Sermon: God’s Sovereign Mercy, Pt 2

Unless you are a devout historian, you probably don’t know the name Nicholas Winton.  “Nicky” Winton died four years ago at the age of 106.  That’s remarkable, but that’s not what is most remarkable about him.

His life began somewhat unremarkably, a Jewish son in an Anglo-Bavarian family that emigrated to England in the 18^th century, he was a banker and then stockbroker in England.  His life took a dramatic turn in December 1938 when his friend, Martin Blake, asked him to cancel their planned skiing trip to Switzerland and go with him to Prague instead.  Winton agreed and they arrived on New Year’s Eve, 1938, and were met by the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia.  The city had upwards of 250,000 refugees from Germany and Austria, many of whom were Jewish.  Meeting the committee, Winton quickly became determined to at least help the children of the families, so he began taking names and making plans for how to get them to England.  He took his first group of 20 children in January 1939.  After returning home, he would work during the day and then spend each evening organizing permits and travel documents for the children.  Because of the slowness of the British government to act and the scarcity of funds to pay £50 bonds for each child, and his perceived urgency for the situation, he began forging documents.  Over the next few months, Winton arranged for eight rail transports of children to enter the country.  A ninth transport, scheduled to leave on September 1, 1939 was canceled by the Germans and the 250 children on that transport were subsequently taken to concentration camps.  In total, Winton and those working with him saved at least 664 children — 561 of them Jewish.  He has been called, “the British Schindler.”

That is a remarkable story of salvation.  Our hearts sing when we hear stories of that kind of sacrifice and service.  But friends (and you know this), we have an even greater story of salvation.  We have a greater story of One who has worked behind the scenes of our lives, doing for us what we could never do for ourselves — and that is the story of the eternal God who has elected His children to salvation and then secured and produced their salvation at the right time.

This is the story of sovereign salvation, told by the Apostle Paul in Romans 9-11; the story of those chapters is that God is faithful to save His children.  He is faithful to His salvation plan for Israel and for us.  That plan, which Paul begins to unfold in Romans 9:6-18, reveals that —

Salvation is always the result of God’s sovereign, merciful, and faithful choice.

If you are saved from God’s wrath, you are saved as the result of God’s sovereign kindness to choose you.  Everyone you know that is saved from God’s wrath is saved by that same sovereign, merciful choosing.

In verses 6-18, there are five demonstrations of God’s faithfulness; we looked at the first two previously; we will look at the second two today:

1. God is Faithful — His Promises Don’t Fail (v. 6a)
2. God is Faithful — His Election Doesn’t Fail (v. 6b)
3. God is Faithful — His Election of Isaac is Typical (vv. 7-9)
4. God is Faithful — His Purposes Will Stand (vv. 10-13)
5. God is Faithful — His Non-Election of Pharaoh is Just (vv. 14-18)

Download the rest of this sermon on Romans 9:6-13.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.