The Bible is with me to Romans
chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Now a couple of weeks ago, I started
on this chapter concerning the question, what about God's hatred? Strange subject in our day, isn't
it? They don't even want to think
about God's hatred. Or if they do, if they deal with
it, they want to tweak it to the point that it doesn't really
say what the scripture says it says. And it came from this point
of view here, verse 13, look at Romans 9. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Most preachers,
if they deal with that at all, they'll say something like, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I loved less. That's not what it says. I'll just say a few words in
just a moment about that. But verse 14 says, well what
shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. And what he's asking there is,
and of course Paul's anticipating an objection to the fact of God's
sovereign love and mercy towards his people, and the fact that
God in his sovereign providence and will and purpose passes by
others and lets them go the way they want to go. If that verse
said, Jacob have I loved Esau, have I loved Lest, the objections
that Paul anticipates here wouldn't even make sense. Wouldn't make
sense at all. But what he's asking is, is God
unjust then? Is God unfair? The title of this
message is, Is God Unfair? And you know when we look at
passages like Romans 9, you know a lot of people always sort of
hide from them or try to keep them hidden from other people
because they say it's hard to understand these things. And
in reality, in one sense, you know, we can talk about the majesty,
the glory, the vastness of God, His purpose, His ways are past
our understanding. But really what Paul is saying
here in Romans chapter 9 is not hard to understand at all. Now
it's hard, it's impossible for sinners to submit to Because
it really changes our natural view of who God is. And many
want God to be someone other than whom the Bible reveals Him
to be. They think, as I said last time,
they reason from the ground up. In other words, when I think
of God, I create Him or imagine Him in my own image. They think
God is like themselves. Psalm 50 and verse 21, the Lord
says, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such and one as Thyself. That's the way we think naturally.
But He says, but I will reprove thee. I'm going to correct that
mess. and set them in order before
thine eyes." And you think about this, you know, how people think
of God, how they want God to be. Not the God of the Bible
now. This is just man's natural reasoning. They want God to be an equal
opportunity Savior who loves everyone just the same and is
trying to save everybody. They want Him to be what they
consider fair. giving everyone an equal chance
to be saved. And they want that salvation,
at least in some small way, to be linked to something in them. Whether it's works, out and out
works, or whether it's what they call faith, but they won't call
it a work. Something in them that makes
the difference between saved and lost. And they think that salvation,
they want to think that God loves me because in spite of my faults,
I'm really a lovable person. Generally. Or the reason I'm
saved is because I chose God. That's what they want to think.
The decision was up to me, I made the wise choice, my salvation
is in part due to me. That's what people want to think.
But Romans 9, as well as other passages of scripture, this is
really not the only one, but this one is sort of infamous
in that way. Romans 9, here Paul shows that
God has not granted salvation equally to all people. Now you
may not like that, but that's what this says. And listen, I'll
tell you something. I learned that's what this says
before I liked it. And I finally came to a point
in my life where I just don't believe that part of the Bible.
I just don't believe what it says. But this book, this passage
states plainly that God has always made choices Not only between
nations, but also between individuals. You know, this passage here,
it says, look at it again, verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now some scholars will tell you,
now that's not talking about the individuals. Jacob and the
individual Esau, that's talking about the nation Israel and the
nation that sprung from Esau. My biggest problem with that
is that I know something. And here's what I know. Nations
are made up of people. Aren't they? I mean, what is
a nation? What is the United States of
America? It's a bunch of people. So either you're going to say
God hated Esau individually, or He hated a bunch of people.
A whole nation. Either way, it says what it says. So that doesn't lessen the blow
To me at all, nations are made up of people. But it simply says
God has not given everyone an equal chance to be saved. And
as Paul states that when God saves someone, it has absolutely
nothing to do with anything good in that person. Rather it depends
totally on God's purpose according to His choice. Look at it. Verse
14 again. Or verse 13 again. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? How are
we going to respond to that? How are we going to react to
that? Well, is there unrighteousness? Is God unfair? Is God unjust?
