Amen. Well, if you turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 9, we are still in Romans 9 this morning.
Romans chapter 9. I'm going to be focusing on verses 22 through 29. Last time we saw the sovereignty of God, not just over creation and law, but over salvation. That is, God sovereignly determines to save some and not to save others. And God, as we saw, is not being unrighteous. And choosing to give some the grace that they do not deserve and to give others the justice that they do deserve. God is not being unrighteous at all in that. And we also saw that God has a purpose in saving some and not saving others. That is to glorify and show forth his mercy and grace and to glorify and show forth his wrath and hatred of sin. God is a good God. God is a righteous God. God is a merciful God. God is a just God. And he would have us as people to know him in all of those attributes. And that's what he is working out and accomplishing in his grand purpose in this world. And so this morning, as we notice again, the mercy and the judgment of God actually worked out in history. I think the effect of this message should once again be a real humbling of our hearts. That we would consider that our salvation, no matter who we are, no matter who our Father was, that our salvation is entirely by the powerful grace of our God. Let's pray as we turn to God's Word. Father, we thank you that your Word is so clear and true to us. Lord, there are many things that are difficult to understand. And yet Lord, all that we need to know to be saved and to live for you is so clear. Father, we pray that you would help us, that as we consider your Word today, that we would understand it in our minds with that also Lord, that we would embrace it, that it would be powerful in our hearts, that you would be transforming us into your people, into your humble people, into your generous people, into your people who live for you. Lord, we ask this in Jesus name, amen. Here now the Word of the Lord from Romans chapter 9, beginning in verse 22, this is God's Holy Word.
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering, the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory. Even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved, who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was sent to them. You are not my people. There they shall be called sons of the living God. I say also cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be in the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut its short and righteousness because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sabah had left us the seed, we should have become like Sodom. And we would have been like the Moor. We have the Lord established this word in our hearts this morning, I pray. Well, we need to remember once again that Paul began to speak of God's sovereignty or in salvation to explain why many of the Jews were not believing in the gospel. In a real sense, this is their gospel. It's faced upon the promises to their fathers. It's their Messiah. It's their salvation. They should have embraced it when Paul and Peter and James and John and all the apostles began to preach what they weren't believing. And Paul asked the question at the beginning of the chapter has the word of God failed. And he says, no, it has not failed at all. It's not lost any of its power. In fact, everything he's assured us is occurring exactly according to God's plan. God's sovereign election was being carried out in Paul's day. Even as it was carried out in Isaac and in Ishmael, where God chose one and not the other. And in Jacob and in Esau, where God loved the one and hated the other, God is sovereign. And those sovereign purposes are being carried out, Paul was saying, even as they had always been. So that the fact that many Jews were not believing and many Gentiles were believing. Well, in times past, it was the other way around. And we need to remember that God does not owe saving grace to any. We looked and we spent some time on the fact that if it were not for God's grace, right? None of us would believe. God commands all to believe, he invites all to believe. But if he just left it as an offer, all of us would go our own way. We would run from him. And so God by his sovereign, powerful, saving grace according to his will. Gives new life to some gives regeneration to some gives saving face to some. Even though all are called to just embrace it. And so we should not be surprised or astonished, even angry at the fact that God gives some. The justice that they deserve and we should not be upset that God doesn't give the grace to all. Remember my illustration with the policeman and me being pulled over for speeding complaining that. The other people weren't being pulled over and they were going just as fast as I was. As if it was a policeman's fault for not letting me go. I was guilty. He gave me what I deserved. I couldn't ask. I couldn't protest. I shouldn't protest. And the things true for God of God give some the justice they deserve. We all deserve that God would save some is more astonishing than that God would not save all. And so I want you to notice if we go to our text, you know, this goodness of God that Paul has been talking about in saving grace. But now in our verses, especially he points out the fact that God in his mercy shows much mercy to all. And you see it in a surprising verse where he's talking about the vessels of wrath and yet in that verse. We didn't look at it last week, but we're going to this week. We see what I'm calling the common grace of God to all. That's my first point. Notice the common grace of God to all look at verses. Well, verse 22. What if God? One thing to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Do you see who's getting God's long suffering in that verse? It's the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. What the older theologians called the reprobate that's who and that's the only people that that verse can be referring to. That's who are receiving God's long suffering. Those who he knows are going to be filled