Hello Friends, I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you to listen to the following Bible teaching message by Paul Scharf. Paul is a Church Ministries Representative for the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, serving in the Midwest. You'll find all of his ministry resources at sermonaudio.com slash pscharf, where he provides new content on a regular basis, including a weekly column that he writes, along with news and updates. Right now, we encourage you to follow along as we open God's word for today's presentation. It's our prayer that the Lord God will use this teaching to bring glory to Himself and to work faith in each of our hearts. Here now with the sermon is Paul Scharf. God still has a future for Israel. And our text, as we think about that issue, is going to be, in just a minute, in Romans 11. If you'd like to keep your finger there throughout the morning, Romans chapter 11. But the verse portrayed on the screen from Ezekiel 37 reminds us of that future restoration of Israel. that I believe has been being prepared since at least 1948 when Israel came back into the land. They're back in the land in unbelief today. They're coming back in the land in unbelief. One day they will be back in the land in belief to enjoy the blessing of God in the coming kingdom. Now, that might raise some questions, or some of you may have a problem with the issue of God having a future for Israel, or perhaps you've never accepted that, or perhaps you've never thought about it before, and you might say, well, I mean, really, does Israel, which, by the way, friends, let's just make this clear again, are most of the people of Israel in the world today, are most of them in belief or unbelief? Most of the people of Israel today are in what? Unbelief. I mean, most, by and large, through the history of the church, the people of Israel have rejected the Messiah. They've rejected faith in Jesus, the Savior, the Son of God. And you might say, now really, does Israel deserve to be saved? Do they deserve to have these blessings and for God to still have a future for Israel? All right, how many of you, let me ask you a question, how many of you want to start going on what you deserve? Raise your hands. No, rather we see that the fact that God still has a future for Israel and will fulfill all of his promise to them gives us confidence that he has begun a good work and us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. If he's not going to break his word and his promises to Israel, then he's not going to break his promises to us. And we can live with that confidence that God's plan will not be halted. And so we turn then to Romans 11, and this is an amazing passage, and Paul spends much of it giving this intricate illustration of the olive tree, or the tree of salvation blessing, that's rooted, I believe, in the Abrahamic covenant. And God is working on this olive tree throughout history, and he's pruning away the branches that are fruitless, that are unbelieving, that even though they're natural branches, these represent unbelieving Jewish people. And he's grafting into this tree of blessing, he's grafting in unnatural branches, which are, these are Gentile believers. Now, this is a very important section of Scripture and a very important point that Paul is making through this detailed metaphor that he presents. And we don't have time to examine all of it this morning. That would be our whole subject and more for this hour were we to try to do that, and we'd never get to the Geneva Bible. But let me just make a couple of points from the beginning. Paul asks a question here in Romans 11, he asks it in verse one, and he basically revisits and asks the same question in verse 11. And he says, he's asking a question to the reader about the people of Israel, saying, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? In other words, have the people of Israel rejected the Lord God completely and permanently, and is his rejection of them, therefore, complete and permanent? Now, interesting, if we would ask that question to all of what we might call professing Christendom, all of the Christian church in the broadest sense, not only all believers, all evangelicals, but even all mainline Protestant, liberals, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, all of what the world even might call the church. And if we were to ask that question of this church in that sense, And if we were to stretch the church this way through time, back to the day of Pentecost till now, and we include all of those people I mentioned, and we would take a poll and we would ask Paul's question, has Israel stumbled that they should fall? And the overwhelming, resounding response, I hope you understand, would be, yes, they've stumbled, they've fallen, God is finished with Israel. This is the point of my series on the danger of replacing Israel. to see where this teaching came from and why it's important and where it leads us. Now, if we were to take that same group of people and we were to stretch them this way around the world today, everyone living today representing the church in the broadest sense, and we were to ask Paul's question, has Israel stumbled that they should fall? I hope you understand the overwhelming, resounding answer would be, yes, God has finished with Israel. What is Paul's answer to the question, however? Do you notice a slight difference here? He says, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. And then notice, drop