The word holy, in the scriptures, is used in a variety of ways. When we think of the word holy we usually associate with it the idea of being morally pure in our behavior.

And it certainly carries that idea. The apostle Peter wrote in 1Pe 1:15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." [Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7]

But there's another aspect of "holy" which doesn't necessarily denote a certain type of behavior, though it certainly wouldn't deny it's importance.

This other aspect of "holy" involves a particular type of purpose for objects or people, in certain cases, which God deems important. For example, an object is not capable of morally pure behavior, but it can be deemed holy by God.

This kind of holiness speaks to something being "set apart" for a special purpose. If you go to the O.T. you will find that the Temple and all its objects of worship was called holy unto the Lord, despite the fact that inanimate objects cannot demonstrate morally pure behavior.

Cities themselves were called holy. We read in Mat 4:5 "Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple."

There Jerusalem, the city, was considered holy. When God chooses to use objects for a special purpose He will often refer to them as holy, set apart to be used by Him for His glory.

Interestingly enough people can be seen as holy where their morally pure behavior is not intended as a first meaning, but rather is meant as someone who is set apart and devoted to God for God's purpose.

Luk.2:23 reads "(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every first born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord)"

Does Luke mean to suggest that an infant's morally pure behavior is intended by this word holy? No, and the NIV takes the liberty to use the word for holy when it say's in Luk 2:23, "(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord" [Exodus 13:2,12])...

God desires to use people and even certain objects as those which will be set apart to point to the One true God as He shows mercy and His plans through such objects and people.

1Co 7:14 "For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy."

The word holy here does not first mean that the children are morally pure. It means that God considers them set apart because of the faith of one or both of their parents, as it relates to their special relationship to the Body of Christ.

The children, because of their parent or parents, can share in the blessings of the church, much in the same way children born to the nation of Israel shared in the blessings of that nation which God set apart for His special purposes.

Blessings such as: ready access to the word of God; fellowship of the Body; encouragement to accept Christ by faith which all must do. No one is born into the Kingdom of God, all must be born again.

Now, the reason that I lay this foundation is because we left off last week with the verse which spoke of that which was holy. And what we'll see is that there is a sense in which the word holy does not primarily mean morally pure behavior as we will see.

Rom 11:16 "If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches."

The question I left you with last week was, who is being referred to as the dough offered as firstfruits? This is important because when we discover who the dough of firstfruits is then the rest of the dough, or the whole batch, must necessarily be holy, according to God's word.

The answer is found in those who were the first to be called out by God for His special purpose of being a people through whom the Messiah would come. The first piece of dough is the fathers or the patriarches. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so on. They were called out by God, set apart, and so they were holy in the sense that the promises given to them would be carried out to completion.

Paul furthers identifies this in verse 28.... "As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarches,..."

We know that those promises were not just for those individual patriarches because, for example, Abraham was told those covenants were to him and to his seed, the descendants of Abraham.

If Abraham, being part of the first fruits of the dough was considered by God as set apart for a special purpose, then the rest of the dough would be considered holy or set apart for a special purpose for God.

This is the reason that Israel must still be a part of God's plan to the very end of the world, because since the fathers or patriarches were those first fruits dedicated to God, then the rest of the lump is holy or set apart.

Now the problem you and I might have is that the nation of Israel is not morally pure or holy as it pertains to accepting their Messiah by faith and living unto His honor and glory.

But that's not primarily the kind of holy that Paul is referring to here. Paul is saying that despite how unholy the nation of Israel is regarding their behavior, they have been deemed set apart by God to be used by Him.

That's all that Paul is saying here. And what this does is to magnify the mercy and grace of God, because despite how unholy and unfaithful Israel is to God, God cannot be unfaithful to Himself.

Paul touches on this in 2Ti 2:11 "Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us;
13 if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself."

In other words, when God says something concerning His will and purposes, He will never go back on what He originally intended to do despite how unfaithful those are whom He calls out.

In the case of Israel, they became faithless, but God would remain faithful to them. That doesn't mean He turns a blind eye to their sin, it simply means that He will use even that to show forth His glory as He remains faithful to bring them back to Himself.

Israel has not been abandoned. In fact, Israel cannot be abandoned forever because God is still faithful to His promises made to the fathers or patriarches many years before.

This is why an unholy people, in their behavior, can be considered holy by God's declaration that they have been set apart from years ago and that one day their behavior will also be holy as they embrace Jesus Christ as a nation.

I needed to lay this groundwork because we need to understand how God treats people who have been set apart for His purposes, and also so we can move quickly through the rest of the verses in our text which are all related to this truth.

Rom 11:17 "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,
18 do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you."

Paul's analogy of Israel being branches which were broken off and the Gentiles being grafted in is one way of saying that Israel has been cut off from the blessings of God. In God's mercy He has grafted in a people who once were not His people and they now share in the blessings which were intended for Israel but which Israel has relinquished because of unbelief.

Again, Paul's point is that precisely because of their rejection of God Israel was placed to the side by God so that you and I, as Gentiles, might come to God and the promise of eternal life given to the fathers, or patriarches.

Paul brought that out earlier in Rom 11:11 "Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious."

But Paul wants the Gentiles to understand that God is still working with the Jews and therefore they should not despise the Jews, even though most of the Jews have despised God. Again, God's mercy and grace are seen here in a most amazing way.

Rom 11:18 "do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you."

Now, we know that "The Root" is Jesus Christ as our Lord tells us in Rev 22:16 "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."

But, in Romans Paul is keeping with his analogy of Israel being the root from which "The Root" would come. Paul is reminding the Gentiles that without the nation of Israel salvation would not be possible for the Gentile world, according to God's will.

Jesus spoke of this in Joh 4:22 "You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews."

And so Paul wants the Gentiles to keep God's promises to the Jews in perspective and despite how the Jews presently despise God we should not despise the Jews because God still has them set apart to carry on the faith of their fathers who placed their faith in God and in the Messiah.

For that reason don't look down with scorn on the Jews. That doesn't mean we accept their sinful behavior towards God any more than we would accept sinful behavior in our own ranks, but we shouldn't have an attitude towards the Jews as vermin, which the rest of the world has done for centuries.

In fact, one of the greatest testimonies that God is not done with the Jews is the fact that they still exist as a distinct people despite how the world has persecuted them to the point of seemingly total extinction.

And yet they always bounce back. Why? Because they're so resilient and they have such perseverance? No! It's because God's gracious hand is still on them because He will be faithful to the promises and the covenants made with their fathers, the patriarches.

We should never become arrogant to the Jews. Our salvation came through the Jews. Jesus was a Jew in the flesh. And so Paul continues this thought in Rom 11:19 "You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."
20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either."

We stand by faith in Christ. There is nothing in us which God found lovely. We can't say that the Jew was no longer accepted because he lost his loveliness and now we have it.

Neither Jew or Gentile have had God's grace extended to him based on their loveliness or wonderful character. Grace would cease to be grace if that were the case. And so Paul wants us to consider with sober understanding that the Jew may have been rejected for their unbelief but the same thing could happen to the those in the church who have no faith in Christ.

One might say, how can a person in the church of Jesus Christ not be a child of God? For exactly the same reason Paul states in Rom 9:8 "In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring."

No one was automatically guaranteed salvation in Israel simply because he or she was a Jew. Like Abraham, they had to live by faith in the promises of God. And so, just because one belongs to the church does not guarantee that one is saved. It is only by faith in Christ that one may have eternal life.

And this was a problem that the early church was confronted with. In fact, Jesus Himself speaks to the major churches of that day in the book of Revelation and He begins by addressing the church at Ephesus.

We read in Rev 2:1 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."

We must never take the attitude that now that "I'm in", so to speak, I can never be cut off. No, Paul says if you think that your relationship with God is something which can be taken for granted and that you don't have to live by faith then think again, because that kind of arrogant attitude will reveal itself as a life which never truly was by faith.

Faith always reveals itself in gratitude towards God and never forgets where it came from and that it was all grace, all God. In many parts of the world today, "the church" is no more representative of Jesus Christ than Buddhism. Just look at some of the major denominations. Many deny the deity of Jesus Christ or huge portions of the Word of God.

Much of what is referred to as Christianity is nothing more than man's attempt to carry on a relationship with the one true God through worldly and fleshly means, not by faith in the Messiah alone.

O.K. we've got to move on. Rom 11:22 "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.
23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 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!"

In other words, God's kindness and sternness, or severity as it's translated in the NAS and KJV, is seen at one and the same place. Those who reject the Messiah will taste the judgment from God for rejection. Those who embrace the Messiah will taste His kindness, His goodness, His salvation.

And though Israel has been cut off, the Jews are able to grafted back in by faith. That's what Paul means when he says if they do not continue in unbelief. But notice what Paul says in verse 23, "God is able to graft them in again."

It's not as though Israel will one day figure it out and then decide it would be a good idea to accept Jesus. God is the one who will move the heart of Israel, who will then accept Christ by faith, and in that sense God will be the One responsible for grafting Israel back into their own olive tree.

Rom 11:25 "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." [Isaiah 59:20,21; 27:9; Jer. 31:33,34]

Just as God had always intended to include the Gentiles in the blessings of God by faith, (even though this was a mystery in the sense that it wasn't fully understood how they fit into the scheme of things), so too it was a mystery as to how Israel, who had been cut off by God because of their unbelief, would somehow be grafted back in.

But Paul says, 'I don't want you Gentiles to be ignorant of how God is planning to work with Israel.' And the reason he makes this point is so that the Gentiles won't be wise in their own eyes as to what God would do with the Jews.

It would be very easy to take their own understanding and conclude that Israel was completely out of the picture. But Paul says this mystery is that there is a partial hardening, which infers that it's not total or final. And the Gentiles play a part in this mystery to the extent that when the fullness of the Gentiles is completed in God's sovereign plan, the nation of Israel will be restored.

No one knows when this fullness will be completed. In fact, no one fully knows the mystery of what this fullness means. It could mean that when the last Gentile whom God foreknew comes into the Kingdom of God by faith in Christ then the Lord will begin His campaign to graft Israel back into the olive tree.

Others believe that the fullness of the Gentiles refers to God's final plans with the Gentiles. However, as it relates to the fullness of the Gentiles, God is the One ultimately responsible with how He decides to work all things according to His will.

And His will definitely includes the Jews as a nation. "Thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. Rom 11:27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." [Isaiah 59:20,21; 27:9; Jer. 31:33,34]

Next week we'll delve into this matter of "All Israel will be saved." But suffice to say God has every intention of dealing with the Jews on a grand scale. And we Gentiles who have placed our faith in Christ have the privilege to be a part of God's plan to reach out to the Jews as well as other Gentiles.

There is a big picture here. Sometimes we lose sight of the forest for all the trees and we forget that our individual lives as Christians are part of a bigger plan of God's. But we must never forget that there is also an individual plan for you and me and individual churches like Calvary Chapel Port Charlotte.

We have been commissioned to live by faith and to carry out the battle orders given to us by our King. Those orders include going out into all the world making disciples for Christ so that we may be part of an army which moves forward accomplishing whatever God's will is to further His Kingdom and glorify Him with our lives in the process.

This army for Christ is an army which lives on the love that was first given to us which we in turn are to give to the world. This army lives by faith in the promises of God. Armies of the world live and fight effectively as they are fed properly and given the strength and leadership they need to go into battle.

Jesus tells us in Mat 4:4 "Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" [Deut. 8:3]

He also told His disciples in Joh 4:31 after ministering to the Samaritan woman at the well, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
34 "My food,"> said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

All of these things are spiritual in nature and sometimes it's very easy to lose sight of the most important things in this world which are spiritual in nature; those things which will last forever to God's glory.

It's not as though the things of this world are unimportant. Jesus tells us to pray, "give us this our daily bread". These are earthly things which our heavenly Father knows we need, along with shelter and the means to sustain life with a job and so on.

But it seems we get so involved in these things that, like the disciples, we think that we exist for eating and living for ourselves. Jesus says, 'my food is to do the will of Him who sent Me. Do not live on bread alone but on every word of God.'

Our purpose is to do the will of God as individuals and as a church. But that will never happen effectively if we can't see beyond ourselves and our needs.

We all have needs. But Jesus tells us that He is able to meet our needs with the specific purpose so that we may be used by Him to meet the needs of others, not the least of which is to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world and our communities.

As with Israel, God has a specific purpose for each of us. He just wants us to be open, teachable and willing to follow wherever He leads. And then to obey when He gives the orders to go forward by faith in the power of the Spirit.

Paul exhorts us in Gal 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

We have been called, and "set apart" to serve our Most High God. Ask Him for opportunities to be His servant and humble yourself before Him so as to be kind of vessel He can use for honorable use to His glory. Seek Him diligently in His word and ask for His Spirit to enable you to be that faithful and loving servant.

1Th 5:23 "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."