Dale Partridge - November 22, 2024


Romans 11_19-22 There is No Room For Pride in Salvation


Episode Stats


Length

55 minutes

Words per minute

124.919876

Word count

6,886

Sentence count

406

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

32

sentences flagged

Hate speech

81

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Pastor Ken teaches on the role of Gentiles in God's plan of redemption and how they should interact with one another in the hope of God's greater redemption. He uses the book of Romans 11 as a window into the relationship between the Jewish and Gentile nations.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, it's good to be back with you. And I'll tell you what, we were on the road
00:00:09.720 for 17 days in a trailer with four children, including a baby. And that was a lot. And
00:00:15.440 we had a blast. We got a chance to visit a few different churches on the road. And I'll
00:00:21.120 tell you, you know, I've said this before, America has been so content on candy Christianity, 0.80
00:00:33.180 where it's bright and bubbly, and, you know, again, as I said, coffee shop and rock band,
00:00:40.860 and light TED Talk style preaching, and we visited a church that was like that.
00:00:47.580 not even kidding the the the pastor put incredibly immodest photos for one of his
00:00:56.020 examples up on the screen for everybody to see it was very strange and I really do believe that 0.72
00:01:04.640 America American Christianity needs to come back to a more reverent holy God-exalting model
00:01:15.940 for the church biblical christianity and it's not going to always feel as exciting as candy does
00:01:25.100 but it's meat it'll actually carry you through hard times you know what won't carry you through
00:01:32.820 hard times is light christianity
00:01:36.280 when your wife dies
00:01:40.340 or you miscarry
00:01:42.320 or you get diagnosed
00:01:44.600 or your business
00:01:46.400 fails
00:01:46.880 weak 0.99
00:01:50.280 Christianity doesn't carry you through that 0.88
00:01:51.940 that's when you really 1.00
00:01:54.360 want
00:01:54.880 the pastor and the church
00:01:58.240 and the fellowship with other believers
00:01:59.980 that can
00:02:01.540 carry you through with
00:02:03.460 robust promises
00:02:06.160 of God. And today, I believe, really gets into this understanding of where the church is at
00:02:16.720 in America. Now, we're in Romans 11, and what an incredible book this is. This chapter
00:02:24.980 is much harder to exposit than I expected. It's focusing on the interconnected relationship
00:02:33.000 between the Jews and the Gentiles in kind of God's plan of greater redemption. That's what
00:02:38.840 it's teaching. That's what Romans 11 is about. How should Jews and Gentiles relate with one another
00:02:45.420 in God's plan of redemption? Now, if you remember, this book has, or this chapter has three sections.
00:02:53.620 Verses 1-10 is ethnic Israel's rejection of Christ is not total, but there was a remnant left in Israel by God's mercy through election.
00:03:08.720 The second section is 11-32, and that tells us that ethnic Israel's rejection of Christ was not final.
00:03:17.540 So first it was not total, now it's not final.
00:03:20.800 But that partial hardening of Israel, leaving only a remnant, would be temporary. 0.98
00:03:30.380 In fact, that hardening, as we saw, became the means which brought the Gentiles in. 0.97
00:03:39.320 So it talked about the hardening of the Jews was the means that God used to actually send 0.99
00:03:44.560 the gospel out to the Gentiles. 0.89
00:03:46.940 and the Gentiles will actually be the means to provoke the Jews to jealousy to bring back
00:03:54.520 a mass revival of ethnic Jews at some point in the future. That's kind of the flow that we saw 0.99
00:04:02.460 through Romans 11. And verses 33-36 is section 3, which is Paul's doxology of praise at the end of
00:04:11.180 the chapter talking about how wonderful God's plan of redemption is. Now we're in section two
00:04:18.160 and Paul is focusing on helping Gentiles, which is us. We know that the word Gentiles is actually
00:04:29.060 the Greek word for nations. So if you're the Gentiles, it just means the nations, the non-Jews. 0.99
00:04:35.120 paul is helping us understand our station in the covenant where do we stand as it relates
00:04:46.060 to the jews specifically paul is dealing with gentile pride gentile pride and this animosity
00:04:56.800 that can easily happen as we've seen through church history toward the jews verse 18
00:05:04.420 and verse 20 actually command the Gentiles to not be arrogant toward the Jews and to not become
00:05:11.280 proud in their salvation as if they were more worthy recipients of salvation. Because truthfully,
00:05:20.180 we are not. We're not more worthy. In fact, I would even say we're less worthy according to a
00:05:26.080 historic theological reality. Now, I say that because Ephesians 2.12, why don't you turn there
00:05:33.040 to your Bibles, Ephesians 2.12. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. That's
00:05:39.200 you got to remember, right? Your Bible geography, turn to Ephesians 2.12.
00:05:52.460 I'm reading the ESV here. It says, remember
00:05:55.640 that you were at that time
00:06:00.120 separated from Christ.
00:06:05.280 Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel
00:06:07.260 and strangers to the covenants of promise
00:06:10.440 and having no hope
00:06:12.540 and without God in the world.
00:06:16.800 You want to know your spiritual biography?
00:06:20.240 That's it.
00:06:22.780 That's who we were.
00:06:24.020 We didn't have the covenants.
00:06:25.200 We didn't have the fathers and the priesthood.
00:06:27.080 We didn't have the temple.
00:06:28.440 We didn't have the Ten Commandments, the Ark of the Covenant, the promises, the mercies of God.
00:06:34.260 We didn't have that.
00:06:36.000 This is our biography.
