A Remnant According to the Choice of God
Romans 11:1-6 · Roger Henderson · Nov 17, 2024
Romans (2022-25), No. 099
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261937204189

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This is a wonderful section. And actually it's really fitting well with our Micah class because we're kind of into similar things about the nation of Israel and the two kingdoms, the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom, so it's really appropriate.

So I just took this from the last part of, this is New American Standard, a remnant according to God's gracious choice. As Jim said, that's going to be a pretty a pretty important concept according to his gracious choice. And we'll see that. Okay, so Merriman had a nice outline, so I decided to kind of go with that and I changed a few words here and there. I'm just going to outline, there's actually three sections that you can divide chapter 11 into.

And this is the first section. So the first section, kind of the concept of the first section is that Israel is hardened nationally but only temporarily. Israel is hardened nationally but only temporarily. So that kind of comes the first verse, a major issue is raised and answered, God has not permanently cast away Israel.

Then in 2-4, which we covered last week, 1-4 actually, we start the examples. We have Paul's conversion as example number one. Example number two is Elijah and the 7,000. And then we're going to see today is the third example, and it's also a present thing, a present condition, a remnant of the Jews in Paul's day.

And then in the King James Version it has the election of grace. So that's what Merriman used. And so he's going to define what the, you could say the selection of grace, the election of grace. What does that really mean? And we're going to spend quite a bit of time on that. It's going to be a key understanding of what that means for the remnant and also for all believers.

And then followed that next week by the National Israel is judicially hardened in 7 through 10. And then the following weeks, I'm not sure if Mike's going to cover, he may cover more. National Israel judicially hardened is temporary. So that's how it kind of breaks down the first 12 verses.

So I'm gonna go back and look at, we're gonna look at these verses again, but just before I get into them, just notice that he repeats that phrase, and this is what Jim was talking about. You have to be kind of blind. God has not rejected his people. He says that twice. So that's pretty important. So we're gonna go through these verses again. I'm gonna give you the overview. Mike gave you the details. I'm gonna give you the overview with the little highlights here and there. Okay. The first, the A part of that verse is, I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he?

May it never be. So the immediate answer, I might cover this a little bit, is this may it never be. And that's one of Paul's favorite sayings or favorite expressions in ten times in Romans and actually also in his other writings as well. And it can be translated in English a variety of ways. This is mostly from Wiest. Far be the thought, or may such a thing never occur. And actually I think my favorite usage of that is in Romans chapter six, and it's a very familiar verse, Romans chapter six verse one.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. So he uses that to kind of punctuate when he wants to make a point. May it never be, may such a thought never occur. He's emphasizing a point and wants to really hammer it home.

So now he goes into this first example, for I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. So you could say I too am, or for myself, or I myself. So his point here is that he is pointing out, if you look in Philippians chapter three and verse five, there's a little more extensive resume, but he's saying, in essence, and Mike went through each of these points more in detail, he says, I'm a true Jew, I'm an absolutely true Jew, But the good news is, Paul says, I'm evidence that God has not totally cast away all Jewish persons. Paul himself was a member of the believing remnant, a Christian Jew.

And that's something that's kind of lodged in my head. So what's God doing with the remnant today? And Paul's gonna answer that question in these verses, or has answered the question in these verses. What has God done with the remnant? And I believe from these verses, they're in the church, the remnant is in the church. Hopefully you won't, if you disagree with me, shoot me an email or something. Okay, so let's go on. God has not, here's the second time he says this, has not rejected his people.

But this time, he adds the idea of foreknowledge. Whom he foreknew is literally to know before. And we're gonna find that word foreknew is pretty important. And here's a verse that is really helpful, I think, in understanding what foreknowledge means. It's Acts 2, 23. I think it's the first time that he uses this word foreknowledge in scripture.

This man, speaking about Christ, was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. So now for a little Greek lesson. This won't be hard. And Mike, we've been learning about this with Miles a little bit. Anyway, this is a situation where you have two nouns.

