Good evening, let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 294. 294. Savior, like a shepherd lead
us, Much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed
us, For our use thy fold prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Let us sign we are. We are Thine, did Thou befriend
us? Be the guardian of our way. Keep Thy flock from sin, defend
us. Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, oh hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, oh hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve
us, grace to cleanse and set us free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee. Early, let us seek Thy favor
Early, let us do Thy will Blessed Lord and only Savior With Thy
love our bosoms fill Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Thou hast
loved us, loved us too. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, loved us too. Besated will sing hymn number
361. ? Sweet hour of prayer ? Sweet
hour of prayer ? That calls me from the world of care ? And
bids me add my Father's throne All thy wants and wishes known
In seasons of distress and grief, my soul And on this day of tender care
Bye bye, return, sweet hour of prayer Sweet hour of prayer Sweet
hour of prayer Thy wings shall my pity carry. In whose truth and faithfulness
He pays the paying toll To bless and save sinners We see His face, believe His
Word, and trust Him. by every man and wait for thee
sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of I, thy conservation, share, till
from an abysmal wall behind, to my home and take my life. This robe of flesh, thou drop
and rise, to seize the end. Good to have Houston back. Glad he's able to make it. Turn to Romans 9 with me, Romans
chapter 9. We're going to pick up where
we left off last week. A lot of sickness. There's three
couples that's always here, and they're not here, so they must
be sick. It just goes from one to the other. It just goes from
one to the other. I'm going to start reading at
verse 4 and read down to verse 13. Who are Israelites, to whom
pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants,
and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises? Whose are the fathers, and of
whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all? God, blessed forevermore. Amen. and not as though the word
of God hath naked none effect, for they are not all Israel which
are of Israel." neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word
of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a
son. And not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Our blessed Father and our Lord
Jesus Christ, how we come into your holy presence so thankful
that you gave us another day that we're still clothed in the
right mind. desire to come and be with the people of God and
study your precious word. And Lord, you said wherever two
or three are gathered together in your name, there you are in
the midst. And so Lord, I pray that you'd come into our midst
this evening. And we pray for those who are not with us through
frailty and weakness of the body, whose bodies are sick, who are
not able to be with us. God bless them. Lord, encourage
them. Raise them up. And Lord, bless
our time together this evening. And please be merciful and gracious,
O Father, to our lost loved ones, our children, our grandchildren,
even our great-grandchildren, O Lord. Please convince them
of their great need of Christ Jesus, the Lord. It's in whom
we ask these blessed things. Amen. Page 31 in our course books. Oh, how merciful. 31 in our course book. When I was lost in sin and shame
How Thou let me take the blame Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me When I could look down deep within and see the sinfulness
of sin. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
was to me. Oh, how merciful. How merciful, blessed Lord How
merciful Thou art to me Oh, how merciful How merciful Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. A sinner lost and so help me. ? Yet thou say'st I must repent
? ? Blessed Lord how merciful thou was to me ? ? I wonder why
should I rebel ? ? And with a soul deserting hell ? ? Blessed Lord
how merciful thou was to me ? How merciful Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful. How merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. I'm not ashamed of all Thy grace. When Thou came and took my place,
Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. And when this world ceases to
be, Eternal blood to speak for me, Blessed Lord, how merciful
thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful. ? Thou art to me ? ? Oh, how merciful ?
? How merciful ? ? Blessed Lord, how merciful ? ? Thou art to
me ? You remember last week we talked
about how Paul was so heavy-hearted for these Israelites, for his
kinsmen, and he said to our Israelites in verse 4, to whom pertains
the adoption. God adopted them as a nation,
and He gave them all the glory, and manifest His glory to them.
Then He gave them the covenants. And there are several covenants,
but the main covenant is the covenant of grace that He made
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the giving of the law and
the service of God. And I'll tell you whose are the
fathers and the promises, whose are the fathers, of whom coming
concerning the flesh, Christ came. Christ came through the
Jewish nation, and He is over all. is absolutely over all.
Our Lord said, Thou hast given Him power over ALL flesh, that
He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.
And our Lord Jesus Christ said, All power in heaven and earth
is given unto Me, given unto Me. And then it says though in
verse 6, Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect,
now listen to this, for they are not all Israel, which are
of Israel. about to Israelize. They are not all Israel, which
are of Israel, neither, because they are the seed of Abraham,
are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh." He
makes a distinction, promise and flesh. These are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for
the seed. You know the Jews They rejected God, but God also
rejected THEM. He counted them in unbelief.
