think I was going to be here. I was getting better yesterday,
and this last night was rough. But here I am. I'm thankful. I do pray God give us liberty
of his spirit this morning. I ask your prayers for me to
get me the strength I need to preach this to you this morning.
And I do hope and pray it doesn't come across like I sound. Because
to me, I sound horrible. And I do pray that this does
not come across as cold doctrine. We're looking at the sovereignty
of God again this morning. It's not the doctrine to be ascertained
in your mind. That's one thing. It's got to
start there. But I do pray that God would take it and make it
effectual to your heart. When we come here, we want to
know God. You want to know Him. That's
eternal life, isn't it? To know God and His Son, whom
He sent. That's eternal life. As we dig
into the heart of God, the salvation of God, it's going to rub against
the old man, the old nature, what we think, how we feel. But to know God and to submit
to who God says He is, there's joy and there's peace there.
There's contentment. I don't understand. That's who
you say you are. That's good. It's good enough
for me. I pray that God will give us grace not to kick against
these things. And that's what it's going to
take, grace. I can't drill these things into you. I can't make
them joyful. I can't make them effectual to
you. That's something God does in mercy. I pray you'll have
mercy upon us this morning. And so as I preach, I ask you
to pray for me. And then pray for yourself. I
pray that God would make this message powerful to your heart,
to your mind, to your soul, to see the depths, oh the depth
of the riches of the glory of the grace of God. It's deep. His judgments, listen, Paul says
they're past finding out. You think you're going to find
out everything there is to know about God, you're mistaken. His
judgments, you can't enter into His judgments. What you can do
is bow to Him. I pray God give us grace to do
this. Now, go back with me in your Bibles to Romans 9. Romans chapter 9. As I start coughing and stuff
like that, please try to I pray God give you grace to overlook
it and enter into this with me. Romans chapter 9. I went over this with you last
time, but I'm going to break over the same common ground.
In Romans chapter 9, there are three objections. Three objections
that are raised by men against the sovereignty of God. And these
objections are still prevalent They're common among religion. Every time I've preached the
gospel of God's grace, of salvation by the sovereign grace of God,
these three objections are always the same. Now they're covered
in different wording and they're flowered differently, but they're
all the same. So God preemptively answers these objections. That's how I feel. That's how I feel. On the inside
sometimes I want to scream. You'll learn it doesn't do any
good, but I guess that's why I don't do it anymore. The first
objection to God's sovereignty is found in verse 6. Look at
this. He says, Not as though the word of God had taken none
effect. Now the apostle had just preached
that the salvation of God is sure. God justified us. Christ died for us. He rose again.
He's seated at the right hand of God. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God that's in Christ. Then Paul, with his
heart of love, prays for Israel. He says, my heart desires that
Israel should be saved. And so the objection starts to
percolate in the minds of men. Well, Paul, listen, how can that
be? If God promised to save Israel, and you just told us salvation
can't be removed, how then are you praying for Israel? How did
Israel then reject the Messiah, seeing they were given all the
promises of God, and now they're lost? The word of God of none
effect is God's word Void I'm gonna give you a couple of verses.
I'll just give you I got I got to do this introduction as I
did this last time, but Isaiah 45 and verse 17 he says but Israel
shall be saved listen with an everlasting salvation now is
that void is That true Did God save Israel with an everlasting
salvation? Well, how can that be true, Paul?
You just told us Israel's lost. Well, Paul says this, he says,
the word is not void. Listen, look at it in verse 6.
4, here's the reason. They are not all Israel which
are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children. He's telling you this, that the
nation of Israel was only a type and a picture of the true Israel
of God. Everybody that's born of Abraham's
seed is not Israel. So when God says, I'm going to
save all Israel with an everlasting salvation, He was not talking
about the physical descendants of Abraham. He was talking about
a spiritual Israel of which the nation was a type, a picture,
just like all the sacrifices. When they sacrificed that lamb
on Passover, it was what? It was a picture. That lamb didn't
take away sin. Why? Because they had to do it
next year. It was a picture of Christ. tabernacle, the high
priest, every piece of furniture was a picture. And so it stands
that the nation of Israel also was a picture. Now God did not,
He was not void to give the physical promises to Israel. They were
a blessed nation. They were the nation of adoption,
they were a nation that were given the covenants, the glory
of God was given to them. But listen, those things were
temporal. They were physical benefits. So when God talks about
salvation, He's talking about a spiritual Israel. And then He gives illustrations.