with wrath for all eternity. And yet he is showing them patience and kindness and long suffering and goodness. Because as I said many times, the common grace of God, the goodness of God is just who God is to all. And man's sin doesn't change that God is good to all. And he endures the evils and the rebellion and the wickedness of those beings whom he knows hate him and whom he knows will never repent and believe. You know, even if you've been struggling with this as we as we looked at divine predestination, even if we just let that go and say, let's not even consider predestination, let's just consider God's foreign knowledge. Leave it all admit, right, that God knows everyone from before the foundation of the world. He knows all things. He knows everything and everyone. He knows those people who will not believe. He knows who is not going to embrace the salvation. He knows those people upon whom his wrath is going to be poured out forever and ever and hell. He knows them all from before the foundation of the world. And yet God continues to make them. God continues to sustain them. God continues to give them blessing after blessing. God continues to put up with their evils. He knows they'll never turn away from them. And yet he gives them life and he gives them goodness and he gives them so much of his creation that he knows they're just going to abuse and destroy it. Just from his foreign knowledge, he knows all of that and yet God gives them year after year of pleasure, enjoy and riches and wealth and goodness in this creation. They're allowed by God to just have it and abuse it and blasting his name and curse him and try to make him look bad and everything else their whole lives long. And yet God continues to just put up with them. Have you ever been in a situation where someone or something was purposely aggravating you trying to harm you and you had all the power in the world to stop them and you just let it go. I know some of you know my phone saga. I finally broke down and got what they call a smartphone. I've had my little phone with the slide up key pad that for I don't know how long and it's worked perfectly it even got run run over by a car and sure I had to wait some paper in it in certain places but it works. And it's wonderful and I and I knew how to use it and it was anyway I finally got the smartphone I had to I couldn't resist it anymore it was such I was saving so much money that I had to buy it. So it is it's cheaper than my old phone go figure but so I had this phone right and I don't know how many times I said this stupid phone this dumb phone you know and I know that it's not the phone right I you know we all do this right I think you may do this too. You know you get mad at something all this dumb car or whatever you know and I said you know my smart phone it's sort of and I I don't miss the irony every time this dumb phone. But really it's not the phone is it right I mean it's not the phone it's me I don't know how to use it so I can't make it do what I wanted to do so I you know get frustrated and I say that the phone is dumb and I mean I get technically maybe I could blame the software engineers who designed it right there's supposed to be intuitive or it's not very intuitive to me and we can always blame an engineer for something right but but it's my fault I know that I understand. And yet what if let's just imagine for a second what if my phone really was out to get me. I mean what if it really did you know like in the terminator or something come to some sort of sentient life and and it was trying to thwart me it was trying to ruin my name and reputation what if it was trying to take all of my wealth and like you know order a bunch of junk or something and what if it just took all of that I have and tried to abuse it. And corrupt it and destroy it how long you think I keep that from. I mean you wouldn't be able to say the words and I would have gotten rid of it. And yet it's not exactly that's so much more tough. Isn't that how God so much more puts up with us and God made us. I mean it would be even worse if I took that phone and made it and it rebelled against me if I put all my time and concern and made that phone wonderful and then it rebelled against me and used all the things that I gave to it against me and yet that's what we do. And here in our text it says God is long suffering. To those he knows are only hating him abusing his good gifts hurting others and he continues to put up with them and to show them goodness. You know we look at the injustices against us and the offenses people commit against us and we stew and we hold a blame. You know a grudge and we blame them and we nurture you know hostility and look at them differently and maybe write people off. And how small those things are compared to what we've done to God you know I know sometimes people struggle with David's prayer in Psalm 51 where he says against you you only I have sinned God. And people say wow David's really minimizing his guilt there. I mean he's sinned against Bathsheba by seducing her or sort of pressuring her. He's sinned against her riot. I murdered him. He's sinned against all of his wives and committing adultery against him. He's sinned against the nation because he's God's covenant king and has he fared the nation fared. And yet he says against God only I've sinned. And yet David is doing the exact opposite of that protest. What David is doing is saying that every single sin that he committed was entirely against God. So that when David seduced Bathsheba he's saying no no it's as if I seduced God. And when David killed your riot he's saying no I understand that the violence I did against your riot was against God. You see how he's magnifying it sinned. He's exalt he's making it so much bigger by saying every evil thing I did was not just against that person. It was against God. You know you and I need to see our sin that way. When we're angry with someone we're angry with our spouse or frustrated in a sinful way and we're stewing. You need to see that as I'm angry and frustrated with God right now. And I'm stewing against God right now. We need to see our sin that way because that's what it is. How much more upset and how much more offended is God by our sinful anger towards someone? Is God by our sinful pride against someone? Is God by our sinful lust against someone? Because it's against him. How much more offended is he? And yet he is long-suffering to the wretched, to the wicked. Don't forget Romans 2. Remember we look back at Romans 2.4 when Paul was sort of addressing those proud Jews who thought they were so much better than the Gentiles. They'd be grudged the fact that God was generous and merciful to Gentiles. And Paul asked the question, do you despise the riches of his kindness forbearance and long-suffering? Not knowing, not remembering that it's only the kindness of God that leads you to repentance. You know, if God would suddenly stop being kind to these people that we think you're so bad, that same kindness would stop going to us. And we wouldn't be saying. And we need to remember that. This is the common grace of God to all. Secondly, I want you to notice the calling of the Gentiles. Notice the calling of the Gentiles. I was trying to be a liturative and so I kept a C in a G. That's about the best I could do this week. Common grace of God calling of the Gentiles. It's going to get worse before it gets better. But I want you to notice verse 24 of our text. Even us, whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. What's he talking about? He's long-suffering to the vessels of brass prepared for destruction. In order that, even that, you could translate it. He might make known. This is why the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory. Who are those vessels of mercy, verse 24? Even us, whom he called, not out of, not from the Jews only, but out of from the Gentiles also. And do you see what he's saying there? What kind of a calling is this? This is that effectual calling, because the vessels of mercy, those prepared beforehand for glory, are the called ones, verse 24. Those who are called out of the Jews, those who are called out of the Gentiles. Do you see it in verse 24? It's the effectual calling, the call that goes forth and creates the response. Like Jesus said, at one point, many are called fewer chosen. So that's the outward call. That's what I'm doing. I call people to believe the gospel. All I can do is call them. But as God pleases, as his spirit pleases, he goes out, and he goes into the hearts of his people, and he calls them out of that blackness of their hearts, and he brings light out of that unbelief and hatred of God. He brings faith and repentance. That's the calling of God, right? The effectual call. He would God regenerate us when God gives us the new birth, and he creates faith and repentance in us. That's this call. It's a called once out of the Jews, out of the Gentiles. I know I always like to use that example with my father, and I think it captures it, right? When my dad would call us, and everybody's dad had a different way of calling us from the different yards with football, with football, or kickball, or whatever we were playing hide and seek. And my dad's call, if he would add the word, we would hear it in his voice. I mean, it was an effectual call. We would run home immediately. It created the response, right? But you know what? That illustration does miss something. I mean, it gets the effectualness of it. But it misses the motivation. We don't come to God when he calls us, because we're afraid that we're going to get punished. It's not that. We come to God when he calls us out of love. I have a desire. Because he creates it in our heart. We didn't have it before. And suddenly we have it. And I was thinking of an illustration for this, and I didn't check with my wife, so I hope I don't get in trouble with this one. And I forgot. But I think a lot of you know the story. We had met at Cornerstone Television. And because of the trouble that I got into in my past, I didn't have a driver's license, for different people would drive me home at different times. And Robin and I worked together in different projects. So there were a few times where she would drive me home. And we were co-workers, you know? And I mean, I was 22, 23, or something like that. So, obviously, I recognized that she was pretty. But I didn't have any sauce beyond that. Until one day, I still remember the evening. We were on her set on his place, and she's talking to me, and she was all animated, and I'm just looking in her eyes, and at her face, and at her lips, and she's talking, and it just hit me. I don't want this girl to be my friend anymore. I want her to be more than my friend. And so, the next time she was taking me home, we got into the drive away, and she pulled in to let me off. I just looked at her, and I say, sir, we're taking you home, and then I said, can I kiss you? And immediately, she looked right at me, and she said no. I'm not kidding. You guys all believe that. I don't have to convince you that, do you? So, I said, okay, well, I tried, and I didn't, you know, normally, I mean, I'm not the kind of guy that would, you know, easily do that with a girl. And so, I, you know, I had to steal myself up to do that anyway. Like, I, I, for some reason, I didn't tell too bad about it. I thought, well, I tried. I gave it my shot. And then, like, that week at work, though, her good friend, who was also a good friend of mine, started to talk to me and said, oh, no, you don't, you don't misunderstand. She, she is interested. You just caught her off guard. She wasn't ready for that. You know, and he was really telling me, you know, you need to, you know, take her out again. And so, we went out again, and it was weeks later, because telephone, and then we, you know, we were tied up at work. And this time, you know, when I asked her, she said, yeah. Now, that was an effectual call. Okay? That's what I'm talking about. We run to God, because we want him, because he produces it in our hearts, and do you see it in the text here? He even asked me, he called. Everybody's called outwardly, but you were being called outwardly, but Paul said they're, they're hating the gospel, they're rejecting it, but the difference is the call. Scripture uses it the word that way. You see, he's talking about a different kind of call. A call that God does in the heart. Not that humans do. And this is what God does to us. He calls Jews and Gentiles. Christianity is the religion of the heart. You have to come willing. But our hearts aren't willing. Wouldn't be willing. Unless God, by His grace, creates the willingness. And this was always God's plan. Look in verse 25 and 26. As he says in Isaiah, I will call them my people, who were not my people in her beloved, who were not beloved, and it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people. There they shall be called. Now here's just called by other people, sons of the living God. Let's look at it in verse 25. I will call them my people. Why do you believe? Because God said, at one point in time, you're mine. And that created faith in your heart. God called you beloved. And suddenly you were. But you weren't until God called. I will call them. You see, that's God's power. I will call them my people, who were not my people. And that alone makes them my people. Because my power will overcome their unbelief and hatred of me. And it will rip that heart of stone out of them. Actually, it will gently take that heart of stone out of them. And it will implant the heart of flesh. That will love me. That will believe in me. That will be sorry for sin. What? I mean, why else would you have done that? Are you better than your neighbor who doesn't believe? Well, no. God called you. It's called that heart of belief into existence because he's a merciful God. He's a good God. This is a calling of the Gentiles. But thirdly, I want you to notice the callusing of the Jews. Notice the callusing of the Jews. Verse 27. Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel. Those are number of the children of Israel. Be as the sea end of the sea. See what he's saying? The remnant will be saved. In other words, only the remnant will be saved. It won't be the sea end of the sea. And that was always God's plan. God continually chooses whom he will say. And God gave all those advantages to Israel as we look at. All of those outward means of grace as we would call them in the New Testament. You know, all of the things that we have saw, the ordinances, the laws, the circumcision, the temple, the priesthood, the sacrificial system, all of those things that would have taught them how to humble themselves and come to God for grace. And yet, what did they do with those things? They turned them into instruments of pride to make themselves look down on the Gentile. And they took the light as it were, and they fashioned darkness out of it. And they took life, and they created for themselves death out of it. God gave them the lively oracles, the means of grace by which they should have known that they were sinners. It should have reminded them. Circumcision should have reminded them. I have to have part of me cut away. I'm not worthy to be in God's presence. So his animal sacrifice is should have told them, this is what I deserve.
All of those plainly-less laws should have told them, I can't even be in God's presence unless I do all these things that he tells me to do. Over and over again, one after the other. And yet, they took those means of grace and what did they do? They misused them, they abused them. And by doing that, they hardened. I forgot what I said last time. The only thing that is necessary for our hearts to grow hard is just sit under the means of grace and don't respond. It's telling us what we need to do. It's telling us who we are. And to just harden ourselves. And not respond. And if God lets us go and starts to withdraw his spirit, we'll just grow harder and harder and harder. And that was the history of the nation of Israel. There were periods of revival. There were periods of reprimation. But for the most part, there was this increasing hardening, increasing unbelief, increasing pride. As they took those things that should have humbled them and made themselves more and more proud. Robert, do we do that? That's my fear. We have so many more means of grace. But we have to remember that none of them assure us that we're believing. So we have baptism in the Lord's Supper. And we have prayer. And we come directly to God. We know we can come in the name of Christ and we understand how He takes our sin away. And we know where our righteousness comes from and we know we have eternal life. And we have the Word of God at our fingertips. And we can read it. And we can fellowship together and engage in all these spiritual ministries. And we can be hardened in all of that stuff. And we can think we're better than the unbeliever down the street. And we're better than the people that maybe we look down on. I don't know the people that refuse to work or the drug users or the prostitutes or whatever. We're better than them. And that's why God accepts us. And we can begin to think that way. And that's exactly what Israel did. You know, and I think this is a great danger in the reform phrase because I think we have the best and most accurate understanding of the Word of God. And what can we do with that? Wow. You know, those are minions. They don't even know that they're projecting. And we can look down on them because of a grace that God has given to us that we don't deserve when we should be more humbled and pray for them. And say, oh Lord, could you let them see what I see because I know I wouldn't. If it wasn't for your grace. And we look down on the other groups because they don't have reformed theology. And we are so much better than them. And we harden our hearts when we should be the most humble. I mean, if we really believe predestination it should cause us to say what? I don't deserve anything from God. And there's no reason why he would have chosen me. In fact, if anything, it's probably because I was weaker and uglier and less intelligent than he chose me because he chooses the weak and not