down if you would please to verse 25. I do not desire, brethren, this is Paul's point of the whole metaphor after he's gone through it. He says, I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Notice what Paul says. Is the blindness of Israel complete and permanent? Paul says, no, certainly not. God forbid. May it never be. It's partial and temporary. That's verse 25. Do you see that? Blindness in part has happened to Israel until. It's partial and temporary. And one day, the return of the people of Israel in faith, in belief, their return to the Lord God, their embracing of the Messiah will be complete and eternal, and all Israel will be saved. Now, we're thinking today about the Geneva Bible, which is the world's first study Bible, if you don't know that. And so study Bibles are very important as we think about this topic. Verse 25, blindness in part until partial and temporary. The gold standard of study Bible notes on this verse is found in the Ryrie Study Bible. Notice what it says, Israel's blindness is partial and temporary. So that'd be another important thing to remember when you go home today, if nothing else, that I say, God has a future for Israel. Their blindness today, their unbelief today is partial and temporary. The MacArthur Study Bible says Israel has experienced a partial spiritual hardening. That hardening will last only until temporary. The Jeremiah Study Bible, the temporary setting aside and hardening of national Israel is a mystery to Paul, but it is temporary. Only until the fullness of the Gentiles is seen in salvation history, then Israel will again receive its promise. And so, all Israel will be saved. The ESV Study Bible, which is not really dispensational in its theology, it doesn't always teach what we believe about a future for Israel, but it's used by millions of people, and it's a tremendous academic resource for great information, so we need to interact with it. And thankfully, it even says here at this verse that Paul refers to the salvation of Israel. At the end of history, that seems to be most likely, it says what it's saying. The Ryrie Study Bible says, without question, God will again turn to the Jews and will save all Israel at the Lord's return. Now, you might say, well, I've heard this for years, I understand, I believe, I agree, that's fine. But maybe you don't realize how unique this really is in all of history, to believe these things that we're talking about, that we believe, that maybe you've believed your whole life, and that's great if you have, but I wonder if you realize, first of all, that the Geneva Bible, the world's first study Bible, was pro-Israel, and I wonder if you realize how astonishing it is that that was the case. You see, as I've already told you, the world and the church in the world, for these thousands of years of the church age, have been strongly anti-Israel. And in Europe in the Middle Ages, anti-Israel doesn't begin to cover. We could say anti-Semitic, but that term really is used later. But there was tremendous opposition. We could say there was even tremendous hatred of the Jewish people. There was tremendous persecution of the Jewish people by the church, certainly by the Roman Catholic Church. Sadly, even by the Church of the Reformation, after it begins in 1517. The Lutheran Reformation, the Calvinistic Reformation, basically all angles of the Reformation, with some wonderful, glaring exceptions, were anti-Israel. Certainly, theologically, they did not believe God had a future for Israel. And they, in some cases even, encouraged persecution of the Jewish people continue, or even worse. And yet, somehow, out of this situation comes a pro-Israel influence into the Geneva Bible. Now, we don't have time again this morning to set the stage with all the background to show the hatred that existed for Israel during this time, again, that would not allow us to get to our main subject. So I again refer you to my background message if you want to get some more of that. But the amazing thing that we want to be impressed by this morning is that the Geneva Bible, and of course we understand the Bible has always taught these things, The Geneva Bible, for those of you who don't know anything about it, is an English Bible translation. Okay, and we'll see more about that. It's an English Bible translation that's also the world's first study Bible, and so we're talking about the notes here, because of course the text taught it, but we're talking about the notes. The Geneva Bible taught that God still has a future for Israel. And in that way, it influenced the theology of generations in the English-speaking world toward Zionism, toward the idea that God is still working and will bring and restore Israel in the land and in belief, and provide for them a kingdom in the future in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Now, Dr. Robert Smith is a man that I love to quote here, because he doesn't believe any of this like we do. He's an ELCA Lutheran pastor who got a PhD at Baylor University writing on these exact issues, this subject, and look at what he said. The Geneva Bible helped create a space for Jews to be theologically constructed as a positive actor within English Protestant apocalyptic hope. That's PhD speak that translates like this. The Geneva Bible taught that, in its notes, that God still has a future for Israel. Now again, he doesn't agree with us theologically on what we're talking about, but he's telling us here how important this is in history. There is the layout of Romans 11. I'm sure you can't read that, but it just gives you a little glimpse into the 1599, which is what we're gonna be talking about a little later, the 1599 Geneva Bible, open to Romans 11, and you can see how it has the study notes on the side in the margin and wrapping around beneath the text, there and there, all the way down here, there, like that and like that. So you have the text and the notes, and you can see sort of the beginnings, the early beginnings of what we have in our modern study Bibles. Now, let's think of some of those notes in Romans 11 in the 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible. Verse 12, if you still have your Bible open to Romans 11, it says, if their fall is riches for the world, that is the fall of the Jewish people, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? Here is the study note in the 1599 Geneva Bible. at verse 12. It says, it's speaking of the Jews, when the whole nation without exception shall come to Christ. Now I want to tell you that is incredible. That 1599, keep that on the sticky side of your mind, that's the edition we're talking about here today. That is, what, 82 years after Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the castle church door in Wittenberg, the Reformation begins. There is still in the air, in Europe, in the world, in the church, in the Protestant church, tremendous animosity toward the Jewish people. no concerted effort coming from Lutheran lands, that God has a future theologically for Israel, that he will restore Israel. And yet here the Geneva Bible says that God has a future for Israel. He will bring the whole nation to Christ. Verse 15 says, If their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? And the study note in the Geneva Bible here at verse 15 says, it shall come to pass that when the Jews come to the gospel, the world shall, as it were, come quick and again and rise up from death to life. Verse 25, the verse that we focused on this morning. Blindness, in part, has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Okay, congregation, what are our key words about that? Israel's blindness is what? Partial and temporary. Can you say it with me? Partial and temporary. Notice what the note in the Geneva Bible says at verse 25. The blindness of the Jews is neither so universal, that's a way of saying it's what? It's not universal, it's partial. Neither so universal that the Lord hath no elect in that nation, neither shall it be continual. It won't be continual, that's another way of saying it's temporary. For there shall be a time wherein they also, as the prophets have forewarned. So now we're talking about the prophets, the Old Testament prophets, taking the prophets literally Understanding the prophets is literal interpretation when they speak about a future for Israel. As the prophets have forewarned shall effectually embrace that which they do now so stubbornly for the most part reject and refuse. Verse 28 says, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. Geneva Bible note here in 1599 says again, that he may join the Jews and Gentiles together as it were in one body, and especially may teach what duty the Gentiles owe to the Jews, He beateth this into their heads. That is, Paul is beating into the heads of the readers, that the nation of the Jews is not utterly cast off without hope of recovery. In that, that God respecteth not what they deserve. Remember we talked about that at the beginning this morning? God's not going to give us what we deserve. Thank the Lord for that. He's not going to give Israel what they deserve. but he's going to give them what? What he promised to Abraham. Rooted in the Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 12. He's going to give them a land and seed and blessing and he's going to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. Actually two different Hebrew words there. He's going to curse those who simply take Israel lightly or fail to bless them. And he's going to bless the whole world through the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham. By the way, it's very hard, if you really are thinking clearly and consistently, to be an anti-Semitic Christian. Did you know that? Very hard to do, because why? Because our Savior, Jesus Christ, is Jewish. He is the ultimate descendant of Abraham. He is the seed of Abraham who's come from Abraham and through whom Abraham has blessed the whole world. You know, that's the only salvation God ever promised and the only salvation God ever provided is the Jewish salvation. Jesus said so when he was here. He told the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15, I have not been sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He told the woman at the well in John chapter four, salvation is of the Jews. God's only promised and provided salvation for the Jewish people. Paul said that in Ephesians chapter 2. We as Gentiles, we had no covenants, no promises, no hope. Well, how then can we be saved? I'm not Jewish. I'm guessing that many of you here also are not Jewish. As Gentiles, how can we be saved? Ah, here's the good news. The salvation that God promised and provided to the Jewish people through Abraham and his ultimate descendant, Jesus Christ, is so abundant that it overflows, overwhelms, spills out over and provides salvation to the whole world. That's the grace of God. But make no mistake about it, it is a Jewish salvation, if I can say it that way, that you and I