In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the church moving others to jealousy through their Christianity. He highlights that Christianity is not just about attending services or personal benefits, but it should aim to provoke others to desire a relationship with God. The speaker acknowledges the challenge of sharing the gospel in a world dominated by human wisdom and achievements. He encourages believers to rely on God's power and not be discouraged by the seeming foolishness of the message of the cross. The sermon concludes with a personal anecdote about a young girl confidently proclaiming her belief in God, which serves as a powerful reminder of the simplicity and impact of genuine faith.

For the so great God that you are, for the so great salvation you have given, for the so great mysteries given to us, revealed to us, not for our contemplation only, for our fulfillment, to conclude the age, to bring your coming and your kingdom, what privilege, what call, what enablement. Come, my God, this morning. Pour out your soul. You have prepared us in these days to hear you, to receive your word, to take it to our hearts, to do it, let it be historic, my God, deep, deep, deep, into the foundations of the church, unto eternal consequence and glory. You are speaking this day from the throne of heaven through earthly lips. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. So let me begin with a question. Is Paul a systematic theologian? Yes or no? How many would say yes? How many would say no? How many would not say? You'd rather keep it to yourself. It's something private and personal. Don't get nosy, Katz. You want my opinion? Brilliant as Paul was, he was not systematic. That's why he has given employment to generations of theologians thereafter. It's for us to make sense of him. He writes like a fool, like a man beside himself. It's for us to sift and to bring some order and understanding. And I can't think of a more precious employment. You wrestle with Paul. It will transform your life. So let me ask another question. Though he's not systematic, of all the letters that he has written, which one would be the most comprehensive? The most carefully deliberated statement? Of his whole apostolic mindset? Which book? You're afraid to say. The Romans, the Hebrews? Good, too good. Anyone else? It's Romans. Hebrews is also good. Supreme. Scholars consider it questionable that he was the author of Ephesians. Romans is unquestionably Paul. There he lays out the whole logic of God, sin, salvation, redemption. Because there he proposes all the logic of God, sin, salvation, redemption. Sixteen chapters, I think. Now, what is the heart of that book? Chapters 9 through 11. The mystery of Israel and the Church. Superb. It's not something to be found at the back of the book. It's not for Paul an afterthought. A little asterisk with some concluding thoughts. It's his central thought. The issue of Israel for Paul is central to his whole apostolic mindset. Not because he's a Jew, but because he's an apostle. That's a very important point. You mustn't think that Paul is putting forward a perspective about Israel because it's a subject necessarily dear to himself. We can't think that Paul is putting forward a perspective about Israel as the most important thing because it's a subject that he likes very much. Definitely, it is dear. He begins chapter 9 by crying, saying, I wish myself a curse for my brethren's sake so that they might know Christ. He's not indifferent to the condition of his kinsmen. But if God had chosen pygmies as being the elect nation, that would have been the subject of Romans 9-11. God has elected and chosen Israel not because it's greatest, but because it's least. And Paul calls his whole exposition a mystery. Do you like that word? Do you love that word? We're not talking about detective stories. Paul said, I would not have you to be ignorant of this mystery. How does Paul use the word? A mystery is something that has until now been concealed. Something of an ultimately precious kind. Kept by God for a moment in his own choosing when it shall be revealed by his Spirit to those who can receive it. That will be on your examination. What is a mystery as Paul understands the word and as you should understand it. But you need to love the mystery, the mysteries of God. Are there juices running in your mouth? And you don't have it yet. Where does Paul say, I would not have you to be ignorant of this mystery? Look at Romans of course. Chapter 11. The concluding chapter of 9-11. And then he says, lest you become wise in your own conceit. The loss of this mystery brings unhappy consequences. Paul is pleading with the church of Rome. Who have asked Paul a practical question. Is God finished with the Jews? Is Israel passe? Who have stoned all the prophets that were sent unto it? And crucified the Son of Glory? And judgment is about to break upon them? Are they now finished in the purposes of God? They've had their chance? And they've blown it? And now we assume their call? And we fulfill as the Israel of God the destiny that had been given them? No small question. Two thousand years later it's still being debated. And great segments of the church have spurned Paul's explanation in their own arrogance and conceit to relegate to themselves the Israel of God. And look upon Israel as finished. Yes, individual Jews can be saved. It's nice to have you in the church, Brother Katz. But Israel as a nation no destiny. Finito. It's over. That's called replacement theology. It not only does disservice to Israel it is tragic in its consequence for the church. For