Spiritual Israel. Now listen, look what He says
up in the front. He says in verse 4, who are Israelites
to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the
giving of the law, the service of God, the promises. See, they
had those in a physical sense, whereas now we who are spiritual,
Israel, have them in a spiritual sense. They were physically adopted. We're spiritually adopted. They
received the physical glory. We receive the glory that God
has made through Jesus Christ. We receive all of God's glory. We're going to share in it. That's
a wonderful thing. The nation of Israel didn't do that. It's
spiritual Israel. The giving of the law. Yeah,
they received the law, but we've had the law fulfilled in us.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, the law's fulfilled. It's satisfied. How much better is that? And
all the promises, all the promises, the promise of salvation was
given to us. So look at this, he says, And
he's going to use Isaac, first of all, as an example. He says,
but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are
the children of flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children of promise are
counted for the seed. For this is the word promised,
at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. Isn't this clear? Isaac and Ishmael
were both children of Abraham. Don't deny that. Why was Ishmael
rejected? And why was Isaac accepted? Because Isaac was a son of promise. Ishmael was a son of flesh. And these two are a type of everyone. You are either a son of promise,
and you will be accepted, or you will be just a son of flesh,
a creation of God, and you'll be rejected. And he goes deeper
than that. Some people would say, well,
you know, they had two different mothers. So, we can understand
why Ishmael was rejected, because he had a different mama. Well,
the very next generation, Isaac being chosen, he had two sons. Look what it says of this. And
not only this, but when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by
her father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, two sons, same father, same womb,
same mother. neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. This, my friend, is the doctrine of election. In
these few verses, you begin to see the depth of this doctrine. that God purposed to save Israel. And who are Israel? Israel is
a chosen people. Just like that nation was a physical
type, they were chosen. Nobody denies that. You have
anybody denying that that nation was chosen? Oh no, they're God's
chosen people. They always say that. But they
were chosen. Why were they chosen? Because
they were a type. True Israel is also chosen. Chosen elect and God proves it
by these two children Jacob and Esau He chose them in this before
they were born Before they'd done any good or evil God had
already made choice He said I love this one and I hate this one Here the Word of God declares
plainly that the purpose of God according to election is the
root cause of all salvation, not of works. This is astounding, isn't it?
That all salvation is rooted in the sovereign election of
God without works. If you are Israel, this should
cause you to be very humble. The reason God chose you was
nothing based in you at all. God did not look down the portals
of time and see what you'd do. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard
when I hear stuff like that. That election might stand. It
stands, whether you like it or not, this is how it is. Not of works. That God before
the world began chose Israel, His people. God covenanted to
save His people that He chose. And His choice was never based
on anything in them. And in a covenant, He gave them
to Christ. And Jesus, receiving them in
that covenant, agreed to be their surety, to be their savior, their
high priest, their offering. Told you I'm going over the same
ground. And I want to apologize in advance. If you remember everything
I said last week, just forgive me. I'm going over this again.
Look at Isaiah 53 and see if you can't follow this. For whom did Christ come and
die for? Isaiah makes it clear. Look at that in verse 8, he was
taken from prison from judgment who shall declare his generation
for he was cut off out of the land of the living. Nobody denies
he died, but look who he died for. For the transgression of
who? My people. Anybody else? Did he die for anybody else?
Now whoever these people are, That's who he died for, my people. Was he stricken? He made his
grave with the wicked and the rich in his death because he
had done no violence, neither was there deceit found in his
mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him
to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, what is he gonna do? He gonna see his
seed. Now who is he gonna see? When he died, who did he see?
