Grace Over Works: The Path to Redemption

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to be in Romans chapter 11.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn there with me.

Romans chapter 11.

We're going to start out in verse number seven.

But by way of review, let me tell you a little bit about what we've been studying here, Romans 11.

And really it's tied to what we've been studying, Romans 9 and 10.

And that's all about this idea that there were people at this time, at the time of the writing of the book of Romans, that were questioning Paul and saying, if God is so powerful and if God loves his people, why do his people, the nation of Israel for the most part, reject that he sent his only begotten Son as Messiah, that they reject his sacrifice, that they reject his salvation?

And what Paul is essentially doing is explaining that even though there is a rebellion for the most part with the nation of Israel, that there is still a remnant and God has not forgotten about his people.

And though now this is opening the door for Gentiles to come in, we do know that there is still a plan and a purpose for the nation of Israel and that there's still hope.

I don't know about you, but there's been times in my life that I've looked out at certain individuals and I've seen their rebellion, I've seen their disobedience, I've seen their lack of faith and maybe even been tempted to say, well, we've lost hope in the fact that they can even be saved.

Maybe we've lost hope in the fact that someone that we love, maybe it's a family member or a friend, that they could actually come to Christ because they're so blinded to the truth through their rebellion, through their disobedience.

And what we're going to see in this passage this morning is that there is a hope in the fact that God can still save those that are in rebellion, that God can still save those that are hard hearted, that he can break those chains of aggression against the gospel and hopefully soften the heart of an individual as we see in the Old Testament, from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

And so what Paul is saying here is that yes, for the most part, the nation of Israel has turned their backs against the Lord because they rejected Jesus.

But he says there is a remnant.

There's always a remnant.

And that remnant is not found through how they're born and where they're born and what they do.

The remnant is always through the grace of Jesus Christ and through faith.

Everybody is saved in the same way.

Everyone throughout all of history has been saved because of the grace of God and through faith in a Messiah.

For the Old Testament, it was those looking forward to a Messiah.

For us, it's looking back to the one who gave that sacrifice for us.

And so here In Romans, chapter 11, verse 7, he says, what then?

Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for?

And the question would be this.

You know, there are a lot of people that are religious.

He's indicating here, and he's already indicated even back all the way in Romans chapter 10, that the people of Israel are religious people.

They want to have some type of relationship with God.

But the way that their relationship is based in is the relationship of works.

It's a relationship of a birthright.

It's a relationship of trying to earn something.

And he says, no, it's not because they keep seeking and they just can't find Him.

It's because they're seeking in the wrong way.

They're seeking after the wrong attitude.

They're seeking in the wrong actions.

And he says, really what we can see is that everybody finds the Lord and finds a relationship with him through grace.

And that's what he talked about in verse number six.

He says, and if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.

But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work.

He says, it's not about working our way to a relationship with God.

Israel is not saved through working.

The Gentile is not saved through working the Jew and Gentile alike.

As we saw in Romans chapter one, the Jew and Gentile alike is saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

It's the Gospel message of grace.

And so in verse number seven, he's asking a question.

He says, what then?

Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

Essentially what he's doing here is he's explaining that there's a group of people that are excluded because they're focusing on their work.

That's the one that we see at the end of verse seven.

Those are the ones that are blinded.

They're confounded in the fact that they're trying and they can't find it.

It's the Bible even says in the New Testament that the cross is foolishness to those that are in unbelief.

So someone who is walking in their works, someone who's walking in their own righteousness, it says here that they're blinded.

And, and what we can see here actually is a Paul quotes.

He.

He quotes two different passages from the Old Testament.

He quotes a passage from the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 29, and he quotes a passage from Psalm 69.

And we're going to see both of those quotes here in this passage.

And essentially what Paul is describing is that those that are excluded from salvation, those that are excluded from the elect, are those that are trusting in their own works.

That's where Jew and Gentile alike, if we're trying to earn our own way, we're going to be blinded by the fact that we we're trusting in the wrong avenue.

Jesus says in John 14,6 that he is the way, the truth and the life, that no man could come to the Father, but through him.

And so if we're trying to find a way in and of ourselves, we're never going to find that we're going to be lost.

We're going to be totally confounded in that endeavor.

But then he says that there still are that some that are included.

And we see that in verse number seven he says, but the election hath obtained it.

Now.

Now some folks would see that phrase, the election, and say, well, this is the group of people that got selected before they even had a choice.

This is no choice of their own.

They're selected and those are the ones that are saved.

But if you go back, we even see that in verses five and six in this same very, the same chapter, chapter 11, he says, even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

So again, he's talking about those who are saved by the grace of God through faith.

Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

You guys have heard this verse quoted quite a bit here recently.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

So those that are saved, those that are the elect, are those that receive the grace of God, believed in the grace of God through faith, and now have that gift of salvation in their life.

So he's really contrasting two groups of people, those that are of the nation of Israel, that are included in the election Those are the ones that come by faith and then those are the ones that are excluded.

Those are the ones that he says here are blinded and they're blinded by their own works.

So he's particularly talking about the nation of Israel here.

In verse 8 he says, According as it is written, God have given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day.

Meaning this, there are many people are trying their own route and they're trying their own path to salvation, that they're finding themselves in the spirit of slumber and the spirit finding themselves in this spirit of being blinded and, and being deaf to the cause of the gospel, the truth of the gospel.

So essentially what he's saying is, is those are in faith, those are the corporate elect that come to him and know the grace of God.