the strong. And he chooses the poor and not the rich. If there is any outward difference, it would be that. We've got to be aware of the hardening. The callous thing of Israel can be the callous thing of our hearts as well. So lastly, I want you to notice the choice of grace. Notice the choice of grace. Let's go back here now to our text again. In verse 28, for he will finish the work and cut its short and righteousness because the Lord will make short work upon the earth. But this is still that passage of judgment. And all that means with the sort of the New King James is a little awkward with the cut of short cut of short. It just means God's going to do it quickly and God's going to do it fully. He is not going to let anybody escape. And judgment did come upon Israel, didn't it? And they were judged mightily by God. And yet again, Paul, just as he applied the choosing to the Gentiles, guess what he's applying to the Gentiles also? You know, we can't have half of covenant theology. Oh, I went over good stuff, but I don't want the threatening in the warnings. And I don't want the bad examples for Paul to give them to us, too, that we would remember that we would think that we would notice it. Judgment begins with the house of God, beloved. It was so in the Old Testament and it's so now. And I don't doubt that there is a shaking going on in the church today. There is a shaking going on. And, you know, we don't need to fear that. It's good for the people of God. When God purifies this church, when he brings trouble and trials and judgment and whatever it is, church is good. There's a purifying. There's a pruning that goes on. But that doesn't mean it's easy. It's hard. When we see whole denominations called good evil and evil good, whole denominations turn away from the inerrancy of Scripture and the infallibility of the word of God. Make for themselves their own morality that just mirrors the world. Call that love when it's sinned. Judgment begins with the house of God. I think we're seeing in the world today that some of the people who were, we thought, you know, well, they're reformed, so they're good. Some of them are embracing the evil. And a lot of evangelicals who we just thought maybe didn't know what they were doing or the penicostles or some of their Armenians or the Methodists were seeing their standing up for what's right. And we're seeing maybe who really is regenerate. And there is a pruning going on. And there is, I think, a strengthening of the church but it comes at a cost. Judgment does begin with the house of God and God will make a quick work of it. And I don't know what that means for America, but I think what our duty is is to focus on here the choice of grace. And that's the last verse of our text, as Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sabbath had left us the seed, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah. That's what we're supposed to conclude, beloved. That's what we're supposed to recognize. Don't make the pit the snare of the trap of Israel, your trap. Don't become proud. This is what Isaiah said in the very first chapter of his book. And he's recognizing the Lord of Sabbath. What is that? The Lord of hosts. It's a transliterated word right from the Hebrew. That's why you say it in Hebrew, and it means armies. And it's talking about God's power. That unless God by his power had left us the seed, again, Paul's applying this all. Two hands and a half. Every one of us would be like Sodom. It would be like Gomorrah. Not just that we would be given over to the judgment that Sodom and Gomorrah that we would degenerate into the most vile and wicked forms of sinful rebellion, that unless it was God by his power who saved us, who held us, who kept us, as Jesus told Peter, the devil was asked for you that he would sift you like wheat, Peter. You're so big and powerful in your faith. The devil would just take you and mold you into whatever. Whatever sin he wanted you to go for, he could do it. But where's Jesus give Peter confidence? But I have prayed for you, Peter. I have prayed so that when you turn back, because you will, yes, you're going to deny me, but you will turn back, because I pray for you. And this is God's grace in our lives. He has promised us here that he will leave us to seek. I want to stop here. I was tempted to go the rest of the past but I want to say that for next week because we really need to stop and think about it, I think. That if it were not me, where would you be right now if not for the grace of God? And this is what, this is what our theology should do for us. If we're not for the grace of God, I would be in picture of the most powerful sinner that you look down on. Whether it's a lazy person, whether it's a lustful person, whether it's a proud person or an arrogant person, whether it's some of the movements of today that are just evil, everyone at last would be there. And that's what the passage ends on. And I, you know, he quotes all these Old Testament texts to remind us, to remind the Jews, to remind the Gentile. The only way we're going to be saved is by the grace of God, giving us what we would never have come to, what we would never have taken, no matter how easy God would have made it. He has left us a seed so that we could glorify His grace forever. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You. That we are saved by grace. Lord, I pray that we would recognize that all of our goodness, all of our power, all of our ability towards righteousness, when you make a scratch on the surface. If you measured it by strict justice, Lord God, we have nothing to give you, but you create all things out of nothing. And if we are saved, it's because you spoke into our nothing, and created life. Lord, help us to believe that, and Lord, may that truth humble us, not for ourselves, even Lord, but that we would give you all the glory and that you would even, that you would even be willing to use us as vessels of light to others. That they would see in us the grace and the goodness of God. Lord, do that for your namesake we pray in Jesus' name, amen.