The Apostle Paul says in Romans
chapter 11, if you have your Bible there, verse 18, he's speaking
to the Gentiles. We're going to take up where
we left off last week. I think we did close off with
him giving a warning in verse 18. Do not boast. Boast not. I'm going to read verses 18 through verse twenty-two we'll
come back and develop that both not against the branches both
not against gets the branches but if you boast if you should
be ill-advised if you do not take my advice and you begin
to boast you are not the one bearing the root but the root
is bearing the now you will save in the branches were broken off
that I might be grafted in well because of unbelief they were
broken off and you are standing by faith do not be 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 fail severity but towards you goodness If you
continue in his goodness, otherwise you shall also be cut off. Are you going to take it up right
there? The Apostle Paul has just spoken very sober pastoral type
words to the church at Rome. And particularly to the Gentiles,
the two categories that he's speaking to, he has divided them
up into Jew and Gentile. He is prominently addressing
the Gentile segment of the Roman church now. And he is seeking
to thwart a very flawed malady that happens to raise its ugly
head in the life of Christians. And that is the idea of boasting. Look again at verse 18 again
and notice what he says do not boast you guys see that the idea
of boasting Means to take a position of arrogance or to assume a privilege
based on some Personal merit the idea of boasting is to assume
that you have a right to vaunt or to arrogate to yourself a
prideful disposition as if somehow God looked at you and more especially
than he did someone else on account of who you were. And will you
know that the idea of boasting in the Bible in relationship
to the concept of grace is a contradiction. When you truly understand grace,
you understand that boasting and grace are mutually exclusive. That the idea of grace would
teach us rather than boasting, to reverence what God has done
in the saving of our soul. Is that true? Well, think about
it a little bit. I wanna make sure I prime this
before we go into what are called the eschatological implications
of his argument. There is no reason for any redeemed
sinner to boast in himself. And there is no reason for any
redeemed sinner to boast in himself against another person. The concept
of faith and grace does not allow you to boast. The only place
that we have to boast is in the Lord. The Bible allows us to
boast in God. It allows us to be proud doers
of the Lord. It allows us to exalt Christ
and boast in his salvation. But we have no grounds of private
or personal boasting over against anyone else because you and I,
by nature, don't have anything in our life that merits boasting.
Have you come to figure that out? And that's actually what
grace would teach you if you're being taught by the grace of
God. Go back with me in your Bible to Romans chapter 4, and
I want you to see how Paul explains this in Romans 4, and we'll move
forward. But I want you to see very clearly
that Paul is making sure that the Gentiles keep a solid foundation
with regards to this matter of their salvation Because one of
the sins we talked about this last week when I gave you the
three letters There's there's three sins that we commit right
pride of what race? Pride of what face and pride
of what grace see Paul is dealing with the pride of grace right
now It's just an amazing thing. This is how we know we're to
pray. We know we're to pray when we are proud of grace instead
of humbled by grace Now the father of the Old Testament Jewish people
was called Abraham. And what God did to teach the
Jewish people not to be proud of their Jewishness is to demonstrate
how that God, when he saved Abraham, he saved Abraham as a Gentile. Now notice what he says in Romans
chapter 3. I'm sorry. Start back at Romans 3. And I'll
start at verse 24. And I want to go through verse
31. And he sets down the law of faith And he raises a proposition
that's critical to this idea of boasting. Verse 20, verse
23. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. You guys see that? You know what
that means? That means you. That's what that
means. Don't ever say it means them.
It means you. All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And for those of you who are not sensitive to the Greek
construction there, that means you keep on coming short. It's
in the continuous sense. All have seen past tense and
they keep coming short of the glory of God. You know what that
means? You never ever on a personal level reached the mark of God's
glory. Therefore, if you are an object
of grace and if glory has been promised you, somebody else had
to reach that mark, but it certainly wasn't you. Even after salvation,
you and I do not reach the mark of righteousness, which would
merit glory. Glory is given to us as a gift.
in his acquisition by faith. Is that OK? Glory is a gift in
his acquisition by faith. It is never accomplished by our
works. Listen to what he goes on to
say. All of sinning comes short of the glory of God. That's just
a universal truth being justified freely by his grace. Do you see
that? Through the redemption that is
in Christ. He just explains how sinners
now are justified. And he implies by that, if a
man or a woman is justified, then glory is yours. That's Romans
8, 28. Whom he justified, he called.
Whom he called, he also glorified. Glorification is the end product
of God having justified you. But your justification was the
work of somebody else. Did you guys see that? Now he
goes on to say, whom God has set forth, that is Jesus, through
the redemption which is in Jesus, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. We were in Romans chapter three,
maybe about two years ago, right? Two or three years ago. I don't
remember. If the Lord comes while we're still in Romans, I think
that's all right. About two or three years ago. We dealt with
this passage and it's full of different conjunctions And here's
what it's saying is very important I know this is a tight passage,
but it needs to be understood look again at verse 25 God set
forth Jesus. Do you see that? God set forth
Jesus in other words. He put him out on a pedestal
for the whole world to see that's what the phrase set forth means
Jesus whom is antecedent in the previous verse as Jesus. Jesus
was set forth by God as the propitiation for sins. Only Jesus was set
forth by God as the means by which sins would be propitiated. I want to drive that home. And
for those of you who know your Bible, this is what you know
from Genesis to Revelation. God set Jesus forth as the propitiation. Now, some of you may not know
what propitiation is, but propitiation means the satisfaction of God's
divine justice against sin. What that means is God is angry.
With the wicked, God will punish sin. His holiness requires it.
