Published: November 17, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 57 | Scripture: Romans 11:1-10
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at verses 1- 10 I'm going to read that section I'd like to ask John Luke if you pray for the ministry of the word this
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morning Romans 11 beginning in verse 1 I say then God has not rejected his people has he may it never be for I too am an Israelite a descendant of Abraham of The Tribe of
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Benjamin God has not rejected his people whom he fornew or do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah how he pleads with God
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against Israel Lord they have killed thy prophets they have torn down thine altars and I alone am left and they are seeking my seeking my life but what is the Divine response to
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him I have kept for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to bail in the same way then there is also there has also come to be at the present time a
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Remnant according to God's gracious choice but if it is by Grace then it is no longer the on the basis of Works otherwise Grace is no longer Grace what
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then that which Israel is seeking for it has not obtained but those who were chosen obtained it and the rest were hardened just as it is written God gave
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them a spirit of stupor eyes to see not and ears to hear not down to this very day and David says let their table
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become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and block and a excuse me and a retribution to them let their eyes be darkened to see not
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and bend their backs forever let us pray father the testimony of your Holy Spirit to the son of Abraham that of woman CR the Serpent's head
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is active in us today we believe your word we pray that the preaching of the word would have power in our lives today pray in Jesus name
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amen we live in a wicked and perverse generation can't say that it's any more wicked and perverse than any other generation but that is a Biblical description of the generation in which Paul lived and certainly the generation in which we live I think one of the
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manifestations of a particularly Wicked and perverse and perverse generation is generation is pride but pride in things about which we
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ought not to be proud for example we take pride in what providence has given to us you know the
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phrase proud to be an American personally I'm happy to be an American and I'm thankful to be an American and having been in some other
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countries that makes me more thankful to be an be an American but why should I be proud of something for which I had nothing to do concerning the nation in which I was
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born so Pride on account of providence is misplaced it should be replaced with gratitude it should be replaced with
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with happiness and joy but certainly not Pride but what we see in our generation is is also a pride in
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perversion and that has become a a major factor in this current generation so that we have pride month we have people who are proud of what is an offense to
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God we are proud of things about which we ought not be proud we are willing Desiring to boast in everything except
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that for which boasting is Justified knowing god Paul writes for example in Galatians chapter 6 God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
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the world has been crucified to me and I to the to the world we may have been taught as young believers that that all Pride all boasting is is forbidden by scripture
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but there is a a righteous boasting and there is an unrighteous one there is a wicked boasting and there is a healthy boasting Paul Advocates that if we are to boast let it be in the Lord that let
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him who boasts boasts not in in Kings and horses and chariots but rather boast in this that he knows me says the Lord so pride of course goes before
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destruction and we can see in the history of societies and of Empires that as they reach the end that they did not themselves foresee within their societies they
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exalted perversion and wickedness and even took pride in their wickedness and their lenti their lenti justness but there is a pride that is a
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particular temptation to Believers and in fact a a pride that is even more particularly tempting to members of small non-
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denominational churches denominational churches like us I call it Remnant pride and I don't know whether we can get a month but because we're Christians
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and we know that Pride isn't good we should take February it's it's the shortest right it's the particularly tempting attitude of non-denominational churches
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unaffiliated churches whereby we we claim to Purity and Doctrine in our practice we lay claim to to holding fast the truth of God's word and we have contempt for the
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larger Mainline denominations and churches that we feel have have compromised the word of God and the practice of righteousness in order to maintain the numbers that we don't have
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and finally we have confidence that we are the remnant of God now this has been a phenomenon not just in Christianity but in Judaism in the time of Jesus of
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Paul there was a group called The ases they believed themselves to be the true Remnant they even used that terminology from the Hebrew Bible that they alone were the true Temple some of
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them even separated and took residence down in the Dead Sea area the kumran community from which we would get the Scrolls many Millennia later they were
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they had Remnant Pride they had that that that Pride that we can justify because we are the remnant of God but there's an antidote right here in this
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passage in verse 5 where Paul says this is a Remnant that God has left for himself a Remnant according to Now The New American Standard says choice and I
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think that's an accommodation a word that is less offensive than the actual Greek word Greek word election it is a Remnant according to
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election and and that is truly an antidote to this Remnant pride of which I speak because humility and sorrow are the true marks of the remnant there is
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no prideful rejoicing in being among the few that by God's grace still hold fast to his word and his Commandments Paul
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represents the attitude that is correct for the remnant when he says that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in in
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my heart in heart in Isaiah The Remnant calls out unless the Lord of host had left us a Remnant we would have been like Sodom we would have
