Kennystix's podcast
Stand Fast Through Faith
The following resource is from desiringGod.org. John's text this morning is from Romans again, Romans chapter 11, verses 17 through 24. But if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive chute were grafted in among the others, and now share in 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 were 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 God's 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 off 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? Let's pray together. Father Humility has been the mark of your church when she is right with you for two thousand years and we want so much to hear Paul's warnings against boasting and pride, especially over the broken off branches of unbelieving Israel and tremble and stand in awe that we stand and have a place in this tree, this covenant of grace by faith alone through grace alone because of Christ alone to the glory of God alone. So come and help me to help your people now hear your word and be humbled by it and take stock of our sinful selves and repent and be cleansed and walk in a brokenhearted boldness that will commend Christ to the world for who he really is. In his name I pray, amen. That time I gave three reasons, I mentioned three reasons for why Paul attacks antisemitism and the pride that he's behind it and I gave one of the reasons last time and today we will look at one more. Paul is very, very concerned about any rise of antisemitism, any feelings, attitudes, words, actions that puff ourselves up at the expense of unbelieving Jewish people. He's very concerned about this and we should be too. There's a reason for his concern about pride and it's found in the very doctrine that he's preaching, that it can be twisted and used to buttress arrogance. Let's read it, verse 19. Then you will say branches were broken off, that's Jewish unbelieving people who've rejected their Messiah so they're broken off from the covenant and salvation, branches were broken off so that I, I a Gentile, might be grafted into that very salvation. Paul says that's true, branches are broken off, in order that salvation might come to the Gentiles and they might be included in the promises made to Abraham. That's true, Paul says. Now we need to see the whole picture here because it includes when the salvation comes to Gentiles that salvation will in turn lead to the salvation of all Israel. So Israel is disobedient in order that salvation might come to the Gentiles in order that by that salvation, salvation might in turn after some time also come to Israel. That's the way redemptive history is being laid out here. Let's go to the big summary statement and do a little review here, verse 30. So drop down dear the end of the chapter, if you have your Bible and look at it with me, this is the most important summary statement of the chapter. It starts like this, verse 30. Just as you, that's the Gentiles, at one time were disobedient to God. Now Paul's there, let's get that clear, this is a reference to the thousands of years in which God was dealing, especially with Abraham and his descendants, the Jewish people. Abraham, right on down to Jesus, about 2,000 years there, letting the nations go their own way. Just as you Gentiles were at one time disobedient to God, but now, this is what happens with the coming of Christ, now have received mercy, and here's that crucial phrase, because of there the Jewish disobedience. Now that's exactly what we have in verse 19. They were broken off so that I might be grafted in, here it's stated a little differently, Gentiles received mercy because of their disobedience. Now I want to pause here in the review and ask, how did that happen? What is he thinking? What do you mean, Paul, that because of Jewish disobedience somehow that became a means to the end of Gentile salvation? How does that work? Why does there need to be rejection, unbelief, breaking off in order that salvation mercy comes to the Gentiles? I want to answer that with two answers. One from the ministry of John the Baptist, and one from Romans 3, so I'm trying to answer the question in Paul's mind, in the mind of the New Testament, how is it that the stumbling, the rejection of the Messiah by Jews, by and large, was designed to bring mercy to the Gentiles? Now here's a part of the preaching of John the Baptist. This is from Matthew 3, verses 7 to 10, and I quote it because there is an image in it that is so much like the image of this tree, Matthew 3, 7, when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warn you to flee from the wrath to come. Their fruit in keeping with repentance," do not, let's just stop there. He's talking to the foremost Jewish leaders of the day, Pharisees, Sadducees, these are the leaders, and he's saying, "Repent, be baptized, wrath is coming." Now that does not go over well with the privileged people, and they're about to say something that he says, "You better not say this." And what they're about to say is, "We're Jews. You know who you're talking to? You're threatening us with wrath. We're Abraham's children." So now I'll keep reading. Do not, this is verse 9, do not presume to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father." So there's the objection. Now before I give you John's response to that objection, let's make sure we understand the nature of it. Here you come, John the Baptist, claiming to be a prophet and saying, "Rath is hanging over us," and that if we don't repent and be baptized, it doesn't even matter that we're Jews, Sadducees, or Pharisees, we're going to come under God's eternal judgment. Don't you realize that if what you're saying is true, God's promises to a covenant people abort and he's not faithful, which can't happen, and therefore we're safe? In other words, God is locked into us because he's made covenant promises and he's a God who cannot break covenant promises and therefore we're safe. Now let me start back at verse 9 again and hear what John says to that. Do not presume to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father, for I tell you God is able from the stones to raise up children for Abraham." Now, even the axe is laid to the root of the tree, does that sound familiar? Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. What's his response to this argument that God is locked in and must save us? Abraham is our father, his answer is God is locked into promise-keeping and if he runs out of believing Jews, he'll make him out of rocks. Don't you think you can box him in? Nobody corners God. And so the answer to the question, how does the unbelief of Israel yield the salvation of the Gentiles? The first answer is when it happened, God turned to stones and said, "I will have a people and I will fulfill my covenant promises to my people and if I have to, I'll raise them up out of stones and I think that's exactly what he did. And I was one of those stones with my hard, unbelieving, impenitent, Gentile, uncircumcised heart and he had to fulfill the new covenant promise to me a Gentile by reaching in and taking out of my heart of stone and putting in a heart of supple flesh so that I would respond tenderly to his gospel." So the unbelief of Israel, they're boasting in their own privileged standing and not repenting and not seeing in the Messiah their true Savior has resulted in God turning with omnipotent grace towards undeserving Gentiles and taking our hearts of stone and turning them into believing hearts of flesh. That's the first answer. Here's the second answer, it comes from Romans 3, 19, goes like this. Now we know that whatever the law says, this is the law of Moses, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. That's the Jewish people. So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God for by the works of a law, no human being will be justified. Now notice the connection between those who are under the law are addressed by the law. So Jewish people for 2,000 years were addressed by the law, do this and you will live. And their mouths and our mouths are stopped by that history. Why? Why is your mouth, your Gentile mouth shut by Israel's experience with the law? The reason is this, if the people most privileged for 2,000 years, the covenants, the glory, the worship, the law, all of these privileges listed in Romans 9, 1 to 3. If the most privileged people on planet earth could not be right with God by the works of the law, what chance do you think you have? None. In other words, Israel's experience with the law by striving to keep it and stumbling over it and the Messiah who came to fulfill it has become a lesson book for the Gentile nations. And the lesson book has one main lesson, you will get right with God if at all by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of the Messiah alone plus nothing. That's the lesson of Israel. And that's how their unbelief and their stiff arming of the Messiah as they tried to work for God becomes grace and mercy towards us Gentiles as we read off of that entire book. Oh, I get it. It's got to be grace. And if it's by grace, my uncircumcised catfish eating tradition will not keep me out. What a mercy by their disobedience mercy has come and we've discovered it's grace, it's mercy, it's cross, it's Christ, it's not law, all of that we have learned from the disobedience of Israel after 2,000 years of failure to keep the law and get right with God that way. So summarizing this is all review for those who haven't been around for a year. Answer number one to the question, how is it that the disobedience or the breaking off of the branches results in my being grafted in and your by faith being grafted in? Answer number one, because God turned to have a people for himself even if he must make them out of stones and he did by creating Christians out of Gentiles or we could say creating Jews out of Gentiles. And the second answer is the whole history of the disobedience of Israel climaxing in her rejection of the Messiah has become a lesson book for the nations by which we learn. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on the basis of Christ alone plus nothing. Now we have not got the whole picture yet because we didn't read on in the summary verses. We got verse 30, so go back to verse 30 and 31 with me. We got verse 30 where the disobedience of Israel yields mercy for the Gentiles. Now look, look at verse 31 to get the picture complete. So they, the Jews too, have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you Gentiles, they also may now receive mercy. So it's not going to end with their disobedience and our salvation. It's not the end of redemptive history. This is all a plan by which God will bring mercy to the Gentiles through the disobedience of Israel. But that salvation brought through the disobedience of Israel will result in the salvation of Israel. This is a very complex way to run history because God is a very complex God and there is a purpose for it all. And you know what it is? To shatter human pride. The Jews were tempted to boast in their Jewishness. So what shall we do? We shall see to it that they enter into a season of hardening and watch the Gentiles inherit their blessings. And we Gentiles are so prone to boasting in the broken off branches and we were grafted in and they were broken off that He will now make our very salvation, the means of the people's salvation that we are boasting over. This is all about shattering human pride. And now we're ready to go back and pick up where we left off last week. We have two more reasons for why the attack on pride is so crucial. Why the attack on anti-Semitism and its boastful pride underneath it is so crucial. We saw one reason. Last week we will see one more today and then move on with the third one, Lord willing next week. So last week verse 18, let's go back to verse 18 near the end. Here's reason number one. I'll just restate it. It's not you Gentiles who support the root, the Jewish root, the Abrahamic root, the covenant root, the root supports you. You're a supported people. You're a welfare case people. You've got to be carried by grace. So people who need to be supported ought not to be quick to boast. That was last week's argument. Now this week's verse 21, four, if God did not spare the natural branches, in other words if He broke off Jewish people from the covenant, neither will He spare you, Roman church members, Bethlehem church members, professing Christians, neither will He spare you. Does that mean? That's scary. Verse 22, note