Let's turn in our Bibles to Paul's letter to the Romans. We will be in chapter nine today. We have come to a portion that I believe to be the heart of Paul's epistle. And he is now coming to his main point as to how we are to relate to one another in the body of Christ. Even though we may have different ethnic backgrounds, we may have different histories behind us, how do we relate to one another? Romans chapter nine. The first eight chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans, it's like the on-ramp to this subject. He's addressing the behavior of the church. And he says, you know, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, there is only one gospel. And there is only one way for a person to have a right standing with God. And that is through faith in the promise. Faith in the promised one. Faith in Christ. There's no other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved. There's not a different gospel for the Jew and a different gospel for the Gentile, a different gospel for women and a different gospel for men, a different gospel to a person regarding of the origin of their birth. There is one gospel. And as we've learned, the church at Rome was founded by a congregation of predominantly Jewish folk or those who were Gentiles and then were converted to Judaism, we call those proselytes. And then as they shared the gospel in Rome, it became more of a mixed congregation in the 30s and the 40s of the first century until 49 AD when all the Jews were expelled from Rome by an edict of Emperor Claudius. It was an example of identity politics and anti-Semitism even in that day. And then the non-Jewish population in the church, the Gentiles, had five years without any Jews among them. And then, when Claudius died and Emperor Nero came to power, for commercial reasons, the Jews were invited back to Rome and they were now going to be integrated once again, though some of them were even in the founding days of the church. They were being welcomed back, but really many people were keeping them at arm's distance, asking the question, do we really need them? We've done very well without them. There are even some evangelical teachers today who say we should detach ourselves from the Old Testament. We should detach ourselves from that part of the story and just start with Jesus. And they struggled with this matter of what theologians call the scandal of particularity. The scandal of particularity is a theological concept referring to the idea that God in his sovereign will has chosen to reveal himself and work through a specific people and Through specific places and events in history most notably of course the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth and I've heard skeptics say well, you know, I can't imagine that if God wanted to save the world that he would come to this little backwater town in a non-important part of the Roman Empire. I can't understand why he would be, you know, a Jewish person. But the truth is that God is right in making the decisions of who he's going to work with to accomplish his plan. And he has a plan in mind. It's a bit different than you and me, right? Sometimes we say, well, if you say I've got it all figured out and I've got a plan, that's when God laughs, you know. But the word scandal comes from the Greek word skandalon, meaning a stumbling block. And it's scandalous to human reason because it feels arbitrary or unfair. Why would not God reveal himself equally to all cultures at all times through all religions? After all, shouldn't he come to this earth when we have the internet and when we have all these ways of communication? But the truth is that God decided to act in space-time history in a particular way. There were specific historical occurrences. The exodus of the Jews from Egypt, The incarnation. Jesus is unique. He is the only human being who chose to be born. You didn't choose to be born, did you? You didn't choose where you would be born. I was born in Denver, Colorado. How did I get there? I don't know. The Mile High City, that explains a lot of things. Maybe a little thin on the atmosphere. that Jesus chose to be born. He chose where to be born. He had his father. He was eternally begotten of the Father as the second person of the Trinity, but he chose a Jewish mother and a teenager at that. And there is a particular revelation that we have in Christianity that the fullness of divine truth is revealed uniquely in Jesus Christ. Not equally through all religious paths. All religions are not the same. This is the scandal. This is the stumbling block. This is something that is offensive in a pluralistic society. But this is the truth. And the Apostle Paul will defend this truth. That God has the right and he has the reasons for making his choices. And so the theological significance of the doctrine of particularity, or the scandal, I should say, of particularity, is that there's an incarnational truth. God enters the human race in a concrete way. in time and space. Jesus is the Word of God, the full articulation of deity in humanity. Jesus could say that he is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. If you want to know what the Father is like, look to me. He claimed to be the Messiah. And so the scandal of particularity challenges the modern desire for universalism by asserting that the universal God works through historical particulars. Paul is not a Unitarian Universalist, neither is any apostle, because we know that God is triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that he has a universal love for all people. and he's not willing that any should perish. God so loved the world, God loved the world in such a way that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him should not perish but should have everlasting life. So we're going to view Paul addressing the scandal of particularity in Romans chapter 9. So if you're with me, Romans chapter 9 starting with verse one, and I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible. I've titled this message, God's Workmanship, Not Ours. I could call it God's Strategy, Not Ours. God's Plan, Not Ours. Verse one, I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel, nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants. But through Isaac your descendants will be named. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise. At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but there was Rebecca also when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing, anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls, it was said to her, the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, Jacob, I have flubbed, but Esau, I hated. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. So then he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. He will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this, will it? Or does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom he also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles, As he says also in Hosea, I will call those people who are not my people, my people. And he who was not beloved, beloved. And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there shall be called sons of the living God. Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved. For the Lord will execute his word on the earth thoroughly and quickly. And just as Isaiah foretold, unless the Lord of Sabaoth, that is the Lord of Hosts, had left to us a posterity, that is a seed, literally, we would have become like Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we humble ourselves before your infallible word. We thank you for making yourself known to us. You made known your name, you made known your will, and you made known your strategy for salvation. And you made known to us your son. And we pray that by your spirit we would have a greater apprehension of all of these things. And Lord, that you would instruct us, teach us, and we pray that what we hear today would not just be knowledge for the head, but it would be changing our hearts, our attitudes towards one another, our appreciation for your grace, and a wonderful recognition of your absolute holiness, standing far above us and yet communing with us as friends and as sons and daughters. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. There was a British journalist, William Norman Ewer, he commented on the scandal of particularity with these words, how odd of God to choose the Jews. And then the American rhymester, Ogden Nash, supplied an additional line, He said, but not so odd as those who choose the Jewish God yet spurn the Jews. And it is odd that non-Jews or Gentiles who believe in the God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who revealed himself to Moses and dwelt among us in the incarnate Jewish son of God, they have a history of anti-Semitism. I believe that if the Reformers had fully understood Romans 9 through 11, there wouldn't have been such a wretched record of anti-Semitism in the church. And it's important for us to own our sins. But, you know, with the tremendous revelation of being justified by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone, that occupied their understanding. That was such a liberating truth, especially when you were in a medieval Catholic Church, and you believed that you had to work your way to God, and you never knew where you stood with God, to know that a right standing with God was a free gift offered to everyone who believes. And that's all that's required, is admittance of who you are, what your need is, and then trusting Christ to be your Lord and your Savior, and His saving work alone. As some of you know, I've written about Martin Luther, and in his last years, he became very anti-Semitic, and there is no way to justify his behavior. Some say that his anti-Semitism was a result of his illness, but it was more likely that his strategy did not line up with God's strategy. And by the way, when you and I have an argument with God, guess who's right? You see, he, in his early writings in the 1520s, he was sympathetic to the Jews and he called for evangelistic outreach to them. He wrote a paper called that Jesus Christ was born a Jew in 1523. But when the Jews did not respond to the gospel overtures, he became very frustrated. His strategy was not working. And so he just said, God must have passed them by. They're not responding to the gospel. They were not being converted in large numbers as he had hoped. And so he fell in with the European antisemitism of his day. He wasn't the only one because that was a very common. Antisemitism has been around since Genesis chapter three. But Luther's rhetoric was not limited to a theological critique. It included an explicit cause, a call to violence and persecution, the burning of synagogues and just the expulsion of Jewish communities. But this New Testament in your Bible does not do away with Israel. In fact, we see that Israel is not abandoned. The name Israel appears approximately 73 times in the New Testament, 14 times in Paul's letter to the Romans, and three times in this particular chapter that we are studying. And each time it refers to ethnic Israel. It refers to God's chosen people with whom he covenanted to be in a relationship and that he would bring a blessing through their seed, singular, which would be the Messiah, Christ. So we know that the church today is made up of both Jews and Gentiles, but we are grafted in to this root. We are part of God's strategy. And so the question we might ask is what about the ethnic Jew today? Does the person, because of their Jewish identity, have a leg up on the promises of God? There were people in Jesus' day who just said, we don't need you, we are Abraham's children. We are the Jews, we're in with God. And they thought just by being Jewish that they would be saved. But that is not the truth. Jesus says your father is not Abraham, it's the devil. You need to be released. from your bondage to the author of lies and the religion of self-redemption. You need to trust him. And we see that the Jews had a special role in God's rescue plan. Jesus was Jewish. The apostles were Jewish. The New Testament, apart from Luke, was written by Jews. And Jesus is coming back to Israel. He's coming back to Jerusalem as the king of the Jews and the king of all kings and the world's only savior. And there is a new Jerusalem in our future. In Revelation chapter 21 verse 10, the apostle John