This morning we come to one of the most important chapters in the Bible, in my opinion. It fits squarely into the persuasive argument of Paul concerning the gospel of grace, salvation by faith in Jesus alone, which is the heart of the book of Romans. It's an answer to the question concerning Paul's brethren, his countrymen, according to the flesh, national Israel. We've seen this several times in our recent studies, particularly in chapters 9 to 11. In this section on God's plan for Israel and why it is that they did not receive their Messiah by faith at His first coming, Paul's been answering in the context of the gospel of Jesus Christ the imperative question, what about the promises to Israel?

We see right from the beginning and throughout these chapters that Paul is talking specifically about national ethnic Israel. Look at Romans 9.1 at the beginning of this section, please. Romans 9.1, "I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying." These are really stunning words showing the heart of Paul. "My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises, of whom are the fathers, and from whom according to the flesh Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen."

Now, if you look down to verse 30 of chapter 9, Paul says, "What shall we say then that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? But Israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness." Why? "Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone, as it is written, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.'"

Paul says in 10.1, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, listen to this verse, this is so important we could apply it today to all the mainline denominations, the so-called Christian religions, they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." 

Why was it Israel wasn't saved? They wouldn't believe. They sought to establish their own righteousness through works, much as we see today through sacraments and works and sufferings, trying to be good enough for God. This Israel is not speaking of the church, as so many teach today. Is the church the one that has not attained the righteousness of God? No. It's national ethnic Israel that Paul is addressing, and he goes on in chapter 10 to show the reason that Israel has not received the unconditional promises made through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is because Israel is unwilling to believe.

And as we come into chapter 11, Paul is still addressing Israel and he calls them his people, God's own possession. Verse 1, "I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew." The "his people" in verse 2 is the same "his people" in verse 1, Israel. We see a humbling verse down in verse 11, look at 11, "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? But he's asking, has Israel fallen to such a degree in crucifying their Messiah that they're unable to get back up, that God's done with them? Certainly not. May it never be. Perish the thought. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles."

Is God still thinking about Israel? Is God still thinking about those promises that he made? 1 Samuel 12, 22 says, "For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people." It's not because Israel is greater than the other nations that God will keep his promises. It's not because of something good in Israel, it is because of his great name's sake. Because of his character, his nature, the truth that God keeps his promises, that he will keep those promises made to national, ethnic Israel. 

There's a great misunderstanding among much of the church today, and that is that in order to turn to the Gentiles, to enter the church age and save Jew and Gentile in one body, that God had to forsake his people Israel, cast them aside for all that they have done, reject them entirely because they rejected Jesus. But this is not the case, God is working out his will, as we've seen in his sovereignty in Romans 9, and we see again in our text this morning, just as he planned to bring the promise of salvation to the nations and to Israel, through Israel, through the Jews. And this does not preclude him from keeping his promises made to Abraham.

Paul's whole argument in these chapters is that God will keep his promises, and that this is all part of God's sovereign plan and that the fault lies with the unbelief of Israel. But when they believe, the branches that were broken off shall be grafted back in. God is working primarily with Gentiles now, but Paul says here his purpose is to provoke the Jews to jealousy. What an amazing statement. And he says their belief will be fullness, will be fruit as salvation comes to Israel in the fulfillment of the promises of God.

I want you to follow Paul's argument with me, beginning in verse 12 of chapter 11, and see the contrast here between Israel and the Gentile nations is what he's doing. He says, "If their, Israel's, fault is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? For I speak to you, Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and save some of them, for if they're being cast away as the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree." 

That's an important verse because we're going to see that later. We are blessed out of the covenant made with Israel, Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8. "Do not boast against the branches," he says, "but if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, 'Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in,' well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith, do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he may not spare you either, therefore consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell, severity, but towards you, goodness. If you continue in his goodness, otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?"

This whole section continues the contrast between Israel and Gentiles, and Paul's abundantly clear what his message is in verse 25. Look at verse 25, he says, "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. Look at this, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."

Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. Look at verse 29, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." What gifts, what calling? All those truths concerning Israel back in the beginning of chapter 9 and the beginning of chapter 10, the promises given in Genesis to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all Israel here is national, ethnic Israel.

When will they be saved? When the deliverer comes out of Zion and turns ungodliness from Jacob, for – notice that word, verse 27 – "for this is my covenant with them." Let me ask you a question. When did God make a covenant with Gentiles? He did not. This is clearly, contextually, the covenant made with Israel referenced in Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8, based in Genesis 12. We as the church as Gentiles are blessed out of the covenant made with Israel, with the house of Judah. We do not support the root, but the root supports us. 

