Romans chapter 9. I have a very
familiar portion of scripture. Romans chapter 9 verse 13. We'll begin there. Romans 9 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? What
shall we say then? A lot of folks would have an
objection to that statement, wouldn't they? What shall we
say then? 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. Now notice how many times here
I want to emphasize what he says here, I will. I will. 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's 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 will harden." Harden. Now, when we go and preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I mean by the term we, those
who know the gospel of God, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. When we
go and preach the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
we always desire and pray for at least these four things. And I'm sure your pastor would
agree with what I'm about to say. The first and foremost is
to honor and to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in the preaching
of the gospel. The Apostle Paul said, I'm determined
to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And then again, he said, we preach
not ourselves. You didn't come here this evening
to hear about me, did you? I could say a lot about me. But
you don't want to hear about me. I want to talk about Christ. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servant for his sake. So
first and foremost, we come here this evening to exalt the Lord
Jesus Christ by the way of preaching. God has ordained this to the
salvation of his people. Secondly, when we go and preach
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we want to honor him,
and when we do so, he said, if I be lifted up, I will draw men
unto me. And when Christ is lifted up
in the preaching of the gospel, it incites in the hearts of the
Lord's people a spirit of worship, doesn't it? reverence in their
heart, the Lord seeketh such to worship him in spirit and
in truth. Now I know this, the Lord Jesus
Christ is worthy of all honor, praise, glory, and blessing,
both now and forever. He is worthy of every adoration
of praise and glory that's due his great name. Thirdly, when
we come and preach the gospel, it is our desire to feed the
sheep of Christ, to feed the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember our Lord said to
Peter, Peter, do you love me? Yeah, Lord, you know. You remember
what he said? Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. And then the apostle Paul, when
he departed from those elders there at Ephesus, he reminded
them to feed the church of God, which he had purchased with his
own blood. What I have this evening is the
word of God, and it is the children's bread. It is the sheep food. for those who love and believe
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we go and preach
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, here's the fourth thing
I thought of as I was thinking about the message this evening. We want to see the Lord bless
his people with his word. We want to see the Lord bless
his people with his truth and with his word. He said, my word
will not return to me void, it'll prosper whereunto I send it. And I pray the Lord will bless
us this evening with his word, by his spirit. May we not hear
in just word only. I want to hear that way, but
I want to hear in the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Don't you?
To hear a word from God, from the throne of God, by the Spirit
of God, to your heart this evening? Wouldn't that be something? Oh,
I pray the Lord will bless us this evening and again in the
next few days. And how about this? I thought
about this too, Brother David. To see the Lord call out His
elect with the Word of God. Wouldn't that be something this
evening? Or maybe tomorrow or the weeks to come? to see God
move in such a way that He would call one out of darkness into
that marvelous light, the glory of God that shines in the face
of our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to call out His people, to call
out His sheep. He said, My sheep, remember,
they hear my voice. I know them and they will follow
me. Keep preaching Christ. We don't
need to buttonhole and badger and bug people. Just keep lifting
up Christ. Keep lifting up Christ. He'll
draw them. He'll call them. He'll quicken
them. And by and by they'll let you
know the Lord's done something for me. The Lord's called me
and made me a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are
charged to go and preach the gospel. Gospel, that's the power
of God unto salvation. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
here in Romans chapter 9, I'm entitling the message this evening.
I want to emphasize this point of the will of God in salvation. The will of God is the eternal
will of God. The will of God is the eternal
decree of God that cannot be altered, that cannot be changed,
cannot be determined to go another way. He works all things after
the counsel of His own will. The Lord has taught us to pray,
not my will, but Lord, Thy will be done. I'm entitling the message,
Free Will or Free Grace? Free Will or Free Grace? Free Will, salvation. Is it by the free will of man
or by the free sovereign will of Almighty God? Now I want us
to carefully consider this question. Is the salvation of a guilty
sinner by the will of man or by the sovereign will and free
grace of God? Or in other words, how does God
justify the ungodly? How does God justify the ungodly? By the sinner's good works or
deeds or by the Lord's sovereign decree? By the sinner's decision
or by the Lord's decree? Salvation is always said in Scripture
that salvation is of the Lord in its origination. in its execution,
in its application, its sustaining power, and its ultimate perfection. I know what a lot of us have
heard and even hear yet today in religious circles, not where
the gospel is preached but where the gospel is denied. We hear
these clever sayings such as God has given sinners a free
will either to choose him and be saved, or to reject him and
be condemned. We often hear those things. I
don't like to listen to those radio preachers or TV preachers,
but sometimes I do just to see what they are saying. Or some
have said this, God has done all he can do Now the rest is
up to you. Well, if that be the case, this
sinner has no hope. Or they may say something along
this line, God wants to save you, but you won't let him. You won't let him have his way. Now, Brother Mahan used to have
a name for that kind of God. He said, that's a peanut God.
That's a God who is not God at all. Or they say this, they say,
man is a free moral agent, And God will not interfere or violate
the sinner's will. Now, my friend, if He doesn't
violate your will, you're lost forever. God has to intervene. God has to stop us. God has to
quicken us. God has to raise us from the
dead and make us love Him, make us believe Him, make us come
to Him. The Bible does not teach those
old fleshly fables of the sinner's will in the matter of salvation. The Bible does not promote what
I call the lies of Satan to call out his people. God uses the
truth. to call out his people. Our Lord
said, you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. God doesn't use, now think about
this, God doesn't use lies to teach men the truth, does he?
He can't. No lie is truth. It's either
true or it's a lie. And my friend, salvation is by
the true, sovereign grace of God alone. The salvation of sinners,
as it's revealed throughout the scriptures, is always by the
free and sovereign grace of God. Noah found what? Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. The only grace that's taught
in the Word of God is sovereign grace. Sovereign mercy, sovereign
love. Salvation is always by the sovereign
grace of God, by the will of God, through the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of my favorite scriptures,
I love to quote, in Romans 3, 24, being justified freely by
His grace. I love that word freely. Being
justified freely by His grace to the redemption that is in
our Lord Jesus Christ. He redeemed us with His blood
to enable God to be a just God and Savior, to enable God to
be just and the justifier of the ungodly. It is obvious to
God's people and to any honest person that God Almighty saves
sinners by His will, not ours. His way, not our way. Listen to these scriptures. Of
His own will, James 1.18, of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. With the word of truth. Again,
he says, turn over here if you will to John chapter 1. You don't
mind using your Bible, do you? God's sheep don't. Some of you
have those iPads and you can click faster than I can turn.
And that's okay, I don't mind that. It's still the Word of
God, however, however, whatever means we find it in. But in John
chapter 1, verse 11, he came into his own, his own received
him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name, which were born not of the Not of blood,
that is fleshly inheritance, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. Any sinner that believes
the gospel of God He does so because God willed it to be so. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me. Draw him. He said, I've loved
my people with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
I'll draw them unto me. Aren't you glad that our God
is almighty? to draw us to Himself and to
cause us to love Him, Thy people shall be willing in the day of
His power. How does He make us willing to
come to Him? He makes Himself irresistible.
So much so that He shows us that He is altogether lovely and that
we must have Him. We must embrace Him. You see, salvation is in a person. He that hath the Son hath life.
Saving faith looks to the Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto Him
who is the author and finisher of our faith. You see, salvation,
as it's taught in the Word of God, is always by the will of
God, by the Word of God, by the way of God. What is the way? What is the way? Our Lord said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father, no man comes to the Father but by me, by the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. You see, God our Savior saves
sinners by His grace, not our works. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. It's God who saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, not according to
our works, but according to God's own, I love these two words,
purpose and grace. God saves sinners on purpose
by his grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
foundation of the world. Before I ever knew him, Gary,
he knew me. He knew me. The foundation of
God stand assure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that
are his. Before I ever loved Him, He loved
me. You see, we love Him only because
He first loved us. God our Savior saves sinners
not only by His will, but by His grace. God saves sinners
by His choice. It's His choice. I can make good
on that. Our Lord said in John 15, you
didn't choose me, I've chosen you. You see, the carnal mind
is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Had God not chosen us in that
eternal covenant of grace and given us to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is called the elect of God, we never would have called upon
him. We never would have believed
the gospel of God's saving grace. God our Savior saved sinners
not only by His will, not only by His grace, not only by His
choice. You see, He chose us. We are
bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation,
whereunto He called you by our gospel. He called you by our
gospel. He chose you unto salvation through
that sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit. What is that?
That's regeneration. You only believe the gospel because
God has raised you from the dead. You do not believe to be regenerated. You believe because God has given
you life in Christ Jesus. God our Savior saved sinners
by his righteousness. How much righteousness personally
do you have? Those who are taught of God,
I see some of you shaking your head. All of our righteousnesses,
Isaiah said, are as filthy rags. There's none righteous. No, not
one. You see, salvation cannot be
by my righteousness. You remember what the Apostle
Paul said of those Jews, that they went about to establish
righteousness of their own. He said, you are they who justify
yourselves before men, but God knows your heart. That which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight
of God. You see, my righteousness and
my works and my will have nothing to do with my salvation. I mean,
I can't emphasize that enough, nothing negative. It's all by
His will, His grace, His power, His blood, His righteousness. God our Savior saves sinners
by His righteousness that's freely imputed. Blessed is the man whom
the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners, right? Romans 5, 19. So by the obedience
of another shall many be made righteous, right? In Christ. God made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. That's why Paul said, I count
everything else. I count everything else done,
lost, ruined, that I might win Christ and be found in Him. He keeps emphasizing that, to
be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, it's through His faithfulness. Not yours. It's to His righteousness,
not yours. Thank God He's given us a perfect
righteousness, freely given unto us. And my friend, never think
of that righteousness as a thing. It's a person. He's the Lord,
our righteousness. That's what makes salvation so
glorious to the believer. It's Christ who has made unto
me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that he that
would glory, let him glory only in the Lord. I know your pastor's
been going through the book of Galatians. Have you been to Galatians
6 here yet? Okay. I love that verse, the
14th, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. I love the glory in the fact
that the Lord Jesus Christ didn't make an attempt to put away our
sin. He didn't make an attemptment. We call it an atonement. the
Lord Jesus Christ by Himself, with Himself, when He had by
Himself purged our sin with His own blood. You see, it's all
His righteousness. It's all His redeeming blood. I'm thinking about bringing a
message maybe tomorrow or the next day from Romans, or rather
Hebrews 9, 26, where it says that he appeared once in the
end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Did he get it done? Absolutely. He put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. We are redeemed not with corruptible
things, Silver and gold, vain tradition,
but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's precious. You think about it. God bought
the church with His own blood. I love to talk about the effectual
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His priestly work, how
He entered in to the holy place, not made with hands, but into
heaven itself to obtain for us eternal redemption with His own
blood. He bought us, and He's going
to have us. because He bought us. No one
will perish for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. That cannot
be. I've said this for years and
I'm going to keep on saying it until somebody hears it. There's
nobody in hell for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died. That cannot
be. Call His name Jesus. He is what
He's called. He's the Savior of His people.
He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that the Lord
Jesus Christ came to save folks just like me. Folks just like
you. Sinners. Sinners, Brother Murphy. Sinners. Sinners. Oh, wretched
man that I am. who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's our hope. My friend, you
see, salvation, so that it's not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, and I love this statement right here, but
of God. That verse over in Ephesians
chapter two, you remember? Verse four? But God, who is rich
in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even,
Father David, even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, hath
quickened us together with the Lord Jesus Christ. But God, but
of God that showeth mercy. He will show mercy. He has to. He said, I will have mercy. Now it's sovereign mercy. But
he said, I will have mercy. He says, I will be their God
and they shall be my people. That's covenant language. And
it cannot be changed. God our Savior saved sinners
by his blood sacrifice, not by any sacrifice that we bring. What did you bring to the table?
Nothing. I come as an empty-handed, dead,
vile, guilty sinner, and I fall before the throne of God's sovereign
grace as a mercy beggar. You remember Brother Roach used
to say all the time, I'm a mercy beggar. That's me. God have mercy
on me, the sinner. That's what the publican prayed,
and that prayer was answered. That man went down to his house,
the Lord said, justified rather than the other. The old Pharisee
bragged on himself and was condemned. The old publican condemned himself
and was justified. That's grace. That's grace. That's the grace of God. God
saves sinners by his performance, not ours. By his faithfulness,
not ours. Just over there from Psalm 61
is Psalm 57, where it says that He's performed all things for
us. The Lord Jesus Christ, salvation
based upon His faithfulness, His performance, not ours. Not ours. That's good news, is
it? That is good news. There's a scripture over here,
I know David has read it to you, but turn over here to Galatians
2, verse 16. I love to study through the book
of Galatians because it just shuts out and hammers out any
notion of being justified by the deeds of the law. I mean,
there's a death nail that God the Holy Spirit just hammers
and hammers and hammers. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And then Paul says again, I do
not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. But salvation is by
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 2 verse
16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Did you see that? By the faith
of Jesus Christ. You see, it's upon his obedience
unto the law of God. Did he honor the law of God as
a man, as a real man, as a representative man, as a federal head for his
covenant people? Yes. Yes, he did. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law and the prophets. He came to honor the law and
the prophets. You see, salvation is by his
faithfulness, by his obedience. He honored the law of God perfectly
for us as a representative man. How do I know that? God said
he did. Isaiah 42, 21, the Lord is well
pleased for His righteousness sake. For His righteousness,
He will magnify the law and make it honorable. In His life, He
honored every precept of that law. You say, well, there's 10
of them. I beg your pardon. There's 800
of them. If you count all the precepts
of that law, the Lord Jesus Christ honored every precept of that
law in His obedience. He was obedient even unto death. He satisfied not only every precept
of that law, and he did that as a representative man, as a
public head for his people. Not only that, he satisfied the
penalty of that law. What was the penalty of that
law? death, the guilty must die. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
our sin according to the scripture. Our sin was laid upon Him. Our
guilt was laid upon Him. He bare our sin in His own body
on the tree. He satisfied the very penalty
of that law. Therefore, we read in Galatians
chapter 3 verse 13, where it said Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us curses
everyone that hangeth on the tree. That's what happened at
Calvary. What happened at Calvary? Substitution. What happened at Calvary? Satisfaction. The Lord Jesus Christ died the
just one for the unjust. Why'd he do that? You know what
the rest of that verse says? That he might bring us unto God.
We can't come any other way. but through Christ our substitute,
who satisfied God on behalf of his people. That's what happened
at Calvary. Look back at that verse again,
Galatians 2, 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ. That's the work of grace. Did you know that? to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? You see, we believe according
to the working of His mighty power. It's not some decision
that you make. Faith is called the precious
gift of God. Faith is not something that's
native to this wicked heart. Faith is the precious gift of
God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is a gift. gift of God, not
of works, not of works that any man should boast. We believe
according to the working of His mighty power, it says in Ephesians
1, verse 19. We believe according to the working
of His mighty power. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. That's what it says. 1 John 5,
1. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we
have believed in Jesus Christ. That's a miracle. If you're sitting
here this evening trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for all of
your salvation, it's only because God has done that for you and
in you by a miracle of His grace. that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ. Do you see that? You know, some
of the newer versions of scripture have changed that word of to
in, and they've just taken the meaning out of that verse. It's
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our hope. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. Now, turn to one other
scripture on that point there. Philippians chapter 3. Philippians
chapter 3 is one of my favorite chapters. I guess all of them
are probably my favorite chapters. My folks back in Kentucky, we
went through the 150 psalms, and I'd always say, well, I think
this is my favorite one. And they've come to the conclusion
that every one of them is my favorite one. But this third
chapter of Philippians, especially this ninth verse, well, let's
go back to verse 7. But what things were gained to
me, Philippians 3, verse 7, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea,
doubtless, I count all things but lost for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things. Here's this old proud Pharisee
Saul of Tarsus. You read the preceding verses
and he goes through his litany of his religious tradition and
experience and then he throws manure on it. It's all but dung. All but dung that I may win Christ. That I may win Christ and be
found in him. not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God. And it's the righteousness
that's of God that's revealed in the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn to the book of Romans. I
know you know these things because your pastor has taught you these
things over the years. And God, the Holy Spirit, has
made it real to your heart and has brought you to love these
things. But the righteousness that's revealed in the gospel
is the righteousness that's of God in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 16, Romans 1. For
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth. to the Jew first
and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. It's revealed from faith to faith
as is written, the just shall live by faith. Turn to Romans
3.20. Romans 3.20, therefore by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin, But now the
righteousness of God, that is Christ, my friend. That is the
Lord Jesus Christ. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad that
salvation's in His hand, not in yours? Aren't you glad that
salvation is by His decree, not anything you have done or said
or brought or thought or your deeds you're doing? You see, salvation is not something
you do because salvation is something that's done. Well done. He said, it is finished. It is finished. So in conclusion,
and I had an outline to go through, but I'm not going to wear you
out. That's a portion of the message
that I intended to bring, but I'm going to leave it with that. So you come back, if I preach
for another 30 minutes, you probably wouldn't come back tomorrow night.
So we'll save the rest of that for tomorrow night. So you might
think, well, I want to hear what the rest of that message is.
Well, if you come back tomorrow night, you know what? I'm going
to tell you the same thing. And when you come Sunday morning,
I'm gonna tell you the same message. Salvation's in Christ. Salvation's
of the Lord. Salvation by His grace, by His
will. May God cause you to rejoice
in it, and may God make it so rich and real to your heart. that as old brother Maurice Montgomery
used to say, you remember, brother David? Hug up to the Lord Jesus
Christ and don't let go. That's old country language,
isn't it? But that's okay. That's okay. It works in Kentucky. It'll work here in Texas, too. Wherever we go and preach the
gospel to God's people, It doesn't matter if it's in California
or Texas or New Jersey or Mexico, wherever it may be. God's people
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul said. That's
another scripture there in Philippians 3. We are the true Israel which
worship God in the Spirit, that rejoice in Christ Jesus And we
have no confidence in the flesh. Not mine, not yours, not any.
Our confidence is in Christ. Amen. Thank you, brother.