The Infinite Greatness of God - Part 3: Grace!
The Infinite Greatness of God - Part 3: Grace!
The Book of Romans
Romans 11:1-10
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - September 18, 2016
(Revised April 28, 2021)
BACKGROUND:
*A few weeks ago in Romans 9, we began to study the infinite greatness of God. Tonight in Romans 11 we will return to this theme and focus on the infinite greatness of God's grace.
*Most of us know that the big picture in Romans 9-11 is that the Holy Spirit led Paul to discuss the Jewish nation. In Romans 1:16 Paul boldly said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."
*But what about the Jewish race? What about the Jewish nation? And what about the promises that God made to them as a nation? These are crucial questions, because if God isn't going to keep the promises He made to the Jews, then how can we count on Him to keep His promises to us? (1)
*Paul gives a full answer to these questions here in God's Word. And the bottom line is that God is going to keep every single one of His promises. And though all people are not going to be saved, nobody loves lost people more than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Lord proved this forever when He died on the cross for our sins.
*Let's begin by reading Romans 11:1-10, and as we read, please think about the infinite greatness of God's grace.
MESSAGE:
*What's so special about Christianity? One time in England some religious scholars were debating this question, and they couldn't agree on an answer.
*The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and he heard that they were debating what makes Christianity unique. C. S. Lewis immediately responded, "Oh, that's easy. -- It's grace." (2)
*Then they all agreed: The thing that makes Christianity unique is God's amazing grace! But what is this thing called grace? I've often heard preachers say that grace is God's unmerited favor, and that is true. Grace is getting good things from God that we could never deserve.
*Joseph Thayer said the original word for grace speaks "of God's merciful kindness that moves Him to draw people to Jesus. His grace then keeps and strengthens Christians. It increases their faith, knowledge, and affection. And it inspires them to live with Christian virtues." That is a great definition of God's grace, but my favorite definition is an acronym. Grace is G. R. A. C. E. -- God's Riches At Christ's Expense. (3)
*The grace of God is one of the most treasured parts of God's greatness. It is also one of the key themes in Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. Paul mentions God's grace 5 times in tonight's Scripture, and 24 times overall in the Book of Romans.
*For example, as he greeted the church in Romans 1:7, Paul said, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ."
-In Romans 3:24 he said we believers are "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
-In Romans 5:1-2 Paul said, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
-Then, as he was about to close, in Romans 16:24 Paul said, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
*Church: We could never get to the end of talking about God's grace. But tonight's Scripture shows us 3 great results for everyone who receives God's grace by receiving Christ as their Lord and Savior.
1. FIRST: WE WILL NEVER BE ABANDONED BY GOD.
*Because of God's infinite grace, we will never be abandoned by God. He will never cast us away. We see this truth in vs. 1-2, where Paul wrote, "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew."
*God forever and always knew who was going to be saved because He is bigger than time. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has existed and will exist for all eternity. Trapped in time as we are, it is impossible for us to grasp the concept of eternity. But one thing we know for sure is this: God is bigger than time.
*God created time. He was there before the beginning of time. And the only way, I can understand it is to see time as sort of like a ruler a with a definite beginning, and maybe no end, but God is standing over and above the whole thing. And no matter how long time lasts, God goes farther! That's why in Isaiah 46:9-10, the Lord could say: "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 that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'"
*God has always known who was going to be saved, and He will never "cast away His people whom He foreknew." That means He will never shove or push us away. God has not cast His people away, and He never will!
*God cares for you! There is no guaranty that this world will care about you. Jill Briscoe told about a Christian friend who taught in a Milwaukee school. Right after one Christmas vacation, this teacher passed by the lockers, and she heard two 9-year-olds talking about the holidays in their broken homes.
*One of them said, "What sort of vacation did you have?" The other little boy answered, "Well it was sort of tough. My dad trashed me." The first boy responded, "Oh, that's tough. I know what it feels like, because my dad trashed me last year. Why don't we be friends?"
*As those two 9-year-olds stood talking about "being trashed" by their dads, the teacher was able to put her arms around those boys and say, "Let me tell you about Someone who will never trash you." (4)
*And Christians, by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God has never trashed us, and He never will! As Jesus promised in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you.''