The rest are blinded because of their rebellion.

So it's the save versus the unsaved.

It's the elect versus the non elect.

And so for some people out there, they say, well, there's the elect and those are the ones that have hope.

And then there's the non elected.

They have no hope.

Whether they know it or not, there's no hope for them.

They can't be saved.

They're, they're so in rebellion that they can't come to the Lord.

But then we see something so interesting here.

He says, yes, David saith in verse nine, let their table be made a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them.

Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always.

Now you say, what is he talking about here?

Well, he's using a quote from David from Psalm 69.

But essentially what he's saying is this.

God is using the rebellion.

God is using the disobedience of the people of Israel to open a door for other people.

That would be the Gentiles, to open up a larger window of window of salvation and an inclusive window of salvation to all that are in the world.

And so basically we've seen this from Romans 9, 10 and 11, that God doesn't force people into rebellion, but God uses their rebellion.

That idea of hardening is that sense of hardening with a, with a pot, right?

You, you, you can.

I've never done pottery, but I've, I've seen it on a YouTube video.

They're making pottery, right?

And it's soft.

But then there's that place where they put it into the kiln.

They put it into the, the Heat.

And that's.

It hardens in the place that it's in, right?

Whatever form that it's in, that's where it's hardened.

And so we see that God hardens individuals in their rebellion.

And God can use obedience for his glory, but God can also use his nation of Israel and.

And their disobedience for his glory as well.

That's the sovereignty of God.

And so God is using at this point in time the hardness of the nation of Israel's heart, as he says here, to be a stumbling block and to be a recompense unto them.

And he says their eyes are darkened, that they may not see and bow down their back all the way.

But then he says in verse number 11, okay, if you just ended at verse 10, it looks like there's no hope.

It looks like there's no hope for them.

But verse 11, he says, I say, then have they stumbled that they should fall?

And we see that there's a distinction between stumbling and falling.

What he says here is that there is a chance.

There.

There is actually the.

What I would say is the inevitability that eventually all of us will stumble there.

There is that sense of stumbling.

But then he says that there's something more than suffering.

There's that fall.

That fall means to fall away, to never have a chance.

So he says, I say, have they stumbled so far, have they tripped and stumbled so far that they'll never have a chance, that they've fallen away, that there's no hope for them?

And he says, God forbid, there's no chance of this, but rather through their fall, their stumbling, through their fall, salvation has come unto the Gentiles, meaning it's not a waste.

This is not hopeless.

Actually, God is using their stumbling.

God's using their blindness at the moment.

For as it says here, the.

The salvation coming to the Gentiles.

So it's a huge blessing, right?

Though the world is blessed through this disobedience.

He says, for to provoke them to jealousy, meaning the whole point is that the Gentiles will be saved, the world will be saved, and that God would stir their hearts to come back to him so that there would be that godly jealousy, that there would be a healthy jealousy.

Now, every time we see the word jealousy in Scripture, we often think that it's always a negative thing.

But we know that God is jealous.

We know that there is a righteous type of jealousy.

And I think that we have to understand that when we look at this passage, for example, right, I love my wife.

She's my only one and I should be jealous.

There's a.

There's a righteous jealousy to the fact that I want to have her love completely and I want to love her completely.

That's what God's love is for us, and that's what God's jealousy is for us.

So for Israel to see other people that historically had not been lumped into the family of God, be part of the family of God, it should stir in their heart jealousy to the point of wanting that relationship with God, desiring that relationship with God.

So he says that the Gentiles being included into salvation, which we can see happening throughout the book of Romans, he says that that should at that point bring them to a place of jealousy to come back to a relationship with God.

Verse 12.

Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, meaning we as the world gain spiritual riches through their mistake, through their rebellion.

So, so now the door has been open.

Now we get a chance.

This is a blessing.

This is, this is a miracle, he says.

So we the get to be the, the beneficiaries of this, he says, and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness meaning how much better will it be when the nation of Israel comes back to, in a revival to him?

He says, that's the amazing thing.

How, how much greater is it that they left and came back?

It's the picture of the prodigal son.

It's a picture of the one who turned their back and, and came to the Lord.

And then there's that restoration.

And we often think about this when it comes to even our own lives.

I mean, there's probably people in our lives that we've been praying for that we hope that they come to Christ, but it doesn't seem like they will.

Think about how much of a blessing it will be when those people that we've seen walk in rebellion to God and eventually come back to the fold or come to the fold for the first time and see that beauty and see the grace of God and taste of the grace of God.

He says, that will be a beautiful day that will be in a wonderful time when we see all of those riches being bestowed back upon the people of the nation of Israel.

And he says, Verse 13, For I speak to you Gentiles in as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles.

So, so Paul goes back to the call that God had for him back in Acts chapter 9.

If you remember Acts chapter 9, God tells Paul, you will have a predominant ministry, and that will be the ministry of the Gentiles.

So Paul knew his call.

Paul understood the marching orders, that for the most part, he would be ministering to the Gentiles.

But then also we see through Romans 9, 10, and 11 that Paul still has a heart for his own people.

So he says, I know my call to the Gentiles.

And by the way, just a side note, it is a wonderfully liberating thing to know what your call is in the Lord to.

To know what God has for you in your life.

To be so narrowly focused on what God has for you that you can say, I know what God wants for me.

And Paul says, I know what God wants for me.

And he even says, he says, and I.

He says, in as much as I'm the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify mine office, meaning I. I exalt that office.

