Turn with me if you would back
to Romans chapter 9. Romans 9. We are going to look
at verses 15 and 16 this morning. And if God ever truly reveals
this to a sinner, then salvation has come to that sinner. Really,
really, if a sinner ever becomes fully convinced, I mean fully,
fully convinced of this right here, then that sinner will be
convinced of the only hope that there is before God, the only
one. Romans nine, verse 15, it says, for he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Who did he say that to? He said that to Moses. What's
significant about Moses? He wrote the law. He wrote the
do's and the don'ts of the law. Thou shalt, thou shalt not. First five books of this Bible
are the books of Moses, right? And it says, He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Mercy is not getting what we
deserve. That's what mercy is. Not getting
what we deserve, which is a totally foreign concept to the natural
flesh. That's a totally foreign concept
and the reason is because the whole reason that man naturally
thinks he's going to be saved is because he thinks he's going
to get what he deserves. Not realizing that the only hope
that a sinner has before God is not getting what he deserves. False religion, false religion
has lied to men and women. And I feel so sorry for people
because that was us. That was us. False religion has lied to men
and women, telling them that they have the ability to earn
salvation. That just keeps getting passed
down. These poor little ones were praying
for our children and praying for our children and praying
for our children. And there are so many young children
out there whose parents and grandparents are telling them that they have
the ability to earn a salvation from God. This eternally damning error. It's not just, well, you really
shouldn't do that. This eternally damning error
has been ingrained in men and women. That somehow they play
a role in their salvation. That's why people go to church. They're trying to figure out
what do I need to do? What's my role? Somehow it's been ingrained that
they have a responsibility in their salvation. Somehow it is
a response or it is a reaction. It's some type of deed or it's
some type of emotion. Or it's some type of consent.
that God is waiting for them to produce, waiting for them
to do before they can have their salvation
sealed. And if they'll just perform it,
if they'll just do it, then they will have done a work worthy
for them to be saved. That lie is not true. That lie is not true. I'm so
grateful for every avenue of the gospel. I'm so grateful for
the TV broadcast. I think I'd like to bring this
on TV because I feel so sorry for people and I care about them.
I do. I care about them. And I want
to say, listen, dear brother in Adam, that lie is not true. That lie is not true. That lie that religion has told
to men and women all their lifetime, just hammered, it's just been
hammered all their lifetime. It's not true. Once God quickens
one of his children to life, when God does that, the moment
that God calls, and this is my prayer, I beg God, like Paul
started this book, started this chapter rather, Romans chapter
nine, Oh, I'm begging God. I'm begging God. Call somebody
today. Let it be me. Speak to somebody's
heart today. Once God does that, once He calls
His child out of the darkness of false religion into the glorious
light of His truth, and that's what the darkness is, False religion. Our Lord said of false religion
in His day, He said, they are blind leaders of the blind. It's just darkness. But once
God calls one of His own out of that darkness into His glorious
light, that sinner will see this right here to be so. It won't be the man. I don't
care what I have to say about this. All I care about is what
God has to say about this. And that sinner who sees this
will believe. When God calls a sinner to see
it, he'll believe. You know what? That's the truth. That's the truth. Well, so-and-so wrote a book
and he says it's not. I don't care. And that's the
truth. Let him be a liar. That's the
truth. That's what every sinner will
say. Let God be true, but every man
a liar. And then he'll raise both of
his hands saying, starting with me. Starting with me. If that's what I said all my
life and that's what I believed all my life, then I'm a liar. I'm a liar. I confess it to be
so, only God is true. When God calls his people, that's
what they say. Only God is true. He says this,
he says that, who knows what they're saying, none of it matters.
