From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I would like to call your attention once more to this great statement made by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans in chapter 11 from verse 25 to verse 32. I'm not going to read it all again, but let me read parts of it. "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." Then resuming at verse 28, "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all."

Now that's the statement, that is this great prophecy which is made here by the Apostle with regard to his fellow countrymen the Jews. And as you know, the way we have interpreted that as we have interpreted the whole chapter is this: that the Apostle is here prophesying, a revelation of a mystery, as he puts it as being granted unto him. And he is passing on this knowledge and information to these members of the church of God at Rome. And the prophecy is this: that the bulk of the nation of the Jews are going to be converted, are going to become believers of the gospel, and are going to be added to the Christian church.

Now that's the general thesis. Now last Friday night we said that there were certain general lessons that can be taught from this statement in addition to that particular statement. That's the big thing, that's the all-important thing. But because it is such a great statement, there are certain general lessons and principles which we can learn from it. Now I suggested some like this. I said that here we are really taught how to interpret prophecy. And we indicated that the danger is the danger of reading in things that are not here in order to make our prophetic scheme perfect and entire.

Very well. So we then indicated the things that are not even mentioned here. One is the millennium. The other is the land of Israel or of Palestine. Not mentioned at all. Nothing about a unique and separate position for the Jews in God's ultimate economy. Nothing of the sort. They go in like everybody else. Jews and Gentiles are saved in exactly the same way. And we ended by showing how we are not given any indication here as to when all this is going to happen.

We considered the idea, the suggestion that this may happen when the Second Advent takes place, and we gave you various reasons why we felt that we could not regard it in that way and manner and particularly that great statement in Luke 18: "When the Son of Man is come, shall He find the faith on the earth?" Very well. The important point I was establishing was that those subjects are really not dealt with here, and we must learn to be content with what the Scriptures tell us, not what we'd like them to say. We must be content with what has been revealed and not desire to know anything beyond that.

Now there's just one other further matter in that connection that I must deal with before we leave this aspect of the subject. We are not told either as to how all this is going to happen. It's interesting to speculate as to how it will take place. We know that now for a number of years there have been various missions to the Jews which are doing excellent work. May God continue to bless them. It may be that through such activities that this great event is going to take place in connection with the nation or the bulk of the nation of the children of Israel.

We don't know. We are simply not told. All the Apostle is concerned to say here is that it's going to happen. When and how, whether it will be sudden, whether it will be gradual, we just don't know. And therefore, any ideas that we may put forward with regard to that are nothing but sheer speculation. It's tempting to speculate, but we must resist the temptation. We don't know. All we do know is this: that when it does happen, it'll be solely the result of God's great mercy.

Nothing else will account for it because, as he tells us in the 32nd verse, "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." So however it happens, whenever it happens, it will be entirely the result of God's mercy. The thing, therefore, that we've got to hold on to is this: that this is going to happen, and it's going to be an amazing thing. So amazing that no terms are adequate to describe it save the terms that he uses in the 15th verse. It will indeed be life from the dead.

It will be a most revivifying thing in the life and the history of the church. It will be such a phenomenon that it will fill God's people not only with astonishment and amazement but also with wonder, love, and praise. Very well. Now then, there are certain general lessons which we learn from this all-important passage. But I want to go still further. I think that at this point now it behooves us to make a kind of general review of the teaching in particular of this chapter, but in a sense also of chapters 9 and 10 as well.

Because this is indeed a most important statement. You can describe it if you like as the Apostle Paul's philosophy of history. Now there's a great deal of interest at the present time in the philosophy of history. A number of books are constantly being published dealing with this very subject. And it's not surprising because you and I are living in a century when there is no problem that is more acute for any thinking person than this whole problem of history. I mean by that, is there any explanation of history? Is there any way of understanding what's happening? Why are these things happening? World wars, crises, tension, and so on and so forth.

Now all this has caused people to examine this whole problem of history. The problem of time if you like comes into it as well. But it is obviously a very vital and urgent matter for people to be considering in a century such as this present one. And as I say, that is being done. Now our position as Christians is this: that there is only one real philosophy of history, and it is the one that you find in the Bible. All the others break down. It would be very simple indeed to show that.

