00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Our Father, thank You for the
day. Thank You, Lord, for this new opportunity we have to continue
studying Your Word. Lord, thank You for all the blessings
we have in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And I ask Your
blessing on this time together, Lord. And for the forgiveness
of sins, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. We are at Romans, the ninth
chapter, continuing. verses 9 through 16. And I don't
know if we'll get through all those verses today, but we'll
make a run at it. Basically looking at the line,
For they are not all Israel who are of Israel. We spent our last
study discussing Israel, and I'm not going to go back through
that again. But today's text, these verses and continuing,
deal with the doctrine of God's free choice, God's sovereign
choice in election. Come in, folks. We're in Romans
chapter 9, verses 6-13. There have been so many volumes of
books written, words preached about for and against God's sovereignty. The question that I would have
for myself and anybody listening, can we simply read this word
and accept what it says? I think it's overwhelming as
we work our way through it. So I want to, in this exposition,
just deal with the text before us. If a person has made up their
mind one way or the other, then no amount of logic or human persuasion
or anything is going to make any difference. There are many people, and I
would, sad to say, mostly in the Southern Baptist camp, which
this is a Southern Baptist church, and it's in this generation,
or at least for the last 75 years or so, who reject the doctrine
of God's absolute sovereignty. And they have instead, and I
don't mean this to be too ugly, but they have imagined in their
mind that man has a free will, and man does act freely. But
what they mean by that is man is autonomous, that he operates
apart from God's purpose, that man is the final arbiter of whether
or not he will accept God's offer of salvation. Well, we're going
to see today, if we stay with this, that that's not the way
it works at all. And as we move on into chapter
10, we'll see more how this works. But either the God of the Bible
has absolute free sovereign choice, or every man, man, woman in himself
has the ability to frustrate God's attempt to save every individual
in the human race. That's what we're looking at
today, those two positions. Does God make a sovereign choice,
and we'll see when He makes that choice, the scripture says, before
the foundation of the world, He chose a people. Or do people
just come into this world and God has made a sacrifice for
sin, and there it is, and if you'll accept it, then God will
save you. And that's kind of the tension that we're in. I
came across something, This past week, and I added it into my
notes, by Martin Luther, out of his book, The Bondage of the
Will, and so I'm going to quote from Martin Luther, The Bondage
of the Will, under the heading of, I Don't Want Free Will, by
Martin Luther. Quote, I frankly confess that
for myself, even if it could be, I should not want free will
to be given to me, nor anything to be left in my own hands to
enable me to endeavor after salvation, not merely because in the face
of so many dangers and adversities and assaults of devils I could
not stand my ground, but because even were there no dangers, I
should still be forced to labor with no guarantee of success.
But now that God has taken my salvation out of the control
of my own will, and put it under the control of His, and promised
to save me, not according to my working or running, but according
to His own grace and mercy, I have the comfortable certainty that
He is faithful and will not lie to me, and that He is also great
and powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break Him or
pluck me from Him. I have the comfortable certainty
that I please God, not by reason of the merit of my works, but
by reason of His merciful favor promised to me, so that if I
work too little or badly, He does not impute it to me, but
with fatherly compassion pardons me and makes me better. This
is the glorying of all the saints in their God." Martin Luther,
The Bondage of the Will. To me, the significant line in
that quote is that if it's up to me, then I have no guarantee. But if it's God's purpose, then
I can believe that. I can trust God. So, as we move
through chapters 9 and 10, and we get to 11, we will see how
God is not unfair. in dealing with men and women
in his free choice of who are his children. And back in chapter
8, Paul has introduced God's free choice. We've read this
many times, but I'll read it one more time. In Romans 8, famous
verses, verses 28 through 30. And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom
he predestined, these he also called. And whom he called, these
he also justified. And whom he justified, these
he also glorified." We will spend some time today as we get to
that point about what it means to be the called of God. What
does that tell us? After giving this grand assurance, Paul makes a most comprehensive
statement of the final perseverance of the saints. God's promise
is sure. If He's called us and justified
us, and He's going to glorify us, then He's going to keep us.
