And good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Bible study on this Thursday, July the what is it? Six. We're glad you're here and as you know, it's been kind of a different week. We have not been broadcasting Ask the Theologian but we have had our Mark study and our Roman study. Now, tonight on this, what is for those of us in the United States, a holiday week. I've had some family in town, so take a little time to do all that. But I want to take a little time tonight to do some Bible Study. Glad you have joined us for what is the 29th session. We should have a party next week or something. It's the 29th session of our walk through Romans, rightly divided verse by verse. There is an outline available for you. It's at Randy White Ministries. It's at Worship. I down on the screen. And then if you want to download a copy, the RWM Connect site, you can get it. I happen to have the large print edition right here. You can get the large print or the regular size edition if you don't want to spend so much money in ink. And glad you're here. Use that as a listener guide or get it later and use it there. But it is good to be back with all my right dividing friends, as Edith says there. And I would love to say hello to you later on whether you're in San Juan, Puerto Rico, or you're in the Ozarks of Missouri, wherever it is you are. We'll say hi at the end of the broadcast and that'll be a lot of fun. Glad to have Abby Crossen here today in the live studio audience from Trinidad, Colorado, pastor Jeff's daughter. She's here helping us out a little bit for Vacation Bible School which is next week but will not affect programming. I think we'll be here all week, next week, ready to go. While might be a little noise in the background is the only thing and we'll see about all of that. And in addition to Abby, glad to have Alison Willingham here who's been with us a number of weeks. This is your last week with us, isn't it? That's terrible. And Madison and Trent and Nathan on the controls and you in your living room at Bible Study and we are glad you're here and ready to go. Lost my red button there. I got to look around and see what happened to it. But it is good to see you tonight as we come back here to Romans, rightly divided verse by verse. And we will be taking Romans, chapter eleven now as we move in. Let me get us over here. Right, here we go. This is Romans graphically presented. It is page 38. If you happen to have the supplemental resource, you can take a look and keep up with the outline that we're going on. Still got those for sale if you would like one of those. And you get the color coded copy of the Book of Romans. Also tonight everything's going to be black. But next week we're getting into the blue stuff. And Romans nine, one through eleven, the little eyeball right up here. It means that this is an overview slide. It covers a big chunk. Romans nine one through eleven is God's work through Israel fulfilled. We spent the last several sessions looking at Romans nine and ten, and that was Paul's prayer and God's plan for Israel in the dispensational, change and beyond. And tonight we're going to come to Romans eleven, one through 36, god's current program, an overlap. He's going to begin, we're going to begin to talk about an overlap. That's what we'll look at as we look at verses one through eleven, one through ten tonight. Here's a little closer up view right here of God's current program, this overlap. And tonight we're going to go one through seven. This little section, these five blocks of the outline here is what we will look at beginning in verse one. God has not cast away his people, for I Paul M, one of his people. Verses two through five, just like Elijah's Day, there is a remnant according to the grace of the Abrahamic covenant. This is the part of the program where I tell you what I'm going to tell you later on I'll tell you, and then maybe I'll tell you that I told you. This is a real important part right here. There is a remnant of grace, a remnant according to the grace of the Abrahamic covenant. Don't forget that. Abrahamic covenant part, verse six. God's grace cannot grace cannot be works. Works cannot be grace. The Abrahamic promise is grace. And then verses seven through ten, israel being blinded today. This is again in chapter eleven, one through 36, it is an overlap. So here's where we're going to begin to get some blue stuff. Here's where we're going to begin to come in together, where we're going to get as we've got right here, we're going to get kingdom program that we've had so much of in nine and ten. We're going to begin to get the individual program that's going to see, we're going to see this transition of the diminishing of Israel. We'll get into that word diminishing next week, I believe. But verse seven, the election is not the same as the elect. God's election is not at risk. And verses eight through ten, biblical references of Israel's, darkness, foretold, that is where we are tonight. And we'll be doing all of that right here in mostly the King James. We might look a little bit at the Greek, we might look a little bit at the Young's Literal translation, but you can look at them all you want while I stand right here in front of it and talk. And on Biblify, here we go. Verse one, verses one through six, talk about a remnant. And Paul begins in verse one by saying, I say then, hath God cast away his people? Paul loves the rhetorical question. Maybe someday we should do a study of all the times Paul asked a question and he was immediately ready to give the answer. But even before he gave the answer, you knew what the answer was going to be because he's led you up to that point. But he uses somewhat, I guess you would say, a version of the Socratic method where you ask and you get a response. Well, he's writing so he can't completely get their response, but he wants to elicit their response, at least in their mind. Hath God then cast away his people? Now, this comes from the end of chapter ten. You may remember from last week in the end of chapter ten, we had a segment in which Paul was using Old Testament passages to say that someday Israel, my people, is going to become not my people, or they're going to become no people. Israel becoming no people. That's where he left off in chapter ten. Well, if Israel becomes no people, by the way, you remember, that's not the end of the story. Those who are low AMI will become AMI, those who are not people will become people. But he leaves off with they will become no people or not a people. I say then, that being the case, has God cast away his people? God forbid. That's the strongest answer he can give. He gives the answer a number