Southern Christian University
James A. Turner
A Study of Romans #4
Please read all of the references. They will help you to get a fuller
understanding
“So,
then, brethren, we are not debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh,
for if we live after the flesh, we must die (will die spiritually) but if by the Spirit you put to death the
deeds of the body, ye shall live (Romans 8:13)."
And again, if a child of God does not continue to try to live by
the law of Christ, he is going to die spiritually, even though, he was saved
when he obeyed the gospel. If he doesn't
continue to try to live right, he is going to be back in spiritual death
again. "For if we live after the flesh, ye
must die. But if by the Spirit ye put to death the
deeds of the body, ye shall live (8:13)." The Spirit tells us how to live, through the
word, and if we follow the Spirit and live by the Spirit, ye shall not fulfill
the lust of the flesh. "But if by the Spirit ye put to death the
deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage
again unto fear; but ye received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba
Father. The Spirit himself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." That is a wonderful statement
there. The Spirit himself bears witness,
and Spirit is capitalized, which means that the Holy Spirit bears witness with
our spirit, our mind. "That we are children of God." Well, how does the Spirit bear witness with
out spirit? The Spirit has given the
instruction. It has given the law of
Christ. It has told us what to do to be saved. Our spirit tells us whether or not we have
done as the Spirit has directed us to do; right? Jesus said, “He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” And so our spirit tells us that we have done
that, and so we are saved. The Spirit
tells us, through the word, that when Christians sin and they repent and
confess and ask for forgiveness that we will be forgiven (John 1:8-9).
"So the
Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if
children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."
Now, what kind of a person is a
joint heir? If we are children, then we
are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
Joint heirs receive on the same basis of the other children, which means
that every child of God at the end of the way is going to be as rich and as
glorious as Christ himself! "If children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ." But
notice the condition. "If so be that we suffer with him, that
we may be also glorified with him."
What about that person that when it comes time to “take up his cross and follow me,”
when suffering time comes, he says, no sir, this is not for me. Is he going to be then an heir of God, and
joint‑heirs with Christ? No sir.
II Timothy 3:12
says, "All they that live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Not may, but shall, and we need to keep that
before us all the time, that there are conditions that must be met. When Paul and Barnabas returned to those
churches on the return part of their first journey, they exhorted them that it
would be “through many tribulations
we must inter into the kingdom of God.” They were already in the earthly
kingdom so it means the eternal kingdom. But just think of the strength of that
statement in verse seventeen. "If children, then heirs; then heirs
of God, and joint‑heirs with Christ." Talk about looking for a good long time investment. How can a person invest in a better way than
just to be a faithful child of God?
I like that good song, I believe the title of it is, “I Am A Child Of The
King”. Let me see if I can get part of
it. (Brother Turner begins to sing part
of this song.) "My Father is rich
in houses and land. He holdeth the
wealth of the world in his hand. Of
rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold, his coffers are full, his riches
untold. I'm a child of the king, a child
of the king, with Jesus my Savior; I'm a child of the king. A tent or a cottage, why
should I care? They’re building a
palace for me over there. Though here
I'm a stranger, yet still I may sing all glory to God, I'm a child of the
king. I'm a child of the king, a child
of the king, with Jesus my savior, I'm a child of the
king." Don't you think that is a
meaningful song? I think when we sing
that song, we ought to think of this passage here. But the song itself has got another passage,
but I think this is a better passage for that song. All right, Verse eighteen, "For I reckon that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed to us." Think of
all the things that Paul had suffered, that he tells us about in II Corinthians
eleven, and he wrote this book after that book.
After suffering all of those things, he said the sufferings of this
present time are not even worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be
revealed to us.
Now, we begin with a difficult
passage and one that brethren have disputed about down through the ages. There are two primary views of this passage,
verse nineteen, down through about verse twenty-three. One view is that the creation that he is
talking about here is people. And they
would say that when the Lord gave the great commission as recorded by Mark. He
said, “go ye unto all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” And Colossians 1:23,
that the “gospel had been preached
in all creation under heaven”, meaning it had been carried to all the
people. And that is what they would
reason that it is talking about. The
other primary view is that because of the sin of Adam that all creation, plant
life and animal life, was subjected to that continuous process of life and
death and life and death. And that is
surely the case. And the question is
raised, could that have been the case before the sin of Adam. Well, let's start and read. I do not mind telling you what my view is,
but when it comes to a passage like this, as far as I can see, it does not make
any difference which view you take, because it does not affect your
salvation. And I do not know of any way
that anyone can be absolutely sure in regard to the passage, so I do not think
there is any room for us having what might be called a big argument over a
passage like this. With a passage like
this, if brethren will just let me present my views, and then let the other
brother present his views, I will tell him why I think as I do and we will
still be good friends. And I believe
that is the way it ought to be on a passage like this. But let us read it, verse nineteen
beginning. "For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for
the revealing
of the sons of God." Well,
that would be the Day of Judgment, wouldn't it?
That would be when it will be revealed as to who the true children of
God are. "For
the creation was subjected to vanity, not of it's own
will, but by reason of him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the
glory of the children of God."
Now, I do not mind telling you
that I am inclined to think more of the creation, meaning everything that God
created, all plant life and animal life, that with Adam's fall, God put them in
that same pattern of Adam of returning to the dust of the earth. We do not read of any death until after
Adam's fall, and then God made clothes out of skins for them. In the first chapter, the latter part of
Genesis, God gave them herbs and the fruit of trees to
eat. Genesis 1:29,
"And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth and
every tree, which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed; to you it shall be
for food." And in the Garden
of Eden God planted trees that were good for food, Genesis 2:9, "And
out of the ground made Jehovah to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight
and good for food." Man
could live on that. Think of all the
trees and different kinds of fruits and nuts, man and animals could have a
livelihood just with that. But going
back to verse twenty-nine, "I
have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the
earth, and every tree, which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it
shall be for food. And
to every beast of the earth." Notice nothing is said about one beast eating
another beast. "To every beast of the earth." So God gave the trees yielding seed, and all
the plants yielding seed, to man and to the animals. "To
every beast of the earth, and every bird of the heavens, and to every thing
that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green
herb for food:
And it was so." And
that includes not only man, but everything else that God had created. And I think the Bible strongly indicates that
man did not eat any meat until after the flood.
Chapter nine of Genesis, picking up with verse three, "Every moving thing that liveth shall
be food for you; as the green herb I have given you all. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the
blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
And surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require at the hand of
every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; even at the hand of
every man's brother will I require the life of man." So, see, after the flood, he says as I have
given you every herb, I have given you every living thing, every moving thing
that liveth. Well, that would be
animals, birds, and fish. Now, in regard
to how plants and animals could live on and on?
Well, if God saw fit to make them that way, why could they not live on
and on? And you do not kill a tree by
eating the fruit off the tree, and you do not kill a plant by eating a seed or
whatever comes from the plant. And so if
God made them that way in the beginning, it would be possible. But I do not know that that is the way that
God did it, but I am more inclined to that view rather than the other on the
basis of verse twenty-one. How could the unrighteous be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God? If creation means all mankind, how are the unrighteous going to be delivered? And that is my primary objection to that way
of reasoning that it is just referring to human beings. "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now." Now I think it is true that unbelievers and
believers alike are ‑‑ when all the pains and aches come, why it
would be said of them, they are groaning and travailing in pain to be
delivered. But the pitiful thing about
it is that unbelievers are not going to be delivered into that liberty of the
glory of the children of God. "And not only so, but ourselves also,
who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For in hope were we saved:
But hope that is seen is not hope:
For who hopeth for that which he seeth." We walk by faith and not by sight. We hope for that which we see not. "But
if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it." In Hebrews 6:
18-19 Paul speaks of “hope as being
an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entereth into that which is
in the veil," or into the heaven itself.
