Well I'm pleased that this chapter
begins with Paul describing the fact that he has great heaviness
of heart and continual sorrow in his heart. And the chapter
finishes with the remarkable statement by God where he says,
behold, he says look, Look, all of you people, look intently. I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone
and a rock of a fence. As Simon said, it's describing
our Lord Jesus Christ. And whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. We have before us in Romans 9
a chapter of scripture which, other than very, very few people
that I have heard, has ever been treated with any honesty whatsoever. In fact, I listened to a sermon
yesterday or the day before, and the fellow ignored verse
after verse after verse. He did what is so typical, he
took the whole chunk and his purpose was to show the wonder
of the mercy of God and how wide the mercy of God is. And he just
left out enormous chunks of it. I'm pleased that Simon has read
it all. I was going to look just at the three verses, Romans 9,
22. What if God willing to show his wrath, and
willing to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared unto glory." Even us, Paul and the
believers, Paul and the saints, It is even us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." The question
that lays on the hearts of many, many people is, am I called? Have I been called? There's one description of those
who have been called. Are you calling? Are you calling? We need, we need God to open
these scriptures to us. We need his mercy, we need his
grace. We need His sovereign hand of
love upon us for Him to be revealed as He is, as He really is. You see in verse 17, He writes
that my name, he's raised up Pharaoh, that my name might be
declared through all the earth. It's not just some letters stuck
together to make some sound. The name is the character of
God. And God is not embarrassed about
this part of His character which so many professing believers
are embarrassed about. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we come Thankfully, in the name of your dear and precious son,
we praise you, Heavenly Father, that he ever lives to intercede
at the throne of grace right now for his people. And the Blessed
Spirit takes our groanings and our longings and they are taken
again into Heaven's glory. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
You might grant us the grace that we might see You as You
are and that we might be granted the extraordinary gift of Your
sovereign grace, that we might be caused to worship You as You
are. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
for Your dear and precious Son. And we praise You for the glory
of Your character. And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that You would use us and the declarations that You bring through
our fellowship and the fellowship of Your people around the world,
that Your name might be great. Your name, Your character might
be exalted. We pray Your blessing on us,
Heavenly Father. You might have mercy on our souls and cause
us to be calling ones. Calling on the name of our Lord. We pray in his name. Amen. They are big questions, aren't
they? Big questions that no doubt trouble
so many. Why are some people saved? Why are others lost? Why the fall of man? The fall of man, Adam's fall
into sin, Adam's rebellion against God, Adam's saying to Satan,
I will have your rulership over my entire race. And I will have
your rewards. That rebellion was not something
that happened outside of the sovereign hand and sovereign
will of God. In fact, God said to Adam, when
you eat of the fruit of the tree, when you eat. Why? Why heaven and why hell? Why was the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ shed for some and not all humanity? Why was it
limited to His elect? Why do some people have the Gospel
preached to them and others never hear a word from God? In Acts 16, if you read it closely,
you'll see that twice Paul wanted to go into what is now northern
Turkey and God the Holy Spirit said, you are not going to northern
Turkey. Twice. There are those who have the
blessed experience of hearing the Gospel. It is the most remarkable
privilege on this earth. one day we will esteem it the
greatest treasure. I trust that God will cause us
to treasure it again and again and again. Paul here in these
verses that I just read is vindicating the character of God against
the charge that our God is not just, that our God does not operate
fairly. And God is showing that both
salvation and damnation are demonstrations of the character of God. We read it again. What if God,
willing to show His wrath and make His power known, endured
with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? There are in this world vessels
of wrath endured by God in this creation with much long-suffering,
and they are fitted to destruction. They are fitted to destruction
by their own rebellion, their own ungodliness, and their own
unbelief. And there are vessels of mercy
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory. There are vessels
of mercy. in which God is making known
the riches of His glory, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Vessels of mercy, they are a
fall prepared under glory. They were, before they were created,
before the foundation of the world, they were a fall prepared
by God for glory. And in verse 24 he describes
the vessels of mercy, even us, whom he hath caught, not of the
Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. There is a description of those
who are saved. We have, as Simon read through
it, we have seen that God is absolutely sovereign. Our God
is a sovereign ruler of this universe over all things and
He's absolutely sovereign in grace and mercy, absolutely sovereign
in providence, absolutely sovereign all of creation is His. He is the creator. And salvation,
wonderfully, gloriously, is something that God does. It's not something
that men do. It's not something that God helps
men to do. It's not something that men and
God co-operate to do. It's not something that men,
God's done his bit and then you have to do your bit. It is entirely
accomplished by God. and is never in any way accomplished
by our works. That's what he says, doesn't
he, in verse 16. It's not of him that will us and not of him
that run us, but of God that show us mercy. He has mercy,
verse 18, on whom he'll have mercy and whom he will and he
hearteneth. Salvation is a matter of God's
sovereign choice, God's sovereign work, and he's accountable to
no one. He doesn't have to answer to
men. And it is right. It is right. One of the wonderful things that's
declared of Abraham, Abraham declared to God, God declared
to Abraham, I beg your pardon. He says, shall not the God of
the whole earth do right? Everything God does is right. It's right because He does it. everything he does. He's righteous
in all his ways and holy in all his works. He is a sovereign
God. He says, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. I fully agree with Mr Hawker.
