Well, to say that these are difficult
verses is an understatement because of the metaphor. So we'll just
jump right in on him. But you know what he's talking
about here. He made some great points concerning how that every
Gentile believer needs to consider when looking at the Jewish nation. And, of course, he talked about
how the Jews as a nation under the old covenant had fallen. They had rejected Christ. As
I put in the lesson, they stumbled at the stumbling stone of Christ
crucified. And any time, you know, when
you read that, they stumbled at that stumbling stone, that
means their rejection of Christ. They're walking along their way,
which is a way of false religion. a way of work salvation, Christ
comes along and preaches salvation by the sovereign mercy and grace
of God based upon his righteousness alone. And they stumble over
that. Now I remember when I stumbled
over it. You may remember when you stumbled over it. And the
Lord didn't leave us in that condition and he won't leave
any of his elect children in that condition. He's going to
bring them all to repentance. Second Peter chapter three teaches
that God's not willing that any of them should perish. but that
all should come to repentance. But what Paul has been teaching
up to this point is this, that we as believing Gentiles, sinners
saved by grace, who have nothing in ourselves in which to boast,
who recognize that our salvation is totally by God's sovereign
mercy and grace and due to nothing within us or done by us, we ought
not rejoice over the fall of that nation We ought not be glad
that they fail and rejoice and look at ourselves like, well,
now we believed and they didn't because we know that faith is
the gift of God. And so we'll look at that in
just a moment. But here, we need to consider that it's a sad state
when people are under the judgment of God's wrath He that believeth
not, talking about people who continue in unbelief, they shall
not see life. And we ought to understand that
if left to ourselves, we'd be in the same shape. And that's
a big thing. I mean, that's something that
we need to really understand all our lives, that when you
look at a person who rejects the gospel, I can't remember
what historical character said this, but it's a biblical concept. He said, there but for the grace
of God go I. Now that exact phrase is not
in the Bible, but it's a biblical truth. It would go something
like this. Paul said one time, he said,
by the grace of God I am what I am. So if I have eternal life,
if I have spiritual life, if I have faith to believe, if I've
been brought to repentance, if I know Christ and love the preaching
of the truth and follow him, it's all by grace. And so we
need to recognize it, keep that in mind. And then secondly, we
ought to consider how God has overruled the fall of the Jewish
nation under the old covenant. and used it for his glory and
the salvation of his elect among the Gentiles, proving that their
fault was the riches of the world. That's what we looked at last
week. We ought to rejoice, not that they fell, but that God
has overruled their fall and brought the gospel to us, to
the Gentile world. And then the main thing we ought
to rejoice concerning that nation is that it was through that nation
that God brought Christ according to the flesh. Christ had to have
a sinless human nature, a sinless human body and soul. He had to
have it or he couldn't have died. And if he couldn't have died,
he couldn't be our substitute and our redeemer and our righteousness.
So we ought to rejoice in all those things and the fact that
it was through them that God, and understand now that when
I say through them, I'm saying in spite of them too, that God
preserved his truth. You know, there were moments
in Israel's history under the old covenant that there was a
famine of the word of God in the land. Amos, I think, talked
about there, I think it was Amos. And, but God never totally allowed
them to squelch the truth to the point that it never came
up again. He always brought forth some
kind of revival of the truth throughout their 1500 year history
and preserved it on through the gospel. And that's why it says
the gospel is the power of the God unto salvation to the Jew
first, because in time it first came to them. and to the Gentiles. So we ought to rejoice. But now
here's what Paul's doing here, beginning at verse 16. He's using
an illustration from the Old Testament law. Look at verse
16. He says, for if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also
holy. And if the root be holy, so are
the branches. Now he's using an illustration
here that goes all the way back, I'll just read this, I've got
this cited in your lesson back in Numbers chapter 15, just a
few verses. Beginning at verse 19. And it's also dealt with in Leviticus
a little bit. But in Numbers 15 verse 19, He's
talking to them, and we'll read verse 17 of Numbers 15. I'll
just read it to you. It says, the Lord spoke unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto
them, When you come into the land whither I bring you, that's
the promised land, Then it shall be that when you eat of the bread
of the land, you shall offer up an heave offering unto the
Lord. Now you remember what a heave offering is? That's a thank offering
that they would bring and they'd lift it up unto the Lord. They'd
lift the offering in their hands. And it's called a heave offering
because they'd lift it up. And he says in verse 20, you
shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough For in heave
offering, as you do the heave offering of the threshing floor,
so shall you heave it. He says in verse 21, of the first
of your dough, you shall give unto the Lord and heave offering
in your generations. So what he's talking about is
when they would harvest the wheat and they were bringing in and
they grind it up and they would begin to make bread and they
would have lumps of dough, literally. And they would separate that
dough and make loaves of bread, bake it. And the command here
is that the first lump, the very first, is to be separated from
the rest of the lump and offered unto the Lord as a heave offering.
