as grace upon grace, because
I really believe that as we see that type of language in John's
Gospel, that from His fullness we all receive grace upon grace,
it's a recapitulation, an echo of the work of God and the sufficiency
of God's mercy. Salvation all comes from mercy. It all comes from grace. Salvation
is certain because of God's mercy. God is merciful toward those
He knows, and He knows those whom He has eternally loved.
and He has given them to Christ and Christ has died for them.
So the mercy of God is really the heart of God toward the elect. And God's election is the centerpiece
of the gospel of grace. And I know that there are a lot
of ways at looking at scripture. There's a lot of ways of interpreting
specific verses, and there's a lot of ways in which many people
could view things in light of other things. I talk about hermeneutics
often. I mention the term exegesis a
lot. I talk about exposition a good
bit. And someone could make the claim.
They could make the claim. Tippins, you just, you're seeing
this the way you see it and you're reading into the text. I can
be accused of isogeting the text of Romans. I could. Just like
I could be accused of speaking a foreign language, sometimes
with my grammar. I could. I could be accused of
not being real. Not a tangible being. So people
can accuse you of doing whatever they want. People can accuse
or make accusations in that sense about anything that they desire.
It doesn't matter if it's true. And the accusation itself is
not an argument for that particular thing. So someone to say, well,
you're Isaac in this text or that's your interpretation, that's
not a valid argument under the sun. Because if I say to you,
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Remember that in
typing class? It only says one thing. And it only says what it says.
It says that there was a dog that is lazy and the quick fox
that is brown jumped over it. Now, of course, we could infer
a lot. We could change this statement
of prose into imagery, or even poetry. We could say it is an
allusion to something. We could understand it in many
different ways, but the only way in which we can do that logically,
without being absurd, is to place it in a context where it would
make some of those other options possible, or plausible, or true. So when we take a particular
verse in the Bible and we say it means this, but yet when we
put it in its context it cannot mean that, then what we've done
is we've basically said we can't read. And I think it goes beyond
that. I think it says I will not read.
I will not listen to what God's word says. I think that's what
happens. And so when we look at the text tonight, as we close
out chapter 10, And we go into 11. It is important to read 11
as it is intended to be understood, which chapter 10 is a segue into
this next section of questions that Paul has already answered
and then now is restating. So, let's start Romans 10, verses
15 through 21. And how were they to preach unless
they are sent. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have
not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has
believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing,
and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they
not heard? Indeed they have. For, quote,
their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to
the ends of the world. But I ask, did Israel not understand?
First Moses said, quote, I will make you jealous of those who
are not a nation. We're the foolish nation. I will
make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to
say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown
myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says,
all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and
contrary people. Now you see what's happening,
right? You see that Paul has already talked about God's purpose
of election, and that everything that has taken place that we
see in the narrative of Scripture, in the history of Scripture,
in the history of humanity, is a way of looking and seeing that
God in His sovereignty has brought to fruition as He has all control
over the freedom of man and the will of man. and he is just in
all of his actions and all of his decrees, that for the sake
of his purpose of election to stand before he is immutable
and he is all powerful, he has done all that he's done with
a people group and other people groups throughout all of history
in order to prove election. in order to show that His sovereign
grace rises and falls with His decree of election. That only
that which God has purposed and chosen to do, with whom He has
purposed and chosen to do it, and for whom He has purposed
and chosen to do it, shall it be done. And that nothing can
change that. As we started in I think I meant
to say, I don't know if I said it, but is that we need to recognize
that election is at the core of the gospel of grace. We know
that we are truly redeemed because the Bible says that Christ has
paid for the sins of his elect. We know that we are the elect
because we trust fully by the power of the gospel and the spirit
through the word that we trust fully in this declaration, in
this revelation, in this illumination that's given to us by God, that
Christ has accomplished salvation and moreover justification for
his people alone, the elect. Paul argues that he desires to
see his sisters and brothers in the flesh, that is, ethnically. He'd love to see all of them
saved. But God has not promised to save all of the Jews. He has promised to save all of
his elect, true Israel, and that there is no other way to stand
righteous before God except to be found in Christ by the promise
and the decree and the purposes of God in His sovereignty through
election. And in verse 12 of 10, let's
look back there for just a moment. There's no distinction between
Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing riches
on all who call on Him. for everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved. Let me propose, not a secondary,
but a broader context in which this is applied. Not that the
text gives it to us, but that it is a possibility. Last week
and the week before when I taught this, I taught it as if any circumstance,
any circumstance whereby we, by faith, are calling upon the
Lord to help us. It is because, and this is contextually
driven here, it is because we have been saved because we are
elect, because God has foreknown us, because God has redeemed
us, because God has and so forth. We see the argument in Romans
8. But then, as Michaela asked last
week, what is this calling? How come we have this ambiguous
they? Who are they? What is this happening
here? Who's the subject here? Well,
I think there are two points to make to clarify this. There's
no distinction. So they who call upon the name
of the Lord do so. They are those believers, believing
ones. They are the elect. And the elect
who are also Jewish, if they are to believe, if they are to
call, they must first believe because calling is just something
that is done throughout the Christian's life. Because God has regenerated
them and converted them, granted them faith. So no one who calls
upon the name of the Lord will be ashamed. No one who believes
in the Lord will be ashamed. So therefore calling out on the
name of the Lord, Jesus is Lord, whoever confesses this, it is
a result of God's redemption and redemptive work to the gospel.
So then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed?
Now this is where it can get confusing. They. Who are they? They who have heard. They who have heard are they
who have believed, and they who have believed are they who have
or can call. That's what he does. He does
it sort of in a reverse order. But he still doesn't define who
are they. Some people say, well, it's just Jews. No, he's not
talking about Jews there because he's already said there's no
distinction. All Jews are not elect. Few Jews are elect. Most Jews are reprobate, according
to Paul in the example of history. And tonight we're going to see
why. We're going to see why. For the purpose of God's election
to stand. So how are they to call on whom
they have not believed? And how are they to believe in
Him whom they have never heard? Now see, this is where the The
questions then begin to start to unfold, in my opinion, or
unravel. And how are they to hear without
someone preaching? So now Paul points to the reality that all
who will be saved from the wrath of God are those who will be
justified through the death of Christ, or are justified through
the death of Christ. Those who will be leave in the
justification given by God through the death of Christ. Those who
have been foreknown, and it just goes all the way back, we can
go all the way back to chapter 1. We can wind this back up and see
what Paul is saying. So how are they to hear without
someone preaching? Preaching is the only means through
which the gospel can reach the elect for the sake of regeneration. Salvation, rather. Conversion.
Because if you realize, if we understand regeneration, I don't
want to conflate the terms because they're different things. God
has no specific conditions or means to which He regenerates.
What are they? The Holy Spirit's desire as He wishes. That's what
Nicodemus is told in John 3. So in other words, you don't
have to come to say, well, if this happens, then God will regenerate.
If this doesn't happen, then God doesn't regenerate. But we'll
tell you this, that every example we see of regeneration in the
Bible, what do we see immediately? Faith in Jesus Christ. So it
is always with the coupling of the Word. And it is only to the elect of God. So that a multitude
of people could hear the gospel and all of those people do not
have opportunity to be regenerate. Only the elect in that group
can be regenerated. So they who are the elect cannot believe
and cannot call on who they have not believed and they cannot
believe on whom they have not heard. And so God is not in the
business of regenerating people that He's not also simultaneously,
instantaneously converting. Regeneration precedes faith.
Without being born of God, one cannot believe what he hears
about God. Without one being born of God,
one cannot believe and put trust in the revelation of the gospel
of grace given by God. And that revelation will also
one day and fully include the fullness of the doctrines of
Christ, what He's accomplished, who He is, and for whom. So then Paul says, how beautiful
are the feet of those who preach the good news. Someone must be
sent. Someone must be sent. Now, what
has he talked about before this little section of scripture,
before this seemingly frustrating text? He reiterates the fact
that there is no one who has ever had the oracles of God.
There is no Jew, nor is there a Gentile who has ever found
favor with God through obedience. Now, of course, there is this
type of favor, for example, conditional blessings, conditional life. If you do this, then I'll do
this. If you want to live long in the
land, little Jewish Children, then obey your parents. You see? But it has nothing to do with
salvation in Christ. It has nothing to do with justification.
It has nothing to do with being made righteous. It's just God's
picture of election. God's picture of being sanctified
in Christ. Being set apart for God. His
people. Distinct from the nations. They
were not a people God called them His people. But they too
then were a picture to be distinct from the elect. Because if they
were special holistically, then a works gospel would have
its place. If they were special holistically,
then an additional gospel would have its place. If there was
some way in which ethnic Israel had a place eternally, and it
wasn't a shadow, then every iteration of some type of another gospel
may have to be considered. Paul annihilates that. And the only way anyone will
come to believe is if they hear. And the only way they'll hear
is if someone tells them. Now that destroys this covenant
salvation idea, doesn't it? I know all my children are saved
because I'm saved. No, that's not true. God could
very well, what? Give me a child that's not elect. I've seen families destroyed
over issues of the faith. I've seen people go their separate
ways. I've seen a generation of young
men in the 90s who grew up under the theological
strongholds of just learning doctrine, doctrine, doctrine,
doctrine, doctrine, and they became teachers and preachers
and pastors. And I've seen a whole handful
of them. fall away, not just from the gospel ministry, but
from God, period, from theological things, period. Most of them
that I have in mind right now would say to you publicly, I
believe there is no God and the Bible is a farce for fools. Well, how are they to call if
they have not believed or believe if they have not heard? But Paul
begins to say they have heard. They have heard. Some have heard. So now this they changes focus
doesn't it? There is they who cannot believe because they have
not heard but they who believe when they do hear are the elect.
But they who do not believe though they have heard are not elect. They're reprobate. So We have to recognize that
Paul's specifically dealing in the context here about the fact
that all who do believe it's because they've heard and that
no one has the excuse that they haven't heard. That's what we're
going to unfold. Have we already heard this before?
Pun intended? Yeah, Romans 1. For all men are
without excuse, for God has made it plain to them His divine nature,
His divine power and what has been made. But now particularly,
Paul is speaking to this people group here who now are Romans. Some of them are Jewish, but
not all of them. They're Gentile Romans, Gentile
Christians who are Romans, and then Jews who have been converted
by God into Christ and now are in Christ who are also Romans. And there was something very
unique that happened during the time of the apostles, and even
later, where Rome was very clearly a powerful nation. Having Christians
after the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus began
to grow to such an extent I can't remember who actually, what historian,
supposed this number, but by the end of the apostolic age,
between the 80s and 90s, it was estimated that in the Roman Empire
there were 500,000 Christians. That's amazing. Are there 500,000
Christians in America? Maybe. Could we get them together? I doubt it. I don't know. Are
there 500,000 Christians? That's amazing to me. To go from
12 people to 500,000 in just a few decades is an amazing thing. Under persecution, under the
penalty of death, under great consequence. See, culturally
speaking, anyone can believe a Christianity of America. But realistically speaking, only
the converted would believe a Christianity of the first century or be counted as a Christian
in the first century. So now, Paul is saying everybody's
heard, they have heard, but they've not heard with the right hearing.
By the Word of Christ, by the Spirit, that grants life and
conversion as a gift of mercy. See, someone sends a messenger. And that messenger, by definition,
has a message. And that message is sent to a
people and that people hear that message. Paul is not coining these phrases
and these questions. He is actually alluding to the
prophets. Isaiah 52 verse 7 says, How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him who bring good news, who
publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes
salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns. See, Hearing comes, what does
it say there? Faith comes from hearing, and
hearing comes through the word of Christ. So without the proclamation
of the gospel clearly, and I want to say this, the not gospel is
not proclaiming the gospel. We can fight against things,
we can tell all the air in the world, God will not and has not,
ever converted any of His elect through the not gospel. I could
stand here and give 50 ways that the gospel has been perverted
in our very culture. And I could say, and if any of
you believe in any of this, you're in grave error and you're not
born again. And you know what? The best I
could hope for? All of them agree. But you know
what will never happen? God will never birth any of them
again through that proclamation. He will not do it. He cannot
do it because He's not a liar. But what He will do is He will
convert His elect through the proclamation of Jesus Christ
in His finished work. When we tell the nations, what
Jesus word says concerning his work of redemption. God, as he
sees fit, calls his elect and gives them ears to hear. And
when that regeneration happens, they believe in the word they
just heard. They know that their only hope
is to finish work of Christ. This is what Paul means when
he talks about the Thessalonians. We know that you are the elect
of God because the word that we preach, the gospel of ours,
did not just come to you in word, but it came to you in power in
the Spirit. How do they know? Because they trusted in the finished
work of Christ. They trusted in the proclamation
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Friends, we don't need training
to learn how to read the Bible. We don't need tools and equipment
and all these things in order to learn how to establish a,