And this is what we continue to read in Romans 8 at verse
31. What shall we say to these things?
Rather, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for
us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against
God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who
is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore
is also risen. who is even at the right hand
of God, and who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
I don't think I could add anything to that list. As it is written,
for your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as
sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things, we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So that is such a grand statement of assurance, and after that
Then we've moved into chapter nine, and Paul then begins to
discuss the subject of God's sovereign choice. In these first five verses we
looked at last week, Paul expresses his anguish. He is in pure anguish over the
unbelief of his kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul loved his
people. He knew his people. He will make
the point that I know about these people. I'm one of them. And
yet, he is so distraught that they will not see who Jesus Christ
is. So, at verse 6, Paul begins to
deal with the accusation, or the charge, that God has failed. And we've mentioned this a number
of times, but this is the way Paul writes. He will anticipate
a question, and then He will answer the question for you. Somebody is going to ask this
question. So I'm going to go ahead and lay it out there, and
then I'm going to answer it for you. That's kind of what's going on
here. Has God failed to keep His promise
to Israel? God made covenants with the people,
and He promised to keep them as His children. But what was
obvious to Paul was that the vast majority of the Jews in
past centuries and in his time were in unbelief. The vast majority
of the Jews died in unbelief and they were in unbelief as
a people in Paul's day. They were hardened in their rejection
of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, as their promised Messiah. So
has God failed in his His covenant of promise. What Paul writes
in verse 6 is the key to understanding that God's word has not failed.
So if you're looking at it in verse 6, he says, For it is not
that the word of God has taken no effect. Why? For they are not all Israel who
are of Israel. And this is a point that many
people miss. I've brought it up several times.
But if you come to this passage, if you come to the Bible with
the idea that Israel is always the people of God, you're going
to miss something. There's an Israel, a spiritual
Israel within the physical Israel. And he's going to develop that
more fully as we move through these verses. It was never God's
purpose to save all the Jews. of any generation, past, present,
or future. God saves individuals. God justifies
individuals. And you're going to see that
from the beginning of human history, from Adam on, that God deals
with individuals, not with races or nations of people. So, the
meaning of the phrase, the Word of God, in verse 6, he says,
it's not that the Word of God has taken no effect. Usually
in the New Testament, the Word of God refers to the Gospel.
But here, and in only one other place in the New Testament, it's
referring to the Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament.
In Mark 7, I'll read this to you. Mark 7, verse 9, and this is the Lord Jesus speaking.
He says, He said to them, all too well you reject the commandment
of God that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor
your father and your mother, and he who curses father or mother,
let him be put to death. But you say, if a man says to
his father and mother, whatever profit you might have received
from me is korban, that is, a gift to God. then you no longer let
him do anything for his father or his mother, making the Word
of God, that is, the Scriptures, the Old Testament, of no effect
through your tradition which you have handed down. And many
such things you do. We won't go into explanation
of this, but what the Lord is pointing out to these Pharisees
is they had come up with this idea that if I saved my money,
my belongings, or Corban, I'm dedicating them to God, then
I'm off the hook as far as taking care of my parents. I don't have
to help them at all, because I promised this to God. And Jesus
said that by your tradition you have violated the Word of God. So, in that passage, Jesus is
dealing with the hardness of heart and the unbelief of these
people. And so that's why the context
that we're dealing with here in chapter 9 of Romans is so
important. For they are not all Israel who
are of Israel. And back in, we've already read
it, I'm sorry, we didn't read it yet this morning, but back
in chapter 2, at verse 28-29, Paul introduced the idea of an
Israel within Israel. And see how Paul will state a
thing, and we've seen this before, He never seems to get through.
He'll state something, and he'll go on with something else, and
then he'll bring it back up again. Tremendous technique in teaching. You don't get to forget things
that way. So here in chapter 9, he's already explained, back
in chapter 2, who is a Jew. In chapter 2, at verse 28, And keep in mind this concept
of an Israel within Israel. Here are the Jews, and within
the body of this people there are true Jews. So he says in
verse 28 in chapter 2, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly,
nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but
he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from
men, but from God. And this is a play on words.
The word Jew means praise. So a true Jew, a true person
who praises God is one who has been circumcised in the heart.
That's regeneration. That's being born again. Not
just physically, because you were born in a family, follow
the law, and then all of a sudden, I mean, because of that, you're
justified before God. He said, that's not what happens.
The true Jew is one who is a Jew inwardly, not outwardly. That's what the Lord told Nicodemus.
He said, you must be born again. We won't rehearse that in John
chapter 3, but here is the master in Israel. A great Pharisee,
well respected. And Jesus told him, there's something
you don't have. You must be born again. And I won't go rehearse
that again, but think through that story again. If religion
was enough, then Nicodemus had it. He was as religious as you
could get. But he meant he still lacked
something. He must be born again. The Holy
Spirit must do something for him. So Paul is dealing with
the idea that just because a person is born a Jew or an Israelite,
that he's safe from the wrath of God. And he's already dealt
with that in chapter 3. But the Jew is also under the
wrath of God, just like the non-Jew is. So he's dealing with this idea. The Jews believed that because
they had the law, because they had circumcision, they had the
covenants, they had the dietary restrictions, they had the Sabbaths,
they had all of these privileges that that made them special and
were exempt from God's judgment. And Paul has dealt strongly with
that. The only way that anyone becomes
a child of God is by God's free choice, by God calling him or
her through the gospel. That's more fully explained in
chapter 10, but I'll just let that lay right there. Martin
Lloyd-Jones, who I studied extensively, among others, but very extensively
for this study, this exposition of Romans, but he poses four
questions that are based on this error, the error I'm talking
about, the presumption by the Jews that they were God's special
people because of their privileges, because of who they were, the
family to which they were born in. That's the error, that's
the thing he's dealing with. Okay, the first, he poses four
questions here. And the error is one of presumption
that God saved somebody based on their works or the fact of
their parentage. So here's question number one.
We won't answer them right now. I'm going to read the questions
and then we'll come back to them. Is there such a thing as a Christian
country? And by that question, is there
such a thing in which all the people in that country are Christians? Number two. Are children of Christian
parents, of necessity, Christians? That's the argument from the
Jews. I'm born a Jew, I'm good. Question number three. Are baptized,
water baptism, are baptized children of necessity Christians because
they've been baptized? Number four he raises. Are all
who have been baptized, whether children or adults, or are members
of churches, are they of necessity Christians? Now what's going
on here? Lord Jones is unfolding this,
but the main theme is they're not all Israel who are of Israel.
There's a body within a body. And you can make the application
to the Christian community in our day. The grand, great body of people
who call themselves Christians, they're not all Christians. Not
really. For they're not all Christian
who are of Christians. For they're not all Israel who
are of Israel. I've mentioned this. There are
two Israels. One is the nation as a whole, and the other Israel
is made up of those who are the true spiritual descendants of
Abraham. They alone are the true heirs
of the promise made to Abraham. God's word has never failed,
and it never will. So, Lloyd-Jones four questions,
how did we answer them? Is there such a thing as a Christian
country? No, there's not. The closest thing to it, and
I haven't checked this lately, in the last 50 years, but the
Union of South Africa, in my recollection, is the only country
in the world that in their constitution claimed to be a Christian country,
a Christian nation. If anybody knows different than
that, bring me up to date, but that's what I do remember. But that doesn't mean because
it's in their constitution that everybody in South Africa is
a Christian. The United States is anything
but a Christian nation. All you've got to do is look
at the laws that we've passed, and I won't get on that soapbox,
but everything we've done lately in this country is to deny God
and to get away from God. So you couldn't call this a Christian
country. Question number two, are the
children of Christian parents of necessity Christian? No. You
must be born again. God must deal with you. Are baptized
children of necessity Christian because they've been baptized?
No. Baptism doesn't do anything to you. Baptism is a declaration
of what you believe. It's not that when something
is done to you, then that changes you. That's one view. But that's
not what happens. Baptism is symbolic of something
that's happened in your heart. And then the fourth question,
are all who have been baptized, whether children or adults, and
they're all church members, are they of necessity Christians?
