Now, Romans 11, verse 1, Paul
writes, 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, you remember
Paul's been talking in the preceding chapter about the Lord turning
away from the Jews because of their rejection of Christ. He
blinded their eyes. And someone who's opposed to
grace would say, Well, Paul, what about the promises of God?
Is there no hope for the Jews now? The Jews have been God's
people and now there's no hope of salvation for any Jew? Is
the rejection of the Jews total and complete forever? That if
you're born a Jew, you have no hope of salvation? And Paul's
answer to them is, God forbid. This is Paul's favorite answer
when there's an objection that comes up that's contrary to Scripture
and contrary to the character of God. When someone makes an
objection like this, they say, well, you know, has God cast
away His people? What they're doing is they're calling God
unfaithful. And that's an objection that's contrary to the character
of God. God's love is eternal and unchanging because He's eternal
and unchanging. If you look across the page in
Romans 11, verse 29, for the gifts and calling of God or without
repentance. God's not going to take his blessing
back. He's not going to take his calling
back and throw his people away. And the example that this objection
is off base is Saul of Tarsus. Paul was a Jew. He was of the
tribe of Benjamin. He says, Lord, please save me.
He made Paul an object of grace and then made him even a minister
of the gospel. It's obvious the Lord hadn't
cast away all the Jews. And the reason for that is God's
merciful and God's faithful. That's the character of God.
If God wasn't gracious, all the Jews would be cut off. Same is
true of you and me, isn't it? He hasn't cast away all of Israel
because he's faithful. Look at verse two. He goes on,
he says, God has not cast away his people, which he foreknew.
Now here's the key, which he foreknew. Now, many of that Israel
Jewish nation, they never were saved. They weren't, they were
part of that national Israel, but they were not the people
that God foreknew. Now, you know, God knows everyone.
He knows who they are. He knows our name. He knows what
we're doing. But this foreknew means loved, chosen, called,
redeemed, those that he knew. And that applies to Jew or Gentile.
Look back at Matthew chapter seven. This is the result of God's foreknowledge
in Matthew chapter 7. 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 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, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then
I will profess unto them, I never knew you." See, that's the key,
this foreknowledge. I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. They're going to depart from
the Lord. They were workers of iniquity because the Lord never
knew them. They were cast off into utter
darkness because the Lord never knew them. If He'd ever known
them, they never would have been cast out into outer darkness.
Now, the Lord knew who they were when they were going around doing
all this religious activity. He knew who they were and what
they were doing. But they weren't objects of grace. They weren't
known of the Lord, loved of God, called of God, redeemed by Christ,
washed in the blood. And the Lord will never ever
cast off any that he foreknew, any that he elected in Christ
and put in Christ to be their surety. He will do everything
that's necessary, everything that's required to bring them
home, because that's his purpose. He's not going to cast off any
that he foreknew. And that nation, Israel, was
never the people who were foreknown of God. Now, in a worldly sense,
they were God's people, weren't they? They were given special
blessings and advantages. They had the law and the prophets.
They had the sacrifices and the priesthood. But all those Israelites
were not God's people. And the proof of that is how
many of them perished in unbelief. They tell us three million Jews
came out of Egypt. God delivered that nation from
bondage in Egypt. But they were not all His people.
Two of them, over the age of twenty, were foreknown of God,
just two, Joshua and Caleb. The rest of them perished in
unbelief, perished in the wilderness. But those two who were foreknown
of God, despite the fact living in a nation that did not know
God, did not believe God, those two weren't cast off in the wilderness.
