We're going to roll through Romans
11 pretty quick, as fast as Jude, as fast as Jude. So let's pray
and then we'll run through Romans 11. Lord, we are so thankful
for your mercy and grace in us and through Jesus Christ, Father,
and that you have caused us to be born again. You have given
us the hope of our deliverance from your wrath and the promise
of eternal life. And I pray that as we read your
word and continue to meet around this letter, that we would grow
and continue to worship and share it with others for the sake of
their own joy and eternal life. And it's in Jesus' name we pray,
amen. All right, number 11, week number
62 in the reading of Romans. It's hard to believe that it's
taken me this long at the pace that I've been going. But let's
read, starting in verse 11. Actually, chapter 11. starting
in verse 13, sorry. Now I am speaking to you Gentiles,
inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify myself
in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some
of them. For if their rejection means
the reconciliation of the world, what would their acceptance mean
but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits
is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are
the branches. But if some of the branches were
broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted
in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root
of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.
If you are, remember, it is not you who support the root, but
the root who supports you. Then you will say, branches were
broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They
were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast
through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.
For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will
he spare you. Note then the kindness and the
severity of God. Severity toward those who have
fallen, but kindness to you, God's kindness to you, provided
you continue in His kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut
off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief,
will be grafted in. For God has the power to graft them in again.
For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree
and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree,
how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted
back into their own olive tree? Let's just stop. All right. There is a lot. And what's happening here is
that Paul is really repeating himself. He said Israel ethnically,
nationally, is not supposed to be God's elect in the context
of salvation. But they are a picture out of
the world. There is a people he picks for
himself to show the picture of election. And then out of that
picture of election on both sides, there are also true remnants
who are really the elect. Now, that's hard for us, and
I've consulted a couple of commentaries today And to my dismay, despair
is what I almost said, to my dismay, I was frustrated to see
that in this sense that a lot of people say, oh, all the Jews
will be saved. All ethnic Jews will be saved.
I don't see that because we've already got what? The context
of Romans. Paul has said, for there is no distinction, for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Paul has
already said that both the Greeks and the Jews are what? Guilty
before God and that no one can be saved from the wrath of God,
which is the wages of sin, except by the what? Mercy of the grace
of God to grant them life and forgiveness and righteousness.
We've learned that in order for us to stand before God, we must
bring something to Him that's what? That's able to be received. What is it that God requires
in order to stand in His presence and escape His wrath? Perfection.
Absolute perfection. Not a nationality, not a blood
type, not a history, not an obedience, but an absolute perfection. And
that no man can be justified by the works of the law because
the law was given to show the offense. It is what points to
the fullness of God's righteousness, who has been that, I said it,
I gave her the answer, that has been revealed in the person of
Jesus Christ. So then we do not marvel at this,
but we are thankful that God in His mercy has established
His redemption of His people for the sake of His glory. by
grace alone. So that if we are to be righteous
before God, we must come in our hands with a righteousness that
is true righteousness. And the only way that that is
obtained is to carry the righteousness of another. And that is the person
of Jesus Christ. And the question that's on the
table here in these last few chapters is what about Jews? What about Jews? Not what about
Israel, because Israel, of course, is the name of the nation of
the Jews. But in this sense, Paul has begun
to already develop the idea that Israel in itself is not necessarily
Jewish people, but that Israel are the elect of God from the
branch or the root. and that it is by God's grace,
so that it's not on the basis of words. Because if it were,
then there'd be no reason for grace. It would not be grace.
And the question that he asked last week, did they stumble in
order that they might fall? Verse 11 there. I knew I should
have started with that, because I had to segue into this. No,
they didn't stumble so that they would fall. They were fallen. And God's purpose of election
stands in their stumbling. Why? For through the stumbling
of the ethnic people who are a picture of the truth, of the
promise, God fulfills the absolute truth of the promise. From every
nation, tongue, and tribe, His elect shall live. So, as we saw
last week in several Old Testament passages of Deuteronomy 32 and
some others, even the book of Joel, that God did all of this
in order to make ethnic Israel jealous. Why? Because they hated
the world. They hated the Gentiles. So if
God would show his riches to the world at the cost of his
chosen nation, how great are those riches? If God would elect
to save his elect people at the cost of his son, how great. or his riches. So now I'm speaking
to you Gentiles, he says, verse 13. And as much then as I am
an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. I'm proving my ministry. I'm establishing more and more
and more as I preach to you my ministry in order somehow to
make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. Now,
interesting point, isn't it? Paul's already said that I labor
in tears that my kinsmen in the faith, my kinsmen in the faith
of Judaism, my kinsmen of blood would come and be saved by God.
