The salient point of this discourse centers around the concept of the elect as the remnant of grace, which comprises individuals who accept Christ through faith, irrespective of their Jewish or Gentile nationality. I elucidate that God's acceptance is not predicated upon associations with organizations. It is posited that the elect, far from being predetermined individuals assigned to their eternal fates, are rather classified as a distinct group of individuals characterized by their acceptance of the gospel through faith. This classification transcends ethnic boundaries, encompassing both Jews and Gentiles alike. The discussion further elucidates the notion that God's acceptance of individuals is not contingent upon their national identity but rather on their willingness to embrace Christ's teachings. The speaker emphasizes that despite the collective rejection of the Jewish nation, God has preserved a remnant, exemplified by the 7,000 faithful individuals who have not succumbed to idolatry. The implications of this theological stance are significant, as they suggest a dynamic and inclusive view of divine grace, one that invites all individuals to partake in salvation regardless of their heritage.

The discourse culminates in a call for a deeper understanding of grace, emphasizing that salvation is a gift that necessitates a response—a response characterized by faith and obedience. The speaker's reflections serve not only to clarify misconceptions but also to inspire a more profound engagement with the text.

Takeaways:

• The concept of God's elect refers to a specific class of individuals rather than predetermined fates for individuals at birth.
• God's acceptance of individuals is based on their faith in Christ, regardless of their national identity as Jew or Gentile.
• Election is not about collective salvation of nations, but rather about individual acceptance of the gospel message.
• The distinction between grace and works is crucial; salvation is by grace through faith, not by human merit or adherence to the law.
• Paul uses the example of Elijah to illustrate that even in apostasy, a remnant of faithful individuals remains, demonstrating God's enduring grace.
• The hardening of hearts is a result of individual choices, emphasizing the importance of one's response to God's revelation.

Christianity is very diverse, but all denominations share a common source that by its nature has created problems for which there is no biblical antidote.

Tim Glover provides an alternative.

Join him each Wednesday at 10am to share his studies with you.

And good morning to you.

Welcome to our study.

We're still in the Book of Romans.

It is a unfortunate problem of teaching.

Anytime you have to stop in the middle of a letter and pick up where you left off, hoping that the hearer will remember what's been said before.

I mean, these, the chapter divisions even were not written by the apostle Paul.

They weren't about it.

It's just one long letter.

So we're, we're dissecting this letter over a week's period of time in hopes that you'll remember what was said before.

It's really an unfortunate thing, but that's just the nature of studying the Bible, especially when we have a limited time that we're trying to fit the study into.

But we're in chapter 11 this morning and we want to look at the first six verses.

To start off, Paul says, I say, then did God cast off his people?

God forbid.

For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God did not cast off his people, which he foreknew.

Or know ye not what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel.

Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

But what says the answer of God unto him?

I have left for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal?

Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

But if it is by grace, it is no more of works.

Otherwise, grace is no more grace.

So the question begins, did God cast off his people?

Paul says, be it not so.

He gives himself as an example that the rejection of the Jewish nation had nothing to do with salvation of individual Jews.

We've been making this point all along, is that there's a difference between election and salvation of a nation versus the election and salvation of a class of individuals.

And so it's on an individual level, and the elect defines a class of people.

And not only is that class of people defined as those who accept the gospel and the conditions of faith, but also there's another class that refuses.

And we'll be looking at both of those classes even this morning.

Paul says, for I am also am a Israelite, a seed of Abraham of the Tribe of Benjamin.

In other words, here is an example of salvation of an individual Jew.

So God did not cast off his people, which he foreknew.

And now let's not get confused with this word foreknew.

The fact that God foreknows something or knows something in advance or ahead of time doesn't mean that he predetermined that's the way it would be.

I know that's difficult for us to wrap our minds around, but think about it this way, and I've said this before, I think it's an excellent example of how someone can know something is going to happen, even though it might be a split second before it takes place.

We've all seen this.

Whether it's a glass that's about to fall off the counter or an accident that's about to happen and the, the cars are skidding and the split minute or second before they hit, you know they're going to collide.

And before that, that glass falls from the counter, you know it's going to hit.

Now you might think, how does that explain it?

Well, just take that split second and expand it.

You know, there's no limits to God.

So yes, he knows something can happen before it takes place, but knowing it doesn't mean that he predetermined it.

In other words, there's choices that man must make that will determine his destiny, that will determine his favor with God.

The condition of faith we've been looking at all along in the study of Romans.

And that's an obligation or expectation on the part of man that God has set in place.

Justification is on the grounds of faith, not by works of law.

We've been mentioning that throughout the study of the book of Romans.

The rule is that the verb know when it has a person for its object, usually has the idea of to recognize or to accept.

Paul's language.

This does not mean that God accepted or knew certain people before they were born and predetermined their eternal destiny.

Paul is referring to those obedient Jews.

The connection, as well as the language itself, shows this to be so.

Look at the example he gives of Elijah.

For instance, God's answer to Elijah illustrates the point.

This man believed that he was the only one.

And no doubt a great mass of Israel had forsaken Jehovah, and they were not therefore acceptable to God.

But there were yet 7,000 whom he could and did accept.

So Paul's language again, yes, as a nation they were rejected, but as individuals, there were many as 7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Baal.

Even so, he would say, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Now that refers to the Jews who had become obedient to Christ, who did accept the message of the Gospel.

God had rejected the Jewish system, the Jewish people as a nation.

But that doesn't mean he's rejected all Jews and has gone to the Gentiles instead.

That's not the meaning of it.

That's true that he would soon destroy that system, the Jewish system.

But what remains is the people of God identified by again, their justification was by, on the grounds of faith in Christ.

And that was good.

A message that was good and true and, and applicable to Jews and Gentiles.

Not just the Gentiles.

Jewish individuals also have that privilege.

And so no, God has not cast off his people.

Paul says, I'm an example.

And there are examples of people who you might think, you know, there's no hope, that everybody's rejected God.

But there are individuals as many as 7,000, in the case of Elijah and the worshipers of Baal, 7,000 had not bowed the knee.

So that means that even though a nation had been rejected, there is still a remnant according to the election of grace.

Paul would say, you know, if it's by grace, then it's no more of works.

Otherwise grace is no more grace.

And this just fits right into the whole topic that we've been dealing with in this letter in this book.

You know, no amount of works can blot out sins that have been committed and no amount of works can justify the sinner.

Forgiveness is a matter of grace.

No matter how many conditions one must fulfill in order to be forgiven.

It's a matter of grace.

And sometimes we misunderstand that.

If a man's works had always been perfect.

Let's just assume that Paul at least gives that.

He presents that case in Romans 4 when he talks about him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly.

His faith is imputed unto righteousness.

He's not saying he doesn't do any works because faith is a work.

In fact, faith works, Galatians 5, 6 says James would argue the same point when he says, show me your faith without your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.

The kind of faith that doesn't demonstrate and obey God is not the faith that saves is not the faith that justifies.

In fact, the first chapter of the Book of Romans and the last chapter of the Book of Romans, Paul includes this phrase, obedience of Faith, you cannot have faith and not obey the Lord.

Faith is, is that all encompassing in a comprehensive term that includes one's allegiance, one's determination to do the will of God.

And that means that includes obedience.

And that's why it's called the obedience of faith.

But it's not an obedience or a work of law.

And therein lies the difference.

And so Paul says, if it's of works, it can't be of grace.

And otherwise grace is no more grace.

There is no grace.

When a man merits justification, there's no need for grace.

So you know, works by which a man merits justification, and that's one thing, but on the other hand, commands that one must do or one must obey to be saved, that's an altogether different matter.

It is a work of faith.

It is not a work of law.

I think it's a very unfortunate thing that many religious people cannot see that distinction, and yet the Bible plainly reveals it on many different occasions.

But because they fail to make that distinction, they conclude that a sinner can't do anything to be saved.

In fact, the emphasis is, well, he's dead and a dead man can't do anything, so God has to do it for him.

Well, it's true that God did initiate the whole scheme of redemption.

Jesus Christ died.

He didn't ask man if he could, he died.

He provided a way, and propitiation is made available for the whole world.

And we understand that was a gift of grace.

But that doesn't mean that all men are saved.

A man has no real understanding of either works or grace if he thinks that the condition of forgiveness makes salvation only a matter of taking what God gives without any kind of obedience of faith.

