Amen. Romans chapter 11, we are
opening up a new series. And if you look at the title
of your outline, you'll get a hint at what we're dealing with. There is a remnant according
to the election of grace. There is a remnant according
to the election of grace. That's really what the apostle
is going to be talking about tonight. In that verses 1 through
10, we will probably get to about verse 7 tonight, perhaps. But what Paul is going to do
is explain in further detail what's going on in chapter 10. If you notice, he concluded in
chapter 10, starting at verse 19. But I say, did not Israel
know? For Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them
that are no people, and by a foolish nation will I anger you. But
Isaiah is very bold and said, I was found of them that sought
me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me, but to Israel, he said. Now this
is an interesting statement. Do you know he's quoting from
the book of Isaiah? I believe we are in the 65th
chapter and in verse 1 he says in Isaiah 65 verse 1 according
to verse 20, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made
manifest unto them that ask not for me. You know he's speaking
of verse 31 and 32 of chapter 9, right? If you go back to chapter
nine, notice the logic. And remember, when Paul is writing
and when he's discussing, and when he's laying down theology,
he's very consistent, very controlled in his arguments, very controlled
in his logic and in his approach. When he says something, it's
rooted in something that he said before. So if you look at chapter
nine, verse 30 and 31, what shall we say then? That the Gentiles,
which followed not after righteousness, hath attained to righteousness
even the righteousness, which is of faith, but Israel, do you
see that? He establishes a contrast between
the Gentiles who obtained God's righteousness and Israel, but
Israel, you guys see that? And then in chapter 11, or chapter
10, verse 20, he says in verse 21, but to Israel, do you see
the distinction? If you were to go back to Isaiah
65, verse one and two, and you read it merely in the context
of Isaiah chapter 65 you wouldn't personally have any indicator
that there are two people group that Isaiah is dealing with if
you were reading the Old Testament merely remember the only way
you can understand the Old Testament is to have a real sound grasp
of the New Testament The only way you're gonna really comprehend
the distinctions between God dealing with his people and dealing
with the nation of Israel is to understand what the New Testament
has to say in terms of shedding light on what the Old Testament
laid down. You guys understand that, right?
So it's impossible for you and I to have a comprehensive hermeneutic,
a sound interpretive grid of the Old Testament without deferring
to the New Testament. It's critical. Remember we dealt
with the Ruth, Naomi typology. Naomi represents what? The Old
Testament. Ruth represents what? The New
Testament. The two are connected by virtue
of the kinsmen redeemer, but the latter, that is Ruth, she
gave birth to the son. Which means while Naomi is relevant
to comprehending the truth, without Ruth, you don't get that full
revelation. Without Ruth, you don't see the
child, you don't see the connection, you don't see the purpose for
the kinsman-redeemer. And so it is with the New Testament.
If you don't have a clear understanding of how the apostles thought,
and how they comprehended Jesus' words, so that when they read
back into the Old Testament, they read back into the Old Testament
with a cross-centered prism. And they were able to divide
between that which is of God and that which was not of God,
and give us a plain interpretation of it. I'll give you an example
because I want you to be able to launch into Romans chapter
11 the right way. Go back to Isaiah chapter 65
and you'll see what I'm saying. So as we are preparing to enter
into the 11th chapter of Romans, here is my challenge for you,
and particularly those of you who are newer with us, for you
to enjoy the Old Testament and to see the truth and reality
of the Old Testament You need to spend a lot of time in the
New Testament because the New Testament brings clarity where
the Old Testament was intentionally veiled. Paul spoke about what
was called the mystery that was hidden in time past. and in ages
past from the sons of men, but hath now been revealed to his
holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit of God." You guys
remember that? Several times Paul said, those things that
were written in the Old Testament, many of them were written and
couched in a context of mystery of which if you read merely the
historical context, you would come up with a wrong conclusion.
Without understanding the New Testament narrative, It would
be impossible for you to use a proper hermeneutic and come
up with a gospel interpretation. Here's what I'm saying. If we're
in Isaiah chapter 65, notice what it says. Now notice the
seamless commentary between verse 1 and verse 2. I call this a
seamless commentary, but it's only seamless when you don't
understand what is necessary to properly grasp the truth in
the Old Testament. Notice verse 1. This is what
Paul was quoting By the way, in Romans chapter 10, as he closed
out the 10th chapter, I am sought of them that ask not for me.
Isn't that the quotation? I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me, behold me
unto a nation that was not called by my name. How do people call
upon God's name? How do they seek, seek after
the true and the living God? They've got to behold his glory.
Do you guys see that in verse one? I said, behold me, behold
me. That's the message of Isaiah.
Behold my servant, whom I have sent. That's the whole message
of Isaiah. Look to Christ, all ye ends of
the earth and be ye saved. For I am the Lord and besides
me, there is no savior. So the Gentiles are being spoken
of in verse one. Notice what it says in verse
two. I have spread out my hands all the day. unto a rebellious
people which walks in a way that was not good after their own
thoughts." That's not good, folks. Now who is he talking to now?
National Israel. But you see, without the New
Testament commentary, you'd never be able to make that distinction.
You think either that he has simply changed subject matters
and is still dealing with the same people group in verse one
as he is in verse two, or you're confounded by how is it that
in verse one, he's calling people who respond to him, and in verse
two, there is a people group that's rebelling against him.
Without the added information of what we call the mystery of
the Gentiles being added to the church, you can't see the interpretation. You can't see the divide. Are
you guys aware of what I'm saying? All right, now, notice what he
says. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious
people which walks in their own way, a way that is not good after
their own thoughts, a people that provoke me to anger continually
to my face, that sacrifices in gardens and burn incense upon
altars of brick, which remain among the graves and lodge in
the monuments, which eats swine's flesh and broth of abominable
things in their vessels, which say, now watch this, stand by
yourself, don't come near me, for I'm holier than you. Now
who said this? Isaiah. Under what inspiration?
