Lessons From Romans – Lesson 12
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 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.
God’s Love is not based on our performance.
God’s Love is not based or increased or decreased on how lovable we are.
God loved us and died for us while we were yet sinners at enmity with God.
God’s love is based on Him, not us.
And because of that nothing can separate us from the Love of God.
That is something wonderful. It is far more than we deserve. It is greater than we can ever fully understand.
One of the natural results of that should be that we are 1 thankful and 2 that we love Him back in real practical ways. That would be proper responses.
And another natural result should be that we do not want to keep this truth to ourselves. We should want others to also come to Christ and experience the Love of God.
That is the next thing that Paul brings up.
Rom 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Rom 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Rom 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Rom 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Pause in the topic.
This is a common thing for Paul. We have seen this time and again. We saw it in 1st Corinthians many times.
Paul will mention something and then he will pause the topic he is talking about to give more information about what he just mentioned. He will pause and give more info so that it is crystal clear what he is talking about or he will explain something else that has bearing on the topic he is discussing.
And then after Paul gives the additional information he goes right back to the topic he was talking about.
In verses 1 thru 4 Paul is starting to talk about his heart for his fellow Israelites to be saved. Since he mentioned Israelites he will pause and give more information about the Israelites and then he picks right back up with his heart for Israel to get saved in Chapter 10 verse 1.
Before we sing this morning I want to read this without the additional information about Israelites and then after we sing we will look at the additional information.
Rom 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Rom 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Rom 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Rom 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Rom 9:5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Rom 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
So the flow is God loves us. So much that He will work all things together for good to those who love God. He will work it to good, much of it in this life and some of it in eternity.
His love is so great that in His foreknowledge He predestinates all those who chose Christ to be conformed into the image of His Son. Because that it is what is best for us.
Love wants what is best for the one loved. And Jesus is perfect. You can get no better. And so His love wants us to grow in this life to be more and more like Jesus and then one day God will finish the job and this corruption will put on incorruption.
And we will be conformed into the image of His dear Son. That is guaranteed.
And God’s love is so great and God’s love is not based on us it is based on Him. And because of that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Because all of that is so great. Paul does not want to keep it to himself. He wants other to be saved.
Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
And that was more than empty words for Paul. He lived that. When we went thru Acts we saw time and again that Paul would get to town and he would go to the synagogue first. He would reach out to the Jews first.
Paul did have a heart to see Jews saved and so you see him do something about it. Paul put time and effort and heart and prayer and resources into it.
Paul’s heart was not only for the Jews. Paul would then go to the Gentiles. Paul had a heart for all people to get saved. And so he acted upon that.
This should be the same pattern for us as well. We should be motivated by how great God’s love and care for us is and we should be thankful and love Him back in real practical ways and we should want others to hear and get saved and also be recipients of His great love.
In Romans chapter 2 Paul wrote about being a Jew is not an outward thing. Being a true Jew is an inward heart matter.
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
So just a few short chapters later in the same letter Paul wants to make it clear that now he is talking about Israelites as in anyone who shares in and believes in being children of the promise thru Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
So he is going to go deeper into exactly who he is talking about when he says Israelites.
Before we look at this section of scripture I want to bring up the principal of world view.
Different groups can look at the same evidence and come away with totally different conclusions. And the reason is the world view filter that they are looking at the evidence thru.
Evolution is a prime example. Not long ago we watched a short video about petrified trees in Yellowstone and how they are on a hill. There are 27 levels of them. The evolutionist looks at that and concludes it must have taken a huge amount of time and many events to cause that.
He concludes that because his filter says there is no God and the Bible is fantasy and so there could be no worldwide flood. Things in the past happened at the same rate that we see today so therefore it must be millions of years.
The Bible believing scientist looks at the same hill with the same petrified trees and then looks at all available evidence. He notices how there is only trees that have been detached from their root systems. Like they were all floating logs.
And then he looks at the evidence of what happened at Mount Saint Helens and sees that millions of trees were floating in that lake at the same time because of the explosion and he sees how they get waterlogged at different rates and that they sink at different levels.
