God’s Sovereignty and Faith (Rom. 9:1-13)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The title of today’s sermon is, “God’s Sovereignty and Faith.” The most important thing that can affect our spiritual state is whether or not we can acknowledge God’s sovereignty. If we say that our life is hard or our walk of faith is difficult, it means we are not acknowledging God’s sovereignty very much. In other words, how much are you believing and acknowledging that God is God? Depending on that, your life will change.
1. Israel
1) View of salvation
Through Romans 8, God was telling us through Apostle Paul about salvation. We were told that God had chosen us in advance from before creation. He also said that we had been called, and that we are being justified and glorified. So, God already completed salvation from before creation, and has already completed it until after our death and resurrection. Then, while we are living our life on earth, God is guiding us towards sanctification. This “sanctification” means that God is guiding us in the direction where God works all things according to His good purpose, and God’s good purpose is to change us to become into the image of Christ. In other words, we who have been saved, the Spirit of God lives within us. However, our thoughts, our emotions, our will are very deeply rooted in opposing God. Then, our actions will not be aligned with God.
However, in this process of sanctification, Christ is changing our thoughts, our emotions, and our will to be more aligned and to follow God, and our walk of faith we are living now is in that journey. Depending on how much you acknowledge this, your inner person will change. Then, how much will I acknowledge God’s absolute sovereignty within me? In other words, how will I entrust everything that happens in my life to God? Depending on that, our life will change.
The Apostle Paul was called as an apostle for the Gentiles, however, when he looked at his own people, the Israelites, he saw them rejecting the gospel. He is saying today that this caused pain in his heart. There is grief and pain in the hearts of people whose families have not accepted the gospel, either. This is a common characteristic that those who have salvation feel. But why is Israel rejecting the gospel like this? God originally gave the Israelites a special right, the special right of being adopted sons, meaning they were adopted. They were originally sinners but they became children of God by being adopted into sonship, and upon them, the glory of God shined, so God revealed Himself only to the Israelites, and God gave them a promise. What is that promise?
In Exodus 19:5, God told them, “You are my possession,” and He called them a “nation of priests.” The “priest” is like a mediator who connects two parties together. He also called the Israelites a “holy nation,” in other words, they had been set apart, different from the rest of the world. This was God’s promise to the Israelites, and He also says the whole world belongs to God, but God called the Israelites separately, at first. This promise of God is the same age by age, why? Because the first people who received God’s promise died, and so, God has to tell this promise again to the next generation. Then, when the next generation passes away, God repeats that promise to the next generation. So now, for those who believe in Jesus Christ in the New Testament, God says the same promise again.
1 Peter 2:9 says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood.” It’s the same promise, “A holy nation, God’s special possession, called to declare the praises of Christ.” The promise of the Old Testament in Exodus and the promise in the New Testament is the same. That promise was given to the Israelites.
(1) Keep the law
He also gave us the law—the reason He gave us the law was so that we can go towards Christ. However, the Israelites thought they could keep the law by themselves. They thought they could get salvation by keeping the law, so they would not need Christ. The Israelites thought, “Since we received the law from God and since we received salvation by keeping the law, the Gentiles who do not keep the law need to go to hell,” so the Israelite people did not know the heart of God at all.
The same thing is happening today. The reason God called us is to declare His wonderful praises. The reason why churches exist in the world is to save the world. But, if this is not coming into our hearts, it means we do not understand God. If your faith is different from the words of the Bible, may you have the blessing of being corrected and aligned.
(2) Only the Jews who keep the law are saved
(3) Gentiles aren’t saved
The Israelites said they were the chosen people, they were under the misconception that they were chosen because there was something special about them. They thought they were worthy of being blessed and saved and that the Gentiles needed to be cursed and go to hell.
How do we begin our walk of faith? Depending on how we begin, our whole walk of faith will change.