the way in which the church perceives and beholds Israel it is tragic is the key to its own perception of itself. The church cannot even be understood independently of Israel. The church itself is a mystery born out of Israel's judgment. The branches that had been broken off that you might be grafted in to their root. You are an interim a continuation of a most holy faith once and for all given the saints forfeited by Israel as a nation with the rejection of its Messiah but continued by a remnant to whom you have been joined. Do you know why I'm pausing with every word? Why am I so conscious this morning? God is speaking to the church of Latin America through these tapes a word that must come decisive for all its future for the church that does not recognize the mystery and consciously and willfully embrace it and recognize its mandate toward Israel forfeits its identity as the church. It can continue to function have its services and its programs but it has forfeited being an apostolic entity employed by God for the fulfillment of mystery that concludes the age as I hope to show you this morning the mystery of Israel embraced is the making of the church because it is an ultimate requirement requiring an ultimate fulfillment that compels the church to become the church as an apostolic entity and to fulfill the mystery on the ground of resurrection not as a doctrine to which it gives approval but the source of its life and being its energy, its power and its authority or Israel will remain dead in its grave I'm already speaking mysteries you're already confused but don't panic this is complicated unspeakably rich and we will explore this Paul said I would not have you to be ignorant of this mystery 1125 I think it is is that right? lest you become wise in your own conceit listen to this that it's not just well you've missed something that might have enriched you rather that to miss this is to miss all to miss this condemns you to a certain conceit a certain ecclesiastical pride a conceit, an arrogance not only toward Israel but toward everything you become inflated pompous proud and that is no longer the church it has lost its essential character the meekness of the lamb himself nothing keeps us more humble than the magnitude of the mandate exclusively given to us toward Israel it tempers us it gives a right resonance to our corporate atmosphere when the mystery is understood receive willfully, consciously and walk down it does not require a great preponderance of Jews in your locality though I feel sure that before the end of the age you might be astonished at the numbers that pass through in flight from global persecution called the time of Jacob's trouble in which God will sift them through the nations all nations, the prophet Amos says so that not only shall Israel be sifted but the nations themselves let's look at the text Romans chapter 11 the conclusion to Paul's remarkable statement of the mystery given him as an apostle as a steward of the mysteries of God so precious are they in God's sight this is not merchandise for us to traffic in this is taking off our shoes and holding our breath as we come to a sacred ground unspeakably dear in God's sight the conclusion of the ages what Paul says in this chapter if the falling away of them has become the blessing to the Gentiles what shall their return be but life from the dead that's extravagant language but it's not excessive how does Paul end this chapter let's look at that first let's go to the end before the beginning because in verses 33-36 we have the most glorious p-a-e-a-n of praise ecstatic utterance of praise in the whole Holy Writ there is nothing to which it can be compared it even exceeds the psalmist it's Paul's final ecstatic outburst as he has reviewed and laid out this mystery that something has broken so upon his deepest consciousness of the wisdom of God of the genius of God in this remarkable scheme of Israel's last days restoration after a history of apostasy through the church that he breaks out in language that he can't contain all the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God can you see him waving back and forth like his legs are going out from under him this is ecstatic joy sublime revelation like a man drunk all the depths of the riches of both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments his ways past finding out where did you see that in the subject of Israel and in that subject alone and especially there is a revelation of God in such a depth and magnitude that takes your breath away that is staggering that made all of our past revelations trite that we have to clap our hands over our mouths however well informed we were about God to say we don't know as we ought to know until we've seen God in this when this breaks upon our hearts when we see the revelation of this mystery that God has not forsaken his original people that there's a massive scheme here that brings an ultimate consummation to the eternal praise of his glory then the mystery of Israel is the revelation of God as he in fact is and must be known and set forth before men and it's a mystery the church has not known for centuries merely to have a sentimental disposition toward the present state of Israel or to agree that they deserve to have their own statement is in no way a statement of the mystery in fact if you can receive this I often say to charismatic churches that have this kind of sentimental affiliation and love to run to Israel for Feast of Tabernacles conferences and plant trees and pinch the cheeks of Jews because they think we're so cute you know what I say to them? your sentimental