I put that as the first thing in my life.

I put that as a priority in my life.

I understand that it is my priority to preach to the Gentiles.

But then he goes on to say this.

He says, but okay, just because I know that that's my priority that God has called me to do.

He says, but if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them.

So, so this is really the key verse in this passage.

I believe that.

That Paul is saying, here you have these people that, as it says earlier on, are blinded, that are in a spiritual stupor, that, that are at a place where they don't see the truth, they don't want the truth.

They're walking with spiritual blinders on, trying to find their own way.

If that meant that that was the death sentence, if that.

If that was an inevitability of lostness, then Paul would say, okay, they're lost.

They're a lost cause.

Don't worry about them.

We just focus on our things.

We.

We focus on our.

Our job that we have here.

But then he says, no, there is a bigger job.

And he says, actually, I pray for them.

He says, actually, that some might be saved.

So the idea for Paul is that they're not inevitably lost, that they can be compelled by the.

The conviction and the preaching of the.

The word of God and the Holy Spirit to come back to salvation, that some of them might be saved.

And we know that that might be the case.

We.

We know that even at the very beginning of the early church, the church there in Jerusalem was not founded by Gentiles.

The.

The Church there in Jerusalem were.

Were Jewish people being saved.

And so doesn't mean here in this passage that all of the people that are of the nation of Israel will not be saved.

They can't be saved.

What he's saying is, is that in their rebellion, they do find them play themselves in a place of darkness and deafness and hopelessness.

But when they come to the truth of Jesus Christ, anybody can be saved.

The way that I've heard it said before is that all of us are on equal standing before the cross.

The Jewish person doesn't come to the cross saying, well, look where I was born.

Look at my bloodline.

Just like the Gentile doesn't come to the cross and say, look, at least I'm not those people.

We all come to the cross with hopelessness.

We all come to the cross with sin.

We all come to the cross with, really what we would say is a.

Is a sense of darkness or even death, as the book of Ephesians says.

But what we're going to see here is that all of us come on equal playing field.

All of us come with, with sin.

And, and the wages of sin is death.

And I think that sometimes we think that, well, you know, if I come to the Lord with, with money, or if I come to the Lord with status, or if I come to the Lord with some kind of pedigree, like my dad was a pastor or my granddad was a pastor or whatever it is, that maybe I'm saved a different way.

What Paul is saying throughout all of the book of Romans is that everybody is saved the same way and everybody has the same hope standing before the Lord.

Meaning this.

We can all come to him at faith knowing that he can save us and that he alone can save us.

So he says, it's my desire that we come to a place that we are preaching the gospel not only to the Gentiles, but also to my own people.

And so it's not an inevitability of lostness.

Some rejected Jesus.

Yes, actually this time most rejected Jesus and they rejected him in his ministry.

But we know that later on, some believe that we, we know God used rejection to advance the gospel.

Think about back in the time of Jesus, he's going to the cross.

And just a week before, people were crying out hosanna.

We just celebrated this at Palm Sunday.

People were expecting something from Jesus.

And when Jesus did not fulfill those expectations, what happened?

Many of them, most of them turned on him.

This is the same people that were crying out hosanna.

He's the one who's going to save us were the same people that were crying out, crucify him a week later.

So.

So we could very clearly see that those rejected Jesus.

Those people at that point in time rejected Jesus, right?

So some might say they rejected Jesus.

They had no hope of being saved.

They missed their chance.

But we know very shortly after that, in the day of Pentecost, there were people that were in Jerusalem that probably were crying out, crucify him, that saw the change, they saw the difference and heard the gospel message preached by Peter.

And they were stirred in the.

In the spirit to trust in Jesus and come to Christ.

And so those people were not inevitably lost.

And what we look at today is that there's people out there that might be so far away from the Lord that we might be tempted to say that they're.

They're inevitably lost.

There's no chance they're going to come to Christ.

There's no way that that person would humble themselves and come to Christ.

But the truth is, is that that's not our decision to make.

That's.

That's not our marching orders, is to look at someone and make a judgment call whether or not they're going to be saved.

It's our job, it's our purpose, to preach the message of the truth, to pray for those that are lost to stay at it.

And you know what that might be, that God would save that person, that that person might come to a place of humility.

And then that would be a day of rejoicing for the nation of Israel, for the people in our families.

And I think for some of us, maybe there's a burden upon our lives to say, you know what?

I really love this person.

I really want them to come to Christ.

But I don't think they'll ever get saved by the way that they're talking, by the way that they're acting.

I could say that there is a sense of spiritual stupor in their life.

There.

There is a sense of.

Of being deaf to the cause of the gospel, to the truth of the gospel.

And I would say to you, don't give up.

Pray for them, as Paul says here.

Have a desire to see them come to Christ.

Do everything that you possibly can to be the light to a person who needs the truth of Jesus Christ.

They need to see that Jesus can change.

They need to hear the gospel.

But ultimately we know that it's through prayer and trusting in the Lord for the Holy Spirit to awaken their hearts and bring them to a place of repentance.

And bring them to a place of faith.

Folks, sometimes we give up too easily on people that are walking away from the Lord or maybe have never even come to the Lord.

And we look at it from the perception of humanity to say they'll never come to Jesus Christ.

And that's what many people were saying here.

They said, there's no way that they can come to the Lord.

And Paul says, no, they can't.

And I pray that some of them might be saved.

Verse 15.

