Let us go to Romans 9. With only nine weeks left, I was trying to think of a Bible passage that would address the issue of salvation. I think that this passage in Romans 9 lays out very well how God saves sinners, how He saves people. I will begin reading in verse 10. It says in Romans 9:10-23:
And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith 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. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
I will stop reading there.
The Bible is the most wonderful Book in the world. I know that I do not have to tell you this, but it is. It is the greatest Book. It is the most wonderful Book. The reason for this is because it comes from God; it comes from His mouth.
Another good reason for why the Bible is the supreme writing amongst all of the writings of the world is because of what it is capable of doing. There is nothing that can compare to the Bible. We could take all of the best little bits and pieces that we could find out of all of the writings that have ever been written by man and compile them against the Bible and there would still be no comparison. This is because the Bible is actually the Book that is most important. If we read nothing else, we would not be missing anything at all; we would, instead, be doing something very good.
I remember talking to someone one time at work. A lot of times during the lunch hour, I would read the Bible. One time, I was talking to a man who was a Catholic. As we talked, I kind of lost interest and went back to reading the Bible. He might have gotten a little annoyed because he said to me, “There are other books out there”; but, no; not like this Book.
Do you remember what the officers said of Christ who were sent to apprehend Him? They said, “Never man spake like this man.” This is because this is the Word of God. This is His communication to mankind, and Christ is the Word. This is Jesus speaking to us and it is certainly a fact that never a man has spoken like this.
After the Bible was published, we do find some writings that take things from the Bible that people tend to lift up, like Shakespeare and things like that. Shakespeare took much of his language from the Scriptures themselves, and man is so enamored with Shakespeare, “He is such a great writer!” Well, he was a man, though. He was only a man and what he wrote can in no way compare to the Bible.
Here is what God says about this Book. In Hebrews 4:12, He says:
For the word of God is quick…
What does this mean? This means that it is alive. It is living. It continues:
For the word of God is quick [or alive/living], and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The Word of God has power, mighty working power. The Word of God is alive.
Man is dead, spiritually, in heart. If you continue this way, you are soon going to also be dead in body. This is because Judgment Day is coming and God will completely destroy you. You will just cease to exist.
The only hope that any of us has is the Bible. The only hope we have is that we might read the Word of God, because God says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Our only hope is that we might read it and that God might be pleased to bless the reading of His Word to our hearts and quicken us and bring us to life. This then makes us living, like the Word is living. The Word is alive and it has the power to give life.
This is why it is such a tragedy when people do not read the Bible. It really is. It is awful. People do not realize the abundant blessings that are there and available to them. It is even sadder when children do not read the Bible. This is the saddest thing. They will read many other things, so it is not that they cannot read. It is not that they cannot read something with interest and have it captivate them to where they stay with it. They study school books; but when it comes to the Bible, they do not want to read it. They just do not know what they are missing. They do not realize that their only hope is in the Bible.
If you were drowning at sea and someone happened to hear you cry for help, they would throw you a life preserver. Well, believe me; you are in greater danger than that right now and your only source of help is the Bible.
Parents who are faithful and diligent and who are trying to be obedient to what God says will read the Scriptures to their children, but then the children close their Bibles and forget where they put them. Maybe a week later, it is time for them to pull them out again.
How can anybody forget where they put their Bible? Yes; we are all a little scatterbrained. I have left my Bible on top of my van and driven down the road, but I am talking about forgetting it in another kind of a way to where you do not even read it. You do not read it because you do not want to read it. You have no interest in reading it, and so you leave it in the car or you leave it under your bed. It is only when Mom or Dad tells you to get your Bible that you begin to search the house for it and wonder where it is.
How is this possible? How can children do this? We know that adults do this. It is because they are grown up and hardened in their sin. They are stubborn and rebellious and set in their ways and they do not want to read the Word of God; but why do children behave like this?
God says, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Are you not a child? Are you not humbled like a child? It is sad that this generation has risen up a very stubborn and rebellious group of young people.
