to the book of Romans chapter
9, the whole of scripture from beginning to end is given over
to the subject of God's salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ, and
how that salvation is accomplished by the will and the work of God. And the chief objections to that
gospel are those false gospels which say that salvation is by
the will and work of men. Now, where I'm from, that is,
well, I'm actually from here, but where I live now, in Iowa,
they are, from their youth, most of them, Calvinists. And at least
as a point of doctrine, they say that salvation is by the
will of God. But they are as legalistic as
they are Calvinistic. And therefore they somehow or
another find a way to get the work of man mixed in there. This area, the free will area,
emphasizes that salvation is by the will of man. God wants
to save everybody, but who actually shall be saved is determined
by the will of man. Well, in this session, and then
when I shall speak again Friday, I want to speak from Romans 9
this morning and Romans 10 on Friday, because Romans 9 says
salvation is by the will of God, and Romans 10 says it's by the
work of God. And anyone who wants to deny
those facts is going to have a difficult time with Romans
9 and Romans 10. Romans 9 begins with Paul saying
this, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh. Now this is the spirit and attitude
that a true belief in the sovereignty of God's grace will produce in
the heart of a person. Now there are some who believe
the doctrine, and they become mean-spirited. But he who believes
more than sovereign grace, but believes in the gracious sovereign,
will have such a spirit as the Apostle Paul expresses here. Now, what Paul says here is the
truth, for he says, I say the truth, and he says, then I say
the truth in Christ. Whatever it is Paul is going
to tell us here, it's true. And of course, God's preachers
are honest men. They've been made honest by God.
God didn't find honest men and turn them into preachers. He
found men. and made him into preachers and said, if I'm going
to send someone else to speak, I'm going to send them out to
speak the truth. Paul says, I'm saying the truth here, I'm saying
it in Christ, and then because the law says in the mouth of
two or three witnesses a fact should be established, he says,
my conscience will also bear me witness in this matter, in
the Holy Spirit. So here in the mouth of two or
three witnesses, what he's about to say is true. And here's what
he says, and it's a fact about himself. He says, I had great
heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. So there's something
bothering me. There's something that is a continual
burden in my heart. Now, God's people, God's preachers,
are not uncaring about the lost condition of those that believe
a false gospel. Truth be told, you hear these
false gospels preached, it irritates you. If you know the truth, error
has got to irritate you. But our hatred is not aimed at
the people. I feel sorry for them. You've got to have compassion,
don't you? They're lost. They're so lost
they don't even know they're lost. They're so lost they think
they're saved. They're so lost they think everything's
okay. And there isn't anything they
can do about it. Continuous sorrow, a heaviness,
a burden over this thing. And then Paul says something
that's been very difficult for people to understand through
the ages. He says, "...for I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ for my brethren and my kinsmen according to the flesh."
What does he mean by that? Well, I'll tell you, I don't
think that Paul means If I could, I'd go to hell forever so that
they could be saved. I don't think that's what Paul's saying,
and I'll tell you why. His love for Christ transcended
even his love for his brethren. He said in Philippians 3 that
he cared all things, loss, for the excellency of knowing Christ. It is not selfishness. It is
not selfishness. to be insistent on Christ and
having him. What is Paul saying here? There
are two things I think he might be saying. Number one, he said,
I could wish. He wasn't talking about something that could happen. I think he might be saying at
this point that I would be, if it were possible, to bear for
my brethren in the flesh what Christ bore for me. What did
Christ bear for his people? For a time he was cut off from
the Father. He was made a curse. But it was for a time, and of
course the reason that our Lord Jesus could do this for a finite
amount of time and it be effective for eternity is because he is
an infinite person. for three hours there in the
darkness, or whether you want to refer to it as three days
in the tomb, for whatever, for that time our Lord was made accursed. He was accursed. And that cursing, because it
was applied to an infinite person, had the power within a scope
of a finite time to bring infinite results. And Paul said, if I
could do that, I would, but of course he can't. But there's
something else he might mean here, which even if it's not exactly what
Paul meant, it's a true thing. I'm sure Paul would have said,
yeah, I feel this way too. If you just read that straight
as it comes from the Greek language, it would read something like
this, for I could wish myself to be an anathema from Christ. for my brethren, an anathema. Now, what is an anathema? When we hear the word anathema,
we normally think of a curse, but it has another meaning, a
more general meaning. If you look back here at Luke
21, you'll see what that meaning is. Because here the word is
used again in what we might at first think is an entirely different
