Please remain standing and turn in your Bibles now. In the Old Testament, chosen a different text from what is in the bulletin, but actually turn to Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah 11, and we will begin at verse one, read verses one and two, and then jump forward to later in the chapter. This is Isaiah chapter 11. Beginning at verse one, this is God's word. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow up out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding. the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And now going forward to verse 10. In that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious. shall come to pass in that day, the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who are left from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. And we end there at verse 12, God's holy, infallible, and inerrant God. And now to the book of Romans, once again, to chapter 11, and we begin at verse 11, and we'll read to verse 14. Isaiah 11, pardon me, Romans 11, verse 11. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? For I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them, that is, There, verse 14, the end of our reading. Congregation, you've heard the word of the Lord, and if you've heard and received it, then as his very word, confess with me now by saying, amen. Let us pray. Come, our heavenly Father, and again, plead that you might have mercy upon us, and in this, as we consider your word, may it be proclaimed in truth. May we receive it. Indeed, it is your truth, and receive it as such. We ask that you would guide, direct us, build us up in the faith, in this Jesus' name, amen. Well, congregation, you can see from the title here that this is the first part of what will form, I trust, a two-part sermon, and having to do with the ingrafting of the Gentiles, and that is properly not actually the subject today, but it is introductory to what we will see, Lord willing, next, Lord's Day. But before we get into the text particularly here, I do want to note something to you, and that is, and it is something that I've said before and I will probably continue to say, is that when we're speaking here of the Jews, what I'm speaking of, and I think what the Scriptures say and certainly infer here, what we're talking about is God's old covenant people particularly, And this, and I will say this as emphatically as I can, this does not mean the current nation state of Israel. They actually have very little in common, and yes, I'm shooting directly at dispensational theology here, and I hope to build this more out as we go along, and not only in this sermon, but going forward. And so when we're talking about here the Gentiles or the nations, as it could also be rendered, and we're talking about the Jews or Israel, we're talking about it in a very specific biblical context. And so we have to remember this as we're going through, and if we're not careful, we could end up in some very odd places. And I would commend to you the somewhat lengthy quotation from Calvin's commentary here. He really does, in my judgment, really nail this quite well, talking about how we can end up actually in some error here if we're not understanding who the apostle is speaking about here. And so, Within that context of God's covenant promises, and we'll look at some of that here shortly, I trust, when I write and when the scriptures here say, in the outline and when the scriptures speak about the Jews stumbling, that is within particularly the context of their covenant relationship with their covenant God, Jehovah, and that through Jesus Christ, particularly in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that that was where they stumbled. And so when we read, for example, that they have stumbled but not so much as they might fall, there is a construct, there's a framework in which we ought to put that language. So looking here particularly at verse 11, what the apostle is doing is what he has done many times in especially these last few chapters is he's anticipating an argument or he's anticipating an objection. He does so here. And understanding that covenant framework really does help us understand what he's saying. Have they stumbled that they should fall? That is, within this covenant context, the Jews, God's covenant people, have they stumbled to such an effect that God's covenant promises no longer exist? Has God failed would be another way we could say that. And that would be a pretty natural reaction, especially if you were, of a Jewish background, you say, well, and we're maybe even a professing Christian at this point, are you saying then that everything has fallen to the ground? And of course, the answer to that is no, actually. And as we will see in some verses I will refer to today, and as we will see going forward, that that is actually explicitly not the case. But what we have to do is we have to understand the apostle's doctrine, especially from this point to the end of the chapter, exactly how this not falling has occurred. And I will say here, just also as a matter of introduction, as well is that when he's talking about the Jews and eventually later on in the chapter talking about the conversion of Jews and those being brought in which he introduces later on in this text, the point that we have to keep in mind again always here is that they belong to Jesus Christ not so much as Jews but as his people in Christ. As we read many times in the New Testament, this distinction between being a Jew and a Gentile falls away in Christ. It has no meaning of any significance other than what the apostle has already said, that they are beloved for the Father's sake, and yet, if unconverted, are enemies of the gospel. You see, Jews who become Christians become