who said that it's one of the signs of grace in the hearts
of believers that they actually believe that God, that all that
God appoints is right. They have, like Ruth, gone quietly
into the presence of the Kingsman Redeemer. and gone silently there
and humbled themselves before Him. Our God does everything
right. He does all things well because
of who He is. Now God is right, He's perfectly
just in salvation, and is equally perfectly just in damnation. It is right for God to save people
and it is right for God to damn people. It is right for God to
draw people to himself and it is right for God, as he says
in Romans 1, to give them over. All God has to do is to leave
man to himself. He describes himself as the potter.
He is the potter and we are the clay. He is the creator. We are created. He is the owner. We are his property. And God can do with you and with
me exactly as he will. and it's right. Salvation is
His to give or His to withhold as He sees fit. Faith is His
to give and His to withhold as He wills. Life is His to give
or withhold as He wills. And the glory of the Gospel is
that some men are saved. Some men will be saved by sovereign
grace. Vessels of wrath and vessels
of mercy. As verse 22 says, is God unjust? The question is, is God unjust?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Paul is stating what men
in their natural state do in response to these verses. But
it's interesting, isn't it? There is There is in God, according
to verse 22, what is God willing to show his wrath? That's what he says about himself. He is willing. to show his wrath. People might say, well God doesn't
take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. That word pleasure
there is a reference to satisfaction or propitiation. God will never
be satisfied. God's justice and holiness will
never be satisfied, which is why hell goes on forever. It's why the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ was an infinite death. It's why he suffered hell
on behalf of his people as he bore their sins in his own body
on a tree. We have to deal with God as He
really is. There's a story told, I don't
know all the details of it, but there's a story told of a huge
American warship, a great big aircraft carrier, and it was
steaming towards a light, and the light was exactly where it
was going, and it said to the light, you move out of the road,
you move out of the road, and the light signal back, no, I'm not moving,
and the ship said, you move out of the road, you move out of
the road, and the light said, no, I'm not moving out of the
road, and the admiral on the ship got more and more angry,
and eventually the lighthouse said, you move, I'm a lighthouse. Dear God, we are going to meet
God. We are going to meet him, brothers
and sisters. We can shrug our shoulders, We
can make all sorts of refuges of lies, which is what God says,
and people are probably doing it now. But we will have those
refuges of lies swept away and there will just be the reality
of who we are and the reality of who God is. God is willing
to show His wrath. God is a God of glory and He's
a God of justice. He's a God of wrath and He's
a God of truth as much as He's a God of love and mercy and truth.
He says He hates all workers of iniquity. He hates all workers
of iniquity. See, with Roth, I have been and
I still continue to be sadly bad-tempered at times, and my
bad temper is an embarrassing, shameful and disgusting thing,
and completely unwarranted and inexcusable. It's a fickle thing,
isn't it? But God's wrath is his eternal
detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the holiness of God stirred
into activity against sin. As someone said, after the cross
there are two revelations given from heaven. One of wrath. and one of grace. God is willing to show His wrath. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven Revealed right now from heaven, Romans 1, against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. They are suppressing the truth.
Imagine being in a swimming pool and you've got some brown floaty
balls and you're actually trying to hold them down. You try and
hold them down and they pop up again. You try and hold them
down and you pop up again. They hold the truth down in unrighteousness. And God declares what is going
on in the hearts of people in this world. People claim to be
atheists and they are lying. They are lying. God is true,
and what He says is true. The wrath of God is revealed
against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. You see,
it's wrath that is deserved because of ungodliness and unrighteousness,
and it's wrath that's deserved because they hold the truth down
in unrighteousness. They will have all sorts of lies
but the truth. And listen to what God says about
his activities and their knowledge, because what that which may be
known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it unto them."
