Amen and amen and amen.

How are we doing, church?

Everybody good?

What an incredible testimony there.

The reason that we show Ariel's testimony is because he is a microcosm of what we have been studying and are studying in Romans 9, 10, and 11.

These are not just old dead doctrines for

theologians to ponder, but these are life-giving truths that reveal to us the character and

nature of God. And so as we have been doing for 25 weeks now, would you please stand for the

reading of God's word? I'm going to read Romans chapter 11, verses 1 through 24. God's word says this. I ask then,

has God rejected his people by no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,

a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his own people whom he foreknew.

Do you not know what the scriptures say of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?

Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.

But what is God's reply to him?

I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not

bowed the need of bail. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by

grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was

seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit

of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day.

And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution for them.

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever.

So I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means?

...