CCC Livestream - It's All About The Gospel - Romans 11:1-10
Live Worship Gathering: 9/28/2025
Preaching: Jason Purdy
Has God Rejected His People?
Jason Purdy
It’s All About The Gospel / Romans 11:1–10
As we continue to worship, I invite you to take your copy of God’s word and turn with me to Romans 11.
We will look at verses 1-10 today.
Children, I hope you have an activity page to help you follow along as well.
I believe it appropriate to say of Romans 11 like I said back in Romans 9, there are some things in this chapter that are hard to understand.
Thankfully, the apostle Peter warns of just that when he wrote about some of Paul’s writings in
2 Peter 3:16 ESV
16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
So, while I acknowledge that faithful Christians have understood some of the details of this chapter in different ways, I pray and have prayed all week that my presentation of God’s word would be clear and certainly not twisted in any way.
I’ve mentioned a few times in this series so far that the church in Rome was unique because it was made up of both religious background Jews and pagan background Gentiles, and the Jews actually had to flee Rome for a time due to the governing authorities, so the pagan background Gentiles had to continue the leadership of the church while the Jews were gone.
Now, the Jews are back, and no doubt, it is not easy for these two groups to live in unity for the sake of Christ and the gospel.
So, Paul writes the first eight chapters of Romans in order to lay out the gospel of Jesus Christ in the most vivid details in order to show that all Jews and all Gentiles alike deserve the wrath of God due their sin, yet, in love, God sent His son Jesus to die and rise again in order to grant the righteousness of God to all those who believed in God’s grace through faith.
Salvation by grace through faith is offered to both Jew and Gentile the same.
But, then as we come to chapters 9-11, Paul addresses an extremely serious challenge that people opposed to Jesus and the gospel were constantly leveling against the gospel of Jesus.
And that challenge goes like this: if the Jews are God’s chosen Old Testament people who received God’s - adoption, and glory, and covenants, the law, the worship, and the promises - which they are, then how can the gospel of Jesus Christ be true since the vast majority of Jews are rejecting it and opposed to it?
Has God’s word to Israel failed? Have God’s promises failed?
And here is why it matters so much to us: if God’s word and promises could fail for them, how could we have any confidence that His word will succeed for us?
And yes, the message of Romans will get a lot more practical beginning in chapter 12, but the practical things of the Christian life only matter if the gospel of Jesus Christ is absolutely true and trustworthy, so may we worship King Jesus by considering this text today.
We saw last week that God gets the message of the gospel to others by sending all of his people to be preachers of the gospel so that the lost can hear, believe, and call on the name of the Lord.
For how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news and faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Then, Paul showed us from Old Testament passages how God had revealed himself to the Jews through His great creation.
He then showed us how God had sent Paul to preach the gospel to the Jews.
Yet, those who did not seek for God, the Gentiles who were considered foolish nations, received the gospel much more readily than those of the nation of Israel the Jews, which God said would happen in the Old Testament.
But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Romans 11:1–10 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. 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.”
1. The Writer Shows How God Has Not Rejected His People
Remember, Paul has just said at the end of chapter 10 that Israel had heard but not accepted the gospel, yet the Gentiles who did not seek after God have found God, and while God held out his hands to the Jewish people of Israel all day long, they were a disobedient and contrary people and refused to come to Jesus.
These are the same people who were given the promise of Abraham that they would be a great people and a blessing to all the earth.
They are the same people who were given the promise of David that through David, God would establish his throne that would last forever.
Consider this promise from:
Jeremiah 31:35–37 ESV
35 Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord of hosts is his name:
36 “If this fixed order departs
from before me, declares the Lord,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Thus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,
declares the Lord.”
In other words, God promised that Israel would never fully cease to exist as a people and that he would never fully cast them off.
But, after all that we just read of their disobedience and contrariness, has God rejected His people?
If so, how can we be sure that he will never break his promises to us.
Paul answers in the strongest terms: By no means!
How can we be sure that God has not rejected his people?
First off, the writer Paul points us toward himself.
He says, “I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.”
If God had rejected his people, Paul would have had to be included in that rejection!
Paul was not only a Jewish Israelite and a descendant of David, but he was from the tribe of Benjamin, the same tribe that King Saul, the first king of Israel was from.
And until God saved the apostle Paul by His sovereign grace, Paul shared a name with King Saul.
For Paul was Saul until God changed his name at his conversion.
I think that’s important because King Saul was the very first King of Israel, considered an ideal Israelite, yet God ultimately rejected Saul as king for disobeying and dishonoring God.
And now Saul, before he was converted and had his name changed to Paul, was also considered an ideal Israelite:
Remember how Paul described himself before his conversion in
Philippians 3:5–6 ESV
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
If anyone was to be identified in the category of an ideal Jew and Israelite who had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge,
And who seeking to establish their own righteousness did not submit to God’s righteousness through Christ, like we read back in chapter 10, it was Saul, the hater of the gospel and the persecutor of the church.
