In his sermon titled 'Does anyone deserve mercy?', Pastor Steve Hopkins explores the idea of God's mercy and sovereignty as outlined in Romans 9:14-16. He emphasizes that mercy is not something that humans can earn or deserve; it is entirely God’s prerogative to bestow it as He wills. Pastor Hopkins uses personal anecdotes to illustrate the importance of sharing the gospel with others and encourages believers to pray for opportunities to do so. He addresses the common question of whether there is injustice in God's selective mercy and concludes that God is just in all His ways, highlighting that grace is a gift, not a right. The sermon calls for believers to love the lost and to be persistent in sharing the gospel, trusting in God’s sovereign plan.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. If you would stand with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord Romans chapter 9 verses 14 through 16. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?

God forbid. For he sayeth to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Let's pray. Father, our Father, who art in heaven, high above the whole world.

We praise your holy name and we ask God once again that the Spirit might be given to open our understanding as we open your word for we ask it in Jesus name amen let's be seated so as I said we're returning to our study of the book of Romans this afternoon and moving forward with chapter 9 verses 14 through 16 but first before we go there a couple of months ago I told you the story about how my wife Sandra and her daughters were in Austin and they were about to go into the store to do some shopping. And as they were about to go in, they saw a woman on the sidewalk and she was pulling food out of a garbage can and different things in eating out of the garbage can and I said of course my wife my wife did what any one of us would do and bought her a meal and fed her You know when we see someone in need Christians, you know, we if we see someone who's hungry. Well, we give them if we have food we give them food We share our food with them If we see someone without sufficient clothing, and we have clothing, or if they're thirsty and we have water, well then we share what we have been given with them.

And I say this because, brothers and sisters, we have Christ and people all around us don't. Everywhere we go every day, people all around us don't. And I've been thinking a lot this last week or two about love for the lost, and how many souls are perishing every day without Christ, and how many opportunities we have to share what we've been given freely with others and yet how very few times and I'm talking about myself as well we do not avail ourselves of those opportunities And I just want to encourage the congregation to share Christ, to share with others the gospel by which your soul was saved. You know, I've never had a time where I prayed, oh God, put someone in my path and allow me to preach the gospel or share the gospel or share Christ with someone, and that opportunity did not arise. This past week I prayed with Sandra, actually it was the week before this week, and I prayed with Sandra, we were on our way to a particular business in the community, and I prayed, Lord, give me the opportunity to share the gospel, to share Christ with this particular business owner.

And it was just so obvious when God opened the door to me to graciously share with this man what God has done for me in turning me from my sins to his son. And I put my hand on his shoulder and after I talked to him for a little while, and I said, you know, I'm not standing here saying, you're a sinner, I'm not. That's not the Christian message. I'm saying, if God saved a really bad sinner like me, then he can save you as well. And so I told him about Jesus and who he is and how he went to the cross and died for our sins, sins of his people, to reconcile us to God and how everyone who repents and believes on his name puts their trust in him is forever forgiven and reconciled to God, saved.

And there was no response that would indicate that a work of God had begun at all except for the fact that this man probably 35 years old seems subdued. And I'll tell you that a few days later I'm out in Burnet and God ordained that that same man would enter the same business at the same time that I entered that business and come around a corner and come literally face to face with me again. And I can never remember seeing him face to face in public and as long as I've been in Burnett. So you know I think God ordained that so that our previous conversation would come to mind again. And I say all this to say, if we ask God, I believe if we ask God to give us opportunities to share Christ, I believe that He will give us opportunities to share Christ.

He'll bring those about if we're sincere. And I've never seen a time where I prayed that and he did not. 2 Corinthians 5 20 says, now we are then ambassadors for Christ, Representatives, right? As though God did beseech you by us, Paul says, we pray you that as we implore you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. That's our mission.

We want others to be reconciled to God even as God has reconciled us to himself by the death of his son. That's our message. Even as we've been reconciled to God, we want you to be reconciled to God. We're commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. You love, you have love for the lost.

We're to love them as ourselves. That old Keith Green song always comes to mind. It's not doctrinally perfect, but it shows us a heart of love for the lost. Really shines forth. Can't you see?

Can't you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care? Don't you care? Are you gonna let them drown? You know, it's the imagery of a drowning person.

