This week Paul continues to explain the way in which we have become the children of Abraham.Romans 11:17-21
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, 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.
We have no place for thinking that any ethic group is superior or naturally more godly than those who are ethnic Jews. Romans chapter 3 should clear that up for us. We are supposed to stand in awe at the place we find ourselves. We are told to not be arrogant and yet we’ve historically had plenty of arrogance. We are told to stand in awe at the Amazing Grace poured out on us but while we sing Amazing Grace or actions and words seem to indicate we think we deserve Grace (yes that is an oxymoron). I’d urge you to prayerfully read over the Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals (http://www.reformedreader.org/ccc/cdec.htm) because it addresses some of the errors that have crept into our denomination over the last little while in the larger history of the Church.
Romans 11:22-24
Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward 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 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.
Paul is writing to a mixed crowd of Jews and Gentiles and tells the Gentiles who are now part of the Body of Christ and therefore grafted in as offspring of Abraham to pay attention to how we became part of the Kingdom of God. We are told to note the severity toward those who have fallen (those who are Jewish and do not receive Christ) and the kindness toward us. Now as a people, we need to listen up. As a nation, we need to hear this. God is under no obligation to continue His work and blessing in our nation if we forget the salvation that is provided for us in Christ.
Romans 11:25-27
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.”
The Church has certainly sinned in this way repeatedly over the last 2000 years. We are almost always wise in our own conceits thinking we are better in some way and that is why we are saved. God’s Grace saved you not because of your desirability (Romans 3:10-18) and not because you decided to be born again anymore than you decided to be born the first time. I know how it feels but we must acknowledge what God tells us about regeneration (John 6:44).
John 1:11-13
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
We need to bring only worship and awe to what God has done in our lives. A Christians new birth was not because of their genetics, nor of a will based in any person (yes even your mother or father), and you were not born of your own will (because it was corrupted to the core), but you were born of God’s will full of mercy and Grace.
Romans 11:28-32
As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God 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.
This is why we expect an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on those who are ethic Israel before the next coming of Christ. Remember that Romans Chapters 1:18 to 2:29 explain how we are all consigned or how we are all set together in disobedience. There is no difference among those who do not believe in Christ. No religion, no heritage, no relative goodness or badness, we are simply lost and apart from Christ.
Romans 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom 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 a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Paul just starts to worship as we all should when God explains what He has done in our lives. Think about God’s omniscience with no limit to His knowledge. We really can’t fully understand His ways and we simply understand what He has been pleased to tell us. Relating to a transcendent being above and beyond time who sees the end from the beginning and yet is gracious to be immanent or in the moment with us so that we can have a relationship with Him.
The following list is a brief and probably inadequate list of the fight against God’s Sovereignty over the last 2000 years.
God is Sovereign in Salvation (as explained in Romans):
Augustine (354 – 430 AD), 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689 AD)
God is Less than Sovereign in Salvation (we are saved by our will but assisted by God):
Jacob Arminius; Arminians; Condemned by Synod of Dort (1618/19 AD)
Election by prescience (you are saved because you are better and God foresees that)
John Wesley (1707 – 1779 AD)
God is Much Less than Sovereign (God is not Transcendent):
If God knows the future then they argue falsely that they are not free
Open God Theology or Process Theology (Modern)
God is Not Sovereign in Salvation and There is No Original Sin:
Pelagius; Pelagians (354 – 420 AD)
Charles Finney (1792 – 1875 AD)
As we've mentioned before, while Romans 9 it one of the clearest teachings on election in Scripture, Romans 10 is one of the clearest teachings on our role in preaching as God sends us to the mission field.
Romans 10:14-15
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
So (reversing the order since it is working back in time logically) as we pray for evangelism we pray that God would send (1) anointed preachers (2) and that the Holy Spirit would cause hearing (3), then believing (4), and then that is how you get to calling (5) on the name of the Lord.
Don’t miss the “send” in this verse. I think lots of times we stop at preaching and that is understandable because we get to do the preaching. However, the sending shouldn’t be lost in our rush to preach. The sending is a function of the Holy Spirit and the word is the word that makes up part of the name apostle. It is God who sends individuals as His emissaries. We support a missionary but it is implied that they are “called to the mission field” and that we simply confirm and support what God has done, and is doing, in their lives. Jesus made the point in Matthew 9:37-38 when He looked at the crowd and “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Often we stop quoting and don’t get to the “therefore” and the command. The command is that we pray for God to send out laborers. However, here a different word is used for “send” and it has an element of driving out or leading out of the laborers. Therefore, we are commanded to pray that God would forcefully take His laborers into the harvest. So pray that way. I dare you.
Also, to repeat a point, notice that we are commanded to pray to make things different that they would be otherwise. So do not express a fatalistic view of salvation. The Biblical view is that we are called to pray that God would forcefully send laborers into the harvest and send preachers as His representatives to share the Gospel. We make it fitting and right for mercy to flow in revival when we obey His command. If you want to surprise God then you’re not going to be happy but He commands that you work together with Him. While He is transcendent the sad fact is that you are not transcendent most of the time with our feeble minds we are barely immanent. This is your life and you are making decisions regarding your obedience to the His Word.
Isaiah had a tough assignment when it came to preaching to Israel. God told him that things would not go well as he shared God’s word with them.
Romans 10:16-21
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
I may not like being called a foolish nation or no nation but I can live with that now that I’m part of the Body of Christ. We found Him when we didn’t seek Him. Remember that we found in Romans 3:10-18 that our condition apart from God was without hope. We were lost, He showed Himself to us and we didn’t ask for Him. Historically, I think the early Church in Egypt and in Rome was an obvious fulfillment of this Scripture. In particular, the origin of such a large number of Christians in Egypt in the first couple of centuries is odd but God did it and I’m sure that it caused jealousy and anger in Jerusalem.
The following Scriptures give us a good and balanced view of how we related to Abraham and the all those Old Testament heroes of the faith.
Romans 11:1-6
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept
for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
The first point that Paul makes is that God has not rejected those who are physical descendents of Abraham because He has kept a remnant, chosen by grace, as heirs of Salvation. Paul uses himself as an example and many of those we study in Acts were ethnically Jewish and saved by the Grace of God. The incorporation of those who were not ethically Jews into the Body of Christ was a big deal for those who were ethnically Jewish. Think of poor Peter. He went round and round on the topic. So God kept a remnant in the Body of Christ by His grace. Especially today when we have had such a mobile population we would have a difficult time determining the portion of the Body of Christ that is ethnically Jewish.
Romans 11:7-10
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”
And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
Except for the elect within Israel of Paul’s day, a hardening occurred. God is under no obligation to coddle us when we, by nature, resist the Holy Spirit. So God, particularly in Paul’s day, was not moving within ethic Israel. Gentiles were being raked into the Kingdom but ethic Jews were not. Once again God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Grace and mercy can’t be required of God or they would not be Grace and Mercy.
Romans 11:11-16
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 if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch 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.
So the stumbling of ethic Israel was not without a good consequence. The rejection of salvation brought riches for the world as the Grace of God moved out into the Gentiles. This was/is the manifestation of Jesus’ parable about the wedding guests. We are still living out this parable (Matthew 22:1-14).
The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14)
And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
God has called us to the wedding feast as those originally called rejected the Groom. We are clothed in wedding garments provided for us by the Grace of God. So we look for a time at which God will poor out His Grace on ethnic Israel. We need to seek God for our own nation while we can. The historic animosity felt toward the Jews is satanic and misinformed. What is plain to us is plain to us by the Grace of God. Consider the celebration of Passover that testifies so clearly of Christ that many Christians celebrate it as a worship service. Grace has given life to believers both ethnically Jewish and ethnically gentile who are now the offspring of Abraham.
Remember to keep asking, “Why is God telling me these things?”
There are some things that we want to keep in mind.
1) God can know the future actions of a free moral agent (by definition of omniscience).
2) God knows all contingencies but He knows nothing contingently (by definition of omniscience).
Don't forget that omniscience and omnipotence are necessary attributes of God. God, in order to be God, has these as part of His nature. If you want a God that you can surprise then you don’t understand the term “God”. In His mercy and grace He interacts with us as we live in time but He is not limited in that way with the exception of the human nature of Jesus (Emmanuel) who is fully God and fully man without mixture, confusion, separation, or division.
3) Our future is known by God but not fixed from our point of view since we are in the moment (it is fragile).
4) We can pray and/or act in a way that changes the way things would otherwise be.
5) God (in His Grace) will even show mercy and change what He would otherwise do in response to our cries for mercy.