Indeed, there is a tendency on the part of most historians at the present time, most of the great historians at any rate, to say that they can find no meaning in history at all. No purpose. Some have put forward their theories. There was a famous German, Oswald Spengler. He was very popular about 30 years ago, and he had this theory of cycles, and he prophesied the sort of doom and the end of Western civilization. And then you've had a great man like Professor Arnold Toynbee in his monumental Study of History and so on, with his action and reaction. Now all these are just attempts to explain what's happening.

They're not adequate even as that. But they disagree amongst one another, and as I say, the prevailing tendency seems to be to say that there is no meaning at all. It's all accident. There is no great purpose. Those of you who've ever read the history of Europe by the late Mr. H.A.L. Fisher of Oxford, who was once a cabinet member in the First World War, you will remember that he says in the introduction there that having spent his lifetime in studying history, he's come to the conclusion that there is no purpose that he can discern at all in it. Things just happen, but there is no plan. There is no scheme. There is no end. There is no direction.

That then is the kind of prevailing philosophy of history. And you see, it's finally hopeless and doesn't give us any help whatsoever. Now on the other hand, the Bible deals with this in a very specific manner. And one of the most notable passages in the whole of the Bible in which this kind of philosophy of history or if you like an outline of history is dealt with is the very passage that we've been considering together in such detail. The Apostle Paul here in this whole section gives us what I'm describing as his philosophy of history.

What does he teach? Well, here it seems to me are the principles which he teaches. And I know of nothing that is more comforting and consoling at the present time than just this teaching. The first great principle which he lays down or if you like to look at it in another way, the overarching principle which covers everything is this: that everything is under the hand of God. Everything. Now as we've been working out these details, you must have been impressed by that fact.

You notice indeed that this is a characteristic of all the great biblical reviews of history. Have you noticed when you're reading the Book of Psalms, when the Psalmist is dealing with a very depressed state and condition in the life of the children of Israel, what he so often does is to review the whole of their history? There are many synopses of the history of the children of Israel scattered about the Psalms. And when you come to the New Testament, you get the same thing. In chapter 7 of the Book of Acts of the Apostles, you get Stephen doing this. Stephen reviewing the whole story.

And as I showed you by the reading at the beginning out of Acts 13, the Apostle Paul did exactly the same in Antioch of Pisidia. In other words, their point is that there is a scheme visible, and it's all under God. God is over all. Everything is under the almighty hand of God. That's the thing that they keep on saying. Of course it is the great message of the Bible. That's why it starts as it does: "In the beginning God." It starts with God, it ends with God. All is under the hand of God. That's its unique message. He reigns and He rules over all.

Now you can't read this passage that we've been dealing with without seeing that. You see, the prophecy implies that immediately. Nothing seems so impossible or so unlikely to happen when the Apostle was writing as that the Jews as a nation should ever believe the gospel and become members of the Christian church. But Paul says it's going to happen. And why is it going to happen? The answer is: God is able to graft them in again. And it's the only explanation.

Now here then you see is the great first principle: that everything is under the hand of God. But you've got to say things immediately after that because if you just leave it at that, people will be in difficulties. They will say, "If that is so, well then why does this happen? Why did that happen?" Very well. The answer is this: God while being over all permits many things to happen. Many things that seem to be the exact opposite of His own plan and purpose.

And we've seen instances of that. You see the fact that the children of Israel reject the gospel. God has permitted that. Otherwise, it wouldn't have happened. But it's still, and this is the point, this is the whole argument here: that though God permits many things to happen, that doesn't mean that they're out of hand. It doesn't mean that He has ceased to control them. The great principle always is that even these things are still under the governance of God.

Now in many ways the classic statement with regard to this is the Book of Job, where it's made quite plain in the first chapter that the devil, even the devil is under God. The devil has got great power, but he's not a free agent. The devil couldn't deal with Job without getting permission to do so from God. God has permitted evil. Now this is a great mystery, and nobody can explain it. We are too small. I hope to deal with this later. But we are too small to understand.

All we know is that God in His infinite wisdom has permitted evil and sin. We may speculate as to why He did so. We may argue that because He created man perfect, He had to create him free, and that freedom includes the possibility of saying no as well as yes. All right, that's philosophic speculation. It may be right, it may not be right. All we know is that God has permitted evil. But, and here's the essence of the biblical message: though He has permitted evil and though evil is very powerful and works much havoc, it is still under the almighty hand of God.

