Lesson 46b
Romans 11:1-10 · Mike Doyle · Jan 19, 2020
Romans (2018-21), No. 97
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261917337424

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So last week after class, I had several people come up to me and say, well, that thing you talked about, the remnant, was really confusing. So let's try to get it simplified today. And actually, I did some more homework on the remnant. And I found that, jeez, even some of the people that I would have thought knew better kind of don't have it right. But basically, what is a remnant?

You know, remember we talked about what the word meant? What did the word mean? It's what's left. It's what's left, right? So you have, you have a, in this case, a Jewish, Judaism or Israel, and the people that are what, that are left are who? What, what distinguishes them? Are they all the ones with gray hair? They're all Jews. They believe what God says.

So as we look at that verse that when Isaiah went and said they've killed the prophets and they have thrown down your altars and I am left alone and they are seeking my life. He's talking about the nation of Israel. He's talking about what they're doing within their nation. And he said, I'm left alone. And God says, no, there are 7,000 other people that have not bowed their knees to bow. So you see the timeline behind me?

So the remnant started when Judaism started. Wouldn't you say that? Did it start with Abraham? Was Abraham a Jew? No. Was Isaac a Jew? No. But Jacob was. Because his name was changed to Israel. What's that? His name was changed to Israel. That's right.

So starting on that timeline, there's always been in the nation of Israel non-believers. And those that didn't believe God or didn't, well, didn't believe Him. And so you come through Old Testament history and you get right up into the time that Christ comes How many people in Israel believed that he was the Messiah when he came?

There weren't very many. There was a remnant. There was a remnant that did. Nicodemus was one of those remnant people. John the Baptist obviously was one. And others that would hang around with him. How about the twelve disciples? Sure, they're the remnant.

But you get to the cross of Christ. What happens there? in terms of the modus operandi, the way God is dealing with mankind. What happens at the cross? The church is born. No. Church doesn't start till Pentecost, right? So what does the cross represent?

Obviously it represents the payment for the penalty for the sins of the whole world and everybody, every human being, every single one, whether they accept the remedy or not, the payment's made. And we've spent lots and lots of time talking about what else happened there, like our identification with Christ.

But what happened to the nation of Israel? Let me ask it this way. What happened with the first creation? at the cross. It ended. It ended. So then Christ is resurrected three days later. Now what's going on? New creation. But old creation and old creation, nobody really understands what's happening except him. And he's on, he's here for, you know, 40 days or so and then he leaves.

And then after that, Pentecost happens. Now what happens at Pentecost? It's the beginning of the church, right? That's the day it starts. Well, what happens that day? You go out by the Holy Spirit. Do the other side of that, Mekel. You believe. What does the Holy Spirit do to you? No. What does He do? He baptizes you into Christ. He places you in Christ. Who are those people in Christ?

They're the church of the firstborn. So now you have this entity, the church of the firstborn, which is what we all are members of, but what happened to Judaism at that point? Was the law fulfilled at the cross? The law fulfilled at the cross because Christ died. But what happened to the nation of Israel that day?

It was set aside. It got set aside. over here somewhere, put in a garage, whatever. Set aside, and now God deals with the race of humanity only through the church. Only through the church. And the issue today is not Judaism, what's the big difference, the big difference between Judaism and Christianity? Nation versus individual. More than that. Judaism is earthly, the church is heavenly. So all of the precepts up until that time were earthly. Now the church, this new thing, is heavenly. Huge difference. The principles are all different. They're totally different. It's a total grace environment with no law whatsoever.

So we're now 2,000 years plus into the church. For 2,000 years, what's happened to the Jews? They've been waiting, set aside. Now. The promises all still apply. Say that again. The promises all still apply to the Jews because they are guaranteed a land. And that guarantee will stand. That's right.

So, in 2020, if my former neighbor across the street, Rabbi Zev Pomerantz, believes in the person and work of Christ, what happens to him spiritually? He's in Christ. So what we've discovered in Galatians is that in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile. No Jews, no Gentiles in Christ, we're all new creations. Is he a part of the remnant? No. No, he's not. No, he's not. He's now a member of the body of Christ.

Okay, let's say a thousand, let's say seven years from now the kingdom comes in. And during that seven years, we're, well, we're raptured out of here. We're gone. We go through this seven year period in which there's apparent prosperity and then the tribulation. Lots of people die, but the kingdom begins.

