I need to say just a few things
before I start. If you're like me, I come to
Shepherd's Conference for many reasons, but at the head of the
list is to hear John MacArthur preach. And no one wants to hear
John MacArthur preach today more than I do. That was not meant to be a joke. I have been coming to Shepherd's
Conference since 1983. That's 40 years ago. We met over in the chapel, which
was only half full. And over the years, these last
40 years, There's been one constant voice in my spiritual life, and
that voice is John MacArthur. And I pray that he can be with
us tomorrow, and I think that 5% of John MacArthur
is worth more than the whole evangelical world put together. He is the shepherd of the Shepherds'
Conference. He has shepherded us for more
than four decades. His understanding of the Scripture,
His convictions, the fidelity of His life, His outspokenness, His pastor's
heart, His prophetic voice. has been really a landmark for
us. And I know that we are gathered
here because he has been really the anchorman for us. And so I think that we should
pray for John, that God will give him a quick recovery and
that he will be here because I need to hear whatever it is
that he has to say more than any man in this room. So no one
can fill the pulpit in the place of John MacArthur. It would take
40,000 men to try to fill that footprint. But I'm very grateful
that I have the opportunity to preach to you today. So please know my heart on this. If you would take your Bible
and turn with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 9. And several months ago, I was
asked to preach on Romans chapter 9, a message entitled, The Election
of the Remnant. So I must warn you, this will
be an R-rated sermon. R for reformed. Code word for Bible. So, today we will be putting
with a driver. And so, I want to begin reading
in verse 10. I have 18 verses to look at.
I've never preached 18 verses of an epistle in my life. So,
we'll see how this goes. I'll end when I end. I want to
begin reading in verse 10 this Mount Everest of a passage of
Scripture that really is the signature text in the entire
Bible for the subject of the sovereignty of God in salvation. This looms over the horizon of
inspired Scripture and countless other passages that address this
subject, but this is, this is the cornerstone. the doctrine
of sovereign election, and as we think about the remnant, tying
these two together, the election of the remnant. This is our focus
today. Beginning in verse 10, this is
the Word of God. And not only this, but there
was Rebekah also. When she had conceived twins
by one man, our father Isaac, though the twins were not yet
born, and had not done anything good or evil, or good or bad,
so that God's purpose, according to His choice, would stand, not
because of works, but because of Him who calls. It was sent
to her, the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written,
Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? There
is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. For He says to Moses, I will
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
upon whom I will have compassion. So then it does not depend upon
the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has
mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh,
for this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power
in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the
whole earth. So then he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens
whom he desires. You will say to me then, why
does he still find fault? For who resists His will? On
the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The
thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make
me like this? Will it? Or does not the potter
have a right? over the clay to make from the
same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use. What if God, although willing
to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured
with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so. to make known
the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared
beforehand for glory. Even us, whom He also called,
not from among Jews only, but also among Gentiles, as He says
also in Hosea, I will call those who are not My people, My people. and her who was not beloved,
beloved. And it shall be that in the place
where it was said to them, you are not My people, there they
shall be called sons of the living God." Isaiah cries out concerning
Israel, "'Do the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand
of the sea?' It is, here it is, it is the remnant that will be saved. In these verses, and in this
last verse, we find the word which is the theme for our conference,
it is the word remnant. A remnant refers to a small portion
of a much larger whole. Today, a carpet shop or a fabric
shop will have a remnant section way in the back, and it contains
the leftovers, the scraps that were sold, are being sold at
a reduced discount. They're of little value to a
buyer. They're of little use to anyone.
They're a remnant. in a state of being discarded.
