Expound: Romans 9-10:4 - Part C

Think of God's every flaw that you had. He goes, I'm done with you. Forget you.

Get out of here. I'm never, just, you're not going to heaven. Like Santa Claus having a list, checking it twice. Aren't you glad that he is patient enough to be merciful and gracious and though you are marred, he reshapes and reworks for his glory. Every day we sin. The truth is we can't avoid sin.

It's in our fallen nature, but God's love for us still overflows. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares a vital lesson about God's gracious and patient love for you. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that helps you dive even deeper into God's truths. Trials, Temptation, and the Tongue. Those are the mega themes of three booklets from Lenya Heitzig that we're making available this month at connectwithskip.com.

Here's Lenya with more on this bundle. In Don't Tempt Me, I hand you the keys to unlock the thoughts, circumstances, and fears that can cause you to give in to temptation. And in Speak No Evil, I encourage you to avoid setting fires with your words and instead use them to bring showers of blessing. Lenya Heitzig's booklets, Don't Tempt Me, Speak No Evil, and Happy Trials provides help, hope, and encouragement in dealing with life's challenges. This bundle of three booklets are yours for a gift of $20 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air. Get yours when you give today by calling 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer.

That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now, we're in Romans chapter 9 as we join Skip Heitzig for today's message. The next illustration Paul uses is Moses and Pharaoh. Two men, both sinners, both murderers, both had seen the marvels of God in their midst.

One is saved, one is not. God chose Moses to lead his people. God chose his people to inherit a new land.

Now, something I want you to notice. In verse 15, he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. He's quoting from Exodus 33. You need to understand the context of Exodus 33. As soon as the children of Israel were dancing around that golden calf, which I just mentioned to you, and God said, move aside.

I'm going to wipe him out, destroy him, and start a whole new nation. Moses intervened and said no. After that, after Moses' prayer, God said, I will have mercy on whoever I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whoever I will have compassion.

In other words, I'm going to have compassion on these people. And if you know the story, a plague swept through. God stopped the plague. Instead of wiping all of them out, all of them out, 3,000 died, but not all of them died.

All of them deserved death because all of them were engaged in idol worship. But God was merciful to his people during that incident. So I think Paul is bringing it up because somebody said, it's not fair that God should should choose people to be saved and have compassion on one and not another. So he says, okay, so if God, if you are having trouble and balking at the fact that God is merciful and compassionate, then you have to realize that God was merciful and compassionate to you. He should have destroyed all y'all, and he didn't. He had mercy on you. He was compassionate on you. Now what do you say? Well, I'm glad he did.

Yeah, exactly. So that is the incident that he uses as an example. Verse 17, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, even for this purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you that my name might be declared on all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. If you are familiar with the book of Exodus, I'm just guessing that you are. We are told in that book that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Do you remember reading that?

You read that and you go, that's horrible. So it's God's fault. No, because if you would have read from the beginning it says Pharaoh hardened his own heart first. There's about 20 instances in the book of Exodus where it says that Pharaoh's heart was hardened. About half the time Pharaoh hardens his own heart, the other half God hardens it.

Two different words are used. One is a voluntary, I want nothing to do with God. I want nothing to do with his revelation.

I'm going to do what I want to do. That's personal hardness. That's choice. And then it says God hardened it. It's a different word. It means he affirmed it or he firmed up his heart. He firmed it. He made it firmer.

So here's the principle. Whatever choice you make, God will firm that choice up. If it's a choice for him, he will firm your heart. He'll harden your heart in your desire to be owned by him, controlled by him, submitted to him. He'll firm that up. If you harden against him, he'll harden your heart against him. He will, it's bad analogy.

It's like poker. I see you're five, I raise you ten. I see your hardness, I raise you a little bit harder. I'm going to harden my heart, okay. I'm going to make it firm.

I'm going to soften my heart and open it up to you, okay. I'm going to firm that decision. So one is personal, your choice, the other is sovereign. God's choice.

Both are true. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault?

For who has resisted his will? So if God is hardening my heart, then how can God charge me for having a hard heart? Even though we just explained how we can do that because Pharaoh hardened his heart first. But indeed, oh man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this?

Does not the potter of power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show his wrath to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Yeah, it says God firmed up or made hard the heart of Pharaoh, but think how long God was patient with that bonehead. Who is the Lord that I should obey him? He said he was just so flagrantly in God's face as a rebel for a long time. God put up with them a long, long time that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

Now back to this whole election thing. If people hear about that and they're not following Christ, they might, like the dissenter Paul uses in an imaginary way, say something like, well, maybe God didn't choose me. What if God didn't choose me for salvation?