But it is God's purposes. So that in through the teaching
of the gospel to the true elect of God, Gentiles included now,
Paul is saying that his apostleship is established by the eternal
decree of God in such a way that the prophecy of God to make them
jealous would have a twofold effect. What is the first way? The first way is that them being
jealous, they would double down on their hatred of the gospel
of grace. And the other way is that in them being jealous, some
of them would be called to life. The elect of the Jews will be
saved. for verse 15. If their rejection
means the reconciliation of the world, what would their acceptance
mean but life from the dead? That's it. So if there is the
world being saved and reconciling, what does it mean? We've already
gone through this several times, not only here in Romans, but
also in the teaching of John and the teaching of Jesus in
John's gospel. We understand that the world was the term used
by Jewish people to express everyone who was not Israel, to express
all the nations of the world. That is the world, the world,
the world hates God. The world is not God's. The world's nations do not belong
to Him, etc., etc. That's what made Nicodemus so
confused. Do not marvel that I said you
must be born again. Do not understand these things.
You don't understand these things. You're the teacher of Israel
yet you don't understand normal things like birth, like water,
like men. You don't understand this natural
implication. Let me give you something you
do understand. Moses in the wilderness holding up the serpent. So that
as the Son of Man is lifted up, then what? I will draw the world
to myself, not just the Jews. How come you can't see this,
Nicodemus? Because you have not been born again. Nicodemus' idea
of being righteous before God was tied up into his precepts,
into his obedience, into this covenant promise of an ethnic
people that God had not established in its totality eternally. So if we look at this, like I
say, I'm going to go fast. Paul is just trying to help them
understand that they are no less of a believer and that Jews are
no greater of a believer and that God is not a respecter of
persons whatsoever. And even though Israel had the
oracles and the promise in the gospel, only the elect of that
group will see it. Only the elect of that group
will see it. This doubles down on the teaching of reprobation.
This doubles down the teaching of election. Friends, this is
difficult for an unconverted person. Excuse me. This is impossible
for an unconverted person to grasp. This is difficult sometimes
for a converted person to grasp. But the Bible teaches that God
will save His elect and He will condemn the reprobate, and that
He is just in doing so, and that there is no way in which any
man can claim the right to election whatsoever apart from God's mercy,
apart from God's grace, apart from God's eternal foreknowledge,
which is His eternal love for His people, those for whom Christ
was destroyed. If the dough offered as first
fruits is holy, so is the whole lump. And if the root is holy,
so are the branches. You see this imagery? If we've
got clean dough, we've got clean bread. We've got clean dough,
and it makes clean bread. If we've got a good, clean root
and a pure root, it'll grow pure branches. See this picture? This picture should cause us
to see a tree, to see the root of Israel, the root of the elect,
growing and deeply planted into the promise of God for salvation,
who is Jesus Christ, and the finished work of Christ being
the one that causes this growth to take place. And then though
we saw in a temporal sense that this nation of Jews was indeed
the root, we realize what? Not all of them were connected
to Christ. Not all of them were truly the elect. And people would say, well, in
this illustration they are. But look at verse 17. But if
some of the branches were broken off, how do you put a new branch on
a tree? I've seen it done. I've seen
a tree lose a branch and I've seen someone take, maybe not
another branch, but take that branch and tie it back up and
heal that tree. I've tried it, it doesn't work
for me, but I've seen people do it throughout my life. But
in this picture, this is not doctrine in that sense that's
so firm and say, well, we know the branches are, we know the
trunk, the root is, we know what the trunk is, but if some of
the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive
shoot, you're not part of the pure root. You're not part of
the pure picture of election. You weren't part of God's nation. throughout your entire life.
