What an awesome message while we were yet sinners Christ died for us! Paul teaching grace always pointed to the object of our faith being in Jesus Christ. God helps us preach the gospel message of whosoever...
“Whosoever”
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Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
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The Apostle Paul ’s love of people is truly unveiled. His heart ached to see revival come to his people. His heart was for the Jewish people. What a statement, that if him being accursed from Christ could bring his fellow countrymen into this covenant of grace he would be willing. Paul consistently points to Jesus is the way into covenant with God and there is no other way. There is a false doctrine running through the church today that we need to join up with Jews simply because they are Jews.
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Jesus was Jewish and I want to walk carefully and lovingly here. There is indeed much blessing for the Jewish people from whom Christ, the law, and the covenant of promise came. There is one way into covenant with God today. It is through Jesus Christ alone! Those who reject Jesus is the Messiah have rejected the one true God.
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John 8:19 Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also." 20 These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come. 21 Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come." 22 So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?" 23 And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
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We as believers can not join ourselves to just anything. We must accept the words of Jesus. No man can know God except through Jesus Christ alone. All who do not accept Jesus is the exclusive way to God are of this world; they will die in their sins. I write it often, what men think of Jesus Christ determines their destiny.
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2 John 1:9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
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TV evangelist are inviting Jewish Rabbis who are without a confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Even espousing we may learn much from them. This is the spirit of anti-Christ in the church. Allow me to quote Jesus again.
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Matthew 10:32 "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
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When the believer joins himself to the unbeliever we have become unequally yoked. We have been commanded to not do this.
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1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Our greatest fellowship should be with those who agree with the testimony of 1 John 5. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
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Romans 9:6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel , 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
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Those who are the children of promise are those who have faith in Jesus Christ
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Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
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John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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Romans 9:9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son." 10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." 13 As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 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." 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to 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." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 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?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not 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."
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Many believer have had much confusion in regards to this passage. Many have missed the truth taught in Romans 8 and then completely misunderstand the election of God. We have to this point laid the ground work for all of Romans so carefully! Some have gained an understanding of this passage above and make void everything they learned up to this point. Anyone preaching that faith in Jesus Christ is not the central truth of salvation is laying a completely different foundation than what the Apostle Paul carefully outline for the believer. Some taking this passage above out of context say “God makes some men evil and God makes some men righteous and they have forgotten what we already learned in Romans chapter 8. Without the proper building block in place you may certainly come to false conclusions about this passage here in Roman 9. Let’s go back to the building block verse that can open our understanding of the whole of this passage.
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Romans 8:29 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.
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Election is according to the foreknowledge of God. God in His foreknowledge knew who would serve Him. From His foreknowledge he allowed men to chose evil or good and helped them along in their choices.
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1 Peter 1:2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
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God told Israel time and again what their behavior would be and what His response would be. See the time God called out by name men who rose up and fulfilled what God said. King Josiah, King Cyrus to name just a couple. This indeed is God’s foreknowledge at work for the furtherance of His purpose. God in His foreknowledge knew man was going to sin and made the propitiation plan before the foundation of the world. God is so perfect in foreknowledge He called Jesus the lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.
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Many have misunderstood the Romans 9 passage ignoring the truth of God’s foreknowledge. Many twisted the doctrine of God’s election according to foreknowledge and called it God’s select elect. Men have to explain away so many passages of the Word of God when they come to this misunderstanding.
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1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
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2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
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God used the men and woman listed in Romans 9 indeed the righteous and unrighteous to further His purpose. Pharaoh hardened his heart and God helped him along and hardened his heart further. Esau hardened his heart and yes because of God’s foreknowledge God can say Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.
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Jesus is the Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of the world. God had salvation planned ever before man sinned. It is with God’s foreknowledge he chose men from the foundation of the world, some for destruction and some for righteousness
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Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.'
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Repentance and remission of sins is still the gospel message; at the name of Jesus men can find salvation.
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Mark 8:34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.
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John 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
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1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
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Revelations 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
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