Some thoughts with you from Romans
9 today, if you'll recall, and I've titled the message today
of God that showeth mercy. Of God that showeth mercy. That's the last phrase of Romans
9 16. And you'll see why as we proceed
through the message today. But in Genesis chapter 32, if
you'll recall, Jacob was heading toward his estranged brother
Esau, his twin brother, They had parted ways many years before
and he was fearful for his life. And so as Jacob approached there
and part of, I'm only going to consider just as a manner of
background this morning, just part of that text that we looked
at. But we, if you'll recall, as he neared Esau, he came upon
a brook, he sent his family on a cross. And then there at the
brook, it says he wrestled with a man. We heard or read the record
of a wrestling match between Jacob and a man a man who we
saw was a pre-incarnate presence of Christ God Manifest in the
flesh he wrestled with him him Christ appearing to Jacob in
the flesh God appearing in the flesh to Jacob long before his
actual incarnation as he wrestled with him in the night if you
recall It began, the story there began in about verse 24 of Genesis
32. And as they wrestled, it says
that this man, who was God, saw that he prevailed not against
Jacob. And so he touched his thigh, the hollow of his thigh,
and by doing so made him lame. It said he was out of joint,
he was made crippled. He took Jacob out, so to speak.
So here's Jacob, helpless. Much I likened it, if you'll
recall, to a wrestling match you might have had when you were
a young boy and you had him in the Headlocking and you said,
OK, now say uncle. Give up. And here our Lord had
taken Jacob out and it said as the day approached, he said,
Jacob, let me go. And here he is, he's totally
incapacitated. Jacob and Jacob said, I can't
look at that in verse 26. He said, I will not let they
go except by bless me. Jacob, who realized he couldn't
do a thing to prevail against this one, but he had to have
his blessing. And we saw that as a picture
of God-given faith, one who's brought to this proverbial wrestling
mat at some time in his life under the sound of the gospel,
not a physical, actual, real, physical Jesus, but the real
Jesus, the one in whom they must be blessed just as Jacob was
blessed. And there in verse 27, He said, after he said, I can't
let you go unless you bless me. Our Lord said to him, what's
thy name? This man who was God, omniscient
God, knows all he asked him what his name was because he was beginning
a discourse that would reveal the nature of his blessing. And
he said, Jacob. Jacob, the name that means supplanter,
cheater. Jacob, who was born, delivered
with his twin brother Esau, Holding on to the heel of his elder brother
who would who would buy the birthright from Esau when Esau was hungry
for food Esau showing little regard for it and then who would
cheat Deceive his father Isaac in Conspiracy with his mother
Rebecca by disguising himself as Esau in order to get the birthright
the blessing from his father who was on his deathbed blind
could not see and in order to get that which Isaac intended
to go to the eldest, to Esau. And so what we see here is here's
this one, this cheater, this supplanter, who he's there, he's
helpless, he's been made lame, and he says, I must have you
blessed. And the Lord says, well, what's your name? And he acknowledged
the very thing that all must acknowledge when God brings them
to this point, to see how they are to be blessed in Jesus Christ.
And that is, I'm a sinner. Cheater, supplant, or I have
nothing to offer. And then in verse 28, it says,
he said, name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, Israel
means Prince of God. He said, for as a Prince has
thought power with God and with men and has prevailed as a Prince. And you might underline that
he's saying, well, here, here's how you're blessed. How does
a prince have power? That word power is much like
the New Testament word power in John one, where it says for
as many as received him to them, gave he the power. It's the authority,
the right, the title to the attaining of. So he's saying here, how
do you how does Jacob prevail? He says you prevail before God,
Jacob, only as a prince. Well, how do you become a prince?
Do you have anything to do with becoming a prince? No, you're
simply a child of the king. You see, a child of the king
and subject to the king's inheritance. And that's what we saw in this
picture. Well, with that, be turning to Romans chapter 9.
