Romans chapter nine, and we're
going to read from verse 14. Romans chapter nine, and verse
14. Let me just read verse 12. It was
said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. 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 is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. 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 all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath
resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory? even us whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As he saith also in Hosea, I
will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God. Isaiah
also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work and
cut it short in righteousness, because a short work will the
Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma
and been made like unto Gomorrah. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The Lord Jesus Christ once told
his disciples, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. He put the place of priority,
the initiative upon his own shoulders and upon his own choice. You
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should
remain. Now sure it is that Jesus chose
these men, these apostles, to be his disciples, these individuals. He chose them for a particular
task. He chose them for a purpose.
But if we simply consider the choice of these men by the Lord
Jesus Christ to be limited to that role of being a disciple,
being a student of the Lord, then we fail to grasp the extent
and the depth and the nature of the sovereign choice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the verse is quite emphatic,
that these men were not simply chosen to be students, they were
chosen to be apostles, they were chosen to be servants, they were
chosen to be messengers, and they were chosen under the pretext
that there would be a gathering in of the Lord's people which
was ordained by him. Now the word ordination means
ordered. That's the same word. It comes
from the same word. That's like a command. If I give
you an order, then I command it to be done. Those of you who've
spent time in the military know a little bit about being under
authority. And that's what the word ordination
means. It speaks of a command that requires
to be obeyed. I guess that in many ways people
say, well, we don't like that talk any longer about commands
and obedience and obeying. We prefer to be motivated for
more productive things or to follow after a more motivational
kind of approach. But we're talking about God here,
and we're talking about a king, and we're talking about a sovereign. Anyone who's done any reading
in history will be able to see how when those in authority made
a command, that command had to be obeyed upon cost of life. In fact, very often those are
courtiers around about a powerful king could lose their heads just
for the wrong look or a moment's hesitancy at the whims of a king
if he felt that his purpose was being crossed. We are speaking
here about the sovereign God and when God ordains something,
He commands it with all the power, all the emphasis, all the certainty
of the all-powerful, omnipotent God. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
said to his disciples, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you and ordained you that you should go forth and bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain. He is telling them that
they were chosen to bring forth fruit. And there wasn't any question
about that. Just as much as they had been
chosen, so they would bring forth fruit, such is the power of the
order, the ordination. There was an inevitability about
the fact that that fruit would be gathered, that their work
would be successful, that the purpose would be achieved. And
we've been reading that. in the past few weeks with some
of the young people on a Lord's Day morning when we've been thinking
about these early chapters of the book of Acts and how it was
that the Apostle stood up in the midst of the crowd of people
and preached the gospel. Peter did it on the day of Pentecost
and then at the beautiful gate he preached the gospel and there
were thousands of people affected by the power of his word. Why was that? Was that just random? Might it have gone another way?
