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The Book of Romans Chapter 11 Explained Like Never Before · truthunedited

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  Speaker 1: Is God finished with Israel? Have the Jews been permanently replaced?
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  Speaker 1: And if He didn't abandon them, will He abandon you?
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  Speaker 1: In this series, we explain the book of Romans chapter
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  Speaker 1: by chapter so you can understand the Word and know
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  Speaker 1: God better. This video is chapter 11, explained in a
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  Speaker 1: way you've never heard before. If you truly want to
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  Speaker 1: go deeper into the book of Romans chapter by chapter,
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  Speaker 1: We have already explained it for you. You can get
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  Speaker 1: Romans Explained, chapter by chapter, as a stand-alone resource, or
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  Speaker 1: you can join the Deep Bible Stories founding members, limited
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  Speaker 1: to the first 1,000 members, and get all 16 chapters
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  Speaker 1: explained for free inside the membership. We are building one
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  Speaker 1: of the most complete Christian membership platforms. where you can
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  Speaker 1: find books of the Bible explained clearly, along with deep
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  Speaker 1: teachings on marriage, leadership, the Trinity, spiritual growth, and many
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  Speaker 1: other topics that help you understand God's Word. and grow
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  Speaker 1: closer to Him. Many people have already used these resources
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  Speaker 1: and experienced real transformation in their lives. Join us today.
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  Speaker 1: The link is below. Now let's continue. In Romans chapter 11,
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  Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul confronts the most pressing question in the
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  Speaker 1: early church, a question that still echoes today. Has God
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  Speaker 1: rejected His people? The Jewish Messiah had been crucified, the
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  Speaker 1: temple would soon fall, Gentiles were flooding into the church.
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  Speaker 1: Was this the end of Israel's story? Paul opens the
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  Speaker 1: chapter with a voice that is both pastoral and prophetic.
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  Speaker 1: He writes, I ask then, has God rejected his people?
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  Speaker 1: By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a
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  Speaker 1: descendant of Abraham. a member of the tribe of Benjamin, Paul,
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  Speaker 1: is not speaking in hypotheticals. This is his heritage. These
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  Speaker 1: are his people. His grief for Israel's unbelief has already
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  Speaker 1: burned through Romans chapters 9 and 10 like a prophet's lament.
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  Speaker 1: But now the fire clarifies into a bold theological assertion.
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  Speaker 1: God has not abandoned the Jewish people. Let us walk
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  Speaker 1: back into the world where these words were written. It's
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  Speaker 1: around A.D. 57. Paul is in Corinth, preparing to travel
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  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem with financial aid from Gentile believers to the
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  Speaker 1: poor saints there. He has never visited the church in Rome,
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  Speaker 1: but he longs to do so. He writes this letter
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  Speaker 1: as both a theological manifesto and a bridge between Jewish
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  Speaker 1: and Gentile believers. The church in Rome is likely composed
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  Speaker 1: of both groups, Jews who recognize Jesus as the Messiah
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  Speaker 1: and Gentiles who have been grafted into Israel's promises. But
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  Speaker 1: tension simmers beneath the surface. Years earlier, the Roman emperor
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  Speaker 1: Claudius expelled Jews from Rome, likely in response to disputes
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  Speaker 1: between Jewish Christians and their non-Christian counterparts. Now, as Jewish
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  Speaker 1: believers begin to return... They find a church that has
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  Speaker 1: grown increasingly Gentile in leadership and practice. Questions abound. Has
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  Speaker 1: Israel forfeited her place? Has the church replaced the synagogue?
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  Speaker 1: Is Torah obsolete, or are the promises still intact? Paul
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  Speaker 1: writes Romans to answer all of these questions, especially in
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  Speaker 1: chapters 9 through 11. This section is not a tangent.
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  Speaker 1: It is the centerpiece of Paul's argument about the righteousness
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  Speaker 1: of God. If God promised salvation to Israel, and Israel
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  Speaker 1: by and large rejected Christ, has God failed? Can he
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  Speaker 1: be trusted? Paul's answer in chapter 11 is thunderous. By
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  Speaker 1: no means. The strongest possible Greek denial. Me genoito. God's
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  Speaker 1: faithfulness is not like shifting shadows. It does not depend
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  Speaker 1: on majority response or immediate fruit. It is rooted in
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  Speaker 1: covenant and mercy. Paul roots his argument in personal evidence.
