Speaker 1: Welcome to the ct Church Sermon Podcast. Ct Church is a Christian community of believers located in Northeast San Antonio, Texas. For more information or to contact us, visit us online at ctagsa.org. That's ctagsa.org.
Speaker 2: Today is a big day. You say, why? Well, I'm gonna tell you. Today is a big day because Romans, you know, has 16 chapters. Last week, we finished chapter eight, that means, we're halfway through.
Yeah. I thought I'd hear a collective Today, we start the second half of Romans. Now, I will I will tell you right upfront. You don't hear a lot of sermons based on Romans chapters nine, ten, and 11 because these are three tough chapters. They are, they do not fall into the category of easy reading.
In fact, lot of verses you'll hear in these next three chapters, you hear the verse and it makes you just stop and say, what? So, I want to begin today. Let's begin by asking god to just open our ears and our eyes to see and hear what he has for us this morning. Amen? Dear heavenly father, we thank you once again for just the privilege that it is to gather in your house, to hear your word.
Lord, let us hear what you're wanting to say to each of us individually, lord. Thank you that you speak to us on an individual basis, lord god. We thank you for that. So, we just commit this time to you. We thank you for it.
God, let your anointing be on it and all god's people said, amen. So, here's Romans nine one through 13. It's a little longer than normal. Paul begins by saying, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying.
My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I, myself, were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ who is god overall, blessed forever, amen. But it is not as though the word of god has failed.
For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all are children of Abraham because they are his his offspring. Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of god but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said, about this time next year, I will return and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather, Isaac, though they were not yet born, he had done and had done nothing either good or bad in order that god's purpose of election might continue not because of works but because of him who calls.
She was told, the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved but Esau I hated. See at that last line there is one of those that makes you say, what? We're going to get to that but basically, Paul has spent the first eight chapters of his letter to to the Roman church here declaring the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the title of this sermon is for his glory and so far, he's told us there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
He's talked about justification by faith, the works of the Holy Spirit, the believers adoption, and the unbreakable word of god. In fact, Romans eight, it ends with one of the greatest declarations in all of scripture when he said, nothing can separate us from the love of god which is Christ Jesus, our lord. But now here comes Romans nine, and Paul is weeping. I mean, he is completely heartbroken. Why is that?
Because even though the Jews are God's chosen people, the majority of them haven't accepted Jesus as their savior and their Messiah. You know, he began there one and three. You know, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I, myself, were a curse and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul is talking about who here? The Jews. He's talking about his people. God's chosen people.
They are his kinsmen according to the flesh. But it just I find it curious why Paul feels so strongly that he has to begin by convincing them that he's not lying to him. Am I going to be able to completely flesh that out? No, it's it's still a little mysterious to me. I can only guess, you know.
Yeah, several years back, I won't name any names. It's been quite a few years back. We had a youth pastor who a lot of times when I would ask him a question, he would begin by saying, well, I'm not gonna lie and then he'd go on and on. I always found that a little curious. You know, I thought, you know, when I ask this guy a question and he doesn't begin by saying, now, I'm not gonna lie.
Does that mean he's lying to me or what? You know, I I gotta figure this guy out. You know, I like, we got any Judge Judy watchers here this morning. My wife and I love to watch Judge Judy. Man, she is no nonsense, ain't she?
And sometimes, she'll ask somebody a question and they'll say, well, to be honest, your honor and she just cuts him off. She said, no, no. See, you're in a court of law. I want you to be dishonest. She says that almost every time and every time I kind of chuckle because it obviously annoys her but you know, maybe he felt he wasn't in you know, he needed to convince them that he was truly concerned for them because you know, earlier in Romans the second chapter verse five, he called them hardhearted and.
Speaker 3: Impenitent. People. Anybody ever called you Impenitent. No. Nobody uses the word Impenitent.
Speaker 2: Anymore. Raise your hand if I don't even know
Speaker 3: what Impenitent.
Speaker 2: Means. Let me see your hand. They got a bunch of liars in here this morning. There's a bunch of you don't know
Speaker 3: what Impenitent.
Speaker 2: Impenitent. If anyone ever calls you
Speaker 3: Impenitent. Man, they just they just slapped you across the face because Impenitent.
Speaker 2: Is describing someone who has absolutely no remorse or or shame for doing horrible things. You know, like a serial. I think of a serial killer. You know, they killed a dozen people, 20 people and they feel no remorse over it. Why?