But they always felt like God had not kept His promise to them.
They always felt like God didn t keep His Word to them, and
you know, and He hadn t fulfilled His words toward them and kept
all the promises to them. And God s rejection of Israel
is not inconsistent with God s purpose or God s Word. especially in the Old Testament.
Paul expressed his grief, his grief of the sad, sad condition
of Israel, but he will show that the reason is because of unbelief. Look over in Romans 9, 31 and
32. He said he s going to show that the reason is their unbelief. But Israel which follow after the law of
righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness."
They never got to righteousness. Why didn't they? Why did they
not do that? Because they didn't seek righteousness
by faith. They never sought Christ. They
never sought the Lord. They never sought the truth.
But as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at
the stumbling stone, they stumbled over Christ. stumbled over Christ. Now, remember when we go through
chapter 9, 10, and 11, that s what we re going to be dealing with
more than anything else is Paul talking about the Jews and how
they re rejected of God. And it s not God that s failed,
but it s the Jews that have failed. Words never fail. God, when He
makes a promise, He keeps His promise. Now, I remember years
ago people had what they called the Postponement Theory. Now,
what that means is that most fundamentalists and premillennialists
think that God is going to save EVERY Jew, EVERY Jew. He s going to go back over there
in Israel and He s going to set up His throne again. But since
that hasn t happened, So he postponed going back to Israel, setting
up his throne, and the reason he postponed it was because the
Jews wasn t believing him when he came. But they said, And this
is the way we d deal with the Bible. They were such dispensationalists
that if the Bible said something about a Jew or it said something
about a Gentile or the Church of God, they had to stop and
qualify who that was toward. This is just talking to the Jew
here, and now this over here is talking to the Gentile, and
this over here is talking to the Church of God. Like God sliced
His Bible all up, and you know, that'd be like me saying, well,
if there's any Jews here, I'm gonna point out what the Bible
says about that. And then if there's any Gentiles
in here, I'll deal with that. And if there's any Church of God here, I'll deal
with that. That's what they actually did. I've heard it, I've seen
it, I've seen it. But the promises made to Israel,
Now listen to me, was not based upon a physical, fleshly descent,
but there were spiritual blessings. That s the blessings that God
always has given His elect. He s always based on spiritual
blessings, and God for His elect in Israel, in the Jewish nation,
their blessings were spiritual just like ours. The real Israel,
the spiritual Israel, was inside the nation of Israel. Now, there
was a nation of Israel, and there was an elect people. God chose
them as a nation, but inside that nation of Israel there was
an elect. God called them a remnant according
to the election of grace. There was always a remnant there
in Israel that was called God s election. It was an election,
and it s plain to see. Let me show you something over
in Hebrews chapter 3. Let me show you something, and
you can find this in Numbers, if you want to look at this later,
Numbers chapter 24, it deals with this, what I'm going to
talk to you about here in Hebrews chapter 3, Hebrews chapter 3. You know, the real Israel, the
spiritual Israel was in the national Israel, just like America is
here now, and the church houses are full. You know, there's a
new work out close to us now, and I'm telling you what, they've
run out of parking places, and I mean they park all the way
around the building, and I mean they're just running OVER with
people, and other places running OVER with people. But out of
ALL that people going to religion and going to all the churches,
there's ALWAYS been an ELECTION. God elects people out of Adam
s fallen race. God chose a people out of the
nation Israel and said, These are mine elect, and they are
mine elect only. But look what He said here in
Hebrews 3.15. And this comes out of Numbers.
Now, like I said, you can go to Numbers 24 and read this.