2) Paul’s sorrow and anguish (Rom. 9:1-2)
(1) Brothers who haven’t received the gospel (Rom. 9:3)
(2) Cursed myself (Rom. 9:3)
(3) Wish that they receive the gospel (Rom. 9:3)
3) Privilege of Israel
(1) Sonship, glory, covenant (Rom. 9:4)
(2) Law, worship, promise (Rom. 9:4)
God also gave the Israelites worship. What is “worship”? It is something we give to God. Through the sacrifices of worship, our sins are forgiven, and we receive God’s grace. God also gave His promise, the promise that He gave to Abraham. “Go to the land I will show you, I will make you into a source of blessings, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” This was the promise that was given to the Israelites. But the Israelites thought they received this promise because they were special or different from the rest of the peoples.
That’s not correct; God called the Israelites so He could give them the gospel, to spread the gospel to the Gentiles through them. All the ancestors of faith were Israelites, and even Jesus Christ, Who is God Himself, came through the Israelite bloodline, so the Israelites had this kind of special right. If you have a special right, you must use it for other people. God did not give you any kind of special treatment so you can boast about it to others and say you are better than others. If God has given me a lot of blessings, then it must be used to help others. It’s not that I have a lot of abilities or power; God gave me that ability. If we don’t acknowledge this, then we’re going to use our special abilities to show that we are different from other people. Instead of glorifying God through our special talents, we will only glorify ourselves and we will be exactly like the Israelites. This is very important in our faith. If the color of your faith is different than what God wants, you are not aligned with God.
(3) Patriarchs, Christ (God) (Rom. 9:5)
2. Fulfillment of God’s word
1) Prosper
(1) Descended from Israel – Israel ×
(2) Abraham’s offspring – All his children ×
Apostle Paul was looking at the Israelites, and he claimed that not everyone opposed the gospel. In Rom. 9:6, it says, “It is not as through God’s Word had failed, for not all who are descended from Israel [meaning Abraham] are Israel.” Paul is saying, “Just because you are a blood descendant of Abraham or Israel does not mean you are a believer of God, Israel.” To prove this, the Apostle Paul gave the evidence of Abraham’s children, because even of Abraham’s physical children, not all of them were chosen by God.
One of Abraham’s sons was named Ishmael, who was born of Abraham physically, but was not the promised child God gave him.
(3) Offspring through Isaac – His offspring
2) God’s children
(1) Not the children by physical descent (Rom. 9:8)
(2) Children of the promise (Rom. 9:8)
(3) Regarded as offspring (Rom. 9:8)
Who was the one who God chose? Only the one who is born, following the Word God has promised, is the child of promise. That was Isaac. Abraham had a son when he was 100 years old. It was impossible for him to have children, but God gave him that child because of God’s promised Word, so all of Abraham’s other children are not the children of God’s promise; they were not according to the Word. But the Israelites were under the misconception that anybody born in Abraham’s bloodline lineage is a child of God.
3) Word of promise
(1) Sarah will have a son (Rom. 9:9)
(2) The older will serve the younger (Rom. 9:12)
(3) Love Jacob, hate Esau – Priority (Rom. 9:13)
Paul gives another example. Isaac got married to a woman named Rebekah who had twins. But before the twins were born, one of the twins was chosen by God and the other was not. If we listen only to this point, we start to doubt God. “I thought that God was a good God so how can He choose some people and not choose other people? Isn’t that so unfair! In other words, if God does not choose this person, He is pretty much sending them to hell, isn’t He? How can I believe in that kind of God?” If we look at the Bible from the knowledge and experiences from the world, we may interpret it like that, but that kind of faith means, “I will only accept God if I can understand Him with my own brain. If I cannot understand God with my brain, then I refuse to believe in Him.” Then, what kind of reality is that? That is just like Genesis 3, when Satan tempted Adam and Eve into eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, because “Then, you will be like God and then you will know what is good and evil,” so now I have become my own god and I am judging what is right and what is wrong, and in that kind of spiritual state, we have no choice but to be suspicious of God. “If I am the standard and from my perspective, how can I believe in a god like this? The god that I want is the god who saves everybody; why does God only save Isaac and not Ishamel? Why does God create hell and send people to hell? How can I believe in that kind of God?”
