Would anybody like to get up
here and preach in my place? You're very welcome to. Let's go to Romans 11. Paul is speaking to Gentiles.
It tells us that plainly there in verse 13. And he's admonishing them not
to be high-minded because they believed the gospel and the majority
of the Jews did not. He's speaking to the elect believing
Gentiles. And he's reminding them there's
some elect in Israel, and so he's teaching them not to be
high-minded, not to be puffed up and think they know something
or there's something special over those Jews. Then in verse 25 and 27, we saw
last week he talked about God's eternal purpose. It's sort of
a parenthesis in the midst of the admonition that God's giving. I mean that Paul's giving. It's
sort of a parenthesis. He sort of began to talk about
God's purpose and how God's going to call out all his elect, you
and Gentile from among Gentile nations, And so, after this manner,
all Israel shall be saved. All God's elect Israel shall
be saved. Then he comes back again now
in our text today in verse 28, and he goes back to the admonition
that he was given before. And he sums it up. He says in
verse 28, as concerning the gospel, they, God's elect Jews who are
yet in unbelief, They are enemies for your sakes, but as touching
the election, they're beloved, beloved of God for the father's
sakes or the sake of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, our fathers. And
he says, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
God doesn't take back his gifts and his calling. And he says,
for as ye, talking to the elect Gentiles, for as ye in time past
have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their
unbelief, even so have these, God's elect Jews, even so have
these also now not believed that through your mercy they also
may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all,
and you could write in your margin there if you wanted to, us all. God has concluded us all in unbelief
that He might have mercy upon all. And this is really the chief
point Paul is making. Everybody God saves is a sinner
without any ability in ourselves whatsoever. So that those God
saves, He saves by His mercy alone. That's true of me, you,
Jew, Gentile, male, female, bond-free, educated, uneducated, it don't
matter. Rich or poor, we're all sinners. And if God saves us, He's gonna
save us by His mercy. So there's no reason to be high-minded,
there's no reason to be puffed up against anybody in this world.
I want to speak to you about mercy upon all. Mercy upon all. He said there, he's concluded
us all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. He's talking
about all the elect. And I want to talk to you first
of all, a word about sinners. And then secondly, a word about
God's love. He said there, they're beloved.
The elect are beloved. I want to talk about God's love.
And I want to talk to you a minute about God's promise. He said it's for the Father's
sakes. For the Father's sakes. That's
speaking to God's everlasting covenant promise that He made
to our fathers. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Now first
of all, all sinners while dead in sins are enemies of God. All sinners, while dead in sins,
are enemies of God, they're enemies of His gospel, they're enemies
of His people. He says in verse 28, As concerning
the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching
the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. And you
look at the second part of this verse and it shows us who Paul
means in the first part of the verse. He's talking about the
election. He's talking about God's elect.
That's what he's talking about. Paul's writing to believing Gentiles
regarding God's elect who were yet in unbelief in that political
nation Israel. Now speaking of every person
in that nation, he's speaking of God's elect that God will
call out from that nation. But be sure to get this truth
that he states here. Everybody, all sinners, while
dead in sins, are enemies of God. All sinners, while dead
in sins, are enemies of God, enemies of His Christ, enemies
of His gospel, enemies of His people. Scripture refers to us
as being enemies in our minds by wicked works. In our minds,
we considered God our enemy. And it was because of wicked
works. And those wicked works were saying things like, well,
I'm good. Well, you mean that we're all
sinners. I'm not as bad as some people. It was wicked works like,
well I believe God wants to give everybody a chance and save everybody
and that's wickedness. That's not according to this
book. That's something that a natural man just naturally thinks in
his mind because his mind's been corrupted in sin and he doesn't
even have to be taught that. That's just something men have
in their minds but that's what the whole world teaches. Most
of the religious world in Christianity and out don't know God. That's just fact. If you know
this book, you know that because you can tell what they're saying.
If I was telling you this wall right here was bright hot pink
and I was describing it as hot pink, you would know I'm blind
as a bat because that wall ain't hot pink. And if you have any
spiritual sight to understand this book. You can just listen
to people talking. No, they don't have a clue who
the God of this book is. But we're not to be high-minded.
You know why? Because just like those elect
Jews hated God and hated the Gentile believer and hated Christ
and hated the gospel, so did you and me. We did too. We're all by nature enemies of
God. Go to Romans 8. I've quoted this
to you so many times you're probably tired of hearing me say it, but
go to Romans 8 and look at verse 7. The carnal mind, that's the way
we come into this world, dead in sins, the carnal mind is enmity
against God. It doesn't mean he's just at
enmity with God and just had a disagreement with God, the
whole carnal mind is nothing but enmity. It's nothing but
hatred against God. That's what we are by nature.
For it's not subject to the law of God. It's not subject to the
Word of God. What I'm saying right now, this
is how you know a man hates God. I'm reading this right out of
God's Word and man will say, I don't hate God. See, you're
not subject to the Word of God. You won't bow to this Word and
say, yep, that's what God says about me, it's true. It's not subject to the Word
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. As we come forth into this world,
Unless God has mercy upon us and does something for us in
our heart, you can get as religious as you want to be, you can climb
the religious ladder until you're the Pope. And you still hate
God and God won't have anything to do with you. You can't please
God until God gives you a new heart and makes you His. So while we're dead in sins,
we're all on an equal platform. And you that have been born again,
that should make you know there's no reason to be puffed up against
an unbeliever. I don't care who they are. There's
no reason to be puffed up against an unbeliever because we're all
just dead in sins by nature. God had mercy upon us and He
has mercy upon all those He saves. Secondly, while dead in sins,
though, here's the good news. While dead in sins, God's elect
are still beloved of God. Go to, or look back at Romans
11, 28. He says, but as touching the
election, the second part there, but as touching the election,
talking about the elect, they are beloved, meaning they're
beloved of God the Father. They're beloved. These elect
are beloved of God. Even while the elect Jew were
enemies, And even while they hated the gospel and hated the
believing Gentiles and hated Christ and rejected Christ, even
while some of God's elect Jews crucified the Lord Jesus Christ,
even while they crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, God loved
them. God loved them. Not everybody,
not all the Jews, and not everybody in this world, the elect, God
loves them. He loves them. He loves them. It says there, verse 29, for
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. How can
God love somebody that is a sinner, that hates God and wants nothing
to do with God? How could He love His elect in
that state? Because when God chose His people
before the world was made, the Scripture says He chose us by
His grace. This is why grace is such good
news to a true sinner. By grace means you and I had
nothing to do with why God chose whom He chose. He didn't look
down through time. And just think of this reasoning
now. This is what most of the religious
world says when they talk about election. They say God looked
down through time and He foresaw who would believe. And so He
chose them. Is that grace at all? If I looked out in this congregation
and I saw which of you were going to do a work to save yourself
And then I, so I chose you and then the very next word in God's
word says those he foreknew, those he foreordained, he also
predestinated to be called and be conformed to Christ. Why would
he predestinate you to be born of the Holy Spirit and predestinate
you to be given faith if he foresaw you were going to believe? Why
would he even predestinate? There would be any need to it.
He already foresaw you were going to believe. Why would he even
have to predestinate anybody? He wouldn't. No, grace is God
simply chose whom He would, not based on anything in us. Nothing
in us. But He chose us in Christ. He
was looking to a work that was going to be performed, that was
going to make His people righteous and holy, and that work was by
Christ. And when Him and His Son entered
into agreement, that Christ would redeem these people that God
the Father chose and gave to Him, then all the blessings of
God were given to that people. Because Christ now, God's not
looking at that people anymore, He's looking at Christ now. And
He's determined now to bless His people in Christ so that
nothing they do can change Him. Because Christ always pleases
the Father from eternity on. So He's always looked at His
people in Christ. Let me show you the gifts and
calling of God. Go over to Romans 8. Because He chose us in grace,
now get this, I don't want to skip this point. Because He chose
us by grace, therefore, God had purposed that He was going to
create this man Adam and all mankind would be represented
in this, in our federal head, Adam. And when Adam sinned and
died, the whole world would sin and die in Adam. God purposed
that. But when we fell in Adam, when Adam sinned and we became
guilty, when we were born of Adam's corrupt seed and came
forth from a mother's womb and were sinners and we went our
whole life in rebellion, that whole time God's love never changed
against His people because He didn't use us because of anything
in us. Since it was grace that chose us, It didn't matter what
happened. It didn't matter what we did.
