In verse 6 this morning, Romans
11, 6, we saw in verses 1 through 5, a few weeks ago now, I think
it's been, that Paul is dealing with the purpose of God in saving
sinners. And in verse 6, he says, and
if by grace, that is, if God has saved sinners 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. And what Paul does here in this
one concise statement is what the entire Bible does. He shows
that there are just two ways to get to God. Two ways to be
accepted of God. And these are the two religions,
as we've said so many times. There may be many denominations
and different things that men call themselves, but they're
really just two religions in the world. Law and grace. Works and grace. And this is Cain and Abel. We
see it all through the scripture. Cain brought the fruits of his
labors and expected God to accept that and God had taught already
that he can only be accepted by blood sacrifice and Cain came
in rebellion against that and Abel brought a lamb and slew
it and offered the blood of an innocent victim and God had respect
unto Abel in his offering and had not respect unto Cain in
his offering. This is that allegory that Paul
talked about in Galatians 4, 22 through 31, if you want to
look at it later. He talked about the two sons,
the son of the bondwoman and the son of the free woman. The son of the bondwoman representing
the covenant of law and the son of the free woman representing
the covenant of God's unconditional grace upon sinners. He said,
these are the two covenants. These are those two mountains
that we saw in our study in Hebrews. In Hebrews 12, 18 through 24,
Paul said, you're not come to Mount Sinai. You can't find what
you need there. You're come to Mount Zion. You're
come to the Mount where God dwells with his people in peace because
Christ has made peace between God and the sinner by the blood
of his cross. What's taught here in this verse
is what Paul taught in the very context here concerning the vessels
of wrath and the vessels of mercy. In this very context he said
that the vessels of wrath go about to establish their own
righteousness and that the vessels of mercy are loved before they
are ever born. If you read Romans chapters 9
through 11 You see that clearly. Grace and works. And Paul makes
it clear here that there can be no mixing of the two. The
moment you introduce any work, whatever it is, into grace, it
ceases to be grace. If you say, and people do, that
yes, salvation is all of grace, but you have to. Just fill in
the blank. You have to make a decision.
You have to accept it. You have to go down the Roman
road. You have to make it, you know,
whatever. Just fill in the blank. Grace, but you have to, is not
grace. That's what Paul said here. It's
not grace anymore. And this is what he meant in
Galatians 5.4 that Dee talked about last week in the Bible
class. In Galatians 5.4, Paul said,
And of course, religion is so ridiculous. So many have taken
that to mean that, well, you can be saved by grace and then
you're not saved anymore. You've fallen from grace. That's
not what that's talking about. The word there that's rendered,
are fallen from, it's one word there, and it means to fail of
participating in. If you are standing before God,
having been circumcised or having walked an aisle or having done
anything, any work, What he's saying there is you've missed
out on grace. You've failed to participate
in grace because you are standing before God on a footing of works.
It's one or the other. It cannot be both, Paul said
in our text, verse six of chapter 11. It can't be both. It can't be a mixture. It can't
be mostly one and a little bit of the other. It's one or the
other. And he said, if you're justified by the law, you're
fallen from grace. Grace is excluded. And if you're saved by grace,
then boasting is excluded. You stand before God in your
own works or in Christ's, in your own law-keeping or under
the blood. You've missed out on grace. If
you stand before God having done anything, in order to be saved. And that's
what our Lord was saying in Matthew 7, 22. Turn there with me. Let's
look at that just for a minute. Matthew 7, verse 22. This is what our Lord's talking
about here. We get a few of some who are going to
stand there in that last day on the footing of works. And
this is what's going to happen. He said in Matthew 7, 22, many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? They're going to acknowledge
him as sovereign. You're the Lord. But look what we've done. Look what we've done. 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 will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now they start, they see that
they're not getting in. And so they begin to start giving
reasons why they should. What do you mean we're not going
to enter in? Look what we've done. Instead
of crying out for mercy, instead of taking their place in the
dust before him, if they truly understood who he was, the Lord,
then they would know what they are before him. And they would
cry for mercy rather than say, look what we've done. But that's
where those who stand, those who are justified by the law,
as he said in Galatians 5, 4, and those, as we see in our text,
that stand before God in their own works. That's all they have. Look what we've done. Look at
the great, wonderful works we've done. And he'll say, I never knew you'd
depart from me. Now look at verse 24. We usually
don't go beyond that, but this is so important to the text.
He said, you work and Nick, all of your wonderful works, they're
sin. You even there, they said, we've preached in your name.
He said, that's sin. If all I ever did was preach
in the name of Christ, the gospel, preach the truth, if that's all
I ever did and I stood before God in judgment based upon my
doing of that, he'd have to throw me in hell. There's so much sin
in my thoughts and in my motives and in my very being. It's not about what we do, it's
about what we are and it taints everything we do. before God. And so he said, I never knew you
depart from me, you that work iniquity. Now listen, there's
a reason why this is the context of this. Therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken
him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. Now what
is it to do the sayings of the Lord? What did he say to do? Come to me. Abandon your own works and your
own will and your own self and all that you've ever done. Like
Paul did, it's all done. And follow me, come to me. Quit
going about to establish your own righteousness and submit
to the righteousness of God. If you believe on me, you'll
have everlasting life. Now there's your wise man right
there and he's built his house upon a rock. And the winds blew
and beat upon that house and it fell not, for it was founded
upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not." Oh, but look what we've
done. He didn't say, preach in my name. He didn't say, do wonderful
works. He said, come to me. He said,
you search the scriptures. You think you have life by obeying
the law, the letter of the law, but you won't come to me that
you might have life. That's obeying the sayings of
Christ. Come to me. Trust me. Rest in me. And those
that won't build on the rock, they're building on the sand.
