"Do you not know what the Scripture says in Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone have been left, and they are seeking my life"?
But what was the divine answer spoken to him? “I have left to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
So then also, in the present time, there has been a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, it is no longer from works; otherwise grace no longer would be grace."
Whenever God makes a direct utterance from Heaven it is very important to write that down, as The Hebrews of Old were very religious about. In the passage above from Romans 11, Paul is explaining 1 Kings 19:14-18 where Elijah, the chief representative of The Prophets (c.f. The Mount of Transfiguration) gets the revelation necessary to sustain Him directly from God on Mount Horeb where God had spoken to the chief representative of The Law, Moses, previously.
I always like to point out that God said He had chosen not 6,999 or 7,001, but exactly 7,000 who had not bowed. This is Testament what the New unpacks regarding the doctrine of predestination and election based on this passage in Romans Chapters 9, 10 and 11, "Jacob have I loved and Esau I have hated" and "I will have mercy on whom I shall have mercy" to put the meat on the bones of something that is very hard for people to believe, though The Bible clearly teaches it plain as day.
Talk about swimming against the current or being one of the few in a room of one thousand that believes Scripture is Scripture regarding God's own statements about Himself... Yet it is actually God who grants even the grace to believe His revelations in Scripture, even to believe at all, "A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14).
Yes, we have to believe ourselves, but without this "opening of the heart so that we can respond," we can't do this... Do you remember why Jesus spoke in parables, Matthew 13:13, Mark 4:12 and the huge commentary in John 12 from John the Beloved on the Miracles of Jesus, "37Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him. 38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says: 40“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
If we have anything good in ourselves it is from God Himself.
"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Cor 15:10)...
"We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19)... Not only that, we could say, "We think because God gave us a brain," and, "We breath because God first gave us life," and, We believe in the Gospel of Jesus because God planned it, Jesus obeyed it, The Holy Spirit empowered Him to die a sinless death, He was raised to life the 3rd day by the operation of God working in the Trinity (The Father raised Him, The Spirit quickened Him to Life, Jesus raised and rebuilt His own Temple of His Body as He prophesied), He anointed and preserved the Gospel, gave someone the ability to speak and preach, gave us physical ears to hear it, and as it correctly states in Scripture, "opened our hearts to be able to respond" (Acts 16:14), and then we do our tiny but necessary part, which is God's will, that we believe.
Let's not worship our freewill but God the Creator of Heaven and Earth who did an awful lot more than we did in laying the groundwork necessary for us to have something to believe in. Laying down our lives as living sacrifices is our only reasonable response (Romans 12:1-3).
1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
"May God "open our minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45), in Jesus' Name, Amen.
But what was the divine answer spoken to him? “I have left to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
So then also, in the present time, there has been a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, it is no longer from works; otherwise grace no longer would be grace."
Whenever God makes a direct utterance from Heaven it is very important to write that down, as The Hebrews of Old were very religious about. In the passage above from Romans 11, Paul is explaining 1 Kings 19:14-18 where Elijah, the chief representative of The Prophets (c.f. The Mount of Transfiguration) gets the revelation necessary to sustain Him directly from God on Mount Horeb where God had spoken to the chief representative of The Law, Moses, previously.
I always like to point out that God said He had chosen not 6,999 or 7,001, but exactly 7,000 who had not bowed. This is Testament what the New unpacks regarding the doctrine of predestination and election based on this passage in Romans Chapters 9, 10 and 11, "Jacob have I loved and Esau I have hated" and "I will have mercy on whom I shall have mercy" to put the meat on the bones of something that is very hard for people to believe, though The Bible clearly teaches it plain as day.
Talk about swimming against the current or being one of the few in a room of one thousand that believes Scripture is Scripture regarding God's own statements about Himself... Yet it is actually God who grants even the grace to believe His revelations in Scripture, even to believe at all, "A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14).
Yes, we have to believe ourselves, but without this "opening of the heart so that we can respond," we can't do this... Do you remember why Jesus spoke in parables, Matthew 13:13, Mark 4:12 and the huge commentary in John 12 from John the Beloved on the Miracles of Jesus, "37Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him. 38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says: 40“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
If we have anything good in ourselves it is from God Himself.
"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Cor 15:10)...
"We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19)... Not only that, we could say, "We think because God gave us a brain," and, "We breath because God first gave us life," and, We believe in the Gospel of Jesus because God planned it, Jesus obeyed it, The Holy Spirit empowered Him to die a sinless death, He was raised to life the 3rd day by the operation of God working in the Trinity (The Father raised Him, The Spirit quickened Him to Life, Jesus raised and rebuilt His own Temple of His Body as He prophesied), He anointed and preserved the Gospel, gave someone the ability to speak and preach, gave us physical ears to hear it, and as it correctly states in Scripture, "opened our hearts to be able to respond" (Acts 16:14), and then we do our tiny but necessary part, which is God's will, that we believe.
Let's not worship our freewill but God the Creator of Heaven and Earth who did an awful lot more than we did in laying the groundwork necessary for us to have something to believe in. Laying down our lives as living sacrifices is our only reasonable response (Romans 12:1-3).
1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
3For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
"May God "open our minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45), in Jesus' Name, Amen.
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