How can he blame me then? How could he send me to hell since he didn't choose me? Well, that's an interesting objection because the Bible says, whosoever will, let him come. Whoever wishes, let him drink of the water of life freely. There's a lot of whoever's or whosoever's in the Bible. There's lots of appeal for you to make a choice, to change your future trajectory. So I would tell somebody who says, maybe God didn't choose me.

I say, well, maybe he didn't. But do you want to be saved? Do you want your sins forgiven? Do you want to spend heaven forever or eternity with God forever in heaven?

I don't know. Do you want to commit your life to Christ? Do you want to right now, let's pray right now, you can repent right now and everything can change for you. Your name can be written in God's book of life. You can be a forgiven sinner.

You can walk out of here with joy. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't want that. Okay, your choice. Maybe God didn't choose you. Well, that's not fair. Well, then if it's not fair, I can prove that God chose you. Turn your life over to Christ. Choose him and you will discover, like the disciples who chose to follow Jesus, you didn't choose him, he chose you.

No, I don't want that. Maybe you're right. Maybe God didn't choose you.

But you can't use that as an excuse when God says, whoever will, let him come. So come. Do something about it. Make a choice.

Do it tonight. Don't let another day go by apart from Christ. But you can't stand before God. If you think you'll be able to stand before God and say, not fair, Paul sort of brings it down to this answer and says, who are you to say to the potter?

You're a lump of clay. Who are you to say to the potter, not fair? Remember when God told Jeremiah, I said, Jeremiah, go down to the house of the potter and watch the potter work a work on his wheel and I will reveal my word to you there. So he goes down, he sees the potter working on a jar of some kind, some kind of a vessel, and he goes, as I was watching the potter, the vessel was marred in the potter's hands. So the potter, rather than throwing the clay and discarding it, he reshaped it, reformed it because it was marred and shaped it into something different.

Now, that's a picture of the mercy and compassion of God. Because what causes a clay pot to be marred? A lump.

Right? It's hardened. It's stiffened. There's a lump in it. And so when the wheel is turning around and he puts his thumb or hand on it to shape it, that lump will dig out and leave a scar. It'll be marred. Now, the potter could say, yeah, this stupid bunch of clay. I'm going to toss it away.

But clay costs money and takes time to act. So he just will add water, re-soften it, work out that stiffness, make it malleable and shape something he wants to. God says, this is like the children of Israel. Instead of discarding the nation, he'll reshape the nation.

He'll rework the nation. So think of God's every flaw that you had. He goes, I'm done with you. Forget you.

Get out of here. I'm never, just, you're not going to heaven. Like Santa Claus having a list, checking it twice. Aren't you glad that he is patient enough to be merciful and gracious? And though you are marred, he reshapes and re-shapes the nation.

He shapes and reworks for his glory. As he says, verse 25, also in Hosea, I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved who was not beloved. Now, you remember the book of Hosea, right? Hosea married a wife by the name of Gomer.

Not a great name. Not a great wife. She was a prostitute. God said, go down and marry a prostitute. And so they got married. They had a few kids. Firstborn boy was named Jezreel. Secondborn daughter was Lo-ru-hamah. And then he said the thirdborn son, when the thirdborn son was born, the name was given to him, Lo-ah-mi, which means not mine or not my people. And God was working out an analogy through the life of Hosea, and he said, analogy through the life of Hosea the prophet of how he dealt with the people of Israel.

So here you have a prophet, and God says, okay, I got a tough assignment for you, dude. Marry a prostitute, knowing that she's going to go out on you after you have kids in the marriage. She's going to leave the marriage and go back to prostitution. And when she does that, here you are at home with the kids. Your wife has left you and gone to be a prostitute again.

Go take money with you to the house of prostitution and buy her back to you again. Boy, that's a tough assignment. I don't want to be a prophet and do that.

I don't want that job. That was Hosea's life. And Hosea was demonstrating that that's what God would do with his people Israel. And in the place where it was said, you are not my people, the book of Hosea said, you shall be called Ami, my people, mine.

You belong to me. So that's sort of a summary of that book. So he quotes that. I will call them my people. And he says that regarding Jew and Gentile, according to verse 24, and her beloved who was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people.

They will be called sons of the living God. So he cites Hosea the prophet. Now he cites Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah chapter 10. Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel. Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.

There's that principle again. Rejection by the majority does not negate God's promise to the minority. A few people will be saved. A remnant will be saved.

Some will believe. So though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. Now I can't be sure, but in part Paul may have been looking also to the future.

Even if he wasn't, John certainly had the advantage of writing about the future in the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, you have a remnant of Jewish people who are sealed in the tribulation period. There are 15 million Jews right now on the earth. A very small remnant, 144,000 of them, according to the book of Revelation, will be sealed and protected during that time of future judgment upon the earth. A remnant.

A small group. It's always a remnant. Verse 29, and as Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah.

What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness of faith. Sort of like the second born. You know, in the law of primogeniture, the second born isn't the one chosen, but in Isaac's case and in Jacob's case, it was. We shouldn't have been chosen, but we are.

God made us his people. We've attained righteousness of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith. But as it were, by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Now if you're wondering, what on earth does that all mean, what he just said? Israel pursuing the law of righteousness hasn't attained to righteousness. Okay, he explains that.

I'm glad you asked that. Verse 1, chapter 10, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved, but I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, here's the answer, for they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. There are two religions in the world. You say, skip, you need a math class. There are far more religions than two.

No? If you boil all belief systems down, you have only two approaches to God, two religions in all the world. The first is the religion of human achievement. is the religion of human achievement. The second is the approach, or you might call the religion of divine accomplishment.

Most all religions in the world fall in the first category. You are saved by something you do. Okay, God opened the door, but you earn your salvation.

You achieve certain things. The Jews had a system of righteousness, a system of sacrifices. They would pray. They would pray three times a day. They would fast a few times a week. They would tithe, and all of that was a means by which they were earning favor with God.

Jesus even gave a parable of that, Luke chapter 18. He said, two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, Lord, I thank you that I am not like other men, unjust, extortioners, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. He is boasting of what he had done, and so whenever you have a righteousness that you concoct or conduct or perform by yourself, that is by definition self-righteousness. A self-righteous person is a person who is righteous by him or herself.

They've done things. They've earned things, but then there's the only approach that God will receive, and that is divine accomplishment. It's where you come and you say, nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. You realize I can't save myself. I can't add to my salvation. I can't earn my salvation. It's only by the grace of God.

It's a gift that I received. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but he gives a grace. He's willing to give you salvation if you just believe in him. It's not faith plus continued faithful membership in a certain church. It's faith plus nothing. No, it's faith plus baptism.

No, it's not, because if it's faith plus baptism now it's faith plus a work that you have performed, your work of baptism. When Jesus was on the cross and he said to the thief next to him who evidently believed in him, made some kind of utterance of belief, he said, Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. He didn't say, buddy boy, once you've been baptized and established membership in a local church proving yourself faithful, then and only then will you be with me in paradise. First of all, the man's on the cross.

He's going to be dying soon. He can't do anything at all and he really didn't need to do anything at all. Jesus was doing it all for him. The cross was it all.

He did it all and so that simple act of faith, that simple utterance of faith, today you will be with me in paradise, but they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. We need to look at the next verse as we close. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. It's over. The covenant of the law, it's over. The covenant of the law, the covenant under Moses, it's over. It ran its course, it's done. God promised through the prophet Jeremiah, behold I will establish a new covenant in chapter 31 of that book, a new covenant with the house of Israel.

Not like the old one. I'll write my law in their hearts. It'll be a covenant of faith, not of works, not of sacrifices, not praying or fasting or tithing, but just believing in Jesus.

That's Skip Heitzig with a message from the series Expound Romans. Now we want to let you know about a special opportunity you have to pursue biblical studies in a way that works with your schedule. Personal or small group Bible study is a great way to learn God's word, but what if you want to learn more, go deeper? Calvary College offers classes in biblical studies, classes like Old Testament survey. Immerse yourself in the entire Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi.

Take evening classes on campus or anytime classes online. An education from Calvary College will impact your spiritual life for the rest of your life. Apply now at calvarychurchcollege.com.

It's important to be rooted in scripture when you encounter trials, because that's where you find strength and comfort to help you weather life storms. We invite you to help connect others to God's unshakable truths so they can stand firm in their faith in the midst of trials. Through your generosity, you not only keep this radio ministry going strong, but you help bring others closer to God. So please call now to give. 800-922-1888. Again, that's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares about the gift of righteousness that you and anyone can receive. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.