God's Kindness and Severity

Do you love me? Why do you love me? How can I know that you love me? Will you always love me? These are the kinds of questions we ask in real relationships. They're difficult questions and we rarely ask them that directly. These are the kinds of questions that God invites His people to ask Him. These kind of direct questions about love and God's love, I believe, are exactly what God invites us to ask. And I believe that because I believe His Word answers each one of these questions directly and precisely. Finishing Romans 11 tonight, today. We've been in Romans for some time, and well, as we've already alluded to, this is supposed to be the sermon we heard about three weeks ago. Romans 8 through 11 declares the greatness of God's love. God loves His people. He's for them. He demonstrates His love. He sent His Son to die for us. How could we question His love? Nothing will separate us from His love. His Word never fails. Those whom He has set His affection upon, He has kept, and He continues to love. Romans 9 and 11 has actually been just an exposition on that question, does God ever fail in His love? After that bold proclamation, nothing will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He answers some questions for us. Has God always kept his love for his people? What about Israel? Has God's word failed by no means? Paul's explained a lot about the Jews and the Gentiles and what has made the Jewish people a special people. Again, this church is divided in Jew, Gentile. He's got to answer what has God been up to for all these years with the Jews and now what does it mean for the Gentiles to be grafted in? The Jews, they have two benefits, there's two advantages. What makes Israel special is that one, they had the word of God. Israel was entrusted with what Paul calls the oracles, the promises of God. And secondly, they're gonna be the race from which the Redeemer comes. Now the problem with many of the ethnic Israelites, they neither trusted God's word, nor did they believe they were sinners in need of a Savior. They were given that great advantage, here's God's Word, believe it. I'm going to send a Savior through your own line, through your bloodline, and they neither believed God's Word nor believed they were sinners in need of a Savior. So Romans 9 declares God's side of salvation. He has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy. It's not by birth you're saved. by being born again by God, by faith. Romans 10 shows man's side of salvation, that God, he's made his declaration of love resound throughout all creation. He sent his prophet specifically to Israel, and all day long, he held out his hands, saying, come to me. And all day long, he held out his hands to a contrary people who rebelled against him. So we come to Romans 11, where Paul is summarizing this argument, this explanation of how God has always kept His promise. He's showing how the Jews and Gentiles, they do relate with one another. The Jews being the natural branches, they've been removed, some. Only the remnant remain. And the Gentiles were being put into the promise. And that's why we have no room for boasting. Here, the word of the Lord, Romans 11. I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means. For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he appeals to God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does God reply to him? I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal, so too at the present time there's a remnant chosen by God. But if it is by grace, it is no longer the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever. So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles. So as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Now I am speaking to you, Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and though you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief. But you stand fast through faith. Do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God. Severity towards those who have fallen, but kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off, and even then, and even they, If they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these and natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree? Lest ye be wise in your own sight. I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them. When I take away their sins, as regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are evocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they may also now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. As you heard that, You should have a lot of questions. I do too. We're not gonna turn over every stone. We're even gonna leave some boulders untouched this morning. My primary goal is what I do believe Paul's goal is in Romans 9 through 11. To help us to see the powerful plan of God that he executes perfectly so that we end up praising God like we just read in 33 to 36. When we get to see what God is up to, when we get to see really the curtain being pulled back here, the only response is praise. The only response is glorifying Him. And so there's a lot of details. There's a lot of questions. But we're not going to get into everything, but we're going to see the big picture, I hope. And I'm going to break it down into four parts. Our passage we're going to look at in four different sections. First, God's grace keeps his people. That's verses one to 10. God's grace keeps his people. Secondly, God's grace abounds to the world. That's 11 through 15. God's grace abounds to the world, 11 through 15. Third, God's grace causes humility. God's grace causes humility, that's 16 through 32. And fourth, God's grace leads to praise. God's grace keeps his people, it abounds through the world, it causes humility, and it leads to praise. First, let's look at God's grace keeps his people. Again, Paul is asking questions he's assuming his audience is going to be asking. He's trying to answer questions for this Jewish and Gentile church so that he can make sure that God's purpose and plan is clear for them. So he asks, because he assumes they're asking it, has God rejected his people? He's already asked in the past, does God's word fail? Absolutely not. Has God rejected his people? By no means. In order to demonstrate that God has not rejected his people, he gives three arguments. Look at verse one. Paul says, I'm an Israelite. God hasn't rejected all his people because I am here proclaiming the gospel to you, Paul says. So Paul uses himself first as an example of how God has not rejected all of Israel or all of his people because Paul is an Israelite. The second argument is, Remember back when God said, in verse 2, know that Scripture, when Elijah says, there's nobody who worships you, God says, Elijah, I've set aside my remnant. I will always have a remnant. He's showing that God has always had a group within the nation of Israel that are His elect people that believe. He's always kept for himself Israelites who worship. And then third, we see this is like the present time. Verse five. It's by grace that there are some who are still the remnant. Verse seven especially, what then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, the rest were hardened. Paul again makes it very clear, it's not a simple yes or no when it comes to the nation of Israel. Because within the nation of Israel, there's some who are hardened and there's some who are elect. Within the nation of Israel, there's some who are darkened and there's some who are enlightened. Within the nation of Israel, there's some who believe and there's some who reject. Those whom God calls to be His elect, they believe and He keeps them, is the main point. Look at verse 7, well actually let's go back to Romans 9, 6. Being born in the right bloodline doesn't make you a child of the promise, he says in Romans 9, 6. I think he's saying the same thing in Romans 10, 7. Some of those in that bloodline were hardened Some are elect. There's a true Israel, and then there's a bigger nation of Israel. The elect are called out from within the nation. We have to ask this question, what does it mean to harden? God's referred to this already in Romans 9. He hardened Pharaoh's heart. Here he's hardening Israelites. I believe the best way to understand what God does when he's hardening is he's removing the grace that keeps our sin from overtaking us. It's only God's grace that actually allows us to not be fully overwhelmed and controlled by our sin. His hardening is just letting our sin have its full reign so that it darkens our understanding. God doesn't reject every Israelite. He keeps them. Those whom He chose, He loves, and those whom He loves, He keeps. And those whom he loves believe. Now, application for this first section, we're gonna look back and see what Paul's saying here in that God's always been about saving a people, and those whom he saves, he keeps. The big picture of what Paul's saying in this section is the God who calls his people out is powerful to save them. That's it. He's always had the same plan. His plan doesn't change. He has decided that in the midst of all us, his creatures, those he made in his image, in the midst of all our rebellion, he has always said, I'm going to keep some of you to myself. You will worship me. He's always done that. There's a little difference. in the different stages of his plan. We know before Christ came, the focus of this plan was on the nation of Israel. A political people, a ethnic people, a people in a specific place. We know after Christ, the focus changed. So let me make it very clear. A difference does take place in the one plan of God between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament Israel, they're an ethnic nation. Some of them are elect. The New Testament church, everyone is elect from every ethnicity to be a new kind of nation. You see, there was an ethnicity and some of them were elect. Now God's people are all elect from all kinds of ethnicities. This is good news for us because I'm looking at all kinds of ethnicities. I don't think I'm looking at many Israelites by birth. But I'm looking at true Israel, the remnant, the elect from all nations. This is how Christ has decided to bring about His will. This is what God has always intended from Romans 12. Every nation to be blessed. Well, what Paul says here is difficult. God gives them a spirit of stupor. He calls their eyes to be darkened. For those who are elect, this is meant to be encouraging. When God shows Himself to us, when God calls us out to Himself, when God gives us salvation, He doesn't fail. He keeps us. His love doesn't fail. It's trustworthy. Really, if we look back, the whole book of Romans is simply declaring God's trustworthy. God's trustworthy. God's trustworthy. And we can see that throughout all of history, Paul's pulling back the curtain for us. God has always been about the same thing, and He's trustworthy. A real practical question everyone has to ask them, how do I know if I'm elect? This is a question you should ask yourself in this passage given how clear it is that some are elect and some are not. How do you know if you are elect? Let me give a very simple answer from this passage while there's more of an answer to give elsewhere. If you fully realize that it is by God's mercy alone that you, a sinner, are saved by the blood of Christ, you should have confidence you're elect. If you know it's by God's good favor towards you, it's not your works, it's God's kindness. If you believe in Christ and you don't want to reject Him, if you know that there's nothing you have done to make you favorable for God, You should have assurance you're elect. If God's given you eyes to see your sin and eyes to see the Savior and to believe in Him, have assurance you're elect. Now I also want to challenge you. Romans 12 through 15 is what the elect do. What we've actually handled from one through 11 is what the elect believe. There's another question you have to ask, not just do I believe in my mercy. Romans 12 through 15, you have to measure yourself. Am I doing what an elect person does? So there's more to that, more answer to that question. But for now, leave it at, do you depend upon the mercy of God alone and by faith in Christ to be saved? The second section, God's grace abounds to the world. Paul gives a bit more clarity on what God is doing with the Jews and Gentiles. They stumbled. Did they stumble in order they may fall? Well, absolutely not. The Jews have stumbled because God's plan has always been to graft in Gentiles. God's plan has always been to save all peoples. The Jews stumbled, and now the Gentiles are being grafted in. Paul's hope is that more of his kinsmen will be saved. The Jews have not stumbled because God made them fail. No, they've not been completely cut off. It's a partial hardening. They've stumbled because they rejected God. They've stumbled because they decided not to believe. See, as we look through this passage, we see, rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles. And Paul wants to make it clear that when the Gentiles come in because the Jews rejected God, his hope is that the Jews will then look at Gentiles and say, I'm jealous. He's not completely done with all the Israelites. The whole purpose of the Gentiles being grafted in is that the Jews who are rejecting God, they may look and say, they have what is my right by birth. These blessings, these promises. I've been removed from the root because I rejected the promises. Paul's hope is that the Israelites would be jealous because they see Gentiles receiving the blessings of God that have been promised to their race. Now, this is somewhat very curious to me. How would the Jews be jealous? I mean, think about that for a moment. If Paul's hope is that the Gentiles being in the church, being blessed by the blessings of God that were originally given to Abraham and then to the descendants of Israel, what would make the Jews jealous of them? We're usually jealous when we see somebody with something we want. So I wonder if Paul has in here The idea, the Jews should see something. They should see that they do not have the blessings of God. They should see that somebody else does. The Gentiles. So it makes me wonder, what would this visibly look like? Does Paul have in his mind that there should be something visible So that those who are not in the blessed state, either Jews have rejected Jesus or unbelieving Jews, that they would come and they would see the people of God and they would see something that would make them jealous. I think here we're scratching the surface of the truth that God's most effective evangelistic tool is a united church. where people who reject Jesus, people who are rebelling against God, they come and they see all of us who, quite frankly, are very diverse. We're different kinds of people. We wouldn't be hanging out with each other on any other day of the week, apart from Christ. But we all come together with our different backgrounds, our different ideas, our different lifestyles. We said, we're going to all come together here. We're gonna commit our hearts to one purpose. We're gonna commit our voice to one song. We're gonna commit our praise to the one true God. The world should come here and see something that would make them jealous. So look around. Is there something here that you think would make people jealous? Is there something that we do that would make the world say, what is it about this people I'm jealous? See, I think we must realize that the gospel of God's kindness causes us to be a different kind of people. The gospel of God's mercy causes us to actually be a people of mercy, a people who are united and confident in the love they've received. The people are united and they're confident in the love they give. Now, as I prepare these messages, I oftentimes ask other brothers to come alongside of me and help me study these things, and I want to encourage you, church. Because I was walking through this point, some of the newer members, they said, this resonates, because I see something at Jefferson Park that made me jealous, that made me want to join that church. after being gone for three weeks, one of the things we do is we sing together. Don't take for granted that we are coming together and uniting that one voice in the song of Christ. Oh, how I missed it. We don't wanna take that for granted. That is something that should make people jealous that we're coming together and we're singing together. We're coming together and we're submitting to God's word together. I want to challenge you as well as encourage you. Are we coming together as individuals who have been called by God to truly build up one another into a corporate body for Christ? Are we setting aside every personal agenda for the purpose of building up the one body to praise the one Savior? See, our world, I think one of the things that would make them jealous is that our world is full of random acts of kindness. just