participate in. Very hard to be a Christian and an anti-Semite. But rather, we want to bless those whom God has blessed. And he says, if we do, we get to be in on the blessing. Isn't that an amazing thing? Well, we've seen some things about the Geneva Bible this morning, and we're gonna end this section of it with this quote from Dr. Ed Hindson, who actually wrote his PhD dissertation on this back in the early 80s, on these issues. And he said that while Luther and Calvin, now remember, who is running Geneva in the mid-1500s? Well, if you don't know, it's John Calvin. Okay? It's Calvin's Geneva. And Luther had come earlier. Calvin is what we call a second-generation Reformer. And neither Luther nor Calvin had believed that God has a future for Israel. In fact, both said some very unfortunate things about the Jewish people. Neither one had any love lost for the Jewish people, to sum it all up. be another whole lesson to go through all of that. So when they come to a term like Israel in Romans 11, they believe it refers to the church. Ah. But here's a name you may be learning for the first time. Beza, Theodore Beza. We'll think more about him in just a second. He favored the interpretation that it referred to national Israel non-Christian Jews. In other words, that Israel really means Israel. And therefore, we have the prophets, and we have the apostles teaching that God still has a future for Israel when we interpret them literally. Who was Beza? He was a man who had studied law and classics. He was Calvin's right-hand man. He was Calvin's disciple. As Timothy was to Paul, as Melanchthon was to Martin Luther, Theodore Beza was to John Calvin. He was the first rector of the Academy of Geneva. He was instrumental in developing work on the Greek text called the Textus Receptus, which is the text still today behind the King James and the New King James versions of the Bible. And he published 10 editions of that. Geneva was a hotbed for biblical texts in the original language and also, obviously, in the English and other languages. And Beza is at the heart of that. And Beza is put there providentially by God. And somehow, and I'm working on and continuing to work on, how did Beza have this influence that was pro-Israel that got inserted, apparently, into the Geneva Bible? And that's another lesson outside of what we can cover today. How did this happen? Today we're just saying, thank God it did happen. And Beza is part of the team there in Geneva producing the Geneva Bible. So let's think about the Geneva Bible. We're understanding, hopefully by now, what Romans 11 is saying, what the Geneva Bible, in the most incredible, astonishing way, has to say about that text. But so what? Why is any of this important, you might be asking. Well, why was the Geneva Bible important? Well, there's seven English Bible versions from the beginning of putting the Bible really into the English language for the common man, which we date with William Tyndale. Now, before that, we have John Wycliffe in the late 14th century. He is the very first pioneer, but he really is not producing in his lifetime anything like a modern Bible version that would be readable to us today that was ever widely used. Obviously, he lives before printing comes to Europe and so forth. So we really begin all this with the father of the modern English Bible versions is the great hero of history, William Tyndale. And then Miles Coverdale, John Rogers, who, under the pen name Thomas Matthew, helps produce the Matthews Bible. Then we have the first authorized version that is authorized by the Crown, the Great Bible. Then we have the Geneva Bible. Then we have another authorized translation, the Bishop's Bible. And then we have the third and final authorized version, which is the King James Bible. Now, the Geneva Bible. Here is, again, where we're jumping in in the midstream here, and there's much more that you need to know by way of background. But in 1553, England gets a queen for really the first time, a woman ruling the country. And unfortunately, in this case, it's Mary Tudor who comes to be known as Bloody Mary. Why is she called Bloody Mary? Because she's going to revert the country to Catholicism after her father Henry VIII had brought in a nominal version of Protestantism in the Church of England. And this is, again, we're picking up in the midst of lots of details here. But Bloody Mary comes to the throne 1553 to 1558. And so we have the Marian martyrs, like Hugh Latimer, and Ridley, and Cranmer, and hundreds of others, and then thus we have the Marian exiles. 223 of them gather in Geneva. They also went to other places like Frankfurt, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium. But one of the great places for them to gather was in Geneva. They would later return to England, but 223 of them come here. The men that were there include our friend Beza. He was not an exile, but he was there with the exiles. Bale Coverdale, John Knox, who's going to become the pastor of the English-speaking congregation in Geneva, and then he's going to go to Scotland and lead the Reformation in Scotland. William Whittingham, a Greek scholar and a brother-in-law to John Calvin, is there as well. These are just a few of the names that stand out. There's a lot about the Geneva Bible that we don't know because a lot of this is done not for advertising, by these men who are fleeing persecution. and trying to get the Bible back into England, where it's illegal. And so there's many things they did