Romans Ch 9

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Here is your host, Mike Zwick. If Not For God with Mike Zwick and we are in Romans chapter nine and clearly Paul who had spent his life as a Jew and a Pharisee now is part of Romans chapter nine where he is in turmoil over his brethren the Jews and their rejection of Christ and so as we study this, you know, Mike and I both think If Not For God, like we're going to need him here. Yeah, yeah. A couple of weeks ago we did Romans chapter seven. For a lot of people that was a tough chapter but I think when we went through Romans seven and then really Romans eight as well I think we were able to see how Romans seven really made sense because he's basically saying, Paul's saying, the things that I want to do I don't do. The things that I don't want to do I do and he says woe to me, you know, I try to listen to the spirit but I follow the flesh and then Romans eight chapter one it says there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ. Thank God. But we were talking about this a little bit before. Sometimes we want to kind of make it on our own effort and we want to kind of I guess make it to heaven because we did something but it's interesting and I'll start out in the first few verses because there was something that I just saw in here that I didn't see before. I'm going to start off in Romans nine in the NIV version and starting in verse one it says I speak the truth in Christ I am not lying my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people those of my own race the people of Israel theirs is the adoption to sonship there's the divine glory the covenants the receiving of the law the temple worship and the promises theirs are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the messiah who is God over all forever praised amen it is not as though God's word had failed for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children on the contrary it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned in other words it is not the children by physical descent who are God's children but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring for this was how the promise was stated at the appointed time I will return and Sarah will have a son not only that but Rebecca's children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose and election might stand not by works but by him who calls she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written Jacob I love but Esau I have hated what shall we say then is God unjust not at all for he said to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion it does not therefore depend on human desire or effort but on God's mercy and Robbie we were talking about the prodigal son is that right yeah and there's a brilliant insight you had there because it is really like if you understand which and all that we any of us understand the prodigal son story but we can certainly grasp certain aspects of it that here's this picture of repentance it's unbelievable but moreover it's also a picture of the older brother and throughout the bible even the older brother you know it's a consistent theme right like Cain was older than Abel and then you know clearly the whole idea with with Ishmael and Isaac and then you got Esau and Jacob and then you know who can forget what happened to poor Joseph and his older brothers and so the idea of the older brother is is just a consistent thing that we see throughout the scripture and here we come as Jesus tells his story that the older brother it was right should have gotten the bigger inheritance the older brother did hang out and did everything that his father said and but he expected because his performance right that he would get the calf and he would get the ring and all that but it was the younger son which you know got the party so to speak and the father's joy and and it's amazing thing but the father was still willing completely to have joy in the older son and I think that that you know in Paul's way he's sharing that still but it's a really cool thing that if you study the Jewish culture there are two concepts that they teach they teach this which is really the idea of the prodigal there's the idea of what they call teshuva or shuva which has to do with returning and then they have the idea of what they call a zadok and a zadok means righteous so you have the righteous brother which is the older brother and then you have the shuva you have the the brother who returned right and what they teach this is the Jews they teach that they teach that the teshuva has the greater seat at the table why because he is familiar with how degraded he is without God and because he was the one that believed God right and it was counted for him as righteousness that that is the one that gets the better seat at the table than the zadok teach so they understand the concept but unfortunately they continue to reject and not believe God because at the end of the day do you believe Jesus is who he is and if you do and you return to God then wow I mean you you get you get the party you get the steak dinner you get the signet ring and the robe I mean you get the whole package yeah and we hope and and you can see this I think is Paul's heart throughout Romans 9 we still hope that Israel gets the whole package too we're not willing to you know is it this isn't like we deserve it more than anybody else no we don't deserve it at all yeah and so we hope we hope like crazy that that that people will believe and see how unbelievable loving God that we serve yes yes I mean you know it's interesting because we were talking about this before we're like Romans 9 man that's a tough chapter what are we going to talk about or whatever you know but when we were when we were talking about this and I had written this down the other day um I watched the national championship uh the college national championship and it was it was Alabama uh versus uh Georgia did you see the game are you saying Alabama's the older brother maybe actually maybe and what and it's funny that you said that and that may have been prophetic uh but the uh but the reason I say that is this is because um everybody thought you know or a lot of people thought Alabama was going to win the game I mean everybody you know Nick Saban they have the best coach this that the other whatever but at the very end of the game okay uh Alabama was down by eight and they tried to go down the field and and at that point they could have gotten a touchdown two-point conversion and would have forced overtime they didn't they uh Georgia they got a pick six so they ran the ball back and they were ahead by 15 everybody knew the game was over um uh the uh the quarterback for Georgia uh he was crying I mean they the game was over I mean for all intents and purposes the game was over they knew it was over there was maybe a minute or a minute and a half left but Alabama got the ball back and if you would have watched them play I mean they were playing like there was a minute and a half left and they could still win this game I mean they were throwing the ball they were trying to get out of that they were doing everything that they could do to get down the field to try to score a touchdown and it reminds me of what we're talking about with this whole works thing versus grace and faith because the game was over I mean it was absolutely over and everybody knew it was over but Alabama was trying as hard as they could to go down the field and possibly score a touchdown which would have meant nothing at all and so what I'm trying to say is this is that when we try to get into heaven by our own good works or when we try to make it ourselves or when we try to we work as hard as we can to get down that field because we're gonna somehow win it ain't gonna happen it ain't gonna happen and so at the same time on the other hand uh you know that if we realize or until we get to the point where we realize we ain't gonna win this game on this came on our own I mean we we we can contribute nothing to our own salvation and that Lord Jesus it's all up to you and it's all because of what you've done until we get to that point we're never going to be ready to receive salvation you know I have this good friend Adam Draper and and he um related some things to me that I think are precious along the ideas of faith that the way he explains it is you know the the woman with the issue of blood right that we don't have recorded any particular prayer that she prayed right all we know is that she obviously believed Jesus could do something for her and she chased him down in order to to just touch the hem of his garment and when it happened the way that Adam put it is that she had a call on his very essence she believed so much in her heart that God could do this for her that by touching God himself what she could do because Jesus was there then immediately it took place without you know Jesus is going okay I'm fixing to do this it just happened right and he also says and I think this is beautiful that the disciples when they're in the boat and it starts to storm you might remember right before Jesus said peace be still they start screaming you know they weren't praying like dear Lord Jesus please help the storms calm down it wasn't like that yeah like we're gonna die we're gonna die it was a real fancy prayer that they prayed you know like what they said you know we're dying here yeah and what happened was it was it was a call on who Jesus is because they believed that Jesus could do something about it all of a sudden he was like peace be still well what that sent was such a shockwave into the spiritual world that when when Jesus arrives on the shore look at the passage the demons come running up to him what are you doing messing with us before it's time because they were still feeling what he had done out in that when he said to the spirits like be still that this totally in faith believed that oh this is the guy this is the son of god and he did die for my sin and this is a guy then all of a sudden that's what makes us right that's absolutely right i mean as a matter of fact there was actually a there was a pastor uh that i listened to and uh his name is pastor rusty gunther uh i think it's a blowing rock first baptist of blowing rock but really love to hear him speak and i actually asked him for some of his sermons recently and uh i said because there was something that you you preached on and it spoke to me and he said it to me but one of the things that i that i had gotten from his sermon was he says that throughout human history because we're always talking about we want peace we want peace we want peace and he said but the interesting thing is throughout human history uh they've they've shown that about 92 percent of time in history there was some sort of a battle or war going on and he said that there's only eight percent of history where there was just complete peace and the way that he explained it was that he said that really if you explain the times of peace it's where the time where everybody kind of held their breath and and what they were doing is they were just reloading and so and so you know when i think about that i mean it's like we've when we're going through our everyday lives robbie and and i know robbie you probably don't deal with this man but i deal with some battles i mean there are some spiritual but i know you know you probably and if you're listening you probably don't have any problems it's just me um but i mean there is a constant battle that is going on but going back to this grace thing man when when i've got jesus i mean when i know that i've got the the prince of peace and he's living inside of me and i've got the holy spirit it's like whatever is going on in the world i mean however bad it seems it's like says in the bible that i've got the peace that surpasses all understanding so everybody else could be worrying about all the stuff and i've done that in the past by the way but where i am now is i've kind of gotten to a point where somebody says oh mike this is happening oh mike that's happening i'm like oh that's interesting well thank you jesus for being with me i'm not going to worry about it because i know that his grace covers everything and i know robbie that we're gonna go through some tough times see jesus said he said if you're a christian he said you will be persecuted in some way shape or form if you're going to make a stand for christ um and we've both gone through some stuff um but at the same time in those battles when things get so tough that we have the peace that surpasses all understanding and one of the stories that i was thinking about was uh and i had mentioned this before but um uh richard wormbrand are you familiar with him the uh have you heard of the voice of the martyrs oh he's the guy who started the voice of the martyrs he was in a romanian prison romania uh during communism and they tortured him for like 15 years straight and so there was a time where he was actually being tortured and his guard was torturing him torturing him it was just awful and then he the guard got up and went away for a second and he came back and he said the guard saw him praying and the guard said to richard he said what are you doing obviously your god can't stop any of this stuff and richard wormbrand said to the guard who had just tortured him he said i was praying for you the guy who was just torturing me and right on the spot the guard gave his life to christ and i think it's like so his circumstances weren't great the guard wasn't saying i want to be tortured but he said he saw the peace that he had with jesus and because he had that peace somebody who was torturing him somebody who was a non-believer said i want what you've got and and i think there may be something to that robbie to the extent of what romans chapter 9 is about is that that god allowed us right to be grafted in to get this unbelievable grace to get this unbelievable peace to be a spectacle not only to satan but to our older brother right israel to to say wow um man i wish i had that kind of faith i wish i had that kind of joy yeah i wish i had that kind of peace um and and and it's really cool i mean when you meet a bessianic jew or somebody that has you know obviously the born into the inheritance and all that kind of stuff when you see them convicted i mean they are a sharp knife like dr brown yeah i mean they're and when i think about this i think all of romans kind of to me there's different parts of it and in their separate chapters but i think a lot of it kind of goes together and when i think about this i go back to the verse and it's it's not in romans but it's second corinthians 5 21 and it says that god made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of god so when we you know some so many times and i think as christians we and i'm talking i've got three fingers pointing back at myself when i go back and i remind myself or i let the devil remind me of all of the sins that i've committed all of the wrong that i've done then really i'm kind of missing this whole point of grace because he's saying right there and and tell me if i'm if i'm reading it wrong but that in him we might become the righteousness of god so that when god sees robbie dillmore he no longer sees a dirty no good you know filthy rotten sinner car salesman car salesman or when he sees mike he doesn't see an insurance salesman or whatever it is that he sees the righteousness of god and and and you know unfortunately i think robbie some people just don't get that yeah and the beauty of it is is father abraham he had many sons he did he did but you know the the beautiful passage in genesis where he believed god he believed god and he counted him unto him as righteousness and so and so there is actually the the father of this idea of faith right and it's really cool in the 119th psalm as you know i've been studying in the nun section um where it says thy word is a light unto my feet and a lamp and or a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path that the nun is like your soul is considered the nafesh right and if you look there's a connection between your soul and righteousness and here's here's you'll find it throughout the psalms like you remember the 23rd psalm right it's where it says you know he led me beside still waters and right and then he said you restore my soul what's the next line it says guide me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake that's the very next thing is once our souls restored we need to be made right and it's just the way he's saying that but then how cool is this if you look in the gimel section of the 119th psalm it says my soul breaketh for a longing that it hath for thy judgments at all time well judgments have to do with righteousness okay like you being made right like your soul is breaketh and longing for the judgments that it hath at all times it's looking for judgment did you ever connect your soul to how much you need to be right and it's that conviction that says something right the matter of fact you know when you would you go you're right but would you would you go to romans none and i did want to touch on this before we because this was very important romans 9 19 and it says one of you will say to me then why does god still blame us for who is able to resist his will but who are you a human being to talk back to god shall what is form say to the one who was formed why did you make me like this does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use and here it is what if god although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known bore with great patience the the object of his wrath prepared for destruction what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy whom he prepared in advance for glory even us whom he called not only from the jews but also from the gentiles as he says in osia i will call them my people who are not my people and i will call her my loved one who is not my loved one and in the very place where it was said to them you are not my people there they will be called the children of god isaiah cries out concerning israel though the number of the israelites be like the sand of the sea only the remnant will be saved for the lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality it is just as isaiah said previously unless the lord almighty had left us descendants we would have become like sada we would have been like uh gomorrah and then this part the end part says israel's unbelief here it is what then shall we say that the gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it a righteousness that is by faith but the people of israel who pursued the the law as the way of of righteousness have not attained their goal why not because they pursued it not by faith but by works they stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written see i lay in zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame and i was reminded by pastor ron harris this morning a uh uh something that uh warren buffet had said many years ago and he said you never know who's skinny dipping until the tide goes out and you know when we're talking about this i'm reminded that you know you can do all as much as you want you can do as many works as you want but apart from the righteousness of faith in jesus christ you're skinny dipping yeah i i love that um i'm trying to think of the name of the panther player that his name escapes me right this minute but anyway he was talking about how they made it to the super bowl you were talking about alabama earlier and you know how cool it was that you know they played the whole season right because they were trying to get to the super bowl they were finally in the super bowl he's but you know you might remember they lost this was the the game of the field goal mess up or whatever happened and he said then all of a sudden like the scoreboard read it was over and he said they pulled a rope and pulled us off the field like the game's over you're done and and you and and you didn't win and so now you're being pulled off the field well the sad part you disappoint is just no different than your city you know you know the problem is the game's over and you lost yeah and at this point in time you don't have a chance to go back and like i i can try harder i can do better no no all we got to do is believe what believe that jesus was in fact who he said he was and it points to that in so many different ways i need his righteousness because i got none i need to make things right i mean something ain't right and we got to get right well here's how we get right jesus died so that you could be made right and your soul is longing for that and it can actually go into that right this minute if you just pray with us that's right and in in first corinthians 9 24 it says do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize run in such a way as to get the prize everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training they do it to get a crown that will not last but we do it to get a crown that will last forever and let me ask you something today if you've never surrendered your life to jesus christ you can make as much money as you want you can work as hard as you want you can have all the houses you can have all the stuff that this world says is great but you've missed the boat and if you've never surrendered your heart to christ i want to ask you to pray with me right now dear jesus i i know that i'm a sinner i know that i have messed up in my life lord i ask you to forgive me of all of my sins i trust in you as my personal savior and i give my life to thank you jesus for saving me in jesus name amen hey i just want to thank one of our sponsors greater love world outreach center over in burlington north carolina at 537 south ireland street they have services sunday at 10 30 in the morning and they have a wednesday night service at seven pastor ron harris he's been on the station before we love to have him on if you want to feel welcomed made to feel like you're at home go visit greater love world outreach center over in burlington this is the truth network