As I mentioned then, Jacob is such an unlikely candidate in
the eyes of natural man to be one who would receive, be the
blessed one. You know, as you read the story
of Jacob and Esau coming up, the picture that I get is is
that Esau would have been my kind of guy. You know, he was
a hunter. He was kind of a man's man. He went out and killed venison
for his father, Isaac, who said he loved to eat that which Esau
brought to him. And then you have the picture
of Jacob, kind of a mama's boy, who the conniving one, the cheater,
the supplanter. And yet we know that all of us
All, all who shall inhabit heaven are the sons of Jacob. Malachi
3, 6, God said, I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Well, Jacob was the part of the
chosen, he was the chosen one, not his twin brother Esau. And
so that speaks of a spiritual Israel, a chosen people, sons
of Jacob. But I also believe that there
it speaks of those cheaters, those who are brought to this
same point. who are incapacitated by the touch of God, the Holy
Spirit, under the sound of the gospel, just as Jacob was in
his wrestling match there. So we know that none are righteous.
The scriptures tell us that all our righteousness is as filthy
rags, all sin and come short of the glory of God. We've all
gone out of the way that the way that seems right to us naturally
is a way that ends in death. So we see that we we're all Jacobs
in that sense. And yet fallen natural man. We all initially approached God,
imagining that we need his favor. We need a blessing from him.
But we there must be something we can do as we ask ourselves
that question. What can I do to go to heaven?
What do I have to do? And it's a telling question and
tells on us. Well, natural man comes along.
And so what do we do if we imagine that if, in fact, there's something
I can do to gain God's blessing, I need his favor. Now, what part
do I play? You just have to receive him, some would say, or you just
have to pray this prayer or walk this aisle. And they say, OK,
if if there's something then that man must do, we then esteem
those men who seem serious about that issue. Men of religion,
men who would seem to live a sincere, dedicated life. And we, we highly
esteem that and we look, we are respecters of persons, unlike
God. And so we look and naturally
we look to that, which God says is highly esteemed by men, but
he says is an abomination unto him. So when in, in spite of
scripture to that effect, we admire those. And here, here
we have in Romans nine, this story, this illustration using
these two twin twins, Jacob and Esau, to illustrate that it is
truly from start to finish of God that shall with mercy. So look with me here in Romans
nine. In verses one through five, Paul
is writing and he's he's speaking of his great heaviness of heart
and his sorrow for his fellow Israelites, his kinsmen, according
to the flesh. And he talks of all the privileges
they had being a nation chosen nation under the terms of the
old covenant. Chosen and chosen and they uniquely
were given the law of God, the law that would be a schoolmaster
to teach them Christ. If he, if, if, and when he was
pleased to reveal that to those in that nation. And here, here
he, here he speaking of them. And in verse six, he says, but
listen. I'm not saying that God didn't
keep his promise when I express to you what he expresses in the
first part of Romans 10, that his prayer for Israel is that
they might be saved. He said, I'd be a curse for him
in the first part of chapter nine here if I could, but that
won't do the job. He's expressing his great love
for his countrymen. And yet he says, but I'm not
telling you, I'm not telling you that God didn't keep his
promise. To bless this people temporarily
because I'm talking about an eternal blessing a different
blessing. He says it's not as though the Word of God has taken
none effect. For they are not all Israel. Princes of God see eternally
subject to the eternal inheritance. Which are of Israel physical
Israel the nation neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children. But in Isaac, the child of promise,
shall a seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. These are not
the princes. But the children of the promise,
see, are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. Sarah
miraculously having Isaac. Many years after she had long
passed the time of childbearing, And he, and he goes on and says,
but not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even
by her father, Isaac, this is speaking of the twins, Jacob
and Esau. And then in verse 11, we have
the parentheses that says for the children, Jacob and Esau
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil Jacob,
not having revealed his conniving ways. Jacob not having shown
that he he must have this blessing that he could only get from this
God man with whom he wrestled. Esau not having shown his disregard
for the birthright and rejection of God's ways, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand not of works. He's saying that the choosing
of God and a choosing that has nothing to do with the works
of those he chose, not of works, but of him that call it God who
does the calling. And that's what he does. He does
call all those you say this election doesn't stand alone, this election
unto salvation is we're going to see more clearly in a moment.
