God and Grasshoppers Pt 4

would God’s people please take.
The Bible and turn to Romans chapter 11 Romans chapter 11. We’re in the fourth major section
of the Book of Romans. We have dealt with all this dealt
with. A great section on sin. Salvation
chapters that followed the sanctification and we find ourselves in the
greater discussion of the sovereignty of God which began in chapter
nine verse one and dealt with Israel’s unbelief and their subsequent
rejection. That flows into a discussion
on the fact that. Israel was pursuing a righteousness
by works and that the Gentiles, who really just stumbled upon
the gospel, believed it for what it was. Justification by faith. Well, Paul enters in this section
that we find ourselves in now, chapter 11, into a discussion
of Israel’s purpose and their restoration. Why the nation of
Israel and why does Paul keep discussing and dialoguing on
the nation of Israel? Paul fleshes that out in this
very chapter. The opening section, verses 1
through 10, looked at Israel’s condition. And it’s not a pleasant
condition. They are not rejected, not outright,
but they have indeed been hardened. They have turned their hearts
away from the Lord, and the Lord has turned his heart away from
them. But it’s not a permanent condition. And in the section
we find ourselves in now, verses 11 through 24, we have entitled
it, Grace to the Nations, where Paul is articulating all of the
ways that God has shown his abundant grace to the undeserving nations. Not only to the Gentiles, but
also ultimately to the nation of Israel. If you would pick
up with me in verse 11 as we review and meditate on God’s
Word. I say, then, they did not stumble
so as to fall, did they? May it never be. But by their
transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles. to make
them jealous. Now, if their transgression be
riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles,
how much more will their fulfillment be? But I am speaking to you
who are Gentiles, and as much then as I am an apostle of Gentiles,
I magnify my ministry if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow
countrymen and save some of them. For, if their rejection be reconciliation
of the world, what will their acceptance be that light from
the dead? And if the first piece of dough
be holy, the lump is also. And if the root be holy, the
branches are too. But if some of the branches were
broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among
them and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the
olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. But if you
are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root,
but the root supports you. You will say that branches were
broken off so that I might be grafted in. Quite right, they
were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.
Do not be conceited, but fear, for if God did not spare the
natural branches, neither will he spare you. Behold, then, the
kindness and severity of God to those who fell severity, but
to you, God’s kindness. If you continue in his kindness,
otherwise you will be cut off. And they also, if they do not
continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in for God is able
to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from
what is by nature, a wild olive tree and were grafted contrary
to nature into a cultivated olive tree. How much more shall those
who are the natural branches be grafted in to their own olive
tree? I entitled the section God and
grasshoppers. It’s not that God is unconcerned
about people. It’s just that nations are not
in control of their own destiny. God is sovereign and God is articulating
his sovereignty to the nations here in this chapter, almost
unlike no other section of Scripture. What we’ve begun to see in the
grace that is extended to the nations, God’s sovereign grace,
is beneficial aspects of that grace. Beneficial aspects of
God’s gracious plan of redemption. We’ve already looked at four.
Just quickly, as you glance at the verses, a brief review. Grace, first of all, means hope
for Israel. That’s what we saw in verse 11,
that they didn’t stumble completely. It wasn’t a complete and utter
breakdown on the part of the nation of Israel. They are utterly
lost. Grace not only means hope for
Israel, grace means salvation for the Gentiles. It was through
that means of Israel’s falling that the gospel would go out
to the Gentiles, and it has. But even the Gentiles and their
coming to Christ had a purpose, and that purpose is articulated
in verse twelve. Grace means future blessings,
and it’s very undefined. Look at verse twelve again. If
their transgressions be riches for the world, that is the transgressions
of the Jews be riches for the world in the gospel going out
to the Gentiles. How much more will their fulfillment
be? Something good is going to happen. We don’t. Paul doesn’t
articulate it in full, but he does say that a blessing awaits,
a future blessing awaits. Grace means future blessings,
and then fourth, last week we considered point four, one point. Grace not only means hope for
Israel, number one. Grace not only means salvation
for the Gentiles, two, and future blessings, point three. Grace
means salvation for Israel, point four. That’s what the entire
section from 13 to 21 speaks of. That essentially Paul in
his entire ministry was magnifying his ministry so that the more
Gentiles came to Christ, the more likelihood there was to
make the nation of Israel jealous. Now, I have to tell you, we’ve
skirted the issue at times, I’ve hinted and alluded to it at times,
and I have to tell you, there are essentially two major interpretations
about this passage, and they are at odds. There is one interpretation
that is essentially, that would describe this as already taking
place, it’s present, it’s here now, that these things are already
taking place, and to a degree that’s true. But there is another
interpretation that points to this and to the majority of the
promises of this section as being future. Paul articulated in verse
15, if the rejection was reconciliation of the world, what will their
acceptance be? What will the acceptance of the
nation of Israel in great measure? What will that be in the future?
