WWUTT 1316 A Remnant by Grace (Romans 11:1-10)

Romans 11 and God’s Faithfulness to His People

The Apostle Paul asks, has God rejected his people? No, by no means. He has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. He has always preserved a remnant by his grace. When we understand the text.

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Well, in our study of the book of Romans, we are on to a new chapter this week, chapter 11. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'll begin by reading verses 1 through 10.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, 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 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to bail. 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.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day.

And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. A few years ago I had a friend of mine who was a minister in another church here in our community and he was taking his congregation through Romans.

He told me about this one day and so I went on his website to look and see some of the sermons that he was preaching and there were gaps. So it wasn't a truly expository preaching of the book of Romans since there were parts that he was skipping.

And I asked him why and I don't remember what his answer was. He had not yet gotten to Romans 9 and I said, are you going to skip that? I mean, that's pretty controversial. He tend to lean toward the more reformed side of things and he said, no, we're planning on going through Romans 9.

Well, that day finally came and I pulled up the website to listen to some of those sermons in Romans 9 and I was surprised to find that there was not a series of sermons in Romans 9. He had covered Romans 9, 10 and 11 in a single sermon.

And I confronted him about that like ribbingly. I said, oh, you joker, you are such a coward. You did not want to do Romans 9 and face the heat that would come from teaching on the doctrine of election in Romans 9.

But at the same time, he was also kind of onto something because Romans 9, 10 and 11 do go together. There is a certain context that is being covered by these three chapters. Notice how Paul shifted gears when we went into Romans 9 and what he says here at the start of the chapter.

I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen.

According to the flesh, they are the Israelites. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises to them belong the patriarchs. And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen. And then verse six. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For the question would arise here, was God unfaithful to his promise to his people, given that the Israelites are not following Jesus?

Most of the Jews are rejecting the Christ and therefore will go to their own destruction if they do not follow the son of God. So all of these promises that God made to Israel, is he powerless to fulfill those promises given that the Jews do not believe in Jesus?

And we've come back to this concept through chapter 10. And now starting off here in chapter 11, we have the question asked more directly. I ask then, has God rejected his people? They didn't believe in Jesus.

They are cast out from his presence at the final judgment. They will not enter the kingdom of God. So as God forgotten them, all these promises he gave to them, he rescued them out of slavery. He gave them the promised land.

He exiled them because of their sin to a foreign enemy. But then he rescued them out of the hands of their captors and he gave them back the promised land. They rebuilt the temple. The temple would become even larger than it was under Solomon when you get to Herod's temple.

So as God restored his people, but now he's rejecting his people. They don't believe in the Christ. Was God powerless to save? He couldn't keep his promise? And Paul responds to this with that phrase we've seen come up over and over again in Romans when he responds to questions of this kind.

My Genoita in the Greek, by no means, no, no, a thousand times, no. Has God rejected his people? No. And then what's the example that Paul gives as to how God has been faithful to the Jews himself? For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

Not just an Israelite, but he can even name the tribe that he is descended from. So he's not, he's not just a Jew because he joined the party. He's a Jew by birth, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. Therefore, if Paul has been saved, well, surely God has received his people.

The Jews have not been utterly rejected. It's not like everybody who is a Jew is now cast from the presence of God. But God has shown how he means to reconcile both Jews and Gentiles to himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

By faith in Jesus, we are saved. And Paul, especially as an insolent opponent, which he wants, was putting the church of Jesus Christ to persecution. God has rescued him and given him faith. And now as a follower of Jesus, Paul is a member of that kingdom.

He is a recipient of the promises that are given in Christ. So therefore, you wouldn't be able to say you can't make the argument that God has rejected his people for Paul is a Jew and he is a Christian.

Verse two, God has not rejected his people. And then notice the caveat here, whom he foreknew, because once again, going back to the argument that he laid out in Romans chapter nine, not everyone who is descended from Israel belongs to Israel.

That was in verse six. And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. You had two sons from Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Which ones are considered or from which line was the children of promise?

That was Isaac. Those who were descended from Ishmael, they're not considered Jews. It is only those who are descended from Abraham and Isaac and down through Jacob, whose name was Israel. Only they are considered the Israelites.

So God chose one and he rejected another. So just the same through the Jewish people, even through the twelve tribes, there are those that God foreknew and predestined for salvation. An argument that he made back in Romans eight, those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

They are God's people. Those who are foreknown, not everyone who bears the name descended of Abraham, since Ishmael himself was even descended of Abraham. And yet he is not considered an Israelite. Paul himself is descended from Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin and an example of how God has not rejected his people, specifically those whom he foreknew.

And Paul even says this of himself. It's part of his own testimony in Galatians chapter one, verse 15, he says, but when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

So part of Paul's testimony here is that I was foreknown. I'm not saved just because I'm a Jew. I am saved because I was foreknown by God and he showed me grace, though I was an insolent opponent against those who were followers of his son, Jesus Christ.

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. And then he goes on to give another example. He's given himself as an example. Then he references Elijah. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, the prophet, how he appeals to God against Israel?

So so Elijah's appeal is against Israel. What's Paul's appeal been? His appeal has been for Israel. I would give myself for my brothers, the Israelites, if it meant that that that they could be saved, if I could go to hell for them.

So it meant their salvation. I would do it. That was what he said in the in the sorrow and anguish of his heart back at the start of Romans chapter nine. So he speaks of himself as one who appeals for Israel.

Elijah appealed against them. He appeals to God against Israel. Verse three, Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have demolished your altars. And I alone am left and they seek my life. So Elijah, in calling out to God for deliverance, is essentially saying, would you wipe these guys out, please, so that I don't die because they're all seeking my life, including the the king of Israel, the king of Samaria, the northern kingdom.

Ahab was his name, and his wife, who was a pagan priestess, was was Jezebel. She who had introduced Baal worship into Israel had built temples unto Baal, and she established the Baal priesthood. That was all from Jezebel, who was a foreigner.

She herself was not an Israelite. And yet all these people among Israel who were trying to put Elijah to death. To save his own life, he asked that God would deliver him from their hand, even even destroying them.

But what does God say? Verse four, what is God's reply to Elijah? I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So Elijah is crying and complaining and even kind of in his pity parties, even boasting at himself.

I'm the only one left. I'm the only faithful man in all of Israel. They've all turned against you. They've all turned against me. They want to put me to death. And what's God's reply to him? Oh, Elijah, straighten up, quit your belly aching.

I have kept for myself seven thousand men. There are seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Now, on the outset, that seems like a large number. I remember reading this to my kids and my oldest daughter going, wow, seven thousand.

But I had to remind her and I had to keep this in perspective for her. How many were in Israel at that time? Well, over a million people and yet only seven thousand had not bowed the knee to Baal. So it was to put Elijah to shame.

He was most certainly not the only one. There were seven thousand persons whom God had reserved for himself. He kept their knees from bowing to Baal. These persons whom he has preserved. Seven thousand, not just you, Elijah, there's seven thousand others.

Now, this still speaks of the spiritual famine that was going on in Israel at that time, as there were well more than a million more than just that seven thousand. But this to say that there will always be a remnant.

God will not allow his people to just vanish from the earth, even among the Jews, even among the Israelites, because God's plan is to show how through Christ he has reconciling Jews and Gentiles unto himself.

If there are no longer Jews on planet Earth, then how is God showing the reconciliation of these two groups of people unto himself? So here Paul says regarding the Israelites. So, too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace.

So there are Jews who believe in God, who are preserved unto him, though there was a time in Jewish history when the Israelites were bowing to Baal by the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands, by the millions.

Yet God had preserved for himself seven thousand whom he would not allow to bow the knee to Baal. So, too, at the present time, Paul says there is a remnant. It's not a lot. It's not the majority, but there is a remnant chosen by grace.

It's not by anyone's work. It's God's work. If it is by grace, Paul says, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. If our salvation, if our favor with God, if our fellowship with God is based on anything that we have done, we did it in order to get here.

Then God's not showing any grace to us. It's based on our works. It's not based on God's grace. If we do something and our work obligates God to have to give us something, then there's not grace there.

Grace is unmerited favor. It means you can't do anything to earn it. In the case of our position with God, as Dr. Albert Moeller has said, grace is demerited favor because what we have earned from God is death, is destruction.

It's not just that we're separated from God and, hey, we call him up and he doesn't answer the phone. It's that because of our sin and our rebellion against God, what we deserve is to be cast from his presence forever into the fires of destruction that he's prepared for the devil and his angels.

We deserve to be cast into that pit with them. And yet God doesn't give us what we deserve. He gives us what we don't deserve. His love, his favor, his forever kingdom, eternal life with him in glory.

God extends these things to us, forgiveness of sins and and making us fellow heirs with Christ through faith in Jesus. Therefore, grace is demerited favor since we deserve death. But God shows us love.

And if that love that he shows us was was because we were inherently deserving of it, like, you know, you're you're an image bearer of God. So God can't help but love you. So if you were inherently deserving of that love, then it wouldn't be grace because God would be bound.

He would he would be required. He would be obligated to have to love you, which is why it's so key, as we read back in Romans chapter three, to understand that we have become worthless. Together, we have become worthless.

We were made in God's image. Yes, we were made to image God. We were made to worship God and be a reflection of his righteousness and holiness. Animals cannot willingly worship God, but mankind made in the image of God can do that.

And yet what did we do? We went our own way. We glorified ourselves instead of glorifying God. So we take we took that which was made in God's image and we glorified ourselves with it instead of God and blasphemed him.

Therefore, what we deserve because we have made ourselves worthless is destruction. God has no obligation to give you anything to show you love, to give you affection, to make sure that you feel good today.

God is not under any obligation to provide you with any of that, which is what makes God's love for you that much greater because you know what you deserve is the wrath of God. And yet he gives you love through his son, Jesus Christ.

This is grace. It's because God has chosen to do it. Not because you are deserving of it, not because you're inherently deserving of receiving the love of God and not because you did anything to therefore receive the love of God.

I worked hard for this, and so I've tied God's hands. He has to love me. Well, Paul is going to respond to that later on in Romans chapter 11, where it says who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid.

Verse thirty five. You've not given anything to God that obligates God to have to give you anything in return. God shows his love for us by his grace. We are chosen by God, by his grace. We don't deserve it.

We did nothing to earn it. God does it because he's gracious, because he wants to. It's all by the praise of his glorious grace, as Paul puts it in Romans chapter one. He says in verse six here, if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.

Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. If you had to do something to earn it, then it wouldn't be grace. It wouldn't be demerited favor. It would be merited favor. And so then Paul goes on from here.

Verse seven to say what then Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it. So there were people of Israel that did obtain this favor from God. The elect obtained it. Those whom God foreknew.

But the rest, the great majority of Jews were hardened again, as Paul said back in Romans nine, he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. So those who are elect have received mercy from God and those who are not elect who were not foreknown, they have been hardened by God.

The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. Verse eight, as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. And both of these references from Isaiah 29, 10 and from Psalm 69, 22 and 23, respectively, Paul making references to these Old Testament texts to show this was prophesied.

This was talked about in the Old Testament. This is not new doctrine. It's not something that Paul is introducing that has never been present in the scriptures before. There were those who were going to be hardened, who would have a spirit of stupor down to this very day.

And there would be those whose table, though they had dined at a place where they were once welcomed by God, that table has become a stumbling block and a retribution for them. Their eyes are darkened that they cannot see that Jesus is the Christ.

And there are so many who are this way. But you who have received the gospel, who know and believe you have come to this faith not because of anything you did, but because of what God did in you and was going to do with you.

He had foreordained even before you were born. It is all according to the predestined plan of God, not by our works, but his praise him to his glorious grace. Let's conclude with prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that we not be boastful in ourselves, walking around proud of this faith that we have as though we did anything to earn it.

But we believe because you are the one that acted when we were on our way to destruction. You interfered in that path. You turned us from that way that was leading to death and showed us Christ leading to life.

And so I pray we walk in humility in Jesus Christ, looking to him as the as the author and the perfecter of our faith, sharing the gospel with others that they too may turn from sin and believe and give praise to God for all the wonderful works that you have done.

Not what we have done, but what you have done for us by your grace. In Jesus name, Amen.

Grace, Works, and the Remnant Chosen by God

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.