context and respect. Our Lord and his disciples were
there in Jerusalem near the temple. And it says in verse 5, And as
some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones
and anathemas, gifts. Anathemas, he said. What is an
anathema? An anathema is that which has
been given over, given over as an irrevocable gift. Therefore,
when they translated the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek
language, when they talked about the sacrifice of an animal, it
was an anathema. It was wholly given over to God. When they talked about going
in there to the the land of promise, and God was going to destroy
a city. That city was anathema, and the
reason it was anathema is because it was to be utterly given over
to God. In this respect, utterly given
over to him in justice. So what I believe Paul could
be saying here, and I'll tell you whether or not this is exactly
what Paul meant at this point, this is how every In fact, to
some degree, every believer is going to feel this way. He would
say, I could wish that I were utterly given over to and spent
lock, stock and barrel as a gift from my master to my brethren
to preach the gospel. Now, if we take it that way,
what he's saying is, I would have been glad if God would have
called me as primarily an apostle to the Jews. that I would have
been given over and spent and even died if necessary to bring
the gospel to them. But you remember, God told him
right from the beginning, I'm going to send you as a light
to the Gentiles. So what Paul is telling us here is, I'm not
mad at my brothers in the flesh who don't believe what I believe. Though they've
persecuted me, though they've maligned me, I would have been
perfectly happy if God would have spent me preaching the gospel
to them. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you be perfectly happy
if God spent you delivering the gospel to someone? Alright, he says, who are the
Israelites? Now here we find out that this
matter of salvation, and Paul develops this throughout this
chapter, It is not to be determined by any fleshly distinction whatsoever. It doesn't matter what you are
in the flesh, or what experiences you have experienced in the flesh,
that has no bearing ultimately on whether or not you belong
to God. Because here he describes this
group of people, the Israelites, and oh, what great privileges
they had. He said, who are Israelites? They had a good name. He that
prevails with God, a Prince of God, to whom pertaineth the adoption
and the glory." What does it mean by the glory? It's talking
about the Shekinah glory. God was in their midst. And they had the covenants. They
had the law right there. He mentions it again a little
bit later. The covenants and the giving of the law and the
service of God. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about that form of worship that they practiced
with the sacrifices, the priesthood. They had all these things, these
types and pictures of Christ. They had the promises. They had
the book in which the promises were written down. Why, look
at the heritage they had. Whose are the fathers? They had
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had Moses. They had all
these people as examples before them. And right from their own line,
as pertains to the flesh, and there living within the boundaries
of their own country, was no one less than Messiah, the Christ. They had privilege. But what
we find in the history of Israel is that privilege is not the
same thing as blessing. As it is written in the book
of Hebrews, they had the gospel preached to them, but it did
not profit them, it was not a blessing to them. Rather, it became a curse, because
to whom much is given, much is required. You all here are members of sovereign
grace churches, these children back here. Right now, hearing
instruction on the truth, what privilege? Will it become blessing? Only God knows. Only God can turn the privilege
of hearing the truth into the blessing of believing it. Don't make the mistake of believing
that because you have the privilege, you've got the blessing. It said
it profited them not, it was not a blessing to them because
it wasn't mixed with faith. They didn't really believe it.
There are some that I have met, in fact there's a town full of
them where I live, that think that we've got the covenant,
they say, we've got the truth, we've got the, yes they have
it all. Do you realize you never hear
anyone in that group? I've never heard anyone ever
tell me in that town, I was lost, but now I'm found. Never heard
any of them ever say I was blind, but now I see. And I think the reason is because
they've never been found and they don't see. They've got tremendous
privilege and very little blessing. So I like about old Jacob, he
had a lot of privilege, but what did he say to that man he wrestled
with? I'll not let go of you till you bless me. Bless me. Not as though the word of God
had taken none effect. For they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. When those that have the privilege
falls short of obtaining the blessing. It makes it look like
to the eye of the flesh that God's Word has no effect. But what they do not understand
is the Word of God is particular
in whom it goes to. The Word of God in word only
goes to many. The Word of God in power and
demonstration of the Spirit according to the promise goes to God's
chosen people. Therefore it says not everybody
in Israel, in privileged Israel, in fleshly Israel, actually belongs
to blessed spiritual Israel. That's why there's a difference.
