(# 330) Romans 9 - Thanks Be to God For Not Giving Us What We Deserve

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.  We worship the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We call Him Lord because He is 100% God.  We call Him Jesus Christ because He is 100% true humanity just like you and me.  John, Chapter 1, Verse 14 says…

 

JOHN 1:14

And the Word (the Lord…God the Son) became flesh (Jesus Christ…true humanity), and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the uniquely born One from God the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Thanks Be to God For Not Giving Us What We Deserve

 

Happy Thanksgiving Week! 

 

Thanksgiving is the time we set aside to thank God for His blessings.  The original thanksgiving was to thank God for the harvest…the time of the year when what has been reaped is sewn…a time to gather into barns what has been planted.  The harvest is usually bountiful, and in the character of man, in its very fabric, is always the desire to say thanks for the things that are pleasurable.  Psalm 50, Verses 14 and 15…

 

PSALM 50:14

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High…”

 

PSALM 50:15

“…call upon Me in the day of trouble…I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

 

We know the Lord because of His benefits…this is the time of the year when we acknowledge all that He has done, all that He continues to do on our behalf.  In Psalm 50, Verse 23 the Lord says…

 

PSALM 50:23

 “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me…and to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”

 

We are “ordering our way aright” when we obey the Lord and follow His perfect instruction.  Psalm 100, Verses 4 tells us we are most wise when we…

 

PSALM 100:4

Enter the Lord’s gates with thanksgiving (in our hearts) and enter His courts with praise (on our lips). (When we) Give thanks to Him, and bless His name.

 

First Chronicles, Chapter 16, Verse 34…

 

FIRST CHRONICLES 16:34

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good…for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

 

Just as our Lord’s blessings for us have no end, so must our thanksgiving have no end…so what are the things you are grateful for this Thanksgiving season?

 

As for me, I am grateful that God never gives me what I deserve.  In today’s lesson we’ll see exactly what that means in the continuation of our study of Romans, Chapter 9.  Welcome to a place of thanksgiving where you can sing your praises to our God, 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

 

HE HAS MADE ME GLAD

Maranatha Praise Band

 

As we turn, for a few moments, from the cares of this life to rest in the

Word of God…let’s listen to… HE HAS MADE ME GLAD sung by Maranatha Praise Band.

 

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 is such a simple thing to say…when these words come from our mouths we know they fail to convey the depth of our gratitude toward You.  You alone are the Holy One…You alone are the Lord…You alone are the Most High…You alone are the One who has us in mind all the time…You alone are the One who loves us as we need to be loved… unconditionally…thank you for Your lovingkindnesses, which are numerous and new every morning…

 

In this time of the year when we celebrate the harvest of what You have done for us in the past eleven months, illuminate in our spirits by way of reminder the changes you have made in us…show us what You have meant to us in the development of our character…help us to learn not to judge what You do for us as good or bad…rather to see it as perfect and custom made blessing, whether adversity or prosperity, to shape us into the exact people that You have always planned for us to be…

 

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

Amen.

 

A few announcements…

 

BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

The Next Lord’s Supper Celebration

December 11, 2016

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

NO FACE-TO-FACE TEACHING

December 4, December 25 and January 1

December 4 is next week…no face-to-face teaching and no lesson will be posted…but you can always enjoy listening to past lessons and hearing them with new ears.  In fact, that is something you can do every day with all the past lessons…you can listen to them again so you can hear them in a new way.  What is your favorite lesson of the year?  I’d love to know!

 

PRAYERS

Barah Ministries Prayer Request Group

 

Join me in prayer directed at all the intercessions and all the petitions of the

people visiting the Barah Ministries Prayer Request Group.  Please take time to pray for each other.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

TRACY BIXBY

November 25

 

Thank you for caring for our social media presence!  Come to visit us soon!

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Thanks Be to God For Not Giving Us What We Deserve

 

I wonder if you can answer a few simple questions from your study of Romans 9 so far…

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

 

Has the Lord Abandoned the Jews?

What is the Destiny of the Jews?

How Will the Lord Deal with the Jews?

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

 

Why do the Jews Have to Be Heartbreakers?

What is the Secret Wish of Every Parent?

Why Squander Your Free Gifts?

