All right, now I'm gonna invite you to turn back to our passage that we've been looking at every Sunday morning now for a while, and that is, of course, Book of Romans, and we are up to chapter 11. So Romans chapter 11, I'm gonna read the first 12 verses. Okay, so Romans chapter 11, verses one to 12. I say then, has God cast away his people? Perish the thought, 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. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? how he makes intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets and dug down your altars, and I am left alone and they seek my life. But what is the answer of God to him? I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works? Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace? Otherwise, work is no more work. What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for, but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded. According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David says, Let their table be made a snare and a trap. and a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Perish the thought, but God, sorry, but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. Now, If the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. May God bless his word to our hearts. Let's pray again. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage of Scripture. We thank you for the context in which we find it, a whole letter written to the Church in Rome, so many thousands, a couple thousand years ago. We thank you that it is the Word of God, and therefore it is powerful, it's quick, it's sharp, it cuts, it divides us under, pierces through to our very soul. And Lord, you have a word for us, and I pray that you would speak into us today and that you would bless us as you know we need. I pray you'll lead me, Lord God, but I pray that in all things we may look unto Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Oh Lord, teach us, and by our time being together in your presence, worshipping you, may we be strengthened and emboldened for the week ahead and for the rest of our lives. We pray with thanks in and through the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. When I worked in the city many years ago, from time to time, I would stop at one of the many construction sites that just seemed to be always going on in the city. And I would just stop and pause and just observe what it was that they were doing. One of the obvious things was always that the foundations that they were down deep and they were wide. And obviously that's not just so that they can have an underground car park, but they need solid foundations. The Apostle Paul, in writing these three chapters, just focusing on God and Israel and God's plan for Israel, indeed, more accurately, God's faithfulness to Israel. bases everything that he says on solid foundation, on two foundations. That is, first of all, God's nature and his promises that he made, that he cannot lie and he keeps his word. And secondly, he bases it on scripture, most of it, of course, from the Old Testament, which, of course, is what he had at the time, because the New Testament wasn't completed when he wrote this letter. But it's a challenge to us, isn't it, to consider that Paul preached Christ from the Old Testament. And you'll remember that when Philip was sent by the Spirit of God to witness to the Ethiopian eunuch, you remember that the Ethiopian man was reading from the prophet Isaiah, and then we read that Philip preached Christ to him from the book of Isaiah. Amazing, isn't it? And even today, we know that Jewish people who are Christians and who have a burden for their fellow Jews and witness to Jews, especially in Israel itself. And I've met a Jewish pastor, pastor of the church in Jerusalem. He came out, he spoke at our conferences, and they use what we call the Old Testament, which the Jewish people refer to as the scriptures. So Paul quotes to us many times from the Old Testament, basing his argument for the faithfulness of God upon the word of God. Of course, we have also references in the New Testament, and we'll look at a couple of those. But I want you also to notice, because I just want to mention this in passing, that Paul does not think it out of place or even illegitimate to mention the fact that he, who is a Christian, and you remember the word Christian simply means Christ one, one who is a Christian. You remember that it was first use of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in Antioch, because this was something new, because The people in the empire, they were generally known as Greeks. The Jews referred to them as Gentiles. But there were Greeks, there were Romans, and there were Jews. But now something new has come, and this is those who are of the way, as it is often referred to in the book of Acts, the way of the Lord Jesus. Their followers of Jesus say they were called Christ's ones, Christians. So Paul, who is a Christian, is nevertheless still a Jew. And he doesn't hesitate to say, look at me, I'm a Jew and God loved me and God saved me. And he doesn't now say, but that was in the past. I'm no longer a Jew. It doesn't bother me that I may have been a descendant of Abraham. It's no longer important that I was in the tribe of Benjamin. No, no, he doesn't do that, does he? He reinforces that. And that's just a small indication of the fact that God still has a plan for his people Israel. Paul is one of them that he refers to as being the remnant. And as long as we have a remnant of Jews who believe such as we have, not just in Israel, but also in Sydney here, I mentioned to you I knew a man who is a Jewish Christian who lives in the eastern suburbs. His ministry is to Jewish people. who continue to harden their hearts against Christ. Nevertheless, the work of God is going on. People are being saved. And so we see that there is this reality that while there is a remnant, God is still working out his promises to his people, Israel. Now, you remember that last week we looked at chapter 10, And we notice that at the heart of Israel's rejection is their unbelief. I finished last week with just a quick summary about unbelief, how unbelief takes you down the wrong path, which eventually leads to a dead end, there's just no hope. But the reality is that the people of God, or Israel, their rejection of their Messiah was because of their unbelief. We noted several things, just very quickly. We see that indeed for the last 2,000 years, Israel has stumbled over Jesus Christ. And in chapter 9, verse 33, it says, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed." I don't want you to miss the point there. It's almost as if God, it's not that God is making it hard for people to believe. It's that he will not compromise the truth. And the truth is that it is in Christ. He is that stone, the cornerstone. And you either believe and you take refuge on that stone, or it becomes a stumbling block and you trip over it, which is what happened for many, many Jews. So it is that we, with the gospel, as much as we want to be able to present it in a manner that people will understand it, we cannot diminish it in any way so that it becomes no more the gospel. It's not that we want to make it hard for people to believe. No, no. It is the truth that they need. And involved in the gospel with all that it is, it is not just John 3.16. But as we've been seeing from chapter 9, for example, the sovereign will of God, the sovereign election. And we are reminded again of the sovereign election here in chapter 11, because in verse 7, Paul says, what then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks, But the election has obtained, there's that word again, that challenge that a lot of people trip over, election. But the fact of the matter is that God has elected the remnant that still is today, as God will elect those who in the end times will come to faith in him as a nation. But notice also this at the end of verse seven, he says, the election has obtained it and the rest were blinded. Let me ask you, who blinded them? just like who hardened Pharaoh's heart? You know, you can go around in circles. You come back to the fact that a sovereign God has done that. We don't like to discuss it. We don't like to talk about it, perhaps because it's a lot to take in. It's a lot to accept. But nevertheless, The fact of the matter is the Jews have stumbled over the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, they failed to submit to God's righteousness and set about to try to set out their own righteousness. We read that in chapter 10 verse 3. They refuse to believe the gospel, the good news. We read that in verse 16 of chapter 10. And finally, they continue to be a disobedient and obstinate people, as we read in verse 21 of chapter 10. And it's so touching there that at the beginning, it says to Israel, the Lord says, all day long, I have stretched forth my hand to this disobedient and obstinate people. Doesn't it show the love of God, the patience of God, the compassion of God, the understanding of God, of what we as people are like? So all this in chapter 10 now leads Paul to ask this very important question again in verse 11. When I say again, he's asked a similar question in different ways, He says in verse 1 of chapter 11, I say then, has God cast away his people? And of course, the answer is an emphatic no. Perish the thought. Away with the thought. Your version may say, God forbid. In the original language, the word God doesn't appear, but people use that just to emphasize how strong is the denial of what he's talking about. No, God has not cast away, away with the thought. Don't even mention it. Don't even bring it up. It is just not on the table for discussion. So before we go on, I want to just explain a few things. I feel I just need to help you understand. When I preach through a book, I may preach in some way, in sometimes in depth, and at other times I might just, as it were, skim the surface. In preaching through these three chapters, it may seem that I'm repeating myself. I have to do it because Paul himself repeats this message. He repeats it and he emphasizes it. Remember that he's doing this because he's writing particularly to Gentiles to help them understand some things. They may not have understood a lot of the Old Testament. This is all new to them. For the Jews, they were aware of it. But Paul now is helping Gentile believers to know, just because the majority of Christians now are Gentiles, especially in the church in Rome. Just because Israel herself has rejected Jesus, it doesn't mean that Jesus has rejected them. And we'll see a couple more examples of this as we go on. So at the heart of Paul's argument is God's faithfulness and his integrity. And I want to just reinforce that myself. So you're in Romans, go to chapter three, of Romans and just read the first three verses with me. While you're looking that up, I'll get my second reference that I want to look at just to save time. Okay. So in Romans chapter three, And verses 1 to 3, Paul says, what advantage then has the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision? much every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. He allows for the fact that not everyone believes, which is what he does in chapters 9, 10 and 11, right? In verse 3 he says, For what if some did not believe? Okay, some Jews did not believe. Shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? He goes on again, God forbid, or perish the thought, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. as it is written that you might be justified in your sayings and you might overcome when you aren't judged. So we may judge God thinking that he's doing this or doing that or not this or not that, but he's going to be justified in his actions. And so just because some Jews did not believe, it doesn't mean that God's faithfulness is without effect. He is still faithful. And I wanted just to share with you again, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul asks these questions. It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. So in the end, In the end, if a person proves that he's not a believer, then the Lord won't receive him anyway. He will deny him and the Lord will deny that man or that woman. Then in verse 13, he says this, if we believe not, if our faith fails, if we doubt, if we don't trust him as we should, if we go down a wrong path, a by-path, If we believe not, it says this, yet he abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. You see, he can't deny who he is. He can't deny what he says. We might deny him. We might be unfaithful, but God remains ever faithful. So when he makes these promises to people, to his people in the Old Testament, he can't go back on it. I want you to see too, turn with me to Matthew. I want you to see as well that the Lord Jesus knew that his people would deny him, would reject him and would crucify him. But notice what he says. So in Matthew chapter 24, no, sorry, 23 and verses 37 to 39. Matthew 23 verse 37. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. Now, I want you to know in the context, this is after he has ridden into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey. They put their coats on the donkey and he sat on that donkey and he rode in. The people cut palm tree leaves. put them down the way, and they cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. This is after, this is what Jesus says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone them who are sent to you. How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth till you shall say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Now, let's give you a quick outline. The Lord Jesus is saying that often God extended his love to Israel down through their history, and they would not. He wanted to gather them. He wanted to protect them. He wanted to establish them, but they would run after other gods. They would deny the Lord, and they would not allow God to bless them as God wanted to bless them. Challenging thought, isn't it? And then he says, in verse 38, judgment is coming. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Hasn't happened. It's still Jerusalem still standing. The walls are still standing. But in chapter 24, he's going to describe the fact that Jerusalem is going to be surrounded by armies. They're not going to leave one stone upon another. All right. And then in verse 39, he says this. And in effect, he's saying, there's going to come a day when my people will receive me. I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth, to you shall say, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Who is you until you shall say, that is Israel, the nation, the people of God that he has loved, and he will gather to himself again. So there's the Lord Jesus himself describing in essence his faithfulness to his people, even in the light of their rejecting him. So let me state this very clearly. The future restoration that Paul is speaking of is a reference that one day the whole nation, alive at the time, And it will be at the end time, at the end of the Great Tribulation, when it seems that Israel is going to be wiped out by the Antichrist and his armies, read the Word of God, then Jesus is going to come back. His feet are going to touch on the Mount of Olives. He's going to save Israel. and they're going to believe on him. How do we know that? Let's go back to the Old Testament, Isaiah 66. It's also mentioned towards the end of Romans 11, but we'll get there, Lord willing, next week. But Isaiah 66, the last chapter in that wonderful prophecy, and we'll just read from verse 7. to verse 13. Okay, so Isaiah 66 verse 7. Before she travailed, she brought forth. Before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Okay, who does the she refer to? A woman? No. In the context, it refers to the nation of Israel. And before she brought forth, before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. Who do you think that that might be? Yeah, the Messiah. That's what the prophecy is about. So the Messiah came first, and then there's going to be another, as it were, travailing or bringing forth. What is that? Well, verse 8, who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth, says the Lord? Shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb? Seth God. In other words, he's asking rhetorical questions. God is asking a question that doesn't need the answer because it's obvious that the answer is no. He's saying, am I going to bring people of God, my people, to a point where they're going to receive me and not complete it? Of course not. Everything is going to work out. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her. Why are we going to rejoice? Because the people of God have finally owned the Lord Jesus as their Messiah, and they will be restored. that you may nurse and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like a flowing stream. Then shall you be nursed, you shall be carried upon her sides and be dandled upon her knees as one whom his mother comforts. So will I comfort you and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Wonderful words, maybe strange words to you. It's a good thing that you come and you participate in services or Bible studies because you're made aware of different scriptures. And I hope that things start to come together for you so that this puzzle that we call the Word of God starts to start to become clearer to you. So never think that you're wasting time by looking into things that are strange to you from the Old Testament, indeed, even from the New Testament. Alright, so God is faithful to his people. He will restore them. Until that time, there is a remnant, which is also called a seed, and that is evidence that God has not forsaken his people. And I want you, if you go back to Romans 11.5, I want you to see that this remnant is given according to the election of grace. There's that word again, election. So it's not that people do it of their own merit. No, no. That's why in verse 6, Paul takes the time to say it is a grace. Because if it's not a grace, then it must be works. And if it's works, then grace has lost its effect. because grace does not need works. Grace is a gift, the free gift of God. If it's works, then we may as well exclude grace. But it's not of works, it is of grace. And God extends his grace to us. Now, remind yourself that we looked in chapter nine, we saw the powerful evidence of God's electing love. He chose Jacob. and didn't choose Esau. He chose them while they were still in their mother's womb, before they had any chance to do good or bad or anything at all. He set his love upon Jacob because it pleased him. Struggle with it all you will. This is what scripture declares. But I'm talking to you. If you are an unsaved person now, don't worry about anything other than repent, believe and be saved. And let me tell you, you leave the things of God to God. You take care to ensure that you make peace with God even right now. And repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. because there is an abundant evidence of your sin condemning you, but there's abundant evidence of the love of God willing to forgive you. Seal that right now even. Don't put it off. The Lord is extending to you that invitation that you might also be forgiven and be saved and become one of God's chosen people. Now. I want to finish by focusing on the example that Paul himself gives us about the fact that God is faithful. Remember I said to you, I feel like I'm repeating myself, but that's because Paul repeats himself. Paul emphasizes he's not embarrassed to go over the same thing in a different way, a slightly different way. So he brings out the fact about Elijah and the prophet Elijah and what he had to do. Now just to set the scene for you, first of all, let me read so we get our minds refreshed a little bit. In verse 2 of chapter 11, Paul says, God has not cast away his people, whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he makes intercession to God against Israel, saying, They have killed your prophets and dug down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what says the answer of God to him? I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." Now, to set the context even clearer for you, first of all, after Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel was divided. Ten tribes went to the north, and they became known as Samaria or Ephraim, and sometimes referred to also as Israel. The remaining two tribes were Judah and Benjamin, and they stayed in Jerusalem and the parts in the south of Israel. The northern tribes very quickly went into apostasy. They went away from God. And no matter who the king was in Israel, none of them was ever in any way faithful to God. But notice this, God was still faithful to them. They were still his people and he was faithful to them. At the time of Elijah, the king was a man called Ahab. And it's interesting that it is recorded of Ahab that he provoked God to anger more than all the kings before him. In other words, what Ahab did was even worse than all those kings before him. Yet what did God do? Well, God sent Elijah, pronounced that there would be a drought, and if Ahab repented, that God would forgive him. But of course he didn't. And Ahab, you remember, had a very infamous wife called Jezebel who led Ahab and Israel, the northern tribes, away from God even more and to the worship of Baal. And so Elijah is sent by God. Eventually, there's this contest on Mount Carmel where God proved that he alone is God. And he sent fire down from heaven, consumed the sacrifice to prove that he is the Lord of Israel. Elijah at that point thought, this is great. Finally, here's this evidence. Finally, there's going to be revival. Finally, we're going to come back to worship the Lord. The people are going to say, you know what? We don't want Baal. We realize that we have been wrong. We need to go back to Yahweh. But you know what happens? The complete opposite. This so throws Elijah out, as it were, that he actually runs away. And he runs and he hides in a cave. In effect, Elijah has given up. But the Lord follows him there. just like he follows you. You might run away into the desert country and hide in a cave. All of us have run away from the Lord at some point. God does not let us go, does he? And he comes and he asks Elijah, what are you doing here? And that's when Elijah gives the answer as Paul quotes. He says, Lord, They've killed your prophets and they're after me to kill me too. They've dug down your altars. In other words, they're not worshipping you. And I'm the only one that's left. In other words, as far as Elijah is concerned, he's given up on Israel. That's it. I've had it. I'm not going to preach anymore. I'm not going to prophesy anymore. I'm going to leave them to the judgment of God. And Lord, you can see that I haven't been successful. I'm no better than my father, as he said. So I've given up. But the Lord, of course, chose him. No, Elijah. I have chosen. I have reserved In other words, I have kept for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal, who are still faithful to me. What's that? Give me a word. Remnant. You see, the remnant of God. Only 7,000. How many people were in Israel? a million, maybe two million. 7,000 isn't a lot, is it? But it's a remnant, and it's enough for the Lord to say, these are my people, these are they who I've made a covenant with, and I will be faithful to them. You better bless God that God is faithful to you always, because he cannot, remember, he cannot deny himself. So Paul then reminds us, as we already looked at, that they were remnant according to the election of grace. And we have to say that even today, God has his remnant through which he maintains his promises to Israel. Has God failed? No, not at all. So let me close with this. When I read in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 3, where the Lord says to his people, through the prophet Jeremiah, and again, it was during bad times, dark times. It was just before Jerusalem was captured, destroyed, and the people taken into captivity. They were far away from God, yet God still loved them. And in chapter 31 and verse three of Jeremiah, the Lord says to his people Israel, I have loved you with an everlasting love. And therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Now, when I read that, I need to believe that God means that. You know why? Because then when I read in 1 John 4 10, where the Apostle John says this, herein is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. When I read that, I need to know and to trust that God means it just as he means it to Israel when he says, I've loved you with an everlasting love. It doesn't end. And we know because God is eternal, there was no beginning in his love for Israel or for us, and there will be no end for Israel or for us. God will be faithful to what he promises. So I need to say, I trust what God says. And let me encourage you, you too can trust what God says. Your life depends upon it, and you can certainly give your life into his hands. May God strengthen us all as we continue to learn of him and his great love. Amen. Let's pray. We bow before you, Lord, and humbly thank you for your love for us as you have loved us, your people, whether it is your covenant with Israel that you will maintain and fulfill. We thank you, dear Lord, that you have the victory and we thank you that, Lord, you first loved us and we praise you for what you've done for us. All glory be to you, Lord, and we praise you in Christ's name. Amen.