The section of scripture that
we're going to be launching out on in Romans chapter 9, it really
runs from Romans 9 to Romans 11, is some of the most controversial
passages of scripture that you'll find amongst people who read
and claim to believe the Bible. But there shouldn't be any controversy
about it. It's clear and it's plain, really.
concerning what Paul says, what Paul writes here by inspiration
of the Spirit, concerning the sovereignty of God, the depravity
of man, the effectual nature of the glorious person and the
finished work of Christ. I mean, all of that's included
in here. Now, and let me just set it this way. The title of
the lesson, as you can see, is A Sincere Desire to See Sinners
Saved. And I'm just gonna deal with
the first three verses kind of like an introduction to this
section. But think about it this way.
If you got your lesson there, you'll see all this, but I'll
start out in Romans 8.33. It says dash four. It should
be 8.33 dash 34. That was my mistake, so put the
three in there. But over in Romans chapter eight
in verse 33 and 34, look at what he says here again. He makes
a really powerful dogmatic statement concerning a group of people.
And by inspiration of the Spirit, and I emphasize that because
we need to understand now, this is not just Paul's view of things.
This is not Paul's opinion. This is God's word. That's what
this is. This is what God says. And he
says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Well, who in the world are God's elect? Because whoever it is,
there's two things said about him here. God cannot charge them
with sin. He says it is God that justify. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all of our sins based upon a just ground. And what is the just ground of
forgiveness? The blood of the lamb, the blood of Christ. To be justified is to be declared
righteous in God's sight, to be right with God. How can a
sinner be right with God? Paul has answered that beautifully
in these first eight chapters of the book of Romans. And it's
only by the merits of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus
Christ as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. It's his righteousness
imputed. Remember what he said back in
Romans chapter four, talking about Abraham, talking about
David. when David wrote in Psalm 32 about the blessedness of the
man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
David said that when he said, blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. And that means we are charged
before God, laid to our account, a righteousness that we had no
part in producing. A righteousness that we couldn't
produce. There's none righteous. No, not
one. It's the righteousness of the God-man. The righteousness
of God charged to our account. And that's what he says. Now
to whom does God not charge sin? To whom does God charge righteousness? His elect. And he said it's based
upon, that's what verse 34 talks about, it's based upon the saving
work of Christ. It's not based upon your works,
it's not based upon your attempts at obedience, it's not based
upon our will. He's gonna make that point very
strongly in the book of Romans chapter nine, 10, and 11. Now
God, it's true, our will is involved because God changes our will. I had a man tell me, he said,
are you telling me that God drags his children to himself unwillingly?
I said, no, God changes our will. He gives us a new heart, doesn't
he? He gives us a new mind. He changes
our thinking. He convicts us of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment. But here it is in verse 34, it
says, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Christ
was condemned in our stead. Yea, rather, he's risen again,
and his condemnation unto death resulted in his resurrection,
because as sin charged to him demanded his death, righteousness
that he worked out demanded that he not stay in the grave. He
arose from the dead. And it demands the same for all
for whom he died, all for whom he was buried and rose again.
And it says, who is that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. He right
now is making intercession. He's the mediator, the intercessor
of God's people. And that's based upon the merits
of his accomplished, finished work on Calvary to save us. Now, who does that apply to?
Well, he said it, God's elect. And so when you talk about, what
is God's elect? It was God's chosen people. What
does the Bible say about that? You know, whenever most people
today who read a Bible or claim to be Christian, the majority
anyway, when considering that term elect, what do they normally
think of? They think of the Jewish nation.
And there is a sense in which the Jewish nation were God's
elect under the old covenant in a temporary ceremonial sense. They were chosen of God to be
the instruments by which he would mainly bring the Messiah into
the world according to the flesh. They were the chosen, and God
didn't choose them because they were greater than other nations
or better or anything like that. It was simply his sovereign choice. And that was it. They didn't
have anything to brag about, even though they bragged. Yes,
like us, by nature, isn't it? If we're one of God's chosen
people, we don't have anything to brag about or boast in. There was nothing in us. to incite
or inspire or to motivate God to choose us or anybody. If God gave any of us what we've
deserved and earned, what would it be? It'd be eternal damnation.
Isn't that right? That's why it's called sovereign
grace, sovereign mercy. But most people think of the
Jewish nation. They were God's elect. They look
at it that way today. And then you see passages in
the Old Testament and some in the New. In fact, if you'll look
over in Romans chapter 11, just turn over the page there, and there's a portion there,
if I can find it. Yeah, look at
verse 26, verse 26. Paul writes here, and so all
Israel shall be saved. All Israel. Well, you'll see
passages that indicate that in the Old Testament. A lot of them
in the book of Isaiah. God's gonna save Israel. But
who is Israel? Well, the Bible teaches us that
God has a people that he chose out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. He told Abraham, he said, in
thee shall all nations be blessed. So who is this Israel? And here's a question that comes
up, and this is where Paul begins to launch out in Romans chapter
nine. If God promised to save all Israel, And if God's elect
are these Jews who cannot be, if God's elect are the Jews and
they cannot be charged with sin and cannot be condemned, cannot
be separated from his love, then how do you explain the fact that
the majority of the nation Israel perished in unbelief? What was
the problem? Was God not powerful enough to
save them and to keep them and to bring them to glory? Was God
not knowledgeable enough to foresee every obstacle and remove every
hindrance? Or was God not faithful? He made
the promise, but he didn't keep it. You ever made a promise you
didn't keep? We all have, haven't we? That's
when he says down here in Romans 9, he says, let God be true and
every man a liar. That's what he means by that.
God has never made a promise that he didn't keep. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed, great is thy faithfulness. I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. See,
God's faithful. We sing that hymn, great is thy
faithfulness. Now, we may make promises we
don't keep. It may not be that we are just out and out lying,
but we may make a promise that we don't have the ability to
keep. We may not foresee every obstacle. We may not be able
to remove the hindrances. So let God be true, and every
man a liar. It's like a person who says,
well, I want to go to heaven, So I'm gonna do my best to do
the best I can to go to heaven. Well, what's gonna be the result
of that? Let God be true and every man a liar. You're not
gonna make it, friend. Why? Because you're just like
me, you're a sinner. And you're either gonna be saved
by grace or not at all. You're gonna be saved by God's
faithfulness or not at all. So who are the elect of God?
Who is the true Israel of God? Well, the Apostle Paul begins
to answer those questions here in Romans 9, 10, and 11. And
basically, what he's going to teach is that God's elect are
the people whom God chose to save by his grace through the
Lord Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. What
does the Bible, when we ask the question, when did God choose
his people? What does the Bible say before
the foundation of the world? I was telling Sue about a preacher
on TV, I was flipping around on TV and I heard this man, he's
a very popular preacher, And he was preaching on the Lamb's
Book of Life in Revelation 13. So I stopped and said, I want
to hear what he says about that. He said, whose names are not
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You remember that in Revelation
13? Their names were written before the foundation of the
world, the lamb that was slain. And I said, well, I just want
to hear what he had to say. And here's what he said. He said,
we can surmise that when you're born into this world, God writes
your name in that book. And then when you commit your
first sin, he erases your name out. And then when you accept
Jesus as your savior, he writes your name back in. Now here's
my question. Where is that found from Genesis
to Revelation? It's not found at all. But that's
the imaginations, the rationalizations of sinful men who do not want
to bow to God's sovereignty. his sovereign will. And so when
people, when they hear about this, they don't want to face
this truth that before the world began, God sovereignly chose
whom he would save and he passed by others. And they say, that's
unfair. That's unjust, even cruel. Even
cruel of God to do such. I was telling in the back there
about a lady who told Brother Mahan, he says, your God's a
monster. But see, they don't understand
the nature of the justness and the holiness of God and the sinfulness
and depravity of us, of men and women. Well, they got all these
objections. Well, Paul's gonna answer those
objections in Romans 9 later on. Is God unfair? No, he's not unfair. Is God unjust?
No, he's not unjust. And here's what people need to
understand about that. Whenever Paul answers it, That's
the last word. That's it. The last word on the
subject. Does that mean I won't have any
questions after that? No, you'll have some questions,
but that's the last word that God's gonna give you and me.
Who are you to debate with God? I've told you about that poem.
I can't remember the guy who wrote it. I don't think he was
a believer, but he did realize this. He says, your arms are
too short to box with God. Don't take that on. Remember
when Job and his friends were arguing and fussing and asking
God these questions, what did God say through Elihu? He said,
where were you when I formed the worlds? If you wanna argue
with me, if you wanna discuss these things with me, if you
wanna go one-on-one with me, ask yourself first, where were
you when the worlds were framed? Where were you when I put Leviathan
in the sea? You weren't there. God is God
and we're just a speck of dust, that's what he's saying. So understand
that, that's the last word. Well, Paul's gonna answer those
objections and he'll give the last word, but God's elect is
not a physical nation, not in salvation. Now, it was a physical
nation under the old covenant, but that's over with. God's elect
in an eternal sense, in a saving sense, has to do with his chosen
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, whom he chose
before the foundation of the world, whom Christ redeemed on
the cross, and they're identified as he by his spirit brings them
into the fold, birthing them again, the new birth, and as
they are brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. And that's what he's teaching
us. Paul in Romans 11, five, he calls this spiritual nation
a remnant according to the election of grace. And he does deal with
the Jewish people specifically in these things. And what he's
simply telling us that when God says all Israel shall be saved,
it's not talking about the whole Jewish nation individually. There's
a remnant. Now there's some people, as you
go through Romans 9-11, they say that in the future, before
the Lord comes back, that God's gonna convert the whole physical
nation of Israel to Christ. I don't believe that's teaching
this, but I'll tell you what, I wouldn't mind if I was wrong
on that. Wouldn't you love to see the
whole Jewish nation be brought to Christ? I'd love to see this
nation be brought to Christ. I'd love to see Saudi Arabia
brought to Christ. Any nation. I don't believe God's
gonna do that, but I'd love to be wrong on that. So understand
that. It's a remnant according to the
election of grace. And how do we find God's elect
in the world? How do we find God's elect? Well,
we find them by preaching the gospel to everyone and anyone
who'll listen. That's how we find them. Preach
the gospel. And Paul begins by expressing
his own personal sorrow here over the lost state of his kinsmen
according to the flesh, the unbelieving Jews, along with his sincere
desire to see them saved. Let's just read the first three
verses. He said, I say the truth in Christ, Romans 9.1, I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed, separated from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh. Now, first of all, it's clear
here that the apostle recognizes that his brethren, whom he calls
here his physical brethren. You see, we all have physical
brethren, don't we? There's a sense in which we are
all in the brotherhood of man by creation. And we all have
our specific family where we might have brothers and sisters
and all that physically. But those relationships are not
gonna last. Those relationships are temporary. And that's what Paul's talking
about here when he calls them his brethren. Brethren, he says
my kinsmen according to the flesh. He makes it very specific. I'm
not talking about my spiritual brethren. You see, there's a
spiritual brotherhood. Christ dealt with it when he
said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who is my
sister? Them that do the will of my Father.
Now every believer in this building and every believer all over the
world, we're in a spiritual family. That's God's chosen people. And
that relationship will go on forever and ever and ever. But
Paul's talking about his physical connection with his kinsmen,
according to the flesh, and he recognizes that the majority
of these Israelites were lost. They were lost. And he was connected
to them. Remember, he said, I was a Hebrew
of Hebrews. I was born of the tribe of Benjamin. All of that. So he was connected to them as
a brother by birth, physically, but not spiritually. They were
not Paul's spiritual brothers or kinsmen. I heard of a man
one time, he called an unbeliever a brother, you know, cause I
think, you know, a lot of times in, in religion, we get used
to just saying things like that, brother, so-and-so, sisters,
and somebody called his hand on it. And he said, he said,
well, if I don't get him in Christ, I'll get him in Adam. Here's
the problem with that. All in Adam do what? They die. All in Christ will be made alive.
We have a spiritual brotherhood connected by the grace of God
through Christ, evidenced by our mutual faith in him. Our
mutual value of Christ. And that's the way it is. But
if you don't believe this gospel, you give no signs right now of
being my brother or my sister in Christ. And that's what Paul's
saying here. I could wish he says, I have
great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart." Now Paul's
really hurting over this. And he said, I could wish myself
were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh. They were unbelievers. Now, it's
important that we see, turn over to Romans chapter, just look
across the page at Romans now. We'll be getting to this later
on. But why did Paul call them lost? You know, people today
say, well, you can't judge that. Well, we can't always know the
hearts of everyone. Only God looks on the heart.
But if they give a testimony that is contrary to the gospel
and salvation by the grace of God based upon the blood and
righteousness of Christ, we know that they're lost. We may not
be able to say they're not one of God's elect, they may be one
of God's elect, they just haven't been brought into the fold yet,
they haven't been found yet. Somebody said, well, you're saying
everybody's going to hell, but you know, I'm saying everybody's
going to hell who doesn't trust Christ for salvation, the Christ
of the Bible. But it's my desire that someday
between here and the grave, sinners will be brought to Christ. And
I'm gonna preach to anyone and everyone I can preach to where
God opens the door. And so, look at Romans 9 and
verse 31. Now here's why he says they're
lost, listen to it. He says, but Israel, Romans 9
31, which followed after the law of righteousness, that was
the law of Moses. Remember Paul said in Philippians
3, he said, I kept the law as touching the law, I was a Pharisee,
blameless. He said, but Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. They, they, they didn't make
their, their goal was to be righteous by their works of the law. They
didn't make it. They fell short as we all do.
Verse 32, wherefore, or why, why didn't they make it? Because
they sought it not by faith. Now, what is it to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek it in Christ. If you seek righteousness by,
and I caution people today because in most people today, a lot of
people today who call themselves Christian, Christ is not their
God, faith is their God. It's their faith that made the
difference. They'll say things, they get
through a trial and they say, boy, I'm glad I had enough faith. Well, I've never had enough faith
in that sense. I never have, but I've got a
savior. who's powerful enough to keep
me. To keep me, what Paul say, I know whom I believe and I'm
persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto
him against that day. So to seek righteousness by faith
is not to seek righteousness in your faith, it's to seek righteousness
outside yourself, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Christ is my righteousness. Christ
is my Savior. Christ is my God. So wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were, by works of the law. They stumbled at
that stumbling stone. Now here's a prophet reaching
back into the Old Testament for a prophecy, the stumbling stone,
that's Christ. Look, verse 33, as it is written,
behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and
whosoever believeth on him, You say, shall not be ashamed. Now
this is why Paul called them lost. And look at verse one of
chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israels that they might be saved. They're lost. I desire their
salvation. Verse two, for I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. They're religious, but not according
to what? Knowledge. They're missing some
knowledge. And apparently it's got to be
vital knowledge, isn't it? Well, what knowledge are they
missing? Verse three, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness, God's justness, and going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. What is the righteousness of
God? Verse four, for Christ is the end. And that word end, it's
the finishing. The fulfillment, the completion,
the perfection. Remember he said in John 19.30 on the cross, he
said it's finished, same word here, end. Christ is the finishing
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
And that's why he counted them lost. They didn't believe the
gospel. The Bible says that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You can see all
of that. God's gonna bring his people into the kingdom through
the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's what he says. Now Paul's, you know, Paul had
a real passion for evangelism. You know, here's one, I've had
people tell me, say, well, if I believed that God had an elect,
I wouldn't go out and preach, wouldn't do anything. Paul had
a real passion for evangelism, and you know what he told Timothy
in 2 Timothy 2, eight through 10? He said, I'm preaching this
gospel for which I suffer trouble. He said, but I do it for the
very elect's sake. I've got that cited here. I do
it because God has a chosen people. If God hadn't had a chosen people,
I wouldn't do it. Why? Because by nature, none
of us will seek or come to Christ. It would be futile. Did you know
that? If it weren't for God having
a remnant according to the election of grace, it would be futile
for us to do anything because the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. So
the fact that God has a chosen people out there, that is the
only reason and inspiration for true evangelism. Preach to everybody
who'll listen. You can't save them. You can't
give them the new birth. You can't give them a new heart.
