Nov. 12, 2017 God Only Wise by Pastor Josh Sheldon

I Turn also in your Bibles to Romans chapter 11

So continue going through this Epistle of Paul to the

Roman Church and to this church in Sunnyvale some 2 ,000 years later And this morning with God's blessing we will

Start at verse 11 of chapter 11 in Romans and go through the end of the chapter, which is to verse 36

So Romans 11

We read this entire passage to you is the word of the

Lord So I ask Did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means?

Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous Now their trespass means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for the

Gentiles How much more with it will their full inclusion mean Now I'm speaking to you

Gentiles in as much then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow

Jews jealous and thus save some of them For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world

What will their acceptance mean but life from the dead if the dough offered as firstfruits is holy

So is the whole lump and if the root is holy so are the branches but if some of the branches were broken off and you although a wild olive shoot were grafted in among the others and now sharing the nourishing root of the olive tree do not be arrogant toward the branches if You are remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you

Then you will say branches are broken off so that I might be grafted in that is true

They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith

So do not become proud but stand in awe For if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you

Note, then the kindness and the severity of God severity towards those who have fallen but kindness to you

Provided you continue in his kindness otherwise you too will be cut off and Even they if they do not continue in their unbelief will be grafted in for God has the power to graft them in again

For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree

How much more will these the natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

Lest you be wise in your own conceits I want you to understand this mystery brothers a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the

Gentiles has come in And in this way all Israel will be saved as it is written the deliverer will come from Zion he will banish ungodliness from Jacob and this will be my covenant with them when

I take away their sins as Regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable Just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience

So they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you They also may now receive mercy for God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.

Oh The depth of the riches and wisdom of God and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways

For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given him a gift that it might be repaid

For from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever

Amen That's quite a mouthful. Is it not? there's a whole lot of scripture there and there's a whole lot of things that we need to go through and as with so many densely packed areas of Romans The caveat

I need to give before we even dig into these verses is that we're going to leave a lot on the table and Depending on your particular presupposition towards these verses how you take them

I Tell you that I nor I believe hardly any other preacher can satisfy

Everyone on these my job as with Romans 7 is to tell you what

I believe the scripture takes after the work I do rolling up my sleeves Working through the scriptures seeing what

Paul's has to say what the scriptures say and presenting that to you and not having to take apart

Every other argument that wouldn't be in agreement with my conclusions But that said we have before us a wonderful passage of scripture a passage that is fraught with peril with all the different Interpretations and what does it mean with branches broken off and will

God put you in and then take you off if you don't continue In kindness will he then turn his smile upon you that he gave you by faith in Jesus Christ, and it becomes a frown and So your security is gone

Well the safest way to take these verses as with any part of so intricately

Woven together an argument as we have in Romans is to be sure that we're consistent with the flow of thought

And so the idea I have to tell you right up front that you could be taken off as a branch that has truly been placed in Christ and thrown away is not

The conclusion we need to take from these verses if it is then much of Romans 8 and neither depth nor height and Neither death nor life nor anything else can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus None of that would make much sense

So this morning I want to begin This sermon at the end of the passage that I read at the end of the passage because those last four verses that that doxology that Paul kind of bursts out with Will set our minds in the right place

It will keep us in the frame that Paul has

You know there's he's trying to correct something there in Rome 2 ,000 years ago, and it's a warning to us today 2 ,000 years later and to really be sure that we

Take right interpretations and make right conclusions. I think starting with the end and this doxology

This sort of is the end of the matter if you will We'll set our minds in the right place to go to the beginning of the matter

Because what Paul says there in those last four verses about God it puts everything before it in the proper context

These will keep us in the bounds of Paul's overarching purpose here It's going to help us apply these things the way the

Apostle would have us apply them So I want to begin at the end. I want to set our frame of mind with this

Doxology where Paul basic bursts out with this praise of God Now before I start one more just short note

Many times we look at this doxology this verses 33 to 36 And we take it as Paul in a sense saying you know we just can't understand any of this

Let's just praise God and see what happens sort of a thing and that's not at all what is happening and so like in Ephesians 5 when

Paul says the two shall become one flesh speaking of a Man and his wife and how that relates to Christ in the church, and he says this is a mystery

He's not just shrugging his shoulders. I don't understand. It's just mysterious. Let's move on There's more to it than that he's talking about the very nature of God and probing into his mind and wondering about salvation in terms of others

Verse 33 Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and how

Inscrutable his ways. What is he saying here the operation of God's will and the revelation

He gives of that will has really two outstanding characteristics First it is wonderfully and clearly revealed to us where in the scriptures

In the Bibles that are in your hands right now We have the revelation of God's will the prophets and the

Apostles They gave us a word that was meant to be understood and by the Holy Spirit's direct providence and superintendence

We have in our Bibles the very and complete Word of God Who's first that God has revealed himself?

