God Exalting, Pride Slaying - [Romans 9]

The Joy and Offense of God’s Sovereignty

Well, it was 1971. I lived in Omaha, Nebraska. We had no professional sports teams. So what does a kid do? Well, if you're 11 years old, you choose a color, and then you pick your favorite teams from that.

So my favorite color was yellow. So I rooted for the Boston Bruins. I rooted for the Los Angeles Lakers. And I rooted for the Green Bay Packers. When I was a kid and we played in the sandbox, I had some Blue Army guys and some Gray Army guys, and they fought, and I was one of the Blue Army guys, and everybody else died, but I was the victor, and I rescued everybody at the end.

And I was a Yankee. I wasn't a Confederate. I chose my wife to marry me. I choose the kind of food I like to eat. Steaks, barely cooked, one minute on each side. I have all kinds of choices that I like to choose.

And you know, it should inform you that we are image bearers of God because we like to choose. That is to say, God is a choosing God. By nature, He chooses. He has preferences, He has a will, and He makes certain choices.

And since we're made in His likeness and image, we like to choose as well. Here's the rub. What we like in ourselves, if we're not thinking biblically, we despise in God. Romans 9, please turn your Bibles there, should help us think through these issues clearly.

The utter and naked sovereignty of God, a God who Daniel 4 says does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay His hand or say to Him, what are you doing?

This is the text, Romans 9, that if you're of a certain persuasion, you love this passage. And if you're in other theological persuasion, you just as soon skip over this. This is the passage that Ray Stedman said in Northern California 30 years ago.

Somebody rushed out of the service and said, I will not worship a God like that. This is a chapter that some people say is the most immoral chapter in the Bible. But it is in the Bible. And today we're going to learn about God's sovereignty.

And the Spirit of God, He's good, isn't He? Did He put something in the Bible that wouldn't be good for us to know? Isn't He a good God, the Holy Spirit? Wouldn't He have everything in Scripture that was profitable for us, helpful for us?

He didn't put anything in here that we shouldn't know, right? So here we come to Romans 9, and I love it because it exalts God and it slays the pride of man. The first time you read it, you want to check almost manuscript evidence.

Couldn't this be in the original? Did Jerome add this in a cave in the third century? How could this be? God is God. R .C. Sproul said, The sovereignty of God is God's favorite doctrine. And then he said, And if you're God, it'd be your favorite doctrine too.

God's sovereign. He is the only one that has utter free will. And Psalm 115 says, He sits in the heavens and He does what? Whatever people allow Him to do, if the leash is long enough. No, of course not.

When I first got saved, I just experienced the joy of my salvation. How could I be forgiven? I didn't deserve to be forgiven. I didn't earn it. I didn't merit it. Another man, oh, He was a man, but He was more than a man.

The God-Man, Jesus Christ, was my representative and God counted me forgiven based on the work of another. He counted me righteous based on the work of another. Jesus Christ, my representative and Substitutory Sin-Bearer, the great God who was raised from the dead.

In eternity past, He put a scepter out to me and said, I choose you. I couldn't get over it. People always talk to me about second blessings. You need a second blessing and they'll try to slay me in the spirit or you try to need to speak in tongues.

You need to do some dead fly up in the front or whatever you need to do to get the joy of God. Friends, let me tell you this. Once you get your mind wrapped around Romans 9 and you submit to the text, joy inexpressible and full of glory.

There's no going back. God sits on a throne. He alone is King. And to imagine that everything that He does is out of His person and His work. We deserved what? Let's get this straight from the very beginning.

We didn't deserve anything except hell. And yet if He wants to pick a few out, a lot out, some out, if He selects, if He elects, if He predestines, then that's His own good pleasure. The angels fell and God didn't redeem a one.

Is He still just? Yes. But God isn't just inflexibly just. He's infinitely gracious and He chooses people. That's just what God does. And the church these days suffers because people don't preach that doctrine.

J. Gresham Machen said, the more I have looked out upon the state of the church at the present time, the more I have contemplated recent church history, the more firmly I am convinced that error regarding predestination leads inevitably to more and more error.

And often constitutes the entering wedge by which the entire Christian testimony of individuals and of churches is undermined. Today let me talk to you about the most troubling doctrine in the Bible that gives you the most comfort in all your troubles.

Romans 8 to Romans 9: Security, Israel, and God’s Saving Purpose

Romans chapter 9. As you know, we've been going through this book, Paul's Magnum Opus, chapter by chapter. If I was going to slow down anywhere, this might be a good place to slow down, but I'm giving you the high point so you can just study on your own.

Side note, if you want to get one little book to help you, paperback book to help you with the book of Romans, and then the interpretive study of Romans by Steele and Thomas. You need to get that book.

It's worth the 10 bucks. Steele and Thomas, interpretive translation, interpretive study of Romans. Here we come to Romans chapter 9 and there's a context. Take a look at verse 35 of chapter 8. Why did he write 9?

Well, it's answered at the end of chapter 8. God is God and there's no other. There's no one like me, of course. And he writes through the spirit in verse 35 of chapter 8, who shall separate us from the love of Christ.

And he gives this list. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. No, verse 37, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have security in Christ. We have assurance in Christ. We are preserved by Christ to the end. If ever God loved you, He'll love you forever. Yeah, sounds good. But didn't God say that about Israel? Out of all the nations, I've loved you.

I've chosen you. God chose Israel and now look at the state of Israel, Paul says. Look at the state of Israel now. How can the promises of God be sure? How can God be faithful to keep my salvation if He can't even keep Israel's salvation?

And so Paul answers the question. He answers the question with, God is sovereign. He hasn't failed His program but part of God's sovereign program is that not every person who is an Israelite has been chosen to be saved.

God never intended every Israelite to go to heaven because God has distinguishing grace. God's program hasn't failed. It's part of the program. And we're going to see in Romans chapter 11 why it's part of the program.

And it's to bring in Gentiles like us. And when you think about election today and you think about the sovereignty of God, I want you to think about things that are very personal. God chose us. God chose me.

Some people like to think, well, there's just a big clump of people God chose, kind of John Doe, Jane Doe, Anonymous, to whom it may concern. Maybe to whom it may concern. Election is personalized. God chooses by name, not by number.

He knows His sheep and calls them all by grouping. By name. It's not like there's just a bunch of people at a banquet all seated there. There's name tags. You ever go to a really fancy ritzy dinner and you walk in and you're like, there's a name tag.

I've got a name tag. My personal name. That's exactly the way you should think about election. It should give you joy. Why are some individual Jews saved and others not? We'll get to their lack of belief in chapter 10, but the higher reason, besides their lack of belief, the ultimate reason is, why are some Jews saved and others are not?

Because God only originally intended to choose some of Israel and not all. This chapter is the death knell for man-centered post-destination. Does the bell toll for you? Let me tell you the outline today.

The outline is six proofs of God's sovereign election that should give you confidence in His Word, trust in His character, and joy in your soul. Six proofs of God's sovereign election. God does whatever He pleases.

And when you get the magnifying glass out and put it on Romans 9, it's all God. Do I have security in chapter 8? What about Israel? Paul answers that question here. This is the way God wanted it. And Spurgeon said, as long as Romans 9 remains in the Bible, no man shall ever be able to prove Arminianism.

So long that it is written here, not the most violent contortions of the passage will ever be able to exterminate the doctrine of election from the Scriptures. Let's take a look at the context before we get into the outline.

Paul’s Grief for Israel and Its Privileges

Verse 1, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My Spirit bears witness, or bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. And can't you just feel the celebration of chapter 8 has now moved to a lament here?

Paul said about this, this isn't a theological doctrine alone. There are real people involved. He says, with the heart of Moses in Exodus, wanting to be self-sacrificial for his kinsmen, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers. He's talking about the Israelites. My kinsmen, according to the flesh. Talk about a real soul winner. Reminds me of David Brainerd.

He was a missionary to the North American Indians here in Massachusetts. He said, I dream of lost souls. I care not what sufferings I undergo as long as I see souls saved. It's like the story of two preachers.

I hear you dismissed your pastor. What was wrong? Well, he kept telling us we were going to hell. What does the new pastor say? The new pastor keeps saying that we're going to hell too. Well, what's the difference?

Well, the difference is that when the first one said it, he sounded like he was glad of it. But when the new man says it, he sounds like it's breaking his heart. Paul goes on to list in verses 4 and 5, eight privileges or lost opportunities that the Israelites have.

I mean the loving kindness of God, the goodness of God to the nation and people of Israel, how much He gave to them. It's just opportunity gone bad. They are Israelites. And to them, and then he gives the list of these eight privileges.

To them, the adoption. Exodus 4 and Deuteronomy 32 calls Israel God's firstborn son. The glory. Remember the divine glory? How are you led around in the wilderness? The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.

The glory. They've got the glory. The covenants. I think these are the unconditional covenants of the Old Testament. Abrahamic covenant. Davidic covenant. New covenant. The giving of the law. Mosaic law.

All the love of God by giving the people instruction, Torah. The worship, our service of God. Probably talking about the priesthood and the high liturgy sacrifices. Temple, tabernacle. The promises. Messianic promises.

Jesus is going to come. There's going to be a greater prophet. A king. Priest. The patriarchs. Oh, he gave Israel Abraham and Isaac. Jacob. Joseph. And the best thing he gave is the hope of the Messiah.

Found in verse 5. According to the flesh is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The supreme privilege that Israel as a nation was given is the promise of the Messiah.

What a great lament Paul has because they've turned their back as a whole on the Messiah. Israel's disobedience cannot nullify God's sovereign purposes though. It's the divine prerogative. God only elected some of Israel for salvation.

Let me give you now the first proof of divine sovereignty to show you at least in context that Israel's rejection was part of God's plan. Number 1. Proof 1. God's word endorses a partial choosing. God's word endorses a partial choosing.

Sovereign dealing with people. It's all over the scriptures. And here he says in verse 9 so you understand God hasn't gone back on his word. But there's a limited scope to the promises of God and Abraham's descendants.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. Genesis through Malachi hasn't failed or if you want to know the Jewish text Genesis through 2 Chronicles hasn't failed. Romans 8 hasn't failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

Nothing can separate the believer from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. But could Israel separate herself? Then that means could I be separated as well? And Paul when he writes the word of God has failed.

That word failed just means to go off course. It's a large ship. It's going the wrong way. No. God has a solemn right to do whatever he wants. Not all of those out of the literal Jewish nation of Israel are spiritual Israel.

Ethnic Israel is one thing. Spiritual Israel or religious Israel is another. Now we're going to get into this in chapters 9, 10 and 11 in the weeks to come. But when you see the word Israel in the Bible in the Old Testament it meant Israel.

Here it's used 11 times in chapters 9, 10 and 11 and in every case it refers to ethnic national Israel. We're not talking about the Gentiles right now. We're talking about the choice of God's people, Israel.

And the covenant of God for Israel was never meant to be all exclusive. Take a look at verse 27. Scan down there if you would please of the same chapter. Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.

The Bible teaches that there's a small group of Israel and that's the way it's always taught it. Election as a nation doesn't mean there were unbelievers. It doesn't mean that there weren't unbelievers in Israel.

This is not new. This is not strange. This is the Bible. Number two, second proof of God's sovereignty that should make you praise God, be thankful for His promises to be true. God sovereignly chooses to bless only through Isaac, not through any other child of Abraham.

So Paul's showing big picture sovereignty here. How many children did Abraham have? Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons have Father Abraham. I'm the one of them. So are you. So let's all praise the Lord right on.

The answer is eight. Hagar and Abraham had Ishmael. Sarah and Abraham had Isaac. And then after Sarah died, he married someone else. Let's find out. Verse 7, God's choice of Isaac over Ishmael on purpose.

And not all, verse 7, are children of Abraham because they are of his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He's just going back to the Old Testament. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring, sovereign election, distinguishing grace.

For this is what the promise said, verse 9, about this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son. And she had Isaac. But after Sarah died, Abraham married, anybody know the name? Somebody in the first service knew the name?

Keturah. And she had with Abraham six children. To be a physical descendant of Abraham isn't enough to be chosen by God. God rejected Ishmael. He passed over Zimran. He did not elect Jokshan. He did not select Midan.

He did not choose Midian. He did not favor Ishbek. And he wasn't pleased to give distinguishing grace to Shuah. Is that okay for God to do? Yes. Proof number 3. I know what you're thinking. There's one father, Abraham, but there's three wives here, three women bearing Hagar, Sarah, Keturah.

Yeah, that's one thing, but it was through Sarah. And so now Paul uses the illustration of same mom and same dad. Proof number 3. God sovereignly chose Jacob and not Esau. By divine choice, the limits are contracted further.

Different moms, last illustration, but not here. No complex parenting here. And not only so, verse 10, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man. So you got one lady, one man. Our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born, so it wasn't a matter of what they've done and how good they were, and had done nothing either good or bad, nothing meriting, nothing earning, in order that God's purpose, you might want to write that down with a yellow marker, God's purpose of election, God's purpose of selection.

It means you've got a barrel of apples right here, and I choose one. I get to choose the one I want. That's the word right there. God's purpose of election might continue. Not because of works, we know that, because they haven't even been born.

They didn't do good, they didn't do bad. Not because of work, but because of Him who calls. She was told, the older shall serve the younger. Oops. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. They weren't even born yet.

They hadn't done good or bad. Jacob I loved, Esau I have hated. Same father, same mother. Now, people like to say this means just, what's hate mean? It means just to love less. It's just a Semitic idiom, loving less.

James Boyce says, even if the word hate should be understood to mean love less, this loving less is nevertheless of a sufficient negative nature to account for Esau's being rejected by God rather than being chosen.

For that is the point of the citation. Paul is using the example to illustrate how God chooses one and not another. Call the rejection what you will. Second, it is hard, Boyce says, to escape seeing that although hatred in God is of a different character than hatred in sinful beings, His is a holy hatred.

Hate in God nevertheless does imply disapproval. Even if you want it to be, well, it's not really hate, it's love less, it doesn't lessen your problem. God puts His affection on one and not another. That's the big point.

Now, I know what you're thinking, and I'll use Spurgeon's words to express it. As to Jacob I loved, but Esau I've hated, a woman once said that to Spurgeon. I cannot understand why God would say He hated Esau.

Spurgeon replied, That is not my difficulty, madam. My problem is how could God love Jacob? That conniver Jacob, that heel grabber Jacob, how could God love Jacob? The point is the salvation of mankind, individual election, is found in God and not in man.

That's what these illustrations show us. It did not please God to choose Esau. Now, when I teach kids, teach adults, we have in our society, in the western world, if you've got a question, you can kind of raise your hand, and you can see the hand start coming up now.

Maybe your hand is held up so long, you've got to hold it. You ever have to hold your hand up because the teacher just will not look up? I do that sometimes. I think, you know what, that guy asks questions every single day, and the other people, they need to ask the questions.

He's dominating the class. I'm just not going to look at him. I'm not going to look at that guy. They usually sit in the front row. I don't know why, but there's nobody sitting in the front row today with the exception of one.

We are so sinfully, prideful, autonomous people, let alone New Englanders. We will not have this. We are, you know, no sovereign here. One man, one boat. But see, friends, we are finite. We don't have the mind of God, and we're fallen.

We're creatures, but we're sinful creatures, and you know the hand starts going up. But what about this? What about that? How can God choose one and not the other? Now remember, neither deserves to be chosen.

And the first question is, here we go, hands go up, what should we say then? Paul anticipates this. He knows, is there injustice on God's part? And with the strongest Greek, he says in King James, God forbid, no way.

God selects with sovereign freedom. He's not guilty of injustice. God's favors are not determined by anything Jacob did or Esau did. God just chose. Is God unjust? No. Leon Morris said to say that God is unjust, for Paul is self-contradictory.

I mean, after all, who establishes right? Who establishes wrong? Who establishes justice? How do we even know what right and wrong is except from God? And now we're going to say God is unjust? No, whatever God does is just.

Whose definition of justice are we looking at? Paul says, that's repulsive. God's fair. God's just. Now, if God chooses based on people's goodness, people's receiving Jesus Christ, accepting, if God looks down the corridors of time and says, yeah, Mike believed, I'll choose him, then all Paul would have had to say here was, oh, listen, God's not unjust.

God looked down the corridors of time. He saw Mike believe. He chose him. Fair. As Doug Moo says, all he would have needed to say at that point was, of course, God is not unjust in choosing Jacob and rejecting Esau, for his choosing took into account the faith of one and the unbelief of the other.

But Paul doesn't do that. He doesn't back up. He doesn't give an inch in the argument. It's like he's leaning over farther and pushing the thing. Because what is at stake is sovereignty of God. Friends, if you can't submit to election, let me just try to encourage you through the Scriptures.

But at the end of the day, if you still won't do it, it's because you won't submit to a sovereign God and His Word. Well, now, wait a second. What about this? I have a question for you. Who is wrong when God withholds grace?

Nobody's wronged. Who's wronged when God judges sinful mankind? Is God's sovereign mercy unjust? Verse 15. Now we move from, if you want to have nations, say, oh, this is all about nations. A couple things about the nation thing.

Well, God just chooses nations. Number one, that doesn't get you off the hook at all. Why? Because what would be more unjust to this person, this interlocutor, this questioner? What would be more unjust?