Grace still looked upon us and loved us. That's why if it wasn't
for grace, whenever Adam fell in the garden, God would have
destroyed the world right then. But it was because he had a people
in Christ who he looked at as Christ. He looked at them as
righteous and holy as Christ. And so He didn't destroy the
world. There's only one reason God didn't destroy Israel. He
says in Isaiah 65, He said, just like when they're going to destroy
a grapevine and somebody says, wait a minute, there's life in
it. Don't destroy it yet. There's life in it. Well, He
said, there's elect people in Israel and for their sakes I'm
not going to destroy it until I brought them out. The reason
God didn't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He looked at this place
that was just full of homosexuality, and God said, I hate it, and
I'm going to destroy every man, woman, and child in that place.
Abraham said, what if there's fifty people in there that believe
on Christ and are righteous in Christ? He said, I'll spare it
for them. And Abraham worked his way all
the way down to ten. God said, I'll spare it for ten.
God spared it for one. He spared it for one lot. And right now God has an elect
people and He's sparing this world because they have to be
called out. He chose them by grace and their
sins are not going to make Him stop loving them. Let's look
here. What are these gifts and calling that He never takes back?
Romans 8 verse 29. For whom He did foreknow, that
is who He did foreordain. The word is prognosis. And God's
prognosis is God determining how the prognosis is going to
turn out. That's how God's prognosis is. And whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called. Whom He called,
Him He also justified. Whom He justified, them He also
glorified. All of that was done in Christ
before the world was made. That's why God said through Paul
over Ephesians 1 that when God chose us in Christ, He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. There they are. There's all of
them. Everything you need. Right there. And so he says,
verse 31, What shall we say then to these things? If God be for
us, who can be against us? And then the gift and calling
of God includes this. God sent forth His only begotten
Son, and when He made Him sin in place of these elect people,
God didn't spare His own Son. He poured out judgment on His
Son. Look here, verse 32. He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who's going to charge one of
God's elect? You realize even when we were
dead in sins, before God, in God's courtroom, nobody could
charge one of His elect? That's not just due to you believing
on Christ. That was before you ever even
believed on Him, before God, now I'm talking about, in God's
court because He put His people in Christ. Nobody could lay a
charge to you. You mean when I was running like
a little demon, hating God and hating His people and hating
His gospel? Before God, nobody could lay a charge to you. You mean right now that I believe
God and yet I see my sin and how awful my sin is? Nobody can
lay a charge to you. because in Christ we're spotless.
And he says, he says, it's God that justifieth. That's why.
Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. Now because these gifts and callings
are without repentance, that means God won't, He won't change
His mind and say, I'm going to take away my grace from that
one I chose. They sinned in Adam, I'm taking
it away. Nope. whoever God loved in eternity before He made the
world, God always loves them, He always saves them, He always
brings them home, and He never stops loving them. Ever. That's
who God loves. He loves those He chose in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and them only. Them only. Look here, Romans
8, 35. So then, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it's written, for His sake we're killed all the day long,
we're counted as sheep by the slaughter, we're weak, we have
no ability. Nope. In all these things, we're
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. We didn't
love Him, He loved us. For I am persuaded neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
where? In Christ Jesus our Lord. That means whoever God loves
He always loves. He never does love somebody today
and tomorrow take back his love and take back his gifts and his
graces and say, well, you offended me and now I hate you. That's
what men do. That's not what God does. God always fulfills His everlasting
covenant promise. He says in Romans 11, 28, He
said that the elect are beloved for the Father's sakes. God's elect among the Jews were
beloved for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so were
God's elect among the Gentiles. You realize our fathers, you
sitting here today who believe, our fathers are Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, the same as the elect Jews. They're our fathers. And so he means for the sake
of the promises that he made to the fathers, God's going to
fulfill his word. He promised the fathers he's
going to fulfill his word. What did he promise them? Let's
go up back to Genesis chapter 26 and I hope you don't have
a Bible that's been changed up because if you do, your Bible
is not going to say seed, it's going to say children and that's
wrong. Genesis 26 verse 4, if your Bible says children in these
verses, get you one that says seed. Look here, Genesis 26 verse
4, he says, I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven. And I will give unto thy seed
all these countries, and in thy seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed. He said this to Abraham in Christ. Go to Genesis 28, look at verse
14. There's a bunch of these, but
I'm just going to give you two of them. Genesis 28, verse 14. He says, Thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth, and in Genesis 28, verse 14, Thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth. Thou shalt spread abroad to the
west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth
be blessed. Now what does God mean? Who are
these seed that God's talking about to Abraham? Here's the
problem. Here's the problem. Without spiritual
discernment, nobody knows who Abraham's seed is of whom God
is speaking. God has to give us spiritual
discernment to bow to God's Word to believe who these seed are. First of all, Abraham's seed
is Christ Jesus the Lord. Because according to the flesh,
Christ came through the lineage of Abraham. So he's Abraham's
seed in that regard. He's the seed of Abraham. You
can go over in Galatians and Paul says, to Abraham and to
his seed were the promises made. He said, and not to seeds as
of many, but seed as of one, and that seed is Christ. That seed is Christ. See, God
made this promise to Christ before He ever made it to Abraham. And
the promise He made to Abraham is just a promise He made to
Christ. And He's telling to him that in Christ, He's going to
have a multitude of children. And secondly, so secondly, all
God's elect are Abraham's seed. We're the seed in the seed. I
think a priest had a message out of that one time. The seed
in the seed. Something like that. Out of Genesis. Now you spent most of your time
in Galatians. But we're, God's elect, are Abraham's seed chosen
in Christ the seed. And so, because Christ can't
fail, all these promises that God made to Abraham are coming
to pass. Go back to Romans 9. This was typified. Christ was
typified when God told Abraham, He said, In Isaac shall thy seed
be called. Isaac typified Christ. And he
was talking about the elect. And we see that this is so plain
right here. A man that rejects this, this
is how come you know he don't have discernment. Because this
to you who have discernment, this is just plain as can be. Look here, Romans 9.6. I know
you're probably tired of hearing me quote this verse too, but
it's just so important when we're looking at this. Not as though
the word of God had taken an effect, for they are not all
God's true elect spiritual Israel, which are of natural political
national Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called." He was a picture of Christ. That is, they which
are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God. But the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. The children of God promised
Abraham that he would save, that would make up this great number
of people that would be a blessing to all nations. That seed that
God promised are the elect. Those are counted as God's children,
as Abraham's children. Let me show you that Galatians
3. Let's go there. Galatians 3. You see, where you're born, Your
gender, your status in life, your sex, none of that matters
to God. What matters is who God chose
in Christ. That's what matters. We're His
seed by grace and by grace alone. Look here. Galatians 3.28, and
I'd encourage you to read this whole verse, this is where he
says that the seed is Christ, but go down here in verse Galatians
3.28, he says, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither
Jew nor Gentile, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus, and if you
be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed. and heirs according to
what? The promise. That's what he means
when he says they're beloved for the Father's sake. They're
beloved for God's promise to the fathers, to Abraham. He said,
I'm not going to lose one of your seed. I'm not going to lose
one of them, Abraham. I'm going to save them all. And
so God's true to his word. He's not going to say, go to
Romans 2. You've got to remember this when
you're reading about Jews. I know it's a little confusing
because sometimes the word means national, political, natural
Israel. Sometimes it means a natural
Jew. Sometimes it means physical circumcision. But even usually,
even if it does, he's using them to be a type of spiritual Israel,
spiritual Jews, the spiritual circumcision. Listen to this
word. Verse 28, he's not a Jew which is one outwardly. This
is how God sees it and how God says it is. He's not a Jew which
is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But he's a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is out of the heart,
in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but
of God. I want you to please get this. It'll help you when you're reading
Old Testament prophecy. Every, every everlasting promise,
every time God speaks of forever and for everlasting and no end
and in perpetuity, every time He promises that. And He's talking
to Abraham and to Isaac or to Jacob or to any other prophets
concerning Israel. He's talking about God's elect
Israel. Always. Always. And they're made
up of Jew and Gentile, but every single promise, every single
everlasting promise is not talking about a nation in this earth.
Listen. This world is going to be burned
up and completely destroyed. Before this world was made, God
already had a new heavens and a new earth where Christ was,
where He chose His people in Christ, and the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. Then God made a heaven and an
earth where He created this humanity where He's working all this out
to show you and me and to bring us from being just humanity to
being a spiritual people to where we're going to end up being that
new heavens and that new earth. I know that is terribly hard
to get our heads around because eternity means there's no chronological
order. It's always been there. This
earth is what's chronological. So it's not like God's going
to replace this earth with a new heavens and a new earth. No,
the new heavens and the new earth is what's always been. This earth
just was made to show us something of that new heavens and new earth.
He's not going to replace this new heavens and new earth. He's
just going to destroy it and the new heavens and the new earth
is going to be because it's always been. Well, the same is true
of political natural history. He's not replacing political
natural Israel with the church. The church has always been the
one God's been talking about saving, who are the true spiritual
seed of Abraham. Natural Israel was just like
me drawing a painting up here and trying to show you all a
picture of all this. That's all it was. And when He's done with
it, He's done with it. He's not replacing Israel. He's
just doing away with it, and what was always there, His elect,
His Israel, will remain. Do you get that? So when you
read about the promises, and Brother Scott and I have talked
about this, we've talked about this many times, just remember
this. Abraham, the father of the Jews,
he was a Gentile. He wasn't a Jew. He was a Gentile.
God called him out of the Gentiles. And nobody in Israel even knew
anything about Israel until God said, okay, you're Israel. And we're just so natural. And
we're just by nature. Natural man hates God and everything
that's spiritual so that when Christ came, He didn't come to
form a nation on earth and lift up Israel above all the other
nations. So they said, we don't want you.
We thought you would come and establish an earthly kingdom
and make us proud. We don't want you. Because he
said my kingdom is not of this earth. And men right now today
are still looking for an earthly nation with an earthly king.
They are still looking for the same thing. This thing God is doing is so
much bigger than this little bitty ball, this little peanut
we live on called earth. It is so much bigger than this. It's never been his purpose to
have one particular nation in this earth lifted up and exalted
above others. It's always been the special
particular people of God has always been that holy nation
who is a royal priesthood made kings and priests by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. That's always been the case. But here's what Paul
is telling us. and I have two points per way
of application. When you encounter an enemy of
the gospel, don't be high-minded, don't be puffed up, don't become
arrogant toward them, because they might be God's elect, beloved
of God. So you try to be patient, teach
them the scriptures, and wait on the Lord, because they might
be His. God has concluded them all in unbelief that He might
have mercy upon all His people. And number two, rejoice that
it is absolutely, utterly impossible to sin away the grace of God. We can't do it. We can't do it. That means God never has looked
to you for anything to make you accepted with Him. He looked
to His Son, His Son satisfied Him, His Son pleased Him, and
He's pleased in His Son, and that'll never change. Now, if
you want If you wonder, well, am I that elect? There's only
one way you know. God's elect are brought to believe
on Christ. If you can believe on him, then
yeah, you're his elect. If you can't, I hold out hope,
maybe you are, but we won't know until God gives you faith to
believe. That's what he told the Thessalonians. Knowing your
election of God. When the gospel came, it came
not word only, it came in power. And you became followers of us
and of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray God make us that today.
Amen. Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for your blessings on your people. Keep us now and
teach us this blessed truth. There's nothing like grace. Love that never changes, never
has a variation whatsoever. Teach us to love like that. Forgive
us, Lord. When we hear about these things
and hear you exalted and your perfections and all we can say
is forgive us, Lord. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.