Published: December 8, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 59 | Scripture: Romans 11:17-22
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11 this morning we'll be looking at vers 17 through 21 of Romans 11 but if some of the branches were broken off and you being Wild Olive were
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grafted in among them and became partakers of them with the rich food of the Olive Tree do not be arrogant toward the branches but if you are arrogant
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remember that it is not you who supports the root but the root supports you you will say then branches were broken off so I might be drafted in quite right
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they were broken off for their unbelief but you stand by your Faith do not be conceited but fear for God did not spare the natural branches neither will he
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the father we even desperately ask for youright in reading such a passage that you would give us understanding of your word that your spirit would Enlighten our minds and our
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hearts to grasp what the Apostle is saying here what the spirit is saying through the through the apostle that we might neither dismiss
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what he says nor take it in a wrong way I pray that you would grant us that wisdom that is from above that pure and
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Peaceable wisdom and that you will as you have promised by your spirit guide us into all truth but also keep us from error For Your Glory and for our good we ask
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in jesus' name amen anybody else feel a sense of for boing at that last
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verse I don't know if it's the number one issue that is dealt with in the Pastoral Ministry but I know it's very near the top in modern Western evangelicalism I know it's certainly very near the top in my Ministry over
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the last 30 some years and that is um believers who doubt their salvation or believers who feel that they have lost their
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salvation this may be something that you have felt it may be something that you're um going through right now from a pastoral position from a
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pastoral perspective there are two dangerous Extremes in trying to deal with this very real issue among
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professing Believers on the one here is there's the danger of giving false security of asking people well did you did you sign the card did you walk the aisle were you baptized well okay you
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don't remember so let's do it now and then you write that today's date in your Bible don't lose that Bible because you might lose your salvation again okay um but this idea of just trying to make you
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feel better is is a is a great danger nobody really especially if they're in the pastor nobody really wants to make people I shouldn't say that some people do want to make people miserable
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but normally that's not the type of person in the ministry and and it also is not good for congregational growth for crying out
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loud you know if you but there's the Other Extreme and that is to to prog progati or or mechanize one's Assurance well why
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don't you do these things are you reading your Bible every day but here's a here's a go through that read through the bible program work on this are you praying an hour a day are you giving of
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your of your income to the church are you are you doing these things is there any fruit that we can look at and say look you're you're bearing fruit you're you're a you're a Christian neither one
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helps the one I don't know which one's more dangerous but certainly if the person is not a Believer to somehow convince them that they are is is
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ministerial malpractice and and and that Minister will answer in the day of judgment remember please that those of us who are called to the ministry will give an account for the shepherding of the souls
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God has placed under our care we have two judgments one is individual Believers and one is pastors and Shepherds and so to to lead someone astray and and to pave their way
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literally to hell with kind words and assurances that that's a very dangerous reaction to this very real problem but on the other hand to make Assurance based on
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based on performance is equally dangerous it is equally misleading it leads to Pride and pride of course leads to the
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to the fall this was a major issue during the Reformation primarily because the reformers recognized that the Roman Catholic teaching concerning Assurance was was not
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biblical and John Calvin went so far as to say it is a sin to doubt your salvation well maybe it is but so are a lot of other things too Calvin was pretty hard on that though that no you
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don't you don't doubt your salvation and to that Rome responded by saying it's a sin not to doubt your salvation or I should say it's a sin to not doubt your
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salvation the Roman Church convened a councel after councel after Luther and Calvin initiated the renov uh the Reformation the Council of Trent was
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known to historians as The Counter Reformation in the sixth session of that Council one of the Cannons it it deals quite a bit with this idea of
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assurance and one of the canons the the outcomes Canon 16 of that session excuse me uh yes Canon 16 if anyone saith that
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he will for certain of an absolute and infallible certainty have that great gift of perseverance unto the end
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unless he have learned this by special Revelation let him be anathema let him be a be a cursed in Modern English that means if
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you don't doubt your salvation if you claim that you are eternally secure in Jesus Christ Rome says let you be a cursed and unless you have a special
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Revelation but isn't this special enough he who began a good work in you will be faithful to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus is that not special enough
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now you have to have a visitation from an angel or from a departed Saint assuring you of your salvation for
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Rome to allow that that Doctrine in Rome for your information has not changed none of the councils since Trent have ever abrogated that principle that it is
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a sin a sin worthy of curse that you should not doubt your salvation but rather your salvation is contingent upon
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the continued acceptance of you and your works by the church well Protestants protest against that
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and we have um we have deop developed a security the p in tulip perseverance of
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the Saints we've developed a security that in some instances May indeed be of false security I I've told this story before
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so those of you who've heard it please forgive me but one time I was traveling in a car between Colorado Springs and Denver with my siblings and my brother noticed a street sign an exit sign
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Baptist Road he said look Chuck once paved always
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paved yeah he got me there my brother is a um very faithful believer no doubt of his salvation he's also uh a member of Assemblies of God which to their credit are consistent arminians meaning they do
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teach you can lose your salvation of course a reformed tradition is that we do persevere but the point I think we need to make as we look at such passages
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as this verse 21 where God will possibly cut us cut us off is that our Assurance cannot be based on our own performance or even our
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own perception of our position but rather must be firmly grounded in the work of Jesus Christ and so we don't want to ignore
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what he says here in verse 21 neither will he spare you if he was willing to cut off those branches who were in unbelief neither will he spare you but
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what do we do with that can I be cut off again the fear of losing one's salvation is very very
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real in my experience it's only very very real in those in whom I have no doubt out of their salvation I don't think I've ever had a
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rank unbeliever ask me if they've lost their salvation because frankly they don't care but it is a very real and it is a very traumatic and tormenting emotion
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and some of you as I I know have experienced that so maybe I pray that that Paul's word here and the understanding of it will actually give us comfort those of us who are secure in
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Christ Passage mes like this do bring fear to the hearts of many True Believers another more familiar one is Hebrews 6 and I'm not going to read the whole passage but it begins out those those who have been enlightened and have
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have tasted of the goodness of God but have then Fallen away it is impossible to renew them to repentance since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God many point to that verse and say
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look you can lose your salvation the problem with the theologies and the serologies that are behind that is that they also teach that you can regain it they call these
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backslidden Christians okay you've Fallen away but but you can come back well that's not what the passage says the passage says it's impossible to renew them again to
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repentance so if we're going to go down the road of being able to lose your salvation it's one strike and you're out not three not 10 it's one that's a
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problem with that interpretation because we all know the weakness of our flesh and of our steadfastness and our faithfulness to God it's hard for any of us if we've
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really looked at what the scripture says it's hard for any of us not to conclude that we have indeed Fallen away but we also know that it it is not
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impossible that we should repent of our apostasy and of our weakness why do Believers doubt
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and can we have Blessed Assurance I don't particularly care for that hymn by the way not putting in a request um but can we have Blessed Assurance can
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we have security again it was a major issue and and remains
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one when we look at our own lives we realize that we are we are not grateful enough we are not devout enough we are not Pious enough the Lord says in his word be holy for I
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the Lord your God am Holy both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament we look in the mirror and we say that is not I'm not looking at the Holiness of God and so we look at our
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own life and we say no I'm not devout enough or we look at the performance of our life and we say we're still doing the same sins that we've repented of and
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asked the Lord to Deliver Us from and we are still doing the same things we have the same negative attitudes we have the same negative responses to situations in other words we're we are not submitting
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to the Commandments of God to the love of Christ I'm reminded of this at every
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stop when we look at ourselves it is easy to doubt our Salvation And so this is a very very important but as I said no assurance that is based on performance or perception can ever stand hand the only solid foundation of
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security and of assurance is the finished work of Jesus Christ and I think that needs to be said before we actually dig into what Paul is saying
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here or when we're reading Hebrews 6 or any other passage that seems to indicate that once one is regenerate they can still become still become lost we need to establish in our minds
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that that initial salvation if we call it that was not based on our performance to begin with while we were yet enemies Christ died for us he commends his love
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for us that while we were sinners Christ died for us and so there's nothing that merited that salvation why do we then change the game as as Paul says to the
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Galatians you who were begun in the spirit are you now trying to work it out in the flesh and yet foolish is what we are when we do that
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and so we need to to understand and comprehend that Paul establishes the foundation of our Salvation in the work of Jesus Christ not in anything of our
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own performance or in our own will Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 therefore If any man be in Christ he is a new creat creature the
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old things have passed away behold new things have come the problem with the doctrine that you can lose your salvation is that there's no no place to go to you were dead in your trespasses and
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sin he made you alive and as a new creation all things have passed away behold all things are new there's no place to go you can't go back because
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Paul says I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live and yet the life that I live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me
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you who were baptized in Jesus Christ were baptized into his death and then raised to walk in newness of life there's something new here that he made it's not a
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yo-yo I'm in I'm out I'm in I'm out it doesn't work that way you're out you're out you're out you're in by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ you're
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in so what does Paul mean neither will he spare he spare you okay what do we do with these uh frankly horrifying passages of scripture
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that cause many of us great fear well first thing we don't divest Romans 11 7-21 of all meaning we don't simply ignore it we don't pass over Hebrews 6
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because it bothers us we don't do that we have to realize well first of all what God has done for me in Christ is permanent all who the
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father has given him he will lose none but raise them up on the last day there will be none that have been given to Christ for whom he died and shed his blood who will not receive the Eternal
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inheritance that he has secured for us that that's something we just have to plant in our minds as being clearly taught in scripture and from that position of strength and and Trust in
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his work we come to passages like this and we manfully deal with them and not run away from them so the first thing is we don't just divest it of all
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its meaning the metaphor that Paul uses is very common the idea of a of a Vineyard of an olive tree or of a Vine course in John 15 Jesus says I am
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the vine and my father is the vine dresser every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it that it may bear more more
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fruit this itself is an illusion to Isaiah 5 let me sing a song for my well beloved a song of my beloved concerning his
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Vineyard and he goes on in that passage the the Lord goes on through Isaiah the prophet to talk about how God prepared The Vineyard of Israel and planted his
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people in that Vineyard and he pruned it and he cared for it and he expected a Great Harvest and what he got was Weeds and worthless grape
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and so these are all metaphors that scripture uses to relate god with his people with the El with the idea of the vine and the vine dresser or the the Olive Tree and the
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husbandman in Isaiah 5 it is applied to the nation of Israel and Paul responds in Romans 9 by defining what that that metaphor means he says not all Israel
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are Israel and so that that we have to first of all understand what is Paul talking about when he's talking about cutting off the natural branches because it is the same
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understanding of that Horticultural activity that pertains to what he says when he says he will not spare you either and so he's talking about Israel
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in unbelief and so when we look at this metaphor applied to the church our mind should be drawn to certain Parables that the Lord taught
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for example the parable of the sewer that the seed fell among different types of plots of ground and some did take root and some did spring up but they
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withered away they did not come to fruition the parable of the wheat and the tears is another one that comes to mind that within the same plot the Lord has sown The Good Seed the
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word of the Gospel but the enemy has sewn the tears the weeds and they grow up together how are they known differently well the wheat bears fruit
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theirs do not and so they can be known but in that case they're not separated until the Harvest so we have this this metaphor is
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brought from the Old Testament into the new it's brought from the nation of Israel into the body of Christ or the church as we see it and as we can say not all Israel is
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Israel perhaps we can also say not all church is church is church not all believers are believers and that is a difficult saying
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but I think it it's one that that must be said and we're going to try to explore that explore that today so what does this passage here in Romans 11 teach well I would say in summary it does not teach that you can
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lose your lose your salvation and I may not be able to draw that immediately out of this passage itself but I can draw it from a countless other places of the nature of God and his faithfulness and that his
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call is without repentance his promise is without repentance I can I can defend it from the nature of regeneration itself that there's nothing to go back
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to there's no indication of scripture that once God has taken out that Heart of Stone that he saves it just in case he has to put it back in Someday I'm AB certainly hoping they don't put my
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appendix back in okay it's out it's done that new new heart is a New Covenant and the law of God is written upon it and God says these are my people and I am
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their God in a manner through Jesus his son that cannot be undone see these are the firm foundations of our faith firm so firm
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that even those passages like this one here in Romans 11 do not Shake our faith if we don't understand what they mean and we go to Hebrews 6 and we don't
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understand what it means we at least have to establish what it does not mean it does not mean that I can lose my salvation it does not mean that if I am
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grafted in to the root of Jesus Christ I can someday be cut off rather what it does teach is what is taught
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elsewhere that it is by grace through faith that we have been saved and not of Works in verse 18 He says remember it is not you who support the root but the root supports
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you this is a passive operation just like we read everywhere when the scripture refers to our Salvation it's something that is done for us by God we
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didn't jump up cut the tree and graft ourselves into ourselves into it by God's grace and mercy he grafted us unnatural olives into the one root he
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was the vine the vine dresser he was the horticulturist he did it he doesn't fail in his grass s either and so we recognize it is by
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grace through faith and not of Works how lest any man boast that word boast is the same root in the Greek as the word arrogant when he says be not arrogant he
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means do not boast in the movies whenever someone vaults whenever someone boasts you know you know where the plot's going they're going to be defeated in the next scene
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hey well Believers should not VA there's no cause to vaun and so he's teaching here that we are all saved by grace through faith but he's also
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looking ahead to the practical application of this whole teaching in Romans when he comes to Romans 14 where he says who are you to judge the servant of another to
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his own Master he will stand or fall and stand he will for the Lord is able to make him stand remember the circumstances here Rome is a church of
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mixed ethnicities Gentiles and Jews there's evidently some friction that we're going to see evident in Romans 14 and what he is saying to the Roman
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Gentile Believers is don't Lord it over the Jews the Jewish Believers don't don't exalt yourselves as those who were grafted in over the natural branches
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even those who were cut off if they reject their rejection if they abandon their unbelief they too will be grafted back
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in but in the meantime they are cut off because of their unbelief so the key to Isaiah 5 to John 15 to Romans 11 is not that the sinner
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attaches himself to the root but rather that the vine dresser is the one who first planted the root which was Israel and and who now prunes the unbelieving Israel and grafts in the Gentile
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Believers this is all a work of God through Grace or by grace through faith there's no room for arrogance there's no
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room for boasting there's no room for smug complacency smug complacency either and so that's why Paul says here in verse 20o not be
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conceited but fear we've done a great disservice to that word fear in modern biblical interpretation you may have heard it in sermons you may have read it in
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commentaries but we are told that that word means word means reverence no the word means fear fear is in Terror fear is coming before a a God who
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is a consuming fire fear of a god whose eyes are too pure even to look upon evil or iniquity and yet the reason for this
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reinterpretation of the word is that we are faced with the question what do Believers have to fear those in whom there is no condemnation now that they are in Christ
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what do they have to fear well Paul seems to think that they have a very real fear that branches may be cut off
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because of their arrogance and yet that is not exactly what he what he says what he says is that the natural branches were cut off not because of
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their arrogance but because of their unbelief and that is the warning that then stands for the church I guess it's possible for
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Christians to be arrogant though Paul warns against it and yet not be cut off I think it's very possible because those who are truly grafted in will not be cut off though
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they be judged for their arrogance in future well if you will pardon a Shameless pun
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I'm going to go out on a limb I'm going to try to um offer an explanation of these very difficult passages that both gives them Credence
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and strength and yet does not touch the biblical reality that once we are by grace in grace in Christ there there is therefore now no
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condemnation and no reason to fear being cut off and so going out on the limb I'm going to introduce a new type of person
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called an associate Christian he this is a person who Associates himself or herself with
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Jesus Christ someone who is close to the branch but not actually a part of it if we look at John 15 when Jesus is
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telling his disciples that he is the vine his father is the vine dresser every Branch within me that does not bear fruit he will cut off well one of those branches whether he was still in
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the room at the time or not we don't really know but one of them was clearly not bearing the right fruit Judas a scariot was a associate
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Christian he was associated with Jesus Christ when you read the gospels and you and you see Jesus sending out the 12 to cast out demons and to preach the gospel
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do you realize Judas is scary it is one of those he's going around the Villages of Israel preaching the kingdom and casting
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out demons there were those in the Judgment who said Lord Lord we cast out demons in your name and he says depart from me you workers of iniquity I never knew you you
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see they Associated themselves with themselves with Christ so by associate Christian I don't mean a real Christian I mean one who is
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associated as opposed to a rank Pagan or unbeliever who has nothing to do with the Church of Jesus Christ there are other examples of associate Christians
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for example faithful members of a church or a or a denomination I think this is something that we've all probably experienced at least in someone else hopefully not in
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ourselves but that is putting your faith and your trust in your church membership or the the the phrase you my my ancestors were charter members of
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this church you can almost hear God saying whoop ddoo you know but there's this attitude it may be falling away as Church
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attendance is dropping but it certainly was very endemic within all denomination and that is a pride that that that kills because it
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because it deceives these are associate Christians if you ask them they would they would vehemently Proclaim their being Christians another associate Christian
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not by any fault of their own but children we are told by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 that if we are obedient and we remain with an unbelieving spouse
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he says therefore Your Children Are Holy otherwise they would be unclean now now we understand that children are not saved by our own faith
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we understand that and so when he when he says they are holy we know that they are set apart but we shouldn't go the the other step and say they're members of the community that they are children
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of God through Jesus Christ they are not yet so if you if you want to go back to the metaphor of the Olive Tree or of any tree look at it this way
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there are branches that come out from the trunk and then there are branches that come out from the branches now we know that in horiculture
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all of the branches will receive their sustenance from the trunk but in biblical metaphor that is not the way it is what the secondary branches receive
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is not the life of God through Jesus Christ it is a life of blessing and of good Prospect but it is not the immediate
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source of life that is received by the branch that is grafted into the root these are the associate Israelites those that were descendants
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of Abraham Isaac and Jacob but they were not Sons and Daughters of Abraham by faith they could claim Heritage they could claim that they were part of the
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of the tree as it were but they were not receiving their life from the one trunk if you carry the metaphor a little
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further and I go a little bit further out on the limb when our children repent and receive Jesus Christ as their
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lord what is happening is the vine dresser is trimming that Branch off of our branch our branch and grafting it in to the true Branch
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the trunk their life their guidance is no longer coming mediated through us as their believing parents but now coming directly from Jesus Christ through the
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Holy Spirit and that alone is true life that is alone is a true Israelite that alone is a True Believer and so it's a funnyl looking tree I'll grant that when
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all of the true branches are coming out of the trunk but that is what the metaphor means here and when he says you two can be cut off again he's comp he's not comparing true
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Israelites with true Christians you got to keep the parallel here with Paul he's he's comparing
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associate Israelites those who are not really Israel at all with associate Christians those who are not really Christians at Christians at all so the the true Israelite had
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nothing to fear from what Paul was saying did they Paul certainly didn't think he could be cut off and so he was not speaking to those who were truly grafted into the trunk he
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was speaking to the many branches whether because of the attendance of church or because of members in a family these many branches that are that are associated with the tree and that are
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receiving a blessing from the tree but not life yet and so that's why he says fear don't don't take your life in
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Christ for Christ for granted do not be conceited do not be complacent you you cannot receive the life of God through Jesus Christ through
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your parents you cannot receive the life of God through Jesus Christ through this church or any other Church you cannot remain an associate
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Christian you will be cut off and it is better to realize that now and to repent and to seek God's grace to
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be grafted into that trunk yourself than to stand in that day and hear those horrible words depart from me I never knew you it really doesn't
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matter how close to the trunk you are with your parents you go to church with your parents you read your Bible with your parents you do prayer and devotional it doesn't matter how close
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you are to the trunk it does in a way certainly there's a blessing in that but there's not eternal life in that until you are grafted into that roote you are not a
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true Christian and I think that's what Paul is teaching as for Hebrews 6 that's a different story and uh we're not going to go there today because this is a three minut
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three minut sermon um sermon um hopefully okay so children of Believers no matter what age do do not consider your association with your believing
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parents to be saving it is not but Believers he still says to us do not be conceited rather fear I want to look
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ahead a little bit to verse 22 he says if you continue in his kindness that's a very significant phrase for the church because the church
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has given very short shrift to the kindness of God the church has often portrayed God as a almost a pagan deity
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who is just eager and anxious to zap us all with lightning bolts even the the famous sermon sinners in the hands of an Angry God he not really that
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good it's not really that biblical honestly in its portrayal of God it is very much a product of its own time but not a product of product of scripture we we know that God so loved
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the world that he sent his son that is often not the god that is portrayed to us in religious literature and so he says if you continue in his what his
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wrath his demanding nature no if you continue in his kindness how can we know how can we be assured thir of our
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Salvation well we can consider this that the deepest insult to God is to despise his gifts of Life of Hope of
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faith of faith of Grace I've said before that it seems to me that man's Chief sin if we read Romans 1 is that he refused to give
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thanks and I think that's the same spirit in which Paul is writing right here that we continue in his kindness we're not arrogant toward one another we're not arrogant toward the Jews we
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recognize that what we have we have been given and we do not Merit it at all but it has come from God's overwhelming Eternal kindness and he says continue in that
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kindness and how do we continue in that kindness well the sure Foundation of assurance is assurance is gratitude and so the writer of Hebrew
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says through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give
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thanks to his name let us pray father we do ask that by your grace and mercy that you would bless
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us with the associate branches being grafted into the one root that our children might indeed come to repentance and faith knowing that it is by your
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grace that they shall do so but father I ask that no one here would consider their Assurance to be founded on the faith of
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another even the faith of many others rather than the faith that you have given them alone we pray father that that you would Open
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the Eyes of the blind that you would open the ears of those who are deaf that you would Rejoice the hearts of those who
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fear and fear and doubt and Grant them the joy of their salvation and the Assurance of the perfect work done on our behalf by your son
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Jesus Christ for it is in his name we pray amen please stand for the benediction another verse that I wonder
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how the Roman Catholics do not consider this special Revelation now may the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit soul and body be
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preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass amen