Anyone should believe in GOD | Robert Morris [Leviticus 26:26] More Than Words P1,2,3,4,5 | Gateway Church [Sept.10/18]
Alright so we’re in a series called: More than Words, talking about the Bible; & this week I want to talk to you about spiritual sight.
Last weekend I talked about symbols.
We’re going to do the same thing, just take it a little further than last weekend, & that is to talk about sight.
Now turn to Mark 8, I’ll get to it in a little while.
Ex.] But let me just say something that happened, when I first began to see spiritual types & shadows & symbols, and things like that in the WORD.
I can remember I went into a Church, & the pastor was part of a theological thought persuasion—that believed that the gifts had passed away, & that GOD doesn’t heal today..
But he was beginning to see things in SCRIPTURE [0:61]
And he invited me for that purpose, to kind of help his Church along that path--so I wasn’t out of order in preaching things, he was wanting me to.
One day he said to me, “Would you preach on healing tonight?”
Some people don’t believe GOD still heals today, but one verse, Hebrews 13:8, will blow any doubt away [1:35]
Hebrews 13:8 | JESUS CHRIST is the same yesterday & today & forever.
Because if JESUS healed when HE was on this earth, HE still heals today; HE couldn’t stop healing, you know..
So he said, “Would you preach on physical healing?”
& I was looking at all this SCRIPTURE I had gathered in my BIBLE.
One time I had shown you the BIBLE I had when I first got saved.
And in the front of it I just had SCRIPTURE after SCRIPTURE, & I just filled up the pages with it.
This is a newer BIBLE.
It even in the back has maps & I didn’t know what the maps were for, you know, back then I had no clue so I pasted SCRIPTURE over the maps
Cause you know SCRIPTURE will help me.
So I went to the SCRIPTURE I had on healing & I thought these are so good & it really doesn’t matter what I say about healing.
It matters what the BIBLE says, so I think I’ll just read SCRIPTURE [2:28]
So I just started reading from Exodus 26, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians.
I even went through all of the NT, where it says they [2:42] brought many sick people to HIM; & JESUS laid HIS hands on every one of them & healed them all.
And I just kept saying that, but the WORD “all” kept popping up, but it was the BIBLE. I wasn’t just adding it, it was the BIBLE.
So anyway, the next day at lunch, [3:11] when I met the pastor. I think he might have gotten chewed out by some of his members or something--but he was upset.
And so he said to me, “I need to talk to you.”
>> he said, “Do you believe that GOD heals all diseases?”
Now I think what he was saying was [3:31]: “Do you believe that everyone is going to be healed?
Obviously, everyone's not going to be healed, because everyone’s not going to be saved. We understand that.
I preach very balanced messages on healing, if you want to go back & listen.
Pastor Jimmy Evans, just preached this Spring a very balanced message on healing.
So we believe in a balanced message on healing.
But his question was: Do you believe GOD heals all diseases?
Immediately I just thought of Psalm 103:3, that says GOD heals all diseases [4:00]
Psalm 103:3 | HE who forgives all your iniquities & heals all your diseases,
BTW it says HE forgives all iniquities. >> Do you believe that part of the verse? You better, or you’re in trouble [4:10]
youtu.be/hiQ-RUKbIVE?t=250
He asked me: do you believe GOD heals all diseases? So I said, “Psalm 103:3 says HE heals all your diseases.”
And he said, “Yeah but do you believe HE heals all of ‘em?” And so I said, “Well, Psalm 103:3 (lol) says HE heals all...” He said, “Yeah but do you believe HE heals all of ‘em?”
Now let me just remind y’all something, I never even told him if I believed it —which I do, but I never even said that [4:57]
I simply quoted a SCRIPTURE.
>> I want y’all to think about this:
If someone quotes Scripture to you, & you get mad, then you have a problem.**
You have grown in a systematic theology cult, that has caused you to disbelieve GOD’s WORD. ***** [5:31]
So he said, “Yeah but do you believe HE heals all of ‘em?” And I said to him, “Well, Psalm 103...lol, & he said to me, “You’re closed minded.”
