Title: No Legitimate Objections to Grace
Text: Romans 9:1-33
Date: May 29, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
God is sovereign. God is sovereign in electing whom he would unto salvation in Christ and passing by whom he would; God is sovereign over all things in providence—good and evil; God is sovereign in the redemption of his people—God in Christ successfully honored his own law, justified all for whom he died, reconciled his elect unto himself—exactly as he purposed and promised with himself before making the world; God is sovereign in regenerating all his elect—the Spirit of God makes each one alive, recreates each one after his image, calls each of his children invincibly to Christ, and makes each one willing to do nothing else but believe on God, as he is revealed in Christ Jesus.
When unconverted men/women hear this truth, they have three common objections. All of man’s objections are a defense of man, exalting man over God.)
Objection #1: When a man hears that God is sovereign to call each and every one of his people to saving faith in Christ, he commonly uses unbelievers as an objection to say God is not sovereign to accomplish his promise in power.
Romans 9: 6: Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect.
Romans 3: 3: For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4: God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
The faithfulness of God in fulfilling his promises of calling out his people has and shall never fail.
Numbers 23:19: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Isaiah 55:11: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Romans 11:1: I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.
How then do we account for the fact that the majority in the nation of Israel died in unbelief and are now in hell? Because the majority in Israel were not God’s true Israel.
Romans 9: 6:…For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children:
Salvation was never promised to all Abraham’s physical children, only to his spiritual seed. God’s true children were elected--called in Christ in electing grace--before the world began and are called in grace into Christ in time.
Romans 9: 7:..but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Isaac is a type of Christ—the Son of promise, of a miraculous birth—to Christ were the promises made in eternity---Everlasting covenant; son of the freewoman, Ishmael was of the flesh, in bondage, and had to go (Gal 4: 14). All his elect are called in Christ in time. We have a picture of this when God called Jacob in Christ.
Romans 9: 10: And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11: (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Therefore, salvation is all of God’s word of promise in Christ, by his electing grace.
Romans 9: 9: For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
Galatians 3:18: For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
God’s elect from among Jew and Gentile is his Israel. All God’s elect are circumcised in the heart by the Spirit of God, given faith in Christ, and repentance from vain works—these are true Israel, true Jews
Answer to objection #1: What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. Here is the reason: “That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Romans 9: 8).
II. WHEN UNBELIEVERS HEAR THAT GOD ELECTED HIS PEOPLE IN CHRIST, THEY OBJECT THAT GOD IS UNRIGHTEOUS? THEY SAY, THAT IS NOT FAIR!
Romans 9: 14: What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
God has the right to have mercy on whom he will AND no man has the right to question him.
Romans 9: 15: For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Were it not for God’s electing grace none would be saved for all are under sin—all are born with a sin-hardened heart.
Romans 9: 16: So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy…
The illustration given is Pharaoh
Romans 9: 17: For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
God told Moses before he went into Egypt, “I have hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” In declaring this, God declared beforehand, I am leaving Pharaoh alone in darkness. All it takes for God to harden your heart is for God to leave you to your own wisdom and ways. You will be hardened more and more. God left Pharaoh to his own will to declare that apart from the POWER OF GOD, this is exactly what all men will do. Here is what Pharaoh did and here is what every sinner will do left to themselves.
Exodus 9: 34: And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35: And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.
And God did this to make his power known to his vessels of mercy.
Exodus: 10: 1: And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him: 2: And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord.
· Romans 9: 22-24
Answer to objection #2: God’s electing mercy is salvation for perishing sinners. Without God’s mercy we would all be left with a hard heart as was Pharaoh. Romans 9: 14 : What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid….18: Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
III. HAVING HEARD THAT GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL MEN AND ALL THINGS, MEN WILL OBJECT, “THEN HOW CAN GOD FIND FAULT WITH ME FOR ANYTHING—FOR NOT BELIEVING?”
Romans 9:19: Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?"
Who are you? It is evident from such an objection that you do not know what you are.
Romans 9: 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
You and I are nothing but sin, dare we question God? This is God’s goodness, dare we call him evil? God’s righteousness—dare we call him unjust? God’s wisdom—dare we call him ignorant? If God leave us alone, we will remain just that ignorant and arrogant—to reply against God.
God is the Potter we are but dirt—God can do with his own whatever pleases him.
Romans 9: 21: Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Isaiah 64:8 : But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."
Jeremiah 18:1: The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, (2) Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. (3) Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. (4) And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. (5) Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, (6) O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."
When you behold the nation of Israel marred—behold all men in Adam. When you behold God saving Gentiles who did not have the word, who were not seeking God, behold all men saved by grace.
Here is the issue—the heart of men’s objections.
Our hearts are hard as a stone by nature—enmity against God. God saves. God saves whom he will. God saves by his grace working in the heart of his people through the Spirit. God will have all eyes behold his glory in his Son. MEN WHO OBJECT—WANT THE GLORY THAT BELONGS TO CHRIST JESUS, HIS SON. He is seeking righteousness by the will of the flesh. But God shall save his elect and each shall bow with NO OJECTIONS TO GRACE—for there are no legitimate objections.
Romans 9:30: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. (31) But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. (32) Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; (33) As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."
AMEN.