Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P39 (02-05-20)
Synopsis
What is the conclusion drawn in Romans 9, as Paul addresses both the Jew and the Gentile? It is about appealing to men to come to Christ by faith and faith alone. Do you want to be proud of heart, like the Jew, or do you want to be humble, like the Gentile, who believed the message Paul preached? Do you want God’s mercy? Do you want to receive God’s grace? If you are in Christ, you already have His grace. If you are still alive, it is His mercy that He already took your sins away, and He is long-suffering and patient with you, waiting for you to come to Him to receive new life.
The proud of heart will not come to Christ to receive life? Why not? They would rather trust their religion, how good they are, or rather they think they are, in observing the law. They would rather be a Jew than a Christian, to be more proud of their heritage than becoming a child of God. Others will not come to Christ for fear their deeds will be exposed. The problem is you are dead, and you will remain dead unless you come to Christ to have life. Do you want His life?
God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud. As Bob explains it, the same sun that melts wax also hardens clay. The same Son that melts humble hearts also hardens the proud heart. Do you recognize you are a sinner, and see your need, that you are in need of God’s mercy and grace? Christ Jesus died to take away your sins. With sin already taken away, paid for in full at the cross, Jesus rose again to offer you eternal life. If you see your need, God is right there, knocking on the door of your heart, waiting for you to ask Him to come in. God does not delight in the death of the wicked but that they should turn and live.
God will not force anyone to come to Him to receive life. If you do not want it, then you remain dead in your trespasses and sins, and will ultimately end up in a place called hell, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, where the fire never goes out. The choice is yours. God has done everything to provide eternal life for you. You can receive that offer of eternal life as a gift or perish.
Transcript
When you are talking about predestination, election and choosing, you are talking about Jew and Gentile. Look at the book of Ephesians. He addresses that more fully there.
Ephesians 1:3-6
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
In the book of Ephesians, you are going to see, back and forth, Jew and Gentile. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians 2:11-17
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands) – 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Where I read where we were predestined to be adopted as his sons, and when you listen to the teaching on that, I am pointing out that this is to the Jew. Adopted as his son is to the Jew. The reason for it is, just as we read over there, as we will now go back to Romans 9. Theirs is the adoption as sons. The Jews were the adoption as sons.
Romans 9:4-5
Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.6 It is not as though God’s word had failed.
You have people today saying that it is God’s will that everybody is saved, and so everybody is saved. Well, that is nonsensical teaching that all people are saved. Otherwise, why would Paul say he wished he would be cut off for the sake of his people Israel? I do not understand how person gets his mind so messed up to teach that, but they are doing it. It shows us how easily we can be deceived. Folks, this is the reason that for the years that we have been in this ministry, over 25 years, that I have never varied from the foundation of Christ Jesus. I have taught you foundational truths for all of these years without wavering because if your foundation is off, your house is going to fall down.
If your foundation gets off just a little bit, you will fall for every hair-brained idea that comes out. People are not convinced of the foundations and, therefore, off they go. If people are going off in every direction, People who say they understand grace, go off in all directions. You will not believe the things people come up with that we have trained. Now hopefully, the word of God has not failed? It is not the word of God. It is us. That is what he is saying here.
Do not blame the word of God. Do not blame God on this. He knows what He is talking about. But you do not know what He is talking about. The reasons people do not understand what God is talking about is because they do not depend on the Holy Spirit of God to reveal it to them. Unless God reveals the meaning of the word of God, we will not know the meaning of the word of God. That is why people get off in Yazoo land. Every year people come up with a new hobby horse. I thought we were off a hobby horse until you hear the prayer of Jabez. What in the world is the prayer of Jabez? Yet you got people broadened by horizons. Big deal. Was that to you? That was not to you. That is what goes on with people. We go off in all kinds of hair-brained ideas. Our foundation is not solid. We must have and remain on a solid foundation and there is no foundation except who? Christ. I hope as long as I have breathe to teach, I will never get off this foundation. It is not the word of God that has failed. It is us.
Romans 9:6
For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
Not all people who are from Israel are Israel.
Romans 9:7
7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children.
Even though he was the father of both the Jew and who else? The Gentile. Through Ishmael? Through Isaac or Jacob?
Romans 9:7
On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
Your offspring will not be reckoned through Ishmael but only through the child of promise. Who is the child of promise? Isaac, not Ishmael. They took matters in their own hands. I am sure that did not bother Abraham too much. But Sarah suggested it. Hagar probably looked pretty good. So they went on their own, in the energy of their flesh, and had Ishmael, did they not? Not a child of promise. Isaac was a child of promise. So the world will be reckoned through Isaac.
Romans 9:8
8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
In other words, you are not saved because you are a Jew. You are not saved because you are a Gentile. You are saved because you became a child of the living God. That is your identity. That is who you are, a child of the living God.
Romans 9:9
9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
I want us to go back to chapter 4. The reason I am doing this is as a reminder. This is merely a reminder. After you go from chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 you get off what this is all about. You see, chapter 9 is to state to the Jew and the Gentile that salvation is going to come through faith and faith alone. It is not going to come because Abraham is your father, that because he is the father of the Jew, whose leadership at least worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Arab world, who ultimately went into the Mohammad religion. Now, he explains this in chapter 4.
Romans 4:1-3
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about – but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.
When you work you do not say, “Here, I will give you your paycheck as a gift”. You earned it, haven’t you? There is an obligation of an employer that you make a deal with the employee to work, and he works, and you made a deal to pay him for the work, so that is an obligation that you pay him.
Romans 4:5
5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
The only way you will be declared righteous in the sight of God is by faith in Christ Jesus.