view is as much opposed to the perception of God as those who are wholly antisemitic and when the bottom falls out as it certainly will and Israel will disappoint you in your vain expectations so much the projection of your own carnal heart you'll be the first to oppose them harsh words cats but true well then where is safety? in the word of God to have the view of Israel which is apostolic and is your privilege today that in all of our times together precious though they were in themselves were preparation for now which I didn't know when I began but I realize it now we're on a divine course in affecting church history just in these days and in this class how unsearchable are his teachings and his judgments and his ways past finding out for who has known the mind of the Lord who has been his counselor who has first given to him and it shall be given to him again now listen to this final verse have it inscribed on your heart learn how to sing it it's the summation of everything that can be considered apostolic that nowhere is brought out in greater fullness in a penetrating light than in the mystery of Israel for of him this mystery is of him this scheme of God for Israel's restoration after thousands of years of apostasy of the rejection and the crucifixion of the Holy One of Israel himself that would have been seen as a last resort that would have been seen as the last act that would finally justify God forsaking them shows God in another depth of whom Paul says in Romans 11 the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable he will never forsake them he's not a God who forsakes he's faithful when we don't abide faithful when he gives a gift and a calling to Israel or to us a nation of priests you shall be unto me a peculiar people a nation of priests and a light unto the world that that shall not be fulfilled because of the unwillingness of the nation itself his name is at stake honor is at stake his power is at stake if that is not fulfilled despite the nation because his word has said so I have called you a nation of priests and you will be that despite yourself you know what present Israel's mentality is? do you think they share this perspective? not a bit they're not even interested to hear what they want to become is like all other nations in the Hong Kong of the Middle East the rich Jordanians can come to Jerusalem to go shopping and buy their Gucci leather handbags the most supreme merchandise available in the world it's as if God has chosen for himself the most difficult people the most unworthy the most undeserving that God has not chosen Israel for its virtue it hasn't but that through it he might all the more demonstrate his mercy the issue of Israel is God more revealed as God in Israel's failure than in Israel's success that the Lord will not allow Israel to initiate or fulfill anything in itself why? because we Jews are supremely man self-assured supremely capable who else could have established a modern nation in 50 years and resuscitated a dead liturgical language Hebrew and small lower numbers among the top three great military powers of the world number one air force nuclear capability high tech civilization in 50 years it's a staggering accomplishment that only Jews could perform who had been saved out of Hitler's gas ovens but that does not glorify God but man and Israel has a destiny because God had promised its father Abraham from your loins out of your loins will come a people a nation that will bless all the families of the earth present Israel might impress but it cannot bless in its present condition Israel stands for man and God has to settle something of a cosmic kind who is supreme in creation the God who created it or the creature himself made in his image and endowed with remarkable capability and would seek to be a God unto himself there's a great question at stake here of why God must be a God why God must humble the nation break it in its pride bring it to its death just like us and raise it up just like us to a newness of life and in that newness it will bless all the families of the earth there's a death that precedes a resurrection and a suffering that precedes a glory this is the wisdom of God this is the genius of God this is the reality of God structured right into reality itself and its final demonstration to all the world and all the nations will come through Israel itself it's a great mystery so this is of him I did not invent it Paul didn't invent it it's God's genius who knew the end from the beginning and it's through him what does that mean Israel cannot succeed at this and nor can we in bringing to Israel what we must we might have succeeded with other issues on the basis of our well-meaning intentions and religious aptitude but in the issue of Israel and Israel's restoration nothing that is in us that is religious or human or skilled can suffice this mystery must be fulfilled through him we are the instrument he is the enablement and you're observing it this morning what do you mean brother here's what I mean I'm not setting forth this mystery on any basis of my own expertise or my own ability even though I do have substantial human gifts and yes I've spoken this subject before but this morning and every single time that this subject must be expressed it must itself be a resurrection phenomenon I had every intention of beginning with the text and we have yet to come to it because I'm not in charge of this this mystery is too precious to God to allow a man to propound it so I want you to believe me that the very proclamation this morning the setting forth of one word after another the precept by precept the line upon line is not my doing but his the speaking itself is a resurrection phenomenon later on you'll realize but it raises this question if that's what is required for this mystery that it's not for man to play with this to dabble in this that the Lord himself in the power of his own likeness has set this forth as proclamation what then will it take to fulfill it let's all whistle together did you get the point you know what you're going to say for the first time when you get the point Paul said it continually who is sufficient for these things it's ultimate requirement ultimate mandate beyond any ability in ourselves to fulfill independent of his power Israel is going to be saved through the resurrection glory by a church who lives and moves and has its being in it or it will not be saved at all well-meaning intentions will not do it no wonder the carnal church is celebrating present Israel no wonder they want the Zionist experiment to succeed that will absolve them from this requirement to be the key itself to Israel's resurrection on the basis of the church's own appropriation of the resurrection life you say why should anybody be afraid of that who doesn't want to move and live and have their being in that life there's only one catch there's no resurrection without a death and that's what we want to avoid both for them and for us can't Ishmael live can't Israel succeed isn't it enough just to send the message to sentimentally identify ourselves with the nation let's look at the text Paul's writing and teaching came out of practical circumstances to answer the questions of the church and the church is asking in Italy is God finished with Israel has God cast away his people verse 1 of chapter 11 certainly not it could not be more emphatic God forbid you should even think that you can almost sense the apostolic indignation where did you even get that thought of course he has not cast them away his people who before knew what kind of a God do you think this is some fickle deity on today and off tomorrow he's the enduring God his mercies endure forever and his love was never based on our qualifications it was not in response to our attractiveness our virtue it was because he's God and that's what he is in himself he's love and he will not cast away and if we haven't learned it in any other way then may we learn it in Israel for God's dealings with Israel is our textbook Paul says behold the severity and the goodness of God where does he say that in Romans 11 because if you don't behold it you don't behold God well I love God's mercy brother well who wouldn't but have you beheld his severity you can't have the one without the other or you have a God of your own making one that you've shaped where you exalt the attributes you like his mercy, his love, his kindness, his goodness yes that's true of God but it's not the whole truth what about his wrath what about his judgment what about his severity what about his chastisement to exclude those things to exclude God as judge is to exclude God you call him Jesus you put a label on him but it's not the God who is God if you choose to ignore his severity the fact of the matter is what is his mercy without his severity mercy doesn't mean anything except it comes in response to his severity as a matter of fact in the last analysis his severity is his mercy do you know God like that how then shall you make him known especially to the Jew who does not know their own God and waits for that revelation through you let's go to verse 11 Paul takes up the same question I say have they stumbled that they should fall that their rejection is permanent God forbid certainly not then what was the purpose of it but through their fall in order to provoke them to jealousy salvation has come to the Gentiles are you ready you didn't know it you would not have salvation at all were it not for their fall it's through their fall that the faith of the God of Israel the God of Jacob has come to you who were far off and without God in the world and without hope drinking beer out of skulls and performing human sacrifices and cutting out the living hearts of your victims on your Mayan altars pagans and idolaters and murderers in darkness but God in his mercy has extended his grace to you who were far off and without God there's only one and what the Mayans were celebrating was the devil and the gods of this world there's only one true God ever and only he's the holy one of Israel who has extended his salvation to you out of purest grace he had to put Peter into a trance before that poor orthodox man would even come into a Gentile house the Gentiles were unclean the goyim the nations they eat dead things their worship is sex with temple prostitutes their greatest sin is to have sex with prostitutes those philosophers like Plato had his own little boy for his homosexual enjoyment and nobody in Athens looked up standard operating procedure for Gentiles who are without God you see why if you're ignorant of this mystery it condemns you to a conceit as if salvation had always been yours where the church those poor dumb Jews blew it as if this is a Christian thing always enjoyed by you it's an institution you've lost the mystery and reduced the faith to a common place because you have not recognized that you have the regret to their faith to their covenants their hopes and their promises into the commonwealth of Israel itself he saved you from being merely Gentile he's brought you into an Hebraic faith in the knowledge of their God and the hope of their destiny and you think going to church is a drudge and we have reduced it to something predictable in exact proportion as we have lost the mystery the revelation of the mystery it makes the church a commonplace its programs predictable a weariness of the flesh that has to be alleviated through novelty and exciting music and amplifiers because we lost the mystery that would have distinguished us as the church of God the very continuation of Hebraic faith not for our enjoyment but for them that's why I had you whistle God has just now shown us the reason for our salvation you thought it was for you for your enjoyment for your benefit but God says no that through their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy ready? is this what you're saying cats? that there's a purpose for our salvation beyond ourselves greater than ourselves that this is the mystery that it's intended for another even Israel itself who were broken out of their own root because of their unbelief and that you're waiting for us to bring them back to their own faith by such a demonstration that will issue from us as to move them to jealousy when they see that we as Gentiles are producing fruit and enjoying God in such a Hebraic way that they themselves don't know and have forfeited and that we ourselves exhibit consistently and continually yes! exactly! that is salvation! how are you doing? are you moving Jews to jealousy? or you haven't even impressed them? they walk by your churches and yawn Gentile culture Sunday stuff where does Paul give us an explanation? I'm looking desperately for an asterisk with a footnote on the bottom of the page how to do it we always want to know how to do it step one, step two, step three salvation itself is a formula number one, God has a plan for your life number two, number three, number four God is waiting for the fullness of the Gentiles to come in will you stop acting like Gentiles? will you stop reducing the faith to a methodology? to a technique? a system? it's organic it's living it pulsates it issues from the life of God it's a mystery that's Hebraic God is waiting for the fullness of the Gentiles at last to come in let this sink in there is a purpose for our salvation as Gentiles it's not some mindless gift that God has given us without redounding to Himself in the fulfillment of a mystery that you Gentiles who have been the object of Jewish scorn and disdain and contempt and disdain and lack of appreciation for our superiority religiously and morally and ethically and culturally we are superior in religion, in morality, in ethics, in culture do you think I'm kidding? look at the winners of the Nobel Prizes always Jews out of proportion to their numbers in the population a distinguished and accomplished people contemptuous of Gentiles you know what my mother used to say to me in Brooklyn? we were poor yes, there are poor Jews not many so if I got a few dollars if we dug a car out of a blizzard and the man put 10 centavos in my palm it would burn a hole in my hand 10 cents and if I spent it recklessly if I didn't save it my mother would say you have a Goya Shokof a Gentile mind you're just like them easy come, easy go they get it, they spend it Jesus saves Jesus saves but Moses invests we can laugh over this but we need to also remember what Jesus did what Jews have suffered historically at the hands of Gentiles who identified themselves as being Christian the Knights of the Middle Ages the Crusaders how did they finance their expeditions to the Holy Land? by looting, robbing and pillaging every Jewish community on the way and when they got to Jerusalem they got all the Jews that were then there into the synagogue locked them in and burned them up they were Christians there's a saying in Hebrew Kiddushat Hashem Kiddushat Hashem sanctifying the name of God that's what it's called when you commit suicide after having slit the throats of your own children and your own wife before the Gentiles break down the doors of the synagogue and come in and rape your daughters and your wife and compel them to convert to Christianity better than that let us choose death that when those doors are broken down they'll find us all dead and none of us will have to convert to Christianity Kiddushat Hashem sanctifying the name of God I never saw this myself of course I know of it historically but it was in the air that I breathed as a Jew I took this up with my mother's milk enmity against the Goyim that's what a Christian is and God says knowing all of this history you know what your task is? in the last days in which if you don't succeed the nation shall not be restored and I shall not come to be its king and my kingdom shall not be established and the nations will continue in their present sin everything waits on Israel's restoration the Lord is contained in the heavens self-contained waiting for the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets since the world began the prophets had one subject whether it's Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel Amos the minor prophets, the major prophets one thing Israel's restoration at the end of the age God's waiting for you to move them to jealousy so that they would choose to receive the faith which all previous generations have historically rejected choosing to kill their own children then they should be converted to Christianity but from you must come some demonstration Paul doesn't say what sufficient to take these critics in all of their severe intellectual indictments Jews who are severely rationalists who despise things that are supernatural so offensive to their rational understanding they are empirical they need to feel, touch and measure and you're going to tell them that