Well, One articulated the first viewpoint
in these terms. The present explanation rejects
any future references in Paul’s teaching about the Jews and sees
these verses as describing only what we already observe in regard
to the general pattern of Jewish belief. In other words if you
take the gospel to your co-worker at work. And that Jewish person
comes to faith. They would say there’s your proof
that I would almost call it the trickle view that throughout
the centuries there have been those Jewish people and there
are today those Jewish people that hear about the gospel of
Christ and repent and come to Christ in faith. And they say
that that is the proof of this view. That view developed essentially
during the period of the Reformation there was no nation of Israel
and it continues to this day and one articulated it with three
simple points. You said essentially it’s speaking
about the salvation of some Jews at the present time. That’s what
this entire section is talking about and in that sense it’s
already being fulfilled. The second point was that the
verses don’t speak of any future of Israel at all. The third point
is that when the passage says all Israel will be saved, what
it points to is, as Paul is referring to there, so he says, is that
only the elect, only the elect Jews are going to be saved, even
as is already currently happening. Now, I said that there’s another
viewpoint. And the other viewpoint looks to a large a massive conversion
of the Jews to where Paul could say all Israel has been saved. Now we know that not every person
ever born who is of Jewish descent will be saved. It just isn’t
going to happen. But it will happen to such a
degree says the future view that you can step back and say truly
the nation of Israel has repented and received her Messiah. It
is referred to here as the great and general conversion of the
Jews. The context points to it. Verse 12. How much more will
their fulfillment be that these Jews are going to be restored
in the same sense as they were rejected. They weren’t rejected
as individuals because the church in Rome was full of Jewish converts.
The church in first century Christianity was full of Jewish converts.
So, they weren’t rejected entirely. They’re going to come back in,
in the same way that they were rejected. They were rejected
as a nation. The nation rejected their savior and God rejected
them. And they will be brought back in to faith in the same
way. That a mighty conversion of the
nation of Israel will take place. That’s the future explanation.
Now, the problem is Did both sides of this argument use rhetoric
and language that is provocative, even harsh. They paint pictures
of each other that really aren’t true or accurate. There is no
effort to really seek truth. And that’s what I would hope
to do this morning as we look to the text. Let me give you
a couple of examples. What I’m talking about. Now,
I am not here to serve as an apologist for either covenantalism
or dispensationalism, but if you take those polar opposites,
this is where you find that harsh rhetoric. The covenantal view. Romans 11,
11 through 24 teaches, perhaps as clearly as any other passage
in the Bible, the unity of believers of all ages. Now, you will find
in both definitions. you will find things that are
true. I believe that to be true. Romans 11 teaches the one people
of God. I agree with that. There’s only
one good olive tree. The problem is, he goes on. It
had been composed of both unbelieving and believing Jews in the Old
Testament, but now the bad branches, the unbelieving Jews have been
broken off, leaving only the believing Jews and that much
is true. It’s exactly what the text says. The bad branches, the unbelieving
Jews have been broken off, leaving only the believing Jews, the
true Israel of God, and that’s buzzword. That’s essentially
interpretational data that says that this is just a spiritual
Israel that Paul is talking about, not the literal Israel. The true
Israel of God, to whom believing Gentiles are now grafted in,
is to a good tree. Now you say, well, how are you
getting all that? How are you concluding that he’s twisting
words here? These are his words. God has
not suspended his purpose for national Israel. You see, that’s
the opposite viewpoint. They say that God has set Israel
aside for a moment. God is using the Gentiles to
stir them up to jealousy. In time, he will bring them to
faith. God has a purpose. He has suspended his purpose
for national Israel. Well, the covenantal viewpoint
says he has not suspended his purposes for national Israel.
