Thank you, Brandon. I'm going
to begin this evening in the book of Romans chapter number
nine, Romans chapter nine. Now, I have selected for my subject
tonight a question, and the question is this, why doesn't God destroy
this wicked Why doesn't God destroy this wicked world? That it is
wicked, there is no doubt. But here's the question. Why
doesn't He destroy it, like, immediately? Now, in the Scriptures,
we find there are only two kinds of people in this world, children
of God and children of the wicked one. sheep and goats, the righteous
and the wicked, those who are saved in Christ
Jesus and those who are going to be everlastingly condemned,
those whose sins were laid on the Savior and those who are
going to die with their sins fully upon themselves. Here in Romans 9, we find these
two classes of people set forth. The one who made the difference
between these two classes of people isn't the people themselves. But it's our God who's made the
difference. Look with me here in Romans chapter
nine, and I'm not going to take the time to read all of this
passage of scripture. But I want to begin in verse
21. Romans 9, 21. And here's a question asked by the Apostle
Paul He says, hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another vessel unto dishonor? There's the two groups
right there. There they are. Those who are
the vessels of honor and those who are the vessels of dishonor. The argument unfolds here by
the inspired pen of the apostle. He presents to us the fact that
we were as one great lump of clay, one potter. And out of that lump of useless,
active-less, dead clay, this great potter, that is the Lord
himself, he fashioned two kinds of vessels. One would be vessels of honor. And the word honor has the idea
of valuable and precious. So there's one group of people.
vessels of honor who are valuable to God, and these people are
very precious to God. And then there's another group
that he has also fashioned, and these are called vessels of dishonor. They're people of no esteem,
of no value. There's nothing to distinguish
them from anybody else. And these are vessels of dishonor. Now, look at the next verse,
22. Now he says, here's another question
he asks, and it's a lengthy question. He says, now, what if God, willing
to manifest or show his wrath, And to make his power known,
the power of his judgment, the power of his vengeance, he endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath. There they are again. First they
were called the vessel of honor. Now he calls them vessels of
wrath. And he says they're fitted to
destruction. They're made for destruction.
That's the meaning. They're made for destruction.
And then he says in the next verse, and that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy. So here's
that second group again. Here's the two groups. Vessels
of mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto glory. even us, even us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." Now, there's
no question about the fact that God's grace is distinguishing
grace. The religious world loves to
talk about grace. They use the word grace quite
a bit. And they don't have any difficulty
using the word of grace as long as it's according to their definition. But here's what the religious
world hates. Distinguishing grace. Specific
grace. Grace that's given just to one
group of people. Our Lord illustrated that in
Luke chapter 4. You need not turn there. He's
in Nazareth and he goes to a synagogue to preach. And he gives a couple
of illustrations of that which we know to be the sovereignty
of God in dispensing His grace and His mercy. He says, to these
Jews now. These are religious folks. He
says, in the days of Elijah, he was a prophet, were a lot
of widows in Israel and they were hungry. Husbands had died on the battlefield
defending the cause of Israel. Many widows And they didn't have
the means, many of them, to get food. And they were very hungry. They were very needy. Sad situation. But the Lord raised up one man. His name was Elijah. And He sent
that one man, Elijah, to a widow But she wasn't an Israelite widow. She's a Gentile widow. And he
made sure she had food enough to eat, and he took care of her
needs. And that really troubled those
Jewish people he's talking about, because they considered the Jews
big dogs anyway. And here he sets forth, he's
illustrating, you see, the grace of God that is distinguishing
grace. It is specific grace. It's not
grace in general. Well, here's grace. Take it if
you want it. If you don't want it, that's
okay. No. This is grace that is given. That is given. And then he says,
let me give you another story. In the days of Elisha, lots of lepers. That was a common
ailment in Israel and in other parts of the world too. He said
there were lots of lepers. But the Lord's servant Elisha,
he only healed One man, and he was a Gentile. His name was Naaman. And when
those Jews, those religious Jews, they all come to church, as it
were, come to the synagogue, as in church on Saturday, or
Sabbath. And here are all these fine,
upstanding, right-living, law-keeping decent, moral, what everybody
would call good people, holy people. They got so upset with
distinguishing grace that they wanted to kill the preacher. And the Lord Jesus was the preacher.
