8-20-23 Sermon "Are We Arrogant?" 19 Minutes

Romans 11:1-2, 29-32

This morning I'll be reading Romans chapter 11 verses 1 through 2,,, then verses 29 through 32. And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Romans 11:1-2, 29-32 This morning we will continue in our discussion of Paul's argument that God has not rejected the Israelite people. Romans 11:1-2, 29-32 Romans 11:1–2 1 “I ask, then, has God rejected His people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he pleads with God against Israel?” Romans 11:29–32 29 “since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable. 30 As you once disobeyed God, but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also now may receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience, so that He may have mercy on all.” The word of God for the people of God,,, thanks be to God! God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning. Let us pray: Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen. ___________________________________ Last Sunday we looked at Romans 9:5-15,,, we learned that people still accuse God of unfairness.

They say that if He chooses some,,, then He must condemn the rest.

They argue that if God has settled everything in advance,,, then there’s nothing anyone can do about it,,, and because of that,,, they believe that God is unrighteous for condemning them.

Paul passionately denies any possibility of unrighteousness on God’s part,,, and shows the ways that the Israelites have failed God and made the mistakes that they have.

The most obvious fact that Paul used in his argument was the fact that,,, all people are condemned by their own sin and unbelief.

If left to ourselves,,, we would all perish.

In addition to extending a genuine gospel invitation to all people,,, God chooses some of these condemned people to be special objects of His grace.

But this does not mean that He arbitrarily chooses the others to be condemned.

You see,,, they are already condemned,,, because they are lifelong sinners and have rejected the gospel.

Those who are chosen,,, those of us that have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior,,, can thank God for His grace.

Those who are lost,,, and haven't accepted Christ,,, have no one to blame,,, but themselves.

And my question to you was,,, "Who Do "We" Blame"?

When things aren't going the way that we think that they should,,, do we blame others,,, ourselves,,, or even God?

We always like to think that we are special,,, since we have accepted Christ,,, and,,, at times,,, we are as bad or worse than the religious leaders and other Jews that didn't accept Jesus as their Messiah!

As Christians,,, we want to think that everything will be ok,,, but it doesn't always happen the way we want!

And when those trying times come,,, and they do come,,, we blame so many others when a lot of times,,, we are the problem!

We must trust God with all that's in front of us,,, no matter how hard things appear to be!

Especially if we think life is unfair,,, or,,, mistakenly feel like God doesn't care.

God "is" in control,,, whether we understand what or why things happen in this way.

God allows so much to happen that we don't understand,,, that we forget,,, and then,,, we start the blame game,,, when faith is needed even more at this time!

That's why our relationship with God is so important,,, because He helps us through everything by relying on His strength,,, His power,,, and not our own!

I read you a quote on Facebook that I seen the night before that said: "Faith is when you praise God in the storm,,, you trust Him in the valley,,, and you follow Him in the dark!

That's the type of faith that we need as God's children!

Behaving as true children of God instead of relying on ourselves,,, our parents,,, our friends,,, our community,, whatever "we"think will help,,, when God should be our first and last thought,,, because as true children of God,,, we shouldn't have to ask,,, "Who Do We Blame",,, anymore!

This morning we will look at these verses in Romans 11:1-2. 29-32,,, and see how they will help us in our walk with God this week. ___________________________________ Verses 1-2 said: “I ask, then, has God rejected His people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he pleads with God against Israel?”

What about the future of Israel?

One of my commentaries asked the question,,, Is it true,,, as some teach,,, that God is through with Israel,,, that the church is now the Israel of God,,, and that all the promises to Israel now apply to the church?

In it's explanation,,, Romans 11 is one of the strongest arguments against that view in all the Bible.

Paul’s opening question means, “Has God cast away His people completely?

In other words,,, has every single Israelite been cast off?”

Certainly not!

The point is,,, that although God "has" cast off His people,,, as is distinctly stated in 11:15,,, this does not mean that He has rejected all of them.

Paul himself is a proof that the casting away has not been complete.

After all,,, he was an Israelite,,, of the seed of Abraham,,, and of the tribe of Benjamin.

His credentials as a Jew were impeccable.

So,,, in verse 2,,, we must understand the first part of this verse as saying, “God has not completely cast away His people whom He foreknew,”

And,,, this situation was similar to that which existed in the time of Elijah.

At that time,,, most of the nation had turned away from God to idols.

Conditions were so bad that Elijah prayed "against"Israel instead of "for it"!

And if you read the next set of verses,,, some of the ones that the reading skips this morning,,, you will see,,, He reminded the Lord how the people had silenced the voice of the prophets in death.

They had torn down God’s altars.

It seemed to him that his was the only faithful voice for God that was left,,, and his life was in imminent danger.

But the picture wasn’t as dark and hopeless as Elijah feared.

God reminded the prophet that He had reserved for Himself seven thousand men who had steadfastly refused to follow the nation in worshiping Baal.

What was true then is true now: God never leaves Himself without a witness.

He always has a faithful remnant chosen by Himself as special objects of His grace.

God doesn’t choose this remnant on the basis of their works,,, but by His sovereign,,, electing grace.

These two principles—grace and works—are mutually exclusive.

A gift cannot be earned.

What is free cannot be bought.

What is unmerited cannot be deserved.

Fortunately,,, God’s choice was based on grace,,, not on works; - ,,, - otherwise no one could ever have been chosen.

The conclusion,,, then,,, is that Israel failed to obtain righteousness because they sought it through self-effort,,, instead of through the finished work of Christ.

The remnant,,, those Israelites chosen by God,,, succeeded in obtaining righteousness through faith in Jesus.

The nation suffered what might be called judicial blindness.

Refusal to receive the Messiah resulted in a decreased capacity and inclination to receive Him.

This is exactly what the OT predicted would happen (Isaiah 29:10,,, and Deuteronomy 29:4).

God abandoned them in their unbelief,,, and as a result,,, they became insensitive to spiritual realities.

Because they refused to see Jesus as Messiah and Savior,,, now they lost the power to see Him at all.

Because they would not hear the pleading voice of God,,, now they were hit with spiritual deafness,,, That terrible judgment continues to this very day.

___________________________________ Verses 29-32 said: 29“since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable. 30 As you once disobeyed God, but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also now may receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience, so that He may have mercy on all.”

The reason they are still beloved is that God’s gifts and calling are never rescinded.

God does not take back His gifts.

Once He has made an unconditional promise,,, He never goes back on it.

He gave Israel the special privileges listed in 9:4, 5.

He called Israel to be His earthly people,,, as seen in Isaiah 48:12,,, separate from the rest of the nations.

Nothing can change His purposes.

The Gentiles were once an untamed,,, disobedient people,,, but when Israel rejected the Messiah and the gospel of salvation,,, God turned to the Gentiles in mercy.

The unbelief of the Israelites,,, and the Gentiles,,, was their own doing.

What the verse is saying is this: having found both Jews and Gentiles disobedient,,, God is pictured as imprisoning them both in that condition,,, so that there would be no way out for them except on His terms.

This disobedience provided scope for God to have mercy on all,,, both Jews and Gentiles.

There is no suggestion here of universal salvation.

God has shown mercy to the Gentiles and will yet show mercy to the Jews also,,, but this does not insure the salvation of everyone.

God's mercy is available to all,,, but,,, sadly,,, we know that not all,,, will accept that mercy!

___________________________________ Now,,, Paul spent a lot of time warning the Gentiles not to become conceited,,, or arrogant,,, because of God's saving grace,,, and that same warning continues today.

We must not look down on others that have been living in sin and now are just realizing that they have fallen short and need help.

We must realize that,,, just like the Gentiles in Paul's day,,, we are no better than anyone else.

If we are looking down our noses at them instead of helping them like we should,,, we will be guilty of what Paul was warning the Gentiles about.

We must do our best to lift those up that need help.

___________________________________ We can also see from these verses and many,,, many other places in the Bible,,, that God never abandons His chosen people.

We might leave Him,,, but He never leaves us.

That's our choice to make.

That's a choice that we have had to make,,, beginning with Adam,,, who made the wrong choice and we have been paying for it ever since.

Even when Israel moved away from God and depended on their own strength or idols,,, God never abandoned them.

And of course today,,, we have moved so far away from God that it seems like we can never be brought back either.

But just like so many times before that we have read about in the Bible,,, we know that if we will just humble ourselves and seek God's love,,, He will be faithful and answer just like He did,,, over and over again in the past!

___________________________________ So as we begin a new week,,, remember these verses,,, and the ways that Paul reminds the Gentiles that they should not become arrogant or conceited in their ability to be saved by Jesus because this was brought about,,, in part,,, by the Israelites rejecting the saving grace of Jesus Christ,,, and they weren't any better than the Israelites because they both needed God's mercy and grace.

Hopefully this will help us to remember that we aren't any better off than anyone else that needs God's saving grace either,,, since we are all sinners in God's eyes.

Just because we have been faithful in coming to church,,, we still need God's grace every day just to get through the day.

We couldn't make it each day without the Holy Spirit helping us and we need to remember to pray that others can see that as well!

Remember the way that Paul tries to set the record straight that God will never abandon them if they will accept Jesus as their Savior.

Remember that promise is the same for us,,, even if the sins are bad,,, if we just do as the Israelites did over and over when they had sinned and fallen short,,, and that was to recognize that fact and ask forgiveness and turn back to God!

We just need to remember that God will never forsake us,,, that is something that only we can do,,, so we must keep our focus on the Holy Spirit,,, so that we can stay on the right path.

___________________________________ I wanted to end this morning with the ending verses to this chapter that we didn't read.

Beginning in verse 33 it says: 33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? 35 Or who has ever first given to Him, and has to be repaid? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Hymn: 337 - Oakdale Hymn: 337 - Seminary Benediction -----------------------------------------------------------