They're ready to be thrown away because they seem to be so small
and so insignificant. In this passage, this is exactly
how the apostle Paul depicts the people of God. Whether Jews
or Gentiles, we are the remnant. We are a small fraction of the
whole. And in the eyes of the world,
we are the leftovers. We are the scraps. We are those
that have little to no value. And this is how Jesus said it
would be, that the many are on the broad road, headed for destruction,
but that the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those
who find it. Jesus said, many are called,
but few are chosen. And Jesus referred to His disciples
as the little flock. So we're not surprised to open
Romans 9 and see the word remnant here because it has always been
but a small portion of the world population that God has chosen
from before the foundation of the world to be His people. The remnant is who we are and
it is who God has entrusted to our care. to shepherd them and
to pastor them. We are the elect of God, rejected
by the world, but chosen by God. We are those who are overlooked
by the world, but foreordained by God. We are those unknown
by the world, yet foreknown by God. We are those who are persecuted
by the world, yet predestined by God. We are the remnant, the
small, the few, the little, yet precious in the sight of God. Mart Lloyd-Jones said, God has
always done His greatest work through a remnant. Get rid of
the notion of numbers. Spurgeon has said, the majority
is always wrong. The majority never stands with
Christ. The majority is never with God. God has always chosen to work
through His chosen little flock. And as God has placed us in churches
and placed us in ministries, and as we look around and see
the size of the world and the movements that are taking place,
and we see what is a relatively small number of people that God
has entrusted to us, let us remember how precious they are to God
because they are the remnant. as we look at Romans 9, we want
to see the election of the remnant. And I have five headings that
I want to set before you as we walk through this passage to
help us define what this doctrine of sovereign election is. And the first heading is in verse
10, it is an unmerited choice. It is an unmerited choice. Paul
begins these verses by announcing how undeserving it is for anyone
to be chosen to be a part of the remnant. No one deserves
to be included among the number of the elect. None has worked
for it. None have merited it. So, beginning
in verse 10, and not only this, and this refers back to Abraham's
family and the election of God out of Abraham's family, that
not all Israel is Israel. And not only this, but there
was Rebekah, Isaac's wife. Also, when she had conceived
twins by one man through our father Isaac, and those two twins
are Jacob and Esau within the ethnic people of Israel. Verse 11, for though the twins
were not yet born. God had already made a determinative
choice before they were even born, based upon nothing foreseen
in them, anything that they would ever do, anything that they would
ever be, but that God, before the foundation of the world,
God made a determinative, distinguishing, even discriminating choice between
two sons coming out of the same womb. One would be chosen for
salvation, to be a part of the remnant. The other would be passed
over and would be left in his sin. So, verse 11 continues,
they had not done anything good or bad. So, the choice had nothing
to do with them. God did not choose them because
of them, God chose them really in spite of them. because they
were both sinners marred by sin. And here's the reason why, in
the middle of verse 11, so that God's purpose When he says purpose
here, prothesis, he's referring to the eternal decree of God. He is referring to that which
God carefully thought out, Ephesians 1 verse 11, who works all things
after the counsel of His will. Before God created anything,
God had already mastermind in His genius of understanding His
eternal decree that includes everything that shall come to
pass, and in this eternal decree, God's purpose. And the word purpose
here shows how resolved God is to carry out His purpose. So that God's purpose, according
to His choice. It means to be chosen out from
among the many, that out of the many there would be a sovereign
choice by God the Father before the twins were even born of who
would be a part of the remnant and who would remain in their
sin. The word is used in the Septuagint,
which was the Greek translation of the Old Testament before the
coming of Christ. This word ekluge, it was used
to refer to David going down to the riverbed and selecting
five stones that He would put into His slingshot to bring down
Goliath. There were many other stones.
There were many other rocks, but He hand-selected these five
because they would perfectly fit His purpose to go and to
take on Goliath. That's the very word that is
used here, according to God's choice, out of the mass of humanity. God has singled out and selected
those who will be a part of His remnant. And He says that His
choice in verse 11, so that it would stand, that means that
it would remain fixed, it would be irrevocable, it would be immutable,
it would be unalterable, that once the will of God has been
exercised, there is no plan B, there is no alteration of it.
that it will stand, not because of works. Referring to Jacob
and Esau, it has nothing to do with either one of them because
none of their works could have ever merited God's choice. They would have given God a thousand
reasons not to choose them. not because of works, but because
of Him who calls. And the word calls here refers
to the effectual, irresistible call of God that draws into saving
relationship with Jesus Christ those who were chosen before
the foundation of the world. Sovereign election takes place
in eternity past This effectual call takes place within the appointed
time, within the parameters of human history, and it is the
call of God that brings to Christ the remnant that was chosen by
God before the foundation of the world. God's call is so powerful. that
it raises the dead from the grave of sin to come alive and to be
spiritually resurrected and to be quickened unto God. This call
of God, it pierces and penetrates to the very epicenter of a person's
soul. and it summons and it arrests
the one who is called and even subpoenas the one who is called
and draws them irresistibly into faith with Jesus Christ. That's how powerful this call
is. And understand this, no one would
ever be saved if God did not choose them and God did not call
them. to this choice by God was before
the twins were yet born. Ephesians 1 verse 4, He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world that we might be
holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us to
the adoption of sons. Spurgeon said, God must have
chosen me before time because He would have never chosen me
once He saw me in time. And so, if you're a believer
in Jesus Christ here today, the reason that you are a believer
is that God sovereignly, royally elected you before time began
and called you to Himself at the predetermined moment, and
when He called, you answered. And if God did not call, no one
would ever be saved. So, it was an unmerited call,
an unmerited choice. Second, it's an unexpected choice. In verses 12 and 13. Thirteen, in choosing his elect,
God often makes the most unexpected choices, the very opposite of
what man would have chosen or the world would have chosen.