Only God can do that. and he's gonna do it for his
people. Hearing and believing the gospel is the first evidence
of being one of God's chosen people, one of God's elect. It's
the first evidence of having been justified by God based on
Christ's righteousness imputed. It's the first evidence of being
born again by the Spirit. He who has ears to hear, let
him hear. He who has eyes to see, let him see. They hear his
voice, and so we're to preach to whoever will listen. And tell
them this, everyone who desires salvation
God's way, by his grace in Christ, whosoever calls upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. God has never turned anyone away
who desires salvation his way. And I'll tell you why, because
it glorifies him and I'll tell you nothing, he's the one who
gave him that desire. That desire's not in us naturally.
We want salvation, but we want it our way. We're like Cain by
nature. We want to come to God on our
terms, not his. But when he gives us a desire
to glorify and honor him, and when he shows us who we really
are, sinners who deserve nothing but death and hell. He gives
us a desire to run to Christ and cling to Him. Well, that
verse 3 here in Romans 9 is one that has kind of baffled us. Paul says in verse 3, I could
wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,
my kinsmen, according to the flesh. And you know, the classic
view of that, even from gospel commentators, is that Paul, as
he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, expressed such a desire and love
for his kinsmen according to the flesh that he could literally
wish himself separated from Christ. And I'll tell you what, that's
a mind-boggling thing, isn't it? I mean, think about that.
But I believe it's saying something else. I believe here that Paul,
he knew that according to the flesh and based on his works,
he had no more claim of salvation and the blessings of God than
his kinsmen who were lost. And we know that. Paul also knew
that in the past, before his conversion, that he had wished
himself a curse from Christ. Think about that. Think about
Saul of Tarsus. And he had one goal in life,
and that was to wipe the name of Jesus of Nazareth off the
face of the earth, to arrest and kill everyone who followed
him. Two gospel commentators point
this out in Romans 9.3 can read as in the original manuscript
that Paul is saying, I had wished myself a curse from Christ, or
I could claim that I myself were separated from Christ on behalf
of my kinsmen according to the flesh. And the point Paul's making
there is this, that he could wish him that that he could,
the point he's making, that he could wish himself a curse from
Christ, not in the place of his Jewish kinsmen. That wouldn't
do them any good. The only one who can die in the
place of sinners is Christ and do us any good. See? So the point Paul's making is
that his sorrow over his unbelieving kinsmen, his kinsmen according
to the flesh, is even greater realizing that he was like them
once, an unbeliever, no better off, even worse, remember he
said I'm the chief of sinners, than they are now. And that at
that time, he was wishing himself a curse from Christ, just like
they are. And that's like people today. We were talking about
this in the back. Have you ever heard anybody say,
well, I wouldn't worship a God like that? A God who chose some
and passed by others? Or your God's, you know what
they're doing? They're wishing themselves a curse from the true
Christ of the Bible. They run to a Christ of their
imaginations. But there's one quote here that
I got from a fellow who said this. Listen to this. He said,
I would rather go to hell than believe in a God who saves whom
he will and damns whom he will, or a Christ who died for certain
people and not others. Now, granted, the man doesn't
know what he's saying. He's speaking out of ignorance.
But I think that's the point he's making here. He just didn't want to serve
a God like that. And that goes back to what we
were talking about last week, that conversion that people want.
Listen, to be converted to Christ is to change gods. Think about
that. Listen, the God who Cain imagined
in his mind would accept his works is a different God than
who Abel came to on the blood. So whenever I thought that God
would accept me or receive me based upon anything that I've
done or believed or done in me, that's a different God. But the God of the Bible, he
saves, accepts, and receives sinners on one ground alone,
and that's his sovereign grace based upon the blood and righteousness
of his son. And any other God's an idol.
And he does it sovereignly. He saves whom he will. I'll be
gracious to whom I will. I'll be merciful to whom I will.
And somebody says, well, I don't want to serve a God like that.
That's what Paul's dealing with. At one time in his life, Paul
said the same thing. He said, I don't want to serve
a God like that. I don't want to serve a savior
like that. And he said, that's the way I was. I was no better
off than my unbelieving brethren because I did the same thing.
And his point is, listen, God saved me by his grace. There
was no reason in me. Well, he said, I desire that
my kinsmen according to the flesh be saved too. I pray that that
will happen. All right.