Let Grace Be Grace - Part 1 — John Piper

Grace Alone in Romans 11

The title of the message is, For God's Sake, Let Grace Be Grace. Let Grace Be Grace comes from Romans 11, 6. You can see it there. But if it is by grace, that is, if the preservation of a remnant, a believing remnant, is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.

God's Preservation of a Remnant for His Glory

Otherwise grace would no longer be grace. So let grace be grace. Don't put anything in the place of grace. And for God's sake comes from verse 4. What is God's reply to Elijah? I have kept for myself, for myself, 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

I kept them. And I kept them for myself, for my name, for my glory. Had I not kept them and had there been no remnant, my name would have been disgraced. I will not let my name be disgraced and therefore I kept them.

I saw to it that there would be a remnant of 7 ,000 men who do not bow the knee to Baal. So, here's the message for our church. Here's the message for the 21st century. Here's the message for the nations.

A Call to Let Grace Be Grace

For God's sake, let grace be grace. Oh, Father in heaven, I pray earnestly now that as we begin this message, you would grant us to see and to understand and to savor the freedom of sovereign grace. I pray that we would feel our helplessness.

Grant that this people would feel helplessness. Oh, God, grant, I pray, that we would feel how undone we are apart from grace. And grant, Lord, that we would be humbled before you and before each other.

What a difference it would make in a church if we knew how helpless we are, how undeserving we are, and how gracious and patient and kind and free and unconditional you are in choosing us for yourself.

So, God, I pray earnestly that you would grant us tonight to be broken, be humbled. And then, oh, Lord, please, would you grant that we would embrace all the riches that Jesus Christ has purchased for us, the riches of your grace, the fellowship of his suffering, the everlasting joy of his presence.

Please, Father, help me now to so unfold these words about grace that there would be a fresh, deep, new, powerful, life-changing, transforming understanding and appreciation and love for grace. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

God's Faithfulness to Israel

So, to understand grace, we need to get the flow of the thought here. So, let's try to take the last two weeks and move into the new part tonight quickly. Verse 1, the main point of this text is God has not rejected his people, Israel.

I ask then, has God rejected his people by no means? So, God is faithful, God's a promise keeper. Therefore, we who are trusting him today through Jesus Christ for the fulfillment of the promise and promises of Romans 8, we can bank on it.

He's going to keep his word to us just like he kept his word to Israel. That's his first argument, or here's his first argument. I am a Jew, verse 1, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham.

So, if God has had mercy on me and I'm a Jew, then it's clear he hasn't forsaken Jewish people. I'm one of them. Argument number 2 is in verse 2, namely the foreknowledge of God. He says, God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

Covenant Foreknowledge and God's Faithfulness

You only, he says to Israel in Amos 3, 2, you only have I known of all the peoples on the earth. So, I have known you, that is, I have chosen you, I've made you my wife, as it were. I've known you, made covenant with you.

I will live with you. We will not ever be divorced. And therefore, argument number 2, he is faithful to his people. He will keep his covenant promises. And now comes argument number 3, that God will not reject his people and has not rejected his people.

The Remnant in Elijah's Day and Paul's Day

And it's the relationship between God's action in the days of Elijah and his action in the days of Paul. And he draws a connection there in how God acted in those two days. Just as there was a remnant of faithful Israelites preserved in Elijah's day, so there is now a remnant of faithful Israel preserved in Paul's day.

That's the parallel he sees between Elijah's day and his own day. But the argument is not simply a parallel. The argument that you can be sure that in every generation leading to a final inclusive generation there will be a remnant of Israel saved, believing in the Messiah, is not simply because of the parallel between these two generations.

Election by Grace in Romans 11

Let's see what Paul does more than draw the parallel. Let me read it with you. Middle of verse 2. 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, I alone am left and they seek my life.

Verse 4. 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. So what's the link? What's the nub of the argument between what God did in Elijah's day in keeping a remnant and what God is doing in Paul's day?

God's Sovereign Choice of a People for Himself

And the nub is grace, election by grace, chosen by grace. Paul sees this word or writes this word because he saw it in verse 4 where God said, I have kept for myself 7 ,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

If you read the Hebrew of that in 1 Kings 19 verse 18, it is literally, I caused to remain a people, 7 ,000 of them, for myself. And Paul hears that causal idea, God did that, and he draws out, so too there is today a people chosen.

That's what he heard in that, I kept a people for myself, chosen by grace. And it was the sovereign choosing of them for himself which defines this idea of grace. Now be careful here that you don't make a mistake.

The point of God's work, what did he do there, is not simply keep alive a remnant. You might think that if you just read the words, he kept for himself a remnant like he kept them alive.