From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I would like to call your attention this evening are to be found in Paul's epistle to the Romans in chapter 11, reading verses 25, 26, and 27, in the 11th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Most of you, I'm sure, will bear in mind the connection of this. This is one of these great prophetic utterances in the New Testament. In many ways, it is one of the most remarkable prophecies of all, certainly one of the great prophecies of the apostle Paul. Let's again remind ourselves of the context and how the apostle ever came to say this.

He's working out a great argument in this chapter. It's part of the great argument that's been going on from the beginning of the ninth chapter. It's this whole question of the Jews and their relationship to the kingdom of God, especially to the Christian church, that particular form of the kingdom of God called the Christian church. The position he has to deal with is this: that the Gentiles were being tempted to say that God had entirely finished with his ancient people, and that they, the Gentiles, were being called in because there was some inherent superiority in them. That's the position that the apostle is dealing with.

In this chapter, in particular, he is looking at this whole matter. As I reminded you last Friday night, he develops five great arguments. He says that must be wrong were it merely that I myself am a Jew, and I'm not only a Christian but an apostle. Secondly, there is a remnant according to the election of grace of Jews in the church at the present time, so it's wrong to say that they're all excluded.

The third argument is the argument in verse 16: that it cannot be so as these people tempted to think, because the Jews, after all, have come out of that root and stock of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and certain promises made to them. That makes it impossible. Then he goes on to say in the fourth place that there is no difficulty about their being brought back into God's favor, and that is because God has the power to do so. God is able to graft them in again. The fifth argument was, which again makes argument number four still more powerful, that God has already done something much more difficult than that, and that is that he's brought in the Gentiles. If thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and wert graft contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graft into their own olive tree?

There are the five arguments. What he said in the first section of the chapter is that the rejection of Israel is not total, and in this second section, he's been pointing out that it isn't final; it's only temporary. That's the way in which he's been working out that great argument. Having done that, he leaves argumentation and moves to the realm of direct assertion. All he's shown so far is that the restoration of the Jews is possible; he's even shown that it's probable. But now he's going on to say that it is an absolute certainty. That's what we are dealing with in these verses 25, 26, and 27.

It is again most important that we should bear in mind that what the apostle is dealing with in all these statements is the nation of the Jews considered racially. He's not dealing with the case of individuals; he's dealing with this whole position of this Jewish race. In other words, as I was trying to show last week and the week before, the apostle is not dealing here with the question of an individual and his salvation. He's looking at this bulk of the Jews that is outside, and it is about them he is saying that they can be graft in again. He's dealing, then, with the problem of the Jews considered in a racial sense, not a matter of individuals.

What he does here, I say, is to give a great prophetic utterance. What we've got in this 25th verse and the first part of verse 26 is a great prophecy. It's no longer argument; it is a direct prophetic statement with respect to these Jews who are now outside and to the effect that they are going to be brought in again, again speaking racially.

I wonder whether that’s occurred to any of you. If you, the apostle Paul, have known this all the time, and it seems to settle everything—that the Jews are going to be brought back—well, then why weary and keep us with all those other argumentations?

The first answer is that it is always right to use your reason in these matters. You see, the apostle is confronted by a criticism or, if you like, by a very dogmatic statement: that the Jews are finished with. They've crucified their Messiah; they're therefore rejected of God, and God has got no further interest in them. The apostle's way of dealing with that is not to get up and say, "Now look here, listen to me. I'm an apostle and I tell you, it's been revealed to me. I make a prophecy: they are going to be brought back," and leave it at that. He doesn't do that.

Why not? Well, I say because this is a method which is employed everywhere in the scripture. You meet a statement like that or an opponent, first of all, on his own grounds, on the grounds of reason. That's where you start, as the apostle starts here. It's always right to do that. For instance, in the practical application to us, if a man comes to you who's a critic of Christianity or a critic of a particular doctrine of the Christian faith and says something which is quite unreasonable, point that out to him. You meet him on his own level if you can show him that what he's saying is patently ridiculous.

