Romans chapter 11 and let me read from verse just to understand the context I'm going to read it from all the way from 13 through 24 but our focus will be this morning on verse 16 through 20, 21. Romans chapter 11 verse 13 and on. Now I am speaking to you Gentiles and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order that somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them.

For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as first fruit is holy, so is the whole lump and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, now share in the nourishing fruit of the olive tree.

Do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root but the root that supports you. Then you will say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief but you stand fast through faith.

So do not become proud but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God, severity toward those who have fallen but God's kindness to you provided you continue in kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off and even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in for God has the power to graft them in again.

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree? Let's pray. Heavenly loving Father, we have gathered here to worship you, to take time to allow your word to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

I pray, Father, that nothing would be added or taken away and that we would be able to hear your voice and your voice alone. We ask, Lord God, that you would anoint this time as we have come to worship you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As we've been studying the book of Romans, again, we're in a section of the Bible where the place of Israel in God's redemptive history and so he's been spending most of really the book of Romans talking about this subject but intensified starting from chapter 9 through 11.

And again, when we get to chapter 12, he's going to change gears a little bit and say, "Therefore, considering this great mercy that God has shown us, this is how you ought to live." Chapter 11, we've been talking about Paul has been emphasizing the place of Israel and what God has been doing.

And if there's one thing that keeps jumping out over and over and over again is God's continued patience and love for the nation of Israel. That despite everything that Israel has done up to this point, and we're not talking about a few years and we're not talking about one generation, but we're talking about generation after generation, dozens and dozens of generations.

And it is natural that we would ask this question if salvation is by grace alone. And it wasn't what the Jews thought it was, then is God done with Israel? Not only is God done, would we think that God is done with Israel because what they were thinking about how they were going to bring glory to God and what actually happened is completely off, but even the way that they thought that they were going to be drawn near to God was completely off, then what's the purpose of Israel?

So that's the question that God has been asking over and over again. But if there's one thing that keeps popping out over is the depth of the love of God toward his people. And I know we talk about the agape love and it's unconditional and how we ought to share this unconditional love with one another.

But we have to honestly admit when we take a close look at the love that God shares with his people, that is unlike anything else that you guys, you and I know. You know, we could say it's like the love of a mother, it's the love of a father, but we have to admit the more we dig into that, that this is strange love.

A love that would cause him to sacrifice his son for unbelieving and blasphemous sinners. That is not a love that you and I know from our parents. It may be closer, may be purer than any other love that we know, but it is not the same kind of love that we see in Scripture.

In fact, if you can turn your Bibles to Hosea chapter 11, actually the passage is going to be up behind me. The background behind Hosea is about, Hosea is prophesying that the nation of Israel is going to captivity because God, he lays out the history of God's love toward the nation of Israel.

So some of you guys who know this, the prophet and the content of this prophet, basically God tells Hosea to go love Gomer who was a prostitute and as he keeps loving her, she would keep prostituting herself and then when he would return, he would say, "No, go after her again." And over and over again, God tells Hosea to go love this adulterous woman.

And he illustrates that, says that this is my relationship with the nation of Israel. That despite my constant love of pursuing you, you continue to go after to other nations and idols. And so it says, therefore, as a result of this, that they're going to go into captivity. But even in the context of God bringing judgment upon the nation of Israel, you can see the heart of God.

In Hosea chapter 11, verses 1, it says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to balls and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk.

I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws. And I bent down to them and fed them." We jump to verse 9 through 11.

It says, "I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man. The Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west.

They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria. And I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord." So even as he is declaring judgment upon the nation of Israel, you can see the tender heart of God toward this nation. And he prophesies, even though you will go away for now, there will come a time when his anger will no longer burn and he will bring them back.

Even in chapter 14, verse 4 through 7, he concludes this judgment against Israel in verse 4 through 7. It says, "I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He shall blossom like the lily.

He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon. His shoot shall spread out. His beauty shall be like olive and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow. They shall flourish like the grain. They shall blossom like the vine. Their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon." Again, we see in this context, and again, I just chose Hosea, but if you read the prophets, every single one of these prophets, there's an element of God's anger and judgment where Israel has pushed God to the breaking point.

