“DOING THE RIGHT THING” “THE COMPASSION OF GOD”

Services

Sunday
10:30 AM Worship Service

Wednesday
6:30 PM Bible Study

May 28, 2023

“DOING THE RIGHT THING”

“THE COMPASSION OF GOD”

ROMANS 9:19-33


Two Characteristic of God Showing His Compassion:


  1.   God’s Justice- Romans 9:19-29


“If God is sovereign, then who can resist Him? And if one does resist Him, what right does He have to judge?”


Genesis 18:25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”


  • Who Are We To Argue With God?


Romans 9:19-21 “You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 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?”


God is the Potter and we are the clay.


Isaiah 45:9 “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?”


The important thing to remember is that God is God, and little man won’t change that.


Job 9:12 “If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?”


  • God Has His Purpose


Romans 9:22-24 “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, 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?”


Exodus 3:7 “And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.”


The fact that God was “long-suffering” vs.22, indicates that He gave Pharaoh opportunities to be saved:


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.”


Proverbs 16:4 “The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.”


1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”


Romans 8:29-30 “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. 30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”


  • All of This Was Prophesied


Romans 9:25-29 “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.” 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. 28 For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. 29 And as Isaiah said before; unless the Lord of the Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have become like Gomorrah.”


Paul quotes:


Hosea 2:23 “Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!”


God was declaring He would turn from the Jews and call the Gentiles.


Hosea 1:10 “Yet the number of the children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’ There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.”


He proves that the new people being called would be God’s people and be called sons of the living God.


Isaiah 10:22-23 “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. 23For the Lord God of hosts Will make a determined end In the midst of all the land.”

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


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.”


Now what does all of this prove?


2.   God’s Grace- Romans 9:30-33


Paul moves from God’s divine sovereignty to human responsibility. He talks about “faith.”


Romans 9:30-33 “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 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.”


Romans 3:22-23 “Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.


Isaiah 28:16 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.”


Psalm 118:22 “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.”


God does not save people on the basis of birth or behavior, He saves “by grace through faith” 


Ephesians 2:8-9. It is not a question of whether or not we are among God’s chosen, He offers salvation by faith to “whosoever believes in Him. Romans 10:13