not tell us about aspects of the work, and there's other complicating factors we'll see in a minute. But they want to base a new translation, a new English translation, on the work of William Tyndale. Now, basically everything that's ever happened since the days of Tyndale with the English Bible to our modern versions today We really owe it to William Tyndale. He is one of the greatest heroes of history, and certainly as it relates to the English Bible. And William Tyndale was a chaplain at Sodbury Manor and a tutor to the family that lived there. And they would have various guests come for supper in the home. And one evening they had a dignitary from the church visit, and he just made an offhand comment and said, ah, we'd be better off not even have God's law, just have the Pope's law, keep things simple. And that lit a fire in the heart of William Tyndale that never went out. And he said, if God spares my life, I will make it so that the boy driving the plow, he said to the dignitary visiting, knows more of the scriptures than you do. And he gave his last life breath for that cause. William Tyndale was a brilliant linguist, a brilliant scholar, better in Greek than Hebrew. He left us with most of a translation, and then his work. Many, many, many of the phrases in our modern Bibles today that have also just become part and parcel of our English language come from the brilliant mind of William Tyndale. So they want to base a new translation on his work. They complete the New Testament and Psalms in 1557. Psalms revised, keep that word revised in mind, that's important, 1559. Old Testament completed, New Testament revised, 1560. There's also a 1560 French edition of the Geneva Bible. This is the first complete, the Geneva Bible is the first complete Old Testament translated directly from Hebrew to English. It's the first English Bible to use verse numbers of French printer, who was a Reformation figure, Robertus Stephanus, or his real name, Robert Estienne. It's the first Bible printed with Roman letter type. In fact, the King James Version in 1611 is going to be printed with Gothic type. It's the first Bible to put implied words in italics. The first mass-produced Bible. The first Bible printed by Cambridge University Press, the oldest publisher in the world. It's the first study Bible in the history of the world. And here's one very important for us, very near and dear to us. It's the Bible of the Puritans and the Pilgrims. Now you remember, not every Puritan is a Pilgrim, but every Pilgrim is a Puritan. Some of them came as Pilgrims. Dr. Dennis Swanson says, the Bible of the New World, the Bible of the Mayflower, and the early colonists is the Geneva Bible. Now maybe you aren't aware of that. If we were to take a poll in Iowa, maybe in downtown Des Moines, like a man on the street interview, and we were to ask people, what is the Bible that built America? Well, we might have trouble doing that, because some might walk by and say, huh, Bible? Bible built America? So let's say if we were to go into the churches of Iowa and ask in the pews, what is the Bible that built America? I am sure the overwhelming answer we would get in response would be the King James Version of the Bible, right? Not true. The Bible that built America It's one of the best-kept secrets of history, folks. The Bible that built America is the Geneva Bible. No question about it. This is the Bible that built America. It's the Bible that the pilgrims brought on the Mayflower. It's the Bible that influenced generations, that influenced a century and more of the earliest people and those that came and were really the founders of our country. they were influenced by the Geneva Bible. Now, the translation is very similar to the King James. In fact, the King James translators used and quoted from the Geneva Bible in the preface to the 1611 King James Version. But the Bible that built America, the Bible of the Puritans and the pilgrims, was the Geneva Bible. It's the Bible that built our country. And its notes, and this is where some problems arose, its notes oppose Roman Catholicism and the divine right of kings. Who do you think might have had a problem with those notes? King James. When he comes in 1603 from Scotland, where he's King James VI, he comes in as King James I in England. The Puritans were excited. because we're getting King James from Presbyterian Scotland. And they thought we're gonna have revival. We're going to have a Puritan king. Oh, did they get a surprise. They presented the millenary petition to King James. A thousand clerics, clergy, signed a petition for all kinds of requests. They wanted sweeping reformation to come into the church, purify the church, puritanize England. Guess how many of those requests King James granted? Not one. He gave them one that they never asked for, that was, Let's get rid of the Geneva Bible, bring in a new translation. So he authorizes what would become the King James Version. It's a wonderful translation. I'm not in any way demeaning that. And again, it utilizes much of the translation work of the Geneva Bible, and which goes all the way back ultimately. to Tyndale, but this would be the third authorized translation. The king's ultimate goal is to get rid of those notes that are anti-Catholic, anti-divine right of kings, and Calvinistic, especially. I'm not sure he was worried about the notes about Israel, necessarily, or was aware of those. But the Geneva Bible, here's the other problem. The Geneva Bible, or New