Yet because God broke off some of these branches, and not just
some, but a majority of those branches, and you were a wild
sheep, you have been grafted in among others. And now because
of that, you share the nourishment of the root. You share eternal
life. You share Christ. You share grace. You share in the truth. You were not of this olive tree,
but yet you have been grafted in. And the reason Paul says
that is because in verse 18, look what he says there. Don't
be arrogant toward the branches, because it's very easy when we
start to see Paul, when they're worried about the Jewish people,
then they say, well, is God unfaithful? Did he fail? And Paul says no,
that he didn't fail. And then it's real easy for us
to go, oh, he got us, we're grafted in, or we're elect now, and y'all
weren't elect. See, y'all rubbed our nose in
it for thousands of years. That's the human condition, isn't
it? Whether you're saved or not, whether you have the Spirit or
not, that's easy to produce out of the flesh. It's easy to produce
in such a way that we could actually begin to have disdain towards
certain ethnicities, towards certain people. Pastorally, it
begs me to say this, but sometimes it's very easy for us to mop
unbelief. It's very easy for us to scowl
at those who don't see the doctrines of grace. It's very easy for
us to sort of have snide remarks. And you see it all the time on
social media. You see people making memes about people. About
their belief, about their unbelief, about their heresy. And it's
wicked, it's vile, it's disgusting. Because it in itself is a boast. I believe and they don't. Paul
says don't be arrogant toward the branches. Because remember
what God has done. If you are, remember, it is not
you who support the root. Christ supports you. You don't
support him. You don't support his work. It's
because you've come in in droves. You've been grafted in to this
beautiful picture of election, which is God's intention, which
is why I am your apostle to preach to you the great unsearchable
riches of Christ. But the reason that you are grafted
is because God broke off some of the original I'm going to
think about that for a second. You hear me say a lot of times,
and it's not my phrase, it's been around a long, long time,
but there's no honor among thieves. There's no honor among gossips.
There's no honor among people who live in sin. Because if I'll
gossip to you about someone else, then I'll gossip about you to
someone else. So there's no honor in that sense. If God will break off an original
branch, what do you think he'd do with a branch that was wild?
That's what Paul wants you to see. Now see what he's not doing
here. Don't hear what Paul's not saying. Paul's not teaching
that once grafted in, God could break you off. Be careful. He's
already denied that. But what he is saying is don't
now because in on mass you are coming to believe in the Christ
and God has granted you eternal life, granted you repentance,
granted you faith to think that you're something better than
those who don't have it. It's the exact opposite. You
will say branches are broken off so that I might be grafted
in. That is true. Don't look and mock at those broken branches.
because they're broken off because of their unbelief. But you stand
fast through faith. So don't become proud, but fierce. I mean if we were going through
this on a slower pace, I'd probably do an entire sermon on that particular
truth. A whole hour. I would spend an
hour dealing with spiritual pride. I would spend an hour or two
dealing with arrogance. For those of you who follow some
of my thoughts on that Facebook page, I have come to conclude
that what Timothy teaches the pastors of the New Testament
is that there is never a need for us to be, though we are to
be, as I talked about Jude three weeks ago, we are to be paying
attention, we are to be seeing when things come our way, mark
them and move out the heresy. We don't get up in the morning
and think, what error can I find today? What wrong can I right? What kind of spiritual heroism
can I come in and begin to show everyone that I know the errors?
Friends, there's never been a man converted to the teaching of
error. And you know, if I sat here right
now and I gave you 12 reasons Judaism is a heretical religion
according to Christian Christianity, which they would also agree that
in contrast to what we believe as New Testament Christians,
they are definitely don't believe it. But if I gave you 12 reasons
why Judaism is wrong, do you know what that would do for you?
I would teach you 12 tenets of Judaism, thus robbing you of
the gospel, robbing God of his glory, robbing the son, his due. In that same way, spiritual pride
produces that. When we stop realizing what God
has done in us because He hasn't done it in so many other people
who claim to be God's people, you see how this works, right?
The Jews of this day claim to be the people of God, but Paul,
a Jew of all Jews, was saying that these Jews are not God's
people, but only the elect are. Only the Israel, true Israel,
are the elect of God. These Gentiles are the elect
of God. So disdain went both ways. Jealousy
on one end, and what? Hatred on the other. But it says
fear. For an explanation there, we
see the word for it gives a further explanation for verse 21. If
God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare
you. Now, in that sense, what is he
saying? Is he speaking to believers? No, he's speaking generally.
