Grafted in Grace

Tonight, I'll be preaching from Romans 11, verses 17 through 18. So if you would turn there, Romans 11, 17 through 18. As you turn there, and in light of Father's Day, and because I know my dad will be listening to this later this evening, I do want to say thank you, Dad, for teaching me about Christ and the gospel as best you knew. Thank you for directing my pursuits heavenly. As we look together at Romans 11, verses 17 and 18, we see that the word of God through Paul's writing tells us, but if some of the branches were broken off and 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. This is a passage that again last night brought me to my knees and again this morning, almost the sermon did the same thing. We're struck as Christians with the holiness of God, the beauty of God. We're struck with the tenacity that the Father has when he pursues us in his election. And we see the world is full of doctrine and truth and correction and guidance and a careful rebuke. And within that and within this passage, I'm led to believe that our part in this gospel, our participation in Him saving us from the wickedness is amazing. And in light of the fact that the gospel which tells us of Christ being sent by the Father because of the Father's special love for us to live, to die, to be resurrected, to pay in full what we should but can't completely pay, and thereby sending the Holy Spirit to live and dwell within our hearts is amazing. I think it's an amazing picture, something that's unparalleled with anything else that we can comprehend. The simplicity of the gospel, in contrast with the complexity of our evil hearts, need for a perfect mediator is amazing. And within that amazement, we are warned as both Gentile and Jew among us. Paul warns our hearts, evil desires. As I continue to think about this passage through all of last week, I was driven to think that the two things which Of these two things, God's are amazing, our amazing participation in the gospel, as well as Paul's warning for us. That will be our outline for this evening, and I think it's the focus of this word from Paul. So first, I believe Romans 11, verses 17 and 18 tells us that we are being grafted into a perfect tree or a fruitful work. grounded in the patriarchs of the Old Testament. And while allowing us as sinners to be placed within its richness, I see this as an amazing mark of God's love for us, especially if we consider what we come from and where we are within God's grace and being grafted in. I believe that God's special love to us is shown by Him pruning off those who are unbelieving and not faithful, and thereby allowing those from outside of the Old Testament's nation of Israel to be grafted in, so our souls may be supported by the root and the supplier of the root's faithfulness and fruitfulness to us. Therefore, I think that Paul here teaches us that God's goodness and gospel are not only amazing, but they are only found in Him. The first lesson that I can come from within this passage is that our participation is only found in God. All hope is exclusively found in Christ. It is not among God, it is not around God or by God, but only through God that we participate in His gospel. A tree is fed by its root, not from the fence that surrounds the fruit, not from the grass that is slowly underneath the branches of the tree, but by the root itself. David of the Old Testament claims in Psalm 52 with instruction of warningful joy that we are like an olive tree in the house of God when we are with God. He says that he trusts in the steadfast love of God forever and ever when he's living within God's fruitfulness and faith. He thinks God forever, he says, because God has accomplished what is needed as a tree needs water and what is desired for our fulfillment of righteousness in the eyes of God through Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. Along with David's words, we see in John 15 where Christ himself says, I'm the true vine and the father, the vine dresser abide in me as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. There is only one hope in God for eternal survival. This is abnormal in our minds, as we never think that a dead branch without any sort of goodness can ever be added to an existing tree. If you do any kind of yard work, you know that you can't take something that was once dead, add it to something that is good, and in both pieces invigorate the tree itself. So we see the gospel as contrasting to what you and I naturally see going on in the world. that sinners undeserving have hope in Christ who is wholly deserving, that when we are grafted in to a fruitful tree, we gain the fruit that God is spreading through the root of that tree. Also, on top of seeing hope resting in the comfort of God alone, we see that there is only one people of God. There are not two Gospels. There is not one for the Jew and then one for the Gentile. There is not one for a certain kind of family and another for another kind of family. But rather, God calls reconciliation of our sins through the death of the Son to whom? To Himself. God calls the forgiven to Him, not to themselves. Exclusively, He calls us. With jealousy, He calls us to Himself. If there is one God calling generations and nations of people to himself, he is logically only calling them from a scatteredness of separation to a unity of grace. If you would turn with me to Revelation 15 quite quickly, or I'm sorry, Revelation 5, verse 11, Revelation 5, 11. And we just say, isn't it great that the Bible doesn't leave us hanging? It gives a good picture of what we can hope for. It's not just, hey, be good people and hopefully you figure out what that's going to look like. Read with your own eyes in Revelation 5, verse 11, as I read aloud. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creature and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands and thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. Well, what we are being grafted into doesn't look like that picture now as we are dwelling among the fallen nature and within the devil's domain. Our hope is a unifying declaration of God's glory because of God's faithfulness in light of God's mercy for us, because God foreknew us and loved us despite what we do outside of his grace. John's prophetic vision in Revelation is a hopeful contrast from what Paul is calling us from disunity, worldliness into a unity within the gospel. This gives us every reason to acknowledge that we do not contribute to our own salvation process. We stand only by grace because of mercy. We left into ourselves our wild olive branch. We must look at the Jews and be humbled in the knowledge that we, like them, do not cause God to love us. We do not elect ourselves to be heirs of his throne, for not even the Jews contribute to their own salvation. Theirs was lost, because in the midst of everything handed to them by the patriarchs, they were not only disobedient, but unfaithful idol worshippers. We see that their past is examined in Jeremiah 11, 16, where it says, Yahweh once called you a green olive tree, beautiful with fruit. But with the roar of a great tempest, he set fire to it and its branches will be consumed. The Yahweh of hosts, the Old Testament says, who planted you has decreed disaster against you because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal. But praise God that he kept the goodness of his saving gospel not in the Jews will, or in the Gentiles will, but he kept it in Christ. Praise God for Jesus as the true and sustainable vine, because left unto ourselves, we would be but corrupted trees. After seeing the amazing display of God's grace through our participation, I believe that this passage turns from that of the scriptures and now gives us two warnings from Paul. First, we must And do not be discouraged. We will bear fruit. The whole point of us being grafted into the tree is ultimately to bless the tree and to take and take comfort that we will show fruit and provide good work for God in our belief in faithfulness towards that fatherhood. Belief is the ultimate expression of faithfulness in faith is the first of all fruits we see in the New Testament. Let the words of Jesus soak your dry soul. If a man remains in Me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit. This is to My Father's glory that you bear much fruit." This pursuit is an absolute contrast to why the Jews were removed from the tree. They were not pursuing fruit. They were not pursuing the Yahweh who dragged them out of the desert and showed them the land of promise. God calls us to himself to bear fruit. The second warning is for us to be careful in what we boast in. If we boast in God, it is only because our eyes are solely on him and his desires. If we boast in what we do, we quickly forget that we were grafted into a fruitful tree after previously being fruitless, wild and left for dead. Proper humility is the outward acknowledgement of an inward desire to see God in yourself, not yourself in God. When we think about the gospel, we want the saturation of God's holiness through the spirit to engulf our souls. Praise God that God's soul does not rely on us, but we rely on him. When I was about 14 years old, an older grandmother lived across the street from us in a cul-de-sac, and her daughter and granddaughter would often come and visit her and play amongst in the street. One time, as I was standing in my driveway, I noticed that the baby granddaughter, who was about two years old or however old kids go when they start waddling across places, two or two and a half, wandered away from the mother and began walking into the street. She kept laughing out loud and was going about her way, having what looked like the time of her life. I wasn't much concerned, as there was never any traffic on this street, and it was a habit for everyone to do various things inside the street, whether riding bikes, ramping bikes, playing hockey, rollerblading, drawing with chalk. But as she was standing in the road, her feet began to pop up and down. She started doing what looked like football players would do if they're doing high knees, shuffling through tires. She began to whimper and cry a little, and then she let out a scream that was piercing and awful. For this baby was standing barefoot atop an asphalted road in the middle of the summer. Her feet were literally burning from the pavement's heat. Her scream began an exhaustive cry as her mother darted towards her in a dead sprint. Her mother quickly picked her up, began rubbing her feet like any mother would and was saying things like, Oh, I love you, baby girl, and it's OK. You're safe now. Oh, how our Jesus treats us the same, does he not? We wander by our own into the streets of the world, hoping for joy outside of the communion with him. Yet, within our despair, he rushes towards us, rescues us from where we stand, and comforts our wounds with the hands that bear the scars from the nails of which we put him on the cross for. We are fools to boast in anything different than that God, in his mercy choosing us for himself. We would be wrong or we would call that child foolish if that child started slapping the mom in the face and saying, no, no, put me down. Let me do what I want to do. We would call that child a fool if that child all of a sudden started taking credit for God picking her up, rubbing her feet and calming her of all of her fears. And yet we go about our ways claiming that we deserve God's blessing. We deserve God's righteousness on our wrath. Paul here warns us, do not boast in what was done for you, but not by you. Don't boast as you were grafted into the tree that saves your life and that gives you life and ultimately gives the tree greater life. There is nothing that keeps the wicked out of hell, but the precise pleasure of God himself. Friends, we serve and love a God who pleasures much in His grafted-in branches. Let's pray together. Father, we are at a state of wondering so many times, why us? We think about where we are before your cross. We think about sometimes even after your cross, where we are. Yet, you saved us and you keep us close. You rescued us from where we were going and you hold us close in your faithfulness. I pray that you will go for our hearts in such a way that we will not become like the wayward Jews, but rather we will learn from them, not become cocky or arrogant towards them, but learn from them. And that we will remain faithful servants to your name because of your blessing on our hearts. Amen.