(# 341) Romans 9 - Satan Confuses Things That Just Aren’t Confusing
Welcome To BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Turn off your electronic devices and put them away…they are not welcome here. Let this be a place where you aren’t distracted by the world.
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. Our God is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Creator of the Universe and all things in it, including us creatures. John, Chapter 1, Verse 3 says…
JOHN 1:3 All things came into being through the Lord…God the Son, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Satan Confuses Things That Just Aren’t Confusing
Second Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 3 says…
SECOND CORINTHIANS 11:3 But I (Paul) am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
Some things just aren’t confusing. Some people just aren’t confusing. God is one of those Beings who just isn’t confusing. But God has an enemy, Satan, who seeks to confuse everything that is holy…and the truth of the Word of God is one of those holy things that Satan distorts. First Corinthians, Chapter 14, Verse 33 says…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 14:33 …for God is not a God of confusion…but He is a God of peace (rather than disorder)…(and it is His way to produce the fruit of the Spirit) in all the churches of the saints.
So if it is confusing, it probably isn’t from God. There is an easy example. Luke, Chapter 18, Verses 24 and 25…
LUKE 18:24 And Jesus looked at the ruler (a wealthy man) and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”
LUKE 18:25 “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a (sewing) needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
The Lord Jesus Christ has a simple message here. Those who are wealthy often spend so much time acquiring wealth that they don’t have time for God. Often, riches cloud a person’s mind about what is important in life, and for those pursuing wealth, the development of a relationship with God is pushed to the back burner. Jesus would ask you to make this simple assessment, “Is it true in your soul that I am in second place?” You can answer honestly. Yes or No. If the answer is yes, change it!
Satan uses these verses to start an emotional battle in your soul. “God doesn’t want you to be rich. Being rich is evil. Money is evil. You should sell everything you have and give it to the poor. You should put aside any thoughts of ambition or worldly things like wealth.” By sowing the seeds of doubt about this simple message from God’s Word, Satan confuses something that just isn’t confusing. Just because you are wealthy doesn’t mean you can’t hold the simultaneous thought that the Lord Jesus Christ is number one in your life. Just because you are wealthy doesn’t mean you can’t use part of your time to develop your relationship with God. You simply have to decide how much wealth is enough. You simply have to devote part of your time to your relationship with the Lord. Once you do, the confusion is over.
As we move to a study of the third and fourth passages of Romans, Chapter 9, we’ll see some of the ways Satan seeks to confuse a simple idea about God’s Sovereignty. Welcome to a place where the Word of God changes confusion into clarity.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
INDESCRIBABLE Chris Tomlin
Being clear is a gift from our God. A relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is a gift from God. The opening song for this lesson describes this gift perfectly…it is INDESCRIBABLE…a song sung by Chris Tomlin.
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 the indescribable gift…the gift of a relationship with Your resurrected Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that offers each of us the resurrection life…eternal life. We deserved to die for our sins that put a barrier between us and a relationship with You…but You sacrificed Your Son…sending Him to die so we wouldn’t have to…to tear down the barrier of the dividing wall and the remove the ordinances against us…
Help us to see the simplicity of what You did for us…remove all the confusion from our souls…let Your clarity of thought permeate our every action…let our lives be a reflection of the simplicity and purity of devotion to You and to Christ, our Messiah…
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 to continue the work of this ministry…please welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.
OFFERING VERSE
FIRST JOHN 3:18-19 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but let us love in deed and in truth.//We will know by this love that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before God…
OFFERING FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE Dave McClure, Instrumental
Let your love be action oriented!
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Satan Confuses Things That Just Aren’t Confusing
What are you confused about in the matter of God? God has a simple answer for all your confusion. That’s why we study the Word of God. We continue our study of Romans, Chapter 9…let’s look at and hear the next two passages…first, 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? 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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
ROMANS 9:17 For in the Scripture God 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 God has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
…next, Romans, Chapter 9, Verses 19 to 21…
PASSAGE 4
ROMANS 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does God still find fault? For who resists His will?”
ROMANS 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
ROMANS 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
These two passages combine to deliver a simple message. Let’s remember the message of First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22a For (all those) in (union with) Adam (at physical birth…and that is EVERYONE…are set to) die (the second death in the Lake of Fire)…
The simple truth is that we ALL deserve to die.
Because we are born with Adam’s sin imputed to us by God…because all of us commit personal sins…and because God can have nothing to do with sin…we all deserve to die to pay for our own sins. We all deserve to be at the wrong end of the wrath of God the Father. It’s pretty simple!