Passing by a drowning person without concern for them would be unthinkable to us, and of course, we're talking about people dead in trespasses and sins, which is a far worse condition than the analogy of someone drowning. But As ambassadors of Christ, we need to be sharing Christ. In season, out of season, when it's convenient, when it isn't. That song goes on, God's calling and you're the one. God's calling and you're the one, but like Jonah you run.

He's told you to speak, but you keep holding it in. Am I loving my neighbor as myself? Do I love the lost? I was lost, but now I'm found. Here's something that's true of every believer in this room.

Someone shared Christ with you. Maybe it was a pastor, maybe it was your mother or your father or sister or brother or somebody out in public. Someone shared Christ with you. And so, and the Spirit worked the work in your heart, and so you believed. Inevitably, we will share of the gospel with some who will never believe, with some who will perish eternally.

I'll end with this. If sinners will be damned, these are the words of Spurgeon, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies and if they will perish let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let none go there unwarned and unprayed for." End quote. Which brings us to our review of where we left off in Romans so many weeks ago, where we read God says to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. Will you turn there with me because it's very important here.

Romans 9 verse 14, it might seem odd to jump from be ambassadors for Christ, to preach the gospel to every living creature, to Romans 9. But it's here in our text, here in our text, Paul anticipates and deals with so many objections to God's sovereignty and the salvation of souls. You understand what I'm saying? In our finite, that means limited, minds we can't reconcile the sovereignty of God and the salvation of His elect with man's responsibility to repent and believe and it's not our job to try. In our last session on Romans 9 the Apostle anticipated some of these objections to the things he's been teaching.

He anticipates a charge of divine injustice. Look at verse 14. Is there injustice on God's part because he chooses to save some and passes over others? What do you think? Is there injustice on God's part because he chooses to exercise mercy on some but not on all?

What shall we say then? That's what Paul asks here, you know, in response to what I've been teaching, the divine favor rested on Jacob, the divine disfavor on Esau, before the twins were ever born of any good or evil. What do we say about this kind of stuff? How should we respond to this? Paul understood that it makes us uncomfortable.

Does it make you uncomfortable? Kind of makes us uncomfortable, doesn't it? That God is the one who chooses, we're not the ones who choose. The children being not yet born, neither having eaten are good or evil, verse 11, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him that calls. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.

How do we respond to these things? Was God's favor of Jacob and divine disfavor of Esau not based on any consideration whatsoever of the future foreseen works? Are they even that they would have faith? Or their character? What about their cultural custom?

In this case, the expectation that the younger would serve the older. Were none of these things taken into consideration at all? Paul says they weren't. What should we say to these things? The assertion that God freely chooses whom he wills and passes over whom he wills seems arbitrary to some.

Paul anticipates this objection. Just as a review in our study of Romans nine so far, what we've seen is that just as God's covenant with the nation of Israel separated them from every other nation and people, so God's electing love distinguishes between individuals in that nation, i.e. Jacob and Esau, as one writer put it. And not only individuals in that nation, but also individuals among the Gentiles. Look at verse 24, we'll be going there in a couple of weeks, but that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he afford prepared unto glory, whom he hath called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

Wow. But still the question remains, right, It's been anticipated but not fully dealt with. Is there unrighteousness with God? That's the objection placed on the table. Is there injustice on the part of God because the divine favor rests on one person and not on another before they're ever born or done any good or evil to merit it?

Paul answer, it's rhetorical, God forbid. Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. It's the strongest language the apostle could use. Is there injustice on God's part because he chooses one and passes over another?

Certainly not. God forbid that anyone come to such a conclusion. Banish the thought. Such a response is unthinkable, even blasphemous. Injustice on the part of God?

The whole of Scripture exalts God's absolute righteousness and justice in every respect and his right to do with his creation whatever he wills. To prove the point, this is our passage. What does he say? He says to Moses, I will have mercy, he's quoting Exodus, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

Those are words that make some people very angry. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And they put their fist in the face of God. How dare you?

That's not fair! That's the fist lifted to heaven. If God shows mercy to one, he's obligated to show mercy to all. Really? Oh man.

You'll charge God with injustice? Paul says, no, here's God's answer to those who would bring a charge of injustice on his part. I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. It's translated in the Exodus passage, I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious.