That's why, if anyone says they're an atheist, they are just lying. They are lying to you. For the invisible things of Him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. There is no excuse. There is
no excuse before God for wicked unbelief. They know it. He's made it plain to them. Because
of that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish hearts were darkened, professing themselves to be wise.
What a great description of humanity. Professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creaky things." And
then three times in the next verses God says, I gave them
over. What a shocking, shocking thing. What a shocking judgement of
God. What wrath of God revealed from
heaven now when he gives people over. That is judgment, brothers
and sisters, to give someone over, to let them go their own
way according to their own will, without the wrath of God. Where
would we see holiness? Where would we see love and grace
and mercy and forgiveness? What would those things mean
if there was no wrath of God that we are saved from? Because
the Lord Jesus bore all of the wrath of God in his own body. It is. God's wrath is a holy
wrath. It's in response to his holiness. It's revealed against all sin.
God's wrath is constant wrath. And God's wrath is unbearable. It is unbearable. Who knows,
as the scriptures say, who knows the power of thy wrath? Who can stand before his indignation? Who can abide the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is pulled out like fire. And the scriptures we have just
read in Romans 9.22 says that God is willing, God is willing
to show his wrath. He has throughout all of revealed
history shown his willingness to display his wrath. Satan fell
and took a third of the angels with him and immediately, immediately
they were cast into hell with no mediator, no grace, no forgiveness. immediately cast into hell. The
fallen angels revealed that God is just and righteous. In the
world of Noah's day, a world populated with an enormous population
of people, God saw the wickedness of the hearts of man, the inclinations
of the heart were only evil continually. And God drowned the whole world
apart from Noah and his family. God is willing to show His wrath. Sodom and Gomorrah. God is willing
to show His wrath. He sent two angels down to Sodom
and Gomorrah. They had the testimony of Abraham. They had the testimony and the
presence and the witness of Lot. who grieved over the wickedness.
They had two angels come into their town. They had Lot pleading
with them. And God took Lot and his two
daughters out of that town, one in each hand of the angels, and
the fire and wrath of God fell on that town and burned it all
up. God is willing to show His wrath. He showed His wrath on the city
Jerusalem twice. Twice He destroyed that city,
completely destroyed it. He is willing to show His wrath. Kora and Dathan and Abiram, 250,
just imagine that. They'd been rescued out of Egypt,
they'd crossed the Red Sea, they had seen God display His glory
and His majesty on Mount Sinai. They had seen the miracles of
manna. Every day, the very life they
had was a miracle with the manna. They'd had water out of a rock,
they'd lived in a desert and their shoes didn't wear out.
And these princes, 250 princes of Egypt stood before Moses and thought
that they could bring something of their own offering before
God. They are described in Numbers
16.38 as sinners against their own souls. And Moses said to
the people, you separate yourselves from them. And the earth opened
up and swallowed 250 men and their women and their children
and their tents and everything. And God is holy and God is just
and the God of this earth does right. The vessels of wrath fit
themselves according to the verses before. They fit themselves. They are fitted to destruction. They are the objects of God's
long suffering and they fit themselves for destruction by their willful,
proud, ongoing rebellion against God. The Vessels of Mercy have
found grace in the eyes of their Lord. They are no different. They are Adam's children just
the same. The Vessels of Wrath fit themselves
for destruction. The Vessels of Mercy are a four,
a four prepared by God to glory. God is willing to show His wrath
and the place The place where God most evidently is willing
to show His wrath is on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God's dear and one and
only Son. He had lived with Him for all
eternity in perfect union and perfect fellowship and perfect
holy love. Our Lord Jesus Christ did no
sin, and He had no sin, and He couldn't sin. He was the object
of the Father's delight from everlasting. And what did the
holy God do when he found sin on his son? Zechariah 13 tells us exactly
what God did. He says, Awake, O sword, the
sword of God's holy justice, against my shepherd, against
the man that is my fellow, the one that is my companion, my
equal, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered and I will turn my hand upon the little
ones." God was willing to show his wrath on the Lord Jesus Christ. The sins of all of God's people,
my sin, according to the scriptures, actually became his sin to the
extent that he was guilty of it. wonder of wonders, brothers
and sisters, in the Gospel. He bore it. He bore it as if
it was His own, because it was His own. And God in holy justice,
in holy justice, slew His Son, punished Him infinitely and eternally
and the sins are gone forever. Such is the heritage of the Lord's