That's why we see a world full of religion that has at least
some true statements attached to it, though utterly polluted
with false statements too. But we see this great world of
religion called Christianity. And yet, when all is said and
done, not all that Israel is going to be found as the true
Israel of God. Don't ever think that the Word
of God will fall short in any way of accomplishing all that
it was sent to do. What men must adjust in their
minds is what is it the Word of God was sent to do? It was
sent to call God's people. Just like you said, Paul, it's
addressed to somebody. It's addressed. And maybe this morning it'll
have your address on it. I hope so. I can't address it. God can't. And what you need
to do, and what I need to do, is pray, Lord, would you address
something to me? You put my name on it." Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but, and he quotes
scripture, "...and Isaac shall thy seed be called." Those Jews
like to say, Abraham is our father, and the Lord said, don't say
that Abraham is your father. Don't trust in that. Don't make
that your confidence. Why, if God wanted to, he could
look at this rock over there and say, you be my son, and it
would turn into a son of God at that moment. Ishmael could say with equal
authority as Isaac, I have Abraham to father. He's my father. But what sayeth the scriptures,
the word of God? Isaac. Isaac, you know, they
used to, in medieval days, they always put some kind of adjectives
after his name. Ivan the Terrible, you know,
and so-and-so the Red, or something like that. Isaac the unexpected,
Isaac the impossible, Isaac the child of promise. In Isaac shall
my seed be called, not in Ishmael. Paul proves the sovereignty of
God's grace by this example and others, that from one man sprang
two men, and yet only one of those men was called by grace. And we can find in those two
men no reason to distinguish one over the other. In fact,
if any fleshly distinctions were chosen, the lot should have fallen
to Ishmael. And in another example, which
brings it even closer, it says, What's in verse 8? That is, they
which are the children of the flesh, that which is the product
of the flesh, which is a distinction in the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise, the children
of the word, are counted for the seed. That's who it is. Four, this is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, this isn't the only example. We've got other examples
here. When Rebekah also had conceived
by one, even a father Isaac," now, you can't get more sane than twins in the room of one
woman sired by one man. There they are. They started
at the same time. And from day one of their conception,
they had essentially the same experiences. says, for the children not being,
or being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
before they ever had a chance to distinguish themselves, before
they could ever say, I love God or I don't love God, before they
could ever say, and you'll understand what I mean by this, I'm quoting
those whom I do not believe, I accept Jesus or I don't accept
Jesus, before any of this could ever come to pass. God said. It was said. Why was it said before? So that
the purpose of God, according to election, might stand not
of works, but of him that calleth. Now friends, there isn't any way to make that
mean any other thing than that God made his will known before
these boys were born, so that once it came to pass, you'll
know what happened by the will of God. That's why it was done
this way. It was said unto her, by whom?
God. The elder shall serve the younger. I used to have this book, my
wife finally convinced me to throw it away because it made
me hoppin' mad every time I read it. In fact, I never could read
the whole thing. About two pages was all I could
stand before I was livid. Can't remember the guy's name
right now. Sumner? I think that was his name. He
was a, well, names don't matter. But he said, the Calvinist ought
to read, this says S-E-R-V-E, not S-A-L-V-A-T-I-O-N, that God
chose him to service, not to salvation. You go explain that
to Esau. And I didn't see Jacob serving
God very well for quite some time. In fact, I don't think he ever
served God very well. No, sir. That next verse kind
of knocks all that out of the saddle. Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated. They say, well, that means Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I loved less. If that's what it means,
why didn't it say that? And then another guy said, well,
that's talking about Jacob and his descendants, and Esau and
his descendants. Well, that makes it an even worse
case then, because he loved a whole group of people and hated another
whole group of people. Actually, this quotation came
long after the boys had lived and died and had to do with God's
dealings with Israel as opposed to Edom. It's a perfect case
in point of the sovereign grace of God and how it operates. When
God loves somebody, something happens about it. How do we know
God loved Israel? Because of what he did for Israel
that he didn't do for the descendants of Esau. Friends, if God loves somebody,
and he does, if he loves someone, he's going to bring that person
to himself. One day I met Bonnie, and that
was enough. I loved her, and I did all within
my power to bring her to myself. Now there was some doubt in my
mind, in fact a significant amount of skepticism, that I'd be successful. And maybe that's another example
of sovereign grace God gave her to me. I don't know. But I did everything I could,
because I loved her, to bring her to myself. And there were
no horns barred. Whatever I could do, whatever
I could think of, I did to win her. But as I said, I didn't
know if I was going to be successful, because I can't do everything.