The two nouns are plan and foreknowledge. And plan is modified by predetermined. So the deal is in Greek when you have two nouns separated by and or chi, and you have the definite article the in front of each, unfortunately in this case they don't translate the second the, so it's the predetermined plan and the foreknowledge of God. Those two expressions, predetermined plan and foreknowledge are equivalent, they're one and the same.

Maybe a little bit hard to wrap your head around, but I'll give you some ideas here. Actually, I left the word plan out of the second construction. So the construction is that predetermined plan means the same as foreknowledge. So you can come to some conclusions about that. So if you take that idea and you say, well, okay, if they're equivalent, couldn't I say this?

I could say, God has not rejected His people of His predetermined plan. And that actually kind of helps us understand, I think, back to our verse now, in God's mind, He has predetermined you know, who will be saved and He's predetermined what will happen in Israel. That's His predetermined plan. It's also called His foreknowledge.

So hopefully it doesn't blow too many circuits there. So may I take it a step further? So to reject Israel is to reject God's choice or plan or election or selection, whatever you want to call it. So that's important for this passage I think. God has made a choice. He's going to preserve Israel. That's His choice just like He chooses us. And we're going to talk about Does choosing, does election and grace, are they in conflict? Are election and grace in conflict? We're going to see that shortly. Okay, let's go on. So now this is a second example.

So Elijah makes intercession. This is not, you know, Vonnie was telling me, Roger, intercession, I think of intercession as being a positive thing. I have intercession prayer about somebody. Well in this case, his intercession was negative, right? He had intercession against Israel.

And if you notice in his, if you read back in 1 Kings, those chapters 18 and 19, you'll see that Elijah is constantly saying, Lord, I'm true to you. I'm your true guy. I've done all this and he says, but those guys Israel, what have they done? They're a bunch of bums. They've done this, they've done that. He's constantly making that, so he's basically saying, hey, He's interceding, Lord, what are you going to do about these people? They're your people, what are you going to do about them? So anyway, that's his, so here's an example of that. And this is actually replicated in the next few verses.

In 1 Kings 19.14, then he said, This is Elijah. I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the sons of Israel have, this is what these guys have done, forsaken your covenants, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left and they seek my life to take it away. So Paul's going to take parts of that and reproduce that in the following verses. So that was he's basically interceding against Israel here. Okay, now here's what we just had. So you could say demolished, torn down or demolished their altars.

And actually I noticed that he makes that statement about I am left alone three times. Three times in chapter 18 once and 19 two times. So Elijah concludes that he's the only one, only Israelite left. And he only wants to remain faithful to the Lord.

That's his thought process. And they're seeking my life. So here's why he was kind of upset. This is a part of him seeking his life. And it's our friend Jezebel. It's the eye. So she says this to him. And she makes this statement, which I heard before. You'll see this figure of speech or, I'm not sure what the other word is, figure of speech or saying if you will.

So when the gods do to me even more, if I Jezebel do not make your life as the life of one of them, the prophets of Baal, by tomorrow about this time. If you read in the context, the prophets of Baal, Elijah wiped them out. He destroyed all of them. They all died. So she's saying you're going to be just like them. So he literally ran for his life.

And it's an interesting story and we're going to talk about it just a little bit. So what is the divine response to Elijah? The Lord, and this is what's amazing, you read in that section, Elijah takes off, he finds a cave, and the angel comes and feeds him, and wakes him up, and feeds him some more, just amazing.

And then this wonderful passage that King James brings across, and his presence, the presence of the Lord, in a voice it says, King James in a still, small voice spoke to him. So the Lord spoke to him personally. God was so concerned about Elijah, he spoke to him personally and told him that he would be with him, and he would be okay. And then the Lord says here, I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And then this is the, from the Old Testament from Kings 19, 18.

The only additional part you'll notice there, at the very end he says, in every mouth that has not kissed him. So that's pretty graphic there. Not bowed down to him or kissed him or given homage to him. I have 7,000 that have not done that, pretty amazing.