of times through the scripture, absolutely not, it ain't going to happen, God forbid. And then he begins giving evidences that this is not going to happen. Now, remember the section, verses one through six. The section is about a remnant. He is going to argue that there is a remnant. Has God cast away his people who are becoming no people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, this is his first either bit of evidence or his first supporting piece to God has not cast away his people, that God is going to fulfill his promises, which is so much about what Romans chapter nine and chapter ten are about. He's continuing in this theme, and his first bit of evidence is, hey, I'm an Israelite. It's hard to know exactly how to take this. There are two ways as I see it, that you can take this. I'm an Israelite, I'm of the seat of Abraham, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. You could take it one way, the first way you could take it to say, well, he must not have cast away his people because I'm his people. He might be claiming to be part of the remnant. I'm not so sure he is here. In fact, I really would probably argue he is not arguing that he is part of the remnant, because I think the remnant is going to be that portion of Israel which receives finally the Messianic promises, or the Abrahamic promises, the kingdom promises. And here he's not claiming that he is actually going to be alive when that happens. Or to get that, I think rather Paul is giving this little piece, I'm an Israelite as some supporting encouragement, not necessarily evidence, but encouragement to say, hey, I got a vested interest in this. I want you all to know that I care about this. Sometimes politicians will do things to sort of connect with those of us down on the lower level that normally just eat the cake. They'll come down to our level, they'll talk about some boxing buddy out in Scranton or something like this, in order to say, yeah, I'm just one of the dudes, man, that's all I am. Well, in a non political way, in a reality way, paul might be saying, I do just want to remind you before we go into this discussion that I care about this. I told you that in chapter nine. I really told you that in chapter ten. Remember, in chapter nine and ten, both of them have some degree of saying I would give anything I could give to see Israelite come to Israel, come to salvation. And here again, he begins the chapter saying, hey, I am of Israel. I want God working with his people more than you can ever imagine. So I tend to think this I am also of Israelite is just to identify with them. I've got a vested interest. And then he comes back to the issue in verse two. And really probably we would need to put two, three and four together because it's really one thought, but he said, hath God cast away his people? And he just answered quickly, God forbid. Now he comes back saying, look, I'm an Israelite, and let me tell you why I as an Israelite, think that God hath not cast away his people. So he states it again, god hath not cast away his people, which he forenew right here. Those little words right there, I think are very important. I think this becomes an interpretive key, one of those hermeneutical keys that we look for in the Scripture. We can use this to understand foreknowledge who are those whom he forenew, because not a lot of times, not as many times as you would expect, but you do in the Scripture come to a few times in which foreknowledge, God's foreknowledge is in the Scripture. And of course, because Calvinism and reform theology are so prevalent in American Christianity, at least if not other places around the world, but American Christianity was so influenced by the Puritans, who of course held a reformed theology, a Calvinistic type theology. And so that is really, if I could put it this way, it's baked into the theological cake. If you eat American theological cake, it's got Calvinism cooked in there. And so we just get it all the time. So we hear about foreknowledge and almost always, unless you're in a right dividing group, almost always when you hear foreknowledge, it is about my salvation and your salvation and God knowing us before the foundation of the world and knowing us, he chose us. Didn't choose those other people all for his glory. He chose them to go to hell, but he chose me so that he would be glorified by me being in heaven. This is Calvinism. Now here it gives us a definition. Remember the Hermeneutics rule is let scripture interpret scripture. I think that that is the rule that you cannot get around. If you get around that, you have just become only a theologian and not a biblical scholar. Theologians will go and see what Charles Hodge had to say, see what Martin Luther had to say, see what Charles Spurgeon had to say, see what Anselm had to say. Unless, just for fun, let's see what St. Francis of Assisi, the bird whisperer had to say. And they'll get into all that. Well, if you want to waste your time being a historical theologian, you enjoy. But if you want to know what the Bible says, the rule is you got to let the Bible interpret itself and pooe on what all those guys say. The only thing we care about is what the Bible says. So when the Bible speaks about foreknowledge, you then go to the scripture and say, okay, who are those who are foreknown? I want to search the Scriptures and what I want to find out and remember the other rule then is you always use the simplest scriptures to interpret the more difficult scriptures. Well, this one here is simple. It says God has not cast away his people. There is absolutely no doubt that his people here is the Israelites. You could not convince any jury in the world that his people was the Chinese or his people was the nations, the Gentiles, the body of Christ, the Church, his people. In this context, it is absolutely and undeniably Israel. So, goddess not cast away Israel, which he forenew. Israel explicitly stated is foreknown. Now, is anybody else foreknown? Could be. I mean, logic would would say, okay, just because Israel is foreknown by God does not mean that the Chinese are not foreknown by God. But this doesn't tell us about the Chinese or the Russians or even those of you in the kingdom of the Netherlands. It says nothing about this. It says nothing about the body of Christ. We don't know if we are going to argue that I, in all my ball headed wisdom, am one of the foreknown. I'll have to do it from another passage of scripture because this one just doesn't say that says Israel is foreknown. I know Israel is foreknown. Can I find another place in Scripture that tells me, especially this explicitly, that tells me anything is foreknown. Well, guess