But God can. God can. What would you think
of a parent? The child goes playing and ends
up out in the middle of the highway. And a car is coming. And that
parent runs out to the side of the highway. Says, I told you
not to go on the road. And if you stay out there, your
own car is going to destroy you. Now, will you please come? Now, I can't violate your will.
I can't make you come. It wouldn't be right for me to
run out in the road and grab you and bring you to the side.
You must decide for yourself. I've taken the first step. I've
done all I can do. It's now up to you. What would
you do to such a parent? You say, don't you have any love
for that child? You'd throw yourself in front
of the car, wouldn't you? Even if the case, if the car
was so close, you knew there's no way that you could really
get the child. Yet in an act of desperate love,
you'd throw yourself in front of the car. It's exactly what
our Lord did. And he stopped it. And brought
us to the side of the road. And just like you said, that
love they call love, no love at all, it's a dishonor to God.
It's a dishonor to the word love. Jacob have I loved. And because
I loved him, I'm not going to let him go. Because I loved him,
though he's the worst cheat and scoundrel that ever walked the
face of the earth, with the exception of his Uncle Laban, who got the
best of him. Though he's not the kind
of person anybody else would like. And I want you to understand,
if you knew Jacob, you wouldn't have liked him. Esau's the man
you would have liked. The man's man, the hunter. It's
so funny the way the Scriptures describe Jacob. It says Esau's
the hunter. Jacob stayed in the tents with
the women. You wouldn't have liked Jacob. God loved him. And chased him all over the Middle
East. And brought him to bay. And God said, you're no longer
Jacob. You're Israel. Jacob never said that. God did. What shall we say then? And this
is what they'll say. That's not fair, that's not just. Every time you talk about sovereign
mercy, they try to make a case against it with justice. Friend,
we're not talking about justice here, we're talking about mercy. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Of course not. Because at this point, justice is not the
issue. I read something a year or so ago, and it pleased me
that there was a judge that had this understanding of the distinction
between justice and mercy. A man was on death row, scheduled
to be executed soon. He's a black man. And he wrote
an argument to the judge saying that he should not be executed
because more white people have their sentences commuted from
death to life. And therefore, it's been unfair.
And you know what the judge wrote back? And I wish I knew who it
was. I'd write him and call him and say, do you know what the
gospel is? It seems like you least have an understanding of something about
justice and mercy. He said, He said, the commutation of a sentence
is an act of mercy, not justice, and it is under no restrictions
whatever. Mercy may be shown for whatever
reason the mercy giver wants to show it. You see, justice had been the
same. And I'm not making an argument
for white people over black, I'm just using this as an example.
But the white man, as well as the black man, had been found
guilty and condemned for what they had done. And upon that, justice had been
equal. And if some judge, for reasons
known only to himself, for reasons within himself, wants to let
one of them go, what can the one not let go say? All he can say is, well, I wished
he'd let me go too, but I cannot argue with my sentence. It's
just. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Never. Justice will be executed upon
every sin and every sin shall receive its just punishment.
But mercy, free mercy, unfettered mercy, has determined that some
of those shall find their justice satisfied in a substitute as
opposed to themselves. We don't preach sovereign justice. We preach sovereign mercy. For he saith to Moses, and I
like this about Paul, if there be an argument, he just goes
to scripture to settle it. For he said unto Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. That's the end of the matter.
God said it's this way. Shall I argue against it? Well, I don't think God ought
to. You don't think God ought to?
Who are you talking about? So then, here's the inescapable
conclusion. It, what? Salvation, mercy, blessing. It is not of him that exercises
his free will decision at the end of the service. It is not
of him that willeth. Now I want you to understand,
everyone that receiveth mercy willeth, but it is not him that
willeth that receiveth mercy. There is a whole lot of error
in getting this cart before the horse. Enough to send a man to
hell, in fact. It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that runneth. The word there translated runneth,
I believe there's two English words that come from it, the
word trek and the word track. You all know what track meat
is, don't you? Well, this matter of salvation is not about running
fast, jumping high and throwing far. It's not about what you
do. It's not about you outrunning
your sins or outrunning the devil. It's not about you jumping over
the wall of the law and making it. It's not about you casting
your sins from yourself. It's of God that showeth mercy. That's what this whole thing
is about. And as we have seen, mercy is unfettered. It's without
cause. It's without restrictions. Well, the Scripture said, unto
Pharaoh. Now, Pharaoh didn't listen, but
the Scripture said it. 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. Pharaoh, by his
life and by his arrogance and his position, said, For this
purpose have I raised myself up to this position, that I might
demonstrate my glory, and that I might make myself known throughout
the earth. And God said, Pharaoh, just a minute. Just a minute. You didn't raise yourself up.
I did. And you didn't raise yourself up to glorify yourself. That
may have been your purpose in it, but it wasn't my purpose.
I raised you up, Pharaoh, for my glory, that I might show my
power and that I might glorify or make my name known throughout
the earth. And guess whose purpose came to pass? Where's Pharaoh? Do you realize they don't even
know for sure which Pharaoh it was? They don't. His name is not known anywhere,
and God's name is known throughout the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. The hearts
of men are in the hands of God. I preached this morning, but
your heart's not in my hands. And thanks be to God, my heart's
not in my hand either. It's in God to say, well, God
might harden it. I don't think He's going to harden
my heart, because He already softened it. And what God does, He does
forever. But how do you harden a heart?
Well, He likens us to clay a little bit later. How do you make clay
hard? Leave it alone. Leave it alone. It's the natural progression
of clay to get hard. And if you want to do it faster, heat it
up. That's why all these ministries
based on judgment and hellfire only harden people against God.
Oh, it makes them very religious. But it hardens them against God.
Because all they get is the heat. How do you soften clay? You water
it. Water it with grace. And God
makes the heart pliable. Thou wilt say it then unto me,
Why doth he yet find fault for who has resisted his will?" Now,
if there ever was a good argument for the fact that Paul is saying
that the hearts of men are in the hand of God, and they do
according to his will, it's this question right here. Because
that's exactly what they're asking Paul. They're saying, Paul, it
sounds to me like you're saying that men do what God has before
ordained they should do, and that doesn't sound fair to me,
because how could God ever get upset with them for doing wrong
when they're only following what he said would happen? Now, if that's not what Paul
meant, Paul would have corrected them and said, oh, you misunderstood
what I meant. I meant That God has his purposes,
and he hopes that you'll go along with him. What did Paul say? Who are you,
O man, to reply against God? When I was in school, we had
these philosophy courses, and I enjoyed them. And this was
one of the dilemmas. This was Bible school, and the
man that taught the philosophy courses, at least in word, was
a Calvinist. And this issue came up. Because
most of the students weren't sovereign grace people. And they'd
ask this same question. Not realizing they were quoting
scripture when they did. And he had some philosophical answers
for it. And they were sort of contained in what Paul said.
But Paul settled the issue real fast. Your man, he's God, shut
up. That's what he said. If God were just a man, the question
would make sense. But God's not a man. I know He
took on the form of a man, but you know what I mean? He's God.
And God has the right to do whatever He wants to do. And it's right
not because He followed some standard of rightness. It's right
because it's Him that did it. Rightness is not a standard which
God must submit to. No. God is a standard to which
rightness must submit. That's why you can't question
God. That's what Nebuchadnezzar learned. I like that. He said,
He does as He will in the armies of heaven and the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can stay His hand. And that's pretty good.
But Nebuchadnezzar learned something else about God, and no one can
say to him, what in the world do you think you're doing? Don't
have the right to question it. Don't have the right to bring
an accusation against God, because He's God. And when we remember
that God is God, and that we're but man, and recognize the great
gulf that exists between us, this question becomes a silly,
impudent, question not worthy of an answer other than that
one. Why does he yet find fault? Because
we're faulty, that's why. That's exactly why. Shall the
thing form so 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 honor and another unto dishonor?" Do you
realize that right in that little verse is man's objection to sovereign
grace? It's not that one vessel is unto
honor and the other unto dishonor. It's that he said we're all in
the same lump. Because every other so-called
gospel other than the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace,
has me approaching God, trying to argue with him that I'm not
of the same lump as this man over here. He's of the, I won't
accept you lump, I'm of the, I accept you lump. He's not,
he's of the drunkard lump, I'm of the soulful lump. One lump. Adam. And we all came out of that lump.
