Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleHath God Cast Away His People?
Bible TextRomans 10:18-11:33
Synopsis Has God's word returned to him void? Has God cast away his people? Listen.
Date23-Jun-2019
Series Romans 2018
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Hath God Cast Away His People? (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: Hath God Cast Away His People? (128 kbps)
Length 32 min.
 

Series: Romans

Title: Hath God Cast Away His People?

Text: Romans 10: 18-11: 7

Date: June 23, 2019

Place: SGBC, NJ

 

Title: Hath God Cast Away His People?

 

After the apostle Paul declared that God gives faith through the preaching of the gospel by the preacher he has sent, Paul says,

 

Romans 10: 18: But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

 

This question seems out of place with what came before.  But Paul often begins a subject then digresses to explain himself then comes back to the subject he began speaking about. It seems Paul did that here.

 

If you turn back to Romans 9: Paul declared how he longed for the children of Israel to hear the gospel and believe—the children of Israel—political Israel—Paul calls them his “kinsmen according to the flesh."  They were not his spiritual kinsmen.  Those in Israel who rejected the gospel were not his fellow brethren in Christ.  But they were his fellow countrymen.  So Paul longed for them to hear the gospel and believe on Christ.  But to make sure we understand their unbelief did not alter God’s eternal purpose, Paul said,

 

Romans 9: 6: Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect.

 

Not as though the word of God has returned unto him void.  God said, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Is 55: 11).  What then is the reason that they did not all believe?

 

Romans 9: 6:…For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

 

Not everyone in that physical nation were God’s spiritual Israel—"For they are not all Israel, which are of [or in] Israel”

 

Romans 9: 7: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8: That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed

 

Not all Abraham’s natural children are God’s spiritual children.  The children of the flesh are not the children of God.  But the children of the promise—God made a covenant-promise to Christ in eternity that the Spirit of God would regenerate all those Christ redeemed.  Therefore, God counts only the children of the promise as the true children of Abraham.  God calls these children of promise from among Jew and Gentile.  All who God calls to faith in Christ are Abraham’s true, spiritual children.

 

So it not as though the word of God hath taken none effect.  Now back to our text.

 

Romans 10: 18: But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. 19: But I say, Did not Israel know?

 

Did not Israel know that they are not all Israel which are of Israel? Did not Israel know that they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God? Did not Israel know that only the children of God’s everlasting covenant promise are counted by God as true children of Abraham? They certainly heard.

 

PREACHING WITH BOLDNESS

 

Romans 10: 19:…First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. 20: But Esaias is very bold, saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. 21: But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

 

By saying that Isaiah was very bold, it means Moses was bold, too.  One reason the word of God never returns void is because God gives his preachers boldness to speak the truth.

 

First, the children of Israel heard the word of God from Moses.  Paul said, “How shall they hear without a preacher and how they preach except they be sent.”  God sent them his preacher Moses.  The Holy Spirit gave Moses boldness.  Moses was bold by declaring to Israel the truth.  They heard Moses declare what God said.  God said that he would provoke them to jealousy by calling out his elect from among the Gentiles.

 

God sent prophet after prophet to the children of Israel.  Then God sent Isaiah.  Isaiah was very bold in that he not only declared the truth that God had an elect people among the Gentiles, he declared not all Israel were God’s elect.  Both these men preached the truth of God even though they knew the children of Israel would hate them.

 

Brethren, that is true boldness.  And that is true meekness.  Meekness is fear of offending God more than offending men!  It makes God’s preacher declare the word of God even though he knows sinners will hate him.  That is why God called Moses the meekest man on the earth.  That is why God calls Isaiah very bold.  Boldness is not about the style in which you preach.  It is declaring the truth of God.

 

THE OFFENSE OF THE GOSPEL

 

We see the offense of the gospel in what these men declared.  God said that he would make his elect from among the Gentiles find him who were not even seeking God, who did not even ask after God. While God gave to Israel every advantage and stretched out his hands with open arms.  It means God did nothing to stop them from coming to Christ.  And they did the only thing the depraved heart will do, they disobeyed the gospel command and gainsaid, spoke against, God and his word.  Here is the offense.  Those God elected, redeemed and called are no different in their natural, unregenerate flesh from those who reject him.

