“Saved by God’s Grace Alone”
Romans 11:1-6
Last week we looked at some excuses that Israel used in rejecting God’s Righteousness by faith, but we ended with the picture of the outstretched hands of our Merciful God, longing for His people, and ALL PEOPLE to come to Him in Romans 10:21: "ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE."
With that picture of our compassionate God in mind, Paul continues in Romans 11:1: “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? (Has God pushed away or separated Israel with those same hands of mercy and grace?) May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. (God saw and knew before all time and eternity those whom He would save, but we sure don’t know who they are: We are still supposed to equip ourselves with the Gospel of God’s Peace!)
(Paul gives another Old Testament example:) “Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3 "Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE." 4 But what is the divine response to him (Elijah)? "I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL."
Paul quotes from 1 Kings 19:18 (the same story was in the “Today” devotional yesterday): “Yet I will leave (SPARE) 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (Elijah didn’t think there was ANYONE left who wanted to live for God and follow Him. Do you ever feel that way? It’s not unusual to FEEL that way sometimes because we live in a world where many DO NOT want to come God! But we continue to witness because WE DON’T know who WILL come to Him.)
A small part of Israel
Paul wants Israelites to know that in spite of their horrible track record of disobedience and obstinance as a nation, God is still willing and able to forgive; God is able and PAUL IS the living proof that God’s Hands are STILL stretched out with love and grace to save ANYONE, including Israelites who believes His promises and come to HIM in faith. Paul says: “If Israelites were excluded, then I would have been excluded, too.”
Remember that Israelites had the notion that God saved them because of THEIR good works and their heritage, and Paul brings up the story of Elijah to remind us and them that in the past, ALL OF ISRAEL was NOT saved. When Elijah’s life was threatened by Jezebel in 1 Kings 19, Elijah felt like he was the only one left in Israel who had resisted Baal worship: and God says: “No, you aren’t the only one; I have SPARED a total of 7,000 that you are not even aware of!”
God Always Knows and Saves ALL those whom He foreknew, the ones He “spares”. Sometimes it seems that nobody is left, and it LOOKS worse than it actually is. There may have been between 1.5 to 2.5 million Jews at the time mentioned in 1 Kings, but the full and complete number which God had chosen, the 7,000, a perfect number, had been saved and spared by God so that they did not bow to Baal.
Remember that during the time of Noah, God waited patiently, as He provided safety in the ark for only 8 survivors (perfection plus 1); the rest of the earth perished, but a few were saved. In Acts 15:15, James proclaims: "With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 'AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, 17 SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,' 18 SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.”
Paul gives a past example first, and then talks about the “now” in Romans 11:5: “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a REMNANT according to God's gracious choice. (God’s act of choosing by HIS free will. Actually the translation could be, “according to God’s choice of grace.”) 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
God is saving a Remnant NOW
In the past, God always preserved a small part of Israel and a small part of mankind; now Paul explains how God is saving and preserving a “remnant” at the present time.
The word “Remnant “is only used 3 times in the New Testament and those times are in reference to the Old Testament verses; The word for “remnant” (sheh-ay-reeth') which is used 66 times in 16 OT books (24 times in Jeremiah) means: “the rest, residue or remainder,” (today for example, unused and unwanted leftovers of carpet, linoleum and cloth are called “remnants) but many times,” the remnant” in the Old Testament was the group of survivors which still stood and remained after the fury of battle had occurred. It was ALWAYS the group, that NOT ONLY remained, but whom God reserved and preserved after everyone else was destroyed.
This morning, I want you to think about where your grandparents originated: probably some came from different parts of the country: all of our ancestors came from other parts of the world at one time. Some of them may have been followers of Christ and others may not have been. Most of your parents were from “somewhere else”, too, and yet God worked in such a way as to bring the Gospel to you, and here we are today as a small remnant of God’s choice, right here and how. We have been chosen and preserved by God at this present time.
Genesis 45:7 demonstrates that principle of being Preserved by God: “Joseph said to his brothers: "God sent me BEFORE YOU (beforehand) to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.” Joseph had been sold by his own brothers into slavery, and later his brothers came to Egypt seeking food for survival, and they find Joseph RULING in Egypt: Joseph was a picture of the Lord Jesus who would come, and for Joseph’s family, he became their “SAVIOR”. He saved their lives, and God orchestrated and carried out His plan to do so. God preserved Jacob so that that a remnant would be saved according to His Gracious Choice: The brothers and their father, Jacob, were absolutely stunned by God’s GRACE and provision because they had been CLUELESS as to how God had been working. They graciously accepted God’s Provision for them.
The word for “preserve” is first used at Creation in Genesis 2:8: “And there He PLACED the man whom He had formed.” The word “placed” means “to place, to establish, to extend compassion on”. What did Man have to do with being “preserved” or “placed” in the garden? It certainly seems to be God’s doing! God is the one who preserves or establishes. God is the one who EXTENDS COMPASSION. He Preserves those BY extending grace and compassion: All those who call upon Him and His Name for salvation will be saved.
There is another word to look at in our text: “There has also come to be at the present time a REMNANT.” How did man “come to be”? How did the creation “come to be? How does the remnant “COME TO BE”? Listen to the definitions of the word for “come to be” (ginomai): “to become, to come into existence, begin to be, RECEIVE being, happen, to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage, of miracles, to be performed”. The REMNANT COMES INTO EXISTENCE by God’s Gracious Choice.
God saved 7,000 at the time of Elijah and Elijah was not even aware of those until God told him. God saved Noah and his family and they withstood the fury of the flood, and God Saved and preserved Jacob and His family, and God saved a remnant of Israel from the Babylonians, and Romans 11:5 says: “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.”
Today God is saving a remnant by His Choice of Grace. Many people today “SAY” that they believe that salvation is by God’s Grace apart from works, but if you asked why some are saved instead of others, they WOULD NOT SAY that it depended on the electing grace of God. They might say that it’s because of something that God sees or foresaw in them that would be the basis of their justification. Or maybe that God foresaw their faith: Some say that God knows who will believe, and so He elects them. You have to understand that the first supposition is a repudiation of the gospel by saying that there is some good in us, and the second makes “faith” a work. Romans 11:6: “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
AMAZING GRACE at every point
We all memorized Ephesians 2: 8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Let’s talk about that “Amazing Grace” for a minute. If we believe we are saved by grace, grace has to be at every point of salvation to be “BY GRACE.”
I found out why I “debate” people so often about the teachings of grace, faith, election, or foreknowledge. It is not that THOSE are so bothersome to people: The doctrine that offends people most is DEPRAVITY: That we are HOPELESSLY DEAD in SIN. That teaching offended almost everyone Jesus contacted. That is really at the heart of people’s questions and disagreements: There is NOTHING that I can do to save myself?…NO! There is NOTHING you can do, NOTHING that you can contribute, nothing that YOU can change or hope to change. You can’t hope to get yourself out of the “dead in sin” situation. You can’t hope to improve, and join God’s crowd: NOBODY CAN. You’re dead in sin and DEAD TO God, so if you are going to be saved, it has to start with GRACE, not with you. (Eph. 2:1, 2:5, Romans 3,4:17) We are hopelessly dead in sin, but regenerated and brought back to life by God. God works in us with the Good News of the Lord Jesus, and raises spiritually dead people to spiritual life….by His GRACE in Christ.
John 3:3 tells HOW God accomplishes that: “You must be born again (or born from above.)” Nicodemus, to whom Jesus was speaking, immediately thought of this in physical terms, but Jesus corrects him in verses 6-8: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going ; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Can you control the wind? NO. You can’t control your spiritual birth, either. YOU CAN’T DO IT, but God’s Spirit CAN. Spiritual birth depends, NOT on us, but on the Sovereign working of God’s Spirit… it can only happen by God’s Grace.
Lastly, IF we are saved by Grace through FAITH, faith cannot possibly be a work! “If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” (Romans 11:6) If faith relies on something I DO, than it is no longer grace. Faith is the result of regeneration, being born from above by God’s Spirit, right here (point to the heart): Faith is the PRODUCT of God Grace, not the cause of God’s election.
When faith is given by God, it causes a dead heart to believe, to be forgiven, and come alive. The GIFT of Faith is the cure for spiritual blindness and spiritual paralysis; Faith is the cure for spiritual deadness and deafness, and it comes by the Will of God as a gift …faith is given because God is gracious and compassionate.
In the end of times, the only remnant who will remain standing when God’s Hand of Grace turn to judgment will be those who have been reserved, saved and preserved by God’s Grace Alone. It is HIS REMNANT who believe that God saved when His Hands of compassion became the hands of Humiliation and Suffering on the Cross. It is the message of the Cross which the REMNANT share with others while on this earth. It will be this REMNANT who are saved by believing and accepting Christ’s work for them. It is the remnant who will eternally bring acceptable worship and Glory to their Great saving God in Christ. To God ALONE be the GLORY; Great Things He has DONE!
I. God showed His power to save a small part of Israel
A. Paul is the living Proof that God still loves and saves Israelites.
B. God ALWAYS Knows and Saves ALL those He “spares”.
II. God is saving and preserving a “remnant” NOW.
A. The “Remnant” (in OT): the group of survivors which still stood after the fury of battle.
B. God preserves: “to place, to establish, to extend compassion on”.
C. TODAY, God is saving a REMNANT by God’s “GRACIOUS CHOICE”.
III. If you’re saved by Amazing Grace, Grace must be in every point of salvation:
A. Depravity: We are hopelessly dead in sin, until we are regenerated by God.
B. “You must be born from above:” You can’t do it, but God’s Spirit can.
C. If we are saved by FAITH, faith cannot possibly be my work.