Christians. They don't remain Jews as such. Now, I have a particular ethnic background, you do too, and that doesn't fall away and that would be the same with Jews. But I'm a Christian first. I'm a Christian last when it comes down to it. So let's keep that in mind and I think that will help us in rightly understanding what the apostle is teaching us here. So have they stumbled that they should fall? Well, Fall, you mean being completely and totally and absolutely cast away? Well, the answer, of course, is no. Paul makes this argument many times and in many places. He says, I'm a Jew. He makes that argument. I'm a Jew. God hasn't cast me away. And not only was I a Jew, he makes the argument, I was probably amongst the worst of them, both prideful and vicious at the same time. You see, The argument there that God then has cast away every Jew falls here at the very beginning, God forbid, or may it never be. Again, that very strong statement in the original here that this absolutely is not the case. It just absolutely is not. See, that's never been the plan, even as it has never been the plan that only the Jews would be saved. That was, neither one was the plan of God. In fact, and we see that all the way back in the Old Testament in places like Isaiah 11, which we read from. No, there is a remnant that are a remnant according to faith, an election ultimately being called out of darkness, whether in Judaism, whether we're talking about Old Testament Judaism or contemporary Judaism, just as there is a number of Gentiles that are being called out of the darkness of paganism. See, there's a chosen number, there is an elect, which is really the overall subject that the apostle is still talking about here. And there's a time, there's going to come a time, as we'll see later on in this chapter, when there will be a fullness. Now, what is the nature of that fullness is another question, and that question, the answer to that question will wait until that time, you'll just have to be patient, I pray. But the fact that they have stumbled, that is that there's been this scandal to them, that there's been this thing that they could not overcome, is that all bad? Well, the answer, of course, is no. It says, through their false salvation has come to the Gentiles, to the nation. So it's not all bad, and in fact, as we understand it from the scriptures as a whole, this actually was the plan all along. You see, there was, And this, again, goes directly contrary to some contemporary theology in the broader evangelical church, that the gospel age is plan B, that somehow something happened in the first century and they rejected the Jesus that they should have accepted as Messiah and the kingdom should have been set up then and now. Well, they crucified him. Now what? And see, according to this other theology, it's like, well, now we have to have this church age. We have to have a plan B. Well, that's entirely contrary to what the scriptures say, to what the scriptures teach. Here, the salvation comes to the Gentiles by the stumbling, not unto falling completely, but by the stumbling of the Jews, In a practical sense, the gospel goes out into the world. And not only that, even by the persecution of the Jews of the church. Why did the Apostle Paul have to travel all the way to Damascus? Not a short trip, by the way, in that time. Go all the way to Damascus to find the Christians. Well, because the Christians had started to flee. They started to go out into the world. The apostles began to go out into the world. beginning at Jerusalem and Judea and to the ends of the earth was the promise. And so the gospel is preached in Jerusalem and there are some who believe and the gospel is preached in Judea and Samaria and some believe and then eventually into the uttermost parts of the earth. And all of that is according to God's sovereign eternal plan. But there's also another element is there because it says that it is to provoke them to jealousy or provoke them if you will. The provocation of the Jews, that is, to show them and perhaps entice them, rightly understood, to take a second look, was also part of God's plan. Now, how effective was this? Well, we get a hint as to how effective it was based upon something that the apostle says later on, right there at the very end of our text today in verse 14, which we'll touch on here later, but it says, and save some of them. And particularly it is, and might save some of them or may save some of them. And that language is very important. But here particularly what we find is that the Jews stumbled, they didn't stumble so much as to fall, that is that God's promise still exists and he's working out his promise, it's just in a way that perhaps we would not expect or maybe even plan ourselves. And so in a practical way here, when we look at the plan of salvation, when we look at at the promises of God and we confess that he is sovereign and we understand that he is in charge of all the providential affairs of our life and that is true whether we're talking personally or in the church, that we can look upon these things and we can know one thing for certain and that is there's an awful lot that we don't know. That's what we can know. So you cannot judge, you cannot discern the Lord's purposes according to the failures of human beings. Well, would God choose, for example, to plant a church here or to raise up a missionary to go there and the missionary ends up being killed? He's martyred for the faith or that church grows and then it collapses because of some scandal in the church. Well, God's plan was never to have that church there. We can't say that, we don't know that. In fact, there might be generations, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands that ultimately come to faith in