The Rock-Solid Truth about God's Salvation
The Book of Romans
Romans 9:15-33
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - August 28, 2016
(Revised March 22, 2021)
BACKGROUND
*In Romans 9-11, the Holy Spirit led Paul to discuss the Jewish nation. And Warren Wiersbe explained that Paul was basically answering this question: "If salvation is by God's grace through faith in the cross of Jesus Christ, then what about the Jews? Did God fail to keep His Old Testament promises to Israel? And if God was not faithful to the Jews, how do we know He will be faithful to the Church?
*There was also a personal reason for this part of Paul's letter. The Christ-rejecting Jews were convinced that Paul was a traitor to their nation, and we can understand why. Paul ministered to the hated Gentiles. He taught freedom from the Law of Moses. And whenever he preached in the Jewish synagogues, there was big trouble from the Jews who rejected Jesus.
*The Jewish Christians in Rome had most likely heard about these things, so Paul wanted to confirm his deep love for his people. And as God let us look into Paul's heart, we saw a man who loved the Jews as much as anybody possibly could." In vs. 1-5, Paul was even willing to give up his own salvation if that could help the Jews be saved. Then in vs. 3-24, we saw the infinite greatness of God in seven different ways. (1)
*Tonight, we will focus on the sure truth about God's Salvation. Let's begin by reading Romans 9:15-33.
MESSAGE:
*In Acts 16:30, a jailer from Philippi asked life's most important question: "What must I do to be saved?'' Then in Acts 16:31, Paul and Silas gave him the perfect answer: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. . ."
*In tonight's Scripture, Paul expands on this great truth, and gives us the rock-solid truth about God's salvation.
1. FIRST: SALVATION COMES FROM GOD'S MERCY.
*This is the sure truth, and we saw God's mercy last time in vs. 15-18. There Paul wrote:
15. For He says to Moses (God says to Moses), "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.''
16. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
17. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "Even for this same purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared in all the earth.''
18. Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
*Thank God that He will have mercy and compassion on the people He has chosen! And thank God for His mercy, because we all surely need it!
*But these verses also speak to us about the supreme sovereignty of God and His flawless will. God always does the right thing, and that's good because He is in ultimate control of this universe and everything in it.
*God forbid that we would be foolish enough to think that somehow, we are better than the perfectly righteous Judge! But some people do want to question God's judgment, so in vs. 19-24 the Holy Spirit led Paul to write:
19. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?''
20. But indeed, O 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?''
21. Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22. What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23. and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
24. even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
*God will surely have mercy and compassion on the people He has chosen. But who are the "vessels of mercy" in vs. 23-24? They are simply the people who receive God's mercy by receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. As Paul will say to us in Romans 10:11-13, "'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For 'whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'''
*The sure truth is that God will have mercy on everyone who receives it by receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior. God is even called "the Father of mercies" in 2 Corinthians 1:3, and His great mercy can be found throughout His Word.
*Psalm 103:8-18 is a great example for us today. There King David proclaimed:
8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
11. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13. As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
14. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
15. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.
17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children,
18. To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.
*Our God is merciful, kind, and gracious to all who will trust in Him! And He proved this forever through the cross of Jesus Christ! God's salvation comes from His mercy.
2. BUT ALSO KNOW THAT GOD'S SALVATION MAKES US HIS PEOPLE.
*This is the rock-solid truth, and we see it in vs. 25-26. Here Paul quoted the Lord from the Old Testament Book of Hosea, and Paul wrote, "As He says also in Hosea: 'I will call them My people, who were not My people, 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,' there they will be called sons of the living God.''
*Think about how you become part of a family. Basically, there are only three ways: Marriage, birth, and adoption. God's Word uses all three ways to help us understand the kind of relationship He wants us to have in His family. For example, Jesus is called the Bridegroom, and the Church is the Bride of Christ.
*Also, when we trust in Jesus, we are born again as children in God's family. This is when we go from being "not God's people" to being "called sons of the living God.'' This miraculous new birth is called regeneration, and it is always the work of God's Holy Spirit. Paul affirmed this truth in Titus 3:4-7, where he said:
4. When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
5. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
6. whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7. that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
*The Holy Spirit gives the new birth of regeneration, but He also gives us adoption into God's family. Please listen to what Jesus said about His Spirit in John 14:18. There in the NKJV, the Lord spoke to His followers and said, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." The same verse in the KJV says, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
*"I will not leave you orphans" versus "I will not leave you comfortless." That may seem like a huge contradiction, but it's not. Both translations are good, because the original Greek has the word picture of an orphan left with no one to give them care and comfort. In fact, the original word is "orphanos," where we get our word "orphan." And when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He comes to us through His Holy Spirit and adopts us into the Family of God.
*Paul affirmed this truth in Romans 8:14-16, where he said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
*All of this was on Paul's mind when he wrote vs. 25-26 here in chapter 9. And again, God said, "I will call them My people, who were not My people, 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,' there they will be called sons of the living God.'' God's salvation makes us His people.
3. BUT SADLY, HIS SALVATION WILL ONLY REACH A REMNANT.
*All people are not going to be saved. This is the truth we see in vs. 27-29, and here Paul said:
27. 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.
28. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.''
29. And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth (or Lord of His armies) had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.''
*Verse 27 tells us that "though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. And the "seed" Paul mentioned in vs. 29 is also talking about a very small remnant of Jews being saved.
*But what is true of the Jews is also true for all of the world's peoples. God's Word speaks to this truth in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Then in Matthew 22:14 Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen.''
*For only a remnant to be saved was never God's perfect will. We know this, because 1 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us that "God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." And 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
*The salvation of a remnant has never been God's perfect will, but at the end of history, it will be the reality. And we must never think that God is to blame for this. What more could He do? God the Father sent His only begotten Son into the world to die on the cross for all of our sins, and God the Son Jesus Christ took all of that punishment for us.
*God has always been completely righteous, and He always will be. So, vs. 28 tells us that God "will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.''
*It may seem like everything is going to keep rocking along the way is it now, but it is not. And whatever the Lord does, He is going to do it in righteousness! We must never think for a moment that God is unrighteous in the way He is fulfilling His plan for the world.
4. AND EVERYONE MUST KNOW THAT GOD'S SALVATION CAN ONLY COME BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.
*Jesus is the one and only Rock of our Salvation! This is God's sure truth in vs. 30-33. Here Paul began with a question and asked:
30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;
31. but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32. 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.
33. As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.''
*In these verses the Holy Spirit led Paul to think of two separate Scriptures from Isaiah. The "stumbling stone" and "rock of offense" phrases come from Isaiah 8:14. The "whoever believes" part comes from Isaiah 28:16.
*And here Paul reinforced the truth that nobody has ever been saved by keeping God's law, because nobody has ever been able to keep God's law, except for God's Son, Jesus Christ. That is why we must be saved by God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. And He becomes a "stumbling stone," or a "rock of offense" for people who try to be saved any other way.
*There can be no doubt that the "stumbling stone" and "rock of offense" Paul talks about is Jesus Christ, the Rock of our salvation. Peter proved this fact in 1 Peter 2:4-8. There he spoke to Christians and said we are:
4. Coming to Him (coming to Jesus) as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
5. you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.''
7. Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,''
8. and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.'' They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
*The stone and the rock in these verses is the Rock of our Salvation, Jesus Christ!
*Moses sang about our Rock in Deuteronomy 32:1-4, and there he said:
1. "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass.
3. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: ascribe greatness to our God.
4. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He."
*Paul also wrote about our Rock in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4. There he was speaking about the Old Testament Children of Israel, and Paul said:
1. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
2. all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3. all ate the same spiritual food,
4. and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
*Jesus Christ is the one and only Rock of our Salvation!
*We used to have halftime devotions during our Upward Football Games, and one week the Lord led me to focus on rocks. At the time, a lot of the children were painting rocks to give away or leave for people to find. They all had Scripture verses, and the older kids painted them with crosses, flowers, and things like that. Many of our church kids gave me rocks, and I still have some today.
*Those rocks made me think of some other rocks. One was the rock my brother hit me with when I was a little boy. We were walking down a dirt road in the mountains. I was bent over looking at something. And he was about 20 feet behind me throwing rocks. He threw, I raised up, and pow! -- right in the back of my head.
*That rock really "rang my bell," and working on the devotion, it made me think of the rock David used to kill Goliath. I told David's story at halftime that Saturday, and I climbed up on a ladder to show everyone how tall Goliath was.
*At nine and a half feet tall, he really was a giant! That's why all the other soldiers were afraid to fight Goliath. But David wasn't afraid, and it wasn't because of the rock in his slingshot. No! David was trusting in the Rock of our Salvation!
*In 1 Samuel 17:37, David said this to the king, "The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.''
*And after the giant mocked young David, in 1 Samuel 17:45-47, David told Goliath:
45. . . "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47. Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD'S, and He will give you into our hands.''
*David was trusting in the Rock of our Salvation. And later, after all of David's enemies had been defeated, he wrote a song about it. Here's part of David's song from 2 Samuel 22:
2. . . "The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
3. the God of my strength, in Him I will trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Savior, You save me from violence.
4. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.
31. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is proven; he is a shield to all who trust in Him.
32. For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?
33. God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect.
47. The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, the Rock of my salvation!"
CONCLUSION:
*Jesus Christ is the one and only Rock of our Salvation! And nobody loves the lost more than Jesus! He died on the cross for us. He died on the cross for all people!
*And "whosoever believes on Him will not be put to shame!" That's because Jesus died on the cross to take away all our sins, and He rose again to give eternal life to everyone who will believe in Him. This is the rock-solid truth about God's salvation.
(1) Adapted from WIERSBE BIBLE COMMENTARY: NEW TESTAMENT by - Warren W. Wiersbe - Published by David C. Cook - Colorado Springs, CO - Romans 9:1-33