And so that was a thank offering. It wasn't an atoning offering
because all atoning offerings had blood, you see. But this
was a thank offering. And so what he's saying here,
he's using that same metaphor to talk about how the nation
Israel was separated unto the Lord, to be used of the Lord
in a physical sense and a ceremonial sense in a temporary way. And
he says in verse 16, go back to Romans 11, if the first fruit
be holy, the lump also is holy. Now who is the first fruit? Now,
when it comes out to be the separation of the Jewish nation, where did
their separation begin? It began with Abraham, because
they were separated. You see, we look at the Bible,
the gospel's always been the same from Genesis to Revelation,
but there's also a progressive revelation. For example, it was prophesied
in Genesis 3.15 that the Messiah would be the seed of woman, not
the seed of man, but the seed of woman. And that speaks of
a birth through a woman. And I believe that you can go
on and talk about how he's going to be God in human flesh. But
later on, Probably about a thousand years later, through Abraham,
God revealed that he separated this specific nation out, Abraham's
seed, to be the instrument through which the humanity of Christ
would come. So it was Abraham. So Abraham is the, I believe
he's the first fruit here. And then he goes on, he says
in verse 16, and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
The root, talking about, as you'll see down in here, the olive tree. A lot of times in the Old Testament,
the nation Israel is called the olive tree. That translates over
into the New Testament to be the church, I believe. I know
a lot of people deny that, but I believe it is. Because he's
talking about the Gentiles being graft in here. And so what he's
using this metaphor to show that the Jews were marked out and
separated when God chose Abraham. And it's through Abraham. He
said, I'm gonna make you a great nation. And he said, through
you all nations will be blessed. We're talking about how Israel,
the Jews, were separated out. And so this holy here, when he
says holy, don't think about it like most people today in
false churches. It's not talking about moral
purity here. The word holy, the word sanctified
means separated. That's what it means. We who
believe in Christ, we're holy brethren. That doesn't mean that
we're pure in ourselves. that we have no sin. It means
we've been separated out by the grace of God and brought to a
certain position and place that's separated from the world. You're
in the world, but you're not of the world. So that's the way
it was with the Jews under the old covenant in a temporal, ceremonial,
physical way. So holy here means consecrated,
separated out for a specific use under God. And what was that
used? Well, it's through that nation
that the Lord was going to bring Christ, the Messiah, through.
It was by that nation that he preserved his word. And so what's
happening here is Paul's showing, he's showing how the plan and
the purpose of God is accomplished through the means that God had
appointed by the Jews. And so he says, look at verse
17, he says, and if some of the branches were broken off, now
who's he talking about? He's talking about those members
of that physical nation who didn't believe. They participated in
some of the physical blessings that God promised the nation
through Israel, but they did not participate in any of the
spiritual blessings that God promised through Abraham, they
were broken off. And that doesn't mean they were saved and then
they were lost, not at all. He's just speaking of their relationship
here to the root, the olive tree. We be Abraham's seed, they said,
and they were physically, but what did Christ say in John chapter
eight? He said, if you were Abraham's seed, you'd do the works of Abraham.
Well, what are the works of Abraham? He believed God and it was imputed
to him for righteousness. They didn't believe God. He said,
remember Christ told him, he says, you seek to kill me. And
he said, Abraham didn't do that. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and he was glad.
So the branches that are broken off is talking about the unbelieving
segment of Israel, which was the majority. How do we know
it was the majority? Well, what did Isaiah say in
his prophecy? Back over in chapter 10, as it
was quoted, he says, let me make sure I got the right verse here.