And so finally, for their own sake, God's bring judgment upon them. But even in the midst of judgment, you see God's tender love for his nation. There's nothing that you and I know that comes anywhere close to his patience, to his forgiveness, to his unconditional love against the people who keep rebelling over and over and over again.

Apostle Paul has said in the book of Romans that if it was up to him, if it was possible, he said, "I would rather be accursed than my countrymen." He himself expresses, "I'm a Jew. That is not my desire for my people. I'm not saying all these things because I hate my nation." But Paul is not simply saying that because he's a nationalist.

He just grew up and he just loves his country. You have to remember, his countrymen almost wholeheartedly rejected Paul. Paul was the golden child in Israel. He was on a fast track to become the leader among leaders. He may have been sitting on the Sanhedrin already. He comes from a royal, not royal, but I mean, you could say as royal as we could, he'd come from a very high pedigree where he has Roman citizenship, he has money, he has education, he is perfect by his own description when it comes to the law.

So in every aspect, if you were to pick the Jew among Jews, it would have been Apostle Paul. Yet, when he turned and he began to preach the gospel and he began to exalt Christ, his countrymen completely wholeheartedly reject him. Paul says this in the first Thessalonians 2, 4, and he says, "But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts." He says again in 2 Corinthians 11, 24, describing his ministry on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, and even danger among Gentiles, and he goes on and on.

And one of the dangers that he describes is coming from his own nation. He would go to the synagogues and first preach the gospel to his countrymen. And everywhere he went, he would get kicked out and get rejected, and that's why he ends up going to the Gentiles. He was rejected by the Sanhedrin, he was rejected by the leaders, he was rejected every city that he went to.

In every way, his countrymen basically stopped him. It was the Jews who stoned him initially. It was the Jews who beat him and took him to jail and hopefully trying to kill him. It wasn't simply nationalism. Paul's love for the Jewish people was simply a reflection of God's love for them.

As an apostle of Jesus Christ, it's not up to him to decide who's going to love, who's not going to love. He's just to convey the message and the heart of the person that he's representing. And so Paul's longing for his people is simply a reflection of the Father for his people.

And we can clearly see that. And that's what Paul has been saying, that though they have experienced a temporary hardening of the heart, it is not permanent. And so within that larger context of work, in verse 16, I want to read that passage again. Paul says, "If the dough offered as first fruit is holy, so is the whole lump and the root is holy, and so are the branches." So let's examine this and what does he mean by this and what's Paul's main point.

When he describes holiness, typically when we think of holiness, we think of somebody morally upright, right? So let me ask you, can somebody who's not a Christian be holy? Don't say it. I just wanted you to think of it for a little bit. Can somebody who's not a Christian be holy?

So typically in our world, we'll say, you know, here's a Buddhist monk. He's a holy man. Or a, you know, or a leader in another religious sect, they would say, "Anybody who's man of the cloth is a holy man." So a priest, a pastor, or a monk, or whatever it may be, anybody who's dedicated, morally upright, they're holy.

But according to biblical standards, can a man who's just morally upright be considered holy? No. And the reason why is because according to biblical standard, holiness is not just meeting the standard of what we have set in our generation. Holiness basically is related to obedience. So what is upright is directly linked to obedience to God's Word.

So that's the first understanding of holiness. But in here, when Paul says the first, the dough is holy because the first fruit is holy, the dough clearly is talking about the nation of Israel. So is he saying, when he's saying that the dough is holy, is he saying that the dough is holy because it is morally upright?

Don't say anything. Just think about it for a minute. Clearly that's not what he is saying. He's not saying that dough is holy because it kept the commandments and it was obeyed, and then the first fruit that they gave, they were also holy because they kept the commandments. Clearly that's not what he is in reference to.

But there's a second meaning, a biblical meaning of holiness that's better applied here. And that second meaning is whatever is set apart, and the word holy basically literally means to be set apart. Whatever is set apart for God's possession or God's use became holy. So when they set up the tabernacle, they would set up the tent and the poles and different articles that they would use, and though it may have been made for common use, once it was dedicated for God's use, it became holy.

And once it became holy, God would have specific prescriptions of how to handle it. So just as you would come into the temple, if you were to handle the cup that is dedicated to the temple, you'd have to be cleansed. You would have an animal that may have been yours and you were raising it, but once it was dedicated for the purpose of sacrifice, the animal itself became holy.

