It's an encouragement just to
have God's Word read. I appreciate you, Brother Scott. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Romans, chapter 9. Brother Carl and I was talking
a moment ago about the Lord when He said, it's done. You know. God, who is eternal. Is now. Now, right now. Everything that Almighty God
has ever purposed. Is right now. It is as much right
now as it was in our way of thinking. Eons ago, we think in time, not
God. Armageddon, I know how the world
sets forth Armageddon. They see this great battle prolonged,
going on, and they talk of it like it'll be a struggle. And
then the Lord will prevail, and then the judgment, and then men
will come before the Lord in judgment. Like we have court,
you know, and one is called up and then another one is called
up and another one. The Scripture says in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, it'll be over before you know
it. If the Lord were to return at
this moment and the great white throne judgment was right now,
Those left to themselves would be in hell before they knew.
The twinkling of an eye is an expression, and it actually says
it's an immeasurable length of time. It's immeasurable. I mean, just a couple of years
ago, I walked outside the house, a little ice out on the thing. I was walking out there with
Glenn, and I mean to tell you, I hit the ground before I ever
knew I was falling. I hit it that quick. Well, now,
I could probably measure that. Somebody could measure it. You
know, they could probably measure from the time I started in a
moment. Before you know what happened. Those that He has everlastingly
loved will find themselves in eternity, reigning, blessed of
the Lord. And those left to themselves
will lift their eyes up in hell and realize, I miss God. Well, Romans chapter 9. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, had previously, and this is where we left off
last week, and we'll be looking at verses 22 to 26 in just a
moment. But I said before, this chapter,
chapter 9 of the book of Romans, is probably one of, if not the
most disputed and rejected chapters in all of the Scriptures. I'm
sure that there are some that are as, all of them are, but
this one is the one that men are most blatantly resentful
toward. I was pastoring a church in unbelief,
a free will church. And we had these little study
course books that they'd send out. And one of them was on the
book of Romans. And this chapter right here was left out. They
just didn't deal with it. I mean, you just start coming
right up and they just skipped it. How do you just skip a book,
a chapter? in the Word of God. But Paul
had previously penned in the Holy Scriptures the power of
Almighty God and His right and His ability to show mercy to
whomsoever He will. That's what Brother Scott just
read about. Oh, that God would show mercy to us. Do you know
only people that desire mercy? are those that God has shown
mercy to. Only those that have a new heart, that the Lord has
shown mercy and revealed to you, and this is how He reveals it
to you. You perceive it. You understand
it. God has mercy. Yes, sir? Mercy is not mercy That's right. That's exactly right. You didn't
hear what Brother Scott said. Mercy is not mercy if you deserve
it. Mercy is for the undeserving. We did not deserve mercy. God shows mercy to sinners, to
the ungodly. Men, women, in themselves, who
if you ask, what do you deserve? We deserve judgment, wrath. That's what we would deserve.
Mercy. He said in verse 18, Romans 9,
18, Therefore, have he mercy on whom he will have mercy and
whom he will he hardeneth. I looked up the word hardeneth
again today. You know, I'm telling you, you're
looking at somebody that's got to look at something often because
I am so prone to forget. Hardeneth. It means dried up. Dried up. Stiff-necked. Rebellious. Left to themselves. The Lord God Almighty who created
all things by Himself and for Himself has the right to intervene
on the behalf of one and show mercy, kindness, compassion. And He has the right to leave
one to himself to perish justly. under his wrath. The Lord has
a right. Now, Paul anticipated the carnal
mind's thinking when he said, Well, who hath resisted his will? Verse 19, Thou wilt say then
unto me. Why does God find fault if he
has mercy on whomsoever he will and whomsoever he will he leaves
to themselves? Why can God find fault? Obviously, the carnal mind is
going to resist the Word of God. Paul's answer was this, Nay,
verse 20, but O man, and there's the key right there, O man, who
art thou that replies, continually replies, continually thinks,
continuously resists, Who art thou that replies, that disputes,
that answers against? God. Does the thing formed, say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Has the molded
thing, the thing formed, why hast thou ordained? That's what
it means, made. Why hast thou made? Why have
you appointed me? Thus hath not the potter, verse 21,
power, that is authority and right, over the clay of the same
lump to make to a point one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. Honor, remember this, the word
honor there means worth the cost. Does God have the right to say
unto one that he is everlastingly loved? And why has God everlastingly
loved him? Well, I can answer that. See,
I have to answer it in kind of segments because that's the only
way I can explain things. As the Lord says, I've loved
you with an everlasting love. Well, when God says it, that's
all inclusive. I have to say it in parts here
so that you'll understand. Why has God Almighty everlastingly
loved a man? Well, number one, He chose to.
