Romans 9 through 11. Let's start in Romans 9, read a section there, and then we shall jump over to Romans 11. I say that because most of you are fairly familiar with what's in Romans 10. So I want to emphasize the parts that you might not be so familiar with. Starting in Romans 9, verse 1, and I'm in a hurry. because I already know I'm going to be frustrated not having enough time to get through, okay? Romans 9, verse 1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption. and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called." That is, they who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elders shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 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 have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is none 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 hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay Of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour And another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto glory? Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as He saith 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 that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God. Isaiah also crieth out concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sound of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we have been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is a faith But Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and a rock of offense. Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." And then to chapter 11, Romans chapter 11, In verse 1, I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Wist ye not that the scripture saith of Isaiah, How he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace, and if by grace Then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath half obtained it, and the rest were blinded. We'll stop there. We are continuing today our whirlwind tour of our study of the Book of Romans. I'm trying to cover Romans in eight sessions, and it's very, very frustrating. There's so much that we can say about almost any one of these verses. We could count for a month in almost any one of these places. So if you want your theology pre-chewed, pureed, where you can drink it through a straw, maybe you better go somewhere else for the next few weeks. It's going to get chunky. You're going to have to use the muscles of your mind, your mental muscles, exercise your mind a little bit, because there is no way I can possibly cover everything I ought to cover. And so I'm dependent on you folks to read ahead as to what's coming up, and then after we've completed it, to go back and look it over. To be like the clean animals of Israel who, you know, regurgitated up the cud and chewed it, Judy, the second time, that's what I'm asking you to do in these sessions. Well, let us sort of stand back and ask ourselves, you know, we completed chapter 8 the last time we were together, two weeks ago, and I want to first ask this question. How does the section that we're dealing with here, Romans 9, 10, 11, how does it fit into the overall argument? How does it fit into what Paul is teaching us? Now, that's a very interesting question, a very difficult question. In fact, there are many in their approach to Romans who say, well, Romans 9, 10, 11 is just sort of an aside, it's a parenthesis, it really has not much to do with the rest of the letter. Of course, in Romans 9, 10, and 11, we find probably more clearly expressed than anywhere else in scripture what we would call Calvinism or the doctrines of grace, and some, because of their hatred or their detestation of those doctrines, would just soon avoid it. Back in the 60s, there was a great purge of Calvinists going on at Bob Jones University. I had some friends that were there who later told me about this, who were kicked out because of their Calvinism. Some of you may have been familiar with the old magazine, The Sword and Trowel, the American version. That was Spurgeon's magazine, you know, over in England. John Reisinger, up in the northeast, republished the Sword and Trowel. And back in those days, if you were caught at Bob Jones with a copy of the Sword and Trowel, you were immediately put out of the school. Now, you can have a playboy and just be disciplined, but if you had a Sword and Trowel, that's how much these doctors were hated. And I'm glad to say that some things have changed. I've run into some professors from Bob Jones in the last few years who actually are Calvinists, so things are not like that anymore. But why I bring that up is because these same fellows told me that one year they had in their special Bible study, they had a special week of special studies, they chose the book of Romans and they studied from Romans 1 to 8 and then skipped 9 to 11 and went to chapter 12 and finished the book. And when they were asked why did they skip Romans 9, 10, 11, the answer was given, well, these things are just not practical. It really doesn't have that much to do with the rest of the book. Well, I'm here to be the contrarian this morning, that Romans 9, 10, 11 are actually essential and critical to our