Arrogant Christians (Romans 11:13-24)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:05.200 What? If you're able to remain standing, please do and let's give our 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:37.329 attention to Romans, Chapter Eleven, verses Thirteen through twenty four. Romans Eleven, 3 00:00:37.409 --> 00:00:44.570 verses thirteen through twenty four. This is God's word. Now I am 4 00:00:44.649 --> 00:00:49.609 speaking to you, gentiles, inasmuch then, as I am an apostle to 5 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:55.920 the gentiles. I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews 6 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:02.320 Jealous and thus to save some of them. For if their rejection means the 7 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:07.069 reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 8 00:01:08.069 --> 00:01:12.109 If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole 9 00:01:12.189 --> 00:01:18.780 lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But 10 00:01:18.859 --> 00:01:22.819 if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive 11 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:26.620 shoot, we're grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root 12 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:33.290 of the Olive Tree. Do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you 13 00:01:33.450 --> 00:01:37.450 are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root 14 00:01:37.609 --> 00:01:42.049 that supports you. Then you will say branches were broken off so that I 15 00:01:42.129 --> 00:01:48.120 might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of 16 00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:53.599 their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, 17 00:01:53.519 --> 00:02:00.319 but fear, for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither 18 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:06.549 will he spare you. Note, then, the kindness and the severity of 19 00:02:06.709 --> 00:02:13.430 God, severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, 20 00:02:14.389 --> 00:02:19.139 provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 21 00:02:20.180 --> 00:02:23.860 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be 22 00:02:23.979 --> 00:02:28.539 grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For 23 00:02:28.659 --> 00:02:32.729 if you were cut from what is by nature a Wild Olive Tree and grafted, 24 00:02:32.969 --> 00:02:38.409 contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will 25 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:44.250 these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own Olive Tree? 26 00:02:46.879 --> 00:03:17.379 May God bless his word, you may be seated. So the apostle here 27 00:03:17.819 --> 00:03:23.340 uses this analogy. He's uses a few, but particularly the analogy of Olive 28 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:30.969 Tree and branches being cut off and branches being grafted in, as a way 29 00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:38.849 to explain to us the necessity of faith, that faith is absolutely necessary in 30 00:03:39.009 --> 00:03:43.719 order to be saved. Now there are, of course, other things that 31 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:49.639 are necessary, and faith doesn't come all by itself. Faith we know from 32 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:53.639 Ephesians is a gift of God. We know this from our own experience. 33 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:58.430 To where does good faith come from us, except as God's giving it to 34 00:03:58.550 --> 00:04:01.870 us? We know, as we thought about in Romans nine and of many 35 00:04:01.909 --> 00:04:06.789 other places in Romans, that our salvation is not something that is based on 36 00:04:06.909 --> 00:04:12.620 anything good in us. It's not anything that we've conjured up or worked together 37 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:15.500 so that God would say, yes, here is a good one, I 38 00:04:15.740 --> 00:04:20.100 will save them. It's all from God's sovereign will and his powerful hand. 39 00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:27.689 And yet, nevertheless, God uses faith as an instrument and by which he 40 00:04:27.850 --> 00:04:31.170 saves us. He puts it into us. Faith is that instrument by which 41 00:04:31.209 --> 00:04:36.050 we receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone, as he is offered to us 42 00:04:36.649 --> 00:04:44.199 in the Gospel. And that is necessary. It is something that we exercise, 43 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:47.439 it is a thing that we do. To believe is a verb. 44 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:54.149 It is required we are to believe, and Paul is very clear about that 45 00:04:54.389 --> 00:04:59.829 here. He says that we must believe in terms of this Olive Tree. 46 00:04:59.870 --> 00:05:03.550 He says that those that did not believe among