I'll show mercy on whom I'll show mercy. Brothers and sisters, grace and mercy are gods to bestow and no one can charge God with injustice for bestowing them on one and not on another. Do you believe that? Is that your position? Is that the way you view God?

Grace, you know, by definition, isn't owed to anyone. The theological definition, Webster, is the free, unmerited love in favor of God. If a person merits something that means they deserve it, right? The Bible tells us what we deserve. The wages of sin is death.

That's what we deserve. That's what you deserve. That's what I deserve. None of us deserves mercy. We all deserve justice.

None of us deserves mercy. We all deserve justice. None of us deserves mercy. We all deserve justice. None of us deserves mercy.

Paul is saying, can any legitimate charge of injustice or unfairness be brought up against God because he exercises mercy on some who don't deserve it? Please catch this. Because he exercises mercy on some who don't deserve it and not on others who don't deserve it. If a king extends the royal scepter of clemency to one offender in his realm, Is he obligated to extend the scepter to every offender in his realm? If the president, we had all these executive pardons, right, about a month ago, the president that grants executive pardon to someone, is he obligated to pardon all and empty the prisons of the United States?

You pardon those guys, you have to pardon everybody. Really? Paul's point in bringing in the passage from Exodus is that God's not obligated to show mercy to everyone. And brothers and sisters, God is not obligated to show mercy to anyone. Very hard for the mind of humanistic thinking, prideful man to accept.

Spurgeon comments on this passage, in these words, the Lord in the plainest manner claims the right to give or to withhold His mercy according to his own sovereign will. As the prerogative of life and death is vested in the monarch, so the judge of all the earth has the right to spare or condemn, listen to this, the guilty. He has the right to spare or condemn the guilty as may seem best in his sight. You hear what Spurgeon's saying? All mankind stands guilty before God.

That's what the Bible teaches. There's none righteous, no not one. And God has the right to condemn or spare the guilty as seems best in his sight. This person goes on, men by their sins have forfeited all claim upon God. They deserve to perish for their sins, and if they all do so, they have no ground for complaint.

If the Lord steps in to save any, he may do so, but if he judges it best to leave the condemned to suffer the righteous sentence, none may arraign him before at their bar. He can't bring God to judgment before them. In other words, none of us has a claim on God's mercy and if he leaves any who are justly condemned for their sins and their sins, to suffer what they deserve for their sins, there is no injustice on God's part. Martin Lloyd-Jones back in the 1960s put it this way, God has the right to show mercy to whom he will show mercy and the right to have compassion on whom he will have compassion. There's no ground for complaint whatsoever.

There is no legal opposition that man can erect. There is no charge that we can bring against God if he did nothing but allow the whole of mankind to go to everlasting perdition. No one would have the slightest ground to complain. The mystery, he says, isn't that everybody isn't saved, but that anybody is saved. Martin Lloyd-Jones, close quote.

It's of God's mercy that any of us are saved from our sins. Dr. Sproul, quote, God reserves to himself the sovereign absolute right to give grace to some and withhold that grace from others. I love the way he puts this here. What Jacob got was grace.

What Esau got was not injustice. God withheld his mercy from Esau, mercy to which Esau had no claim. But the withholding was not an act of injustice on God's part. Jacob got mercy, Esau got justice. The elect get grace.

The non-elect get justice. Nobody gets injustice." Close quote. Praise God because of his infinite goodness and mercy, he hasn't left all of sin and humanity to the just to us. If you're a believer here, this afternoon, it is not because you were wiser or smarter than your unbelieving neighbor. Smart people die and go to hell every day.

If you have emerged from unbelief, it's through the mercies of God alone. The humble Christian, when he gives his testimony, he doesn't say, well I did this, I did that, I did this other thing, he says, God did it all. God changed my heart, God opened my eyes, God saved my life, God turned me from my sins, God saved my soul. Verse 16 of our text says, so then it's not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God who shows mercy. Paul's saying it's not of him that wills or runs, but of God who shows mercy to men whose will is bent against him, and whose feet are running in the opposite direction from him.

If salvation were of the will of man, as I said In the last session of Romans 9 a couple months ago, none would come to Christ. Every one of us was born with a holy, corrupted nature inherited from our first parents, and the human will did not escape that absolute corruption, that utter corruption. The human will is in bondage to sin. You say, well can't we choose in their free choice, so you have free will. Yeah, man has the freedom to choose whatever he wills.

The problem is that in the corrupted state of our nature in which everyone of us are born we never choose God. We choose according to our nature. Your nature is corrupt. We don't run to God. We don't choose God.

We choose according to our corrupt nature, a nature with a will that is bent against God. Remember, Paul said, we walked, every one of us, according to the flesh, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, Satan, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, in that state no one chooses God. Unless God makes men willing to come, none would come to Him. Unless God changes our will, we will never embrace Him. How many times have I talked about Adam and Eve, and they hear the voice of the Lord, right?

Walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And what do they do after they had sinned? They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. And that's what all their posterity have been doing ever since. Everyone in this room, until God made the change, until God invaded our lives with grace by His grace.

You know many look at the doctrine of divine election when they think that it's unjust because they imagine just think about this for a moment with me they imagine men and women running towards God with their arms wide open, trying to embrace Christ and the gospel, and God turning away some because they're not His elect. That's the view of many. The reality, however, is that all mankind is running in a stampede in the opposite direction from God, galloping headlong to eternal destruction, and God mercifully pulls some out of the herd. If you're a believer today, you were pulled out of that galloping herd, running away from God with all your might, running in the opposite direction. Before time began, God mercifully chose to save some from this state, set his affection upon them, and time gave them new hearts with new wills and new desires, conviction for sin, hearts to repent, faith to embrace his son whom he sent into the world to save them and deliver them from their dreadful state.

Again, if you're a believer this afternoon, as we draw to a close, it isn't because you were wise enough to use your free will in a way that your neighbor didn't use his free will. It's that God graciously and sovereignly changed your will. God gave you a new heart, took away the stony heart, that rock hard heart, replaced it with a heart of flesh, alive and beating toward him. God found you. We were lost and now we're found.

Adam and Eve were lost after they sinned in the garden. God went to them and found them. If you were a believer here today, you were lost, but now you've been found. If God raised you from the graveyard of the spiritually dead, gave you eyes to see and ears to hear the wonderful truth of his gospel and a heart to embrace his son by faith, Thank Him for it. Oh, thank Him for it.

And I know the people of God do, but just make a conscious effort to just praise Him and to thank Him. The grace of God, oh Lord, your wonderful, amazing grace interrupted my life of sin. And your truth, Lord, and mercy flooded by soul. You drew me, O God, by with cords of irresistible love to embrace your son by faith and to trust in him and what He did on the cross alone to reconcile me to you, God, forever. Oh, if you're among those who have emerged from unbelief, it's through God's mercy alone.

People hear the gospel of Christ every day and reject the mercy offered in it. And there's only one difference between them and you and them and me, God's grace. God's grace. God's grace, His mercy, His mercy. Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end.

If you love Christ today it's because He first loved you. If you chose Christ today it's because He first chose you. Give Him the glory, do His name, and thank Him. And if you're a believer here today and maybe you're praying for a lost family member, some person that you know who is lost and dead and trespasses and sins, If you're praying for a family member, a friend, a coworker who's lost, don't despair. Don't faint.

Keep praying. God works through prayer. He works, He is ordained to prayer. And He commands us to pray. He commands his people to pray.

Keep praying. You know that no one is beyond the reach of God's mercies because God's mercies reach to you. Keep praying. Paul prayed, you know, for the salvation of his Jewish brethren in Romans 10, my heart's desire in prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Pray for the lost.

Pray for the lost. And share the gospel of Christ with them. And then leave the balance sheet in God's hands. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, your word says that you will have mercy upon whom you will have mercy. You will have compassion upon whom you will have compassion. The salvation of sinners is not of him who runs but of you God who shows mercy. And so we thank you God. We thank you Lord for having mercy upon us who have come to trust in the person and work of your Son.

We thank you Lord for plucking us out of the fire and for pulling us out of the herd of Humanity stampeding in the opposite direction from you and we thank you for the grace that taught our hearts to fear and The grace that our fears relieved and for grace Lord to repent, faith to believe in the name of your son Jesus who died for our sins and rose again. Lord we just praise and thank you for our salvation. Thank you God and we ask God that you would give us a love for the lost. For we ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Amen.