Where's the church? Where is the church? Here's the thing. Wherever Christ is, is where the church is. Okay. So when he comes to rule and reign, guess where we're going to be? We'll be with him. Okay. Now the church is gone. It hasn't been set aside. It's just filled. Maybe is a better way to say it. The wedding feast of the Lamb has taken place. We're united to Christ. But the timeline on the earth hasn't stopped. It's still going. And Christ comes to rule and reign. And the Bible tells us there are 144,000 Jews, godly Jews, that will enter the kingdom. So we've got this thousand year kingdom that's ahead of us. ahead of them. Now what's happened? The nation of Israel has been brought back into focus. They've been taken off hold, and now they're the focus again. Earthly. Earthly.

You've got to keep that distinction in mind. Now, from Pentecost to today, is there a separate group of people that you could say, well, this is the remnant? that are not Christians. Can you say that? Come on, you cowards. Yes, there's a remnant somewhere, some of them. And a remnant according to what?

If you say yes, then that means that there's a righteous person on the planet today that's not in Christ. There's one who is similar to Abraham who believed. Is Abraham in Christ? No, they're not in Christ. But they're on the earth today and they believe. You need to go to Arnold Furkenbaum's church because that's what he believes. I was amazed. Furkenbaum wrote a 142 page book in 1971 called Hebrew Christianity. And his thesis is typical of American Messianism. This will be brought out in the book along with brief comments.

What then is a Hebrew Christian? He is a Jew who believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He must acknowledge that he is both Jew and Christian. This guy says, need I go any further? It's an attempt to create a dichotomy in Christ that doesn't exist. There's neither Jew nor Greek, for you are all one in Christ. If a Jew accepts baptism solely to lose his identity as a Jew, he is by no means to be considered a Hebrew Christian. He's a renegade, a traitor, an apostate. A Hebrew Christian is proud of his Jewishness. That's what Frickenbaum says.

Sounds like the Catholics. That's not the article that I know. Well, he wrote the book. But that's not what I said. So the question is, is that if any human being, if any Jew believes in the person and work of Christ today, he becomes a Christian. And according to Galatians, all his earthly identity disappears, including his remnancy.

Right. Right? Yeah. I think the problem is there is a remnant according to his election. That's right. And people think that's today. And that's where the mistake is. Right. Yeah. That's where the mistake is. Can you explain what you guys just said? I wasn't following. Well, the point is that any member of the remnant is by election, by sovereign grace.

Now, I don't believe that there's this group of ethnic Jews on the planet today that believe that Jesus is the Messiah, who are not in the body of Christ. If they're in the body of Christ, the Jewish distinction goes away. It says so in Galatians. But I'm not saying that they're Christian. Once they're Christian, their identity is gone. So what do they believe? How can they be righteous with not believing in Christ?

I don't know. I don't know what that means. That settles my argument right there. But what is the remnant then? Then we're back to the same question. Well, you could say a remnant, according to this verse we're talking about, a remnant is someone who hasn't bowed their knee to Baal, or kissed him, according to 1 Kings.

So what does that mean? So are they ones that believed during the tribulation time? What do you think about that question? In the tribulation time, where's the church? Gone. The answer to your question is yes. Yes. Well, we were just having a discussion before class. Cheryl said, well, those are all men. 144,000 are men. I said, well, they need at least one girl to propagate the faith.

But there'll be 144,000 members of Judaism that believe in the Messiah and They'll be marked out as so that will enter the kingdom how many other Jews go in at that point? But there'll be that many Kind of interesting that it fits with how many tribes there are And how many people per tribe 12,000 from each tribe? Yeah so I think simply put that any Jew who will believe in Jesus as the Messiah isn't a Jew anymore. Now, you know, does God say, yeah, well, I'm going to show you later that, no, you become a member of the body of Christ, which means you're a new creation.

See, a new creation. You still haven't answered the remnant, because yes, all those who believe are in Christ. But what is the remnant? Is there a remnant today? That's the question. Is there a remnant today? In order to be a member of the remnant, you have to have a Jewish background. If you become a Christian, your Jewish background goes away. So the answer is no, there isn't a Jewish remnant today. No, there isn't. There can't be. Unbelieving Jews. today wouldn't be any different from any other unbeliever would they?