The Spirit of God. Who is the indictment against?
National Israel. What is their problem? Salvation
by words. You guys got it? Now go back
to our text, Romans chapter 10 and 11. Because what Paul is
doing is taking up the argument of the Old Testament prophets
to help us understand that Israel had won prominent problem which
kept them from God. That's the whole discourse, isn't
it? How is it that a people that didn't even seek after God obtained
God's righteousness? And how is it that a people that
pursued God all their history missed Him? This is what we were
dealing with in Romans chapter 9 in Romans chapter 10. And Paul's
going to go back to 9 here in a moment as we follow the logic
of our outline. But I wanted you to see clearly
he closes out Romans chapter 10 by saying, but did not Israel
know and didn't Isaiah boldly say, but unto Israel is said
all day long have I stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient
and gainsame people. Now park that. I want you to
think with me as we get ready to launch into chapter 11. This
is the year AD 53, 54. This is some 20 years after Christ
has risen, ascended on high, sent his Holy Ghost, anointed
his apostles and put them into ministry. The apostles have been
ministering now for some 15, almost 20 years. They are known
all over Europe. They're known in Asia. They are
known in Palestine. Some of them are dead now for
the preaching of the gospel. The gospel has spread forth and
started churches and ministries and groups of people who are
trusting Christ. But the gospel has also created
a major scandal, which has initiated a persecution and in hostility
towards the message of redemption in the person of Christ. The
primary culprits of this hostility and persecution are who? the
Jews. Don't be afraid to say it. All
you have to do is read your Bible. The book of Acts makes it very
plain, doesn't it? Paul, everywhere he went, was
being persecuted. By who? The Jews. Persecuted. And so, what we're dealing with
is a context in which a particular category of Jews are demonstrating
the same continuous persecutory attitude while Paul is writing
that they did during the times when the apostles were laying
down the gospel and the acts as well as in the days of our
Lord Jesus. So when Paul is writing, I want
you to get this now because while as we launch into chapter 11,
I want you to get what Paul wants to get across, attention that's
in his soul as the apostle, as he closes out chapter 10 admitting
The history of his people was one that constituted continual
rebellion against a God who stretched out his hands all day long. The person who has just quoted
this under inspiration of the Spirit of God is himself a Jew. Not only is he a Jew, he is a
quintessential Jew. He's of the tribe of Benjamin.
And therefore he is part of that elite group of Jewish people
who took stock in their ethnicity, and he knew the relatives who
said, don't stand near me, I'm holier than you. He grew up as
a baby among those people. In fact, he took on that same
attitude. Not only did he do that, He aspired
to the ministry and learned theology, sat under the greatest of teachers,
Gamaliel, and other profound theologians of his day, and began
to engage in the same persecutory spirit of which he's writing
against now. He persecuted the church. He
drug Christians out into the marketplace, witnessed against
them and saw them put to death. So here's the point. While the
apostle is simply being faithful to the history of the scriptures
in relationship to the people's position before God, he's not
doing it as someone standing on the outside of the house throwing
stones at the house. He's been on the inside. He stands
now on the outside simply being faithful to God's word, which
means he's condemning himself as well. Are you guys hearing
me? So what Paul doesn't want the
category of people that he's getting ready to talk to, to
do is to reject what he's saying because of the character of his
message. See, it's real easy for you to embrace somebody when
they teach you something you like. or that agrees with your
presuppositions or your assumptions and your ideology. You can say,
man, that brother's telling the truth now. But as soon as he
crosses your line and start teaching things contrary to what you had
assumed that you believe to be true, now you're challenged in
terms of being objective and critiquing what he says or discerning
what he says purely on the basis of scripture and not on emotions.
In other words, the Jewish people that are listening to the epistle,
as it's being written or being passed throughout Rome, could
take the position of, who is Paul? He's nobody. But Paul has
already laid down his position. Romans 9, verse 1, he says, I
tell the truth in Christ, I lie not. The Spirit of God bears
record with me. I love my brethren, the Jews,
such a degree that I would be willing to lay down my life and
be accursed from Christ for their sake. That's a good qualifier
for speaking to your brethren, isn't that right? So what the
apostle is doing once again, because as he made his way through
Romans 9, he understood that when he began to talk about this
dreaded doctrine which humanism despises called election, that
he realized that he was going to raise the ire of his own Jewish
brethren once again. Because once he began to explain
that the reason why the majority of the Hebrew people or the political
nation of Israel did not receive Christ was because they weren't
elect. And the election did, he knew that this was going to
create a great hostility. He knew this, and so as he made
his way through, he qualified it by saying to them, listen,
I wish I could be myself a curse. So what I'm saying is simply
the truth of God, and it's gonna hurt, but you gotta swallow it,
cause it's the truth. If you want an explanation as
to why some Jews believed and others didn't, here's the explanation
that God has always had a children called the children of promise
versus those who are called the children of the flesh. This is
the distinction between the saved and the damned. That's just Bible
talk. So when he closes out chapter
10, he does the same thing. He argues on the basis of God's
appeal in the Old Testament, that God stretched his hands
out. To stretch the hand out is to make known your purpose.
When God closes his hand, he hides his purpose from you. When
he opens his hands, he's showing you his will. This is Isaiah
chapter 53. To whom have the arm of the Lord
been revealed? And who have believed on what?
Report. See, so he revealed his arm, but Israel didn't what?
