And good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Thursday night Bible study. Glad you're here. I'm Randy White, and we are going to study the Word tonight and have a good time doing so, I think in Romans. What are we at the 22nd time that we come to the Book of Romans? There is an outline available for you at our Connect site. Or if you're watching worshipy, you can get it right down below, worshipy.com or Randywhiteministries.org, the outline is there and we're going to look at Romans, chapter eight, verses what, 25 through 39. We're going to finish chapter eight that'll bring us past the midpoint of Romans here in 22 sessions. So stick around, hope you've been learning and enjoying and having fun and sticking with it all the way through. And now I got everything set. Glad to have tonight not only Trent Madison in the live studio audience, but also Gabe and Jaden who have been with us all week long doing Randy White Boot Camp, right. And we have been studying the Word all day long and all week long and issues like right division. You can go to Branson and over Labor Day weekend, we do a little boot camp as well. We're going to talk about right division issues and answers, september 4, 5th, 6th, and all the information@randywhiteministries.org, just click the Events button, see about that. Your registration comes with a ticket to a show, Esther at Sight and Sound Theater, plus a lot of theological boot camp, and we'll have a great time on that. I'd love to say hi to you at the end of the broadcast. Any of you who are listening, if you happen to be watching live, go ahead. If you're on YouTube, worship. I Randy White Ministries. Wherever you logged in, just give a little hello and that will be a blessing. Now, why don't we switch over right here, because we come tonight to Romans, rightly divided as we have been looking at all of this time, and come again to do so. And we will just jump right into it here with Biblifi. But before we do, let's check this out. This is page 37 of Romans graphically presented, if you happen to have that little supplemental information. We have been talking about the struggle and survival of God's elect. And that has happened all through chapter one. I think, if memory serves me correctly, I think we've been in chapter eight for three weeks now. This is the third week that is so three weeks to cover chapter eight. Not bad, is it? And during this time, we have talked about the struggle and survival of God's elect, and we talked about some of the reasons why I think this is a chapter to God's elect. Definitely to God's elect. I think Israel is God's elect. We'll look at that some more tonight. We're going to look at really four sections right here, romans eight, chapter 18 through 25, the future glory of Israel. And then we're going to go to verses 26 and 27, god's intercessory work with Israel. And then 28 through 32, the secure future for Israel. And finally, chapter eight, verses 33 through 39, the confidence of Israel as we conclude. Now, I want to say, and I'll probably say it again in a bit, that we all know this is one of those everybody knows if you take any kind of dispensational approach at all, everybody knows that Romans 910 and eleven is about Israel. And you could Google it and find that out. Romans 910, eleven is about Israel, and it's not hard to figure that out when you read chapters nine and ten, especially, they begin kind of talking about Israel. I think that this segment actually begins earlier. I would go ahead and say that I think Romans, chapter eight about verse 18 introduces this segment on 910 and eleven. Now remember that the Bible didn't come with its chapter breaks. And so prior to that time, if you were reading the word, you might not be so fooled into thinking, oh, this starts right here. You might read it in a more natural fashion without that break and say, hey, he really begins to talk about Israel right here. But now I'm going to have to convince you that starting about chapter eight, verse 18, we're talking about Israel here. Now, there are some stuff here and with the guys this week, we talked about this a little bit. There's some stuff in this chapter that we could say, okay, maybe this should be green in our color coding in Romans, rightly, divided the green is that's not us, but doesn't hurt anything if you apply it to us. You can take it there and you're not going to have a theological train wreck down the road somewhere. And there is that possibility, and we may talk about that some more. But I have chosen really to take it all in black. And the reason is, I think there is such an importance that we get this right, that we aim this at Israel and get the context of what he's saying, because again, it really kind of lays the groundwork for chapters 910 and eleven. And so with that, then we come to Biblify right here, and we are mostly going to use the King James version right here, beginning in chapter eight, verse 26. And having done the last section last week, we'll have some Greek interlinear right here in the middle and some Young's Literal translation right over here if you want to compare that as we go along. Now god's intercessory work for Israel. Romans, chapter eight, verse 25. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now, I'm going to make this a little smaller so we can fit that verse on the screen, hopefully in verse, verse 26. There we go. There we go. Okay, the word likewise right here. Likewise like what? I think it ties with groanings right here, because verses 24 25 that we looked at last week talked about how all of creation groans, longing for the redemption, longing for the manifestation of the sons of God, longing for Israel to be what Israel can be. Creation wants this to happen, desires it to happen. It's groaning for it to happen. All of the created order, that was last week's lesson. Likewise, the Spirit also this is the Spirit also, in addition to the creature that was in discussion last week, the Spirit in addition to creation also groans. So because the likewise is separated from groanings there a little bit, it could be easy to misunderstand that. But creation groans or the creature groans. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. And remember that all through the book of Romans, we have been very consistent to say we, us, our that first person, plural pronoun is either just Paul and his cohorts or in a little broader sense, Paul, his nation, the Roman Jews who are a part of that. So we've taken it in a Jewish sense that has fit all the way through one, through eight and continues to fit here. So the Spirit also helpeth Israel's infirmities, maybe you would say believing Israel, maybe you would say the nation of Israel as a whole. However you want to parse that out, we could look at that sometime. Likewise, the Spirit also help with our infirmities. What kind of infirmities? We know not what we should pray for, as we ought. Well, that's probably especially true. You and I have had that experience before, haven't we? I certainly have. As a pastor, someone comes and shares some issue and I'm like, whoa, I don't even know what to pray for. Maybe someone is sick, very sick, and they don't even know themselves. They would say, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. And so we look at that and we say, okay, what do I pray for? Do I pray for them to get well? Or do I pray for them to have a peaceful entry into their heavenly home? We don't know. Well, here the Jews come, and they're in a much worse case than we are, because they are at the point where you can kind of see the handwriting on the wall. By this point, late 50s, you can see the handwriting on the wall for the nation of Israel. But things aren't going well. It's probably not going to last all the way through to the end. And so we know we, the nation, know not what we should pray for as we ought. Do we pray for the tribulation? Do we pray for God to just let the Romans have it? What do we pray for? We know not how to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. I'm just going to all say I'm comfortable saying if they're groanings that cannot be uttered, then I don't have to figure out what they are. They are groanings that cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to God. Now, I think that the he refers to the Holy Spirit. He the Spirit searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit. You've got a couple of ways to take this. You can say he the Father, God the Father searches the hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit. That would kind of be probably the standard approach. The King James does not capitalize pronouns that refer to God. And the reason it doesn't do that is because interpretation is your job, not their job, their job. Just translate I'll get it in English for you. You go from there, is what King James says. Now, some of them little boy Bibles, they will go ahead and translate it and excuse me, capitalize for you, but is it wrong? I think there are some places where it is wrong. Now, here it would be a capital H, I think. But referring to the Spirit, I think actually we should consider this perhaps with a lowercase S. The Spirit that searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit of the nation is because the Spirit makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. This is a difficult verse. I'm going to say we don't necessarily have it all together, but if you take this, say, to be God the Father, god is the one who searches the hearts, and he knows what the mind of the Holy Spirit is. Because the Holy Spirit makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God, you end up in this loop that goes on saying, okay, what's up with this? I think probably the best guess, and you can take it some other ways if you want, but I think probably the best thing is to say, hey, the Spirit makes intercession and he makes intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered. Now, maybe it is. Could it be the groanings that cannot be uttered? Excuse me. There we go. The groanings that cannot be uttered are actually not the Spirit's groanings, but the nation's groanings. They don't know what to pray. All they've got is groanings and it's groanings that cannot be uttered. They don't know what to say. So the Spirit searches the heart, their hearts, and he knows their Spirit, and he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. There's a number of ways you can go with that. But in the end, I think you have this issue that the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. This is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit right now, is to intercede on behalf of the saints. Now, if you've been with us very long, you know that it is my interpretation that the saints is Israel. This is one of many things in chapter eight that I think give indication for Israel. Now, obviously, I would have to go back if you haven't heard that before, I'd have to go back and convince you that saints is something for Israel. I would say we won't do it right now. But if you go to all the use of saints when it's referring to people in the New Testament, up to this point, there has never been anything other than a Jew that has had that title saint. That is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, axe. Romans. When it talks about a saint, it is always very clearly a Jew. Now, that's probably not enough to convince you, and I won't worry about that. I just want you to know that my assumption and of course, what do we do around here? We question the assumptions. My assumption is that this is yet another indication that we've got Jews in mind here. Okay? So he makes intercession for the saints. Now, beginning in verse 28 and 28 through 32, speaks about a secure future for Israel. It says we same people. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Here, as you begin to look at this, Paul comes and he's speaking of something that he's got a promise, and the promise is right here, all things work together for good. Sometimes I get that, and I never quite understand why I get that. There we go. All things work together for good. There's the promise. I think under any interpretation, whoever you put this for, he clearly does not say all things are good. Sometimes some bad things work together for good. A lot of times, good things work together for good. There is the possibility, too, that in that scenario, sometimes good things work together for bad. But here in this case, all things work together for good. For whom? Well, he's talking to this promise is to them that love God. Well, that would be me. I suspect it would be the better part of you all, too. Yeah, I love God. Okay. All things work together to them who love God. But then he goes on and he further defines them that love God. He defines them that love God as them who are called according to his purpose. Now, let's highlight this section right here again and come to know who are these people right here? First of all, they love God. Them that love God. But that doesn't narrow anything down. Christians love God. Jews love God. Abraham loved God. Who's them that loved God. Then I think the second part, them who are called according to his purpose is a narrowing of them who love God. It's almost as Paul as he writes it, all things work together for good to them who love God. Oh, I can't stop right there. I got to bring that in. Talk about who is, is that love God? Now, the reason I think this is a narrowing and not an addition to there's no and here to them that love God and to them who are called according to his purpose. No, this is the same group of people, they love God. They're called according to his purpose. So since it would be, I think, impossible to figure out, letting scripture interpret scripture, that's the way we always want to go. But letting scripture interpret scripture, it would be impossible to figure out, hey, from the Bible, who is it that loves God? I'm not going to narrow it down enough to be able to determine the identity here. And I need to determine the identity because there's a great promise here. All things work together for good to them that love God. If I can put myself in there put your red shoes on, Ruby, we're going dancing. I am going to do it, absolutely. But can I? To them that love God. Okay, but this statement to them who are called according to his purpose, that I might be able to search the scriptures and narrow it down and figure out who is it that is called according to his purpose. Now, as I look at that, I think that we would know that from an evangelical perspective that's me and you we're called according to his purpose. That would be, of course, very true of Calvinism. Calvinism, anytime there's a calling or an election or a predestination, that's me. That's me. That's about me. I'm a Calvinist, that's about me. God loves me, hates you, sending you to hell. But boy, does he love me. Calvinism constantly does this isgesis it's all about me? That's got to be me. Evangelicalism, or let's say non Calvinist evangelicalism kind of has that isegesis too. They're going to end up this is about me. They'll probably just take a more circular route. They'll take the scenic route, getting there. But it's going to come down to me as well. But what is it that the Bible says about this? Is this where we have guys, help me out. Is this where we have the Romans eleven passage? Or is that no, it's in the next verse. So we're going to come here. I think that if we were to look up the word called, I think we'd have a pretty good hunch. We're talking about Israel called according to his purpose. He did call them. Now let's just take that as I think them who love God, who are called according to his purpose. He's talking basically about the remnant of Israel, the believing portion of Israel. So he goes on then in verse 28 and says for whom he did foreknow. Now let me back up again. I am going to assume that them who are called according to his purpose is the same group of those he did foreknow. Nothing indicates. Now let me talk about a different, not the called, but the foreknown same group of people, right? So if we can determine from scripture whom he did foreknow, that's really going to help us here to interpret this legally, to really let just the words, not our feelings, but just the words, not what we've heard before, but just the words. Now this is where I would like to point us. We're in Romans 829. I want to point us ahead just a little bit to Paul's words. In Romans chapter eleven, Paul says, I say then hath God cast away his people? God forbid. I am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he forenew. What? Ye not what the scripture sayeth of Elijah Elias. Now this is his people which he forenew. Which people? His people. Just in case you're not sure. The Israelites right there, his people right there, the Israelites, he forenew the Israelites. Now let me back up again to chapter eight, verse 29. And here it says whom he forenew. That's going to be the same people as we had in verse 28. They're called according to his purpose. They are foreknown, I know, undeniably, absolutely not circumstantial evidence, an explicit testimony from the very same author that the Israelites were foreknown. Now, someone might come up and say, oh, but the Church was two, I was two, individuals were two. But you would have to find the scripture that explicitly says that. And I would just present to you a challenge. You can't find that scripture, all of the other scriptures, let me back up. You cannot deny that God forenew Israel without denying romans eleven two. Romans eleven two is as clear as a New Mexico sky day that God forenew Israel undeniable irrefutable. Can you find such a passage to say he also forenew the Church? The guys and I did a little research on that, trying to find something that would explicitly say there's the Church, too, nothing's explicit. What normally comes back is Ephesians chapter one, verse four. And of course, some of you have been in our Ephesians study before, but Ephesians one four, I tell you what, before I even go to Ephesians