As Ferry Chafee put out, The Kingdom in Prophecy. That's a good book. Yeah, it's really good. As a matter of fact, I got some quotes from him. So go back. But see, Feigenbaum says that first of all, that Hebrew Christians are still Jews. No, they're not. For they, like other Jews, are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No, they're not. I'm a descendant of the God of the universe. So are you.

Secondly, the homeland of the Hebrew Christian is the land of Israel, and this is where his primary loyalty should be, despite his place of residence. Are you kidding me? Thirdly, the Gentile relationship to the Jews in the blessings and cursing aspect is as true for Hebrew Christians as other Jews. When you start this Hebrew Christian thing, you end up with a whole new denomination. And it's amazing how many people are in these denominations who are Gentiles.

Isn't that mostly where the failure is in the church today? Not being able to distinguish? It's the biggest problem, I think. It's not so much a distinguishment as it is grasping a hold of the blessings that we have in Christ. We still We just don't buy it when His Word says that you are neither Jew or Gentile, that you're a new creation, you're heavenly people. We don't pursue in our hearts what heavenliness really means. Yeah, there's either law or grace. Well, because we think our circumstances on the earth are more important than what the Word of God tells us about our position. I don't think the confusion is about us.

I think the confusion comes in about the remnant and what that means. For us, if a Jew believes he's in Christ, all identity is gone from Jewish. But when you say they're set aside, they're a chosen people and they're set aside, what do you mean by set aside then? The nation of Israel? Now it's a nation. Right, a nation. And God has made promises to them, like land and all the promises he put resident within Abraham. and repeated in Isaac and Jacob. All of that has just moved over to the side. Why did God bring Judaism into existence anyway? What was the purpose? Why did He create this race of people?

Think about where it happens on the timeline. He starts with Adam. Things don't work out so good with Adam. he gets all the way up to Noah and he wipes out all the human beings on the earth except for 8 people so now in essence he is starting over but the problem is he is starting over with a person who is a sinner and so you get to the tower of Babylon and they are not complying with what God wants them to do so he graciously changes their language so that they will comply with what he told them spread out and occupy the earth so they did because they had to find somebody who was heading this way that spoke the same language. The problem was sin. So God said, I'm going to form this people through Abraham, and they are going to be my representative on the earth of my blessing, of my grace, and they will be a separate people, people of grace, who will live by faith and they will be the example to the rest of the earth about me and my glory. How did the Jews work that out? Not too good. So if there's anything that the Old Testament proves that you cannot accomplish what God's purposes are with a human being that's got a sin nature. You can't do it. Because they have this sin nature. So what does he do now? What's the next thing? He sends his son, who doesn't have a sin nature, to die. And when he dies, he pays the penalty for all of the sins of all time, because it's an eternal death.

And he starts over with a new creation. Now what's different about this new creation? His difference is the people in it are in Christ. They're in this new man, Christ, who is the representative man. They're no longer in the old representative man. They're in a new man. The problem is that we have both natures in us. But we are positioned in Christ. And through that process, he intends to do what? To glorify himself. That's what he's doing. But the problem we have is that you have this nation that a lot of promises were made to.

Every one of those promises is earthly. We don't have any earthly promises, do we? You know, you don't get a Chevy on Tuesday. No earthly promises. Everything that's true of us and promised to us is not only a promise, it's a fact, and it's in heaven. Ephesians 1, 2, or 3, wherever, you know, blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven in Christ Jesus.

That's the body of Christ today. At the rapture, what happens to the body of Christ? They leave. They're gone. So the influence on the planet with the body of Christ is over. Now, who comes back into play at that point? The nation of Israel. They are now the entity through which God deals with the planet. He does it through the Jews. Well, and then after seven years, He is going to come Christ as who? King and Messiah.

Where is he going to set up shop? In Brooklyn? No, in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem. And he's going to rule the earth for a thousand years from Jerusalem. Mount Moriah. And so here you have this, that all of the promises made to the Jews will be fulfilled. Every single one of them. Then. Not now.

Well, it means that some will come through, the 144,000, but then other Jews will come through that tribulation because they inherit the promise in the millennium. So who are they? Who are the ones that make that through, besides the 144,000? There has to be some that come through that inherit.