He has fulfilled it and is fulfilling it in the true Israel, the church.
It’s present. It’s already happening. The kingdom
of God was taken from Israel as a nation and given to the
true Israel. And then he said. You couldn’t
say it any more plainly reformed theology defines the church as
believers of all ages. We’ll investigate whether that’s
accurate or not. But on the opposite end of the
spectrum are those dispensations that make their own overstatements. In the opposite end of the spectrum,
one said prior to the launching of the church, God began his
kingdom program throughout the left, the left nation of Israel.
They essentially say the same thing there. The plan of redemption has its
roots in Old Testament Israel. During the time of the mysteries
of that kingdom, when Israel is temporarily been set aside
with and with her the full blessing of the world. God is calling
out of people for his name from all nations, and he is building
the church. I’ve already indicated to you
in weeks past that is essentially our hope that to be true. God
is using the conversion of the Gentile people to provoke the
nation of Israel to ultimately bring them to faith. Here’s where
I believe he. Goes south. when he says the
church has therefore been grafted into the great promises of blessing,
which are foundational to God’s total salvation program, which
had prior to this time been covenanted only to Abraham and Israel. And I say overstatement because
the passage doesn’t say that. The passage doesn’t talk about
the church. The passage talks about the Gentiles being grafted
in. So, let’s be honest about the use of our words. The claim is essentially this.
The God’s people were known in Old Testament times as Israel
and the same people in the New Testament are known as the church.
Is that so? When did the church start and
where does it fit into this Aleph tree motif that Paul develops? One pastor said the two terms
are not used interchangeably by the writers of Scripture.
The writers of the New Testament continually make a distinction
between the two Israel and the Gentiles and do not equate them. The term Israel is used twenty. Pardon me the total of seventy
three times in the New Testament and in each case it refers to
ethnic Israel the nation of Israel. You know what let’s not. confuse
ourselves with various viewpoints. Let’s look at the Word of God,
because the Word of God makes it absolutely clear, and I believe
that I can show you exactly where the church fits in to this olive
tree motif that Paul offers here for us as a vehicle of truth. The fifth point that we want
to consider this morning is not only that grace means hope for
Israel, salvation for Gentiles, future blessings, salvation for
Israel itself. Grace means no double standard. God is still God. God will not
be mocked. God’s standards don’t change.
God isn’t whimsical. God isn’t capricious. God is
still God, and God’s standards are still God’s standards. Look
down at verse 22. Where Paul starts this discussion
of the fact that there is no Godless standard by looking at
the element of pruning. You heard me right. I’m not talking
about the fruit dried up in a can. I’m talking about the practice
in the garden or in the yard of pruning, cutting back branches
of a tree. Look at the element of pruning.
where Paul starts the discussion by saying, Behold the kindness
and severity of God. This severity, this word that
he points to first, or rather, secondly, I want to take first,
it ultimately means just sharply, severe. Titus 1.13, Paul uses
it there, the testimony is true for this reason. We prove them
severely. so that they may be sound in
the faith. See, the bottom line is, in the
grafting in of the Gentiles and the breaking off of the branch
of the unbelieving Jews, we see the severity of God. And it’s
God being God. And both of these things are
the expression of God in His fullness. God and his attributes
being God, not only kind, but severe. And the story of God,
as you unfold looking through the pages of the scriptures,
the story of God is the full report of both of those aspects. One pastor said, not just one
of these qualities, kindness, As is the habit of some creatures
who over emphasize the love of God at the expense of his wrath.
But both. For those who have fallen in
the present context of the Jews there is severity. The rigor
of divine judgment. We have that same tendency today
those words were written more than 50 years ago but the same
tendency probably more so today we hear a lot about the love
of God. We hear almost nothing about judgment. We hear almost
nothing about the consequences of sin. We hear almost nothing
about the wrath of God. And Paul says, first and foremost,
I want you to consider both. Look at both. Look at both of
the attributes of God at work. Behold then the kindness and
the severity of God. We’ll come to both in a moment.
