2, 4, 1, Jesus loves even me. That's a blessing truth. Blessing verses 1, 2, and let's see, maybe 5. 1, 2, and 5. 3 out of the 5. And tell the kids of me how they'll be asleep. I will give to them my heart to keep. This is the day that Jesus has made. I am so glad that Jesus will keep. Jesus will keep. Jesus will keep. I am so glad that Jesus will keep. Jesus loves me and me. Though I forgive you if you're away, Still he hath loved me, and ever I'll stray. And to his truth I'll be on my way, And I'll remember that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. In this assurance I give to you, Jesus, I give to you, Jesus, I am blessed. Great singing. All right, we are continuing our exploration of Romans, so turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 11. I don't know if I could have a copy as well there. I didn't print one out for me either. This evening, we see never fear, because we are never alone. So open your Bibles to Romans chapter 11. We've been here for a little while. Turn that down just a little bit. So we're here in Romans 11, and we see a group of people, and a group of people. and one who might feel alone. The Apostle Paul, remember this is the section of Romans that expresses Pauline grief, sorrow, the weight of being essentially alone as a believer, a Jewish believer. And so as we look in this section, Romans chapter 11, we do see, although we may feel solitary, alone, God has reserved for himself a people called by his name, saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. of people who are a part of the company, the host of the elect, the chosen ones, Christians. Romans chapter 11, I'm giving you time to turn there. I'll be reading from the King James this evening. I say then, hath God cast away his people? I'm sure there were times when Paul felt like the only one left. Has God cast away his people? It's been theological for two chapters, thinking about God's goodness, his choices, their power. The Abrahamic people have not accepted their Savior, their Son. So has God cast away his people? And the Greek is, may it never be. Our King James has God forgive. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. What ye not, what the scripture saith, of, and here we have in the King James the old term, Elias or Elijah, how he would make an intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and did down thine altars, and I am left alone. And they seek my wife. But what saith the answer of God unto you? I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so, then, not then, also now, as at the present time, also their present tense is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then there is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained what it seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it. The rest were blinded. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day." Then quoting Psalm 69 from the next two verses, David said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back away, away, like all the time, all the time. Verse 11, I said then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Once again, this great term may it never be. God forbid. But rather, through their fall, what? What happens because of their fall? Through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them, of the Jews, be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them. So the Jews are made less. The diminishing of them becomes what? The riches of the Gentiles. How much more their fullness. So there's an expectation of a future here for the Jewish people, their fullness that is yet to be. We're now in verse 13. Paul's addressing his audience back to Rome, the Roman church here, the recipients of this letter. For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles. Notice, I'm happy about what I'm doing. This is not a lesser thing. I magnify my office. That's verse 13. Verse 14. Why? Why is this so important? If that by any means I may provoke to emulation, then which of my flesh? We want to create a bunch of copycats to emulate you, to follow you in the faith. Verse 14 continues, why? That we might save some of it so that they also will believe in Christ and become Christians. Verse 15, for the casting away, once again talking about the Jews, be the reconciling of the world. They spurned Christ, now the rest of the world has an opportunity to receive him. What shall the receiving of many be, the time when the Jews turned in a day to believe on Christ, but live from the dead? Verse 16. For if the first fruit, the Jewish people, be holy, the lump is holy, the Gentiles, and if the root be holy, the Jews, so are the righteous, the Gentiles, in this context. And if some of the branches be broken off, the Jews, and thou be in a wild olive tree, work wrath in among them, and with them partakers of the roots and the fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches, but if thou boast Thou bearest not the roots, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well, that's true. Verse 20. Because of an unbelief, they were broken off. And thou standest calm by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. Verse 21. For if God spare not the natural branches, take ye, lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of God. On them which have severity, but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted back in. For God is able to graft them in again. Verse 24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into the good olive tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness, in part, is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in." And so, looking ahead, future tense, notice this shout. And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. that is touching the election, they are for others, for the Father's sake. Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and more. For the gifts, verse 29, notice this, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed. that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. Why? Verse 42, God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy not on some, but on all who believe. That he might have mercy upon all. And then the final hymn, verse 33, following, O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. For who have known the mind of the Lord, who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him, and he shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy name be glorified for who you are. Lord, you are love. You are righteous. You are just. You are holy in all that you do. Lord, we don't comprehend all of your ways. You are far above us, far beyond us, far too much for us to fully comprehend. and yet you have revealed yourself. You have revealed yourself most wholly in Jesus Christ, the one who spoke in past times by dreams and visions in all kinds of unorthodox, unusual, and yet true ways. You spoke and said, Thus saith the Lord. has now revealed Himself fully and ultimately, has shown His glory as never before seen in the express image of your dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Father, we thank you for all of your ways. We thank you, Father, that it is possible that whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. This is indeed more than possible. It is promised. It is true. It is forever. Established in heaven. We have the New Covenant. We have the great Thai priest, Jesus Christ, after the Order of El Pisodet. We have the better temple, the better tabernacle, the better Savior, Jesus Christ. far better than the priesthood of Leman, better than the intercession of Aaron. Lord, we have God himself on the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. How glorious this is. Father, when we feel few, when we feel alone, help us to remember you are in our midst. You are with us. And more than that, there is a great company of the redeemed that we may not know, that are present, even here, even now, as a remnant. Help us to rejoice in this, to take comfort in this, and to take courage in this. We pray this in Jesus' name, we thank you. So you received that handout here that Daniel handed to you. And you see that the message tonight is never alone, never fear. So the full title, Never Fear. This is a command. Why should you not fear? In part, because you are never alone. Now normally when I have a title like this, I go directly to Christ is with you, Christ is Emmanuel. But that's not where we're going today. That's not the thrust of this chapter. This chapter is not about how God is with us. It's how there are other believers. And when we feel like we are alone, the only one doing the right thing, We are wrong. Our feelings are. And so what I want you to take comfort in as we look at this passage and we look at Romans chapter 11, we remember that the Apostle Paul in this chapter is working through theological realities that are very troublesome to him. His burden, the thing that is on his heart that makes him feel heavy and sad and discouraged, the thing that consumes him with zeal is the fact that his people, his family, his tribe, his nation, as a whole, have all turned their back on Jesus Christ. He came to his own, Jesus Christ came to his own, and his own received him not. He sends out apostles to tell the good news to all the world. But even when he sends his people, his apostles, to the world, what do they do? They first go to the tabernacles. They first go to the synagogues. They first go to the Jews because the gospel is to the Jew first. And so everywhere Paul goes throughout the Roman Empire, there's this pattern. Go tell the Jews, then tell the Gentiles. The same message, the message available to all, the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God has come to pay the penalty of sins. You may be saved, believed on in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. Repent. Believe. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. Believe. And so the message goes out, this is Paul's heart, and he feels, we see in these three chapters, 9, 10, 11, he feels this immense, this awesome burden, where he feels so very alone. Because he has built the case in Romans 9 and 10 that the Jewish people have indeed done what? They have rejected God. Look back at Romans 10, 1 through 4. What do we see? Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to Israel is that they might be saved. Verse 2, before I marry the woman, that they have a zeal. They want to be saved. They want to please God. but not according to them. They are ignorant of God's righteousness. And they're trying to establish their own righteousness. Going about to establish their own righteousness, they've not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the world for righteousness. to everyone who believes. And then verse 5 says, for Moses describes a righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by it. Okay, so here is a people seeking righteousness, you could say seeking God, but not seeking God on God's terms. And so, as Israel has turned their back on their Deliverer, as they choose to remain in the dark instead of coming to the light of Jesus Christ, the light of the world, Paul is absolutely dejected, depressed, overwhelmed, burdened, praying, preaching, doing everything he can to, with what he has, to bring deliverance to Israel, to his people, to his family, to his clan, to his nation. What do we see? Romans 9, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me, I mean, here's this oath. This is how serious, this is my art, this is my burden, this is what consumes me. What? My great heaviness. And continual, it's just there all the time. continual sorrow in my heart. For I wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brother. My kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites? To whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises? Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ come, who is over all, God blessed forever? that these blessed people have not accepted the blessing. They've got the gift, but they refuse to open the box. They refuse to receive it. And Paul is working through, what does this mean? The Messiah has come. The Deliverer has come. And, you know, the people in the hurricane say, you know, God will send his boat. Well, the boat, the ark, is Jesus Christ, and they stay there in their houses, and they're washed away. They drown. The ark is built. Noah builds the ark, and the people refuse to get on board. There's this rejection of the way of deliverance and if you're not delivered God's way you die And so Paul looks around and he sees his kinsmen his fellow Benjamins the people of Israel as a whole, spurning the good tidings of great joy, which shall be to you." And so the question is, did God inherit? And he goes through them, chapters 9 and 10. We've seen them previous weeks. Just how Bible-intensive. He's very theological, going through the scriptures. Here's what God has said, and here's what God has done. God said it, God did it, God said it, God did it, God said it, God did it. And he works through what the Bible says, what God has revealed of himself, of his plan, of humanity. He goes through all this in these chapters. And the final conclusion is, oh, this is not good. And so you see, once again, as we come to chapter 11, Paul asks again, here in these first verses, has God cast away his people? I mean, God's done everything else he said. He gave Isaac, he gave Jacob. You know, we've gone through these promises that God kept. In the terms of the old covenant, where you spurn my covenant, you disobey, you get the result. And so, we didn't live up to the covenant. We broke it. We couldn't keep it. It's all in God. Are we the only? Am I, Paul, the last? He says, you know, well, has God, verse 11, has God cast away his people? He has your own people? I mean, see how he's wrestling. He's been going through, his mind has been filing through the scriptures, thinking about what God has said, thinking through how God has always kept his word. Thinking of the terms of obedience and disobedience, of salvation. And so then he looks in the mirror and he says, oh yeah, I'm with you. See that? There's one. I'm in Israel. So here are all the others. And there's one. One of the original recipients, right? Try it with Benjamin. You try it with the first king. The bad trial in Judges. You know, the ones that get really nasty. But, trial. Part of the covenant community. One of the twelve trials. So, God hasn't wiped the slate clean. There's still a remnant. There's still one. There's me! Am I the only one? And once again, his Bible-saturated mind immediately comes up with an example, and he says, you know what? Well, I look around, and I see there are Gentiles being saved. You know, I'm the author of Acts, so you know I'm a Jew, but as I go out and preach in the synagogues and the tabernacles, as I go to the places where I go, what do I see? But praise God, people will eat. They're not Jews, they are Gentiles. That's a fruit, that's good. He says later on in verse 13, I magnify my office, I rejoice in these saved souls, but what about the Jews? What about my family? What about my people? What about my country? Is Christianity just going to be no longer Jewish, but Gentile? Is it going to be only Gentiles? Are these native olive trees going to be completely cut off so that there's not any? I got it, I'm the last Jewish Christian. Is that what's going to happen? And you can just hear the despair. He first thinks about himself and says, okay, I'm a Christian, so I'm a Jew, all right, so it's not completely open. You know, there was someone else who said, I'm the only one left. And his Bible-saturated mind says, okay, there is, there have been other times When believing people were few They were not in the majority. They were a distinct minority But they were still a company It's not there's only one in generation Noah still had his wife and his children and their wives. They were still eight on mode, right? I And so he brings to mind 1 Kings chapter 19, where Elijah in his despair cries out, you know, Lord, I'm the only one left for me. Everyone else has been killed. Everyone else is an apostate. I'm the only believer here. Woe is me. You know, I've preached I've killed the bad guys the bad prophets 450 bad prophets are no longer on this earth. I took care of the bad guys. I served my God Didn't happen No one else followed No one else is with me right and God says Open it up. You don't know what you're talking about. Yes, you've been faithful, but you're not alone. You may be by yourself, but in this country there are not one, not ten, not a hundred, not a thousand. There are seven thousand. 