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  Speaker 1: I myself am an Israelite. If God had utterly rejected Israel,
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  Speaker 1: then Paul himself would not be saved. Yet here he stands,
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  Speaker 1: not only as a believer, but as the apostle to
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  Speaker 1: the Gentiles. His very existence is proof of grace. He
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  Speaker 1: is from the tribe of Benjamin, one of the few
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  Speaker 1: tribes that remained loyal to David's kingdom. His lineage is
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  Speaker 1: not spiritual metaphor but genealogical fact. His life, once full
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  Speaker 1: of zeal to destroy the church, has been rerouted by
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  Speaker 1: divine mercy. God has not abandoned Israel. Rather, he is
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  Speaker 1: preserving a remnant. This connects deeply to the biblical pattern
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  Speaker 1: of divine preservation. Throughout Scripture, God often works through the
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  Speaker 1: few rather than the many. In Elijah's day, the prophet
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  Speaker 1: thought he was alone. But God declared that he had
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  Speaker 1: preserved 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed to Baal.
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  Speaker 1: In the days of Noah, eight souls entered the ark.
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  Speaker 1: In the exile, Daniel and his companions stood firm in Babylon.
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  Speaker 1: God never loses track of his people. His plan never
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  Speaker 1: collapses under the weight of rebellion. His promises are not
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  Speaker 1: dependent on human consistency. They are upheld. by divine faithfulness.
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  Speaker 1: Romans 11 was canonized alongside the rest of Paul's letter
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  Speaker 1: by the early church, preserved through centuries of persecution, controversy,
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  Speaker 1: and translation. It became central in the theological disputes of
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  Speaker 1: the Reformation, especially in discussions around election and grace. But
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  Speaker 1: it also formed part of a larger, often uncomfortable conversation
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  Speaker 1: about Israel and the church. a conversation that has been
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  Speaker 1: misused throughout history to justify anti-Semitism, replacement theology, and nationalistic pride.
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  Speaker 1: But Paul's words do not permit such distortions. He stands
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  Speaker 1: as a Jewish apostle proclaiming that the gospel has not
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  Speaker 1: nullified God's covenant. It has fulfilled it. To understand Romans
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  Speaker 1: 11 is to walk the streets of Jerusalem with Paul's vision.
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  Speaker 1: not just seeing stones and temples, but seeing promises yet
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  Speaker 1: to be completed. It is to view history not as
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  Speaker 1: random movement, but as orchestrated mercy. It is to know
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  Speaker 1: that God never starts what he does not finish. If
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  Speaker 1: he has not rejected Israel, then he will not reject
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  Speaker 1: his church. If he can preserve a remnant, then he
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  Speaker 1: can preserve you. So the next time you read a
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  Speaker 1: headline about Middle East tensions, or hear debates about prophecy,
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  Speaker 1: or walk through a church that assumes it has inherited
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  Speaker 1: everything and displaced nothing, remember Paul's words, Has God rejected
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  Speaker 1: his people? By no means. The question is not only
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  Speaker 1: about Israel. It is about the character of God. And
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  Speaker 1: Romans 11 says, declares that God is faithful even when
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  Speaker 1: his people are not. Paul does not begin with abstraction
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  Speaker 1: or theory. He begins with blood, with his own. For
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  Speaker 1: I myself am an Israelite, he declares, not from a distance,
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  Speaker 1: not as an outsider to the debate, but as one
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  Speaker 1: standing inside the very lineage and legacy of the people
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  Speaker 1: in question. He is not analyzing the fate of Israel
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  Speaker 1: as a Roman philosopher might, detached and speculative. No, he
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  Speaker 1: is standing in the tension, pleading from within. A child
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  Speaker 1: of Abraham, a descendant of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.
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  Speaker 1: The people many now assume have been cast aside remain
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  Speaker 1: in Paul's own person unmistakably tethered to divine purpose. This
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  Speaker 1: is not sentimental nostalgia. It is the beginning of a
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  Speaker 1: defense rooted in the unbreakable nature of God's covenant. Paul
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  Speaker 1: roots his testimony in history and prophecy, linking himself to
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  Speaker 1: the patriarchs by blood and to the gospel by faith.
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  Speaker 1: His life is not an exception. It is an example.
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  Speaker 1: Though most of Israel stumbled, not all fell. Though the
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  Speaker 1: nation as a whole rejected Christ, a remnant remained— and
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  Speaker 1: Paul was living proof of it. The presence of even
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  Speaker 1: one believing Jew shows that the promise to Abraham still lives.