And the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation that there's one
place where God has poured out his sin by which he could both
satisfy his justice and save sinners at the same time. That
one place is who? You got it. So here's what he
says. God has set forth Jesus As the propitiation, how do we
know? In Genesis chapter one, chapter
three, when Adam fell, what did God do? God slew a bullock, didn't
he? He clothed Adam and Eve with
coats of skin, didn't he? And he pointed to the necessity
of the shedding of blood for the remission of sin. God slew
the first bullock. He offered the first sacrifice.
From that point, men began to worship God by offering what?
Sacrifices. What they were taught by that
was God required propitiation. Now everybody that comes to God
understands that. When you come to God, what you
understand is you are a sinner, God is angry with you, and there
of necessity must be a means by which your sins are punished,
God's holiness is vindicated in order for you to have a right
relationship. Isn't that true? Anyone that is contemplating
getting to God any other way than through propitiation hasn't
heard the gospel. All through the Bible then God
has set forth the sacrifice, the sacrifice, the bullock, the
lamb, the goat, the offering, the spotless lamb, all through
the scriptures, this is the propitiation that God has set forth all through
the scriptures. Everywhere you see a sacrifice in the Bible,
that is pointing to the one propitiation. Am I making some sense? Then
the last of the prophets of the Old Testament, who knows who
the last of the prophets of the Old Testament was? John the Baptist. He did something that required
being a brain surgeon and an astrophysicist all at the same
time. He pointed. That's what John
did. You got to be real smart to point, isn't that right? The
Bible tells us that God told John, I'm going to show you who
he is. And when he shows up, I just want you to do this. I
want you to point. And in the Bible, John chapter one, verse
29, John said, behold, the lamb of God, which takes away the
sin of the world. Do you guys see that? He finally
came. That propitiation is Jesus the
son of God the second person of the blessed God here He finally
came and when Christ died on Calvary Street 2,000 years ago
on the day of Passover in the month of April 80 33 He said
it is finished. We are dealing with that in our
women's class. It's the word teleos That means the debt is
paid When Jesus hung on Calvary Street and said it is finished
He meant the debt was paid That means that all of God's wrath
was exhausted on Christ for everyone who would believe on him. That
means when God brings a sinner into his presence to fellowship
with him, the sinner who was properly taught will know that
there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Are you hearing me? And the reason is because God
has vindicated his wrath on Christ. So he sets this forth in Romans
chapter three, verse 25, and he says, Christ was the propitiation. Now here's the vehicle by which
you and I apprehend that propitiation. By faith, do you see that? Now watch this, in his blood.
What that means is for the sinner to receive the benefits of what
Christ has accomplished for them, they must hear the gospel. They
must hear the gospel of the person and work of Christ. They must
be taught that Christ's blood hath put away their sins. The
doctrine of the blood is what we've been talking about, propitiation.
And by faith embrace that propitiation as their own. This is how critical
the preaching of the gospel is. Because what Paul is saying here
is there is no way for an individual to apprehend what Christ has
done for them apart from faith. And faith comes by what? Hearing. And hearing by what? We're going
to see that as we work our way through the passages on the goodness
of God. That if the gospel's not preached, men can't believe.
And if men don't believe, then propitiation is not for them.
Am I making some sense? And so it's critical that Christ
be preached. And what Paul is doing in Romans 3 is actually
setting forth the contrast between faith and works. And here's what
he says. Christ is declaring that Christ's
propitiation is obtained through faith in his blood to declare
God's righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. Some of you have wondered, what
does that mean, the remission of sins that are past? That means
that all the sins that we have ever committed in the mind of
God are passed by the death of Christ. That means they are passed. Are you talking about the future
sins I'm going to commit? Are they also passed too? Yes. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
See, Christ is the lamb, Revelation 13, a slain from the foundation
of the world. And the business of the atonement
and the propitiatory work of God, the propitiation of God
is a work that actually transcends time. You and I are dealing with
the linear realm of time as we know it, this sequential unfolding
of history before our eyes because we are one-dimensional creatures.
But because God is omniscient, he sees everything all at once. You guys got that? For him, propitiation
took place before the world began. What happened on Calvary's tree
was simply a manifestation of what God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost had determined before the world began.
Which means that because God cannot lie, That means the Father,
Son, and the Holy Ghost. When they agreed in covenant
unity to put away the sins of God's people, God could save
folk way back in the days of Adam on the merit and virtue
of who Christ is. Are you hearing me? Because with
God, time is of no essence. And when we read in Peter, for
the Lord, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is
as a day. He's not talking about a literal
day equals a literal thousand years with God. He's saying with
God, time is of no factor because he's infinite in nature and omnipresent. For you and me, time is a real
battle, isn't it? We have to exercise patience,
and we have to exercise temperance, because time is a challenge for
us. But for God, time is never an issue. He's eternal in nature,
and therefore, His work is already accomplished in His own mind.
When God thinks it, it's done. Do you guys believe that? That's
what is meant to be eternally omniscient. It means for God
to think a thing in God's mind, it has already come to pass.