I know that's a fact. He chose to. Number two, what's
the basis of God's love? Well, we read last week, it says,
I love righteousness and I hate iniquity. I love righteousness. So the basis of God's love, number
one, is His will. Number two, the foundation of
God's love is righteousness. But whose righteousness? The
righteousness of Christ. But how long has He beheld me
in Christ? Always. Therefore, having viewed
me, seen me in Christ. If Christ has forever stood for
me as my surety, and that's the beloved Son in whom He is well
pleased, How long has He looked at me in righteousness? Forever. Someone said, well,
I don't think that He ever looked upon us in righteousness until
we believed. You mean to tell me He looked
on me and His Son and saw me any other way than righteous?
You said, I asked you this question, Brother Scott, about this very
thing. His answer was this, where God
puts a man, That's where God keeps a man. That's a good answer. If Almighty God has put me in
Christ, that's where He keeps me. But when He put me there,
what was His thoughts upon me? His thoughts upon me were mercy,
kindness, compassion. That's what He thought. Well, verse 22, what if God,
willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured
with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction."
Now, the Apostle Paul here is setting forth in these Scriptures
what he has said concerning God's right to do what He will. Now, men may argue this. They may Dispute this, I was
listening to someone this morning. And very, very, it doesn't matter
who it was, it was a very, very famous man that's pastoring down
in Georgia. And he made this statement. He
said, there is no scripture. He said, well, he said, first
of all, he said, there are some that say that God has loved some
and not loved others. and that God is going to save
those that he's everlastingly loved and is going to damn those
that he's not everlastingly loved. He says there is no scripture
in all of the Bible that backs that up. I thought, well, you just don't see it. What if God willing, why does
God allow rebellion to continue during a specific period of time. Why does God allow that? The apostle is going to answer
a question that is the absolute only answer that can be given
concerning God's will and God's purpose and God's right to manifest
his vengeance. Why does the Lord allow rebellion
to go on? And you know that He does because
you can see it. You see it. Why does it go on? Now listen, this is going to
answer this now. Here's the Scripture. And it's
not up for debate. It's not up for questioning.
Here is the answer on why God allows men to go on in rebellion
against Him. This is the reason. What if God,
willing, what if God has determined, what if God has intended and
purposed to point out, to demonstrate and to manifest His wrath, that
is, His desire and justified passion against sin? What if God, what if God has
been pleased to manifest His wrath in this particular way? What if the Lord has been pleased
to make His power known? That is, what if God has been
pleased to cause men called out of darkness to understand? Now, those that are left to themselves
right now, that are left in unbelief, and I do not know, I don't know
who the Lords are. I can tell you that I do know
that the Lord has a people. I know that the Lord will call
them out of darkness. But I do know that there is a
point at which men go from darkness to light. I know that there's
a point at which they are called out of spiritual rebellion. I
understand that. And that you understand it then. But with God, it's eternal. The
Lord's always known those that are His. But what if the Lord
has been pleased to make something known in time to His people? Because I can tell you this,
the rebels against God, they never realize that they're under
the judgment of God until it's over. And they wake up, as we
spoke of a moment ago, lifting up. As that rich young ruler,
he lifted up his eyes out of hell. out of the flame. What
if God has been pleased to make known His power, make His power
known, and He endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction? What if God has been pleased
to allow men to go on in rebellion What if God has been willing,
I'm trying to say this enough different ways to where we understand
exactly, what if God has been pleased to bear patiently, long-suffering,
the conduct with patience and forbearance, what if God has
been pleased to allow men to continue on? That is, the vessels
of wrath that are fitted to destruction, those subjects of his justified
passion and anger against sin, that the Lord has everlastingly
known those that are fitted. Now, if you have in your Bible,
if you have, if you look at the word fitted, and in the middle
column, I've got a Cambridge here, and it's got It's got that
word fitted, and it means made up. Made up, fitted, prepared,
framed to destruction. That is, to ruin and loss. What if God? Someone would say,
well, are you saying that the Lord has said that there is a
vessel Of dishonor? Yeah. A vessel of
dishonor. Someone says, I'm really trying
to grasp hold of what you're saying. Here's what I'm saying.
I'm saying that the potter has a right out of the same lump. What's the difference in a believer
and an unbeliever, humanly speaking? Nothing. Nothing. And they were twins. Two boys. Same mom and daddy. What was
the difference in Jacob and Esau? Humanly speaking, what was the
difference? Nothing. Nothing. There was not one ounce
of difference in those two boys. I told you this before. I'm telling you. I'm admitting
to you. My mom and dad had four kids.
I look back right now and I'll tell you the one that I would
have given you the least hope on. Me. Me. I can tell you if there's somebody
sitting here and you can say, well, I can tell you this, buddy,
I've kind of looked back on my life and oh boy, man, you talk
about rebellious. You talk about somebody give
mom and daddy some problems. You're talking about somebody
that really, really didn't want to hear what they had to say?
You're looking at the worst. You hadn't done anything that
I didn't do. But that Almighty God would choose
to show mercy on this lump of clay? I'm telling you, there's
hope for anybody. What if God, Paul says, willing
to make His power known, if Almighty God is willing and endures with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath made up, prepared, and
what does God do to make one up? Leaves them alone. That's what it is. God is willing
to manifest His anger. And he forbears to punish that
for a while, the vessels of his anger that he has eternally purposed
to leave to themselves. If God leaves a man to himself,
how long has God purposed to leave him to himself? Now, you
know the answer to that. You know that. Just like if God
is going to show mercy to one, how long has He purposed to show
mercy? Forever. David said this is All of my
salvation, He made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things. Everything was in order and it
was sure. That's all my salvation. Almighty
God chose to show mercy to me and He showed me mercy because
He pleased to show me mercy and it was so. What's the possibility
that God's going to call out one of His own that He's everlastingly
loved? What's the possibility of that? A hundred percent. What's
the possibility that they're going to come? A hundred percent.
What's the possibility that there's one that Almighty God everlastingly
loves? And the Lord came into this world,
and He came into this world for the redemption of the sheep only. For whom did Christ die? Only
the sheep of God, the everlastingly loved. Did Christ die for all
men without distinction? No. No. How do you know? He said he didn't.
I lay down my life for the sheep. Aren't they all sheep? No. He
told some of the Pharisees, he said, you're not my sheep. He
said, tell us plainly what you're talking about. He said, I told
you plainly. But you don't believe because you're not my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice. They follow. Not sheep. No sheep. They may be lost sheep. They
may be in darkness sheep, but they're sheep. Sheep. God Almighty has always had a
sheep. What if God, willing to show His wrath and make His power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath made up,
fitted to destruction. Verse 23, "...and that He might
make known the riches of His glory." His opinion. Remember that. When you see the
word glory, almost without exception, that word there, the heart of
that word is to think. It's God's glory. It's God's
opinion. I told you about that verse of
Scripture. Moses said, show me your glory. Show me your opinion. Tell me
what you think. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. That's what the Lord answered. That he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory. That he might cause there to
be an understanding. Listen, what you're viewing right
here and in other places too, you're seeing The absolute manifestation
of God's mercy towards some. How do you know? How do you know,
one, that God's been merciful to? Well, as I was talking about
this morning, they believe God. How do you know? How do you know
somebody that God has shown mercy to? They believe the Gospel.
They believe the Gospel of God. The Gospel of Christ. Sovereign
grace. Is there any other gospel except
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace? No. What did Paul say? If any man, an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel than that which we've preached unto
you, let him be anathema, accursed. There is no other gospel. The good news is that salvation
is of the Lord. Bad news is that God wants to
save you, but can't unless you let Him, unless you help Him.
That's bad news, buddy. That's bad news. That's bad news. That's bad news. Why? Because I'm dead, spiritually. All I've got to do is resurrect
myself. All I've got to do is change myself into something
else that I'm not. A leopard can't change his spots.
An Ethiopian can't change his skin. And he said, you can't
change either, you that are prone to do evil. You can't do that.
How are you going to change yourself? Why don't you change yourself
into something else? I'd like to see that. Change
yourself into somebody else. Change yourself. I think I'm
going to be there. I think I'm going to change myself into a
deer. No, you're not. Why? Because
you can't. Well, that's right. Almighty God. Been pleased to
make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy,
the wealth of His opinion. Oh, you that believe this morning,
you know what? You're so glad. You're so glad. And then you're sitting there
struggling. You know, I'm not as I'm not as glad as I ought
to be. Are you? Now, I know you're not,
but you know what? You are glad. We think on the
mercy of God, and we think, I'm so thankful that God has shown
me mercy. But you know what? There's going
to come a time when I'm going to realize it. Paul says, we
see through a glass darkly right now. We know Him part, and we
prophesy in part, but in that day, we're going to see Him as
He is, and we're going to be like Him. We're going to know
Him. And we're going to know something. I know that 4 in 20
elders over in Revelation 5, 4 or 5, it says they cast their
crowns before Him and say, You're worthy. You're worthy because
You showed us mercy. Out of every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue, what if God is going to make known the riches
of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared
unto glory, which He had ordained before, which He had fed up in
advance and made ready beforehand? What if God's been pleased to
do that? And He has. He has for the purpose, for the
decision, for the thought to show mercy. He delights to show
mercy. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? I'm going to be honest with you.
I'm just glad to be here. I'm just glad to be here. I'm thankful that Almighty God
would allow me the privilege. I've told you before my thoughts
concerning this assembly right here, that Almighty God would
allow me the privilege to be here with you. It's joy unspeakable
because I'm convinced the Lord has blessed this place. He's
blessed this assembly. blessed it with a hearing of
His Word and a belief. Almighty God, who had aforeordained,
prepared some to show mercy to. And they hear of it, those that
He has called out of darkness, and they love it, and they are
thankful. The Lord, who eternally purposed
all things, To allow man to go to hell leads
him to himself. Turn with me to Exodus 4.21.
Exodus. Exodus 4.21. What does God have to do? To leave a man? I mean, to harden a man. Now, you listen to the Scriptures
here. Exodus 4.21. Let God be true. and let every man be a liar." If Almighty God sets forth that
a man's heart is hardened, listen to God's Word. Exodus 4.21, And
the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt,
see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have
put in thine hand, but I will harden his heart that he shall
not let the people go. Turn to Exodus 7, 3. Exodus 7,
3. Let's read verse 2, 7, verse
2, Exodus 7, 2, Thou shalt speak all that I command thee. And
Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the
children of Israel out of the land. And I will harden Pharaoh's
heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt." Here's the bottom line. If Almighty
God leaves you alone, and He says, I hardened your
heart, Remember this, He has justly
left you to yourself. Men will hear that Scripture
right there and they're angry against God. But shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, why have you ordained me thus? The problem is that men will
not hear of a God that is sovereign by nature. Men hate God. The hate is sovereignty. It is
right. Men have no problem. If you have
a piece of ground, you have no problem thinking if somebody
comes over on your ground And start setting up a pole barn
or something like this. You walk over there and say,
what are you doing? I say, well, I'm going to build myself a barn.
You say, this is my land. I have a right. You don't have
a right to be on this land. I have a right. Why? I bought
it. I paid for it. That's mine. As much as I love
men and women in this congregation here, your property is your property.
I don't have a right to it. What's wrong with God doing what
He will with His own? Does God have a right? See, the
problem is, is we have it in our mind what we think God should
be like. And we establish a God in our
mind. What we think. Exodus 7, verse
14 says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened.
He refuseth to let the people go. If you want to know what
a man does, What a man will do? Watch him. And whatever he does,
that's his heart. If a man or a woman has a heart
for Christ, they bow to Him. Christ is all to them. They love
Him. For me to live is Christ. But if there's another God, they'll
go after that God. Why doesn't God destroy all that
He's purposed to leave to themselves the moment they're born? Well,
the Scripture says that He might make known His power. And He
endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared
to destruction. Men that leave this world under
the judgment of God, they leave this world under the judgment
of Almighty God justly. God is not to blame. Even so,
verse 24, "...us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles." Even us, Paul says. Here, the apostle,
who was a Jew? Paul was a Jew by nationality. But he's speaking to believers
who were at Rome who were, by and large, Gentiles. And what
Paul was saying is that Almighty God has shown mercy to a people
that He has everlastingly loved, Jew and Gentile. There is no
difference in them. Bond-free, rich, poor, black,
white. How do we know who the elect
of God are? Even us whom He has called, surnamed,
called them His own, adopted them, and effectually in time
will call them out of darkness. And here's the amazing thing,
they will believe him. They will believe him and they
will say, Lord, as you say you are, that's where you are. And I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm glad he's the boss. You know,
people respect a boss. You know, somebody's boss. Now, you may have some opinions
against the boss, but I'm telling you, if he's the boss and he
says this, now, if ever Tom, Dick and Harry can talk him out
of this till you know it, they come to this one and he says,
well, I guess we'll do it like that. And somebody else says,
I don't think, well, maybe we shouldn't. You have no respect for him.
You know who you respect? Somebody that's in authority.
What he says goes. That's who you buy, that's who
you'll Respect, that's who you, the boss, whom he hath called
affectionately, powerfully. And how does he call them? By
the gospel. Here's the call. This is a, men
will say something, y'all don't give an invitation? What, you think there's a difference? You know, you think 20 or 30
feet's going to make a difference? Here's how God calls His people.
by the gospel. If you hear, if you hear, you'll
come. If you hear, God gave you ears
to hear. If you respond, He gave you a
new heart. If you believe, He's already
made you alive. Men don't believe to become alive.
They believe because they're alive. And Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of that gospel. I'm not ashamed to say that God's
the boss. I'm not ashamed of that. As Brother Scott said, who's
running this show anyway? You or God? Me or God? Who's in control
here? I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Verse 25, As he saith also in
Hosea, Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people,
and her beloved which was not beloved. Now, is he saying that
there's a people that were not at one time the people of God? Or they were not beloved of God?
Well, you know better than that. Because if the Lord says, I've
loved you with an everlasting love, if you've always been my
people, what does he mean? Well, there was a time when the
Jews thought. The Jews thought only the Jews could be saved.
And Hosea prophesied that God was going to call some Gentiles.
I'll bet you a hundred bucks everybody in here is a Gentile.
Unless you're a Jew, unless you're from Israel, nationally, then
you're a Gentile. Aren't you thankful that God
would show mercy to you? Paul has quoted Hosea 2. Almighty God is pleased to show
mercy to Jew and Gentile. Why? Because God's not a respecter
of persons. As I said before, men look at
Israel as if that's kind of a holy grail, a holy land. And I'm telling
you, unless God calls a man out of darkness, they're all dead. Verse 26, "...it shall come to
pass in that place where it was said unto them, You are not My
people, there shall they be called the children of the living God."
Among all the nations, you ask a Jew, Back in the time of the
Old Testament and stuff like that, they had the tabernacle.
They had the prophets. They had the law. You ask a Jew, can a Gentile be saved? Well, God showed me. Are you
talking about one of them dogs? A Gentile, as far as a Jew was
concerned, was nothing more than dirt under his feet. They thought
God Almighty is going to show mercy to only the Jews. And they
thought all the Jews. Why? Because they were sons of
Abraham. The Scripture says it's going
to come to pass in the place where it was said of them, you're
not my people. There shall they be called the children of the
living God. You hath He quickened. That's
what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. You hath He quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Almighty God showed mercy
to you, to the unlovely, to the undesirable. Listen, never despair. Never despair. If you have breath
in your lungs right now, never despair that Almighty God might
show mercy. He might, I'll say it. Peradventure. Peradventure. That's where perhaps we witness the state of rebellion
and unbelief in many. Realize that God's hand is not
shortened. You know, that's scripture out
of Isaiah. Is the Lord's hand shortened
that it cannot save? You know what that means? Cut
off. Is God's hand cut off and the
only hand He's got is your hand? Is the Lord's hand shortened?
Has His hand of power been amputated so that the only way that He
can save you is if you let Him? The Lord's hand is not shortened
that He cannot save. If He's been pleased to show
you mercy, God Almighty is going to reveal it to you. And He'll
tell you. And He'll tell you in this life,
"...it shall come to pass, where it was said unto them, Ye are
not My people, there shall they be called the children of the
living God." I don't know who the Lord is
going to show mercy to. But I can tell you this, He's going to
show mercy. Maybe He's showing mercy to you.
Maybe Almighty God has given you a heart to see Him, and you
see Him as the one who's got the right to do what He will. God's people realize, as we've
read that Scripture before many times, if God had not chosen
to have a remnant according to grace... Whenever men talk about
it's not fair, listen to this, if God hadn't chosen to show
mercy We'd have all been destroyed just like Solomon Gamarra. We'd
have been obliterated. So whenever men raise their ugly
head and hand against God's sovereignty to show mercy, remember this,
it's always unto life. It's always unto life. It's always
unto life. God's sovereign right to show
mercy was His right to do whatever
He's pleased to do. But He never shows mercy at the
expense of His justice. What did He do? He looked at
the apple of His eye, His obedient Son, who obediently was made
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God May Almighty
God bless this Word to our understanding and cause His people to rejoice
in the fact that God has shown them mercy for Christ's sake.
Amen.