God has given himself to us if you will And The second thing we need understands that while the scripture tells us everything that we can or we should or we must know about God Thousands upon thousands of lifetimes could never plumb their depths

And just consider that for 2 ,000 years good and godly and intelligent men have been writing commentaries on the scriptures and think of how often it happens that a man

Working on the scripture and humbling himself before God and presenting to us

His work he finds a new crease he finds a fresh outlook on something that helps the

Saints in their day And is true to that word Thousands upon thousands of lifetimes could never plumb the complete depth of this word that we have

Yet in all this They do not tell us the scriptures do not tell us everything about God What we must know or can know is a long way from all there is to know

And I think when we see Jesus as he is when we stand before God without sin between us and him

We still won't know everything about God But everything that we can and should and must know yes, and we have that now in the scriptures

So his ways are unsearchable His judgments are inscrutable and Yet, they are revealed to us to the extent that we can and should and must know them

And verses 34 and 35 in that doxology meld together Parts of Isaiah and parts of Job for who has known the mind of the

Lord and who has been his counselor This alludes to Isaiah chapter 40 in verse 12 who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span

Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance in other words

There is none like God. There's no one whose works are done for us to see the way

God has given his works to be seen and Showing that he is eternal that he is powerful and importantly that what he purposes to do he does and Our comprehension of the how and the why of his working notwithstanding He does what he says he will do

And if we don't understand how he did it if we don't understand the extent of his power his holiness or any other attribute of God so be it

God is still God first Corinthians 2 16 says that we have the mind of Christ we have a full and Sufficient revelation of who

God is of who Jesus his eternal son is of what the salvation We have in Christ is and how we apprehend that that's all been revealed to us.

That's the mind of Christ But we do not have there the complete and full mind of God nor shall we ever

If we ever did then think of it if we had the complete mind of God We'd be able to talk to God as an equal

We'd be able to now and then counsel him to correct him to be his instructor and that of course is

Absurd it's obviously Ridiculous now we have the mind of Christ, and that's the scripture.

He's given us What we can what we should what we must know about God verse 35 in the doxology

Addresses how Paul would have the church view her own salvation how the individual you or myself should view it

Who has given him God who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid and that's from Job 41 11

Where God asks those who would inquire too deeply and you remember Job and his three friends

Probing around the edges trying to figure out why God worked the way God worked Against Job or in Job or to Job or however you want to put it.

They spent all those days. They're working that out and God's answer is

Is who is given who is first given to me that I should repay him Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

He owes us nothing Who's given a gift that he might be repaid no God owes nobody no thing anything

And finally in verse 36 for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever

God is the source God is the sustainer. God is the goal of everything

Everything he does is for his own eternal glory and this negates an attitude that is implicit in the previous verses verses 11 to 32 that I just read

We'll get to those in a moment, but the attitude is that salvation was in some way earned or deserved

Our benefits in the salvation that God has given us the wonders of knowing him by faith in his son are immeasurable

It is all from first to last Sourced by God kept by God intended by God for his own purposes primarily his glory

This doxology should set our attitude set our mind set our spirits correctly to understand verses 11 to 32

Where we get to the meat of it? The first question that Paul asks now is in verse verses 11 to 15

And the question is this why has Israel stumbled? Did they stumble so as to fall by no means?

What does he mean by stumble stumble means their rejection of the gospel And what was their error?

We went through this mostly in chapter 9 Chapter 9 and part of chapter 10 their error was to seek after God's righteousness by their own works their own effort

Just a few verses up in chapter 11 verse 6 Paul addresses this error by saying But if it is by grace meaning salvation if it is by grace is no longer on the basis of works

Otherwise grace would no longer be grace Prior to that chapter 9 verse 32 as that the missing ingredient in all their effort the one essential without which it is impossible to please

God Was faith they did not pursue it by faith, but by works.

