Romans Ch 11

Hello, this is Will Hardy with Man Talk Radio.

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Here is your host Mike Zwick. If not for God. If not for God. How fun it is to be back in the studio. We had a little smoke issue last week because of the. Where there's smoke there's fire. Yeah there was the weaver furniture, I mean fertilizer fire that kept us from being in the studio but we're back and so glad that we get to chance to dive into Romans chapter 11. We did Romans 9 together. You did chapter 10 and here we are in Romans chapter 11. And before we get into Romans chapter 11 you and I Robbie were just talking about this and it was Romans 9 we think may tie in a little bit to this. Romans 9 31 and it says but Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness.

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith but as it were by the works of the law for when they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Really I mean that's that's all we really talk about on the show is that we can't make it in by our own good works and that that the only way we're going to make it to heaven is is by pleading the blood of Jesus by believing in him believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God and as it says in Romans 10 9 that was the chapter I just did you know Romans 10 9. If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord it says you will be saved and so basically what I hear from in in that last part of Romans 9 is that the Jews were trying to get in by their own righteousness and they missed the boat. So and by the way if you if you went to a synagogue today or as I do I quite often listen to rabbis sermons and stuff I love that they have an insight into the Torah that only they have. They are still trying 613 misfit for which they've you know they've got it all lined out on how they're going to to meet the criteria of salvation which is impossible to do without being connected to the vine which is you know kind of how we get over from Romans 9 now the transition into Romans 11 where you know he talks about these broken off branches. Yeah I mean the the broken off branches and you know when you're talking about that up and here we go Romans 11 and I'll start in verse 1 I use the New King James version for this. I say then has God cast away his people certainly not for I am for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah how he pleads with God against Israel saying Lord they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars and I and I alone am left and they seek my life but what does the divine response say to him I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal even so then at this present time there is a Rembrandt according a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace then it is no longer works that's interesting no long that it is no longer works otherwise grace is no longer grace but if it is works if it is of works it is no longer grace otherwise work is no longer work what then Israel has not attained what it seeks but the elect have obtained it and the rest were blinded just as it is written God has given them a spirit of stupor eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day and David says let their table become a snare and a trap a stumbling block and a recompense to them let their eyes be darkened so that they can so that they do not see and bow down their back always and so we'll stop there um but Robbie when when you were talking about this you said you read a book uh by Napoleon Hill well you stopped just short of where I needed you to get okay so let's let's continue verse 11 if I say then have they stumbled that they should fall certainly not but but through their fall to provoke them to jealousy salvation has come to the Gentiles now if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles how much more their fullness for I speak to you Gentiles in as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles I magnify my ministry if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them for if they're being cast away as the reconciling of the world what will their acceptance be but life from the dead so verse 16 for if the first fruit is holy the lump is also holy and if the root is holy so are the branches and if some of the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them and with them become a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree do not boast against the branches but but if you do boast remember that you do not support the root but the root supports you so Robbie what you got Jesus explains to us in John chapter 15 about you know I'm the vine you are the branches right and and here you know Paul is is taking this and he's taking it as an example of broken off branches well to me one of the things that God has been teaching me for a long time is the importance of being abiding right of being in the root and so in the as I've been studying 119 psalm there is the psalmic the letter psalmic and the letter psalmic has to do with community it has to do with being yes in unity yes and it has to do with all being on the same page and so yes I read a book by Napoleon Hill and this book was the you know thing can grow rich yeah and the idea of thinking grow rich was you know just genius that he said you know inside the first chapter of this book and every chapter thereafter is the secret to Andrew Carnegie's millions but I'm not going to just tell you what it is but when your mind is ready you you'll accept it and it's it's hidden in every chapter of the book so I read and read and read read the book till I could finally figure out that I isolated what is this secret that Andrew Carnegie had because I the idea of thinking grow rich was rich spiritually by the way not rich financially yeah yeah yeah so what the secret was was this idea of abiding and let me explain it so what what he shared was that Charles Schwab who was you know I thought he was an investment banker but as it turns out he was a steel guy yes and they had an underperforming steel mill and that under performing steel mill they you know went in there right at the point in time when the shifts were changing and Charles Schwab asked the guys as they were coming off how many pourings of steel did you make last night which was you know from his standpoint the whole the main thing what's the main thing what are you doing here you're supposed to pour steel how many of those did you do last night they did seven okay so he took a big piece of chalk don't miss this this is huge it's gigantic he took a big piece of chalk and he put it on the floor on number seven so the next shift comes in what's the big seven on the floor and they're like all the big boss was in here and that was how many points of steel well you better believe that that next shift did eight pourings and the shift after that did nine now the point I'm trying to make here is that the body of Christ is it abides in Christ it bears fruit it bears good fruit and as the Jews see that good fruit love joys peace patience that kind of fruit we're putting numbers down on the floor for them to look at that that see that we are obtaining something that they they can see it and it will make them jealous because they want that because they want God that's it they what they really want everybody that was ever born they have a heart that was made to want God and when they actually can see love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness well that happens man I want that right as we abide as we abide in the body then we right get on the same page okay but we have to die to our self-interest right uh-huh and we have to realize and take that part into the vine to verse 19 because it's continuing to talk about the branches but it says you will say then branches were broken off that I might be grafted in well said because of unbelief they were broken off and you stand by faith do not be haughty but fear for if God did not spare the natural branches he did not spare the natural branches uh he may not spare you either uh therefore consider the goodness and the severity of God on those who fell severity but towards you goodness if you continue in his goodness otherwise you will be cut off and they also if they do if they do it says and they also if they do not continue in unbelief they will be grafted in for God is able to graft them in again for if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree how much more will these who are unnatural branches be grafted into their own olive tree for I do not desire brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the gentiles come in and so all Israel will be saved as it is written the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins concerning the gospel they are enemies but for your sake concerning but concerning the election they are beloved for the uh sake of their fathers uh for the gifts and the and the and the calling of God are irrevocable for as you were once disobedient uh to God you have now obtained mercy through their disobedience even so these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown shown you they may also obtain mercy for God has committed them all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all oh the depth of the of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out uh for who has known the mind of the Lord there you go we're always asking uh or who has become his counselor or who has get has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him for of him and through him and to him are all things to to him be glory forever and ever amen and one of the things that I was looking at that Robbie when I think about this when I was going back to Romans 9 and it's verse 3 and Paul says for I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my countrymen according to the flesh who are all Israelites to whom pertain the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law the service of God and the promises and so what he's saying there is he would rather go to hell he would go to hell if it meant that his fellow Jews could be saved and so you know there's a lot I'm just going to say this there's a lot of people who have a lot of you know which by the way you know on that particular concept you know look back through the scriptures and see how many times you see that that Moses right he said you might remember Moses said scratch my name out of your book of life if you'll save these people you know is the whole idea he was willing to die and and even Esther which interestingly in the Hebrew Bible I don't know if you know this book of Esther is their last book and the reason that they have it canonized that way is because from their perspective Esther was the last person who was willing to give up her life wow right because when she went to see King Xerxes without the right she could have died and she was willing to give up her life so that her people would live and and from them their standpoint that that idea and if you look at the name of Esther just her name almost gives you this idea that it's the last light the last transformation of light that that would be shown to the the people and so how cool is that what you just described that Paul is now saying the same thing after Jesus actually did that right and actually when you think about all the disciples gave their life their very life yeah so that others wouldn't go to hell and and it's all part of us having the opportunity to take up the cross right and die to ourselves so that so that we can truly be in the vine so that idea of the psalmic again I want to go back for a minute to verse 113 of psalm 119 verse 113 says vain when you read it at first time you go what does that have to do with branches it has everything to do with branches because it says vain thoughts do I hate but the law do I love that's the verse but if you look at the Hebrew for that word vain thoughts it's broken off branches yes yeah and so this theme is is coming through when we have thoughts that oh I don't need mike's wick yeah you know stu's really upset me I don't know that I want to do this thing or whatever it is that you think you're upset and and you and you want to break off and you want to isolate yeah right you you don't realize that you're you're you're becoming a broken off branch yeah and and that isolation is is your hiding place in Christ when you really study the letter psalmic you'll see especially since the next verse it says thou are my hiding place and my shield that we literally when we what what happened the garden of eden when adam sinned right he was naked and he wanted to immediately hide we need a place to hide but what are we where we need to hide is in Christ in the line in order to get in the root we naturally or I have ever since I was a kid satan's been saying you don't need anybody you could do this on your own right you can make your way well the biggest need that you need to begin with is without Christ you ain't yeah you got nothing you got nothing apart from me you can do what you do nothing maybe this is part of it and what we talked about before were the you know two groups of kids and one group of kids did their homework the other group of kids didn't do their homework and the kids who did the homework carried the bags for both the kids who did it and did it and you would think that it didn't make any sense but halfway up up the up the hike the kids who didn't do their homework were going crazy because they wanted to carry their own weight and so what I provoked to jealousy there you go right just what just what paul's explaining yeah just like that number seven on the floor yeah is provoking the other team to jealousy is there in other words all these things when when we are in the body of Christ yeah you're right we're carrying other people's homework yeah yeah and Christ carries our homework I mean Christ I mean it you know he is our salvation and it's like we until you get to the point that you really need him and that we're lost and there's no way to work at it or be righteous or whatever then then you never really get it um you know it was interesting we were we were going to church uh the other day and uh as we do on Sundays and uh so I plugged my phone in and I looked down at the phone and there was no power going to my phone and I said I plugged it in I did everything I could do and then my wife said she said Mike it has to be hooked up to the charger and and I did everything I knew how to do to get that phone charging man but without without the source without the source of where the the charge came from I couldn't do it and maybe it's the same thing when we look at our own lives and when we try to do it without Christ good luck there the charger is not going to work it's not going to charge you up and so another thing that I thought about though and we had talked about this a little bit before sometimes so many people I think they come to us as Christians and they want us to prove that Jesus Christ is the son of God and and well what evidence do you have or how are you going to prove it or this that yeah well a friend of mine Todd uh Todd Jordan down in South Carolina he he sent me a video of a guy who says you know the they start asking him about what what what your faith in Christ or why do you believe whatever and he says well why do you not have faith in Christ or why are you an atheist or why do you not and he starts to question them I mean in a respectful manner but after a few but after a few minutes they realize they go well I don't know anything and he's got people who say I don't know anything and I think until you get to that point where you say apart from Christ I have nothing then you can't really cry out to Christ I mean and you know and here's the other thing too and this was something that I was thinking about about how he was provoking them to jealousy think about so many times Robbie or if you're listening right now how many times we bug people about Jesus right you gotta give you you have to trust in Jesus you have to trust in Jesus you have to trust in Jesus and there have been times where we have pestered people into the kingdom of heaven I'm not saying it doesn't happen but so many more times people are like I don't want to hear this anymore get away from me whatever it is and you know when I when I look in the bible Jesus said when you go out to a certain town he says you share the gospel with them he says but if they don't receive it he says you take your your shoes and you dust your shoes off he says it'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town matter of fact there's a there's another part where uh where uh I think it's is it Peter or Paul where they're going and they're sharing the gospel with the Jews and they're finally like hey man you guys don't get it he says and he I like what he says he says because you found yourself to be unworthy of the gospel we're going to the gentiles kind of the same thing where it's like you know hey we're provoking them with jealousy um and then there's a there there's plenty of other examples as what the other example I was thinking was this was there was a where there was a time when uh Jesus's disciples were around him and many people who believed in him were around him and he was he shared something with them that was really tough it was hard for them to hear he said unless you uh eat my flesh and and drink of my and drink of my blood you cannot be a disciple of mine and he said many of the many of the people who were following him left they went away and uh you know one thing that I never saw Jesus do Robbie is I never saw him run after these people and chase them down I mean it's you know that's kind of what we do but he said basically he's like look he's like he already knew from the beginning that some of the people weren't going to follow him till the end but then you remember what he asked Peter he says well Peter what do you think I am and uh Peter says you're the son of God uh but also you know I think he said to Peter he said well Peter are you going to leave too and he says where else are we going to go you know so um but that that's it man it's just uh you know what what how have you had success I mean we're talking about this now what well I think you know when you're talking about Peter it brings up a great point when it comes to this idea of you know obviously Romans 8 fits it to Romans 9 fits into Romans 10 11 and Peter right when he was thinking he had it all made and he had it figured out he had a few vain thoughts that he could get all this stuff done you know when everybody else falls away I'm going to be there for you that sounds like that's a vain thought that's a broken off branch right there just saying yeah but what did Jesus say he said Peter I prayed for you satan was going to sift you like wheat what when if you have Jesus praying for you you see if you're in the back if you're in the mind you have something that like I don't care what your pay grade is if Jesus is praying for you which by the way in Romans chapter 8 right it says that the Holy Spirit is groaning with things and he's groaning for what he he he's he's groaning for if you look right after that all things work together for good for those who are called right and then he says because those he foreknew he also predestined to predestined what's the destination into the likeness of his son how does that happen because the Holy Spirit knows where we're groaning inside and we're groaning where we don't have our act together we're groaning where we are not in the likeness of our of his son and so through those cries right just think of the benefit that you have if you get into this vine right through those groans the Holy Spirit you know like you said I don't know anything I don't know anything I'll be the first person to tell you that there's you know God shows me these things and I just sit there and wonder but what I can see is man I got the Holy Spirit groaning for me because he knows the destination for me is to be made into the likeness of his son that's right and and through that right we get to be in the vine and and and as as people see that in your life it it is a number on the floor that's provoking people to jealousy that they man they they know they want that and it was one of those things that even for me and I can remember when I first went to sunday school with my wife the very first time of course I was a car salesman you know understand because being an insurance salesman you know you're always looking for somebody's I was looking for the angle right and all these people were being really nice to me but they didn't want to buy a car and I was like Tammy what these people just seem to really care about us I mean they really had that idea of grace and you saw no reproach in their eye no judging you because you're a car salesman right I mean that means a lot yeah it does it does they weren't they weren't looking at you down and in some way they were just like there was grace there and through that grace I was like man these people have something I want yeah and that jealousy provoked me to like how can I get connected because I I'd come through salvation through the bible but I had no community I had no sonic I had I was a broken off branch to some extent because you need the body of Christ I love the way you mentioned going to church and I'll never forget pastor quartz saying this and I it always comes to me he says well you don't need to go to church in order to get to heaven uh-huh he said but you don't need to get to England if you know you don't need a boat in order to get to England but it is a very long swim that's right that's right and it's the same thing you want to get to heaven without the church man that's a long without going to church it's a long swim close out with this I think about first peter 315 and this is the verse that they use for apologetics but it says but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord is holy ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is within you um you know and it's interesting you know when he's saying if anybody asks you for a reason for the hope it doesn't say you need to go up to them and bug the whatever I wonder if he's saying that maybe our lives should be so filled with the Holy Spirit so filled with Jesus and his love that people actually come up to us and say what's going on right right I mean that that is the deal and you know that the idea again of the full armor where the you might remember it says your feet are supposed to be fitted with the gospel of peace well that's how do you run right and you might remember David when he was on the wall and there were two runners coming his way because his son had been killed right but as those runners came they said oh that's Ahithophel he's a good man he runs like he has good news when you see that messenger coming are you running like you have good news and Jesus Christ is the good news he is we would ask that you would pray with us if you haven't had that experience of knowing what it's like to have love and joy in those things in your life we ask that you would ask Jesus Lord come into my life Lord help me to turn from my sin I believe that you are the son of God and that you died for me and Lord we pray that you would come into our life and that you would allow us to run like that with love joy peace patience kindness faithfulness and we ask this in Jesus name if not for God not for God hey I just want to thank one of our sponsors Greater Love World Outreach Center over in Burlington, North Carolina at 537 South Ireland Street 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