Romans chapter 11, we'll look
at the first seven verses of this chapter tonight. And the title of the message
is in the form of a question. The remnant of God, of grace or works? The remnant of God, Is it of
grace or of works? The Apostle says here in verse
1, I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid,
for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe
of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people,
which he foreknew. Want ye not of the Scriptures,
saith of Elijah? How he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets,
and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek
my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, then at this present
time, also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But, If it be of works, then
it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which it seeketh for, but the elect hath obtained it, and
the rest were blinded. A remnant grace or a remnant
of works now to give you a recap this is all going together and
it flows so smoothly as the scripture always does the Apostle in this
begins this begins this this argument by showing that Israel
is not all of the nation or of the seed of Abraham, but rather
Israel is one that is spiritual and heirs of the promise of Abraham,
not the carnal seed. Go back to Romans 9. This is
where this idea begins here. In verse 6, in chapter 9, it
says, Not as though the word of God had taken on effect, for
they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because
of the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called." And that spiritual Israel was not of blood,
but rather the sovereign purpose of God according to what? Election. Election, verse 11, for the children,
not yet being born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It is said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated." What does this mean? This means that
God has chose a people before their birth. Matter of fact,
before the foundation of the world, he hath chosen a people
and purposed to save them, of which here Jacob is a picture. Jacob have I loved. And so it is with all of the
elect of God. God hath loved them before they
had ever done any good or evil. that his purpose according to
election might stand. And so all then that are such
chosen vessels of mercy, we know this, they were represented by
Jesus Christ. Represented by Him when He came
into the world, and it was by His perfect work and obedience,
by His one offering for sin, that He has prepared them unto
glory. Look at that in verse 22. He said, What if God, willing
to show His wrath to make the power known, endured, with much
longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
and that he might make known the riches of his glory to the
vessels of mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto glory. And we know that preparation
was not only by election, but it was also by the work of Jesus
Christ. And the vessels of wrath, they're
fitted for destruction by their own sin. A man goes to hell,
it is because of his own sin. But if a man goes to glory, it
is because Christ hath prepared, aforeprepared him unto glory. And such love and grace. Now,
this love and grace of election was not known to us from our
birth. It was not known to us. It was
not manifest until when? Until we were called. That's
what Paul says in verse 24. Even us. Now Paul can say even
us. Why? Whom he hath called. Called. Not only those who are called
of the Holy Spirit to life and faith in Christ can lay claim
to this eternal blessing of election. People know all they want to
about election, but if you've never been born again, you have
no claim to it. You cannot claim to be the elect
except it be manifest by what? The new birth. The new birth
is the manifestation of our election and redemption in Christ. Now listen, I know many people
believe that when they die everything's just going to turn out alright. They believe that when they die,
it's just going to work out somehow. They're trusting. They're trusting
in some something of their good deeds that somehow it might outweigh
their bad deeds. Somehow God will just wink at
their sin. You know people like that? I
do. It's sad. It's pathetic. They would never
lean the hopes of their family's livelihood on such a thing, but
yet they'll hang their souls on it. But listen, if God has not called
you from death to life, if you've never been born again of the
Spirit of God, if you continue in such a way, you will perish.
You will perish. But to us, even us who are called,
we shall be saved. And it matters not of our rank,
our stature, our reputation. All who believe on Jesus Christ
shall be saved. All who believe on Jesus Christ
alone shall be saved. And what is the root of that
salvation? It's rooted in the election of grace. It's rooted
in the redemption of Christ. It's rooted in the effectual
work of the Holy Spirit upon the sinner. We are called to
faith and life by the Holy Spirit. Scripture says, "...as the wind
bloweth where it listeth," you can hear the sound thereof, but
you can't tell whence it cometh or where there it goeth. So is
everyone born of what? The Spirit. The Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh profiteth nothing. It is the Spirit of God that
quickens us. But what means does the Spirit
of God use by which He calls His elect? What is the means?
The chosen means of God. I didn't ask for the opinions
of men. They have a whole bunch of opinions as how the elect
are called. But God has one means that He has chosen, and that
is preaching the Gospel. And that's what chapter 10 begins.
So Paul has already covered the election of grace. He's already
covered election, redemption, and calling. But how it's called
is by the gospel. And so what Paul does in chapter
10 is he longs for people to be saved. He longs for those
brethren of his to be saved. And so what does he do? He preaches
the gospel. Look at verse 4 of chapter 10.
This is the gospel. for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes." Is that not the
gospel? That's a gospel message. Christ is the end of the law.
It is clearly stated. Look, behold, Jesus Christ alone
has fulfilled perfectly the righteousness which is of the law, both by
obedience in the flesh and by his offering for sin in the flesh. You know, this was prophesied,
this was testified of before he came into the world. In Isaiah
chapter 42, it says this, the Lord is well pleased. Now, what
is the Lord pleased with? What is the Lord pleased with?
Is He pleased with you? Is He pleased with your work?
Is He pleased with all that you've done for Him? You've done so
good. Is that what he's pleased with? No! He says he is well
pleased for what? For his righteousness sake. He's talking about Christ. He
will magnify the law. I like that. Make large the law.
He will make it large. You ever heard of that? Living
larger than life. If you want to see the law in
three dimensions, Christ was it. He was the manifestation
of the law of God. He was perfectly the law. He
obeyed the law perfectly. You want to know what the law
looked like obeyed? Look at Christ. In thought, word, and deed, He
obeyed the law of God. He magnified it. He showed it
to everyone. And you know what? People hated
Him for it. They hated him because he manifest
their sin by his obedience. I remember in college, you always
had that smart kid that blew the curve for everybody else?
You know why you hated Him? Because you didn't study as hard
as He did. You didn't work as hard. And
He was right to do what He did. But you didn't like Him for it.
But how much more is that about sin and righteous? Someone's
righteous. Someone's doing good and shows forth our sin. It causes
anger inside of us. They hated Christ for it. But
He magnified the law. And listen, He not only magnified,
He made it honorable. He satisfied it. The Law's demands,
both in perfect, active, and passive obedience to God in life,
and in offering for sin upon the cross. He satisfied the Law
perfectly. He magnified the Law in His obedience. but He magnified it in His justice
on Calvary, didn't He? On Calvary, can you not see what
God's justice looks like? That the very Son of God, who
has made sin for us, endured the wrath of God without mercy. You want to know how God sees
sin? Look at his son as he died on Calvary Street. He died without
mercy. Died without mercy. But having
done this, you know he did it as a representative. He did it
as a representative of the man. The law, therefore, cannot condemn
us. who are in Christ. The law is
well pleased with us who are in Christ, having been made the
righteousness of God in Him, we are free from the law of sin
and death. Now what he told us in chapter
8, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the
Spirit, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. hath
made me free from the law of sin and death." How, Paul? "...for
what the law could not do in his weak through the flesh, God
sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin
condemned sin in the flesh." Here's why. "...that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us." What does the law have to say
to a righteous man? The law can only honor the righteous. And what has Christ done after
he has called us? He has made us righteous in Christ. And so we must then continue
to preach this same message. We preach this same message for
the sole purpose of what? Calling the elect. calling the
elect. Now listen, in our generation
there are popping up men all over the place who are trying
to divert or trying to move us away from the gospel of Christ
onto some other topic. Some other thing that they think
they've found in Scripture. And then they say, no, that's
not what we need. We need to study on this. We
need to talk about this. No. No. The only thing preachers
ought to preach is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Any other
message is an abomination. Christ and Christ alone is the
only message that saves. What good is any other message
if it does not save? It's no good. If it doesn't meet
the sinner where he's at, if it doesn't display the sin of
man and the sole Savior of sinners, it is no good for us. We must preach this same message. Isn't that what Paul said? He
said, there's no two Gospels. There's only one. He said, I
marvel you are so soon removed, talking to Galatians, as you're
so soon removed from Him who hath called you to another gospel,
which is not another. Now, this isn't like baptism
is important. But I'm not going to get sidetracked
on baptism. I'm not going to be arguing with
fools who believe in baptismal regeneration. Not going to do
it. That's ignorance. And we're going to know that
in just a little while, because we know this, that salvation
is not of works. It's of grace. It's of grace. So I'll preach
always, constantly Christ, and testify of God's grace to sinners,
and the gospel This Gospel we preach is not one of politics.