one four, I remember years ago when I was dealing with this and struggling with this, somebody asked me the other day, maybe it was one of you guys, I don't remember. Somebody asked me the other day when you were learning this, or do you still today? Maybe they ask, I don't know, call up other people who have a different opinion and bounce it off them. And I said I used to do it a lot when I was struggling, trying to figure out dispensationalism, trying to figure out election, trying to figure out right. Division. I would call people up. I called a professor up once. He is now, I believe, a professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He was a Calvinist. I knew he was a Calvinist, and I was kind of struggling with Calvinism. Do I want to be a Calvinist? I mean, there's some Calvinist stuff in there, looks like, yeah. Okay. So I was dealing with that. So I called him up and I said, hey, can we have lunch? Yeah, of course. You're a very important man. I'd have lunch with you anytime. So we had lunch and I said, do you think that this stuff about election could actually be about Israel and not the church? Said, Absolutely not. Ephesians one four. I later went to Ephesians one four. According as he hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, I thought, I got to become a Calvinist. I mean, Ephesians one four, that's got to be about us, right? I got to be a Calvinist. He's chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. You're right when you take my challenge here, my challenge is find me an explicit scripture that says we, the body of Christ, were foreknown or chosen or called or elect. Find that Ephesians One four is the first place they always go, just like that professor did. Ephesians one four. Absolutely. The problem is this does not explicitly give that if the charge sir, you're under arrest. You've been charged with being one of the chosen. Take it to the court of law. If the prosecuting attorney brings this up as the evidence he chose us and him, the defense attorney who's defending you against being one of the chosen, he's absolutely. If he's worth anything as an attorney going to say, where does that say that my client right here, the good Mr. Believer in the age of Grace, is chosen. Where does it say that? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I propose to you that it doesn't say that. It's not explicit. Now, obviously, you could interpret ephesians One four as to the church, but by the way, you're going to run into a problem when you get to verse 13, and you're going to have to just start ignoring pronouns left and right. If you do that, you can do it. You can also have to say, okay, I'm not going to bother using Scripture to interpret Scripture to see who was chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame in love. But that's the one they'll try to go to. So we back up again. Let's get back to Romans, chapter eight, verse 29. And there we go. For whom he did foreknow. In fact, let's back up to verse 28. All things work together for good. Oh, that's great. For who? For them that love God. Narrow it down a little bit. Okay. To those who are called according to his purpose. Okay. I think that's the Jews can you give any confirmation? Yeah. Whom he did foreknow. Who did he foreknow? His people Israel. Absolutely irrefutable. His people Israel. And you can't find anything else that's irrefutable about anyone else. So if you're going to say, well, he also forenow me, you're going to have to go by your feelings. You can't find the textual evidence. I got over my feelings a long time ago. They got hurt once, and finally I decided, well, it's just my feelings got hurt. The truth didn't get hurt. Still marching onward. So you can go by your feelings, but that's not a good way to live the Christian life or to understand the Christian life. Go by the text and let the text speak for itself. So the text says Israel is foreknown. And then you get this chain. There are several times I suspect if you Googled Ephesians 829 30, you would find something about the glorious gospel chain, and it'll talk about how this is how you and I came to be saved. I would say we were foreknown, predestinated, predestined. And it'll go on here and some other things. I think, rather than making any of this about ourselves, say, we know this is Israel. Israel being foreknown was also predestined. He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of a son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Now, we could we're not going to, but I think we could take this section right here and say, I wasn't convinced it's Israel right here, so convince me here. I think we could find convincing biblical textual proof to say, okay, he predestined Israel to be conformed to the image of a son. That's his goal for them. He's even going to go so far as to use seven years of Jacob's trouble in order to conform them to the image of his son. They're predestined to be there. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, we go to the next part. Them he also called. Ah, remember in verse 28, I believe it was, we suspected the called were Israel, but there's a lot of called scriptures, nothing quite all that explicit that we could find. And so went to foreknown. Okay, foreknown, that's Israel. The foreknown are predestined. The predestined are called. We started back here in verse 28 with called those who love God and are called according to his purpose. The lovers of God in Israel are it's almost as if Paul says, those who are called according to his purpose. And then it's like he says, oh, wait a minute, I kind of gave that with no definition. Let me tell you who's called. Those who are foreknown. Them he did predestinate. Them he did call. And those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. There is a chain here, but it's all for Israel and it's coming to they will be justified, they will be glorified. I kind of think. Let me back up here to verse 28 again to them that are called according to his purpose. Could we say that Paul right