Because they
Speaker 3: are impenitent. So, if someone ever says, man, you're. Impenitent.
Speaker 2: You're like a serial killer. It's not the nicest thing to say to somebody, right? Maybe that was part of it but there was also the fact that Paul at this point was very obviously becoming the evangelist to the Gentiles and that might have bugged the Jews. You know, here Paul, he's one of us and yet, it it seems like all of a sudden, he's more concerned with those lousy Gentiles than he is with us, god's chosen people. I I don't know for sure.
I'm guessing here but for whatever reason, Paul obviously is feeling very compelled to begin by convincing them. He's not lying to them. He's being completely straight and buddy, they really need to listen to this. Paul is experiencing heart trouble. Not the kind of heart trouble from, you know, blocked arteries or high cholesterol.
He's experiencing that heart trouble that that intense pain that is caused when someone that you love very much, that you care greatly for, they just won't accept Jesus. I mean, they're on a path headed straight to hell. How many have felt that pain before? I mean, you really care for someone. You've witnessed to em or and man, they're just cold to the gospel.
It it breaks your heart. Well, that's where Paul is and he's brokenhearted over tens of thousands of people. And verse three, man, I mean, this really drives home the fact of his great compassion for his fellow Jews. He says, for I wish that I, myself, were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of all of you, basically is what he's saying. My kinsmen, according to the flesh.
Those are some incredibly bold and powerful words. That word accursed literally means devoted to destruction. If you look at that, that this is incredible what Paul is saying. He's saying, if it were possible, I would be willing to give up my life in order to bring all of you to Christ. But the fact that Paul says, if it were possible, it shows us that, you know, he knows it's it's impossible because nobody but you can get you into heaven.
Amen? Say that with me. Nobody but me can get me into heaven. You need to remember that. Now, I don't know if I could say and really mean what Paul was saying.
I don't know if I could do that. I I believe in my heart that for someone incredibly close to me. Janet, any, if someone really enclosed to me, I could willingly give up my life to see someone I really loved get saved and I'm still praying for. But you know what I mean. I I I think in my heart, I could do that but this would all be predicated on the fact that when I lay down my life for someone's salvation, I get to go to heaven too.
Right? If you notice, that's not what Paul is saying here at all. He's saying, he would be willing to go to hell for eternity if it meant that the nation of Israel could go to heaven. Now, I'm not going to lie. I don't think I can do that one.
Homie's not there yet. You know, way back in the book of Exodus, the thirty second chapter, Moses says something very similar to that. You know, the people of Israel have made the big golden calf. They're all worshiping it. Moses comes down and, you know, is enraged.
God is enraged and ready to destroy these people and then Moses pleads with god to forgive them and he says, if you can't forgive them, just take my life to pay for their sins. Well, it wasn't any more possible in the days of Moses than it was for Paul for someone to give their life for the forgiveness of someone else's sins. That's only happened one time by one person. Amen? Amen.
I would love to sit here this morning and tell all of you that I've decided to spend my eternity in hell in exchange that all of you get to go to heaven. But I'm not going to. Not going to do it. Wouldn't be prudent, not at this juncture. If you're under 50, you don't even know who I'm imitating there.
That's okay. I'm not going to tell you. You figure it out. But it demonstrates this incredible love and compassion that some people apparently are capable of having when it comes to the salvation of others. Not only willing to give their life but to give their eternity in heaven.
That's a whole new level, isn't it? I heard, I read it. I didn't hear it. I recently read this story as I was preparing this sermon actually about this very famous evangelist especially in England whose name was Gypsy Smith. Gypsy was not his first, his real first name but he was indeed a Romanian born gypsy.
Anybody ever heard of an evangelist, a guy named Gypsy Smith? Well, if you were from England, you would. Very famous. He got saved at the age of 16 and buddy, he was on fire. And at the age of 16, he just felt called to go out and preach on the streets.
And I mean, apparently, he could preach up a storm because one day, a guy came by and stopped and listened to him. His name was William Booth. Anybody recognize the name William Booth? He founded the Salvation Army. Guy from England, founded the South and he listened to Gypsy Smith preaching and he invited him to become an evangelist for the Salvation Army and for the next fifteen to twenty years, Gypsy Smith traveled the world as an evangelist speaking for the Salvation Army Thousands came to Christ from his his ministry but Gypsy Smith had an uncle that he dearly loved.