showing kindness to folks whenever it may happen, spontaneous demonstrations of love. I think what should make the church very unique is that we're consistent and intentional with our love. We don't wait around for opportunities to show love. We're intentional. We're persistent. We're constant and persevering and demonstrating our love to one another. The world should see something that makes them jealous. Point three, verses 17 through 32, and quite frankly, the real difficult section. Thankfully, the first half is very clear. God's grace causes us humility. We see there the warning, and notice something. This is the first time Paul speaks directly to the Gentiles. Verse 18, do not be arrogant. Stand fast through faith. Do not be arrogant. We just read earlier Isaiah 11. God's plan is always to have one people built up from that one shoot. Paul uses that imagery of a root. It has many branches and that root is a source of all the blessings. And God, He keeps the promises for that blessing, and He's using this metaphor. We need to make sure we're not stretching this metaphor too far. What He's doing with this metaphor is simply saying, you branches who are not naturally grafted in, who are unnatural to the root, you're aware that some have been cut off so that you may be grafted in? Do not be arrogant. Persist in faith. Do not be arrogant. It's not a grand metaphor to explain all of what God is doing throughout all of history. It's simply a metaphor to help us see that when God cuts off a branch so that He can graft in a different branch, we who are grafted in cannot be arrogant. The blessings are ours. We do not deserve them. Is there something that we should see from 9 through 11? It's a call to humility because there's nothing we've done to deserve this kindness. We don't deserve the promises. Again, verse 18, do not be arrogant. Verse 19, he gets in the head of the Gentile. You will say branches were broken off so that I may be grafted in. That's true. But know that those were broken off because of their unbelief. You stand fast through faith. The one clear mark that's supposed to be on those who are grafted in, who are part of the root, is faith. A lack of faith has you cut off. Faith in what God has said grafts you in. So we trust. We trust. Do not become proud, but fear. We have to realize here that the call to stand fast in faith What he doesn't say is, remember that one time he made a commitment to Jesus. He says, stand fast in faith. If your assurance of salvation is based upon a prayer you prayed a long time ago, you should not have much assurance. Your assurance of salvation is you standing fast in faith right now, today. If you hear the words of the gospel, Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners, he rose again in your life, and that stirs in you, I believe that, and that's all I can believe, have assurance. If you're looking back to that one day you thought that, and your life has been a complete wreck ever since because you keep rejecting it, you should not have assurance, but you should repent and believe and stand fast in that one truth you must believe in. He continues to warn them not to boast. I find this curious, because were Gentiles really going around? Yeah, thanks for getting cut off, I got in. But what kind of boasting was taking place? Now, we know not to boast, kinda. We know not to go around and say, you're welcome, God. We know not to go around and say, God must be really happy with me. We know how to do that kind of boasting, but I think we're self-deceived in the kind of boasting we do. You see, we boast when we judge others in a way that is not becoming of a child of mercy. We boast when we shun other brothers and sisters because they're not like us. We boast when we withhold forgiveness, when another brother or sister sins against us. We boast when others who do not live up to our standards that are not biblical, we look down upon them and do not befriend them and extend mercy and grace to them. See, we may not boast in our relationship with God, but we boast in our relationship with one another. This was the problem with the Israelites. They would say, God, thank you, I'm not like a Gentile. Being an Israelite, not the remnant, their whole boasting was in their bloodline and their culture and their customs, and them being the race, not the remnant. See, this boasting that I believe we do, it actually shows a lack of maturity in Christ. See, we should measure our maturity in Christ based upon how merciful we are. Being merciful doesn't mean we relax God's standard. Being merciful is not taking personal offense whether due to us and our standards. See, we have to take God's word seriously. Being a disciple and being a disciple means I must teach, we all must teach everything God's commanded. We uphold every word But being a child of mercy means we don't take offense quickly for those who sin against us. Being a child of mercy means we are quick to extend grace. You see, too many people think maturity is measured by how critical they can be. If we go back to Romans 1.18 through chapter 3, something that's so obvious that we have to believe is that everybody's a sinner. It's not hard to find sin. It's kind of like anybody who's ever gone on a witch hunt, they found a witch. Anybody who's ever said, I'm going to go see if I can find out somebody's sin, they're gonna find sin, because this church is full of sinners who sin. That's not a mark of maturity to realize somebody's sinning. No, a mark of maturity is somebody who doesn't stand over a sinner, but somebody who builds them up, who seeks to drag them out, who seeks to push them forward. A mature