There is nothing good about someone closing their Bible and forgetting about it. How can they expect to be blessed? How can they expect to enter into the Kingdom of God when this comes through the hearing of His Word?
I just do not know what to think about this. I think that some people must think that you move on beyond the Bible once you grow up, that you move past it, that you do not need it as much. There is some kind of strange thinking in the world in relation to people who believe that they do not need the Bible that goes along the line that these people have it all together; they do not need this Book; when, actually, each one of us does, because it is our only hope as we read the Scriptures and pray that God might bless them to us.
Here in Romans 9, I am going to start in verse 11. Romans 9:11 says:
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
God is indicating here that He does not save through works. There is no way that a person can become saved through work.
If we go to Galatians 2, God states this very clearly. We read in Galatians 2:16:
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
This is very clear and very direct. What God is saying is that we cannot expect to keep any Law in the Bible and become justified or become saved. This is just not going to happen. To be justified in this manner, you would have to keep all of the Law.
We read in Galatians 3:10:
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
If you try to keep one Law, you place yourself under the whole Law, and there is no one who could even come close to keeping the whole Law of God. This is not possible. The Bible says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all,” and so you are subject to the wrath of God. None of us can get right with God through the keeping of the Law.
There is a second thing that we see in Romans 9:11, which says again:
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
The “purpose of God” in election is how God says that He saves. This is what He is doing here in Romans 9. He is explaining how it is that a person gets saved, how someone could have their sins forgiven and God could give them a new heart and a new spirit. This is done “according to election.”
Notice that this was decided before Jacob and Esau were born, before either of them were born. They were twin brothers and you cannot get any closer than this. We know that this was before they were born, and we know that this actually occurred before the foundation of the world; but before they were born, God made a decision. He made a choice.
Does the Bible say that there is a choice in salvation? Is there the ability of making a decision in salvation? Yes; but whose choice is it? It is God’s choice.
If you look at John 15:16, Jesus is speaking and says:
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you…
It is quite plain here where God is addressing the whole issue of freedom of choice or free will. It says again:
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…
When did He choose? Go to Ephesians 1. We read in Ephesians 1:4-5:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
This is the choice that God made. Before the foundation of the world, He chose this one and that one. He chose Jacob. We know this. He saved Jacob. At the same time, He did not choose to save Esau.
Why did God choose Jacob and not Esau? Was it because Jacob was a nicer guy? Was it because Jacob was more moral than his brother Esau?
Well, we read about Jacob and we see that he was prone to being a deceiver. He had just as many faults as his brother Esau, so it cannot be because Jacob was good in any way. It cannot be because of anything in Jacob as compared to Esau.
God is telling us this. Before either one of them had done good or evil, He made a choice. This is because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” and because “there is none righteous, no, not one.”
So if God was only going to choose the good people, then He would not have anyone to choose. If He was only going to choose people who met the standard of His Law, then He was not going to have anyone to choose. Therefore, He is using the historical birth of these twin sons to teach us that He chose one.
Why did He choose this one? It was “according to the good pleasure of his will.” God is saying that this was His “good pleasure” and that He is sovereign. He is eternal God, the Almighty.
We can think of this in terms of a prison full of condemned prisoners who are on death row. Everyone there is guilty, but they all write notes to the governor. They all petition the governor for pardon and for mercy that they might not die. The governor receives all of these petitions. Some could have even been better written than the one he finally selects.
Why did he choose that one? Who knows. He is the governor. All we know is that he has the right to grant a pardon. He does, but the rest of them do not receive a pardon. The rest of them remain on death row. They will face their sentence and be executed.
Was the governor unjust? No; this was all within the law. He was permitted by the law to grant a pardon to whomever he chose; and so he did this.
So God is saying that we are all sinners. We have all offended Him and trespassed against His Law, and yet He wants a people for Himself. Because of this, He chooses one and does not choose the other.