And then he looks again at those petrified trees in Yellowstone and comes to the conclusion that the entire hill of petrified trees on different levels is best explained by the catastrophic events of Noah’s flood.
Same evidence. Two different conclusions based on the filter that is used.
The filter people use can and does affect the conclusion that people come to. This is true in things from Evolution to politics and yes even scripture.
I bring this up because the section of scripture before us is a prime example of this in scripture.
Two groups look at this section and come away with drastically different conclusions and it is because of the filter that they use to look at it.
What lens you choose to look thru does matter, in fact it makes a huge difference.
The Calvinist looks at this section thru his filter of God created so God is all powerful and God is king and so God does what He wants. The truths of His Sovereignty and His power are primary.
To him all other truths are beneath those two and any real truth in them only matter when they line up with God’s Sovereignty and Power.
In a way they are a lot like the Evolutionist. Don’t bother me with other evidence and do not confuse me with facts. The evolutionist – I will only look at and believe long periods of time with no designer allowed. Anything I see I will make fit into my worldview; my filter.
The Calvinist. Only the Sovereignty and power of God matter. I will only look at scripture thru that filter. Anything I see in scripture I will make fit into my worldview; my filter.
Everyone has a filter. Even us. The filter that I use to look at this section of scripture is other scripture.
Precept is built upon precept the Bible says. Scripture is interpreted by scripture. There are 3 main contexts in the Bible. The context of the surrounding verses, the context of the book and the context of the entire Bible.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And all of it is profitable. The Bible says that God’s Word is perfect. Since God is perfect and since God is not conflicted or confused. And since He is the one who authored the Bible.
Therefore it must be in agreement. There cannot be any conflicts. It must all fit together and teach the same thing. If you see a conflict where one place in the Bible it is teaching one thing and in another place it is teaching the opposite, then the problem is not with the Bible.
You are looking at something wrong.
The filter of scripture that I use to look at this section of scripture is:
1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world. That means everyone.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
God loved the world. That means everyone.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
That all should come to repentance. That means everyone. God’s wants all men to get saved. That is His heart.
Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
All men everywhere are commanded to repent.
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Whosoever will, let him get saved. That is what God says about it.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son
1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
And the Bible teaches that the predestination of those saved and what the Bible calls Election are done based on the foreknowledge of God.
For the sake of time I will stop with only those few. We could go on a long time. With that filter in mind let’s now look at Romans 9:5-33
Rom 9:5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 9:6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
Rom 9:7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Rom 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Rom 9:9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
Who are the Israelites that Paul is talking about. He is defining it here. Not everyone born from Abraham. Abraham had another son thru the handmaid. Ismael. So it is not just being born of Abraham.
This is not about bloodline alone. And if you remember from the book of Esther many people chose to become Jews.
This has to do with the promise. The promised seed thru which the world would be blessed was thru Isaac born to Sara.
Rom 9:10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Rom 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
The Calvinist looks at this and says see here. Got you. The word of God is the word of God. It says what it says. Sorry to tell you but God chose to love Jacob and God chose to hate Esau. God chooses who to love and who to hate and so God chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
That’s Bible.
I say hold on a minute. The Bible says that Election is according to foreknowledge.
1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
The Calvinist says God chose to hate Esau just because He chose that. Because of His sovereignty.
But the Bible says that Election is because of foreknowledge. The truth is that God did not chose Esau because God foreknew that Esau out of a free will was going to despise the birthright and sell it for a bowl of beans.
Verse 13 does not say that Esau have I hated because I chose to. The Calvinist adds the because God chose to part because of the filter that he chooses to see things thru.
Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
God seeing in advance the wicked heart of Esau and God using that foreknowledge in telling Rebecca that Esau would serve Jacob is not unrighteous. God foreseeing this did in no way interfere with Esau’s free will to choose.
If God forced Esau to be wicked, then that would be unrighteousness because God would be responsible for the wickedness done by Esau. And there is no unrighteousness with God.
