Month: April 2014

Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.
For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
Rom 9:27-29

“The remnant will be saved.” Isaiah frequently returned to the idea that God had a particular people among the nation of Israel, a remnant, that He was carefully preserving.  What Israel deserved because of her rebellion was to be totally wiped off the planet, even as Sodom and Gomorrah was, but God in His mercy chose to save a portion of the whole.  Isaiah prophesies again in 10:20-22: “And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return; the destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.”  Why will it be this way? He continues in v. 23, “For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land.” God will see that it is so!  As he says again, “For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isa 37:32)

So, why does the Apostle Paul introduce this topic in Rom 9?  Because this chapter is all about God’s sovereignly working in the earth to show, as we saw last week, “He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.” (Rom 9:18) God is the One in absolute control, not man! Just prior to our text today, Paul states that God is calling a people unto Himself both of the Jews and the Gentiles. (v. 24) It is one glorious church, united in faith, that will be comprised of those from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation”. (Rev 5:9) And Who gets the credit for such an accomplishment in the lives of men? Paul continues in Rom 9 by quoting Hosea saying, “I will call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.” (v. 25) Only God gets the glory for such a beautiful structure made up of these living stones! (1Pe 2:5)

In light of this truth, we see a parallel between the Old Testament term “remnant” and the New Testament term “elect”. The apostle makes this connection later in Romans when he speaks of his lost countrymen. He is encouraged to know that not all are unbelievers, and “at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (Rom 11:5) The principle concerning the remnant and the elect is exactly the same. God has a people that He chose to preserve for no other reason but that it was His gracious will! This choice by God was a work prior to the creation of the world and one that He would see to its ultimate fulfillment. Perhaps no passage says this any plainer than Eph 1:3-6:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

God gives no other creature credit for the salvation of His people. It is an act performed by Him “according to the good pleasure of His will”. This truth is good news for all the children of God. Why? Because the God that began that work in you will also complete it! (Php 1:6) God has not only saved them, He has made full provision for keeping them!! They are safely in the His hand, and as Jesus said, “no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” (Joh 10:29) Can Satan bring any accusation against this chosen people? No way! The Lord has done too good of a job!! “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Rom 8:33) There’s no lost sheep this Shepherd ever pursued that got away! “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” (Rom 8:29-30) The days will get darker as the Lord’s return draws near, but His children will make it to the end “because God from the beginning chose you for salvation”. (2Th 2:13) Even in an age when it can be said that “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved”, we will also find to be true at that time that “for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Mat 24:22)

Jamie

For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”
Rom 9:17-20

God’s explanation of Pharaoh’s rise to power is one of the many examples of the Lord’s predetermined purposes being fulfilled in the earth. The king of Egypt didn’t claim the throne by his own skill and intellect. The text is clear. God put Him in power! This truth should not surprise us because when Pilate said he had the power to save Jesus or condemn Him, our Lord quickly replied, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.” (Joh 19:11) Why does Rom 13:1 say we should submit to governmental authorities? “For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” The Lord is in charge, not man!

Not only does God take credit for putting Pharaoh in power, but God takes credit for Pharaoh not letting the children of Israel go immediately. That’s why v. 18 of our text says, “Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.” God hardened Pharaoh’s heart! Listen to God’s word to Moses BEFORE he ever went back to Egypt to ask Pharaoh for Israel’s freedom:

And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’”
(Exo 4:21-23)

You see, before Moses went back to Egypt, God had determined to deliver Israel in a miraculous way so that the whole world would hear of the greatness of Israel’s God! By the time they made it to Jericho, Rahab said her city had heard of Israel’s great deliverance and they knew that “the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” (Jos 2:10-11) God would see to it that Egypt experienced the fullness of his judgment.  Even when Pharaoh was ready to release Israel (Exo 10:16), we read, “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.” (Exo 10:20)

With God so involved in the details of this life, Paul knew well that some would ask, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” (Rom 9:19) How can God judge man for sin if God is ultimately in control and fulfilling His purposes in the earth? I love Paul’s response: “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?'” (v. 20) He doesn’t even answer the question! He simply says, “God is God, and you are not–you have no right to question Him!” And that is exactly the point. How can we comprehend His secret purposes when we are so simple compared to Him? He declares, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:9)

Here’s what we should know. Good is good. He is holy and righteous. He never sins or makes mistakes. As was the record of Christ in Mar 7:37, “He has done all things well.” We need to learn as Nebuchadnezzar did that, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?'” No matter how chaotic things may appear at times, God is FULLY in control! I pray this truth will comfort your heart this day, dear Christian. Remember that glorious message of Isa 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!‘”

Jamie

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Rom 9:14-16

Who can fully grasp God in His sovereignty? He is the God “who works all things according to the counsel of His will”. (Eph 1:11) It is foolish to ask the question the apostle poses in our text: “Is there unrighteousness with God?” He responds quickly, “Certainly not!” God by very nature is good, holy, and righteous. How can He act otherwise? He is our definition of all of those characteristics. As Jesus told the rich, young ruler, “No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Mar 10:18)

Man on the other hand is a different story! Man is born in sin. He’s not basically good as some teach. He is by nature evil! Given the choice, man will choose sin. This sinful nature is the common bond of all humanity. Paul writes in Rom 3:9, “For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.” He then, as any good preacher should, backs up that teaching with multiple scriptures, quoting Psalms and Isaiah:

As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
(Rom 3:10-18)

He then concludes in v.23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Someone will say, “I don’t think man’s that bad!” Well, what do you think happened when Adam and Eve fell in the garden? They didn’t just stumble into a mud hole and need a good bath. They entered a state of separation from God! God said they would die in the day they ate of the forbidden tree (Gen 2:17), and so they did spiritually. Their spirits no longer enjoyed communion with their Maker! What else but such a drastic change in circumstances would require the death of the Son of God?! “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Rom 5:6) Still think man is born in pretty good shape? David, a man after God’s own heart, said of himself that at conception he was a wretched sinner! “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psa 51:5)

In case these witnesses aren’t convincing enough, let’s hear God Himself give an account of man’s heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart…” (Jer 17:9-10) God says we’re born so fallen in sin that we don’t even know how bad we are! Prior to salvation, we daily abide under the wrath of God because of our fallen nature.  “…we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Eph 2:3)

Now, we said all of this to make one simple point. We have absolutely no hope in and of ourselves.  Salvation must be an act external to us by a merciful God. How can creatures so depraved merit salvation by anything they do?  What can we do that pleases God when “we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”. (Isa 64:6) What do we have to offer Him. The answer is simple: nothing! As our text says, “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” (Rom 9:16) If you are among the redeemed today, give God the glory due solely to Him for that salvation, for it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us”. (Tit 3:5) We have more to see in Rom 9, but we must first be sure our religion is God-centered, not man-centered, before these truths can be fully grasped.  When we understand who we are, we’ll see better who God is.  May we give our Lord the glory due His worthy name!

Jamie

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”  He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
Mat 13:10-11

How many times have you heard men say that Jesus used parables to make things clearer?  He was using simple concepts which all men could understand so that even the common people could grasp what He was saying, right?  Actually, nothing could be further from the truth according to Jesus’ statement above to His disciples!  Parables didn’t make things clearer.  They made things unclear!  Listen to Mark’s account of our passage above:

But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.  And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.” (Mar 4:10-12)

Later in this same chapter we read, “And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.  But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” (Mar 4:33-34) Even the disciples had no hope of getting the point to Jesus’ stories unless He later interpreted the parables for them!  For that reason, Jesus told His disciples, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Mat 13:16-17)

If we get nothing else from these passages, we ought to understand that only God can make His word effectual in the hearts of men.  We should never declare the gospel without continual prayer for God to bless that effort!  The parable associated with our text today compares sharing God’s word with sowing seed.  How ought we to sow it?  We should cast as much of that seed out any time we are able because we never know when it might prosper! (Ecc 11:6) But never forget this analogy.  The farmer can till, plant, water, and fertilize, but he can never make that dead seed result in life!  Paul uses the same analogy to glorify the Lord for saving men’s souls through the preached word.  Only God can give the increase!! (1Co 3:7) If you are among those who have understood His word unto salvation, He alone must get the glory for that fact.  It’s not because you were a little smarter than the next guy or more willing to receive His word.  You understand because God granted you understanding!

This truth ascribes glory where it belongs–to our God and Savior!  He hides and reveals.  Just listen to Pro 25:2: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”  All the seeking in the world won’t reveal that which God chooses to conceal.  Ought we to seek?  The latter half of that verse says, “Absolutely!”  But seek crying out to God as the One who reveals the Truth to men.  Have you seen the Truth–I mean the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life? (Joh 14:6) Then give God the glory for His great mercy!!  “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior”.  O Lord, thank you for blessing us by causing these blind eyes to see and these deaf ears to hear!

Jamie