Romans chapter 11. The elect in this world, the
spiritual Israel, those loved of God and Christ before time,
out of every nation, every kindred, every people and every tongue,
they have not been forsaken and they will never be cast aside. Will not happen. we may think
different sometimes. We walk through this world and
we think, Lord, have you let us go? And that's the emotional
problems we have and physical problems or loss of a loved one,
anything. You just come to services and
you feel cold inside. Lord, have you took your hand
off of me? Have you let me go? But I was remembering a pastor
friend of mine was on an airplane, and the man next to him was losing
his mind. He was scared to death. It wasn't
me. And he started talking to my
pastor friend, and he said, I think we're going to crash, and it's
so bumpy, and oh, just about hyperventilating. And he turned
to me and he said, you being scared has zero impact on those
pilots' ability to fly this plane or the surety of this plane.
how safe His plane is. Isn't that a wonderful thing
for us? That won't be cast aside. No matter if we're afraid we're
going to be cast aside, no matter if we feel like we're going to
be cast aside, that doesn't impact the Lord's ability to keep His
people. He keeps us. Now all those elect, those blood-bought
sheep of Christ, from the first saint to the last saint, they'll
be called home. They're all saved the same way. Every one of them. They're saved
by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus. By His grace alone. And until that day comes, that
we're taken home to glory. And we're made in the image of
Christ. We're without sin. We're without
the ability to sin. We're made holy like He's holy.
We will trust and praise the grace of God for saving us. not
our works, not what our will is, not what our merit is, but
we will lean solely on the person and the work of Christ, all of
His true children. That great multitude which no
man can number, they'll sing like Revelation 7.10 says, they'll
cry with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God which setteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb. From the first saint to the last
saint. God's our salvation. Worthy is the Lamb. Now many people throughout the
world think we must be reverent and we must be kind and we must
have a lot of policy towards physical Israel. We must have
some Semitism. Make sure we're taking care of
them. That they're the people of God,
we must support them And we've got to look out for them. What
a beautiful picture. Isn't that amazing? That's exactly what happens.
Not that physical nature, not what men and women think their
works are. All of mankind and all of creation, good and bad. That's the joy and the pain and
the sadness and the happiness, every bit of it. It's all for
the benefit of the children of God and for His glory. I wish
I could have some policies in my house that remembered that.
We have it right here, don't we? He won't cast us away. Now let's look here in Romans
11 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. What ye not what the Scriptures
say of Elias? Don't you know? Know ye not what
the Scriptures say of Elias? 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's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. The Holy Spirit moved Paul to
write this portion of our text to clearly show us who will be
saved, how they'll be saved, and how sure the security of
our salvation is. He says in verse 1, I say then,
hath God cast away his people? What was he saying then? These
chapter divisions are put so we can find these quick, but
he's continuing on your thought here, isn't he? Look here, just
to the left there in chapter 10, verse 18. And he's speaking
of physical Israel. He said, but I say, have they
not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went
out into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world.
But I say, did not Israel know? Didn't Israel know that the Lord
was saving a spiritual nation and not a physical nation? Didn't
they know that it wasn't our works or our birthright or anything
else, that it was God that saves His people through Christ? Didn't
they hear that? First Moses saith, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish
nation I will anger you. Moses told them, didn't he? Verse 20, but Isaiah was very
bold and says, in case there's any confusion about the elect
in Christ being saved by grace alone, in case there's any wondering,
did I have to do something Am I good enough? Is there something
in me that makes God save people? Isaiah is very bold. Verse 20,
I was found of them that sought me not, and I was made manifest
unto them that asked not after me. That's every child of God.
We found him and we didn't seek him. We may thought we sought
him. We may have been looking for a God, but you can't look
after someone you don't know. How do we find Him? He was made
manifest in us. Christ was revealed in us. And
we didn't know to ask for Him. We didn't know He was God. But to Israel, verse 21, but
to political Israel, that nation, that physical nation, He saith,
all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people. He said, I have clearly and I
have abundantly showed you in types, in the prophets, in the
miracles, the salvations, the work of the Lord by grace alone
and you've refused it. You can't stand it. So since
physical Israel was favored, they were given the types and
the pictures of Christ. They had the prophets. They had
the tabernacle. They heard and knew about the
grace of God in saving a people and they refused it and God cast
them aside. He watered them up and threw
them away. But since they were the picture for you and I, and
the saints to come, that was all a picture of what happened
to us. We were brought out of bondage. We were led through
that sea. We were protected during the
day and the night. Well, if that could happen to
them physically, could that happen to spiritual Israel? Could He
water us up and throw us away? Does that mean God would cast
aside his elect? Look there in verse 1, Romans
11. I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. And he says, for I also am an
Israelite, the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul,
the one penning this letter to the church at Rome, he was born
to that physical Israel. We know he's a child of God.
We know that God loved him. He was loved of God, and that
he was called of God. He's labored more than the others.
He wrote most of the New Testament. So then, was he referring to
those ten tribes? He said, I'm of Benjamin. Was
he talking about those ten tribes that turned against David? And
they said, well now, everything I was talking about in chapter
10, that was to all those, but for Judah and Benjamin, we're
okay. It don't count to them. Oh no. All of mankind, was born
at war with God. Every one of us has turned astray.
And our birth does not give us any rights. That's a wonderful
thing we have in this country. I'm thankful for my children.
We have bills of rights and freedoms in this country. That can go
away tomorrow. The only right we have ain't
taxes and death, it's death. The Lord may make you born in
a country that ain't got no taxes. We have a right to face judgment.
It's the only right we have in our birth. But he says here in
verse 1, the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. That's
an important distinction that Paul often adds. Let's turn over
to Philippians chapter 3. A few pages there to Philippians
chapter 3. And remember Paul was saying
there in chapter 10 to the Romans that Israel was disobedient and
gainsaying. Those were refusing people. They
heard this gospel and didn't want it. But he's not just speaking
of parts of that political nation. He's referring to all those born
in physical Israel and all Gentiles. Every one of us. Being a Jew
or being a Gentile doesn't help you in any way. And thanks be
to God, being a Jew or being a Gentile doesn't hinder us in
any way. Doesn't help us and doesn't hurt
us. Look here in Philippians 3, 4. Philippians 3 verse 4, Though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
think that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. No matter who you are and how
precious your holy garment you wear is, you think it's fancy,
Paul one ups you. It goes on, verse 5, circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin. Not only am I of the stock of
Israel, I'm born to the good side of the family. And Hebrew
of Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal,
you want to talk about working, it ain't just birth. Persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, Blameless. As far as anybody walking up
and down the streets concerned, they're one of man of God is
what people nowadays would say. Oh, he knows God. Look at him. That's an example how perfect
he was. Verse 7, but what things were
gained to me? Everybody thinks those are gain.
Those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, ain't doubtless, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ. Everything this world
is grasping at to get a hold of, Paul, who had it all, says
it's manure. It ain't even worth keeping in
a barn. Discard it out in the field somewhere. It's dumb. And
be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. I don't want to earn my own righteousness.
I don't want to work at it. I don't want to be born into
it. I want Christ's righteousness. And that has to come by God through
faith in Him. All the way we're going to get
it. Now back in our text here in Romans 11. 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. Now
for those Jews that Paul's writing to there in Rome, he's emphasizing,
I know what I'm saying, I'm a Jew as well. I'm not ostracizing
you, I'm not putting you out to pasture. And he said, I'm
a Benjamin. And it's all done. At physical
birth, natural benefit is not why God keeps his children. Even
if you're the tippy top, It has nothing to do with it. Well,
then who are the ones that ain't cast away? If Paul being this
wonderful, magnificent example of a religious man, if that's
all done, who's the Lord going to keep? Who's he not going to
cast away? Verse 2, God hath not cast away
his people which he foreknew. Who's the ones God's not going
to cast away? Those that he foreknew. That's the only one. Now Israel,
in general, were the people that God had used as an example. In a sense, they was chosen.
He set them apart. In a sense, they were known.
They were distinguished by God from the rest of the world. But
they were not all four known people in the four new that's
used here in verse 2. A great many were used to God
for a picture, for an example, but only a few were chosen in
Christ before time. We'll see that in a minute, but
most were cast aside there in Israel. But there was a few remaining,
a few of them that the Lord knew, He foreknew. So what about this
foreknowledge Paul's speaking of? What's this mean? It's not
referring to the Lord knowing all things and seeing the future
and knowing who would choose Him if He come to them and then
picking them in His grace. That's not grace. That's worse,
disguised as grace. It's under the guise of grace.
He's not a fortune teller. He doesn't have a magic crystal
ball and he looks down and sees who will pick him. That's called
cheating. If that was a board game, you'd get kicked off the
table. That's not what he's talking about. This foreknown people,
they were loved of God before. He knew them before. He loved
them before. It was an intimate care and a
love bestowed upon them before time was. Paul just reminded
us in this letter in chapter 9 that the Lord said, Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I hated. He knew Jacob. He loved Jacob. The Lord loved Jacob and He loves
every one of His chosen children in Christ before Adam was ever
made. He knew them. He loved them. Those that Christ
became the surety for, He loved them. Those that Christ truly
redeemed, He didn't lay the money on the counter and it's up to
you to redeem it. He bought them. Christ has made their righteousness. As Paul said, if I'm going to
have righteousness, it's got to be His. That takes a miracle
of God to understand because the righteousness God the Father
requires is Christ's righteousness. That's too simple. God has to
reveal it. He has to tell you that in your
heart. This love of God, this knowing of God is an everlasting
love. It's an everlasting knowing. We watch this crime show, and
they investigate people or interview people after crimes and things
like that, and they try to pin on murder mystery or whatever.
And I asked this one man, said, do you know so-and-so? He goes,
oh yeah, I know him. And I said, well, we got reports
you was with him, and he killed three people. He said, well, I don't
know him. Didn't love him, did he? Somebody
came to me and said, do you know your children? I said, yeah,
I know my children. They done something horrible. What can
I do? Right? That's for my brothers,
for my mom, for my family. What can I do? Because there's
love there. God knew a people. He loved that people. And when
we were found to be deserving of eternal death, eternal damnation,
His love in Christ was made effectual in us. He didn't try to help.
He saved His people. Why? He knew them. He loved them. by Christ becoming us as our
substitute. We can't understand that completely,
but everything I don't understand, I'm guilty of. Everything I deserve
to pay for in the entirety of wrath of God for eternity, Christ
bore that for me. Satisfied God. And if that doesn't
blow you by, that's incomprehensible to us, to our puny brains. That's the worth of His blood.
In the same action, He did it for every one of His children.
Bore it all. Drink that cup. For those God
loved, those He foreknew, He has never and He will never cast
them away. He bought you. He ain't gonna
lose you. Turn over to Matthew chapter 7. There are some men and women
that God loved in Christ before time and there are some that
He's never loved. Those that He loved, He will
love them from eternity to eternity. That's everlasting. Those that
He never loved, those are the ones that will be cast away.
Those that He didn't foreknow, those that He didn't before love.
Look here, Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Now we remember
going through 1 John, that doing righteousness, doing the will
of the Father. What was that? Believing on Christ
and loving the brethren. How do we love the brethren?
We love them as God loved us. We love God as He first loved
us. That's how we love. We know Him
because He first knew us. Verse 22. Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name?
And in Thy name have cast out devils? You could say that, the
word that is. Have we not cast out devils in Your name? And
have we not done many wonderful works in Your name? Everything
there is speaking of works because they don't know grace. That's
a foreign language to them. All they know is the law. All
they know is doing. But they don't know grace. They
don't refer to grace because they've never experienced grace.
Verse 23, and I will profess unto them, I never knew you. I never loved you. That's what He'll say to those
people that aren't in Christ, that aren't looking to Him, aren't
looking for grace or looking for works. Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity. Cast away. Cast away. Now many people, they'll use
several parts of Romans 11 to try to excuse disobedience and
gainsaying. They will say, well, if God elected
you, you can never know Him, you can never hear of Him, you
can never serve Him, and you'll die and you'll be with Him in
glory and everything's going to be fine. God chose people and
they can be fishing the rest of their life and never talk
to another soul and never hear the Scriptures, never hear Christ,
and they're going to be fine. Not so. We read there in Romans
8, for whom he did foreknow, those that he loved, he also
did predestinate to be like Christ, be made like him. Moreover, those
he predestinated, he called them. Those that he loved, those that
he said, I'm going to make them just like my son. He's going
to be the firstborn among many brethren. He calls them. Our master said in John 10, my
sheep hear my voice and I know them. I love them and they follow
me. A child of God's called and a
child of God follows. Jude said we're praised to his
glory now and ever. That seems like I'm taking a
strong stance and somebody is a child of God that they're going
to know him and profess him and agree with his people and believe
Christ and love the brethren. That's what he said. And in my
opinion, that's what Scripture said. That's a fact. Now back to our text there in
Romans 11. Those loved of God, those called
to Christ, those that gladly follow our Savior, they will
never be cast away. Now right into the church at
Rome, Paul's telling them that though God cast away much of
natural Israel, the physical nation, those that refuse Christ,
on Paul's day, that believed on Christ, they're kept forever.
Those Jews in that time, not that were just considered a physical
nation, but that happened to be in that physical nation, those
in that nation that believed Christ, looked to Him alone,
they're kept forever. And he uses Elijah to show us
that that was the same in Paul's generation as it was the previous
generation. And that's the same in our generation.
Look here, verse 2, God hath not cast away his people which
he foreknow, Know ye not what the scriptures say of life? I
just emphasize know. God know and loving, right? The
translators, what means know? Know ye not? It says for new
period what? You think that was a coincidence
that the Lord moved the pen of those translators and not put
another K-N-O-W there? That's a different kind of know,
isn't it? Know ye not what the scriptures
say of Elias? 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." I thought about us reading through this, and I almost
preached from it this evening, but 1 Kings 19, read that when
you get home. 1 Kings 19. Elijah went up to
Mount Carmel and made a mockery of those prophets of Baal. They
said, who's going to set these big piles of wood on fire? And
they said, douse it in water, dig a trench around it. And they
were chanting and cutting themselves. And they said, maybe he's taking
a nap. Yell louder to those false prophets. And they called upon
the Lord. It consumed that offering, consumed
everybody standing around it. And then Ahab went and told Jezebel
everything that happened because Elijah trapped them prophets
and said, don't you let one of them get out of here. Kill every
one of them. And he chased Ahab to the gates where Jezebel's
kingdom was, because the hand of the Lord was upon him. He
was brave. Oh, what a brave man. And Jezebel
said, you send a messenger to tell him I'm going to kill him
before the sun goes down. And all of a sudden the hand
of the Lord went on him and he ran. He got scared. And he went out
there to that mountain. And the angel came to him and
let him rest and fed him. He come to Mount Horeb. And he
went to plead to the Lord, and he was pleading against Israel
that had all these prophets and all these false gods and stuff.
And he went to the mouth of that cave, and the Lord took him outside
of that cave, outside of the mountain, on the mountain. And
the earthquakes came, and the winds came, and the fires came,
and in each one of those things it said the Lord was not in there. I ain't said it plain enough,
but the Lord ain't made it effectual. Outside of Christ, the Lord's
not there. If there's an earthquake going
on in this world, you're dead to the world. Quit looking to
the earthquake. If there's a fire burning in
you for this world, you're dead to this world. Quit looking to
the fire. Whatever that may be. mail-in ballots or abortion or
whatever it is. Lord's not there. The only time
the Lord spoke to him was when he put him back inside that mountain.
Inside the cleft of the rock. That's where the Lord is. Lord
ain't out there in this world. Lord's in Christ. That's where
we need to be looking. But the Lord did not act in anger
toward Elijah. Took him out there. Elijah asked
all this stuff. Took him up on a mountain. Showed
him that Christ wasn't there. Christ was in him. And then Elijah
asked the exact same thing again, word for word. He didn't get
it. Sometimes we don't get it, do we? And they still had people
to save. And I told Kermit on the way
down here, I said, if that was me running, I'd have slammed
my fist down and said, there's work to do, get to it. And the
Lord spoke kindly to him. He acted in love toward Elijah. He acted tenderly in longsuffering.
And he said, you go back to the wilderness, but you appoint Hazael
to be king of Syria. And you appoint Jehu to be king
of Israel, the enemies that Haziel doesn't kill. All these people
out to get you. If Haziel doesn't kill them,
Jehu will. And if Jehu don't kill them,
I'll slay them. You feel cast away in this world?
What's our only defense against our enemies and against everything
going on in this world? The Lord God Almighty. Your enemy's
coming after you? He said, I'll slay them. You
go do what I tell you to do. Go to the wilderness. Go find
Elisha. And I'll take care of all these
enemies. Why am I so prone Monday morning to get up, or tomorrow
morning, get up and go fight all my enemies? That power company's
got it coming. Lord, take care of it. No need
for me to worry. That's our hope. Christ our defender
will not lose one that he died for. We won't be cast away and
we won't be stole away either. Some may be overly concerned
in our text there about the 7,000. And many people try to make themselves
prophets and they try to reveal the Lord's prophecies and the
Lord's will in our day. But what does that number mean? 7,000, it's the perfect number
of saints in Elijah's day. God was gracious. He reserved
to Himself a perfect number of people that did not bow to Baal.