Look, first of all, with the severity to those who fell severity. I mean, how much more severe
could it be? They were the chosen people of
God. They were brought in and given
all kinds of privileges. They were given the care of the
very Word of God itself. They were given the priesthood.
They were shown miracle after miracle. They had communion with
God himself. Blessing, after blessing, after
blessing, and suddenly it’s removed completely. Behold the severity of God. Behold
the goodness of God, even in doing so, that He was just in
doing it. That He was perfectly righteous
and just in taking away those privileges that He had bestowed
on this nation. God is kind, said one to sinners,
beyond all are deserving. But Paul sees his opposition
to evil as completely unyielding. Paul says, Paul stands back and
he’s utterly flabbergasted at the severity of God. He doesn’t
charge God with injustice. He says, stand back and look,
take a look and notice what God is doing. The severity would
be equal to the wrath of God, which opened this epistle, Romans
118. But not just the wrath of God,
but notice the kindness of God, and He wants to bring the Gentile
believers right into His feet and sit before God and look up
at the kindness of God. He wants them to know all about
the severity of God, but He wants them also to sense fully the
kindness. Look at verse 22. Behold them,
the kindness and the severity of God, to those who fell in
severity, but to you, kindness. And this kindness, it’s not the
kind that just is a passing kind thought. We can be kind to people
all day long, right, if it doesn’t cost us anything. But this is
an actual doing of something. This is God being God in His
goodness and letting His goodness flow and touch us and change
us. It’s a goodness that doesn’t
stand back as some kind of austere being. But it’s a kindness that
gets down into the hearts of people. It is loving kindness
that one characterized by him, which is actuated by dispensing
favor. It’s not just a kind feeling.
It’s God doing kindness. It’s God being kind. And look the way one pastor summarized
it when he said, the effect of which the consideration of these
things of God should produce. You know what he’s saying? Paul
had said, behold, look, consider, meditate upon the kindness and
the severity of God. What Charles Hobbes says is,
you know what? What should that do? What does it do to us if
we sit and meditate on the kindness and the severity of God? Here’s
what it should do. consideration of these things
of God should produce is gratitude and fear. Gratitude and view
of the favor which we Gentiles have received and fear lest we
be cut off. We’ll talk more about that. Paul
says it. He couldn’t say it any more clearly.
It is indeed intended as a threat. And it makes, it made me uncomfortable
even to read the words, much less to study them to begin to
weigh through, but the more you begin to weigh through them.
He’s not talking about us losing our salvation individually. But
boy, unless we hang on to God, unless we hang on to Jesus, we’re
going to lose our salvation. That’s not what he’s saying at
all. Not even close. He’s talking to Gentiles. He’s
talking to nations, remember? He’s talking to the nation of
Israel, and he’s talking about the nation of Israel, and he’s
talking to Gentiles and about Gentiles. And when he says in
verse 22, behold, then the kindness and severity of God to those
who fell severity, but to you, God’s kindness. If you continue
in his kindness, otherwise you will be cut off. I shared with
the last Lord’s Day the frightening nature of these verses. These
are absolutely When you look at the nation of Israel and you
see their unfaithfulness, you see the shenanigans, the idolatry,
the foolishness in which they engaged. And then you step back. If you’re honest and objective
and you step back and you look at the church, and I’m not talking
about this church, not even necessarily talking about the church in our
community. But if you step back and you look at the church worldwide, That sound you hear should be
your knees knocking. Because we’re no better. In fact,
in many ways we’re worse because we’re sinning against the light. When Paul said at the end of
verse 20, if God did not spare the natural branches, neither
will He spare you. He’s not talking about you as
an individual. Unless you hang on diligently
to Jesus throughout the centuries, there is the perseverance of
the saints. There absolutely is. But it’s by God, it’s God
leaning on to you. And it’s you persevering by his
grace. But he looks down and he says
the gospel to the Gentiles. That is out of God’s sheer mercy. God didn’t make a pact. God isn’t
obligated to perpetuate that forever. And if the church doesn’t
wake up, they stand a very good chance of being cut off. That’s
what Paul says, not me. that continues it’s a word that
favors he likes that word if you continue in his kindness
and then he took this as discussing perseverance perseverance of
the saints there is that element in scripture. I’m not arguing
that Paul uses it even in that context. Romans 6 1 we do continue
and say no we’re to continue in the grace of God. Colossians
is probably the one that was most cited by many, and it’s
a great passage. I would question, though, whether
it’s an exact parallel to what Paul was talking about here.
