Romans

Let's pray. Father help us now. This is a tricky passage and we know we know that and we're gonna have to use our minds and we pray please that you would help us Even though in many ways this passage doesn't come naturally, it does explain our world and so is worth our efforts. So help us now, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

So open that passage up, Romans chapter 9. A few a few years ago, I was doing some evangelism talking to some university students up at Kingston University. And in the course of a discussion with 1 student. We've been talking about god and the universe and people, you know, things like that. I thought I would ask him how much he thought he knew how much he thought he knew.

And I put the question like this because I've used this question several times. How much of all the knowledge in the universe do you know? Out of everything there is to know what percentage of knowledge do you have. Now his considered opinion came back quite quickly about 80 percent. Now that's some claim for a 19 year old Kingston university student.

Now to be fair on him, my involuntary response was very much like a lot of yours, was to laugh. And to be fair on him, he came down to 6 percent of all knowledge in the universe. Look at verse 20 of Romans 9, but who are you a human being to talk back to god Now I guess that student, and I can't remember his name, would answer that question, who are you a human to talk back to god. Something like this. Well, he'd say, I'm a student at none other than Kingston University, who has at least 60 percent knowledge of everything in the universe and maybe up to 80 percent of knowledge of everything in the universe.

How much I know, of course, is in the 20 to 4 percent of what I don't know. But I would say I have a right to question and advise you on how you run the universe god. That's what I think he would say. Now the point I'm trying to make is without humility, we always think we can do things better than other people. Or we always think we know more, and we we constantly do it.

Think about how we treat politicians and prime ministers. We could run the country better than anyone, couldn't we? We think we know But most of the time, we know very little of what's going on in the world. We don't know all the details and negotiations. And responses people have to make, but we constantly think we do.

We know more than than we think, we have. Have you ever seen the film Bruce O'Mighty? It's a great comedy film, isn't it? With Jim Carey. I know lots of these ladies don't like Jim Carey.

I think he's hilarious. But, for some for some reason, women don't like him. I don't know why. But, Bruce almighty, it's where he complains about god being god and thinks he could do a better job and so god gives him the power to be god for a few weeks and it's a disaster and it's a very funny movie. Do you think you know enough to run the universe?

Do you think that you are unbiased enough in your thinking. Do you think that your sense of justice or mercy is better than god's? They're the question I think I want to begin with. Now let's come then to this passage with humility and hear what god is doing in the world, how he is running the world, because I think that's what's going on here. Here's the first thing I think we see.

God's purposes in the world are governed by mercy God's purposes in the world are governed by mercy. In Romans chapter 9, we're being told that god purposes are absolutely wonderful, and we'll see that again and again. But those purposes are wonderful because they're governed by mercy. Look at verse 15. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

Why do we take that negatively when we read that? That's positive. I will. I'm going to have mercy despite people, I'm gonna have compassion. Despite people, I'm going to have it.

I will. It's all about mercy. Or look at verse 16. It does not therefore depend on human desire or effort, but on god's mercy. It's all about god's mercy.

If it depended on humans, nothing would happen that would just be justice, but I will have mercy. Or even the very difficult verse, about pharaoh. The purpose of that verse even in wrath and judgment, the purpose of the wrath and judgment is about mercy. Look at verse 22. What if god, though choosing to show his wrath and make his power known bore with great patience, the objects of wrath, prepared for destruction, what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of mercy?

You see? Even the difficult verses of pharaoh would come to them, in the end, it's all about the mercy of god. God, he says, will make a people for himself despite people because he is merciful. Now last time, we were looking couple of weeks ago at Romans chapter 9, we were seeing that god defines his people, the people that are his, by his promise. It's all to do with god's promise.

That's the eyes at ishmael thing. It's god's promise. It's all of god. Then we saw that it's all of god's choice. That's the Jacob esau thing.

It's all of god. God chooses. To have mercy on people. Now it's defined by unreserved mercy. It's all of god.

But here we go. Just at that point, we can't help thinking we would do it better and we know better. Than god. We just can't help thinking that our standards are better than god's standards that we're more just and merciful than god. God, if you knew the 60 to 80 percent of what I know, then I think you would listen to me.

Look at verse 14. Paul is picking up on that type of thinking. What shall we say then? Is god unjust? And Paul's answer immediately flashes back, not at all.

And then he quotes god who is speaking to Moses. First 15, I will have mercy on who I'll have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Now, here's the hard work. Ready? When you look at where that quote originally comes from, you'll see that Israel, this people of god supposedly were incredibly rebellious, but more than rebellious, not just a reb rebellion.

