Alright, Romans chapter 9. God, Sovereign and Salvation. That's what I want to speak to
you about this morning. God is sovereign in the salvation
of His people, not only choosing how He will save, but who He
will save. There can only be one sovereign,
and it's not me, and it's not you. That one sovereign is God. He's all-powerful, and He chooses
whom He will, and saves whom He will. Now, the Apostle Paul
had been expressing his sorrow here over his countrymen who
did not believe the gospel. And he talked about the great
advantages that God gave to the children of Israel, which was
greater than any advantages given to any other nation in the world.
But then, to make certain that we understand the fault is not
in God. The fault is in the sinner. And
to make certain we understand that, Paul says in verse 6, not
as though the Word of God hath taken none effect. It's not as
though the Word of God has not been effectual. It's not as though
God was unable to bring to pass His promise. That was not the
issue whatsoever. God's Word, His eternal counsel,
His eternal purpose, His promise, God's Word never fails because
God is sovereign to bring it to pass. First of all, God always fulfills
His Word. He always fulfills His promise.
There's not a covenant promise God has made in His Word that
He has not fulfilled in full. Verse 6, Not as though the Word
of God hath taken none effect. Why did the majority in Israel,
in that political nation Israel, why did the majority of men and
women in that nation perish in unbelief? Why did the majority
not believe God? Why did the majority in our day
not believe God? Is God unable to fulfill His
promise? Most people reason for man up
to God. I've said this to you many times
and it's a terrible mistake. What men and women do is they
look at how sinners are walking contrary to God's Word. They
look and see how they depart from the gospel and all these
different things that sinners do. And then they try to judge
by what men do. They try to judge what God's
able to do based on what they see men and women doing. That's
a big mistake. Don't ever reason from man up
to God. Not at all. God's Word is the
touchstone. We go here and we find out how
God saves. And if somebody doesn't line
up with this, well, God's not even attempted to save them. It's just that simple. Let me
show you that in the Scripture. Not as though the word of God
had taken none effect. It's not as though God wasn't
able to bring His purpose to pass. Go to Isaiah 55 and look
at verse 10. Isaiah 55.10 says, As the rain
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it
may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. Now the first
thing to get from that is this. You're not going to save the
world. You're not going to save the climate. God makes the rain
come down, and the snow come down, and accomplish exactly
what he would have it to accomplish. He's done it since the beginning
of the world. Ever since then. And the reason Satan would have
you believe that you can save it or you can stop God's snow
and rain from accomplishing what it will is because if that's
the case, then this next word is the case too. And this is
what the devil really wants you to get messed up on right here.
But God says, as the rain comes down, as the snow comes down,
as it accomplishes His purpose, He says, verse 11, so shall my
word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void. It shall accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. God's Word never fails. He never
fails to accomplish His Word. There's no God like the God of
this Bible. The gods of men only can do what
a man allows them to do. That's not the God of this Bible.
Scripture says of this God, He says, My counsel shall stand,
I will do all my pleasure. Get that? Now my counsel shall
stand. I'll do all my pleasure. I've spoken it. I'll bring it
to pass. I've purposed it. I will also do it, God said.
We who believe, we've obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of God who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. Now that's God. That's God. This so-called God that's in
competition with the devil, and sometimes the devil wins, and
sometimes God wins, and this so-called Jesus that wants to
save, but He's no more powerful than a sinner. He can't do anything
against the sinner's will. That God is a wimpy, just imaginary
God. The God of the Bible is in the
heavens, and He's done whatsoever He hath pleased. What if some
did not believe then? Paul said. What if all these
people didn't believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? Does their unbelief mean God
can't fulfill His word? Does their unbelief mean God's
not faithful to His word? God forbid. Let God be true and
every man a liar. Alright, secondly now, let's
go back to Romans 9. God promised to save His spiritual
Israel. That's why not everybody in Israel
believed. God only promised to save His
spiritual Israel. And so that means the reason
that most perished in that nation is because they were not God's
Israel. Read it for yourself in verse
6. Romans 9, 6. It's not as though the word of
God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. God made the nation Israel to
picture God's true spiritual Israel. He made that political
nation. Now listen, when we talk about
when Paul is speaking here of the nation Israel, he's not speaking
of that nation over in the Middle East that was established May
14, 1948, less than 50 years ago. He's not talking about that nation.
