Imagine reading this passage, this scripture set, the last couple chapters that deal with the nation of Israel and their rejection of Jesus Christ and the gospel of grace…imagine reading this passage under candle light.  Sitting in a hand crafted wood chair, feet resting on a wood plank floor with the sound of horse and buggy faintly heard in the street outside your door. 

It’s October 31, 1517.  Martin Luther distraught by the simplicity of the gospel and the complexity of religion…how the two were and are entirely contrary to each other, he takes out a feather tipped pen and wrote out the “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences."  What you and I now know as the “The Ninety-Five Theses.” 

He like Paul had lived as part of a system, a method, a machine that sought to make men and women acceptable and clean by way of payment.  In Paul’s case, the payment of the law.  Temple sacrifices, temple taxes, ritual and religion.  In Luther’s case, the payment of indulgences, store bought clerical approval of sin, as people would pay forward their fleshly living and by that payment, be absolved of sin.

And yet the gospel is so simple.  The payment required and taught in God’s Word is not a thing such as a sacrifice at the temple…in fact the payment of the sin debt throughout God’s Word is not a thing at all…not a coin contributed to a corrupt cleric…not a ledger of do’s an don’t…the payment required is perfection itself…Perfection Himself…and that payment has been made. 

Jesus came to set men free.  He said it Himself.  He said in John Chapter 8 that sin enslaves us.  Demands payment after payment after payment…rips out our liberty and our hope and in exchange delivers chains and entrapment and control while His mission, His purpose, His grace and mercy, pardons mankind…dismisses us from the bonds of sin, relieves us, rescues us, releases us…

And so Luther, distraught; Paul desperate…both disquieted…preach with practical purpose…to free the people.  To remove all of the complex junk of man-made tradition and light the path to the truth, the simplicity of the gospel.  Luther wrote 95 theses, Paul wrote 90.  Between chapters 9, 10 and 11 of the Book of Romans we have 90 verses.  90 verses comprised of Paul pleading with his people to simply consider, the simplicity of love man…

It’s like God is saying through Paul, “I remember you.  Before the giving of the law, you were Mine and I was yours.  How simple we walked together.  How you depended upon Me when days were long and times were tough in Egypt.  How you individually knew Me.  I remember how simple it all was…just you and Me.”  I think about that often…as ministry grows and problems proliferate.  As issues arise, and affairs of the church arouse anxiety…I start to grow weary...and  I hear Him say to me, “I remember you.  When we first met.  How you were so light and filled with joy…”  And I breathe and come back…

The resolution to my irritation, my worries, my troubles is not to pay the bills or tune out or veg out or perfect my plans…but to just return, return to the warmth of a simple walk with the Lord.  The comfort of close communication with the King of Kings…just as He’d have it…just what He secured for me upon the cross of Calvary…access, peace, joy…simplicity…

That is the motivation and the message behind Luther’s objection to the ridiculousness of religion…the same disposition given in Chapter 11 by Paul as he concludes his theses to the Jewish people (again using the examples of the gentiles to do so), and in classic Pauline form, he sprints to the finish line…

Ever run the mile at school or on the track team?  You know you somewhat pace yourself for the first three turns but when that fourth turn comes around…its, “Jarvis put everything we got into the thrusters!”

Romans Chapter 11 Verses 17 – 18

• So again, in addressing the gentile, he speaks to the Jew.  He says to the gentile, “you were wild, out there, out of control and by God’s goodness and grace, He has brought you into His family…pulled you out of the poverty and perversion of self destruction (through self service) to be partakers of the richness and power of truth and freedom.”
• “So don’t boast against those that have broken off.”  Well who’s that? we might ask…the Jew would know…”hey, he’s talking about me!”  (Could you imagine reading this as a Jew?)  “And the gentiles are boasting against me!”  See how they would gash up right here???
• And they would hear this epistle read, the Jews would that is, and they would say, “yo man, the root supports us”…and Paul would answer without even having to answer…cause he’s already said it right here, “roots don’t support broken off branches!”  Sprinting he is!  See that?
• So by implication, who supports the broken branches…?  Nada man.  No one…but the broken branch itself and so Paul reveals to very strategically their broken position in their religiosity and self sufficiency!

Romans Chapter 11 Verses 19 – 20

• Oh man Paul is really rolling out the red carpet of ridicule here isn’t he?  He has spent the last two chapters pleading and reasoning with the Jew and now he’s ready to move on to practical Christian living so he’s going for the gold!  Finish Him!  (A little Mortal Kombat quote there – a,b,a,c,a,b,b!)
•  So let me get this straight.  The Jew would ponder.  “I am a natural branch, broken off and in my place these wild branches have been grafted in…now I’m missing out on the richness and fatness of the olive tree and it’s all because…I’m in unbelief!  Oye Vey!!!!!”

Romans Chapter 11 Verses 21 – 24

• Paul talks here about the “goodness AND the severity of God.”  The world quickly, readily and gladly accepts the goodness of God but the severity?  Not so popular.  Why?  Because that implies responsibility, accountability and liability!  Liability?  Yes to consider only God’s goodness is to make Him liable to you…like He owes mankind…not the case at all.  It’s the other way around…because of His goodness…man we owe Him!!!
• And what Paul is saying here is something we have discussed at length in the past…you will have what your free will desire man.  You desire God, His love, His grace, His truth…to honor and to serve the King of Kings…your free will will go and get that for you.  “Seek and you will find,” Jesus said…
• But if you are bent on serving you, tail spinning in sin and indulging in that which will bring about confusion and corruption, your free will will go and get that for you.  However, in the first example, you will know God’s goodness so very well…yet in the later, you will understand His severity…free will really is free will and if you choose death, God won’t stop you man…lest He violate His own goodness…
• Therefore, where you are today…how you feel and how you react…what comprises your day and what fills your heart…your choice man…choose God > Get ready for His goodness…the root and fatness of the olive tree…choose you > prepare to find God quite severe as your free will delivers to you precisely what you demand…failure.
• And Paul shows us something here that John later expounds upon in 1 John Chapter 2.  He says God’s goodness is delivered in the continuance IN His goodness…two truths here…first, simply this…you cannot expect the goodness of God upon your day if you do not press into Him man…Jesus said, “why do you call Me Lord and do not what I say?”  Later He described a house that fell in the storm because it was built on shifting sand.  The same is the life of the man or the woman who conducts themself apart from the Word of God…
• And so the truth for us as Christians…those who rep God, those who claim to be His…if you desire the filling of the Holy Spirit then draw near to the Holy Spirit…so very simple right?  Fill your day with carnality and “all about you” stuff, man forget about it…your days before too long are going to be spent in counseling and crying…even though you’re saved as saved can be man…
• And then the second truth…1 John 2:18-19 says it clearly, “the spirit of the Anti-Christ,” which is what?  The spirit of deception. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”  Can you lose your salvation?  Answer this question.  Can God lie?  The answer is no and thus the answer to the losing salvation question, no way.  You cannot be unborn again, you cannot have all your past, present and future sins forgiven and then unforgiven lest you make God to be a liar. 
• So can you “walk away” from your salvation?  No.  Same as losing it man.  So what’s the biblical truth?  Well here it is in 2 John, mentioned by Paul in Romans 11, you lose it, you walk away, you never had it in the first place…you continue in it, that shows man that you’re the real deal…that saving faith has arrived, rebirth has occurred…faith without works is dead James would say, why?  Because man if you abide in Him, you are His disciple indeed, Jesus said it Himself in John Chapter 8.
• And so Paul says here, “gentiles…you who have called upon the name of the Lord…if you find yourself “going out, walking away, losing it…”could it be that you’re still a broken branch?  It certainly isn’t that God is unfaithful, that He has lied…”
• Goes for you Jews also…and now Paul reveals an awesome mystery, the future of Israel…

Romans Chapter 11 Verses 25 – 27

• God is yet going to deal with Israel as an entire nation.  Ezekiel 39 speaks of this.  Jeremiah 31 tells us of this…that the Jews missed the Messiah the first time, they won’t miss Him the second time…and when is that?  Revelation 19.  After the Great Tribulation and just as the millennial reign is commencing, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah returns and He cannot be mistaken…eyes of fire, armies of ten thousand thousands…and the Jews, as a whole…will believe…Paul says here, it’s plain, all Israel will be saved.
• Many spiritualize this, I’m ok with that…but I’m a biblical literalist and I take this at face value…makes sense to me…the entire nation will turn to Jesus!  Why?  Check the next couple of verses…

Romans Chapter 11 Verses 28 – 29

• So why?  Why will the whole nation turn?  Because the promises of God are irrevocable man…and He promised them long ago, I will be to them a Father and they will be My people…and God is always true to His Word…

Romans Chapter 11 Verses 30 – 32

• The plan revealed…the subject, object, precept and concept of God’s heart exposed…the ultimate answer to the question, “why?”  “That He might have mercy on all!”  And so check this out…after laying it out plain and simple and now revealing an awesome prophetic mystery that puts on display God’s goodness and faithfulness, Paul just worships…

Romans Chapter 11 Verse 33

• How many times have you discussed the question, “did Adam have a belly button?”  Or, “if God can do anything, can He make a rock so big that He cannot lift it?”  The more you discuss and try to find out His ways…you know what happens, you just become more confused…why?  Because His ways are unsearchable…now, Paul does not say that His ways are un-understandable…isn’t that interesting…because the truth is that when you stop questioning God with the limitations of mankind’s tiny little brain and simply marvel at Him for who He is…then understanding, revelation, truth simply arrives…
• Check this out…I know my car runs sweet…purrs baby, turns and burns…but the minute you start walking me through how it do…man I get frustrated, I get bored!  My router routes…internet happens man and I understand that…but the minute we start talking protocol and flux capacitors…I hate you!  HA!  Ugh I’d rather go to the dentist HA!  Why is it that we think we can figure God all the way out man…just enjoy the internet…just enjoy the drive man and understanding enters…marvel at His goodness and drop these stupid, useless questions…can God make a rock so big that He can’t pick it up…No!  But I thought God could do anything?  He can…FIGURE THAT OUT!  HA!

Romans Chapter 11 Verse 34

• Well Paul, I have...”God don’t forget, God do this, God do that…” as if I know what’s best for this church, my family, this country…I’m amazed sometimes at the audacity of my own prayers…my prayers should only always be in the spirit of “Lord, what do You want to do with my life…what is Your desire…help me to know that and to have the faith to walk in that…”

Romans Chapter 11 Verses 35 – 37

• And so we close this section of Romans, knowing that God has proven Himself to the Jews.  He chose them soverignly, deals with them equitably, and promises that He will not give up on them eternally.  Generations before us read this and said, “sounds good Paul, but where’s Israel today?”  You see we’re blessed.  We don’t have to stretch to accept this scripture set because Israel is back man…therefore we see that, ponder that and we know somehow deep down that things will come together for us also…
• He’s promised they will, we can trust Him.  He remembers just walking with us…simply in love man…in trust and peace…we should have no problem ushering that back in man…just looking at His faithfulness to the nation of Israel, who’s messed up just as badly as I have…oh how complex we’ve made it…time to post our own 95 theses at the door of our own hearts…