While it is said today, today, if you will hear His voice, harden
not your hearts, as it was in the provocation. Evidently, Israel
provoked God. For some, when they HAD heard,
they HEARD! But what did they do? They STILL
provoked Him! Howbeit not ALL that came out
of Egypt by Moses, not ALL of them provoked God. But with whom
was he grieved forty years, Was it not with them that had sinned,
whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? You know, they could have been
in the promised land in four or five days, but God went around
and around and around in circles for 40 years to kill a whole
bunch of them that was rebels and provoke God to anger. And
look what he goes on to say. And to whom swear he, in verse
18. He's made this swear. that they shall enter into his
rest. Who? But to them that believed
not. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. They couldn't enter into the
promised land. They couldn't enter into what God did. And so the Old Testament, if
you've got eyes to see, you'll see that. But they said the Word
of God has failed. God has not kept His promises
to us. But look what He says, Verse 6, Not as though the word
of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. You know, the CAUSE in Israel
being what s wrong with them, and the case is not that God
s Word has failed, like it says it s taken none effect. The apostle
seems to be saying it s not the failure of God s Word that caused
my grief, God s Word, it s not what causes my grief, it s not
what causes my heartache. God s rejection of Israel cannot
mean that there s not faithfulness in God. You know, Israel, their
rejection, God s rejection of them can t possibly mean that
God s going to be unfaithful, and that s what I m talking about
tonight, the faithfulness of God. And when He says the Word
of God has taken none effect, He s talking about the Word of
Paul is saying THAT is what I'm going to uphold. Though my heart's
heavy for Israel, I'm going to hold to the Word of God and uphold
the Word of God in light of Israel NOT being saved. It's not God's
fault that they're not saved. It's their hardness of heart
and their unbelief. You know, the Jews, they came
to think that God OWED them. God owed them, and there's a
lot of people in this world that think that God owes them. They
think that God owes them. They owed, you know, even when
our Lord Jesus Christ came. I mean, they thought that He
was going to do something special just for them, for Israel alone,
that you re going to set up the kingdom. But our Lord Jesus Christ,
they come to think that God owed them something. We re Israel!
We re Abraham seed! We got our Father Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. We got them. We got privileges
that nobody else has got. And that's why they hated Paul.
That's why they hated our Lord Jesus Christ. He come and he
destroyed what hope they had. He said, you take the word of
God. You don't know the scriptures.
You don't know the power of God. You don't know. If you'd believe
Moses, you'd believe me. Moses wrote to me. they just,
you know, they rejected Christ, and Christ would make, He called
them UNBELIEVERS, and one time the scripture says, I think it
s in Mark chapter 3, I believe that s where it s at, where it
says there that Our Lord was angry at them for the hardness
of heart, and He could do no mighty works. Why? Because of
unbelief, and that s what Israel is. Oh, the Jews come to think
that God owed them. We re the elect, This is why
they hated Paul, that's why they hated his gospel. You know why
they did? Because it destroyed their hope.
You know, when you start preaching sovereign grace and free grace,
it'll destroy a man's hope if he ain't got one. If he's got
the wrong hope, it'll destroy it. And oh, they hated Paul,
they hated Christ, they hated his gospel. It destroyed their
hope. It was built on heritage, heritage,
built on law. Oh, how many times they say,
well, your disciples broke the law. They healed on the Sabbath.
They ate on the Sabbath. They done this on the Sabbath.
They done that sin. They didn't wash their hands
when they eat. They picked corn on the Sabbath and they found
fault all over the place. And oh my, it destroyed their
hope. They thought it was built on
heritage, wall, works, national distinction. Look over here in
Romans with me, Romans chapter 3, keep Romans 9 now, Romans
3, this is the same thing happens over here, same thing happens
over here, they say the same thing. Paul is talking about
it's not a Jew inwardly, but one inwardly and circumcision
of the heart, the spirit and not in the letter. Then they
ask this question here, in Romans 3.1, What has vanished this hath
the Jew, or what prophet is there in circumcision? You see, that
s what they say, God owes us, we re Jews, we ve been circumcised,
what profits in us being a Jew? What profits us to be circumcised?
Paul said, Much in every way, but chiefly because unto them
were committed the oracles of God. God gave him His Word. Now
listen to this now, What if some did not believe? What if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
The faith that God s going to give, is that going to make it
without effect? Just because some believe not,
does that mean that God s faith, what God gives is faith? Is it
not going to have an effect on us too? And look what he said,
God forbid, Yea, let God be true, but ever man a liar. It is written
that thou mightest justify thy sayings, overcome when thou art
judged. Oh my, they always come in found
fault with God. And I tell you, the first proof
is that the word of God's not failed. It's not God's fault,
isn't it? The word of God hath not taken
effect. No, no. He goes to say this, They are
not all Israel, which are of Israel, as though the word of God taken
none effect. Well, listen, God s not kept
His promises to us, not as though the word for they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel. Why weren t they all Israel?
