It Is Not as Though the Word of God Has Failed

In one paragraph

This message was the second in a series working through Romans 9 through 11. The pastor walked through the opening section of Romans 9, where Paul defends the justice of God's choosing, and showed how that hard ground leads toward a center point the whole passage is built around: whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. the pastor opened by explaining the structure he has been using to...

Read together

1. Romans 9:6 Paul's statement that it is not as though the word of God has failed
2. Romans 9:6-7 not all Israel who are descended from Israel, nor all children because they are Abraham's descendants
3. Romans 9:8 not the children of the flesh but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants
4. Romans 9:9 at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son
5. Romans 9:10-12 Rebecca conceiving twins by Isaac, the older shall serve the younger, before either had done good or bad
6. Romans 9:13 Jacob I loved but Esau I hated
7. Romans 9:14 is there injustice with God, answered with may it never be
8. Romans 9:15 I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and compassion on whom I have compassion, quoting God's words to Moses
9. Romans 9:16 it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy
10. Romans 9:17 for this very purpose I raised Pharaoh up to demonstrate my power and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth
11. Romans 9:18 he has mercy on whom he desires and hardens whom he desires
12. Romans 9:19-21 who are you oh man who answers back to God, the potter and the clay
13. Romans 9:22-24 God enduring with patience vessels of wrath to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, even us called from Jews and Gentiles
14. Romans 10:9-10 confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
15. Exodus 33:12-23 Moses asking God to show him His way and glory, God proclaiming he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious, Moses hidden in the cleft of the rock
16. Malachi 1:1-5 God saying I have loved you, Israel asking how, God citing Jacob loved and Esau hated and Edom's desolation
17. Hosea 2 I will call those who were not my people my people, and her who was not beloved, beloved
18. Isaiah 10:22-23 though the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea only a remnant will be saved, the Lord executing his word thoroughly and quickly
19. Isaiah 1:9 unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity we would have become like Sodom and resembled Gomorrah
20. Romans 1:16 Paul saying he is not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, Jew first and also Gentile

Talk about it

1. The pastor pointed to Paul's deep grief over his countrymen who had not accepted the gospel, saying Paul felt such sorrow he would give up his own relationship with God if it meant they could know Christ. Have you ever felt that kind of burden for someone who is lost? What did that feel like, and what did you do with it?
2. The sermon walked through the line from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and showed that God's choice ran contrary to human expectation each time, whether it was a child born to an old woman or a younger brother receiving the blessing over the older. What does that pattern tell you about the way God works, and where have you seen that pattern in your own life?
3. The pastor used Billy Graham's warning that if the Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart and you harden yourself against him, he may not pass that way again. How seriously do you take that, and what does it look like in practice to keep a soft heart toward God?
4. John Burke described a country of 30 million people with only eight or nine western missionaries and roughly 5,000 believers. He tied that directly to Romans 10, asking how people can be saved if no one goes to tell them. What responsibility, if any, does that place on this congregation?
5. The pastor said that Romans 9 taken on its own looks heartless and cruel, but that the center point of the whole passage is the open invitation: whoever confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead will be saved. How does keeping that center point in view change the way you read the harder parts of the passage?