says, he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal clear jasper. It had a great and high wall with, listen to this, 12 gates, and at the gates, 12 angels. The names were written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east, and three gates on the north, and three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had 12 foundation stones, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. You get the picture? In God's mind, there's still a distinction. Salvation is through the Lamb of God. the promised one, the Messiah, to the Jews. But he is the savior of Jew and Gentile. And we have both the names of the sons of Israel and the names of the apostles in the New Jerusalem. So the question might have been asked in the early church at Rome, what is the role of the Jew today? And if we're to welcome the Jews back into our predominantly Gentile congregation, how should we view them? And so Paul begins by, in chapter one, answering, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first. There is a reason why we're giving attention to evangelize the Jew. There is a reason, because it's the Jewish Messiah. If Jesus Christ is alive, he's the Jewish Messiah. He must be alive. How can I know he's alive? I want to know him. And of course, they discover. My sister-in-law, Jewish woman, a week after I got saved and I shared the gospel with my brother, he's with his Jewish girlfriend, and when they heard my testimony, they said, if Jesus Christ can do that for you, I want to know him too. And she was converted, a Jewish woman, to Christ. And so was my brother. And we're so thankful for those Jews that are in our congregation. They are completed Jews. But their rank is not one of speciality. It's just that's their heritage. But they have equal blessings, every spiritual blessing. is granted to Jew and Gentile in Christ Jesus. And the righteousness of God in this gospel is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. Has God abandoned his promises to Israel? Is he finished with Israel? No. You know, when you are converted, as I said last week, Things change in your life. Your relationships with family, with friends, with coworkers change. They have to. Because you view everything in a different way. You are now born from above. You are a citizen of heaven. And now your desire is to see the lost people in your family and your colleagues at work saved. That's a dominant theme in this part of our earth trek. Our thinking changes. And so the Apostle Paul, when he gets to Romans chapter 12, he says, listen, now that you know these truths, you gotta change your way of thinking. He says, therefore, in light of these mercies to Jew and Gentile, present your body as a living sacrifice. And he says, do not be conformed to this world with its anti-Semitic ideas, and do not be conformed to the world thinking that you can get into heaven through your own efforts. I heard from one man last week, he said, well, you know, I'm going to take responsibility for my sins. I'm going to do it my way. And that person has no clue how his own righteousness falls infinitely short of the minimum requirement for heaven. You have no leg to stand on if you are going to boast in your accomplishments, ability to keep your nose clean and to keep as many commandments as you can. God does not grade on a curve. He's requiring absolute righteousness. Be ye perfect. How perfect? As perfect as your father is in heaven. Be ye holy. How holy? As holy as he is holy. Our own righteousness is but filthy rags, say the prophets. So we don't think the way we used to. We must submit to this gospel. It is God's plan of salvation, not our own. We cannot claim any righteousness of our own. It's not a matter of our cleverness. It's not a matter of our sincerity. Well, you know, she's so sincere. I've heard people say about their fellow concordants, you know, she would not hurt a fly. She's such a dear, you know, as if being a dear is going to get you into heaven. You'll have the deer in the headlights look when you face the judgment seat, I'll tell you. I'm saying this to press truth upon you. We need to change our way of thinking. I was brought up in a Roman Catholic tradition. I thought all Protestants were going to hell. And then as a Protestant, I was deceived into thinking that all who were in the Catholic church would never hear the gospel. Then I thought, well, it was an Augustinian monk, Johann von Staupitz, who shared the gospel with Martin Luther. Maybe there's something wrong with my ideas. And he told, Staupitz told Luther to look to Christ, look to Christ, although it's not clear whether Staupitz took his advice. All I'm saying is that we need to change our way of thinking. God so loved the world. It's a universal love. and that he had to particularly act in history in order to achieve that plan of salvation. It would involve him making choices. So let's again look at this chapter. We started with Paul's sorrow. His great sorrow for his brothers in Romans 9 verse 1 and 2. He says, I'm telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. And it's not just a sincere burden. You know what the word sincere means. It means, it's from the Latin, sincere, without wax. And in the old days in the marketplace, if you wanted to sell a vessel, you know, and it was a cracked pot, and you want to put this product out on the table to sell it, you would just cover the cracks with wax. But the educated consumer would take that little crackpot, put it up in the light, and see, oh, this is not what you say it is. It's not genuine. It's got wax in it. So it's covering up its weakness. And then they would move on and look for a genuine article. So Paul is saying, my burden is without wax. It is sincere. I mean this. And I'll testify before the Trinity. God is my witness. My conscience testifies. agreeing with the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. It didn't stop. And it was a bit of a puzzle. Why wouldn't it stop? Because his former friends now turned on him, hated him, and persecuted him. They stoned him, left him for dead. He who was once praised, you know, this is the guy who's gonna be, he's the Jew's Jew. He's the cat's pajamas. Where'd that expression come from? He's the top drawer. He's top drawer. That's