understanding of the rest of the book of Romans. Because if you think back where we left off, and again, this is almost like an ongoing soap opera. You know, in our last session, you remember what was happening. If you think back to what was going on, we ended Romans chapter 8, this triumphant thing of who can possibly thwart what God is doing in us. Remember the triumphant note. It all started back there in Romans 8, 28, that we know all things are working together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose, and it is that thought that dominates the last part of Romans chapter 8, that the reason that you and I can have any sense of assurance of salvation whatsoever is because we are the object of God's purpose. You understand what I'm saying by that? That the reason that we're saved in the first place is not because of us, it's because of God. The reason we're keeping on today isn't because of us, it's because of God. And the reason that we're finally going to persevere and end in heaven in glory is not because of us, but because of God. If God turned loose of us, we'd bust hell wide open. But God, for reasons known only to Himself, has purpose to save for Himself a people. And in spite of us, not because of us, not because of the contribution we're making to the effort, in spite of us, God's purpose will not be thwarted. He is the omnipotent God of the universe. If God be for us, who can be against us? You say, well, but wait a minute, maybe we'll send away our salvation. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God has justified us for faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so the whole point of the ending theme of Romans 8 is that we can have assurance of salvation. Because our salvation does not hinge on us, it hinges on our God, the God who has sought us and bought us and brought us. That God is keeping us and sustaining us today. The reason I'm going to follow my shepherd to glory isn't because I'm such a good sheep. It's because I have such a good shepherd. It does not rest in my ability to follow. It rests in His ability to keep me and take me to glory. So, the purpose of God is what this is all about. And what we find here in Romans 9 is Paul becoming an apologist. Now, apologist, we would think, is somebody who goes to somebody and says, I'm sorry. Well, that's what we call giving an apology. But in theology, the field of apologetics is defending something, is to argue a point and to prove a point. And here Paul becomes the apologist. He is arguing something. He's arguing a misconception that there is among some, and especially among the Jews, the idea that if Paul, what you're saying, if that's true, then it means that God has somehow changed his purpose. After all, Look in verse 4 of Romans 9. It would appear that God's plan A was to save Israel. After all, look at verse 4, they have the adoption, they were given the covenants, God entered into covenant with Israel, They were given the law, and notice the last word there, they were given the promises. The promises of a blessing, remember? The promise that was given to Abraham. The promise of a great kingdom. The King, the Messiah, going to reign and elevate them to great status and glory. And now Paul, if what you're saying is true, God has switched from plan A to plan B. Plan A just wasn't working out too well. You know, he had to get saved in the Old Testament by keeping all that law. And that just turned out to be too hard, just too difficult. Not many folks getting saved. So, Jesus sent Jesus to the cross so that salvation could be put on sale. You know, make more affordable. You don't have to come up with all that law keeping anymore. All you got to come up with is some faith, okay? You can buy it cheap these days. Well, that's the perception. That's still the perception of a lot of folks today. And so this objection that is being raised in the minds especially of Jews is that, Paul, what you're saying is that God gave up on Plan A and has switched to Plan B. Paul's point, I'm going to give you the punchline at the beginning, is to show that what they think is Plan B was Plan A all along. that no, God has not changed His purpose. He has not changed His mind. He has not altered His course. What is happening in unfolding of the events of the New Testament is exactly what He intended to happen according to His purpose. And that's critical. Because if my assurance of salvation rests upon the eternal, unchanging purpose of God, To come along and say, well, yeah, but God just might change His mind undermines my assurance of salvation. You understand why? If God could suddenly say, well, I'm going to repent. I'm going to change my mind. I intended to do this, but it's just not working out. I think I'll head another direction. Then all of a sudden, all of my assurance of salvation goes all down the tubes, because after all, my assurance is based upon his unchanging purpose. Well, let's look into the argument. And may I say that Paul here is not trying to prove Calvinism. Now, that comes out pretty clear where he's standing in this argument. As far as, is he talking about sovereign grace? Well, you bet he is. None of this