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  Speaker 1: But Paul is not content to speak of himself. He
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  Speaker 1: invokes the memory of Elijah. Do you not know what
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  Speaker 1: the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God
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  Speaker 1: against Israel? Elijah had called down fire from heaven, defeated
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  Speaker 1: the prophets of Baal, and yet fled into the wilderness
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  Speaker 1: in despair. Under the weight of rejection and fear, he
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  Speaker 1: cried out, Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have
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  Speaker 1: demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they
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  Speaker 1: seek my life. Elijah thought he was the last spark
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  Speaker 1: of faith in a nation drowned in idolatry, but God's
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  Speaker 1: answer shattered that despair. I have kept for myself seven
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  Speaker 1: thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
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  Speaker 1: Notice the phrase, I have kept for myself. These were
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  Speaker 1: not simply seven thousand who happened to remain faithful they
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  Speaker 1: were kept preserved held by the hand of a sovereign
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  Speaker 1: God their faith was not self-generated it was divinely sustained
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  Speaker 1: this is the doctrine of the remnant not as a
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  Speaker 1: surviving minority but as a sovereignly chosen people within a people,
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  Speaker 1: selected by grace, preserved by mercy, and secured by election.
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  Speaker 1: It is not just that some survived, it is that
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  Speaker 1: God ordained their survival. So too, Paul says, at the
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  Speaker 1: present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. These
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  Speaker 1: are not the majority. They are not the visible strength
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  Speaker 1: of Israel. They are the quiet thread of faith God
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  Speaker 1: has preserved. In every generation God has a remnant. In
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  Speaker 1: every season of apostasy there are hidden ones who have
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  Speaker 1: not bowed to the idols of the age. And this
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  Speaker 1: remnant exists not because they were more faithful, more discerning,
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  Speaker 1: or more righteous, but because of grace. Paul now seizes
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  Speaker 1: the moment to declare the principle that governs all divine salvation.
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  Speaker 1: But if it is by grace, it is no longer
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  Speaker 1: on the basis of works. Otherwise grace... would no longer
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  Speaker 1: be grace. Here lies the sword that cuts through every
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  Speaker 1: system of self-righteousness. Grace and works cannot coexist as grounds
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  Speaker 1: for justification. If you add effort to grace, grace ceases
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  Speaker 1: to be grace. It becomes debt, obligation, transaction. But grace,
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  Speaker 1: by its very nature, is unmerited favor. It flows from
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  Speaker 1: God's goodness, not from man's performance. This echoes Paul's earlier
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  Speaker 1: declarations in Romans. In chapter 3 he had already stated
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  Speaker 1: that righteousness is apart from the law. In chapter 4
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  Speaker 1: he proved from Abraham's own life that faith was counted
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  Speaker 1: as righteousness before circumcision or law-keeping. Now, in chapter 11,
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  Speaker 1: Paul applies the same principle to the remnant of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: Their continued presence is not the fruit of national obedience—
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  Speaker 1: It is the result of divine election. Grace alone explains
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  Speaker 1: their faith. Grace alone preserves their identity. Grace alone justifies.
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  Speaker 1: But this truth is not only theological. It is intensely personal.
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  Speaker 1: It means that your standing before God does not depend
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  Speaker 1: on how many days you've obeyed, how perfectly you've performed,
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  Speaker 1: or how closely you've aligned with religious expectations. It means
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  Speaker 1: your salvation is not the reward of moral progress. It
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  Speaker 1: is the fruit of divine mercy. You are saved by grace,
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  Speaker 1: not kept by effort. And just as God did not
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  Speaker 1: reject his people in ancient Israel, he will not reject
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  Speaker 1: those who trust in his Son today. The thread of
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  Speaker 1: grace runs unbroken from Abraham to Paul to the present age.
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  Speaker 1: Do you see now why Paul insists so strongly that
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  Speaker 1: God has not rejected his people? It is not only
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  Speaker 1: a matter of Israel's destiny, it is a matter of
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  Speaker 1: God's integrity. If God could reject the people He foreknew,
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  Speaker 1: what hope do any of us have? But if He
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  Speaker 1: preserves a remnant by grace, then no failure is final,
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  Speaker 1: no stumbling is fatal, and no sin can cancel divine election.
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  Speaker 1: Grace remains undefeated. And so we continue, not with pride,
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  Speaker 1: but with trembling joy, into the next verses, where Paul
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  Speaker 1: unveils the tragedy of hardened hearts and the glory of
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  Speaker 1: God's sovereign purpose. What then? If there is a remnant
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  Speaker 1: chosen by grace, what of the rest? Paul does not
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  Speaker 1: hesitate to answer. What then? Israel failed to obtain what
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  Speaker 1: it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest
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  Speaker 1: were hardened. This is not a mystery veiled in shadows.
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  Speaker 1: It is a truth spoken plainly. Within the visible nation
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  Speaker 1: two groups emerge, those who are elect by grace and
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  Speaker 1: those who are hardened in unbelief. Both groups exist under
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  Speaker 1: the sovereign hand of God, yet each reveals a different
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  Speaker 1: aspect of his purpose. Israel sought righteousness, but not by faith.
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  Speaker 1: They pursued the law as a means to achieve it,
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  Speaker 1: not realizing that the law was meant to lead them
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  Speaker 1: to Christ. And in their striving, they stumbled. This stumbling
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  Speaker 1: is not neutral, it is not passive ignorance. Paul describes
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  Speaker 1: it with a word that pierces, hardened. This hardening is
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  Speaker 1: not random, it is judicial. It is the result of
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  Speaker 1: persistent unbelief, confirmed by divine decree. Paul now draws upon
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  Speaker 1: the ancient scriptures, stitching together the testimony of Moses, Isaiah,
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  Speaker 1: and David, to show that this hardening was foretold. God
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  Speaker 1: gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not
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  Speaker 1: see and ears that would not hear down to this
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  Speaker 1: very day. This is a sobering reality. When people continually
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  Speaker 1: reject the truth, God may eventually give them over to
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  Speaker 1: their own blindness. What begins as willful unbelief can become
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  Speaker 1: divine judgment. The phrase, a spirit of stupor, comes from
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  Speaker 1: Deuteronomy 29.4, where Moses tells Israel, To this day the
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  Speaker 1: Lord has not given you a heart to understand, or
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  Speaker 1: eyes to see, or ears to hear. Centuries later, Isaiah
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  Speaker 1: echoes this lament when he's commissioned to preach to a
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  Speaker 1: people who will hear but never understand, see but never perceive.
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  Speaker 1: And David, in Psalm 69, a psalm of rejection and suffering, pleads,
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  Speaker 1: Let their table become a snare and a trap, Let
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  Speaker 1: their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and
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  Speaker 1: bend their backs forever. These scriptures are not just poetic reflections.
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  Speaker 1: They are prophetic indictments, revealing that hardened hearts are not
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  Speaker 1: merely the result of ignorance, but of spiritual rebellion. Yet
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  Speaker 1: notice the tragedy within the judgment. The very things meant
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  Speaker 1: for blessing— their table, their law, their worship— become a trap. Their
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  Speaker 1: pursuit of righteousness without faith becomes the very thing that
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  Speaker 1: ensnares them. Their zeal without knowledge, as Paul lamented in
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  Speaker 1: chapter 10, blinds them to the righteousness of God revealed
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  Speaker 1: in Christ. They do not stumble because the truth was hidden,
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  Speaker 1: but because they refuse to submit to it. Their backs
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  Speaker 1: are bent not from external oppression, but from internal resistance
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  Speaker 1: to grace. This is not just a history lesson— It
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  Speaker 1: is a mirror held up to every generation. The gospel
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  Speaker 1: is proclaimed. Christ is offered. And yet, for some, the
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  Speaker 1: message hardens rather than heals. This is the mystery of
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  Speaker 1: divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Paul does not flinch before it.
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  Speaker 1: He proclaims both without apology. The elect obtained what Israel
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  Speaker 1: was seeking, not by effort but by grace. The rest
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  Speaker 1: were hardened. not without cause, but not without consequence. This
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  Speaker 1: is the dividing line that runs through all of human history,
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  Speaker 1: not Jew versus Gentile, but those who receive mercy and
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  Speaker 1: those who resist it. And if this makes you tremble,
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  Speaker 1: it should, but it should also drive you to worship.
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  Speaker 1: For if any of us believe, it is not because
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  Speaker 1: we saw more clearly or chose more wisely, it is
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  Speaker 1: because God had mercy. He opened our eyes. He softened
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  Speaker 1: our hearts. He caused us to hear the word not
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  Speaker 1: as noise, but as life. He interrupted our rebellion with grace.
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  Speaker 1: The doctrine of election should never make us proud. It
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  Speaker 1: should make us grateful. Still the question remains, has Israel
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  Speaker 1: stumbled so as to fall beyond recovery? Has the hardening
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  Speaker 1: of the many made restoration impossible? Paul will not leave
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  Speaker 1: that question unanswered. He is building towards something greater, a
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  Speaker 1: mystery hidden for ages, but now revealed, that through Israel's
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  Speaker 1: failure salvation has come to the Gentiles, and through the
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  Speaker 1: Gentiles Israel will be provoked to return. But before we
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  Speaker 1: reach that glory, we must first look deeply into the
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  Speaker 1: severity and the kindness of God. The next verses will
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  Speaker 1: reveal that the rejection was not total, nor was it final.