Matthew 7:7-11
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Jesus wasn’t misinformed or trying to mislead us. This verse if from the Sermon on the Mount and a careful reading will show you that He was speaking to His disciples when he gave the sermon. Another comfort I have in God’s transcendence is that He will not give me a stone or serpent if I ask for one in my ignorance. As a disciple of Jesus you are commanded to ask, seek, and knock and it will be fitting for your Father to respond to your requests. Remember the father’s response to the “non-prodigal” son in the parable of the prodigal son? When the “non-prodigal” whined to his father about the blessing of the prodigal the father said that he could have asked for blessing at anytime and he would have given it. It is right and just for the Father to respond in blessing to His children as they ask for what they need.
6) You must not think in deterministic or fatalistic ways (it is sin).
Luke 18:1-8
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? , Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
If you give up on your ability to change the way things will be and lose heart then when the Son of Man comes He will not be looking at faith. The future is not fixed but God is Sovereign over it. The enemy of your soul wants to surrender to determinism and fatalism.
7) God told us these things about election so that;
a. we would understand how deep our fall was (salvation is not a random process),
b. how great was His mercy toward us (salvation is not a random process),
c. we can trust Him to keep us (salvation is not a random process), and
d. we can minister in His power and see results (salvation is not a random process).
The message with regard to the means of your salvation is to be a blessing. Arguably the greatest Baptist evangelist that has lived was Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892). He was known as the “Prince of Preachers” and these things motivated him to excellence in preaching and evangelism. There were 14,692 baptized during the approximately 35 years of his pastorate at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. That was without tapes, CDs, DVDs, or even amplification he averaged 35 baptisms a week. But the reason why people still love to read him is because he had such a fidelity to the Word. He taught meat to his congregation for 35 years.
“How shall those who are the subjects of divine election sufficiently adore the grace of God? They have no room for boasting, for sovereignty most effectually excludes it. The Lord’s will alone is glorified, and the very notion of human merit is cast out to everlasting contempt. There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election, none more promotive of gratitude, and, consequently, none more sanctifying. Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly rejoice in it.” – Charles Spurgeon
"If the Lord sent me to preach the gospel to the devil himself, I should believe that God was able to convert even him. I know that he never will do so; but if there be any man who is as bad as the devil, and the gospel is sent to him, I shall never despair of the possibility of that man being reclaimed, and made to stand among the redeemed at the last.” – Charles Spurgeon
Amen. Soli Deo Gloria.
Paul continues to discuss his “kinsmen after the flesh” in Chapter 10.
Romans 10:1-4
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
A commitment to establishing our own righteousness in our own strength is poison to real spiritual growth. Only God by His Grace can break through when we start building these walls. Our sin nature loves the feeling that God owes us something. It is a strong drug. We begin to judge our actions as deserving of God’s reward instead of depending on Christ’s righteousness. On the other hand we also begin to think that God should pass over our sins and disobedience because of some action that, in our mind, makes up for our failure. The Cross alone brings forgiveness and righteousness.
Romans 10:5-8
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
Our righteousness is based on faith and doesn’t ask who has been good enough to get into heaven thereby neglecting the righteousness imputed to us because of the excellencies of Christ (to bring Christ down). In addition or righteousness based on faith doesn’t ask who has been bad enough to be sent to hell neglecting the necessary forgiveness required for our own sin and the penalty paid by Christ on the Cross that only He could pay (to bring Christ up from the dead). But as we minister, the word is near those to whom we share and as we share in the power of Christ … people respond to the word of faith.
We are to have tremendous confidence and freedom when we are involved in evangelism because of the promises of God. We realize that evangelism is not dependant on some sort of a sales process but is rather our participation with the Holy Spirit in God’s activity.
Romans 10:9-13
because, 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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
God is active in salvation for all those who confess and call on the Lord. Remember that calling Him Lord has content and consequences. It is important to remember that God doesn’t place barriers and on the contrary He saves those upon whose hearts He moves. We don’t trust in ourselves do we? If you thought that we were responsible for keeping ourselves in the Body of Christ can you imagine what nonsense “with the mouth one confesses and is saved” or “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” would be. If we kept ourselves in the Body of Christ what comfort or assurance would our confession or calling on God be? Our current position would be no assurance or comfort at all. This would just be some dry piece of Scripture that meant nothing to us. Instead we know that God is promising as He promised in Romans 8 that He is the one who keeps us in the Body of Christ and I don’t wake up every morning wondering if today is the day that I’ll lose my salvation. What kind of a salvation would it be if God only paid for my sins up through 2007?