 

Our twenty-one lessons on the first two passages of Romans, Chapter 9 have sought to illuminate the answers to these and other questions about the nation Israel and about the Jewish Race.  And if we just look at the titles of the other lessons a story unfolds…

 

ROMANS 9 LESSON TITLES

 

The Lord Has Mercy on the Jews

          Obedience Defeats Heartbreak

God’s Gifts to the Jews Are Irrevocable

 

ROMANS 9 LESSON TITLES

 

The Power of the Dependent Life

The Lord’s Best Gift to the Jewish Race Was Himself

Being a Christian is Easy…Just Be a Taker

 

ROMANS 9 LESSON TITLES

 

The Lord’s Specialty is Loving the Unlovable

The Lord is the Source and He is Sovereign to Set the Course

The Sovereign God Has a Response to Your Faith

 

ROMANS 9 LESSON TITLES

 

Thy Will Be Done

God Can Do Whatever He Wills to Do

God’s Sovereignty Honors Our Will

 

ROMANS 9 LESSON TITLES

 

What’s Missing in Marriage?

The Cross is a Reminder That We Have Hope

Religious Privilege Does Not Save…Sovereign Calling Does

 

One of Deacon Denny’s favorite games is to see if he can anticipate the title of the next lesson…today’s lesson is “Thanks Be to God For Not Giving Us What We Deserve.”  So as we make the transition into the third passage of Romans, Chapter 9, let’s remember what we heard and studied in the first two passages…the first passage is Romans, Chapter 9, Verses 1 to 5…

 

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.

 

For those of us who are parents, we can relate to Paul’s heartbreak for unbelieving Israel as a nation and for the unbelieving Jewish Race as a people…we can see the obstinacy of Israel and of the Jewish race in our children.  Our children are determined to take a journey through the desert of selfishness…with a complete obliviousness to instruction and to wisdom… they seem to have a death wish in their swiftness to destroy the foundation that has been installed in them as children.  So it is with the nation Israel and the Jewish race…hell bent on rejecting the laws of God to see if they have a better idea.  The apostle Paul demonstrates the same mercy God has…as his Jewish kinsmen go wandering about in the wilderness of unbelief…and His desire is to sacrifice Himself on their behalf, much like the Lord did in paying for the sin of all mankind…much like parents want to do for their children.

 

The second passage is Romans, Chapter 9, Verses 6 to 13…

 

CHAPTER 9 - PASSAGE 2

 

ROMANS 9:6

But it is not as though the word of God has failed (simply because unbelieving Jews rejected their Messiah). For they are not all Israel (not all spiritual Jews in the eyes of God) who are descended from Israel (as racial Jews)…

 

ROMANS 9:7

…nor are they all children of God (in His eyes) simply because they are Abraham’s descendants…but the Lord says, “Through Isaac (a believer in Christ) your descendants will be named.”

 

ROMANS 9:8

That is, it is not the children…(the born ones) of the flesh…(Ishmael’s seed)…who are children of God, but it is the children (the born ones) of the promise (Abraham’s seed…the born again ones of God that) are regarded (by God) as descendants (of Abraham).

 

ROMANS 9:9

For this is the word of promise made by God to Abram and Sari, “At this time next year 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 sovereign choice would stand, not because of works but because of God the Father who calls (by sovereign right)…

 

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.”

 

To understand God’s sovereignty, we must understand that before we were born, God the Father decided what He would do with all who believed in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ…He would call them…He would elect them…He would prosper them with privileges…and He made these decisions BEFORE WE WERE BORN…before we had done a single thing!  He made promises to us concerning what He was willing to do for His sinful creatures.  It was His Sovereign right and His Sovereign decision to do whatever He willed as the SOURCE…we are merely the RECIPIENTS of His mercy and His grace.  Thanks be to God…for if God had given us what we deserved for sin, He would have had to destroy us!

 

Let’s take a quick music break…and as we transition to the next passage…we’ll find out why God didn’t treat us as we deserve to be treated…and the word that will come to the front is mercy…our God is a merciful God.

 

MUSIC BREAK

HAVE EVERYTHING

David Dunn

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

Thanks to Be God For Not Giving Us What We Deserve

 

Welcome back! 

 

Now the third passage we are transitioning to…Romans, Chapter 9, Verses 14 to 18…

 

PASSAGE 3

 

ROMANS 9:14

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? (In other words, God isn’t unfair is he?)  May it never be!

 

ROMANS 9:15

For the Lord says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

 

ROMANS 9:16

So then it (the election of a nation and a people) does not depend on the man who wills (the one who is trying by choice to earn God’s favor) or the man who runs (the one who is by effort working to deserve God’s favor), but on God who has mercy.

