Sunday Sermon: Is There Injustice On God's Part (Romans 9:14-16)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

Here is Pastor Gabe. Well, good morning. If you would please turn again in your

Bible to Romans chapter nine, as we pick up where we left off last week, remember we had just read of the twins,

Jacob and Esau. This is what the promise had said to Abraham and to Sarah regarding the birth of Isaac about this time next year,

I will return and Sarah shall have a son. And then not only so, but also Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather

Isaac, though they had not yet been born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls she,

Rebecca was told the older will serve the younger as it is written, Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated, and we continue to read about this doctrine of God's sovereign election.

As we continue through Romans chapter nine, it was Josiah shoot the 17th century

Puritan who said one might spend everything to be cured as did the woman in the gospels with the issue of blood.

Yet unless God wills it, it will do no good. Saul might go to the witch of Endor for help and Amaziah to the

God of Ikran to be healed. But unless the God of heaven works the cure, it will never be done.

And our illness is sin. The consequence is death. The cure is

Christ. And so we continue to read about how God has sovereignly chosen those who will come to him in this doctrine.

As we read about today, let us come back to Romans chapter nine, beginning in verse 14, reading through verse 18 in honor of the word of the

King. Would you please stand Romans chapter nine, beginning in verse 14.

Hear the word of the Lord. What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God's part? By no means.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom

I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose, I have raised you up 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 he wills and he hardens whomever he wills.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly father, as we come back to our passage today, as we read about these deep and heavy doctrines,

Lord, I pray that it, it humbles us. We have a tendency to come into a chapter like Romans nine and read it kind of coldly like it's a systematic theology.

Like we're arguing about certain doctrinal or theological points rather than seeing this glorious truth that we have been called by God and chosen for this purpose, that we would come to faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ and be justified. And because of his death for us and his resurrection from the grave, we would live.

We would be reconciled to God and have the promise of eternal life with you in glory.

God, we know as we have read through Romans here, even so far that it is only by the hearing of the gospel and by faith in Jesus Christ that one can be saved.

So we've come to know that this has been the case for our salvation and may it be that also for those who have yet to be saved.

It is still by hearing the gospel and by believing with faith that a person is justified and saved.

But we know that such a person has become saved ultimately because you chose first so that your purpose of election might continue.

We continue to explore this today, illuminated to us by your spirit. We pray in Jesus name,

Amen. Our patriarch Isaac was 40 years old when he married

Rebekah. And then for the next 20 years, Rebekah was barren.

Just as it had been with his father Abraham, God had promised to multiply Isaac's family and yet his wife could not conceive.

So Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife and God granted his request and Rebekah conceived twins.

But when Rebekah became pregnant, she was in tremendous anguish. She didn't know right away yet that it was twins.

And so she goes to the Lord and says, why is this happening to me? And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided.

The one shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger.

I remember my mom saying of my brother, Jacob, I actually have a brother named Jacob as well. He was the strong willed child of a six

Hughes kids. And she said she could tell from the womb he was going to be more of a problem than her other children.

Moms can you relate to this? Can you start to feel that personality even before the child is born?

Well, this was going on with Jacob and Esau and God even prophesying to her. What you are experiencing is something that is going to ripple down through the ages for even thousands of years.

And this of course was the prophecy that we were called last week in Romans 9, 12. When the day came for her to give birth, she gave birth to these twins, but they were not identical twins.

We would refer to this as fraternal twins when two separate eggs are fertilized and implant themselves in the uterus together.

And we know that was the case between these two because they were so very different in appearance.

Genesis 25, 25 says that the first twin came out red and covered with so much hair that it was as if he was born with a cloak on.

He was given the name Esau, meaning red. His brother came after him holding on to Esau's heel.

So he was given the name Jacob, which means heel grabber.

Esau grew up a skillful hunter and a man of the field with all that hair he probably blended right in with the wildlife.

But Jacob, it says he was a quiet man and he dwelled in tents. Now verse 28,

Genesis 25, 28 tells us that Isaac loved Esau because of his game.

Now in our modern vernacular, that might have a different interpretation. Esau got game.

