Latest / HBCWestminster / 7.16.23 Romans 9:14-29 Pastor Danny Gardner

Transcript

7.16.23 Romans 9:14-29 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  I've titled this morning's message, Objections to Sovereignty. Objections to Sovereignty. If you were here with us last Sunday, you'll remember that we concluded last week by saying, hey, if this causes you some heartburn, that's okay. If you've got some questions about sovereignty and election and God's selection of some for salvation and his rejection of others, that's okay. We will answer some of those questions next Sunday, which is today. And to God be the glory. He not only anticipates our questions, but then answers those.
• 0:29
  before we can even ask them. And so once you've found Romans 9, verse 14, if you would stand in honor of God's word as I read, and then when we're done, I promise you can sit down for more than 30 minutes, all right? I'll give you a nice long break after that. Romans 9, verse 14 says, 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.
• 0:57
  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 will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will? But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?
• 1:25
  Well, what is molded? Say to its 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? 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 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called?
• 1:52
  not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved. In the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. 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.
• 2:20
  and without delay and as isaiah predicted if the lord of hosts had not left us offspring we would have been like sodom become like gomorrah and pray with me if you would father what we know not teach us and what we have not give us and what we are not lord would you make us in the name of christ we pray amen amen thank you church well we said last sunday that the doctrines of election
• 2:52
  are like hot dogs they're just the worst no but if we must be frank they're pretty important divine election got us out of quite a pickle and so we should relish passages such as these if you're rolling your eyes at me don't worry i'm done if you have no idea what i'm talking about that's okay some view a big pile of hot dogs as a pile of freedom others may look at the same hot dogs see nothing but heartburn
• 3:24
  And although we know that God's dominion is total, He wills as He chooses and carries out all that He wills, and none can stay His hand or thwart His plans, we may nevertheless view God's sovereignty the same way we look at that 4th of July flat top. Just the thought of consuming those 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes makes us reach for the Tums.
• 3:50
  And despite the heartburn they may cause, the doctrines of election, the sovereignty of God, his choosing of some for salvation, his predestining of some for eternal life, and so on, if properly understood, can provide the believer with great hope. Because without God's election of some for eternal life, the reality is, friends, none of us could be saved. We said last Sunday that our salvation was not based on others' faithfulness, meaning it doesn't matter who your family is.
• 4:20
  We said also that it is not based on our own faithfulness, meaning it does not matter how badly you've blown it. Your salvation is based on a divine declaration of sovereign grace over you, sparking your own faith, confession, and repentance. In our passage this morning, the apostle does something important. He answers our questions. And let me ask, before we dive in, how important is it to get our questions answered?
• 4:50
  I would say that answers to questions in the Christian life are vitally important. There was a man who lived better than 150 years ago named Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. There he is. Most notably, he was a Supreme Court justice in the early part of the 20th century. He was raised a Christian. He went as a youth to fight in the Civil War, holding tightly to his Christian beliefs. But the Civil War changed him. The atrocities he saw during the war caused him to question.
• 5:20
  The blood, the chaos, the wounded and dead lying everywhere he looked. He lost friends. He was wounded himself three times. The third time he was shot in the foot. He hoped desperately that it would have to be amputated so that they would be forced to discharge him so much had he come to hate the war. His unanswered questions about war and suffering began to erode his faith. One evening while lying in a field hospital,
• 5:49
  Holmes began to ponder what would happen to him should he die that same night. Would his former Christian beliefs save him? He determined they would not. He was assuredly, he wrote in his journal, en route to hell. Rather than repenting and asking the Lord for forgiveness, he chose instead to adopt a simple credo. He said, whatever happens is best, and God help me if I'm wrong. He went off.
• 6:16
  to war a moral absolutist he believed in right and wrong with a god judging over all he returned from war a moral skeptic one historian words it this way they said the war did not make the did more than make him lose those beliefs it made him lose his belief in beliefs
• 6:37
  Another historian said Holmes emerged from his wartime experience with the firm conviction that firm convictions lead only to conflict and violence. In other words, this author has said, Holmes was convinced that any convictions are bad. All convictions lead to violence. His faith was shipwrecked, and all because of unanswered questions. I've noticed.