And when the rain descends and the floods come and the winds
blow and beat upon that house, it's going to fall. That's what
he just said. When he said, depart from me,
you that work iniquity. Your house is crumbling around.
You built a house of your good works, and it's crumbling around
your head. And great. was the fall of it. And so back in our text, verse
seven, what then? Now this includes all of the
first six verses, what then? And he's gonna conclude something
based upon what we just saw from the word of God, the truth of
God's word. What then is the plain truth then about who's
gonna be saved and who's not gonna be saved? Israel hath not
obtained that which they seeketh for. Does that mean God's promises
are null and void to the nation of Israel? No. He never promised
anything to the earthly nation of Israel. His promises are all
yea and amen in Christ. And His spiritual Israel exists
within that nation and within every nation. And so what's the
plain truth about who's going to be saved then and who's not
going to be saved? What then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it. Those
whom God has chosen from the beginning among Israel and among
every other nation under heaven. They have obtained it and the
rest were blinded. Who's going to be saved and who's
not? The election are going to obtain it. and the rest are not. They're blinded. This is as plain
as it gets. Paul asked a question in verse
1 of Romans 11 and then clearly answered it. Let's look back
at chapter 11 verse 1. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? God forbid, I'm one Hebrew like
you. So I'm not saying God's cast
his people. What's the answer then? God hath
not cast away his people, which he foreknew. Many of the nation
of Israel are going to be blinded and are going to not obtain the
nation of Israel as a whole. Only a remnant are going to obtain
it. And the nation of Israel as a whole is going to be blinded
and going to be lost and all going to go to hell. But that
doesn't mean God has cast away his people whom he foreknew.
And he gives this illustration of Elijah and how that Elijah
had thought that there was no one in his
day that was saved, that knew God, that had experienced the
mercy of God. And God showed Elijah that there
was a specific number of people who had not bowed to Baal and
that there was a specific reason why they had not. You see, this
whole context is about who's going to be saved, who's not,
and why. There's a specific number. There's
3,000 that haven't bowed their knee to bail, Elijah. And here's
why. I've reserved them unto myself.
He's reserved, and this is the fulfillment of God's promise. This is why God's promise that
he made to his elect is not null and void. This is the fulfillment
of it. This is God not casting off his
people. He reserved 3,000 that have not
bowed to Baal, that are not going to worship another God. They're
going to follow me, he said. My sheep are going to hear my
voice, and they're going to follow me. Another, they will not follow.
They're not going to bow their knee to Baal. Because I've chosen
them. They're the election. They're
the chosen. They're the reserved. And they're going to worship
me. The rest are blinded, but not
them. The rest are cast off, but not them. Not the who? The election. The chosen. People can argue about the doctrine
of election, and they do, until everybody's mad at one another
and hates one another, but I'll tell you what God's people do,
they rejoice in it. And I thank God for reserving
them, because I'd be at my knees, I'd be bowed to Baal right here
this morning, and yours would too, if he hadn't elected us
and reserved us for his grace. We rejoice because we know something
they don't. And there are the election and
there are the rest. The only ones that are not the
rest are not those who have made a decision. They're not those
who have been able to successfully go about to establish their own
righteousness. They are the election. And everybody is one or the other.
And the only difference, the only difference is the love of
God. and all of the consequences of
that love. That's what Paul said in this
context now. He just said there's a remnant according to the election
of grace. And he said, here's what that
election has to do with. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated before they were ever born or had done any good or
evil. It's the love of God that distinguishes between the saved
and the lost. We all are by nature enmity against
God, and we'll all pay for it eternally, unless God has mercy
upon us. There's none by nature that seeks
after God. We've turned every one to our
own way, Romans 3 11, and we will all go that way. That seems
right to us, whose end is destruction, unless God loves and chooses and redeems. Christ said, no man can come
unto me and we will not come to him that we might have life
and we will perish without him unless except the Father draw. Except God does something. Salvation
is not you doing something for God. It's God doing something
for you. That's what Paul is teaching throughout this book.
and what this entire Bible teaches. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. Here in his love, not that we
loved him, but that he loved us. It's all through. He loved us and he sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the difference
between the election and the rest. God so loved, he sent,
he gave. There is human righteousness,
my righteousness, lived out on this earth by my representative, because God so loved. There is
precious, priceless blood shed for my sins because God so loved. If not for his love, there would
be no election, If not for election, there would be no grace, and
there would only be one kind of sinner instead of two. The reason that the remnant in
verse four worship the true God instead of Baal is because God
did something. The one exception to our inability
to come to the only hope for a sinner, as he said in John
6, for no man can come. There's one exception to that.
God does something, except the Father, which hath sent me draw him. He loved. He chose. He predestinated. He called. He justified. He glorified. He loved and sent his Son to
be what I'm not, to do what I can't, and to pay for everything I've
done. I thought about it, it just overwhelmed me this morning.
The Lord Jesus Christ had to come down here and pay for everything
I've ever done. Everything I've done, and everything
I will do. He's got to pay for it. And the
price is his precious Senatonian blood. There is the election and there
is the rest. And because of that, there are
the redeemed and there are the rest. He chose us because he
loved us. And he chose us to be like his
son. He predestinated us to be like his son. And the only way
that can happen is for him to come where I am. and live for
me and die for me to pay the price for all of my sin, which
is everything I've ever done. And he willingly, willingly paid
it because he loved me. Let's bow in prayer.