00:06:38.380 Now, as I've mentioned for several weeks now, this does not mean, as Christians, we are to become Jewish sympathizers.
00:06:46.960 That's a big thing that's going on.
00:06:49.700 I hate this phrase, Judeo-Christian.
00:06:52.900 We are not a Judeo-Christian country.
00:06:55.200 that's not what we're built on. We are a Christian country, a Protestant country.
00:07:00.360 If you understand anything about the history of America, we are not Judeo-Christian. Jewish people
00:07:06.320 hate Christ. You need to know that. As Christians, we are to hate the Jewish rejection of Christ. 1.00
00:07:15.460 that's okay we are to abhor talmudic judaism it's wicked it's idolatry 0.97
00:07:25.320 in fact just yesterday i watched a news interview online 0.86
00:07:31.460 with solomon friedman solomon friedman is a talmudic jew he attended rabbinical school at
00:07:41.300 the age of 18. He was ordained as a rabbi and now owns the largest pornography website 0.65
00:07:48.480 in the world. Okay? These people are as lost as any other pagan. Last week, Veronica showed 0.97
00:08:01.480 me a video of an Orthodox Jewish woman who claimed that all religions lead to heaven. 0.99
00:08:09.700 It was so shocking. Honestly, we watched her and watched another video with her this morning with a Jewish rabbi in the background talking about our job is to make this place holier than heaven. 0.96
00:08:24.340 Okay, strange. 0.74
00:08:26.140 but we should not harbor any special animosity toward the jews but instead we should harbor a
00:08:37.560 special pity for the jews now why um because we've inherited as christians the blessings
00:08:48.560 that were promised to them.
00:08:52.020 We should pity them.
00:08:56.180 And we should use those blessings,
00:08:57.920 according to scripture,
00:08:58.740 to provoke them to jealousy
00:09:00.680 that we have their Messiah.
00:09:05.380 That is scripture.
00:09:08.900 This is what Paul did.
00:09:10.200 I make much of my ministry
00:09:11.320 so that I might provoke some of my kinsmen
00:09:13.680 to come to Christ.
00:09:14.440 in my last sermon we learned that while the gentiles have equality in the covenant we do
00:09:21.560 not have exactness in the covenant we have equality in the covenant we do not have exactness
00:09:28.420 in the covenant that is that jews are foundational they're chronological
00:09:34.440 their position receives
00:09:38.400 some degree of honor
00:09:41.280 they were primary
00:09:44.600 they were the source
00:09:49.420 by which the gospel came to us
00:09:51.060 our covenant existence is only happening 0.91
00:09:56.220 because of the pre-existence of the Jewish covenant existence 0.92
00:09:59.000 there's a spiritual
00:10:01.760 ancestral honor that is at least due, at the very least.
00:10:07.300 How that plays out, I'm not talking about today.
00:10:11.760 We looked at the two metaphors in verse 16 and 17 a few weeks ago.
00:10:18.360 The dough and the lump, and the root and the branches.
00:10:25.220 and we found out that the branches
00:10:29.280 or sorry, the root
00:10:30.920 and the piece of dough
00:10:34.220 in that metaphor was speaking to the patriarchs
00:10:37.320 of Israel, Abraham, Isaac
00:10:40.000 and Jacob. That is just as the first portion
00:10:43.460 of dough is offered in a heave offering before the Lord
00:10:46.480 that sanctifies the whole crop of wheat
00:10:49.840 the holiness of the patriarchs
00:10:54.280 sanctifies the whole people of Israel, of ethnic Israel.
00:11:02.480 In other words, Paul is speaking to this concept of federal holiness or covenantal holiness.
00:11:11.240 Related to this to 1 Corinthians chapter 7, where it says,
00:11:17.780 the believing spouse makes the unbelieving spouse holy. 0.78
00:11:21.800 The believing parent makes the unbelieving child holy. 0.94
00:11:26.660 It doesn't make them saved.
00:11:28.820 It makes them holy.
00:11:30.520 They're in the covenant.
00:11:34.920 If you go to Spain and you become a citizen as a parent,
00:11:39.760 what happens to your kids?
00:11:41.660 They are nationalized with you.
00:11:44.920 They are holy, set aside for citizenship,
00:11:48.660 because the parent is covenant.
00:11:51.000 fundamentals. Basically, what was granted to the patriarchs extends to the descendants.
00:11:59.220 If Abraham was holy, it follows that the portion of ethnic Israel that was not cut off,
00:12:05.020 the portion that actually has faith, is truly holy. So Paul is getting that here,
00:12:12.120 and you'll see in a second. Now, does that mean that every Jew is a legitimate 1.00
00:12:17.400 descendant of Abraham that we're going to see in heaven? No. 0.98
00:12:25.020 Romans 9, flip back just a few pages. Romans 9, 6 through 7.
00:12:34.160 It says, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
00:12:39.840 And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.
00:12:44.100 Just because you were born of Abraham does not mean that you're a child of Abraham.
00:12:51.420 As we know, the true offspring of Abraham are those who have faith.
00:12:54.960 Galatians 3, 7 says,
00:12:57.260 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
00:13:04.000 When Abraham counted the stars,
00:13:06.680 when Abraham was told the promise of
00:13:11.460 as much as the sand is on the seashores
00:13:15.160 he was counting all of us
00:13:19.960 he was counting
00:13:23.060 Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians
00:13:27.960 who were all the true children of Abraham
00:13:31.040 by faith
00:13:33.380 the passage is that we're going through today is not teaching that all Jews will be saved
00:13:41.700 but it does indicate that the branches which were cut off that left a remnant there was a remnant
00:13:51.360 left Paul was part of that remnant will one day be grafted in look down at verse 24 in chapter 11
00:13:59.620 one day they'll be grafted in and that all of true israel will be saved look at verse 26
00:14:09.100 look at verse 26 at one point all of true israel will be saved
00:14:18.300 in my last sermon i ended with verse 18