Believe. See, this is the foundation upon
which we're ending in chapter 11, and he's going to make it
even more distinct. Let me make this proposition
as we enter into it. When he said in Romans chapter
10, verse 17, so then faith cometh by what? Hearing. And hearing
by what? The word of God. It is possible
to have a hearing of the word and not have faith. Isn't that
what we've been dealing with? But it's impossible to have true
saving faith apart from hearing the word. You guys got that syllogism? Hearing produces faith, but not
inviolably. In other words, if God doesn't
give you a hearing ear and a seeing eye, you can hear the words of
truth and they never produce the fruit of faith. We read in
Hebrews chapter four verse one and two then let us not fail
to enter into that same promise of rest as Israel did for the
word being preached unto them did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that what? Heard it. Got it? So a hearing of the word not
mixed with faith will never produce the fruit of righteousness. And
so this is what Paul is dealing with in Romans chapter 10. And
here's how he opens up chapter 11. I want you to see it now.
In verse one and two, this is our first interest into the 11th
chapter. I say then, 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. Now stop right
there. We're going to back up because
I want to deal with this. As we deal with this chapter, one
of the assumptions that I want to make sure that we are very
clear on is that when Paul uses the phrase his people, I don't
want you to default to the common parlance that his people refers
to the political nation of Israel. That's a common parlance. That's
an assumption. The assumption, and I consider
it a flawed assumption, is that national Israel is what Paul
is dealing with in terms of his people. I consider that a flawed
assumption. And what I mean by that is this,
Paul is not speaking of the nation of Israel on a physical level
without qualifiers when he says, God has not cast away his people.
And what that means is when you look over in the Middle East
now and the regions of Palestine and you see the millions of Jews
that are living in Palestine now, that does not confirm the
fact that God has not cast away his people. You're looking at
the wrong people when you look at the physical seed of Israel
to assume that God has not cast away his people. Now we'll see
this as we go into the text, but what Paul is trying to make
clear to you and me is this. When we talk about the dilemma
that we find in the history of scripture with regards to this
perpetual rebellion against God on the part of national Israel,
that is never a problem with God because within the framework
of that society, there are a people that God has purpose to be with
him for all eternity. That's what Paul is going to
explicate here. So he wants us to go back to Romans chapter
9 verse 6 to make sure that we understand what he means by his
people. Go back there. Because I want you guys to be
able to get it as we were through Romans chapter 11. Chapter 11
is going to move us into a category of theology down the line called
eschatology. But before we go there, Paul
wants to make sure that you understand the landscape and have a proper
understanding of the argument that is being posed as to what
is the condition of God's people. Chapter 9 Verse six and seven
says, not as though the word of God had taken no effect, for
they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. You guys got that? Now, see now, Paul understood
that to look at 2 million Jews, blood descendants of Abraham,
is not to look at the Israel of God. He understood that to
see the Israel of God, you had to have an understanding of what
constituted a true Jew. Are you guys hearing me? In other
words, a true Jew in the mind of the apostle could not merely
be that you were a physical blood descendant of Abraham. Now, those
of you who have been with us for long enough, you know that
that's what the Bible teaches, right? that a true Jew is not
one who is one outwardly, that is in the flesh, circumcised
in his body, but a true Jew is one who is one inwardly. The
circumcision is of the heart, whose praise is before God, and
he rejoices in Christ Jesus, and he has no confidence in the
flesh. That means you can't see a Jew. You have to comprehend him. You
can no more see the true Jew. then the physical Jew could see
the true and the living God in the person of Jesus. Did you guys get that? It's so
important to get. I want to make sure this foundation
is clear, because there is a massive ideological subversion over the
whole world about this issue, and particularly in America.
Am I telling the truth? It's such a massive subversion
that in the world of religion, people won't even talk about
it. But the fact is, is the Bible is very clear on what a true
Jew is. Particularly the articulation
of the apostles in the New Testament. They make it clear that in Christ
there's neither male, female, son, daughter, you know, bond-free,
Greek, Jew, slave. There is no distinction in Christ
We are Abraham's seed and heirs of the promise. Now that's from
every nation group in the world without distinction. So a true
Jew is a person who believes the gospel. You guys got that? Now that's the people that he's
gonna be dealing with here in chapter 11, verse one and two. And this is what he's making
distinct in Romans chapter nine, verse six and seven. Now notice
what he says in verse seven, neither because they are the
seed, sperma. of Abraham. Are they all children? Techno. Now watch it. But in Isaac, show your seed,
be called. You guys got that? So you guys
understand the distinction, right? All right, let's go back to chapter
11, because he's going to address this as he explains that God
has never lost anybody. You might be lost, but God's
not lost. And I might be lost, but I never
have been lost in the mind of God. God never lost anything. Did you know that? He never lost
a thing. Talking about the lost tribes
of Israel. I say, then have God cast away
his people. God forbid, for I also am an Israelite, the seed of
Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. What has Paul just done in verse
one? First of all, he's speaking what we call the present tense.
He says, what I'm saying to you, that's our common vernacular.
Paul is saying, having said what I said in Romans nine and 10,
what I'm saying to you, and then he raises the question, has God
cast away his people? And the answer is no. For if
God had cast away his people, I wouldn't be saved. You got
it? I wouldn't be saved. And Paul
could say that for every one of the apostles. for they were
all Jews. And the remnant, which is what
we're gonna get into in a moment, were primarily, not exclusively,
but primarily Jews. The remnant, that core group
that waited on the consolation of Israel, the birth of the Messiah,
His growing up in Nazareth and doing ministry in Capernaum and
Galilee and dying on Calvary's tree in Jerusalem or outside
of Jerusalem, that remnant that waited on Him were primarily
Jewish believers, but their confidence was not in the flesh. They didn't
say, stand back from me, I'm holier than you. You guys got
that? So when he says God has not cast
away his people whom he foreknew, he says, I am also an Israelite
seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. Now he scored a
few points with his Jewish auditors right there, didn't he? He would
have scored some with me. He would have scored some with
me. Here's the tension too. Think about this. On the one
hand, there can be an advantage when you bring the gospel to
your own people group. on the one hand. On the one hand,
there's an advantage when you have the ability to speak specifically
and in detail to the type of characteristics and behavior
patterns and life experiences of your own ethnic group. You
can connect with them. You can identify with them. They
can resonate with what you're saying because you can use the
vernacular and the terminology that will allow you to build
a bridge between them and your message. Am I making some sense?