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been like been like gomorah and so our attitude to this idea of Remnant needs to be Washed by the Water of the word first that needs to be
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washed away is the encrustation of Pride that it is by ourselves and our own diligence and faithfulness that we have clung to God and to his word no God has
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left for himself a Remnant not by their own Merit as he says not by works otherwise Grace would no longer be grace
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and so even the remnant cannot claim any Merit just because they're The Remnant but only but only gratitude that God had laid hold of them
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and maintain their steadfast adherence and obedience to his word so it's not us clinging to God but God firmly holding on to us now this is manifested by a
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continued faithfulness to his word and will there is a manifestation of the remnant and that is these are those who continue to look to God's word for the
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guidance of their life and to worship God Alone through faith that is the manifestation not the cause of being The Remnant The Remnant is according to
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election in Ephesians 6 in the armor passage that that we're we're all so familiar with from Sunday school and from VBS and how we're supposed to put
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on the full armor of God and and then you you've often heard perhaps sermons about how you know how we're supposed to to to be soldiers for Christ but I think
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perhaps the most important application of that passage is where Paul says having done everything to
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stand there is a tremendous force of opposition against the children of God in this world and in this age and whereas we may be encouraged by televangelists we may be encouraged by
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preachers to go out and Conquer in the Name of Name of Christ most of the time it is enough for us to us to stand and when having done everything to
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still be found standing and it is by the grace of God that we do so not by any strength or Merit of our own but rather
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that God in his Sovereign will has caused us to stand because he has left for himself a Remnant and so we are not boasting of
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being within the remnant rather mourning that at the present time there seems only a Remnant
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standing this was true in the time of Jesus and so one of his hearers one of his disciples asked him Lord are there just a few who are to be saved will only the remnant be saved are
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we destined only to live in what Jeremiah called a day of small things there are times certainly when that seems to be the
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case and and In this passage where Paul is talking about Israel's rejection of it of her Messiah and he's dealing with the the underlying principle or question
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that is challenging the gospel at its very core and that is has God forsaken his people whom he
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fornew has God's word failed has God Ren begged on his promises to promises to Abraham these are the questions that
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would come to anyone's mind as they watched Gentiles coming into the people of God or what was called the new people of God without circumcision without
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having to obey the various levitical and Mosaic statutes what's going on has God forsaken the people whom he
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for new but the basis for Paul's confidence and I hope that as we get into Romans 11 you can you can kind of hear that Paul is not simply trying to convince himself
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that in spite of the of the apostasy of most of his countrymen according to the flesh he's trying to convince himself that God's word is still standing that God's promise is still valid and true
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that God himself the Covenant God is still faithful to that Covenant no he is confident of that and the words that he uses come from the Hebrew Bible
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almost exclusively as I mentioned before 50% or more of of the Old Testament quotes that Paul uses in his letters are in the Book of Romans and within the
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book of Romans over 50% of those quotations are in Romans 910 and 11 what better source to prove that God has not abandoned his Covenant people or
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his Covenant with Abraham than the Hebrew Bible where we learn and read that Covenant and so Paul's confidence is not in Israel or or even
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himself his confidence in is in what we call the doctrine of forn knowledge verse two God has not rejected his people whom he fornew or do you not know what the
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scripture says about Elijah for knowledge that is a large word It's a combination word in the Greek and it
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simply means to know ahead of time but it is a word that has been a theological stumbling block within Christianity throughout its history God forn knows what does that
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mean well the Armenian teaches it this way that God foresees because of his omnition he is able to look forward into the future and
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he can see what individual men and women will themselves choose CH to do with relationship with a relation to himself will they believe or will they not
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believe will they put their trust in him or will they put their trust in themselves he foresees that and as a basis or as a result of that foreseeing
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he forn knows those who will be his so that God's forn knowledge is based on his foresight well that is not what the
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scriptures teach teach concerning God who knows the end from the beginning and who has actually determined the end from the beginning it's not a situation where
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God looks into the future and consequently makes his plans meaning election based on what he
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sees but even that argument by The Armenian is somewhat false in this it falls apart when you consider that whatever God foresees will happen he
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does so does so infallibly so when that time actually comes along the chronology of History what God has foreseen will
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happen will happen will happen because if it doesn't happen then God will be found to be wrong in his omniscience and that is not a thought that even the Armenian will accept
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although some have so he foresees infallibly which at the end of the day means that what he foresees will happen and there's really no change if
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you want to call it fatalism or determinism though it is not either of those the fact is what God knows he knows infallibly what God foresees he foresees infallibly and the reason he