It's not about the Antichrist. It's not who's the Antichrist.
It's not about what think ye of the future events, or signs,
or miracles, or wonders, or speaking in tongues. It's not what think
ye of science or philosophy. The Gospel is what think ye of
Christ. Whose Son is He? The Son of God
and the Son of Man. What has He done? He has saved
His people from their sins by His one offering. Where is He? And what is He doing? He is on
the throne of God right now, moving all things in time and
eternity. For what purpose? To save His
people from their sins. That's what He's doing. This
is all we're to preach. All we're to preach. You know
what? It's the only thing the elect
want to hear. It's the only thing the elect find any comfort in,
any assurance, any hope, is in Christ. And so then what is the church
to be doing? We're to be preaching this gospel. Jesus said, all
power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Thou hast given me
power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. In 2nd Thessalonians 2 and verse
13, it says this, We are bound always to give thanks to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of Christ. And so Paul declares then in
chapter 10 this very same thing in verse 13. He begins, Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall
they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe on him in whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Elias saith, Lord, who hath believed, I report,
so then. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God." And we know this, the Word of
God is exactly what I've been saying. It is Jesus Christ alone. This is the sum and substance
of all the Word of God is all about Christ. And so then, now you come to
chapter 11, and then Paul is going to revert back to this
idea of the Jews. He's going to show us this. The
Apostle shows us Gentiles. He's shown us Gentiles that we
have a part in this. We are the spiritual Israel,
chosen, redeemed, and called to inherit all the promises of
Abraham. Now the question the Gentiles
will obviously need to be answered. What about the Jews? What about
the Jews? seeing they have crucified the
Son of God, rejected the Messiah, and God has turned to the Gentiles,
will they be cut off? Will now they be cut off forever?
And so Paul begins this by reminding us. He says, I say then, hath
God cast away his people? God forbid. This phrase, his people, does
not just refer to the Jews, but rather the whole thing he had
just been talking about, his elect. He says, will God cast
away his people? Well, God forbid, I just told
you he won't. I just told you he chose them,
redeemed them, and called them by the gospel. Will he cast them
away? Well, of course not. God forbid. And so what he's telling them
is this, that these elect are not only among the Gentiles,
they are also among the Jews, as well as the Gentiles. And
so Paul uses himself. He says, For I also am an Israelite
of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not
cast away his people which he foreknew. Apostle again limits
his scope here. These that God would not cast
away, either Jew or Gentile, are only those He foreknew."
You see that? God hath not cast away His people,
Jew or Gentile, that He foreknew. Now, the Jews in the Old Testament
were, in a sense, God's people. They were given the Law, the
Prophets, and everything. But listen, nowhere at any time
in all the Jewish history were all the Jews saved. Never. Not all of them were predestinated
to be sons of God, and not all of them were called of God the
Holy Spirit. But see, He gives hope to the
Jews. At this point, the Jews are really the lowest people.
They have rejected the Son of God. And many of them were pierced
in their soul as to what would happen to their race, and He
gives them hope. He said, look, I'm a Jew. It's
okay. There's hope. There's hope. Now, I know this, some fools
will talk about the foreknowledge of God as being nothing more
than what God knew of future events. Free will, works, religion,
that's their whole claim, is that God looked down eternity
to see what men would do, what they would choose Him or not,
and then based His election on what He knew of what they would
do. That's not what's being said here. We know this, that it's
not what He foreknew, but rather who. His people, He foreknew. Back in Romans 8. For whom? He
foreknew. Not what? He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now listen, I want
to make this plain. Free will works religion, and salvation by the grace of
God are not two different views of the Gospel. They are not two different views. They are two distinctly different
Gospels. They're two different Gospels. Paul informs us that there's
only one Gospel. and all other Gospels are cursed
and doctrines of devils." Now, which Gospel did the Apostle
preach in this letter as well as in all the other epistles?