what the Brits would say. He's top drawer. But now he's public enemy number one because he is now advocating a different way than our way of religious self-righteousness. He had an intense burden. He didn't just have a feeling in his heart. He was willing to do something about it. He was willing to sacrifice. He was willing to look like a fool in the eyes of other people. He was willing to accept the fact that some of his friends would think that he's a traitor, betraying the cause. But he cared enough to say something. He cared enough to speak up in conversations in the marketplace. And we need to do the same. When we are concerned with the lost, we need to be willing to be looked upon as a fool. We need to open our mouths and say something. It's wrongly attributed to Francis of Assisi saying, he says, preach the gospel. If necessary, use words. But that's as ridiculous as saying, give me your phone number. If necessary, use digits. The gospel is good news and good news must be heard as well as demonstrated. I get the idea, but you got to put it in the right perspective. He says, for I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. This expressed his Christ-like burden for the lost. Now this idea of him taking the place of the guilty and the punishment of hell so that others could go to heaven was an expression of hyperbole. Just like Jesus said, if your eye offends you, pluck it out. He didn't mean that you literally do this. Otherwise, I'd be looking at a lot of one-eyed people around here, especially the men, right? So the idea is that you deal with sin. It was an expression. And this is an expression, hyperbole expression. He's saying, if it were possible, I would take the place of my former, my brethren in the flesh, and go to hell if it could get them to heaven. But no one could do that but Jesus. And that's what Jesus did on the cross. He took our place, the place of the sinner, and suffered the punishment of hell on the cross that we could go to heaven. He took hell on the cross so that we could go to heaven. And then his burden was an ironic one. It was ironic because you would have thought that the Jews would have welcomed the Messiah when he came. He came into his own, but his own received him not. In Gospel of John chapter one, the Jews were privileged with all of these particular blessings and Paul lists nine of them. But their hearts were hardened. Hardened, we're gonna see that word again. The Greek word hardened, we get sclerosis from it. It's like the hardening of the arteries. Their hearts were getting harder and colder. In verse four, they had the privilege of being Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ, the greatest privilege of all, as through them comes the Christ, the Messiah, according to the flesh, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen. And it's ironic, in spite of these nine blessings, the hearts of the majority of the Jews were hardened, resisting the gospel. Paul, you're betraying your fathers. Didn't we raise you upright? But those who believe this are mistaken. because we have God's strategy in verses six of chapter nine through 11, verse 35. Okay, so now he's gonna say, this explains things. So you read it without the chapter divisions and it makes so much sense. First of all, Paul makes it clear that God's strategy is true to God's word. It's true to the promises. It's consistent with his word. I wish we could say that ourselves. We hear politicians say promises made, promises kept. That's a nice ambition, but it doesn't really work out all the time the way you would want it. But God's strategy, he can say promises made, promises kept. He's going to keep his promises. He's going to be true to his word, and all he does is consistent with his word. And so in verse six he says, it is not as though the word of God has failed. And now he's going to take 11 distinct Old Testament prophecies in this section. Direct quotations from the Old Testament or strong allusions to Old Testament scriptures. And the first one that he affirms is that God has the blessing of all nations in view. All nations that would be blessed through the divine promise seed. The Messiah. That was right from the beginning. Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 is the promised seed. The seed of the woman. That's God's strategy. It's centered in the Christ. The Son of God. The Christ according to the flesh. Who is God over all. And I believe the ESV rendering is right on that one. In Genesis 3 verse 15 We see how the promise was, God says, he's talking to now the serpent, he says, and I, God, will put enmity between you, Satan, and the woman, that is the one through whom the Savior would be born, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head. In other words, that's an oriental expression that means he will depose your rule as a usurper. In other words, he would destroy death and him who has power over death, the devil. And you shall bruise him on the heel. That is, the promised seed would be afflicted, persecuted, crucified. And it also implies, too, that the seed carriers of the Messiah would be subject to suffering. So the rescue plan of human redemption would be channeled through Israel. This was his sovereign, unconditional choice. So he's gonna put his plan into action. And Paul will prove this with the scriptures. And he authors a covenant with Abraham. And Abraham is considered the father of the faith. The history here is not, it doesn't start with his salvation story. It's not about personal salvation here. It's God choosing an instrument through whom the Messiah would come into the world. Genesis 12 verse 1. Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so shall you be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed you see how universal that is God has this in view the blessing of all nations right from the beginning Philip Johnson in his book a history of the Jews writes that The election of Abraham and his descendants for a special role in God's providence and the donation of the land are inseparable in the biblical presentation of history. According to the Bible, the election of Israel can never be revoked. The land will ultimately be reverted to Israel, even if she loses it for a time. And I've said to you before, right today, Israel only has one quarter of the land that God has promised. Israel is going to be here in the future. No matter how many protests you see and anti-semitic actions that take place, this is the Word of God. This covenant is going to be repeated in Genesis chapter 13. More details will be added in verse 16 to 17, I'll start with verse 14. The Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land which you see, I will give to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you." And so, interestingly enough, not only does God promise Abraham to be a great nation and to give him a land, and through his seed, singular, all the families of the earth will be blessed, the Messiah. But he also talks about numerous physical descendants. And he uses the illustration of the dust of the earth. But then he expands the promise to not just include earthly people, but heavenly people, a spiritual family. Notice in Genesis chapter 15, when the promise is repeated, and you remember Abraham is so puzzled by this because his wife is barren, and he says, well, maybe what you're referring to as my heir could be Eleazar of Damascus, he's my servant, and the Lord says, no, no, no, your strategy is not, Even relevant here, it's my strategy, he says, that the promised seed, the physical heir, will be from your own body. And you will have descendants, spiritual, heavenly descendants as well. In verse four, he says, then behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this man, Eleazar of Damascus, will not be your heir. but one who will come forth out of your own body. He shall be your heir. And he took him outside and said, now look towards the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them. See, he did it for the dust of the earth, the physical descendants. Now he says, look to heavens. There's gonna be a spiritual reproduction of life. And see if you're able to count them. So shall your descendants be. And then, and only then do we get the saving act where Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness in Genesis 15, 6. But then in chapter 16 to 17, Abraham continues with his strategy. He says, it's not going to be Eliezer, you know, my servant. He says, it's going to come from my own body. And then he resorts to a custom of that day that he would get the servant of his wife, Hagar, to father his child. Then that gave birth to Ishmael. But Ishmael was not the promised son that God had in mind. God had chosen Isaac over Ishmael. And by the way, this has nothing to do with salvation. It's God choosing an instrument through whom the Messiah would come. Regarding Ishmael, we know that Ishmael was not being rejected by God because God actually names Ishmael in the sense that when Ishmael is born and God heard the cry in Genesis 21, 17, God still had a plan to bless Ishmael. God heard the lad crying and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. And verse 20, God was with the lad and he grew. God was with Ishmael. I remember a fellow who came to Christ in the congregation I was pastoring in England, and I said, tell me about yourself. I said, he was a Mideastern. We had lots of internationals come to the Lord in those days. And he was from the Middle East. And I said, tell me about your background. He said, I'm an Ishmaelite, Ishmaelite. They were blessed. Now many of the descendants are Muslim, but it's wonderful that they're... We even had a fellow in the congregation whose name was Ishmael. Remember? And he loved the Lord. The name Ishmael means God hears. You see, God has a plan. And in these chapters, it's God's strategy that prevails, not man strategy. Man strategy was Eliezer. Abraham's man strategy was Ishmael. But God had a plan to bring about the one he had intended to be the heir, the son of promise, Isaac. And when Sarah, who was barren, hears that she's going to have a child at the age of 90, what a miracle! In fact, we have the first record of a woman laughing in the Bible. And at first, it's the laugh of unbelief, but then it ends up being a laugh of rejoicing because just as God said, remember God says to the angel of the Lord, he says, this time next year, you will have a son. And so there's a miraculous conception and then there is the son of promise. And it's done in such a way that when we read the Bible we see how there are these types that are being set up that are perfect representations. Isaac in the Bible is never recorded of doing anything on his own initiative. He only does what the father Abraham does. It's a wonderful type of Christ. And we see that even when it comes to getting a bride for Isaac, it's the father who's got a plan to send out an unnamed messenger, a type of the Holy Spirit, who brings a Gentile bride into the life of Isaac. This is God's strategy. So what we're going to do now is just get an overview of these three chapters. God has a plan for Israel that's foretold in the scripture, and it deals with the past. Chapter 9 predominantly is about God's strategy in the past. In the past, Israel is selected for God's purpose, not for salvation, but for God's purpose. People will be saved. Gentiles and Jews will be saved through the same method, through faith in Christ. It's not about God predestining some people to heaven and God looking over other people so that they are damned. It has nothing to do with that at all. The predestined one here is the Christ, who according to the flesh will be a descendant of the Jews. Israel is selected for God's purpose, to be a chosen nation chosen instruments within. God is going to use certain members of these descendants of Abraham in special ways to accomplish his purpose. Then we have the activity of God, the strategy unfolding in the present. And we learn from verse 30 of chapter 9 to chapter 11 verse 24 that Israel is stubborn towards the promise, stumbling over the promise, because it's not according to their strategy, to their ideas, it's not about being saved through observing the religious codes in the ceremonies, but it's through faith in the Messiah. In Romans chapter 10 verse 21, But as for Israel, he says, all the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. And I want you, when you read through these