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, meaning though they're cast away because of the rebellion, there is a reconciliation with the world, meaning that the Gentiles, the ones that were not lumped into the family of God before they can now come to Christ.

He says, what shall the receiving of them be?

Meaning the Jewish people, but from life, but life from the death, meaning this, it'll be a beautiful thing, just like every salvation is.

It's a picture of death to life.

It's a picture of having new hope, as Peter mentions in his Epistle that he talks about it going from darkness into marvelous light.

So verse 15 he says, yes, he's kind of painting a picture of how great it will be when those people come to Christ.

And there will be this restoration, that there will be this time of celebrating.

He says, just as it's been a blessing that they rejected and many people came in, so it'll be even more of a blessing when we see them come back and they are taken from death to life.

And so he talks here about there is the prophecy of stubbornness.

This is something that God knew about.

This is something to some degree that God allowed and ordained.

But at the same time, there is a difference between stumbling and falling.

And.

And what Paul is saying here is that though the nation of Israel is stumbling, there is not a place that they are so far gone that they can't come to Christ again.

And that goes to our own life as a Christian.

It's a similar principle.

There's a.

There's a psalmist, as though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down.

It's the same idea of there is a time and a place in our life that we might have had a stumble, we might even have struggled with something, we might have even gone to a place of doubt and confusion.

But ultimately, if we are a child of God, there is no casting out, because we have that hope that we have the security in him.

And so he says in verse 15, there can be this hope still there's still hope for the loss.

So.

So God allows good to come through the rejection.

Sometimes we think that God is limited by our decisions.

And that's actually what we would call something that is very detrimental to our faith because we think that we can limit God.

And we look at a situation and someone says, well, you know what?

Look at our nation today.

Look at all these bad decisions that people are making.

God can't work in our nation.

I'm going to say that regardless of our decisions, God's always working.

We cannot hinder God.

That's the picture of sovereignty.

A lot of times people think sovereignty is God just up there moving us around like chess pieces and that we have no choice.

I believe that that's a limited view of God's sovereignty.

I believe that that Scripture teaches that God allows us to have decisions that we make.

And God is still sovereignly powerful to deal with all those decisions and work it out for his good.

And so we see ultimately what happens here is that God allows for the nation of Israel to make a choice.

And for the most part, they made a choice to reject Jesus, even though there is a remnant.

He does say that not everyone is this.

But he says that through this, good can come through those people that reject.

Because we've seen now more people come into the fold.

But then we also were reminded in this passage that there's still hope for the lost.

It's not a death sentence, even though it's a death sentence at the end.

We know that if someone dies in their sin.

We know that if someone stays in their rebellion that they will be rejected.

They will not be welcomed into the family of God just because of something called universalism, that if God loves everyone, everyone comes in.

No, that's not what that's talking about.

What that's talking about is this.

If they're still drawing breath, it's never too late.

I've heard of some people talking about deathbed confessions and having a real struggle with that.

And I really think that, like, well, hey, don't you look at the thief on the cross?

I mean, if you don't believe in deathbed confessions, then you can't believe the Scripture because Scripture teaches that there was someone that was hanging on the cross that wasn't going to live very much longer.

And he believed, and the Lord gave him salvation.

And I want you to see here that it's not too late.

If there's someone there, even if they're in rebellion, even if they're in sin, we need to be preaching the message of the truth to them.

We need to be living as salt and light to them, not just by what we say, but by what we do, by word and by deed.

And then he goes on to say this.

In verse 16, he says, for if the first fruit be holy.

Now who's the first fruit?

Well, there's a lot of debate on who the first fruit is, but most commentators would say that that is the early church.

That would be the church there in Jerusalem.

Now, remember who the first fruits were.

They were not Gentiles.

They were Jewish people.

The.

The Gentile salvations don't come really until later on in the Book of Acts.

But what we see there in early parts of the Book of Acts and their Pentecost, he says that the first fruits be holy.

The lump is also holy.

If the root be holy, so are also the branches.

What is he talking about here?

He's talking about this idea that as.

As Christians, as believers, no matter if you're Jew or gentile, you're tapped into a greater root.

And who is the root?

Well, there's a lot of thought about that in this passage.

Most people in this passage would talk about that, that the root is the nation of Israel.

It's how God revealed himself through the law, through the prophets, and ultimately through the Messiah.

He says that we are branches of that we've tapped into ultimately the Lord.

And we even know in John 15 that he is the vine, we are the branches.

But before the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy.

So the whole group that have come into faith is.

Is holy, meaning separated, special.

If the root be holy, so are the branches.

So.

So we get to be beneficiaries of it.

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 partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree.

So you might say, what is he talking about here with this olive tree?

And I think it's important for us to note what he's talking about here.

So what happens here is, is that there's a picture that there's this tree, there's this olive tree.

And the picture of the tree, it has branches.

And what would happen back in that time and even today is that if there was an old olive tree and it had lost its.

Its fruitfulness, it had lost its healthiness, it would mean that there would be a time they would need to remedy that.

And so history tells us that they would cut away some of the failing branches of the tree.

And then there would be these wild olive branches that would be grafted in to give invigorating life to that tree, more fruitfulness to the tree.

So the picture here would be this.

You have the root of the Lord, You.

You have the.

The nation of Israel, who had lost its fruitfulness, had lost its passion for him.

Then we would see that there's these wild olive branches, the.

The Gentiles, that were grafted in to bring vitalization to this, the.

The kingdom of God.

And therefore we have that.

We are the beneficiaries of that.