Was it salvation by grace, or was it salvation by works? Is salvation of the work of God,
or is it the work of man? This is clearly shown in what
Paul's declaration is that God will never cast away those he
foreknew. Why is it that God will never
cast away those he foreknew? Because their salvation was by
grace. Now believer, look at your life
and tell me that you do not deserve to be cast away. If you were to put it in your
merit, if it was based on your merit, you and I know we deserve
to be put away. We deserve to be cast off. But
because it is not of works but of grace, we shall never be cast
away. That's the joy of this Gospel. That's the goodness and comfort
of this Gospel. It's not of works but of grace.
Look at verse 2. He said, what you not? Don't
you know this? What the Scriptures say of Elijah? How he maketh
intercession of God against Israel. Isn't that something? He intercedes
to God against Israel. What does he say? He said, they
killed your prophets. They dig down your altars. And
I am left alone. I am left alone. Do you feel alone? Believer,
do you feel as though we are so few and alone that the whole
world has gone away and I alone am left? I know we
feel that way. This whole world is so full of
wickedness and they despise the gospel of God's grace So we feel like Elijah, and we
see that the false gospel is prosperous, isn't it? Do you
realize that we're doing the building today? You know, you...
I can pick up the phone tomorrow and call the Southern Baptists
and join their association, have a building up in two days. It's
prosperous! It's prosperous! I don't want any part of it.
I don't want any part of their false doctrines. But what saith God to Elijah?
Because what God says to him, he says to us. He said this,
I have reserved to myself 7,000 men that have not bowed at the
knee to Baal. God reserves 7,000 people out
of 2 million for himself. Behold, the number of God's saints
was much larger than Elijah thought, but even so, in comparison, it
was still only a remnant." And that's why Paul says this in
verse 5, he said, "...even so, then, at this time, at this present
time, there is a remnant according to the election of Grace. Friends, when you feel alone
and the world seems so full of corruption, so full of evil,
and no one wants to hear the gospel, believe this. God has
reserved for himself a remnant. Why do we preach? Because God
has reserved for Himself a remnant. Why do we continue feeling alone? Because God has reserved for
Himself a remnant. And we, by us, by our gospel,
He will call them. He will call them. Do you realize
this? The church is as full as it can
be. And when God will call his remnant,
they will be added to us. Isn't that what happened in the
book of Acts? How many were in the upper room? 120. After Peter
preached that first message, there were 3,000. After that second one, there
were 5,000. And what did he say? He said, the promises are unto
us, and unto your children, and as many as are far off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call." See, God is always successful. If there be few, there may be
many. Remember, it is always according to the election of
grace, a remnant. God has made a remnant. And all who believe in Christ,
we are loved of God, chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, and
we shall never perish. But now then the question comes,
is this remnant one of grace or works? Is it of grace or is it of works? Is this election in God's love
and redemption according to grace or works as salvation by the
unmerited favor of God, or does it come by something man does? I've told you there are only
two religions in the world, grace and works. Either God saves without
any merit or work on man's part, or He saves by the merit or work
of man. There is no middle ground. The
Apostle here displays this. Well, you can see this in your
life, right? And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespass
and sins. You were unable and unwilling
to come to Christ, but now you do. Therefore God, if God required
anything of us, we could not or would not have done it. What could you offer for your
sins? What righteousness could you
perform? But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, has quickened us together with
Christ, by grace you are saved, through faith. Never apart from
faith or without faith. That faith, not of yourself.