• 7:07
  a dangerous trend among skeptics in the church. And my use of the term skeptic here is not meant to be critical. I use it according to its strictest definition. A skeptic is merely a person who questions. Unanswered questions cause one to become disillusioned. They can cause one to become desensitized to spiritual things. Eventually, the possibility I think even exists that those unanswered questions will cause doubt.
• 7:35
  could even cause us to shipwreck our faith. I would say that it's natural to question. I would even argue that it's good to question. God, I think, even welcomes our questions. We serve a God who is not scared of your questions. He confronts our objections head on. In fact, I think He sits in heaven and says, hit me with your best shot. What have you got?
• 8:03
  What have you figured out that I don't understand? Come to me for answers. We must not let those questions fester in our souls. The Scripture provides the answers to every one of life's questions. As we've mentioned previously, the Apostle Paul was a seasoned teacher. He knew that last Sunday's difficult teaching would raise questions and objections this week. And what's interesting about our text is that the questions and objections that the Roman Jews asked...
• 8:32
  are the exact same questions and objections that we raise today. The author, in a very short stroke, anticipates his hearer's objections. He denies their validity, and then he defends his reasoning. And notice objection number one, verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means.
• 8:59
  Is God somehow unjust in the selection of some for salvation and the rejection of others? Is God somehow unjust in his divvying up of his favor, love, and kindness? It's like Paul is saying, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that God is somehow unfair because he chose one and rejected another. And so let me ask you, church.
• 9:27
  Is his divine sovereignty election to some for salvation and others to rejection? Is it unfair? Yes. Is it unjust? No. But is it unfair? Yes. But maybe not the way you're thinking of. It's actually unfair that God saves any of us at all. Consider for a moment God's mercy. We've just sung about it. Our sins, they are many.
• 10:07
  His mercy is more. We rejoice in the mercy of God. Amen? We declare it as one of the foundational truths of the Christian faith. If God were not merciful, we would all be doomed. Amen? But is mercy fair? Think about what mercy is. Is mercy fair? It's not fair, is it? What about compassion? We rejoice in the compassion of God. What about the loving kindness of God?
• 10:40
  What about his forgiveness with no strings attached? Is any of that fair? The reality is all of these virtues, which we as a church actually cherish, are horribly unfair. I can remember my Sunday school teacher setting me straight when I, in a moment of seeming discrimination against me, when another young girl in the class got a prize that I did not get, declared loudly, that's not...
• 11:10
  Fair. And my Sunday school teacher looking at me and saying, Danny, you don't want fair because fair's down there. Anybody else's teacher ever say that to them? They're like, man, you want to put the fear of hell into a kid. There it is. Danny, you don't want fair because fair is down there. The grace of God at its core is actually very unfair, but praise the Lord for it.
• 11:36
  The election of God manifested in his mercy toward sinners is unfair, but we're not the ones who should be complaining. If anybody, if there is one person who should complain about the unfairness of his mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, it's who? Jesus. If there was one person it was unfair toward, it is him. Notice Isaiah 53 with...
• 12:01
  Some words highlighted here to give them emphasis. Isaiah 53, surely he, Jesus, has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Who do those sorrows and griefs belong to? Us, and yet he carried them. That is not fair. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
• 12:21
  He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. With his wounds, we are healed. We, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. That is not fair. And yet it is the gospel that we preach.
• 12:48
  God bestowing upon us goodness and grace and mercy that we do not deserve. You're right, church, it is not fair. Jesus could have looked up to heaven and said, but that's not fair. Praise God, he prayed instead, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. Rather than decrying the injustice of God's sovereign choice, we should instead be rejoicing in his loving mercy. Why would he choose me? I don't know.
• 13:19
  I can honestly say, I don't know why. Why in this mass of humanity did he reach out down and choose Danny Gardner? I don't know because there was nothing in me that deserved it. But praise God that he did. We said last week that God chose Jacob and rejected Esau with no regard for their works or merits. You remember from last Sunday, he chose them before they were even born.