"And
in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity." This is a very important passage for all of
us. Whether we can understand verses
nineteen through twenty-three or not, we can understand this. "And
in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:
For we know not how to pray as we ought." There are times when we just do not know how
to begin our prayers; right? "How to pray as we ought:
But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of
God." When we think of this
passage, the Holy Spirit making intercession with groaning which cannot be
uttered, He knows the mind of God. He
makes intercessions for the saints according to the will of God. When we think about Luke
eighteen, where Jesus talked about the publican and the Pharisee. The publican prayed, God look, see how good I
am, I am not like other men. But the publican would not so much as lift up
his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast and said, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” And Jesus said, “I say unto you that this man went down to
his house justified rather than the other.”
So that person who may not present things in very accurate
language if his thinking is right, and if his spirit is right, his prayer is
going to avail!
Remember how James said, “confess your faults one to another and
pray one for another that you may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” And sometimes it may be that that
person who has little ability, so far as the king's English and how to state
things, that his prayer may avail much more than some that can pray a very
beautiful prayer as we would regard it.
And not only that, but Christ makes intercession for us, and in Hebrews
4:15-16, "For
we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of our
infirmities; But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. Therefore let us come boldly to the
throne of grace, that we may receive grace, and mercy
to help in time of need." So
all of us have strong encouragement, and let us use these passages to encourage
those who are hesitant about trying to lead a public prayer. If they are trying to live faithful as a
Christian, their prayers may avail more maybe than some that as far as wording
do a fine job. Verse twenty-eight, "And we know that to them that love
God, all things work together for good, even to them that are called according
to his purpose."
Verse twenty-eight is a wonderful
promise, “And we know that to them
that love God, all things work together for good, even to them that are called
according to his purpose”. But this has also been a much-misused
passage. I have heard people reason this
way when there was a tragic accident in the family. And a member of the family would say, I just know that everything is going to be all right, for
we love the Lord, and this cannot continue, he is going to come out of
this. Well, that is not what this
passage is saying. That member of the
family may die the same day, but it still holds that God is going to make
things work together for good, for those that are living according to his
will. And I have also heard people
reason this way. Say if man had gotten
drunk and went and slept with another man's wife, and finally he repents, and
somebody says, why I just know that this is going to work out for his
good. In other words his wrongdoing is
going to make him a better person! That
is not the meaning of this passage. He
does not love the Lord, when he does a thing like that. Doing wrong does not make any person a better
person! But it's still a wonderful
promise that God will make all things work together for good. Think of all those hardships that Paul had
experienced, but all of those were going to work together for his good. And they will work together for our
good.
"For
whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his
Son." Now this is one of
those fore ordination passages, and when we get to Ephesians chapter 1, we will
try to deal with several of them together.
According to that old false Calvinist doctrine, God foreordained and
predestined certain ones to be saved, and those that God didn't foreordain and
predestine to be saved could not be saved.
Our brethren knew that was false doctrine, but some of them went to the
other extreme as though God has not foreordained and predetermined or
predestined anything. But the scriptures
plainly teach that God has foreordained, and has predestined some things
concerning our salvation. He has
predetermined some things. And verse
twenty-nine is one of them "For
whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed." But notice what he foreordained.
"To be conformed to the image of his Son. That he might be the firstborn among many
brethren. And whom he foreordained them
he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also
glorified.” And, you know, you
can take a passage like this and just remove it from the rest of the Bible, and
it sounds like that old hard Calvinist doctrine that God has foreordained and
predestined some to be saved, and those he has not, cannot be saved, is Bible doctrine. Such a doctrine would make God everything
but a kind, loving, and compassionate God who “ is a rewarder of them that seek after him (Hebrews 11:6).”
Such a doctrine would make God an arrogant, arbitrary, cruel and unjust God who
is a respecter of persons. Think how cruel and unjust God would be if he
created some that were already condemned to hell with the devil and his angels!
And what would be the purpose of the Bible and many such passages as John 3:14-18;
Matthew 9:36-37, 11:28-29; Hebrews 5:8-9.
