ALL ABOUT GOD

(Sermon Series)

 by Rev. Richard Jones

FIVE FACTS FOR A FUTURE

Romans chapter 11

Paul Serves as an Example

Romans 11:1 (ESV)

1  I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

THE PROPHET ELIJAH SHOWS THE TRUTH

Romans 11:2-10 (ESV)

2  God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3  “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4  But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5  So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7  What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8  as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”          9  And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”

Isaiah 49:15-16 (ESV)

15  “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

THE GENTILES SHARE THE BLESSING

Romans 11:11-15 (ESV)

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! 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

Psalm 94:14 (ESV)

14  For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;

THE PATRIARCHS STAND AS THE ROOT

Romans 11:16-24 (ESV)

16  If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17  But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 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. 22  Note 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. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23  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. 24  For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

1 John 2: 19 (ESV)

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

GOD HIMSELF SAVES THE BELIEVING

Romans 11: 25-32 (ESV)

25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” 28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

Zechariah 12: 9-10 (ESV)

9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 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.

Isaiah 59: 19-20 (ESV)

19 So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives.20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.

THE DOXOLOGY SINGS OUR RESPONSE

Romans 11: 33-36 (ESV)

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.  Amen.

Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)

8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.