It says there at the end of verse 17.

And with them partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree.

So we're the wild olive branch.

The Gentiles are the wild olive branch grafted into the root.

And we are taking in, as this is the fatness or the healthiness of the root of the olive tree.

And so there's this idea that we are the bl.

We are the blessed, right?

From the One who has given us the blessings.

And so the first fruits were the early church.

And then some of the branches were taken off, and some of these new branches are added in.

But then he says in verse number 18, something very important, because he says, oh, okay, remember your standing.

You were grafted in.

Remember?

You.

You did not earn this.

You.

You were given a blessing.

You were given an opportunity by grace.

Verse 18.

Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast out, bearers, not the root, but the root, thee.

So what is he saying here?

He's saying this.

Don't ever get so prideful with your salvation thinking that you earned it, because you're not the ones that are in rebellion.

Because, number one, you could turn to rebellion and.

And find issues.

But the number two, you were not given this opportunity because you earned it.

You were given this opportunity because God graced you with it.

And therefore we can never get prideful in our salvation.

And oftentimes we start thinking that, you know, we either earned our salvation or whether or not we.

We keep God's love because of what we do.

You know, we're good people, we're the right people.

And then actually, what we see here is he's condemning them to look down upon the nation of Israel because of their rebellion.

Why?

Because if we're not careful, we can fall into that same rebellion.

The church can fall away.

Now, I'm not saying that we can lose our salvation, but what I can say is this.

There's a time and a place.

If we dismiss the head of the body, which is Jesus Christ.

If we dismiss the chief cornerstone of the spiritual building of the church, which would mean that's Jesus.

If we dismiss Jesus, which means we have no hope.

And he says, that's really the problem with everybody.

The problem with everybody that has not found salvation is that they've dismissed Jesus Christ.

They've dismissed the cornerstone, they've dismissed the head of the body, they've dismissed the centerpiece of everything.

Then that's the hope in Jesus Christ.

And so he says, just as they had a problem, so we'll have a problem if we turn away from the truth of God.

And so there, at the end of this thought that he gives.

And there's more.

And we'll come back to these later on at another study.

But essentially, the whole challenge for us in this passage is to, number one, understand that there's hope for the loss.

We should never give up on them.

And number two, we should never get so prideful in our salvation that we get to a place where we think that it's something that we've earned, that we think that it's something that we can keep earning.

I heard someone recently say that, you know, you've got to keep up a certain standard in your life to keep being saved.

And I'm like, there's no way.

Because none of us could keep that standard up.

None of us could keep up that sense of holiness that we need for salvation.

Because if, you know, I lose things all the time.

Okay?

I was.

A while ago, I was in denial that I lost things.

I just would always blame it on my kids or my dog or I never would blame it on my wife.

That would never be smart.

But I would lose things.

And I'd say, I can't figure this out.

So then I came to a place you go through different stages.

It was in the denial stage.

And then I went to the stage of, like, acceptance.

And then so I went out and I bought these things.

Some of you might know what they're called.

They're called tiles or, like, little.

They're like little tags that you put on everything that you have.

And then all I got to do is it'll track where it is.

And then I can just set on my phone and say, go, okay.

So I have that on everything now.

Okay?

So I'm always around the house.

Every time I leave the house, I push my little button, and my keys are going off in one room, and my wallet's in the other room and all my other stuff.

And so if I could lose it, then I would, because of my inadequacies and because of my hindrances, because of my selfishness.

I'm not.

I'm not the.

The one who knows all.

And so we use that as an analogy, and it's a silly, funny analogy.

But at the end of the day, we all understand that the salvation that we have is nothing that we've earned.

The salvation that we have found in Christ is because of what he has done for us.

So he says, boast not against the branches, lest the Gentiles think the Gentile Christians think that they're superior to the Jews.

Because, because Paul says, you know, don't think that you're better than them, because that's actually what can happen.

Like, we can look at the Jews and say, you know what?

They, they rejected Jesus, so we're better than them.

He says, lest you think that you're better than them.

Paul reminds us that it's the root that supports the branches, not the other way around.

Not, not.

Not the branches supporting the root.

And, and that's a whole other passage that we could go to is John 15.

Because there's times in our life where we think that we're supporting the Lord, that, that, that we think we're the ones that are carrying the message, that we think that we're the ones that are securing our salvation.

But really, if we're the branches, we're reliant upon the roots.

Now, in this specific context, most commentators would believe that Paul is actually saying that Jesus came through the nation of Israel.

So we're reliant on them.

We're never better than them.

They're not better than us, and we're not better than them.

But we have to understand where the source of all of this was.

But I think the greater picture that all of us can take with us as he's talking here about not boasting against the other branches is this.

I can't look at another Christian and say, well, I'm better than them because I worship better, or I'm more faithful than them.

You know, I think that's a lot of times where, like, I. I always tell people I'm a recovering Pharisee, okay?

I'm working on it every single day of my life.

But there's been times in my life where I've often looked at another Christian who doesn't worship the same way as me.

And I've.

I've said, you know what?

I understand God better.

Okay, confession time.

I understand God better than them because I'm worshiping the right way, my way.

But what we have to understand is that in and of itself is based in pride.

Because I'm saying I'm better, because I worship better, because I know the better way.

Now, I may or may not be aligned with Scripture in that, but what I will say is this.

He's warning us not to have that sense of pride and arrogance and piety above other Christians because you know what they could do?

They probably could turn around and do the same thing to us.

