Romans 11, verses 11 through 17. Hear now the word of Almighty God. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather, through their fall, salvation has come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? 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 first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy, and 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 graft in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, thus far the reading of God's inspired word, From the book of Romans chapter 11, verses 11 through 17, may the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of it, and now to the preaching and hearing of his inspired word. Let us pray toward that end. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the grace that is given to us, even among the Gentiles who inherited vanity and lies and things of no profit, gods made to our fathers that are no gods. We thank you, O Lord, that you have graft in a people unto that holy olive tree, once uniquely for one nation, now opened to all nations. Have mercy on us as we consider that glorious tree and the glories of what you have done for us and for our fathers, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. We will consider verse 17 this morning, graft in, in review of verse 16, which we considered last week. We looked at the first fruits and its relation to the lump. We looked at the roots and its relation to the branches. And we saw that both confirm a potential or a federal holiness, a hereditary holiness passed on from father to son. We surveyed the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, and also looked at the speech of the Holy Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 12, 20 through 22, and also the sermon of Peter in Acts 3, 21 and 22, confirming this doctrine, that there is a hereditary, or what may be called a testamental holiness, confirmed in scripture and in nature. We saw a rebuke to the unscriptural and unnatural doctrine which lays aside a hereditary holiness. We saw a duty to give thanks for this, that God has designed to operate in this way. And also to make good use of this doctrine of scripture and of nature by becoming holy ancestors ourselves. whether as parents or children to make good use of these glorious promises that God has given. Now then a reminder of the outline of Romans 11, 1 through 6, Israel's casting off, not total nor permanent. 7 through 10, their judicial blindness prophesied in scripture. 11 through 16, which we concluded last week. The consequences both of Israel's fall and conversion with regard to the Gentile world. And now we begin our next section, verses 17 through 22. The Gentiles are cautioned not to boast against the Jews, but to fear a like result if we are unbelieving. and encouraged to make proper use of the example, both of God's goodness and of his severity. So now we begin this section, verse 17. And if some of the branches be broken off. Now again, in verse 16, we talked about these branches. They're naturally connected to the roots. And if some of those natural branches connected to the roots are broken off, then they are judged. Verse 15 refers to them casting away or being cast away. Here they're referred to as broken off. And we saw this in our Old Testament scripture reading, you recall, plucking up by the roots or cutting off. Those are two analogies. Here is the cutting off analogy. These are parallel ideas. These natural branches broken off, Poole calls them unbelieving Jews. Verse 21 says they are natural branches. Verse 20 says that they are broken off as a judgment for their unbelief. Please open to Isaiah chapter 27, if you would please, concerning these branches. Isaiah 27, page 728 of your Pew Bibles. This is no new thing that the apostle refers to. We saw it in 2 Chronicles. It was in 1 Kings 9 as well. But the prophets also refer to this breaking off, this cutting off. Isaiah 27, verses 10 and 11. Yet the defense city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness. There shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and consume the branches thereof. When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off. The women come and set them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding. Therefore, he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. Now here, notice, the branches are broken off and burned. They're eaten by cattle or burned by women. He who made them, who turned them into this tree, notice, he will be severe with them. The severity of God, we'll consider that later in Romans 11. Here, notice, he will have no mercy. They have no understanding. They're broken off. They're burned, he says. God will show them no favor. Please turn over to Jeremiah 11 for a similar prophecy concerning this olive tree and the breaking off of branches. Jeremiah 11, page 776. Verses 16 and 17. 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. For the Lord of hosts that planted thee hath pronounced evil against thee. For the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger and offering incense unto Baal." Here note, the two houses of Israel, Israel and Judah, they've provoked the Lord and therefore he will break the branches off of this green olive tree. The goodly fruit that he himself established, he will burn those branches with fire. Please turn back to Romans 11. First, we have the breaking off of the branches. Then note in verse 17, and thou being a wild olive tree. Again, he carries on the analogy of the olive tree. But olive trees in the wild never bear good fruit. They never have oil that comes from them. They never have large fruit. They have tiny fruit with no oil. That's what they have. They look like an olive tree. They appear on the outside to have the properties of an olive tree, but they have none of the cultivated fatness of those good trees. They bear no fruit to God or to man. John Calvin comments, he says, the origin of the Gentiles was as it were from some wild and unfruitful olive as nothing but a curse was to be found in their whole race. What do you find among the Gentiles but idolatry and cursing and barrenness? Is there some beautiful statements from Aristotle and Plato? Are there things in the laws of the heathen that we as Christians could look at and say, wow, that's nice, that's glorious, I'm glad they did that. The Romans were wise, they were civil, they had society. Yes, but it's like a wild olive tree. Looks nice, but it doesn't produce anything. not cultivated by God himself. The greatest among the heathen is but a splendid sinner with glorious sins that shine as virtues. Thou being a wild olive tree." Charles Hodge says of this wild olive tree, one of the most worthless of trees. to express the degradation of their state, considered as estranged from God. And notice, the apostle doesn't say, you used to be a wild olive tree. He says, and thou being a wild olive tree. It is the present tense in the participle being. Here's what you are, wild olive tree. Then note, wert graft in among them. This is in the Aorist tense. It's an accomplished fact, once for all. God took you from your wild tree, cut you off, and graft in among them. Well, who's that? Well, that's the natural branches, isn't it? All those natural branches still attached that didn't get broken off, you get graft in among them. Now this verb, graft, is very interesting. In the New Testament, the word is used for a poke or a point. It's something that pierces and hurts. And this is the idea here. Freiberg says of this verb, graft, literally as cutting into one plant to insert another plant. So the two grow as one plant. You Gentiles, you wild olives, God has made you one with what? With the olive tree. He graft you in. He made you one. In fact, you didn't graft yourself. You weren't graft. It was done to you, not by you. God did it. God cut the tree and placed you in it so that the two grow together as one. And you are among them, He says, those natural branches, the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, Paul's kinsmen. The Gentiles who believe in Jesus Christ are made one tree with the Jews that believe in Christ. And those that did not believe in Christ are broken out of the tree. They're not there any longer. You see? That's what he's saying. Some were broken off. And you Gentiles who don't belong to this tree, you're now made one with this tree. You've been brought together in one commonwealth with the Jew and the Gentile, all that believe in Jesus Christ. Please open to Ephesians chapter 2, concerning this very truth, not in analogy, but in more plain language, Ephesians chapter two. Now following the discourse on being saved by grace through faith and faith not of yourself, it is the gift of God. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. Now this, verse 11, wherefore remember, that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off still remain far off, because after all you're not a Jew. Is that what he says? Is that what your Bible says? Because mine says something very different. Mine says, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Nigh to what? Commonwealth of Israel, citizenship within it. All those covenants of promise that God made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David. All those renewals made by the godly kings of Judah. The renewal of the covenant in Nehemiah's day. I'm partaker in that? Yes, that's what he says. You uncircumcised. You Gentiles. You once aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. You at one time strangers from the covenants of promise, you hopeless, godless people out there in the world, through the blood of Christ, you have been brought nigh, he says. Look down at verse 19, if you would, please. Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners. but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." It gets even better. It's not just like you're a citizen out there in the city, it's like you're a son in the house. You've been adopted by God. Not just put into a city, a civil relation, an ecclesiastical republic, you've been brought to the Father's house as His son, He says, an heir of God. And note this, Not only have you become members of the Commonwealth of Israel, not only are you now partakers of the covenants of promise, but look, you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Who are they? Well, those are the men that God spoke through. He gave us what we call the Bible through them. And one part of that Bible is called the prophets, where the covenants of promise are contained, where circumcision is commanded of the Jews. What's that called? The Old Testament. And those apostles, what did they give us? The New Testament. So I, as a Christian, graft into the tree, taken out from the wild olive tree, I have all the promises, and all the covenants, and the commonwealth of Israel, and the adoption of God, and the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. I build upon that foundation. And guess what's under the apostles and prophets? Guess what's under the Old and New Testament? Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. He is the Petra. He is the foundation stone. Peter is one of the stones. That's what we talked about with Cephas, right? It's a little building stone. He's on top of the foundation. Then the rest of the prophets and the apostles are there with him. And then we are built upon them. In whom all the building fitly framed together that is in Christ. The building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. You see, that old temple of Solomon was like a preparation, a shadow for the body of Christ, the church of Christ, composed of Jew and Gentile. in whom ye also are builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. Just what we read about in 2 Chronicles 7. God inhabited by the glory cloud representing His Spirit. Now He inhabits His church. Now He lives among the saints. Now Jew and Gentile united together in one city, in one commonwealth, in one body, in one house, in one temple. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God's own praise, whether Jew or Gentile, all who believe in Jesus Christ, graft in by God himself, fellow citizens adopted into the Father's house, members of the Commonwealth of Israel, no more strangers from the covenants of promise. David Dixon comments. Some unbelieving Jews, as branches are broken off from the olive tree, from the church of the holy patriarchs, and thou, a Gentile, being as a wild olive far from the covenant of God, art implanted. And so made partakers of the privileges of that church and holy covenant as of the fatness of the olive tree. Tell me of your two dispensations, that one for the Jews, this one for the Christians. No, my friend, that one for all who believe, both of them for all who believe. Jew or Gentile, all the covenants of promise, the prophets as well as the apostles, the old as well as the new, Moses as well as Jesus, David as well as Paul. Please turn back to Romans 11. And some of the branches and if some of the branches be broken off, And thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graft in among them. And, hear it, with them partakest of the root. With whom? The Jews, who believe in Christ. The natural branches, who partake in the root. You partake in the root. Now remember, the root is the patriarchs, from whom the natural branches received their hereditary holiness. They externally partook in God's testament, and when they believed, they partook of the whole thing. Just some didn't believe, and they only partook of the external part. But all the believers in the Old Testament, they partook of the root and the core in truth, not merely in an external way. God made a testament to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Remember we sang about this from Psalm 105? His covenant, he remembered half, that it may ever stand, to thousand generations the word he did command, which covenant he firmly made with faithful Abraham, and unto Isaac by his oath, he did renew the same, and unto Jacob for a law, he made it firm and sure, a covenant to Israel, whichever should endure. Guess who partakes in that? You do if you believe in Jesus Christ. You are partaker in those covenants of promise. They are yours. The root, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The branches, naturally the Jews. The graft are us, the Gentiles. We partake with them. The word is very interesting if you've ever heard of the word koinonia. They often use that for fellowship groups. It means you own something together, koinonia. Soon koinonia is the word here, partakers or partakist. You're a partner together with them. You're on the same ground. You're a joint partner. You're a participant together with the Jews. And you partake in the root. You partake in the covenants of promise. You have the sap of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's covenants running through your faith. Please open to Genesis chapter 12 for confirmation of this from the original terms of God's Testament and covenant with Abraham. Genesis 12, it's right there at the beginning. Right after God calls him and he doesn't stop talking about it. Again and again and again when Abraham is assured of his status of inheritance, guess who else shows up? The Gentiles do. Genesis 12, verse 2. God calls him out of his father's house. from his country in verse one, verse two. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall just one family of the earth be blessed. That's not what it says. All, he says. All families of the earth, every race of men, shall be blessed in you, Abraham. Now you may read the following verses at your leisure. Genesis 18, 18. Genesis 22, verse 18. And to Isaac, Genesis 26, verses 4 and 5. This is not unique to Abraham. This goes on through all the promises of God. There is a day coming, Abraham, when in your seed, that is in Christ, all the nations of the earth will be blessed in you. Please open to Matthew chapter eight. Matthew chapter eight, page 968 of your Pew Bibles. Do you recall the centurion? He tells our Lord, I don't need you to come in my house. I just need you to speak the word. In fact, I'm not worthy that you come in my house. I'm just a Gentile. I'm just cast off. I love your people. I love your nation. I believe in your power, but I don't need you to come. All you have to do is say, like I say to my soldiers, go and they go, come and they come. Matthew 8, verse 11, our Lord comments on this. He marvels at his faith in verse 10. He hasn't seen it anywhere in Israel, he says. And I say unto you, and many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. What do you suppose that means? Well, that means that they're part of the family sitting at the same table. You partake in the fellowship meal of the family itself. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those natural branches broken off, burned in the fire. Those wild olive trees, like this one here, grafted in, partaking in the root and in the fatness. Galatians 3, page 1175 of your Pew Bibles, Galatians chapter 3. concerning Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Galatians 3 verse 7. Now verse 6 is Abraham's faith in God and the reckoning of righteousness to him. Verse 7, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, Preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Who are the children of Abraham? Well, here he says, those who believe in Jesus. They are graft in. They are brought to participate. Look down at verse 26 on the next page, if you would, please. For ye, are all Jew and Gentile, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, Then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You see that? Who are the heirs of Abraham? Well, it wasn't Ishmael, I can tell you that. He was cut off. It was Isaac. Who are the heirs of Isaac? Was it Esau? No, it was only Jacob. Who are the heirs of Jacob? The 12 patriarchs. Who are their heirs? All who descended from them. Who else are heirs? We are, he says. If you believe in Jesus Christ, If you have been justified by faith, if you have been baptized into Christ and have put him on, you're an heir too. You've been grafted in. You have all the promises that God made to Abraham put to your account. You are justified freely and an heir of the kingdom. John Murray comments, Gentiles and Jews partake together of the privilege that stems from the same root, one root, same root. You partake with them, the apostle says. Please turn back to Romans 11. Romans 11, verse 17. And if some of the branches be broken off and thou, being a wild olive, were grafted among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree. Now fatness is because olives produce oil. Wild olives, no. A cultivated olive plant, yes, it produces oil. In fact, that's where we get the word Christ from, the anointing with oil or messias in the Old Testament. The one anointed with holy oil. The fat is derived from the appropriate tree. The living sap runs from the root and produces fruit and fatness. Now the wild olive tree is cursed. There's no blessing. God is blessed by the oil that the tree produces. These trees produce no blessing for God and they're cursed by him. Here now, he says, you will bring forth fatness and fruit. You will be in a tree that will enable you by its sap to bring forth oil, fatness. You partake in it. Together with the Jew, you partake in the root. All who believe, Jew and Gentile, partake in the root and fatness of the olive tree. David said that he is like a green olive tree, Psalm 52. Hosea refers to the same thing. God planted his people as a tree and the boughs stretched out to the ocean, Psalm 80. The birds of the heaven came under the glories of that tree. And God promises a future in Hosea that that tree will be restored. Hosea 14, four through seven. This is the fatness of God's life giving spirit. the means of grace, his holy promise, the apostles and prophets of our Lord Jesus Christ, first established with the patriarchs, continuing down through the ages until the preaching of Christ Jesus himself. I note then this doctrine. There are not two covenants of grace differing in substance. There are not two covenants of grace differing in substance, but one and the same under various dispensations. This is from our confession of faith, the Westminster confession of faith, chapter seven, paragraph six. Why do we confess this? Well, it's so plain on the face of the text. God graft us into one tree. There are not two covenants of grace, two trees, two different types of trees. No, there are only one. There is only one tree, one covenant of grace under various dispensations. A dispensation just means a way that you administer something. One covenant of grace, two ways of administration. There is no new tree planted for the Gentile believer. Rather, the Gentile believer graft by God himself into the very same tree the unbelieving Jews were broken out of. The believing Gentile is a member of the Commonwealth of Israel. He partakes in the same promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is of the same household with the believing Jew. He's made partaker and partner of all the privileges once belonging exclusively to the Jews. We are children of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ. We partake of the same root as the natural branches. We are fellow heirs. We have life-giving sap that brings forth fatness and fruit. Let me tell you, There is no reasonable way to read the texts we've looked at and come to the conclusion, well, God has a second tree. He's got a second covenant, second set of promise. No, you can't come to that conclusion, it's impossible. Were there abuses made of the teachings of Moses in the days of the apostles? Yes, and they're refuted in the New Testament. Do those refutations disprove these points? No, they don't. There is one covenant of grace made initially with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, confirmed in Moses, in David, in Isaiah, and Ezra. Unless we would like, with the impious, to ignore the voice of God speaking in these texts and say, yeah, but I only like this part over here. We cannot do that. That is the practice of heretics to say, Lord, I only want you to say this. I don't want you to say that. Well, here's that. Here's what he says. We must listen to it. We must heed it. Peter Martyr comments. He says, and this is to be noted by this place, make it much to prove that the Old Testament and the new is one and the self same. For the root is one and the self same. The stock or body of the tree is one and the self same. The Jews are cut off and we are grafted in. One in the self same faith abideth. One and the self same mediator, the self same sacraments as touching the thing, although the outward signs and ceremonies are changed. They had Passover. We have the Lord's table. They had circumcision. We have baptism. They refer to the same things, though the external part, he says, is changed. and doubtless the promises as touching the substance abide now the self same." That's why he says, you've been made partakers of the covenants of promise. This stands in rebuke to all who give the Jews their own separate covenant of grace from the Gentiles. This covenant, just for them, not for you. That's false. All who cut out Gentiles from the promises of God under the Old Testament. All who feign two or seven or 37 ways of salvation in the Bible. No, there's just one. Through faith in Jesus Christ. In exhortation then, let us rejoice in the promises of God made over to us We are of the ancient faith. Let us rejoice in the promises of God made over to us in this holy tree. We are sons of Abraham by faith in Christ Jesus. We partake in the root and fatness of the olive tree. We shall be flourishing and fresh. We are called a holy people. We are firmly founded upon the apostles and prophets, the rock of the church, the confession of Peter, Christ confessed. We are a spiritual house, a royal priesthood, a people for God's own praise. We are privileged, blessed, chosen, redeemed, beloved, graft into the Commonwealth of Israel. Let us rejoice in the promises of God made over to us. A second exhortation. Let us beware of the spirit of antinomianism. Anti is to replace something or to oppose something. Nomianism is the law of God, the belief that God's law applies. Those who make a sharp divide between the Old and New Testament drive a wedge from Gentile believers away from their duties to God. They teach men to scorn the moral laws of God delivered in the Old Testament, or at least some of them. And those wholesome judicial statutes agreeable to the law of God and the Ten Commandments, they say, oh, those don't apply to you either. Some seek to make Christianity all about promises, nothing about precepts. All gospel, no law. All doctrine, no duty. That's contrary to this, very clearly so. If we are partakers in that same way of salvation, then there's nothing against obedience in that way of salvation, is there? In fact, rightly read, the New Testament has nothing against obedience either. To be sure, there's a ditch on the other side, which is all law, no gospel. But this antinomian solution doesn't fix the problem. It does not fix the issue. We must both love the law of God and seek to obey it and love the Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed us from the curse of the law. Let us then be a holy people, graft in to God's covenants of promise. Amen. Let's pray.