You'll find my text this morning
in the Gospel of Romans chapter 11, verses 11 through 16. Romans chapter 11, verses 11
through 16. In this 11th chapter of the book
of Romans, Paul is showing us, as he has throughout this epistle,
a clear distinction between Israel after the flesh and the Israel
of God. Israel after the flesh is Abraham's
physical seed. They're Abraham's physical descendants,
the physical nation of Israel. The Israel of God is Abraham's
spiritual seed, the seed of promise, the spiritual sons of Jacob,
God's holy nation, the holy nation of God's elect, the church of
the living God. Israel after the flesh has been
cast off by God because of their unbelief. But there was in Paul's
day as there is in our day, and as there shall be until time
shall be no more, scattered among the nations of the world, and
a remnant according to the election of grace. Some are Jews, some
are Gentiles, but all of them together make up the Israel of
God, the spiritual seed of Abraham, the church of God's elect, and
they must all be saved. Some of the elect remnant were
already believers, both the Jews and the Gentiles chosen of God. Paul himself was a Jew who had
already been called by God's grace and saved by God's grace.
Others were also to be called and saved out from among the
Jews, though God cast off the nation as a whole. Some are yet
to be saved. They were chosen in eternal love,
they were redeemed by the blood of Christ at Calvary, and they
shall be born again by the irresistible power and omnipotent mercy and
grace of God the Holy Ghost. But the Israel of God includes
God's elect among the Gentiles. They too must be saved. That's
what Romans 11 is all about. us how the Lord God in wise,
gracious providence is accomplishing His eternal purpose of grace,
the salvation of His covenant people by Christ Jesus, Abraham's
spiritual seed, the Israel of God. God cast off Abraham's physical
seed that he might save all Abraham's spiritual seed. That's the message
of Romans 11. If you want to understand what
Romans 11 is all about, understand that you've got the message of
Romans 11. God cast off Abraham's physical seed that he might save
all Abraham's spiritual seed. Let's read verses 11 through
16 together. I say then, had they stumbled that they should
fall, God forbid, but rather through their fall salvation
has come unto the Gentiles, for 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,
you Gentile believers, because 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, the
physical seed of Abraham, and might save some of them. For
if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world,
what shall the receiving of them be? But life from the dead. For if the first fruit be holy,
the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are
the branches. I want to call your attention
to three things in this short passage of Scripture. In verses
11 and 12, we have set before us God's sovereignty. In verses 13 and 14, the Spirit
of God tells us something about God's servant. And then in verses
15 and 16, he tells us about God's salvation. First in verses
11 and 12, God the Holy Ghost again asserts God's great sovereignty
in casting away the Jews. It seems as you read the scriptures,
the Spirit of God never misses an opportunity to assert and
assert plainly the Lord God absolutely sovereign in all things. Paul
begins this 11th verse by saying, I say then, have they stumbled
that they should fall? Paul is raising an objection.
By divine inspiration, he anticipated adversaries of the gospel, men
who delight to twist the scriptures for their own evil designs and
like to twist and pervert what gospel preachers say, faithful
men, and pervert them to make them say things they never thought
or intended at all. Paul was here declaring, as he
did from the beginning of Romans 9, that because the Jews refused
to obey the gospel, because the Jews refused to obey the gospel,
did you hear that? Because the Jews refused to obey
the gospel, because they refused to trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord God has cast them off in judgment. giving them spiritual
blindness and hardness of heart. I couldn't help but to think
in light of last week's hurricane in Texas, this week's hurricane
on our friends in Florida. In providence, it seems that
God always sends judgment in the exercise of mercy. Judgment
upon the ungodly and unbelieving that they may be warned but they
will not hear But judgment that he uses to send grace to his
elect in the preaching of the gospel So it was with the Jews
God cast them away as a nation in judgment But why did he do
that? Why did he do that? Paul understood
that God gave spiritual blindness and hardness of heart to the
majority of the nation of Israel, but not all were cast off. He
continues showing us throughout this 11th chapter, and he has
shown us plainly here that God prophesied in the Old Testament
scriptures that to which these people were appointed and spoke
plainly about it. Now this you can always expect.
I've never known an exception. I've never known an exception.
