Sermon

A sermon preached at New Hope Lutheran Church,

West Melbourne, FL on September 11, 2011 by Pastor Dale Raether

The Christian Faith One Word at a Time: Grafted

Romans 11:13-32

Children, here is a picture of an eclipse of the sun. An eclipse is when the moon lines up between the sun and where you are on the earth. I can remember an eclipse when I was your age. There were all kinds of warnings on TV and the radio not to look at it directly, because the light coming around the edges would be so bright it could make us blind. There are things about God that are also too bright to look at. One is trying to figure out with our human reason why some people believe and others don’t; or why some remain in faith all their lives, while others fall away are forever lost? We need to be careful. If we conclude the difference between those who are saved and those who are lost is the saved are better or smarter, we’re denying grace. Are you following me? Grace means our salvation is ALL God’s doing. He sent His Son. He called us to faith. He keeps us in faith and crowns our faith with the gift of eternal life. Grace!

Okay, then, since we are saved purely by grace, is reason some are lost that God didn’t really want them or didn’t try as hard with them? That’s a horrible, unscriptural conclusion. God wants all men to be saved. Still, since salvation is all His doing, why aren’t all saved? The reason I’m bringing this up is because it’s in the background of our text. Also, we can’t read the Bible or we can’t keep coming to Bible Class without our mind sooner or later asking that question. And if we answer it in an unscriptural way, there are many things in the Bible we won’t understand, and that could really hurt our faith. We have been following a sermon series called: The Christian Faith One Word at a Time. Today’s Word is Grafted. 1. We are grafted into Christ purely by grace. 2. God keeps us grafted into Christ through His Law and Gospel.

I want to make sure all you children understand what grafting is. Grafting is when you take a branch from one tree, cut it off and bind it to another tree, and then that branch grows into being a part of its new tree. In our text Paul compares believers to the branches of an olive tree. God Himself planted the tree of believers. The roots of this tree we heard about last week. In the Old Testament the Children of Israel’s roots included their adoption as sons, seeing the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the Law, the Temple worship, the promises, and the Savior being born to them. But how did Old Testament Israel get to be God’s olive tree? They didn’t choose this, anymore than a baby chooses who its parents are. God made the Children of Israel to be partakers and sharers of His salvation purely by grace. He told them in Deuteronomy: The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. Deuteronomy 7:7

Sadly, many in Israel rejected grace. They insisted their roots were evidence that they were better than others. They also felt safe to dabble with sin, and then a little more and a little more, because, “They were God’s people and that would never change!” Gradually the Jews had gotten so far away from their spiritual roots that they became dead branches. If a hurricane is coming and you got some big dead branches in a tree beside your house, what should you do? You better get those branches out of there. That’s what God did. He cut off those unbelieving branches. Then He took us, whose original roots were the sinful nature we inherited from Adam, and the influences of this world and the control of Satan. He cut us off from all that through our Baptism and He grafted us into His tree of believers. But why us? Why not first people in China or Africa or some other place? Jesus answered that when He told His disciples how they became disciples. He said: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. John 15:16 Did you catch that? We are called to faith by grace, so that we may work to lead others to Him.

That’s Paul did in our text. He never gave up trying to win back the unbelieving Jews. We read: Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Romans 11:13-15 Throughout the Old Testament God had tried and tried to keep His people believing that their salvation was by grace. Sadly nothing got through to them. And so, Paul hoped that at least some would finally by shocked into reality when they saw how God was blessing the Gentiles. Perhaps we’re experiencing a little of this same thing. We are a Christian nation rooted in our faith in God. However the Christian church is no longer growing in America, it’s declining. But the church is growing in China and Africa, and soon there will be more Christians there than here. We rejoice that so many are coming to Christ, but at the same time isn’t this a wakeup call for us? Yet how do we stay grafted in Christ and firmly believing we saved by grace so we truly live our faith and share it with others? GOD keeps us in grafted into Christ through His Law and Gospel.

We read in our text: Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. Romans 11:22. This is terrifying Law. If we become proud, or if we think it safe to live for ourselves and to pick and choose what or how much of His Word we will follow, we are becoming sick branches. And if we become dead branches, God will cut us off from His tree just as He did His people Israel. There’s another verse in our text that really brings out: For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Romans 11:32 To be bound over to disobedience means God makes a person a prisoner of his sins. God does this when people refuse to believe His Law. God’s desire is not that they sin, but when their sinning gets bad enough they will finally believe that sin has eternal consequences and that they can’t save themselves. We got a phrase for that today. It’s called hitting bottom. May we hit bottom by listening to God’s law in the Bible, rather than by messing up our life. But once we hit bottom, God wants us to cry out for mercy.

You see, God is mercy. He sent His Son to suffer the punishment of our sins for us. He raised Him from the dead. He seated Him as His right Hand where He is interceding for us and causing all things to work for our eternal salvation. This Good News IS the Gospel. This Gospel causes us to stand in awe of God. And so, on the one hand we can’t fully comprehend His grace and all He has done to save us. It’s like looking at a light that’s too bright to look at. But at the same time we are drawn to look at it more and more.

And now I want to speak personally. The more I look into the light of God’s Word, the more I realize my unworthiness to be a branch in His tree, but then the more I want to thank Him with my life. Nevertheless whatever good God allows me to do, doesn’t make me better than anyone else. In fact whenever I start thinking like that, I need more of God’s Law swift and hard. And if for some reason I’m not listening to it too well, that’s when God may come at me even harder with His sternness. But that’s a good thing, because this too is part of His love in order to keep me grafted in Christ alone. The prophet Jeremiah expressed this right after he witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. He wrote: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

And now let’s pull all this together. Why are some saved and other lost? For those who are saved, it is 100% God’s doing. He alone gets the credit. For those who are lost, it’s their fault alone. Now, this is both an encouragement and a warning. It’s an encouragement for those who don’t feel worthy to be part of God’s people, much less be a part of a church. If you ever feel that way, come to God and His Word, for you are saved by grace! However, there is also a warning to all who are now despising His grace and living for themselves. And so, if your faith is withering away, don’t blame God. But come! All of us, let’s continue in His Word. Let’s also make sure we’re understanding it correctly. One way we do that is whenever we read it, always apply the examples and warnings of the Law to ourselves because they’re meant for us too. But let’s not stop there. Let’s also take in the comfort of the Gospel of forgiveness, because it’s through Law and Gospel that God keeps us grafted in His olive tree, that we bear much fruit.

And now here are a few Bible helps I’d like to share with you. The Today’s Light Bible is super for understanding what we’re reading. And by the way if you don’t already own one, I just got another case in. They are twenty-five dollars each. The Meditation booklets and the articles in the Forward in Christ magazine are also good for applying God’s Word to our life. There Forward in Christs in the entry to the Fellowship Hall. Another important help in studying the Bible is do so with other Christians. That’s because shared insights are good or even just having a partner to get us there when we’re feeling lazy is good. We have a number of Bible study opportunities here at New Hope. Women’s Bible study meets every Wednesday morning at 10:00. Right now they’re reading and talking about the Book of Matthew. On Wednesday nights 6:30 p.m. is our Old Testament survey course. This involves some study at home and then when we get together on Wednesdays, we talk about it and answer questions. If you would like the home study material, please ask me about it. Very soon we’re also starting a men’s Bible study. We’re thinking it will be on Friday nights, and it will be on topics from this book, Prepared to Answer. Topics include

Finally please join us next Sunday morning Bible Class with breakfast at 8:30. Next Sunday I’ll be sharing with you more practical helps for getting the most out of your personal Bible reading. Yet, why all this emphasis on growth in God’s Word? Because that’s what grafted branches do, they grow. And so, when our mind asks the question, “Why are some saved and not others?” let’s change our question. Asking that question is like looking directly at the sun during an eclipse. It can blind us to what we really need to be asking, which is this: Since God grafted me into Jesus by His grace and keeps me grafted by His Word, am I growing in it? Am I doing all I can to share it? May God grant that we do! Amen.

Our Christian Church is located in Melbourne, Florida, while also serving Palm Bay, Florida.
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