That's why I love Esau. Rebecca, however, loved Jacob and Esau probably with all that hair didn't smell all that great.

So mom gravitated toward the one that was a little softer.

Genesis 25 concludes by telling us of Jacob and Esau's quarreling.

And you know this story, but for the sake of our lesson this morning, I read it to you again. Once when

Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that stew for I am tired.

Therefore, his name was called Edom, which actually means exhausted. Jacob said, sell me your birthright now.

And Esau said, I'm about to die. What good is a birthright to me? And so Jacob said, swear to me now.

So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew and he ate and drank and rose and went his way.

And thus Esau despised his birthright. In this, both brothers dealt foolishly

Jacob because he manipulated his brother and Esau because he had disregard for his own birthright. And as I said to you last week,

Jacob was no better a man than his brother Esau. And yet scripture tells us here that God chose

Jacob over Esau, though they were not yet. They had not yet been born and had done nothing good or bad.

But this was in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls.

And so it is in light of this teaching that we arrive at the question that we're looking at today.

Paul responds with in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?

By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion so that it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

And that, at least as far as our text is concerned, will be as far as we get today.

But much to consider as we come back to our study of Romans 9. So I want to look first at this question.

Is there injustice on God's part? Secondly, we will consider the answer by no means and then

God's word in scripture to back this up. And then we will make some applications.

So first of all, what is the question? Number two, what is the answer? And then number three, what is our application as we look at this passage today?

So first of all, let's consider this question once again. And it's a question that begins with a question. What shall we say then?

Paul has just laid down some heavy truth that is so deep for our finite minds to fathom, let alone how self -absorbed and overly self -confident we tend to be.

So here we've just been told that God chose Jacob over Esau, not because either one of them did anything good or bad.

And this decision was made before either one of them had been born. And it had nothing to do with their works or their merit, but because God chose.

And so that God's purpose of election would continue. Not because of what man had purposed, but because of what

God had purposed. Now it would not have been all that shocking to a Jew to hear

Paul quote the prophet Malachi when he said, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated.

The Jews boasted in that. They were the favored children, but the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, are accursed.

And as I had said to you last week, we even have an entire book, Obadiah, that is dedicated to judgment that was going to come upon Esau.

From the Jewish perspective, God loved Jacob because of everything that came afterward.

Clearly he loved Jacob and hated Esau. So it would not have been all that shocking to a

Jew to hear that. What would have been shocking to a Jew was for Paul to qualify this and say that none of the stuff that came after had anything to do with why

God chose Jacob. God chose, though they were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad.

And not because of their works, but because of Him who calls. Because it was

God's purpose. And remember this even going back to what we had read at the start of Romans 9, that there were

Jews who were accursed. There were Jews who were accursed. And not everyone who is of Israel is actually of Israel.

And so in light of this, Paul is anticipating this question, well hang on. If God's already chosen beforehand, then is

God unjust? Because He doesn't give everybody a fair shot?

But He chooses these people and then disregards these others? Well then why is it their fault that they are accursed?

So Paul anticipates this question, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?

Or as some translations put it, is there unrighteousness on God's part? Why would there be injustice?

Why would anyone even assume such a thing? Remember that back in chapter 6,

Paul said, I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. Paul anticipates the question for the same reason.

It is because of our natural limitations that we might be so inclined to analyze this scenario in just such a way and think, well if Jacob and Esau aren't getting a fair shot here, then isn't that unjust of God?

If it is God who elects, if it is God who chooses before anyone does anything either good or bad, then how can

He rightly judge or condemn anyone? Isn't the reason that they're condemned because God didn't choose them?

So isn't it God's fault? You've heard this before, right?

Maybe you've even asked this before. This is our human reasoning now that's leading to ask such a question.

Excuse me, as I've pointed out to you multiple times, it is in our nature to point our finger at God and not in ourselves.

And we're repeating the same sin of our father Adam when we do that. It's the woman that you put here with me who gave me some of the fruit and I ate it.

So if I have to be guilty for anything, then it's God's fault. He's the one who made me this way.

He's the one who put me in this situation. We're acting just like Adam. Now, of course, many who are

Christians won't go that far, but still being immature and fleshly, they really dislike this idea that God would choose whom he would save before they were born or had done anything good or bad.

I've encountered this many times. I will confess that there have been occasions in my years as a pastor where I have dreaded teaching certain doctrines because I know who my audience is and I don't think that they're mature enough yet to handle it.

And the Apostle Paul was this way as well. Consider what he said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3 .1.

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. And one of the reasons why many

Christians struggle with what we're reading here in Romans 9 is not because they aren't Christians, it's because they, being

Christians, are still infants in their thinking and in their spiritual understanding.

But you are all adults, spiritually, so I'm here in Romans 9, right?

Is everybody good? Still with me so far? All right. I have actually had people get up and walk out in the middle of reading

Romans 9. There are people who, in their flesh, just loathe what it is that we're reading here.

And it's because of their flesh that they ask the kind of question that Paul is responding to here in verse 14.

As a matter of fact, it's the very questions that we see in Romans 9 that Paul anticipates and therefore answers that let me know we're on the right track in the way that we're interpreting this, the way that we understand this.

The very questions are leading us to understanding how we are supposed to be reading this properly.

This is the tendency for someone to say, well, hang on, if God's chosen before someone's born and they haven't done anything good or bad, then it's

God's fault when somebody doesn't believe. Then doesn't that make

God unjust? And if you relate to that question, you're not on the right side of the argument.

If you find yourself in the place where your question is now pointing the finger at God, then you're in the position of the opposition who is therefore asking this question of Paul that he is responding to.

And most people will recognize that most people will see that because we see that in scripture.

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. Well, I don't want to be on the side of the person who has to be told by no means.

So what they will do is they will reinterpret this text another way in order to relieve the cognitive dissonance or try to put themselves on what they believe to be the right side of the debate.

Most Sundays I stay off social media in the morning, but I might get on sometime in the afternoon and one of the things that I will do is

I will post 10 people, places and phrases that were heard in my sermon today. I just kind of tease that out and maybe people will be interested and they'll want to look up the sermon and listen to it.

So last week I posted this list. Here were the 10 people, places and phrases that were heard in my sermon last week.

Sin, Twins, Sodom, Election, R .C. Sproul, Oaks of Mamre, Richard Raspberry, Not Because of Works, Jacob I Loved, Esau I Hated, and the

Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now someone who was anonymous but was quite obviously anti -reformed commented on this list and said,

Gabe, did you actually quote what the Old Testament said about why God hated

Esau or were you steering clear of that to push your own agenda? And I replied, it was read out loud, all of Malachi chapter 1 in the same service.

And this person said, what about the book of Obadiah that says why God hates

Edom and that it was not unconditional before the foundation of the world? And I replied, I explicitly mention in my sermon the book of Obadiah and why

Edom was facing judgment, because they betrayed Judah into the hands of their enemies. But this happened exactly because God loved

Jacob and hated Esau, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls,

Romans 9 .11, it's right there in the text. And this person replied, read it again, before they were born or had done nothing good or bad is about the older serving the younger, not about God loving

Jacob and hating Esau. Come on man, and you preach God's word? Well I did read it again when

I was preparing for this sermon and I was left wondering where is this mysterious verse between verses 12 and 13 that tells me

Paul had completely switched gears and I'm not supposed to read verse 13 like I read verse 12.

The point is that before they were born and had done anything good or bad,

God made a decision that left one of them out of the line of promise.

God's love and his compassion was for Jacob. Whereas, with Esau, he did not have such regard.

And it's God's choice to decide that. If verses 12 and 13 go together, and they do, then where does that put this person who was critical of what

I preached? It puts him in the place of the objector in verse 14 who wants to say that if this is how it is, then

God would be unjust. And as much as they tried not to be that guy, they find themselves pointing the finger right back at God.

My friends, you don't want to be there. You don't want to be the guy asking the question that Paul is responding to, then you would be on the wrong side of the argument.

So what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? The way

Paul words this, it's as if he's asking, do you really want to go there? So we have the question, and we've considered why he anticipates the question.

Now let's look at the answer. And he gives a terse response, and then he backs it up with scripture.

So part two here, the response. Is there injustice on God's part? By no means.

In the Greek, this is mygenoita. It is the strongest expression of refusal that he can make.

It's as if Paul just said, God forbid, perish the thought. How could you even ask such a thing?

Of course not. God is not unjust in anything that he does.

As we read today in our responsive reading, as taken from Job 8 .3, does God pervert justice or does the

Almighty pervert the right? As 2 Chronicles 19 .7 says, there is no injustice in God.

And Zephaniah 3 .5 says, the Lord within her is righteous. He does no injustice.

Now in defense of this response, Paul doesn't start going through heavenly legal cases.

Well consider our father David and how he rendered to him according to his works. Or consider Ahab and how

God destroyed him according to his works. And see, Ahab was a really bad guy, so God destroyed him and therefore

God is not unjust. Does God render to each one according to his works? Does he?

Yes, of course. We even said it today in our scripture reading coming from Jeremiah, coming from the book of Revelation.

Of course he does. If the scripture says he does, the answer is yes. But our works demonstrate that it was

God who called us. If you are therefore doing the works of Christ, then you are showing by your life that he has called you and you have believed and are therefore saved.

Remember our golden chain of redemption. Don't lose that from your mind even as we're going through these things in Romans 9.

This is after Paul had laid out in Romans chapter 8, those whom he foreknew, he predestined.

Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified.

Those whom he justified, he also glorified. And how, as we've read through Romans, is a person justified?

They're justified by faith. So, if a person comes to faith, what they demonstrate by their faith is that God foreknew them,

God predestined them, God called them, and because they have been called by God, they heard the gospel, believed it, and are justified.

And God is clearly working out in this person what he has purposed from the beginning of the foundation of the world.

So that God's purpose of election might continue, even through us, even through you and me.

Paul does not base God's choosing on our works, because again, God chose

Jacob over Esau, though they had not yet been born and done nothing good or bad. So, on what basis does

Paul say that there is no injustice on God's part? It is because, verse 15, In other words,

God will show mercy to whomever he wills, and it does not depend on anything that we do.

It does not depend on anything about us, because there's nothing about us that makes us worthy of God's choosing.

It is simply on God who has mercy. And furthermore in this, when we read that statement that God said to Moses, as our brother

Allen had read for us today from Exodus 33, Remember what we said going through the golden chain of redemption.

That this isn't a chain in which, like you continue through the links, but if you fail at one point, then you get cut off from the chain.

It's all or nothing. If God foreknew you, he predestined you, he called you, he justified you, he glorified you.

From beginning to end, that work will be accomplished. So, you're not going through the chain, messing up, the link gets broken, you get cut off, and well,

I guess I failed and I didn't complete the golden chain of redemption. That's not the way we're supposed to understand that.

But if God has purpose you for it, he will fulfill it. And so, when we read, I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy. It is this, my friends, that if you have been called by God and you believe in Jesus Christ, God has mercy on you.

You have it. You don't have to do anything to earn it.

He just shows it to you. His compassion for you is because God is loving and good toward you.

Though you have done nothing loving and good toward him in order to earn it, he gives it to us anyway by the exercise of his grace.

Now, this reference to Exodus 33, 19, this is the section of Exodus that we're even studying in Sunday school right now.

We're just finishing up chapter 32. I'm not going to delve into the context of Exodus 33, 19 this week.

I want to stick with the twins this week, Jacob and Esau, and we'll consider Moses and Pharaoh next week.

So, let me mention something first about the phrasing of this sentence and why Paul mentions it.

So, in the Greek, because again, this letter to the Romans was written in Greek. We have it translated into English.

This reference to Exodus 33, 19 doesn't exactly come out, I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. That's the way we have it in our English translation, but it would be more accurately read like this.

I will mercy whom I mercy. And I will compassion whom

I compassion. These are actually verbs, but it doesn't make sense to translate it that way in English because we don't use mercy and compassion as verbs, they're nouns.

So we have it as, I will have mercy, but specifically it's, I will mercy. I will mercy whom

I mercy. Now, I as a Southerner who was born in South Carolina and grew up in the

South, I understand this because I remember my grandmother shouting, mercy me. Anybody here, a little

Southern old lady say this before. You did something to disrupt her world, us kids are causing a commotion, we're fighting or whatever.

And she yells out, mercy me, stop all that racket. The origin of that is a person saying to God, mercy me, show mercy to me.

If you're familiar with the contemporary Christian music band, mercy me, that's, that's actually where their name comes from.

It's that same Southern expression, mercy me. And to say such,

I will mercy whom I mercy. I will compassion whom I compassion. This is the full expression of God's love toward those on whom he shows mercy and compassion.

It is the free exercise of his grace by his choosing. And we, we tend to miss the beauty and the wonder of that.

Because like I said in my prayer this morning, we can read this encyclopedically or like a systematic theology textbook, like, like this is, this is the section that we all kind of argue about regarding like who's, who's receiving and who's not receiving, who is

God choosing and who is God not choosing. And so we just, we just jumped to our Romans nine so that we can fill our argument cart up for the next time that we have this debate and we can nail this guy with, well, here's what

Romans nine says, but don't miss this. Don't miss what we're really reading here.

Esau, I have hated, tends to be the shocking statement to us, but it shouldn't be. Jacob, I loved is the shocking statement.

Jacob was no better than Esau. There was nothing about Jacob that was inherently deserving of love.

These were two men from the same womb with no difference between them morally.

Obviously there were differences between them physically. Apparently Esau was covered with more hair than a, than an

Irish Sasquatch. But neither of these men were good men.

Jacob conned his brother. Jacob conned his father.

Then he was conned by his uncle and married two wives. He hated one wife and loved the other wife.

And there's really nothing at all that's admirable and lovable about Jacob that we would look at and say, what a great guy.

And yet God loved Jacob and chose Jacob, not because of anything that Jacob did, but because God was merciful and compassionate to Jacob.

And that should be very encouraging to all of us. If Jacob is loved, though he didn't deserve it, then

God loves me though I don't deserve it. But that's not typically the way that we read this.

When we see Jacob, I love, but Esau, I hated, and this was before they were born or had done anything good or bad.

How do we tend to argue about this? Well, that's not fair. They both deserve a shot.

And my friends, if that's your reaction, you've overlooked two things. Number one, once again, you're putting yourself in the place of the objector in verse 14 and you don't want to be there.

And number two, none of us deserve a shot. If all things were equal and God was not just making any decision here at all, and he just left it up to Jacob and Esau to decide, or if he left it up to any of us to decide, none of us would even try to take that shot.

Are we just going to forget everything that we've read in Romans up to this point? Remember Romans 3, 10 through 12, none is righteous.

Not even one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.

All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good.

Not even one person. No one seeks for God. So do you think that if God just left it up to you from the womb to decide if you would seek for God that you would do it?

You wouldn't. By your sinful nature, you have no interest in God. You have interest in yourself, in your own flesh, your own desires, and you in rebellion against God are not worthy of the love of God.

Together we have become worthless, the text says. You deserve God's judgment because of your sin and rebellion against him.

Jacob was self -absorbed. So were you. Jacob was a liar and a cheat.

You've done that, haven't you? Have you told lies? Have you cheated to get your way?

Have you written down hours on your time card you didn't really work? Have you lied to your spouse or someone you love?

Maybe you justified it or reasoned it in your mind, I just don't want to hurt their feelings. But that's still selfish.

And we have an interest in ourselves whenever we sin. Jacob manipulated others to get what he wanted out of them, you've probably done that too.

Maybe you've provoked someone to do what you wanted them to do. Maybe you've emotionally manipulated someone to your advantage.

What do we deserve for being selfish, deceitful, prejudiced, manipulative, wretches? We deserve the judgment of God.

And again, if he left it up to us, that's exactly what we would get, because none of us, left to ourselves, would choose

God anyway. But as we read in Ephesians 2, 4 -5, as our brother

Chris preached a couple weeks ago in our baptism service, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. And when we read this in Romans 9, what should amaze us is that God has mercied me.

I don't deserve it. None of the human race deserves his favor. By our rebellious nature, we wouldn't even be looking for it.

But by an act of his sovereign grace, he chose me, gave his son to die on the cross for me, and raised him up from the grave so that I might be reconciled to him.

Every bit of me deserves to be hated like Esau, but I've been loved like Jacob and more so, so that his purpose of election might continue.

Verse 16, so then, it depends not on human will or exertion, not on our will, not on our actions.

It depends on God who has mercy.

God has the right to pardon whom he is pleased to pardon and save people on his own terms according to his sovereign will and pleasure.

God is not unjust in this, because everyone deserves judgment, no one deserves mercy.

That's why God is not unjust in this, because none of us deserve it anyway.

He has shown you mercy, though you deserve judgment. So who is anyone to say that God is ever doing anything unjust?

At the end of all things, you will receive one of two things.

You will either get grace, or you will get justice.

At the final judgment, no one gets injustice.

If God consigns a person to be condemned in hell for eternity, because they did not believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ nor obey the gospel as talked about in 2 Thessalonians 1. God is completely just in doing so to that person he has condemned.

But to the person who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, the

Father will say to them, inherit the eternity that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

And they will enter into glory because God was gracious.

Because they received the grace of God. And if God gives grace to one person, he is not obligated to have to give grace to another person or else it wouldn't be grace.

If God is ever obligated to have to do anything, he wouldn't even be God. But even to those who receive eternal life,

God's justice is still served. If you receive heaven and enter into those gates,

God's justice is still served. How is God's justice served? Because God's justice was satisfied by Christ's death on the cross on your behalf.

So that whoever believes in him, God has poured out the riches of his grace on that person who is covered by the blood of Jesus.

Justice has been done there. But you've received not justice, but grace.

Christ is that perfect sacrifice that God made for God, for himself on our behalf.

The wages of sin is death, as we've read in Romans 6 .23, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. All who believe in Jesus will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

And God is not obligated to give us that. If he's going to give it to one person, he doesn't have to give it to the other person or else he's being unfair.

If God gives grace to one person, he's therefore obligated to give it to another person? No. God shows grace to whom he desires to show grace.

For his good pleasure, for his good purpose. In our responsive reading this morning, we quoted from Job 34 .14

these words, If he should set his heart to it, and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.

God could wipe out all of mankind if he wanted to, and he would be completely just in doing so.

In fact, he did this once. Saved for eight people on an ark. And God was not obligated to give the same opportunity for salvation to the millions and millions of other wicked people that he did not save.

If God makes billions of self -portraits, referring to all the members of humanity who have been made in the image of God, and he chooses to destroy all of them, it is his choice to do with, as he sees fit, what belongs to him.

If from those billions he chooses to save some, the rest have no claim to demand that they be saved.

None of them can stand there and point the finger at God and say that it is unjust. It is not by our willingness to be saved that we are saved.

It is by God's willingness to save us. And God has given that way to be reconciled to him.

And it's a demonstration of love that we can hardly begin to fathom the depths of.

We talk about the cross of Christ all the time. My friends, we can go on exploring the cross of Christ for all eternity and we'll still never yet probe the depths of the rich love of God that is demonstrated to us in the giving of his son,

Jesus Christ, who became man. God himself putting on flesh and dwelling among us.

Living a perfect life, dying on the cross for our sins. And when we ask forgiveness for our sins, when we confess our sins, 1

John 1 .9 says that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Why is God just to forgive us our sins? Because Jesus paid it all.

And so all to him I owe. In the end, when we receive glory, brothers and sisters, it will be because Jesus paid our fine and by faith in him we have been justified, not by our works, but because God willed and we believed and were saved.

And so finally, here's our application. We've read the question. We've read the response.

Now we must make application. So let me give you three. In light of what we read this morning, number one, recognize

God's justice. Number two, respond to God with reverence.