the Jews were cut off. 47 00:05:04.750 --> 00:05:10.699 They were like dead branches on the tree, not producing any fruit, not 48 00:05:10.939 --> 00:05:15.339 really being connected visually. Sure they're there on the tree, but obviously not 49 00:05:15.379 --> 00:05:20.339 a part of it too. And and to them God's wrath and severity is 50 00:05:20.490 --> 00:05:25.730 known, he says in Verse Twenty Two. Note it, pay attention to 51 00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:30.050 it, note the severity and the kindness of God, severity to those who 52 00:05:30.050 --> 00:05:35.560 have fallen. Jesus talks about this. When those that do those that do 53 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:41.560 not believe and do not produce forth the fruit of righteousness that comes from faith, 54 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:46.160 what happens? The branches are broken off and thrown into the fire. 55 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:51.149 They're burned. But what happens to those who do have faith? Remarkably, 56 00:05:51.269 --> 00:05:56.509 he says that even those that do have faith, that are apart from the 57 00:05:56.589 --> 00:06:02.310 Olive Tree, are grafted in, that are brought into the whole. There 58 00:06:02.389 --> 00:06:08.939 is this great necessity of being connected to that route, not just in an 59 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:15.860 external way, but vitally in one's life. That is what it means to 60 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:19.449 belong to God. It what it means, what it means to belong to 61 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:26.850 him and to live in him. Well, this is the analogy he gives 62 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:30.569 and this is the point he makes. But on the basis of this point 63 00:06:30.610 --> 00:06:34.800 he has this very specific application and he directs it to a particular group of 64 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:42.759 people gentiles, he says in verse thirteen. Now I am speaking to you 65 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:47.110 gentiles. Couldn't get much more clear. Right there he is preaching, so 66 00:06:47.269 --> 00:06:50.069 to speak, in his letters and he says now I want to talk to 67 00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:57.430 some of you in the church, gentiles, and he says something to them. 68 00:06:57.629 --> 00:07:00.899 He says it's several times, in several ways. He says don't be 69 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:09.500 arrogant, don't be arrogant, don't be proud, don't be boastful, don't 70 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:16.009 think of yourself more highly than you want to. Arrogance, being prideful is 71 00:07:17.050 --> 00:07:26.569 a bad thing. It's a Anti Gospel kind of thing. You know what 72 00:07:26.689 --> 00:07:31.040 arrogance is. You've experienced it, you've demonstrated it and you've seen it. 73 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:38.639 Arrogance is that quality that a person has when they puff themselves up but have 74 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:45.509 really no basis for doing that. I'm perhaps you've seen a person who's a 75 00:07:45.829 --> 00:07:50.430 complete completely socially awkward in every way, and yet wants to lecture everyone else 76 00:07:50.470 --> 00:07:57.149 on etiquette, or maybe someone at work who brags about all the things they've 77 00:07:57.189 --> 00:08:03.899 done but can't accomplish the most simple tasks. A lot of times we overlook 78 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:07.379 arrogance, or at least we deal with it when a person is at least 79 00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:11.139 somewhat skilled or a good leader and we say well, we don't like it, 80 00:08:11.379 --> 00:08:16.329 but the last they're getting the job done. Right. But the worst 81 00:08:16.410 --> 00:08:20.689 cases are where that arrogance in the most extreme way doesn't correspond at all to 82 00:08:22.170 --> 00:08:28.079 any kind of reality. Right. Well, the worst kind of arrogance of 83 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:35.879 all is Christian arrogance. The worst arrogant of all is an arrogant Christian. 84 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:39.639 I hope you'll really understand what I mean by that and believe that by the 85 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:46.669 time we get to the end, it's a bad thing, a nonsensical thing, 86 00:08:46.350 --> 00:08:50.950 to be prideful as a Christian. But we can, if we draw 87 00:08:52.029 --> 00:09:00.379 that circle of arrogant Christians, we can take even make an even smaller and 88 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:05.259 a sort of worse circle within that, and that's people, not only Christians 89 00:09:05.299 --> 00:09:09.370 that are arrogant, but you know what the worst is, Christians who are 90 00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:16.090 arrogant about being a Christian. Then, in particular, just goes against everything 91 00:09:16.809 --> 00:09:24.960 that the Gospel says what it means to belong to Christ so how does Paul 92 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:33.159 Address this issue? He dresses it in several ways, three ways in particular. 