That's why he can speak those things that are not as if they
were. That's why he can speak of ancient things way before
they ever come to pass, because with God it's all equal. And
therefore, the merits of Christ's death on Calvary's tree are given
to men like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the sisters of
the Old Testament with the same virtue and benefit as they are
to you and me. They were saved by faith just
like you and I are. Saved by faith. And they were
just as secure in their salvation you and I are even though Christ
had not come physically Abraham was just as secure in his salvation
as you and I are though Christ is both come die and go into
glory now are you guys hearing what I'm saying see the salvation
of God is what we call in theology infallible God infallibly saves
the person who is the object of God's mercy if you're an object
of God's mercy understand your salvation is infallible because
God cannot lie he can't change and he can't what that's exactly
right so Romans 3 goes on to tell us our sins have been put
away by God they are in the past and that is through the forbearance
of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he
might be just and the justifier of him which does what believes
in Jesus where is boasting then do you see it Paul argues, how
can a sinner boast who has been justified on the merits of Christ's
sufferings for him by God? Notice what he says, where is
boasting then? It is what? Excluded. Boasting
is an oxymoronic concept for the sinner who is justified merely
through the gift of believing. You meet sinners who boast in
their salvation, they don't understand the humility of faith. OK, let's
go on because I didn't want to work this too much, but I'm sure
I'm helping somebody here. Notice this. Where's boasting
then is excluded by what law of works? No. But by the what
law of faith, God made faith a law or a principle by which
men would enter into the blessings of the gospel. But faith by nature
is designed to humble us. You guys got that only humble
people. embrace the gift of salvation
by faith. Verse 28, therefore, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, also of the Gentiles,
seeing it is one God who shall justify the circumcision, that's
the Jews, by faith, and the uncircumcision, that's the Gentiles. How? Through
faith. Do you see that? Both come in
by what? Go back to Romans chapter 11
now, let's go ahead and work this in Romans 11. The Apostle
is warning the Gentile church not to boast Don't boast because
I have just explained to you That a major portion of the Jewish
constituency Do not believe he says but if you do both you do
not bear the root now, what did we learn last week the root represented?
Christ is Christ the root Keep your hand here and go with me
to in your Bible to Revelation chapter 5. Let's just establish
that if Christ is the root Let's just establish who this root
is so we can be very clear Revelation chapter 5 and Revelation 22 Revelation
5 I want us to be very clear now the root are that are those
those Aspects of the tree that uphold the whole tree by which
the whole tree is nourished and strengthened without the root
There is no life. We are told in Revelation chapter
5 verse 9 These are the heavenly hosts singing in the presence
of John, who has been caught up to comprehend the finished
work of Christ at Calvary. And the Bible tells us in verse
nine, and they sung a new song. And they sung a new song saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
because you were slain. Now, who was slain? He redeemed
us to God out of every nation kindred tribe and tongue and
people. Okay, so that's not the verse look at verse 5 Yep is
Revelation 5 verse 5 and one of the elders and one of the
elders said unto me do not we Behold the Lion of the tribe
of Judah the what? Have prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals now go to Revelation chapter
22 and look at verse 17 Now what does it mean that Jesus was the
root of David? Anyone know? What does it mean
that Jesus was the root of David? Huh? Jan said that, who is whose
offspring? What? What does it mean that
Jesus is said to be the root of David? He came down from David's line.
So how can he be the root of David? What does that make David? If Jesus is the root, what does
that make David? David came down from him. That's
what David said. In the flesh, what the Jews did
was they looked at him in the line of David. And David said
that he actually came from the Lord. The Lord preceded him. Well, exactly. And actually,
I'm not even dealing with the physical line. I'm dealing with
the promise. Let me make this very plain.
What makes Jesus the root of David is what makes Jesus the
root of every one of us that believe. And that's the promises
of God. What makes Jesus the root of
David and the root of every one of us that believe is that Jesus
is God. See, God would be for all things.
Christ was before all things. Christ is David's root, meaning
David didn't even have an existence without Christ. It means that
as David said in Psalm 110, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou
at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool. This
is how Jesus demonstrated in the mind of the Pharisees that
they had a carnal perception of who the Messiah was when Jesus
said, If David called Messiah Lord, how can this be if indeed
David is Messiah's Lord? In the mind of the Jews, they
thought that David had preeminence over Messiah. What they didn't
understand was that the concept of the root underscored the deity
and eternal nature of Christ. Christ is the root of David.
Christ is the reason that David had an existence. And Christ
is the reason that you and I have an existence too. Listen to Revelation
chapter 22 verse 17. I think he says the same thing
here and the spirit and the bride say come Why am I using this
text of scripture, this is not the text. Yeah verse 16 I Jesus
have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the
churches. This is Jesus talking, right? I am the root and offspring
of David and and I am the what bright and morning star go back
to Romans nine this is the same route that Paul is talking about
here when he talks about the olive tree of which we are actually
now talking about we are talking about the olive tree are we not
the olive tree happens to be the promise that was given to
Abraham the olive tree is the gospel The gospel that was given
to Abraham is the gospel that's given to you and me. But the
way that gospel is manifested in time was that the Gentiles
would be brought into the covenant just like the Jews were because
of Abraham. That's Galatians chapter three.
The gospel was preached to Abraham just like it's preached to us.
Remember, all of God's promises to his people are part of the
gospel covenant. And so that olive tree analogy
that we are dealing with in Romans chapter 11 has to do with the
promises that were given to Abraham that constitutes eternal salvation,
which includes both Jew and Gentile. So going back to Romans chapter
11, let's go on and build on this. Paul warns the Gentiles,
do not boast in your status, because you have no grounds for
boasting, since you don't uphold the root, but the root upholds
you. Now that's interesting, because
I'm meditating on that, I want us to think about this, because
I'm going to make a distinction between the corporate body and
the individual believer for a moment, and this is going to be critical.
A lot of time when you read in your Bible about God's warnings
to the church or the people of God. Sometimes we don't. Is this
true? Distinguish between the corporate
responsibility and stewardship of the church and the individual
believer who, if he is truly a believer, never ever has to
worry about falling away. Let me say that again because
I want to make sure we bear that up when it says that the root
upholds you And you don't uphold the root. The warning is that
christ is the only grounds of your salvation And that ought
to always be kept in memory but as jesus said in john chapter
15 using the parable of the vine tree And remember, we said that
there are a lot of metaphors in the scriptures of which got
used for national Israel that ultimately pointed to Christ.
They were called a vine in Psalm 80. We're going to go there a
little ways down the line. But Jesus is called the true
vine. And what he said is every branch
in me that bears fruit, my father purges and prunes in order that
it might bear more fruit. Now he's actually giving us insight
into the nature of suffering and difficulty for the believer.