I thought, “No, you’re closed minded.”
K, so my point is I then actually opened my BIBLE to Psalm 103:3, & I said to him, “Look (6x), right here: Who heals all your diseases.”
This is what he did, he read it & said, “I just don’t see it.” [6:00-16]
Now what he meant was, I don’t agree with that.
>> But what an interesting choice of words.
..he looks right at it & says, “I don’t see that.”
I want to talk to you about spiritual blindness & spiritual sight, because it takes spiritual eyes to understand the BIBLE.****
>> And you can be spiritually blind to this book.
So let me tell you some things about spiritual sight, okay..
1.] Spiritual blindness steals our understanding [7:20]
In other words, you will not understand the BIBLE.****
And in the next point, I’ll explain what causes spiritual blindness.
Now remember last week I went through mainly about allegorical exegesis, which is an interpretive method that assumes the BIBLE has various levels of meaning from a spiritual sense. [7:40]
It’s the same thing when we’re talking about spiritual sight.
What is the allegory, what is the meaning behind the story, or the meaning behind the verse.
But let me show you, the spiritual blindness that the BIBLE talks about a lot (a lot).
I’ll get to Mark 8, a long time from now.
Spiritual Blindness [7:59]
Isaiah 42:18 | “Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see! Obviously HE is not talking about physical ailments. Would you agree? This is simple.
Isaiah 42:19 | Who is blind but MY servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like MY covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD?
Isaiah 43:8 | Bring out a people who have eyes but are blind, & who have ears but are deaf.
If you think you already know everything the BIBLE has to offer, then you’re already spiritually blind. [9:90]
Leviticus 26:26 | When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven & dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
Let’s talk about it, in my opinion what I think it means allegorically.
HE says in that day when you turn away from ME,
Leviticus 26 is a lot like Deuteronomy 28—where the first 14 verses are about the blessings if you obey GOD, this is what happens; & the next are about curses if you disobey.
Leviticus 26, same way, first 13 verses are about if you obey this is what happens & if you disobey, this is what happens.
2.] Punishment for Disobedience [25:37]
>> So this is what happens when you turn away from GOD.****
In Leviticus 26:26. Here’s what HE says, “when you turn away from ME, I’m going to cut off your supply of bread.”
And HE said when I cut it off, 10 women (that’s churches) [25:49]
Listen, let me tell you what I think this means:
10 different churches are going to prepare your bread in 1 oven, they’re going to prepare your Sunday school lessons in 1 city. [26:02]
One place, & they’re going to measure it out to you by weight. They’ll give you a little Sunday School booklet, with 2 or 3 verses every week; & you’ll eat it & you’ll not be satisfied.
Ex. I can remember a guy saying to me [26:20]:
He said I’m a Sunday School teacher, in a church, & I went through every lesson I got for the whole year.
There’s an average of 2-4 verses, for the whole week.
And he said to me, “That’s all the BIBLE we get for the whole week.” I asked, “Would you mind if I took some verses from the Concordance & added some verses to our lesson?”
And the pastor said, “No. That’s enough verses.”
That’s enough.
10 different churches, with lots of churches [26:48] —they’re going to prepare your Sunday School lessons in 1 place.
They’re going to limit the amount of GOSPEL truth you get: “Here this week you get 3 verses [26:58] Next week you only get 2.”
And you’ll eat it, but you’ll not be satisfied.
Y’all ever gone to a church like that?? Huh?
Okay so I think there are a lot things in here [27:08] that I think we need to understand.
3.] Pride causes spiritual blindness
We talked about rebellion, & continued sin [18:20]
The only reason you’re in continuous sin is because you’re an arrogant person.
>> That’s the only reason; & I’ve been there too.
The only reason we have a rebellious heart is because of pride.