Jesus Christ even though that church plant failed. But because there were those that heard the gospel and that was according to God's plan, and then when it comes to the end, we find that there are tens of thousands of those who have a true and saving faith because of that church that was planted. See, we just can't know that. And we can't make that judgment even as this error in theology that I'm referring to that says, well, The people, the Jews in Jesus' day, they rejected him and therefore, uh-oh, now what do we do? No, that was actually, especially explicitly according to the sermons we read in the book of Acts, that was actually God's plan. Just like it was for Joseph to be sold into slavery, it was God's plan. That doesn't mean that Joseph's brothers were not wicked in doing so, they were. but their failure, their unfaithfulness does not overturn God's sovereign plan. See, what we can judge, what we can discern is what is revealed to us in his word. That's what we can know. Now, sometimes we understand it deeply and sometimes just only on the surface, but nevertheless, we still know that. This whole chapter, it can be tough. It's not the easiest to read. It's not the easiest to understand. It's not the easiest to preach, to be honest. But the fact is that we can know and we can judge and we can discern what the Lord's will is based upon his word. And that's true, again, personally as well as in the church. Are we supposed to preach the gospel faithfully? Are you supposed to sit under the faithful preaching of the gospel? Yes, we know that. The scripture tells that. Are we supposed to disciple the nations? The answer of that to that question is yes. We're supposed to disciple the nations. Are we supposed to do, and then you can fill in the blank there, there are a number of things that the scriptures are explicit. Are we supposed to come to the Lord's table regularly and in the broken bread and the wine poured out to profess and confess Jesus Christ? to receive what is, in a particular way, what is promised in the gospel? The answer is yes. All that is yes. Are we supposed to raise our children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord? Yes. There's so much that we can say. See, it's not that we don't know anything or don't know anything for sure. It's just we have to understand that we don't always understand even a little bit of what's going on around us, not truly. You see, it was always, and we know this from God's word, it was always the Lord's purpose to bring in a great number, and that great number would include the nations, the Gentiles. This wasn't the New Testament revelation. See, in Isaiah 49, verse six, we read this. Indeed, he says, that is God the Father particularly here, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Well, that sounds like gospel to me. I hope it sounds like that to you. It's too small a thing. It's not enough that you restore Israel. It's not enough that you call out those ones that are preserved, that is the ones who are called the ones who are not to be lost amongst Israel. No, you are to be as a light to the Gentiles. And who is that speaking of? Well, of course, my servant is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now it's notable, I think, here to say, what would a contemporary Jew say when you said this? See, this is right here, it's right here, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, well no, that's talking about Israel is sort of the orthodox answer to that. Israel? Israel? No, of course this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, this is a promise of the gospel to bring in all those in Israel as well as all of those who in eternity were elected unto salvation sovereignly by the Lord God himself through Jesus Christ. So the Jews stumbled, yes. Not absolutely and not totally. But nevertheless, they did. And because of that, in a practical way, that the Jews' failure becomes the riches for the Gentiles, as we read in verse 12. the world or the nations, that outside place. That's a very Jewish way of speaking here. And so what happened, which was a tragic thing and a horrible thing in the time of the Savior's earthly ministry, actually in God's good, providence has turned to our good, your good. You don't have to go to Jerusalem to hear the gospel. You don't have to go to Samaria to hear the gospel. The gospel is preached here and has been preached here. When I say here in the West, in this little church, and God willing, it will continue to be preached until Christ comes back. And that is that the gospel goes out into the world and is preached primarily to the nations. Now, it's not that none of those who were descendants of Abraham The sense of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it's not that none of them believed. Of course, that's not the case. Again, I've already made that point. But the fact that the Jews as a whole rejected him means that something precious has gone out into the world. Now think about that for a moment. That is turning something that from our perspective and if it is left to our judgment is one of the greatest tragedies in the world. That the Savior has come and what have they done? By wicked hands have crucified is what the sermon in Acts says, that's what Peter says. But again, God is sovereign. It does not overturn his plan. The rejection of the Jews does not overturn his plan. The crucifixion of the Savior does not overturn his plan. And in fact, quite the opposite, it actually promotes his plan. You think about the significance of what happened all these centuries ago. the picture that we see of the disciples, what were they doing after Christ was crucified? What were they doing even after he was ascended into heaven? They're huddled together in this room, the disciples and then those who were also in the broader circle and the women and the children. but they're waiting, they're not sure, there's a certain sense of perhaps even danger that is approaching and for good reason. And then there's just a few, isn't it, that ultimately go out. There's the 12 and then the 13th, the Apostle Paul. And you look at the history of the apostles and to the extent that we can know and a lot of it is just tradition, they go all over the world. As far as India and perhaps modern day China, there's evidence of that. Down into Africa. all across the near and Middle East, the gospel spreads. And you think about the significance of that when it come, when you look the centuries later, I just saw some statistics recently about over the course of the first three or four centuries in the empire, the Roman empire, the thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands of those who profess Christ. When it's this little tiny group of fishermen and tax collectors and others, not a single seminary graduate amongst them, unless you count their three years in seminary with Christ. No, it is all God's work, it is all according to his plan, and if that is so, if that is so, then how much more, it says, their fullness, the completion that is of those that according to the flesh are the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, Does this mean that all of them will come to faith? I'll give you a little hint. I don't think that's what it teaches here, and I think I have good reasons for thinking that. But the fact of the matter is that if there were those that rejected Christ, how much greater is it that there were those who did not reject Christ? How much greater is that? And when they come in, they come in to what is and what would be thought, for example, to be the land of the Gentiles. Well, that's not true, is it? It's the land of the Gentiles and the Jews and everyone else. The bond, in bondage or free, male, female, doesn't matter where you're from, who your father was, you are in Christ. You're in Christ. And all of those distinctions in regard to your salvation and your place amongst God's people falls away. See the riches of the gospel. And the gospel message is as a treasure that has come into the world and that is in the midst of rejection, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of being driven out, in the midst of war. See, the riches of the gospel have indeed come into the world. And that we know, that we see, that we experience even today. And see, this speaks to a greater truth. See, God will always be glorified. And we often don't comprehend, I think, the significance of this. Will God be glorified in us? Well, yes, he'll be glorified in us, and it will be from our perspective imperfectly, right? We're always, we bear the testimony of Christ, we bear his name in the world, and we do so imperfectly, and sometimes we do so quite poorly, and that is true, but God is going to be glorified in us. Christ is going to be exalted in us, and especially when it comes to the end, right? And we're welcomed in. We're welcomed into the presence of Christ, And we stand before the judgment seat and what we hear is, well done, good and faithful servant. And we're welcomed in. Is God gonna be glorified in that? Well, you better believe it. Sinner saved by grace. But is God going to be glorified even in the midst of unfaithfulness? Is God going to be glorified in the rejection of his covenant people from the ancient times? Is he going to be glorified in their rejection? Is he going to be glorified in the failure of those who should have heard, who should have seen, but yet were blinded, who were deaf spiritually? Well, yes, he's going to be glorified. And he'll be glorified if nothing else, again, in the final day, in the last day, when he is vindicated before them, even in judgment. See, God will always be glorified. even if we don't quite understand, at least right now, how that all is going to happen. You see, the promises of God are often fulfilled in very unexpected ways, and all you have to do is go right back to the beginning of the scriptures. Who were the children of Adam and Eve? Well, there was one Cain and there was one Abel. And what does Eve say? Ah, here he is, the promised one, the firstborn. Well, we know that murder happened not too long afterwards. And it's always the lesser that is exalted to be first. It is always the last who is first. It's always the weak that is made strong. It's always the inglorious that is shown to be glorious, and that is true in the life of the church today. So the glory of the church is not found in gold in our architecture, nor is it in the beautiful stained glass, which we have beautiful stained glass right there. Is that the glory of a church? That's not the glory of a church. It's beautiful. That's not the glory of the church. What's the glory of the church? The glory of the church is that Christ is exalted, the gospel is preached, and sinners are called to repentance, and believers are called to faithful lives in this world. So the promises of God are often fulfilled in very unexpected ways. He's glorified in unexpected ways, and so it is in what is before us here. Now what I mean by this more particularly is if you look at Genesis 15, and that's, Genesis 15 is one of those key passages in all the scripture, not only in the Old Testament, but everything from Genesis 12 to Genesis 17, this is all foundational here to what we're talking about. But Genesis 15 verse one through verse six says, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord, Lord God, what will you give me? Seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. Then Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born, Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. And here it is, here's verses five and six particularly. Then he brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Go out, Abraham, go out into the night sky. Look in the night sky. There were no street lamps. He saw the night sky, and if you've ever actually seen that, and I have once or twice in my life, actually seen that, it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming, it's like diamonds scattered over a black velvet. There's hardly black, there's so much light, it's extraordinary. Look up there, Abram, in this case, what do you see? Well, so shall your descendants be. But wait, his descendants rejected Christ, the Messiah, for the most part. Well, what is God here promising. What he promises is what we see later on in the book of Galatians chapter three, verse 29. And it is one of those verses when I actually read it, actually read it for the first time, it changed everything for me. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now that's within the context of a much broader argument that the apostle is making there, that if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. What promise? Well Abraham, look in the sky and count the stars if you can. So will your heirs be. That's the promise. And that promise is fulfilled in Christ, of course. As he elsewhere says, Abraham's seed as one, not as many. That is, we find the fulfillment of this as we are in Christ. And if we are in Christ, then whether or not we're a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and whether we're a descendant of the pagan Germanic tribes or the pagan Asiatic tribes, it doesn't matter. We are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. See, the salvation that comes here There's a salvation of the Gentiles, there's a salvation of the Jews, and ultimately it is the same salvation. Now what Paul says in verse 13 is that I speak to you Gentiles, I speak to you who were before pagans, not raised in the old covenant community. All you Gentiles living in Rome, living in Rome, the center of the Gentile world in the West, particularly, And he says, look, I'm speaking to you Gentiles predominantly. And he says, of course I'm speaking to you, I'm the apostle, I've been sent to the Gentiles. Now what is notable here, I think, as he says this, is that initially in his ministry, where did he go first? He went to the synagogues. And he argued and preached and he evangelized in the synagogues until finally he says, we go to the Gentiles. That was his ultimate and primary calling. But it doesn't mean he never evangelized Jews. Of course he did. But he was set apart for this particular calling. And when you look, for example, at the rest of the company of the apostles, it's notable, I think, that we essentially don't know for sure, at least biblically, what any of the other 12 did. Other than that, they went out and preached and evangelized. Peter is the only one, really. And then eventually, he fades into the background. And so he says, well, of course I'm speaking to you Gentiles, and I'm speaking to you because I'm particularly called to speak to you. And he glorifies his ministry, his office, his position here. He says, of course, yes, I'm doing this with some authority and some particular burden, of course that's the case. And he does so in a way that I think is he's speaking to Gentiles but indirectly speaking to also those who were his countrymen according to the flesh. Because what he says is I'm doing so so that I might provoke them. Now if you'll pardon me for just a moment here, I need to address a little something, and I know I'm not gonna go too deeply into this, but depending on which translation you read today, you may have noted there's a difference there in verses 12 and verses 13 and 14. It has to do with emulation or jealousy. It is very interesting here to me, at least personally, that within the context, the very close context of what we read here, this same word is used three times. And this is one of those times, the other two times is translated jealousy. It's the same word, they're different forms depending on the purpose, the grammatical purpose that he's making, but it's essentially the same word. And then there's one other time in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 22 where it's also translated jealousy, what I'm talking about in particularly in the new King James. But the King James stands alone here in translating it emulation. Now what is interesting here particularly is that within the range of meaning of the word, it could mean either one. It doesn't mean both, it doesn't always mean both, that's a mistake. But it could be either one, that is provoking someone to jealousy, provoking someone to emulation. It's kind of hard, I'll admit, to wrap my head around this. But everywhere else it's translated both in the King James and New King James as jealousy. So I prefer that translation. I just wanted you to understand what's going on here. I suspect that the King James follows the Geneva Bible, which has not the same thing, but something similar rendering here. But it's a translation choice. Either one is permissible. But I think in the context, it makes sense to continue to say jealousy. if we understand it's jealousy with the intent to imitate or to follow, that is to want something because you see someone else that has it. And it's not meant in a bad sense here, but is to acquire that which you see that someone else has and which at one point, the same thing or something similar belong to you. So that's, I just wanted you to know that what's going on here. "'but he's speaking about them particularly "'which are of my flesh.'" He has a particular burden. He's an apostle to the Gentiles, but he has a particular burden for those who