This may not have been according to our choice. Whom did Isaac prefer? Did he prefer Jacob or Esau? He was more sympathetic towards Esau, his older son, and seemed to prefer him, even though Esau was the unsaved son and Jacob was the saved son. We know that he liked to eat of Esau’s venison.
We read something very important to parents in Hebrews 11. It says in Hebrews 11:20:
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
Isaac showed no partiality in this. He had two sons, Jacob and Esau. They were twins and he shared the Gospel with them and blessed them. It is a blessing to hear the Bible even if you are an Esau, even if you are unsaved. Both sons were blessed “concerning things to come,” which relates to the grave, Heaven, the end of the world. Whatever Isaac knew, whatever God had revealed to him, Isaac shared this with his children.
We also should definitely be sharing information with our children of that which is to come very soon, which is Judgment Day itself. Even if the children are not saved, they are still being blessed. This is because they are under the hearing of the Word. From our perspective, there is an opportunity for them to be saved.
This is one thing that we always have to keep in mind. We should not be looking at salvation from God’s perspective, which is that He is only going to save His elect. There is a great multitude in our day who are coming out of Great Tribulation; but out of the whole of mankind, it is relatively few people; it is like a remnant.
So we can think that it does not matter what we do because God is going to save His elect. We can think that if we are not one of His elect, then He is not going to save us; but we should never think like this, never. We should never look at this from our perspective.
God gives the Gospel in this same sense. He shares it with everyone, and we have the privilege and the luxury of being able to go to Him and to beseech Him for mercy and for pardon from our sins.
It is really nothing more than an excuse when someone says, “Well, the odds of me being an elect person are not very high, and so I am just going to live how I please and do what I want. It is very unlikely that I am one of God’s elect. If I am not elect, it does not matter what I do”; but this is an excuse so that they can continue to sin. This attitude is developed so that they can continue to do what they want to do.
God is telling us that we are not to look at things in this way, because a very real aspect of the Gospel that God is sending to the world is that He is making His mercy available to mankind.
Let us go back to Romans 9. It says in Romans 9:14:
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
God saves through election. Is this not just? Is this wrong of Him? Is it unfair that He saves some people but He does not save all?
There is nothing unfair or unjust about this. If God were to destroy the whole world and all of mankind, this would be fair and just, because we have all offended Him. We are all guilty and we all deserve to die. But if in His mercy and graciousness and out of His compassion He decides to save some, then how can anyone say that this is unfair?
We can look at it this way. How many of the fallen angels, the demons, is God going to save? He is going to save none of them: zero. Is this unfair? Does anyone feel a little pity for Satan and the fallen angels? Does anyone think that it is not fair that God made no provision for their salvation?
What do we think? We think, “Good! Good for them! Look at all of the mess that they got us into. Go ahead; annihilate them! Go ahead; destroy them!” We have no mercy at all because this is a very just thing, and we recognize this. We realize this. We realize that they committed evil and that they should die. We do not even want God to have mercy on them.
How are we different? Satan rebelled against God. We rebelled against God. Right? How is it that we are different? If God were to destroy all of us, it would be just as just, just as fair; but out of mercy, He has chosen some to save.
No one can charge God with wrongdoing. He can do with His what He wants, and if God determined – and, incredibly, He did – to take upon Himself the sins of these rebels and to bear them and to suffer for them in payment to satisfy the Law’s demands before the foundation of the world, who can say that this was unjust? Of course, this was most just and most merciful that God has done this.
Then Romans 9:15 goes on to say:
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
This is God making a statement that is letting us know that He is sovereign, He is King, He is Lord. Salvation is in His hands. “Salvation is of the LORD.” This is what that means. It is under His control. He is the King, like we read about King Ahasuerus, and He is seated upon His throne. If we approach Him, there is only one Law, which is that we die because we are all sinners; and yet if He be pleased, he can extend the scepter of His grace and spare us.
This is up to Him. This is completely up to Him, and we need to know this. When approaching Him, we ought not go in any kind of an arrogant way or in a prideful way and say, “You must save me! You have to save me! I deserve salvation!”