Not just breaking god's laws. They were breaking god's heart. They had set up this golden calf. We read about that stuff. It's in Exodus 32.

If you don't know the story, go back and read it. I haven't time to tell you the whole story. But the whole event is this, beyond any doubt whatsoever, the people that god had brought to this mountain of Sinai to be his people were totally completely utterly undeserving of a relationship with God. The the event is so horrible It is a blatant act of adultery on a wedding day. Can you imagine that?

I've met 2 people on their wedding day, different couples who committed adultery on their wedding day. Only too in my whole life. That's just extraordinary when you hear the the stories, isn't it? They committed adultery on their wedding night. It's extraordinary.

And it makes you, what? Who would do that? Well, who would do this to god? On the wedding night when they were becoming his people at Mount Sinai. If you know the story, then they commit adultery with a golden calf.

They make a a calf of gold and say we would rather have this as our god and we'd rather love this as our god than the real god. This led then, if you know the story, Moses coming down the mountain, seeing this religious and sexual orgy that was going on. And the false worship of this golden cow. This led Moses to smash the 10 commandments, which are the 10 covenants they're like a marriage vow. He broke the marriage vow when he saw this adulterous stuff going on.

It led Moses to kill 3000 Israelites that's were saying we're unrepentant. We will love this golden cow over the god that represent. We love him and we carry on doing this stuff in front of you. 3000 were killed. The whole people of god thing was in question.

Godred, as we'll see in a minute, in another story, taken them out of slavery to be his people, and even the Egypt who worshipped all kinds of false gods would have mocked and laughed. They're no different to us. Oh, the god that took them away is no different to our gods, a golden calf in sexual reverie as how they worship. It was a mockery. It was a shock, and not 1 of those Israelites deserved to be god's people, but only deserved the judgment of god.

Can you imagine that on your wedding night? But Moses pleads, and Moses pleads for mercy, very similar to Paul in the beginning of Romans chapter 9. That's quite some time ago in sermons if you go back and listen to that. Roman uh-uh Paul pleads that he would be able to take the place and have the judgment upon him. And Moses does the same thing.

He pleads and god's says I won't do it that way. There'll be another person who will come in your place. But it's at this point that Moses has a question how do I know god? Really, that's his question. He doesn't quite put it like this, but this is the question.

How do I know that this rebellion adulterous people will be your people. This undeserving people. How do I know you'll have mercy on them? But that's the definition of mercy. Mercy is undeserved, and god quick as a flash comes back and says, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy.

I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. Even these adulterous people, I will I will have mercy, even on these. You see it? God's salvation is all on the basis of mercy, not justice, justice deserve them to all be killed. But I will.

I will have mercy, and god replaced the 10 commandments, the covenant tablets, the marriage vows, these will be my people, even despite their adulterous ways. No 1 deserves to be god's people on the basis of justice. Look at verse 16 of chapter 9. It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on god's mercy. God makes a people of mercy, and he is determined to make a people of mercy even when they're so rebellious, I will.

I will have a people. So Paul wants us to understand that, and I hope you get that. Paul wants us to understand that god's purposes are governed by mercy and overflowing compassion. How wonderful to have a god of the universe who is a god who is governed by mercy to a rebellious people like you and me, how extraordinary, but there's more. There's more in Romans 9.

God is so merciful that he will use even human wickedness and sin to demonstrate his mercy. So there's the first point. I hope you got it. I have no time to linger. I'm afraid.

I want to, but I have no time. We gotta push on. First thing is god's purposes are governed by mercy, even to a rebellious people. Here's the second point. God's sovereign power is governed by mercy.

God is so sovereign, so king so gloriously powerful that he can use human wickedness to show his mercy. Look at verse 17. For the scripture says to pharaoh. I raised you up for this very purpose that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in the in all the earth. Again, we gotta go back to the book of exodus.

We go back before the Golden calf incident this time and we go back to the exodus itself. What is that? Well, Israel were in slavery under under pharaoh, who was a cruel, cruel master of them. They were slaves in Egypt. God raised up this man called Moses to be a prophet and to speak to pharaoh and say let my people go and pharaoh said, what did he say?

No. If you know that fantastic song, I love this. Go down Moses. Do you know that song? Go down.

Go and listen to Louis Armstrong. It's to do you a favor. 3 minutes of joy, brilliant music. Go down. Moses way down in Egypt land.

