We'll turn to Romans chapter
11. Romans chapter 11. The topic of my message tonight
is goodness and severity. Goodness and severity. Now when
we think of severity, we think of something that's bad, don't
we? So if it's goodness and severity, our first thought is good and
bad. But we have a justice system in this nation. And if you were
solved by witnesses, and you're convicted of murder, beyond a
shadow of a doubt, they know. There's a limitation to the sentences,
normally it's 25 to life or something. If the jury were to give the
verdict and the punishment of 25 years, that's just, that's
a right, that's a right punishment. It's within the law. And if they
were to give the punishment of life, or the death penalty. That's within the confines of
the law. That is just. It's more severe than the other
one. But it's just. It's right. It's perfectly right. Romans 11 beginning verse 22. Behold therefore the goodness
and severity of God on them which fail severity but toward thee
goodness, if thou wilt continue in his goodness, otherwise thou
shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide
not still in unbelief, shall be graft in, for God is able
to graft them in. For if thou wert cut out of the
olive tree, which is wild by nature, that's Adam, all his
seed, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree. Let's cross the olive tree. How much more shall these, which
be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? We'll
see more of this next week. But how much more so fitting
is it for those natural born Jews same as our Master was,
to be grafted into Him. Into Him. Now it says there in
verse 22, behold therefore. That means observe this. Pay
close attention. We're going to behold the goodness
of God upon God's elect. Jews and Gentiles. The same. Those branches out of that natural
tree and those branches out of the wild tree. through the faith
given to them in Christ by God the Father." We saw this recently
in Ephesians the other day. This is the workmanship of God
and His people. His infinite grace before time
began, He put His spiritual Israel, His elect, into His elect, Christ
the elect, the firstborn, His chosen seed. And calling His
sheep through the Holy Spirit of God by the preaching of the
gospel, God gives faith of Christ to those that Christ died for
and them alone. He gives them the gift of faith
through His grace and therefore saving them. That is a true goodness
to behold. You know, pay attention to something
that's good, that's it. If a man or woman or child has
ever shown salvations of the Lord and His grace, He saved
the people by giving them faith in Christ, giving them the faith
of Christ. That is something to behold.
Then it says, behold therefore the goodness and severity in
God. We behold, we want to observe,
we want to pay attention to the severity of God and the blinding
of the majority of the physical Israel and a majority of the
Gentile world due to their unbelief in Christ. Now why is it that
people are blinded? Why is it they're hardened? Why
is it they're not kept by God forever? It says there in verse
20, because of unbelief they were broken off. The severity of God falls on
all men and women the same if they don't believe Christ. If they have unbelief, they don't
look to Him solely. We've seen this in several scriptures
lately too. Those that are left in unbelief,
left, not put, left. hardened by God through Him taking
His hand off of them and leaving them to their own sin-bound will
and desire. He leaves them in unbelief. Now why is it I emphasize left
and leaves? That's where we are. That's where
we're born. That's where we're comfortable.
Left in unbelief, looking to ourselves, trying to find something
false to comfort us. We'll see that more in a minute.
But always remember, the Lord is holy and all of his actions
are righteous. Always. When a sinner is saved,
it's an act of righteousness because of Christ, our substitute.
He purchased us in his blood and we were made one with him.
His incorruptible seed was placed in us. That is the giving of
a new and holy nature. So it is just, and it is holy,
and it's an act of divine righteousness for the Lord to allow us in His
presence. For Him to say, well done, my
good and faithful servant. That is right. Now for the unbeliever,
those that fell in Adam, just like we were in our own generation
before the Lord came to us, those that were conceived in sin, they
were born speaking lies, they've sinned every day of their lives,
for the Lord to punish them Being outside of Christ, not being
given that saving faith to look to Him for as our all in all. It is just, it is holy, and it's
an act of divine righteousness for the Father to punish that
sin. The eternal death and separation
from God of a man and woman that's in unbelief is a proper wage
for sin. It's an earned payment, and it's
severe. There's no range of punishment.
It's separation from God for eternity. To know Him, to love
Him, and to never be with Him. That's a severe punishment. Behold
that. God's goodness and God's severity. We will see God's goodness upon
His elect is always through faith in Christ. And God's severity
upon the reprobate is always due to their unbelief of Christ. God cut off that physical seed
of Abraham, that nation of Israel, because of their willful unbelief.
They willingly turned from Christ our righteousness. And God sent
the gospel to the Gentiles that He might save those elect, Jew
and Gentile, through faith in Christ. Unbelief and faith. And we'll look first at the goodness
through faith. It says there in verse 22, Behold, therefore, the goodness
and severity of God, on them which fail severity, but towards
thee, goodness. If thou continue in his goodness,
otherwise thou shalt be cut off." The goodness of God falls on
God's elect through faith in Christ. That's the means His
goodness, His workmanship comes to us by faith in Christ. It
includes that gift of faith. that gift of faith that's given
to us. He speaks in our hearts and says, believe. And we believe. That's also His goodness. And
it says there, if thou continue in His goodness, don't continue
being good, you have to continue in His goodness, in His workmanship. Thou continue in that faith that
God in His goodness gave you, believing on Christ. Our Lord
Jesus gave us that same caution. Do you know that? Told us the
same thing. Look here in John chapter 8. John chapter 8 and verse 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, Then are
ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free. He told us again in John 15,
as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue
ye in my love. That's the same commandment we
just read in Revelation. Continue in my love. We will. If you keep my commandments,
you believe on Christ and love the brethren, you shall abide
in my love even as I have kept my Father's commandments and
abide in His love." What's our surety that we will abide in
Christ? It's the same as Him abiding
as His Father. Was that acceptable? It sure
was, wasn't it? The Lord raised Him. It's been
satisfied. The work's done. The Father said,
well done. The Apostle Paul gave us that
same caution in several places in Scripture. He told us in Romans
2, to them who by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory
and honor and immortality, the Lord will give them eternal life.
The same way. Turn over to Colossians chapter
1. We are cautioned, we have an
admonition to persevere in faith. Colossians 1 verse 21. And you that were sometime alienated
in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. The Lord has reconciled us to
him. In the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. That's what he accomplished in
that reconciliation. Now, if you continue in the faith,
well now, is this all conditional on me? No, no, no. The Lord just told us through
the death of Christ, He saved His people. He presents us holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight to Himself. Now,
if you continue in faith, grounded and settled, and thee not moved
away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof
I, Paul, am a minister. All who have truly been regenerated
and called by God the Holy Spirit, they are preserved by the Spirit. They are kept by the Spirit.
They're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So we cannot
fall away. Can't happen. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. Now the just, those the cross
died for, He made unapprovable. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who
draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving
of the soul." Why are we that way? The Lord made us that way.
He preserves us, keeps us, and makes us persevere. If a professional
believer continues in the faith, we prove that God truly called
us. If we live our whole lives and
we go to that grave, Look into Christ alone. We are proving
that the Lord gave us faith in Christ. And if a professing believer,
someone that just says it by mouth, they do not continue in
the faith and they die that way. They go to the grave looking
to someone or something other than Christ. They are proven
that that profession they had is vanity. It was only in word. It was false from the beginning
and God did not truly call them. That's what we looked at before
there in 1 John 2.19. It says, They went out from us,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. Not they probably would
have continued with us. They would have no doubt continued
with us. But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. The Lord has some
tears in the wheat. He has some scaffolding around
His church He uses to build it. People turn to something else.
Only proven that the Lord didn't give them faith. He wasn't gracious
to them in His workmanship and saving them in Christ. Now, back
in our text. Turn back a few pages to Hebrews
3. Hebrews chapter 3. Verse 14, for we are made partakers
of Christ. We are proven to have been made
partakers by God's grace if we behold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end. Well, you have to keep your confidence
to the end. That's how we prove it. Our confidence
in what? The beginning of our confidence. A thief on the cross, who knew
the Lord, had Christ revealed in his heart for an hour, half
a day, however long it was. The beginning of his confidence,
Christ Jesus the Lord, that's who we cling and what we cling
to until the end of where he is. Him alone. So we see the goodness of God
falls on God's elect through faith in Christ, looking to Him. And every true believer, we begin
in faith by God in His goodness giving us that gift of faith.
