Sunday Morning Service

Romans 9:19-33 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

"Election To The End!"  •  5.27.12  •  Sunday Morning Service, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- From God's perspective, there is nothing more secure than His intendion in salvation. He wants us to know and live in light of that. To help us, He gives Paul His views regarding Israel. 

- We left off last week with God's prerogative in election. All deserve condemnation, but God elects to show mercy freely to one group of people, while He freely hardens another.

- By revealing this to the Apostle, what does God want us to see about Himself? What is it that we need to understand about Him? This is who our God is.

- He is in a love relationship with you and I and what He reveals here is meant to draw us into a deeper understanding of who it is that we love.

- With that in mind, notice these next points regarding election, which flow like this:

I. The Presentation Of God's Character In Election (v.19-24)

II. The Prophetic Nature Of Election (v.25-29)

III. The Perfect Ends Of Election (v.30-33)

Text

I. The Presentation Of God's Character In Election (v.19-24)

• Romans 9:19-21 : "You will say to me then, 'Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?' But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?' Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?'" : Paul has has had this conversation and He knows the next line. "Why does God fault anyone for their unbelief, especially the people of Israel?"

- There are those who have received mercy and compassion and there are some who have received a hardening from God. Who has been able to resist His will?

- This is the quintessential moment of human resignation to evil desire. "If God made me this way, then it's His fault that I am this way! I can't change it so I might as well enjoy it!"

- Regardless of what God clearly revealed Word to the contrary, man's wicked inclination in posing this argument, is to actually blame God for their behavior!

- Man has been shown his condition and instead of calling out to God for mercy, seeks to find an excuse not to and sovereignty is a neat theological puzzle that they hold onto like a crutch!

- In this man has not changed from the very first man! When Adam sinned, his response was that it was because of the woman that He had given her! He was twice removed from his own guilt!

- Paul barely dignifies this with the answer that he gives. "O man, who are you to reply to God?" What a blasphemy against God to blame Him for the sin that you have freely committed!

- Take note of the key words in Paul's reply: "man" and "God!" The old saying, "Man at his best is at his best man!" is applicable here.

- It is the height of arrogance for a man to live out his 70 years, gain all possible knowledge and think that enough of a platform on which to approach and accuse an infinite Holy God!

- The story of Job comes to mind, who spends a good deal of his book calling out for an audience with God. When God shows up, Job has the wisdom to shut up!

- Who am I to question God? I can barely understand my own life! How can I argue or even begin to question Him?

- We have the same capacity to accuse God as a created thing has to speak to it's creator! We are glorified clay, dirt that can walk and talk when it comes to the majesty of God.

- Paul illustrates by writing of the Potter, who takes a lump of clay and makes a decision regarding what it will be.

- The Potter can make it into anything that He wants! He might want to make a beautiful, artistic vase. From that same lump, he could make a spitoon!

- The beautiful vase that he makes takes a prominent position in the home. It is set in a place of honor, for all to see. The spitoon you can put anywhere on the floor! Nobody wants to see it!

- The whole initiative comes from the Potter who is free to make both vessels!

- The illustration helps us meant to understand God's authority to act as God. That is where it ends, for we are not lifeless pieces of pottery. That would be an absurdity.

- When one considers that God has the power to determine that a certain type of life brings Him pleasure and another doesn't, we begin to understand what Paul is saying.

• Romans 9:22-24 : "What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering 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?" : Consider this: How does God actually show His wrath if there is no distinction in life between what pleases Him and what He hates?

- What if God made something just to demonstrate His wrath and power? Why would He do that? To demonstrate the entirety of His being!

- You and I have no problem with this and I'll show you what I mean. Where is Adolf Hitler right now? Unless something happened in the final moments of his life, we assume the answer is "hell!"

- When one considers the weight of atrocity ordered by that man against God's people and the ramifications that His campaign cost our men's lives to combat, it's easy to consider God's wrath!

- You and I live with an anticipation that because God is a God of righteousness, that His righteousness will one day stamp out all that is ungodly and unrighteous!

- This is a part of God's character that while uncomfortable dwelling upon, are nevertheless grateful for. Grateful?

- We are grateful for it because we can trust someone greater than us to make things right! God's wrath and power against sinners is as perfect as His love is toward them.

- Instead of reacting to that vile sinner and wiping them off the face of the planet, God has patiently endured those vessels of wrath which were prepared, fitted for destruction.

- Today, the unrepentant, hardened sinner that lives and breathes, needs to understand that he or she is lining themselves up to be the example of God's wrath!

- God has been exceedingly patient. He has put up with more than we can ever know! There is not a sinner that has ever lived on this planet that can truly say that they weren't given a chance.

- In them who are fitted for destruction, His wrath and His power will be shown.

- Alternatively, He will display His great mercy to those who are recipients of His mercy!

- He wants to show of the riches of His glory! God wants to make a display of all that He has ever wanted to give to those who are the vessels of mercy!

- From eternity when He chose them, to eternity when they will stand before Him, God will be lavishing His people with gifts of love that cannot be comprehended!

- You and I are going to spend eternity receiving gifts from God that are meant to show off just how great He is! Who are these people? The called ones both of the Jews and of the Gentiles!

- There are Jews who have believed or who will believe in Jesus Christ, trusting Him for salvation and they will be saved in the same way that you were!

- His Holy wrath makes His loving mercy that much more sweet and should make us that much more passionate to share it with those who are headed for destruction!

II. The Prophetic Nature Of Election (v.25-29)

• Romans 9:25,26 : "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 said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.'" : Hosea was a real man who was also a real prophet of God that God asked to marry a real harlot, a prostitute.

- Hosea's marriage to Gomer would illustrate Israel's wayward character in their marriage to God. Hosea 1:2 tells us that the people of Israel had departed from the Lord.

- The rest of Hosea 1 sets the stage with the birth of three sons, all given prophetic names.

- The first son is Jezreel, which means "planted." The second was called Lo Ruhamah, meaning "no mercy!" The third was called him "Lo Ammi" which means "Not my people!"

- Israel had been unfaitfhul to God, the one who had planted her. Now, God would show her no mercy by allowing her to fall and the result is that they would no longer be called His people!

- Note however the faithfulness of God. In Hosea 2:23. God would bring out a people that had not been His people! Israel had walked away from God, but God had not left them!

- He would bring Israel back into her land, after her captivity, and she would once again be God's beloved people because of His faithfulness.

- Paul is saying that Israel's unbelief is not a problem for God's election. In fact, He prophecied that it would take place and that He would still save them!

- This applies specifically to the tribes of Israel in near fulfillment, as well as the church in far fulfillment! Because of our trust in Christ, He has made us sons of the living God!

- We were not a people, but now we are a people in Christ! We were not loved, but in Christ we are now beloved!

- When God looks at us, the Church, the body of Christ, He says "they are mine!" You belong to the Lord! He has set His love upon you! His blood has made us the very family of God!

• Romans 9:27,28 : "Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.'" : Paul quotes here from Isaiah 10:20-23.

- A quick note of explanation before we move on. The 12 tribes of Israel were divided after the death of Solomon. Israel comprised the 10 tribes of the north, Judah the 2 tribes in the south.

- Israel's fall began with the institution of Golden Calf worship which Jeroboam instituted so that the people did not have to go all the way to Jerusalem, which lay in Judah.

- He set his own replacement system up, filled with volunteer priests from any tribe. This action led to a series of wicked turns, which eventually led them to judgment.

- God would use the Assyrians to lead them away into captivity. Judah, the tribes in the south, would later be carried away by Babylon.

- Now, even though Israel was a wretched idolatrous group of tribes, being of great number, out of them, a remnant, a small group, remained that were loyal to God.

- The nation as a whole was no longer fit for anything, save the judgment of God for their abandonment to idolatry. But even then, there were men like Isaiah standing out against the tide!

- Was there hope for the men like Isaiah? Indeed, God would save those who remained His!

- God's action would be swift to judge as well as swift to save!

•  Romans 9:29 :  "And as Isaiah said before: 'Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.'" : Isaiah's words in Isaiah 1:9, speak of God's mercy in securing a remnant.

- The word "Sabaoth" means "the armies." Unless the Lord of the Armies had left them some group to rebuild, some faithful seed, then israel would have been extinct!

- What a shocking thing to say? There was no difference between Israel and Sodom and Gomorrah, save that God made sure to preserve some of His people!

- God did not do that with Sodom and Gomorrah. They were not spared. There were not even 10 people within the land who were righteous! There was nothing to rebuild with!

III. The Perfect Ends Of Election (v.30-33)

•  Romans 9:30-32 : "What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone." : What is the conclusion of this matter? The shocking truth is that those who had no desire for righteousness, got it!

- The Gentiles, the nations, those outside the commowealth of Israel, did not pursue righteousness. They didn't earnestly seek it or desperately attempt to reach out for it. Did you? No!

- Yet they attained or grabbed a hold of, the very righteousness of God by faith! How does this make sense? Israel had sought after righteousness, but did not receive it.

- The answer is simple: They did not seek it by faith! They sought righteousness by another means, in this case the works of the law! They wanted to slurp up their soup with a fork!

- Israel had sought to win God's approval by keeping God's law. This was Paul's diagnosis, not simply as an outsider, but as one who had lived this life!

- He had pursued a righteousness by keeping God's law. But that is not faith in Christ.

- Law keeping assumes that God will owe a man for His work, but God will be a debtor to anyone! He gives grace to the humble, the one who humbly opens his hand and receives it by faith!

- The Gentiles heard that God was passing out salvation free of charge because it had been justly won, and they simply took Him up on it! They just believed that God would do that for them!

- And what happened? God saved the Gentiles! He graciously brought them in and gave them life! That is what He has done for you and me.

- He has declared that you, by simple belief in Jesus Christ, are righteous in a way that the Jews could only wish were true of them!

- They look on with incredulity, but there is no denying it! Those who seek to please God by keeping the law will only ever be frustrated by what we gratefully believe and receive!

- Paul tells us that the Jews and really, anyone today who attempts to be saved by works of the law, that they have stumbled as if on a stone! They tripped over this one obstacle!

- Every time they come to this one place in the road, they just end up tripping! What is that that they are tripping on? Jesus Christ, the stone that the builders rejected!

•  Romans 9:33 : " As it is written: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.'" : Isaiah 28:16 tells us that God would lay out His foundation stone in Jerusalem that faith would be built.

- It would be a stone that would trip many and would be an offense to many! How true that word is! Jesus trips people up who are intent on running to God based on their own merit!

- He is an offense to those who look at their own righteousness as meritorious for heaven!

- Ah, but whoever believes on Him! How did that get in there!? Does Paul not remember that this entire chapter has focused on the subject of predestination, election and sovereign power!?

- Yet, they both co-exist! Whoever believes on Him, though the world may stumble over Him and be offended at Him, will not be put to shame!

- Their belief will vindicate them when His power to save is fully shown and His great riches of merciful glory, are poured out on His elect for eternity!

Conclusion

- The God that you love is a patient God, daily calling those fitting themselves for destruction, to a life of faith in Christ. He wants to show love, but to those who refuse, He will show wrath!

- His Word shows us that His patience has been predicted and His faithfulness to His ever wandering people cannot thwart His ends!

- What are His ends? To exalt His Christ, that whoever would build their life upon Him, would never be ashamed or destroyed!