I do not want you to be wise in your own opinion, Paul says. Don't think that God is done with Israel, that He set them aside nationally for now, but even this setting aside is only partial, and it's only temporary, that's what our text is about today. In verse 25 he says, "until," it's temporary, blindness in part, it's partial, right, has come to Israel. Paul's argument is so clear, so consistent, blindness in part, it's only partial, for the remnant is being saved. Israel still exists as a nation today. I was thinking about that in the context of our recent studies in the book of Joshua, as we see God bring them into the land, cross the Jordan, begin to take the promised land. All those nations, those Canaanites, all those people that we've been studying about, where are they today? Where are they? 

But little Israel, Israel, with so many enemies, so many attempts to wipe them out, still exists, and out of that rebellious nation, God is saving a remnant. The blindness is partial, and it is temporary, until, he says, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. That means that there's an end to this blindness, it is temporary. My friends, we will see in our text this morning and throughout our study of this great chapter that God has not cast away His people, He has not gone back on His unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Israel. The bottom line message here from Paul is that God will keep His promises, that God cannot lie. And let me tell you something very important, that is why you can trust Him to keep His promises to you in Christ.

Let's look at Romans 11, 1. "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew, or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleased with God against Israel, saying, 'Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek My life.' But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and if by grace, then it is no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace, but if it is of works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work."

You see, works and grace are mutually exclusive. It can't be works plus grace, it can't be grace through works, it's by God's grace alone. What then, Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded? Just as it is written, "God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear, to this very day." And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their backs always."

I've given you four points for your outline this morning: first, the wretched; second, the remnant; third, the resistant; and fourth, the redeemed. Paul asks a stunning question in the first verse of our text, it is a response to all that he's just said in chapter 10, the truth that Israel was a stiff-necked and disobedient people. God had been so gracious to them, so patient, so long-suffering, but when He sent His prophets to speak the truth, the word of the Lord, to offer them salvation by looking unto Him, they stoned the prophets. When He chastened them to bring them back to Himself, they would not repent. When He extended His arms out to them all day long, they would not embrace Him. 

And even when He sent His only begotten Son to them, to rescue them from the wrath of God to come for their sins, they crucified Him. Paul says in response to all of this, "Is God done with Israel? Has God cast away His people for all that they have done?" I'd like to read Jeremiah 31, 37, listen to these words, "Thus says the Lord, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done," says the Lord. 

Turn to Psalm 89. Psalm 89 with me, please, Psalm 89 at verse 28. Psalm 89, 28, God says, "'My mercy I will keep for him forever, and my covenant shall stand firm with him. His seed also I will make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they break my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me.'"

Paul's answer to his question, has God forsaken his people, is this: the strongest negative in the Greek, "no, no, no, no, no, it cannot be." God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. And then Paul uses himself as the first example of a saved Jewish man. And I don't make this assessment, but Paul characterizes himself as a wretched sinner. He calls himself the chief of sinners, having persecuted the church, trying to stamp out Christianity. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. We see him list his credentials in Galatians and Philippians 3. If ever there was a Jewish man who deserved to be forsaken by God for all that he had done, a man who tried to stamp out the church, was killing the Christians, was fervently, persecuting Christ, it was Saul of Tarsus. But what happened? God struck him down on that Damascus road and wonderfully saved and transformed him into Paul the Apostle. Paul's first argument is his own testimony. God has not cast away him for all that he had done.

And we see next that he was only part of this remnant that God was saving. In verse 1, again, "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, and he's saying, 'I'm the only one, God, I'm the only one left, and they're trying to kill me and they've killed Your prophets, they've torn down Your altars, I'm all alone.' God says, 'You're not all alone. I've reserved 7,000 men who will not bow the knee to Baal.' Even so then, at this present time, Paul says there's a remnant, there's always been a remnant according to the election of grace, God's saving a remnant out of the nation of Israel. 

There's Messianic Jews today in the church and if by grace, he says, it's no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. God has a remnant. He's keeping the nation alive in order to fulfill His promises to Israel and as a witness to the nations. Have you thought about how Israel is a witness over all these thousands of years to the nations? And that was God's intention in calling them out, that they would be a witness, that they would be a city on a hill, a light to bring the nations, it was always God's intention to save the nations. But Israel was unfaithful and unfaithful and unfaithful. 

God's cut a new channel of blessing now in the church to go out into the world and to preach the gospel, to lead men to Christ. God is saving all those who will believe. It seems today in the nation of Israel as it did to Elijah that there are none. Elijah said to the Lord, "I'm the only one, they want to kill me." But God tells him, "No, you're not the only one, I have my remnant." God has not cast away His people. Paul believed, Peter believed, the disciples, Stephen, 5,000, 3,000 Jews after Pentecost, the church was wholly Jewish to start. And still today we see Jewish people coming to faith. 

God has not cast away His people, He's saving those who will believe, He's saving His elect by grace. And when the Deliverer comes out of Zion, the nation will look on the one whom they pierced and all will believe and all Israel will be saved. Paul's argument is that God's still saving Jews, the remnant, so how can you say He's cast away His people? It was the same in the Old Testament. All Israel was not saved, justified, personally, because all did not believe. 

It always makes me think of that story that Jesus referenced back in Numbers when God sent the fiery serpents among the people and they were biting the people and He told them to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole, right? Jesus, just like Jesus said, I'll be lifted up and anyone who looked to that serpent would be saved. And it may just be me, but I get this picture of this gruff old Jewish man in his tent, right? And he's been bitten by the snake and his wife's saying, just look to the serpent. "I'm not looking to that serpent. That's ridiculous." They all didn't believe. They all weren't saved. Korah, his whole family, they were swallowed by the earth. Why? Because they rebelled against Moses. Most were resistant.

And today they persist in unwillingness to embrace their Messiah through faith. Here we see the balance in our text, the tension again between God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Paul just spent all of chapter 10 telling us that the reason Israel's not saved is because they will not believe. They will not receive the Word of the Lord. And this remains true for the vast majority today. And because of their unbelief, their persistent rejection, God judges them. He gives them over, blinds them and locks them into their unbelief. 

I always think of Adrian Rogers' illustration on that when he talked about it, because if I go back behind my house on my farm, I see these giant white pine stumps that were there from a hundred years ago. And one of them has a big tree growing up in the middle of it. And Adrian used to tell this story about when you had all this big timber in the woods and a forest fire would come through, it's like the gospel coming through for the first time. And it kind of burns the fire in your heart and the Holy Spirit's working and He stirs you and if you reject that, and you reject it, then it's like the next time the fire comes through, that stump just kind of, a little bit of flame, but not much going on and the next time less and the next time less. And that's what we see with Israel. We see unbelief. God's given them over. God's judging them. We see that in Romans 1 in our world today. 

I was just with the Supreme Court decision this week. I watched a little bit of that news and people in the street screaming for the right to murder their babies. How do you just look at that? God's given them over. They've rejected God. God has made Himself known even as eternal power and Godhead so that men are without excuse and they've rejected God and they've rejected God and what's it say? He's given them over. 

Now they have a mind that cannot think. Have you talked to anyone lately with a mind that cannot think? It's a judgment of God. These are harsh words. These are difficult precepts, but the fact is, God is judging Israel, God is judging our world, and in this time, those who will not believe will perish. Ultimately when Jesus comes, all physical, national Israel at that time will be saved when they look on Him, when they believe. Today it's the same for every man. If you believe Jesus, you will be saved. What's it mean to believe Jesus? 

It means to believe who He is and what He's done according to God's Word. Who is He? He's the Son of God, eternal. He took on flesh, why? To die in our place for our sins, to take the wrath of God in my place for my sins, and what's His requirement? To receive His righteousness as a gift. We read that in Romans 9.30 earlier, right? They did not seek it by faith, but they tried to establish their own righteousness. They were ignorant of the righteousness of God. The only way a man can be righteous is to receive the very righteousness of God. 

And Romans 3 and 4 makes that clear, that that's by faith in what Jesus did in my place for my sins on the cross, His death, burial, and resurrection. If I add works to that, if I say, well, I'm going to believe Jesus and I'm going to trust in my baptism, I'm going to trust in communion, I'm going to trust in my good works, I destroy the gospel. What did Paul say in our text at verse 6? If it's by grace, it's no longer of works, or else it's not grace. 

I remember I was preaching in India in this little village, and I was shocked when I started preaching because people just, I didn't call anybody, I didn't give an altar, but people just coming, you know? I remember giving an illustration, I said, "If God wanted to give you a gift, and you say to Him, well, I'm going to go work in the field, I'm going to go earn something, I'm going to bring it, and I'm going to give it to you," you can't do that. You have to receive the gift. And God says we receive the gift of His righteousness by faith alone in Jesus alone in what He accomplished on the cross. He's sufficient, He's not insufficient. We don't need to add to what He has done, He has accomplished our salvation. 

Those who reject Him, those who attempt to establish their own righteousness will die in their sins, just as Jesus told the Pharisees, "You will die in your sins." Here's the good news, my friends, here's the message of our text before we have our communion service and remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. The good news is if you have turned from your own works, your own religion, your own righteousness, and turned to Jesus alone in faith in Him, that is believed on His name, more accurately we could say, take Him at His word, trust Him for His promise, then you can know for certain that God will keep His promise to you in Christ. 

And we know that because God is a God who keeps His word to Israel, to the church, to every individual who will turn in faith to His Son. We're having a baptism today after the service. I want to just touch on one passage related to our text and water baptism, 1 Peter, 1 Peter 3.21, a difficult section here, Peter's talking about Noah and the days of judgment and preaching to the spirit in prison, but I want you to see something in verse 21. This talk of Noah and the flood brings up the idea of water, and Peter says there's also an anti-type which now saves us, baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 

The question I want to answer from these verses concerning water baptism is this: what is God saying to the believer, the one who believes Jesus and obeys the command to be baptized in water? The verse said God makes a pledge, this word answer means a pledge or a promise to the believer. We are immersed under the water. I was laying in a hay field taking a tire off a baler the other day and this guy is with me helping and this guy is a fervent Catholic guy and he's laying right beside me and he starts, he said, "Sunday you got to do this," I said, "Sunday we have a baptism," and he starts on the whole, "baptism, how do you do the baptism," I said, "we immerse people because the purpose is a picture, is a symbol of our death going under the water, being buried, our burial with Jesus, our resurrection out of the water, united to Him in His death, burial and resurrection," and he started on about that's not what it is, it's a sacrament and you have to enter the church as a door to the sacrament and you can't be saved apart from the church and I said, "Well at least you're consistent, at least you know your doctrine." 

What's God saying to us in baptism? I want to read you those same verses in a little different translation to give the sense of it, it says, "This water is a symbol," that word antitype is a little hard, it means symbol, picture, "this water is a symbol that now saves you also, not the removal of the dirt of the body but the pledge, the pledge or promise of a clear conscience toward God, it saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." There are two key words here, antitype which means a symbol or picture and the word answer or pledge in verse 21, and the question is who's making the pledge? What Peter's saying is that the water baptism is a picture of what already happened when we believed Jesus. 

We were united to Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection and this is a picture, this is a symbol and this act of obedience by the believer and what it tells us is that God makes a pledge. What's the pledge? The pledge is that you can have a clear conscience toward God because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God makes this promise, because you believe Jesus, because you have been wholly united to Him by faith, by death, burial and resurrection, a new life, you can now have a clear conscience toward Me. We have come back into a right relationship with God. 

We can have a clear conscience toward God because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and water baptism is a symbol, a picture of this reality for the one who believes Jesus. Now let me ask you, my brother, my sister in Christ, can you trust that promise, that word from God, right here in 1 Peter 3? Can you trust that? Can you take God at His word, even when you don't experience it, even when you don't feel like it, can you trust God that because of Jesus and His one-time death in my place for my sins, His burial and resurrection from the dead, because He bore the wrath of God for the sins of the world and fully satisfied, that's that word, propitiation, He fully satisfied God's wrath, because of Jesus, can I have a clear conscience toward God? 

When my heart condemns me, He's greater than my heart. It's a matter of faith, a matter of trust in the Word, in the promise of God. Our salvation, our eternity, our entire life is based solely on the promise of God. And that's why Paul is so concerned that we not get wise in our own opinion, that we don't get haughty, but that we understand that God always keeps His Word. God always keeps His promises. And that's why we can know that God will keep His promises to Israel, and He will keep His promises to those who believe and who are in Christ. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for Your Word, thankful for the clarity of Your Word and the salient message of the gospel that Jesus became a man, that He was innocent, deserved no punishment, but He died in my place, taking my punishment, Your wrath for my sins, and that that's complete. That was a one-time sacrifice and when I turn to Him in faith and trust Him for that, I'm born again, I'm made new, I'm recreated, I have a new heart and a new spirit and You come to make Your home in me as You promised. 

And I know that because of Jesus, I can have a clear conscience towards You. I can have confidence and assurance and peace and joy, and I can now serve You each day to live for the one who died for me. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.