I can't sing. Tear old pharaoh, and then they all come in, let my people go and he says, no. He says, no. Even to Louis Armstrong. No.

So god warns pharaoh, and he sends a plague, a nasty plague that hits all of the Egyptian people, but Ferris is no. So god warns pharaoh with a second plague. That hits the people of Egypt and pharaoh says no. And so god warns him 10 times 10 plagues getting worse as they go along. And during that whole event, of the stubbornness of Moses, Moses, of pharaoh, Moses has to say to pharaoh that line that we've just read I raised you up for this very purpose that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed to all the earth.

You think you're in control and sovereign pharaoh. I am. You think you can use my people in slavery I'm gonna about to use you. I'm sovereign. That's what he's saying.

Now what does this mean? What does it mean? It means this that during the time of the plagues, Ferrow could have been destroyed by any 1 of those 10 plagues. He could have been He could have been destroyed by a group of people that says, well, let's have an insurrection pharaoh isn't listening to the word of god. Let's destroy pharaoh.

He he could have been, but he didn't. He didn't die. Pharaoh didn't die. Why? Well, there's a number of answers, tune in.

This is important. 1 is so that we could see and everybody's subsequent and even at the time could see how hard Pharaoh's heart is in his hatred towards god and his people. We wouldn't have seen it. If he wasn't allowed to go all those 10 steps. Therefore god is just in judging him.

That's the first thing to hit. The second thing is to show how powerful god is, even more powerful than pharaoh, to rescue his people and be merciful to a group of slaves. How powerful his mercy is? So that at the end of the event, you would say, oh, yeah. Okay.

I get it. Ferrow, was it? Was hard? And you'd say, only god could do that. That's what you would say.

Only god could have delivered the people of Israel. Only god has got that powerful mercy to deliver from a superpower of the day, pharaoh and and Egypt. The army of pharaoh was renowned for its strength. Only god could have done that. Only god could take the Egyptian army and wash them away in the red see as easily as you flush the toilet.

Only god could do that. So it shows god's power. God is god, not pharaoh, and god will despite the superpowers. Despite the arrogance and hardheartedness of people like pharaoh, god will have mercy on whom he'll have mercy. He'll do it.

He'll make a people. Look at verse 18, Therefore god has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. Stick with this bit because this is the bit where everybody gets all worked up. Okay? He hardens who he wants to harden.

Now That's a reference about hardening pharaoh back in in the story of the exodus in in, in that book of Exodus in the Bible. What we're told is if you read that story, pharaoh hardened his heart against god. Ferro hardened his heart against god. We told it 5 times. Ferro hardened his heart against god, And then we're told god hardened pharaoh's heart.

Now, what does that mean? Okay. Well, let's just take a breath here. Imagine that after the second or third or fourth or fifth or sixth plague, Just imagine that Ferrow saw the disasters and the sufferings of these people that the these plagues had brought or because he wouldn't listen to god. Let's imagine that pharaoh relented.

Let's imagine pharaoh thought to himself. Okay. Look, you know, you know, I don't want to give way to Moses. I certainly don't wanna give way to Moses's god. I don't want to let these, Israelites my slaves go, but politically, I could raise the white flag and let them go because it would stop this suffering.

Let's imagine Moses. His in other words, his heart didn't change, but he's weighing up all everything that's going on and he relents out of political expediency. It's a political thing to do. I I don't wanna let them go. My heart hasn't changed.

I still hate God. I still hate God's people. I want them as slaves. But I'll let them go because it's politically expedient or there's a group of people that might assassinate me. Now if god allowed that to happen, we wouldn't see how hard pharaoh's heart was, and we wouldn't see a demonstration of how god is committed to mercy in saving a people.

So god fixes him. God hardens him. This is very frightening stuff. God hardens him in the position he's already in. God gives him over to what he desires.

God confirms the position that he's in. He doesn't restrain him He doesn't bring him to his political senses. He doesn't raise up an army that will knock off pharaoh. And let the people go. He fixes him, hardens him so that what his heart is totally dominates him.

There's no common grace. There's no restraining grace. Of god often does that with people, but in Ferrow's heart, he he pulls back any restraint. So what he is determined to do, god allows him to do, he hardens him in that way. Now, Is that fair?

Is that fair? Look at verse 18 again. Therefore god has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. Is that fair? Well, of course it's fair.