So in verse 12, it was said to her, to Rebekah, the older will
serve the younger. Literally in the Greek, the greater
will serve the lesser. It's completely unexpected, and
this is a quotation from Genesis 25 and verse 23, which at the
time when twins were born, the birthright traditionally went
to the firstborn, and the younger would serve the firstborn, the
older, for the rest of his life and be in a subsidiary position. But God here reverses the order
and God passes over the older and He chooses the younger and
the greater will become the servant of the lesser. And now He backs
it up in verse 13 by quoting Malachi 1 verses 2 and 3, just
as it is written, Jacob I loved. But Esau I hated. Jacob I loved." God set His heart
of affection and distinguishing love upon the lesser, upon Jacob,
and this is a special love. It is a saving love. It is a
redeeming love. There is a general love that
God has for all mankind. It's called common grace. He
causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God even
feeds the animals. God allows unbelievers to enter
into marriage, to have a job, to enjoy the beauty of creation. I mean, that's a general benevolence
of God. But God's saving love is reserved
exclusively for the remnant. It is reserved exclusively for
the elect. And when He says, Jacob I loved,
That means Jacob alone that I have set my heart upon Him to rescue
him and to redeem him from his sin. But by stark contrast, Esau
I hated. Radically different than what
God has for Jacob. With Esau, he is passed over.
With Esau, he is left in his sin. When he says, Esau I hated, it
could be taken as love less. I actually take it to mean Esau
I detested, Esau I loathed. You may say, how can God hate
Esau? I totally understand. How God
can hate Esau. Romans 118, the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness
of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The wrath
of God, that's not His love, by the way. The wrath of God
is upon every person who is outside of Christ. And in the even casual
reading of Psalm 5, Psalm 7, Psalm 9, Psalm 11 reveals that
God hates not just the sin, but God hates the sinner who is resisting
Him and rejecting Him, God doesn't send sin to hell, God sends the
sinner to hell. Paul Washer has said, I've given
God a thousand reasons not to love me. And that is true for
each and every one of us. And yet God from within Himself
has chosen to set His love upon those who are unworthy, who are And it is so unexpected. And
the reason that God does it this way is so that we can all be
reminded that it is God who is the sovereign over our salvation.
That this is not following traditional lines or logical realms of thought,
but God, for reasons known only to Himself, will choose whom
He will choose and save whom He will save. That salvation
is of the Lord. God delights in choosing the
least and the last to be His remnant. In 1 Corinthians 1 verse
26, the Apostle Paul writes, "'Consider your calling, brethren,
that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many
well-educated, not many erudite academic elites, not many mighty, not many who
have clout Not many who have influence in the community, and
not many noble, not many blue buds, not many of noble birth,
not many from top drawer. God has just bypassed, for the
most part, all of them. And verse 27, but God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, those that
the world perceived to be foolish, moronic, moros in the Greek.
And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things
which are strong. And the base things of the world,
those just in the basement of life, and the despised, God has
chosen the things that are not. They have nothing going for them. They're described by the word
not. They didn't make who's who, they
made who's not. Why would God do it this way?
Why does God choose to reach to the bottom of the barrel and
elect the leftovers of this world? He may nullify the things that
are, so that no man may boast before God." This is the way
God has chosen to operate. I mean, look around here in this
room. I mean, it looks like we just washed
up on shore. I mean, this is not exactly looking
like a board meeting for some Fortune 500 company looking around. But God has always chosen to
sovereignly elect a pagan moon-worshiping idolater to be the father of
the nation Israel. God has always chosen to take
a little baby in a basket floating down the Nile River to bring
Pharaoh down. God has always chosen to take
a little shepherd boy and send him into battle to bring Goliath
down. God has always chosen to take
some nobody fisherman from Nowheresville and a tax collector to flip the
Roman Empire. That's the way God operates.