what? I looked it up and you can't. There's nothing in Scripture that says anything that gives a hermeneutical key or definition about foreknowledge. So when we see foreknowledge in terms of people, it has to do with Israel? Absolutely. Every time. This is so important to us because it will become again, that hermeneutical key. Let's look at a couple of things, like Ephesians, chapter one, verse four. Paul, obviously speaking, he says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Now this doesn't talk about foreknowledge, but it does talk about being chosen before the foundation of the world. Okay? I think you could call that for knowledge, don't you, that this was before anything in the world ever happened. That's for knowledge. I think that's the only way you could define it. This is for knowledge. So now we want to know who us is. You know, I've told you before that I almost became a Calvinist because of this verse. This is the one where I went to with the seminary professor to lunch. I said, hey, do you think I was struggling with it at the time? Do you think that election could be about Israel? He said no. Ephesians one four. I said, what does Ephesians one four say? He said he's chosen us in Him before the foundations of the world. Yeah, you're right, that's what it says. I guess we must be chosen before the foundation of the world. Paul said it right there, Ephesians one four. But this was before I learned to be persnickety about pronouns. And so at that point I was just like any evangelical, I would read myself into any pronoun, except the ones I didn't like. That one belonged to somebody else, but all the other pronouns, they were about me. And God has a plan for you, a plan for great future and a hope, wonderful life and peaches and cream and everything else. So now I interpret us as who are those chosen before the foundation of the world? Let me search the Scripture and find out. And guess what? When I search the Scripture to find out, I find things like verse two. The people which he forenew, Israel, is the US in Ephesians chapter one, verse four. Not only that, but in what is it? 828, I think. Let's try that. Romans chapter eight, verse verse 29. 829. Whom also he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Well here it doesn't really answer the question. The predestinated, the first born among many brethren, the called the justified. But it doesn't narrow it down enough for me here. So what do I do? I search the scriptures. I need something explicitly that tells me who are the foreknown. Ding. Romans eleven two. Which again says what? His people whom he did foreknow. Okay, so for Israel whom he foreknow, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. And that's the way we interpreted that when we were there. By the way, we could also look at First Peter, chapter one, where Peter introduces himself as an apostle to the stranger scattered the Diaspora. He's speaking to Jews who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Okay, there's 100 other clues if you want them in First Peter. That First Peter is not about the body of Christ, but if you just need this one, he's writing to the elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father. In the Bible, what group is specifically said to be foreknown? The Gentiles. Well, me too. Me too. Me too. How do I know? Because I just feel this way, that's how I feel it's. Me too. I heard a really famous theologian say it one day, so therefore it's true. You know, that's all poppy cock, that we're going to go with what Scripture says. And Scripture says Israel is foreknown, and it doesn't say anything else. If anything else is you better have a good argument is what I got to say. A good argument to back it up. And there's no better argument than a biblical argument. And why not just go with it? Okay, israel's foreknown, and this is what we have in chapter eleven, verse two. So he forenow them and then he goes on in verse two, says what? Ye not what the scripture saith of Elias. Young ladies, have you said what ye not all day long? I didn't think so, but you might want to use that. What is the past tense of to know? I believe verse verse two. Yeah, ido. Right there. Ido is a knowledge word. It's a perception kind of knowledge word. You sort of see it with your mind's eye. And we don't use watt anymore, but nonetheless, if you stick with King James, you can learn what the past tense of do you know is know not what ye, not what the scripture saith of Elias. Elijah in the Greek, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel. This is Elijah going to God speaking against Israel. Israel, the Northern Kingdom. This is what Elijah did, spoke against Israel, and he went to God and Elijah said, and this is I've given you the reference there somewhere. First Kings I believe it is, but first Kings Chapter 19 yeah, First Kings, chapter 19, verse ten. Lord, Elijah said, they've killed the prophets, they dig down thine altars, I am left alone, and they seek my life. Doesn't sound like a fun place to be, does it? And of course, this was a pretty accurate description that Elijah gives from his vantage point. It's all he knew. And so he's speaking against Israel, saying, Lord, and you won't believe what they do next, what they've done now, and what they're going to do next. Killed the prophets, tore down your altars. It's just me, and they'd like to kill me, Lord. But what sayeth the answer of God unto him? God says, I have reserved to myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Now, this is God's response. God's almost saying, you just think you're all alone. In fact, he's not almost saying that he is. You think you're all alone. I know that's what you feel, but let me tell you, I got 7000, 7000 of them that they didn't bow the knee. We do sometimes feel all alone, don't we? When seldom are we all alone. There's usually quite a few. I mean, 7000 is not a bad church attendance. If you could just get them all to show up at the same day, right, that's pretty good. But they weren't showing up all the same day. They were out, they were in secret, they were in hiding. But God says, they're there. Don't give up, they're there. And this, remember, is proof to say, hey, you remember how bad it was with Israel when they killed all the prophets and tore down all the altars and Elijah was left alone. You remember how bad that was? Well, actually, he wasn't left alone. There were 7000 of them. God had a remnant, he had a group of faithful, they were there. So what he's saying here is, look, Israel, I don't want you to be discouraged. There is a remnant and this remnant is going to receive someday the promises of God. Even so, Paul says even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. So even so, same way as in First Kings 19 in Elijah's Day, at this present time also, there is a remnant. There was a remnant then, there is a remnant now. Looks bad now, looked bad then. Hang on, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Let me just jump away from the text for a moment and give something that maybe will encourage you. I don't know if it'll encourage you or not, but we as Christians, especially we as conservative Christians, kind of pushed out of our society today. This is not the heyday of dispensationalism or of rightly dividing. Certainly, if there ever was a heyday, this is not even the time just to be a good conservative Christian sort of pushed out of society right now. And it's easy to take every bit of bad news and say, oh, the end is near, this is it, we're done with, we're cooked. Next thing you know, they're going to be coming and taking my twinkies away from me. I'm not going to have anything left. It's gone, it's done. Remember, Elijah, when that happens, that there have been worse times, hard for us to imagine, but there have been worse times, and that there is an ebb and flow through history. And again, this is really unrelated to the actual text here, but when we get discouraged of life in 2023 and think it can't get any worse, truth is, it probably has been worse, like, I don't know, maybe the 60s. There were times when it was worse out there and we made it, we survived, things came along. There is this flow of history. So I just want to say from this, let's not get so discouraged thinking we're the only one in a different way. God's probably got another 7000 out there and things can turn around just like they did for Israel. But Paul here is using the argument that there is a remnant right now, in the present time, there is a remnant, and this remnant is according to the election of grace. Now, here, it would be so easy to misunderstand this. I do not believe that Paul is saying that those in the age of grace are the remnant, not even that of Israel, those true Israelites. But they are saved. They are the remnant. I don't think that's the case. I think that the election of grace has zero to do with the age of grace. Nothing at all. We're going to use scripture to understand the election of grace. So there's a remnant according to the election of grace. Now, what is Israel trying to get? Israel is trying to get her kingdom promises, her Messiah, her messianic age, her being saved from her enemies and from her sins. This is what Israel wants, desires and very much needs. But it rejected the very king that God sent the Messiah. That God sent Jesus Christ. And so desiring this messianic kingdom, those messianic promises and those kingdom promises have their root in the Abrahamic Covenant. I think we can read this completely. Putting the age of grace aside, pretend like you know nothing of the age of grace. And this holds true with the Abrahamic covenant because the Abrahamic covenant was an election. God said to Abraham, I choose you. I choose you and your descendants, not all your descendants, not Ishmael, but Isaac, not Esau, but Jacob. Remember we went through that in chapter nine. I chose you. Now, God chose Abraham. Why? Because Abraham stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said, my, what a good boy am I. He was such a fine shoot and chum that Abraham was chosen by God. He was one of the best guys that ever lived. And God just looked down and said, I need that guy on my team. And he was chosen because of his own righteousness and goodness and works, right? God forbid. No, we know that Abraham and the Abrahamic choice was an election of grace. Abraham's election was one of grace. I choose you to be the father of the nation, which I am going to bring about the father of the nation to which I'm going to give nationhood status. The father of the nation to whom I'm going to give the covenants. Now, Abraham had children, he had Isaac, he had Ishmael, and he had others as well, but not all the children of Abraham. Were chosen. Only Isaac was chosen. Isaac was chosen because he was the first born of Abraham. Wait, he wasn't the first born of Abraham. Ishmael was the first born of Abraham. Isaac was chosen because he was so righteous. Wait a minute. Isaac wasn't so righteous. Isaac was chosen why? Out of an election of grace, just like his father Abraham. And then Isaac has Jacob and Esau, and Jacob was chosen because of the righteous deeds that he had done. No, wait a minute. Paul already said this was done before they were even born. Neither one of them had done anything. Jacob was chosen over Esau as an election of grace. Now, does Abraham let me back up, I'll do use that Socratic method a little bit. Was Abraham chosen out of grace or out of works? Grace. I heard you say it. Not of works or Abraham would have something to boast of, but not in God. He'd boast him himself. So Abraham was chosen by grace. So if I said to you Abraham had an election of grace, would you say to me, yes, just exactly like we do in the age of grace? No, you wouldn't say that. You would say, yeah, his was an election of grace, period. How about Isaac? Did Isaac have an election of grace? Absolutely. Did Jacob have an election of grace? Absolutely. Did their descendants of twelve tribes of Israel have an election of grace? Absolutely. Had the age of grace begun? Absolutely not. Wouldn't there? So you can see that election of grace does not have to mean age of grace. Now, you could come to it and you say, well, yeah, but you just said it doesn't have to mean but I think it does mean but if you think it does mean age of grace, you got to prove it. I think the best way to prove it would be contextually. Look in the context and see it. And what you see in the context is that foreknowledge and election are things that belong to Israel. You see that Paul has already argued that in Romans chapter four, that Abraham's election was one of grace. Abraham believed it was credited unto him as righteousness. And if it was grace, it's not of works. Otherwise he could boast in God, in himself, but he couldn't boast in God. It was totally by grace, is what he argued in Romans chapter four. So contextually 100% of the argument is on my side. That is, the remnant according to the election of grace, has zilt, zero, nada to do with the age of grace. The remnant according to the election of grace is that group of people, that group of Israelites to whom God someday, according to his foreknowledge and his election, his predestination, he is going to deliver upon all the Abrahamic promises to them. You know, in Israel, there's this little