Well, they're not worshiping the way that we're worshiping.

And so then it gets down to the well, who's right, who's wrong?

Well, we know that Scripture is always right, but oftentimes we are divided and judging other Christians on things that are not biblical.

It's one thing if another church is preaching complete heresy, then of course we separate ourselves from them.

Of course we warn others about that.

But in this case, we need to be very careful that we don't come into it with a sense of pride.

I want you to go with me to Philippians chapter two.

Philippians chapter two is the defining passage of Scripture that speaks of us being humble in our presentation to others, humble in our reaction to others.

And then it gives us the why behind it.

The why behind it is because of the example of Jesus Christ.

If anybody had a sense to be above others and think that they had a right to be prideful, it was Jesus.

But it says in Philippians chapter two, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ.

He's actually asking rhetorical questions here because we know there's consolation in Christ.

He says, if any comfort of love, well, we know there's comfort in love.

If any fellowship with the Spirit, we know that there's fellowship of the Spirit.

If any bowels and mercies will fill ye my joy, that ye be like minded having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.

There's no way that we can have one accord in one mind and live in pride.

He says, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind.

Let each esteem other better than themselves.

Let not every man look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

So the warning In Romans chapter 11 at the end of this passage here, at least in verse number 18, is a reminder to us to not allow ourselves to get to a place where we're so prideful, where we're so stuck up, that we think it's something that we've earned and that other people were better than them because we're the ones who have believed.

No, it's just those people are different.

Those people might still need Jesus and we need to get busy about that.

Verse 19.

He says, Thou will say, then the branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

Meaning, look at me like I'm better than the nation of Israel because they missed their chance.

Look at me, I'm the one that's been grafted in.

And then he says in verse 20, well, because of unbelief, they were broken off and thou standest by faith.

Be not high minded, but fear.

Meaning, don't get to that place where you think, well, I'm better than them because they were the ones that didn't believe.

He says the reason why they were judged, as it says there is verse number 20, it was unbelief.

And the pride that we can come up into our lives, can rear its ugly head up in our lives, can lead us to a place of unbelief.

And he says, they were broken off and thou standest by faith.

He says, the only reason that you have what you have is by faith in the Lord, not because of your good works.

Be not high minded.

Don't.

Don't get to a place where you're high minded in your pride that you're better and that you're superior.

He says, because you have to go back to that place where you're tapping in every single day to that reliance on the Lord.

He says, but fear.

For if God spared not the natural branches, meaning the original natural branches of God, judge them, take heed, lest he also spare not thee.

Meaning if we get to such a place of pride in our lives that God will judge, that we have to be so, so careful.

And so, number one, we should have a heart for the hope of Paul, the heart of the hope of the Lord, that there will be people that are in rebellion that will come to salvation.

But then number two, we should also have a sense of humility in this.

Because if I come to people and say, okay, you need to get saved, here's all of your problems in your life.

I'm perfect, you're not.

So you got to be like me and you got to act like me, you got to talk like me, you got to be exactly the way that I expect you to be, then you can be saved.

That's a misunderstanding of what the Bible says.

That's how I've been there.

I've Been there.

I've wanted people to talk like me, act like me, be exactly the way that I feel comfortable with.

And then you're a good Christian.

The truth is that we have to go back to what Scripture says.

What does scripture say brings someone to salvation?

Well, following all the rules of Middletown Baptist Church.

No, what brings people to salvation is faith in Jesus Christ.

Then there's discipleship, then there's preferences, then there's all these other things that we work out within the Christian life.

But he says, don't be so high minded, don't be so hottie, don't be so prideful that you get to the place in your life where you think that nobody else is on your standard.

There are many people that are within the church, and I've been one of these that might get to a place where, you know what?

I think that I'm so comfortable in my faith that I don't even need to think about it anymore.

I don't need to have fear.

I don't need to have the righteous respect for the Lord.

I can kind of just do my own thing and just be resting in the grace of God.

But Paul's addressed that in Romans, chapter six.

We shouldn't just abuse the grace of God.

He says, don't live in Pride, verse number 20, but live in fear.

Proper fear, proper respect.

That God could cut us off if he wanted to.

He doesn't.

But we're thankful for the fact that he has that grace.

He says there would be a time where the Gentile church could get to a place where there's judgment there.

And we're going to talk more about that as we come along in the, the restoration of, of the nation of Israel and some of those other things with God's covenant to Israel, that he stayed faithful.

But there's a lot of people that will look at Romans chapter 11 and say, well, he's not talking about the nation of Israel.

He's talking about spiritual Israel.

He's talking about all those that are saved.

Well, you can't really honestly look at this passage of scripture and say that you, you see that there's a distinction between those that are saved and those that are spiritually in the family of God.

And then there is a specific difference here with the nation of Israel, the, the ethnic Israel.

And we see that there's a plan for that.

And as much as we can look at it and do mental gymnastics, we see that there is a division here.

And we have to recognize that, we have to come to grips with that.

And we have to see at the rest of this passage how God speaks to the future of the nation of Israel and how that always just brings back glory to the Lord.

Now we have to be very careful with this.

We don't just look at a situation and say, well, just because someone says that they are a certain way, that they are that way.

Didn't Paul just address that?

He says, not all that say they're of the nation of Israel are of the nation of Israel.

So there's individuals who will claim a certain thing but not live in faith.

What's the distinction here?

Paul never says that the reason why people are saved is because they're from a nation.

That, that, that was never the case.