And this is a famous story in England. According to this story, it's a very famous people have heard of Gypsy Smith and his uncle Albert. His name was Uncle Albert and so the first thing when I'm reading this, they're from England. I'm thinking, I wonder if McCartney was referencing this when he wrote those lyrics. We're so sorry, Uncle Albert.
We're so sorry if we caused you anything. Great song. And I don't know if he did or not, but it made me think that, and I'm sharing that just because it's a good excuse to sing, we're so sorry, uncle Albert. It's a great song. Thank you for indulging me.
He'd been praying for uncle Albert for years because unfortunately, uncle Albert was this hell raising alcoholic who was, I mean, just wild as a March hair. And Gypsy had been praying for this uncle for several years. One day, Uncle Albert was right there with him, and he and he said to Gypsy Smith, he said, Gypsy, how is it that the knees of your pants are completely worn out and the rest of your suit looks fine? And Gypsy looked up at uncle Albert, had these big tears in his eyes. He said, uncle Albert, I have worn out the knees of these pants praying for you to be saved.
He says, I want so much for god to make you a Christian and at that moment, uncle Albert welled up with tears, fell to his knees, and accepted Jesus Christ. I said all that story to to ask this question. Have any of us worn out the knees of our pants praying so hard for somebody's salvation? I don't know of anybody and Paul obviously cared a lot more than that because he was willing to give up his place in heaven for the salvation of his fellow Jews. That is a bold, bold statement, isn't it?
Now, we get to verses four and five that said, they are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises to them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ who is god overall, blessed forever. Paul is saying that Israel had definitely been given some very special privileges from god, right? Among them, he's mentioning the adoption as god's chosen people, the glory, the covenants, the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and ultimately, Jesus Christ himself. All out of the Jews. What what an incredible heritage, right?
God had chosen Abraham. God had delivered Israel from Egypt. God had given them the law. God had established his covenants with them. God had spoken through the Jewish prophets.
He'd given them the promises and given them Jesus himself out of the Jewish nation but here is the big problem. Everybody listening? This is a big problem. Having spiritual privilege does not equal possessing spiritual life. You can grow up in a family of incredible preachers of the gospel, mighty men and women of god and still not really know god.
You can sit in this church fifty two weeks out of the year and not personally know Jesus Christ. Well, you can know all about him. You might be able to quote scripture. You can you, I mean, man, you you know most of you that have been here since the first of the year, you know Romans inside out, half of it. But that just that, you know, you can have a dozen Bibles in your home and never really surrender your life to the god of those Bibles.
You know, you can know and even understand what what the church teaches and still be needing Jesus. Israel had this enormous privilege but privilege alone doesn't save. Heritage doesn't save. Family doesn't save. Being raised in a Christian home doesn't save.
Nobody's getting into heaven, hanging on to the shirt tail of their mom, their dad, you know, their spouse. That's not how it's going to work. There was a book written by George Barna, the Barna Group. If you're familiar with that, they do Christian research. Just try to figure out the state of Christianity in America basically.
One of his books was entitled The Frog in the Kettle. And his research in this book showed that one out of five people in The United States say that Christianity has everything to do with a personal relationship with Jesus. One out of five that out of thousands that were pulled. So in other words, the vast majority, they associated being a Christian to, oh, having a particular lifestyle or you know, a certain behavior in your life like loving people, helping others, being being a good, trying to be a good and honest person. A lot of them equated the term with, you know, well, that's people that attend church, you know, and people that have this, you know, belief in god.
How many of you in here believe in god? It's like every hand. Now, if I ask how many people here have absolutely know you have a personal relationship with Jesus, not every hand's gonna go up because there's a difference, isn't there? Amen. You know, I tell, I don't know.
I don't there's nobody in here that believes more strongly that god is god than Satan himself. Is he a Christian? No. No. Not close.
But he believes in god more than most people. So according to the Barna Group, according to this research, it's like 80% of the people walking around The United States believe that being a Christian and going to heaven is pretty much based on just trying to be a good person. Now, I see a correlation here with the Jews because if I was a betting man, I would be willing to bet that these percentages, I bet we're pretty close to the same. It was probably about 80% of the Jews figured they had their ticket to heaven punched simply because they're Jews. We're god's chosen people.