This was their stumbling point. This was their error This is why they didn't make it if you will

But it's not that they didn't make it as if you could make it on your own. They Didn't take faith as the only way

Faith in Christ he is the stumbling stone placed there by God. So the question is why did they stumble?

The answer is pretty simple their rejection of Christ was all part of God's wise and eternal plan.

They tripped over the need for faith Need for faith in Christ, which is itself a repudiation of self -effort

We've been through this before we need to remind ourselves constantly of this The fact that nothing that you do can gain you the benefits of what

Christ on the cross did because the cross is the cross the cross is Everything where Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins and by faith in that and knowing that because of his suffering

Your sins were answered That's salvation all

By faith because all accomplished by Christ and none of it available or attainable

By our works our effort our own righteousness anything of us

And that's the stumbling point. That's that stone that was placed there That's Christ and the need for faith in him and faith itself repudiates all else

That's where they tripped the need for faith in Christ and this opens up a question which men ponder

The scriptures make may take no pains to resolve for us. Who has known the mind of the

Lord? The question is the intersection of man's responsibility your responsibility to repent and believe the gospel a

Long statements alongside of statements like Jesus's and others We could easily find such as no one can come to the father come to me unless the father who sent me draws him

You can't come to Christ unless God the Father brings you to Christ we go back even a little further say you cannot come to Christ unless God the

Father before the foundation of the world chose you to be in Christ and yet God commands all people everywhere to repent and Jesus first words in public ministry in the

Gospels of Matthew and Mark are both repent and believe the gospel

So Israel is responsible for having rejected Christ they don't get to answer back that the stone on which they stumbled was put there by God himself and If Paul's inquirers need more verse 11 says that the

Gentiles Gentile conversion is intended for a purpose Because God does everything with purpose and that purpose is to make

Israel jealous and by that jealousy They might join the Gentiles in Christ and you recall previously we talked about that.

I will make you jealous I will make you angry by a nation. You have not known is how Paul previously in this overall section was explaining

How God is working through Israel or through history to bring Israel to repentance?

and Paul sees himself now in that flow of redemptive history as One of the bringers if you will of that jealousy to Israel by bringing

Gentiles to faith by establishing churches like this one in Rome that he's writing to here in the book of Romans and Thus making

Israel jealous and wanting that gospel that the Gentiles are coming to He sees himself right in that flow of history as part of that prophetic ministry of making

Israel jealous Now Israel is themselves as is any other person any other soul any other human being?

Personally responsible individually Responsible for their response to the gospel of Jesus Christ They died for your sins that he was crucified that he was dead and buried and on the third day

God raised him up for our justification That at the cross

Christ suffered The $64 word is vicariously on behalf of another you

That's this gospel apprehended by faith faith itself being a gift from God That Israel rejected that's what they stumbled over and so Paul Goes to the

Gentiles and puts himself in this position in redemptive history of being

The one who helps make Israel jealous Israel will see the

Gentiles obtain what they had sought after They will see that they had gone about things the wrong way

They will understand as all who come to Christ must that is by faith in what he has done That we are cleansed of our sins and thus declared by God righteous

Think about the parable that William read to you about the prodigal son The older brother there he represents

Israel of course He's angry at his father's joy over the younger brother's return and in the parable.

Who's the younger brother? Well, it's some of the wayward sheep of Israel if he was the tax collectors maybe who are really

Jews they are really by physical descent children or sons of Abraham and yet Traitors if you will to Israel the father kills the fattened calf

He calls for this enormous celebration and just imagine what joy there would have been Just think what the joy would have been had the older brother looking in Was unable to resist the festival and he repented of his anger and he comes in and joins with his brother in the father's loving arms

Well the parable of course doesn't really end that way and we're not going to change it because it's spoken by Jesus So of course it is perfect but this seems to be what

Paul is driving at if the Gentiles have experienced the riches of God in Christ and That came to them by means of Israel's stubborn determination to remain outside If that failure on their part brought riches to them to the

Gentiles Just imagine what it would be like when Israel by and large Repents and believes the gospel

Just imagine for a moment what the father's joy would have been had the old brother older brother seen this and said

Father has forgiven the younger brother. Why shouldn't I? And he comes in Imagine the joy imagine how much exponentially more celebration there would have been

Had it come that way One of the controversial parts of our passage in Romans has to do with Israel's ultimate salvation

Paul says in this way all Israel will be saved. Well, does he mean all of them without exception?

