The Least Of These - His Love Ministries

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I believe we could apply Daniel 9:18-19 like this. "O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the church which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.19 "O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your church and Your people are called by Your name." This prayer by Daniel and the previous verses show us why the church is in the state it is in.  We Christians like Israel have done wickedly and God has allowed us to become captives to the world and sins that we have not repented of.  I believe if we were to repent and cry out to God like Daniel did He would begin to work mightily through the Church and Christians again.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today. 

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

 Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.  

hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F 

The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions

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ROMANS 10:1-4  ISRAEL'S REFUSAL OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS

Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER

1) To see the importance of combining zeal with the right kind of knowledge

2) To understand that Israel had plenty of opportunity to heed the gospel of Christ, but for the most part they had rejected it

SUMMARY

As Paul continues to explain God's dealings with the nation of Israel, he repeats his expression of love towards them (1).  Though as a nation they had plenty of zeal, unfortunately their zeal was not according to the right kind of knowledge (2).  Thus they rejected the righteousness of God while trying to establish their own righteousness through the Law of Moses.  But Paul explains that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and has brought it to an end (3-4).

The righteousness God now offers is based upon faith in Christ, not keeping the Law.  It involves not the accomplishment of some great feat (like ascending to heaven or descending to hell), but such things as confessing Jesus as Lord and believing that God raised Him from the dead (5-10).  As foretold by Scripture, it is offered to all, both Jew and Gentile (11-13).  And it is offered through the medium of preaching the Word (14-15).

The problem with the nation of Israel, then, is that not all of them received the gospel message, even when they had ample opportunity (16-18).  But as Moses predicted, the day would come when God would provoke Israel to jealousy by another people, who Isaiah said did not seek God yet found Him, while Israel was constantly rebelling against Him (19-21).

The theme of this chapter is Israel’s present rejection. Paul moved from divine sovereignty (Rom. 9) to human responsibility. He continued the theme of righteousness introduced at the end of the previous chapter (Rom. 9:30–33) and explains three aspects of Israel’s rejection

I.          ISRAEL'S REFUSAL OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS (1-15)

The Reasons for Their Rejection (Rom. 10:1–13)

You would think that Israel as a nation would have been eagerly expecting the arrival of their Messiah and been prepared to receive Him. For centuries they had known the Old Testament prophecies and had practiced the Law, which was “a schoolmaster” to lead them to Christ (Gal. 3:24). God had sought to prepare the nation, but when Jesus Christ came, they rejected Him. “He came unto His own [world] and His own [people] received Him not” (John 1:11). To be sure, there was a faithful remnant in the nation that looked for His arrival, such as Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25–38); but the majority of the people were not ready when He came.

How do we explain this tragic event? Paul gives several reasons why Israel rejected their Messiah.

A.                PAUL'S EXPRESSION OF CONCERN FOR ISRAEL (1-4)

1.                 That Israel be saved, for they have zeal but not real knowledge (1-2)

Ro 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

They did not feel a need for salvation (v. 1). There was a time when Paul would have agreed with his people, for he himself opposed the Gospel and considered Jesus Christ an impostor. Israel considered the Gentiles in need of salvation, but certainly not the themselves.

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In Mt 6:33 Jesus said, But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Many of us are trying to be satisfied and get what we want and think we need through the world’s methods.  Yet we are in constant need and are never satisfied because we are going about life the wrong way. The principle Jesus gave us is that if we will seek Him first in all of our life’s pursuits and His holiness then He will supply the things we need.  Jesus said to give to Him first and He will open the heavens and pour out a mighty blessing.  Have you tried giving your all to God first?

Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today. 

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.  

hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.nethttps://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F

The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions

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III. THE BASIS OF GOD'S CHOICE:  FAITH vs. NO FAITH (30-33)

GOD’S ACTIONS ARE CONSISTENT WITH HIS REDEMPTIVE PLAN VERSES 30-33

      1. Though they had not actively been looking for it (30a)

      2. Yet many have attained righteousness through faith (30b)

A.   FOR THE GENTILES (30) 

Once again Paul asked his familiar rhetorical question, What then shall we say? (cf. 4:1; 6:1; 8:31; 9:14) preparatory to his summation of this situation[1]

Ro 1:17; 4:11; 10:20

The unbelief of Israel does not violate the prerequisite of God.  And what is the prerequisite of God for a relationship to Him?  What does God require from us to be related to Him?  What's the one word?  Faith.  

This section is a welcome balance to the heavy dose of sovereignty we've been exposed to because this section talks about our responsibility, human responsibility, faith, faith.  It puts us back in the divine tension where we're more comfortable, right?  We get too heavy on the end of sovereignty and we really get confused, we really start bearing some heavy loads.  And we need another side of that tension, that human responsibility, that faith.  We need that apparent paradox, we need that balance again.

