Well, we're gonna spend a little time tonight in Romans chapter 9 again And what we'll try to do here for a few minutes is just sort of wrap a bow on what we began last Wednesday night in looking at right now versus versus 9 through 13. So we ran through 9 through 11 and we'll finish up with 9 through 12 and we'll look at verse 13 as it relates to this theme. So let me read Romans 9 verses 9 through 13. Before I read it let me just say again that Romans 9 is the great declaration of God's right to be God and God's predestinating purposes, and his right to be able to be sovereign, and his faithfulness in predestinating people, but not all people, to receive mercy and salvation. So it's a great declaration of God's sovereignty, of God's predestinating purposes, and of God's vindication of God's right to be God. And it's found in the context of Paul engaging with unbelieving Jews. This is really sort of a... I don't know that direct person-to-person conversation, but it's Paul engaging with a Jewish thought, the unbelieving Jewish thought that we have, we Jews, have a right. We have a right to be called the children of Abraham. We have a right to be the children of God. We have a right to, we deserve salvation because we are recipients of the promise of God for these things that God promised to Abraham. And so Paul's gospel is very different than that. Paul's gospel, he says it several times, is both narrower and broader than that. Paul's gospel says that actually your status as being the child of Abraham does you no good because all the world is guilty before God. And, it's broader, God's salvation is not just to Jew, it's also to Gentile, but nationality or ethnicity really have nothing to do with that. It's actually according to the grace of God. The grace of God that is dispensed sovereignly. The grace of God that is dispensed justly. the grace of God that's dispensed freely, and this grace of God didn't just begin in your lifetime, this grace of God, the plan was hatched from all eternity when God predestinated, predetermined those whom He would bring to salvation, would bring to His Son Jesus Christ, would bring to live with heaven and glory. So this is Paul's declaration of excuse me, this great truth. And so he goes to a series of arguments to show that. The first argument that he would give is, well, you've misunderstood what God actually promised. God never actually promised salvation. this promise to all of the children of Abraham. That's clear because we see that it wasn't through all of Abraham's children. It didn't go to Ishmael. It was through Isaac, the child of promise. Then the second argument that Paul will make, and he makes it here in this passage, we've been looking at it last time, is that, and it's not just all the children of Isaac, but it's Jacob. And in this case, it's not because Jacob was a promised child. Well, what was the reason that it went to Jacob and not to Esau? And the answer is that the purposes of God according to election might stand. So Paul now really gets to the crux of it. This is the reality. This is actually, so it's not just through Abraham. It's not just through Isaac. It's not like that at all. Not all of Abraham, but Isaac. Not all of Isaac, but Jacob. Well, what it actually is according to the predestinating purposes of God. And so in this argument, or to prove his statement, to prove his gospel, Paul goes to scripture. So this last time, I'm saying again, how instructive that is. Well, how do we know what's true? Well, Paul appeals to the scriptures to prove his argument. And so he appeals to two different scriptures. The first one we looked at last time was when God appeared, when God spoke Two, so the angel spoke to Rebekah before her twins were born as they were struggling in the womb and he said to her the elder shall serve the younger. Okay and so that was against the custom that was against the way, the law that was against that. It was different. It was different than the norm when we did that last time. And so the real point here is that Paul's emphasizing is that this was before. This was before. This was before. This was before actions. This was before sin. This was before good works. This was before all those things. In fact, it was before they were born, it was before that, it was before the world began. It was in God's eternal purposes in election. And so now Paul will make a second argument. And so let me, or Paul will put the second scripture. So let me just read this passage to you again and then look at the second scripture. Romans 9 verse 9, for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, it's really verse 10 I want, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, it's before, neither having done any good or evil, so that their works are not being considered, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." There in verse 11 is the great declaration of predestination, of God's purposes determining beforehand the eternal destiny of every individual in the human race. 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. Here's this proof text. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. Here's a second proof text. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I stated. I would love to go back and re-hash verses 10 through 12 again. We won't do that. You can go listen to the recording if it's, it should still be up there. So, this question that you should ask as you read verse 13 is, well, where is that stated? And the answer to that is Malachi chapter 1. Well, that's interesting, isn't it? Malachi chapter 1. Malachi, as you probably know, is the last prophetic book that is recorded before something like 400 years before the dawn of the new covenant when the angel appeared unto Zacharias and the preparation was made for the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The glory of the light of salvation was finally born. But Malachi describes a much more dismal scene. Malachi is written years after Jacob is dead and gone, and years after Esau is dead and gone. But the nations that they were the fathers of are still alive and well, or you might not say alive and well, they're alive but not very well. Not very well spiritually. Not doing very well even as far as political power goes or as far as prospects for the future goes. They're not doing well. And they're not doing well for a very specific reason. They're not doing well because Malachi lays out the reasons. Malachi lays out the reasons why Israel is in a dismal shape. He blasts the priests in this chapter. The priests who are not teaching truth. They're spinning lies and they're even using the people to build their own wealth and to build their own power structures. He blasts the people for their covetousness. He blasts the men who are leaving their wives when they find them not attractive and going and finding new wives and just giving them a bill of divorcement. He blasts the oppression that's occurring. He just, he blasts the the covetousness and the robbing of God that was going on. There's a robbing of God. People were claiming to be giving themselves and their resources to God, but really they were hoarding them for themselves as giving a little, you know, a wounded animal sort of a sacrifice. That's what he says in Malachi. But what he really blasts them for is their attitude. Their attitude was awful. This is how awful it was. God says, basically, how dare you rob me? You know what the answer is? Parents, when have you gotten the maddest at your children? We can just really say, Lord, help me to breathe deeply. It's when they brazenly look you in the face When you know, this is not like I heard this, I saw you do this. God sees all and says, how dare you rob me? And they go, I didn't rob you. It was that attitude. Here's another one. I love you. It says it here, I love you. And they go, no you don't. I can't see it in your love." And then God just lays out, this is how I've loved you, this is how I've loved you, this is how I've loved you, and you've robbed me, and you've taken my word, priest, and profaned it, and you've oppressed the poor, and you've done this and you've done that. This is that. This is Malachi. Okay? So, Malachi is showing both Israel and Edom's corrupt state in the present, and the present being years and years after Jacob is all gone. And this is the last prophet they're going to hear from. But that's not all Malachi shows. Malachi will also tell them how God's going to deal with them in the future, and why. haven't really broken apart Edom and Edom is Esau and Israel here. Israel is the one that's saying, prove you love me. Here's what Edom is saying. This is verse 4 of chapter 1 Whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished. Yeah, we're not doing too well. But we will return and build the desolate places. They're like, listen, we're not doing too well right now, but we're going to rise back up. It's like Samson. Remember Samson who would say, well, I'm going to get up again today, just like I did before. Forgetting that his strength came not from himself, but strength came from the Lord. And so there was one day when his hair was cut off, he didn't rise up, did he? That was Edom's attitude. The rest of this is about Israel. So neither one of these characters, neither one of these nations are ones that we would be favorable towards. Are they? That's the point. Predestination is all about either mercy or withholding mercy. But it's really important to understand every individual is in the same boat. of either, of needing mercy. That's the whole point. Of needing mercy. This is why he says, listen, this is before they were born. This is before they had done any good or evil. You can't get any closer, really, than twins. These are boys in the womb with the same DNA. They're sharing the same womb. They were born at the same time. You can't get any closer. And so to try to differentiate them based upon which one is more favorable, I think is a bad question. It's the wrong question. The whole point of Romans 9 is there's mercy that's needed. Friend, know that's your case as well. And the real point of Romans 9 is that God can dispense mercy, God does dispense mercy how God deems it right to dispense mercy. God dispenses mercy according to His own purpose. And His purposes are driven by His grace. Okay? And so it's impossible to accept the God of Romans 9 without starting from the standpoint of, I need mercy. You will not have this if you don't understand that. Okay? Now, I just said this, but I'll say it again. Malachi not only tells us where Israel is and where Edom is, but it also tells us what God's going to do in the future with them and then why God will do this. So let me just read to you what God will do to Edom. The same verse, verse 4, chapter 1. We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down. And they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. That's pretty destructive, isn't it? It's pretty final and complete, and that's what it is. We're going to get up. No, you're not. You're not, because I'm not going to let you get up. But I'm going to destroy you forever, and the people that are going to see you are going to say, those are the people against whom the Lord is against forever. Wow. Not a very Not a very hopeful future, is it? Now, how about Israel? How about Israel? Let me just give you a few texts. You tell me if