Gary Gleans

                                                                                       Romans 11:1-6 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?   “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”   But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”   So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.   But if i...

                                                                             Romans 10:18-21 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for  “Their voice has gone out   to all the earth,   and their words to the ends of the world.” But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,  “I will   make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a   foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,  “I have been found by those who did not seek me;   I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says,   “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” The main point of this section of Romans is to explain how the Gospel being expan...

                                                                        Romans 10:13-17 For   “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”   How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him   of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear   without someone preaching?   And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written,   “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”   But   they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says,   “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”   So   faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. In order for someone to come to faith, there is a process that inv...

                                                                                       Romans 10:5-13 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.   But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)   “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).   But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);   because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart tha...

                                                                             Romans 10:1-4 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.   For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.   For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.   For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.   The most important thing that anyone can know is how to be saved.  People have many different convictions about salvation and how they can attain it.  Unfortunately, there are many false teachings about salvation.  Paul writes ...

                                                                             Romans 9:30-33 What shall we say, then?   That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is,   a righteousness that is by faith;   but that Israel   who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.   Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the   stumbling stone,   as it is written,  “Behold, I am laying in Zion   a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;   and whoever believes in him will not be   put to shame.” Salvation is only obtained through righteousness.  Righteousness is only obtained t...

                                                                                  Romans 9:19-29 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For   who can resist his will?”   But who are you, O man,   to answer back to God?   Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”   Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump   one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?   What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience   vessels of wrath   prepared for destruction,   in order to make known   the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he   has prepared befo...

                                                                             Romans 9:14-18 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.   Is God free?  Is God just?  Is God good?  Is God wise?  These and many other similar questions are very...

                                                                                  Romans 9:6-13 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”   This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.   For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”   And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,   though they were not yet born and h...

                                                                                       Romans 9:1-5 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.   The arg...

                                                                                       Romans 8:31-39 What then shall we say to these things?   If God is for us, who can be against us?   He who did not spare his own Son but   gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?   Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?   It is God who justifies.   Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God,   who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?   As it is written...

Romans 8:26-30 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.   And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.   The Trinity is at work in our lives to conform us to the image of Jesus.  Every member of the Trinity is working together to bring us in line with the will of God. ...

                                                                                       Romans 8:18-25 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.   For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.   For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope   that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.   And not only the creation, but we...