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  Speaker 1: There is more mercy to come. So I ask, did
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  Speaker 1: they stumble in order that they might fall? Paul poses
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  Speaker 1: the question with deliberate urgency, as if anticipating a wrong conclusion.
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  Speaker 1: Israel's rejection of the Messiah is their failure to recognize
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  Speaker 1: the gospel, their hardened hearts and blinded eyes. Do these
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  Speaker 1: mean that God has dropped them forever? Have they fallen
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  Speaker 1: beyond restoration, cut off from grace, discarded as obsolete? Paul's
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  Speaker 1: answer comes with the same fierce clarity he has used before.
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  Speaker 1: By no means the strongest possible denial, absolutely not. The
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  Speaker 1: story is not over, the failure is not final, the
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  Speaker 1: stumbling was real, but it is not the end. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: God has woven that stumbling into a greater strategy, a
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  Speaker 1: sovereign pattern of mercy, designed to reach beyond one nation
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  Speaker 1: and bless the world. Through their trespass, Paul declares, salvation
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  Speaker 1: has come to the Gentiles. What human rebellion tried to ruin,
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  Speaker 1: God reoriented into redemption. The very rejection of Jesus by
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  Speaker 1: his own people opened the floodgates of grace to the nations.
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  Speaker 1: When Israel shut the door on their Messiah, God flung
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  Speaker 1: it open to every tribe, tongue, and people. This is
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  Speaker 1: not plan B. This is divine orchestration. The cornerstone that
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  Speaker 1: Israel rejected became the foundation of the church. The vineyard
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  Speaker 1: they failed to tend was given to others who would
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  Speaker 1: bear fruit. And in this sovereign exchange, Paul sees a
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  Speaker 1: deeper mystery. Salvation to the Gentiles was not the conclusion
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  Speaker 1: of Israel's story, but the beginning of her awakening. Paul
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  Speaker 1: now introduces a spiritual irony that pulses with divine wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: The salvation of the Gentiles is meant to provoke Israel
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  Speaker 1: to jealousy, not envy rooted in flesh, but a holy longing.
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  Speaker 1: A recognition that the intimacy, the spirit, the righteousness that
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  Speaker 1: Gentiles now enjoy through Christ was originally promised to them.
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  Speaker 1: The Gentiles are not meant to gloat. They are meant
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  Speaker 1: to shine. Their faith, joy, and holiness are meant to
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  Speaker 1: stir Israel to remembrance. Like the elder brother watching the
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  Speaker 1: prodigal feast, Israel is meant to feel the ache of
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  Speaker 1: what they abandoned and the pull of what they still
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  Speaker 1: might reclaim. If their trespass means riches for the world
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  Speaker 1: and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, Paul argues,
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  Speaker 1: how much more will their full inclusion mean? If God
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  Speaker 1: could turn their rejection into global salvation, what will he
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  Speaker 1: do when they are restored? The implication is staggering. Their
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  Speaker 1: fall brought blessing. Their return will bring revival. Paul speaks
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  Speaker 1: of their full inclusion as something still future, a prophetic
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  Speaker 1: hope anchored in covenant. This is not just individual Jews
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  Speaker 1: coming to faith. It is a national awakening, a turning
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  Speaker 1: of hearts en masse, a resurrection of faith that echoes
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  Speaker 1: with the language of life from the dead. Indeed, Paul
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  Speaker 1: will soon describe this return as nothing less than resurrection.
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  Speaker 1: But already here he sees the sequence, Israel's rejection, Gentile inclusion,
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  Speaker 1: Israel's restoration. The branches may be broken, but the root
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  Speaker 1: is still alive. The covenant still pulses with divine intent,
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  Speaker 1: and Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, sees his
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  Speaker 1: mission as part of this sacred chain reaction. He magnifies
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  Speaker 1: his ministry, not for pride but with purpose. to make
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  Speaker 1: his fellow Jews jealous. His preaching to the nations is
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  Speaker 1: not a turning away from Israel. It is a calling forth.
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  Speaker 1: His hope is not only that Gentiles would believe, but
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  Speaker 1: that Israel would awaken by seeing what she has missed.
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  Speaker 1: Here is a truth the church often forgets. Gentile salvation
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  Speaker 1: is not the end of the story. It is the middle.
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  Speaker 1: The Gentile church exists as a signpost, not a replacement.
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  Speaker 1: We are not the root, we are the graft. And
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  Speaker 1: our flourishing is designed not to shame the natural branches,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: but to invite them back. The faith, joy, holiness, and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: unity of the church are meant to provoke, not replace.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: When Israel sees what God has done among the Gentiles,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: They are meant to remember what he first promised to them.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: This is God's mercy magnified. He does not abandon the rebellious.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: He orchestrates their rebellion into a stage for redemption. He
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: does not discard the covenant. He deepens it. He does
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: not replace the chosen. He reawakens them. And as Paul
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: will later declare, the gifts and the calling of God
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: are irrevocable. But that is still to come. For now
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Paul is preparing the ground. The trespass of Israel was tragic,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: but not wasted. The gospel has gone global. The Gentiles
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: have entered in, but the story is not finished. There
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: is more mercy yet to be revealed. Now if the
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: root is holy, so are the branches. Paul reaches for
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: an image known to both farmer and theologian, the olive tree.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Not a random plant, not an ornament of chance. but
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a sacred tree chosen by God, rooted in the promises
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This tree, nourished by
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: covenants and cultivated through generations, is not new. It is ancient.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: The patriarchs are the root, the covenants are the soil,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and Israel is the cultivated tree, chosen and tended by
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the hand of God. But now something unprecedented has occurred.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Some of the natural branches, those descended from the physical
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: line of Israel, have been broken off because of unbelief.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: And in their place, wild branches, Gentiles, strangers to the
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: covenant without pedigree or law, have been grafted in. The
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: image is at once beautiful and humbling. Paul doesn't shy
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: away from the offence of this picture. He does not
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: paint the church as a new tree, but as a
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: graft into the old one. The Gentiles are not the replacement.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: They are the addition. Their life flows, not from their
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: own root, but from a root they were alien to,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: until grace intervened. And lest the wild branches grow arrogant,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Paul warns them, Do not boast over the natural ones.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: If you do, remember that it is not you who
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: support the root, but the root that supports you. This
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: is not just horticultural wisdom. It is theological rebuke. The
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Gentiles were brought in by mercy, not merit. They stand
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: not by bloodline or moral superiority, but by faith alone.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: And if God did not spare the natural branches, he
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: will not spare the arrogant either. This image of the
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: olive tree is not isolated. It echoes the prophet Jeremiah,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: who described Israel as a green olive tree, beautiful with
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: good fruit. It mirrors Hosea's prophecy, where Israel is likened
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: to a luxuriant vine. It anticipates Jesus' own words in
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: John 15, where he speaks of himself as the true
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: vine and warns that every branch not abiding in him
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: will be cut off. Paul takes this rich Old Testament
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: imagery and presses it into the heart of the Gentile believer.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: You are part of something older, deeper, holier than you imagine.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: You are drinking from the promises made to patriarchs you
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: did not descend from. You are inheriting mercy from a
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: covenant you were never born into. Therefore do not boast, tremble.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Consider the kindness and the severity of God. Paul now
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: cuts through every sentimental idea about divine love and presses
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: both aspects of God's character into view. Kindness is real.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: It is what grafted you in. It is what keeps
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: you rooted, but so is severity. It is what cut
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: off the unbelieving branches. This is not cruelty. It is justice.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: God is not to be trifled with. He is patient,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: but He is holy. He is merciful and but he
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: is righteous. The same God who welcomes the humble casts
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: down the proud. If the Gentiles continue in his kindness,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: walking in faith, humility, obedience, they too will remain. But
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: if they become proud, if they abandon the gospel that
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: saved them, they too can be cut off. There is
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: no room for arrogance in the kingdom of grace. But
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Paul is not finished, for even the branches that were
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: broken off are not beyond hope. If they do not
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in again. And
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: then Paul says something that should shatter all presumption, for
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: God has the power to graft them in again. This
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: is not hypothetical. This is divine promise. The same God
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: who grafted in the Gentiles, wild, unnatural, formerly far off,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: can restore the natural branches to their own tree. And
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: if God can do the unnatural work of grafting in outsiders,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: how much more easily can he reattach those who belong
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: to the root by birth? The implication is powerful. God's
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: work in Israel is not finished. Their current unbelief is
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: not final. The tree is not dead. The root is
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: still alive. Restoration is not only possible, it is anticipated. Here,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Paul is calling the church to humility, to awe, and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: to expectancy. The olive tree is still standing. The root
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: still nourishes. The promises are still active. The rejection of
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Israel was not total, nor was it irreversible, and the Gentiles,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: now enjoying the fatness of the tree, must not become
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: arrogant tourists in a holy vineyard. They are heirs by mercy,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: not owners by right. Their role is to shine, to provoke,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to call, never to replace. This image confronts every form
