May I please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
epistle of Paul to the Romans, chapter 11, and we'll read verse
17. And if some of the branches be
broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree wert graft in among
them, And with them partakest of the root and fatness of the
olive tree. We'll just read the next verse.
Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest
not the root, but the root thee. The Apostle Paul in this chapter
is really speaking about the salvation both to the Jew and
to the Gentiles and he is speaking to them both and so that they
may recognize the true situation which existed and especially
to the Gentiles so that they may might not become or have
a wrong idea of their salvation and think that now everything
would pass to them. And so the Apostle tells us as
he began this chapter, he said, hath God cast away his people?
God forbid. And then he says, God has not
cast away his people, which he foreknew. And then he gives the
illustration of Elijah. You may remember, of course,
Elijah He thought he was the only person left to worship God
on that occasion when they were before and considering whether
Baal was the true God or whether the God was the true God on Mount
Carmel. And he thought he was the only
one. How mistaken he was! What saith
the God? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. And again, that's just a little
lesson of warning to us, isn't it, to assume, well, there's
no one else about, no one else who believes. There may be many
who we are not aware of, perhaps in our own neighbourhood, who
do truly believe in the Lord God. And so the Apostle then
goes on to tell us the important truth about the election of grace,
even so then at this present time, and the same of course
in our present time, also there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. There are those who the Lord
will call. There are those who he has called
in days past. And then the Apostle continues
this theme by saying, and if by grace then is it no more of
works. Of course, remember, the Jewish
people, Israel of old, of course, were reliant upon their works
to keep the law, which, of course, they could never satisfactorily
do. And so the Apostle reminds them
of this situation. If by grace it's no more of works,
otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace, otherwise work is no more were. Well that's
quite clear, is it not? And it is a foundation truth
to believe that we are saved by grace, the free unmerited
favour of God. We're not saved by our own works,
however worthy and good they may appear. We must always realise
that everything we do has some degree of sin mixed with it.
Nothing is perfect. We are sinners of the earth.
And so Paul says, what then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and
the rest were blinded. Again, it's a very solemn and
yet great truth to believe in the sovereign grace of God. And how thankful we should be
today if we are amongst those whose spiritual eyes have been
open, so that we are not still blind, but we are blessed with
spiritual sight. And so, he says, according as
it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes
that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear,
unto this day. Well, it's a very sad and solemn
position, and how needful it is for us all to examine ourselves
to see whether we are in the faith or not. And so the Apostle
moves on really in this theme and then he comes and says, For
I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles,
I magnify mine office. For if by any means I may provoke
it to emulation, them which are my flesh, that means the Jews,
Israel of old, and might save some of them. For if the casting
away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the
receiving of them be but life from the dead? And then he commences
really this wonderful truth, he says, for if the first fruit
be holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are
the branches. And then we come down therefore
to The verse which we read together this evening, the 17th verse,
if some of the branches be broken off. He's speaking here about
the olive tree as an example of the grace of God. And he says,
and if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, speaking
of the Gentiles, and thou being a wild olive tree, were grafted
in among them. Again how amazing that is because
naturally no one would take a wild olive and graft it into a good
olive. The likelihood would be the opposite.
So we should be thankful when the Lord says, being a wild olive
tree were grafted in among them. among the good olive tree. And because of that, there is
that partaking of the root and fatness of the olive tree. So let us consider ourselves
who we are, what we are. We are, of course, Gentiles. And we are, therefore, amongst
those who described us wild by nature. And yet what a wonderful
blessing if the Lord, God Almighty, takes notice of us and grafts
us in to the good olive tree. The good olive tree. And if we
are therefore grafted in, then there will be that partaking
of the root and fatness of the olive tree. And this word fatness
can be really described as richness or oiliness. And we know of course
that olives are oily and are needed for that. And so important
it was that if we are, if naturally there was that grafting in, there
would be that production of oil. With them partakest of the root
and fatness of the olive tree. But just leaving that verse aside
for the moment and just running on. We see how the Apostle then
directs us, boasts not against the branches, because in and
of themselves the branches have no ability to be alive, they
need the goodness from the root, they need the sap to rise, they
need to be fed, otherwise they will indeed die. So we are not
to therefore boast about our own ability, what we're able
to produce ourself. We've got to recognise that everything
that we do produce in the things of God are those things which
emanate from God himself. And so we boast not against the
branches, but if thou boast thou bearest not the root, but the
root thee. So we can only boast in what
Christ has done for us. And that's a good thing. And
that's a wonderful thing. That's something we should desire
to be able to do. To boast of his work in his heart,
in our hearts, to know therefore that we are rooted and grounded
in Christ. Thou wilt say then, the branches
were broken off that I might be grafted in. And so the apostle
then explains that. He says, well, because of unbelief,
they were broken off. We know, of course, that the
Jewish nation were wonderfully blessed for so many years with
the ceremonial law and all that it meant and all that it directed
Israel to. And it was none less than the
Lord Jesus Christ foretelling that the Messiah would come.
And of course, when he did come, they did not believe. That's
why they were broken off. Well, because of unbelief, they
were broken off. And then he says, and thou standest
by faith. Remember, she mentioned this
morning, of course, faith is the gift of God. We can't stand
by what we've done, our own ability. It's only that stand is by faith.
And so the Apostle says, be not high-minded, but fear. And it is good for us to be humble
under the mighty hand of God. Humble to realise the Lord has
looked upon us. Humble to think. has given us
faith to believe, whereas Israel in the main did not have faith,
did not believe and therefore were broken off, cast off. He tells us, for if God spared
not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. These are words of admonition
For us today, it's very easy to become lukewarm in the things
of God and think, well, I know this and I know that, and therefore
to settle down comfortably in our religion with no real exercise,
no real concern for that growth in grace, no real desire to be
found feeding upon Christ, but satisfied with just an outward
form with no reality in it. And so the Apostle says here,
take heed, lest ye also, he also spare not thee. Israel of old
were not spared because they failed to believe. How solemn it is if you and I
fail to believe the truth of God. Fail to take it to heart. fail to observe those great truths
and fail to observe what we should do. So the Apostle says for if God
spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare
not thee. Words of instruction for us aren't
they? We must not just carry on in our life assuming like
Israel did of old well they were part of the those whom God had
wonderfully blessed and therefore they were safe, well they weren't.
As long as we may think that we're safe, we may not be. We
may be just satisfied with an outward form. We're not actually
one of these branches which have been grafted in to the good olive
tree, have been grafted in to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and are a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.
The obvious conclusion is that if we are truly grafted in, there
will be some spiritual growth, there will be some fruit, there
will be some evidence that we do possess the grace of God. So may we fear, lest we are not
spared. It's a very solemn word, isn't
it? And obviously the greatness of
God decreed that such an account should be recorded in the Word
of God as a warning, so that we don't settle down and think,
well, I go to chapel every Sunday and therefore I read the Bible
every day and I say my prayers and therefore I'm all right.
Well, that's not sufficient. We need the grace of God. We need the revelation of God
to our souls that we are a needy sinner and that the Lord Jesus
Christ has died for us and that we are feeding upon him. And there is that spiritual growth
of grace in our lives. The Word of God tells us, does
it not, that we shall be known by our fruitfulness in the things
of God. And the fruitfulness is the things
of the Spirit of God, the things which influence our heart. We
are moved by God's Spirit. So then the Apostle carries on
to encourage us to understand the greatness of God. Behold
therefore the goodness and severity of God. goodness and severity. We should always think on these
things, shouldn't we? We perhaps like to think mostly about the
goodness of God, but we should not forget that God is a just
God, and so the severity of God. I wonder sometimes if we have
trembled as we've thought of the severity of God against sin,
against our sins. Because unless our sins have
been taken away, unless our sins have been forgiven, we shall
be found under the severity of the law of God. And we shall
be condemned because of our sin. And we shall be condemned to
eternal punishment in hell forever. What a very searching thought
it is. And yet we must consider the
whole Word of God. God is a very just God and we
will never be able to quibble with the justness of God, never
be able to quibble at the severity of God, as we realise The Lord
God is so just, he's good, and yet he's severe. Severe on them
which fail. Severity, but toward thee, goodness. If thou continue in his goodness,
otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. What it means is this. We should not just rest and rely
upon a past experience. We should desire to live our
life unto the Lord. We should desire to be found
fruitful in the things of God. We should desire to be found
growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. It really comes like this, doesn't
it? We need the Saviour every day because we don't know when
we're going to die. We don't want it to be a Christless
day, do we? We want to see Jesus every day
while walking in the gospel way. And may that be a real concern
so that our souls may be healthy in the things of God. We're often
concerned, aren't we, about our natural health. Nothing wrong
in that. But it is more important that we're more concerned about
our spiritual health, so that we do enjoy that union and fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing more blessed,
there's nothing more healthy, there's nothing more wonderful
be favoured with fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore
here the Lord says, Behold therefore the goodness and severity of
God on them which fell. Severity but toward the goodness. And that means that because of
our sin we've all fallen And the severity of God is upon every
one of us. And how we need to know the goodness
of God. And the goodness of God, of course,
directs us to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sure we don't want to be
amongst those who are cut off. Cut off. Just like the Israel
of old. Because of their unbelief. Cut
off. They had all the knowledge. that
all the outward knowledge of the law, they were very well
versed in it. What did they lack? God-given
belief in the Messiah, the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
really what you and I need so desperately, continually, that
belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as our God, as our Saviour, as
that One who has died in our place, He's paid the punishment
instead of us. And so the apostle moves on again
to the illustration that he has. And they also, if they abide
not, still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able
also to graft them in again. He's speaking about Israel of
old. Yes, the Lord is able to graft
them in because of the great doctrine of sovereign grace.