Might they have said, forget it, we're not going to listen
to it? No, it couldn't have been. Because that was ordained, that's
the whole point about the ordination of God. They were ordained to
bring forth truth and just as much as God gives the order,
the ordination, so he powerfully affects those whom he is going
to gather and bring to himself. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit combine together in order to secure and
accomplish the purpose. Not only were they ordained to
bring forth fruit, but they were ordained, or it was ordained,
that that fruit would remain. So there is a perseverance here
spoken of also. Those who would be the fruit
of the apostles' labour, those that would be the fruit of the
preached gospel would endure to the end. There would be that
perseverance and there would be fruit to show at the end of
the day. Those statements there of the
Lord Jesus Christ, They're not subject to the will and the whim
of the individual. If God is going to choose someone
to salvation, and if God is going to effect the means of that salvation,
God is also going to change the heart of that one of his elect
children and make sure that they are made willing to hear the
gospel, to receive the gospel, to believe the gospel according
to his time and purpose. And here is the beauty of the
completeness of the plan of salvation. The means and the end have been
ordered and ordained. The sovereign God with absolute
certainty declares what will be and when it will be and how
it will be accomplished and he brings it all to pass. Now I know that the vast majority
of professing Christians would have trouble with what I've just
said. They would have trouble because
they believe and they are willing to defend the concept of the
free will of man. And they say that on the basis
of this free will, which everyone possesses, an individual may
either choose to accept God or to reject God according to their
own free will. However, despite the superficial
attractiveness of that idea, of that notion, that a man can choose God or
reject God according to his own will, that Arminian gospel, that
gospel of decisionism, it's simply not the teaching of the Bible. It simply isn't what the Bible
has to say. It is not what God has revealed. And in this chapter that we have
read this evening, or that portion of it, Romans chapter 9, we see
emphasised so clearly the fact that God has a people that he
is saving. that he has two nations in view,
that as Paul here lays out, two people, or two peoples, a children
of the flesh and a children of promise. Two seeds, if you like,
two lines in which the whole of humanity might be discovered. And these two, these two lines,
these two seeds are personified in the individuals, Jacob and
Esau. So we see that when God speaks
of these two boys, these two boys that were conceived and grew in their
mother's womb as twins, We're told in scripture that they contended
with each other even in the womb. There was a difference in the
boys and there was one whom God was willing to call, willing
to bless, willing to save, and one whom he was pleased to leave
to follow the course of the Adamic nature. Jacob have I loved, and
I have chosen him to bless him, to save him, and to glorify him. Esau have I hated, and I will
leave him to the judgment, the reprobation, and the damnation
of fallen mankind. And so we see that these two
boys, these two individuals, they speak of the whole of humanity. All men and women find themselves
under one of these two heads. Those that are loved by God and
those who are left in their sin, who are hated by God. The one
loved, the other hated. And in these two, the eternal
covenant of grace and peace unfolds. A discriminating love is exhibited
by God, a love that is laid upon one but not given to another. Salvation and damnation are hereby
revealed. predestination and the purpose
of God in gathering to himself a bride for his son out of the
fallen heritage of Adam and Eve. And so the apostle says in verse
11 of Romans chapter 9, for the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. Not of the works of the boys,
the boys hadn't even been born. The boys were still in their
mother's womb, and yet God chose one of them, and he left the
other in that place of reprobation. This is the gospel that Paul
preached. This is the gospel that the Holy
Spirit brings to men and women in the scriptures. And if any
are to deny this gospel, they must deny the teaching of the
Apostle Paul. To use a phrase that the Lord
used to his disciples, if it were not so, I would have told
you But it is so. The sovereign purpose of God
will succeed in gathering his people out from the fallen individuals
of human generation and bring them all to himself eternally. The divine will must be honoured. Otherwise, God is not God. Otherwise, the omnipotence of
God is legitimately challenged and exposed. Otherwise, the will
of God is not a will that accomplishes God's desires. And we must look
elsewhere for a God. Someone or something else must
rule in this universe. if God does not have his way