Because god is judging the inner heart of this man that we wouldn't have seen if he had intervened at the third plague. God is allowing this man to do unaffected by him and his miracles and his plagues to do What he wants to do? He gives pharaoh over to his hardened heart. Now, what is the purpose in god doing that? Well, because it shows that when god acts, he's utterly just when god brings pharaoh to judgment, no 1 can say to god, was pharaoh that bad?

So if you've got it intervened in plague 3, we might have said, and then and and god killed Ferrow, let's say, in plague 3, we might have said, well, I mean, god's not that patient. Is he? Could've given him another plague? But after 10, you can't really say that, can you? You see what's going on here?

I mean, surely god should have been a bit nicer to Ferrer. No. No. No. God says, let him do what he wants to do.

God keeps him alive to show the hardness of the human heart when it's let go, and to show that god will work his merciful plans even against hardhearted sinners. God is just. He's totally fair. He's totally fair. Now, Here's a slight diversion, and I'm sorry that I have to do this, but I do.

I would love not to do this for time's sake, but I do have to do this. When you come to Romans 9, people hate Romans 9 because they read it wrong. Here's a danger. Are you ready? Now if you're not into this stuff, you can tune out and I'll click my fingers and get you to tune in a bit in in a minute.

You mustn't say that god made pharaoh sin by these verses. You cannot say that. You mustn't say that god predestined pharaoh to go to hell. You mustn't say that. And it seems that some were saying that.

Look at verse 19. 1 of you will say to me, then why does god still blame us? God hardened pharaoh's heart. It's not his fault. Why does god still blame us?

For who is able to resist the will of god? Now, It is utterly wrong, and I actually want to say even blasphemous to say that god is responsible for pharaoh's sin as some people want to say. Whatever you understand about these truths in Romans 9, you cannot say Whatever you understand or even if you misunderstand Romans, you cannot say that. See what Paul says in verse 20. But who are you a human being to talk back to god?

Show what is formed say to the 1 who formed it. Why did you make me like this? Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use. In other words, in these mysteries here, stop questioning god. As if he's unfair.

Stop making god a fatalist who makes pharaoh unable to do anything but sin. Stop that. See, the danger of these verses is when you assume that the verse that talks about pharaoh is talking about god creating pharaoh. It doesn't say for god created pharaoh for this purpose. It doesn't say created.

That's where people go wrong. This is not about creation. God does not create evil but uses evil for his purpose. God did not create pharaoh an unbeliever, but uses unbelief for his purpose. God did not create an evil disposition in pharaoh's heart but uses his evil disposition in his sovereign way.

God does not create people for hell, but uses people who will go there. Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones is very, very good on this. He talks about when it talks about the lump of clay, It's not creation lump of clay. It's not an innocent human. This is fallen lump of clay.

The potter doesn't make the clay if you're gonna take that illustration. This is a lump of clay. Jay, if you know the stories that we've been looking Jacob and Eesaw, ishmael, and Isaac Ferrow, every 1 of us are in the fallen lump of play. We're all the same. So god doesn't make innocent people guilty.

He confirms people in their guilt. But in his mercy, he will take guilty people and make them innocent. That's the way around this is arguing. Do you see do you see that? If you don't, come back now to my third point.

Are you ready? I can argue that through. We could've taken a whole sermon on that. I didn't particularly want to. Here's my points in that.

We're even mind you. It's all about mercy. 1, God's purposes are governed by mercy. Got that mercy. Second, god's sovereign power is governed by mercy.

God uses the evil and wicked purposes of people for his mercy. The supreme illustration of that in the Bible is the cross of the lord Jesus Christ. The wickedness and the obvious heart of humanity in killing god's son, killing god's son, we see the human heart in killing the savior, but he uses that evil as the place of salvation. So god's purposes are governed by mercy. God's sovereign power is governed by mercy.

Third, please come back. God spells out god's merciful. Paul spells out god's merciful purposes. He spells it out. He goes over all of this again because he knows we won't get it.

And in verses 22 to 24, just have a look at those words. That's all 1 sentence. In the original language. There's no full stops. He spells it out.

He knows we're gonna get this wrong, so he bangs all these points home again. Let me read it. Ready? What if god, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known bore with great patience, the objects of wrath prepared for instruction, not created for destruction, prepared for destruction. What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy whom he prepared in advance for glory, even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the gentiles, as he says in hosea, I will call my people who are not my people and I will call her my beloved who is not my beloved strange words.

He's banging home all that I've just said. So that's what I'm gonna do. I could have left this and done another sermon, but we're running behind. So I wanna carry on. So here we go.

There's 4 points under this third point. Are you ready for this? He's really saying, I want you to observe the justice and mercy of god here. God working in this world. Don't think you could do it better.

Here it is. Here's the first thing. He's spelling out god's merciful purposes. First of all, god's purpose is to vindicate and show his justice. Right.

Are you ready? Let's apply it a bit more. Haven't you ever ask yourselves? I don't know where you are, if you haven't, but haven't you ever asked yourselves, why does god allow a wicked person like pharaoh to go on and on and on in his wickedness? Why are all these despots around the world?

Why don't they die earlier? Have you ever asked her? Good people seem to die early? There's a song about that, isn't there? Why did why did the good die young?

Why do these horrible despots die takes so long to die. Yeah? Well, the answer's here. Verse 22. What if god Although, choosing to show his Roth and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of Roth prepared for destruction In other words, in their long lives, they are being increasingly prepared for god's righteous destruction judgment.

The case against them is being prepared. So that no 1 will be able to stand up and say, he's not guilty. We saw this with pharaoh. God bore with great patience through the 10 plagues to show His justice is vindicated when he judges pharaoh. See?

No 1 could say wasn't wasn't fair poor old pharaoh. He was only given 10 chances. Do you see that? All of this was to prepare the case for his condemnation. Notice that phrase again, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath prepared for destruction.

God puts up with all of the evil wickedness so that on the day of judgment, he will be seen to be righteous in his judgment. No 1 can argue with god. Let's let's change the illustration from pharaoh to Hitler. Good old Hitler is so useful in these things. If god, why didn't god kill Hitler at 6 years old?

I've I've done a sermon on this, by the way, you can go back and hear it, that Hitler was a baby once. At 1 time, people were going, there's a lovely little Oh, he's such a sweet child. Why didn't god take because if he had taken him, people would have said, well, how fair is that? Do you see that? What why would god allow Hitler to carry on because no 1, not 1 in their right mind would be able to say that, well, God could have given Hitler a better chance.

He could have allowed him to go on to kill more than 6000 a million Jews and 2000000 and lots of other people. God could've could've given him. You know, was god fair? Poor old Hitler? Was he given the chance?

If only god gave him a chance, he would have been the great artist that he wanted to be. No 1 can say that. It's just it's just nonsense. We know that that's a fair judgment against him. Or think about the wickedness that goes on in politics You think about the wicked laws that can be brought in.

And sometimes when we're in the time and a law is brought in that we know as Christians. That's a ridiculous law. Why does it god stop the law or stop the policy or stop the politician in bringing Why doesn't he do that? Because people at the time think it's great. You've got to see the fruit of that law before we stand back.

Aren't we seeing that? Christians, in the sixties and seventies, were saying that all of this sexual permissiveness is destructive. And people said, you innocent little silly little, shut up Christians. We'll mock you. We'll have comedies about Christians.

We'll mock How dare you tell us what we could do with our own bodies? How dare you come with your religious morality upon us. You are a disgrace forcing your religion on us. That's what people said. I lived in it, so I know.

And now we're seeing the fruit. You cannot hardly hear the news without the next sex candle or the next Hollywood scandal, or what, whatever it is. It's constant. We see the fruit. We'd never believe it at the time, but now we see the fruit.

And still we won't believe it. So maybe there's more fruit to come and more abusers to be exposed and more little ones to be abused. So that when god does judge the world, no 1 can say, we didn't give it a go. He didn't give it a go. It's not fair.

I heard a fantastic little viewpoint on the radio, by LJ Kennedy, her name is, on Hollywood this morning. It was brilliant on on on why Hollywood is like it is. It's a very good little talk. Really good. She she says she's a playwright.

She writes a play, and when it has to be rewritten, people say, there's not enough sex in it and there's not enough death, death toll in it. You need more death toll and you need some more sex, and a rape scene would be really good. Her point is that it's psychopaths and perverts that are in power making everybody right what we all watch and love. And she's saying we see the fruit of it. She actually says saying it like that.

That's right. So god allows. He's patient. He allows time so that we can see. That's the first thing.

Second, so god's purpose is are to vindicate that he is a just god. No 1 can say it's not fair. Secondly, god's purposes are to show his patience Look at verse 22 again. What if god, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience, the objects of wrath, prepared for advanced. Do you do you see great patience there?

God is gracious. He's patient. He's patient with sinful. He it says in the Bible that god sends the rain and the sun on the righteous and the unrighteous. He is merciful, even to the unrighteous.