In other words, there are a lot of things that are of grace and yet are conditional.

Is anyone so simple as to think that Naaman's healing of leprosy was any less a matter of grace because he had to dip seven times in the River Jordan?

I mean, the man had to dip seven times.

He was told to go to the Jordan and dip seven times in the River Jordan.

And yet when it was all said and done, did that mean that he somehow merited that he somehow it was owed him, that he deserved to have his sight restored to him?

See, this is ridiculous.

And anyone understands that even though he, he did seven times, it was a gift from God and he recognized that too.

No doubt.

So, and, and this we can go on and on with.

Is anyone so blind that they cannot see that giving sight to that blind man was a matter of grace, even though he had to go wash in the pool of Siloam after the Lord had dabbed his eyes with the the clay from the spittle that he had made.

Go dip yourselves and go to the siloam, he says, and go wash in that pool.

Well, what if he hadn't done that?

Is there not a condition of faith?

Was that man not required to go to the pool of Siloam as an act of faith on his part?

And when he did that, did that somehow merit that gift?

Did he somehow deserve.

No, but faith was the condition, and faith always acts.

And so Paul would ask in verses 7 and 8, what then?

That which Israel seeks for that he obtained not, but the election obtained it.

And the rest were hardened.

According as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this very day.

So here again it seems that Paul begins to sum up his argument concerning Israel and God's dealings with Israel.

Most of them had sought righteousness on the basis of the works of the law.

But righteousness by works of law, as we noted earlier, requires perfect obedience to that law.

And since all had sinned and fallen short of that, chapters one through three of the Roman Letter proves this.

The law can't forgive.

It can't make the guilty righteous, it can't justify the guilty, put it that way.

But a remnant does seek forgiveness through Christ.

And these are called the elect or the election.

They define that class of people who will accept the gospel and what that means.

As we've already indicated, the condition is that of faith.

Justification is by grace through faith.

Salvation is by grace, through faith.

Grace on the part of God and faith on the part of man.

That's the condition.

And so it seems that while, you know, Paul is summing all of this up, he's talking about the kinds of people who accept this message.

And even though as a whole, God's not going to save the Jewish nation any more than he's going to save the Gentile nation, it's all a matter of the remnant, that is, individual souls that accept those terms that we've just mentioned.

Because as he goes on to say, as contrast to the elect, he says the rest of them were hardened.

Now, how does God do that?

God hardens hearts by speaking the truth.

It's a lot like when Moses went to Pharaoh.

We talked about this already.

When Moses went to Pharaoh, he said, God said, let my people go.

When.

Well, he knew the kind of man that Pharaoh was and that Just would not go over well with someone as great and powerful as Pharaoh to be giving demands to him to let my people go.

I mean there was no begging, there was no plea bargain.

They were just, you let my people go.

Pharaoh.

You know, of course, as soon as the plagues came, you know the story as you read the text, he seems to cater to it, the idea, and then he immediately goes back to it again.

He, he would not and could not accept anybody making any demands on him.

And so God hardens hearts.

The gospel has that effect on souls.

You take two different people who hear the same message and one heart can be so hardened, it's like, it's like the sun that you know, you can either harden clay, if that's the kind of soil that you are, the heart that you have, or if it's like butter or wax, it can melt that, that heart.

So it is with the gospel.

It can have different effects on different people depending on their heart.

Now God didn't make them that way.

That's true.

He foreknew it.

He knew the kind of person that Pharaoh was and knowing it, he used Pharaoh to show his power to all the nations.

That's exactly what he said.

As a matter of fact, that's the reason he did what he did is to, to show the world, all the nations that there's no God like him.

And of course he did that.

But my point simply is that it's, it's based on the choice of the individual and their hearts.

And that's how it still is.

There's people who are dull hearted and blinded and they will see only what their stubborn will allows them to see and nothing more.

Their understanding is dulled and so not.

It's not God.

They brought that condition upon themselves.

Isaiah is quoted in Matthew 13.

It's mentioned several different times in the Bible.

This idea of people who are hearing but they don't hear.

Let me read it to you.

And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah.

I'm in Matthew 13, verse 14.

By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand.

And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive.

For this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.

Lest haply they should perceive with their ears and hear with their ears, or see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should turn again, and I should heal them.

You see, the Jesus didn't offer the Jews what they wanted.

He wasn't the Messiah.

They were looking for.

And so they turned the deaf ear to his teaching.

They re.

They rejected him.

And that's how it is today.

If you've got a preconceived notion, some idea that you, you think you've got it figured out, well, anything opposite to that, anything that's, that's counter to that, you're going to reject it because you've made up your mind already.

Rather than studying the evidence and going through it and sifting it through the truth that is the word of God and finding out if it harmonizes with other scriptures, if you know, just going through the process.

Instead of that, once you hear it, you reject it because you've made up your mind already.

Well, that's the same kind of heart the Jews had as a nation, and they were rejected.

So I think it would behoove us to be very cautious that we not treat God nor his Word in the same manner, lest we receive the same fate.

In verses nine and ten of our chapter, chapter 11, it goes ahead and says, and David says, let their table be made a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them.

Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see.

And bow down their bow thou down their back always.

You know, instead of being led to Christ by the law that they were, they were entrapped by their blind adherence to that law.

They were caught in a snare.

And their blind adherence to the law would, would be their recompense, and that would amount to just their condemnation.

Their rejection of Christ and their blind devotion to the law was their ruin.

And Paul said such people judged themselves unworthy of eternal life.

Acts 13, verse 46 says, that's the class of people who are different other than the elect.

It's not that God elects certain individuals to be saved and and also elect certain individuals to be lost.

That's not the point of it.

But he elects the kind of people, the class of people that would be his people, those who have the kind of heart that would accept the gospel message and gladly by accept the message of grace which requires faith.

Faith is that condition to receiving justification.

And this is the same point, same message that's taught over in Ephesians 2:8, that we're saved.

Salvation is by grace, through faith, that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works.

Lest any man should boast.

But now listen to him.

He immediately goes ahead and says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

We are the product of God's work.

But then he Says, unto good works we are created.

Unto good works.

If we are God's people, our whole life is absorbed in doing the will of God.

Lord, speak.

Your servant hears command, and I will obey.

That's the attitude of the child of God, and that defines my friends, what the elect is.

See, God predetermined that class of people.

And then those who would accept that, who fall into that pattern and will accept God's grace by faith, they are God's elect.

They are the people of God.

They are the ekklesia, the called out.

So as we think about these two different classes of people, in clinging to the law and rejecting Christ, the Jews as a nation, they were wearing a yoke that they weren't able to bear.

So Paul would say in verse 11, then I say, then did they stumble that they might fall, God forbid.

But by their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy.

Now, it's interesting, you know, some people seem to think that Paul is saying that they stumble so as to fall.

That is, to fall away completely and finally never to be restored.

That's making Paul say more than he really says.

In the classical Greek language, the conjunction here, that's translated, that really introduces a final clause of purpose.

But I'm told in the Koine or the New Testament Greek, it ranges in its use from a definite purpose to just a simple result.

So let it here have its primary meaning and see if this makes sense to you.

And Paul's question would have this kind of meaning.

Did they stumble in order that they might fall?

In other words, was that their purpose?

Certainly not.

But it led to their fall, didn't it?

That much is certain.

Was it their final doom as a nation?

Yes.

Whether any of them as individuals were brought back into favor with God would depend on their choice in the matter.

Now, the only way to favor with God is through Christ, and that's always an individual matter, and it still is today.

So long as the law stood, however, the Gentiles as such could not have any covenant relationship with God.

The law stood as a barrier.

And this is what Paul argues in the Ephesian letter, that there is this barrier, a wall between Jews and Gentiles that was against them, that is the Gentiles.

That wall had to be taken out of the way that God might make of the Jews and Gentiles one new man.

So making peace.

You can read that sometime.

It's found in Ephesians, chapter 2, at about verse 13.

And it goes Fairly lengthy all the way through the end of the chapter.

The Jews broke the covenant.

And of course it was taken out of the way.

We find the Hebrew writer talking about that very idea that that first covenant was faultless.

If it was faultless, there would have been no need for a second.

And of course there wasn't anything inherently wrong with that covenant.

It was what the covenant had to work with.

And that was flawed men and women.

And so it could not make the worshiper there unto the conscience there unto perfect or complete.

There was always a remembrance of sin that was, that was.

There was no forgiveness, there was no justification.

Jews and Gentiles then stood on equal footing and that God makes no difference between them now.

And this is Paul's whole point in the first three chapters of the Book of Romans.

There is absolutely no difference between the two of them.

In fact, it had been God's purpose all along to offer the blessing of salvation through Christ to the Gentiles.

Abraham was given the promise.

God said, in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

And of course that seed, according to Galatians 3:16, the seed was Christ.

And think about the Great Commission.

They were told to make disciples of all nations.

They were to preach the Gospel to the whole creation.

And Luke says in 24, Repentance of the missions of sin should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You see it, it's always been to the Jew first, and also to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

And because of the hardness of the Jews, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said it was necessary that the word of God should be preached or spoken to you first.

But seeing that you thrust it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

You see, it was to the Jews first.

So this spreading of the Gospel among the Gentiles did provoke the Jews to jealousy, but it was jealousy for Judaism, not for the Gospel.

See, that's what we need to remember what we're talking about here.

Paul meant that the Jews would become jealous of the the great blessings the Gospel brought to the Gentiles.

And therefore, you know, it wasn't that they became Christians because of that.

Paul's argument.

When Paul was in Jerusalem and he was arrested, actually the Romans had stopped what might have been a slaughter, was given Paul an opportunity to make his case or to explain what's going on.

And he said that when he returned to Jerusalem, he prayed in the temple and he Said, I fell into a trance and saw him saying unto me, make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not receive of the testimony concerning me.

And he said unto me, depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.

Paul quotes this from Deuteronomy.

I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation.

With a nation void of understanding will I anger you so this jealousy is not jealousy that's wanting them.

They're going to come now to obey the gospel and accept the the Gospel message.

That's not what they were doing.

They were angry.

They were resolved all the more to hold fast to their Jewish tradition.

A case in point is in Romans, chapter 10, verse 19.

Paul quotes this from Deuteronomy.

He says, I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation.

With a nation void of understanding will I anger you?

In verse 12, Paul says, Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness.

It's difficult to know for sure what is meant by their fullness.

Some people think that it means that they're going to return and all the Jews come back to the Lord.

The fall of the Jews and the end of the law.

Moses opens up a way for the blessings of the Gospel to be carried to the world.

And I think that's one significant point to make.

They experienced a loss.

Their loss was the riches of the Gentiles.

And this word loss is just their defeat.

Anyway, it's a fact that the gentleman Jews were defeated in their effort to destroy Christ and his teachings.

They crucified him and tried to destroy his people.

And yet they were defeated in their efforts to destroy God's plan.

Because of their defeat, in all of their efforts, the riches of the blessings of salvation was offered to the Gentiles, in fact to all the peoples of the earth.

So how much more their fullness.

Fullness in what way was.

Well, again, a lot of people think it means the return of the Jews in favor with God.

But Paul's reasoning in this chapter does not really contemplate such a thing as the conversion of the Jews, the whole nation.

Besides, he was speaking of their fall and their defeat, not their conversion.

So it very well may be that the meaning here is that their full and complete destruction and degradation God had left, or Jesus had said in Matthew 23, your house is left unto you desolate and Matthew 24.

There's not one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down or cast down.

He predicted the end of that.

That generation and the destruction of that.

Those people.

There's no doubt but that that was a full end of that age and the end of that Jew.

The Jewish nation.

The majority of the Jews, both in Palestine and in the foreign countries had been bitter enemies.

They had persecuted Christians, and where there was a synagogue, they did all they could to stir up the people, not just the people, but even the Roman authorities, to be against the Christians.

But all of their persecution, that all ceased when their nation was destroyed.

And they lost.

They lost their influence with the Roman authorities and those Judaizing meddlers who sought to stir up trouble in all the cities where God's people dwelt, where there were gentile members, they lost their influence for harm.

Perhaps nothing outside the body of Christ helped the spread of the gospel among all people so much as the final destruction of the Jewish nation.

Well, our time is up.

I thank you so much for listening.

And again, I'm sorry that we have to stop right in the middle of this to pick up again, but we will do our best to review and pick up where we left off.

Thanks again.

Have a good day and a pleasant week.