This fact that God is going to save all. So we come tonight. This is the King James right here, which we will mostly be using if you have been with us before. We've got some Greek in the middle and we've got Young's Literal over here on the other side. And we will begin to take a look right here, the that section. Let's look right back here. It starts at really in verse 25. Again. Last week we did 25, 26, 27. Let's go ahead and just remind ourselves what those verses had to say. I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, not the Pauline mystery. These were black letters. Don't be ignorant of this mystery which I now want to tell you, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. That's the mystery that Israel is blind. Now, that is part of the mystery of salvation that we have in the dispensation of the Age of Grace. But it really is a subset of it. It's a separate mystery we talked about last week. This is the same mystery, this blindness of Israel until that means there's going to be a day when they're not blind at the fullness of the Gentiles. We put the fullness of the Gentiles really at the second coming, when the fullness of the Gentiles become in, we attach this mystery with, Behold, I show you a mystery. We Israel shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. All Israel shall be saved. All Israel shall be changed. One Corinthians 1550 and 51, romans, chapter 11, 25, 26. We put those together as the same thing. So today, in this transition period in which we live today, israel is in a blindness, but it's temporary until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. And when the fullness of the Gentiles become in, all Israel shall be saved. We talked about that last week. Not every single Jew who ever lived that would go against what Paul has already said in Romans, chapter nine. Not all are Israel who are of Israel. So the real Israel, the elect Israel, the remnant Israel, in the day of the election, that Israel, all of it shall be saved. As it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. By the way, this should say right here, if the Lord is going to come and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, then we don't need to be saying, well, they must not be God's chosen people, because there's ungodliness. That's honestly one of the most asinine statements that you've ever heard. And yet I remember my professors telling me, there's no way they can be the claim to be the people of God when they behave like they do, well, he's going to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. What do we have in this day of their blindness, we have ungodliness from Jacob. This is what we should expect to see. It's very clear and very plain in the scripture. So I bring this up because just every now and then, if you hang out with a Calvinist, maybe, and of course, a Calvinist, in their fake Humility, a Calvinist says, I am the apple of God's eye and Israel thrown under the bus. And what they'll tell you is Tel Aviv is one of the biggest, sin cities there is all through the Middle East. There's no more sin than happens in Tel Aviv. Well, they're blind, Duh. They're spiritually blind. That's going to go away. You should know the mystery so that you don't have this conceit. And he speaks about that. Now, that was last week's lesson. I got to get into this week's lesson, don't I? So he will come. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant unto them. This is the new covenant that hasn't yet come. It's going to when I shall take away their sins, which hasn't happened. It's not today. We're not under the new covenant. Now we come. And he continues to talk about the Jewish nation, and he continues to tell what's up in this overlap time. Really, by now, what he's saying is it doesn't matter if it overlaps or not. He is talking beginning in verse 28 and going downward in the age of grace. This is stuff that can be directly taken and applied and understood as descriptive of the age of grace, not necessarily descriptive of the body of Christ, because some of it's talking about Israel, but where is Israel during the age of grace? And this is what we talked about, what we will talk about. And so he says, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. Now, this is let's go ahead and take this r. Even though the verb is inserted there, it's the one that would have to be inserted R, right now, the present time. This is the case. That was the case in Paul's day, as he was explaining it. Nothing has changed since then. We haven't had the rapture, we haven't had the second coming, any of that. So Israel is still blind. The fullness of the Gentiles has not yet come in. So verse 28 describes today. Now, as concerning the gospel. You and I, who, let's see, get back over here. You and I, who rightly divide and are working on rightly dividing Romans. You know that you must rightly divide the gospel. And when you see the word, the gospel, you got to stop and say, which gospel are we talking about? Now, if you're new to right division, that'll shock you just a little bit. Let me just say, maybe you could go to our series called The Rightly Divided Gospel. Check that out. It's four, five, six weeks of explaining that. For now we're just going to go with you've got to divide the gospel, figure out which gospel it's talking about. And so here you come in. It says, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. Now, I think that we've got to go with the Pauline Gospel, the mystery gospel, the gospel that you and I live under today, the gospel of the dispensation of the grace of God. The reason I say that is honestly logic. There's nothing in the word itself that tells us which gospel. There's nothing directly in the context that tells us. But if you've got the gospel of the Kingdom, that Messiah is going to come and he is going to establish the Kingdom, or you've got the gospel of individual salvation, the national Gospel, the individual gospel, and that's the two you're dealing with. And really I think effectively you could bring it down to those two if that's your choices. Honestly, the National Gospel doesn't really fit here. They were not against the future salvation of the nation when Messiah comes. They believed it then, they believe it