Romans chapter 9. I think it's very clear what Paul is talking about. You
cannot read this chapter and wonder, what is Paul talking
about? Paul is talking about the sovereignty
of God in the saving of sinners. God's sovereignty in salvation.
Salvation is not by chance. God has never saved anyone by
giving them a chance to get saved. God saves, by His grace, through
the gospel of Christ, through Christ His Son, whom He will. It's that clear. And it's evident,
as Paul wrote, that if God had not chosen a multitude of sinners
to save, no one would be saved. They would be like, he said,
we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah, burnt up, destroyed. That would be our end. And Paul now, he established
in the first part of this chapter, as we looked at it last week,
he established his love for Israel, and how they were so privileged
of God in all that God gave them, the pictures, the types, and
we see the sovereignty of God in that. He didn't give Egypt
none of these things. There was no other nation on
earth that was given the pictures and the types and the priesthood
and the sacrifices that all spoke of Christ, the one they stumbled
at. They had those things and they
didn't see Him. They didn't believe. They didn't
believe God. But God gave it to them and no one else. No one else. And Paul established in the first
part of this chapter that not everyone that is born from the
lineage of Abraham is a child of God. We do not inherit the
kingdom of God through flesh and blood. We inherit it through
the grace of God, through the sovereign grace and mercy of
God. That's how we inherit the kingdom
of God. And it's very clear here that
those who believe were chosen before the foundation of the
world of God to believe, not to perish. It is written in the
book of Acts, I didn't write it down here, but I was reading
it this week, that as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. No one else did. They didn't
because they didn't want to. I wouldn't believe the gospel
if it wasn't for the grace of God. I wouldn't have anything
to do with Jesus Christ. I know what I liked. I know what
I was after, and it wasn't Christ. It had nothing to do with God.
And if God hadn't chosen me, if He hadn't loved me and determined,
you're mine. You're mine. You're not going
to perish. You're mine. That's the sovereign mercy of
God. Sovereign mercy. Rolf Barnard
has a message, powerful, powerful message. And after I had first
heard the gospel, I listened to that message over and over.
The title of it is Sovereign Mercy. You can hear it on Sermon
Audio. Sovereign Mercy, powerful, powerful
message. And I listened to that message
over and over and over. And I tell you, every time I
listened to it, it broke my heart because God chose me and didn't
leave me alone. He didn't leave me alone. He
could have easily left me alone. Listen here in verse 9, For this
is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall
have a son. And this son we know is Isaac,
who represents Christ. Christ is our Isaac. And we are
Isaac's in Christ, the promised children. And he says here in
verse 11, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil. This is to show us that God's
love and choice of Jacob had nothing to do with influence. God saving me, God saving you
has absolutely zero to do with me or you influencing God. Esau
didn't do anything evil or good, and Jacob did nothing evil or
good. Now they were both evil by nature. Jacob is a supplanter. That's what his name means, supplanter,
deceiver. He's not saying here that they
were not sinners or not evil. The Scripture says that we go
from the womb speaking lies. The poison of asp is under our
tongue when we are born. It's there. But he's demonstrating
here that God is not influenced by anything. Here, we have to
grab this. God is not influenced by anything
outside of Himself. Whatever reason that God loved
me, God loved you, and God loved a multitude of sinners for whom
Jesus Christ died for, the reason is found in God Almighty. It's
because God is who He is. And God must be consistent with
His nature. And the nature of God is holy. And what else is it? Love. And love's got to be expressed.
Love's going to be expressed. He expressed it on the elect
angels that didn't fall. He didn't let them fall. There
was a whole multitude of them that fell, but there was a whole
multitude that did not fall. God's love is expressed and it's
going to be expressed because it's a holy love. It's a perfect
love. And that love has to be expressed. But it's expressed
in a sovereign manner because nobody deserves it. There's not
a person in this room deserves the mercy and grace of God. We
don't deserve that. If we deserved it, it wouldn't
be mercy. It would be a debt God owes us. 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, because it can't be by works. An imperfect human being
cannot keep a perfect law. It's not possible. But the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth of God. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. This is set in God's eternal
purpose. You know, the Scripture says
the secret things belong to the Lord. The revealed things belong
to us and our children. But the secret counsel of God,
we can't enter into that. We're so sinful, our understanding
is so limited, we cannot enter into the secret counsel of God
and the way of God. But the one thing that I can
enter into is who God is. And knowing who He is, I know
that what He does is right. I know that everyone whom God
saves, He saves wisely. He saves wisely, He saves by
His grace, and He saves them on purpose. And it can't be any
other way. It can't be any other way. God
does not halt between two opinions like you and I. You and I get
up in the morning, we're like, I don't know what to do here.