But. This God who chose, he calls
those whom he chooses and he brings them to that same wrestling
mat that he had brought Jacob to, to come face to face with
God as he is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
we read in verse 12, it was said unto her, that is Rebecca, before
the children were even born, the elder Esau shall serve the
younger Jacob. As it is written, and that's
recorded in Malachi, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. My goodness. You telling me that
salvation, that those whom God will eternally bless is based
solely upon God's sovereign purpose that had nothing to do with anything
he saw in the center? Are you telling me if you're
telling me that this is this is the common reaction of of
all who are first confronted with the fact that God is sovereign
in all things, including salvation? They say, if you're telling me
that then then I would do nothing. Then the rest of the scripture
commanding me to to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be
saved means nothing. They'll say, you see, they can't
fathom that there would be a motive. to do anything in compliance
with this scripture, if it's not something that earns me something,
if I don't get something for it. My selfish display of my
own self-love. And so they say, that's got to
be unfair. I will not relinquish the fact
that my eternal destiny is totally out of my control. You're putting
me in a place now where you're saying there's nothing I can
do to be saved. They'll say. And so they'll say
that wouldn't be fair. Well, Paul, being a sinner, knowing
the natural mind, he poses just that very rhetorical question
when he says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Is God unfair? Does God not do
right? And he says, God forbid. And
he begins a discourse here that says, no, The problem is you
just don't like what God is like. You want God to be to be ultimately
subject to that which proceeds from you. You can't relinquish
the fact that salvation is truly of God alone that show with mercy. And he begins to tell us, he
says, think he's already told you in his word. You might not
like it, but he's told you what he's like. And when he says,
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. When you look at that Greek word
for mercy there, it's very similar in meaning to compassion, but
he's not merely repeating himself saying, I'll have compassion
on whom I will not have compassion on whom I will. The word mercy
has a slightly different connotation, and it's an important one, I
believe. It's compassion by way of act or deed. He's saying I
will have compassion. I'll favor whom I will. And I'll
act out on that compassion. It's of God that showeth mercy. Turn to Exodus 33 real quickly
and we'll see the same. This is where that's quoted from
from Moses. Exodus 33 and in verse 18, Moses had approached God and he said,
I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Verse 19, God answers and says,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And here's where the quote comes
from here. It's put this way. It says, and we'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious and we'll show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. Here we have the same thing.
He's saying, I will be gracious there. That means I will favor.
I will bestow favor. I'll have compassion. That's
the way the Hebrew word translated. And it says, and I'll show mercy. I'll act. I'm going to act on
that compassion on that favor that I'm going to bestow. And
so we see then that the subject of Romans nine. While he is speaking
of the purpose of election that it might stand, he's talking
of God's sovereign choice of the people. He's talking more
than that. It's of an election unto salvation. So it's God's choice and all
that he chose them unto that he's speaking of here. It's election
unto salvation in the mercy seat and the Lord Jesus Christ. So
we see then in our Verse that's a primary text for today verse
16. He says so then it What's he
speaking of? election and all That were chosen
unto all of salvation He said it is not of him that willeth
It's not your choice Well Randy am I am I a robot then? You're
saying I don't have a free will? No, I really, I think you're
free to choose as you'll choose. But the scripture tells us that
none will come to the Father except the Father drawing. That
we're born in darkness, alienated from God. By nature, children
of wrath. That we've all gone out of the
way. We'll all choose the broad way that leads to destruction.
Unless God stops us along the way and puts us on that wrestling
mat and brings us to a point where we see our spiritual poverty. You see, the eternally blessed
will, blessed are the poor in spirit. The fact that we're helpless,
but we got to have mercy. Now, when you need mercy, that's
where you're at. You see, you don't need mercy
if it's in your hands, but when you need mercy, it's just it's
to be at a point where You know that even your desire for mercy
merits you nothing. Jacob's persistence in the wrestling
match there had nothing to do with his prevailing. He prevailed,
how? As a prince. Only as a prince. As one who
gets an inheritance. And so we see, we see that we
must too be brought to this place. And God's telling us here clearly,
it's not of him that will it. It's not your choice. Yes, you're
free to choose, but you'll choose in accordance with who you are.
And that's what God does. He brings us he he brings us
to a confrontation to see who he is. This is the God we have
to do business with. He might not be the way we'd
like him to be. Naturally, he certainly isn't.
