I hope you’re all reasonably comfortable. We have a little fan action going. It’s pretty distressing to us that we have four brand-new heating and air-conditioning units, and the power outage and Dominion problem with the three-phase power fried a few of them. So, if you’re uncomfortable today, that’s what happened.
But praise the Lord. I always think about and read Hebrews, where it says, “and some were sawn asunder.” Somehow, this doesn’t seem so inconvenient. So always look up when you consider those heroes of faith in Hebrews.
Turn with me to Romans 9:19-33, the second part of Romans 9. We’ll read the verses. This is from the Darby Translation.
Thou wilt say to me then, Why does He yet find fault?
For who resists His purpose?
Aye, but thou, O man, who art thou that answerest again to God?
Shall the thing formed say to Him that has formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?
Or has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, another vessel to dishonour?
And if God, minded to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared for glory—
us, whom He has also called, not only from among the Jews, but also from amongst the nations?
As He says also in Hosea, I will call not My people, My people;
and the not-beloved, beloved.
And it shall be, in the place where it was said of them, Ye are not My people,
there shall they be called sons of the living God.
But Isaiah cries concerning Israel, Should the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.
For He is bringing the matter to an end, and cutting it short in righteousness; because a cutting short of the matter will the Lord accomplish upon the earth.
And according as Isaiah said before, Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and made like even as Gomorrah.
What then shall we say?
That they of the nations, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, but the righteousness that is on the principle of faith;
but Israel, pursuing after a law of righteousness, has not attained to that law.
Wherefore? Because it was not on the principle of faith, but as of works.
They have stumbled at the stumbling stone, according as it is written, Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; and he that believes on Him shall not be ashamed.
Let’s have another word of prayer.
Father, we’re so grateful that You have left to us this Bible—heavenly words, life-giving words. We pray You would breathe upon those today, that we would hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, that we would receive those words that are spirit and life.
Unless You do something this morning to speak to us, it will all be in vain. But when You speak to us, we are quickened in life. And so we yield all this time, both the hearing and the speaking, to our sovereign Lord, that You will move and You will speak. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, we’re going back to Romans. We had a two-month break, I think, partly due to people’s schedules, and now we’re back. We’re going to finish the second half of chapter 9 today.
You might remember the first message we shared in verses 9 through 18: God’s purpose according to election. That’s very important. If we don’t understand election, we can never enter into the kingdom of God that we heard about this morning.
I mentioned that Romans is in three parts. Now we’re in that second part, Romans 9 through 11, and the thing we’ll be dealing with today is God’s sovereign election.
It may help you to have this broad outline. Chapters 1 through 8: just remember the word works. It is the mighty works of God—works of justification, where we have a righteousness not our own. To stand before God as righteous is impossible, but the mighty works of God made it possible.
Those mighty works of God deal with sanctification, which means making holy. He has committed the Holy Spirit to us in this lifetime, as we wait to be with Him forever in the kingdom, to be transformed and conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. That’s Romans 8, and that is what sanctification is.
When we see Him, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.
And then glorification. Romans 8 talks about glory a lot. One day, in the redemption of the body, we will be fully glorified. How wonderful. You have to agree: these are mighty works.
The part we are in now has to do with the ways of God: “How unsearchable His judgments,” it says in Romans 11:33, “and how untraceable His ways.” Brothers and sisters, if we don’t understand the ways of God, we’ll never understand Who He is, what He does, or how He works.
Finally, when we get to it, Romans 12 through 16 deals with the will of God. Have you ever wondered about that phrase concerning those who give themselves as living sacrifices? It says that you will prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
The will of God is that Christ would be literally expressed in a people—the testimony of Jesus expressed. So the last four chapters deal with a practical expression of the Lord in a people. That is the will of God.
So remember those three words. They may not speak to you the way they speak to me, but: works, ways, and will.