But the Bible does teach that
every person who is saved is saved by the foreordination and predestination of
God. Ephesians 1:3-5 reads, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ: even as he chose us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before
him in love: having foreordained us unto
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will” Acts 13:48 reads, “And as the Gentiles heard this they were
glad, and glorified the word of God: and as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed.” So, not one more or one less than God had ordained
to eternal life believed! II Timothy 1:9
reads, “who saved us, and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ before times eternal.” In I
Peter 1:20
says of Christ, “who was foreknown
indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the
end of the times for your sake.” And again Romans 8:28-29
“For whom he foreknew he also
foreordained, to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the first born among many brethren and who he foreordained, them he also
called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them also he glorified.
Now,
do these references leave any room for doubt that every person who is saved is
saved in part by the foreordination and predestination of God? So a very
important question, what has God foreordained and predestined concerning the
salvation of man? When we put everything together the answer is:
1.
God knew that if
he created man a free moral agent in process of time man would sin.
2.
Before God made
man the decision was made to send Christ to become a sin offering for man, and
when Adam sinned the first promise of the Christ to come was given (Genesis 3:15;
Isaiah 53:4-6; I Peter 1:20;
Luke 1:26-35; Galatians 4:4-6).
3.
God also
foreordained and predestined that all men could be saved by applying the
cleansing blood of Christ (Hebrews 2:9,
9:15, 10:4-10;
Ephesians 1:7, 2: 1-6, 5:22-32;
Colossians 1:13-14; Acts 20:28).
4.
So God
foreordained before he made man that all who would believe and obey Christ
would be saved (John 3:14-18;
Hebrews 5:8-9). And remember that God calls men through the
preaching and teaching of the gospel (II Thessalonians 2:13-14).
Verse thirty-one, "What then, shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who is against
us? He that spared not his own Son, but
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all
things? Who shall lay any thing to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifith. Who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that
died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us." So a child of God who has the right kind of
heart or the right kind of spirit, he has a lot of help when he prays to
God. The Holy Spirit makes intercessions
for him with groanings, which cannot be uttered. Christ who died for us makes intercession for
us. He is our high priest. Hebrews 7:25 “He is able to save to the uttermost them
that draw near to God through him, seeing that he ever liveth to make
intercession for them.” I like
that word uttermost. That is the fullest
degree that a man can be saved. So
Christ is living, and he makes intercession for us!
"Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Now for many years, this passage, beginning
with verse thirty-five through the rest of the chapter, has been misused by
many denominational preachers. And now
in recent years some of our brethren have been using it in the wrong way. Denominational preachers have been saying to
people for years that regardless of what you do, God still loves you. And they will leave the impression on the minds
of people that a person can just be rebelling against God day in and day out,
but tears are flowing from the eyes of God because he is going the way of
sin. The Bible does not teach such! And
any time a person talks like that, he is leaving a false impression upon the
minds of men and encouraging them, in effect, to go the way of disobedience
with that plan of, when I have one foot in the grave and another on a banana
peeling, I will turn to the Lord.
Let us notice at least a few
passages that plainly show that this is not the case. "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation?" Well, that is one of the things that separates man from the love of Christ; right? In regard to things that would take place
before the destruction of Jerusalem,
Matthew twenty-four around verse ten or twelve, I think. "Because
iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold." Well, would they be in a saved condition,
certainly not. Iniquity caused them to
fall away. "Or anguish or persecution." Suppose our government should start
persecuting every person who meets for worship on the first day of the
week. How many would go to worship on
the first day of the week if the government started putting in jail every
person that did? "Or famine."
Some would reason if God is God, he wouldn't permit this. "Or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" All of those are potentials for causing some
men to turn away from the Lord. "Even as it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." II Timothy 3:12,
"Yea,
and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." But when persecution comes,
the love of many wax cold.
Now, Paul is expressing his
confidence in these Roman brethren, and Paul was a man who expressed confidence
in his brethren. And as long as there is
any room for confidence, we need to express confidence in people. You are appealing to the very best in a man
when you appeal to him that I believe that you will do this. If there is a basis for such a confidence, we
need to express that confidence. And if
you do not have any confidence in them, what is the purpose of telling them
anything in the first place, if they are not going to do better. Jesus said, “Give
not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine,
lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you (Matthew
7:6).”