Pride is at the root [18:40]
JESUS heals a blind man in John 9, he’s blind from birth. No one had ever healed a man, before, blind from birth.
John 9:32 | Never before has anyone heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.
JESUS heals a man blind from birth, & the Pharisees get mad about it. Isn’t that amazing? [19:00]
That is shocking. I used to be part of a Church like this, I don’t mean this wrong. I grew up in a Church like this.
Every Wednesday night we had “prayer meeting” you remember that?
K, we prayed for people in the hospital; what I found out later was: That was okay, but if any of them got healed —we were in trouble.
The denomination we were in, if people got healed you’re in trouble. So it’s okay to pray for ‘em [19:27]
>> This man was healed & the Pharisees were mad at him.
Who did this? The man said, “The man named JESUS.” So they tracked JESUS down & I want you to watch what JESUS says in John 9:39.
John 9:39 | Then JESUS declared, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see & those who see may become blind.”****
Then some overheard this & asked: Are we blind too? And JESUS said, “Bingo.” [20:11]
Now listen what HE said [v.41]: This is spiritual sight, remember this is a spiritual book.**
John 9:41 | “If you were blind,” JESUS replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” ****
Okay let me tell you again, [20:43] how spiritual this is. JESUS said I came into this world so that those who are spiritually blind, could receive their sight.
You remember what happened when Paul got saved? Ananias prayed for him & what happened? [20:58] Scales fell off his eyes. [Acts 9:18]
Acts 9:16-18 | Ananias Baptizes Saul I will show him how much he must suffer for MY Name.” So Ananias went to the house, & when he arrived, he placed his hands on Saul. “Fellow believer Saul,” he said, “the LORD JESUS, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so you may see again & be filled with the HOLY SPIRIT.” At that instant, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, & his sight was restored. He got up and was baptized,
Think about that! Scales fell off his eyes. Think about that.
>> JESUS said, “I came into this world so that those who cannot see Spiritually, will be able to see; & those of you who say you can see without ME..that you don’t need ME, you’ll just be made blind.
And the Pharisees said, “So you think we’re blind?”
JESUS said, “Oh yeah, you’re blind. You’re blind as a bat.”
But here’s another way HE said it, “If you would admit to ME, that you couldn’t see without ME...(Listen to what HE says), you would have no sins.”
>> In other words, I would forgive your sins.
I would erase your sins, if you would just admit to ME, that you’re blind without ME. I’d remove all your sins.
I’m telling y’all: this is an amazing verse.*** [21:59]
This is a SPIRITUAL BOOK.
Then HE said, “Since you say you can see without ME, your sin remains.
ISN'T THAT AMAZING??? (yes)
2.1.] OK so I want to show you a couple of Scriptures, that they have to be spiritual & we have to allegorically exegete them because they make no sense otherwise.
One is in Isaiah, [22:31] the other one is in Leviticus.
Let me show you this, in Isaiah 4:1, it says
Isaiah 4:1-3 | In that day 7 women will take hold of one man & say, “We will eat our own bread & provide our own clothes. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”
On that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful & glorious, & the fruit of the land will be the pride & glory of Israel’s survivors.
Whoever remains in Zion & whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy—all in Jerusalem who are recorded among the living—
It’s one of those verses you read at night & say: I have no clue what that said
But before you read your BIBLE, every time before you read, say LORD I cannot understand this book unless you explain it to me.
If you do that, then it’ll jump off the pages.
2.2] Take symbols like we did last week.
In the book of Revelations there are 7 churches, churches are called women in the Bible But JESUS is the second Adam [Romans 5:15-17], & the church, in that sense, is the second Eve. She is the mother of all the reborn living, & she is the Bride of CHRIST.
3.] JESUS opens blind eyes
Psalm 1:2-3 | But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, & on HIS law he meditates day & night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, & who prospers in all he does.
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Sight More than Word | Robert Morris [Sept.17/18] Gate Church