People might think like that, but that is us trying to understand God centered on ourselves, centered on the things we’ve learned in the world. We have a cat at home, and sometimes when she asks for food, we’ll give her food, and sometimes we will not. Sometimes when we do not give her food, she starts to get suspicious or doubt us. But it’s because our cat is getting overweight. Because we are giving her too much food and she is not getting enough exercise, she is getting overweight and it’s bad for her health; we must take her to the hospital, so we cut down on her food, but do you think the cat will understand the heart with which I am doing this? The cat is wondering why I am not feeding her, so even animals will be suspicious and start to doubt people. But how can the cat understand my heart? Me restricting her diet is good for her.
Now that I’m married and I’m raising my child, I understand the heart of my parents. Before that point, I just treated my parents however I wanted, but now that I’m married and I’m raising my child, I understand the heart of my parents when they raised me, and I’m sure all of the parents can understand what I am saying. Even humans as old as I am do not understand. If you cannot understand the heart of even our parents, how can we possibly fathom the heart of God?
Then, what is best? Knowing that when my parents are saying this to me, they have a reason. For the cat, they just need to trust in me that if I’m restricting their diet, there’s a reason why. That’s the best, but that’s not what humans are like. We only want to accept things that we can understand with our brains, but we’re not able to understand and analyze the scars of our past, so we keep getting afflicted by them. From my personal experiences, the scars I received from my past were actually another step that helped me understand Christ even more, but if you don’t understand that, then you will always be afflicted by your scars. We might respond to that by saying, “Why did God have to make me go through all of that pain, just to understand Christ? Couldn’t He have just given me the understanding?” God gives us the answer in the Bible, He says, “I work in all things for My good purpose,” this is God’s answer to us. The reason I restrict my cat’s diet is for her own health, but if my cat holds a grudge against me for the rest of their life, then who will really be at a loss? With her incorrect knowledge, she does that, based on her experience and her standards, but if my cat rusted me even a little bit, she’d understand that I have a reason. Then, later on, she’ll realize, “Oh, it was for my health.” Can I trust in the perfection of God? The God I believe in is absolute, He is perfect and complete. If you acknowledge God’s absolute sovereignty in everything that’s happening to you right now, then you will see God working and guiding you.
But our walk of faith is at a level where we ask Him, “Why are You giving me this hardship?” We only think God is alive if He prevents bad things from happening, but that’s not true. Through these things we endure, we become more like the image of Christ. In other words, God is changing us to become a person of blessings. The more we acknowledge God’s absolute sovereignty in everything that happens, we are filled with God’s peace, joy, and righteousness. Many people are afraid of the future; however, if you entrust that into God’s absolute sovereignty, you will no longer be afraid.
So, depending on our faith and how much we acknowledge God’s absolute sovereignty, our future and our present reality will change so much. The Bible tells us that Rebecca had twins in her womb and God had already made a decision. Rom.9:11, Paul says, “Before the twins were born, or had done anything good or bad in order that God’s purpose of election might stand,” this is important, and when God makes this decision it is not based on any condition of mankind, there is no condition at all. There is not even one percent of our actions that is taken as a factor in His decision. God chooses, if you acknowledge this, then your walk of faith will change. Many people think, “There’s something slightly different from me than other people,” or some people might think, “It’s because I have many Christians in my family, from many generations,” but the Bible does not say that. The Bible says that, from even when they were in the womb, God chose the younger to be the first. So, from the very beginning, before they were born, God decided that the older will serve the younger. The two twins’ names are Jacob and Esau, and in Rm. 9:13, it says, “As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”
3. God’s decision
1) Good or bad acts by humans
(1) Decided upon before being done (Rom. 9:11)
(2) Standard of action ×
(3) Decided in the womb
Does God hate? There is a reason why the Bible uses the word, “hate,” there is a specific meaning. Luke 14:26 says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” This is talking about our priority, that, between you and Jesus Christ, there should not be anything in between. Even your parents cannot come between you and Jesus. Even your own life cannot come between you and Jesus. That means that Jesus Christ must be your number one. So when this Bible scripture says, “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated,” it means that Jacob was chosen as first, therefore, the standard is not based on our actions, the only standard is how God has called you.