Romans 4:6-8
6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:7 “Blessed are those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”
I would say that man is blessed.
Romans 4:9-10
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised [Jews], or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before?
So you get into this works deal. Wait a minute. Let me ask you a question. Was it after he was circumcised, or before?
Romans 4:10-11
It was not after, but before! 11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all [Jew and Gentile] who believe but have not been circumcised,
Once again, what took place in the early days, Gentile Christians got saved. The Jews thought they had all the information, and immediately the Judaizers would go into those cities where Paul went to proclaim the good news of the gospel, and tried to put them back under Jewish law. They were told that unless you Gentiles are circumcised, you cannot be saved. Paul is addressing this issue.
Romans 4:11-12
in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
So you are talking about salvation, through Abraham, that was by faith and faith alone.
Romans 4:13
13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
Salvation was not through the law. Moses was not here yet. The law had not even been given yet.
Romans 4:14
14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless,
If you are living under the law, Paul says you are under a curse. How many religions keep you under a law to the point that if you ever walked away from it, you would be fearful of losing your life. That is bondage, folks.
Romans 4:15
15 because the law brings wrath.
If you want to be under law, then if you do, then you will be under a curse. Can you separate law from the punishment of the law, folks? If you had a traffic sign to drive 35 miles per hour, and you were driving 65 miles per hour, and a policeman pulled you over, and said “Hey, you drove 65 but there is no ticket for it”. You would say, “Thank you, officer. Now, get out of the way so I can get home a little faster than normal”. But if there is a ticket, and there is a punishment, then the law has a meaning. If there is no punishment, then the law has no meaning. Are we right or wrong?
So if you are living by the law, faith does not have any value to you, and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath.
Romans 4:15-25
And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring [Jew and Gentile alike] – not only to those who are of the law [Jew] but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him”were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Back to chapter 9. He is talking in chapter 9 that all of us that because we are descendants of Abraham, that we are not all children of God. It is only the children of promise.
Romans 9:7-9
7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
Now, we continue.
Romans 9:10
10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.
Abraham and Sarah had Isaac. Rebekah and Isaac had twins.
Romans 9:11-13
11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad – in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls – she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Let us go back to Genesis 25.
Genesis 25:19-22
19 This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.Abraham became the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
This is the issue, a Jew and Gentle thing, that we have to keep in mind as it relates to this predestination and election. God told her that there are two nations in her womb. What are the two nations? Jew and Gentile. Two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other. The older will serve the younger.
Genesis 25:23-30
23 The Lord said to her,“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
Jacob was crafty.
Genesis 25:31-34
31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.
What did God hate about Esau? Because he despised his birthright. It did not mean anything to him. “I just want some soup. I am hungry.” That is why in Malachi, it says that God about the fact that God loved Jacob but hated Esau. He did not hate Esau. He hated the Esau that was willing to sell his birthright for a cup of soup. One was the son of promise. Jacob was going to be the perpetuation of salvation by faith. Esau was saying, “Who cares about that stuff? I am going my own way.”
Malachi 1:2-4
2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.“But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.”
But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.
Romans 9:14-15
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 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.”[Exodus 33:19];
Who does He have mercy toward? The ones who need mercy. Who does He have compassion on? The ones who need compassion. Folks, the same sun that melts wax hardens clay. The identical sun. It is not the fault of the sun. It the recipient. If your heart is made up of wax, the sun will melt it. If your heart is as hard as clay, the sun will harden it. So when it talks about God hardened a heart, it is like saying the sun hardened the clay. But the same sun also melted the wax. So it depends on whose heart the sun is falling on.
Romans 9:16
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
God’s mercy says “I will save the humble, and I will resist the proud”. “I will show mercy to the humble but I will resist the proud”. “I will give salvation to the humble but I will resist the proud heart that says, ‘I don’t need Jesus’”. The proud heart says, “I will get there through my religion”. “I am going to be good”. God says, “the heck you are”. The proud hard rejects what God did when He sent His son.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Those who do not believe will perish. That is the proud heart, “I do not want to give up my religion”. Fine then. You will die in hell. It does not depend on man’s desire but on God’s mercy.
Romans 9:17-33
17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose,
You were born. God is saying, “I saw your heart. I raised you up for this very purpose.”
Romans 9:17-18
that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[Exodus 9:16] 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
Again, the sun will melt the wax and harden the clay. “I will give grace to the humble and I will ignore the proud. Is that God’s choice to do that? Is it God’s will to do that? Is it okay to do that?
Romans 9:19-33
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
Again, that could also apply to the Jew and the Gentile.
Romans 9:19-33
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath – prepared for destruction?
Again, I think you are dealing there with the Gentile.
Romans 9:23-26
23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy [to the Jew], whom he prepared in advance for glory – 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea:“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”[Hosea 2:23]26 and,
“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”[Hosea 1:10]
Some people would rather be Jews than Christians. They are not satisfied with being a child of God. This whole book is dealing with that there is no big deal about being a Jew, and no deal about being a Gentile. What the big deal is, is being a child of God. Your natural birth does not mean a thing to Me. What means something to Me is your spiritual birth. And to those alone are children of God. It does not matter whether you were born in Germany or Russia, you are a child of God, you who believed.
Romans 9:27-30
27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
28 For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”[Isaiah 10:22,23]29 It is just as Isaiah said previously:
“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”[Isaiah 1:9]30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles,
This is the conclusion of all this.
Romans 9:30-31
who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.
Yes, you got it. Why is that so?
Romans 9:32-33
32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”[Isaiah 8:14; 28:16]