are of his flesh, that is his natural, the natural affinity that he has, so much so that we've already seen that he says, I wish that I could be accursed. That's an extraordinary thing for him to say, so that they might be saved. He would be willing to do that, to save his own, but yet that was not according to God's purpose. You see, what he's saying here is that his doctrine is not based upon any sort of resentment or any such thing. In fact, he's very clear about that. He says, in order that I might save some of them. And you notice that he says, some. It's an important word here. Not all, but also, grammatically, it's up in the air, grammatically, that it may happen. That was his desire. He wanted that to be the case, that he would save some. He doesn't know. Now, it's not that he says that he himself is going to save any. Of course, that's not the case. There's no pastor, however faithful he is and however skilled he is in preaching, that saves a single person. Not a single one. Am I right, Pastor? That's right. You did not save a single person. I have not saved a single person. Lord Jesus Christ saves. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that changes hearts. Now, he chooses to use very weak, imperfect vessels, of course he uses means to accomplish his will. So what is he saying here? What is the apostle saying? Is he claiming that he can save them? Well, of course not. What he is saying is by his argumentation, by his doctrine, by his preaching, by his life, all of these ways that he would seek to save at least some of his countrymen. Well, of course that's a natural burden. You may have family members who have turned from the path, raised the church and turned from the path and are now not only turned from the path, but are in deep darkness. Do you have an affinity for them? Do you pray for their salvation? Well, of course you do. It's the same with the Apostle Paul. He has a great desire that his own countrymen would come to faith in Jesus Christ. Of course that is so. But what he's really doing here is he's defending his doctrine from those who might say that, well, you're just, you're a self-hater, Paul, to put it in contemporary language, self-hatred. See, what the apostle here is doing is he's reminding us and he's reminding the Roman Christians that his doctrine is not theoretical and it's not even really optional for us. See, this is the inspired revelation of God's purpose. and your understanding is not required and your consent is surely not required. This is God's purpose. And yet from the apostle's perspective and from our perspective, even he doesn't know the detailed purpose of God. You simply don't know and I don't know. He says, may save some. He doesn't even know who or how many or any for that matter. And this was, and that is, he doesn't know even how many Gentiles would be saved, and neither do we. But what we do know is what Isaiah prophesied in chapter 43, which we did not read, and which I asked you to read, but also what we read in Isaiah 11. That there will come a day that there shall be a root of Jesse, who is that? That's the son of David, that's Jesus Christ himself. will stand as a banner to the people, that is to his own, that is to the Jews. For the Gentiles shall seek him to also all the people. Now when we meditate, and I would encourage you to do that, to meditate on those two portions we read out of Isaiah 11 there. It is a glorious thing to consider that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised up as an ensign, as it says, a banner for the people. What was it that Jesus said in the context of speaking to Nicodemus, if I be lifted up? Like the serpent in the wilderness. I know I'm conflating some things here. As a serpent in the wilderness and the people were saved from the poison of the serpent. See, all of these things point to the same truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted, and even in that, when he says that if I am lifted up from the earth, what does that mean? Well, it certainly means as he's lifted up in his crucifixion, but it also means as he's lifted up, I would contend, in his... in his ascension into heaven and in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in converting sinners, the children of darkness into children of light. And all of that was promised in Isaiah and it was promised ultimately in the garden at the fall that there would come one who would crush the head of the serpent and in the process would be wounded. And of course, that's the Lord Jesus Christ and he is exalted every time the gospel is preached. whether it is to Jews or Gentiles, male or female, bond or free. That is to say here that the Lord will have his people. He will have his people. Now he has chosen in his good providence that that is through the giving of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, that is how he gathers his people unto himself. But regardless of that, we might say, the basic truth is that he will have his people. And our objections, our misunderstanding, our weakness, all of that ultimately falls away to meaninglessness in this sense. And so if you come away from this sermon with anything, there are two things I would have you come away with, and that is that the Lord will have his people, and that through the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, that the Lord will be glorified. And that glorification is often through mysterious ways that we simply do not know or understand. That doesn't mean he will not be glorified. He will be glorified. And so, as we look here at the doctrine of the apostle, and we, next Lord's Day, Lord willing, when we see how this is more fully developed, then we will see these two truths, that he will have his people and he will be glorified. Amen.