• 13:45
  Their works and merits were hugely lacking, by the way. They wouldn't have won his favor anyway. But it was God's sovereign will to love Jacob and by comparison to hate Esau. Remember verse 13? As it is written, God declares, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. And the apostle defends why it is perfectly within God's right to do so by stating that God is just. Again, is it not fair? Yes. But is it not just?
• 14:16
  No, God is just because he is the standard of justice. In verses 15 to 18, the author gives two parallel arguments from scripture, each of them followed by a so then statement. Notice verse 15 is going to be the argument. Verse 16, it says, so then. It could also be translated, therefore. Verse 17 is an argument. Verse 18, so then.
• 14:44
  notice the very first one verse 15 for he says to moses i will have mercy on whom i have mercy i will have compassion on whom i have compassion the very act of determining right and wrong is founded upon the assumption that there is a right and wrong in the first place right
• 15:05
  in order for us to look to the heavens and say that is unjust we must be assuming that there is a just and an unjust in order for us to say one is right and one is wrong there's got to not only be right and wrong there's got to be some standard by which we make that judgment how do we know which is which if you're saying that something is wrong you must be assuming that something else would be
• 15:29
  Right. And if right and wrong exist, they must be based on some rule by which they are both measured. The Bible believing Christians would say that right and wrong absolutely exist. Amen? Yes. And that the standard we use to determine between the two is what? God himself as revealed in his word.
• 15:52
  Not only is there right and wrong, just and unjust, but the standard by which we delineate between the two, determine which is which, is God himself. Now we believe this because it is so clearly taught in scripture. The scriptures say God never lies. He never makes a mistake. He never falls asleep on the job. He only ever speaks and acts in righteousness. So much so, now here is the key, pay attention to this, that we can define right and wrong themselves based on what God would or would not.
• 16:22
  do everything he does is righteous and just everything he refuses to do is therefore unrighteous and unjust i find it interesting that at times the very people in our society who deny morality altogether deny the existence of right and wrong all together they do not believe that there is a right and a wrong are sometimes the one who scream the loudest for justice
• 16:53
  There's an irony in there because if you deny morality, which is really just a denial of right and wrong, then who's to say what justice even is? If there is no right and wrong, then there's no such thing as justice. And this is what the author refers to in verse 16 when he says this, So then, therefore, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. In other words, the Lord is free to bestow upon any He chooses His compassion,
• 17:24
  and his mercy in the case of moses and the israelites he did not make his choice based on power and riches right he's speaking of moses here and the lord says to moses in verse 15 i'm going to have mercy on whom i have mercy and compassion upon whom i have compassion
• 17:44
  And Moses, in the context of that statement, was asking him, why did you choose us, the Israelites? Why the Jews? Their assumption was because it was something good, inherently good in them. We must be better than other nations, which is why God looked down and said, which of all of these nations will I choose? Oh, I certainly will choose the Jews because they're better than everyone else. And God says, no, that wasn't it. I didn't choose you because you were good.
• 18:09
  I didn't choose you because you were rich. I didn't choose you because you were powerful. Now, honestly, church, if he were choosing based on riches and power, what nation would he have chosen? He'd have chosen Egypt. They were the rich and powerful ones. But then he says, I chose you because you were the least.
• 18:27
  You were actually the worst of all of the nations. You were the smallest and the least powerful. That's why I chose you so that when mighty works were done in you, they'd know, they'd look at you and say, ah, that didn't come from them. There's no way they could pull that off. It had to be somebody else. I chose you because you were the least, the poorest, the weakest, the enslaved, the oppressed.
• 18:56
  You fast forward 3,000 years to today, and the same principle applies. God's grounds for selection and admission into his kingdom is not found in us. It is not because we were the most powerful, the strongest, the largest, the wealthiest, the smartest. It wasn't any of those. We weren't the best. He says, in fact, it was God's choice alone. It's not the will or efforts of man that determine our salvation, but the sovereign will of God.