you need their Christ they need your Christ that criminal who was crucified outside the city in the dump between criminals but not a place to lay his head that that's our Messiah even very God on a cross the shame that contradicts the dignity of God if there is a God and I'm going to believe that and his blood that was shed 2000 years ago is valid now to purge my sins of which I have no consciousness at all because I think I'm such a great God your message is zero for me it's foolishness to bring the gospel to the Jew is the most difficult task given the church they are historically and chronically opposed it is anathema it's Goyish Gentile they cannot mention the name of Jesus I was saved 35 years ago in Jerusalem in the first prayer that I had ever prayed in 35 years after the Lord had given me revelation of himself and I was a university graduate and an articulate man and I could not pronounce the name of Jesus and there is no other name given under heaven or in the earth whereby a man can be saved for whosoever is saved whosoever Jew or Gentile calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved no sweat who can't speak the name of Jesus I couldn't it was stuck in my throat I couldn't get it out all those years I used it as a curse word Jesus Christ this and Jesus Christ that and now I'm going to call on that name reverently the name in which my Jewish people have been persecuted I couldn't do it except for the grace that was given in a single moment of time on May 26th 1964 I choked and spurted I would not dignify it to call it a prayer but I got the name of Jesus and I was saved something went out of me dark screw to the world something came into me the Ruach HaKodesh the spirit of holiness I was born again from above by the spirit in the fulfillment of the word I called upon the name over and against all historic and cultural opposition by the grace of God because I was being prayed for by one of my own students in California and got saved you know what a mandate is? this is our mandate Romans 11 and I want to say to you quite clearly the church that refuses this mandate and I can't blame them it's tough, it's hard, it's demanding fearful forfeits being the church Paul says in the very first chapter of Romans I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ or it's not ashamed it is the power of God into salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek come on students let's be students God is expressing something here a priority that he calls us to observe and there's a wisdom and a reason for it to the Jew first then to the Gentiles don't go with it, it's easy to the South Sea Islands or other exotic places of ministry begin where you are right in Guatemala City in Mexico City in the capitals of your nations where Jews are in every city where the church is all over the world Jews have been proliferated in the judgment of God that has scattered them but also positioned them so that you have the opportunity to fulfill the mandate to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles because you've got to know the power of the gospel Paul was not ashamed of it because it itself is the power of God to the Jew first so gather up your faith and go up to the steps of this Jewish home and knock on the door and the door opens and there is the picture of the world's the supremacy of the world human wisdom academic attainment ethical and moral quality and you're going to tell him that he needs to be saved what? saved of what? you have never felt more holy than you have felt your message has never felt more absurd you cry out for something more sophisticated but you have nothing other than this the birth, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of a man who was at the right hand of the Father when Stephen made that statement to religious Jews they rushed upon him to gnash upon him with their teeth they put their fingers in their ears they couldn't bear to hear it that a man a crucified man a rejected criminal in heaven at the right hand of the Father are you getting the picture? ours is no easy task and God says they're first don't try it out where it's easy and gain a little human religious confidence and then go to them then you can go to Samaria and the outermost corners of the world I never understood the strategy of God until I became a high school teacher with mixed racial classes in a tough cosmopolitan school teaching a compulsory subject that students didn't want to take especially the black ones and the tough ones who hated whitey and the establishment and had no intention of passing anyway I realized there was an issue from the first day who's in authority here? the frightened teacher afraid to say the wrong word lest they aggravate the brutes in the back of the room the place becomes mayhem shall he deal with the secondary level of disturbance? those nice middle class kids who just need a little mild rebuke and ignore the bully in the back you know what I realized? that if that were my strategy I would never have control of the class from the beginning I had to deal with the bullies first the issue of the bully is the issue of authority there's no more formidable opponent to the gospel than the Jew intellectual sharp informed but biblically illiterate and God wants you to confront him? you sweet little thing you wonder if your Spanish is good enough is it grammatical enough? is it eloquent enough? can I meet their arguments? you never felt more naked weak spiritually barren exactly he wants to show you who your confidence is in the face of the most severe opposition I was saved by a face like yours a little