The reason why people are saved is because they say they're from a certain bloodline.

That's never the case.

The reason why people are saved is because of Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus Christ.

So he even mentions that there.

He says, even the remnant of the nation of Israel, who is the true nation of Israel, the only way that they can find blessings and hope in a future is through Jesus Christ.

And so the plan for the Gentile Church, the plan for the nation of Israel, the plan for the restoration, the plan for all of the future is still through Jesus.

It's never through a government, it's never through a bloodline, it's always through Jesus.

And so God has a plan for certain people, but ultimately the plan runs through Jesus Christ.

And so that's God's covenant plan with all of us, is that there's this hope in Jesus Christ from the very beginning, from the book of Genesis, there's a red scarlet thread through scripture and it points to Jesus Christ.

It was never because of the sacrifices.

It was never because of a nation.

It was never because of anything.

It was because of the hope and faith in the Lord and his Word and having hope in that.

So if you look at someone today and you say, well, you know what?

I don't think they'll ever be saved.

They're blinded, they're deaf.

That's not our decision to make.

Our decision to make is to preach the gospel, to obey the Lord.

Are we willing and obedient to preach the gospel message to those that are not easy to preach to?

Are we willing to preach the gospel message to those that are stiff arming the gospel, that are pushing the gospel away, that are rejecting the gospel?

Are we willing to have enough compassion for our family, friends, loved one, our country, that we will preach the gospel and preach.

That's, that's the only way to salvation.

That's the only way to hope.

That's the only way to find themselves from a place of death to life as Paul mentions here in this passage.

I think to do that, I think to have the heart of Paul here, to desire that the non elect to become the elect through faith and through grace is by having a heart of humility.

There's so many people today that claim to be Christians, but because of their pride they aren't acting the way that God has called us to act.

When it comes to being a Christian, we can't properly preach the gospel.

We cannot properly display the love of God.

We cannot properly be the, the light to a dark world.

If we're living in a spirit of pride, there's no reason for us to boast.

Well, you know, some people say, well I boast because I'm part of a political affiliation.

I, I, I boast because I have a role at the church.

I boast because, look I, I don't do those things that those people do over there.

I boast because I, I'm, I'm a good old time traditional Christian.

Does the Bible ever say any of those reasons are the reasons why we should boast?

There's one reason why we should boast.

Paul says, I boast in one thing, that's Jesus Christ.

I never look at myself and say, well I'm better because I did this.

The only reason I have hope in Jesus Christ is because of his grace for me.

So therefore that brings me back to a place of complete humility.

You know, if I've earned something then I can not of works lest any man should boast.

Meaning if I earned anything, I could boast in that.

Look at me, look, I'm more, I'm more saved than you because I've read my Bible more times.

I'm more saved than you because I, I, I am, you know, in, involved in 16 ministries and you're only involved in 14.

So I'm better than you, I'm more saved than you, you say.

Well Pastor, are you preaching against reading our Bibles?

No, we should read our Bibles, obviously.

Should you serve in ministry?

Of course.

But if that brings me to a place of pride that I'm better than somebody else, I'm never going to have a heart of compassion for them.

I'm always going to be superior to them.

And that's what Paul's warning us against.

Never get to a place where we're so much better in our minds than somebody else that we're not willing to preach the gospel to them and to lead them to a place of what we came to in our life, that even place before the cross.

All of us are lost when we stand in the holiness of God.

I'm just going to tell you that before we came to Christ, none of us were any closer to God than anybody else that's in the world in their sin.

So, for example, I've used this example before, and I'm going to use it again because it's a good picture.

I could go to the.

The Grand Canyon and I could run, and I could tell you guys, I jump really far.

You know, I've been really training a lot.

And I jumped and I jumped maybe 10ft and I fell to the.

To the ground.

And that would not be good for me.

It would not be a good story for me, but it would end in the same thing as any of us would be doing.

But then, let's say there's like a world record long jumper comes and he was like, well, I can jump like 40ft.

Okay?

I'm the world record jumper, but the gap is still a thousand feet.

Okay, that person might jump farther than me, but still find themselves in the same end.

Because the Bible says that there's a gap that we cannot jump.

There's a.

A divide that we cannot reach.

And the only thing that can save us from that inevitable fall to the pit is Jesus Christ lifting us up.

Now, does he change us?

Yes.

This is not a message to say that those people that are living in sin, we just look at them and say, well, just get saved and keep doing what you're doing.

God loves you anyway.

No, this is a message about preaching Jesus and Jesus changing them.

Jesus can change a heart.

The Holy Spirit transforms lives.

I don't transform lives.

If I transform lives, my children would be completely obedient every situation, at all times.

All right?

Some of you might think they are.

They're not.

Okay?

My children are not obedient 100 of the time.

Now, we want that percentage to go up.

That's our goal.

Our ultimate goal is a hundred percent.

But I cannot transform a life.

I cannot get in.

I want to.

I cannot get into the mind and the heart of my child and force them to be obedient constantly.

Because you can say, well, Pastor, you're just not being strong enough with them.

You need to be a little bit more strong with them.

You need to give a lot more restrictions.

You.

You need to ground them a lot more.

Okay, that's all fine.

And Danny, you could do that.

But how many of you.

Be honest.

How many of you ever got disciplined in your life?

And you were doing the action that your parents or whoever told you to do, but in your heart, your heart was not obedient?

I can sit here all day and force my children to do whatever I want them to do, but at the same time, that doesn't change their heart.