That's we're born at enmity against him. We don't we won't choose
his way. And yet this is the one we have
to do business with, and he causes us to see ourselves as we are
as sinners. And therefore, we need mercy,
and the good news is nobody is ever brought to that mat to wrestle. We won't do that by nature. None
cometh to him except the Father draw him. But all that the Father
gives him, all that he chose and gave to Christ, he says,
they'll come to me. My sheep will hear my voice and they'll
come to me. You see, they have to have that mercy. So if you're
ever brought there, then you can rest assured that it was
a work of God. And that, in fact, that's how
he made known his blessing to Jacob back in Genesis 32. But
he says it's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that
runneth. See, it's not based upon the man's willful decision,
and it's not his running, his doing, his running of a race. It's not owing to anything in
his work. So if you imagine that, well, as he said here, you have
Jacob and Esau in the womb, and he said before they'd done anything
good, he told Rebecca, Essentially, Jacob, have I loved and Esau,
have I hated? And you say, yeah, but say he
knew Jacob would come to the point where he'd plead for mercy,
some might say, and he knew that Esau wouldn't would have no regard
for God in his way. Well, lest you think that's true,
he says, oh, no, it's not of him that run it. He didn't look
down through time and choose you based on anything that he
saw from you. So when he says it is of God
that showeth mercy, he's not saying this is of God. Now, if
you will add your part, he's making it clear that there's
a dichotomy. That when he says it's of God that showeth mercy,
he means it is not of you at all, not of your will, not of
your running whatsoever, but of God that showeth mercy. You
see, we Christians, those who call themselves Christians, they
believe that when God says salvation is by grace, that it is. Salvation is by grace, not by
works, he tells us in Ephesians 2, lest any man should boast.
Yet men imagine that the grace of God is a favor he bestows
if they do their part, if they make their contribution based
on something they do. That's not grace of God in salvation. The grace of God is salvation
conditioned solely on the one in whom God shows mercy, the
Lord Jesus Christ. What we see here is he excludes
this notion that God's choosing was based upon anything he foresaw
in the center. Well, how does he show mercy?
He shows mercy in the mercy seat. The Lord Jesus Christ, if we
had continued back there in Exodus 33 on into chapter 34, God continued
that discourse with Moses about his glory. And he says, Moses,
I'm like this. I'll have mercy on thousands,
but I will by no means clear the guilty. You see, in the same
sense, when one rebels and says this would mean God's not fair,
they're just saying, I just don't like the way God is. In essence,
they just are not dealing with God as he is. See, this is life
eternal that you might know the only true God and Jesus Christ. whom thou hast sent." You see,
it's a matter of coming to God as God is, and he said, that's
the way I am. I'm a just God. I shall by no means clear the
guilty. The sins must be dealt with, and they were dealt with
at the cross of Calvary, for there Jesus was prevailed upon. He who knew no sin, he was made
sin for us. God judicially imputing, charging
the sins of his elect, those he chose, to the Son. who discharged the payment in
full that was due unto them, so that God could show mercy. Well, it's interesting here,
I thought, in verse 16, when he said, it's not of him that
runneth. I thought of that, and I thought
of my own natural reaction years ago when I first was told that,
and saw here, God's sovereignty and salvation. And I remember
thinking the same thing you probably heard others say, and that is,
if you're telling me it's that way, then I just do nothing.
It's out of my hands. There's nothing I can do. And
so men go off on their way and they say, I won't do that. They don't believe that. They
know that the scriptures clear that there are commands here
of how we're to walk, how we're to live our lives in accordance
with God's revealed will. And so what they're really saying
is, I don't believe you say, because I can't imagine a motive
for doing any of that if I don't get something for it. And likewise,
if you think about returning to Hebrews chapter 12, if you
think about it, we sinners saved by grace. We who have been brought
to see of our need for Christ and salvation in him based on
nothing that we do. We likewise, I believe, because
of remaining sin, we need to be careful, as we heard in the
10 o'clock hour. We need to we need to check ourselves,
be diligent. You see, and I'll confess this
myself and I'm preaching to myself as much as I am to anyone else.
Have you ever had the tendency to. To. Abuse your freedom in
Christ in this way. You see, we are free in Christ.
To be free in Christ is free indeed. It's to know that nothing
that I do or don't do is going to change my standing before
God as a justified sinner. Because see, it's all outside
of me. I'm a prince. I was made a prince at the cross
of Calvary, and that's wonderful news. But the scripture doesn't
portray The the center who's been given spiritual life is
one who abuses that. Now it calls us servants of righteousness. We're still servants. We were
servants of sin, but it calls us servants of righteousness.
You see, we're free, but we're free to serve. We still have
a race to run. And so when we have a tendency,
we should always be on guard when we say, you know, it really
doesn't matter if before I might have been a little more fervent
because I thought it Might have something to do with me going
to heaven and hell. But now that I know that my running has nothing
to do with my salvation, it don't really matter quite as much.