And so Jesus said to the demoniac who was possessed of a legion
of devils, go back home to the Decapolis and tell those folks
what good things the Lord has done for you. Right? No great
things God has done for you. And he went back and preached
to his own people. And many of the Gentiles got saved as a consequence
of his ministry. The Samaritan woman, remember
her? She went back to her own Samaritan village and said, come
here. May have told me everything about
me. Is this not the Christ? And they came and they heard
and they believed too. Isn't that right? But you also
know where the proverb comes in. A man is not honored in his
own. What? So there's a tension here. On the one hand, Paul is hoping
to reach an element, a constituency of his Jewish brethren, because
this is the target now. On the other hand, he knows prophetically
that the vast majority of them hate him as much as they hated
his master. Are you hearing me? That's the
tension that we all deal with. We hope and pray that some of
our loved ones who have never bowed the knee to Jesus would
come to see his glory and fall on their face and call him Lord
like we did. But we also know that there's
going to be a large element of our family members who are going
to view us as that snotty nose child that grew up with them. And this is Joseph's boy. We remember Joseph's boy. You
remember, we remember her. We remember them running the
streets, acting the fool. And so incredulity will set in
and they will say, I can never take her serious. I can never
take him serious until the spirit of God gets into the mix. And
then perhaps they will come to understand it was God's mercy
to save an object of grace who lived right in my neighborhood
and in my house by which I could hear the gospel. Because anytime
a saved person is in the midst, God has brought you near to him.
Are you hearing me? Anytime a saved person is in
the midst, God has brought that people group near to him. They
might behold his glory in that person's words or in that person's
character and that person's attitude That's the reason why Jesus has
sprinkled us as salt in all the parts of the world. Am I making
some sense? So Paul says I'm just like them
look at verse 2 God hath not cast away his people. Do you
guys see that his people? Which he what? That's what we
got to deal with now for a new Here's another flaw in the thinking
and the assumption of people that to foreknow is to have a
cognitive knowledge of a person in the past. That what is being
said in relationship to the doctrine of foreknowledge is that God
simply merely sees everything before it happens. Now that's
not what foreknowledge means. The term for knowledge in the
biblical sense is never used in what we call in the classical
term pre-science. Science means knowledge. Pre
means beforehand. The prescience of God, the ability
or the fact that God knows everything from the beginning is not what
is meant by the word for no. Are you guys hearing me for a
moment? Because I want you to get this, because sometimes,
like I said before, if you are thinking in terms of an American
Western mindset, you won't comprehend the words that are translated
from Greek to the New Testament properly, because you read into
them a flawed assumption. To foreknow does not merely mean
to know beforehand. That would be a redundancy. Acts
chapter 17 or 15, known unto God are all his works from the
foundation of the world. Isn't that true? Known unto God
are all his works from the foundation of the world. So then, does God
not know the Asian people? Does He not know the African
people? Does He not know the Palestinian
people? No, God knows everybody. And
He knows everybody all the time. And He knows every facet of their
life. Isn't that right? He knows every
detail of everybody's life down to the minutest particle. So
we're not dealing with whether or not God knows everybody beforehand,
but whether or not God knows you in a special way. This is called special knowledge. For those of you who haven't
written that down, write that down. It's called special knowledge. I need
to elaborate so that we get this. I'm using the word special knowledge
so that it registers with your mind that this is a unique perception,
a unique experience, a unique awareness. It is distinctly different
than the simple fact that I am aware that you exist. The Greek
word in view is the Greek word pro, it's a preposition. Gnosis,
which is a noun, and it is a noun for knowledge. We've spoken about
this many times. is actually transliterated into
our English word to know. K-N-O-W is translated from the
Greek word G-N-O-S, gnosis. To know, gnosis, to know, gnosis. But as we've said before, with
words they have literal meanings and then they have what we call
connotative meanings. To know something is to be aware of it,
but to know something also means to be intimately aware of it. Am I making some sense? So that
in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament scriptures,
which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, when the
Bible says in Genesis chapter three, that Adam knew his wife
Eve, and she was conceived of a child, that's the same Greek
word, gnosis. And what is intimating is intimate
covenant knowledge. rooted in a profound connection
between the subject and the object. And when the Bible says God foreknows
his people, it means that he has a intimate covenant knowledge
of them that's rooted in a union like a man and his wife. Are
you guys aware of that? I'm just driving at home so that
we can make the distinction. When God says, I know him, He's
talking deep knowledge, profound knowledge, covenant knowledge,
conjugal knowledge, the deep profound covenant knowledge which
underscores the binding of a man and a woman so that they become
what? One. That's right. For this cause
shall a man leave his mother and his father and cleave unto
his wife and the twain become what? One. That's called salvation,
folks. You guys got that? That's salvation.
You need to remember that and understand that. That is the
distinct difference between God knowing me and knowing the devil. And God knowing me and knowing
Judas Iscariot. And God knowing me and knowing
Pharaoh. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is so very important. So very important. Paul knows
what he's saying when he says this. So I want you to go through
a few passages so that you can grasp this in our outline. Verses
one and two, as we do with our state, there is a national political
Israel, and then there is the true Jew, the Israel of God,
those he foreknows. That's what will go in your slot.
