All right, let's take a look at our Romans chapter 9. And Paul was talking to the preacher Timothy, who was a pastor of the church of Ephesus. And he told him to preach the word. Very important. If you look in Romans 9, 1 to 16, I title this message, God's Freedom of Choice. We have freedom of choice, do we not? We can choose whether we want to have toast toasties, or corn flakes, or some other breakfast food, hot cereal, cold cereal. We have lots of freedom of choice. God has given that to us. Why don't we let God have his freedom of choice? Why are we critical of our God who chooses certain things and doesn't choose other things? And this is what we want to see today. Now, as we said before, Romans 9, 10, and 11 talks about Israel. Israel's past is Romans 9, Israel's present is Romans 10, and Israel's future is Romans 11. And Israel does have a past, it did have a past, it has a present, and it will have a future. Now that's different from the teachings of Mr. Harold Camping on WKDN Family Radio, who does not believe in literal national Israel at all. He believes that Israel has now become the church, and the church takes all the promises of Israel. We do not believe that's scriptural. We believe it's unscriptural. We find in Romans 9, 10, and 11 the fact that regular Israel is true and righteous. Let's read the first three verses together from Romans chapter 9, beginning at verse 1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continuous sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. He begins in verse 1, he doesn't lie. It's a good thing never for us to lie. The Lord Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And Paul, especially when he's going to talk about this terrible, terrible curse that he would even almost take in verse 3, he's got to preface it by saying, I lie not, and the Holy Spirit of God bears witness that I'm telling you the truth. Paul was seriously afflicted and affected by the unbelieving Jews all around him. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew, and Paul was a Jew, but he found all of his countrymen around about were rejecting that Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 2 it says, he's in great heaviness. Grief was his, because these unsaved people around him and his fellow countrymen, his kinsmen, were lost. He's in heaviness and in sorrow. A consuming grief was his. Now, just ask yourself a question. When is the time, if at all, that you and I have sorrow and grief for anyone who is lost? Just think about that. Those that are apart from Christ, those whose destiny is hell, the lake of fire. I believe we can, as Paul, or should, as Paul, have some sorrow and grief because of those that are on their way to a Christless eternity, damnation, judgment, and hell. But Paul was not a hypocrite. He had sorrow. And notice verse 3, the greatest of all statements in this whole area. I could wish, not that it would happen, but I could wish, he says, that myself were cursed from Christ. for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to their flesh. If it were possible, a curse, that Greek word is anathema. That anathema is a strong, solid curse, a thing devoted to God without hope of being redeemed. That's what anathema means. It's a personal thing doomed to destruction. And Paul says, I could wish that I were doomed to destruction if only my kinsmen, the fellow believers, the fellow Israelites, the Jews around me would be saved. Now, I don't know that any of us should want to doom ourselves to hell, but Paul could wish. It's not possible, but he could wish it at least. But the desire for those that are around us to be saved, whether they are our kinsmen, our relatives, our sisters, our brothers, our moms, dads, grandparents, children, grandchildren, that they should be saved. This is what Paul had wished, and it's a very potent and proper sentiment, even though I think it's lacking in most of us. Now notice in verse 4, let's read verse 4 together. Who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. Here are the past benefits of these kinsmen of Paul. They're called Israelites. There's no darkness in a Jewish cemetery because they're all Israelites. You heard that little bit of humor. But Israelites, those followers of Abraham and Song, they had a past. They pertained to adoption. God picked them. God chose them. It was a special line of His choice. God had freedom of choice. He had a choice of Abraham first, and then a special son, Isaac, and his special son, Jacob, and then down the line until the Lord Jesus Christ was born. And these Israelites had the adoption and the close relationship to the Lord. Not like the Gentiles and the heathens that were our ancestors, but they had a special covenant relationship with the Lord, and the glory. They partook of the Shekinah glory when they went through the wilderness. Shekinah is Hebrew word to dwell. And the Shekinah glory was the dwelling glory of God. And everywhere they went in the wilderness wanderings, the cloud was above the tabernacle. And when the cloud moved, the glorious cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they moved. That is what God manifested Himself. That glory was a visible thing of all the Israelites so they could see it. And they had this glory. We do not have that. They had the covenants. That word covenant is used 280 times in the scriptures. 