2. WHEN WE RECEIVE GOD'S GRACE, WE WILL NEVER BE ABANDONED BY GOD, AND WE WILL NEVER BE ALONE.
*This is the message for us in vs. 2-5, where Paul wrote:
2. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
3. "Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life''?
4. But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.''
5. Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
*The Prophet Elijah was at a low, low point in his life. He truly felt all alone. This low point actually came right on the heels of a great victory for Elijah, and it is often the same for us. God had given Elijah victory over the prophets of the false gods worshiped in Israel. It happened on the top of Mount Carmel where 850 false prophets tried all day to call down fire from heaven.
*They even cut themselves as an offering to their gods until the blood gushed out, but they failed miserably. Then 1 Kings 18:31-39 tells us that:
31. . . Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name.''
32. Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two (measures) of seed.
33. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, "Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.''
34. Then he said, "Do it a second time,'' and they did it a second time; and he said, "Do it a third time,'' and they did it a third time.
35. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.
36. And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, "LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.
37. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.''
38. Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
39. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!''
*Then they executed every one of those false prophets. That's why the wicked queen Jezebel promised to kill Elijah, and he began to run for his life. Elijah was as discouraged as he had ever been. He truly felt like he was all alone in serving the Lord.
*But in vs. 4 God basically said, "No, Elijah, you are not alone. I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.'' And in vs. 5 Paul added, "Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace."
*Here God's Word reminds us that as Christians, we will never be alone. By God's grace, we will always be part of the family of God. And by God's grace, He even came Himself to be with us.
*One December night, Brian Mavis told his little girls that he was going to read the Christmas story to them. They were busy doing something else and said, "We already know that story."
*Later on, Brian's 7-year-old daughter told him something she was worried about. And Brian told her that she needed to tell Jesus, because He knew what it was like to be 7 years old. "Really?" she asked. "Yes," Brian answered. "Jesus used to be a 7-year-old." (5)
*She was amazed that Jesus knew what it was like to be like her. And the wonderful truth is that Jesus knows what it's like to be you. That's why Hebrews 4:14-15 can say, "We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
*Jesus Christ knows us better than anyone else. And if we have received Him as our Lord and Savior, then Jesus is always with us. He is even living in our hearts, and we are never alone.
*Darrel Dore experienced the reality of this truth under some of the worst possible circumstances. It was about 40 years ago, when a terrible accident took place in the Gulf of Mexico. Darrel was working on an oil rig when suddenly it began to wobble. Before long it tipped to one side and crashed into the water. Darrel was trapped inside a room on the rig. As the rig continued to sink, the lights went out, and the room began filling with water.
*Thrashing about in the darkness, Darrel made a life-saving discovery: A huge air bubble had formed in the corner of the room. Darrel kept his head inside that bubble of air and prayed that someone would find him.
*As he prayed, Darrel felt the Lord's presence there with him. For 22 hours the sure presence of Jesus Christ comforted Darrel. But deep down, Darrel knew that the oxygen supply inside the bubble was slowly giving out. Soon he would be dead.
*Then Darrel saw a tiny star of light shimmering in the pitch-black water. Was it real, or after 22 hours, was he beginning to hallucinate? Darrel squinted his eyes. The light seemed to grow brighter. He squinted again. He wasn't hallucinating. The light was real! It was shining from the helmet of a diver who was coming to rescue him. His long nightmare was over. Darrel was saved! But that rescue was nothing compared to the salvation Darrel already had in Jesus Christ! And Jesus never left Darrel, even when he seemed all alone. (6)
3. WHEN WE RECEIVE GOD'S GRACE, WE WILL NEVER BE ALONE, AND WE WILL ALWAYS BE ACCEPTED BY GOD.
*When you believe in the crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ. When you receive Him as your Lord and Savior, you will always be accepted by God! Talking about the Christian Jews in vs. 5-6, Paul wrote, "Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work."
*No one has ever been saved by their good works. That's because all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The only work that can save us is the work that Jesus did, when He died on the cross for our sins! Jesus did that because of God's amazing grace. And all of the good works of all the other people who have ever lived are not enough to get one person into Heaven!
*Paul made this truth completely clear in Ephesians 1:2-6. There Paul was speaking to Christians, and he said:
2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
4. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5. having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6. to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
*God's grace makes us acceptable to God, and grace is the only thing that can make us acceptable to God. His grace is the only way of salvation.
*And in vs. 7-10, God shows us the extreme danger of resisting and rejecting His grace. Here Paul began with a question, and asked:
7. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were hardened (or "blinded" the KJV says).
8. Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.''
9. And David says: "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them;
10. let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always.''
*In this Scripture, God is basically showing us two groups of Jews:
-The smaller group of believers and the much larger group of unbelievers.
-The remnant and the Christ-rejecters.
-The Jews working to receive salvation, and the Jews willing to be saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
*In Romans 9:27 Paul quoted Isaiah, and wrote, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved." And what is true of the Jews is also true for all of the world's peoples.
*But we must understand that for only a remnant to be saved was never God's perfect will. We know this, because 1 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us that "God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." And 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
*The salvation of a remnant has never been God's perfect will, but at the end of history, it will be the reality. And we must never think that God is to blame for this. What more could He do? God the Father sent His only begotten Son into the world to die on the cross for all of our sins, and God the Son Jesus Christ took all of that punishment for us.
*And there is much more we could say about these verses, but the bottom line is that God's grace is the only way for us to be saved. And all people are in one of two groups. They are either saved by God's grace through faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or they are as lost as lost can be.
*You may have heard of the Christian singing group "Point of Grace." Since 1993 those ladies have recorded many great songs in beautiful harmony.
*Years ago, I heard one of the singers from "Point of Grace" tell about a time a young lady spoke to her after a concert. It was somewhere out west, and this young woman told about a terrible time in her life when she was extremely depressed. She was so depressed that she decided to kill herself. She had her suicide all planned out. She knew of a highway, where the road ran along a steep cliff, and that young woman planned to drive her car off that cliff.
*But as she was driving toward it, she heard a Point of Grace song on the radio. It's called "The Great Divide," and here are some of the words she heard:
"Silence
Trying to fathom the distance
Looking out 'cross the canyon carved by my hands
God is gracious
Sin would still separate us
Were it not for the bridge
His grace has made us
His love will carry me
There's a bridge to cross the great divide
A way was made to reach the other side
The mercy of the Father cost His Son his life
His love is deep, His love is wide
There's a cross to bridge the great divide" (7)
*When that young woman heard that song about Jesus Christ, she put her trust in the Lord, turned her car around, and went back home. How did that happen? -- The men writing that song, the women singing it, the company producing it, the radio station playing it at just the right time, the desperate young woman driving to the cliff with her radio on, the Lord Jesus Christ giving us a cross to bridge the great divide: How did all of that happen? -- Only by the amazing grace of Almighty God, and all of the glory goes to Him! (7)
*Thank God for the infinite greatness of His grace!
(1) Adapted from "Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament" by - Warren W. Wiersbe - Published by David C. Cook - Colorado Springs, CO - Romans 9:1-33
(2) Philip Yancey, WHAT'S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE - 1997, page 45
(3) Adapted from THAYER'S GREEK DEFINITIONS - Published in 1886, 1889 - public domain
(4) SermonCentral sermon "The Gift of Good News of Great Joy" by Bradford Robinson - Luke 2:8-20 - Dec 14, 2002
(5) Brian Mavis testimony in the SermonCentral Weekly Newsletter - 12152003
(6) Rev. Richard J. Fairchild, www.rockies.net/spirit/sermons/b ad04sm.php - Source: Sermons.com sermon "This Little Light of Mine" by King Duncan - John 1:6-8, 19-28 - Christmas 2008
(7) Sources:
-"The Great Divide" - Songwriters: Magnus Sveningsson, Peter Anders Svensson - Universal Music Publishing Group - Data from: LyricFind - http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-great-divide-lyrics-point-of-grace.html