[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 2nd of August, 2026. If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]
You know, Family, when you think about how much some people have compared to how little so many others have, it just seems unfair, doesn’t it? I mean we have billionaires with more money than they know what to do with, while there are way too many families struggling to get the basic necessities. Redistribution of wealth is not the answer, but it just seems unfair.
And what about the people who can get away with anything? They do crazy things with impunity, while we’d get caught and thrown under the jail if we tried any of their shenanigans. It's unfair that a person can do all manner of bad things and not be punished. It's just not fair! Why doesn’t God do something about this?!? Well, the answer is simple: God gets to do whatever God wants to do!
I want to continue working with the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome for a while. This book can be challenging to understand in places, but I think it gives us a good picture of what our relationship with God and Jesus should look like. For instance, it teaches us that we are all sinners – all humankind – but that we are justified in God’s eyes by our faith in His Son Jesus, through which we are granted salvation and not through any good works alone we might perform.
Paul also speaks to God’s supremacy. He is God, the Creator of everything that exists, the ultimate Authority, the great Designer of all there is. He made it all and He can destroy it all. It’s all His – everything there is belongs to Him, including us. But God is truly impartial and fair in dealing with us. And He is ever faithful to His word.
Please listen and follow along as the Apostle Paul speaks to us about the faithfulness and authority of God, in the first 18 verses of the 9th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, and I’ll be reading from The Living Bible version of our Holy Bible this morning…
1-3 O Israel, my people! O my Jewish brothers! How I long for you to come to Christ. My heart is heavy within me, and I grieve bitterly day and night because of you. Christ knows and the Holy Spirit knows that it is no mere pretense when I say that I would be willing to be forever damned if that would save you. 4 God has given you so much, but still you will not listen to Him. He took you as His own special, chosen people and led you along with a bright cloud of glory and told you how very much He wanted to bless you. He gave you His rules for daily life so you would know what He wanted you to do. He let you worship Him and gave you mighty promises. 5 Great men of God were your fathers, and Christ Himself was one of you, a Jew so far as His human nature is concerned, He who now rules over all things. Praise God forever!6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill His promises to the Jews? No! For these promises are only to those who are truly Jews. And not everyone born into a Jewish family is truly a Jew! 7 Just the fact that they come from Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say that the promises apply only to Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s descendants, though Abraham had other children too. 8 This means that not all of Abraham’s children are children of God, but only those who believe the promise of salvation which He made to Abraham.9 For God had promised, “Next year I will give you and Sarah a son.” 10-13 And years later, when this son Isaac was grown up and married and Rebecca his wife was about to bear him twin children, God told her that Esau, the child born first, would be a servant to Jacob, his twin brother. In the words of the Scripture, “I chose to bless Jacob but not Esau.” And God said this before the children were even born, before they had done anything either good or bad. This proves that God was doing what He had decided from the beginning; it was not because of what the children did but because of what God wanted and chose.14 Was God being unfair? Of course not. 15 For God had said to Moses, “If I want to be kind to someone, I will. And I will take pity on anyone I want to.” 16 And so God’s blessings are not given just because someone decides to have them or works hard to get them. They are given because God takes pity on those He wants to.17 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was an example of this fact. For God told him He had given him the kingdom of Egypt for the very purpose of displaying the awesome power of God against him, so that all the world would hear about God’s glorious name. 18 So you see, God is kind to some just because He wants to be, and He makes some refuse to listen.
--Romans 9:1-18 (TLB)
Let us pray… Father God, thank You for inspiring Paul to teach us so much about You and Jesus. Through his letters and sermons, we gain a better understanding of how we can improve our relationship with You. Father, please open our hearts to hear Your message this morning, to receive Your word. Touch each of us with Your most Holy Spirit that we might be moved to serve You. In the precious name of Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.
Back in 1993, the magazine, Today in the Word, noted that British prime minister Herbert Asquith once spent a weekend at the Waddesdon estate of the 19th-century Rothschild family. One day, as Asquith was being waited on at teatime by the butler, the following conversation ensued:
"Tea, coffee, or a peach from off the wall, sir?", asked the butler.
"Tea, please," answered Asquith.
"China, India, or Ceylon, sir?"
"China, please."
"Lemon, milk, or cream, sir?"
"Milk, please."
"Jersey, Hereford, or Shorthorn, sir?"
I've had similar encounters just trying to order dinner in a restaurant. The thing is, we often have to make a series of decisions just to resolve one – often small - issue. Throughout our life, we end up making countless decisions, some with major impacts. But the greatest decision we can ever make is whether to follow Jesus or not. The neat things is, it was already decided for us. God chose us to follow Jesus. He just wants us to realize it was the right decision.
Paul opens our scripture reading by acknowledging his family heritage when he sorrowfully cries, “O Israel, my people! O my Jewish brothers!” Paul was a Jew, and a devout Jew at that. He was born of pure Jewish parents of the house of Benjamin, and circumcised on the eighth day according to Jewish custom. He studied at the feet of the great Jewish scholar Gamaliel. Before his confrontation with Jesus on the road to Damascus and his subsequent conversion to Christianity, Paul was a Pharisee, one of the religious leaders of the Jews. Paul was a Jew, but he was also a Roman citizen, born in the city of Tarsus, inheriting his citizenship from his father. And Jesus, in His human form, was a Jew who could trace His heritage to King David through both His earthly father Joseph and His mother Mary.
