kind of word that is used here that is translated dull of hearing. It refers to someone who does not exert any intellectual effort in hearing. Now, they weren't always this way. It says they became so. Apparently, there was a time when they heard the word of God with alacrity. Apparently there was a time when they heard the word of God and all their intellectual and moral and spiritual antennae shot out to grasp everything that came within the orbit of their hearing. But they had become sluggish, dull. They had begun to hear in such a way that did not give any intellectual effort. They were passive in the act of hearing. They had become indolent. They had become slothful. They did not give any effort to understanding what they were hearing. Now, some hear sermons with no effort to understand. Some come to hear sermons and to hear classes with no prayer. no discipline to keep their minds from wandering, no discipline to keep their eyes from wandering, no attempt to follow the teacher's train of thought. They do not come with a determination to exercise their minds to get what is said. They don't come that way. They come with they don't come with prayer. They didn't rise in the morning to ask God to give the preacher help, to give me help as I listen, to give me help to understand, to help me to be free from distractions. They did not come with prayer. They did not come with a notebook. They did not come with the thought that I could learn something today that would open up the word of God to me. They did not come with the idea that something might be said that would be vital to my Christian experience. I will listen with all of my might. They did not come like that. Others do come and hear sermons with much prayer. When they sit down, they pray. When the sermon is given, they listen carefully. They take notes, not only for the future reference, but they take notes for the purpose of the mental discipline to keep the track of the sermon and to know where they are and not to let their own minds wander. They come determined to exercise themselves, to learn something with intellectual vigor. not with intellectual numbness and sluggishness. The same principle is true of reading. Now, this passage is in reference to hearing, but the same principle is true of reading. Some people read with little or no mental effort. Comes time that they've set aside to read the Bible, they read it with little or no mental effort. They pass the words through their eyes, They have some vague awareness of the English meaning of the words that they've put through their eyes. But when the time is over, it's gone from their minds because no intellectual effort has been expended to know what it was that they were reading. There were no attempts made to understand the context from which they read. There were no attempts to use a commentary. There were no attempts to follow the author's train of thought. There was no meditation. There were no questions asked of the husband or of the wife. There was no counsel sought ever as to what the text meant. There was no exertion of intellectual effort. They were dull of reading in that case. Somebody else sits down with his Bible and his notebook, and he takes notes, and he tries to trace out in an outlined form what it was that the author was saying in the last chapter, in the next chapter, and what he's doing in this chapter. They consult their Matthew Henry. They consult some other commentary. They call up their friend, or they talk to their husband. They exert great effort to grasp the meaning of the scriptures. Well, these people were dull of hearing. They were sluggish. They exercised no mental effort. I never know what is behind some people's eyes, but as the one who stands before you, sometimes your faces seem to be alive with expressions of intellectual effort. Other times, Well, I won't say what happens other times, but the reverse is true other times. Well, this was one of the reasons that their privileges did not profit them because they listened sluggishly. They would not engage intellectual effort in the hearing of the word. The second reason that their privileges did not profit them is they were inexperienced in the word of righteousness. Now, the word that is translated inexperienced literally means they were unskilled. They were like tradesmen who had learned their trade from a book, but had no actual hands-on experience. They were like a mechanic who had read books about how you're supposed to tune up an engine. And they'd read books about the details of the revolutions per minute and the mixture of fuel and air and so forth. They'd never heard a well-tuned engine. They'd never had their wrenches on the engine. They'd never used the gauges or the computers. They'd never done those, but they'd read all about it. Well, they might know a great deal, but in terms of hands on experience, they're absolutely unskilled and thus unable, no matter what they might know in their heads, they're unskilled. Well, that's the word that is used here. They were inexperienced. They had no they had little actual hands on experience in dealing with the word of God. The phrase that is translated word of righteousness may be a phrase that refers to the law. The word of righteousness mean the commandments that lead unto righteousness. The phrase may simply be a general phrase referring to the oracles of God. Probably it's the latter. However, you take the phrase specifically, the general idea is in reference to the Bible. It is in reference to God's words. They were inexperienced. They were unskillful, had little hands on experience in dealing with God's word. They were not thinking carefully through the use of God's word. They just didn't have any hands on skill or experience in dealing with the Bible. They didn't know what it was like to think through the history of the revelation of God's plan. They didn't know what it was like to fit something from the Bible into the broad scope of its historical swing. They didn't understand that. They didn't understand the difference between what God might say about a given subject in the days of the law and that same subject in the days of the present dispensation. They didn't understand the difference about how something might be looked at before sin, as opposed to how it was looked at after sin in the biblical revelation. They have no skill of working through those things. They had no skill in being like the Bereans of listening carefully and then going home and searching the scriptures to see if those things were so. They just had no skill in taking up the Bible and working with it and working through it. That doesn't mean they never read it. Most people read the Bible as some bit of devotional literature. They read the Bible with the intention to find something that will stir them up, make them happy, make them encouraged, make them think about God. I used to read the Bible that way. When I was first a Christian, I read the Bible primarily for two reasons. One was to find encouragement, and the other was to find verses that I could use with unsaved people. Well, that's not a proper way to use the Bible. The Bible is to be understood. The Bible is to be thought through. The Bible is to be wrestled with until you understand the meaning of the of the authors. These people didn't have that. They had no skill, no hands on experience in working with the Bible itself. They were lazy. They were slothful. They were mentally indolent and they were used to being spoon fed, but had no skill themselves in working with the word of God. Now, the third thing that was true of them. that made it so they did not profit from their privileges was they did not regularly exercise their senses to discern good and evil. According to verse 14, they were babes. They were not full grown. They did not act like those described in verse 14. Take the phrases of verse 14, the phrase that is translated by reason of use, verse 14, Even those who, by reason of use, have their senses. That phrase, the word that is translated into that phrase literally means habit. By reason of use, it was not their habit. The word does not refer to something that is sporadic or occasional. It refers to something, to a conduct which is a regular practice or a confirmed habit. even those whose habit, whose confirmed practice, whose regular conduct, their senses, In the original, that is a term which is used to describe the physical senses. You think of your physical senses, you think of sight, vision, hearing, touch, smell. That's the language that is used here. But obviously, it's not talking about your smell and your vision, your sight. It's talking about spiritual senses. It refers to spiritual faculties. One of the commentators, I think, rightly says that the spiritual faculties are primarily the understanding, the conscience and the affections, the understanding, the conscience and the affections. The word that is translated exercise literally means to train, to develop by exercise in the same way that an athlete develops muscles, he develops habits and reflexes and skills so they become second nature. He develops those things by the habit of exercise. But the goal in this passage is not to be engaged in habits which result in those physical skills. It is to be engaged in habits which exercise the understanding and the conscience and the affections so that you will be able to understand the difference between good and evil. The goal is to hone the spiritual senses so that you can understand ethical issues and understand what is true and false in reference to truth. These people weren't doing that. They weren't doing that. If a person is going to have spiritual skills, they must regularly train their spiritual senses. They must train their understanding. They must train their conscience and they must train their affections. They must regularly engage these spiritual faculties in working out ethical issues. You follow me? You've got these spiritual senses, the understanding, the conscience, the affections. They must be regularly exercised, they must be honed, they must be made skillful, and they must be regularly exercised in application to ethical issues. The whole goal is to be able to discern the difference between good and evil. And maybe the phrase is larger than ethical issues. Maybe it's not only good and evil in terms of right and wrong ethically. Perhaps the idea there is also good and evil in terms of right and wrong doctrinally, because these people were being confronted with theological error. And maybe the writer is saying that they needed to exercise their spiritual senses, not only so they would know what was right and wrong in terms of ethics, but so they would know what was right and wrong in terms of teaching, that they would be able to quickly lay aside these heresies that were being brought to them and quickly recognize the truth of the apostolic writings. Well, if you're to do this, If the you are to exercise and train your understanding and your conscience and your affections, it means a person must study, he must think, he must ponder, he must question, he must listen, he must seek counsel, he must strive to have a conscience that is void of offense, and he must regulate his life so that he regulates his affections. He does not allow himself to live in such a way that his affections are regularly being fed that which is perverse. He does not allow himself to have the affections of delight for