people. As much as we recoil from these
verses that we read and find them troubling, when we come
to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we want to be very, very
thankful that our God is holy and our God is just. And when
He sees sin, it must be punished. Because that's where our salvation
is, isn't it? He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. God is willing to show His wrath. And that great day, when all
things are wrapped up, we will again see that God is willing
to show His wrath. And he's willing, as our verse
says, he's willing to show his wrath and he's willing to make
his power known. He's willing to make His ability,
His omnipotence, He's willing to make it known. He is our God
who reigns. He's closed with strength and
majesty. He's made this earth by His great
power and stretched out arm and there is nothing too hard. He
keeps saying, is there anything too hard for me? He rules this
universe effortlessly. He rules this universe by the
word of His power and He's willing to show His power. He just speaks
a word and a universe comes into existence. He commands and He
does all according to His will. He is right now, according to
Psalm 76, verse 10, He is restraining the wickedness and the wrath
of man. He's restraining the rebellion
of man. What does he say? He says, surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder thou shalt
restrain. What extraordinary power our
great God is showing in this world now. People are troubled
about what this world is doing. They are troubled about climate
change, they are troubled about politics, they are troubled about
all the things that seem to be the disintegration of what people
thought was sound and solid. The remarkable thing from the
scripture's point of view is that when we have civilisations
that stand in enmity and in opposition to God, what remarkable restraint. What, according to our verse,
what remarkable long-suffering of God. When you pay your taxes
here and you pay taxes when you go to the shop and buy something,
you are paying taxes to our public broadcasters who blaspheme our
God and treat the Lord Jesus Christ with utter contempt. It's
never a case of how bad things are. The remarkable thing is
how good it is that He sends rain. He sends the sunshine. He feeds eight billion people
who live in open rebellion against him and spit in his face, and
he feeds them and he clothes them, and he gives them remarkable
things like air conditioning to survive the heat. He is just
remarkably gracious and long-suffering, and he does it all. He does it
all because his people are still here. That's why he does it. He does it all because His people
are here. It's the only reason this creation
is standing is because God's children are in this creation
and they are not all brought home to glory. As soon as Noah
was in the ark, the rain fell and there was no hope for anyone
outside. As soon as Lot and his daughters
were safely away from Sodom, the wrath of God fell on that
place. God will restrain the evil of
this world. so that his sons and daughters
will be brought to glory and that his name might be declared
throughout the earth. That's his purpose. He's not
embarrassed about his character, I promise you. He is not embarrassed
in the least about it. And God's servants aren't embarrassed
about it either. We just want to say what God
says. I just want to read what God
says. I don't want to change it and
I don't want for my opinions to be the case. I don't want
people to be persuaded by my opinion. I want people, I long
for people to bow to this God. He displays his power in restraining
evil and he displays his power in saving people. What a remarkable
display of the power of God. You can read about it. Paul prays
about it in Ephesians 1 and 3. Remarkable, the power of God. I love what Murray Machaen said. He said, I believe the converting
of a soul is greater than the making of a world. a remarkable display. God is
willing to show His power and God is willing to show His wrath. And as I said earlier, God shows
us, Paul shows us that God is patient and long-suffering. He endures with much long-suffering. One of the things that really
strikes me in the Scriptures, and we saw it with Ruth, an author,
we have before us laid out in the Scriptures again and again
the tales of two people, don't we? All of humanity is captured
in those two people, Cain and Abel. Abel bought the sacrifices
of his own works and his own activities before God. Cain, sorry, brought that. Abel brought... what represented
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see they were religious,
they were in a religious situation. They were people who lived in
the jungles and were completely ignorant. Jacob and Esau that
we read about, they were rare. But Abraham was their grandfather. Imagine the stories that they
would have told around the fireside, of Abraham and Isaac and the
remarkable circumstances, the remarkable hand of God upon them. The same with Orpha and Ruth. Orpha had exactly the same privileges
that Ruth did. She had Naomi there as her mother-in-law,
and they were obviously extraordinarily fond of her. She had a limeleck. A limeleck doesn't mean much
to us, but every time they said a limeleck, they were saying,
my God, he's king. Over and over again, every time
they addressed him, my God is King. They were both married
to the sons of Elimelech. They were both moved to come
and join with Naomi. They were both exercised to take
steps on that journey. just like Cain and Abel, they