So it didn't become holy because it met certain standards and lived in obedience and was morally upright. It became holy simply because it was dedicated to the Lord. So whatever belonged to God and whatever God chooses to use becomes holy. So he's using that analogy as you know, the concept of tithing comes from what he's talking about here, giving the first.

Tithing was commanded in the Old Testament to signify that this first fruit that we give to God symbolizes that all of it belongs to God. So the first fruit that we give, the tithing that we give, is not just about the tent, but is a dedication of everything that we own.

So the first act of lordship in the Old Testament was to dedicate our tithe, again, symbolizing that not only the harvest, but everything that I own is yours. So he's using that analogy to say that Israel is holy because the first fruits of Israel were dedicated to be holy, to be his.

So what is the first fruit? If the dough is Israel, then what is the first fruit that was dedicated that made the rest of Israel holy? Just think, right? What is the first fruit of Israel? There are three people that are always mentioned in Israel's history and reminds them that I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Now why do they do that? Why does even hundreds of years later they say, "I'm going to do this because I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the first fruits that God dedicated and made a covenant with. He made a unilateral covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying that I'm going to possess you and I'm going to use you for his glory.

And so when he says that the whole dough became holy because the first fruits were holy, he's referring to the very beginning covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's why over and over again in Israel's history, even as they are being unfaithful, God says, "I will keep my covenant for my name's sake, for I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." So he's always going back to the first fruit and saying, "I'm going to be faithful to that." Genesis 50, 24, "And Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.'" So Joseph's confidence that God was going to be faithful to the nation of Israel goes back to the promise, the covenant that God makes with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Exodus chapter 2, 24, "And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." So the beginning of the nation of Israel, as they are in captivity, God is faithful and He begins His journey to establish the nation of Israel because of His covenant of His first fruit with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

So the point that Paul is trying to make with the nation of Israel and what he was trying to get us to understand is that Israel is holy not because they were morally upright as a whole. Israel is holy because the first fruits were dedicated. Who dedicated them? God did.

God dedicated the nation of Israel for Himself. So the question that he's answering is, God did not forsake them. He's not done. Did they fall so they would not return? He said, "By no means." Because God dedicated these people to Himself. That though partially they have experienced a hardening of their heart, the nation itself is still His.

It's still His and they are still holy. Now how does that, what does that mean to us? Well that's exactly what it says in Ephesians chapter 5, 25-27. That's a passage we typically read and study whenever we talk about the marriage, the husband ought to love their wives unconditionally and wives to the husband to submit as church does to Christ.

But Paul makes it very clear. He's using the illustration of marriage to talk about Christ in the church, not the other way. Typically we hear it the other way where this is the marriage is like love between Christ and His church but at the end of this passage it says no, he's trying to highlight through the marriage relationship, the relationship between Christ and His church.

And look what he says here. Ephesians 5, 25-27, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church." And then he describes Christ's love to the church next. And he gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her. Usually in a marriage ceremony you'd have the bride coming down and she would wear white and it would signify virginity, her purity, right?

But in a Christian marriage we understand that her dress of whiteness symbolizes the love of Christ, that she didn't earn that dress. She doesn't have that dress on because she was morally pure and perfect like the world may understand it. The Christian marriage ceremony we understand that despite that she didn't deserve it, Christ put that white dress on her and that's exactly what he says.

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her. What role does she play in her sanctification? According to this passage, what role did she play to wear that dress? Nothing. It says that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

What part did she play in her cleansing? What part did she play? What was the role did she play? She was a passive recipient of the love of Christ. And so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

So how did she become holy and without blemish? So when we talk about holiness, again there is an aspect of holiness. The Bible tells us to be holy for our heavenly father is holy and it's talking about morally being upright like the father is. But when he is describing the nation of Israel, when he's describing church and his people, initially he says we are holy as the church is holy, as Christ made it holy.

And they didn't play any part in this, in sanctification. So we became holy because God chose us, chose to love us. Now what is the significance of this in all that we're talking about? He's saying all of this because he's saying, well, the nation of Israel didn't live up to the calling.