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foresees anything is because he has forn it forn knowledge is not just being Clairvoyant God is not some Cosmic
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Nostradamus he forn knows because he for ordains his knowledge is not merely awareness it is itself creative
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and formative Adolf schlauer says Israel did not become Israel on its own accord God's will his antecedent
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knowledge of all events his forn knowledge is the basis for Israel's existence on God's part there is no
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renunciation of his own work now that quote underlies what Paul's teaching here when he says God has not rejected Israel whom he
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fornew he's not saying that you know God knew that Israel would have trouble and struggle but he chose them anyhow no he's saying God's for knowledge
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established Israel it laid the foundation with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob for the nation and people of Israel Israel is God's work and he will
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not renunciate the work of his own hands we talked about that in Thursday evening talked about the new creation that God's creation was very good and God will not
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renunciate he will not renounce his own work he will not abandon the work of his own hands and Israel is the work of God's hand God's hand and so there there's no thought in
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Paul's mind that Israel's unbelief somehow means that God has rejected his people whom he fornew that is that is not what is being
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taught here but where did Israel go wrong this is where the lesson comes from Israel's history and Paul and Romans 15 and in Corinthians and several
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other places he tells us that that which is recorded about isra is for our instruction that we might not follow
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their disbelief so the question that we and the church should ask is where did Israel go wrong well I want to I want to coin another phrase here and I because I think it encompasses both what Israel
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did and what the church has done and that is institutionalized salvation and this is considering one's salvation to be based on something
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other than God's grace now the common word for institutionalized salvation is religion and our understanding of
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religion and the different religions usually does not go to their relationship with God and salvation from that God but rather the institution and
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rituals and traditions of that religion that is how Christianity is viewed by the world it is simply another world religion but religion itself is not
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salvific only Grace saves and so when Israel institutionalized its relationship with
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Yahweh institutionalized even in that which Yahweh had given them the law or the temple those were kind of the two
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big things but also circumcision and observing the Sabbath and tithing of your mint and kumin and Dill and all of these rituals and Commandments became
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the the framework of their salvation they were seeking a righteousness of their own and even in their own word they
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failed to see the righteousness of God which is by grace through faith they institutionalized their relationship with God they did not cease to be the
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people of God but they ceased to follow the path of faith that the righteous would always walk in and so that was Israel's path down her own
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destruction they trusted in dissent from Abraham Isaac and Jacob they trusted that that was sufficient cause for them to be eternally saved and have eternal
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life Paul himself himself says here in verse one he says I'm an Israelite I am of the of the tribe or EXC descendant of Abraham of The Tribe
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of Benjamin this is the second place where Paul alone among the writers of the New Testament gives autobiographical information the other is Philippians 3
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in both cases he mentions that he's The Tribe of Benjamin I don't know that there was any particular significance other than he knew who he was he knew of his
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Heritage and both there explicitly and here implicitly he counted all of that as rubbish that he might know and be known
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by Christ and so his Heritage did not mean salvation to him he did not he broke out of that institutionalized salvation now how about the church well
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the church itself we know from its history has become an institution through which and by which salvation is mediated to
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its members we think of the Roman Catholic Church as guilty of that institutionalizing but don't be deceived Protestants have done much the same thing as well I remember a time I asked
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uh for some reason was talking with a supervisor about Christianity and I I asked him if he was a Believer and his comment was that he was
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a presbyterian I didn't know whether that was a yes or a no uh affirmative or negative but um we we we are brought up to think of our particular denomination
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or the denomination in which we are brought to know the Lord that becomes institutionalized salvation and so the church the denomination the family I've mentioned
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several times in recent weeks how the current popular Trend Within Evangelical Christianity is to make the family A
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church the father a priest and the Hearth and altar that is not biblical but it is
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also institutionalized so that Baptists are now behaving toward their children the same way that Presbyterians do toward
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do toward theirs that the fact that those children are being raised in a particularly Christian home will somehow be saving and sanctifying for them no less than Covenant baptism or
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infant baptism is practiced by the Presbyterian we have made the family into an institution now some of this is is seemingly Justified because what is
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under attack in our culture the family the relationship of the Father the father and the mother the children it has been said that the 20th century
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and certainly into the 20th first but the 20th century was the century of the child it was in that Century that the laws were passed allowing children to divorce their
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divorce their parents came a little late for me but you know the idea that the children are somehow higher up than the parents themselves and that their that their
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raising requires a a village meaning the public school system and and so Christians have rightfully responded and they have reemphasized the family turning the hearts of the fathers
