Romans 9:14-33;4/20/2025; BCBC/IOUC; Rev. Paul Wang

Last week we talked about the glorious election and realized that we humans have no ability to resist God’s glory, God’s power, and God’s election.  Some people say that I seem to emphasize Calvin and ignore Arminius, or that both are unbalanced?  In fact, the Bible speaks for itself, and today’s message emphasizes the essence of God’s glory, which is God’s mercy.  Let’s look at the first point:

 What is mercy?  The most direct meaning in the New Testament is to show compassion to people, especially to the weak and helpless.  The Old Testament has three meanings: one is loyalty, two is grace, and three is maternal love.  What is Paul trying to say here?  First, mercy is God’s sovereignty.  In the realm of humanism, mercy is usually relegated to the moral high ground, looking down on others and issuing proud judgments.  Man’s arrogance even challenges God’s justice and sovereignty, leading Paul to ask: “Is there injustice on God’s part?”  The subtext of saying that God is unfair is that you are more fair than God!  Do you listen to sermons and accept the teachings of the truth in church, or do you put forward some opinions that differ from the truth?  Moreover, aren’t those who teach the truth also human beings?  If you speak it out loud, you are challenging God’s authority; if you don’t speak it out loud, it is the judgment of your heart.  As if God’s mercy is a refuge where people can do whatever they want, or a breeding ground for ungodliness and rebellion?

Secondly, mercy is God’s will.  “God will have mercy on whom He has mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He has compassion.” When people read this sentence, they seem to accept it all as it is, as if God’s mercy is His own property that He can squander at will, and it has become the boasting of a dude.  The core value of God’s mercy is to express God’s forgiveness of sinners and not remembering their sins.  However, God’s mercy is based on Christ’s salvation and interacts with the faith God has given to man!  The important thing is that mercy is God’s will, what does it have to do with you?  All people can do is be grateful, nothing else!  Those who understand this principle are blessed, and it is also the beginning of wisdom.  God is determined to show you mercy, and no one can stop him!

Finally, mercy is an act of God.  Why do some people still get angry and lose their temper in the face of God’s mercy?  Why were the Israelites unwilling to accept God’s salvation when it came to the Gentiles?  God wants to bless your neighbor, so why are you jealous?  If you don’t understand God’s will, why should you take out your emotions on irrelevant people?  Even Paul couldn’t help but ask: “ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this? (Romans 9:20)”  It is human duty to accept God’s actions, thank Him for creating you, and be thankful for the spouse He has given you.  Yes, it is duty!  Man is but a vessel, yet he always tries to seize the position of the potter!  Let’s look at the second point:

God’s mercy always accompanied the Israelites until they rejected the gospel to the end, and then God preached the gospel to the Gentiles.  Paul’s time was the advent of this great era.  First, this is God’s provision.  The Jews may not have known it, but the coming of the gospel to the Gentiles was God’s provision in his eternal plan.  God allowed Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach, even at the risk of being swallowed by a fish.  The Moabites and Ammonites were never allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord, but God chose Ruth to marry Boaz and even become the ancestor of David and the physical ancestor of Jesus.  Paul himself was an Israelite among Israelites and a Pharisee, but under God’s guidance he became an apostle who preached the gospel to the Gentiles.  In God’s eyes, the selection of the Gentiles is God “in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. (Romans 9:23)”  As the Bible says: We are God’s work!

Second, this is God’s calling.  Faced with God’s work, the Israelites still did not understand!  Those who do not understand are easily stubborn in their hearts, rebellious in their natures, and not easily obedient in their lives.  Since they were God’s chosen vessel, the Israelites did not understand why  “even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:24)” Even though the ancestor of the Israelites was Abraham,  they were once a nomadic people and did not have a glamorous background.  God was going to choose them, so the Egyptians, Philistines, Amalekites, etc. at that time had nothing to be jealous of, right?  Now that God’s selection has come to the Gentiles, and you Jews refuse to believe the gospel, what can you say?

Finally, these are the people of God.  The Jews may feel unwilling and say that “they are not God’s people!”  Paul quoted the prophet Hosea 2:23, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” God’s word is the foundation of heaven and earth.  For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.  Calling the Gentiles sons of God is a new thing that God wants to do.  God has not done it in the past, but He wants to do it today!  God asked through Paul: “And 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.” Paul said to the Jews: Just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean God hasn’t done it or will not do it!  Let’s look at the third point:

In fact, all people, including the Israelites, must be saved by grace and through faith!  It was just the greed and pride in the hearts of the Israelites that led them to mistakenly believe that the Kingdom of Heaven belonged to them alone!   First, it is the remnant who are saved.  The so-called remnant refers to the remaining number, which means the minority.  Elijah felt lonely and thought he was the only one left.  But God told him that he was wrong.  There were still 7,000 people who had not bowed their knee to Baal!  Today, too, few Israelites believe in Jesus,  as the prophet Isaiah said: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, (Romans 9:27)” It is clearly pointed out here that not all the Israelites were saved, but only a few.  The same is true in the church today. Not all those who come to church are saved, but only the “remnant” who truly believe.  We must ask ourselves, am I among those who truly believe? Are you there?

Secondly, righteousness by faith.  At this point, some of us might panic, right?  Don’t follow the Lord your whole life and yet end up not being saved.  Isn’t that a huge joke?  In Sodom and Gomorrah, except for Lot and his family, all the others fell into the judgment of the sea of fire.  Even though she was rescued by the angels, Lot’s wife, because of her lack of faith  and her turning back, immediately turned into a lifeless pillar of salt.  The others all escaped and did not turn into pillars of salt.  However, Lot was not vigilant and was addicted to drinking all day long, and a breach appeared in his life.  The two daughters’ core values are unclear, and everything is based on realism, selfishness, and utilitarianism.  Our mother is gone and our father cannot have children on his own, so let us two daughters take action!  Without God’s righteousness, our faith will be lost!

Finally, trust in God and you will be saved.  After returning, the Israelites were very confused.  They thought that since God had given us the law, we should be justified by the law! Anyway, the law was given by God only to us Israelites, right?  Paul said, “How could they know?  “but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. (Romans 9:31)”  They thought they could be justified by the law, but they didn’t realize that the law had become a stumbling block on the Israelites’ path of faith!  God even acknowledged through Paul that this stumbling block was placed by God himself.  Why?  There is only one purpose,  which is to make “whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Well, thank the Lord!  It turns out that God’s glory is His mercy.  God will have mercy on whomever He wants to have mercy on!  We have received God’s mercy today so that He may be glorified.  God’s will is accompanied by His actions, which are His sacrifice of His life on the cross.  God prepares the Gentiles to be saved and called to become sons of God, the new Israelites.  Look! What kind of people have we become today?  We have become the saved remnant, for nothing else but a simple and pure faith!

Let us pray……

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy.

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.”

18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

21 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?

22 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,

23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—

24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

25 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.’”

26 “And 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.’”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel[c] be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,

28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”

29 And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;

31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness[d] did not succeed in reaching that law.

32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,

33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”