God Has Not Rejected His People

In one paragraph

This was the final message in a series working through Romans 9 through 11, focused on chapter 11. The preacher walked the congregation through Paul's argument that God has not rejected Israel, and he pressed the passage toward two personal responses: humility and hope. the preacher opened by placing chapter 11 inside the larger structure of the series. The previous weeks had established that...

Read together

1. 1 Timothy 2:5 one mediator between us and God, the man Jesus Christ
2. Romans 10:9-10 if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
3. Romans 11:1 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew
4. 1 Kings 19 Elijah pleading with God against Israel, saying he alone was left and they sought his life
5. Romans 11:4 God kept 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal
6. Romans 11:7 what Israel sought it has not obtained, but the chosen obtained it and the rest were hardened
7. Romans 11:8 God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see and ears to hear not, down to this very day
8. Romans 11:9-10 David's words about the table becoming a snare and their eyes being darkened
9. Romans 11:11-32 Israel has fallen but not fallen irrevocably, Gentiles grafted in, all Israel will be saved
10. Romans 11:26-27 the deliverer will come from Zion and remove ungodliness from Jacob, God's covenant to take away their sins
11. Romans 11:29 the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable
12. Romans 11:32 God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all
13. Romans 11:33-36 doxology closing the passage, depth of riches of God's wisdom and knowledge, from him and through him and to him are all things

Talk about it

1. The preacher pointed out that the people of Israel repeatedly reduced God's grace to a code of rules and lost the heart behind it. Where do you see that same tendency showing up in your own faith, or in church life generally?
2. Carl used the story of Elijah to talk about hope and humility, noting that Elijah thought he was the only faithful one left while God had kept 7,000 for himself. When have you felt like Elijah in your own walk, and what did that passage say to you personally?
3. The sermon returned again and again to the warning against arrogance toward those who have not believed, whether Jewish people in Paul's day or anyone outside the faith today. What does it look like practically to hold conviction about the gospel without becoming arrogant about it?
4. The preacher said the words of warning in this passage, about branches being cut off, are meant to be heard and taken seriously even by those who hold firmly to eternal security. How do you personally hold those words of warning alongside your confidence in God's faithfulness?
5. The sermon closed with the idea that all good theology should lead to doxology, pointing to Paul's outburst of praise at the end of Romans 11. Is there an area of your theology that has stayed in your head without yet moving you to worship or humility? What would it take for it to get there?