And number three, rest in God's goodness. So let's consider again, recognize

God's justice. When we're faced with circumstances that we might seem to think are unfair.

Again, our fleshly weakness, our tendency to look at our situation, our scenario.

That person's being blessed. I'm not. We might tend to think, be inclined to believe that somehow something unfair is happening to us.

Well, we need to be humble ourselves and recognize that God's ways are always good and we're always getting better than we deserve.

I shared with you about my friend, Margaret, who was diagnosed with brain cancer and she had very limited amount of time to live.

And when I went over to see her at her house, I was expecting, you know, tears and we were going to struggle with this together.

No, she's standing and smiling and saying, Pastor Gabe, welcome. I'm going home.

Isn't it wonderful? Not a complaint. I never heard a complaint from that woman about her situation or her condition.

That was a huge testimony to me. It was less than two weeks before she died.

There were two Sundays before she died, the second Sunday before she died. She was in church with an oxygen tank dragging behind her and sitting down to worship with the saints.

I couldn't believe it. I was like, I know this woman's weak. I can't believe she's here. And I went up and said to her,

Miss Margaret, I just did not expect that I was ever going to see you in church again. And she said, well,

I'm about to go home and be with the saints. Why wouldn't I want to be with the saints now? The only reason she didn't show up that last

Sunday before she died was because she physically couldn't do it. And that just,

I still continue to think about that. That still resonates with me. To not complain or grumble or dispute about my circumstances.

Philippians 2 .14 tells us not to. But rather, as Philippians 4 .5

says, let your reasonableness be known to everyone for the Lord is at hand. And if we know that, shouldn't that be exemplified in our lives?

Now, if you're here and you're not a Christian, there's a different way that you need to recognize

God's justice. You need to see that you deserve judgment. And no one sitting here has any place to say, well, the reason why

I don't believe is because God has made me an Esau instead of a Jacob. No, you can't say that. Because again, you put yourself in the place of the objector pointing the finger back at God.

You have heard the truth of the gospel and you are obligated. God is not obligated toward you, but you are obligated toward God to respond to what you've heard.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Period. And if you are saved, if you believe in Jesus and are justified by faith, then that just demonstrates he foreknew you before the foundation of the world.

He predestined you for salvation. He called you and you answered and you are justified by faith. There are many who will argue with this doctrine.

They'll try to say, well, if that's what we're led to believe, then a person is actually saved before they have faith.

And so therefore, the doctrine of justification by faith, you're just throwing it out the window. No, my good

Noita, by no means. If God has purposed a person for salvation, he has also purpose that they would believe and be saved.

We're still justified by faith and your justification did not come to you until you believed and God applied the blood of Christ on you by grace.

By grace, we are saved through faith. So number one, we recognize

God's justice. Number two, we must respond with reverence. These truths about God that we have considered today should inspire us to be reverent, to be worshipful and obedient, that we would honor

God with gratitude and submission rather than our complaining or arguing. We need to turn from our sin and live righteously.

If you believe that you have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ, then you must live and demonstrate the righteousness of Christ.

Turn from your sin. Be convicted over your sin.

Pursue holiness as we are told that God is holy. And finally, number three, rest in God's goodness.

As I said earlier, we can tend to come into this doctrinal truth in Romans nine rather cold, but this is a glorious proclamation of God's goodness to us that that should give us comfort.

How often do we forget that God is is not cold to us. He loves us and he is with us.

If you believe in Jesus Christ, his Holy Spirit dwells within you and you can talk to him whenever you like.

And the Lord listens and answers. Rest in God's goodness because he loves you.

In summary of this passage that we're looking at today and we're going to come back into next week, 17th century minister

Matthew Poole said the following quote, if God elects some and reject others, their case being the same or their persons being in themselves equal and alike, then he is unjust and partial to this.

Paul answers verse 14. God forbid, noting thereby the heinousness of such a thought.

And then he answers this cavil more, more particularly showing verses 15 to 16 that God is not unjust in electing some and verses 17 and 18.

He is not unjust in rejecting others. And that side of it is something that we will consider further next week.

Been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

For more information about our church, visit our website at providencecasagrande .com.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again