Turn with me in your Bibles to
Romans chapter 9. For several messages I've been
preaching through this chapter, hoping that the Lord would enable
each of us and all our hearers to put things in the proper perspective,
in the sense of who God is, and who we are, enabling us by the
power of His Spirit to take our proper place in humility before
holy, sovereign, just, merciful God. And as I read through this
passage, and I've preached from it many times, read through it
many times, I'm continually amazed at how the Apostle Paul preach
these great truths without apology, without trying to make excuses. That's the way most people do
it when they come to Romans 9. They read about the sovereignty
of God. They read about the doctrine
of election. And they read about even this
passage here that speaks about God hating Esau. They try to
make excuses. They try to apologize for God
and try to tweak it in such a way as to make it palatable to men. But you don't find that in the
scriptures. You don't find that in the scriptures. And what I
want to deal with at the close of this chapter is We understand
that God has divided this human race up into two classes of people,
you might say, two different groups. And in verse 22, he describes
them here. He describes them many ways through
this chapter, but look here, he says, what if God willing
to show his wrath? Now some preachers will tell
you that God doesn't want to show his wrath. But right here
in the Bible, it says, what if God willing to show his wrath?
Now his wrath is an extension of his justice and his glory.
I certainly do not want to be an object of God's wrath. And
I hope you'll say the same thing. But there is God's wrath. And
when people see that, God's wrath, God's hatred, they automatically
think of God as they do themselves. And that's why it's so negative
to them. You see, God's wrath and God's
hatred is not like my wrath and my hatred. You may be angry today. You're wrong. That's right. Because I'll guarantee you, at
the kernel of it, there comes some sinful attitude. We talk about righteous anger.
That's just a pipe dream for men. That's right. But God's wrath is an extension
of His holiness. God is holy. And He must be angry
with the wicked. Now, God's wrath is not God throwing
a temper tantrum, like our children do. God's wrath is not bloodthirstiness. I'm going to make a point tonight
out of Ezekiel, you know, where it talks about God says He has
no pleasure in the death of the wicked. That doesn't mean that
God's not willing to show his wrath or that when God punishes
the wicked, he's doing something he doesn't want to do. It means
that he's not like these idols who are just bloodthirsty. You
know, when these idols of men, there's all kinds of different
sacrifices in false religion, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice,
and that's because their false gods are bloodthirsty. As I heard
one man say, he said, just like I've got this glass of water
up here and I get thirsty and every now and then I've got to
take a drink. And that's the way these false idols are. They're
bloodthirsty and they want these sacrifices because every now
and then they need to take a drink. But God's not bloodthirsty. I'll tell you what God is. God
is just. God is righteous. So what if
God, willing to show His wrath, and to make his power known,
endured with much long-suffering." Now, that means that God did
not immediately stamp out the wicked. Somebody said, well,
why didn't God immediately stamp out Adam when he fell? Well,
because God had a purpose that was older than Adam, older than
the fall, older than the earth. And that was his mercy in Christ.
But with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted or
made up to destruction." Now people don't like that, but I
can't help it. That's what this book says. You
say, well, we'll find another way to translate it. Well, go
ahead. There's a bunch of them. You don't really need to. Just
go buy one. You can buy any religion you want to buy. It's for sale. But the truth's not for sale.
The truth is not for sale. So there's the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction. And then verse 23, and that he
might make known the riches of his glory. And the reason it
says the riches of his glory, because it's talking about on
the vessels of mercy. Now that's those whom God is
pleased to show mercy in Christ. It's his glory because every
attribute of God is honored and magnified in that salvation. Which he had aforeprepared unto
glory. Now here's vessels of wrath and
here's vessels of mercy. And last time I dealt with who
are these vessels of mercy. Well look at verse 24. Even us. Now Paul's talking about believers
there. He's talking about children of
God. The title of this message is
children of the living God. He says, even us whom he hath
called. That's the calling of God, the
Holy Spirit. That's the invincible calling
of God. That's the title of last week's
message. It's a specific special calling.
