Romans 11:1-24

MAIN IDEA: My spiritual standing before Christ is God’s gracious choice.

By grace, I am chosen and not left alone.

Romans 11:1–6 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.

With all that Paul has addressed in chapters 9 and 10, in this chapter he answered the question of God possibly rejecting Israel. Because I know there are Christians who feel like God has abandoned them, it’s fair to ask the question for our personal context, does God ever reject his people?

Paul’s pointed answer is NEVER. The Lord doesn’t make spiritual trades. No spiritual transfer portal. No spiritual severance package. If you’re in, you’re always in. Then, he gave two great examples. First, he used his own testimony as proof that God had not rejected individual Israelites that have repented of their sins, accepted the free of salvation and living on mission for Jesus Christ. That was Paul’s life. If you aren’t familiar with Paul’s history, let me remind you.

Philippians 3:4-7 “If anyone else thinks he has a reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

Paul reminded the Roman church that if God planned on rejecting his people, he would not have been converted on the road to Damascus and he would have been doing significant ministry to Jews and Gentiles alike. His testimony is evidence that God’s redeeming grace can never be a rejecting judgment.

The second example goes back to the Old Testament when Ahab was king of Israel and married to Jezebel. 1 Kings 16:30–33 “Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him…he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Ahab and Jezebel convinced 10 tribes to engage in false worship. In 1 Kings 17 God sends a judgment of no rain or dew for the unforeseeable future. The rest of chapters 17 and 18 has some cool ministry moments. In chapter 19, Elijah is running for his life because Jezebel has vowed to kill him. The pressure of life was caving in on him so much that he felt very alone. 1 Kings 19:14 “I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”” Drop down to verse 18, the Lord reminds Elijah that he isn’t alone ~ “I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.””

Friends, those who are believers, I want you to hear this morning that God made a choice to call you his own. You are not rejected. You are not abandoned. You are not alone. You are loved. You have been sent on a mission for Jesus Christ. The redeeming grace poured into your life is not a rejecting judgment creating havoc in your life.

Friends, those who are not believers, if you have never accepted the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ, you are writing your own rejection story. Come to cross. Accept the free gift of salvation today.

By grace, I have eyes and ears that respond to spiritual transformation.

Romans 11:7–10 ESV

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.”

Many Israelites didn’t find what they were looking for. Verse 7 says “the rest were hardened.” I want to suggest this morning that being hardened to spiritual matters is a combination of personal decisions alongside God’s decision. “Hardened” has a three possible definitions. First, it can be the process of becoming dull - like a drill bit. Second, it can be stubbornly closing your mind. Third, it can be the God’s decision. When we see a hardened heart, it can be fuzzy to determine the reason for the callousness. Except when Scripture tells us, like in verses 8-10

Be careful not to confuse stupor with stupid. A person with a spirit of stupor is unresponsive to spiritual and moral matters. Before you are tempted to call those people stupid, verse 20 says, “do not become proud.” I have talked to many people who were unresponsive to spiritual truths and biblical morality, but they were highly intelligent people. Their values clashed with biblical values. It could have been that God gave them a spirit of stupor.

It could also have been they stubbornly closed their mind to spiritual matters because verse 10 - the table they have set for themselves is a trap that will make them fall on their faces. The end of the verse says they will bend their backs. Those who are hardened will become a slave to their rejection.

Those of us who have been chosen, should be thankful that God has us the privilege of eyes and ears that are able to respond to spiritual matters. We should ask the Lord to keep our spiritual eyes and ears attentive, to cultivate our hearts, to increase our ability to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We should pray for those who cannot see the truth of Jesus Christ. We should pray that God would choose to soften their calloused hearts. We should courageously share the gospel.

By grace, I am grafted into God’s kingdom

Romans 11:11–24 ESV

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. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

Did God let the unbelieving Israelites crash and burn? Did he move on? No. There are plenty of passages in Scripture that say Israel will be saved, but it might not look as we think it will. God knows what is best. He has a plan according to his purposes and his timing. Notice verse 11. Part of the process is a movement of Israel’s heart - a desire to have what a “less than” group of people has. That heart transform will bring spiritual fullness to the world at the appointed time.

That hasn’t happened yet, so the Gentiles benefit spiritually. We are grafted into the kingdom of God.

JM - “Olive trees can live for hundreds of years, but as they age, they become less and less productive, and in order to restore productivity, branches from younger trees are grafted to old ones. When a branch ceased to produce olives, a younger one was grafted in its place.”

Notice verse 17, the Gentiles are referred to as a “wild olive shoot”. Notice verse 24, the Israelites are referred to as a “cultivated olive shoot.” Believing olive shoots are grafted into the same tree, which nourishes the shoots so we can produce fruit.

Be careful that you think you are fruitful when you are not. Be careful that you do not become proud because of you are connected to Jesus Christ by grace. Be careful that your unbelief does not take you away from the root of Jesus Christ.

If God can change Paul’s life from a persecutor of the church into a fruitful missionary for the church, surely he can change your life and make you a fruitful missionary for the church.

Present the path to salvation concisely and clearly!!! Today can be your day to know Jesus personally.