Or now that my praying is not anything that I'm doing to earn
any favor, to maintain my salvation, maybe I just won't be quite as
fervent in prayer, or in Bible study, or in contributing to
the ministry, or just living a life in conformity. With God's
revealed will in the scripture, and I suggest to you that when
we allow ourselves to think that way, we've taken our eyes off
of Christ. And instead, what we're doing,
we're acting, we're acting out the very sentiments of one who
still imagines that salvation is conditioned on themselves,
on their will, or on their running. And we should be ashamed of that
and not walk therein. In chapter 11 of Hebrews, we
have the hall of fame of faith, and There, it talks of all the
Old Testament saints, and at the end of the chapter, verse
39, it says, these all having obtained a good report through
faith, they received not the promise. That is, they had a
promise that their sins, too, were going to be taken care of
at Calvary, but they died, passed on physically before that was
done. And it says in verse 40, God
having provided some better thing for us, that they without us
should not be made perfect. So we have here the speaking
of being made perfect in Christ at the cross of Calvary. All
of history, again, converging right there on the cross. That's
where God showeth mercy. And then in chapter 12, wherefore
seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight,
every distraction that would affect our walk. We'll see. And
the sin, which doth so easily beset us, the sin of unbelief
of imagining acting consistent with those who would believe
that salvation still condition on their wheel or on their running. And let us run with patience
or race. You see, we still run. Running
doesn't earn me anything, but we still run a race. That's the
picture of the redeemed, regenerated sinner given in the scripture. You see, he's one who does run
a race. How does he run it? Verse two,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He's our all in all, and he finished
it. He perfected it. He made us perfect
in Christ, and that's how we're to run. So we don't run in order
to gain, but yet we're we're to run. And I suggest to you
that if we should ever run mindful of Christ and and, you know,
it's almost impossible to be thinking of his grace and what
how fortunate we are to be made princes, to receive an inheritance. We had no part whatsoever in
earning. It's almost impossible to do
that. And then to take his commands and his reveal will in Scripture
and at the same moment say, so I just I don't think I'll worry
about worship in this month or this week or pray in or whatever
are just just having our thoughts on him. You can't have you. You're
not doing both at the same time. It just doesn't happen. And so
that's an exhortation I take for myself and share with you
as well. He says he. He is the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and sat down. He finished it.
He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It's over. It's done. And the very righteousness
by which we stand before God accepted is that which resides
right now at the right hand of God, but made mine in the same
way that our sins were made his by amputation. So truly, what
we see is it, this choosing, this choosing unto salvation. All that that choosing is unto
is truly of God that showeth mercy. Well, today we're going
to observe the Lord's table and we do this in remembrance of
this very work and all are invited to partake of this. Who look
to Jesus is the one who met all that was required. The finisher,
the author and finisher of our faith. You say that's what is
being professed in the observance of this ordinance as well. We're
remembering that it is all of God who show with mercy where
in Christ, in Christ, who's typified by these very elements, which
will partake the unleavened bread, leaven in scripture, being a
type of sin. If you recall under the old covenant,
the nation of Israel, many of the feasts that they had, it
required that for some period of time, they eat nothing but
unleavened bread. And as the scripture says, the
New Testament says, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. So today, if one imagines that
God did it all in Christ. That it is of God that showeth
mercy, but there's a part of my will, part of my running involved. I must do something to procure
it, to acquire it. You see, that's a little leaven
that leaveneth the whole lump, because we see in the unleavened
bread the perfection of his broken body. This was one who came and
lived in perfect conformity to all of the revealed will of God. You see, that's his righteousness,
his obedience all the way unto death. And it couldn't be it
couldn't be tainted in any way, as typified by this unleavened
bread. And then we have the wine, of course, representing his blood,
the blood that was shed to pay for sins, whereby God could be,
as he says, he is, as he told Moses, one who doesn't just look
over sins, who shall by no means clear the guilt. You know, they
must be that their guilt must be totally removed. They must
be, their sins must be fully remitted and all those for whom
he lived and died, those whom the father chose and gave to
him. So what shall be for them? So Mark, if you would come, I
have piano duty today. So Mark's going to leave us,
leave us here. And if, and you men, um, as we partake of this,
just keep in mind that that's our testimony, that it is not
of him that will, it's not of him that run it, but of.