Some think so, but that smacks a bit of universalism, doesn't it? It goes against experience in Scripture Does Paul mean

Jew and Gentile all the elect finally gathered into the church? Now that has many advocates but Paul's language beginning in chapter 9 is about the nation

Known since the Exodus and God's chosen people. It's about that particular ethnic group

Israel and I think here in Romans 11 Spiritualizing Paul to mean something like as he says in Galatians, the

Israel of God is really unnecessary Because when he writes that they will all in the end be saved

This is in the context of the whole remnant doctrine theology that he began back in chapter 9

He means from that particular people and nation By all

Israel, what does he mean? in context he means The elect remnant within that nation those chosen by God before the foundation of the world to be in his son

Jesus Christ Just as with anybody else Jew or Gentile Greek or Roman male or female makes no difference

All the elect each one whom God has chosen before the foundation of the world by his will by his sovereign power and the working

Of his Holy Spirit will be in Christ That's what he means by all

Israel will be saved not every one as if the whole nation Could without individually coming to Christ in faith

Have salvation that would go against almost everything we have in Scripture But we come to this other idea of branches broken off New ones grafted in old ones grafted back

There's the holy lump and the holy root and then there's that terrifying if For if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you

The end of verse 32 if you don't continue in his kindness You too will be cut off Now how do we sort this out

Especially keeping in mind That grand chapter to eight that led into all this and the security that we have in the salvation that God has wrought in his son

Jesus Christ and All of a sudden here in chapter 11 Watch out

Because if God did this to his chosen people Imagine what he's going to do to you if you don't behave

Is that what Paul is saying? Is that even possible? Well the best way to sort this out is to keep

Paul's immediate purpose in mind he's correcting a problem there in Rome The Gentile believers question implied in what

Paul says in verses 16 to 24 Seems to imply that they somehow deserve salvation in a way that the

Jews did not Paul's answer is a kind of a smackdown it gets them back in place

He humbles them or anyone else who thinks they somehow merited God's special favor

Now no one would say this would they? No one would actually stand up in church at a prayer meeting or even today on a

Sunday and say hey Do you know I got saved? Because God thinks I'm really grand and he couldn't have heaven without nobody would say anything like that But it is more subtle than that.

There's this idea that well they were broken off for me Emphasis on me, and this is what

Paul's correcting here Gentiles believers question is

Why were they broken off they're broken off for my sake

But the emphasis too much on me Paul's purpose here is to end their speculations about how and why

God works That's why the doxology is there at the end of the chapter We have in verse 19 a characterization of this attitude this thing he's correcting here in these verses you will say

Branches that's of course Israel were broken off so that I might be grafted in well said

Paul agrees with that sentiment but Did God do this because they were more deserving than Israel more deserving than anyone?

Are they are they the ones who designed and actuated and effected and then applied this gospel to themselves?

to anyone well of course not as Peter puts it we did not follow cleverly

Devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty or Paul and relations at Galatians 111 for I would have you know brothers

That the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel For I did not receive it from any man nor was

I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ This salvation

In which the Gentiles were boasting and boasting over their Jewish brethren there in the church this salvation is

Pardon me from beginning to end all of God For from him and through him and because of him and the goal of everything he does is

For the sake of his own glory as shown in his son Jesus Christ It never had anything to do with man.

It's not a myth. It's not a cleverly devised fable It wasn't given to Paul through men who made it up and figured it out and put it into a

Process and a seven -step thing you can do and a prayer that you can say no it came through revelation to him by Jesus Christ Israel's that nation that brought forth according to the flesh the promises of God and This is the root on which they stand

Speaking of the gospel was embedded in Israel's nationhood in their heritage of adoption and law and glory and covenants and worship

And all the rest of that This is the holy firstfruits of the dough that Paul speaking of the patriarchs

Abraham Isaac and Jacob Most especially God's friend Abraham are the holy root into which the speculating

Gentiles were grafted The whole of Romans 4 makes

Abraham the father of all who share his faith whether the Jew or Gentile Roman or Greek male or female slave or free if you have faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ and this gospel Then you are truly Abraham's descendant

Paul uses the word holy here in the sense of something set aside for God's purposes Much the way we as saints are often called that in Scripture.