Only God is true. Only his word is true. And if he says salvation is of
the Lord, then buddy, salvation's of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Salvation is not of the Lord
plus. Or as long as I add my little,
you know, bits that I think I have to add on top of it. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord without
my help. Salvation is of the Lord without
my consent. He did not need my consent. If you sign right here, I'll
save you. It was without my consent. It was without my knowledge. I was just notified of it after
the fact. We're just saying, T is done, the great transaction
is done. That's the notification. When
God's Spirit comes, He says to the heart, it's done, the great
transaction is done. Titus 3, 5 says, not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost. The apostle Paul has proven that
by everything that he said in this chapter so far. He did start
the chapter by saying, my deep desire is that God would save
my brethren according to the flesh. That is my deep, deep
desire. He said in verse four, they are
religious. They're all religious. Verse
four, he said, who are Israelites? To whom pertaineth the adoption?
and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and
the service of God and the promises. He said, they have a copy of
the law. They hold services. They go through all the rituals.
They, they do all these religious things, but he said, it hasn't
done them any good. They're still lost. They're still
lost. Why is that? Why is that? It's because about
three quarters of the way through verse 11, if you look at verse
11, three quarters of the way through, it says salvation is
not of works. It is not of works. Verse 11
says for the children being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil. Think about that. This is what
man thinks. You do good. You go to heaven.
You do evil. You go to hell. That's what man thinks, that's
the natural mind of the flesh. It says, for 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. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is it right for him to save one
and not the other? And he said, not right. Is it not right for him to save
one and not the other? God forbid, God can do whatever
he wants to do. If two are running in destruction,
Is it unfair for him to lay hold of one and not the other? He
said, God forbid. He goes on down to say, who are
we to reply against God? He's God. Verse 15, for he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Now, I want us to see three things
this morning. And the first thing is this.
We need mercy. That's the first thing I want
us to say, we need mercy, that is something that. People don't
know. So I didn't know you didn't know
you don't start out in life knowing that. When God starts to move, though,
on His people, He moves in salvation. He moves in that quickening. That is one of the first things
that a person starts to see. That's the first revelation.
I need mercy. Wait a minute. I think I need
mercy. Not just sinners. You look at
people in the gutter and look at what they're doing and look
at what's on TV and you think they need mercy. When God starts
to deal with a sinner, the first thing he does is he reveals,
I need mercy. I need mercy. Look with me, if
you would, at Matthew chapter nine. Matthew 9, verse 10, it says,
and it came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold,
many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his
disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. He wasn't talking about the flu.
He wasn't talking about the coronavirus. He was speaking of spiritual
matters. And he defined it in verse 13. He said, but go ye and learn
what that meaneth. I will have mercy. and not sacrifice. He said, go and learn what this
means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. What he's saying is it's not
what you're going to do for me. It's what I'm going to do for
you. Religion has convinced men and
women that it's all about what they are going to do for God.
That's the question. Now, what are you going to do
for God? What are you going to do for God? God says, no, it's
not. It's not about that at all. It's
not about what sacrifices you are going to make for me. It
is all about the sacrifice. The sacrifice of mercy. that I am going to make for you. And to take that one step further,
our Lord said, I didn't come to save those who make sacrifices
to me or try to make sacrifices to me at all. He said, I came
to save those whose only work before me. is rebellion and sin. Verse 13, he said, go ye and
learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice
for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Those who see themselves to be
righteous before God, because the scripture says there's none
righteous, no not one. But they see themselves to be
right with God. I had a man tell me that many,
many years ago. We had a mutual friend pass away
and the man told me, he said, well, he was right with God.
And I didn't say anything at that time. I wish I would have
asked him, how do you know? How do you know? Man thinks he's
right with God. That means righteous, self-righteous. He said, I did not come to call
those who see themselves to be self-righteous. I've done all
these deeds and I've done all these things, therefore I'm right
with God. I tell you, the only man who's
right with God, there's only one man right with God. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He's the only one. And my only
hope of being right with God is being in Him. That's my only
hope. He is right with God. And my
hope is that God put me in Him. Our Lord said, I did not come
to call the good ones. Those who see themselves to be
the good ones. I came for the bad ones. And God's people see
themselves to be that way. You just do, and I do. We're
always having conversations, just slaying ourselves. Why am
I the way that I am? Oh, wretched me. What's wrong
with me? Why can't I straighten up and
fly right? Our Lord said, I did not come
for those who see themselves to be worthy. I came for those
who are convinced that they're unworthy. I didn't come for the
deserving. I came for the undeserving. I
came for those who truly need mercy. Mercy. A very, very, very dear man,
a long time ago, his son was standing in a courtroom. The
man went with him. He was sitting there in the courtroom.