Testament, went through 140, now not printings, but editions. in 84 years, that's too many, isn't it? Think if you had a congregation of 150 people in 1650, and you had them, and we think we have people with different Bible versions today. Think if you had 150 people, and theoretically, you had 140 different editions of the same Bible, between the text and the notes. Not always major changes. But it was just way too much of a good thing. And it really served to kill the Geneva Bible. And so in the decades that follow, over the course of about 50 years and more, the King James Version begins to supersede the Geneva, especially here in our country, and become the Bible of popular culture. But it was not for all of that time, and it was the Geneva Bible and the notes, the study notes in the Geneva Bible on which our country was weaned. We're going to think in closing this morning just a little bit about that influence of the Geneva Bible. The Geneva Bible is the most influential book in the history of the Western world, which some of you before this morning may never have heard. Dr. David Daniel, in his amazing book, The Bible in English, says the influence of the Geneva Bible is incalculable. Dr. William C. Watson, in his ground breaking book, Dispensationalism Before Darby. Actually, this quote comes from a personal conversation I had with him. I was privileged just a few weeks before he unexpectedly went to be with the Lord. He said, the Puritans read the Geneva Bible, which was a primary inspiration for the Puritans' hope for a return of the Jewish people to their land. Dr. Walt Kaiser says, the Puritans did not adopt replacement theology but were committed to a straightforward reading and understanding of Scripture. Literal interpretation. Elwood McQuaid, still with us at 90 years of age, a tremendous dynamic leader of the Friends of Israel in the past. said Puritan sects later carried their views to America where their beliefs became the foundation on which the traditional American treatment of the Jewish people was established. By the way, how many are noticing that traditional American treatment of the Jewish people might be in danger today? But this is our heritage, this is our history. This is where we've come from as Americans, built on the Geneva Bible. Dr. Tommy Ice said, almost all of the American Puritan fathers that came to America were premillennial. And Dr. Jeffrey Jew, again, he's a Reformed scholar, does not agree with us on these issues, but he says, honestly, the majority of New England Puritans held to the doctrine of a future national conversion of ethnic Jews. Watson, again this time from his book, says, New England Puritans understood Israel as the focal point of the future millennial reign. Where did they get all of this? They got it through the Geneva Bible study notes. And so Heinsohn said, thus through Beza's influence, the Puritan hope of the conversion of the Jews at the end of the age stimulated, notice, the entire Protestant, Calvinist, missionary enterprise. We could go on like this, but we must bring the message to an end. Friends, I hope you realize this. America has blessed Israel. And America's blessing of Israel is based in large part on the study notes of a Bible that, for the first time in the history of the world, you could carry in your hand about this size, The biggest thing, you could read it in your language. These are all developments that come from this time of the Reformation. You could afford to buy one and have it in your family, in your home. And it had study notes to help you understand the text. And by the amazing providence, what the pilgrims would call the unusual providence of God, Some of those study notes were pro-Israel. And it influenced the development of our whole country as it began. And America, for 400 years, has blessed Israel. The question before us is, what about you? Are you blessing Israel? Do you believe God has a future for Israel? Do you believe that he will bless those who bless the people of Israel? Curse those who fail to bless Israel? You know, it's never been easier in the history of the world to be a blessing to the people of Israel than it is today. To take the gospel to the Jewish people, to be, God allows us to get in on the blessing of what he's doing when he will restore Israel and bring them back in faith completely and eternally. Close with one last passage in quote. From Isaiah 14, it talks about the house of Israel possessing the Gentiles for servants and maids in the land of the Lord. And the Geneva Bible study note says here at this point that it signifies that the Jews should be superiors to the Gentiles and that they should be brought under the service of Christ by the preaching of the apostles. God has a future for Israel. And the Geneva Bible is the source of America's love for Israel, and I hope it's the source and that these things that we're talking about here are the source of your love. for the people of Israel. Father, we thank you for this time today. I pray that this brief introduction to many things, some of which might be unfamiliar to some of us here, I pray that they will make sense, that you'll use them in a clear way in our hearts and minds. Lord, if I've said anything that was unclear, I pray that you'll just remove that from our minds and Lord, draw us deeply to this truth that God has a future for Israel, and use your word to increase our faith and to bring glory to yourself, for we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.