His remnant is the most unexpected choice that there could possibly
be. And you may be thinking here
today, you know, I'm not as gifted as others. I'm not as intellectually
smart as others. I'm not as well-spoken as others. Well, you know what? You are
eminently qualified to be a part of the remnant because God has always chosen
to work with nobodies. God sings solo. He doesn't need
duet. He doesn't even need backup.
I'll come to verse 14. It's an undefiled choice. All
God's choices are pure and perfect and unmarred by any injustice
and no accusation can ever be brought against God for any of
the choices that He makes, period, paragraph. Look at verse 14,
what shall we say then? Paul is anticipating what he
knows people are thinking and if they had the opportunity,
this is what they would say. Paul is stunningly brilliant.
He is a skilled teacher and he addresses, I know exactly what's
on your mind. This is what you would say if
you had the opportunity. There's no injustice with God,
is there? interpreted, that's not fair. That's not fair for God to choose
one over another. That's a charge of injustice against God. And if the judge becomes complicit
in a crime, He becomes charged with the crime. There's no injustice with God,
is there? Is this fair for God to operate like this, to choose
who He would like and pass over others? And Paul just immediately
slams the door shut on that, and he says, may it never be. In the Greek, it is meganoito.
It is the strongest, most emphatic denial that there could possibly
be. And loosely translated, it could
be no, no, never. God is not unjust. God is not
unfair. So he says in verse 15, for,
which introduces an explanation, for He, God Himself. So Paul says, I'm going to let
God Himself speak for Himself. For He says, and he now quotes
Exodus 33 verse 18, for He says to Moses, God says to Moses,
in response to Moses saying, show me your glory, in verse
18, this is the glory of God. put on brilliant display that
Moses must go hide behind a rock. It is so stunningly effulgent
with the shining glory of God. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. You don't want fair. You want mercy. Fair means you go to hell forever.
That's what you deserve. That's what I deserve. So, don't
play the fair card because you're going to lose the hand big time. No, you want mercy. And you want
compassion. But if it's mercy, it is purely
undeserved. The word mercy means to show
compassion to one who is afflicted. And compassion means to feel
for the one, to feel pity for the one who is afflicted. mercy becomes the dominant theme
in the inner structure of this passage. It's used five times,
twice here in verse 15. It's used again in verse 16.
It's used again in verse 18. There is this dominant cloud
of mercy that is hanging over the interior of this passage. And please note, I is used four
times in this one verse. Not we, not you, but I. This is a theocentric passage. It is all of God, that God will
have mercy, God will have compassion on whomever He so desires without
in any way being unfair. In reality, everyone who goes
to hell receives what they deserve. Everyone who goes to heaven receives
what they do not deserve. called mercy. It's called grace. And so, because it is unearned
and undeserved, therefore, it's not wages, it's a free gift,
and God can give this free gift to whomever He so desires. And no one else can say, hey,
what about me? Because you haven't done anything
to deserve what He chooses to give to another. Everyone who is chosen receives
mercy, and everyone who is not chosen for salvation is left
to receive what they deserve, which is eternal punishment.
So, Paul kind of wraps this up, this little section in verse
16, so then, it has a summation field bringing this a bottom-line
conclusion, these verses, so then it, referring to salvation,
so then it does not depend on the man who wills. Why does salvation
not depend upon the man who wills? Because no man would ever will
to believe in Jesus Christ left unto themselves. Dead men do
not believe. Every unbeliever is held in the
chains of their sin and unbelief, and there is the bondage of the
will. As Persians said, I've heard about
free will. I still haven't met him. I sit next to will. And every will that I see, Spurgeon
says, is in chains. Their will is either in chains
of sin or in chains of Christ and salvation, but no will is
just sitting there without any chains on them. I mean, free will, just a pagan
myth. The Loch Ness Monster? the abominable
snowman, and free will. Name three things you've always
heard about but never seen. That's why it did not depend
upon the man who wills. If it depended on the man who
wills, no one would ever be saved. We're all running away from God. We all are running to our sins. You don't want the choice to
be left to you because you will always choose your sin if you're
unconverted. And then he adds, or the man
who runs, because all men are running away from God. I mean,
earlier in Romans 3 and in verse 11, it says, there is none who
seeks after God. Verse 12, all have turned aside. Verse 15, their feet are swift
to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their path, and the path of peace they have not known. It doesn't
depend upon the man who runs because all men are running away
from God. How simple is that? God has to
be the pursuer. Martin Luther said, if any man
ascribes any of salvation, even the very least, to the free will
of man, he knows nothing of grace and has not learned Jesus Christ
aright. Luther also said, man has no
free will, but is a captive, a prisoner, and a bond slave,
either to the will of God or to the will of Satan. And George
Whitefield, arguably the greatest evangelist who ever lived since
the days of the Apostle Paul, says, man has a free will to
go to hell, but he has none to go to heaven. Spurgeon says, man's will must
not occupy the throne. The will of God must occupy the
throne. Should not Jesus Christ have
the right to choose His own bride? And the answer is yes to verse 17, for the Scripture
says to Pharaoh, and so now we're going to be addressing or Paul
will be addressing those who were not chosen for salvation,
those who have been passed over, they are known as the reprobate.
This is double predestination, those who are not chosen for
salvation but they are left in their sin to be hardened. Verse
17, 4, which introduces an explanation of what was just said. For the
Scripture says to Pharaoh, and he now quotes Exodus 9 verse
16, for this very purpose. Now, purpose is not in the original,
it's implied here and it's a good translation. But for this, I,
God as the Speaker, raised you, Pharaoh, up To demonstrate, it's
a Greek word that means to put on display. Pharaoh, you're going
to be like one big billboard in the world upon whom I will
set my glory. And what will be made known in
Pharaoh? To demonstrate my power in you. and that My name might be proclaimed
throughout the whole earth. My purpose for you is to raise
you up, to bring you down, so that the whole world can see
how awesome and how powerful I am, and I will be drowning
your entire army in the Red Sea." So then, it's kind of a summation,
so then He, and He is used four times in verse 18, again, He
is God. This is so God-centered, theocentric. So, He has mercy, which is synonymous
with salvation, on whom He desires, the word desires means phileo,
He wills, and He hardens whom He desires. God actively hardens whom He
desires. This is adult conversation going
on. So, this needs some clarification. This is not saying that God creates
sin in the hearts of men. This is not saying that God is
the author of evil. This is not saying that God forces
people to sin. But it does say that God hardens
hearts that are already hardened against Him, that God pours concrete into
their heart and it solidifies their unbelief. And God does this in hearts that
are already hardened against Him. In the book of Exodus, ten
times it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and it also
says ten times that Pharaoh hardened his heart. And the first of those
is that Pharaoh hardened his heart. And the result of that
is, if you want your sin, then I will give you over to your
sin. and I will harden your heart." And that is what God does with
the reprobate. God chooses to leave them in their sin and He
hardens them in their sin. This is the doctrine of reprobation,
which is the other side of the coin of the doctrine of election. You cannot have the doctrine
of election without the doctrine of reprobation. They are the
heads and tails of the same coin. So, verse 19, it's an unaccountable choice.
God owes no person an explanation for the choices that He has made. God will not be called to give
an account for who He has chosen and who He has chosen not to
choose. So in verse 19 we read, you will say to me then, and
again Paul is addressing what we would call an imaginary objector
because he knows human nature and he knows how people think
and he knows the conclusions to which they will jump. And
so, he's like a skilled lawyer who addresses a witness on the
stand before the other attorney can address that witness. He
brings it up and puts it into the public record. And so, that
is what Paul is doing here. I know what you're going to be
talking about after church. I know what you're going to be,
the conclusion to which you're going to be coming to, and it
is a faulty conclusion. You will say to me then, verse
19, why does he still find fault? How can God hold people responsible? How can God assign blame? That's not right for God to do
this. For who resists His will? It's a very arrogant question.
