The Remnant Lives
Romans 10:13-11:12
1. It is not often that Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday, so this means I am obligated to begin my sermon with a Valentine’s story, a true one.
2. “Every Valentine’s Day our campus newspaper has a section for student messages. Last year my roommate surprised his girlfriend with roses and dinner at a fancy restaurant. When they returned from their date, she leafed through the paper to see if he had written a note to her. Near the bottom of one page she found: ‘Bonnie, what are you looking here for? Aren’t dinner and flowers enough? Love, Scott.’” — Contributed by Richard B. Blackwell, Reader’s Digest…
3. Romantic love is part of the human experience, but we need to remind ourselves that the love of God is not exactly the same as the love of a man for his wife. God’s love for His bride, whether Israel or the church, is unfailing and unending.
4. Yet God’s steadfast love – some of you might remember the Hebrew word, hesed, is an emphasis we find throughout Scripture. But sometimes it might seem that His unfailing love has failed. In this section of Romans, Paul is dealing with this in detail.
Main Idea: The general purpose of Romans 9-11 is to explain Israel’s unbelief and the growing gentile population of the church; the great doctrines about God’s sovereignty are important, but the main point is this: God has temporarily set aside Israel to accommodate the church age.
I. Although Israel Had Both Natural Revelation and the Special REVELATION of the Gospel, Most Jews Chose Not to Believe (13-21).
This is one midrash after another, and the subject is probably not interesting enough for most of us to go through this with a fine-tooth comb. I will summarize instead.
Verses cited: Joel 2:32; Isa. 52:7; Isa. 53:1;Ps. 19:4; Deut. 32:21, Isa. 65:1; and Isa. 65:2
This does not include all the verses that are developed form OT texts.
A. Paul explains why we should SEND out missionaries and evangelists (13-17).
1. He dealt with natural revelation in the first two chapters of Romans.
2. The world cannot understand why we send our missionaries because they do not believe it is necessary to believe in Jesus Christ to be saved.
3. This passage suggests that Jesus is the only way to God, that we need to get the gospel to people, the preaching of the Word – builds up our faith, increases it, and makes it stronger.
4. In my observation, Christians who make the most difference for the Kingdom are Christians who spend a lot of time in their Bibles.
B. Communicating the Gospel does not guarantee positive RESPONSES (18-21).
1. The Jewish people mostly remained in UNBELIEF.
2. Yet many gentiles FOUND the Lord.
Application: Our responsibility is to feed on the Word of God and seek to share the Gospel with others. Some will respond, others will not. Our job: to be faithful.
II. God Has Nonetheless Preserved a REMNANT of Jewish Believers (11:1-12).
Verses cited include: 1 Kgs. 19:10, 14; 1 Kgs. 19:18, and Ps. 69:22, 23
A. God has preserved a REMNANT, just as He did in Elijah’s day (1-4).
1. Elijah was heartbroken at the godlessness of his fellow Israelites.
2. But God had to remind him that he was not alone.
3. I often feel the same way. Do you? Church, Moody radio reminds us…
B. The choice as to who makes up this remnant is not a matter of works, but God’s GRACE, which cannot be MIXED with human effort (5-6).
C. The irony: God’s grace showers the GENTILES more than the religious Jewish people, as predicted throughout Scripture; yet God remains Israel-centered (7-11).
1. You don’t normally think of a Popeye the Sailor cartoon as a love story. It is, in a way. Both Bluto – later named Brutus, and Popeye are after the affections of Olive Oyl. Olive Oyl is sometimes swayed one way or another, but, in the end, she chooses Popeye. One wins and one loses.
2. Many more serious loves stories with a similar plot. Two guys are in love w/ one woman, or two women are in love with one man. Who will win whose affections?
3. This is a bit different. Since God transcends time, the end result that God wins the heart of His people, Israel, later, in the end times, and the church now; but in those end times, He gains Israel with the church included under the wings of Israel, and, in eternity, all as heavenly citizens of the Kingdom of God.
4. Completion! I Cor. 15:24-25, 28, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet…When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
1. Unbelieving Israel sought God’s righteousness, but failed to attain it.
2. Some of the gentiles who had not previously sought God’s righteousness attained it in Christ.
3. God is not done with Israel; He is so Israel-centered that one of the purposes of the church is to make Israel jealous. Are we doing that?
4. Israel’s failure means gentile opportunity, all in the plan of God.
5. The why question comes to mind. The best answer we can give – even if it is only partial – is that somehow God is glorified further by this turn of events.
• Sort of a further elaboration of the theme verse, Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
D. If Israel’s rejection brings great blessing to the world, greater blessing will come when Israel BELIEVES (12).
E. The true church is, by nature, a MINORITY movement.
1. To be a serious Christian, you have to be different than the mainstream.
2. Because we have tried to minimize the distinction between God’s Word and our society, we have won many converts who now must choose something they should have been made to choose early on: am I going to go along with my culture or the Word of God?
3. We see departures and compromises of the faith because not everyone is willing to be part of a faithful remnant. They want “what is happening now.”
4. There was a price tag for both Jews and gentiles to convert to faith in Christ.
5. In much of the Asian and Middle Eastern world, there is an even greater price tag today. But we are not used to a price tag. And it may surprise us who is and is not willing to pay it.
6. Being part of the faithful remnant is not all about price tag, for it includes the joy of salvation, the joy of the Holy Spirit, and an eternity that far outweighs our trials.
7. Are you part of this remnant?