They entered the promised land. And they entered the promised
land because they were foreknown of God. And generations later,
after that people came into the Canaan, is still the same. A nation grew and prospered there,
but that nation wasn't chosen of God. They didn't know God,
and God didn't know them. And the proof is they didn't
believe God. All God's people believe God. If you're foreknown
of God, you believe God, because God gives faith. And Elijah's
day, it got so bad that the prophet didn't make intercession for
Israel. He made intercession against
Israel. Look at the rest of verse 2 here in our text in Romans
11. Watching not what the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh
intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed
thy prophets, and dink down thine altars, and I am left alone,
and they seek my life. Here, these generations later,
after Israel entered the Promised Land, Elijah is saying, Lord,
you should cast off this entire nation. They don't deserve thy
mercies. They never did deserve thy mercies,
and they certainly don't deserve for you to continue showing mercy
to them. God sends preachers to them,
and what do they do? They kill them. He sent prophets to them.
And it wasn't good enough for them just to ignore the prophet.
It wasn't good enough to just let them go on, and if somebody
wants to believe them, they can, but I'm going to ignore them.
No, they had to kill them. They couldn't just ignore them.
They had to kill them and remove all evidence. of their ministry
because they hated the gospel. They hated their message. And
it's not surprising. Years later, they did the same
to God's son. They killed him. It wasn't good
enough just to ignore him. They had to kill him and try
to remove all evidence of his ministry. And human nature is
the same today. It doesn't matter whether you're
Jew or Gentile. Human nature is the same. God sends preachers. And it's not good enough for
people just to ignore them. They can't just not believe the
message that God's servant preaches. They've got to attack you. They've
got to do everything they can to silence that ministry, to
silence that message because they hate it. That's why they
do it. They've killed your prophets. And he says they dig down thine
altars. They're so entrenched in idolatry.
They couldn't just take that altar that was already built
and offer sacrifices or whatever they did to their idols on that
altar. No, they built a new altar for their idol. But they couldn't
just ignore the altar of God. They couldn't just let weeds
grow over it and be ignored. And worse than that, they couldn't
just knock it over. They didn't just take the stones and knock
it over. They dug it up. They went down to the foundation
and dug that thing up because they're so entrenched in idolatry,
they wanted to remove all evidence and all memory that God Almighty
was ever worshipped here. They dig down the altar. They
remove the foundation smoothed it over so that there would be
no evidence God was ever worshipped here. Now, Hebrews 13, verse
10, Paul wrote, we have an altar. Our altar is the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have an altar built
of stone and John don't offer sacrifices on it. Our altar is
a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not good enough in our
day for people to ignore the altar. Ignore the sacrifice. Ignore the high priest that offers
the sacrifice, who's all one, Christ. They can't just knock
the walls down. They've got to dig up the foundation
and completely remove all evidence, any memory that Christ was ever
worshipped here. They're such content for the
God who used to be worshipped here, they dig down the foundation. They dig the altar down. And
they do it by attacking the foundation. I'm no builder, but I know this.
You erode the foundation, the walls are going to fall. That's
just so. That's why we can never give an inch when the foundation
is attacked. Now they might start by attacking
the upper layer of the wall, but right quick they're going
to get to that foundation and start chipping away at the foundation
because if they do, pretty soon everything else will be gone.
My daughter, Holly, yesterday, she's studying, she's going to
teach a class this week in academic humanities. And part of the thing
she's supposed to teach is about the Reformers. And we were looking
at some of those Reformers yesterday, and it struck me. Swingly and
Huss, two of the Reformers, known for men who stress the Scriptures
alone. And Holly even pointed out what
an odd thing to have to stress We're going to believe the Scriptures
alone. What God says is so. This is
what we're going to believe. We're not going to believe it
if this Word doesn't say it. It wasn't an odd thing to have
to stress and fight over. We're going to believe God. But
they did. Scriptures alone. Those men are accredited with
founding the Presbyterian denomination. What happened? I don't know when,
but somebody got at that foundation. That's what happened. And turned
it into a religious show. instead of faith. They attacked
the foundation. My grandmother, my mom's mom,
used to tell Henry all the time, she said, you're a Methodist
and just don't know it. Because when she's a little girl, her
pastor, she's a little girl, preached the exact same thing.