makes a bit of sense if he's not. But he's not here trying to argue Calvinism versus Arminianism. If you don't know what those words mean, just let it go over your head. He is not here even that concerned about your or my salvation. That's a byproduct of all of this. You know what his main concern is? He's holding up the glory of God. to making sure we understand that the God that we worship is true to His Word. And when He says something, you can take it to the bank. He's not like me or you. Man's word is awfully, shall we say, flaky. We promise things that we either don't intend to do or we can't do. God's Word is not like that. And from the beginning, notice in Romans 3, all the way back there, as he's proving the universality of sin, and he turns his guns on the Jews and says, you're just as sinful as the Gentiles. In Romans 3, verse 3, for what if some did not believe? What if the Jews don't believe the Gospel? The question is, if they don't believe the gospel, is this going to undermine the Word of God? Is it going to undermine the purpose of God? Look at his answer. Shall their unbelief make the faith, or it can be translated faithfulness, the faithfulness of God without effect? God forbid, yea, let God be true, that every man a liar. In other words, the point is that Israel's unbelief is in no way undermining what God has set out to do in the beginning. You're still in Romans 3? Begin verse 31. Again, do we make void? You know what it means to make something null and void? Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yet we establish the law. In other words, throughout the argument here is that God's Word is dependable. And now we see it again. Romans 9, verse 6. Not as though the Word of God has taken no effect. Now, notice, there are some making that argument. He wouldn't be wasting his time or ours if some folks did not see in what was happening through the New Testament, in the age of the gospel, through the coming of Christ, if they didn't see, if they didn't think, let me put it this way, that God was changing his plan, changing his mind, there'd be no reason for Paul to argue these things. The fact is, is that some did and do today see what is happening in the gospel age as a change in the original plan of God. What Paul is concerned to do is to show us this is not the case at all. I hope if you get nothing more out of this that you'll get that. Thanks, Mary. Let's begin with chapter 9, because it is here that Paul begins his answer, and his answer is concerning the sovereignty of Almighty God. And I mean, in particular, the sovereignty of God over His grace, or as we sometimes put it, sovereign grace. Well, we ask the question, well, what about Israel? I mean, after all, God made covenant with Israel. God gave promises of blessing to Israel. He prophesied through these guys wonderful things for Israel. And now you're saying because of Israel's unbelief, they're not believing in their Messiah, they're not going to get those things. Right? That's the argument. And so this means that God is somehow not following through on His promise. He promised this for them, promised to give it to them, and they're not getting it because they don't believe in Christ, the one through whom it's all coming. You see the problem? Israel has been promised these things. Christ is the God-appointed means for them getting it, and they are refusing to receive Him as their King, as the Messiah, and so they're missing it. And so the natural assumption is, well, then I guess God's promise just didn't work out. Just didn't happen. And what Paul is concerned to do is say, wait a minute. It's happening exactly as God intended it to happen. Let's just understand, first of all, who is Israel? Look at verse 6 again. Not as though the word of God have taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel." This phrase, all Israel, is going to be an important one. We're going to find it at the end of our study today in Romans chapter 11. And it's very important for us to know from the outset in Paul's mind who is all Israel. And he starts by telling us first of all who it's not. All Israel is not those who are of Israel. You know, what in the world does that mean? It looks like double talk, you know, on a phone application or whatever. What are you talking about? Let's first remember, where did the name Israel come from? It was common, as you well know, in the Old Testament and in the New, that when someone had a life-changing event take place in their life, oftentimes they got a new name. And Israel is the new name that was given to the old scoundrel named Jacob. Jacob wrestled with the angel at the Brook Penile, and at the conclusion of that wrestling match, he was blessed and given a new name, Israel. And so when we say the children of Israel, what we mean are the descendants, the natural genetic descendants of that man, Israel. Okay? Well, he's Jacob, but his name got changed to Israel. So what Paul is saying is, when we want to know who the all Israel is here, the Israel that is going to be receiving these promises, the first thing we need to learn is that all Israel is not those who are of Israel. That is, they are not the ones who simply have a genetic attachment to the man Israel. They are not all of the descendants of Israel. They are but a subset of those descendants. Okay, you with me? All Israel, isn't everybody who's descended from Israel? Jacob, it's a subset of those who were descended from Israel. And Paul will show that. He says, well, you ought to know that. You ought to be able to look at your Bible and figure that out. It goes back up a couple of generations. We start this whole thing with a man named Abraham, don't we? Abraham, chosen, elected. out of mankind, separated in a special way, he and his family, to be the one through whom God uses as a channel of blessing to come on all the earth. You remember the promise that was given to Abraham. Abraham had two boys. Well, he had more than that, but there's two in view here. One of them's name is Ishmael, which he had by Hagar, the slave woman. And one is Isaac, this one who was born miraculously to Abraham and his wife Sarah in their old age. Two boys. If genetics is all that's necessary in being a child of Abraham, then Ishmael has just as much right to call himself a child of Abraham as Isaac, correct? After all, they were both born to the same guy, Abraham. So Paul would first of all point you to that generation and say, look, If genetics is the only thing, if it's just a fleshly descent, then Ishmael has just as much right to this stuff as does Isaac. But you Jews, of course, would never admit that. And then look at the next generation. I mean, you could raise an argument, well, after all, they have the same daddy, Abraham, but they did have two different mothers. When we go to the next generation, Isaac and Rebekah have twins. Boys born to the same father, Isaac, and the same mother, Rebekah. They're twins. And yet God chooses one, Jacob, and rejects the other, Esau. Notice that if genetics is what this thing is based on, a physical relationship to the fathers, then Esau has just as much right to everything as Jacob does. Right? You see how in both generations, We see that those who were descended from the previous father, there is an election going on. God choosing in the case of Isaac and Ishmael, saying, in Isaac shall thy seed be called, choosing to work through Isaac, not Ishmael, in the next generation God makes a distinction between Jacob and Esau. They both have exactly the same genetics, yet one is blessed, the other not. Now, Paul's argument is clearly this. If that's what has gone on before Israel, Jacob, do you then think that since Jacob, it's all a matter of genetics? It never was a matter of genetics, or else Ishmael and Esau would be blessed equally with Isaac and Jacob. So if the previous generations' genetics wasn't where it's at, Then after Jacob, after Israel, those who were Israelites, descended from Israel, that genetics isn't where it's at there either. That again, God is making an election among the physical descendants of Israel. You see the point? He made an election between the two sons born to Abraham. He made an election between the two sons born to Isaac. And now since Israel, since Jacob, He has been making an election within the physical descendants, the physical seed of that nation. In other words, there's an election of one level, the election of the nation, and then there is a personal, spiritual election going on at a different level. So Paul then feels compelled to have to defend the doctrine of election. It's almost humorous. defending the justice of God in electing whom he chooses to a bunch of Jews who thought they were the elect. I mean, you think about it. How ridiculous Paul would feel compelled to have to prove the justice of election to folks who were proud of the fact that they were elect. In other words, if it's unjust for God to make this secondary election, it would have been unjust for God to make the primary election. Am I the only one that sees that? It makes sense to me. You know, you've got people arguing with you today. Well, this is just unfair that God should pick and choose who He's going to save. Well, nobody seemed to bring that up when He chose Abraham, when He sent him apart. Jews never made that complaint before when they thought they were the elect, you see. But now that Paul is raising that there is an election going on on a different level than just pure genetics, all of a sudden they come out of the woodwork saying, But everybody says, that's not fair. That's not fair. And that's exactly what Paul says they will say. Look at verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? I mean, that's what Paul says you'll say. And he's right. That's what everybody says. Well, it's just not fair that God should pick and choose who he's going to save and who he won't. Well, let's think about that, and let's look carefully at Paul's answer. Paul's answer is, wait a minute, God has told you from the beginning. In verse 15, he's quoting from Exodus 33, God has told you from the beginning, He'll be merciful, and He'll show grace to whom He will. He'll be merciful, He'll have compassion. Look down in verse 18, Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens. The point is, is that grace is God's favor. We have no right to it. We have no claim on God's favor. It is a gift. Let's use the analogy that Paul uses elsewhere in the New Testament. It's a gift. If you can make someone give you something, if you have a claim, if you have a right to it, it ceases to be a gift. It then becomes payment, right? I mean, at the end of the week, fellas, you get your paycheck from your boss, and you may say thank you, but deep in your heart, you don't really think that's a gift, do you? Deep in your heart, you worked for it. You labored for 40 hours a week, or perhaps more, and they are simply paying you what you're worth, and if you didn't get it, you would be screaming bloody murder, wouldn't you? Paul wants to make sure that we understand that grace is a gift, and we have absolutely no right to it. We have absolutely no claim on it. God can give it to whom He will or not give it to whom He will, and it is His business. Just like you bought your kids some Christmas presents last Christmas. You didn't buy me a Christmas present. Do I have the right to make that complaint? I'm sure you would say to me, well, thank you very much, but I'll decide who I give my gifts to. If I want to give you a Christmas present, I'll give you one. If I don't, I won't. It's not really any of your business. And not giving you a Christmas present doesn't make me unrighteous. And that's exactly Paul's argument here. God can give His grace or withhold it. It's in His hands. He can do with it as He pleases. Thank you very much. Do you remember the parable of the laborers? Some of them went out early in the day. The fellow went to hire the day laborers, offered them a penny a day, a denaro. A Roman denaro typical day's wage for a laborer. At the end of the day, I'll pay you a denary. Well, he goes back out three hours later, and there's some folks standing around. Go work in my vineyard, and I'll pay you what I want. I'll pay you what's right at the end of the day. At noon, he goes and hires some more. At three in the afternoon, finally, five o'clock in the afternoon, just one hour left in the Jewish day, he hires some laborers. They go work, and at the end of the day, I'll pay you what's right. Well, it comes to the end of the day, and in those days, they paid up right on the spot. He calls those who have worked only one hour, and He gives them a full day's wage, a denarii. Well, of course, those who have worked all day long think when they see these guys only work for an hour getting a denarii, getting a full day's wage, they think they're going to get more. And they show up, and He gives them the same thing, a denarii. And man, do they get mad. Well, how dare you? How dare you make them equal to us? How dare you treat them, these Johnny-come-latelys, As if they'd been here all day long. And do you remember what the husbandman, what his answer was? I did you no wrong. Did you not agree with me to work for a denarii? Well, yeah, we did. That was the deal. In other words, I'm not cheating you in any way, form, or fashion. But I will give my own to whom I will, thank you very much. If I want to treat them equal to you, that's my business. I did not cheat you. I gave them more than they deserve. That doesn't mean I've got to give you more than you deserve. I'm only obligated to give you what you deserve. And so it is that Paul would argue the justice of sovereign grace, that God is free to bestow his grace on whom he will and to harden others. Now that disturbs us. Say, well, it's one thing for God simply not to give, to overlook, to preterition is the fancy word for this, to pass by, to pass over. But this speaks of something more than that. He's not just passing over. It's not just that he's not giving grace. He's hardening. And he gives Pharaoh as the example of one whom God hardened. And, you know, back in Exodus, you'll find texts where Pharaoh hardened his heart and then other texts where God hardened his heart. Let me just make a quick observation. We think hardening requires God to do something positive, to add something to the heart. It's like epoxy glue. You know, you've got the resin and you've got the hardener. You guys know what I'm talking about. Go down to the hardware store, get you some epoxy glue, and as long as you keep them apart, they stay pliable, right? But you put the two together, and all of a sudden, it sets up. It hardens. And so we have the idea that what this is saying is man's heart is like the resin, and so God not only does not give them grace, but he begins then to add the hardening ingredient to man's heart to where it sets up, where it hardens. Oh, that's a complete misreading of the situation. My friend, the hardener is already in you. And it is nothing but the restraints of God that keeps those two things apart. God is keeping you. If you're lost this morning, God is keeping you from being as wicked as you otherwise would be. If He let you go, and that is, of course, the definition of apostasy, reprobation that we see in the first three chapters of Romans, that God gave them over. Well, what was He doing prior to that? He's holding them back. You understand your heart already is hardening. It's just God keeping it back from being as hardened as