both went to church. There is a need for us, and I
think Romans 9 is one of the most wonderful passages in all
of the scripture to bring it out. There is a need for us to
be humbled and to bow before our God. There is a blessing
of fearing God. There is a necessity for Him
to be seen as He really is. And only, only a sovereign, mighty
hand of power can bring that. Vessels of mercy, vessels of
wrath. The vessels of wrath are fitted,
fitted, you read it there, they are fitted to destruction at
the end of verse 22. They are fitted by their own
evil deeds, they are fitted to destruction. They are fitted
because of their willful and deliberate unbelief. The judgment
of God, if you read it again and again in the scriptures,
you read the judgment of God and you will see again and again
that it is marked over and over again by these words, therefore
and because. God sends a famine because they
rebelled therefore. God actively hardens people's
hearts by leaving them alone. As we read in verse 18, Whom
he will, he hardens. The same sun which melts the
wax hardens the clay. There's a verse, and it's one
of many, many in the scriptures, speaks of those who are fitting
themselves to destruction. the means before them, and yet
they rebelled. I love how often it's quoted
in the scriptures, the most extraordinary blessings of God's grace and
providence are laid out before people. Just listen to Jeremiah
6.16, thus saith the Lord, stand in the ways, you stand in the
ways, there are lots of ways, you stand in the ways, and ask
for the old paths. You ask, where's the old path? the old path of the eternal covenant,
the old path of grace and mercy. Ask for that old path, where
the good way, where is the good way? You'll ask, seek and search
and ask, and you walk therein. And what will you get? You'll
get rest for your souls is the promise of God. This was Jeremiah's
call upon that people in Jerusalem, wasn't it? It was a simple thing,
wasn't it? You put the white flag up and
you join with Nebuchadnezzar and go across to Babylon and
get out of there and everything will be fine. What did they say? But they said, we will not walk
therein. We will not walk therein. Just like Pharaoh, isn't it?
He says, who is the Lord that I should obey him? He was about
to find out who the Lord was. And Jeremiah goes on to say,
he said, Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the
sound of the trumpet, hearken to the sound of the trumpet.
But they said, We will not hearken. Therefore hear, you nations,
and know, O congregation, what is among them. Here, O earth,
behold, I will bring evil upon these people, even the fruit
of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my word
nor my law, but rejected it. They provoke me to anger. Jeremiah is told in chapter 7
verse 6, he says, don't pray for them. Don't pray for them. I won't hear you if you pray
for them. He will not hear. People suffer eternal damnation
and when they do, they will not be charging God with injustice. He says in Isaiah 28, this is
the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest and this is
the refreshing and yet they would not hear. Again and again God
says, therefore I will bring that upon you. God is willing to show His wrath. God is willing to show His power. And when men and women go to
hell, it will be an act of manifest justice. God will be seen to
be perfectly just. In fact in Revelation 19 it speaks
of the true sayings of God and the voice of a great multitude. saying, Alleluia for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Alleluia. As they see the smoke
of the torment, the smoke of her, her smoke rose up forever
and ever. At the day of judgement God's
children will sing Alleluia. and God will be vindicated as
just. Our God only does what is right. He is the potter. He does, as
the creator, have the right to make out of the same lump of
clay vessels of honour and vessels under dishonour. But for those
who have despised his goodness, those who have treated his long
suffering with content, those who have hardened their hearts
and they treasure up, he says, they treasure up wrath and the
righteous judgement of God. People will be inexcusable. Inexcusable. He does all of this. He operates
in this way to reveal His character and to make known the riches
of His glory on the vessel of mercy. God has chosen some of
Adam's race to be vessels of mercy, made from the same lump
of clay, but before God took that clay in His hand, they were
loved. He saw them as in His Son. They were, as Romans 8 says,
they were foreknown, they were loved of God, they were predestinated,
they were called of God. That word called means they were
named to be His sons. What manner of love the Father
has bestowed upon us that we might be called the children
of God. Those He called he justified those he justified, he also glorified. He chose us. What a remarkable
thing. I love what Spurgeon said. He
can understand why God hated Esau. The remarkable thing is
that God would love Jacob. What a wonder, isn't it, that
he could love such sinful people, that he could send his son to
die for such sinful people. You see, people think this shuts
people out of the Kingdom of God. But throughout the scriptures,
if you come to Christ for mercy, you have it. No one who wants
God to extend mercy and grace is ever rejected. He says, he
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. They cannot
come unless the Father draws them. But they do come and throughout
