Romans 11:1-10 "The Lord Is Faithful to His People"

Introduction

I am thankful once again to bring the word again to you this morning. I want to begin our sermon this morning by reading the first part of Romans 9 with you. Paul begins Romans 9 by clearly showing the groanings of his heart for his kinsmen. These men, like him grew up hearing the promises of God, participating in circumcision and the passover. All of the things they shared were given to them by God as they were members of the Israelites. Gods ethnically chosen people. Paul describes anguish this way. Romans 9:1–5 “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 Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and 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.” Paul who was as he says in Philippians 3:5 a “Hebrew of Hebrews” was at one time just like them - hardened to the Gospel and blind to the the fulfilment of God’s plan to bring a salvation through Jesus the son of God. The man who breathed threats and murder towards the Christians is now in anguish of heart towards the ones who like himself formerly should have seen these things. The question inevitably comes: “Since these people were at one time the chosen people of God, how come they do not obey the gospel? Has God failed to keep His promises like was mentioned in 1 Samuel 12:22 “For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.”” Paul addresses the elephant in the room Romans 9:6–8 “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Paul begins to point to the fact that the Israel of God doesn’t ultimately have to do with your ethnic origin but is actually according to Gods purpose in election. The divine act where God has chosen a people for Himself. Our text today continues the line of argumentation that Paul has been working through since Romans 9. Last week we looked the message of the gospel clearly in its face. We saw that truly if anyone will confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.” This is a simple message that merely must be believed on the basis of faith. Martin Luther described faith as encompassing 3 things : Knowledge, Belief, and Trust. He must have been reading Romans 10 when he made this observation. But we see there that in order to have faith one must have knowledge of Jesus, In order to believe in Jesus one must know what he has done, and finally one must trust that the Lord Jesus has done this on their behalf. Brothers and sisters is this not a simple message? Yet in speaking of his ethnic brothers and sisters he closes Romans 10:21 with these words “But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.””

As we move to our text this morning I will be breaking this sermon down in the following way:

God Has not Rejected His People (Ro. 11:1-2a)

Beware of Elijah Syndrome (Ro. 11:2b-4)

There Is Still A Remnant Chosen By Grace (Ro.11:5-10)

Sermon Text Romans 11:1-11

Romans 11:1–11 ESV

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 seven thousand 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. 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.” So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.

Exposition

1. God Has not Rejected His People (Ro. 11:1-2a)

What we have here in Ro.11:1 is Paul continuing an argument that he stated in Romans 9:6 “But it is not as though the word of God has failed.” When we read Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 65:2 at the end of Chapter 10 we are left thinking “if this gospel is so affective to the gentiles maybe God has rejected ethnic Israel.” Paul even anticipates the question by asking it and answering it with an emphatic - NO! “God has not rejected the Israelites and I am exhibit A of this fact he might say. This apostle along with the rest of the original 11 apostles are case in point that God saves ethnic Jews. The obvious question still hangs in the balance - If God is still saving Jews how come the vast majority of them reject the gospel?

Nevertheless He continues the response by saying “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” If you will remember back to Romans 8:29 Paul used the term “foreknew.” The term greek term from which we get our English word “Foreknow” is often used with respect to Gods work of salvation. In Romans 8:29 the term foreknew is used in the same way that it is used here in Romans 11:2. Turn with me while we look at what has been called the golden chain of salvation. Romans 8:29–30“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” In Romans 8 we are told that God predestined those whom he foreknew. There has been much discussion and confusion surrounding this term.

You may have heard an explanation of the the foreknowledge of God as something like this: God choosing whom would be saved before the foundation of the world was based on the foreknowledge of God in that he chose them on the bases of their foreseen faith. Therefore, God saved them on the bases of something he knew that they would do before hand. Upon first glance, this may seem like a suitable explanation for the term. However, there are a few issues with this type of reasoning. First, being that God by definition cannot learn anything. This view of the term foreknowledge demands that God act upon learned knowledge outside of Himself. However, the testimony of scripture testifies that this not proper. This is what the prophet Isaiah testifies about God in Isaiah 46:9–11 “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” This can also be demonstrated in Matthew 7:21–23 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Jesus shows us it is not about us knowing about Him but rather that he knows who we are.

The biblical view of foreknowledge points to the gracious setting of God’s love on a particular person before the foundation of the world. One theologian describes it this way with respect to Gods people “He had made them the object of his special delight, a delight beginning in eternity, continuing in connection with their conception and birth, and never leaving them. -William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker

The biblical view of foreknowledge is found in the mind and heart of God who has no beginning and end. Therefore, when Paul says in verse 2 that “God has not rejected those whom he foreknew.” He is making a statement that is as sure as God himself. Despite the widespread rejection of the Gospel by the Israelites, God has not abandoned them completely especially those of whom He foreknew like the apostle Paul himself.

This brings us to our next point:

2. Beware of Elijah Syndrome (Ro 11:2b-6)

Paul brings up an example from the OT that helps to put the mass rejection from the Jews into perspective.

Paul gives us the example of Elijah the prophet. He quotes from 1 Kings 19:14 and 1 Kings 19:18 pointing to a time where the Lord answered Elijah when he felt that he was the last faithful prophet. Many bible teachers have called Elijah’s statements about himself Elijah syndrome. Elijah syndrome is essentially when you are down to the point that you think that you are the only one who has remained faithful.

Sproul describes it this way “The Elijah syndrome is a syndrome of arrogance; it is a syndrome that lacks charity and works on the basis of hasty judgment.”

At this point in Elijah’s life he had been through droughts, battles with false prophets, and running for his life from wicked rulers. He had been in the battle so long that in his exacerbation he sighs and says Romans 11:3 ““Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”” The Lord corrects these despondent words of Elijah by reminding him that he actually has quite a few people who have not “bowed the knee to Baal.”

Brothers and sisters, we must be on guard that we do not make the same mistake that Elijah did. We can be tempted to look around at the world and see its condition. We may be tempted to look at the church in the western world a church that at one time was thriving and think “we must be some of the only faithful people left.” Do you not know that Lord has saved a people for himself?

Paul concerned that the remaining remnant of faithful Jews might develop a type of Elijah syndrome reminds them Romans 11:5–6 “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.”

There is a remnant that is here even now. This remnant is here based on the foreknowledge and grace of God. There are still a few ethnic Israelites that the Lord has saved. Despite what was commonly believed it was not because they kept the law but it was because of the abundance of the grace of God.

Paul here beautifully summarizes what he has spend the entire letter of Romans speaking about

Romans 11:6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”

The grace that the apostle here speaks of is the unmerited favor of God. The grace of God is the basis for the salvation of the Jew and the gentile. The grace of God looks at the sinner who cannot save themselves and provides a salvation that could never be earned. Paul says this in Galatians 3:10-13

Galatians 3:10–13 ESV

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

We are justified by the grace of God. I ask you today, do you know the grace of God? Have you believed upon the Lord knowing that all of your works are a filthy rags before him? Do you know that “not what your hands have done can save your guilty soul? Not what your toiling flesh has born can make your spirit whole?”

But blessed be God who has saved a remnant for himself!

This brings us to our last point:

There is Still a Remnant Chosen By Grace (Ro 11:7-10)

Paul begins to summarize the arguments that he made at the beginning of Chapter 11.

For the majority of the ethnic Jews they had failed to obtain what they have so long sought after. The Lord had made so many promises to them and had pointed them to the coming of the savior throughout the OT. He had given them sacraments and ceremonies that were looking forward to the fulfilment that is found in Jesus. For most of them they had failed to obtain what they were seeking. What were they seeking? Righteousness that is found in a right standing with God. The Jews had missed the ultimate sacrifice and still were seeking in the law what only grace could provide. Paul speaks to this is Romans 9:30–31 “What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.”

Though the majority failed to obtain it a remnant the chosen few that Paul refers to as the “elect” obtained what had been accomplished. For the rest of them, they became hardened and have missed what the Lord has done on their behalf. They sought a law that would lead to righteousness rather than trusting in the Lord who could give them righteousness.

The result of their sin in this is that the Lord hardens them. He describes it as the Lords doing by quoting two OT passages. These who have rejected the savior are given a spirit of stupor and of blindness. in other words they are asleep to these realities. Consider for a moment - The only thing that the Lord has to do to harden any sinner is to remove his common grace and let be taken over by their own desires.

He ends by citing Psalm 69:22-23 which is an imprecatory Psalm. An imprecatory Psalm is a Psalm that is written to pronounce God’s judgement upon His enemies. Paul ends here by pointing out that these Jews who remain hardened in their sin are getting what they deserve.

I want to close today with a passage from the book of Hebrews a book written and addressed to the very people that Paul agonizes over their salvation.

Hebrews 3:1–13 ESV

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

If you stand here today outside of Christ, will come to him and trust in him? Today if you hear His voice do not harden you heart against the God who saves by Grace. There is nothing this day that you can do to earn His favor. He has already accomplished your salvation.

If you are a believer here this morning may I remind you of the promises of God that the Lord does not forsake his people. He who began a good work in you is able to keep you until the very end. He who saved you by His grace will keep you by his Grace. Do not be discouraged when you look at the prospect of the so called “decline of the church” The Lord knows those whom are His. He has saved a people for himself a vast multitude and no thing and no one can separate his people from Him.

Let us now seek the Lord in prayer.