Look at Romans chapter eight, verse 28. I'm gonna take you
to three or four verses to prime your thoughts with this concept
so that as we go through Paul's discourse, it will become evident
to you that Paul understands what he's saying. You've heard
this quoted many times, but let it resonate in your soul. Chapter
eight, verse 28, are we there? And we, what? Know that all things,
what? Work together. for good to them
that, what? Now, listen. Those that love
God, evidence that God has always loved them. The lovers of God are manifesting
the fact that God has always loved them. There's a point in
time when the love of the Father, which is eternal, is manifested
in the love of the object of mercy in time. In other words,
the evidence that God loves you is that you love God. And we're
called lovers of God. Are you hearing me? We're called
lovers of God. That too intimate for you? I
love God. I love Him, don't you? to be a lover of God. I could
sit here for 45 minutes, but I'm not. But to be a lover of
God is to be committed to the true, the living God, like a
woman is to her husband, jealously committed to the one true God
and Jesus Christ whom he has sent and therefore bent on honoring
him as his submissive bride to the truth of who he is in this
world. I, and my beloved, and my beloved
is mine. Am I making a little sense? And
so that's, this is the point of salvation. This here is the
critical point of salvation. You know you are Christ when
God has poured his love into your heart and shed it abroad
by the Holy Ghost and made you to see Jesus. Now your lifestyle
exhibits you love God you guys got that so everything is working
together for good to them that what that's right to them which
are what the call and they are called according to what purpose
for whom he did what that's the same Greek word that's the same
Greek word for whom he did for no He also did what? Now we're gonna
get into that here in a moment, but mark this. Those he foreknows
are those that love him. They are those that are called
and they are those who have been predestined. To explain that in the simplest
form without being crude, it means that God have carved out
a course for his called who are also those he foreknows, which
will infallibly bring them to glory. You guys got that? That's what it means to be predestined,
to be predestined. That's when God loves you in
eternity past and sets his purpose to bring you into full conformity
to what he loves most. His son. That's right. So his
goal for you is for him to be able to love you with all his
heart, soul, mind, and strength. In order for God to do that,
you got to look like Christ. Is that all right? I love you,
but I don't love you like I want to love you. So I got to make
you into something by which I can pour all my love into you. So
this is what he says. So, because if you want to know
what it means to be predestined, you're getting ready to find
out. Am I predestined? Let's see. For whom he did foreknow,
he also predestined, watch this, to be what? Conformed to the
image of his son. Got it? Now, this will help some
of you as we go to other passages, just in the area and category
of predestination. Predestination is God's purpose
to bring you to a point where you look just like Jesus. Are you hearing me? But the process,
which is called predestination, is a path of suffering. Got it? Now listen to the verse. Jesus
said in John chapter 4, listen to it, verse 6, I am the what? Way. Got it? What was the way? Suffering. Suffering. I am the way. I am the what?
Truth. And I am the what? When Jesus
told his disciples, I'm the way, he says, you know the way I'm
going because I already told you the way. That way is the
way of the cross. That's what God lays upon every
one of his sons. The Greek word wheel, sons, is
not a term denoting gender, but status. Every one of his sons
are marked out for suffering because suffering is the crucible
for conformity to Christ. Got it? And we love the election
part. We love the foreknowledge part.
We love the predestination part. All right, you ready for the
ride? Because the ride, It's part of the process of sanctification
to bring us into conformity to Christ. It's within that process
that you discover whether or not you love God. Am I making
some sense? See, there are a lot of folks
who can believe in all five points are destitute of the love of
God. There are folks who will boldly proclaim predestination.
but nothing in their life evidences that they love the God of predestination. Am I making some sense? Kicking
and bucking against everything that God does. God's sheep don't
do that. Just trying to help you. This is what Paul is going to
explain in this process. In fact, tell the truth now.
Don't you know that you are drawn closer to God your pain than
in your pleasure. It's in your suffering that you
see his glory, not your success. Am I making some sense? Put my three servants, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariel in the fire and see what comes out. Isn't
that right? And so that's what, see they
were being conformed to the image of Christ in such a way that
Nebuchadnezzar beheld the Son of God. That's the only way it
works. So when you and I are trying
to throw off the yoke of Christ's suffering, we are proving to
ourselves we don't love Him. Can I help you? See what I'm
getting at? When we try to throw off the
yoke, we're saying, I don't love you God, not that much. Not that
much. Now you know that's what the
Bible teaches, right? I'm just taking my time, but you do know
that's what the Bible teaches, right? If any man love me, if
any man wanna be my disciple, let him do what, see? Let him throw down his cross. So now, what's so important is
the concepts and doctrines of the gospel we call the doctrines
of grace are glorious doctrines, but they're only glorious in
as much as they are connected to the person of Christ and his
vital union to the redeemed sinner. Otherwise, these are doctrines
way above our head. They mean nothing to us and they
certainly do not affect our fallen nature. An unsaved man does not
care for the sovereignty of God. That doesn't make you comfortable
as an unsaved person to know that God is in absolute control
of everything when you see this world looking like it's going
to hell in a handbasket. It only comforts people who knows
that that God which is sovereign also loves me. Got it? It only comforts you when you
know the love of God. Predestination is not that securing
of a doctrine. In fact, it can tempt you to
live like a hell's angel, a fool. There are certain people who
hold to the concept of predestination, and it's sort of a fatalistic
determinism where they just abandon themselves to their lust, because
after all, God's sovereign, right? That's not a biblical concept
of the sovereignty of God, nor a biblical understanding of predestination. Judas Iscariot believed in predestination,
still went to hell. It's very important to understand
what's going on. Notice what it says. And we know all things
work together for them that love God, for them that love God,
to them which are called according to his purpose, for whom he did
foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image
of the Son, that he might be the firstborn among many, what?
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom
he called, he also justified, and whom he justified, he also
what? Now he said that in order to
comfort the saints, right? But verses 31 through 38 gives
us the mediatorial work of Christ and the suffering of the saints.