If there was anyone who was disobedient and contrary to the gospel, it was him.
Saul hated Jesus, and he hated Jesus’ followers.
He was jealous that they would call themselves right with God for believing on the Lord Jesus when he had spent his entire life building up the accolades of attaining his own righteousness.
Saul witnessed with wholehearted approval as Stephen was publicly executed for preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
And as Saul, the perfect Jewish Israelite left that execution and headed on the road to Damascus in order to bring more Christ followers in chains back to Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul with a light from Heaven and blinded his eyes.
And God sent a Jesus follower to Saul named Ananias, and he told him of the Lord Jesus, and Saul was saved.
Has God rejected his people? By no means! For he saved the quintessential Israelite and made him into the greatest missionary theologian apart from Jesus himself that the world has ever known.
Verse 2 - God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
We saw back in chapter 8 of Romans that God’s foreknowledge is the first step in the salvation process, and for God to foreknow means God set his love on in a very personal way beforehand.
Because God is God, and knows all things throughout all of time at all times, He always knew and purposed that He was going to show up to Saul on the Damascus road that day.
And it is why God can promise us that salvation is his work from beginning to end.
So, has God rejected his people? By no means.
He has saved the quintessential Israelite by His sovereign grace through faith.
And He has gone on to preach the gospel and write a great portion of the New Testament.
So, the writer, Paul himself, shows how God has not rejected his people.
But not only that:
2. The Remnant Show How God Has Not Rejected His People
Back to verse 2: Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”
Back in the book of Kings, we read of the prophet Elijah, who lived during the time of the evil queen Jezebel, who was not an Israelite but became queen by marrying evil King Ahab of Israel.
And Queen Jezebel had led the Israelite people into pagan worship of the false god, Baal.
So, the prophet Elijah stages a great confrontation between himself and the false prophets of Baal, and the one true God shows up in a mighty display of His power and completely humiliates the prophets of Baal.
And no doubt, Elijah was hopeful that this great act of God was going to lead to national repentance and revival, instead, he found himself alone and running for his life, as Queen Jezebel committed herself to having Elijah killed by the end of the day.
And in the midst of the loneliness and despair of running for his life, he cried out to God saying, “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”
And God’s reply, which Paul copies in verse 4 is: “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
In other words, Elijah, you are not the only Israelite who truly worships me in your day.
There are actually seven thousand men who do.
Look at verse 5: So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
There was a remnant of true faith believers among the Jewish Israelites in Elijah’s day.
There was a remnant of true faith believers among the Jewish Israelites in Paul’s day.
There has always been a remnant of true faith believers, and there always will be.
While the majority of ethnic Jews today do not confess Jesus as Lord, there are many Messianic Jews who do, why?
Because there has always been a remnant of true faith believers among the Jewish people and their always will be.
Because God has promised it, and His word never fails.
How is this possible amongst such a disobedient and contrary people who believe they attain being right with God through their works?
It is possible, end of verse 5, because they have been chosen by grace.
God’s grace superseding and overcoming disobedience, hard heartedness, and works based righteousness.
Verse 6 - But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
In other words, God saves the remnant of Jews in the same way He saves the remnant of everyone else on the planet, by His sovereign and pure grace, and that’s how he has always saved all sinners who come to him by faith.
Remember how Paul had listed his perfect Jewish pedigree and accomplishments which he used to believe as a Jew led him to attain righteousness with God?
Well, because of God’s grace and grace alone, he testifies:
Philippians 3:7 ESV
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Why? Because by God’s grace, Paul had become absolutely convinced that anything that He had done that tempted him to think he could earn a right standing before God in any way had to be considered loss and rubbish,
Because salvation is wholly a gift of God’s grace, not of works.
And a remnant of Jews experience that saving grace in every generation.
Not only can we be absolutely sure that God has not rejected his people due to the salvation of Paul, the quintessential Jew.
We can be sure that God has not rejected his people because he is always saving a remnant of Jews by His grace through faith.
Finally, not only do the writer and the remnant how us that God has not rejected his people but:
3. The Rest Show How God Has Not Rejected His People
What I mean is the rest of the Jewish people who are not saved by God’s grace, believe it or not, are also a testimony to the fact that God has not rejected his people.
Look at verse 7 - What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened.
The elect simply refers to all those who are chosen of God, those whom he foreknew, all who are saved.
So, of course, the saved remnant of the Jews obtained salvation.
But all the rest, who is the vast majority did not obtain a right standing with God even though they were seeking it.
Remember:
Romans 10:2–3 ESV
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
So, they were zealous in going after right standing with God, but they failed to obtain it because they tried to obtain it by works, and in so doing, they rejected Christ and His gospel.
And why did the vast majority of Jews reject Jesus and His gospel? End of verse 7 - because they were hardened.
We’ve seen that word back in chapter 9 referring to the Pharaoh of Egypt.
