God's Sovereignty and Our Salvation | Romans 9

Romans 9 is one of the most challenging chapters in the New Testament—but it is also one of the most important.

In this lesson, we explore Paul's teaching on God's sovereignty, Israel's special role in God's plan, and the relationship between God's choices and human faith. Far from teaching that God arbitrarily saves some and condemns others, Romans 9 reveals a God who faithfully carries out His redemptive plan through history while extending mercy to all who believe.

In this study, you'll learn:

• Why Paul grieved for his fellow Israelites
 • What Israel's special privileges were and why they mattered
 • The difference between God's choice of a covenant lineage and personal salvation
 • Why Isaac was chosen over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau
 • What it means that God hardened Pharaoh's heart
 • The significance of the potter and the clay illustration
 • How Jews and Gentiles alike become vessels of mercy through faith
 • Why salvation has always been rooted in God's grace rather than human achievement

Romans 9 reminds us that God is sovereign, trustworthy, and faithful. His plan was never based on human greatness, but on His mercy, wisdom, and desire to bless all nations through Jesus Christ.

Key Text: Romans 9

"Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." (Romans 9:33)

If this lesson helped you better understand one of Scripture's most debated chapters, please like, subscribe, and share it with others seeking a deeper understanding of God's Word.

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Transcript

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If you are Christian, you need to know that your calling is greatest privilege and also the most secure thing, by the way, that there is, because it is founded upon God and not upon man. But because of that fact, you're no better off than any other Christian. We are in the same thing, we're all made equal through the cross or through the sacrifice at the cross. And there's no reason to have a sense of superiority or have a superiority complex. That's part of what Paul's going to deal with in our text tonight. I know that's a great way to start off, right? Don't have a superiority complex. But that's where Paul's at. And in fact, when he begins this section of text in Romans chapter 9, he begins by saying, I wish I could take the place of everyone else who are my countrymen, and they would be saved, even if it meant I would be lost. And that sounds uh like a pretty great thing. Uh and uh and it is, it's an admirable attitude, uh, but uh not possible. I want to thank everybody for being here tonight. Uh, I appreciate your presence, and I hope that you have your thinking mind on this evening. I know it's it's been a good day. Father's Day, that's a good day, but worship also. And uh here we are this evening, get to end the day the way we began it. But uh sometimes we're tired in the evening time. And so I'm encouraging you to take thought of that and and and and put your mind, engage your mind into the night's study. I'm pretty sure you're gonna need it. It's not an easy study, and it takes for granted that the reader at this time has an understanding of some things that have been either talked about before in this book or uh that even hasn't been talked about in this book, but has a clear understanding of some things anyway that are that are from a Christian perspective. So there's some things that are taken for granted. I try not to bypass that too much, but for sake of time, uh we'll we'll be skipping pretty quick uh in this evening's lesson. And uh you may be saying to yourself, why didn't you break it into two sermons? And you will see why as we go, because it would not make any sense to break this chapter into two sermons. You have got to do it all in one sermon. And so it's gonna be a bit laborous for us. But uh stick with me. I think we'll make it well together. Uh and if you're guests with us tonight, sure glad that you're here. Invite you to be here anytime that you can. It's good to have everybody here tonight. So, Romans chapter 9, Paul moves from what we see at the very end of chapter 8 when he says that there's nothing in all of creation that will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And he moves from that to make us think more directly now, not upon us and our salvation, so much as upon God and his sovereignty. So there's a shift in gear that is taking place here, or a deepening of understanding that's taking place here between salvation and all the great things that we've looked at in chapter eight to this concept about the great God that we serve and his great sovereignty over all things. And we'll see that as we continue on this evening. Are you there with me in Romans chapter 9? Let's begin reading there in verse 1 of the text. We'll read a few verses and then we'll then we'll make some comments and finish the text out uh at the end of the lesson together. So, verse 1 of chapter 9 of the book of Romans. I'm speaking the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. It's important to notice that, even underline it in your text if you want to, because here in this section of the Bible, uh of the of the of the letter, Paul is not talking about salvation right now. He's talking about what he says here, and that is my kinsmen according to the flesh. He's talking about the Jews. It's noteworthy to make that understood in your mind as we proceed. And it is a curious thing as well, as you look at this text. Doesn't it remind you of someone who was willing to lay down their very own life, in fact, even their soul, on behalf of another people? Sounds very much like the Lord, doesn't it? And yet the Lord was still rejected having done that. They still chose to separate himself from his sacrifice, from his ability. He actually had the ability, unlike Paul, to say, I will give myself for them. And he actually does this, but yet is still rejected, Paul makes the point of by most of Israel. And this was in spite of the fact that they were recipients of some pretty great privileges. You would think that privileges equate success, wouldn't you? Not so in the spiritual realm. Those two things don't always follow, just as they do not always follow in the physical realm. Look at verse 4 of your text. To them, he says, to them belong the uh glory, the covenants. Let me get over there real quick. I have it on a chart for you. Makes it a little easier to pick out the highlights of it. Verse uh verse four, they belong the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race, look at that. From the Jewish race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all and blessed forever. Amen. Wouldn't it be something to be able to say, from your race came the Savior of the world? I mean, that is a pretty special thing. Honestly, that's a very special thing that Paul's pointing out here, in addition to all of the other things that he's making note of here. A lot of great privileges, but most were forfeiting these privileges by rejecting the Christ through whom all these promises would come. What made them special was not the things themselves, it was who made these things and who gave these things. That was the special part. That was what made Israel special in the sight of God as well. That's what Paul deals with next in our text as he launches into an illustrative argument here from Israel's history. And this is where we need to put on our mind, uh put our mind to work here, uh understanding some of the history of Israel, so that we don't have to spend a lot of time looking at that together this evening. We can make our way through the text a little easier that way. We learn God is just, faithful, and dependable in his promises. And here's the thing regardless of people and regardless of nations, I like to think of it this way: God has the right to choose, and he can choose whatever he wants. Why? Because he's God. That's why. And it's very similar, it's in a nutshell of what Paul is expanding on here as we read through the rest of some of this text. Uh, down in verse six of the text beginning there. Let's notice verse six and read down a little further. For not all who are descendants from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 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. Verse 9. For this is what he prom what he said, about this time next year I'll return, and Sarah shall have a son. Uh and uh and not only not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our father, Isaac, our forefather Isaac, 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. She was told, the older will serve the younger, as it is written. Jacob I love, but Esau hated. 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, I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Make note, those are very, both of those are very positive things, not negative, either one of them. I'll do one positive thing, I'll do one negative thing to another. He says, I can do good things to whoever I want to do good for. But then continue on. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. Paul is reminding the reader here. It is God who chooses the specific covenant line through which he would bring his Messiah. If God wants to choose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, later to be called Israel, God has that prerogative. He doesn't have to ask anyone. No one has to like it. He's God. He can do whatever he wants with regard to this, and it's his desire to do good in this way. Likewise, it was God who rose up Pharaoh to show God's power and superiority on all the earth. Each of Paul's illustrations show it was God making the choice regarding his promises. It was not based on Israel's greatness. It was not based on Pharaoh's greatness, it was based on God's greatness in all of these illustrations. It's also noteworthy to ask, well, why Abraham? I mean, that really is a good question. I mean, were there were there no other people on all the earth who loved and and and thought of God? If indeed that's where Pharaoh if indeed that's where Abraham was at the time he was called? Whatever state Abraham was, was he the only one in all of the people on the whole earth? So why Abraham? It's because that was what God chose. That may feel a little simplistic to some. What about Isaac and not Ishmael? Because that's what God chose. What about Jacob and not his brother Esau? Because that is what God chose. And God is God, and God has the right to choose what he chooses, to set the plans that he sets. And there may be those who would say, well, that doesn't seem very fair. And it may be coming as a surprise to some, especially maybe some of our younger generation, that God has never been about fairness. Have you noticed in all of the Bible it doesn't say God did this because it was fair? God did that because it was fair. It's never been about fairness to God. And you and I are living proof of that if we're children of God, because we would still be dead and in our sins and trespasses had it been fair. But he chose for it not to be fair and to give us the blessings. Just because something is a blessing doesn't make it fair. It can still be very unfair and be a blessing. Something we don't deserve. It's called grace, unmerited, unearned favor from God. God had the right to make that choice. Some of those Paul is referring to had become as some Christians might become and run the risk of becoming today. And that is accustomed to thinking it was their heritage or some other great thing in them that saved them, rather than their faith in the promises of salvation through the Messiah, who came from a choice that God made of various ones on the earth. So Paul explains in verse 6 it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descendants from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham simply because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. You might already know that this is Paul is referring to some promises that go all the way back to Genesis chapter 12. And so Genesis chapter 12, uh, if you turn over there, notice those verses with me of the verse three, uh verses one through three of the text, Abraham's given a promise there regarding his future family receiving a great land. And through this family, through these specific members, men in this family, all nations of the earth would become, eventually would become blessed. But you remember the story. Abraham and Sarah grow impatient. I understand that, don't you? Twenty-five years is a long time to wait for a fulfilled promise. But I'll remind you of this, it's just not as long as some of us have lived for our fulfilling of a promise. For the promise that's been fulfilled to us of eternal life. Sometimes waiting is part of God's expectation. Putting him in the place of God and us in the place of humanity. But here they are, they try to force God's promise, his choice, to go according to their plan rather than according to his plan. Abraham marries Sarah's handmaiden. Hagar has a child whose name is Ishmael. But God had said that the promise would be fulfilled through Sarah, resulting in the birth of Isaac. So Paul concludes from this, it seems, as you're reading through this text, that Ishmael, since he's born first, the way it should have gone was that the firstborn becomes next in line, which would put him receiving the promises of God. But that's not how it worked. And so, because of God's choice, verse 8, this means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, because that would have been under Ishmael. But the children of the promise are counted as offspring. Why did it work that way? It worked that way because God is God and that's what he chose. Because God is sovereign over all else. And when God speaks, that's what takes place. The choice of God was always based upon his plan. That would never be thwarted. Abraham and Sarah, any other man could not do something that was going to make God go, oh man, I wish I would have thought about that. I didn't think about that. They messed it all up here. His plans are never thwarted. Now, I will say to you, this seems like a good place to throw this tidbit of information in. There are those who overstate what Paul is talking about here. And some would say that Paul is teaching a doctrine called, if you keep up with some things in the religious realm, unconditional election. In other words, God chose one child for salvation while choosing the other for damnation. And they point to passages like this, and they would say, that's what took place. That God is choosing one person for salvation over another person who would therefore then receive damnation, even before birth had taken place, as Paul is pointing out here in the text. But I want you to notice Paul isn't teaching Abraham was saved and everybody else was damned. That doesn't follow the text at all, does it? As we pointed out, it doesn't mean there was no one else in all the world that could have been where Abraham was, except for God's choice, is what made Abraham Abraham. It did not have to do with how great Abraham was. It did not have to do with some predestined view of Abraham's salvation while everybody else in the world is lost. That would be a perversion of the text. The same would follow with Isaac, who it's not saying was saved and Ishmael damned or Jacob saved, but Esau damned. But rather who the Messiah would come through. Now, brothers and sisters, as students of the text, that's very important for us to understand. God does not make those kinds of biased choices wherein one person is destined for damnation while somebody else, even before birth, is destined for salvation. That's not our God. And we'll learn that as we get to the end of the text this evening. Here he's talking about the Messiah and who the Messiah would come through. What lineage would the Messiah come through? What family would Jesus come from? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. You know, that's God's right to choose that. It's not as though he's doing something wrong toward every other person in the world or every other nation in the world. It's because he's choosing one nation to bring the Messiah through. In fact, the way it actually works out is we all benefit from what he did. Everyone is blessed by what he did. So everyone receives a sense of mercy. It'd be contrary to Scripture and really the entire previous part of Romans, which teaches that we're saved by God's favor through our faith. If we were to think that what he's talking about here is a matter of who is saved and who is lost. Notice there in verse 11 of your text, verse 11. I think I, there we go. I have a chart on that as well. So uh notice verse 11 in your Bible, though. When Esau and Jacob were not yet born and had done nothing, neither good nor bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue. Election of what? Election about who the Messiah was coming through. What family that would be, in order that God's choice would go forward, in other words, not of works, but because of him who calls. Who called these men? It was God. Could they have been where they were placed if it had not been for God's calling of them? They just would have been regular men, just like everybody else in the world at that time. The older, well, I'm sorry, verse 12, Rebecca was told, the older will serve the younger. So you might jot down in the margin of your Bible there, not about salvation, but about privilege, about a predetermined advantage that came to a certain family through which the Messiah would come. Verse 13, is this written, Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? He says, By no means. Well, it sure sounds like injustice to me. What about you? Somebody gets an advantage and somebody else doesn't. Sounds like an injustice. Except for the fact that God's not talking about saving one person and condemning another. What's he talking about? Malachi chapter 1, verses 2 and 3 is what Paul is quoting from here. The context, if you go over there into Malachi, is clear. It bears out that these names do not represent the men themselves, but rather the lineage that came from these men. He's talking about the lineage of these men. And God uses a Hebrew word here as well, the word hated that is that is translated here, hated, but literally in Hebrew is one less favored than the other. Well, is that true? Were some of these men more favored in the sight of God? Did they receive a greater sense of favor than every other nation in the whole world? Well, yes, they did. It was through them the Messiah would come, as Paul points out at the very beginning of our text tonight. That is a great favor. That is a privilege to this nation. Esau was favored less, his lineage was favored less than Jacob's lineage because of who the Messiah was going to come through. Now, if you were an Arab from Ishmael, if you were a descendant from Esau, that would be like the Edomites, or in today's thinking, the Jordanian people. Or maybe you just weren't a Jew. Maybe you were like from Europe or Indian or something, you know? What would you say to that? Now we've tried to explain this thing already, but if we hadn't gotten to the point we are just now, then what would you say to that when you read this text? I don't know about you, but I would be saying to myself, well, that doesn't seem quite fair to me. Why couldn't he come through my lineage? Right? Why couldn't my forefathers have had all of these great things that gave them extra privileges? Why? Why did it have to be the way that it was? Verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. Just because he does a favor, greater favor for one than he does for another does not make him unjust, as we pointed out already. All nations were blessed. It's just that Israel was blessed in a different kind of way. In fact, it gave them more responsibility and it gave them actually harder lives than it did those who were Gentile people. But they were still privileges nonetheless. And it did give them, it should have given them, an advantage to understand the Messiah and be able to pinpoint the Messiah when he came. Yeah, there were some advantages there. From here, Paul says, consider the illustration of Moses and Pharaoh. Moses and Pharaoh. Some people get really hung up on this. God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. I just want to say to you, brothers and sisters, that is God's sovereign right. He made the creation. Doesn't he have the right to have compassion on the one he wants and have and have mercy on the one that he wants? Or on the nations that he wants? Verse 16, so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. You see, there's no equality if it is dependent upon our own success. But there is quality. Equality. If it is God who is doing these things. If it's dependent upon God, we have equality. If it's dependent on me, we won't. If it's dependent on you, we won't. We'll be in competition. We'll be fighting to get to the top. God's mercy and compassion are the only things standing between us and ending up on the wrong side of God, like Pharaoh did, is what Paul's pointing out. For the scripture says in verse 17 of our text. 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 whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills. Really? He raises this man up to prove one thing to the whole world. Now let me ask you, who's this text talking about? Is it Pharaoh? Or is it the sovereignty of God? Several passages in Exodus teach us that the person that God hardens is one who persists in resistance to God's choices. I can become that kind of person, and so can you. God says, This is my choice. Let the people go. But because Pharaoh persisted in resistance to God's choice, we have battle and conflict. Pharaoh is of the mind that he can persuade God through his stubbornness to do what he wants. It's again an illustration, just like he made of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were of nothing to God's promises and plans. There is no man who stands in the way of God. God therefore sets forth situations in which Pharaoh had to make a choice, either to submit to God and his supremacy or to bow up in resistance. And the more Pharaoh chose to do wrong in this scenario, the more his heart was made stubborn. But the point that Paul seems to be making here, even more so, is that God's choice was not thwarted because Pharaoh's worsening stubbornness was being put forth. God would have had compassion on Pharaoh if Pharaoh would have listened to God's choices. Pharaoh chose not to do that, not God. Now, did God know he would do that? Yes, that's why he put him in position he did. He's proven a point. But it is Pharaoh making his choices, isn't it? And God is, in a sense, hardening his heart as time goes on, because every time God gives him a choice, he decides to bow up. For those of us, this is Father's Day, for those of us who are fathers here today, tonight, you think about the times. If you're old enough, you have children, you think about the times where your children, you said, don't do this, and they just out of out of rebellion, they just did it. You do this, this is gonna be the the issue, you know. Let's just take for illustration. Uh, you do this, and and you know, maybe you warned them a couple of times already. Well, and you say, Well, uh, next time you do this, you're gonna get a spanking. And what do they do? They do it. The next time you do this, you're gonna get ground. Well, they they do it. Why? Because they're gonna break you, that's why, as a parent, right? And that's what's going on between Pharaoh and God. Pharaoh actually thinks he can win. He just grows himself harder and harder against God, and God just pushes back, and Pharaoh keeps getting harder. Brothers and sisters, that is something to think about and to come to grips with. Or we, I mean we, as Christians, will end up thinking our obedience puts God in our debt, and we are saved somehow by our own strength, our own right choices, sometimes even in spite of God. Paul's illustrations point out Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not chosen because God saw them as somehow greater than other people, better than other people. Israel was not freed from Egypt because they were so great. They had to be saved. We've got to save this nation. They're they're the best nation ever. In fact, he makes the point in the prophets, the only reason that they were surviving at all, which is true for all nations, is because he made them survive. He was the he was the source behind their survival, or they would have already, they would have, even in our day, been completely decimated. The only reason any nation exists is because God says it can, and he does things to make that happen. We are not saved if we jump to the matter of salvation for a moment by our greatness, but by God's choice, he's the one who makes our salvation possible. Had it not been for that, we would be decimated, annihilated, we would have no hope. God made that choice for us. The fact is, when I became a believer, when you became a believer, we were still just as much deserving of condemnation as before. Do you recognize that? It wasn't. That we all of a sudden decided to get saved and we decided baptism's gonna fix my problem. I'm gonna fix my problem through this. It's God who fixes that problem. It's God's choice to make that available. It is God who is the source of that. And what that does is it helps us put God in a place of honor and righteousness and on display in our lives. Not how great we are, not how great I am or you are, but how great our God is. God's supremacy and sovereignty and character gives him the right to make the choices that he wants to make, which always work to the benefit of those who will love him. God is, as this chart shows, omnipotent, omniscient, he is omnipresent. Go down that whole list there, he's love, wrath, mercy, excuse me, uh, wise, infinite, self-sufficient, faithful, holy, just to name a few of those things. Do you think one who has all of these things at his disposal can make the right choices? In all his sovereignty, how appropriate would it be for part of his creation to question what a God with all of these attributes chooses? As if we're somehow on the same level. It's what's so ridiculous when people say, Well, if God's going to be like that, well, I can't serve a God like that. Okay, well, don't. That's your prerogative, but it doesn't change the outcome here, okay? God has the right to do what God wants to do. But the thing about our God is he doesn't say, I don't care what you think. He says, This is why I choose what I choose, and it is for your good, for your benefit, for your goodness, for your advantage. Like a loving great parent. But it's true. No human has the right to tell God, why'd you do it this way, God? Like I could do better, like I could come up with a better plan, like I could think better. How crazy is it? How incredulous it is that someone would stand in judgment of God. We struggle to have one of these characteristics, let alone have a handle on all of them perfectly. To be the creator of them, even. It's so ridiculous. If God is so in control and he knows the outcome before the beginning, then how can he find fault in any one? Paul asks. In particular, verse 21. Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel of honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Well, brothers and sisters, what kind of vessels are we talking about here? What kind of vessel we are is is God's prerogative, first of all. The fact that he makes anything at all is an act of mercy and compassion if his intention by making these things is to do good. That in itself is an act of compassion and mercy. But here it seems the context is important for us. It seems like Paul is making a comparison between the Jews and the Gentiles. Though the Jews might have considered themselves honorable vessels. Paul is saying that they had become utensils of dishonor. If they refused to believe in Christ, they were forfeiting the vessel for which God made them in an honorable way. They put themselves as a utensil of dishonor if they choose to disbelieve in the Messiah. While the Gentiles, on the other hand, had become vessels now, who were of dishonor, now they have become honorable vessels. Verse 22 of that text, what if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? It sounds a lot like Pharaoh, doesn't it? Who are we talking about here? Those who reject the Messiah, vessels made for wrath, are those who would reject the Messiah. Verse 23, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory, who's that? Those who believe in God, God's promises, who want to walk with him like Abraham. I will say to you, brothers and sisters, if we just kind of break this down to a very simplistic view, I think what we're seeing is that our use as a vessel is about God, not us. It's about what God puts in the vessel, right? Some of the Jews didn't get this. God put up with their unfaithfulness, he says here in verse 22, which shows God's patience, sure. It also shows God's wrath and what God can do when it comes to those who continually will simply buck him and rebel against his choices as if they can win against God. That won't happen. But it all brings about a display of God's glory in Christ for the vessels upon which he is willing to show mercy. Verse 24 even us, Paul says, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. God has always been in control. The passage here in 2 Peter points that out more directly, perhaps even than Paul does here in this text. Whether God uses people for honor or dishonor depends upon people. God makes the dishonorable from the same piece of clay that he makes the honorable. He does with it what he wants based upon the materials. However, whether they remain a vessel of dishonor or a vessel for the glory and mercy that comes from God, it's based upon who is filling that vessel ultimately, doesn't it? I was thinking about this last night over to 2 Corinthians and in chapter 4, verses 6 through 7. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, Paul speaks about how we are to be as vessels or that we are jars of clay who are filled with the Lord's treasure. He has in mind there the gospel in particular. It's not just about the origin of the vessel, that's the point here in Romans. It's not just about the origin of the vessel. For example, a Jew and all of the great privileges, they should be a great-looking vessel if they get all these privileges, right? God took special care in all of that. But you see, it's not about the vessel, it's about what is going to fill the vessel. And so all can be vessels of honor, Paul is teaching, for God's use, because God calls us, both Jew and Gentile, to glory through Christ, not to destruction. Look at verse 25 of your text. Verse 25. As indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people, I will call my people. Look at verse 26. And in the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there, quoting from Hosea chapter 1, verse 10, they will be called sons of the living God. That's very positive, isn't it? That's a wonderful thing God brought about from this special nation that he gave special privileges to, but spread those privileges to all other nations. Compared to verse 27, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, Genesis chapter 12, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence, his choices, upon the earth faithfully and without delay. It is the Lord's final and best love story being lived out and evidenced in every day for the lives of all people, both Jews who will believe and Gentiles who will believe. It's a special blessing that make us very privileged. Those who are dishonorable, but God made a choice to make us honorable. Those who are vessels doomed for wrath, but God has made us glorious vessels. We're not made that way because of who we are, we're made that way because of what he fills us with. A message of love and redemption, fulfilled by God's choices through Jesus. Therefore, verse 30 of our text, the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained or reached it. That is a righteousness that is by faith. But that Israel, who pursued law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. The Jews thought things would be different for them because they were highly religious people. Paul says they trusted in the wrong things, they trusted in themselves. Trusted in their ability to keep law. And they couldn't attain it. They couldn't get to that place of perfection where they were owed something from God. It resulted in their standing on their own works, tripping and stumbling over Jesus, grace, in other words, and faith. They pushed him out of the way and they rejected their only hope. Why didn't they? Because they didn't have the advantages that the Jewish people had. They weren't the lineage through which the Messiah would come. And all of that preparation for that taught the Jews how to live for God. But they didn't do it. Taught the Jews how to have faith, but they chose not to. And so those who were not taught such things, they would be the ones to find God's mercy through faith in Jesus Christ. Even though they didn't have the old law, they didn't have all of those privileges. Paul began this text about God's control. God has the right to choose. Aren't you thankful for that? Now, I mean, you know, when you first start to read this text, you might not be so thankful. Well, that is not fair. Actually, when you get done, you're like, this is great. This is fantastic, actually. Because God makes us as well as the believing Jews, privileged vessels of honor. And because only by his predetermined plan can we, who are dead in our trespasses and sins, become alive together with Christ, through whom we are saved. God is patient, God is enduring. God will even wait if we're willing to come to Him. God wants no one to be lost. His choice is not. I'm opening it up for everyone to be my child. We've all had access to the will and the word of God, and yet still we've chosen to be vessels of wrath awaiting destruction. We don't have to do that, is what Paul is saying. No one needs to put themselves in that place. God will win. We either will be glorified with him or with damned without him. Person says, Well, I don't like that. And God says, That is my choice. I'm just encouraging you tonight to live for the choices of God because that's where goodness is at. That's where fulfillment comes from. That's where salvation is found. Because we're not serving a God who is opposite to good. We're serving a God who only blesses us with good. I say to you this evening: if that is your desire tonight to become a child of God, you can do that. You've heard Paul talk already, if you've been in these lessons in chapter 6, through repentance and baptism, you can become a child of God. You can be buried with him and resurrected new with him. There is no other place like that, and there's no greater life than the life that's found in Christ. If we can help you in that this evening, why don't you take that step this evening? Come forward. Well, together we stand, and as we sing.