• 19:24
  Paul reinforces the truth with his second statement. Look at verse 17. 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. We understand that all men sin. None are better or worse off spiritually speaking than any other, which means that Pharaoh was no greater a sinner than many other wicked men throughout history who have obtained God's favor. And so the natural question becomes,
• 19:53
  Why did these other wicked men obtain God's favor and not Pharaoh? The answer is found at the end of verse 17. It says, that I might show my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. The primary purpose of God in creation, contrary to popular belief, was not the salvation of man.
• 20:21
  That's not why he created the universe, so that we would be saved. Rather, his primary purpose was the praise and glory of his name. Through creation, God revealed his nature and character, both of which are more clearly perceived through the salvation of some and the condemnation of others. Let me say that again. It's an important one. Through creation.
• 20:52
  God revealed his nature and character, both of which are more clearly perceived through the salvation of some and the condemnation of others. The primary purpose of his creation was to reveal every aspect of himself. And he determined that he could reveal more of himself and therefore receive more glory by saving some and rejecting others.
• 21:19
  You say, well, why not just save them all? Think about this for just a moment. Let's talk about universal condemnation. What if none of us throughout human history had ever been saved? What if Jesus never came? What if the Lord just left us to our own devices, we rebelled against him, and he just said, well, I hope it works out. If we were universally condemned, then what things about God would we know nothing of? His mercy. We just talked about that one.
• 21:50
  When would he ever put mercy on display? And to whom? We would know nothing of mercy, forgiveness, compassion, loving kindness, patience, long-suffering. These things which we hold so tightly to in the Christian faith. We wouldn't know any of those things about the Lord, right? Because the only thing we would experience is his wrath. Let's go to the other side. What if he just universally saved us all, which is typically what people...
• 22:16
  In kind of an emotional response, just want. Just save everybody, Lord. Just save everybody. Let's say that he had just saved everybody. What things about God would we not know? His justice, his holiness, his wrath, his punishment, his love and pursuit of what is right, any morality, right? If there were no line drawn,
• 22:45
  And just everybody was saved and it made no difference. There would be aspects of God that we would know nothing about. Does that make sense? And so what he's done is determined the best way, the most revelation I can get is to save some and condemn others. And again, Paul reiterates the same in verse 18 with this repetition. So then, therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills, he hardens whomever he wills. Perhaps you recall the Exodus story.
• 23:15
  the hardening of pharaoh's heart and whether it was the lord who hardened pharaoh's heart or pharaoh himself who hardened his own heart makes no difference the point here is that the initiative was god's the work was god's god is the one who determines who is to be saved and who is to be kept in spiritual darkness and if our salvation were based on anything else if there were any other standard
• 23:44
  other than God's election, if it was based on our own works, if it was based on our heritage, if it was based on our power, our riches, our strength, our goodness, if our salvation were based on anything other than his choice, then church, if we were honest, none of us could be saved. None of us could. Because in reality, none of us is good enough. Objection number two. Notice verse 19. He asks this question, can God really hold us accountable for our sinful actions if he's in control over all things? Isn't that an interesting question to ask?
• 24:16
  You just said God's dominion is total. So can he hold us accountable for our wrongdoings if he's in charge of it all? Look at verse 19. You'll say to me then, why does he still find fault? Who can resist his will? If he's really in control over all things, then he's also in control over my sin. How can he hold me accountable for my sin if his dominion is total?
• 24:42
  If it be true that the destiny of every man is in the hands of God, if it is, as verse 16 has just stated, not up to human will or exertion, but upon God who has mercy, then what can we do? Shouldn't we just throw up our hands and say, c'est la vie, such is life.
• 25:02
  If one believes and is saved and another remains hard-hearted in their sin and neither of them have control over it, then don't we have a legitimate complaint against God? Isn't it unjust for him to hold us accountable? And rather than acquiescing, the author instead doubles down in verse 20. Look what he says. Who are you? Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?
• 25:30
  Well, what does molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? In the next several verses, the apostle again gives two defenses for the justice of God. The first, he just says in verse 20, such questioning is ignorant. You don't actually know what you're talking about, is what the apostle says. Now, we believe that we understand a lot of things about life and the world and how it works. But in reality, how much do we actually understand? I mean, the answer is not.
