review and continue in Romans
chapter 9. So it's going to be our hope
anyway. So let's pray and get started
if y'all are ready. Let's pray. Father, as we open
your word tonight, Lord, I pray that you would just teach us,
that you would solidify the gospel of free and sovereign grace.
Lord, that you would help us to better understand your mercy,
and the finished work of Jesus, so that we might rejoice in worship,
we might help each other, and we may evangelize your sheep
in the world. And we pray these things in Christ's
name, amen. All right, Romans chapter nine. I probably am going to finish
it next week and then we'll get into chapter 10. And let's see,
chapter 10 is a fairly quick study. By the way, we're doing
it. But I won't say that out loud
again, because you never know what that's going to look like.
Chapter 9, looking at verse 6, this denial that Paul
gives. He says, but it is not as though
the Word of God has failed. It is not as though the Word
of God has failed. And of course we know that in his questions
there, he says, You know, is God unjust? He goes
down in verse 14 and says, is God unjust? So let me read from
6 to 13 and talk about that and then we'll pick up in 14. But
it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all
who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. And not all
are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But,
quote, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means
that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children
of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise
said, about this time next year I will return and Sarah shall
have a son. And not only so, but also when
Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good
or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not
because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told,
the older shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved,
but Esau I hated. Now let's review that. Because
as we get into the remaining portion of this and we start
seeing Hosea and other allusions to Scripture, we need to keep
in mind that there is an improper hermeneutic. And what is a hermeneutic?
It's how we are to interpret the text. And we're supposed
to interpret the text of any text. We're supposed to interpret
that text from within. We are to take out the meaning
from the text that we're reading. That is called exegesis. And
we're not supposed to read it with a lens on. That would be
called eisegesis. That would mean that whatever
I'm thinking I want to see, I make it say that. Now some people
would say, well, people who believe in the sovereign grace of God,
they are reading eisegetically. They are reading into the text.
But how are we to know if we are or are not reading into the
text, but rather that the text is defining itself? That's called
context. And so we have the holistic context
of scripture, we have the context of each letter and individual
book of the Bible, and then we have the immediate context surrounding
the discussion and the topic which is being dealt with very
clearly. in the Scripture. So, for example,
the reason so many people are not able to even know what Romans
9 is about, but read eisegetically into the text, is because they've
not once in their entirety, and I say this with all sincerity,
not once in the entirety of their entire life, I know I'm being
redundant, have entirely read the entire letter to the Romans.
They've not read it. They have not read Romans. They
just read this passage and that passage and this verse and that
verse. And in my own experience, I remember sharing this years
and years ago, it came to my conclusion as a high school student
in my early college days, that the whole of my experience with
Scripture in a majority was I used the Bible like a vitamin box.
I had my little Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday vitamin box.
You know what I'm talking about, the little pills? And I used
scripture that way. I had this verse for this and
that verse for this, and I had many of them. My vitamin box
was large, but context was so far beyond. my apprehension. It was only when I began to read
the scripture in total did I realize what context would reveal to
me. And so contextually Romans chapter 9 is not talking about
a national salvation of an ethnic people. Egypt is not the purpose
of God raising up Pharaoh so that we can say, oh, he destroyed
Egypt. When the entire letter is written to individual Christians
in Rome, both Jew and Gentile, to answer the reality of who
they are in Christ and to expose and expound upon the sovereign
grace of God through whom and only by whom anyone who is to
be saved will be saved. We don't say individual salvation
here and individual salvation there and then individual instruction
to the church here. And then all of a sudden, lo
and behold, in the middle of everything, individually instructed by Paul,
he's going to give us some nationalistic instruction. It's an absurd thing
to do. Now people will argue that and
they will take their vitamin box and they'll wiggle on down
for last week's dose and they'll pop it open and say, see, look
at this verse, it proves my point. Or they'll go on into the future
and say, oh, next week we're going to take a little dose here.
They'll pop a little vitamin box open and they'll take that
passage of Scripture out and say, see, this proves my point.
But never can they ever prove their point with any reason and
any fifth grade logic or absolutely contextually show and prove that
they're right. When the scripture shows what
it shows and says what it says and the question on the table
is has God's Word failed? God's Word says that He would
save His people. Sure it has failed if Israel
is to be saved nationally. But it has not failed because
that's not the point. And that's where I'm going to
run in just a minute with this, but I want to get through this
again. When the Bible shows and teaches us here, alluding to
the Old Testament narrative and the promises and the prophecies.