The church in Rome was a rather diverse mix of Jewish converts and Gentiles who also came to accept Jesus as Lord. When he laments how he longs for his Jewish brothers to come to Christ, he is not talking about those Jewish converts in that church, but about all the Jews who will not listen to the truth, who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, who will not follow the Christ. God sent Jesus to His chosen people, the Jews, as one of them, to offer them salvation. But so many refused to accept Jesus, and still do today. And this breaks Paul’s heart.
Then Paul gets into a fairly lengthy discourse about whether God is being fair in His application and fulfillment of promises. He poses the question: Is God unfair when He blessed some but not others? And he answers: Of course not! He backs up his response when he writes, “God’s blessings are not given just because someone decides to have them or works hard to get them. They are given because God takes pity on those He wants to.” God blesses who He wants to. It’s as simple as that. God doesn’t play favorites, but He doesn’t give to everyone equally.
When Daniel interpreted the "writing on the wall" to King Belshazzar, son of King Nebuchadnezzar, he mentioned what happened to Nebuchadnezzar because he put himself higher than God, even though God had given him authority over the people. Daniel said that Nebuchadnezzar became as a “beast in the fields” until he understood this one basic concept, that God does what He wants to do. Please hear what the great prophet Daniel told King Belshazzar, as he wrote in the latter portion of verse 21 of the 5th chapter of the book bearing his name…
21d "The Most High God overrules the kingdoms of men and appoints anyone He desires to reign over them."
--Daniel 5:21d (TLB)
I don’t know if Paul was referring to what Daniel said to Belshazzar, but it certainly fits the occasion, as he noted again that it's God's choice who leads us. Earlier in his letter to the church in Rome, Paul instructs us to honor the choices God has made. Please hear what Paul wrote to the Romans in the first 3 verses of the 13th chapter of this letter…
1 Obey the government, for God is the one who has put it there. There is no government anywhere that God has not placed in power. 2 So those who refuse to obey the laws of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow. 3 For the policeman does not frighten people who are doing right; but those doing evil will always fear him. So if you don’t want to be afraid, keep the laws and you will get along well.
--Romans 13:1-3 (TLB)
God chooses who will lead us. We in the United States think we vote our leaders into positions of authority. So we’re all concerned with whether our elections are fair and legitimate, whether we can trust the veracity of mail-in ballots, whether there are people voting who shouldn’t be. But ultimately, God has already chosen for us. It's been said we get the leaders we deserve, and there may be a lot of truth in that.
Really, though, this isn't about our governments or our leaders or our election process. It's about how God chooses who gets what and who does what, not us. God gave Pharaoh the kingdom of Egypt just so He – God – could show His great and awesome power against him – Pharaoh – and He certainly did that! Makes me wonder if some people have been put into positions of power just so God could humble them.
Paul sums everything up when he closes our passage this morning by saying, “God is kind to some just because He wants to be, and He makes some refuse to listen.” I think I may be an example of both.
I believe I’ve told my story before. I refused to listen for decades, around 40 years, before answering God’s call. Just as Paul was struck blind on the road to Damascus, I was smacked upside the head by God’s 2x4. He has been very kind to me, blessing me in so many ways, but He has also humbled me, time after time after time. And I’ve known many folks who have experienced similar series of being blessed and being humbled. Of course, I also know of some people who I am still waiting to see them be humbled. It’s all in God’s time, though, and I may never see it happen. After all, it’s God’s choice. And who is in a better position to make that choice, any choice, but God? Only God.
So next time you’re trying to decide between a roll or biscuit or cornbread or Texas toast, maybe let God decide for you. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Almighty God, thank You for being fair and impartial when dealing with us. We know that You make the rains to fall and the sun to shine on the good and the bad alike. And we understand that You can do whatever You want to do. You can bless us, or You can humble us. We thank You, Father, for the many blessings, and we pray that when You must humble us, that You be gentle. We trust You, Father, because we know You are working things for our good and You always keep Your word. Sadly though, Father, too often we think we know better and question Your decisions. We want Your blessing because we think we deserve it, and we want You to punish someone because we think they deserve it. Please remind us, Father, that the decision is Yours. You are the ultimate Authority and You can do what You want.
Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment so that each of us can speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your and our Lord’s commands, and seeking Your help to do so…
Lord Jesus, thank You for staying true to all the Messianic prophesies, especially those regarding Gentiles. You included us when working God’s plan of reconciliation. You showed us the same mercy as Your Jewish brothers and sisters. You washed us clean with Your blood. And we thank You, Lord.
Please help us be a better witness for You, of Your teachings, of Your mighty deeds, and of Your love. Please help us love in the same way that You love: selflessly, unconditionally, sacrificially. Help us show Your love and God’s love as we reach out to others, sharing the wonderful Gospel message. Help us carry out the mission You gave us, seeking the lost sheep and leading them to You.
Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises. Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares. Help us see though his temptations. Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer. All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
