Chapter 4: 14-25 (NKJV)
The Certainty of God’s Promises

“¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, ¹⁵ because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.¹⁶ Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all ¹⁷ (as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; ¹⁸ who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’

“¹⁹ And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, ²¹ and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. ²² And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ ²³ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, ²⁴ but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.“

I pray that you are well and that you and your families are safe from this virus that is circumventing the globe. Personally, I have been laid off my secular job for 2 weeks, to begin with, and I am at home with my family. My wife is in the Nursing Home business, and there is always work there.

Our study through Romans is not necessarily a prophetic one; and at a time like this, many are asking if we are looking at the end. I am going to spend a bit of time talking about what we have before us right now. And, then we will look at the idea of God’s promises and the security that we have in them.

I have a dear friend who works with me in prophecy stuff quite a bit, and a lot of the secular markers have been silent for some time. But this pandemic is the perfect tool for the New World Order (NWO) to advance their agenda. The NWO has been in work since Genesis 11: 1-4, 

“Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.‘ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.‘”

The people who came out of the flood, 8 of them, had populated the earth; and in a short time, here we have rebellious man seeking to worship someone other than the God of Heaven. Some of these, if not all of these persons involved in the building of the Tower of Babel, would have either seen firsthand or been the children of persons who saw firsthand the Ark that survived the Great Flood. Yet in total defiance of the Lord, they built this tower to worship the stars of Heaven. We are still seeing the effects of this today in the Horoscope that is in our daily newspapers.

In 2020, we have the modern tower of Babel in the European Union parliament building that is deliberately designed to look like the unfinished tower of Genesis 11. Like the Kingdom of Light, the kingdom of darkness is progressing along, awaiting the arrival of their messiah, the Man of Sin as the Bible calls him. We, the Kingdom of Light, are awaiting the arrival of the true Messiah, Jesus the Christ. Over the years the NWO has looked for ways to advance their control over the masses, in particular tearing down the boundaries and trying to create the global entity that they need to be able to control all who are living on the planet once the Rapture takes place and the world is in need of a leader.

The Mainstream Media and they can shut down the world in a matter of weeks if they need to. No airplane flying, no commerce, no paper money and no work. We had a bit of this back in 9-11 when they shut down all of North America for commercial air travel for about a week. In 2013 at the Boston Marathon bombing, those in authority invented a new phrase ‘shelter in place,’ to replace the idea of martial law. The entire city of Boston shut down as they looked for the two young men that did the bombing. In November of 2015 in Paris France, after the mass shooting in Paris, the authorities were able to shut down the entire country of France with the same phrase ‘shelter in place.’ Now we have Italy and Spain shut down, the state of California and Michigan in the US, and many other places being shut down.

Here in Ontario, we have everything shut down except for essential services like groceries and the like. The government is spending billions of dollars to prop up the economy and keep companies afloat. In the USA, the President is about to sign a 2 Trillion-dollar spending bill to keep that economy afloat. The Bible says that the borrower is a slave to the lender, Proverbs 22:7, but a very famous banker put it this way, “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.” ~ Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Right now, the central banks of the world are about to put the largest economies of the world into greater slavery.

As we speak, the world is simply at the mercy of her leaders. They speak in closed sessions on encrypted phones, and they make decisions that affect us, and we trust them. There is an end game. In Canada, the Prime Minister and his party tried to sneak in legislation that would have given them greater powers. The Democrats in the House and Senate tried to hold the US public as hostages until they were able to sneak in huge socialist steps that would have altered the US economy for a long time. Freethinkers like Trump in the US and Boris Johnston in the UK are understanding that if you allow the country to languish for too long, the economy may never recover. The hole will be so big that you could never fill it.

This is the goal for the NWO, to create a hole so big that the government will become the saviour of the world.

One more thing: I had my dear friend tell me to look at the website ID2020. This is a site for the Digital Identity Alliance; the site marvels that 1.1 billion people have no digital identity, and they are seeking to get them all on board. Well, here in Ontario many companies have little signs that they would prefer if you use debit or credit cards to pay for items as the Coronavirus can sit on surfaces and live for days. This is forcing more and more people to go to a digital footprint. The government that will be in place after the Rapture will need everyone to have a digital footprint to track them and bring in the numbers that are needed to buy and sell.

Revelation 13:16-17, “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

When I first began to hear about the Mark of the Beast, we had a hard time wondering how the government of the Man of Sin would control the world. But we can see it playing out before us. The Chinese government used cellphones to track those that had to self-quarantine. According to Fox Business news, the Chinese government used an App to track persons who should have been quarantined. Anyone who watches FBI shows or CSI shows knows that anyone with a phone can be tracked. By forcing the non-digital world to get into the digital age, they can get more and more people registered. This makes the job of the NWO easier once the trouble hits after the Rapture.

I cannot tell you if the virus was deliberate, but I can tell you that the agenda is advanced for the NWO and that the time of our redemption draws near. Those of us that are Christians can see the end, and the rejoicing that we have inside of us, and the horror we have for those we love but they don’t know Jesus as Savior. If they think this is hard, they have not seen anything yet.

The Promises of the Lord God, Romans 4:19-20

God made Abraham a promise that he would have a son. In Genesis 12:1-3, God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation. Abraham was about 75 years old when this promise was made, and Sarah, his wife, about 65 years old. In Genesis 21, some 25 years later, Isaac is born. Later in Genesis 22, God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and we are told that Abraham (Hebrews 11:17-19) believed God could raise Isaac from the dead since he had been born in his old age when he was not to be having children. Abraham was secure in the Lord’s promises and trusted Him. He knew that the Lord was faithful. We too have promises from the Lord; we have the promise of the rapture from the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

The Bible teaches that before the Tribulation begins, Daniel’s 70th week, we will be taken out by the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says that we are not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation – you see, we have this promise from the Lord. Those of us who are saved, those like Abraham who had faith in the Promise of God and that He trusted in God. We who trust in the Lord, that He would save us if we put our faith in Jesus and His death, burial and resurrection, are promised that we will be taken out of the world before the time of Jacob’s trouble, Jeremiah 30:7. The end of the church age will begin the return to God returning to working with the Jewish nation.

These promises keep us going in times of trouble. In Luke 12: 22-26 we are reminded not to worry about anything; God has everything under control, and He has promised to supply all of our needs. The Lord will take care of His own, and He is able to take care of His own, Psalm 50:10. You see, we can take a look at the life of Abraham and see that God is faithful and able to keep us and to fulfill all of His promises. Let us not lose heart in these times, but let us grow confident as we see the truths of the scriptures play out before us. God is in control.

The NWO may think that they are advancing their agenda, but in truth, they are advancing God’s agenda. They think they are in control, but God is in charge; and in Psalm 2:4 we are told that He will laugh at them. They think they can throw off God and remove him from office, but they are fools, idiots and simple pawns in the hand of the Almighty. We will take a longer look at the promises of the Lord next week.

Proverbs 3: 5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

God bless you,

Pastor Sean Gooding

Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Chapter 4: 1-13 (NKJV)
We, The Forgiven Lawbreakers

“What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ ⁴ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. ⁵ But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, ⁶ just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

⁷ ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
⁸ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.’

“⁹ Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. ¹⁰ How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. ¹¹ And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, ¹² and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. ¹³ For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.“

People are skeptical of free things. If you see a man in a van in a parking lot at a mall giving away free stuff, we assume that the things are stolen or at best there is a hook. He, we assume, is trying to lure you in to get something else. Many people approach the Gospel in the same way. They are wary of free. But God chose the Apostle Paul, a man who gauged his life by works from the time he was a youth to teach about grace and faith. In Philippians 3:2-6 (NKJV), Paul writes this,

“Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Notice that this former Pharisee dives right in and states that he has no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in what he could do for himself or have another mere human do for him. In the case of circumcision, the child’s parents made that decision for him; he did not make it of his own free will. We see that today with infant baptism, there is no choice on the part of the child. Another makes the choice for him or her. But if anyone that walked the earth had a reason to boast in the flesh, it would have been Paul. If someone could have noted his human accomplishments and been accepted into Heaven, Paul would have been the guy. But Paul tells us in the verses that follow that he counted his human accomplishments as rubbish, and in another place as dung (Poop).

Once Paul came face to face with Jesus and saw His glory, his self-righteousness amounted to nothing. Zero. Nil. Nada. Now, he was ready to trust Jesus by faith, and his life was about the change forever. Paul understood that compared to Jesus, he was just a rotten, good for nothing sinner and all his righteousness was in fact dung. He was to simply put his faith in Jesus.

Acts 9:5-6 “And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”

Jesus identifies himself, and Paul humbles himself: “Who are you Lord?” and then “What would you have me do?” Total submission from that day until the day of his death. Paul, a man full of pride and self-righteousness, was now a humble man who calls himself the chief sinner. This is how the true Gospel changes us and creates in us a right spirit. This is how we lawbreakers are forgiven, by faith in Jesus. We believe God, and it is accounted to us for righteousness just like it was accounted for Abraham, Paul, Moses, David and the countless billions who have believed Jesus in the past 2,000 years. It is the same way that thousands will be saved today.

1. Forgiveness: verses 7-8

There is much talk today about the prosperity Gospel, which is not a Gospel but a lie. True blessing is to know for sure that your sins are forgiven. David writes this and calls us, including himself, lawless. But was this not a man after God’s own heart? Yes, but he was a man, and as such, subject to sins and sinning. He notes three stages of how God takes care of our sins:

• God forgives them – we are pardoned and our sting and stench of our sinfulness are removed.
• Then our sins are covered – this refers to the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. Once a year the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies and pour blood on top of the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark was a copy of the Ten Commandments; the blood sat on top of the Mercy Seat and covered the Law, thus covering our sins.
• Lastly, our imputed sins are removed. The very list of sins we have done is removed from our accounts. The Psalmist put it this way in Psalm 103:12 (KJV), “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

The east and west never meet. No matter how far east you go, you cannot meet the west, and vice-versa. So, in these verses in Romans 4:7-8, we see that God completely removes all traces and records of our sins from us forever once we believe Him, and He gives us His righteousness. We become perfect in Jesus. Paul did not know what perfection was until he met Jesus; and, once he met Jesus and became perfect, he could see his own sinfulness for the very first time. Once I was blind but now I can see.

2. Forgiveness for the Gentiles, 9-13

Abraham was justified before he was circumcised. Even so, we Gentiles who do not often get circumcised, are able to be saved as well. We do not need to keep the law to be saved, but anyone who at any point in History who put their faith in the risen Savior is saved. I am a Gentile who is saved. The vast majority of the NT church are Gentile peoples who were saved because Jewish men took the Gospel to them.

The Gospel was always for the Gentiles as well. But the Jews hoarded it and refused to share it in many cases. We need to be careful not to be like them. Let us share the Gospel. Let us get it out in any way that we can to the masses and give them the opportunity to repent and believe.

In Acts 16:30-31, we see these timeless words told to a Gentile warden: “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

Believe on the Lord and be saved. Like Abraham, this jailer and his household believed God, and they were eternally changed forever. He and his household became perfect in Jesus and are no longer under the wrath of God.

All too often modern Christians, and I am sure Christians of all generations, change the simplicity of the Gospel.

Believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved. Believe that Jesus is the perfect God, the image of God in the flesh and believe in Him. Believe in His death, burial and resurrection and you will be saved.

Sean, you say, you sound like a broken record about this Gospel. Good! That is my intent. The Gospel has been altered, watered down and downright lied about. It is simple, plain and applicable to any who believe in Jesus. God made it this way. He made the Law complicated and burdensome, but He made the Gospel simple; and with it He removes burdens. He removes the burden of sin, the burden of judgment and the burden of fearing God’s wrath. I cannot say it any clearer, so let me leave you with the words, so simple and yet so powerful these nearly 2,000 years later:

“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

God bless you,

Pastor Sean Gooding

Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca