General Articles

Romans Lesson 33: God is Not a Loser :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR7

Chapter 11:1-10

1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life’? 4 But what does the divine response say to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

“6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 8 Just as it is written:

“God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, To this very day.’ 9 And David says: ‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. 10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.’”

We live in tumultuous times. Just yesterday I was speaking with a colleague at my workplace, and we were discussing how the last 6 months have been one of the largest transfers of wealth in the history of the world. We have men like Bezos whose worth have just about doubled in the past 6 months (to about 200 Billion Dollars) while smaller companies are still struggling, and many are going out of business. In my little town, there are countless empty storefronts that will never come back. Even very large restaurant chains, some who have been around for 30+ years, have gone under in this COVID debacle.

It is not my intention in this lesson to get into that, but just think that as we move ahead and the push to globalism is shoved down our throats, it will be easier to control businesses if the vast majority are run by a small group of persons. It will be easier to make laws that restrict the smaller stores if the bigger stores own everything. Soon all of our food, medicine, clothing and just about everything we buy will be held in the hands of an oligopoly, and they will be controlled by evil men who are not interested in the individual customer but serve a ‘bigger’ vision.

I was speaking to a Russian couple in my office who have been in Canada for almost 3 years, and they were astonished at the fact that it is very hard to pay for anything with cash. They have the money, but many places will not take more than a few thousand in cash. The legal paperwork and the hoops one must jump through to prove the chain of ownership is circus-like. They blurted out to me that this is all about control. They knew what that was like growing up in Russia, and they were astonished to see it here in North America.

We are like the frog in the pot; the government is gradually turning up the temperature, and we are boiling to death very, very slowly. It would be easy for us to think that the world system is winning, they have the upper hand, and they are about to ‘checkmate’ our King. But nothing could be further from the truth. God’s not dead, and soon He will come out roaring like a Lion.

In the passage above, there are some stark declarations that we will deal with today. I hope to bring some enlightenment and some peace into some troubled lives today. I pray that some light will shine in your darkness and that you will realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train but Jesus coming to clear this mess up.

  1. God is not done with Israel, verses 1-2

There is a devilish doctrine meandering among churches, even presumably conservative churches, that God is done with Israel. Many of the churches that teach this doctrine are Calvinist-leaning, at least here in Southern Ontario. They do not believe that everyone can be saved, and as such, they have written off Israel and teach, erroneously, that the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not transferred to the New Testament church.

Paul calls this very thought into question in the first two verses of Romans 11: Is God done with Israel? No, He is not. And I am proof of that; I am an Israelite. If God was done with Israel, why am I saved? Paul was the main apostle to the Gentile peoples of most of known Europe, but he was a Jew and he knew that he was God’s reminder that the Jews were not forgotten and cast aside forever. I know some Jews who are saved. They have seen and understood that Jesus is the Messiah, and they have called on Him as Savior. There are entire organizations like Jews for Jesus whose sole job is to take the Gospel of Jesus to the persons of Israel. They have a unique perspective as Jews on how to share the Gospel to their people.

In Romans 11:2, Paul clearly states that God has not cast away His people. How much clearer can one be? Later in this chapter, Paul would write in verse 29 that the ‘gifts of God and His promises are irrevocable.’ God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, a covenant that Abraham slept through, and God made the covenant to Abraham using Himself only as the giver and the receiver. Thus, this covenant will never expire since the covenant expires at the death of one of the participants. God will never die (Genesis 15: 8-21).

Here we are 2,000 years later, and there are still Jews being saved, still Jews coming to the recognition of who the Messiah is and calling on Him for salvation. A literal reading of the book of Revelation will reveal that God is not done with Israel and will call 144,000 Jewish men to be missionaries to the lost Jews around the world. Then once we get out of chapter 4, the New Testament church is never mentioned again, yet we see saints in the Tribulation period, we see that the whole world is focused on Jerusalem, and the anti-Christ himself will invade and occupy Jerusalem for a period of time. The future events of the end are about Israel, at least the events that take place here on earth.