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of spiritual pride. It tears down the walls between Jew
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: and Gentile, between old and new, between insider and outsider.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: It reminds us that in the kingdom of God, No
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: one stands apart from grace. The moment we forget this,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: we are in danger of the same fate as those
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: broken branches. But if we remember it, if we abide
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: in the kindness of God, walking by faith, we remain
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: part of something vast, ancient, and living. We now stand
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: at the threshold of mystery. Paul is about to reveal
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: a plan hidden for ages. a divine sequence unfolding through time.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Paul now speaks not as a debater, not as a
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: theologian constructing systems, but as a steward of divine revelation.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: What he is about to unveil is not speculation, it
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: is a mystery long hidden now revealed. And it comes
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: with a warning, do not be wise in your own sight.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Do not interpret history through the lens of pride. Do
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: not assume understanding where humility is required. For what Paul
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: is about to explain is the very heartbeat of God's
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: redemptive plan across the ages. It is not small. It
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: is not casual. It is mystery, sacred, sovereign, staggering. A
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: partial hardening has come upon Israel, Paul says, not total,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: not final, partial. It is as if a veil has
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: been drawn over the eyes of the people who were
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: given the prophets, the temple, the promises, and the Messiah.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: They are not all blind. There is a remnant. Paul
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: himself is proof of it. But the nation as a
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: whole has been hardened, unable to see the glory of Christ,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: unable to recognize the fulfillment of their own scriptures. And
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: this hardening, Paul insists, is not random. It has a purpose.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: It will last until the fullness of the Gentiles has
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: come in. Here, the mystery deepens. Paul sees time not
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: merely as linear progression, but as covenant sequence. God is
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: not improvising. He is orchestrating. Israel's partial hardening opened the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: way for Gentile salvation. But that Gentile influx has a limit,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: a fullness. And when the last Gentile chosen by grace believes,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: the veil over Israel will lift, the hardening will end,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the remnant will become a multitude, the dry bones will
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: live again. And in that day, Paul declares, all Israel
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: will be saved. This statement, simple in words, immense in weight,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: has stirred centuries of debate. What does Paul mean by
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: all Israel? Is he referring to every Jew who has
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: ever lived? to a remnant within Israel, to spiritual Israel
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: made up of Jews and Gentiles together. The context speaks plainly.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Paul has been distinguishing between Israel and the Gentiles throughout
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: this chapter. He has spoken of national Israel, its rejection,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: its hardening, and its future restoration. The all Israel Paul
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: refers to here is the nation as a whole, not
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: every individual without exception, but the people corporately, nationally, in
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: covenantal identity. The day is coming when the people of Israel,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: long hardened, will turn to their Messiah and be saved.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Paul supports this claim with Scripture, quoting from Isaiah and Jeremiah,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them forever.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: when I take away their sins. This is not a
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: new plan. This is the covenant promised through the prophets,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: a covenant not based on works, but on the mercy
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: of God. Paul does not speak of political return or
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: national resurgence. He speaks of salvation. The Deliverer will come.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Sin will be removed. Ungodliness will be banished. This is
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: the new covenant foretold in Jeremiah 31, where God promised
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: to write His law on Israel's heart and remember their
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: sins no more. As regards the gospel, Paul says, they
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. Here is
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the tension of redemptive history. Israel stands, in one sense,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: opposed to the gospel. They rejected the Messiah. They resisted
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the apostles. They opposed the church, and yet they remain beloved,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: not because of present merit, but because of ancient promise.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: God chose Abraham. He confirmed his word to Isaac. He
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: reaffirmed it to Jacob, and he does not revoke what
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: he has sworn. For the gifts and the calling of
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: God are are irrevocable. This one sentence destroys every theory
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: that suggests God has permanently cast aside the Jewish people.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: His calling is not conditioned by performance, His gifts are
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: not rescinded by rebellion. What He began, He will finish.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Israel may be faithless, but God remains faithful. His covenant
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: does not dissolve in the fires of unbelief. It endures
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: because it rests not on man's obedience, but on God's mercy.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: And now Paul unfolds the final twist in the divine plan.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Just as you, Gentiles, were once disobedient, but now have
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: to you, they also may now receive mercy. This is
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: not chance. This is choreography. Disobedience led to mercy. Mercy
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: led to jealousy. Jealousy leads to awakening. All of it
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: governed by a single hand. God has consigned all to
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: disobedience that he may have mercy on all. Do you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: see it now? God's plan is not linear but circular,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: not chaos but orchestration. He is not salvaging history. He
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: is directing it. Jew and Gentile alike stand under the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: judgment of disobedience, so that no one may boast, and
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: both are offered mercy, so that grace may be magnified.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: This is the wisdom of God, deeper than the minds
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: of men, wider than the ages, higher than angels can scale.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: And it is this wisdom that Paul will soon explode
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: into praise. But before the doxology we pause and stand
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: in awe. What was hidden is now revealed. What was
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: hardened will soon see. What was scattered will be gathered.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: What was broken will be grafted in. The mystery is mercy,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: the purpose is grace. The glory is God's alone. Oh,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Paul can no longer restrain his awe. Doctrine gives way
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: to doxology. After eleven chapters of unfolding the righteousness of God,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the failure of man, the sufficiency of Christ, the sovereignty
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: of grace, and the mystery of Israel's rejection and future restoration,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Paul does not close with an argument. He erupts into worship.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Theologians may debate, scholars may analyze, but the proper response
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: to what has been revealed is not calculation. It is adoration.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Standing at the edge of divine revelation, Paul looks into
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: the infinite and declares how unsearchable are his judgments and
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: how inscrutable his ways. This is not a confession of confusion.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: It is a confession of reverence. God is not illogical.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: He is infinite. His judgments are not irrational. They are
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: higher than the heavens. His ways are not contradictory. They
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: are unfathomably wise. who can trace the path of omniscience,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: who can weigh the decisions of eternal wisdom, the very
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: structure of history, the sequence of redemptive events, creation, fall, covenant, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Israel's stumbling, the Gentile grafting, and the promised restoration. None
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: of it was humanly conceived, none of it follows the
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: logic of flesh, but all of it flows from the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: wisdom of God. His mercy is not shallow. His justice
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: is not delayed. His faithfulness is not fragile. His knowledge
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: is not acquired. It is intrinsic. It is from him.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Paul now quotes from the Scriptures once more, not to
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: build an argument but to exalt the sovereignty of God.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: For who has known the mind of the Lord, or
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: who has been his counsellor? This echo from Isaiah 40
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: is stands as a rebuke to every human effort to
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: judge God. Has he ever asked for advice? Has he
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: ever needed correction? Can any creature instruct the Creator? We
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: are not invited to revise his plan. We are summoned
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: to revere it. Paul continues, Or who has given a
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: gift to him that he might be repaid? The words
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: are drawn from Job 41. What? can man offer to
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: God that would place him in our debt? What gift,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: what obedience, what sacrifice could compel divine favor? None. All
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: is from him. Nothing originates outside of his will. No
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: righteousness ever begins in the flesh. No salvation ever emerges
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: from human will. We owe him everything. He owes us nothing.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: And yet he gives freely. This is grace. Now comes
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: the final crescendo, the ultimate summary of everything Paul has written.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: For from him and through him and to him are
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: all things. This is not a mere benediction. It is
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: a theological supernova. From him all things find their origin
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: in God. He is the creator, the initiator, the first cause.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Through him all things are sustained by his power and
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: executed by his decree. He is the means by which
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: all creation lives, moves, and has its being. To him
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: all things find their end in his glory. History is
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: not cyclical chaos or random drift. It is linear motion
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: toward a final divine purpose, the exaltation of God's name,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: the manifestation of his mercy, the unveiling of his justice,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: the enthronement of his Son. To him be glory forever. Amen.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: With this declaration, Paul silences every boast, every religious achievement,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: every national claim, every theological system, every intellectual pride brought low.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: There is only one worthy example. one name above all names,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: one glory that does not fade, and it belongs not
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: to man, not to a movement, not to a nation,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: but to the God who is merciful to both Jew
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: and Gentile, who governs history with holy precision, who redeems
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the rebel and restores the prodigal, who exalts the humble
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: and humbles the proud. This is the God of Romans 11.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: This is the God who has not forgotten his people.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: This is the God who still saves. So now let
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: us pray, O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: who are from everlasting to everlasting, who keeps covenant and
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: shows steadfast love, who has not rejected your people nor
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: abandoned your promises. You are faithful, you are holy, you
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: are kind beyond all telling. We tremble before the depths
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: of your wisdom, and we fall on our faces in
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: light of your mercy. We, once Gentiles, once strangers to
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: the covenants, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: And we thank you. We thank you for the mystery
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: now revealed, for the plan that includes both judgment and redemption,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: both justice and grace. And we ask, awaken Israel. Let
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: the Deliverer come from Zion. Let hearts turn. Let eyes see.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Let the branches be grafted in again. And may we,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: your people by grace, walk humbly, love deeply, and proclaim boldly,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: all glory belongs to you forever and ever. If you
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: want to go deeper into Romans, we have all 16
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: chapters fully explained for you, chapter by chapter. You can
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: get Romans explained as a stand-alone study, or join the
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Deep Bible Stories founding members and unlock it along with
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: many other powerful Bible teachings. We are building a home
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: for Christians who truly want to understand God's Word deeply
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: and be transformed by it. The link is below. Stay blessed.