And by His goodness, we all, every believer, continues in
faith, looking to Christ. And God preserves us so that
we persevere in faith in Christ. I had to underline a whole bunch
of syllables to say that right. God makes us, He preserves us
so that we persevere in faith in Christ. That's the P in TULIP.
Some people say, well, it's preservation. Others say it's perseverance.
It's both. He preserves us eternally. He keeps us, keeps His hand on
His children, keeps us looking to Christ. And then that perseverance
is continuing to the end and continuing throughout eternity
looking to Christ. That's the walk of a believer.
That's walking by faith, not by sight. By looking to Him. Now back in our text there in
Romans 11. It tells us to behold God's goodness and then behold
the severity. We'll see here the severity due
to unbelief. Verse 23, and they also, if they abide not still
in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft
them in again. God's severity upon the reprobate
is always due to them willfully not believing on Christ. Throughout
the Scriptures, an individual sinner's own willful unbelief
is always the cause for which God's severity falls upon them.
It's our fault. God Himself declares this, there
in Ezekiel, that He does not reprobate sinners due to their
father's, Father Adam's sin, but to our own sin. Not our physical father, not
my dad, not Paul Thacker's sin, it's Kevin Thacker's sin. That's
who He deals with. But He reprobates and He damns
sinners due to their unbelief. Their unbelief. Turn over to
Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel 18. You've got Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel. Ezekiel 18. We'll begin in verse
1. The word of the Lord came unto
me again, saying, What mean ye? that he used this proverb concerning
the land of Israel, saying, here's the proverb, the fathers have
eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. This was
a common saying in that time and the Lord's dealing with this.
They said, well, the father ate sour grapes and now we got bad
teeth because of it. Adam ate that fruit. And that's
why I'm the way I am. We can blame Him. Look here in
verse 3. As I live, saith the Lord God,
ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. You want to blame everything
on somebody other than yourself? He's about to fix it. Look here
in verse 4. Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the Father, So also
the soul of the Son is mine, the soul that sinneth, it shall
die." We each have a soul born on this earth and the Lord says,
it's mine. And that's the one He's going to deal with. Men
hear this doctrine of headship, that we all became guilty, we
all fell in Adam, we fell in the garden. became sinful, and
they say, why am I judged because my father sins? That's not fair. I started off on the wrong foot.
Ain't my fault. That ain't fair. And the Lord
says here, don't you worry about that. This is going to be on
your head. You can't blame it on nobody
else. He's going to deal with us individually.
Look here at verse 20. Zeku 18.20. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. The Son shall not bear the iniquity
of the Father, neither shall the Father bear the iniquity
of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon
Him." What he's saying is, those that have been given faith in
Christ, the righteousness of Christ shall be on them. And
the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon Him. Those that
are wicked, that's man's own fault. Those who stand in unbelief,
it's going to be on them. Christ told us that in Matthew.
He said, you are of your father the devil. That's who it will
be, standing in unbelief. Verse 26, when a righteous man
turneth away from his righteousness, when he turns from Christ our
righteousness to anything or anyone else, and commiteth iniquity
and dieth in them, for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die.
while we're going to be condemned forever for our own iniquity,
not no one else's. Again, when the wicked man turneth
away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth
that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. What's lawful and right? To bow
to the Lord Jesus Christ and to beg God for mercy. When we
turn from our wickedness, which we always have wickedness and
righteousness flip-flopped in our heads by nature, don't we?
We think we're righteous when we're nothing but wicked. And
we think God being righteous is nothing but wicked. It's the
exact opposite. Verse 28, Because he considereth
and turn away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall
surely live and he shall not die. With all that said, The
Lord said, I'm going to take you away from this saying, this
proverb that you have. I'm going to judge men on the
accounts of their belief. If I've given them faith in Christ
or they've turned from Christ, Christ the righteous, that's
what I'm going to look at. With all that said, verse 29,
yet sayeth the house of Israel, the way of the Lord is not equal.
He explained it to them for 28 verses and they said that ain't
fair. it ain't equal. O house of Israel, are not my
ways equal, and are not your ways unequal? Therefore I will
judge you, O house of Israel. Everyone according to his ways,
saith the Lord God, repent, and turn yourselves from all your
transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin." Everything
we think is righteous, what we think is fair, the Lord says,
turn from that. Look to the Lamb that I sent
and Him alone and live. That's what he's telling them. Turn over to John chapter 3.
Christ told us the same thing the Lord the Father told Ezekiel
there. John chapter 3. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God." People say, well,
I'm looking at what I do. What I think, all my righteousness,
it's believing on Christ. Why are we condemned? Because
we didn't believe. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. Verse 19, and this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light. That's why they do evil. They
can't stand Christ the Light. They can't stand His righteousness,
His perfection. Neither cometh to the Light,
lest His deeds should be reproved. Well, my deeds are good. That's
what's going to get reproved. Mine's not that bad. That's what's
going to get reproved. I accepted Jesus when I was nine.
I walked an aisle. It's going to get reproved. And
they don't want that taken from them. They won't shed it. Verse
21, but he that doeth truth, he that's given faith to believe
on Christ, cometh to the light, they're drawn by the grace of
God, that his deeds may be made manifest. What deeds? All those
good things he did? No, that they are wrought of
God, wrought in God. That's good fruit. Where'd that
fruit come from? Christ the vine. That's where
it was wrought. And that's what the believer
that leans on him and looks to Christ declares. You sure did
something good the other day? I didn't. If you think it's good,
the Lord did something. That's working a good deed. That's
working a good fruit right there. Has the Lord reproved you of
your deeds? All the goodness we thought we
were growing up and as a child and as a teenager, everybody's
told us our whole lives. I think it's against the law
now to tell somebody they did something wrong. Has the Lord reproved you? I
said, boy, I was wrong. The Lord was right. I was nothing
but evil. I pray He does. And that you see man's only hope
of salvation, our only hope, our only hope of having any deeds
accepted by the Father are those deeds that are wrought in God,
in Christ who is God. That's our only hope of salvation.
Have His deeds imputed to us. Now doing truth there is the
same as doing righteousness. It's believing on Christ whom
God sent. And that's not stopping outward
sins. The Holy Spirit comes first and convicts us of sin. Singular,
of what we are. That's what the Master told us
in John 16. He said, and when He has come, He will reprove
the world of sin. What sin? Because they believe
not on Me. Lord, I didn't believe You. I
didn't believe Your Word. I didn't look to Your Son for
everything. That ain't something that's 20 years ago and that
ain't happening. That was this morning. Lord, I didn't trust
you. Lord, I didn't believe you. Turn
over to 2 Thessalonians. Paul told us the same thing here.
2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 10. second part of chapter 2 verse
10, "...because they received not the love of truth that they
might be saved. And for this cause," unbelief,
cause of this, "...then God shall send them strong delusion that
they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who
believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
What's pleasure in unrighteousness? being happy, being content, being
okay with anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't
see it that way, do we? That's pleasure and unrighteousness.
Adam's transgression made it so that we need God's grace to
give us spiritual life and faith so that we can believe on Christ. In doing that, God gets all the
glory. It's not of man. He must do it,
and he must receive all the glory. But the willful rejection of
Christ is our own fault, and that's the cause of condemnation. If we're saved, it's the Lord's
doing. If we're condemned, it's our own doing. Men and women
are not cast into hell for Adam's sin. They're not damned because
of adultery, because of drunkenness, because you've got a deck of
cards in your house. By playing Uno with the kids, they're not
going to send you to hell. They are damned because they believe
not on Christ. That's it. So God's judgments
fall upon these Jewish people, this physical nation, because
they decided and declared unbelief. They rejected Christ. But not
upon all the Jews. It says, "...are remnant according
to the election of grace." There's a remnant left that must and
shall be saved in that physical nation. And the Lord saved them.