7,000 people who are faithful. 7,000 people who believe. 7,000 who have not compromised. They are dedicated. They are wholehearted. They have refused to bow the knee to Baal. They are true blue. They've been courageous. They may have been silent, but they are there. They are faithful. They are true. You are not alone. Now 7,000 people in a tribe or a nation of 12 tribes, this might be one or two persons in a village. Might be just one or two. It might be five or ten. This is not the majority of the country. You know, we talk about in the exodus here, 2 million people. 7,000 out of 2 million, this is not a lot. But it is a host. It's a good number. It's God's chosen. And so redemption history, what we see here is there is a principle at play here. Number two verse two says God has not cast away his people No, it's not the way you think Don't let your eyes be on what you see Let your eyes be on the the entire reality not just the glass is not half empty there are there's a silver lining there is the remnant of And so, I have reserved for myself, verse 4 says, 7,000. These are mine. They are precious in my sight. They belong to me. And I belong to them. God says. And so, what we see is that there is indeed what this chapter terms a remnant. A faithful few. Not the multitude, not the majority, but those who do not doubt Me. Those who are faithful. Those who are true. Secondly, so you see there in your, we've looked at the struggle of the solitary saint was the first one. The second one is a solution. God does preserve a remnant. Second one there. He preserves a remnant of believers. And so that then brings us to a third thing, the surprise. Not only is there a remnant, you could say, of the Jewish people, but there's actually a means, a surprise that grace is still at work. Because we see the Jewish people have been trying to get to God, huh? By works. They've been going the way of the religious throughout history. Cain sought to please God by his works, by bringing those over the ground. The religious have always tried to be saved to save themselves. They've tried to be their own savior by their works. That is true of every religious person. But the Christian, the child of God, is saved uniquely, not by himself, but by the Savior, the outsider, Jesus Christ, who is one of us, the Son of Man. So it's not striving. It's not works. You don't have to work harder, try harder, be more legalistic, give up, become more ascetic, or more legalistic, or keep more rules. That's not going to save you. If you pile on more rules, that's just more rules to break. That's not going to help you. You continue, you're putting more stones around your neck to drown you. That's not the solution. You think it's a solution, but it's what's killing you. Secret elections. And so striving, working harder, being more perfectionist, that's not the answer. What is the solution? Grace. The same as it has always been. What does, we've talked about Noah. What did we find about Noah? Noah found what? Grace. It wasn't because he was so handsome, so good, so whatever. He found grace. Salvation is always, ever about God's grace. It's never, ever deserved. No one in this whole great earth has ever deserved to be saved. The only one worthy of salvation is the Savior. And he didn't need to be saved because he never sinned. He was never condemned, but He took our condemnation so that you and I could be saved. Isn't that glorious? Grace is there. Grace is available. We see this right there in verse 6 of verses 5. There's a remnant. Verse 5 says, there's a remnant. That's where I got the word. There's a remnant according to the election of grace. Verse 6 continues, if by grace, what then? There's no more works. We're not trying to save ourselves here. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. If you work to get your salvation, it ain't grace. It's a wage. You deserve it. You don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. If it's worse, it's no more grace. So get it right. Grace is the only grace. You can't fight your way to heaven. You can't try harder, struggle more, work harder, do more things. It doesn't work. You just put more millstones around your neck. Because you can't keep it. You're not strong enough. You're not good enough. You understand? We all are. And that's the way God wants it. And so as we believe in Christ, we see that if we are trying to get there on our own, do X, Y, and Z, keep the Ten Commandments. I was talking to a lady, and I said, you know, God tells us what to do. Here's the Ten Commandments. And she said, I don't think I can do it. I said, I've got a secret. No one has. No one can. She said well, I do my best and I said well, that's great. I'm sure you're a moral person But you're not good You haven't met