When he pleased God, who did he see? He saw his seed, his
children. That's what the seed is, is his
children. So when he died, who did he see? He saw me dying.
I died in him. He was my representative. Seed
he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper his hand he shall see of the travail of his soul and
shall be Satisfied by the knowledge by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify how who? many Is he going to justify everyone? No, it says many For he shall see, he shall bear
their iniquities. Who? That all refers back to
my people. Everyone knows the many, the
seed, their iniquities. It all refers back to this, my
people, Israel. And so then we ask this, was
Christ successful? This is important because if
he died for everybody, he wasn't successful. Was he successful? Listen, he
said he shall be satisfied. When he shall see his soul as
an offering for sin, what does he say? He'll be satisfied. Was Christ successful? If he died for everyone, you
can only ascertain that he failed. There are people in hell for
whom he died. Then he failed. I don't know a Jesus like that.
He succeeded. He died for everyone the Father
gave him. Hebrews 9, 12 says he had obtained,
listen to this, eternal redemption for us. Paul's talking to the people
who believe, to those who are the elect. He obtained eternal
redemption for us. After he had offered one sacrifice
for sin, he sat down forever. Those priests never sat down,
did they? Always working, always working, always working. And
when Jesus did his one work, he sat down. It was done. It
was done. For He hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. Paul said those who are sanctified
are sanctified by the will of God. Who are they? They're the
elect. They're the ones God loved. He sanctified them. He set them
apart. Declared them to be holy. Gave
them to Christ and Christ sanctified them. Christ made them holy by
His one offering. Scripture says He perfected forever.
Who? Them that are sanctified. Israel.
That's who He perfected forever. Is God's Word then void? No!
God said, I'll save Israel. Who did He save? He saved Israel.
Who's He going to save? He's going to save Israel. God's
Word's not void. Every one of those elect are
going to be called. Not one of them are going to be missed.
This is the joy I get in preaching to know this. I don't always
feel successful. Kevin, you ever felt successful
preaching? Maybe when I first started preaching, I thought
I was going to be successful. But every time I preach since, I
just know that ain't going to happen. I don't feel successful. It doesn't matter how I feel.
God says we always do triumph. This word does exactly exactly
what God determines it to do. What is it going to do? It will
save Israel. Is that all? Yep. Is anyone else
going to be saved but Israel? Nope. Why? Christ didn't die
for anyone but Israel. Now who is Israel? I don't know. I know God has an Israel, I don't
know who they are. Our Lord was very clear about
the distinction between those who are Israel and those who
aren't is this, faith. It's the only thing that's given
to the nation of Israel It seems distinguished from anything else. We believe on Jesus Christ, listen
to this, alone. We don't add anything to Him.
And we follow Him. Look at John 10. Our Lord speaks
about the elect here. Look at John 10, verse 11. He
says, For I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for, who? Who does he give his life for? The sheep. What about the goats? Nope. Just
sheep. Look at verse 14. He says, For
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine,
as the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father, and I lay
down my life, who? For the sheep. He doubles down
on it. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them I also must bring. I sound ambiguous. Do you think he said he might
bring them? He's hoping to bring them. They might come. Gee, I'm
hoping they're going to come. No, I must bring them. They shall hear my voice and
there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Now look at verse 26 because
there's a lot of people murmuring and complaining about this. And they said, look, tell us
plainly if you're the Christ. He said, I've already told you, I'm the
shepherd. I just told you. And I come to lay down my life
for the sheep. Look at this. But you believe not. Why? Why do they not believe? Because you are not of my sheep. You're not my sheep. Listen,
Jacob have I loved. Why does Jacob believe? Esau
didn't. Because Esau was not my sheep. The world wants it reversed.
They want to say, you're not my sheep because you don't believe.
If you would believe, then you could become my sheep. Not what
he said. He said, you don't believe because
you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
I give unto them eternal life. Who does he give eternal life?
Only them. And they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. Listen, why my father which gave
them me. is greater than all. And no man
is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. You see, God has in elect Israel.
