Sermon Tone Analysis

God is not Done with You Yet.

Good morning my friends, I hope you are well today.

I hope you enjoyed time with family and your friends during this Thanksgiving celebration.

Thanksgiving is one of two holiday celebrations that are so close together and while they are different, we can look at them with Spiritual eyes and see how one is a blessing to help prepare you for the other.

So I think salvation helps us change our mindset, it helps us focus on what we are truly thankful for and points us toward our greatest blessings Jesus.

Thanksgiving has passed, Black Friday is gone its way and I know there is so much happening in our lives as we prepare for Christmas.

And I know Christmas kind of consumes us, takes all our energy in preparing for it/

But today I want to challenge you to purposefully change your focus and make every day about Jesus.

We have more than enough, we are so blessed but the greatest gift ever given is here and ready to be given away.

Give Jesus to those around you.

And I mean purposefully tell and invite others to know Jesus.

He is the greatest gift, and He changes lives for all eternity!

So this morning I want to invite you to turn to Romans chapter 11.

Now remember, Paul has been talking about this people Israel.

the key topic is salvation, Paul wants them to be saved, God is calling them just as He is calling the world to come and follow Him.

So Lets start with this thought today...

1.

A Remnant Preserved...

Historically we know, Israel has lived poorly in front of God as a people.

In the Old Testament there are more kings that led the people in idolatry than good kings who led them in the ways of God.

At times they were harsh in their treatment of God’s prophets and messengers, sin at the very heart of the those people.

And through all this back and forth, the people that returned from captivity fell into segmented groups that had a desire to please God.

The Pharisees, the Saducees, the Essences… the Scribes, all trying to led in power, to be the leading group.

But all they taught a works based effort toward righteousness was pleasing to God, but it’s dead, because there is no faith action.

Look with me now at the first 6 verses of Romans 11 ,

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Remember, Paul has been repeating this argument over and over again, has God rejected Israel?

No, He has not and will not.

They are His people, he choose them from the foundation of the world.

He entered into an everlasting covenant with them.

Yes, he punished their sin, we can see those things in the Old Testament, but He loved them.

And so here, Paul repeats that argument, Has God rejected his people?

By no means...

Paul said I know because I am a descendant of Abraham, I am a Israelite.

In fact a member of Benjamin.

Listen if God has rejected Abraham, then Paul wouldn’t have been able to be called of God nor saved.

But God loved Israel, they are His people by choice, and by the Covenant.

But Paul, He will go a step further, he takes them back to the prophet Elijah, Do you remember that after Elijah’s victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, Jezebel’s threats against His life sent him fleeing and he was hiding in a cave, fearing for his life.

And when Elijah complained to God against Israel, how they killed the prophets and destroyed the altars of the Lord.

Elijah said, I am the only one you have left God… so what are going to do???

God told him, Wait a minute big boy you are not the only one I have… Let me take you....

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Paul says it’s no different today, by the grace of God himself, God as a remnant set aside for himself.

Look back at verses 5-6

Notice the key word here is grace… Grace is one account of the one who extends it, the person receiving grace has nothing to do with it.

They couldn’t earn it, and so it is not by works.

These Jewish Christians did not exist because of works, they had been called of God by His unmerited favor.

Righteousness can never be established through personal merit, it is exclusively God’s work in redeeming His people, calling them and finally at the end of their days, they stand in His presence.

God as called for a remnant of Israel to be saved, and they will…

We can trust God that He will..... Paul will readdress this again at the end of the chapter, but for now, now lets move to a second thought my friends....

2. A Saved People....

My friends, remember without a doubt that our God is an awesome God.

Now you might say, Preacher you have established the obvious, and that is OK, for the more and more I know about God, the more I see the work of his hands, and I am in awe of that ....

Understand, God desires that all be saved, very person, from every tribe and tongue, God wishes no one to be lost.

God never abandons man, on the other hand man abandons God.