No; like the publican, we beat our breast and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner. There are no grounds that You should save me. I cannot think of one reason why You should.” This is because there is no reason why He should save anyone.
So we go to God on the basis of what Christ has done and say, “O Lord, have mercy for what Jesus did. May He have died for me. May He have taken my sins and may You, who are very merciful and gracious, grant me pardon and forgiveness.”
There is no room here for the freewill gospels that are so prevalent today. They are all over the church world, but God indicates that He is sovereign when it comes to saving sinners. He will have mercy.
Let us look at Micah 7:18. I want to look at a couple of verses that describe the mercy of God. It says in Micah 7:18:
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
It is His “good pleasure.” “According to the good pleasure of his will,” He delights in mercy. Does He delight in the death of the wicked? No; He takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” He takes no pleasure in the fact that He must destroy the sinner; but He does take pleasure, it is something that He delights in, to be merciful to sinners.
This is a good thing to know as we are going to God. It is not like He is a miser when it comes to mercy. It is not like He grudgingly saves someone, even though He really does not want to. No; He is very merciful. This is part of His character. This is part of His attributes.
If we go to Ephesians 2:4, it says:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
He is “rich in mercy.” He has an abundance of mercy. Look at His character. When people came to Him, asking for something and begging for something, what would He do? He would grant their request.
If we take a look at Matthew 20:30-31, it says:
And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace…
Some people do not like it when they hear that God’s plan includes crying out to Him for mercy. They say, “You do not need to do this.” But the Bible indicates that this is what God would have someone to do. He would have them go to Him and beseech Him for mercy.
Is this not a work? Yes, but so is reading the Bible a work, and yet God tells us to read the Bible; because it is through the reading of the Bible that He saves.
So crying for mercy is a work that teaches us what? It is a work that teaches us that there is no work that we can do. This is why God permits this. This is why God allows this. Yes; you can beat upon your breast and you can say, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and then you can wait to see if He will.
It is not like when someone cries for mercy, they are thinking that the act of crying for mercy will save them. I hope that no one thinks this. This is just something that God permits the one who is under His wrath to do. In order for them to approach Him and to beseech Him for salvation, He allows this, even though the act or the work of crying for mercy, in and of itself, will never save anyone.
Let us also look at Hebrews 4:16. It says:
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
This is our “time of need.” This is it. There is not going to be a future. There is not going to be summer vacation this year. There is not going to be another Thanksgiving or another Christmas or another Halloween (that is good news). There is not going to be all of these things that are past. They are never coming around again. There will be five months up until October, but that will be it.
This is our great “time of need.” It is time to go to the throne of grace, to go to the only One who can spare and who can grant us eternal life; and God here is encouraging us to “come boldly.” Coming into His presence at all is very bold, because we are sinners; but He is allowing us to approach Him.
This does not mean that we can come arrogantly or that we come so that we can tell Him all of our good deeds and why He should save us. We are to “come boldly” and beseech Him for mercy. It is a “throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”; and this is right now. At this point in history is our great “time of need.”
Let us go back to Romans 9. It says in Romans 9:16:
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
What is the topic? What is in focus? What is in focus here is salvation. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.
So here God is following this up and speaking directly to anyone who thinks that they have to do something, like they have to make a decision for Christ or they have to say the sinner’s prayer or they have to be baptized or they have to exercise their will in some way so that they can now begin living for Jesus. God is speaking directly to you if you think that any of this is true.
He says again in Romans 9:16:
So then it is not of him that willeth…
It is not man’s will. This is being very directly stated by God. He does not always make such direct statements.
If we go to John 5:21, it says:
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them [brings to life]; even so the Son quickeneth [brings to life] whom he will.
It is “whom he will.” It is the sovereign good pleasure of God that He grant this one or that one eternal life.
God is saving a great multitude today through the message of Judgment Day. This is going into all of the world. Some people are going to see this on a billboard or they are going to receive a tract, and this will be all that they will know about it. Maybe all that they will be able to listen to is a shortwave program that sounds a little statically as it comes in and out. Maybe they are in India or Pakistan or Africa or China, but God is going to bring His Word to His people and they are going to become saved. This will not be because they accepted Jesus. This will be because God chose them, because God exercised His will towards them. This is how salvation comes.
Then what about the will of man? Look at John 5:40. It says:
And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
This demonstrates the true nature of our will. If left to ourselves, we will not come to God. We will not do this. We are stubborn and we are prideful and we will not do this. We will never go to God on His terms and according to the true Gospel. Sure; we will go to God if we can speak in tongues. Sure; we will go to God if we can have holy laughter in the congregation or if we can have a gospel that teaches that we can be saved at our own whim. Yes; we will go to God on these terms; but no man will go to God on His terms and according to the Gospel as it is outlined in the Bible and laid down in the Scriptures. It is only false teachings and gospels that teach that man’s will can align himself with God; because, of a truth, no man will.
This is why in the next chapter of John, in John 6:44, Jesus says:
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…
“No man can.” This means that there is an inability in our will to come to God. We just cannot do this. This is why we need mercy. This is why we need God to act upon us and for Him to save us.
Go also to John 1:12-13. It says:
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
This is telling us how we can be born again. People hear about being born again and they want to know how they can do this, “What do I do? Tell me what to do. How can I become born again?”
Well, this is telling us that when we become born again, it is not because we are a Jew and in the bloodline of Abraham. Salvation comes “not of blood.” We are also not born again because of the “will of the flesh” or because of “the will of man.”
I think that God is just doubling this up to emphasize that there is no way that a person can be born again as a result of their own will. He says this in many different ways and in many different places throughout the Word of God. Sometimes, very directly and straightforwardly, God tells us that we cannot get ourselves saved by doing anything or by any exercise of our will in any way. This goes for keeping the Law of God, for being baptized, or for partaking of the Lord’s table. No matter what action anyone attempts, it will not get them saved.
The answer to salvation is that it is “but of God.” It is “but of God.” We are born again “of God.” He does the work. He takes the action.
This is what it said in Romans 9:16:
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth…
What does running have to do with salvation? What does running have to do with mercy? This says that salvation does not come by him “that runneth.” We understand why it is not “of him that willeth.” We can see how there are people who do think that all they have to do is accept Christ and then they will be saved, when God says, “No way!” But what does He mean when He says that to obtain salvation, it is not “of him that runneth”?
Let us go to Psalm 119:32 and look at this verse. It says:
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
This is the idea. It says again:
I will run the way of thy commandments…
The Bible talks about walking in the truth, walking in the light, walking in the commandments. Plus, we use the phrase, “I fell into sin,” which is quite accurate. We fall into sin; because we try to get up spiritually and we try to keep the Law, to obey God, to walk in His commandments; but there might be a problem in our lives. Maybe we are not saved, and so we fall flat. We fall into sin.
This is why God uses the imagery of the lame man. He is lame. When someone is lame, they cannot walk. But when Christ comes and strengthens the anklebones of the lame man, then the man rises up and he is “walking, and leaping, and praising God.” He can then go in the commandments of God. He can now obey God from the heart, because God has given him a new heart and a new spirit.
Upon salvation, we walk in truth and we walk in God’s commandments, which is a common phrase that God uses in the Bible; and to run is along the same lines:
I will run the way of thy commandments…
The only difference is that there is more of a sense of urgency. There is a sense of haste.
For instance, go to Habakkuk 2. This has everything to do with our time. We read in Habakkuk 2:1:
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
We are being watchmen as we look into the Bible. Jesus set the watch when He said, “Watch therefore.” Then at the proper time, God opens the Scriptures and we then understand many things that we did not understand previously. This time is now.
Then we read in Habakkuk 2:2-3:
And JEHOVAH answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it [He] shall speak, and not lie: though it [He] tarry, wait for it [Him]; because it [He] will surely come, it [He] will not tarry.
So the vision is open, as He says:
…Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
We read of the “abomination of desolation” in Matthew 24, and then it says, “Whoso readeth, let him understand.” God had this sealed up till the time of the end, at which time the “wise shall understand.” This is what this verse is referring to. It is referring to the opening of the Bible at the end of the world, which is where we are; and once this is made plain, then we run. We run with the tidings, just like the men who were in the battles of David and Joab would run with tidings of war. God uses this illustration to describe those who begin to understand His Word and then begin to run according to His commandments.
But God is saying here in Romans 9:16 that His salvation or His mercy or His grace that He extends when He justifies a sinner:
…is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
If anyone understands some of the teachings of the Bible and if they are diligently trying to follow them today, this is not going to get them or you or me or anyone else saved. We can wear hats and sweatshirts and T-shirts and we can hand out tracts, and so forth, but none of this is salvation. There is no getting around what the Bible says, “Ye must be born again.” “Ye must”; there is no way around this. No matter how much money a person could give, even to the right Gospel, the bottom line is, “Ye must be born again.”
So God is telling us how anyone becomes born again. It is not “of” what anyone does. It is not of exercising your will. It is not of keeping His commandments and understanding them, and so forth.
How then can anyone be saved? How can this happen? God goes on to tell us that it is not of our will. It is not of our keeping of the Law or of us running the way of His commandments. As Romans 9:16 tells us, it is:
…but of God that showeth mercy.
This is the same way that John 1:13 ended:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
It keeps coming back to this, because this is the truth. This is the only way. “Of God” comes salvation. There is no other way. “Ye must be born again,” and the act of making us born again, we cannot do. We cannot do this at all.
In Matthew 19, we read of Jesus encountering a rich man. Afterwards, we read in Matthew 19:23-25:
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
This is the context of this passage. This is what it is all about.
In the next verse, Matthew 19:26, we see Christ’s reaction:
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
“With men this is impossible” means that there is no possibility, no way. It is out of our control and out of our hands. We cannot get ourselves saved. We can repent. Yes; God allows this. We can cry for mercy. Yes; God allows this. We can read the Bible. Yes; God allows and encourages these things, yet salvation is not under man’s control in any way: “this is impossible.”
Should we be discouraged? No; not at all. Salvation is in God’s hands, the merciful and great and compassionate and wonderful God of the Bible who is seated upon a throne of grace, not a throne of fiery wrath. He is seated upon a throne of grace and He is able to save.
He tells us in Psalm 130 that forgiveness is in His hands. We read in Psalm 130:4:
But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
This is where fear can come in. There is no “fear of the Lord” with a gospel that tells you that you can take salvation to yourself at any moment. Why would a gospel like this cause anyone to fear the Lord?
The whole idea of waiting on the Lord to save is completely gone from the churches today. They can wait on the Lord for a wife or they can wait on the Lord for a good job; but where salvation is concerned, why wait? Why wait when you can just say some magic words? It is like instant pudding. Say them and you instantly become saved, but this is not what the Bible teaches.
God tells us to come to Him, to boldly come and approach the throne of grace, but come realizing that you are guilty and that you deserve to die and that He might not save you; but, then again, He may; because “he delighteth in mercy” and He does save people according to “the good pleasure of his will.”
This is His character; and so when we come, remind Him about these things. Remind Him why He should save you, “Because, O Lord, You granted sight to the blind and ears to the deaf and legs to the lame and life to the dead. You did this again and again and again when they came to You. O Lord, I am all of these things. Spiritually, I am deaf and dumb and blind and lame and dead, and I need a miracle. I need the mighty hand of God”; because, as Matthew 19:26 says:
…With men this is impossible; but…
Here is this wonderful word “but” that we have seen in a couple of other places. It continues:
…but with God all things are possible.
“All things are possible.” There is such a thing as salvation and all of the wonderful things that come with salvation. This is all in God’s hands, which are the safest and best hands that we would want this to be in.
Let us stop here.