Well, of course not. You don't have to be involved
in the local church. a very long time until you find
that there are people that profess to be Christian and, sad to say,
they will show you that they're not Christians. So, it's not
my job to point them out, but I've had enough experience to
know that people can make a good run at something, and everything's
going fine, and then the cares of the world, the things come
up, Some difficulty occurs, some tragedy occurs, and they say,
well, that's all I want to do with Christianity. If that's
what it's all about, then I'm through with it. And that's a lot of...
I see that too much. Well, Lloyd-Jones' point is that
no one is a Christian because his or her parents are Christians
or because of his or her baptism. And then he continues in verse
7. Nor are they all children because they are the seed of
Abraham, but in Isaac your seed shall be called." Now, I'm going
to pass out, if Asa will help me, something we're going to
deal with for a few minutes. On one side of this paper is
the Greek text and the English, as close as we can get, translation
of these Greek words and phrases. If you've studied any Greek,
you know that the syntax, the order of the words is different.
So you can't just take a word for word translation of Greek
to English and make much sense out of it because of the order
of the words, the syntax. Well, there are two meanings
of the word seed in one verse. And one meaning is the physical
seed, and the other is the spiritual seed. And we're going to look
at these more closely, but if you look at that first line on
that Greek translation, you'll see one word, seed, is from the
Greek word sperma. S-P-E-R-M-A in English transliteration. And then, down on the second
line, you'll see that word, children, and the Greek word, techno. And we'll come on over to the
next, down into verse 8, and I'm not going to point all these
out to you, but look at where the word techno and the word
sperma occur. Now, on the back of that sheet,
I'm going to read you something in a few minutes, you can read
along with me if you choose. But here's what's going on. There
are two different Greek words, and the English translators translated
the Greek words into the same English word. So where there's
a distinction in the Greek language, you don't get it reading the
English. And I don't know why they do
things like that, Jim. It boggles me that they don't
follow through the thought behind some of these words. But anyway, most theories of a future of
the Jews in a millennial kingdom are refuted by this singular
understanding, if you can really get this. So I'm going to read
this to you. You can read along with me. This is out of a book
that I've had for many years. The Children of Abraham by David
Kingdom. Quote, in order to appreciate
to the full the way in which the New Testament writers interpret
the concept of the seed of Abraham, we need to examine their writings
in more detail than we have done thus far. The term seed or descendants
of Abraham is used in three senses in the New Testament. Firstly,
it is used of the seed who is Christ. Paul argues in Galatians
3.16 that Christ is the seed of Abraham. The rabbinical writers,
with the true spiritual insight, saw that the Christ who was promised
was the true seed of Abraham. In Him, writes Lightfoot, the
race was summed up as it were. In Him it fulfilled its purpose
and became a blessing to the whole earth, without Him its
separate existence as a peculiar people had no meaning. Thus,
he was not only the representative, but the embodiment of the race.
In this way, the people of Israel is the type of Christ, and in
the New Testament, parallels are sought in respect to the
life of the other. Secondly, there is the literal
seed of Abraham. Paul, when speaking of the natural
children of Abraham, that is, of his physical descendants,
uniformly uses the Greek word sperma, which is translated seed
in English, not techno, which should be translated children,
which he always reserves for believers in Christ. If the Greek
testament be consulted at Romans 9.7, The distinction can be clearly
seen. Neither because they are sperma,
the natural descendants of Abraham, are they called the Tekna. But
in Isaac shall thy sperma be called. Out of the natural descendants
he is going to call a people." Continuing to quote, the same
basic distinction is to be found in John 8, 37 and 39. Our Lord
says to the Jews, I know you are Abraham's sperm,
but you seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you.
