ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
after agreeing to keep God's law. This happened while Moses, their great mediator, was on the mount. They had already broken two commandments of the decalogue, and God was about to blot them out. But after Moses interceded for them, God defended His action in saving them by uttering the words of sovereign grace, quoted by Paul in Rom. 9:15: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." These words were prompt~ ed by the love of God, my friend. You will note that Paul does not go on to say, "I will send to hell whom I will." God never uses His electing grace to send anyone to hell. He who spends eternity in hell chooses to do so. Observe the wonders of God's grace. As Dr. Ironside points out, "God took refuge in His own inherent right to show grace." Apart from this, Israel would have been blotted out. Nationally Israel owes all her blessings to God's mercy and grace and compassion. Paul's argument is that if it pleased God now to take up the Gentiles, why should Israel complain? They themselves would have been wiped out, had it not been for God's grace. Thus salvation ever depends upon God's sovereign mercy. Therefore, verse 16 can be explained in this light, because without God's touch, no man wills to seek God. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." Left alone, man's heart becomes hardened. No man would walk down the aisle in the Church of the Open Door and accept Christ unless the Holy Spirit touched his heart. "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid'' (verse 14). None would be saved, but for the grace of God. And has He not the right to act according to His sovereign will? As we have already said, this is perhaps the most difficult portion in the Bible. But the difficulty will pass away, to a large extent, if we remember that Paul is arguing for God's righteousness in bringing in the Gentiles, thereby meeting the Jews' objections. In these illustrations and in the one that Page 184]
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