See the believer ought to take comfort in the fact that God
chastises and God corrects and God admonishes. That way you
will interpret your suffering as God's love and his purpose
for growing you instead of very often as we do with our sort
of pagan first Adamic principled nature. We think God's mad at
us because he's chastening us. We think God's on the verge of
casting us out because he's chasing us But the Bible tells us in
Hebrews 12 all whom the Lord what? When he loves you, he chases
you isn't that true? And I love the concept of chasing
because I know we don't live in an era anymore where we chasing
our children So we have to let the government chasing our children
because we don't is that right? I Because we don't discipline
our children, we have to let the state discipline our children,
throw them in jail or throw them in the crazy house and give them
all kinds of dope and stuff because we didn't chase in our children.
Isn't that right? We listened to Dr. Spock and we thought,
you know, if we chasing them, we would hurt their emotions
and their psyche and stuff like that. So they grow up and be
the monsters that they are by nature. But what the Bible tells
me is that Jesus was bruised for our iniquities, that he was
wounded for our trespasses, that the chastisement of my peace
was upon him and by his stripes I'm healed. You know what that
means? The father chasing his son in order to save sinners. So do you think if God's form
of correcting and maturing his sons was good enough for him,
should it be good enough for us? Are you hearing what I'm
saying? And see this is how you know this world system is averse
to biblical ideology because it will do and it will propagate
and it will teach the very opposite of what God himself not only
preaches and teaches but practices himself. The Bible tells us in
Hebrews 5 it was heard and that our Savior feared before God. He feared before his father when
he began to experience the sufferings of God's wrath upon him for his
people. But the end result was a blessing,
wasn't it? So the Bible tells us when the
Lord chastens us, he chastens us that it might bear forth fruit
in our lives. So he says, no chastening seems
to be pleasant for the moment or for the time, but afterwards
it yields the peaceable fruits of what? Righteousness. Now I'm
here to tell you, if God doesn't chasten you, you're not his.
You can be sure of that. All whom the Lord loves, he scourges. The word is not even a, you know,
it's not even a, you know, some folks, have you ever seen people
try to chase in their children with a newspaper? They use a
newspaper. Our readers digest. When I was
growing up, my father and my mother both used switches and
then sometimes extension cords. Now, now, now for some of you,
you say, now that's the reason why he's crazy. But I'm here
to tell you the extension cord was effectual. Some of y'all
know what effectual means, right? Effectual. And then some of us
grew up where in the schools there were corporal punishment
too. I had a high school principal at Calvin Simmons back in the
day was called Hamilton. How many Hamilton folks in here?
Did I have any Hamilton folks? I got one or two Hamilton. There
we go now. Back in the day. And Mr. Wilson had this big old
paddle. and it had holes in it. It was
aerodynamic. It was specifically designed
to cut through the air so that the velocity would operate in
such a way that when it hit and struck, even the air on the backside
went out through the paddle and the paddle stuck and allowed
all of the inertia, I'm dealing with physics now, to enter in
and the pain vibrated through your body. And even when he pulled
the paddle off, the pain stayed there and it stayed there remarkably
long, long enough to instruct you not to want to go back into
Mr. Wilson's office again. And I
can tell you the truth. I only got paddled one time,
just one time, just one time, just one time. So the writer
is telling us that Jesus is the one that's upholding us. And
when Jesus gave the parable, if the branch that's in me bears
fruit, God purges it. But if it does not bear fruit,
God cuts it down. He cuts it down. Now, in that
analogy, what he's talking about is a false conversion or churches
that abandon the gospel. Now there are such as what we
call false conversions, where people might think they're saved
because they go through religious notions. They haven't been taught
the gospel properly, and they have been told that if they do
this, they do that, they do the other thing, they are Christian.
They all their life go to church, they read the Bible, they say
their prayers. Now I lay me down to sleep, you know, and they
think that they're OK because they quote Bible verses and they
learn what we call again in our in our theology class, the language
game dynamic. You know, once you start learning
how to use the Christian lingo, you think you're good to go,
but you can't fool God. Because salvation is a relationship
with God that's John 17 3 and this is eternal life that they
might know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom He has
sent and so therefore to be Genuinely saved is to be in a dynamic with
the true and the Living God where he deals with you According to
the testimony of Scripture. He deals with you as a son. He
doesn't leave you alone He doesn't let you wander into all of the
different paths of disobedience and darkness. He doesn't do that
when you are saved You know it. Now, when you're not saved and
don't don't understand the gospel, you may not yet know that you're
not saved. Because people are deluded, but
when you truly say, you know it. Are you guys hearing me? You know it. And so when Paul
says to the church at Rome, the Gentiles do not boast against
the branches, but if you boast, Understand the that you do not
bear the root, but the root bears you Here is what they started
to think our Paul assumed our Paul anticipated their thinking
you will then say the branches were broken off now Who are the
branches here the Jews? That's right. And we're gonna
get more specific with that here in a moment. The branches were
broken off that I Might be grafted in do you see the subtlety of
self-righteousness in that? I Look at it very carefully. Do you see the subtlety of self-righteousness
in that? The reason why God rejected Israel
was so he could say, me, I'm the object of his love and desire. It's all about me. There's a very subtle humanism
and narcissism that also exists in our Christian church. Some
of our, uh, some of our most popular, uh, Bible teachers use
this method of humanistic narcissistic teaching where they really focus
on you, where they talk about how much God loves you and how
you are the reason for which God did all that he did. And
it makes you feel so good. Tell the truth. But Jesus is
nowhere in the picture. Be very careful. The father did
what he did in saving us because of his love for the son. Are
you hearing me? And the son did what he did in
saving us because of his love for the father. You and I are
a byproduct of the eternal, unchanging, infallible love of the father
and the son. Are you guys hearing me? This
is so critical to what we call a God-exalting, Christ-centered
theology. Everything that we have is a
result of that exchange between the Father and the Son. And then
you and I become the objects of God's love and favor, but
only through Christ. Do you guys get that? We use
a maxim like this in our camp because of a very skewed and
distorted and misused concept of love. God does not love you
outside of Christ. He can't love you outside of
Christ. There's nothing in us lovable
outside of Christ. God's love is a righteous love. Do you guys believe that? And
it's a holy love. His love is consistent with his
nature. This is what I worry about in
this evangelical age of exploitation and money-making, particularly
in evangelism. Don't sell God's love. Declare
it according to the Bible. In Christ, God is love. Outside
of Christ, God is wrath. There are, as the Bible teaches,
multitudes who will go to hell. Isn't that what the Bible teaches?