 

Brethren, that is how God saved you and me.  That is how God saves all his elect.  We were not seeking God.  None of God’s elect are seeking God when God makes us to find him.  As it is written, There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom 3: 10)  Thank God for his grace!  The difference is the difference God alone makes by his free and sovereign grace.  He chooses whom he will and gives us a new will in regeneration to trust Christ rather than our own works.

 

GOD NEVER LOSES ONE

 

Romans 11: 1: I say then, Hath God cast away HIS people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2: God hath not cast away HIS people, WHICH HE FOREKNEW.

 

There is the qualifier that declares who God’s people are, who God’s Israel are?  They are those “which he foreknew”.  It means God’s elect are those God foreordained to eternal life.  They are those God loved before freely without a cause in us.  God’s grace is keeping grace.  God never loses one he chose in Christ.  “It is not as though the word of God hath taken none effect; for they are not all [God’s] Israel which are of Israel:   Neither, because they are the [natural children] of Abraham, are they all children [of God],

 

Those God foreknew, foreordained to eternal life by his sovereign, electing, predestinating, adopting grace, are counted as “his people”, as “God’s Israel.”  Paul says, “I am an example, I am a natural citizen of Israel.  But I am much more—I am one God foreordained; a spiritual citizen of spiritual Israel.”  Paul says, “I am a natural son of Abraham.  But I am much more—I am one God called by grace, a spiritual son of Abraham.”  Hath God cast away HIS people?  God forbid! God hath not—and God never shall—cast away HIS people, WHICH HE FOREKNEW!

 

THIS IS TRUE IN EVERY GENERATION

 

Romans 10: 2: Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 3: Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. 4: But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself [I have chosen to myself] seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 5: Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

 

God has a people—a remnant—which he foreknew from before the foundation of the world in every generation.  Paul gives an illustration from the past.  Elijah lived in a bad time.  The children of Israel had torn down the altars.  That is the same as if folks in our day tore down all the church buildings.  Elijah was the only believer he knew of in the whole land.  But God told him the good news.  God had 7000 who God foreknew in Christ before the foundation of the world.  And because God foreknew them God kept them from bowing to the image of Baal. 

 

The same was true in Paul’s day.  Paul said at that present time in which he lived, in natural, physical Israel, there was a remnant God had reserved to himself according to the election of grace.  There was a remnant God had elected by his free and sovereign grace in Christ before the world was made.  That was the remnant Christ redeemed by his grace.  God would call that remnant to faith in Christ by his grace.

 

Brethren, at this present time, there is a remnant in this world according to the election of grace!  That is why God holds this world in store.  God is not willing that any of his people whom he foreknew should perish but that all shall come to repentance. 

 

ALL OF GRACE

 

Romans 11: 6: 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.

 

Salvation—A to Z—is all of grace.

 

Be sure to get this.  It is impossible to be chosen of God by grace AND to be chosen of God by works.  Either God the Father chose his people in Christ by grace without a cause in his people OR he did so because God foresaw something in them. Which is it?  What saith the scriptures?  “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”

 

Romans 9: 10…when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11: (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12: It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13: As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14: What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15: For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16: So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

 

Furthermore, it is impossible for God’s people to be made righteous by grace AND by works.  Either Christ Jesus by himself purged his people’s sins and made us righteous or his people must keep the whole law of God ourselves.  Which is it?  Christ said, “ I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me” (Is 63:3).  God says in his word, “When [Christ] had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1: 3)

 

It is impossible for a sinner to be regenerated and called to faith in Christ by grace AND by works.  Either we are born-again, given faith and made willing entirely of the Spirit of God OR it is by our works.  Which is it?  The Spirit says of those who believed the gospel at John the Baptist’s preaching, they “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:13).

 

Romans 2: 28: For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

 

John 6:44: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

 

1 Corinthians 12:3: Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

 

Ephesians 2: 4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5: Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)…8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 

Titus 3: 5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6: Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7: That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

THE CONCLUSION

 

Romans 11: 7: What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained, and the rest were blinded.

 

It is not as though the word of God hath taken none effect.  God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. 

 

The truth is, natural Israel who God left to their own depraved will sought righteousness by their own works and therefore “hath not obtained that which he seeketh for.”   But those God chose freely without a cause, those Christ made righteous, those the Spirit of God gave life and faithhath obtained” righteousness “and the rest were blinded.”

 

Romans 9: 30: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31: But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32: Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; [Christ Jesus] 33: As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

 

Amen!