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The Lord's Day Bible Message Outlines

July 11, 2010
Pastor Dana Johnson

"do not boast against the branches.... " -Romans 11:18

do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

1. We gentiles should not boast against the branches (Israel) because we recognize Israel's special status with God.

a. They are His people
Romans 11:1 - I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

b. God has established eternal purposes for Israel.
Romans 11:2, 29 - God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying. 29For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

c. There still is a remnant of believing, saved Jews.
Romans 11:5 - Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

d. Beware of some theological systems (Roman Catholic and some Protestant Reformed) that insist that the Church has permanently replaced the nation of Israel and has become the New Israel.

2. We should not boast because we recognize that,w ere it not for God's mercy, neither Jew nor gentile would ever be saved.
Romans 11:30-32 - For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.

3. We should not boast because we recognize that God's mercy for both Jew and gentile was not prompted by human behavior but arises out of His own eternal counsels.
Romans 11:33-36 - Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34"For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? 35Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" 36For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

4. We should not boast because we recognize, sympathetically, that it is through Israel's misfortunes we gentiles have this moment of grace.

Reference
Israel
Gentiles

Romans 11:11 - I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.

Fall
Salvation

Romans 11:15 - For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Cast away
Reconciliation

Romans 11:22 - Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

Severity
Goodness

Romans 11:25 - For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Blindness
Fullness of the gentiles

5. We should not boast because we recognize that, on an individual level, both Jew and gentile are saved the same way.

a. By God's election.
Romans 9:16, 24 - So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 24even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

b. By faith.
Romans 10:12-13 - For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."

6. We should not boast because we recognize that Israel has not been grafted into the gentiles; but the gentiles into Israel.

a. The gentiles are partakers in Israel's rich spiritual heritage.
Romans 11:17 - And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.
Romans 15:27 - It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.

See that heritage in Romans 9:4-5 - Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

b. The gentiles are supported by Israel's rich spiritual heritage.
Romans 11:18 - Do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

 

(All Scripture quoted is from the New King James Version)