Now here's the answer. Understand that when Paul's sitting
down at a desk or whatever he was doing, or sometimes he had
a scribe that would, not like the scribes and the Pharisees,
but he had like a secretary who would write this down as he dictated
it. But understand that he was writing by total inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. So when you look at this, don't
look at it as what the scholars call, well this is Pauline theology. We believe Johannine theology. It's not the theology of John
and the theology of Paul even though they believe. It's God's
Word. And here's what the Holy Spirit inspired him to write.
Is there unfairness with God? Is there injustice with God?
Is God not do right? God forbid. Write that down,
Paul. God forbid. What does that mean? It means perish the thought.
Don't even think that there's injustice with God. Don't even
consider that there's unfairness with God. And here's the reason.
Now look at verse 15. Now the Holy Spirit says, Paul,
write this down next. Here it is. 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. God's will. God's saying that
there. This is what God says. I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Verse 16, now here's right next
Paul, here's what you write next. So then, it's not of him that
willeth. Now what does that mean? What's
he talking about there? It's not of him that willeth.
Well it's not of the will of man. That's what he's saying.
It's not the free will choice of man. That's not in the Bible. Man left to his own will will
do what? He will run from God. He will
attack God. He will not believe God. So it's not of him that willeth.
Alright? He goes on. Right this next he
says. Nor of him that runneth. Now
in the Bible, running or walking describes a way of life. How
you live. Alright? And this running here
is a way of describing man seeking to be saved by his works. So
it's not by the will of man, and it's not by the works of
man. That's what he's saying. But it's of God that showeth
mercy. This is all up to God. Somebody said, well, don't we
make choices? We make them every day. We make choices every day. We make choices about what we
do, how we feel, our attitudes, our thoughts, what we're going
to eat, what we're not going to eat. We make choices every
day. So then what's the problem? Well,
the problem is that by nature, man will not choose God. He will
not choose God's way. He wants it his own way. I want
my way. You want your way. Isn't that
right? It's going to be God's way whether
you want it or not. You believe that? It's going
to be God's way whether you want it or not. What are you commanded
to do? Well, here's the word. Hold on. Submit. You know what the opposite of
submission is? Rebellion. Rebellion. That's right. So here
it is, it's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. Now he talks about mercy there.
Now is God unfair to hate Esau and love Jacob? Remember I told
you about the sign I saw up there in Huntington on the church that
said, that God who hates, we don't worship him either. And
I thought, well, you're right, you don't worship the God of
this book. You're worshiping a God after your own imagination.
And then people look at that hatred. And what do they immediately
do? They immediately compare God's
hatred to their own. To their own hatred. And that's
wrong. God's hatred is not like our
hatred. Our hatred is fraught with evil, sin, selfishness,
vengeance, jealousy. That's what happens when we hate.
It's emotion. We're so ruled by emotions we
can't even see straight. That's the human problem, isn't
it? That's why we have to live by faith and not by sight. That's
why we live by what God says and not by how we feel. God's hatred is holy hatred. When you think about God's hatred,
it's holy hatred. It's not emotion. It's not just
simply wanting to get vengeance on something, but God, the Bible
says vengeance belongs to the Lord. Why does it belong to Him?
Because His vengeance is justice. Our vengeance is just getting
our way or getting back at somebody. But God's vengeance is justice.
God's hatred is justice against all sin. When you think of God's
hatred, don't think of your own. Think of justice. God acting
in justice. And when you think of God's love,
don't think of your own. We love those who love us. We
love those who bow to us. We love those who do what we
want, who act like us or extensions of us. That's natural. But God's
love is his purpose to redeem a people in Christ. That's what
God's love is. God's love provides for His people
in Christ what His justice demands. In Christ. God's hatred is that
He will not... I'll define God's hatred for
you right here. His hatred is that He will not accept or receive
sinners apart from Christ. That's God's hatred. He will
not accept me or receive me or bless me apart from Christ. That's God's hatred. God did
not accept, receive, or bless Esau eternally and spiritually. But he did Jacob. He did Jacob. Now why did he
love Jacob and hate Esau? Was it because Jacob was a better
person than Esau? Is that the reason? Is it because
Jacob accepted him as his personal savior and Esau wouldn't? Is
that the reason? Well, the Bible says no. For he will have mercy upon whom
he will have mercy, and he'll have compassion upon whom he
will have compassion. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that shall with mercy. The Apostle Paul goes out of
his way to make it clear that God chose Jacob and rejected
Esau apart from anything that they would do, and he says it
back up here, so that the purpose of God, verse 11, the purpose
of God according to election might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. What kind of calling is that?