and his will. But history is pressing on relentlessly,
inexorably, in order to accomplish the will of Almighty God. It
will come to its predetermined conclusion. And the word of God
is emphatic here in Romans chapter nine, to lead us and to teach
us and to guide us into all truth. And this isn't just merely philosophy. This isn't just the conjectures
of an imaginative mind. This is neither abstract theology. This is the very teaching of
the apostles. All of the apostles whose writings
we have testify of these truths. and it is stated as the very
revelation of God himself. It is a concept so inherently
despised by the men and women of this world that it is universally
opposed wherever it is declared and preached. Natural men and
women hate this because it takes from them their own views of
their own self-importance and their own self-ability. Their ability to determine for
themselves what they shall do. That's interesting because I'm
going to come back a little bit later. I want to read something
to you. And that's the very point that this author makes with respect
to this question. Men and women hate this doctrine
because it proves the veracity of God's will when it declares,
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. In Hebrews 3, verse 10, the apostle
there writes, speaking of God, That's humankind. That's mankind. That's the fallen
sons and daughters of Adam right there. They do always err in
their heart. The ways of God are not the ways
of man. That's why we, at one rather
superficial level, think to ourselves, well, if everybody's against
us here on this matter, maybe we've got something going for
us. Because that's the nature of man, to be opposed to these
things. And in this passage, the Apostle
Paul uses a number of well-chosen analogies in order to press home
the statements that he is making with respect to God's sovereignty
and to prove his point and to justify his argument. He's already said that these
two boys, Jacob and Esau, that they, in order that the purpose
of God might be accomplished, having done neither any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth, said, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. This is election. This is God's
predestinating purpose. And in order to show this in
its clearness, in its clarity, the Apostle Paul sets out these
analogies and draws the Old Testament scriptures in, in support of
his case. I'm grateful that the Apostle
wrote what he wrote in Romans chapter nine. I'm grateful that
the Holy Spirit led the Apostle, inspired the Apostle to write
as he did. Because with these examples that
we've read together from the back part of Romans chapter nine,
with these examples, these analogies that the Apostle quotes, God
is giving us an explanation of the statement that he has just
made. Jacob have I loved. Esau have
I hated, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. He could have stopped it right
there. He had declared what he was and is and is going to do. He had declared that election
was his prerogative. He had declared that the choice
of individuals was according to him. And he could have left
it there and he would have said, now there you are. Humankind,
deal with that. and we would be left saying,
can that really mean that? Can that really be what he's
talking about? No, it couldn't be. Why would
we say that? Because that's our natural reaction.
That's the way that men and women think, who do always err in their
hearts, who don't know the ways of God. So the Apostle Paul,
under the direction of the Holy Spirit, makes it evidently clear
exactly what is being talked about here. I'm glad God gave
us the examples and the explanation. And I'm also glad because we
have these divinely inspired pictures given to us in order
that there is no doubt about what the apostle is saying, or
rather what the Lord God is saying to us. So when he speaks about
Pharaoh in Egypt, or he speaks about the potter with the clay,
these are pictures to, as it were, give definition to the
theology that has just been expressed about the way in which God deals
selectively and discriminately with certain individuals, choosing
one to salvation and leaving another in his or her sin. and the apostle knows how men
and women are going to react to that. So he asks the question,
are you going to hear what I've just said and say that God is
unrighteous for doing that? Will you say that God's wrong
for doing that, that God is culpable for taking this position, for
ordering things, ordaining things in this way? Would you say that
of God, that he is improper, that he is ill-advised, that
he is mistaken, that he is wicked in taking such a line, making
such a choice, dealing with humankind in such a way? For choosing one
person and passing over another. For election, is God unrighteous
because of election? Is it wrong for God to love one
and not another? To hate one and not another? So in these biblical examples
that we are given, the Apostle Paul takes that principle and
he teases out the ways in which God is justified in doing exactly
what he has done. And in these Bible examples,
the series that he gives from Moses, the great law giver of
the Old Testament and the supporting testimony of the prophets. Hosea
is here drawn in as well in support of the apostles writings and
the Holy Spirit's revelation. We see that the law and the prophets
both testify to the veracity of the gospel and they justify
God in his doings, in his dealings as being entirely righteous. Paul shows that it is God's independent
prerogative according to his absolute power, to do exactly
as he will with his people. Look at verses 15 and 16 of chapter
9 with me please. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid, God forbid that such
a thought should even cross our minds. 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. God is retaining that right to
himself to be merciful and compassionate to whomsoever he chooses. What Paul is saying to us here
by way of explanation to this doctrine is, friend, it's not
your call. It's not my call to decide whether
God is right or wrong in this matter. God's Purpose. God's will is God's will and
purpose. And he will do exactly what he
wants. He is not answerable to you and
he is not answerable to me. And Paul is saying, using the
words of the Lord as it were, that the Lord will insist upon
it. He will not give up this right
of his. Mercy and love is discriminately
bestowed at God's will and for His glory. Look at verse 17. 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 all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. In this example, the apostle
is actually going a step further. He said that he would have mercy
upon whom he would have mercy and show compassion upon whom
he would show compassion. I love who I want to love. That's
God's right. I love who I want to love. He
goes on and he says he actually raises individuals up and hardens
them. in order to accomplish his purpose
here upon earth. God hardened Pharaoh's heart. You remember Lydia had her heart
opened by the Holy Spirit. You remember how the Lord speaks
about softening the hard, stony heart and replacing that with
a heart of flesh. Here, Pharaoh's heart was hardened
Pharaoh was raised up for a purpose. Pharaoh was a tool in the hand
of God in order to accomplish his purpose. We're talking of
course about the time when Moses and the children of Israel were
in Egypt and they were seeking opportunity under the servitude
and slavery of the Egyptian kingdom to leave and to go back into
the promised land that God had promised them. But they were
not to go out without judgment coming upon Egypt. And so the
Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart in order to reject the evident
miracles in the guise of the plagues that were sent upon Egypt
in order to facilitate the flight and the exodus of the children
of Israel to the promised land. The Lord God created Pharaoh
to this end. The Lord God promoted Pharaoh
to this end. He established him in Egypt that
he might ultimately be destroyed in bringing about the deliverance
of the Jews and the glory of God's name. The reputation of
God The name of God, the purpose of God would be revealed in the
judgment of Israel and in the slaying of Pharaoh and his hosts. And men try to hide that. men
with their notions of free will, men with their notions of man's
choice, men with their offers of gospel salvation to everyone
indiscriminately, they try to hide the fact that the elective
purpose of God, the sovereign purpose of God, the discriminating
purpose of God is clearly writ and exemplified on the pages
of this book. Pharaoh was a vessel fitted for
destruction, at once showing the judgment of God upon sin
and the deliverance of God of his people whom he was pleased
to bless. Condemnation and salvation set
side by side, God hardening this man to accomplish his purpose. In Exodus 7, verse 13, we read
about that hardening. And it says there, And he hardened
Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had
said. And some people might say, well,
you know, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Well, yes, he did. But it is also very clear that
the Lord hardened his heart also. And it was the Lord who hardened
his heart first. The Lord took the initiative
and acted positively in this matter. What's the action of
man going to be? Invariably, it is this. Well,
that's not fair. That just isn't fair. God wouldn't
do that. Well, maybe not your God, but
the God of the Bible did exactly that. That's exactly what he
did. Precisely that. He did it. Not only did he do it, but he
caused the apostle to show us why he did it. And Pharaoh is
not unique. Pharaoh is just being brought
forward as an example as to how God deals with these two nations,
these two seeds, these two lines of human population. And Paul's
forceful argument continues. He says, who are you to judge
God anyway? Verse 20, shall the thing formed
say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Did Pharaoh
have the right to say, well, why are you doing this to me?