And He slipped right through their midst. You see, He didn't
preach grace in general. Specific grace. And here in Romans
chapter nine, God teaches us about specific grace and mercy. And he lays out before us two
groups of people. Vessels of honor. Vessels of honor, which are also
called vessels of wrath. And these were fitted for destruction. And then here's this other group,
and it's vessels of honor. Vessels of mercy. God made them
too. And these are the ones who would
be partakers of the life of Christ Jesus. The value of his bloody
death would be valuable to them. God would wash away their sins
through the bloody sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here
are the two groups of people. Now, you cannot find in the Bible
a third group. It's just two groups. And I'll
tell you this, and this ought to sober you up. This ought to
really make you serious. In the end, when time shall be
no more, I don't care who you are, don't care where you are,
if you're watching by way of the internet, wherever you may
be right now, this is so of all of us, both groups, and you'll
be in one or the other, both groups are gonna appear before
God at the final judgment. And I don't care who you are.
You're not gonna avoid that. Everybody's going to be there.
And you are, you will be numbered among the vessels of wrath and
dishonor, or you will be found to be in that day one of the
vessels of mercy, one of the vessels of honor.
And I would ask you, which group are you in now? Those only who look to Christ
Jesus for their all. By looking to the Savior, by
faith in the Son of God, you give evidence that you're one
of the vessels of honor. You're one of the vessels of
mercy. Now those who don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you
don't know which group you're in. and you won't know till you die,
unless God reveals the gospel of his grace to you. You see,
the only way we can know we're a vessel of honor, a vessel of
mercy, is we're brought to the end of ourselves, and we see
our sinfulness, our wickedness, our depravity, And we read and
we hear in the Word of God that there's salvation in a look to
the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only Son, the Son of God, the
Son of Man, who came to this world and suffered, bled, and
died to satisfy God's justice and put away the sins of all
of the vessels of mercy, the vessels of honor. And if you're
a believer in that first group, But when all is said and done,
we'll be found to be in one group or the other. And I know people argue over
this. I'm not a debater and I'm not
an arguer. Some people argue and debate
passages of scripture. Not me. My job's not to argue
with you. My job's not to debate with you. My job is just to tell you the
truth. And then we'll see what God does with the Word. See,
the Lord said, My Word will not return unto me void. Whatever
God's purpose is tonight in you hearing this message, hearing
the Word of God, whatever God's purpose is, it will be fulfilled
in each and every individual case. I was telling some of the brethren
about various people who noted to us, and Nancy was telling
me today, this was listed in Florida, and this was listed
in Africa, so forth and so on. Let me tell you something. You're responsible for what you
hear. And everybody's gonna stand before
God, either as a vessel of mercy, And the evidence of that, and
get this, now the evidence of being a vessel of honor. This
is not the reason you're a vessel of honor. This is not the reason
you're a vessel of mercy. This is the evidence. Christ is y'all. That's the only
evidence there is. It's not because you do good
things. That's not the evidence. Because
a lot of people do good things. It isn't because you come to
church. It isn't because you read the Bible. It isn't because
you pray. Those are all wonderful things,
but the one evidence of God's salvation to His elect is this. God's vessels of mercy and honor
have no other hope for salvation, for righteousness, for heaven. for redemption, for reconciliation,
no other hope save that one who came from glory and satisfied
justice, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our hope of glory. So there
are two kinds of people. And you know, it's obvious to
anybody who looks around, anybody who believes in decency, and
morality, it's obvious that in our day iniquity abounds. There's
no question about that. Wickedness flourishes. Certainly
there is a perversion that exists today that I would think would
rival Sodom and Gomorrah. And then there is the wickedness
that's in everybody. And that wickedness is rotten
as well, called self-righteousness. And that stinks to high heaven.
If you think you've ever said, done, or thought anything to
impress a holy God, that is stinking self-righteousness. You better be done with it. All men are guilty sinners, but
some are brought to faith in Christ. So there are two kinds
of people. Two kinds of people. The wicked
and the righteous. And among the wicked, the most
wicked of this world today. You say, what group's that? Religion. It's false religion. It's absolutely
deadly. And it doesn't stink to most
people. It seems wonderful to most people
because most people who get involved in it become moral and they lay
aside what they consider to be bad habits. Start living a pretty
good life? The most dangerous thing in this
world is not illicit drugs. It's not alcohol. It's not perversion. It's false religion. Because
unless God keeps you from it, it will get a hold of you and take you right on down to
hell. In the Bible, false religion
is called Babylon, the mother of harlots. It's the harlot church. It's a dangerous thing. You better
be careful who you listen to when it comes to religious things.
Be careful what television program you watch. Be careful what radio
program you listen to. Just because a man carries a
Bible and says, I'm a preacher of the Word of God, that don't
necessarily mean that he is. Many a false prophet has gone
out. John says that in 1 John. I tell you, in our day, false
religion has really ramped up its efforts. And Satan has his preachers. has His missionaries, has His
evangelists, has His churches. Thank God, the Lord does too. He has His people, He has His
preachers, and He has His churches. So the world is full of wickedness.
Okay. So that raises my question tonight
in this message. Why doesn't God destroy the wicked? This wicked world, why didn't
it destroy the wicked world? Well, I give you three passages
of Scripture to show you why it doesn't destroy it. Say, I
don't know why God doesn't burn this whole place down. He will. It's called renovation. He's
going to renovate the whole, the heavens and the earth are
going to be destroyed by fire, made anew. I'll tell you why
judgment hasn't come yet. It will. I'll tell you why it
hadn't come yet. Number one, go back to that passage
that Brandon read to us in 2 Peter 3. And here's the first reason. Because God is long-suffering
to His people. That's why judgment hadn't fallen
upon this world. 2 Peter 3. Preachers of the Gospel. We've always warned of coming
judgment. David said in Psalm 9 and verse
8, and he shall judge the world in righteousness. He shall minister
judgment to the people in uprightness. The Apostle Paul, preaching on
Mars Hill, elaborated upon those words of David and said about
this coming judgment, God has appointed a day. A day in the which he will judge
the world. He will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained. That is the man Christ Jesus. whereof He's given assurance
of this judgment by this one man in that He raised Him from
the dead. How do I know Jesus Christ, the
Lord of glory, is going to be the judge in that day? God raised
Him from the dead. God exalted him. He did the work
God sent him to do and God exalted him to the highest heaven and
said, take your seat here until I make you enemies of your footstool
and he will sit in as judge of all men. John chapter 5. It says that the fathers committed
all judgment to the son. Judgment has been threatened
for years and years and years and years. And as our brother
read this passage of scripture, a lot of people draw this conclusion. Well, it hadn't happened yet. I just don't believe it's going
to happen. Well, just because it hasn't
happened yet doesn't mean it won't happen. Look at verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward. Now, if you want to know why
judgment, universal judgment hasn't fallen upon this world,
it's because He's longsuffering to the usward. Who are the usward? His people. If you go back to
2 Peter chapter 1, look at 2 Peter chapter 1. Let's find out who
the usward are. Simon Peter, verse 1, chapter
1, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them who have
obtained like precious faith. These people who believe Him.
They have obtained by the grace of God, like precious faith,
through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. These are people who have obtained
grace. Notice in chapter 3 and verse
1. This epistle, Beloved, is to
the Beloved of the Lord. When it says here, the Lord is
longsuffering to usward, The word usward doesn't mean everybody
in the whole world. It's the specific people. Us. He's longsuffering to us. And
I'll tell you what this longsuffering is. Look down in verse 15. The
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Well, is everybody
saved? No. Is everybody a partaker of
salvation? No. Well then, what he's talking
about here in verse 9 is not a universal long-suffering to
everybody, but to the usward. Who are the usward? The vessels
of honor. The vessels of mercy. Watch it. Not willing that any should perish. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. And that expression, not willing, it means God has this determination. You know, when you're determined
to do something, you're just, well, you're going to do it.
You plan on doing something tomorrow, you say, I'm determined tomorrow
I'm going to start a diet. Or I'm determined tomorrow I'm
going to walk. Or I'm determined tomorrow I'm
going to run. Whatever. When God says he's determined
to do something, it's as good as done. And when you read here that God
is not willing, it means the Lord, to make a positive out
of that, He is absolutely determined, He's fixed on this. That none of the usward are gonna
perish, but all should come to repentance. And when they do,
when all of them come to repentance, And repentance is spoken of in
the Bible this way, a turning from dead works and a turning
from idolatry. You see, repentance and faith
go together because you turn from worshiping the wrong God,
an idol, to worshiping the true God through Jesus Christ the
Lord. And God's determined that this
is going to come to pass. What we determine to do, it may
or may not come to pass. Maybe you made a New Year's resolution. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do that. And you were very determined and serious in making
that New Year's resolution. But our resolutions don't always
come to pass because there are a lot of things involved. But there are no obstacles with
God. And when he's determined to do
something, he'll do it. And when he's determined not
to do something, nobody can force him. Why does the world still
stand? Because all of the usward have
not yet come to repentance. In fact, it could very well be
many of them hadn't even been born yet. These are people who were chosen
in that great election before the foundation of the world,
chosen in Christ unto salvation. Well, if they hadn't even been
born yet, well, I guarantee you, judgment's not going to happen.
They've got to be born. Christ has died for them. He's already purchased them.
They're His people. They're blood-bought people.
Justice has been satisfied for them. Their sins have been put
away. Maybe they're not even born yet.
They have no idea. They have no cognizance. They have no awareness of anything.
They don't even exist except in the mind and purpose of God.
But one of these days they will be born, and they will grow up,
and God will see to it that He crosses their path with the Gospel
of Christ. And the Spirit of God will work
in their hearts and bring them to repentance toward God in faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the very last one of
those vessels of honor, those vessels of mercy, when the very
last one has been called by sovereign effectual grace to Christ Jesus
in faith, that's when the end's going to come. I'll give you a second passage
of Scripture. Look at Revelation chapter 7. I've got to go quick
here. Revelation chapter 7. Why doesn't judgment come upon
this ungodly world? Well, because the usward have
got to be brought to repentance. All of God's people have to be
brought to repentance. And because the people of God,
here we go, the second thing, they must be sealed. They must
be sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Look at Revelation
chapter 7 and verse 1. After these things, John said,
and I'll tell you what he's seen in chapter 6. He's seen the judgment
of God. He's seen the end. It's like
the Lord pulls back the curtain and John is enabled to see. He's
on the Isle of Patmos, and he sees in this vision that final
judgment. And he sees the wicked calling
on the rocks and the mountains to hide them from the wrath of
the Lamb of God. And that's the ones who are vessels
of dishonor. Those are the ones who are the
vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. He sees that which they were
fitted for coming to pass. That's what he sees in the end
of chapter 6. But in chapter 7 he says, now after these things
he sees another vision. He says, I saw four angels standing
on the four corners of the earth, north, south, east and west.
holding the four winds of the earth, the wind being judgment. Holding the four winds of the
earth that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the
sea, nor on any tree. Holding back the winds of judgment. Oh, let me tell you something.
There is a whirlwind coming upon this world. Men have no idea
of the wrath of God that's going to come. Judgment's coming! But here the picture is of the
angels of God, according to God's decree, holding it back. Look at verse 2 now. And I saw
another angel descending from the east. That's Christ. descending
from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried
with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given
to hurt the earth and the sea. He cries to them and he says,
and I'll paraphrase it and then I'll read it. No judgment yet. That's what he cries. Now read
it, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees,
till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. They've got to be sealed. Now
this sealing, I believe, is threefold. First of all, the sealing of
the purpose of God. chosen in election, whoever God
chose to be vessels of honor and vessels of mercy before the
world was ever created, that purpose of God is sealed. Nobody can change that. You may
say, I don't like that. I don't think it's fair. Say
whatever you want to. It doesn't change it. It's sealed. Nobody's going to fiddle with
or change or alter the eternal purpose of God. Who do men and
women think they are that they can frustrate God's purpose?
God said, I have purpose. Who shall disannul it? Who's
going to frustrate what I set out to do? Here's our Lord. He issues this
decree. Don't hurt the earth. No judgment
yet. These sealed ones were sealed
by the Father in the eternal election. Second, these sealed
ones were sealed with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That might in Egypt, when God said, I'm coming through, And whosoever door I see the
blood marks on, on the outside, on the side posts and over the
top, God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. God's
Lamb, Christ Jesus, came and died. He sealed our redemption
with His blood. You think anybody can do a thing
about that blood redemption? Can anybody alter that? Can anybody
change that? Can anybody frustrate that? Those
whose price of redemption has already been paid, they must
inherit the Kingdom of God. Their sins have already been
dealt with. The old top lady said twice payment
God will not demand. First at my bleeding shirtless
hand and then again at mine. He don't demand twice payment.
Our sins have been paid for. We're sealed by the purpose of
God and sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Now, hang with
me. We've also got to be sealed by
the Spirit. See, the purpose of God, the
sealing by the purpose of God, that took place before the world
began. And the sealing by the blood
of the Lord Jesus, that took place also outside of us. It took place at Calvary. But
there's another seal that's necessary. And you can read in Ephesians
chapter one, we're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Something's gotta happen in here. Redemption don't happen in here.
Reconciliation, those things have already been taken care
of by our Savior. But the Spirit of God's gonna
seal the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to our heart in regenerating
grace. You see, it's like that Abrahamic
covenant. What was the seal of the Abrahamic
covenant? Circumcision, a cutting of the
flesh. Well, the seal of the new covenant
which we experience is not the cutting of the flesh, but the
cutting of the heart, the cutting of the spirit, regeneration. We're born again by the Spirit
of God and brought to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I'll tell you, the earth's not going to be hurt, not by universal
judgment, until all of those who were sealed by God's purpose
and sealed by the blood of Christ Jesus had been sealed by the
Holy Spirit in regeneration and gifted therefore with faith and
repentance. And real quick, one more. And
I want you to go to the Old Testament with me. Go to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 65. Bear with
me a little bit longer. Isaiah chapter 65. Why doesn't the Lord pour out
judgment upon this world? Well, because all of His people
haven't been brought to repentance. They will be, but all of them
haven't been brought to repentance. All of them haven't been sealed
by the Holy Spirit, been sealed by the Father's purpose and sealed
by the Son's bloody sacrifice, but they've got to be sealed
by the Spirit of promise. Something's got to happen in
the heart. which is an evidence of God's
eternal purpose and the work of Jesus Christ on the cross
of Calvary as our substitute. But here's the third thing. Why
hasn't judgment come upon this world? Because a blessing remains
in this world. Now look here with me, Isaiah
chapter 65, verse eight. Thus saith the Lord. Isaiah 65a,
thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one says, don't destroy it, destroy it not, for a blessing
is in it, so will I do for my servant's sake, that I may not
destroy them all. Here's the picture. He gives
us an illustration. Here's a vineyard, okay? Man's
got his big vineyard. And everywhere the caretaker
looks, he just sees dead, dried up vines. That's all he sees. So he tells the other workers,
we're just going to burn this whole thing up. And the owner
walks by and said, not so fast. Because I've walked through,
and I know almost all of it looks horrible. It's ugly. It's dried
up, ready to burn up. But I saw some green springs,
some green shoots, and they're going to bring forth some grapes.
They'll just leave it all. What's that a picture of? See, this whole wide world is
like a dried up vineyard. Everywhere you look. Lifeless. I mean spiritually lifeless.
Useless. Ugly. Wouldn't you say that's
a good way to speak of this world? It's ugly. And we say, Lord, how come you
hadn't destroyed it? Because there's some of my people
there. Let me tell you something. We're the blessing. You see what
it says here? Destroy it not. There's a blessing
in it. You know what the church of our
Lord Jesus Christ is in this world? We're a blessing to the
world and they don't even know it. Because if it wasn't for
us being here, this whole shooting match would be set afire by God. He'd just destroy it all. We're
the blessing. And he says, so will I do for
my servants' sake that I may not destroy them all. You say,
what does it mean, may not destroy them all? Let me tell you something.
Every person who's ever born is a servant of God. Willingly or unwillingly. But God says, I'm not going to
destroy the whole vineyard. Not yet. as long as there's some life
in the vineyard. And we're the blessing in the
world. Remember when our Lord put it
this way to his people, you're the salt of the earth. What does
salt do? Preserves. The reason why this world hadn't
been destroyed is because the church is here. I don't mean
all religions, but I'm talking about the church of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Chosen, redeemed, called by the
Spirit. We're here. And I'll give you
another illustration real quick. When Israel is going to the land
of promise, Most of them died in the wilderness in unmarked
graves and they couldn't enter in because Hebrews chapter four
says, at the end of chapter three and first part of chapter four,
because of unbelief. Well, why didn't God just kill
a whole bunch? Why didn't he just wipe out Israel? There was a blessing in there.
Here and there, Aaron, or a Moses, or a Miriam, or a Joshua, or
a Caleb. So God didn't destroy the whole
bunch. And Joshua and Caleb, they go
on into the land of promise. This is why God doesn't destroy
the world in judgment now. Because He's got a people. They've got to hear the Gospel.
Got to be brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, because
He's not willing that any of them should perish. God has determined,
determined they're going to be brought to faith in Christ. And
they're going to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. What
is it the Spirit uses? The Gospel of grace. He's not going to destroy as
long as there's a blessing in this world. But I tell you something,
when the blessing is taken out of the world, watch out. It's going to be bad news. But it's not going to be bad
news for me. Because I'm an object of grace. I've been brought to
faith in Christ. What about you? Well, let's sing
a closing song. Get your black folders again.
Page 19, Though Troubles Assail Us.