You guys got that? The latter part of the passage
gives us the mediatorial work of Christ. We have a high priest
who ever lives to make intercession for us. And then it talks about
what shall separate us from the love of God. And then he goes
on to talk about heights and depths and widths and lengths
and tribulations and persecutions and nakedness and famines and
death. Isn't that what he says? And he said, but I'm persuaded.
But you see, you got to go through that. Am I making some sense? You gotta go through that. Now,
go back to our text. Verse 2 says, God had not cast
away his people which he foreknew. What? Ye know not what the scripture
saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel?
Isn't that an interesting statement that the apostle just made? Elijah
who was god's servant who also himself was a jew is making what
intercession but the preposition there is not the preposition
pro is the preposition anti he's making intercession against israel
in that strange he's about to argue for the unfailing love
of God in the life of the people that God foreknew by reminding
us of what happened in the king's account when Jezebel and Ahab
had put indictments out against all of God's preachers and they
were killing everyone that was preaching the gospel Everywhere. Jezebel had 400 prophets of Baal,
450 prophets of Jezebel, almost a thousand false prophets permeated
Israel like roaches. And the true believer was being
killed off. And Elijah was so isolated that he cried out to
God, Lord, they've killed all your prophets. I'm the only one
left. Now that's the context. This
is interesting because what Paul is doing is proving God's faithfulness
to keep his people on the history of a persecutory Israel, not against a believing Gentile
group, but a believing Jewish group. So watch this now. Paul is about to make a distinction,
a categorical distinction between the children of the devil and
the children of God in the one ethnic group. Are you guys seeing
what I'm seeing? I said, I'm gonna take my time
with these folks so that you get it. I don't want you to be
deluded. He's making a distinction within one ethnic group. And
the distinction is not ethnic. The categories are not Jew and
Gentile, but children of the flesh versus children of the
promise. Abraham's techna versus Abraham's
sperma. You guys there? So they all outwardly
are religious, but one category of people hates the truth. You got it? Now watch what he
says. In the midst of this type of
context, Elisha, or Elias in the Greek,
petitions God, Lord, they've killed your prophets, and they've
digged down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek
my life. Now watch this. You know what
Elisha just about assumed? That God has failed to save his
elect. Got it? Now God allowed the weakness
and infirmity of his servant to manifest itself to teach us
this doctrine. So he allowed his servant to
look on the things seen rather than on the things unseen. Y'all
don't do that. I know you don't do that. But our servant did, and he uttered
these foolish words, I am left alone and they seek my life.
And the way I feel, Lord, I got a feeling they're going to catch
up with me because I'm tired. Which means your plan is gonna
fail, Lord, if you don't do something. And notice how the text responds,
verse four. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? Do you see it? I have reserved
to myself. Got it? I have reserved to myself. In our outline, I was dealing
with in verses two and three, the character of the devil's
children. seen in the division between the flesh and the spirit
between the children of the devil and the children of Christ. And
in our outline, we have John 8 verses 36 through 40. You don't
have to go there. That's that very popular drama
between Jesus and the Pharisees, where Jesus told the Pharisees,
you are seeking to kill me and you are seeking to kill me because
my word does not abide in you. If my word abided in you, you
would know my father and you would know me. And if my word
abided in you, you would do like Abraham did. But because my word
does not abide in you, you seek to kill me, a man that has told
you the truth. That's a paradigm, folks. That's
a model. Got it? It's a model. What that's a model
of is the suffering servant who is the son of God. Jesus left
us that model, which means if they did it to Jesus, they'll
do it to us. because it's only within this
dimension that you can see the distinction between true believers
and non-believers. It's not an ethnic distinction.
It's not a financial distinction. It's not a distinction in class.
It's a distinction in spirit. It's a distinction in spiritual
relationship. You guys got that? So he says,
I have preserved to reserve to myself. 7,000 men who have not
bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Well, for the remainder
of this time, I want to deal with the word reserved a little
bit. Reserved. In your outline, I
have preserved. But I want to deal with the word
reserved because that's actually the Greek word. There's this
nuances that I just want to share with us to help us understand.
Now, there is a real sense in which the concept preservation
comes in, but reserve is what God said he did. He said, I reserved
for myself. Now, here's what God didn't say.
I want you to get this as we work this through. God didn't
say, I had determined to see to it that my people never go
through any trouble. He didn't say that. That would
be totally contrary to the context, right? Because the context is
denoting serious persecution. The persecution of Jezebel and
Ahab is a foreshadow of the feminization of the gospel that prevails in
our culture today. I told you guys that before there's
nothing new under the sun. Ahab abrogated his authority
as the king and as the man of the house, and he allowed his
wife, who was a pagan worshiper of the devil, to come in and
take control of the worship of God. The king was to honor the
revelation of God in Christ, which was the temple, but he
allowed his wife to come in and usurp the authority. She passed
that down to Athaliah, who also passed it down to her children,
and Israel suffered greatly because of the affinity between Ahab
and Jezebel. The end result was a persecution
and destruction or attempted destruction of God's faithful
ministers of the gospel. And it's a foreshadow of the
feminism that prevails in our time. I know that's tough for
some people, but it's just a fact of the matter. And so as the
apostle Paul is addressing that, he says that God did something
in the midst of that period, a period that we would call persecution.
And we're going to talk about this here in our Sunday messages
for the next three or four weeks. in the book of Daniel chapters
8 through 12 we're going through the book of Daniel so we're gonna
deal with that apocalyptic language that addresses what characteristically
has been the prediction of the Antichrist coming into the world
and all of that so we'll have four messages to address the
framework and the methodology and the consequences of a world
that's just going crazy in rebellion against God. And we'll revisit
the clear interpretation of what the scripture has for that. Just
understand, however, that in this world, God's people have
always had tribulation. Don't ever buy into the doctrine
that God has ordained a physical, earthly, carnal peace for his
people on this side of glory. He never has. The peace has always
been spiritual. The peace has always been the
peace of God's position in the Christian's life. The peace has
always been God's dynamic in preserving and keeping and leading
and guiding and exalting himself in the life of his people in
the midst of trouble. In the midst of trouble. Let's
see, one of my preacher brothers said it like this, Christians
are like tea bags. They only really show their flavor
when you put them in hot water. Isn't that all right? I just don't, don't, don't, Lord,
don't, don't, Lord, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't put me in.
