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.

The title of today's message is, "For God's Sake, Let Grace Be
Grace!"

"Let grace be grace!" comes from verse 6: "But
if it is by grace - that is, if the preservation of a remnant of
believing Israel is by grace - it is no longer on the basis of
works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." So let grace be
grace! Don't put anything in the place of grace.

"For God's sake!" comes from verse 4. "What is
God's reply to [Elijah]? 'I have kept for myself seven thousand men
who have not bowed the knee to Baal." I kept them. I brought about
this faithful remnant, and I did it "for myself" - for my own sake,
for the sake of my glory and my name. If there had been no remnant
of my chosen people, I would have been disgraced. Therefore I took
the initiative. I exerted my power. These 7,000 believers are
believers because I acted for my name's sake.

This is the title of the message. This is the point of the
message for us today at Bethlehem - and for the church of Christ in
the 21st century: For God's Sake, Let Grace Be Grace!

O Lord, grant us grace to see and understand and savor the
freedom of your sovereign grace. Help us to feel our helplessness
without it. Help us to see our sin and our bondage to sin - our
sinful nature. Help us to realize in the depths of our soul that we
are slaves to pride and that without grace we are hopeless and
lost. So humble us before you and before each other. And grant us
to trust in the fullness of what Christ purchased for us - the
riches of your grace, the fellowship your suffering, and the
everlasting joy of your presence. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Main Point: God Has Not Rejected His People

To understand grace in these verses, let's get the flow of
Paul's thought before us. His main point is that God has not
rejected his people Israel. Verse 1: "I ask, then, has God rejected
his people? By no means!" So God is faithful. He keeps his
promises. We who trust him today can bank on his reliability.

First Argument: Paul Himself Is an Israelite

Then his first argument to support this is that he himself is an
Israelite. Verse 1b: "For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of
Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin." So, if I am not
rejected, and I am an Israelite, we know God has not stopped
working for the salvation of his people.

Second Argument: God Foreknew Israel

The second argument to support God's commitment to Israel is
that he foreknew them. Verse 2: "God has not rejected his people
whom he foreknew." "You only have I known of all the
families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). God chose them freely for his
own and knew them the way a husband takes a wife and makes a
covenant with her.

The Third Argument: In Elijah's Day and Paul's Day, God In His
Sovereign Grace Chose and Kept a Faithful Remnant for Himself

Then Paul develops a third argument that God has not rejected
the Israel of his own day. He compares his own day to the terrible
days of Elijah. And he argues that since there was a remnant of
Israel in those days, there is also a remnant in his day. But the
argument isn't based on the mere historical likelihood that if
there was a remnant in those terrible days of idolatry, surely
there will be a remnant in Paul's less idolatrous day. The argument
isn't that if people stayed faithful in threatening days, people
will surely stay faithful in less threatening days. That's not the
argument at all.

What is the connection between Elijah's day and Paul's day that
makes Paul so sure that a faithful remnant then means a faithful
remnant now? Let's read starting in the middle of verse 2:

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.

The link between Elijah's day and Paul's day is the sovereign
grace of God exercised in choosing and keeping a faithful remnant
for himself. Paul sees this - and we can see it - in God's words in
verse 4: "I have kept for myself seven thousand men." In
the Old Testament Hebrew of 1 Kings 19:18, it means literally "I
caused to remain" (wehiiuarti). Paul read this and
saw in it the sovereign work of God.

Be careful here. Don't make a mistake: The point of God's work
for these seven thousand is not to keep them alive. When God says,
"I have kept for myself seven thousand men," he didn't mean, I have
kept them from Jezebel's sword. That wouldn't help Paul's argument
at all. He's not trying to answer the question whether believing
Israelites had died. He's trying to answer the question whether
Israelites are believing and being saved and inheriting the
promised blessings of God.

So when God says (v. 4), "I have kept for myself seven thousand
men," he doesn't mean "I saw to it that they stayed alive." He
means, "I saw to it that they were faithful. I saw to it that they
believed."

Now that makes Paul's argument work, and that's exactly the
point that he draws out of God's work in Elijah's day for his own
day. There will be a remnant in my day, he says, because just as
God sovereignly brought about faithfulness in Elijah's day, so he
is bringing about faithfulness in my day. The link is not
historical likelihood of how people act, but divine certitude. God
did it then. God is doing it now.

An Election of Grace

And the way Paul draws out the connection is with the words,
"chosen by grace" in verse 5: "So too at the present time
there is a remnant, chosen by grace." Literally: "according to the
election of grace." This phrase sheds light back onto the work of
God in Elijah's day. Paul says, God kept seven thousand men for
himself in those days, and in the same way (houtos) there
is a remnant "chosen by grace." So "chosen by grace" is what Paul
saw when he looked at the sovereign work of God in Elijah's day. If
it was God who caused them to be a faithful remnant, then God had
chosen them, to make them faithful. And the way he chose them was
by grace. And therefore, God has the authority and freedom and
power to do the same in Paul's generation. Therefore there is a
chosen remnant of believing Israel. And God has not forsaken his
people. That's the third argument.

But evidently Paul is concerned that we may not grasp the impact
of what he has said in the phrase "chosen by grace," or "according
to the election of grace." The implications of this for history and
for your faith and prayer and faithful obedience and evangelism and
love are huge. So Paul lingers here for a moment and clarifies.
Let's read verses 5 and 6 together: "So too at the present time
there is a remnant, chosen by grace (according to the election of
grace). 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of
works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." Paul is jealous
for us to make the election depend absolutely on grace, not
works.

The Contrast Is Not Works vs. Faith, But Works vs. Grace

Let's clear away immediately a misunderstanding. Paul does not
contrast works and faith in this text, as he does elsewhere (e.g.,
Romans 3:28; 9:32). There is no mention of faith here at all. So
the point is not that works are things we do to earn God's
favor and faith is something we do that receives
God's favor. That's true in many texts in Paul. But that's not the
point here.

What Paul contrasts here is works and grace, not works
and faith. Verse 6: "If it is by grace, it is no longer on
the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be
grace." So the contrast is not between two kinds of human activity:
faith and works. The contrast is between divine activity (grace)
and human activity (works). The point is that if election is based
on anything we do, it is not longer grace. If we provide the
decisive act in causing our election, it is no longer an "election
of grace."

Just think of it for moment: What meaning could it have for
election (not the subsequent acts of salvation but the very first
act
of election in eternity) to be gracious if it depended on our
decisive initiative? If God watches (even ahead of time in eternity
with his foreknowledge) and waits, as it were, for us to act, and
then in response to that self-generated act, he chooses us, then we
are not "chosen by divine grace"; we are chosen by a decisive human
act. God would simply be a responder. We would determine his
action. And grace would no longer be grace.

The Parallel Between Romans 9:11-12 and Romans 11:5-6

Just to confirm that we are tracking with God's mind here, look
back with me at the very close parallel text in Romans 9:11-12.
It's describing the freedom of God in election as he chooses Jacob
over Esau before they were born: "Though they were not yet born and
had done nothing either good or bad - in order that God's purpose
of election might continue, not because of works
but because of his call [literally: because of him who calls] - she
was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'"

You can see the parallels with Romans 11:5-6. Again Paul
mentions human "works," but again the contrast is not with faith,
but with God's divine calling of Jacob over Esau. And the reason
for calling Jacob before they were born or had done anything good
or evil is so that God's purpose according to election might stand.
Election would not be free if it were based on what Jacob did. And
grace would no longer be grace.

This means that grace is free, or it is not grace. The spring of grace is God's electing initiative, not
God's response.

Bottom line: How can Paul be sure that God will have a faithful
remnant in every generation? How can he be sure that God will
finally bring all Israel to himself? The answer of verse 5 is this:
God acts "according to the election of grace" (v. 5). God freely -
by grace - saves a people of his own choosing and creates a
remnant. He can cause seven thousand not to bow the knee to Baal,
or seven million to believe in Jesus Christ. And no one's
personhood, no one's accountability, is undermined.

The main point is this: God has not rejected his people, and
no rejection of theirs can stop God from saving a remnant or saving
a nation when he chooses to remove the hardness.

Six Implications

I close with six implications for your life.

1. Be Humbled

Learn that you were saved by grace and be humbled. You
were dead in sin, blind, rebellious. And then, by grace alone, you
were awakened to the beauty of Christ crucified for sinners. And,
by grace alone, you believed.

When you stand before God at the last day and give an account
for why you are there and others not - why you believed and then
didn't - you will not say, "I guess I was wiser, more spiritual,
smarter." With tears streaming down your face, and with trembling
in your voice, you will say, "Thank you" (Romans 6:17).

Would it not be a beautiful church where everyone's pride was
broken and we all knew that we deserve nothing good, so that every
trouble would be received without grumbling and every pleasure
would be received with amazed gratitude for grace? Believe me, if
you take this theology of grace and cultivate any other atmosphere,
you do not yet know God as you ought.

2. Pray for Hardened Unbelievers

Since God's grace can take for himself any one he chooses,
therefore pray with boldness and confidence that God is
able to save the most hardened unbeliever you love - Gentile or
Jew.

Sovereign grace is a great incentive to pray with hope for
hardened people. If God must wait for the initiative of the lost -
if God must wait for the blind to see and the deaf to hear and
spiritual corpses to raise themselves the dead - then you may as
well hang up the telephone to heaven.

But if God is able to raise the dead, give sight to the blind,
cause the deaf to hear, and grant repentance to those taken captive
by the devil (2 Timothy 2:24-26), then you may ask him and believe
that he will work the wonders of salvation.

3. Share the Gospel with Everyone

Since God's grace can take for himself anyone he chooses,
therefore share the gospel with everyone, and trust the power of
God to triumph over all obstacles. Tell the good news of salvation
to the most unlikely sinner. For God saves by sovereign grace and
is no respecter of persons. If he kept for himself seven thousand
in the days of Baal worship, he can keep as many as he please from
among those who worship money.

4. Take Risks with Your Money and Your Life

Since God's grace keeps us from falling and preserves us "for
himself," and nothing can separate us form his love. Therefore,
Christian, take risks with your money and your life for the sake of
the poor and the perishing. You cannot lose. "Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" (Romans
8:38). No. Nothing. Sovereign grace chose us. Sovereign grace
called us. Sovereign grace keeps us. So take risks with your life
for the sake of the poor and the perishing. This is why God makes
you secure. So you can show where Treasure and Security is.

5. Exult in the Lord of Grace

Exult in the Lord of grace! Worship the Lord of grace. Love the
Lord of grace. Be happy in the Lord of grace. Let grace be grace -
for your joy and his glory. Wake up in the morning and remember:
saved by grace, thank you God! Go to work and remember: saved by
grace, thank you God! Come home and remember: saved by grace, thank
you Father! Do a good deed for someone and remember: saved by
grace, thank you Jesus! Exult in the God of grace. Let your heart
overflow with praise and thanks to him. Let him who boasts, boast
in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17).

6. Do Not Say, "I May Not Be Chosen"

Finally, a word to you who are not yet believing - not yet
saved. Listen carefully and may God speak this word into your own
soul: Do not say, "I may not be chosen." Rather say, "Since all
God's choosing is by grace, there is absolutely no reason to think
I am excluded."

May you hear the Lord Jesus calling: "Come to me, all who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).