They didn't do what they were supposed to do. They were supposed to glorify God. And in the very, very beginning of the book of Romans it says because of you the name of God is being blasphemed. So they didn't serve their purpose. They failed miserably over and over and over again.

So then what use does God have with these failures? That's the question that Paul's answering here. They are not holy because they were perfect. They were holy because it was first fruits were dedicated, because God made them holy. That though, and we're going to talk about the second part of this next week where he talks about the kindness and the severity of God, and we're going to talk more in detail about the application of this doctrine.

But in essence what Paul is saying first and foremost, what we recognize is that holiness was given to them. It was given to them. God chose to give it to them. They didn't earn the love. The reason why they exist and the reason why they will continue to exist and the reason why he will remain faithful to them is because God chose that for them.

It's just that for now they've received the hearting of the heart. When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, he said he's going to fulfill the prophecy that we just read in Hosea. He's going to bring them back. You and I did not earn this love. And I know this is Christianity 101.

This is basics of Christianity, basics of justification by faith. It is easy to hear, but very difficult to apply. Because the immediate application of justification by faith is humility. That's why he says in verse 18 and 20, he says, "Therefore," well, if they're holy because of the first fruit of holy, if the roots are holy and so we're grafted in and we're not the ones who support the roots, but root supports us, well, okay, we get that.

So what? What does that mean? Well, he says in verse 18, "So therefore do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you remember, it is not you who support the root, but it is the root that supports you. And you will say the branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.

That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear." So he says this two times. "Therefore," the immediate application one, he said, "Do not be arrogant toward those Jews." We're going to talk about the second part of that application next week.

But the first part he says, "Don't look at them because they failed and think somehow you're going to become proud and say, 'Well, we're right with God and you're not.' Do not forget that they're God's people." And then he's going to say, and we'll talk about more next week, "Do not forget that you are just as weak." But first thing he says is, "You did not support them.

They supported you." In Ephesians 2, 12 through 13, Paul reminds them, "Remember that you are at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and the strangers to the covenant of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." They support us.

We do not support them. In other words, what Paul is saying, it is because of the Old Testament that we have the New Testament. I think that the mistake that we're making in our generation, at least where you and I live, that predominantly the Word of God is centered around the New Testament because it is clearer.

Because the points are clear. Here's my point and here's my sub-points and here's my conclusion. So it's easier to preach and easier to summarize, easier to teach. And I remember years ago when I was, again, at Together for the Gospel and we'd say, "Oh, how many of you were preaching through the Old Testament?" And very few people were preaching through the Old Testament.

And I remember some of you guys who were there, it was so hard preaching through the Old Testament because there's very little material for support. Very few commentaries. In fact, a few commentaries that they do recommend, it's in German. So any of you who know anything about Old Testament scholarship, they're all German.

So if you want to be an Old Testament scholar, first thing you need to do is to learn German, which I'm not going to do. So New Testament is easy. If I want to study Romans, I mean, I have to choose from hundreds of commentaries and out of that, I basically have about eight or nine different Roman commentaries and out of that, I have a few that I read on a regular basis.

So it's easy. But in the Old Testament, I'll go to the book of Judges, there's almost no commentary. And I try to look for other pastors who preach through it and I see two sermons in 1 and 2 Kings, the whole thing. And I'm trying to go through it from chapter to chapter.

And so I kind of had to figure it out myself how to preach the Old Testament. And I didn't do a good job, but I kind of had to figure it out. But the point that I'm trying to make is, God, there's reason why three-fourths of the Bible is the Old Testament.

There's a reason why every part, there's reason why genealogy is in the Old Testament. It's not just, "Go to sleep." It's not just to calm you down so when your blood pressure gets high, so you can just calm down and go to sleep. There's reasons why three-fourths of the written content of the Bible is the Old Testament because all of the Old Testament supports the New Testament.

And here's the mistake, and here's the shallowness of how we understand the cross, because when we get to the cross without understanding how we got to the cross, there's a reason why there's an emphasis on grace without understanding the need for this grace. And there's a reason why in our generation, anything that we talk about reverence for the thing of Christ is just a very shallow understanding.

Because all of that was established in the Old Testament through Israel. The coming of the temple, the giving of the law, and the seriousness of holiness, and all of this, and character of God, the holiness of God, and how much God hates sin and judgment, all of this was illustrated through Israel's history.

And all of this was to bring us to the cross and say, "We need Jesus." But when you kind of skim through all of that, and when you get to the cross, there's a reason why we end up with cheap grace. That we talk about grace and it's like, "Oh, God forgives no matter what we do." And we look at grace as a great-grandfather who just lets you get away with anything because He loves you so much.

So there's an element of truth to that, but all that we know about the gospel is supported by years of what He has been doing through the nation of Israel. So if we have a shallow understanding of who God is in the Old Testament, and His work in the Old Testament, and what He's been doing through the temple and the laws, by the time we get to the cross, it's like one saved always saved.

God loves us unconditionally, which is true, but the weight of what that means is lost to a generation that doesn't understand that we are supported by what God's been doing through the nation of Israel. Why it is so imperative for us to understand what God has been doing. See, that's exactly what Jesus was saying in John chapter 4, 22, talking to the Samaritan woman.

He's saying, "Well, we're Samaritan, we're Jews, we have different ideas of how to worship God in this mountain and that mountain." Immediately, He corrects her. And He's going to rebuke Israel and the Gentiles, but before He does that, He corrects her and puts her in the right place and He says, "You worship what you do not know." It's not simply about whether you're going to worship in that mountain, but first and foremost, before I say anything, the God that you worship is a God that you created in your own mind.

That is not the God of the Bible. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know. And when Jesus says "we," He's not talking about the Trinity. When He says "we," He's talking about the Jews. We worship what we do not know, for salvation is from the Jews.

See, this idea of reverence and worship and repentance and restoration and refuge, forgiveness, all of this was illustrated in the Old Testament. So if we simply dismiss Israel, dismiss the Old Testament, dismiss them as a foundation, then again, we have a very shallow, shaky building that we're building. You know, the older I get, the more I appreciate my ancestors.

I've been watching videos of Korea, videos that I've never seen before in 1960s and 1930s. They have pictures and videos from as early as 1920s, pre-war, and all this stuff. And it's just interesting to me because there's certain parts of Korea that I remember visiting. Maybe some of you guys may know that too, but I look at old videos and it's just dirt road and how the buildings were.

It just kind of, even though I wasn't born at that time, I feel a certain level of connection because that's where my grandparents were. That's where my parents came from. And then so, you know, the older I get, the more interested I am about where I came from. Right?

So when you're younger, you barely have any interest in your parents. You know what I mean? You don't know how your parents met. You don't know what they like. I mean, maybe on Father's Day or Mother's Day or birthday, you try to figure out what they want to eat.

But other than that, you know, it's not of interest until you get older and then you have some interest or your parents and the older you get from that, it's like, "Whoa, where did they come from?" You're asking about grandparents and then you get a little bit older, you ask even beyond that.

There's some things that even your parents may not know. And the reason why there's interest in that is because the older we get, the more we understand how that line has affected us. There's so much of our great grandparents and some of the pictures that you might see of them, it's like, "Huh, that looks like me." Because that's our heritage.

See when we see God's people, not just 2,000 years, but thousands of years even before Christ came, it is a reflection of where we came from. That when He was talking about Israel, we weren't way over there. He had us in mind when He wrote Hosea chapter 11. His love goes that deep and that far.

So first and foremost, He says, "Do not be arrogant." And that's exactly what it says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, it says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God." Now we know that.

Again, we sing that. If you grew up in the church, "For by grace you have been saved," you guys know that song, right? But look at the second part. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of work." Why?

Why didn't He invite? Why didn't He say, "I'm going to do my part and you're going to do your part, and there's a part you're going to play and there's a part that I'm going to play." He doesn't say that. He said, "None of it is yours." He cleansed her, washed her, regenerated her, made her pure, all unilaterally, just as the dough became holy because the first fruits were holy, and now as a result of it, we've all become holy, and it has nothing to do with you, so what?

So that no one may boast. So the immediate application of the grace of God is not pride. So easy to say, and so hard to apply. So fundamental. You could teach this to a child, and they'll understand it at a child's level, and you could teach this to somebody who's been walking with the Lord for 50 years or 70 years or all their life, and they know what to say, but so difficult to apply because at the core of human rebellion is pride, and at the core of salvation is humility.

And so he brings salvation by grace. He says, "So that you will not boast." Because it is your boasting that brought condemnation. It is your pride that blinds you. It is your desire or thinking that you can somehow live outside of God that is causing you to run after the world.

It is pride that is destroying mankind. It was pride that caused Satan to rebel. It was pride that he took a third of the angels with him. It was pride that Adam and Eve rebelled against God to think that they're going to somehow live without God. And ever since then, the core of mankind's sin is pride.

So that's why the first thing he says, "Therefore, do not be proud." Do not be proud against the nation of Israel, and do not be proud. Instead, he says, "Be in awe." Because the same grace that will save the nation of Israel is the same grace that is causing you to stand.

First Corinthians 10, 12-13, "Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man." When he's talking about common to man, he's talking about Israel, because that's what he was talking about in the previous verses. There's no temptation that they face that you are not going to face.

And as they easily struggled, you can easily struggle. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able. But with temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. We're going to talk more about this next week, his kindness and the severity of God.

But let me wrap up this morning with this, and so I want to open up the communion table for us. When we understand God's love for Israel, it gives us a glimpse of who he is, and it gives us a glimpse of who we are, and the application is obvious.

Application is obvious. As Christ was humiliated on the cross, anyone who comes to the cross must first be humiliated, must first empty himself and become nothing. There is no boasting in the cross. There is no pride in the cross. To have life, we must first lose it. Think about how much of our life is wrecked because of our pride.

Think about every fight between your husband and wife, that at the core of it, how much of that is pride. Think about how much of our rebelling against God at the core of who we are is, "I think I can do it without him. I think I can find life without God." How much of sin that reigns in mankind comes through the form of pride.

So the first thing that we recognize when we recognize his love and his grace and how he dealt with the nation of Israel and how the root supports us, therefore, do not be arrogant. The communion table ultimately is for that purpose. It's to remind us. Simple breaking of the bread, pouring of his blood, it saved us.

We don't come here, we're not going to invite anybody up to this table, and the only way that you can disqualify yourself from coming to this table is to somehow think that you earned this, and automatically you are disqualified because you do not understand this communion table. The communion table is open for us to celebrate his grace, to celebrate his love, celebrate justification that you and I did not deserve.

But a reasonable response to this is to live up to the calling. We're going to talk about that next week, but this morning as we open up the communion table. Again, I want to remind you that the communion table is meant for confessing believers who have been baptized. And so if you have not been baptized and you haven't confessed Christ as your Lord and Savior, we ask that you would stay in your seat.

And again, if you want to be baptized, we ask that you come and talk to us, talk to one of the leaders, and we'll sit down with you and explain if you have some questions about that. Those of you who are going to come to the table, we ask that first, come humbly, recognizing salvation that you and I did not deserve.

And second, come celebrating, right? Come celebrate the life that Christ has given us. And what does that mean for us? So I'm going to read a passage and I'm going to open up the communion table. Just be in prayer. There's unconfessed sins. Take some time to pray and confess that before God.

The only way that you and I can become righteous is from confession and forgiveness. So again, we ask that you would take some time to do that genuinely. And then when you are ready, again, come toward the middle. So if you're sitting right in the front, you know, I'm not going to be legalistic and ask you to go all the way around.

Just come and take it. Don't create traffic in the middle. So everybody else, just come through the side, take it, and go down the middle. And I'm going to ask you guys to take some time to be reflective and in prayer as our worship team comes and leads us.

And really, this is a time, even though we are, it signifies the union of the body of Christ, but ultimately the unity happens because individually we're right with God. And so I'm going to ask you guys to take some time to pray when you're ready, one by one, come up.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23, it says, "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given things, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, also he took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is a new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come to this sacred time in reverence and in awe and in humility. I pray, Father God, that you would sanctify your church. Help us, Lord, to open our eyes, see if there's any hurtful ways in us. Help us to put away our pride and embrace the love of Christ and his gentleness.

I pray, Father God, that this communion table would sanctify your church. We ask, Lord God, help us to think deeply and meditate, and that through your word that you would continue to speak to us and bear fruit. May this time be a pleasing aroma to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.