The Lord calls us. The Lord calls his ancient people.
And you and I, we have no hand in that work of grace. We have no hand in it at all. We come down to the 29th verse
in this chapter, which is very instructive. It tells us this,
for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. It's easy to come to the conclusion
that the first thing we must do is to repent. Well, the truth
is that you and I cannot repent unless God comes and gives us
the blessed gift of his grace and the gift of eternal life
so that we do then desire to repent. It's God's calling. The
gifts and calling of God, they come first. And they are without
repentance. But the effect of them is to
make us repent. So don't come to the conclusion
that, well, I need not repent. Of course, we will repent and
we will willingly repent. And it won't be something that
we just think we've got to do in order to obtain salvation. It's that which we will do because
of God's grace. because of his love and mercy
toward us, which is revealed in his gifts and calling. So the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. But do not think that there is
no need for repentance. There is. Every true believer
repents of their sin. Without repentance it is impossible
to please God. We read these words, and they
also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted
in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert
cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted
contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall
these which be the natural branches be grafted into their own olive
tree. Well, we have the picture there,
don't we, of the Gentiles and also Israel of old. And we see
how God, the grace of God, grafts both of them in. And without
that grace, none are grafted in. So do we rejoice today in
what God has done. And so he comes down in the 25th
verse which says, For I would not, brethren, that ye should
be ignorant of this mystery. It's wonderful, isn't it, that
the Lord God spells it out clearly in such an account as this. I
would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery,
lest ye should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in
part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. It doesn't mean, of course, every
individual, but it means all those who are gathered together
from various parts of the world will be called. So all Israel
shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. Well, we see here then the very
clear position that we have in this chapter, which really gives
us the view of the election of God, how dependent we are upon
it. We cannot elect ourselves, but
God in his sovereign mercy and sovereign grace elects a people
As we read in the 15th of John, you have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you, that you should go and bring
forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. And in the earlier
verses in this 15th chapter of John, which of course has a similar
illustration, when the Lord speaks about himself being the vine,
I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. And he says,
I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. And so there is the abiding in
the vine, And there is partaking then, as we have it in these
words, from the root and fatness of the olive tree. Both the illustrations
clearly show to us that we are dependent, not on anything that
you and I can do ourselves, but we're dependent on that which
emanates from, we might say, the stock. the real vine and
the olive tree, that we are dependent upon being a part of that. We're
not the foundation of it, we're not the root, but we should thank
God if the Lord has indeed grafted us in and if therefore we are
part of the branches. And as the Lord tells us, as
he spoke to his disciples in the upper room, and he said,
I in him and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for
without me ye can do nothing. So unless we are graft into the
olive tree, the Lord Jesus Christ, unless we are part of this true
vine, the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be no fruit, there
will be no evidence of life within, and we shall continue dead in
trespasses and in sins. And just for a moment, speaking
in this verse here, it's in chapter 15 of John, the Lord says, if
ye abide in me, And my words abide in you. Ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples.'
And we should not be satisfied with being amongst those who
are fruitless. You may think, well, I of course
don't bear any fruit." Well, some people speak like that very
glibly. But you know, it's a very solemn
statement. Because the Word of God is very
clear that if we are in the vine, or if we are grafted into the
olive tree, and it is by God, then there will be a gracious
effect. There must be. And what we should do is to demonstrate
in our life the effect of being a partaker of the Saviour. And what would it show? It would
show His love to us. It would show our love to Him. Surely that is one of the greatest
evidences of the life of God in the soul, is to experience
and know in a personal way the love of Christ. to such unworthy
sinners. And that's not something that
you and I can produce because we are hard-hearted wretches.
But it would be a wonderful evidence that we are grafted in if the
Holy Spirit touches our heart and we realise what love there
was in the love of God to redeem our soul and to save us from
all our sins. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. It's something that we should
desire more and more, isn't it? I know perhaps we all feel, I
seem to know so little of the love of Christ to my soul. Well, don't despair, because
a little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures
of many wicked. It is a little of the real love. If it's touched our heart, then
there will be that response in love to the Saviour. And there
will be therefore the evidence that we are receiving that life
from the sap which rises, the life within. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. You may
think, I'm not sure if I really know very much about this. Well,
do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for
you? Do you believe he died on your
behalf to take away your sin? Do you believe that he died so
that you might live with him forever? If so, this is the truth, greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Surely then, may we rejoice in
his love toward us. It must be so. The Lord has died
for us. It must be because of his love.
And if the Holy Spirit then comes and touches our heart and directs
us to this great love, then there will be, I'm sure, some result,
some effect, so that our hearts are moved, moved, they're softened. By nature we're hard-hearted,
by nature the things of God don't touch us, by nature we're not
affected by the Lord Jesus Christ's work upon the cross at Calvary.
It leaves us cold, but bless God if our hearts are moved. as we read, perhaps the 53rd
of Isaiah, perhaps a chapter that was completely alien to
us at one time, but by the power of God, by the Spirit of God,
by the love of God, we're directed to it, and there we see His love
for such an unworthy sinner. And the Lord goes on to say,
you see, greater love hath no man than this, and a man lay
down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends. If ye do whatsoever,
I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called
you friends." Isn't that wonderful? To think that Almighty God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, calls us His friends. No doubt, is it, why
the Bride of Christ and the Fifth of Solomon comes and says, this
is my friend. This is my friend. Why can we
say that tonight? This great God, can we come and
say, very humbly, but what a truth and what a mercy if we can, this
is my friend. This is my friend. And so we
have this word, I've called you friends. For all things I've
heard of my father, I've made known unto you. And if the Lord
has revealed to us that he is the one who gives us this life
within, this one who feeds our soul, so that we are a partaker
of the root and fatness of this olive tree. And if we are also
those who receive this goodness from the true vine, the Lord
Jesus Christ. What do we have then? The evidence
that these words are true. Ye have not chosen me. And we
never would. We never would. Ye have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. How exceedingly humbling that
is. The thing, because we view mankind at large. to believe
that this great God, in eternity past, agreed Father, Son and Holy Spirit
to choose you and me. It's a truth which is really
beyond our comprehension, isn't it? Look back in eternity. little me, little you, insignificant
me, insignificant you, the Lord chose. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit and your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you should ask of the Father in my name,
he may give it you. These things I command you, that
ye love one another. If the world hates you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. And so here we have the
evidence of God's love toward us. If we find the world hates
us, the world will hate us. Well tonight may we have then
this evidence that we are amongst those who are graft in. a wild olive tree, yet by the
grace of God, by the mercy of God, he's come and grafted us
in so that we are amongst the true Church of God. Being a wild
olive tree, we're grafted in among them, the household of
faith. grafted in among them. Isn't
that wonderful? Isn't that humbling? To think
that we are joined to Christ and to the whole household of
God. And we can't know surely our
brothers and sisters in Christ. To think that we're part of the
redeemed church of God. To think that it is eternally
well with our soul and we have the wonderful evidence that we
are among them. and that we do partake of the
root and fatness of the olive tree. There will be then, won't
there, the evidence of it in your life and mine. And we shall
be, I believe, not always, but we wish we were always, but on
the stretch after these blessings, that we might indeed know more
of union with Christ, that the sap may rise into our little
branch, And that our little branch may sprout and bring forth fruit
to the honour and glory of God, realising what God has done for
us in grafting us in. We were the wild olive tree,
and yet the Lord has graciously come and taken us and grafted
us in. Of course, there is work to do
to graft in anything into a tree. stick there, it has to be cut
and it has to be fitted in carefully so that there is then that partaking
and that growth. And the Lord then deals with
us, doesn't he, graciously, in love to our souls. His great
work appears, his work, his work toward us, that work which he
performed on our behalf, when he satisfied the holy law of
God, which we had broken, which we could not keep, and which
we continue to break. We need continual comfort and
confirmation and evidence that we are grafted and rooted in
to the law of Jesus Christ. And surely the evidence is when
our hearts are touched and we bow down and worship. the ever-living
and true God. Well, tonight, can we rejoice
in this great truth as the Apostle directs us in this beautiful
chapter of the 11th of Romans? And if some of the branches be
broken off, And we, as it were, replace them. We won't boast.
We won't boast of our ability. What will we do? We'll boast
of what God has done to save a wretch like me. We'll join
with John Newton, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. That grace which grafted us in
to the true olive tree, a partaker of the root and fatness of the
olive tree. Well tonight, bless God if you
and I have the evidence of it, humble evidence, or go home rejoicing
in what God has done, and thank God for his mercy, for his electing
love, and for his sovereign grace to such an unworthy sinner. Amen.