Listen to Colossians 1. Although you were formerly alienated
and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet now he has
reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to
present you before him wholly and blameless, beyond reproach,
if indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and
steadfast. He’s calling you to faithfulness.
He’s calling you to steadfastness. He’s calling you as an individual.
It’s not what Paul’s discussing in Romans 11. He’s talking about
the nations here, and if the nation, if the Gentile nation,
if you will, does not continue in faith, it stands a good chance.
Why should God show them any more mercy than God did for the
nation of Israel? That doesn’t mean that you lose
your salvation if the Gentiles are cut off. It means that God
reorients His program. It’s His program of redemption,
and it’s His Word here. That word cut off, don’t misunderstand. That’s the language of prune.
that he broke off the branch of the nation of Israel for their
unfaithfulness. In this particular case, it says
that he’s going to get the shears, the snippers, the knife, if you
will, and he’s going to cut off that branch. It’s abrupt. It’s like an axe cutting down
a tree. One whack and it’s done. What it’s warning here is not
the possibility that any of us fall from grace. You know, there
have been people throughout the centuries that seized upon that
and said, Luke, you can lose your salvation. Paul says it
here. It’s not what he’s talking about. My brother said it this way.
Paul is not speaking of the connection of individual believers with
Christ, which he had abundantly taught in chapter eight and elsewhere
to be indissoluble. You cannot lose your salvation. But he’s speaking of the relation
of communities to the church and its various privileges. There
is no promise or covenant on the part of God securing Gentiles
to the enjoyment of these blessings throughout all generations. God
made a covenant with the nation of Israel. He made no such deal
with the Gentiles. The element of pruning. is a mark of God’s holding no
double standard. God is not going to be any more
merciful towards us than he was with the nation of Israel. God’s
not going to lower his standards for the Gentiles simply because
we were steeped in Hegelism for thousands of years. And he just
demonstrates that by the element of pruning. But he also comes
back to the fact that there is no double standard with the element
of grasping. Look at that for a moment, if
you would look at verse 23. And they also, if they do not
continue in their unbelief, there’s no double standard here either.
It’s by faith. Salvation is by faith. Continuance
is by faith. And if the nation of Israel in
great measures comes back to God in faith, faith in the Savior
that was provided, the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be received
in and grafted back in. That’s what Paul says. Look at verse 23. If they do
not continue in their unbelief, they will be grafted in. See, the principle goes both
ways. God’s not wishy-washy. God’s not capricious. God doesn’t
have a standard like so many of us parents, where, you know,
we lay down the law and then sometimes we uphold it. only a little while the other
only a little to some degree, but not fully. God’s. God’s never hold a different
standard for the Gentiles than he did. For the nation of Israel. This one pastor said, let not
the Gentile believer imagine that God is through with the
Jews. The door is open for the infants of the Jews, even for
the initially pardoned Jews, it’s standing open. That’s William
Hendrickson. So the Gentiles would have taken
stock. They would have paused. They
would have fallen on their knees as it were before God. And to
look at God’s mighty program of redemption unfolding, that
God was being God when he plucked off a branch from the tree. That
God was being God when he dragged in this undeserving nation, this
heathen people. That God is still God. Now, I don’t know how many of
you are gardeners. I love to garden. I love to tinker
out there. I love to cultivate plants. I
love to watch the seed or cultivate the seed. I love to I even love
to weed. All right. A little quirky. I love the process. I love watching
it. And pruning. I love to prune
back the trees, shape the trees. Find something that looks just
out of rock and no longer. Let me tell you something about
a branch that’s pruned. When you cut off a branch and
you lay it aside, it’s dead. From that point on, it’s done.
There’s nothing you can do to it. If you glued it back on,
it may survive. Not likely. You’ve been to the store in December.
You get the Christmas tree, right? And they tout this as a great
service that they provide. They trim off the bottom of the
Christmas tree. which is really, really helpful. Because you want fresh cut on
that tree. And that fresh cut that they
put on the Christmas tree stand is good. I mean, that’s really,
that’s what you want. And it’s good for about 10 minutes,
maybe 20. So if you get the Christmas tree
at the Christmas tree lot, and you stop off at Home Depot for
lunch, or at the store for eggnog, or both, By the time you get
home, the tree is sacked over again. And you would have to
cut it afresh. Otherwise, it’s going to be totally
worthless. It’s already dead, mind you. What you’re trying
to do is preserve the process of it taking up nutrients. I’ll
never forget living in California. This is the way Californians
do things. I got to the pool, right? Pool thing. Got to the
pool. One of my customers’s tree bless
his heart, his tree, because he had gotten a fresh cut, right,
but he rolled it into the pool. Well, I didn’t know that, so
I spent half an hour fishing his Christmas tree out of his
pool, putting it on the deck, waiting to come back the next
day, and there’s the Christmas tree back in the pool. See, he
knew, you’ve got to keep that fresh. That’s exactly what tells everyone
what to do. When he says, if they do not continue in their
unbelief, they will be grafted like, how on earth is that even
possible, Kyle? It’s a dead branch. It was unproductive
before, it was faithless, now it’s cut off, and it’s been lying
in the pile for who knows how long. But God is able to graft them
in again. God is able because God is God.
There is no inexorable purpose, said one, in the divine mind,
nor any insuperable obstacle in the circumstances of the case.
Nothing is impossible with God, and nothing is impossible in
this particular situation. If God wants to graft the nation
of Israel back in, believe me, God can do it. Another said that this is a solemn
affirmation. of God’s ability to restore them. Paul is saying, look, God is
still God. God holds no double standards.
And just as He grafted you in out of His mercy, He could just
as easy graft in the nation of Israel out of His abundant mercy. Look at verse 24. Paul reasons. He takes this through a really
cool illustration. But he began back in chapter,
or back in verse 17, this whole illustration of a tree and a
root structure and branches and an unproductive branch that he
breaks off and now he carves back in another. But look at
the nature of what he’s talking about. He says, for if you were
cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree. Now I explained
this process to you last Wednesday. The whole process of drafting
is such a neat thing. What it does is it takes the
beneficial feature of web plants, say the root structure, the ability
to withstand gravity, the ability to send out deep tap roots. It takes that root structure
and it places another tree on top of it. It becomes one. It
becomes one new tree. But this apple tree goes onto
this root structure and now it does much better than the Colorado
soil. It’s a really cool process and
that’s exactly what I was talking about. look at verse 24, you
were cut off from what was by nature a wild olive tree. You were a weed, basically. And
God takes you out of his abundant mercy and he takes a snipping
of that tree and you were grafted in contrary to nature. Nobody would go out into the
countryside, take a snipping from a wild olive tree and graft
it into a cultivated, pure, I mean, their entire colony in the Middle
East was built on Aleks and Alek oil. You wouldn’t think of doing
this. But nothing’s impossible with
God. And God is going to take that grafted in Alek tree and
he’s going to make it the bare fruit, the fruit that he is pleased
with. But if God is able to do that,
If God is able to take a branch from a wild olive tree, graft
it onto a cultivated olive tree, how much more shall these who
are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? He
just uses reason to point to the fact that, you know what,
God is still God. God’s standards are the same.
