Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog, page 98

In the JBC: "Why Is This Sordid Story in the Bible?"

The newest issue of the Journal of Biblical Counseling from CCEF has just been released, and I have an article in it.

My article is entitled Why Is This Sordid Story in the Bible?: Four Reasons to Read about the Rape of Tamar.

You can read a preview here. It's my first JBC article that doesn't relate very closely to the problem of gossip.

In his editorial and introduction to the issue, editor David Powlison writes:

Next comes a sermon from Matt Mitchell. In “Why Is This Sordid Story in the Bible?: Four Reasons to Read about the Rape of Tamar,” Mitchell walks us through the violent and shameful details of 2 Samuel 13, which include evil scheming, rape, murder, a banished son and a passive king. It’s easy to want to avoid this story, but there are good and important reasons why it is in the Bible.

I recommend subscribing to the JBC. It's inexpensive and always worth what you pay. They are also available on Kindle.

"7 Pressing Questions" by Bill Kynes

For the last week, I've been reading a chapter per day of EFCA Pastor Bill Kynes' new book  7 Pressing Questions - Addressing Critical Challenges to Christian Faith .

Here's my review:

Bill Kynes' modest goal for this little book is not to "prove" Christianity with logical certainty. Instead, it is to show (1) that the Christian faith is a rational option to consider and (2) how it maps coherently onto both our experience of the world and the meaning of life.

I appreciated how he takes the 7 pressing questions seriously--there are no artful dodges here--and provides some solid, helpful, raw, real, and Christ-centered answers in everyday language. Kynes defends the faith without being defensive. His approach is similar to Tim Keller's and just as erudite but is more accessible for short attention spans. It would also be helpful for training Christians in how to answer the common objections to Christianity in our day and age.

Give this book to the reasonable skeptic you love and ask them to read it with an open mind.

[Matt's Messages] "Therefore"

“Therefore”
All Roads Lead to Romans
April 19, 2015 :: Romans 12:1-2 

Today, we are turning a major corner in our sermon series that we’re calling “All Roads Lead to Romans.”

Chapter 12 is the beginning of the last major section of the letter.

And it’s very connected to the first eleven chapters of the book, but it’s very different from them, as well.

It’s what we might call the “So What Section” of the book of Romans. Have you ever noticed that Paul does that with his letters? He’s often got several chapters of good strong more abstract theology and then some chapters at the end that bring home the implications and the applications of that theology.

The big grammatical and theological words for that are indicatives and imperatives. The indicatives are what is. What is true. The indicatives are theology. And the imperatives are what we are to do about it. What the commands are. What the implications and applications are.

Now, we’ve seen a lot of application already in the book. Paul hasn’t been shy about showing how his gospel relates directly to life. But he’s going to ramp it up significantly in chapters 13, 14, and 15. They are the “So What Section” of Romans.

And this relationship between what has come before and what is now coming is signaled by this very important but often overlooked word which we will make the title for today’s message:  “Therefore.”

I’ve always wanted to title a message, “Therefore,” and now I have!

And there are very few other passages in the Bible that would be more appropriate to carry this title.

“Therefore”

Have you ever heard a preacher or a Bible study leader say, “Whenever you see the word ‘therefore’ in your Bible, you better make sure you know what it’s... there for.”, right?

That’s really good advice and it’s very important here.

Paul is going to look back over all of the preceding eleven chapters and draw a big, sweeping, comprehensive, life-altering, life-directing implication and application for us from them.

It’s a very big “therefore.”

Are you ready for it?

Let’s read; just two verses today. Romans 12:1-2. Very familiar and with good reason.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV 1984)

“Therefore.”

Did you feel the bigness of that inference in verse 1?

That’s a big “therefore.”

“Therefore, I urge you brothers...”

That word translated “urge” is a strong one, as well. Some translations have “beseech” which we don’t use any more. Or “exhort.”

It’s a very strong word for a big “ask.”

God through Paul is going to be asking some big big things from us in the next four chapters. Some of them are going to be very hard to do. They will be simple words but big requests.

Like, “Return good for evil.”

Or “Submit to the governing authorities.”

Or “Don’t be judgmental.”

Those are easy words to say but difficult things for us to do sometimes.

And Paul is smart. He knows that he needs to ground those big commands in even bigger foundations. If you’re going to ask for big sacrifices, then you need to know that it’s all worth it. If you are going to ask for big things, you need to back them up with big reasons, right?

Well, Paul is not afraid to urge his brothers and sisters and us reading this letter to do big big things because he’s got big big things with which to anchor those requests in God’s mercy.

Do you see how he does that? V.1 again.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy...”

Have we learned anything about God’s mercy in the last few months? In the last few weeks?  Oh yes!

Last week, Paul ended Romans 11 by showing how God has shown undeserved but lavish mercy to both Jews and Gentiles.

The whole letter has been about the gospel of God’s grace and mercy.

How we don’t deserve salvation, but God has provided it for us anyway.

How merciful has God been to us Christians?

How merciful has God been to you?

Eleven chapters of God’s mercy.

I told Heather that was tempted to call this sermon, “Therefore,” and then just use the whole time to read chapters 1-11 to you again.

I probably couldn’t do it in the time allotted, but it would be good to read those eleven chapters again and remind ourselves of the mercies of God.

The Bad News.
The Worse News.
The Worst News of All.
The Good News of Justification by Grace Alone by Faith Alone in Christ Alone.
The Blessings of Salvation.
Our freedom from Sin, Death, and the Law.
The gift of the Holy Spirit.
The promises of God.
And the certainty that God’s word has not failed and God always keeps His promises.

Eleven chapters of the mercies of God.

So what?

How do we respond? What do we do with all of that mercy?

What’s the “therefore?”

#1. GIVE YOUR WHOLE SELF TO GOD. V.1 again.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Do you see how Paul draws from the language of the sacrificial worship system of the Old Testament but changes it dramatically?

In the Old Testament there are sacrifices.

Lambs, goats, bulls, etc.

And there is a sacrifice here.

But what’s different about that this sacrifice?

They are both holy and pleasing to God.

What is different?

Well, for one, the sacrifice is you and me.

“Offer your bodies as ... sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.”

But, and thankfully, the second thing that is different is that we are to be living sacrifices not dead ones.

All of the bulls and lambs and goats they put on the altar in the Old Testament never jumped back off of that altar.

But our sacrifice here is to be a living one.

We are to live our lives for God.

Giving our whole selves to Him.

Now, I say our “whole selves” because of that word “body” in verse 1. I don’t think that Paul means that we just give God our bodies and not our minds or hearts or anything else.

We are not offering ourselves as mindless slaves.

But the body here stands for the whole person. When you give up your body in a sacrifice, you are saying, “Here I am. Take all of me.”

Now, we don’t live with a sacrificial system, so aside from the paradoxical language of living sacrifice, we just don’t really have categories for understanding this.

What would be a modern day illustration of living sacrifice?

I don’t know.

This is a comprehensive commitment.

This is saying, “Lord, you make take all of me. I am all yours.”

Marriage is like that.
Joining something like the military is like that.
Jumping into the deep end of the pool is like that.

You don’t just kind of jump into the deep end of the pool. You do or you don’t.

It’s like getting pregnant.

You aren’t kind of pregnant. You either are or aren’t.

This is giving your whole self to God.

Why?

Because of all that He’s given to you.

“In view of God’s mercy.”

Now, it’s important to say that this is not some kind of an attempt to pay back God for His mercy. You can’t do it. You can’t begin do that.

This is not “God-scratched your back, you scratch His.”

He doesn’t need you to scratch His back.

But in light of what He’s done, you should give Him everything about you.

Have you done that?

Are you living that way right now? All in?

There are two more adjectives than just “living” to go with this sacrifice. This kind of giving yourself to God is also “holy” H-O-L-Y and pleasing to Him.

It’s holy in the sense of righteous and right and good.

And (catch this!), it pleases God.

Did you know that you can please God?

Some of you have a parent or two that couldn’t be pleased. Your Dad or your Mom or both were always finding fault with you. You couldn’t do anything right.  Or at least there was something always wrong with everything you did.

You couldn’t please them.

And it’s easy to think that God is the same way.

But if you are in Christ, then you are already pleasing to God because of Jesus’ righteousness.

And by faith you can put a smile on His face each and every day.

Give your whole self to God.

“...this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Now that word translated “spiritual” in the NIV is a very difficult word to translate. It’s the word “logikos” that we get our word “logical” from.

And a lot of the time it means “rational” or “of the mind” or “of the spirit.” The NIV translators probably picked “spiritual” to correspond to the word “bodies” in that verse to show that doing this kind of offering yourself to God is a spiritual act. It’s not just physical. It’s all of you.

But I tend to think that the “logic” of this verse is that it’s more of the “therefore” kind of thing.

“This is the only logical response to the mercies of God.

This is the only rational or reasonable or appropriate reaction to how merciful God has been to us!”

Giving your whole self to God is the only right thing to do when you think about what Jesus gave for you.

Amen?

And it’s worship. It’s every day, all day worship. “24/7" as they say.

Worship is not just singing.
Worship is not just something you do on Sundays.

This is worship that we’re doing here. But it’s not all that worship is.

Worship is everything.

Give your whole self–not just your voice or your song or your check in the offering–your whole self to God.

And what does that look like?

#2. ALLOW GOD TO CHANGE YOUR WHOLE LIFE. V.2

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Paul gives us both sides of the coin.

What NOT to do and what TO do.

Do NOT conform and DO be transformed. Changed.

Just recently, we changed our purpose statement as church to say “Lanse Free Church exists to glorify God by bringing people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Life-changing.

We are not content to just pretend to have a relationship with God.

We are pursuing full-on a life-changing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Giving all of ourselves for Him to change all of our life.

That starts with saying NO to the pattern of the world.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world...”

Or as J.B. Phillips so memorably paraphrased it, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.”

Christians are to go against the flow.

We are to be different than the world.

That’s not always easy. There is an amazing pressure on us to conform.

Do you feel that?

The pressure to conform to the way the world thinks and acts?

How the world talks?
How the world dresses?
How the world does social media?
How the world does entertainment?
How the world thinks about things like race, guns, government, sexuality, work?

And we can get pressed into a worldly mode without realizing it and from different directions.

Some of you when I mention from time to time “CNN news” you think, “O, he should be listening to FOX news.” And some of you say, “O, he should be listening to NPR.” Or whatever.

But we need to realize that all of those news sources have slants to them. And hidden agendas. And hidden assumptions.

And the world stands behind them and tries to squeeze us into its mold.

Not just the news, of course, but people in general. Society, culture, is always exerting an influence, a pressure on us. Sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle.

Where do you feel the pressure to conform?

It should be your goal to be different, to push against that conformity.

And Paul says that because of the mercies of God, we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. By the truth of God.

We can think and act differently from the world.

We can stand out and operate from a very different angle than the world does.

We’re going to see over the next several months that Jesus’ followers think and act and live very differently than the rest of the world.

And if we don’t...then we need to ask ourselves if we are truly Jesus’ followers.

Jesus’ followers are constantly bathing their minds in biblical truth so that they get renewed.

That’s the reversing of the curse on our minds that we learned about back in chapter 1, especially verse 28.

God gave over sinful humanity to a depraved mind so that they did the things they should do.

But now in Christ, God is re-programming our minds, renewing our minds so that we do the things we should do.

That’s what I think the last sentence of verse 2 is getting at. When we are allowing God to change our thinking through biblical truth (v.2).

“Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

If you are allowing God to change your mind through immersing it in biblical truth, then you will more instinctively recognize what is the right thing to do, what God’s will would be in a given situation, what is wise, what is God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.

It takes two words in English in the NIV “test and approve” to translate one Greek word “dokimozein.”

It doesn’t mean that we test God’s will to see if God’s will is good, pleasing, and perfect.

It means that we test whatever we think might be God’s will and approve a given course of action as God’s will when we recognize it.

It’s a litmus test. Yes, that’s God’s will.

How do I know?  Not just a strange feeling that comes across me.

Not even just a peace about something.

But, my thinking has been transformed by a renewed mind, and I can see what is right and what is not.

I can see what would be good and pleasing and perfect to God.

And I approve of it!

I’m going to do it!

That’s what I’m going to do.

Allow God to change your whole life.

As you give your whole self to God, He will help you to understand what He wants you to do and give you the grace to carry it out.

I have really been enjoying the worship music of Rend Collective the band that led us at the Challenge Conference last year.

They have a song that I think really sums up the message of Romans 12:1-2.

The lyrics say:

Everything's on the altar now
No holding back, no holding out
In view of Your matchless sacrifice
Take every treasure, take this life

All that I am for all that You are, my Lord
All that I have for all that You are, You're the
Pearl beyond price, greater than life
All that I am for all that You are

Selfish ambition and my pride
I'm giving up, I'm letting die
In these empty hands I have it all, have it all
The pure joy of knowing You, my Lord

It's only in surrender that I'm free
It's only in surrender that I'm truly free
It's only in surrender that I'm free

All that I am for all that You are, my Lord
All that I have for all that You are, You're the
Pearl beyond price, greater than life
All that I am for all that You are


***

Messages in this Series

01. All Roads Lead to Romans
02. I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel
03. The Bad News
04. Hope for Holy Sexuality
05. The Even Worse News
06. The Worst News
07. Justified
08. Father Abraham
09. The Blessings of Justification
10. How Much More
11. New You
12. Slaves Of...?
13. A Life-Changing Relationship with Jesus Christ
14. No Condemnation
15. If the Spirit Lives in You
16. The Spirit of Sonship
17. We Know
18. For Us
19. Who?
20. God's Word Has Not Failed
21. Israel Stumbled
22. God Raised Him From the Dead
23. God Always Keeps His Promises

Japanese Iris

"A Sacrifice Alive with New Life"

"Having spread before you, dear friends, the mercies of God, I now call you to offer your whole selves to him as a sacrifice alive with new life, set apart by holiness, pleasing to God. Such an act of worship is the only meaningful response to the gospel. Resist being stamped by the views and values of this passing age. Break with the world. Open your hearts to a radically new outlook on life through a reorientation of your thinking and affections. If you will, God will equip you with discernment and quicken you with desire for living out his will--that which is morally good, pleasing to him and completely devoted."

- Ray Ortlund's expanded expositional paraphrase of Romans 12:1-2 in A Passion for God.

#3. What is the most important priority in Christian Prayer?

Christian Prayer Catechism: Question #3

Q. What is the most important priority in Christian Prayer?

A. The most important priority in Christian Prayer is to know God.
Prayer does not exist to tell God what we need or to twist His arm into doing it (Matthew 6:8). Prayer is primarily a means of relating to God (John 4:19-24). God is the greatest Person in the universe–worthy of all of our attention (Rev. 4:11, 5:12). The Ruler of the Universe has invited us to communicate with Him and grow in our conscious dependence on and love for Him. Prayer is a means of knowing God in Christ (Phil. 3:8-11).

10 Years of Blogging

Happy birthday to Hot Orthodoxy! 
On April 14, 2005, we began with this inauspicious little post:

"Here we are. I guess we're blogging!"

And we were apparently off and running.
My At first, Heather and I weren't sure whether or not it was a good thing to be so public. My first series of posts was "To Blog or Not to Blog," but eventually we agreed that it was a healthy and helpful outlet for me. I tried to set a pace of posting at least twice a week, though I wasn't always consistent in that. In 2013, I posted something every single day.
This week, I spent some time look over the over 2,000 posts in that ten year history, and I'm generally happy with what I found, including:
Nearly 500 sermon manuscripts, the most visited being "Married to an Unbeliever" (surprisingly till ranked very highly on the Google search results for those words.)Over 100 book reviews of all kinds.Reflections on life as a homeschool dad, budding hunter, and happy husband.Chronicles of my doctoral work from 2008-2012.The recent and very popular addition of Heather's nature photography on Saturdays.My attempts to wrestle with the intersection of theology and life on big topics like homosexuality, Bible translation, living as a Christian online, and Christian prayer.And, of course, my journey of writing, publishing, and sharing  Resisting Gossip  with the world.Looking back over the oldest articles, I detect some innocence that I've lost but also some naivete. My posts have moved away from some cuteness and cleverness, but I'm glad to see that I'm still passionate about the truth of the gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanks are due to those who read this blog (Google stats show over 200,000 visits) and especially those who pray for me as I write. I'm also thankful for Eriksen Web Design for the snazzy blog template--so much better than the original blase look.
I'm grateful for how God has used this little blog and expectant for the next 10 years!
The original vintage look for "Hot Orthodoxy."

[Matt's Messages] "God Always Keeps His Promises"

“God Always Keeps His Promises”
All Roads Lead to Romans
April 12, 2015 :: Romans 11:1-36 

Let’s begin with a quiz.

Don’t worry, it should be an easy for you.

I’d like for you to name 5 promises for Christians in the New Testament. And you get extra credit if the promises are actually in Romans 1-8.

Just five promises. Let’s go.

[Audience Participation]

Thank you. Those are great and precious promises for Christians.

Now, second and last question on this quiz:

How do you know that you can count on those promises?
How do you know that you can take those promises to the bank?
How do you know that you can build your life on those promises?
How do you know that God will make good on them?

I mean, have you considered the problem of Israel?

Do you remember how Paul posed that problem in chapter 9?

Paul had spent 8 chapters explaining his glorious gospel of grace and had reached the pinnacle of joy in saying that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God.

But!
But what about something outside of creation?

What about God Himself?

What if God cannot be trusted?

What if the word of God has failed?

Specifically, to Israel.

God has made a lot of promises to Israel, hasn’t He?  Just read your Old Testament, and you’ll see promise after promise after promise made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes after them.

And Paul says, look around you, do you see those promises coming true?

Do you see where Israel is?

Where are all the Jewish Christians?

There are some here and there, sure, but so many Gentiles are Christians. Where are all the Jews?

Has the word of God failed?

What’s the answer to that one?

No way.

Paul has given basically two answers so far to the problem of Israel.

The first somewhat surprising answer was that it was never God’s plan to save all of Israel in the first place. God never promised that every single Israelite would inherit all of the promises. That wasn’t His plan from very beginning.

So the word of God has not failed.

And Paul’s second answer to the problem of Israel was that Israel had stumbled. Israel as a nation had rejected their Messiah. They had said, “No” to the fulfillment of all of God’s promises when He sent Him.

Jesus held out Himself and all of His righteousness as a gift to Israel, arms wide open, but they wanted to establish their own righteousness and rejected Him.

Israel stumbled. And so the word of God has not failed.

But does that mean then that those promises made to Israel are going to be left unfulfilled?

Or as Paul says in verse 1?

“I ask then: Did God reject his people?”

Is that it?

Is it “Goodbye forever, Israel?”

You missed it. You’re done for. You’re toast.

What is Paul’s answer?

“By no means!”

It’s that old familiar phrase of Paul’s, “may genoita.”

“No way, no how.”

“God Always Keeps His Promises.”

That’s our title for today.

And it’s the assurance that we need today.

All of those promises that you named and every other one that can find in the New Testament can be trusted because God always keeps His promises.

Do you remember how many times we said that back in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Joshua?

That’s like the theme running through those first 6 books of the Bible.

God makes promises. And God keeps them.

And He hasn’t changed.

The word of God has not failed because God always keeps His promises.

Paul begins in verse 1 asking the question that is natural from chapter 10. Chapter 10 ended with Israel stumbling over the stone of Christ and rejecting God’s offer of Jesus.

Does God then reject them? V.1

“I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.” Stop there for a second.

#1. GOD IS KEEPING HIS PROMISES.

Right now.

Paul is saying that God has not totally rejected Israel. He himself is an Israelite!

Paul is a Jew.

Paul himself is living proof that God has not totally given up on ethnic Israel.

He foreknew them. That is He established a relationship with them many many years ago and will not be giving them up!

God is still keeping His promises right now.

And He’s doing it through a remnant.

Do you know what a remnant is?

I was taught what a remnant is by Jewish Christian named Louis Goldberg.

This is a picture of him.

Dr. Goldberg was a professor at Moody Bible Institute.

He was a Hebrew translator on the original NIV Bible and the New King James Bible.

And at the time of his death he was the scholar in residence for Jews for Jesus.

Dr. Goldberg was an amazing man. He was Jewish, grew up Jewish and was an engineer. And at age 25, he came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and put his faith and trust in Him.

In every class I had with Dr. Goldberg, he taught us that God always has preserved a remnant for Himself.

Many many may fall away, but God always preserves a section of faithful people for Himself. It might be a very small group, but they are always there.

A remnant. Paul mentioned the remnant in chapter 9, verse 27. But now, he develops that idea more fully. V.2

“Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah–how he appealed to God against Israel: ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me’?”

Do you know that story from 1 Kings 19? We haven’t gotten far yet in our study of the Old Testament in preaching series. But you may know it already. Elijah was really discouraged because he felt alone.

Do you ever feel alone?

Like you’re the only Christian? The last one?

That’s how Elijah felt. V.4

“And what was God's answer to him? ‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too, at the present time there is a remnant [there’s our word] chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”

A remnant.

Just like Dr. Goldberg said there would be.

And it’s a remnant chosen by grace. That is God’s free gift not because of anything good that those who are chosen have. They are not chosen because they are awesome.

Quite the opposite.

They are chose by grace. V.7

“What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. [The remnant did.] The others [the majority] were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.’ [Hardened.] And David says: ‘May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.’”

That’s the fate of the majority. But God has preserved for Himself a remnant.

He always has and He still is.

God is still keeping His promises to the remnant.

And Dr. Goldberg was a part of the remnant.

The other day, I asked you if any of you know someone who is a Messianic Jew, an ethnically Jewish Christian.

Thankfully, many of you did.

How many for you was it Sam Rotman?

Sam pastored one of our district churches for many years. I heard him speak once at a men’s retreat at Miracle Mountain Ranch.

He is a Jewish pianist who came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

Sam is a part of the remnant.

At Moody there was a whole major in Jewish studies and evangelism for those who wanted to be missionaries to the Jews. So, I had other friends there who were part of the remnant.

God is still keeping His promises.

Isn’t that good to know?

#2. GOD WILL KEEP HIS PROMISES.

He has a plan.

He has a plan for even more. Not just the remnant. Verse 11.

“Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? [May genoita!] Not at all!”

Paul is swinging back around now and telling us something new.

He starts with the question about Israel’s stumble.

Was Israel’s stumble a total fall? Was it permanent?

Was it beyond recovery?

It sure looked like it.

It looked like Israel had muffed it bad and there was no coming back from that one.

I mean, they rejected their own heaven-sent Messiah!

But Paul says, “No way. There is a future for ethnic Israel.”

There is a future for ethnic Israel.

God has a plan.

God has made some big time promises, and He’s going to keep them big time. V.11

“Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!”

Their fullness!

Israel has a fullness coming.

That sounds good!

It’s a little hard to follow Paul’s logic here, but he goes over the same ground several times in a row to see that we get it.

It’s that old argument from the lesser to the greater. V.12 again.

“If their transgression [their stumble] means riches for the world [because Jesus gets offered to the world], and their loss means riches for the Gentiles [through the cross], how much greater riches will their fullness bring!”

How does that work?

Apparently, the plan is to make Israel jealous of the salvation blessings that we Gentiles received. V.11 says, “Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.”
To make them want something that we have. Paul explains it further in verse 13.

“I am talking to you Gentiles [in Central Pennsylvania]. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry [I work really hard] in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.”

I think it’s kind of like when one kids says they don’t want that food you offered them, but then you offer it to another one of your kids, and they say, “Oh this is so good!” then the first kid says, “Rats, I wished I’d taken it when you offered it to me.”

Paul actually saw his ministry of giving the gospel to Gentiles as a way of reaching out to hardened Jews.

“...in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.”

And it’s going to work. In fact, someday it’s going to work amazingly. V.15

“For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world [at the Cross], what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”

Resurrection!

The resurrection of Israel! The fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Israel.

The valley of dry bones, right? You know that vision from Ezekiel?

All of those bones coming together and forming skeletons and then flesh coming on them and the breath of God?!

Life from the dead!

This is the glorious future that we expect.

God has a plan. God will keep His promises. Life from the dead!!!

Now, the next section gets a little tricky to follow, but the big idea is the same.

He gives two illustrations, one quickly and the other one he develops. V.16

“If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.”

The dough is from the grain offering the Israelites were to do when they entered land. It’s explained in Numbers chapter 15. The point is that the whole bit if holy not just the first bit that gets offered.

And it goes along with the idea that if the root of a tree (here it’s going to be an olive tree) is holy then the branches will be, too.

And the dough-ball and the tree-root both stand for the promises of God that came to the patriarchs so that the bread and the tree are pictures of the true people of God.

Paul really runs with the illustration of the olive tree. V.17

“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches.”

Do you get the picture?

Olive trees were and are a common thing in Israel and are often used as an analogy for Israel in the Old Testament.

Here the true people of God are an olive tree, holy at the root where the promises are.

And God will keep His promises.

But God has broken off some of the branches [Jewish unbelievers] and then grafted in some wild branches [Gentile Christians like you and me] so that we now share in the nourishing sap of the promises of God.

I don’t think we can really fathom what that means.

How gracious God has been to us that we get to be nourished by the promises that were given to Israel.

So why did that happen? Was it because we are so superior to Israel?

Are you better than the Jews?

Is that why we get the preferential treatment?

Be careful.

This is where anti-Semitism can raise it’s ugly ugly head.

This is where things like the Holocaust come from.

V.18 again.

“[D]o not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.”

Your entire spiritual heritage depends upon the Jews. Including the Jew Paul and including the Jew Jesus.

There is no room for pride or anti-Semitism.

There is no room for making fun of the Jews and talking about “Jewing somebody” as in bargaining with them.

There is no room for thinking of ourselves as in any way superior to the Jews.

V.19 “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ [That’s replacement theology.] Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.”

Do not boast.

Do not become proud.

Do not think that you are something better than the Jews.

If you get to thinking that way, then be afraid because pride does not mix with faith.

And faith is how we stand. It is by faith that we are saved.

And if we give up our faith, then God will not spare us either.

We need to continue in faith in God’s kindness expressed in Christ. Not believe that we are “all that.”

God is both kind and stern. Both good and severe.

And we do well to remember that.

But here’s the main point. God has the ability and a plan for grafting Israelites back into the true people of God. V.23

“And if they [the Jews] do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. [It’s not permanent!] After all, if you [Gentiles] were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural [Jewish] branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!”

God has a plan. V.25

“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited [so you won’t boast, so you won’t get the wrong idea about yourself]: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’”

“All Israel will be saved.”

God has a plan to keep His promises to Israel.

Right now, His plan is for the majority to be hardened against Him.

But there is coming a day when the full number of Gentiles will have come in and then there will be a massive ingathering of Jewish believers!

“All Israel will be saved!”

Now, that doesn’t mean every Israelite that ever lived. And it may not even mean every single Israelite living at this future moment in time.

But it will feel like it.

It will amount to the same thing so that anyone seeing it will say, “All Israel has come to Christ!”

What a day that will be!

The hardening is temporary. We Gentiles will give up our center stage and the Jews will step up into the center stage again.

Now, when exactly that’s going to happen is something that many Christians disagree about. Paul hasn’t given us much here to go on for when all Israel will be saved.

So it depends upon how you put together your eschatology.

Some think this will happen during the tribulation.
Some think it will happen at the end of the tribulation just before the millennium begins.
Others have other places on the timeline where they place.