And God says, I'm going to save Israel. And so is the word of
God void then? No, in no wise is the word of
God void. Why? Because, listen, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, this then comes the next objection. Look at the next objection in
verse 14. We've clarified, hopefully I
clarified the first one. Is the Word of God void? God
promised to save Israel. Did He save Israel? Yes. Who
is Israel? Israel are those loved of God
from eternity. But now comes the objection.
Look at verse 14. What shall we say then? If salvation is only given to
the elect, if God only loved Jacob and hated Esau, what are
you going to say to that? This is what you're going to
say. Is there unrighteousness with God? What prompts this objection?
The only thing that prompted that objection is that God loved
Jacob and hated Esau before they were born. This is the only thing that prompts
this objection. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. His love for Jacob and hatred
for Esau, listen, was not based on any good or evil done in them
or by them, seeing they were in the same womb and incapable
of doing any good or evil. Yet God, willing to display and
manifest the true nature of salvation, which is the election of God
by grace, He said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, it's here on that text that
men will desire to twist it. Now, it's not that you don't
understand it. That's very simple to understand.
What I said to you is very simple, but it's objectionable to the
nature of man. So what men will do at this point
is try to make it more pliable. That's too harsh. That doesn't sound right. How could you got two little
babies in a womb and God loved one and hated the other? That's just true. And so here men will rest the
scriptures to fit their own view. They'll take their own view and
try to impose it on this. And they say, well, God didn't
hate Esau. He just loved him less. Well, if that's so, if you can
say hatred instead of the word hatred, love less, then instead
of the word love, you can say hated less. Can't you? For Jacob have I hated less,
and Esau have I loved less. No? This does no justice to explain
why God loved Esau less. If you say he loved him less,
why did he love him less? Can you explain it? He didn't
do anything to deserve to be loved less. Why he hated Jacob less? How could Jacob be saved if God
had any hatred for him at all? And how could not Esau be saved
if God had any love for him at all? Could you explain that? If he had any love for Esau,
why would he not save him? If he had any hatred for Jacob,
why would he not damn him? You see, it doesn't solve the
problem. Others make this, try to make
this even more confusing. They say, well, God's not talking
about the individual people. He's talking about nations. What are nations made of? Millions
of people. So you didn't just If you try
to explain this in a way saying this is not talking about two
individual people, by expounding it to nations, you've made it
worse. You're saying that God loved
millions of people, not based on any works they've done, and
He hated millions of people based on any works. No. It doesn't
help your situation. But the objection is only made
If we take the words as they're written, this objection would
not be made if you tried to manipulate those words. But because those
words can't be manipulated, this is the objection. It's always
the same. If you ever are confronted about
the sovereign election of God, it will always be this. That's
not fair. Is God unrighteous? That's what you're saying. This message of sovereign election
is the most hated gospel message there is. It is the most despised. Now you can have two totally
opposing religions and they'll both come together to oppose
this. You can have Catholics and Baptists
and Methodists, Pentecostals, they all fight each other on
everything else, but in this regard, they despise this doctrine
so much, they'll all hate it. They all do. I told you what Thomas Jefferson
said. He said, anybody who believes that, they're gods, not God. They're an atheist. They're worse
than atheists. If you believe in the sovereign election of
God, you're worse than an atheist. That's what Thomas Jefferson
said about it. John Wesley said it's blasphemy. It's blasphemy. How do we answer such a question?