That's the calling of the Spirit when he brings sinners unto Christ. You know, in Luke chapter 14,
you don't have to turn there. Christ told His disciples, He
said, those who hate, those who follow Me, who do not love Me,
and hate father and mother, He used the word hate, same word
hate here, Luke 14, 26. Now, do you suppose that He was
commanding His disciples to hate their mothers and fathers with
an evil hatred? Well, you know better than that.
What was he telling? We're commanded to love our fathers
and to honor them. To obey them in the Lord. What
does he mean hate father? You don't accept them. You don't
have fellowship with them. You reject them and their religion
if they're not looking to and resting in Christ. That's what
he's talking about. He's not talking about hating
them, wanting them to come to harm or do harm to them. You
recognize God's justice in rejecting them, not receiving them, and
not blessing them apart from Christ. You see, our whole salvation,
our whole life is wrapped up in, founded upon Christ. And without Christ, I'm telling
you, Without Christ, if you're here this morning and you're
not washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in the righteousness
of Christ, let me tell you something. You're not accepted of God. You're not accepted into this
fellowship of faith. That's the hatred that Christ
commands His disciples to display. I don't recognize you has been
one of his sheep, if you are not in Christ. Outside of Christ
there is nothing but hatred, wrath, justice against sin. That is what it means when it
says God hates all workers of a nation. It is not emotional,
it is not evil. Now when it comes to our own
personal issues, we have a problem, don't we? With our hatred. Did
you know the psalmist said, don't I hate those that hate you with
a perfect hatred? What he's talking about there
is not perfection in himself, but he's talking about recognizing
the justice of God against all sin and unrighteousness in those
who are not in Christ. John expressed it in 2 John 9.
He said, he that transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ, let me tell you about them, they have not God. And
don't you receive them into your fellowship? No religious fellowship. They're to be rejected. That's
what he's talking about. And all of this according to
God's purpose. But we don't like that by nature.
We just don't like that. We want things to be equal and
fair as we judge equalness, equality, and fairness. You see? We want
everyone to have an equal shot at salvation. And we want that
salvation to be linked in some small way to something we do.
We want to be able to say, I'm saved because I made a decision
of my own free will to believe in Jesus. And then I can take
some credit for my wise decision and my faith. We'll also note here that even
though Paul knew this would provoke objections, he doesn't soften
it in any way to avoid controversy. Instead, he asserts it even more
strongly. You know, some preachers, to
avoid controversy, will not teach the doctrine of election. They
won't say what the Bible says about it. They know that it upsets
people, so they soften it or they explain it in a way that
makes God seem completely fair to everybody. But Paul didn't
do that. He raises the objections that
he knows The natural man will have, and then rather than softening
his point, he even gets stronger. Look at verse 16 again. He says,
So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. He says, For the Scripture saith
unto Pharaoh. Now he goes back to Pharaoh. Moses and 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. And therefore hath he mercy on whom he will, have mercy
and whom he will, he hardeneth. I was listening to a message
by Brother Mahan studying another passage of scripture. And he
introduced it this way about those who preach. And he said those who preach
should have these four things in mind. Number one, the glory
of God. the glory of God. Now what is
the glory of God? Turn back to Exodus 33. I want you to see this. A person's glory involves their name, their good
name. You hear a name. If I say Adolf
Hitler, what kind of things do you think
of when you hear that name? See what I'm saying? But if I say somebody that you
admire, somebody that you think well of, if I say their name,
you see, that's what happens. Of course, we know people can
have the same name, so we have to be sure that we know who we're
talking about. I don't think there's anybody else in the world
named Adolf Hitler, I hope. I don't think anybody would name
their kid that. But God's glory is His name,
that which identifies and distinguishes Him and shows Him to be the God
of all power, universe, the God of salvation, the majesty. The glory of God. Well, here's
Moses, and he's being told to go down to Egypt and bring the
Hebrew children out of Egypt. And you remember earlier, he'd
ask God, well, who do I say has sent me? And He said, I am that
I am. The God of the past, present,
future. The ever-existent, infinite God. Well, here in Exodus chapter
33, Moses asked this question. He
says in verse 18, let's look at verse 17. Exodus 33 verse
17. He said, And the Lord said unto
Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken. And here
he is talking about his presence going with Moses. and the deliverance
of the Hebrew children. He says, for thou hast found
grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. In other words,
God is telling Moses there, you found grace in my sight, and
I know you by name. Now what do we know about grace?
