Kennystix's podcast
Continue in the Kindness of God
Our scripture reading this morning comes from the book of Romans the 11th chapter beginning at the 17th verse through the 24th. But if some of the branches were broken off and you although a wild olive chute was grafted in among the others and now sharing the nursing root of the olive tree do not be arrogance towards the branches if you were if you are remember it is not you who support the root but the root that supports you then you will say branches were broken off 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 be proud but stand in awe for if God did not spread in natural branches neither will he spare you note there in the kindness and the severity of God severe to toward those who have fallen but God kindness to you providing 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 him in again for you if for if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature and to the covenant olive tree harmony war with these the nature of natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree let's pray together oh Father in heaven we want so much to be humbled by this text it's not you who supports the root the root supports you don't boast over the branches don't be arrogant don't be puffed up if he did not spare them he won't spare you they were broken off for unbelief you stand fast only by humble childlike faith oh God humble your people under this word I pray and out of our loneliness our broken hearted contrition may we be bold and lion hearted and courageous in love would make a beautiful people I pray lowly people ready to lay down their lives for the sake of love not like suicide bombers who kill themselves in order to kill but who lay down their lives to save I mean Jesus name last two messages we've been focusing on reasons that Paul gives for why we should be humble and not be proud and puffed up over the broken off branches now let me give it a little background about this picture of the tree the situation in Romans 11 is that he's dealing with Israel who were the covenant people for all those thousands of years and now the Messiah has come Jesus Christ and he's offered himself as the Savior and the Lord of his own Jewish people and by and large has been rejected so the tree represents Israel the covenant people and the root is the covenant made with Abraham all the promises flowing up through this tree are our promises that are going to be valid for the people of God and then unbelief results in the breaking off of natural branches that's Israel not all but most and the grafting in by faith alone in the Messiah Gentiles into the covenant root and now we Gentiles by trusting in the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ partake in the promises made to Abraham of life and salvation and hope and joy and everything that was destined for the people of God is now ours by faith alone in Jesus and the danger of this teaching is that it might result in Gentiles boasting over the the broken off branches Paul's very concerned about that verse 19 Romans 11 19 then you will say Gentiles will say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in now Paul says in response to that that is true and what we've seen now for two weeks is that what ought to be a pride shattering gratitude raising humility producing truth is about to make us proud arrogant boastful elevating ourselves up over unbelieving Jewish people and he sees that coming and he's been now and we've been now lingering over this issue I spend three weeks on reasons not to be proud because I just think it's the worst thing we face way worse than adultery lust stealing all sins flow from this one pride so I don't apologize for lingering over these reasons we've seen two so far we see a third one today number one two weeks ago verse 18 remember you Gentiles and this is Bethlehem by and large I know they're Jewish people among us but that's good and I'm saying you Gentiles remember it is not you who support the root but the root who supports you salvation is from the Jews never forget it Gentiles that's the argument you are saved by being connected to a Jewish promise how dare you exalt yourself in any way by way of pride over the Jewish people how dare you produce anti-Semitism in any form verbal or active here was the second reason verse 21 if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you that was last Sunday's message so we don't need to go into that further now here's the new argument today's message the new argument is don't be proud don't be arrogant don't be puffed up over the broken-off branches because they were broken off because of unbelief alone and therefore you stand not by virtue of your ethnicity or any qualification in yourself but by childlike reliance on another alone faith alone let's read it we'll start at verse 19 and then read into verse 20 then you will say branches were broken off so that we might be grafted in that is true now here comes his argument why that should not produce pride they were broken off because of their unbelief underlying unbelief but you stand fast through faith so do not become proud but fear or standing off literally it's fear standing off tremble at the fact that you're standing in this root this Abrahamic promise that you get any participation in it at all is by faith so in Paul's mind there must be something about faith that rules out boasting that's what I want to work on for the next while that's all I want to talk about this morning is why is it that faith produces humility and cancels out boasting that's the key question for this morning's message now this is not the first time that Paul has contrasted boasting and faith let's go back to chapter 3 verse 27 and go there with me or just listen Romans 3 27 he has just said that God justifies declares righteous those who have faith in Jesus which is stunning just trust Jesus and God declares you righteous that's amazing and then he says verse 27 what then becomes of our