As we continue on in Romans it’s been suggested that no letter in the history of the world has had a greater impact than Paul’s letter to the Romans…it has been called one of the greatest dissertations of fundamental Christian doctrine ever written.
When we started this study 26 weeks ago, I said:
The Book of Romans is broken into two parts. It is a blueprint for Christians on —what to believe and—how to behave.
With respect to what to believe…in this epistle we have looked at the things a Christian ought to know, namely…what is law…gospel…sin…punishment… grace…faith…righteousness…Christ…God…good works…love…hope…and the cross…hopefully…if you’ve been with us during this study you have a better understanding of those.
For this reason, it is often one of the first books that new believers are encouraged to read when they start to study the Bible.
In this letter Paul reveals what is the most complete statement in the Bible… that salvation is available to everyone who believes [1:16].
Here’s what Martin Luther writes about Romans:
The epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and is truly the purest gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul.
(Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, 1960, p. 365)
With respect to how to behave, Paul emphasizes the importance of Christian conduct…you cannot just believe John 3:16 and be confident that you are saved because living a lifestyle of disobedience is an enemy of your destiny.
Beginning in chapter 9 Paul began with the heartbreaking issue that because most of the people of Israel rejected their Messiah they are therefore accursed and cut off from Christ.
In Chapter 10, Paul explained why the people of Israel have stumbled in their relationship with God…the problem was they tried to continue following the law even after Jesus came and revealed that salvation is through faith.
Paul gave the Romans very simple instructions for salvation, which many of us have verbalized during our baptism: believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, that God raised Him from the dead, and then declare that Jesus is Lord.
But because of Israel’s continued rejection of Jesus as their Messiah in Chapter 11 Paul asks the rhetorical question [11:1] that reflects Paul’s concern in chapters 9 and 10…”has God rejected his people?”
That question is pressing because of what Paul quoted earlier in [10:21]:
All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people [Isaiah 65:2]
So…based on that quote from Isaiah stating God’s continued frustration with Israel …has God’s patience run out with Israel? …has God cast aside His people whom He swore to love and protect?…there are numerous instances in the Bible where God’s patience did run out and the people did suffer because of it.
So…the question is: has God rejected His people [1].
Many say He has…that the Church has taken the place of Israel… “replacement theology” …but…the immediate response might also be… ‘who cares’ …why should anyone care… how important is it for me to know that the word of God to Israel is still valid?
Thinking that might be the response, Paul quotes from Elijah:
3 Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. 4 what is God’s reply? “I have kept for myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant.
So, what’s the connection and why should I care about what was occurring in Elijah’s day…or care about what was occurring in Paul’s day?
It is important that we do care…because if God’s promise has failed to Israel… then this question goes deeper than that…then how can I be assured that God’s promise to me is still valid…and if it’s not…why should anyone who is here today bother to come back?
The reason you should care about God’s faithfulness to Israel is that if God does not keep his promises to Israel, then our hope that He will keep His promises to us in Romans 8 is worthless.
Paul writes that…nothing shall separate us from the love of God [8:35] … But if God does not keep His promises to Israel, then the promise of 8:35 is unreliable.
BUT…good news…Paul assures His Jewish readers that…God has not rejected His people [1] …and for the sixth time Paul uses the strongest wording possible in the Greek… May it never be.
So…knowing that God has not rejected His people…in chapter 10 Paul reveals God’s plan to regather Israel back to a nation that once honored Him:
I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation without understanding will I anger you. [18]
That’s us…that promise is still in force today…the regathering of God’s people to their land is one of the most frequently predicted prophecies in the Bible.
Clearly…God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew [11:2]
So the question is how do I know if God’s promise to Israel through Joshua that “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is a promise to me?
What makes Paul so sure that a faithful remnant then means a faithful remnant now?
Can I be assured that what was told to ancient Israel is a promise to me…if something written in the Old Testament pertains to me?…it does if it is written in the New Testament …this promise is found in multiple books of the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments.
With this promise, we can be assured that God is always with us …The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you [Rom. 8:11].
When we profess Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are sealed…from that point on the Holy Spirit lives in us. This is what “Christ in me” means.
He lives in us. The Holy Spirit is revealing…reminding…and transforming us to become more like Him until the day we arrive home in heaven.
Satan can mess with us…he can tempt us…but our souls are off limits because we belong to God.
In chapters 9-11 of Romans there’s a lot of Jewish history…maybe boring to some…I hope not…I don’t like to be boring…probably for some it’s meaningless but Paul has included these Old Testament verses for our benefit.
I could just skip over this portion of Scripture and move on to more exciting verses…BUT…God has called me to preach not just the exciting parts but to be faithful in all aspects of what He has given us for the purpose of a greater understanding of how He deals with the world.
Contained in these verses Paul is revealing how God intends to bring everything to completion…we are living in the end times…this is exciting stuff…here we see the prophecies of four different prophets coming to completion.
In these two chapters we understand how God has dealt with and how He will deal with the nation of Israel in the future.
A little Jewish history…the 12 tribes of Israel were broken up because of the sins of King Solomon…comprising of ten northern tribes called Israel and the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin simply called Judah.
Because of sins of both Israel and Judah, Isaiah prophesied that God would cause the Assyrians to capture the ten northern kingdoms and carry the people away into captivity…and that the two southern kingdoms of Judah would be enslaved by the Babylonians.
BUT…God’s promise was that despite the travesty of their captivity a remnant would survive.
The prophecy of Jeremiah…Ezekiel…and Amos all detail that event:
‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their ancestors to possess’ [Jer. 30:3]
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. [Ezek. 37:21]
they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God. [Amos 9:15]
The word remnant is commonly associated with a group of people who survive a catastrophe brought about by God…usually in judgment for sin.
In every case where there was a catastrophic event brought about by God… He chose who would survive.
Noah…Noah’s wife…his three sons and their wives entered the ark… …only eight people were saved from the Flood. [Gen. 7:12-13].
Lot – only he and his two daughters were saved. Even his wife perished.
[Gen. 19:12, 13, 15].
Ezekiel – [Ezekiel 5:12] tells of the devastation– “One third …will die by plague and famine…one third will fall by the sword…one third to every direction of the wind…BUT…[6:8] –“I will leave a remnant”.
Isaiah [Isaiah 10:27] “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return.”
What was the criteria that determined who would get picked…and where’s the sign-up sheet…it’s important you know this.
Notice the wording…according to God’s gracious choice [5] … that word ἐκλογή in the Greek means to select or pick from a larger number…which indicates not everyone is included…that is the idea of a remnant.
The Bible tells us what the criteria is to be picked…both Ezekiel and Isaiah tell us that the remnant consists of those who have put their faith and trust in God… those who chose to remain faithful to God and to keep His Covenant …it’s not just everybody…only a select few…because only a select few are willing to make that commitment.
I want you to see where this is going…since the days of the great flood God has always had a physical remnant…a few people who, despite the evil in the world, continued to have a heart for God.
As a result…God kept His promise to national Israel that they would return back to their homeland…that the Jews would forever live in the Land promised to Abraham…so God brought a remnant back to their homeland.
As commendable as the study and practice of God’s law was…and the building of synagogues was…they failed in the attempt to gain God’s favor.
They had become so ingrained in a system of works-righteousness…working so hard for God to love them… they rejected the one person who would love them back…rejecting Jesus as their Messiah.
This is how Ezekiel describes those who did return from Babylon…[Ezekiel 37:1-3].
the LORD set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many…and indeed they were very dry.
They were nothing more than… dry…lifeless bones…that describes the condition of Israel today. What the valley of the dry bones means is that not all Jews will come to accept Jesus as their Messiah…there will be only a believing remnant that will be saved…BUT…despite their lifeless condition…God says they have not been cast away.
Even though physical Israel appears to have rejected Jesus as the Messiah there is still a remnant who have come to faith in Jesus.
God sought to bless Israel by gathering them to himself, but the judgment that ultimately fell upon them for their disobedience and unfaithfulness was their scattering among the nations (Deuteronomy 4:25-40).
Even so, the prophets spoke of the day when God would act to rescue and restore His people, gathering them to Himself once more (Deut. 30:1-3; Isaiah 40:9-11).
This addresses the fallacy in believing that God will cause ALL Jews to become Christians…they won’t…believing at some point in history because they are the chosen people of God…God will save them…not true…not what is being said.
The Jews today must not see themselves as being automatically included in God’s promises simply because of their heritage.
Becoming a part of God’s remnant is a matter of grace and not a matter of privilege…not like it is something owed to them.
Being chosen by God never meant that they got special privileges and favors from God…it meant that they had the honor of being used by God for His purposes.
This actually goes back to what Elijah said:
they have killed your prophets…and I alone am left
Poor, poor pitiful me…Elijah is not complaining that there are no people of faith left…he’s complaining that there are no people of faith left alive…but what is clear is that there were men of faith who were alive…men God preserved for Himself.
I have kept for myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
For those of you who are ‘end time’ watchers…there was the first time God brought the Jews back from Babylonian captivity… But Isaiah says HOLD IT…there seems to be a second time [Isaiah 11:11].
The prophets spoke of the day when God would restore His people, gathering them to Himself once more (Deut. 30:1-3; Isaiah 40:9-11) when God will stretch out His hand and bring His people back to the land of Israel a second time.
On that day the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people [Isaiah 11:11].
This idea is confirmed by Paul in [5]:
In the same way then there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice
There is a remnant in Israel and there is a remnant in the Church…the church is no different than ancient Israel because human nature hasn’t changed in 5000 years.
There are those in the physical church and those in the spiritual church…those in the physical church think they are saved because they have an understanding of who Jesus is…BUT have never truly committed their life to Him.
There is a smaller group within the big church…a smaller group that are regenerate and know the Lord…who are serious about living a Christian lifestyle…as opposed to those who are Christians by association.
This is seen in the meaning of [5]:
5 So too at the present time there is a remnant.
Just like with spiritual Israel there is the spiritual Church…so… not everyone in the church is saved.
See here in Romans a recurring theme…I hope you all see it as well…I’m not just repeating previous sermons…The Holy Spirit’s teaching to Paul is to continue to share the importance of a dedicated lifestyle…not so we can work our way to Heaven because you can’t.
So what does all this mean to me sitting here this morning…here is the key phrase:
God’s gracious choice
Paul is announcing that there was a remnant then…and there is a remnant now both in Israel and in the Church.
These passages are actually a warning that not all are His children…and therefore not all are in line to receive the things promised to His descendants.