Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to you, Lord, right now, we do ask for forgiveness of sin. Pray that you'd open our understanding, that we might understand the scripture. And then, Father, we pray that you'd grant all of us a filling of the Holy Spirit, that we might have power in service and power over sin. And so now, Father, we commit this unto you. Lord, we are totally, 100% dependent upon you. And so now, Lord, teach us from your word tonight. May there be something here for everybody that ever hears this. Everybody that's here and everybody that'll hear it over the internet. And so we thank you for that. And now, Father, glorify yourself in what's done. We thank you for this opportunity. We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All righty, we are in Romans 11. We've started off, we finished Romans 10. We're in Romans chapter 11, verses one to 10. And I'll throw verse 11 in, but that's where we'll start off next week. And so with that thought in mind, let's just begin. And I put up there, bad for them, good for us, all right? So we'll get to that. Now the theme of Romans 11 overall is the Jewish nation. All right? As you go through the Bible, there's things you'll see. Number one, you'll see that the word of God will refer to Israel as the people, the people. But on this side of the cross and things, people, the church is never referred to as people. It's always referred to as saints. All right? And so when we look at that, we see a difference there. But as we start this off tonight, there's, as normal, there's a lot here. And so let's just start with it and see what we get. And boy, there's a lot in here for you and me, I'll tell you that much. So here we go, Romans 11, verse one. I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. And verse two, God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. Quote, that W-O-T, that means what? Don't you, haven't you seen this? Don't you know this? What ye not? what the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. What we're going to find here tonight is some good things. We're gonna find that God deals with the believing minority. And then we're gonna find that God deals with the blinded majority. Ever so important as we look at that. And we also look at this little statement, hath God cast away his people? There in verse one, see that? Well now, right up front, we know that's Israel, don't we? But you know, when I looked at that, I thought, his people. Well, let's look and see who his people is in this passage of scripture. Verse four. It says, what sayeth the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. So the first thing I want you to see, God says, I have reserved to myself. See that? God did it. God always has a remnant. Now, just think about this. The nation itself is apostate. And you've heard me say this before, when God can't bless the nation, he'll always bless the faithful within the nation. And so what you've got here, the nation itself is apostate as it can be. All right? But there's 7,000 that are not. And God says, I have reserved to myself. See that? God has done that. And God always has his remnant. All right, now look at verse five. We're talking about verse one where he says his people. But when you go through this, you look at this, you say, all right, that's his people. So now you got 7,000, that's his people, all right? And now go to verse five. Even so then at this present time, also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Now, So, if you want, without going any further, we could say, you know what? Those 7,000 are remnant according to the election of grace. Without adding anything to the scriptures. Now, a lot of commentators are like potaters, alrighty, they wanna add something to it, they wanna say, well, that means that there's a bunch of others that are saved according to the election of grace out of Israel and stuff like that, but the scripture doesn't say that right here. The only thing we know is those 7,000. It said, even so then at this present time also, you see, they take that word also and say, well, that means there's more. There is a remnant according to the election of grace. And so here you've got 7,000. They're remnant for sure, aren't they? All right. But now look at this. When you drop down, go all the way down to verse 11, that's the bottom. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather, through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles. for to provoke them to jealousy. Oh, that is a huge subject to deal with. All right? But now just think about it. So when you look at that up in verse one, and it talks about his people, well, you find the 7,000, you find the 7,000 that remnant if you want to, but then down at the bottom, you find Gentiles. That's us. You see that? Boy, praise God for that, huh? Well, we'd be in a mess without that. All right, now, let's back up then. Go back up to the top of the page, if you would, please. Now go to verse two. God hath not cast his people, which he foreknew, watching not what the scripture saith of Elias. Have you noticed something here in Romans these last few lessons? It keeps going back, the scripture sayeth, the scripture sayeth, the scripture sayeth. Keeps throwing us back into the Old Testament, doesn't it? The scripture sayeth. Why is it so important for us to know that Old Testament? Because the Old Testament gives witness and it tells the truth. Not only does it give witness, but boy, it prophesies