here, he's speaking in the present. And in the present they had already been foreknown, they'd already been predestined, they'd already been called. And so he stops there at the end of the line, but then he says, I stopped at the end of the line, let me go back to the beginning. They were foreknown, they were predestined and they were called verse 30. And then he goes on and perhaps this section right here in verse 30 gets into the future. There will come a day when he will justify them. There will come a day when he will glorify them. Remember last week's passage that we closed about was a passage on hope. We hope we don't have it yet. If we did have it, it wouldn't be called hope. And so here is in the future. So these things that we don't have, then it comes into verse, verse 31 and says what shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be against us now? We've already defined we and us all through the Romans as being Jews. I don't remember at least any exception. I think every we or us really, if push comes to shove, we or us comes to the Jews all through Romans. So we've worked through that all away. So what shall Israel then say? If God is for Israel, who can be against Israel? Ultimately? There's a lot of history that has proven that out, by the way in there. If God before us, who can be against us? What's the old song in Fiddler on the Roof? Anna TEFCA? Hana Tefka. Hana TEFCA. Remember that one? Have you guys ever seen Fiddler on the Roof? You should sometime on your drive home, play it. It's 3 hours. It'll entertain you for 3 hours. But whoever's driving, don't pay attention, just listen. I think it's anatefca. It's got a line in there. I may be wrong, this may be one of the cut songs. Nonetheless, there's a line in there that talks about how the edicts, because the edicts had come that they're to leave their little town of Anatefca bazaar brought it down, all the Jews get out. And what the rabbi says is not the first time, not the last time. Kings come and kings go. And he says, and we're still here. We're still here. We move from one town to another, but we're still here. So then you come and look at this thing. If God before Israel, who can be against him? God must be for Israel, because there doesn't seem to be a way that Israel is having any struggles, any difficulties, any problems. Now, I think. In the context again, this is Israel. I did on the outline, I didn't in your printed book, and this goes against what I said a little earlier. I did put this green. That's because the guys talked me into putting it green. There is a universal truth right here for anyone. If God before fill in the blank, who can be against them? Doesn't matter if it's the Church, if it's Israel, if it's Randy, if God's on your side, then you got it. You're sailing home. What's the old saying that God or one plus God, I think is it one plus God is a majority. If God's on my side, then so you can take this green. That is, it's not about us, but especially this part right here, that's just a universal truth by the very nature of God. If God has to worry about who's against Him, then he's not God, right? So if God before us, who can be against us? Then it goes and it speaks in verse 32 about what God has done. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him, delivered Him up for us all, all of Israel. In that context now, again here, you might say, okay, yeah, he spared not his own Son. He delivered Him up for for us all. John 316, other passages you would bring. How shall we not with Him? How shall he not with Him also freely let me practice my reading. I told these guys you should read the passage ahead of time because sometimes it doesn't flow out of the mouth. Didn't I tell you that? I didn't read it ahead of time. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things? Now, I think this part right here, this last part, how in the world is he not going to freely give us all things if he gave us his son? What he's saying is, look, I need to tell you you're wondering why it looks like Israel's abandoned I'm about to talk about Israel. Looks like it's been cast away. God's for us, who can be against us. We are foreknown, predestined called justified glorified. He gave his son. If he did that, you think now after all that, he's going to bail on his promises. So I think this freely give us all things really could tie into the kingdom. For example, to the restoration of all things, to the fulfillment of all the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the fulfillment fulfillment of all the promises to the nation, the Davidic throne, all that, all things is related to this blessing that God is going to give Israel. What he's saying is, hey, Israel, don't judge what God is able to do and what God is doing based upon what's happening right now. And so then he comes in verse 33 and verses 33 through 39, we come into this section we talked about right over here, the confidence of Israel. How confident can Israel be? So he says, who shall lay the charge of God's elect? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. In fact, let's read verse, verse 34 together. Who is he that condemneth Christ that died? Yea rather that has risen again? Who's even at the right hand of God, who maketh intercession for us now, who lays something to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies remember that chain earlier, he justified, he called, he predestined, he forenew God's at the beginning and at the end of all this chain, can you lay anything against God's elect? Now once again we have tried to deal with all along who's the called, who's the foreknown, who's the predestined, who's the US, who's God's elect. We want to know who they are. And in the face of what looks like Israel might have been forsaken by God, and Israel rejected her God, and God just wiped his hands. That's enough, I'm done with them. I'm going to go to some Gentiles to see if I can build me something better. And Paul saying no, God is doing a work with the Gentiles. That's what I'm writing you