gentile girl on vacation in Europe with whom I should have had nothing to do arrogant intellectual hotshot a university graduate teacher Marxist institute what was this little thing to me? but I couldn't shake her so transparent so guileless so unafraid we met by accident she wanted to walk with me in the woods surrounding the European city I should have had nothing to do gentile girl Christian so I said, why are you doing this? why are you being kind to me? I thought to myself, I'm an ex-Marxist embracing revolution but I'd never seen kindness of the kind that she was exhibiting to a total stranger of whom she should have been afraid but how are you being kind to me? why are you willing to spend this time with me? and she answered every question the same way it's the love of God it's the love of God there's one thing that an atheist can't bear to hear God talk it's the love of God what a cheap expression anyone can say that that's a cliche I'm tired of cliches whether they are Marxist or Christian if this girl continues to talk like that I'm afraid I'm going to let her have it she's asking for it again she said the love of God I said, look sis my patience is at an end you're a sweet girl and all that but I can't stand this God talk let me ask you one question that no Christian has ever successfully been able to answer you know what my hobby was? find Christians and debate with them and wipe them out so what was this little girl doing? let me ask you this one question are you talking about God? how do you know that he is? got her now there'll be a long silence she'll think of something clever she learned in Sunday school in Bible school and I'll smash her no hesitation not for a moment she lifted that little face to me full of the light of God oh Art she said I know that God is he lives in me that's where I learned to whistle I went down I was like a struck ox like a boxer been hit square in the chest I hit the deck spiritually speaking I don't know how long it took for me to recover the power of that statement I thought to myself where did that statement get its power wasn't theological wasn't even intellectual oh now I understand it was true and she had the face to prove it I was set on the path to God by the face of a gentile in whom shone the light of the glory of God the light that lightens the gentiles is the glory of the people of Israel and no demonstration more powerful than when it shines out of a gentile face have they stumbled that they should fall God forbid you should think that they are temporarily on the shelf so that the salvation that has come to you that is more than just a creedal statement and a sum of correct doctrines the full salvation that transcends your culture and your gentile origins and has visibly Hebraicized you will move them to jealousy that they might believe you know what I thought to myself that day I've been in universities libraries, institutes but for the first time I realized I'm a man in darkness and that this girl is in the light and the light that she has is not to be found in universities and I'm jealous for that light she moved me to jealousy how's your face how's your corporate face the challenge that we represent to you as Jews will compel you to be the church not an institution an organic glory a corporate genius the revelation of Him who fills all in all all Christianity is more than our services or the benefit that we receive or the enjoyment that we obtain it has as its first purpose to move them to jealousy and when you will succeed in that what then are the Greeks or the Guatemalans or the Peruvians or the Colombians or any people once you have met them or the deaths of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God who has been His counselor who has given to Him and shall be given again for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things through whom be glory forever brother, this is too much for me I can't do this I'm frightened hearing about it how can I do it it's through Him for Him that it might be to Him as glory forever this is your faith this is your call this is your mandate that it might be to His glory forever the church that has come of age because of the issue of the Jew and the wisdom of God who is sufficient for these things just to speak it just to set it forth just to present it but to fulfill it let's pray O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding us for who has known the mind of the Lord who has been His counselor who shall first given to Him and it shall be given unto Him again for of Him and through Him and to Him and to Him be all things to whom be glory forever Amen Lord we bow before You we prostrate our souls we didn't know we didn't understand the mystery of the church the glory of our call our privilege our enablement that this is through You that it might be to You as glory not just in our generation but forever O Lord seal this word we have received Your mandate willfully and consciously we choose to be the church as You have defined it in Your wisdom we receive the mandate and thank You for the privilege of it in every locality where we are let Your glory be revealed to the Jews first and also to the Greeks we thank You for its wisdom for its power for our privilege in it in Jesus' Holy Name seal it we receive our mandate that we might do it I think somewhere it says think on these things let this word richly dwell in your heart it will break you up in the deeps it will flush out all that is superficial imitative counterfeit religious this word the mystery receive will do wonders for you that you might do wonders for them that's the mystery