If a man comes to you when you're handling a great chapter such as this and expects you to tell some amusing stories, you just point out to him how utterly incongruous it is to do such a thing when you're handling such high doctrine. This is something that demands thought and reason and application. A man who finds this kind of thing rather dull is just betraying that he doesn't know how to think. You meet him on his own level, and the apostle does that always. He's done it in this chapter. He shows them that they're patently wrong as he says, "I am a Christian myself. There you are, there's one." Then he gives them the other four, meeting them on the grounds of sheer reason.

Secondly, the apostle is anxious to instruct these Gentiles and to show them that what has happened is not in any way inconsistent with the Old Testament teaching. They seem to be dismissing the whole of the Old Testament. That doesn't matter any longer. There are still uninstructed Christian people who tend to say that today. The apostle won't have that; he wants to instruct people. So, he doesn't just leave it at his prophetic utterance. He says, "Look here, let's work this out together." And so as we've seen, he's been able to demonstrate that this very thing that has happened has been prophesied by the Old Testament prophets, so that they shouldn't be surprised and, indeed, they shouldn't misunderstand it because the Old Testament prophets have already dealt with this matter.

Thirdly, he is most anxious that the Gentiles should be clear in the principles of the teaching. This is a point that to me is of great importance and perhaps especially at this present time. There are people who always want some direct and immediate statement. There are some people who claim to be unusually spiritual who are only interested in some direct prophetic utterances, as it were, and they tend to exclude everything else, people who exclude the Bible and say, "We’re not interested in the Bible. We get this direct communication; that's the only thing that matters." I feel that that position is refuted completely by the apostle's method in this very chapter.

He not only gives them a prophetic utterance, but he reasons on the basis of the scriptures and with his own understanding, almost his own common sense, pointing out facts to them and showing how the position they've taken up is quite incongruous with the whole of the teaching of the Old Testament and also with the Christian teaching at that particular time. And we've seen that the apostle does that. He doesn't merely make statements to the Gentiles; he shows them, he gives them his reasons. He demonstrates it to them. He works it out with them in detail and in argumentation and always supported by his quotations from the scriptures. In other words, he really does want these Gentiles to understand this matter thoroughly, so that they'll know exactly how wrong they've been in what they've been tending to say and in order that they may be prepared for what he's now going to tell them.

The final reason therefore I would adduce for the apostle's method is this: that it is never enough for us only to know the truth positively; we must also have a negative understanding of it. We must not only be in a position of saying, "This is what has been revealed"; we must be able to expose error also. Otherwise, you really won't be able to help people who are in difficulties. If you have somebody who's in difficulty about a matter and you just make some highly spiritual statement to them without meeting their position, you're not likely to help them. But if you can, as it were, come down to their level and reason it through with them and point out the error and where they've gone astray, they'll see it and they'll be saved from not only that error but from similar errors. You will have introduced them to a method which they can apply in various other cases. This is to me a very important matter. That's why it's always vital that we should watch the apostle in his particular method. Look at the trouble he's taken before he comes to this tremendous statement.

Having done that, he comes to the statement. He puts before them this great prophecy with regard to the future of the Jews considered in a racial sense. Again, let's ask him a question: why does he do this? Why does he tell them this prophecy? Well, he gives us an explicit answer himself on this occasion. Here it is: "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery." Then he gives a second reason: "lest ye should be wise in your own conceits." He gives us two reasons. The first is he doesn't want them to be ignorant. Actually, there is no question about this; he is employing a figure of speech here which is called litotes. Litotes means that you make a strong assertion in a negative manner.