We're called holy. We're called saints The patriarchs themselves were as men no different than us

God used them in a special way God's promises revealed and perpetuated through them are the root from which all the other branches extend the

Gentiles musings about Israel We're was so distressing to Paul that he gives these terribly severe warnings the ones that cause so many people to lose sleep at night

The ones where if we read them about being broken off and God's kindness towards you ending because you didn't show kindness over here

God suddenly turned smiled a frown Well, it's kept more than a few saints up at night

Perhaps more than a few saints with their knees bent and prayer is always a good thing And yet not the prayer of terror over being taken out of Christ and tossed aside the

Gentiles Musing was a big problem. This is why the doxology who has known the mind of the

Lord Do you see where they're probing where they're saying? Well, they're broken off for me. Why did he do this this way for them?

And Paul is saying no you go too far Deuteronomy 29 29 Was been revealed to us is for us and our children for all generations forever, but the secret things

Belong to the Lord and the Lord God keeps that counsel to himself

Who is known the mind of the Lord in verse 34 of chapter 11 and Romans? That's a warning sign is

Telling us that around the next bend is a washed out and a fast trip down the cliff

That awaits everyone who doesn't heed the sign and turn around It really is a warning sign.

It's a danger signal. It's you're going too far. You're speculating too much You're probing where you ought not to probe

As I said before about the scriptures, this is the mind of Christ Everything we can and must know about him about what

God has done is given to us going further is Inappropriate searching and probing into God's mind is wanting to know the totality of his purposes

The totality of his person his mind his thoughts That's why verse 18 is so strong It's a caution.

Do not be arrogant toward the branches. It's like well, I was just asking. No, you're not just asking

You're showing arrogance. I just want to know why me and not them. No Don't ask

You're probing into the mind of God Almighty beyond what he's revealed of himself in his word

To say they were broken off for me is to say

I deserved it It's also to say they deserved it Perhaps being broken off is in fact deserved

God did this because of their unbelief But that doesn't then imply that the opposite Salvation is your do

Their whole line of reasoning was arrogance in verse 25 in verse 25 he says it they're being conceited about this and these are

Demeanors and attitudes that are actually antithetical to the gospel It's easy for us to slip into this

We think God is impressed by the volume of verses I've memorized or the number of Bible studies I attend he must really appreciate my service at the church even from preaching and That's why

I've been blessed in ways that mr. Or mrs. Not so faithful as me will never see

It's very subtle. It's almost insidious how easily this can slip into our thinking We need to all tamp down our boasting.

We need to swallow it like a piece of rotten meat and eliminate it completely Because it's totally inappropriate

The warning in verse 21 for if God not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you

Why did he not spare them because of their unbelief? That's verse 20 and that's not peculiar to the

Jews Either nationally or individually if you're not a Jew then you are not a branch in that sense

Yet the same truth holds firm that unbelief will bring condemnation every time

Whether you're a plucked from the ground or sawn off the tree, it doesn't matter the end is the same

It's unbelief That brings this condemnation What does this to do with the

Gentile believers in Rome? 2 ,000 years ago To all us believers here in Sunnyville 2 ,000 years later

They're arrogant conceited boasting against unbelieving Israel spoke against the validity of their own conversion

True branch grafted in or natural if it be truly in Christ has the firm promise

I will never leave you or forsake you But even a smattering of self -merit brings the legitimacy of one's conversion into question

See either Jesus did it all Which by faith you believe or he didn't and if he didn't

Well, he did do it all but I mean if you think he left something of human endeavor to be

Done to complete the equation if you believe that no matter how slightly

I Would say salvation is impossible It's either all of Christ Or you don't believe it at all

Paul raises the possibility that those who hold such views might not be saved That's how serious this is

They were taken on the attitude of privilege that was in large measure the downfall of much of Israel Israel felt privileged and so they went on this course of Deserving an

Abandoned faith and stopped reaching out to God the way God would have himself reached to and what

Paul is saying is You are repeating this error You're actually doing what they did those ones that were broken off those unbelievers that you're so curious about why did

God do that to them Beware because you're behaving the way they did which is why they were broken off All Israel will be saved

Some think that this means that sometime around Christ's return Israel as a nation will turn to God which is pretty much the dispensationalist view

Others take it to mean the church as when Paul Writes in Galatians 6 16 and as for all who walk by this rule peace and mercy be upon them and upon the

Israel of God beginning in chapter 9 Paul's been defending

God's grace and the reliability of his word of salvation by the gospel and Faith in his son.