2) Standard of the one who calls
(1) God’s sovereignty
Then, isn’t that so unfair? How is it that one life has not done anything, and the other life has not done anything but they are not chosen. We feel that it is unfair, but in reality, after Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve sinned against God, every human is a sinner and has fallen short of God’s glory. Because all have fallen short of God’s glory, everyone should go to hell. Because God is a God of justice, He gives fair judgment regarding sin. On the other hand, God is a God of love so He saves people too. If God is the One Who is saving people and He chooses to save some ,who can fight back against that? Can we really say that the God Who saves us is unfair? We cannot, we must be happy to believe in that sovereignty of God.
(2) Chosen because of calling
Apostle Paul was a student of Gamaliel. During that time, Gamaliel was such a renowned teacher that in order to become his student, you had to memorize all of the Jewish scriptures. Only the top students who could do that were chosen to be his student. So Paul was a future leader of Israel who was renowned even at a young age. But the God he believed in in the past was a god who must kill anyone who believes in Jesus, but one day, Paul was going to Damascus, and the Lord came and called him. Apostle Paul had done nothing to be called by God, but God called him and God said, “I have called you as an apostle to the Gentiles,” but the highly educated and intelligent Paul ever said, “God is unfair,” he said, “God has chosen and called me, even before creation. Even before creation, God has called me and allowed me to train on all of these Jewish scriptures, so I can save not only the Israelites, but also the Gentiles.” Why are we living in America? Why was I born into this family? It’s the same thing, there is a reason from God, if you discover that reason, then you’ll understand why God did this.
Especially the scars that you get from your family, we might call it a “scar,” but all of these things happen because we do not know God well. The reason it becomes such a “scar” for us is because we cannot understand with our brain. Later on, we are sometimes set free from our scars, but in reality, our scar is a scar because we are centered on ourselves. We think, “I have no fault or any problems of my own, everyone has hurt me,” but in reality, the problem is with both parties because we are not asking, “Why did God allow this?” If we discover why God allowed it, we will be set free and a lot of people’s mental problems begin from their scars because it hurts so much and we hate the other person. We think, “If only that person hadn’t hurt me like this?” and if you want to believe in God like that, would you be able to? You have to acknowledge God allowed that to happen. God has allowed this to happen because it is a necessary tool for me to listen to and believe in God more. Then, when you look back on that incident, you’re actually thankful, because without a doubt, we needed that to happen in our lives.
(3) Human’s conditions not related to decisions
Look what happened to Joseph. His older brothers tried to kill him, imagine how large of a scar that is. They were about to let him just die in the field, and one of his older brothers said, “Let’s sell him as a slave.” He was remembering all of this, and imagine what he was thinking when he was being dragged off to Egypt. Most people will want to seek revenge, but God gave him grace. God used their evil methods to ultimately fulfill God’s good purpose. Then, he was unfairly and falsely accused of rape and went to prison. He might have asked, “God, you are so unfair, why are you allowing these things to happen in my life? God, are you even alive?” But actually, inside of the prison, God gave him an important blessing of meeting, and that was a blessing because through that meeting, Joseph was able to become the governor. But what would have happened if he had been sold as a slave by his brothers, and he held onto that with rage and resentment? Even if that person is the exact same, and they are going through the exact situation, their entire life will change depending on if they acknowledge God’s sovereignty or not.
Same thing with David. David was the youngest brother, and from his father’s perspective, David was the weakest link. So, when someone asked to see all of his sons, his father brought out the oldest brother first. So only Daivd was given the weakest job of being a shepherd and told to do that. But God actually chose David. The Bible said it was because Daivd had a heart that aligned with God, but that was really because God called him. If David had overcome Goliath and was promised to become king, things should’ve worked out, but instead, he was chased to death for 100 years. Even his father in law was demon-possessed and tried to kill him, that was his own father in law. And so in his heart, he wanted to kill, but the Holy Spirit interceded in him. It’s human nature, we want to kill, but how could David understand such a difficult circumstance? But that was actually the process to develop David’s vessel to become king. Even though David was called to be a king, he hadn’t had the vessel prepared yet, so the process of developing and growing David’s vessel was being chased to death and persecuted by King Saul. It’s the same thing happening in our lives because we believe in the same God, and we have also been called, just like that, that is why the Bible is our answer and our path.