Today we are going to look at sovereign election. There are three things we would like to consider:
Let’s begin with God’s sovereign election in verses 19 through 21. This matter of sovereign election—or God’s sovereign ways—is so important that unless we understand it, we will never be that testimony of Jesus He has called us to be, and the will of God will never be fulfilled.
Everything in the Bible, from Genesis to the end of Revelation, depends on us understanding that God is sovereign. So often, that’s the problem: we are in the foreground, and He is in the background. He is not on the throne, even in the lives of believers in the church.
Unless we get the fact that God is sovereign, we will never be made into that testimony of Jesus He is looking for. By this, we know Who He is. By this, we know what He does. By this, we know why He does it. That’s how important sovereignty is.
I think this is the first thing we need to know. Everything starts with it. It is the secret that unlocks all of His ways. The context here is sovereign election. First of all, we need to understand it, so may the Lord help us.
Look at verses 19 through 21 again. These verses are connected to the previous verse that talked about Pharaoh.
Well, that’s exciting. Nobody got blown over by a fan, I hope. Let’s not get too distracted. Remember, we’re not sawn asunder.
What he said at the end of verse 18 is:
To whom He will, He shows mercy; and to whom He will, He hardens.
There was an immediate reaction to that, and it is recorded in these three verses. It is man questioning the sovereignty of God. If you look at this, there are five questions—two from men and three that are God’s answer—and they explain to us His sovereignty and His authority.
As believers, there is nothing more important we must know than His sovereignty and His authority. As the church of God, there is nothing more important we need to know than that God is sovereign and He is the only authority.
First of all, there are man’s objections. You read in verse 19:
Thou wilt say to me then, Why does He yet find fault?
For who resists His purpose?
That was the reaction of man. They are questioning God. Can you imagine us, as human beings, questioning the almighty God and testing His sovereignty and authority? But that is exactly what Paul is dealing with here.
The whole context of the book of Romans has to do with the court—not the human court, but the divine court. This sovereign God sits upon the throne, and He is judging unrighteous man righteously. That is what it is all about.
The question raised by the apostle is, “Why does He find fault?” You know what that is like? That is putting God on trial. Can you imagine us putting God on trial? Can you imagine us saying to God, “Who do You think You are?”
But sometimes, by our lives, by our words, and by our actions, we do exactly what these ones did. This is a terrible beginning of all rebellion. Original sin comes from this: “Who does He think He is?” That is what they are saying.
How serious this charge was. Then they say, “Who resists His purpose?” It is what we might call a snarky comment in today’s vernacular. “Who does He think He is?”
Think about that, brothers and sisters. Can there be any greater sin than questioning God—His sovereignty and His authority? How can unrighteous man put the God of glory on trial? How could it be?
They dare, with their feeble and failing questions, to question the very sovereignty, righteousness, and authority of God Who made them.
Now, brothers and sisters, do you know what happened when you were saved? You used to be on the throne. This is the simplest definition I can give you of true salvation: you used to be on the throne.
You were the one on the throne of your heart—self, I, me. You remember those repeated words in Romans 7? You were on the throne.
But one day, you met the Sovereign. When you met the Sovereign, you bowed the knee to the Sovereign, and you accepted Him as Lord and Christ. You were dethroned on that day, and He was enthroned. That is what salvation means.
It is strange that even many of us saved ones say, “How can He do this? Who is He?” This is the secret at the beginning of these verses.
I’ll tell you a little story, because sometimes illustrations help more than simply reading and trying to expound verses. We have seven grandchildren. You know that all grandparents talk about their grandchildren; forgive me for being one of those.
The youngest has a very spiritual name: Levi. Levi, I think, was five years old—and Linda will correct me if I am wrong—but Levi questioned sovereignty one day in our household.
I don’t know what Linda did to provoke him. I think I was away at work; I’m not sure. But I heard the whole story, and it has become a family favorite story.
Levi did not want to do something Miss Linda said, so he said in his deepest ghetto voice, “You not the boss of me.”
I’m so thankful Linda did not strike him, first of all. Maybe she should have. Maybe it would have helped—a little corporal punishment. Don’t tell the parents.
But she said to him, “When you are in Gigi’s house”—that’s her, Gigi—“I am the boss of you.”
Do you understand? We are in His house. He is the Boss of us. He is sovereign. He is the authority. He is over our lives. We have bowed the knee to Him, and the way we are transformed into His image is to respect His sovereignty and authority and allow Him to do His work.
You see, this horrific sin is the spirit of rebellion. It is the very spirit of rebellion. You remember what it says in 1 Samuel 15:23: the spirit of rebellion is like witchcraft. It is that serious.
When Satan rebelled, what was he doing? He was questioning the authority of God. He said, “I will be like God.” You all know those passages; we will not read them. They are in Isaiah 14:12-17 and Ezekiel 28:14-19.
Satan desired to be like God and to have God’s power. Can you imagine a created being, even though he may have been the covering cherub and even though he is called son of the morning, saying, “I will ascend to the throne. I will go to the heavens. I will do this”?
Five times it says, “I, I, I,” and then he ends by saying, “I will be like God.” Brothers and sisters, this is the sin of rebellion. You will not understand original sin unless you understand this.
Satan appeared in the creation scene in Genesis and provoked Adam and Eve to question God’s authority, power, and sovereignty. He was the most subtle of all the beasts, and he said, “Did God say?”
“Did God say?” All these questions are at the heart of original sin. They are the introduction to original sin. Then he proves it by saying, “He knows that when you eat of this tree, you will be like God.”
That is diabolical deception—diabolical. That is the beginning of original sin. That is what Satan did: “I will be like the Most High.” That is what mankind thought: “I will be as God.”
Brothers and sisters, how we need to understand the sovereignty and authority of God.
Let me read to you a definition. I think this is a good definition. You may not like it, but it at least helps me to understand. What does it mean: sovereign God? Why is this such an important part of His ways?
God has ultimate authority and control over all things, including the universe, creation, and human history. Nothing can limit or restrict His power or purpose.
What a comprehensive definition of the sovereignty of God. This diabolical questioning is the origin of sin in rebellion. It was the cause of the fall of Satan, who was cast down to the earth and cast out of heaven. It was also the fall of mankind, which has been the ruin of mankind until the Son of Man came and saved us from our rebellious spirit.
Another thing you will notice in these first three verses—Romans 9:19-21—is man’s very clear objections. We are always objecting. It is not just our grandson Levi who objects.
Think how often we object: “Why are You doing this, God? Why have You allowed this? Why have You brought me through this? What are You doing? Who are You?” That is what man does.
I want to go back to the scene of the divine courtroom. We have at least one lawyer in the room who can correct me if I am wrong. The prosecution and defense attorneys have a right to object in court.
If you ever watched old Perry Mason—the young people do not know who Perry Mason is—or any trial, you remember somebody saying, “I object.” The lawyer stands up because he does not like what was said or the evidence the other lawyer presented, and he wants it stricken from the evidence.
But then there is a sovereign on the bench. He is called the judge for a reason. He has absolute and sovereign control of his courtroom—nobody else. All he has to say is, “Overruled.” That is all he has to say. That is the end of it.
Of course, the judge has another option. He can say, “Sustained,” which means he agrees with the objection. But never forget this one thing: there is a judge who rules over that court, and whatever he says, without explaining it, is what goes.
There is only one Sovereign in the divine court, and He rules over everything. God does not ever have to explain Himself.
But here God explains Himself. Isn’t it wonderful? Sometimes we think of our God as some unapproachable sovereign. Sometimes we think of God as a despot who rules over mankind and the earth, perhaps in a cruel or harsh way.
He never has to give an explanation, but the last three questions are His answers to man’s objections. If you read verses 20 and 21:
Aye, but thou, O man, who art thou that answerest again to God?
Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?
Or has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump, to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?
Did you notice that? That is the whole explanation. He did not have to give it, but through the apostle Paul we understand His ways. We understand that we are the clay and He is the Potter.
Do you get the big difference? Sometimes we reverse the roles. We think we are the potter, but we are never the potter. We are always the clay.
This comes from a wonderful passage of Scripture in Jeremiah 18:1-12. God instructed Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, to go down to the potter’s house, and there he would hear God’s words.
When he went, he saw a potter working upon the wheel. The potter had his hand on the outside of this wet clay and his hand on the inside of this wet clay, forming a vessel that would be meet for the Master’s use—in other words, useful to the Master.
Now, brothers and sisters, I do not want to offend anybody here who has a high opinion of yourself or high self-esteem, but you are just clay. Do you understand? He is the Potter, and you are the work on the wheel. He is forming you, and He is conforming you.
This was about Israel. He said, “This is the word of the Lord to Israel.” But it is not just about Israel; it is about us. We are always the clay—only the clay—and we are always the work upon the wheel.
When you read that story, you discover something else happened. This is not uncommon. It says, “The clay marred in his hands.” In other words, the vessel folded and collapsed.
Then there is something beautiful that speaks of how merciful our God is: He made it again as it pleased Him. He did not have to do that.
He could have taken that clay and thrown it away against the wall and said, “That clay is impossible.” But He did not do that. He made it again as it suited Him, because He is a sovereign God Who is full of mercy.
This idea of us being clay is consistent throughout Scripture. I will never forget Brother Kong reading his version of the Bible in Genesis 2:7, about God having made man from the dust of the ground.
He would transpose and read the Hebrew definition of that word dust. It means red clay. Man was made of red clay. Brother Kong used to say, “And man was formed from the red clay.”
We are always the clay. He is always the Potter. He is always the Sovereign.
When you think of 2 Corinthians 4:7, this was Paul’s whole explanation of us as the people of God:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
Do you know what earthen vessels means? It means clay. Most English translations express it very well: we are jars of clay.
But then he says something so remarkable: the surpassingness of the power may be of God and not of us. That treasure—His own life—is in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Christ lives in us.
We are vessels of clay, but we contain the most valuable treasure that has ever been known. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we might walk in those works prepared for us.
He can make from the same lump of clay one vessel of honor and one of dishonor. You may object to that. You may want to put on your lawyer suit again and say, “I object. How can You make one vessel of dishonor and one vessel of honor?” It is because He is the sovereign God.
I think this is very wonderful to know: the sovereign ways of God. It will settle many of your issues in your Christian life. When you do not understand, when you cannot comprehend, when you begin to hear these questionings that the enemy tries to sow in your thoughts, you can at least do this: you can bow and say to Him, “You are the sovereign God. Do with me as it pleases You.”
How many times have you done that? It is the secret to growth.
I like what Brother Newell said, explaining these verses about man’s objections:
That which thou hast said may be correct human reasoning, but against God’s sovereignty thy reasoning is out of place and irrelevant. The verse implies that thou hast neither the right nor the power to call God to account on this matter.
We need, first of all, to understand God’s sovereign ways. The mystery of election is founded upon this one principle.
The second thing we want to talk about this morning is vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy, in Romans 9:22-29. I will just read verses 22 and 23:
And if God, minded to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
and that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared for glory.
There are only two types of vessels, brothers and sisters. You know already, I have probably bored you over the years with my fascination with the twos in Scripture: two trees—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life; two gardens—the garden in Genesis and the garden in Gethsemane, where the Son of Man did not fail.
There are only two choices when it gets down to it in this Christian life and in this world. We can either be conformed to this world, according to Romans 12:2, or conformed to the image of His Son, according to Romans 8. It is only two choices.
We make things so complicated. I am thankful that God can bring this down so that even I can understand it. You are either a vessel of wrath or a vessel of mercy. Which one do you want to be? I think the choice, when you put it in that context, is very clear.
The only thing we stumble at is that we think perhaps God is a despotic sovereign. How can He have vessels of wrath? But if you look at the context of this, it is all about mercy.
Even with those vessels of wrath, it says something of exceptional encouragement:
And if God, minded to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction.
So much of the world, when you talk to them, has an opinion of God that is so strong: “How can God judge the world?” They do not know God’s ways.
God’s way is this: even these vessels of wrath, notice the wording, are fitted for destruction. Yet God is longsuffering that they may turn. That is mercy, even to them.
Even when you read Jeremiah 18, it says, “Of that nation whom I thought to judge, if they would turn from their sin, I will repent of what I thought of doing to them.” Isn’t that marvelous?
We need to change our thinking of God. He is not a despotic sovereign. He is a merciful sovereign. Even with those who contest Him at every hand, who are fitted for destruction, He bears long, hoping that the mercy of God will overrule their hard-heartedness.
This was Paul’s revelation. This was his understanding of the sovereign ways. Does that not change the equation? The bent of God’s election is always toward mercy, even with vessels of destruction.
He will even wait until the last moment. We have heard and read wonderful deathbed confessions of ones who resisted Him all their lives, refused to bow to the Sovereign, and refused to consider that He was the only authority in heaven and earth.
Then one day, continuing mercy made them bow the knee. This is God’s ways. It is so beautiful.
I know people get confused about election. People come and ask me questions: “What did you mean?” I get that. Linda does it all the time, so you should feel comforted if you do that.
Let me explain it this way: I am a Calvinist, and I am an Arminianist. I know that confuses you. How could you be both?
I believe in sovereign election, but I believe in free will. These two are conjoined twins. God has not made us or programmed us as AI robots, and I thank God He never will.
He is always giving us choice. He is always giving us free will, hoping that at the last, as His longsuffering endures with us, we will accept Him as the sovereign God.
I think Brother Kong said it so well, better than I can. For years, he took that complicated and hard verse and explained it to my complete satisfaction, because I never understood it:
Many are called, but few are chosen.
Many are called. That is election. He calls. He is always calling. He never stops calling. Brother Kong said the few who are chosen are those who respond out of their free will.
We have an opportunity in this life to receive the longsuffering of God. Even if we do not know for sure whether we were part of the divine election from the foundation of the world, we can at last turn, and He will repent of what He thought He would do. Isn’t that marvelous?
If I confused you more, just forget it. Talk to another brother. But I do not think you can ever get away from the mystery of sovereign election and free will. They will never be separated.
I remember when I got my master’s degree later in life. I was tired of all the engineering courses, so they gave me opportunities to do an elective. I took the history and aesthetics of jazz.
What in the world was I doing that for? How would that help my career as an engineer? It did not, but I loved the course.
I seem to forget everything about these courses, but I remember one thing that has never left me. They said that the beginning of American jazz was all about call and response.
I think that is what the Bible is all about. God is always calling. He is always longsuffering. He is always plenteous in mercy, and He is waiting for a response.
These two things solve the problems with Calvinism and Arminianism, all right? That is the best I can do, folks.
Thank the Lord, He is this merciful Sovereign. In Psalm 103:8-11:
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide;
neither will He keep His anger for ever.
He has not dealt with us after our sins,
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.
What will you be? Will you be a vessel of wrath, or will you be, at the end, a vessel of mercy?
It says the most wonderful thing about a vessel of mercy: they are sons of the living God. They are His real sons.
We were talking this morning, outside the meeting, about the kingdom. David was talking about being prepared to rule with Him in that kingdom. The only ones who rule with Him are the sons of the living God, who are matured in His image. They will rule with Him. They are vessels of mercy.
In Romans 9:24-29, we read about how mercy is extended to the Jews—the nation of Israel. Think of it: this is the nation that rejected Him. This is the nation He sent into captivity, as Jim said, out of loving discipline, to turn them around and make them come back to the loving, living God.
His mercy is extended to the remnant of the Jews. God, in the end, will find a remnant among the Jews. The whole church in the first century began with Jews; Gentiles came into it later.
Then we read that His mercy is extended to the nations. There are only two classes of people in this world as God sees us: you are either a Jew or you are a Gentile. If you do not like that and think it is offensive, you are of the nations. There are only two classes of people, just as there are only two vessels.
May the Lord cause us to see His mercy that endures forever. It is extended to all mankind. The Bible declares it true.
When we come to these verses near the end, we see the prophecies of the minor prophet Hosea. I wonder how Paul and the other apostles cite the most obscure things from the Old Testament. When you go back and read them, you ask, “How did they get that out of the Old Testament?” That is divine revelation.
Read the Word again and again and again, and ask the sovereign God to reveal what is in the Scripture. When He does, you understand His ways.
Paul says in Hosea:
I will call not My people, My people;
and the not-beloved, beloved.
And it shall be, in the place where it was said of them, Ye are not My people,
there shall they be called sons of the living God.
Brothers and sisters, for all of you who are not Jews, who are of the nations, who are Gentiles: we were not God’s people in the Old Testament. Like it or not, there was one nation, Israel, and one people, the Jews. They were His people.
But the mercy of God tells us the ways of God: that was never His complete design. His complete design, even from the Old Testament prophets who spoke to those people, was to call the nations and the Gentiles, that we who were not His people can now be His people.
More than that, we who were not even loved can be beloved. We may be sons of the living God. What mercy! Can there be more mercy than that? Not a people, now a people; not beloved, now beloved.
Then we read that He did not forget the children of Israel in verses 27 through 29. Paul pulled these three verses from Isaiah:
But Isaiah cries concerning Israel, Should the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.
He never forgets His people. That is the whole mystery of Romans 9, 10, and 11: He never forgets His people. They may forget Him. They may turn from Him. But He will never forget them. That is the height of mercy.
For He is bringing the matter to an end and cutting it short in righteousness; because a cutting short of the matter will the Lord accomplish upon the earth.
And according as Isaiah said before, Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and made like even to Gomorrah.
This is the mercy of God. He will not forget the Jews. He will not forget the remnant of the Jews. He will not forget the nations. In His mercy, the grand plan is this sovereign way of election: He is calling everyone to Himself, and thankfully, many will respond.
Keep those two things in your mind. This is the revelation of the mercy of God in election. Surely it is manifest what verse 16 says: God shows mercy. That is the whole explanation of vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy.
The last thing: the law of righteousness versus the righteousness of faith. When you read these last four verses, you discover there are two paths men can take. One is a law of righteousness, and the other is righteousness by faith.
It is very explicit. One leads to absolute failure—the law of righteousness—and one leads us to be the people of God.
What then shall we say?
That they of the nations who did not follow after righteousness have attained righteousness, but the righteousness that is on the principle of faith;
but Israel, pursuing after a law of righteousness, has not attained to the law.
Wherefore? Because it was not on the principle of faith, but as of works.
There are only two ways to righteousness. The Bible is clear about this. There is a law of righteousness: if you can do it, keep it. But there is a righteousness by faith, and that is the only way you will arrive.
I wish Darby had not used the word attain here when speaking of the Gentiles, or the nations, because attain in the English language has the thought that by your efforts, your work, and your own success, you lay hold of and grasp something.
The Greek word, on the other hand, can mean both attain and obtain. I think obtain is a far better word when you read the first five chapters of Romans, because we never attained a righteousness of our own.
The Bible is very clear. We have obtained a righteousness that is not ours—an imputed righteousness. The righteousness of Christ has been given to us. We never could attain that righteousness.
When it talks about the law of righteousness, it says they never arrived. Two of the literal versions I like to use say they never arrived. They sought it, but they never arrived.
Do you know why? It is impossible, through laws, divine laws, and rules, to please God. If you try to please God through a law of righteousness, you will never arrive. You will never be a son of God.
Romans says the whole purpose of the law was a knowledge of sin. No man can be justified by works of the law.
You know, I was a young boy. I was sort of a Dennis the Menace. I know some of you may find that hard to believe.
We used to take long trips in a car without air conditioning. Can you believe that? Cars used to have a hard steel dash with no padding. If my dad hit the brakes all of a sudden, I lost all my teeth.
We never had iPads to entertain ourselves. On these endless trips, I always thought, “We’ll never arrive.” I used to say to Dad every fifteen minutes, “Have we arrived yet?”
Dad was so impatient, we would not even stop for a bathroom. I do not want to tell you what we had to do, but we would not stop because he was determined to arrive. He said, “No, we have not arrived yet. Don’t ask me that question again.”
Brothers and sisters, if you pursue righteousness according to law, you will never arrive. It is impossible.
But if you obtain—do you mind me using that word?—a righteousness that is by faith, that is from the Lord Jesus Christ, you have already arrived. That is what these verses mean: the difference between these two things regarding righteousness.
You might raise another one of your human objections and say, “Why then did He give them the law?” Linda and I read in the Old Testament, and I do not know if we will ever get through the Old Testament together.
The Bible does not shy away from saying, “You shall keep all My commandments.” Almost every time we finish reading, Linda says, “Why did the Lord say that? You could not do it. Why did He say that?”
The last verses tell us:
Wherefore? Because it was not on the principle of faith, but as of works.
They have stumbled at the stumbling stone.
According as it is written, Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence; and he that believes on Him shall not be ashamed.
You may think that is hard. Why would God do that? He needed to prove to them once and for all—to the only nation of God and the only people of God—that righteousness that comes from you will never happen.
It was a stumbling stone. I agree with the prophet: it was a stumbling stone. They tried to keep the law. They failed to keep the law. They tried again to keep the law. They could not keep the law, and so they never arrived.
But if you read Jeremiah 23:6, you see something wonderful. Those who failed never saw it. But those who saw it believed it, and they had faith—the righteousness of faith.
This is from the King James Version:
Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
I love the King James here. It is big, bold, all capital letters: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
This is the One He wanted them to see. There is a righteousness possible. This is not a bridge too far. But until you discover the Lord our righteousness, you will continue to stumble and fall.
That is His sovereign way. In the end, all who come to Him will come through the righteousness of faith.
Paul wrote to the Roman church:
I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is God’s power to salvation, to every one that believes; both to Jew first, and to Greek.
Romans 1:17 is a very famous portion for understanding the ways of God:
For righteousness of God is revealed therein on the principle of faith to faith, according as it is written, But the just shall live by faith.
Do you understand His sovereign ways, His sovereign election? Have you seen that God is the only Sovereign? Only then can we understand His sovereign ways.
Remember, in the end there are only two outcomes. You are either a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction, or you are a vessel of mercy destined for glory.
There are only two paths. One is that you can try to please God by your own works and through your own efforts, hoping that one day you arrive at an acceptable destination. Paul, revealing God’s ways, is here to say that can never be done.
The only solution that will work is through righteousness not our own—a righteousness of faith. It is all God’s mercy. I think you have to agree with that. It is never us. We have to respond.
Remember, I am an Arminianist. Remember that? I am a Calvinist for those of you who object to the word election.
Brothers and sisters, all of this is the mercy of God.
Shall we just pray?
Lord, we thank You for Your Word. Where would we be without Your Word? We thank You for the clarity that is in Your Word. Even if we cannot express it, we thank You for the clarity, the absolute clarity, that is in Your Word.
We pray that, as a merciful Judge, as a sovereign Judge, You will open Your Word to us. May we be a people that walk in Your ways, and may we be a people that know Your ways.
Only then will we be vessels of mercy. We ask You to do something we can never do, and we thank You that You will do it.
All of our confidence is in You. None of our confidence is in us. But for You to do this work, we must bow to the sovereign God and say, “Lord, do what pleases You with us as individuals, and do what pleases You with us as a church.”
That in the end, we may be that testimony of Jesus—the will of God. We ask this in Your precious name. Amen.