We came across our first example of litotes in the epistle to the Romans in the first chapter in verse 16 where the apostle says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." What he really means is that he's very proud of it. But it's rather a strong and an expressive way of stating a thing. I think I said on that occasion, let me repeat it as some of you were not present then, I’ve always regarded this figure of speech called litotes as the typically English manner of speaking. You put it negatively instead of positively. "I am not ashamed of the gospel," and you mean I am tremendously proud of it. I consider this a very great privilege. Or if you like, a still more homely example of this very thing. It is like what I think you would find most doctors will tell you about their patients. The doctor is treating the patient, and he calls one afternoon and he says, "How are you feeling?" The patient almost invariably says, "I'm no worse, thank you." What the doctor wants them to say, of course, is that they're very much better. And in a sense, that is what they're trying to say, only that they prefer the negative: "I'm no worse, thank you."

This is an illustration of litotes. The apostle says, "I don't want you to be ignorant." What he means is, "I really want you to know all about this. I want to instruct you. I want you to have the fullest possible information in order that you'll never go wrong in this matter again." That is undoubtedly what this expression means: "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant." We've got other examples of his using the same argument in other epistles as well as in this one. But then his second reason is, and this is perhaps still more significant, "lest ye should be wise in your own conceits."

We're clear about this, of course, because this is what he really has been saying to them from verse 18 to verse 21. You remember it: "Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, 'The branches were broken off that I might be graft in.' Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee." You remember the exhortation to humility. And here he is repeating it, but putting it in rather a blunter and a more direct manner. "I'm telling you this," he says, "lest ye be wise in your own conceits." These are interesting terms that he uses here. The word that is used here for wise is the word that is generally used for false wisdom. Not true wisdom, but false wisdom—false wisdom accompanied by pride. That's the thing he tells them that he wants to save them from. "Lest you be wise in your own conceits" really means "lest you have this false wisdom in yourselves or before yourselves." He's sort of picturing them speaking to themselves with this false wisdom, wise in your own conceits, talking to yourself about yourself with a false wisdom, puffing yourself up in a false manner, misleading yourself.

In what respects is he applying this? In what respects is he trying to save them from being wise in their own conceits? The first respect is obviously this one: he wants to disabuse their minds. They thought that they understood this whole question, this question of the position of the Jews and their own position in the Christian church. They thought they were quite clear about this. There was no problem; that's why the apostle takes up the whole thing. He'd heard what this kind of people had been saying. And he says this is quite wrong. They think they know, they think they understand perfectly this whole question of the present position of the Jews: that God has cast them off and has absolutely finished with them. That's their opinion, and they were very confident in it. They thought they were very wise in their understanding. He wants to show them that what they thought was the truth was absolutely wrong. In other words, their conceit was wrong; their whole understanding of this matter was wrong.

But I think it has a second meaning also. They thought that they were wise, and they were wise in their own conceits in this way: that they thought that they were in the church and the Jews outside because they'd got a superior understanding. They'd been able to see the truth of the gospel whereas the Jews hadn't. And therefore, what accounted for the fact that they were in the church in the kingdom of God was their superiority in the matter of understanding and of belief and of faith accompanied by works. And the apostle again wants to show them how terribly wrong that is. He's already done so in detail in verses 16 and onwards, which I've just read to you again. They were boasting as over against the Jews, and it's all wrong. They've got nothing to boast about at all. And any man who thinks that he's a Christian because of any superiority in himself comes under this castigation of the apostle here. If you think you're a Christian because you've got a superior understanding to the other person who's not a Christian, you're quite wrong, altogether wrong. The apostle is going to drive that home in a powerful statement in verse 32: "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all."

He says, "You've got a quite wrong idea of yourselves. You've got an inflated notion of yourselves and your understanding, your own inherent ability and your understanding of this position. It's completely wrong," says the apostle, "and I want to deliver you from that." This idea of yours that the Jews have gone out forever, I want to show you is completely wrong. Thirdly, therefore, he delivers them from this being wise in their own conceits for this reason: that he doesn't want them to be put to shame when the great reality actually takes place. He knows what's going to happen. So, he says, "I'm going to tell you now. Because if I don't tell you, if I don't teach you and instruct you, and you and your descendants go on saying you are in the church because you're such wonderful people with such great understanding, with such excellency of morals and so on; well then, when you see the Jews being brought in as a race, you'll be put to shame. You'll be made to look ridiculous. It will be seen and evident to all that you've been wrong throughout the centuries." He wants to save them from all that. So, it's not merely a question of delivering them from their ignorance; he has this great pastoral care for them and he wants to bring an end to their making fools of themselves by saying something that is completely wrong and priding themselves on their wrongness.