So that's our short summary of 1 through 4. Now today, in the same way, there also comes to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. Alright, so these verses are short, but they have lots to say here.

So let's start off. So as I do many times, you probably get infuriated with me. I don't like the New American Standard translation, so I go to some other translation. Make up your mind, Roger. Make up your mind. Anyway, I have a thought process here. My goal is to find the subject and verb. Maybe it sounds like that's a little bit over the top, a little bit too geeky. Why is he going to find the subject and verb?

Anyway, it helps us, it helps us. So here's inner linear, it says, so then, also in the present time, a remnant according to a selection of grace has come into being. A lot more wordy, and this is a word for word of the original, what's called the inner linear, word for word from the Greek. So what we find here after looking at that, and also after looking, I get the help of, if you go to the trouble, you can find every sentence in the New Testament diagram, sentence diagram, so if that's your thing, and it's mine because I'm teaching, you can decide a remnant is a subject. And you can do this without the diagramming, but it's easier with a diagram.

A remnant is a subject, and the verb is, has come into being. So the subject and verb of this clause, a remnant has come into being. Everything else in that clause modifies either the subject or the verb. In this case, it would be the verb. A remnant has come into being.

So let's see what Paul is going to tell us about a remnant has come into being. Let's start off with so then. Therefore also, so what follows is gonna be a conclusion. He's gonna make some conclusions about this. So then, or therefore, also in the present time. And so that phrase modifies the verb. So he's gonna tell us a remnant has come into being at the present time.

He defines when they've come into being. Present here. It starts, it's the idea of present time, it started in Paul's day, and this is what helps us to see what's happening in the church age. Present time, Paul talked about his age, he was in the church age, it continues up to our day, to our present time, to the church age. And time here is a word for a season, a fix, a definite period. So Wiest says here, the time to which Paul has referenced was a strategic one marked by the inclusion of the Gentiles together with the Jews in one body.

So that's kind of the tension I see. You know, you read your Bible and you say, the Bible says that that we're one in Christ, we're one body in Christ. But Paul seems to be saying, I'm still a Jew. Is there any conflict there? And I don't think there is any conflict there, but you might think that in your head. We're one body, we're one body, Jew and Gentile, and the remnant now for this time period in my mind is in the church.

Okay, we'll keep going here. All right. The next part, the remnant, this is the subject again, remnant's a noun, but it's verb form is to leave. So he says about this, thus a remnant is that which is left, the word refers to a group in Israel that was left, so to speak, out of the great general apostasy. And you also can think of, Macaulay says the remnant is the believing few, so a remnant is the leftovers, what's left, it's also the ones that are believing, the only ones that are believing at that time period. So the remnant has come into being, and this is another one of Paul's favorite words, in the original it's ginome, to come into a new state of being, and this really helps us, this really kind of nails it to the wall. So a remnant has come into being, and because it's perfect tense, little light bulbs go off, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding Hopefully that's exciting to you.

Probably not, but anyway. So what it's saying is, so if I put that in English, perfect tense says, there was a remnant in the past, there continues to be a remnant in the future, and there'll be a, in the present, on into the future. Past, present, future. So, the idea is a permanence. There always has been a remnant, there always will be a remnant. So that's kind of a key part to keep in mind.

And just to kind of nail that down a bit, I came across in listening to people, I came across this, if you have a Scofield Bible, who has a Scofield Bible? Raise your hand, I'm kind of curious. Nobody has a Scofield Bible. Oh, I fear Bob would. Anyway, I use it occasionally, not a lot, but I got pointed to this by somebody else. If you look for this verse in the Scofield Bible, in the footnote it will have this nice little section, a remnant summary.

And it says, a spiritual Israel within the nation, within a national Israel. So he starts off, okay? We start off with today, what Paul mentioned. In Elijah's time, it was Elijah and the 7,000 that didn't bow the knee to Baal. Those were the remnant, right? Because Paul refers to them as being a remnant.