And if God wants to graft back in the nation of Israel, God
will be God. Peter said it this way, God regarded
the Jews on account of their relation to him with peculiar
favor in that there is still something in their relation to
the ancient servants of God and his covenants with them which
causes them to be regarded with special interest. He retains
his purposes of peculiar mercy towards his ancient people. The
restoration of his people, therefore, to the blessings of the church
of God is far an improbable event. You have people that have already
written up the nation of Israel because their system disallows
it. Nope can’t possibly be the nation of Israel can’t possibly
be Jews. It has to be some spiritual equivalent. I absolutely believe that the
church was established the institution of the church was established
at Pentecost not with Abraham. Not in centuries past, the church
is a new thing. And so we come back to the question
that started this whole discussion. Where does the church fit into
this whole, cruel illustration that Paul begins in chapter 11,
verse 17, continuing on through verse 24, about this structure,
this root structure that is supporting us, grafted into this tree. As I’ve already pointed out,
the conversation gets fairly muddy when we either try to suggest
that the church can be traced all the way back to Abraham,
or when we try to suggest that the church is completely separate
and distinct from the elementary structure, or when we suggest,
as we’ve already read, that the church was the element that was
drafted by him and it doesn’t say that. It’s always better
just to take the words of Scripture You know, the church isn’t even
mentioned in this illustration. Matt Robinson, verses 17-24. The church isn’t even mentioned
in Romans 11. In fact, truth be told, the church
isn’t even mentioned in Romans 9-11. In fact, the truth be told,
the church isn’t even mentioned in Romans 1-15. The church isn’t
even mentioned. God first mentions the church
in Chapter 16, a number of different ways, usually speaking about
local localities. So if you read the 1 in 16, just
for a minute. We’ll take verses 1 through 6,
just to show you the illustration. It occurs twice more in the chapter
with business and friends. I commend you on sister feet.
You met a sister business last Thursday for the first time,
sent to us by a neighbor, right? I commend to you our sister Phoebe,
who is a servant of the church, which is insensual. Verse 3,
greet Christa and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
for my like risk at their own nets, to whom I not only give
thanks, but also the churches of the Gentiles. Everybody’s
thankful for them, great people. Verse 5, greet the church that
is in their house. And then twice more in verse
16, all the churches of Christ greet you. So, how does that
answer this illustration of the root structure and the broken-off
branches and the branches cracking in? Where is the church? This
is how I would just explain it. This is what derives from the
passage. The church is real. The church
is a New Testament organism. The church came about as a Pentecost. And if you wanted to tie it in
directly to this particular illustration, the root, the branches, it’s
the canopy. It’s the leafing out of the tree.
I love trees. I love everything about trees.
Got into a hobby a couple years ago, and I think I germinated
some 250 different kinds of species of trees. And then I began to
hand them out as quickly as I could. Here’s one of the coolest stories
about trees in scripture. Genesis 2, where God basically
has already detailed the day-by-day creation of Scripture. But in
chapter 2, He doubles back and revisits that whole process. And it says in verse 8 of chapter
2, “…the Lord planted a garden toward the east in Eden. There
He placed the man whom He formed out of the ground. The Lord caused
to grow every tree.” But there’s two different patterns. every
tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. There are some trees that are
low and that provide shade. You might find some beneficial
element bringing a good mood at the end. But they’re really
just there for a set of purposes. God did that. The church has a much greater
purpose. And the church came about as
a Pentecost. And the leaping out of that olive tree is as
the church. The Gentiles were grafted in,
the Jews were grafted in, they could just as easily be pruned
out, and there’s only one way to know which branch, if God
doesn’t make a distinction here. It’s a powerful illustration,
this illustration that Paul uses. It’s an illustration that calls
us to humility. It’s an illustration that calls
us to gratitude before God for the salvation that we’ve come
to know. It’s an illustration that points to the fact that
God’s plan of reduction does not cease or stall, but it’s
going on, and it will go on until God’s purposes are fulfilled.
What a glorious demonstration. What a blessing God’s word is.
Somebody sings before him. O merciful King, we bow before
you in gratitude of our hearts. to thank you for the mercy that
you’ve shown for the Gentile nations and for the mercy that
you will again show to this wayward, sinful people of Israel. Lord,
we do pray that you would make us to be a people that is so
passionate and so loving of their Savior, that ours would be a
great testimony to those Jews who look at us Lord, we pray
that you would make the church to be something that makes Israel
jealous. Something that makes her long
to know the Savior that we know. God grant us that grace, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.