Same thing within the church.

I can create rule after rule.

I can create 613rules and say, follow every single one of these rules.

Make sure you don't eat this.

Make sure you don't go here.

Make sure you don't do this on this day.

I could give you, you know, and we laugh at that, but then we have, like, the Baptist613 rules, okay, that we're.

That we're looking at.

And I'm not saying rules are bad, but I'm saying rules don't save.

Rules don't change our hearts.

What changes the heart of man, what changes the individual from a life of rebellion to a life of obedience, is the Holy Spirit coming in and changing our heart, giving us new passion, a new desire.

I love this song.

It says, turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

There's a lot of times people will say this, you got to stop doing that.

Stop it.

Just don't do it.

And we talk about it all the time, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it.

You know what happens when we have someone thinking about something all the time to not do it?

That's all they're thinking about doing.

And inevitably they'll do it.

It's like telling my kid, okay, I never fails.

Okay, they're going to try to teach you how to ride a bike.

Don't hit that tree.

Don't hit that tree right there.

Whatever you do, don't hit that tree.

You know what my kid's looking at the whole time is the tree.

And what you're looking at is what you drive to.

And they go right to the tree.

That's what we're doing.

Sometimes with church, we're not necessarily telling them, put off and put on.

We're saying, just put off.

Stop doing all these bad things.

And all we can think about is the bad things.

But what the Bible actually says is that to not do those bad things, we should replace it with the good things that God has called us to do.

Put off and put on.

Put our focus on the good so that we don't want the bad anymore.

And the only way that it can happen is through preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that will never come through a sense of pride.

That will always come through a sense of humility.

And so what I want you to think about two words here in this passage.

And then we're going to conclude, number one, there's hope for the lost, not after they die.

The Bible says it's appointed unto man to die and after that the judgment.

So I'm not saying that there's a secondary hope after this life.

But if there is someone who is lost today, there is still hope for them.

And the hope is in Jesus Christ.

And we have to get busy about that.

That's what Paul says.

He says these people are not the elect, but there's hope for them.

He says that I might.

That, that, that.

That some might come to Christ then he says, and might save some of them that are on the path to destruction.

So there's hope.

But to preach that hope, we must be living and proclaiming with a spirit of humility, as Paul says.

He reminds the Gentile church be aware of this.

He reminds those Jews that are in Rome at the time that were Christians, to be aware of this.

So this is not just a warning for just the Gentiles.

It's not just a warning just for the Jews.

It's a warning for all of us to not live in a spirit of pride, but to come to a place of humility.

To understand that it's only through Jesus Christ that we have what we have.

Yet not I, but Christ in me.

I am what I am through Christ.

Paul says, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live.

Yet not I, but Christ.

And so I want you to think about that here this week.

How can we die to ourselves so that Christ can be seen through our life?

Pride.

What's that?

You guys have heard this before, Maybe you haven't.

What's at the center of pride?

The letter I.

Me.

P R, I, D, E. Pride.

We have to understand that we are not the center of the universe.

We have to understand that I'm not the center of my Christian experience.

Jesus is the focus.

Jesus is the center.

Jesus is the cornerstone.

And so may we be the ones that preach that message to the lost and dying and that are in this world.

May we have that sense of humility to know that we would be in that place if it wasn't for people that preach the gospel message to us and that Jesus came for us and gave us everlasting life through his grace.

When I start living that way, we start living with a sense of gratitude.

And in that sense of gratitude, we have a sense of fruitfulness and we have a sense of desire.

And we have that passion to serve Him.

If we go back to that spirit of pride, we have a passion to serve ourselves.

We have a passion to take the credit.

May we never take the credit for the work that God is doing.

May we never take the credit for salvations that are around us.

May we always present that as the gift of grace that Jesus Christ extends to us.

So here this morning, two words, hope and humility.

We have hope in Jesus.

Those that are lost have hope in Jesus.

But it's only through humility.

Our hope is in the humility that we can find in Christ.

The unsaved person's hope is humility that they can find in Jesus Christ.

And we all come to the cross casting our care upon him because he cares for us.

I'm going to ask if you're able to to stand with me, every head bowed, every head closed, as the music plays here this morning, we're going to have a time of invitation.

And I want to invite you to respond to that message of hope, that message of humility.

Is there someone that you're dealing with in your life that you're actively praying for now that you're tempted to, or maybe even at some point have given up on when it comes to seeing them come to Jesus or come back to Jesus?

Keep at it.

Keep praying.

There's hope.

There's hope.

But secondly, maybe that spirit of pride has seeped in.

Maybe not so brightly that that's all you can think about, that's all you talk about.

But you know in your heart of hearts that that pride has reared itself.

May we not be proud in anything outside of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

He is our answer.

He is our hope.

He is our everything.

Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from Him.

May we never take credit for anything in our life.

May it all go to Him.

So here this morning.

Maybe that's something that God has been challenging you with here in this service.

Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives.

If there's someone here who does not know you as Savior, may they come forward today and trust in you or through faith to receive the gift of grace.

If there is someone who's saved here today, but maybe losing hope in a loved one to come to salvation, or possibly losing the hope of someone that has walked away.

Maybe today can be the day of renewal in that hope.

But also, Lord, if there's any sense of pride that's been seeping into our lives, may we die to that today.

May we give ourselves over to you and understand that everything that we have is because of you.

So Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation work in hearts and lives.

We ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays some's already come follow as the Lord leads here this morning.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.