today. They followed the Old Testament. They just rejected Jesus as the Messiah. So they were not enemies for your sake of the Kingdom Gospel, but they were enemies of the Gospel that's under the Pauline pattern, they would remain enemies to today, that Jesus who claims to be the Jewish Messiah, would somehow be the individual savior of the uncircumcised. They're enemies to that. So concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. Now, we're going to get into this more for your sakes, but we got to figure out who you are. And as we have walked through the book of Romans, of course you know that you has always turned out to be unless there is something very direct right there in front of us, it is you, Roman Jews. Now, concerning the individual gospel, they are enemies, enemies of the individual gospel for what? For you Roman Jews sake. Now we'll put that together in a moment. It doesn't have to make sense yet, but they national Israel, are enemies of the Pauline Gospel for the sake of the Roman Jews. But as touching the election, they are the beloved for the Father's sake. This is to say that I think quite clearly, if you're rightly, dividing the election has to be divided from the gospel. They are not the same. They don't go together. They are always to be divided. The election should have absolutely nothing to do in any of our teaching about individual salvation. None of us are elect. Not even R. C. Sproul or John MacArthur or John Piper. None of us are elect. The election is for Israel and they Israel. I think even a Calvinist would have to say, yeah, here we're talking about Israel here. And yet as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. I guess I should have looked to see what some diehard Calvinist had to say about this because this seems like a difficult one to get over, that it is Israel that is beloved for the Father's sake. Now, the Father's sake notice this is plural, fathers, the Father's sake, and that it is lowercase f, not for God the Father's sake, but for the patriarch's sake, sakes, plural. So they are beloved concerning the election. That is to say, they have not lost their election. The next verse is going to reiterate this. They have not lost their place in the election. Why? For Abraham, isaac Jacob for them. Because God has some promises to them. And so for Abraham's sake, he is not going to he may put them into a partial blindness, he may delay the delivery, but he is going to do it whether he cares about some future generation of Israel or not. He's going to do it. He's going to do it for Abraham's sake, Isaac, Jacob, for the Father's sake, he will bring it about. So this kind of, again states say what's going on in the world today? What's happening in this dispensation of the age of grace? Well, the Jews, because they're blind, they are enemies of the Gospel for I don't think we could put for our sake, though, later we're going to this is for the Roman Jews. Let's call it the Jews of the Diaspora, for their sake, the national Israel, those making the decisions for Israel, their enemies for the Gospel. And that was a blessing to the Roman Jews. We'll talk about how in just a moment, but don't even go there thinking they have lost their place in the election. As far as the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. And then again, he confirms that when he says in verse 29, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, that is, God's not going to change his behavior and he's not going to change his mind. Incidentally, this coming Sunday, what is this Sunday about? July 29 or something like that, I don't know. Whatever this next Sunday is, I am going to be unlearning some issue about repentance. So we may even talk about this verse, who knows? So if you're interested in that, sometimes people want to make repentance to be a change of mind. Sometimes they want it to be a change of behavior, sometimes they want it for our dispensation, sometimes they don't want it for our dispensation. We're going to try to iron that out. That is a free preview. Now, the gifts and calling of God, he's not going to change his mind on, nor is he going to change his behavior on whichever way you want to take this. If God has given a gift, he is not going to take that gift back. If God has given a calling, he is not going to call it back. And he has done that to the fathers and the gifts and the calling of, say Abraham was for the future generations of Abraham, and he's not calling that back ever in any way is he calling that back. They're under a blindness now. Yes, but the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. They are still god's people. And this verse right here, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, even though that is talking about the gifts and calling that God has placed upon Israel. And perhaps you could argue, well, that ought to be black. I mean, that's not to us today. The reason I left it blue was because it is descriptive of today israel's place in the gifts and calling of God is irrevocable. It's without repentance. It's not going anywhere. It's not changing anywhere. That is a truth for today. But there's also a secondary, I think, application that we can give out of it. The primary application does go to Israel here. That's the context of it. But would anyone argue that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance only for Israel? No. This is a almost hate to use the term transdispensational truth. Doesn't matter what dispensation you're in whatever the gifts and calling of God are, they're without repentance that God has given that. So we come, for example, by grace. Are you saved through faith, not of yourselves? He's not going to change his mind on that. That is what it is. There are no works that are going to be required of us or involved in our salvation or involved in our completion in Christ or involved in our sanctification. He has saved us and made us complete in Him by grace through faith, not changing his mind on that. That is what it is. Now, he has said that this is coming to a close and he said that from the very beginning. Here is a dispensation of the grace of God that I will give you. And it goes for a time period from the time it's revealed until the time that the Church is raptured