3) My faith
(1) In midst of God’s sovereignty, will, decision, calling
The Bible is not a story of Joseph, it is our story; it is not a story of David, it is my story. We might be in different positions, but the way God is guiding us is the same. That is why God is invisible but we can see how God is guiding us through His Word. I suffered a lot for a long time because of my scars. There are things nobody else can understand, and I was filled with so much anger and wrath, and there were many things that were disturbed because of this, but nobody told me this. Even my parents did not know what I was going through, so they didn’t tell me anything, because I could tell that nobody around me could understand what I’m going through. Even when I talk to people I knew, I could tell they would not be able to understand, but one day I received the gospel, and there was the content of the gospel.
I realized, “Oh, I’m somebody who is separated from God, I’m seized by Satan and sin, so the problem is not me, it’s not the other person; it’s actually Satan who is using my scars and trauma to bind me. That’s why Jesus Christ came to earth to overcome the authority of Satan and sin. When I accepted that Jesus Christ, I was bawling, my whole life had changed. I was suffering so much, I thought I would die like that, but actually God allowed me to experience those things so that I can receive Christ and have my life changed. So, I do not doubt God’s sovereignty at all, and if you are very deeply afflicted like I was, you’d understand. If you’ve experienced the change of your life from when you were deeply afflicted to after you received the gospel, you’’ know. But for people who have gone to church with their parents and grew up at church at a young age, they might not know because they think it’s rightful to have received God’s grace from such a young age, but there’s a difference.
(2) Find God’s will
It is so important for us to have faith in God’s absolute sovereignty, then our prayers will change so that whenever we face a problem or incident, we’ll look for God’s will and plan, but if someone doesn’t acknowledge God’s sovereignty, they’ll pray for God to solve that problem, but that means you are living your walk of faith, centered on yourself. You might believe in the same God, but your faith is different. If your faith is centered on yourself, it does not develop and grow. Then, even if you don’t have a problem, you’ll still be afraid, because you’ll have to solve it when you do have a problem. You’ll have to keep solving problems until you die.
(3) Centered on God – World
But for somebody who believes in God’s sovereignty, they’re different, so this is a complete change in the degree of your faith. I’d like it if you and I began the faith that believes in God’s absolute sovereignty. If you want to believe in God just based on your knowledge and understanding, you’ll never believe. Just like my cat will never understand my heart, and we can never understand God, even until we die, but instead, by the grace of the Holy Spirit of God, we come to believe. So, may you receive the grace of God to stand as a witness centered on the Word of Christ.
Conclusion
1. Centered on me, Understanding ×
2. Centered on God – Faith
3. Reveal Jesus Christ to all nations
Message Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word we have received.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We give praise to the Lord God Who has called us, justified us, and glorified us until the very end. Allow us to have the faith that believes in God’s absolute sovereignty, we thank You for allowing us to be believers who do not follow our own standards but seek God’s will. And we pray You will raise us up to be believers Who have the evidence of Christ.
We have returned Your material blessings as offering. We pray that everywhere it is used, lives will be saved, and may this be the offering that establishes God’s Kingdom. We believe You will work with the amazing work of financial blessings upon those who have given the offering. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. We pray Your absolute sovereignty and faith will be upon our newcomer, Kim Kwon Yoon today. May You raise up her faith to completely entrust her past, present, and future to You. May You raise her up as the witness of Christ Who testifies of You. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Announcements
1. Church meeting – 12:30pm, Church officer room
2. Worship reorganization, starting from 11/2 – Early Morning Worship (Monday), Healing Evangelism School (Friday 6:30 pm), Multiethnic Worship (Sunday 3:30 pm)
3. RU lecture – 10/13-11/13
4. Offering can be given to the church venmo: @Antiochmissionchurch
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all the believers of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants who desire to have faith in God’s sovereignty, be with them now until forever always, amen.