and it clarifies a lot of things that are said in the New Testament, doesn't it? You see, that's why you find these statements, well, the scriptures say it, the scriptures say it. So we've looked at that, and that's very important that we go back and look at those scriptures and stuff. saith of Elias how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars and I am left alone and they seek my life. It's interesting, I want you to notice something here. How we view things is not necessarily truth. It's partially truth. But like him, Elijah, he gets to the point to where he's all depressed, discouraged, distraught, and everything else. And he says, I'm left alone, ain't nobody but me. And listen, that's not true, is it? God comes back and says, no. I've got 7,000 others that haven't been to Anita Bale. I want you to know that that's why it's so important, boy, for us to stay true to the Word of God. Because, you see, if we're staying true to the Word of God, it's because of the grace of God shown toward us. that has given us that grace. We have to deal with something though. We have to deal. Remember, the people that can see things spiritually, Matthew 13, Right? When you look at Matthew 13, you know their eyes are blinded, their ears are deaf, so on and so forth, right? But it says, blessed are your eyes for they see, your ears for they hear. Do you realize that one of our problems is we live in a time, just like then, where we have to deal with the blind. We have to deal with those that their mind and conscience is defiled, like it says in Titus. We have to deal with these religious people. And so, what he says is, look at what they have done, and look at what they're doing to me. Look at what they've done, look at what they want to do to me. The reality of it is this. Jesus said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. So even in a situation to where we might be alone as far as other humans go, spiritually, we're never alone. Now think about that. Jesus said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. if the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Now just think about this, the Bible says, if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you're none of His. Whoa, now. And so we find then, that when I look at this, I realize, you know something? Boy, before I get a bad case of the poochy lip disease, I better stop and think about what I'm thinking about. Because we can get to the point where we think, well, we're the only ones left. And then we're gonna find out that no, we're not. There's God that saved 7,000 for his own purpose. You see that? And so, listen, a truth truth and then an untruth Lord they have killed thy prophets true they have digged down thine altars true I am left alone not true they seek my life true you see that and So listen if we don't view things correctly Just think about this now You ready? What do we deal with Sunday morning? Distractions, distortions, and then destructive behavior, right? And now just think about this. When you look at this, the distractions of everything around him, around Elias, the country's gone to pot, the nation's gone to pot, the priests are crooked, everybody's crooked, the whole thing's going down the tubes, and man, they've corrupted everything, they've corrupted God, they've corrupted God's worship, they've corrupted the temple, everything, buddy. So all these distractions, right, has caused him to have a distorted view of his own circumstance, right? And when you get a distorted view of your own circumstance, then guess what? Your behavior is gonna go nuts. You'll be destructive behavior. You see that? All right, now watch this. Get your boots on, we're gonna wait around this some. Verse four, but what sayeth the answer of God unto him? God, now look what God's going to do. God's going to give Elijah a rebuttal. Isn't that good? That God's gonna say, that's not true what you said. Verse four, but what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself. Boy, underline that. I have reserved to myself God has done this. These are 7,000 saved, born again, chosen of God people. God did it. I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Wow. Even though the nation is apostate, there's these here that haven't bowed the knee to Baal. Just think about this. What you're looking at here God deals with the believing minority and God deals with the blinded majority. God's in charge of this. Now, even so, verse five, even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Now this is one of the greatest dissertations between law and grace there is in the Bible. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. We are what we are by the grace of God. And when you read the verse five, there is a remnant. But now, where did this remnant come from? How did this remnant stand? What do they stand for? What happened? How'd this happen? It says, according to the election of grace. You see that? That's very important for us to take a look at that. Because if there's a remnant, well, what are they? It's according to. It's not according to their works. It's not according to their worship. It's not according to their word. It's not according to their actions of any type. No, it's according to what? It's the election of grace. That's it. Now, when you and I read this with a whole lot of misunderstanding, lack of understanding, we read that and the force of that 99% of the time never hits the hearers. That's you. The very next couple of verses reveal to us something of grave importance to all of you people. To anybody that'll hear this via the internet. In verse five and six, he gives this dissertation of grace, the election of grace. It's grace. Grace is all grace. There's no mixing. You can't have grace and works and they don't work. And that's what you call frustrating the grace of God. In other words, making it void. And so now let me spend a lot of time on the rest of this. Because here's what happens now. I want you to get this. If you'll get this, you'll be able to walk out these doors tonight saying, I've learned something. He gives us in verse five and six, this dissertation on the election of grace. You folks that are sitting here tonight, if I were to ask you, you'd say, I'd say, are you saved? Yes. Did you save yourself? No. What happened to you? Well, God's amazing grace. God saved you. That's all there is to it. You were dead in trespasses and sins and God saved you. That's all there is to it. That's grace, okay? Now listen, grace in our lives is a restraining power. Without God's grace in our lives, there's no bottom to the wickedness and corruption of our actions, period. So now watch this, verse seven. Now when you read Paul, he'll say, we Jews. When you read Peter, Peter said, we Jews. What then Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for? Well, they were seeking for this salvation by works, they were seeking this freedom by works, they were seeking this, now hear me now, they were seeking acceptable righteousness that God would accept. They were trying to perform a righteousness that God would accept. and there's no righteousness that a man can do that God will accept. The Bible says all of our righteousness is as of filthy rags, okay? Now, watch this. Verse seven, Romans 11, seven. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for. But the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Ah, and the rest were blinded. According as it is written, this is verse eight. According as it is written. Well, that's throwing us back into the Old Testament again, isn't it? Matter of fact, what you can fix to read here is a quote out of Isaiah 29, 10. God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. All right, now let's talk about a couple of things. Verse seven, and the rest were blinded. What God does is all he has to do is leave us alone. And I wrote down here Psalm 81, 12. Psalm 81, 12. It says this, so I gave them up unto their own heart's lust. And they walked in their own counsels. All that God has to do is to give us up to our own heart's lust. Humans have this ability of losing their sensibility. Verse eight, according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. In other words, now listen to me. The nation became insensible to spiritual realities. Now, insensible to spiritual realities. When people become insensible, There's a lot of definitions dealing with the word insensible. And if you want, when you get home, look it up and then go to a thesaurus and look at some of those words there with that word insensible, okay? In other words, their senses are gone. You know, I haven't brought this up in a long, long, long time, years. But I worked with a man who was captured by the Chinese during the Korean War. And he lived through it. And I communicated with him some, even since I've lived here. But he passed away about a year ago. But this guy had no conscience about anything. He was totally insensible. All of his senses had been beat out of him, bled out of him, tortured out of him. He had no feelings at all, none. He was one of the most cold-blooded humans I ever met in my life. He was just scary to be around. He's the type of guy you want on your side, that's for sure. But see, he was insensible. And so, when God hath given them up to this, I mean, I was looking at some of the stuff that went on during the Second World War, what the Nazis were doing. And this one guy had a bunch of children, him and some others were guarding a bunch of Jewish children. And some were Jewish, not all of them were. But then the word come out, the war was coming to an end, to kill all those children. And a couple of the guys said, I'm not doing that. And they left. But this one guy, he would take those little kids by the hand and he'd walk those little girls out into the woods and then shoot them in the head with a pistol. Then he'd come back and get another one and walk that child out into the woods, shoot him in the head with a pistol. You say, how in the world can they do that? It's because they're insensible. When we lived in Germany, there was a guy that lived a couple houses down from us, and he was a guard in the prison camps. And he could never get rid of the faces of the people that he saw. And so he eventually committed suicide. But you see, people can become insensible. They lose their senses. And the nation, Israel, had become insensible to spiritual realities. Does that sound familiar to you by any chance? This nation right now that we live in, in a big way, has become insensible to spiritual realities. But not only that, many people that come to the churches have become insensible to spiritual realities. That's why the preacher can get up and preach, or they can sit and read their Bible, but they'll still get up and walk out. And like it said in Psalms, he gave them over. And guess what it said, did you read the last of that verse? It said, to their own counsels. You see that? Matter of fact, Turn back there. Let's look at this. Psalm 81, 12. Let me show you something. Psalm 81, 12. Psalm 81, 12 says, so I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust, and they walked in their own counsels. You see that? In other words, they're not walking according to the word of God. They're not walking according to what the prophet of God said. They're not walking according to the law of Moses. No, no, no. God's gave them up to their own heart's lust. And what are they doing now? They're walking in their own counsels. In other words, how they see it doesn't make no difference whether the preacher preaches it, whether dad teaches it, or mom teaches it, or a friend teaches it to them. They're going to walk according to their own counsels. You see that? In other words, they become totally in opposition. They become totally insensible to spiritual realities. That's what you call reprobated. Totally reprobated. They're insensible. You could talk to them and tell you're green in the face, blue in the face, white in the face, and tell you about lose your breath and fall over, but guess what? It does nothing. Why? Because they're living according to their own counsels. In Hosea chapter four, I forget what verse it is, like 10 or 17 or something like that. It says, Ephraim has taken up idols, leave them alone. Ever so important. Watch this now. So let's read verse eight, then we're gonna go to verse nine, okay? According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear unto this day. And you can find that again in Isaiah 29.10. Now let's go to verse nine, if you would please. This is Romans 11.9. Okay? And David saith, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Verse 10, let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always. Now, this here is pretty much a quote out of Psalm 69, 22. When it talks about this table, it's talking about having the privilege, all right, to eat with the Lord, to communicate with the Lord, to have these things. Psalm 69 22 let their table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap whoa you see that in other words what he's saying this is this table of the Lord, it was there for their welfare, but David says, let it be there for a trap. They have walked off and left the Lord. So David saith, verse nine, David saith, and we just read that, Psalm 69, 22, let their table be made a snare and a trap. and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. In other words, the Bible says about, we might want to repay somebody for their wicked deeds. And the Bible says, the Lord said, I will repay, saith the Lord. Right? This recompense unto them. Here you find it says, let their eyes be darkened that they might not see and bow down their back always. They became more committed to the outward ceremony and worship than the spiritual reality. So what you find, it's a very subtle thing, but it's all around us, even today, the same thing. Just like Israel became more committed to the outward ceremony, to the outward form of worship, than the spiritual reality. And so we find that in all the churches. There's lots of churches around us right here. And what are they given to? Man, they're given to and they're committed to outward ceremony, aren't they? They're given to their form of worship. and in that outward ceremony and with that form of worship. Boy, they think that that has brought about salvation to their soul. That's their salvation, their form of worship. They commit their soul, not to the Lord, but to the church. They say, if I go to the church and I bow and scrape and do all these things, then that's my salvation. But that's not their salvation, is it? No way, shape, or form. And so they became committed to the outward ceremony and worship. more than the spiritual reality of it. And so what happens when you look at this, think about it. And David said, let their table be made a snare. In other words, this relationship with God and a trap and a stumbling block. and a recompense. Wow, they're in trouble. Let their eyes be darkened that they might not see and bow down their back always. Listen, what you have here is David is saying, listen, these people are very religious. Did they have religion when you read this? Were they still going to the temple? Were they having sacrifices? Man, did they have it all? They did, didn't they? But when truth came, they wanted to kill truth. They didn't see. Look at Isaiah 53. Go back to the Psalms. Go back to the prophets. All these things are prophesying about Christ, aren't they? Man, they give clear pictures of Christ, everything. And so what they did was this. They didn't want to see biblical or spiritual truth. They didn't want to see the spiritual reality of what those Old Testament sacrifices represented. They didn't want to see the reality of what Isaiah had to say about this child that's coming. They didn't want to see the spiritual aspect of it. Now just think about this, folks. That part of human character has not changed, has it? You talk to people today, and guess what? They'll like their format of worship, they'll like a lot of things, but boy, they're going to resist the spiritual truth, the spiritual application of things. They'll argue with you, they'll explode on you because they do not want to hear that truth. Because one thing about it, the reason they hate that truth so much is because they cannot resist it. So they fight against it. That's why you walk up to somebody and they're happy in their religion and you say, now let me tell you the truth about this. Whoa, boom. Boy, they go nuts, don't they? You see, why do they get so angry when you use the word truth? It's because, you see, they've accepted another truth, and they don't want your truth to disprove their truth. Once they've accepted a truth, or what they consider to be a truth, they want to stay away, far away, from anything that would show them that their truth is not true. I ain't so bad, they blow up, explode, you name it. I've been through all of it. Boy, you confront some people with biblical truth. Now listen, so it amounts to this. These people have become totally insensible to biblical truth. They've rejected it to the point that the only thing they do, can do, is vehemently reject it. What he's talking about here, let's go to verse 11. Now this is where we're gonna start off next week. I even put it down there to you. Next week we will start with this. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall, God forbid, but rather through their fall, salvation is coming to the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. There we go. You see, salvation to the Gentiles. Well, the Gentiles, as God's amazing grace comes to them, They accepted, you see. So what we find then is this. You and I have to deal with these people. And you might say, okay, what people? We have to deal with the people that are insensible to spiritual realities. I can stand up here and preach about the spiritual application of things. I can stand up here and preach against Halloween, for instance, right? And each year, you know, for the past years, I've passed out that paper, you know, to you, all of you. But for those that are insensible, you see, What will they do? Well, because they really don't have any emotions or feelings about this, they'll be getting involved in it. You see, but why? Because they don't understand the spiritual realities of it. And that's the way it is with a lot of things. And so we find then that you and I have to deal with the people around us that are insensible, all right? Then we have to deal with the people that we find that's around us. They're very religious. But what you find is God has just taken his hand off of them. And like we read there in Psalm 81, 12, he's just left them alone. He don't have to do nothing but leave them alone. And so we find those people, boy, they come in the church, they go out of the church, they come into your life, go out of your life. You see, when you stay stable, spiritual stability is almost like a padded cell, I reckon. These people run in and bang off the wall and bounce off, fall down, get up and run back out the door. because there's something there that they just cannot handle. It goes back to that verse of scripture, they went out from us because they were not of us. And so what you find is they constantly come and they constantly go. You and I have to deal with that in your personal life, in church life, so on and so forth. And so in closing, I want you to know this. that those people, not only are they insensible, not only has God just turned them over to their own selves and they become insensible, and what are they doing? They're going to live according to their own counsels. Not according to the word of God, they're going to live according to their own counsels. They're not gonna listen to the preacher, the parent, the saved person, the friend, the brother, the sister, nobody, they're going to live according to their own counsels. And when you get around somebody like that, know this, best thing for you to do is go away and leave them alone. Ephraim has turned to idols, leave them alone. What we find then, we can pray for them if God will go to work on them, then bring them back to their realities. But then we find in closing, it's simply this, not only are these people blind, not only their ears heavy, but then we find this reality. They become insensible because God backs away from them. They become totally reliant upon their own counsels, which is going to take them down the wrong road. And then for those that are religious, they become totally committed to the outward ceremony and have with nothing to do with the spiritual aspect of it. Man, they tie themselves to their religion. And then they look for a religion that is compatible with their own counsels. Have you ever asked somebody, since I've been here, I've done this several times, I've asked people, what are you looking for? And one guy, well, I'm looking for this, this, this. He didn't say nothing about the word of God. He didn't say nothing about doctrine, nothing. And when he finished, I looked at him and I said, well, you won't like it here, we don't have none of that. And he said, you're a church, you don't have none of that? I said, no, we got what we're supposed to have. We got a Bible, we got the Word of God, we got good Baptist doctrine. And I said, you haven't mentioned none of that. You wanted everything but that. And so you need to go to the house on fire or somewhere like that where they'll do all that kind of stuff. And you all know, as I close this, you all know, for you to try to convince somebody that's satisfied with their religion is a fight. Man, they'll cuss you, they'll do anything. They'll blow up in your face, they'll do anything. You know why? Because they've got to stop you. Because inherent on the inside of them, somewhere deep on the inside of them, they know they cannot fight against your truth. That's right, amen. Amen? Amen. All right, gather around, let's pray.