God's Line you haven't lived up to that limit that line that stand your brother Right And so the Jews they were doing their best to But the best wasn't great enough. We don't like to hear that. We're a bunch of self-helpers, aren't we? When we hear you can't do it, it's like, oh yeah, I can. Step back and watch, right? But Israel, verse 7 says Israel's not getting what she wants. We saw what she wanted in chapter 9. She wants righteousness. But she's seeking righteousness on her terms, not God's terms. She's trying to do it, not believe in the God who saves her. She won't trust God to deliver. She won't trust herself to do what God tells her to do. And that's two very different things. And so Israel has not obtained it. They're blinded. And so God, what? Puts them to sleep. There's like, show me the law. Just tell me what to do. Check, check, check. And the rich young ruler says, all these things I've done for my youth and up, right? OK, so go sell your house. There's something we love more than God. We have our idols. Self-righteousness will blind us. to Christ's righteousness. Verse 8, God has given them the Spirit of the Lord. Slow. They can't see. They can't hear. And so David says in Psalm 69, you know what? You're just going to get what? You're going to reap what they sow. What does it look like? Their tables have snapped. They're setting a feast for themselves, and it poisons them. They are trapped by their own food, by their own dainties. The things they think are going to nourish them kill them, trap them. The very word of God that should be their deliverance is a stumbling blocks to Because they learn I can't do this. I can't be righteous if I know the strength. This is verse 9 What do you saw in 69 and so verse 10 says let their eyes be They're basically getting what they asked for They can't see even if they want to Finally, number four, next to finally, the sullus, the surplus, and then the sullus, the surplus. Now, believers, now it's not, before, what was it? God's people, verse one. Verse two, God and His people. Who are His people? God's chosen people are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now we're saying God's people are not only Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but whosoever believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I are what? God's people. So now we've gone from being a select few of Jewish genetics to a silent few who are children of Abraham, not by genes, but by faith. So you and I can sing Father Abraham, even if we hate the song, because Abraham is the father of the faith. And so now we have not just Paul singing, poor me, solitary me, I'm all alone. Now Paul's saying, now we have people of every people. tribe, tongue, and nation, who are a part of the elect, not just genetically Jewish, but faithfully God's people, by faith, the people of God, who have trusted in the Jewish Messiah, the blessing that comes through Abraham. And so the Lord has redeemed Jew and Gentile, Jewish first-births that we talked about last week, are added to the fruits of Gentile believers, making a grand, fruitful harvest. Heaven will be full. It's not going to be like Korea with its declining population. Heaven will be full of people. There's going to be multitudes there, I should say. all kinds of backgrounds from all through time from Abel on Adam on right all who believed by faith in God and his word will be there to request right and so there is this grand harvest so all who's who is saved whoever do so ever believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved that's That's everything. It's open to all. There's a universal offer. Come to me. All of you that are weak, all of you that are weary, all of you that are heavy laden, come to me. If you are tired of guilty conscience, if you are tired of continually trying harder and trying more and doing more and just feeling so frustrated and I can't do it, we're gonna write. You can't do it. Go to someone who can. Be delivered from your sin, from your guilt, from your shame. Come to Christ. He is the Savior. He's the only Savior. There's one God, one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for us all. And what's the benefit? We're everyone who believes. This salvation, Jews rejected, now we're all saved by faith. All are rich, verse 12. All are reconciled through the blood of Christ. There has atonement been made, propitiation, God's wrath has been satisfied. All have eternal life. This is true of every Christian, every believer. will be we stand justified all will be in our glorification so here we stand not alone not by ourselves but with the the host of the Saints of the ages a great cloud of witnesses as Hebrews 12 says the Hall of Fame all these from from Abel to Abraham to Moses to the unnamed host there in Hebrews 11. These are your brothers and sisters. You have fellowship with them. You will be with them throughout eternity. And here and now, we have a fellowship of believers. And this is our final thing. There should be solace here, comfort. You're not the only one. You're not by yourself. This is the church. The fellowship of believers. First on one. We have fellowship with God. Because we have fellowship with God, we have what? Fellowship with one another. There's a brotherhood, a family. We are the family of God. Children of God. So we, they, some of these believers