Well, it's a free gift of God. It's not earned, it's not deserved.
If Moses was good enough to earn it or deserve it, he didn't need
it. I always understand that. mercy and grace. These are not
earned things. Alright. So Moses says in verse
18, he says, and he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Show
me your glory. Verse 19, and God said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord, that's Jehovah, the God of the covenant, the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. before thee, and I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy." Did you see that? Now that's what Paul is quoting
here, back here in Romans chapter 9. Talking about the glory of God.
And God says, well here it is. He says, it's in the fact that
I'm sovereign in this business. I'll show mercy upon whom I will
show mercy and I'll be gracious to whom I will. That's the glory
of God. You know what it is to glorify
God? It's to tell the truth on God. You know how I'm going to
tell the truth on God? Is to tell it from the Scripture.
If I get up here and I tell you, now this is what I think, this
is what I think would be fair, this is what I think would be
equal, this is what I think... I'm not telling you the truth
on God. The only way I can tell you the
truth on God is to tell it from the Scriptures. What does He
say? Somebody says, well I'm just not going to preach Romans
9. I'm going to leave that part of what God reveals of Himself
out. Because I know it will run you
off. Does that sound right to you?
Well, you know that doesn't. Those who preach should have
the glory of God in mind. And if they don't, they need
to get down and stop. Secondly, those who preach should
have the truth of the word of God. Again, not preaching the
scriptures. Listen, I don't have the authority
or the wisdom to say, now I'm going to go over here and I'm
going to preach John 3.16, but I'm sure they're going to leave
Romans 9. I have preachers tell me that. I'm going to leave Romans
9 alone. Are you? Well, whose word is
it? It's not what I think. It's not
what my generation believes. And let me tell you something,
it's not what will draw them in and keep them in. The moment
a preacher says, well, I'm only going to preach what will draw
people in and keep them in, he's lying from the pulpit. Preach the Word, Paul told Timothy. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and profitable for all things that the spiritual man,
the child of God needs. All of it is the counsel of God.
And then thirdly, those who preach ought to have sincerity of purpose
in mind. Now what is my purpose? Is my
purpose to impress you with my preaching? I hope it's not. That's
not what I'm trying to do. Is my purpose to gain a following? To keep a following? Or is my
purpose to point sinners to Christ? Is my purpose to glorify God?
To exalt Christ? to be an instrument in the salvation
of sinners, to edify the church, is my purpose. As John the Baptist
stated, I must decrease, he must increase. Scott Richards said,
preach Christ and get out of the way. And then, fourthly, we must understand
that we must preach the gospel, we must preach the word in simplicity. And that means the simplicity
of Christ, the singleness of Christ. That means just say what
it says and God will do the rest. Now, if what I'm preaching this
morning offends you and it causes you never to come back, then
I'm sorry for you. But I'm not sorry I preached
it. And I've had people, I've preached from Romans, and I've
had people say, you ought not be that hard. Wait a minute.
I ought not be that hard. I'm just reading you what God's
Word says. Why should we preach this? Well,
number one, the Holy Spirit inspired it, didn't He? As I said, it's
Scripture. It's the Word of God. And secondly, it's consistent
with the whole of Scripture. You know most of Romans 9, 10,
and 11 are quotations from the Old Testament. Most of it is. Let me give you these things.
Is God unfair in this matter? And the answer is God forbid.