The point I want to make today is that it’s going to happen.

God WILL keep His promises to Israel.

And not just to a tiny trickle of a remnant, but too so many that it will be true to say, “All Israel will be saved.” V.28

“As far as the gospel is concerned, they [the Jews] are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned [God’s choosing of Israel as a nation], they are loved on account of the patriarchs [God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will stand], for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

God Always Keeps His Promises.

No exceptions.

Isn’t that good to know?

Everything that God has promised. Those five we came up with at the beginning of the sermon. They are trustworthy and true.

Because God is trustworthy and true.

“God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

The word of God has not failed and it never will.

V.30

“Just as you who [Gentiles] were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their [the Jews] disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”

Jew and Gentile.

Do you see how Paul is bringing those two together?

We said when started Romans that there was some obvious tension between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians at Rome.

Well, Paul has shown all along why they should get along. They’re both under the same penalty. They both need the same gospel of grace.

And now we find out that they are intertwined with each other in bringing each other  salvation through their disobediences. They need one another.

It’s all been a part of God’s plan.

God has been planning all along to bring both Jews and Gentiles (and lots of them!) into His mercy.

God has been planning all along to save both Jews and Gentiles (and lots of them!).

God has been planning all along to keep His promises and include both Jews and Gentiles (and lots of them!) in their fulfilment.

Isn’t that wonderful?

That’s Paul’s last point.

#3. GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES IN HIS OWN WONDERFUL WAY. V.33

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! [As Isaiah 40 say] ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?’ [Nobody, nobody, nobody! He stands alone!]  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

God always keeps His promises, but how He does it is mysterious and surprising and unsearchable.

We often have no idea what He’s up to.

And that’s exactly how He wants it.

He wants us to trust Him.

Not to figure Him out.

Not to decide on our own how He must do what He said He would do.

No, God is God and we are not.

We don’t understand, but that’s okay. He does.

He doesn’t need our help.

He just asks for our faith.

Trusting that God IS Keeping His Promises.

Even when it doesn’t seem like it.

Especially when it doesn’t seem like it.

And trusting that God WILL keep His promises. That God has a plan. And it might not make any sense to me how it works out. In fact, it might feel senseless.

The history of the Jews is one of great pain and often senseless violence.

Heather and I went to see the Woman in Gold on Friday night.

And were reminded of the horrors of the Holocaust.

But as terrible as it has been, God still has a plan to bring all Israel to salvation through the deliverer that comes from Zion, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God will keep His promises, every single one of them.

But He will do it in His own wonderful, unsearchable way.

Our job is simply to humble ourselves and trust in Him.

***
Messages in this Series

01. All Roads Lead to Romans
02. I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel
03. The Bad News
04. Hope for Holy Sexuality
05. The Even Worse News
06. The Worst News
07. Justified
08. Father Abraham
09. The Blessings of Justification
10. How Much More
11. New You
12. Slaves Of...?
13. A Life-Changing Relationship with Jesus Christ
14. No Condemnation
15. If the Spirit Lives in You
16. The Spirit of Sonship
17. We Know
18. For Us
19. Who?
20. God's Word Has Not Failed
21. Israel Stumbled
22. God Raised Him From the Dead

Dragon Arum (about 18" long!)

#2. Why should a Christian Pray?

Christian Prayer Catechism: Question #2

Q. Why should a Christian Pray?

A. God wants all Christians to pray and uses our prayers to grow our relationship with Him and accomplish His will in the world.

Prayer is not optional. It is commanded and expected of all Christians (ex. 1 Tim 2:1-2, Col. 4:2, 1 Thess. 5:17, etc.). In fact, prayer is described in the Scriptures as a mark of being a genuine Christian (ex. Acts 9:11). Prayer is used by our Heavenly Father to increase our dependence and trust in Him, as well as our love for and fellowship with Him. Prayer is absolutely good for us! And it is good for the world because God allows our prayers to be used in carrying out His kingdom purposes (ex. Luke 11:2).