That did not look to works, but they looked to grace in Christ.
One of the millions. Out of all those millions, there
were several million Jews at that time. Every one of them
had turned away, and 7,000 was a small amount. A leftover piece. It was a remnant. Just the leftovers. Look here in verse 5, Romans
11, 5. Even so then, at this present time, in Paul's day,
also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. God
had a remnant in Elijah's day, a small amount, a perfect amount. In Paul's day there was a remnant,
a small amount, a perfect amount. And today in our day, There's
a remnant, a small amount, and it's a perfect amount. Just exactly
how many the Lord wants. According to His grace. It's
the same number of people that look to His blood. That's all
He has. Turn over to Romans chapter 9,
just a page. There in verse 27. Romans 9, 27. Isaiah also crieth concerning
Israel, though the number of the children of Israel, that
physical nation, be of the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be
saved. For he will finish the work and
cut it short in righteousness, because a short work will the
Lord make upon the earth." Well, how are those loved, those new
of God, how are they going to be saved? Verse 29, and as Isaiah
said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
we would have been a Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah.
What's required? You've got to be born again of
that incorruptible seed. How are we going to be saved?
The Lord left us a seed. He gave us Christ. And it's only
by His grace He chose to do so. Now it's a very rare and it's
a very precious thing for a remnant to be found. In Elijah's day,
in Paul's day, and in our day. Now in our day we have a lot
of technology. We have a lot of communication. We can pick
up the phone and YouTube and Skype and all these other things.
It wouldn't have been like this 100 years ago, 50 years ago probably. But in that day, they probably
thought this all along. Elijah said, I'm the last one. Lord,
take me home. It's over. And he said, I've
got 7,000 left. Sometimes in our day, even with
what we see and what we're made aware of and other faithful assemblies,
people the Lord keeps faithful, we think, boy, this is it. We're
dwindling down to nothing, and as his preachers go home, we
think, oh, this is it. Lord, you've got to raise somebody
up, or he's got to be wrapping this world up soon. I've thought
that. I'm sure somebody else has thought
that. And I get weary, and I don't listen, I don't learn. And the
Lord says, you go on to the wilderness of Damascus. I got 7,000 left. I have a perfect amount of children
left on this earth. But that is only a small speck
of people in those days and in our day. We say this is a Christian
nation. It is if the Lord sustains it,
but there's a sliver of people Out of millions and millions
and millions, there's a precious few, a remnant that the Lord
loves, that He truly loves, that are inside of that ark, that
won't face the wrath of judgment in that last day, and not saying,
Lord, look at us, look at all these wonderful works we did,
we prophesied in Your name. To those who said, I knew you
not. It's a rare thing to look to Christ only. Now there in
our text, look to His grace only, verse 6. Paul makes this painfully
clear. This is clear, I couldn't make
it no clearer. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. If you add anything to grace,
it ain't grace. It's works. But if it be of works,
then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
You can't have one mixed with the other. It's oil and water,
they don't mix. When I first started chemistry
class in college, we had to learn definitions, and one of the definitions
was work. And they said it was the expenditure
of energy to accomplish a task. If we expend energy, if we use
up energy, if I breathe out, if I have to say something, if
I have to blink my eyes twice, if I do anything, that's working. If I believe on Christ, on His
gracious love for a people before time began, regardless of who
we were, it matters who He is. We have salvation. That's grace.
We didn't seek Him. We didn't look after Him. We
didn't know who to look after. And the Lord saved the people.
Those that Christ loved and gave Himself for, they did not look
to works for redemption or holiness. They looked to a Savior. They
look to Christ. I'll finish with this in Galatians
2.21. Paul says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If our redemption,
our salvation, our sanctification, anything that is required of
us comes by us doing, Christ is dead in vain. Believer, Our
God liveth. He ain't dead in vain. He accomplished
the work that He set out to accomplish. He saved His people. And those
that He died for, those that He makes know Him, that He loves
them, gives them a heart to love Him, and they follow Him, they
declare Him, they will never be cast away. Safe and secure. No matter what we think. No matter
what we're feeling. My feelings don't matter. They
come and go. Christ our rock keeps his people
forever. Amen. Let's pray together.