And we all put him lumpy, just like him. And from that same lump, he has
determined for purposes of his own, which I believe someday
we will see the rightness and goodness in us. But for now,
we take it as a matter of faith. It's wise, good, and right, what
God does. But for reasons of his own, he
reaches into that vat, that singular lump, and puts the clay on the
wheel. and makes one vessel unto honor,
and he reaches into the same vessel, the same lump, and makes
another vessel unto dishonor. And if there's anything in all
the world that'll make a man thankful to God that he is saved,
it's the realization that God has made it so. What if God willing to show his
wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering,
the vessels of wrath footed to destruction, that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which
he hath aforeprepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." Well, what
if God did it that way? And that's the way he did it.
Shall we find fault with that system? Shall we argue against his grace? because he has set his wonderful
grace against the backdrop of his awful and terrible justice?
No, sir. We'll magnify it. We'll magnify
it. Now, here's a few results, and
I'll try to cover them quickly. Here's several results which
arise because grace is sovereign, which could never happen if grace
was anything other than sovereign. Number one, salvation. can come to those who otherwise
had no claim on it whatever. As he says in Hosea, I will call
them my people which were not my people, and I'll call 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. The
story goes this way. Hosea married a woman. They had
a child. I can't remember his name. It
was one of these names about that long, and I don't remember
it. But it says, and if you look
there in the story of Hosea, it says that she bore, Gomer
bore to Hosea this child. Then it goes on and says she
bore two more, but it doesn't say she bore them to Hosea. It
just says she bore them. I believe these were children
of her adulteress. They were not Hosea's children. And they
were named, believe it or not, Not Mine, Not Loved. That's what
their names were. Can you imagine growing up, Hey,
Not Mine, Not My Child, You Not Loved, come here. That was their
name. Can you imagine being called
to the table, time to eat? Get over here, not mine. Get
over here, not loved. What an awful way. Friends, that's
us, by nature. Now how could poor old not mine
and not loved ever become accepted and loved? Could they make it
happen? They had no claim on Hosea, whatever. They couldn't go to court and
say, Hosea's got to take care of me. They had no standing in
court before Hosea. The only one that could make
all not mine and not loved into mine and loved was Hosea. And Hosea, that's exactly what
he did. He said, come here not mine, now you're mine. But I don't have a right to be
yours. That doesn't matter. I said, you're mine. Here, sit down at
the table. Not love! Come over here. Big
hug and said, I love you. I love you. It was, in human terms, Hosea's
sovereign choice to make those children his. And because salvation
is by God's sovereign choice, you and I, who could never make
a claim to us are brought into the family of God. And we who
are not loved by nature are loved in sovereign grace. And he who
are not his by birth are made his by sovereign grace. In fact,
it goes on to say, in the very place where it says, it is said,
you're not his, that's where they're going to be found. Who's
saying it's not his? Now, your God's not my God, which
is to say, you're not children of God. That's what they're saying
in the very place. It's in the conscience where
your sins are brought up before you and you say, I'm not a child
of God. In that very place shall sovereign grace come and say,
you're children of the living God. Where Satan goes out and
says, if you be a son of God, is that not interesting that
when Satan tempted our Lord, he tempted him first on his sonship?
If you be the son of God. What do you mean, if? And it's
the same thing he says to God's people. You don't really think
you're a son of God, do you? You see, Satan won't say that
to an unbeliever. He'll say, yeah, you're a son
of God. Don't worry about it, everything's all right. He'll
come to you in the very place where it is said, you're not
my children. There shall they be called. the
sons of the living God. Isaiah also crieth concerning
Israel, and there the number of the children of Israel, be
it as the same as the sea, a remnant shall be saved. The truth of
God's sovereign grace is an explanation of even though there is a great
deal of religion, there is not that many that truly understand
or know the grace of God. God is going to save a remnant.