Secondly, in Isaiah's time, it was a very small remnant in Isaiah 1.9. In the captivities, the remnant appeared in Jews like Esther, Mordecai, Ezekiel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those are all remnants of the true believers of Israel for those time periods. At the end of the Babylonian captivity, it was a remnant that returned under Ezra and Nehemiah.

And then when the Lord came, there's even a remnant when the Lord walked on this earth before the church began. The advent of our Lord, John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna. It says those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. There's other phrase very close to that too as well. And then today, what we're talking about today, during the church age, the remnant is composed of believing Jews. And then lastly, during the Great Tribulation, a remnant out of all of Israel will turn to Jesus as Messiah. And we know for sure, it says here, we know that he will seal 144,000 Jews. So that's kind of a helpful to understand. There's always been a remnant, there's a remnant today, and there'll be a remnant in the future. God has not forsaken his children. Okay, so let's go on here.

Okay, so the last phrase, according to God's gracious choice, or according to the selection of grace. So you have that word choice, selection. So this phrase tells us how a remnant came into being, and it modifies the verb, ginome, how that remnant came into being. And it was by God's gracious choice. So according to, it's the idea kata, according, it's usually according to a norm or standard. And the norm or standard is his selection of grace, it seems like from this passage.

So now, down this word that Jim mentioned, eklogo, I think, eklogo, it's a picking out, a choosing, or election. I'm not sure about you, but the word election, for some reason, I don't know, it seems like, can election be gracious? God's gonna try to convince us of that. Election and grace, it's not their butting heads, right? Your first thought is, election. I elect you, I elect you, boom, that's it. God doesn't work that way. That sounds, we might do that. I elect you as my tight end. You're my tackle. You're my quarterback. Does he do it that way? Is that how God works? Okay, let's see. So now we're going to talk about this tension.

Grace is a basis of, this verse is telling us, a selection or election of grace. Grace is a basis of election. So God operates in his elective or selection process by grace. election is of grace. I'm kind of saying it different ways. This is from Merriman, I think, yeah. It is the election that looks to grace. And you could add a couple more things. You could add, let's see, is that where I want to do it?

Yeah. In terms of God's grace, you know, God's grace is amazing. God's grace is always looking, you could phrase it, grace always looks to a positive response. God is interested, He wants to bless us. God is not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance. For by grace you have been saved. God is looking for the positive result in His, but election is part of grace, and they're connected, okay? Let's go on, there's a couple of things they're connected to, which is pretty cool.

Okay, more on election of grace, okay? So this verse gives us another little piece of the pie here. elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification by the Spirit. Peter, this is Peter, he's kind of giving his resume, in the first Peter he gives his resume, he says, he's defining who he is, and he says, I'm elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the Spirit. So now we have election, foreknowledge, and grace.

And they're all part of who God is and what he accomplishes. So let's see what we can say about that. So from this verse we can say, God's grace and foreknowledge are involved in His election of a remnant, not only of a remnant, but of every believer. His grace, foreknowledge, and election are all involved in the remnant and in every believer.

A few more things. Foreknowledge anticipates grace. Foreign knowledge knows the ones that will respond to God's grace through faith. But then we have to add a couple caveats. Hopefully you're good Bible students. God's foreign knowledge does not cause one to believe. And then lastly, but on the flip side, once a person believes, then the Bible says he's elected. He knows what will happen in our lives, but he doesn't force us. But once we do believe, we're elected. That's one of those mysteries.

Okay, let's go on. So if you disagree, come and see me. I'll be driving the cart really fast to get away so you can't chase me down. Okay. All right. Hopefully that's not too heretical. All right, verse six. If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. So I bolded, it is, in both those phrases. They're not in the original text, but I think they're helpful. So let's see what, so in verse six, he's gonna try to, he's gonna elaborate, he's gonna expand, if you will, on, verse six is gonna expand. Now what does a selection or election of grace mean? So, but if it is by grace, and it, the antecedent of it, is a selection of grace, so a selection of grace is gracious. Sounds kind of, we doubt it. So God's election is always by grace.