00:14:22.120 which says do not be arrogant toward the branches speaking of the jews that were
00:14:28.580 attached and the Jews that were cut off. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root,
00:14:36.660 but the root supports you. That is, your covenant health is derived from Jewish descent.
00:14:46.560 It's basically what Paul is saying. This should produce, again, some degree of Gentile humility.
00:14:51.580 some degree
00:14:53.320 and some degree
00:14:56.740 of spiritual ancestral honor
00:14:58.300 while also still hating 0.91
00:15:00.480 Talmudic Judaism
00:15:01.420 there's a balance
00:15:03.420 today's passage serves as a warning 0.98
00:15:06.800 to Gentiles 0.96
00:15:08.780 against the sin of presumption 0.87
00:15:10.820 and the sin of pride
00:15:12.860 it reminds us that being
00:15:16.620 in the covenant
00:15:17.520 does not mean that you're of the covenant
00:15:20.700 that is just because you came to church doesn't mean you came to christ in fact america is filled
00:15:30.340 with people who went to church and never came to christ moralists religious people 0.99
00:15:38.960 who are dead as wood and will burn it's 0.60
00:15:44.000 it's sad because we have preachers who won't preach
00:15:48.480 we have pastors who won't call out sin
00:15:51.680 and it leaves the flock
00:15:54.880 in a state of spiritual miscarriages
00:16:00.600 people come and
00:16:03.500 lands on rocky soil and it sprouts up
00:16:07.480 and is choked out
00:16:09.220 But the only foundation for covenantal certainty is faith, genuine, saving faith.
00:16:23.500 So, that was my introduction.
00:16:27.420 Verse 19, let's read with me.
00:16:31.580 Then you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.
00:16:37.140 That is true.
00:16:39.220 They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through your faith.
00:16:45.500 So do not become proud, but fear. 0.93
00:16:49.720 So yes, it's true that God cut off Jews, that Gentiles might be grafted in, but that did 0.91
00:16:56.140 not happen because of merit. 0.84
00:16:58.060 It happened because of mercy.
00:16:59.480 it's easy to look to Jews like Solomon Friedman
00:17:05.960 and believe that we deserve salvation more than that man
00:17:10.680 we don't it's easy to feel superior because of pride
00:17:17.840 1st Corinthians 6 9 through 11 says or do you not know that the unrighteous
00:17:23.620 will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived 0.87
00:17:27.900 Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 0.96
00:17:34.560 nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 0.99
00:17:42.440 And such were some of you. 0.94
00:17:49.400 Think about your old life for a minute.
00:17:54.720 Think about what you loved.
00:17:57.900 just the wickedness that you took pleasure in.
00:18:02.300 Such were some of you.
00:18:04.600 It's easy to look out on the world and be like, 0.99
00:18:06.680 man, you're gross. 0.97
00:18:10.320 Without remembering, man, I used to be gross. 0.99
00:18:14.700 Pride.
00:18:16.240 Pride. 0.98
00:18:19.940 To look down upon any pagan with pride 1.00
00:18:22.260 is to forget that the only reason 1.00
00:18:24.440 you're not as wicked as them
00:18:25.860 is because the gracious election and mercy of God on your life.
00:18:33.520 You have no meritorious works to boast about.
00:18:36.660 You weren't chosen because you were smarter
00:18:38.460 or because you made a good decision to follow Jesus.
00:18:43.240 What does Jesus say?
00:18:47.860 Sorry, my son's spilling back there.
00:18:53.040 Tim, you want to help him out real quick?
00:18:55.860 According to scripture, we know that faith is a gift of God.
00:19:08.720 Faith is a gift of God.
00:19:10.100 Romans 3.27 says, where then is it boasting?
00:19:13.620 It is excluded.
00:19:15.880 By what kind of law?
00:19:17.200 Of works?
00:19:18.820 No, but by a law of faith.
00:19:22.040 Pay attention with me for a second.
00:19:24.380 Boasting is excluded by a law of faith because faith is not a work.
00:19:28.520 It's a gift.
00:19:29.540 You want to know why you have faith?
00:19:30.620 It's not because you had an intellectual persuasion.
00:19:34.280 You have faith because it's a gift of God.
00:19:36.240 God gave you faith.
00:19:37.520 He gave you repentance.
00:19:40.200 At the end of this chapter, Romans 11, it says,
00:19:42.300 For from him and through him and to him are all things.
00:19:47.800 To him be the glory forever and ever.
00:19:49.240 Amen.
00:19:49.760 All things include your faith.
00:19:51.260 your faith is a gift
00:19:53.460 you need
00:19:57.480 to realize that you don't even believe
00:20:00.720 if God doesn't grant you the ability to believe
00:20:02.900 because if you do
00:20:08.680 this is your problem
00:20:09.420 put a hypothetical reality
00:20:11.920 you get to heaven
00:20:12.520 God says
00:20:13.520 why are you here
00:20:15.220 because I had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
00:20:18.660 who died for my sins
00:20:20.200 and imputed his righteousness to me.
00:20:24.240 The Father says, Amen.
00:20:27.340 Why are you here and your sister, Jessica, is not?
00:20:34.500 Well, because I believed and she didn't.
00:20:38.200 Why did she believe and you did?
00:20:43.060 Why did you believe and she didn't?
00:20:46.880 You quickly realize that no matter what you say,
00:20:50.200 you get yourself into a boast.
00:20:52.260 Because I was smarter, and she wasn't.
00:20:55.080 Because I had more wisdom, and she didn't.
00:20:58.420 Because I was more spiritually sensitive, and she wasn't.
00:21:01.500 I, I, I.
00:21:04.280 The real answer, the real answer,
00:21:07.180 when you get to heaven and you get to talk to the Lord,
00:21:11.280 and if he asked you this hypothetical question,
00:21:14.040 why are you here?
00:21:15.860 You would say, because it pleased you to save me.
00:21:20.200 because you wanted me here.
00:21:22.760 I had no interest in becoming a Christian.
00:21:25.420 I had no interest in being here. 0.51
00:21:26.780 In fact, I wanted to not be here.
00:21:31.040 But you saved me.
00:21:34.580 Do you know what Ephesians 2 says about you?
00:21:36.820 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
00:21:38.540 at once you once walked,
00:21:39.760 walking according to the course of this world,
00:21:41.740 according to the path of wickedness,
00:21:43.680 according to the power of the prince,
00:21:44.760 the power of the air,
00:21:45.660 according to all these things,
00:21:46.760 the desires of the flesh.
00:21:47.860 You loved these things.
00:21:48.900 That was you.
00:21:50.200 I don't care if you were 2 or 20.
00:21:55.460 That's who you used to be.
00:22:02.340 When you think that you saved yourself, you really diminish the love for the Savior.
00:22:08.940 But when you realize that you had no interest in being saved,
00:22:12.000 and that God came in and saved you, spiritually resurrected you,
00:22:17.560 opened your eyes he who has ears to hear let him hear and here who has eyes to see let him see and
00:22:24.320 that God comes in and opens your eyes and opens your ears and resurrects your soul
00:22:30.140 and that he does that work
00:22:33.540 again which is the pictures of the miracles what does Jesus's miracles do
00:22:38.300 he walks in you can't see unless I intervene touches them you can't hear unless I intervene
00:22:46.400 You can't live unless I intervene.
00:22:52.240 That's the whole purpose of the, yes, it validates the messiahship,
00:22:58.700 but it also validates the reality is that without Christ, you are blind, deaf, and dead.
00:23:07.640 So where's the boasting?
00:23:09.820 There is no boasting.
00:23:12.040 There is no pride.
00:23:16.400 It's by a law of faith.
00:23:24.640 Faith is given to you when you're regenerated.
00:23:30.080 It's part of the package deal.
00:23:32.780 There's actually a prayer, I believe it's 1 Peter,
00:23:36.840 saying, if the Lord grants them repentance.
00:23:40.100 we pray for people to be saved we don't pray for them to make a righteous decision
00:23:49.420 oh lord save that person save my father or save my friend or save my brother
00:23:54.780 we pray for god to intervene jesus says you did not choose me but i chose you
00:24:01.460 i say this often but we think that salvation works like this i'm intellectually persuaded
00:24:13.040 i repent i believe that jesus exists and i born myself again
00:24:22.120 essentially you become the catalyst to ignite your own birth spiritual birth now how much
00:24:29.560 involvement did you have in your first birth, your natural birth? None. None. So, it's not a strange
00:24:38.440 idea to think that you have no involvement in your spiritual birth. In fact, it would be very
00:24:47.760 strange to say, Jesus uses the metaphor of birth to relate to spiritual birth, and I had no
00:24:55.680 involvement in my natural birth. It was all God's
00:24:59.900 sovereign will that I am born physically.
00:25:04.860 But to think that your spiritual birth is
00:25:07.780 not sovereign, but it's all you?
00:25:11.180 It's antithetical to the metaphor. It doesn't make any sense.
00:25:17.820 No, what gets in the way is
00:25:19.460 pride. The idea that
00:25:23.700 America worships free will.
00:25:28.080 Again, you have a will.
00:25:29.660 It's never free.
00:25:31.580 It's either enslaved to sin and the flesh, or it's enslaved to Christ and righteousness.
00:25:37.640 You never have this neutral will.
00:25:41.780 I talk about free will a lot, and I think it's important because we live in a generation
00:25:44.960 that worships it, but I'm going to talk about it again.
00:25:47.540 What free will means, or I should say what the Bible talks about will, is what I would call free agency.
00:25:55.300 Free agency is the idea that you're free to operate within the nature that you are in.
00:26:01.840 So if you're a sinner, you're free to sin. 0.64
00:26:05.760 If you're a Christian, you're free to obey. 0.67
00:26:09.080 What you're not free to do is change your nature.
00:26:13.360 You can't go from dead to life without Christ.
00:26:17.340 You can't go from blind to seen without intervention.
00:26:20.840 You can't go from death to hearing or hatred of God to loving of God
00:26:25.160 without the Lord's will sovereignly transferring you.
00:26:29.240 We call that being born again or a spiritual resurrection.
00:26:33.120 So you have a will.
00:26:34.520 It's always enslaved to something.
00:26:36.020 We're either slaves of Christ or slaves of the devil.
00:26:38.660 But there is no neutral ground.
00:26:40.580 you have free agency in your will to do all of these things you know what sinners do they sin
00:26:46.920 you know what christians do we obey yes we still have a flesh and we still sin
00:26:56.340 but you have a will it's never free so when when god saves you he gives you this is really what
00:27:07.900 happens. Remember, we talked about the backwards idea is that I repent, I believe, and then I'm
00:27:12.440 born again. That's how it's always taught. There's literally a book by Billy Graham called
00:27:16.480 How to Be Born Again. I really think that's just a bad exegetical conclusion. The reality is
00:27:24.760 you're born again, and when you're made alive by God's mercy, you see and hear and feel,
00:27:35.080 and your affections change in a way
00:27:37.440 that all of a sudden you repent and have faith
00:27:41.080 and you have repentant faith
00:27:42.380 because God granted you repentance and gifted you faith.
00:27:45.820 So it's the exact opposite
00:27:47.340 is that God comes in
00:27:49.480 and someone's preaching the gospel
00:27:51.460 or you're reading the Bible
00:27:52.840 and the spirit of God is like the wind
00:27:56.500 that you cannot control
00:27:57.440 and he's going through
00:27:58.540 and all of a sudden, boom!
00:28:00.740 you are new
00:28:05.660 and all of a sudden
00:28:08.220 whatever that guy was saying
00:28:10.080 or whatever that word was saying
00:28:11.320 you actually believe it
00:28:12.660 you don't know what happened
00:28:15.460 but all of a sudden you believe it
00:28:18.460 you trust it
00:28:21.660 and you repent
00:28:24.460 you turn
00:28:24.980 you realize that you're a sinner 1.00
00:28:26.140 many of you might have come in tears 0.99
00:28:28.840 and then we sadly assign it all to ourselves
00:28:34.460 when in reality it was all a merciful, sovereign work of God
00:28:40.220 that before the foundation of the world, God chose you to save you.
00:28:45.540 It says that Christians' names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life
00:28:49.660 before the foundation of the world.
00:28:53.720 It's amazing.
00:28:55.760 It's amazing.
00:28:56.740 now in a culture of individualism and moral chaos spiritual humility is
00:29:08.680 a vital trait to cultivate we want to cultivate spiritual humility
00:29:12.880 it's pretty easy to be hardened looking at the world and going you know what you deserve hell
00:29:17.560 that's wicked
00:29:21.000 and yes, we need to condemn wickedness
00:29:24.960 but there's a way to do it
00:29:27.000 now, just because we're saved by grace
00:29:32.500 we should not feel superior
00:29:34.760 it's so hard 0.99
00:29:37.260 it's so hard to look at a child rapist 0.99
00:29:41.560 and not feel superior 0.98
00:29:42.480 it's hard to look at some of the evilness in the world
00:29:46.020 and not feel superior
00:29:47.660 but it doesn't mean again that we cannot or should not condemn evil we have to condemn evil
00:29:56.540 it simply means that we do so in a way that preaches God's wrath not our disgust that's the
00:30:03.400 difference I'm just here to tell you that I was a sinner like you and that you're under God's wrath
00:30:10.120 you've broken his law he is your creator you're a created being he has a right to tell you how
00:30:16.340 you ought to live. And he has in the Ten Commandments. And you have broken the Ten
00:30:20.120 Commandments. And because of that, he's a good judge and has uphold his own justice. And you
00:30:24.560 will be judged for the sins you've sinned against him. Repent. Turn. You're under his wrath like I
00:30:29.760 was. Come. That's the way we do it. It's not preaching or condemning in a way of, man, you're
00:30:38.900 gross. And trust me, I fall to that sin all the time. I can get so hyped up about the evil and 0.91
00:30:45.860 wickedness in the world. It means that we preach repentance and faith with a hope for conversion,
00:30:55.420 not just morality for morality's sake, be better. No, it's be new. It's a totally different shift.
00:31:06.160 And right now in America, sadly, it's like an army where only the generals are operating.
00:31:11.400 only the pastors are saying something because the vast majority of the church is theologically 0.91
00:31:18.460 illiterate biblically illiterate and filled with spiritual amateurism because the church 0.99
00:31:26.200 is just watered down everywhere and christians that are 10 20 years in can't even answer basic 0.87
00:31:32.760 questions about the faith. It is so sad. You go back 120 years. I read books from the 1800s all
00:31:41.920 the time. It's astonishing how far we have fallen. If you've been in the church for 10 years,
00:31:50.200 you should be, name something that you do for 10 years where you're not actually pretty good at it.
00:31:57.680 Man, if you played tennis for 10 years and you still didn't know the parts of the racket,
00:32:02.080 I'd be like, what is wrong with you?
00:32:05.860 No, the truth is, is that we need to be jumping out of the milk,
00:32:11.040 as Paul or whoever wrote Hebrews,
00:32:14.020 and jumping in to the meat.
00:32:19.740 Drop the candy and pick up a steak.
00:32:23.320 Okay, we have to actually start dealing with the deeper things of Scripture.
00:32:26.980 Catechize your kids.
00:32:28.460 Read deep theology books.
00:32:32.080 bad theology hurts people. It actually hurts you. It hurts your kids. It hurts your grandkids.
00:32:39.620 Bad theology is dangerous. You want to know why we're here in America right now?
00:32:44.220 It's because of bad theology. It's really sad.
00:32:51.740 Ultimately, what Paul is saying to the Gentiles is never feel superior to the Jews, but stand in
00:32:59.780 awe that they were cut off for the lack of their faith while God sovereignly 0.59
00:33:03.740 elected you and gave you what he didn't
00:33:07.780 give them, allowing you to receive what you don't deserve
00:33:11.460 and what was originally promised to them. It's an amazing
00:33:15.620 thing. You go, wait, I received
00:33:19.840 what they were promised and I don't deserve
00:33:23.820 and now I'm going to go mock them
00:33:26.980 as if I'm superior.
00:33:31.800 It's just Paul's warning against that.
00:33:37.800 Verse 21,
00:33:39.340 for if God did not spare the natural branches,
00:33:41.520 he will not spare you either.
00:33:43.840 Okay, now you might be thinking,
00:33:46.340 does this verse mean that you can lose your salvation?
00:33:49.020 Of course you can't.
00:33:49.980 You cannot lose your salvation.
00:33:51.280 Why?
00:33:52.020 Because John chapter 10,
00:33:54.320 verses 24 through 26,
00:33:56.080 Jesus says, the Jews come up to him, hey, tell us if you're the Christ. And he says, I told you, 0.71
00:34:02.180 but you don't believe. You don't believe because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice
00:34:06.540 and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish.
00:34:14.100 You can't lose your salvation if you're actually saved. So what's it talking about here?
00:34:19.420 it means that if you're in the covenant by sacrament but you don't have faith
00:34:29.080 kids some of you kids have been baptized you're in the covenant you're here
00:34:37.600 doesn't mean you're saved the only thing that means that you're saved is if you have a trust
00:34:46.400 and faith in Christ.
00:34:50.540 Not the believing that he exists,
00:34:52.800 but the believing that you're a sinner
