God’s Soverignty over Israel

Let’s review the main idea of this section: How God has worked with Israel historically (chapter 9), how he is working with Israel now(chapter 10), and how God is working with Israel in the future (Chapter 11)

Last week we learned about the covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,and David, .

Even though these covenants were between specific people and God, thes people were the fathers of the Jewish faith. They show God’s soverignty and flexability.

Paul gives us 2 examples of how, in His Divine Glory dealt with:

Moses(vs 14-16), and then with

Pharoh (vs 17-18)

Paul continues the chapter with a discussion of:

God’s right to choose, doesn’t relieve our responsibility to make correct choices

the chapter finishes with Israel’s present condition and problems with them relying on keeping the Law instead of trusting God in faith. The law becomes an idol to them. stands between them and God. It blocks them from having a relationship with Christ

14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 

The Christian man 0perating in his own natural reasoning. rebels against the sovereignty of God. If anything is left to God to make the choice, man immediately concludes that there is injustice. Why is that?

example: if a devout Christian pastor loses a child to cancer or an accident, whwe can struuggle in our natural thinking that there is injustice, right/

My friend, although we cannot intrude into the mysterious dealings of God, we can trust Him to act in justice. We cannot avoid the doctrine of election, nor can we reconcile God’s sovereign election with man’s free will. Both are true. Let’s keep in mind that this is His universe. He is sovereign.

15For 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.”

this next scripture passage takes place after Moses goes up the Holy mountain to get the second set of the Law written on the stone tablets.

Exodus 33:12–23 (NKJV)

12Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 

13Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” 

14And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 

15Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 

16For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” 

17So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 

18And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 

19Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 

20But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 

21And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 

22So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 

23Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

 Moses wanted to see the glory of God. God basicly said “I’ll show it to you, Moses, but I won’t show it to you because you are Moses.”

God showed His Glory because of His soverign choice.

Now, Moses was a very important person. He led the children of Israel through the wilderness.

God says, “I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. I will do this for you, not because you are Moses, but because I am God!”

Do you know why God saved any of us? It was not because we are someone, but because He is God.

We need to be careful not to assume we deserve God’s favor. That kind of pride isn’t in line with the way we ever come to God. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble

The New King James Version Chapter 4

16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.:

God’s mercy isn’t because we want it. it isn’t a reward of our Human–willing and human–working. These are not the reasons that God moves on our behalf. We may think that our decisions and our efforts cause God to look with favor upon us, but this isn’t entirely true.

Stifler explains it well when he says,

“Willing and running may indicate the possession of grace, but they are not the originating cause” (The Epistle to the Romans, p. 172).

Let’s talk about this possesion of grace:

God extends mercy, and He does it because He is God. Church,— Who are we to question Him?

I bow before Him today.

Nowfor this next section, Paul journeys slightly back in Jewish history From the wilderness after the Exodus, to Pharoh of Egypt right before the exodus, showing us one of several times that God used non-Jewish rulers to accomplish His will.

17For 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.”

God's purpose in raising Pharaoh was to demonstrate His power and declare His name world-wide.

God says that He used Pharaoh. “But,” you may say, “Pharoh wasn’t one of God’s people” No, he sure wasn’t.

Just think of the opportunities God gave him to humble himself. Pharaoh kept saying, “I am Pharaoh. I make the decisions around here. I reject the request to let the people of Israel go.” then God says to that, “You may think you won’t, but you are going to let them go.” God’s will prevails.

When the Scriptures say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it means: that God allowed Pharaoh to make the decision that was in his heart. God forced him to decide between doing the thing he wanted to do or surrendering to God

There never will be a person in hell who did not choose to be there. We are the ones who makes our own decisions.

18Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

God's sovereign choice to show mercy or harden hearts.

Pharaoh's heart was hardened both by God and by his own decision, confirming his choice despite witnessing miracles.

*19] You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”

Anticipation of the question regarding God's fault if His will cannot be resisted.

The argument against God goes like this: If god hardens our heart, we don’t have a choice anymore. How can that be right if we are supposed to willingly come to God?

we nhave to decide between doing the thing we want to do or surrendering to God. and it always goes one way or the other.

20But 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?” 

21Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 

AMPLIFIED VERSION

…to make out of the same mass (lump) one vessel for beauty and distinction and honorable use, and another for menial or ignoble and dishonorable use?

22What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 

23and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 

24even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Romans 9:20–24: Paul's response:

WE should not argue with God, the Master Potter, who has power over the clay to make vessels for honor or dishonor.

God's long-suffering with "vessels of wrath" and His desire to make known His glory on "vessels of mercy."

an obvious example of this was Judas. He knew what Judas was going to do, yet He was always kind and wise with Judas, giving him oppertunities to step out of darkness into the light, right up until the end.

This includes both Jews and Gentiles .

Trust in God's love, as demonstrated by His sacrifice on Calvary.

Romans 9:25–27 (NKJV)

25As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” 

Amplified

25Just as He says in Hosea, Those who were not My people I will call My people, and her who was not beloved [I will call] My beloved.

26“And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” 

27Isaiah 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.

Amplified Bible Chapter 9

27 And Isaiah calls out (solemnly cries aloud) over Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only the remnant (a small part of them) will be saved [from perdition, condemnation, judgment]!

Paul quotes Hosea, referring to Gentiles being called God's people, who were not His people at the time

Paul quotes Isaiah, stating that only a remnant of Israel will be saved.

28For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” 

29And 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.”

This is a startling statement, but it is a fitting climax to the sovereignty of God.

God will finish His work and save a remnant of Jews,(seed), preventing them from being completely wiped out.

Isaiah 1:9 “Unless the Lord of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah.”

This remnant, along with Gentiles, forms the church.

God's economy includes three groups: Jew, Gentile, and the Church (a new entity).

Only God’s mercy keeps any of us from going to hell, right?.

30What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;

: Gentiles, none of whom got right standing with God through the law, attained it through faith.

Realizing he’s a sinner unable to earn his way into the kingdom, the Gentile enters the kingdom solely by faith

Romans 9:31–33 (NKJV)

31but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 

32Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 

33As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

The Jew, on the other hand, attempted righteousness by the law and failed because the law cannot save man

(Galatians 3:24) Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

The law was given to show us we’re sinners. Yet to this day, the faithful Jew is trying to be saved by her good works. Ask a Jew in Israel today how he’s going to make it spiritually, and he’ll probably say, “We will make it by our good deeds.” practicing Jews understand that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22)

Hebrews 9:22 (NKJV)22And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission..

The Jewish people desperately want to rebuild the temple in order that they may offer Old Testament sacrifices again. his only option now is to hope his good works will cover his sins—as he continues to stumble over the very Cornerstone of the temple he is so desperate to build (Ephesians 2:20).

Ephesians 2:20–22 (NKJV)

20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 

21in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 

22in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

jesus is the blood sacrifice they are looking for. they just don’t know it yet.

But let’s not write them off just because they arent saved yet. God has a plan. Its in His word.