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back to the children and the children to the fathers yes but that's not the church that's not the body of Christ we have to understand what the scripture says and to live and to act
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with the wisdom that God gives otherwise we will be guilty of institutionalizing our Salvation even and this is a really popular thing among reformed theologians
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the means of Grace the means of Grace in much reformed theology are almost indistinguishable from The Works of the
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law that Paul says cannot bring justification and by means of Grace I mean reading your word prayer attending service the the the ordinances of
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communion and baptism these are all biblical things as was the law and circumcision and the Sabbath but just has Israel institutionalized those things and lost sight of
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Grace so many have lost sight of grace even while they espouse the means of Grace that if you do the idea is if you do these things you'll be okay that's
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that's really the where all boils down and if you hear anything any sermon read any tract or pamphlet that says if you do these things you will be saved
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no that is the works of the law by which no flesh will be justified it is actually the reversal of the truth if you are regenerated by the
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grace of God through faith then by the power of the Holy Spirit you will do these things these are not the cause of our Salvation they are the manifestations of
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it and it is so easy especially from the pulpit to turn them around because we do not walk by faith we walk by sight most
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of the time and we want to see one another doing the same things and so the pulpits of the church have cooperated with that by mandating
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that you all do and wear and look alike therefore you all feel good about yourselves and if you can do that according to God's word and you can
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quote chapter and verse as to why you do what you do you're the re Remnant and be proud of it okay no Paul says no because if it is
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by works it is no longer by Grace now please don't misunderstand these works as I said these were the works that God commanded Israel to do but they were to do it as an outpouring of gratitude for
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the grace that God had bestowed upon Israel in calling her out of the nations in bestowing upon her the scriptures and the presence of
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God the church is no different as Gentile Believers we've been grafted into that same Heritage we can claim as Paul did that I
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am a I am a descendant of Abraham I am because I have by God's grace Grace Faith okay so Paul's own experience he
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brings out here and yet he did not view his salvation as coming because of his heritage rather the grace bestowed upon Him proved that God had not rejected
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Israel even on account of their pervasive unbelief this has been the case throughout the history of the church God has kept for
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himself throughout the last 2,000 years a remnant of the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who have by Grace been brought into the body of Christ Paul's
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going to get into that okay not all of the natural branches were cut off and as time goes on when the natural branches abandon their unbelief they
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were grafted back in the hardening that has come upon Israel Paul will teach us is partial and will be will be removed but the presence of believing
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Jews Even in our day is not evidence of the feebleness of God's arm to save but rather evidence of God's faithfulness to
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his promise to Abraham because Paul understood as as he's been teaching throughout this section that God never intended that each and every Israelite
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would be eternally saved those who left Egypt except for two men perished in the wilderness
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they perished because of unbelief God said I am not pleased with them they shall not inherit they shall not receive the blessing reading through
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the Old Testament history we see that there were many who did did not receive the grace of God to His People Israel and they were judged and they were
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condemned and they were killed they were cut off from the Covenant because of their unbelief because of their wickedness so Paul's not making something up
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something up here but he says the remnant as a historical reality again was not a testimony to the failure of God's work oh my word he just struggled every
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generation just to get a few of them to believe and cooperate no it is a manifestation of God's faithfulness that in spite of their
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wickedness in spite of their complete inability to obey God he kept for himself a himself a Remnant there was never a time that Israel deserved the grace of God nor
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does the church ever deserve the grace of God you and I do not deserve the grace of God and there are times when we do think and and it has been announce that Christianity is on its way out and
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it does seem that way you can you can go to Europe and you can see the cathedrals and even the churches that are now abandoned or they're Civic centers or something else but they're no longer
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places of worship we call it postchristian society and we're told Vol famously said that within a generation no one would read the Bible ironically within a
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generation they were publishing Bibles from voltaire's from voltaire's house God will always always always retain for himself a Remnant he
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will always have a witness he will always have a people and within that people there will always be a remnant of natural physical Israel The Descendants
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by the Flesh of Abraham until that time when God removes the hardening and all Israel shall be saved we're getting there in Romans
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11 and so that brings us back as we close to the question that the disciple asked Jesus are there few that will be
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saved will it always be this way will there always only ever be a remnant of those who walk in the light of the truth and even within the church as within
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Israel the vast majority of people will be at best nominal and certainly not true believers it seems like every generation
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of the church has felt that way and yet when you look at the picture of the whole if you go back and you look at the broad view of the last 2,000 years
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you've seen that Christianity has entered into the world and that a vast multitude have indeed been saved and Society itself has been changed even in