Why weren t they? Abraham had two sons. Abraham had two sons. Well, they
re not all Israel. The promise was to Abraham and
his seed. Ain t that what it says? Neither
because they are the seed of Abraham there in verse 7. Are
they children in Isaac, shall thy seed be called? The promise
was to Abraham and his seed. And you know who that seed is?
Galatians 3.16 said, And that seed, one seed, which is Christ. Abraham, the gospel was before
preached to Abraham, and I tell you what, that's one seed, that
seed, that's the Lord. When God told Abraham, He said,
I'll bless thy seed. and you'll be the father of many
nations. The only way he can be the father of many nations
is through one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham's not the
father of this world. Abraham's not the father of Jew
and Gentile. Abraham's not the father of barbarian.
Christ is. He's the one who's got all the
power and all the glory. He's the one that was the promised
seed. He's got power over everybody.
And oh my, the true Israel, look in Galatians 6. Look in Galatians
6. Oh, my. You know, I don't know
how many people I've heard say, if you ever meet a Jew, pat him
on the head and say, peace be to Israel. If I ever meet one, I'll get
ahold of his beard and pull his beard. Oh, my goodness. Oh, but look
what it says in Galatians 6, 16, or verse 15 and 16, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, a new creature. As many as walk according to
this rule, being a new creature in Christ, peace be on them,
and mercy upon the Israel of God. Walk according to what rule?
That in Christ, it don't matter if somebody says, Well, I live
a good holy life. Well, I don't. It don't make
no difference what you claim. The thing is, are you in Christ?
And you walk according to this rule of being a new creature
in Christ. God said, That's the true Israel of God. That's the
true Israel of God. You know, true Israel is those
who believe in Christ, Jew and Gentile. I mean, you know, He
told us that plainly. And then look what He says in
verse 7. They re not all Israel. They re not all Israel. And it
says in verse 7, Neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. that
is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise, accountants for
the seed. Now, I tell you what, when he talks about the children
of the seed and the flesh, Isaac and Ishmael, Abraham had two
sons, had two sons, had Isaac and he had Ishmael, but he had
Ishmael before he had Isaac. Now, what makes the difference
between these two men? One of them was born of the flesh. One
of them was born of a bondwoman. One of them was born to a woman
who was in bondage to Abraham and his wife. She was a servant.
Isaac was born of promise. So why in the world was Ishmael? He was a child of the flesh.
He did not come by promise. God didn't promise him Ishmael.
Ishmael, Sarah said, Well, I don't have a child yet. So I'll go
in under my handmade Hagar and have a child. Well, they named
him Ishmael. Well, and then a little while
after that God come to Abraham and look what it says there in
verse 9, For this is the word of promise, At this time I will
come, and Sarah shall have a son. So this Isaac, Ishmael was born
of the flesh, he was born of the natural ability of a man
and a woman. But now Isaac He s not born like
anybody else was born. I mean in the sense that Israel,
Isaac and is not of Israel because he was
the son of Abraham. Isaac was born according to God's
purpose, according to God's power, according to God's time, according
to nature. He could not. God came to Abraham
and said, Abraham, I'm going to visit you. I'm going to visit
you and Sarah at a certain time. And you know how long he made
that promise that he would have a son? 25 years went by and Sarah
got tired of waiting and so I want a son. And that son was Ishmael,
born after the flesh. But then God said, but I told
you that you was gonna have a son. And year after year after year
after year after year after year went by. And Sarah got to be
an old, old, old, old woman. And God come to her and said,
this time next year I'm gonna visit you and you're gonna have
a son. She laughed in herself, and the
Lord said, why does Sarah laugh? And he asked her, he said, do
you laugh? I wasn't laughing. She just couldn't
believe it. How can I, being an old, old
woman, ever have a child or enjoy life again? So she did not have
the ability to have a child. She was 90-something years old. But God said, Now this time next
year I'm going to come and you're going to have a son. And sure
enough, you know, that son was according to the promise. That
son was born supernaturally. That son was born not according
to nature, but according to promise, according to God's purpose. And
Isaac shall thy seed be called. So Isaac, he was the child of
promise. He was the child who had NEVER
existed except for God making a promise. He let them get so
old that they COULDN'T have a child, just to show you that God's going
to get all the glory for anything that happens, even to having
a child. They said, that's the one of
promise. And sure enough, say way up in her 90s, I can't have
a baby, I'm too old. Well, she did. And this child of who would never
have existed except for the promise, because he is a child of promise,
God's promise. would come to Isaac in power,
and come to Abraham in power and effectualness. He had a son
in his old age, and it was Isaac. And I tell you, it wasn t because
of Abraham s position. It wasn t because anything other
than God PROMISED to do this, and had he determined to have
a true seed. And that s why they re not all
of Israel, which are of Israel. There s the children of the flesh.
And then there's the children of the promise. And look what
it says here now in verse eight. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. They're not. And oh my goodness, everybody
that comes from Abraham is not actually, you know, and you know
how many people come from Abraham? You know, all them Arabs right
now, I'm gonna tell you something. Every one of them claim Abraham
to be their father. Every Muslims came to Abraham
to be their father. You know why? They come from
Ishmael. Everybody else of God's elect,
you know why they're all saved? It's because of promise. God made a promise to Christ,
and He said, I'll give, you know, and the promise, we're saved
by promise. And oh, I'll tell you something.
Let me show you something. Look in Matthew chapter three.
Look in Matthew chapter three. You know, we're children of promise
ourselves, and I can show you that in Galatians here a little
bit. But look in Matthew chapter three. Look what our Lord said
about the children of Abraham. Matthew chapter three in verse
nine. It's just John the Baptist talking
to him. And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham
to our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." God's
able to raise, make children to be children of Abraham. And
look in John chapter eight. I think it's John chapter eight
I want to look at. Yeah, John chapter eight. Look what he says over here. Now look what he says down in
verse 32, Romans 8, 32, excuse John 8, 32. And you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. Now look how they answered
him. He said, he said, the truth will
set you free. Well, the first thing they said
was, we're Abraham's seed, we're never in bondage to anybody. We've never been in bondage.
How says thou, you shall be made free. Our Lord said, If you commit
sin, you are the servant of sin. And then He goes on down here,
But the Son therefore, verse 36, make you free, you will be
free indeed. I know that you are Abraham seed,
but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
And oh, my! And they answered Him, verse
39, Abraham is our father, Our Lord said if you were Abraham's
children, you'd do the works of Abraham. What was Abraham's
work? He believed the promise. He believed
God. And if you had believed the promise,
you'd be too. You'd be too. And I tell you
what, that was the children of the flesh. And then the word
of promise. God, look what He said in verse
9. And this is the word of promise. That's what they said, the word
taking none effect, but God says the word of promise. The word
of promise. I will come at my appointed time,
Sarah shall have a son." You know, I know I'm having you look
a lot of places. Look in Galatians 3.29. Look
in Galatians 3.29. You know, our Lord, when He was
praying for us in John 17, He said, I pray for
them which shall believe on Me through Thy Word. Galatians 3.
Look in verse 29. Now we're talking about the flesh
and the promise. Now this is the promise we're
talking about, the word of promise. This is the word of promise that
God made. And if you be Christ, if you belong to Christ, then
are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to what? Oh, my, bless His name, I'm so
thankful for that. Ishmael and Isaac, both were
sons, both were descendants of Abraham. One was chosen, one
was God's elect, and God has chosen a people out of every
nation. The second part of God's Word that's not failed, look
what it says there in verse 10. And not only this, I like that,
not only this, but when Rebekah also conceived
by one, even by her father Isaac. We ve seen the difference between
Isaac was the child of promise, Ishmael s the child of the flesh.
But then he says, Not only this, but Rebekah, Rebekah, you know
she never had any children, This is the only time she ever got
pregnant. All the other children come by. And then by Rebecca,
she conceived by one, even our father Isaac. And look what happens
now for the children. And this shows you God's electing
Isaac over Ishmael. And look what here, the second
proof of election stronger than Isaac and Ishmael. And look what
he says. So she had two children in her
womb, two children in her womb, and look what he says, she's
going to have a son, she's going to have two of them. And there
was a war in the womb even, you know, and that war continued
all through the days of their life, for the children being
not yet born. They had not been born yet. Look
what he says. Neither one of them had done
anything good or evil. Hadn't done anything good, hadn't
done anything evil. And this is what I like. Oh my, they were both legitimate
children, Ishmael and Isaac. Oh my, but here comes two children.
Neither having done any evil or good. And I love this, that
the purpose of God God does things on purpose. And oh, what was
God's purpose of God? According to election. God's
purpose according to election might stand. I said, I want you
to know that my choice will stand. It'll stand man's scrutiny, it'll
stand man's unbelief, it'll stand man's hardness of heart, it'll
stand. And look why it stands, because
it's not of works. but of him that calleth, him
that calleth. Oh my, what made the difference
in these children? And then the next thing said,
it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. Now,
Esau was the firstborn, and as the firstborn, he automatically
ought to have been the heir. And then Jacob was the second
one born. So he ought to have been the
servant, the younger son. But God just reversed it. He
said, I'm going to make the elder, the first born to be the servant
to the second one that's supposed to be born. The first one's supposed
to be there. But God said, I'm not going to let that stand.
That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. And oh,
the distinction is found in one place in the sovereign will of
God according to election. You're going to stand. But look
what it says, But of him that calleth. You know who He calls?
He calls His elect, He calls His people, He calls them by
the gospel. And then showing you that the
Word of God, it says, has not taken advantage of Himself. The
elder shall serve the younger, Esau the greater shall serve
the lesser. That's what He's talking about.
And then He says, As it is written, Show you that the word of God,
they said, it's not taking, God's not keeping His promise. But
as it is written, Paul said, oh yeah, God's kept His promise.
He kept it to Sarah, kept it to Isaac, kept it to Abraham.
And they're not all Israel, which are of Israel. Jacob, look what
he said, as it is written, Jacob haven't loved. But he saw I didn't
love as much. That's how most people read that.
Well, he loved Jacob, but he didn't, you know, he just didn't
love Esau as much as he did Jacob. But that's not what it says.
You know, you can find several things that God hates. He hates
the workers of iniquity. And as it is written, Jacob hath
a loved, but Esau hath a hated. Oh my. And that's why they said,
You think the Word of God's not taking effect? He promised Isaac. He said, Isaac shall thy seed
be called. Oh, how can God hate Esau? Well, the greater question is
how could God love Jacob? That's the greater question.
Well, I'll tell you, He loved him in Christ. Now, I want you
to look in Malachi. Malachi chapter 1. You know,
that's the last book in the Old Testament. Look what it says
over here in Malachi. Last book in the Old Testament,
Malachi chapter one. Look what it says over here. It is written, the purpose of
God's gonna stand, His election's gonna stand. The burden of the
word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith
the LORD. Yet you say, wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the LORD? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau, and I laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness." Oh, my! And I'm sure thankful, I
am certainly, certainly thankful that God is faithful to His promise. God is faithful to His purpose.
God is faithful to His election. God is faithful to keep His promises. And Paul has proved that salvation
is not by being a Jew, not by the righteousness of the law,
and God's promise to Abraham It showed how He dealt with Jacob
and Esau, both of them Isaac's sons. No man can claim to be
a child of God because he's descended physically from Abraham. And
let me tell you now, in closing, and this is a solemn possibility,
we may belong to the visible church. What we see now is visible. and yet without belonging to
THE CHURCH of whom Christ purchased with His own blood. Huh? Being in the church book doesn't
mean you're in the Lamb's book. And I tell you, Abraham believed
God. And when Abraham believed God,
he had Isaac, according to promise. And then Jacob, according to
promise. Everything that God does, He
does by His Word. And they said, Oh boy, God's
Word has just left us to ourselves. God's Word, it don't have to
take no effect on the rest of us Jews. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. The purpose of God according
to election, that's gonna stand. If I'm one of God's elect, it's
gonna stand. Because you know why? Saved on
purpose. God, I saved on purpose. All right. Our Father, in the precious name
of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for meeting with us
tonight. Thank you for your word. Oh Lord, I'm so grateful that
your word has power. that it's not useless, it's effective,
it's effectual. Your promise to Abraham was effectual. Your promise to Sarah and Abraham
was effectual, with power. And your promise to Isaac was
effectual. Your promise to Jacob had power
and effectual to it. And Lord, the promise you made
to your blessed son that you gave him a people, all
that you gave to him, every one of them would come to you, and
them that would come to you, all that we were given to you
comes to you, and you'll never cast us out, but you'll raise
us up at the last day, and oh Lord, what a blessed promise,
be raised us up at the last day, that you'll keep us and preserve
us, Thank you for meeting with us tonight. Thank you for your
precious word. Bless these dear saints as they
go their way. Preserve them and keep them for
Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. 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. Now, no Wednesday night service
next week. That's Christmas Day. And Lord
willing, I'll see you this Sunday. Oh, boy.