then, the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward those who have fallen but kindness to you provided. You continue in His kindness, otherwise you too will be cut off. The second reason to avoid pride and anti-Semitism is because if you don't, if you give way to a life of arrogance and proud boasting over Jewish unbelievers you will go to hell. That's what He's saying. God will cut you off just like He did them. Now I said last week that I would undertake to try to answer the absolutely essential question, how does that kind of threat delivered to this church this morning relate to our security as believers in Christ? How does it relate to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints? The eternal security of the believer. So that's what I want to do in the remaining time. Is it right for Paul or me to threaten you with perishing if you go on living in pride and arrogance and anti-Semitic speech and action? There's such a threat implied that Paul believed genuine believers who are regenerate, born again, and justified can lose their salvation. Now the answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second question is no. The first question was is it right to deliver these threats to a church like this with many, many believing, born again, justified saints in the room? Answer yes. Does it mean that believing, born again, justified saints can be lost? The answer is no. Now if that sounds paradoxical we should then ask for the basis for two things like that coming together. And the first basis I would give you is they're both in the Bible and therefore I want to believe them. You need to know that's the way my mind works. At least when I'm submissive to grace that's the way my mind works. If I find two things in the Bible that are both clearly taught and they don't seem to fit together in my head, I conclude my head needs fixing, not the Bible needs fixing. That's my fundamental approach to the Bible. And I find these two things so manifestly taught in the Bible, the absolute security of justified, born again people and the warnings delivered to such people that they'll go to hell if they live in pride that I'm going to say that that's the way I should preach. I should teach that and deliver those warnings faithfully. So how can that be? And it really isn't too hard to figure out. I don't think, let me try to explain it the best I can. He says don't become proud. Don't boast over the unbelieving Jews because otherwise you too will be cut off. What happens is this. When a threat like that is delivered by me or when you read it in the Bible yourself, those who are born of God, those who have a just and right standing before God and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and have been joined to Jesus Christ and made part of the family, they hear that warning and tremble. They do not blow it off like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. We have Abraham as our Father. They don't blow it off. They tremble knowing how fragile in ourselves we are and in that trembling, fragile belief they fly to the cross for forgiveness and they fly to the Holy Spirit for enablement and power and keeping and that is how they persevere to the end infallibly. But the hypocrites, they hear who don't have the Holy Spirit within them. They're not humble, they're not broken, they're not prone to tremble. They hear a threat, oh, that didn't belong to me, I'm safe and that's dangerous. My answer is the threats of the Bible delivered to born again people are one of the means the sovereign God uses to preserve them safe. And therefore you bear witness to your own endangered condition if you don't receive the threat, tremble and avail yourself of sustaining grace. Now it might not be plain to some of you, the threat is on the face of this text. I don't know how anybody could deny that he's threatening the Roman church with damnation if they are proud anti-Semitic people in an ongoing way. What you may not embrace, and I don't know whether I should assume this or not, is that the Bible does teach security, and so I better give you a few verses on that. Here are a few. I go back to the Old Testament for starters because the New Covenant is now valid and established for all of us Gentile Christians. Jeremiah 32, 40, I love this verse. I will make with them an everlasting covenant. This is he speaking now this to every person who flies to Jesus as your Savior and your Lord and trusts in him. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. So he's not turning. How about you? You going to turn? I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. I will put the fear of me that's in this text. Do not be proud but fear, it's translated to stand in awe. I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me. Thank you, thank you, thank you for laying hold on me like that. According to wonder, Lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Take my heart, oh God, and seal it, seal it for the courts above. Fester me to your throne. And that's exactly what he does. I want you to feel this as precious because I don't know what you do when you are putting your head on the pillow at night. Where do you get the peace as you lay your head on a pillow at night that you're going to wake up trusting Jesus and not a rebel? You get it from some kind of intrinsic continuity in the human will. It's not fickle. It's not wondering, it's not fragile. I tell you if my peace that I would endure to the end came from me, I have none. It comes from this verse and all the ones like it, I will put the fear of me in your heart and you will not turn from me. And you know I do not mean perfection here. There are many stumbling three steps forward, two steps backwards. We're battling all the time, but I will hold on to you. Let me read you a few more just so you can feel the wonderful preciousness of this doctrine. Philippians 1.6, I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. My hope is that if he's begun it in me, he's going to finish it. He's going to finish it, I'm not going to finish it, he's going to finish it. 1 Corinthians 1, 8, Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of the Lord Jesus. God is faithful by whom you were called into his fellowship. Romans 