Scripture reading will be taken
from Romans chapter 11. Romans the 11th chapter. We begin reading in verse 11. I say then, have they stumbled
that they should fall? God forbid. But rather through
their fall salvation has come unto the Gentiles. or to provoke
them to jealousy? Now if the fall of them be the
riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches
of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? For I speak to
you Gentiles, and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles,
I magnify mine office. If by any means I may provoke
to emulation them which are my flesh, it might save some of
them. For if the casting away of them
be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of but
life from the dead. For if the first fruit be holy,
the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are
the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and
thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and
with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest
not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches
were broken off that I might be crafted in. 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, take heed, lest he also spare not thee. Behold,
therefore, the goodness and severity of God on them which fell, severity,
but toward thee, goodness. If thou continue in his goodness,
otherwise thou also shall be cut off. 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 were 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. We'll
end our reading there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our God and Father, which art
in heaven, holy and reverent is your matchless name. Lord,
we come into your presence reverently. We come into your presence bowing
before you in worship. Thankful that we can come before
your throne of grace, that we don't have to come before your
throne of justice. But because of our Lord Jesus
Christ and in our Lord Jesus Christ, we can come before your
throne of grace, calling you our Father. Oh, how thankful
we are. What a miracle of your grace,
your mercy, your love that sinful men and women such as we would
be the children of God, could call upon you in prayer and be
heard. Father, we're thankful. We're thankful that this is the
day that you've appointed and given us to meet together and
worship. And Father, I pray that you would
give us in this hour a spirit of true worship. Enable us to
worship thee this morning in spirit and in truth. Bless your
gospel as it is preached. Cause it to go forth in power,
to bring much glory to your name, to reach the hearts of your people,
to feed and comfort and strengthen your people, to call out your
lost sheep, to call them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I
pray to you this morning that you would give life from the
dead. That some poor sinner here this morning, dead, trespasses
in sin, that this might be the day that you've appointed from
all eternity to give them life. Ears that hear, heart that believe,
that in this hour that you would call one of your lost sheep to
our Lord Jesus Christ. For his glory, Father, we pray. Father, we're thankful for all
the blessings of this life that you've given to us. You've blessed
us beyond measure. We're so thankful. We're thankful
for your keeping, mercy, grace, your watchful eye over your people
that has kept us safe through yet another week. Father, for
those that you brought into the time of trouble and trial, we
pray for them. We are thankful to know these
things are not accidents, but they're your divine eternal will
and purpose for good, for your glory. Father, we do pray for
those who are in pain and hurting, those who are in difficult situations
emotionally, mentally, physically. Father, we pray that you'd meet
their every need richly, that you'd comfort their hearts with
your presence, that you'd heal and lead and guide and direct.
Thankful for the good report we had for our brother, Mike,
and we pray, Father, that you continue to be with him and strengthen
him and restore him back to strength where he can be with us once
again. Now, Father, again, bless us
all how we pray that you'd not leave us alone in this hour,
but bless us with your presence that we might hear word from
you, being able by your Spirit to worship. For it's that name
which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we pray. I titled the message this morning,
God's Goodness and Severity. I took the title from verse 22
where the apostle says, Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity
of God. I really only have one point
that I want to make, and I'll make this point in each verse
in our text this morning, that God is both good and He's severe. God always and only deals with
His people in goodness. And God always and only deals
with rebels in severity. That's the point I want to make.
And then I'd like to draw a conclusion to apply to each of us this morning
about God's goodness and severity. Now, the word severity that Paul
uses here means decisiveness. It's something that comes in
sudden judgment and rigor. God's judgment on rebels who
refuse to bow to Christ will come suddenly. That's the passage
we read there in Psalms opening the service where there was no
fear. Suddenly, decisively, in a moment, there will be fear.
God's judgment will be decisive. It's not going to take a long
time. There'll be no appeals. It's going to be sudden. It's
going to be right. And it'll be quick. And God's judgment
on sin is rigorous. It's inflexible. And it is severe. The punishment for sin is severe.
It's eternity in hell. It lasts for that suffering.