Jesus was talking about two legged dogs and two legged swine. Some men
have no respect what ever for things that are right and holy, and when we learn
a person is like that we are not to waste our time trying to teach them.
"For
I persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord (8:38-39)." Again
Paul is expressing his confidence in these Roman brethren. If a man cannot be separated from
the love of God, then he cannot be separated from Christ, and we have just read
from the Galatians letter where Paul said, “ye are severed from Christ.
Ye are fallen from grace. Ye who
would be justified by the law are fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4).” And so they had fallen, they had fallen away
from Christ, and the love of God. The love of God is manifested in Christ. Jude said, in verse twenty-one, “keep yourselves
in the love of God”. Does not
that statement strongly imply that God's love has boundaries, that God's love
and mercy and grace all have boundaries?
As long as we do our part, we keep ourselves in the love of God. I wish we had time to move to and read from
Ezekiel 5:1-14 and 18: 19-24. If you have not read these references from
Ezekiel, this would be a good time for you to read them.
In the book of Numbers chapter
eleven, the latter part of it, when the Israelites were so lustful over the
quails that they stayed up all night and all the next day gathering quails and
he that gathered the least gathered ten homers full or sixty-five bushels. The
latter verses of that chapter say that God sent a plague among them and “there they buried those that lusted”. In chapter sixteen of Numbers, after God had
opened up the earth and swallowed up Kora, Dathan, and Abiram and their houses,
those who were trying to usurp the office of the priesthood, God opened up the
earth and swallowed them up; and the two hundred and fifty that were trying to
offer incense, he burned them up. And
then the next day, the people accused Moses and Aaron of killing the people of
Jehovah, referring to those that God had killed, and God sent a plague among
them. And before Aaron could go between
the living and the dead, fourteen thousand-seven hundred died. In Numbers chapter twenty-five, twenty-four
thousand fell because they turned away and served Baalpeor. The women of Moab
invited, the men of Israel
to worship, and they committed spiritual adultery and physical adultery. The result, twenty-four thousand fell,
twenty-three thousand in one day, according to I Corinthians chapter ten
referring to that. Let me take time to
read one more passage. Hebrew 12:28,
"Wherefore receiving a kingdom
that cannot be shaken. Let us serve God
with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." When people rebel
against God, and just continue to rebel, the Old Testament scriptures, as well
as the New Testament scriptures, teach that God counts them as his enemies and
finally deals with them as such.
Now God is a very merciful God, but when people just outright rebel, and
continue to rebel, finally God counts them his enemies.
Okay. I am reading from Jeremiah chapter six
beginning with verse sixteen, "Thus
saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask ye for the old paths,
where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your
souls. But they said, We
will not walk therein. And I set
watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We
will not hearken. Therefore hear, ye
nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth:
Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their
thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, and as for my law,
they have rejected it. To what purpose cometh there to me
frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane
from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor
your sacrifices pleasing unto me.
Therefore saith Jehovah, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this
people, and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend shall
perish. And thus saith Jehovah, Behold,
a people cometh from the north country, a great nation
shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth." And God went ahead and told Jeremiah not to
pray for them anymore. He was not going
to hear them. Why, because, they had such a stubborn and rebellious
spirit.
So there is just no room for
giving such an interpretation. Now, if
you think of the love of God as looking out for the next generation, this might
be the case, but when you leave the impression upon the minds of the people
that, “sinner you can just go ahead and curse God, and turn up your nose at
everything that is right, and he still loves you, and he is ready at any time
to show mercy,” you are teaching false doctrine. Again Isaiah the prophet said, Isaiah chapter
fifty-five "Call upon the Lord
while he is near." And the
Lord is not always near for rebels. And
there came a time when he was not near to the people of Israel. He would not hear them. He would not hear their prayers.
Chapter nine,
"I
say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in
the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart, for I
wish that I myself were anathema or accursed from Christ, for my brethren's
sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh."
