Title: His Gifs, His Call, His Sovereignty
Romans 11
29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
You know what the best thing about being saved is? No one can take it away from you! It doesn’t matter if, in the world’s eyes, you are the world’s biggest failure; in God’s eyes you are still saved.
You can’t lose your salvation, either. It’s not like the TV remote control, meaning you’re always looking for it. Salvation is permanent and no one can take it away.
If you were to go back and read the book of Job you would find out that everything he lost fit into one category. In other words, what you can gain or lose on this earth.
Everyone seems to have the answers to all of your problems, but it seems like they don’t have the answers to their own problems. And, it wasn’t any different in Job’s time. As a matter of fact, Job’s wife told her husband in Job 2:9, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” How’s that for advice?
Now, in Romans chapter 11, Paul gives us some great insight into where the answers are for our problems. He gives us direction and focus on the only One that will provide for our needs. God! Let’s look jump into these verses:
Verse 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.
His Gifts
…for God’s gifts…When we go to 1 Corinthians 12:4, Paul uses the word ‘gifts’ there as well. And, he uses it in reference to the gifts of the Spirit. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:4,
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
Both of these words, in the Greek, are the same. They both are defined as something freely given. Meaning, the giver doesn’t want anything in return for them. The giver doesn’t expect anything in return for them.
God has given a Spiritual Gift, or Gifts, to every person born of Him. Your gift, when you use it, is one way of glorifying God. Let me give you example…If someone gives me something that I can really use and I never use it, then I have no appreciation for the gift or the giver. Thus, it doesn’t mean anything to me.
God has blessed each one of His children with a gift or gifts. Now, I keep saying gift or gifts, because some people may only get one, which, for them, will probably be enough, or some may get two, or another three. It depends on the person, because the Spirit knows the inner spirit of the person He is giving the gift to, and how it could be put to good use for God’s glory.
Yet there are some that show no appreciation for God’s gifts. Instead, they only come to church and go home. They come to church and they go home. Where’s the gift in that?
God gives us a blessing to use, and….it says,
29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable
Those gifts will not be taken back. I didn’t say can’t be taken back, because I think that if God really decided to snatch away your gifts He’d do that. But, our scripture says those gifts are irrevocable. That means they are binding, irreversible, final, not flexible. But there’s more…
There’s His call.
His Call
Paul tells us in Philippians 3:14,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Just like His gifts, God has a separate call that He will make known, for every child of God. God has a separate path for every Christian and He will show you what that is. Not only that, in Ephesians 4:1, we are admonished by Paul to pursue that call. He tells us,
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
One thing that we have to remember, we are all called to some form of Christian service. We are not called to sit in the same chair Sunday after Sunday, we are called to service.
And, just like God’s Gifts, the call of God is irreversible. It is final. You won’t be teaching this month and then doing something totally different from teaching in a year or so. His call is sure. His call is irrevocable.
Further when we find out what His gifts and call are for us, we will cry out like Paul did in Verse 33 of Romans 11:
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Moving on to verses 30-32,
30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Paul let’s us know just how big the canyon or rift is between the unsaved and God. In the beginning, we are all disobedient in His sight, until we place our faith in His Son, Who, in God’s mercy, He provided as a substitute for each one of us.
No matter what the sin, no matter how far away from God a non-Christian thinks they are, to God the distance is the same for everyone. No unsaved person is further away from God than another. Yet, in our own minds people think this can be measured in some kind of abstract system of degrees of sin, when, again, the distance is the same for every sinner, because the payment or punishment is same for every unsaved person: DEATH.
The same explanation about the distance from God also goes for that person that is out of fellowship with God. A person that has been out of fellowship with God for a year, is no further away from God than a person that has been out of fellowship with Him for one month. However, to us, in our own minds, we form an abstract system of measurement to determine how far away a person is from God. We should stop thinking like that.
Remember the sexually immoral man that Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians chapter 5? He told the leaders there, in verse 5,
5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
Well, it sure sounds like this man is far away from God, doesn’t it? It sure sounds like the distance between him and God can never be made up! Yet, later in 2 Corinthians 2:7, Paul says,
Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
Paul recognizes, and is trying to relate to us, that, in God’s eyes, those Christians that sin are all the same distance away from God. If we sin, we are out of fellowship with Him. If we sin again tomorrow without being forgiven for today, the distance God is from us does not change. Yet, again, in our own minds, the distance from us to Him increases. What we need to know is this, the distance from Him to us stays the same and only asking forgiveness in Jesus’ name will we be brought back into fellowship with God. We need to know in our hearts that the distance doesn’t increase.
Let’s go on to our last three verses:
34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
There is no other reason that we are on this earth than to glorify God. Paul says that no one can ever begin to understand God. He says that God is so far beyond us that even to casually think, “Well, I hope you know what you are doing, God,” is a sin. Why? Again, because He does know what He is doing and to infer that He doesn’t is to make God out to be less than He is.
In verse 35, Paul says
35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
Many people go about their Christian lives as if there is some big debt that they have to repay to God for the mercy and grace they have received. IT AIN’T SO!
Let’s say that I am suffering from appendicitis. Well, having never studied medicine, and never having paid attention during biology class, I would not even begin to be able to know how to help myself. And, if I don’t get help, the appendicitis will kill me sooner or later. But, the doctor or surgeon walks in, takes out the appendix, and all is well, sort of.
I know what you’re thinking, we still have to pay the doctor bill for the surgery, but I can’t pay for the life that was restored to me that might have been taken away except for the talent or ability of this surgeon, can I?
Many people think that they have to pay back a debt that does not exist, and, what’s more, they even think that they are able to pay God back!
Now, let’s flip this all around and come at it from another direction. Many people think that because they have done some outstanding service for God that God owes them something.
35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
Many people think that because they read the Bible, pray and go to church, that God owes them something.
35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
So, where are we going with all of this? Our saved self should be striving to please, striving to serve, striving to honor, striving to help, and not striving to pay back a debt that does not exist.
Paying something off assumes that you owe something in the first place. Paying something off assumes that you are trying to make something yours.
Paying something off assumes that you have not yet received the fullness of God’s wonderful grace.
Conclusion:
God has a gift or gifts for each one of us.
God has a call for each one of us.
God has a plan for each one of us
Those are final and not reversible, and they do one thing, and one thing only, they attribute to Him the glory that He deserves.
One final thought, it is a sin to not use your gift, but, I believe it is detestable to God if you use it but don’t use it to glorify God.
