Brother Bill Sunday School 8/16/15

Brother Bill Sunday School 8/16/15

It seems there is something in society that would place the natural Jews as still the people of God and that someday they will again be back in position.

It is not that way.  The people of God today are not the literal Jews.  They can repent and be saved like the rest of us.  Salvation is now open to all men and if a person follows God’s plan they will be saved; if a person does not follow God’s plan then they will be lost. 

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.

He is talking of the literal Jews here.  It was to the Israelites that God gave promises.  He counted them as His people.  He gave them the form of worship and the tabernacle and the temple.  The covenants and the giving of the law was given to them.

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.

Ismael was the firstborn according to the Law.  He was not the firstborn according to the promise. 

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.

There is a depth here that I will not be able to explain.  Even today the children of the flesh are not the children of promise.

Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

It was in God’s plan all along that salvation was open to all men. 

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.

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.

According to the pattern of the Law, the younger would serve the elder.  He was still trying to get through to them that it was not according to how the law was set up but according to promise.

Rom 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

It makes it sound that He was a respecter of persons, but he was trying to establish a principal that it was not according to Law but according to promise.

The word hate has the definition of ‘love less’.  It is not as harsh as it sounds.

Rom 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

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.

The atmosphere and mindset of the Jews was, “This is our entitlement.  We are the people of God.  Don’t take this away from us.” 

God says, “I will have mercy and compassion on whomever I am going to have compassion on.  If I want to include the Gentiles I will include the Gentiles.”

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

It is not because of who originally had the covenants and the giving of the law.  It is according to who God has mercy on.  He has mercy on whomever turns to Him.  The Jews have to go through the same knothole as the rest of us in order to be God’s people.

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.

It is an established truth that God is no respecter of persons.  Pharaoh was bent on doing wrong anyways.  God looked at him and said, “I know this about this man and I am going to raise him up for this purpose.”

He hardened his heart.  It is the same principal that we have in all ages.  When God deals with an individual and they reject the wooing of God.  “Their eyes they have closed.”  Then they build a callous on their heart.  They get to the place where they are bent to stay that way and God just keeps hardening their hearts.

Pharaoh was just an instrument that God used because he was bent on doing wrong anyways.  “He is bent on doing wrong anyways so I will use him to fulfill my picture here.”

Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

When people refuse to do God’s will their heart is hardened.  God would not harden any heart, but He knows the heart of man.

Mat 3:9  And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

The Jews had the feeling of entitlement.  The stones were stones of truth.  God is able to of these stones of truth to raise up children unto Abraham.

God cannot expound his mercy until people realize a need for it.

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?

I am using the illustration of the Jewish nation.  He can make them unto dishonor and He will if they refuse to embrace this message.  He does.  He will also make a vessel to honor if they will embrace this message.

Because the Jews rejected the message, they were made vessels of dishonor. 

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:

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,

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.

The Gentiles were not His people and they were not beloved at the time. 

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:

The people of God will 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.

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.

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.

They sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law:  They thought their old forms of sacrifices were the way to do it and they thought that because they were following that it gave them inroad.  It was not it the way and did not give them a special inroad. 

Now because we follow God we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.