And they answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus
said unto them, if you were Abraham's techni, you would do the works
of Abraham. I won't interrupt this reading,
but isn't that amazing? See how clear that is when the
correct Greek word is understood? And it's not just seed, seed,
seed. To me it's a very important distinction that we're seeing
here. If you were Abraham's Tecna,
you would do the works of Abraham. We may also note Matthew 3.9,
and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father,
for I say unto you, God is able of these stones to raise up Tecna
unto Abraham. The same differentiation between
literal seed and spiritual seed is also to be found in Galatians
4, verses 21 to 31. We're going to read that a little
while later. there is the true seed or spiritual
seed of Abraham. So we've got Christ the seed,
the physical seed, and the spiritual seed. Paul quotes the expression,
So shall thy seed be, Genesis 15, verse 18, to show that Abraham
is the father of many nations, that is, of a great host of believers
drawn out of every race and tribe and kindred who walk in the step
of his faith. It is to this seed the true seed
that the promise in Romans 4.16 is made sure. Therefore it is
of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise
might be sure or established to all the seed, sperma. Not to that only which is the
law, but also that which is of the faith of Abraham who is the
father of us all, in case we are in any doubt, Romans 9-7
says that only some of the literal are also to be found among the
spiritual. Only the children of the promise.
Neither because they are the sperma of Abraham are they all
children of Tecna. But in Isaac shall thy sperma
be called. Out of the natural shall... Okay. So, the first meaning of seed
here is the descendent after the flesh, nor are they all children,
techna, because they are the seed, the sperma, of Abraham. And the other use of seed means
that those who are included in the promise are made to Abraham. But in Isaac your sperma shall
be called. That is, out of the sperma, the
technic, the technic shall be called. And he goes further and
he says the same thing when he uses the word children. And Paul
explains that the seed and the children have two meanings. So,
in what little of that Greek you have before you, you can
see the interplay between the words sperma and tecna. But when
the English translates sperma and the tecna, the seed, How
can you possibly get the distinction? So I hope this was really exciting
to me the first time I saw it. And I wanted to get this across
as we go through this explanation. So that's the basis for the statement,
They are not all Israel who are of Israel. And then in verse
8, rather. And he's explaining, and he's
going to continue to explain this. That is, those who are
the children of the flesh, These are not the children of God. But the children of the promise
are counted as the seed. But in Isaac shall your seed
be called. Now there's another word we've
got to deal with, the word called. This is pretty heavy duty this
morning, I realize that. But the word called has two meanings. Most of the commentators say
that the word called here means the counted or the reckoned. And it means that, but it means
a little more than that. Back in chapter 4, Paul introduced
the called in chapter 4 verse 13. For the promise that he would
be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are
of the law are heirs, faith is made void, but the promise made
and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about
wrath. For where there is no law there
is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that
it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be
made sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the
law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you a
father of many nations. In the presence of him whom he
believed, God who gives life to the dead and calls those things
which do not exist as though they were. He calls them into
being. This is the thrust of what I'm
getting at here. God who gives life to the dead
calls those things which do not exist as though they did. This word here means to be called
into being. When you go back to the chapters
15, 16, 17 of Genesis and you read that story of Abraham and
Sarah and Hagar, what seemed to be too long a
time to Abraham? God had promised Abraham he would
have a son. He and Sarah would have a son.
It hadn't happened. He's an old man. She's well along
in her years. You don't call women old, but
she was an old woman. Past the time of Calvary. And Paul's made that point already
in Romans. Abraham and Sarah decided they
would solve the problem. Under their culture, if Abraham
had a child by another woman, it was still, of course, it was
his son. So, Sarah gave Abraham Hagar,
her maidservant, and Abraham had a child by Hagar. And he
loved this boy, Ishmael. He loved him. And he thought,
okay, Ishmael is the primal son. I've fixed this problem now.
Sarah can't have children. Hagar can. And now I've got a
son. God's promise has been fulfilled. Now what happened? God spoke
to Abraham and told him that Sarah would have a son. And he
was to be named Isaac. and that Isaac was the promised
child. God called Isaac into being. Verse 9, For this is the word
of promise, At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a
son. So here we are. This is God's free choice. Both
Ishmael and Isaac are the sons of Abraham. Ishmael is loved
by Abraham, and he is the oldest son. But he's not the child of
the promise. Here's something that I've learned
from Lloyd-Jones, and I hope I can get this across, because
I confess my understanding was changed by this argument he makes. And probably, if you haven't
thought about it too much before, you may have to spend a little
while on this too. But here it is. God did not have
before him two boys. Ishmael and Isaac, and then made
a choice between the two boys before him. Isaac was born because of the
promise. So it wasn't a matter of God
choosing one and rejecting the other. He called one into being. He called Isaac into being. It's
the election of Isaac that comes first, and then he is brought
into being. He was not chosen after He arrived.