Even whom he hath called. Now that calling there is not
the persuasion of the preacher. It's not the personality of the
preacher. It's not psychology. It's not
soft tones on the organ and begging people down at the front. That's
not what that calling is. The calling is the power of God
unto salvation, which is the gospel message empowered by the
Holy Spirit. It's the power of God unto salvation. And you see that power of God
unto salvation operative in those who believe the message. The power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. wherein the righteousness of
God is revealed. That's the important point of
this, and I'll show you that in just a moment. And look at
verse 24 of Romans 9. He says, even us whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Now,
whatever he's talking about here, it involves both Jew and Gentile.
That's clear. Not just the Jews alone, but
of the Gentiles. So here's the calling, which
is the work of the Holy Spirit under the gospel. Now people
say it isn't right to say God is going to bring sinners to
himself kicking and screaming, because we know the Bible teaches
us that nobody by nature wants salvation God's way. Somebody
says it's not right to tell sinners they can't fight it, can't resist
it. that God is going to overpower
them and overpower their will and violate their freedom, their
independence, their... I've even heard preachers say
violate their dignity. Well, we don't have any dignity
before God. We're sinners. We're sinners. And we deserve
nothing but damnation. Many say God would never violate
our free will or our freedom to choose and they say this This
calling is, as I said, the power of human persuasion, emotion,
psychology. And I mentioned last week, they
even use scare tactics. They've got films they'll show.
I remember one called The Burning Hell. Especially children. Get young children. In fact,
you've got to get them down as fast and as soon as you can and
get them baptized. Now, my question is, where do
you find that in the Bible? Somebody show me where that is
in the Bible. It's not there. So you show them that film, The
Burning Hell, and you scare the hell out of them and get them
down. And they make a profession, and then they spend their lives
talking about it. And they call that Christianity.
And there's nothing like that in this book, from Genesis to
Revelation. That's a concoction of man. But the reason man thinks that
way is because he's got to get some glory for himself. In the end, it's got to be up
to him to make the right decision and believe, because God would
never drag us into the kingdom. But the Bible teaches us that
God calls His people, and it's not by coercion, but it is by
conviction. It's a persuasion which the Holy
Spirit works in power as he proceeds forth from the Lord Jesus Christ
to bring about the conviction of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. To convince a sinner, to bring
a sinner in his conscience guilty under the law. That's what happens. By the preaching of the gospel,
showing us that we have no hope of salvation, of forgiveness,
of being justified and righteous, except in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he convinces. The scripture says it. Another
way of putting it is simply this, you must be born again. You must
be born again. Now, why must we be born again? Because by nature we're spiritually
dead. And we have to be given new life, spiritual life. People
want to talk about impartation or something imparted. Well,
there are things that are imparted. Spiritual life is imparted. I
don't know how to describe it to you other than by the evidences
of it. I don't know the anatomy of it.
I know when a baby is born with physical life, I can talk about
the anatomy of the brain and the heart and the liver and the
kidneys and all the organs and all that. But I can't do that
with spiritual life. There are preachers who'll try
to, but they're just beating the air. I can't give you the
makeup of spiritual life, what it looks like, or anything like
that. It's a spirit. But I can tell
you the effects of it, the evidence of it, and that's what's imparted.
Spiritual life, it's called a new heart in scripture. What is the
heart? It's the mind, the affections,
the will. It's what drives you, what motivates you, how you think,
what you love, what you hate, what you desire, what you believe. Faith is imparted. That's the
gift of God. Nobody believes by nature. No
man has faith by nature. By nature, we're all unbelievers.
Do you think that the reason you believed and somebody else
didn't is because you're better than the one who didn't? That's
what false religion essentially teaches. They won't admit to
that. They won't say it that way, but that's what it is. I repented, they didn't. Well,
repentance is the gift of God. Salvation is by grace, not of
words. It's through faith, that not
of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Christ told his disciples, he's
pointed to the Pharisees, he said, they have ears, but they
don't hear. They have eyes, but they don't
see. Now what do you suppose he meant
by that? Was he just talking in circles?