saying, I'll get it wrong a little bit here, because I'm going to paraphrase it. But a little saying not only in Israel, but among Jews about the Messiah and the Messiah coming and the promised messianic blessings. And they will say, basically, may God fulfill all of his promises to Israel. And the response that the people would give would be even in our day, even in our day. And so if I went to a group of especially Israeli observant Jews, and I presented Christian Zionism as a right dividing dispensationalist, and I would say in closing, I just want to say, may God give every one of his promises to his people, Israel. And they would respond, if not verbally, probably verbally, but if not verbally, they would respond to their heart, even in our day. That's their prayer, even in our day. Now the prayer is, could we be of the election of grace where God in his sovereignty chooses to deliver his promises in our day, in our generation? This is the remnant according to the election of grace, is that group of Jewish people that God determines, this is when I'm coming back, this is when I'm going to deliver my promises to them, this is when I'm going to pay up, this is when it's going to happen. And so that is the election of grace. Now, to strengthen that case, we go on to verse six where Paul says, if by grace, then it's no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. Okay? The election of grace is by grace, not work. There's no works involved in it. Just like Abraham, remember, Abraham believed in it, was credited unto him as righteousness. Now, one of the reasons I think I'm right on here on the remnant according to the election of grace, is that this verse right here, verse six, sure does sound an awful lot like Romans. I don't know, chapter four, probably verse let's back up to Romans, chapter four, verse two. If Abraham were justified by works, he hath aware of to glory, but not before God, for what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed and it was continued, counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned of grace. To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifyeth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. Okay? If you work for it, it's called works. If you are given, it's called grace. Now remember here, see if I can gather the right things here. Remember that things that are similar are not the same, right? Things that are similar are not the same. And it just so happens that you and I are saved by grace through faith, not of works. So this must be about that, right? No, it's similar. Keep looking all the way around and you'll see things that are similar, are not the same. So as we then come to it, notice that this verses, Romans chapter four, verses four and five, if it's grace, it's not works. If it's works, it's not grace. Again, that sure sounds an awful lot like verse six, romans, chapter eleven, verse six, if by grace it's no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. If it be works, it's no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. He basically repeats the same thing he said in Romans chapter four, in which he was talking about Abraham. So we back up here. There is, he says right now there is a remnant according to the election of grace. That is, God has his 7000, he's got a group and if he wants to right now deliver to that group, he can. He's got it there and that would be the remnant according to the election of grace. So has Israel with words there, has Israel been cast away? God forbid. Just looks that way now, but looked that way to Elijah too. There was more there. God has a remnant according to that Abrahamic election. It's totally by grace and God will deliver it. Now we come to verse seven, and in verse verses seven through ten, he moves along. You remember as we saw right here about Israel blinded today. By the way, did I mention that? I was going to tell you that just like in Elijah's day, there's a remnant according to the grace of the Abrahamic covenant. The Abrahamic promise is grace. The God's delivering this remnant is completely of the Abrahamic covenant, has nothing to do with the Church at all. Whole there is a Jewish remnant that God will provide to the Jewish people. Don't be replacement theology on me here. So then, verse seven, Israel being blinded today is what we're going to talk about, verses seven through ten, and we put this together. Okay, what then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Now talking about Israel being blinded, this little passage right here, this little verse can be complex and can be misinterpreted and it can even lead to replacement theology. You could easily come here and say, okay, Israel didn't get that what you seek it for, but the election hath obtained it, israel's blinded, well, somebody's got it right now it looks like the election hath obtained it. And if you interpreted the election of grace to be us, then you would say, look, this is us right here. Israel doesn't have it yet, but we do. And this is really the heart of Calvinism and Reform theology is that we are now the election, the remnant according to grace. We are the ones that have obtained it. God chose to give it to us. That is replacement theology. And let me just say something about replacement theology, which I think is Heinous, and it's all around us. Even those who don't admit to replacement theology hold replacement theology. But here's the reason that it's Heinous, because it basically says god did not and will not fulfill his promises. He's just not going to do it. He got so sick and tired of those people that he's not going to do it. But then I came along. Whoa. God was so happy when he saw me, because now he could give those promises to me. It'sickening honestly, is this really what you think? That God's not true to his word. That he does this little switcheroo? You know? Of course, I mean, try this. If you got young children at home, try this. You got two or three kids, promise one of them an ice cream bar and give it to the other one, won't be a problem at all in the home. And the other one will say, oh well, dad in his grace just chose to do this. No. They'll call you liar, liar, pants on fire, because you are. If you say you're going to do something to some group of people and you do not, but you do it to someone else, you have not fulfilled your promises. You are a liar. And if you are a liar, you are not God. If that's the God we've got, pick a better one. That's. No god at all. Furthermore, can you take this replacement theology and say, boy, I live on the word of God. I trust the word of God, you know, the word of God that he didn't fulfill before he did this switcheroo. But