Will people go to hell? Now, let me ask you the question.
If folk go to hell, they'll go to hell for two reasons. We said
this last week, their sin and because God punishes sin, doesn't
he? Now, let me ask the question. Does God love the sinner and
hate the sin? Is that the Bible? Oh, see, there
we go. I'm stepping on some toes. Don't
we have a problem? Do you see in the Bible anywhere
where God cast sin in the hell? No, he cast sinners in the hell.
You know what the Bible teach? He cast sinners into hell. He
cast sinners into hell. And the Bible tells us in Psalm
5 and Psalm 7 and Psalm 11, God is angry with the wicked every
day. Now, what I want us to understand is when you treat the subject
of God's love, make sure you do it from a biblical premise.
Don't lie on God. See, here's the question you
and I have to ask. What kind of love is it that
the evangelical church proposes that loves a man who still ends
up in hell. And if you were to ask that man
who ends up in hell what he thought about the love of God that allowed
him to perish in hell, even though it's God's right to allow him
to perish, that man in hell would say, I don't think much about
God's love at all. Are you hearing me? What good
is a love that lets you go to hell? That's tough, isn't it? I want you to think about it
because the only other option is this the only other option
is that God loves everybody equally but some people somehow make
it into his glorious heaven and the others somehow miss that
glorious heaven although God loved them all equally so now
what we have just done is mingled God's love with God's wrath haven't
we we have just now marred the holiness of God's wrath with
God's love and made the two indistinguishable. But when you read your Bible,
what you come to find out is that God's love does something
for somebody. See, love is not simply an emotion
and love is not simply an intention. Love is an act. Isn't that right? See, you say you love me. You
got to show me you love me. Isn't that true? I love my wife. Okay. If you love your wife,
you better make sure you demonstrate you love her. How many ladies
would want a man who say, honey, I love you, but never ever demonstrate
that love on any level. Now let's talk about God for
a moment. God's love. Immutable it's unchanging is
omnipotent omnipotent is omniscient is holy is righteous God's love
is everything that God is isn't that right? So now what if we
have a love of God, which is omnipotent and able to save But
let you go to hell What kind of love is that am I making some
sense? See, it's very important to ask
that question Well, then what is God's love if God's love doesn't
actually reach down and save a sinner I use the analogy often
in this crew. I have eight children. My youngest
one is Trinity. She's an eight year old girl,
I think eight or nine. She'll jump on me when I get
home. After you have four or five of them, you just forget
the ages. And then when they get older, you just forget the ages. Isn't
that true? I call them all a different names all the time. I go through
the list and then I finally catch up with them. But I don't call
my daughter Nate or David. I got two boys too. I'm still
sane enough not to call them the boys name. But what kind
of love would it be for me to see my daughter running out in
the street and I see a Mac truck coming and I have the capacity
to run out there and snatch her out from in front of that Mac
truck to save her. But before I do, I called the
Trinity, Trinity, the Mac truck is coming. Sweetheart, get out
of the way. And Trinity looks at me and say,
I ain't paying you no attention. I ain't paying you no attention.
Honey, I love you. Get out of the way. But because
I respect her free will, as some folk argue, I will not pursue her to hunt
her down, to pick her up and snatch her out of the way because
her free will inhibits my omnipotent love. That's preposterous, isn't
it? And then as I've already told
you, when the police comes and they look at my daughter splattered
all over the ground, guess who they're going to arrest? You
got it. You got it. They're going to
arrest me for negligence for not doing all I could to save
my daughter when I said that I loved her. And I'm here to
tell you when God says he loves you, he loves you by, uh, experience. He loves you by example. That's
the word. Christ is the love of God to sinners. Are you hearing
me? Christ is the love of God to
sinners. So when God says he loves you, and I've said this
to us before too, you won't find in the Bible where you hear this
direct one-on-one, I love you, where God has not demonstrated
his love by example. You won't find a blanket statement
like you do in the evangelical church where God loves everybody.
you just won't find it. Are you hearing me? You just
won't find it. When God sets forth his love,
he does something with his love and he does something with his
love every time. If you are the object of God's
love today, you know it because God saved you. Are you hearing
me? And so what Paul is saying here
in Romans chapter 10 is that the root bears us. We don't bear
the root and we can't boast. We can't boast that God rejected
them in order to save us. And then he goes on to use the
principle again in verse 20. Well, because of unbelief, they
were what? Broken off. And you stand by
what? Now, now, in your outline is
very clear in verses 19 through 20. I want to repeat it again.
Verse 19 sets forth for us a flawed conclusion, and if you don't
notice the word that should be in the line, it's not about you.
You got it? It's not about you. Salvation
is not about you. Salvation is about God, and it's
about his glory. The second thing in our outline,
we are saved by what? Grace, as Ephesians 2, 8, and
9. Grace is unmerited favor, isn't
that right? We are saved by grace. Now, if
we perish, we perish because of what? Sin, that's right. Keep
that maxim there. That way you don't mess up the
doctrine of predestination either. Some people will argue that God
doesn't save people because they are not elect. No, people go
to hell because of their sin. People go to heaven because God
loved them and chose them in Christ. You guys got that? No one will be standing before
God on the last day and say God I Wanted to come to heaven. I
Wanted to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but you didn't
elect me There will be no one ever saying that to God. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? Everyone who wants to be saved.