sinful things, and so he avoids those things that would cause his affections to be fed in that way. And he stirs up his affections to hate what God hates and to eschew evil. He must apply himself and he must apply his senses to moral issues and matters of right and wrong. He must take a moral issue and think and pray and study and think and pray and study until he comes to certain resolutions on the basis of my thought, on the basis of my understanding of the Bible, on the basis of my understanding of this ethical situation. This is my resolution. This is what I'm going to do. And he does that, and he fails, and he rethinks, and then he restarts, and he fails, and he keeps applying his spiritual senses to moral and ethical issues by thought, by prayer, by counsel, by study, by attacking one issue after another. It's only in that context. It's only in that context of a man taking a hold of his understanding and his conscience and his affections. and laboring diligently to come to the resolution of moral issues. It's only as a man does that, that he will grow in grace and benefit from the privileges of instruction which these people had and from which they did not benefit. Let me illustrate what I mean. The kind of moral and ethical issues that just must be the focal point of our spiritual senses. A Christian man must work out in his own mind the matter of the appropriate use of the television in his life. He must study the scriptures as to what the scriptures say concerning what is proper content to bring into the mind, to bring into the feelings, to bring into the thoughts, and by that study he regulates what he allows himself to watch. He must understand the proper use of time from a biblical standpoint. He must come to grips with what his priorities are. He must come to grips with how much time he has to give to a television. And then he presses himself to do what the Bible dictates him to do. He exercises his spiritual senses to discern what is good and what is evil in terms of the content of the television, and what is good and what is evil in terms of the time spent with the television. He has to focus his spiritual energies and his spiritual faculties upon such subjects as the proper use of money. The proper use of money in terms of savings and giving and insurance and retirement and debt and all those things. He doesn't just follow the course of the world. He takes his mind and he reads the texts. He goes to people who are Christians and have experience in those areas. It's a moral and ethical issue. And he must be engaged in exercising his senses to discern what's right or what's wrong. He must be someone who focuses his spiritual faculties. upon the whole matter of what it is to nourish his wife and to nourish his children and how, in his particular situation, he will nourish his wife and nourish his children. Will he use a catechism? Will he use formal instruction? Will he rely primarily upon the informal instruction? What will he do? The mind has to be engaged upon the biblical texts that deal with those subjects. The conscience has to be engaged and made alive where he will not be satisfied in his conscience with doing something less than what the Bible requires. He examines what he's doing with his wife. He examines the statements concerning what a husband is to do with his wife. And he exercises his senses to know and to do what is right. You see, the guy who just wants to read the Bible and pray will never profit from spiritual privileges. There must be the engagement of these spiritual faculties on moral issues where the conscious goal is to discern good and evil, right and wrong. And although the text here does not say that, it should go without saying. that once the discernment is made, there must be the determination to do what that discernment dictates. And of course, the person who will not do that proves himself eventually not to be a Christian. These people in the book of Hebrews had very great privileges, but their privileges did not lead them to spiritual growth. It did not lead them to advancement in wisdom. It did not enable them to teach others as it should have done. They needed more than privilege. They needed more than good teaching. They needed more than good teachers. They needed diligence. They needed intellectual vigor. They needed the willingness to take a hold of themselves and say, I will not be sluggish in my response to the hearing and reading of the word of God. They needed to take a hold of themselves and say, I will focus my mind and I will govern my conscience and I will set my affections to work for that which is good as opposed to that which is evil and be transformed by this book. They wouldn't, they didn't profit. If you will, you will immensely profit from even the smallest privileges. The mature man is mature by reason of use, by habitual use, constant habitual use of the spiritual senses, exercised to discern the difference between good and evil. A person can hear sermons until he is old and read books until he is blind. If he will not exercise his spiritual senses to discern good and evil, he will not profit from the privileges that are put before him. May we learn from Israel. They had great privileges from which they did not profit. We have great privileges. We have the heritage of great preachers. We have the heritage of great books. We have the heritage of standing in the mainstream of historic Christian doctrine. What privileges we have! But they will not profit us if we're dull of hearing. They will not profit us if we have no hands-on skill in the word of righteousness. And they will not profit us if we do not exercise our senses to discern good and evil. The third application is this. Spiritual privileges do not necessarily result in usefulness. Spiritual privileges do not necessarily result in usefulness. Everybody that is a true Christian wants to be useful. And true Christians that do not seem to be very useful often analyze their problem incorrectly. Real Christians that are not very useful often think, oh, if I only had more privilege. If I had greater gifts, if I had greater opportunities, if I had a more stable home life, if I had some more privileges, then I would be more useful. Well, that's not the issue. Spiritual privilege does not necessarily lead to usefulness. There are three passages that I'd wanted to take your minds to. Let me just draw your attention to them without looking them up, and then we'll look up the last one. There is, of course, in Matthew chapter 25, verse 14 and following, the parable of the talents. Those three men in the parable who were taken aside by their Lord, each were given talents. Each were given the privilege of being a steward over the master's goods. Each was given the privilege of doing something for the master. And of course, each was given a talent or each was given a gift. They were not given the same gifts, but they were all given gift. They were all given privilege. And according to that passage, two of the men were very faithful and very zealous. And they took their gifts, they took their talents, and they did what they could. And they prospered. They each doubled what they had. And when the master came back, he was given the double and he gave his commendation to them. But the third servant, as you know from that parable, took his one talent and would not use it. He would not invest it. He would not loan it out. He would not do anything with it. He had it, but he would not use it. That talent, that gift, which he would not use, did not bear any fruit. And the Lord came back and rebuked him and cast him out. What was needed by that man? Was it more privilege? If he had had two talents like the other or five talents like the first, would he have been more faithful? Absolutely not. The problem was not with his privileges. He had privileges. The problem was his attitude. He would not do anything. He would not be diligent. And of course, the statement of the parable is that his talent was taken away from him and given unto the man who had five talents. Privilege does not necessarily result in usefulness. That man had privilege. He wouldn't use his privilege, and the privilege was taken away. Another passage to the same effect is in John chapter 15, well known. Most of you would know the passage. Jesus is speaking of himself being the vine and his disciples being the branches on the vine. To be in that vine, in the meaning of that parable, is an unspeakable privilege. To be in some kind of connection with Christ, to be in his church, to be in that vine is an unspeakable privilege. But Jesus makes it very clear having that privilege is not sufficient. Having that privilege will not bring forth any fruit. There has to be the abiding in him. There has to be that disposition where his word abides in you. There has to be living communion with the Son of God. The privileges will not cause fruit to be born. The privilege mixed with that living communion, that will cause fruit to be born, but the privileges by themselves will not cause fruit to be born. If a man lives in those privileges, but will not engage in the communion, Jesus says that man will be like the branch that is cut off and taken out into the fire and burned. The privilege does not necessarily lead to usefulness. Abuse of the privilege leads to destruction. Having the privilege is not enough. The privilege, in that case, needed to be mixed with communion with the Son of God. And the third passage is the passage in 2 Peter 1. Please turn there in 2 Peter 1. In 2 Peter chapter 1, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue. whereby he hath granted unto us precious and exceeding promises, that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature." Now notice in those verses, especially three and four, the tremendous privilege that is given to the people of God. He goes on to say in verse 5, Yea, and for this very cause, adding on your part all diligence in your faith, supply virtue in your virtue knowledge and your knowledge, self-control and your self-control, patience and your patience, godliness and your godliness, brotherly kindness and in your brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he that lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. Wherefore, brethren, give them more diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never stumble. For thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Forgive me, please, for reading that so quickly, but I wanted the whole text to be before our mind. Now look at the three parts. The first part is a statement of their privilege. They have all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Every privilege is given to them. He says in the next place, he says, on the basis of all these privileges being given unto you, on the basis of how by those privileges you can escape the corruption in the world through lust, on the basis of that, give all diligence, he says. Add to your faith this and this and this and this privileges. Now he says, do this and do this and do this. And he says in verse eight. For if these things are yours and abound, that is, the doing of these things, if you do all these things and abound in all these things, they make you not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he that lacks these things. You see the two applications at the end? They all have the same privilege. They all have everything pertaining unto life and godliness. But those that will diligently add to their faith this and this and this and this, they will never be idle, they will never be unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. But others who have those privileges, who have all things pertaining unto life and godliness and all the promises and all the privileges, if they won't add these things unto their faith, It says that they are blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from their old sins. Now, both all have these great privileges that are enunciated in verses four and five. But not everyone would profit from those great privileges. Who profits? Not merely the recipients of those privileges, but those who take those privileges and with all diligence. add to their faith, and you just go down the line. The point is that having the privileges alone did not guarantee fruitfulness. It did not guarantee usefulness. It did not guarantee growing in the knowledge of Christ and being vigorous in his service. The privileges did not guarantee that. Privileges do not necessarily lead to spiritual usefulness. In the Matthew 25 parable, the privileges weren't enough. There had to be diligent exertion. In the John 15 parable, being in the vine is not enough. There must be conscious cultivation of communion with Christ. In this passage, having the great and precious promises, unspeakable privileges is not enough. There must be also the adding with all diligence unto your faith. all of these things. We must be careful to not mistake, mistakenly analyze why some of us bear little fruit. Don't be deceived into thinking you'd do better if you had more privileges. You'd do better if you had more gifts. You'd do better if you had more opportunities. You'd do better if you didn't live with so many provocations. That's not the problem. The problem is that we have these privileges and we will not do our part. And in some cases, the privileges are being taken back and given to others as a parable in Matthew chapter 25. Let us learn from the nation of Israel. Let us learn that spiritual privileges do not necessarily result in spiritual successes. Let us learn that spiritual privileges do not necessarily lead unto salvation. And that spiritual privileges do not necessarily result in growing in grace and understanding and wisdom. And that spiritual privileges do not necessarily make us useful. There must be added to those spiritual privileges, intellectual vigor of hearing, diligence of labor, communion with Christ, urgency to obey. Let us not be deceived. Let us not ask or look for greater privileges. We have unspeakable privileges. We have unspeakable privileges. Travel the country and visit some other churches and you will come back and bless God for your privileges. Look into the ways that some of your brethren care for your souls, and you cannot deny the largeness of your privileges. Look at the promises that God has given to you in the Bible, some of which have been opened up to you, and you cannot deny the largeness of your privileges. The problem is not that we have too few privileges. The problem is that privileges do not necessarily lead to spiritual prosperity or success. We must not be dull in hearing. We must not be unskilled in the word of righteousness. We must not allow ourselves to fail the habit of focusing our spiritual senses upon ethical issues. We must not fail to use the talent that we have. We must not fail to cultivate communion with Christ. We must not fail to give all diligence. And if we would, we would have a bumper crop of fruitfulness for God. May we learn from Israel's privilege and Israel's rejection. While there actually were more applications, they'll have to be laid on the shelf and we'll resume God willing Romans chapter 9 verse 6 next Sunday morning. Let us stand and pray together. Our Father, we thank you that your divine power, according to this passage, has granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that called us. We thank you that you have granted unto us precious and exceeding great promises. We thank you for the prospect that these promises hold out to us, that we may become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world by lust. And we do ask, our God, that you would help us. with all diligence, to add to our faith virtue and knowledge and self-control and the rest, and that we, O God, would not be idle, and that we would not be unfruitful, but rather that we would be full of good works, that we would be full of the knowledge of Yourself, that we would live to have that experience of an abundant entrance into Your heavenly kingdom. O Lord, You have given us great privileges, and some of us are ashamed, Some of us are ashamed of how little we have regarded those privileges, of how much we have lamented various things that we feel that we lack. O Lord, help us please open our eyes to see the privileges that you've given to us and help us please to happily give ourselves to those things that you call us to do. Please lift some in this place from discouragement and despondency. Please help them to simply see what they are to do and to give themselves wholly to it. Help some please to see. Help them to see their own. mental dullness and slowness of hearing and help them to assess the effect of little thought in hearing and reading. Stir us up, Lord, that we would not be so any longer. Help us to greatly profit from the word as it is brought to us in preaching and as it is brought to us in our readings and in other means. Please, Lord, may we stop with dullness and may we be known as those who are keen and alert to the word and to all the privileges bringing forth abundant fruit for your praise. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.