a letter about, is this work that he's doing now. But don't think that Israel has fallen so that she cannot get up. There is more yet to come. You cannot lay this charge against God's elect. So we come here, first Peter chapter. We're trying to figure out who is God's elect. You and I have a good suspicion, don't we? But we don't let our suspicions guide us. So we search the scriptures and we go to first Peter chapter, chapter two, verse nine. Ye are a chosen generation. Say, how does that prove we're God's elect? First of all, Peter is written to the twelve tribes, and then he says to those twelve tribes, you are a chosen generation. Let me take two of those words here. In fact, let's look at them right here. Chosen. Eclectos. Eclectos. Does anyone want to guess what other English word comes from eclectos? Anyone? Elect. Very good, Jaden. Elect. So this is the exact same word that we see back in chapter, in Romans chapter, chapter eight, verse what is it, 30, 33? That god's elect. God's eclectas. You are an elect generation. The word generation, by the way, is this word right here genos. Genos. We get words like genes, genes. I guess it's in the genes. Genome, genome, secret sequence, DNA, kind of stuff is genos. So by generation you're a chosen generation or your elect generation. He's not saying, hey gen, what are you guys? Z? Gen Z. Gen X. Gen Z. You're not a boomer, I can tell you that like the rest of us. Actually I'm a few years off of a boomer or two, I'm whatever. I think all that's stupid, by the way you get like a new generation, like every two and a half years now. It's not saying, hey, Gen, Z, you're the chosen generation. This is kind of how it was presented when I was younger. It was, hey, college student, this wouldn't have been unusual at all for me to hear, hey, college student, in your generation we can see the gospel taken to all the ends of the earth. You could be the last generation. You're the chosen generation of missionaries and preachers, ambassadors for Christ. It doesn't have anything to do with when you were born. Genos is you got chosen genes. It's like, why is King Charles the king? The world would have never voted on him. Surely you Brits wouldn't have. Why is he the king? Because of his mother, that's why. He was a chosen generation. Chosen genos. That's the Greek word. So Peter comes speaking to Israel, says, you got chosen genes, you're a royal priesthood, you're a holy nation. Holy, by the way, is the word saints. Same Greek word, haggyon. You're a saintly nation. You're the one, you're the peculiar people. Now let's get back here. Romans eight, what were we in? 33. Romans 833. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's? Eclectos. Where are we? Verse 33. Well, it's cut off right there a little bit, but there it is. Eclectos. Same people. Who's going to lay charge against the chosen gene people? It's God. That justifies who's he that condemneth Christ that died, yea rather that has risen again. Who's even at the right hand of God, who also make intercession for us notice the word also right there. Who also maketh intercession for us. What do you mean also? Well, the Spirit makes intercession for us, the Son makes intercession for us, the Jewish people. So that then brings we're talking about Israel's confidence with that then who shall separate us? I haven't seen indication of the Church here anywhere. I haven't seen indication of Randy here anywhere. Who shall separate us, the chosen generation, us, the elect, us, the foreknown, us, the predestined, us, the called that love him who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation. It is kind of interesting that he chose that word first, because one very real possibility is that God would bring in the tribulation the seven years, right then just bring it in. Let's conform Israel to the image of His Son through seven years of trouble. Would that separate us from the love of Christ? Now, I don't know if he has in mind the tribulation here, or if that's just coincidental, but maybe it's just tribulations in general. But should they separate Israel from the love of Christ? No. Or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. This is, I want to say Churchillian sounds like something Winston Churchill would say because he loved to describe it in a thousand ways to encourage the masses. Maybe Churchill was Paulinian, because Paul liked to do that from time to time as well. And so he goes through these things, hey, are these going to separate us from the love of Christ? And then it says, as it is written, therefore, what is written here is evidence that these tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, perilous, sword are not going to separate us. Somebody says, Show me a scripture, okay? He says, I'll show you a scripture. And he comes down here in verse 36 and he quotes as it is written, for thy sake, for thy sake, we are killed all day long. We're accounted as sheep to the slaughter. Now, it's sort of half a quote, which is a subtle indicator to me that he's talking to Roman Jews, because I think Roman Jews knew the psalms very well, just like the hymnal. I know we could take these lads and they probably wouldn't know the hymnal very good very well, would you? I didn't think so. I wouldn't know their songs either. But old guys like us who grew up in church open the hymnal number 475. Oh, that's victory in Jesus. Yeah, here we go. I think they knew the Psalms like someone who grew up in a traditional church went there all the time, knows the hymnal and knows those old hymns. So when you start with this, that would immediately kick into that little thing in the brain that remembers every words of songs that played in the 80s kicked in right there, and they could start from the beginning and go to the end. This is from Psalm 44, I believe. It's verse 22. Yeah, Psalm 44, verse 22. For thy sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Somehow that's evidence that nothing could separate us from the love of Christ. We're killed all day long. Now, how could that be evidence? This is about Israel, by the way. Psalm 44 is a psalm about Israel. It is a psalm of the remnant. It is the remnant in the days of the Tribulation prophetically crying out to the Lord, explaining what's happening. We're killed all day long, we're accounted as sheep for this lotter. Come to our aid. It ends with the celebration that he comes. And so they start this psalm and say, oh, yeah, that's about us. And I remember how the psalm ends. It ends with us being glorified, just like he's been saying. So here we have yet another piece of evidence, I think this about Israel, because, you know, one of my rules we talked about this in our Hermeneutics class that we did online. One of my rules of interpretation is you cannot have a quote in the New Testament of an Old Testament passage that changes the meaning of the Old Testament passage. That is to say, the context of the Old Testament passage always is carried over to the New. Therefore, if it's about Israel in the Old testament. It's about Israel in the New Testament. If it's about the kingdom in the Old Testament, it's about the kingdom in the New Testament. You can check every one of these quotes of the Old Testament, and the context of that Old Testament passage will shed some light on the meaning here. So here he quotes Psalm 44 22, yet another display that we're talking about Israel. And then, by the way, I should also add in verse 35 yeah, I put this in black especially because it's tied to verse 36. And verse 36 is so about Israel. If you want, you can put it in green yourself, because for the body of Christ, for me, the believer and you the believer, is tribulation or distress or persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword going to separate us from the love of God? No, absolutely not. So that certainly is true, but that's not what this is saying. And one of the reasons I don't want to put it in green, really, is because I think that might just cause us to get our portion out of it and miss that which he's trying to say. And I really think he's doing a slow, long build up to chapter nine. This is his introduction to chapter nine. And so we get all this and there's his quote, Psalm 44. And then he comes and says, nay in verse 37, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. And then he goes into that very famous Churchillian kind of phrase, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And of course, to that we would all say Amen. In the age of grace, there certainly is the joy of knowing. I'm secure in Christ. I am complete in him. I am completely wrapped in his grace, clothed in Christ, and nothing can change that. Nothing. That is very encouraging, but you can get that truth from other passages, and I wouldn't have a problem from those other passages that teach our security in Christ if you said, hey, it's kind of like Israel for Israel, neither height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God. But here, I think let's make sure we don't rob it from Israel, because there's a lot of people in the Christian world even who have said israel's been separated from the love of God. God loved them, God birthed them, god worked through them, god chose them, and then they rejected Him, and he was done with Him in a New York minute. He just abandoned them and went on, but boy, he loves us, and nothing can ever separate us from the love of God because we're better than those Jews. Obviously they don't say all those words, but it's kind of the message that comes across, isn't it? So again, yeah. I don't know how heights are going to separate you from the love of God. With a little push, they might bring you closer. Any of this. We're there with the love of God, not separated. Now that I think could you pretend like that gap and that wasn't there? So nothing's going to separate us Israel from the love of Christ. I say the truth. I lie in my conscience bearing witness in the Holy Ghost. I have great heaviness and sorrow in my heart. I wish that I myself could be a curse for Christ from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsman, according to the flesh who are Israelites. This is what I want for them. So I think where do we start out tonight? Verse verse 18. I'll go with verse no, we start verse 26. That verse 26. If not, verse 18 from last week is the build up to chapter nine. And chapter nine will be in session. 23 of Romans rightly divided. So you'll have to stay tuned for next week as we come right into there. Thanks very much for being a part of our Bible study tonight. I always enjoy saying hello to you and Nathan. Why don't you get me all refreshed and fixed up there? Okay. All right. Good. I couldn't see his face, so I didn't know if he was deep in meditation on Romans, chapter eight. I'm going to say hello. It's always nice to see who's with us. If you haven't already done so, give a little hello chat and we'll see who's here. Like Scott in the hill country of Texas, probably you go to San Antonio sometime. You could stop and see Jaden and Gabe Neil in Vulcan, Alberta, Canada. Thanks for being here. From rain soaked Piedmont, South Carolina. Jim, we had rain here today, too, twice, I think. Show, Arizona. Thanks, Everett, for being here. Got inkerman Pennsylvania. The Benners, good to see you. We've got Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Welcome, Debbie and Darryl. And we got forney Texas coming in. Thanks for being here. Roger and Maryland. Wabashaw, Minnesota. God bless you. There's a Roger out in Fresno, California, as well. Good to see you. Pastor Fiendstra, I've seen your name several times on the news recently. Whoever the Fiendstra in Ohio is running for something, I've seen that. I don't know if he's related or not. I know you used to live in Ohio, so I thought maybe you moved back and running for governor or something like that. Jerry Southwest Georgia, thanks for being here tonight. Auburn, Kentucky. Glad to have the hall family with us. West Plains, Missouri edith, good to see you. Keith and Deb in the Ozarks of Arkansas. God bless you. Or as they say in Ozark, good bless you. Teresa and Jack. Houston, Texas. Thanks for being here. Ed, Nancy and Forrest, the right dividing dog from Pueblo, west Colorado, eaton. How do you say that? Gyros. Euros. Euros? That ain't American. Look like gyros to me. But I knew you didn't pronounce it gyros eating Euros. Is that how you all pronounce it in Wisconsin? Euros. Just checking. Chuck, good to see you. Weatherford, Oklahoma. Thank you. Chris. We are praying for Fran. She's undergoing her chemo and side effects. Maybe I knew this, but I forgot. They got a cat named Darby. You can't go wrong with a cat named Darby other than the cat part, but that's good. Darryl and Lisa Moundridge, Kansas. Glad you're here with us. Bill Cypress, Texas. Thanks to you as well. The owner of Darby the Cat also says I kind of like that Calvinism is narcissism. It really kind of is. Oh, he also tells me I'm Generation X. So if we had three generations between me and you XYZ, is there a Y? No. Nathan and I were talking about this the other day and I'm like, who's the Committee on Generational Naming? Who you are? I didn't know this. Ladies and gentlemen, we have right here the Committee on Generational Naming with us. Would you all quit it? It's stupid. We don't need any more generation names. We used to talk about old people and young people. Them youngens, them old geezers. Why don't we just leave it at that? Let's have geezers and youngens. Leave it there. Rich and Jody, good to see you. Glad you're here. From POCA, West Virginia. Thanks a bunch there. Alex, glad you're here. And Alex in London. Welcome. We've got John in West Virginia. Thanks. Mike from Smithville, Missouri. Good to see you. Oh, I like what Mike says. Hit the like button. Y'all that's what you would say in Smithville. Hit the like button. Y'all that does help. It's like you've been wanting to give a donation of $10 million, but you couldn't, so you're like, what could I do instead? Hit the like button because that helps spread the videos. Your good job. I appreciate that. Eric in Ohio, good to see you. Glad you're here. We got Herb and Sherry and oh from the farm. North Louisiana tonight. Working the pecan orchard. Blessed by beautiful weather. That's good. Hope you have a good pecan crop this year. Rodney, Memphis, good to see you. Just finished 8th grade graduation. America's in trouble. Just seeing a little of the future there. Jaden in San Antonio, Texas. Glad you logged in today. Thank you. And Gabriel in San Antonio, Texas. Also locked in, logged in. So glad these guys really have been a delight this week in seminary week here at Taos. Very glad they have been here. Shirley in Ridgecrest, California. God bless you. Thanks for being here. And Phil and dreama lexington, Kentucky Always good to see you. Linda in Lexington. Welcome. Cliff up in Ontario. Thanks for being here with us. We've got Nicholas in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Good to see you. Oh, lisa, good to see you. Your mom and dad are here, too. Lisa. Beautiful. Carbondale, Colorado. It is beautiful in carbondale. Glad you're there. Vena, Australia, this morning. Good day to you. Hope you're doing well. Happy Friday morning. Sorry, I'm going through you know, Nathan, something's wrong. It's not like putting an orange bar on them. So I'm having to go a little slower. I think maybe I got everybody. If I missed you, it's mixed in with a bunch of chats there. I'm very sorry about that, but it's really fun to see you here tonight. Tomorrow, I'll be back on. Ask the theologian. 10:00, a.m. Mountain time. On Sunday, we've got the virtual tour of Israel at 945. We're going to leave the Galilee area, go down to Batesheon, one of the cities of the decopolis and see some beautiful things there, virtually and some of the things that happened there. We might go to some of the places right around Bates, too like Bate Alpha, perhaps, or Ein Harod where Gideon was with drinking the water. That's been a fun little series. And then at 1045 in our Unlearn It series we are going to unlearn the New Covenant. I suspect somewhere near you there would be a New Covenant Church. New covenant this, new covenant that or just covenant. Check that out. We'll do some unlearning Sunday morning. 1045, Nathan. Jim says thank you. Thanks. The coder. He does a fabulous job, but we're not going to let him know. He was talking to supper about you ought to try telling my dad about a new code as soon as you don't even get it out of your mouth. He's telling you 20 things you ought to do to fix it. He's patient. He's learned to live with me. Thanks, Nathan. By the way, for those of you who don't know, every now and then somebody comes and I'm like, oh, not everybody knows this. Nathan happens to be my son which is the reason that I can speak to him like that. Let's have a word of prayer and we'll close. Heavenly Father, it's always good to be around this great big electronic table have the fellowship that we've had all these years on this Thursday night and to see these familiar names and to be blessed by it in so many ways. And we're grateful for these who join us who love the Word who encourage and support this ministry in so many ways. And just pray that you would watch over and care for it and give your guidance. And continue to bless and bless young men like Gabe and Jaden and Trent as they prepare for whatever the future holds in carrying out good ministry in the preaching and teaching of the Word especially and that they would be faithful in studying to show themselves approved workmen who have no need to be ashamed, rightly? Dividing the word of truth. Pray your blessings upon them. Thank you, Heavenly Father for your watch care again over us. And we are grateful that even though this is for Israel, there's nothing that could separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. It's a never ending love. We're in this resting, secure in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks, ladies and gentlemen, again, and we shall see you tomorrow at ten.