 

ROMANS 9:17

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”

 

ROMANS 9:18

So then the Lord has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

 

Our God is not only a God of sovereignty…He is a God of mercy!  What is mercy?  Here’s a simplistic definition…

 

MERCY

It is extended when God gives us something that is not merited by actions, especially by past actions…it is extended when God does not give us what we deserve to have…instead He gives us what He wants us to have because He has the sovereign right to decide to do things the way He wants to do them.

 

Now let’s combine God’s characteristics of sovereignty and mercy.  As sovereign God, before any of us were even born, the Lord was clear in His own mind how He would handle His creatures.  The Lord would have a plan for His creatures, and as part of that plan He would let our will coexist with His will.

 

For the arrogant unbeliever…those who really don’t know God or understand God…they use God’s sovereignty as an opportunity to blame Him for everything including their fate, which will be an eternity in the Lake of Fire.  The arrogant unbeliever…those who don’t really don’t know God or understand God, will tell you that God, in sovereignty, has decided who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.  They will say He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires…in other words, He is manipulating the outcome of each person’s fate…and we as creatures don’t have a choice in matters that involve Him.

 

If you know God, you would never come to such a conclusion.  You know God loves all of His creatures unconditionally.  You know that God would never want any of His creatures to go to the Lake of Fire, but for all of His creatures to come to repentance…AH!!!!!!!  He wants all of His creatures to turn from evil and instead come back to Him!  The repentant thief of Luke, Chapter 23 is a great example.  I finally get repentance! 

 

If you know God, you know He is a “whosoever” God…ANYONE can be saved AT ANY TIME, as long as the person is living.  You know that God is not unilateral so He would never consider sending you to the Lake of Fire without your permission or even bringing you to heaven without your permission.  Your will is a factor in your fate.

 

If you know God, you know He is not one to break promises…so if He says it, it will happen.

 

So the wise see things this way…the Lord, in sovereignty, has the right and the ability to do whatever He wills.  Yet God is not one-dimensional.  So when you take God’s sovereignty, and then factor in the Lord’s mercy, and our free will, you know that the Lord has decided how things are to be before any of us were born, so that how things will be has nothing to do with us and our actions…and then God responds to our will.  If you are a criminal for life, God gives you over to your decisions, and your sins lead you to death…yet at any time while you are alive, if you repent…you turn away from evil and back to God…He is a God who shows mercy…that while you ought to get what you deserve, He doesn’t let you.  Let’s go back to Romans, Chapter 9, Verse 13…

 

ROMANS 9:13

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

 

Why did God love Jacob?  Jacob represented the nation of God’s choosing…Israel.  Why did God hate Esau?  Esau represented the nation God did not choose…Edom.  This verse had nothing to do with the individuals…rather the nations the individuals represented.  God loved Jacob because He was of the elect nation of God’s sovereign choosing…Israel.  The Lord strongly preferred Israel over Edom.  This did not mean that Edomites were damned, any more than God’s choosing of the Jewish race spelled doom for the Gentiles.  It didn’t.  God simply expressed a preference, the Jewish race over the Gentile race.  Yet God is not partial… and He made an equal opportunity way for the Gentiles to be saved.

 

The Jewish race has turned away from God.  In sovereignty, He allows it.  God gave them over…yet the Lord has made promises to the Jewish race that He will not rescind.  For now, He is allowing the hardening of their hearts toward Him in response to their negative volition…in response to their unbelief.  In the future, when they turn back to Him, when they express faith in Him, when they repent, in mercy, He will welcome them back with open arms. 

 

For the arrogant unbeliever, those who really don’t know God or understand God, they ignore this part of His character.  As for me, a believer in Christ who has faith in Christ, I am ecstatic that God never gives me what I deserve…but instead is a God who has mercy.

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

ACTS 16:30

“…the jailer asked (Paul and Silas), “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

 

ACTS 16:31

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”

 

ROMANS 10:10

…for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

 

SECOND PETER 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise of salvation, as some accuse Him of, but instead He is patient toward you unbelievers, not wishing for any to perish (in the Lake of Fire) but for all to come to repentance (a change of mind about having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ).

 

LUKE 19:10

“For the Son of Man (the Lord Jesus Christ) has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

 

CLOSING SONG

WORD OF GOD SPEAK

June Murphy

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

 

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