out of here. So nonetheless, it is very good news both for Israel and for the Church. Now, he comes in in verse 30 and says, for as ye in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief. Okay, we got to figure out who the you and who the they are, right? And I think that this one is easy right here through their unbelief. So we'll start right there. You have obtained mercy through their unbelief. Well, again, everybody would say that's Israel, israel was unbelieving and somebody obtained mercy through their unbelief. Who was it? Ye as ye in times past have not believed God yet. Now, this is somewhat of a dispensational change. It's not necessarily talking about the dispensation as it is talking about the group here. You, somebody didn't believe, but you now have obtained mercy. Who's the ye? I suspect if you've been with us now 32 sessions that you have a clue who I think ye is. And guess what? It's not what all the commentaries say. All the commentaries. I would say even the right division commentaries, the few that are out there want to put this to ye Gentiles, ye Gentiles, ye Gentiles in times past have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through Israel's unbelief. There's a degree of truth to that. We'll see it in a moment. But the challenge is, if we make this ye Gentiles, the the whole pronoun roadmap, the legend on the roadmap falls apart. And we will not know through the book of Romans what we're talking about, who we're talking about all the way through. It's always been ye Roman Jews, unless there was something in the immediate context. Now somebody might say, oh, there is something in the immediate context. Back up in verse 13. Now we're in verse 29. So I don't know how immediate you want to call it, but let's go to verse 13 where it says, I speak to you Gentiles, therefore ye once did not believe. Right? I don't think so. I think and we talked about this in session 29 and no, session 30, session 31, and now we're in session 32. This is the kind of pattern we're looking for in the book of Romans, where you is defined differently instantly. Right there. Boom. No way you can get around it. There it is. So this is a different you. You, gentiles. He uses this plural. You. We talked about this again last week with the Gentiles once in verse 13. And he talks about magnifying his office for the Gentiles, and that I might by some means save some of them if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world. And he talks to that the first fruit. We went through that. Now then he's talking to you Gentiles. And as we've discussed before, he comes in and he switches to the singular right here. If some of the branches be broken off and thou not you Gentiles, but it would have to be thou Gentile, thou Gentile, being a wild olive tree, weren't graft in among them. And he uses the singular then all the way through. If thou boast, thou bearest not the root, the root bearest thee. Thou wilt say the branches were taken off that I might be graft in. And thou standest by faith. Be not high minded, but fear. Take heed, lest he also spare not thee. And if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt be cut off. And then it begins to talk of they in verse 24. You have it again if thou weret cut off. So in 13, verse 13, he says you plural Gentiles. But then 13 through 24, he's clearly talking about Gentiles, the wild olive tree graft in, but he speaks in the singular. Why? As we discussed last week, because it's an individual gospel. You don't speak about the group there. As a matter of fact, I suspect I even do a lot of bad talk here, where I talk about maybe the body of Christ being grafted in. But that would be you have been grafted in. You plural. This is individual. Everything over here is done on an individual level. So when he's talking about this gospel, he's talking individually. He's not talking you. And so he comes into the singular, thou, thou, thou. Well, then we talked about how last week he switches in verse 25, I would not, brethren. That ye. Now here he shifts it. I want to talk to you, brethren. I'm not talking about the Gentiles anymore. I would talk about you, brethren. And we talked about how brethren, in the book of Romans only is always the Roman Jews. And he starts talking to them as a group again. Ye, ye. In verse 25, the fullness of the Gentiles. He's not talking to the Gentiles anymore. Now he's talking about the Gentiles. So all Israel shall be saved, and he goes through, now they are enemies for your sake is where we picked up today for you, the Roman Jews. He's talking in a group again. He's talking collectively. He's talking in a sense of a nation that comes together of a national gospel, and he says what we've already looked at and the gifts of calling and calling of God. Ye, in times past, have not believed God. Okay, this has got to be, I think, the Roman Jews. You roman Jews in time past have not believed God. Now, some might say, oh, yes, they did believe God. And I say, how do you know? I feel it in my heart, deep down inside. Okay, good. That in $5 will get you a cup of coffee, right? How do we know that? The Roman Jews believed God. As a matter of fact, what are Jews doing in Rome anyway? These are Diaspora Jews, scattered about. When did the diaspora begin? Maybe, like, officially, it began about 723 BC. According to the standard chronology. And that is the time of what? Of the Northern Kingdom. Who rejected God, decided they didn't want God. They were going to go their own way. The Assyrians came in, scattered them all over the world. They ended up in Rome in times past. Now, I know that we might want to take this. Ye, in times past have not believed. We want to make this, like, two years ago. But why? Why can't it be like, I don't know, 500 years ago, 600 years ago? 700 years ago, you Diaspora people, you didn't believe God. Every single thing about their history says this is true, spoken of in the group. You diaspora Jews in times past. You didn't believe God. Yet now God's doing this new thing right here, now, you've what, obtained mercy. Okay? Mercy. I think it's interesting that he does not say, you have now obtained grace. He says, you've now obtained mercy. And mercy and grace are not really interchangeable. In fact, if someone stood and said, you remember what Ephesians two, eight and nine says, that by mercy you are saved. Through faith, you would immediately stop and say, no. It doesn't say by mercy you are saved. It says, by grace you are saved. And you would immediately know grace and mercy are not used interchangeably synonyms. There's the word I'm looking for. They're not synonyms. Mercy is one thing, grace is another. Maybe they're related, but they're not synonyms. They're not interchangeable. So Roman Jews, who might here be representative of all Diaspora Jews, but we'll go with Roman Jews, they once didn't believe God. That's why they're there honestly, and yet now obtained mercy. Mercy, I think we've heard it said before, grace is getting what you do not deserve in a positive sense. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve in a negative sense. So now you Roman Jews have obtained the blessing of not getting what you deserved. How did you obtain this? Through their unbelief, when they who's they national Israel. When national Israel did not believe you, who at one time did not believe you obtained mercy. This is a very important, I think, theological truth for today that Paul is laying. Let's look at one more verse here, two more verses, and put all this together here. If you don't understand it yet, don't worry about it yet. Worry about it late. I'll tell you when to worry about it. But even so, have these also now not believed that through your mercy, they also may obtain mercy. Okay? Even so, these also they these national Israel also hasn't believed that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. This is a little bit of a cycle here. You Roman Jews have mercy because national Israel didn't believe. And when they didn't believe, God gave mercy to you. But guess what? When God gave mercy to you, all Israel will be saved. So they got your mercy too. The reason this is a little bit confusing is because, one, the dog is chasing his tail. The tail is being chased by the nose. The nose is chasing the tail. This is things going around and round. They didn't believe you have mercy because you have mercy. They have mercy. And this is the cycle that you've got. The second reason that this is confusing, one, it is circular, which is always confusing. But the second reason it's confusing is because we so much are attuned to putting ourselves in here. And this is not about us. This is about the Roman Jews. But the reason it's blue is it perfectly describes the dispensation in which we live. Okay? He continues on the same theme, and he says, God hath concluded concluded with Occlusion. He's put the gate on it. Shut up. Closed in. God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. Now I think who is this? Them all right here. I think if we back up just a little bit, we have they, we have these, we have they, we have them, they, them, these, all the same, God hath shut up, closed in national Israel in unbelief. How did he close them in? They were unbelieving, and he solidified that with a blindness. Now they can't get out of it. He's concluded them in unbelief. Why? That's the whole issue of why here, that he might have mercy upon all. Now, I want to try to show you here a little diagram that I have made, and I'm not a really good diagram maker. So you have this on your outline, but it is very hard to see you. My apologies. I'll get a graphic artist working on it better. Here's the scene as it happened. Them all, god hath concluded them all. Them all is national Israel, and they are concluded or shut up in unbelief. That's the state. This is what actually happened. Them Israel did not believe. They're boxed in because of that, god's mercy through Israel's unbelief came down to the Roman Jews. They didn't believe, so God closed them up, which made mercy here. Now, why was it mercy to the Roman Jews? I'll show you in a minute in the next chart. What if they had believed and the Roman Jews didn't? They would get what they deserved for not being believers. And so, when God put the hold on this thing right here and concluded them, shut them up, or blinded them in unbelief, that gave a merciful opportunity to the Roman Jews. Now, the Roman Jews, then, through your mercy, they may also obtain mercy. That is, if God is going to put this on hold, it puts this on hold. And this being on hold puts this on hold. It's this circular thing. Both of them are getting mercy. What's that? Both of them are not getting what they deserve. Then through this, because God concluded them in unbelief, god's Israel came upon the Roman Jews, and through the Roman Jews, it also has extended to the whole world where we are today. So what is the we can improve upon this, but what is the diagrammatic picture of the age of grace? It's that Israel nationally national Israel, has been concluded in unbelief. But God didn't send judgment. Rather he gave mercy. And giving mercy to the Roman Jews gave mercy to national Israel, which gives mercy to everybody in the world. We got a little time, is what it did. That's the scene as it happened. To understand that, let's look at the scene as it could have happened. Could have happened. What if them all, national Israel, had believed they had the opportunity to do it? Peter proclaimed to them in the power of the Holy Ghost. What if they had accepted? Well, Peter tells us what would happen in Acts, chapter three, verse 21. He says the restitution of all things would happen. We have to repent right now. The restitution of all things would happen when we accept our Messiah, repent and be baptized. And if they had believed, God's judgment would have come down upon the Roman Jews, because the Roman Jews did not believe, they were separated from their nation, and God's judgment would have also extended to the world. So here you and I in the world, god's mercy extends to the world. God's judgment extends to the world. This is what the prophetic plan was. The prophetic plan was the kingdom is going to be offered. If they do not accept it, then judgment will come down upon all those who do not accept, and there'll be judgment and war. But rather, God concluded them, stopped them right there, blinded them, say, okay, we're going to leave them in unbelief until the time of the Gentiles has come in that mercifully gave an opportunity for some time for Roman Jews and for some time for you and I. The world put everything on hold and gave a tremendous blessing. Now, what we've got then is that because of the blindness, the temporary has a boundary blindness of Israel. And add to that, that God is allowing that blindness to happen. He's not fulfilling his prophetic plan. That is mercy to us, because in this pause, he is also given the age of grace. And giving the age of grace, we become the recipients. So what if Israel had never been concluded in unbelief? What if Israel had not been blinded and just left there, put on hold? I tell you, there never would have been an age of grace. Would have been the tribulation, would have been the great and terrible day of the Lord, would have been the judgment, would have been it with no age of grace whatsoever. And God would have fulfilled his perfect plan, his prophetic plan, and all would have been well. But instead he decides, okay, there's the downfall that Israel gets concluded in unbelief, but everyone else, including individual Israel, is going to have some blessing during this time. And it's this thought of, wow, what a I hate to use this word because it has a little bit of a negative connotation to it, and I mean nothing negative at all. But Paul says, what a marvelous scheme that God has done here. He has worked out a way in which he can be merciful to all the world and not cheat Israel, not have to repent on his election of Israel. He just puts everything on hold, concludes them in unbelief. Why? So that he can have mercy upon all, opened up a new dispensation by concluding them in unbelief. So the blindness of Israel, as it says I don't know, I think it's about verse 15, the blindness of Israel turned out to be, as he's already said, the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world. This is the. Issue. They had to be cast away. They had to be put into this Temporary blindness. Things had to be Put on hold. The Prophetic plan Had To be put on hold in order to bring about the reconciling of the world. So God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy Upon All. And so Paul then, thinking about this grand scheme that God had up his sleeve in verses 36 33 through 36, he just stops in a word of praise. And it is, I would say, a worthy word of praise as he comes and says, oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable Are His judgment and his ways past finding out that is his song of Praise. I memorized that verse when I was in college and I didn't have any clue. It was about the mystery Back In those days. But it's kind of trans dispensational as well, Isn't it? Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. God has tremendous riches. The Word there is what is it? Pluto? I believe it is. And plutos I'll get. It not pluto like the planet or the dog, but pluto. Plutos is the word. Oh, the plutos from plutos, we get the word, if this helps you any. Plutocracy. Plutocracy. A plutocracy is government by the rich. Government by the rich. Doesn't sound like it would be a good plan, does it? It Was Not intended to be The American plan, but somehow they go up, there a commoner, and they come out. Plutos just happens. Owe the depths of the plutos the wealth by the way it comes from the root. We get the word plethora. There is a plethora means an overabundance. So this word riches here it is really that idea of, wow, this one you're not going to get to the bottom of this. This one is just going to keep going and going and going and going. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. I don't know that there's any need for us to parse those out on What It is. But God has wisdom. God has knowledge, and he's got them down to the nth degree. The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments now? Judgments, of course. Here the word for judgments. Let's see what Young's Does uses also the word judgments. It's not the things that God determines who's guilty and who's innocent. That's not what it's talking about. There. But the decisions that God has decided to carry out. The things that God does, let's just put it there. How unsearchable are his judgments? Okay, he uses this word unsearchable, by the way, to talk about the mystery as well. But here he's talking in a very broad sense. He's just saying, hey, the things God is going to do that's unsearchable can't figure that one out. And his ways are past finding out. Really, he just parallels what he's already said there. Unsearchable are his judgments. Past finding out are his ways. Now, that tells us a little bit right there. It tells us that if we are going to know anything about the judgments of God or about the ways of God, how are we going to know it? Through his revelation. His revelation is going to be the only thing that's going to tell us. We cannot put together a committee of informed people and have them determine what God is up to because his judgments are unsearchable. His ways are past finding out. Doesn't matter if you've got the most religious people, if you got the most wise people, the most knowledgeable people, the most educated people, the richest people, whatever group of people. If you gather together the August Committee on Determining the Ways of God, they can't figure it out because his ways are unsearchable, his judgments are unsearchable. His ways are past finding out. So unless God has revealed it, we don't know it. Which ought to tell us something about speculating about God, by the way. It is nothing but pure speculation. So where has God revealed himself? I would say in two areas. He has given revelation of his judgment and of his ways. First of all, in a general sense, in what I'll call natural science, and I get this from Romans, chapter one, is it verse 21 or so in which it says, the invisible attributes of God are seen in the things of creation. Therefore, natural sciences, creation does reveal the things of God. It used to be back in what's sometimes called the Dark Ages or even then later into the Renaissance, it used to be that geometry was a theological pursuit. Astronomy was a theological pursuit. Music and music theory was a theological pursuit. Mathematics was a theological pursuit. Isaac Newton was a theologian, you know, with the one figuring out gravity. All of the study of the natural sciences has been and can be used to reveal things about God. That's what the Scripture says to us. So if his judgments are unsearchable, his ways are past finding out, we better figure out where has he revealed them to? Where has he revealed it? And what we find out is it's not the New York Times or the CBS Evening News, whatever it is. This is not where God has revealed his judgments and his ways. Not even down at the local church, by the way. It's not through the pastor that he reveals his judgments. It is through natural sciences. And again, I'm going to stop right there just a little bit and say, I really think that Christians need to get back to an emphasis on the natural sciences. Natural sciences and the study of natural sciences has sickened over the years, as you can imagine. It's really not even called natural sciences anymore. It's sometimes called physics. And physics is the study of the physical world in a real sense. But physics itself has become antiGod. It wants to understand the world without God rather than using the world to understand God. And therefore it's just sort of gone amok. It's a ship without a sail. And Christianity needs to come back and reclaim this. We need to learn the insights of music and how that fits with astronomy and how that fits with geometry and how that fits with chemical makeup, the periodic tables and all those kind of things. Figure all that out. That we need natural scientists as Christian because his judgments are unsearchable, his ways are past finding out, except where we know he's revealed them. And one of those areas is in creation. The second thing is he's revealed them in his word. This is what it says, that the word of God is the revelation of God Himself. And so I'll call them theological sciences. Christians ought to be good at theological sciences and natural sciences. Now, theological sciences is honestly the study of language. God has revealed it, put it into words. What do words mean? How do words relate to one another? How are words connected to one another? What's the difference between connecting this word and that word and that word to this word and this order and all that kind of stuff is the revelation of God. Now, the reason all of that is important is because this is the only way we are going to know anything about the judgments or the ways of God. Now, I know that modern Christianity would like to say, well, we just need to sit and sense God's presence, every head bowed and every eye closed. Let's just feel Him for a moment. Let's meditate on the ways of God for a little bit. Well, not going to find out anything. I'm going to go on a journey to discover God. Well, get your Bible, probably save the gas money, get your Bible, go on a journey there. And this in meditation, in listening to all the Eastern philosophers, whatever it is you're going to try to do, you're not going to figure it out. You can do a study of all the world religions and not find out anything about God because his judgments are unsearchable. His ways are past finding out. You're not going to figure it out. There natural sciences, theological sciences, that's where you're going to figure it out. Really. We should say biblical sciences, textual sciences in that. So that's the word of praise he gives says, wow, Israel did not believe. And somehow God turned that into a way that he can be merciful to the whole world. I wouldn't have guessed he'd have done it that way, I guess. His judgments are unsearchable, his ways are past finding out. I never in a thousand years would have done it that way. And yet that's exactly the way god has done it. And then he reiterates in verses 34 and 35 in kind of poetic language, that God's judgments are unsearchable when he says, for who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor? Rhetorical questions. There's two we're going to have one in the next verse. Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Confucius that's who confucius yoda yoda hath known the mind of the Lord? No. Jabba. The hut. That's who hath known the mind of the Lord? No, none of these have known the mind of the Lord. Nobody knows the mind of the Lord. It echoes of Job chapter. Is it 40 or 41? So, yeah, we wouldn't guess what God is going to do or who has been his counselor. You know god. I really kind of recommend that you carry out this no, God doesn't take counsel from anybody rhetorical questions to remind us his judgments are unsearchable, his ways past finding out. A third rhetorical question who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him. Again, this is to say, who loaned God some money and God owes you? To whom is God indebted? To whom does God come and say, you know, Randy, I would not have figured that out. I owe you for that one, boy. Thank you for bailing me out. No, God doesn't come to me, you, anybody else. So again, his thing is it's not the wisdom of man that is going to show us the ways of God. God's ways are past finding out we are dependent upon his revelation. And then he closes this little word of praise and indeed this section of Romans 910 and eleven says, for of him and through him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. And he concludes this little doxology here. He uses a triplicate of prepositions of through to of is ek, you could say out of everything in the cosmos came out of him. Through is dia like diameter. Everything not only came out of Him, but exists for Him or through Him. We might say he is the Creator and he is the Sustainer. And then to Him, ice is the word, like ice. Jesus, you got ek and ice, the two opposites. Out of and to everything is to Him. That is, he is the purpose of all things. Was it Paul who know all things were created by Him and for Him? Or was that know without Him? Was not anything made? Maybe that was Paul in colossians. So of through to by, sustained by and for is what he stops in this celebration right here. Are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. And that's a pretty good spot to end and say Amen, isn't it? So what Paul has done in 910 and eleven, it's been a long time. I didn't go back to see what session we started, chapter nine. But it's been a while. And in this, Paul has come, and he in earlier chapters revealed the mystery, says, hey, let me tell you what God is doing that now a man can be justified by grace outside of the law. This is a new thing. Oh my goodness. They say, what then shall happen to Israel? He says, hey, I would love all Israel to be saved, but there's always been some of Israel that hasn't been saved. Not everyone who is of Israel is recipients of the promise. There are those promised ones of Israel. He calls those the election. And he says, God has ultimately, in this age, put Israel under a blindness and he's brought someone else in and he said, I'm going to carry out my work through you, all individuals. I'm going to do it through you for a while. While Israel is concluded over here in blindness is remaining in a spiritual blindness. Rather than judge both Israel and the Diaspora Jews and the Gentiles and the whole world, I'm just going to have this pause parenthetical period in which I am going to deal with individuals. I'm bringing individuals into the plan and purpose of God, whosoever will may come. Paul says, wow, how genius this was. How in the world could you have gone to the world with grace while you're delivering upon your promises to Israel? Especially when Israel won't believe the only thing you could do is destroy all but the tiny little remnant of the elect at that point. And God says, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to conclude them right there in unbelief till the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and then all Israel will be saved. I'll deliver my promises then. And that's where Paul again comes and says, oh, the depths of both the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, his ways past finding out. And he rejoices in that. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is session 31 of the Book of Romans, which means next week we will begin in Romans chapter twelve, which is the final segment of the Book of Romans. It goes twelve through 16, and we will look at that, I think, and have a wonderful time with all that. I'd love to say hello to you. You can put in a little greeting if you have not already done so. And let me say hi here in just a moment. A few programming notes. There is. No. Ask the theologian. Tomorrow again, I'm hosting Grandkids, so some things do take priority, but I'll be back on Sunday. 945, we're doing Samson. You've missed two sessions so far, but only five verses. In Judges chapter 13, we'll continue and look at the promised birth announcement of Samson. 945. We are doing the Unlearn It series at 1045, and we're going to unlearn, as I mentioned earlier, repentance that's this weekend, a couple of other things. One is, if you haven't signed up to Branson and you're thinking about going, I would love to know about it. You just go ahead and sign up because the deadline at which they quit holding rooms for us comes up here in a few weeks. So now would be the time to register for that if you have not already done so and look forward to seeing you there. For Right division issues and Answers, september 1 through four. Branson, Missouri. You can find all about it@randywhiteministries.org. Let me go ahead then and tell you also about our Kaus Prophecy Conference, which is just a few weeks. I, by the way, don't like the fact that they're both in the same month. That is not my preference. But it's the prettiest time to come to Taos and I want to invite you to Taos at the prettiest time to come to Taos. That's when the aspens are all turning gold and the weather is perfect that time of year and the Milky Way is out in the sky and it's never has heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day. I don't want to bring you in the winter when it's snowing. I don't want to bring you in the summer when it might be hot and we don't have air conditioners. I want to bring you in September. Actually, I would bring you early October, but the first ten days of October is the International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, and that makes all the prices of flights and rental cars jump drastically. I don't want you to have to pay that either. So there it is. But this year we are going to study I forgot the name of it, but what we're studying is textual criticism. How's that? We're going to go and look at the underlying texts of the various versions of the New Testament. Mainly. That's the critical texts, of course, for the modern versions and the textus receptus. Where did these come from? What are they? What differences are in there? How credible are these two versions? That's what we're going to look at, and I think it'll be a fun, exciting journey. I'll be leading that. And the week after that we're going to take a little road trip. I still got to put it together, but we're going to take a little. Those of you who want to stick around, we'll carpool. We'll get in the car together. We're going to go see some fun things. After that, maybe we'll see some Oppenheimer things. There's plenty of Oppenheimer stuff around here. Some of you have seen the movie. I haven't, but there you go. Okay. Glad you are here. Let me say hello to you tonight, like Jim in Piedmont, South Carolina. God bless you. And Everett's upset with Jim because Jim beat him first in the room. I said, how do you get in so fast? I checked 30 seconds before and nothing. Good evening, everyone, he says from the Sholo arizona branch campus. Good to see you. Everett designed and I keep forgetting to bring it up till he designed this little seminary logo just for fun. I should bring that up. I'm going to get it on my screen, but not right now. Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Glad you're here. Neil in Vulcan, Alberta, Canada 47 degrees Fahrenheit. Sleeping weather last night. Oh, raining. Nice. Inkerman, Pennsylvania. Good to see the binners. Hope you are doing well. At first I thought, whoa. Really? Everett? He said we just had a three inch rainstorm. Arizona translation, the raindrops were three inches apart. Didn't even get the street wet. Marilyn and Roger, glad you're here tonight. Wabasha, Minnesota. Tupelo, Mississippi. Good to see you, Bill. Thanks for being here. Did I forget to put the notes on connect? Why? Shame on me. I think I might have. I'll do it just as soon as I'm done here. Western Oklahoma. Glad you're here. Nice and cool. 100 degrees at 08:00 p.m.. Well, that's why people who live in western Oklahoma and parts of Texas, the word is always they're good people. Good people there. Good people. Because it's 100 degrees at 08:00 p.m.. If you stick around, you're good. Auburn, Kentucky good to see the halls. Thank you. West Plains. A very warm West Plains, Missouri. Thanks for being here. And oh, sorry, I guess some of you had a little audio delay there. That is frustrating when that happens. Winston Salem, North Carolina. Thanks for being here. Someone with the handle. I'm not sure where you're from. God the son Jesus Christ saves. Glad you're here. He asked. I'll go ahead and answer. It right here. Why modern Israel don't call themselves Judah like the Southern Kingdom. There was actually a big debate in 1948 among the Jews what they were going to call themselves, the country. Of course, they chose on Israel. We know that the state of Israel is their official title and it was between Israel and Judah. They actually did debate naming it Judah. They did decide that all of the tribes were coming into this country and so they called it Israel, which even though the northern kingdom was named Israel, israel was also kind of used interchangeably, obviously, as the founder Jacob, whose name was Israel. And so they decided on it for that. Know, it is kind of interesting that it sounds like as this one says, they picked the name of the rebel northern Kingdom and they struggled with that because the name of the rebel northern kingdom. But they also decided, okay, there are places when Israel the name is used of something beyond that. Linda in Lexington, thank you for being here. Helen in Virginia. The chart helps a lot. Thank you. I worked hard on that chart. It doesn't look very pretty. I'll get Everett to fix it up for us. But I thought this needs a chart here. Relaxing tunes of peace and tranquility. Glad you're here, wherever that is. From probably some, like, I don't know, island somewhere relaxing. Tunes. Glad you're here, Alex. Good morning from London. Good very early morning from London. Hope you and Terry are doing well. Thank you. Cliff in Ontario. Kitchener, Ontario. Glad you're here. Thank you. Shirley out in Ridgecrest, California. Glad you're here. Tara in Montana. Good to see you. I'm sure it's beautiful up there in big sky country. Felicia down in Alabama. Will all the conference sessions be available live or just recorded later? They will be available live. That's the Branson conference sessions. You know, since I don't have asked theologian this week, I am going to take Neil's question right now. Have you got any comment on the alien revelations in this week's congressional hearings? I actually well, I've been with my grandkids. Speaking of aliens, I didn't know there were alien revelations in this week's congressional hearings. But I did I noticed a social media post actually just today, and somebody said, I just want to remind you that all aliens are demons. So I assume that they had some connection to that. That used to be my position, because it sounds good, but that doesn't go with my Silence of God doctrine that I talked about last Sunday with the demons manifesting themselves. I really think that all alien revelations are well, revelations is what they said they revealed. I think that all alien manifestations I'll use that manifestations is not the word. I think it's psychological. I don't think there are any. I probably am not a friend of many in that regard, but I live in alien Mexico. You know, I went to the second and third grade in Roswell. If anybody would know, I would know. I live out in the forest. Big, bright, sunny, bright starry skies every night and all sorts of goo boo goo woo about aliens around here. It's a psychological thing. Even though it's a very real psychological thing. I think it's psychological that they do not exist. That's my opinion there. Thanks. Oh, we got Mark Bayes here with us. Mark argued with me today. Can you believe this? Pastor Mark Bayes. He's the new pastor at Blue Baptist Church outside of Durand, Oklahoma. And he argued with something I said theologically, and he was so wrong, and yet he kept arguing that I said, 50 pushups, 50 pushups, get down there. So he told me he got his push ups in. That's good. Very good. Oh, yeah. Shirley out in Richcrest makes me think about Fatima. Is that how you pronounce that, Fatima? I'm going to assume that's it. I've seen it all my life. I should when people see the Virgin Mary, our lady of whatever, the visions of Mary. Yeah, I think that also is psychological. That's done there now. I think I've got not all my feeds came through there, so I don't think I said hi to everybody. My apologies to that some sort of little feeding problem there, feeding aliens aliens. Took some of your greetings, but I'm glad you're here. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for a good group of people that gathers around the great big electronic table tonight. Some new, some old friends. And we pray that what we would really care about is the word of God. Understanding it correctly, interpreting it correctly, teaching it correctly. And if we've done anything incorrectly here, we pray that you would help us to get it right. We pray you would help us to forget all that which is wrong and only remember that which is right. And to always be willing to go back and study and question the assumptions and make this work in every good and wonderful way. And we pray that this is something that is in every way honorable to you as we go from this place. Keep us healthy and safe around the world, wherever we are. And we know that someday we'll meet together in the sky, if not before then, and grateful for the few opportunities we do have to meet together face to face, whether it's Branson or Taos, wherever it might be. That is always a blessing. Pray your watch care over us and your continued blessings on this ministry. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you, ladies and gentlemen. Been a joy to be with you here today and I look forward to seeing you Sunday in our next broadcast. God bless. We'll be back next week as well for chapter twelve of Rome.