which is calling God into account, as if God can be brought into
the courtroom and put onto the witness stand, and God can be
cross-examined, and God can be questioned about what God has
chosen to do. It didn't go well for Job when
Job tried to do that. But what this is doing is charging
God with wrongdoing. And so Paul He draws a line in
the sand to that kind of vain thinking and in essence says,
you've gone way too far. But you think God owes you an
explanation for why He has chosen whom He has chosen, why He chose
Jacob, why He didn't choose Esau? So verse 20, on the contrary,
who are you, O man? Who in the world do you think
you are? puny little man, little piece of marred clay that you
would subpoena God to come into the courtroom of your mind and
give you an explanation for what God is doing? God does not owe
you an explanation. Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret
things belong to God, not to you, to God. Who are you, O man?" It's intended
to be sarcastic. It's intended to be putting this
imaginary objector into his place and reducing him down to Lilliputian
size. Who are you, O man, who answers
back to God? No more backtalk to God. Who are you to dare question
God's choices? You are assuming the moral high
ground over God and posturing yourself as superior to God. You are an arrogant, irreverent,
foolish man. God owes you no further explanation. How dare you indict God? with your question, or your indictment
that this isn't fair, or how can you hold man responsible? You need to get back in your
shell, little man. In the middle of verse 20, the thing
molded, will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this?
Will it? Paul uses the analogy of the
potter and the clay, and God is the potter and all of humanity
is dirt. It's just marred clay, pieces
of dirt. Do not call the sovereign into
account. You need to remember who you
are, O man. Shall the creature call the Creator into account. Such an incriminating accusation
against God is insufferable. It is intolerable. God will not
be subpoenaed and brought into your courtroom to answer your
questions and wait for your verdict on how God is doing. You would think Paul would let
it go at this point. But Paul is almost like a dog
with a bone. He says in verse 21, or does
not the potter, that's God, have a right, exousia, supreme authority? I remember R.C. Sproul explaining
to me exousia means that it's out of self. That God's authority
is out of Himself, that there is no delegated authority given
to God by someone else of a higher power, that all of God's supreme
authority, all of God's sovereign throne rights are from within
Himself and out of Himself. That's what the word exousia
means. Does not the potter have a right
over the clay to make from the same lump all of humanity? God can take this one lump of
humanity and God can make some to be vessels of honor And that
would be like a beautiful vase, a fine piece of pottery to put
out on display to enhance the beauty of the house, to use to
serve guests a meal. But he can also, out of this
same lump of clay, choose to make vessels for common use And
what that means is He can make out of this same, very same clay,
no different than those that are made for honorable use, God
can make trash cans. God can make toilets. God can
make privies to take human excrement out of the house. and put it
out behind, and it all comes from the same lump of clay. But the point is obvious that
God is sovereign over all of humanity, and God can choose
to do with humanity as He pleases. Some to be chosen to be objects
of grace, and others fulfill a different purpose. For God
to show off other attributes of God on them. For God to show
off His wrath and His power and His patience on them while God
shows off His love and His grace and His compassion on these. But it's all about God putting
His glory on display. And God is glorified in the salvation
of the elect, and God is glorified in the damnation of the reprobate.
God is glorified with both choices. So, verse 23, and He did so to
make known, to go public with this. He did so to make known the riches. plotas, fabulous wealth, to make
known the fabulous wealth, the riches of His glory upon vessels
of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory. And God put His wrath and power
and patience on display so that His mercy would shine even brighter.
If everyone receives mercy, then mercy is compromised, and mercy
no longer shines like bright stars on a dark night. But if
the vast majority receive wrath and power and patience, than mercy, which is used somewhat
sparingly with the remnant. It shines even brighter than
if everyone just receives mercy. So finally, verse 24, an unrestricted choice. God's sovereign choice now extends
far beyond Israel, which has been the singular focus in Romans
9. If Israel is the chosen nation,
then why isn't Israel saved? And as he comes to verse 24,
he shows this unrestricted election of God. that extends far beyond
the Jacobs of Israel, but it extends to the four corners of
the earth. And so, verse 24, even us, I
would refer to the Roman believers with the apostles, even us whom
He called, again sovereignly, irresistibly called into fellowship
with Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians not from among Jews only, ethnic
Israel, but also from among Gentiles. It would be most of us here today. From every tribe, every tongue,
every people, every nation, how vast and expansive is the
mercy and the saving love of God for sinners. To verse 25, and He, God, says
also to Hosea, I will call those who are not My people, that's
the Gentiles, those who are far away from God, Ephesians 3, I
will call those who are not My people, My people. That's a dramatic
conversion. And the reason they become My
people is because God calls them out of darkness into the light.
