December 7, 2024

God Never Gives Up on His People!

Pastor: Allen Snapp Series: The Summit Of Our Salvation Topic: faithfullness Passage: Romans 11:1–23

God Never Gives Up on His People!

If you have your Bibles turn with me to Rom. 11 and let’s pray. Chapter 11 is all about the Jewish people and the nation of Israel so my first point is going to center on Israel and then I’m going to pull some universal truths for us this morning. Paul has just gotten done in chapters 9 and 10 talking about how the Jews have rejected Jesus and the question that brings us to is has God given up on Israel? Has God given up on His people the Jews?

11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! Rom. 11:1

We’re not going to read all the verses but Paul says, first of all, look at me! I am an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin and Jesus went out of his way to pluck me off the road I was traveling and turn me around so I now serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Also God has always had and will always have a remnant. When Elijah thought he was the only faithful Jew left God said there are seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. By the way there are Baal’s today that demand we bow our knee to them and sadly many churches and professing Christians are bowing their knee. There is pressure to conform what we say to fit what people want to hear instead of what God says. But there will always be a remnant. It may not be a majority – a remnant is a small piece cut from a larger whole. There will always be a remnant who still believe this book is the authoritative word of God. Still believe Jesus is the only way to eternal life. Who still believe that marriage is between one woman and one man. Still believe that life begins in the womb, not on the delivery table. God told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” God knew Jeremiah’s life and his calling before Jeremiah even was an embryo. The beautiful mystery of life. A remnant who still believe that God made us male and female and a man can’t become a woman and a woman can’t become a man. We should love and care for those who have gender dysphoria. But it’s never loving to deny the truth of God’s word or biological reality.

Everything I’ve just mentioned there are huge societal pressures to bow the knee to the ideology that contradicts the Bible. Let’s be part of God’s remnant who, without anger, without being mean or combative, refuse to bow the knee.

God always has a remnant of Jews who bow their knee to Jesus as their Messiah. Share three points from a flyover of this chapter:

  1. God’s not done with Israel…so let’s pray for and stand with Israel

Paul makes an incredible prediction in this chapter that is easy to pass right over. He begins by saying that Israel’s rejection of Jesus helped catapult the gospel out to the Gentile world.

11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Rom. 11:11-12

If their rejection meant gospel riches to the Gentiles, how much more will their inclusion in the church mean? He tells us in verse 15 and this is the incredible prediction we don’t want to miss.

15 For if their rejection (of the gospel) means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? Rom. 11:15

The Greek says what will their acceptance mean but lifefrom out of the dead. Resurrection. There is biblical reason to believe that when Israel as a nation turns in repentance towards Jesus the resurrection is close at hand. One day Israel as a nation is going to believe in Jesus. That might be hard to believe today, but it will happen. God through Zechariah says:

3On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it… “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves...And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.Zech. 12:3, 6, 9

This is describing Armageddon when all the nations of the world rise up against Israel but God says I will make Israel a fire that burns through them like so much dry kindling. And then:

10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. Zech. 12:10

I believe this describes Jesus’ visible return to earth when all of Israel will look on him whom they have pierced and mourn. They will see his nail-scarred hands, for he was pierced for our transgressions (Is. 53) and they will mourn the way a mom who’s lost her only child mourns. But God will pour grace and mercy on them. God never gives up on His people.

So let’s pray for and stand with the nation of Israel. God told Abraham I will bless those that bless Israel and I will curse those that curse Israel. That doesn’t mean we condone everything they do, but as the hatred ramps up – and it will – we pray for and stand with Israel. And let’s pray that all the hostages Hamas is holding are released very soon.

  1. The importance of staying humble in our faith

Paul uses the horticultural analogy of the olive tree, which in the Bible represents Israel, having some of its natural branches cut off because of unbelief – that would be unbelieving Jews - and then God grafts onto the olive tree wild branches which represent Gentile believers. Thank God for grafting us in, but that should never make us feel arrogant.

18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.Rom. 11:18-21

Don’t be arrogant… Arrogance is pride that thinks we’re superior to others. Arrogant people think highly of themselves and look down on other people. They think they’re the smartest person in the room. They think their opinions are better, their judgment is better, their wisdom is better than other people. One way we can identify arrogance is an arrogant person is never wrong. They’d be happy to admit when they’re wrong, but they’re never wrong. They are on the right side of every argument. They’re on the right side of every debate. Listen arrogance can be subtle and it’s something we all have to be watching for in our lives. We think we’re superior and others are inferior.