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those lands that do not follow Christ well we have the scripture speaking seemingly on both sides Jesus says on
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the one hand narrow is the way or straight is the way and narrow the gate so we know know that entering into heaven is not going to be by mass
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movement narrow is the road narrow is the gate but on the other hand we know that there is an innumerable multitude from every tongue tribe and nation that
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will come to God through Jesus
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Christ so what is it in our day well looking at it from the standpoint of salvation of salvation history we can see that God's Redemptive work always seemed to narrow down to one
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man from Adam mankind expanded it grew multiplied and filled the Earth but in its wickedness had brought God to the
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point where he repented that he even made man and when he looked upon the Earth how many righteous men could he find one Noah
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destroying the Earth by water bringing Noah through it we now see the table of Nations we see man trying to build a tower to make himself a name and so the wickedness of man
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continues as as God himself said the heart of man is only evil always the thoughts of man's heart are only evil always and so he came to a point in time
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when he wanted to start something different according to his plan not according to according to dispensationalism he couldn't even find a righteous man he had to choose one who was worshiping pagans across the
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Euphrates Abram but it comes down to one Noah Abraham and then finally the nation of Israel which expands and is a multitude that like the sand of the
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seashore until at the time of Christ there was only one righteous the Messiah himself and so the Theology of the remnant kind of works its way up to
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Christ the question is does it continue I don't think it does I think that with Christ we have
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the Son of God who has come so that the fullness of deity could dwell bodily among Mankind and that the salvation he has brought is now not narrowing down to
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one in every generation but rather is expanding like leaven into the whole earth the problem is we don't always see it we don't know what's going on by the
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holy spirit in most of the world we only see what is in front of us and so we ask we continue to ask are there few that be saved well there have been a number of
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theories Charles Spurgeon he surmised and I I don't know whether he was doing this tongue and cheek I kind of imagine he was but he surmised that at least 51% of humanity will be saved because God
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wouldn't let the devil get more than him that's not terribly theological um but it's a thought um Augustine believed and medieval the theology with him that the number of
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Saved humans will equal the number of Fallen Angels so we're told that a third of the hosts of Heaven were cast down from rebellion and Augustin figured that
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that third would be replaced by redeemed man that still doesn't tell you tell you what the number is uh and again it's kind of a silly notion but you can see how people's minds work okay they're
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trying to figure out what's going on well we can read in Isaiah 53 that Christ will see the travail of his soul and be and be satisfied okay that means whatever the
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number eventually is it will be pleasing to the Lord it will be right and we will all view it as right but that is to miss the purpose of that passage in Luke 13
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because Jesus was not willing to satisfy the questioners the questioners curiosity about how many would eventually be eventually be saved that takes us to Deuteronomy 2929 the secret things belong to the Lord but
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that which is revealed is for us to obey us and our children after us and so Jesus's answer is to be our answer in every Wicked and perverse generation
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when we feel like we're the remnant and we feel like the church has abandoned the word of God they have abandoned the practice of worship and they have absorbed and adapted to the ways of the
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world and we think are there just few that be saved well Jesus does not give us a number but he
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says that we are to make sure that we enter through the narrow gate that the answer to that question even when we think of it ourselves or we think of it in terms of our family and The Temptations that our families now face
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the thought is not how many but what about me am I entering through the narrow gate am I being religious am I following the
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steps of institutionalized religion for my salvation or am I putting my TR trust wholly and completely in God's son Jesus
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Christ Benjamin Warfield wrote an essay about 120 years ago and the essay's title are there few that be saved he said the lesson that is taught therefore
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is not that there are few that are saved but that the way of life is hard it is therefore that the fundamental exhortation was not go with the few see
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there's that Remnant Pride but that's not what Jesus was saying go with the few but rather go in by the narrow
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gate Peter in his his second recorded sermon tells us there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we
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must be saved the name of Jesus Christ let us
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pray father we do give you all the praise and glory for our Salvation And if we do indeed dwell Among The Remnant that too is by your
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grace and we ask father that by that Grace and the power of the holy spirit that you have caused to dwell within us that we might indeed having done all
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stand not that we might stand proud but rather that we might stand grateful and grateful and humble knowing that it is not by The
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Works of our our own flesh not by any Merit not by any intellectual ability or spiritual power that we have within ourselves but only by your grace that
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any man can stand so we ask humbly that you would make us stand that regardless of what happens in the world and even in the
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church that we would be among those that you have kept for yourself For Your Glory through Jesus
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amen please stand for the benediction from Ephesians chapter 3 now to him who is able to to exceedingly abundantly above all that we
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ask or think according to the power that works within us to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen