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Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 2 * PART 4 * BOOK 24
ROMANS 9:6-9 AND GENESIS 32:27-28
At the close of our last lesson God had been dealing with Pharaoh, and how God put him in that position for the purpose of magnifying His own name. Now in verse 18 we come down to this whole concept again of the mercy of God.
Romans 9:18
Pharaoh, like anyone today, came to that place of hardening his own heart, not because God made him do it, but because God put him in a place of either accepting or rejecting, and by rejecting he hardened his own heart. Even though the Scripture says that God hardened his heart.
It was that when God put him on the spot Pharaoh grizzled up and said, "I'll not let those people go." Romans 9:19,20
"Thou wilt say then unto me, `Why doth he yet find fault? (Remember God's Sovereign) Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? In other words could Pharaoh turn around in the face of God, and say, "Why did you make me what I am?" No, he had no right to say that because he of his own volition rejected God's offer of taking Israel out of Egypt. We have to realize that this is God's Word, and every one of these verses is for us.
Romans 9:21,22
"Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump (of clay) to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:"
God's Sovereign, and it's the same way with wealth, and all these other things. A lot of us are prone to say, "Well God, why couldn't you make me wealthy?" Jeremiah 18:1-4a
"The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, `Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Jeremiah 18:4b-6
saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."
Since God is in such control of the Nation of Israel, why did they not accept the Messiah when He made His appearance? Ephesians 1:11
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Especially from the human element, but by faith as soon as we become a child of God we can look back and see, "I was chosen before God ever created Adam." God already had you and I positioned in the Body of Christ. This is why Paul could say in Romans Chapter 8:
Romans 8:38,39
You have been called with a purpose in God's mind, and we rest on that. Romans 9:23
For every born again child of God today we're vessels of mercy, none of us deserve anything, it's all of His mercy, but it was poured out at the Cross. Now verse 24.
Romans 9:24a
See Paul includes himself. Remember Paul is the epitome of a sinner saved by Grace isn't he? If there was ever a man that God had every right in the world to zap it was Saul of Tarsus, but what happened? God just literally knocked him off his horse, and spoke to him"
Acts 9:4
"And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
Grace! Grace! When I say that we're in the Age of Grace I never imply that God's Grace is something that was unknown until we get to Paul. It becomes the great attribute of God with Paul's epistles, but Grace was already evident in the Garden of Eden.
And as I have already showed you when Israel went after the golden calf, what kept God from destroying them? His mercy and Grace. And when they rejected the Messiah, and they crucified Him, again God had every right in this world to wipe Israel off the map, but why didn't He? His Grace. And the whole human race tonight - why has God forestalled destroying humanity when we know they deserve it. Romans 9:24
"Even us, whom he hath called, not of Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."
Paul is speaking to this great crowd of Jews. `Gentiles' in verse 21.) Now verse 24 again:
Romans 9:24
Isaiah 42:1
Absolutely. God had the Gentiles on His mind, but not until He had finished His work with Israel. Look at Chapter 49, and I'm doing this so you can see this isn't just a Pauline concept that God was going to turn to the Gentiles. This was all part of the Old Testament Covenant that the day would come when Israel had completed the promises - then God would turn to the Gentile world.
Isaiah 49:6
Now look briefly at Romans Chapter 9, and verse 25:
Romans 9:25,26
Who were the people that were not His people? Gentiles! Who were the people who would finally come to the place where they would say, "You're my God," and He would say,"You're my people."

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