And this was breaking Paul's heart here. Paul knew that only the grace of God, which is received when we confess our sins and confess our faith in Jesus. That's what saves us. And you need to know that god is always willing to forgive us because he loves us so much, and his forgiveness demonstrates his glory to the world around us. Amen.
Because he has the power to erase our sins that demonstrates the incredible glory of god. Nobody else can do that but god, right? Paul's trying to address what has become a difficult question and situation here. In verses six through nine, Paul is trying to make sure they understand that god's word is not what has failed here. You know, if Israel had received the question that people were were kinda rolling around in their heads apparently, if Israel had received all these promises and yet 80% of the people are rejecting Christ, then, does that mean god's word has apparently failed?
And Paul is saying, absolutely not. Paul's pretty bold here saying that the fact that most Jews are rejecting Christ, it has nothing to do with god's word failing. It has everything to do with people failing. You know, we may not always understand why some people accept Jesus and others reject him but we can always know this, it's not because god has failed. Paul says, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
In other words, being a member of god's chosen people is not going to get you chosen. Paul goes back to Abraham again. Abraham had more than one son but god chose specifically specifically to work through Isaac and Paul quotes god's promise that through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He's trying to drive home the point here that god's promises are never based on our physical ancestry. My parents were wonderful Christians.
Their grace covers me. That's not how it works. People love to assume that if god promises this, whatever this is, then he needs, he's gotta do it exactly the way I expect him to do it. Otherwise, people tend to get a little disappointed but that's not what scripture says at all, is it? Scripture teaches us that god keeps his promises according to his will.
Not according to our expectations. He keeps his promises according to his will. See, our problem is his will sometimes doesn't line up with our will because we're trying to make his will line up with our expectations and that is not how it works either. So, verses ten and twelve, Paul again trying to drive home this point that God's purpose never depends on human achievement. He said, and not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that god's purpose of election might continue not because of works but because of him who calls, she was told that the older will serve the younger.
That went exactly against the grain of how Jewish families operated. The younger was never dominant over the old the older always had the rights. You know, they always inherited the birthright. They not the younger one. So this was way different than what they were used to.
And Paul's using Jacob and Esau as an example. He said, you know, they were brothers. They had the same parents. They were in fact twins and yet god announced a distinction between them before they were ever even born. Paul makes an important statement here.
Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad. That's an important statement there because Paul is saying that before either one of them even had a chance to do any kind of works, whether good or bad, god had declared the older one is going to serve the younger one. And I think his point here is that our salvation is certainly never going to depend on our achievements. You know, these two guys, they hadn't even done anything yet, good or bad, weren't even born yet. Sometimes, people love to think that we can earn god's salvation.
You know, someone might think, well, god, he chose me because I'm just so good. Or god chose me because I am so incredibly smart. You know, he needs me around all these dumb people. Or maybe god chose me because he just knows I deserve it. You know, for twenty some years, I've always challenged you guys in your time of prayer, never ever ever pray that god just give you what you deserve.
That is one stupid prayer. Don't ever pray. Lord, just give me what I deserve Because he will. Some people love to boast about their position as a child of god. I'm ashamed to say, I've run across some preachers in my year that kinda drive me.
I mean, they they they just like to boast of their incredible Christianity. But here's the thing, when we become a Christian, it's all because of god's grace, right? You with me? The only way we become a Christian is through god's grace. Well, god's grace destroys boasting.
If you hear someone boasting about how wonderful they are or what a wonderful Christian they are, Run the other direction. There you're there's trouble. Salvation is a gift of god's mercy. So, no one's ever going to get to stand before god and say, well, lord, look at look at what all I accomplished. I mean, I did most of this all by myself.
When the truth is, you don't accomplish anything by yourself. Amen. We all need god's grace. Amen? Successful people need god's grace.
Struggling people need god's grace. Religious people need god's grace. Rebellious people need god's. All of us are doomed to eternity in hell unless we get god's grace. Every single one of us, we all come to god the exact same way as sinners in need of grace.
Everybody, we all come the same way. Verse 11 is addressing this mystery of god's election. It's a it's it's a mystery. We don't know why god chooses certain people to do certain things. We often don't understand why certain things happen to other people or happen to us.