His son was before a judge and the judge had just sentenced
him to prison. And the man asked if he could say something to
the judge, and the judge said, you can. And he said, your honor,
is there any room for mercy? And the judge said, based on
what your son has done, he doesn't deserve mercy. And he said, I
know that, your honor. Believe me, I know that. But
if he deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. volumes are said in that. We'll
get to the heart of this message if we understand what that dear
man said. If he deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. Man thinks
he's going to get what he deserves. I think I'm going to finally
reach what I deserve. If he deserved it, it wouldn't
be mercy. God's people get mercy. Mercy
is for the undeserving. Mercy is for those who truly
need mercy because they're so wretched and so wrong. The only hope they have is mercy. Mercy. Mercy is for those who
have no sacrifice of their own to offer God, none whatsoever.
And that's us. That's us. We need mercy. Whether we are those who realize
it or those who don't, either way, We need mercy. We need mercy. Look with me at
Psalm 51. Psalm 51, the heading just under
the title says, to the chief musician, a psalm of David, when
Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba."
We know the story of David taking this woman Bathsheba and having
her husband murdered. And he went a good while with
no remorse, quite a while with no conscience about it. But God,
in mercy, finally sent Nathan the prophet to him and said,
thou art the man. God has seen what you've done.
All exposed, all right? And then this is what David cried
to God in return. Psalm 51, verse one, he said,
have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. What he's saying is this sin
that I've done is only a result of what I am. I have only committed sin. Because sin is what I am. I was
conceived in sin. I was made in sin. Verse 6, Behold,
thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part
thou shalt make me to know wisdom. You caused me to see that you
see it all, you know it all. He cried in verse seven, purge
me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be
whiter than snow. What he's crying is I need mercy. I need mercy, I acknowledge my
sin and I acknowledge that I can't do anything about it and my only
hope before you is that I might receive mercy. We need mercy. We need mercy. I was thinking
about this, telling you this. Sometimes you feel like you're
up here just strictly going through notes and giving your outline,
and you know, I just want to get across, me to you, we need
mercy. We need mercy. Whether we can
enter into that or not, we need mercy. We desperately, desperately
need mercy. I pray God will reveal that to
us today. Today. That's the first thing, we need
mercy. The second thing I want us to see in this is mercy only
comes one way. We need mercy and mercy only
comes one way. Back in Romans 9, if you turn
back over to Romans 9, Verse 15 says, For he saith to
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Mercy is in God's hands. Just
like the instance of that young man standing before the judge,
it's always this way. Mercy is never in the hands of
the one who needs mercy. Never. The one who needs mercy is always
at the mercy of the one who's able to give it. And that's how it is for us.