Will you hear this will be saved? You got it. Everyone who wants
to be saved will be saved You won't have one person stand before
the Holy God and say, God, you know, you know, my conscious,
you know, my heart, you know, my volition, you know, my intentions,
you know, my motives, you know, my dress, you watched me all
my life. You saw that I was pursuing you, but you wouldn't let me
be saved. No one will ever say that to
God. No one will ever say that to God. So I'm trying to help
you actually understand the distinction between why men go to hell and
why men go to heaven. Men and women go to heaven because
of God's mercy. Men and women go to hell because
of God's justice. You guys got that? Now, this
ought to also humble you a little bit more before we go on. The fact that you and I are headed
to glory if we believe the gospel and we're objects of God's grace
is not because we did anything to merit that. What we merit
is God's justice. What we deserve is hell. Am I
telling the truth? What we deserve is the wrath
of God. You and I deserve to go where everybody else goes.
So if I end up in heaven, I end up there humbly marveling that
God looked on a wretched sinner like me to have mercy. One of
our sisters on Sunday after church, I was holding a class for our
baptism this Sunday. We're going to have several people
be baptized and a number of people coming to the church. And the
sister, she has just started coming to our church over the
last year and she's come out of false religion like a lot of
folks. And after we were discussing God's marvelous grace, the question
she raised after raising several advised questions was this. I
don't understand why it is that God chose me. Can you help me
with that? And all I can say is, is for
you to marvel all eternity. that God would set his eyes on
you, that he would show you his glory, that he would give you
a heart to trust Christ, that he would allow you to see the
sufficiency and efficacy and the finality of the crosswork
of Jesus Christ, that he would pour the love of God into your
heart, that he would qualify you to be his son or daughter,
that he would adopt you in the beloved and cause you to cry,
Abba Father. That's something for all eternity
that we will simply marvel. There's no answer for that. There's
no answer for that. There's no intellectual answer
for God saving a sinner. You just marvel. Am I making
some sense? You simply marvel. You certainly
don't boast. You marvel that God would save
me. Well, why is it that God saved me? I don't know why he
saved me. I know he did though. Because
see, once I was lost, but now I'm found. Once I was blind,
now I can see. I was ignorant, but I understand
the gospel now. I hated God and men, but I love
God now. And I love men now. Am I telling
the truth? See, the issue is, has God actually
touched you by his grace? If he did, marvel at it for all
your life. And this is what Paul is trying
to get the Gentiles to do before they get off into a high-minded
theology that makes them think that they are the sphere and
focus of what God is doing. Verse 21, let's go on. We only
got a little ways to go, 15 more minutes, bear with me. For if
God spared not the natural branches, now who are the natural branches?
That's right, national Israel. Take heed lest he also not what? Spare you. See, in what I was
saying earlier, and I want to make a dichotomy here for the
record's sake, there's a distinction between what God does in the
saving of a sinner on an individual level and how God relates to
that corporate entity that has been called to stewardship. Israel
on a corporate level was called to the stewardship of the gospel
in this is what we've been learning Matthew's 21 In fact, you know
Jesus used a number of parables addressing the stewardship principle,
didn't he? Jesus used a number of parables addressing the stewardship
principle the steward who had a Responsibility to take care
of the household is now called into account and when that steward
is found having been delinquent He's cast out of the stewardship.
You guys remember that I Matthews 21 I won't go over it again you
can read it for yourself in Matthews 21 God was typified as a husband
many had a big vineyard and he let out his vineyard to men who
would till and keep it they get a portion of it and they were
to give a portion of God and and and Jesus gave that parable
and said the owner of the vineyard sent his servants to get his
portion of the vineyard And he was talking about the prophets
of the Old Testament coming to Israel, telling Israel to give
God what God is due. And that was worship. And that
was love and obedience for God having given Israel all that
God had given Israel. But the Bible says they beat
up some, they mocked others, and they killed some. You guys
remember that? That's Matthew 21. Jesus gave
that parable. And the funny thing is, the rulers,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they understood that Jesus was
speaking against them. They understood that when Jesus
gave that parable that they themselves were the stewards of the scriptures.
They were stewards of the mysteries. They were stewards of the promises.
But they had squandered God's promises and God's riches. And
it was evident because they killed the prophets who came and called
them to repentance. The parable says in Matthew 21
that the husband, the owner of the venue said, look, finally,
I'm going to send my son. I know that they will listen
to him. But the Bible says in that same
text, when they saw the son, they said, this is the heir. You know what that means? They
knew who he was. That's why Jesus said several
times, you know who I am. You keep asking me who I am.
You know who I am. And you know where I'm from.
They said, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize
the inheritance to ourselves. Now that is the attitude of all
works religion. Did you get that? All works religion
steals God's glory, distorts the cross work of Christ and
takes to itself, attributes to itself all of the revenues of
the kingdom of God. What God wanted the people to
whom he had lent out the vineyard to do was to reverence his son. You guys got it? Instead of reverence
him, they killed him. Instead of reverence him, they
killed him. And what Jesus said is, the owner of the vineyard
said, I'm going to come and I'm going to take that vineyard from
them. I'm going to destroy those wicked
men and I'm going to give the vineyard to others bearing the
fruit thereof. You guys remember that, right?
Israel knew that what Christ had just prophesied was the destruction
of Israel in AD 70 and the removal of their stewardship in terms
of them being the national entity by which the gospel is preached.
Did that help you? Israel now no longer is the national
political entity by which the gospel is preached. The church
is. The church is the body of Christ.
And the preponderance of the church, though not exclusively,
consists of Gentiles. Just as even when God destroyed
Israel, he wasn't saying, and we are not to conclude, that
there weren't true believers. There were. But they were in
the minority. And God's judgment had come upon
the institution while he had still preserved for him the elect
among them. i.e. Mary, Martha, Mary, John,
James, Peter, all those brethren who followed Christ during the
end of the Jewish dispensation. Am I making some sense? It's
very clear, it's very important for you to understand the distinction.
When God talks about corporate judgment, it does not mean that
the believers among them are destroyed, it simply means the
institution is. Therefore, go with me in your
Bible to Revelation chapter 2 briefly. Revelation 2 we're going to deal
with what what God does with the church because the church
is in the same place today in Revelation chapter 2 The book
of Revelation is a glorious book. It opens up with Jesus standing
in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. The seven golden
candlestick represent the churches. You guys know that the Bible
interprets that for itself in chapter one, verse 20, the mystery
of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the
seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the messengers
of the seven churches. That is the pastors or the leadership
of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks. which you
saw are the what? Seven churches. They're in the
hand of Christ. Jesus is speaking to the church
at Ephesus in chapter two. Ephesus has committed a gross
problem. It was sound in theology. It was a wonderful institution
for a long period of time. And then we find out over in
verse four that he has some problems with Ephesus. Nevertheless, I
have somewhat against you because you have what? Left your first
love. Do you see that? Remember therefore
from which you are fallen and repent and do the first works
He's speaking to the church You guys got that he says remember
From whence whence you are fallen. Here's what he's saying you guys
go back to that point Where you stopped preaching the gospel? Where you started getting into
the church issue on a business level and Or where you started
to enjoy the polemics of theological argumentation and the battles
that you began to engage in because you were a very learned group
of theologians. The Ephesian church was a sharp
church theologically. And they started to build a reputation
in terms of scholarship, how sound they were in the doctrines.
But they had left off doing that one thing that indicated their
love for Christ and their love for sinners Do you know what
that is the preaching of the gospel the preaching of will
you hear me? You know that a man loves Christ
when he always talks about Christ See when you love somebody you
talk about him all the time in there, right? When you love somebody,
you think about them all the time. When you love somebody,
they're fitted on your lips. As soon as somebody pokes you,
it comes out. Let me tell you about my wife. Isn't that right?
And when the ministry is God-exalted and Christ-centered incessantly,
day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year
out, until Jesus comes, it's because the heart is in love
with Christ. Now, will you hear me? Watch
this now. When this is the case, The Spirit of God is present
and He blesses the ministry. He blesses that ministry that
loves to exalt Christ. Because it's the preaching and
exaltation of Christ that the Father uses to draw sinners to
Himself. The only reason sinners come
to the Father is because of the exaltation of the Son. If we
don't preach Christ, we've stolen from God His glory. We've robbed
God. We ought to be exalting what
God loves, and God loves His Son. Am I telling the truth? We ought to be exalting what
God loves. And God loves us. The heavens opened up and God
spoke twice. Every time He spoke, He says,
this is about Him. I love Him. Listen to Him. And
that's what we ought to do as the church. We ought to talk
about Christ because we're in love with Christ. If you need
some help with that, go to the Song of Solomon and read it.
It's all about the bride and the bridegroom. And they talk
about how they love each other. And, you know, they know each
other intimately because when the bride is talking about the
bridegroom, she talks about him in specific detail. My wife get
on me all the time when I miss the point in the detail stuff.
She she rears me. You ain't paying no attention
to me. If you were paying attention to me, you didn't know what color
pants I had on. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. But I'm still paying attention.
And you read the book of Song of Solomon, and it's very clear
that the bride is looking at the bridegroom intently, and
she sees every facet of his being, and she articulates it eloquently. And the bridegroom, he is intently
looking at the bride, and he sees every aspect of her being,
and he articulates it eloquently. Why? Because they're in love
with one another. Am I making some sense? And if
you want to know how this is understood, reading your own
time, John 17 father, I'm ready to come home. I love that. I'm so, I'm so infatuated with
that. I'm working on the gospel of John because of his theological
implications. And John 17 just blows me away.
The son says to the father, father, I'm ready to be back with you
where I was. There's something about that
statement that you and I could never enter into because we ain't never
been there. Not in reality. But the son has
been there. The son has been in the presence
of the father. And what he was saying to his
father in John 17 right before his crucifixion is, Lord, father,
I want to go home. I want to be with you. I want
to be back in that blissful state that I was in before the world
began. I want to be in your presence.
Something about that language is simply profound. I want to
be back basking in the presence of your glory as the only object
of your pleasure. That's Proverbs 8. I was daily
his delight. I was the father's delight. He
possessed me in all his ways before the world was. I was his
delight and my delight was with the sons of men. Am I making
some sense? John 17 opens up with Jesus praying
to his father about getting back where he was. I don't blame him. I was glory. But then it's what
he says. And I want all those that you
gave me to be with me where I am. Isn't that amazing? See, this
is how much he loved the bride. He loved the bride like he loved
the father and he requested of the father that the bride experience
everything he experienced. I want them to know the love
we have. I want the love that we have to be in them as it is
in us. I want them to see my glory in
a way in which they don't see my glory now because I want them
to partake of the glory that you and I alone have. See there is this unity between
the father and the son that the church gets to enter into Those
who are chosen in christ and called by his grace and saved
by his gospel and prepared for glory because the son Loves the
father and he loves the bride. Am I making some sense? This
is a bunch of stuff going on right here This is a bunch of
stuff going on. But the lesson for you and me is this The warning
on the part of the bridegroom to the church is if you are really
my bride You're gonna love me the way I love you Because the
goal of the third person is to pour that love into your heart
Isn't that right? The Holy Ghost pours the love
of Christ abroad in your heart. That's what he does. He pours
the love of... That's Romans chapter 5, y'all know that, right?