93 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:37.909 But if you'll I think we'll understand them best if we understand something of, 94 00:09:39.190 --> 00:09:41.590 just a little bit of the background that's going on in this church. 95 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:46.750 Use perhaps have assumed it already a little bit. When Paul speaks to these 96 00:09:48.470 --> 00:09:52.830 gentiles, you notice that he's singling someone out, and that's because the church 97 00:09:52.980 --> 00:09:56.940 is mixed. There are Jews who have converted or who have come into the 98 00:09:58.059 --> 00:10:01.379 full, as you might think of it, into Christianity, of put their 99 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:05.379 faith in Jesus, but they're also gentiles who have come out of paganism and 100 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:11.370 if put their faith in Jesus, you have this mixed body there in Rome. 101 00:10:13.009 --> 00:10:16.330 It might be helpful for you to understand not only this passage and the 102 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:22.799 arrogance that these gentiles were experiencing or were doing, and really a lot of 103 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:28.279 this section in Romans, if you understand and remember this one thing, that 104 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:35.080 one of the most difficult theological and practical issues in the New Testament church was 105 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:41.070 the mixture of Jews and gentiles. Over and over and over again, throughout 106 00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:43.350 the letters of the New Testament, throughout the book of acts, you see 107 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:50.220 this issue coming up again and again and again and again. How are gentiles 108 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:54.700 who have never been a part of the Jewish people who didn't have the glory 109 00:10:54.860 --> 00:10:58.659 and the covenants and the worship and the law and all the rest. How 110 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:01.700 are they to be a part of the family of God? How are we 111 00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:07.049 to understand them as children of Abraham? Or, to put it more personally, 112 00:11:07.610 --> 00:11:11.450 how are we to understand people like you and me, non Jewish people, 113 00:11:13.250 --> 00:11:16.289 in connection with the Church of God as it is existed for thousands of 114 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:20.799 years? How do you work that out? And how do you work it 115 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:26.080 out as a Jew? All of this history and all of this culture and 116 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:31.039 all of this revelation in light of Jesus Christ? What is the church now? 117 00:11:31.950 --> 00:11:35.309 How does it work? How does it function? What are we to 118 00:11:35.429 --> 00:11:43.629 believe? These were very serious issues, but sometimes issues in the church are 119 00:11:43.750 --> 00:11:48.940 complicated by issues in the culture, and this is probably what happened in Rome. 120 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:56.019 Interestingly, in Rome we don't really know how the church there got started. 121 00:11:58.220 --> 00:12:01.970 Other churches in the New Testament, we know that Paul went and planted 122 00:12:01.090 --> 00:12:07.330 them or other people went to these particular cities and established them there. In 123 00:12:07.490 --> 00:12:13.970 Rome were not so sure. There are some ancient sources that point to Peter 124 00:12:13.210 --> 00:12:18.080 or point to Peter and Paul, but they are not all that ancient. 125 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:22.279 Compared with the old, with the New Testament. And on top of that, 126 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:26.720 both Peter and Paul's lives, is what we know about them, don't 127 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:31.190 really fit with that account. The Bible itself doesn't say anything about that. 128 00:12:31.309 --> 00:12:35.590 So one possible scenario, and maybe the most likely scenario, is that the 129 00:12:35.669 --> 00:12:43.669 Roman church started at pentecost when Roman Jews came to Jerusalem for the celebration, 130 00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:50.860 heard Peter's Preaching and then went back home as Christians, as people believing in 131 00:12:50.980 --> 00:12:56.779 the Messiah and telling others about him. And you can see from that how 132 00:12:56.940 --> 00:13:00.929 the Church would have