When the Bible shows us that the reality of who Israel was
is that they were not a people. That's the whole point of where
Paul goes to Hosea. Matter of fact, if you look there
very quickly in verse 25, those who were not my people, I will
call my people. And her who was not my beloved,
I will call beloved. And in the very place where it
was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be
called sons of the living God. And so what election is, is God's
purposes in salvation. It is how and who and why and
all the ins and outs and the fronts in the matter and the
ends of the matter of salvation. People don't like that because
what the unregenerate man wants to do is deposit that man's freedom
is a divine gift and that free and libertarian free will in
spiritual things is the essence and the epitome of God's goodness.
When the Bible says that God's free and sovereign grace is the
epitome of His goodness toward His people in Christ Jesus. We
cannot have both. We can only have a sovereign
God who loves His elect, or we can have a sovereign creation
who God hopes comes along beside Him. This scripture, verses 6-13
that we've already dealt with, shows us very clearly that it
is not about the choices and the plans of man. It is not about
Hagar's daughter, though he, I mean, Hagar's daughter, who
was she? It's not about Hagar's son, even
though he was also Abraham's son, Even though he received
the temporal promises that Isaac would also receive, like having
the offspring as numerable as the sand on the seashore, he
was not a son of promise. Thus, it didn't matter that Abraham
was his father. Only through Isaac shall your
offspring be named. Only through my election shall
your offspring be named. Only those I choose for you,
Abraham, shall your offspring be named. It isn't your choice
to say who is your son, Abraham. It is my choice. And that's what
God says. If that's not a picture of sovereign
election, I don't know what is. And so we keep on and we see
Rebecca and we see those two children, the older being Esau,
the younger being Jacob. And the Bible shows, as we've
seen and looked at a couple of weeks ago, that God hated, loathed
Esau. He had no concern for him, had
no affection for him, had no view of him in any positive way. Thus, he did this to show his
sovereign election. And of course, the question then
comes, as we talked about also a few weeks ago. What shall we
say? Is there injustice on God's part? Is God wrong? Is God mean? Is God cruel? Is God maniacal? How dare He claim my guilt if
He doesn't give me the choice to overcome it? I mean, what
do you say to the murderer? Do you want to stay out of prison,
murderer? Yes. Okay. Then you'll stay out
of prison. Is that justice? Not at all.
That's an absurd violation of justice. That's a mockery of
justice. The same thing is said to the
guilty sinner. Do you want to stay the wrath
of God? Yes! Then it shall be done for
you. Whatever you want shall be done.
If you want to go to hell, you can go to hell. No one wants
to go to hell. No one wants to suffer the wrath
of God. That's a silly notion. Only people
who want to be in hell will be in hell. All those that God hates
shall be. And it is just on His part. For
he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I want to have
mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I have compassion. So it depends, verse 16, not
on human will, not on human exercise, not on human power, not on human
energy, not on human exertion, but it depends, what depends?
God's grace depends on God. and to the counsel of his will,
because only God is the one who has mercy. God doesn't have mercy
on the lowly who want mercy. All people want mercy, but only
those who are the elect will receive it. For the scriptures
say to Pharaoh, For this very purpose, God speaking, I have
raised you up, Pharaoh, that I may show my power in you and
that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. Was it not
just for God to destroy Pharaoh? It was just. Was it just for God to save Israel? Yes, it was just. Why? Because
God had promised to keep them for Himself as a picture of election,
as a picture of Christ in the church. We're not teaching replacement
theology. God didn't replace Israel with
anybody. Israel is Israel. And all who
are true Israel are those who are in Christ, those who are
elected before the foundations of the world, regardless of their bloodline. I've raised you up that my name
might be proclaimed in all the earth." And if we read the imprisonment,
if we read the enslavement of Israel into Egypt, God Himself
put them there. Yet never did Israel repent,
never did Israel worship, never did Israel obey, never did Israel
as a people ever really truly live spiritually. And when they
did, it was legalism at its best. But God, as He says in Ezekiel,
acted not for their sake, but for His own namesake. And He
called them out. It is a shadow, it is a picture.
The election of Israel is a picture of the sovereign grace of God
through Jesus Christ for all the elect. So, because of this,
He has mercy on whosoever he wills. And he has mercy by his
own will. And he hardens whosoever he wills. And I use that word on purpose.
And then Paul says in verse 19, this is where we'll pick up for
tonight. You will then say to me, why
does he still find fault? And I love Paul's answer. Paul
doesn't go into philosophy. Paul doesn't try to use a sound,
though he could, and his argument here is extremely sound and extremely
valid, but it cuts off what? It cuts off any accusation against
God, and it cuts off any response by the creature for God to give
a reason for the things that he does. God does not answer
to us. but we will always answer to
Him. That sign that I've mentioned many times in my ministry that
used to sit over the desk or in the office of my grandfather
that said, never offer excuses. Your friends do not need them
and your enemies will not believe them anyway. Well, God doesn't
have to offer excuses. As a matter of fact, the judgment
that God has over all the earth, He says earlier in chapters 4
and 5 of this very letter that all mouths will be shut. Who can resist His will if this
is what He chooses? Why does He say that I'm guilty?
Why does He say that He finds fault with me? And then verse
20, Paul answers, who are you? And I'm going to add some adjectives
here. Oh little man, to answer back to God. Who are you to ask
the potter why he made me this way? Has the potter no right
over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for
honorable use and another for a poo-poo pot? What if God, desiring
to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured
with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy,
which He has prepared beforehand for glory, even as whom He has
called, even us whom He has called, not only from the Jews, but also
from the Gentiles? Now you start seeing what Paul
is arguing. what Paul is teaching very clearly. Paul is saying
it's not about Jews. It's not about Abraham who was
a Chaldean. It's not about all these different
people who came from Abraham. It's not about those people that
God grafted into Israel throughout the Old Testament history. It's
not about the nationality. Because Abraham was a nothing-nobody
with no name, with no knowledge of God, and God called him out
and called him his own and called him the father of many nations. Because God is the potter and
Abraham is the clay. And this promise was given to
us in Genesis chapter 3. That if we were to look there
and we were to see that promise, this is the revelation See, God
doesn't come to conclusions. God reveals His eternal desires
and decrees. In verse 15 of Genesis 3, it
says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between
your offspring and her offspring, And then He, the seed of the
woman, shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. This promise here of redemption
is the promise of the giving of the incarnate Son of God,
who is eternal. This is the promise through which
Adam was saved. This is the promise through which
all the elect are saved. This is the promise of God from
which he created Israel to be a shadow. Just like the Holy
of Holies is not a place where God truly dwelt, but it was a
symbol. The Ark of the Covenant was not
the righteous mercy seat of God, but it was a picture. Jesus Christ
is the kingdom. Jesus Christ is the mercy seat.
Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. Jesus Christ is where
God dwells with the Father. He was with God from the beginning. And then he became flesh and
tabernacled with us. This love expression of God for
His elect is seen even in a clearer way if we start to look now over
in verse 26 or 25. We start to see that Paul begins
to illustrate election and its significance. And as indeed he
says in Hosea, those who were not my people. Now let's stop
there. How does someone become the people of God? By God's mercy. How does one move the mercy of
God? By the counsel of His own will. What causes God to do such
things? He does what He wishes. And He
never changes. This comparison between Rebecca's
children and Abraham's children. We could go back and we could
look Moses and Pharaoh. We could look and we've done
that through the seasons. or through the sermon series
here. But God says, they were not my
people and I now will call them my people. She who was not my
beloved, I will call beloved. But the question then is, how
can God call that which is not beloved, beloved? Because Jesus
Christ makes beloved that which is not beloved. Jesus Christ
in His righteousness, in His propitiation, He who justifies,
for it is God who justifies, therefore who can condemn, as
Paul has already asked in the end of chapter 8. Nothing can
separate us from the love of God except God. Therefore, nothing can put us
into the love of God except God. This is what election means. And friends, let me give you
a newsflash. Election, predestination, sovereign
grace is the one and only true gospel. Verse 26, he quotes then from
the prophet Hosea. And in that very place where
it was said to them, you are not my people, they will be called
sons of the living God. And he doesn't just stop there.
And we could go in many places in the Old Testament. It goes
from Hosea to Isaiah. Look at verse 27. Isaiah cries
out concerning Israel. Though the number of the sons
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will
be saved. So now all of a sudden we start
to see why people would ask the question. Why do they ask the
question, has the Word of God failed? That's why so many people
read into the Bible through what we know as a dispensational hermeneutic. That God must have had some plan
that He worked and He paused it, then He worked another plan
and He's going to pick up that plan and bring it over here.
That is not fickleness. Or that fickleness is not godly.
What God has done is shown that these temporary shadows and the
promises of people, just like we see in the New Testament,
where there will be what? Tears in the wheat. There will
be who? False teachers amongst the true
teachers. There will be false converts
amongst the elect. It will constantly be that way.
And in culture, God, in His will and in His sovereignty, as He
sees fit in His wisdom, He brings people out of these mixed places
and He brings them to begin to proclaim the gospel in a clearer
way. And then for certain seasons,
as he sees fit, he makes sure that his elect people are not
deceived. But God, on the other side of
that, is actively giving deception to those who are reprobate. Actively. Because he hates them. You know what's crazy about that?
An unconverted heart says, well, I hate God who hates me. You
speak the truth, Jesus would say. Paul says that love of the
world is enmity with God. Enmity is an enemy we are hateful
toward. The only way we ever love God
is because God loved us eternally and put Christ on the cross for
us and purpose to save us through his sovereign grace. It is by
grace you are saved, beloved. It is by the mercy of God you
have redemption. It is by the mercy of God alone
that you sit this day redeemed. And all glory and all honor and
all praise and all worship belongs to God who saves His own. Here in verse 27, This comparison, though, it's
not just all Jews. It's just all the elect. It's
just all those who are spiritual children of promise. Those, if
I were to speak for God, those whom I've called as I see fit
to call into my rest. Those that I've given to the
Son. those that I have propitiated for through the death of Jesus
Christ, that the blood of Christ has satisfied my justice for
them, and they are my righteousness. Only a remnant of the sons of
Israel will be saved. That's why none of the sons of
Ishmael were saved. Only the sons of Israel, a remnant.
Because it's not about the nation. It's about the elect who were
nobody. And then God called them somebody
who were fallen women. And then God called them a beloved. Who hated him and found their
own way to God like Cain. But God redeemed them through
his only son. The implication there of this
condition, though they may be large, is that only a small,
small number will actually be redeemed. For, look at this verse
28, for the Lord will carry out His sentence upon the earth fully
and without delay. Now what I'm going to do for
the rest of this is to go through the rest of all of these verses
and then next week come back in and pick out just a couple
of things that I think are necessary for us to see. The Lord will
carry out His sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.
God will do that which He is going to do. He is not hoping
for the salvation of His people. He has secured the salvation
of His people. He is not waiting to see if some
people on their own can escape His wrath. He is going to execute
His judgment fully toward all the reprobate. And in verse 29, we see how deep this goes. I've
already said it. What would you do if it were
not grace alone? Man has answered that question
in the affirmative with many plans and actions for as long
as I have been alive, as long as life has been. Even in the
garden, if it were not for the mercy of God in election, what
would we be? You hear people sort of passionately
say, Oh, it's all about grace, grace. It's all about God's marvelous,
wonderful grace, amazing grace, everlasting grace. Yes, yes,
yes. And they say it with zeal. But
when it comes down to the end of the day, they add to the grace
of God as if it were something to be picked up off the sidewalk
and put in one's pocket. And we need to see what verse
29 is telling us here. And as Isaiah predicted, if the
Lord of hosts had not left us offspring. You see the context
there? The offspring who are true sons
of the promise. If the Lord of hosts had not
left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like
Gomorrah. What does that mean? that we
would be no more and that we would be eternally damned. We'd be finished. The execution
of God's judgment, the fury of His wrath, the fullness without
delay of carrying out His sentence of justice would be upon all
of us. So then we go back to what Paul
said that we've heard already in our reading tonight. It does
not depend on the will of the exertion of man, but on He who
has mercy. Friends, the outcome of this
truth is that God alone is worthy to be praised. God alone is worthy
to be worshipped for His glorious grace. That's why Paul says that
phrase three times in the prologue of his letter to the Ephesians. to the praise of His glorious
grace. Because we have been elected, because we have been predestined,
because we have been loved eternally, because we have been forgiven
in Christ, because, because, because, because, to the praise
of His glorious grace. Then he asks another question,
verse 30. What shall we say then? Because notice the predominant
audience of this letter are Gentiles. What shall we say then? The answer
to that question is here. That Gentiles who did not pursue
righteousness have attained it. In what way? That is, a righteousness
that is by faith. See, somebody would stop there
and say, see, the Jews obtained righteousness by obedience and
the covenants and the temporality of God's promises and all of
the things that they did. The Gentiles are the ones who
get off the hook. Thank God he is sovereign in
the writing of his word, because in verse 31, he changes the topic. In verse 31, he changes the subject
from Gentiles who are righteous by faith, though they never pursued
righteousness by obedience. And he's repeated himself. He's
already said this in chapters 4 and 5. He's already showed
the outcome, the evolution of self-righteousness or what me
and a brother have sort of not coined, but started to utilize
a term since Sunday night, synergistic righteousness. People who think, well I just
gotta obey the Lord now that I'm born again and if I keep
obeying by the Lord's power, I'm gonna become more righteous.
