Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Romans

Romans 11:11-24

Review: Three weeks ago I asked the question 'Has God had enough with Ethnic Israel?' And the answer was No! Because He has always had a remnant of faithful Israelites who believed in Him and who were children of Abraham by flesh and by faith. And in Romans 11:1-10 Paul gave us 5 proofs that there is a remnant and that God does keep His promises to His people.

     In Rom. 11:11-24, Paul tells us that just as there are benefits, there are responsibilities to those who are saved, chosen by God, part of the faithful remnant. And this is true whether you are a Jew or Gentile. Remember Paul was writing to Jews and Gentiles at the church in Rome. And the two groups had at least one thing in common other than their faith in JC; they had a propensity to elitistism. They both felt superior to the other in many areas and both wanted to make the 'church' more like them. Often not showing love or giving preference to one another, (he will address that in chapter 12)  They both were trying to get what they wanted, often at the expense of the other.

     Does anyone see a similarity in the church today. One group wants one thing and another group wants another. The church is not what it used to be and at the same time it is not what it could be. Both groups want the promised blessings of God, and like the church in Rome, both feel they have special access to those promises. They often don't want the responsibility that goes along with being a part of the same remnant chosen by God from the foundation of the world.  This is what Paul is addressing in this text.

Trans: Open you Bibles to Romans 11. Here we will see how Paul responds to these two factions in the early church in Rome...lessons we can and must learn from if we are to thrive as the 'church of God' rather than just exist as  'Calvary Baptist Church' of Oceanport.

II. The Responsibility of the Remnant (Rom. 11:11-24)
    A. Ethnic Israel's Salvation: Benefits and Responsibilities (vs.11-15; 23-24)
Read: Rom. 11:1-15

         Paul in verses 7-10 said that  those who were chosen by God were saved and those who were not, were hardened. The Jewish Believers in Rome would have thought 'Is there no hope for them, won't any other ethnic Jews be saved?' I can hear Paul saying...didn't you hear what I just said. There is and will be a remnant of faithful Jews. Ethnic Israel has not fallen completely or forever. There will be a harvest of Jews who will be saved. And when Jews are converted there is great rejoicing because the Jews were God's chosen people. So their salvation, well, it's a 'natural'.

ILL: Like Peanut butter  and Jelly, apple pie and a scoop of ice cream, like mashed potatoes and gravy, like buffalo wings and blue cheese dressing (can you tell I am on a diet).

     Paul was saying that there is a great benefit to the Jew who is saved. Because they are both children of Abraham by seed and by faith. Faith in Jesus Christ ought to come naturally to them. However, their national rejection of Jesus as the Messiah has benefited the Gentiles because God has now placed them in His grand plan. A closer examination of bringing the Gentiles into God's plan will show that this is in fact beneficial to the Jew. Why? Because Gentile salvation  is meant to stir the hearts of ethnic Israel to jealousy. To make them desire the things of God found only in a relationship with His Son, Jesus.  The idea is that the Jew would look at the life of a Gentile Believer, see holiness, love, joy and peace in their lives, and want salvation for themselves.

APP: Wow! did you hear that? Gentile salvation as demonstrated by a life of holiness, love, joy and peace will be a tool God uses to move some Jews to be jealous for what we have and will bring them to want salvation in Jesus Christ. Think about that for a moment. Is your life of faith provoking others, Jews and Gentiles alike, to jealousy? Do they see your life of holiness, love, joy and peace. Do they see God keeping His promises to you and desire it for themselves?

     It is true that the responsibility is on the unbelieving  world to look, but when  they do look, what do they see in us? Fellow believers in Jesus Christ, each one of you is a tool to be used by God to provoke unbelievers, especially Jews to jealousy and salvation.

     How will they believe  unless they hear? How will they be moved to jealousy unless they see in us a life they desire, a life of faith lived in and thru Jesus Christ? How can they be saved unless we are faithful?

Read: Rom. 11:23-24

     Paul tells us in verses 23-24 that the salvation of ethnic Jews is neither automatic nor is it by some means other than a relationship with Jesus Christ. The conditional word, if is used. IF they do not continue in their unbelief, that is, if they believe in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Savior, they will be grafted into the remnant of the faithful...True Israel and it will be a natural fit for them.

NOTE: Just a sidebar here for a bit of theology 101. Look at verse 15, 'Reconciliation of the world'.  Is the world, the whole world actually reconciled to God, saved and a friend, loved by God? NO! When the Bible uses words like, all, every, even world, it does not always mean, all, every and the whole world and every person on it who lives or who ever lived. Sometimes, within the context we find that those words are exclusive, that is they are meant for a particular part of the whole mentioned.

ILL: 1 Cor 6:12 says 'All things are lawful for me but not all things are profitable.'

 Are ALL things lawful for Paul? Was it right for him to steal, murder or rape someone? NO. ALL means everything that is not against God's law. It is a part of the whole. I want to challenge you that when you see these words in Scripture keep this in mind.

Trans: Back to Romans. Paul now turns to the Gentiles in his audience.

B. Gentile Salvation:Benefits and Responsibilities (vs. 16-22)

Read: Rom. 11:16-22
    1. Benefits
     a. Gentiles were grafted or added into God's plan.
            Now you may be asking, weren't Gentiles always in God's plan? Yes, they were but they were not the principal
            instrument God chose to use at that time..Ethnic Israel was. And it was always God's plan that when Ethnic Israel
            rejected God, He would reject them as His principal instrument to spread His Gospel to the world.   This is shown in
            the text when God broke off the individual Jews who did not live by faith, those remaining on the vine are the remnant
            in Israel.  After the Jews rejected and crucified Christ and Paul was sent to be the Apostle to the Gentiles , it was the
            Gentiles who became the people God would now use as His principal instrument of sharing the Gospel. But just as it
            was true with unbelieving Israel, unbelieving Gentiles are broken off as well and only a remnant of faithful Gentiles
            remain on the vine. The vine that remains, the remnant,  IS  Israel, the one, true people of God.

     b. Gentile Believers benefit from being grafted to the root.
            We share the rich heritage and the promises made to the root, which is Abraham, the foundation of faith which we
            saw in Rom. 2-4. We are holy and blessed as Abraham was holy and blessed by God.

     c. We experience the kindness of God (vs. 22)
          We are friends of God, children, joint heirs with Christ and God shows us His kindness, mercy and grace.

Trans: Along with these benefits, Paul tells us that  there are also responsibilities.

    2. Responsibilities
     a. Gentiles are not to be arrogant.
        We are not to harshly treat or ignore for that matter, the Jew who has been cut off for their unbelief or  the Jew who by
        faith became a part of the remnant.

 b. Gentiles are not to be conceited.
        We must not think we are more special than believing or unbelieving Jews because God made us His instruments to
        share the Gospel to the world. It was God who chose us according to His gracious election (Rom. 11:5)
        We did nothing to deserve His favor.

     c. Gentiles are to know fear.
        Fear here means a holy awe and respect for God and His ways.  It was meant to encourage us to see if we are truly
        connected to the vine. Paul is not talking here about loosing your salvation. But, continuance in the faith is shown all over
        the pages of the NT as the test of the reality of your salvation.  Since we 'stand in our faith', according to the text, it is a
        healthy exercise to see if we are walking worthy of our calling...to see if we are bearing fruit, if not...perhaps it is because
        we are one of the dead, broken off branches.

Conclusion
     I would like to close by talking briefly about our responsibility not to be arrogant or conceited, in connection to our relationships with Jews, whether believers or unbelievers, because I don't think we have a good track record in this area.

     Jews are subject to ridicule and divided sympathies all over the world, even here in Monmouth county. Though most of us would deny being Anti-Semetic, I want to ask you, what do you think of when I say the word Jew?

     Christians can't be anti Semitic? You might be thinking. Well, Martin Luther was. A brilliant theologian, the father of the reformation and he called for Christians to burn Jewish homes and synagogues and cover them with dirt. To silence the rabbis with the threat of death, seize all Jewish wealth and enslave Jews to hard labor camps. This all resulted after Luther's evangelistic efforts to the Jews showed little or no fruit. Martin Luther's conduct was deplorable as a Christian and many Jews have not forgotten what he said.

     How is your conduct, words and thoughts concerning the Jews? Have you ever worshipped with Jewish Believers? Have you ever witnessed to a Jew? Have you ever laughed at a joke made about a Jew? Ever said you tried to 'Jew' someone down?

Someone once wrote:

 How odd of God to choose the Jew
 But not so odd
 as those who choose
 The Jewish God
 and hate the Jew.

     Every Gentile Believer owes a debt to the Jewish people. We must carry the truth to them as they first did to us in the early church. John 4:22 reminds us that salvation is from the Jews.