Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you wish to follow along,
turn to Romans chapter 11. Now, it's been a couple weeks
since I've been here, but I'm not going to try to go back and
rehash what I've said before, but I'll begin reading in Romans
11, verse 15. Verse 15. And I'm gonna comment
on it in a few places as I read. Then I have a few things of what
I'm going to call absolute spiritual import. And then we'll go back
and look at this passage again. For if the casting away of them,
that is some Jews, some Israelites by nature, For if the casting
away of them be the reconciling of the world. Now that does not
mean God has reconciled everyone in the world. But it means that
God is reconciling more than just the elect Jews. That's the
context of which he started in chapter 11. There's a remnant
according to the election of grace, even amongst the Israelites
by nature. 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? That is if he receives them. Now he receives them, not them
receiving him. They'll receive him, they will,
if he receives them. But in other words, Paul said
it'll take an act of God. It'll take an act of God. For
if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. And if the
root be holy, so are the branches. and I'm not gonna spend a lot
of time on this, although I will mention again. Israel as a nation
was holy. Even as a natural economic nation,
they were holy. They were set apart by God for
a specific purpose. All this holiness is not talking
about some inward personal holiness that God even gives someone.
Israel as a whole was holy. But remember, there is, of course,
first fruit, lump, root, and branches. Now look, and if some
of the branches were broken off, but never was the lump or the
root broken off, it's the branches. It's the branches. And if some
of the branches were broken off, and note, they were broken off.
And if some of the branches were broken off, and thou being a
wild olive tree, talking now of Gentiles, that's the context
here. Thou being a wild olive tree,
but yet, Paul is moved by the Spirit of God to clearly establish
that we were a wild olive tree. Not an apple tree grafted into
an olive tree, but still an olive tree nonetheless. though we're
a wild olive tree. We're grafted in amongst them.
Now, not the ones broken off, but amongst that first fruit and lump and root. The branches have been broken
off from those three things, but we're grafted into the thing
they were broken out of. Now that's what it says. We're
grafted in amongst them, and with them partakest of the root
and fatness of the olive tree. Boast not against the branches,
and that is specifically now the branches that were broken
off. Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest
not the root, but the root thee. Now that doesn't mean if you
don't boast, you bear the root. The root still bears you. The
root still bears you. The root's not sustained by the
branch, the branch's sustained by the root. That's the way it
works in nature. It doesn't work any other way.
Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou barrest
not the root, but the root thee. Thou will say then, the branches
were broken off, that is, those that were broken off, of course.
That's forgive me. Thou will say then, the branches
were broken off, that I might be grafted in. And it's true,
that's true. Look at this. Well, because of
unbelief, they were broken off. Now, notice that statement. And
this is where I'm gonna bring my title from. Unbelief broke
Israel off. That's all it says here. Don't
take it any further, but certainly don't try to leave that out.
You see it? Well, because of unbelief they
were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded,
but fear. For if God spared not the natural
branches, that's those that were broken off, for if God spared
not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Do not be presumptuous on God. Don't think God owes you this. Don't think you're better than
the branches that were broken off because of unbelief, because
we at one time stood in nothing but unbelief. For if God spared
not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not
thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God. You see that? Now most people
don't like to think of God in this way. They like to think
of God as just good, and severity is kind of like this thing that
God has to exercise against his will. Since man's like he is,
then God has to act in a way that's contrary to his goodness.
His severity is not contrary to his goodness because both
his goodness and his severity are just. They're two different
things, but they're both just. This is something the religious
world that calls itself Christian does not deal with at all. Behold,
therefore, the goodness and the severity of God on them which
fail, and the fall here is not talking about the fall in the
garden. It's talking about this fall of unbelief. On them that
fail, severity. But toward thee, goodness, if
thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shall be
cut off. I mean, this thing of once I
made my decision, I'm saved forever, that's not true. But if God saves
you, you'll be saved forever. That's the difference, because
he will keep on saving you. He don't just save you and then
things just twirl out of control, but since you made your profession,
or since you believed in Calvinism, or since you believed in Jesus
Christ, God saves me every day. and He has to save me every day. And if He has saved me, The first
day, he going to keep saving me, the second and the third,
and so on. Behold, therefore, the goodness, severity of God,
on them which fail severity, but toward thee, goodness, if
thou continue in this goodness, otherwise thou shall also be
cut off. And they also, if they abide
not still in unbelief, unbelief shall be grafted in, for God
is able to graft them in again. But in this passage, contrary
to a certain stance that certain people take. I'm not gonna mention
even the phrase that defines it because then your mind will,
people's mind will begin to wonder about that. Paul said here he's
able, but he didn't say he will. Unless they abide not in unbelief. He's not just going to be gracious
to these broken off branches because at one time they were
a part of the lump. and the root and the first fruits.
Do you see that now? It's only when unbelief, unbelief
is then overruled by God in a gracious act of giving faith to someone.
And each, this breaking off, It's not, people talk about God's
judicial blindness of Israel, and that's certainly a valid
word, but they make it as though it's some kind of, just technical
words God wrote down. Judicial blindness is God actually
blinding people. But he does it by forcing the
truth on them when they cannot handle it. Just like Pharaoh,
he couldn't handle it. And he didn't take God 10 tries
to get Israel out, God purposed 10 plagues. God purposed 10 plagues. which 10 is the number of responsibility
in the scripture, which lets us know Pharaoh was responsible,
but God was still in charge of it all. Okay. And they also,
if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God
is able to graft them in again. And there were unbelieving Jews
who later believed. Why? Because God gave them faith
and grafted them back in to the olive tree. Four. That's my last
verse for this morning. For if thou were cut out of the
olive tree which is wild by nature, but notice, it's not a wild olive
tree and a natural olive tree being brought together, is it?
Uh-uh. It's a branch out of a wild olive,
broken off of that wild olive and then grafted into the natural.
You see it? For 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? So
in other words, don't say, never let us say, God is completely
done with Israel. Because he's not completely done
with Israel. Because if he were completely done with Israel,
that would mean we have no hope. Because he's grafted us into
the natural olive tree. So again, unbelief broke Israel
off. Remember that. Now let me give
you just a little tidbit here. Maybe this will help us bring
this into line. The chapter divisions, everyone
here understands that, probably most everyone listening to me
understands that, but some may not. The chapter divisions are
not in the scripture. The only divisions in the scripture
that are truly valid are the Psalms. And they are not chapters,
they are just different songs inspired by God Almighty through
different people, and they compile them together in one book. And
sometimes these chapter divisions, they are certainly an aid. Don't
get me wrong, they're an aid. I'm so glad we can say turn to
chapter 11, verse one, rather than just find the place in Romans
that it starts saying this. That'd take us a while. We'd
be eating about four o'clock this evening, at best, if we
had to do that. So, in chapter, let me get back
to it. In chapter 11, one through 24,
That is a little more than our text, but that would take us
back to the real context, Paul still dealing with Israel, in
other words. But think about it, Paul wrote the word in these
verses, chapter 11, one through 24, Paul wrote the word God 10
times. And I hope this ain't misunderstood,
but that's just a generic term for God, for the Lord. for the sovereign of the universe,
it's God, God. God wrote, Paul wrote the word
God 10 times, and he wrote the word Lord one time. The words
Jesus, or Jesus Christ, or Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus Christ
the Lord are never written in these verses. And yet, we must
never forget it. It's not as though, okay, now
in chapter 11, Paul's moving on to a different subject. Paul's
still continuing with the exact same thing that he began writing
about, even in the beginning. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation, to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And he
hadn't left that subject yet. We're all seeing, Jew and Gentile.
He ain't left yet. There are those that say, Paul
in chapter 11 is speaking about what God's going to do for the
Jews as a nation one day in the future. That ain't so. God's talking about what God,
Paul's writing about what God has done to the Jewish nation
in his day. And he certainly includes, don't
count out the Jews, even some who were broken off because of
unbelief. God's able to graft them in again.
This is about what God, and God's still doing this. Got every reason
to believe God's still doing this. But again, and yet the
unbelief, which is so prevalent here because it's the unbelief
that broke them off. Remember? Well, Well, they will
say then the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.
Well, because of unbelief, they were broken off. That is central
to this chapter. But it's still consistent with
everything else Paul has said so far. And yet the unbelief
for which Israel was broken off was no general unbelief. It's
not just they didn't believe in God, they believed in God.
It's not just, well, they believed in God, but they weren't zealous
toward God. They were zealous toward God. You see what I'm
saying? You see what Paul's still showing
us here? He's not left for, here's what God's gonna do for Israel
in the future. After the church is saved, then
God's gonna turn again to Israel as a nation. That ilk of people
are wrong when they talk about that kind of thing. I was of
that ilk. Even after God really saved me,
Ellen, I still had a lot of that baggage, a lot of that rubbish
like Nehemiah had to deal with when they were rebuilding the
wall around Jerusalem. But it's no general unbelief. This unbelief was specific. Here's the first, I'm gonna give
you five things real quick and then we'll go back over these
verses again and I'll end up, but I'm not close to done yet.
One, it was unbelief in a refusal of messianic righteousness. Romans,
let me find my spot. Again, Romans chapter 10. Look
at what Paul wrote. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not heard
it, have not submitted themselves. That's their unbelief. It's not
just some general unbelief, as I pointed out with a few illustrations.
They didn't believe in God, they believed in God. It's not just
they weren't zealous toward God, even though they believed in
Him, they were zealous toward God. but it was in total ignorance,
an unbelief that is satiated with unbelief and ignorance and
rebellion against a refusal to submit to the very righteousness
of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone believe it. So this unbelief was specific. Secondly, their unbelief was
manifest in legal hope rather than a faith hope, chapter nine,
Look at it, chapter nine and verse 30. What shall we say then,
that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of
faith? But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore,
or why? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at the stumbling stone. Do you see it? Their unbelief
made them stumble at the very thing that is a rock and a foundation. The very thing that is a rock
and the foundation became a stumbling stone to them. As it is written,
behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense and
whosoever believeth on him. So this is a person. So when
Paul talks about this fall and this unbelief, he's still talking
about Jesus Christ. Even though he didn't mention
his name specifically. Though he has when he calls him
God 10 times and calls him Lord one time. Just in these verses
one through 24. Thirdly, their demand of legal
righteousness made God's Christ an actual obstacle to any true
righteousness. That also is in Romans 9, 30
through 33. You see it? Their demand of legal,
they sought righteousness by the law. They were so blind to
the truth that the law showed them how bad they were. But they
thought the law was teaching them how good they could be.
And people still do that today. Especially Bible taught Gentiles. Don't they? Especially Bible
raised up, born and bred, you know, Bible belt, United States,
huh? They think the law teaches them
how good they can be, or should be. No, the law teaches us how
bad we really are. So again, their demand of legal
righteousness made God's Christ an actual obstacle, a stumbling
stone to any true righteousness. And again, I said, that's not
a fault only of the Jews. That unbelief in Gentiles is
the same thing. They won't submit to God's righteousness,
bow down to him, right? They desire a legal hope, what
I do rather than what Christ has done, a faith hope. And their
demand of legal righteousness makes Christ an actual obstacle
to any true righteousness. Number four, unbelieving. Now listen to this one now. This
is important. unbelieving Israel's breaking
off was not they were in Christ and broken out of or off from
Christ. People get confused here. Is Paul saying that these unbelieving
Jews began in Christ? And then because of unbelief,
God broke them out of Christ, such as that never ever happens. But they were broken off of Israel. Because in truth, they're not
all Israel, which are of Israel. You see it? And somebody says,
I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. No, God didn't
tell you wrap your head around it. He said, believe it. Bow
to it. Submit to it. So again, unbelieving
Israel's breaking off was not they were in Christ, but because
of unbelief, they were broken off from or out of Christ. It
was a breaking off from great advantage. The main advantage,
Paul said, and we'll read it again, was chapter three, verse
one and two, they were given Israel as a nation. We're given
the oracles of God. The oracles of God. But now even
the Bible has become a stumbling block to them. Isn't it? The Bible. Christ spoke to those
certain high religious Jews of his day. He said, you do search
the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life,
but they miss him who is eternal life in the scriptures. The scriptures
became the very thing that eternal life is held in. It's in here.
Eternal life's in this book. but it's only because the book
speaks of Christ who is life. And people are so enamored with
the book, they miss him of whom the book speaks. This great advantage. Chapter nine, remember, look.
Chapter nine, let me read it real quick. Verse one, I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. Well, who's he talking about?
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for
my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites,
but only naturally, as he will go on to say. but they are natural
Israelites. They're real Israelites. They're
true Jews in the natural sense, okay? Who are Israelites to whom
pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the giving of the covenants,
and the law, the service of God, and the promises who are the
fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is
over all. God bless forever, amen. and their unbelief got broken
out of that. You see it? Their unbelief. Because
of their unbelief, they were broken out of that. And again,
in chapter 11, for if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also
holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches. Israel was
a holy nation. But every unbelieving Israelite
by nature was broken off of those great advantages. The very things
that were advantages now becomes a stumbling block to them. It's
an obstacle unto them. It gets in their way. And especially
when they find out that God is taking wild olive branches and
breaking them out of the wild olive plant and bringing them
over here and grafting them in. God can't do that. Well, God
did do that. God is doing that, but that didn't
put God over a barrel concerning a Jew. You see it? Uh-oh, now here. There's number
five. Israel's unbelief made even their
messianic advantage to be an actual obstacle to them. That's
scary. Christ came from these people's
loins. The very Messiah of God was a
Jew. An Israelite born of the tribe
of Judah and the records they kept in the temple, that's what
I'm told, historians say, had his name right there in that
lineage. And this was the very one that
Israel hoped to come. They were promised, he's coming,
he's coming. And when he showed up, they said, that can't be
him. Why? Because he didn't offer them
political advantage. He preached unto them spiritual
forgiveness. Well, maybe these Romans need
forgiveness, but not us. We got the law. And let me tell
you, there are Gentile Christians, put that in quotes today, that
do the very same thing. All right, in light of this Christ-centered,
Christ-exalting book, chapter 11, he didn't leave Christ. and
talking about God gonna establish Israel back in the land of Palestine
one day and they're gonna start offering sacrifices. And some
people even say, well, that's gonna happen in the thousand
years. Where in the world does the book say that? Read where
the thousand years is spoken of and Satan is bound with the
chain and cast into the bottomless pit. There ain't nothing about
God redoing something for Israel and they start offering sacrifices
again, is it? but people put scriptures together to fit what
they already think is the facts, rather than taking the facts
and saying, you know, I can't put it all together, I just have to
believe it all, even though I can't put it A, B, C, D. Got it? God leaves us in that ignorant,
but no man knows anything yet as he ought to know it. In light of this Christ-centered,
Christ-exalting book, this letter to this church at Rome, Let's
read now chapter 11 verse 15 in that light. For if the casting
away of them be the reconciling of the world, aren't you glad?
Now somebody said, why did God have to do it that way? He didn't. He did it that way because it
pleased him. Chapter nine, read the whole
chapter again. God's sovereign in this matter.
It wasn't the lack of election that was Israel's problem. It
was unbelief. And somebody says, well, but
Gentiles were unbelievers at the get-go, and the Jews who
now believe on Jesus Christ were unbelievers at the get-go, but
Romans 9, he's already established God shows his mercy sovereignly
as he will. Jews who perish don't perish
because God didn't choose them, they perish because of unbelief.
Now the election is based upon something totally different.
It's neither having done, being born, neither having done any
good or evil. That's God's sovereign prerogative. But perishing is
because you rebel against God in unbelief. Even being broken
off out of the natural olive tree is not because of a lack
of election. It's because of unbelief. Isn't that amazing? And yet,
to me, that is so technically simple. Now it's profound in
the fact that God does this, but that is so technically simple,
and yet that is one reason why men stumble over it, because
God don't give us any credit for the good, but he blames us
for all the bad. You know why? Because he does
all the good, and we are responsible for all the bad. It is that simple,
and yet by nature we hate it so much because God don't give
me at least 0.5% credit. No, God gives us no credit, but
he lays all the guilt upon our shoulders. Anyone here boast over Israel
being broken off? Israel was broken off. They're
broken off. They're broken off. And if God
don't graft them back in through faith in Christ, they will never
have any joy from the Lord. Not in a thousand years, not
in the eternal state, never. Never.