It wasn't Pharaoh's call. The potter, he molds, he fashions
the vessel according to his own purpose. And even time, time
itself is the handmaid of God. And he is pleased to show long-suffering
to those who will ultimately be destroyed in order that they
might run their course to achieve and facilitate and accomplish
the plan of blessing and deliverance and salvation that God chooses
to put upon Jacob and those that he loves. There are in this world
vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. There are a chosen
people and a reprobate people. And this is God's handiwork. It is his design, it is his creation,
it is his process, and it is his ending. To the end, he says
in verse 23, that he might make known the riches of his glory. There will be an evidential demonstration
of the glory of God in the end time. And that glory will be
manifested to all creation, that God is sovereign and his purposes
are accomplished and his will fulfilled. Now our reaction to this revelation
of the apostle, this message of God's sovereignty and choice
in salvation indicates if we are one or the other in those
two lines of humanity. This is where the rubber hits
the road. This is where the cut comes. This matter here is showing us
how God himself has revealed himself to the point where we
say, this is the God of the Bible. Do you believe him? Do you trust
him? Do you accept this authority
and power that he possesses? The people of God bow to this
doctrine, this teaching, this revelation. They acknowledge God's sovereignty
in salvation and they believe what he has said and what he
has done. but rebels resist it. Rebels oppose it and they mock
this revelation. It is nevertheless true because
this is what God who cannot lie has stated and declared. Paul
said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And this is he in whom we are
called to believe. This is the one that we are called
to trust. This is the one that we are called to bow the knee
to. It's not some abstract notion
that I can believe in God or I can believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe what? Believe that he existed? Well,
there are plenty of people believe that he existed because they
saw him with their own eyes and yet they're in hell. So it's
not believing that he existed. It is believing that what he
has said and what he has done and what he has accomplished
and what he has willed is exactly the true God. And this is God's
will and purpose. It is believing that that we
are called to tonight, today. This is the one in whom we are
to believe, the one who is revealed in scripture. A remnant is mentioned in these
last verses. A remnant is a small part, it's
a part that is often discarded at the end when the greater part
is cut out and employed in the service of some activity. A little
bit will be left, the remnants, the off-cuttings, the outcast. And this remnant is identified
as being that which God takes pleasure in. When men have done
all their work, when men have sliced and diced and manufactured
and created and endeavoured to set up their own place in this
world, to set up their own righteousness before a holy God, it's that
which is the outcast, that which is the offscouring, that the
Lord is pleased to own and identify. These two nations, these two
races, these two seeds, these two peoples once again being
identified here. The stuff that's usually overlooked
is where the true perils of God's grace is to be discovered. There
would be a few from amongst the Jews would be gathered and there
would be a few from amongst the Gentiles would be gathered in. They would hear the gospel of
God's sovereign grace and purpose. They would hear of the sovereign
choice of God. They would hear of the effectual
redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the complete atonement
the accomplished labour of the God-man in order to cleanse by
his blood a people who are just as guilty as anyone else, but
who for the sake of God's purposes and glory have been redeemed,
called a remnant and redeemed from amongst the children of
men. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world in order to save his people from their sin. That people
that had been committed into his hand, given to him, that
people that God had loved and foreknown before time began. And this is the people that are
here called the Remnant. The people We might call them,
as Paul called them, our Jacob. The people are personified in
this one Jacob. He is the beloved of God. He is the elect. He is the chosen. And he is the redeemed of Christ. And that's not anything to do
with the national people of Israel. This is an amalgam of Jew and
Gentile, for there is no difference any longer. The Lord is pleased
to call out from both that people that he has placed his mark upon. They hear the gospel of grace
and in hearing it the Holy Spirit opens their heart to receive
it. They understand the sovereign
choice of God because they know that there is no good thing in
themselves that they are able to bring and lay before God in
order to appease His righteousness and His holiness. They understand
something of complete atonement because they know that there's
nothing in their pockets that they can pay for their own freedom
and liberty. They know something of accomplished
redemption because they see in the Lord Jesus Christ, that one
who declared it is finished. And they believe it. And that's
what marks the child of God. That faith, that believing, that
trust. They bow their knees in wonder. They bow their heads in worship. They are a remnant. they are
a few. I try to emphasise, if I can,
as we are going through some of these passages, the comfort that these truths
ought to give us. These truths are set in Scripture,
not for the Esau's, and the pharaohs and the vessels of wrath in this
world. They don't care what these pages
tell us, what this book says. They don't care what God has
said. They are of the flesh. They are opposed. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. We could
read these verses to them all day and all night. and it would
mean nothing to them, except that it would rile them up, it
would stir up that antagonism that they had towards us. How
dare you? But these things are written for us. These things
are for our guidance, our help, our instruction, our comfort,
and to give us an understanding of how richly we are blessed
by God in these great truths. And I think that it's no less
here. If ever there is something designed to take away any self-importance,
self-righteousness, if ever there is anything so constructed to
show us that it is entirely due to God's goodness and kindness
towards us, it's the teaching of election. It's the teaching
of predestination. It's the fact that when the potter
sat down with the pot, He made one to glorify him, and he made
one to be destroyed. This is God's purpose at work.
And if we find ourselves in that category of the Jacob that I
loved, how is it we've deserved that?
What is it that we've done in order to deserve such a recognition? How is it that we were part of
that remnant and not part of that greater mass of humanity
that has been reprobated and rejected? How is it that we are
here except that he will have mercy upon whom he will have
mercy. He will have compassion on whom
he will have compassion. Jacob have I loved. This is God's
doing. This is God's work. And we who
have received the blessings of grace can only but rejoice in
thanksgiving and gratitude that he has been pleased to call us
to such a place. Many who claim to be Christians
find the doctrine of election offensive and distasteful. But
it's not theirs, it's ours. It's for us. This is food for
the children. This is promise for the elect. A remnant shall be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
his disciples, you've not chosen me, I've chosen you and I've
ordained you that you should go forth and bring forth much
fruit and that fruit shall endure to the end. The remnant shall
be saved. God has established the beginning
and the end, and he has put in place the means, and all of these
things are working to the end of the accomplishment of his
purpose. Not all, but a remnant shall
be saved. and to accomplish his plan and
to glorify his name, he will finish the work that he has begun
to do and he will succeed in its doing. Let me just read a
few verses from Psalm 45. I read these in the week and
I thought that it would be a fine way to end our thoughts here
in this matter. It's actually 46, I've written
that wrongly. It's 46. God is our refuge and strength,
a very pleasant help, a very present help in trouble. Therefore
will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the
mountains be carried into the midst of the sea? Though the
waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with
the swelling thereof, say La. There is a river. The streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works
of the Lord. What desolations he hath made
in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. I promised you a little extract
that I wanted to read to you. This is from Robert Hawker's
Poor Man's Commentary on this passage in Romans 9. And I thought,
I'll try and paraphrase that and build it into my sermon.
And then I thought, no, I won't. I'll just read it to them in
its entirety, and they'll enjoy it, I hope, as much as I did. Mr. Hawker says, Among the carnal
world, there is nothing that excites the bitter hatred of
the human heart equal to the exercise of God's sovereignty
on the doctrine of election and reprobation. Every son and daughter
of Adam, while in the unrenewed state of an unregenerate mind,
rises up in rebellion against it. And yet wonderful to relate,
there is not one of the whole race, either son or daughter,
but what, in the proceedings of their own life from day to
day, absolutely preach and practise the doctrine both of election
and reprobation in all they do or say. From the wayward, capricious
temper of the little child to the petulancy and ill-humour
of the man of grey hairs, They manifest this in their pursuits
and desires, in the objects they approve of or dislike, their
fondness or hatred almost every hour. They have their choice
and aversions. as it respects their company,
their food, their dress, their pleasures, their conversations.
If at their daily table there is a variety of dishes to pamper
the appetites, they will choose here or there, reject or dislike
as their fancy directs them. and this without either rule
or reason, either wisdom or good sense, nay sometimes to their
sorrow in inducing sickness and a thousand evils and death. And should any venture to call
them in question, either in their judgment or conduct, what anger
sometimes hath followed. Is this preaching and practising
election and reprobation, or is it not? But when the judge
of all the earth, who cannot but do right, declares that he
hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth,
the proud, unhumbled heart of man rises in the most deadly
anger and complains of the righteous decree. So then, there is but
one being in the universe capable of acting with a sovereignty
of power and wisdom, whose election and reprobation must be founded
on an unerring standard of what is right. And he, according to
fallen man's judgment, shall be the only one precluded from
the exercise of this privilege. such as the blindness and desperately
wicked state of the heart of man by the fall. Thank you, Mr
Hawker. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us this evening.