And as we walk into our next portion of Scripture, we see this all the more, Look with me a verses Romans 11:11-12

Again, Paul asks the question, did Israel’s stumble, their failure to believe lead to their ruin… lead to their death...

Again the answer is no, They were not beyond recovery, they are beyond His reach.

But something marvelous did happen in light of their stumble, God used this time to bring the gospel to the Gentiles… This my friends is the work of God, His purposes being fulfilled.

Remember God desires all to be saved....

Now I want to remind you that twice, in His public ministry, Jesus himself carried the message of God’s love to the Gentiles.

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And then secondly, Jesus finds the man in the land of Gadara, Remember this area was a Greek speaking area called the Decapolis, 10 cities there.

And here on the coast line is an area where a large cemetery, and here was this possessed man, running naked among the tombs and Jesus encounters him.

And his life is changed

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So twice here the gospel is carried into the non-Jewish world that people might hear and believe in Jesus Christ!

Remember to the theme verse of Romans again Romans 1:16

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God desires for people, both covenant Israel and those who trust in Jesus to be saved.

And if Israel stumbled and at first rejected Jesus, and that rejection brought the Gospel to everyone, the God is Israel who “… in all things ....works for the good.”

Rom 8:28, their rejection would soon be turned around, and the gospel coming to the gentiles would entice the Israelites to see Jesus for who He is, the Messiah, the Christ.

How great that reunion will be with Israel returns to God and receives Jesus my friends!

What a victorious day that will be...

We are waiting for out loved ones to be saved, but this convicted me, am I praying for God’s people to be saved.

Oh God, save your people!

Now this brings us to just one last today my friends, here we go

3.

A Grafted Branch....

As we look at the last section of this chapter, There is a couple things Paul will share, 1.) one is how the Gentiles would be brought into the family of God, how they would be established and 2.) The salvation of Israel.

So lets consider the First, How would the Gentiles be established.

Paul uses a term used by those who work with trees to bring about many kinds of fruit.

He says they were grafted onto the original tree, the Israelite tree...

Listen to how Paul explains it.... Romans 11:17-19

Now, understand Paul is speaking to the Gentiles, He says so in verse 13.

And there was an Olive tree, the tree has grown and has weathered many storms but has had many branches broken off, they were removed by the Gardner… why were they removed, well they were removed because of unbelief, sin etc...

Think of what Jesus says in John 15:1-3

Dead branches are removed, they are gathered and burned up, but the Father take other small branches and grafts them onto the new shoots are are coming up.

Now the process of grafting is not one we often see anymore, but years ago, it was something we used to see all the time.

I remember my dad telling the stories of papaw, taking different fruit trees, take a branch from one and graft it onto the limb of the existing tree.

It would take hold, have life and grow.

And in due time it would produce a fruit different than the original fruit o the tree.

I remember my old pastor did this, he was making a tree like at the end of Revelation that has 12 different types of fruit.

We (those who have believed after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus) are the grafted branch.

We have life, but we can never be arrogant about it, we are established on Israel who God reached out to first.

They are the olive tree, we are joined to them.

The gospel came to them first and then passed to us, we are thankful for them, because through the nation of Israel, Jesus came and gave his life as a ransom for sin.

But we must be careful to live correctly in front of God, if he punished Israel, he will us as well if we are disobedient..

But remember, God is not done with you, no matter the time of your rebirth, and no matter how old we get, God will seek to use you.

But remember what Paul has been telling us, God will call Israel back to him, a remnant will be saved…look at verse 23 Romans 11:23

Now look at Romans 11:25-27

And this is where the 2).

second idea comes into play.

The salvation of Israel.

Even though they are faithless, the grafting in of the believing Gentiles would arouse his country men Paul said, and lead them to salvation, so that all Israel will be saved.

Paul refers to a mystery, What is the mystery that Paul writes about?

It is the saving work of God for Israel.