Sermon Tone Analysis

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SLIDE 3

Romans 11:25

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SLIDE 4

Romans 11:27

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Intro:

Whenever we take a team on a mission trip to another country, we do our best to teach, affirm, and re-affirm that thing that I call “THE NUMBER ONE RULE”.

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Some of you have been with us on these trips.

Tell me, loud and clear, right now… what the number one rule is. - (awareness).

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AWARENESS

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Specifically, we always need to be aware of our surroundings… which is a good practice no matter where you go.

You could be here in town, at the 7-11… you could be in line at your bank… you could be walking downtown on the sidewalk…

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It’s a good practice… to be aware of the things… the people… the situations… that are happening around you.

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Now… often times when we open our Bibles, we find that the lessons we are reading about, are calling us to a state of awareness… and today’s passage is no exception.

As we consider the message in the final verses of … we will see… the Apostle Paul is calling us to an ‘awareness of grace’.

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Now, maybe you’ve read through this passage.... and you don’t see such a message popping out at you…

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but instead, you see the story of how God extended grace to a people who rejected it, and were thus hardened to the Gospel, in part… so God allowed His grace to then overflow to the Gentiles, so that their faith experience with God would then provoke the elect w/in unbelieving Israel to jealousy…

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That’s the main message… and it was the main main message from last week’s study also… So, instead of re-hashing what we talked about 7 days ago… I want to consider the principle which lies behind the details of this passage.

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… a principle that introduces itself to us, in verse 25, where Paul says… “I do not want you to be unaware...”

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We are going to actually have points to follow in today’s sermon… which is a new and unusual thing for me.... but POINT ONE:

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BEING WISE IN OUR OWN SIGHT MAKES US UNAWARE.

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We humans have a natural tendency to build up walls, grow hedges, and to fence ourselves in concerning the way we think.

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We settle into an idea, or a way of thinking… maybe it’s because we have been taught to think a certain way and we are comfortable with it.

Maybe it’s part of our group identity thought…

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For instance… on a social level, those who identify themselves on either end of the two main American political philosophies… will probably have a set list of ideals that are unique to their group.

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If you grew up rich and privileged, your thinking process might be completely different than someone who grew up poor and underprivileged.

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There are many reasons why we think, process information, and form opinions the way we do… and often times… it’s not primarily an issue of what is reasonable, rational, or actually true.

For many humans, the claim of truth lies in the voice that has spoken the greatest amount of influence into their lives.

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So, when we form our truth, and we settle into our own way of thinking… we become what the Bible calls “wise in our own sight”.

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We have programed ourselves to believe things a specific way… we can’t think or see beyond our mental walls.. our hedges.. and our fences.

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With God, there is a contrast… between our claim of wisdom, and His wisdom.

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And is telling us, loud and clear… that if we are wise in our own sight… we run the risk of being UNAWARE.

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Unaware of what?

Well, specifically… -unaware of the plan that God has for Israel, and how He is carrying out that plan… But on a more general level - We could become unaware of any subtlety laid out within the will of God.

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God is working in and around us… and His work can generally be identified within the master plan that is revealed in the scriptures.

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—for instance: Scripture tells us that the HS brings conviction… - That’s part of God’s master plan...

… --so, we might see someone who is exhibiting signs of conviction, and since we know that this is something the HS does, we can step in and knowingly be part of God’s plan.

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In today’s passage… Paul is reminding the Gentile believers that God has a master plan as it pertains to Israel.

Israel, for the most part, rejected the Messiah… and because of this, they have been hardened in part…

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Because of their rejection, the Gospel has continued to go out, and found an audience amongst the Gentiles..

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This is an ongoing process, and will continue until the fullness of the Gentiles has come… which means… until all the elect Gentile believers hear the Gospel and respond.

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But here’s the emphasis that is being made in this passage… Paul makes it clear.... -God is NOT done with Israel… don’t be unaware of this mystery.

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If we are wise in our own sight… if we have concluded in our own minds, our own version of wisdom… then we will be unaware.

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There are not different brands of wisdom… there is the wisdom of God, experienced and practiced by those who belong to God, who are knowledgable of His Word, and who are willing to walk according to His word..

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Then, there is the wisdom of this world… which is not wisdom.

It is falsely called such.

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If we go to … we are told what the wise person does:

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The wise person attends to ‘these things’… - To find out what ‘these things’ are, we need to look at the previous 42 verses...

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Let’s just look at a couple…

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vs. 1… the wise give thanks… Vs. 1, 2… the wise declare His goodness and His love.

vs 3-30… the wise remember the lessons of the past.

Vs. 31… The wise give thanks again.

Vs. 32… the wise exalt and praise God with others.

Vs. 33-38… the wise recognize God as being over nature.

vs. 39-40… the wise know How God deals with evil people.

vs. 41… the wise know that God will raise up the needy out of affliction… and vs. 43… the wise consider the steadfast love of the LORD.

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People who are wise in their own sight… don’t give thanks.

They think that they are in control.

They think that they are responsible…

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People who are wise in their own eyes don’t declare the goodness and love of God.... they don’t give praise God, because they have a hard time lifting the ideas of God above their own understanding.

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People who are wise in their own eyes don’t consider the lessons of the past.

They think that their current and temporary view is superior to anything that history supplies.

- Now… this thought leads us into our next point.

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WE NEED TO BE AWARE OF GOD’S HISTORY OF SHOWING GRACE.

Let’s look back at today’s passage..

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SLIDE 10

Romans 11:

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Here we have two quotes from Isaiah.

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is in the midst of a chapter which is all about a saving righteousness which is offered to Israel… to give repentance to some in Israel who had previously been unrepentant.

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The same context of atonement for the sins of Israel… is also found in … the source of the second quotation.

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If you weren’t here last week… the question of ‘all Israel will be saved’ was answered… Quickly… if we go back to where it says:

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Romans 9:

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Israel… meaning: prince with God… or ‘governed by God’… - that is, not all who are born from the lineage of Abraham… will be those who are governed by God.

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The intent of these quotations from Isaiah, is to remind the Gentile believers… the ones where not to become prideful… the ones who were encouraged to not be wise in their own sight… the ones who were to live a faith that provoked others to jealousy…

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They were reminded… that God still has a plan to banish ungodliness from Jacob… that God still intends to fulfill His covenant with Israel.

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He has shown them grace in the past, even in the midst of their great rebellion… and He fully intends on showing them grace again.

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Point #3

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DON’T BE UNAWARE OF GOD’S GRACE TOWARDS THOSE YOU MIGHT CONSIDER AN ENEMY.

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The wording of this passage is confusing, but most likely, what it means is… that Israel is an enemy of the Gospel for the sake of the Gentiles… And basically, the meaning of that is simply the same message that Paul has been teaching in the previous verses…

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Israel rejected the Gospel… and that grace which was shown to them, then poured over onto the Gentiles.

He has re-stated this same thing repeatedly, which is why I say… that this is most likely what this verse means…

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So… the Gentile believers found themselves in a place where they had an opposite view… and opposite opinion of the Gospel than the people of Israel did.

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Now, I’m sure you’ve noticed… that when we have polar opposite opinions with people… it generally translates over to conflict and division.

And we generally refer to those other people as enemies.

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It is our natural instinct… is to hate our enemies.

Even when we know that Biblical call to love your enemies… - it is all too easy, to fall back into hate.

To name calling.

To slander.

To entrapment.

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We are always on the reasonable team… and the enemy is always the devil

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The Gentile believers may have felt this way about the Jews… But they are reminded… that even the people they looked upon and called enemy… were in fact… beloved by God.

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For us… a remembrance of this fact… might go a long ways towards tempering the harsh division that exists in our nation right now.

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We have become so divided, that amongst some.... disagreement with their principles, marks you out as an enemy.