boasting answer it is excluded why by what kind of law works a law of works no a law of faith for we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law so in Paul's mind there is something about this wonderful thing called faith that excludes boasting and all of its fruits of anti-Semitism and racism and ethnocentricity so I have three questions number one where does it come from where does faith come from second what is it and three how do we maintain it so those three questions about this amazing reality called faith where does it come from what is it how do you maintain it the third question is next week sermon I want to dwell on this huge issue of how do you get it how you keep it because this text says keep yourself keep yourself in the kindness of God we need to work on that because I think a lot of Christians have the notion the face kind of an automatic thing just kind of is there not there nothing you can really do to keep it as though you don't have to keep it so there's nothing well if I keep going I'll talk about next week sermon so we got two questions this morning where does it come from and what is it first where does faith come from faith is an act or an experience of your own soul it's not done for you it is an experience or an act of your own heart or soul so the first answer is it comes from you but when I asked a question where does it come from I'm I'm fishing for why it is that Paul thinks it rules out boasting I'm trying to get at the root the deepest thing that he can say about the origin of faith as well as in a moment the nature of faith that rules out boasting and I think the deepest answer is that faith is a gift of God what I mean by that is this Ephesians 2 8 it was given to you to have faith goes like this by grace you have been saved through faith it is not your own doing it is the gift of God Ephesians 2 8 everybody in this room and that room is a sinner which means in the Bible that we are dead in our trespasses and sins Ephesians 2 5 and that we are blind second Corinthians 4 4 that's a pretty hopeless condition and the only reason that anybody escapes that condition is the grace of God and so when you asked me or if God were to ask me at the judgment day as I stand at the gate of heaven or hell and I say or he asked me why did you believe and your brother didn't or your friend didn't or your acquaintance didn't the right answer is not going to be I was smarter I was more spiritual I had more savvy about maximizing eternity the right answer is going to be I was once blind and because of grace I now see I was once dead and because of grace I now am alive I was once unable to see anything but beautiful in Christ or the cross and one day my eyes were opened and I saw the cross is absolutely essential to my life and how could I not trust him so I just want to say in brief answer to the first question where does faith come from it comes ultimately from God which is why it cancels out boasting listen to this amazing principle from 1 Corinthians 4 7 what do you have that you did not receive and if you received it why do you boast as if you did not receive it that's 1 Corinthians 4 7 in Paul's mind the principle of a free gift being received is that you don't boast in it if you begin to boast in having received a gift you're calling attention to your dessert of the gift and if you deserve a gift it's not a gift it's a wage the Bible is real clear on the difference between wages and gifts Roman 6 23 the wages of sin is death free gift of God is eternal life you see the difference between wages and gift you want to deserve go ahead deserve if you deserve you get wages wages death if you want a gift trust and you get a gift life second question what is faith what is it that's connecting us now everything hangs on this here's a tree the root is a covenant a promise made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and to all of his true posterity and the true posterity are those who have the faith of Abraham and the faith of Abraham is the faith in the Messiah and Jesus is the Messiah and therefore everyone who trusts in Jesus trust in Jesus is in here benefiting from all the promises ever made and we're in here by one thing alone faith what is it what is it I want to say first that faith has objective content it's not faith in general like the power of positive thinking there's a lot of people who will talk about faith in the secular world you have faith you can make it in life just meaning if you approach a situation and believe in yourself and believe in the situation and are positive and cultivate a spirit of positiveness in the company you prosper that's not what we're talking about that's probably true you prosper in this world like that but if you're interested in eternity and not just a vapor's breath of life here then then you better think what what is this faith I want to belong to this tree because it lasts forever the first thing is that it has content unlike the power positive thinking Romans 10 9 the chapter before this one Romans 10 9 if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved now there's a fact God raised Jesus from the dead if you believe that you will be saved this is not a contentless faith it's got content it's got facts in it or here's another important verse in that regard second Thessalonians one ten Paul says Christ is coming back to be glorified in his saints to be marveled at among all those who have believed there's faith because our testimony to you was believed what do you believe in order to become a Christian the testimony of the apostles a testimony Paul's testimony I just read it in Acts 22 yesterday morning I saw the Lord risen I heard what his will was I was called Paul saw he heard he testifies and he wrote 13 of our letters in the New Testament and you can read his testimony and when you read and faith rises to say yes to that testimony you will be saved it's got content I want to recommend a book J. Gresham Machen what is faith so