How do we know that? Because of the context, he's
speaking generally to Gentiles. God does not spare his own chosen
race. Those who are not elect because
of their own belief, they are cut away. And then you are grafted
in where they used to be. That stump on that branch is
now he's sewn you into Christ that way. Had he not cut them
off, you couldn't be here. That's sort of what Paul's saying.
So don't forget that's how you got here. Secondly, don't forget
he cut his originals off. He could keep you from coming
to. What does that emphasize? Mercy. It emphasizes the grace
of God. Sovereign grace is. The hope of our salvation. Sovereign
grace. And God could cut anyone He chose
off. Remember in chapter 8 where we
spoke about the love of God and nothing could separate us from
the love of God except that God cut you away. But God will not,
what does Paul say in two weeks ago, God will not cut away those
He has for and on. He will not ignore them. He will
not refuse them. He will bring them to life, those
who He has eternally loved. You will not be cut away from
the love of God if He has loved you eternally. God will not spare anyone based
on who they are. Note then, verse 22, the kindness,
let's take these in two things, and severity of God. The severity
of God toward those who have fallen. What is this severity? Eternal judgment, eternal wrath,
destruction, being cut away, reprobation. This is the severity
of God, reprobation. The man is equally guilty under
the law of God, under His righteousness, under His justice, under His
glory. And yet, God does not deal with
all humanity in the same severity. But God deals with all sin with
the same severity. So we do see the severity of
God. This is the first time that we've taught this in Romans.
We see the severity of God in cutting away a chosen nation. And we see the severity of God
in destroying the reprobate. And we see the severity of God
in the giving of the Son to die. The severity of God towards sin is fulfilled. His wrath is fulfilled
in His severity against Jesus Christ. So the Lord Jesus in
His death satisfies the justice of God the Father. And that goes
the other way as well. It is not only just severe as
God dealing with sin, but he only deals with the sin of his
elect, those he has not cut off from the root. In kindness. Because in kindness, He imputes
this work. He establishes this forensic
reality that the justice has been satisfied, that wrath has
been satisfied, that sins have been satisfied, that guilt has
been satisfied. And so in this kindness toward
you, provided you continue in His kindness. So what is He establishing
there? If you walk away from the mercy
of God, you walk straight into His justice. And you are guilty. If you think that you deserve
salvation, you have walked straight into his wrath. When you believe
that who you are and where you stand before God had anything
to do with you, you have failed to understand the kindness of
God in giving Christ for you. And in that sense, you may very
well have, may very well be one that has been cut off. But how
do we know? My friends, faith is granted
by the Lord. Faith in the finished work of
Jesus, in all of the things that God will teach His people through
the Scripture alone. We come to receive it, we come
to understand it, we come to trust in it. Sovereignty can
be taught from a pulpit or a platform, but it cannot be trusted in except
God convert the one who hears it. Grace, election, redemption,
salvation, justification, all these things that we learn cannot
be understood by the natural man, by the natural woman who
has not been made alive by the spirit. But those who have been cut off,
if they do not continue in their unbelief, there is a kindness
of God. I get this. this original tree,
ethnic Israel, God chops off 99% of the branches, grafts in
Gentiles, and now all of a sudden, the picture that Paul gives is
those who have seemingly unbelief today, if they are the elect
of God, if they are the true Israel, will be grafted back
in just like you were. He's establishing once again
that it is in Christ alone. It is by faith alone that one
can stand before God. Faith in what? In God's righteousness,
imputed through the finished work of Christ, through the obedience
of Christ in this life, in his life for his people. For if you were cut from what
is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature,
into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the
natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree?