Romans 9:15–18 ESV
15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
As you read the account in Exodus, you are led to ask, did God harden Pharaoh’s heart, or did Pharaoh harden his own heart, and, of course, the answer is yes.
As Pharaoh hardened his heart, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, yet God had a grand purpose in doing so: in order to show His power and that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
And so too, Jews hardened their hearts and God hardened their hearts:
Because listen, anytime you believe that your deeds and performance will grant you righteousness before God, you become hardened to Jesus and His gospel, because who needs Jesus dying on a cross in your place if you can do enough on your own to make yourself right with God?
You say, well, hang on, how in the world does a vast majority of Jews with hardened hearts toward Jesus and His gospel help prove that God has not rejected his Jewish people?
Here is how: Because this is exactly what God said was going to happen.
The same God who promised Abraham that he would be a great people and a blessing to all the earth.
The same God who promised David that God would establish his throne that would last forever.
The same God who promised he would never fully cast off His people Israel,
is the same God who said through Moses
Deuteronomy 29:4 ESV
4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
And Isaiah in
Isaiah 29:10 ESV
10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).
And Paul draws together the words of the law and the prophets in verse 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.”
Consider
Matthew 13:13–15 ESV
13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“ ‘ “You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
The vast majority of Jews having hardened hearts toward God points to the fact that God has not rejected his people because the same God who said that he would never fully cast away his people is the same God who said the vast majority would be spiritually blind, deaf, and hardened.
So, if someone said, the gospel can’t be true: God promised He would never reject his people, and a vast majority of His people reject the gospel.
The answer to that is, you are right. God did promise not to reject his people.
But the same God who promised not to reject his people is the God who said that for a long time, the vast majority of Jews will be spiritually blind, deaf, and hardened.
God’s word and His promise is sure and perfect, and what He says will come to pass.
Need more evidence?
Verse 9 - And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
It is a quote from Psalm 69, a Psalm also mentioned in the New Testament as speaking the the reproach the Jews who had Jesus killed felt toward him.
The table pictures all that the majority Jews trusted in and pointed to in terms of being right with God.
The good things of the law of God, which was like a table spread before them, became to them the very thing that snared and entrapped them and became a stumbling block, because they believed that they could be saved and made right with God by doing works of the law.
And trusting in their own works blinded them to their need for Christ.
And the bending of their backs pictures their shame and condemnation due their refusal to trust in Christ.
We declare every week from this pulpit that trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is the absolute and only thing necessary for salvation, and we declare the promise that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
And we declare that this work of salvation is a work of God from beginning to end for He who began this good work in you will be faithful to complete it, though you are still responsible to place your faith in him.
And the only reason we can declare these things with confidence, and the only reason you can believe them with confidence, is because we believe that this is God’s word and God’s word never fails.
So, if God has rejected his chosen Israelite people, then his word has failed.
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means!
First, the writer of Romans, the apostle Paul, was the quintessential Jew, yet He was saved by God’s grace alone.
Second, their has always been a remnant of believing Jews in every age who are saved by God’s grace alone.
It was true in Elijah’s day. It was true in Paul’s day. It is true in our day.
Third, even the rest who is the vast majority of unbelieving Jews are a testimony to the fact that God’s word is true and he has not rejected his people because God said beforehand that this is exactly what would happen.
I wonder if you are here today, and you struggle to believe that God’s word could be true for you.
Maybe you would call yourself a Christian, but you struggle to believe that God has truly saved you and will bring you safely home to Heaven.
Maybe you feel like there is too much evidence based on your life and your choices and your sins that keep you from believing that you are in Christ, that you are a new creation, and that God set His love on you before you were ever born.
Or maybe you are here today, and you feel despair over the state of God’s church maybe in our nation or around the world, and God is asking and challenging you through this text:
Has God rejected His people?
Has God rejected you?
You who has confessed that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead?
Has God now rejected you?
By no means!
John 6:39 ESV
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
You say, well, how can that be, there is just so much in my life and in the lives of those around me that confuse me and cause me to be unsure!
Don’t you think that is just how the church in Rome felt as they were trying to wrestle through the question of why in the world God would harden the hearts and blind the eyes of his chosen Old Testament people?
Did God’s chosen people stumble in order that they might fall? By no means!
God has a great purpose in why he has done this, but you are going to have to read ahead and come back next week to find out why.
Maybe you are here today and you are just as lost and separated from God as the apostle Paul was before He met Jesus on that Damascus road.
I want you to know that though you are a great sinner who has loved yourself and the things of the world more than you have loved your Creator God,
God loved you enough to send His son Jesus to die in your place for your sin, and He raised him to life again to defeat your sin and death on his behalf.
And if you will trust in your heart that God did this for you, you can be confident that God set his love on you before you were born, that God has opened your eyes by His sovereign grace, and that you have been saved from the wrath to come and into eternal life in Heaven with Jesus.
Would you cry out to him now?
Let’s pray.
(Elder at couch)
(Communion)