I've told the bookstore guys get this book so in a few weeks maybe you'll see a pile of them in there you can get one it's 80 years old most good books are at least 300 years old but this one is only 80 years old Machen says the Bible certainly tells us that faith involves a person as its object God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ but it is impossible to have faith in a person without having knowledge of the person you talk all you want about I trust my wife or I trust my friend or I trust my dad and I promise you if you don't know anything about your dad your brother your wife that sentence honors them not at all because it's an absolute leap in the dark I don't have any evidences that my wife is faithful I don't have any evidence is that her character is good I don't have any evidences that she keeps her promises I'm just choosing in the dark to say I believe she's trustworthy well that doesn't honor her you got to know something about the people you trust if your trust is going to be an honor to them and therefore faith has content please in this church or whatever church you belong to don't play off doctrine against relationship with Jesus you gotta know Jesus gotta be able to say some things about him or it's no honor to him is if he's just a vague amorphous blob out there under the word J E S U S and you say you trust him that doesn't bring any glory to him at all and is not real faith he's got to have some contours says in 2 Corinthians 4 4 that we see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ and we see the light of the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ he's got a face see it in the Bible know it he's got meaning second thing I want to say after pointing out that faith has content is that the devil knows that and believes it and is not saved James 2 19 you believe that God is one that's a good fact you do well even the demons believe and shudder so the second thing to say about faith is you must have facts in your faith in order to be saved but having facts doesn't save anybody that's the second thing that has to be said so what do you what are you saying I mean you just told us facts are important believe that Jesus raised in the dead that's important and now you're telling us that you can do that and you'd just be a devil maybe and that's true so here's what I'm saying I'm saying beyond awareness of facts and assent to facts and agreement to facts which is absolutely essential there must be trust trust you must trust Jesus you must trust God his father now trust trusting a person is an ambiguous thing you ask me do I trust no well you're sitting here my wife I'm gonna say yes that's the right answer but it's an ambiguous answer because it really doesn't have a lot of meaning until I ask you about what you mean I have to say trust her to do what sing bass jump over a building not poison me not sleep with another man answer no no yes yes I don't trust no well the same base I don't trust no well to jump over a building I do trust her not to poison me I do trust her not to sleep with another man you see how ambiguous this thing is you got to ask when you say I trust you Jesus somebody should ask you for what perfect health all the time we really got to get specific about this because we just play in games until we get down to brass tax and say what do you trust your wife for what do you trust Jesus for and here's the reason this is so important because what you trust a person for shapes and determines the very nature of the trust does so I want to spend the rest of our time asking what do we trust Jesus for what must we trust Jesus for to be saved to be in the tree and not to boast what is it that we trust Jesus for that in the end will cancel out all boasting and keep us in the tree so that we are saved I've got five answers to that question number one we must trust him for justification Galatians 216 so we have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified in Christ and not by works of the law one of the things you have to believe Jesus for is that he will be the basis of my right standing with God and he alone will be the basis of my right standing with God this is huge we spent years on this chapters three four five six seven eight are all about this this glorious gospel of justification by faith you must come to Jesus and say to him all right I have tried and I'm still trying to be a good person and I have failed and I will always fail and even if I succeed 99 percent God is a hundred percent God and I will not make it into heaven I must have a righteousness that is not my own and I must have forgiveness for all this junk in my life and you are my only hope and I trust you as the basis of that righteousness and the basis of that forgiveness and you alone you got to believe that you got to trust him for that and it's really good news that's not a new law that's freedom from law that's number one number two we trust him for eternal life first Timothy one sixteen first Timothy one verse sixteen Jesus Christ displayed his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life believe in him for eternal life what he believed him for I don't believe in my wife for eternal life I do not trust no well to give me eternal life oh but I believe in Jesus for eternal life I want to live I don't want to go to hell those are the only two options yes if Jesus does not come back for a while we will be eaten by the worms but I promise you that is not the final destiny of the soul we will go to one place or the other and Jesus offers us eternal everlasting life and says believe me and I'll give it to you we've got to trust him for that number three we must trust him for everlasting kindness all I'm doing with this third point is defining the life of the second point because I know that for a lot of people the phrase eternal life really doesn't sound all that positive as a little child it didn't sound positive to me it scared me it sounded really like endless boredom