8, 30, here's a word about that call. This is the most important verse on perseverance in the Bible for me. Romans 8, 30, those whom he predestined, he called. And those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified. It does not say some of those that he justified are going to be glorified. It says there's an iron clad chain connecting justification and glorification therefore, if in your heart of hearts you know you are trusting in Christ for your righteousness, you're going to make it come what may. And I should tell you, if you boast over the broken off branches and persevere in a life of pride and arrogance and anti-Semitism, you will go to hell. Leaves us with perhaps one last question. What about people, John, who we've seen them, they really have gone away. I mean they went to church for years, they were deacons and elders and they prayed and they stood in pulpits and they're gone now, they're apostate, they've thrown it all away. What's that? The Bible is really clear on what that is, leaves no question what that is, I'll read it to you, 1 John 2 19, they went out from us but they were not of us. Or if they had been of us, they would have continued with us but they went out that it might become plain, they were not of us. Baptized, communion eating, attending worship, morally upright, not of us but it wasn't plain while they were here. It became plain when they forsook it all and never returned. Hebrews 3, 14, we have shared in Christ if we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Isn't that a remarkable sentence? It doesn't say we will share in Christ if we hold our confidence firm to the end, it says we have shared in Christ if the future proves it to be so. Conclusion. Verse 21, "Neither will he spare you." Verse 22, "You too will be cut off." On the one hand there is real, genuine, spiritual, inward attachment to the tree. I'm closing now by answering the concrete question, were they in the tree or were they in the tree? The branches are cut off. So what are you saying? I'm saying this, there is an outward, unspiritual, formal attachment to the covenant people. And there is an inward, spiritual, authentic, real, life transforming, sap, enjoying attachment to the tree. And when a limb is cut off, you know it was the fruitless limb, was the proud, arrogant, unbelieving limb whose attachment was formal, external, unreal. Just as in the Old Testament there are circumcised, sacrifice offering, worship attending, Jewish, children of Abraham who are not children of Abraham, chapter 9, verse 6. So in the church, this formal, external reality of the visible church, there are baptized, Christian eating, worship attending, tithing, unregenerate, hypocritical, formal, external Christians. And the last question would be, when does that cutting off happen? What is it like? Is it church discipline? No. That's not what he has in mind here. Church discipline is a formal cutting off in the hope that there will be repentance. But the hypocrite is not known in the church. Here's my answer to when it's going to happen and what it's going to be like. It's going to happen at the last judgment. I base that on two things. One is the future tense in verse 21 and 22. Neither will he spare you. You will be cut off. And I base it on the picture in Matthew 7, 22, one of the most scary texts in all the Bible. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? We were attached. We were in the body. We were serving the body. We were spiritually active. Verse 23, "Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." So if you ask me, when's the cutting off? Turn to the loppers of the severe Christ, sever a limb from the tree of the covenant. It happens in the words, "Depart from me. I never knew you." And you don't want to hear those words. You do not want to hear those words, and so I plead with you. Do not boast over the broken off branches. Do not become proud or arrogant. Let's just generalize it. Let us be a brokenhearted, humble people to one another and to people outside. Let us confess our fallibility and our fragile faith and our absolute utter dependence upon sovereign grace to get us into the body and to keep us in the body. That's the only way anybody will stand. And so I close with 2 Corinthians 13.5, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Rest yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless you fail to meet the test. So periodically, I shouldn't beat this drum too often. The elders will have to help me discern how often to speak words of earnest self-examination. Because I know you can become pathological about introspection. Some people are wired to beat themselves up unnecessarily, and a sermon like this is dangerous for people like that. But now and then we must say this, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, don't you realize Christ is in you unless you fail to meet the test. And one of the tests is do not boast over the broken off branches. One test is how do you feel about unbelieving Jews? Do you love them? Or you kind of arrogant and proud, and you slurs and put downs and jokes and maybe just go the other way at the office instead of dealing with them in compassion? That's a good test, let's pray. Father, if we have the Spirit of Christ, we are His. And so I pray that you would stir up in all your people here, stir up the Spirit of humility, meekness, grace, compassion, love, courage, broken-hearted boldness. And so may we confirm our calling and our election. And Lord, for those in the room who are hypocrites, who are merely formal, external people going through the motions of religion from week to week, would you grant by your Spirit to break their hearts right now and make them tremble and draw them, savingly, into the mercy of Christ? In His name I pray, amen. Thank you for listening to this resource from desiringGod.org. If you found it helpful, we encourage you to enjoy and share from thousands of resources on our site, including books, sermons, articles, and more, available free of charge. DesiringGod.org exists to help you treasure Jesus more than anything else, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
God saves us not on the basis of our ethnicity or socioeconomic status, but by his grace alone.