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Have you ever prayed to God and said, God, I'm the only one who is faithful, there's nobody else but me? Oh, don't get so high and mighty on yourself, for the faithfulness that you have is not by your power, but God's when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text promotes sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We're in Romans chapter 11 this week. If you want to open up your Bibles and join with me there. But first I wanted to mention something that I responded to online over the weekend. A friend of mine posted a meme.
I actually don't even know if it was a meme or not. What qualifies as a meme? Are there rules or instructions as to what you can call a meme? Like do all memes have to have a person's face in them and use impact font?
Or is anything that a person quotes or posts in Facebook or Twitter basically a meme? I don't know. This was a quote box. All right. So it had nobody's face in it. It was a picture of a nice little scene and had a quote from a person.
The person that was being quoted was a gal by the name of Angie Tolpin. I had never heard of Angie before. I went to her website and I looked her up. Seemed fine. I mean, a Christian mom trying to help other Christian moms along.
I didn't see anything, at least in my little overview there that looked doctrinally off. But this quote box of Angie said something I didn't quite necessarily agree with the context in which she was presenting things.
And I think that this serves as a good example for understanding context, not just grabbing anything and everything and posting it and saying, well, you know, the Bible says this and we have to understand the context.
So here's what Angie said. The Bible doesn't say, let's go to the sermon or go to the friend for advice. It says, let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
That's Hebrews 4 16. When the road is unclear, go to the throne, Angie said. So I responded to this friend of mine and I said, that's kind of a loaded statement. She's making up quotes from people who don't actually say those things.
And then another friend chimed in and said, but I love her loaded statement. So I had to come back and clarify what it was that I was meaning. The author of the quote sets herself up for something profound, like she wants to be received as saying something profound.
And she does so by making up comments that aren't common. No one actually says, let's go to the sermon or go to the friend for advice. In fact, the opposite is generally true. People seldom want to hear the sermon or listen to advice.
So that makes her attribution of Hebrews 4 16 ironic. Since Hebrews is a sermon, Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians and would have been read aloud to the assembly. Verse 16 has a context. No verse in the Bible is just some standalone statement.
And the context is not when the road is unclear, go to the throne. This is important. And I say this to your benefit, for your benefit. I said this to my friend as well. Hebrews 4 16 can only be truly accomplished when you understand the theology that was being presented.
In other words, when you listen to the whole sermon, verse 16 is a therefore statement. Chapter one talks about the supremacy of Christ. Chapter two talks about salvation in Christ. Chapter three talks about how Jesus is the greater Moses.
Chapter four talks about entering into God's rest and how Jesus is our high priest. Knowing these things, we know that we have a God who sympathizes with our weaknesses, who was tempted just as we are, yet is without sin.
That's verse 15. So then you get to verse 16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. So what is that verse talking about then?
This verse is specifically talking about forgiveness of sins, not looking for a clear road. We can approach God and we can know with confidence that we will receive forgiveness for our sins. Read their mercy and grace because he is supreme.
He is our salvation. He is superior to the law of Moses. He is our rest and he is our high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses. Be careful about these loaded statements that a person will gather to try to make themselves sound profound.
Instead, hear the context of the sermon and know the word of God. Only then can you know what it means to go to the throne. It says that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.
What is our need? We need forgiveness. We need righteousness. We need right standing before the throne of God. And we know that we can have those things because we have a high priest interceding for us, for his glory and not ours.
Amen. All right. So there we understand something about context. Let's get into Romans chapter 11. Now I'm going to read verses one through six. I ask then, has God rejected his people by no means? For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he appeals to God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have demolished your altars and I alone am left and they seek my life.
But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.
Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. So let's kind of explain what's happening here in these first six verses of chapter 11. First of all, Paul says, I ask then, has God rejected his people by no means?
So in light of what we read in chapter 10, remember verse 21 of Israel, he says all day long I have held my hands out to a disobedient and contrary people. So then if God has given grace and salvation to the Gentiles, has he then rejected his people?
And Paul says, by no means. And then he points out, for I'm a Jew, I'm a Jew and I know the saving grace of Christ. So this is showing how God is reconciling both Jews and Gentiles to himself through the justification that is received in Christ.
For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. So I am proof that God has not rejected his people. As a Jew, I have come to salvation in Christ. And so any Jew can come to salvation that same way.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Verse 2, God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left and they seek my life. You know, Elijah thought he was all alone. He thought he was the only one that was actually taking a stand on the solid word of God.
But what was God's reply to him? Verse 4, I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. So Paul's point is this, God's response to Elijah is, Elijah, come on, don't get so big on yourself.
You're not the only one. I have kept for myself. So God almost saying to Elijah here, I'm the one that has kept you faithful. And I have kept for myself 7 ,000 other men who are faithful, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
So don't get so high and mighty on yourself. And then Paul equates that in verse 5, to the present time, there is a remnant who has been chosen by grace. There are Jews that do believe in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ for salvation.
And they have received that salvation by grace. Not because they're Jews, not because they were ethnically born into a certain line, but because God has graciously chosen them for salvation. Verse 6, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
In other words, there's no need for any Jew to think that because they're a Jew, they're going to receive salvation. Or as long as I uphold the law and I follow the law of Moses, then I'm going to receive salvation.
Well, if that's the case, then it's not grace. If anyone receives their salvation that way, then grace is not grace because salvation is on the basis of works. But we have received salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
This is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works so that no one may boast, Romans 2, 8 and 9. But we must not also forget verse 10, where it says that you are God's workmanship to do good works prepared for you beforehand that you should walk in them.
So we're saved by grace through faith, but we're still supposed to work. And the works that we do verify the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. The works don't save us, but rather they are a demonstration of the salvation that we have.
We'll pick up from there tomorrow and jump into verse 7. Lord God, I pray that as we wrap up our time in the word today, we understand the need that we have for salvation. We need forgiveness of sins and only you can give it to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So help us to come to your word and understand the truth, the context of what is being said here so that we might come before the throne of God boldly and with confidence, knowing that we will receive what we need, forgiveness of sins, righteousness in Christ Jesus, so that we have right standing before God.
And then we can appeal to you for our every need. And we know that you will listen to our hearts and provide for us as your children. Keep us faithful to your word, the scriptures, for it is by your power that we are faithful.
We pray this in Jesus name, amen.
Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt .com.