The next point, the third point we come to is this: that he tells them that this information that he is going to give them is a mystery. "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved." That's what he calls a mystery. Here again is a most important term and it's interesting for many reasons. You will find in the epistles of this great apostle that he uses this word mystery fairly frequently.

Why did he do so? Well, I tend to accept the verdict of the authorities on this matter: that he did so because it was a term that was very much in current use at that time. It is a well-known fact that in that ancient world, and especially amongst the Gentiles, there were what were called mystery religions. In addition to the Jews' religion, there were these other religions called mystery religions. The epistle to the Colossians deals in particular with them. They were a strange concoction of philosophy and a bit of asceticism. They'd come, many of them, from India and places like that, and they were very common and current in the Roman Empire and these things were known to everybody.

The apostle very often takes up the terms that were in current use and uses them in order to show them the Christian teaching. Again, this is something that we can learn from the great apostle. It is essential always that our teaching and preaching should be in terms that people can understand. It's difficult, but it's got to be done. We should always make that effort. If there is therefore something that is in common current usage which we can use and employ in order to bring out an aspect of the truth, do so. It's right to do that. But you will notice at once that the apostle gives the term that he uses an entirely different connotation.

When he says that he's going to show them a mystery or put before them a mystery, he doesn't mean what was meant by these others, these mystery religions in their use of the term mystery. They meant by it some wonderful secret that was only known to the initiated. So, it was a way, you see again, of building up your pride. The common herd didn't know this, but if you became a devotee of this religion, you were initiated and you'd got a secret that nobody else knew and you guarded it and you kept it to yourself and you were very proud of it. That was the great characteristic of these mystery religions. Now, the apostle uses their term, but shows them what a different thing the Christian faith and the Christian teaching really is.

In the apostle's usage of mystery, it means this, and this is a most important matter. It means a truth which is concealed from the natural understanding of man, but which God in his infinite grace has been pleased to reveal. This is a most important matter. Mystery as used here in the New Testament is that which man and his mind and his understanding at their very best and highest cannot attain unto. But God has been pleased to make it known, to reveal it, to manifest it, to make it plain and clear. There are many who've often misunderstood this, so it's important we should have it quite clearly in our minds. There it is in its essence. It doesn't matter how great a man is, what a great brain he may have, he will never arrive at this knowledge by using his own brain and understanding. It can only be obtained as the result of the revelation of God.

In the mystery religions, you see, it all depended upon your understanding and intellectual acumen, and you could advance through the stages and you could go ahead of others. Here, it's the exact opposite. Let me put it again in terms of that great statement that we read together just now in the 11th chapter of Matthew's gospel. That's why I read it. "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent"—these people who always pride themselves on their wisdom and understanding and they arrive at knowledge; not here—"thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight."

Let me give you some other illustrations or examples from the scriptures of the use of this very term. You will get it in the last chapter of this epistle to the Romans in verses 25 and 26. The apostle says, "Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." There's a perfect illustration of this very thing.

And then you remember in the first epistle to the Corinthians in the second chapter, the apostle puts it in plain language in verses six and seven and eight: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us." The mystery has been revealed unto us by the spirit, for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

There is a notable example of this in the 15th chapter of that same first epistle to the Corinthians. Now, here again is another prophecy, you see, in connection with the resurrection. Verse 51: "Behold I show you a mystery." This is something that no human intelligence could ever have arrived at. "I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump," and so on. This is again a prophecy. It's a revelation of a mystery, something that the mind of man could never attain unto.