And I've been doing this a while. Whenever we preach the gospel
to religious rebels, whenever you read the scriptures to religious
rebels, whenever you even talk to religious rebels about the
things of God and the words elect, election, predestination, purpose
come up as they must if you talk about the things of God. You
just can't talk about things. God admits that. As soon as those
things come up, the poor deluded rebel says, you're saying God
created some people just to send them to hell. And they do it
with a snarl. Back in the mid-60s, there was
a very popular preacher in the United States down in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. He'd been there for a long time.
He was an old man when I met him. He was probably the biggest
windbag that ever pretended to be a preacher in the world. His
name was John R. Rice. He hated God and hated the gospel.
And he wrote a book. It was entitled, Predestined
to Hell? No! As if there were actually
some folks who believed that. And the whole book was a perversion
of the scriptures, a deliberate, willful perversion of what faithful
men proclaimed. in order to justify what he was
doing and preaching. That's precisely the objection
Paul, by divine inspiration, anticipated as he wrote this
epistle. What was God's purpose in casting
away the Jews? Did he cast them away just to
make them fall? Just so that they could be damned
forever in hell and perish forever? Now watch Paul's answer to that
response. God forbid. He answers as contemptuously
with as much disgust as decency would allow him to use. God forbid. That's blasphemous to think,
let alone to speak. God forbid. He speaks with astonishment,
disgusting astonishment. God forbid. You see, the end
God had in view, The purpose for which this was done was not
just to destroy the Jews, but rather the salvation of God's
elect among the Gentiles as well as his elect among the Jews.
And that's precisely what the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus in
John chapter 3 and verse 16. For God so loved the world not
just Jews, but his elect everywhere, that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Let's look at verse 11 again.
But rather through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles. Through their fall, salvation
has come to the Gentiles. Paul was saying, God wisely and
sovereignly ordained, purposed, and used their fall to bring
about the salvation of his people scattered in the four corners
of the earth. How is that, pastor? Had the Jews not fallen, had
they not crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, had they not despised
the gospel preached to them by our Savior and his apostles,
the purpose of God would have fallen to the ground. You would
never have heard the gospel. God's salvation would never have
been proclaimed to the world of the Gentiles. And Israel,
God's elect, the Israel of God could never have been saved.
But blessed be God, His purpose is firm and unchangeable, and
He causes even the wrath of man to praise Him. You see, God's
purpose is unalterable. God's providence, whatever it
appears to be to you and me, with our feeble understanding,
God's providence is wise and good. God's promise, all God's
promises in Christ Jesus are sure, they are yea and amen in
him. And God's power is absolutely
irresistible. It was from eternity that God
purposed to save his elect and to save his elect by the righteousness
of Christ and the blood of his dear son. Christ died by the
hands of enraged Jews. mob of enraged religionists. He died by their hands exactly
according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. That is the determinate counsel
and eternal purpose of God. Everything in the law pointed
to it and everything in the prophets declared it. God's got a people
he's going to save, save by Christ who will magnify his law and
make it honorable. And those people are found both
in Abraham's physical seed and in the Gentile world. All God's
elect are those people called the Israel of God. Hold your
hands here in Romans and turn back to Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah
42. Look at verse what? Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgments.
What does that say? To the Gentiles. He will bring
justice, righteousness, and truth. He will bring salvation to the
Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor
be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth and the
aisles. Folks in the far reaches of the
world shall wait for thy law. Look at chapter 54 in Isaiah. Isaiah 54, verse one. Sing, O barren. Thou that didst
not bear, break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst
not travail with child, for more are the children of the desolate
than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge
the place of thy tent, your house is fixing to get bigger, and
let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation. Spare not,
lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break
forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall
inherit the Gentiles. Christ, the seed, the seed of
woman, the seed of Israel, the seed of Abraham, the seed of
David shall inherit the Gentiles. By his power, by his justice,
by his grace, and by his adorable providence, God has accomplished,
is accomplishing, and shall accomplish his purpose of grace and his
promised salvation. Through their fear, or through
their fall, salvation is coming to the Gentiles. By their fall,
God sent the gospel to you. By their fall, the Lord God Almighty
calls the Lord Jesus, His salvation by the gospel to come to you.