I I'll tell you, I don't fully understand why I had to get my leg chopped off. Because god knows, I really loved that leg. I was, man, I was so attached to that leg. You know, there are there are things we don't understand but we have to know that god is in control. Amen?
Amen. You know, Paul states not because of works but because of him who calls. There are things about god that our finite minds are never going to fully understand. I don't care if you read the Bible 100 times. There are mysteries of god that you are not going to fully understand because god is god and we are not.
His wisdom and knowledge are infinitely great and our wisdom and knowledge compared to god look looks like this. So, obviously, there are things we may not understand and you know, sometimes it makes it easy for Christians to make one of two mistakes. I've seen it down through the years. The first mistake is to pretend that there are no mysteries of god. I've met some preachers like this too.
I mean, today, there's no, there's nothing mysterious in the Bible. They've got an answer for everything. They can explain everything. They have taken every little nuance and reduced it to some kind of formula but I'm telling you, god cannot be reduced to a formula. That's right.
And so, it is a mistake to even pretend you know everything. You've got it all figured out. There are mysteries of god. The second mistake that I've seen Christians make is they actually try to use the mysteries of god as an excuse to not fully believe everything the Bible's teaching us. In other words, you know, well, you know, if the Bible's written in such a way that we can't fully understand every little ounce of it, then, we don't have to necessarily believe it all.
Man, do you actually think you have the same knowledge and understanding of all things as god does? You don't in case you do. I'm I'm here to tell you it's good you came here this morning so I could tell you, no, you don't. There are mysteries of god that we're not going to understand as long as we're walking on this god's green Earth. I mean, to have that attitude, well, no, I I know everything.
Man, that that'd be very arrogant, wouldn't it? And all that arrogance kind of that attitude started in the Garden of Eden, didn't it? We didn't get past the first two human beings before we started having a problem with wanting to know everything and thinking we ought to know everything. So, we're born into it, right? Here's here's what I think is the secret to this thing and that is this, when scripture speaks clearly to us, just simply believe it.
When scripture is a bit mysterious to us, simply trust god. You know, that's called having faith. If we knew everything, if we understood everything, if we had all knowledge, if we understood everything there is to understand about god, we really wouldn't need any faith, you know. We know it all. That but that's not what faith is about.
Faith is believing the mysteries of god simply because he is god and we are not. Faith says, I don't have to completely understand everything. Faith says, I know enough about god to trust him even when I don't understand. And for the last three years, that that truth has come alive in my life, you know. I don't I don't understand why I had to get a leg chopped off, you know.
God coulda healed me of that bacterial infection. He chose not to, but I still place my trust that he's got my best interest at heart and he's using me in ways that I otherwise would not have been used. You know, Janet and I have spoken many churches to share our testimony. They invited me to speak at last year's disc or general council meeting of thousands and thousands of all of the AG pastors. I'm up there talking to them.
I'm telling you, if I had two legs, that invitation would have never come. That much I know. You know, think about think about your kids. You're raising your kids in a Christian home, hopefully. You know, our children, as they're growing up, they don't understand all the decisions we make and we don't expect them to understand every decision we make, right?
Kids, there's a lot they don't understand. They don't understand finances. They understand they want some money for this or that but they don't really understand finances, right? So, when we have important financial decisions to make, I don't think any of us go to our, you know, 10 year old kids. What do you think I should do?
Because they're going to say, well, I think you should not pay the electric bill and get that Xbox that I've been wanting. Now, there is sound financial advice right there. Yeah, that's why we don't do it, right? Kids don't understand medical needs. Kids don't even understand a lot of dangers.
That's why parents exist to keep an eye on them before they kill themselves. How many of you did things growing up as a kid that could have easily killed you? I'll keep my hand up for a while on this one. My mom has a long list, man. I did all sorts of things that could've killed me.
I grew up in a little town in Illinois outside of Peoria called Morton, Illinois. And there were these two long tunnels that went from where I lived in the in the town, in the Morton and I'm going to say these tunnels were about a little over half a football field long. 75 yards to 100 yards. So, and so, you know, we're riding bikes into town back and forth sometimes several times a day and what made it fun was if we saw a car coming to now decide, can I beat it or not? Because there wasn't really room once you get in that tunnel for the car or anybody to go around you.
You had to beat it. I am living proof. I beat it every time. But how stupid is that, right? I mean, if I had tipped over, fallen, you know, I woulda I coulda killed myself 100 times just in those tunnels.
