Romans, chapter 9. You can find it on page 945 in the Bible before you. I'm going to read from verse 4 to verse 24. I'm going to consider especially beginning at verse 10. So Romans, chapter 9, beginning at verse 4 and reading as far as verse 24. Please give your attention to the Word of God. They are Israelites. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said about this time next year, I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." And not only so, but also, when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of his call, she was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then, It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then, he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles." We come today. to this awesome passage, this fearful vista of predestination, of God's choosing some from all eternity to everlasting life. It is a hallmark of what is known as Reformed theology that this passage is taught, believed, and set forth. And not this passage only, but also the companion passages of Ephesians 1 and John chapter 6. So it's a hallmark of the Reformed theology, also called Calvinist theology, to say, yes, God has predestined some to life, and he has passed by others. But I give you a warning before we even begin, and that is that there is a host of conclusions that some people draw from predestination that we are not to draw. Some people might say, well, if God has ordained whatsoever comes to pass, then I can sit and do nothing. That is wrong. Or if God has chosen his people, I don't need to say anything. That is wrong. Or any of a whole host of deductions that you might make which are not at all what God says to us in his word. So I warn you up front, you must read the scripture, not simply take one piece of the scripture and then begin to run with it on your own. Now why is he talking about this right here? Where are we in this letter? Well, he had just been exalting that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's where chapter 8 ended. It ended on a very high note. A note of triumph. We are secure. God holds us forever in his hand. If he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him give us all things? So that's where he was. He was saying, God has united us to himself in Jesus Christ, and nothing can separate us from his love. To which someone might say, then why are the Jews separated? Aren't they his people? Didn't he give them any promises? And so in Romans 9, and we didn't read the first couple of verses, but in Romans chapter 9, Paul pivots. And before he discusses this topic, he says, I am being completely honest. I grieve every day for my people, the Jews. Because they have received so many promises of God. Theirs are the patriarchs, and the covenants, and the worship, and the giving of the law, and the glory, and all these things. And having assured them that for him, this is no intellectual topic, in a mere intellectual sense. Having said that, he says, but let's understand something. It is not as if God's word fails. Here's the solution. Not everyone in Israel is really Israel. You don't count as Abraham's children just because you're biologically his children. No. God has to set his love on you. He has to call you. You have to be the child of promise, like Isaac, not the mere child of the flesh, like Ishmael. And that's where we left it off last week. And in some ways, leaving it off there leaves it off unclear. Why did God call Isaac and not Ishmael? Well, there's differences between them. And so you could look at them and say, oh, well, the reason is he's teaching Abraham the meaning of wife. That's actually an excellent article, Teaching Father Abraham the Meaning of Wife. Excellent article. You can find it online. But you could say, OK, so that's why. That's why God chose Isaac and not Ishmael, something about marriage or something about these two people. Or maybe something about slavery, or something about surrogates, or something. There's differences between Isaac and Ishmael. And so he goes on to the next generation of the first founding fathers of God's people Israel. He goes on from Abraham. He goes on. Let's talk about Isaac next. Let's talk about Isaac and Rebekah's kids. First of all, they also were barren for 20 years. 20. beginning to doubt they were going to have children, except that God had promised them an innumerable offspring. So they had to have at least one. And so it says Isaac prayed for Rebekah, and she conceived, and the pregnancy was so tumultuous that she went to God to say, what is going on? And God said to her, you're having twins, and they're not getting along, and they won't later either. Two nations are in your womb. And the older shall serve the younger. That's closer to the actual wording. Two nations are in your womb. Now, she had two boys in her womb, but the point was these boys would grow up and nations would come from each of them. And they would be in conflict. And the older would serve the younger. That is, the younger would become the inheritor of the promises. would be the nation that would be God's own people. The other would have a nation, but the other nation would not be God's people. Now, you'll notice in this case, there's no marriage issue. It's the same daddy, and it's the same mommy, and they're properly married. And there's no problem with time or manner of conception, because they're twins. There's no difference now. between Jacob and Esau, unlike Ishmael and Isaac. And just to drive it home, it says, before they were born, and whatever the babies were doing in there to each other, we're not blaming them for that. It says they had done nothing either good or bad. But so that God's purpose might stand, the prophecy is already made before they come out. The older shall serve the younger. And so he drives home his theological point You'll notice it's all interlaced in there. So it says, although they were not yet born, had done nothing good or bad, so that God's purpose of election might stand, not because of works, their works, anything they did, father, mother, son, other son, not because of their works, but because of God's call. That's when she was already told, the older shall serve the younger. And to drive this home, and he quotes from Malachi, from the end of the Old Testament, where it says in Malachi 1, 2, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Now, hated is a strong word. It doesn't have to jolt us. Jesus says, if anyone does not hate father or mother, in order to cling to me, he means. It does not mean to hate your parents, but he means you must love them less than you love me. And so here, at the very least, it's this. He loves Esau less than Jacob. It's phrased very strongly. Esau I have hated. And so God's purpose of election continues. That is, God chooses some and does not choose others for his own reason, not because that they are deserving or undeserving. You notice that being driven home in verse 11. This is what I mean. Not because of works, but because of his call. And so you can hardly say that more clearly than by choosing one twin. And of course, his younger twin is Jacob. He is then renamed Israel. He has the 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel. And so what the apostle is also saying is what God was doing with our first fathers, it wasn't just it happened that way. It was to make points. We are to learn things about God from what happens back there in the book of Genesis. Now, as you know, many Christians who are Christians truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but they say they do not believe in predestination. You might read this passage and say, well, how do they not? Well, I can tell you. There are some who say, now, wait a minute. That quote about hating Esau, that's Malachi. That's 1,500 years later. It's not talking about the person Esau. It's talking about the nation that Esau gave birth to, the nation of Edom. And so the argument runs. The prophecy to Rebekah also spoke of nations. And so the point here is only that God chooses different nations for different purposes on Earth. Now, the answer is, if that's what he means, that's off topic. No Jew would have objected to that. But that also wouldn't answer what's going on here. The question before them is, Why, in the year 58 AD, why have more Jews not believed that Jesus is the Messiah? That is the immediate question. And so he's showing you differences within Israel, not differences between Israel and other nations. He's saying from within Israel, that is, when it was just Isaac and Rebekah and their household. Within Israel, there was this differentiation made between individuals. And so he says it continues to be. God has chosen some within the nation of Israel to believe in Jesus the Messiah, and he has not called others. So what you have here very clearly in Romans 9 is the teaching sometimes called unconditional election. That is where God does the electing. The word means choosing. God does the choosing, and he does so for his own reasons outside of any deservingness in those who he calls. This is proven by the example of Jacob and Esau. It demonstrates that not all Israel is Israel. And that shows us that the word of God has not failed. And so he's telling us this to say, first of all, that we can know that God's word can be relied on. You have to understand it, really. He tells us this, secondly, to destroy our pride, not because of your works. Not because of your works. not because of your works, but because of his call. And we're told this so that we would understand that God remains sovereign, or in other language, free. God is free to set his love on whom he will. Now, there are many objections, but two great objections to this teaching of predestination now and also then. And so he pauses for a little bit. He pauses to answer these objections. The first objection is very simple. That's not fair. That is the first objection. That's not fair. Or in the wording of verse 14, is there injustice on God's part? I hope you understand that. Is there injustice on God's part means the same as that's not fair of God. Those are the same thoughts, the same objection. I want you to observe, first of all, if Romans 9 answers objections against predestination, then what is Romans 9 teaching? If it's answering the objections that people have today, then you're on the right track when you're following along what he's saying here. And he gives here a two-part answer to the objection that it's not fair. He says, first, God claims it as his right to choose who he will have mercy on. That's verses 15 and 16. God has said that it's his right to decide on whom he will have mercy. And then verses 17 and 18 go on to say, and in fact, God has exercised this right. God has said it was his right. God has been exercising this right. This is how it is. So God claims the right to choose who receives his mercy. The apostle moves from the book of Genesis to the book of Exodus. He takes us to the golden calf episode. this very egregious example of national sin. There was all Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai. And God had impressed on them as much as you possibly could do the seriousness of what was happening. God had told them to purify themselves. God had told them to put a boundary around the mountain and not touch the mountain. God had descended on the mountain with thunder and lightning. God had spoken to them with his own voice the Ten Commandments. God had given further leadership training to 70 on the mountain. God had sent Moses. He had given Moses the two plaques of the Ten Commandments. God had gone through a covenant ceremony with them and had read them the words of the law. And the people had said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And then Moses went up Mount Sinai for 40 days. And after 40 days, the people were tired of waiting. And so they went to Moses' brother Aaron, and they said, make us gods. And Aaron said, give me your gold. And Aaron made a god. And the people had a festival in honor of their gods, the bull, derisively called the golden calf. And on that occasion, God had said to Moses, Go down the mountain. Your people have turned aside." And Moses said, no, God, your people you will have mercy on. And then Moses went down to find out what God was upset about. And then Moses got upset. And he famously breaks, and that's not just an act of temper. He breaks the Ten Commandments tablets to say, you have broken the covenant that you just made with God. Here's the covenant documents. They are broken by your actions. And then he grinds up the calf, and he makes the people eat it. And he goes up the mountain, and he says to God, please forgive their sin. But if not, blot me out. He offers himself as the Savior. He offers himself as the sacrifice. And God says to him, no. Your job is to lead the people to the promised land. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And Moses goes on to plead with him. It becomes quite a back and forth, a series of prayers by the mediator. God at first says, I'm not going. I'll send my angel before you. Moses says, no, we need you. You said that I have found favor. God says, all right, I'll go with you. Moses says, I'm getting somewhere. Let me get some more. Show me your glory. God says, you get some of it. In the midst of all that, he says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and compassion on whom I will have compassion. When it came to the golden calf, most of the nation is forgiven. They live. They continue. Some die by plague. Some die by Levitical sort. God has mercy on some of them, most of them, and not all of them. Now, how does that fit Romans 9? Well, at the Golden Calf, they were all guilty. The only people who seem to come unscathed out of the Golden Calf are Moses and Joshua, who were up on the mountain. But while they were all guilty, God had mercy on some. And he kept his promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob through the some that he had mercy on. Now keep that in mind that they're all guilty. The guilty criminal who is not pardoned cannot say, it's not fair that he got a pardon. It's a pardon for guilty people. The guilty person deserves the punishment. And so in this case, God claimed as his royal prerogative the right to pardon some. There is no injustice when God has compassion on some and not others for his own reasons. And so we have the conclusion there in verse 16. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. That is, God has always claimed the right to show mercy to whom he will. Now, the second part of the answer here is that God has not only claimed this right, God has exercised this right. And we see this very clearly. And we see an additional element here in the case of Pharaoh, who did not receive mercy. We're going a little earlier in the Book of Exodus. And as he goes to Pharaoh, he's saying to Israel, aren't you glad? Aren't you glad that God did not have mercy on Pharaoh? That's how you got free. You were freed because God did not have mercy on Pharaoh. This is the birth of your nation as a nation, when God did not have mercy on Pharaoh. Now, Moses and Pharaoh. Before Moses ever got to Egypt, while he's still at the burning bush, God said to him, I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he won't let you go. And so I will show my glory, and I will get glory over Egypt." And then Moses goes to Egypt. And then there's this whole long thing, where sometimes it says, Pharaoh hardened his heart. And sometimes it says, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. But the whole time, it's coming after the opening word, before Moses is there in Egypt. I will harden Pharaoh's heart. Now keep in mind, who's Pharaoh? Pharaoh is not some nice, neutral person who might like to believe in God someday. No, Pharaoh is a vicious tyrant. Pharaoh is pretending to be a god himself. And so when God hardens Pharaoh's heart, it wasn't a good heart to begin with. It was a sinful heart to begin with. And so God took this guilty man and hardened him so that he would not do the smart thing and give up after three or four plagues and say, you can go. No, God hardened him so that he would try to hang in there through 10. You might observe, sometimes the punishment for sin is to be turned over to more sin. And so that's fair. His punishment is not to get a clue. His punishment is to continue to be obstinate. His punishment is to take his hard heart and make it harder. And so the conclusion there is drawn in verse 18. God has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You notice as Paul encounters this first objection to predestination, he doesn't back off. Instead, he intensifies it. He strengthens the wording. And he insists, this is not unjust. This is God being God. This is God exercising his divine prerogatives. As for us, we can remember our sinfulness. All Israel sinned at the golden calf, and God had mercy on many of them. We have all gone in for something, if not a golden calf. Now, what is the second great objection? The second great objection is this. Well, then I guess I'm not responsible for what happens. I guess what I do doesn't matter. I'm not responsible for what I do. That's phrased in verse 19 like this. Why does he still find fault? Who resists his will? Why find fault with people? What importance does people have? And again, we get a two-part answer. And you need to get both parts. You get a two-part answer. The first part is to say, that is a really impious and ignorant objection. There is a phrase this way. Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? That is, who do you think you are? That is a ridiculous thing to say. That is, you need to understand who God is and who you are. And to explain that, he goes to the same image that the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah had already used. You see, back then, they didn't have trucks. And so they couldn't manufacture things at great distances and truck it to you. They had to make it locally, like pots. Pots are tremendously useful. Pots can be pretty and sit on a shelf. With pots, you go out to the well, you fill it up with water, you bring water back to your house in a pot. You have to go to the bathroom, and there is no running water, and so you use a pot, and then you take it away. Pots are great. You cook with them, you do all kinds of things. And they knew all about pots. Not only did they know all about pots, but they had seen somebody making a pot. Because the pots were not made hundreds of miles away, the pots were made in each village. You'd have somebody whose job would be make the pots. And so you could go in your little village, because your mother sent you with a little money to buy another pot, because you broke the last one. And you go to the potter, and you see him with his wheel and with his clay, and he's making a pot. And sometimes the pot comes out the way he wants it, and sometimes it doesn't, so he just busts it all up and starts over again. Now the question is, what right does the potter have over the clay? What is the potter allowed to do with the clay? The answer is the potter can do whatever he wants with the clay. He can make any kind of pot he wants, because there are all kinds of uses for pots, and you need all kinds of pots for all kinds of uses. And so they understood that one pot is for this, and one pot is for that, and don't get confused, please. This first answer is reminiscent of God to Job. You're not at my level. You don't get to question me. You have no idea how to be God. You are not able, on the basis of your experience, to evaluate my job performance. It is for you to worship God, and it is for God to be God. So that's the first answer to the, well, then I guess what I do doesn't matter. Because that's an impious, ignorant thing to say. You're talking back. And it's not like with your parents, where you're, you know, same species, maybe smarter, you know, whatever. No, it's not like that. It's completely different. It's like a potter with clay. You say, I am more than a pot. You absolutely are. You're made in the image of God. However, do you know who God is? When you reckon with who God is, the analogy stands. God is so much greater than us that he makes potters. You'll notice, far from backing off, he is intensifying the answer. And the second part is, and you need to remember who is involved. Does the potter know right over the clay to make from the same lump one for honored and one for dishonorable use? Then he speaks of vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. He does not speak about good pots and bad pots. He speaks about vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. He's saying, please remember who we all are. We have all sinned. We're all like the Israelites at the bottom of Mount Sinai. We have all turned aside and sinned in many ways. It's not good pots and bad pots. It's vessels of wrath that as God will judge some. He will judge some, and He will make His justice and His power and His hatred of sin known in them. In the meantime, He endures them with patience. He gives us all life. He sends us His rain. He reveals Himself in the stars. He's given us all life and endured us with patience, all of us, including the vessels of wrath. And then He's made vessels of mercy, in whom He can show the glories of His mercy. That is, we can see something of what God is up to. God will show his mercy, his justice, his hatred of sin in judging some. He will show the riches of his mercy and compassion and glory in others. And I know at least one of you has said, why does he have to say, what if? What if? Verse 22. What if God? Well, having read it, the what if is not there to show uncertainty. It's not there to say, Well, maybe it's this, or maybe it's that. That is not the tone of this passage. He knows exactly what he wants to say. No, this what if is to say, this is how it is, and if you don't like it, what difference does that make? What if the Almighty does it this way? Can you change it? Can you alter it in any sense? If the Almighty does it this way, that's how it is done. So then he is saying, at this point, it's time to say that God is God. And our objections can only be presumptuous and impious and ultimately ignorant of the great gap between the creator and the creature. Now, who will be the vessels of mercy? And who will be the vessels of wrath? If the mercy had all been Israel, And the wrath had all been Gentiles. Well, God would be within his rights, but we might have objected to that. Instead, he says, it's going to be a mixture of both. And so having answered two objections, he takes it back very artfully to his main point. Many Jews have not believed because God has not called them to believe. And many Gentiles have believed because God has called them to believe. And as he will go on to say, the scriptures have actually told us this in advance. This is what we should have expected if we'd been properly reading our Old Testament. I've addressed two objections that are in the text. I want to address one more. I want to address anyone here who has not believed in Jesus. If you have not believed in Jesus and you're here today, you might be saying, so, are you saying that God has not chosen me to believe? Not at all, I haven't said that at all. After all, why are you here today, if not to grapple with God? What chain of events brought you here today to hear this message today? For as long as you are alive, the word of God comes to you, and it says, repent and believe the gospel. And so if you've not believed yet, then today, make it the day when you repent and believe the gospel. For this is the word of God to you, that God has set his Son in the highest place, and God has opened a way for us to be before him through his blood. So today is the day of salvation, the day to repent and believe this good news. There is nothing here that says, so I know who I am. I'm a vessel of wrath. No. If you've heard this, you're being told to believe. Remember what I said about the difficulties between, OK, so there's this teaching, and what deductions do I make from it? Let the scripture tell you how. The great evangelistic chapter comes next, the one about how will people know unless they hear? That's the next chapter. And so we must believe with the heart that Jesus is Lord and confessed with our mouth, that's in the next chapter. God is free to choose whom he will and free to harden whom he will. He is sovereign. That is, he is free. Predestination is clearly taught here in Romans 9 and in Ephesians 1 and in John 6. It's really taught in Jacob and Esau, if you just read Genesis 25. But what good is it to know this? There's been debate between theologians. How much should we teach this? That is, among the theologians who see it and say, yes, yes, it's what the Bible teaches. God predestines some. But should we talk about it? Some say, no, it bothers people. Just keep it for the priests. Just keep it for the preachers. And others say, it's in Scripture. Aren't we supposed to preach Scripture? So since you are to know it, what good is it to know it? Well, the first point is to make you humble. Verse 11, not because of works. Not because of works. Or verse 16, it depends not on human will or exertion. Not on the one who stands or on the one who runs. did not depend on you. So this is to make you humble. It is to have you say, there but for the grace of God go I. It is secondly to make you generous. What do you have that you did not receive? You say, my sins. Congratulations. What else do you have that you did not receive? If then you have received it, why not pass it on and share it? We're told this so that we might be generous, including with the word of salvation. And we're taught this so that we might pray. Pray for our living relatives who have not believed in the Lord. Pray that God, in His sovereignty, would call them, however late in life it may be, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can try to explain We can try to write letters. We can preach. But we cannot change another person. We cannot call. But God can. And so we are taught this so that we may be humble, so that we may be generous, and so that we may pray. God is sovereign. He calls one and not another. So pray to the Lord of the harvest, that He may send forth His Spirit, and change hard hearts so that others may believe and confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for those whom we know and whom we love who have not believed in You. Lord, we pray for those whom we have had to excommunicate from this congregation We pray for James and for Quinn, that they would repent and believe in you. We pray for others who have simply gone off and said, I do not believe. And so we pray for Amanda and for Rachel, that you would see and have mercy on them and lead them to repentance and to faith. Lord, there are still others known to some or to one or to another of us. And so Lord, we pray for their salvation. We pray that you would turn them back, that you would open their ears, that you'd help them to see themselves truly in their sin, and to see you truly in your awesome judgment and in your mercy. And so we pray, Lord, that they would flee your judgment and seek your mercy, which you set out for us in the person of Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray that this understanding that you give us here, that you are sovereign, and that you call whom you will. Help us, Lord, to hold this rightly. Help us to understand it in humility and in thankfulness, in joy. And help us to hold it and to turn to you, giving all glory and praise and honor to you, acknowledging that you have done it, That You have done for us what we could not do for ourselves. You have brought us to Yourself. And You will bring us to Yourself forever. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.