Sadly, the Jews rejected their Messiah, and for a period of time their eyes have been darkened, but that is for our benefit; we see the Messiah.

  1. God will never be outplayed by Satan, verse 2-5

There is a story from 1 Kings 19 where Elijah has run away from Jezebel and is cowering in fear by a river. There he falls into a bit of a pity party and asks God to take his life as he is the only one left in Israel who is serving the Lord. But God makes it clear that He had more than 7,000 other men who had not worshipped a false god. This seemed to be an eye-opener to the prophet. He was so fixed on Jezebel and her evils ways that it took his eyes off the fact that more than 7,000 other men were serving the Lord faithfully.

This is how it can be today; we see the globalists on TV every day, we see the news and hear of the issues, and we can think that we have lost the battle. We are outnumbered and are being outplayed. But nothing could be further from the truth. God will not be outplayed and outmaneuvered by Satan.

Right now, there are faithful missionaries and countless churches that are doing all they can to share the Gospel. Soon, God will send out 144,000 dedicated missionaries to preach the Gospel to the Jews; we find this in Revelation 7:1-17. There are currently over 7.5 billion people on the planet, and when we look at the people who have gone before, plus the ones that are saved now, plus the ones who will see Jesus in the Millennial Kingdom and be saved, there will be billions upon billions who will be saved, and Satan is going to be outplayed. He will come to the end of himself, and he too will one day call Jesus Lord. It is Satan’s kingdom that will be destroyed, his power eviscerated and his end sure. In the end, there will be one eternal ruler, Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords. His kingdom is forever, and His reign is forever as well.

Don’t be dismayed; any perceived victories by the kingdom of darkness and his minions here on earth are temporary. God is allowing them a false sense of winning and a sense of victory that will embolden them to defy God more and more as they try to create a perfect world without Jesus. They will fail miserably. Their presumption that man is good will be their end; they are not even good themselves. They are evil and in need of redemption.

There is no Utopia without Jesus and salvation. But for now, we are the ones who benefit from the temporary blindness of the Jews. We Gentiles are being saved but soon, sooner than we all think, the Gentile age will come to an end and God will revert to dealing spiritually with the Jews. They will be saved and there will be billions of Gentiles killed in the Tribulation. Those Gentiles who enter the Tribulation having rejected Jesus will die horribly in ways that God has told us will be absolutely amazing. The Revelation makes Hollywood look like they are amateurs in creating ways to die.

Repent; today is the day of salvation. We don’t hear much today about the wrath of God. Not many preachers want to talk about Hell, sin and eternal fires. But the Bible says this in Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.” We will all meet the Lord Jesus one day; we will either meet him at the Bema Mercy seat or the Great White Throne judgment. Where will you meet Him? The choice is yours.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect With Us

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Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

The Gospel According to Luke: Part 38 :: By Dr. Donald Whitchard

Published on: by RR7

An Exposition

Luke 14:15-24: “A Place at the Table, Part 2”

“And when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, ‘Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.’ But He said to him, ‘A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many, and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’

“But they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ And another one said, ‘I have bought five yokes of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

“And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ The slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is more.’

“And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of these men who were invited shall taste of my dinner’” (Luke 14:15-24, NASB).

When you read these passages, what comes to mind?

It looks to me like our Lord Jesus is telling both His audience then and us now that He enjoys a good time with people and wants as many as possible to join Him in the celebration. I do not know about you, but I am more than ready to go, because what I see here in this present sin-soaked world is about as exciting to me as watching a snail race or a long distance marathon run by sloths. There is absolutely nothing in this world that appeals to me now. I never saw the sense as I grew older in watching my peers decide that going to a party meant getting smashed out of your mind and then waking up with headaches and nausea as a reward for alcoholism training.

Now, I enjoy a good party, and I liked having a good time when the opportunity came for events such as family weddings, barbeques, reunions, youth fellowships, and especially when we lived in the New Orleans area when it was time for Mardi Gras. We lived in a suburb that was intolerant of lewdness, alcoholic beverages, and citizens were protected by the local police.

There were colorful parades each year, and our church took it as an opportunity to pass out tracts and mingle among the crowds, talking to people about new life in Christ, and we had good results because we were having a good time with them, too. There was one church in the neighborhood that saw everything in a different light. They condemned the “wickedness” of Mardi Gras and declared it to be a “celebration of the devil.” They forbade their members to go view the parades or to take days off from work to do so. Their school had class on Mardi Gras day, and if a student or anyone in their church was caught or had been seen in the crowds, they were either expelled or thrown out of the membership. (I always wanted to know how they enforced that.) What they saw as sinful and wicked, we saw as an opportunity to spread the joy of the message of Christ.

I am not here to judge this congregation (which no longer exists due to Katrina and other factors), but sometimes we who call ourselves Christians have a tendency to turn a lot more people off than be the instrument of the Holy Spirit to draw someone to the cross and the joy that will be ours when King Jesus comes back to rule and reign forever. It looks to me as I read the words of our LORD that the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be a time of eternal happiness, worship, celebration, and a party to end all parties. The sad fact is that people are going to give the Sovereign God of Creation the lamest and most pathetic excuses to miss out on it. The story that the Lord Jesus tells the guests at the party He is attending presents that tragic outcome.

The illogical and just plain lame excuses the expected guests give to this man who has taken the time, trouble, and effort to throw a big party and time of fun are a representation of the same lame things people say to us and to the LORD Himself as to why they do not want to be a part of what looks like a potential good time. One guy says he cannot come because he has to look at some land he bought, one says he cannot come because he just bought some livestock that he has to test NOW, and one says his new marriage is more important than the event to which he has been cordially invited.

All I can say when I read this is, “You have got to be kidding me!” But I am not surprised at the outlandish beliefs and thoughts of people who have this strange notion. They are sure that the stale, moldy cake, the flat and warm drinks, the bored guests who have said and done the same old routines for years, and the inevitable hangovers and their aftermath are somehow superior to the treasures, joy, eternal life, reunion with loved ones, and personal love and fellowship from the King of Kings.

I like reading the host’s reaction. He has been snubbed and insulted but does not try to negotiate or rearrange his schedule to accommodate them. He has everything ready, and he is going to throw a party; but now he instructs his servant to go get everyone off the streets who is poor, lame, and blind to come and enjoy a bounty that they would never have expected.

He is not letting his time, trouble, and expense go to waste. If his snobby “friends” do not want to get into the action, it will not bother him in the least. He has new friends and colleagues that he will get to know and enjoy, and whose lives he will let be a part of his inner circle for all time, and he tells his servant to go get more people. His home is open, and the good times are going to go on as he wishes. He is telling his servant that everyone is welcome to the table no matter one’s situation, background, color, or status. That is representative of our great God who wants everyone to partake of His blessings, abundance, mercy, and grace. Who else would possess that kind of love in this age where everyone is at each other’s throats and rage is the order of the times?

All right, you who are reading this, I want to ask you this question if you do not have a personal relationship with the God who loves you and wants you in His kingdom. What kind of dumb excuse are you going to give Him for refusing to come to His celebration, made possible by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross for your sins? He took your wickedness upon Himself as the perfect substitute for us so we would not end up in the hell we deserve for rebelling against Him in Eden. There is no way whatsoever you can redeem or save yourself or think you can get into heaven on your “good works,” of which the Bible compares to a bloody menstrual rag (Isaiah 64:6).

It is only through Jesus Christ that you can EVER have access to eternal life in heaven. He said it (Isaiah 53; John 3:16, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 5:6-11).

He has never steered me wrong or left me, and there are millions of brethren who will testify of this truth throughout the centuries and now. Come on, you know by now in the time I have written these studies that I would not say otherwise. Give up your junk, your sins, your excuses, your self-centeredness, your stale food and putrid drink, and surrender your life to Jesus Christ today. He has your reservation ready and the table is set. The party’s getting started soon, and I want you to be part of the celebration. Jesus is the host, and He is ready to welcome you with open arms. Do not pass up this good time, please.

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.donaldwhitchard.com