chapters, to see God's heart for these people. He's stretching out his hands. Everybody put out your hands. Just put out your hands. Okay. Now try doing that for a century or two. You see how God is so willing to have people come to him. He says, the offer is for you, take it. And he's not pulling back his hands, he's saying it's for you. Even we're gonna read about God's attitude towards Pharaoh. It's one of patience. He's looking for Pharaoh to repent. He isn't preordained. He says, I'm gonna make a vessel of destruction and I'm just gonna do that. What artist in their right mind is saying, I'm gonna fill my potter's house full of things can throw against the wall and destroy. Of course not. He's got a plan. And that plan is one that involves people making decisions when they hear the gospel that they would believe. So the blessing of the stubbornness of Israel is that it creates room for the gospel to be spread to the Gentile nations. And then when the Gentiles come to faith in Yeshua, HaMashiach, the Messiah, they should be getting jealous. Now, there's a difference between jealousy and envy. Now, when you envy something, you admire what someone has. You don't have it. but you admire it. But jealousy is when, say, if your husband and your wife is getting special attention from someone who shouldn't she be getting attention, you are feeling jealous because that's your wife. And so the Jews, when they see blessing come upon the other nations, they should be saying, that's my blessing, that belongs to me. That's what Paul is hoping for, that he would see. And the good news is that we have a future. And so in verses 26 and 27 of chapter 11, we will see how God will save a believing remnant. So in the first part, when Paul recounts the past. It is God selecting a people for the purpose of bringing forth the Messiah. Then we have the present, where we see the Jews responding, some of them stumbling over the plan of salvation, which we'll learn about, but also some believing. The early church was predominantly Jewish in Acts chapter two, but we see through circumstances how The majority of the congregations in the second and third missionary journeys were Gentile. And so in the future, he will save the remnant. Verse 26, and so all Israel will be saved. That doesn't mean every person who's Jewish, but it means that the plan will come to fulfillment. All Israel will be saved. And it'll be saved as in a day when we read through the Old Testament scriptures. Just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. And I do believe that when the Jewish people see Jesus return and they see that Jesus is alive, they will say like that woman said to the preacher, that's my Messiah. And they will mourn. They will look upon him whom they pierced, but God will grant them repentance and they will believe. So he's got a plan for us, not just a plan for Israel. He's got a plan for us. And in this passage he says we continue to pray for the lost. We continue to evangelize. Romans 11 verse 28. From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake. They are now, you know, persecuting and we may see this in different parts of the world where we definitely see it with Hindus and Muslims attacking those in Pakistan, India. We see the persecution of the church in the Sudan. We see Somalia and so many up in northern Nigeria, China, Korea. There's this opposition to the gospel where they are enemies. The Jewish people, Paul is explaining, are enemies for your sake, so that the Gentiles, you will have an opportunity to believe. But from the standpoint of God's choice, what are they? They are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, that which he intended for Israel. For just as you were once disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy, because of their disobedience, so shall there also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you, they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that he may show mercy to all. What is his intention? To show mercy to all. That's what this passage is about. It's not about some people being predestined to salvation and other people being predestined to damnation. It's about God's strategy for salvation. He has a plan. And that plan for us is not only to pray and to evangelize, but it's to praise and to worship. In verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. And in the end, we're gonna say God's strategy is perfect. We were singing about that when we were talking about His ways, His truth, His ways. All His ways are perfect. And so we need to recognize that. Repent of our old way of thinking and come to Christ. Now, just for a remainder of the time, I wanna do a little deeper dive in the verses in chapter nine. So first we learn that God's election for service is independent, yet he has his reasons. He's going to make his decisions according to his purpose. Do we know every little nook and cranny of God's mind? I don't think so. But we do know that he is good, and we know that he knows what he's doing. He declares the end from the beginning. He knows all of history. He's outside of time, in the eternal. ancient times things which have not been done he knows saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure in Isaiah 46 10 then in Romans chapter 9 verse 6b he begins to defend God's strategy he says first of all get this clear in your head not all Israel are descended from Israel just because you may be a descendant of Abraham doesn't mean that you have a special privilege of being saved automatically. Nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants. But through Isaac, and he begins to talk about the scandal of particularity, it's going to be through Isaac and not Ishmael or Eleazar, that your descendants will be named. that it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of the promise that he gave to Sarah. At this time, I will come and Sarah shall have a son. Genesis 18 10. So God chose Abraham while he was a pagan. He was The 10th generation from Shem, we get the word Semite from Shem. So he was a descendant of Eber. We get the word Hebrew from Eber. So you see, he was, in this sense, he was a Semite and he was a Hebrew. and he would become the great-grandfather of