256 in the Old Testament, the rest in the New. But there's the Edenic covenant and the Noahic covenant. But the Abrahamic covenant starts with the covenants of Israel. The Mosaic covenant, the Palestinian covenant, the New covenant. They had the covenants. Agreements with God that what they would do would be pleasing. Then the giving of the law. God did not give the law to Moses. to us who are Gentiles, he gave it to Israel, a special people. And it was a terrible thing on that day, the power of God and the smoke and the lamp and the fire from Mount Sinai that just was making the people afraid. But they had the giving of the law and the service, the special service of God with all the offerings and the promises. Now, these promises of Israel have not been fulfilled by the church, the believers today. That's another point, Mr. Camping, and the Amillennialists do not believe. Those that are covenant theologians do not believe that there is a special entity called Israel, and God has his past, his present, and his future. They believe that the promises of Israel, the Jews, are fulfilled in us, the believers, the church. That is not true. God said what he meant and meant what he said. And to whom belong the promises? Now, God is going to fulfill all the promises of the Old Testament that he made to Israel. And many of those promises will be fulfilled in the millennium, the thousand year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ upon this earth. And you don't have to spiritualize God's promises of the Old Testament. You don't have to say when the different animals, the avaricious animals in the ones that are going to eat other animals will play together with the others and the little child shall put his hand into the hole of the poisonous snake and nothing will happen. You don't have to spiritualize that and say, well, that's just the gospel sort of spices things up. No. That will take place. No longer will there be tigers eating cats and dogs and so on and so forth, but there will be peace. None shall destroy all of God's mountain. A millennium will bring Peace. I talk about the millennium coming up. See, this new millennium. The year 2000. The millennial bug and all. We've got a millennium spoken in scripture. That's a good word. They're reviving the biblical term, aren't they? Millennium. Mille, for a thousand in Latin. Annum, year, thousand years. That's what it is. Millennium. But the millennium of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He is here upon this earth, reigning and ruling for a thousand years, many things will change. But the promises of God will be fulfilled. We'll have longevity in a millennium. No longer will a child die at the age of ten and be called a child. He'll die and he'll be a hundred years old. Well, if a child dies at a hundred, that means we'll die at a thousand. Ten times a child's age. And so we'll have longevity. And so we'll have people walking around in the millennium that will be as Methuselah's age, 969 years of age, before the flood. and so on. There's lots of changes, topographic changes. There will be changes in the desert of Palestine, and the desert will blossom as a rose, it says. Now that's not just figurative speech, that will take place. And there will be waters from the city of Jerusalem that will go forth and heal the Dead Sea, the Salt Sea, and the whole desert area will blossom and prosper. Well, that's a long time on that word promises, but all these Israelites have these things that God has promised to them. Let's read verse 5 together. whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Whose are the fathers? Now the fathers, when you see the word fathers in the New Testament, speaking of the Old Testament fathers, not the church fathers, but the fathers of the Israelitish nation. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, those are the lead fathers. And Jacob had twelve sons, twelve tribes. The twelve tribes in the verse of the Lord Jesus came through the tribe of Judah. but whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ did not come as to the spirit through any human line, because he was eternal God, and he was incarnated into this life, but he came as to the flesh, as to the lineage, was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and he was of the fathers, and of Israel, he was a Jew. And that was very important. Now notice the next part of verse 5. Concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Notice there is a comma after the word all. Comma. God is in apposition to Christ. This is an excellent translation of the Greek text. And it says Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. It's saying here clearly that Christ is God, blessed forever. Now I want you to notice, there's some versions and perversions of the Word of God that change the deity of Christ right here at this verse. Westcott and Hort changed it. Westcott and Hort's text didn't like this. Let me quote to you from Revised Standard Version, sponsored by the National Council of Churches, which is an apostate group of churches. In their Romans 9.5 it says, To whom belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. Period, not comma. They put a period there. Then they have a new sentence. They divorce Christ from being God and they say this, God who is over all be blessed forever. God who is over all be blessed forever. Isn't that nice? How they divorce the deity of Christ in this verse. But here is a tremendously powerful verse that the Lord Jesus Christ is God, blessed forever. So that's verse 5. Let's read verse 6 together. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Now this is a very important point. Just because a person is a member of the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Israelite tribes. God does not consider them to be Israel, the real Israel, the true Israel. It's those that have been looking by faith forward to the cross of Calvary. Those are the real Israelites. Just like not all members of some church are real Christian. That's the same type of thing. They can name that they're Baptist or Presbyterian or whatever their membership, or Roman Catholic or Lutheran. That does not make them a Christian just because they name a name. It must be personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that gives them eternal life and regeneration. Any more than... Let's see, what is it about the car in the garage? What is it? I can't think of it. Help me out. Just because you're in the garage doesn't make you a car. I guess that's true. All right. I suppose that's right. But anyway, all Israel, not of Israel, but there's a belief, a faith in the Father Abraham, trusting Christ, who would one day come, that makes a person an Israelite. The true Israelites are those who follow the Lord, whose heart is right with the Lord. And not simply by birth. And you know that you and I cannot be born Christian either. Mom and dad may be saved. Now my father was unsaved until the 80 years old he was, or more, when Pastor Powers Payton, pastor then of Paddington High Baptist Church, went to visit my dad and led him to Christ when he was right here in the hospital, Wills Eye Hospital, having some surgery on his eyes. But mom was saved. But just because she was saved and then she stayed in the Methodist Church all the rest of her life, I could never talk her out of it. Dear mom, she was born in that church, and at that time when she was a young lady, they believed the Bible, they preached the Bible. She couldn't believe that these preachers would deny the Word of God. I could never convince mom to the contrary. Even though as a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, I went to her pastor. I think it was Pastor Manson or maybe it was some other pastor at that time. I asked him a number of questions about the Lord Jesus Christ. What about his deity? No, I don't believe that. What about his virgin birth? Well, I don't think it's essential. What about his bodily resurrection? No. I took notes. Took them back to my mom. And she thought I was the one that was crazy. This minister couldn't deny this. I must have misheard it, you see. But even if mom and dad both were saved and born again, that wouldn't make me a Christian. Just by being born into that family, I have to be born again individually. I must personally receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. And so that's the way that this Israel is. Just because they're born of that stock, doesn't make them a genuine Israelite as God looks down upon them. Alright, let's read verse 7 together. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall that seed be called." So here is not only just Abraham. Now, we have a battle in the Far East, in the East, the central part, the Palestinian area, the Middle East I guess you call it, between Abraham, among Abraham's children. You see, Abraham had Isaac, that's one thing, that's the Jews, but he also had Ishmael. All the Arabs and so on and so forth. And they're battling together. You've got a battle in Palestine. You've got a battle in Jerusalem. And the East Bank, West Bank, and all over the place. And you've got Yasha Arafat, or whatever his... He's a hardcore communist terrorist. A butcher that slaughters and murders and kills. And our President is trying to make deals between that murderer and Israel. And it'll never last. And those that follow AFAT will continuously just break every argument and agreement that is made. Remember Lenin, one of the early communists, said promises are like pie crusts made to be broken. Made to be broken. And they will break the promises of this thing. But Abraham is having trouble. His seed is having trouble. the Isaac seed of Jews and the Ishmael seed of the Arabs but it says in verse 7 neither are they the seed of Abraham they are not our children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called now there's God's freedom of choice He chose to bless and to have the Lord Jesus Christ come from Isaac Abraham's second son. Now, let's read verse 8 together in that regard. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of God, of the promise, are counted for the seed. Now, the children of the flesh, it's referring to the Ishmaelites. And the Ishmael, the son of Abraham, was a son of the flesh, not a son of the promise. God promised Abraham a son and a seed as the stars of the sky and as the sand of the seashore. He would have children. And he couldn't wait for God to fulfill the promise. And so he had a deal with Sarah and Hagar, her handmaid, Maybe he could have children by Hagar, the handmaid. And so that's exactly what produced Ishmael. But God says, not they that are the children of the flesh, but the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And so the word of Jesus Christ came through Isaac, not through Ishmael. Now let's read verse 9 together. For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son." Now if we go back to Genesis 15, we'll see the background. Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, saying I go childless, and the steward of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of God came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, number the stars, if thou be able to number them. He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And Genesis 15, 6. And he believed in the Lord, that is, Abraham did, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now this, Genesis 15, was the promise. And that promise could not be fulfilled in anything but Abraham's wife. Not some handmaid off the street brought in to have conception of children and have Ishmael born. Nothing to do with that. But Abraham couldn't wait. Sometimes we can't wait to have God's word fulfilled and we rush things. We go off half-cocked, as they say, and we go off with the flesh, and we want to do things our way. Genesis 18, verse 14, Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed, God said, I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Sarah was barren. She couldn't have any children. And in Genesis 17, Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. He liked Ishmael. Ishmael was his first born, even though it was through Hagar, a handmaid, it wasn't his real wife that bore this son. But he was a man of the field, he was strong, probably handsome, rugged. So he probably had a beard and all. Didn't wear a tie. Alright, I hope he didn't have shingles. And God said, so thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed. And thou shalt call his name Isaac. and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him. Make him fruitful, multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. So God had freedom of choice. He set aside the firstborn in favor of the secondborn, Isaac. Isaac was the son of promise. That's up to God. He can do this. That's his freedom of choice. He can pick and choose just like you and I can pick and choose. We should remember that and not fault the Lord for that. All right, now let's read verse 10 together. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac. Let's read verse 11 as well. 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. Alright, we bring up here in verse 10, not only this, but when Rebecca had conceived. Now that was Isaac's wife, Rebecca. She was the one that Isaac was to have the seed. Now this is the line, Rebecca's line. and it was going to be through Isaac and not through the other son which was Esau. See they had two sons that were of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Two sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau. And God chose one and not the other. And as it says in verse 11 as we read, the children being not yet born, that is Jacob and Esau, weren't even born yet, 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. Now here's God's freedom of choice. Now notice there's a word election in here. Now the Calvinists and Hyper-Calvinists like to fasten upon this word election and make it always refer to salvation. That is not the case. In fact, there are very few instances in scripture where the word election or choice or whatever refers to salvation. This election or choice refers to choosing and picking one of the two children from whom the Lord Jesus Christ would be born. That's God's sovereign choice, His freedom of choice. And let me just go over some of the things of election that are taught by the Heidler Calvinists that I believe to be unscriptural. They teach that none of us can be saved unless we're previously elected by God, who has elected a small number of people in the world. And that you, if you're not previously elected, cannot accept Christ and receive Him as Savior. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ did not even die for you in your place, unless you're re-elect. This is what they teach. And so when John 3.16 is recited, for God so loved the world the hyper-Calvinists interpret for us what world means and they put two words after it in parenthesis three words God so loved the world of the elect that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever that is of the elect believeth in him should not perish that is the elect but have everlasting life I believe this is a travesty on biblical interpretation I believe it's a travesty on God's love for the world I believe it's rending and twisting the Scriptures, and I believe it's done great harm to the cause of Christ. Because if a person really believes that only the elect can be saved, that means, and only the elect are loved by God, and God doesn't love anybody that's not elect. I cannot tell an audience such as this, when I don't know whether everyone for sure is saved, I cannot tell you that God loves you, if I believe like they do. I cannot tell you also that Christ died for your sins, if Christ didn't die for your sins. If Christ only died for the sins of the elect. I wouldn't be able to preach the gospel if I believed that. There was a man who believed that very strongly. He was one of the fellow teachers when I was teaching at Shelton College, or when I was at Cape May, New Jersey. Dr. Nick Lee, from South Africa. And I said, Nick, how can you preach the gospel? Well, he said, I don't tell Christ died for this. I just say, I don't know what he says. He was tongue-tied. He couldn't tell. You have an audience out here you're talking to. Whether it's a radio audience, whether it's a live audience, whoever it is. How do you preach? Well, I don't know. I just say that He couldn't give an answer. I would be so touched if I couldn't say God loved the whole world. But this word election here is God's choice as to which of these two sons He was going to pick and choose to be the inheritor of the blessings of God and from whom the Lord Jesus Christ was going to be born. And it had nothing to do with works, whether good or evil. He didn't wait to be born, whether Esau was better than Jacob, and so on. They were both a little bit questionable in many things that they did. He didn't ask anything about works, but before they were born, he just said, alright, the line of my son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is going to come through Jacob. That's it. That's his choice. We've got to give him the power to choose. He's the great God of the universe. He chose to create the stars, every one of them, the galaxies, and all of them. And he chose to create man, and from man create and make woman. And he does all things right, and all the animals of the earth. And his purpose is, according to the purpose of God, he chose that the election might be not of works, but of his choice. And then verse 12, let's read that together. And it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. Now that's an interesting phenomenon in the scripture. The elder shall serve the younger. Why, the elders usually have the greatest place at the table and inheritance. In fact, in the Old Testament economy, the elder son, the firstborn, would get twice as much as any of the other children. That was the law of the firstborn. They would get double, they would have double the inheritance. And that was a great thing. But do you realize that God in the Old Testament continuously changed that law from the elder being the topmost to the secondborn. Look at Adam, the first Adam and the last Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ is called in 1 Corinthians the last Adam. It's the first Adam that God takes away and he puts in his place the last Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ is the God of all the nature and he's the one that's first. And God rejects the first Adam and now Christ is the one that's to be exalted. Again, you take a look at Abraham and his firstborn was Ishmael. God sets that aside. He takes Isaac, the secondborn. Take Isaac's children, Jacob and Esau. He lays aside the firstborn Esau and says, I'm going to take Jacob. And down the line, in fact, when you take a look at Joseph, the way God handles Joseph's children, Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh was the first born, Ephraim was second. And when Jacob was going to bless the sons, or rather, yes, Israel, Jacob was going to bless the sons of Joseph before he died, his eyes were blinded, he couldn't see too well, and Joseph, who was in Egypt, brought his two children up to his father's hands so that the right hand would go upon the first born, the left hand would go upon the second born. And lo and behold, if Jacob didn't cross his hands. God's sovereignty is to discount the first born and go to the second and that's what it was in the case and that cross speaks of the cross of Christ the same thing the Lord took away the sin of Adam and the last Adam the Lord Jesus Christ was predominant so this is God's purpose and throughout the Old Testament it seems to be God's plan that the elder shall serve the younger then in verse 13 let's read that together As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, this is a very difficult thing to understand, perhaps. Love and hate. Love and hate. Now, as it is written, this was written, this is a quotation from Malachi chapter 1, verses 2 and 3, which reads this. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord. Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. And so he's quoting Malachi 1, verses 2 and 3. But you know, in Matthew 10.37, for example, the Lord Jesus uses love in this sense. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Love for children more than the Lord Jesus Christ is not worthy. It's a comparative love. The same in Luke 14, 26. If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Hate. It's loving less. We've got to love the Lord first. And anything else than that comes loving less, which is akin to hate. And so this, I believe, is a picture of God's love and His hatred. I don't believe that God hates anything but sin in a real, absolute sense. But He loves less, and therefore He hates. Esau hath I hated. Now who was Esau? Esau was a man of the field. He was a hairy man. You remember Rebecca's scheme. to get the blessing on Jacob instead of Esau. And Jacob was told by his mother, Esau's out in the field to get some venison for his father. And he's going to, when he comes back with the venison, your father is going to bless Esau and not you. So here's a plan. So Rebekah said, alright, I want you to take some goats or kids, whatever, and put the skin on your hands, because Esau's hands were hairy and Jacob was plain, see? And also, the smell of the field will be there. And your father can't see too well, and you just come in there and you say, here, I'm going to dress some meat and he'll think it's venison. And I'll serve it, and you take it in there and get the blessing. She was a conniver. Do we have mothers that are connivers for our children? Sometimes we do, probably. She was a conniver. And so this is what Jacob did. He went in there and said, Here am I. Who is this? said the father. I am thy son, Esau. That's funny. He said the voice is the voice of Jacob. But the hands are the hands of Esau. I felt the hands. Anyhow, he blessed him. And Esau came later. And you've blessed him, he's not your right son. I have blessed him, he will be blessed. And Esau wept. Esau was a man of the flesh. Esau was a man of the world. Esau sold his own birthright for some red pottage, some soup, out there in the field. And Jacob got that. He was a great deceiver himself. It didn't take his mother long to teach him how to deceive. And in fact, Jacob does mean deceiver. It means someone that grabs onto the heel. It's a deceiver. It's a deceiving person. But Esau was a man of the flesh. God says, Jacob I have loved. He wasn't perfect, but God loved him. Esau have I hated, at least not loved as much. Now another thing in verse 13, I want you to remember, we've repeated it every time we come up to it. The first few words, as it is written, it is written. Now that's a perfect tense in the Greek language, which means something that's taken place in the past, the results continue to the present, and into the future. And this is God's stamp. Every time you see gegratai, which is the Greek word for grapho, to write, it is written. Every time you see that in Scripture, remember God is saying that He has preserved entirely and perfectly His words, Hebrew words and Greek words. It's something that's been written down in the past, And it's been preserved right to the present, what it's been writing right here, when Paul writes it. And it will be preserved, word perfectly, right into the future. That's why we dare say that God has preserved the Hebrew text and Greek text that underlie our King James Bible. Because God promised to preserve it. And these words right here, it is written, is another evidence of God's preservation of His words. And it's important indeed. Let's look at verse 14. Read that together. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Unrighteousness with God. In other words, for God to choose Jacob and not Esau. For God to choose Isaac and not Ishmael. People will rise up and say, why does God do this? Why does God take a child, a son or a daughter, in death? We don't know. When that happens, there are two things to do. The world looks at God and shakes a finger at the Lord and yells out and screams out in criticism and condemnation, and draws themselves farther from the Lord. They just move farther away from the Lord. That's what it does. What might the believer do? Well, at first, the believer may ask the question, why does God do this? Is God unrighteous? Why did He do this to me? Why is it that I haven't picked out? But secondly, I would trust it would draw the believer closer to the Lord. He did it for a purpose. He did it for a reason. Why do I have shingles? I don't know. But I know the pain of shingles. Some of you get them in the back. Some of you get them in the side. But I got mine in the face. Painful? Yes. They're less painful now than they were when they started. Maybe so that I can understand when other people get some sicknesses that are very painful and very difficult. The Lord has his purposes in all the things. When God takes us to the woodshed, for some reason or another, not the shingles, maybe the woodshed, but any kind of pain or whatever it is that lays us low, we must ask, Lord, what is there for me for that? What trial and temptation is there for me to obviate and to escape? What can I learn from this? How can I draw closer to Thee? That's the question we should ask our Lord. And so, there's no unrighteousness with God, God forbid, may it not be. In Genesis 18.25, when God was ready to judge Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin, sodomy, which is prevalent today, and our president is pushing the sodomites and the lesbians and all the gay white people and others in government are pushing them and they're rising up. And when he's about to judge Sodom, Abraham pled with the Lord. That be far from me to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked. Be it far from me. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? To have unrighteousness with God is ridiculous. God and unrighteousness are poles apart. They're not even in the same plane. Impossible to even think of it. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Psalm 92.15 says it very clearly. to show that the Lord is upright, He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. There is no unrighteousness in Him. Is God unrighteous? No, He's not. Isaiah 55, 6-9, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. There's a definition of unrighteousness in 1 John 5, 17. This is the definition. All unrighteousness is sin. Now, if God is unrighteous, He is a sinner. That's so outlandishly false. Is God unrighteous? Certainly not. In 1 John 1.9, let's say that together. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let's try that again. 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If he cleanses us from all unrighteousness, obviously he himself could not be unrighteous. It's absolutely possible. It hinders God's person. His whole person would be compromised if he had any unrighteousness. In him is no sin. In the Lord Jesus Christ is no sin. So, we're not to criticize our God for his freedom of choice. Choosing what line the Lord Jesus Christ would be born from and what other things should happen. Let's read verse 15 together. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on him whom I will have compassion. So here's God's sovereignty in Exodus 33, 19. Here, Pharaoh was ready to hold back his people from their freedom. And God says, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. He's talking to Moses. And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And Isaiah 55 said, and the same thing is true. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. He will have mercy upon whom and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon. He will have mercy upon him, rather, and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon. I will have mercy and compassion on whom I will have compassion. Now, does the Lord have mercy on those today that are living? I believe He does. Does He have compassion on those that are living? I believe that He does. He's got freedom of choice. Why do I say that? Because God commended this love toward us, and while we were sinners, Christ died for us. That's all of us. And we said before, the John 3, 16 verse, let's say that together. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's the compassion of God. That's the mercy of God on all of us. As far as the compassion, Matthew 9.36, when the Lord Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Move with compassion. Matthew 14.14, Jesus went forth, he saw a great multitude again, was moved with compassion toward them and healed their sick. And Matthew 15.32, Jesus called his disciples and said, I have compassion on the multitude, they continue with me three days, have nothing to eat. He fed the 5,000 men plus women and children because he had compassion. And God says, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, mercy on whom I will have mercy. In 1 Peter 3.8 it tells us, finally, be of all one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. So God wants the believers to have compassion one with another. Be merciful and pitiful and to have these things sincerely. So God is a God of mercy, a God of compassion. And we're going to see next week, as we go to verse 17, 18, and following the last part, that God not only had compassion on some, but He also hardened Pharaoh's heart. We went into that several weeks back, and I think Bernice asked the question, and Ed, is it true that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, or is it true that Pharaoh hardened his own heart? At that time we looked things up, and I believe there were about equal times. It says in scripture Pharaoh hardened his heart, and God hardened his heart, six and six roughly, about twelve times all together. But God had mercy on the Israelites, but he certainly judged the Egyptians in that time. Let's read verse 16 together. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And so, the line of Christ, where God's freedom of choice, of taking Abraham and his second born Isaac, and taking Jacob, his second born, and going on through the line, to whom and from whom the Lord Jesus Christ would be born, is not him that willeth, it's not the human beings in this situation and equation, but him that willeth. but of God that showeth mercy. He is in charge, and He is a merciful God. In Luke 18.13, the publican standing far off, would not lift up his eyes unto heaven, smote his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Hebrews 2.17, Wherefore, in all things that behoove him to be made like unto his brethren, the Lord Jesus, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. Our Savior is merciful. And in Hebrews 8.12, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. So in this chapter 9, the first part, we see God's freedom of choice as He sees that His Son is going to be born of Israel. It's going to be a special birth, a special line. And God is not unrighteous to select Isaac instead of Ishmael, to select Jacob instead of Esau. to select down the line all these things, but He is the one that has purposed these things and it's in His plan. And we ought to be thankful that God has a plan for us. Aren't you glad if you're saved this morning that the Lord Jesus Christ was brought to you? The plan of salvation was brought to you. And if you're saved this morning, aren't you glad that you trusted the Savior? That you accepted and received Him as your Savior and Lord? That was in God's sovereign plan.