Sermon, 12/28/03 pm

Jim Huskey, God's True System

We talked a couple lessons back about some things the apostle Paul

said in the first part of the tenth chapter of the book of Romans.

He said, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is,

that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal

of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of

God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own

righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of

God." Rom. 10:1-3. Then this morning we looked at the plan that God

has in place for people to come to know his will. There are those who

talk about seeing angels and angels speaking to them, the Lord speaking

to them and telling them what to do. Paul, however, in the tenth of

the book of Romans said it "tain't so". There is a plan God has in

place. A man can't call on the Lord unless he believes, and he can't

believes unless he's heard, and he can't hear without a preacher. We

looked at some incidents in the New Testament and in each of those

incidents, even though the framework was there for the divine to just

plainly tell man what to do, in NONE of them was it done. They were

put in contact with a preacher who would tell them what God commanded

of them. As we noted with Cornelius, when Peter arrived, he said they

were gathered there to hear all things commanded Peter of God.

Let's go down now to the eleventh chapter of Romans. You see, the Jew

felt he was "it", that there was no other nation deserving of God's

blessings in any shape, form or fashion. In the long ago, however, when

God made promise to Abraham he said 'in thee and thy seed shall ALL

nations, or families, of the earth be blessed.' Well, if it's ALL

families, or ALL nations of the earth, that includes others beside the

Jewish race and Jewish nation. At the end of chapter ten of Romans,

Paul concluded that the Jews, by their unbelief, by their rebellion,

by their stubbornness, had been a disobedient and gainsaying people,

even though God kept stretching forth his hand to them. So in

chapter eleven he began, "I say then, Hath God cast away his people?

God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the

tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.

Wot (know) ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh

intercession to God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed thy

prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they

seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have

reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to

the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a

remnant according to the election of grace. (then moving to verse 13

where Paul concluded Jew and Gentile both were in need of salvation)

For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the

Gentiles, I magnify mine office; if by any means I may provoke to

emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For

if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what

shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the

firstfruits be holy, the lump is also holy; annd if the root be holy,

so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and

thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with

them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not

against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root,

but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off

that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were

broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear;

For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also

spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God;

on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou

continue in his goodness; otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off."

Rom. 11:1-5, 12-22.

Now Paul used an interesting figure in the above reading. It was the

figure of an olive tree. People in that area were familiar with

vineyards, growing grapes, olives, figs; so Paul used a figure with

which they would be familiar. In Jeremiah chapter 11, Jeremiah was

talking about the condition of the nation of Judah. In verse 15 of

that eleventh chapter, Jeremiah began, "What hath my beloved to do in

mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy

flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.

The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly

fruit; with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it,

and the branches of it are broken." Jer. 11:16,17. So this is not the

first time that figure in respect to Israel is used. It was used back

in the Old Testament as well.

Now here is the pictre. Here is a tree that God planted. However,

because fruit was not born, branches were pruned off it. Now that was

because they were, as Paul described them and Isaiah described them and

others in the Old Testament described them, a disobedient and gainsaying

people. In other words, they just would not listen to what God said.

So we have that tree which God planted, the root providing life, but

many of the branches having been cut off. Paul said all of them

were't cut off because 'here I am, and I'm a part of that original

tree'. But he used a figure there, saying the Gentiles were a wild

olive branch. Paul described them in Ephesians chapter 2 as having

no hope, without God in the world. Eph. 2:12. But a marvelous thing

happened. God performed surgery on the olive tree. When I was a child

my grandfather lived in Smithville, Tennessee. He had a couple farms,

owned a good bit of stock in a nursery up there. I got to see first

hand a little bit of what Paul was talking about here, how they would

take a stock of a tree, take a branch from another tree, cut that

branch at a specific angle, but into the stock of the tree in the same

angle, fit that branch in the stock, put some sort of binding and

holding material on it, allowing it to begin to grow there. It's

called grafting. Nurserymen do a lot of that. Even with the

physical body we hear about grafting. Maybe someone is badly burned

in the face. The doctor will take skin from some other part of the

body, not the face, and they will graft it on to that area and it

grows there. Now Paul said that's what God did to the Gentiles. In

other words, that's how they got into the picture. God grafted them

in. They weren't part of the tree, but God grafted them in. Now

one of the things Paul made sure to do was to warn the Gentiles that

they not become like the Jews had become. He said, 'I know what you're

thinking; oh, God cut those branches off so he could graft me in. Let

me remind you of something. You were a branch grafted in, you're not

the root. The sustainance comes from the root, just remember that.

Oh, yes, let me remind you of something else. If God cut off the

natural branches because of unbelief, don't think for a minute that

he won't cut you off for the same reason.' You see, God used the

Gentiles, in a way, Paul said, to provoke Israel, to wake them up,

to bring them back to reality. Paul said 'I am an apostle of the

Gentiles and I magnify that office (why?) if by any means I may

provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of

them.' Well, what are you saying Paul? He explained it a little

later down in verse 24. "For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree

which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a

good olive tree; how much more shall these, which be the natural

branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?" In other words,

Paul was reminding the Gentiles of the fact that they had been given

the opportunity to hear the gospel, to be saved, to enjoy the blessings

that had been promised all way back to Abraham, that they should be

aware of the fact that if God could graft in the wild branch, he

he could also take those natural branches and graft them right back

into that tree, which would be even easier than grafting in that wild

olive branch. He said, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be

ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits;

that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the

Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is

written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn

away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant unto them, when

I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are

enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved

for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without

repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have

now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now

not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For

God hath conclcded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy

upon all." Rom. 11:25-32. When I have time, I like to read a little

theology sometimes. I find it very interesting and amazing how some

of those fellows try to think for God and try to explain what God

REALLY meant when he said what he said. Now one of the reasons I

said 'when I have time' is because it's a whole lot easier to just

read the Bible and find out what God said; that will tell you what God

meant because he doesn't seem to have any trouble saying what he means.

It's much easier than listening to some of those fellows try to explain

it away, because that's usually what they're trying to do. What Paul

was pointing out is this. All have sinned, both Jew and Gentile.

God had a plan and he used the figure of the olive tree. He could

have used any figure he wished to use. Jesus, for instance on another

occasion, used a different figure. He used sheep in describing the

same idea. He 'Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them

also I must call, there will be one fold and one shepherd.' But God

chose to use this figure of the olive tree. It was used in the Old

Testament, Paul brought it over into the New Testament. To both Jew

and Gentile, therefore, he was saying alike, 'Both of you in time past

have not believed me, and as a result of having not believed me, you've

been disobedient.' But now here is an opportunity for both Jew and

Gentile. The Jew had the natural branches removed. Remember what

John said in John chapter 1. "He came unto his own, and his own

received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power

to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

John 1:11,12. The same principle was here applied to the Geniles as

Paul reminded them 'These Jews were cut off because of their unbelief.

You have believed, but now remember also that at one time those Jews

believed, too. Don't get too "cocky" about what has happened to the

Jewish world.' The Hebrew author would do the same thing in chapters

10 and 11, when he encouraged those people to remain steadfast in

their faith lest there be in them an evil heart of unbelief in

departing from the living God. But he said 'we're persuaded better

things of you; you're not of them that drift into perdition, but of

them that believe unto the saving of the soul.' Then he went into

that great chapter on faith, chapte 11. It's the same principle he's

talking about here in Romans, except in the Hebrew letter he was

writing to encourage Jews who had been a part of those branches that

had been cut off and now as a result of their having believed the

gospel, they'd been grafted back in to the tree, had begun to drift

away. The book of Hebrews was written to try to remind them of how

much better it was in Christ than under Moses. He was trying to keep

them from going back into unbelief as they had been before.

So in this Roman letter Paul said, "Even so have these also now not

believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For

God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy

upon all. (Not notice the next verse) O the depth of the riches

both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his

judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the

mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath

first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For

of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be

glory for ever. Amen." Rom. 11:31-36. That's one of the principles

I'm afraid man has forgotten. The Jews forgot, the Gentiles would in

time forget it and I'm not sure a lot of our brethren today haven't

forgotten. In so many congregations brethren are doing their own

thing so to speak. They forget "for of him, and through him, and to

whom are all things...." In other words, it doesn't matter what you

like, it doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what you

want. You better look and find out what God says, because if you

don't there's going to be another pruning. Now Jesus himself used

this figure. We sang about it a few minutes ago. "I am the vine and

ye are the branches." One of the things he said with respect to that

is that the branches that don't bear fruit get cut off. I mentioned

that my grandfather owned stock in nurseries. As a result of that,

when I was growing up we have fruit trees, grape vines, etc. like you

wouldn't believe. We had pear trees, peach trees, apple trees,

cherry trees, about twelve different varieties of grapes. I saw that

principle in practice and some of those trees were the result of

grafts. It works, if you know what you're doing. That's the point

Paul was making, God knew what he was doing when he did this. Man

begins, I think, to reach a point where we think we know so much,

that we're smarter than God. Well, any time man gets to thinking he

knows very much, he needs to stop and consider this. Back in the

patriarchal dispensation when God was dealing with his servant Job,

how there was a meeting and satan came in and God asked him, 'Have

you considered my servant Job? There's none like him in the earth.'

You remember all the calamities that were brought upon Job. Job's

friends came to comfort him and there was all sorts of reasoning

among the four of them. Finally God entered the picture again. He

asked Job forty questions, Job 38, 39, 40. Do you know how many of

them Job could answer? 0 !!!! Well that was the patriarchal

dispensation, so that's been thousands of years ago. We've been to

the mood, sent space ships to Mars, we've done all sorts of things.

We've just learned so much. You know how many of those questions in

Job 38, 39, 40 we can answer now? 2, maybe 3 !!!! Man "ain't" as

smart as he thought he was. That's why Paul raised the question,

"For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his

counsellor?"

That should give us an idea of where we stand. The wisdom of man,

why that's foolishness with God. God knows. The point Paul will

draw from this when he comes to chapter 12 where we will look next

is as a result of all this, there's a way it should affect us. We'll

talk about that next time, Lord willing.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God...."

What he said is based on what he said in these previous chapters.

Someone has said the first eleven chapters of Romans are doctrinal

and the last five are applied christianity, and that's about the way

it is. Beginning in chapter twelve he said 'this is what you ought

to do as a result of the things we've said in the previous chapters.

If man would be saved he'll be saved according to God's design and

God's plan - no other way. There are no other provisions made. God

made them and if man would be saved he must abide by them. He must

believe in Jesus as Son of God, repent of his sins, confess Jesus

as God's Son, be baptized for the remissions of sins, be raised up

to walk in newness of life, live according to the life of the word of

God, enjoying the promises and blessings as a child and heir of God.