Romans chapter 9. Brother Bob
read there out of Psalm 40. And there are several things
in the Scriptures that if the Lord didn't put it in His Word
and preserve it in His Word, I wouldn't dare say. It's terrible
things, awful things to me, unimaginable. But those things are true. That's
our Lord speaking. He said, iniquities. They're more than the hairs of
my head." I said, well, that has to be David speaking. But
he says, then I said, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me. That's mysterious. We're going to see something
else mysterious today. But there in Romans chapter 9, I want to
focus on a question that Paul was moved to ask us. Then I want us to see that in
all things, truly see that the answer that's given to that question
is right. It's the right answer. I pray
we can keep this question on our hearts throughout this week,
every day, and that the answer to this question is in the front
of our minds. And I pray we can understand
and constantly remember why this is the correct answer. the reason
that this answer can be the right answer. Let's look at it. In
Romans 9, verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 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. 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. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Now God
the Holy Spirit had just moved Paul to write there in verses
10 through 13 about Jacob and Esau. He said, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. These twin boys, born at the
same time, born to the same father and mother. Before they had come
out of the womb, he said, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. We're given a plain and clear
view there of the electing grace of God through Christ. how the
Lord chose a people in His Son, and in His power, He calls them
to that throne of grace. Not the doing of man, not the
will of man, but in the sovereign purpose of God, sinners are saved. After so clearly giving us this
truth, Paul's moved to ask this question in verse 14. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? What's he talking about? A holy,
sovereign God electing a people without causing them. Does that
mean that there's unrighteousness with God? He says, God forbid. In the utmost way of saying it,
the most powerful way a human being can express it, God forbid,
absolutely not. That's such a short question
and it's a shorter answer. But I'd like for us to consider
that deeply this evening. Is there any unrighteousness
with God? And I'd like for us to see that
because of Christ Jesus our Lord, His person and the work that
He accomplished in and for His people, He is the reason there
is no unrighteousness and a holy, heavenly Father in showing mercy
to vile, wicked sinners, just like me. I've told you several
times over the last, getting to be a couple years now, God
is sovereign in creation. He's sovereign in providence,
and He's sovereign in salvation, in total control of everything,
and He's holy while He does it. Now, worldly, it would do us
no good if a child was born to a father and that father was
corrupt. Like, oh, I have a mother and father, but they're evil.
It wouldn't do that child any benefit. But if a child were
born to good parents, loving parents, wise parents, looked
after the child, cared for the child, didn't there be great
benefit in that? Being a child of that wise and good father. Being a child of a God that's
easily swayed. If we were the child of a God
that's not consistent, that's not just, that doesn't have a
holy nature, that would do us no good. Wouldn't benefit us
at all. They say, well, I have a president,
but our president's corrupted. I have a dictator, but if your
dictator's evil, it does no good to be a citizen of that country.
But God, the God of the Bible, God of the Scriptures, God of
heaven and earth, the God of salvation, He's holy. That's His character. That's
His nature. And He is righteous because that
is the action of a holy nature. His being is holy in all ways. And His actions are righteous
in everything that He does, all things. God is righteous in creation. The birds singing. The weather
changes. It snows. It gets hot. Rains
sometimes. Sometimes it don't rain. Moon
and stars all revolving around the sun. The S-U-N. Everything in this universe revolves
around the S-O-N. That's sun. All were made by
the righteous God. For His namesake, He was right
in making this universe. Our bodies were created in His
image. We're fearfully and wonderfully made. All of our organs are just
operating together. And it's right. It shows God's mighty and holy
hand working all things, all the unseen things. We don't see,
we don't consider His hands on all of it. The Lord's holy in
making everything we consider good and things that we consider
bad. I'm tall. I'll never own a tiny
little sports car. That used to bother me when I
was a teenager. That's right. A lot of people will never dunk
a basketball. How they're made is right. It's
right. The Lord did it in holiness.