Baloney. Baloney. What would Paul say
to that? Cut it all off, you're anathema. That's what he'd say. Galatians. He'd change the subject, but
that is real. who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness,
what happened? Did not succeed in reaching that
law. He did not succeed. They did
not succeed. And some people would say, well
see, we can, we can't obey. No, we can't. Chapter 2 has already
said all are guilty. Chapter 3 says none are righteous.
Chapter 9 says before the boys were born, before they'd done
good or bad, before they'd ever had an opportunity to obey or
disobey anything, in order that God's sovereign election toward
his people might be revealed and stand, period. God hated Esau. And God loved Jacob. In the same
way, if we sit this day redeemed by the blood of Christ, given
faith by the spirit of God being born again. It is because God has loved us and
not hated us. And God would be just in hating
us, except that before the foundation of the world He elected us. So
we cannot hate anyone that He has elected for whom Christ would
die, did die. Because God doesn't change. They did not succeed in reaching
that law because it was not possible. And in verse 32, it's a very
simple question. Why? Look at verse 32. Why? Why didn't they reach it? Because they did not pursue it
by faith. But they pursued it as if it
were based on works. They pursued it as if it were
based on works. They pursued it as if it were
based on their ability. They pursued it as if it were
based on their decisions. They pursued it as if it were
based on their minds. They pursued it as if it were
based on their bloodline. They pursued it as if it were
based on their synergistic righteousness. Not by faith. And as they're
working like fools, blindly, living in a moral way that Christ
would say, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees,
you're done for. And they're dancing their happy
little selves up to Mount Zion. They forgot to look at the road
signs and all they were doing was climbing Mount Sinai. They were just climbing Mount
Sinai. They were just climbing the law. They were just climbing
obedience. They were just climbing the tempest.
They were just climbing and climbing and climbing. And the whole time,
they're tripping over the rock of righteousness. Who, by the
way, is the stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I am
laying in Zion a stone of stumbling. Listen to this, church. A rock
of offense. And whoever believes in this
stone and rock will not be put to shame. Who put the rock there? God did. That rock is our salvation. Those who reject, I'm going to
be clear as I can, Those who reject that which God has revealed
concerning His Son, concerning His grace, concerning this gospel,
are utterly lost. No matter how good they are,
no matter how biblical they are, no matter how theological they
are, no matter how righteous they believe themselves to be,
God put the stone of stumbling before the reprobate. And all
that they can do is trip over it. They cannot embrace it because
they do not belong to Him. If we see what Paul then continues
to say, He says, My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is
that they may be saved. Is that our heart and prayer
for those who continue to reject the grace of God, who continue
to work as if it depended upon them, who continues to do everything
in their power to refute the sovereignty of God and salvation,
to ignore the teaching of election, Our hearts should be that they
may be saved. And if they are the elect of
God, they will be. Jesus will lose none for whom
He died. Jesus will lose none that the
Father give Him. But He will raise them up to
eternal life on the last day. And brothers and sisters, this
seems like for us, we just continue to beat the same drum. sing the
same song, say the same stuff, have the same speech, but is
it not the repetitive nature of the text that we're in? Is
it not the continual reality of the Bible that we read? Is
it not the grace of God that resounds continually about His
sovereign grace for His people whom He has called His own? And
there is no other place except in the sovereign election of
God that one can find peace. Because if we are not elected
by God, then we're going to be like Sodom and Gomorrah. And
there is no peace there. Let's pray. Lord, we love you because you
love us. We praise you. We worship you. We are thankful for your mercy.
I pray that those who would listen to this teaching, that those
of us who have been under this teaching for so many months,
Lord, that when we share this truth with others, when our families
and our neighbors and our friends read this, Father, we pray that
you would save them, that you would encourage us, that you
would give us rejoicing and worship because of your mercy.
That we would never ever look in the mirror and think at any
time that we did anything to affect our salvation whatsoever. And that when we do, You and
Your Word, and Your children who are with us, and Your Spirit
would rebuke us. And we would not doubt, but we
would stand. Stand on the rock of offense,
who is Jesus Christ the righteous, who satisfied Your wrath, and
gave us His perfection to our account. And it's in His name
we pray. Amen.