And then you've got a tremendous statement of it in the epistle to the Ephesians in the first chapter and the ninth verse. The apostle is introducing his great matter. He says, "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself." The mystery of his will. God has made it known to us. What is it? Well, it is this: "that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him." What a mystery. But God has revealed it, and Christian preaching is supposed to expound this. You see, my friends, this is the glory of the Christian position—that this grand mystery of God and his eternal purpose and will is being revealed to us. This is Christianity. And we've got to exercise ourselves with respect to these things.

And then there is another, let me just give you one more example of it in the third chapter of Ephesians where he puts it in a very interesting way. "I Paul," he says, "the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward; how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."

Now, there you see is a great example which brings out this point. Some people have misinterpreted that and have said this had never been revealed before. Well, the answer is that that isn't so. There are prophecies in the Old Testament about the Gentiles, that the gospel is to be preached to them. Yes, but it's merely hinted in the Old Testament; it's now it has been fully revealed. So, you mustn't say that one of these mysteries is something that was totally unknown before. But what it does mean is that it was only hinted at. But now there's to be a plain and a full and a clear revelation of it. You see, I say that for this reason—that the moment the apostle reveals this mystery, he goes on to say, "As it is written." It had been prophesied but not very clearly. You could read your Old Testament and not see it, not get it. The Jews had entirely missed it. It's there; it's there in embryo, but it isn't there in its fullness. "But now," he says, "I'm going to show it to you. I'm going to put it before you so that you can't be ignorant and you'll no longer be wise in your own conceits."

Here is a general point which we must make just here. What a wonderful difference there is between Christianity and all the mystery religions. There are still mystery religions that appeal to men. You know they've got some great secret. It isn't told to everybody; you've got to be initiated. That's the characteristic of false religions always. Some wonderful secret and only the initiated. It's kept to yourselves and there you are, a group on your own. You've got a wonderful secret and you're some special people. You help one another, but you don't help other people. All for yourselves, the initiated. That's the absolute opposite of Christianity, which noises abroad, makes known, reveals, proclaims. What a contrast it is between Christianity and all these false religions. Indeed, we can sum them up like this: the difference between Christianity and every false religion is the difference between mystery revealed and mystery concealed. We should always mistrust anything that claims to be godly or a true religion which conceals and only gives this information to certain special initiated people. Christianity is mystery revealed. "I'm going to show you," says the apostle, "not concealing, revealing." What a contrast it is. And this is something, I say, which is as of value to us at the present time, even as it was in the times of the great apostle.

Let us ever remember this, therefore, when people may tell you that they've got something that's superior to the teaching of the church, something better, something that does more good. The reply to make to such people is this: if it's so wonderful, why do you make a secret of it? Christianity wants everybody to know this. It proclaims it from the house tops. It's open. It's free. It's a gospel to be proclaimed, not something to be done behind closed doors and in great secrecy. This is a principle, I say, which we can apply, and it needs to be applied very much at the present time. There are people who've turned their backs upon the Christian church because they join these other things where they say such wonderful good is being done. If they want to do good, why don't they come and do it in the church and do it openly and let everybody know why it's being done? This is the great characteristic of God's work. It is always truth and it's always open. It is mystery revealed, not mystery concealed.

The next point, the third point we come to is this: what does this statement then tell us about the apostle Paul? He says, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved." This is a tremendous statement with regard to this man who wrote this epistle to the Romans. And what it tells us about him, of course, is that he is an apostle. And that means that a revelation of the truth had been made to him in order that he could go out and teach others.

In other words, the apostle is not giving a forecast here. He's not sitting down and trying to work out what's going to happen and say, "This is my opinion, that that's going to take place." No, no. This is a dogmatic pronouncement. It is the utterance of a prophecy. He didn't arrive at this either intuitively or even as the result of studying the Old Testament; it was revealed to him. You noticed what he said there in those early verses in Ephesians 3. That's the apostle's position. As an apostle, the revelation had been made to them. Now, that is one of the things that made a man an apostle. He's called and a revelation is given to him in order that he may teach others. Revelation like that is not given to everybody.

The church is founded, says Paul at the end of Ephesians 2, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That means that the revelation of truth was made to them. And it has been made to them. So there's no fresh revelation to expect. That's one of our reasons for rejecting the Church of Rome. She claims that revelation has continued through her. That's why, you see, the Pope is said to be the successor of Peter and so on. They talk about a succession of the apostolate. And there are sections of the High Anglican Church that do the same. That is their false view of episcopacy, rejected by evangelical Anglicans. But it is this kind of claim which ultimately carries with it the notion that these men are the successors of the apostles. The answer is, you can't have successors to the apostles. They were once and for all. The church is founded on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The revelation was made to them in order that they might pass it on and send it forward. "This dispensation of the gospel has been given to me," says Paul, "in order that I may make known among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

And here the apostle is, in other words, just telling these Romans that he is an apostle. He's reminded them of that previously. He's told them, "Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify mine office." And he was very concerned about this. You read his other epistles and watch him when he knows that people have been attacking him and saying that he's not an apostle. He contends for it. He is an apostle, and the truth has been revealed to him. Therefore, they must accept his teaching, not because he is Paul, but because he is a called apostle. He generally starts his letters like that: "Paul, a called apostle." He's done it in this epistle to the Romans. But that's what he means by all that. The truth was revealed by the risen Lord to these chosen men. And God in his wisdom saw to it that these men and those in close contact with them should receive and write down this revealed truth. And here it is for the church in all subsequent ages. So, we accept this prophecy of the apostle Paul in exactly the same way as we accept the prophecy of Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel or any one of the minor prophets.

Indeed, you remember that Peter exhorts his readers to regard the apostle Paul in this very way. You remember in the second epistle of Peter in the third chapter, the apostle Peter puts it in these terms. He's handling, he says, very difficult matters. And he puts it like this in reference to the apostle Paul. He says, "And account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they also do the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." They don't understand them; they think they're clever, and they don't take time and patience to understand these deep and difficult matters. And the result is they wrest the scriptures to their own destruction. But you notice, he puts the writings of the apostle in the same category as the scriptures of the Old Testament. And he's already said in the first chapter of that second epistle, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved, carried along by the Holy Spirit."

The apostle here is telling these Romans that he's going to make an utterance that is exactly the same as the utterances of the prophets under the Old Testament dispensation. The Romans are to remember that. They are to believe this as the revealed truth of God. And you and I in our day and generation are to do the same thing. This isn't the opinion of Paul the man; this is the prophetic utterance of Paul the called apostle of Jesus Christ unto whom the revelation has been given. That is how he introduces this tremendous statement about the future of Israel in a racial sense which, God willing, we will proceed to consider next Friday evening. Let us pray.

Oh, Lord our God, we come to thee again with hearts full of praise and of thanksgiving. We do thank thee, oh, Lord, that thou hast ever been pleased to bring us into the realm of these things. We thank thee for their greatness. We thank thee for the element of wonder and of amazement. We thank thee, oh, Lord, for things beyond our natural understanding. We thank thee for things that stretch our minds and concentration and demand of us an effort to lay hold upon them.

Lord, we bless thy name that thou hast ever brought us into the realm of such things. Oh, God, we pray thee to keep us ever humble, to teach us how to humble ourselves and to control this natural understanding that would intrude its little self even into these eternal mysteries and which is ever ready to reject because it doesn't understand. Lord, make of us as little children. Make of us babes who can receive the revelation of the mystery. Oh, God, have mercy then we pray thee upon us and grant that we may have an ever increasing knowledge of this truth that is hidden from the wise, that we may grow in it and rejoice in it.

Grant us thy blessing as we part from one another, oh, Lord, and use us all to thy glory and to thy praise in every part and portion of our lives. We ask it in the name of thy dear Son. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now this night throughout the remainder of this our short and certain earthly life and pilgrimage, and evermore. Amen.