So Paul had great concern for his fleshly Jewish brethren. He
wished, that he could be cursed, and in a lost condition, if it would mean
their salvation. So he had great love for his kinsmen. "Who
are Israelites; according to the flesh; whose is the adoption, the glory, and
the covenants." God had
given the Old Testament covenant to the Jewish people, and the New Testament
covenant was given first to the Jewish people.
Acts 1:8; "Ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the
earth." The gospel had been
preached to the Jews several years before it was carried to the Gentile
people. "And
the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the
fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God
blessed forever. Amen." In other words Christ came of the seed of
Abraham, and then through Abraham's son, Isaac, and then through Isaac's son
Jacob. And God made a choice of those
two sons of Isaac as we read in this chapter.
"But
it is not as though the word of God had come to nought. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel." Back there, when Sarah said, “Cast out the handmaiden and her son, he
is not going to inherit with my son.” Abraham
did not want to do it, but God told him, you do as she told you to do, “for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” But God told him that he would make a great
nation of Ishmael. But the descendants
of Ishmael and the six sons of Keturah (Genesis 25:1-6)
were not counted Jewish people. Then of those two sons of Isaac and Rebekah God
made a choice that the seed would be called through Jacob, and that before
those twins were born. God made a choice that his seed would be called through
Jacob and not Esau. Verse seven, "Neither, because they are Abraham's
seed, are they all children:
But, in Isaac shall thy seed be called." See, that is
referring back to Genesis 21:12, that occasion
when Sarah said, “Cast out the
handmaiden and her son.” Do you
remember the fourth chapter of Galatians, that we are not children of the
handmaiden, but children of the promise and the children of the free
woman? "For this is the word of promise, according to the season,
will I come, and Sarah will have a son. And not only so; but Rebekah having conceived by one. Even by our father Isaac; for the children
being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose
of God according to the election might stand, not of works, but of him that
calleth; it was said unto her, that the elder shall serve the younger." And that is from Genesis chapter
twenty-five. The twins struggled in
Rebekah’s womb and she prayed, and God told her there were two nations in her
womb, and that the elder would serve the younger. "Even as it is written." Now, notice this is said later in the book of
Malachi 1:2.
“Jacob I love, but Esau I
hated”. Malachi said that after
Esau had shown himself to be a fornicator or profane person, (Hebrews 12:14-16). But it means loved less, that he loved Jacob
more than he loved Esau. "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." In other words God is God, and he has a right
to make some decisions on his own. There
is a passage in Isaiah, “Woe unto
him that striveth with his maker, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth!”
(Isaiah 45:9)
A broken pot among the broken pots of the earth, trying to argue with
God! Woe
unto him that striveth with his maker.
Verse fiftteen through eighteen, "For he saith to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of
God that hath mercy. For the scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, for this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might
shew in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the
earth, so then he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth." Now, we could just remove these verses
fifteen through eighteen from the rest of the Bible and conclude that God is an
arrogant, hard, unjust God who is ready to just have mercy on one fellow
because he wants to have mercy on him for no good reason, and that he is ready
to harden the heart of another man with no proper reason. But that is not the case. I wish you would write down beside these
verses in the margin Isaiah 66:2, which says,
“to this man will I look, he that is
humble and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word”. God is always ready to show mercy to a man
like that.
In regard to the verses quoted, “I will have mercy on whom
I have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I have compassion.” That is a quotation from Exodus
33:19.
Moses had been very faithful to God, and he wanted God to show him his
glory. And God said, based on all his
faithfulness, that he would hide him in the cleft of the rock, and give him at
least some glimpse of his glory, which he did.
And it's in that context. Moses
was a very faithful man, and so God was ready to show mercy to him. God is ready to have mercy on a man like Saul
of Tarsus. Even though he was doing
wrong, he thought he was doing right.
And God knew that he was living by a good conscience, so he was ready to
have mercy on him. He was ready to have
mercy on the Ethiopian eunuch, and we could go on and on with many like
examples. Any time there is a humble
person who is not going contrary to his conscience, God is ready to show great
mercy!