grown. First among the Jews, among the synagogues, 133 00:13:00.970 --> 00:13:05.370 and there and then also is gentiles are included more and more. But we 134 00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:11.610 know from history, both from the Bible and from Roman sources, that this 135 00:13:11.809 --> 00:13:18.159 became somewhat of a public controversy in Rome among the Jews. In a biography 136 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:22.120 about claw Audius, we read that the was a that the Jews there was 137 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:28.909 so much public fighting at the instigation of Chrestus, likely a corruption of the 138 00:13:28.950 --> 00:13:33.190 name Christ, that Claudius says to the Jews in Rome you're all out of 139 00:13:33.309 --> 00:13:37.870 here. To me it sounds a lot like when a parent here's two people, 140 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:41.500 or are two of their children, arguing back and forth, back and 141 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:45.379 forth, and your kind of hearing them from another room. Right, you 142 00:13:45.419 --> 00:13:48.100 don't really know what's going on, you don't really know who's right or wrong, 143 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:50.740 but you just sick of the whole thing and you say all of you 144 00:13:50.860 --> 00:13:54.740 to your room. I don't care who's right and who's wrong, I just 145 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:58.049 want you all gone. Well, this is what Claudius does. He doesn't 146 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:01.450 say well, let's find out who are the Christians and who are not at 147 00:14:01.490 --> 00:14:05.490 all this. He just kicks all of Jews out of Rome. Now I 148 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:11.039 want you to imagine that. I want you to imagine being in a church, 149 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:16.399 a Roman church, that's mixed with Jews and gentiles, probably mostly Jews, 150 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:22.879 and now all of a sudden, let's think of ourselves here. Let's 151 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:28.269 imagine a large portion all of a sudden next Sunday doesn't show up. Why? 152 00:14:28.750 --> 00:14:31.389 Well, we all know the reason. They had to pack up their 153 00:14:31.509 --> 00:14:35.549 belongings and leave. Their houses are empty, they're gone. There are another 154 00:14:35.590 --> 00:14:39.860 parts of the world and here we are sitting, a few gentiles left in 155 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:43.899 the church with all of these others gone. You See why? I see 156 00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:48.659 I could say I'm why I'm saying this is a very complicat hated situation. 157 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:52.450 But by the time Paul's writing this letter, these people have come back in. 158 00:14:54.409 --> 00:14:56.730 But the gentiles have been in charge for a while now. In a 159 00:14:56.809 --> 00:15:01.529 lot of ways, the gentiles had had a lot of privilege, and this 160 00:15:01.730 --> 00:15:05.730 I hope. I'm trying to bring us around full circle, and you can 161 00:15:05.769 --> 00:15:13.519 see why arrogance might have become a particular problem. The gentiles are the newly 162 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:18.120 privileged in the church. God has reached out into the world and brought them 163 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:24.190 in. You can see why the gentiles might have unfairly characterized. The Jews 164 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:28.830 is squabbling all the time about things. Why don't they just believe in Jesus 165 00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:35.710 like we do? Not only had they been privileged by God and being brought 166 00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:39.940 into the church, but now they're privileged by their own government as well. 167 00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:45.019 And now, by the time the Jews returned, there likely the people who 168 00:15:45.019 --> 00:15:48.139 are leading the church, who have been running things for a while. And 169 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:52.690 as the Jews come back and return and as that the gentiles who have been 170 00:15:52.730 --> 00:15:58.169 in charge, you can see why there might have been some arrogance on their 171 00:15:58.370 --> 00:16:06.240 part. But we're in all this. Did the gentiles really have anything to 172 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:11.919 Brag about? was their privilege a result of their working to the top through 173 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:19.110 their righteousness? This surely wasn't the perspective of Claudius. He didn't expel the 174 00:16:19.149 --> 00:16:22.590 Jews because it's the gentiles were so great. They were just Romans, so 175 00:16:22.710 --> 00:16:27.990 we let him stay. It wasn't because of their devotion to Christ that they 176 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:33.059 were spared. And from God's perspective, the gentiles weren't being rewarded because of 177 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:37.299 their great obedience. Paul tells us about them back in the early parts of 178 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:42.100 Romans. What does he say? He says that they exchange the glory of 179 00:16:42.220 --> 00:16:51.009 God for images of creeping things, animals. It's nothing to be proud about. 