it would be. So what does God have to do to harden a man's heart? Nothing. Nothing. Just let you go. Do you get the picture? And so, yes, God hardens man's heart, but we're not talking about God having to add a new ingredient to man's heart, God having to do something positive. All God has to do to harden your or my heart is just quit restraining us to let nature take its course, the sinful nature that we already have within. Secondly, Paul's argument is that God is not unjust to any. There's another objection down in verse 19, what if he yet find fault for having resisted his will? If God has predestined all events, then God has predestined my sin, and how can God judge me for committing the sin that God willed me to commit? Have I mangled English enough there? Did you get that? How can God hold me accountable for wicked acts when he has predestined those wicked acts? That's the argument. How can he judge me? After all, I was just doing his will. I mean, the men who nailed Jesus to the cross could have said, is your will that your son die? He was the Lamb's land before the foundation of the world. The prophets in the Old Testament all prophesied to that fact, that he's to come and die. He himself said, this is the reason I came into the world. It's his will, it is God's will that his son die. Does anybody here have an objection to that? Wasn't that what was going on in the garden? Not my will, but thy will be done? Of course it is God's will that his son go to the cross. Well, couldn't those Roman soldiers then say, well, God, I just do in your will when we crucified him, when we nailed his hands to that cross, I just do in your will? And Paul answers again, no. Verse 20, who are you? Who are you to reply against God? It's interesting, Paul doesn't even bother to answer the question. He just points out the impropriety of the question. Who are you to question God? The answer is found in this little parable here in verse 21 about a potter taking a lump and making a vessel of wrath out of it or a vessel of mercy. It all comes down to the question of that lump. The lump. Is that a sinful lump or a perfect lump? The mass out of whom God is making vessels of wrath, vessels of mercy, is it a sinful lump or a holy lump? Now there's one school of Calvinism, hyper-Calvinism, that says, well, it's a holy lump and God just created man to put him in hell. I take great exception to that. It seems to me that what Paul is saying is the lump out of which God chose to make some a vessel of wrath, others a vessel of mercy, is a wicked, sinful, hell-deserving lump. How do you get that? Well, notice, one is made a vessel of wrath. Do you ever find God's wrath on anything that's not sinful? His wrath is holy wrath. His wrath is judicial wrath. Secondly, the vessel of mercy, how do you have mercy without sin? Mercy is not getting what you deserve. So if God showed mercy on some, it must be that they did not deserve mercy. You see my argument? Both wrath and mercy presuppose sin. And so the lump out of which God is choosing to make either a vessel of mercy or a vessel of wrath is a God-hating, hell-deserving lump. I got called to a church, well, an opportunity, I should say, a church up in Goodlettsville, north of Nashville. A fellow in my church in Nashville, this was 20 years ago or so, worked with a lady from that church, and they were studying various cults. After my fellow in my church told her what we believe, she decided we qualified. So we went out. It was a Sunday evening. They were having their cult of the night, I think, thing for several weeks. So they invited us out to basically share what we believe. And it was very interesting because it was a Southern Baptist church, and I felt compelled to point out that the very things I believe were the very things Southern Baptists believed 150 years ago when they first began. I've got a systematic theology book that was used in the first Southern Baptist Seminary in South Carolina that teaches exactly what I believe. So, I've not changed. You're the one that has changed, OK? I wanted to point that out. But secondly, when I was through, this lady spoke up and she said, that's the most horrible thing I've ever heard. I said, well, what do you mean? She said, well, what you're saying is you've got all these people trying to get into heaven. And God is saying, well, you can come in, and you can come in, but not you, and you can't, and you can't, but yes, you can, and so forth. I said, dear lady, you've got it all backwards. You misunderstand. That yes, God is standing at the door of heaven, His arms outstretched, and man is making a beeline for hell as hard as they can go. No one is coming. And He reaches out and stops this sinner, and stops that one, and stops that one. You misunderstand the nature, the sinful nature of man, that man is not seeking after God. That's where Paul started this whole thing. There's none that seek after God. There's none righteous. They don't want this. In fact, they'd rather go to hell than to accept the remedy that God sets before them in His Son. And so, my friend, hell would be busting at the seams. And heaven an empty place if it weren't for God's election. None