It, faith, is a gift of God, not of works. Why? Lest any man
should boast, brag, or glory in the exercise of faith, which
only free will works religion do. They boast in it. They brag of it. They say, Preacher,
how dare you tell me I can't come to Christ? I'll come if
I want to. Nope. You'll come if God calls you.
That's the only way. If a man says, he said, I've
come by my free will, you've not come at all. You've not come
at all. Why? Salvation is by grace. By grace. Now listen, we live in such an
ignorant age where men think they have solved this problem
of grace and works. They think they've found a middle
ground somewhere. These are what would be called
semi-Pelagianism. In other words, they're not fully
Arminian, they're just kind of in the middle somewhere. They
believe God saves by grace, but man has to exercise his will. So they think they've solved
that by riding the fence in some measure. What saith the Scripture? Read it in verse 6. This remnant,
this election, is it of grace or is it of works? He says it's
of grace. And he says, and if by grace, then it is no more
works. Otherwise, grace doesn't mean
grace. And if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, Work doesn't mean
work. So then I tell you, according
to the Word of God, grace and works cannot be mixed. Salvation
is not a cooperative effort of God and man. It is not a mixture
of His grace and your works. It is either all of the grace
of God without any works of man, or it is all the work of man
without any grace of God. Now, which is it? If you try to mix, you ruin the
definition of both words. You cannot do that. I can't. Go ahead. You're not honest. Anyone that does that is not
honest. They don't understand the work
of God. It is by grace. This remnant
we know is the elect according to the grace of God. We were
chosen by grace, redeemed by grace, called by grace, and kept
by grace. So what do we preach? We preach
grace. Go to Zechariah chapter 4. Read
this with me. Go to Zechariah chapter 4. Let me get my page there. There
we go. Zechariah chapter 4 and verse 7. Who art thou, O great mountain?
Let's read in verse 6. It says, "...then he answered
and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by Power. What is that? Work. Not by works, but by My
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain. What
is this mountain? The mountain of our sin, the
mountain of our rebellion, the mountain of our obstinance. Who is it before Christ, our
Savior? Who is it? I'll make it a plain. I'll bowl it over. Know what
he did you? And he shall bring forth the
headstone. That headstone is the church.
The temple is what he was saying here, but in spiritual terms
this is the church. Therefore, with shoutings crying
what? Works! Works! Is that what it
says? No. What does the church cry?
Grace, grace unto it. So how is this remnant saved? How is this remnant saved? It
is saved by grace. So then you go back to your text
and Paul asks this, what then? What are we going to say about
all this? What does this mean? Here it is. Israel hath not obtained
that which it seeketh for. What did the nation of Israel
seek for? Righteousness by works. They didn't obtain it. Who did? But the election hath obtained
it. That word election is not election,
but rather the elect. The elect. But the elect hath
obtained it. And the rest were blinded. Friends, salvation is by grace
alone. And I want you to see, let me
show you this before I close, one thing. And this is comforting.
Since salvation is by grace, what's going to happen? Look
at verse 26. And so, all Israel shall be saved. As is written, there shall come
a deliverer out of Zion, out of Zion a deliverer, and he shall
turn away ungodliness from who? From Jacob, for this is my covenant. By covenant of what? Grace or
works? Grace. Grace. Now this should,
I pray, the Lord would give us a heart to understand. So that we're not discouraged
by what we see, what we think, what we feel at times. We're
discouraged. We're often fainting. But this
should be the most encouraging thing for us. Though we're small,
though we're not many, though we're not mighty. I know this. Salvation is by the grace of
God. God has a remnant. And He is
going to save them. He chose them. He redeemed them. He's going to call them by the
preaching of this gospel. He's going to save them in spite of them. I'm so thankful salvation is
by grace, aren't you? I mean completely, absolutely,
without any words. of my own. If it was, none of us would be
saved. How thankful should we be? How
much should we cry grace, grace unto it? Grace. May God give
us hearts, humble hearts, believing hearts. Let stand be dismissed
in prayer.