Everything is under the hand of God, even evil. Now I had to warn you a few Friday nights back not to misunderstand this. Not to say that God created evil. That's wrong. What I am saying is that God permits it and then overrules it. Can take it and bend it to His own will and use it for His own great and wonderful purposes. Now that's what we've been seeing as we've been studying this chapter. Paul, you remember, says quite plainly and clearly in the 11th verse: "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles."

That's it. I'll elaborate that in a moment. But now there is our first principle then. And it stands out in this chapter as it does in this section, as it does in the essential biblical message: everything is under the hand of God. He lives, He reigns, He's over all. The Lord reigneth. Let the people tremble. There's the first great principle. Then secondly, and this of course in a sense comes out of the first: God has a great plan and purpose which will certainly be carried out. Now here is the great comfort.

You can't read this chapter without seeing that at a glance. You look at things as they are and you say, "What's happening?" You may look back in history, you say, "I still don't understand it. I don't see any purpose," as I've quoted to you what the secular historians have to say. But if you know your Bible and if you've got this central biblical message, you say, "Oh yes, God has got a plan. He's got a purpose, and its execution is absolutely certain." That's what the Apostle has been trying to argue. He says, "Look here, you're only looking at things as they are. Listen to me," and then he brings in his great prophecy.

"This is what's going to happen in spite of all that is true now." Why is it going to happen? Well, because it's God's plan. He says, you remember, "Here as concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes." That's it. What's this election? Well, that's God's plan and purpose. That's what God determined way back in eternity, began to put into practice in Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They are the fathers. This great plan and purpose and scheme of God.

Now if you haven't got hold of this, you've missed the central biblical message. The danger is, you see, as we read our Bible, we miss the wood because of the trees. We get immersed in problems and in details here and there. Well, my method is, as you know, to go into great detail in all these matters and never to ignore a detail. But having done that, it is our business to do what we're doing now. We stand back and we see the whole again, and then that makes you see with increasing wonder and amazement how every single part is a part of a great whole.

So you're seeing the part and the whole, and you really don't begin to understand the parts except you see them in the light of the whole. So you emphasize this great plan, this great purpose of God which He has had in His mind before the very foundation of the world and which He is certainly by His almighty power going to carry out in every single detail. Now the Bible again tells us about that: that while we can be absolutely certain about that great fact of the plan and the purpose, we are left in considerable ignorance as to the time when He does various things.

And this is where we get into such a bother and get so excited and so unhappy because things don't happen according to our little timetables. The history of biblical exposition and God's people is strewn with people who've been fixing times and seasons and have always been wrong, and they always will be. We're not meant to know that. We are told that the times and seasons don't pertain to us. But what we are told is this: that God has a plan and a purpose, including the time, and that everything happens according to His perfect timetable.

Now I could illustrate this to you at great length, but I mustn't do so. I leave you to find it out and to work it out for yourselves. You find it, of course, shouting at you in many places in the Old Testament. The Psalmist, poor fellow, he couldn't understand it, so he cries out, "How long, O Lord?" He says, "Why are You like a stranger? Are You asleep as it were? What's the matter?" Well, you see, that's because of his impatience. But God has always got His time. And God suddenly acts when nobody expects it.

Sometimes allows a situation to develop to the very worst conceivable, and then He acts. But God had known it all along. All things are known, He sees the end from the beginning. And when these men are in the right spiritual condition, they not only recognize that, they celebrate it, and they thank God for it. So all we are left with is something like this. These are the great phrases: "When the fullness of the times was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law."

What's this fullness of time? Well, it really means God's hour. God's appointed time. The time that was originally in the mind of God. He gives indications of it. Never too clearly. You get it in prophecy. Take the prophecy of Daniel, for instance, where you get figures used, days mentioned. And people tend to go off again after those. Now there is a sense in which they are specific, but they're never so specific that man can tell exactly when things are going to happen. Looking back he can, but never otherwise.

But known to God always. That's what makes prophecy possible. That's what makes the details that we're given in prophecy possible: that God has this perfect plan and He knows the exact time of everything. But it is God alone who does know the time. Now the crucial verse about all this is a statement of our Lord Himself as recorded in the Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter 13 and verse 32. He's talking about: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."

