Why is it that you live in a free country? Is it because you chose to live here? I Would bet for 99% in the room. That's not the answer You were born here. You had nothing to do with it. It was bequeath to you. It was a gift It's good to remember that, isn't it? This Monday we celebrated a holiday this last Monday directed towards that very end, wasn't it? I remember reading in the newspaper this last weekend about the unveiling of the National D-Day memorial The national D-Day memorial is located in Bedford, Virginia and Bedford, Virginia is right next to what? Don't ruin the line Bedford, Virginia is right next to nothing and Rollin Oak Why would they build a national monument not on the mall, you know, in Washington, D.C Where scads and tourists would be exposed to it, but but but but essentially in the middle of nowhere In a little town off the beaten path, no interstates, no highways, in Bedford, Virginia The answer is because no town suffered more in that battle than the little town of Bedford because the Allied command understood that the fighting on the beaches in D-Day would be so intense that if they would ascend regular army units up on the beach, they would cut and they would run That to accomplish their mission, they had to send a national guard unit because that unit would be made all of men from the same town And so they would be brothers and they would be cousins and they would be lifelong friends And as hellish as the opposition, they would encounter They would not run And so it was the first unit on the beach with the boys from Bedford And they all died Now what happens when you read that in the newspaper or you hear that story retold in church what happened You say we are the beneficiaries of a sacrifice and service by people we didn't even know And for many of us in this room, people who paid a price before we were even what born Before we were even live We're not a free people because we chose to be a free people We're a free people because it's a gift That was given to us Why are you a Christian? Why do you sit this Lord's day in a house of worship? Is it because you chose to be Or is it because it was a gift Bequeathed to you And paid for with a hellish sacrifice Designed and executed Long before you were even born Charles Spirge and the great Baptist pastor says that Early in his days is a Christian like he thinks most young Christians he had the answer to that question I'm a Christian because I chose to be I'm a Christian because I saw God I'm a Christian because I pursued the things of God That's why I'm a Christian And then he said one day he was sitting reading his Bible praying and it came like a lightning bolt to him But why but why did you pursue God? Why were you interested in the things of God? Why did you open up the Bible? Why did you pray? Why did you go to church that day and hear the preacher preaching such a way that your heart was open? Why did all those things happen at Spirge and said Then the thought came to me the truth came to me to change my whole life and my whole ministry The God was the author of it all The before I ever had a thought for him he had thoughts for me And he had taken action on my behalf And my whole salvation was his idea the God was at the bottom of it all And so I want you to leave this room this morning with three words firmly implanted in your mind and your heart Tis mercy all Tis mercy all It's what the eminitor wrote when he said he left his father's throne above so free So infinite his grace humbled himself So great his love and blood for all his chosen race Tis Mercy all immense and free For oh my God it's found out me Something changes the day That you cease thinking of Jesus dying for a nameless faceless mass of humanity And you begin to understand that he died for you He died for you Now take your sermon outline and we'll look at Romans chapter 9 together starting with this The danger Romans chapter 9 would warn us of the danger of privilege Look at Paul's language at the beginning of this chapter. He is rot I mean, he was broken hearted And he's broken hearted over this. How is it that so many Jews Have missed the Messiah look at verse two and verse three Paul because I had great sorrow Unceasing grief And that of my grocery is is is dramatic as it could be says I wish that I myself were a curse. What does that mean Paul says I wish that I myself were going to Where How I wish that I myself was separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren But Paul broken hearted over the the fact that that the massive of the Jewish population does not follow after Christ does not honor him As the son of God and the Messiah and the Savior and all the more he says in verse four and five because of all the benefits and all the privilege The king with being an israelite. He said the israelite. They had the problem that they were they were the adoption of God of all the nations of the earth They were the chosen. They were the ones that God said you are my son The israelite had had the law right God spoke his will to them He delivered it to them he not only spoke his will to them He actually the only part of the Bible that was actually personally written by God is what It's in commandments. He actually wrote it with his own finger the Bible said They had that they had the revealed will of God. They had the temple service They had the service of the priest and the sacrificial system in the the shedding of blood and the offering of incense and burnt offerings It all represented the cleansing that was needed to stand before adjusting holy God. They had all of that They had the presence of God. They had the Shaqina glory cloud That came and descended into the temple and into the tabernacle so that it could be said if someone were to ask Well, you know, if a little child were to ask where's God? Where does he live? The Jew would say what He lives in the Holy of Holy He's seated on the seat of the ark of the covenant It's called the mercy seat between the cherubim he Wells there in the midst of us in the midst of our camp That's how much God is for us. He chooses to live right in the midst of us He's God with us He's in manual They had it all they had the promises they had the covenants they had the patriarchs How'd you like to have in your family tree Abram Isaac Jacob sit down with your kids and say let me tell you about your You know, you're great great great Grandparents They had they had Samuel they had David they had Daniel all of them part of their family and and on top of all these other blessings What did these realites have they had? Jesus the son of God when he put on human flesh came into their culture and their race And walked amongst them so all the people on the earth that at the cross cultural barriers Because the language Jesus spoke isn't the language they speak and the color of Jesus skin isn't the color of their skin and the the idioms and the idiosyncrasies of the way of Jesus Semitic life is not the way that they've grown up all those people all over the world Cross all these barriers to find faith in trust in Jesus didn't have to cross any of them The son of God came and spoke their language walk their land lived the way they lived He was right there. He was right at their fingertips and the majority of them said what No, thanks Now here's the question We ought to embrace the danger of privilege Why does the passage say that so many Jews said no thanks
Paul says that not all is real is true is real There is an ethnic Israel but then there is an Israel of promise and the Israel of promise to the ones in which the Spirit would work in their heart and the response that you see from the The person who has the spirit of God opening their heart to see their sins is a response of repentance And the problem with national Israel was pride That the love of God was there what it was their birthright it was their inheritance They came to see it not as the grace and mercy of God that he gave them all these things But it was just that God given them these things they deserve these things They were better than the nations around them in fact. They called the nations around them what Dogs They were dogs. They were lesser people. They were lesser cultures We are the great people of the earth. We are the children of God. God obviously loves us because we're superior And they were filled with pride and arrogance rather than rather than seeing That everything they've received from God was a matter of what what's that keyword we're talking about this morning mercy Who's mercy all? What does it say at the end of the chapter verse 28 29 is it 30 started verse 30 Gentile to did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness But Israel pursuing a law of righteousness didn't arrive at it because they did not pursue it by faith They didn't have to put their faith in another because they had everything they were Jews They had everything they needed they wouldn't die to themselves They stumbled over a savior who came and made himself of no account and suffered and died That's not the kind of Messiah that the Jewish people deserve And they were not about to follow somebody who said if you want to be my disciple you must do what? deny yourself deny yourself become a servant make yourself the lowest make yourself of no account
I read a letter just the other day of of a pastor essentially telling his church that God has spoken to him and what God had said was that they were all to pay off his mortgage and You'll be getting a copy soon and
And that God wanted him to have faith and modest housing Is a six thousand dollar house The cost of million dollars and I read that and I say um, I don't know what Bible that comes from I don't know where that comes from What I see is a savior who made himself of no account who had no home who had nothing to his name and and And this was not a Messiah they would follow the implications were too clear They would have to die too. They would have to consider themselves of no account as well And so they would not go there now. Here's the warning cost. Here's the danger of privilege Is that we have what we in this room have what We have the word of God We have the very word of God there are people all over this earth If we were to walk into villages and and and places all over this world Well with one Bible we would be considered the wealthiest person in the whole community He's got a Bible I mean they would they would fight to have a page in the Bible And most of us have 15 on our shelves at home We have the word of God We have the promises of God we have the glory of God we have the presence of God We have leadership that God's provided in this place. We have been given so much and it's all mercy
And sometimes we just know That's the danger That's the danger that we not realize We have the presence we have the glory of God The friend came and visited here been a Christian his life and Christians all their lives virtually churches all their lives They're not novices to the faith and they've been in solid churches For the for almost all of their lives And they came and they sat here about three months ago in church and they wept the whole service And every time I talked to him after that he said I can't get over that. I can't get over that. That's all he talks about I can't get over what we experienced there And yet I know that in this room there are many people who have no sense of that Who have no sense of what an awesome privilege it is To be in the presence of the living God And that he comes and he visits his people in a powerful way when they gather to give him glory and honor and worship So friends, they understand why why I'd have to say we ought to be concerned the danger of privilege And that we not to zoom on on the love of God. It's mercy. It's undeserved. It's unmerited goodness Granitas Notice something um We're sitting around talking about it as a staff That there's a lot of people that have come to faith in Christ in this church in the last year And I'm making a generalization and you'll kind of get a kick out of this, but um I kind of noticed that that is as I thought through the weekend services we have here for the most part They all sit right here in the first three or four rows all the way around
And I thought about why is that well, maybe the members get here earlier and take the good seats, you know You know the old timers maybe the maybe the novices are naive. They don't know about the splash zone, you know from the Exuberant pastor who you know expectorates You know And honestly, I'm not about to tell you that because somebody sits further back. They're less spiritual uh, I don't know But but but it doesn't make me wonder why the church is fill up from the back forward
I get a sense from these folks at least that they are eager That they truly believe that Jesus of Nazareth is walking by that morning in that worship service and they want a front row seat And whatever that is I would just say wherever you sit in the room. I covet for you that eagerness said in Jesus comes by I want to be there to cry out son of David have mercy on me Second the doctrine of election
One of the greatest truths in all God's word and the question is Why does some of Abraham's descendants love God and some don't or a more pertinent question to us is Why do we love God some of us and our neighbors don't why do some of us love God? We grew up in the same house with brothers and sisters with the same parents. We love God and they don't We're devoted followers of Jesus and they're not what's the difference? What accounts for that? What's going on? Here, that's the question before us The answer is from God's word the bible says that all mankind is rebellion all mankind has walked away from God Okay Now does God all mankind a reprieve? Is God obligated to forgive mankind for that is God obligated to provide a sacrifice To redeem mankind. Is there any obligation involvement the answer is When I'm very convincing The answer is no no no God's not under obligation. This is called mercy. This is called grace The vice unmarried favor the bible says that God and his mercy and kindness and grace Has been to provide a substitute and a sacrifice for some and yet not for all God is free and is mercy to Extend a sacrifice that would be for to provide salvation for none He's free to provide salvation for some he's free to provide salvation for all that's The prerogative of God but the bible says that before the foundations of the earth God said his love on some He determined to have a people that would be is for all eternity He sent his son in due course God the son came To Provide a perfect righteousness that would cover us before a holy God to take away our sins and pay our penalty And then in the course of our lives and space time history God the Holy Spirit comes opens our minds and hearts So that we embrace these truths this love that's been shed for us and we respond to the goodness of God by coming in faith and repentance and trust Coming to Jesus. This is what the bible teaches the illustration put before us is of two brothers These brothers happen to be twins one's name is Jacob one's name is Esau God loves Jacob saving love before the foundations of the earth and God does not love Esau Esau is not God Esau is allowed by God Is not coerced by God to do anything He saw is merely allowed by God to go the way that he wants to go which is in a way of rebellion Against God This is God's choice now to make it all the more clear these people are the same mother and father in fact they were twins And God's choice of Jacob to set his love on Jacob had absolutely nothing to do with Jacob It couldn't have anything to do with Jacob because Jacob wasn't even Romans 9 verse 11 for though the twins were not yet Born they hadn't done anything good or bad In order that God's purpose according to his choice might stand not because of works But the determinants factor here is the choice of God. Is this mean God's arbitrary? Any meeting mind him all take him Now the Bible says that God is purposeful and everything he does He has reasons for what he does what it's teaching us is that the reason is not to be found in us It's not to be found in us. Why is this doctrine important because Jesus thought it everywhere he went He said I know my sheep and my sheep know me and I call them and they hear my voice and they come to me He said you've not chosen me but I I chose you we love God because he First love us Twizz mercy all Jesus thought it is so important because it safeguards the most important truth and all of God's word And that is that our salvation is holy and only due to the work of God on our behalf to which we contribute Absolutely nothing you cannot earn what God chose to bestow upon you before you are even conceived