you've heard of these texts before. This is in the same chapter, this is in the same chapter where God had just said, you're robbing me. Okay? In the same chapter, he says, okay, so again, somebody robs you. And then they tell you, you robbed me. And they look you in the face and go, prove it. That's what Israel says. And two verses later, God says, prove me if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Now before that, he says, bring your tithes, bring your offerings. But do you think those tithes and offerings earn that kind of response from God? You better believe not. No way. This is the same kid who said, I didn't rob you. Does that sound different than one verse four where he says, we'll get up, we'll bring some tithes. The guy says, uh-uh, I'm going to destroy you. See if you've heard this before. Oh, by the way, verse 14, listen to this. Ye have said, speaking to Israel, it is vain to serve God. And what prophecy is it that we have kept His ordinance and that we have walked warmly before the Lord of hosts? What an attitude. It's vain to serve God. It's not any good to us to be sober-minded and go through these sacrifices and serve God. And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. This is what they thought. You tempt God, you'll get away with it. If you're wicked, you'll probably be set for life. Again, friends, this is not people who any of us would by nature do anything good for. Now, you heard this verse before. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings. Wow. Who's He speaking to? He's speaking to Israel. I'm gonna send Jesus. What? And the question is why? Why will He who sent the Son of Righteousness People so brazenly foolish and awful, why? There's two answers. Malachi gives it to us. The first one is in the first chapter, verse one and two and three. The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi, I have loved you, saith the Lord. Where does love come from? I don't see love in chapters 1 through 4. The purposes of God according to election might stand before they were born, before they had done good or evil. For God's love for his people, its source is from within himself. there would not be love if the sourcing was from us. That's the point, right? There could be no love if what had to spur the love, what had to drive the love and continue the love was driven from us. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, here's the attitude, wherein hast thou loved us? And he says, was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob. and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness." That's where 4 verse 2 comes from. The son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings because I've loved you. Now here's another one. Same book. This is one I know you know. Malachi 3.6. Let me read to you the verse before this. Let me just read this to you, verse 5. Have you ever read verse 5 or verse 6? Probably not. But you ought to read verse 5 or verse 6. It makes it even better. Here's verse 5. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift, this is God speaking, I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against false swearers, against those that oppress the highling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless. I mean, just imagine that. You people are taking widows. orphans and instead of caring for them, you're oppressing them and robbing from them. I'm coming for you. And that turn aside the stranger from his right, and here's a worse one, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. I've got hosts to get judgment. Here's the next verse. For I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, These sons of Jacob are not consumed. Friends, there's never been a better passage for sinners right there. Got any oppressors in the room? Got any adulterers in the heart in the room? Got anybody that's ever taken advantage of anybody for their own good in the room? Friends, your hope cannot be in your own good works. Your hope's gotta be in the deep, deep, deep well of love of God from all eternity. Okay? So, let's close this way. That's Malachi 1. That's his proof. It's because I love Jacob. I hated Esau. So, one question that we ought to ponder just for a minute together is this. Yes, Malachi 1 and through 5 is talking about Jacob and the nation that followed, an Esau nation that followed. but it's in the context of Romans 9 which is saying this is God's demeanor, this is God's demeanor before they were born, before they had done any evil, we can see how it worked out later, but this is before that when God hates Esau and loves Jacob. This is why he has mercy, because he loves, right? This is why he doesn't have mercy, because he hates. And so the question we ought to ponder just for a minute is this, is, well, why? What does it mean that God hates? Because, specifically, what does it mean that God hates outside of the consideration of actions that they'll do? We know God hates bad actions, right? So does it mean the same thing that God hates before the world began outside of consideration of action. And let me just say this very quickly on the front end. No, it doesn't mean the same thing. Okay? It doesn't mean exactly the same thing. There's some nuance here, and I think we can follow through this. Because we must know this. God's hatred has to be holy. Right? So hatred has to be holy. So God's hatred or God's judgment of sinful acts is based upon the sinfulness of those acts. And we're talking about something that happened before there were any acts, before the world began, without consideration of what they would do. So what does it mean that God hated Esau? Another way of just saying this is the term double predestination. And we have to be careful with that word or that phrase, but it's a good phrase if understood rightly. So predestination means that God predetermined that He would save those whom He had placed His love upon. But what does it mean that God hated? That's the question. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna walk through this with you with two thoughts that I think join together very well. One from R.C. Sproul's book, Chosen of God, and then one from John Gill, and they mesh together very perfectly. I think they both give a very clear thought. So God's hatred must be holy. So what does it mean that God hated? So one option, this is not the right option, but one option is what R.C. Sproul calls equal ultimacy. Okay, so, an equal thought with predestination. God predestines some to be saved. He predestines in the same way. So really, he intervenes to save. He predestines in the same way those who are not. And it's not the same. It's not exactly the same, okay? So here's how he explains it. So equal ultimacy seeks a complete balance between election and reprobation. The key idea is this. Just as God intervenes in the lives of the elect to create faith in their hearts, so God equally intervenes in the lives of the reprobate to create or work unbelief in their hearts. And he says that can't be. And he's right. So it's not the exact same thing. Why is that not right? Very important point. James 1 tells us this. Habakkuk 1 tells us this. Let no man say what he's tempted. I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth He any man. And so Sproul goes on to say, he says, I think a better way to think about this, and it's funny, John Gilliam used the exact same words. He says, a better way to think of this is of the positive and the negative decrees of God are more helpful in understanding this. So by positive, he means God's active intervention, okay? So God actively intervenes to show mercy upon us. Okay? And then negatively, it means that God passes by or leaves to ourselves. Okay? So, in other words, God leaves us in the realm of justice. Let them live their life and let justice be served on however they live their life. Okay? Now this fits in very well with Romans 9.22, the same idea of Romans 9.22, where it says, what if God, what if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for, fitted to destruction. So the only way that God is fitting them to destruction is in a sense of just not choosing them. But this is in the context of God's enduring something for a long time. What is God enduring? God is enduring sins. Hithepapon sins. Hithepapon sins. Hithepapon sins. That's what God's enduring. That's the way He endured Pharaoh. That's the way He endured Cain. This is really 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. For God is long-suffering. Why has God not destroyed this world already? because God is long-suffering to us or to His elect. Not only that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So what if God willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction. So in this context, really the word fitted is more applied to the individual. They're fitting themselves for destruction. And God's enduring this for a long time. but he's going to make his power known and he's going to make his wrath known. Now, here's how John Gill says it, very similar. In regards to this passage, it remains that these words regard their persons and express the true spring and source of the choice of the one, election, and the rejection of the other Reprobation, and which holds true of all the instances of either kind. Now, everlasting and unchangeable love is the true cause and spring of the choice of particular persons to eternal salvation. And hatred is the cause of rejection. And here's what he says, by which is meant not positive hatred, which can only have for its object sin and sinners. Now, it's not saying God doesn't hate. God does hate. God is angry with the wicked every day. But we're talking about something that happened before there was a consideration of any activities. So what does that hate mean? But negative hatred, which is God's will not to give eternal life to some persons, and shows itself by a neglect of them, taking no notice of them, passing them by when he chose others. So the word hate is used for neglect, taking no notice, where positive hatred cannot be thought to take place. And the proof text that he gives for that, so that it's used that way in scripture, is Luke 14 26 and in that passage Jesus says if any man hate not his father or his mother or his family to come after me. He's not saying, he's not saying you better hate, you either gotta love, you either gotta hate me or hate your family. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is, is you gotta put me first. You gotta neglect your family. I don't know how to say that. I must be your first priority. That's what he's saying. Please, husbands, don't leave here saying, feel free to neglect your family. I'm just going to go on a God retreat. That's not what I mean. But that's what he's saying, right? Hatred in that sense. And so I think that's very helpful in understanding what that means. It's not love less. That's a silly explanation. But it is, it is, I'm neglecting you. I'm leaving you to be done what justice will require, and I'm setting my love upon you. And that makes all the difference. And that's Paul's point. That's why Isaac ultimately was chosen. That's why Jacob ultimately was chosen. And that's why every believing son of grace is chosen. It's out of the electing, predestinating love of God. Next time we'll see, is that fair? Is that fair? And we'll talk about that next time.