That is the Lord acting on His wisdom and holiness for our benefit
and for His glory through His creation. Look here in verse
20, Romans 9.20. Nay, but old man, Who art thou
that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? We are in
the hands of a holy God. I read that verse and I always
think of my girls, they draw pictures and they're getting
pretty good at it, drawing characters and faces. And they'll come show
me, Daddy, look at this. Not once have I seen one of those
little figures drawn Look at me off the page and say, I wish
my ears were smaller. I wish you'd made my hair different. That's foolish, isn't it? That's
the thing that's made speaking back to the thing that made it.
The Lord told us there in Matthew 25, after He's given us the parable
of those laborers that come into the field at different hours
of the day and He paid them the same. And He said, is it not just that
I do with mine own as I see fit? That's becoming a thing that's
outside of our culture. I was going to say I could go
to my house and cut down a tree if I wanted to. Maybe I can't
now, but we need to think on these things. We're all in His
hand, His holy hand. And what He does is right. We're
not to speak out against that. And that's just in creation,
not in providence. Here's where I murmur the most.
If you get a flat tire, get held up trying to go to work. That's
good. That is right. That's holy. If you get promotion
at work, that's good. If you get fired from work, that's
good. The Lord did that in His providence. We read there in Romans 8, 28,
and we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. That's
not most things. All things. That recent fire
we had was a wonderful reminder to me of the righteousness of
our God. If our home and this church building
was spared, if the Lord turned that fire with his creation,
with His wind, that is righteous. That's for our good and that's
for His glory. If He would have consumed my
home, if He would have burnt down this church building, took
this whole town with Him, that is right. That's for our good
and His glory. He's holy in doing so. But in
the Lord's creation, You and me, the world around us. He uses
many different means in His providence to bring His children to hear
His gospel, to put them under the preaching of the gospel.
There in verse 22, Romans 9, 22. What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, willing to be just, holy
and justice, endured with much longsuffering, the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction. all mankind, and that He might
make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy."
That's His people. "...which He had aforeprepared
unto glory, even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews
only, but also of the Gentiles. From our birth all men and women
are deserving of wrath." That's just. That's right. But God,
who is just and will show the just wrath for sin, was long-suffering
towards his people. That way, he could reveal his
mercy in us. That his children will be saved.
God is righteous in salvation. We always lean to the doctrines
of grace. We look at tulip often. That's
an elephant that we can take small bites of. Makes it where
we can understand it a little better. But God is righteous
in all those. Total depravity. When the Lord declared that a
man's heart is only evil continually, was He incorrect? When He said
we drank iniquity like water, when that's been revealed to
you, was He right? Like the grass that withers,
our days are as vapor, we're dead, and our sin's in that miry
pit. Was He unrighteous when He told
us what we are? God forbid. He's right. Unconditional election. This
is what Paul was addressing here in verse 14. God chose and elect
people, a spiritual Israel, in Christ before our Master created
this earth. Man did not have a hand in this
choosing. It was not based on our merit.
It was not based on our character, not on our desire, our will,
or anything in us. It was only based on His choosing.
Was He unrighteous in choosing a people? God forbid. For those
people, that limited remnant, that few. There was an atonement
made. A limited atonement. The people
that the Father chose in His Son is not everyone without exception. The Father provided a blood sacrifice
for His children and them alone. Christ is our substitute. He
made atonement. He made atonement to the Father
on our behalf. But this is limited to His sheep
alone. Is that unfair? Is there unrighteousness
in Him for doing so? God forbid. Irresistible grace. Those completely wretched sinners,
totally depraved, put in Christ, who was God's first elect, and
only those put in Him, they're drawn to the feet of Christ through
the Lord's all-wise and all-powerful providence and mercy. He brings
us to know Him. Men and women often say, you
say that God saves people against their will. Listen to me carefully. I thought hard about this. He
absolutely does. If you know him, you'll agree
that he absolutely saves us against our will. When we were born to
our father Adam in this nature we had at our birth, we were
corrupt. If we understand even a part
of that, we'll know that our will wanted nothing to do with
Him. We were born in the tea against
God. Enemies with Him. At war with
Him. Every human is born that way. Every human born has no
wisdom of spiritual things. And every sinner born on earth
cannot and will not beg God for mercy. We have no interest in
it. Unless we are made to come to
that cross of Calvary. Made to come to Christ. Is it
unrighteous for the Lord of hosts to go to His children and draw
them to Himself, God forbid, and then to preserve
them so they persevere forever. Spiritually dead sinners, chosen
without merit, drawn to submit Him through His divine providence
to that preaching of the gospel and Him on the cross and crucified
for our sins. Taught by God, the Holy Spirit,
the sin that we are, and we're convinced of Christ's righteousness.
Not ourselves, His. Those sinners are given a new
heart, saved for eternity, conformed to Christ's image, to be like
Him, to be with Him forever. And makes them Persevere in and
through Christ, that victorious God-man for all eternity. Is
that unrighteous? Is it wrong for God to keep those
that He's made? Is it wrong for God to keep those
He's purchased, those He's cleansed in the blood of His darling Son?
God forbid. Look here in verse 14 again,
Romans 9, 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. 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's not of him that
willeth. It's not of man's thoughts, man's
decisions to bring mercy to themselves, nor of him that runneth. It's
not of our works or our doing that brings mercy to us. but
of God that showeth mercy. For the Scriptures say unto Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I may
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. How is it righteous that Pharaoh,
as a man just like me, just like you, that he'd be raised up to
power, he'd be put in that position of authority, known all about,
just to be destroyed. How could that be right? It's
righteous because the Lord's name would be exalted. It says in verse 18, Therefore
he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hardeneth. to punish the sin of Adam and
all of his seed. That is right. But there's no
joy in the Lord for him. He doesn't delight in that. He
told Ezekiel, he said, for I have no pleasure in the death of him
that dieth, saith the Lord God. It's just right. The judge down
at the courthouse has no joy whenever he sends somebody to
prison. That's what he's supposed to do. That's what the law says.
When we're guilty in this nation and we go to court, there are
only two outcomes. If we're guilty, we go before
judges, two outcomes that can happen. First, that judge issues
justice, and that crime's dealt with according to the law. Number two is there's mercy shown,
and that punishment that the law says has to happen for that
crime is not given for that crime committed. But in that, option
two, justice has been compromised. The law has been ignored. The
rules have been bent. And that brings discredit on
the whole system. We know that in this country.
It makes a joke of it, doesn't it? That doesn't happen in our
Lord's kingdom. He said there in Exodus 34, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin. Oh, that's mercy. And that will
by no means clear the guilty. That's justice. Well, hold on
now. We're at an impasse. He just says He has all this
love and mercy for thousands, for His people, but He will in
no wise dishonor His holy law. He will not clear the guilty.
The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. He's a God that cannot
lie. How then is it possible for God
to show mercy on those that are completely wicked in heart, in
birth, in nature? How can justice and mercy meet
in harmony? only in Christ our substitute. Here's the mystery of the gospel.
Everything I've told you up to now, that's true. You can take
it to the bank. That's absolute truth. Here's
the good news. Here's the surety in it. It's
what holds it together. Think of that Father's throne
of justice. Christ, God Almighty in human flesh, was perfect was
blameless, was holy, a spotless Lamb. And God looked on His perfection
through that lens of His holy law. He looked at His Son, how
perfect He was, upheld everything, and He slew Him. He turned His
presence from His Son, from Christ. God forsook His perfect, sinless,
holy Son. And you think of that throne
of judgment. He looks at me. He looks at you. At his elect
people, who by nature, every fiber in us, is just wicked and
vile. All of our works are filthy rags.
Dead in sin, dead in ability, dead in will, dead in spirit.
And the Father looked on those ones that's just in such a horrible
state. And he says, you're free. You're justified. Well done,
my good and faithful servant." Now, if that was it, if that's
all that had transpired, does that sound like justice to you?
To look at a completely perfect one, a holy one, and punish him
with the full wrath of judgment? and then to look at sinners like
you and me and declare we're justified. Does that sound right? Does that sound holy? It's absolutely
not. It wouldn't be. If the Lord had
punished the innocent and set the guilty free, that would be
unrighteous. That would be unholy. That would
be a truly corrupt government. But thanks be to God, that's
not what happened on the cross. How then can God be just and
justify sinners? How can the Lord remain holy
and still give mercy, still show mercy? We've read so many times
there in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him sin for
us. God the Father made Christ sin
for us, the noun, me. And him who knew no sin, He didn't
know sin. He was holy, perfect, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ came to
the Father's throne without spot and without blemish, holy, perfect,
and pure. We came totally sinful, totally
ruined, guilty, and as soon as we all arrived at that throne
of judgment, Christ traded places with us. He made Himself to be
His people. The problem people have with
the noun sin there is they don't think they're sin. If I know
what I am, a transaction had to be taking place as a substitute.
Christ traded places with us. He made Himself to be His people
and He made His people to be Himself. who came one with Him. He bore our sin. That doesn't
mean He committed our sin. That means He owned it. He carried
it. He bore it. The preacher explained
that. I came. What's impossible with
man is not impossible with the Lord. With Him, all things are
possible. I don't understand how a jet
engine works, but I go get on an airplane and I go where I
want to. I don't know how that works, but I'm thankful. But
I know we did not commit His righteousness, but we own it. It's ours. And the Holy God is
pleased with His children. Christ owning our sin, He stood
before God the Father in our place. And when the Holy God
saw that, He turned His back on Him. He forsook Him. He rejected
Him. And then the Lord looked on us,
now being robed in Christ's righteousness. He was well pleased. That is
what the Scriptures say when He blesses us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. That's where it started. Turn
over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter
2, look at verse 19. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience towards God endured grief, suffering wrongly. For what glory is it, if when
ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? If
we're being corrected, there's no glory in that. But if, when
ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is
acceptable with God. For even here unto where ye call,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,
that we should follow in his steps. Who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth. That's because his heart was
pure. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered,
he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. He committed himself to the Father.
who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, how could we be dead to our sins?
He bore it. He took it from us, paid for it. Should live unto
righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were
a sheep gone astray, but now return unto the shepherd and
bishop of your souls. In the Father's holiness, He
punished the guilty and He freed the innocent. That's a fact. Not as if. Not as though we looked
at the other night. That's what happened. That's
what we can rest in. That's what we can approach the
Lord with in our last day. Christ, our substitute, paid
it all. Judgment has been satisfied for
eternity. There's no condemnation in Him.
Christ entered that grave and when all sin was abolished, when
all the justice was satisfied, all that wrath was swallowed,
consumed, the Father brought Him from the grave. He rose and
He's seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high forever.
Why? Because that effectual payment
for sin was accomplished and justice demanded it. It's consumed. There's nothing there. Gone forever
as far as the East is from the West. And He's seated on the
right hand of God forever. Because of the love and sacrifice
Christ showed on that cross in the stead of His people, in my
place, in your place, He is glorified by the Father. And His sheep
will praise Him righteously forever for doing it. I want to ask you
that one more time there in Romans 9.14. Let's look at that one
more time. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? If the Lord gives you a heart
to hear that, to love that message, and know that He's your only
hope, you think that's unrighteous? Oh, God forbid. No, that's my
hope. It's the only hope I have. I
pray that today. I pray that this week, and I
pray that every day until the Lord comes or He takes us home,
and we're with our Master, that we can consider this question. Is there unrighteousness with
God? I hope I can think on that. When this creation, when this
body I have, the body of my brothers and sisters, starts breaking
down, sin takes its toll on this mortal body, is He righteous? Amen, He is. In Providence, when
He executes His sovereign will in Providence in a way that I
prefer or the way I don't prefer, Is He righteous? Is He right? When November comes, however
that falls, is He right? God's righteous. And we have
our sin revealed in our hearts. And that's on that first hour
and on the thousandth hour. I've been brought to pay attention
to my sin throughout the week. Oh, it gets me down. Is the Holy
God righteous? He is. And when we're told, when
His voice speaks to us, we read these Scriptures, and we hear,
Fear not, I am with thee. When He speaks to us after the
lowest spot we could ever be, and He says, There is therefore
now no condemnation. Is He righteous? Is it right? He's always righteous. What a
loving, kind, wise, and giving Savior we have. towards His people. I'll leave you with this. Holy
salvation is entirely of the Lord. A holy salvation, a true
salvation, a right salvation is entirely of the Lord. And
the salvation of the Lord is entirely holy. We didn't mark. It's His salvation. Amen. I hope
that was a blessing for you.