Untitled Sermon (47)

We are still on the theme of the Future Hope of Israel but we will be taking a little detour in today's sermon. and the reason for that is because Paul mentioned something that we must slow down and discuss in further detail.

So even though we are taking a detour it is important that in your mind we are still on the topic of the Future Hope of Israel. It is interesting how we think about the nation of Israel and how we separate ourselves from them.

What's a tragedy that we did such a thing and our current culture. But then again we keep doing tragic things when it comes to the worship of God and to the things of God. It's as if we cannot help ourselves from our own destruction.

The practices that we are seeing in ministries across the world and the doctrine that is being proclaimed from the pulpits around the world is and of itself a tragedy. It saddens me to a great degree every time I hear a current trend or hear about a current teaching.

There are a lot of cringe-worthy stuff out there. and this is all stuff we have discussed in the past we have discussed bethel Church in California that has placed object in the ventilation system of the church and when it releases into the atmosphere they call it the anointing.

I mean they literally manipulate what you are thinking and feeling. Now that is a major mega church that has a budget to truly manipulate you. But there are smaller congregations where the preacher has to find different means of manipulation.

and so the preacher will share all these miraculous stories of all these things they have done. Of all the healings that they have caused. The greater the miracle the least amount eyewitnesses there are to the stories.

There are pastors out there that walk the streets and literally pull your leg and tell you that they're making your leg grow.

They walk up and say do you have back pain, well it is because you have one leg that is shorter than the other and so they sit you down and they pull one leg and they say do you see it growing people go I guess so. Which by the way is an old magician’s trick it, it was an old Street magicians trick.

Don’t forget about the bizarre tactics and forget about the manipulation that takes place. The one thing that all of these ministries have in common is bad doctrine or false doctrine. They don’t all share the same exact false doctrine but the one thing they do have in common is that they practice a form of false doctrine.

Coincidence? and it was just reported this week on the news of a cult that is on the rise and are using aggressive approaches to get you to come to their Bible study. This cult is called the world mission society and they are actually pretty big in Colorado.

I have had several run-ins with this cult and trust me when I say they are a cult to the fullest extreme. Very similar to the old Reverend Moon. But the bottom line of this cult is they believe that Jesus returned in physical form to continue his ministry on Earth.

But this time in a Korean man and this Korean man of course had to bring his wife into the cult. Doesn’t make much sense you’re going to start a cold and not get permission and activity from the misses. And so he built a doctrine on heavenly mother.

And no it is not Mary they are building this doctrine because if there is a heavenly father that must mean there is a mother as well and they believe this mother is the New Jerusalem and they believe this New Jerusalem is still alive as this cult leader who is now dead, wife is still alive and running this cult.

Not from America but somewhere from South Korea. You are going to have to really be on your guard if you bump into some of these people. they are not interested in telling you all of their false doctrine upfront. Instead they invite you to come to church with them and gradually bring you to it.

now the main objective for a cold is to get you within their controlled environment first. It must be in an environment that they control. And so they do whatever it takes to get you to their place of worship. And colts have learned this from the Christian church.

Because the goal of the Christian church is no longer to make disciples of every nation was in the world. But it is to build at the best at gathering place to draw people to you. It's all about getting them in the door. It's all about filling the seats.

And when you look at these tactics and when you discuss these topics very rarely is the spiritual nutrition of the church talked about the exposition of scripture talked about, the seriousness of worship talked about.

It is all about if I like it or not. not if it is true, not if it is right, not if it is God glorifying but if I am the one who likes it. Whatever it takes to get the people in the door.

This has been taking place for a while now and it could be the very reason why people get so burned out of church. Because the church is never really offering anything real. It is never really offering anything authentic. and so maybe you have visited another church where you just go something is off here.

You can’t always pinpoint it. But you know something is just not right. And so people get burned out of church and they leave. And they build a destructive pattern of neglecting the church. Which in my opinion could be the saddest thing to think about.

The people of God actively running from God. Like how Adam and Eve hid themselves from God in the garden the moment they sinned. well today's text is a perfect one to slow down and reflect on something here and discuss the church in more detail.

This is not an absolute detailed doctrine of the church that we will be covering today it is more of just a near introduction to the topic. So let's dive in and get to the meat of what we will be discussing today.

Romans 11:16 NASB95

If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.

Now before we can begin discussing the church we have to address that this section of scripture is extremely debatable and hard to translate. Which makes it a bit more difficult and trying to understand what Paul is trying to communicate.

