WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.560 Our reading today is taken from Romans chapter 11 and we're reading the whole chapter. 00:00:07.560 --> 00:00:18.000 ! I ask then, did God reject his people? By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:25.400 ! from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Don't you know what 00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:32.239 scripture says in the passage about Elijah? How he appealed to God against Israel? Lord, they have 00:00:32.239 --> 00:00:37.859 killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left and they are trying to kill me. 00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:47.259 And what was God's answer to him? I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. 00:00:48.239 --> 00:00:55.119 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace and if by grace then it cannot 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:03.799 be based on works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace. What then? What the people of Israel 00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:11.379 sought so earnestly they did not obtain? The elect among them did, but the others were hardened. 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:19.039 As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:27.160 to this very day. And David says, may their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a 00:01:27.160 --> 00:01:33.520 retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:45.080 Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:54.120 transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgressions 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:59.799 means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentile, how much greater riches 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:08.259 will their full inclusion bring? I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am apostle to the Gentiles, 00:02:08.259 --> 00:02:15.379 I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some 00:02:15.379 --> 00:02:23.079 of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life 00:02:23.079 --> 00:02:30.199 from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy. 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:38.519 If the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off and you, though 00:02:38.519 --> 00:02:44.659 a wild olive shoot, have been grafting in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from 00:02:44.659 --> 00:02:54.419 the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this. 00:02:54.419 --> 00:03:02.019 You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, branches were broken off so 00:03:02.019 --> 00:03:10.759 that I could be grafted in. Granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. 00:03:11.679 --> 00:03:20.099 Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 00:03:20.099 --> 00:03:29.459 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God. Sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:37.419 provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:44.479 in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:50.119 out of the olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated 00:03:50.119 --> 00:03:56.500 olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive 00:03:56.500 --> 00:04:03.599 tree? I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:10.159 be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:17.399 And in this way, all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. 00:04:18.180 --> 00:04:25.339 He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:33.060 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake. But as far as election is concerned, 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:39.480 they are loved on account of the patriarchs. For God's gift and his call are irrevocable. 00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:46.160 Just as you were at one time disobedient to God and have now received mercy as a result of their 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:54.079 disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a 00:04:54.079 --> 00:05:00.199 result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience, 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:08.779 so that he may have mercy on them all. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:17.379 of God. How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of 00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:24.740 the Lord or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay them? 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:36.800 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:41.740 Thanks, Vanessa. Let's pray as we come to God's word. Let's pray. 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:51.819 Heavenly Father, we want to pray and ask for your help this morning as we come to your words. 00:05:53.500 --> 00:06:02.920 We are hungry for what you have to give us. We are thirsty for refreshment from your words. 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:09.939 We pray please, Lord, that despite the weakness of the preacher, despite the weakness of all of us, 00:06:09.939 --> 00:06:15.600 you might be gracious to us by your spirit this morning. Speak to us for the sake of your glory 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:24.540 and for our good in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, that's a really, really long reading. Okay. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:29.560 Which is why my wife read it because I didn't feel like I could inflict it on anybody else. 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:37.019 But let's start with a really obvious truth as we begin. It is really obvious, I hope, 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:45.000 to all of us this morning that we can never fully know God. We know that, don't we? 00:06:46.419 --> 00:06:53.099 You know, if we knew all that God knows, if we understood all that God understands, 00:06:53.359 --> 00:06:59.919 if we recognized all of God's ways and had no questions about what he did, why he did it, 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:06.040 the way that he did things, then you know, don't you, that if that's the case, it's not the real God 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:14.379 you're thinking about. That God is a God of your imagination. Because that's where he lives and is 00:07:14.379 --> 00:07:20.500 limited to. He's a made-up God, small enough for us to understand. Because the real God, the one who 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:26.439 made us, the one who made this world and to whom this world belongs, that God is by very definition 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:35.939 too big for us to understand fully. He is our creator and we are his creatures. 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:43.939 And creatures never fully understand their creator. This is where the passage ends, isn't it, this morning? 00:07:44.019 --> 00:07:47.339 Look at verse 33. Notice how Paul talks about God. 00:07:47.339 --> 00:07:54.119 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments 00:07:54.119 --> 00:07:59.839 and his paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:05.919 Paul's conclusion after everything he has said, all the way to this point in the book of Romans, 00:08:06.019 --> 00:08:14.039 he goes, bottom line, I just don't understand God. I cannot fathom him. His judgments are unsearchable. 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:20.780 No one knows his mind or tells him what to do. God is God. But although Paul knows true things about 00:08:20.780 --> 00:08:26.080 God, though God has revealed himself and his ways to Paul, still Paul at the end of all of that, 00:08:26.140 --> 00:08:30.000 and at the end of all of that writing that we've been looking at, he still says, do you know what? 00:08:30.939 --> 00:08:37.460 God is bigger and beyond all of my understanding. Notice this isn't just intellectual understanding, 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:43.139 is it? It's not simply that God is more complicated than rocket science or brain surgery or whatever it is 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:49.759 that's complicated to me or you. It is more than just that. It is that God himself is self-sufficient. 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:58.159 It's not just that you cannot understand God. You cannot get God into a position where he needs you or me. 00:08:59.740 --> 00:09:05.779 We can't control God. We can't put God in our debt. Again, by very definition, 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:13.639 we have nothing that God needs because we have nothing that didn't first belong to him that he 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:20.860 gave to us. So we can't make bargains with him. We can't suggest, oh God, listen, you do this for me 00:09:20.860 --> 00:09:29.559 if I do that for you. We can't. God is free from obligation from us. Verse 35, who has ever given to 00:09:29.559 --> 00:09:38.259 God that God should repay them? No one. For from him and through him and for him are all things to him be 00:09:38.259 --> 00:09:46.519 the glory forever. Amen. Notice how Paul puts it, all things are from him. Everything that you have has 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:52.439 come to you from this God. And so it stands to reason that you cannot give back to him what is 00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:59.860 already his so that he owes you. You couldn't borrow my car and hire it back to me to earn you money, 00:10:00.140 --> 00:10:04.300 could you? That would be unreasonable and unfair. And if you suggested it to me, I would say no. 00:10:05.260 --> 00:10:10.200 Well, we can't treat God like that either. We can't use the lives that he has given us, 00:10:10.580 --> 00:10:15.680 the gifts that he has given us, the opportunities that he has given us, and say that we're going to 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:23.399 spend them in a way that then makes God obliged to treat us in a certain way. Now, just meditate on 00:10:23.399 --> 00:10:27.199 this for a moment. I don't know what it is that you do all week. I know some of you do some really 00:10:27.199 --> 00:10:36.839 complicated things, right? Some of you run complicated businesses or busy homes. Some of you understand the 00:10:36.839 --> 00:10:43.740 great mysteries of the universe, like how to rewire a home or how to keep time on a drum. I don't know any 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:49.180 of those things. One of you at least knows how to navigate the back roads of Wilsden. I've been in 00:10:49.180 --> 00:10:54.919 the car with you. It was incredible. Perhaps you know multiple languages and you can hop between them 00:10:54.919 --> 00:11:03.779 at will. Listen, whatever it is, right? For all your greatness, the humbling truth is you have nothing 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:09.680 that you haven't been given. The air that you breathe, the skills that we have, the hard work that we've been 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:14.479 able to do, the opportunities that have come our way, the situation we were born into, the education we 00:11:14.479 --> 00:11:19.120 received or didn't receive, the crowd we fell in with, the tragedies and the triumphs we've met along 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:25.779 the way, all of that has been in the hands of God, the one who is beyond our imagining, the one to whom 00:11:25.779 --> 00:11:32.259 we owe everything and before whom we have nothing. Even as we think those thoughts about him, we are on the 00:11:32.259 --> 00:11:39.879 very edges of the outskirts of the beginnings of what he might be like. Let me say to you, if you're 00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:43.860 not a Christian this morning and the thing that's holding you back from becoming a Christian is, I 00:11:43.860 --> 00:11:48.419 can't become a Christian yet because I still have questions. Maybe that's what you think. 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:55.860 You don't yet have all the answers. Well, it's helpful, isn't it, that while there are good answers to our 00:11:55.860 --> 00:12:00.600 questions in Jesus Christ, while knowing Jesus Christ is satisfying at a level that nothing else is, 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:07.360 still when it comes to God, you will never have all your questions answered because God is beyond you. 00:12:07.480 --> 00:12:14.500 He's beyond me. And so if you are saying, I am only going to trust in Christ when I arrive at a point 00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:22.019 at which all of my questions are answered, then what you're looking for is not faith because faith is 00:12:22.019 --> 00:12:29.139 not having all your questions answered, but is knowing who is trustworthy and reliable. Faith by definition 00:12:29.139 --> 00:12:33.199 recognises that God is God and we are not, and so we will not understand him. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:38.539 Now, in a way, it would be easy to end our sermon there, wouldn't it? We go, well, okay, 00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:46.259 message for today is a hopeless task to think about God. Why bother? Well, not so fast because 00:12:46.259 --> 00:12:52.139 not knowing everything is not the same as not knowing something. You know, we can not have 00:12:52.139 --> 00:12:59.580 exhaustive knowledge of God, but we can have essential knowledge of God. And right in the 00:12:59.580 --> 00:13:04.340 center of chapter 11, in the middle of this chapter that ends with this declaration of mystery, 00:13:04.539 --> 00:13:09.960 Paul gives us two things about God that we need to understand and we need to consider. So take a look 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:13.480 at verse 22, and this is where we're going to kind of launch off from the rest of the chapter from. 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:22.500 Verse 22, consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God's. Sternness to those who fell, 00:13:22.860 --> 00:13:30.360 but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off. 00:13:32.019 --> 00:13:37.259 Now, the word consider there, it's literally the word see or behold in the old English. And the point 00:13:37.259 --> 00:13:45.240 is that these two things, the kindness and the sternness of God are visible or exposed in what 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:50.799 Paul has been teaching. And he wants you and I to take care to see both those things this morning. 00:13:51.620 --> 00:13:57.740 He wants us to see God's kindness in salvation, but then also to see his sternness or his unbending 00:13:57.740 --> 00:14:04.779 justice in condemning wickedness. He says both are visible in the message about Jesus, the message he's 00:14:04.779 --> 00:14:10.659 been preaching, and both are important. So let's spend our time there this morning, seeing and 00:14:10.659 --> 00:14:16.360 thinking about the kindness and the sternness of God. And I have to warn you that seeing these things 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:20.620 is going to take a bit of work. You may remember if you were here a few weeks ago that the obsession 00:14:20.620 --> 00:14:28.699 of Paul at the minute is the salvation of the Jewish people in the church in Rome. And he's asking a 00:14:28.699 --> 00:14:32.959 question that we're not really asking and engaging with a topic that we find more obscure and difficult. 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:38.560 And these two characteristics, the kindness and severity of God, come in the context of this 00:14:38.560 --> 00:14:44.120 ongoing discussion about the Jews and the Gentiles. So we're going to have to see what Paul says to 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:51.879 Rome in AD 55 before jumping forward to London in 2026. So we've got our work cut out this morning. 00:14:52.180 --> 00:14:59.379 Let's start with the kindness of God, the kindness of God. God's kindness, says Paul, should be 00:14:59.379 --> 00:15:06.159 visible in his work in salvation in the church in Rome. His kindness to you is how he puts it in verse 22. 00:15:06.840 --> 00:15:12.960 And notice how this works. Paul's concern, remember, is the fact that only an apparently small number of 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:18.500 his fellow Jews have come to faith in Christ. Most of them have rejected the gospel. The church in Rome 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:24.379 is dominated by Gentile background believers, not Jewish background ones. And Paul has been wrestling 00:15:24.379 --> 00:15:32.019 with that. Why is that the case? It troubles him deeply. But he concludes all is not lost. Verse 1, 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:38.200 there are still some Jewish believers, including himself. Did God reject his people, he says? By no 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:43.259 means. I am an Israelite myself, he says, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:48.980 In other words, God hasn't completely rejected the Jews because, well, says Paul, I'm evidence of that. 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:55.080 In fact, verses 2 to 6, it's like in Elijah's day, when Elijah thought he was the only faithful Israelite 00:15:55.080 --> 00:16:01.320 left, and God told him there were 7,000 others remaining. Now, you might not know that Old Testament 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:06.080 story. Don't worry, you can look it up another time. Paul's point is simply that all the way through the Bible, 00:16:06.519 --> 00:16:13.639 God's people were a remnant amongst the ethnic Israelites. It was never everybody, but it was always 00:16:13.639 --> 00:16:21.000 somebody. And now that remnant of Jews who are following Jesus is still there, like Paul is. 00:16:21.539 --> 00:16:27.659 A remnant chosen by grace is how he puts it in verse 5. But there's more to this, because the 00:16:27.659 --> 00:16:33.220 kindness of God is not just visible in the remnant chosen by grace, but God's kindness, and this is the 00:16:33.220 --> 00:16:39.340 tricky bit, is seen in the absence of Jewish believers as well. The absence of Jewish believers 00:16:39.340 --> 00:16:48.200 has been good for the Gentiles. Why? Well, because in God's kindness, the sternness of his hardening of 00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:54.360 Jewish hearts has meant that the gospel message has traveled beyond the Jewish nation to the Gentiles. 00:16:55.019 --> 00:17:01.280 Listen to how he puts it in verse 7. What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did 00:17:01.280 --> 00:17:07.420 not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened. That is written, God gave them a spirit of 00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:12.740 stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear to this very day. Jump down to verse 11. 00:17:13.320 --> 00:17:19.620 Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:26.800 salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, 00:17:26.840 --> 00:17:31.840 and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring? 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:39.839 Now, there's mystery in these verses. And you may well ask, goodness me, was there not another way of doing this? 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:46.439 But that's not the point. The point is that we are to see God's moving of the gospel message between the Jews 00:17:46.439 --> 00:17:52.539 and the Gentiles. First, in the unbelief of the Jews to drive the message to the Gentiles, and then the belief 00:17:52.539 --> 00:17:58.859 of the Gentiles to draw the Jews in by jealousy, and then the drawing in of the Jews to bring it to all 00:17:58.859 --> 00:18:05.740 a glorious conclusion of some kind, we're to see in all of that, verse 22, the kindness of God at work. 00:18:06.599 --> 00:18:12.299 How does that work? Well, in a mysterious but glorious way, what Paul is telling us is that the 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:19.759 history of belief and unbelief in the world has been used by God not to minimize those that are saved, 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:27.420 but to maximize those who are saved. So that even in this severity or the sternness of judgment, 00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:33.079 you see the kindness of salvation, as the message leaves the Jewish nation and goes into all the world. 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:40.359 There's an important point here. We've seen over these last few weeks in Romans that Paul is wrestling 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:46.019 with the fact that many of the people who he loves the most, who he's concerned about dearly, 00:18:46.019 --> 00:18:51.279 have not come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. They are hostile, they're disinterested, 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:57.779 they've even persecuted him for trying to tell them about Jesus. And that has broken Paul's heart, 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:05.039 because he loves them, even more than he loves himself. But chapter 11 says, what he must not 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:12.480 conclude from that is that their unbelief is a failure in God's generosity. In other words, Paul is not to 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:17.900 look at his friends, his family, his fellow Jews who don't believe in the gospel and to go, do you know 00:19:17.900 --> 00:19:24.339 what, if I was God, I would have saved them, because I'm more generous than God is. If only God was as 00:19:24.339 --> 00:19:30.400 kind as I am, then all of these people would have been saved. But God's not as kind as I am, so they're 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:39.339 not saved. No, he realized he can't say that. God's righteous judgment over unbelief is his kindness in 00:19:39.339 --> 00:19:47.220 sending the message around the world. God's kindness is unfathomably great. Now think about how that applies. 00:19:48.399 --> 00:19:52.879 As you and I sit here this morning, our hearts break for the unbelief of friends and family. 00:19:53.899 --> 00:20:00.839 We live in probably the most unreached corner of London. We are surrounded by people who are rushing 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:06.839 headlong for judgment, some of whom used to be in this room, but are no longer here. 00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:12.099 And we don't understand all the whys and the wherefores of that, but what we must understand, 00:20:12.399 --> 00:20:18.639 what Paul is telling us here, we must understand that is not a failure of God's kindness. 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:28.799 It's not that if God was as kind as I am, all those people would be saved. We cannot out-kind God. 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:35.339 He is kindness itself. Now, you might say, well, that's a bit far-fetched, isn't it, Steve? 00:20:35.819 --> 00:20:42.500 Prove that to me. Prove that to me. Well, just think at where you are and what you're doing this 00:20:42.500 --> 00:20:47.919 morning. You're in church this morning, and you're listening to the message about Jesus Christ, 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:54.700 the gospel, the good news. You've heard it read. You've sung about it. What has been necessary 00:20:54.700 --> 00:21:02.440 to get you here this morning to this place? Well, for you and I to sit here this morning and hear 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:09.279 about Jesus, it was necessary, wasn't it, for unbelieving Jews in the first century to throw 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:13.539 out the apostles out of the synagogue so that they might go and preach to the Gentiles in their 00:21:13.539 --> 00:21:19.840 communities. Otherwise, the gospel would never have left Jerusalem or Judea. It required the stoning 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:26.359 of Stephen in Acts 7 to take the gospel to Samaria in Acts 8. It took the kind of zeal of Saul the 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:33.159 persecutor to become Paul the missionary in order to get the gospel to the Gentile nations. It took the 00:21:33.159 --> 00:21:37.740 hostility of the Roman Catholic Church to Martin Luther's discovery of salvation by grace alone 00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:45.240 to push the gospel away from the ruling classes and into the streets and the fields. It took the burning 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:51.160 of Ridley and Latimer in Oxford for their evangelical faith for people to understand that Jesus is more 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:59.700 important than power. It took the Second World War to ravage this city to bring Caribbean migration to 00:21:59.700 --> 00:22:05.319 London, who in the midst of racial hostility found spiritual homes in Baptist churches like ours, 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:13.240 and it's their service to the Lord that's kept churches like this going. Then waves of Christians coming 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:17.539 from around the world, especially from Africa, often fleeing war and poverty and persecution. 00:22:18.460 --> 00:22:24.700 The church in the UK has received a missionary force keeping the gospel light burning. All of that 00:22:24.700 --> 00:22:30.940 so that you could sit here, I could stand here, and we could hear about Jesus this morning. 00:22:32.019 --> 00:22:38.140 Don't forget, says Paul, the only reason you're here is because God is kind to you. 00:22:38.140 --> 00:22:45.900 You cannot outkind God. You cannot grasp God's kindness. You cannot bottom it out. 00:22:46.620 --> 00:22:51.420 So if you're a Christian this morning, you have to ask yourself, what more could God have done for me? 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:59.880 What more could he do? And if you're not a Christian, you know that too, don't you? 00:23:00.700 --> 00:23:06.000 What more could God do for you this morning? He has organized your own personal history, 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:11.140 the history of the world, that you might be sat here this morning and hear a message about his own son 00:23:11.140 --> 00:23:16.240 who died on a cross that you might be forgiven, that you might receive the gift of glory that you could 00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:21.200 never earn, that you don't deserve, that you wouldn't be able to achieve given all the lifetimes in the world. 00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:30.119 And he's brought you here, moving nations around you, so that you could be saved from hell for heaven. 00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:35.359 Why? Because he loves you and he's kind to you. 00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:41.739 So we need to see God's kindness, but secondly, we need to see God's sternness. 00:23:42.519 --> 00:23:45.199 It's an unusual word in verse 22. Let's read the verse again. 00:23:45.199 --> 00:23:49.359 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:55.259 Sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. 00:23:55.839 --> 00:23:59.759 Otherwise you will be cut off. You also will be cut off. 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:06.519 It's the only place in the Bible that that word sternness or severity, I think as some translations have it, is used. 00:24:07.179 --> 00:24:09.819 I don't think that should put us off though. Paul is pretty clear what he means. 00:24:09.819 --> 00:24:15.059 Notice the sternness of God is visible in his actions towards those who fell. 00:24:15.819 --> 00:24:21.199 In other words, God's sternness is not an irrational or illegitimate hatred of some people. 00:24:21.719 --> 00:24:25.879 Rather, it's his righteous judgment on sin. 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:30.260 It is his holding of people to account for unbelief. 00:24:30.259 --> 00:24:37.839 So notice that this sternness implies that unbelief is not God's fault, but our fault. 00:24:38.259 --> 00:24:39.680 We fell, not him. 00:24:40.579 --> 00:24:44.680 This is, I think, where we go wrong with some of the things that we've been looking at over the last few weeks. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:46.819 And we're going to think more about this this evening. 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:48.700 So if you've got questions, come back this evening. 00:24:48.700 --> 00:24:54.740 It is not we shouldn't think that people are basically morally neutral, right, towards God. 00:24:55.340 --> 00:25:00.319 And then God kind of chooses randomly to save some people and randomly not to save others. 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:04.299 Rather, the point is, and this has been the point all the way through the book of Romans, 00:25:04.899 --> 00:25:08.799 is that all of us, without exception, are hostile to God. 00:25:10.019 --> 00:25:11.240 Paul puts it like this, doesn't he? 00:25:11.379 --> 00:25:13.779 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:17.759 Not some of the worst people in the world have fallen short of the glory of God, 00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:21.159 but all people, you, me, everybody. 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:24.720 We're told in chapter 3, there is no one who seeks God. 00:25:25.019 --> 00:25:27.779 That means everybody, everybody in this room, everybody you've met. 00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:29.419 There is no one who understands. 00:25:29.420 --> 00:25:31.720 That's everybody, you, me included. 00:25:32.740 --> 00:25:36.539 Chapter 1 says, although we knew God by nature, 00:25:37.140 --> 00:25:41.019 we neither glorify God nor give thanks to him, 00:25:41.539 --> 00:25:43.400 but in our thinking we become futile. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:46.279 We exchange the truth about God for lies. 00:25:46.680 --> 00:25:48.680 We worship the creature instead of the creator. 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:55.440 And that is not just a few, that is all of us, without exception. 00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:02.620 And the sternness of God is that in his justice, he confirms people in the unbelief they desired. 00:26:02.619 --> 00:26:10.139 And so the kindness of God in salvation is actually really a supernatural enabling. 00:26:10.739 --> 00:26:16.639 The kindness of God is new birth, bringing in a new life that has new desires, 00:26:16.879 --> 00:26:19.979 that wants something different to what it wanted by nature, 00:26:19.980 --> 00:26:24.360 which is to follow God, to love him, to trust him, to live for him. 00:26:24.359 --> 00:26:30.699 And without new birth, we get what we always wanted. 00:26:31.539 --> 00:26:35.099 Life without God, stern judgment. 00:26:35.099 --> 00:26:43.059 Now, we don't understand why some are left in unbelief, the unbelief that we all have by nature. 00:26:43.819 --> 00:26:50.399 But we do know that if God is holy and he is, that unbelief must be judged. 00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:52.240 It must be judged. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:57.059 Paul describes the judgment as being broken off the tree. 00:26:57.660 --> 00:26:59.259 Verse 19, if you look at it. 00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:02.480 You will say then, this is the Gentiles speaking of the Jews, 00:27:02.940 --> 00:27:05.460 branches were broken off so I could be grafted in. 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:11.400 Granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief and you stand by faith. 00:27:12.120 --> 00:27:14.220 Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 00:27:14.819 --> 00:27:18.880 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:23.140 Here the picture is of a tree, isn't it? 00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:26.100 And belonging to God is belonging to the tree. 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:30.540 The natural branches were the Jews who have been broken off because of their unbelief 00:27:30.540 --> 00:27:33.080 and Gentile believers have been grafted in. 00:27:34.780 --> 00:27:39.200 And the unbelief has led to the exclusion of the Jews from the tree of God's people, 00:27:39.840 --> 00:27:41.800 that Gentile believers might be included. 00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:45.820 But Paul is really clear, don't let that lead you to arrogance. 00:27:45.819 --> 00:27:49.139 Because if unbelief leads to breaking off for the Jews, 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:51.759 well, the same will be true for the Gentiles. 00:27:51.939 --> 00:27:53.859 Because God is stern, he says. 00:27:54.779 --> 00:27:56.200 He carries on in verse 25. 00:27:56.919 --> 00:27:59.899 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, 00:27:59.899 --> 00:28:02.319 so that you may not be conceited. 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:07.480 Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:10.639 And in this way, all Israel will be saved. 00:28:11.740 --> 00:28:13.240 Here the point is very similar. 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:17.859 If the Gentile believers are ignorant of how the sternness and kindness of God interact, 00:28:18.019 --> 00:28:19.980 they will become conceited. 00:28:20.980 --> 00:28:22.259 You can imagine it, can't you? 00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:25.720 The Gentile believers, yeah, well, the Jews, they're yesterday's news, right? 00:28:26.299 --> 00:28:30.759 God has given up on them because he's now interested in me, right? 00:28:31.319 --> 00:28:33.859 He loves me because I'm amazing. 00:28:34.680 --> 00:28:36.299 Look at all these brilliant things I do. 00:28:36.500 --> 00:28:37.620 I'm not like those Jews. 00:28:38.940 --> 00:28:39.880 What have you forgotten? 00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:40.000 You've forgotten. 00:28:40.580 --> 00:28:42.980 You've forgotten that it's God's kindness that saved you. 00:28:43.340 --> 00:28:44.680 You think it's something to do with you. 00:28:45.300 --> 00:28:48.840 You've forgotten the sternness that comes when you rely not on God's kindness, 00:28:48.940 --> 00:28:50.240 but on your own efforts. 00:28:51.140 --> 00:28:54.780 And so slowly but surely, they stop trusting God's kindness 00:28:54.780 --> 00:28:56.560 and begin to think there's something in themselves. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:28:59.940 That's the mistake, isn't it? 00:28:59.960 --> 00:29:01.900 The mistake that presumes on God's salvation. 00:29:01.900 --> 00:29:04.620 It was the mistake that led to unbelief in the Jewish nation. 00:29:05.700 --> 00:29:09.940 And that sternness led to grace and kindness for the Gentiles. 00:29:10.440 --> 00:29:12.660 And so the Gentiles should not become conceited. 00:29:13.700 --> 00:29:17.100 Instead, they should assume that God knows what he's doing with the Jewish people 00:29:17.100 --> 00:29:18.500 as well as with the Gentiles. 00:29:19.040 --> 00:29:23.340 And that God's kindness is working to maximize, not minimize, salvation. 00:29:24.560 --> 00:29:25.780 Look down at verse 28. 00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:26.800 He explains it further. 00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:30.859 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake. 00:29:31.379 --> 00:29:34.799 But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. 00:29:35.879 --> 00:29:37.799 For God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 00:29:39.240 --> 00:29:41.980 Just as you were at one time disobedient to God 00:29:41.980 --> 00:29:45.079 and now receive mercy as a result of their disobedience, 00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:49.159 so they too now have become disobedient in order that they too 00:29:49.159 --> 00:29:53.019 may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 00:29:53.639 --> 00:29:55.799 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience. 00:29:55.799 --> 00:29:56.559 For God's grace and his call is a result of disobedience, 00:29:56.559 --> 00:29:58.839 so that he may have mercy on them all. 00:30:00.579 --> 00:30:05.099 Now I grant you that these verses are difficult to pin down exactly what they might mean 00:30:05.099 --> 00:30:07.200 for what's going to happen in the future. 00:30:07.980 --> 00:30:11.500 Paul is not saying, though, that every Jew without exception will be saved. 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:15.819 If he's saying that, his heartbreak in the last three chapters make absolutely no sense. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:20.460 He does also, though, seem to expect that over time there's going to be a revival 00:30:20.460 --> 00:30:22.819 of gospel fruitfulness amongst the Jewish nation. 00:30:22.819 --> 00:30:26.500 And while the detail of exactly how that will happen is unclear 00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:29.319 and people have different ideas and different views and you can come to your own, 00:30:29.639 --> 00:30:31.720 the principle is very clear, isn't it? 00:30:32.019 --> 00:30:36.819 That God's kindness and his severity in judgment are not opposed to one another 00:30:36.819 --> 00:30:37.939 but are working together. 00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:44.939 And God's sternness or severity in judgment is to serve his kindness in salvation, 00:30:45.079 --> 00:30:46.099 not the other way around. 00:30:46.099 --> 00:30:52.259 God is not kind because he likes to be stern, rather his sternness serves his kindness. 00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:55.240 Both are true and both are important. 00:30:55.980 --> 00:31:00.240 And God is both at the same time without any contradiction, but both work for his glory. 00:31:02.639 --> 00:31:05.019 Now I think you might be a little confused this morning. 00:31:05.159 --> 00:31:06.179 We've covered lots of ground. 00:31:06.639 --> 00:31:09.519 So let me try and bring this into land and show you how it applies. 00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:12.619 I want you just to imagine for a moment. 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:16.420 Imagine as a church, we say, well, listen, we read this verse and we go, 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:17.859 yeah, remember the kindness of God. 00:31:17.879 --> 00:31:19.920 I'm all down for remembering the kindness of God. 00:31:20.839 --> 00:31:23.160 But remember also the sternness of God. 00:31:23.700 --> 00:31:27.220 Do you really want to be a church that remembers the sternness of God? 00:31:27.319 --> 00:31:29.680 Why don't we just delete that a little bit? 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:31.440 Why don't we just forget about it? 00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:34.799 Listen, nobody likes talking about the sternness of God. 00:31:34.900 --> 00:31:36.500 Nobody likes thinking about judgment. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:38.400 Nobody likes thinking about hell. 00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:39.740 Why don't we just forget it? 00:31:39.780 --> 00:31:41.120 It's unpleasant and it's uncomfortable. 00:31:42.400 --> 00:31:45.860 We could just remove that idea from any of the songs that we sing. 00:31:46.140 --> 00:31:47.600 We could remove it from those sermons. 00:31:47.759 --> 00:31:49.960 You know, Steve, you could skip over those passages. 00:31:50.140 --> 00:31:52.000 You could get straight to Romans 12. 00:31:52.720 --> 00:31:53.780 It's great in Romans 12. 00:31:58.060 --> 00:32:01.440 Well, the problem is, and churches do that all the time, don't they? 00:32:01.560 --> 00:32:02.200 You know that. 00:32:02.700 --> 00:32:05.420 You can go to some churches, you'll never hear about hell or judgment. 00:32:05.420 --> 00:32:08.440 But you cannot do that. 00:32:08.600 --> 00:32:09.320 Why not? 00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:17.080 Because if you lose the sternness of God, you also lose the kindness of God. 00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:19.100 Think about it. 00:32:19.099 --> 00:32:21.480 If God is not stern. 00:32:22.719 --> 00:32:24.779 If God does not judge unbelief. 00:32:25.159 --> 00:32:32.199 If God is not hostile to selfish, self-serving, self-interested people as we are by nature. 00:32:32.200 --> 00:32:35.860 Then you don't need God's kindness, do you? 00:32:36.519 --> 00:32:38.080 You just need to work a bit harder. 00:32:39.220 --> 00:32:39.940 You know that, don't you? 00:32:40.819 --> 00:32:42.180 If there's no judgment. 00:32:42.980 --> 00:32:47.539 If God doesn't judge every sinful unbelief. 00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:53.279 If God isn't just like that, then you probably don't need his kindness. 00:32:53.659 --> 00:32:55.139 You just need to work a bit harder. 00:32:56.539 --> 00:32:59.240 But of course, we know we can't work harder. 00:33:00.399 --> 00:33:02.879 And that's actually the assumption that the Jews made, isn't it? 00:33:02.899 --> 00:33:05.500 They thought they were saved because of the heritage that they had. 00:33:05.559 --> 00:33:06.539 They said the right things. 00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:08.159 They were morally upright. 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:10.740 And that unbelief led them to hell. 00:33:11.519 --> 00:33:14.300 To a stern but righteous judgment from a holy God. 00:33:15.120 --> 00:33:16.640 So don't ditch God's holiness. 00:33:17.460 --> 00:33:24.680 In fact, it's only this ongoing understanding that God absolutely hates our sinful unbelief, 00:33:24.820 --> 00:33:26.620 which is what we all have by nature. 00:33:27.560 --> 00:33:31.340 It's only understanding that that makes us throw ourselves on God's kindness. 00:33:33.080 --> 00:33:37.740 Only that that makes me keep relying on God and his mercy and grace and not myself. 00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:47.000 Now, let me tell you, where do you see the sternness and the kindness of God on display? 00:33:48.320 --> 00:33:50.720 Well, we see it in Romans chapter 11, yes. 00:33:51.140 --> 00:33:54.100 But you see it on the cross of Jesus Christ, don't you? 00:33:55.400 --> 00:33:59.080 There's no fudging or clouding the holiness of God at the cross, is there? 00:34:01.040 --> 00:34:02.680 Blood was spilt at the cross. 00:34:03.820 --> 00:34:07.220 Darkness fell as Jesus died on the cross. 00:34:07.220 --> 00:34:12.139 The cry of dereliction came up from God the Son on the cross. 00:34:12.679 --> 00:34:16.039 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:34:16.920 --> 00:34:18.619 Stern judgment falls. 00:34:19.500 --> 00:34:25.059 But you know that he is there not for his sin, but for your sin and mine. 00:34:26.260 --> 00:34:29.460 It is love, not nails, that hold Jesus to the cross. 00:34:30.059 --> 00:34:32.059 That in his kindness we might be saved. 00:34:33.059 --> 00:34:35.579 So that you and I could say, with Paul, can't we? 00:34:35.659 --> 00:34:38.360 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. 00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:41.179 How unsearchable his judgments and his path beyond tracing out. 00:34:41.519 --> 00:34:44.059 Who has known his mind or who has been his counselor? 00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:46.539 Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? 00:34:46.619 --> 00:34:48.920 For from him and through him and to him are all things. 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:49.960 To him be the glory forever. 00:34:50.099 --> 00:34:50.360 Amen. 00:34:50.360 --> 00:34:54.660 Because Jesus died instead of me. 00:34:55.740 --> 00:35:01.720 That I might receive his kindness even in the midst of stern and holy judgment at my sin. 00:35:02.420 --> 00:35:03.720 I don't understand everything. 00:35:04.500 --> 00:35:06.140 We will never understand it all. 00:35:06.140 --> 00:35:12.140 But we do know that a holy, righteous God loves us. 00:35:13.320 --> 00:35:14.440 And that's wonderful, isn't it? 00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:18.780 The stern God is a kind God. 00:35:20.780 --> 00:35:22.200 And we see it at the cross. 00:35:22.920 --> 00:35:23.900 Let me pray. 00:35:23.900 --> 00:35:24.579 Let me pray. 00:35:35.119 --> 00:35:37.139 Heavenly Father, what can we say? 00:35:37.139 --> 00:35:44.940 We are in awe of your majesty and your glory. 00:35:46.179 --> 00:35:50.259 We confess that we don't fully understand. 00:35:51.219 --> 00:35:55.440 There are great mysteries at how you're at work in our world and our lives. 00:35:56.659 --> 00:35:59.619 But we know that we can never be more kind than you. 00:36:02.879 --> 00:36:06.259 Because you sent your son to die on the cross that we might be saved. 00:36:07.139 --> 00:36:08.719 And we know that you're holy. 00:36:09.539 --> 00:36:12.759 Because it took the death of the son to forgive us. 00:36:13.719 --> 00:36:16.099 And so Lord, help us to remember both of those things. 00:36:16.460 --> 00:36:18.799 Not as if they're in opposition to one another. 00:36:19.400 --> 00:36:23.519 But as they come together to us in the work and person of the Lord Jesus. 00:36:24.460 --> 00:36:25.480 In whose name we pray. 00:36:26.239 --> 00:36:26.579 Amen.