Riddles? No. He's making a distinction. There's physical sight and physical
hearing, which I think everybody in here can hear the words that's
coming out of my mouth. But then there's something better,
something higher. It's called spiritual hearing
and spiritual seeing. Do you see the value, the eternality,
the life and death nature of this message? Do you see the
glory of God in Christ? You see, that's spiritual eyes,
spiritual ears. And that's why he told the disciples
there, he said, but blessed are your ears, for they hear. Now,
picture this. Picture the Lord coming to them,
saying, now they have ears, but they don't hear. But you got
better ears than they do. And you hear things that they
don't hear. You're just better people. No. No. Blessed are your
ears. Now, you know what blessed means?
It means it's a gift. It means it's given to you by
God. You're blessed, they weren't. Blessed are your ears, for they
hear. Blessed are your eyes, for they see. In Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse
31, when he speaks of the coming age of Christ, the new covenant,
what did he say? He said, here's what's going
to happen. It's not going to be like Israel under the old
covenant. They broke that covenant. But
under this new covenant, he said, I'm going to put my spirit within
them. He said, I'm going to write my
law in their hearts. And they're going to be my people,
and I'll be their God. That's marriage. That's union. And he said, and I will remember
their sins no more, and they shall all know me from the least
of them. This is what's going to happen,
he says. Now how does all that happen?
Well, it happens because of the grace and power and majesty of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how it happens, doesn't
it? And that's what this calling
is all about. Now, what he does here, after he identifies the
vessels of mercy, look at it again, verse 24. Even us whom
he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.
So it's Jew and Gentile. Any Jew that's called, any Gentile
that's called. They're a vessel of mercy. Called
to Christ. Called to repentance. Given a
new heart. All of those things. Born again.
Now what he does now is he goes back to the prophecies of the
Old Testament. And here in verse 25 he speaks
of a prophecy that's found in the book of Hosea. The book of
Hosea. You know the prophet Hosea. And
the specific reference here is Hosea chapter 2 and verse 23. You might have that in your concordance.
And then another one in Hosea chapter 1 and verse 10, the book
of Hosea. And what it's a prophecy of is
the calling of the Gentiles. And he says in verse 25, as he
saith also in OC, now that's just a New Testament Greek way
of saying Hosea. He said, I will call them my
people, which were not my people. Now, what does that mean? Well,
he's talking in reference, in comparison to the old covenant.
Under the old covenant, the nation Israel were his people in a national
temporal ceremonial way. Now the Bible teaches that God
has an elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation before
the foundation of the world, and they've always been his people.
But here he's talking in comparison with Jew and Gentile, the Jews
under the old covenant. And when Hosea, see he prophesied
during the time of the old covenant, the Jews were his people under
that covenant, and the Gentiles were not his people under that
covenant, the Gentile nations. But he says in the future, he
says, I'm going to call them my people, which were not my
people and her beloved, which was not beloved. The Bible says
that if you're one of God's elect, you were loved with an everlasting
love. There's never been a time that God didn't love you. But
here again, he's speaking in terms of old covenant, new covenant. I know that may be difficult
to make that distinction, but that's what it is. You see, he
joined himself, that love that he speaks of the nation is not
his redemptive love, but it was his covenant love that joined
himself to that nation under that covenant for 1,500 years.
And that covenant love was not given to any Gentile by nature. And so he says in verse 26, and
it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to
them, you are not my people, that's the Gentiles during the
time of the old covenant, There shall they be called the children
of the living God. So what's he saying? There's
going to come a time when those Gentiles who were not my people,
that they will be called children of the living God. All right? Now, that's the Gentile issue. So he tells them that this was
always true. This is not a change in God's
plan. This is not plan B. You know,
I've heard preachers say that God tried to work his will through
the Jewish nation, and that failed, and now he's gone to the Gentiles,
and the Bible does speak of the time of the Gentiles. I know
that. That's another issue, but this is not a change. This is
the way it always, God had always had it planned. The reason he
chose the Jews as a nation mainly was to bring the Messiah through
them according to the flesh. Jesus Christ is God in human
flesh. He had to be made like unto His
brethren with a human body and soul without sin in order to
redeem us from our sins. So He had to come through some
nation and God chose the Jews. He chose Israel. Not because
they were better than the other nation. Not because they were
more in number. Why did God choose that nation?