He's talking about the nation God formed that God then wiped
off the face of the earth in 70 AD. That's the Israel he's
talking about. That's the political nation he's
talking about. But within that political nation, there was a
chosen people. They were the true Israel of
God. And God gave a mark to show His
outward Israel. He gave the mark of circumcision.
It was an outward mark. It was done on a child when he
was eight days old. He was helpless. And that circumcision
brought that child under the covenant of works. That's what
it did. But He gave that to picture circumcision
of the heart. This is how God's people are
born into His nation. It's done by circumcision of
the heart. It's done by the Holy Spirit, not by man. Just like
that eight-year-old child, he was helpless to do anything.
We're helpless to do this. God the Holy Spirit does it.
And when He gives you a new heart, Through faith in Christ, He brings
you under the everlasting covenant of grace. And that's God's true
Israel. Look at Romans 2 and verse 28. God's true Israel
are those God circumcises in the heart and makes to believe
on Christ. Romans 2, 28. He is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. God said they're not all Israel
which are of Israel. That outward mark, that outward
circumcision, everybody in that political nation had that. All
the males did. But he says, but he's a Jew.
Now here's God's true Israel. He's a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart
in the spirit and not in the letter. It's not outward. Whose
praise is not of men, men don't do this, but of God. God's the
one that does this. He's the one that gets all the
praise for this. Go to Philippians 3. Now you and I who are the
true circumcision, we're distinguished from all other religions in this
world just exactly like that outward mark distinguished natural
Israel from everybody else in the world. We have a mark on
us that distinguishes us from everybody else in the world,
from all other religions in the world that declares we are God's
true Israel. What is it? Philippians 3.3.
We are the circumcision. We're the true Jew. We're the
true Israel of God. Here's the distinguishing mark.
This is unlike anybody else in the world or any religion in
the world. We worship God in the spirit, we rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh. Absolutely no confidence
in the flesh. You only find those three distinguishing
marks in God's people that He circumcised in the heart. Now
that's the true Israel. Political Israel, they were redeemed
out of Egyptian bondage. Go to Revelation 5. They were
redeemed out of Egyptian bondage by the blood of a lamb, a Passover
lamb, And you and I who are God's Israel, we were redeemed by the
blood of Christ. Not just out of one nation, but
out of every nation on this earth. God has His elect scattered throughout
the whole world. We weren't redeemed with the
blood of a physical lamb, an earthy lamb, an animal. We were redeemed by the blood
of Christ. And we weren't redeemed out of the bondage of Egypt.
We were redeemed out of the bondage of our sin and captivity. and
we were redeemed from every nation. God's elect is being called out
from all nations, Jew and Gentile. Look here, Revelation 5, 9. They
sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and
to open the seals thereof. They're speaking to Christ. For
Thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. Does that
mean every Every kindred tongue people and nation, it says out
of every kindred tongue people and nation. God didn't send Christ
to lay down His life for all men without exception. He sent
Him to lay down His life for Israel, His elect. And they are
from every nation, kindred tongue and people in this world. That's
the true Israel of God. So you see, the reason why not
everybody in Israel believed, and the reason why not everybody
believes today is, they're not all Israel. They're not the true
Israel of God. Only God's elect are brought
to believe on Him. Now look at the third thing,
Romans 9. Here's the third thing. Most in Israel believed not because
they were not Abraham's spiritual children. They believed not because
they were not Abraham's spiritual children. God promised Abraham
that his true children would be his spiritual children. He
promised him that they would be born of God and they would
be called in his son Isaac. Isaac is a picture of Christ.
Isaac was the son of a miraculous birth. Christ is the son of a
miraculous birth. And just as all God's elect were
called, all Abraham's true spiritual children were called in Isaac,
all God's true spiritual children are called in Christ. Now let
me show you this, Romans 9 verse 7. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. Neither because they're
all natural children of Abraham are they all spiritual children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That's from scripture. We're
going to see in a moment. That is, here's what he means.
They which are the children of the flesh, the natural sons of
Abraham, these are not the children of God. Now get that. Abraham had a lot of sons. But
the natural sons are not the children of God. But the children of the promise
are counted, that is counted by God for the seed as true children. The children of God's promise
are the ones God counts as true children. For this is the word
of promise, this was what God promised, at this time will I
come and Sarah shall have a son. Now, to help us understand that,
go to Galatians 4. We have this just clearly explained
for us right here. Galatians 4, beginning in verse
22. We're just going to go through
this verse by verse. Abraham, in the beginning, he
had two sons. Just two sons. Isaac and Ishmael. He had Isaac and Ishmael. And
God used those two sons as an allegory. That's a spiritual
illustration. God made these, they had these
two sons and God used that as an allegory to illustrate spiritual
truth. Now here it is, verse 22, Galatians
4.22. For it is written, Abraham had
two sons. the one by a bondmaid, her name
was Hagar, and the other by a free woman, her name was Sarah. But
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. But he
of the free woman was born by God's promise. You know, Sarah
was barren, she couldn't have children. And God promised Abraham
that in his time, in God's time, He promised that God would miraculously
call Sarah to have a son. That was God's promise. He said,
I will come in my time and Sarah shall have a son. But a long
time passed. A long time passed. And Sarah
never had a son. And so Sarah and Abraham got
to thinking and Sarah said, well maybe we need, maybe God needs
us to help him out a little bit. And so, what they came up with
was, Sarah said, Abraham, you go into Hagar, the bondmaid,
and you have a child by her. Maybe that's how God's going
to give us this child. And so Abraham produced a son
with Hagar, the bondmaid, named Ishmael. Let's see what it says.
He who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. That was
all Abraham and Sarah's idea. That was their fleshly wisdom,
their fleshly works, their fleshly doing. Alright, now, then in
the Lord's time, just as he said he would, just as he promised,
God called Sarah to conceive and have a son named Isaac. So
Ishmael was born after the flesh. Isaac was born according to God's
promise. God produced Isaac. A miraculous
birth. Abraham and Sarah produced Ishmael. Alright, read on, verse 24. Which
things are an allegory, In a spiritual illustration, these are the two
covenants. They represent the two covenants.
The one is from the Mount Sinai. That's the covenant of works,
which gendereth to bondage. It's going to leave you tangled
up, dead in your sins, bound, never being able to please it
if you try to come to God in that covenant of works. Now that's
Hagar. Hagar pictures Mount Sinai in
Arabia, and answers to, she pictures Jerusalem, which now is, Paul
said, and is in bondage with her children. Hagar pictures
the law, the covenant of works, and she pictures the false church.
She pictured those that were still in Jerusalem, offering
sacrifices and trying to come to God by the law. And she pictures
the false church in our day, who were trying to come to God
by their works. and trying to save themselves
by their works. Look at verse 26. But Sarah pictures
Jerusalem which is above. She pictures the church of God
which is free. She's free. She's the mother
of us all. This is free grace. This is the everlasting covenant
of grace. For it's written, Rejoice thou
barren that bearest not. Break forth and cry thou that
travailest not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath a husband. Sarah pictures the
Church of God under the everlasting covenant of grace. You see, we're
like Sarah. The Church of God is barren in
ourselves. We can't produce children. We
can't do anything to produce children by our will and our
works, not whatsoever. But all the children that are
produced in the true Church of God are produced by God's power,
by God's grace. He makes his child to be born
again, and so we have many more children than the false church.
Many more children than the false church does. Look at verse 28. Now we brethren, as Isaac was... Now he brings it home to you
and me who believe. We brethren, as Isaac was, are
the children of promise. We're the children of promise.
But as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him
that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Now you and
I who believe, who rest in Christ from all our works, who trust
God to save us alone, we are children of God's promise. God
said, Abraham, all your true spiritual children are going
to be born of me, beginning with Isaac. And on down to you sitting
here today. You're true children of Abraham
when you've been born of God and brought to faith in Christ
to rest in Christ. That's the true child of Abraham.
You're children of Abraham sitting here. That's right. But Ishmael, when those two boys
came forth, Isaac and Ishmael, well, Ishmael persecuted Isaac. The son born after the flesh
persecuted the son that was born of God after the Spirit. And
He says there, so it is now. Same thing happens now. You and
I preach salvation by God's promise, by God's election. We preach
salvation by Christ's blood alone. We preach salvation by the Spirit
of God giving a new heart, by God producing His children through
His Word. So that we say salvation is of
the Lord A to Z. And we don't contribute a thing
to it. God gets all the glory and we
don't get any. And you know what happens when
you preach that message? Those who say they're born after the
flesh, those who were born by their will or by their works
or they contributed something to this salvation, they persecute
you. They rail on you. They hate your
message. They hate you and they hate your
God because it's just like it was then. He that's born after
the flesh persecutes him that's born after the Spirit. So when
you're persecuted, when people reject us, don't think it's something
new. It's not anything new. It's been going on since Cain
and Abel. All right, look here, verse 30.
Nevertheless, what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman
and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with
the son of the free woman. God made Abraham pack up Hagar's
belongings and pack up Ishmael's belongings, his son. and said,
send him away. Send her and him away. They can't
live with you. Send them away. Why did he do
that? He did it to declare that anybody
who is of the flesh, who tries to come to God by their will
and their works and their self-worth and they think they can be saved,
God's going to cast them out. They can't have anything to do
with this, not whatsoever. He sent them packing. And look
here at verse 31. So then brethren, we are not
children of the bond woman. We are not children of the covenant
of works. We are not children of our flesh.
We are children of the free woman. The everlasting free grace of
God. The free covenant of grace whereby
God has worked out everything for His people and left nothing
in our hands. born of the Spirit of God, saved
by free grace. That's who we are. That's who
we are. So, when you see the majority
perish in Israel, Paul said, he said, the children of Abraham
were not all children of Abraham. They were not all true children,
only the children of promise. He said in Galatians 3.29, if
you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
promise. If you're Christ, you're Abraham's
children and heirs with God according to promise. See, God's Word,
God fulfills His Word, doesn't He? It's not that God's Word
is not beneficial. He wasn't trying to save all
Israel. He wasn't trying to save all Abraham's children. God didn't
try to do anything. Those He purposed to save, He
saved. Now, here's the next thing. This is the most amazing thing
is that some do believe on Christ. This is what's amazing. Some
sinners, fallen, depraved, helpless sinners, some do believe on Christ
and rest in Christ. Why do we do that? Because of
God's free and sovereign grace. That's why. Look at verse 10.
Not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even
by our father Isaac." Now here's that boy we were just talking
about, Isaac. He grows up, marries Rebekah, and now his wife conceives
and it says here, the children being not yet born, she's got
twins in her womb, the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Isaac or Rebekah found out she
conceived twins. And while the twins are in the
womb, God said to her, The elder shall serve the younger. The
older child is going to serve the younger child. And God said,
here's why. Because Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated. Now most hear that and they get
all offended and they say, well I just don't see how God could
have hated Esau. Well, if you know what a sinner
Jacob was, and if you know what a sinner you are, The better
question is, how could God love Jacob? How could God love me? How could God love you? That's
the better question. What caused God to choose Jacob
and choose to save him and pass by Esau with absolutely no regard
for Esau whatsoever? What caused that? Well, it couldn't
be their parents. They both had the same parents.
They're twins in the womb. There's no difference between
who their parents were. It couldn't be by their birth. In fact, Esau
was the first one out of the womb and by tradition, the firstborn
got everything. And God said, the elder is going
to serve the younger. So it didn't have anything to
do with their birth. It couldn't be anything that they did because
it says there, neither having done good or evil. They were
in the womb. They hadn't done anything yet.
The fact is, it had nothing to do with anything about either
one of them. It had absolutely nothing to
do with them. God choosing one and passing by the other had
nothing to do with their person or anything they had done whatsoever. God's election has nothing to
do with you and me. Absolutely nothing to do with
you and me. It's not according to anything in us or anything
done by us. Why then did God love Jacob and
hate Esau? Why did He choose one and just
pass the other one by? Why? Verse 11 tells you plainly
right here, and this should end all the arguments about election.
Because it's a glorious doctrine and it's for God's glory. And
here's the reason. Verse 11 says there in a parenthesis
that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of
works but of him that calleth. The purpose of God in electing
some and passing by others is to declare that God's choice
and God's salvation is not by our works. It's by God, by His
grace, by Him calling. You get that? It's not of our
works. But salvation, nothing about salvation is according
to our works. It's nothing by our works. It's
all according to God's sovereign grace given us freely in Christ,
worked out by Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit of God to
whomsoever God's pleased to give it to. That's the purpose. See, the purpose of it is first
of all, to humble proud sinners like you and me. While we are
dead in our sins, I am going to give you a test. I am not
going to ask anybody to raise their hand or even reveal this
about yourself. You in your heart can know this.
If what I am preaching to you offends you, it is because you
are a proud dead sinner. That is why. A proud spiritually
dead sinner. That is the only reason. Because
when God reveals this in the hearts of His people, it humbles
us. He makes you see what an awful,
corrupt, horrible sinner you are, how thoroughly, totally
helpless you are, so that you see, if God hadn't chosen me,
I wouldn't have been saved. Christ said, you didn't choose
me, I chose you. Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us. And that's not everybody. He
says clearly right there, I hate Esau. He left Esau alone. Now, him leaving Esau alone,
he didn't do anything to Esau. He left him to himself. And you
know what Esau did? Because God left him to himself,
he said, here Esau, have your will. Do whatever your sinful
will is to do. And you know what he did? He
sold his birthright for a bowl of beans. That was like saying,
you can have God. I don't want God or anything
God's got to offer. I just want this temporary plate
of beans. That's all I want. That's what he did. That's what
you're doing that don't know God, that are lost in sin. That's
what you're doing every day since you've been alive. You're choosing
this world and going after this world as fast as you can go after
it and saying, I don't really care what God has. I don't want
anything God has. And everything, you accumulate
everything to where you're living in a mansion on a hill and all
you've done is trade salvation for a bowl of beans. That's it.
I'm being honest with you. This is so. is to declare that
God alone makes His people to differ, so that God alone gets
the glory. Listen to the scripture, 1 Corinthians
4, 7. Who maketh thee to differ from another? He's talking to
believers who actually do differ from others. Who made you to
differ from another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? What do you have that God didn't
give you? Now if you did receive it, why do you glory as if you
didn't receive? Why don't you walk around boasting?
Why don't you walk around boasting and talking about my faith, my
faith, my faith? Scripture says God gives faith
to those that have true faith. Why would we walk around boasting
about our walk and the way we walk? Scripture says those that
walk as God would have you walk do it because God purposed, He
ordained it beforehand and then brought it to pass. I can't boast
about anything. Righteousness. That's of Christ.
He gave it to me. Free justification for my sins.
That's of Christ. He gave it to me. Acceptance
with God. That's all of God's grace in
Christ apart from anything about me. You see there, God accepted
Jacob. He's in a womb. It wasn't based on anything about
him. That's called free and sovereign
grace. That's the only way God saved.
Look at Romans 11. Let me show you this. I'm fixing
to wind it down right here. Look here. Verse 5. Even so, then at this present
time, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if it's by grace, it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is
no more grace. But if it's of works, you think
you're saved by works, then it's all up to you. It can't be by
God's grace. Otherwise, works no more work.
You see, grace and works are mutually exclusive. You can't
mix them. It's oil and water, fire and
rain. You can't put these two together.
They're not going to go together. When I was home, they told me
about a fellow at a restaurant. This was true now. This fellow
paid the tab of three or four people in the restaurant. There was other people in the
restaurant and he just, because he wanted to, he went up and
paid the tab for three or four people in this restaurant. And
some guy there got mad because he didn't pay his tab. And the
guy went out and got a gun and shot him and killed him. Do you
think that's absurd? Well, God knows that's exactly
what we're going to say and our sinners are going to say it anyway.
That's what they're going to say about God choosing to pay
the whole tab on some and not others. Look here, verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. You see how clear that is? If
you try to come to God boasting in something you've
done, anything. God won't receive you. God won't
receive you. We're going to have to come to
God boasting in what God's done. In His free grace in choosing
me, in Christ's grace in redeeming us, in the Spirit's grace in
giving us life. And we can't be angry at God
for choosing whom He will. If He had to choose some, none
would be saved. The fact men would get angry
about that shows the depravity of the heart. Christ said, are
you angry with me because I'm good? So bow and come down in the dust
and believe Christ. And I guarantee you, if He applies
this word, that's exactly what we'll do. I pray He does. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We thank You that from the very beginning, before You
made this world, You chose a people unto salvation. Thankful, Lord,
that You've worked everything in time to bring us to experience
it and to rejoice in it. Lord, thank You so much for bringing
us to this place and teaching us this Word and making it a
delight to us, making it a joy in our hearts. Lord, we pray
that there might be some elect children here that only you know
about that you might reveal by giving them faith in Christ.
We pray, Lord, that you would call out your sheep wherever
they are. Give them faith and life and
make them rejoice with us in this marvelous, marvelous message
of your amazing grace. Forgive us now our sins, Lord,
even as we attempt to worship. We ask these things in Christ's
name, amen.