He calls them out of the world into the kingdom of God. And
her, referring to individual Gentiles who was not beloved,
beloved. That is saving love. It's the verse 26, and it shall
be in the place where it was said to them, referring to the
Gentiles, you are not my people, they shall be called. And that
is the effectual call of God. It's more than just they are
being named this, they are being called to be this. And they shall
be called sons of the living God and brought into saving relationship
with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Verse 27, and we're finished.
Isaiah cries out. This verb, cries out, means to
scream. Isaiah screams concerning Israel,
ethnic Israel. Though the number of the sons
of Israel be like the sand of the sea, vast, large. It is the
remnant, a relatively small portion, and
I know in chapter 11 it will say, all Israel will be saved. It's all of a very small amount. It is the remnant that will be saved. So what should be our response
to this? What is the so what? There's twenty applications. But I will have mercy upon whom
I will have mercy and not suffer you. I'm just going to give you one. One. humility. A proud, Reformed preacher ought
to be the ultimate oxymoron on the planet and might be closer
to being a moron. How can we have our nose in the
air? How can we be arrogant? How can
we strut around? As a result of this, every one
of us should say, why me? There was no reason for
you to choose me, except whatever is in the hidden counsels of
your mind. But for no apparent reason that
I have provided, All I've done is sin, and you
could have just hardened my heart and left me in my sin, and I
would have deserved that. But you chose…you chose me to
be beloved. You chose me to be your people. And it all is the result of you.
The only thing I've contributed is the sin that was laid upon
Christ. When I entered seminary, I don't know that I had even ever
read Romans 9 to think about it. And for two years, I fought
against sovereign election. Tooth and nail. I argued with
students. No one would want to see me come
into the break room. I would politely argue with professors. This just can't be true until God in His sovereignty
chose to reveal His sovereignty to me. And it was there all along. At
that time, I was a student in seminary, having to support my
own way through seminary. And so, to do that, I created
magazines. I wrote them, I produced them,
one with the Dallas Cowboys, one with the Texas Rangers. And
that was a whole lot more fun than second-year Hebrew. I went to practice with the Cowboys
almost daily. I was on the sidelines with them
when they were Super Bowl champions. Texas Rangers, I mean, I'm interviewing
the Yankees, whoever comes to town. That was just a fun existence. Even my professors said, well,
Steve, this is what God has for you. Tom Landry once said, Steve,
this is God's call in your life. You just need to keep producing
these magazines. And in the summer of 1978, Romans 9 hit me like a brick. Not only did I see the truth
of it, I saw the truth as it related to me and I realized, God, you didn't choose
me to wander around in this world. You didn't choose me to just
go be a sports writer. And some people, that is their
vocational calling, but that wasn't for me. I realized, God,
You have chosen me for a purpose. You haven't chosen me randomly.
You have chosen me for a purpose, and that purpose could be poured
through a keyhole. It's a very specific and narrow
purpose, and that purpose is to preach your Word and to tell
people about Jesus Christ and to be your mouthpiece here upon
the earth. I didn't even know you could
sell a business. I was so naive. As a result of the sovereignty
of God, I just literally shut everything down and got back
in the classroom. and sat where I'd never sat before.
I sat in the middle of the front row and just tried to learn everything
I could because I need this for the rest of my life, to preach
with precision and power the Word of God. Has God chosen you? Are you predestined? Are you
the elect of God? Are you foreordained from before
the foundation of the world? If so, God has a very specific
purpose for you to be here on this earth. He has not only chosen
you for heaven, but he has also chosen you to be his representative
here upon the earth. And I pray that as a result of
our time together these days, that you will double down on
your commitment to preach the Word that nothing will distract
you because you are the elect, a part of the remnant. May you
be faithful to that calling. Let us pray. Father, You have spoken loud
and clear in Your Word. I think a deaf man could have
heard this. I pray that these verses would cut to the bone
and resonate within us with great power. We humble ourselves beneath your
mighty right hand and we ascribe to you the honor
and the glory that belongs to you alone. You are opposed to
the proud. You give grace to the humble.
We have no reason to be proud. We have every reason to be humble. Lord, may the truth of Romans
9 fall afresh upon us and further shape us and mold us into the
men that you've called us to be. In Jesus name, amen.