This time, this day, and this hour is not only not known to men, it's not known to angels. It is not even known to the Son. This is a day and a time that is known alone to the Father. Very well then. We hold on to the big thing, which is that God has got this plan, has got this purpose. And He knows the end from the beginning. The time, the date, the everything is known to Him. It is not to be known by us. We, as our Lord goes on to say, should be in this position: "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is."

That's how it's left to us. But though we don't know the time, look at the consolation and the comfort of all this. God knows. And because He is God and because He is over all, nothing can ever upset it. Very well then, I come to my third deduction under this particular heading. And it follows of course of necessity: that salvation is altogether and entirely of God. Here is, you see, biblical history. Here is Paul's philosophy of history. Man fallen in sin. What about it? Well, God has got a plan of redemption.

God is forming a new humanity. God is saving people out of this present evil world for that world to come. That's the plan in its essence. God is not giving in to the devil. The devil is not to be allowed to be the final conqueror. Of course not. God is going to have a restored, renewed heaven and earth and a new humanity that is perfect. The head of the new humanity being Christ. All else shall be destroyed, eternally destroyed. Now then, so the great matter of interest to us is about this salvation.

Who are these people who are going to belong to this new humanity and who will dwell in this renewed and renovated, regenerated universe? And there's only one answer here, and the Apostle has kept on saying it in this chapter and in these three chapters. And what he's always emphasized is that it is altogether and entirely of God. He stated it so clearly in chapter 9 and verse 11: "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth."

All along he's been saying it. "They are not all Israel, that are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Why? Well, God determined that, God chose that. It's all of God. This promise, the children of promise. It's all the action of God. Isaac wouldn't have been born if it were merely a matter of natural birth and consequences. Abraham was 99 and Sarah, her womb was dead because she was over 90. God worked a miracle.

That's typical, says Paul. This is his argument. And here in this chapter we've seen the same thing. Salvation is altogether and entirely of God. And that is what makes it certain. That is what guarantees it. If it were dependent upon us in any sense, it would fail for certain. The fact that we are born again doesn't mean we don't sin. We'd sin ourselves out of it. It is because it is of God that guarantees it all. And as he's been showing us here, salvation is solely the result of God's mercy.

"God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." This is the word he keeps on repeating: "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy." It's all of the mercy of God. And you know, my friends, were it not for the mercy of God, not a single soul would ever have been saved. Not one. We're all lost.

We're all born in sin. We're all the children of Adam, and we've all died in Adam. And it's the mercy of God alone that makes salvation possible to anybody. But not only His mercy, His election. "Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated." Before they were born, while they were still in their mother's womb together, the twins. Not as the result of their actions did God say that. It's prior to that. It's anterior to that. The great election of God. This great mysterious thing that foolish people try to understand.

We're not to understand it, we're to recognize it. We're to look at ourselves and say, "Why am I a Christian? Is it because there's some innate goodness in me? Is it because I'm better than the other people who are not Christians? Is it because I'm a better fellow?" Oh, what utter rubbish it is. And we know it is. I am what I am by the grace of God. And if you're not amazed at yourself, well, I would say that you'd better examine the foundations again.

It's all of the mercy of God, and it's all the result of His election, and it's all brought about by His almighty power. That's what he's been proving in this chapter. Look, he says, at you Gentiles. "You in times past did not believe God." In the whole of the Old Testament period, the Gentiles rejected the teaching concerning God which was possessed only by the Jews. There they were, entirely hopeless. How did they ever come into the church? There's only one answer. It was the mercy of God, it was the election of God. Above all, it was the power of God.

God took them, the unnatural branches, and He grafted them into this olive tree. It explains why Gentiles become Christians. But in exactly the same way, it explains why any Jew ever becomes a Christian and why the nation as a whole will become Christian at some future time. What is happening, in other words, is that God is calling out a people for Himself out of the Jews, out of the Gentiles, and eventually this great influx, the fullness of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Jews. And there you will have this completed people of God.

And this is the thing that he keeps on emphasizing: it is all entirely of God and not at all of man. He proves that. Look at you Gentiles, he says. "You rejected it all. You were in unbelief." So do the Jews now. So that the fact that you ever become Christian is entirely and solely the result of God's grace and mercy and power. Now then, there is the general philosophy of history. Here it is, you see. Man made perfect, sins, the world becomes chaotic.

