(# 321) Romans 9 - God Can Do Whatever He Wills To Do

Class Outline:

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Welcome To

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.  Barah Ministries teaches the Word of God from God’s perspective and not from the human perspective.  The bible is God’s perspective.  First Peter, Chapter 1, Verses 20 and 21 say this… 

 

FIRST PETER 1:20

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own private interpretation…

 

FIRST PETER 1:21

…for no prophecy of Scripture was ever made by an act of human will…but men carried along by God the Holy Spirit spoke from the exact thinking of THE God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ is our God.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

God Can Do Whatever He Wills To Do

 

God is Sovereign.

 

The first four words of the bible, Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 1, tell us so…

 

GENESIS 1:1

In the beginning (not a beginning), God…

 

God has always existed.  Imagine with me a trip back to that time…God was there with no one other than Himself…the Father…the Son…the Holy Spirit…all three members of the Trinity were there with “all knowing” omniscient thoughts…all there with all the power…omnipotence…all of one mind…all able to do anything in their will to do…there with the idea of

creating a universe…and in the universe, creating angelic creatures…and then later creating planets…and one planet would be called earth…and on planet earth, creatures...true humanity…human beings.

 

And in omniscience imagining a single path for angelic and human creatures to walk…and the path could be compared to a bowling alley…and our souls could be compared to a bowling ball…and God the Son reached into the basket and pulled out a soul and rolled it down the alley.  Each soul quickly gravitated to the gutter, as He knew each soul would…so He put a magnetic force on the bowling alley designed to pull the souls from the gutter back to the bowling alley.  The magnetic pull was an invitation…a reconciliation offer…a gospel message...a divine call.  Some souls responded to the pull and came back onto the alley.  Some souls resisted the pull and stayed in the gutter.  Before the Lord took each soul into His hands, to roll it down the alley…He knew the ones that would come back to the alley and the ones that would not…and those that came back to the alley would be His…and for them He offered a set of privileges that would stagger the imagination… including the gift of election and the gift of predestination.  And the Lord could do this because He is God…because He is the Creator… because He is the Sovereign One of the universe who has the ability to do all He wills to do…and He wills to do all that is in His good pleasure.

 

In Romans, Chapter 4, Verses 19 to 21, Abraham reflects on God’s Sovereign ability…

 

ROMANS 4:19

Without becoming weak in faith, Abraham contemplated his own body, now as good as sexually dead since he was about a hundred years old, and Abraham contemplated the deadness of Sarah’s womb…

 

Sarah was unable to bear a child…Abraham was unable to father a child…but then, the intervention of God’s Sovereign will…

 

ROMANS 4:20

…yet, with respect to the promise of God, Abraham did not waver in unbelief but instead grew strong in faith, giving glory to God…

 

ROMANS 4:21

…and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

 

Abraham knew what all of us know deep down inside, because God has written this truth on our hearts…God can do whatever He wills to do.  Why does God do whatever He wills?  Because He can!  Welcome to a place where you can learn about the One and only Sovereign God of the universe…the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

I WILL

June Murphy

 

The opening song for this lesson is I WILL sung by June Murphy.

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Father, thank you for being a God who can do whatever He wills…and thank you for being full of wisdom as well…for as your enemy, Satan, taught us…will can abuse wisdom…in You we see the perfect use of will and wisdom to accomplish goodness…thank you for Your goodness…

 

Inspire us with Your Word today so that we might do the same things… let Your words fill us with wisdom so that we can use our will in obedience to You…

 

We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...

Amen.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

Let’s begin this lesson by giving you a chance to make an offering…we

need and we value your financial support…please welcome up Deacon

Denny Goodall with the offering message.

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 7:35

This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.

 

OFFERING

FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

Dave McClure, Instrumental

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

God Can Do Whatever He Wills To Do

 

A quote from the movie, “Dead Poets Society” …

 

DEAD POETS SOCIETY QUOTE

 

“Believe it or not…one day, each one of us in this room is going to stop breathing…turn cold…and die.”

 

The lesson we learn from this is that we are not God.  It is God’s will that this happen…we simply adjust to His will.  God’s Sovereignty is in view as we move to the second passage of Romans, Chapter 9, a passage that extends from Verses 6 to 13.  Let’s start with Verse 1 to remind us where we have been, and then let’s hear verses 6 to 13 to see where we are going…

 

ROMANS, CHAPTER 9 - PASSAGE 1

 

ROMANS 9:1

I (Paul) am telling you the truth…I am in union with Christ on this…I am not lying to you…my conscience testifies along with me…I am filled with God the Holy Spirit and His enabling power in this matter…

 

ROMANS 9:2

…and I tell you that I keep on having great and sorrow and an incessant, haunting grief in my heart (I am heartbroken).

 

ROMANS 9:3

For if I (Paul) could, I would wish that I myself were accursed (made an anathema by God…sent to the Lake of Fire as a substitute) and separated from (my union with) the Christ (the Messiah), for the sake of my brethren (the Jews who are unbelievers), who are my “kinsmen according to the flesh…”

 

ROMANS 9:4

…my kinsmen who are Israelites…to whom belongs…the adoption as sons…and the glory…and the covenants…and the giving of the Mosaic Law…and the temple service…and the promises…

 

ROMANS 9:5

…my kinsmen who are of the lineage of the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)…and my kinsmen from whose lineage comes the Christ, the One who became flesh (and tabernacled among us)…the Messiah…the One who is Sovereign over all, THE God (Deity), the blessed One…who IS forever. Amen.

 

Now the second passage…

 

CHAPTER 9 - PASSAGE 2

 

ROMANS 9:6

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel…

 

ROMANS 9:7

…nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants…but “through Isaac your descendants will be named.”

 

ROMANS 9:8

That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

 

ROMANS 9:9

For this is the word of promise, “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

 

ROMANS 9:10

And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac…

 

ROMANS 9:11

…for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls…

 

ROMANS 9:12

…it was said to Rebekah, “The older will serve the younger.”

 

ROMANS 9:13

Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

 

God is sovereign…God’s purpose according to His choice will stand…as we begin the study of this passage we need to get our minds around that idea… that God is sovereign…that God is able to do whatever He wills to do…and that nothing has ever happened in the course of divine history without His permission.  Here is what one writer has to say about God’s sovereignty…

 

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind (the mind of an unbeliever) than the truth that God is ABSOLUTELY sovereign.  Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, and rules over everything.

 

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

The carnal mind (the mind of an unbeliever), burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to God’s eternal decrees.  Most of all, “the flesh” hates the notion that salvation is ENTIRELY God’s work.

 

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY

If God chose who would be saved, and if His choice was settled before the foundation of the world, then His believers deserve no credit for their salvation.  That is, after all, precisely what Scripture teaches. Even faith is God’s gracious gift to His elect.

 

Ephesians, Chapter 2, Verses 8 and 9…

 

EPHESIANS 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith…and that grace, that faith, and that salvation is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God…

 

EPHESIANS 2:9

…it is not as a result of your works, so that no one may boast.

 

John, Chapter 6, Verse 65…

 

JOHN 6:65

And the Lord Jesus Christ was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him to come to me from God the Father.”

 

Nothing happens in the matter of salvation without God the Father’s permission and approval…John, Chapter 6, Verse 63…

 

JOHN 6:63a

It is God the Holy Spirit who gives the resurrection life…the flesh contributes nothing…

 

Sovereignty…God chooses…God wills…Ephesians, Chapter 1, Verses 3 and 4…

 

EPHESIANS 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…

 

EPHESIANS 1:4a

…just as He chose us to be in union with Christ before the foundation of the world…

 

Let’s take a quick music break, and then we’ll learn more about our Sovereign God, as we make the transition into the second passage of Romans, Chapter 9.

 

MUSIC BREAK

SAY AMEN

Finding Favour

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

God Can Do Whatever He Wills To Do

 

CHAPTER 9 - PASSAGE 2

 

ROMANS 9:6

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel…

 

ROMANS 9:7

…nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants…but “through Isaac your descendants will be named.”

 

ROMANS 9:8

That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

 

ROMANS 9:9

For this is the word of promise, “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

 

ROMANS 9:10

And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac…

 

ROMANS 9:11

…for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls…

 

ROMANS 9:12

…it was said to Rebekah, “The older will serve the younger.”

 

ROMANS 9:13

Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

As parents we can relate to God’s Sovereignty a little bit…before my children were born, before the foundation of their world, I made a clear decision about their path, yet not from a point of view of omniscience.  I knew the path I wanted them to take but did not know whether they would accept or reject the path.  God knew…and God provided the path in eternity past…and God provided me with just the right souls to teach me what He willed for me.

 

As for each of us, God knows of our decision regarding His path…and those who accept His path are the called ones…the born again ones…the ones who left the gutter for His marvelous light…Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 28 to 30 describe the bowling alley…the path that God chose for all who would accept Him…a path He created before the foundation of the world…

 

ROMANS 8:28

And we know that God the Father causes all things to work together for good to those who love the Father, to those who are called according to His purpose.

 

“Called according to His purpose” … the gravitational pull of the bowling alley for those balls in the gutter that He knew would respond to His call…

 

ROMANS 8:29

For those whom God the Father foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that the Son would be the firstborn among many brethren…

 

ROMANS 8:30

…and these whom God the Father predestined, He also called…and these whom He called…He also justified…and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

 

God is Sovereign.  What is God’s path?  In the matter of all things created, God allows it…decrees it…and calls it into existence because of the kind intention of His will.

 

The word of God has not failed because some Jews have rejected God’s path.  There is a remnant of believers in Christ in Israel, Abraham’s seed, and the Lord will continue to bless them, just as He decided to do, in Sovereignty, in eternity past…and it is the remnant that will receive all the blessings promised to the Jews.  These are among the tings we will learn as we transition to the second passage in Romans, Chapter 9.

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

ROMANS 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God the Father…divine omnipotence…to provide salvation to everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ…to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Gentiles).

 

MATTHEW 7:13

“Enter salvation through the narrow gate (the Lord Jesus Christ)…for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction…and there are many who enter through it.”

 

MATTHEW 7:14

“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to the resurrection life, and there are few who find it.”

 

JOHN 10:9

“I (the Lord Jesus Christ) am the door to salvation…if anyone enters through believing in Me…he will be saved…and then he will go in and out and find pasture.”

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22

For all in union with Adam are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…but all those in union with Christ will live the resurrection life.

 

CLOSING SONG

HOW GREAT THOU ART

June Murphy

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

          THANKS - INTERCESSION - PETITION

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

www.barahministries.com