John K. Jenkins Sr - A Walk Through Romans, Chapter 11

Praise the Lord! Excellent praise and worship! We thank God for our team that leads us in the worship of the Almighty God. Thank you for being here tonight, wherever you are in the world. I am always honored and grateful for the saints of God who take the time to say, «You know what? Tuesday night is my time to study the Word of God,» and I’m thrilled and grateful for that. So, thank you from wherever you are, all over the world, all over the United States of America. We give God the praise for your presence. Thank you for joining us! You can tell that tonight I am joining you remotely, as I am traveling. I am conducting this Bible study from another part of the country. I appreciate the technology that affords us the privilege and opportunity to continue with the teaching, and I don’t have to stress someone else with preparing to do this. I’m grateful for God making that available to us tonight. So, let’s start off with prayer. Let 's just pray.

Father, thank you so much for your loving kindness to us, your tender mercies. We are so grateful, Father, that you love us enough to leave us this document, this Word, these Scriptures to govern our lives, to direct our paths, to order our steps, and to give us insights into your heart, mind, and will. We are grateful for this. I thank you for making this possible. I pray that God blesses our time together tonight. Let people’s eyes be opened, and let their hearts be receptive to receive the revelation of your Word. Let me give clear instruction, instruction that is understandable and that they will know how to apply to their everyday lives. So, we thank you for that, Lord. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus for you to let us be your instruments. In Jesus' name, if someone is unsaved, save them and give them clarity about salvation. If someone has backslidden, reclaim them for your kingdom. If someone is unsure, Father, we pray that you would give them assurance. If someone, Heavenly Father, is disconnected from your body, the body of Christ, we pray that you might draw them back to your body. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.

All right again, thank you for joining us tonight. We’re going to be in Romans chapter 11. Tonight is Romans chapter 11, and so I want to encourage you to open your Bibles. If you haven’t been with us before, I have been going through the history of Paul’s writing to this church, which is a mixture of both Jews and Gentiles. It comprises those who were a part of the initial chosen remnant, the initial chosen people of God, and now God has opened up salvation to the Gentiles. In the church in Rome, they have both Jews and Gentiles, and he is communicating to them. We have been spending the last few weeks discussing several key elements; probably a couple of them are the fact that we are saved by faith and not by works. So, you know, Paul’s lesson to the church in Rome is, «Hey, circumcision doesn’t save you; water baptism doesn’t save you; keeping the law doesn’t save you; doing acts and efforts doesn’t change you. We are saved by faith.» Romans 11. So, if you have your Bibles, open to that. And by the way, let me just again rehearse and remind you, for those of you who like taking notes, we provide assistance for you by making a sheet where you can fill in the blanks of what’s on the slides. So if you go to fbcglenarden.org Bible notes, I think it’s «Bible Study Notes» or «Bible Notes,» they’ll put it on the screen for you. You can go ahead and download that; it will help you take notes more easily. Lots of people like that, and we hope that you’ll like it too. For those who might be new, you can do that.

Okay, we’re in Romans chapter 11, and the first 10 verses are the section that we’re going to talk about. What it says is this: these first 10 verses highlight the fact that though Israel has rejected Jesus and has rejected the gospel that God has made available to us Gentiles, the great news is that this rejection is not total. This is what these first 10 verses deal with-the fact that the rejection they have demonstrated is not total. So let’s go to verse number one. Let 's start off in verse number one; it says this: «I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.» Here 's Paul’s very first point: he’s asking the question, «Has God just blankly rejected the people who were once His chosen people?» and his answer is, «Certainly not; no, that is not the case.» Paul is declaring that, even though he is of the seed of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin, he’s saying, «Look, the God we serve has not wiped out Israel,» and he has not said that it is not possible. Verse two says, «God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.»