• 26:02
  much like job who was finally put in his place after questioning god we stand before the mighty whirlwind and are asked who are you and where were you and tell me since you know where the lightning strikes and where the wind goes the reality is that our knowledge evaporates pretty quickly compared to the divine mind he understands some things that we do not and so notice verse 21 he says has the potter no right over the clay
• 26:32
  To make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use. I did something I've never done before. This week I researched porcelain dolls. As you guys know, porcelain dolls were invented almost 200 years ago. 1840s, German and French doll makers began using a new product discovered in China, which was easier to fashion into a convincing looking face.
• 27:03
  Dolls had previously been made from cloth or wood. They never quite looked right. The dolls became popular not only as toys but also as collectibles. People today still collect them. The largest doll collections today house tens of thousands of these dolls. The price of some of those dolls is astronomical in my opinion. Maybe others value them more. To date, the most expensive porcelain doll I could find that's ever been sold, 2014, one was sold for $300,000.
• 27:33
  Just a few decades after their discovery, 1873, a man named John Michael Kohler founded his company amidst a financial panic. He was an engineer. He had a mind for manufacturing. His firm originally produced cast iron implements for farmers, castings for furniture factories, ornamental iron pieces, but the company eventually began manufacturing bath and kitchen products. The Kohler Company...
• 28:03
  would become the largest producer of toilets in the country. He took that same stuff, porcelain, and rather than fashioning dolls, he began fashioning toilets. Today, the Kohler Company employs 40,000 Americans. They have an annual revenue of $8 billion per year, $8 billion in toilets every year. You say, well, what's the difference between a toilet and a doll?
• 28:35
  I mean, porcelain is porcelain, right? No, the difference is its use. One is used for noble purposes, the doll. One for ignoble, in case you were wondering which is which. One for ignoble purposes, the commode.
• 29:00
  Right? I had a man after first service come and say, you know, when my daughter was young, I bought her a porcelain doll. And I said, that's funny. When my sons were young, I bought them a porcelain toilet. The only difference is its use. And let me ask you, church, you see where I'm going? Who determines its use? The manufacturer. The manufacturer of the dolls and the toilets determines its use. And the Lord, as our manufacturer, reserves the right to determine our use.
• 29:33
  He, in his sovereign will, has chosen some for noble use, some for ignoble use. On that note, it would probably not be an effective evangelism tool to go home and to tell your unsaved neighbors that your pastor called them a bunch of toilets. All right, so make a note somewhere in your sermon notes that illustration was for you. Notice second. So that line of arguing, he says, is ignorant, but notice second.
• 30:02
  Such resistance against the election of God denies God's ability to bring glory to himself and actually good to his creation by destining some for destruction. The assumption we tend to make is if anybody is destroyed, God does not get glory and it is not good for creation. But that's not the case. Look what verse 22 says. What if God, desiring to show his wrath...
• 30:27
  And here's the key, to make known his power. Remember, it is about revelation. 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. There's nothing in this doctrine which is inconsistent with the divine perfections since God is not the one making wicked men wicked.
• 30:58
  Who makes wicked men wicked? Wicked men make wicked men wicked. And from that ocean of spiritually dead and wicked humanity, God has in His grace reached in and pardoned some. There's no injustice in His condemnation because it was mankind's choice to sin in the first place. To those that are condemned, God simply grants their wish.
• 31:30
  It's not arbitrary in any way, but based on unregenerate mankind's choice. There's also no injustice in his pardon, since God bases his decision not on anything but his sovereign election. If his choice, if our salvation were based on human merit, our own works, or our heritage, who our parents and grandparents were, that would be biased.
• 31:52
  But as was discussed last week, all are equally undeserving. God's salvation of his people was not based on others' faithfulness. It was not based on our individual faithfulness. If it were, none of us would be saved. It was simply based on his kindness and compassion. We have to be careful about reading passages such as this, assuming a sense of spiritual neutrality. I think our tendency is to view mankind as not great, but basically good.