You can pick up any commentary on this section, that is an actual commentary not a little footnote, and the introduction to this verse will be an explanation of all the different views of this verse and verse 17. And then the commentator will leave you a conclusion on what they think what Paul is trying to say.

But the fact of the matter is we do not know 100% for certain the solid explanation of these verses. Which is why every commentator will introduce at the way they introduce its because there are many different views out there and all of which could be possible.

It needs to be pointed out that Paul is using an analogy and trying to build absolute truth and solid doctrine out of an analogy is dangerous. The analogies being used to help us understand better the doctrine that Paul has already laid down. We cannot go to the analogies of scripture and call it the fundamentals of our faith.

Remember that every time you are reading an analogy. It is meant to point you to a truth not a perfect representation of doctrinal truth that we build doctrines on. Now verse 16 is actually simple on the surface.

Paul is appealing to the old covenant scriptures in the book of Numbers where if a piece of the dough was considered holy the lump that the dough came from was also considered holy.

And specifically what he is referring to is they would have a whole lump of dough but they would take a piece out of the lung and they would make a cake of some sort and this cake was used as an offering to God.

But one thing that was clear was the piece that is set aside was not the only aspect that was holy it was the entire lump that the piece came out of was considered holy. And then he uses another analogy that has the same meaning of but it is changed a bit. Paul says and if the root is holy so are the branches.

Your tree as the route and if you have a great route you’re going to have great branches if you have a good route you will have good branches. So on the surface this makes sense right. It’s not just a piece of the dough that’s holy the entire dough that is wholly it’s not just the route to that is holy but the branches that come from that route also.

So here is the difficult part, who is Paul talking about? Now we just stepped in muddy waters. So in the first anthology who are this lump that Paul is talking about. Some commentators say that the lump and the root are the patriarchs.

Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Some say it is Jesus, some say it is Israel. Some say the first Jewish Christian. And when you are listening or reading a commentator they are going to say it is probably, and they use the word probably because they're not certain.

The issue I take with saying that both analogies are referring to the patriarchs is that the first analogy the lump and the dough that comes from that lump is plural and the second analogy the root becomes singular. It leads me to believe that Paul did that for a reason. So I think the two are closely connected but I do not think they are the same thing.

Some say it is Jesus, but again it goes from plural to singular. And the context is of course the cutting off and the grafting on and the focus on Israel. So there are, historically, to conclusions about who Paul maybe talking about.

And sew to skip all of the speculations let's just narrow it down to the two most common historically held positions on this text.

Now these two positions view the lump differently but the route the same. And so the first view is that the lump is the first Jewish Christians. And the route is Abraham. Now I'm going to disagree with this position on the fact that this is Israel being cut off and then re grafted on later.

So the context really does not line up. If we are talking about the Future Hope of Israel and looking at Israel’s pass at the same time, it doesn't make sense to me that the lump is beginning from the first century believers and not prior to that point.

And so this leads me to believe that Paul is in fact talking about the patriarchs. And this view still views the route as Abraham. And so the lump would be Abraham Isaac Jacob with the root be in Abraham.

And the reason why I think Paul is communicating this is because again Paul is not teaching anything new and this is something he has already covered.

And when he was discussing Israel he made it clear that it was not just the mirror descendants of Abraham. As Abraham had Ishmael and the bloodline from Ishmael is not a chosen or blessed bloodline. but it was a specific covenant through specific people Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

So we the difference between physical descendants and spiritual descendants. Now again we talked about this last week spiritual is a literal spirituality is reality. Typically what people mean when they say literal they mean physical. now it is possible and was the case that you were a physical child of Abraham and also a spiritual child of Abraham.

But Paul has already laid out that those who have faith are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Not only did Paul declare that believers are the spiritual descendants of Abraham but he declared that Abraham was justified by his faith.

And this tells us that salvation has always been through faith. Even though there was a covenant of works, there was law given and Israel was obligated to that law, salvation came by faith. Whether you’re in the old covenant or under the New covenant to salvation has always been the same.

The plan of redemption has always been the same and God has always been actively working to redeem the world. And so I think what Paul is highlighting in this text when it comes to Israel is that the lump is the patriarchs and the route is Abraham.

No I am not 100% certain that is what in fact Paul is saying but neither is any other commentator. What we are doing here is listening to the arguments and making a conclusion. But it could be that Paul had something different in mind. and quite honestly I will never know the answer for certain this side of heaven.

And that's okay because I think the point is made in the scriptures already it's just this specific verse can be a head scratcher. Now the other thing before we move on to verse 17 is Paul states that the piece of dough is holy, the lump is holy, he says the root is holy and so are the branches.

And we have talked about Holiness before. Often when you think of the word holy you think of purity and rightfully so because we associate Holiness to God and he is the ultimate standard for purity. but the word itself actually means set aside, separate to be separated.

And that is the understanding of what Paul is saying here. He saying God had set aside a piece of dough then the lump is also set aside. He’s saying if this specific route is separate from everything else so are the branches.

And this lines up with the rest of scripture and the proclamation that we are not to be like the world of that we are to be separated from the world what that means is that we are to be holy. What it means to be holy is that God has set you aside.

And what has he set you aside for? For his own Glory. And that is what salvation is, salvation is for God's own Glory. and so that is what needs to be on our minds as we are looking at this is that we are looking at a group that has been set aside by God for his own Glory.

Romans 11:17 NASB95

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,

We will not have time to cover everything in this verse today. And so in this verse we have two trees we have the rich route tree which is the route that was disgust in v 16. And we have the wild Olive tree.

The point that we have to gain from this verse in order to get to the point is that the natural branches to this Rich Olive tree or cut off and branches from a wild Olive tree were grafted on. Out of curiosity has anyone in here ever grafted a tree.

It is pretty neat to watch that. What they do is they take a branch from another tree and then they stick it on a branch that was cut off and seal it together somehow.

And the tree this app will connect with the branch that was graft it on and it heals on to the tree so it gets its nutrients till from that route and continues to live on in flourish because it is similar to how the body heals when it is cut.

But Paul says you what, speaking to the gentiles have been grafted off. You were a part of a Wildtree and now you are a part of the rich olive tree. Now the next question is who does the Olive tree represent. And again some people will say Jesus some people will say is real.

I'm going to say that the rich olive tree has always been the people of God. That the rich Olive tree will always be the people of God. The root of course is still Abraham of this tree but the tree itself is the people of God. And so Israel being cut off from the people of God is what Paul is saying and those from a Wildtree, the gentiles will be grafted on to the people of God.

And then one day and we are not getting to this yet but one day Israel being re-crafted on. And so folks we have to conclude that there is only one people of God. That is real and the church are not separated. They are not separated in the sense of being the people of God.

At the moment they are separated but our history as the Assembly of God’s people begins with Abraham. God did not create one assembly and then they failed and so he went to another assembly. This is all one assembly and one specific aspect of this assembly is currently under the judgment of God.

And so, when we look at the old covenant scriptures we are looking at the history of the church as you see it today. now of course there are many different denominations and there are many divisions and so on and so forth. We have to understand that there is a thing called the visible church and the invisible Church.

The visible church is what you see here and now, us gathering together and worship. The invisible church is every believer across the world throughout time. That is the Assembly of the people that we cannot see. Not every Sunday, this invisible church will one day be visible in the heavenly realm but until then we call it the invisible Church.

And the invisible church does not know denomination, and is not one specific denomination. It is everybody who has been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we discuss this a little bit last week where Israel was called the assembly. They were called the assembly in the desert they were called the Assembly of the Lord.

And that is what the word church means. The Greek word used in the New testament is ecclesia. where we get the word ecclesiology which is the study of the church. And that word means assembly. And so we agree with Clement of Alexandria who stated this around 200 ad that the church is not a place you go but it is the Assembly of the elect.

Those were his exact words. We do not go to church as in a building but we are joining the Assembly of those who have been set apart by God.

And so it is crucial for us to have a proper understanding of what the church is. And so the church is the Assembly of those who have been set apart. it is not the building it was never the building it is not a place where you go is a gathering of people who come together.

Our current English language kind of gets in our way because we say we are going to church and what we are saying is that we are meeting in a building when we say we are going to church. And that may not be everyone's intention when they say church but that is how the English language will have us understand it.

So our own language does in fact trip us up sometimes. And so the church is the body of believers who are gathered together. Is that all that the church is? No. There's more to the definition of the assembly as defined in the New testament. for that matter you can even say there's more to it as defined in the old testament.

The church is not just you and a few friends gathered together. Church is never defined that way. The Assembly of the saints is a gathering of God's people where they gather to hear God's word preached, to sing praises, and where the sacraments are administered that is baptism and the Lord’s supper

Points to be made

all of this goes back to abraham

Galatians 3:29 NASB95

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

More than that it is trinitarian and we experince God

If we had taken church seriously, the amount odfdivisions would decrease