God choosing one person over another person? Or God choosing 100 ,000 people that constitute a nation and not the other 100 ,000 that constitute a nation? It's actually worse when you think of nations because there's thousands of people in nations.

But now the language goes to singular in verse 15. If you could pull back the curtain and see God at His essence, you would see that God at His core is a choosing God. Verse 15, for He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

Aren't you glad it doesn't say, I'll have mercy on none but whom I will? But on the ones that I want to give mercy to, I will give mercy to. Remember what this is from? This is from Exodus. Moses said, God, I want to see Your glory.

So God tucked Moses in this little cleft of the rock, and then He passed by and His goodness passed by, and now this quote is given. You want to see the essence and nature of God? It's His choosing. I am who I am and I'll do what I do.

The character of God revealed at His essence and at His nature is to choose. God could have slain the whole nation for their disobedience with the golden calf, but He only chose to kill 3 ,000. One writer said, this is the essence of what it means to be God, choosing, sovereign election.

Why doesn't God show mercy to everybody? Maybe that's unjust. Paul says in verse 16, get rid of all the grace should, grace ought, grace must. Grace is obligation. No, it's free sovereign grace. So then, truth has its inferences, doesn't it?

It depends not on the human will, man's desire, man's purpose, or exertion, man's actual execution of the plan, put together, man's capacity, but on God, it depends on God, thankfully, who has mercy. Proof number four, God's electing grace is sovereign and undeserved.

Proof one, God's Word teaches it. Proof two, God chooses to bless through Isaac and not any other child. Three, God chooses Jacob, not Esau. And now, number four, God chooses Moses, not Pharaoh. He gives mercy to Moses, not Pharaoh.

If you want to flip it around, you could say God chose to use Pharaoh, the unbeliever. Let's take a look at verse 17. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, Romans 9, 17, for this very purpose, see that language again?

It's all about God's purpose. Thinking big picture again, individual Christians have security in Christ, Romans chapter 8, and they still have it in chapter 9, because just because someone's an Israelite doesn't mean they're going to heaven, because there's a national election and there's a sovereign individual selection.

For this very purpose, I raised you up, Pharaoh, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then, he has mercy on whomever, singular language, he wills, and he hardens whomever, singular language, not nations, he wills.

God doesn't have to give people what they deserve. He can give mercy if he'd like. And this particular case for Moses, remember why God hardened Moses, for Pharaoh rather, remember why God hardened Pharaoh's heart?

Exodus 7 gives the answer, in order that I may multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. Yeah, but Pharaoh hardened his heart first, then God hardened it. You know, it's actually the other way around.

Exodus chapter 4, God says, I will harden his heart so they will not let the people go. Oh, I see that hand. I have another objection. If God really is sovereign and he chooses some and he doesn't choose others, how can I be held accountable?

Verse 19, I'm glad you asked. Paul anticipated that. Who will then say to me, why does he still find fault? Why does God have fault? He didn't choose me. For who can resist his will? Singular language here again, no national language.

God's sovereign over human affairs, okay. God's powerful over everything, okay. God's right to pass over some and choose others, okay. But then how can I be responsible? And what's the answer? Well, let me just say this pastorally.

If you like to just know these kind of answers because you want to study the Word and submit to Scripture and you come to the Scriptures with reverence and whatever the passage says, I will just bow to.

And how does election fit in with responsibility? How does election fit in with reprobation? Is double predestination true or not? Because God, I want to study this because whatever you teach me, I will believe.

If you have questions like that, good. Those are good questions. But when the question comes to Job-like, remember Job 38? God, you stand up there at the bench and I'm going to ask you some questions.

Then Paul says, that kind of attitude is sinful and you just better be... Now for some of you kids that are looking, and I see this Paris kid looking. You're not allowed to say this at home unless your dad lets you, but you're not probably allowed to say shut up to anybody, are you?

Shut up. And here, Paul, this is so irreverent. This is so blasphemous. A finite fallen creature deserving hell 50 ,000 times over is now going to question God. If I can't figure this out in my brain and get mental closure, then something's wrong with you, God.

And Paul says, shut up. It's time to just be quiet. It's time to just go, wait a second. I don't think I'm supposed to be talking like this. Verse 20. God's got the questions now through His Apostle Paul.

But who are you? Who are you, oh man, if I could translate it? Who are you, oh puny man? Oh minuscule man? To answer back to God. Friends, again, if you want to just study the doctrine of election and you have some questions, that's fine.

Until you put God on the stand. Well, what does Molded say to the Molder? Why have you made me like this? That's presumptuous to ask. It's none of our business. God owes no answers. No right to criticize, we have, as fallen rebellious creatures.

Top Lady said, the Apostle hinges the whole matter entirely on God's absolute sovereignty. There he rests it, and there we ought to leave it. Calvin said, when the Lord shuts His sacred mouth, let us also stop our thoughts from advancing one step further in our inquiries.

We don't want to insult God. We don't want to be told by God, order in the court. You're out of order. Now I guess we could probably do it. We could put a little complaint box here. Complaints for BBC leadership.

You could come over and kind of secretly just drop them in. Complaint box for God. I mean, the thrice holy God? Hardly. Verse 21. Oh, this is good, isn't it? I love this verse. I love this passage. I love it that God is God and I'm not.

If you think you're God, how's your life doing, by the way, running your entire life? Maybe good so far. I don't know, but eventually it will catch up with you. Verse 21. Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump, out of the same lump, out of the same lump, one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

So who here makes things with clay? Anybody? Okay, Play-Doh. You've got a big mound of Play-Doh right here. It tastes like salt. I don't know why. And you've got that big thing of Play-Doh. And you go, you know what?

Take a little bit of this and I'll make it into something and I'll take a little bit of this out of the same lump, out of the same lump of sinful humankind and I'll make something else. Here's what Paul is saying.

Can a potter take some clay and make a really nice glass out of it, drink from it, give it to your guests? And also from the same lump, take it and, as some commentators say, make a spittoon out of it.

Make a garbage can out of it. Make a privy pot out of it. Can God do that? By the way, for once and for all, when people like to say, I ain't no robot, God don't make no puppets, I'm not a puppet, that means I'd be a robot or a puppet or an automaton.

Friends, okay, you're not a puppet. You're not a robot. You're not an automaton. God can take whatever He wants out of sinful mankind and do whatever He wants with it. Can't He? Doesn't He have rights over you, His universe?

Isn't He the King? If He wants a flower pot or if He wants a spittoon, it's all up to God. It's arrogant to say that the potter can't do it. That piece of clay can't look up and go, what are you making?

There's no injustice in sovereignty. Another question. If election's true then, doesn't that make reprobation true? You're not telling me reprobation could be true now, are you? Paul says in verse 22, yes.

If there's election, there's non-election. If there's predestination, there is reprobation. If God's eternal decree determines some get grace, He determines others are passed by. What if God, desiring to show His wrath, to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared, that's a passive there, prepared by God for destruction?

In other words, God does pass over some. Why? Why? Verse 23 tells us the answer. You might want more of an answer, but may you be content with this answer, because it gives Him glory. In order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory.

It's like the apostle is saying, you don't know how good you've got it until you realize how bad it is for the non-elect. And then you praise God all the more for how good He is to the vessels of mercy.

How rich God is in His glory. Some people call this reprobation doctrine the horrible decree. It is difficult to understand, but it is very much in the Bible. Luther said, this mightily offends our rational nature, that God should, of His own mere unbiased will, leave some men to themselves, harden them and condemn them.

But He gives abundant demonstration and does continually that this is really the case. These doctrines go together. And certainly the people who have been passed over deserve nothing. John Bunyan said, the least of mercies are not deserved by the best of sinners.

Gentile Inclusion and Salvation by Faith Alone

Proof number five. We've got to wrap this up. Proof five. God even sovereignly chooses Gentiles to be saved. This chapter is all about the sovereignty of God. Not all of Israel is of Israel. You can know your salvation, sure, because God hasn't chosen every Israelite to be saved, nor has He chosen every Gentile to be saved.

But here that He would even choose Gentiles to be saved. And after looking at you for a while, I think we're mainly filled with Gentiles here. Praise the Lord that He chose the Gentiles. Verse 24. The Old Testament even talked about this.

Even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only. This is all God's sovereign choice. He could have just chosen no one. He could have just chosen the Jews. As we're going to learn in chapter 10 and 11, Gentile salvation too, and how it's all part of God's plan, but also from the Gentiles.

Some Jews saved, some Jews not. Some Gentiles saved, some not. And then He quotes loosely from Hosea 2, as indeed He says in Hosea, those who are not My people I will call My people, and her who is not beloved I will call beloved.