That's the A part. The B part, it is, the selection of grace is no longer on the basis of works. No longer here is a word that means no further, no more. And it's out of, as a source, literally no longer out of a source of works. God's grace is not out of a source of works. It's only out of a source of grace. So let's go on to the last part of this.

And here's a verse that kind of talks to that, Romans 3.20a, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. And then C, see part of this verse, otherwise grace is no longer grace. So once he said it, but if it is by grace, it's no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. And Ginnomai again, to become, grace has become no longer grace.

He's saying this is what will happen. So what's happened here? If you mix grace and works, then grace is destroyed. It has to be totally of God's grace. No works, he will allow not one single bit of man's effort into his grace. Works is destroyed, I mean, works is a destroyer of grace. Works is not allowed in God's system. If blessing is received on the basis of works, forget it. Forget about grace. If blessing is received on the basis of works, forget about grace.

Okay, so then at the very end, I've got a couple, last two slides. This one's kind of comparing grace and works, that they're incompatible and reconcilable. You can't mix works and grace, so let's just kind of go through this. So first of all, he defines, I know this doesn't fit the Holly Hills definition. But I think for his purposes he wants to show, he wants to point out the difference between grace and works.

So he says, grace, acting sovereignly, God acting sovereignly and compatibly with his own essence. So God is acting in relationship to his essence. Sovereignly and compatibly with his own essence without merit of man in view. And then works here, man seeking blessing from God on the basis of human merit. So we have God, He acts with no input from man, He acts totally on His righteous character, with man out of the picture, that's grace, and works is man seeking to get God's blessing from His works. Okay, some statements you can make. So now he's gonna, this is Merriman, he's gonna talk about this, he calls this Salvation Election Logic. How many took logic in school, high school, college? I know he took logic. Engineers did, I don't know. Okay, that's some hands, that's great. So logic is logic, right? Sometimes it's illogical, but hopefully this is logical. Okay, so the verse we're studying, I hope I convinced you, election is compatible with grace. Just from verse six, right? Election is compatible with grace, not works.

That's one statement. Statement number two, way back in chapter four, back probably a year ago now, faith is compatible with grace, right? We all amen to that, right? Faith is compatible with works. I'm sorry, faith is compatible with grace, not works.

So you have two true statements. So what can you say about faith and election then, right? Faith is compatible with election. Therefore, faith is not a work. Let's do it again here, all right? Election is compatible with grace. Faith is compatible with grace. Therefore, faith is compatible with election.

Therefore, faith is not a work. That's pretty important to remember. A little bit of math, but hopefully not too much. All right. Faith is a non-meritorious response to grace provision. So we can't go to God and say, see, I had lots of faith. No. No, you didn't. You don't get credit for faith.

This is what I thought. I add the word desires. You know, God's desire a faith response by all human beings. He wants us to respond. He wants us to respond in grace, right? He says, I'm not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance, right? He tells that over and over again about how His desire is that all men be saved. So He desires that men come to Him by faith, not by works. Okay, a few final statements.

It is the grace of God, not the works of the remnant, that is the real cause of their being saved. So the real cause of the remnant being a remnant is because they trusted in the Lord, trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, either before His cross or after His cross. Believing Jews are not superior, I thought this was good, believing Jews are not superior, just blessed. Paul's concern was not whether the individuals were elect or not elect. His concern was that they hear clearly the gospel message so that their faith would be grounded properly. And then lastly, this is a verse I thought really fit that someone else quoted too.

As Peter said at the first council, But we, speaking of the Jews, believe that we are saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as they Gentiles also are. Just read that again. But we Jews believe that we are saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as they Gentiles. So God is operating the same with Jew and Gentile.

He has a remnant. There's always been a remnant, and God has not abandoned Israel. Okay, so let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for your blessing, many blessings we have in the Lord Jesus. Thank you for your word, Father. Thank you that you choose righteously, and you know you're a righteous God and know all things, and you accomplish all things. for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.