GOD’S WORD FOR JANUARY 20 ~ ~Romans 10:9 ~ ~ “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Today we read the last section of the chapter on the Suffering Servant (Jesus) and the Kingdom,

Entitled,

GOD’S KINGDOM IS UNIVERSAL

BY Dr. Michael Youssef

It is possible for a church, or any group of Christians, to become exclusionary simply through fear of contamination.  This is exactly why Israel became an insular, isolated culture that made no effort to proclaim Yahweh to the surrounding nations.  In such an atmosphere, the Israelites could not understand and accept the Suffering Servant’s mission.

From the beginning of the Old Testament, we read that the scope of God’s rule is universal (Genesis 1:1;    Isaiah 54:5 and Jeremiah 32:27)

He is the only true, eternal, and living God, and all nations are invited to worship Him (Psalm 117:1), not just Israelites. Non-Jews (often called “strangers”) were treated with kindness and legal rights under the law (see Exodus 20:10; Leviticus 16:29, 17:8, and 19:34;   and Deuteronomy 1:6, 10:18, 14:29, 16:14, 24:17-19).

God, through Isaiah, called all the nations, from all corners of the earth, to turn to Him and be saved (Isaiah 45:22-23).  He appointed Israel, His servant kingdom, to shine the light of His salvation to all nations and peoples (Isaiah 49:6; 51:4-5).  And let’s not forget the example of Jonah, the reluctant prophet God sent to Nineveh to call the Assyrian people to repentance.  God intended him to be one among many Israelite missionaries who would take His message to the nations, but Jonah exemplified the Israelite mindset: 

(“)Why should Gentiles repent and be saved?  Aren’t the Gentile nations our enemies?  Aren’t they idolaters?  Haven’t the Gentiles killed countless Israelites?  Why would we want to bring them into the Kingdom of God? (“)

The thought of allowing the Gentiles full participation in the Kingdom, Covenant, and worship of God was not popular in Israel.  In order for God to enlarge the Kingdom to encompass the entire world, he would have to use other means.

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CHARLES SPURGEON:

“I will help you, says the Lord.”

Let us hear the Lord Jesus speak these words to each one of us:

 “I will help you…..It is but a small thing for Me, your God, to help you.  Consider what I have done already.  What!!!! Not help you?   Why, I bought you with My blood.

What!!! Not help you?  I have died for you; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the lesser? 

Help you!  It is the least thing I will ever do for you.  I have done more and will do more.  Before the world began, I chose you.  I made a covenant for you.  I laid aside My glory and became a man for you.  I gave up My life for you, and if I did all of this, I will surely help you now!!

In helping you, I am giving you what I have bought for you already.  If you had need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it to you.  You require little compared with what I am ready to give.  It is much for you to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow.

  Help you?  Do not fear!  If there were an ant at the door of your granary asking for help, it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat; you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency.  I will help you.”

Oh my soul, is this not enough?  Do you need more strength than the omnipotence of the united Trinity?   Do you need more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit?  Bring your empty pitcher here!  Surely this well will fill it. 

Hurry!  Gather up your needs, and bring them here –your emptiness, your sorrows, your deficiencies.  Behold, this river of God is full for your supply.  What can you desire besides?  Go forth, my soul, in this your might.  The eternal God is your Helper!

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Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Psalm 72:12

For He will deliver the needy when he cries, The poor also, and him who has no helper.

John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

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