He says, verse 20 of Romans 10 across the page, Isaiah's very
boat, he said, I was found of them that sought me not. I was
made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But Israel,
he saith, all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto
a disobedient and gainsaying people. Remember Isaiah said,
though the children of Israel are the sands of the sea, a remnant
will be saved. So the branches broken off refers
to the unbelieving segment of the nation Israel. They were
broken off in the sense is they separated themselves from the
spiritual blessings that God promised through Abraham to the
spiritual children of God. And he says in verse 17, and
thou being a wild olive tree. Now he's referring to the Gentiles
here. And a wild olive tree in the sense that they weren't the
natural descendants of Abraham like the Jews were. And so he
uses that metaphor to show them you're like a wild olive tree.
He says, we're graft in among them. Among them, and with them
partakest of the root and the fatness of the olive tree, the
blessings of Abraham. Now look over at Galatians chapter
three. And Galatians three explains
exactly what he's talking about here. And you can read the whole chapter,
but look at verse, he'd already talked about, he said, if you're
of the works of the law, you're under a curse. Galatians 3.10. Cause it's written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Verse 11, but that no man
is justified by the law in the sight of God, it's evident, for
the just shall live by faith. Now that justification is illustrated
through Abraham in Romans chapter four, you remember. And David,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
works. And David recognized that. And
what he called that in the Bible, that's called the blessing of
Abraham. Now that doesn't mean that Abraham
is our righteousness, Abraham himself. It doesn't mean that
Abraham can save us. But it was through Abraham that
God illustrated how he saves us. God justifies the ungodly. So look on, he says in verse
12 of Galatians 3, and the law is not of faith, but the man
that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law. Not Abraham, but now that redemption
was illustrated and set forth in a great way through Abraham. This is the promise of God given
to Abraham for his people. Being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now look
at verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham, what is the blessing
of Abraham? It's salvation by God's grace
through Christ. It's righteousness through Christ. Righteousness imputed, righteousness
received by faith. mercy and grace, that the blessing
of Abraham, it's spiritual life given, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Now that's what
he's talking about. You're a wild olive tree, you're
not a natural, you have no physical, natural connection with Abraham. You don't partake of any physical
blessings that God promised Abraham and his natural seed. All right? You don't have any right to any
of those physical promises, but you're grafted in to the olive
tree. And what does that mean? You
brought into the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. You're
brought into the kingdom of God And that's called the blessing
of Abraham because it's the same salvation that Abraham experienced.
He says that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. I hope I haven't confused you
on all that. But go back to Romans 11. That's what he's talking about,
look at verse 17. If some of the branches be broken
off, that's the natural seed of Abraham, the physical Israelites
who rejected Christ, they stumbled at that stumbling stone, they
fell. And thou being a wild olive tree
were grafted in among them, that is among the spiritual seed of
Abraham, and with them partakest of the root and the fatness of
the olive tree, the blessing of Abraham, salvation. by the
grace of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. So, verse 18, boasts
not against the branches. Well, that goes without saying,
doesn't it? But I mean, it's said because
of our natural tendency to think more highly of ourselves than
we are. Even as sinners saved by grace,
one of our greatest enemies is pride. One old preacher said there's
pride of face, pride of race, and pride of grace. You know,
anytime, this is one thing I think about with people who are not
hearing the true gospel, and claim salvation based upon their
decision, decision or regeneration, they don't see that that's a
boast. Why am I saved? and somebody else isn't. Well,
it's because I believed. I walked an aisle. I made a profession. I got baptized. Do you realize
that's a boast against other people? Think about it. If you're
sitting beside me and you stay in the pew and you don't walk
the aisle and all that, I'm saved because I did all that and you
didn't. It's the same as saying, and I know people don't say it,
and they say, well, they don't think like that. The natural man does
think like this, he just won't admit it. But think about it. They're actually saying I'm saved
because I rose up above the unbelieving crowd and made my decision for
Christ. Now there's several problems
with that. Number one, it's not scriptural.
You show me in the Bible where it says that. Show me in the
Bible where any experience of salvation goes like that. It's
not there. That's a concoction of man. And
secondly, it's a boast. Well, now let's look at the nation
Israel. Look at the nation Israel today. I've had people ask me,
said, should we support the state of Israel that occupies Palestine
today or part of it? And you know what I say to them?
I say this, yes, economically, politically, but no, spiritually. They reject my savior. They reject my surety, my substitute,
my redeemer, my advocate. Everything that I'm about, as
a sinner saved by grace, is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom they reject. Some of them say, well, he's
just a prophet, and he said some good things, but he's not the
Messiah. They're still looking for the Messiah. I found him.
So yes, I think we ought to support Israel today, economically, politically,
but not spiritually. They're unbelievers. But I know
this, I don't have anything to boast in over them. By the grace
of God, I am what I am. I'm not a believer because of
anything in me or done by me or anything that I intended to
do or tried to do. And that's what he's talking
about. Boast not against these branches, these branches that
were broken off. He says in verse 18, but if thou
boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Think about
this, if you're going to brag, Then understand this, you received
great benefit even from that physical nation, but they didn't
receive any benefit from you. That's what he's saying there.
Well, what benefits did we receive from that nation? Good night,
think about it. It was from that nation that
our whole eternal existence came through Christ. I thank God for them. I'm sad
that today in Palestine, it's made up mainly of a bunch of
believers. I told somebody, I said, I'm
gonna preach a television sermon on this, because somebody had
asked me by email about the organization Jews for Jesus, and I wrote them
back, and I said, well, they're talking about me. And he wrote back, and he said,
oh, are you a Jew? I said, yeah. I said, go to Romans 2, 28 and
29. He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, and circumcision
is not that of the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart. That's what I am. I'm a Jew for
Jesus, spiritually speaking, but not physically. No, I told
him, I said, I'm not a physical descendant of Abraham. I'm just
a Southern boy. Not that there's no Jews who
are Southern, don't get me wrong. But no, but spiritually speaking,
that's what I am. And so, this is what he's talking
about. Don't boast against the, don't
brag. He said, and if you do, here's something you need to
realize. You got a lot of benefit from them. It was through them
that the gospel came to the Gentiles in the new covenant. But they
didn't get anything from us as far as benefit. Now, we could
say, well, the nation now is getting a lot of benefit from
the United States, but that's not what Paul's talking about
here. He's not talking, he's not speaking politically and
economically, he's talking about salvation. He's talking about
how God brings a sinner to be justified, to be forgiven of
our sins, to be righteous in his sight. And it all came from
Christ. who was made according to the
flesh from the seed of David, a Jew. Incidentally, you know
the term Jew, you know what it means. It's a shortened form
of Judah, which means praise. We praise God. Well, look at
verse 19. He says, thou would say then
the branches were broken off that I might be graft in. Now
that's true. But Paul is relating this, he's
showing that a person who would say that, trying to defend their
bragging, their boast. Well, why shouldn't I boast?
Why shouldn't I boast? The branches are broken off that
I might be grafted. And Paul says in verse 20, well,
okay, that's right. That's right. I mean, we just
read those verses. Their fall ended up being the
riches of the world. That's right, he says, but realize
this. Now listen to this, verse 21,
or verse 20. Think of that, because of unbelief
they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Now what does
that tell you? Well, where does faith come from?
Oh, you've got a little spark of goodness in you, and some
eloquent preachers fanned that fire, No, you stand by faith. Well, what does that mean? If
you understand what faith is in the scripture, that means
I don't have any reason to boast. For by grace are you saved, through
faith that not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Do you realize in those verses,
and he goes on to say, we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in. Do you realize that when a person claims that
the reason they're saved is because they believe, and the reason
somebody else is lost is because they did, as if that came from
them, that's turning faith into a work. The only way that you can know
faith and not have it to be a work is to know that it's not of yourself,
it's a gift of God through Christ, and faith looks to Christ alone
who made the difference. Salvation conditioned on Christ.
What do we believe? We believe that our salvation,
and everything that's included, was conditioned on Christ, and
he fulfilled every last one of those conditions. And so, be not high-minded, but
fear. Have some respect here, that's
what he's saying. Stand in awe. Do you realize
that if you're a believer, you're a walking, talking miracle of
God's grace and mercy in Christ? That's an awesome thing. You
know, a believer is an awesome thing. But it's all owing to
God. And so he says in verse 21, for
if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also
spare not thee. Now what's he saying? He's not
threatening them with loss of salvation. He's not saying you
better be careful or God will take away what he's given you. He's simply saying this, you
realize that if God did not spare the natural descendants of Abraham
because of their unbelief, be careful, take heed. Your bragging
may show that you really don't believe the gospel. And if you
don't believe it now, what does that mean? It means you never
have believed it. Isn't that right? So that continual attitude
of pride over the natural branches may, in a person, reveal a false
profession, a sham profession. That's why he says, so be careful.
I know something about faith. It makes a sinner humble. Doesn't
give him bragging rights within himself. What are we bragging? God forbid that I should glory
both, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right.