180 00:16:52.169 --> 00:16:56.250 They if the gentiles were some were people who had given themselves over to 181 00:16:56.370 --> 00:17:03.359 some of the basest and most immoral acts. The gentiles did have anything to 182 00:17:03.400 --> 00:17:11.480 be proud of in their new positions in the church. So Paul speaks to 183 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:15.789 them. He speaks to them and of course to the Jews who are overhearing 184 00:17:15.829 --> 00:17:22.309 him, and he says gentiles don't be air against, and he gives three 185 00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:29.630 reasons for this. The first reason is a point about their status in God's 186 00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:34.460 eyes. If I might put it this way. God's not a hyper egalitarian. 187 00:17:36.740 --> 00:17:41.220 God privileges some people and not others. You know this. There are 188 00:17:41.259 --> 00:17:45.009 superiors and inferiors, there are people who are rich and there are people who 189 00:17:45.049 --> 00:17:51.490 are not. They're people who have nice things and people who don't, and 190 00:17:51.690 --> 00:17:57.170 God is sovereign over all of these things. God's goal in his eternal life 191 00:17:57.329 --> 00:18:03.799 is not to make us all exactly the same as everyone else. That's not 192 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:10.400 his goal. God does what he does according to his most perfect wisdom and 193 00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:15.549 his absolute sovereignty, and this doesn't make him unjust because we're all sinners and 194 00:18:15.670 --> 00:18:21.589 worthy of his condemnation in his wrath, but in His grace and in His 195 00:18:21.829 --> 00:18:26.869 mercy, he has looked on some people and some families in the world and 196 00:18:26.069 --> 00:18:33.579 blessed them, in particular Abraham and his children. Out of the world. 197 00:18:33.619 --> 00:18:37.500 He set his eye on this family and he made promises to them and he 198 00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:42.529 gave them gifts and he treated this people, this family and eventually this nation, 199 00:18:42.569 --> 00:18:48.849 as his own son. He didn't do this with others. What's the 200 00:18:48.890 --> 00:18:55.210 analogy? Paul gives in Romans Eleven, a cultivated olive tree. That's what 201 00:18:55.450 --> 00:19:00.720 Israel was like when I grew up, we had an olive tree in our 202 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:06.759 front yard, a cultivated olive tree. It was cultivated by me and my 203 00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:10.869 dad. I would go out and cut the little suckers off the bottom. 204 00:19:10.910 --> 00:19:14.750 That was my job, as they would spring up every soul often I'd go 205 00:19:14.789 --> 00:19:18.349 out and my dad would give me a pair of clippers and cut them off, 206 00:19:18.470 --> 00:19:21.630 cut them off the roots as they'd Spring Up, and my dad would, 207 00:19:21.670 --> 00:19:26.299 of course, take care of the big branches and it was beautiful and 208 00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:32.220 over the years it's become more and more beautiful. It keeps growing and growing 209 00:19:32.420 --> 00:19:37.619 and growing and it gets stronger and bigger. The roots of that cool gnarly 210 00:19:37.819 --> 00:19:41.730 thing that all of trees do, and it's really a wonderful thing. It's 211 00:19:41.769 --> 00:19:45.369 kind of the at my parents home. It's a centerpiece of the yard. 212 00:19:45.410 --> 00:19:48.289 It's surrounded by gardens and other trees, but it's the thing that you see 213 00:19:48.329 --> 00:19:56.920 when you drive up to the house. It is a cultivated thing. The 214 00:19:56.119 --> 00:20:02.519 gentiles were not that tree. That was Israel. Israel, with those the 215 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:07.190 one that God was pruning and caring for in this merciful and gracious and tender 216 00:20:07.269 --> 00:20:11.509 way. What were the gentiles? You Gentiles, who are you? Your 217 00:20:11.630 --> 00:20:15.750 Secondary. Paul is saying you are not the cultivated all of tree. You 218 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:22.299 are a wild olive branch growing off in the alley somewhere, not producing fruit, 219 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:26.180 not being cared for, not in this way anyway. That's what he 220 00:20:26.259 --> 00:20:32.380 says to the gentiles. It's kind of humbling. He doesn't say you're all 221 00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:36.890 wonderful and equal in God's eyes. Of course that's true in some ways, 222 00:20:37.089 --> 00:20:41.130 but that's not what he's saying here. He's humbling us. He's saying there's 223 00:20:41.130 --> 00:20:45.450 a cultivated tree that I've been working on for a long time, and you're 224 00:20:45.529 --> 00:20:51.240 not it. You're not it. You are a wild alive shoot going off 225 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:56.920 doing your own thing. Paul compares the gentiles to branches from some other tree, 226 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:03.240 a wild tree, a tree of secondary importance, a tree that did 227 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:07.750 what it's pleat what it pleased and likely provided very little fruit. God could, 228 00:21:07.789 --> 00:21:11.309 of course, just let it alone and do what it was going to 229 00:21:11.390 --> 00:21:15.230 do. But instead, what did he do with that? He took off 230 00:21:15.390 --> 00:21:22.420 those wild branches and he grafted them on to his tree, his special tree, 231 00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:26.740 his front yard tree. He went and took something out of the alley 232 00:21:27.819 --> 00:21:34.210 and brought it in before his eyes. That's who we are as gentiles. 233 00:21:34.450 --> 00:21:40.450 If anyone has room for pride, it's Israel, not gentiles like us. 234 00:21:41.130 --> 00:21:45.890 We don't have a right to be arrogant, even if there is a current 235 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:52.720 prominence and number in the church. So that's his first point. He points 236 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:57.319 to our origin. In the second point, Paul humbles us by saying consider 237 00:21:57.559 --> 00:22:03.109 the source of your life. The reason they belong to the church, the 238 00:22:03.230 --> 00:22:10.190 reason gentiles like us belong to the church, along with the other branches of 239 00:22:10.309 --> 00:22:15.259 this great family tree, is because we all share a connection with the root. 240 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:23.059 As he says, we share in the nourishing root. Ultimately, this 241 00:22:23.180 --> 00:22:30.650 root is Christ we belong together with the Jews. We live together with them 242 00:22:30.730 --> 00:22:37.769 as one family of God, because we share the same nourishing sap, the 243 00:22:37.769 --> 00:22:41.890 same life, as all the minerals and nutrients are pulled up into the tree. 244 00:22:42.569 --> 00:22:51.559 We live because of our connection with the root. This point should humble 245 00:22:51.720 --> 00:22:59.390 even the most prideful Christians. Life in God, which brings forth godly fruit, 246 00:22:59.630 --> 00:23:04.430 only happens when one is living in God, and the Bible tells us 247 00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:11.150 that that that that's only possible through faith. What is faith? What does 248 00:23:11.230 --> 00:23:15.779 faith actually look like? Apart from the analogy of the Olive Tree. What 249 00:23:15.819 --> 00:23:22.299 does it look like in our lives? Well, faith is receiving and resting 250 00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:27.170 in the salvation of God that is offered to us in Jesus. Faith is 251 00:23:29.049 --> 00:23:34.849 believing, it's praying, it's trusting. Think about pride. Pride does the 252 00:23:34.930 --> 00:23:41.279 opposite. Pride stands alone. Pride doesn't trust God. Pride does it pray 253 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:45.920 to God. Pride doesn't repent of its sins, because, while I haven't 254 00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:52.720 done anything wrong, pride doesn't seek after God in his word. Pride stands 255 00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:56.950 on its own. And what happens to a branch that stands on its own? 256 00:23:57.230 --> 00:24:03.069 It dies. A branch that says I no longer want to be connected 257 00:24:03.150 --> 00:24:10.299 to the root, it dies. That's what happens when we shut off the 258 00:24:10.339 --> 00:24:15.859 veins of faith. But what does faith do? Faith takes the ligaments of 259 00:24:15.900 --> 00:24:18.579 the branch and it wraps it into the tree. It grabs the tree, 260 00:24:18.900 --> 00:24:25.849 it pulls that sap up from the root. Faith is knowing and acting in 261 00:24:26.450 --> 00:24:30.849 connection with the tree, knowing that, apart from that connection, I'm dead. 262 00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:38.279 Faith lives its entire life knowing that, apart from Jesus, we're gone, 263 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:44.599 we shrivel up, we die, we become prosperone to disease and attack 264 00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:49.039 and parasites and all the rest. We don't produce the fruit of godliness, 265 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:56.069 we don't live at all. Well, if our life is lived only in 266 00:24:56.230 --> 00:25:02.509 connection to the root, then you see the point. How can you be 267 00:25:02.670 --> 00:25:07.619 arrogant about your life and yourself? How can you say what a great Wal 268 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:14.619 Ailed Olive Shoot Tom I? You can't. You have to believe not in 269 00:25:14.700 --> 00:25:19.140 yourself but in Jesus, because that's where our life is from, and that's 270 00:25:19.180 --> 00:25:27.089 what Paul is reminding us of. This is why he says don't be arrogant. 