Judah, from which we get the name Jew. So you get the idea. But as far as his personal life, he was an idolater, and his father was an idolater, but God chose him and began to work with him and made promises to him. Paul is reminding us that God chose Abraham to be head of a tribe, the Jewish nation, whom God would adopt as his own people. In Exodus chapter four, verse 22, then you shall say to Pharaoh, the Lord says to Moses, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. And so God chooses to work with a select group of people, these genealogical forebears of the promised seed, the physical offspring, like the sand of the sea, to bring about a spiritual, heavenly offspring, the stars of the air, the stars of the sky. And so he has a predestined plan to bring salvation by certain vessels for his purpose, even surprising people like Sarah, who thought it was impossible for her to have a child. We learn that God's way of salvation is to put faith in the promise. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ in Romans chapter 10, verse 17. In Romans chapter nine, verse 10, we read about the birth of Jacob and Esau. And not only this, but there was Rebecca also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls, it was said to her, the older will serve the younger. And just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Now sometimes it can be confusing because if people are just not paying attention to what Paul is saying, they're gonna say, oh, not by works, it must be about salvation. But he's not dealing with that. That's not the subject matter here. He's talking about these children in the womb of Rebekah, they had not yet shown their faces, but God already had a strategy to choose one. And remember, we spoke last week about God choosing not the natural firstborn, but choosing the second. And it fulfills the type two, that first comes out which is natural, then comes out which is spiritual. we see that God is kind of tipping things around and he's revealing so many things about himself through the way he is interacting with us. So he says the older will serve the younger. Obviously he's not speaking of personal salvation because in Esau's life, Esau did not serve Jacob. It was the other way around. Jacob made offerings to Esau. Jacob fell on his face before Esau. So it's not speaking of a prophecy regarding a personal salvation It's about the nation and we'll see more about that later So it's national and not individual and I put some scriptures there for you To show that he's referring to the nation of Israel. There are two nations within you in Genesis 25 verse 23 that's the Word of the Lord given to Isaac and Rebekah, that these children were representing two different nations, and that they were chose for service and not salvation. These nations will receive the Messiah, Israel. And then when we get to this passage, Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated, again quoting Malachi 1, verses two and three, it's using this idiom of preference. We see this in the New Testament with Jesus who says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Well obviously the word hate in this regard is not the same thing as a feeling of hatred. It is a preference. It is a loving. To hate is to love less than. Does that make sense? Love less than. Why? Because Jesus was one who was fulfilling the law. And what is the fifth commandment? It's to honor your father and your mother. So do you think Jesus is canceling that all out? No, he's saying, of course I honor my father and my mother, but he's saying you are to give primary allegiance to God, to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. What is Jesus saying in this passage? He's saying that he is God and he deserves the affection. That's amazing, isn't it? In Luke 14, 26, he is claiming deity. He says, I am the one who you should be loving more than all others. And your prior and higher commitment to me will sanctify your love and purify your love for others. You will love others more if you love me more. You with me on that? And then Jesus uses that again. He says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. And then we know that it's not going to be individual because we know how God loves Esau. In fact, the nation Edom comes from Esau, and in Deuteronomy 23, verse seven, You shall not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not detest an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land." And when we see Old Testament verses quoted in the New Testament, we need to go back to the Old Testament and see the context in which those verses are used. And when Malachi is quoted here, In the original context, Malachi is speaking about the Edomites, the descendants, the nation. God is choosing the nation Israel because it's to the Jew first, that is his strategy, over the Edomites. Does that mean he's got no regard to the nation of Edom or that Edomites are all damned because God is overpassing them and not offering them salvation? that they're not predestined to salvation. That's not what he's talking about at all. In the original context, he says, I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, how have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord? Yet I have loved Jacob. but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness. Though Edom says we have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins, thus says the Lord of hosts, they may build, but I will tear down, and men will call them the wicked territory and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever. So he's making it clear that in history, we're going to see how God is showing favor to Israel and that the Edomites are going to experience judgment. If you ever go to Petra, Petra is basically a ruin, but that was an Edomite city. Then we see God's choice is to show mercy. And this is independent again. Let me make it clear that the calling here is national, not individual. Israel's chosen for service, not salvation. Chosen for preference, not despite. God's choice is to show mercy. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be. God is perfectly justified in making his choices. And he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. If we read this in context, we understand that God is independently choosing to give mercy. He doesn't have to give mercy to anybody, but his heart is to give mercy. There's one time where the children of Israel, they were worshiping the golden calf, and the Lord was angry with them. And then we see Moses intercedes, and the Lord is going to show mercy, but he's making it clear, I'm going to show mercy not because of what you do, but because of my decision, my strategy. And then he turns to the subject of Pharaoh. And this is like a little pivot verse, verse 16 says, so then it does not depend on the man who wills, Moses willed that mercy be shown to Israel, but the Lord says, I'm gonna have compassion on whom I will have compassion, or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. And so we see how Pharaoh is an instrument in God's hand. But as an instrument, he's from the same lump of humanity. And we see that there are seven times in which Pharaoh hardens his heart. And even after a time when the Lord says, okay, this is the way you're going to be. I'm going to harden your heart three times. It's done in such a way that we see that God is continually offering an opportunity for Pharaoh to soften his heart and to change. That's the record of scripture. So the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raise you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. In other words, God says, if this is the way that the pot is going to go, I'm going to use this. But instead of using it for my original intention, I'm going to use it for another intention, and that is to bring greater glory to my name. And he is using this illustration regarding Pharaoh hardening his heart as an illustration of Israel hardening his heart. So he's saying, just as Pharaoh hardened the heart, so has Israel hardened the heart. And we see many times that Israel hardens the heart. And then, after Christ comes, the promised seed, what do we see happening again? Israel hardening their heart. But just as Pharaoh was used, and the plagues came, and then the manifestation of God's glorious deliverance with the Passover, and the Exodus, and the pillar of glory, day and the fire by night and the these provisions making known the the saving work of the Hebrews God we see how the hardening of the heart of the Jews brings the knowledge of the glory of God to the whole earth the Gentile nations well our time is going so quickly and there's so much here but the point is that God is revealing his strategy and His prerogative is to use resistant and responsive hearts for his purpose. I'll repeat that. It's his prerogative to use resistant and responsive hearts for his purpose. He's illustrating that God works together with those who love him and are the called in everything for the good of his purposes. God causes all things to work together. He doesn't say God causes all things. He causes all things to work together for the good of his purposes to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. God is patient, creative, and he's a merciful potter. In his relationship to Pharaoh, he is patient. Did you notice that in the scriptures in this chapter? It describes his patience towards Pharaoh. What about Israel? His arms are out. God is long-suffering, and he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of his Son. Romans 9, verse 19. You will say to me, then, why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this, will it? Or does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? He endures with patience these vessels, but then when he sees the nature of the bent within the clay quality, he says, I'm going to use this in a different way. He doesn't say, I'm going to start with this clay and prepare this. This clay is predestined to destruction. That's a waste of clay. That's not an artist. He is using this his way. And you go back to the Old Testament picture in Jeremiah about the potter's house. It's the quality of the clay that will determine the creative, redemptive, patient work of the potter. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, arise and go down to the potter's house and there I will announce my words to you. Then I went down to the potter's house and there he was making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter. It was in the quality of the clay. So he remade it into another vessel as it pleased the potter to make. Saying, I can use this. I'll use this hardness of heart. I'll use this rebellion for my purpose to bring glory to my name and to extend the gospel. And we see that this is consistent with the New Testament teaching regarding how we respond to the Lord, and our response makes a difference. We see this with 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 20. Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. In other words, some for noble use, some for common use. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. If you want to be used of the Lord, if you want to be a vessel of honor, you make decisions that are responsive to the revealed will of God. but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. And instead of pursuing youthful lust, pursue those with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, a God-glorifying course. God's plan for mercy and glory is expansive. And he's gonna quote Hosea, and we'll have to get to that next week. Let's pray. Oh Father, we do thank you for your great wisdom, your mercy, and your love that's manifested in this strategy. I know that you are calling people here to believe, to believe your promise, to believe your gospel. And we recognize the call is to whoever believes. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. We know that the call is that we should humble our hearts and not harden them. You resist the proud. You give grace to the humble. And Lord, we need the grace of your salvation. You give this admonition not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when the Jews were provoked in the day of temptation in the wilderness. And we realize that the call is to show mercy to all. Help us to be merciful to our brothers and sisters and to receive them as you have received them, to your glory. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.