            Now these are mutually exclusive things, the absolute and utter sovereignty of God planned before the world began, all worked out according to His plan, and our faith and our responsibility.  They're mutually exclusive. They appear to us to be contradictory and opposite. They are in truth, however, not.  It's just that our minds are too limited, we can't perceive it.  In God's mind they have perfect harmony.

 Paul moves from divine sovereignty to human responsibility. Note that Paul did not say “elect” and “nonelect,” but rather emphasized faith. Here is a paradox: the Jews sought for righteousness but did not find it, while the Gentiles, who were not searching for it, found it! The reason? Israel tried to be saved by works and not by faith. They rejected “grace righteousness” and tried to please God with “Law righteousness.” The Jews thought that the Gentiles had to come up to Israel’s level to be saved; when actually the Jews had to go down to the level of the Gentiles to be saved. “For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22–23). Instead of permitting their religious privileges (Rom. 9:1–5) to lead them to Christ, they used these privileges as a substitute for Christ.[1]

Now Paul's been saying the Jews have no claim on salvation. . Only a remnant was supposed to be saved.  So we're not surprised at that.  It's no change in God's promise.  It's no violation of His person and it's no alteration of His plan.  And now he says what we've been waiting to hear. It was also their own fault.  That's right. It was also their own fault.  And if you can't figure how those two go together, just be happy that you're like every other person who ever faced this doctrine.  We can't figure it out either.  We just believe it.

         He shows that unbelief was their responsibility and due to their own unbelief and their own rejection, they were guilty and they were judged on the basis of their own guilt.  Ro 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;

 There's no article here, that Gentiles who followed not after righteousness, who didn't pursue it, diōkō, to run swiftly after something, to run earnestly endeavoring to acquire it.  That the people who never even chased it, who never even pursued it got it.

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In Romans 10:6-7 Paul says some are asking who will bring Christ down from above or descend into the grave, to bring Him up so they can be saved. They did not believe Christ came to earth and was resurrected. The way of salvation is not difficult or complicated. We do not have to go to heaven to find Christ, or into the world of the dead. He is near to us. He says the Gospel is available to all. The sinner doesn’t need to perform works to be saved.  God has already done that in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus. All we have to do is accept what God has done for us in Christ. Have you trusted in Him yet? 
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today. 

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.  

hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F 

The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions

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celebrating God’s faithfulness for 25 years of ministry

Hi, this is Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries, I wanted to share some good news with you.  Last week on March 17th I was celebrating too, but not Saint Patrick's Day, but that day marked the 20th anniversary of His Love Ministries being a full time ministry and over 25 years of ministry. Here is my testimony about this. It took 5 years of feeling like God was calling me to preach and me thinking who me God. I can’t speak in front of people. I felt like Moses did when God asked him to speak to Pharaoh. I struggled with this and got a lot of bad advice during this time. I was a young Christian and did not know how to find the will of God and the people I asked weren’t helpful at all, in fact they caused me to think I wasn’t called to preach. I would try to put it away and forget about it because of others advice, but after a while it would come back. So after 5 years of hearing God speak to me and having many others discourage, me I finally decided I did not want to miss out on God’s best. If this is what God wanted I was willing to do whatever He asked me to do. In 1997, after finally answering the call of God, I became convinced that I was to be involved in Ministry, specifically, Jail and Prison. A mission was laid on my heart to go to the jails and prisons, to minister to those that had messed up their life and could be changed by the Gospel. 

It all began in October of 1997 when I preached my first message at a Men’s Ministry Dinner. Later in December of 1997 I was talking to a friend and telling him about the calling God had put on my heart. He gave me a person's name and I called the guy on a Tuesday and told him I would like to come and preach there. He said can you come this Sunday; well I was scared to death at that moment, not thinking I would have to go that soon and not knowing whether I could get a message together that quickly. I said I would call him back Thursday if that was okay, he said yes. Well I called Thursday and told him yes. That Sunday as I was driving out of Savannah, scared to death, not because of the prison, but the speaking in front of people and not knowing what to expect, I turned the radio to BBN, right after I did, the announcer was saying that it was not our ability, but our availability that God wanted. It was just what I needed to hear. It still felt like it took forever to get there. I preached for the first time at the Effingham Prison on Dec 14th 1997, and after feeling God's power as I spoke and the confirmation that this is what God had truly called me to, I drove back to Savannah and it felt like it took about 5 seconds, as I was on cloud nine. This led to me providing Church Services there ever since and finally going full time on March 17th 2003.

      Due to God’s faithfulness and willingness to use me, as well as your faithfulness to support us, we have seen God do mighty things and reach out to those the world has forgotten. God first led me to go to the prisons in 1997, and then in 1999 we started going to senior care homes. Through the years He has opened many other doors to youth and adults at Coastal Harbor, the jail, youth detention center, transition centers, homeless shelters, truck stops, and facilities for women, children, and veterans who were struggling to make it on their own. 