Jesus was mingling in a crowd and noticed a group of people who were confident about their own righteousness and looked down on other people. Arrogance! So he tells them a parable: two men, a Pharisee and a tax collector, go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee’s heart is full of gratitude to God. He thanks God. But listen to what he thanks God for:

“God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” Luke 18:11-12

Sounds like God should be thanking him! His prayer is God thank you that I’m amazing. He doesn’t even thank God for making him amazing, his prayer is just a platform for bragging. He is better than others and from that superior perch he can look down on others, including the tax collector who is off in the corner offering his own prayer.

The tax collector is small in his own eyes. He doesn’t feel worthy even to look up toward heaven so he just asks for mercy. Jesus said it was the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who went home justified. The tax collector went home righteous in God’s sight, the Pharisee when home filthy in his pride and arrogance. We receive Christ’s righteousness through humble faith.

When it warns us that God might cut us off, it’s not saying a genuine believer can lose their salvation. The natural branches that were cut off weren’t believers, they were Jews who refused to believe. The warning is that a church that is walking in arrogance isn’t walking in faith. That church is living in unbelief – arrogance and faith can’t fill the same heart or the same church. So be careful to root out arrogance and walk in humble faith in Christ.

  1. Continue in God’s kindness and discontinue in unbelief

22Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's

kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. Rom. 11:22-23 

The KJV says: Behold the kindness and severity of God. God is incredibly kind - kind to the hurting, the poor, the weak, the lost, the sinner. Behold God’s kindness to us in saving us by the blood of Jesus. Behold God’s kindness in adopting us in Christ. Behold God’s kindness in loving us with an everlasting love. Behold the kindness of God…and continue in His kindness. Don’t stop believing in God’s kindness just because life is unkind to you. Don’t stop beholding God’s kindness when you’re walking through a deep valley. He’s still kind! Continue in His kindness by trusting in His kindness.

Continuing in his kindness also means showing his kindness to others. I came across a verse in Titus that hit me. It says those who believe in God should be devoted to doing good works. We don’t trust in good works to save us but because we are saved God says we should be devoted to do good works. When we do good works we are showing kindness in action.

So here’s what we need to NOT be: Don’t be unkind. Don’t be cruel to others. Being cruel is the devil’s nature, not God’s. We shouldn’t find happiness in other people’s misery. We shouldn’t put people down or gossip about people in order to make us look bigger by making them look smaller. We shouldn’t close our heart to the needy. Continue in his kindness by being kind to others and by being devoted to doing good works.

God has a severe side to Him as well. Those that choose to disregard and disobey Him will see His severe side. The Jews have rejected Him in spite of all the evidence and miracles, and they will behold the severity of God, but God is ready to show His kindness to anyone who will repent and turn away from their unbelief.

Notice that word “continue” in these verses. Continue means doing what we’ve been doing, going in the direction we’ve been going in. “Don’t continue” means a change of direction. If you’re living in God’s kindness, continue! If you’re living in unbelief, don’t continue. Change course.

Becky begins to play softly

I heard an illustration recently that seems fitting here. On that fateful night as the Titanic sailed towards the iceberg, 12 times they got a radio message urging them to change course. Danger ahead. They ignored all these messages and we know the tragic end.

Paul’s saying, if we chart our course towards faith in Christ, towards mercy, towards grace, towards obedience to his word and Spirit, we should keep going! Continue! We’re on a collision course with God’s kindness. It may not look like it right now but by faith keep going!

For Christians who are trusting in Christ, our general direction is towards kindness but we can get off course and that’s when the Spirit and the Word of God say make a course correction.

  • If we’ve gotten away from the basic things that help us stay on course in our faith, let’s get back on course and get back to the Bible, back to prayer, back to church, back to sharing our faith with people.
  • Chart a course away from sexual immorality and towards purity
  • Take off that bad temper and put on patience
  • Husbands love your wives. Lay down your life for your wife, care for her and serve her. Don’t make it all about you. Wives respect your husbands, don’t tear them down, build them up. Children obey your parents!

If you’re not a Christian, God wants to show you His kindness. All you need to do is change course by believing that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and that he rose from the dead on the third day. God has so much kindness He wants to pour into your life if you let Him. He will forgive you and cleanse you and make you His own through the blood of His Son Jesus. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

God never, ever gives up on His people and His people are those who trust in God and in His Son Jesus Christ.