We don't know. And he doesn't tell us, and it
doesn't matter. Whatever nation he chose, it
was just out of his sovereign will, period. It seemed good
in his sight. But God still had a people even
at that time, elect both Jew and Gentile according to the
terms of the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. But when the
time of that old covenant's over, he said, I'm gonna call a people
who were not my people under that covenant, and they'll be
called children of the living God. Now, in chapter 27, he goes
to the prophet Isaiah. And here he's talking about the
Jews. Here he's talking about Israel, the nation. And listen
to what he says. This is a prophecy from Isaiah
chapter 10. It's another one from Isaiah
chapter 28. And he even goes back to Isaiah
1. I won't give you all these references. We don't have time
this morning to go to them. but you can look them up in your
concordance and uh... he says Isaiah verse twenty seven
now listen to what he says about the Jews he says Isaiah also
crieth concerning Israel though the number of the children of
Israel be as the sand of the sea what's the next line a remnant
shall be saved now what's a remnant that's just a part of it Not
all of them, but just a part of them. Now, how do you jive
that with the fact that he says, all Israel shall be saved? And
they're in prophecy, and he's gonna make that point in Romans
10 and 11. It's only a remnant of the Jews. Well, that's where you have to
go back and read context, context, context. And what does he say,
remember, over in Romans 9 and verse 6? Look at it again. Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel. He makes a distinction between
national Israel and spiritual Israel. National Israel was that
nation under the old covenant. Spiritual Israel is any, the
citizens of spiritual Israel are any sinner saved by the grace
of God who looks to Christ for salvation. He said that back in Romans 2
28. Remember he said he is not a Jew which is one outwardly
but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is
not that of the flesh but of the heart. A spiritual Jew, a
spiritual child of Abraham. Who are the children of Abraham?
They're the children of the promise. What is the promise? Salvation
by grace through Christ. But here in Romans 9, 27, he's
talking about national Israel. Now that nation, though they
be in number as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. Now who is that remnant? That's
God's elect out of the Jewish nation. That's those vessels
of mercy whom he hath called and whom he will call. And he
says in verse 28, for he will finish the work. That word work
is a count. I like that. He's going to finish
the account. And he's going to cut it short
in righteousness. Because a short work will the Lord make up on
the earth. What does all that mean? Well, it's not going to
take much time, he said. That's literally what it means.
A short work. God sent His Son into the world
at His appointed time, and He walked this earth in complete,
strict, perfect, uncorrupted obedience to the law, and went
to the cross of Calvary, suffered, bled, and died on the account
of His people, their sins charged to Him, and it took Him 33 and
a half years. Israel was under the Old Covenant
for 1500 years, from Sinai to the cross. And they could not keep the law. How many years have you been
on earth? How many years have I been on earth? And we haven't
kept the law either. We're sinners. But Christ came
and lived 33 and a half years on this earth as God in human
flesh. And he kept the law perfectly,
completely, fully, and established the only righteousness. He'll
cut it short in righteousness. That's what the end result of
the life and death of Christ is. Righteousness. He did it. Nobody else has ever done it.
Nobody else ever will. Pick the best of the best. Still
vanity. Still sin. And he says in verse
29, he says, and Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth,
that means the invincible God, who cannot be defeated, except
the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom
and been like unto Gomorrah." That's quoted from Isaiah 1.10,
where Isaiah is prophesying in Jerusalem to the nation Israel,
and he's saying that the people have rejected God, they've turned
from God, they've gone into idolatry. You remember those are the famous
passages where he talks about from the top of our head to the
sole of our feet. We're nothing but corruption
and putrefying sores. He talks about how the ass knows
his master, the ox knows his master, but the people under
the Old Covenant, they've forsaken their God. Even the dumb animals
have some awareness of who their master is, but the people of
God have forsaken." That's a picture of all mankind by nature, isn't
it? But he says here, he says, things
have gotten so bad in Israel that except the Lord had left
us a seed, that's that remnant that he spoke of there, a remnant
shall be a seed, a small part We'd be just like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? The whole group was
wiped out. Lot had to be brought out. But
he wasn't a Sodomite. The whole group. That's what
Isaiah is saying there. And he said that back in his
prophecy 700 years before Christ. And he said, look, it's so bad
here. If there wasn't just a small group of believers here, saved
by the grace of God, looking to the future, looking to Christ
to come, this whole kit and caboodle would be wiped out. Do you know it's the same today?
Essentially. Now look at verse 30. What shall we say then? What are we going to think about
all this? How are we going to react to
all this? What are we going to conclude about all this? Now,
I want you to think about most people today who call themselves
Christian and what their reaction to all of this scriptural revelation
is. What are we going to say? Well,
shoot, if I had believed in election, I wouldn't preach. Well now, is that what the Scripture
says to say? Turn over here to 2 Timothy 1.
This is why I had Brother Doug read this passage. I want to
show you something. I've heard preachers say that.
I remember telling my mother that going home in a car after
hearing Brother Mayhem preach a similar passage. I said, Mom,
if I believed that, I wouldn't do anything. I wouldn't preach.
I wouldn't witness. The ramblings of an unregenerate
man. I can remember that. Look at
verse 8 of 2 Timothy 2. Paul was talking to Timothy about
the ministry. Now here's the apostle Paul out
there traveling and he's suffering. They're talking about him, they're
lying on him, they're mad at him. Some of them were trying
to kill him. Forty Jews put a contract out
on him, said they wouldn't eat or sleep until he was dead. And listen to what he says. In
verse 8, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was
raised from the dead according to my gospel. This is the gospel. This is the good news. And he
says in verse 9, wherein I suffer trouble, I'm telling the good
news of salvation by the grace of God for sinners through Jesus
Christ who was made of the seed of David, who died and was buried
and rose the third day, who established the only righteousness, that
you and I can stand before a holy God and be accepted, and I'm
suffering trouble. I get nothing but trouble over
this. He said, they call me an evildoer. Even under bonds, they
put him in chains. But the word of God is not bound. It's not bound by circumstances. It's not bound by sin. It's not even bound by the wills
of men. Thank God. If the Word of God
was bound by my will, I wouldn't be where I am preaching what
I preach today. But look at verse 10. Therefore
I endure all things, all this suffering, trouble, for the elect's
sake. You know why I'm doing this,
Timothy? God has an elect people out there and He's going to call
them to Christ. Election, my friend, God's sovereignty
is no deterrent to evangelism. It's the only reason to evangelize. I endure all that they may also
obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
The reason I'm doing this, Timothy, is because God has a people.
Paul, do you know who they are? Not until they're called. when they come to Christ. Go
back to Romans now. What are we going to say then?
What's our conclusions? We don't know who God's elect
are. We don't know if Christ died for them or if the Holy
Spirit will quicken and call them. You know, neither evangelism
nor responsibility is to be motivated by what we don't know. There's a lot we don't know. I always depend upon Deuteronomy
29.29 for the best answer the scripture gives on that issue.
You remember what that says? Let me read it to you. It says,
the secret things belong unto the Lord our God. What I don't
know belongs to God. What I don't know in this matter,
you know why I don't know it? Because God hadn't said it, He
hadn't revealed it, He hadn't taught it. It belongs to Him.
But it says, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us. Christ, before He ascended to
the Father, stood before His disciples, and you know what
He said? He said, Go ye in all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. Isn't that what He said? Teaching them. That's what He said. Well, Peter
could have stepped up and said, well, wait a minute, Lord. We
don't know who your elect are. We don't know who your sheep
are. That belongs to me, Peter. That's what the Lord would say.
It belongs to God. That's not your business. Who
do you think you are? Who do I think I am? He says,
those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children
forever, that we may do all the words of this law, this commandment. Here's what I know. The gospel
preached will have no saving effect upon any sinner apart
from the Holy Spirit's invincible call. I know that right now. I know that if any sinner savingly
believes God's gospel, it's due to the power of God in effecting
that great change. You must be born again. You remember the popular book
back several decades ago, How to be Born Again. You know, Christ didn't say that. He didn't say how to be born
again. He just told Nicodemus, you must be born again. But here's what we do know. We
know that God uses means to save his elect. We know we're responsible
to seek after and bow to the means to his glory and our good.
We know this means will be used in every instance of the application
of salvation to God's people, to the called. Look at verse
30 of Romans 9. What shall we say then? Well,
that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of
faith. What he means by that is these
Gentiles, in the context, he's showing that they didn't seek
after the righteousness of the law of Moses. They didn't have that. That doesn't
mean the Gentiles were all immoral. They were religious Gentiles,
just like they were religious Jews. And there were immoral
Jews just like there were immoral Gentiles. That's humankind, friend,
don't you know? But these Gentiles didn't have
the law of Moses, but it says they attained to righteousness.
Now, how did they attain to righteousness? He calls it the righteousness
which is of faith. Now, what is the righteousness
which is of faith? Well, hold on. Look at verse
31. He says, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
they were trying to be righteous by the law, hath not attained
to the law of righteousness. They didn't make it. Why? Verse
32, wherefore why? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law. So there's
a righteousness by faith, and then there's a righteousness
by the works of the law. Righteousness of faith is gospel
righteousness. It's the righteousness that all
the called, all the remnant that shall be saved find and rest
in, and the righteousness of works is the righteousness of
the religion of man. It will not work. Now, we know
what the righteousness of works is. That's man trying to work
his way into God's favor by his own works and his own will. What
is the righteousness of faith? Well, look at verse 32, the last
line. Now, he goes back to the Old
Testament. He quotes from the book of Isaiah again. He says,
they stumbled at that stumbling stone. That's talking about the
religious Jews who were seeking righteousness by works. They
stumbled at the stumbling stone. Who's the stumbling stone? Well,
as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and
rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him, that stumbling
stone is a him, shall not be ashamed. What is the righteousness
of faith? Well, it's the righteousness
of God, worked out, established by the obedience unto death,
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. That's what it is. Men will even
pervert that phrase, righteousness of faith. They'll say, well,
faith is your righteousness. Not so. God knows you cannot
keep the law, so he accepts faith as its replacement. Absolutely
not. You see, biblical faith, the
gift of faith that comes in this powerful calling, always has
an object, and without the object, faith is nothing. And the object
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen. Christ established
it. Now look at Romans 10, and let
me read this and I'll conclude. Verse 1. He says, Brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. Now, Paul, the apostle, He's
just like you and me in this sense. He didn't know who God's
elect were, but he prayed for the salvation of Israel. I pray
for the salvation of America. But I know, except the Lord hath
left us a seed, we'd be just like Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse
two, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. God gives knowledge. When he saves a sinner, and calls
a sinner into the kingdom he gives them knowledge what knowledge
verse three for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God now what is the righteousness
of God look at verse four for Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth see if you have
the righteousness of faith you're not looking to yourself You're
not even looking to your faith. You're looking to Christ. For
He is my righteousness. His blood alone washes away all
my sins. His righteousness alone charged
to me, accounted to me. He took my sins to His account.
He took it all into account. He made a short work of it. And
He puts His righteousness to my account. And we receive Him
by faith. Christ is the end of the law.
That word end, as you know, means fulfillment, completion, finishing
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. All
right.