Oh, I don't have a problem, but they're not part of what's going on today. Well, they might be. What if the tribulation happens today? Yeah, if the rapture happens in 15 minutes, yeah. Exactly, that's what I'm saying. They could be here today that make it through the tribulation. But I don't think that word remnant just means what's left over. Left behind. Left behind, yeah. That's what it means. That's all I'm saying.

They could be here today. Oh, there's no question they could be. I mean, my buddy Zev, I mean, if the rapture happens this afternoon, Zev could be a remnant. So when it says all Israel will be saved, when is that? Is that during the tribulation? That's after, at the end of it.

The nation. But that's before Christ returns as King. So starting out the Millennial Kingdom, all Jews will be Yeah, it's interesting because that conversation we had right before class, there's 144,000 believing Jews who will enter the kingdom. And Cheryl just showed me that they are men. Isn't that only when the kingdom is offered? Well, no, when it comes. There's no offer. The kingdom will be here. What does this have to do with the 7,000 in Romans 11? Just the fact that on in God's scheme of things, no matter how you personally perceive your circumstances, there's others. Because what was his complaint?

I'm the last one. I'm the only one left. Nobody loves me. They're all trying to kill me. And I'm the only one like that. Gee, none of you have ever thought that way. And God says, no, there's 7,000 other people who haven't bowed their knee. That's the point.

Well, and it's interesting because this whole chapter is about God is not, they're set aside, but He's not done. They're still important to God. Yes, they are. And Paul's making that case as a Jew, a former Jew, I should say, former rabbi, he's saying, you know, all is not lost. There are those that believe, and it's through God's gracious choice, and if it's not by works, then it's by grace, right? Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. So, he's speaking of Jews in a gracious manner that is the opposite of the way they behave by works.

That's exactly right. And so, in many ways, I understand this to be those that have come from Judaism, to Christianity, by grace, and there are those, at that present time of Paul's writing, that transition from Judaism to Christianity, and they are 100% identified in Christ, that is their new identity, heavenly speaking, but they still have the earthly status of having come from the nation of Israel, and believing by grace, right? Except from a positional standpoint, they don't have any status, earthly status.

Am I still a card-carrying Democrat? Yeah. Was my ancestry in Ireland and all those other countries? Yeah. But like my sister said, I'm going to go to Ireland. We're going to go visit, look up our heritage. You want to go? I said, no, I'm not from there anymore. She didn't figure that out. You're still an American, right?

Sure I am. Okay. That's my point. Earthly identity. Earthly identity, speaking. Your identification in your wallet says you live here and deliver it. Sure. And I think that's what Paul's getting at, is that although Israel's been set aside, there are those that believe by grace, through faith. That's exactly right. So why can't that exist today in the same way? It does. It does exist today, but what happens when they do believe? Their essential identity changes.

Their identity does, but they can't fall into the category of the remnant, those that believe having come from Judaism. Yeah, I guess so, but then what you're trying to do is attach some earthly designation onto it. No, he's not. No, he's not. He is. He's in the present time. He's trying to present an argument for grace rather than law. I agree, 100%, but it has to do with the Jews that believe by grace.

That's right, because the subject matter of 9, 10, and 11 is, well, what about those Jews? God made a lot of promises to them. What about them? I think it has to do with Peter was the had the gospel of the uncircumcision where Paul had the gospel of the uncircumcision. And the thing is that there goes up to when the temple was destroyed. Right? Well, what he did is he dispersed the Jews at that point. Back to J.D.' 's point.

How did Abraham get to be what he was? He was elected by grace. How did Israel get to be the nation it is? They were elected by grace. The point he's making is that everything that God does is by his election and by grace. And the mistake that the Jews are making is that they think that by obedience to the law system that they can become one of the elect. That's the point he's trying to make. And he's saying that, I mean it even goes as simple as to say there wouldn't be any Judaism without the election.

There wouldn't be even the nation without his grace. None of that would even exist if it wasn't for God's election of grace. Did you see that? None of you and myself would be in Christ if we weren't elected by grace. It wouldn't happen. So question eight is how can grace become no longer grace? And the question is asked from my perspective and your perspective. How can it stop being grace?

My works. That's exactly right. And what works am I talking about? Works of the flesh. What's that? Works of the flesh. That's one of them, what else? Trying to be righteous. There you go. It just seems so inconsistent with the world's, the way the world dictates to us. That's why grace is hated What's interesting is that it's really difficult, I think, at least in my mind, to read God's Word and understand that my salvation and my life from now on through all eternity is going to be by grace, which means I'm a receiver, not a doer. And I don't in any way have to demonstrate to God my appreciation or to try and be more acceptable to Him than I was yesterday. All of that takes me out of the realm of grace.

Why? Because the effort is from the flesh. It's contrary to our new nature. That's right. It's contrary to the whole concept of grace. And people don't think, Christians don't think, that grace can motivate your behavior. They think only law can do it.

See that? Our attitude is, God just tell me what to do and I'll do it. And he says, okay, be holy as I'm holy. Oh, well, how's that working out for you? They've never experienced how rotten the flesh is. Yeah, but, and he says, I don't want you to identify with your flesh anymore. I want you to identify with the Lord Jesus because he's your life now. And you know what our answer is? Yeah, but.

You know, you don't know what troubles I've seen. So the subtlety of the grace message, even though we've thought it a bunch of times, it's really difficult, I think, to get your arms around what God's grace is. What is God's grace? And don't just spew out Chester McCauley's answer.

What is it? It's life. That would be Echo's answer. It's fantastic. It's amazing. What is it? It's Christ himself. From your perspective, what is it? I'm not going to say. It's unlimited. We know it's unlimited. Only because somebody said it was. Well, you have to believe that. See, it's unlimited. I mean, there's absolutely nothing that can subvert it, stall it, stop it. Grace is God's unmerited favor based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah. That's what his name's definition, I'll call it. And it's a great definition.

But when you get When you get in a jam in your life, do you start thinking about, oh, this is unmerited blessings to me? Come on, be honest. You don't, do you? Oh, I'm so excited that I have cancer. It's God's unmerited blessing. I'm getting excited about that stuff.

It's the flip side of the coin of love, right? It's a component of his love. It's part of his... character, who he is. He is a loving God, and because he's loving, he's gracious. So we don't get excited about cancer, we get excited about his love and his graciousness towards us because of his love for us. Yeah, and you can't separate, because the center of God is love. Grace comes out of that.

But the other thing that's in there that's very interesting is his righteousness. And those have to balance each other. They do. Otherwise, he could sweep things under the rug. That's exactly right. And what's great about the fact that his righteousness has to be satisfied before he can extend his grace, just what he did to satisfy his righteousness is gracious. You understand that? I mean, the fact that Christ died is gracious. It's horrible, but it's gracious.

If he didn't do that, if Christ doesn't die, nobody Nobody gets saved. Nobody. Because there's no reason to. When Adam sinned, he couldn't atone for what he did. Because he wasn't worthy. Because he offended a holy God and he's a creature. And the creature can offend God, but he can't make up for the offense. It's got to be God to make up for the offense. take care of it on His level, not mine. That's why Jesus is the God-man. See? So, the interesting thing about the cross is, and the whole idea of Christianity and the body of Christ is, is that for all of the Old Testament, what God's put the onus on man to perform. Right?

And, I mean, as simple as I can say it, He said, well, none of that worked. So I'm going to take care of the whole problem, every issue that I have in my righteousness against my creation. I'm going to finish the work, and then I'm going to turn around and say to them, okay, I've done it all, you want part of it?

Believe me. That's all you have to do. You don't have to do anything. Believe me. And by believing me, it's a non-meritorious act. I get all the glory because I did all the work. But if you want in, You have to believe. Nothing left to do, right? Was the work of the cross completed or not?

Most of us think, well, he left some stuff for me to clean up. It's like cleaning stuff up in the dustpan. There's always that little line of stuff that doesn't quite get in there. I hate that one. So I just wheel out in the driveway. That's what you throw against the wall and it sticks.

That's the good stuff. So in the context of what we're talking about, he's trying to tell Roman Jew and Gentile believers, oxymoron, that the promises made by God to the nation of Israel were by grace. He did it all by grace. The problem is that they wouldn't accept the grace. But he's saying, I'm going to carry it out anyway. I'm going to go ahead and do it.

And it goes back to Abraham. If Abraham didn't believe God, would that have screwed up the whole program? No. Because it was a unilateral contract. God said to Abraham, here's what I'm going to do. And if Abraham said back to him, I don't care. Still it would have happened. Abraham gets in.

Why? Because he believed. Now he's a recipient of what God is going to do. Just like us. God comes to a human being today and says, here's my son and here's what he did. And every barrier between you and me, me the creator, you the creature, I took care of everything between us. If you want to live with me for all eternity, all you have to do is believe I did. Yet, the only reason I did believe is because I was chosen. Try that one out in your mind. Hopefully that made it more complicated. So in light of that, the last question is explain what hardened means. You've got five minutes, hurry up. Explain what hardened means.

Where is that in that verse? Is it in 9 or 10? Well, Paul says that in Israel not included in the remnant chosen to salvation by sovereign grace were hardened. That's what he says. All those who weren't chosen are hardened. Romans 1 talks about that, right?

And this is just a repeat, more specifically to Israel in this case. That's right. That's the natural state, isn't it? Sure. Well, I mean, there's plenty of examples. Look at Pharaoh. It says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Doesn't it say that? Yeah, but I heard he had a deathbed. Salvation. You did? Did you get that from CNN? No, I'm just teasing.

He could have, though. What's the deal with Pharaoh? Pharaoh hardened his own heart first, repeatedly, and God said, OK, we're going to leave you there. You have to understand that the original hardening was... Well, let me ask it this way. Where does hardening come from in a human being? Unbelief. That's right. Unbelief. What's the source? Sin nature. Yeah, you've got a sin nature that isn't buying anything that God is selling. Nothing. And if that sin nature controls you, you're hardened.

Boy, hello grace. Paul talks about, they trade the truth for a lie, they worship the creation rather than the creator. And there is a process of deeper hardening that happens to a human being, right? That's exactly right. There is his divine attributes that are made known to him, but it's that jack-in-the-box example I talked about. He pops up, he says, this is who I am, and this is who you are, and you shove him back down. And eventually you get so used to shoving him back down, that's the process of hardening. Your mode, your constant mode is, I'm just going to keep my hand on this thing. And it becomes the natural thing for you to do.

Because you can't see anything. You don't want to see. Yes, that's exactly right. You can't, you don't want. I don't think you want to see at the very beginning of God's elected grace towards you. You don't, you're already, I mean the sin nature is hardened towards you. If it not be by grace, then there is no salvation. There is no salvation, I agree.

There is a hardening that happens as a repeated activity in humans. I agree. Romans 1 teaches that. And that if you turn your back, the slide into total darkness is pretty quick. Four verses. And he talks about all the behavior that comes hand to hand. When Newell said, and I think specifically of the Jews, he said the hearts harden most quickly.

The men are trusting in their place of special privilege and not with the God who gives it. Did you all hear that? What verse was that? Newell said that. Newell said that you're hardened more quickly if you do it from a place of privilege. If you're looking at your place of special privilege. And not at the God who has given it to you.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's really subtle. And I think that's a problem in Christianity. I really do. We know we're, are we special? We really are. We're sons. But from that position, our hearts can be hardened faster than if we didn't have that position. Towards the one who gave it to us. Can we be hardened though as Christians? Yeah. Not into salvation though. Oh no, no. But we can grieve the Holy Spirit, right? Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. And I may live in that grief the rest of my life and not be a partaker or not be able to function practically in grace.

You know, I mean, we all know Christians who as younger believers went to the Lord and said, look, I got this huge problem and I want you to fix it. And here's how you can do it. And God doesn't. And so they get mad at God and it goes on for years. They're mad at God because he wouldn't do it their way. But you know what's interesting about God?

He never stops trying. Never. He's always moving. I told you the story about this other Jewish guy. I know that his dad was a rabbi and he accepted Christ the last hour of his life. God pursued him right to the end. And I think he pursues believers all the way to the end. And some of them, the Word of God says, if you're so hardened, you're not a good witness.

I'm bringing you home. And when He brings you home and you stand in front of the Lord Jesus, what's He going to say? I had to bring you home because you're an idiot? No, He's going to say, welcome home, my son. Because He never changes His opinion about you.

Because you're in Christ. Alright, next week we'll get on to 47. I got the numbers right this time. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace and how we ask that we would grow in that grace and in the knowledge of your dear son, the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen.