Right-of-Way

Transcript

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We're starting a new series today and I thought, what better way to kick off a sermon series than a story about Charlie Chaplin. It is well documented, a lot of people have talked about this, but it is well documented that there are celebrities who have failed in their own look-alike contests. So Charlie Chaplin very famously, he entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest and he did not make it past the preliminary rounds. It wasn't even close. Kevin Clash is the voice of Elmo and Kevin Clash often hears that his impersonation of Elmo is terrible. He hears it all the time actually. He's quit doing it because he hears it so much. Hugh Jackman, who famously played the Marvel character Wolverine in nine different movies, played Wolverine more times than almost anybody's played any other character. He went to a comics convention dressed as Wolverine in his movie costume, exactly what

he looks like in the movies. By his account, two people noticed, but both of them said he was too short. And then lastly, Dolly Parton famously entered her own look-alike contest, but she was told that she was too short to be Dolly Parton and she lost to a man impersonating her. I know, that's really, really sad. That's either really good impersonating or just a really terrible indictment on those judges. We are going to begin a series on Romans 9 through 11. In Romans 9 through 11, we are calling this series right together. The reason that we are calling this series right together is because a lot of these verses, Romans 9 through 11, a lot of these verses whenever taken in isolation, they can kind of distort how we see who God is. They kind of blow up some parts and minimize other parts of when we take all these verses in isolation. In fact, sometimes whenever we take these verses in isolation, it can distort God so much

that our kind of caricature of who God is would not win in a God look-alike competition. When we try to define all of God by a few verses, it tends to get us in trouble. What tends to happen is that we form camps. In those camps, we have to describe, in this camp we have to describe God this way and we have to make sure that we are accenting this and we have to talk about God this way. In this camp, we are going to talk about God this way and we are going to accent these features and all this stuff. When you don't take scripture, all of scripture, to talk about, to listen about who God is in all of scripture, you end up with a caricature. You end up with something that is not what it should be. We are going to take the next five weeks and we are going to read Romans 9, 10, and 11 together. We are going to find this cadence, this rhythm in these three chapters that is going to match

with all of scripture. It really is going to let us see God for who He really is. We are going to start in Romans 9, verse 4 and following. If we are going to pick it up here, we need a bit of a jump start, a bit of a let's remember way back. At the beginning of the year, we were talking about the first eight chapters of Romans and something that we talked about, we are going to refer to it a little bit more as we go, but there are both religious insiders and irreligious outsiders in the Roman church. What Romans 9 does is it begins the opening with a discussion about religious leaders and

these religious insiders are just referred to as Israelites. Romans chapter 9, verses 4 through 5, it is talking about the Israelites and it says they are Israelites. Now look, this is real fast, you need to know this. Israelites and Jews are the same thing. Jews are just a subset of Israelites. Israelites are kind of all God's people. Jews are just Israelites from Judah. That is why they are called Jews. That is some fun facts for you. They are Israelites, these guys are Israelites, they are religious insiders. To them belong, and this is quite the list, to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever, amen. For these and many other reasons, these Israelites, these Jews, these religious insiders, are

religious insiders for all these reasons. If in your spiritual heritage you have all these things, you have all these things that are going on, the covenant, the adoption, the worship, all these things. Do you guys hear that? Wow, that has been killing me for like 10 minutes. I am like, is somebody filing their nails? I swear to you, I was looking, I was like, it is Susie, she is filing her nails. But it is not Susie, she is not filing her nails. I thought it was Bobby, and so I was, whew, okay, good. What a relief, I thought that was me the whole time, and I am super distracted. Okay, what a relief, I feel like we can go in now. Okay, all right, I am warm because I am so bothered by that. Okay, this is a really important point, so let's not miss it. religious insiders have all this stuff, right? So these are God's appointed, anointed people. Okay, and then the reason that Romans 9, 4, and 5 brings these up, because there is an

obvious question, and it is a question that is only implied, but it sets the tone for the entire rest of the discussion for Romans 9. And here it is in kind of a statement form, Romans 9, 6, and the beginning of 6, it says, but it is not as though the word of God has failed. The implied question in verse 6, in the beginning of verse 6 is, did God break His promise to His people? Did He break His promise to His people? In other words, if God's people are so highly favored, then why aren't they flourishing?

