The Kindness & Severity of God

Scrab our bibles and turn to Romans chapter ten. If you don't have a

Bible with you, just raise your hand, keep it up, and we

will find you. Also, if you didn't get a bulletin on your way

into the worship center, just raise your hand, keep it up. We'll

find you with a bible or a bulletin, and turn with me to Romans

ten and just warn you so that you can prepare. We got a lot.

We got a lot, Okay, so buckle up. I'll preach fast.

You listen fast. Let me just start by reading our passage Romans ten,

starting in verse fourteen is where we are. Romans ten, starting in

fourteen, We're gonna go all the way to eleven twenty four? Yeah,

I know. How then will they call on him and whom they have not

believed? That they? There is everyone he's just been speaking of, everyone,

Jews and Gentiles? How will they call on him and whom they have

not believed? How are they to believe in him of whom they have never

heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? How are they

to preach unless they're sent? As it is written? How beautiful are the

feet of those who preach the good news, But they have not all obeyed

the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he's heard

from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.

But I ask have they not heard? Indeed they have, for their

voice has gone out to all the earth, their words to the ends of

the world. But I asked, did Israel sorry? But I asked,

did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of

those who are not a nation with a foolish nation. I will make you

angry. And then Isaiah is so bold to say, I have been found

by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who

did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, all day

long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.

I ask, then, has God rejected his people by no means? For

I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the

tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew?

Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to

God against Israel. Lord They've killed your prophets, they've demolished your altars,

and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what is

God's reply to him? I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have

not bowed the knee to bail. So too at the present time, there

is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it's

no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

But then what Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking? The elect

obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God

gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see, and ears

that would not hear. Down to this very day, and David says,

let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, and

a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see

and bend their backs forever. So I ask, did they stumble in order

that they might fall? By no means? Rather, through their trespass,

salvation has come to the gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now,

if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means

riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean. Now

I'm speaking to you Gentiles inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles,

I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous that I

may and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation

of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead.

If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump.

And if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if

some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive

shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing

root of the olive tree, not be arrogant towards the branches. If you

are, Remember it's not you who support the root, but the root who

supports you. Then you will say branches were broken off, that I might

be grafted in. That's true, But they were broken off because of their

unbelief. But you stand firm through faith. So do not become proud,

but fear, For if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he

spare you. Note the kindness and the severity of God severity towards those who

have fallen. But God's kindness to you provided you continue in his kindness.

Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do

not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in. For God has the

power to graft them in again. For if you are cut from what is

by nature in a while of olive tree, and grafted contrary to nature into

a cultivating olive tree, how much more will these the natural branches be grafted

back into their own all of tree. This is the word of the Lord.

Today we're talking about God's mysterious work through the Jewish people through Israel.

Now I'm not primarily talking about the modern state of Israel, which is in

the news. Of course, I love the modern state of Israel. I

lived there for nearly a year. I have family there. Please pray for

them. But I want to draw your attention to Israel, not just in

the present, but throughout history ethnic Israel, not geopolitically but spiritually, and

not merely as a country, but as a people, as a people who

claim the Old Testament, scriptures and claim the God of the Old Testament scriptures

as their own, because the scriptures are clear God's selected ethnic Israel to be,

in a way, his microcosm through which to reveal his character and his

purposes and his promises. And yet when the time came for God to walk

among them in the person of Jesus Christ, they largely rejected him. In

fact, it crucified him as he knew they would, and as God sent

out into the world this message of grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus,

from the very beginning, most Jewish people rejected it, while non Jewish

people came to know the God of Israel. That's actually the paradoxical work of

God, God using Israel to reach the nations, and God using the nations

to reach Israel. Now you can see right away in this morning's passage we're

going to be dealing with big topics God's plan through redemptive history, and that

yes, there's a big biblical theology lesson here, but throughout it the apostle

Paul actually addresses our hearts. So I want you to hear this message on

two levels. On one level, the very big picture, right understanding redemptive

history, and on the second level, applying the lessons to your own heart

about God's work that I think you will find very strange. And remember we're

hearing from the Apostle Paul right, the Apostle to the Gentiles, who is

also a Hebrew of Hebrews, is one of the best educated Jewish rabbis in

history, and he's writing to the Church of Rome, which is specifically this

mix of Jewish people and non Jewish people. And we look at this work

of God using Israel to reach the nations and the nations to reach Israel,

which brings up some questions. Number one, what should we expect when we

proclaim this gospel? Number two? Does this mean God has rejected his people?