Pray for us as we partner with others to share the Gospel and seek volunteers willing to go to the forgotten. Our plan is to follow the Lord wherever He leads us until He sees fit to quit using us or provides someone to take over this ministry when I can no longer do it. We are so thankful for all of you who pray and support us; many of you have been from the very beginning and are still with us today. God knows who you are, and as a partner in this ministry you will reap the rewards, because you have played a part in every life that has been changed. Thank You and God B

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Romans 9:24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?  25 ¶ As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved." 26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God." 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

     GOD’S ACTIONS ARE CONSISTENT WITH HIS REVELATION (24-29)

      1. Not of Jews only, as foretold by Hosea (24-26)

24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

God’s plan always was for Gentiles to be saved.

Isa 11:10 "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."

 Isa 42:1 "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

 Isa 42:6 "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles,

 Isa 49:6 Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

 Isa 60:3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.

Ro 3:29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved."

Hosea chapter 2 and you will see it in verse 23.  In the middle of the verse, Then I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they shall say, 'You are my God!'""  Now that's essentially what Paul refers to.  It is a paraphrase.  It is not a direct quote, it's a paraphrase.  He alludes to this particular text.  But I want you to see the meaning of it by going back to chapter 1.  Hosea was a prophet, a very wonderful man, a very loving man, a very forgiving man, a very gracious man.  Verse 2 says, "The Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of harlotry, children of harlotry for the land hath committed great harlotry departing from the Lord."

Now we don't know whether she was a harlot when he married her but she became one.  And Hosea sort of lived out a parable as his wife was a harlot to him, so Israel was a harlot to her husband, God. And his life is a living parable of the relation between God and Israel.  "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, conceived, bore him a son, called his name Jezreel."  You know what Jezreel means?  Scattered, means scattered.  She had another child, verse 6, call her name Lo-ruhamah, means not pitied, I have no pity for that child.  Had another child, verse 9, boy, Lo-ammi, not my people, for you are not My people and I will not be your God.

These represented God’s abandonment of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrian Captivity and Exile (Hosea 1:2–9).[1]

 So here is Hosea, he marries a woman, she becomes a prostitute. She gives him three kids, one named "scattered," the other named "not pitied," and the other named "not My people."  Now what do tho

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If we are not happy about our leaders, instead of complaining why don't we pray for them as the Bible says do so that God can do something about it, because we for sure cannot change things on our own. 1Ti 2:1-4 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Have you tried the only solution that will work?

Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today. 

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.  

hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F 

The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions

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Romans 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

The rightness of God’s choice

God's right to choose the objects of His mercy and His wrath (19-23)

Paul replies with a parable about the potter, borrowed from Jer. 18:1–6. God is the Potter, and the nations of the world (and their leaders) are the vessels. Some are vessels of wrath that God patiently endures until their time of destruction.

Ge 15:15 "Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 "But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."). Others are vessels of mercy that reveal His glory. Paul then quotes Hosea 2:23 and 1:10 to show that God promised to call a “people” from among the Gentiles, a people to be called “children of the living God.” This is the church (see 1 Peter 2:9–10). He also quotes Isa. 10:22–23, showing that a remnant of Jews would also be saved (see Isa. 1:9). In other words, God’s purpose in election makes it possible for both Jews and Gentiles to be saved by grace. Neither Jew nor Gentile could be saved any way other than by the grace of God.[1]

19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"

Paul posed the question in this verse and then answered it in the verses that follow.

John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"

In other words, it is blasphemous even to question, not to mention deny, God’s right to hold men accountable when they are captives of His sovereign will.[1]

In the first place, it is presumptuous for human beings, the objects of divine judgment, to sit in judgment on their Judge. Judging is God's prerogative, not ours. Creatures have no right to complain about their Creator's behavior.

It is obvious from Paul’s wording that the ones who might be asking such questions would not be seeking God’s truth but rather self- justification. Attempting to excuse their own unbelief, sinfulness, ignorance, and spiritual rebellion, they would be apt to accuse God of injustice.

But because human understanding is so limited, even sincere questions about God’s sovereign election and predestination ultimately must go unanswered. As already noted, it is one of the many truths about God that we must accept by faith, simply because He has revealed it in His Word.[1]

1. Man and God. The first contrast is more apparent in the Greek text than in English, for the verse begins with the words “O man” and ends with the words “the God.” Yet it is apparent enough in English. You and I are mere men and women set over against the God who made not only us but all things. It is ludicrous for creatures as small, ignorant, impotent, and sinful as we are to question the propriety of God’s moral acts. We may not understand what God is doing in any particular case. In fact, most of the time we will not, because ‘my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isa. 55:8). We can ask God to explain what He is doing, if He will. But for us to sugges

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The long painful history of the Church is God’s people ever and again being tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led. Instead we should heed Ps 37:3-6 Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. 6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Are you trusting in Him fully today?   

Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today. 

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.  

hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F 

The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions