So, on page 1138, Romans chapter 11. So, 1138, we're going to read from verse 11 to the end of the chapter, verse 36.
Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring?
I'm talking to you, Gentiles. In so much as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy.
If the root is holy, so are the branches.
Well, if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches.
If you do, consider this.
You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
You will say then, branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.
Granted.
But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith.
Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
Consider, therefore, the kindness and sternness of God.
Sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.
Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature, were grafted into a cultivated olive tree,
how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited.
Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved.
As it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion.
He will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account.
But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs.
For God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
Just as you who are at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience,
so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.
For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen.
Thanks very much, Ralph.
Well, we're taking out quite a large chunk this morning.
We're not going to cover every single verse.
And there may be questions that arise.
And so, as always, if there are questions that you have afterwards, please do talk with me.
Well, let's pray and ask for God's help for us as we look at this together.
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out!
Father, as we think about your work in this world and your plan of salvation, there is so much that we cannot get our minds around.
But yet there is so much that you have revealed to us.
There are things that you have made clear.
And it's to those clear things that we now turn and ask.
That you would make them understandable to our minds.
And that you would implant them deep within our hearts.
So that we see the wonder afresh of your amazing grace.
The way in which your gospel works to save people.
And we ask, Father, for your Holy Spirit to be at work in us all together now.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
You may remember the children's story called The Magic Porridge Pot.
Do you remember reading that when you were a bit younger?
It's about a little girl who lived with her grandmother.
And because they were very poor, grandmother sent the little girl off into the forest to find food.
And while she was there, she meets this old lady who gives her the magic porridge pot.
And it came with two very simple instructions.
If you wanted porridge, you simply said, cook, little pot, cook.
And you got as much porridge as you wanted.
And when you wanted it to stop, you said, stop, little pot, stop.
And the porridge pot would stop cooking.
And everything was going well.
Everything was fine until one day the little girl forgot how to stop the porridge pot.
And the porridge overflowed into the kitchen.
And soon the porridge began to overflow out the door and down the road.
And no matter what she said, the porridge continued to flow.
And soon every street in the village and every home, according to my little book anyway, was full of porridge.
And it kept overflowing.
But God's grace is like this porridge pot.
It continues to overflow to all kinds of people in all kinds of places, especially to those who have rejected his grace.
Look at verse 11.
Again, I ask.
Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?
This question here is setting the big theme for the rest of the text.
And it's simply this.
It's asking this question.
People who have gone to church.
People who grew up reading their Bibles.
People who know the good news of Jesus, but have now turned their back on God.
Are they beyond recovery?
Have they fallen beyond grace?
Have they put themselves out of reach of God's grace?
Well, look at the answer.
Not at all.
No one is beyond God's grace.
In fact, we should never write people off as having no hope.
God's grace continues to flow to all kinds of people in all kinds of places, especially to those who have rejected his grace.
So we're going to look at the way in which God's grace overflows into people's lives.
First, the attractive nature of God's grace.
Let's read verse 11 again.
Again, I ask.
Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?
Not at all.
Rather, because of their transgression, because of their rejection of God's grace,
salvation has come to the Gentiles, to people who were irreligious,
to people who never went to church or read their Bibles,
to make Israel envious.
You see, God's plan for those who have rejected his grace and turned his back on him
is to make them envious and jealous.
If you remember the illustration from a couple of weeks ago,
it's like the little,
trying to give a gift to one of your little children.
You want them to enjoy this gift that you have prepared for them.
You want them to take pleasure in it,
to open it and to enjoy it because it's good for them.
But instead of receiving it from you,
they reject it and throw it away in a temper.
So what can you do because you desperately want your child to have this good gift?
Well, you take it away from your child
and you go next door and you give it to the kid who lives there.
And immediately that child sees how beautiful this gift is
and they receive it with joy and they open it,
they unpack it and they're delighted with it.
And it's only then will your child see its true value and want it back.
Why?
Because they have become envious.
They've become jealous.
They want the gift.
And that's God's purpose in making his grace known to other people.
Look at verse 13.
I am talking to you Gentiles
in as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles.
I make much of my ministry.
So here's Paul who's grown up with his religious background.
But now he says,
look, I'm now preaching God's grace to those who are not my loved ones,
those who are not my people,
those who are not within my family.
And here's the reason, verse 14,
in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy
and save some of them.
The hope is that people who grew up knowing God's grace
but have now turned their back on it
will see God's grace in the life of other people
and will say,
I want that too.
You see, there is something deeply attractive
about a person who has come to experience the grace of God.
Not only do you know God's forgiveness and love
in your mind and in your head,
but you actually are transformed and changed.
You become incredibly forgiving and loving of other people.
Not only do you experience peace with God
and an acceptance with God,
but you become a person of peace,
a person who begins to accept others
no matter what their background is.
When we experience the grace of God in our own life,
then grace begins to overflow from us
to those around us.
We display a character that is beautiful and attractive
and people will look at your life
and they'll want to know,
what is the difference with you?
Why do you behave that way?
Why are you so different?
And they will become envious and jealous
and will want what you have.
They will want who you have,
the Lord Jesus.
So if you are a Christian,
God's grace has overflowed into your life
so that God's grace can overflow from your life
to other people,
especially to those who have rejected his grace.
second, the humbling nature of God's grace.
Look at verse 17.
If some of the branches have been broken off,
that is, those who have rejected God's grace.
If some of the branches have been broken off
and you, though a wild olive shoot,
have been grafted in among the others
and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,
do not boast over those branches.
If you are somebody here this morning
who has experienced God's grace in your own life,
don't sit back and gloat and boast.
Don't think that somehow you are better or superior
than those who once used to sit here
or once had heard God's grace
but have now rejected God's grace.
Look at the rest of verse 18.
If you do,
consider this,
you do not support the root,
but the root supports you.
The picture is very clear, isn't it?
We've got here an olive tree
and the only way that that tree is going to live
is because of its roots.
The root gives it life.
It nourishes it and it feeds it.
And if you were to cut a branch off from that tree,
it will die because it's not connected to the roots.
Well, the image is this,
that God's grace is the root for our life.
It gives us forgiveness.
It brings us peace with God.
It's the nourishing sap that feeds us.
But if you are cut off from God's grace,
if you are taken away from that source,
you will die.
Again, look at the end of verse 18.
You do not support the root,
but the root supports you.
If you are a Christian,
you are only a Christian
because of God's grace in your life.
We have nothing whatsoever to boast about
or to gloat over
or somehow think I am superior
because I have God's grace.
In fact, he's saying,
look carefully at the way
in which God has accepted you.
Look at verse 17 again.
If some of the branches have been broken off
and you,
though a wild olive shoot,
have been grafted in among the others
and now share in the nourishing sap
from the olive root.
If you have God's grace,
it's only because
you have been grafted in.
You were once outsiders.
Look at the word there.
You were a wild olive shoot.
You belonged elsewhere,
but you were cut off from that
and you were grafted into the tree of life,
into God's grace.
And now you are included and welcomed
and accepted as one of his children.
So,
look at the end of verse 20.
Do not be arrogant,
but be afraid.
For if God did not spare the natural branches,
he will not spare you either.
It's a warning.
Don't ever become boastful.
Don't ever become superior.
Be a humble person.
Don't ever think that you're somehow better
for knowing God's grace
than the person who has rejected God's grace.
Be careful, he is saying.
Verse 22.
Consider therefore the kindness
and the sternness of God.
Sternness to those who fell,
but kindness to you,
provided that you continue in his kindness.
Otherwise,
you also will be cut off.
There is no room
for an arrogant and boastful Christian.
So imagine then
what the community would be like
if we were to live humble lives.
Not judging and condemning those
who have rejected God's grace.
Not pointing our fingers
and counting up all their sins
and saying,
oh, you know what,
they weren't there again on Sunday.
Or did you hear about
what they did last week?
Not boasting and gloating
over them all the time.
Verse 24.
After all,
if you were cut out of an olive tree
that is wild by nature
and contrary to nature,
in other words,
it was nothing to do with yourself,
were grafted into a cultivated olive tree,
how much more readily will these,
the natural branches,
be grafted into their own olive tree?
By living such humble lives,
God's grace will overflow from you to others,
especially to those who have grown up
knowing God's grace,
but at present are rejecting it.
They too, he is saying,
can still be grafted in.
So there is an attractive nature.
There is a humbling nature
that God's grace brings to us.
And third,
the pursuing nature of God's grace.
Look at verse 25.
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery,
brothers,
so that you may be conceited.
He says,
look,
the mystery is clear.
It's not hidden.
It's been made known.
And this is what the mystery is,
that God's grace
overflows to all kinds of people
in all kinds of places.
It doesn't matter
whether you are black or white,
whether you are Irish or French,
religious or irreligious.
God's grace overflows
all the time,
irrespective of what your background may be.
And his grace continues to overflow,
especially to those
who have rejected his grace.
Look at the rest of verse 25.
Israel has experienced
a hardening in part
until the full number
of the Gentiles has come in.
He's making it clear
that there were those
like those of Israel
who had grown up
knowing God's grace.
They'd heard the stories.
They'd experienced so much.
And in their rejection of it,
in their rejection of Jesus,
the Messiah,
it had now begun to overflow
to other nations
and to other people.
But the point is,
God had not given up on them.
He didn't turn his back on them.
Verse 26.
And so,
all Israel will be saved
as it is written.
The Deliverer will come from Zion.
He will turn godlessness
away from Jacob.
And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.
God's grace will continue to overflow.
He doesn't give up on his people.
He continues to pursue them,
to chase after them.
He doesn't write people off
just because they've stopped
going to church
or just because they don't read
their Bibles anymore
or because they've had
one big failure in their life.
He doesn't write them off.
Recently,
I cleared out a small box
in my study
and inside it,
I discovered a load of letters,
love letters
from Kirstie.
Now,
I'm not going to read them all.
They'll be published
in the paper someday.
But they were letters
of pursuit
at a time when I had
ignored her love
and I wouldn't write
to her anymore
and I thought she'd done this
and, well,
you know how it goes.
But in one of her letters,
I read this,
that while she hadn't
heard from me,
she would keep
writing to me.
Her love was still there
even though I had
pushed it away.
I think that's how it went anyway.
You can check that later.
But in the same way,
God continues to pursue us
and to chase after us
even though our arms
push Him away
and reject His grace.
That is why we can say
with such confidence
in verse 26,
and so all Israel
will be saved.
All God's people
will be saved.
He will pursue them.
He will chase them.
He will bring them in.
Of course,
here in verse 26,
Israel here is,
I think,
an all-inclusive term
referring to
all God's people.
Go back a minute
to chapter 9,
verse 6.
Chapter 9,
verse 6.
This is how he started
his whole theme out.
It is not as though
God's word had failed.
It's not that God
has given up on His people.
For not all who are
descended from Israel
are Israel.
You see,
the true Israel,
the true people of God
are defined
not by nationality
or race,
but by their faith
in Christ,
by their faith
in the Lord Jesus.
So God,
as He pursues
His people
by grace,
we can be confident,
absolutely assured,
that He will save
all those
He will save.
Go back to
chapter 11,
verse 29.
For God's gifts
and His call
are irrevocable.
those whom God
calls out to.
God will save
and He will bring
to Himself.
God's grace
overflows.
And let's not lose
the focus here.
Just because people
reject God's grace,
it doesn't mean
that He will reject them.
Look at verse 30.
Just as you
who were at one time
disobedient to God
have now received
mercy
as a result
of their disobedience.
So again,
He's repeating
the theme
that people
who had rejected
God's mercy,
it now overflows
to other people
who have accepted
God's mercy.
But,
what about those
who did reject it?
What about them?
Well,
He tells us
in verse 31.
So they too
have now become
disobedient
in order
that they too
may now receive
mercy
as a result
of God's mercy
to you.
For God has bound
all men over
to disobedience
so that He may
have mercy
on them all.
He saves everybody
in exactly the same way.
We're all disobedient.
We've all rejected Him.
We've all rebelled on Him.
And it's only because
of His kindness
and His mercy
that any of us
are His children.
Let me make it
very practical
to us.
If you are a Christian
and you have friends
or family
who have grown up
knowing all about
God's grace
and mercy,
maybe you have
a close friend,
maybe it's a son
or a daughter
or a spouse.
But at this point
in time
even though
they have
all the wealth
and all the knowledge
and the understanding
they are rejecting it
and pushing it away.
The point is this.
When they see
God's mercy
and grace
in your life,
when they see
the way it
transforms your life
and changes you,
you will become
so attractive
to them.
When they see
your humble life,
the way in which
you don't point fingers
and accuse
and nag
and the way
you accept,
it will cause
their hearts
to become soft
and they will
begin to see
the beauty
of God's mercy
and grace
in your life
and they will say
that is what I want.
I need the one
who can make
that change
in my life.
God's grace
overflows
to all kinds
of people
especially,
especially
to those
who have
rejected
his grace.
As we've gone
through
this section
in Romans,
it's raised
lots and lots
of questions
for me
and I know
it's raised
lots and lots
of questions
to you
with some
of the
conversations
that we've
had
and I don't
pretend to have
all the answers
as to why
some people
accept God's
grace
and why other
people reject
God's grace.
I don't
understand
how God
chooses some
and yet
we are all
responsible
for our choices.
I don't know
why I had
the privilege
of growing up
in a Christian
home where
I was taught
the good news
about Jesus
while there
are many
thousands
and millions
across the
world who
still haven't
heard.
I don't
understand it.
I can't
get my
head around
it.
But yet
I do
know this
and I
understand
this and
it is
crystal clear
that God's
grace continues
to flow to
all kinds
of people
in all
kinds of
places
across this
world
especially
to those
who have
rejected his
grace.
He does
not give
up on
his people.
And so
he concludes
verse 33
Oh the
depth
of the
riches
of the
wisdom
and the
knowledge
of God.
It's
amazing
just to
stand
back
and see
how God
works
his salvation
in so
many places
and in
so many
people.
How
unsearchable
his
judgments
and his
paths
beyond
tracing
out.
None
of us
could
think up
this idea
this plan
of salvation
this overflow
of grace.
None
of us
could create
something as
wonderful
and as
beautiful
as God's
grace
towards us
in his
son.
Verse 34
Who
has known
the mind
of the
Lord
or who
has been
his
counsellor?
Did God
ever come
along to
you and
consult you
or me
and ask
how do I
run the
universe?
Did God
ever call
into you
and ask
for advice
about how
he should
rule the
world?
So why
would we
ever think
that God
would somehow
fail in
his salvation's
plan or
that he
somehow got
it wrong?
God
knows what
he is
doing.
Verse 35
Who
has ever
given to
God that
God should
repay him?
The fact
that God
has saved
anyone
is incredible
and his
grace continues
to overflow.
Verse 36
For from
him
and through
him
and to
him
are all
things.
God is
the source
of all
life.
He is
the sustainer
of all
life.
He is
the saviour
of all
kinds of
people in
all kinds
of places
and nobody
is beyond
his limits.
Nobody is
so far
away,
especially
those who
have rejected
his grace.
To
him
won't
be the glory
forever.
Amen.
Let's
pray.
Let's
pray.
Amen.
Just take a moment or two.
Maybe it's to pray for yourself if you have not yet known God's grace in your own life.
Maybe you want to pray for a friend or someone within your family
who at this moment in time is rejecting or pushing against God's grace.
Pray for them.
That God would soften their hearts.
Amen.
Father God, you are God and we are not.
We have many questions about salvation and about faith.
Things we just don't understand and things we just can't comprehend.
But we stand back in amazement.
We stand back trusting you.
And seeing so clearly that your grace continues to overflow.
And we pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit,
your mercy and your kindness would flow to those who we know and love.
That they would cry out for forgiveness.
That they would find peace with God.
And that, Father, you would show your grace to us afresh in a deeper way.
So that we become more attractive.
So that we become more humble.
And that from the overflow of our lives,
people would see the goodness and the grace of God.
And come to trust in him.
We ask this for your honour.
And for your glory alone.
Amen.
We're going to...