Punishment lasts for eternity because our suffering can never
pay for even one sin. So it's severe. It's decisive
and rigorous, but it's not too harsh. God's judgment is severe,
but not too harsh. God's holy, so he can't do something
that's wrong. It's too much. No, God's going
to give sinners, every one of them, exactly what they deserve. Judgment will be rigorous, but
decisive and it'll be fair and just. Then there's God's goodness. And that word goodness means
gentleness and kindness. God always deals with his children
in gentleness and in kindness because he's already dealt with
our sins in the person of our substitute. He's already dealt
in severity with our substitute to put away our sin. So that's
God's goodness and severity. And I want to see that. beginning
in verse 11 with each verse of our text this morning. Verse
11, I say that they stumbled, that they should fall, God forbid,
but rather through their fall, salvation has come into the Gentiles
for to provoke them to jealousy. Now here's God's severity. The
Jews stumbled and fell. Now what made them stumble? Well,
they stumbled over Christ, didn't they? They stumbled over Christ,
that stumbling stone. They stumbled over him because
they weren't looking for him. They weren't looking for a substitute.
They weren't looking for a sacrifice. They were looking for a king.
So they stumbled and fell. Now, if they would have believed
Christ, this stumble wasn't just, you know, something accidental.
No, it was on purpose. They refused to believe Christ.
If they would have believed Christ, Christ wouldn't have been a stumbling
stone to them, would he? Not if they'd have believed him.
He'd have been the stone of their foundation. He'd have been the
rock where they could hide. But they rejected Christ. They
stumbled over him when they refused to believe them. And here's God's
severity because they did that. He took his presence away from
them. God's presence used to dwell
in Egypt, physical presence over the mercy seat in the temple.
His presence dwelt there. He took it away. His presence
is no longer there. He took the gospel away from
them. and sent it to the Gentiles. Now that's severe, isn't it?
Look over in Acts chapter 13. I'll show you a couple instances
where this happened. It's severe. It was sudden in
a moment. God took the means of salvation
away from the Jews by taking the preaching of the gospel away
from them. Nobody's going to be saved apart from hearing the
gospel. And God took it away from them. Acts 13 verse 44. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles, for so hath The Lord commanded us, saying,
I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest
be for salvation under the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord.
And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believe. And
the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But
the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and chief
men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and
expelled them out of their coast. They shook off the dust of their
feet against them and came to Iconium. Now, the Lord took the
gospel away from the Jews and he sent it to the Gentiles. It
just happened in a moment. It was severe, wasn't it? That's
severe, to have the gospel taken away from them. But it wasn't
too harsh. The Jews didn't want the gospel.
They expelled Paul and Barnabas from their coast. So God just
gave them what they wanted. Look in Acts 28. You know, this
wasn't God reacting. to what men did. This was God's
eternal purpose for the Jews and for the Gentiles, for his
people, the Gentile world. Acts 28, verse 23. And when they had appointed him
a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets,
from morning till evening. And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not
among themselves, they departed. After that Paul had spoken one
word, well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our
fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and hearing ye shall
hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and
not perceive. For the heart of this people
is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto
you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and
that they will hear it. And when he had said these words,
the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves, And
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received
all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence,
no man forbidding him." Now that was severe, wasn't it? The Lord
took the gospel away from the Jews, because they wouldn't believe
it. And he sent it to the Gentiles, and he told the Jews, the Gentiles
are going to believe this. Now that was severe, but it's
not too harsh, was it? Paul stayed there two whole years. They could have come and heard
any time they wanted. But they didn't. Because they could not
hear. And Isaiah told them what was going to happen. See, this
is God's eternal purpose being carried out. Now that's God's
severity. Here's God's goodness. He took
the gospel away from the Jews. They counted themselves unworthy.
They wouldn't believe it. They wouldn't have it. And God
sent the gospel. He sent his messengers bearing
the gospel to the undeserving Gentiles. The Jews didn't deserve
it either. He sent his gospel to the undeserving
Gentiles, those who were heathen idolaters. God took what we would
call the apostle Paul, the greatest apostle, one who is most used
of God. God took the greatest apostle away from the Jews and
sent him to the Gentiles because God had a people, an undeserving
people that he was going to save out of the Gentile world. And
salvation came to the whole Gentile world through the preaching of
the gospel, because God sent preachers to the Gentiles. That's
how God saved people, through the preaching of the gospel.
How good that God was to people who deserved his wrath, that
he would send, he wouldn't leave them in their idolatry, but he'd
send them preachers, preaching the gospel. God's goodness is
his mercy and his grace to his people. And that mercy and grace,
that great glory of God is declared to men through the preaching
of the gospel. That's God's goodness. He sent preachers, thus Gentiles. And here's more of God's goodness.
God's severe, but all he's good. Paul asks, have the Jews stumbled
and fell so that it's impossible for a son of Abraham to be saved?
Have they stumbled so it's impossible? No, not at all. Because God is
good. You see, God, in his goodness,
sent the gospel to the Gentiles to save his people, the Gentile
world. But he also sent the gospel to
the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy. Some Jews are going
to be jealous about this thing. They're going to be jealous of
God's blessing to the Gentiles. And some Jews, it's going to
make them seek the Lord the same way the Gentiles sought the Lord.
How did the Gentiles, who God saved, seek the Lord? By faith. Not by works. but by faith. Paul
says God sent the gospel to the Gentiles to make the Jews copy
that and seek the Lord the same way by faith, not by works. In
verse 14, that's what he says, If by any means I may provoke
the emulation, then which are my flesh, and might save some
of them. Some Jews are going to copy,
they're going to emulate, they're going to copy the Gentiles and
seek salvation through faith in Christ and not by their works.
And God's gonna save them. But you know, that applies to
anyone. Not just the Jew. That applies to anyone. Anyone,
without exception, who seeks salvation through faith in Christ,
shall be saved. Because nothing about their flesh
matters. It doesn't matter what they've done, what they haven't
done. It doesn't matter who they're related to, whether they're related to
Isaac or whether they're related to Ishmael. It doesn't matter.
Being a Gentile doesn't make you more savable today. And being
a Jew doesn't make you less savable. Because salvation is by God's
grace. It doesn't have anything to do
with this flesh. It's by God's grace. So whosoever,
Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, black or white,
whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever seeks salvation through
faith in Christ shall be saved. Only thing that matters is, do
you need a Savior? Do you need Christ? If you seek
Him, by faith, God says you'll find Him. That's God's goodness
to sinners. All right, verse 12. Now, if
the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing
of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?
Now here's God's severity. The Jews did fall, and they were
impoverished. They were spiritually impoverished. God took every spiritual advantage
away from them. It used to be in the Old Testament,
the Jews were the only ones who had any spiritual advantage,
wasn't it? They were the only ones who had the prophets. They
were the only ones who had the ceremonies. They were the only
ones who had the presence of God. But God took every spiritual
advantage away from them. He took the preaching of the
gospel away from them. He took the worship of the Lord away
from them. He took his servants away from them. And all that
was left to them is the type and ceremony, the form. And those
types and ceremonies became a snare to them. They didn't look at
these and they still don't. They do not look at those types
and ceremonies as pictures of Christ to point them to Christ.
They look at those types and ceremonies that they do as their
salvation. And they became a snare to them.
And it actually becomes their damnation because they're trusting
in the ceremony. not trusting in the Savior to
whom they point. They trust their salvation is
sitting down at a table and eating the Passover, eating the lamb
and the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs and those things.
And they say sitting down eating that with your family is salvation.
Going through that ceremony is salvation. And they trust in
that rather than trusting in Christ our Passover who was sacrificed
for us. See, they're looking for ceremony,
not the sacrifice. Not the Passover slain whose
blood cleanses us from all sin and causes God's wrath to pass
over us. They think they got it. They
think they know it. And they don't. The greatest spiritual poverty
you can have is thinking you're rich. Really, you don't have
any of it. The greatest spiritual ignorance
you can have is thinking you know it all. when you don't know
anything. It's like knowing the ABCs, the
certain points of it down on paper, but not knowing the person. Knowing it all so nobody can
teach you. That's the greatest spiritual poverty you can have.
That's God's severity to the Jews. That's the situation that
nation as a whole is in to this day. But here's God's goodness. The Gentiles became rich through
the Jews' poverty. What the Lord took away from
the Jews, He gave to the Gentiles. The Lord took those things away
from the Jews, but He didn't leave Himself without a witness.
No, He just moved the candlestick from here to here. The candle's
still lit. The Gentiles have all the riches
of God's mercy and grace brought to them through the preaching
of Christ. Here's more of God's goodness.
The Gentiles became rich through the poverty of the Jews. Well,
just think how much more blessed the Gentiles would be if the
Jews became full again. Think how much more blessed the
Gentiles we would be if God blessed the Jews with the gospel again
and caused many of them to believe it. We'd be even more rich, wouldn't
we? We'd have so many more brethren
and sisters in Christ. You think about those Jews. Just
a handful of them went out from Jerusalem preaching the gospel
and turned the entire world upside down. What might the Lord do
if He raised up a bunch of them? Who knows? Now, a lot of people
think that these verses seem to indicate that before the Lord
returns, there's going to be a revival in Israel. I don't
know if that's going to happen or not. This is what we know
about the Jews. The Jews were God's national
people. They were His nation on earth
among all the nations. They weren't a spiritual people.
They were a national people. And the Lord used that nation,
Israel, as a picture. And that's all they ever were.
They were a picture of spiritual Israel. They were a picture of
God's spiritual elect. And just everything God did with
Israel is a picture of what he does for his people. How he delivered
them from all their enemies. How he delivered them from Egypt. And he delivered them from so
many mighty kings with a great and powerful hand. God delivered
them. That's what he's done for his people. For his elect people.
Not all Israel. are of Israel. Not everyone who's
a member of national Israel is part of spiritual Israel. But
these verses seem to indicate that the Lord just might turn
back in mercy and grace to Israel. I don't know if he will or not.
I remember Henry preaching one time. He said, I don't know what
that means, but I do know what it says. Sure sounds like the
Lord might turn back in mercy and grace to him. I don't know
if it It wouldn't surprise me if he did because of God's goodness,
right? Not because the Jews deserve
it, not because the Jews are good, but because God is good. But I do know, I don't know if
there's going to be a revival in history or not, but if there
is, I can tell you exactly how it's going to happen. It's going
to happen through the preaching of the gospel. That's exactly
how it's going to happen. If Lord is pleased to save a
bunch of Jews, he's going to save them the exact same way
he saves every one of his people, through the preaching of the
gospel. through the revealing of Christ to them. That's what
Paul says in verse 13. For I speak to you Gentiles,
and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my
office. Now, Paul says he magnifies his
office. He's not magnifying himself above
the other apostles or above other preachers. He says, I'm the least
of the apostles. I'm the least of all the saints,
he said. He's not raising up preachers above the people. this
thing where preachers are better and smarter and more spiritual
than, you know, that's false. What he's doing is he's magnifying
his office. He's magnifying the preaching
of the gospel. Now, God's people, they do love
and respect God's preachers, but it's for the work's sake.
God's sheep love a man and they respect a man. They're thankful
for a man who will be faithful to them, to always preach Christ
to them. That's why God's people have
this love and respect. It's God's goodness when he sends
people a preacher. When God sends a sinner a preacher,
he's bearing good news of salvation in Christ. That's God's goodness
to that sinner. Now, God's goodness is his mercy,
his grace to his people. It's in his ability to forgive
sin. It's in the atonement that he's
provided for the sin of his people. It's in the life and the faith
that he gives his people And he does it through preaching.
That's how he reveals himself to them is through preaching.
Other than the gift of Christ and faith in Christ, the greatest
blessing God can send to a town is a preacher. That's the greatest
blessing God can send to town. Because if God sends his preacher
somewhere, he's got some sheep there. If God sends his preacher
somewhere, he's got a people he's going to save. Jonah didn't
waste his time going to Nineveh. God had a people there, he's
gonna spare. So if there ever is a revival in Israel, it's
gonna be done through the preaching of the gospel. The same way there
was a revival one time in Europe. The same way one time there was
a revival in the United States. And if God's ever pleased to
give us a revival here in Ashland, I can tell you how he's gonna
do it. He's gonna do it through the preaching of the gospel.
We need the exact same thing as those blind, hardened, dead
Jews. We need to hear the gospel and
for God to give us faith to believe it. Now here's a picture of God's
goodness, verse 15, giving life to his people. 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? Now here's God's
severity. The Jews were cast away for rejecting
Christ, just like all men were cast out of God's presence because
of Adam's sin. In Adam, we were cast out of
God's presence. You know, when God came down
and talked to Adam that day, his judgment was severe, wasn't
it? It was strict. It was immediate. Adam was immediately
cast out of God's presence. Immediately, the moment Adam
took that fruit, he died. Just like God said he was severe.
Well, that's a picture, you know, what went on with the Jews. They
rejected Christ and in severity, God immediately took his gospel,
took his servants away from Israel and made it so that they cannot
see, so that they will not see, they will not hear. That's God's
verity. But here's God's goodness. In
Adam, all men have been cast out from God's presence. But
God in his goodness is going to reconcile somebody to himself
in the Lord Jesus Christ. If God saves anyone, I don't
care who they are, anyone. It's God giving life from the
dead, isn't it? There is a sinner dead in trespasses and sins.
They cannot believe, they will not believe, even if they try
to believe, they can't. But suddenly, they can't not
believe. Suddenly, they see. What happened? God gave life. It's giving life to the dead. And if God gives life to any
dead, stinking, rotten sinner, it's going to be by his goodness.
And it's going to be through the preaching of the gospel.
It's the only explanation for it. God giving, having mercy
to those that don't deserve it. The only explanation for it is
God's goodness. And that's true of us Gentiles
and of the Jew too. God is so good. He's still going
to save some Jews. God has been severe in dealing
with those Jews. but he's so good to his people,
he's still gonna give life to the dead to somebody. Now, and
he's at this point, mostly that's in the Gentile world, isn't it?
Now that's so, you just can't deny that that's so. These next
verses give us a good warning, a warning we need to take to
heart, a warning about pride of grace. You know, those old
Jews, Oh, they were proud of their race, weren't they? They
looked down their nose at the Gentiles. Those are Gentile dogs,
they called them. They just didn't have the time
of day for them. How they looked down their nose
at those lost Gentiles. The tables have turned, haven't
they? Let's just be awful careful not to be proud of grace and
look down our noses at the Jews. Be awful careful not to look
down our noses at anybody because we got no reason for it. For if the first fruit be holy,
the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the
branches. Now, Paul here is talking about the church on earth. He's
not talking about those who are in the lump of Christ, in the
root of Christ. He's talking about the church
on earth. Everyone in the local church
is not saved. Everybody who's in these four
walls regularly is not saved. Now, they've got a great advantage. They're in a place where they
can hear the gospel preached. They have all the advantages.
If God's going to save them, he's going to save them through
the preaching of the gospel. But just because they're in these
four walls does not mean that they're saved. Just like the
Jews, just because they were in the nation Israel didn't mean
that they knew God, didn't mean they were part of it spiritually
Israel. They had every advantage, but we know from scripture, few
of them were saved. So when Paul talks about the
lump being holy, He doesn't mean that it's sinless. It means that
it's set apart. God set apart Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. He set those people, set them
apart to be his people. That lump that began with Abraham
was set apart. And all the people that came
from that lump, all the Jews, they were the branches set apart
to be part of God's national people. But that's all they were,
God's national people. This is not talking about God's
spiritual people. Paul isn't talking about branches here who
are saved, branches who are joined to Christ the divine, because
no branches joined to Christ will ever be cut off and cast
away. And these branches were broken off, verse 17. And if
some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive
tree were grafted in among them, and with them partookest of the
root and fatness of the olive tree. Now here's God's severity. The Jews were broken away. They
were there. They come from Abraham. They
had all these advantages, but they were broken away from the
true worship of God because they rejected Christ. Now they don't
in their synagogues and their religion. They do not have the
opportunity to be joined to Christ. They don't have it. They don't
have that opportunity because Christ is not there. because
the sap, the fullness, where life comes from is not there.
So in their religion, they do not have the opportunity to be
saved because the means of grace is not there. Christ is not being
preached. All they have is ceremony, which
is a deadly trap for their souls. And in their ceremony, they're
going further and further and further away from God. That's
so, because the only way you can come to God is in Christ. There's no Christ there. There's
no Christ in their religion. That's God's severity. He took
it away from them. But here's God's goodness. The Gentiles
have been grafted in. They've been grafted into the
local church where now they have the opportunity to be saved.
They have an opportunity to have that sap of life by being joined
to Christ by faith. They didn't have that opportunity
when they were in idolatry, did they? When they were bowing down
to Baal and doing whatever it was they were doing. But now
they have that opportunity because God sent the gospel to them.
And if they'll hear it and believe it, they'll be saved. Now this
grafting in, Paul is talking about being grafted into the
local church, a place where you can hear the gospel preached.
But this is a good picture of salvation in Christ. If a branch
is going to be grafted in, grafted into Christ, grafted into a tree,
two cuts are going to have to be made. First, there's got to
be a cut in the tree, isn't there, so it can receive the branch.
And there's got to be a second cut. The branch from that wild
olive tree's got to be cut. It's going to be cut off so it
can be put into the good tree. Well, that's salvation. Christ
is divine. His people are the branches.
Christ divine was cut. He wounded at Calvary. A wound
was opened up so that His people could be grafted into Him. And
the hearts of His people are cut. The hearts of His people
are circumcised. That old stony heart is cut out
and they're given a new heart of flesh so that they're joined
to Christ the branch or the vine. And those branches, those branches
joined to Christ will never be cut off and cast away because
of God's grace. Now God's grace in real goodness
is just not natural to you and me. It's not natural to the flesh.
As a matter of fact, grace is opposite. everything that we
think by nature. Matthew Henry made, I guess this
is so, I don't know anything about grafting branches into
trees, but this is what Matthew Henry says. He says, the husbandman
grafts a good branch into a tree in order to heal the tree. But
God takes a bad branch and he grafts that bad branch into a
good tree to heal the branch, not to heal the tree, but to
heal the branch. Well, that's good news for all
of us. Because by nature, we're wild, untamed, unkept branches. And where we grow, we just grow
wild, bearing sour fruits of death. But once we're grafted
into Christ, the branch is healed. We partake of His sap, we partake
of His goodness, we partake of His life, and we're healed. And
now we bear the fruits of the Spirit. That's God's goodness
to His people, grafting them into Christ, giving them the
life of Christ. All right, verse 18, we're still
talking about this Don't be proud against them, don't have pride
of grace. Boast not against the branches,
but if thou boast, you remember this, thou bearest the root,
or not the root, but the root thee. The root, you don't bear
up that root, the root bears you. Now, right understanding,
if God'll give us a right understanding of God's goodness and God's severity,
it will always lead us to humility. It'll never make us proud, it'll
always lead to humility. God did not give grace to make
anybody proud. No. God gave grace to make people
thankful. To make people humble. That God
would give such a great gift to me who doesn't deserve it.
That's why God gave us grace. And just think about it. What
do we got to be proud of anyway? I mean, really, what do we have
to be proud of? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
4. Everything we have, God gave
us. Everything we are, we are in Christ. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it, why didst thou glory as if you
not received it? If God gave it to you as a free
gift, why do you glory as if you earned it? Now, do you know the Lord? Do
you? Who revealed Him to you? He did,
didn't He? Do you believe God? Who gave
you the gift to believe Him? Huh? Are you saved? Who saved
you? Are you righteous? Are you righteous
before God? Who made you that way? When you
read those Old Testament scriptures, do you see Christ? The Jews don't
see him. They read him every Sabbath day.
They don't see him. Do you see him? Who gave you eyes to see? You talk to someone about the
gospel. I'm not just a Jew, just any man, natural man. You talk to them about the gospel,
they say, I don't see that. You do. You believe, do you? Who made you to see, huh? You
stand before God accepted? Who made you stand? In whom do
you stand? It's all in Christ. And we never
get over needing Him. He's the one who saved us, and
He's the one who keeps us. He's the one who made us righteous.
He's the one who keeps us righteous. We never get past this point.
Completely depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ. How'd you
start? How'd you first come to Christ?
I came to Him as a needy sinner who couldn't do not one thing
for myself. I needed His mercy. I needed His grace. Without it,
I was going to perish. Then you continue the exact same way.
as a poor, needy sinner who can't do anything for yourself, who
constantly needs Him, or you're going to perish. There's no reason
for anybody to be proud of grace. We should never be proud and
boast about the gifts that God's given us. A believer has no reason
to look down our nose at anybody. Not just the Jews, but anybody. Somebody out there in free will
religion is just in a ceremony that's dry and dead, without
any life in it just as much as the Jew. We don't have any reason
to look down our nose at either one. Not one. Because we'd be
right there with them if it wasn't for God's grace. But especially
considering the Jew. Let's just be careful. Don't
look down our nose at them. What did you and I ever do for
the Jews? Not one blessed thing. Not one
thing. But the Jews sure did a lot for us. Every page of this book is written
by a Jew. Those Jews in great persecution
went out from Jerusalem preaching the gospel everywhere they went. The first gospel preachers were
Jews. Get this. Christ the Savior, the only hope
of salvation we have, the greatest display of God's goodness He
was a Jew. Now we owe the Jews a great debt,
don't we? The first gospel preachers were Jews. The only reason we
ever heard anything is because of the Jews. We owe them a great
debt. All right, verse 19, here's a solemn warning now. Thou wilt
say then, the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.
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, Take heed, lest ye
also not spare thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness
and severity of God, on them which fail severity, but toward
thee goodness. If thou continue in his goodness,
otherwise thou also should be cut off. Now the Jews were broken
off, that's true. They were broken off for unbelief. They thought they didn't have
to believe. They thought because they were Jews, they were God's
people. Because they were related to Abraham. Now we who believe, we only believe,
the only difference between us and the Jews, the only difference
is because of God's goodness, he gave us the gift of faith.
That'll keep us from getting just too proud of ourselves.
That'll keep us, if we remember that, the only reason we believe
is God's grace. The only reason we have anything
we have is God's grace. That'll just keep us from getting
too big for our britches. Just don't ever start to think.
that you can start getting along on yourself without Christ. Now
you've grown so strong that you don't need Him. You start thinking
about that, behold, the severity of God. That's the same thing
the Jews did, and God cut them off. He'll do the same thing
to you and me. Don't you think He won't? If
we start depending on self, He'll cut us off just as surely as
He did. God cut off the natural branches, and surely He'll cut
off those wild olive branches that He's cut into and grafted
into the tree. Paul tells us that God's goodness toward us
is if we continue in His goodness. Now, that's not a condition of
grace. What that is is an evidence of
God's grace. If we continue in God's goodness,
all that means is God's been good to us, that God kept us.
And if we don't continue in God's goodness, but we go out from
the place where the gospel is preached, We go out, we don't
believe it. We just, we hear it week after
week after week and we go home, we don't believe it. And what
we're really still doing is depending on ourselves, hoping, you know,
in that great day of judgment that God will see I was better
than somebody else or, you know, He'll give me extra credit for
where I attended or whatever. All that is, is evidence God
really hasn't been good to us. He's not given us life. He's
not given us faith. God's goodness never was upon
us. just like it never was upon the
majority of those natural Jews. Here's one last look at God's
goodness and severity, verse 23. Now they also, if they abide
not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in. For God's able
to graft them in again. For if thou were 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. Here's
God's severity. God cut off the Jews and cast
them off for their unbelief. And it's their own fault. They
had nobody to blame but themselves. They refused to believe Christ.
They said away with him. We will not have this man to
reign over us. If God sends anybody to hell, this doesn't just apply
to the Jews, it applies to you and me too. If God sends any
of us to hell, it's not going to be God's fault. It's not because
God didn't choose us. It's not because Christ didn't
die for us. It's not because the spirit didn't call us. It'll
be our fault because we refuse to believe the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God will cast us off. But here's God's goodness. God's
cast the Jews off, but it's not impossible for a Jew to be saved. It's not impossible. Paul says,
if they don't continue in their unbelief, but they believe on
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved. It'd be easy
for God to graft them back in again, because nothing's too
hard for God. And God's just going to do it for somebody.
I don't know how many, but God's going to do it for somebody.
Because God's good. God's good. All right, now here's
a conclusion I want us to draw. Two conclusions. Behold, God's
very good. God will suddenly judge every
sin rigorously. He'll give every sin exactly
what it deserves. He won't miss one. And behold,
God's goodness. God saves sinners because God
is good. Not because they're good, because
God dealt in severity with their sin in the person of their substitute.
That's God's goodness. God has sent his gospel to the
Gentile world. And I want to apply this conclusion
to us right here this morning. I want to apply it to us. I'm
not talking about the whole Gentile world. I'm talking about Hurricane
Road Grace Church. God has sent the gospel to this
place. That's his goodness. All right,
now what can we conclude about that church? Here's my first
conclusion. Because of God's goodness, every
one of us should beg God for mercy. I'm going to beg God for mercy.
I don't deserve it. He don't have to show it to me.
But He might. Because God's good. Because He's
merciful. God did not spare His own Son
when His Son was made sin. God will surely not spare me
for my sin. But if I beg for mercy for Christ's
sake, I'm not begging for mercy because of anything about me.
I'm not begging for mercy because of anything I've done. I'm not
begging for mercy because I spend my time studying, preparing to
preach and work hard. No, no, I'm not not begging for
mercy because I've always been a Calvinist. No, not not begging
for mercy because anything I haven't done because I haven't, you know,
gone and bowed down to idols or eating a Passover or, you
know, no, I'm not not begging for mercy because who I'm related
to, like the old Jews, I'm begging for mercy. One hundred percent. based upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what God said? God said he had mercy on me. To Gene, I conclude we should
beg for mercy. Because God is good. And here's the second conclusion
that Paul dealt with very plainly in our text. Let's not be proud. There is nothing worse. I was
going to say worse than a proud preacher. Nothing worse than
a proud preacher. I hate to hear proud preacher. There's nothing
worse than a proud believer either. There's nothing worse than pride
in flesh. There's just nothing worse than
that. You think about a little child, thinks he knows everything. So
full of pride and he don't know nothing. Just an irritant to
you. Think what we look like to God. So full of pride. Then
let's just ask God for the grace to avoid this proud, haughty
spirit. God said he's going to reward
the proud. Oh, the proud have rewards coming. It's the rewards
of God's severity. Oh, but those who are humble
before the Lord, they'll shower His goodness upon them. We ought
to be humble before the Lord and before men. If we're saved,
we're saved by grace. And if we're going to be kept,
it's going to be kept by God's grace. And we've got nothing
to be proud of. It's everything God gives us
that we do not deserve. We never get past the point that
we depend upon Christ alone. But those people who depend on
Christ alone always, no matter how weak they are, no matter
how dark the night, no matter how violent the storm that comes
up against them, God will keep them because God's good. All behold the goodness and severity
of God. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, How we thank you for
this solemn warning from your word, the goodness and severity
of God. Father, we bow before you after
hearing this portion of your word, and we bow before you as
mercy beggars, poor, needy, empty, weak mercy beggars. Oh Lord,
would you be merciful to us. Would you be merciful to your
people here? Have mercy on those who do not believe, on those
who do not hear, on those who have no interest. God, be merciful. Bless your word as it's preached. You said you'd save your people
through the preaching of your word. Father, would you save
some here this morning? God, be merciful to your people.
This is a difficult, difficult journey. Difficult world in which
we tread. And we need help. We need to be strengthened. We
need to be fed. We need to be watered. God, would
you be merciful to your people. You said you'd feed your people,
that you'd strengthen them, you'd comfort them through the preaching
of your word. By your grace, your word's been
preached this morning. Father, ignore the weak, stumbling,
bumbling of the servant, but bless your word, I pray, and
mercy to your people, to strengthen, comfort, feed, and help along
the way. Father, we thank you for your
many blessings to us. We know it's all because of your
goodness, and we give you the thanks and the praise and the
glory, and that name which is above every name, the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ.