All right, the Apostle Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit here, had set forth the glorious
grand truth that God is absolutely sovereign in all of his dealings
with creation. in all of his dealings in Providence,
in all of his dealings in the salvation of his people, and
in all of his dealings with the damnation of sinners. God is sovereign. And he's spoken
of this in terms of dealing with questions about the unbelieving
Jews. God, who promised to save all
Israel, And what he told them is that God is going to save
all Israel, but all Israel is not just the national physical
nation, the physical descendants of Abraham, but that is God's
elect chosen out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation all
over this world, Jew and Gentile. And essentially what it is, the
nation Israel, Israel meaning those who have prevailed with
God. And how do we prevail with God? By pleading the merits of
Christ. By pleading what he accomplished
in his blood, his righteousness. And so Jacob, Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob are all examples of how God justifies the ungodly,
not by their works, When God found Abraham, he found him in
idolatry in Ur of the Chaldees. Isaac was a sinner saved by grace
through whom God brought the promised Messiah in his line
and confirmed that promise. And then Jacob, again, a sinner
saved by grace. And he said, Jacob have I loved,
Jacob's twin brother Esau have I hated. I mentioned last week
that a lot of people try to get by that issue, and this is man's
sinful desire to assert himself against the sovereignty of God.
And people say, well, now he's not talking about individuals
there, he's talking about nations. Well, that's a silly argument.
It's silly because, first of all, the context will not bear
that out, especially if you go on through Romans 9, 10, and
11. What he's talking about here is the salvation of sinners.
And God is sovereign in that salvation. And then secondly,
when you say, you know, they say, well, it's not right for
God to hate Esau, but it would be right for God to hate the
Edomite nation? That's more than one, isn't it?
So in other words, it's okay if God hates a whole nation of
people. But not just, you see, their
arguments are silly. They have nothing to do with
what the scripture's teaching here. So the objection comes,
all right? God sovereignly chose to save Jacob. And he sovereignly
chose to leave Esau to himself. Leave him behind. Now, look at
verse 14. What shall we say then? There's
the question. How are we to react to this?
That's what he's saying. What are we gonna say? And he's
going to give a more detailed answer later on, like in verse
30 when he says, what shall we say then? But here he starts
with this. He says, here's the question,
here's the objection that people raise. Is there unrighteousness
with God? Is God unjust to act in that
way towards Jacob and Esau? Is God unfair? Is God doing wrong? And the answer is God forbid. Now I don't care how you can
tweak this in your mind, those two words settle the issue. God
forbid, may it never be so. That's strong language that the
Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write. And so he goes on to explain
this, he says in verse 15, for he saith to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shall with mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
what he's saying. Now, the gospel, the word gospel,
as you know, means good news. But who is it good, to whom is
it good news? You think about this now. For
example, we were talking, Robert was showing me a picture of an
old friend of his who's dying of cancer. And we've all, Experienced
that in our families may be in ourselves in one way or another
people who get cancer and you know I've experienced that too
and I'll tell you the best news that I could that my wife and
I could have heard and my daughter-in-law could have heard Was that his
cancer is cured had been good news but now if you don't have
cancer That news is not as good to you, because you don't need
it. And so when we talk about the
gospel being good news, to whom is it good news? Well, it's easy
for us to say this, but it's true. It's good news to sinners. Now, what is a sinner? Now, Paul
had made clear the issue of sin. We talk about the doctrine of
total depravity. And we believe that because it's
biblical. What is the doctrine of total depravity? My friend,
it's not just Calvinism. Because that doctrine, that truth
is much, much older than Calvin. It's simply what does the Bible
teach me about myself? Who I am, what I'm capable of,
what I would do. It's the doctrine of sin, and
Paul had dealt with that. He'd shown that man, by nature,
as we are naturally born into this world, fallen, we're born
fallen, fallen in Adam, and that we're spiritually dead. Now,
the reason that people have so much of a hard time with that
is we, by nature, think too highly of ourselves. I've been there,
you have too. I'm a sinner, you know, just like a fella told
a preacher one time, he said, well, I know I'm not perfect,
but I've not done anything to deserve hell. That's what he
said. Well, yes, you have. The Bible
says we all deserve hell, doesn't it? That's why we don't want
what we deserve. We want mercy. God said, I'll
have mercy. Now, he said, I'm not gonna have
it on Esau, but I'm gonna have it on Jacob. Well I know this,
that if God gives me what I deserve, I'll be like Esau. If God saves
me by his mercy, it'll be like Jacob. Jacob had nothing to recommend
himself to God. I didn't either, still don't.
It's all grace, it's all mercy, it's all Christ. Isn't that right? Now why is it that way? Well,
it's this way because this is the only way that glorifies God
and leaves me with no room to boast. And that's what he's saying
here. Do you know here, look at verse
15 again. He says, for he saith to who?
To Moses. Now this, what he's doing, he's
quoting from the Old Testament, Exodus 33 and verse 19. If you
go back and read that whole chapter in Exodus 33, Moses, Ask the Lord a question. And
in verse 18 of Exodus 33, what was the question? Lord, show
me thy glory. That's something there. Show
me your glory. What is God's glory? God's glory,
we could put it in different ways, but God's glory is that
which belongs only to God. Doesn't belong to you, doesn't
belong to me. Didn't he say he will not share his glory? You see the glory of the sun
on a beautiful day, a blue sky and the clouds. We see the glory
of creation in that way. There's nothing to compare with
the glory of God. He created all that. And what
should that do? That should cause us to seek
after him and his glory, but by nature, what do we do? We
hold the truth in unrighteousness, Paul wrote in Romans 118. If
left to ourselves, just like Esau. The glory of God is that
which belongs to God alone. That which is unique to God that
cannot be given to another person. A human being, a mere creature.
And here is how God answers him. And people ask to say, well,
okay, all right, God's sovereign, God chose the people, he's passed
by others. Why even deal with that? I'll
tell you why to deal with it, because it's his glory. And what
were we put on earth to do originally? To glorify God. And here's what
he says in verse 15. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. It's my choice, God says. It's
my prerogative. It's my right, not yours. Now
there's two things here. What we see is God's sovereignty,
and then we see God's salvation, the salvation that he provides.
His salvation is in Christ. who is sometimes referred to
as the mercy seat. I will have mercy. I will have
compassion. I think if you go back to Exodus 33 and verse 19, I've
got it quoted here in your lesson. Here's how it's put back there.
God said to Moses, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. That's what identifies and distinguishes
God and sets him apart from anything else, anyone else. There's no
God like our God. There's none other God. That's why we're not to worship
anything or anyone but the true and living God as he reveals
himself in his word. And he said, I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. His name is, again, what identifies
and distinguishes him. He's the only one who has this
name. I think about this, the name
Jesus. And what it means, it means he
shall save his people from their sins. But you know, there's others
named Jesus. And to me, that's a travesty.
But you say, well, what about in the Old Testament, Joshua?
Well, he was a type of Christ. Joshua was. But the thing about
it is, there's only one Jesus, true Jesus. There's only one
savior of sinners. He's unique. And there's none
other name, Peter said, given among men whereby we must be
saved. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, that which
identifies and distinguishes him, separates him from us, separates
him from all idols. But here's what he said back
in verse 19 of Exodus 33, I will make all my goodness pass before
thee, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy. So God's glory is the fact that
he has mercy, shows mercy and grace upon sinners through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in fact, Christ himself in
the glory of his person is called the effulgence of God's glory
in Hebrews 1. The Bible says that in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit in the person of Christ and in the work that he
accomplished on Calvary to bring forth everlasting righteousness
whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly. I've often
said the main issue in salvation is the glory of God and the main
issue in the glory of God is the person and work of Christ.
So his mercy, how does God show mercy to sinners like us and
still retain his glory? How does God show grace to sinners
like us and still retain his glory? It's only based upon the
glorious person and the finished work of Christ on Calvary. It's
based upon the blood of Christ, it's based upon his righteousness
which God imputes to us. That's the glory of God. And
to deny that, diminish it, or confuse it is to deny, diminish,
and confuse the glory of God. But it's not simply that. It's
also in the fact that God's mercy and God's compassion or God's
grace is sovereign. You say, how do you know that?
That's what he says. He says in verse 15, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. And somebody says, well, I don't
like that. I don't think that's right. That's not fair. That's not unjust. And here's
what the Holy Spirit tells us. God forbid that we should say
things like that. Whatever God does is right. However
God does it is right. It's just. And so here's the
bottom line then. So what do we take away from
this? We'll look at verse 16. So then, here's what we're to
take away from. It's not of him that willeth.
Salvation is not based upon my will. Preachers tell us today that
we have a spark of goodness and that we can exercise our free
will choice either to reject Christ or to come to him. If
left to ourself, that's not true. If left to ourself, none of us
will seek him. That's what Paul had said, there's
none that seek after God. No, not one, there's none that
doeth good. Over in John, I mentioned last
week, people talk about Johannine theology and Pauline, as if they
were, well here's what John said, he said, as many as received
him, to them gave he the power, meaning the right, to be the
sons of God, And what did he say in John chapter one there?
He said, it's not of blood. In other words, it's not of physical
lineage. And it's not nor of the will
of man, which I believe he's talking about the works of man.
Let me quote it right. It's John chapter one, verse
11. He says, which were born not of blood, nor the will of
the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And here's the point. If you're willing, if I'm willing
to receive Christ for all my salvation, for all my forgiveness,
for all my righteousness and eternal glory, according to the
true gospel, I still don't have anything to brag about. I can't
say, well, I'm saved because I chose him and you're lost because
you didn't. No, it's God who makes us willing
in the day of his power. I told you about the so-called
biblical scholar that a lot of people look up to in false Christianity
who said that he was talking about the doctrine of irresistible
grace. We believe if the Holy Spirit
comes and brings you under the preaching of the gospel, if you're
one of God's people, he's gonna convict you of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. He's gonna give you spiritual
life. He's gonna give you a new heart.
He's gonna give you a new will. He'll make you willing because
he'll convict you of the truth. And He'll show us what we are,
that we're sinners in need of righteousness that we can't produce,
that it's all of God. He'll make us cast ourselves
on God's sovereign mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. It's up to God. And that's what
He does. I mean, he brings us down into
the dust. An old preacher that Sue and I were talking about
a while ago, Scott Richland, he said, he'll make you lay down
your shotgun and bow to King Jesus. And that's what he'll
do. But he makes us will. And that old scholar, he said,
well, Calvin has preached that God brings you to Christ against
your will. And he went in and he said, that's
not love, that's rape, he said. He said, forced love is rape.
And I thought to myself, well first of all, rape is no form
of love, friend. It's all about power, isn't it?
But God doesn't bring his people unwillingly. He sovereignly,
powerfully, invincibly changes our will. And he makes us willing
in the day of his power. And he shows us our sinfulness
and our need of Christ. I've got no other hope but Christ. It's like Peter said, to whom
shall we go? We've got no place else to go.
You have the words of life. What do I need? I don't need
just grace and mercy. I need sovereign grace and sovereign
mercy. And that's what he's saying.
God's choice. and the salvation of his people
are not conditioned on us, so then it's not of him that willeth. In other words, man is not some
sort of a neutral or moral or good creature in the sight of
God so that it's left up to man to make the choice. If it were,
we'd all go to hell. That's it. That's what the Bible
teaches. But God does make us willing
in the day of His power. And then it says in verse 16,
nor of him that runneth. Now running there is an indication
of somebody who is working hard to make themselves win the race. Working hard, running, zeal.
In religion, for example, like the Apostle Paul before God saved
him, before he was regenerated. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees
that's touching the law, blameless, all of that. Like those who stood
before Christ in Matthew 7, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in
your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many
wonderful works? We've worked hard. You worked
hard in false religion, didn't you? I worked hard in it. Probably not as hard as you did.
You worked hard in it, didn't y'all? We all did. We're religious
creatures by nature. And all of this, you see, when
we're thinking, all of our thinking at that time, and let me say
this now, too. Didn't you call it grace? Didn't
you say it was by grace when you were working hard to recommend
yourself to God? That's what I called it. We called it grace,
but that was no more than Satan's deception. But it's not of him
that runneth. You know, somebody asked me one
time, said, well, shouldn't we run? Yes. Yeah, we should run,
but not to attain or maintain salvation, not working for our
righteousness. We should run the race of grace,
Hebrews 12, one and two. I'm going to mention that this
morning in the main. Hebrews 12, one and two, we should run
the race of grace doing what? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the what? The finisher of our faith. That's
it. In other words, in total dependence
upon him for all salvation. Not looking to ourselves. I was reading a poem on the internet
the other day that talked about the myth of Sisyphus. You ever
heard of that myth? This was a king, a Greek king,
who had displeased the gods. And when he died, he was consigned
to hell, and his hell was this. He was at the bottom of a hill,
and there was a big boulder, and he had to work his way, pushing
the boulder up the hill. And when he got it to the top,
he saw it roll back down again. That's the myth of Sisyphus. And that's what false religion's
like. You work hard, you make strides, you get right, you grow,
and then one day you mess up, begin again. But that's not the
religion of grace. Not at all. The religion of grace
teaches us that Christ is our hope, Christ is our assurance,
Christ is our completion. Now what it says, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in him. Listen, in Christ, I have all
the holiness and righteousness I need to meet God's requirement.
Now should I strive to be moral and to honor him in my life?