Number three does the stumbling of Israel mean they've fallen beyond recovery? And

then lastly, the question we'll ask throughout as we go, what lessons are

we men to take note of for our own faith and living. Right now,

so let's jump what are we to expect when we proclaim this gospel?

And what Paul gives us is that we should expect two things. First,

we should expect to get after it, and second we should expect revealing and

obscuring. That's actually our heading first, revealing and obscuring. But the way

he starts is the need to get after it. You see what he says

and verses fourteen and fifteen, right, he says, how are they gonna

hear if? How are they gonna call on him if they haven't believed?

And how are they gonna believe if they haven't heard? And how are they

gonna hear if nobody preaches? And by the way, preaching there just means

proclaiming. It's not necessarily involving a pulpit and a platform on a Sunday morning.

Proclaiming this news is what we do all of us in our lives,

in our neighborhoods, and our offices, in our families, is proclaiming this

message, proclaiming that God has blown open the revealing of himself through Jesus Christ

to the whole world. That God desires and has designed you to live in

relationship with Him in faith, and He's gathering everyone in the world who would

live with him like that. Sin is paid for, grace can be yours,

just come to him. So the need is go tell everyone, and

as you do, there are gonna be people who receive that message, who

actually come to Christ by faith, whose hearts change in an instant, whose

lives begin to change from that day forward, and who will text you three

years from now and say, I will never forget thank you for introducing me

to the God of the Bible. I am changed. You're gonna love getting

those I think that that's somewhat what the Bible is saying when it says you

get to have beautiful feet. How beautiful are the feet of those who give

good news? But not all will receive this message. There will be a

mix of reception and rejection. In other words, God does both revealing and

obscuring. He shows himself and he hides himself. Why do I say that?

Well verse sixteen. Verse sixteen says, but they have not all obeyed

the gospel. For Isaiah says Lord who has believed what he's heard from us?

And the next line in Isaiah is and to whom has the arm of

the Lord been revealed? And the answer very few. Some believed in faith,

but most didn't, But some did, which is why Paul says,

well, faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. There

will be those who hear and come to faith. They need to hear.

But have they not heard anything? Have they not heard anything? And Paul

says, well, actually they have. Verse eighteen. Sorry says but I

ask have they not heard, which is to say they has everyone not heard

something? Indeed they have, And then he quotes Psalm nineteen. Their voice

goes out into all the earth. Psalm nineteen is a very unique psalm in

the Bible. It's split into half. The first half of the psalm is

about God revealing himself through creation. The heavens declare the glory of God.

The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth

speech, and the psalm says their voice goes out into all the world.

So everyone has heard something. But the other half of Psalm nineteen is about

God revealing himself through scripture. They are more precious than gold, The scriptures

are more precious than gold than much pure gold, sweeter than honey than honey

from the comb, and those He revealed himself to Israel through the scriptures.

So Paul is saying everyone has heard something. Everyone in the world has heard,

and he picks us up in Romans chapter one, right, he says

everyone has heard enough of God's revelation and creation to wilfully reject him. Right,

although they knew God, they did not honor him as God. He

gave them up to the thing they preferred. But to Israel, he gave

this special provision of revealing himself through scripture. How did it go well?

Paul quotes Moses and Isaiah. Next, a passage from Moses to Paul quotes,

I'll summarize here is God's message to Israel that Moses conveys. God says,

I took care of you. I showed you myself, I gave you

good things. I called you my sons and daughters, and you would not

have a real relationship with me through faith. You are a vine who's soil

is the same as the most wicked nations on earth. Your grapes are filled

with poison. And so I will hide my face from you, and I

will reveal myself to all kinds of other people, people who would have known

the least about me. And you're gonna be jealous. That's what God says

to Israel through Moses. And then Isaiah picks that up generations later and he

says, the same pattern is happening Israel. God says, I have held

out my hands all day long to a contrary people, the ones who should

have known me the best, they won't answer when I call. So I

will show myself to people who know next to nothing about me. I will

reveal myself to those who would have known me the least, and I will

obscure myself from those who would have known me the most. And they'll be

jealous of the relationship that I form with people from it everywhere. Yeah,

amen, for those from everywhere. I actually have a personal illustration from my

own life that I think gives some insight into this dynamic. When I was

about twenty two, I think I had been raised to know God, I

had been raised to know his word, but I just rejected all of that,

and I'd really just threw myself into drugs and reckless living. And my

parents, who were the real deal, they would on a weekly basis open

up their homes their home, sorry, they would open up their home,

and they would invite people from all over the city. Young people from all

over the city would come to their home and they would share a meal,

and they would they would learn together in the scriptures, and they would pray

together and there would be thirty forty fifty people in my parents' house on a

regular basis, and I didn't want anything to do with it. I would

be out, probably getting high with my so called friends, and this would

be happening in their house, and so I would come home once I got

hungry, and I would, you know, I would walk through the front

door and all that stuff is happening over there, and I'm okay, whatever,

and I would go off into the other room and I would just pick

through the leftovers, you know, like when people have fajitas and there's just

nothing but onions and peppers left, and it's very regional. And I remember

this. One night they were studying the scriptures together with like fifty people in

the living room, and my dad got to this spot in the scriptures where

the word perdition was used, and he asked this group of young people who

had come from all over, do you know what the word perdition means?

And nobody knew. I knew, I should have known best, and so

I couldn't help myself but mutter the answer loud enough that some could hear.

Perdition means lostness. Perdition means lostness, and then just wandered off to my

room, And even at the time, the irony was not lost on me,

and it wouldn't be for years before I came to see the grace and

the love that was being shown to those from all over in my parents' house

was real, and I needed that grace not just from them. I needed

that grace from whence it came, which was God. But there was something

about it being on display for everybody else that let me see God's kindness.

And so, if you're here this morning, as those who are from all

over, every tribe, tongue, and nation, those who would have known

God the least, and you are here, let me just exhort you to

celebrate God's kindness. He's gathered you in. You celebrate with thankfulness, with

worship, with joy. Every tribe, tongue and nation got to mean you

celebrate. And if you're here this morning and you're not yet a Christian,

let me encourage you to embrace God's kindness. He's gathering all kinds of people

through the world, revealing his grace. Would you be one of those who

would call on him through faith, trusting the death of Christ for all the

sins that would have kept you back, putting your life in his hands.

You could trust God today. Your heart could be changed today, your life

could start changing today. We can help you with it. After this service

in the lobby, there'll be a stand up table and there will be some

of us there who would love to help you take your first step of faith.

You can do it today. If God is revealing himself to you,

embrace his kindness. Embrace his kindness. So God is doing this revealing work,

using Israel to reveal himself to the nations through their rejection of him and

what he's done. And so the question comes up, does that mean that

God has rejected his people? And Paul says no, because it's a mistake

to equate God's people and ethnic Israel on a one to one basis. That's

how he answers that question. Instead, what he says, within ethnic Israel,

there has always been the faithful who actually are God's people. And that

still holds true. In other words, among those who should know God most,

he has preserved a remnant and hardened the rest. That's actually the heading

for our next point, preserving and hardening, And Paul lays this out for

us in chapter eleven with those two basic ideas. First, God does his

preserving work, and you can see that in verses one through six. I

asked, then, has God rejected his people by no means? For I

myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe

of Benjamin. God hasn't rejected his people, whom he foreknew. He says,

do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he appeals

to God against Israel? He says, Lord, they've killed your prophets,

They've demolished your altars. I alone am left, and they seek my life.

In other words, Elijah says, look, God, this whole ministry

to Israel is pointless. There are no faithful nobody worships you alone except for

me. And I'm almost about to get taken out, like you should just

be done with this. And how does God I have kept I have preserved

for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to bail. And

then Paul says, so too at the present time, in the proclamation of

the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But

if it is by grace, it's no longer on the basis of works.

Otherwise grace would no longer be grace. Right, So he's emphasizing it's still

God's prerogative to keep some hearts trusting him and his work. Whether it's the

remnant of seven thousand men won't that will worship God alone and not bail,

or whether it's those ethnic Jews who will respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

as it's proclaimed. God does his preserving work. But here's the second thing.

The rest he hardened, the rest he hardened. And as you look

at verses seven through ten, you see that if Paul makes his argument from

a few different places in the Old Testament. The first one, you see

how he mentions eyes that would not see. He's quoting from Isaiah, where

God says this. He says this through Isaiah. These people who should know

me the most, they honor me with their lips, but their heart is

far from me. They know all the right external things to do, they'll

know all the right words to say, but when it comes to their hearts,

what they really want is to hide from me. If they could,

and they act like they can, they would hide their thoughts. They would

hide their motives, they would hide their intentions, they would shield themselves from

repentance and relationship with me. And so here's what I say to them.

If that's your game, and you want to hide your heart from me,

then I will hide from you. You will have spiritual eyes that will not

see me because you had a heart that would not be seen by me.

What a warning. And then Paul moves on, who is next Old Testament

quotation? There as he mentions again this in this second place, let their

eyes be darkened. You see that there he's quoting from one of the Psalms,

Psalm sixty nine. We read it as a part of our pastor led

prayer, and David is crying out to God and he's saying, these these

people should be following me in loving you, but instead they're opposing me.

Because I'm faithful to you. They deserve to be judged with blindness. Lord,

if they won't see you, don't let them see you. And Paul

saying if that was fitting for those who should have been following David but wouldn't,

how much more so for those who should be following Jesus but won't.

What a warning? And so we ask what lesson from this should we be

taking note of for faith and living. Don't harden your heart. This is

not just about ethnic Israel. This is not just about Israel in the time

of Moses, or of Isaiah, or of David, or of Paul,

the author of the Hebrews, the author to the Hebrews that the New Testament

book picks up this exact same exhortation and applies it to the New Testament Church

today. If you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Those

who choose to harden their hearts he may choose to harden. Further, don't

fool around with hiding from God, honoring him with your lips while your heart

is far from him, shielding your heart from repentance and a relationship of faith

with Him. Because if you choose to hide from Him, he may choose

to hide from you. And it is not uncommon for those who should know

God most, who have every spiritual resource to be faithful and content at His

side, to instead wander in grumbling and pride and perdition. Don't harden your

heart. Some he preserved, the rest he hardened, which brings up Paul's

last main question. Here is it permanent. Has the stumbling of Israel mean?

Does it mean that they've fallen beyond recovery? Paul says no, and

he lays out three concepts, and he uses the metaphor of this olive tree

and some branches that get broken off, and some of the get grafted in,

And that's really our our last heading here, grafting in and breaking off.

He lays out these three concepts. Here's the first one. The first

concept is good jealousy, good jealousy. Let me read eleven through sixteen.

So I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By

no means? Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles,

so as to make Israel jealous. Now, if their trespass means riches

for the world, and if their failure means riches for the gentiles, how

much more were the will their full inclusion mean? Now I'm speaking to you

Gentiles inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry

in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them.

For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their

acceptance mean but life from the dead. If the doe offered is first fruits

as holy, so it's a whole lump. If the root is holy,

so are the branches. In other words, God used Israel to save the

nations, and He's using the nations to save Israel through this this type of

jealousy, which jealousy doesn't usually have a positive connotation. But I kind of

come back to that personal illustration as I saw really in retrospect, because it

was all remembrance, as I saw the relationship that the grace, the love,

the hospitality, the genuineness that my Christian parents, and in my mid

twenties, like I hated Christians, but I saw their real love to people

who weren't even their sons and daughters. They packed out their house, the

roof under which I slept, and as I looked back on that, I

saw the genuineness. I saw the real relationship of grace and love that I

was stiff arming my whole life. And Paul says, God means to put

on display his grace and genuine love such that Israel's rejection turns to acceptance.

And if Israel's rejection has mean the gospel's gone out to us. Just imagine

what their acceptance will mean. He says, life from the dead. And

in fact, that kind of inclusion is what Paul is anticipating. You can

just look across the page into next week. He says in verse twenty five,

a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has

come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved. We don't

have to get into that today. We got next week. But this is

the kind of jealousy, good jealousy that's at work. And Paul says,

if the first fruits are holy, if the root is holy, then the

whole lump of dough or the branches are holy. So he's talking about the

patriarchs. He's talking about Moses, he's talking about David, He's talking about

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And he's saying, if God's set apart the

root of this ethnic people to be his microcosm to be consecrated for the work

of demonstrating his grace to show the world, if he set them apart for

this work, which is what holy means, set apart, then ethnic Israel

is going to be a demonstration they are going to be a demonstration and they're

going to be reached because of their good jealousy. The second concept he lays

out is this, don't be arrogant or unbelieving. Don't be arrogant or unbelieving.

Let me just summarize between seventeen and twenty two. Paul says, it's

like this. It's like there was a cultivated olive tree, and some of

the branches of that olive tree were broken off and wa and wild branches from

the forest were cut and grafted in to this garden tree. He says,

that's what it's like for you, who are just people from every tribe,

tongue in nation, to actually be in the visible community of people who profess

faith in God and what He's done. And I think that's really the best

way to understand the metaphor of that olive tree. We're not talking about whether

this is these are people of genuine faith or not genuine faith. We're not

talking about losing your salvation or anything like that. He's just saying. Ball's

just saying, this tree represents the visible community of those who profess faith in

God and what He's done. And so as Jewish people reject what He's done

in Christ. They're broken off from that visible community of people who have faith

in what God has done. But you, you have come to faith,

you have come to faith in what God has done through Jesus Christ, and

you're grafted in as people from every tribe, tongue in nation, Gentiles are

being grafted in to that visible community of professing faith. And he says,

but don't be arrogant, because that's a mistake that Isra made. It would

be arrogant to look down your nose on those who know less about the work

of God, as though you're grafting in, you're understanding anything. And being

a part of that professing community of faith was based on your superiority as opposed

to a work of God. It's the same mistake that Israel made, he

says, And don't fall into unbelief. This is also a mistake that people

in Israel made. They fell into nominal belief. Yeah, they would profess

with their lips, they would say they trusted God. They would associate with

the community of faith, but only formally, because Paul says, if they

were broken off, if those who were professing faith and looking like they were

a part of the community of faith. That they were broken off, and

they were natural to it. How much more could you also be broken off

if your faith turns out to be really unbelief? Continue in his kindness.

And the last concept he gives is this God's power to graft back in.

He says in verse twenty two and twenty four, last two verses, we

made it. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief,

will be grafted in. For God has the power to graft them in

again. For a viewer, cut from what is by natural wild olive tree

and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will

these the natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. I love

how this passage ends because I think it's God's kindness that's meant to stand out.

God's kindness. We were told by the passage to take note the severity

and kindness of God. The severity of God is real. He's right in

all his judgments. But he says, I do not delight in the death

of the wicked, but that they would turn and live. That's what God

loves. And I'm so so glad that my personal illustration ends that way as

well. I rejected I should have known God as well as anyone, and

I rejected him, and yet he wooed me back, and he grafted me

in. He has the power to do that, and he loves to.

He loves to. So please, don't test the severity of God. Don't

test the severity of God. Take the kindness of God. Take the kindness

of God, and continue in it. You have seen from his word how

he loves to respond to those who trust him and walk with him. He's

shown you how he loves to forgive. In Christ's death, he has paid

for every sin that could come between you and him. He's blown open the

way for you, who would have known the least about him to have his

name, come to his table and continue in his kindness. Please continue in

the kindness of God. Would you stand with me and pray all this all

over this place? Lord, God, we ask that you would guide our

hearts to repentance and faith. Lord, we've seen in these chapters each week

that as much as there are decisions to make and there's faith to extend and

repentance to walk in, Lord, what is critical. What is critical is

your kindness to us, And so right here we just come to you,

and we ask that you would show us kindness. Lord, would you show

us kindness. If there's any amongst us this morning that has been hardened,

that has walked in unbelief, Lord, we ask, together with that person

right now, would you soften them? Would you soften every one of us

that we would walk in faith? Would you show us your kindness? We

ask. We know, we know that your gospel won't fail us, that

we can stand on your kindness in belief and trust you entirely. And so

Lord, we ask that you would extend it to us in Jesus' name, Amen,