of us would choose to be there. None of us would come. All right. That's point number one. I'll try to be brief. We have much to do. Let me just summarize what follows the mistake that Israel was making. The basic mistake, you find it from the last verses of chapter 9 all the way through chapter 10, was thinking that by keeping the law, they could establish for themselves a righteousness in the sight of God. In other words, by keeping the law, they could one day stand before God and say, I have the right of admission to heaven because I have obeyed your law. And Paul points out that that's the mistake. That they did not realize two things. That the law was never intended to be used by man to establish his righteousness. To somehow display how good he was. That the law was given, as he's already told us in the middle of Romans chapter 3, that by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law is given not to show me how good I am, but to show me how bad I am. It's like an MRI machine, and I keep using that analogy. I'm saying, well, you know, I don't get sick like you do, because I've got me an MRI machine. Well, you say, well, you fool, don't you understand that the MRI machine, number one, won't keep you from getting sick in the first place, and number two, it won't cure you if you are sick. Well, you say, well, what good is an MRI machine? It'll let you know if you are sick, right? It will reveal what is hidden within. And so it is with the law of God. Israel had a wonderful benefit. They had a leg up on everybody in the Old Testament because they had the law that revealed to them that they were sinful. We say, well, why was that good to know? Because that brings you to point number two. The law is intended to point you to Christ, to the remedy that God was going to supply. It's showing you the hopelessness of your own case. The fact that you are so sinful that you will never be righteous in the sight of God through your own works, in order that you'll give up on yourself, that you'll quit trying to, as the words of Paul, establish your own righteousness, and that you will find another source of righteousness, namely, by faith in the one whom God has sent. And so Paul says in Romans 10, therefore, salvation is going to come not through doing a work, but through believing a message. The message, of course, the gospel. And that the Gentiles, who never had the advantage of the Jew, are finding salvation because they are finding the point that the law was pointing to in the first place. They are coming to faith in Christ. I had a kid down the hall from me at Rice who was nothing short of a genius. I never saw him dressed. He was always in his underwear, sitting in the middle of his bed. with a bunch of books around him. He never went to class except for finals. And he would always go in, ace the final, and then go back to his room. He was a genius. The rest of us had to go to class. We had the advantage of the lessons. The Jew got to go to class. They had the law that taught them these lessons. That would help them when the day of the final comes. The Gentile didn't get that advantage, but he's still ace in the final because he is realizing what the law was saying to the Jew all along. Well, I've got to hurry on. Then that brings us to Romans 11. Does this mean God has changed His plan? Has He switched horses in the middle of the stream? No, says Paul, because what is going on is exactly what God promised in the Old Testament. By the way, From Romans 1 through 8, there's about a dozen quotes from the Old Testament that you'll find. In Romans 9, 10, and 11, there's 26 quotes from the Old Testament. You say, well, what are you trying to point out? I'm trying to show you that Paul is tying what is happening in the New Testament day back to what was prophesied in the Old Testament. He's showing you this isn't anything new on God's part. This is exactly what he intended from the beginning. that God always has saved a remnant. We studied Elijah this week. Oh, there, Elijah. And Elijah, you remember, runs off, faces up to 600 prophets, and then one woman runs him out of town, and he takes off running up to Horeb, up to Mount Sinai, holds up in a cave, and he's in there whining, God, it's down to you and me. And God says, what do you want Elijah? I have 6,000 reserved unto me who have not bowed the knee to Baal. I have chosen 6,000 for me. They're reserved for me. It's not just you and me Elijah. There's 6,000 who constitute my people. And what Paul is saying is, it's always been that way. Within the bigger Israel, there's this remnant. I don't know much about sewing, ladies, but you go down to the cloth store or whatever you call those places. I try to stay away from those things religiously. But anyway, you go into the place where they sell material, and when they sell you the remnant, that's the little piece, right, instead of the great big one. Paul is saying it has always been within the big election, the nation of Israel, There is a smaller one, the real Israel, the all Israel, the elect Israel. And it's an election based, as he says here in very explicit terms, on grace and grace alone. And who better to know but Paul? Paul says, I'm one of those. I'm one of that remnant. And who better to know that it's all by grace? Old Saul of Tarsus, who was marching down to Damascus, breathing out threatening and slaughtering against the Church of God there. Who better to know? In fact, he reminds us of it throughout the New Testament. Every time he tells us it's something like this, by the grace of God, I am what I am. It's just God's grace that He saved me. I hated Christ. I hated His people. I was doing everything in my power to stamp out Christianity, and Christ stopped me in my tracks. And the first words out of Christ's mouth is, you are a chosen vessel unto me. I've picked you. When Paul never would have picked Christ, Christ picked him. He said, I've chosen you to be my point man, to take my word, my gospel to the ends of the earth, to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Do you understand that's what John Newton was saying when he said, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear. Grace. My fear is relieved. Oh, if it wasn't for God's grace, I never would have worried about my soul. I never would have had a question. I never would have had a doubt in my mind. I would have gone right on down. But it was grace that taught me to fear. And then it was grace. My fear is relieved. It was grace that showed me the problem. And then it was grace that showed me the remedy in the mighty Christ. I hope my Calvinism does not disturb you because all of it just boils down to this. I'm God-centered in my theology rather than man-centered. That's the bottom line. And I mean by this, that if you go to hell, don't you stand and blame God's election. You went to hell with God standing at the door of heaven with his arms outstretched. He quotes here Isaiah all the day long. I have stood with outstretched arms to against saying and disobedient people. God welcomes. God invites. God has made an offer of mercy in his Son. And if you perish in hell, don't you dare blame God. If you go to hell, if I go to hell, I'm telling you it's your fault. It's my fault. But oh, if you go to heaven, blame God, because it's all His fault. from first to last, this wonderful doxology at the end. God, as it were, Paul standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon looking at the scheme of God, the wisdom of God, blown away. Who can understand? Who would have thought this? Who would have figured this out ahead of time? Who would have done it like this? God doesn't need our help. He's not looking for advisors. He's looking for students. to take their place and be taught His wisdom because of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. For of Him it starts with Him. Through Him it continues because of Him. And to Him It'll end because of him, or all things. That's my theology. That's the ground I stand on when I preach the gospel. It's the ground Paul stood on. It's the ground Peter stood on when they preached the gospel. Just go read the book of Acts. God is saving sinners. And oh, my friend, don't you miss it? Don't you miss it? If you're waiting on some spaceship to zap you and reel you in and beam you up to the mothership, you'll die going to hell. You know how God brings his people to salvation? He opens their eyes and they see their need. They see the desperate state of their case, and then they see the glorious remedy. of a Savior who died on a cross in their place. And they'll never get over it. To God be the glory. Joseph Hart, the old Puritan hymn writer, said it like this, Election tis a word divine, for Lord I plainly see Had not thy choice prevented mine, I ne'er had chosen thee. That's it. Let's pray. Father, help us to open our eyes to what you say to us here, to the majesty, the immensity of what your purpose involves. And how you are a God who knows the end from the beginning, who has ordained all things according to your eternal purpose. We're now working out that purpose. And Father, we attribute our own salvation to your grace and your grace alone. But Father, you've given us work to do, and part of that work is to take the gospel into all the earth, to preach it to every creature. Father, your purpose is to make known the overture of mercy and grace to set forth the remedy for man's sin before their eyes, to set forth Christ in him crucified before the eyes of men. Give us grace to do that. Let us not excuse ourselves by pleading sovereign grace, by pleading your predestined purpose to excuse us of our responsibility. Let not a lost man do that. Let not a saved man do that, dear Father. Let us own up to what our obligation is, to our role to play, that you are a God who has not only ordained the ends, but you have ordained the means to those ends. And use us as your instrument in bringing your people to know your Son. Do it for Christ's sake. Father, not that we are something, not that we would be glorified, either this preacher or this church, but save your people for the sake of Jesus, your Son. He's worthy. Honor Him, Father, with what His payment deserves. Give Him a people to be with Him throughout all eternity. Thank you for letting us have a part to play. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.