And what did God foretell. That Esau would serve Jacob. The Topic there is not about hell.
Paul gives another example.
Rom 9:15 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.
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
The Calvinist looks at this and says see here got you again. God chose to harden Pharaoh and for the reason of punishing him and for the reason of showing His power. God has mercy on whom he chooses and God hardens who He wills.
Therefore God chooses who gets mercy and who goes to heaven and God chooses who to harden and send to hell. It is all God’s doing and God’s sovereignty and it is all about God’s power.
However, if you go back and read the story of Pharaoh you will find that it was Pharaoh who hardened his own heart first.
God knew ahead of time how Pharaoh would choose. And the hardening that Paul is talking about here is not hardening as in so he would go to hell. It is talking about the hardening so that Pharaoh would not let the children of Israel go.
Pharaoh was hardened so that God could display His power with all 10 plagues. And then take Israel out with a mighty hand. The hardening of Pharaoh was about that. Again the topic here is not hell.
That is plain if you go back and read Exodus. So the Calvinist makes another mistake about this. He turns the hardening about letting the children of Israel go into being about going to hell.
God’s foreknowledge is what clears this all up. Paul is not denying here that God is Sovereign and Paul is not denying that God is all powerful. Those are both true. But if your filter is those and those alone without foreknowledge then you have a mess and a Bible full of contradictions.
Paul now talks about how God is Sovereign.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Pause a moment. Pharaoh chose to harden his own heart. Then God out of foreknowledge chose to put Pharaoh into his position so He could harden his heart about not letting the children of Israel go.
Ok. Think. Does God harden the heart like that for everyone who chooses to reject the Lord?
No. Of course not. This is not about choosing who goes to hell. This is about how out of foreknowledge God can and does sometimes harden someone for a reason that He knows will never get saved. Like he did with Pharaoh.
God can use the lost, and He can use them in different ways. Not everyone that goes to hell does God use in this life to make His power known. And when God does that it in no way changed the eternal destination of that person.
God in His foreknowledge knew that they will never get saved; that they will reject Him all the way to the end and in His Sovereignty He can use them anyway He wants in this life.
In an opposite way the same is true for those who get saved.
Rom 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Does God make every believer a king like He did David? Does God give every widow a new husband like He did Ruth?
Does God send every Christian a Bartholomew like He did Paul?
Does God bless every Christian with being born in a free country? I could keep going for a long time. God knows every detail about everything. He knows how everything interacts with everything else.
It really is a thought that is far above us. We cannot fully understand. But God does.
He has reasons for giving some more blessings than others. Some people who get saved He makes known more of the riches of His glory than others that get saved.
And some that reject Him and are going to hell he will harden in this life for other reasons and others He does not.
All of this has nothing to do with God choosing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. It is about what God in His Sovereignty chooses to do to those who out of a free will choose to go to hell. And about what God in His Sovereignty chooses to do to those who out of a free will choose to get saved and go to Heaven.
And this goes for both the Jews and the Gentiles.
Rom 9:24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Rom 9:25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Rom 9:26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
Rom 9:27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
Rom 9:28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
Rom 9:29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
So God said out of His foreknowledge thru Isiah that a remnant of Israel shall be saved. And God also said in His foreknowledge about gentiles that ye are not my people; they shall be called the children of God.
And Paul brings up how they are seeing Gentiles get saved.
Rom 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
Even though they are not of the seed of promise. Even though they are not Israelites Gentiles are getting saved just like God in His foreknowledge said they would.
And for the most part Paul is seeing the Israelites reject God.
Rom 9:31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Rom 9:32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
Rom 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
But since God said in His foreknowledge that a remnant of Israel would be saved.
Paul had a burden and a desire to see that also. Paul wants to see Israel get saved as well as the Gentiles.
Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Rom 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Verse 4 says to everyone that believeth. It does not say to everyone that God forces.
This whole section of scripture is not about God choosing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
It is really about God’s foreknowledge and God’s promise that Gentiles would get saved and a remnant of Israel would also get saved. And so Paul prays for Israelites to get saved.