I don't know what the word I'm looking for, an evangelism strategy. We need the gospel of free and
sovereign grace and God will do the rest. God will do it all. This is a promise of God for
His elect. And as parents, we pray that
God would convert our children, that He would save our children,
and we teach them as we would teach anyone else. And God, in
His timing, in His purposes, if our children are His, they
will believe. We do not have to sit down and
try to discern who is and who is not the elect of God. We equally
proclaim the Gospel to all. And the only way they come to
life is through the Word of Christ. But then he asked the question,
have they not heard? They, now we're back to this they. Those
who have heard the preaching. Who is they there? Whatever they
have heard the preaching, have they not heard? Have the Jews
not heard the preaching of the gospel? Surely they have. Have
the Gentiles not heard the preaching of the gospel? Have unbelievers
not heard the preaching? Sure they have. Now I know that
there are statistics in the world that teach us that there are
places in the world that the gospel has never been because
presently we don't have any evidence of scripture there. Now, that's
a very logical step to make. But we cannot say then the next
thing is, well, because they don't have the gospel, then they're
exempt. For Paul says they're guilty. So if those who don't
have the gospel are guilty of not believing the gospel, are
guilty of sin, are guilty before God and His justice to be condemned,
how much more so are those who have the gospel guilty? And specifically speaking now,
Jews. They have heard. How do we know? Verse 16, we have preached. We
have preached. What do you mean they've preached?
Has not Isaiah preached the gospel? Has not Moses preached the gospel?
Jesus says in John 5 that Moses preached the gospel of Him. Has
not the Levites exposed the gospel? Yes. Was it veiled? Absolutely.
Is it clear for us? Yes. Because we see the Christ
instead of the shadows of Christ. We see the purpose of God in
election and how He justifies His people in the person of Jesus. But why then do so many people
fail to hear, though all of them have heard? Why is this message
of grace not powerfully moving the soul of every man? Verse
17. Faith comes from hearing. hearing
from the words of Christ. This is not man's power. It's
not man's words. It's not man's wisdom. It's not
man's choices. It's the power of Christ. God
converts his people as he wishes. So when the gospel goes out,
it is not like casting a net with the right bait. It is not
like enticing people to come and hear something cool so that
they can have all the information they need to make a sound decision. I've said this before and I'm
going to say it again tonight very plainly. The strategies that teach people
that they need to make plans, decisions, and progress toward
faith These tools and devices and alters and choices and prayers are demonic. People are not born of God through
these human means, through these human practices, through these
human works. They are not born of God. Because only Christ grants hearing
by the Spirit with His words, not man's. Now let's use a couple
of examples. Let's use Paul, I talked about
this earlier, at the Areopagus. Where he proclaimed what? The
unknown God who is the one and only true God of all gods. And
this God was crucified. He came to earth. He took the
form of man. He was crucified and buried and
raised to life. And in him alone does one find
eternal life. And this is pretty much the message
that Paul taught these Greeks. And there were three groups of
people in response. What were they? The scoffers,
the wise, those all that, you know, they're looking at this
guy and they're going, he's crazy. We'd rather believe there's a
God that, you know, does this and lives on a mountain
somewhere or whatever, but no, not a man who is God who was
raised to life to satisfy the debt of his people. That's just
silly. Why? They heard the gospel and
they refused it. Why? Because they were not elect.
And then there were two other groups. But these other two groups
were in one group. And this one group evidenced
this way. Tell us more. We want to hear
more. Teach us more. Who is this Christ? Who is this Messiah that you
speak of that rose from the dead? They were intrigued. Some of
them were intrigued. All of them were intrigued. Some
of them were most likely converted by the Spirit. Some of them who
are the elect heard the same gospel that the scoffers heard
and they came to life and then they believed what Paul taught
them about Christ as their only hope. They believed what Paul
then discipled them in, the doctrines of Christ. But even among that
group, there was another section out of that group, like there
is much today, who when they began to learn some details,
it came to the attention of the apostles and of the elders of
the first century church that there were many who were intrigued
by the message of the cross, who would come to receive the
Word of God in the beginning, but then to walk away from it
when the doctrine of Christ began to invade the will of their own
flesh. When the doctrine of Christ began
to step into the realm of their ability. When the doctrine of
Christ stepped on, and these are Greeks, their own wisdom. Whereby they would be seen by
their peers as fools. just as it was with the Gentiles
who had never heard of Christ before, who never heard of Messiah,
who had never had the oracles of God, who had never seen the
power of God displayed. Now the question, have they not
heard? Oh, they've heard. They have heard. Jews have heard, the Gentiles
have heard, but specifically the Jews have heard. They're not heard, indeed they
have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their
word's the end of the world." Now this is hyperbole. Okay? This is an exaggeration. It's like when a chicken truck
goes by and you can't escape the smell, and you say, the whole
world stinks. It's okay. The whole world doesn't
stink, but everywhere you are it stinks, so it's the world
to you. Well, the prophet Isaiah didn't go to the whole world.
Jeremiah did not go to the whole world. Moses did not preach the
whole world. Yet though we can say that the whole world is without
excuse because creation itself commands the mind of humanity
to know and recognize that God is. But it doesn't give revelation
of the gospel. Knowing that God is, is not salvific. Knowing that God is, is not redemptive. God must birth one of His elect,
and then they see fully, by the gift of His mercy, who God is
and what He's done for His people. Did they not understand? What's
that say there? Verse 19, well it hasn't gone
out, everybody's preached. But I ask, did Israel not understand? And then he quotes Moses again,
where? Out of Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32 verse 21 says,
they have made me jealous with what is no God. They have provoked
me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with
those who are no people. I will provoke them to anger
with foolish nations. Maybe this is the problem. See,
people would say, maybe the Jews just didn't get it. Maybe the
Jews aren't understanding. And Paul's saying, no, they understand
very clearly. And God has said out of His own
mouth, through His own prophets, that He would cause His temporal
picture of elect people to be jealous of those who had never
heard the truth, who had never lived a life of moral high road. who had never worshipped
Him, who had never praised His name, who had never heard His
Word. He would save them. Look at John's Gospel. Does he
not do that? The temple? Refuse Him. The Samaritans of Sychar? Receive
Him. Why do they receive Him? Because
by the will of God He made them His children. And it doesn't
mean that everyone there in the town came to faith. They have heard. And it isn't
that they didn't just understand. No, God's purpose of election
stands. And how does it stand? Against
ethnic Israel to show that the nation of people collected was
not the point of redemption. And it doesn't just start with
Moses, stop with Moses. It isn't just the fact that as
we saw in Isaiah, that the preaching of the gospel has been being
done since the garden. It wasn't just Moses, he goes
to Isaiah 65 verse 20. And Isaiah is so bold as to say,
I have been found by those who did not seek me. This is God
speaking through his prophet. I have shown myself to those
who did not ask for me. Isaiah 65, I was ready to be
sought by those who did not ask for me. Of course, Paul puts
in a reverse order in Romans. I was ready to be found by those
who did not seek me. I said, says the Lord, here I
am, here I am to a nation that was not called by my name. So when I hear these things and
I see this stuff, and before we get to verse 21 and close,
I hear Paul responding again in a restatement, recapitulation,
in the affirmative, with the question that he asked just a
couple of chapters back, then who can find fault? Chapter 9. Who can find fault? Why does
he still find fault in 9 and 19? Who can resist His will? But who are you, O man, to answer
back to God? Would a molded Satan say to his
molded wife, you made me this way? He reiterates this and that and
so Paul is just really restating this for a clearer picture, but
in some sense it's not very clear because we have been inundated
with the twisting of this text for so long. The twisting of
the cultural gospel for so long that we have to wash away all
of the pretenses and all the presuppositions with which we
approach this. so that it would simply be just
a restatement. Who can find fault? No one can
find fault, for God does as He wishes. And by the way, if you
still think that God needs to be subject to some fairness ideal,
Isaiah 65, starting in verse 2, God says this, I spread out
my hands all the day to a rebellious people. That's where Paul gets
this in verse 21. who walk in a way that is not good, following
their own desires, are people who provoke me to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks, who sit
in tombs and spend the night in secret places, who eat the
flesh of pigs and broth of tainted meat as their vessels. who say,
keep to yourself, don't come near me, for I'm too holy for
you. They are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.
Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep solid, but
I will repay. I will indeed repay into their
lap both your iniquities and your father's iniquities together,
says the Lord, because they made offerings on the mountains and
insulted me on the hills. I will measure into their lap
payment for their former deeds. says the Lord God of his Jews." So then Jews per se, we need
to understand out of this, had the Word of God. They had the
visible work of God. They had the promise. Paul's
already said all this, right? He's just bringing home the bacon
here. Pun intended. They had it all. Yet it was not
God's intention to give them hearing. Don't you hear that? It was not God's intention to
give them hearing. They are guilty either way. With
the Word, without the Word. With the miracles, without the
miracles. With the promise of Messiah, without the promise
of Messiah. They're guilty. And God's purpose of election
has shown that even when He takes a people out of the world, and
calls them His own, and supplies for them miraculously, and gives
them all the promises through His Word and through His prophets,
and shows Himself worthy, just like Jesus showed Himself worthy
time and time again, even raising a man from the dead, because
they were not elect, they could not see. Because the guilt that
is in Adam is ours and part of the penalty of that is that all
die. If man in his human will could
escape death, then the cross is stupid. The cross is the only effectual
way through which the elect of God will be saved. And it is
granted to us by the mercy of God. And this text here shows
clearly that man is guilty, Jew and Gentile. Why? This is the
judgment. The light has come into the world,
but people love the darkness rather than the light. Why do
they do that? Why do they do that? See, remember
John 3. Why do people love the darkness
rather than the light? Is it to gratify their flesh?
Yes, but not in the way most of us think. Because their works
are evil. Israel's works were evil. even when they obeyed God's commands.
Nicodemus' works were evil. The Pharisees' works were evil.
The shadows and the types and the figures of Judaism, if they were to produce
righteousness, were evil. They pointed to true righteousness,
but they could not grant it. And even when God took a people
out of the world, fallen and guilty in Adam, and gave them
everything in regard to revelation, they still love the darkness. Why? Because they had not been
given ears to hear. So therefore the ethnic purpose
and choosing of Israel is not election for the sake of redemption. And this text right here shows
us that no man can boast. No man can boast. No man can
boast. God has not forsaken His people. He will bring all His elect to
life, to faith, to glory. He will bring us all to Him. And if you look for just a minute,
then I ask, verse 11, I mean chapter 1, chapter 11, verse
1, I ask then, has God rejected His people? See the first question
about that? Has God failed? No. Then has God rejected His people?
See what Paul's doing? Paul's trying to get it out of
our minds that a group of people in a particular place with a
particular lineage are elect. Get it out of our minds! All
who are in Christ are elect. Only those who are in Christ
are elect. There is no elect person in the world. And that's
the point. Paul is saying, I, in my Benjamite
blood, have no prerogative toward God. God has not rejected His people
by no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of
Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected
His people whom He foreknew. He foreknew Abel, but He did
not foreknew Cain. He foreknew Jacob, but He did
not foreknew, what? Esau. He foreknew Moses, but
He did not foreknew Pharaoh. He did not love them. They were
not objects of His mercy. They were not part of the plan
that He was revealing, even through Israel. Israel represents election. Israel represents reprobation.
Just as there are two people groups in the world, the Greeks,
the Gentiles, rather, and Jews, there are two people groups in
the nation of Israel, the elect and the reprobate. And in the
end of it all, we who are the sheep of God will hear the voice
of our Savior, and we will follow Him out, and we will eat of green
pastures. And next week, I want to really
emphasize those first few verses there of chapter 11, that God
has not rejected the people whom He foreknew. And then He shows
and reveals the fact that even Elijah, praise against the people
of Israel who had defamed the name of God. Let's pray. Lord, this is difficult for us.
We're not in the first century. We're not Romans. We're not Jewish. We don't even have a good common
place to learn the truth of Scripture in our economy. should be easy for us to find. But just as you show us with
your chosen nation of Israel, father, the same thing is true
for the Church of America. But there are many people who
confess the wrong Christ, the wrong Messiah, the wrong savior
thinking because of cultural tradition and historical continuity,
Lord, that they are safe because of their free will, because of
the morality, because of the testimony of their life change. Father, we need to wake up. To
see that evangelism is so much more needed now than it's ever
been in our life. So that as we proclaim the pure
and bold finished work of Jesus that out of the cults of evangelicalism,
out of the cults of Christendom, out of the cults of the world
and the world religions and all the other iterations of no faith
and false faith that you would call your elect out. Help us
to charge those around us to listen to the truth as we proclaim
it, carried along with our prayers, knowing that you've promised
to save your people from their sins. And we thank you for this
in Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.