I had to, I made you that way. Christ gets to manifest the fragrance
of his saving glory in the life of God's people in the midst
of the hot water. I know that sounds good while
we all sit here all happy and everything. All right. So let's deal with this. There are a couple of Greek words,
and this is the one that he's dealing with. It's an interesting
word. It's a preposition, lipo, katalipo, and it's a two-pronged
word, and it means to leave, to leave, to leave down. That's a literal translation,
but it means to leave down, and I wanna see if we can understand
this. When he says in verse five, I have reserved to myself 7,000
men which have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. What
he means by the word reserve is that he has left. He has left. And it's a word that actually
means remain. Remain. You guys following me
so far? Here's how this goes. What God
is saying to Elisha is this, Elijah, He's saying, in the midst
of the persecution, you are seeing people do two things. You're
seeing them be killed, and you're also seeing them depart from
the gospel. You're seeing them abandon the
truth and embracing the contemporary religion of the day. And so far
as you're concerned, everybody's being killed off. But I have
left to myself. I have reserved to myself. I
have kept to myself. There yet remains. a people group
who have not bowed the knee. You guys got that? The way this
works in the New Testament is in Luke chapter 15, verse four. You don't have to go there, but
remember where the Lord Jesus was dealing with the nature of
lost sinners and he gave the parable of the hundred sheep.
He says, what man of you having a hundred sheep and having lost
one, not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after that
one lost sheep? The 99 that's left in the wilderness
are not in danger. They're preserved. They're kept. They're washed over. They're
put in the stall. They remain while he's out hunting
down his lost sheep. That's what that means. You guys
got that? See if I can give you another
one to help you out with this so that you can grasp this. In Matthew's
account and in Luke's account, the Lord Jesus dealing in the
apocalyptic language talks about two being in the field, one taking
the other what? He talks about two being in the
house, one taking the other left. He talks about two being in the
bed, one taking the other what? The one that's taken is the one
that's taken in judgment. The one that's left is the one
that's preserved or reserved for God. Just leave that one
out there for you. To be left means to have escaped
the judgment. Got it? In other words, what
Elisha should have been able to say when he prayed to God,
Lord, they're killing up all your prophets and I'm the only
one left. God should have said to Isaiah,
Elisha, then you need to thank the Lord that you've been left.
Amen. Are you left? Yes, I'm left. Are you kept? Yes, I'm kept.
How come you didn't die right along with the rest of them?
Because I kept you. And if you think you're left, I want you
to know there's 7,000 that are left just like you. You see what
I'm saying? And so it's very important to
understand what Paul is saying here with the word left. He's
saying there is yet a people group that remain. They are reserved,
reserved. In the book of Jude, go to the
book of Jude. I want you to see one more New
Testament verse. Now I want you to see a couple
of Old Testament verses in relationship to this word reserved. Now the
way in which I use that word reserved here in the Romans text
was the way in which is intended in the original language in the
Greek to be left or to be set aside, to remain. And that will
play into the next term that we'll see in verse five. But
I want you to see another usage of the word reserved And it's
used in the antithesis, and it's necessary for you to see this.
I'm in Jude, chapter one, verse 13. Are you there? All right,
now let me start back up at verse 10 and go through verse 13. The context is speaking of false
prophets and false teachers, verse 10. But these speak evil
of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally. brute beast and in those things
they corrupt themselves woe unto them for they have gone in the
way of Cain you know what that is works religion and ran greedily
after the era of Balaam you know what that is prosperity preaching
and a parish in the gay saints of core you know what that is
democracy remember core in them day than a bomb We don't like
the fact that God chose you, Moses and Aaron. We want to vote
on this. God says, OK, I'll do some voting
in the morning. I want everybody to show up and I'm going to do
the voting. Do you want to vote? We're going to have an election
right now. OK, so you have these three categories always emerging
in the church as part of the beast system. The first, again,
is works religion. Cain's religion is a religion
of works. You guys know that, right? He abandoned the revelation
of God given to him by his daddy when his daddy told him we're
sinners. We gotta be saved by God's grace. We must trust in
the shed blood. That's why we bring a sacrifice.
We believe without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sin. God will not accept the work of your hands. No matter
how sincere you are, God won't accept your work, because your
work and you bringing it, no matter how sincere you are, is
a rejection of God's work, which he's revealed to you in Christ.
You guys got that? So that's King. And then Balaam,
he was a good preacher, but he preached for money. And therefore
he didn't love God. And any man that preaches for
money does not love God. You guys get what I just said? And finally, Korah, the game
saints of Korah. These are the spots in your Feast
of Charity. You know what the Feast of Charity
is? That's the fellowship in the word that we have. These
are spots in your Feast of Charity when they feast with you, feeding
themselves without fear. Clouds they are, without what?
Carried about by what? Trees whose fruit withers, without
fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Jude is pretty
politically incorrect, isn't he? His type of language just
wouldn't go in the 21st century. Now he's just not real nice.
Now, you know, you don't talk about people like that now. Twice
dead, plucked up by the roots. Fruit, but no fruit. Dead fruit,
no fruit. That's bad. Raging waves of the sea. This
is what we're dealing with in our metaphor in the Daniel seven
visions. Out of the sea came forth four
beasts. raging waves of the sea, foaming
out their own shame, wandering stars. There you go. We're going
to deal with that this Sunday. And he cast down some of the
stars to the ground, trod them underfoot, right? Wandering stars. False prophets are called stars,
but they're called wandering stars. That means that they have
no gravitational connection with the hemisphere. They're just
wandering stars reserved for the midst of darkness. Do you
see the language? wandering stars to whom is reserved there it
is the blackness of darkness forever that's tough language
isn't it the word reserved there is not the same greek word reserved
that's in romans chapter eleven uh... in romans chapter eleven it is
a word that has got actively placing us in a position that
when the judgment comes up while it will wipe away everything
in its way his people are protected their left This particular Greek
word is the Greek word to Eros and it means to watch over. And
what it indicates is that what God does with people who reject
his truth and live in open rebellion against him is that he watches
over them to see to it that they manifest rebellion so long so
that they will be ripe objects of God's wrath in the day of
judgment. In other words, on the day of
judgment, there will be no argument. There will be no plea bargains.
There will be nobody standing in defense of this individual
because his whole life would have indicated that he hated
God. So what God does is watches over
the reprobate. He watches over the wicked. He
watches over against the rebellious and let them come to full maturity. And when he cuts them off in
depth, he reserves them to for the day of judgment and wrath.
This is why when you raise the question, how do they seem to
get away with all this stuff? They don't. You got it? They don't. Let the
wheat and the tares grow together. Of Jude? It's the same Greek word. is
the same Greek word dealing with the angels and the angels which
kept not their first estate but left their own habitation have
he have he reserved an everlasting change under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day same thing with them they are reserved
to in chains of darkness now that's a metaphor that can escape
you the demons which are fallen angels are chained But it doesn't mean that they
don't have existence or function. They do, but they are bound to
eternal destruction. You know, like when you have
a chain on you and that chain allows you to only go so far.
That's the chain that's on the devil and his angels and have
been since Calvary. And I saw an angel with a great
chain in his hand. Come down and bind the devil
and cast him into a pit for a thousand years. Remember that? It's not
a literal chain. It's a figure of speech, meaning
that that angel had authority over the devil to bind him and
cast him into hell. He is the captain. He is the
marshal. He is the judge. That's Jesus.
It's what he accomplished on Calvary Street 2,000 years ago.
I see Satan falling from heaven like lightning. If I be lifted
up, I'll draw men unto me. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now is the prince of this world. Cast out. So the idea of the
chain in this context is that the devils, while they have assignments
given to them, they are providentially limited by God to only serve
God's purpose in the edification of his people, in the glory of
his great name, in the midst of persecution. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? So, in the book of Job, Devil
comes along after the worship of the sons of God and says to
God, you know, if you didn't have a hedge about this boy,
I could get him. You are God said, go, but that's
a chain. Got it? Go, but that's a chain. Don't do this and don't do that.
And don't do the other thing. See what I'm saying? So the devil
was able to go after Job, but he was limited in his capacity
to affect Job. You say, well, boy, he sure really
worked havoc. Yeah, but don't get caught up in what happens
in the beginning. Because better is the end of a thing than the
beginning thereof. See what I'm saying? You have
to be patient. Because that's the purpose of
suffering, to teach you patience. So the concept of preservation
is underscored in that life. Go with me to Job 21, verse 30.
Job 21 verse 30 and then I'll look at one more Jeremiah chapter
50 verse 20 and then we'll come back next week and begin to build
further in our text. Now here's what Job says in Job
21 verse 30 along the same lines. Are we there? Job 21 verse 30.
Let me start at verse 29. Have you not asked them that
go by the way? And do you not know their tokens?
That the wicked is reserved to the day of what? Destruction.
They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. You see that? Job is explaining the way of
the wicked. They live, they prosper, they seem to be very well blessed.
He talks about how they become fruitful how their businesses
abound how their children grow take over the business They seem
to live to be 120 years old 130 years. Yeah, you just marvel
at how long they live They have all the best food. They have
all of the best medicine all of the best care all of it And
all the bible is saying is that they're ripening for judgment
Do you know every day you and I live in rebellion against God
and outside of the person of Christ, we heap up against ourselves
judgment against the day of wrath and indignation against the Lord.
We treasure up to ourselves wrath. That's what the Bible is teaching.
So now I'll give you another one. Go with me to Jeremiah chapter
50. This is the last one, Jeremiah chapter 50. God reserves the
wicked and God reserves the righteous. I like that, don't you? If it sounds like when we do
our Bible studies, God's doing everything, that's because he
is. Okay? Man, we don't seem to be, every
time I come to study, we don't seem to be doing nothing but
just kind of going for the ride. That's right. You never talk
about what we do and what we do. No, God's doing everything.
You're just going along for the ride. You better hope you end
up on the right bus. Are we there? I love this. Listen to verses 18 through 20.
Isaiah 50. Memorize verse 20. You will need
this in the day the devil speaks into your ears and try to tell
you to see something other than Jesus. Listen. Therefore, thus
said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will punish
the king of Babylon His land and I have punished the king
of it as I have punished the king of Assyria and I will bring
Israel again in to his habitation and he shall feed on Carmel and
Bashan and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim
and Gilead verse 20 in those days and In that time saith the
Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall
be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for
I will pardon them whom I reserve. Got it? That's a good word, isn't
it? You look into Christ today. You
trust in Christ today as God kept you over these umpteen years. You've been walking by faith.
Did you hear the words? Pardon? 20 years ago, 30 years
ago, 40 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, two years ago.
If he kept you then he'll keep you now. He'll keep you tomorrow.
That's God's promise to himself. Isn't that good? Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank
you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth as
it is in Christ. We thank you for Jesus, our great
high priest and savior. Lord, bless this word in our
soul. Deep down in our soul. Help us to praise you because
of it. Give us traveling mercies as we go our way. We pray in
Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah. God bless you.