He sends his Spirit upon all flesh, and his elect, both Jew
and Gentile, are effectually made to believe by the Spirit
of God, effectually applying Christ's redemption to us. Oh,
may God this day send his salvation to you for Christ's sake. I've
been praying as I prepared to preach to you. Lord, will you
pass by today And find one of your chosen ones, like Zacchaeus,
and say, today I must come to your house. For this one, he
also is a child of Abraham. He's one of God's covenant seed. Now look at the last line of
verse 11. For to provoke them to jealousy. Now, the reason
I'm doing this, God says, the reason I've taken the light of
the gospel away from the Jewish nation and sent it to all the
nations of the world, and I'm calling my let out of the nations
of the world is to provoke them to jealousy. Now, when we think
of that word jealousy, we normally think of it in a very negative
way. This is not jealousy in a bad
sense, but in a good sense, in a good sense. I'm here to provoke
you to jealousy, to provoke you to jealousy. I can't help but
to use a illustration of the bad sense. When I was a boy, I used to always
like to be seen with my girlfriend, my fiancée, this lady over here. I'd walk down the street, still
do, and catch fellas looking at us, you know. I'd say, eat
your heart out, boy, she's mine. And I still do. Eat your heart
out, boy, she's mine. She's mine. Provoking folks to
jealousy. Sometimes act in ways to deliberately
provoke them to jealousy. That's the meanness in me. But
I'm here to provoke you to jealousy in the very best sense possible.
I want to provoke you to want the salvation God's given me.
I want you to want the peace God's heaped upon me. I want
you to want with all your heart the righteousness God's given
me, the pardon of all my sin, the free, guiltless conscience
God's given me. Oh, I want you to want that.
I want you to want the Christ God's given me. to provoke you
to jealousy. That's the reason God saves his
people, so that you and I may, by the word we preach, provoke
men to jealousy. You don't do it by the life you
live. You can provoke them to want religion, but you can't
provoke them to want Christ and righteousness and salvation.
You only do that by carrying the gospel to them. by preaching
the word. The gospel can only be known,
Larry Brown, by preaching. You can't know it by showing
it. You can't know it by living it. You can only know it by preaching
it. You got to tell folks what the gospel is. Otherwise, you're
not preaching the gospel. as the fall of the Jews is the
enriching of the world. So the salvation of God's elect
remnant among them shall be the enriching of the world. That's
what we're told in 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. The gospel of Christ declares
the unsearchable riches of his grace. It is God's treasure put
in the hands of these earthen vessels. And by it, we carry
the pearl of great price, the treasure hid in the field of
Holy Scripture to lost sinners and proclaim the riches of God's
grace in him for the everlasting enrichment of their souls. What
a wonderful God-honoring display Paul gives us here of God's sovereignty. Look at verses 13 and 14. Here the apostle shows us that
God's servant is to magnify his office. For I speak to you Gentiles
because I am the apostle of the Gentiles. I magnify mine office. I exalt, I uplift, I honor my
office. If by any means I may provoke
to emulation them which are my flesh, that is my Jewish kinsmen,
my lost relatives, and might save some of them. He said I
magnify my office, not for my honor, but for the saving of
God's people. How does God's servant magnify
his office? How does a preacher magnify his
office? He doesn't do it by wearing funny
looking religious clothes. He doesn't do it by wearing collars
and crosses and religious nonsense. He doesn't do it by elevating
himself above others, making a distinction between clergy
and laity. He doesn't do it by wearing titles,
reverend and doctor and father. He doesn't do it by refusing
to dirty his hands with menial labor. How then does God's servant
magnify his office? By seeking in all things God's
glory in the salvation of his elect. By subjecting himself
in the totality of his life to that business. Seeking the glory
of God in the salvation of his elect. To do that, he must avoid
meaningless debates, speculations, and vain questions. And he must
live blamelessly. Lindsay was talking about this
this morning. I can't convince anyone of godliness
by the way I live, but I can't exemplify godliness by the way
I live. I can't show you what godliness
is by the way I live, but I can't exemplify it by the way I live.
And we read in 1 Timothy that the pastor must be a man of blameless
conduct. That is not that he lives perfectly. That's not what Paul's talking
about. But he lives in such a way that that fellow down yonder
doesn't have a reason to speak evil of him. Now he might cuss
him every day, but he doesn't have any reason to. He may be
angry with him all the time, but don't give him a reason to.
I magnify my office as God's ambassador to your souls by faithfully
preaching the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. A preacher
is known best by his most obvious oddity. A preacher is known best by his
most obvious oddity. Ask any preacher in this town
about Don Fortner. Ask any of them. Any of them. I've been around a long time.
They all know my name and talk about it regular. I'm aware of
that. Ask any of them about him. I'll tell you what they'll say.
Fortner's a Calvinist. Fortner's a hyper-Calvinist.
They always put that in front of it. Fortner believes in predestinarian. Fortner's going to seed on sovereign
grace. Fortner believes in election.
Fortner believes in limited atonement. Yes, he does. And I want to be
known by those oddities. I have earned a reputation with
deliberate effort. I believe and preach those distinct
oddities of the gospel all the time. Sadly, some are known for
other oddities. God's servant magnifies his office
by handling the word of God honestly. To handle the word of God honestly,
now listen to me, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter four, I want you to see
this. If I handle this book honestly,
are you listening to me? I preach that which God intended
by what I read. The poorest way I know to interpret the Bible is to get
your concordance and study words and put them all together. When
I was in Bible college, First thing I heard, I mean the very
first thing was dispensational truths, they called it. Dispensational
deceit is what it was. I said this to Shelby the other
day. She had the same professor for various classes. My theology
professor used to pray like this. Lord, help us to rightly cut
up the word of God. What? Right to divide the word
of truth, right to cut it up. He'd say to us in class every
week, men, we must cut up the word of God the right way. Y'all see the picture here, can
you make it out? That's a picture of a church
building. If you should cut it into a thousand
pieces, and then take 50 of those pieces and piece them together. You could make it look like a
horse, a jackass, or a frog. But the picture was intended
to show you a church building. Does that make good sense? Does
that make good sense? People who build doctrine by
cutting up scripture and usually not even whole verses or even
whole sentences, just little pieces. And then they glue them
together. It looks like a horse or a jackass
or a frog, sure don't look like anything in this book. And that's
what it is. That's what it is. Look at 1
Corinthians 4, verse what? Let a man so account of us as
of the ministers of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of
God. Moreover, it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful. Faithful to what's committed
to him. Faithful to God's word. Look in chapter four of second
Timothy. Therefore seeing we have this
ministry, As we have received mercy, we thank not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. I'm going to tell you what I've
told you a thousand times from this pulpit. If what I say to you is not what's
in this book, Lindsay, don't listen to me. Ever. Ever. Don't do it. To the everlasting
ruin of your soul. A man handles the word of God
deceitfully when he pieces together portions of scripture to make
the word of God say what he wants it to say. Any doctrine built
in such a way is false doctrine. You see, when God has a message
to convey, I promise you will never have to question it. Merle
Hart, when you're reading this book, it's not easy to miss the
message God has in it. When God's got a message to convey,
you won't have to guess about it. For example, we don't have
any question about how to baptize anybody, because when we build
our understanding of the doctrine of baptism, as it is in the scripture,
we don't go to Mark chapter seven, where the word baptized is used
to talk about washing cups and saucers and tables. That's got
nothing to do with baptism. But the word baptize is translated
washing dishes, that's talking about baptism. No, it's not,
it's talking about washing dishes. What fool would think it's all
about baptism? Only one who's got something
to prove. Rather we go to Romans chapter
6 and we learn that you bury folks in baptism because Romans
6 is where the doctrines talk. If you want to know something
about the Lord's Supper, you don't go to some passage in Matthew
18 or some passage in the book of Acts where it's referred to.
You go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 where it's taught. You understand
the scriptures in their context and teach them in their context.