The simple message of this passage, however, is that even though He has a right to, because He is the Sovereign God of the universe, God never gives us what we deserve. We deserve to die and He doesn’t let us…Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 8…
ROMANS 5:8 But God the Father demonstrates His own unconditional love toward all mankind, in that while we were yet sinners (as unrighteous, ungodly unbelievers), Christ died instead of us.
First Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 24…
FIRST PETER 2:24 …and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself bore our sins in His own body on the Cross, so that we might die to the sovereignty of sin and so that we might live to absolute righteousness…for by the Lord’s wounds you were healed (once and for all time).
Instead, God extends His mercy to us. Who is us? WHOSOEVER! John, Chapter 3, Verse 16 says…
JOHN 3:16 “For God the Father loved the world unconditionally, and He loved the world SO MUCH, that He gave His uniquely born Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall not perish, but instead shall have eternal life from God.”
God doesn’t have to elect anyone to the privilege of salvation, yet He does. He shows mercy to ALL sinners…some accept the mercy…some refuse it. Yet God’s mercy is available to WHOSOEVER. Let’s take a music break and we’ll see some of the way Satan distorts these simple passages. On your break, reflect on the words of this song, and remember what it is like when you remember that God is holding you in His all-powerful hands.
MUSIC BREAK JUST BE HELD Casting Crowns
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Satan Confuses Things That Just Aren’t Confusing
Welcome back! 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? May it never be!
Satan says… “Of course God is unfair! I would hope that God would have a heart…the He would be a little bit sentimental…you have a friend who is a really good person…and you’re telling me God won’t save your friend just your friend never believed in Him? I mean… what if your friend didn’t know about Jesus? I just don’t want to believe that…I mean how can a loving God cast one of His creatures into the Lake of Fire?”
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.”
Satan says… “Yep…God chooses some people to be saved and God chooses some people to go to hell. There’s no way to win God’s game!”
ROMANS 9:16 So then election does not depend on the man who wills (on man’s desires) or the man who runs (on man’s efforts), but (election depends) on God who has mercy.
Satan says… “See? God supposed to be “all-merciful,” but He chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, and then He won’t even let you work to change His mind. God’s pretty rigid, don’t you think?”
ROMANS 9:17 For in the Scripture God says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”
Satan says… “See? God uses people. Everything with God is a hidden agenda. I mean what did Pharaoh do wrong? What did Judas Iscariot do wrong, for that matter? God just created those guys to make an example of them. That doesn’t seem fair does it?”
ROMANS 9:18 So then God has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
Satan says… “Yep! Just like I said…God is arbitrary. He plays favorites! Why would e harden someone’s heart and then blame them for what they did. God is a tyrant, and YOU are not one of His favorites.”
ROMANS 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does God still find fault? For who resists His will?”
Satan says… “If God makes all the choices, how can He hold man responsible? Who can go against what He wants? You can’t fight city hall!”
ROMANS 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
Satan says…“I see…God ‘claims’ He wants to hear our opinions…He ‘says’ he wants our input, but the truth is that He just going to do what He wants to do no matter what!”
ROMANS 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
Satan says… “Yes! I’m a ‘possession of God.’ Sounds like I’m more of a slave!” Satan ALWAYS confuses things that just aren’t confusing. When someone doesn’t trust you, they doubt every one of your motives. You can never win with them. People who don’t trust you misinterpret everything you do. The Word of God contradicts Satan’s lies.
God is fair. Deuteronomy, Chapter 32, Verse 4, the first part…
DEUTERONOMY 32:4a “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just…”
God is righteous…free from sin…Deuteronomy, Chapter 32, Verse 4, the second part…
DEUTERONOMY 32:4b …a God of faithfulness and without injustice…righteous and upright is He.
God is not partial…Acts, Chapter 10, Verse 34…
ACT 10:34 Opening his mouth, the apostle Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality…”
God does not harden our hearts. We harden our own hearts through personal sinning, and GOD GIVES US OVER so that we can test whether or not our sinful choices are best for us. Romans, Chapter 1, Verses 21 to 25…
ROMANS 1:21 For even though unbelievers knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
ROMANS 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools…
ROMANS 1:23 ….and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
ROMANS 1:24 Therefore GOD GAVE THEM OVER in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
ROMANS 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Satan ALWAYS confuses things that just aren’t confusing.
Who are you listening to? Without the Word of God in your soul to counteract Satan’s lies, you’re confused.
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 TRUST HIS HEART June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
THANKS - INTERCESSION - PETITION
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