271 00:25:29.130 --> 00:25:33.890 Your life is not in yourself, it's in the root. Well, 272 00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:38.279 these first two points are very humbling and perhaps encouraging to you as well. 273 00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:45.960 The last one is especially encouraging because it's so hopeful. The last Paul Reason 274 00:25:47.160 --> 00:25:53.630 Paul gives to strike a some blows against our arrogance is he talks about the 275 00:25:53.750 --> 00:26:02.950 great advantages of US coming in and being grafted into this tree. He puts 276 00:26:02.990 --> 00:26:07.380 it in this way. Rather than despise the Jews or Lord it over them 277 00:26:07.420 --> 00:26:12.819 or mock them for their Jewishness or their lack of faith, he calls us 278 00:26:12.819 --> 00:26:18.410 to seek unitity with them, to pray for them, to long for their 279 00:26:18.490 --> 00:26:23.769 salvation, even as Paul has. Why? Here's the reason. Because it's 280 00:26:23.849 --> 00:26:30.650 to your own benefit. How's that? For a reason? Don't be arrogant, 281 00:26:30.009 --> 00:26:34.720 because in humbling yourself and desiring to be with them, in a part 282 00:26:34.839 --> 00:26:41.400 of them, it's to your her own benefit. Where does Paul say this? 283 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:48.390 Well, it's an implicit it's implicit from what he says in the beginning 284 00:26:48.390 --> 00:26:53.750 of the passage I read. He says in verse thirteen, he says, 285 00:26:55.390 --> 00:27:00.349 I am an apostle to the gentiles. I magnify my ministry in order somehow 286 00:27:00.430 --> 00:27:03.700 to make my fellow Jews Jealous and thus save some of them. You See, 287 00:27:03.740 --> 00:27:08.500 that's Paul's goal. He magnifies his ministry in going out to the gentiles 288 00:27:10.019 --> 00:27:15.289 in order to bring the Jews in. That's his goal. He wants he 289 00:27:15.410 --> 00:27:21.970 wants everything. He wants everything. He wants Jewish Salvation, he wants gentile 290 00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:26.369 salvation, and that's why he's proud to be an apostle to the gentiles. 291 00:27:26.450 --> 00:27:30.720 That's why he magnifies it, so that the Jews would be jealous and he 292 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:36.880 would be saved. And here's where he gets to the particular benefit to the 293 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:41.799 gentiles. In Verse Fifteen, he makes this argument from the lesser to the 294 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:48.750 greater. If their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, in other words, 295 00:27:48.869 --> 00:27:53.230 if the stumbling of the Jews and God's passing over them to go out 296 00:27:53.269 --> 00:27:57.700 to the gentiles means that the gentiles are brought in, in other words, 297 00:27:57.700 --> 00:28:03.140 if the rejection of the Jews means that all these other people are reconciled to 298 00:28:03.220 --> 00:28:08.579 God. You gentiles, what will their it acceptance mean? But life from 299 00:28:08.579 --> 00:28:15.529 the dead? If their rejection meant this really great thing, can you even 300 00:28:15.569 --> 00:28:22.329 imagine what their acceptance will mean? He says life from the dead. You 301 00:28:22.450 --> 00:28:26.359 know what he's talking about there. He's talking about the resurrection. In other 302 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:32.000 words, Paul is putting the in gathering of the Jews in connection with these 303 00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:36.200 at last, with with this, with the resurrection of the dead itself. 304 00:28:37.880 --> 00:28:40.799 I can't explain to you all the details of this, but this is what 305 00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:45.109 he says. He says that we, as the Jews, are gathered in 306 00:28:45.349 --> 00:28:49.710 in this way, you can begin to expect the coming of Jesus, the 307 00:28:49.910 --> 00:28:55.670 resurrection of the dead. This is an amazing thing, and you see why 308 00:28:55.710 --> 00:29:00.579 he's saying, don't be arrogant, gentiles, it's to your benefit. If 309 00:29:00.579 --> 00:29:04.740 their rejection meant this, how much more their acceptance? It means the Lord 310 00:29:04.859 --> 00:29:11.289 is coming, it means people will rise from the dead, it means the 311 00:29:11.369 --> 00:29:19.849 Kingdom of God is really, really at hand. He says a similar thing 