Well, God already answered it, so I don't have to. Look what
Paul says. He doesn't spend a lot of time
trying to... Don't try to make excuses for
God. God don't need your help. He don't need you to calm them
down. He don't need you to try to reason with them. God said before these children
were born, I loved Jacob and I hated Esau. Now what are you
going to do with that? Now Paul doesn't spend any time
coddling you. He said, this is what God said to Moses. Look
at this in verse 15. Here's his answer. This is what
God said. God said, I will have mercy. On who? On whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion. On whom? On whom I will have compassion. Reason men object to the sovereign
election of God is because they still believe they have some
way to obtain God's favor by their works. That's the only
reason they despise it. It's the only reason they would
bring God under the judgment bar of their own justice. They believe they have something.
some spark of life, some ability. Surely God doesn't say by election,
surely we've got to have something to do with it. No. Who's God going to have mercy
on? Whoever I will. Who's He going
to have compassion on? Whoever I will. Regardless of their works. Either
lack of works War works. Works don't enter into it. It's
a matter of sovereign will. See, men want to obligate God. They want to earn His mercy. And listen, the minute you try
to earn mercy, it's no longer what? It's no longer mercy, is
it? It's merit. What men fail to realize and
see is that no man could ever merit God's favor by his works. Listen, if God left salvation,
if God had not Consider this, if God made salvation based on
something men would do, no one would be saved. Why? Because salvation wouldn't
be of mercy, would it? It would be of works. In verse 29, he said, except
the Lord of Sabbath hath left us a seed. except God had not
chosen a people. What does Isaiah say? He said
we all would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, damned, had God
not chosen a people. Why? There is none righteous. How many righteous? No, not one.
How many understands? There's none that understand
it. How many are seeking God? There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all together, all together. Consider all the good
works that men have done over the centuries. God said you pile
them all together and they're unprofitable. Why? There's none that doeth good,
no not one. You see why salvation must be
by the election of grace? Therefore, God declares that
his salvation is not by man's will. It doesn't come by man's
merit, but God's mercy. And it cannot be obligated. God cannot be obligated to show
compassion. You understand that? You can't
obligate God to show compassion. Mercy is based on the least degree
of merit, it is no longer mercy. And so then I always ask this,
do you need mercy? I like this, God said I will
have mercy. Listen, on whom I will have mercy?
Well who's he gonna have mercy on? Only those who need mercy.
Only those who need mercy. to the self-righteous, to those
who desire to earn God's favor, you despise mercy. You shake your fist in the face
of God and you demand that he accept your works. You demand
that he accept your will. You are trying to obligate him. I have willed, therefore you
must save me. No, God said I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. And so therefore to the elect
he will show mercy. To the absolute sinner who has
no merit, who by nature cannot come to God by his own power,
to them God shows mercy. Therefore God calls them to life
and gives them faith. God moves their heart to flee
to Christ and they flee to Christ. So what's the conclusion of all
this? Look at verse 16. So then, here's my conclusion.
It is not of him that willeth. How does the election come? Not
of him that willeth. Now listen to these words. Every
one of these have ETH at them, at the end of them. That is a
present perfect tense. It is not of him that willed. Well, back when I was 10, I made
a decision. I willed. In past tense, it is not of him that wills presently. Present perfect tense is past,
present, and future tense. So it's not of him that willed,
not of you that did something, but not of you that are now willing.
Now every believer's willing. Are we trusting our willingness?
By no means. By no means. We are willing.
But we're not trusting in it. And listen, salvation doesn't
come by present will. And it doesn't come by future
will. One day I will. No. Look at this, it's not of
him that willeth or him that runneth. It's not of works. See religion running. Religion's
running. They're always doing. They're
excited. They got so much going on. Salvation doesn't come by
the running. Not of him that runned, not of
him that's running right now, not of him that shall run. How does salvation come? Not
of him that willeth or him that runneth, but what? But of God that showeth mercy. God that showeth mercy. If you are in need of mercy, I can preach to you of a merciful
God who has determined to have mercy. Now, who may have mercy? I don't know. But I know this, He will have
mercy. And the scriptures are clear. His people, He will bring
them to a place where they know this, I need mercy. I don't need
merit. I can't do enough to please God. What I need is mercy. And those who need mercy as a
preacher of the gospel, I'll tell you the only place you'll
find it. At the feet of Jesus Christ. It is the only place the elect
go for mercy. It's the only place God will
ever send any sinner for mercy. He will send him to Christ. Come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, all you that
willeth and runneth And you realize it ain't doing nothing? He said,
come to me and rest. You'll find rest. You'll find
rest. What is rest? It's cessation
of work. No more work needed. Come to
me and there's no more work needed. Why? I've done all the work. This is where God's elect always
go. They always find mercy. I gave you the illustration,
I think, of 2 Kings 7. There was a big famine in the
land of Israel. And God promised that by the
prophet, there'd be bread the next day. There was a famine. They were eating. A horse's head
was going for a lot of money. They were starving to death. And the prophet said, tomorrow
there'll be so much food that you can buy a ton of food for
just a penny. Now, on the outside of this wall there were four
lepers. They didn't hear none of that. They were starving to
death just like the people on the inside. And they sat down
and they thought together and they said, man, listen, we're
starving. Now if we go back in the city,
we violate the law, and they'll stone us, and if not, we'll starve
to death in there too. We stay right here, but you know what? We'll starve
to death if we stay right here. Now look, out there is the enemy,
but you know, they got food. Man, we can go out there, and
if they kill us, what's the difference? But maybe they might have mercy. You know what they went out there
and they didn't know it but God had already scattered those people.
They left all their stuff. Food cooking on a fire pot already
ready to eat. And they took off. There was
nobody there to kill them. And they ate to their abundance. This is just like me. Man, I
didn't know nothing. I knew this. I was starving for
righteousness and I couldn't have it. Nothing I could do. I was a leper. I was condemned.
I couldn't come to God by the law. The law demanded my death.
If I stayed in my sin, I knew this, I'd die. So what I said,
I'd do this. I'll just go to the feet of the
holy God and beg for mercy. You know what I found when I
got there? I found mercy. I found mercy. This is the experience
of every elect sinner. He puts us in a place where we
got no place to go. Then he shows us Christ. And
we know this, God's gonna save his elect, and I don't know,
hurt venture, I'm not one of them. But I know this, I got
no place else to go. And when I came, I found mercy. What'd I learn?
I learned this, that I was always His chosen. I didn't know that. Until what? Until I found mercy.
I knew this, when I got mercy, There was nothing in me that
earned it. There was nothing I could do to merit it. God said,
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And he was talking
about me. Here's a solid ground to stand
on. If there was nothing I could do to earn that mercy, there's
nothing I could do to take it away. There's nothing I can do to remove
it. The mercy of the Lord, the scripture
says, endureth forever. Actually, the word endureth is
in italics, isn't it? The mercy of the Lord forever. The mercy of the Lord forever. What about those he's hated?
Look at your text again. What about the Esau's? For the
scripture has said unto Pharaoh. This is likened to Esau. Pharaoh
was hated just as Esau was. Even for this same purpose as
I raise thee up, that I might show my power in thee. that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. What was the whole
reason of Pharaoh's life? He was born into this world,
hated of God, was never to receive the mercy
of God. Listen, ordained unto condemnation. That's what Jude 4 says. Chapter 1 verse 4 these wicked
men were ordained to this condemnation He's ordained to it God says
I'm gonna raise you up to power sets you in the highest place
Give you power over all the earth at that time I'm gonna do it
for one reason That I might display my power When Moses came to Pharaoh, he
said, let my people go. God said, let my people go. The
scripture says this four times. Even before he asked, God told
him that Pharaoh was not going to do it. You know why? Four
times it said in scripture, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. And I believe four times it says
Pharaoh hardened his heart. all the warnings that God gave,
all the miracles that God did, all the signs that God gave,
those ten plagues God sent on his nation, and each time the
scripture says his heart was hardened. Now why was his heart
hardened? God had already determined to
harden his heart. Now did God do any injustice
to him? Now his heart was already lost,
it was hardy. Scripture says a natural man
is at enmity against God. He's not subject to the law of
God, neither he can be. That's how he was born. He was
born that way. I'll tell you this, when it says
God hardened his heart, simply all God had to do was give him
what he wanted. Pharaoh hated God. Is it unjust
for God to restrict, restrain, or allow men to be as wicked
as they want to be? No. It just proves God's sovereignty,
doesn't it? Even over the works, the wicked
works of men. The second I moved out of my
place here. And so why would Pharaoh not
believe God? Because God purposed that man's life for damnation. To show his power. Now then comes
the next objection. And I'm not going to do it. I'm
not going to, I'll have to come back to this one, but I'm going
to give it to you. Seeing that God controls even
the actions of wicked men to fulfill his will. Look what your
objection would be. Thou wilt say unto me, verse
19, why did he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? If God hated Esau and purposed
everything that Esau was to do, even the rejection of the birthright,
his hatred toward God, You're going to say to me, then, God's
to blame. Who has resisted His will? Well,
if He hated Him, how can God blame Him? Another illustration
of that would be Judas, wouldn't it? Judas was the son of perdition. He was the one determined of
God to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. It was spoken of him
in prophecy of Scripture that He would betray Him and the redemption
price. Of those 30 pieces of silver.
That was spoken hundreds of years before Judas was born. God determined
how he would do it. When he would do it. Jesus told
him, that thou do, do it quickly. Go do it. Well, seeing nobody
can resist God's will, and God determined him to do it, then
how in the world can he be charged with sin? Now, he gives three Answers to
this, and that's what I'll go over next time, three answers
to this. And I'm gonna give you the first
one, because this is it. Who do you think you are? This is
first response. Because you cannot understand
sovereignty and responsibility? Because you can't connect the
dots? How dare you blame anything on God, being an unjust, wicked,
vile person that you are, that you would take God and put him
under your microscope as to what he does. Who are you? Can't the potter
do with the clay what he wills? To make one to honor and one
to dishonor? Can he do that? You know why he can justly do
that? Because he takes from the same lump. We're all of the same lump of
Adam's rake. We all deserve damnation. Is God unjust to take a child
of damnation and mold him in the way he wants to? Did he do
any injustice to the child of damnation? No. But I'm so thankful that he is
determined to make vessels of mercy. I'm thankful for the sovereign
election of God. So is the word of God void? God
said, I will save Israel. That's exactly who Christ saved.
That's exactly who the spirit is going to call Israel. Who
are they? They're the ones that God loved. Set his love on them without
anything good in them. and because God had chosen a
people and ordained another group to eternal damnation. Now listen,
don't, I know people get all upset about that. They say, well,
man, I know God's sovereign determination to election and eternal life,
but we can't say God had chosen to damnation. I don't
see how else you put it. Was he, did he not know what's
going to happen to these other people? He said, well, I choose
these people in my life and in heaven. I don't know what's going
to happen to these people. No. He determined. And that's
why you're going to say, is God unrighteous to do that? No. He told you. That's all you need. He said. What else you need?
I don't have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. So then, conclusion. It's not
of him that willeth. In the run is but God that showeth
mercy. I pray this morning, God, by
his grace and power, would show you your need of mercy. Because
I'll tell you this, every elect sinner, every one chosen who's
come to Christ, this is more clear to me of my need of mercy. I know I need more mercy now
than I ever did before. And I know God's going to bring
his elect. Why? His word's not void. He's
going to do it. He's going to do it. I'm thankful for the election
of grace. If you're not thankful for the
election of grace because you still think you have something
to offer. And the sad part about it, that's,
if you continue in that, that just manifests as that God hated
you. What did God he called you to
bow? You find mercy. I pray we gotta bless this to
you. We could pick it up again or will the next time let's stand
be dismissed in prayer. Gracious father, be merciful.
We're at your mercy upon us. I know your elect people are
still in this world. Otherwise, Jesus, you would have
already come back. I pray you'd bless your churches.
Give us grace and love and compassion to preach the gospel to every
creature. I don't know who your people
are. You do. And I know this, you'll use the
gospel to save them. I pray you'd use us. I pray you'd
bring in your people. You said that you would bring
them from the east and the west and the north and the south to
sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as sons of Israel. I'm thankful your word is never
void, but always does what you purpose to do. I pray you would
do all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
for his sake.