Yes, I should. But my friend, I'm already justified
in the eyes of God based upon his righteousness imputed. And
that'll never change. I'm the recipient of an inheritance
that's incorruptible, undefilable, cannot be taken away. Does that
give me an excuse for sin? No. But am I a sinner? Yes. Have I ever stopped being a sinner?
No. I'm only a sinner saved by grace.
That's my story. So God is sovereign in this choice.
It's not based upon our willingness to believe. Does God make us
willing to believe? Yes. But it's not based upon,
it's not conditioned on our willingness to believe. If we're willing
to believe, that's a gift of God. For by grace are you saved
through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. were his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto, not because of, unto good works, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. And it's
not of him that runneth. The sense of this is this, number
one, that the sinner would not put forth any effort in himself
to attain what only Christ attained for us. And the reason we say
that is this. Somebody says, well, I'm trying
to be righteous enough to be saved, or I'm trying to be righteous
enough to go to heaven. Well, would you claim that you're
perfect? Most people would answer, no,
I'm not perfect, but I think I can be enough. Like the fella
said, I know I'm not perfect, but I've not done anything to
deserve hell. Well, that means you're not perfect,
but you've done enough to deserve heaven. And that's man's view
of righteousness. You see, that's why false religion
always has people comparing themselves with themselves. We as believers
compare ourselves with Christ. And what does that tell us? We
always fall short. What does that do for us? It
drives us to Him continually for life and righteousness. And
that the sinner is pardoned not on account of his efforts, not
because he makes an exertion or runs, but because God chose
to pardon us by His grace through Christ. Why does God choose one and not
another? Christ said this in Matthew 11,
it seemed good in his sight. He didn't say the sinner seemed
good in his sight. He said it, God's choice, it
seemed good in his sight. So look at verse 17. He brings
up Pharaoh here. 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 the earth. What a scripture. Why did God raise up this heathen,
idolatrous, evil king who ruled over probably at that time in
the history of the world was the most powerful empire in the
whole world? Why did God put him on earth?
Well, he says it, that God's name might be declared. To declare
the name of God through an idolater. I'm gonna tell you something,
only God can do something like that. Through an evil man. That's God's glory. And there's
no charge of unrighteousness that can be proven against God
because his grace and his mercy are perfectly consistent with
his holiness and truth and in his dealings with everybody.
Whether he deals with them like Esau and like Pharaoh in damnation,
or he deals with them like Jacob and like Moses in salvation. We know that all sin is with
men, but we know the wrath and rebellion of men will ultimately
give God the glory. Doesn't matter. Now, here's what we need to understand.
We're gonna see this more next week when he talks about the
lump and the potter and the clay. It's not like Pharaoh was this
really good guy who was kind and who was seeking the Lord
and then God just turned him another way, no. Pharaoh was
just like all of us by nature, born dead in sin, selfish, self-righteous,
drunk with his own power, wanting more and more to declare his
own glory, to make a name for himself. And what did God do? He just left the old boy to himself. Left Pharaoh to himself. Let
him go. But, that's the way God works. You know, the whole nation Israel,
basically, during the time of our Lord's sojourn here on earth,
ultimately, the vast majority, you would say, turned thumbs
down on Jesus of Nazareth. And that's what it said. And
the Romans turned thumbs down on Jesus of Nazareth. Kings of
the earth stood up against God's holy child, Jesus. And what does
the Bible say? Well, they were doing no more
than what God had determined them to do. And yet God holds
us accountable. You remember what Joseph said
to his brethren back in Genesis 50? When his brethren came, his
brothers came, and they were afraid that he was going to stamp
them out, he was second in command to Pharaoh. And what Joseph told
them, he said, don't be afraid, I'm in the place that God put
me. Now that lets you off the hook.
No, he says, you meant it for evil. God meant it for good. And that's the way we are, there's
no other way we can do things like that and not mean them for
anything but evil. But God was in control all the
time. Working his power, his sovereign
power, verse 18, therefore he hath mercy on whom he will have
mercy. And whom he will, he hardeneth.
Now God's hardening, I'll get into this more next week. God's
hardening is, that's what the old writers used to call judicial
hardness. That is God's judgment against
sinners who continue to challenge him, thwart him, deny him. Remember the Bible talks about
Pharaoh hardening his own heart and it talks about God hardening
his heart. It talks about both. Well, you
understand that if God chose to give Pharaoh a new heart,
he would have given him one. But he didn't. He used that rascal
for his own glory to show his name that the kings of the earth,
the most powerful, the richest, the most respected men on earth
cannot thwart God's purpose and plan to save his chosen people
by his sovereign mercy and grace through Christ. It's impossible. All right.