the scriptures we have remarkable pictures, don't we, of the Lord
drawing His people to Himself. That woman in John chapter 8,
caught in adultery, brought there, harangued, used as a pawn in
the hands of the Pharisees. And the Lord said to her, where
are they who condemn you? She said, they're not here. He said, neither do I condemn
you. The leper said, didn't he, Lord,
if you are willing, you can make me clean. And he says, be thou
clean. The thief on the cross just had
a cry to God, didn't he? Remember me. Remember me, Lord,
remember me. And the Lord answered him, today,
this day, you will be in paradise. Out of that lump of clay, he
takes these ones, the four prepared to be vessels of mercy, to show
his glory, to show his glory, to show all the attributes, the
wonderful attributes of his name. Vessels of mercy, fit to live
forever with God. fit to live forever. We are made
meat, says Colossians 1, 2. We are qualified, fitted to be
inheritors of the saints in life. They are justified by the blood
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified by His
grace. We're called accepted in the
beloved. And in time, as he did with Ruth,
and he does with all of his people, in time he comes. He comes and
he reveals to them who he is, and he reveals to them what they
are. And that's the problem that men
have with passages of scripture like this, is that God, if God
reveals to you who you are, you will find Romans 9 a delightful
passage of scripture. You might, like Paul, have great
heaviness of heart when you think of those around you, but when
you think of your God, you will find Him delightful. He comes
to His own and He brings life and immortality to light through
the Gospel. And that's His purpose, isn't
it? To make known the riches of His glory in the vessels of
mercy. You see, God's judgments God's
judgments on Pharaoh in Egypt and God's judgments in the flood
and God's judgments on Jerusalem, God's judgments are designed
for God's people to bow before Him, to reverence Him, to know
the riches of His glory. It's for His people. We love His sovereignty, the
riches of His glory in sovereignty. And we wouldn't know that unless
God had revealed that He loved Jacob and hated Esau and wonderful,
extraordinary, pardoning grace. We see the glories of His character
in the contrast. But as we finish, let's turn
to verse 24. He speaks of even us whom he
hath called. It's a lovely description of
the children of God, isn't it? Called. Called. As I said at
the beginning, have you been called? Those who have been called
are calling ones. If you ask me whether I understand
what Romans 9 is saying in any depth at all, I've read it for
a long, long time and studied it closely. I don't have to understand
it. I just believe it with all my
heart. It's the only God there is. I believe it. We can believe things that we
can't understand. There is a call of God, isn't
it? There is a call that goes out to all the world. Paul, as
we saw in Galatians, is called by grace. Anyone who's called
by God is going to be called by grace. When it pleased God
who called me, when it pleased God, when it pleases God, he
will call. I love what that word call means.
It is actually a divine command. It is a command that comes with
the power of God. It is Him wooing, as we saw with
Ruth. She was drawn deeper and deeper
into the love of her kinsman redeemer. It is also a description. It's a description of His ownership
of His people. I've called them by name. Thou art mine. They are called
the sons of God. And who's called? Who does God
call? His call is always individual. He always calls individuals. And when He calls, you'll know
He's called. He says, I call my sheep by name. And always, as we saw in Galatians,
the call of God is a call of grace. Those who are called are
in need of grace. We need electing grace and sovereign
grace. We need regenerating grace. We
need redeeming grace. We need calling grace. We need
saving grace. We are called by grace. We're
called into a gospel of grace, aren't we? We are called, according
to 2 Thessalonians 2.14, we are called by the gospel. The only
time you hear the Word of God is when the Gospel is preached. And when the Gospel is preached,
the Lord Jesus is raised up and there is a general call and marvel
of marvels, there are people who hear that as a personal,
powerful call. And Ruth was given all the reasons
to go back to the gods of Moab. And she was given no reasons
to go to Bethlehem. And she was drawn irresistibly
to God. And it wouldn't matter whatever
happened on this world. She would be drawn to Him. She would be drawn by Him. His call, as we know in the scriptures,
is a powerful call. When He calls His own sheep by
name, they come to Him. And the result of it is, the
calling of God, is that they are called to be saints. As I said right at the beginning,
How do I know if I have been called of God? Are you calling
on Him? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be called, shall be saved, I beg your pardon.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And
let me finish with one beautiful verse. In Romans 11.29 it says, for
the gifts, all of the gracious gifts of God, the gift of His
Son, the gift of eternal life, the gift of forgiveness of sins
forever, the gift of holiness to stand before Him as holy as
He is holy, all the gifts and the calling of God are without
repentance. They cannot ever be changed. May God bless his word to our
hearts. Let's pray.