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Hi, I'm Pastor Tom Holliday, and I want to welcome you to our iPod study of the
Book of Romans. We're beginning this week a study in Romans chapter 11, which is
really the end of a section of the Book of Romans. Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11
are all about God's sovereignty.

There are some tough concepts in this chapter, but there's also one great truth,
the truth that God is in control of human history. There are a number of
different ways to understand history. I'm a lover of history, and you can
understand history as political history, or you can study it as military
history, you can study history as literary history, or even everyday history.

But none of those in the end are adequate, because they leave out the main
character and the primary force of human history. Romans chapter 11 is a glimpse
at history from God's perspective. What if you could have sat down with
Churchill and Roosevelt at the end of World War II and listened to them talk
about the events that shaped a world?

Listen to the inside scoop on that story. This chapter, Romans chapter 11, is
like sitting down with God to get his viewpoint on world history. And his
viewpoint is this, God isn't finished.

One of the questions in this chapter, Romans 11, is what is the filter through
which you look at history? And it's a reminder in this chapter to look at
history through the filter of God's sovereignty, his hand at work, and the
history of man, the fact that God is in control. All of history really is his
story.

And Romans 11 is about God's work in history, you see God's plan for people
working all through history. It's about God's work in nations. In fact, I just
want to warn you from the beginning.

If you apply much of what we're going to look at in this chapter to individuals,
it doesn't make any sense. This is a sweeping look. Whole nations are talked
about as rejecting him or accepting him.

Each of us is still individually accountable, but God also tells us in this
chapter that there is something that happens in nations that's important. And we
see how he deals with the nations of the Jews and the Gentiles in Romans 11.
Romans 11 is not only about God's work in history and in nations, it's also
about God's work in you.

Several times in this chapter, Paul notes that he is saying this for the benefit
of you. He doesn't want us just to understand. He wants us to be changed by what
we understand.

And in this look at God's work in human history, Paul begins the chapter with a
question. The question is, did God reject his people? His people, the nation of
Israel, such a small country, but it's not about just that piece of geography.

It's about a people, the people that God has chosen for his purposes. And Paul
begins this chapter by asking, did God reject his people? And the answer is
immediate, no.

No. Paul reminds us in these verses that the present lack of faith in the people
of Israel is not total and it's not final. In fact, he shares three quick proves
that God has not rejected his people.

First of all, he says in verse 1, "I am an Israelite. " By no means, he says,
has God rejected his people. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham
from the tribe of Benjamin.

The one who is writing these very words has come to faith in God through Jesus
Christ. So Paul is saying, right there you have proof there's not total
rejection. Here's one at least who has not rejected God's offer of faith through
Jesus Christ.

And then he offers a second quick proof. Second proof is a reminder of something
in the Old Testament. He says, remember the story of Elijah, verse 2, "God did
not reject his people whom he foreknew.

" Don't you know that the scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he
appealed to God against Israel, "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn
down your altars. I'm the only one left and they're trying to kill me. " And
then in verse 4, "And what was God's answer to him?

I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. " Now,
Baal, you probably remember, is the false god that they worshiped back then. An
idol whom they felt would make life work out exactly as they wanted.

And that's what an idol is. An idol is simply a god whom you think you can
control, will make life work out the way you want it to work out. We've got lots
of idols today.

They're not stone statues that we have on a mantle. They're popularity or money
or power. And Elijah felt like everyone in Israel was following an idol except
him.

And God said, "No, there are 7,000. There are 7,000 left who are still faithful
to me. " When Elijah thought none, God said there are 7,000, which is a reminder
that God is doing much more in this world than you think, than you can see.

Any time you think God isn't doing anything, remember Elijah, and remember the
fact that God is at work. In fact, Acts chapter 21 verse 20 is a reminder that
in the day that Paul wrote this letter, the same was true. Thousands of the
nation of Israel in that day, and Paul's day had turned to him also.

Acts 21, 20 says, "When they had heard this, they praised God, and they said to
Paul, 'You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of
them are zealous for the law. '" Same is true in our day. There are thousands,
there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who have a Jewish
heritage who have come to faith in Jesus Christ.

I have many friends who are Messianic Jews, Jewish heritage, but they have a
faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. So Paul's first proof is, "I'm
an Israelite. " His second proof is, remember Elijah, there are thousands that
you don't know of.

And his third statement about the fact that God has not rejected his people is
that there is now a remnant chosen by grace. In verses 5 and 6 he says, "So too,
at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then
it's no longer by works.

If it were, grace would no longer be grace. " Now there's this idea all
throughout the Old Testament of something called a remnant. You hear about it in
Elijah's day, this 7,000, you hear about it in the days of exile when Israel was
exiled outside of its nation to foreign lands.

There's always a believing few, a believing few thousand. A remnant, the picture
of a small piece of cloth that's taken away from the whole, it's the idea that
it's not a whole, it's a piece. A better picture, at least for me, of a remnant
is a piece of pie.

If you take away most of the pie but there's one little piece left, it's a
remnant of the pie. And I still enjoy the fact that a remnant is left if that's
the only remnant that's there. God's grace is the point that Paul is trying to
make here as he talks about this remnant that has remained.

"Grace," he says, "is the reason that they have been chosen. " And he makes a
very strong point here that grace plus anything is not grace. He helps them to
understand that it's because of God's grace that lives have been changed and are
continuing to be changed and that it's only God's grace that can change a life.

And if you add anything, it's not grace. That is important because you would not
believe how many try to add to grace and still call it grace. Many false
teachers will talk about, "I believe in salvation by grace.

" But when you ask them, "What do you mean by grace? " They say, "Grace means
believing God and then they add about seven or eight things that are works of
man. " "What do you mean by faith?

" You ask. Faith means that you believe in Jesus Christ by and then they add
seven or eight things that we have to do in order to earn our way to heaven.
Grace has to remain pure.

You take a glass of crystal-pure water and you add one drop of cyanide. Trust
me, it changes the water. No matter how much someone assures you that it
doesn't, you could add one drop and someone can say, "Trust me, it's still the
same.

A guy told me it doesn't do anything. It's never hurt anyone. Have you ever
heard of it hurt anyone?

Do you know anyone it's ever hurt? " I'm sure, in fact, that it's probably
better than the original. Anyway, it's just a drop.

Why don't you try it? The danger of grace and works is this. You add one drop of
works and works means the things we try to do to earn our salvation.

You add one drop of works to grace, it is no longer grace. Grace has to remain
pure because God deals with all of us the same and the same is by grace. We
don't have a relationship with God based on our works, the things that we've
done.

He has works for us to do. He has things for us to do after we get to know Him,
but that's not what you build your relationship with God on. We have a
relationship with God that's built on His grace.

So as we end this look at the first few verses in Romans chapter 11, let's just
thank God. Let's spend a few minutes in prayer thanking Him for His grace. Right
now in this moment between you and God, say, "God, thank you that you have pure
grace towards me.

There's nothing I have to do to earn it. There's nothing I can do to earn it. "
So right now I rest in that truth.

I accept your grace for this day. I am grateful for your grace on this day and I
pray for the opportunity to share your grace this day with someone else. Lord,
forgive me for those times when I tried to earn what can only be a gift, your
gift of grace.

I'm grateful for your love for me. In Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we'll be
looking together at Romans chapter 11, verses 7 to 15.