I say, Vicki, what do you think I should do? God's never asked
anybody what he should do. He has perfect knowledge. He
is infinite in knowledge. He's infinite in wisdom. There's
nothing He does not know. Knowledge starts with Him. Knowing
starts with God. And then when you understand
who God is, then you understand that what He does and everything
He does is right. It's right. Turn over to Deuteronomy
32. In Deuteronomy 32, in verse 1,
listen to these first four verses. the words of my mouth, my doctrine,
my teaching shall drop down as the rain, my speech shall distill
as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as
the showers upon the grass. Because I will publish the name
of the Lord, ascribe you greatness unto our God. He is the rock."
Now listen, His work is perfect. What He does is perfect. For
all His ways are judgment, are just. A God of truth and without
iniquity, God can do no wrong. Just and right is He. Now, upon
that basis, I understand and view the sovereignty of God in
salvation. It can be no other way. Now, because of this, because
of God's election of a people, a multitude of sinners that no
man can number, Paul knew there would be some objections to God's
sovereign right over all among the unbelieving Jews and
the Gentiles. He knew they would object to
this. What is one of the greatest objections to the gospel? It's
God's sovereign right to do as he will with his own. He says
down here, "...has not the potter power over the clay?" Does he
not have that? Does the potter, when he picks up a clay, does
he not have the right to do with it and make out of it as he will? Everybody in here will say, absolutely.
Well, does God not have the same right? Does He not have the same
right? So Paul knew that there would
be an objection to this. And he says in verse 14, What
shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? And Paul says, God forbid. That
can't be. Just because I don't understand
it, doesn't mean it's not right. That doesn't mean anything. It
just means I don't understand it, is what it means. Is God
unjust for choosing Jacob and not Esau? Is God unjust for doing
that? Even before they were born? Is
God unjust for making that choice? Is God unjust for loving Jacob
and hating Esau? They were both equally evil,
both equally lost, but God loved Jacob. And the reason God loved
Jacob is found in God. It's not found in Jacob, it's
found in God. God is never unjust in His ways. That's why Paul said, God forbid,
don't even think such a thing of God. Don't even think like
that. God forbid that any of His creatures should call God
into judgment, that we should judge God. How can a sinful creature
judge one who is holy and righteous and perfect? How can we judge
God? We are so limited in knowledge. You realize, well, I realize
this as I get older, how little I know. That is the one thing
I think we do realize as we get old. If God has saved us, how
little we know. David said, I'm like a beast
before you. I don't know anything. What do
I know? His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher
than our thoughts. The Scripture says over in Job,
He gives no account of any of His matters. Only a sovereign
can do that. Only a sovereign. God is not
to be charged with folly by the foolishness of His creatures.
All that God does, we understand this, all that God does is consistent
with His nature. Abraham said, "...shall not the
judge of the earth do right?" Absolutely. That's all He can
do is right. God in saving you was the right
thing to do. It was the right thing to do
or He wouldn't have done it. Leaving whom He leaves to meet
Him in justice is the right thing to do, to serve His glory. But you notice
something here, and this is something that, especially as a preacher
of the gospel, I want to keep this in front of me. Paul doesn't
even try to defend God's sovereign mercy. You notice that? He doesn't
try to defend it. Not at all. All He does is quote
the Scriptures. I cannot explain why God does
as God does, but I tell you this, God will do what God will do,
and it will be consistent with who He is. He says in verse 15, For He says
to Moses, He's quoting the Scripture, God's speaking to Moses over
in Exodus 33.19, Moses said to the Lord, he was speaking to
God, and he's asking for his presence. He said, if your presence
doesn't go with me, don't send us forth. And God promised his
presence. And then Moses said this, show
me your glory. If I have found favor in your
sight, if I have found grace in your sight, show me your glory. You know what God showed him?
His sovereign mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. He said, Moses, I have chosen
you. I have chosen Israel by nothing
more than sovereign mercy. This is my glory. I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. It's His glory to take two equally
guilty sinners and God save the thief on the right and leave
the one on the left to Himself. Now that one on the left, as
it says here at the very end of this chapter, as it's written,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of a fence, whosoever
believeth, Whosoever believes, come. Whosoever
believes, believe. Look to Him. But how many people hear the
gospel and they just turn and walk out the door and leave? God's determined that not everyone's
going to leave. Not everyone's going to turn
their back on Him. I'm going to have a people. He said, I
created the earth to be inhabited. I didn't create it in vain. He
didn't create this world for all of us to go to hell. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy, and He said, and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. That's what He said to Moses
when Moses said, Show me your glory. It is His royal prerogatives,
Charles Spurgeon said in one place, to do with His own as
He will. Now to find fault with this truth
is to find fault with God. It's to fight against God. I'm glad God's sovereign. You
know what a mess it'd be in if he were not sovereign? For God to have a people like
His Son, He must choose and sanctify and redeem and bring to glory
that people, or there wouldn't be any. Listen, all are lost and dead
in Adam. Nobody wants God, nobody desires
God. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. Your will is not to come. It
says in Psalm 110, Thy people shall be willing. It is God who
made me willing. He made me willing by His grace.
He made me willing by the power of His Spirit. He made me willing
in a new birth. He made me willing, giving me
a new nature that's willing. God made me willing. But until
then, I was not willing. No one's willing to come to Christ.
No one's willing to have God. Adam proved that when Adam was
created in innocence. Adam was created in innocence
and righteousness. And whenever he was given that
choice, God said, don't eat of that tree. That's a command,
don't eat of that tree of knowledge of good and evil. And Adam looked
at that tree and here's, I think the very root of that sin was
this, I'll be the sovereign. We have no trouble with that.
And right now, if someone said to you, and I'm talking about
when you were lost. Now, being saved, you've been
taught of God. But you say to a lost man, all right, now you
are the sovereign, you choose whatever you want. Do whatever
you wanna do, wherever you wanna go, wherever you wanna live,
you be the sovereign. You think anybody would turn
that down? But if God's the sovereign, we say, uh-uh. No. Because we want to be the sovereign.
That's why sovereignty makes everybody mad. That's not born
of God. They don't care if God's sovereign,
as A.W. Pink said. They don't care if
God is sovereign in creation. They don't care that God is sovereign
in the healing. But when it comes to salvation, that's when you make people mad. when you find out that God Almighty
is sovereign. And all men, listen, all men
count the things of God as foolishness. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians
1.18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. But now unto us which are being
saved is not foolishness, is it? Not anymore. It used to be. So Paul draws this conclusion
in verse 16. So then, it's not of him that willeth. Over in John, it says the same
thing. It's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth,
it's not of effort that we put forth. Our salvation is this,
of God that showeth mercy. God doesn't owe me mercy. He
doesn't owe mercy. He owes us justice. I tell you that, he owes justice.
That's why Jesus Christ had to die. Because God owed me justice. The wages of sin is death and
justice said, you gotta die. God cannot, now listen, God cannot
just forgive me. He cannot just forgive me on
the basis of just forgiving me. I have to die. My sins have got
to be dealt with. And they were dealt with in Jesus
Christ, who is God, who is the sovereign God. Salvation has never been by the
will of man. It's unbelievable. The places
who call them churches call themselves free will, free will Baptist. What are you talking about in
your face? Wow, free will? They're gonna
find out free will. God Almighty is the only one
who has a free will. Are you married? You ain't got
a free will. You ain't got a free will. You
gotta cooperate with each other. If it's gonna work, you gotta
cooperate, right? Children, you got a free will?
You ain't got a free will, you got parents. Says, do this, don't
do that. You got laws out here that says
drive the speed limit. We're not free at anything. Nothing
under sin is free. But God's will is free. And He
exercises His will according to His good pleasure. And His
good pleasure is consistent with His nature, holy. If I got to
do what my natural pleasure was, it wouldn't be holy, and yours
wouldn't either. Salvation has never been by the
will of man, but by the will and purpose of God. Listen to
John 1, Gospel of John 1, verses 11 and 13. Which were born, Not of blood. That's why He talked
about Abraham. Not all of Israel are Israel.
It's not of blood. It's nor of the will of the flesh.
You know, we can... It's not because we've naturally
willed it. It was a supernatural work of
God. And it's like this, not of the
will of the flesh. I could will my sons to be saved. You could
will your children to be saved. That ain't gonna save them. Because
you know this, you know God, and I've seen this time after
time, God demonstrating His sovereign will in a family, saving one
child and not another. Jacob and not an Esau. Did God
do wrong? No. No. Both are commanded to come. Both
hear the same gospel, but one never believes it, and one does.
Cain and Abel. Do you know what the difference
between Cain and Abel was? The grace of God. When Cain offered
the works of his hand, what did God say to Cain? What did He
say to him? And He wasn't teasing him either. He said, if you do
right, shall you not be accepted? If you offer the same sacrifice
that Abel offered, with the same attitude, if you do right, I'll
accept you too. Cain refused to do right. He
did what his nature dictated him to do. It's like, it's either
going to be my works or I'm going to hell. Well, you're going to
hell. It's either going to be on God's terms or no terms at
all. No man has ever attained salvation
by his own works of righteousness. Jonah said, salvation is of the
Lord. Here he is in the belly of a
fish, way down into the ocean, and he knows if he comes out
of this alive, God's going to have to save him. God's going
to have to do it. He's going to have to do it. Now Paul uses another example.
of God's sovereign right to do as He will with His own. He said,
For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Now Pharaoh, in
his estimation, was born in the right family,
he had the right situation to put him on the throne of Egypt,
And every day Pharaoh actually went about doing what he wanted
to do, but in doing that he fulfilled the purpose and will of God.
Now this is on a level we can't comprehend. But Pharaoh being
Pharaoh is doing the will of God. The wrath of man, the Word
of God says, shall praise him, and the rest he will restrain. God has absolute sway and control
over every person. The old writers spoke of the
will of God and the permissive will of God. God permitting things
to happen, permitting people to do things, but making it serve
His purpose. Satan serves the purpose of God.
In the ultimate end of things, he serves the purpose of God. Everything about Pharaoh was
divinely ordered to serve God's purpose. Every time God sent a plague
and Pharaoh repented, you know what happened? God left him alone
and it hardened his heart. It hardened his heart. That's all has to happen. God
Himself is not just hardening the heart. He just leaves you
alone. Sin has a hardening effect on the heart. The scripture speaks
of searing the conscience as with a hot iron. People can sin
to the point to where they have calloused their conscience so
much they don't feel it no more. They don't feel it no more. There's
people who can become what's called gospel-hardened. They
can hear the gospel so much and sit in it so long that they're
just numb to it, absolutely numb to it. That's why the Scripture says
that the preaching of the gospel is a savor of life unto life
to some, and a savor of death unto death to some. Therefore, he says in verse 18,
and I'll wind this down. I'm not going to get through
all of this. Therefore, here's the conclusion of what has just
been said. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Mercy is
a sovereign act of God. It's a sovereign act of God. God must deal in justice with
all men. He has to. And be God. But in mercy to whom He will. But He never does it at the expense
of His justice. He's always a just God and a
Savior. Our God, I'm going to wind this
up, I'll bring the rest of it Lord willing next time. But our
God, the God of heaven and earth, is sovereign. When God created the world, when
He created the heavens and the earth, who did He consult with? There was no one to consult with.
There was no one. There was no one to consult with
because God is God and there was none beside Him. He said,
I am God and there's none beside Me. There's the Trinity, the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And He made this world exactly
as it pleased Him. He made the tree a tree, a cow
a cow, a man a man, a woman a woman. Everything you and I make, we
make from what's already been created. But God made it all out of nothing.
It was just His thought, His mind, His will, His pleasure. And God purposed, He purposed
that He's going to have a people out of Adam's fallen race, a
multitude of sinners that's going to be just like His Son. And
Christ came into this world and died for sinners. He sighed for
sinners. I can say that. If you're a sinner,
Christ died for you. He died for the ungodly. He didn't die
for those who say, well, I know I'm not perfect. No, he died for those who says,
Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Be merciful to me, a sinner. Our God is sovereign. And you
know what? We are glad. We are glad. I'm glad. I'm happy that my God is sovereign,
that the buck stops with him. No one rules over him. I'm thankful. All right.