What's the difference between you and the non-Christian? The intervention of God. That's it If you think the difference between you and a non-Christian If you think that Jesus died for everyone provided the opportunity of salvation for everyone And the difference between you and a non-Christian is you took it and they didn't Then guess who you ought to sing the praises of for all eternity You're self You ought to stand there for all eternity and sing I stand I stand in awe of me Because space with this choice of eternity. I made the right choice I'm downright brilliant
Yes, that person will have to say I'd have no way of salvation without the work of Jesus But when it came down to it who made the final determinant choice I did And undermine Is a life of worship and service and devotion to the Lord who saves us from beginning to end Completely and totally Mercy all Now what ought to that what what ought to this teaching ought to provoke in us is humility What's the difference between you and Valesa Robinson the girl that killed her mother in Tampa what's the difference
What's the difference between you and Baba the love sponge What's the difference About two hundred and fifty pounds
What's the difference between Anyone in this room and the most profane and the most vile and the most wicked Mercy that's all Where do we get off looking down our nose? The Bible says I mean surely we would we should look at the most foul among us I sometimes I see when someone commits a heinous crime and I see Christians Look at that person and say they ought to fly for that You know, sometimes they should and it's the right of the state and a just state would press the law to the to the to the proper degree And that might even lead to the capital punishment of someone else and that would be just for the state to do But it's an attitude sometimes we bring to the world and say how to get justice for that
forgetting that The we're the recipients of what Mercy We got we ought to be awfully slow to pull the trigger When we we deserve to be in the crosshairs of God's wrath In another stood in our place I'd ought to breathe an attitude of humility and I want to say it ought to breathe an attitude of hopefulness In church history the most aggressive evangelist have always believed this doctrine In fact virtually everybody in church history has believed this doctrine And it's led to worldwide missions and evangelism Because if you believe that God has lost sheep out there and he's going to find them And he's going to bring them in and they can't resist his love and his will and he will transform them He said his love on them before the foundations of their they don't know it yet, and it's our blessed privilege to why Tell them do you know there people sitting in this room that I'm telling you today that before the foundations of the earth It may be that God said his love on you And I may have the privilege of being the first one to ever introduce the concept to you That that that you were loved before you were even conceived before you were even made before you even existed before your parents even existed Somebody had his eye on you I could be the first one to tell you that and you know what if you're one of God's then you will not resist that Ultimately that love will find its way into your heart and mind it will bust you wide open
And because I believe that was all my heart I'm glad to be the messenger And so it has been I think of the missionary who said when I first went into missions I said a predestination is true. I don't think I can be a missionary He said now after 20 some years of struggling with the hardness of the human heart I say I could never be a missionary on the west. I believe them a doctrine of predestination In other words, you know what human heart would ever Bend the need to Jesus Christ if they understood the demands of Jesus Christ for your whole life Who would ever do that? Who has the ability less the spirit intervene and change the heart and mind And so the the Christians who believe this glorious doctrine of the invincibility of God's grace ought to be the most motivated And as you look at your family members and you look at your neighbors and you think they are so Fix-gold resistant bitter, you know I mean I think Christianity as perfectly of course I read before them as a saint And you know Why aren't they just rushing to the altar to you know you just look at your family and say it's hopeless And I want to tell you something not if God says his love on them because what the Bible says is they won't be saved by your eloquence And they won't be saved by your example. They'll be saved by the intervening grace of God For which we play a very small part but a glorious part so be eminently hopeful I love the little children's poem shall sober sting wrote it and he says Listen to the mustn't child listen to the don'ts listen to the shudans the impossible the won't Listen to the never-habs then listen close to me Anything can happen child Anything can be and if you believe in the doctrine of election Then you believe that God can break the hardest most resistant heart and draw them to himself Now Last thing in this chapter nine and there could be 20 points, but we'll we'll stop with this is the defense of God Wait a second people say God has chosen to have mercy on some and not to have mercy on others. That's not what That's not fair now quickly the defense of God a God is not obligated to be merciful God is not obligated to be merciful you can't use the word fair or just in the same sentence with the word mercy Mercy isn't something you've earned in which God or anyone else could ever be obligated you're obligated to give me mercy Whatever that is someone will be obligated to give you it's not what Mercy Mercy is free. Mercy is unmerited. It's not in response to any obligation. It just simply can't be A rich person comes into Tows just this is happening all around the nation. There's a wealthy man I think his name is poison and he goes into town to go into Tampa and he'll invite Invite families to apply for opportunity scholarships. He'll fund Their entire tuition at a private school and he invites these families to apply and the city of Tampa Thousands of children applied for what may have been a hundred scholarship And let's suppose they're all equally qualified and he's and he gives a hundred Scholarship Will we look at that when he's done he doesn't have to provide this for anybody He's doing his own free well and delicious when all said and done thousands applied a hundred Got it. We look at that man and say that's not fair That's not fair He's obligated to do nothing Know everything he does is unmerited grace Amazing man is willing to step to the plate point his finger he got and say I want what justice Not a good idea
reminds me of a man in woman they were 60 years old. They've been married 40 years and A fairy came to them and he was so impressed with their long years of marriage Together he said I'll grant you any wish each of you an woman said I would like to To travel the whole world the very touch turns she had plain tickets in her hand And the fairy turned to the man he got kind of a impish look and he said Well, I'd like to have a wife 30 years younger than me And the fairy touched him and he was 90. I'm just telling you to be careful. He asked for You want justice from God? Let me tell you it is not unjust to show mercy to the undeserving And it is not unjust to allow the rebellious to go the way they want to The question is not why does God have mercy on some and not on others the question is why does God have mercy on On any and the better question is why does he have mercy on
God's not obligated secondly God's the owner he has ownership rights Where does the clay get off saying to the potter why have you made me so Quiet and know its place. Don't you think? I think of the heckler and Hyde Park who came up to a preacher sharing truths about God in speaker's corner of Hyde Park and And he was explaining the design of the universe and giving evidence for the existence of God and this heckler Stand up in the crowd and says I could make a better universe than your God and the preacher said I'll tell you what I'm not going to ask you the making universe perhaps you could make a rabbit just to establish confidence
When you hang the sun moon and stars in their place Then perhaps God will ring you up for advice Be careful that we sit and read the Bible acting like judges I don't think I like this Excuse me and last God's grace and this is a mystery will shine most gloriously against the somber background of his wrath look at verse 22 and 23 what if God although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known Endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction And he did so in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy This is a mystery folks the truth is this that God glorifies himself by making some people the objects of his mercy
And he has all the more glorified in that because others are left To suffer the consequences of their own ways
The God the fact that you stand as statuettes as sculptors as You know There is an Italian sculptor who makes little statuettes called his name is Armani And I think they're glorious and and the man is is uniquely talented You are you are that sculptor The sovereign God has taken you out of play And he's made you the object of his love and his mercy and his grace When all around you Follow away people who who hate God rebel against God and are allowed to go the way they choose to destruction It gives all the more glory to the presentation of God's loving mercy On those whom he chooses to save Oh, let me just say this in closing Ultimately the Bible says this why did God choose to love you not because you're so cute Now because you're so wise or so spiritual How because you'd be so useful Simply because he did wonder of wonders One of my favorite moments in the pastor's class Is when I described to them the sacrifice that a church should make to reach lost people And I tell them about our church building buildings here And I tell them about that the concept that somebody would build a house I've been eating a can ask the class how many of you have paid off your mortgage and of course nobody used to have you know It's so hard to build your own house, but imagine not only building your own house, but building a house for somebody else Somebody you don't even know for their benefit who loves like that How many of you are actually doing that right now building a second house just for somebody else who might need it As if that's what it was our church already had a church building it had everything you needed But it said God's gonna send more people so we're gonna build more to accommodate them Not because we need it not for us not so that we can have a better church for us But we're gonna do it for them and I look at the pastor's class and I said who did they have in mind when they sacrifice? Who did they do it for and nobody says it worked? And so I'll ask again who did they do it for Who did they give their money their blood their sweat their tears who did they do it for And finally somebody in the class that They did it for us That's right And I see a look sort of so people almost sit back in their seats and say They did it for me Somebody loved me when I still lived up north I didn't even move to this community And yet somebody was making provision for me
God said I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy
Sit there for just a moment's time with this He chose to have mercy on you He did it for you