One of my favorite stories is in a book called Love in the Dryest Season and It's a story of a baby that was born in Zimbabwe in the midst of the AIDS epidemic and in the midst of Civil War and this baby Was named Chippau or Chippau, which is the the Swahili word for gift and the baby was abandoned at birth in the bush The the ants the first sentence of the book is the ants found the girl child at noon and Baby was discovered and and taken to an orphanage and in that orphanage there weren't two Americans Neely Tucker and his wife Neely was born in Oxford, Mississippi Moved to Detroit work for the Detroit free press and moved to Zimbabwe to Report on the the Civil War there and while he was he was there He was working in this orphanage and he this baby was brought to him and he fell in love with his baby and and he and his wife Born to adopt her, but in order to do that they had to overcome years of tradition That that foreigners wouldn't adopt African babies that there was a there was a real sense of a of wrongness to that In Zimbabwe they had overcome laws they had to overcome Corruption they had to overcome war they had to overcome epidemic. They had to overcome Neely's own families Racism they had to overcome all these things Have grace and have mercy and save the life of this time Now love that story because I believe that's my story and if you're in Christ today If you have faith in him, I believe it's yours. As a matter of fact, Ezekiel chapter 16 describes us just that way on the day of your birth You were cast out on the ground lying in your blood and no one had pity on you And I came by you says the Lord and I said to you live and I covered That's our story we we are that helpless. We were that hopeless. We had absolutely no hope for life Save in the sovereign mercy of God That's our story Wonderful story But the problem is we didn't know that was our story You didn't believe that was our story. I didn't at least. I don't know about you I don't want to use a plural if it's not true But I thought my story was basically this I Was the smart one I was the moral one I was the more or less better one than all of my friends and What separated me from them was you know, they drank and they were sexually immoral at least more sexually immoral than I was I was a little bit sexually immoral but not all the way sexually immoral if you know what I mean and And I was better than them Better than them and that's why I was a Christian. I didn't kind of But that wasn't better enough And the more I grew in Christ the more I began to realize how deep my responsibilities were and and it was my job to be a good Evangelist but I was never a good enough evangelist to save people from their sin And it was my job to help the poor but I was never good enough at helping the poor actually I was an abysmal failure at helping the poor And I tried and and after just killing myself to help No one seemed any better off and and it was my job to to grow in holiness, but I couldn't really grow in holiness and I was still struggling with the same sins year in and year out and my life became this kind of spiral where I would grow Disappointed with myself for not being what I did deeply believed I ought to be and I will grow further and further from the Lord And so there would be some kind of breakthrough and I would have this time of repentance and weeping and tears and feel Near to the Lord for a little while until it started again. I got so burned out on that I heard of it And my friendships were strained at best I thought it was I didn't know why I didn't know why I was so lonely looking back on it I realized That I had a deep self-righteousness all I was better than people and I was disappointed with them all the time I would have never said that Really was disappointed That was really disappointed with me
And the weird thing about that idea that I had somehow I'm the Jesus on my own when nobody else was smart enough to do it. The weird thing about that idea is it left me with this tremendous discouragement with myself And yet this weird sense of self-important It was as if I was a piece of dust at the center of the universe You know, I mean, I was just nothing. I was never what I wanted to be but everything was clearly about me Every action every reaction every event in history was clearly about me It really pushed me to the to the edge of Projecting this whole Christian thing. I was just burning out. I just wasn't what I thought I needed to be And I finally had a campus minister very gently Lead me through what I'm about to try to teach you
Question of why I was a believer Not what a believer is What a believer is is everybody agrees on now what the gospel is what the gospel is all Christians agree on the gospel is You know Jesus Christ died to save us from our sins and from all its effect Nobody That's that Oh well people doubt that but no evangelical Christians doubt that Not the question is not how you become a believer we all agree with how you become a believer By faith through grace we all agree with that the question we disagree on and the question I want to try to explain to you the answer for out of Romans 9 is Why you and not somebody else What is it that separates you and somebody else and the answer is God's mercy sure and unadulterated
You are without hope Save God's mercy God's mercy But begins the work in our life and it Can use the work in our life and it completes it And the funny way thing is the how we get to that the apostle Paul is just finishes Romans chapter 8 with this glorious glorious doxology nothing can separate you from the love of God and Christ Jesus and you think you I think you probably set the pen down at that point and it was actually not writing a pen He was dictating. I think you probably talked to a secretary at that point and said man good. Let's just Take a break and they probably went out and spent some time just praying and thanking the Lord and went to bed that night and got up the next morning And probably his secretary looked at him and said well if this is true Then nothing can separate us from the love of God then why are the Jews not believing
That's the question Paul immediately jumps into What about the Jews aren't they separated And he answers with this wonderful text and we'll read to you from Romans chapter 9 Verses 1 through 6 and then for sake of brevity verses 10 through 18 Let's let's stand for the reading of God's word. You get a little exercise And here's the word of the Lord from Romans chapter 9 I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow Unceasing anguish in my heart For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers My kin's been according to the flesh They are Israelite And to them belong the adoption the glory The covenants The giving of the law the worship and the promises To them belong the patriarch and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ who is God overall Last forever And not only so but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man Our forefather Isaac though they were not yet born It had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue Not because of works but because of him who called He was told the older will serve the younger As it is written Jacob I love But he saw I hated What shall we say then is there injustice on God's part by no means where he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy For the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose. I have raised you up Then I might show my power in you And that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth So then he has mercy on whom ever he will And he hardened Whoever he will The father reading of God's holy word very difficult portion of God's holy word please be seated
Question before us is Why are some people saved and some people are not And the first thing Paul shows us here is that it is not dependent on the evangelist Look at what how he starts I bear witness it's the deepest truth of my soul I want the Jews to be converted. He's saying they're my kinsman. They're my family And we know this we know from from the history that whenever Paul would go to a new city The first thing he would do would be go to the synagogue And preach the gospel to the Jews Until they kicked him out and kicked him out they did They stone him more than once they they beat him more than once they ran him off from the cities But he loved them so much that he never stops trying He apostle Paul couldn't convince them That's interesting isn't it I mean I think that's a good news for me. It's not because of how good the evangelist is That's not what distinguishes who believes and who doesn't If Paul couldn't convince them then I couldn't and I think that's good news for me. I just be honest I used to carry a ton of guilt around about all the people who weren't getting converted around me With my fault there was a skit We used to see these Christian camps where there you know these people would go off and die in a car wreck And they're when they're teenagers and and one would be getting sucked off into hell and he would be calling out Why didn't you tell me? That's yet calls me nightmares Y'all ever seen that in my long when he saw this and That was my fault is my fault I've comforted two people in the last month who and who over the last 12 months have lost family members who are were unbelievers And both of them in their own ways said you know, I just don't think I did everything I could do To explain the gospel and that's the way you didn't I mean, what would that even mean to do everything that you can do?
but God loves you too much to leave that kind of responsibility on the show what can you do? I mean trusting a mere human Do the job of saving somebody that would be like giving a A three-year-old a shotgun Saying go kill something and bring it home so we can eat it And if you don't your whole family's gonna starve And they're just not ready for that kind of responsibility You're not ready for the kind of responsibility of the eternal damn nation of everybody that you see and know That loves you too much to live but you fail at that You know that He's not putting that on you You can't call somebody to believe it's not the event the apostle Paul couldn't even convince people to believe
It's not about how good the evangelist is it's not about how good your um It's not about it's not about how good your privileges are your your advantages are look at he lists All the advantages of the Jews they have the promises they have the covenants they have the law They have the worship they've been told how to do everything right they have great genetics They they're the descendants of Abraham They've got everything on their side and yet they're rejecting the faith. It's not about advantages Some people I think you may have heard this we may have thought this Sorry reading the Bible, but you didn't have someone to explain it Some people think that kind of the Old Testament God was trying to save people through the law, but it was too hard Too hard for them to keep the law If they're in the New Testament and kind of lowered the standard and now all you have to do is believe
If you think it would be somehow easier to believe than it would be to keep the law You're wildly underestimating how hard it is to believe something that you've done. It's impossible It is impossible according to scripture. We're dead and unbelievable Can't convince ourselves all right. I'm just gonna believe in the resurrection today I believe it It worked. I mean I mean yet some people kind of kind of fool themselves in saying that but It is impossible just to make yourself believe something
Just don't if I mean maybe when you were a kid you believed in the Something that I'm not going to run for your children But as you grow older than you realize it wasn't true, right? You grow out of it. You can't make yourself Um, I'll pick on the Easter Bunny because that was just silly. Uh, you know, you can't make yourself believe in the Easter Bunny if you don't And you can't make yourself believe in Jesus if you don't You're we're dead in that way. It's it's not the advantages the The canyon of of this belief Is as broad as the grand canyon and some people have great advantages some people have genetic advantages. They have wonderful family Uh, just like some people have genetic advantages and long jumping over me and they can jump further No, and I if I try to jump far as I could I'd probably get like a foot. I mean, I don't jump these these legs ain't made for jumping And you might be able to jump 40 feet
Couldn't by the way, but let's just say you could You're not getting across the grand canyon. You're not getting across unbelief The greatest preacher in the world can't force someone to believe the greatest advantages in the world Can't pause you to believe. God is our only hope our only hope for salvation for belief Only hope God will come to us and have mercy on us And That uh, that's he demonstrates that By giving us the story of Jacob and he's gone He says and he makes it very clear Why did Jacob? Why was Jacob the patriarch and not Esau We know from if you know the Old Testament stories at all. Don't let me just tell you Jacob's a bad guy He's bad He was a liar. He's the kind of person who would see his brother starving to death and instead of having grace and kindness and compassion on him would use that to his advantage Would use that uh to To swindle him out of something He was a bad person And uh, God did not choose Jacob because he saw him being a good person He did not choose Jacob because he was the first born He Goes Jacob to make his purposes known when they were still in the womb before they had done anything In verse 11 says though they were not yet born had done nothing nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election Might continue not because of work Because of him who called Now You have to understand when you when you look at this text I'm not saying Esau was a good guy Esau was was bad too if you read uh the Old Testament or the New Testament about Esau We see that he forfeited his his birthright because of his love for the flesh. He was he was bad too God is not giving somebody the Heisman here. He's not saying no not you He does come to Jacob and say I'm going to overwhelm your unbelief I'm going to overwhelm your sin I'm going to put you in a situation where you can't help the believe I'm going to work when you are completely oblivious to my working and I'm going to draw you to myself And put you in a situation where you can't help but believe and that's exactly what God did to Jacob Remember the story when when Jacob was scared and he was alone God came to him in the middle of the night And wrestled him and pinned him And again some you know There's this story of him wrestling the angel at night and he won't let go of the angel until the angel blesses him And some people's minds and I my mind when I first read it I was thinking now got Jacob had The angel on a full Nelson and you know, he's like freshman But as you read the story you see that Jacob's hip was point out of joint now that's You know that's a small center If you've ever seen someone's hip put out of joint I have twice it's the most pain I've ever witnessed The strongest biggest hip a biggest joint on the body The angel just touches it taps out The angel basically is demonstrating to all others I'm not going to kill you. I will do whatever it takes Bring you to submission Much more accurate picture Jacob's holding a home to the angel to hold him up The angel blesses That's what God did to us He came to us when we were absolutely helpless before we had done anything to win his affection He came to us if you were in Christ And he gave you his grace Simply because Not because he sees anything in us Not because he thinks we're strong enough or we're we're perfect or we're good Simply because he has mercy on whoever you have mercy
And and that Completely changes us and frees us look at this great passage it became one of my favorites um Says in verse 16 so it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy I love the older the more literal translations. It is not of him who wills Or of him who runs but upon him who has mercy Is the Lord's grace having mercy on us. It's not our strength our strength did not start this relationship And our strength will not finish it Where is if we're like somebody who kind of wakes up and I see you in a coma From a coma and and and I've talked to people who've actually done that and they say you know it's like There having this conversation with himself And they begin to hear voices and they think to the one front of mind said he He felt like he was in one of those dreams like you have about seven in the morning when you're supposed to be up And you know that you're in a dream you can't have to wake yourself up, you know And he said, you know, I just told myself wake up and I woke up And then the world few minutes like your belief is the reason why you're still alive as you woke yourself up Everybody knows like the reason why you're alive is because somebody found you in a coma Brought you to I see you and has been nursing you for maybe month But that's the same way with faith you see the reason why you think you are a Christian is because you've had faith You believed in Christ and you did and that is wonderful, but why why did you do that What was going on in the years before that In the decades before What was going on that puts you in a position where you were ready to believe What was going on that puts you in a position where you would hear the gospel? What was happening Why was it why would that why did you believe and not your brothers or your sisters or your friends why why you
Me I had one of two answers The answer that I lived by though I knew it was wrong was because I was better than them and that can't be right I know the Bible says that's not right
Answer is because the Lord shows mercy It's not on him who runs or upon him who wills and I'm probably Lordy shows mercy And that hope transforms everything we are without hope save in the sovereign mercy of God The beautiful thing is that is great news You know what that means? It means nobody's beyond hope I mean if it were up to us if there had to be a certain intelligence level to believe if there had to be certain Morality level to believe if there had to be a certain Sensitivity to spiritual things to believe and some people would just be without hope and we wouldn't even worry about them That's our dude you're out You're dumb proud But since it's all of God that there's nobody without hope. There's nobody that we stop praying for There's nobody that we don't proclaim the gospel to there's nobody that we don't show love to nobody is beyond hope Isn't that wonderful? I don't think I heard me nobody is one beyond hope nobody has sent too long Nobody has gone too far Nobody has been too blasphemous nobody has gone too far nobody's beyond hope It's it's wonderful because it means that there's no one who's outside of his purpose God's not just kind of going around Skydern seed and may you did not you But he's doing it according to a purpose look look at what it says in the next passage In verse 17 scripture says to Pharaoh for this purpose. I've raised you up that I might show my power in you That my name might be proclaimed in all the earth So he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills He God is not just kind of being random. He's bringing about a story And he's doing wonderful things in that story He is No one is beyond his purpose And sometimes we just kind of have to step back and go oh
Now I have a good friend who grew up and a very godly family his brother was one of my mentors when I was in seminary And for some reason he of the three brothers he was the only one who did not believe He went off to med school became a surgeon Well, it's frankly just arrogant and very hard to tolerate for decades age of 43 Uh the war brought him to his knees Took him to alcohol rehab and converted him And there's a purpose in that Now he goes to the other powerful people who walked around in that arrogant circle that he walked around in and goes You know, I know you I know you think you're better than believer But not I was just I know you got out of purpose in that Got out of purpose in that. There's a great story written by Pastor called come back Barbara about This Christian minister who was extreme evangelist. He's brought He's personally seen hundreds come to another lord and trained missionaries and trained church planners But his daughter got out of the car when she went to college and she said Flat out. I don't come into my dorm room. I don't want you to meet my roommate And and wrote a letter to him very soon right after that saying I don't want anything to do with Jesus You ran off from Christ for decades
And as the Lord drew her back to Christ and she was converted His wife began to realize Pain that she had caused by her perfection Pain that she had caused by herself righteous And as she repented of that perfectionism that had driven her own daughter away from the gospel not only It was hard relationship with her daughter healed, but now the relationship between Thousands of parents and children have been healed For the publishing of this story Got it got it worked Got it worked hardening whom he will Having mercy upon whom he will for this purpose of making his name known throughout the year This is hope transforms everything it transforms us we get This wonderful joy and gratitude of knowing that we never get less than we deserve
One of the most transformative effects of believing I'm in God's true free saving sovereign grace is this
You just never get better you never get better Cause you know It's the heart of bitterness is this idea that I just not getting what I deserve I deserve better than that with God got against me once he mad at me once he was holding things for me And when you truly believe that you were dead in the sin that you were dead turned against God And he came to you and he died for you and he changed your heart And he had mercy on you when you wanted nothing to do with him It begins to bubble up within you that this gratitude is joy Yeah, I don't deserve it I mean, we don't always live on this cloud, but it's amazing when it comes there's a few weeks ago I was just laying in bed um crying Bianca asked me why I was crying. I said Don't
Haven't done anything but Basically mess up everything up top and finally it produces in us this humility And this is unfortunate. There's an unfortunate irony um If you've ever dealt with Christians you probably have found this out some of the most arrogant stubborn hard-hearted hard-headed Mean arrogant people in the world are Calvinists and I know there's no excuse for that I'm sorry. I apologize for us all Um Because it is the most humbling and humiliating doctrine there is That you were dead in your sin waddling around in your blood and God came and had mercy on you And yet for some reason you become you know it becomes your arrogance usually because our churches are small It's the only thing they're good about us, you know So well we got right theology and you don't uh and so it kind of becomes this Thing that we become proud of which is i'd say tannic irony and I apologize There is nothing more humbling Is it and it's a wonderful feeling to be humbling It is wonderful to know that there is nothing about me that God made God can make that share into a better preacher than I Now if he did that probably more people would be converted don't you think I mean Honestly, we had a chair up here preaching the gospel Don't you think we could get a few thousand people in here to hear it. I mean He doesn't need me. There's nothing here that I offer But I get to be on his team I feel like John Paxon, you know, I don't remember who John Paxon has short slow White guy who got to play on Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls And who took the game winning shot to beat the phoenix thorns and games thick For the world championship he got to take the shot He didn't win the game He didn't win any of those games but he got to take the shot we get to be on the team We get to come clean the toilets in God's church. We get to come clear the weed He get to be on the team. We're not doing anything. I mean God doesn't need us Let's us be on the team That is an amazing life-changing thing. It makes us Fast to apologize makes us faster forgive makes us fast to confess. Why is it Why is it that um We we live our lives in fear that someone's gonna find out our sin and we're so slow to confess Did you think I expected something more you know something better out of you?
I expect nothing from you. I expect nothing but sin and disappointment from you Trying to hammer that into my newlyweds and I'm doing their pre-marital counseling If you'll expect your spouse to be a sinner, they won't disappoint you Pretty much anything else You're ready for a heart uh, you know road of heartbreak
Fast to apologize fast to the glorious truth. We are without hope. They've got sovereign mercy That is the only hope we need Please pray with me