312 00:29:19.890 --> 00:29:22.809 in verse twelve, which I didn't read this morning. I'll read it to 313 00:29:22.849 --> 00:29:27.480 you now. He says, now, if their trespass means riches for the 314 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:33.440 world and if their failure means riches for the gentiles, how much more will 315 00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:40.630 their full in inclusion be? You see, Paul's anticipating a time when the 316 00:29:40.829 --> 00:29:44.670 gentiles, or I'm sorry, the Jews, will be grafted back in, 317 00:29:45.950 --> 00:29:51.150 when they will be brought these formerly dead branches that didn't believe will be brought 318 00:29:51.190 --> 00:29:55.579 back in, connected to the tree, and we will live as this great 319 00:29:55.660 --> 00:30:00.460 family of God, and he sang to us as gentiles, pray for that, 320 00:30:00.980 --> 00:30:06.059 look forward to that, instead of standing over the Jews and saying maybe 321 00:30:06.099 --> 00:30:10.130 you guys are fools and stupid and I can't believe you've done all these things, 322 00:30:11.210 --> 00:30:18.849 embrace them. Look forward to this, because it's to your benefit. 323 00:30:18.130 --> 00:30:25.400 If their failure means riches for us. How much more will their full inclusion 324 00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:27.839 be? You see what he's saying. Saying, can you even imagine? 325 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:37.470 So what does arrogance to? Arrogance goes against that. Arrogance in a way 326 00:30:37.069 --> 00:30:44.349 seeks to cut off blessing, cut off riches, keep branches that are meant 327 00:30:44.349 --> 00:30:51.339 to be grafted in away. What? It doesn't make any sense. It's 328 00:30:51.339 --> 00:31:00.059 all contrary to everything God has given to us, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 329 00:31:00.619 --> 00:31:08.130 the good news that by His grace we can be saved from our sins, 330 00:31:10.930 --> 00:31:15.049 that through faith in Jesus, who is freely offered to us, we 331 00:31:15.289 --> 00:31:21.000 can be included in the family of God and all the blessings that have been 332 00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:26.799 promised to Abraham and his children. We say that's me because I'm adopted, 333 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:33.470 I belong to that family. So do we have any room for arrogance and 334 00:31:33.589 --> 00:31:41.470 all of that? Of course not, of course not. And, brothers 335 00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:44.549 and sisters, I think that if we spend a little time thinking about this, 336 00:31:45.029 --> 00:31:49.619 we can expand the applications of this arrogance well beyond Jewish and gentile relations 337 00:31:51.779 --> 00:31:56.819 in the church. We think about other ways in which we show partiality. 338 00:31:56.900 --> 00:32:01.450 Money, doctrine, privilege, upbringing all kinds of things. There's so many 339 00:32:01.569 --> 00:32:08.329 ways in which we have these arrogant attitudes that go so contrary to the gospel 340 00:32:08.369 --> 00:32:14.009 of God. So what do we do with that? What do we do 341 00:32:14.289 --> 00:32:17.319 with the conviction in our hearts that, yes, we are prideful and we 342 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:24.079 have been prideful? We repent. It's as simple and wonderful and beautiful as 343 00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:29.359 that. We go before the God of grace who brought us into this family, 344 00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:32.230 and we go to him again and we pull up that sad up. 345 00:32:34.509 --> 00:32:38.829 We feel ourselves yet even more in connection with the root, with Jesus Christ. 346 00:32:40.190 --> 00:32:46.940 He promises us that in him we live and that when our faith is 347 00:32:47.099 --> 00:32:53.819 truly in him, we will never be broken off. Never that in Jesus 348 00:32:53.859 --> 00:33:00.849 Christ, when God unites us to that truly and by faith, we're connected 349 00:33:00.970 --> 00:33:07.049 forever. If you believe that, which I call you to believe that, 350 00:33:07.210 --> 00:33:12.410 because, as I said at the beginning, faith is necessary, then repent 351 00:33:12.690 --> 00:33:16.920 in that way, go to Jesus, your God and your savior, and 352 00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:23.119 trust him and hope in him and ask him to forgive your sins and produce 353 00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:31.829 and you not arrogance but humility and love. And when that kind of fruit 354 00:33:32.029 --> 00:33:38.150 begins to appear on your branches, you'll sing glory to God because you'll know 355 00:33:38.349 --> 00:33:44.619 the life that is in him is being produced in you, and all the 356 00:33:44.740 --> 00:33:52.099 world will see and know what God has done. So let's pray for that. 357 00:33:52.259 --> 00:33:58.329 Let's repent of our pride and as that God would bring us to life 358 00:33:58.369 --> 00:34:00.250 in him. Let's pray