I'm good with him. Switcheroo. And as long as he Switcheroo's to me, it's all wonderful. Now, if that's the case, I'd walk away from the Bible. I wouldn't hold to it. If God can't keep his word to Abraham, then he can't keep his word to me. Why would we hold any other thing? So replacement theology. That's why I said it's really, this Heinous kind of thing, and it's so subtle. I mean, people know it's kind of Heinous, and that's why they sort of make it that somehow we became Israel. When we get in down later in chapter eleven, we'll get to grafted in and they often use that to say, oh, this is how it happens. But look, it doesn't matter how you rob Israel of the promises. If Israel, the literal descendants, the kinsmen of the flesh of Abraham, are not getting the promises, then God has not fulfilled His Word. And if God does not fulfill His Word, we'd be better off finding that QAnon guy that died the other day and following Him, right? I mean, it would just be follow anybody, somebody who keeps their word better start to say Joe Biden, but I'm not sure that would be even a better option there. But you get the idea. So you can read yourself into here and inadvertently get into a replacement theology and I wouldn't be surprised I didn't do it. But I think you could find commentaries that very quickly read ourselves into this. Some of them blatantly, others more subtly. So what do you do with it? Because it looks like the election hath obtained it. Now, earlier we said it's the election by grace, and we put that down to the election by grace. Well, that's in the context of Romans, that's the people of the Abrahamic Covenant. What do you do with half obtained it. That is, they got it and the rest were blinded. Now, both hath obtained right here and were blinded. Those are verbs obtained and blinded. Both of them are in the Arist tense. You remember we've talked about the Arist tense, which is a singular, definitive action or state. Often we'll say happened one point in time. It can be descriptive of what happened at any point in time. There's nothing in the heiress that tells you when it happens. So you can take the heiress in the past tense, but the election obtained it, the rest were blinded. Description at a singular moment in time, past tense. But you can also take it in the present tense. You can use the errors in the present tense the election has obtained, the rest are blinded would be absolutely a perfect translation. You can take it in the future tense, the election will obtain it, the rest will be blinded. And you could mix or match, for that matter. And determining when the state or action took place cannot come about. You cannot determine it by the grammar alone. You have to use context. I think that what you've got here is that the election of grace, there's going to come a time in which they have it and the rest blinded. The particular word blinded here, this is in verse seven. Let's look over here to Young's Literal and Young's Literal. What then? What Israel does seek after this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtained it. And the rest were hardened. Okay? Blinded. Hardened. It's a pretty broad word. They didn't accept it, didn't see it, hardened their heart. That's why they didn't see it. Whatever it is, you can take it now. The arrest did obtain. The arrest obtained. The chosen excuse me, the rest is down here. The chosen did obtain, the chosen obtain, the chosen do obtain, the chosen will obtain. And the rest hardened. Harden now, harden tomorrow, harden yesterday, harden all three. Which do you want? They all go, it all works. So what my point here is if you are insistent that somebody today has to have it, then you're getting that insistence from somewhere other than the Bible. The grammar of the Bible does not say someone today has to be possessing it. Right here. There's so much in here, and I know this is the advanced class on Thursday nights of the Taoist Theological Seminary, but so much right here that is wrong with Christendom. Christendom decided somebody has it right now. What is it? They rightly said the thing that Israel wanted, the thing that Israel seeketh for. What's that? The Kingdom of God. Ah, so the election, that's us. Christendom said we have the kingdom of God. Oh, but wait a minute, there's no king on the throne, the Messiah is not here, nothing descriptive of the kingdom. Ah, I know what I'll do, I'll spiritualize it and therefore we have it. I would venture to say that other than right dividing Christianity, virtually all the rest of Christianity takes this verse to say the Church, the body of Christ, those of us in the age of grace, we have obtained the kingdom of God, it's in our hearts. Israel was blinded. I think that's really foundational to theology. The little mug says question the assumptions, right? And that interpretation of verse seven is needing to be questioned. So Israel has not obtained that which it seeketh for. But the election, they'll get it. The rest past, present, future, whichever, they'll be blinded. But the election according to grace, that remnant that God has chosen, it's a done deal, it's going to happen. So then there comes in this little parenthetical, at least the King James has this parentheses, and I think that's helpful, but we'll talk about this here. So the rest were blinded according as it has written, god hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this day. Now the punctuation here, you remember what parentheses do. It's an independent clause, provide some nice extra info. You if parentheses are used right, you can grab that which is parenthetical, toss it out the window if you want and your main thought will continue on. So what you've got here is the election hath obtained it, the rest were blinded unto this day. That goes together. Now this little according as it is written. And then excuse me, let me see if I can get that highlighted there. I think that this is the quote right here. God hath given them a spirit of slumber, eyes that should not see, ears that they should not hear. That is Isaiah chapter 29, verse ten that he quotes here, isaiah 29 ten. God has not given them a spirit of slum. God has given them a spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see. So this Israel was blinded. You remember prophetically, god's given Israel a spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear, and they're blinded unto this day. Clearly the blinding had taken place. Did it take place back in Isaiah's day? And they were still blinded unto this day, blinded the whole time? Or did it take place a year before Paul wrote? Did it take place at the time of Peter or Stephen? Where did the blinding come about? He doesn't tell us that it's indeterminate, but he says it still continues to this day. They haven't come out of the blindness yet. Later on in chapter eleven, he's going to bring them out of the blindness or say that the blindness will will go away. So here is a quote to say, hey, blinded Israel is not so far fetched. Back in Isaiah, they were blinded. They're blinded to this day. Now, let's talk King James a little bit. I kind of like to do that. I think it's the most precise English translation of the Bible that has ever been maybe the most precise translation of any major work that has ever been with that you see in the modern versions. Let's see what Young's did. I didn't check Young's Literal translations, but in okay, young's went same way King James did by putting some dashes in here. And they have some quotation marks, little quotes right there. So they take that same to be the quote, and unto this very day to be those who are hardened. I think that's right. If you look up Isaiah 29 ten, you find the Lord hath poured upon you a spirit of deep sleep. Slumber hath closed your eyes. The prophet and the rulers, the seers he hath covered. So clearly what you've got is not a direct quote, but certainly a paraphrase of Isaiah 29 ten that you find in Romans, chapter eleven, verse eight. But if you look and we don't carry them here, I'll tell you what, I think we can look at Darby, see what Darby did. Maybe he messed up on it. Let's see if you look at all the translations. Okay, darby also does not use quotation marks. So you, the reader, would have to determine where is it? Now, he didn't quite separate that as much. So you might think the quote goes, unto this day. Let's look over here. Let's see what Webster's had to say. Okay, webster's does the same. He puts the quotes. Let's see, we got a couple of crazy ones in here. The web version ah, bingo, here we go. So the web version, it's one of those dumb modern versions. They put quotes and notice to this very day if it's quoted. The problem is you can't quote that which is not said, by the way, that's the problem with artificial intelligence is it makes up quotes. Ronald Reagan said, better to give than receive. Make stuff up. This is making stuff up because Isaiah 29 ten doesn't say to this very day virtually all of the translations. We don't carry the modern translations on biblify, but virtually all the modern translations NASB ESV NIV CSB version 2.0, all those they put these quotes now they do that I'm going to put words in their mouth that they probably wouldn't appreciate, but they do that because they say we are scholars. And the people who read the work that we do, they are so pitifully stupid, they could never figure out if we did not spoon feed them. So we give them infant food, not meat. They're not grown up enough of that. We'll spoon feed them. Then we'll put in the quotes. King James just says, you figure it out. You figure out where the quote starts. Where the quote ends. I think that's a better policy than putting the quotes in, because what if you're wrong? And here you are wrong, there's no doubt about it, and they're all wrong. And so better to give some indication if you want with that, but leave the quote marks out of there and much better. So they're blinded. No surprise. God given them a spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear. And David saith, here we come into two verses that come together. David saith, let their table be made a snare, and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back hallway. Bow down their back hallway. I say. Then see, you can kind of see when the quote starts, when it ends, and then you could verify it here if you were to see, okay, where did David say this? Well, you end up in Psalm 69. Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm. It is a messianic psalm about the crucifixion and the particular verses that are given here. Psalm 69, verses nine and ten are verses that are prophetic of the Messiah's, words about those who are crucifying him. He says, of those who are crucifying him, let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always. That was the Lord's Prayer to his crucifiers. Now, what Paul does in pulling this over is he helps us to see something that we wouldn't have seen in Psalm 69, and that is that he helps us to see that, oh, wait a minute, those who crucified him are not just the chief priests. This was a national decision. So the nation gets the punishment, and the punishment is let their table be a snare, a trap, a stumbling block, a recompense. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see. And Paul comes along here and he says, hey, guess what? Israel blinded. Were they blinded from the crucifixion unto this day? Were they blinded from Isaiah unto this day? Were they blinded from Stephen unto this day? I don't know. But they're blinded here and we could see it coming. Turn away from God, put to death the Messiah. He'll blind you. It's what he promised to do, and indeed it is what he did. And so with that, we come to verse ten here, israel blinded today with these biblical references of Israel's darkness foretold. Next week we'll begin Romans, chapter eleven, beginning in verse eleven. And we'll see the big picture we're going to get into some blue letters next week, which I believe as part of that overlap says that we can have it as part of who we are. Romans, rightly. Divided. That is session number 29. Next week you can celebrate 30 sessions. How's that? 30 sessions. Everybody bring 30 crisp $100 bills next week. We will have a good time together. Thanks for being here with us. I look forward to the joining with you not only then, but tonight. Let me refresh my screen here and I'm going to say hello to all of you who are here. Hopefully I don't miss any of you. If you have not said hello, then I would look for it. Okay, go ahead and write something in. That's what I was trying to say as I'm reading the comments and my mouth is not going with my brain, but glad you're here. Hey, before I say hello, let me remind you that the Branson Conference, labor Day Bible Conference, september 1 through four, it's going to be good, right? Division issues and answers. Still time for you to sign up and you can go to Randywhiteministries.org, find the events button and click there. And I will look forward to seeing you in Branson. We'll have a good time of fellowship and of learning a little systematic theology, if you will, from a right dividing perspective and we'll take a look at it and I think have a great time in all of that. Well, hope you all had a good 4 July as well. Those of you at least in the United States, like