00:34:54.500 and that you need the righteousness of Jesus
00:34:57.600 imputed to you by faith.
00:35:00.020 That is key.
00:35:07.460 It also means that if you're in the covenant by sacrament
00:35:10.360 and do not have faith, 1.00
00:35:11.400 you, like the unbelieving Jews, would be cut off. 1.00
00:35:16.400 Cut off. I want to look at the text a little closer. It's important to note that Paul is 1.00
00:35:20.240 speaking to groups. Look down, pay attention here. Paul is speaking to groups of people in this
00:35:23.960 section, the Jews and the Gentiles. He's not speaking to individuals. He's speaking to groups
00:35:28.180 of people right here. When it says God did not spare the natural branches, we need to realize
00:35:32.540 that he did spare some of the natural branches because there was a remnant.
00:35:38.480 Paul was there.
00:35:40.540 The disciples of Jesus were there.
00:35:42.340 okay when he says he will not spare you he's not speaking to individuals but of the gentiles as a
00:35:51.040 group will he cut off portions of the gentiles like he cut off portions of the jews yes yes he
00:35:57.620 will if god cut off a significant portion of the jews who had a greater claim to god's mercy 0.94
00:36:04.000 for their unbelief then the gentiles who had no claim on god's mercy
00:36:09.840 should not assume that he is unwilling to do the same
00:36:13.800 if they have unbelief.
00:36:16.040 Do you want to know what happened in America?
00:36:19.880 We had a generation,
00:36:23.660 a few generations actually,
00:36:27.620 that have been cut off.
00:36:33.880 Doesn't it feel like a remnant in America?
00:36:36.060 I mean, man, I study stuff from the 1700s, 1800s. 0.85
00:36:41.840 America was robustly Christian. 1.00
00:36:46.120 Not anymore.
00:36:47.980 We have been judged.
00:36:51.860 Covenantally judged.
00:36:55.760 Again, we're dealing with the sin of presumption.
00:37:01.040 Just because you're in the covenant community of the church,
00:37:03.960 just because you've been baptized, just because you pray, just because you sing the songs,
00:37:08.660 it doesn't mean you're saved. In fact, I was in the church, I think, for about 10 years before
00:37:12.760 I was saved. You know why? Because I grew up in Southern California. Mega-churchianity.
00:37:17.820 Never talked about sin. Didn't understand the gospel. It was always some moral tale.
00:37:26.160 It was spectator Christianity where I just watched things go by. I was leading Bible studies.
00:37:33.960 Martin Luther, you know how long Martin Luther was a Christian before he was saved?
00:37:40.060 He had a doctorate in theology before he was saved.
00:37:45.520 John Wesley, graduated from Oxford, became a deacon in the Anglican Church,
00:37:51.560 went across the Atlantic, served as a missionary in the Americas,
00:37:55.900 got saved on the way back from the Moravians.
00:37:58.400 is that nuts
00:38:04.280 presumption
00:38:08.160 that just because you're here
00:38:10.360 means you're safe
00:38:11.540 no
00:38:12.120 examine yourselves
00:38:14.480 to see if you're in the faith 0.73
00:38:15.540 do you see how wicked you are 1.00
00:38:18.120 as a sinner 1.00
00:38:18.520 and you just love 0.83
00:38:20.520 and run to the cross
00:38:21.820 do you think that you're good
00:38:26.040 at all
00:38:26.620 Paul says there is nothing good in me
00:38:30.720 can you say that
00:38:32.760 nothing good in me
00:38:36.440 the only thing that's good in me is Christ in me
00:38:38.700 I know it can be scary
00:38:44.180 to think
00:38:46.260 am I really saved
00:38:49.440 I would rather you examine yourself
00:38:52.180 than
00:38:53.640 be in a situation
00:38:55.660 where your whole life nobody told you to examine yourself
00:38:58.700 and you think you're saved and you're not.
00:39:02.980 Examine yourself.
00:39:04.260 Is Christ a priority in your life
00:39:06.020 or is it secondary or tertiary?
00:39:11.560 Like, really?
00:39:14.160 What's the thing that you worship with your time
00:39:16.940 and your money and your affections?
00:39:20.540 Is it friends?
00:39:21.700 Is it sports?
00:39:22.480 Is it travel?
00:39:23.280 What is it?
00:39:25.660 Christ will not compete with any of your idols.
00:39:29.340 He will not.
00:39:30.520 If Christ is not king, at the very least, if you're saved, he will discipline you.
00:39:37.440 Because he disciplines those he loves.
00:39:38.980 You know what he disciplines us with?
00:39:40.720 Well, primarily with conviction, but with trials.
00:39:45.980 I'll tell you what, I don't need a trial right now.
00:39:50.420 As a pastor, I've had a lot of trials.
00:39:55.660 it's better just to have faith and obey.
00:40:03.940 Without faith, you'll be cut off.
00:40:06.960 Parents, you need to teach your kids that
00:40:08.740 just because they know the catechism,
00:40:11.800 just because you homeschool them in old church history
00:40:14.600 and you sing the hymns in the morning,
00:40:17.080 it doesn't make them saved.
00:40:20.740 If he did it to the Jews
00:40:22.160 who raised their kids memorizing the Torah, 0.76
00:40:25.660 who had a greater claim on the mercies of God,
00:40:30.800 he can certainly do it to any of us.
00:40:37.420 Teach Christ.
00:40:39.080 Teach the gospel to your kids.
00:40:40.700 You can't teach what you don't know.
00:40:42.780 Fathers, you're the patriarchs of your home.
00:40:46.600 Your family will never go beyond your maturity.
00:40:49.760 And if they do, it's a shame and a judgment upon your household.
00:40:53.160 prioritize the leadership of your family yes i'm the pastor of the men yes i'm the pastor
00:41:03.420 of the kids yes i'm the pastor of the women but i'm not your wife's sole
00:41:10.160 source of instruction in fact i would say i'm not the primary source you are
00:41:17.320 And you must lead your wives and children so that when I come in and bring truth, it's just affirming what has already been taught at home.
00:41:34.500 Preach Christ, obey the Lord, pray the Lord gives your children saving faith, and trust that he will.
00:41:40.560 Trust that he will.
00:41:41.360 verse 22 behold then the kindness and the severity of god
00:41:48.320 to those who fell severity but to you god's kindness if you continue in his kindness
00:41:57.080 otherwise you will also be cut off okay paul is saying observe just for a second take in
00:42:05.960 the mercy and the justice of God.
00:42:09.160 We live in a generation that does what?
00:42:11.140 God is love.
00:42:14.340 That's it.
00:42:15.780 We only talk about God as love.
00:42:20.140 Yes, God is love.
00:42:22.420 But God is also justice.
00:42:27.360 It would be a great study
00:42:29.580 to see the hundreds of passages
00:42:32.860 of justice.
00:42:35.960 In the Bible.
00:42:37.280 You know who talks about hell more than anybody else in the Bible?
00:42:40.120 Jesus.
00:42:42.340 Jesus talks about justice.
00:42:46.300 But we live in a generation that's all about God's love.
00:42:51.140 Great.
00:42:54.160 If you love me, obey my commandments, Jesus says.
00:42:57.220 and so the mercy is seen in his kindness to give to you by faith what you were not promised
00:43:08.800 the justice is seen in his severity taking away because of unbelief what they were promised
00:43:16.700 God is just if God will cut off portions of his own covenant people for not having faith
00:43:24.180 he will certainly cut off portions of nations who were grafted in for not having faith.
00:43:30.980 This is going to help you understand why America is in such extreme turmoil right now.
00:43:38.100 This text intersects with this concept of covenant judgments.
00:43:42.300 If you've read the book of Revelation, you understand the first two or three chapters
00:43:46.040 talks about seven churches, and it's giving down covenant judgments on these churches.
00:43:52.480 This is after Jesus is resurrected. 0.98
00:43:56.240 To be so naive to think that, well, God doesn't give covenant judges to America is just absolutely ridiculous.
00:44:09.520 I believe we are living through the aftermath of a real pruning, a real pruning.
00:44:15.320 For the past 60 years, I did a bunch of research for this. 0.98
00:44:18.500 we have actually seen a overwhelming reduction of Christians in America.
00:44:27.900 Now, not in South America, in Cuba, in China, in India.
00:44:33.000 In fact, there's actually Christians growing by the millions in the Middle East.
00:44:38.360 But in America, we spent so many years sending out missionaries to help other nations
00:44:43.760 that we forgot our own people.
00:44:46.200 Now these nations are sending missionaries to us.
00:44:54.800 Multi-generational faithfulness has declined.
00:44:58.680 The whole Billy Graham world, great. 0.98
00:45:01.200 Saw the big revival, you know what I didn't see?
00:45:02.980 Is their grandkids still believing in Christ?
00:45:06.980 That's where we're at.
00:45:08.700 We're the grandkids, I'm the grandkids,
00:45:11.020 of the people that came to faith under Billy Graham's teaching.
00:45:15.300 I'm not condemning Billy Graham.
00:45:19.400 I'm just saying is that there was a lack of multi-generational faithfulness.
00:45:24.280 The metric that we should be measuring is, did father pass faith down to son, pass faith down to grandson, to great-grandson?
00:45:32.580 Is that something that we're seeing?
00:45:33.880 That is covenant faithfulness.
00:45:35.720 That is the blessing of the Lord for faithful parents who are raising their kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
00:45:44.700 Or have we seen God cut off generations? 0.92
00:45:50.820 In fact, we have seen more apostate children in the last 60 years than probably any time in America's history. 1.00
00:45:58.560 Kids that are just falling away. 1.00
00:46:06.340 God wants us to see that when we fail to be faithful, we curse our generations and our nation.
00:46:13.720 people ask me all the time,
00:46:16.780 Dale, why are you so bold
00:46:17.680 or why are you so saying
00:46:18.900 all these hard things?
00:46:19.660 I go, because 60 years
00:46:20.820 of pastors haven't.
00:46:24.060 I have to say all these things
00:46:25.480 or preach all these truths
00:46:26.540 because we have 0.73
00:46:30.380 the boomer generation in back
00:46:32.480 bought into soft pageantry Christianity, 0.85
00:46:37.700 invented the seeker-sensitive model, 0.75
00:46:41.240 rock bands and campuses
00:46:43.120 and the fruit is not good.
00:46:47.080 It's not good.
00:46:49.540 It's not good.
00:46:50.520 In fact, if you look at some of the churches
00:46:51.760 even in our own town,
00:46:53.340 they're just not producing fruit.
00:46:56.940 They have numbers.
00:47:00.880 But we need to pray that the harvest
00:47:03.700 is brought forth in this town,
00:47:06.140 that people would come
00:47:06.960 and actually hear a real gospel
00:47:08.840 and that the Lord would save them.
00:47:10.480 that the Lord would save them.
00:47:17.960 There's a growing call, however, I would say.
00:47:20.020 I really do believe this,
00:47:21.100 and I don't think I'm being an optimist
00:47:22.280 for the optimist's sake.
00:47:23.360 I actually believe that we have kind of hit
00:47:27.180 the death throes of American society
00:47:31.160 where liberalism has become so absurd 1.00
00:47:33.900 that even liberals are like, this is stupid. 1.00
00:47:36.920 This is stupid, right? 1.00
00:47:38.360 You start to go, that doesn't work. 1.00
00:47:43.100 That structure doesn't work.
00:47:44.460 Look at the damage. 1.00
00:47:47.780 Two dads and two moms or, you know, the divorce rates among homosexuals is crazy high. 1.00
00:47:56.360 One, because they were never married. 0.99
00:47:57.820 But two, because it's the reality is that it doesn't function.
00:48:04.240 We've killed millions upon millions of babies. 0.97
00:48:06.960 women everywhere 1.00
00:48:09.280 dealing with the guilt of that sin 1.00
00:48:11.300 we have
00:48:17.000 so many young men
00:48:19.560 who are so addicted to pornography
00:48:21.840 that they will never even find a wife
00:48:23.800 because they don't need one 0.99
00:48:24.700 we have
00:48:27.400 kids that are so depressed
00:48:29.640 it's just
00:48:33.200 so bad
00:48:35.620 that by God's grace, I finally believe
00:48:38.440 that there are a handful of pastors
00:48:40.580 that are the very beginning of the remnant speaking up
00:48:44.600 about cultural repentance,
00:48:48.480 true preaching of the word of God,
00:48:51.900 a return to Christian faithfulness,
00:48:53.500 a renewed reality of discipling your children.
00:48:56.700 Homeschooling is booming through the roof right now.
00:49:02.280 And there's Christians that are getting involved in politics. 0.80
00:49:04.660 We've stopped this quiet Christianity where we sit back and let everybody be loud but us. 0.67
00:49:10.760 And we check out of art and media and politics and economics and education.
00:49:15.520 And we just kind of handed it all over the world.
00:49:19.720 You know that Christians used to be known for the best art, the best music, the best architecture, the best.
00:49:28.860 Do you know that Harvard and Princeton and Yale and Oxford are Christian institutions?
00:49:34.660 The best scientists in the world, Bach for music, Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo.
00:49:47.380 I mean, we've lost so much.
00:49:52.720 We've lost so much. 1.00
00:49:55.480 Christians are known now for terrible movies and ugly t-shirt companies, okay? 1.00
00:49:59.600 We really need to turn this around. 0.98
00:50:05.620 We're the ones that have truth.
00:50:07.940 The liberals are literally borrowing the truth of the Bible
00:50:11.760 and creating perverted versions of it.
00:50:15.160 And that's why we have no TV shows for our children.
00:50:17.740 You know why?
00:50:18.320 What do all of our kids watch?
00:50:19.620 Stuff from the 1960s and the 1970s.
00:50:22.900 Because you can't let your kids watch anything from Netflix or Hulu
00:50:26.180 because we've handed all the media over to the world.
00:50:33.200 We've kind of just said, hey, you know what? 0.99
00:50:34.560 going to hell in a handbasket. We might as well just check out. It's the exact opposite of what 0.93
00:50:39.100 the historic church has done. Jesus says, go get the nations. Disciple them. Teach them to obey 0.87
00:50:45.260 all that I have commanded. Christianize this place. 1.00
00:50:51.520 It starts in your house. It starts in your house. If you can't disciple your own kids, 0.99
00:50:59.960 you're not going to be able to change anything in this town.
00:51:04.560 If you can't take care of your own soul, you can't get into the Word in the morning?
00:51:11.900 You're 50 years old and you can't get into the Word?
00:51:17.700 You've been in the church since you were 8 and now you're 26 and you still can't find time to pray and get into the Word in the morning?
00:51:28.380 Do you understand what you're doing to your own generations?
00:51:32.100 You're cursing your kids and your grandkids.
00:51:34.560 may we never forget the cost of unfaithfulness and how many of our people in this country 0.95
00:51:44.420 perished because of nominal christianity
00:51:48.080 i'm going to close with this
00:51:53.320 this passage that we're going through today makes me think of numbers 14 18 that says
00:52:00.380 The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression,
00:52:05.340 but he will by no means clear the guilty,
00:52:09.720 visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations.
00:52:18.220 God is a God of mercy and justice.
00:52:21.620 If you want the blessings of believing children and grandchildren,
00:52:24.940 I think it was Charles Spurgeon that said
00:52:29.180 talking about teaching your kids
00:52:31.420 and disciplining your kids in the Lord
00:52:33.540 he says if you avoid the headaches now
00:52:36.980 you will embrace the heartaches later
00:52:39.420 I know it's a headache
00:52:42.600 to train children in the way of the Lord
00:52:44.940 but if you skip the headaches now
00:52:47.940 you'll have grown children
00:52:49.820 and you'll have the heartaches in your old age
00:52:51.440 we either get to be faithful
00:52:57.960 or we get to curse 0.61
00:53:01.480 our generations
00:53:02.780 with the consequences
00:53:04.400 of a cut off people
00:53:05.340 those are your only options
00:53:07.200 so be faithful
00:53:10.040 every one of you
00:53:12.840 you have no guarantee
00:53:17.420 that you live until
00:53:18.420 Thursday this week
00:53:19.540 you don't
00:53:21.120 the internet has done a lot of terrible things but one thing it does is it reminds you how many
00:53:28.600 people die unexpectedly
00:53:30.640 turbo cancers and kids dying and people having accidents and car accidents and strokes and
00:53:42.000 heart attacks. Be faithful. Lean into Christ. Praise God for the gospel. 0.99
00:53:54.380 And learn how to revel in the mercy that you've been saved. Amen? Let's pray.
00:54:02.400 Father, we thank you, Lord, for the blessing,
00:54:05.500 for the blessing of the gospel.
00:54:13.540 Lord, we ask that you would continue to build your church,
00:54:16.620 not with numbers, but with souls.
00:54:21.980 Lord, that you would bring more and more people
00:54:24.740 to hear the word of the Lord
00:54:26.060 and that over the next century, Lord,
00:54:30.040 this place would be a place of righteousness.
00:54:35.500 that our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren
00:54:40.500 would be following the Lord and ordered families and joy, peace.
00:54:46.940 Lord, that we would see the wickedness of the world and reject it
00:54:49.820 and be bold enough to say something about it
00:54:51.500 so we don't have the consequences that our forefathers have reaped.
00:54:56.280 Lord, we ask that you would bless us with wisdom.
00:54:59.720 Bring conviction on us, Lord,
00:55:01.660 that we might be a holy church in this town.
00:55:05.500 In Jesus' name, amen.