So what's he saying? See, this is where people get
this teaching that God's going to save every Jew. That's not
the point. The point is God will save His
elect, out of Israel. He will save His elect out of
the world. He will save His elect out of
the Jews. And altogether we, the fullness
of us all, are Israel. Let's keep going. Lest you be
wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of
this mystery, brothers. Because how much can we really
get out of this picture? I mean, I can see it fairly clearly. I can see a tree and cutting
off branches and sticking branches back on and taking those cut
off branches, some of them, and putting them back on. I can see
it. And I can see God, the gardener, the pruner, getting all the glory
for this. And we're supposed to just grasp
it very simply, sort of like a child's story. We're supposed
to grasp this very simply. It's not for deep theological
inference. It's not for tying things over
to Daniel and tying things over to Hebrews and tying things.
I mean, we can see some parallel teaching throughout the whole
of God's Word. But right here, these Christians, they got it. They got the picture. And so
that they would not get to the point where they say, oh yeah,
we see what Paul's saying. We see what Paul's saying. Paul's
saying, let me show you what I'm saying. So you don't think
you got it. I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery,
brothers. A partial hardening. Now what does partial mean? Not
a full. That means not every Israelite
has been hardened. I myself included, Paul would
say. He's already said that twice. I do not want you to be unaware
that, my dear brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all
Israel will be saved. So if we take verse 5 to 26,
and we take it out of the context of all of Romans, we take it
out of chapter 11, we take it out of chapters 9, 10, and 11,
then we can say God somehow, through some dispensation, is
going to save every ethnic Jew ever. And then some people say,
well, that's an absurdity because Jesus would say to the Pharisees
in John 6 and the Pharisees in John 10, you are not of my sheep,
you do not belong to me, you've not been given to me, you're
the whatever. And then they'd argue, well,
you know what? God could bring them back in. We don't know.
Maybe, maybe the day of judgment, they may have an altar call there
just for Jews. Altar calls lead you straight
to destruction, not Christ. What does it mean then? What
it means there is that all of Israel or all the elect, the
deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from
Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their
sins. How many times have the prophets of God spoken these
words in the Old Testament? And how many times did it always
relate to what group of people? Not the nation of Israel, but
the remnant who believed. a small number of the large majority. So that in this way, when all
the world has come to Christ, the elect of the world, it's
over. Then all of Israel, all of Israel
shall be saved. And so in this, I'm going to
pause and then we're going to think about what we're going
to talk about next week. But in this, we need to recognize
that there is a possibility that God could do anything he wanted
to do except lie and except make void his word and except make
void the gospel taught by Paul. So if there ever was a time in
history that God would decide that, not decide, but God would
reveal that the entirety of a Israeli people were his elect, then they
would come to believe in Christ. But it would mean the end of
Judaism completely in the world. Friends, I don't see that written
here. Is it possible? Yes. Is it congruent
with the context of scripture? Not at all. Just like when we
see the world, it has never meant every person without exception. When we see the term Israel,
it does not mean every Jew without exception. Verse 28. As regards to the gospel, they,
Ethnic Jews are enemies for your sake. See, Paul is reinforcing
what he's already taught three times already. This isn't new. This is why I'm not spending
a lot of time here. But as regards election, they
are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. What's that mean? Paul's already established that.
To them belong the what? the oracles, the patriarchs,
the promises, the Christ. That means that through the nation
of Israel, God brought forth his the fullness of his plan
to save his elect true Israel. So though ethnically, these people
are enemies of the gospel, When it comes to election, they are
beloved for it is through the Jews that God brought his salvation
into the world. Jesus the Christ. It's very akin
to what Jesus told the woman from Sychar in John chapter four,
when he says woman, salvation is from the Jews, is of the Jews. It didn't mean that the Jews
had salvation because of who they were. It meant that God,
through this election, through this picture, through this working
in the will of men to do His bidding, comes the Christ. I found myself praying today
as I heard my truck do something funny. It sounded funny. And
I'm very in tune with my automobiles. I can feel when they're not riding
right. I can tell when they're different. Sort of weirdness. And it made a noise, and it felt
funny. And as I drove down the road,
I said, Lord, are you going to take this truck from me? And I thought to myself, he could
do anything he wants through any means he desires. God could
take that truck from me by making it vanish from the world. I don't love the truck, I need
the truck. That's all I got running. God could take this truck from
me by having a thief steal it while we're here tonight. God
could take this truck from me by causing it to explode when
I get in it. God could take the truck from
me by natural means. Someone could hit me. It could
just stop working. The engine could just give out. God can do what He wants to.
He can do what He wants to with me, with my life, with my property,
with my family, with my health, with my arm. And there's nothing
I can do to stay. Thou will be done, Father. But I need this truck. Thou will
be done, Father. Now, why use a truck for such
a deep theological truth? Because nobody disagrees with
that. Oh yeah, the Lord can do anything
He wants to. But when you start talking about
entire nations of people, they have a problem with it.
They have a problem. So to them, God is more of a
transformative supervisor over the material things of the world
rather than the orchestrator and the author of life itself. But do you know no angel has
life in himself? Only God has life. Only God can
create life, only God can control life. That's why Jesus says,
or John says in the beginning of John's gospel and other places,
in him was life and this life was the light of man. The gifts, verse 29, and the
calling of God are irrevocable. So for us to understand the fullness
of what God has done and established in the picture of Israel, we
must understand the gospel of free and sovereign grace as given
to us already. And quite honestly, beloved,
Paul is finished with it. He's not going to recapitulate
the gospel after this paragraph. It's over. He's going to, therefore,
And you know what the therefore is? Because of the gospel of
free and sovereign grace, because you have been saved by the mercy
of God through the finished work of Christ, because you have been
declared righteous and given the gift of Christ's righteousness
to present to God before him. I'm going to tell you how you
need to think and tell you how you need to live, and I want you
to obey it. Nothing can separate you from
the love of God, even when you screw what I'm about to tell
you up. But I'm going to tell you anyway, for the sake of your
brothers and sisters in the faith and the sake of your own witness,
for the sake of the glory in the name of Christ, I'm going
to give you some things to do. So it's all because of the gospel
that is driven and effectual by the grace and the mercy of
God that Paul then can say, therefore, These things and gifts and calling
of God are irrevocable for just as you were at one time disobedient
to God. We'll pick this up next week.
I promise I'll spend more time here, but now have received mercy
because of their disobedience. And let me give you the, let
me give it away. Disobedience here means unbelief. So they
too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown
to you they may also now receive mercy. So what Paul is saying
is just as the nation of Israel in its picture have reprobates
and elects, now we see an entire season of reprobation over the
nation of Israel. But there's going to come a day
when now God will save some of them again. Not all of them. Not as a nation. He's not building
a people to be a kingdom. All His elect are a kingdom.
It's not of this world. For God has consigned all to
disobedience. All of His elect at one time
were what? By nature, like the sons of disobedience. That He may consign mercy on
all. Friends, do you see the sovereignty
of God in that statement? Next time somebody tells you
God didn't intend the fall, take them there to Romans 12.32. Oh,
the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
Because I don't know about you, when I read that statement for the
400th time just now, in my lifetime, that's an exaggeration, 381.
I don't know. You know, I'm just being funny.
Must be time to eat, Trey. Inside joke. All I could think
about is, The redemptive work of God is
beyond my comprehension. How He does what He does with
such fidelity and righteousness. And that's what Paul says. Oh,
the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways.
For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His
counselor? who has given a gift to Him that
He might be repaid. For from Him and through Him
and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. And
so it is. Let's pray. Lord, Your Word is
too much for me at times. Lord, as
I feel when I read through this, I made a decision in my mind
to to just read through it and just give some commentary because
it is a restatement of what we've learned thus far. To help us
see just the greatness of God's mercy, of Christ's mercy, of
your spirit's mercy, Lord, all of your grace toward us. And now I see that no matter
how much time I spend on this, it would never be enough. If
we spent two or three more years on this section of Scripture
alone, it would not be enough. So I pray that you would encourage
us to stay in the Word and continue to grow, to be confident in the
sufficiency of your Word by your Spirit to teach us to relish
the truth of you. And Lord, I know that it can
be overwhelming to try to grasp. And that's why I believe you
put this doxology in Paul's heart so that we could just praise
you for it rather than try to explain you away. And as we continue here over
the next few weeks and a few months to finish out this letter,
Lord, I pray that that you would work it for our good as it self
says all things do. Lord, that you would help us
to bring it to the table of conversations with those around us. Teach us
the gospel more and more. That we may proclaim it to the
ends of the earth, that you're elect, that all of Israel shall
come in. And we pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen.