Two Journeys

Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 9. We'll be looking this morning at verses 17-18. We come in these verses to one of the deepest and hardest mysteries of doctrine that we're going to ever face in the Bible. And so I prayed for a measure of God's grace, and for Him to pour out His spirit on us, both in the speaking and the hearing of the word.

In the last over 100 years, many mysteries have been solved by human ingenuity, heavier than air flight, for example, by Orville and Wilbur right here in this state. Enrico Fermi, was able to look into metaphorically at least, but also physically to look into the nucleus of the atom and split what the Greek said was un-splittable. Watson and Crick, looked into the nucleus of the cell and found a double helix, the DNA, and unlocked, at least some of the secrets of life.

But you know, for all of our ingenuity and our cleverness, our ability to probe into mysteries and solve them, we will never fully solve this one. We will never fully understand how it is that God sovereignly deals with human hearts, in such a way that he makes his unconditional election certain, while at the same time holding human hearts responsible for their sin, calling it sin, whatever the inclinations of their heart that they are responsible for them. We'll never be able to solve that ultimately. It's the ultimate mystery. But it is important for us as believers, to embrace the word of God, and to go as far as the word goes, to understand what it says. The basic lesson of Romans 9, is that God is totally sovereign over human salvation, from beginning to end. And that means that God is totally sovereign also over the human heart.

We're coming here this morning to one of the deepest themes of the Bible, the hardening of the human heart by the sovereign hand of God. Look at verses 17-18 again, "For the scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' Therefore, God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom He wants to harden." So it all comes down to this one mysterious encounter, between the sovereign God of the universe and a wicked Emperor who sat on a human throne, Pharaoh. And the simple command from that emperor of the universe to that human emperor, "Let my people go." There's nothing in there too complicated, and Pharaoh knew exactly what God was commanding him to do, but what did Pharaoh say? "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go."

So God gave him a clear command, and yet the scripture says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not obey the very command that He had given him. And the scripture also says that Pharaoh sinned in not obeying that command. Can you put all that together? It seems to make no sense that God would command one thing, harden against it, then hold the person accountable. And that's why I say to you we'll never fully understand it, but that's precisely what's going on here.

Now, before we understand this, it might be helpful for us to stop and try to understand a little about ourselves, try to understand our own hearts. John Calvin, at the beginning of the institution of the Christian religion said, "Nearly all the wisdom that we possess that is good, true and noble wisdom, consist in two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves."

Well, I think it's good for us to try to understand both, and this is a good text to do it, to try to understand God and ourselves. Let's try to understand ourselves for a moment. What are our natural tendencies? Well, there's a desire for autonomy, self-rule. You know it's mother's Day. These children almost immediately are going to begin to exert their own will in the house. You know what I'm talking about. And so there's a struggle right on through parenthood in there. A desire for autonomy. I want to rule my world, and I want to rule yours too if I can. So there's that desire for autonomy and a desire for reason over faith. If I understand it, I'll believe it. If I don't understand it, I'm not going to believe it. That kind of thing, so my reason becomes the rule of everything.

There's also that pride and there's a love for evil, and we see it, we call it sin, but we have a taste for it which God does not have an either do the holy angels in heaven. That's who we are. What is our proper position before God? We are finite created beings. We are mortal as sinners and we love sin, and as a result we stand before God and try to understand these eternal truths. We also have to understand the Bible's depictions of God. There's not just one portrait of God in the Bible, is there? There's the picture, for example, of the father of the prodigal son, and what's he like? Patiently waiting, at the end of the driveway it seems, for the son to come to his senses and come back home, and when he does, he embraces him and he welcomes him, and he kills the fattened calf, and they have a party and a celebration. That's a picture of God that is valid and accurate, but it's incomplete. Why? Because there are other pictures of God.

For example, there's a picture of God as a good shepherd, who goes and leaves the 99 on the hills and goes to look for the one that wanders off. It's not contradictory. It's complimentary. They go together. The one I think represents how the father is when the prodigal son comes back, the other how the father is before he comes back, what he does to go get him to come back. But then there's a dread picture of God sitting on the throne of the universe pouring out fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. Also a biblical picture of God. All of them are true. Just as it seems that lion and lamb in revelation is contradictory, but it's not, it's complimentary. Jesus is both lion and lamb. And so, we have to come as we're trying to understand not just ourselves, but understand this eternal God that we want to love and worship. We have only one source and that is revelation.

We will know God as far as He reveals Himself to us and no further. And His greatest revelation is in the Bible. And so we must accept what God says in the Bible about Himself. A. W. Tozer said this, "If you have never faced mystery in your study of God, I doubt whether you've ever heard a single word from God at all." God speaks mystery to us, doesn't he? This doctrine sores above us and we'll never reconcile all of it's details. Whilst understanding ourselves in our own context, let's try to understand Paul's context.

You've heard Romans 9:14-18 read, we're zeroing in on verses 17-18. What is the context in Romans? Well, Paul gives an incredible picture of the greatness of God's Mercy in eight chapters of doctrine, culminating in Romans 8 with incredible promises of mercy and grace. But then immediately deals in Romans 9 with the problem. If God has promised all of these things to us in Christ, what about the promises He made in the Old Testament to the Jews, who are it seems almost universally rejecting the Gospel of Christ? Has God's Word failed concerning the Jews? He answers, no. In Verse 6, God's Word has not failed. "It is not as though God's Word has failed." why? Because "not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." So we have this group of physical descendants of Abraham and within them a true Israel, the elect of God.

He brings up the example of Isaac and Ishmael, and then again the second example of Jacob and Esau, and in that he's dealing with how God shows mercy unconditionally. Verse 11-13, "Before the twins were born, or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.' Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.'" Well that immediately brings up the issue of the Justice of God in unconditionally showing mercy to Jacob. How can that be just. Is God unjust in showing mercy to Jacob unconditionally, and so we deal with that whole issue of, "I will be merciful to who I will be merciful." And the issue of Moses up there in the mountain. God has mercy on whom He chooses to have mercy. He doesn't owe anybody a revelation of Himself, and so it is just and right for Him to be free in giving mercy to sinners.

But now we come to the other side of it. What about the Justice of God in hardening the Esau's of the world. We have the mercy side and He deals with that. Now we turn to the hardening side. It's not just "Jacob I loved," but it's also "Esau I hated." And so we're dealing now with the issue of Esau, and so Paul is reaching for Pharaoh and God's encounter with Pharaoh. And just as he said plainly in verse 16, "It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's Mercy." That's the Jacob's side. But then the balance, the full picture in Verse 18, "Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden."

Now, in order to prove this, he reaches for this encounter between God and Pharaoh, and he's seeking the answer to deeper question of why? And so it says in verse 17, "the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'" So that's the context in Paul.

What about the context in Exodus. Well, put a pen or something here in Romans 9 and go back to Exodus Chapter 9. We're going to be working a little bit in Exodus, to try to understand why Paul chose this quote. Now the issue is the hardening of the human heart. That's what Paul is going to talk about, that's what he is talking about. Paul could have chosen, by my account I think, 16 different verses to talk about hardening in the Exodus account. Remember that Moses had been sent by God to Pharaoh to give that command, "Let My people go." And so there was the issue of the hardening of the heart that comes up in the text.

Now, God states the burning bush in Exodus 4:21, before he ever sets foot back in Egypt. God says to Moses, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart." Very important statement, Exodus 4:21. Then God unfolds 10 plagues culminating in the dreadful plague on the first born, and then after that, the amazing passage through the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's army chasing and then destroyed in the Red Sea. That's the whole account and you know it well. Now, already by the time the statement comes, six plagues have occurred. The water has turned into blood, there's been frogs, there's been gnats, there's been flies, there have been plagues on cattle, there have been boils on man and beast. Six plagues. And after that there's going to be four more plagues. They're going to get hail, they're going to get locust, they're going to get three-days of thick darkness. And then finally the plague on the first born, in which all the first born of Egypt are slain. That's 10 plagues altogether.

Now, in between plague six and seven, in Exodus 9:13-16, God makes this incredible statement to Pharaoh, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrew says, 'Let My people go, so that they may worship Me, or this time I will send the full force of My plagues against you, and against your officials, and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth, for by now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose. That I might show you my power and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'''"

Now in his book, The Pleasures of God, John Piper has an interesting subsection of a chapter entitled; Why didn't God make short work of Pharaoh? Why didn't God make short work of Pharaoh? It was certainly no lack of power. God says, directly, "I could have stretched out my hand and wiped you from the face of the earth." Instead, what we see in the plagues is really the equivalent of a surgical strike here, a reduction of a full display of God's power, each one to achieve a certain purpose. God could have taken the Israelites out of Egypt, a number of ways. I thought of some of them, He could have paralyzed all the Egyptians, so they just watch them as they go, they're all just watching, what can they do? He could have done that. God, anything is at His disposal, why this? Why the 10 plagues, culminating the dreadful plague on the first born, and in the Red Sea passage? Why?

The text seems to indicate that Pharaoh would have relented if God had not hardened his heart, I think at some point, don't you think enlightened self-interest is going to kick in and you're going to look around and say, "Wow this is not going well. I'm losing, and just go." And I think that's exactly what happens, except that God hardens Pharaoh's heart to get through the last plagues, because his counselors, even tell them, "How long is this man going to be a sneer to us? …Do you not realize that Egypt is ruined?" His counselors are saying, "Let them go, or there's going to be nothing left." At some point he would have given in. Well, why did God do it? Well, that's what the text is dealing with. So that He might display His power on Pharaoh and that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth, He hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now, the most common escape from the force of this text is that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and then God in response and afterwards then just judicially hardens Pharaoh's heart.

John Wesley makes much of this. I won't read any of his comments, but this is a very common theme not just with Wesley but with many. Now in one sense I'm telling you it's absolutely true, that Pharaoh did hardened his heart, there's no doubt about it. We'll talk more about that in a minute. There's no question about it. However, if what we're saying is that God is passively waiting to see what ultimate self-determination man is going to make about his own case, and then based on that ultimate self-determination, He's going to act or respond, that the text utterly repudiates. The emphasis in Romans 9 is on God's sovereignty. "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will harden whom I harden." And the most important thing, I think if we look into the actual account in Exodus, you're going to see it doesn't really stand up.

First of all, the most important statement concerning this is in Exodus 4:21, if you're there in Romans, or Exodus just look back a few chapters, Exodus 4:21, "The Lord said to Moses, 'When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh [Listen] all the wonders I have given you the power to do.'" God wanted all 10 plagues and the Red Sea crossing. He wanted the whole thing, "See that you perform before Pharaoh all of the wonders I have given you power to do. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go." That is a vital, vital statement. Now, what Wesley and others say is that Pharaoh first hardened his own heart, and then God at plague seven or eight hardens Pharaoh's heart afterwards. But if you look at the first hardening, look at Exodus 7:13, After Aaron's staff became a snake, it says there, "Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened and He would not listen to them as the Lord had said."

Now, I looked in the Hebrew. I'm not a Hebrew expert scholar, but I know this much. The text doesn't say who does the hardening at all, in 7:13, it just says Pharaoh's heart was hardened. It's not passive in the Hebrew, it's just left out who the active agent is. And so for those who say, "First Pharaoh hardened his heart then afterwards... It's not absolutely clear who does the hardening, but what's interesting is 7:13 says, "Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them." Listen, "As the Lord had said." Now I want to tell you something, God never mentioned anything about Pharaoh hardening his own heart, never said a word about it. What he says in Exodus 4:21 is, "I will harden his heart." So if it doesn't say he will harden his heart, why are we assuming that Pharaoh did it first and then later God did it?

The fact of the matter is there are three different types of statements about hardening in Exodus. There's one in which it clearly says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, no question about it. There's one in which it clearly says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, no question about that. And then there's a third category in which it doesn't say either way. But what you do notice is that six times it says, "As the Lord had said," "as the Lord had said," "as the Lord had said." And that statement, "As Lord had said," attaches to all three of the types of the accounts. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, as the Lord had said, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, as the Lord had said, God hardened Pharaoh's heart, as the Lord had said. The account in Exodus is clearly putting it on God, on His word, His will concerning Pharaoh's hardening. The fact of the matter is, Pharaoh's heart was hard long before the first encounter with Moses occurred, wouldn't you agree with that? He'd been trained years before he met Moses, trained from infancy and being the mightiest Emperor on earth. He knew how to be a hard guy. We'll get to that more in a moment. But the hardening went on long before Moses ever showed up. He was used to giving commands and being obeyed. He was used to having people's lives in his hand, he was used to all that, that was all part of who Pharaoh was. He was trained in arrogance, power, control and tyranny.

Secondly, second problem is this idea of God or Pharaoh first hardening his heart, and then God comes afterwards and just gives him over to what He wants. It doesn't escape the problem, God still does something to the human heart. It cannot be denied, that at plague eight, God commanded Pharaoh, "Let My people go," and then hardens so that Pharaoh will not let the people go. There's no escaping that. Everybody sees it, people wrestle with it. But there it is, the command is given and God hardens against the command. Now the strange thing about that is, as we look at it, we think it makes no sense at all. You would think that God would exert a command, and then exert all influence to try to make the command come true, but that's exactly the opposite of what's happening here.

Also, as we mentioned, Pharaoh says, that it's sin. After God hardened Pharaoh's heart, it says in Exodus 9:27, "Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'This time I have sinned, the Lord is in the right and I and my people are in the wrong.'" And then again in verses 34-35 of Exodus 9, after the next plague is announced, he hardened his own heart and the text calls it sin. And again, ascribes it to the statement of the Lord, verses 34-35, "When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again. He and his officials hardened their hearts. So Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses." So here you have the three parts of the mystery. The simple command is given, God hardens Pharaoh's heart, so that he will not obey the command.  And then he calls it sin and condemns him for it. And that's where we're at, folks. And it doesn't really matter whether earlier than that, Pharaoh had hardened his heart and all that. The fact is God still exerts influence contrary to the command that He gives.

And then finally in Romans 9:18, "Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." Bottom line is, in the same way that God unconditionally has mercy, there's a parallelism to the issue of hardening. That's what the text plainly says. And so, in one sense, you might think it's an out or an escape to say, "Well, Pharaoh hardens his own heart and then God judicially hardens it." I think, A. W. Pink put it best this way, "That Pharaoh did harden his own heart the Scriptures expressly affirm, but they also declare that the Lord hardened his heart too. And clearly this is not one and the same thing, or the two different expressions would not have been employed. Our duty is to believe both statements, but to attempt to show the philosophy of their reconciliation is probably to attempt to fathom infinity." So the ultimate self- determination, of Pharaoh is denied, in Romans 9. God is the one ultimately who chooses.

Now go back, if you would, to Romans 9:17, and let's try to understand it phrase by phrase. Romans 9:17, begins with an interesting expression. It says, "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh…" First of all the word "for" connects it back to verse 16, in which it says, "It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy." So we're going along that same line. And then he zeroes in and says this statement, "Scripture says to Pharaoh." Now I find this fascinating. You know why? Because Scripture hadn't even been written yet. Think about it. When was the Exodus account written? When was the Genesis account written? I believe Moses wrote it, when he had those 40 years to wander in the desert. Certainly this account itself hadn't been written yet beause it was going on at that moment. It's really God that says to Pharaoh. But Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit uses this interesting phrase, "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh," personifying Scripture, and you know why? Because frankly, this doctrine, the doctrine that Paul's laying down is so contrary to human reason and inclination, that we would never have come up with it if the Scripture didn't teach it. So Paul, by this phrase is highlighting, the role of the written word of God, in our understanding of difficult doctrines. It is Scripture talking to Pharaoh now.

And as Augustine said, "What scripture says, God says." We're not wrestling with something that the Apostle Paul thought and he may be wrong, we're dealing with something that God has said. Ultimately, it is God that speaks to Pharaoh but Paul says Scripture speaks to Pharaoh.

Four Implications of "I raised you up…"

Secondly, note the phrase, "I raised you up." This speaks of God's sovereignty over Pharaoh's position. And I want to talk about various aspects of this phrase, "I raised you up." First we can say it this way, when God says, "I raised you up for this very purpose," we would look at it this way, that God put him in his throne. I raised you up to be Pharaoh, I raised you up at this time for this purpose. You would not be Pharaoh, if it weren't for My sovereign power. This is constantly taught in the Bible. No one can be a king, except from the sovereign power and rule of God. This is a very big theme in the Book of Daniel.

In Daniel Chapter 4, the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty tyrant had to learn, concerning that dream in which this huge tree which represented his sovereign power as a king was chopped down, the lesson was in Daniel 4:17, "That the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men. He sets over them, the kingdoms, the lowliest of men." What does that mean? That God can take somebody from any family, He can take a Abraham Lincoln from a log cabin in Kentucky, and raise him up to the White House. He can do that, God has the power to take anybody, even the lowliest of men, and raise them up to a position of incredible power. Says in Psalm 75:6-7, "No one from the east or the west, or from the desert can exalt a man, but it is God who judges, He brings one down and He exalts another." In other words, nobody can put someone in power except ultimately God. You know what that means? It means that our God is in fact King of kings and Lord of lords, they would not be king, if he hadn't said so, they would not be Lord if he hadn't put them in that place. I raised you up, He says, for this very purpose.

Secondly, "I raised you up" also, I think, implies, I shaped and molded you like a potter does to clay. This is the exact same image that's going to be used in verses 19-23. The potter shapes the clay. So through my sovereign control of influences, circumstances, and things that came into your life, you were ultimately made to be the kind of man that you are. Now throughout history there have been really weak Kings, I mean, wilting pansy type kings. I was reading about in England, King Edward II. He was King in the 14th century, had absolutely no interest in affairs of state. What he liked to do is play on a little play farm, and he'd pretend to be a peasant. And he had peasant girls and all kinds of things. That's what he liked to do, he liked to play farmer. Meanwhile, there are wars going on and there were other things and his counselors, were looking for some... And they ultimately just made the decision in the vacuum of leadership. That was King Edward II.

Let me tell you something, Pharaoh was not that kind of man. He delighted in being Pharaoh, and he wanted the slaves there to build the cities for him, He was that kind of a king, not the King Edward II, type. You get another example of a weak leader, even in the pages of the New Testament. I'm thinking of Pontius Pilate. Do you remember how Pilate three times declared, "I find no fault in Christ." Three times he declares "I find no fault in him," but one time he says "I find no fault in them, but I'm going to scourge him." Why, what did he do? Show some backbone, if you think he's innocent, then set him free. The culmination, I never forget John McArthur's preaching a sermon on Jesus' trial before Pilate, and the culmination comes when Jesus standing in front of them will not say a word to Pilate. It reached that point where Jesus isn't saying a word. Pilate gets incensed, and he says, "Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize I have the power to free you, and the power to crucify you?" And McArthur said, "and the courage to do neither."

Couldn't do either one. He was a weak and vacillating guy, he was like a ping pong going from the Jews back to Jesus and back to the Jews, he couldn't make up his mind. Weak and vacillating, but ultimately, he valued his position, and his neck more than he valued Christ's life. And so he did what he also was set to do. And so, "I raised you up" means you're the type of man that you are, because only that kind of man is going to give me 10 plagues and a red sea crossing.

Thirdly, "I raised you up" meant: "I have kept you alive up to this point. By now, I could have unleashed the full power of my plagues and you'd be dead, but I kept you alive to serve a purpose. I kept you alive for this very purpose." Do you realize that in God we live and move and have our being, whether we love him or not, whether we believe in him or not, whether we respect him or not, he holds our lives in his very hand, and I think this is the plainest meaning in context of Exodus, "I kept you alive right to this very point for this very purpose."

And the fourth is, "I raised you up," meaning "I have hardened your heart so that you would stand up to me, though your arm is too short to box with God, you're going to think you can, you're going to think, even after the 10th plague, you're going to think you can take me on, and you're going to chase me with your whole army." I raised you up for this very purpose.

God’s Purpose #1: “That I May Display My Power in You”

Now, the next thing we notice, and this is for this very purpose. God is a purposeful being, He raised Pharaoh up for a purpose. Everything God does is for a purpose. You know, God made the universe out of little things called atoms. You know what that means? Little things mean a lot. Tiny, tiny little things mean a lot to God, He can take lots and lots of little, little things and make incredible things out of those lots and lots of little things. And you know the same thing that works in the physical universe, works in history too, doesn't it? Little events, little encounters, little conversations mean something. For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost. God knows that better than any of us, He knows the connection between the nail all the way to the kingdom, He knows how that works. And therefore, history is this tapestry made up of all these tiny little threads that God alone fully understands.

And so, a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the will of our God. It says in Ephesians 1:11, it speaks of the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. No man becomes a king or Pharaoh or an emperor apart from His will. And every conversation Pharaoh had, every encounter with his mother, everything that happened when he was seven years old, all of it swirling around to accomplish something in the end. None of us is smart enough to figure it all out, we can't. It's too complex. Now what was God's purpose? Well, purpose number one, "That I might display my power in you." The terrifying power of God's wrath is on display in Egypt. Is it not? And you know why, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. God can control the fresh water of a whole nation, even the mighty Nile River, so that it all turns to blood, even the water on the pitcher in the table you got yesterday, turned into blood. That's scary, a God that can do that. God can control all the living creatures, He can control the birds. Aren't you glad the birds don't attack us every day? Alfred Hitchcock made a movie about that. We would stand no chance, that's scary. He controls the bugs, He controls everything.

He can make 153 big fish swim into a net so big that it can't be pulled in the boat, John 21. We started at this morning. He can do that. He controls nature, He controls storms, He can make it hail, He can make the sky turned black, He can do all these things, that is scary and he means for us to feel the force of His power, to put His power on display, so that we would fear Him. And not only that, but the king's heart is like a water of course in the hands of Lord, Proverbs 21:1, He directs it whichever way He chooses. He has that kind of power. God can make a pathway through the Red Sea, so that the water walls up on the right and the left, and two million people, perhaps, pass through it. And then the army comes through and it gets stuck in the mud and the water crashes down and they're all dead. He can do that, and that is scary.

Now why does God want to display his power in Pharaoh? Well, ultimately, I think it's the power to save He wants to put on display, with the backdrop of the power to condemn and bring wrath. If God wanted not just to wipe out the Egyptians, if He wanted to wipe out, us, we descendants of Adam, we sinners, he could have wiped us out already. That's not what He's doing, that's not why He sent His son into the world. That's why I'm against that group that stood out in front of us because they missed that. If God wanted to pour out wrath, he had done that. What is He doing? He's working salvation, amen and amen. And so behind the scenes, yes, we see the wrath and we fear it. But in the middle of it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. And that was put on display beautifully in the 10th plague, wasn't it? Do you remember that?

The plague on the first born, when the angel of death moved through Egypt, and he came to the house of the Israelites. And you get the feeling he would have gone down except for one thing, The blood of the Lamb. And why? Because they're sinners too, but when he sees the blood of the lamb, what does he do? He passes over. God wanted that picture. You know why? Because there's Rahab the harlot who's going to hear about the Power of God and the plagues, and have a hope of forgiveness and salvation, and she's going to get saved. James 2 say, she believed by faith she was saved. 40 years later we've heard what you did at the Red Sea, we heard what you did in Egypt, we fear you and we believe in you. Let me tell something, God is a dreadful dreadful enemy, but oh, what a sweet savior He is. And so we should behold the goodness and the severity of God, and he laid down 10 plagues of severity plus the Red Sea crossing, so that we would see His power.

And is that all? Well, so that we could have a picture of Christ, our savior. Jesus the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the one who drank God's wrath at the cross. Do you realize that this power of the 10 plagues is nothing compared to what Jesus drank on the cross, ain't that incredible? Oh, the love of Christ for us. He stood in our place and took our wrath, that we might be forgiven, that we might have eternal life, God put His power on display in Egypt.

God’s Purpose #2: “And That My Name May Be Proclaimed in All the Earth”

And then finally, so that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth that's it. So that preachers like me for 20 centuries, really 35 centuries now, 3500 years, we've been talking about this, that God's name might be proclaimed in all the earth, and why? So that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This incredible thing, isn't it? So if we call on this mighty name of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will be saved.

Well, that's Romans 9:17. What is the doctrine? Well we've been talking about it, it's very plain, I don't think that it's impossible to understand. Verse 18, "Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom he wants to harden." God has ultimate power over human hearts. Focus here is absolutely on God's will, not on man's will, verse 16, "It does not depend on man's desire or will, effort, but on God's mercy." Basically it says God has mercy on whomever He wills and He hardens whomever He wills. God has absolute power over human hearts and He Has absolute freedom in salvation. And along with that God hardened sinners against the gospel. Isn't that why he brought up Pharaoh in Romans 9? What question is Paul seeking to answer? Why are the Jews almost universally rejecting the Gospel of Christ? In context, at least part of the answer is God has hardened them to do it. That's why it's brought up here.

And that may make no sense to you, you may not understand that, I don't. But I know that God commanded Pharaoh, "Let my people go," Hardened Pharaoh against the command and then held him accountable for what he did. And I know also that God does the same thing in the Gospel. Now, we have to put certain boundaries around this. God never ever actively and directly tempts anybody to sin. It says in James 1:13-14, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed." So how God does it, I don't know, I never pretended to know, but I do know this, that God does it in a way that He never entices or drags anybody to evil. Now, to end here, I want you to look at parallel texts that I printed in your bulletin. It's quicker if you just look at your bulletin rather than you look them up in the Bible. As a summary of all of God's miraculous dealings with Pharaoh and with Egypt.

It says in Exodus 11:10, "Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country." That's a summary statement, right? All of these miracles were done, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he wouldn't let them go. Okay? Well, we get a similar... I think parallel statement concerning the miracles Jesus did and the Jews not believing in Christ, and that's in John 12:37, and following, "Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him." Do you see the parallel with the Exodus statement? Moses did all these miracles, Pharaoh wouldn't let them go. Jesus did all these miracles still, they would not believe. Verse 38, "This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: 'Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' [Look at verse 39] For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere, 'He has blinded their eyes and deaden or hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn and I would heal them.' Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about Him." That is the connection in Romans 9, John draws it, it's the same connection that Moses got. Moses and John and Paul, are all teaching the same thing. These people did not believe, because God harden their hearts, so then God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

Now, what application can we take from Romans 9: 17-18. Well first God's total sovereignty over human hearts means hope in prayer. For those of you that they care about lost loved ones.

And then let's talk about Mother's Day. Is there not a power in the tears and prayers of a mother for a lost son or daughter? Can you imagine God saying, "Don't come to me with that problem, I've done everything I can do, or will do. The only thing you need to do is go persuade that hard-hearted sinner to believe in the gospel. There's nothing more I can do." No. You crying and praying moms have come to the right place when you prayed to God concerning that problem. You've come to the right place. God has power over the human heart. The human heart isn't a Holy of Holies that God doesn't enter into. He has the power to take out a heart of stone and put in a sweet heart of flesh, a soft heart to the word of God. That gives us hope for prayer, not just as mothers. But take a missionary working in an Islamic country, seeing almost no fruit. He can get down on his knees and say, "Oh God, work on the human heart. Oh, God, grant repentance. Oh, God, grant faith, oh God, work in their hearts." And God is not going to say, "You do have your theology, right? I don't do any of those things, that's up to the individual to do, I don't know." We've come to the right place. Hope in prayer.

Another thing I get out of this is to look at history differently, to realize that every one that's ever sat on the throne was raised up by God for a purpose. Everyone. And God holds each one of them accountable for what they did with their power, but He raised them all up. It's not just Pharaoh, it's all of the rulers. And God uses pain and misery and suffering in that great tapestry of history to accomplish His ends for His glory, the salvation of His people. It's a marvelous thing.

And so thirdly, we should learn to bow humbly in God's presence and just give Him the thanks, and the praise and the glory for our own salvation, which the more I study, the more amazed I am. It soars far above my ability to comprehend, far above. So to Him be the glory. And then finally, can I ask you please trust in God confidently, if you're going through some trials, don't think that God's going to say to you, "Look, I didn't do it. Satan did it. I didn't do it, these free will folks did it, they brought it into your lives and I can't do anything about it." God is not a kind of a sympathetic grandpa who is limited in power, but has a really good ear and listens a lot. And just says, "Well I want to help, but I can't." That's not our God. When you're suffering, you're going through struggles, some of you are struggling with cancer, some of you struggling with relatives that have cancer.

Others are struggling with the unbelief of a husband or a wife, a parent, a child, come to God in prayer. He is mighty to save. May be that some of you are here you've never trusted in Christ. You've never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm standing to tell you today, that Jesus' blood is sufficient for all of your sins. Trust in Him, come to Him, believe in Him and you will be saved. Close with me in prayer.

We continue to look at Romans 9 and verses 14-16 in particular. I love the Scripture that says, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." Isn't that wonderful, to just think about that? And I've mentioned before that that word comes from a Latin root which means to make God greater, and you know that we cannot do that. We can't make God any greater than He is. He's already great above the Heavens, but He is not great enough in one place and that is in your heart. And so we magnify the Lord when we get together and we make Him greater. Well, now I want to change it a little bit and say, "Oh justify the Lord with me." What does that mean? Well, again from the Latin it means to make God just and righteous. Can we make Him any more just and righteous than He is? No, we cannot, but there is a place where He's not just and righteous enough and that's in your heart and mine.

And as we come to the doctrine of unconditional election, as we try to understand it, it is possible that God may not seem just to you and that's why we're looking carefully at this issue of the justice of God in unconditional election. It's also possible that you will face trials in your life. Maybe now, maybe in the future, again, where God will appear unjust. And I think at that point, it will be important for you to understand just how just and righteous our God is. The devil is always wanting to hand you that accusation that God is unjust, and when you are going through a terrible trial and you're facing great difficulties, he wants to cut the roots out from under you so that you have no resources to face it; and the way he does that is by whispering and insinuating that God is unjust. May it never be. And so, it's not just that we might understand God's sovereignty and unconditional election. But we also consider Romans 9 today so that you might be protected and buttressed against this attack of the devil. It is one of the stranger and more fascinating elements of studying history and realizing that human suffering inevitably gives rise to accusations that God is unjust.

A clear example of this is found in Elie Wiesel's book, Night. Elie Wiesel was born in Hungary in 1928. He, a young Jewish man with his family, was in turn at the death camp at Auschwitz and then transferred to Buchenwald. And there came a point where it seems, at least in the account, that he lost his faith in a just and righteous and good and sovereign God. And this is what he wrote, the scene was at Rosh Hashanah, New Year's celebration, in the death camp. And as he was there and they were going through the language of worship to almighty God, he just stopped and couldn't continue and this is what he wrote,

"Thousands of voices repeated the benediction in the service, 'Blessed be the name of the Eternal.' Why? Why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled because he had had thousands of children burned in his pits, because he kept six crematories working night and day on Sundays and feast days. Because in his great might he had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna and so many other factories of death. How could I say to him, 'Blessed art Thou eternal Master of the universe," who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers and our mothers and brothers end in the crematory. 'Praise be Thy Holy Name,' Thou who has chosen us to be butchered on Thy altar? This day I ceased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser and God the accused. My eyes were open and I was alone, terribly alone, in a world without God and without man, without love or mercy. I had ceased to be anything but ashes, and yet I felt myself to be stronger than the Almighty."

Now isn't that striking? Wasn't that striking? "I felt very strong," he said, "I was the accuser and God the accused." It was God's justice that was on trial there. Now, when God is on trial things are strange in the universe, aren't they? When the created says to the Creator, "You are unjust," that's when we're dealing with a very serious issue. And that's the very issue that Paul is dealing with in Romans 9. He's been teaching the doctrine of unconditional election, as an answer to the practical question of why it is so many Jews were rejecting the Gospel of Christ. And so in Romans 9:11-13 he says, "Not only that, but Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac, and yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written Jacob I loved and Esau I hated." And that seems unjust. Paul wants to deal with that.

Job’s Questioning of God’s Justice

Now the feeling of injustice rises up even in the most godly heart. You look for example at the case of Job, as he's going through great afflictions and you wonder, at the end it says, early on in the account, "In all these things Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." Well that was early, friends. If you keep reading the account, there comes a point where he says in Job 19:6-7, "God has wronged me, and He's drawn His net around me. Though I cry, 'I've been wronged,' I get no response, though I call for help, listen, there is no justice." He's speaking about God, isn't he? In Job 19, he's questioning God's justice. Now at the end of Job, you know he repents. You may wonder what did he repent from? Well, that might be one thing to repent from. To say to God, because these terrible things are happening in my life, You are unjust. Well, he's not. And Elihu who spoke the truth when he said this, "It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. Can he who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the Just and Mighty One?" Well, that's Elihu. Even more pointedly it's God.

And in Job 40 it says, "The Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. 'Brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer Me. Would you discredit My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God's? And can your voice thunder like His? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.'" This is an issue of questioning the justice of God. Is God unjust? And I say to you, if you haven't already faced it in your life, you will face it at some point. of the concentration camps in World War II, and they wonder where is the justice of God in all that People face it when they face great trials and when they face great suffering. Perhaps they have lost a precious child to cancer or perhaps the spouse was killed in a car accident. Perhaps they themselves have a lingering illness and it seems God isn't answering the prayer for healing. And perhaps they look at massive events in history, like this issue. And at that point when we are most vulnerable, you know the devil never fights fair, he's not going to come at you in a position of strength, he's going to come when you're weak. And at that time, he's going to insinuate that God is unjust. I say to you from Romans 9:14, May it never be.

Now, two weeks ago we looked at very quickly, I just named them and barely discussed them, six reasons from Romans 9, why God is not unjust. I'd like to look a little more carefully at them today. They are the nature of God, the nature of justice, now the nature of mercy, the nature of sovereignty, the nature of self-revealed glory, and the nature of humanity.

 Let's look at the first one, the nature of God. God is not unjust because of who He is, God is not unjust in unconditional election, simply because God can never be unjust in anything He does. God's actions are by definition just, because He is the absolute standard of justice in the universe. Also this argument is most powerful because God displayed His justice brilliantly in Christ at the cross. That's the summary of the point that I was seeking to make then.

Now, let's look and listen to some details. First of all, look at the grammar. If you look at verse 14, I think the New American Standard has the best translation. The question in the Greek is written in such a way as to expect the answer, 'No.' So the NASB translates it well I think, "What then shall we say? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be." There is a passion to this answer. We wouldn't just say, "No, I guess not." Paul sure wouldn't say, "No, I guess not." No, may it never be, there can never be any injustice with God. He deals with it quite directly. Quite powerfully. And why is that?

Proved by His Statements Through the Prophets

Well, first of all, let's try to understand who it is we're talking about simply from Scripture. God has revealed Himself in the prophets to be utterly passionate about justice. He's committed to justice in a way we can scarcely imagine. For example, there are declarations of God's justice. Psalm 9 says, "The Lord reigns forever. He has established His throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness. He will govern the peoples with justice." Or again in Psalm 11 it says, "For the Lord is righteous, He loves justice, upright men will see His face." And again in Psalm 36:6, "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the great deep."

And we could multiply these kinds of plain statements. The Psalmist and the prophets, again and again, are saying the same thing, God is just all the time. He's a just God. Well how about the commandments that He gives to us? For example, He gives commandments to the Israelites that they should raise up or that they would appoint judges in their society, who would deal with court cases, they would deal with legal cases. And this is God's command to judges, through Moses. He said, "Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you." And so He clearly commands judges to follow justice and justice alone. He says don't give any advantage to the rich, don't give any disadvantage to the rich or the same on the poor. Follow justice and justice alone, that's what He tells the judges to do.

Or again in Micah 6:8, "He has told you O man what is good, and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." That's what He wants from you. He wants you to be just. Why? Because He is just. And then there are statements made through the prophets. Oh, we could multiply these again and again, how much of the minor prophets concerned about issues of social justice, how much are they concerned about issues of poverty and how the widow is treated and how the orphan is treated. Again and again God establishes this matter of justice as one of the main reasons He's going to be judging Israel, because they were not just to the poor and needy. But listen to what He says in Isaiah 10:1-3, He says, "Woe to you who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?"

What does He say there in Isaiah 10:1-3, except that God is very concerned about matters of justice to the poor, to the downtrodden, to the widow, and to the orphan. Well, this is especially true in His statements about Judgment Day. Now the apostle Paul said in Acts 17:31, that God has set a day when He will judge the world with justice through the Man that He has appointed. That man is Christ. He's going to judge the whole world with justice. These are clear statements. Judgment Day will be a time when it says in Romans 2, that God will give to each person according to what he has done. God is a God of justice.

Proved by His Actions in History

Well, God's justice is especially proved also not just in His statements, but in His actions through history. He brought a flood on the entire ancient world as a matter of justice. He brought fire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah as a matter of justice. And when Abraham, His prophet and His friend stood before Him, interceding concerning a matter of justice, Abraham said, "Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right?" The answer is, "Even if there are 10 righteous people in the city I will spare it." That's not just justice there, that is mercy, but God clearly displayed His justice there. By the way, Abraham in asking that, shows that spark that we are created in the image of God and we have a concern for justice. More about that in a moment. But throughout history God has proven His commitment to justice, but the highest display of all is in Christ, amen. Jesus Christ is the Righteous One. He came to display justice, to declare justice and ultimately to die for justice.

He displayed justice in the fact that He always did what was right at every moment. He always loved the Lord His God and He always loved his neighbor as Himself, He was perfectly law abiding. He was a perfectly just man.

Christ declared justice to the nations it says in Matthew 12, "He will declare justice to the islands and to the distant lands." He was a proclaimer of justice. He said, concerning the Pharisees, He said, "You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law: Justice, mercy and faithfulness." There He is declaring justice to the nations. But most especially, He came to die for justice. Now, how does this work? Here's the issue: the issue is that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're going to talk more about that in a moment. But the real shocker with salvation is not that there are any that go to hell. It’s that any (or many) don’t go to hell and actually instead go to heaven. How did we get there? Do you ever wonder that?

How did David the adulterer and the murderer get there? What happened to his sin? What happened to his death penalty? I thought, in the Law of Moses he deserved to die. Nathan said, "You shall not die." Well, what happened to David's death penalty? That is a big problem for God. It may not be a big problem for us because we're kind of hoping for mercy all the time, and we're wanting to be covered all the time, and we're used to that kind of thing. But for God and the holy angels in Heaven, this is a big issue. How did he get here? And so his sin must be dealt with. And it never was in the Old Testament account. But it was dealt with, wasn't it? It was dealt with by Christ at the cross, and some of the most important verses on the justice of God are in Romans 3:25-26, and there it says that God presented Christ as a propitiation, "a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished." He's talking there about David and others, He's talking about Noah in his drunkenness. He's talking about Abraham and his lying, He's talking about the sins of every person that's up in Heaven from the Old Testament era. What happened to their death penalty? It was paid. It was paid by Christ.

God demonstrated His justice at the cross. Verse 26 says, "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be both just and also the justifier of those who have faith in Christ." God cares about justice enough to slaughter His Son on that matter. Now, that's incredible. And I said a moment ago, we have a spark of concern over justice. You know why? Because we're created in the image of God. But as I mentioned, two weeks ago, your spark is like a match compared to the raging inferno of the sun. You take your little match and you take God burning like the sun, that is the comparison of your concern over justice and God's. God is deeply passionately and totally committed to justice.

Secondly, let's talk about the nature of justice itself. What is it? What are we even talking about? The word in Greek can be translated two ways, justice or righteousness. They're the same. How does God define this matter, justice or righteousness? Well, we need a standard, don't we? We need a standard. Have you ever gotten one of those cheap yard sticks like from... It's made out of wood and it just expands and contracts with the weather, if it's humid or whatever, it's larger or smaller. Say we need a better, a better yard stick, right?

Well, how do you know what a yard is or a meter or something like that? There's got to be a standard somewhere. And all governments have known this and they inevitably set up a Government Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures and other things, and against that standard no one can argue. There has to be a starting point, there has to be a standard. And there is in our nation. The National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. See, now you know. And for $10,000 you can send anything to them and they'll measure it as accurately as you want, but woe to you if you question them and say, "I think my yard stick's more accurate than yours."

There must be a standard somewhere. And I tell you that this whole matter is a reflection of the image of God that we're in. There is a standard of righteousness and it's God Himself. God is the standard of righteousness. In Revelation 16, the angels are pouring out the bowls of wrath on Earth, and on the third bowl the angel pours out the bowl and the fresh water is turned into blood all over the Earth. And then, it's fascinating what happens, in Revelation 16:5-7, this is what it says, "Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say," listen carefully, "You are just in these judgments, You who are and who were the Holy One, because you have so judged." Now, let me tell you something, that's the way the angels think. You are just because this is what You decided to do. But he doesn't stop there. This is very interesting, "'For they have shed the blood of Your saints and prophets and You have given them blood to drink as they deserve.' And I heard the altar respond, 'Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are Your judgments.'"

Do you see there are two levels of dealing with this question about justice? The first level is simply because God said so. Now tell me, you parents, you haven't used this one, "Because I'm the daddy, that's why. Because I'm the mommy that's why." Of course, it's not very satisfying to the 5-year-old who wants a third dessert, and there's no way you're going to be able to explain why two desserts is mercy anyway. They're never going to get it.

And the fact of the matter is you don't have time to persuade them that your ways are righteous and just. And in the end you say, "Because I'm the daddy, that's why, now wash up and go to bed." So what is going on there? Well, here's the issue, it's one of a standard that must be held in the family. Whether they see it or not, whether they understand it or not. And the Scripture testifies that God's ways are so much higher than our ways. His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts that we could never fully understand all that He's doing. Just like God moves in a mysterious way that we sang earlier, we can't trace out what He's doing. And is the universe going to stop and wait until we all get it and see it? No, "Because I'm the daddy, that's why" is a dim reflection of, "Because I'm God, that's why, and everything I do is just and righteous whether you understand it or not."

But it doesn't stop there. That's the first level, the second level is… Do you see the correspondence? Do you see what God's done? He turned the fresh water into blood and they deserve it, because they have shed the blood of the saints and prophets, and so You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve. There's a lining up there. What I believe will happen is when our salvation is finished, we will see it the way God does. When we are done being transformed from everything that sin's done to these minds of ours, we will not be troubled anymore by these questions because there will be a perfect harmony and unity between what God has done in history and His nature and His character. And that brings me to the third and the greatest issue, and that is the issue of what is justice itself.

Now, we touched on this, and this is not easy to understand, especially for us sinners, but remember what happened up there on that mount with Moses. Moses is there saying, "Now show me Your glory." We talked about this last week, And the Lord said, "I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim My name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Well, God's justice, that is His righteousness, is His commitment to His name and His own glory. That's what it is. Now, let me explain how I understand this. All justice is based on a scale of value in the society. The more something's worth, the more the law must protect it, that's the way it works.

So there's a difference between petty larceny and grand theft because there's a difference in the value of the thing stolen. There's a difference between robbery and assault because there's a higher value of the person than there is to his possessions. There's a difference between murder and assault because there's a higher value of the person's life than a part of their body. And even in some states, and perhaps even in most, there's a difference between, let's say, attacking, and killing a law officer or what they call a peace officer, and a private citizen, because they see it as an attack on the system itself. And in some states they say this meets the criteria for the death penalty. It doesn't mean that the person is intrinsically of a higher value, but within society there's something higher that's being protected there.

What is the highest, most valuable thing in the universe? It is God's glory, that is the highest thing there is in the universe. Therefore, God's laws and His ways and His decisions and everything He does protects that and lifts it up. That God is the Sovereign King, that He is glorious, that His name is Majestic, that's the highest thing. Therefore a righteous and just man values highest what is of highest value in the universe, and that is God's glory. And if he doesn't or she doesn't, that person is an idolater, they have exchanged the glory of God for something created, because there's nothing else in the universe except for what God created and God. And so we put God above all things. And as justice, we must have His name, His honor, His reputation as the highest above all things, that is what justice is.

The third reason is the nature of mercy. This, I have to say to you, brothers and sisters, was the first understanding I came to this text. You know that troubling little word 'for' at the beginning of verse 15? I've understood it one way. Now I understand it a little bit differently, but it says, "What then shall we say, Is God unjust? May it never be, for He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" I said, "Wait a minute, that's a disconnect. How is that an answer? I don't get it, it still seems unjust. It's just a restatement of the problem." Well, no it isn't actually. Is God unjust? No, for He says, I will have what? Mercy. Oh, how did we change from justice to mercy? Well, that's the issue. That is the issue.

The bottom line is do you really want that kind of justice from God? Is that what you would demand on Judgment Day? Lord, I want justice, I want a careful and meticulous accounting of every single thing, I want everything dealt with properly, God. That's really what I want. Is that, in fact, what you want? Is it not rather that these words resonate with you in Luke 18, "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'Be merciful to me, the sinner.'" Isn't that more like what you're like in God's presence? Isn't that what you want from God on Judgment Day? Mercy. And give me mercy.

Well, what is mercy? Well, it's God's commitment to not treat us as our sins deserve. To free us from the misery that sin has brought on us, to lift us up, frankly, according to the mountain where He's with Moses, right into His very presence so that we can see His glory. Now that's mercy. How can you demand that? You can't demand it. Imagine in the Middle Ages, if there were a mighty Emperor and a bunch of his subjects started a rebellion against his authority and it cost the Emperor much. A lot of property burned, a lot of his soldiers murdered. Finally, the ring leader's caught, and in this Insurrection the Emperor's son was killed. The ring leader's caught, brought up before justice, before the Emperor, said, "What do you have to say for yourself?" Can you imagine that man falling on his face, and pleading with the Emperor for mercy, that he not be executed? I can. It might be a stretch to imagine that he'd get the mercy.

That's amazing that he would do it. But now let me tell you something even more amazing. Can you imagine that man standing with his kind of legs apart like this, his hands on his hips and saying, "Give me mercy. I demand it." And suppose he even kind of supported his argument by saying, "You were merciful to somebody a year ago. You owe me mercy." No, he doesn't. Mercy cannot be demanded, and it's never owed. It's given freely as a gift or it's not given at all.

There's a story told in the Civil War, a soldier in Robert E Lee's army, the Northern Virginia, committed a crime and was brought trembling before Lee. Lee saw how afraid that soldier was and said quietly, "Don't be afraid, son. I'll see that you get justice." He said, "General, that's the very thing I'm afraid of." He's afraid of justice. Martin Luther was afraid of justice before he understood justification. He was afraid of God's justice, because he saw it as how God would send him to hell, and he knew he deserved it. Dorothy Sayers said something interesting. I was reading, and I found this interesting. "When we demand justice, it is always justice on our behalf against other people," for what they've done us. Nobody, I imagine, would ever ask "Give me justice in this case. I've done something wrong to somebody and I want justice." I've never heard of it, I'll have to ask our judge friends. Have you ever seen it in a court? It's always the other way. "I want justice for what was done to me."

And really she says in the end, what we want is revenge, and we want the judicial system to do the revenge for us. We have to understand justice and mercy a little bit differently. Our only hope, friends, is this, and that is the mercy of God. Psalm 130:10 says, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." Hallelujah, He doesn't. But, friends, that's mercy, and He gives it freely. Not under obligation.

Reason number four is the nature of sovereignty. We don't need to spend much time on this because we saw it so clearly last week. But the nature of sovereignty consists in God's glory to be free and independent from His creation. A king is not a king if he has to check with his servant or his subjects to see if all of his decisions are the way they want. That's a democracy with the poll numbers and all that, where they're checking to see what the people want.

God doesn't check poll numbers. He is a king, He's sovereign, He does as He pleases with the things on earth, or in heaven, above, they are His. And this is the very freedom that He declared to Moses, when He said His name, and His name is Yahweh I am, I am that I am. We talked about this last week. He is the "I am." And what He's saying is no outside force defines Me, controls Me, dictates to Me. I am and there is no one like me, I am and there is no one before me, there will be none after Me. I am and no one can resist Me or stay My hand, I am that I am. And a corollary to that is I will do what I will do, I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful and I will harden whom I will harden. It's the very thing he says here in verse 16 and in verse 18. God has sovereign freedom in this. Later on Paul is going to elaborate on this in the matter of the freedom of the potter in verse 21 of Romans 9, "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purpose and some also for common use?"

Reason number five is the nature of self-revealed or personal glory. You may not have thought about this one before, but it occurred to me. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But what's happening between Moses and God up on the mountain is that Moses a sinner is standing up there. And when he says, "Now show me Your glory," he's saying, "I want to know you better, I want to be drawn into Your inner circle, I want to see more of You. Know more of You, be closer to You, I want to be close to You, God." Can you demand that? Is that a matter of justice?

I remember I shared with you the feeling that you might have if some total stranger came up and demanded to see more of you, you'd think, "This is a stalker and a dangerous individual, I need them dealt with quickly." That's one of the reasons we pay the police is people just like that. That's a little odd, alright, I demand to see more of you. I demand to know you better. I want to be close to you.

Well, if we, sinful small created beings, have that understanding of our personal space and our personal relationships that we give that freely or we don't give it, but it's not a matter of justice or anything that's owed. We give it to our friends, we give it to our husband, to our children. We give it, but it cannot be demanded as a matter of justice. Then we get at what's happening between Moses and God on the mountain. God doesn't have to show him His glory, He doesn't owe it to anybody. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 11:27, He said this very strong statement, "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and... " Praise God for the 'and', "And those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him."

It puts the choice on the Son, and if Jesus wants to reveal the Father to you, He will, and if He doesn't, He won't. He has that freedom. Now here's the thing, you operate that way, that's the way you are in your life, that's the way you are with people you know and don't know, it has to do with friends, it has to do with relationships, it has to do with personal self-revealed glory. It is not a matter of demand, it's not a matter of justice, it's given freely or it is not given.

And the sixth and final one has to do with the nature of humanity, there are two important aspects of humanity that I'd like to keep in front of us. First is that we're created beings, and the second is that we're sinful beings. First, in that we're created, we are in no position whatsoever to question God concerning His justice. The angels don't do it, we do it, and God puts up with it. He understands what sin has done to our brains and He is reasoning with us here in Romans 9. Fascinating to me how after the statement later in Chapter 9, He says, "Why does God still find fault, for who resists His will?" And God says, "Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?" That should end the chapter, but it doesn't, He actually goes on and continues to reason with us and give us more insights and more understanding.

That is the mercy of God, He is explaining Himself, but He wants us to know at that point, He doesn't need to tell us anything. And the angels in heaven don't question God this way. We are created beings, He is God and we're not. Like the book of Ecclesiastes says, "God is in heaven, you're on earth. So let your words be few." That's even if we're sinless and pure, but we're not sinless and pure. The fact of the matter is, we're corrupt and sinful and we don't understand justice very well, we think about it all wrong. We're very self-focused in all of our decisions and the way we reason, and not only that, but we're very prideful.

It's interesting to me. I was going out witnessing with Elijah, and the two of us were witnessing here in a neighborhood nearby, connected with the Health Fair. And this one man had read a book recently on the history of Africa, and he said, "Where are you from?" And Elijah said, "I'm from Nigeria." He said, "I know more about Nigeria than you do." Woah.

Elijah's been here a few years and spent the rest of them in Nigeria. He was born there, raised there, speaks several of the languages that they speak over there. To this man I said, "Well that's interesting. Have you ever been to Nigeria?" "No." I said, "This is an amazing study in human arrogance." It really is. "So tell us what you know about Nigeria." And he was going into the issues with the slave traders and some other things, and the importation of Christianity into Nigeria and he was trying to get at the fact that Christianity was not Nigeria's native religion. Well my friends it's nobody's native religion. We're all converted into it. It's not an American religion, it's not a European religions, it's God's religion, which was first revealed in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.

But this man, I found it interesting the attitude, it's what some sports people call the arm chair quarterback, you know, the Monday morning thing. You have never ever faced what it's like to have a 320 pound guy who wants to kill you, bearing down on you late in the fourth quarter, you had 846 offensive plays to memorize, you had 11 seconds left, and you're trying to complete a sideline pattern… You've never been there, but you would not have thrown that key interception.

You never would have done it. I've heard these talk show people they think that they know better than the coaches that have spent their whole lives studying basketball. They think they know better than the 747 pilot who bounced a little as he landed. Would you like to try? I'd like to be off the plane when you do, but would you like to try? I don't have the right to offer you the airplane, but this is the human heart, this is our arrogance. Now, you say, "but I've known pilots that have made mistakes, I've known quarterbacks that have made..." That's true, but God has never made a mistake, and you're questioning Him. Note well then the arrogance and the pride.

Who are we? Who are we? We're like blind people trying to judge a painting contest, deaf people judging a recital, a piano recital, we don't know justice, we are unjust every day. If you don't think so, ask God, show me ways I've been unjust today. Show me ways. It would have to do with poverty, how you spent your money, how you spend your time, things you say to people, judgments you've had in your heart toward people. You and I, I'm not excluding myself, we are both unjust every day of our lives. And we're going to question God on the issue of unconditional election? We don't have the right. So now God has been on the dock today. We've been questioning Him about His justice. Can I say to you, case dismissed? "What then shall we say, Is God unjust? May it never be." Someday, if you are saved, if you're one of Christ's children, you will see and understand completely, and you will know then that God has never been unjust in anything He's done through the whole path of salvation. If you don't understand unconditional election, don't throw it out. Just say I don't understand it but I humble myself under it, but I know this, my God is never unjust. Close with me if you would in prayer.

Take your Bibles and look with me at Romans 9, we're also going to be looking at Exodus 33, so you can go ahead and find both of those places as we're going to be looking at both this morning. And as I was thinking this morning about the incredible themes that are going to be in front of us today, the most exalted themes in the Bible, it occurred to me there's a kind of a bookends concerning this matter of the display of God's glory to his people. The greatest prayer in the Old Testament, I think, is in front of us today. Exodus 33:18 in which Moses up there on that mountain said, "Now show me your glory." And in my opinion, the greatest prayer in the New Testament is Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17. And then part of it, verse 24, he says, "Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory."

They are both asking the Father for the same thing, Moses asking to see the glory of God, Jesus asking that Moses and others would get to see the glory of God, and both of them are going to get their wish. Amen. That is the great joy of our salvation.

Now, the troubling thing for our limited intellects is that Jesus says, "Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory." That's the doctrine of election, the very thing that is in front of us in Romans 9, and we're trying to understand as we were last week, as we are this week, and God willing, perhaps, next week, to understand the justice of God in all of this, to understand how God is just and righteous while electing and giving this incredible blessing to people who do not deserve it.

I believe we have a natural aversion to the sovereignty of God. I believe we have a supernatural attraction to the sovereignty of God. Can you explain that? A natural aversion, a supernatural attraction. Jonathan Edwards talked about his own conversion and just listen to this, this is from his personal narrative. He said,

"From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God's sovereignty in choosing whom he would to eternal life, and rejecting whom he pleased; leaving them eternally to perish, and be everlastingly tormented in hell. It used to appear to me like a horrible doctrine. But I remember the time very well when I seemed to be convinced and fully satisfied as to the sovereignty of God and his justice in thus eternally disposing of men, according to his sovereign pleasure. And there has been a wonderful alteration in my mind in respect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty from that day to this, so that I scarce ever have found so much as the rising of an objection against it in the most absolute sense in God's showing mercy to whom he will show mercy and hardening whom he will. God's absolute sovereignty in justice with respect to salvation and damnation is what my mind seems to rest assured of as much as of anything that I see with my eyes. The doctrine has very often appeared exceedingly pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. But my first conviction was not so."

And so I say, we have a natural aversion to the sovereignty of God, and a supernatural delight in it. So also Spurgeon speaks this way.

"There is no attribute more comforting to his children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than this doctrine of their master over all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of his own hands, the throne of God and his right to sit upon that throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football as the great stupendous but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except upon his throne. They'll allow him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They'll allow him to be in his almonry to dispense his alms and bestow his bounties. They will allow him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars there over, light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever moving ocean. But when God ascends his throne, his creatures then gnash their teeth. And we proclaim and enthroned God, and his right to do as he wills with his own, to dispose of his creatures as he thinks well without consulting them in the matter. Then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on his throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon his throne whom we trust."

Do you see it in both the quotes? The natural aversion and the supernatural delight and attraction. Now the question is, how can we make that transition? Why is it so? Why is it so?

Well, I believe we were created to delight in God's glory. It's what we were made to do, it's what we were put here on this earth for. We were created to be for God's glory just in our existence, but more than that, we were created to delight in his glory to know it, to ponder it, to take it apart put it back together again, to revel in it, to worship God for it. But sin has interfered directly with this most central purpose of our existence. Sin has come and messed with that very thing for which we were created, and God's redemption restores his glory to its rightful place in our hearts, that's what he's doing, that's what salvation is. And not just in our hearts but in the whole world. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's what he's doing.

Key Question: How does a sinful being go from the natural aversion to the supernatural delight?

Now the key question before us as we're studying Romans 9 is how does a sinful being go from the natural aversion to the supernatural delight? How do we move in that direction to the point where we love God's sovereignty, we enjoy thinking about it, we delight in it, though we don't fully understand it. This I believe is the work of grace going on in all of our hearts as we study Romans 9. People who are in different places… I've had so many wonderful conversations with you over the last few weeks as some of you have come to talk and I wish more of you would come as well. All of us here are in a journey in this way, because frankly, in the end, do you know what we're going to see in heaven? In Revelation 22, we'll get there at the end of the message, but you already know what you're going to find there, you're going to find the throne. When you get to heaven you're going to find the throne and you're going to bow down before it, and you're going to be delighted in it. That's where you're ending up and me too. Isn’t that wonderful? But I think it's greatly to God's glory, to be there as much as we can while here on earth, we serve him better. More fruit comes, and he gets the glory.

And so I believe this is the work of grace going on in our hearts by a spirit led contemplation of Romans 9:14-16. Look again with me at those verses, "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all. For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy."

Now, let's try to understand what's going on here in Romans 9. How does Exodus 33 fit in to Romans 9? That's what's in front of us and that's why we're going to spend much of our time in Exodus 33. But Romans 9, in general, is answering a great objection against the Gospel of Christ. And that is, it seems that God's word has failed when you consider the almost universal rejection of the Gospel by the Jews. The Jews are God's chosen people. The Jews have certain advantages that are laid out in Romans 9, and yet they are almost universally rejecting their Messiah, they're rejecting Christ. And it seems then that God's word to them has failed, and that's the very thing that Paul's dealing with and he says, "Absolutely not." In verse 6 of Romans 9, he said, "It is not as though God's word has failed."

But why not, Paul? Well, because not all Israel are Israel. There is that larger set of the physical descendants of Abraham, but then there is that smaller set of the children of God. And as he's working within that smaller set, he's making promises to them and God's word to them will never fail. But just because the Jews who are physically descendant from Abraham are rejecting Christ, does not prove that God's word has failed. Then he brings in the case studies of Isaac and Ishmael and of Jacob and Esau. But you know, he goes beyond just saying that God's word has not failed, he then begins to discuss the actual doctrine of election where by Jacob is Jacob and Esau is Esau. It goes very deep at that point, so deep that none of us will ever be able fully to grasp at all. It's impossible study. But as we look at it, he's describing God's purpose, his sovereign purpose in election. Look at verses 11-13, "Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by him who calls, she was told 'the older will serve the younger' just as it is written. 'Jacob, I love, Esau, I hated.'" And verse 16 absolutely cinches it, if you look at verse 16.

I wonder sometimes… I look at verse 16 and I wonder, how can anyone have a question about it after you read this? But it's so plain. "It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on God who has mercy." Well, that quiets my heart, quiets my murmuring against the doctrine. What does not depend on man's desire or effort? I think the best interpretation for that is God's purpose in election. One could say really all of the salvation plan of God in big picture does not depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy. But that goes down to the individual, as well, ultimately. And what does it not depend on? Well, it doesn't depend literally, if I can just go literalistic here, on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who has mercy. So you have the one who wills and the one who runs on one side, and then you have God who has mercy on the other, and it says it does not depend on the one who wills. And it does not depend on the one who runs but it does depend on God who has mercy. Now obviously, as you're looking at that, there's a question that just seems to pop in your mind and you say, that seems unfair.

Is God unjust here? This doctrine of unconditional election is hard to accept, it seems unfair. And so the issue of the injustice of God comes up and Paul brings it up in verse 14, "What shall we say then? Is God unjust?" Or literally it says, there is no one injustice with God, is there? May it never be. And then he gives us this answer that seems so definitive to Paul, he says... Alright, here's my key verse, are you ready for it?

"For God says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion.'" Now there he's quoting Exodus 33:19. And Paul is, in my opinion, the second greatest interpreter in history of the Old Testament. Now, who would the first be? None other than Jesus Christ. There is no greater interpreter of Scripture than Christ. But to Paul, we'll give him position number two, as far as we know, he's the greatest interpreter of the Old Testament other than Christ, and he's going to be bringing in what he thinks is the best and most cinching verse at every point, and here it's Exodus 33:19.

Now, as he spans, his eye traces out over Old Testament Revelation, he comes to this moment in which Moses and God are having an incredible encounter on Mount Sinai and this pinnacle experience is what he's bringing out. Now as usual, Paul just cites the verse and expects that you know what the context is, he expects that you'll see and understand how it fits. Unfortunately, we don't always and so, it's beneficial for us to go back and try to read Exodus 33. So go ahead and do that now. And let's look at the context of Exodus 33:19, and try to understand what Paul saw in Exodus 33:19, that cinches is proof that God is not unjust. What did he see there? Now by this time, the Ten Commandments had been given. The Ten Commandments were the basis of Israel's national election as God's treasured possession.

It was a conditional matter, whereas these other things we're talking about are not conditional, but that was conditional. And God said very plainly in Exodus 19:5-6, "Now if you obey me fully and if you keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be my treasured possession, although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." So there's that keyword 'if.' If you keep this covenant you'll be a treasured possession, you'll be a holy nation. And the people said immediately, "We'll do everything you tell us to do. We'll do it all", so they say. Then immediately God gives them the covenant, he gives them the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord your God who got brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, in the waters below, you shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Now, the Ten Commandments were spoken by the voice of God out of the cloud, you remember. And the voice was like a trumpet or like the sound of an earthquake. It was so terrifying that the people begged Moses, to not let God say anything more to them again, or they would die. They couldn't even handle his voice and so they asked Moses to be their intermediary. And God said, "What the people have said is good. Oh, that they would always fear me like this." But realize this is a key thing I did not understand. The Ten Commandments had been spoken by God before Moses ascended to the mountain to get the tablets of stone.

Do you understand that? That's so key? They had heard with their own ears the Ten Commandments. Then he goes up on the mountain to get the tablets of stone, inscribed by the finger of God. In my opinion, that's the beginning of written scripture right there. God's finger began the writing. From then on Moses did the writing and then prophets and apostles after that. And so the finger of God inscribing the Ten Commandments. But Moses is up there a long time, 40 days, and the people lost interest. Their minds started to wander into sin, and together with Aaron, they committed a great and horrible sin, they committed idolatry, they committed great wickedness. They took gold and jewelry that they had plundered from the Egyptians under the mighty hand of God, and they melted it down and they made a golden calf, shape of a bull and they exchanged the glory of God for an image.

They made a trade at that point. In Psalm 106:19-21, puts it this way, At Horeb they made a calf and they worshipped an idol cast from metal. "They exchanged their glory for an image of a bull which eats grass." My friends, that is the nature of sin, that is what it is. It's trading the glory of God for something created. In this case, it was an image of a bull that eats grass, that's what sin is. And they were doing it while Moses was up on the mountain despite the fact that God had clearly told them the Ten Commandments verbally. They had heard his voice, were terrified of him. They promised that they would always obey those commands. As soon as they could, they went into sin. They forgot the God who saved them. It says in Psalm 106, who had done great things for them in Egypt.

This is the essence of sin, it is a shocking exchange of the glory of God for something created, in this case, an image of a bull which eats grass. So therefore, God made his first shocking pronouncement to Moses. Moses is up on the mountain, God is speaking and he says, "Go down quickly to your people, because they have become quickly corrupt." And God said this, "'I have seen these people,' the Lord said to Moses, 'And they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I'll make you into a great nation.'" Israel had broken the covenant and they deserved to die and the basis of his threat was their sin as evidence that they were a stiff-necked people. He makes an incredible offer to Moses, "I'll make you into a great nation." I don't have time to go into how that worked and how it was really impossible but that's what he said to Moses, and Moses at this point becomes the intercessor. He's a little bit of a type or picture of Christ who stands at the right hand of God and always lives to intercede for us, a beautiful theme. Again, I don't have time to develop it, but there he stands before God on behalf of his people and he prays so beautifully.

He doesn't pray, "but they're basically good at heart, just give them a chance, because if you really get to know them, they really have some essential goodness," he doesn't even approach that. God has already said, "I have seen this people. I know them better than you do and they are a stiff-necked people." Now, what he does, he says, "Egypt, your enemies will hear of the slaughter and they will think you are unable to bring them in the promised land. Your glory is at stake, your name is at stake, your reputation is at stake, and secondly, God, your word is at stake because you made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that you would make a great multitude of their descendants and bring them into the promised land. If you wipe them out then what about your promise to them?"

So God relents, and there's going to be a plague and there's going to be a slaughter at the hands of the Levites. A lesser discipline, but he's not going to wipe out all of the people. But then God makes a second shocking pronouncement. In Exodus 33:3-4, he says, "Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you for you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." You're like tinder and I am a raging fire. You're just going to get ignited. If I stay near you, you're going to burn. So I've got to get away from you or I might destroy you on the way. This is terrible, it's dreadful, devastating. God is no longer going to go with the people. He's going to separate himself from Israel and they can go on to the promised land without him. God would keep his promise to Abraham, but he sent an angel in his place to do the work for him, but he wouldn't be with the people anymore. Well, they are devastated by this and grieved and so is Moses.

And this brings about Moses's passionate intercession for the people in Exodus 33. At this point Moses is pleading with God to forgive Israel's sin completely and to go with Israel as before that he would reveal his glory to them and that they could just go on and He would be their God, and they would be His people. Now In the middle of that in intercession, Moses makes the most astonishing request that is the focus for us here in Romans 9. In the middle of all of this intercession, Moses says, "Please show me your glory. Please show me your glory." And it was God's response to that request that Paul quotes in Romans 9, the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Okay, so there's the context. That's the context of this prayer.

Alright, now, how had God been gracious to Moses in Israel up to that point, was the foundation of Moses's prayer life here. That's the ground that was under his feet.

Because, you know I find Moses exceptionally bold here. Incredibly bold. So what is the ground under his feet? Well, look at Verse 12, Exodus 33:12, Moses said to the Lord, "see you say to me, 'bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me yet you have said, 'I know you by name,' and you also have found favor in my sight." Now, that word favor, could be translated, grace basically. Moses is quoting God's own words back to Him and saying, God has said to you, Moses, you have found favor in my sight, I have grace on you. And so, that's the foundation of Moses's relationship with God. It's a clear declaration of grace on God's part.

Now, interestingly, and I think you should know this well enough by now, there's no prior statement of Moses's righteousness. There is none. That's not the foundation. It's like I'm basically a righteous and kind and loving individual. That's not it. I'm standing here because you have said you have found favor, I have found favor in your sight. I am here standing in grace, so he's standing on grace and so Moses's boldness depends on God's prior grace to him. Now, God had elevated Moses to a position no human had experienced up to that point. Look back at verse 11. It said, "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend." Now, this is only metaphorical because we know from later in the account, that Moses cannot handle a full revelation of God's glory, but what it speaks to is the intimacy of the contact between God and Moses. It was at a higher level than had been experienced up to that point. And so with that ground under His feet, with that grace under him he is bold to move to the next level and that's what we're going to see. He asks in effect for grace upon grace.

Look what he says in verse 13. "Now, therefore, if I have found favor or grace in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know You in order to find grace in your sight." So basically, the further revelations of God's grace are conditional on some things that have to happen along the way, but God's grace is going to meet those conditions in Moses. What do I mean? Well, the first grace is already said, is the right standing in the presence of God. You can't stand in front of him as a sinner except by grace. You understand that, don't you? And so that's the beginning place. But that's not all. He says, secondly, can I have another grace? I'd like to know your ways. Will you reveal your ways to me. Show me what you're doing in the world. Thirdly, so that I may know you, I want to trace out your way so that I can get to know you, God. I want to know who you are, I want to know what makes you move, I want to know what your passions are, I want to understand you so that fourth, I may have more grace in your sight. Do you see how it works?

He's starting with grace and he's moving and he's ascending until he reaches another level of grace and he is asking for the impossible. Just to say, God show me your ways. Basically, I don't see what you're doing, I'm not able to figure it out. It's the very thing that Paul says in Romans 9, 10 and 11 after all that doctrine, he gets to the end of it in Romans 11 and says, "Oh the depth of the riches, the wisdom, and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments, [and listen] His paths beyond tracing out." So God, please show me what is beyond tracing out.

Show me your ways, because I can't follow it. It's beyond tracing out. So he says, "I'll show you my ways, I'll teach you how I do things." This is nothing less, friends, than grace, upon grace, like it says in John 1:16, "and from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace." That's what we're asking for. And what is the final grace? I want to know God, I want to be with Him, I want to see him, I want to be in relationship with him. Now, in all of this, Moses is still deeply concerned about His people. Moses wants to know God's way so that he and his people can be pleasing to God. In this place I find Moses is just like Paul in Romans 9, pouring out his heart in prayer for the Jews. He's interceding for his stiff-necked people. He's interceding for the Jews. And both Moses and Paul are confident of their own standing before God based on grace.

But they're not thinking about themselves, they're thinking about their people and they're begging that God would go with the people and bless them. And so, he intercedes that God will continue to go with Israel. In verse 14, Exodus 33:14, he said, "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest." Well, God assured Moses that He would go with him. The Hebrew is singular there. Alright, so he said I'll go with you, Moses and I'll give you rest. Moses isn't finished yet, is he? So, he expands it out and he says in verse 15, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here for how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and Your people." He's linking himself together with the stiff-necked people, the Jews. "How will it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and Your people. Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct? I and your people, from every other people in the face of the earth."

Notice again, he in no way pleads the righteousness of Israel. He's not saying, "Look at them again, you'll find some goodness in them." There's nothing there, he's not pleading that way, he's begging for grace. Now later after God has revealed His glory to Moses, Moses openly acknowledge that Israel is a stiff-necked people who do not deserve His presence or to see His glory, frankly, that just encourages Moses to pray all the more for grace. Look at 34, Chapter 34:8-9 after God had revealed Himself to Moses, it says, "Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth in worship, and he said If I now have found favor in your sight oh Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us for it is a stiff-necked people." So, at this point, he's saying, We're stiff-necked, so please come with us. We're stiff-necked, so pour out your grace on us.

He embraces the wickedness of the people and says this is where grace has to work. Apart from that, we have no hope. So go with your people for we are a stiff-necked people and pardon our iniquity and sin and take us for your inheritance. It's almost as if God's greatest glory comes from saving wicked sinners like us, Amen? That's where he gets it, that's where his glory comes in doing this great work of grace and mercy and forgiveness and salvation. Their righteousness is nonexistent. Moses doesn't even bother to talk about it, because it's not there. So then, God graciously grants Moses's persistence, and faith, what he wants. Look at verse 17, "and the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken I will do for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name." Alright, Moses I will give you what you ask for. So he's gone from one level to the next level to the next level. Is Moses finished?

No, he's not finished yet. He wants even more. And so he says in the midst of all this, in my opinion, the boldest request in history. "Please show me your glory." I want to see you, I want to see you, I want to see you as you really are. Show me your glory. Now, here's the incredible thing. This glory of God was the very thing that Israel had despised in making the idol. It was the very thing they'd thrown away as worthless when they made the idol. He's asking for it back. And frankly, it's the very thing that Moses the individual sinner had thrown aside whenever he sinned for all have sinned and literally, the Greek says lack the glory of God. We've thrown it aside, it's worthless to us, we don't care about His glory, we have despised it, we have trampled it by our sin. And what is he asking for? Give it to me back, I want to see it. I want to know it, I want to be in the midst of it. Moses is so close to God here and amazingly, the closer he gets the bolder he gets.

The closer he gets, the more he wants. In my opinion, this is a mark of your own heart. Is your heart cold toward this theme, or is your heart enticed? Is your heart distant from this or are you attracted to the glory of God? Is this the very thing you want, or is it hold no interest for you? The closer Moses got just like Paul in Philippians 3, crying out, "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, I want to become like Him in His death and so somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead." That's what I want. Paul wants it, Moses wants it. The closer you get, the more you'll want it too. Show me your glory, and so then, God answers this incredible request.

Moses's requests, in my opinion, it goes right to the heart of all history. Sinners have despised the most valuable thing in the universe and that's God's glory. Saint Augustine put it this way in his confessions speaking directly to God. He said, "Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." We were created to love God's glory, we were created to see it and to know it and we've lost it through sin, we've despised it, we've turned our backs on it. Salvation is when we get it back, salvation is when it comes to rest in our hearts and when finally, we see it with our eyes, that's salvation.

This is the ultimate end of our existence, and our salvation. To see God's glory. Genesis 15:1, "After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield and I am your very great reward. I am your very great reward."

And so Moses asks for a fore taste of that glory while he's up in the mountain in prayer. He asks God to show him, a glory despising sinner, the very thing he despised. Show it to me. I want to see Your glory, the very thing that Moses had despise. And so God says in verse 19, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." And so he gives a multifaceted answer here. A display of God's goodness, a proclamation of God's name and then an act of sovereign mercy. The display of His goodness, he says, "I'm will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you."

It's like a stream or a river of light, or glory, or attributes or something and he's just going to be there in one place and it's just going to stream by him. Maybe like the different colors of a prism or something just flowing by the truth and the goodness and the attributes of God. I'm going to cause it to pass in front of you.

Secondly, "I will proclaim my name to you." I'm going to speak my name. Now, a name is a reputation. It relates to character. God's going to say, he says, "I'm going to reveal who I am and what I've done to you, I'm going to speak my name, my covenant name to you." And God had made a name for Himself when He brought Israel out of Egypt. Now he's going to proclaim His name to Moses, He's going to speak it. And God's name means salvation doesn't it, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He said, I'm going to speak my name to you and you'll call it out to me and you'll be saved.

Well, the gift of grace is given. Look at verses 5-8 of Exodus 34. Moses gets what he asks for. The Lord came down in the cloud, and stood there with him, and proclaimed His name, "the Lord." "And He passed in front of Moses proclaiming, The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, and rebellion and sin, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. Then Moses bowed down low to the ground and worshipped."

That is a beautiful picture of worship. God reveals Himself, He speaks to him and Moses responds by falling on his face and worshipping God.

Now, what happened there? Well, God spoke His name and God's name is a declaration of who He is. Earlier in the first supernatural encounter that Moses had with God at the burning bush, you remember? The bush is burning, Moses turned to the side, he says take off your sandals, for the place where you're standing is holy ground and he says that he has seen the troubles of his people, and he is going to send Moses back to take them out of Egypt. And Moses says, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me 'what is his name?' Then what shall I tell them? And God said to Moses, 'I am who I am.' This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you."

He is the "I am." The Hebrew pronunciation, Yahweh. The root of it is existence. I am who I am. Now, what he's saying is I am self-existent. I get my existence from myself. I don't get it from any other source. I am who I am means my existence comes from me.

There is nothing else in all the universe that can make that statement. In Colossians 1:16-17, it says, "For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." So that means all creation is totally dependent on God, for its original existence and its continued existence. All of us depend on Him at every moment. The sun is constantly held together by the power of God for the glory of God, the Moon reflects the sun's light in its beautiful light rays and we look at it and we say God is holding it together. He created it and it continues to have its being because God said so. So it is with every rock, every stream, every tree, every beetle, every eagle, every human being, every devil, and every angel. All of them originally had their being and have their continued existence because God says so. God is not like that. God is the "I am". He exists of himself, that is the name of God, Yahweh. That's what he pronounced to Moses as He went by, but he's not finished.

He said, "I am that I am." You could also say "I will be what I will be." In Acts 17 it says, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of Heaven and Earth, and he does not live in temples built by hands, and He is not served by human hands as if he needed anything because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." He said to Job, "Who has a claim against me that I should pay for everything under heaven belongs to me." And he said in Psalm 50, "I have no need of a bull from your stall, I have no need of a goat from your pens. For every animal in the forest is mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.I know every bird in the mountain and the creatures of the field are mine, if I were hungry, I would not tell you for the world is Mine and everything that's in it."

That is our God. He is Yahweh, He is. I am that I am. But that's not all he has to say to Moses. He also says, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." This is God's sovereign freedom in action, it's a declaration of what he is going to do. God is free in his actions, including mercy. God does not consult any created being, He doesn't consult human wisdom, he doesn't follow passively after human choices. He chooses, and then we choose after he has chosen.

God will be what God will be. God will also do what God will do. That is His sovereign freedom as a king. And so he says I will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you and I'll proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. You see, God is not unjust in unconditional election, because it is totally in line with his role and his place in the universe to be free over that. He is a king, He created all things, and he's free to do whatever he wants with his creation. The same is true for all that would come to him and say, "I want to see Your glory. I am not under any compulsion to show my glory to anyone, I'm free in that matter, for the individual Moses and I'm also free in that matter for the nation of Israel. Now, what is the connection of all of this? Back to Romans 9.

Well, first of all, we have a universally stiff-necked people. Israel was called a stiff-necked people, God said that they deserve wrath. Well, the same is true of us. Romans 1-3 teaches the same thing. Romans 3:10-12, says "There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one." Do you know what that says? Nobody wants God's glory naturally. We have a natural aversion to God, and we have a natural aversion to His glory. We are not naturally seeking Him, we're naturally running the other way, we are naturally stiff-necked, and therefore God is free to show mercy to us, or not to show mercy. That's a connection. It's also a connection that Moses's foretaste is the very thing that will ultimately be fulfilled for us in heaven. What did he have up there on the mountain? A display of God's glory, it's what he saw, he had an experience of that.

If God shows His intimate mercy to any sinner is an act of infinite grace, that is the foretaste, the fulfillment is a full view of God's glory yet to come. Look at Romans 9:23-24. Romans 9:23 says, very plainly that seeing God's glory in Heaven is the very issue that Paul's dealing with here in Romans. "What if he did this, it says, to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory. Even us, whom He also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles." Salvation is to see God's glory in heaven, it's to have the full revelation. Not like what Moses had on the mountain. You remember what he said, he said, "I'm going to hide you in a cleft of the rock. I'm going to put you in there and I'm going to put my hand over you because no one may see Me and live. You can't survive a full display of God's glory, you would be incinerated, Moses. And so I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and then I'll pass by and you can see my back, but you cannot see me, and live.

The apostle Paul put it this way, in I Corinthians 15:50, Speaking of the resurrection body, "I declare to brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." You have to be changed. You have to be transformed, you have to get an upgrade in your body. And if you don't get the upgrade you're going to be destroyed. When you get your resurrection body, you'll be able to see God face to face. And so it says in Revelation 22:3-5, No longer will there be any curse, the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him, they will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night, they will not need the light of the lamp or the light of the sun for the Lord, God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever."

And so that is the future, that's what we're talking about. We get to see God's glory. Now the question is, who gets to see it? Who? And he's answered that question. "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." God is free in this incredible intimacy. He doesn't have to show it to anybody. He can do whatever he wants. Do you understand that God is free to save out of the whole mass of sinners, one of them only if he so chose?

Or 10. Or 5. Or a 100. Or 20%? Or half of them, or three quarters of them, or 98%, or all of them. He's free in the matter, he can do from zero to 100 and be just and righteous in what he does. What has God done? He has called an elect people, a multitude greater than anyone can count, from every tribe and language and people and nation, and they will stand around the throne and they will give him glory, and praise for salvation.

Now, by way of application, as you look at this, Moses's request, Show me your glory. Is this the cry of your heart? Is this what you want? Is this what you yearn for? Are you attracted to this? Well, if so, then I, may I say to you, God has already done a work of grace in your heart, you're already loving what you used to despise, you're loving what is unnatural to love. You want what you were not seeking. You are yearning, you're yearning now, for what you didn't want at some point in your life. What is written, there is no one righteous, there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. And Romans 10:20 says, Isaiah said, boldly, "I was found by those who did not seek for me, I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."

Not one of us sitting here loved and cherished the glory of God and sought it. God came after us. He came looking for us to give Himself to us freely. And can I say to you, there's not a person here man, woman, or child that presently at this moment, seeks God's glory, loves it and cherishes it the way we should. But you know, God is not finished with us yet, he continues to pursue us until he's done saving us. The better you know God the more you're going to ask for. Are you satisfied with how much of God's glory you see? If not, then ask him for more. If you're thirsty, then drink. If you're hungry for God, then come. Jesus said in John 4:10, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water." The better you know God the more you're going to ask him for. So may I urge you today to seek the glory of God. If you're sitting here and you've never trusted in Christ, you don't know Him as your Lord and Savior, can you pray that prayer. It is... I'm convinced that anyone who says to God, "I want to see your glory." He's going to give it to them.

Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Anyone who ask God, show me your glory, He's going to show it to them. But Romans nine tells us who that is, it's those that he's elected by His sovereign freedom before the foundation of the world. Close with me in prayer.

Well, it's a delight to be with you today as we continue our series in Romans Chapter 9. We come to some incredible verses that you've now heard and read twice. One of them in Indonesian and one in English. It reminds me of the two years that I spent with my wife, and our two older children, who were born at the time in Japan. And it says in 1 Corinthians 14 speaking in tongues, if they're not interpreted, our mind is unfruitful. Well, I was at least having some fruitful thoughts, as I was listening to these dear brothers read and to pray in their native language, speak in their native language, and that is how great is God to reach out to so many different people with the same Gospel. Amen?

So that's a delight and we're so glad that all of you who are our international friends are here to worship with us today, we're looking today at the issue of the justice of God in unconditional election. And we're asking the question about unconditional election, and the question that comes to us in the text has to do with Is God unjust, in choosing people unconditionally. But before we even ask that question we have to ask a prior question, is it truth? Is it a fact that God has done this? Is it a fact that God has chosen people from every tribe and language and people and nation, irrespective of anything he saw in them, but just for His own sovereign purposes, is it true?

Spurgeon had an incredible story, an illustration that I thought was remarkable and he was talking about the story of King Charles the second of England, and the philosophers. And they were getting together to discuss some things and King Charles asked one of them "What is the reason why, if you had a pail of water and weighed it and then put a fish into it and weighed it again, that it would weigh exactly the same." Well, the philosophers debated, and they discussed back and forth, Why this would be so. And they had various theories and they were elaborate and they went on and on trying to determine the reason why, and one of them kind of emerged as the best theory on why this was so, but finally, one of them asked a simple question. Well, is it true? And so they got a pail of water and they weighed it and they put a fish into it, and weighed it again and lo and behold, it weighed the same plus the additional weight of the fish. It was not, it simply wasn't true.

And so I think before we go on and on debating and discussing and trying to determine about unconditional election, we should ask is it so? Has God actually done this? What does the Bible say? Does it reveal that God has chosen people to be His own? Now, I say to you that the biblical evidence for unconditional election, is overwhelming. There's not a little amount of information about this, there's a lot.

Look right at the verses that precede the ones that were read this morning. Look at verses 10-13. "Not only that, but Rebecca's children, had one and the same Father, our Father, Isaac, yet before the twins were born or have done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who calls she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written. Jacob, I loved and Esau I hated."

Well, that would be evidence enough, but God doesn't stop there. There's actually a wealth of evidence that God has in fact elected people. In Romans 8:33, it says, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect. It is God who justifies who is He that condemns?" Or in Romans 11:5, it says "so too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace and if it is by grace, it's no longer by works…" a remnant chosen by grace or again in that same chapter, Romans 11:7.

"What then? What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain but the elect did the rest were hardened…" Or again in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 "For we know brothers loved by God that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you. Not just with words, but with a power with Holy Spirit and deep conviction…" All of that proved to Paul That the Thessalonians, were elect. Or he says in 2 Timothy 2:19 "Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm sealed with this inscription 'The Lord knows those who are his.'" And in another place, John 6:70 after the “eat my flesh and drink my blood” teaching and most of the disciples abandoned Jesus that day, and he asked the 12. What, do you want to go away too? And Peter said, "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…" And Jesus's answer to that was, "Have I not chosen you? The Twelve and one of you is a devil." Very clear on the issue of election.

Jesus also in John 13:18. He said at the time of the last supper, "I'm not referring to all of you. I know those whom I have chosen." And he says in in John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, fruit that will last." And then again in that same chapter, John 15:19. "If you belong to the world it would love you as its own as it is you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." You know, we really could go on and on. There's not a small amount of evidence that this is so.

So it's not like the philosopher debating why if you add a fish to a pail of water it weighs the same as before, it simply isn't so in that case, but this is biblically so. Now an unbeliever will not accept the biblical evidence, but we're not speaking as unbelievers here this morning, are? We're accepting biblical evidence and it's overwhelming that God has chosen people.

Now the second question that's before us is, is God unjust in doing this? Now, Spurgeon says, concerning the fact of election, he puts it this way,

"What, then, is the use of our discussing any longer? We had better believe it, since it is an undeniable truth. You may alter an opinion, but you cannot alter a fact. You may change a mere doctrine, but you cannot possibly change a thing which actually exists. There it is — God does certainly deal with some men better than he does with others. I will not offer an apology for God; he can explain his own dealings; he needs no defense from me, “God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain;” but there stands the fact. Before you begin to argue upon the doctrine, just recollect, that whatever you may think about it, you cannot alter it; and however much you may object to it, it is actually true that God did love Jacob, and did not love Esau."

It's a fact. The question is, as we look at this fact we react to it and we begin to ask the question and the question emerges Is God unjust in doing it, and that's the issue that's in front of us in the text today. The very issue that Paul takes up in the passage. Look at verses 14-18. "What then shall we say Is God unjust? Not at all for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh. I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." Okay the issue of God's un-justice is in front of us and it's going to take us perhaps as much as three weeks to answer the question. It may actually take you your whole lifetime because, you know, you get to the third question. First of all, is it a fact? Is it a biblical fact that God has unconditionally elected people? Secondly, is it unjust? We're going to be looking at that this morning and over the next few weeks.

But the third question is, "How do I feel about it?  Can I accept it? Now obviously, it will not change a thing, in the universe if you can't. It won't. It won't change the fact whether God's done it or not, if you can't accept it now you may say I can't believe in a God like this, you have that right. You have that power to say that. I remember earlier in the church, when we were going through a difficult time working on a doctrinal issue I thought it was appropriate to bring in the evidence from scripture that we do not as a church have the right to grab hold of the church, and do whatever we want with it, we need to follow God's rules in the Bible. And a good example of that is the whole story, of Uzziah? You remember how the ark was put on a cart, contrary to the word of God, they should have been carrying it with poles, and so they put the ark up there on the cart and as they're going, the oxen stumbled and Uzziah reached out and grabbed hold of the arc.

And at that moment, you know, he was just trying to help it seems, at least God struck him dead. David was shocked and it says he was actually angry in the account but I remember we were sitting there in a group of deacons who were trying to discuss something, and one of them had the Bible open and just recoiled like a... You know, when he brings two positive poles of a magnet together just and then he gestured down at the open Bible and said, I cannot believe in a God like that. I found the statement with the gesture together very significant. I can't believe in a God like that. That's really pretty big isn't it? When you say that, that's really shocking, the fact is, God is like that. If it's written in the account that way, he is like that. Now, we may have a hard time understanding why he did that David finally learned the lesson oh, acacia wood poles through the loops on the side. That's how you carry it.

God told us what to do, but the fact is, as we read the Scripture, and we see right in the account, what it says that God... God does, we're at a fork in the road and are we going to get to the point where we say, "I can't believe in a God like this?" And if you do, what have you now? You don't have the bible anymore, all you have is what you can or will or will not believe about it. And that's the whole issue. So ultimately for you personally, it's very important whether you can accept this biblical teaching very important now as people have wrestled with the structured history they have had a variety of emotional responses to it.

John Wesley gives us a good example of a great man of God, who did many, many things for the kingdom of God. Led many into faith in Christ. when he died, I think he held the record for most miles on horseback, something like that. He may hold it still, I don't know, 25,000 plus miles on the back of a horse constantly reading the Bible. He was, as I said, so saturated in the scripture that his blood was Biblean, whatever that means. But anyway just if you cut him he just bled Bible, okay. But in this one matter when he came to Romans 9, he simply could not accept what was plainly written there and he preached a rather shocking sermon against his good friend George Whitfield who did believe what the scripture taught on this. And then this sermon on free grace given in Bristol 1740, he talked about the issue of predestination and election, this is what he said.

"This is the blasphemy clearly contained in the horrible decree of predestination! And here I fix my foot. On this I join issue with every assertor of it. You represent God as worse than the devil; more false, more cruel, more unjust. But you say you will prove it by scripture. Hold! What will you prove by Scripture? That God is worse than the devil? It cannot be. Whatever that Scripture proves, it never proved this; whatever its true meaning be. This cannot be its true meaning. Do you ask, "What is its true meaning then?" If I say, " I know not," you have gained nothing; for there are many scriptures the true sense whereof neither you nor I shall know till death is swallowed up in victory. But this I know, better it were to say it had no sense, than to say it had such a sense as this. It cannot mean, whatever it mean besides, that the God of truth is a liar. Let it mean what it will, it cannot mean that the Judge of all the world is unjust."

Well, our good brother John Wesley’s doctrine is straightened away now, praise God. and I look forward to my doctrine being straightened away too when I see Jesus, because there are flaws in my doctrine I look forward to getting them fixed. I'd fix them today if I knew what they were. All I'm doing is I continue to read the scripture and keep testing, my doctrine against what the Bible says, but if I were talking to our brother John, I'd say "John, it seems that you have some presuppositions, as you enter Romans 9 that are being challenged. Maybe you ought to challenge them, look again."

But I know this, God is not unjust and that is the issue that's in front of us today, the issue of the justice of God.

Now, why does it come up at this point? Well, let's understand our context let's try to understand how this statement fits in verse 14. Realize that Paul is addressing a problem in Romans 9. And the problem has to do with the Jews as a whole, as a nation generally rejecting the gospel. Paul is going from place to place preaching the Gospel, in synagogue after synagogue, they are rejecting the Gospel, they are not accepting it for the most part there are some that are accepting as Paul himself did, but for the most part, they're rejecting. Now, why is this a problem? Well, it's certainly a problem for them individually, but it's a special kind of problem in that the Jews were God's special people, they had been given the special privileges which Paul enumerates there in Romans Nine, at the beginning, they were given these blessings and so it seems as though God's word to them his promises to them has failed God's Word has failed because these Jews are rejecting the Gospel and that my friends is a crisis.

If God's word to the Jews has failed. How do you know it's not going to fail toward you? We don't know? And so therefore, this is a crisis of the first magnitude. Paul answers it in verse 6, go ahead and look at it. But there in verse 6, it says, "It is not as though God's Word has failed." Why not Paul? But here's his doctrine, "for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." There is a larger group of the biological descendants of Abraham or Israel, but then there's a smaller group of spiritual Israel, to whom the promises were made in the center there, and so God never promised that every single physical descendant of Abraham or Isaac, or Jacob would most certainly be forgiven of all their sins and end up in Heaven through receiving faith in Christ. He never promised it. And therefore God's word has not failed and he gives two case studies, of course, Isaac and Ishmael, both of them physically descended from Abraham, but only Isaac, the child of the promise, a picture of God's supernatural work in all of his children.

We are born again by the power of the Spirit we are children of the promise, but Ishmael is a child born in the natural way he's a child of the flesh. And so, you have Isaac and Ishmael, an example of what Paul Is talking about. Then he brings in a better even better case study, case study number two. And that is Jacob and Esau. Because an astute Jewish objector would say, "Isn't it obvious the different between Isaac and Ishmael? Isaac's mother was Sarah, but Ishmael's mother was Hagar, a Gentile? So that's the whole problem there. Alright, well, what are you going to say now, as we look at the case of Isaac's wife Rebecca, she has twins born, in one act of marital relations. Absolutely, at the same moment you've got these two boys Jacob, and Esau born of the same father, same mother in the same womb before the twins were born, hadn't done anything good or bad, "in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who calls she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written. Jacob, I loved and Esau I hated." Very, very strong statement on unconditional election. So therefore, not just that God's Word has not failed and that He never promised the whole nation of Israel to receive the blessings of the Gospel, but he actually goes beyond it in Romans 9, to talk not just about a true spiritual Israel, in the center but how they got to be in that set and how the others got to be in the other set, and that's where the rub is. How do the individual destinies, get settled of who is in what category? And so He's going beyond to discuss that in this doctrine, of unconditional election. Now, this election of Jacob and not Esau was done according to Romans 9:10-13 without any reference whatsoever to anything in Jacob or in Esau. He's not looking inside them for their works, he's not looking down the hazy corridors of time in the future for future works.

He's not looking at faith he's not looking at anything in Jacob or in Esau. He looking within himself this is a sovereign thing that he does, he alone. Now as we are looking at this, if this is the proper interpretation a question is going to pop up into your human mind isn't it now that's unfair, it seems in-just there's this matter of injustice with God. And so I think as we look at the questions that are rising up against the interpretation we're given it's good to see if our interpretation is accurate, and so the question floating up at this point actually proves that we've been tracking because you know something, we human beings are used to merit rewarded aren't we? We know that it's called an employer employee relationship.

If the employer meets the conditions they're going to get the reward if they do such and such, they get this and there's no injustice there and so that makes perfect sense, but if this is the case, then that's something we don't have a way to understand, we don't know how that works. And so, the question floating up at this point, verse 14,  "Is there any just injustice on God’ part?" actually proves the interpretation that we've been giving. Also, the same question, verse 19, look down and further in the account. "One of you will say to me. 'then why does God still blame us for who resist his will?'" That floats to the surface when you have a sense of God's sovereignty and his power. And he said, "Well if God can save everybody, why does He find fault with anybody because he could be exerting His will to save them all, that's the question that floats up there.

But we don't have to deal with all of them today. Praise God. We'll get to that one in due time. But this question is the matter of injustice. So, the question kind of proves the acts of Jesus. Now, this is Paul's usual pattern, he will tell us something in Romans he'll bring up a doctrine and then he will turn around and ask a question against his doctrine. Do you know where I think that came from? I think it came from just years on the road. I mean, evangelizing in place after place, in Greek towns in Jewish synagogues these questions came to him.

And he said, "Okay one of you will say to me, now at this point, such and such," because he's been doing this for so long, he knows exactly what people are going to say at these key moments. For example, if you look back earlier in Romans 5:20, Paul has been talking there about the doctrine of God's free, and unconditional grace. We're not justified by works but by grace through faith in Christ. And all of this, and then he makes this wonderful statement that I think about probably every day, and that is "where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more", Romans 5:20. Well, what's going to pop into your devious little tricky mind at that moment? Well, how about Romans 6:1 is a good statement of what might pop into your devious, tricky little mind at that moment. "What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Doesn't that make sense? He's arguing against this doctrine, and then he's got to deal with the idea, alright if sin abounds, then grace abounds all the more. Let's have lots of grace then, right?

And then he deals with sanctification in Romans 6, or again, he'll do the same thing when he treats about the law. Look at Romans 6:14, He says, "For sin shall not be your master, because you're not under law, but under grace." And so you say, "Oh okay, I know if we're not under law now, then, we can sin as much as we want right? Verse 15, "What then shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace?" How does he answer, "may it never be!" You see Paul's ordinary method here, he'll give you doctrine, and then he will anticipate the questions you are going to think about. Raise them up in his text, write the question and then answer it. And he's doing that exact same thing here, he does it 10 times brothers and sisters.

Ten times in Romans. He raises up a question, then answers it with something like "may it never be," or refutes that question now here, and that way you can see the question then becomes a kind of a backward insight into the text. We have to come up with an interpretation in Romans 10-13 that will lead to the question of verse 14, of injustice and that's exactly what's happening here. Martin Lloyd-Jones put it this way, whatever it is the apostle has been saying from verse 6-13, about God's purpose and the way in which he carries it out, it must be something that on the surface at any rate, makes some people think that God has been unrighteous, and that he is unfair.

So in other words, if you're feeling like this is unfair, then we're right on schedule. Alright, we're right on track. And so it comes up this issue of injustice and why, because it seems unfair, it seems in-just... Unjust that God would, just for his own purpose's, chose some and not others. That's the very issue. Now, how does he answer it? That's what's in front of us now.

How does he answer this question of injustice? Well, it's kind of an interesting mystery. Look at verses 14-15. "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? May it never be!" Or "not at all." Verse 15 is the beginning of his answer, "for He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." And you say, wait a minute, that seems to me like a restatement of the same problem, how is that an answer?

How does that solve the problem? That's the very thing I'm asking, how you have mercy on some and compassion on... How does that work? And so we wrestle with this we try to understand, how does verse 15 answer the question of injustice? All it seems like he's saying is I have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I have compassion on whom I have compassion. We want to say, "but that sounds unjust." How have we answered the question? And He states it again very clearly in verse 16. It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy.

Now, John Piper, he's a pastor in Minneapolis, who I've read a number of his books and some of you have as well. In 1979 a sabbatical year was coming up for him at Bethel Seminary there in Minneapolis and he wanted to take a sabbatical and go to Germany. He wanted to study something in the New Testament, and his supervisor asked him, "Well, what are you going to study?" He said, "I'm going to study one word." "Well what word is it?" "Well it's the word 'for' in verse 15 of Romans 9. I want to understand how 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion,' answers the question of an injustice and unconditional election. I just want to know that little word F-O-R, for, at the beginning of verse 15." Now you say "I have never taken a three letter word that seriously, in all my life, to spend almost a year of my life studying to understand how verse fifteen lines up with verse 14." Well, John Piper did, and I actually think that we should take the word of God that seriously, shouldn't we? We should try to understand the flow of argumentation here. I want to know, how is God's statement here in verse 15 an answer to the problem, can we follow his argumentation? Now, what I have done and what we plan... I plan to do this morning for the rest of the morning is just to take a step back and look over the next number of verses, at the array of answers that God gives on this question of injustice.

There's an array of them, I perceive six. There may be more, but there's an array of issues that float to the surface in these verses, and I think they absolutely deal forever with the issue of injustice with God. And those six reasons are, the nature of God, the nature of justice, the nature of mercy, the nature of sovereignty, the nature of self-revealed glory, and the nature of humanity. These six work together in my mind, at least in my heart, to answer the question I have concerning injustice. I hope they'll do that for you.

Now, what I want to do is just for the remainder of the brief time that we have left this morning, go over these six very quickly, so that you understand what they are. I'm not going to support them with scripture. I'll try to tie them to Romans 9, 14 and following, but I'm not going to bring in other scriptures, at this point to support them biblically. I'm going to do that, I think, God willing in two weeks, next week, if the Lord wills. We'll kind of go together and in our minds and hearts to the top of Mount Sinai where Moses met with God, and made this incredible request, "show me your glory." And that's the foundation of this statement, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy," and we will understand what happened between Moses and God on the top of Mount Sinai to answer this question of injustice.

We're gonna get some of those themes a little bit this morning, and then we'll come back to these six more fully in two weeks and then answer them with supporting scriptures. Okay? That sound good? I hope so, because that's what we're gonna do. But anyway, we're going to work together and in this way I hope after the three weeks, we'll have forever a sense laid to rest that God cannot and is not unjust in this matter.

Let's start with the first one. And that is the nature of God, the New American Standard Bible in verse 14, has it this way. "What shall we say then, there is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!" Now, I like that translation because the Greek form of the question, and  expects the answer no. In other words, there can't be any injustice with God, can there be? May it never be so within that we have a sense of God and who He is concerning this matter of injustice.

Let's put it, this reason, this simple way, God is not unjust in unconditional election, simply because God cannot be unjust in anything he does, everything God does is just. Everything he does is righteous. God's passion for justice, burns brighter than the sun. And let me tell you, if you have a sense of justice, God gave it to you, because you're created in the image of God. But your sense of justice is like a lit match compared to the raging inferno of the sun. God has that much concern over justice infinitely more than you. So if you are concerned about justice, how much more that God who created you? Can it possibly be that God would be unjust? Is it even in the realm of possibility to consider that the God who has so clearly revealed himself in the Bible could be unjust for even a moment? And what are God's credentials? We'll talk about that in two weeks, but let's bring you to the highest and greatest credential. The cross of Jesus Christ. Some have said that the cross is a measure of God's love and so it is Romans 5:8, God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But let me tell you, friends, that was not the only thing God demonstrated at the cross. There was another issue, and the issue was justice. And I mean not the justice of the reprobate, those suffering in hell. Oh no, the issue is the justice of people like David who committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Bathsheba's husband murdered to cover up his sin. How does a guy like that get into heaven? Now that's a question and we could say this: on the love side, God loved us so much that he would rather His son die then that we who are his own, not spend eternity with Him. Amen and it's true. But let me say to you another way, God loves justice, so much that he would rather slaughter His own Son, as our substitute, than let any of us get to Heaven without our sin paid for. How can a God like that, who is so passionately committed to justice. Be unjust about anything? On to the next one.

The nature of justice itself. Is God unjust? Another translation would be unrighteous. Well, what is justice anyway? What is righteousness? What is the sense of fair play, where does it come from? Can I tell you that God Himself, alone, is the ultimate standard of justice in the universe? Basically, if God does something, it is by definition, just simply because He did it. God is not subject to some higher standard of justice and righteousness that he needs to obey and follow. All words and deeds, intentions, plans and motives are brought up against this one standard of righteousness who is God Himself. If it lines up with God, it is just and righteous, if it does not line up with Him, it is not just or righteous. And righteousness (and this is from Piper's study, and I think it's true), righteousness consists in valuing properly what is most valuable in the universe. If you value a human life than we need laws to protect it. If we value property we need laws to protect it. What is the most valuable thing in the universe? God's name. His glory. His honor and God values his name, His glory, and His honor above all things, in the matter of unconditional election. We'll talk more about that one. John Piper put it this way.

"God’s righteousness is essentially his unswerving allegiance to his own name and his own glory. God is righteous to the degree that he upholds and displays the honor of his name. He is righteous when he values most what is most valuable, and what is most valuable is his own glory. Therefore God’s justice, his righteousness, consists most fundamentally in doing what is consistent with the esteem and demonstration of his name, his glory. God would be unrighteous if he did not uphold and display his glory as infinitely valuable."

We sinners, you know what we've done? We've stripped God of His glory. We exchanged His glory for man made or human things for idols for all have sinned and what? Fall short of the glory of God, God will have His glory reestablished. And so, unconditional election does that.

Thirdly, the nature of mercy. This one, you can read right out of the text, but you have to notice what's happening. "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? May it never be! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have…'" Whoa, wait a minute. That was a switch. Just a moment ago, we were talking about justice and now you're talking to us about Mercy? Exactly how does this argument work? Well, we speak in plain terms. Can you imagine standing on Judgment Day and demanding from God, justice? I want justice for what I've done, I want justice for my life.

I don't want any handouts. I don't want any grace, I don't want any mercy, I just want justice, so just give me what I truly deserve and I'll be on my way. Is that what you want? We who are Christians have come to realize that that's not what we want. Justice will condemn us, if not for Christ and His cross. What do you want from God? I want grace. I want mercy. Now let me ask you a question. Can a rebellious sinner, a flagrant transgressor stand in front of a just court and demand mercy?

Can you do that? Do you not, kind of throw yourself on the ground and plead for it, beg for it. You beg for mercy you don't demand it. This is not, then ultimately, a matter of justice, this is a matter of mercy, if it's justice than it's hell but if it's mercy than it's given or it isn't, and that's how it works, the nature of mercy we'll talk more about that one.

Fourthly, the nature of sovereignty. Our God is God. He sits on a throne. He's a king. He's not a president, He's not a Prime Minister, He is not subject to cyclical elections, He doesn't care about popularity polls He's never going to send an angel to ask your advice on a matter of state or kingdom, I guess would be the right word. He's not going to ask for that, because He's a king, He's sovereign and the glory of His sovereignty is in making decisions after his own council within Himself, and not surrendering control to created beings. Look what He says in Verse 15, "He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy…" That is sovereignty speaking, and "I will have compassion on whom I have compassion," verse 16. "It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy." And again in verse 18, "Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." Unconditional election then, is not unjust because it best accords with God's proper position in the universe as creator and ruler over all that He's made by electing based on his own internal prerogatives God is upholding His right to reign absolutely over all things.

His name is, "I am who I am, I will be what I will be, I will do what I will do I will have mercy, as I will have mercy, I will harden whom I harden, I will have compassion as I will have compassion, I am who I am." That is the God we worship. Amen and amen. He is a sovereign king, and we honor Him and we worship Him as such, the nature of sovereignty.

Fifth, the nature of self-revealed glory. This is a new one that I thought about and it came to me. What did Moses ask God for on the mountain? Show me your glory. Do you not realize that's probably the boldest request in the history of humanity? Here is a sinner, a murderer standing up in front of a Holy God and saying, show me yourself. Reveal yourself to me.

So, I got to thinking about self-revelation. I got to thinking about friendship. I got to thinking about marriage. Could you imagine a suitor going up to a young lady and saying, "Show me yourself. Reveal yourself to me." She'd probably call the cops. On a more kind of reasonable level as their courting they agree at some point when they stand before God, that they're going to reveal themselves to each other. It's given or it isn't. It's true at a lower level for friendship, right?  Can you demand friendship from somebody? Can you go to another person and say "Be my best friend?" It's not going to work, that's not how friendship works. That's not how relationships work between persons.

My friends, if we who are dust, sinners have the prerogative to befriend or not befriend, to marry or not marry, to reveal or not reveal. How much more the God of the universe has the right to deny this request that Moses made? Moses made a request, God could have said no way am I going to show you that. But instead he says, "I'll give you what you asked. I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy." We'll talk more about that next week. God is willing to reveal Himself to you, isn't that incredible? He's willing to open himself up in Christ but he does that at his sovereign prerogative. It cannot be demanded.

The sixth and final one for today is the nature of humanity. Now, who are we talking about that's got this claim on God? Are the angels asking, is there any injustice with God? No. We are the ones asking. Who is asking this?  We human beings, we created ones.

Now, there's two different ways to look at it. First, Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes, some common use. What does he call us then? We are the clay He's the potter, He shaped us and made us. Do we have the right, as created beings, to look up to our creator and say, "Why did you make me like this?" No, so just even if we were sinless, friends, if we were perfect could we look at something God's done and say, that's unjust? No, you know why because God's ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways. Do we understand all that God's doing? How much less than could we created beings, to assess him properly, even if we were sinless, assess Him properly, and understand everything He's doing and be in a position then to judge it or assess it? We never will be, he's the creator we are the created.

But that's not the case. We're sinners, actually. How's your sense of justice is it good? Would you put it up there and say I have a perfect sense of justice. I would think not, I would think that we sinners, our justice has actually been somewhat corrupted our sense of fair play, has been somewhat corrupted. We are therefore like blind people who are going to be judging a painting exhibit. We're like deaf people who are going to be judging a piano recital. I think the first one did really well. How can we sinners judge God's justice? How could we possibly do it? Isn't it better for us who are being redeemed and transformed and made more and more like Christ say, "Someday I'll understand this, but I know that when I end up there, I will end up saying, God is just in everything he does." Amen and amen.

Now what application can we take from these six that we looked at quickly? Well, first of all, I hope that what I've been preaching about has kindled inside of you, a sense of worship and awe for our eternal God. God does all of this for the praise of His glorious grace. He does all of this in a magnificent way that He would be honored and glorified. Then worship Him today. Honor Him today. Don't honor the created thing. Don't honor your own reason and your own sense of justice. Honor God, the God of the Bible, worship Him and praise Him.

Secondly, resist all temptation that the devil hands you today or any time to feel inside you that God is unjust. We're going to talk more about that in the future, but things may happen to you, you may lose people or possessions that are valuable to you and you may be tempted by the devil, to say God is unjust in this. It's unfair what he's done. Don't do it. God is always just. He's always righteous in everything He does.

The third one I want to end with today is the issue of missions and evangelism. Will you take a minute and look with me at 2 Timothy 2:10? I'll finish up there. 2 Timothy 2:10. We are about in a few moments, to commission the Haiti mission team and I'm excited about that. I'm grateful for these brothers and sisters that they are going to be going forth from our body to minister in Haiti.

Now let me tell you something, Haiti is one of the most tragic countries I've ever seen in my life. It's very, very tough. There's a darkness over Haiti. A spiritual oppression. Voodoo. Political forces. Evil things swirling around in Haiti. Now, my question is, with what kind of boldness and confidence, will these missionaries go forth apart from God's sovereign grace? Look, what Paul says, Therefore in 2 Timothy 2;10, "Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." That is Paul's secret of staying power in tough ministry. I'm putting up with anything and everything being chained being beaten everything taken from me for one purpose. And what is that? That God's elect might be saved with eternal glory, He says that right there.

Now, when we send this mission team out they're going out to do a certain thing, it's sure and certain absolutely secure, they're going out that God's elect may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. Isn't that marvelous? There's no uncertainty to it, but if it were based on their efforts and based on the free will and the response of those listening, what are their odds of success? Instead they're going out on a certain errand. Amen. So they're going out with courage, they are willing to endure anything, disease and danger and all kinds of things. They're going to one of most dangerous places in this hemisphere that they might take the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they're going with confidence, I hope that Romans nine, tells them that there's some of God's elect in ever tribe, and language, and people, and nation. Let's go find them, they're worth suffering for. Close with me in prayer.

Take your Bibles if you would and look with me at Romans 9, going back into Romans 9:10-13, and really just zeroing in this morning on verses 11 and 12 at some key phrases. And as I was thinking about this section of Scripture, I was thinking about the incredible importance of the things that we're learning, and it made me meditate on the value, the priceless value, the precious value that we place on knowledge and that's true in really every area of life. Think about the stock market, for example, what would you give for a hot tip of a company that's just going to sky rocket over the next year? Hopefully, you wouldn't give too much, or you may end up like Martha Stewart in prison. But some special information can be incredibly valuable when the time comes to invest. Or you think about horticulture, gardening. What were the pilgrims willing to give for Squanto's information on natural fertilizer for the native crop of corn? Their lives depended on it. And so that information was valuable. Or you think about parenting? What would a new mother give to talk to her mom, the first time she's holding a baby with croup. What do I do? Give me a book, somebody who knows what to do. It's scary. The middle of the night, three in the morning and your mom's probably the only one who's willing to receive a call for croup at three in the morning.

But that information is valuable and precious. Or you think about college, what are you or your parents willing to pay to get you an education? The high price of information and knowledge, what are you willing to give?

Or I think about the Central Intelligence Agency. They have satellites up in the air that can read your license plate from outer space. What did they pay for that information? Not that that per se is of any interest to them. I hope it's not, but that information is there. And there are people that are willing to risk their lives to get that information, get information like that back to the United States Government.

Or think about the realm of sports. I was talking to Catherine Craig as I was walking in here about her brother-in-law Roger Craig, who invented the split-fingered fastball. You probably didn't know that. But Roger Craig invented the split-finger fastball, which drops like something falling off a table looks like, a fastball 90 % of the way and then just drops. It resuscitated Roger Clemens' career, it gave him like four more Cy Youngs after he left the Red Sox. So, the split-fingered fastball, inside information.

But of all of that information, may I tell you there is nothing that compares with knowing God. With knowing Him as he really is, not an idol, not a misunderstanding, not a Sunday school instruction that is off, but the true God, the God of the Bible. It says in Jeremiah 9:23-24, "This is what the Lord says, Let not the wise man boasts of his wisdom or the strong man most of his strength or the rich man most of his riches, but let him who boasts, boast about this, that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, righteousness on earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord."

I want to know God, I want to know Him as He really is. And the only way for me in these doctrines such as unconditional election, is to stay, very close to the text to try to understand it phrase by phrase and that's what we're going to do today. We have a pretty simple and straightforward task.

We're going to be looking very carefully and very meticulously at verses 11-12 to try to understand the doctrine of unconditional election, and how it is that God's purpose stands. Now, let's understand the context. Paul's argument up to this point has been focusing on a potential crisis of confidence concerning the Word of God. Has the Word of God failed? The case study or the issue has to do with the Jews, as a people, as a nation, the chosen people of God, benefited and blessed with so many things are. It seems that they universally (not totally because there's a remnant), but for the most part rejecting the Gospel of Christ. And Paul is finding this in city after city as he goes throughout the world, wherever there was synagogue he goes in and preaches the gospel and for the most part, the Jews were rejecting their own Messiah.

And that brought believers to a potential crisis of confidence in the Word of God itself. Has God's Word failed concerning the Jews. And so, he asked that question in verse 6, and he gives a stunning answer. Absolutely not, God's Word has not failed in that most of the Jews are rejecting Christ. Why not Paul, why has God's Word not failed, in that most of the Jews are rejecting Christ? Well, because not all Israel, are Israel. Nor are they... Because they're physically descended from Abraham, are they his spiritual children, the children of the promise.

Paul's point is that God never intended or promised eternal salvation to every individual physical descendant of Abraham, he never promised it. So his word is not on the line here when Jews are rejecting Christ. His point is that there is a spiritual Israel, within physical Israel, and to them God had intended and made the promises. Now, in order to prove this, he's brought out two case studies showing that this concept should be well familiar to the Jews. They knew that Abraham was the father of many nations, but only the Jews were the chosen people of God. They were the one line. And so they were used to it right away with this issue of Isaac and Ishmael.

Isaac represents the children of the promise, those who are reckoned as Abraham's children, they're called God's children, they are the children of the promise. Those, however, who are the natural children, children only through the flesh, born biologically through Abraham, they are represented by Ishmael. So, you have Isaac and Ishmael, children of the promise, children of the flesh. The key difference is God's direct and supernatural involvement in making his children his own. And so the Scripture says, "At the appointed time, I will come and Sarah will have a son." As I explained at that point, it isn't just that God is going to come and celebrate with them, He's going to come and do it. By His supernatural power, Isaac will be born. He's a child of the promise.

Alright, case study one. But case study two is brought up because of a gaping hole, a loop-hole in case study one. And what is that loop-hole? Well any Jew worth his salt would be able to say, "Now, isn't it obvious why Isaac was chosen and Ishmael not? Ishmael's mother was a Gentile, Hagar the Egyptian. You haven't proven anything." So alright. Well, let's go to case study number two. Let's look at Jacob and Esau. Now Jacob and Esau's a much better case study because what are you going to say now? Look what it says in verse 10. "Not only that, but Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac, yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand. Not by works but by Him who calls she was told, the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated." God therefore, rules out any possibility of a distinction between Jacob and Esau. One father, one mother.

The Greek implies one act of marital relations. Out of that one act of marital relations between a married couple, the patriarch Isaac and his wife, Rebecca, you get the twins. How could there possibly be a distinction? And frankly, before they had even done anything, they're still in the womb, they've done no deeds good or bad, she was told the older will serve the younger. And so Paul's overall point is God's Word has not failed because not all physical descendants of Abraham was intended by God, and His promises. There's a spiritual Israel within the physical Israel, God never promised all Israel eternal salvation through faith in Christ and so therefore, mission accomplished, we can have confidence in the Word of God. But God intends to say more than that to us, he actually intends to explain how individuals are in each of the categories, and that's where our minds start to get blown. How does an individual end up in the spiritual Israel, or in the physical Israel? And that's what's going to occupy us, over the next many verses. And he's zeroing in on that right here in verses 11-12, And all we can do, as far as I'm concerned, is to try to understand this doctrine verse by verse, even at this point, phrase by phrase.

"Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad…" [Listen], "in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who calls she was told the older will serve the younger." So what we're going to do is look at these phrases very carefully. First, "in order that God's purpose in election might stand." Now what does this mean? Well literally, the Greek says, "According to His electing purpose" or "according to the electing purpose of God," "God's electing purpose," or "his purpose in election." Of course election is a choosing out of a larger group. When you go to the poll, the ballot box, in November, you're electing somebody by choosing one or a certain number out of a larger group. That's what election is. So, it's a choosing out. God's purpose in election therefore is before us, trying to understand what this is.

Now, first of all, we have to know that our God, the sovereign of the universe, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is a purposeful being. Everything has a purpose, a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the purpose of God. Everything fits in to God's purpose in the universe. He's a purposeful being. To me, that's encouraging. That means that history has a purpose. I mean, all of world history has a purpose, unlike unlike Darwin and the natural extensions of that in that there's really no purpose and we're just heading toward a dark, cold, oblivion. There actually is a purpose in history, and that's encouraging.

Secondly, there's a purpose in my own history. Isn't it encouraging to know that things happen in your life for a purpose too? It's not just random misery that's happening to you. I was looking at the ad recently for the iPod. Maybe some of you have the iPod, that little white box that... When I was growing up, there was the transistor radio that size and life was random. That's their expression. Life is random. Have you seen this? Life is random. What it means is, you can put in 240 songs, and it will mix them up for you, and you're never sure which one's coming next. Kind of exciting.

Life is random so you're never quite sure. So it's kind of like you're the manager of your own radio station, and you get to filter out all the songs you don't like, but then you don't know what order, because the little random chip inside is going to decide which one comes next, and you know why, because they're going to make a philosophical statement. Life is random. I'm wondering how iPod has the right to tell us what life is. I wish they'd just sell their products, but they're telling us what life is and they're telling us life is random. Life has no purpose, it just kind of comes at you, you're never sure, there's nothing to it. I say no. I say life is not random. Frankly even the iPod is not random. You choose the songs that go in it, right? You're kind of electing the songs that go in to begin with, so it's not that random but anyway. You know what an iPod in which you don't get to choose the songs is called, it's called the transistor radio. Right? And it just kind of comes at you in the order that it comes and you just accept that. At least I did, when I was growing up.

But anyway, let's try to understand, therefore, what is God's purpose in election? Let's try to understand some passages that will give us some insight into what this might be. What is God's purpose in election? Go back one chapter, to Romans 8:28-30, in which we get this same word, this idea of purpose. Romans 8:28-30. It talks about purpose, and it says there, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his what his purpose." There is the same word. Those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. Well, what is that purpose? Well, the very next verse, begins with the word for, so it's going to tell us what that purpose is. "For, those God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called, and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified."

Now, what I get out of this is that this thing called purpose rules over everything in salvation, it's bigger and more important than any and every component part of your salvation. Because of purpose, God, foreknows, because of foreknowledge, He predestines. Because of predestine and predestination He calls and on it goes. But it all starts with purpose. Purpose then rules over the whole thing. What is this purpose, what would it be? God's purpose is the basis of our entire salvation. That's what it's getting at. Now, look at another verse with me. Flip over to 2 Timothy 1:9. I know it's going to take time for you to get there but you guys are good at Bible drills. So, just flip on over there and let's look at 2 Timothy 1:9, and there, the apostle Paul is going to give us an insight into this purpose, also the same Greek word. There it talks about, "God who has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done, but because of His purpose," there's that word, and grace. "This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time but it has now been revealed and made known through the appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," our Savior Jesus Christ."

Now, the key issue, first and foremost… Note when God's purpose was established, it was established before the beginning of time. It was a before the beginning of time purpose. God's purpose was set therefore, before the beginning of time.

Secondly, we see that God's purpose is totally centered in the person of Christ. There's no purpose in the salvation apart from Christ, it's all in Him. It's grace and mercy given us in Christ.

So, it's a purpose intensively focused on the second person of the Trinity. Jesus Christ.

Third, we see an absolute harmony between God's purpose and His grace, the grace really is a servant of the purpose. God has a purpose and then the grace comes to accomplish that purpose. He has saved us, it says there and called us to a holy life. Not because of anything we have done, why but because of His purpose and grace.

Fourth, we see also that God's call to us in Christ Jesus was part of that purpose. It says, "He has saved us and called us to a holy calling," another translation has, "not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and it has now been revealed by the calling of the preaching of the gospel of Christ." So the hearing of the gospel, like even for some of you this morning, the hearing of the gospel for the first time perhaps is part of God's purpose. It's all part of the whole thing. All right, let's look at another passage. Look at Ephesians 1:4-6. We're learning about what God's purpose in election might be. Ephesians 1:4-6. And there's some other verses in Ephesians 1 we'll look at as well. Well let's start at Ephesians 1:4-6.

I'd actually like to begin at verse three, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." It should start with praise, brothers and sister shouldn't it? We'll just take a short cut. That's the purpose, okay, that's it. That we would praise Him, that we would honor Him. That's the purpose. But anyway, let's go on. Look at verse four. "For He chose us in Him," that's election. He chose us in who? "In Christ before the creation of the world." Again, just like 2 Timothy, it happened before time began, "to be holy and blameless in His sight." Well, that's the end of it. That's how we're going to end up holy and blameless in His sight.

"In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will." That's another way of saying His purpose, His pleasure is his purpose and vice versa. "To the praise of His glorious grace." Did you hear that? That is the ultimate end, the goal, the result that His glorious grace would be praised. And then again, look at verse 11-12 in that same chapter. "In Him, we were also chosen." There's that word election again the choosing. "In Him, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory." So, there he's explaining the purpose. Now, here's what I take out of all these verses and especially here in Ephesians. God's purpose in election is so big, it compasses all the component parts of election or of salvation, all of it fit into the overall purpose. God has a purpose.

Paul also says in Ephesians, that God's purpose is a free and sovereign purpose, in which he does everything after the council of His own pleasure and will. It is not governed therefore by anything outside of God, it's all within Him, not governed by stuff coming from the outside in to God, but it's inside God.

Now unconditional election alone makes that purpose stand. Only unconditional election, can accomplish that purpose. He says, In order that God's purpose in election might stand, it says, in Romans 9, passage we're looking at. Stand means, stay, be firm, that it might continue and be established. It's a direct contrast to the problem concerning the Word in which they're worried that God's Word has not stood. "What then shall we say?" He says In Romans 9:6, "It is not as though God's Word has fallen or failed." he says, no, no, no, "God's Word stands and God's purpose stands." "In order that God's purpose in election might stand." That's what he's getting at. Unconditional election, therefore, is the only thing that will make His purpose stand and be established.

Our Salvation Was Accomplished for God’s Glory

Now, what is that purpose? I already gave you a hint, but what is the purpose? Well, I think there are two aspects of it that come together and really are one. In salvation, God desires His own glory above all things. That He would get the glory, that He would get the credit, that He would be seen to be a glorious and majestic and powerful Savior, that is His central purpose that He gets the glory.

But secondly, and very much related to that is that the elect would get the joy and none of them would be lost. That those with whom He has connected his name, he's put his name on them, he's tied his reputation to them that not one of them would be lost, but all of them saved. And the only way that can happen is with unconditional election. You see it? First and foremost that God would get the glory for salvation. What do I get out of that? Well, to me I get that God's glory, rules over all things, every aspect of my salvation. He created me for his glory, and He is redeeming me, saving me for His glory, also.

Isaiah 43:6-7 puts it this way. "Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name," there's the name, "called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." We are created and then recreated or born again for His glory. Also as we already said in Ephesians 1, it says, "He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will," verse six, Ephesians 1:6, "To the praise of His glorious grace." That's it, that's His purpose. When we get on the other side of Judgment Day and we are standing in His presence and seeing the vision of God and we know who we were and we know that we were saved, all saved people will be praising His glorious grace, and none of us will be boasting in ourselves.

So he's got to save us in a way that that will happen. He's got to work out a plan of salvation in such a way that we cannot boast at all, not even a little. And so for the purpose of His glorious grace. Again, Ephesians 1:11-12. "In Him, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who are the first to put our hope in Christ might be," and here it is again, "for the praise of His glory."

Go back now to Romans 9, and let's zero in on this and try to understand it. What I get out of this is that the saving work of God must be completely of God's own power and accomplishment so that no one may boast before Him. God's glory is most clearly displayed in the universe in this, the salvation of sinners by His own power and grace. That's the clearest display of God that there is in the universe and He's going to put Himself on display and save us in such a way that when all is said and done, we will be praising His glorious grace. That God alone would get the glory for it, and that we would get the joy.

Now concerning the Glory of God, John Piper put it this way. "God's purpose is to be known, and enjoyed and praised as infinitely glorious in His free and sovereign grace. He explains by infinitely glorious, I mean, beautiful and immeasurably great. By free, I mean that all the final reason for everything, for all events in the universe is in Himself, and not in another."

Piper puts it this way. "The decisive influence of all that happens in the world is God's. He works all things, not just some things, after the council of His own will. He alone in the universe has the freedom of ultimate self-determination. He's the only one that gets to do that. He's the one who gets to say "I am who I am." He's the only one. We all are connected to Him. And by sovereign, I mean nothing can thwart what He most wants to do. And what does He most want to do? Glorify himself in saving his children. And that's the beauty of it. Election, unconditional election, accomplishes this purpose of God, because it thwarts all human boasting and it protects us from the inherent sinfulness and weakness within us."

Suppose God just gets you started and says, "Okay I gave you a good start, now go for it." Where is your assurance? "Will you finish the journey? I tell you, you won't. But even if you did, at the end, would you not boast in yourself and in your own strength and in your own power? God will say no to either one. He wants you saved, He wants you there, He wants you to be with Him where He is and see his glory, He wants you there. The only way He can accomplish that is if it totally depends on Him. If he is the ground, the power, the strength for that salvation. And when He does, and when your eyes are finally opened, they will be. All of our eyes will be opened ultimately on judgement day, you will say, "To God alone be the glory." And that's what you will say on judgement day.

And so, God's purpose in election. He wants to get rid of boasting and so, He chooses accordingly. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1:1 and following. There it speaks of God's election and it goes even to the socio-economic level of the people H's choosing. Remember that? "Not many of you are wise, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth." Look at yourselves he says. Corinthian church, you guys aren't the creme de la creme here, you're not the best of the best. Why? Why did God do that? Well, He explains it. "He chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are." Why? "So that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus," isn't that plain?

"It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become for us wisdom from God, that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption, and therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." So I think you should boast, I think you should boast a lot. Just not in yourself. I think you should boast in God, your Savior. I think you should post in Christ and what He did. Go ahead and boast. But don't boast in yourself. As it says in Romans 3:27, "Where then is boasting? It is excluded." And concerning the certainty of our salvation, can I tell you, unconditional election alone guarantees that. What do I mean? Well, if God is basing your standing on something inside of you, you are insecure. Don't you see that? If He's basing it on your faith, how do you know you're going to continue believing. If He's basing it on some pattern of righteousness? How do you know you're going to keep doing it or perhaps you thought all He needs is just one time, and that's enough. Wow, that's a powerful moment to cover all of your sins. If it's in you, then you are, I tell you, insecure, and you have no guarantee that you will finish this journey you're on.

D. James Kennedy, gave a beautiful illustration. Suppose you were trying to get across a 100 foot wide chasm, 5000 foot drop. And you have an incredible rope that's tested to hold two thousand pounds, and a 100 foot wide chasm, you have 50 feet of rope. You have yourself a problem. But your friends say, "That's all right, I've got a spool of thread here that can make up the difference. Why don't we tie the thread on the end of the rope and just cast the thing across, and then we'll go. What do you say?" And you say, "No way." And so, what's the matter, don't you trust your rope? Of course I trust the rope, it's the thread I don't trust. We say, alright, 50/50. Okay, suppose you had 90 feet of that good solid rope and only 10 feet of thread, what then? Would you be confident? Would you go ahead and walk across? Alright, alright, how about 99 feet of good, solid rope and one foot of that thread? Do you get the point?

Spurgeon put it this way. He said, "If only one thread of my garment of salvation comes from me, I am ruined." You have no security if it depends on you, but if it depends on God, you're going to heaven and that's the great joy. Unconditional election, accomplishes this.

If God, John Piper put it this way, "If God did not elect unconditionally, then God would not be free, He would not be sovereign, and He would not be glorious." He would not be free, because then men would determine their own election, not God. He would be bound, not free and would have to conform to what they decided.

Secondly he would not be sovereign because instead of doing successfully, what He most wants to do, God would be thwarted, again and again by self-determining man. He would want to save people and be unable to do it because they would make the final decision. And not glorious, because God's absolute freedom and sovereignty are the essence of His Glory. If God did not elect unconditionally, then some attribute of man would be the final determiner of salvation and there could be, first of all, no guarantee of final salvation, and second of all, a ground of boasting on Judgment Day. "At least I believed." "At least I walked the aisle or at least I did the thing I was supposed to do. And the others didn't." You see the ultimate ground would be in you, and you could boast and He will not have it. And so God's purpose in election is that He alone be glorified and that you will most certainly be saved.

Now, what does it mean when it says, "Not by works?" Well, Paul repeats this issue. Already he told us that Jacob was chosen over Esau. It says, "Before the twins were born," what "or had done anything good or bad." I would think that would cover it, don't you? But He comes back again to it, "In order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works." He says it twice. Why? Well, because we have tricky lawyer like minds that are always looking for loopholes. Say okay, alright, "We see that Jacob and Esau hadn't done any works yet, but maybe there's the issue of foreseeing good works. Maybe God is able to look ahead into the future and see the kind of lives that Esau and Jacob would live and on the basis of foreseen good works, He would choose, He would elect.

And so Paul rules that out. He said, "Not by works." Not past work, not present works, not future works, not good works and not bad works. No works came into election at all. It is totally unconditional, it's not based on works at all. Not because of Esau's bad works, because he traded his birthright for a bowl of stew. And God looking ahead through the hazy corridors of time saw that and said, "No, He's out." Not by bad works, neither by good works, looking ahead and seeing that Jacob valued the promises of God or was a man of prayer or wrestled with the angel or any of the good things that he did. Neither one, not by works.

Brothers and sisters. This is so hard for us to accept. It is so tough. It is woven in to the fiber of our rebellion against God, that we are self-determining independent people and we get to choose and therefore good things that happen to us happen at least in some degree, because we did something good. So, I was thinking about that incredible theology in the Sound of Music, the musical? Remember Julie Andrews? And I used to love that. I think musicals are a little odd. Why do people burst out into song at key moments? But anyway, there you are in the middle of an everyday life situation and you just burst out in song. Well this was a very significant moment though, because Captain von Trapp and Maria are... They finally realize they love each other, are going to get married. So they're out there in the kind of gazebo or something, and they just realize that they're going to get married. And she's thinking theologically at that moment.

She's ruminating on how this might have happened and what does she say? Well, she sings, "Perhaps I had a wicked childhood, perhaps I had a miserable youth, but somewhere in my wicked miserable past, there must have been a moment of truth. For here you are standing there, loving me whether or not you should. So somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good." Oh boy. "Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could. So somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good."

Can I tell you, God will have none of this. He's not going to have it. In the end, we will not say that. We're not going to say, "At least I such and such." We will not say it, we will understand this doctrine in the end. I know it's hard now, but in the end we will see it all was from God. It's not somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something good. It's ruled out. By the way, there are devastating consequences of conditional election. It breeds arrogance. If it's because you did something good that God picked you, then it makes you arrogant, or it breeds insecurity. God saw something good in me, but I better keep doing it or He'll throw me away. Either way, God no longer gets the glory and you no longer get the joy.

Well, there's one last obstacle to remove. And that's the idea of foreseen faith. I say, "Okay, maybe it's not by works, but maybe let's zero in on this issue of faith maybe the issue is that God looking down through the hazy corridors of time wasn't looking at this point, at works anymore, but now He's looking through the hazy corridors of time and He is looking for faith. And He is, Aha, discovering faith in people He's going to create later. Discovering it as though surprised. Looking down through the hazy corridors of time, He's finding something. He's finding faith inside you. I think that Paul's diction rules this out. Throughout the book of Romans, the contrast is usually, not by works but by what? Faith, isn't it. Not by works, but by faith.

Listen for example, even in this chapter, Romans 9:32. Why not, "Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works." Faith/Works, that's the contrast, right? Or in Romans 4:2-3, it says, "If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." So wages/works contrasted to faith, and again, even better perhaps in Galatians 2:16, "We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ" Works/faith. "So that we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith and not by works of the law." Faith/works. "Because by works of the law, no one will be justified." The contrast is usually faith and works, isn't it? But that is not the contrast here.

Now, John Wesley taught that God looking down through the hazy corridors of time, saw that you someday would believe and chose you on that basis. This is what Wesley said, John Wesley. "“In a word, God, looking on all ages, from the creation to the consummation, as a moment, and seeing at once whatever is in the hearts of all the children of men, knows everyone that does or does not believe, in every age or nation. Yet what he knows, whether faith or unbelief, is in nowise caused by his knowledge. Men are as free in believing or not believing as if he did not know it at all.”

Basically Wesley is saying that God doesn't create faith, He doesn't give it, it just is and He discovers it. And when He discovers it, then He justifies you, based on it. Paul's syntax removes that forever. The dichotomy here is not by works, but by faith, it doesn't say that, it says, Not by works but by Him who calls. You're not left with faith here you're left with God. God and God alone is what you end up with this..

Him Who Calls

Do you see it? And I know it says, Him who calls. So it wants to talk about the calling and that's fine, because that call is a sovereign call. He speaks into darkness, and says, "Let there be light, and there's light." He speaks in into Sarah's dead womb and says, "Let there be Isaac and there's Isaac." He speaks into Lazarus's dead tomb and says, "Let there be life and Lazarus comes to life." He speaks into your dead soul and says, "Let there be faith and there's faith." Yes, that's the call of God, but he doesn't even mention that. It's not by works, but by the call, it doesn't say that. It says, "Not by works but by Him who calls." You end up with God. So what then is the basis of our salvation? God and God alone. That's it.

He wasn't looking at you when He chose you. He wasn't seeing something about you and choosing you. Now you say, "Well over and over it talks about justification by faith." Well let me tell you something, you are justified by faith. Justification is conditional. Did you not know that? You have to hear the gospel and believe it in order to be justified and if you hear the Gospel and do not believe you will not be justified. Your justification is conditional on faith. But your election isn't. It's based on God. The one who chooses, the one who calls.

Now, what application do we take out of this? Well, some people say that election makes us arrogant. I don't understand that. Do you? What arrogance do you get out of this? "At least I... " At least I what? What do you have to boast about? Nothing. I think the other way of looking at salvation leads to arrogance. Because there's something inside you that God's choosing. But this, what can you do, except say, "Thank you God. Thank you for saving me. I didn't deserve it, but thank you." Total humility in salvation. The doctrine of unconditional election has tremendously, a tremendously humbling effect on us. Julie Andrews cute little theology is gone forever. Sing the song, but don't believe it. Don't even sing the song. Don't believe it, it isn't true. God gives it by grace, you don't deserve it. The ultimate ground of our standing before God is God and God alone. We were chosen in spite of what we are and do and not because of it. Forever then, give all credit and glory to God for every aspect of our salvation. You don't believe so that you will be elect. You were elect so that you would believe. That's the doctrine here.

So therefore, secondly, we get total security of salvation. Because election is unconditional, it never has nor ever will it be dependent on our righteousness. Therefore, salvation is totally dependent on the unchanging character of God. If you're having a bad day, confess your sin, but don't be insecure in your standing before God. Your election was never based on your works. It's based on God, therefore, the fountain of energy and will and determination for your Christian life is not in yourself, but in God. Look at verse 16 of our same chapter. "So then it does not depend on man who wills, or on man who runs, but on God who has mercy." You see, same thing, you end up with God.

Thirdly, confidence in evangelism? Sin does not disqualify anyone. We talked to all different kinds of people at the health fair yesterday. I thought about this verse frequently. Doesn't matter what you've done, you're not disqualified. God wasn't looking to you anyway in election and so you can tell me about what you've done sexually or what you've done with drugs or alcohol. The people you've hurt, the crimes you've committed. I will not say thereby you cannot possibly be elect. It doesn't work that way.

And so we have confidence in election that no sin pattern is ever so great that God's grace and mercy cannot forgive. Look at the Apostle Paul. Paul said, "Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor, and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." Oh boy. Faith came with the package. Yes, it did. It was poured out on me as a gift. "And here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for this very reason, I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life." You know, no amount of sin disqualifies you. God's grace is so powerful, you can be saved. Look at what happened with Paul.

And finally, isn't it obvious? Praise him, praise His glorious grace, worship Him, give Him thanks today. Be cheerful today, be happy and content today. Rejoice today. Be secure and strong today. Give Him thanks and praise today. Smile. Praise the Lord. Sing. Even if you don't like singing, sing. You get one more chance in the worship service in about one minute, give Him praise, and glory and honor. He has saved you, He is saving you, He will save you. Because of His purpose and His grace. Close with me in prayer.

Take your Bibles, if you would, and look with me at Ephesians 1:18-23. We're gonna be looking at Christ's resurrection, God's infinite power work for us. On the morning of July 16th, 1969, an estimated one million people gathered along the beaches and the roads of coastal Florida to look at the moon launch as Apollo 11 was getting ready to take off. And just a short time before that launch, Buzz Aldrin, who's one of the astronauts there, paused and looked out as he's way, way up high above the Saturn V rocket looking out and he saw the sun rise. And as he was looking at that, he was thinking about what was about to happen, this is what he said, “The most memorable thing I can recall about that particular day was the opportunity to stand alone by myself out there and look at the rocket and the quietness, and see the sun come up and realize that in a very few moments, we are going to be departing in a great roar and off for a momentous event.” Now, he could have looked perhaps the night before and seen the moon and think about the incredible journey that he was about to travel, just looking at it and seeing the hundreds of thousands of miles that he would have to travel and wonder and consider what kind of power would get him there.

Now, a mere eight years before President Kennedy had said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” The big problem was in the development of a rocket powerful enough to do the job. None of the rockets that existed at the time were even close, the payloads were somewhere around 50 or 100 pounds and they would need thousands of pounds to be lifted up into space. The distance from the earth to the moon, 230,000 miles. In order to escape the gravitational pull of the earth, they had to achieve a speed of seven miles per second, 25,000 miles per hour.

And over the next seven years or so they developed the vehicle that could do it, and that was the Saturn V rocket, it's an incredible thing. One of the most incredible accomplishments of technology in history. It stood 363 feet high, that's a 36-story building. It had five cavernous F1 engines delivering a total of 7.5 million pounds of thrust. The sound of Saturn V's ignition and liftoff was the second loudest man-made sound ever behind only a nuclear blast. It was fueled by a volatile mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene, and its engines burned for 150 seconds in the first stage - listen to this - consuming fuel at the rate equivalent to three million automobiles. And you think you had a gas guzzler. Three million cars. The rocket weighed 3,000 tons. It flew in the air, 3,000 tons flying through the air.

And of course, you know that the Apollo 11 mission was successful and it marked a new era in human history. But I consider it a kind of a picture or a paradigm that I want you to consider with me this morning, and that is a picture of power. And I mean, power for a long, really infinite journey. The power of the Saturn V rocket doesn't even compare, frankly, to the power that's described in the text that was read for us this morning.

Now, what is power? Well, I think it's energy directed to accomplish some change. The energy to accomplish an effect or a change. We think, for example, of a powerful ruler like the Roman emperor, his word changes life for millions of people. He just speaks a word and a census is taken, and people are moving all over the Roman empire, that's power to affect a change. Or we think about, let's say, a powerful medicine. It produces a great change, like antibiotics, a great change in the condition of the patient, powerful medicine. Or powerful writings, a powerful book, changes hearts and minds, like around the time of the American Revolution. This Saturn V, this was a powerful rocket, it produced an incredible change of lifting 3,000 tons off the ground and throwing it toward the moon.

So what is the power at work in our lives? That's what's in front of us today. And how does it relate to Jesus Christ and to His resurrection? As Paul relates in Ephesians 1:18-23. Now, I love Easter, this is definitely my favorite time of the year. I know that as Christians, we're supposed to celebrate the resurrection every week, and we're supposed to celebrate it every day, and we do, but isn't there something special about coming together on Easter Sunday and just considering with great joy what awaits us, those of us who have faith in Christ? To know that the grave doesn't get the final word on us, isn't that wonderful? To know that your sin isn't the final word on your life, that grace is the final word on your life. Now, that's what's worth celebrating, and we do year-round, but especially Easter Sunday.

We rejoice over the future glory. The idea that we have in front of us an incredible vision of the glory of God that will be so powerful, it will transform us forever. 1 John says that when we see him, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And the glory is so bright, so astonishing, so powerful that it says in the Book of Revelation they won't need the sun or the moon or the stars, or any kind of light, that the glory of God will be enough. This is what it says: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night, they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever.”

Now, Christ's central promise to me as I think about resurrection day, as I think about the joy of this day, I've always thought since I heard one sermon in particular a number of years ago, about one passage in particular, and that's in John 14, where Jesus says, “Because I live, you also will live.” I'm promising you, my believers, those that follow me, I'm promising you the plunder of the victory I'm going to win. “Because I live, you also will live.” There's a complete and total link, therefore, between Christ and his followers. Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with him in glory.” Now, that is the joyful celebration of Easter, isn't it? The idea that Christ's triumph is our triumph, that because Christ destroyed death, we also will through faith in him. Well, Paul is praying in Ephesians that we would understand that fully, that we would come to grips with just what kind of power was at work in Christ.

Look what he says in verses 18 and 19, he says, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Now, there are three requests in there, and they all center on spiritual understanding. Let me give you a little context in Ephesians. I would like nothing better than to just preach to you Ephesians right here now, but let's focus on this one aspect and try to understand the context of this prayer.

Paul has been writing to these Ephesian Christians, believers in Christ, and he speaks of the immense spiritual blessings that are theirs in Christ. He says it's every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, chosen before the creation of the world, we are chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight. He says we are predestined to be adopted as sons. We are lavished with grace in Christ Jesus, given spiritual wisdom and insight to understand spiritual mysteries. And God's intention through all of this is to bring everything in the universe, all of the scattered aspects that sin has blown apart, to bring them all together and make them one under one head, Jesus Christ. Now, that is power.

And that's what he's doing, like sin had some kind of explosive effect and he is bringing everything back together and making it one under Christ's headship. Then Paul goes on to speak of God's absolute sovereignty over all things, that we would understand that this isn't a plan without power, but there is power behind this plan to achieve the very thing he wants. In Verse 11, “In him, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” And then he goes on to describe the Ephesian Christians' personal situation, they were included in Christ when they heard the gospel and they believed it. They were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Now having been marked, they're starting to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, they're starting to show good works. They are putting on display their internal faith, faith in Christ Jesus and their love for all the saints.

So that's the context. And in the center of all that, Paul prays for them, and he wants them to know of his prayer. He wants to teach them what he's praying for for them. I could say this for many reasons, one is to teach us how to pray, and if you don't get anything else out of this, just, I think it's good to just take this section and pray it for people. Pray this for your wife or your husband, pray it for your children, pray it for yourself. Pray it for your pastor. Pray it for friends. But that's what he does, he tells them what he's praying for, and in the center of Paul's prayer life, here at least, is that they would have a kind of a spiritual understanding. Look at verse 17, “I keep asking,” he says, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better.”

So number one prayer request here is that you, the believers in Christ would know God better, that you would know him better. And this makes complete sense, because it lines up with Jesus' prayer in John 17:3 concerning eternal life. “Now, this is eternal life,” he says there, “that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

And so, Paul prays more and more that you may know God better, that you might have that kind of wisdom and insight to know him. And to know God better, you must know Jesus Christ better, because Christ has been given so that we may know God the Father. And so, just like Paul prays, or it says in another place in Philippians 3, where he says, “I want to know Christ. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead, I wanna know Christ.” This is the Apostle to the Gentiles, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, with special revelations that have been given to him, and he still says, “I wanna know Christ better.” I wanna know him. So that's what he's praying for, he's praying for wisdom and revelation so that we may know God better.

He uses an interesting phrase here in Verse 18, and he says, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” What an interesting phrase that is, “The eyes of your heart.” Perhaps you never thought of your heart as having eyes. But you know that song “Turn Your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.” You know, I always wondered about that song, maybe Eric, you've noticed this, people close their eyes when they sing it. Isn't that interesting? They close their eyes when they sing that song, and you know why? Because they're turning to the eyes of their heart, it's something that we don't see, it's something we believe by faith, and we want a vision filling our minds and our hearts with light and with glory at that moment.

“That the eyes of your heart,” he says, “may be enlightened,” that there's some kind of a spiritual enlightenment that comes to the eyes of your heart. Now this is not like that Buddhist enlightenment, they're always talking about enlightenment, that is the wisdom of emptiness. How does that sound? The wisdom of emptiness achieved imperfectly on earth by meditating on such conundrums as, what's the sound of one hand clapping? So ponder that one until your brain is emptied of all cognitive truth, until you're just sitting there kinda floating in a sea of nothingness. That is not the enlightenment that Paul wants. Actually, it's quite the opposite. Paul wants you to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. He wants your mind just overwhelmed with truth, that the eyes of your heart may be filled with enlightenment, with spiritual truth. That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, he says later.

Now, what's the topic of this divine and spiritual light, this “supernatural light,” as Edwards called it, imparted directly to the soul? Well, three things; the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Hope, riches, power, that's what he's praying for. Now, I'm gonna pass by the first two quickly, because that's not the focus of my message here today. But the hope to which he has called you is the hope that someday we will be perfect, holy and blameless in his sight. That we will be totally transformed, body, soul, and spirit. That we will be just like Jesus. And not only us, but the creation around us will be liberated from its bondage to decay, and that we will be in a perfect world and ourselves perfect. That's the hope to which he has called you, so I want you to know that hope.

And secondly, he said, “I want you to know how rich you are, I want you to know how wealthy you are in Christ, and not just you, but an innumerable quantity of people from every tribe and language, and people and nation, they're rich too.” We're all rich together in Christ, we who believe in him, that you would know how rich you are in your inheritance. So those two things. Now, let me tell you something, that kind of hope and those kind of riches together would actually lead you to despair if you didn't understand what power was at work to get you there. It really would be depressing, wouldn't it? To know what you're missing, to say, “You know, that's what's up there for you, now, go ahead and get it.” Go get it, go climb the ladder to heaven if you can do it. Go through your own efforts and your own striving, be a perfect person. And from this point forward, travel that infinite journey, it would be depressing.

So he prays this third aspect, and that is, his incomparably great power for us who believe. Now, note that Paul does not pray here that they would have power. He's not praying that God would give them more power, he's not praying that. He's praying rather that the Ephesian Christians would know how much power is at work for them already. Not anything new except that they would just understand what's at work in them to get them there. He wants the Christians to know, the Ephesian Christians to know how much power God is exerting around them and in them to guarantee that they will get that hope and the riches in the end. And so he says, “The same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the ultimate seat of power in the universe is at work in you. For you also were dead in your transgressions and sins, you like Christ were raised up and now you are spiritually united with Christ, seated with him in the heavenly realms and will be until you at last come into your full inheritance.” 

So he's drawing a link, then, between what God did in raising Christ up and what he's doing in you. So let's look at that, God's power in Christ's infinite journey. Christ was laid low at the cross, wasn't he? That was his lowest point, that's the starting point for this incredible journey that God's power took him on, he was dead on the cross, he was bloody, his head was down on his breast, he was dead. They shoved a spear up through his side and he didn't move, and water and blood came out the side. He was dead. He was rejected, totally rejected by humanity, rejected symbolically by Jew and Gentile alike, Pilate and the high priest conspired together to turn him over to his death, and in that way, he was despised and rejected by the human race. He was also in a mysterious and powerful way, rejected by God as our sin bearer, such that Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It was a picture of rejection, a picture also of total powerlessness. Remember how the Jews mocked, “If you're the Son of God, come down off that cross,” and he seemed powerless to do so. Seemed like the cross had the upper hand on him. And how much more once he was dead, this picture of powerlessness was complete. Death, it seems, treated Christ like it treats everyone else, trampled him and threw him out, threw him aside. Death seemed the tyrant that we just cannot conquer. The iron boot across our neck seemed to be every bit as much across Jesus' neck, the way it is for all of us, and so therefore Christ dead on the cross, a picture of total powerlessness, and so it seemed. Now, Christ's burial sealed the picture. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus come and take him, his lifeless body, they wrap him up in strips of linen. He's lifeless, he's bloody, he's immobile, he's just a dead corpse. He's laid passively in the tomb, he's lying on a rocky ledge inside a cave, he's motionless.

Now that my friends is the starting point for this infinite journey, that's the lowest point. Low in the grave he lay, Jesus, my savior. Waiting the coming day, Jesus, my Lord. That's the low point for this incredible journey.

Now, as the soldiers looked in on him, do you think they could have imagined what was going to happen in the coming days? Do you think they could have imagined the infinite journey that Christ would take, that this lifeless body wrapped in strips of linen, lying lifeless in the tomb would soon ascend through the sky and take its place at the right hand of the eternal? At the right hand of the emperor of the universe, at God's right hand, that this Jesus of Nazareth, the dead Jew, would soon be the King of kings and Lord of Lords.

That this motionless dead man would be the firstborn from among the dead, and that he would, in some amazing way, inhabit a body, which was the first fruit of a new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, first displayed in the body of Christ. Not subject anymore to death or corruption. Do you think they could have imagined that this body so frail and weak and fragile and dying so quickly would rise again, never to submit again to death, mourning, crying or pain.

That this body would be transformed to be glorious and unchanging, and as they gazed on his lifeless body before the large stone was rolled in front of the entrance, could they have dreamed that Jesus would rule heaven and Earth, and that they themselves and every person that ever lived would someday come before him as he sat on a great white throne, and that they would present their lives to him for judgment, and that before him, every knee would bow and by him, every tongue would swear that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. No, they could not. Low in the grave, he lay. That was the base of his infinite journey.

Now, what are the aspects of this infinite journey? Well, first simply, resurrection from death to life. The power of death actually shattered by Jesus Christ. I love what Peter said at Pentecost, in Acts 2:24, it says, “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death”  - Listen - “because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” Now, usually when we use the word “impossible” concerning death, it's impossible for us to break its chains, it is the most impossible thing ever. We have no power over death, but Peter turns the whole thing around, it's actually impossible for death to hold him. That's how much power Jesus had. Death had no power over Christ.

Secondly, we see the transformed body. Jesus had raised others to life. You know Jairus' daughter? Do you remember what he said to the mourners that were outside the house? “Do not weep. She's merely sleeping. The girl is not dead, but asleep.” Do you remember what he said to his disciples when he was going back to raise Lazarus up, you remember? “Lazarus has fallen asleep, but we must go and wake him.” Now, why does he speak like this? Because the existence into which they were awoken was the same as before they died. They were back under death and their bodies continued to decay and to be corruptible, and they would die, and those same bodies that Jesus raised up or resuscitated really at that moment would someday succumb to death. But not Jesus' body.

You see, he has a resurrection body. He's in a whole new realm of existence. 1 Corinthians 15 calls it a “spiritual body.” We mulled over that a year ago. What is a spiritual body? You're gonna be thinking about that forever, but Jesus has one, a spiritual body, not subject any longer to death or to decay or corruption. Romans 6:9 says, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.” Now, that's the difference between him and Jairus' daughter. And that's the difference between him and Lazarus. It says in 1 Corinthians 15:42 and following, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” And so the body is transformed.

Thirdly, he ascended through the heavens. You know the astronauts, the unbelieving ones, said, “Oh, we're out here in space and there's no heaven up here, so that destroys the cosmology of the Bible.” Well, I wonder sometimes, don't you? Didn't Paul speak of a third heaven? So I wonder if the Bible, if we could understand it this way, I don't know for sure this is the right interpretation, but could it be the first heaven is the sky above us, and the second heaven is outer space, and could it be the third heaven is the spiritual realm into which Jesus entered, and so Christ passed through all of those, didn't he?

You remember in Acts 1, after he spent 40 days with his disciples after resurrection, a 40-day seminary with Jesus as the professor, what an incredible thing. You know, church history, Old Testament, Hermeneutics - No New Testament classes yet. Didn't need it. He said, “You're gonna write the New Testament. We'll get to that later.” Alright, but he's teaching them 40 days, and then after that, he takes them out and he ascends before their very eyes. And they're watching him go up, as he goes and a cloud hides him from their sight. He's passing through the heavens, and it says in the Book of Hebrews, Hebrews 4:14, “Since then, we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens. He's passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.”

So Jesus has, in some mysterious way, just passed through the heavens, and it says that he's seated at a position, the position of ultimate power. Look at verses 20-23 in our text here, Ephesians 1:20 and following, it says that “God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given. Not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him, who fills everything in every way.” Jesus ascends up through the heavenly realms and is ushered right into the very presence of God Almighty, and he sits at the place of power at the right hand of God Almighty, and he says in the great commission, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” That is the infinite journey of Christ from that low place in which he lay all the way up through the heavenly realms in a new resurrection body to sit at the right hand of God Almighty and to rule heaven and earth from there.

That is the infinite journey of Christ. Now, let me tell you, infinite journey requires infinite power, and God the Father exerted that power on Christ.

And here's the point, the very thing that God the Father has done in exerting power in raising Christ up, that power is at work in you today, if you're a Christian. Isn't that magnificent? The very same power that raised Christ up from that cold tomb and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms is at work in you. Now, this is the very thing that Christ had wanted. You remember right, before he died on the cross? Just before he died, he said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” It says in 1 Peter, “He entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”

And so the Father raised him up from the tomb and seated him at his right hand. And look at the language of power. Look at verse 19. It speaks of his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ. The ESV puts it this way, “What is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might?” It's like Paul is stretching language here to talk about how much power was at work in Christ, the same power at work in you.

It's incredible, greater in some sense, than the power He exerted in creating the heavens and the Earth to begin with. That's the recreating power of God at work. Now, the point of all this is the parallelism between Christ and his experience, his resurrection, and ours.

We also are on an infinite journey, and what is our starting place? Well, look at chapter 2 verses 1-3. It says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins” - That's your low point - “dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live, when you follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time. Gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts, like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath.”

That's your low point. Low in the grave you lay spiritually. You were dead. You weren't sick. Don't ever let anyone tell you Christianity is a crutch for the weak. Christianity is a resurrection for the dead. They speak too lightly in mocking our faith. Oh, it's far worse than you imagine, it's no crutch. I couldn't use a crutch, I was dead in my transgressions and sins, go ahead and toss a crutch to a dead person. Here, I want to help you, and the fact that you're unable to walk. Crutch isn't gonna help you.

Oh, no. You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live. Dead while you lived. But God raised you up through faith in Christ. And verse 6, it says, “You are seated with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Positionally, you're already there. God sees you that way. But likewise, you have an infinite journey to travel, and that is to end up totally and perfectly conformed to Christ in every way; perfect in your souls, in your mind, your will, your emotions and your character, perfect in your body, incorruptible and eternally alive with him with a perfect body that will never die again, and seated with him in heavenly power, reigning with Christ. That's the end of your infinite journey.

Now, it's already begun, as we said, that God has made us alive with Christ, so we're already alive, but unlike Christ's, that journey is incomplete for you. You're not finished with it yet, you're not finished, because you have to be here listening to me instead of seeing the glory. If you were given a choice, see the glory, okay? But in the meantime, you get the preaching. We're not finished yet, we're not done being saved.

And so we have before us a long and perilous journey, very dangerous. We still dwell in bodies of clay. We still wrestle with indwelling sin. We still have divided minds and hearts. We still need faith and hope, our foes that oppose us are infinitely more powerful than we are. The devil has been successfully tempting people for thousands of years. He is immensely powerful. He's called the god of this world, he's a deceiver, he's a slanderer, he's a merciless tyrant, he is a soul slayer. He is vastly more terrifying and more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

And so also is this dangerous and clever and shrewd world system that he's set up to allure you and entice you and trick you and trap you so that you will not love Jesus anymore. So that you will not believe in him. And even worse, you have within you a rebel flesh that likes what the devil's doing, attracted to it, interested in it. A foe within the walls, and we have therefore the world, the flesh, the devil opposing us every step of the way.

Now, once Apollo 11 escaped Earth's orbit and started heading toward the moon, it coasted most of the way. All they needed was occasional nudge to do some course correction. Is that your experience as a Christian? I wouldn't think so. Every day you get up and you're told to put on your spiritual armor. You're told basically to slog for every foot of spiritual progress that you're going to make. You need immeasurable power to make this journey. It is a dangerous journey, and as a result, the Lord in John 17, when he was leaving, said, “Father, I am leaving, and they're still in the world, protect them. Protect them by the power of your name.” He considered it a great problem that you're still in the world, and so you need immeasurable power for your infinite journey.

Now, there's two kinds of power that God puts forth; one is a power in you, and another is a power around you, and both of them are worth considering. The power in you is transforming your heart. Changing it from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. You're being renewed by the transforming of your mind as you hear the word of God preached and taught accurately, and as you're listening to the word throughout the week, because you listen to tapes, you're reading books, you're being transformed. God's power is at work through the word of God, in you changing you from inside, renewing your mind.

He's changing your will to love and desire and yearn for, and choose to what he loves and desires and yearns for and chooses, so that you're conformed to Christ, convicting you also of sin when you transgress, so that you would hate it the way he hates it. Renewing your drive for holiness day after day, waking you up with incredible power, saying, “Let's get up, let's get moving, let's have our quiet time, let's pray. Let's read the Bible. Now let's go. Let's fight sin, let's say no to that temptation, let's stand firm, put on your spiritual armor, keep walking, let's do those good works that God has ordained that you should walk in them. Drive, drive, drive.” It takes energy. Paul talks about this in Colossians 1, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom in order that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works inside me.” 

So there's this energy, this power inside you to help you finish that long journey that's still ahead of you, but there's also an immeasurably great power around you, it's outside of you, orchestrating, controlling, working on things, not just for you, but for all of the church around the world, so that all of us can finish our infinite journeys.

Look what it says in verse 21 and 22, “Christ is seated far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.” Look at that phrase, “for the church.” His sovereign power seated on the throne as King of Kings and Lord of Lords is directed to a purpose to help the church. He's helping you, he's helping me.

What does that mean? Well, he turns the hearts of kings like a water course in his hands, directs it whichever way he chooses for the benefit of the church. He filters the temptations the devil wants to bring to your life so that you're not tempted beyond anything you can bear, but with the temptation, will give you the way of escape so you can bear up under. He affects political elections and private conversations and national economics and even sporting events, and the roll of the dice and the falling of sparrows, all of these things for a single purpose, that the church might complete its infinite journey and be holy and blameless in his sight, fully saved. That's the power at work outside of it, and neither you nor I will ever fully grasp how powerful it is.

He's at work around you, and he's at work in you, and God's power is perfectly effective. He's going to be working on you, you know what? Until you're done being saved, until you're just like Jesus, body, soul and spirit. Totally and completely finished. That is the power that's at work in you.

Now, what is the application from understanding this? Well, first, I know as a pastor that on Easter Sunday, a lot of times people come to church, who usually don't come to church. And I think that's wonderful. I'm glad you're here, but I'd like to invite you to come to something better than church. I'd like to invite you to come to Christ. I'd like you to know the kind of power that was at work in Jesus in your own personal life. I'd like you to be born again, I'd like you to trust in Jesus. He has the power to speak into deadness and say, “rise and live,” and he will not stop speaking that word until you're in his presence. Trust in him today. His death on the cross is sufficient for all of your sins. Trust in him.

Those of you that are Christians, you came in here today, you have come to Christ, you come to him all the time, constantly to be satisfied, and you came to church too, and I'm glad. Let me urge you to think about what Paul is praying for here. Ponder the hope. Ponder the riches. And ponder the power that’s at work. Why does he pray for those things? Why does he want us to know how rich we are? Why does he want us to know what kind of hope is going to be realized some day for us? Why does he want us to know that the same power that raised Jesus up from his grave and seated him at the right hand of God is also at work in and around you? Why? To give you incredible confidence.

How much power do you have to take a step in that journey? If God left you alone and said, “Go ahead, why don't you coast for a while and see how you do on your own,” how's it gonna be? “Did we in our own strength confide,” that means put our trust, “our striving would be losing.” So you know what he's doing, he's saying, “Don't trust in your own strength, but realize there is incredible power at work in and around you, trust in it.” And as I said earlier in this message, pray like this, pray it for yourself, pray it for your spouse, pray it for your children, your parents, pray it for your friends and co-workers, pray like this, and then live accordingly, get up and be energetic. God has some good works for you to do even today. I know you're anticipating a day of rest and enjoyment. Well, good, enjoy that, but he has good works for you to do every day, do them according to the power that so mightily works inside you. Close with me in prayer.

During this upcoming week, we have the opportunity to meditate on the death of Jesus Christ, and next week to celebrate His resurrection, as we do every week, as we seek to do every day as Christians. But I have always loved Easter, and I wouldn't mind actually preaching an Easter message right now, but I'll save that for next week, It's going to be a delight, to just proclaim the empty tomb, the power of Jesus Christ over death, what an incredible joy that is. But recently, I've thought about this passage in John 20, in which the Apostles, Peter and John, have the opportunity to investigate firsthand, the physical artifacts, of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They have the opportunity to run in that early Easter morning up to that empty tomb.

They have the opportunity to go in if they dare. Took John a minute. Peter went right in, that's his nature, but in he goes, and he looks at the physical artifacts. John goes in as well, and they see the grave clothes, they see the cloth folded up by itself, they see all of the physical artifacts that just proclaim resurrection. And the scripture says in John 20, "They saw and believed." And then it gives a fascinating little addendum, they still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. And why do you think John puts that in there? You know why? Because we do not have that privilege. We don't have the advantage of going and finding that empty tomb. To as, it would just be a cave, it might not even be the right one. We don't know for certain that the cathedral is built in the right place or wherever it is, the signs, the tourist attraction, we don't know for sure, and we certainly aren't going to get the linen grave clothes and we're not going to get the head cloth, we're not going to get any of that, what are we going to get?

We're going to get the Scripture. We're going to get the Bible, and the Bible is going to proclaim to us that Jesus has risen from the dead, and there we stand at the fork in the road. If the scripture is true, then we have a ground for faith, we have a ground to believe, and if the scripture is not then we don't. It really just comes down to this. Do you believe the word of God or not? And I believe among other things, that that's what's going on in Romans chapter 9. Paul wants you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, to know how certain is the ground under our feet, concerning the promises of God. How lofty and how great are those promises. Nothing will separate us from the love of God. Paul soars with rhetoric, at the end of Romans Chapter 8, and gives us a sense of absolute total assurance, based on the word.

All of you came this morning to sing and to praise, and now for the next few minutes, you're going to hear me do nothing but talk words. Does it mean anything? Is there any validity to the words that we speak? That's the issue. Well, what has brought this issue up? Well, the issue is that the Apostle Paul knows full well as he goes from place to place, city to city, throughout the Roman world there. He begins at the synagogue, he goes to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. As he goes in to the Jewish synagogues, and begins to reason with them from the scriptures, proving that Jesus is the Christ. Time and time again, the Jews are rejecting Christ. The Jews. Christ owns people, his own kinsmen, rejecting His claim to be God in the flesh. Rejecting His claim to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. This is catastrophic. Why? Because the Jews are God's chosen people, and so Paul takes up this issue, it's really an argument against the great doctrine he's given us in Romans 1-8. If this is the gospel, if we have this incredible assurance there is no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus, nothing will separate us in the love of God in Christ, then how can the Jews pretty much en masse, be rejecting Christ?

Does that not say to some degree that God's Word has failed? That God has spoken promises to the Jews that he is not fulfilling? And now, he's turned to us gentiles, and he's kind of speak promises to us, why should we believe him? If he has spoken a single promise to anybody ever, that has failed, has not come true, if his word has fallen, then what ground do we have under our feet. If He's lied about that, will He not also like us? And so Paul takes up this crisis of confidence concerning the Word of God, and we already saw his answer. Look at verse 6, he said, "It is not as though God's Word has failed or has fallen." he just makes a statement, God's word is secure, it's strong, it stands firm. The fact that the Jews are in such huge numbers, not universally, but in such huge numbers, rejecting Christ, does not prove anything concerning the Word of God. Well, how does he do it? How does he separate out these Jewish people and their unbelief in Christ from the Word of God?

Well, he says it's not as though God's Word has failed, for not all who're descended from Israel are Israel. And so he brings in this idea of election of the group, within the group. Of a larger group of physical descendants of Abraham. And then a more narrow group of spiritual descendants of Abraham, to whom the promises ultimately were given. And if any of those promises has failed, then God's word has fallen, but it hasn't. And so don't stand and look on the outside and say, "Oh look at all these physical descendants of Abraham, they're rejecting Christ, therefore, God's Word has failed." It hasn't, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. There's a smaller subset of Jews. The remnant chosen by grace, he says in Romans 11, that he is working with. And so he says, "It is not as though God's Word has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel, nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children."

And then he gives his first evidence. You want to say, Okay, Paul, prove it. Does the Scripture teach what you're saying about the group within the group? Can you prove any evidence or bring forth any evidence that not all of Abraham's physical descendants are guaranteed eternal spiritual salvation? Says, "Yes I can." He brings up the first evidence, and it concerns Isaac and Ishmael. Look what he says, "On the contrary, it is through Isaac, that your offspring will be reckoned." We covered this last time, but the idea is, it is through Isaac and not Ismael, that's what he's saying. It is through Isaac, that your offspring will be reckon. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham's offspring, for this is how the promise was stated: 'at the appointed time. I will return and Sarah will have a son.'" Bottom line, just by way of summary from last the time, biology does not determine spiritual destiny. It doesn't matter who your physical father was. Even if it's Abraham himself, that doesn't guarantee salvation. Physical descent from Abraham does not guarantee salvation.

Now God had made a promise to Abraham, remember this, "So shall your offspring be, like the stars in the sky and like the sand by the sea" Abraham heard the promise, he believed, his faith was credited him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 is a beautiful thing. And in that same way all people that have ever been saved, are saved simply by hearing and believing the promise of God. Well, Abraham looks around and says, "You know, I don't have many children. The fact of the matter is, I don't have any children, so I don't know what's going on here, but I think we need to help God out. He seems to be in a pickle. He's having a problem here, He's made these grandiose promises, and Sarah and I, it just isn't happening with us. And so Sarah says, "Well, I have an idea, why don't you take my maid servant, the Egyptian woman Hagar. And why don't you sleep with her and because she's my servant, it'll be credited to me as my son. And they do it all the time, is what people do. And so they help God out. Can I tell you something? God doesn't need your help, He doesn't need the arm of flesh to try to accomplish the spiritual promises. He doesn't need it. It's not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. That's how he's going to do it. And so they help God out, and all they do is they have Ishmael for a son.

Now, Abraham is told very clearly, "Alright. If you didn't understand, let me spell it out. Your wife, Sarah, will have a son, and it is in Sarah's offspring, Isaac that your offering will be named, and not Ishmael." Genesis 17, He makes it very, very plain. Now, you remember Abraham, pleads for Ishmael. He thinks Ismael is the answer, maybe some of his pride is wrapped up, "You know, God. I came up with a good solution here. Accept my answer." And God says, "No, it is in Isaac, that your offspring will be reckoned." Remember how I noted that both fathers in both cases, Abraham pleading for Ishmael, and Isaac wanting Esau, both of them are off. God's ways are not our ways. It's just the way it is. And so he says, "No, it's going to be Isaac and not Ishmael." And we noted last time, that it had to do with the supernatural power of God. At the appointed time, I will come, and Sarah will have a son. This is a son born by the power of God. That's how it's portrayed. You remember the account, how it says very plainly in genesis 21:1, God kept His word, and he visited Sarah. There was a sense of the power of God, and Isaac was a supernatural baby. He was born by the power of God.

So then you have two paradigm examples. You have Ismael, who's the paradigm, the example of an ordinary person, born in the ordinary way, a child of the flesh, no different than anybody else. Born, he lives, he breathes, he does all kinds of things, and then he dies. No faith, nothing special about Ishmael. That's the one, he's the paradigm of the one. Then you've got Isaac, who's a supernatural baby, wouldn't even be walking the earth if God hadn't done it directly, by the power of God, and specifically according to the Promise, he's a child of the promise, a child of God. And so that's what we have. Throughout all ages, then you have this same paradigm. You have the children of the flesh, and then you have the children of the Spirit, or you have the children of the flesh, and the children of God or of the promise, just as it says in John 1:11-13, Jesus or Christ "came to that, which was His own, but His own people, the Jews, received Him not. They didn't receive Him.

But in John 1:12, "As many as did receive Him, to them He gave the power or the right to become children of God." Listen, "children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." Do you remember what we said last time? Isn't this incredible? If you are a Christian, you are a supernatural miracle of God, you're born of God, God spoke something into existence, that didn't exist before. You're a new creation in Christ. Isn't that amazing? You're not a normal person, you're supernatural in your origin. Born of God, just like Jesus said to Nicodemus, that unless you're born of water and the Spirit, you cannot go to Heaven. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. It's what Jesus taught, it's the consistent teaching in the Bible.

In explaining why the Jews then were so adamantly opposed to the gospel. Paul spoke to the Gentile believers in Galatia, and he uses the same arguments here. In Galatians 4 he writes, "Now, you brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise." Stop a moment. I know we're not preaching Galatians 4, but that's fine. What is he saying? He's saying you Gentiles, you're Isaac, those Jews they're Ishmael. Do you see how striking that is? The unbelieving Jews are more like Ishmael the believing Gentiles, more like Isaac. You're children of promise, that's what he says, it's incredible. "But just as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who is born according to the Spirit. So it is now." Remember how Ismael was mocking little boy Isaac when he was weaned, there's that mockery and he picks up on it, in Galatians 4. So also, the persecution of the child of the flesh, toward the child of the spirit. So what do we have? In John 1, we have born of God, John 3, born again, born of the spirit. Galatians 4, children of the promise, or born according to the Spirit. All of these are the same thing, basic idea, if you're going to Heaven, you must be born again supernaturally, by the power of God, according to the promise of God.

Apart from that you're not one of his children. It's a direct supernatural act of the power of God. This is all review from last week. Not that I wouldn't mind preaching the same sermon as last week, it'd be worth hearing again, but Paul wants to bring another example up. He wants in effect in my opinion, to close a giant loophole. Now, you may think, "Why do we have to close loopholes?" It's because we're so sneaky and tricky and lawyer-like, and we're thinking, "Okay, alright, I see that not all the physical descendants from Abraham are going to heaven, Ishmael. But if you're a Jew, you're a law abiding Jew, your saying, 'This is not even a case. Isn't it obvious, the difference between Ishmael and Isaac? Who is Ismael's mother? She's a gentile, an unwashed gentile. She is an Egyptian, she's Hagar. That's no proof.'" And so, my feeling is, you know, what I think? The Apostle Paul went from place to place, and he had thoroughly tested his doctrine against every possible argument, the Jews could bring against. By the time he writes Romans, he understands everything that he needs to say, he knows very well what they're going to say back.

He says, "That's no case. You haven't made your point." Okay, so just because Abraham is your father, you're not going to heaven, but what about the mother? He says, "Well, alright, I haven't even better example. Let's zero in on this case study of Jacob and Esau, and let's remove all arguments. So look at verses 1013. "Not only that, but Rebecca's children, had one and the same Father, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything, good or bad, In order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'"

Now we have the second case. What is he trying to prove? Take a step back, let's remember, we're dealing with the case in Romans 9, of why are the Jews rejecting Christ? Has God's word fail? Has he made all these promises to the Jews, he's not fulfilling? His answer, no. God's word has not failed. Why not Paul? Because they're not all Israel, who are descend physically from Israel. There's a set within the larger group that God has been dealing with. Prove it, Paul. Okay, case study one, Isaac and Ishmael. Both of them had Abraham as their father, but only Isaac was a child of the promise. "That's no good example. Ishmael had Hagar, a Gentile, an Egyptian for a mother." Okay, case study two, Jacob and Esau. Now what I want to say to you folks, it's not so much the case study, although that's potent, it's what Paul says about it, that we as Christians must accept and understand. What is he teaching? He's teaching the Doctrine of unconditional election, as an answer to the question: Why are the Jews rejecting Christ? If you don't put the two together, you will not see how explosive and potent this is. Why are they rejecting Christ? Answer, Look at Jacob and Esau. Well what answer? In order that God's purpose in election might stand, that's his answer.

Next week, God willing, I'll be preaching on the middle phrase here, "in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls." That has so much doctrine in it. It would take probably years to understand it all. We'll just give it one sermon, but we're not covering that today. I want to understand this case study of Jacob and Esau, and what is he doing, he's closing the loophole concerning the mother of Ismael, she's Hagar, okay? So he zeros in on what I think is an even better case study. Now, why is it a better case study? Jacob and Esau, a better case study than Ishmael and Isaac? Well, reason number one, unlike Isaac and Ishmael, they had one mother; Rebecca. Secondly, unlike Isaac and Ishmael, God called them before they were born, or had done anything good or bad, because of this little prophecy that God gave to Rebecca, concerning the twins that were inside her womb. And so there's a clear statement in the Old Testament account, concerning their future. And so, that's secondly, why they're a better example.

But the overall lesson is clear. We are teaching, Paul is teaching the Doctrine of unconditional election. God chooses who will be his children with absolutely no recourse to their deeds or anything in them, anything He sees in them, His only point of reference is his own free and sovereign choice. That's what he's teaching. That's what makes Romans 9 such a challenge for people to accept. But that's what it is teaching.

Now, let's look at the facts of the case. How were Jacob and Esau conceived? Well, you remember the story that Isaac and Rebecca were unable to have children, they were barren. Rebecca was barren in particular. And unlike Father Abraham who contrived, a fleshly response with Hagar, and so Ismael was conceived. Isaac did the right thing, he got down on his knees and prayed for his barren wife, and he asked that God might move in a mighty way, and give them a child, give them a son. And so, in Genesis 25:21, it says, "Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant." Parenthetically, just by way of application. I love Isaac's example here. It's so much better than Father Abraham. When you are facing this kind of a challenge, get on your knees and pray. Husbands and wives, pull together and pray. If you're facing a challenge financially, challenge with one of your children, challenge with one of your parents, or some other situation, joblessness, some depression, some issue, just follow Isaac and Rebecca example. Get down on your knees and ask God, see what he can do. Okay, end of application. We're back in the doctrine now. They get down on their knees, and they ask, and God answers. Paul, now Zeros in on the act of conception. Basically, he says literally, very strongly in the Greek, one act of marital relations, produced the two children. Out of one act of marital relations, you get Jacob and Esau. Paul is removing any distinction between these babies.

Do you see how much he's laboring to do that? It's just a husband and a wife, and from it they get two children. At one moment in time, Israel's forefather Isaac, lay with his wife Rebecca, in that one act of marital relations, Rebecca got two sons, one father, one mother, one act, two children; Jacob and Esau. Those are the facts of the case. That's what Paul is highlighting here. Now one of them was chosen and one was not. Now, notice also parenthetically, that Paul identifies himself with the Jews here, he says, "Our father Isaac." He's doing everything he can to teach this in a winsome and attractive way. He's not trying to offend the Jews, he wants to identify with them, but he's still teaching them the truth. Now, furthermore, you remember what happened? We've been through this recently, as I was preaching through Genesis. But just to review, the babies inside of Rebecca were pushing and shoving each other. They were two manner of people, remember? And they were pushing and shoving, and just simply not getting along. Early sibling rivalry, I guess, or just in cramped quarters, there just wasn't a lot of space.

But Rebecca was feeling the pain, and she inquired of the Lord beautifully, just like her husband led in prayer, she also brings her problem to the Lord. She says, "What is happening to me? What is going on?" And so the Lord gives this prophecy, this incredible statement, she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her. "Two nations are in your womb, and two people from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." Now, that is exactly what Paul is talking about here, isn't it? In Romans Nine, "before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls." She was told what? "The older will serve the younger." That's very significant, in Paul's argument. Now, their origin, Jacob and Esau, could not have been more indistinct. They could not have been closer at conception, they could not have been closer at birth. One act of marital relations, one moment in time, one womb, God is doing absolutely everything imaginable to say there is no difference between these children.

God's Predetermined Role for Each One of Them

What is Paul's point? The prophecy showed God's predetermined role for each one of them, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad. It was determined before birth. Paul's point is clear, the choice of one, Jacob over the other Esau, had nothing to do with their performance. How much performing can you do in the womb? And Paul says, literally, they had done nothing good or bad. You may say there were some shoving going around and Esau shoved more than Jacob, and on the basis of that, God didn't choose him. That is exactly not what he says. He says, before they had done anything good or bad, literally no choice.

Now, America, prides itself as being what you call a meritocracy, not an aristocracy, a meritocracy. What do I mean? Well, you go up on the merits of what you can achieve. You make something of yourself. Like Abraham Lincoln, you can go from a log cabin to the White House. Maybe, probably not, but there's always that idea, there's the thought that you might be able to because he did it, right? And so there's that sense. Or our ancestors that came over through Ellis Island, and look what they made of themselves, through their hard work, through their discipline, their character, they built a world for themselves. America, meritocracy. And as a result of that, we want to feel that we can achieve, we can work, we can accomplish, we can earn anything that comes our way, that is the very thing we cannot do with Heaven. It can't be done. There is no meritocracy here. Exactly the opposite situation. The twins hadn't done anything yet. And frankly, contrary to all custom and all expectation, the older is going to serve the younger. That's not the way it's done. The first born got everything, the second born hoped that he had a good relationship with the firstborn. That's how it worked.

More than that, the reversal of order spoke to a deeper issue. God had chosen Jacob, but not Esau. And Jacob, not Esau would be receiving the richness of God's blessing, may I say directly, it would be Jacob and not Esau who would be the heir of the promises God had made to Abraham. That's the point. Jacob is the heir of the promises. What is the doctrine here? Well, it's the doctrine of unconditional election. Paul's overall the point is clear, God chooses. God chooses, and makes the final decision, not Man. He's going to say later in Romans 9, "It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or on man's effort, but on God who has mercy."

Now his choice is absolutely unconditional. It's not based on achievements, it's not based on merit, if anything God's choice runs directly counter to what we would've done or would do. No human quality or achievement ever comes into play in any way. This is the thrust of Paul's argument, the whole election is rooted in God, not in man. "Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger." What does it mean? Not by works but by what? By Him who calls. The focus is on God; we'll get to that in a couple of weeks.

Human Responsibility Not Decreased in Any Way

Now, let me say just for a moment, human responsibility is not decreased in any way by this teaching. It's not decreased in any way. Romans 9 does not in any way contradict the clear teaching that both Jacob and Esau, made real choices in their lives that really impacted their lives. It does not contradict that in any way. If Jacob is to be saved, he will be saved by faith in the promises of God, just as his father Abraham was. If Esau is to be condemned, he will be condemned by sins he actually commits and by not having faith in the promises of his father, Abraham. Unconditional election, therefore, does not contradict human responsibility. And while election is unconditional, final salvation and final damnation, folks, are not unconditional. There are conditions you meet. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. You must sin and not believe in Christ in order to be condemned. These are conditions that God has set up.

And I can assure you that no one will be able to say before being thrown in the lake of fire. I don't deserve this. And can I say the other way? Every child of God will be saying on Judgment Day, "I don't deserve this." You know the insight I came to this morning as I was going over this? This is written to humble us the believers. Unbelievers are never going to listen to this anyway, it's ludicrous, preposterous. This is for us, so that we might be humbled, and that we might say, "I don't deserve what God's doing for me, I don't deserve it." Isn't that beautiful thing? To be able to say from the heart, "There's nothing I did." It's humbling to the core, to know I was chosen not through anything of myself, but because God willed it. Frankly, in my opinion, it's more accurate to say we are chosen contrary to, rather than because of things in us. In the face of things that we deserve rather than what we truly deserve. Therefore we are not ultimately, finely autonomous beings, making final decisions. You realize in the universe, there can only be one truly free, truly sovereign being. There can't be two, it's impossible. And so how can it be that there would be both God free, sovereign and choosing and also individuals.

In 1894, William Ernest Henley, lost his six year old daughter, Margaret, and he wrote this poem, "Invictus" that some of you perhaps have heard. The word in invictus means "I have not been conquered." In the midst of his grief, and his sadness, he wrote this. "Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole. I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Romans 9 was written to slay that thought, that we would understand that ultimately God is the master, God is the captain.

A Great Mystery to Accept

Now, in the midst of this, there is a great mystery that we have to accept. And that is this; How does God guarantee that each individual person will believe or not believe without in any way undermining our responsibility? Can I tell you, I don't know. I'm saying to you, I don't know. So those of you who are hoping for a mystery, you got one. I don't know how He does that, I don't know how He unconditionally elects without looking at all, at anything into the individual. And then each of those destinies is set in some way without in any way diminishing the free and real choices they make. I don't know how that's done. And frankly, there's not a person on the face of the earth who can answer all of these questions without in the end saying, "I don't know it's a mystery." But there it is.

Can I ask you this, as you're thinking about what I'm saying, some of you perhaps for the first time, don't reject it, just because you can't understand it fully. Can I ask you just to keep working on it? Remember at the beginning when we started Romans 9, I said you're not going to be able to get all this at once, it's going to take time. Some people it takes years before they can finally accept it. John Piper put it this way: "If this stretches your mind to the breaking point, better that your minds be broken, then that the scriptures be broken. And better yet would be to let your mind and your heart be enlarged rather than broken. So they can contain all that the scriptures teach." And Martin Lloyd Jones said, "Don't give up thinking on it, just because it's difficult." He said this, "This is one of the most difficult statements in the whole of scripture. So do not be discouraged or blame yourself, if you have found it difficult to swallow. But on the other hand, do not give up and say that because it is difficult, you cannot be bothered with it. You should never say that about any portion of scripture. Christian people who do not apply what mind and understanding they have to a passage of scripture because it is difficult, are sinning grievously."

Now listen, evidently God wants you to know this, evidently He wants you to think about it. You know why I say that, because it's in the Bible. It is not Paul, ultimately, it's not your pastor, it is God who wants you to think about this. Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad. He wants you to ponder it. He wants you to know that it's God Almighty, your creator and your redeemer speaking.

Then Paul, for a secondary support to this, reaches for a quote from Malachi. "Just as it is written, Jacob, I loved and Esau I hated." Now, what I want to understand is, in all of the 39 books of the bible, with all of the thousands of verses that there are there. Why does he reach for this one as the tool in this argument? What does he see in Malachi one that helps his case? What is he trying to prove there from Malachi? What I did was I printed Malachi 1: 1-5, in your bulletin, so you don't have to take the time to turn there. Look what it says.

I'll begin reading at verse one. It says, "An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.  "I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, 'How have you loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals." Edom may say, "Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins." But this is what the LORD Almighty says: "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD."

Now he makes his opening statement, I'm going to stop there, he makes his opening statement from God to Israel, He says, "I have loved you." I have loved you. And they answer back, "How have you loved us?" Israel did not grasp the love of God, frankly, none of us truly grasped the love of God. We don't fully understand, you know why? Because we think of love wrongly. We have two basic understandings of love. The First is, "because I see this in you, I love you." I see some attributes in you. You're pretty, you're handsome, you do great things on a basketball court. You're really smart, I like your personality. There's things in the person, the loved one, and you say, "I love that about them, and so I'm attracted." So basically there's something like a magnetic pull in that person attracting love from us to that person. The second is because you do these things for me, I love you. Because of all the stuff you bought me, because of the way you serve me, because of the things you do for me, I love you. The problem is both of those are insecure, aren't they?

Suppose those attributes, let's say a beautiful face, change. Suppose the person has a car accident or gets in a fire and needs plastic surgery and never looks the same again. Suppose they're so disfigured you really can't even look at them without flinching. Does not that individual have the right to say, "Do you still love me?" If that was the ground of the love, isn't it gone now? Or what about the second case? Because you do these things for me, what if I stop doing those things? Will you still love me? We don't understand unconditional love, we're not used to it. And so therefore, the idea that God loves us in spite of, rather than because of things in us, is foreign to us, it's very hard for us to understand. And so Paul in Ephesians three says, "I pray that you would have power to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is a love of Christ." It's not natural for us to accept this love. And so he says, "I have loved you." "Well, how have you loved me, or how have you loved us?" And then he gets to this answer. "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" How is that an answer? Basically saying I love you by choosing you. There was no difference between Jacob and Esau, but I chose Jacob and blessed him. But Esau I rejected and I did not bless him. Yet I have loved you, but Esau I have hated.

Now, let's look at Jacob. You say, "Well, Jacob's got some good qualities, right?" Can I say to you, pretty much every human being has some good qualities. If that's what you're looking for, that's contrary to the scripture here, but that's not the issue. Let's look at Jacob. Alright, how did God love Jacob? Well Jacob departs, running away because his brother wants to kill him. Why? Well you know why. We'll get to that a minute. But there's Jacob fleeing for his life, and on route to Heron, God appears to him in a dream at Bethel. You remember? He's lying down and he puts a rock under his head for a pillow. Doesn't that tell you something about Jacob? I mean, could you sleep on a rock? You say maybe he was really tired. I think he had a hard head, or something. But at any rate, there he is resting with a rock for a pillow, and while he's doing that, his head is filled with light. It's filled with vision. And what is the vision? It's a ladder or staircase going up to heaven and God Almighty at the top of the staircase and angels ascending and descending on that staircase.

And he has this vision, his head filled with light, and God stands at the head of the staircase and says, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the Earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you, and your offspring." That's Abraham's blessing. Now he inherits it. "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and I will watch over you, wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you." "How have you loved us?" Jacob says. "I loved you by choosing you. I loved you by committing myself to bless you. That's how I loved you. Esau was your brother and I didn't do that for him. I loved you by unconditionally electing you, that's how I loved you."

Now why? Why did God love Jacob? Jacob was a sinner, he was a conniver. He was a con artist. He was a shifty tricky business man. You remember when his brother Esau comes in and he's famished and he's... Jacob saw it as a business opportunity. He saw it as a chance to advance himself a little bit. He said, "You want some of my stew? It's going to cost you." "What's it going to cost?" "Well, the birthright." "Oh, what's the birthright to me?" says Esau, in character. "What's the birthright to me?" So he sells it for a bowl of stew. But who sold the stew to him? Jacob did. And even worse was how he treated his blind father at this key moment of prophetic power, when this patriarch Isaac wants to bless his son Esau, and he is going to extend his hand and put his hands on Esau, his first born, and he's going to bless Esau. No, no, he's going to bless Jacob. Why? Because Jacob lies to his face, his blind father, he lies right to his face. And he steals Esau's blessing.

Even worse, in my opinion, is how he treated God, after the vision that God gave him, remember? Head filled with light, the staircase angels ascending and descending. You've never had a dream like that. God standing at the top promising he'll be with you in everything you do, et cetera. Do you know what Jacob said to him, after he woke up? "Surely, this is an awesome place, God is in this place." I didn't even know it. Tell you what God, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey, I'm taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I returned to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God." Jacob the camel trader bargaining with God. If you do these things for me, then you can be my God. Come on, God, pony up. I need the performance God. And if you keep it coming, you can be my God. He doesn't understand, does he? He doesn't know who he's dealing with. Is it because of things God saw in Jacob that he chose him? I'd tell you no, but Jacob is a sinner just like you and me.

Later Jacob's descendants, the Jews, sinned greatly against Him, against God. In Ezekiel 32, God said, "I want you to know that I'm not doing this for your sake, declares the sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, oh house of Israel." God's love for Jacob is unconditional not based upon anything he saw in him. It is based on something he saw totally in himself. Listen, if you think that God's love for you is in essence, His making much over, or celebrating something he sees in you, you don't understand His love. John Piper said this, "God's love for us does not consist in His making much over you, but rather enabling you to make much of Him." That's how He loves you, by showing Himself to you. God isn't loving you, because of something He keeps seeing in you, rather He loves you in Christ, by His sovereign will. Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who call, she was told, the older will serve the younger.

Just as it is written. "Jacob, I loved…" But what about the second part? "Esau I hated." Now, this is jarring, isn't it? This isn't the God you were taught, perhaps, in Sunday school. You know, God is all knowing, all powerful, all loving... Stop just a minute. Is God all loving? We also say this saying, we're to "hate the sin," but what? "Love the sinner." And so we are, that's what we're commanded to do. You know why? Because a sinner might actually be an elect brother or sister in Christ, but it's different from God's perspective, you see? It doesn't here say, "Jacob I love, but Esau's sins I hated." He did hate his sins, but that's not what it says. It says, "Jacob, I love, but Esau I hated." Now, what does that mean? What does it mean? Well, I think that there are two aspects to the hate here. There's a passive aspect and an active aspect. What is the passive aspect? First, he passed over Esau and didn't choose him. Just passed him over. Jacob was the one chosen, not Esau. Passed him over. Was not Esau Jacob's brother? The Lord says, "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I hated."

Secondly, passively, God gave Esau over to his wickedness, his predispositions, he gave him over, he didn't fight it. From Romans 1:24, it says, "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts." And then in Romans 1:26, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts." So it's a giving over that God does to a sinner's way, say, "Have your way." It's the worst thing God can ever do to you, but it's the very thing He will not do to us who are his children. He's not going to give us over to our sin. Passively then He hates Esau by not electing him and by giving him over to his wickedness. Actively however, He pours out the wrath that Esau deserves for his wicked actions. Look what it says in the Malachi quote, it's right there in verses 3-4, "Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals. Edom may say though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins. But this is what the Lord Almighty says, "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called "The wicked land…" Aou see that's God giving them over their wickedness, and a people always under the wrath of the Lord."That is God's active hatred, and that is wrath for sins actually committed.

Now, concerning Esau himself, is his wickedness not clearly depicted in the text? Did not Esau actively despise his birthright? Did he not say, "I don't care about that. What's a birthright to me? I'll sell it for a bowl of stew." Did God force him or compel him to do that? Absolutely not, it was a choice he made in concert with his desires. Can Esau say to God, "You forced me to sell God." Cannot God say to Esau, "I gave your birthright to Jacob by decree, but you sold it freely because you despised it. How can you charge me for wrong doing?" And you could say after that did not Esau repent? Didn't he repent with tears, right? And seek it with tears? Did he? Charles Spurgeon put it this way. You know how he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and he thought he would buy it back by giving his father a mess of pottage. "There," he says, "I'll go hunt some venison for my father. I've got it over him and he likes my savory meat and he'll readily give me my birthright again."

But this is what the sinner does, this is what the sinner says. "I have lost Heaven by my evil works. I will easily get it again by reforming my ways. Did I lose it by sin? Well, I'll get it back by giving up my sins. Well, I've been a drunkard. Well, now I'm going to be a teetotaller." "I've been an awful swear, I'm very sorry for it, indeed, I will not swear anymore." No sinner. You may sell Heaven for a few carnal pleasures, but you cannot buy heaven merely by giving them up. And what was the nature of Esau's repentance after his father died? Well, he consoled himself with one thought, "I'm going to murder my brother," and that's exactly why Jacob fled to Heron.

Ultimately then, this act of wrath of God doesn't just mean that he's going to lay some country down, and so that their crops and harvest don't work. This is the picture of heaven and hell, isn't it? That's the issue. We're talking about eternal destiny. Spurgeon put it this way. "If God deals with any man severely, it is because that man deserves all that he gets. In hell, there will not be a single solitary soul that will say to God, "O Lord, thou has treated me worse than I deserve, but every lost spirit will be made to feel that he got what he truly deserved, that his destruction lies at his own door and not at God's."

What is the difference then between Jacob and Esau? You tell me. They're both sinners. Both in some respects, in one way, reprehensible people. "Before the twins were born or had done anything, good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls. As she was told, the older will serve the younger just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated." Spurgeon summarized Paul's doctrine this way, he preaches salvation, all of unmerited grace, just free grace, and he preaches damnation, all of sin. God is speaking to us. You know what He's saying? You don't deserve the good things I'm giving you. And that humbles us, doesn't it? And I rejoice in that humbling. I'm delighted to know that I'm saved by grace.

Let me say one final word by way of application. Let me give you a loving warning. Let God be God in salvation, not that He needs your permission, but just let Him be God. Let Him be the ruler, do not presume to tell God how He should save souls and how He shouldn't. So many sinners born yesterday who know nothing, think to tell God what He may and may not do with His creation. Who are we to question what God does? Do not tell God how He must save or what he should do. Our wisdom is like nothing, we were born yesterday. Our perspective is so low as to be below the worm compared to God. The ultimate freedom of God is His glory alone, not ours. We're not ultimately King of the universe. "The secret things belong to the Lord…" Deuteronomy 29:29 says this, in other words, they'll come a point where we have nothing but mystery, and beyond that, we can go, "but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever." Has God revealed this to us? Yes, he has, here in Romans 9, it's right there. You can read it on the page, if you have a different Bible at home, open up it'll say the same thing, maybe a little different translation, but it'll say the same thing. It's there. God is speaking this to us, He wants us to understand.

Now, when we are striking a coin, making a coin, like a quarter or something like that, the die comes down and the blank is in there, the blank must be made of softer metal than the die. Do you understand why? Because at the moment of conflict, something has to give, something. Either the coin is going to give, or the die is going to give. If the die gives, you got to throw the die away and make another one. Well, they learned a long time ago, you're not going to throw the die away, you need to make the die out of something so hard, it will not yield to anything. If your mind and the scripture are having this moment of conflict, what's going to give? The scripture is not designed to give. There is nothing more unyielding than God in His word and thank God for it. That's the whole point of Romans nine. God's Word cannot fail, it will never fail. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but His word will still be there. Then let your mind yield and be conformed to what He's saying. Think differently if you need to. Be conformed rather to what He's saying.

There is a very sweet and practical application to this. You know what it is? If election is unconditional it means that any of you sitting here any of you can be His children, any of you, no matter how much sin you've committed. No one can say to me, "My sin excludes me from being elect." This text eliminate that forever. You may think, "You don't know what I've done. I'm saying, your sin doesn't have the final word over grace. Isn't that sweet? So if today you hear His voice, calling on you to trust in Him to believe in this incredible Savior, don't walk out of here without trusting in Christ. This is a great time of year, frankly, any time of year is a great time of year to be a Christian, but trust in Him believe in Him, allow Him to be your King, your sovereign, your ruler. Close with me in prayer.

Please, if you would, take your Bibles and look with me at Romans Chapter 9, which you've heard already beautifully read for you. Romans 9. This morning, we'll be focusing on verses six through nine.

January 17, 1995 at 5:46 AM. I was in Japan with my wife and preparing to go to a time of prayer, when all of a sudden, for 20 seconds, the foundation of the house was shaking, so much, I could barely stand up. This was the Great Hanshin earthquake, 7.2 on the Richter scale, centered near Kobe, Japan, 5,000 people were killed as a result of that earthquake, 300,000 people were left homeless as a result of those 20 seconds.

Now, what was interesting was the study done of architecture after the earthquake, by Japanese experts. They were interested to see how buildings did in the earthquakes. They found that the buildings that were older, built in the 30s and 40s in the traditional Japanese style, were destroyed immediately all of them. None of them survived in that area. They were made mostly of bamboo and wood and mud and other things, and they were just destroyed. The buildings built in the 60s, some of some of the floors were crushed. In other words, you would see like Floor 12 or Floor 8 just disappear and it would be gone, be crushed, and you'd see Venetian blinds and other things sticking out all around. Really astonishing, and it would be shifted or leaned over in some way.

The more modern buildings that were built with the Japanese technology in dealing with earthquakes, did better, except some of the buildings. And those were the buildings which were built on ground that literally liquefied during the earthquake, and they were destroyed, as well. And it got me to thinking about the word of God. It got me to thinking about what Jesus said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. "Everyone who hears these words of mine, and puts them into practice, is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains came down and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house. But it stood firm because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand, and the rains came down and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

But then I thought, what can you do when the ground liquefies under your feet, when it literally disappears? And all things around us, someday, will be shaken, for the Lord will return and everything not eternal and permanent will be shaken and destroyed. And where then will you stand? And so it is also metaphorically and spiritually that some of you are going through trials right now in which it feels like the ground is melting under your feet. It could be a very serious diagnosis, maybe cancer. It could be that of a loved one facing a similar thing, could be the spiritual state of a loved one, which you realize that they are not in Christ praying and seeking their salvation, but it isn't coming. It could be financial problems. It could be other practical life issues.

And you may wonder in a very practical way, How does Romans 9 address my life situation? How does Romans 9 line up with my marital struggle? How does Romans 9 line up with my struggle against sin and temptation? How does Romans 9 fit into my life? Let me tell you something. Jesus said if you hear His words and put them into practice, you have a solid foundation under your feet, but if the word of God gives way, what then do you have under you? If you have not the Scriptures to bank on, to build on, what do you have? If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? It says in Psalm 11.

And that is the crisis that's in front of Paul in Romans 9-11. Has the word of God failed in the case of the Jews? Now, Romans 9, we all know, has some of the most difficult doctrine to swallow. It's really very striking, really, when you read it and you think, "This is not the God I was taught in Sunday School. This is not the God I grew up with in the children's Bible." And so, it may feel to you like the theological ground might be liquefying under your feet as you begin to find a God you've never known before, but there he is in the text. And it's terrifying to some degree to have your world rocked like that, to have a new vision of God, and to see that it actually is in the Bible to find.

Oh my goodness, what am I going to do? How can I live with this different understanding of God than I had before? And it's a challenge. Now, Romans 9 was not given to us for academic sport, so that ivory tower theologians can kick ideas around back and forth and write treatises to each other and have a job. That's not what it's for. Still less is it for a theological puzzle like The New York Times crossword puzzle, or some kind of mathematical puzzle for you to figure out and then you've got it. And once you've got it, then you can feel good about your intellectual prowess.

May I say to you, if you think you've got it, you don't. And that includes me, the preacher, who has to stand and preach it. It is far deeper than even the one who wrote it, when he said, "Oh the depths, the richest, the wisdom, and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out." That's his way of saying I don't fully understand all of this. It's deep. Still, less is Romans 9 given to divide the local church or to split friend from friend. But rather, I believe that Romans 9 was given for pastoral concern. Or Romans 9 was given because people are going to face troubles, and trials in this world, and if they don't have this kind of solid rock underneath them, their foundations will buckle. The ground will feel like it's liquefying under their feet. They'll have nowhere to stand.

Now, I think there's a kind of a hierarchy of spiritual priorities in Romans 9-11. The top level priority is a magnificent vision of God enthroned, ruling over all of His universe. And from that, everything flows. Your sense of peace and security about your soul flows from that. Your sense of stability about what's going on in our life flows from that throne whose foundation can never be destroyed. And Romans 9 gives you a clear vision of that throne, which shall never be moved, and how pervasive and powerful is the sovereignty of God. It gives that kind of vision at the highest level.

From that comes a confidence that the words, the pronouncements, the decrees that come from that throne can never fail. That when God says it, it's final. When He speaks peace over your soul through the blood of Christ, that settles it. And you are at peace with Him, and you are secure in this world that God rules. God's word has not failed, neither can it fail. And that is, that Jesus said, a solid rock foundation on which to build your life, on which to build your house for eternity.

Third level below that would be, that we individual people may have the proper state of mind about that. It’s so that we might have a sense of security in life, a sense of certitude, a sense of certainty and assurance in our lives, and that we've got ground under we our feet to make progress and sanctification. We have ground under our feet to go forth and preach the gospel or to slay some particularly besetting sin. We have ground under our feet to stand firm when earthly things, finances, and relationships, and health are crumbling around us. We can stand firm because God's Word cannot fail. And I think every bit as important as that comes the slaying of our pride, that we might be slain in our pride before this throne of God, that we might stop making much of humanity and start making much of God who created all things, that we might stop making much of our vaunted choices and start making much of the God who rules over all things.

There's a hierarchy of priorities in Romans 9-11, and the highest is the throne of God. And God yearns for these things in our hearts that we might be at peace with Him, that we might trust him when it seems like the ground is liquefying under our feet, that we might be confident in making progress in our spiritual lives. He wants these truths in our hearts, even if it causes you and me pain to get them in there. And so he brings us to Romans 9, he brings us to this meet that we might understand.

Now, we've seen already the crisis that faces us, theologically, in Romans 9. Perhaps you didn't see it before, but I hope you see it now. The crisis is that incredibly grand promises have been made to us in Christ. Romans 1-8 shows us incredibly grand promises of future and final glory in Christ.  Someday we will be as glorious as God because God's glory will be in us.

I consider that our present sufferings, no matter what you would list as your top five biggest practical issues that you'd hope addressed from the pulpit here this morning, whatever they are, they're not even worth comparing with the glory that's going to be revealed in you, or so says God. But can His word be trusted? Is it indeed true? Because I have it on good authority that God's chosen people, the Jews, are almost universally, almost universally rejecting Christ. And if what you say is true about Christ, that you must believe in Him to be saved, then they are rejecting Christ to the damnation of their own soul, which then Paul takes up in Romans 9:1-5 and says it's true. But he has great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart over it. He could wish that he were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of them, those of his kinsmen in the flesh, the Jews. And then he lists their spiritual advantages and their benefits.

Indeed, they were God's chosen people and still are, but to try to understand that and how it lines up with Christ, that is the issue. In Deuteronomy 7:6, it says, "The Lord, your God," [speaking to the Jews] "has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the Earth to be His people, His treasured possession." And then he lists the benefits in verses 4-5, concerning the people of Israel. He says, "Theirs is the adoption of sons, theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised. Amen."

Those are the advantages of the Jews, but they are inadequate for salvation. They're rejecting Christ. Therefore, the key question is, Has God's word failed to the Jews? Has he made promises to them that he's not keeping? And if so, how do I know that the promises He has made to me in Christ, that they are rock solid? If he's lied once, can he not lie again and again. We likened it to the worthless Deutsch marks printed by the billions in Germany between World War I and World War II, or a certificate of ownership to the Brooklyn Bridge. Would you like to be 100% owner of the Brooklyn Bridge? It's not worth the paper it's printed on.

But are God's promises worth the paper that they are printed on? Is it true that nothing else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord? Is that true? Can we trust that? Now, this is a crisis because of the importance of the Word of God in the scripture. From the very beginning, in Genesis 1:3, God said, "Let there be light" and there was light. God spoke. From the very beginning, he created light by the word. Also in Isaiah 55:10-11, he says, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth, making it bud and flourish so that it'll seed for the sower and bread for the eater. So is my word, which proceeds from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will achieve the purpose I desire and the accomplish what I sent it out to do." That is the power of the Word of God. Or as Jesus said, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Indeed in this very section, Romans 10:17, we're going to learn that "faith comes from hearing the message. The message is heard through the word of Christ." If God's word cannot be trusted, where does that leave us? Where does that leave us? And Jesus said this in John 11, speaking to Mary, he said, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." And then he asked Mary a soul defining question, "Do you believe this?" Now here's my question. If God's word has fallen, if it's failed, then how can we say to Jesus, Yes, I believe that you are the resurrection and the life? That is the crisis here. If God's word toward Israel has failed, then why won't His word toward us fail? Remember what it was that saved Abraham. God took him out of his tent and said, "Look up at the stars and count them if you can."

Then he spoke a word of promise to him, and the word of promise, was... "So shall your offspring be." That's the promise. Abraham heard the promise, and he believed it. He believed the promise of God, he believed the Lord, and God credited it to him as righteousness, his sins forgiven by faith. Now, what I say to you is if God's Word can fail, where then is hope? It says in Hebrews 6:17 and following says, "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised. He confirmed it with an oath." What's an oath but word, right? He confirmed it with an oath. "God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure." Do you have that kind of a soul anchor?

I was watching a movie recently about the International Space Station, and there are people up there orbiting the Earth all the time. They're up there on the Space Station. Just day after day, week after a week, year after year, they're up there and they're doing experiments on medicines and growing crystals and all kinds of things. But occasionally, astronauts have to go out of the cozy confines, if that's what you want to call it, of the Space Station, and go out and kind of space walk, and fix something on the outside of the building. Now, how would you feel if you look down beneath your feet, and there looking actually small, is Africa, or the Pacific Ocean? Would you not have somewhat of a death grip on the ladder? Well, not only with the death grip is this tether that attaches you to certain places. It's a wire. And if those two fail, the death grip and the wire, and you start to drift away from the Space Station, they have as a last resort, this little kind of jet propulsion booster thing. And that'll get you back and you can grab on to it. Does that sound secure to you?

But how would you feel if you're falling away, and there's that tether attached? Aren't you hoping it'll hold? May I say you that is nothing compared to the soul tether of the Word of God. If the word of God can fail, then you are lost. You have nothing on which to build your life.

Paul answers this three times over. First of all, he makes a plain assertion in verse six. It is not as though God's Word has failed. He just says it straight out. No, God's word has not failed concerning the Jews. Says it straight out. But is that enough simply because you, the apostle, tell me that God's Word has not failed? Is that enough? Can you support it? Can you defend it? Well, he gives us three chapters of defense of this. It isn't just a statement he makes. He's going to support it, but he does it immediately by supporting it with a second assertion and he says I want you to understand that not all Israel are Israel.

Not all Israel are Israel. God's promises to Israel were not intended for every physical descendant of Abraham, but rather for a group within that set of physical descendants that he calls Israel. Here, not all Israel, the big Israel, physical Israel, are truly the spiritual Israel to whom the promises were made. That's why God's word has not failed. He never promised to all of the physical descendants of Abraham the gospel promises. And so, God's Word has not failed. Now, he gives the same answer three times, first of all, this statement, "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel" in verse 6B. And then he gives us this statement in Verse 7A. "Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children." And then again in verse 8, there's the children of the flesh versus the children of God. Verse 8 says, "In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children but is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring."

Not All Israel Are Israel

First, he says, "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." There was within ethnic Israel, generally, that mass of humanity we know as the Jews or Israel, generally, a true spiritual nation that He calls Israel here, a subset within the larger set. To them, the promises were made and therefore, God's word hasn't fallen because he never promised those promises to all of the physical descendants of Abraham.

He speaks of this group within a group later using the language of remnant. Look at verse 27 of chapter 9. Romans 9:27 says, "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved." He uses this language of the remnant. If you look over at Romans 11:5 Paul writes, "so too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace." That subset within the larger group we could use the language of remnant. Romans 9:27 and 11:5 uses the language of remnant. And so, it's right for us to do it as well.

Paul Delineates Between the Descendants of Abraham, and the Children of Abraham.

Secondly, he says in verse seven, He delineates between the descendants of Abraham, and the children of Abraham. The NIV gives it to us. Nor because they are his descendants, are they all Abraham's children. Again, supporting this assertion, Paul just restates it. He delineates than a difference between Abraham's physical seed and his spiritual seed. Just because you are Abraham's physical descendant did not mean that God had made promises to you, which if you end up in hell, he didn't keep. That's what we're getting at. If you have Abraham as your biological father, and you ended up in hell, it does not mean that God's Word has failed or fallen in any way. That's what Paul's getting at.

And then again in verse eight. He says, "In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children but it is the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham's offspring." Now, here, Paul contrasts the natural children with the children of God, literally the children of the flesh, versus the children of the Spirit. Abraham could give birth to the flesh, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. Those children are the true Israel, they are the remnant. To them, God has made his promises. Now, this principle has been stated many times before. John the Baptist said it. You remember when he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing? He said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves. We have Abraham as our Father. I tell you that out of these stones, God can raise up children to Abraham."

Thank God for that. Was not your heart like a heart of stone? Does he not have the power to change your stony heart into that of the heart of flesh? Can he not make out of stones, children of Abraham? Hallelujah for us who are Gentiles, that's precisely what he's done. Yes, he has that power. But the Jews were trusting that just because they were physically descended from Abraham, they were in, they were good, they were fine. John the Baptist said Absolutely not. Jesus said it even stronger. John chapter 8. Just listen. Read it later if you like, but John 8:37-44, Jesus speaking to his Jewish adversaries, he says, "I know you are Abraham's descendants..." He acknowledges you are physically descended from Abraham.

"'I know you are Abraham's descendants yet you are ready to kill me because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence and you do what you have heard from your father.' 'Abraham is our Father,' they answered. 'If you were Abraham's children,' said Jesus, 'then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You were doing the things your own father does.' 'We are not illegitimate children,' they protested. 'The only father we have is God Himself.' Jesus said to them. 'If God were your father, you would love me for I came from God, and now I'm here. I've not come on my own, but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth for there is no truth in him.'"

Now, this is incredibly strong and totally lines up with what Paul is saying in Romans 9. Yes, I know you are physically descended from Abraham but you know who your real father is? The devil. If you were truly Abraham's children, that is, children of God, you would love me, you would believe in me, you would follow me, you would live the life that Abraham did, the life of faith, but you don't. Therefore, Jesus clearly saw a set within the larger group of those who are truly Abraham's children. The larger group, it was no certain proof that just because Abraham was their physical father, that they were right with God. Jesus taught the same thing. And so it is also in Stephen's speech in Acts 7. You can read it. Now, Paul says in Romans 2, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code. "Such a man's praise does not come from men, but from God."

There. Paul has already distinguished between the true Jew, and the one who's only outwardly a Jew. Therefore, to restate, not all Israel, our Israel means that there is a group, a set of people who are physically descended from Abraham. And there is within them a second set of those who are truly the remnant chosen by grace. They are the true Israel and to them, the promises have been made. If any of those people end up in hell, and God's word has failed. God's word has fallen, but I tell you they will not, but God never promised to all of the physical descendants of Abraham that they would be His children. Now, how does he prove it? He's made the assertion. How does he prove it?

He brings up two examples. First is the example of Isaac and Ishmael, and the second is the example of Jacob and Esau. The first we will cover today, the second in two more messages afterwards. The first example is Isaac and Ishmael. Look at verse 7-8. "Nor because they're his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham's offspring." Now, what do we have to do in order to prove this assertion, not all Israel are Israel? Well, I think we had to follow Paul's example. Right?

Romans chapter 4, as he's teaching on justification by faith, he asked a simple question, Romans 4:3, "what does the scripture say?" And he's doing the same thing here to prove that not all Israel are Israel. What does the scripture say? And he brings up this case of Isaac and Ishmael. Now, Ishmael was a child of flesh. Let me explain what I mean by that. God had made an astounding promise to Abraham, He says in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Later, he clarified, as I already mentioned, Genesis 15, that look up at the stars and count them if you can. So shall your offspring be. But he says, "I don't have any children. I have this guy, Eliezer of Damascus, he's a really good person, but he's not my son. Is he who he had in mind?" God said, "You're going to have descendants." Okay, I'm going to have a child. I'm going to have a son. That's hard to believe, and that I'm just old and Sarah's womb is barren but there it is. I believe it, I trust it.

I believe it, but then comes a hideous side adventure in Genesis 16. Abraham looks at his situation, his body is as good as dead, and he looks at Sarah and Sarah makes a suggestion. "I have an idea. Why don't you take my Egyptian maid servant, Hagar, and have a son by him? It's not happening with me." And Abraham thinks and Sarah thinks they're going to help God out. God's having a hard time fulfilling His promise. God needs a little human assistance in this matter, so they're going to assist God. They're going to come up with a plan, Abraham's the man with the plan. And so he's going to go and he's going to have a son by Hagar. And so he has a son by Hagar, and his name is Ishmael. And he is not one step closer to fulfilling God's promise thereby. It's arm of flesh. It's a fleshly effort. Not one step closer to "So shall your offspring be," not one.

Meanwhile, you've got the child of the promise, Isaac. God had a different plan. He had a plan to bring a child into the world through his wife, Abraham's wife, Sarah, in such a way that His supernatural action in the matter would be clearly put on display as a picture and example of how people like you and me get saved. He wanted to put it on display. So, no, it's not going to be the Hagar thing. It was an arm of flesh. It was a fleshly effort. Rather, we're going to do supernatural purpose and promise.

He says in Genesis 17, God said Abraham, "'As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name, I will bless her and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become the mother of nations. Kings of people shall come from her.' Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, 'Shall a child be born to a man who's 100 years old? Shall Sarah, who's ninety years old, bear a child?' And then Abraham said to God, 'Oh, that Ishmael might live before you.'"

What is he asking for there? I have a son. I did that already. What do I need with this? And the answer is very strong. No! But in Isaac shall your offspring be named. The answer is no to the arm of flesh. "No" He says in Genesis 17. God restates the promise in Genesis 18. The Lord said, "'I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife will have a son.' And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. [She was beyond the age of bearing children]. Sarah laughed to herself saying, 'After I'm worn out and my lord is old, [that's Abraham] shall I have pleasure?' The Lord said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord? [Listen.] At the appointed time, I will come. And Sarah have a son."'

Genesis 21, God kept his promise. Listen to this. Genesis 21:1-3. This is so vital. I miss this. I didn't understand how important it is until I read it over and saw it. Genesis 21:1-3. This is this is what it says in the account. The Lord visited Sarah as He had said. That is so vital in this account. "The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised, and Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son, who was born to Him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac."

Now, notice this phrase, "The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as He had promised." My friends, the visitation of the power of God is meant to be thought of as a miracle. It's meant to be displayed as the power of God. Isaac was the miracle baby. Without God's direct intervention, as it says, "The Lord visited Sarah," this baby would never have been born. Now, may I say to you with care and reverence, it's similar to, but lesser than what the Angel Gabriel told Mary would happen to her with the incarnation. Believe me, don't misquote. I am not saying that Isaac was incarnate. He was born in the natural way through marital relations, but supernaturally by the direct action of God. It's the way the text reads. Without God's direct action, there is no Isaac.

And so, the Angel Gabriel said to Mary, or Mary said to the angel, "'How will this be since I am a virgin?' And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.'" Now, once the child of promise, Isaac, is born, Ishmael persecutes him, and God makes His judgment clear. Genesis 21:9-12. Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, "Cast out the slave woman with her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son, Isaac." And the thing, listen to this. This is incredibly important. The thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. Who's the son? Ishmael. Abraham was very upset about Ishmael, but God said to Abraham, "Be not displeased because of the boy, Ishmael, and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named." That's the statement made here in Romans 9.

Salvation is Based on The Calling of God

Now, I find it fascinating, if I can speak directly. I find it fascinating that both Abraham and Isaac chose the wrong of their sons to be the one carrying on after. If Abraham had had his way, Ishmael would have been the chosen son. If Isaac had had his way, Esau would have been the chosen son. We are just wrong. We're just off from what God wants. His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. He has chosen in a way to frustrate the flesh, to humble the human being. That's what he's doing. And so he says, "Through Isaac your offspring will be named." Now, Paul makes an incredible statement here. He says, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." That's literally the word he uses. Called.

Now, this word called is vital theologically. Let me explain what I mean. God speaks into existence something that did not exist before. That's what I'm saying. Romans 4:17"As it is written: 'I have made you a father of many nations." [Abraham] is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed-- the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. You wonder where I'm going with this? That's what's happened to you if you're a child of God. You're supernaturally born again by the power of God. You're like Isaac, not like Ishmael, if you're a child of God. He's spoken something that didn't exist before. He's called you by His power. This word is so important. Listen to Romans 8:30. "Those whom He predestined, He also [did what?] called; And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified." Or as He says later in this chapter, Romans 9:10-12. You can look right on the page there.

"Not only that, but Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our father, Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger." God calls and we exist. That's how it works. Or again, in Romans 9:24. "Even us whom he also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles." We are then the called, like Isaac. And it is in Isaac, that all of these spiritual descendants will be called into existence, physically, called into spiritually into the saving fate spiritually. That's the calling of God. It's not just that he calls and you will respond or you don't. I mean, he calls the way He calls dead people to life. That's the calling of God.

The Importance of “Reckoned”

There's a second important word, and that's the word reckoned in verse 8. Verse 8 says that it's not the natural children who are God's children but it's the children of the promise who are reckoned or regarded as Abraham's children. Again, an incredibly important word. The word reckoned or accounted or thought of is used 39 times in the New Testament. Paul uses them 19 times, uses this word 19 times in the book of Romans. And the most important one is Romans 4:3. "What does the scripture say? Abraham believed the Lord and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." God thinks of your account as righteous because he's taken all of Christ's magnificent righteousness and credited it to your account. He sees you as righteous as Jesus just by reckoning. He thinks of you that way. And so also, it is In Isaac that all of God's children are reckoned. They're called to be His children in the same manner as Isaac.

What does that leave? Well, it leaves a dichotomy then in the world, two manners of people in the world. There are the children of the flesh, like Ishmael, the natural ones. And then there are the children of the spirit, who are supernaturally born. The same thing is spoken in Galatians Chapter Four, in which he speaks to some Gentile Christians who have heard the Gospel and believed it, but now they're getting sucked into Judaism, legalistic Judaism, by people who want them to behave like slaves. And he says, "Tell me, you who want to be under the law. Are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way, but his son by the free woman was born as a result of the promise."

There is the dichotomy. Either you're born in the ordinary way, that's just marital relations, folks. Man and wife come together and the child gets conceived and born. Ordinary way, that's Ishmael. Or you're born in the supernatural way, by the Spirit, according to the promise. And my friends, if you are not born again, you will spend eternity apart from God in hell. You must be born again, Jesus said to Nicodemus that you must be born of the Spirit. You must be like Isaac, a child of the supernatural power of God. And so Paul says to the Gentile Christians in Galatia, "Now, you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. We are children, therefore, not of the slave woman, but of the free woman." It's the very same thing that John said in John 1:11-13. He said Jesus "came to his own, [the Jews] but His own did not receive him." They rejected Him. "Yet to all who received Him." To those who believe in his name, he gave the power to become children of God. Children who are born not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God." Supernaturally born again. That's what he's talking about here.

So we have two manner of people, children of the flesh are born and live in the natural way. Parents have marital relations in they're conceived. They're born, they breathe, they eat, they sleep, they dream, they achieve, they age, they get sick, and they die. And they do it all with no faith in the promises of God. Meanwhile, the children of the promise, they are born just as natural children are and do all of the same things I just described, but at some point, they hear the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And having believed they were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who supernaturally conceives in them that they are children of God. Every child of God who is listening to me right now is a miracle. You're born again by the Spirit, nothing you could have contrived by your own effort or strength, or will, or running.

Can I ask you to assess yourself as you're listening to me? Am I like Ishmael, a child of the flesh only? Or am I like Isaac, a supernatural child of God, born again by the Spirit? Am I living through faith in the promises of God, or do I have total disregard for the promises of God and living like Ishmael? If you're a child of God, can I say With all humility, understand your origin with awe. You would not be a child of God right now if God had not spoken into existence what did not exist before. Saying, "Let there be light in your soul," and there was light. He called you. And also, may I say to you, and you'll get more of this as we go on. Understand your origin in humility. He did it in the face of your rebellion, not because of anything he saw in you. He did it because of His own purpose and grace, as we will see.

God's word has not failed. And the fact that it seems numerically the overwhelming majority of Jews are rejecting Christ, is no proof that the word of God has failed. God's word has not failed and it never will fail. Close with me in prayer.

If you were to visit Jerusalem today, you could see a place that's a great attraction to people. To some it is a tourist attraction, but to others (Jews especially) it is the focus of intense religious feeling, a place that really is somewhat like a Jewish shrine. It's called the "Wailing Wall," the western Wall of Herod's temple. It's what's left of the temple after it was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. For centuries, the Jews had no access to Jerusalem, it being under Muslim domination, but finally they were able to come in a regular pattern. And Jews come from all over the world. There is a picture on the cover of your bulletin, and they face those ancient stones, and they bob back and forth and they weep and they wail for the past. For blessings from God that they no longer experience.

Now, 2,000 years ago, a man who was perhaps the preeminent Jew of his day, a Hebrew of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul, wept and wailed and mourned. But not for some past tragedy but for something far greater. He wept for a future tragedy that he saw, for his kinsman, his countrymen, fellow-Jews, because of their sins and their rejection of Jesus Christ, their only hope, their Lord, their Savior, their Messiah. And so Paul begins this section of Romans as we saw last week with an outpouring of personal grief over the status of the Jews. He says there in verse 1, "I speak the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, the Israelites." He is yearning for their salvation, and he speaks of that. He speaks of that with great intensity and great passion. We discussed that last week.

I found it greatly challenging to myself because I didn't know if I ever experienced this kind of sorrow and sadness and anguish over the loss the way Paul did. And I have been praying and I'll continue to pray. You know, I think God gives us the desire of our heart, but the first thing he does is gives us that desire and then fulfills it. And for me, it's my desire to have this kind of sorrow and sadness and anguish over the lost that are around me that Paul displayed here.

And so we saw last time the cause of Paul's anguish. Every place he went, he began by preaching the Gospel to Jews, he went into synagogues, and the pattern was established again and again. He would reason with them from the Old Testament scriptures, he would try to prove from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. What was so obvious to him was not obvious to them. There was a veil over their faces, over their minds, really, whenever they would consider the Scripture, whenever they would consider the Law of Moses. What Paul could see so clearly in prophecy, they just could not see. Israel is experiencing a hardening in part, and it brought him great grief, and they would then turn not just to be rejecters but persecutors. They would violently persecute him, they would chase him from place to place. And so Paul relates the cause of his anguish, that is Jewish lostness. They're rejecting the Gospel.

He also talks about the depth of his anguish with overpowering emotion. He says, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish," and then he says an astonishing thing. He says, "I myself could wish to be cursed and cut off from Christ. I'm willing not only to not see Christ but willing eve to be cursed by Him for the sake of my fellow kinsmen." And then he has to give us a sense of the authenticity of his desire. He says, "I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit." Why does he use all these words, except that his attitude is unusual? His attitude really is supernatural. Nobody cares that much. Nobody cares that much. But Paul did. He said, "This is a desire that God has given me." We saw all that last time.

But what we didn't discuss is the shock in Paul's anguish. Look at verses 4 and 5. There, he talked about what's really shocking about this whole situation with the Jews. He says, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption as sons. Theirs is the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them, from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised, amen."

 Now what Paul does is he goes through and he lists nine spiritual advantages that the Jews had, which makes what was happening in his day and which has continued now for 2,000 years all the more astonishing, contrary to all expectations.

The Gentiles, having not in any way been racially or historically prepared to receive Christ as their Savior, are receiving Christ in huge numbers. You heard the account that Scott gave earlier, about what's happening in the nation that we're intending to reach out. Huge numbers from that country coming to faith in Christ. Large numbers. And it's been that way for 2,000 years. God's Spirit poured out on the Gentiles. The Gentiles coming in large number to embrace a Jewish Savior, to be grafted in as a wild branch into a naturally cultivated olive tree. This is the image Paul uses in Romans 11. It's contrary to anything you would expect, that that wild branch could actually start receiving nourishing sap and life-giving nutrients through this Jewish tree, that we could in effect the Jews, latter-day Jews, contrary to all expectations.

But every bit as contrary to expectation is the opposite reaction by the Jews. What seems so obvious to us, that Isaiah 53 and that Daniel 7, and Psalm 22, and Psalm 16, and all of these passages point to Christ. Who else could they be pointing to? They just don't see it. It's amazing, really. They've been reading the scriptures all their lives, some of them, and they still don't see Christ in the most obvious places. It's incredible.

And so what he does is he goes through and traces out these Old Testament advantages. They are inadequate for personal salvation. And if you don't understand that, you'll miss the whole point. All of these advantages that he describes are inadequate in and of themselves for personal salvation. Now each one of them could have been the grounds of faith, just like it was for Abram when he heard one promise of God and believed. Any of these could have been enough for saving faith. And it was for many of the remnant, the elect, and we'll talk about that. But for the nation as a whole, they were inadequate.

The Israelites

And what does he talk about? Well, first, he calls them "Israelites." They are of the nation of Israel. That name, of course, coming from the night that Jacob spent wrestling with the angel, you know, and the angel said, "Let me go," and he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." That was the night he thought he was going to be slaughtered by his brother Esau who was riding down with 600 of his closest friends who all happened to be soldiers armed to the teeth, wanting to greet his brother and say hello to him. It was a tough night for Jacob. And that night, he got the name Israel, "he who struggles with God." And so that became kind of the national heritage as well. A nation that wrestles with God, they are the Israelites.

The Adoption

Secondly, he says that theirs is the adoption as sons, fascinating term and it has caused some to stumble. This is not the same as that eternal and individual personal adoption spoken of in the previous chapter (look back at Romans 8:14-15). And there it says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." In other words, if you are being led by this in-dwelling Holy Spirit, being led by the Spirit God, you're a son of God. Next verse says, "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back again into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, 'Abba Father.'" Now, let me tell you something. If this is the exact same thing over here in Romans 9, then you have a big problem, and so do I. Is it really possible to be individually, personally adopted by faith into the family of God and then later evicted from the family? If so, then God's Word has failed. That's the whole problem. That's why Paul's dealing with this.

But this is not the adoption that I think Paul has in mind here. Rather there is more of a national big-picture adoption that God did for the Jews and spoke in that manner. You remember the time when God called Moses to go back to Pharaoh and say, "Let my people go," and there's a whole interchange where Moses does everything he can to get out of God's call in his life? Some of you are like that, I've been like that myself. Moses does not wanna go. But at one point, the Lord says, "Say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the Lord says. "Israel is my first-born son, and I told you, let my son go that he may worship me."'" That is the adoption that I think is in mind here in Romans 9, a national adoption.

So also, Hosea 11:1 says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my Son." And you remember how the tenth plague, the most dreadful, the plague on the first-born. Basically God said, "You didn't let my first-born go, so I will kill your first-born." That's the connection there. Israel is God's first-born so. And then he says the same thing in Deuteronomy 1:31, "There you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a father carries his son. All the way you went until you reached this place." God basically picked up little Israel and put Israel up on His shoulders and carried them right to the Promised Land in a powerful way. That's the language used in Deuteronomy 1:31. But it's a national adoption. It's not individual adoption of individual Jews to personal relationship with God.

The Glory

Thirdly, he speaks of the glory. Again, this is not that personal glory that all of us will experience at the end of our salvation process, what we call "glorification." That's not what this is talking about. Theirs is the glorious, rather the outward and visible displays of glory that were part of Israel's heritage and history. For example, on Mount Sinai, in Exodus 24, it says when Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days, the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day, the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, he stayed on that mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

Now, what happened inside that glory cloud, we'll talk about later in Romans 9, because that has to do with individual and personal salvation. But I'm saying that the nation as a whole got to watch that glory cloud come down on the mountain. They got to see it. It's extraordinary, you and I have never seen anything like it. And it happened again and again, in Israel's history, didn't it? It wasn't just at one time. For example, in Exodus 40, after they had built the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, and it says the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And so there's this sense of immediacy, the presence of God. You could see a cloud, you could see the glory. Moses physically couldn't go in the tent because of the glory. What an incredible thing that was. What would have been like inside your heart to have been there that day, to see that manifestation of the glory of God, and to read stories about it future generations? To know that Israel had that experience? Or later in Israel's history, at the time of Solomon's temple dedication, 1 Kings 8:10-11, "When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the temple." That's what they came to call "the Shekinah glory," the glory of the presence of the Lord. And the Israelites saw it and they experienced it in some way.

But may I say to you that standing there among the congregation and seeing that glory doesn't save your soul. As a matter of fact, in some cases, it might have even been the final day of your life. In Numbers 14, the people rebelled against Moses and Aaron and spoke angry words against God. They wanted to choose leaders and go back to back to Egypt and eat all those leeks and onions and have the good life they had back there in Egypt. You remember how it was making those bricks without the straw? Forgot about that part. But anyway, they just wanted to go back. They were willing to get rid of Moses and Aaron, and the glory of the Lord showed up that day. The glory of the Lord. But it was not a good thing for them. It says as the whole assembly talked about stoning them, then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. The Lord said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me inspite of all the miraculous signs that I have performed among them? …Not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert, but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times, not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it." So just to have the experience of the glory didn't save your soul.

The Covenants

It also speaks here of the covenants. This refers to the pattern of covenants that God had made with Israel. For example, the covenant made with Abraham in which He said, "Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed…" and "I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore…" And "To your descendants I will give this land." This was a unilateral covenant made by God with Abraham. But it did not guarantee individual, personal salvation for all of Abraham's physical descendants. That's the very point of Romans 9, which we'll develop more when we get to verse 6, not all Israel are Israel. It didn't guarantee them salvation. Or the Mosaic Covenant, "If you obey Me and keep all My commandments, then I will preserve you in the land, and you will be my people and I will be your God." Problem with that covenant, that little word "if." "If you will obey Me and keep all of My commandments, then we will have this relationship." But they didn't, they couldn't keep that covenant.

Or the Davidic covenant. "You will never lack a son," said God to David, "to sit on the throne. I will build the house of your son and his kingdom will never end." Again, unilateral covenant. God said, "This is something I will do." And He did in Christ, but it did not guarantee individual and personal salvation for all of the Israelites. But those covenants were forms of display of God's glory, of communication, redemptive history. There was ample opportunity for the Jews to improve them through personal faith. But they didn't.

The Giving of the Law

It also speaks of the giving of the law. Clearly, this refers to Law of Moses. This was a tremendous blessing, to have the laws of God given to them. To understand, like the psalmist says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths." "Oh, how I love Your law. I meditate on it all day long." It was a great gift to have the law of God. It says in Deuteronomy 4:8, "What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?" What a wonderful body of laws it was. However, as you well know, simply having the law doesn't save your soul. Frankly, quite the opposite. The law actually condemned the Israelites because they did not keep it. Like it says in Romans 2:23, "You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?" There's no glory in having the law; there is glory in keeping the law, and they couldn't do it. Romans 3:20, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law, rather through the law, we become conscious of sin." It's not salvation that comes through the law. My friends, if salvation could come through the law, then what did you need Christ for? Galatians 2:21 says precisely that, "If salvation could come by the law, then Christ died for nothing." But it couldn't come that way.

The Worship

He also mentions this worship, which Eric said accurately earlier refers to the sacrificial system, the temple worship. The fact that animal sacrifice were given day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Blood sacrifices. A great advantage for the Jews. Not because the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin, oh, they should have known it couldn't, but rather it was the clearest depiction of the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross you would ever have in history. The Jews got it day after day. What a great advantage. But did they take that advantage and improve it with faith? Did they believe the Gospel? No, they did not. David knew it, he said, "If offering bulls and goats could cleanse my sin, I would do it. You could have all of my bulls, if it could take away my sin with Bathsheba." The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart You will not despise. He knew that.

Isaiah knew it when it said, "The multitude of your sacrifices, 'What are they to me?', says the Lord, 'I have more than enough of the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.'" I don't need this trampling of My courts, bringing these offerings endlessly. That's not what they were for. And so the sacrificial system did not guarantee personal salvation. As a matter of fact, in my opinion, if ever you think your ministry is hard, think about the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah. How would you like that ministry? "Okay, Jeremiah, here's your job. Why don't you go to downtown Jerusalem and as Nebuchadnezzar approaches with that huge army of his, I want you to tell them that Nebuchadnezzar's going to win, that he's going to destroy the temple, and that all of you people... Just a remnant of you, as a matter of fact, the rest will be slaughtered by the sword, famine, and plague, but the rest of you, the little remnant, the small few of you, the blessed ones, will get to go in exile to Babylon. Now go preach that, Jeremiah."

And it's especially tough in that the Jews were trusting in the temple of the Lord. They were thinking, "God will never destroy this place." Well, now they're Jews standing wailing at the Wailing Wall as Herod's temple was destroyed. Well, that was just Herod The Great's temple, this was the temple, the Temple of Solomon, they thought God would never destroy it. Oh, how wrong they were. This is what the Lord said to Jeremiah, "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message: 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.  Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"-- safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you?'"

 "But I am watching," says the Lord.'" Oh, there was no safety in that physical temple, God proved it when Nebuchadnezzar's soldiers destroyed it. But they had the temple worship and it was enough so that if they had improved it with faith, their souls would have been saved. But it did not guarantee individual salvation for the nation.

The Promises

And then it also speaks of the promises, God's made many promises to Israel throughout their history. It's really closely tied to the covenants. But then there are other promises like that He would restore them back in the promised land after 70 years and He did. In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah brought them back, God fulfilled that promise. He's fulfilled more promises than we can imagine. They show God a faithful God a promise keeping God. They have a heritage of promises made and kept, greatest of them of all is Jesus Himself. They have the promises, but you know those promises don't guarantee the salvation of everyone because you know the Israelites, they have to believe the promises personally, for themselves. Abraham believed the Lord and was credited him His righteousness. Without that individual personal faith in the promises, the promises made to the nation meant nothing for you, meant nothing.

The Patriarchs

And then finally he mentions the patriarchs, the example of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the immense spiritual advantage Godly heritage to these men. But let me tell you something, having Abraham or Isaac, or Jacob as your father didn't mean you were going to Heaven. Not at all. As a matter of fact, that's one of the major points that Paul is going to be making in Romans 9:6-13. Physical lineage from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not guarantee salvation.

The Human Ancestry of the Christ

The culmination of all of this though, the highest privilege ever, was the fact that God chose the Jews to bring His Savior into the world. That your Messiah, your Savior and mine is Jewish. Jewish ancestry. Do you find that humbling? You Gentiles, I'm a Gentile, it's humbling that God chose the Jews to bring His Son into the world and it is meant to be humbling. All of those nations on their high horses, all the Greeks and the Romans and the Babylonians with their great pride and they're great accomplishment. God didn't choose any of those nations. He chose the Jews.

You think, well then Israel's up on their high horse. Well, that is the very point that Paul is going to make in Romans 9-11, how God gets Israel off their high horse, because God has bound all men over to disobedience in order that He may have mercy on them all. No one's on their high horse in front of God, not on Judgment Day. We are all humbled. What a great advantage that your nation, your little nation was chosen to be the physical avenue through which Jesus Christ would be born. The genealogy is Jewish from Abraham, through David to the Christ. It's a Jewish genealogy, and what a great advantage. But you know, for the Jews, it was no advantage to some degree, it was the stumbling but they couldn't get over.

When Jesus went to preach in His home town in Matthew 13, He begins preaching and by this time, His ministry is well known, this is the second time coming to Nazareth. And began teaching the people in their synagogue and they were amazed, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" They said, "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't His mother's name Mary and are all His brothers with us James Joseph Simon and Judas and are all His sisters here with us too? Where then did this man get all these things?" Do you see the disdain? And Jesus said to them, "'Only in His home town and in His own house, is a prophet without honor,' and He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." So the fact that Jesus was Jewish grew up in their home town actually in the end was the stumbling block, they couldn't get over. Notice by the way, here a strong statement of Christ's deity. Look at verse five, "Theirs the patriarchs," He says, "And from them is traced the human ancestry, the according to the flesh, ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever blessed, amen."

Now, I know that there are other translations but I believe (and I'm not going to take you through all of the exegesis), but I believe that he's intending fully to give a strong statement of Christ deity here, to balance off the strong statement of His fleshly humanity through the genealogy. This physical one who took on human flesh and blood through the Jews is actually God over all blessed forever, amen. Now these are the advantages to the Jews. But let me tell you something, the key concept. None of these advantages, guaranteed individual salvation for every Jew, and that's why He weeps, that's why He cries, that's why He is in great anguish.

Now the beauty is each one of those comes to full fruition when you come to faith in Christ, you become a true Israelite like Nathaniel, a genuine Jew, even if you're a Gentile, grafted in, by faith, you receive the adoption as sons, individually and personally. Romans 8. You get the divine glory. And I don't just mean some kind of fiery thing coming down on a mountain or a temporary glowing thing inside a tent.

You get to see the glory of God with your own eyes, Jew or Gentile, if you have faith in Jesus, you get that, you get the covenants, all of them wrapped up in this. "This is My blood, the blood of the New Covenant…" that's Jesus summing up everything in the New Covenant you get it all. You get the receiving of the law, not outside written on tablets of stone, but inside your heart by the Spirit, yearning to obey and fulfill the Law of God love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, love your neighbors, yourself, that's what you get inside you. Jew or Gentile, you get true worship, Jesus as your final sacrifice, you get to worship Philippians 3:3, "By the Spirit of God," you get to taste what it really feels like to worship by the Spirit of God, and you get the promises. How many of them? Well, 2 Corinthians 1:20 says that as many as are made, they're yours, you get them all. All of the promises are yes and amen in Christ. Jew or Gentile, you get them all, and the patriarchs you get to have Abraham as your in faith. Following in his footsteps, and you get Christ.

Now, last time I talked about Paul's anguish, the fruit of his anguish, was not mere emotionalism in chapter 10:1, he says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved." We also get the outpouring of Paul's life, as city after city. He goes into any reasons with the Jews, puts up with their abuse he talks to them preaches to them, he shares with them. Now, let me ask you a question, what is the significance of that?

Isn't it obvious that Jews need the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to go to Heaven?  Now, why do I have to believe this? Because some people don't think it's true. Some people through interesting and elaborate and intricate theology think that Jews are fine as such, leave them alone, it's just maybe plan A and we're plan B. You just go along that way, and they're fine as they are, and we're coming in our way and in the end we'll meet, that is utterly false. If that is the case, why is Paul weeping? Why would he exchange his salvation? Why?

It's because there's great danger for them. Listen to this, this is a statement from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops recently, this is what it says, "The command of the resurrected Christ in Matthew 28:19, to make disciples of all nations means that the church must bear witness in the world to the good news of Christ so as to prepare the world for the fullness of the Kingdom of God. However this evangelizing task no longer includes the wish to absorb the Jewish faith into Christianity and so end the distinctive witness of Jews to God in human history. Thus while the Catholic Church regards the saving act of Christ as central to the process of human salvation for all, it also acknowledges," listen, "that Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God."

Be horrified at this statement. Be horrified. If Jews already exist in a saving covenant with God, then what's Romans 9:1-5 about? What is the sorrow and the unceasing anguish about? Is it not clear that Paul feels passionately to the depth of his being that Jews must be evangelized, that you must share the gospel with Jewish people no matter what it costs? And what did it cost Paul? I think it cost him his life. Cost him his life. Old Testament blessings are limited. The list of those blessings, is not enough to save your soul.

It's magnificent and wonderful, but it's not enough to save your soul.

Now, what application can we take from Romans 9, especially four and five. Well, first of all, can I urge you to thank God that you're in a covenant with better promises than these?

Thank God for the New Covenant, thank God that Jesus came to be mediator of a better covenant than all of these promises, as it says in Hebrews 7:22.

Thank God, it says in Hebrews 8:6, "But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator, is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises." We have a better covenant, we have better promises now better than these. Promises of the New Covenant are overwhelming and better. And you know why? Because they reach right into our souls, and they take out our heart of flesh and they give us a heart of stone, and they give us a heart of flesh, that we can obey. Other than that, it just stands on the outside. And do you really think you as a nation would have done any better than the Jews? I tell you no, but because of the blessings of the New Covenant, we have eternal life.

So be thankful. But secondly, like Paul is going to say later in Romans 11, "Don't be arrogant but be afraid." Remember how he puts up the image of a healthy olive tree with all of this redemptive history and the sap flowing through in these natural branches, the branches are getting stripped off, stripped off and then these wild branches from who knows where are being grafted into this Jewish olive tree and sap is flowing up through them. And you will say, he says in Romans 11, "Branches were broken off so I could be grafted in," granted. Interesting, he says, "Granted." "But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you Gentiles, as a whole, you stand by faith, do not be arrogant but be afraid for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either."

Now, what do I mean? It's not that we should say, "Hey we're in first place now, and there in the back," that's not it. Rather, realize what's happened to Israel, realize that because they rejected what God was doing, they stand in the present situation that they're in, and therefore, if today, you hear His voice, don't harden your heart, you individual Gentiles who call yourselves Christians, follow Jesus today, follow Him, walk with Him day by day, and serve Him.

Thirdly, can I urge you to evangelize your children?  Do you know that no one gets saved because they had a Jew for a father? And do you know that no one gets saved because they have a Christian for a father either? You understand what I'm saying? You Christian parents, you're bringing your children to church, praise God for that, praise God for that. The central purpose of your family should be the glory of God at this point when your children are growing, the glory of God in the conversion and discipleship of your children, that's your first greatest purpose. Evangelize your children. What benefit, what good would it be to gain the whole world and lose your family? So, you're out doing ministry do it, but don't assume just because they are kind of under the New Covenant blessings. Hebrews 6:4-6 lists how you can be enlightened, and taste the heavenly gift, and you can go through all these things and still be reprobate, you can still turn away.

And can I speak to you children? You're coming here right now because your parents make you right? I hope you're coming also because you delight in the Word of God, because you delight to be here, because you want to be here, because there will come a time when you'll be out from under your parental authority, and you can be whatever you choose to be. You don't have to go to church then, but just having a Christian mommy and daddy doesn't get you to Heaven, you must repent. You must believe, you must follow yourself because you know if God didn't spare the Jews because they didn't believe, because of their heritage and their ancestry is not going to spare Gentile unbelievers either.

Finally can I urge you to be active in prayer for and evangelism to Israel. Be willing to share the gospel with Jews. I was on a plane flight coming back from China and sitting next to a Jewish woman, and we introduced each other, and we started talking. I kind of felt sorry for her because she was in the window seat and I was in a middle seat and she was there with me for I guess about 10 hours. So, and when the conversation began, I started talking to her about Christian things, and she said "Oh I'm Jewish." Meaning, you don't need to talk to me about this. Shot it down, I said, "Oh great, I'm talking to the right person." It didn't end the conversation, that began the conversation. If you're ever going door to door, you're witnessing a coworker or a roommate or a classmate, or something and they say, "I'm Jewish," they think that ends the conversation. I'm telling you, it begins it.

You have so much to work with, you have so much to work with. You have all of those prophecies. Say "Well have you ever read that vision of the Son of Man in Daniel 7? "The what?" "Well, let's look at it." And you can ask them about Isaiah 53. You start looking at it with them. It's not the end of the conversation, folks, it's the beginning of the conversation. And let me tell you something. God has His elect among the Jews, too, He says, "Has God rejected His people?" Romans 11 He says, "No, by no means, I'm an Israelite too." He's still saving Jews, but He saves them through the hearing and believing of the gospel. So can I urge you Gentiles, be like Paul, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is their salvation." And then evangelize with courage and conviction. Don't let that be the stop when they tell you, "I'm Jewish," say, "Praise God. Let's go on and talk." And you'll see a fruitful harvest. I trust.

The great preacher, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, was anointe­d by God with the power of the Holy Spirit with what they used to call an unction. There was a sense of the presence of God when he would preach. You could feel it in the sanctuary, and young preachers would come and try to understand the secret of his power. And there was one that came once to the church and met an elderly deacon there, and he said, "I want to know the secret, Robert Murray M'Cheyne's secret. I want to know how he does it. How is it that there's so much evangelistic fruit? How is it that lives are transformed like they are?" So he said, "I'll show you." He brought him in to M'Cheyne's study. He wasn't there at that time, and he brought him to his place of secret prayer. He said, "Kneel down here and weep and pray." And then he brought him out to the pulpit and he said, "Take this book and open it up and preach." That's it.

As I read Romans 9:1-5, I realized that I don't weep and pray the way Paul did. Maybe that's true of you too. Maybe you don't care for the lost the way that Paul did. My desire is, that after hearing this message by the power of the Spirit, you will. I want the same for myself. For what does he say? "I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow, an unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people." That's what he says.

And therefore, as we look into this text, we're looking right into the heart of the apostle. We're looking into a pool of tears that he wept for his own people. We're looking into his heart of compassion for the lost and for the needy. And as I look in there and I find it to be somewhat of a mirror, I find myself coming up short. I find that I don't care like I should about the perishing around me.

And so I at least would like to be transformed by the scripture today. I'd like to be moved in my heart. I like to care more about people that are around me that are lost and dying. I'd like to care more about those on the other side of the world that are lost and dying. I want it to move me emotionally the way it moved Jesus. I want it to matter to me that the waitress serving me iced tea doesn't know Jesus. I want that to matter to me. And I think that the Word of God has transforming power. Under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it can change a hard, cold uncaring heart to one that is genuinely conformed to His image. He who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness, that's our God. And if we're not like him, then we need to be transformed and thanks be to God, that that's the very work he's doing in us. That when we are done, we will be conformed to the image of Christ totally and perfectly in every way.

Paul’s Intensely Fervent Nationalism

Now, as we look in this text, we find ourselves moved by Paul as he opens himself up and bears his soul for all to see. He speaks very personally and very emotionally. And he's crying from the depths of his heart for the law, specifically those of his own people, his kinsmen the Jews who are rejecting Christ. And that's very poignant.

You see, Paul had naturally an intensely fervent nationalism. He was a Jew, and it meant everything to him, before he knew Christ. It meant everything to him to be a Jew. Now, they were living in a time when Jew-Gentile relations were at an all time low in terms of the strain and strife between them. The Jews were tired of Roman domination of the promised land. They would love to have seen the Romans evicted, but there seemed to be no end to that domination. Indeed there wouldn't be for centuries. They were weary of seeing the Romans plunder the best they had and threatened their people with imprisonment for no reason it seemed, or even with death. And events like this forge, or can forge a deep seated resentment in the heart of nationalistic people like the Jews. Now, we know from scripture, Paul was very proud of his heritage as a Jewish man.

If you look in Galatians, chapter 1, he says, "For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism, beyond many Jews of my own age, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." What does that mean, "extremely zealous" except that he was proud of his Jewish ancestry? He brags about it to some degree, in one way. In Philippians 3, you remember, when he talks about that, he says, "if anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law of Pharisee as for zeal, persecuting the church as for legalistic righteousness, faultless." That's his pride there, that Jewish nationalistic pride coming out.

Even here in our section, if you look at Romans 11:1, he identifies himself directly with the Jews. He asked the question, "I asked then did God reject His people by no means," and then he says, "I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin." You see how he identifies himself. "Even now, I am a Jew. I am a physical descendant of Abraham." Now, we know that Paul was originally adamantly against the Gospel and probably therefore, almost certainly a hater of all things Gentile. Probably like the most zealous of the zealots, that was the Apostle Paul. I think he just specifically despised the message of Stephen who saw the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection as an end to the Old Testament sacrificial system and an end to the temple worship and possibly even an end to the Jew-Gentile distinction period, which all of it was true. And it could be that God gave Stephen an incredible anointing to preach that message and it was a message that I believe Saul of Tarsus despised. And so he was willing to say, "I was there holding the garments of and giving of those that killed Stephen and giving approval to those who put Him to death." That was where he started, but then everything changed.

On the road to Damascus, everything changed. Acts 9 tells a story as he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from Heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "'Saul, Saul. Why do you persecute Me?' 'Who are you, Lord,' Saul asked. 'I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up, and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do.'"

Converted Man and Apostle to the Gentiles

Paul was given eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, all of his sins forgiven, but he was also given more than that. He was given a life work. He was called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Ananias, the one who went and baptized Saul, was the first who understood this. He didn't want to go be near this persecutor. He was afraid that he was going to get arrested, and killed. But the Lord told him. He said, "This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

Those were his marching orders. He was going to carry the name of Christ before the Gentiles and their kings, including Caesar, and he was going to suffer greatly to do that. He was also going to be called to carry the name of Christ before His own people, the Jews as well. These marching orders were greatly clarified as time went on in Galatians 2:9. There he's talking about the whole circumcision controversy and did the Gentile converts have to be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses. And so Paul was dealing well with that, and he talks about James and Peter and John. He says, "Those reputed to be pillars gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews."

So Paul's calling was as the apostle to the Gentiles. He's going to go and minister to the Gentiles. This is an incredible thing. This is an amazing thing. Paul seems specially trained and designed to be an apostle to the Jews. Thoroughly trained in the law under Gamaliel, just as zealous for the law, as any of those had ever been, able to argue with the best of them from Old Testament text. He seems especially designed to go to the Jews, but instead God called on him to go to the Gentiles. How strange are God's ways? How much are His ways different from ours than the heavens are higher than the Earth? God's plans are not our plans. His thoughts are not our thoughts. And so he chose this Jew of all Jews, this Hebrew of Hebrews to go and be the apostle to the Gentiles. And so he went.

In Romans 11:13, he calls himself, "the apostle to the Gentiles." Now Paul's call to preach to the Gentiles so that they would be saved was intensely opposed by his countrymen. They hated it, they despised that call. Probably the clearest evidence of this... There's lots of different evidences but the clearest is in Acts 22 when Paul is arrested because they thought that he was bringing an uncircumcised Gentile right into the temple. Absolutely forbidden and so they arrest him. There's going to be a huge riot and the Romans have got to send in the police and grab him and get him out of there before they tear him to pieces. And Paul, to him, a crowd is only for one thing, preaching the Gospel. That's what he's there to do. So, he sees a crowd. They all want to kill him. He's like, preaching opportunity. This is a mission chance. And so he says, "Can I speak to the people?" And so he said, "Certainly." And so he begins to speak to them in Aramaic and Luke records in Acts 22. When they heard that he was speaking Aramaic, they all got quiet and listened. You know the mother tongue. He's speaking that nationalistic mother tongue. He's speaking to us in our heart language.

And so he begins to go through his whole Damascus road experience, the blinding light, and resurrected Christ. They don't say a word. They're just listening. They were really into what he's saying until he said one thing. He's reporting that the Lord said to him, "Go. I will send you far away to the Gentiles." Oh my. Circle that word. At that moment, it just says, "The crowd listened to him until he said this, then they raised their voices, and shouted rid the earth of him, he's not fit to live." They hated the Gentiles and the very idea that God would call on him to go to the Gentiles and proclaim salvation, forgiveness of sins through simple faith in Christ was abhorrent to them. They were very angry about it.

Now what was Paul's evangelistic experience? As he went from place to place, everywhere that he went, he preached the Gospel. His methodology was always the same. He would go to a community. The Jews had been spread in the diaspora, the spreading of the Jews all over the Mediterranean area, and wherever they went, they set up synagogues. And so, therefore, Paul came along centuries later, and just would come and the first thing he would do is he would go and preach in the synagogue.

You know what he said? He said, "To the Jew first and also to the Gentile." So that was even his missionary strategy. He would go to a synagogue and he would go in there and on the Sabbath day, he would reason with the Jews from the Scriptures proving that Jesus was the Christ. He would use prophecies. He would use reasonings. He would talk to them. They would listen. They would reject. They would get a little aggressive. He would go to the Gentiles, they would accept. Hundreds of them would be saved and then the Jews would violently oppose and plot to murder him and chase him and hunt him down. It went that way, every place. How would you like that to be your ministry? But that's exactly what it was like for Paul.

Acts 13 talks about it. It says, "When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. ‘We had to speak the Word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us. 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.' When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the Word of the Lord, and all who are appointed for eternal life, believed." We'll get to that later in Romans Nine, but that's exactly what happened. The strategy, they turned to the Gentiles and the Gentiles believed in large numbers.

Again, you see the same thing in Acts 18. Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Again, to the Jew first. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "'Your blood beyond your own heads. I am clear of my responsibility. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.' Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and was baptized."

So the pattern's clear. You go to the synagogue. You preach. You unfold the Scriptures. You talk about the law and the prophets. You prove Christ. They oppose. They basically throw you out. You go to the Gentiles. They come in in huge numbers, then the Jews try to kill you. That's how it goes in every town. That was his ministry.

The Book of Acts ends on this exact same note. Acts 28:23-28, "the leaders of the Jews in Rome arranged to meet Paul on a certain day and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening, he explained and declared to them the Kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets." That's a challenge by the way, brothers and sisters. Could you do that from morning till evening, from the Law of Moses and the prophets? Oh, there's enough there, there's enough there. But there he was unfolding the Scriptures to the Jews.

Paul’s Spiritual Understanding: Jewish Rejection of Christ

Some were convinced by what he said. God always has his remnant. So some of the Jews believed but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement. "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers, when he said through Isaiah, the prophet, go to this people and say you'll be ever-hearing but never understanding. You'll be ever-seeing, but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become callous. They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and I would heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen." That's how The Book of Acts ends. The theme is clear, Jewish rejection of the Gospel, Gentile acceptance and Jewish hatred and opposition as a result.

This didn't start with Paul. It started with Jesus. We don't have to go into great detail on this, but Jesus described this exact thing in the parable of the tenants and the vineyard. In Matthew 21, He said, "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine-press in it and built a watch tower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants, so then more than the first time and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son. 'They will respect my son,' he said. But when they saw the son they said, 'Look, here is the heir. Come let's kill him and take his inheritance.' So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of that vineyard comes, what will he to do those tenants?" The Pharisees, who are listening to him, answered, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end…and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." Jesus said to them, "Have you never read the Scriptures? 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.' Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls in the stone will be broken to pieces, but the one on whom it falls will be crushed." Now, he said that the Kingdom of God is going to be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. We see that in Paul's ministry, don't we? He said, "I'm going to turn to the Gentiles and they will listen and they will be fruitful."

This is the exact same thing that's written about in John 1, speaking of Jesus, "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet as many as received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of the will of flesh, or the will of blood or the will of man, but of God." Children born of God.

The exact same thing. This was not a localized experience for Paul, wasn't just Paul. "Paul, if you would just change your methodology, if you'll come on a little sweeter, if you could just understand the Jews better", it was nothing like that. This was a spiritual phenomenon, this was happening to the Jewish nation as a whole. The Jewish nation was rejecting Christ. They weren't just rejecting Christ, they were hating him. They were despising and rejecting Him as Isaiah said they would. And Paul, remembering his days as a blasphemer and a persecutor, and a violent man, had compassion on those who were persecuting him. He said that, "I was like you, I was just like you." And so, he had compassion on those who were persecuting him.

The Cause of the Anguish: The Eternal Consequences of Jewish Unbelief

And so therefore, what is the cause of Paul's anguish? Well, it's the eternal consequence of Jewish unbelief. This was not an idle issue, this is not one of trifling theological insignificance. This was not a matter of haggling over dietary rules, or bickering over a genealogy. This was right at the core and center of their being, of their future. Would they spend eternity in heaven or in hell? That's how vital this was. It was the consequences of Jewish unbelief that was hanging in the balance here. Just like John the Baptist had said of Jesus, in Matthew 3:12. He said, "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering up the weeds into the barn but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And it's just as Jesus had said to the Scribes and Pharisees, "You snakes, you brood of vipers, how long will you escape being condemned to hell?" Paul's own countrymen, therefore, were cursed and cut off from Christ. That's the language he used. He puts it on himself, but that's the issue, that is the problem. Notice that Paul doesn't say this directly, he turns it around on himself. But that's the problem. It was true, they were rejecting the Gospel. And if they persisted in unbelief, they would be condemned to eternity in hell. That's the cause of Paul's anguish.

What is the depth of his anguish? Look at verses 2-4. He says there, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel." These are overpowering emotions. The language is very strong here. "I have great sorrow. I have unceasing anguish in my heart." Powerful emotions.

And then he has an astonishing desire. He says, "I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ." This is incredible. This is an apostle speaking like this. Perhaps, by now, he's already been caught up to the third heaven, and he's caught a glimpse of the future glory of Christ. He says, "I know a man in Christ, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, God knows. He was caught up to third Heaven and He saw inexpressible things. Things that man is not permitted to talk about." And Jesus says in John 17, 24, "Father, I want those whom you have given me, to be with me, where I am, and to see my glory, the glory I had with you before the creation of the world." Paul says "I'd give it up. I would give it up. I would be willing to be cut off from Christ, to not see him again. I saw his glory in the road to Damascus, I saw his glory in the third heaven. But I'm willing to never see it again, that which is the desire, the heartbeat of my soul, I'm willing to never see it again, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, but I'm willing to not have that gain".

"I could wish that I'd be cut off from Christ. I could wish that I would be accursed." Do you know what that means? Sent to hell. To languish in hell and the lake of fire, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth in eternal darkness. I could wish that on myself, if it would mean the salvation of my countrymen, those of my own race, the people of Israel. He's willing to trade it all. This is astonishing. He's willing to hear said into his ears concerning himself, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I'm willing to have that happen to me". He's speaking about his eternal soul, of which Jesus said, "What good would it be for a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul, or what could a man give in exchange for his soul?" He's willing to exchange his soul for that of his Jewish brothers and sisters, his kinsmen, that they would be saved. This is astonishing. It's an amazing desire on Paul's part. It's also an impossible desire. It cannot be. Notice what he says. "I could wish that". Every translation has it the same way. It's a good translation, because it's not possible, it's not possible.

He just got done saying in Romans 8, look at verses 38. "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." So I can't, I can't do it. I could wish it, but it's impossible, because nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ. I can't be cursed and cut off from Christ. Jesus said in John 6, this is the will of Him who sent me, that I shall lose none, of all that He has given me, but raise him up at the last day, for my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Paul was going to be raised up by Jesus, is going to be raised up by Jesus, at the Last Day. It's impossible, I could wish. This can never be. Remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? The rich man is down there, languishing in hell, Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham. and the rich man wants Lazarus to come and cool his tongue and Abraham says, it can't be, and he says, "besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can any one cross over from there to us."

Well, I think there's just as great a chasm in this matter too, Paul cannot trade his soul for that of the Jews, the Jewish nation. John Piper put it this way,

"God has not designed a world where a person can be damned because of Christ exalting love. If there were such a world, then the Biblical standards of the world that exists would not apply. And Paul stands ready to take Israel's place in hell, but he can't. God does not send people to hell because they love others enough to sacrifice for them. So Paul cannot take the place of Israel, he can only grieve."

It's very much like what Moses said after the incident with the golden calf, he basically says "Lord, now blot me out of your book on their behalf." And God said, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book." Neither Moses nor Paul can offer themselves up as a substitute for the sins of the people. But do you see how Christ-like this desire is? How Christ-like Paul is here? For frankly, this is exactly what Jesus did, it's not just that he could wish to be cursed and cut off from the Father on the cross, he was. Isn't that incredible?

Jesus drank the cup of our wrath on the cross, he was the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, he was cursed and cut off from the Father, for those of his own people, for his sheep, he died for them. He drank the cup of our wrath. But Paul is not the substitute, is he? He's not the Savior, he cannot do this, he's just expressing an incredibly Christ-like desire. Let me just stop for a moment and say, "Is this your desire too? Are you like this?" You know, one of the things that Jesus does when we're saved, is he makes us like Him. He transforms us so that we're like him. And it's just a good time to assess yourself. Say, would I be willing? Could I? Could I even make the statement? I could wish. Do you wish it? Even though you know it's impossible. Or less than that, would you be willing to just put up with some abuse to lead someone to Christ? Not that you'd have to go to hell, but that you would just kind of get abused for a while, while they sort it out and think whether they want to follow Jesus. Are you willing to put up with that? Paul gives a sense of the authenticity of his anguish in verse one. Cause of his anguish is the eternal consequence of Jewish unbelief. The depth of his anguish, he's expressed in incredible terms.

 What about the authenticity? Is it authentic? Is he just using rhetoric here? Are these just words? Just preacher talk. I hate using preacher talk. "Oh, that's just a preacher story." Well, how then can you know if a preacher ever says anything true? I try never to use preacher stories in that sense. This is not just preacher talk for Paul. How do you know? Look what he says in verse one: "I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit." It's a piling on of words so that you will know how seriously he means what he's about to say. Repeated statements, like he's taking a solemn vow. He says, "I speak the truth in Christ…" His status as a Christian is on the line here. "I am in Christ and while in Christ, I'm telling you this, and my words are true, I'm not lying, this is how I genuinely feel".

"My conscience... " You know, that part of us that screams at us when we do something wrong, "my conscience is testifying, but not just by itself. Now I'm redeemed and my conscience is testifying in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." Why does he lay on these phrases? Well, first of all, because all men are liars. Psalm one, 16-11 says that we're liars, we say things that aren't true, we exaggerate. It's just our nature, we talk and we lie. Secondly, because what Paul is saying is so unbelievable. In what sense is it unbelievable? Well how would you feel about a group of people that had basically taken an oath not to eat until you were dead? There were some Jews who did, they took an oath that they would not eat until Paul was dead. In that God ordained that Paul would live for a number of years later, that's an incredible diet right there. They were not going to be able to kill him, God rescued Paul because he must stand trial before Caesar. But that's how much they hated him, and he knew it. How would you feel toward people that picked up stones and threw them at your head, and would do it again if they had another chance? Disappointed to find that you got up out of the pile of rocks and continued preaching.

How would you feel about people like that? Would you not want at least to never have anything to do with them again? Paul wants to spend eternity in Heaven with them, he wants to live with them forever in Heaven. That's a supernatural attitude. How do we get to love our enemies that much? And what could prove this kind of heart attitude? If Paul had some tears running down his cheeks, would you believe it? No, those could be faked. How about if he had a certain facial expression, a kind of a quivery voice? There's some great actors out there. He says, it's got nothing to do with the tears and has nothing to do with the quivery voice, and it's not an act. I'm telling you the truth. If I could, I'd switch places. That's an incredible statement. Can I tell you that I think that this kind of genuine compassion for the lost is a rare thing? It's a supernatural work of God in your heart, and in... Something that God had worked in Paul.

What is the fruit of his anguish? Well, he doesn't just leave it at feeling anguish. Look at verse one of chapter 10. Romans 10:1, he says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved."

You know, emotion alone doesn't accomplish anything. To just feel feelings doesn't mean anything. Paul's tears in his anguish cannot save a single soul. It's not enough for Paul merely to be in intense anguish over the spiritual state of the Jews. It had to flow out into some fruit, some action, and it did. First, I think, manifesting a heart desire for their salvation, his deepest heart desire is for the salvation of the Jews, he yearns for it, it's what he wants with every breath and how beautiful and how perfect is this. Instead of harboring bitter, revengeful thoughts, in which he'd like their destruction. Rather, he wants to spend eternity with them. He wants to see them transformed and saved. That's the fruit, it's a heart desire first, and then flowing from that comes prevailing, fervent prayer for the Jews, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.

Never let anyone tell you for a moment that we are not commanded to pray for the lost. Romans 10:1 refutes that forever, we are to pray for lost people, we are to pray for lost relatives, pray for lost coworkers, to pray for lost people around us, even if we don't know their name. Pray right at that moment for this lost person here who's serving you or cutting your hair, or you might have a chance to talk to. We can pray to God for the lost, and Paul prays for the Israelites that they may be saved. And never let anyone tell you for a moment that God's eternal decrees in salvation, his predestination, His election, (which doctrines Paul will go through in great detail in Romans 9, and which he holds to be absolutely true) cut off energetic effort on our parts. He who believed more about predestination, election, than any of us in this room, prayed more and evangelized more than anyone.

They are not mutually exclusive. And so here he is, pouring out his prayer, his heart. He’s not saying, "God, I know you've already got it sorted out. So what's the point in praying?" He didn't say that at all. He is praying fervently for the salvation of the Jews, almost certainly by name, some that perhaps had been in his face in the last city, praying for them, that they might be saved. And so prevailing, fervent prayer for the Jews. And tireless evangelistic labor for the Jews. In every city, he is willing to put up with imprisonment and suffering and yes, even death, for the salvation of the elect. This is exactly what he says in Second Timothy, 2:10. "Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." I'm willing to put up with incredible abuse, city after city, that they may be saved. And among those elect are some Jews. Like for example, Crispus, the synagogue ruler in Acts 18. He was a Jew, and he got saved. Paul was a Jew. There are a lot of Jewish people who become Christians, and Paul is going to maintain to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, and so he's going to pay fervently for them, and he is going to evangelize tirelessly. That is the fruit of his anguish.

What is the significance of Paul's anguish? Well, first the status of unbelieving Jews. And I'm not going to develop this, this week. We're going to talk much more about it next week when we talk about the Jews inadequate spiritual blessings that he lists here. But simply put, unbelieving Jews are lost and need the gospel. They're not okay. They're not fine as they are, they need the gospel, they need Jesus Christ. If they don't believe in Christ crucified, they will be lost. If that is not true then what is all this anguish for?

Secondly, then let's extend it out. Look at the status of all unbelieving people. Paul's particular grief for the Jews here should be extended to all people everywhere. If the Jews, with their spiritual advantages are lost without Christ, how much more the countless millions of people, in let's say, unreached areas of the world, who don't even have these advantages, they're in now a much more spiritual situation. Should not or would not Paul grieve just as much over them? Yes he would. And shouldn't we? Thirdly, there is the terrors of hell. I've already described it to you, biblically. The driving force of Paul's agony and anguish is the irrefutable biblical fact that the majority of humanity will spend eternity separated from God in torture.

That is a biblical fact. We can try to mess with it, we can try to change the words of God, we can do all those things, but let me tell you something. If you mess with it too much, you don't need a savior anymore, after a while. You don't need Jesus, or you become universalist and say that his death saved everyone, and we don't believe that either, so we're left with this: The doctrine of hell that Jesus taught, it is true, and that's why he felt unceasing sorrow and anguish in his heart. Because hell is real, it's not a metaphor, it's a genuine threat. Revelation 14, it says "…he too, will drink the wine of God's fury [the lost person] which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, there is no rest day or night." That is biblically accurate, that is the threat we're facing. Jesus himself said, "If your right eye caused you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes, be thrown into the fire of hell." That's what Jesus said. That is the significance of Paul's grief, here.

We see also the display of an evangelist heart. Paul's deep, heartfelt agony is a role model for the evangelistic compassion of all Christians. Paul shows us what we should feel about the lost, just as Jesus did when He stood over the city of Jerusalem, and wept over it. Wept over it. He said this, as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day, what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes." And he wept. That's Jesus. And that's Paul. More next week on the fifth, understanding the limits of Old Covenant blessing. I'll talk more about that next week, but simply put, the old covenant blessings that are listed here in Romans Nine, four and five, insufficient for salvation, it's not enough. There must be more.

Understand sixly, the power of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ alone has the power to turn Paul's wailing into dancing, it's the only power there is. The power of Jesus Christ in the gospel. It can save lost people. You know, I'm not speaking just theoretically. In a crowd this size, a group this size, undoubtedly, there are people listening to me who are not born again. And all of the danger that I spoke, the spiritual danger concerning the unbelieving Jews, it's true of you, in your unbelieving state. It's a dangerous state to be in, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ has power to save you. If you'll only believe in Christ, if you'll trust that His death on the cross is sufficient to pay for your sin, if you'll trust that His resurrection is your resurrection, God will give you eternal life. A mystery, you know, it's possible to rejoice in God greatly, while sorrowing over the lost greatly. Don't you find it remarkable that he goes from Romans 8, the soaring heights, "Nothing else in all creation will be able to separate us, and the love of God that's in Christ Jesus…" Amen and Hallelujah. "I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience confirms I have great sorrow... " How can you go from the heights to the depths in about seven words? But that's what he does.

And here's how it works. When we look up to Heaven spiritually, and see a sovereign God sitting on his throne, filled with goodness, and light and power, we are filled with unspeakable joy, full of glory. But when we look at the Earth and look around and see the ravages and the devastation that sin has brought, we should be filled with unspeakable horror and sadness and sorrow. Can you do both? Can we live both? Paul does here, he says in 2 Corinthians 6:10, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. How do you do that? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing? Can we be a church like that? First Baptist Church? Can we be the church that sorrows over lostness, and always rejoices over the God who has the power to save out of it? Can we not do both? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing?

And then finally, it is possible to believe in God's sovereignty, I mean His absolute sovereignty over all things, while sorrowing greatly over the lost. They're not mutually exclusive. Can... Just check your rationality at the door, and come into the scripture here, and say "Apparently it is possible." I know you don't know how it can fit together, how we can believe in a God who sovereignly chooses and hardens and has mercy if he wants to, and all that, and still grieve greatly over the lost. Yeah, it can be done. Now you may ask a question. Okay, if we're supposed to be sorrowing greatly over people who may be lost, I mean may be lost. Someday, in the future they may come to Christ, but we're supposed to sorrow greatly over people who may be lost. Will we not then actually sorrow more and eternally over people who actually are lost and now we know them? In other words, how can we enjoy heaven?

Have you ever wondered that? Are we not supposed to be sorrowing and grieving over people we knew in life, who now we know that didn't make it? Do you wonder that? Well, first of all, I know it's not possible, because it says in Revelation 21, "There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." How is that possible? I don't know, except that a vision of the glory of God will so swallow up any earthly concern and any earthly connections, that it will be sufficient. Jonathan Edwards put it this way, "With respect to any affection that the Godly have had to finally reprobate, the love of God will wholly swallow it up and cause it wholly to cease". So it's not going to be a kind of hell in heaven that forever we're weeping over lost ones, but our love for God will cause it wholly to cease. John Piper put it this way, "Those who die in their sinful rebellion, we say it with tears now, will not have the power to hold heaven hostage with their own misery. Here we groan and weep, there we are consumed with the glory of Christ".

Now, what application do we take from this? Well, Charles Spurgeon powerfully put it this way, "From all our congregations, a bitter cry should go up to God, unless conversions are continually seen. Can we be barren, and yet, content? If sinners will perish, then let them perish with our arms above their knees." It's been a while since we baptized anyone, folks. It's been a while. I take that personally, and I take it seriously. So should you. It's been a while. Has it been a while since you've witnessed anybody? Has it been a while since you've been willing to pay the price of someone's rejection of the Gospel? Are your arms metaphorically around someone's knees as it seems they're determined to go to hell? Are you doing what you can so that they would not? Are you willing to be kind of embarrassingly persuasive? Are you willing even to cry in their presence?

Do you have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in your heart? Is that a description of you? I mean, when you read about gay rights activists or terrorist cells, or even... I mean, the people, some of the people are hardest to love. Do you have sorrow over their spiritual state and want them to be converted? Do you pray for them? And my question is, if not, if not, how do you get it, how do you get it? Can I urge you to pray that God would change your hard heart? Acknowledge that it's a hardness of heart and mine too, pray for me too, that our hardness together would change and we would be soft in our hearts and care and be readily hurt by lostness? Can I urge you to load up your mind and imagination with biblical truths? Think of what it will be like on judgment day. Think of what it will be like when He says to people who are shocked, thinking they were okay. Depart from me, you who are cursed. Think of what that will be like. Load up your mind and your imagination with truth, biblical truth, think about it, and see if your heart doesn't start to melt. But even better, even better. It's really hard to be compassionate in the abstract.

Get involved in evangelistic ministry, as Paul was. And then you'll start to see actual faces and names of people who are rejecting, and then you can start to weep over them. In a few minutes or a few moments, we're going to have an opportunity to commission an urban ministry team with CEF. They're going into an urban elementary school and they are going to have the opportunity to reach out with the Gospel to some kids who are not hearing the Gospel. That's wonderful, isn't it? You may want to get involved in that ministry. There's lots of work to be done. Or if that aspect of ministry is not yours, look at the short term mission trips, or look at some other aspect of evangelistic ministry, but get involved. Be like Paul. Unceasing prayer, tireless evangelism. That's how we grow in our compassion for the lost.