She said, I can't believe it, that's the same thing I heard
when I was a little girl. And Henry told me, he said, years
ago, she's a little girl, she found an old man who was a Methodist,
he preached the gospel. He said, about that time they
quit. Well, what happened? They eroded the foundation and
the walls fell and it just became empty religion. And the same
thing is true in the secular world. There's a movement in
our country to remove the phrase, in God we trust, from our currency.
There's already a version of the Pledge of Allegiance that
takes out the phrase, one nation under God. It scares me to death. They're attacking the foundation
this country was built on. The founding fathers of this
country, the people that first came and founded this country,
believed in a sovereign God. And we're seeing it happen in
our day. The foundation is being attacked.
And I'm telling you, one day the whole thing is going to come
crashing down because the foundation was attacked. That's just so.
I don't mean to sound like Chicken Little running around saying
the sky is falling, the sky is falling. But that's what will
happen when the foundation is attacked now. And this bothers
the children of God. This so bothers me. And Father Elijah, he's the last
one left. And Jezebel's going to kill me
and then there'll be nobody left. That's what he thought. And he's
depressed. Well, Matthew Henry said this.
I was reading this this week. He said, things are often much
better with the church of God than wise and good men think
they are. And if you look at verse 4, here's
why. But what sayeth the answer of God unto him? Now, I know
how I feel, but what does God say? I have reserved to myself
7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Now, once you look over 1 Kings 19, I want to show you something.
This is interesting. You know, Elijah, you just kind
of forget how important you think you are. You're not the only
one. There's 7,000 that I've reserved to myself. 1 Kings 19. Now yet I have left me seven
thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal,
and every mouth which has not kissed him." Now Elijah thought
he was alone, and God said, I've reserved to myself, I've kept
seven thousand men who won't worship Baal. They're not going
to worship idols because they love the Lord. They worship the
Lord. And immediately after that, look what happens in verse 19. So he departed thence and found
Elisha. the son of Shaphat, who is plowing
the twelve yoke of Oxen before him, and he with the twelve.
And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. Elijah,
not only are you not the last believer that's left, you're
not the last prophet either. The Lord's not going to leave
himself without a witness. Elisha, he called him and raised
him up to be a prophet. Matthew Henry was right, wasn't
he? Things are often not as bad as what they seem. Even when
a good and wise man thinks it, we get, you know, woe is me. There's 7,000 that haven't bowed
the knee to Baal. And why haven't those 7,000 bowed
the knee to Baal? Why didn't they use their mouth
in kissing and profess allegiance to him? Because I've reserved
unto myself keeping, preserving grace. That's why. Because God
did not cast away those 7,000 that he foreknew. That's why
keeping grace. And none would be saved. Not
one. Not one would remain faithful
unless God reserved them to himself. Not one man would remain faithful
unless God remained faithful to those that he foreknew. Look
at verse 5. And it hadn't changed. God never
changes. Even so at this present time
also. There is a remnant according to the election of grace. See,
God's the same. Elijah thought he was alone.
He wasn't. And we think we're all alone. And we're not. The world is so full of unbelief
and idolatry. Maybe we can't see it, but there's
a whole lot more believers out there than we think because God's
faithful. He's reserved them to himself.
And the reason that there's that remnant left today It's the same
reason that there was a remnant left in Elijah's day. Because
it's a remnant of grace. Why haven't we killed the prophets?
Why haven't we dug down the altar? Same reason those 7,000 didn't.