This is what Paul's been at for three chapters This defense was necessary because the people of God's promise his chosen people the ones who had possession of all the ceremonies of the temple that pointed towards Christ and his cross the ones who had the

Oracles and the law and all the rest of it. We're talking about Abraham's descendants They largely we could say almost as a nation

Rejected Christ as it is today So if God's promises to them proved faulty

What about the rest of us so Israel when

Paul says all Israel will be saved He's speaking about the remnant within the nation He's speaking in the all these chapters about Israel not in the spiritualized or allegorical sense

But Israel as you'd normally think of it And what does this tell us? This tells us that God will have for himself each and every soul

That was born in that nation Israel as a nation That he has as he has anyone else determined to have for himself

He will have from them all the remnant all those who knee Back in Elijah's day had not bowed to Baal all the ones that he himself through his providence in history had preserved by Jesus's time

The humility that came for a short time by recognizing Divine grace had morphed into an entitled deserving

Like the man in the temple who said I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I get I Deserve your favor.

Oh Lord you owe it to me for all that I do for you, and this is the way

Israel had grown Over the many centuries going up and even into Jesus time

Thinking that if I just do these things if I just perform the deeds

Then God will be pleased with me will save me Well those

Romans 3 9 answer Romans chapter 3 verse 9 what then are we

Jews any better off No, not at all Jews are saved the same way as anyone else by faith in Christ Jesus Not all

Israel was broken off. I mean Paul himself was proof of that Those who perished in their unbelief were as will be anyone else who follows that obstinate pattern broken off and condemned but because of unbelief

The Gentiles in Rome felt that same sort of deserved and privileged status as the people they were wondering about had done

They don't say it explicitly nobody ever really would but their whole line of thinking implied it

The warning about being broken off is something like this if God will not tolerate unbelief even in his chosen people

Israel Then nor will he in you Your arrogance that's verse 11 18 and your conceit

That's verse 11 25 are so opposed to gospel humility as to indicate

There may be no gospel faith You see how serious that is Paul is not saying may it never be that Paul said a true branch a believer

Can go from believer one day to unbeliever the next day Where God's pleasure and acceptance because of their faith in Christ Jesus causes his smile one day and your bad behavior

Causes his anger and his wrath to come upon you the next day as if Christ Jesus hadn't already paid for your sins including that one

No, it doesn't mean true branches get broken off and condemned do not lose sleep over that Christian Paul is warning them that your behavior is

Like the behavior of those who you're wondering about who are broken off why?

for unbelief and your arrogance and your conceit in your salvation

Brings your salvation itself into question The final

Nail in this coffin of pride is verse 17 you although a wild shoot were grafted in We needn't concern ourselves here with the practice of the first century

Middle Eastern arborist or tree keepers We don't need wonder whether a farmer would ever put something wild into a good and productive and natural tree

Don't worry that a wild shoot would harm the rest of the tree There are volumes written trying to justify

Paul's analogy here because some people read that say well He didn't know anything about first century horticultural practices, and so this gets people very mixed up Men have racked their brains trying to prove that Paul knew what he was talking about and I could tell you

Paul did know What he was talking about He did know because all that other stuff misses the point

And I don't mean to sound as if I alone have found the truth I'd be lost without the help of these volumes of commentaries with men who've racked their brains and helped me

But Paul is not here writing a manual on arborist or tree keeping practices

He's writing about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's nothing natural or logical about salvation

There's nothing natural in any of us about faith We don't have faith in the natural man faith is a gift of God for by grace

You've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it it is the faith is the gift of God This is not about tree keeping

This is not to teach us how to get bigger and sweeter oranges out of our tree This is about salvation

And an unnatural branch could be put into the natural tree and All kinds of combinations because that's what

God wants to do And we don't have to justify it in terms of extra biblical tree practices

Paul's talking about salvation. He's talking about the gospel Not a manual on how to keep trees

He's telling those who would feel superior to any other person that their salvation came in a distinctly unnatural way

Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? You weren't born believing

Do you have faith in? The Atonement that Jesus Christ won for you in his suffering on the cross.

Do you believe that? That's faith Where does faith come from it's not from yourself

We don't gin it up within our spirits God gives you faith to believe

Nothing natural about that there's nothing logical about that It doesn't have to comport with tree practices in the first century

Do not feel superior to anyone else whether they're saved or unsaved because the grace that God gave you

Should be a humbling thing God makes peace with his enemies while they're still his enemies

It's Roman 5 While we're yet enemies Christ died for us the godly for the ungodly

What's natural about that? What's logical about that? Probing into it too far is the warning of the doxology of the end who's known the mind of the

Lord get out of there Get out there. Do you have faith? Be satisfied with that do you believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ praise God stop there

What did God do in the middle of a war Against us or we against him really while his opponent, which is us.

We're still at arms against him. We still hate him And what does God do?

He sues for peace He makes peace with us it makes no sense God looks at the tree that is

Christ his precious and his only begotten Son and grafts into him wild Unpredictable inconsistent strength sapping shoots taken from a wilderness of confusion

Rebellion and determined unbelief. That's you and that's me Grafted back into Christ.

What sense does that mean? We're gonna ruin the tree, aren't we? No because God by his spirit

Leads us into his word God by his spirit molds us into the image of a son God by his spirit by his power by his grace by his mercy upon upon us

Brings us into a mode of life according to his scripture pleasing to him

You know what sense does it make while we were sitting there with our machine guns setting up outposts to keep him away hating everything about him

What does God do he changes the heart? And Says by faith of my son.

I call you my son or my daughter So do not become proud says

Paul But stand in awe Well, I'm gonna finish with the parable but parable of the prodigal

And of course as you probably have guessed from what I did with it the first time We're gonna change it a little bit

Again Obviously nothing wrong with the way Jesus preached it and if I preach that parable as a sermon text

I'll preach it as Jesus taught it, but I want to work with it a little bit to make sure we understand this

Interplay this this dynamic going on between the Jews and the Gentiles back there in Rome and what

Paul's telling us today So the brother That's Israel the one who had worked and obeyed all that time

He can't understand why his wild brother this wild shoot. Could we say why he brings such joy to his father?

Can we even say why his father's willing to put him back into the branch? But I want to imagine a different ending one that lines up with Romans 11 and the

Gentiles boasting over Israel So the brother comes in That's the older brother.

He comes in he sees the joy we might say today. He feels the love He comes to the father and he asks forgiveness

Just as the younger brother had done and the father forgives gladly and leads him to a seat at the table and the younger brother

Of course in my little modification of the parable. He's the Gentiles the younger brother.

He's the star of the party He sees the older brother come in and he says to him. Oh good to see you

Glad to see you finally came to your senses Well you you go sit over there

You didn't meet you did indeed Maintain the estate so I'd have something when I came back, but it's mine now and I will celebrate with you.

But um, yeah Could you get to the? Lower part of the table down there.

That's what Paul is giving such severe warnings against then and I believe today and I think if we take all the doctrines and all the controversies of Romans 11 and Holy firstfruits and holy branches and roots and all

Israel being saved and all these things that are so hard to really sort out and bring together into one

Cogent sentence and line of reasoning put it all together And what is

Paul saying? Be humble towards one another be glad in God that he gave you faith to believe in Christ Jesus and These other concerns are an unholy an unwarranted an inappropriate probing into God and goes too far

We have the mind of Christ in the scripture be satisfied with that you have faith to believe

That's your business We evangelize others. We give an answer for the hope that lies within us as Peter tells us

We do all these things and we pray to God to bring our loved ones and our families to Christ that doesn't give us warrant to look into the mind of God though and to go too far and To think that we can speculate into the mind of God and find out why this one and not that one.

It's all of grace It's all by faith in Christ Saved by grace through faith even

Israel's centuries of stewardship gained them no privilege What do they what are they what should they say what should any of us say we are unworthy servants

We have only done what was our duty If we extend the parable like I did then the father's joy in the older brothers return is no less than for the youngers

And I would make just one great application of Romans 11 and Paul's answer to the

Gentiles and they're questioning about the Jews broken off And which ones came in? Simply this there is no privileged status in the kingdom, but all come to God the same way

Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen Lord God we come to you with great humility and awe in this gospel that you have

Revealed in your scripture and revealed in our spirits And we thank you Lord that we can come to you the father by faith in your son that he is our mediator who brings us

Directly to you and so father with great confidence in you we thank you for knowing

That in all things you work towards your own purposes Which is to glorify yourself and the gospel of your son