When the Bible speaks about God sitting on the circle of the
earth. Now some of you are fully aware of what I'm talking about,
some of you aren't. I normally don't bring up matters like this
from pulpit, I don't ever remember doing in the past. Because if
you're not aware of it, I'm not gonna make you aware of it. Several
years ago, back in the 90s, some fella wrote a book refuting Harold
Camping's nonsense about the end of the world being 1994,
asked me to write a forward to it. And I said, I fully agree
with everything you said in the book, but I'm not about to write
a forward to it. And he said, why not? I said, because the
folks in Danville don't even know Harold Campion exists, let
alone the Harrison. And if I put my name on it, then
everybody's going to know it exists. But many of you have
been confronted with this nonsense of flat Earth. I warned folks
what would happen. I warned them, warned them earnestly. And folks said, well, scripture
says God sits on the circle of the earth. That proves the earth
is not a ball, a globe, but a circle, a Frisbee. No, when the scripture
speaks in Isaiah of God sitting on the circle of the earth, the
message is not that God's sitting on a big saddle straddling a
circle. It is that God Almighty encompasses in His infinite being
all the universe and rules it all. When the Bible talks about
the foundation of the world, it's not talking about concrete
pillars. He hangeth the world, hangeth
the earth upon nothing. It's talking about God's purpose.
When the Bible says the world is established, that it cannot
be moved, that does not mean the earth is not spinning on
its own axis, or that it doesn't revolve around the sun, or that
there's no such thing as earthquakes, or tidal waves, or that the ocean
is a calm body of water that never moves. Obviously, it doesn't
mean that. What does it mean? It means that
God Almighty sets ruler over the earth. The whole of Psalm
93 is talking about his dominion. Again, when the Bible talks about
God sitting on the circle of the earth, it's not talking about
the earth being flat as a pancake and it has no global form. I have flown across the equator
A couple of times. I know it exists. I can tell
you when we go across it, nobody has to tell me. All we got to
do is look out the plane window. I've flown across it a couple of times.
I've crossed a few mountains. I know that there's a difference
between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.
Some of you don't know this. You know in the Southern Hemisphere,
water drains counterclockwise? How come? Because things change
in the southern hemisphere. There's a difference. Because
of the way God has made the earth by his vast design. Nobody ever
got the idea that the earth is flat and doesn't move and the
sun is... Nobody ever got that nonsense
by reading this book. What they did is they got on
the internet. Or they read some foolishness written by somebody.
We live in this internet crazy age where blacksmiths think they're
nuclear scientists, and carpenters think they're physicians, and garbage truck drivers think they're
theologians, and folks read it and say, wow, did you see that?
Learn what you learn about this book from the word of God. In
this crazy, crazy age, pay no attention to foolishness when
you hear it. Well, that's intriguing all the
more reason to leave it alone. God has not trusted the treasure
of the gospel to this earthen vessel so that I can prove facts
or display intellect or dazzle men with strange, novel, meaningless
nonsense. God has entrusted me with the
gospel. that I may preach the gospel for the salvation, comfort,
and edifying of his saints. Now listen carefully. I've chosen
my words purposefully. I don't care if you think the
sun is cold, the moon is purple, that pigs fly, and the earth
is a frisbee. I just don't care. If you wanna
think that, whatever you've been spoken is all right with me.
I don't care, I don't care. I just don't want you to try
to tell me that the Bible says the sun is cold, the moon's purple,
and pigs fly, and the earth is flat. Don't tell me you've got
that in the Bible. You didn't get it from the Bible.
That's not where it came from. Don't try to use the word of
God to prove such idiocy. I don't really care whether the
earth is round, square, oval, triangular, rectangular, or star-shaped. I don't care whether it's a ball
with four corners or a frisbee with four corners. I don't care
whether it rolls, spins, or bounces, it doesn't matter. It just doesn't
matter. Should any of those things prove true or false, should any
of them, if you could prove to me that the earth is a flat,
round, frisbee, it's still got four corners, and it's just sitting
there, if you could prove that to me, it wouldn't matter a bit
in this world how I live. It wouldn't make any difference
at all to my life. If you could prove to me by the
word of God. I'm not talking about science.
I don't give a flip about that nonsense. I'm talking about the
word of God. If you could prove to me that the earth is as science
says it is, spinning on its own axis, tilted a certain degree,
revolving around the sun, as appears obvious. If you can prove
that, that doesn't change anything. Not with regard to my relationship
to God or you or anybody else. It doesn't do anything. What's
it called? Bane jangling. That's all it is. That's all
it is. However, arguing to defend any of those ideas puts me out
of my element. It distracts my attention and
your attention away from Christ, his gospel, and our relationship
to him and to one another. Well, what's the result? Surely
there's got to be some good reason for this. I'll tell you what
the result is. When such nonsense goes on, all hell roars with
laughter. Satan has won the day. No good is accomplished. Brethren
are divided. Ministries are ruined. And our
influence for good is weakened, if not destroyed. You see, it's
not the flat earth or the global earth that's my concern, but
you, the gospel of Christ, our God and savior, his glory, his
people. Do you understand what I'm saying?
That's my concern. It's the responsibility of God's
servant to magnify his office by sticking to his business.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel. One more thing. Verses
15 and 16, Romans 11. Here God the Holy Ghost tells
us that God's salvation involves three things. Reconciliation,
resurrection, and righteousness. Look at verse 15. If the casting
away of them be the reconciling of the world. By the fall of
Israel, the gospel of reconciliation is now preached in all the world. And by the preaching of the gospel,
sinners are reconciled to God by faith in Jesus Christ. Reconciliation
is twofold. It is outward and inward. It
is past and it is experimental. It is that which Christ did for
us by the sacrifice of Himself at Calvary, and it is that which
comes as a result of God the Holy Spirit giving us life and
faith in Christ, causing us to bow down to Jesus Christ as our
Lord reconciled to Him. Look at verse 15 again. What
shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? God's salvation involves resurrection. The new birth is not a decision
you make. The new birth is not signing
a decision card. The new birth is not saying a
sinner's prayer. The new birth is not repeating
after me. The new birth is being raised from the dead. When Adam
sinned in the garden, that man who was created in the image
of God, that man who was created body, soul, and spirit died. Now wait a minute, he's still
walking around. His body didn't die, his soul
didn't die. What's it mean he died? His spirit
died. And from that day on, Adam and
his sons by nature are men and women with body and soul, not
spirit. Until God the Holy Ghost comes
in sovereign regeneration. and he puts a new spirit in you. You've made partakers of the
divine nature, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus so that
you live in this world. with a constant warfare in yourself
between flesh and spirit, between Adam and Christ, between that
which is of the devil and that which is born of God. And then
in the second resurrection, bless God, we will be done with our
old Adam nature and enjoy the perfection of resurrection glory
with Christ. Paul tells us in verse 16 that
God's salvation involves reconciliation, it involves resurrection, and
it involves righteousness. For if the first fruit be holy,
the first fruit, that's Christ, that's Christ, He's holy, He's
holy, holy by nature and holy in all His deeds. The lump is
also holy, that is all who are in Christ are holy. If the root,
the root of David, the root, the branch, the true vine, if
the root is holy, that's Christ, that's Christ, so are the branches,
all who are joined to Christ. The word holy means sacred, sanctified,
pure, blameless. You and I who are in Christ,
every sinner, who believes on the Son of God is holy, with
his spotless garments on, holy as the Holy One. Christ is made
of God, and to us, righteousness in free justification, and sanctification,
holiness in regeneration. so that he imparts to the believer
that which he did not have before, a new holy nature. And that new holy nature, without
which no man shall see the Lord, is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. Christ is the root, we're the
branches. The root is holy. And so are
the branches, because as he is, so are we in this world. Oh, may God be pleased to make
Christ and his salvation yours for Christ's sake. Here is God's
sovereignty. He cast off the Jews to save
his elect scattered through all the earth. Here is God's servant. He magnifies his office. He magnifies his office. Every
servant of God does. He doesn't magnify himself. He
magnifies his office. He doesn't magnify his church. He magnifies his office. He doesn't
magnify his knowledge or intellect or ability. He magnifies his
office. And he does that by faithfully
preaching the book. You remember how Nehemiah gave
us an example? Nehemiah got up on the pulpit and they read the
book. And then they gave the sense
of it. Not their sense of it, the sense of it. They read the
book and said, this is what the Spirit of God is teaching here.
I have shown you this morning exactly what the Spirit of God
is teaching in Romans 11, verses 11 through 16. There's much more
there, but I've shown you what He's teaching in that passage.
And then they gave the understanding. So folks went, why didn't I see
that? Look at that, it's as plain as
the nose on your face. Because they faithfully expounded
the book. And this is God's salvation.
Christ is holy. If I'm joined to him, if you're joined to him, you're
holy. And without Him, you'll never
see the Lord. Amen.