Civilizations try to put things right. No go. We're only going round in circles or there's no purpose at all. But then you come to the Bible, and you see this great purpose going right through, ending in the vision of the Book of Revelation. The final deliverance, the return of Christ, the conquest and destruction of evil, and the setting up of this glorious kingdom which is eternal. That's the biblical view or philosophy of history. But now I want to be a little more practical.

I want to be more of a pastor. I want to draw certain inferences or deductions, if you like, from this wonderful teaching. And oh, how consoling it is, how wonderful it is. I'm sorry for people who don't understand the Bible. I really find it increasingly difficult to know how they manage to live at all in days and times like these particularly. But once you get hold of this great teaching: that it's all under God and that His purposes are sure, you're able to draw deductions like this.

Things are not always what they appear to be on the surface. I've been feeling that tremendously during the weeks that we've been working through this 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Things are not always what they appear to be on the surface. This is the great teaching that comes out in the Bible so constantly. So many times it looked as if God had failed completely. His people are defeated, they're spat upon, they're despised and derided, and the enemy is loud and proud and arrogant.

And the whole world was saying, "God, if there is a God, is defeated." And the children of Israel felt that He'd been defeated. That's what appearances seem to say, and it seemed an unanswerable argument. But you can't read a chapter like this and understand it or know your Bible without seeing what utter folly that is. Once you get this other viewpoint, things are not what they appear to be. It looks tonight as if the Jews as a nation will never become Christians, doesn't it? But they're going to be.

Going to be. It looked absolutely hopeless at the time of the Apostle Paul. They'd crucified their own Messiah. They'd gone mad. They were vilifying the Christians and persecuting them. The thing seemed impossible. Things are not as they appear to be. That's the whole statement here once you see it from God's side. And you can put that, if you like, in a still more personal way. Take that hymn that we sang just now, William Cowper's hymn: "Behind a frowning providence."

Oh, I like the next line to be this: "He hides a Father's face." Smiling if you like, but Father. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a Father's face. You think at times that God's against you because circumstances seem to be indicating that. Don't jump to conclusions. Once you get this message, you'll never feel that again. You'll say, "That's how things seem to be. It doesn't guarantee that they are." Behind this frowning providence, He hides a Father's face.

But I'll put it like this in the second place: what appears to be thoroughly bad may in a sense be produced by God for the furtherance of His own purposes. Certainly used by God for His own purposes. Now this is the great point which we've seen emerging so many times in this 11th chapter, where he says quite specifically in verse 11: "That rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles." He repeats that in verse 12: "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?"

Verse 15: "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world..." That's how it turned to be. And this is a tremendous thing. And this is where we with our small minds so constantly tend to go astray. This principle of God over all even works like this: that things that seem to be the most antagonistic to God's purpose are actually serving His purpose. Now the Apostle has already told us that in chapter 8, as a matter of fact, in verse 28: "All things work together for good to them that love God."

That's another way of putting it: everything. But we've seen, and I want to remind you of this, how in history this can be seen very plainly. The Roman Empire persecuted the Christians in a very grievous manner. The Roman Empire did its utmost to exterminate Christianity. And yet you know, it is equally true to say this: that the Roman Empire provided the most perfect machinery for the evangelization of the then known world that one can possibly imagine. I mean, they were such wonderful road builders.

They'd conquered most of the world and they'd built their roads. They seemed to have provided the very machinery that was necessary for the spread of the gospel. It's an astounding thing. That's not an accident, my friends. God allowed this tremendous empire that did its best to exterminate Christianity to rise. Why? Well, He knew He was going to use it. And you might very well say the same thing about the Greek language. He allowed that great flowering period of Greek culture to take place in order that when His Son came and the gospel, the language and the roads were ready.

And on it went. What appeared to be against the interests of the church, when seen from this angle, are in the very best interests of the church. That's the philosophy. But here's another one. You remember the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in AD 70? The greatest calamity that ever happened to the Jews. Something that it's very difficult to understand when you regard and look upon the Jews as they are as God's people. His own chosen people.

And yet as I've already shown you a few weeks back, there is no question at all about this: it was the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews that turned out to be the best thing possible and conceivable for the spreading of the gospel amongst the Gentiles. There were all sorts of difficulties, as we've seen, which continued and persisted while the church was mainly Jewish. The Jewish prejudices were doing great harm. Once you get the destruction of Jerusalem, the whole position changes.

It was one of the best things that ever happened from the standpoint of the evangelization of the Gentiles. Historians are agreed further that the Arian persecutions had a very direct influence again upon the conversion of the Goths. Now the Arian heresy was a bad thing, but the persecutions in connected with it were used by God in the conversion of the Goths. In the same way we're entitled to say that the declension of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and right up to the period of the Reformation led to the Reformation, which turned out to be, possibly next to the apostolic era itself, the greatest period of evangelization which has continued almost up until our very day.

Now this is just illustrative of the fact that what appears to be utterly inimical to the interests of the gospel turns out to be in the highest and the best interests of the gospel. The fall of the Jew has meant the salvation of the Gentile, the diminishing of the Jew, the riches of the Gentile. This is how God works, and it's marvelous. So I come to my third deduction under this heading. I've hinted at it a little bit about this one, but I'm sure I'm right.

Extreme and violent rejection of the gospel may in a sense be a good sign. What do I mean? I mean this: "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." You remember we interpreted that as meaning that God included, this is God's action, He shuts them up. There are certain instances of persons and of groups of people who have first of all to be shut up in violent unbelief before their conversion takes place. I always feel that the Apostle Paul himself is the most notable instance of this.

You read the beginning of the 9th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, and you see Saul of Tarsus setting out on a journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Violent. That was the prelude to what happened a few hours later when he suddenly saw the light from heaven and the face of Jesus Christ and was turned into the Apostle Paul. That's God's way of acting. So I end on this particular note: the comfort which we must draw from all this.

And this is the comfort as I see it. Because of all this teaching, no case is hopeless. Now that to me is the most wonderful thing of all. Simply because of this, no case is hopeless. Here's the argument, you see: no case appears to be as hopeless as that of the nation of the Jews. They were looking forward to their Messiah. He came. They were the very people who rejected Him. They hated the gospel, they rejected it, they persecuted His followers.

Nothing seemed so hopeless as the case of the Jews, and they've persisted more or less like that. But you see, you mustn't say they're hopeless. Why? Well, God is able to graft them in again, and He's going to do it because they're beloved for the fathers' sakes. No case is hopeless. The fact that a man like Saul of Tarsus was ever converted means that no one is ever hopeless. There isn't such a thing. You may say, "But look at him. Look at the attitude. The thing's impossible. It is impossible," you say, "that that man can become a Christian." It is not.

Now of course if you believe that a man decides himself whether he becomes a Christian or it's his own great brain and understanding and goodness that makes him a Christian, you can't say this sort of thing. You've then got to say about certain people that they're absolutely hopeless. But if you agree with the Apostle Paul in the statement he made in the 16th verse of the first chapter of this great epistle: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Having studied this chapter, you must come to the conclusion that no case is hopeless. I'm probably speaking now to people who've got some loved one and dear one who's not a Christian. And you've been praying for this loved one for many years. But he or she seems to be getting further away from it instead of nearer to it. And the devil is telling you: "Give up. Stop praying. There's no point. He or she's absolutely hopeless." My friend, give the answer of Romans 11. Nothing is impossible with God. He is able to graft them in again.

He concludes all in unbelief in order that He might have mercy upon all. There is no such thing as a hopeless case. This to me is one of the most thrilling and amazing things about the Christian faith, and particularly about the work of a preacher or or of a minister. People come and tell me about those they're interested in and how utterly and completely and finally hopeless they seem to be. I always reply, and this is why: there is no such thing as a hopeless case where God is concerned. All salvation is of God. It takes the power of God to save anybody. And therefore, the power of God can save anybody.

Thank God there is no such thing as a hopeless case. The power of God, this overarching principle, is a final answer to all such pessimism and hopelessness. And this is a comfort, therefore, not only with respect to individuals, but it is equally a comfort with respect to the church as a whole, the church at large. We are living in probably one of the most evil periods in the long history of the Christian church. Look at the world and its attitude to Christianity. Look at the power of unbelief. Look at the organization behind everything that is opposed to God and His Christ.

If you look at the present position merely with the eyes of men and human reason and understanding, you'd be bound to come to the conclusion that the Christian church is finished. People are always pointing that out to me. And when I have a Sunday of holiday as I had recently and I go to some simple service in other parts of the country, in the country and the small towns, I can see exactly what they mean. You know, you look at the little congregations and they're all middle-aged or old people.

Very few young people, if any at all. And you say, "Well, another 20 years and the whole thing will be finished." And that's how many people reason and argue when they get excited and they propose to do this, that, and the other. And they've been doing that for years, but they don't make any difference at all. Things go on from bad to worse. My dear friends, there's only one answer to all that, and it's this: that God's purpose is sure and nothing can stop it.

But it is, you see, a part of His method to allow things to go to the very limit as it were on the side of the enemy and the adversary. And then when everybody says, "It's all up. It's finished," God arises and His enemies are scattered, and the church experiences a new period of revival. That is how revivals have always come. And the reason is quite obvious. If they came in any other way, some of us would be claiming that we'd produced it.

That something we were doing had led to the revival. God always sees to it that nobody can ever claim it. He does it in His own way, and He allows things—He shuts us up in unbelief until the whole thing seems hopeless, and then suddenly He appears. You remember the notable instance of that in the 12th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles: that King Herod who raised his hand against James the Apostle and put him to death for no reason at all and then arrested Peter and threw him into prison and put four quaternions of soldiers to look after him.

And there he was chained to a soldier on each side, and he was to be put to death the next morning. The church had been praying from the moment of his imprisonment, but nothing happened. But they went on praying. And now it's only a matter of hours before Peter's going to be killed as James was. And everybody probably was beginning to feel hopeless. But suddenly, a light shined in the prison. An angel appeared and touched Peter on the side to awake him even, and his chains fell off him and the door opened, and the keepers seemed to be asleep, and a mighty gate shutting up the whole prison from the city opened on its own hinges.

And Peter couldn't believe it himself; he thought he was seeing a vision. But he was actually all there and walking on his own feet and found himself at the house of John Mark. And there that girl Rhoda couldn't believe it. And when she went in and told the very praying church that Peter was knocking at the gate, they said, "You're mad." But it had happened. God had done it. And He let it continue until the very last moment as it were. And that chapter ends in a most magnificent manner.

This King Herod, who thought he was so powerful, certain people who lived nearby and were dependent upon him came to him and did their obeisance, and he made a great oration to them. And they said, "This is the voice of a god and not of a man." Here he is, you see, almost turning himself into a god. God allows all that; He allows this man to inflate himself up almost to the heavens. But the next thing you read about him is this: that God sent an angel and smote him, and he was consumed of worms and gave up the ghost.

What's the next word? This: "But the word of God grew and multiplied." Now these are but illustrations of the philosophy of history outlined in the 11th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. There's no such thing as hopelessness. This is how God has always acted. Men have frequently predicted, prophesied the end of the church, preparing their funeral orations over the moribund body of the church. God allows it all, and then when they think they've got everything, God arises.

He blows and they vanish, they're gone. And the Christian church goes on to another period of mighty revival, reawakening, evangelism, success, and spread. Whatever the appearances today, I say don't look at them. Look at God. Look at this great scheme, this plan, this purpose, and realize that God is over all. He can never fail. His purposes are forever sure and will certainly be brought to pass. Yes, the Jews as a bulk and as a people, in general as a nation, are going to be brought into the Christian church.

And it's such an incredible thing that when it happens, well, we'll all feel that it's exactly like life from the dead. May that day soon dawn. O Lord our God, we come before Thee to humble ourselves in Thy holy presence. We bless Thy name, O Lord, for the glory and the wonder and the marvel of Thy ways. Forgive us, O Lord, for our unbelief. Forgive us for our fears and forebodings of evil. Open our eyes that we may see the truth. Open our understandings to receive it. Open our hearts that they may rejoice in it.

O God, receive our unworthy praise and our unworthy adoration. May Thy name be glorified in our midst and in the midst of all Thy people at this present hour. And grant us to see and ever to realize that He that is in us and with us is greater than he that is in and with the world. And now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now throughout the remainder of this short and certain earthly life and pilgrimage and evermore. Amen.