The keeping, preserving grace of God. We are so dependent on
the grace of God. Now I'm glad it's so. Because
it's the only thing it's sure of. Even in the worst of times,
and every believer, I'm just sure, is convinced the day they
live in is the worst day. I'm convinced of it. There's
never been a darker hour than today. Well, even in the darkest
of times, the Lord's reserved unto Himself a people. He's not
cast away His people now. He's always preserved a people
from spiritual darkness and spiritual deadness. It may just be Noah
and his family, but the Lord's preserved His people. He always
has and He always will. And this remnant is the remnant
that's elected by God, chosen by God. Every believer loves
election. I heard Donnie Bell say this
years ago. He said, I'll just say it. If you don't believe
in election, you're not saved. If you don't love election, you
don't know the Lord. Anybody who knows God Almighty
loves election. Just like Mike prayed, we never
would have chosen you if you hadn't chosen us. We know that's
so. Now the way the world defines
election is not the election of grace. Election and grace
are inseparable. You cannot have one without the
other. That's why a believer loves election because you can't
have election without grace and you can't have grace without
election. They're inseparable. The world's definition of election
is an election of works, not an election of grace. See, they
can't deny the word election. They can't deny the thought of
election because it's so plainly taught in Scripture. So what
they do is they dig down the foundation. They use the same
word, but they change the meaning of that word. The meaning they
use is not the meaning that's found in this book. It's an election
of grace, not an election, or theirs is an election of words.
See, what they say is God looked down through the telescope of
time. He saw who would believe and who wouldn't, so He chose.
He elected those who would believe. A man came to my house years
ago. The girls were little. Sunday afternoon. I remember
it. He came to the house. He was
going to save the whole house with these religious tracts. He wanted to come in and talk
to the whole family. Here's my babies right there
in the room. Jan's upstairs taking a nap. I wouldn't let him in the house,
but I talked to him. And he's trying to get us to
make a decision, you know. And I told him, salvation is
not a decision we make. Salvation is a decision that
God makes. And I quoted Jesus 6-8 to him. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And he said, that's right, because
God knew Noah would believe in Him and Noah would build the
ark and He'd do the right thing, you know. And I said, well, is
that the same true of Saul of Tarsus? The same true of Thomas
who doubted the Lord even after the Lord had risen? Same truth. Peter, who denied the Lord? He
said, oh, yes. I said, how about Jacob? He said,
oh, yes. I talked to him about Romans
9. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And he said it
before they were born, before they'd done any good or evil.
He said, well, but he knew that Esau were too evil and Jacob
were too good. Well, I just ended the conversation. That's an election
of works. The election Scripture talks
about is an election of grace. Undeserved, unearned, unmerited
grace. The choice of God. God choosing
a people according to His own purpose, based entirely on His
will, on His choice, on His free grace, regardless of who we are,
without any respect for any works of our own. As a matter of fact,
despite the works of our own, He chose a people and put them
in His Son. He didn't choose us because we're
better. or ever do anything better or different than anybody else,
it's simply because of God's free choice before the foundation
of the world. Look back at Romans chapter 9.
We studied this just a few weeks ago. Romans 9 verse 11. This
is grace, the election of grace. For the children, being not yet
born, either having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. Now look down at verse 16. So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Election and mercy. Election
and grace always go hand in hand. Look back at John 15. Our Lord here talking to the
disciples. Those men who are going to be
the apostles. Men known of great faith. Look what He says to them.
John 15, verse 16. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. That's election. Election of
grace. Look over in Ephesians 1. This
election of grace is always in God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Chosen to salvation through faith
in Christ. Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him, when? Before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, to himself according to the good pleasure of His will. That's the election of grace.
Unearned, undeserved favor from God. Chosen of God. A sinner. Chosen of God to be
holy and without blame before Him in love. That's grace. Unspeakable, uncomprehendable
grace. I don't even know if that's a
word, but it is now. Uncomprehendable. You just never
fathom it. I'm sure I'll hear later today
if that's a word or not. Now look at Romans 11, verse 6. And if it's by grace, then it's
no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more works. Salvation is by grace. No work of man will ever enter
into the equation of salvation. It's by grace alone. Completely, solely God's grace. And it's not grace if it's not
completely free and undeserved. If we deserve it, it's not grace.