Bolingbrook, Illinois. Nicholas, first in the room tonight. Piedmont, South Carolina. Good to see you. We got the Benners up in Inkerman, Pennsylvania. Thanks for being here. Dr. Mike and Lorna. Darryl and Debbie and Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Good to see you. We've got Roger coming to us. Not from Fresno tonight. Roger, remind me where you are. Up in someplace in Oregon visiting cool country. Sholo, Arizona. Speaking of cool, we got Everett here. Good to see you. Vulcan, Alberta, Canada. Good to see you. Neil. Thanks, Bill. Down in hot. Cyprus, Texas. Glad you're here. Maryland. And Roger, as always, good to see you. In Wabashaw, Minnesota. Let me stop right there. I'm thinking of all these regular names that come in first. Darlene out in Chula Vista. You haven't heard me call her name in a while. She's been having lots of health problems and so she has not been able to watch live. Pray for Darlene and Chula Vista. And Darlene, we love you and know you're with us even if you're not live. Oh, Abby, you're in trouble. Your dad is online. Yeah. Trinidad, Colorado. Jeff, good to see you. We got Sylvia. Good to see you. From Indiana up there. Notre Dame country. God bless you. Jack and Teresa in Houston, thanks for joining us. Shirley out in Ridgecrest, California, good to have you with us. We've got the hall family in Auburn, Kentucky. Welcome Edith, our right dividing friend in the Missouri. Ozarks, Jody and Rich coming tonight from Pensacola, Florida. I hope it's beautiful there. Where you are you just sitting there on the beach watching or are you all at home tonight? Kansas Mound, ridge, Kansas. Darryl and Lisa, thanks for being here. Chuck out in western Oklahoma says he's been to see The Sound of Freedom and says the announcement after the movie was worth the price of admission. Wonder how many stayed for it. Came on the big screen three minutes after the movie ended and most already left. You know, I have not seen it, but my family has seen it. I was not able to go, but they went and they spoke very highly of it. And Shelley said the same thing. She said the announcement was worth the price of admission. The Sound of Freedom again, I haven't seen it, but I've heard it's. Well done and deb out in the Buffalo River Ozarks. That sounds exotic. We should go there sometime. I'm reading the comments. There we go. I was waiting. It's supposed to turn orange. Nathan's got this thing for me, you know, that turns orange when you say something, but I was like, that's not orange. And then all of a sudden it popped up. Thank you, Nathan. Alex and Terry in London. Good to see you. God bless you. Tara up in Montana, big sky country. Hope you're doing well. You and Bret and that beautiful little girl of yours. Good to see Mike. Thank you. Hey, I like your comment. Mike in Smithville, Missouri says, hit that thumbs up and comments, please. Yeah. If you're on YouTube, especially because that's where the algorithms matter, click subscribe, click the thumbs up, click the notify. Put a comment like, my, your tie looked good tonight. Look at that beautiful purple tie. Whatever. Comments that helps. Share it. Yeah. And Linda in Lexington, Kentucky. Thanks for being here. Linda has a good word. I should continue on, but Linda says it seems the blinding is more or less the leadership because a good minority of Jews do accept Jesus as messiah. And I would say there's more truth there than you would think. I think most of us kind of think that Jews just wholesale reject Jesus as Messiah. And you know what I see more of Jews today is that very few of them totally reject Jesus's Messiah. Many of them are open to Jesus's Messiah. Most of them are to the point of saying, well, we'll just wait and see. We'll wait and see. If he comes back and does all that, then he's Messiah. That's not the best approach to take for a number of reasons, but nonetheless, that's where a lot of them are. Lord's, good to see you. I know this. San Juan. Glad you're here. Annie P up in Illinois. Sometimes I don't get these right. Marie, good to see you. I hadn't seen you in a while. Mesquite, Texas. God bless you for being here. Jerry down in Leesburg, Georgia, thanks for being here. And Cliff, our friend up in Kitchener, Ontario. Welcome. Glad you're here. Hey, tomorrow, I don't know if you all listen to Stand Up for the Truth out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, or their podcast. I'm going to be on tomorrow morning, that's nine, I don't know, Central Time. Is Green Bay in Central Time or Eastern Time? Central Time. Nine. Central Time is when it is eight Mountain Time, and I'll be on there and we're going to talk education tomorrow if you happen to tune into that or catch the podcast. And I'm going to announce some fun things about the John Nelson Derby Academy. If you want to hear that, check in. And again, that's 09:00 A.m Central Q 90 FM stand up for the truth. If you look those up, you'll probably find it, it's on the Internet, wherever you are. And of course, those in Green Bay can turn it on the radio, but look forward to being back with them. I've been doing their program now for, I don't know, ten years or so, a long time every now and then. So thank you, old Russ and Sharon out there. I don't want to miss them. Ellendale, Minnesota, she says she likes the purple tie. Thank you, I appreciate that. Thanks, Sharon. Good to see all of you. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we're most grateful for those who join us on these Thursday nights and have for all these years. And as we rightly divide here now through 29 sessions of Romans, we're blessed by it and just pray that you'd help us to get it right. If we didn't get it right to go back into the word to study, to search it again, to let iron sharpen iron, whatever it takes, dear Heavenly Father, to come through on this and as we continue into the further verses of chapter eleven next week, may it encourage and be a blessing to us also. And we look forward to all of the times we're able to gather around this great big electronic table and to just be blessed by the word of God and fellowship together. Thank you for enabling it and allowing this to happen in Jesus name, amen. And thank you all too for enabling it through your donations. I appreciate that and look forward to seeing you Sunday. We'll be on twice on Sunday, 945 1045 Mountain Time going at it, and we will be unlearning and we will be touring Israel, and we'll be having a good time with all of that. Next week, back to a full week's broadcast. No, Ask the Theologian tomorrow, but next week, back to a full broadcast together. Randy@randywhiteministries.org, if you need anything, you can contact us.