As we approach Romans 9 this morning, Romans 9 opens up with Paul longing for God’s people to be saved. While longing for them to be saved, Paul begins to remind them how salvation got here in the first place.
“With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.”
Romans 9:1 NLT
“My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.”
Romans 9:2-3 NLT
“They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.”
Romans 9:4 NLT
“Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.”
Romans 9:5 NLT
“Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!”
Romans 9:6 NLT
“Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.”
Romans 9:7 NLT
“This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.””
Romans 9:8-9 NLT
“This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.”
Romans 9:10 NLT
“But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.””
Romans 9:11-12 NLT
“As it is written, “Jacob I have LOVED, but Esau I have HATED.””
Romans 9:13 NKJV
IS OUR LOVING GOD, ALL OF A SUDDEN NOW FULL OF HATE? IS ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE DESTINED FOR HEAVEN WHILE THE OTHER IS DESTINED FOR DAMNATION?
DOES THIS SPEAK OF PREDESTINATION, MEANING THAT SOME ARE ELECTED TO BE SAVED WHILE SOME ARE NOT? ARE SOME ELECTED TO BE LOVED BY GOD, WHILE SOME ARE ELECTED TO BE HATED BY GOD, BEFORE THEY’RE EVEN BORN?
I want to speak to you today from this subject:
Today’s Message Title:
GOD’S BIG PICTURE
“This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.”
Romans 9:10 NLT
“Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.”
Genesis 25:21-22 NKJV
“And the Lord said to her: “TWO NATIONS are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.””
Genesis 25:23 NKJV
Romans 9:13 where it says “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”” Is really about two nations and not two individuals.
📝 Romans 9:13 is more about a NATIONAL calling than it is a PERSONAL calling.
“And the Lord said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall SERVE the younger.””
Genesis 25:23 NKJV
📝 Romans 9:13 is more about a SERVICE to God than it is SALVATION.
How could God love one and hate the other?
“If anyone comes to Me and does not HATE his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
Luke 14:26 NKJV
““Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
Exodus 20:12 NKJV
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the contrast between “love” and “hatred” is sometimes used to communicate preference. Simply put, it often communicates that one was PREFERRED over the other.
In God’s sovereignty He preferred to work through Jacob instead of Esau to bring the lineage of Jesus Christ through.
Did God hate Esau?
“Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his household, his cattle and all his animals, and all his goods which he had gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country away from the presence of his brother Jacob.”
Genesis 36:6 NKJV
“For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together, and the land where they were strangers could not support them because of their livestock.”
Genesis 36:7 NKJV
“But Esau said, “I HAVE ENOUGH, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.””
Genesis 33:9 NKJV
Why did God prefer Jacob over Esau??!
📝 • God OWNS the picture.
“Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. AND HE IS GOD, THE ONE WHO RULES OVER EVERYTHING AND IS WORTHY OF ETERNAL PRAISE! Amen.”
Romans 9:5 NLT
📝 God does as HE PLEASES, but He always pleases TO DO RIGHT.
Inside of God’s big picture are we just robots being completely controlled by God, according to whom He’s elected and not elected, BEFORE WE WERE EVEN BORN, or do we have free will?
📝 Inside of God’s big picture you’ll find man’s FREE WILL overseen by God’s SOVEREIGNTY.
Meaning this, our free will is overseen by God’s sovereignty, and in any given moment God can step in and do whatever He wants because He’s God, and there’s no God like Jehovah! It was God’s sovereignty that put everything that we have into motion, and from the very beginning we see our free will in play. Genesis 2:16-17…
“And the Lord God commanded the man, “YOU ARE FREE to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.””
Genesis 2:16-17 NIV
In other words from the very beginning God told mankind…
YOU ARE FREE TO CHOOSE. YOU ARE FREE TO CHOOSE ME, OR THE VOICE OF THE ENEMY. YOU ARE FREE TO OBEY ME OR TO DISOBEY ME. THIS IS KEY BECAUSE ONE OF THE GREATEST ACTS OF WORSHIP IS OBEDIENCE.
📝 From the very beginning God never wanted ROBOTS, but instead SONS and DAUGHTERS.
“I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring MY SONS from afar and MY DAUGHTERS from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.””
Isaiah 43:6-7 NIV
“And I will be your Father, and you will be my SONS and DAUGHTERS, says the Lord Almighty.””
2 Corinthians 6:18 NLT
“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.””
Romans 9:14-15 NKJV
“So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”
Romans 9:16 NKJV
📝 • GRACE and MERCY came into the picture.
📝 GRACE-Receiving what you DON’T deserve.
📝 MERCY- Not Receiving what you DO deserve.
I’M SO GLAD THAT GOD OWNS THE PICTURE OR MANY OF US WOULDN’T BE IN THE PICTURE.
📝 Because of God’s grace and mercy, I no longer have to fit into anyone’s BOX. I now fit into God’s BIG PICTURE.
How did I get into God’s Big Picture?
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me DRAWS HIM; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:44 NKJV
You just never know what God is using to draw you to Himself…
“So all this was done THAT IT MIGHT BE FULFILLED which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:”
Matthew 1:22 NKJV
“When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, THAT IT MIGHT BE FULFILLED which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.””
Matthew 2:14-15 NKJV
“And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, THAT IT MIGHT BE FULFILLED which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet…
Matthew 4:13-14 NKJV
And this happened so that this would be fulfilled…
Your life isn’t DERAILED—it’s right on SCHEDULE.
And this happened so that this would be fulfilled.
📝God doesn’t make EMPTY promises. He FULFILLS them.
📝 Even when I don’t UNDERSTAND it good, I know that He’s WORKING for my good.
📝 God uses His sovereignty to DRAW us, not DISREGARD us.
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I HAVE DRAWN YOU.
Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV
📝 God uses His sovereignty to INCLUDE us, not to EXCLUDE us.
“And we are among those WHOM HE SELECTED, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles. Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, I WILL NOW CALL MY PEOPLE. And I will love those whom I did not love before.””
Romans 9:24-25 NLT
“And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’””
Romans 9:26 NLT
God uses His sovereignty to INCLUDE us, not to EXCLUDE us!
“What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.”
Romans 9:30 NLT
• 📝 By God’s grace and mercy, we were INVITED into His big picture.
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore CHOOSE LIFE, that both you and your descendants may live;
Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV
“For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “WHOEVER calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.””
Romans 10:11-13 NKJV
“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.”
Revelation 22:17 KJV
“... AND HE IS GOD, THE ONE WHO RULES OVER EVERYTHING AND IS WORTHY OF ETERNAL PRAISE! Amen.”
Romans 9:5 NLT
HAVE YOU TAKEN YOUR PLACE IN GOD’S BIG PICTURE?
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