We are sinners in need of mercy and we are at the mercy of whether
or not he will give it to us. What that means is the ball is
in his court. Salvation is in his hands. Life
is in his hands. All of it. He said, I hold the
keys of hell and death. All of it is in his hands. false
religion has hounded to men and just ingrained in them that they
have a free will that can actually decide to be
saved. That they can decide to be relieved
from this great sin debt that they have before God. I decide
to be relieved of my great sin debt against you. I can't even
decide to be relieved of my debt at the bank. I decide for all
my debts at the bank to go away. And for the mortgage in my house
to be mine, I'm free. They say, you owe us. I say,
no, I don't. They say, oh, yes, you do. But I have a free will, and I've
decided to be relieved of that great debt. You see that? I can will all I want to, but
that doesn't mean it's so. Verse 16 says, it is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth. False religion has convinced
men and women that if they'll just be on fire for Jesus, really,
if you'll get a fire under you and just run out there and Start
doing your good works and start witnessing to people what a great
Christian you are. And when people witness, that's
what they're doing. They're witnessing just how wonderful
they are and what they've done. If you just work, work, work
and do, do, do, somehow you'll do enough to win the favor of
God. That lie is not so. That lie is not so. The message
of the gospel is not do. It's done. It's not work. It's rest. Rest. It's not what we're going to
do for Him. It's what he has already done for us. Verse 16,
it's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Mercy is of God and it's his
to give. He gives it to whoever he decides
to give it to and it only comes one way. One way. Verse 15, he said to Moses, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Now. I am going to speed this up. But
you have to see this, OK? Turn with me to Exodus 33. He
is quoting Exodus 33 right there. In Exodus 33 verse 5, the Lord had said unto Moses,
say unto the children of Israel, you are a stiff necked people,
I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume
thee, therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may
know what to do unto thee. He said, I'm gonna destroy him. So Moses made intercession to
God. He started crying out to God
on behalf of the people. And it says in verse 17, the
Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou
hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know
thee by name. And Moses said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And the Lord said, I will make
all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And
he said, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man
see me and live. You cannot see my judgment. You cannot see my punishment. You cannot stand before me and
look on me and survive it. In your sin, no man can see me
and live. Verse 21, and the Lord said,
behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock,
and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will
put thee in a cliff of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand
while I pass by. And I will take away my hand,
and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. Moses said, show me your glory.
He said, here it is. I'll have mercy. I'll have mercy
and this is how I'll do it. I will put you in my hiding place
of the rock. And that rock is Christ. That
rock is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, while the brightness
of my glory passes by, you're going to stand before me and
my judgment is going to pass by. My justice and my holiness
is going to pass by. And I will take out on you all
of that justice and all of my vengeance that's owed for your
sin. I'll take it out on you while
you're hiding in that rock. You are a sinner who needs mercy
from the judgment of your sin. And I'm going to show you that
mercy by pouring out my judgment on the rock in your place. Mercy is not getting what we
deserve. And the reason we didn't get
what we deserved is because Christ got what we deserved. Our rock
took that judgment for us. He took the justice. He took
the blow of God's wrath. That was God's mercy to us. That was His mercy to us. And
His compassion, our text says, His compassion, I will have compassion. That means grace. I will be gracious
unto whom I'll be gracious. Grace is getting what we don't
deserve. Mercy is not getting what we
do deserve. And grace is getting what we
don't deserve, what we didn't earn. What somebody else earned
for us. God showed mercy to us when he
gave Christ what we deserved. And he showed grace to us when
he gave us what Christ deserved. Mercy and grace. So here are
the three things that we see in this. Number one, we need
mercy. Number two, mercy only comes one way. It comes at the
hand of God through the suffering substitution of Christ. And number
three, here's the last thing. He delights in it. He delights
in it. Showing mercy is God's favorite
thing to do. He does not delight in the death
of the wicked. He doesn't delight in that. He
delights in showing mercy. In Micah 7 verse 18, it says,
he retaineth not his anger forever because he delights in mercy. Lamentations 3, 22 and 23, it
says his mercy and his compassion, his grace. They are new every
morning, both of them brand new. They start over brand new every
morning. If God reveals to us that we're
in need of mercy, And if God reveals to us that we must come
to the saving work of Christ to receive mercy, then we can
come to the Lord Jesus Christ with this peace and comfort of
mind. He delights to show it. He delights
in mercy. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. If you need mercy, run to Christ. Don't run all over the place
trying to do this and that. Run to Christ. He will show it
to you. You will receive it. You will
receive it. Now, let's close in our text
one more time. Romans 9. Verse 15 it says, For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,
knowing that. Now that we know that, Hebrews
4.16 says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. I pray God will reveal to us
our need of mercy. I do. I pray God will reveal
to us the only source of mercy. And I pray God will cause us
to cry out for it. Really cry out for it from the
heart. All who need it will receive it. All who need it have received
it. Bear this in mind. All who need
it have received it. That need and that cry is the
evidence that God has chosen to give it to us. So, oh, may it be so. Really,
may it be so. May the Lord cause us to cry
out for mercy. Old, young, red, yellow, black,
white. We need mercy. May God give it
to us. Okay, let's all stand together.