Over the years, “The Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch” has sponsored an annual contest of the most absurd warning labels. Among their top place winners have been:
"Do not use this snow blower on the roof."
"Do not allow children to play in the dishwasher."
A Clothes Iron had this advice: "Warning! Never iron clothes while they are being worn."
On a Superman costume: “Warning: Cape does not enable user to fly.”
On a bottle of hair coloring: “Do not use as an ice cream topping.”
On a cardboard sunshield for a car: “Do not drive with sun-shield in place.”
On a toner cartridge: “Do not eat the toner.”
On a portable stroller: “Caution: Remove infant before folding for storage.”
And my personal favorite - In a microwave oven manual: “Do not use for drying pets.”
APPLY: Now, why would they make these labels? Doesn’t it seem obvious enough that you shouldn’t use these products in this way? Well yeah… but you just know somebody must have actually tried do the things these labels warned against!
Warning labels often warn about the obvious.
But as one person once said
“The desire to make something foolproof vastly underestimates the creativity of fools.”
ILLUS: Have you ever seen a sign on a wall that says “wet paint”? When someone sees that sign… what can you COUNT on them doing? (they’ll touch the wall, just to see…)
So, the Bible often states the obvious because people are often foolish.
But even when Scripture states the obvious - some people have trouble accepting it.
Now, today’s sermon deals with a “warning label”.
But the warning label is NOT the main focus of the story.
The main focus of this story is on hope and reassurance.
Here’s the story:
The church at Rome had some difficulties.
Part of the congregation was Jewish and the other part was Gentile, and there was some friction between the two groups.
* Some of the Jews looked down on the Gentiles because their ancestors had not been part of covenant God had with His people in the Old Testament. They jeered them for being a mere afterthought in God’s plans.
* In response, some of the Gentiles had gotten in the habit of looking down on the Jews, because – after all - turn about was fair play.
So a major part of the Letter to Rome focused on this conflict.
The first few chapters Paul addresses to the Jews telling them to back it off. They weren’t God’s gift to God. They sinned just like the Gentiles had. And they needed God’s grace and mercy just as much as the Gentiles did. The only advantage Jews had was that – as Jews – they were part of Old Testament covenant but that wasn’t going to get them into heaven.
And just in case there were Jews who were inclined to believe that they were the only ones God had originally planned on saving, Romans 15 listed FOUR prophecies God had made about the love God had for those who weren’t Jews and pointing out that “Yes” the Gentiles had been part of God’s original plan. (Romans 15:9-12)
Then - beginning around Romans chapter 9 - Paul turns to the Gentiles and says “Guys - the Jews are special to God, so don’t you be putting them down”
He writes: “…I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:3-5
Paul says to the Gentiles: Israel has long been God’s people.
So, before you Gentiles begin to look down on them and think you’re better then they are you need to remember:
· Theirs was the divine glory
· Theirs was the covenant
· They were given Law
· They built the Temple
· and they were given great and powerful promises.
· It was from them that God brought forth the Messiah
· AND Jesus Himself was a Jew
So, when it comes to people you ought to be in awe of… Physical Israel was it.
Now - here in Romans 11 - Paul addresses a ticklish question that some might have asked:
“Did God reject his people?” (The Jews) Romans 11:1
After all – He’s formed this New Covenant to replace the Old one and this New one isn’t limited to just physical Israelites. In fact, Jews who weren’t Christians weren’t in this New Contract with God.
“Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?” Romans 11:11
Paul says – NO!!!!
God hasn’t rejected His people.
No – they haven’t stumbled so far that they can’t be restored.
God Never Forgets His People!
God never gives up on the people He formed His covenant with.
That’s the MAIN MESSAGE of this chapter.
God never leaves His people.
He never forsakes them.
Israel had been the people of the covenant… and God never turns His back on a covenant.
As if to drive home his point Paul says “Even I’m an Israelite”
“I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.” Romans 11:1
So physical Israel is still loved by God… and always will be.
But does that mean everyone had ever been a circumcised Jew will be saved then?
No… that’s not what it means.
God never left Israel.
But Israel left Him.
Not once, not twice… but repeatedly throughout their history
Even as Jesus was making His final entry into Jerusalem He declared God’s heartache over this: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Matthew 23:37
Repeatedly throughout their history, Israel turned their back on God and walked away.
Things got so bad in during Israel’s history, that Elijah - one of the greatest prophets who ever lived – protested that Israel had so turned its back on God that he was the only one left.
And God replied “OH NO”:
"I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Romans 11:4
You see God hadn’t forgot His covenant.
Even when Israel proved faithless, God still nurtured and protected a portion of Israel who were faithful to Him. He kept a “remnant” for Himself. And throughout Israel’s history God always kept that faithful remnant under His watchful eye.
And ultimately, He intended to save a remnant of physical Israel - through Jesus.
That was what was prophesied by Isaiah:
“Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.’” Romans 9:27 Quoting Isaiah 10:22
But Isaiah wasn’t the only one to prophesy about this “remnant”. In Micah, God said "In that day, I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever. (Micah 4:6-7)
And Joel prophesied: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the remnant whom the LORD calls.” Joel 2:32
God always kept a remnant.
And God has always shielded His faithful.
In fact, God was constantly looking for someone to place in that remnant.
One of my favorite passage is 2 Chronicles 16:9 where God told one King:
“…the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…”
God’s eyes are always sweeping over the earth seeking for someone who wants to be His.
He has always sought to keep and protect a remnant of the faithful.
And so Paul writes here in Romans 11:
“So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.” Romans 11:5
God Always Keeps A Remnant because God ALWAYS kept His word to His people.
Even when they turned away from Him He begged them, He pled with them… He even punished them to get their attention and get them to return to Him.
But His people (the Israelites) were often faithless and disobedient often to the point where God rejected the faithless among them.
God didn’t leave them… they left Him.
And so God cut them off.
That forms the basis of his comments to the Gentile believers: He says…
“You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in. Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief…” Romans 11:19-20a
But the main point of Paul’s comments here is the encouragement.
The bad news was = God cut branches off of the tree of Israel and grafted in the Gentiles.
BUT the good news was = He didn’t He cut off ALL the “natural” branches.
The early church was made up entirely of Jewish believers.
And - in fact, God can even graft in more Jews if He wants to. And He wants to!
That’s what Paul was saying in verses 23-24
“And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!” Romans 11:23-24
And so God always honors His covenant.
But there were those Jews - who were part of the covenant – who rejected Him.
And so God rejected them.
Now – that brings us to the “warning label”.
There were those among the Gentile believers at Rome who were inclined to believe that - unlike the Jewish people who’d turned their back on God and - were broken off from the covenant… they were safe.
Once they’d been saved (they believed) they’d always be saved.
They felt there wouldn’t be much of anything that they could do that would make God turn away from them.
But that had been the problem with many Israelites. They felt that since they were people of God, the people of the Covenant, they could do whatever they wanted, go wherever they pleased, and worship whatever they felt like worshipping, and God wouldn’t cut them off.
BUT HE DID!
So God puts a “warning label” on His product.
“(Israelites) were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.” Romans 11:20-21
The book of Hebrews repeats and reinforces this warning:
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” Hebrews 2:1
“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” Hebrews 3:12
ILLUS: Now, I’ve preached on this topic before, and those sermons have been posted on-line at an Internet site called “Sermoncentral.com”. It’s a site that is read and used by many people from many different denominations, and apparently, one of the sermons I wrote on this subject caught the attention of one of them. And he didn’t like what he’d read. He wrote:
“Do you have any children? If so and one of those children were to disobey you sometime, would you disown that child? Then you must Love with a greater Love than God Loves with. You have told people that if they are a child of God and disobey him he will disown them and send them to Hell. Does this mean that Gods love is not an everlasting love? Is God not capable of loving greater than you?”
Now that’s a legitimate question.
And I spent time in prayer and thought over what he’d asked.
After a day or two I wrote this response:
1. Yes, I have two children
2. Now, you ask – “If they were to disobey me sometime, would I disown them?”
Your question presumes an absurdity; so let’s take this matter to the extreme.
I once knew a couple in my first congregation who had adopted two children (we’re talking real life here, not presumption). Both of these adopted kids had had difficulties in their lives before their adoption... but they were deeply loved by this couple that were a Godly, caring family.
However, no matter how much love this couple gave, the kids continued to have problems:
The daughter struggled with immorality. I was told that before I came, this girl and a friend had been taken home from youth group by the preacher. Just for fun, they had lied and said the preacher had attempted to molest them. Their lies destroyed that preacher and ultimately led to his losing his job. When I was hired there, she was a married adult, and a member of that congregation. But I never quite trusted her (as you can well imagine)...
But it was her brother that troubled me most. This young man eventually left home to live on his own, but he was a constant threat to the family. He repeatedly threatened to kill them if they didn’t give him what he wanted or do as he asked.
Now, if that girl had been my daughter, and she had willfully destroyed a preacher by her lies…
And if the boy had been my son and had threatened to hurt my family…
I’d have horsewhipped her.
And I’d have shot him.
And any good father would do about the same.
A good father disciplines his children, and he protects his family.
And that even means protecting his family from children who intend to harm it.
These two adopted kids had stepped waaay over just doing a “bad” thing.
They had reached the point where they would push a good father too far.
Romans 11 makes it quite clear that we Christians can push God too far as well.
Romans says we are adopted... grafted in to the tree in place of the natural branches (Israelites who refused to believe). But Paul addresses the Christian Gentiles in Rome with these words:
“… they (Israelites) were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 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. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again." Romans 11:20-23
This passage tells me two things:
1) Christians CAN be cut off from salvation
2) But they ARE NOT cut off because of indiscretion or momentary moral lapses.
The issue addressed here in Romans 11 is "belief" vs. "unbelief."
Those who are ’cut off’ have already made up their minds that they are going to move out of the house of belief. Their bags are packed and they are already out the door. They have decided they don’t want to believe in God anymore.
They made the choice and God simply gave them the result of their decision.
However, if they do not persist in their unbelief God is able and willing to graft them back in again. That was the lesson Jesus taught us in His story of the Prodigal Son. That boy packed his bags and left home to enjoy the good life in the city. He turned his back on his father… but then he faced the results of his rebellion. He ended up poor, friendless and hungry beyond imagination. At one point he comes to himself and realizes that even the servants in his father’s house ate better than he did just now.
So he started home, rehearsing his speech as he went, he intended to tell his father that he realized he didn’t deserve to be his son any longer. But if he could just be taken on as a servant…
As he neared the home, Jesus tells us the father did the most amazing thing. Do you remember what the father did? He RAN to his son. He was looking for him! He was watching the road constantly, hoping his son would change his mind and return.
So, should I be afraid of “losing” my salvation?
Of course not!
As a friend of mine said recently: The Bible doesn’t teach “once laved always saved.”
But it does teach “Once saved… it’s very hard to get unsaved.”
You really have to work at to get God to cut you off.
ILLUS: Back when I was a young man, I was riding home with my dad. Apparently I’d said something that really upset him because he turned to me with a bit of anger in his eyes and said: “Jeff, if you weren’t my son, I’d have nothing to do with you.”
Essentially, dad was telling me I’d pushed him a little too far.
If I hadn’t been his son, he’d have stopped the car and let me walk home.
But even though I was his son, he was warning me not to push him any further.
There was a point at which I could push it beyond his limits.
But the point was - I was his son and it would take more for him to "cut me off" that it would for anyone else. I had way more room to maneuver before he called it quits. I was his son and that made all the difference. But dad was warning me not to take that relationship for granted.
In the same way, God put a warning label on His product telling us not to take our relationship with Him for granted.
Should His warning labels make me afraid for my salvation?
Well, think about it this way:
· Should I stop using a snow blower because it might damage my roof?
· Should I never iron my clothes again because I might iron my clothes while wearing them?
· Should a mother not use a stroller because might accidentally forget and fold it up with her child inside?
· Should I stop using the copier because I might get hungry and decide to eat the toner?
Of course not – that’s patently absurd.
The products are perfectly safe… as long as I don’t do something stupid!
The manufacturer is only warning me not to misuse the product.
And that’s all God is saying here.
Your salvation is a precious thing… don’t misuse it.
ILLUS: I was listening to a Christian radio station a couple of days ago, and the speaker was talking about something he’d observed. He said that he noticed there were two kinds of boys at school. One type of boy had a car that their dad had given them, and the other type had bought the car with their own money… and you could tell which was which by how they treated their cars.
The boys who’d been “given” their cars often mistreated them. They’d peel out in the parking lot, didn’t bother to wash and wax them and often didn’t check the oil. If something went wrong, dad would take care of it.
But the boys who had bought their own cars were much more careful how they treated them. The car was precious to them, because it cost them something personally.
Our salvation is a free gift from our Father… and there is an unfortunate possibility that some people will treat it as roughly as the boys treated the free cars their dads had given them.
But Romans 11 is warning us: our salvation is a precious thing.
Don’t misuse it.
Don’t take it for granted.
Hold it close to your breast and guard it jealously, because – while it was a free gift – it was bought a terrible price. And only a fool would abuse it or use it like an old rag that could be tossed away into the corner.
The main thing to remember is that Romans 11 is focused more on the fact that God wants to restore us to Him. He wants us to be His people and realize how precious a thing He has done for us.
CLOSE: Randy Alcorn, in his booklet 50 Days in Heaven says
God has never gives up on us.
And the Bible is filled with a unique biblical vocabulary that makes this point clear.
Reconcile, Redeem, Restore, Recover, Return, Renew, Regenerate, Resurrect. Each of these biblical words begins with the re- prefix, suggesting a return to an original condition that was ruined or lost.
Redemption means to buy back what was formerly owned.
Reconciliation means the restoration or re-establishment of a prior friendship or unity.
Renewal means to make new again, restoring an original state.
The main message out of Romans 11 is just that
God is constantly trying to restore us to the condition He originally created us to have.
We are so important to Him… that even if we fall away into sinfulness He always waits to restore us, renew us, and return us to His love.