Christian, lets love cover a multitude of sins. A mature Christian doesn't allow someone else's sin to turn them off course. A mature Christian longs to receive mercy and is willing to give it. See, boasting shows our immaturity. Boasting towards others and judging them shows our immaturity. Realizing it's only by grace and by God's mercy we're even in the root. leads us to showing other branches mercy. Notice verse 22. Paul wants us to notice verse 22. Note then the kindness and the severity of God. This is a frightening passage. Notice kindness and its severity. Severity towards those who have fallen. God is going to have justice. When we reject Him, He will show justice. He must punish every sin justly. His severity, His severe judgment, His clear, just judgment. Notice again, He says, but kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. If you're not a Christian this morning, if you are not continuing in that kindness, if you're not right now saying, I believe in Christ and in Him alone, and by His mercy I believe in Him, be afraid of the severe judgment of God. Let that fear that God is going to make us all give an account that we've neither given thanks to him nor honored him. Let that fear lead you to recognize that right now you are receiving kindness to hear the gospel, which is this. Jesus Christ came down to live the life that none of us could live. He was perfectly righteous. He died on the cross, and he died as if a sinner. He died being punished by the wrath of God for the sins that everybody who believed in him committed. That's how the kindness works. God's judgment is severe. It led Christ to die for those who believe in Him. If you don't believe in Him, that wrath will be yours to pay when you die. Believe in Christ. Let the severe judgment of God lead you to the proper fear that will lead you to believe in Christ. Now, 25 to 32 has led me to much fear and trembling myself. This is a quite complicated passage. Let me first say what I think is clear, and we may just stop there. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery. Anytime mystery is referenced in the New Covenant, the New Testament, it's a mystery revealed. It's no longer mysterious. The whole point of Paul saying it's a mystery is that it's already been revealed, it's been disclosed. So what he's saying here is God has made something that was once unclear, clear. He's helping us to see the bigger picture of what's going on with Israel, with the Gentiles, while there's a temporary hardening. And we have to realize, too, it is a temporary hardening. Not every Jew will have a hardening. Some of them will be shown mercy. We also have to realize it's not going to be a forever hardening. Those who are elect may actually have a hardening at some point. But God is going to bring about a softening for all who are elect. Now I have to say it that way because I don't think what Paul is saying is that there was a time for the Jews, now there's a time for the Gentiles, and one day there's going to be a time for the Jews. Many faithful theologians and brothers teach that, and it's a valid belief, but I don't think that's what Paul's saying here, because of verse 32. The all who are consigned to disobedience have to be the all that have mercy. It's all who are God's elect. For God has consigned all his elect to disobedience, that is a temporary hardening, so that he may have mercy on all. is elect. Something we have to avoid in this passage is the belief that every Israelite who's ever been born in Israel will be saved. That's denying other parts of scripture. What God is saying is that everybody he has ever elected, they will receive mercy. It's irrevocable. Let's just focus on this simple point. for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. What he has decided to do happens. It isn't changed. It's final. Now, I want to look at that in the sense that Paul knows that those whom God has elect, they're elect, and those whom God has hardened, they're hardened. It's irrevocable. I want to look at that in light of the fact of verse 1 of chapter 10. Notice what Paul says. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. He knows that God has elected and that is irrevocable. He knows that God has hardened some and that is irrevocable. But yet in chapter 10, verse 1, he says, I pray that they may be saved. This is good Calvinism. You know God's secret providence is certain. You also know that God has called you to pray. You also know that God has called you to proclaim. So we faithfully ask God, as Spurgeon did, hasten to bring home your elect and then elect some more. We can't let our prayer life be limited by what we don't know. This is Paul saying, I long and I desire for all my kinsmen to be saved. Therefore, that is my prayer. And therefore, I will leave it with God in His hands, who is wise and trustworthy and true. He will save whomever He chooses to save. He will have mercy on whomever He chooses to have mercy. Let's end with our praise. God's grace leads to praise. Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor, or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. A few things to observe. This is concluding the theological portion of Romans. And it leads Paul to a spontaneous burst of praise. Second, Paul is making it clear that God's ways are greater than our ways. He's too big to fully comprehend. While mysteries are being revealed, there's still too much for us to fathom and understand completely. Third, He's the giver of every good gift. We can't repay Him. And fourth, He's preeminent. From Him, He's the creator of all. Through Him, He's the sustainer of all. To Him, all glory and praise are due Him. He alone is worthy of praise. Christian, we have to be challenged by this passage and what Paul says at the end of writing the thickest theological discourse we know in the New Testament. He's holding out, we still don't understand all of God. There's still so much more. to who He is, what He's done. We have to realize we can't ever be content in our knowledge of God. We can't ever be comfortable in what we know about God. We have to constantly be longing to see more and more of Him because we'll never see Him all. We can't believe we've got it all figured out. We also see here is, Paul's ending with this great powerful crescendo of praise. We have to see where he's been to really appreciate why he's praising God right here. In chapter 1, he starts by telling us how depraved we are. We don't honor God. We don't thank God. Apart from God's grace, we go astray and run amok. We're filthy, depraved sinners. Chapter two, even when we're religious, we're hypocrites. Our own religious efforts, they do not please God. Chapter three, we're all without excuse. We all deserve the wrath of God, but praise be to God that he sent his son to suffer wrath for us so that his wrath is satisfied in Christ. Chapter 4, all true children of God are children of faith. Chapter 5, we're reconciled. We now have peace with God in Christ, the new head of a new humanity. Chapter 6, we're free from the power of sin and death. Chapter 7, a reminder, if you seek to obey God according to the flesh, you will fail. Oh, wretched sinner, who will deliver me? Praise God for Christ Jesus. Chapter 8, We're not condemned, we're not defeated, we're not separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Chapter nine, God's word does not fail. He's sovereign. His name is, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. Chapter 10, he's constantly inviting his people to believe in him and to worship him. And now chapter 11, he's kept his promises to his elect. This leads us to praise Him and only praise Him. You see, where we're at is all those truths, they've built us up onto the mountaintop of Romans. We just climbed Mount Romans. We're there. If you've been with us from one through 11, you've just climbed the mountain of Romans, and now this praise, that's the summit. You know you get to the summit when you get there, and all you wanna do is declare all glory to God. But it means you believe first. You're depraved. You're wicked. And it's only by Christ and his death that you'll be saved. It's in Christ we're reconciled. It's in Christ we're a new humanity. It's in Christ we're free. It's in Christ we can live that new life. If it's in Christ we're no longer condemned. In Christ you're loved now. Now we get to that summit. And it's only when we get to that summit being built up on that theology that we can begin to look at chapter 12 and think about how we're supposed to live One through 11 is the mercy of God. One through 11 is the mercy of God. I don't belong here, but God has put me on top of his mountain so that I can see him, so that I can praise him, so that I can know his love. And then when we get there, when we get there, we start looking at how we're gonna live together there. Look at chapter 12, verse one. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. We're only at the top of the mountain by the mercies of God. We're only gonna be able to do all these things God calls us to be as a church together if we all believe in the mercy of God and we're all seeking to live as God's people in the mercy of God. But think about this. If we all get there together, We all get to that summit where we're praising God together by the mercy of God, singing to the people of mercy, together obedient in chapter 12 through 15. Imagine what kind of city on a hill we would be. The light shining for all the world to be jealous, to climb that mountain, to join us. Friends, that's the vision I want to set before you. appeal to you. Trust in the mercy of God. Let's get to that summit together. Let's build a church together. Let's trust His mercy to be obedient to all these commands we're about to hear. So the nations will see the light coming off that mountain and will long to be in the love of God and Christ Jesus. Before we end, I want to Return to those questions I opened us with. Do you love me? Why do you love me? How can I know you will love me? Will you always love me? There's actually one question that's behind all those questions. And it's this. This is a real question you have to ask God. This is a real question you're asking God. Can I trust you with my love? That's what you're really asking. We're all really asking, God, can I trust you with my love? The most amazing thing of what Paul has been declaring throughout all the Romans is, yes, you can trust him. He is love. He's demonstrated his love by sending his son to die for you. He is love. He alone will actually satisfy your longing for love. He alone will satisfy your desire to be loved and to know what love is. Look at the bigger picture of Romans. You can trust God. He will love you. And He will keep you in His love. Will you pray with me? our Father whose ways are not our ways, and we praise you for that. Instead of showing your severe judgment that we should receive, you've sent your Son to die for us, to make us a new people, to show us your great love, help us, Lord, to receive that mercy, to be a people of mercy, so that we might be your church. so that others might see the mercy here among us and be drawn to You. We thank You, Lord, that we get to enjoy Your love. We thank You, Lord, that You put us on a mission of love. In Your name we pray. Amen.