And Paul said, I'm one of them. The Lord saved me. With the great
majority of that physical seed, they were shut up in darkness
and unbelief. And divine justice is always
just. It's always right. It was just
always a matter of just retribution. And that's what we read there
in verse 23 of our text. Back to Romans chapter 11. Every one of us have rejected
Christ from our birth. So how is it that God can show
goodness towards us? This goodness of grace, of salvation
in Christ. How can He show us that goodness
and still remain just and holy? It can't be as if. It can't be
as pretend. Look here in verse 23, Romans
11, 23. And they also, if they abide not still and unbelieve,
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? God's
able to graft His people into Christ because Christ bore the
severity of God for His people. All of my unbelief, I mean, from
a young age, my first memories, horrible thoughts, every bit
of it, my unbelief today. My unbelief in the last 20 minutes,
it was laid on Christ, and the severity of God was poured out
on Him on my behalf. Same for each one of His people,
Jew or Gentile. No matter what kind of olive
tree they came from, that's how the Lord saves His people. Christ
is the vine into which all His people must be grafted in. We
must be bound to Him, made one with Him, and He is that good
olive tree. We read that last week in John
15. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you. How are we clean? The Lord spoke
to us. He spoke in our hearts. Abide in me and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. That's where all righteousness
comes from. That's where all salvation comes from, all grace
originates at, and that's where our faith is. in Him. By nature, all men, Jew and Gentile,
we come from that wild olive tree, our father Adam. We all
died in sin by Adam, and we commit sin and conceived in sin every
day of our lives. But Paul speaks of God's elect
in Israel being grafted into Christ as their own olive tree. We'll see that more next week,
but Christ was a physical Jew born into the tribe of Judah.
and for Him to graft in those that were already physically
part of His family. You see, that's a beautiful picture.
And if they were grafted in, it wasn't that they were cut
off before and then grafted back in again. Those that are in Christ
have been in Him before the foundation of the world. Christ bore the
severity of God in the place of God's elect, the Jews and
the Gentiles. Everyone that He died for, it
was the exact same. Peter tells us that in 1 Peter
2.24, "...who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes you were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray."
Is that Jews or Gentiles? Yes. Every one of us. Wandering sheep. "...but are
now returned The Lord sought us out and returned us unto the
Shepherd, the Bishop of your souls. That's who He brought
us back to. He didn't bring us back to a
place. He didn't bring us back to a pen. He brought us back
to a person. The Shepherd of our souls. Our substitute bore the shame
of the sins of His elect. And God justly poured out His
severity on Christ. He made Him a curse to the full
extent of the severity of the law. Strict justice. And now God is able to graft
them in again. How's He able? Because He poured
out our justice on Christ. Because Christ justified us on
the cross. Turn over to Isaiah 54 and we'll
close. Isaiah 54. I hope we can see that God's goodness
must fall on God's elect. He shall draw each of His elect
to Christ. He shall give them faith. He
shall robe us in Christ's righteousness through that faith. And He shall
preserve us, and not one of us will be lost. And that is just,
that is right, that is holy. He must save His people. Isaiah
54, verse 7. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath, I hid my face from thee for a moment. But with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer,
the one that bought you. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me, for I have sworn that the waters of Noah should
no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall
depart, the hills be removed, but my kindness My goodness,
my workmanship shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
on thee." That's assurance. That's better
than a written contract. Let men have it. The Lord said,
My goodness will not depart from you. You're mine. I'll be your
God forever. because of His goodness to His
people, those that believe on Christ, those that look to Him,
that He's given faith to look to Him. And I beg and pray for
each one of you today, look to Him. Like Ezekiel told those
dry bones, live. Tell you live here and I pray
that the Lord and as He promised He would, those children that
are His, He'll give them ears. He'll give them hearts that live
and He'll cause them to live. He'll give them belief in Him
and they'll always look to Him and His kindness will never fail.
It'll always be to Him. On page 35 and Isaiah 55 verse
6. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thought. Forsake your unbelief. Believe
on Christ and let him return unto the Lord and he will have
mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon."
I ain't good enough to believe He will abundantly pardon. Come
to Him. I've got time later. He will
abundantly pardon now. Look to Him today. This life
is like a vapor. For me, 40 years has been a snap
of the fingers. 40 more years will be another
snap of the fingers. God of the Bible kills people.
I don't know a preacher alive that ain't talked to somebody
about the gospel, told them who Christ is, told them who man
was, and within a short period of time, those people were in
eternity. And that'll be every one of us. And I'm just gonna
be on this earth forever. Seek Him while He may be found.
Look to Him, and He will abundantly pardon. I hope that is a blessing
to you. Let's pray together.