frankly because I was bored pretty much at church and I thought streets of gold and silver were not the kind of streets I wanted frankly I wanted grass and a football and so I know that the phrase eternal life isn't all that exciting to a lot of people we've got to begin to fill it up with something beautiful and one of the words and I choose the word kindness see I could have chosen many words but kindness is in the text and that's why I chose it it says continue in his kind verse 22 note the kindness and the severity of God severity towards those who fallen because of unbelief but kindness to you provided you continue in his kindness so I want to say that as we enter into everlasting life this infinite infinite God who created grass and gold will be so kind to you that whatever it takes to make your eternity happy that's what he'll do and you got to trust him for that you got to trust him for that number four we trust in Jesus and we must trust in Jesus we must trust in Jesus that in him God will work everything together for our good Romans 8 32 is the biblical foundation of his kindness toward us and his doing everything good to us he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things now notice the logic of the verse he didn't spare his own son that means he paid a huge huge price for our salvation and he draws out of that this inference how shall he not with him freely give us all things grass footballs someday when I'm ready not to make idols out of them but rather make them instruments of worship I really believe heaven is going to be an absolute blast an absolute is an important word there blast is not a very good word for heaven but absolute blast is and every joy that has any element of holiness and goodness in it in this life will not only be preserved but multiplied 10,000 fold for children men women forever and it will not be boring I promise you and in this life no he will not heal every disease and he will not rescue us from physical death and there will be many trials oh last night we prayed with people in such misery such misery marital misery and health misery I'm just so aware in a room like this that for me to say God will work all things together for your good is hard to believe I know that God believe it we've got to believe it because if you don't believe it you're saying either he's not God or he's not good you say those two things you can't see yourself out of the kingdom he's God and he's good yes there's much pain that comes into our lives and he's gonna take it all and bring us in and through it for our everlasting good and you can't figure that out you just have to believe him with tears running down your face that's the fourth thing that faith is finally number five this is the most essential thing because it's in all the others we have to believe that in the kindness of God and in eternal life and in justification and in his working everything together for good the ultimate essential good of the gospel is God himself and the ultimate thing for which we believe him is that he will be for us and all satisfying treasure it amazes me it amazes me about my own life and it amazes me about churches that we can preach the gospel and not think about what makes it good news ultimately we use words like forgiveness of sins or justification or salvation or reconciliation or propitiation or atonement or ransom none of those is the end point that makes salvation good news why do you want to be forgiven because it feels good not to be guilty or to escape hell those are both true and desirable but that's not what makes it good news what makes forgiveness good news is that it gets out of the way everything that keeps you from enjoying God and if you say well I am even thought about enjoying God you may not be a Christian because the only ultimate joy that fully satisfies is God everything Jesus did on the cross everything he did in rising from the dead everything he did by way of illustrating his character in doing miracles and loving people getting his arms around kids and lepers was to show us that in the end our satisfaction is going to come from being near him knowing him loving him delighting in him he is the end of the gospel if we don't penetrate through eternal life and penetrate through kindness and penetrate through justification penetrate through Romans 828 to him how is he honored so my fifth point about what we trust Jesus for is we trust him to be a treasure to us that is infinite and all satisfying so how does it eliminate pride that's where we've been going remember I've lost you perhaps but let's go back you know it all began with okay there are three reasons in this text for why pride anti-Semitism boasting racism ethnocentrism should be excluded from the Christian life three reasons it's not you who supports the root the root supports you so don't be proud if he didn't spare the natural branches neither will he spare you and now today's point is they were broken off because of unbelief you stand fast only by faith what is it so that we can see why it cancels out boasting and now I've done my best but we need to ask so why does all of that that you just described rule out boasting maybe I could close with just a picture if the essence of all of those things we trust Jesus for is himself as the satisfaction of our souls in our desperate need as a sinner have you ever seen a man or conceived of a man dying of thirst in the desert found by a rescue party with a swollen tongue cradled in an arm with a canteen of cool clean life-giving water put to his lips who as he drinks cuts his eyes up to his rescuer and says i'm somebody for enjoying this i you'll never see that not in a million years let's pray father please there's only one ultimate escape from boasting and that is the broken-hearted enjoyment of the god of grace so break our hearts for our sin and grant everyone in this room to taste grace to taste Christ the god of grace
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