• 32:24
  Because of this, we feel a sense of violation when God rescues some and leaves others, but that's not the case. Romans 5 stated categorically that Adam's sin impacted and destroyed spiritually every single one of Adam's offspring, namely you and I. The truth is, church, we are not born neutral. We are far from basically good. We were born debauched, ruined, and rebel sinners, spiritually dead, unable to do anything good.
• 32:56
  And so God's hardening, therefore, did not change anything for dead humanity spiritually. He simply left those to suffer the consequences of sin, which they themselves chose. When God chooses to save some by breathing spiritual life into them, He's granting them a blessing which none of them actually deserved.
• 33:18
  And on the flip side, when he destines the rest to wrath, he is sentencing them to the fate that they chose for themselves. Now, I know that statements such as these will often invoke an inflammatory response. The fact that God would sentence some to an eternal fate of destruction seems incompatible with their theology, but I would challenge them, and I would challenge you, if this is your reaction, to consider whether your negative reaction is actually biblically informed. In every case I've encountered,
• 33:50
  where people struggle with the idea of election, some to glory and others to condemnation, its origin, that struggle's origin, is emotional rather than biblical. People struggle against it because, in their words, they just can't imagine a God who would do such a thing. But then when pressed to give a biblical reference as the basis for their theology, they get stumped. And so allow me here to encourage us to stand on the authority of God's Word.
• 34:21
  allow the word of God to speak for itself and make everything else secondary. Douglas Moo has worded it this way. He said, if our belief in the authority of the Bible means anything, it means that we must submit to what the Bible teaches and bring our own perceptions and ideas into line with Scripture. Everything else is secondary. Even the doctrines at times that are difficult to understand and are hard even to swallow.
• 34:49
  He says, we let the word of God speak for itself, knowing that God understands things that we do not. Our passage this morning concludes with a simple scriptural proof of the apostle's point. Now remember, his audience is that Jewish section within the larger Roman congregation. He's making an appeal to them to have faith, to keep the faith.
• 35:11
  despite their perceived notion that God had somehow gone back on his promises to them by allowing Gentiles into the kingdom. But Paul reminds them that salvation has always been based on grace and not race. Consider these final verses like a poem arranged in like an A-B-B-A format. The next six verses almost rhyme in their arrangement. And I'm just going to explain them very simply by point and we'll...
• 35:41
  read through them. The first point he's making is this. God does call some Jews. Look at verse 24. Even us, whom he has called. He's speaking there to that faithful remnant of Jewish people who really do comprise a portion of the people of God. But notice the second statement. God also calls some Gentiles. Even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from who?
• 36:12
  The Gentiles comprise the people of God. And then he says, the Old Testament prophet Hosea confirms God's call of the Gentiles. In other words, the Old Testament has always said that was going to be the case. That some Gentiles would indeed be saved. He says, if you were paying attention when the prophets were read, you'd know this was so. Listen to Hosea, verse 25.
• 36:41
  As indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people, who's that making reference to? The Gentiles. I will call on my people.
• 36:52
  And her, that's the nation of the Gentiles, that would be saved, not all of them, but the saved ones, who is not beloved, I will call beloved. In the very place where it was said to them, you're not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Some Gentiles were always going to be saved. Notice finally, the Old Testament has also always said that some Jews would be saved and not necessarily all of them. The Isaiah.
• 37:21
  passage in verse 27 says 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 the lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay and as isaiah predicted if the lord of hosts had not left us offspring we would have become like sodom and gomorrah i would say that objections to election are a natural human response i know that some doctrines are difficult to swallow and cause
• 37:50
  some heartburn but we must be careful church to pursue answers to our questions and not allow those to fester in our souls i would say avoid at all cost the attitude of whatever happens is best and god help me if i'm wrong let us rejoice this morning in the saving and sovereign unfair but not unjust election of god and lord thank you for this text
• 38:22
  Thank you for its truth. God, thank you for the Holy Spirit's help in understanding it. God, we rejoice this morning in our salvation. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.