We're looking this morning at
the book of Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. While you're
turning, if you're turning, let me say this. I would venture
to say that most everyone I know who has heard and believed the
truth, the true gospel, the truth, the doctrine, As Paul wrote in
Titus, the doctrine of God our Savior, the gospel, the truth
of God's sovereign mercy and grace in Christ Jesus, the truth. Those who have heard and believe
that truth, first heard that truth, really heard it, who God
is, what man is, and who Christ is. salvation of the Lord. They first heard that truth from
either Romans chapter 9 or perhaps Ephesians 1 or 2. But here in
Romans chapter 9, I want to look at something this morning. The book of Romans is a book
of doctrine. Doctrine means teaching. It's
certainly more than that. It's a book of the gospel. But it is the doctrine of justification
by faith. It is a doctrine of man's depravity. It is a doctrine of God's sovereign
salvation or sovereign electing grace, predestinating grace. In chapters 1 through 3 of Romans,
it plainly declares, plainly teaches that man is a fallen,
depraved creature. He is unholy by nature. He is
unrighteous. He is ungodly. He is unable to
save himself. He is unable to even call on
God until God does something for him. And he is unwilling. He is not only unable, but he
is unwilling. He is a guilty helpless creature. And then the rest of Romans basically
tells us that the only hope for one of these guilty creatures
is that God Almighty chose to save them and sent the Lord Jesus
Christ to do that work of salvation in the Holy Spirit. Romans 9
is about God's sovereign election, sovereign mercy, sovereign grace,
a plain, clear declaration. of God's sovereign rights as
God. God's sovereign right to do as
He will, with whom He will, because He will. That's His right as
God. This is what makes God, God. In other words, this chapter
plainly tells us that God is God and we are not. Now, Romans chapter 9, the first
few verses begin this way. I say that Paul is writing, but
this is God's word through him. He says, I say the truth in Christ,
I lie not. My conscience also bear me witness
in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren. my kinsmen according
to the flesh. Paul has a real desire for the
salvation of his kinsmen, his national people, the Israelites. He calls them his brethren, that
is, his kinsmen according to the flesh. He has a real sorrow
over the state of their soul. In chapter 10 he says, My heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. He said, I bear them record they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. They are ignorant, he goes on
to say. And I can say the same thing about my kinsmen, according
to the flesh, Americans, Franklin Countians, neighbors, people
I know. that they may have a zeal of
God, they may be zealous or sincere about their God, about their
religion, but I believe, according to these passages, it is not
according to knowledge, and they are ignorant of the true God
and the true Christ and of true salvation. Well, Paul said in
verses 4 and 5, he says, these kinsmen of mine are Israelites.
Israelites. Paul was a Jew. He was an Orthodox
Jewish Parasite. He said in a previous chapter,
well over in Philippians 3, he said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
zealous of the law. But he said, I was ignorant.
I didn't know God. I didn't know the true God. I didn't know the
true Christ. I didn't know the truth. I thought I knew God,
but I didn't. I thought I knew what salvation
was, but I didn't. I thought I was saved, but I
wasn't. I thought I knew what it meant to be accepted by God,
but I didn't. Paul was a Jew. And, you know,
my family were raised Southern Baptists. My father was a Southern Baptist,
even a Southern Baptist preacher for a while. And many zealous
and sincere Southern Baptists, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian
and so forth. I fear, oh, how I fear that they
don't know the true and living God, the true Christ." He went
on to say that the Word of God hasn't taken, is not without
effect. Verse 6. God is not trying to
save anyone, people. Those of you who listen to this,
God is not trying to save anyone. God doesn't try to do anything.
He didn't try to make the world. when he made the universe, he
doesn't try to speak to people. You hear people all the time
say, God's trying to tell me something. God doesn't try to
tell something. The voice of the Lord, Scripture
says, is powerful. It makes the hinds to calve and
the earth to quake and so forth. God speaks to somebody, they'll
hear him. He says, it's not as though the
word of God had taken no effect, for verse 6, they are not all
Israel which are of Israel. And people, neither are all professing
believers, believers. Neither are all those who call
themselves Christian truly Christ's people. He goes on to say in
verse 7 and 8, neither because they are, are they the seed of
Abraham are they all children. Then Isaac shall the seed be
called, that is, They which are the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God." Did you hear that, folks? Those
of you who truly listen, I hope you're listening. Now, those
of you who truly claim to be seeking the Lord, seeking the
truth, reading God's Word, wanting to know the truth of who God
is, who Christ is, what salvation is, what God's Word says. In
Romans 9 verse 8, it clearly tells us the children of the
flesh are not the children of God." In other words, all human
beings are not God's children. Do you hear that? The Lord Jesus Christ said that
over in the Gospel of John. He said, "...he that is of God
heareth God's word." And He said to some Pharisees, some self-righteous
Pharisees, He said, "...you are of your father the devil." You are of your father the devil.
He said to them, he said, if God were your father, you would
believe me. God is not the father of all
mankind. All are not the children of God. Romans 9 plainly says that. Verse
8. Go on. He is going to narrow
this thing down as to who are God's people. Romans 9 verse
8. And all I'm trying to do this morning is give a clear declaration
of what God's Word says. He goes on to say that children
of the promise are counted for the seed. What promise? The promise
that God made. It begins with Abraham. God came to Abraham and told
him. God chose Abraham. Abraham didn't choose God. Abraham
was 75 years old and an idolater living in Ur of the Chaldees.
He was an idolater. He didn't know God, but God foreknew
him. God chose him. God called him,
which Romans 8 says, for whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate,
that is, predetermined to be his child, Ephesians 1 says. Whom he did foreknow, he predestinated.
Whom he predestinated, he called. Whom he called, He justified
by faith that is. Gave them faith. He called Abraham. What did he tell him? He told
him that he was going to have a child. A child of promise. A child of
God's sovereign grace. A child given to him. So it is
with all the children of God are born of God. They are children
according to His promise. Read on. And this is the word
of promise at that time. God said, I will come and Sarah
shall have a son. Sarah. Not Hagar. Not a son produced
by Abraham's works. Oh, no. Salvation is of the Lord.
The new birth is of the Lord. We are born of God. We don't
get born again. A preacher doesn't get us born.
We don't decide to be born. God gives birth. Just like this
miracle of birth of the promised seed. Verse 10. Isaac's wife, he said, not only
did God miraculously give Abraham a son through a barren woman,
but verse 10, when Isaac, his wife, Rebekah, conceived, she
had two children, verse 11. Children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil. That's Jacob and Esau,
who that was before they were born. that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that
calleth. It was said unto Rebekah by God,
The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now is God just speaking about
a national people? No sir. No ma'am. He's talking
about individuals. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. It doesn't mean love less either. That is an absolute perversion
of scripture. God can't love anybody less than
another. God's love is perfect. Hate means
hate. Over in Malachi 3 where he said
that, he said, I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage
waste for the dragons of the wilderness, but I loved Jacob.
Sovereign love. God set his love upon a depraved,
fallen man named Jacob. He set his love upon him. He
chose him. Now here is the problem people
have is they believe that God ought to have loved Esau as well
as Jacob. Well, here's the thing, folk.
Nobody deserves to be loved by God. God loves the unlovely.
God saves the unworthy. Here's the marvel and the miracle
of God's salvation, God's saving grace is that He loved Jacob.
It's a miracle, it's a wonder of God's mercy and love and grace
that He loved Jacob, or He loves anybody. Doesn't have to, shouldn't,
they're not worth loving. But God set His love upon Jacob,
and He said to the sons of Jacob, He said, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Whoever God
Almighty loves, He loves forever, and He saves them. Read on down,
He says, what shall we say then? What do you say to all this?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Is this unfair? God forbid,
Paul said. For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, not man's free will, it's God's will. Would you take an honest look
at God's Word, people? It's not of him that willeth
or of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
Salvation is but a sovereign mercy of God, a choice, the acts,
the will of God, not man. Sovereign mercy. See, mercy means
not getting what we deserve. Salvation is sovereign mercy,
God sparing the guilty, loving the unlovely, saving the helpless.
accepting the unacceptable, that's the salvation of God clearly
seen in Romans 9. May the Lord open your eyes and
ears to the truth. Amen.