Remember one time in, I won't share that. Gotta get going. It's a good story about almost killing yourself, though. But here's what kids know. They don't know everything, but here's what they know.
Hopefully, this is what they know. Well, my parents love me, and that's all I need to know. See, that's the key because we can trust people that love us, can't we? Love is what creates trust in our life. You know, when we're always praying to god, give me, give me, give me, you know, and he supplies that.
That that doesn't necessarily always build our build our trust. Sometimes, it just gets us in a bad habit of asking for give me, give me, give me. But when we experience God's love and feel his love, he loves us so much. That's what really begins to build our trust in him. The more we love him and the more we know he loves us, the higher the level the trust goes.
That's how it works. I mean, we know he sent his son to die for us strictly because he loved us. And we know Jesus died for his sins. He rose again. He's coming again one day to receive his church because he loves us.
So, when we face things in life that we don't understand and that happens all the time, right? We don't, that shouldn't cause us to throw away our faith. It should cause us to say, lord, I'm going to trust you on this one. That's the only answer a lot of times. Lord, I don't get it but I'm going to trust you.
And finally, we get to that weird, confusing verse 13 where he said, Jacob, I love, but Esau, I hated. The big problem here really is in translation. The statement doesn't mean that god possesses the ability to hate certain people, to pick and choose who he's going to love. God loves all of us. Amen?
And those those very strong words are just to show us that god's purposes are not they're not controlled by human entitlement. You know, Esau was not going to win that one even just because he was older. You know, Jacob didn't have something inherently superior to Esau that forced god to choose him. Esau couldn't say, well, you know, god, he just owes me and Jacob couldn't say, well, god had to choose me because I'm just so much better because the truth of the fact is neither Jacob nor Esau were all that great. Esau was very very immoral.
Jacob was a liar. But if we had to pick, you know, one to receive god's blessing, I'm sure most of us would pick Esau or I mean, pick Jacob because well, you know, his lifestyle was a little bit better than Esau's but Paul's pointing out the fact that god had made the choice before either of em were born. Before either one had a chance to do anything right or wrong, it was all about god's sovereignty. His elective purpose before any of us are born, god has a plan for our life. Now, whether or not we ever fulfill that plan, that's a whole another sermon, right?
The point here is about god's grace. If salvation depends on us being good, we're all in trouble. If salvation depends on us earning god's favor, we're going to fail. If salvation depends on our performance, we're gonna lose. Our salvation is all about God's grace to us.
Grace is a gift. We don't earn it. I've heard this example before. It's been around a long time, but it's a good one. The difference between a wage and a gift.
You know, if you work hard all week long and at the end of the week on Friday, your boss comes up and hands you your paycheck and says, oh, by the way, I have a gift for you. You're gonna look at him and say, I don't know what you're talking about, pal. This is not a gift. I earned this. You you owed it to me.
But if someone pays a debt that you just cannot pay, that's grace. And we all need God's grace. Right? Because everyone of us, we all have a debt that we can't pay. Jesus paid that debt, and salvation is the gift of of that grace.
That's why Paul is speaking so strongly here about the sovereignty of god because salvation ultimately gives god the glory. None of us can say, well, Jesus, yet he helped me save myself but I did a lot of it. No. All we can say is Jesus saved me. Period.
He gets all the glory, right? Paul is desperately trying to explain god's sovereignty does not relieve us from human responsibility. God is sovereign but we gotta take some action, right? We have to repent. We have to believe.
We have to call upon the name of the lord. So, finally, the question is this, in this whole passage. The question becomes, well, who exactly are the chosen ones? Who are the chosen one? Who are god's chosen people?
Is it simply the Jews just because they're Jewish? Because Paul saying that's not it. Here's the answer. Here's what this whole message is come around to. Who are the chosen ones?
The chosen ones are those who choose Christ. Only you can make yourself a chosen one. And prevent forest fires. Never mind. It just popped into my head and I have no filter.
So, I had to tag it on. I'm sorry. The chosen ones are those who choose Christ. That's all it takes to be one of God's chosen people. Aren't you thankful for that this morning?
All you gotta do is you just gotta make the choice. It's all up to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the ct church sermon podcast. Be sure to visit us online at ctagsa.org. That's ctagsa.org.