No, He's not unfair. First of all, as the righteous
sovereign over all, that's who God is, isn't he? He's the righteous
sovereign over all. God is not unjust to grant mercy
to some and to harden others because all deserve judgment. Mark it down. As the righteous
sovereign over all, it's outrageous to think that God could treat
anyone unjustly. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unfair? God forbid. All of us deserve damnation. And if you don't know that, you
don't know the God of this book. If you don't know that, you don't
know Christ. Am I right? All deserve damnation. On the basis of justice, some,
like Esau and Pharaoh, received judgment. But on the basis of
mercy, others, like Jacob, undeserving, just as deserving of damnation,
but God, by His sovereign will, made them objects of love and
salvation." Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why?
Why did Noah find grace in the eyes of the Lord? Somebody explain
that one to me. Oh, well, you know Noah, he was
just a sincere, moral person amongst all that debauchery.
Is that what the book says? Read it. Read it. Do you ever see that? Go back there to Genesis 6. Just take a look at that now. Now, you know, you can surmise
and you can speculate and you can extrapolate and all that. But I can say for one, this fellow
up here doesn't want to hear you, if that's what you're doing.
I would rather turn to Genesis 6 and see what it says. And here's
what it says in verse five. Now listen to it. God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It
repented the Lord that he'd made man on the earth and it grieved
him in his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and
beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for
it repented me that I've made them. But Noah was a better man
than the rest. Is that what it says? But Noah,
here's the first thing you read about Noah. Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Was Noah looking for grace? Well,
the book here doesn't say that, but if you believe like I believe
that the whole of Scripture is inspired of God, and that it's
all consistent, then you'll have to take in mind Scriptures like
Romans 3, Verses 10-12 which speaks, there's none righteous,
no not one. There's none good, no not one.
There's none that seeketh after God, no not one. And then you'll
have to take in mind what the Scripture says about Saul of
Tarsus who found grace in the eyes of the Lord on the Damascus
road and he wasn't looking for it. So you'd have to say, well, God
made an exception in his case. You see how the reasoning of
man just flat messes it all up and gives man the glory and not
God? Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. But I'm going to tell you something.
Now listen to this. Go back to Romans 9. Whatever happens under
God's universe, under God's control, I'm going to tell you something.
No one gets in justice. Because all of us deserve judgment. And if we get mercy, and if we
have found grace in the eye of the Lord, I'm going to tell you
where it all started, continues, begins, ends, and ends up. And
it's all in Christ Jesus. By the grace of God. in Christ. If God were to save people on
the basis of something in them or something they do, their faith,
their good works, their will, do you know what? That would
really be injustice. Why? Because we're all sinners. And the wages of sin is death.
And God has stated in His Word, by deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in His sight. For by grace are you saved. Through
faith, that's not of yourself, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. If you believe that God saves
you based on anything you do or don't do, in any way, shape,
form or fashion, then I'm going to tell you something, there's
contradictions in the Bible. And if there's one contradiction,
you can throw it away. That's right. That's how strong
this thing is. God in saving us by His grace
does not pervert His justice because His justice fell on Christ
as our surety and our substitute. He was made sin. Christ was made
sin. What does that mean? That means
the debt, the guilt of the sins of God's people, like Jacob,
were laid upon Christ, charged to Christ. And He drank damnation
dry under the justice of His Father for His people, not for
Himself, but for His people. And He established a righteousness
that God gives charges unto them. And in time the Holy Spirit comes
and convicts them and they receive Christ by faith in Him. Also, to raise the question of
fairness presupposes that we have rights. Do you know that?
And we say, well, God's unfair. Well, you're talking like somebody
who has rights. Let me tell you something. When
we fell in Adam, we gave up all our rights. We don't have any
rights. We're like criminals. We've broken
the law, folks. What rights do we have under
the justice of God? We have no rights. We've sinned
against God. Secondly, as the righteous sovereign
over all, God is free to show mercy to whomever he pleases. Now, do you want to deny him
that right? Well, it really doesn't matter if you deny him that right.
That's kind of like a poster I saw when I was in college.
There's an eagle swooping down on a mouse. The mouse is on top of a mountain
looking up at that eagle shaking his fist. Now who is going to win that
battle? You see, God exactly saw in Exodus
33 what God told Moses. This is the essence of who God
is. This is my name, He said. My glory is displayed in my freedom
to show mercy and compassion to whomever I will. That is what
God says. I am not obligated to show mercy
to any. You see the religion of our day,
the mainstream religion of our day, It presents a God who is
obligated to us. And He is not obligated to us.
At all. Except under judgment. And because
all have sinned and justly deserve God's judgment, God says, I'm
free to show my glory both by giving mercy to some and by withholding
it from others. That's who God is. And then thirdly, as the righteous
sovereign over all, God is free to harden whom He desires to
display His glory. Look back here. He says in verse
17, 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. Listen on. He says in verse 18, Therefore
hath He mercy on whom He will. Have mercy. And whom he will,
he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then, here's the
next objection, Thou wilt say then unto him, Well, why doth
he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
If God's will is going to be done, how can he find fault with
me? Well, look at the answer now. Now, here's what the Holy
Spirit says to Paul. Paul, write this down. Verse
20, Nay, but, O man, who art thou to reply us? Look at your
concordance on that if you've got one. To answer again, that
means to talk back. How many of you all love it when
your children talk back to you? You love that? Well, they are
just exercising their free will. They are just exercising their
right. I tell you, when your children talk back to you, what
do you want to do? Slap their mouth off their face. Who are you to talk back to God?
He says, who are you to dispute with God? To argue with God?
To debate with God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hath thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay, the same lump, to make one vessel
an honor and another a dishonor? You see that? You see, it's not
that Pharaoh, he uses Pharaoh, it's not that Pharaoh started
out innocent or good and God turned him evil. No. It's not
that Pharaoh wanted to serve God, wanted to be saved, but
God wouldn't let him. The preacher asked me one time,
he says, I heard you on TV, he says, you believe God saves people
even if they don't want to be saved. I said, you didn't hear
the message. He said, God won't coerce anyone
to be saved. And I told him, I said, I'll
tell you what He does do, He convicts. He doesn't coerce,
He convicts. He convicts them of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment. He gives them a new heart, a
new mind, a new spirit, a new will that they don't have. That's
what He does. Paul is saying that God is not
unjust to raise up a proud sinner on the stage of world history
and use him for God's greater purpose in demonstrating His
power and causing His name to be widely proclaimed. Glorify
God. God did that by hardening Pharaoh's
heart and bringing the plagues of Egypt, culminating in the
destruction of Pharaoh and his army as they pursued Israel across
the Red Sea. And some try, when they read
it, they try to get God off the hook, humanly speaking, by arguing
that God only hardened Pharaoh's heart after Pharaoh hardened
his own heart. Well, you know God announced twice to Moses
in advance that he would harden Pharaoh's heart. And it's only after this that
the account says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Now you've
either got a crystal ball gazer there or you've got the sovereign
God of this universe who's working all things after the counsel
of his own will. God did not cause Pharaoh to
sin. He simply left Pharaoh to himself just like he did Esau.
That's why I pray all the time, God please don't leave me to
myself. Don't leave us to ourselves.
But I tell you, it's blasphemy to accuse God of being unloving
and unfair because He didn't save everybody. Everyone justly deserves God's
judgment because of sin. He's not unjust to grant mercy
to some and display the glory of His grace and to harden others
to display the glory of His righteous judgments against all sin. Now somebody says, you know the
arguments. Well, what are we to do? We are to do exactly what
the revealed will of God, the revealed commandments of God
commands us to do. Do you have any desire, let me
ask you, do you have any desire to glorify God? I mean really
to glorify God, is that your concern? Or do you want to placate
people around you? Do you have any desire as a sinner
seeking mercy to find that mercy? Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. And I want to tell you something.
God has never and will never turn away any sinner who comes
to Him seeking mercy in Christ. Never has, never will. What's
the problem then? Man by nature won't. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them, they are spiritually discerned. He don't want those
things that are freely given. He wants a way that exalts himself,
exalts his flesh, and gives him some glory. But God won't share
His glory now. Are you a sinner? Do you need
Christ? He's the only way. He's God's
way. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And there's
no other way for any sinner, Jacob or Esau. No other way but
Christ.