Verses 2 and following. He pours the love of God into
your heart so that even tribulation doesn't do anything but run you
closer to Jesus. Trouble and difficulty and experiences
only bring you closer to Christ because as the devil is trying
to put out the fire, the Lord Jesus is constantly pumping up
the fire. Remember that? The parable of the wall with
with the the the pilgrim's progress on one side of the wall is a
fire burning That's faith in christ on the other side of wall.
There's a devil trying to pour out that fire And the lord jesus
is the one flaming the fire. He keeping that flame going You
know those days when it goes down, right? It just gives way
wains way down lord. Have mercy on this cold heart
of mine lord Have mercy on this cold heart of mine and then all
of a sudden That flame increased, isn't that
right? And you find yourself lit up by the Savior again. That
was his mercy and his grace. Are you hearing me? That's his
mercy and his grace. And only a safe sinner knows
what I'm talking about. This is his everlasting love
to his people. So he warned the church at Ephesus, listen, I'm
not impressed with your theology. Theology is cool. Theology is
right. Get your theology right. But
what I'm looking at is what motivates your heart? Are you in love with
me? Remember Peter when he fell Jesus
said Peter now, I know I know you love me and you said you'd
hang with me But I'm here to tell you the father's gonna take
his hand off you for a moment you and all the other disciples
So you guys can understand that your salvation is totally a work
of God's grace He took his hand off of them for a moment and
they all scattered If God takes his hand off of you, you will
scatter to have you figured that out. I'm strong. No, you're not
and If you're strong, you're strong in the Lord, but you're
not strong in yourself. You're not strong in yourself.
You will deny him without his mercy and his grace. He had to
teach the disciples that so that they could operate by faith and
through grace. So he took his hand off Peter.
Peter did not him in cuss, didn't he? But he told Peter before he did
not, he says, Peter, the devil's coming after you because I'm
giving you the keys. But I prayed for you. Not that
you wouldn't fail, but that your faith wouldn't fail. Remember
that? That's Luke 22. And so while Peter failed, faith
in him didn't fail. We'll fall and that fall will
be horrible and wretched. No believer likes falling. If
you like falling, you're not saved. It crushes us when we
fall. Isn't that true? It breaks our
heart. It crushes us. And our whole
being says I deserve to go to hell. How can I do this against
my master? Isn't that so? And then all of
a sudden there is this grace infused that lifts us up and
stands us on our feet and quietly says there is therefore now no
condemnation to them that are in Christ. Got it? This is the Spirit of God restoring
us to fellowship, not on the grounds of something you did
because of His infallible purpose of bringing you to Jesus. He
got to get you to Jesus. Did you know that? He got to
get you to Jesus. Yeah, He does. I love it. I told
you this story before. I'm going to close it down with
this one and we'll come back later. Abraham is a great type of God
the Father. Read it for yourself. It's around
Genesis chapter 25, 26. Isaac is a great type of God
the Son. Isn't that right? His only son
whom he had already offered up in Genesis 22 and a metaphor
right in Genesis 25 Abraham is old about to die He tells his
servant Eliezer Eliezer go get my son a wife Didn't know what
he said. He said don't come back without
a wife for my son and Eliezer leaves the house with camels
filled with all kinds of riches and he's headed to a Uncle Laban's
house. He's going down to the, to the
Paderan. That's where it is. The Syrian
camp where Abraham's wife and family had lived. And Eleazar
is talking to the Lord. You guys remember that? Now,
Lord, now, now I don't know who the girl is, but when she comes,
give me a sign that she's the one. And the Bible says that
when she came, she saw Eliezer and she saw the camels and she
said to Eliezer, can I give you some water to drink? And then
she said, can I give your camels water to drink? See, she had
come with a gracious servant hood disposition, not only to
take care of the servant, but to take care of the acid. What
she didn't know that the servant was hers. And those things on
those asses were hers too. and they were riches, untold
riches. So he went with her to her father's
house, and the servant of Abraham told her father, look, my master
Abraham has told me to come find a wife for his son Isaac, and
this girl is the one. Her mom and daddy let her go.
Everybody hugged and kissed her. But before they took off, what
the servant did was dump on her all the riches, all the riches. Now the riches preceded the son. Do you get that? This girl is
experiencing the riches of Abraham and Isaac before she actually
comes into the presence of the son. And this is what God does
for sinners when he pours out on us the riches of his grace
and goodness and mercy. These are tokens. of the real
thing that we get when we're brought into the presence of
Jesus Christ. So as she's riding back home on the camel's ass
and she's enjoying the riches, she sees a brother out in the
fields. She said, who is that brother out in the field? And
the master said, that's your husband, sweetie. That's your
husband, sweetie. And she put the veil over her
face. She put the veil over her face. And it all indicates our
going to glory to meet our savior. While we are on our way, he confirms
our relationship by his riches, his grace, his mercy, his pardon,
his forgiveness, his spirit, his righteousness. You hear what
I'm saying? These are the riches that Paul
says the Gentiles have now entered into. These are tokens of Christ. His spirit pours them upon us,
letting us know that he has loved us with an everlasting love,
and he is drawing us with the cords of a man. and that man
is Christ. Isn't that good news? That's
the gospel for sinners like you and me. That's the only gospel
too. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for this time. We thank you for your word. We ask that you
bless it to our heart. Help us to understand what you
mean that in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And you are making those known
to us. Teach us to keep our eyes on
Christ, on that one whom you have exalted above all things
and above every name, even Jesus Christ, our darling Savior. As
we go our way, give us traveling mercies, take us home to our
beds tonight, give us rest, and then give us our commission tomorrow.
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to worship you on Sunday, passionately,
according to the truth as it is in Jesus, we pray, amen. God
bless you.