What kind of person is he ready
to harden? Arrogant and hardened men
like Pharaoh! When God sent Moses and
Aaron down to Egypt,
and they demonstrated before Pharaoh God’s miraculous power,
and of all the times that they did, and plague after plague; and he would make
a promise and would not keep it. And
when they first requested, “who is
God that I should obey him.” He
was stubborn and arrogant and thought that he just had the ability to control
things himself. And he is the one that
God was saying, “for this purpose
did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power”. God was willing for him to be hardened that he
might show his power to all the people of the earth. And so that is the kind of person that God is
ready to be harden. II Thessalonians 2:10‑12,
tells us, that those who will not receive the love of the truth, he will send
a, “working of error, that they
should believe a lie and be judged.” I think the King James says, “a strong
delusion that they might believe a lie and be damned because they believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” God is ready for those
kinds of people to be hardened. And he
is ready for the people back there when God called upon them to walk in the old
ways, the ways of God, and they said we will not do it. He was ready then for them to be hardened
further (Jeremiah 6:
16-19). Many make mistakes,
and, I guess, from time to time all of us have, of interpreting a passage just
on the basis of the one passage! If we
do that very much, we will find ourselves contradicting another passage. Any time we come with such an interpretation
that is in contradiction to another passage, we better recognize immediately
that we do not have proper, understanding here.
God is not the author of confusion (II Corinthians 14:33). He does not say one thing in one passage and
then say something contrary to it somewhere else. So you see that this passage does not make
God an arbitrary God, a God that does not care.
But he is God, and his wrath is kindled by stubborn rebellion. And he is ready for people who continue to go
the way of stubborn rebellion to be hardened.
Verse nineteen, "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? Nay O man, who art thou that repliest against
God? " That
is much like that passage from Isaiah 45:9. "Woe
unto him that striveth with his maker."
"Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it." Now, it is all right for us to ask a
question if we ask it in the right spirit, but that right spirit includes that
spirit that God is God, and I know you did the right thing, but I don't
understand why. That kind of question is
all right. But when we stop and think,
the Bible gives the answer to most of those things that we might be raising
questions about. If we read enough and
study enough, we will find that in most cases, if not all cases, the Lord has
already given an answer to us. "For hath not the potter a right over
the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honour, and another
unto dishonour?" I wish we
had time to turn and read from the eighteenth chapter of Jeremiah where God had
Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house and witness the potter making a
vessel. And when one marred in his hand,
he took that clay and made another vessel out of it. God wanted Jeremiah to understand that he
could make a good vessel out of all of those who would humble themselves. And that's still the case today. In II Timothy chapter two beginning around
verse nineteen, Paul says that in every great house, there are two kinds of
vessels:
Honorable vessels and those that are made of less honorable
materials. The great house is the
church. And then the passage reads, “if a man will
purged himself of these things, he shall be a vessel of honor, sanctified, meet
for the master's use.” So God is
ready to make a vessel of honor out of every humble person. Every person who is willing to do his will,
he will make a vessel of honor out of them.
Verse twenty-two "What if God, willing to shew his
wrath, and make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted unto destruction."
Those who had committed such sins that they were worthy of being wiped
off the face of the earth! In short, God put up with sinful
people until that time when he would show mercy through Christ to all men. "That
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he
had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews
only, but also from the Gentiles? As he
also saith in Hosea, I will call my people, which was not my people, and her
beloved, that was not beloved."
Again, I'd like for us, if we had time, to turn back and read from
Hosea. He is the prophet that God had to
marry a woman that would become a prostitute.
She left Hosea, and in process of time she became a slave, and the
prophet went and bought her back. All of
this illustrated God's relationship with the people of Israel.
Verses twenty-six through
twenty-nine "And it shall be
that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are
not my people; there shall they be called the sons of the living God. And Isaiah cries concerning Israel, if the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, (be
innumerable). It is the remnant that shall be saved. For
the Lord will execute his work on the earth, finishing it and cutting it short: As
Isaiah has said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had
left us a seed, we had become Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah." In short, the Jews would have been destroyed
as a people if God had not left them a seed, through that more righteous
element of Israel,
a very small remnant. "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who
followed not after righteousness, attained to the righteousness, even the righteousness,
which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after a law of righteous,
did not arrive at that law. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works." The Jews were reasoning,
that they would merit salvation if they just kept certain requirements of the
law. And there are still some today who
seem to reason that way that they can be saved altogether by their works and by
their merit. Well, works have a part,
but no man is going to be saved just on the basis of works or merit. "Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as
it were by works. They stumbled at the
stone of stumbling; even as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling rock of offence: He
that believeth on him shall not be put to shame."
Notice how the writer uses the
scriptures there as quoted. He is
combining Isaiah chapter eight, I believe it is verses thirteen and fourteen
and Isaiah 28:26. I think I remember Isaiah 28:16. "Behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone,
a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: He
that believeth on him shall not make haste." And so he is quoting the very last of
that verse. “He that believeth on
him shall not be put to shame.”
In Isaiah 8:13-14, "And Jehovah of hosts him shall ye
sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." And this is Christ that he is speaking of in
verse thirteen. "And he shall be a sanctuary; but for a rock of
stumbling and a rock of offence to both of the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared,
and be taken." Well, verse
fourteen he would be a sanctuary for those that believe on him, but he would be
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, to those who did not believe, to
both of the houses of Israel. And Isaiah's ministry, nearly all of it was
during the time of the divided kingdom.
And so he would be a rock of offence to both of the houses of Israel. So Christ is the stone of the Old Testament
scriptures. David had said of him, “the stone which the builders rejected is
made the head of the corner.”
And you remember when Peter was before the Sanhedrin, "He is the stone that was set at naught of
you builders, which is also become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven
given among men whereby ye must be saved (Acts 4:12).” So Christ is the stone of the Old Testament
scriptures.
Chapter Ten
"Brethren,
my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for
them that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, not
according to knowledge." Now,
isn't it right to have a zeal for God?
Surely it is. God wants all of us
to be zealous, but zeal without knowledge can be dangerous. And so the people of Israel
at this time had a zeal for God, but it was not according to the
knowledge. What happens when people have
a zeal for God and do not have proper knowledge? They usually go about doing the same thing
that the Hebrew people did back there. "For being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit
themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to
every one that believeth."
And you remember from the third chapter of II Corinthians the same kind
of instruction. "For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the
righteousness which is of the law, shall live thereby." And again that would be Leviticus 18:5. "But
the righteousness which is of faith saith thus, say
not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or, Who shall
descend into the deep? (That is, to
bring Christ up from the dead.) But what
saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth, and in thy heart: That is the word of faith, which we preach;
because if thy shall confess with thy mouth Jesus is
Lord, and shall believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved (10:3-9)". Now, the
passage here is a quotation from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 30:14
where Moses exhorted, the word of the Lord is not far from you. But here Paul uses it to encourage us under
the New Testament law. And, of course,
it is true under the New Testament law, and even more so than under the Old
Testament.
Verse nine "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord,
and shall believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead." A person must have the facts of the gospel
preached to him before he can be saved, and must believe those facts, that God
raised him from the dead. "Thou shalt be saved. For with the heart a man believeth unto
righteousness; with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth
on him shall not be put to shame."
And again he is quoting part of Isaiah 28:16.
"For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek:
For the same Lord is Lord of all and is rich unto all them that call
upon him. For whosoever that shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And that is a quotation from the second
chapter of the book of Joel, where Joel was speaking of the time when God would
pour out his spirit upon all flesh, meaning Jews and Gentiles alike. Peter also quoted Joel 2:28-32
as recorded in Acts 2: 16-21. And that when
that time came, every humble person, “whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved.” But notice what is
involved in calling upon the name of the Lord.
Think how many people have removed verse thirteen from the rest of the
passage. And the following verses show
that they have interpreted the passage absolutely contrary to the proper
meaning of it. A person does not
properly call upon the name of the Lord until he learns what he needs to do and
does it. He is calling upon the name of
the Lord in such a way as to be saved when he learns and obeys the commands of
the Lord. But let us pick up with verse
thirteen for our next lesson. Thank you.