This is another word religion uses. They use the correct word,
but the incorrect definition. They dig down and attack that
foundation now. Grace and works cannot mix. Any more than light and darkness
can mix. Darkness is the absence of light. As soon as the light switches
are flipped on, darkness goes away. Because darkness and light
can't mix. The two can never meet. And worse
is darkness. Men's works is darkness. It's
the absence of grace. But as soon as God Almighty moves
in grace, and reveals His grace to a sinner, works are dispelled
because works and grace cannot meet. It's impossible. And men
will even make a work out of faith. They make a work out of
believing. It's a decision you have to make.
They make a work out of baptism instead of understanding that
a man believes God because God elected him. Because God shed
abroad His love in his heart, He revealed His grace to him.
He revealed His Son to him and gave him faith to believe. And
baptism is a confession of what God's already done. It's not
me making His atonement effectual. It's a confession of what God's
already done. And if any part of our works,
our activity, our decision, enters into salvation, then it's salvation
by works. It's no more grace. If any work
is involved at all, we're preaching salvation by works. Now that's
so. Henry said this in his outline,
if you can find any reason why God should save you other than
His grace in Christ, then you're advocating salvation by works.
Salvation is either based entirely on your work or entirely on the
work of Christ. You choose. As for me and my
house, we're going to serve the Lord. Salvation is by grace and
I would love it to be so. This is the only message that
gives God all the glory, that tells the truth about you and
me, and makes salvation sure. Grace, the election of grace. Now verse 7, what then? Israel
hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election
hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. What then? What's
the conclusion to this objection? Has God cast away his people?
Well, obviously the Lord never has, never will cast away the
people which he foreknew. That nation Israel was not the
people that God foreknew. Now they're a picture of the
people that God foreknew, but they're not the actual people.
Some of them were, but not the whole nation. And that nation
Israel, they haven't obtained the righteousness that they seek
for. Because they sought it in the wrong place. You can have
righteousness if you want it. Seek it in Christ and you'll
have it. But seek it anywhere else and you won't. That's what's
happened to the nation Israel. They don't have it. because they're
not seeking it in the right place. And the people who find righteousness,
Paul says, they're the election. He calls believers the election. Because they're the only people
who believe God. The people that God chose, He elected, they're
the only people who believe God. And they believe God because
God gives them faith to believe. The electing love of God is the
beginning, is the very beginning of all of our hope for eternal
life that God chose me. That's why every believer loves
election, because that's the beginning of our hope. Well,
what has the election obtained? Paul says the election's obtained
it. They've obtained righteousness. They've obtained mercy and grace.
They've obtained cleansing from their sin and the blood of Christ.
They've obtained eternal life. They've obtained everything in
the Lord Jesus Christ. But the rest, Paul says, were
blinded. Paul puts the whole human race
under two headings, the election and the rest. It's one or the
other, the election and the rest. And the rest cannot blame God
for their damnation. They can't blame God when God
says, depart from me, I never knew you. They can't blame God.
You see, their sin was they shut their eyes and would not see. God told them. God sent His Son
to them. He sent preachers. He showed
them openly, but they shut their eyes and refused to see. That's not what that means to
me, they say. They shut their eyes and refused
to see it. They were told, God sent a preacher
to tell them, but they would not hear. That's their sin. They would not see. They would
not hear. They're just going to continue
in their religion because that's where they're comfortable. They
would not see. Their punishment was God blinded
their eyes so they cannot see. He gave them what they wanted.
They wouldn't see it. So God said, OK, you can't see it. That's
true of the Jews in Paul's day and true of religious people
in our day. I thought this morning, I was
going over my notes. Words cannot express the thanksgiving
in a believer's heart for the preserving, electing grace of
God. Because I'm telling you, every
one of us here would be blind as a bat spiritually if it wasn't
for the grace of God. I thank God for His electing
grace. That's where the remnant comes
from.