Perhaps you've got a hard heart against god's mercy here. And god's kind to you. He gives you a purpose in life. He gives you a will. He gives you a conscience.

You're not an animal. He gives you the kindness of love so that you can love and be loved. He doesn't kill you. He allows you to To live, perhaps some of us here will live to a hundred, to a ripe old age, still rejecting god's kindness in the lord Jesus Christ, He doesn't kill you. He's patient.

He's patient. So this shows god's patience. He's not a snap angry god. That just judges people. He holds back patience.

That's the second thing. It shows us god is just It shows us that god is patient, but let me push us on to the third point. God's purpose is that the riches of his mercy may be seen. We're back there. The whole point is to show his mercy in all of this.

Look at verse 23. What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the of his mercy, whom he preferred in advance for glory, even us, whom he also called not only from the Jews but the gentiles. He's merciful for people in the time that he's allowed this world to go on into its sin. He's merciful even in pharaoh's time in showing these miracles pharaoh, will you believe? Pharaoh will you believe?

He saves. When I think of the route I was taking as a young man, genuinely out of control at time. I didn't think I was out of control. If you'd said you're out of control, I said, no, I'm not. But I was looking back genuinely out of control, If god hadn't saved me, what would I be doing now?

What would I be doing? Where would I be without his mercy and his patience? What would I be doing now What more harm would I have brought on people if god hadn't have intervened into my life and taken a lump of filthy clay and made it an object of mercy. If god said, okay. You've hardened your heart Go the way of pharaoh.

I'll let you go. If god had said that, where would I be? The riches of god's glory He's talking about in the mercy. God demonstrated to this wicked world mercy and salvation. Look at this room.

See this room here? Do you see the potential for evil in this room? See, we don't think like this, but for the potential for evil. I mean, Those are us that even our followers of god and have been worked on by god's holy spirit, we still have so much evil, don't we? Don't we?

But if god hadn't restrained us, if god allowed you people that you're sitting next to, either side of you, if he allowed them unrestrained in their fantasies and their sin. If god allowed that, in this room, the amount of wickedness that would have been done, it is just phenomenal, but god, who is rich in his glorious mercy, stopped us. Stopped us, took the lump of clay, didn't allow it to go Ferrow's route, took it, and saved us. Wonderful. Every time you come to Cornerstone, every time you meet in a home group, every time you have a coffee with a church member, god's glory, the riches, the riches, the riches of god's glory seen in someone becoming a follower of Jesus.

It's all a massive god. God stopped us. You get the weight of that. And then the last thing you see here is the scope of his mercy, the scope of his love. Do you see it?

Verse 24, even us, whom he also called not only from the Jews, but also from the gentiles, the utter universality of his mercy and love from the Jews and the gentiles. In other words, all people groups, his love goes out to call to recreate to make, to choose, to promise, to be merciful, to make a people. I will have mercy. God said over us who are followers of Jesus. Oh, they're not better than anyone else.

Look how good they are. No. I will. I'm determined to have mercy on even a group like this. How wonderful?

Now do you see how this is so powerful this chapter? God, right now, his purposes, his workings, God is showing that he is a just god. He will judge. But he's patient. He's gather gathering the evidence.

He's waiting. To judge. Secondly, that god is showing his patience. He's holding back. He's patient.

Thirdly, why is he showing his patients because he wants to show the riches of mercy? He wants mercy wants you to know the mercy. He wants you to know mercy in the lord Jesus Christ. And god is showing the scope of his mercy in the church, all different types of people coming to know that mercy. In Romans chapter 2, and I'll end with this.

Paul writes this. Listen to these words. Do you think you will escape god's judgment? Do you think you'll escape god's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience not realizing that god's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.

That sums up Romans 9. Do you think your escape god's judgment don't be foolish? Or do you show contempt? Are you showing contempt? For the riches of his kindness forbearance patients, not realizing that god's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.

This is an amazing chapter, and there is a lot of application to our world and what god is doing. But right at the moment, he is being patient. Won't you cry out for mercy like Moses did for the people? Don't make me a pharaoh. Don't let me go my own way.

Saved me from being pharaoh, be merciful to me in the lord as Christ. Father god, thank you for this chapter. There is so much in it, help us to mull it over, think it through, read it again to see that you are a god who is so patient so that we would see the riches of the mercy in the face of Jesus, all the good that you've given us. Don't let us test your patience or turn with contempt, may it lead us to Jesus? We pray in his name, amen.