So that's a huge distinction. I don't know if I've gotten across
to you how important that is, but that is, I think, a valid
point. This whole matter is explained
in Galatians chapter 4. I think it's worth reading again
if you want to find Galatians 4, verse 21. Because now Paul
is in another place, I think I've said this before, I forgot
who. Someone wrote that Romans is the commentary on the book
of Galatians. So you read Galatians and, okay,
how am I going to understand what Galatians is all about?
Well, that's what Romans does for you. It adds to it. So in Galatians chapter 4, verse
21, You who desire to be under the
law. Now let me very briefly give you the context here. There
were people who were afraid, they were going back under the
law system. They'd heard the gospel, they
said they believed in Christ, and Hebrews warns about this
too, but they were in danger of going back. So he says, tell
me you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the
law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman,
the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through
promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which
is Hagar. Well, this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is. And
I'm going to interrupt my reading here. He's writing about the
Jews of that time. This is the Jerusalem that now
is. They're of Hagar. They're under bondage. And they
said, No, we're Abrahams. No, they're not. They're under
bondage. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai, and Arabian corresponds
to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
But to Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, O
barren, you who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you who
are not in labor. For the desolate has many more
children than she who has a husband." Isaac, and through the promise,
through the spiritual children of Abraham, are going to have
many, many more children. He's the father of many nations.
That's his name, Abraham. Verse 28, Now we brethren, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as he who was born
according to the flesh, then persecuted him who was born according
to the Spirit, Even so it is now. And again, a commentary
here. That's what was going on. The
Jews were persecuting the Christians. Ishmael is persecuting Isaac. Nevertheless, what does the scripture
say? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son. For the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren,
we're not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. There's your
two covenants. There's your two women. There's
your two sons. There are the two seed. There
are the children after the flesh. There are the children after
the Spirit. And it's all there in that allegory that Paul gives.
Isaac was born according to the Spirit. And what was true of
Isaac is true of every child of God. Every child of God is
born of the Spirit. Somebody who is going to defend
man's free will. Ishmael and Isaac had the same
father, but they had different mothers. And besides that, Hagar
was not an Israelite. Where does that lead us? Paul
anticipates this objection, and being the excellent teacher that
he was, he takes the case for God's free choice one step further. Verse 10. And not only this. But when Rebecca also had conceived
by one man, even by our father Isaac, Rebecca had two boys in
her womb. In fact, even though Esau was
born a little before the other boy, that is Jacob, it is Jacob
through whom the promise is kept. In their culture, the firstborn
would have had the preeminence. But it was through Jacob. Now, I see this clearly. I hope I'm
getting it across. What more can be said to show
someone that being a child of God is not a matter of natural
descent? He said that several ways. a child of God because you're
born into a Jewish family. And you're not a Christian because
you're born to Christian parents. They're not all Israel who are
of Israel. In Genesis 25, this is where this is coming from,
in verse 21, Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because
she was barren. And the Lord granted his plea,
and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. But the children struggled together
within her, and she said, If all is well, why am I like this?
So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her,
Two nations are in your womb. Two people shall be separated
from your body. One people shall be stronger
than the other. and the older shall serve the younger." So
when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed
there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He
was like a hairy garment all over, and so they called his
name Esau. Afterward his brother came out,
and his hand took hold of Esau's heel. So his name was called
Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old. when
she bore them. God's sovereign choice is emphasized
by what Paul says now about the choice of Jacob over Esau. In
verse 11 of our chapter, chapter 9 of Romans, For the children
not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him who calls, it was said to her, the older shall serve
the younger. This makes the case that God's
choice is not based on anything foreseen in the lives of individuals. The children not yet being born,
not having done good or evil, God chooses one. He calls one
out. And God's free choice is certainly
not based on anything they did after they were born. It was
God's purpose to call the people into being and declare that they
are His children. He does it because He alone is
God and He alone has free choice. Back to chapter 4, it is God
who justifies the ungodly. And this, going back a little
bit on this principle that Lloyd-Jones makes about the election on the
part of God, And he helped me on this, and
I'm just going to read this quote from him. God's electing and
selecting is not a matter of an arbitrary selection out of
a mass of humanity. Yet I'm sure that many have always
thought of it like that, including this teacher. That God is confronted
by the whole humanity, and that the apostle is teaching here
that God looks at all these people and says, I'm going to choose
some of them and give them salvation, and I'm going to reject the others." Now, I assert that that is not
what the Apostle said. It is, in fact, to misunderstand
what he's saying. What God does is to produce a
people for himself. Still quoting Lord Jones. It
was God that produced Isaac. It was a miraculous birth. It
was not the case of Ishmael and Isaac being born and God looking
at the two boys and saying, I'm going to take this one and not
that one. That is quite wrong. God produced Isaac because he
had already decided that it was through this man through whom
he was going to bring into being that the seed would be carried
on. We must get rid of the notion of God looking at humanity or
a collection of people having already arrived in an utterly
arbitrary and unfair way, taking one and leaving the other. Although
they're both equally sinners and equally hopeless, it's not
that. It is a very positive process." What God does is to produce a
people for himself. Back in chapter 5, we looked
at how all men are represented by Adam, and there's another
representative man in chapter 5. It's Christ Jesus. He's the
last Adam. So it is not the selection out
of an old race, but it is not a matter of some of Adam's race
being forgiven and others not. It's the production of a new
humanity in Christ. Look ahead just a few verses
in chapter 9 at verse 22. What if God, wanting to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? and that he
might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." So God's purpose,
His way of salvation is positive. His children are people born
of the Spirit. They are foreknown by God. They
are predestined. They are called into being. So
if we can accept what we've been looking at so far, we shouldn't
have too much trouble with verse 13. But I bet you will. Verse
13. As it is written, Jacob I have
loved, but Esau I have hated. Paul is quoting Malachi. And remember now, all of Paul's
arguments for the Gospel are based on the Old Testament Scriptures.
This is about God's sovereign choice in election, and if election
of individuals is not the cause of God's calling, regeneration,
and justification, then there's no gospel. The other view is
that God made an effort to save every single human being, and
it's left entirely up to man's free will. Be very careful. We've talked about this a number
of times, but it always needs to be said. Election is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. The
elect of God will come to faith in Jesus Christ. There's this
terrible error out there that says that God has an elect and
they're going to be in heaven whether they ever trust Jesus
Christ or not. And you may find it hard to believe
that people believe that, but they do. I know a bunch of them. So, Paul quotes Malachi. The
burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have
loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, in what way have
you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother?
Says the Lord. Yet, Jacob I have loved, but
Esau I have hated. You won't find much agreement
in the commentaries on this verse. verse 13. I didn't go back and
recheck this, but my numbers are pretty close. I checked about
10 different writers on this verse, and I found 20 different
explanations. And the reason is that they do
it like this, on the one hand and then on the other hand. And
they never really come out and say what they think. I've got
this An old deacon one time prayed that God would send the church
a one-armed preacher. What do you mean by one-armed? Well, on the one hand, just tell
me what it is. That's what he meant. The most common explanation of
this verse is that God is referring to the choice of nations and
not to individuals. It's true that two nations came
from these two men. And that's what God told Isaac
and Rebekah. But you know that nations are
made up of people. You can't just have an idea that
it's the nations and not have the people that make up the nations.
And certainly Paul can't mean every individual in one nation
is saved and every individual in the other nation is not saved.
That can't mean that at all. That just falls down. Another
common explanation is the qualification of hatred to mean God loved less. God didn't really hate Esau,
He just loved him less than He loved Jacob. And even Lloyd-Jones has some of this qualified hatred
in that God did not love Esau to the degree that He loved Jacob.
And he uses the quote where Jesus says, he who loves father and
mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves his son
or daughter more than me. And that is a comparison. We must love Jesus supremely.
And that's what that's talking about there. But Jacob have I
loved, and Esau I have hated, I'm going to attempt to be a
one-armed preacher. And I'll tell you where I come
out after studying this. The first thing I think is that
the love of God and the hatred of God is not, when you think
of our human emotions, when I hate something or hate somebody, that's
sin. But God can have what John calls
the settled indignation of his wrath against the people. and not be sinning. So, if we soften the hatred of
God, sometimes, I mean, if you're not careful, you're going to
wind up with universalism, where nobody's lost. I don't know where
I got this, but someone said, I can understand why God could
hate Esau, but I can't understand how God could love Jacob. You
read the story. You read the story of these two
men, and Esau's a good old boy. You don't like him. You go hunting
with him. I mean, he's a good fellow. And Jacob is a deceiver. He's a schemer. His name means
a supplanter. You better not trust him too
far. So which one would you rather hang out with? Well, are we Esau
or are we Jacob? I'm going to run out of time
here. You'll bear with me an extra minute or two. If we are, as Esau, in hunger
after this world's sustenance, and our hearts are attached to
the goods and amusements and women of this age, and only add
on those qualities which we suppose to be necessary to be religious,
just as Esau added a wife from the offspring of his uncle Ishmael,
hoping therefore to placate his parents and present himself a
true child of Abraham, then we may be certain we will eventually
find ourselves in Esau's place, weeping bitterly but finding
no place of repentance. But if we are as Jacob, who for
all his many faults and shortcomings nevertheless hoped most earnestly
in the blessing promised to Abraham and yearned and labored for the
coming of the Christ, then we may be sure that God's grace
will not only give us that which we long for, but will likewise
change our very nature so that his gift will be compatible with
the state of our own hearts. Thus we see that Jacob, through
many difficulties and miseries, slowly grew more fitted to enter
the inheritance for which he so ardently yearned, and thus
the trials of this age worked in his behalf, changing his own
heart so that he might prove himself an heir of the promise
and deed. Even as we who have hoped in
Christ, and who long for his coming again, may know that all
things, trials, difficulties, not accepted, are being worked
together for our good, and will soon fit us for the glorious
inheritance which we in no way deserve, but yet love and hope
for. I'm going to have to close here.
This is from Robert Haldane, who has a classic commentary
on Romans. Quote, If God's love to Jacob
was a real literal love, God's hatred of Esau must be a real
literal hatred. It might as well be said that
the phrase, Jacob have I love, does not signify that God really
loved Jacob, but that to love here signifies only to hate less. and that all that is meant by
the expression is that God hated Jacob less than he hated Esau.
If every man's own mind is of sufficient security against concluding
the meaning to be, Jacob I have hated less, his judgment ought
to be of security against the equally unwarrantable meaning,
Esau I have loved less. Like Brother Walter said last
Sunday, in conclusion, finally, what do you mean by that? Well,
get on with it. Finally, if God did not really hate Esau, then
why is the argument, God's argument for his sovereignty would fall
away. Was Esau finally saved? No. Was he lost? Yes. The book of Hebrews makes that
clear. He was a profane person. He was not one of God's saved
children. And I won't read this to you
for the sake of time, but Hebrews 12, And verse 14 through 17 gives
you that. So, I hope we've made the case
for God's sovereign choice. The only reason that you and
I can have assurance that we will finally be saved is that
God exercised His free choice before the foundation of the
world and before you had done any good or evil that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not according to
works but of Him who calls. who brings you, He calls you
into being. But it is not that the Word of God has taken no
effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. And
I've run over my time here. If you have questions, make a
note. We'll deal with them next time,
if the Lord will. Anything need to be said? Thank you.
For They are Not All Israel
Series Romans JAG
| Sermon ID | 371194319 |
| Duration | 1:01:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Bible Text | Romans 9:6-13 |
| Language | English |
Add a Comment
Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.