If God's people have all this heritage, then what good is their heritage? It doesn't seem like it's working for them. It doesn't seem like it's doing that well. Why is God not good to His own people? And to answer this, to answer this, we see Romans 9 making a very important distinction, and we're going to follow this distinction, and there's some kind of repercussions from this, and this is what Romans 9 is about. So it says, for not all who descended from Israel belong to Israel. Now we need to understand, Israel is just a euphemism for God's people, or actually it's a nationality, really. But whenever it talks about Israel, it's talking about just people who belong to God, right? So it says, it's not as though for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham, because they are His offspring, but through Isaac,

starting to quote the Old Testament here, through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. Okay, here's a translation for that. Just because your mom and dad were part of God's people doesn't mean you are. Just because mom and dad were part of God's people doesn't mean you are, because being a part of God's people, it has nothing to do with physical heritage. It has nothing to do with ethnic descendants. That's not what it is to be a part of God's people. And this is the point that he's trying to make here. He's saying, look, just because you're an Israelite, just because you're a Jew, and you can kind of look back at your heritage, and you can know which tribe you're from, and you can know, and you can name all this stuff. That's so great, but that has zero to do with God's faithfulness, or God's view upon you. In other words, your heritage, you don't put God over a barrel, because mom and dad

were really great. And so look at the next verse. It says it this way. It says, this means, Romans 9-8, this means that it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. So what's this saying exactly? These people have a physical heritage of being Jews, Israelites. They have a special history with God, the adoption, the covenants. But all of that is not the same as a spiritual heritage. It's not the same. It's a physical heritage. It's an ethnic lineage. It's stuff your ancestors did or had or something that happened to them, but it has no bearing. It is not the same. It is something completely different than a spiritual heritage. God always chooses who his people are. Let me say that again. God always chooses who his people are. He always has, even with Abraham's first son. All the way back.

Abraham was like the guy he made this covenant with. Abraham had two sons, but he's got a choosing his son Isaac as his people. And this is kind of the point. God's word doesn't fail with his people. So you have these people who are Jews or Israelites. They're God's people by physical heritage. And the question starts to become, okay, look, if these are supposed to be God's people, then why? What's happening with them? Why aren't the blessings unending? Why is that not happening? These are God's people. And the counterpoint to that is just because they're Israelites doesn't mean they're God's people. That's a really important distinction. And this was actually pretty leveling news for the church in Rome. Because in the church in Rome, you had people that had this physical heritage, and you had people that did not, okay? You had Jews, Gentiles, religious, irreligious, okay?

You had both in the church. And it was a strong temptation for the people that were religious Jews, insiders, to believe that they had some kind of inside track, that they were specially chosen. And so what does that look like today, right? It looks like, hey, my parents were members of this church. I grew up in this church. My mom was the pianist. My dad was a deacon in this church. But God is not beholden to you for that heritage, right? In other words, we don't stand before the judgment seat, and the Lord says, like, what's going on? And you're like, well, my dad was a deacon. My mom was a pianist.

Cool. But that doesn't move the needle with the spiritual heritage, do you understand? It's not the same. God chooses His people. And we need to see this because this is kind of the road that Romans 9 goes down. We need to understand that God chooses His people, and He uses two Old Testament examples to make this case, Romans 9-9, okay? It says, for this is what the promise said, about this time next year, I will return. This is the Lord talking. I will return, and Sarah, Abraham's wife, Sarah will have a son, okay? So what's the point here? It's saying that God's people began by God choosing Sarah to become pregnant and have a son. That, you know, I'm not really good at math, but whenever you predict that somebody's going to have a baby in a year, okay, there's something that needs to happen in the first three months, right? That seems like we're totally in control of, but God's not worried about that.

He's like, in a year, I'm going to come back and you're going to have a son. Okay? So this is God choosing His people. Here's the second example. And in the second example, I'm actually going to come back to the middle part. I'm going to remove the middle part for clarity, and then I'm going to come back to it, okay? So Romans 9, 10 through 12, and you'll see kind of where I'm excluding a little bit. But try to follow the logic, okay? It says, and not only so, so here's the second example of God choosing His people. Not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac. Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, she, Rebecca, was told the older will serve the younger, okay? So God, God is designating how these two, Rebecca had twins in her womb. God is designating how one twin is going to relate to the other twin.

And it's before, and here's the point of this, it's before any, either one of them were born, before they had done anything good or bad, before they deserved anything, nothing, nothing like that. We don't know what Jacob and Esau are going to be like, but they're twins in the womb, and whatever they're twins in the womb, God says the older will serve the younger. And here's the part I left out, why? Why did God do that? Why did this happen? And here's the part I left out, it's in 11b, Romans 9, 11b. It happened in order that God's purpose of election might continue. Now let's stop there for just a second, purpose of election. This is just a biblical way to say choosing, right? This is so that in order that God's choice might continue, that God is choosing things to happen, and in order for that to happen, he's making this, he's making Rebecca have twins and the older is going to serve the younger, and he's choosing that in order that

choice might continue. And here's the kicker, it says, not because of works, but because of him who calls. Not because of works, but because of him who calls. I want to look at this phrase, not because of works, but because of him who calls. You may or may not know this this morning, but what we are stepping into in Romans 9 is a bit of a controversy. Right. The laughter tells you it's a big controversy. Now the problem, we say controversy, what we're talking about is not controversial, right? It's actually in scripture, it's actually plain as day, plain as the nose and your face, but what happens is the reason it becomes a controversy is because people pick out little verses and they say, this is my banner verse. In Romans 9 through 11, right, they pick out their one verse and they're like, I'm going to see God totally by this verse. Or no, I'm going to see God by totally by this verse over here.

Or no, still, I'm going to go over here, I'm going to see God by this verse. And what they do, they use that as camps and people start saying, no, no, no, God looks like this, no, God looks like this, no, God looks like this. And what they're doing, they're not looking at Romans 9 through 11 together, which is exactly what we need to do. So even today, even as we teach, even as we look at Romans 9, I'm going to say, listen, don't rush to judgment. Read all of it. Okay. My encouragement, you have homework this afternoon, read Romans 9 through 11. All of it together. I know the Cowboys game is on later today, just do it right before the Cowboys game. It would be great. Okay. What we are talking about here, what we are talking about here is God's total control, his total control of everything. Now we are fine with this fact when we're praying. We pray to God and we say, God, would you make this happen?

And we're totally fine with it. Like, we want God to be in total control when that happens, right? When you start talking about how in control God is, it tends to shift us a little bit. I want to see here that whenever we're talking about what God is like, okay, these verses right here, the opposite, the opposite. When we consider God's control, his total sovereignty, sometimes what we consider the opposite is to be our control, right? So somebody would say, okay, God is totally sovereign and we think, okay, logically, what's the opposite of that? It's us being totally sovereign. No, it's not actually. Here it says, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, in other words, that God is going to be totally in control, not because of works, but because of him who calls. The true opposite of God being in control of everything would be you and I being able

to earn salvation by works, by being good enough. The context here, in Romans 9, what's happening, the context is telling us it is shutting down the idea that we earn salvation. There's nothing that we can do. And in order to highlight that, in order to kind of shut down that idea, it's highlighting God's total control in choosing. And it even puts a fine point on it in verse 13. And just in case you're wondering, verse 13 is one of those verses that people pick out and camp on. And it says, as it is written, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated. Those are the two twins that were in Rebecca's womb. And the fine point we're putting on here, right, the thing that Romans 9 is helping us understand is not that God is just some capricious jerk who chooses people and plays duck, duck, damn. It's not what happens. And I mean like damn, condemned to hell. That's what damn means.

Just in case you're wondering if the preacher cussed, that's what it means. And for God to just kind of walk around and go, okay no, chosen, chosen, chosen, not, not, hell, hell, heaven, heaven, heaven. That's a really simplistic and super, maybe just unsophisticated way to understand what's going on here. Because the point is to say God is not beholden to anyone for salvation. He is totally free to choose whomever. He's totally sovereign. In other words, there's nothing, there's nothing that happens in your life. There's nothing that happens in your life where God looks at it and goes, oh, I did not see that coming. I don't know what I'm going to do now. Never. It never happens. God's never surprised. And that's a big comfort when we're praying and that's a big comfort whenever we're in crisis and that's a big comfort, you know, a lot of other places. But it's not always a comfort to know that God's in control.

In fact, when we talk about God's sovereign choice, it makes us uncomfortable. It does. And it kind of should. And it may surprise you, but it's actually always made people feel uncomfortable. Because what you see in the rest of Romans 9 is kind of a reaction to this understanding. It helps us understand that in Romans 9 there's some big obstacles that are addressed to whenever you just say, hey, God's in complete control of salvation. When it says, as is written, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, we kind of get a little tight on that. We get a little uncomfortable. And it always has made people feel uncomfortable. And it's addressed in these very verses. So let's kind of ride the second half of the roller coaster here in Romans 9. Okay. I'm going to start out of order because it's more fun. So we're going to, it's two big obstacles. I'm going to take the second one first.

So we're going to start in verse 19. Okay. So we're going to go back to 14 and following, but right now we're just staying on 19. And we're going to see two big obstacles. Here's the first one. It says, you will say to me then, which is really funny. So the author of Romans is anticipating the question. Okay. You will say to me, surely you will say, when I talk about how God is in complete control of salvation, how God is not beholden to somebody's physical heritage, but that God chooses people, He's totally free to do it. You will say to me then, why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will? Let me say it a different way. If God is totally in control of everything, everybody, then how does He hold people responsible for the choices that they make if He's really making the choices? Okay. And here's our obstacle, putting it this way. Our obstacle is that we perceive everything as our choice.

And that's true, right? What did you eat for breakfast this morning? Or did you eat breakfast? That sure felt like my choice. What I'm wearing today, how I coordinate with David Tripple today, it was pointed out that we coordinate today. Okay. Listen, that's all accident. That's high fashion thinking alike, okay? That's all I'm saying. What I chose to wear today sure felt like my choice. My family are planning. That felt like my choice. My career feels like my choice. Everything feels like my choice. And everything, do you ever wake up and you're like, oh, I mean, I'm just being like, you know, like puppet string dragged through everything. No, you're making choices. Even the clothes you're wearing this morning, some of you, you should have rethought it. Most of you have been looking great, but some of you, um, God's control, God's total control over all that, okay?

Does not make all of these choices an illusion. In other words, those things aren't at odds. Your ability to choose and God's total control of everything are not at odds. It just means that for some way, somehow, in a way that I can't even explain or imagine, in his total control over everything, he allows for us to make choices for ourselves and those choices have consequences. Real choices, real consequences. And you might say to me like, how does that work? How has God in total control of everything? And yet still, I make real choices, real consequences. And the answer is I cannot tell you. I don't know. It is too wonderful for me.

Here's the answer that we have in Romans nine. Honestly, it doesn't feel like much of an answer. Verses 20 and 21. It says, so in response to, to why does he still find fault or who are we to, or how, who can resist his will? And the answer is, but who are you, oh man, to answer back to God, which again, doesn't feel like much of an answer. It says, um, well, what is molded say to the molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the Potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Look, when we ask the question, God, why did you do this? Why did you allow this? Why did this? And we want to know why. And we truly do, especially when we go through suffering, we want to know why.

We must acknowledge at some point our limitation in processing that answer. Like if God would be like, okay, I'll throw the whole curtain back. You can see everything. You'd be floored. Your mind would melt. You wouldn't be able to understand it. You wouldn't, you wouldn't get it. Bruce Almighty is a, um, is a funny old movie, uh, where Jim Carrey plays, uh, plays Bruce and he meets God and, uh, and he's arguing back and forth with God. He's like, I think I could do a better job. And, and God who's played by Morgan Freeman. It's really good casting. I'm just saying, uh, God, um, God pretty much sits back and goes, okay, Bruce, you think you got it? Have at it. Won't you start by answering all the prayers? And it's just a mountain of prayers that just gets loaded upon him instantly. And he's like, okay, I'm going to grant everybody's prayers and it's mass chaos.

Right. It's actually a really good movie. You should watch it. Um, I think I can recommend it wholeheartedly, but it's a really good. It's a really good view into, okay, you want to be God? Here's what it, here's what it entails. Here's the huge mess it would just put on your life. Here's, here's all the chaos you would bring about by trying to be God. Now, again, it's not much of an answer to that question, but it does help us understand that even if we got some kind of like erudite, some, some well, like poetic answer to, to that question, we still wouldn't really be able to wrap our mind about it. Like we'd frame it, we'd put it in a museum and we'd look at it and wonder and stuff, but we wouldn't get it.

And that's our first obstacle. Our first obstacle is that choice is how we see the world in our culture today. I mean, in burlesque in Texas, uh, oftentimes we are judged and we judge other people by their accomplishment, by what they do, how well they do it. Right. That that's choice. That's, that's how, how good are you at making choices? How good are you making good choices? That's the first obstacle. Choice is how we see the world. The second obstacle and it's, and it's somewhat related. Uh, we'll see it in verses, uh, 22 through 23. Okay.

It says, what if God, and this is kind of a continuation. This is a continuing thought thought of the previous couple of verses. It says, what if God, desiring to show his wrath to make known his power. Has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. Okay. So here's our obstacle in question form. And it's kind of a summary of, of verses 22 and 23. How could make, excuse me, how could God make people that were prepared for destruction?

Cause that's super uncomfortable to think about. How could God do that? It's not fun. Uh, and, and at this point, I really want to point out two things. First, we really need to read Romans nine through 11 together. Okay. That's really helpful. Second, camps, forming camps off of like one verse or another verse are a lot easier than dealing with these verses.

They just are, they just are, man. I mean, the temptation to just slap a label on it and say, if you believe like, according to this, then you're fine. Then you understand the Bible. Great. And you don't have to wrestle with verses 22 and 23. Oh man, that is, I mean, sign me up. That's easy. That is easy. This is hard. How could God be, make people prepared for destruction? And it goes into the second obstacle. And at this point, we're going to kind of jump back to verse 14 and 15. We're going to, so th th th this question kind of kind of picks up on the first, the second obstacle that we're going to talk about. It's the first one listed Romans nine, 14 to 15. It says, what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part by no means for he says to Moses, I have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Here's our second obstacle.

The first obstacle is it feels like choice feels like we're the one making choices. So how does this reckon with what's, what's, what's going on? How do we, but here's the second one. It doesn't feel fair. It doesn't feel like justice at all. It feels like injustice that God would choose to save some and not others that he would have mercy on some and not others. And it begs the question, why did God set it up this way? Which is a great question to ask.

And here's the answer. Well, let me, let me just, let me say it differently. Somebody who, somebody who's questioning this, you might, the question might occur to you, why didn't God just make everybody perfectly obedient? Why didn't God just head this off at the pass? Right? Like that, that makes total, we resonate with that. He could do that right. He's God. He could totally do that. But here's what we forget. First, first, the substance of being obedient is having a choice to obey.

Right? Let me just set a, let me just give you an example. My wife, okay. My wife, Kristi and I, we, we don't love celebrating Valentine's Day. We sometimes do it out of obligation. Just, just calling it real. Okay. She's fine with it. She's not even phased. Okay. If, so I can use this and just, you know, trounce all over it. Okay. If for Valentine's Day, like a week before she says, Drew, I've given you, like I've written down a script and a list of gifts I want you to buy me for Valentine's Day. Please do this. And I say, okay. And I do it because I'm a moderately okay husband who knows how not to walk into a bear trap. Okay. So I do those things, right? Like I'm, come on, like it's, it's given to me right there. Of course I'm going to do it. But here's my question. Uh, let's say Valentine's Day comes and I, I do everything I'm supposed to do. I say everything I'm supposed to say and I give her everything I'm supposed to give

her. How does she know that I mean it? She doesn't. She doesn't know. She has no way to tell. Cause she told me to do all those things and I did them. And so there'll be just a quick poll. Ladies, would it have meant more? Would it have meant more if, if she hadn't given me that list and I'd have thought of something on my own, even if it was just a very small, modest gift, would it have meant more? Yeah, of course. Come on. This is, this is woman one on one. Okay. You got, yeah, for sure. You got to know this. Okay. If you aren't married, by the way, you just, that, that was free. Okay. That was free. It always means more when you think of it yourself. Okay. All right. When we're talking about obedience to God, the substance, obedience, the substance of that is having a choice to obey or not. If God just made us all obey, it's not obedience. It's just us being robots, doing what we're being told to do.

Does that make sense? We need choices, the substance of our existence choices, how we know or how, how we could obey or not obey. All right. And then the other question would be, okay, well then why didn't he, why didn't, why didn't God just create a situation so good that we would always want to obey? Well, the answer to that is he did. It's called Eden. Right. Genesis one, one, and it was good. Right. So it already happened. So sometimes whenever we are getting so uptight about how God did this and how God, you know, we're just, oh, it's just the man keeping us down and you know, whatever it's, it's, you're talking with your mouth full. Right. Like you have been given all these choices. You've been given all of these things and you, you and I have rebelled. We were given the perfect situation and we rebelled in that and we do it all the time.

And so what I want to do, look, I've spent a lot of time on the uncomfortable nature of God's choice. Okay. I want to move quickly. I want to move from discomfort to deep comfort. Not just, not just cheap comfort, not just like a little pillow under your head, not like, Hey, don't think about this too much. Just go home and watch the football game. Everything will be fine. No, wrestle with this. Yes. But wrestle with this into deep comfort. Okay. We need to have deep comfort with God's sovereign choice. And I've already kind of listed something for you to think about it. And that, and that when we pray, when you and I pray, we are hoping that God is in total control of everything. We are banking on it. What, cause what do we pray? We pray like, Hey, God changed this person's mind.

You don't think it takes a sovereign God to change somebody's mind? Right. How powerful do you want God to be? You're praying like you want him to be all powerful. And that's good because he is. But sometimes on the back end, you're like, wow, I don't know if I want God to be all powerful. Okay. Um, let's, let's look at Romans, uh, nine 16. Okay. So this is kind of the resumption of the first ops or excuse me, the second obstacle. Um, but this is the resumption of kind of a lot of it. Says so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. And it's like I already said, if it, listen, if our future depended on human will, we would be in a cesspool. We would be sunk. We wouldn't have made it to now we'd be wiped out without a different way to say it without God's mercy. We have no hope. We are without hope. If Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead, then we are to be most pitied.

Right. If, if, if this is all fake, if religion is just for us to feel good, then look, let's just do stuff online and not meet together. Let's not sing songs together. Let's not, let's not meet as a church. If this is all for just for us to feel good, then I'll just send out an email and my job will get a lot easier. Okay. But we all know that that's not true. The truth is that we are people that have been touched by God's mercy and that when we come together and we worship a God who has had mercy upon us, there is something in us that resonates with that. When we come together and we sing, we sing that, you know, it is well with my soul. You know, we don't sing that because we're optimistic.

We sing that because God has made us right. So if it depends on human will, we'd be wiped out. We'd be wiped out. But it does depend on God who has mercy. Look, this is not just about God making choices. Like there's some, like it's vanilla versus chocolate. Okay. This isn't God making choices capriciously or just that means like just whatever he, you know, whatever he feels like at the time, that's what he's going to choose. That's what capricious means. Sorry. Um, my kids are like, dad, you use words sometimes and you need to, okay. Okay. Capricious. Now you learned. Okay. Um, but if God's going to be capricious, we can't trust him.

Right. If God's just kind of doing it, whatever, whatever he wants, that's not the God we worship. God is merciful. He's not just making choices. He is choosing mercy over justice. And here's where the deep comfort comes in. Here's what you need to know. If, if you have been saved by the Lord, then you can't unsave you. If you have been saved by the Lord, if the Lord God in heaven has had mercy upon you due to nothing on your part, like you didn't earn anything. You didn't do it. If you didn't save you, then you can't unsave you. That's deep. That runs deep. That hits whenever you are in the midst of doubt and frustration. And when you don't know what to do next, when you are wondering, you, you and I understand that we need to connect to the sovereign God of the universe who not only can guide us, who not only has wisdom, who not only has understanding, who not only plan the world from foundation to foundation.

Not, not only that, but we need to understand, we need to understand that we aren't in control. That is a deeply comforting thing. And it doesn't mean we sit back and we just let things happen. Okay. That's not, we're still called to. Act to make real choices, real consequences. Let's not lose that, but it is a place of deep comfort because we aren't the ones pulling the strings. We aren't the ones orchestrating things. We aren't the ones choosing who should be saved and who should not be saved.

And this is, this is why Romans nine, this is why the Roman church is getting this point is because if, if you're, if your power, if your ability got you into God's people status, not only do you have the power to get out, but you have to work to maintain it. You say, well, I'm a good person. Well, good luck trying. Cause it's a whole lifetime of being good. You can't just be good. Once you call yourself good, you got to be good forever on everything, every time.

That's not our hope. Our hope is that we've been made good, that we've been chosen. Our deep, deep, deep comfort comes from knowing that God had mercy on us, that He saved us and that He continues to make us look like Him. Now, if you are on the outside of that looking in this morning, if you're like, I don't know if I'm chill, I don't know if I'm saved, I don't know if I'm okay.

Here's, here's your deep comfort. You're here because you're looking for something. And the only reason you're looking for something is because God has stirred something in you. We call that your spiritual journey, right? You were trying to take a step on your spiritual journey. That's why we're here. Right? That's why our church exists because we have people that want to help you take a step on that spiritual journey. We want to help, you need to understand that your, that your comfort comes from the fact that God is calling out to you even now and that He's in control of it.

Without God's great mercy, where would we be? I want to end with four Old Testament examples. And some of these Old Testament examples are negative and some are positive, but they're all quoted in Romans nine. So I thought it'd be appropriate to look at them. There's four of them. And with the last one, we're going to kind of stay on it a little bit. Okay. So, so these are, these are just, these are just examples of God sovereignly choosing people or sometimes not sovereignly choosing people.

Sovereignly choosing to not choose. I don't know. I don't know how to say that. Okay. Romans nine, 17 through 18, it says, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, this Old Testament, 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.

The Lord God in heaven hardened Pharaoh for a purpose. Romans nine, 25 through 26, as indeed he says in Hosea, those who are not my people, I will call my people. And her who has not, who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And a very place where it was said to them, you are not my people there. They will be called sons of the living God. God is sovereignly choosing to make people his people. He doesn't care what they're called. He doesn't care what other people say about them or what the history is. He's like, I'm choosing them. What are you going to do? Argue with me?

27 through 28, Romans nine, it says, and Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And that's just another way to say that just because you have a physical heritage of church going or you have a physical heritage, your parents are Christians. That's cool. Your dad was a pastor. Awesome. That's fine. That has no bearing on your spiritual heritage. Zero, zero.

Last verse. And I want to kind of land here. Verse 29. And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. You may not know what cities Sodom and Gomorrah were, but they were cities that were completely leveled by the angel of death in the Old Testament. So not a fun, not a fun, you know, future for Sodom and Gomorrah. They didn't have children. In other words, there was no generation to come. They were all wiped out. And so it says, it says, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, if God and his sovereign choice had not said to his people, you get to have kids, then we, Israel, God's people, God's chosen people would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah. No kids, no generation. I want to sit with this last one and I want you to, I just want to do a little exercise, invite the band to come up.

We're going to do a little exercise. I want you to consider your greatest asset. I want you to consider right now what you value the most. And if you have a favorite kid, it's okay to supply their name at that point. It's fine. You know, I'm not, I'm not trying to be particular. It didn't have to be like number one of, of 10 or something. Um, but what I want you to do is I want you to consider, I want you to consider that just something really valuable to you. Okay.

And I want you, and look, some, for some of you, that's like career for some of you, that's children for some of you, that's just like a future. Like you get to keep going. You get to, you know, like you just, you value the fact that you have possibilities in front of you. That's great. That's a, that's a fine thing. I'm not trying to judge what you value here. I just want you to, I want you to get it right there. Okay. I want you to think about it. And I want you to supply that into the verse that we just read. It says, if the Lord had not, right. Let's put that verse back up there. If the Lord had not, if the Lord had not, the Lord of hosts had not, maybe not left us offspring, but if the Lord has host had not, had not given you children in the first place, if the Lord of hosts had not given you arms and legs that worked, if the Lord of hosts had not given you parents who

love Jesus, if the Lord of hosts had not set you up for a bright future, if he had not saved you from that horrible decision that you made and you didn't have to suffer any of the consequences, but the Lord saved you from that, if the Lord had not done that, where would you be? That is a wonderful thing to think about. It will cause you to be thankful. It may be a way that you hadn't been thankful in a long time. If the Lord God in his sovereignty, in his choice, in his total control of all of the universe had not done that thing, had not given you that thing, where would you look at God's sovereignty as some kind of philosophical obstacle to get around? Although it is, it is tough to process. That's fine. You want to talk about it, great. I loved it. Let's understand that it is also one of our deepest sources of comfort that God is in control of. Jesus, thank you so much for your sovereignty.

Thank you for the way that you love us, the way that you choose to work in us. Not because we're cute or because we're somehow really model citizens. We have some great pedigree or heritage or anything like that. You just love us. That is crushing and amazing all at the same time. Help us to be crushed and amazed all at the same time. It's in your name that we pray.